Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/388



The following December he was cited to appear before the general assembly to answer various accusations, including especially that of having preached before the king in a surplice. As the summons had not been served on him personally, it was decided that meanwhile he should only be deposed, and that if he failed to make public repentance in Edinburgh he should be excommunicated (, Scots Affairs, ii. 139;, Records of the Kirk, pp. 171-2; , Memorialls, i. 122). In the following March commissioners were sent to him to intimate the finding of the assembly, upon which he ceased to preach on Sunday, and kept within his castle of Spynie (, i. 142). On the approach of General Monro, the bishop, on 10 July, surrendered his castle, which was placed under the command of the covenanter commission of Elgin (, iii. 213;, i. 305). The bishop was carried by Monro to Aberdeen (, i. 333), whence he was brought in September to Edinburgh, and presented to the estates, who immediately sent him prisoner to the Tolbooth (ib. p. 339). On his presenting a petition for his liberation to parliament in the following November, it was granted on condition that he did not return to the diocese of Moray. After his release he took up his residence at Guthrie, which he had purchased from his relative Peter Guthrie; he had obtained a crown charter 28 Nov. 1636. He died 28 Aug. 1649, and was buried beside his wife in the aisle of the church of Guthrie (MS. Diary of his brother James Guthrie of Arbirlot, quoted in, Epitaphs and Inscriptions, ii. 149). His character is highly eulogised by Bishop Henry Guthrie [q. v.], who says: 'As he chose not to flee, so upon no terms would he recant, but patiently endured excommunication, imprisonment, and other sufferings, and in the midst of them stood to the justification of episcopal government until his death' (Memoirs, p. 35). By his wife, Nicolas Wood, he had two sons, John, parson successively of Keith and Duffus, who died in 1643 without issue, and Andrew, who, having joined Montrose, was taken prisoner at Philiphaugh (13 Sept. 1645) and executed at St. Andrews; and two daughters, of whom Bethia, heiress of Guthrie, married her kinsman Francis Guthrie of Gagie, from whom descend the present Guthries of Guthrie. Among the family relics at Guthrie Castle are a bible and a curious old bell, both of which formerly belonged to the bishop.

 GUTHRIE, THOMAS, D.D. (1803–1873), Scottish preacher and philanthropist, was born at Brechin on 12 July 1803. His ancestors for several generations were Forfarshire farmers, who claimed connection with James Guthrie [q. v.] of Stirling, the covenanter, executed in 1661. His father, David Guthrie, was a trader and banker in Brechin. His favourite brother Charles became an officer in the East India Company's army, while another brother was a physician. In the Brechin schools he was, he tells us, chiefly distinguished for 'fun and fighting.' At the age of twelve he left Brechin for the university of Edinburgh, where he spent ten years, from 1815 to 1825; four in the arts or linguistic, philosophical, and mathematical course; four in the study of divinity, biblical criticism, church history, and Hebrew, and two in medical and scientific studies. He also devoted special attention to public reading and speaking.

Guthrie was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Brechin in 1825, at the age of twenty-two. Under the system of patronage which then prevailed in Scotland, it was five years before he obtained a living. In 1826 he went to Paris to study natural philosophy, chemistry, and comparative anatomy in the Sorbonne, and to walk the wards of the Hôtel Dieu. In Paris he studied hard, and made friends with students of different races and religions. On his return home in 1827 he spent two years as manager of his father's bank. Finally, in 1830 he was ordained minister of the parish of Arbirlot, near Arbroath. He married in the same year.

The sermons preached by him before the presbytery, with a view to license and ordination, were constructed on severely logical lines, without a spark of originality. But when in contact with the farmers, peasants, and weavers of Arbirlot, in all of whom he took from the first a strong personal interest, he soon joined to old-fashioned views and appeals a power of appropriate illustration and a dramatic force which had not hitherto been associated with evangelical opinions. His imposing presence, genial and expressive features, and natural gestures commanded attention. Although possessing unusual readiness of speech, he always wrote out his 