Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/308

Lindsay lord of session, and in this capacity took part in the condemnation of Sir John Borthwick for heresy in 1540 and of Sir John Hamilton of Finnart for treason in the same year. He was present at the death of James V at Falkland in 1542 (ib. p. 622), and after the arrest of Cardinal Beaton was one of the four ‘indifferent noblemen’ to whom the custody of the infant princess Mary was on 15 March 1543 committed by parliament (Acta Parl. Scot. ii. 415). Although ultimately his sympathies were with the reformed party, the fifth Lord Lindsay, unlike his son, was not a vehement partisan. It was chiefly owing to his mediations that a battle was avoided at Cupar Muir on 13 June 1559 between the forces of the queen-regent and those of the lords of the congregation (, pp. 537–45). On the adoption of a reformed confession of faith by parliament in August 1560, Randolph records that ‘the old Lord of Lyndsay, as grave and godly a man as ever I sawe, sayd I have lived manie yeares: I am the oldeste in this companye of my sorte; now that yet hath pleased God to lett me see this daye … I will say with Simeon, Nunc dimittis’ (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1560–1, entry 434, quoted in full in, Works, vi. 177). With other lords Lindsay subscribed the ‘Book of Discipline,’ 17 Jan. 1561.

Lindsay died about 17 Dec. 1563 (Letter of Randolph to Cecil, 21 Dec. 1563; Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1563, entry 1523, in which he states that Lindsay died within the last four days).

During the lifetime of the fifth lord the estates of the family were considerably increased by grants under the great seal (see Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. passim). By his wife Helen Stewart, said to be a daughter of the Earl of Atholl, he had three sons—Patrick, sixth lord [q. v.]; John, who died in France; and Norman, ancestor of the Lindsays of Kilquhiss—and six daughters: Isabel, married to Norman Leslie [q. v.]; Catherine, to Thomas Myreton of Cambo; Margaret, to David Beaton of Melgund, son of Cardinal Beaton; Janet, wife first of Henry, Master of Sinclair, and secondly of Sir George Douglas; Helen, wife of Thomas Fotheringhame of Powrie; and Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Kinnear of Kinnear.

 LINDSAY, JOHN, (1552–1598), secretary of state in Scotland, born in 1552, was second son of David, ninth earl of  Crawford, by his wife Catherine Campbell, daughter of Sir John Campbell of Lorn. Along with his brother David Lindsay, lord Edzell [q. v.], he was sent under the care of James Lawson [q. v.], afterwards colleague of Knox, to complete his education on the continent. Scarcely, however, had they removed to Paris, when the conflicts between catholics and Huguenots compelled them to flee to Dieppe, everything being left behind but the clothes on their backs (for particulars see, Lives of the Lindsays). From Dieppe they shortly afterwards crossed over to England and passed to the university of Cambridge. From a paper in the Haigh muniment room it would appear John Lindsay subsequently returned to prosecute his studies in Paris, While yet a child, the livings of Menmuir, Lethnot, and Lochlee, which were in the gift of the Edzell family, were settled upon him. and though he never took orders he was usually designated 'Parson of Menmuir.' Under a writ of the privy seal, 11 July 1576, various teinds or tithes were also settled upon him, as well as a pension of 200l. out of the bishopric of St. Andrews, and he moreover received the small estate of Drumcairn, Forfarshire. Having adopted the profession of Law, he was on 5 July 1581 appointed a lord of session under the title Lord Menmuir. In 1586 he purchased the lands of Balcarres, Balniell, Pitcorthie, and others in the county of Fife, which on 10 June 1592 were united into a free barony in his favour. In 1595 he erected the mansion of Balcarres, which he made his principal residence.

Menmuir in 1587 was employed in framing several important acts relating to the constitution of parliament, including acts regarding the form and order of parliament and the voting of the barons. In April 1588, and again in April 1589, he was appointed one of a commission to inquire into disorders in the university of St, Andrews (Reg. P. C Scotl. iv. 266, 371). In November of the latter year he began to sit as a member of the privy council (ib. p. 436). From this time he rapidly acquired, chiefly on account of his financial ability, a position of great political influence. On 14 Oct. 1591 he was appointed one of the queen's four master stabularies, or managers of her revenues, and in the following June the king, on account of his great skill in the discovery of precious metals, made him master of minerals for life (Acta Parl. Scot. iii, 558). The special purpose of the appointment was to aid him in the exploration of the gold mines on 