Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/316

376 and on the 21st of May, 1808, Francis John William Law, a merchant in London, of the reformed religion, was served nearest and legitimate heir of entail and provision of his father John Law, and entered into the possession of the estate of Lauriston, to the exclusion of his elder brothers, who were Roman catholics. Law's grandson, Count de Lauriston, was one of the generals of Napoleon Bonaparte.

LEIGHTON,, an ecclesiastic of singular learning, integrity, and benevolence, was born in. 1611, and descended from an ancient and respectable family, who were long in possession of the estate called Ulyshaven, in Forfarshire. Their names are mentioned in several parts of history, and even so far back as Dooms-day Book. In 1424, Dr Henry Leighton, bishop of Moray, and afterwards of Aberdeen, was deputed as one of the commissioners to negotiate for the release of James I., at that time a prisoner in England. The family estate of Ulyshaven was lost to the house of Leighton in the seventeenth century, as they had by that time decayed in wealth and interest.

Dr Alexander Leighton, father of the subject of this memoir, was educated at St Andrews, where he obtained the degree of doctor of divinity. He afterwards went to Leyden and applied himself to the study of physic, and so far succeeded as to graduate there. The Scottish church at Utrecht being in want of a minister, and he being, according to all accounts, a man of great piety and learning, the charge was offered to him, which he accepted, and he continued to officiate there for some time; but not approving of the holidays observed by the Dutch church, and having some difference on the subject, he finally resigned. He was there styled doctor of medicine and Scottish minister. We shall compress, in the shortest limits possible, the most prominent actions of this man's eventful life, as his name is conspicuous in history from the cruel persecution he was subject to.

On his arrival in London from Holland, he saw with grief and indignation that the presbyterian church, of which he was a stern defender, was likely to be subverted in Scotland, through the policy of Charles I. and his ministers and being a man, according to Burnet, "of much untempered zeal," and fond of polemics, he published several tracts against episcopacy, which gave great offence to the members of that religion. He, at this time, intended to commence the medical profession in London; but the College of Physicians interdicted him from practice within seven miles of the city, as a person they considered disgraceful to their profession; an allegation he disputed and disproved, by claiming a right, in virtue of his having graduated in the college of Leyden. They did not deny his being a clergyman; but at that time he had no living. He soon after this drew down upon himself the vengeance of that tyrannical and unconstitutional court, the star-chamber. The work for which he was prosecuted, according to Burnet, is entitled "Zion's Plea against Prelates;" the name of the author and printer were omitted, and instead of the date of publication, the following words were added "Printed the year and moneth wherein Rochelle was lost," evidently intended as a stigma for that city being allowed to be taken by the French catholics from the protestants in 1628; an event which it was well known Charles might have prevented, if he had had the interests of protestantism really at heart There was also prefixed to this work which it appears was printed in Holland a hieroglyphical vignette, seemingly designed to recommend the subversion of prelacy. This is described in the informations by Rushworth, "as a most seditious scandal upon the king, state, and kingdom, wickedly affirming that all that pass us spoil us, and we spoil all that rely upon us, and amongst the rest the black pining death of the famished Rochelles, to the number of 15,000 in four months; by which passages he did,