Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 05.djvu/452

 

BOTHWELL, ADAM (1527?–1593), bishop of Orkney, was second son of Francis Bothwell, lord of session, by his wife Janet, daughter and coheiress of Patrick Richardson, of Meldrumsheugh, burgess of Edinburgh. He was born about 1527; his epitaph states that he died ‘anno ætatis suæ 67.’ He is said to have been versed both in canon and in civil law. The see of Orkney became vacant by the death of Robert Reid at Dieppe, 6 Sept. 1558, on his way home after attending, as a commissioner, the marriage of Mary with Francis the Dauphin. On 11 or 14  Oct. 1559, Bothwell was put in possession of the temporalities of the vacant see. He placed himself a few years later on the side of the protestant party; but there is no reason to suppose that he had much interest in the reforming movement as such, or in the ministry for its own sake. His career is essentially that of one who trimmed his sails to suit the winds of fortune. He was not, however, a merely ‘tulchan bishop.’ He was duly elected by the new chapter of Orkney, constituted by charter on 28 Oct. 1544 (confirmed 30 June 1545) through the wise exertions of his predecessor. Mary confirmed his appointment to the see on 8 Oct. 1562. This of itself may be taken as proof that he was in Roman orders. He was probably consecrated, as he says (, ii. 531) that he was ‘according to the order then observed, provided to the bishoprick of Orkney;’ 1558, the date he gives, is possibly that of his election by the chapter. More to his taste, probably, was his next preferment. On 14 Jan. 1563 he was made an extraordinary lord of session; as he puts it, he was required by the queen to accept the office; the instrument of his appointment contains, for the first time, the clause ‘provided always ye find him able and qualified for administration of justice, conform to the acts and statutes of the college of justice.’ He began, however, to take part in ecclesiastical affairs. We find him at both the half-yearly meetings of the general assembly in 1563 (opened 25 June at Perth, and Christmas day at Edinburgh). At Perth he received a commission, for a year only, to plant within the bounds of his diocese kirks, &c. At the Edinburgh meeting, memorable for the first communication (on a case of restitution of conjugal rights) addressed by the assembly to the English archbishops, Bothwell was made one of the commissioners for revising the Book of Discipline. He was not present at the meetings of assembly in 1564; at the December meeting (at which the use of the Book of Common Order was enjoined upon all ministers) ‘it was demanded by some brethrein’ whether the commissioner of Orkney (so he is called) ‘might both duelie exerce the office of a superintendent and office of a Lord of the Colledge of Justice.’ The decision was referred to ‘the superintendent of the bounds where the questioun ariseth [i.e. the superintendent of Lothian], and a certane number of ministers within his bounds, as he sall choose to assist him.’ Apparently the decision was given in the affirmative, for on 13 Nov. 1565 Bothwell was promoted to be an ordinary lord of session. At the June assembly in 1565, Bothwell was one of a committee to decide certain ecclesiastical questions. They decided inter alia that no minister should be a pluralist unless able personally to discharge the accumulated duties, and ‘providing he be sufficienthe answered of one stipend,’ a rather ambiguous loophole. The same committee declined to order parish ministers to keep registers of deaths, on the ground that ‘none or few of the ministrie had manses or gleebes for residence.’ At the December meeting Bothwell was not present. He attended both meetings of assembly in 1566; at the December meeting, which approved the Helvetic Confession, Bothwell was on a committee which decided that protestant communicants who should become witnesses at the private celebration of baptism by a ‘papisticall preest’ should lie under church censure. He was also one of those appointed to revise the answer to Bullinger, ‘tuiching the apparell of preachers in England.’ This appears to be Bothwell's last attendance as a member of the assembly. We next meet him on the occasion which alone is enough to make him a conspicuous person in history. On 15 May 1567 Mary was married to James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, who on 12 May had been created duke of Orkney. The banns had been proclaimed, much against his will, by John Craig, minister of Edinburgh. The marriage was celebrated, after the protestant form, by the Bishop of Orkney, in the council chamber at Holyrood House. Calderwood says that ‘the Bishop of Orkney, at the marriage, made a declaratioun of the Erle of Bothwell his repentance for his former offen-