BALNAVES,
a surname which, according to one tradition, was
derived from the high mountain Bennevis, (the Hill
of Heaven,) in the south-west extremity of
Inverness—shire, near which those who bore the name
are said to have lived. According to another
tradition the name arose from one Nevoy or Nevay
playing well at the football before one of our
kings, when the latter called out, "weel ball’d,
Nevoy," hence the surname Balnaves; in accordance
with which some persons of the name have a football
for crest, with the motto, Fortitudine et
velocitate. An old family, Balnaves of Carnbody,
had for crest a hand holding a football, with the
motto, Hinc origo. (Nisbet’s Heraldry, vol. i.
p. 20.)
BALNAVES, HENRY,
of Hallhill, one of the promoters of the Reformation
in Scotland, was born at Kirkcaldy, in the reign of
James the Fifth. After a course of study at the
university of St. Andrews, it is stated that, while
yet a boy, he travelled to the continent, and
hearing of a free school at Cologne, procured
admission into it, and received a liberal education.
While on the continent he imbibed the principles of
the Reformation. On his return to Scotland he
studied the law, and was for some time a procurator
at St. Andrews. On 31st July, 1538, James the Fifth
appointed him a lord of session; and on 10th August
1539 he obtained a charter of the lands of Hallhill,
in the parish of Collessie, Fife, to himself and
Christane Scheves his wife. (Diplomata Regia,
vol. vii. p. 176.) He was afterwards employed by the
earl of Arran when governor of the kingdom, on whose
appointment to the regency he became secretary of
state; and is said by Sir James Melville to have
been very instrumental in getting passed the
celebrated act of parliament introduced by Lord
Maxwell, by which the reading of the Bible in the
"vulgar toung" was permitted. In 1542 he was depute
keeper of the privy seal, and in 1543 he was chosen
by parliament one of the ambassadors to Henry the
Eighth, sent with their instructions with regard to
the proposed marriage of the infant queen Mary to
Edward the young prince of Wales. In this embassy he
was joined with Sir James Learmonth the treasurer,
and Sir William Hamilton of Sanquhar. They
set off from Edinburgh 23d March, 1543 (Sadler’s
State Papers, vol. i. p. 90), and the treaties
of peace and marriage were finally arranged on the
1st of July. But, shortly after, on the return of
the governor Arran to the popish faith and his
reconciliation with Cardinal Bethune, Balnaves was
dismissed from all his offices, in consequence of
his protestant principles and his favouring the
English alliance. In November of this same year
(1543), with the earl of Rothes and Lord Gray, he
was apprehended at Dundee by the regent and
cardinal, and confined in the castle of Blackness
until May following, when they were restored to
liberty, in consequence of the arrival of Henry’s
fleet in the Firth of Forth. In 1546, after the
murder of Cardinal Bethune, he joined Norman Leslie,
and the others, in the castle of St. Andrews, for
which he was declared a traitor and forfeited,
although he was not actually concerned in the deed.
While his friends were besieged in the castle, he
was sent as their agent to England, for assistance,
and in February 1547, a month after the death of
Henry the Eighth, he received from the guardians of
Edward the Sixth considerable sums of money and
provisions for them. (Faedera, vol. xv. p.
133.) He himself obtained a pension of one hundred
and twenty-five pounds, from lady day (25th March)
that year; at the same time, he became bound that
Leslie and his associates should do what they could
to deliver the young queen Mary and the castle of
St. Andrews into the hands of the English. When that
fortress at last surrendered, he was conducted with
the others to France, and confined in the French
galleys at Rouen. On this occasion it was that the
popish party in Scotland shouted for joy in the
streets;
Ye priests, content ye non;
Ye priests, content ye non;
For Normand and his companie
Hae fill’d the galleys fun!
During his confinement at Rouen, he
wrote what Knox terms "a comfortable treatise of
justification," which, after being revised by Knox,
who prefixed a recommendatory dedication, was
published in 1584, under the title of ‘The
Confession of Faith, &c., compiled by M. Henry
Balnaves, of Hallhill,' &c., as given in full after
this article. Dr. M’Crie speaks of a London edition
of the same date, but this is evidently a mistake.
In 1556, the forfeiture which Balnaves had
incurred was removed, when he returned to Scotland,
and in 1559, "the year," according to Pitscottie,
"of the uprore about religion," he took a leading
part for the congregation. In August of that year he
was secretly despatched to solicit the assistance of
Queen Elizabeth’s envoy, Sir Ralph Sadler, at
Berwick, and obtained from him a promise of an aid
of two thousand pounds sterling. On the 11th
February 1563 he was reappointed a lord of session,
and in December of that year named one of the
commissioners for revising the Book of Discipline.
On the trial of Bothwell for the murder of Darnley
in 1567, he was appointed one of the four assessors
to the earl of Argyle, the lord justice general, and
in the following year, he and Buchanan accompanied
the regent Murray when he went to York, to attend
the inquiry, by English and Scottish commissioners,
into the alleged guilt of the unfortunate Queen
Mary. In requital for his various services, he
received the lands of Letham from the regent. He
retired from the bench previous to October 1575, and
died at Edinburgh, according to Dr. Mackenzie, in
1579. We learn from Calderwood’s History and
Sadler’s State Papers that he raised himself, by
his talents and probity, from an obscure station
to the first honours of the state, and was justly
regarded as one of the principal supporters of the
reformed cause in Scotland. He is described by John
Knox as a very learned and pious man, and Sir James
Melville characterizes him as "a godly, learned,
wise and long-experimented counsellor."
(Melville’s Memoirs, p. 27.) A short ballad,
signed Balnaves, in Ramsay’s Evergreen, entitled
‘Advice to a headstrong Youth,’ and beginning,
"O gallandis all, I cry and call,"
has been attributed to him ; but in our estimation
without sufficient grounds. On the faith of it,
however, he has obtained a place in Irving’s ‘Lives
of Scottish Poets.’ (Vol. ii. p. 136.) His estate of
Hallhill he disponed to Sir James Melville, third
son of Sir John Melville of Raith, and brother of
Sir Robert Melville of Murdocairnie, first Lord
Melville. It remained the property of his
descendants till the reign of Charles the Second,
when it was purchased by the earl of Melville. The
house of Hallhill has long been taken down, and its
site, with a portion of the estate, is included
within the parks round Melville House.
The following is the title of Balnaves’ treatise on
Justification above referred to:
The Confession of Faith, conteining how the troubled
man should seeke refuge at his God, therto led by
faith; &c. Compiled by M. Henry Balnaues, of Halhill,
and one of the Lords of Session and Counsell of
Scotland, being as prisoner within the old pallaice
of Roane, in the yeare of our Lord 1548. Direct to
his faithfull brethren, being in like trouble or
more, and to all true professours and fauourers of
the syncere worde of God. Edinb. 1584, 8vo.
