MELVILLE,
a surname of ancient standing in Scotland, derived from lands of
that name in Mid Lothian. Before the middle of the 12th
century, a baron of Anglo-Norman lineage, named Male, settled,
under David I., on the lands referred to, and called his manor,
after himself, Maleville, whence the surname of Melville.
Galfrid de Maleville, the first of the family, was vicecomes of
Edinburgh castle under Malcolm IV., and justiciary under William
the Lion. The family remained in possession of their ancient
manor till the reign of Robert II. The original stock then
terminating in an heiress, Agnes, she married Sir John Ross of
Halkhead, and their descendant was, by James IV., created Lord
Ross, in whose family the barony of Melville remained till 1705.
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MELVILLE, earl of,
a title in the peerage of Scotland, conjoined since 1704 with
that of earl of Leven, and conferred, in 1690, on George, fourth
Lord Melville, descended from Sir John de Melville of Raith, in
Fife, who swore fealty to Edward I. in 1296. Sir John Melville
of Raith, the ninth in descent from this baron, was a favourite
with James V., by whom he was appointed master-general of the
ordnance and captain of the castle of Dunbar. In 1536, and again
in 1542, he obtained charters to himself and Helen Napier his
wife, of the king’s lands of Murdocairnie in Fife. He early
joined the party of the Reformation in Scotland, and after
suffering from the animosity of Cardinal Bethune, at length fell
a victim to his successor in the primacy, Archbishop Hamilton.
In 1550 he was tried for high treason, and executed. Calderwood
(Hist. of Kirk of Scotland, p. 262) says, “Johne
Melville, laird of Raith in Fife, an aged man, and of great
accompt with King James the Fyft, was beheaded for writing a
letter to an Englishman, in favour of a captive, his friend,
with whome he was keeped as prisoner. Although there was not the
least suspicioun of anie fault, yitt lost he his head, becaus he
was knowne to be one that unfainedlie favoured the truthe and
was a great friend to those that were in the castle of Sanct
Andrews, (the conspirators against Cardinal Bethune). The
letter, as was alledged, was found in the house of Ormiston.
Howsoever it was, the cruel beasts, the bishop of Sanct Andrews
and the abbot of Dunfermline, ceased not till his head was
strickin frome him. They were not content of his death, till he
was forfaulted also and his patrimonie bestowed upon Hamiltoun,
the governor’s youngest son.” With a daughter, Janet, married to
Sir James Kirkaldy of Grange, knight, he had six sons, five of
whom were eminent during the reign of Queen Mary and the
regencies which followed her resignation of the crown.
The eldest son, John Melville of Raith, was restored to
his father’s estate by the queen regent about 1553, at the
special request of Henry II. of France. He was one of the barons
who, in July 1567, subscribed the articles passed in the General
Assembly for the support of the Reformed religion and the
putting down of popery. The second son, Sir Robert Melville of
Murdocairnie, was the first Lord Melville, of whom afterwards.
Of Sir James Melville of Hallhill, the third son, an eminent
courtier and statesman, a memoir is subsequently given below.
William Melville, the fourth son, commendator of Tongland and
Kilwinning, was appointed an ordinary lord of session, 14th
August 1587, when he took the title of Lord Tongland. Soon
after, he was sent by James VI. to the court of Navarre, to see
and report upon the princess, as a wife for the king, and
returned with a portrait of the lady, and “a good report of her
rare qualities.” The marriage, however, did not take place. He
was frequently employed as one of the lords commissioners for
opening the Scots parliament, and is supposed to have died in
the autumn of 1613. He is said, by his brother, in his Memoirs
(p. 365), to have been a good scholar, and to have been able to
speak perfectly “the Latin, the Dutche, the Flemyn, and the
Frenche tongue.” Sir Andrew Melville of Garvock, the fifth son,
was master of the household to Queen Mary, and attended her in
her last moments at Fotheringay. He was also master of the
household to James VI. David Melville of Newmill, the sixth son,
was a captain in the army.
To return to the second son, Sir Robert Melville, first
Lord Melville, – he was a very eminent character during the
reigns of Mary and James. Having gone abroad in his youth, he
was much noticed at the court of France, and obtained an
honourable employment under Henry II. IN 1559 he returned to
Scotland, and was sent to England with Maitland of Lethington,
to solicit the assistance of Queen Elizabeth for the lords of
the congregation. In 1562 he was sworn a privy councillor. After
the “Chase-about Raid,” in 1665, he was employed by the earl of
Moray, one of the principal nobles who opposed Mary’s marriage
to Darnley, to intercede for his pardon with the queen. Shortly
after he was sent to England as ambassador, and on his return he
skilfully unravelled to his mistress the crooked policy of
Elizabeth and her ministers. (Melville’s Memoirs.) After
the assassination of Darnley he was reappointed ambassador to
England, and again after the marriage of Mary to Bothwell.
When Mary was confined in Lochleven castle, he was sent to
her by the earl of Athole and the lairds of Tullibardine and
Lethington, her principal councillors, with a ring which she
knew to be theirs, advising her to subscribe the resignation of
the crown, as it would be held null, being extorted from her by
fears of her life. He also conveyed to her a writing from Sir
Nicholas Throgmorton, the English ambassador, desiring her to
subscribe whatever they required, as what she signed in her
captivity could not be held valid, and assuring her of Queen
Elizabeth’s protection. This afterwards formed the chief ground
of Mary’s ill-founded reliance on her cousin’s promises. On
Mary’s escape from Lochleven he joined her at Hamilton, and
publicly avowed the restraint under which she had acted in
resigning the crown.
In the civil war which followed the assassination of the
regent Moray, he adhered to the queen’s party, and with Kirkaldy
of Grange and Maitland of Lethington held out the castle of
Edinburgh till its surrender in 1573. He would have shared the
fate of Kirkaldy but for the intercession of Killigrew, the
English ambassador. During the remainder of the earl of Morton’s
regency, he appears to have lived in retirement, and in 1579 the
benefit of the pacification of Perth was extended to him.
In August 1582, he was appointed treasurer-depute, and in
October of the same year knighted. In December 1586, he was sent
by James Vi., with the master of Gray, to England to entreat
Queen Elizabeth for his mother’s life. This duty he performed
with fidelity and zeal. According to his brother’s account, “he
spak brave and stout language to the consaill of England, sa
that the quen herself boisted him of his lyf;” and he would have
been afterwards detained prisoner, but for the interest of the
master of Gray. (Melville’s Memoirs, p. 357.) In 1589,
when James sailed for Norway, to bring over his queen, Sir
Robert Melville was made vice-chancellor of the kingdom, and he
received the grateful thanks of his majesty, on his return, for
the way in which he had managed matters in his absence. On 7th
June 1593, he was again sent ambassador to England. On 11th
June 1594, he was admitted an extraordinary lord of session, and
took his seat on the bench as Lord Murdocairnie. The king’s
letter of nomination states that his majesty had “experience of
the faithful service done to us at all tymes” by Sir Robert,
“and how willing he is to discharge his dewtie therein to our
honour and wiell of our realm and lieges thereof.” (Books of
Sederunt.) He resigned his office of treasurer-depute in
January 1596, in consequence of the appointment of the
Octavians, as the eight commissioners of the treasury were
called, at which time the king was largely in his debt. In 1597,
an act was passed by which his majesty, with advice of the
Estates, promised to pay the balance due, and prohibited
any diligence being executed at the instance of his creditors
against him, until he should be so paid. (Act. Parl. vol.
iv. p. 147.) On 26th February 1601, he resigned his
seat on the bench in favour of his son, and in 1604 he was
appointed one of the commissioners for the projected union
between the two kingdoms. He was raised to the peerage by the
title of Lord Melville of Monimail, 30th April 1616,
and died in 1621, at the advanced age of 94.
His only son, Robert, second Lord Melville, was a privy
councillor to King James, by whom he was knighted, and in
February 1601, on the resignation of his father, he was
appointed an extraordinary lord of session, by the title of Lord
Burntisland. He was removed in February 1626, when an entire
change of the extraordinary lords took place. He was also a
privy councillor to Charles I., and one of the royal
commissioners to open the parliament of Scotland, 18th
June 1633. In that assembly he energetically though
unsuccessfully, opposed the act for conferring on the king the
power of regulating ecclesiastical habits, and addressing the
king, then present, he exclaimed aloud, “I have sworn with your
father and the whole kingdom to the Confession of Faith, in
which the innovations intended by these articles were solemnly
abjured.” He died at Edinburgh, without issue, 9th
march 1635, and was succeeded by his cousin, John Melville of
Raith, third Lord Melville, whose brother, Thomas Melville,
acquired from him the lands of Murdocairnie, and was ancestor of
the Melvilles of Murdocairnie.
The third Lord Melville died in 1643. His elder son
George, fourth lord, and first earl of Melville, in consequence
of his known liberal principles, found it necessary to retire to
the continent on the detection of the Ryehouse plot in 1683,
although he had no connexion with that conspiracy. In June 1685,
he accompanied the duke of Monmouth when he landed at Lyme from
Holland, and on the failure of his attempt to overturn the
government of his uncle James VII., Lord Melville again escaped
to the continent. His estates were forfeited by act of attainder
the same year.
In 1688 he came over to England with William, prince of
Orange, and, immediately after, his forfeiture was rescinded. On
8th April 1690, he was created Earl of Melville,
viscount of Kirkcaldy, Lord Raith, Monimail, and Balwearie. The
same year he was appointed sole secretary of state for Scotland,
and constituted high commissioner to the Scots parliament. As
high commissioner also to the parliament which met in September
following, he gave the royal assent to the act for abolishing
patronage. In 1691 he resigned the office of secretary of state,
and was appointed keeper of the privy seal, an office which he
held till 1696, when he became president of the council. He died
in 1707. By his countess, Catherine, daughter of Alexander, Lord
Balgonie, son of the renowned military commander, Alexander
Leslie, first earl of Leven, he had three sons and one daughter.
His eldest son, Alexander, Lord Raith, a nobleman of
considerable talent, was appointed treasurer depute of Scotland
in 1689, and died, without issue, before his father in 1698.
The second son, David, second earl of Melville, succeeded,
on the death of his mother in 1713, to the earldom of Leven.
(See LEVEN, earl of.) The titles were thenceforth conjoined.
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MELVILLE, viscount of,
a title in the peerage of the united kingdom, conferred, with
the secondary title of baron Dunira, in the county of Perth,
December 21st, 1802, on the Right Hon. Henry Dundas,
a distinguished statesman, a memoir of whom is given previously.
By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of David Rennie, Esq.,
who had purchased Melville Castle, Mid Lothian, which he
bestowed, with his daughter, on his son-in-law, he had one son
and three daughters. A second marriage was without issue.
His son, Robert, second Viscount Melville, was born in
1771. He was educated at the High school of Edinburgh, and
Emmanuel College, Cambridge. One of his school companions at the
former was Sir Walter Scott, neither of them being then titled,
his friendship with whom was strengthened by their subsequent
service together in the Mid Lothian yeomanry. In 1802 he was
chosen M.P. for Mid Lothian, for which he was subsequently five
times re-elected. The question of his father’s impeachment
caused him to take a frequent part in the debates in parliament
in 1805 and 1806. On the change of ministry in March 1807, when
the duke of Portland became premier, Mr. Dundas entered office
as president of the board of control, and was sworn a member of
the privy council. In 1809, when Sir Arthur Wellesley,
afterwards the duke of Wellington, was called from the Irish
chief secretaryship to take the command of the British armies in
Spain, Mr. Dundas was appointed his successor, and was enrolled
in the privy council of Ireland. In January 1810, soon after the
formation of Mr. Spencer Percival’s administration, he returned
to the presidency of the board of control.
The sudden death of his father, on 29th May
1811, gave him a place in the house of peers. The same year he
was appointed keeper of the privy seal of Scotland, a sinecure
office which expired with him. On the formation of a new
ministry, having the earl of Liverpool at its head, in the
summer of 1812, the office of first lord of the admiralty, with
a seat in the cabinet, was assigned to Viscount Melville, and he
continued at the head of that department for fifteen years. In
1814 he was elected chancellor of the university of St. Andrews.
Nominated in 1821 one of the four extra knights of the Thistle,
on the enlargement of the order in 1827 he was enrolled one of
the ordinary knights. On the accession of Mr. Canning to power
in the latter year, his lordship retired from office, declining
a seat in the cabinet. When the duke of Wellington formed his
administration in January 1828, Viscount Melville resumed his
place at the head of the admiralty. With the dissolution of the
Wellington ministry in November 1830, his lordship’s official
career terminated. He was a member of the royal commission of
1826-30 for the visitation of the Scottish universities; in
1843-4, of the royal commission for inquiry into the operation
of the poor-law in Scotland, and in 1847, of the prison board
for Scotland. He was also keeper of the signet, a
deputy-lieutenant of the counties of Edinburgh and Linlithgow,
one of the commissioners of the board of trustees for
manufactures in Scotland, one of the commissioners for the
custody of the Scottish regalia, a lieutenant-general of the
royal company of archers in Scotland, an elder brother of the
Trinity house, governor of the Bank of Scotland, &c. He died at
Melville castle, Mid Lothian, 10th June, 1851, in his
80th year.
His lordship married, in August 1796, Anne, daughter and
co-heiress of Richard Huck Saunders, M.D., grand-niece of
Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, K.B. on his marriage he assumed
the name of Saunders before his own. He had four sons and two
daughters.
The eldest son, Henry, third Viscount Melville, born in
1801, entered the army in 1819, and became a major-general in
1854. He commanded the 83d foot during the insurrection in Upper
Canada in 1837-8, and was for a short time aide-de-camp to the
queen. At the battle of Gujerat in India, he commanded a
brigade, and for his services he received the order of the Bath
and the thanks of parliament and of the East India Company. In
1853 he was appointed to command the Sirhind division of the
Indian army, and from 1854 to 1860 was commander-in-chief of the
forces in Scotland; colonel of 100th regiment of
foot; unmarried.
The 2d son, Vice-admiral the Hon. Richard Saunders Dundas,
C.B., succeeded Admiral Sir Charles Napier in the command of the
Baltic fleet, in the war with Russia, in 1855; and commanded at
the bombardment of Sweaborg, Aug. 9 of that year. Born June 11,
1802, he entered the navy June 15, 1817, as a volunteer on board
the Ganymede, 26 guns, and remained midshipman of that ship and
of the Owen Glendower until Dec. 1820, on the Mediterranean and
South American stations. He became lieutenant 18th
June, 1821, and post-captain 17th July 1824. In the
Melville, 72, he took part in the campaign in China. During this
service he received the warm thanks of Sir Gordon Bremer for his
conduct at the capture of Ty-cock-tow, as well as that of the
forts of the Bocca Tigris. In 1828-29-30 he was private
secretary to his father, then first lord of the admiralty. In
1845 he held the same office under the earl of Haddington, the
first lord of that period. In 1841 the military companionship of
the Bath was conferred upon him for his services in China. In
1851 he was appointed superintendent of Deptford Dockyard.
Rear-admiral of the blue 1853; rear-admiral of the white 1855;
in 1858 he became vice-admiral of the blue; one of the lords of
the admiralty from 1852-1855. He died suddenly, June 3, 1861.
The 3d son, the Hon. Robert Dundas, born in 1803,
storekeeper-general of the navy. The 4th son, the
Hon. and Rev. Charles Dundas, rector of Epworth, born Sept. 10,
1806, married, in 1833, Louisa Maria, daughter of Sir William
Boothby, issue, 3 sons and 7 daughters.
MELVILLE, SIR JAMES,
an eminent courtier, son of Sir John Melville of Raith, was born
in Fifeshire about 1535. At the age of 14 he was sent to Paris
by the queen-mother, under the protection of the French
ambassador, to be a page of honour to the youthful Mary, queen
of Scots, then the consort of the dauphin of France. In May
1553, by the permission of his royal mistress, he entered the
ser ice of the constable of France, and was present at the siege
of St. Quentin, where the constable was wounded and taken
prisoner, and he seems to have attended him in his captivity.
After the peace he visited his native country in 1559, on a sort
of secret mission, to ascertain the state of parties in
Scotland. He afterwards travelled on the continent, and remained
three years at the court of the elector palatine, who employed
him in various negotiations with the German princes. In May 1564
he returned to Scotland, having been recalled by Mary, by whom
he was appointed gentleman of the bedchamber, and nominated one
of her privy councillors. Soon after he was sent on an embassy
to Elizabeth, relative to Mary’s proposed marriage with Darnley,
and in June 1566, he was again dispatched to the English court
with the intelligence of the birth of the prince, afterwards
James VI. He maintained a correspondence in England in favour of
Mary’s succession to the crown of that kingdom; but venturing to
remonstrate with her on her unhappy partiality for Bothwell, the
queen communicated his admonitions to the latter, and the
faithful Melville was, in consequence, obliged for some time to
retire from court. He was, however, present at the ill-starred
nuptials of Mary to that nobleman, and he continued her
confidential servant as long as she remained in Scotland. He
appears to have had a high idea of his own importance, and
occasionally in his Memoirs blames himself for the unfortunate
propensity, which he says he possessed, of finding fault with
the proceedings of the great.
By James VI., to whom he was recommended by his
unfortunate mother, and who continued him in his offices of
privy councillor and gentleman of the bedchamber to his queen,
Anne of Denmark, he was intrusted with various honourable
employments. On the accession of King James to the English
throne, he declined to accompany him to England, but afterwards
paid his majesty a visit of duty, when he was graciously
received. On account of his age he retired from the public
service, and occupied his remaining years in writing the
‘Memoirs’ of his life for the use of his son. He died November
1, 1607. His manuscript, accidentally found in the castle of
Edinburgh in 1660, and which affords minute and curious
descriptions of the manners of the times, was published in 1683,
by Mr. George Scott, under the title of ‘Memoirs of Sir James
Melvil of Hallhill, containing an impartial Account of the most
remarkable Affairs of State during the last Age, not mentioned
by other Historians;’ republished in 1735. He had acquired the
estate of Hallhill, in the parish of Collessie, Fifeshire, from
the celebrated Henry Balnaves. It remained the property of his
descendants till the reign of Charles II., when it was purchased
by Lord Melville.
MELVILLE, ANDREW,
one of the most illustrious of the Scottish Reformers, whose
name is second only to that of John Knox, was the youngest of
nine sons of Richard Melville of Baldovy, near Montrose, where
he was born August 1, 1545. His father lost his life in the
battle of Pinkie, when Andrew was only two years old, and his
mother dying soon after, he was brought up under the care of his
eldest brother, afterwards minister of Maryton, who, at a proper
age, sent him to the grammar school of Montrose. Having acquired
there a thorough knowledge of the classics, he was, in 1559,
removed to the university of St. Andrews, where his great
proficiency, especially in the Greek language, excited the
astonishment of his teachers. On completing the usual academical
course he left college with the character of being “the best
philosopher, poet, and Grecian, of any young master in the
land.” In 1564 he went to France, and remained for two years at
the university of Paris. He next proceeded to Poictiers, for the
purpose of studying the civil law, and was elected regent or
professor in the college of St. Marceon. After continuing there
for three years, he repaired to Geneva on foot, carrying only a
Hebrew Bible at his belt, and the fame of his great attainments
having preceded him, by the influence of Beza he obtained the
humanity chair in the academy, at that time vacant.
In July 1574 he returned to Scotland, after an absence of
ten years. Beza, in his letter to the General Assembly, wrote
that the greatest token of affection the kirk of Geneva could
show to Scotland was that they had suffered themselves to be
spoiled of Mr. Andrew Melville, that thereby the kirk of
Scotland might be enriched. On his arrival in Edinburgh, he was
invited by the Regent Morton to enter his family as a domestic
tutor, but he preferred an academic life to a residence at
court, and declined the invitation. shortly afterwards he was
appointed by the General Assembly principal of the university of
Glasgow, which, under his charge, from the improved plan of
study and discipline introduced by him, speedily acquired a high
reputation as a seat of learning. Besides his duties in the
university, he officiated as minister of the church of Govan, in
the vicinity. As a member of the General Assembly, he took a
prominent part in all the measures of that body against
episcopacy; and as he was unflinching in his opposition to that
form of church government, he received the name of “Episcopomastix,”
or ‘The Scourge of Bishops.’ A remarkable instance of his
intrepidity occurred at an interview, which took place in
October 1577, between him and the Regent Morton, when the
latter, irritated at the proceedings of the Assembly, exclaimed,
“There will never be quietness in this country till half a dozen
of you be hanged or banished!” “Hark! Sir,” said Melville,
“threaten your courtiers after that manner! It is the same to me
whether I rot in the air, or in the ground. The earth is the
Lord’s. Patria est ubicunque est bene. I have been ready to give
up my life where it would not have been half so well wared, at
the pleasure of my God. I have lived out of your country ten
years, as well as in it. Let God be glorified, it will not be in
your power to hang or exile his truth.” This bold language
Morton did not venture to resent.
Melville was moderator of the General Assembly which met
at Edinburgh 24th April 1578, in which the second
Book of Discipline was approved of. The attention of the
Assembly was about this time directed to the reformation and
improvement of the universities, and Melville was, in December
1580, removed frm Glasgow, and installed principal of St. Mary’s
college, St. Andrews. Here, besides giving lectures in Divinity,
he taught the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Rabbinical languages,
and his prelections were attended, not only by young students in
unusual numbers, but also by some of the masters of the other
colleges. He was moderator of the Assembly which met at St.
Andrews 24th April 1582, and also of an extraordinary
meeting of the Assembly, convened at Edinburgh 27th
June thereafter, in consequence of the arbitrary measures of the
court, in relation particularly to the case of Robert
Montgomery, the excommunicated archbishop of Glasgow. He opened
the proceedings with a sermon, in which he boldly inveighed
against the absolute authority claimed by the government in
ecclesiastical matters. A spirited remonstrance being agreed to
by the Assembly, Melville and others were appointed to present
it to the king, then with the court at Perth. When the
remonstrance was read before his majesty in council, the king’s
unworthy favourite, the earl of Arran, menacingly exclaimed,
“Who dare subscribe these treasonable articles?” “We dare,” said
the undaunted Melville, and taking a pen, immediately signed his
name. His example was followed by the other commissioners, and
so much were Lennox and Arran overawed by their intrepidity,
that they dismissed them peaceably.
For about three years Melville had preached, assisted by
his nephew, in the parish church of St. Andrews. In February
1584 he was cited before the privy council, to answer a charge
of treason, founded on some seditious expressions, which it was
alleged he had made use of in a sermon on the 4th
chapter of Daniel, on the occasion of a fast kept during the
preceding month; particularly that he had compared the king’s
mother to Nebuchadnezzar, who was banished from the kingdom, and
would be restored again. At his appearance, he denied using
these words, entered into a full defence of those he had
actually used, and presented a protest and declinature, claiming
to be tried by the ecclesiastical court. When brought before the
king and council, he boldly told them that they had exceeded
their jurisdiction in judging of the doctrine, or calling to
account any of the ambassadors or messengers of a king and
council greater then they, and far above them. Then loosing a
little Hebrew bible from his belt, and throwing it on the table
before them, he said, “That you may see your weakness,
oversight, and rashness, in taking upon you that which neither
you ought nor can do, there are my instructions and
warrant. Let me see which of you can judge of them or control me
therein, that I have passed by my injunctions.” Arran, finding
the book in Hebrew, put it into the king’s hands, saying, “Sir,
he scorns your majesty and council.” “No, my lord,” replied
Melville, “I scorn not, but with all earnestness, zeal, and
gravity, I stand for the cause of Jesus Christ and his church.”
Not being able to prove the charge against him, and unwilling to
let him go, the council declared him guilty of declining their
jurisdiction, and of behaving irreverently before them, and
sentenced him to be imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh, and
to be further punished in his person and goods at the pleasure
of the king. Before, however, being charged to enter himself in
ward, his place of confinement was ordered to be changed to
Blackness castle, which was kept by a dependant of Arran. While
at dinner the king’s macer was admitted and gave him the charge
to enter within 24 hours; but he avoided being sent there by
secretly withdrawing from Edinburgh. After staying some time at
Berwick, he proceeded to London, and in the ensuing July visited
the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, at both of which he
was received in a manner becoming his learning and reputation.
On the disgrace of the earl of Arran, Melville returned to
Scotland with the banished lords, in November 1585. Having
assisted in re-organizing the college of Glasgow, he resumed, in
the following march, his duties at St. Andrews. The synod of
Fife, which met in April, proceeded to excommunicate Adamson,
archbishop of St. Andrews, for his attempts to overturn the
presbyterian form of government in the church; and, in return,
that prelate issued a sentence of excommunication against
Melville, and his nephew, James Melville, with others of their
brethren. In consequence of this difference with the archbishop,
Melville received a written mandate from the king to confine his
residence to the north of the Tay, and he was not restored to
his office in the university till the following August. Some
time after, when Adamson had been deprived of his archbishopric,
and was reduced to great poverty, finding himself deserted by
the king, he addressed a letter to his former antagonist,
Melville, expressing regret for his past conduct, and soliciting
his assistance Melville hastened to visit h im, and not only
procured contributions for his relief among his friends, but
continued for several months to support him from his own
resources.
In June 1587, Melville was again elected moderator of the
Assembly, and nominated one of the commissioners for attending
to the proceedings in parliament. He was present at the
coronation of the queen, May 17, 1590, and recited a Latin poem
composed for the occasion, which was immediately published at
the desire of the king. In the same year he was elected rector
of the university of St. Andrews an office which, for a series
of years, he continued to hold by re-election. In May 1594 he
was again elected moderator of the Assembly. Shortly after, he
appeared on behalf of the church before the lords of the
articles, and urged the forfeiture of the popish lords, and
along with his nephew and two other ministers, he accompanied
the king, at his express request, on his expedition against
them. In the following year, when it was proposed to recall the
popish nobles from exile, he went with some other ministers to
the convention of estates at St. Andrews, to remonstrate against
the design, but was ordered by the king to withdraw, which he
did, after a most resolute reply. The commission of the Assembly
having met at Cupar in Fife, they sent Melville and some other
members to expostulate with the king. Being admitted to a
private audience, James Melville began to address his majesty
with great mildness and respect; but the king becoming
impatient, charged them with sedition, on which Andrew took him
by the sleeve, and calling him “God’s silly vassal,” said, “This
is not a time to flatter, but to speak plainly, for our
commission is from the living God, to whom the king is subject.
We will always humbly reverence your majesty in public, but
having opportunity of being with your majesty in private, we
must discharge our duty, or else be enemies to Christ; And now,
Sire, I must tell you that there are two kingdoms – the kingdom
of Christ, which is the church, whose subject King James VI. is,
and of whose kingdom he is not a head nor a lord, but a member;
and they whom Christ hath called, and commanded to watch over
his church, and govern his spiritual kingdom, have sufficient
power and authority from him so to do, which no Christian king
nor prince should control or discharge, but assist and support,
otherwise they are not faithful subjects to Christ.” The king
listened patiently to this bold admonition, and dismissed them
with many fair promises which he never intended to fulfil. For
several years following King James made repeated attempts to
control the church, according to his own arbitrary notions, but
he invariably encountered a strenuous opponent in Andrew
Melville; and he had recourse at last to one of those stratagems
which he thought the very essence of “king-craft,” to secure the
removal of this champion of presbyterianism from Scotland
altogether. In May 1606, Melville, with his nephew, and six of
their brethren, were called to London by a letter from the king,
on the specious pretext that his majesty wished to consult them
as to the affairs of the church. Soon after their arrival they
attended the famous conference held September 23, in presence of
the king at Hampton Court, at which Melville spoke at great
length, and with a boldness which astonished the English
nobility and clergy. On St. Michael’s day, Melville and his
brethren were commanded to attend the royal chapel, when,
scandalized at the popish character of the service, on his
return to his lodging he vented his indignation in a Latin
epigram,* for which, a copy having been conveyed to the king, he
was brought before the council at Whitehall. Being by them found
guilty of “scandalum magnatum,” he was committed first to the
custody of the dean of St. Paul’s, and afterwards to the charge
of the bishop of Winchester; but was ultimately sent to the
Tower, where he remained a prisoner for four years.
At first he was treated with the utmost rigour, and denied
even the use of pen, ink, and paper; but his spirit remained
unsubdued, and he beguiled his solitary hours by composing Latin
verses, which, with the tongue of his shoe buckle, he engraved
on his prison walls. By the interference of some friends at
court, his confinement was, after the lapse of nearly ten
months, rendered less severe. About the end of 1607 the
protestants of Rochelle endeavoured to obtain his services as
professor of divinity in their college, but the king would not
consent to his liberation. At length, in February 1611, at the
intercession of the duke of Bouillon, he was released from
confinement, on condition of his becoming professor of theology
in the protestant university of Sedan, in France, where he spent
the remainder of his life, and died there in 1622, at the
advanced age of 77.
*The following is the epigram:
Cur stant clausi Anglis libri duo regia in ara,
Lumina caeca duo, pollubra sicca duo?
Num sensum cultumque Dei tenet Anglia clausum,
Lumine caeca suo, sorde sepulta sus?
Romano an ritu, dum regalem instruit aram,
Purpuream pingit religiosa lupam?
Thus rendered in an old translation:
Why stand there on the altar high
Two closed books, blind lights, two basins dry?
Doth England hold God’s mind and worship close,
Blind of her sight, and buried in her dross?
Doth she, with chapel put in Romish dress,
The purple whore religiously express?
And for this Melville was sent to the Tower!
His biographer, Dr. M’Crie, says that Andrew Melville “was
the first Scotsman who added a taste for elegant literature to
an extensive acquaintance with theology.” Although he sustained
a conspicuous part in all the important public transactions of
his time, he neither was nor affected to be the leader of a
party. In private he was an agreeable companion, remarkable for
his cheerfulness and kindliness of disposition. He was never
married. Beyond the statement that he was of low stature there
is no description of his personal appearance extant, nor is
there any known portrait of him.
The greater part of his writings consists of Latin poems.
Dr. M’Crie whose Life of Andrew Melville was published in 1824,
in 2 vols. 8vo, has given the names of all his works, printed
and left in manuscript, and there is none of any great extent
among them. The subjoined list has been made up from his
account.
Carmen Mosis, – Andrea Melvino Scoto Avetore. Basileae.
1573, 8vo. This, his earliest publication, consisted of a
poetical paraphrase of the Song of Moses, and a chapter of the
Book of Job, with several small poems, all in Latin.
STEFANISKION.
Ad Scotiae Regem, habitum in Coronatione Reginae. Edinburgh,
1590, 4to.
Carmina ex Doctissimis Poëtis Selecta, inter quos,
quaedam Geo. Buchanani et And. Melvini inseruntur. 1590.
8co.
Principis Scoti-Britannorum Natalia. Edinburgi. 1594, 4to.
Theses Theologicae de libero arbitrio. Edinburgi, 1597,
4to. These, Dr. M’Crie thinks, might be the Theses of
some of his students.
Schlastica Diatriba de Rebus Divinis ad Anquirendam et
inveniendam veritatem, ŕ candidatis S. Theol. habenda (Deo
volente) ad d. xxvi. et xxvii. Julij in Scholis Theologicis
Acad. Andreannae, Spiritu Sancto Praeside. D. And. Melvino S.
Theol. D. et illius facultatis Decano
svxntnsig
moderante. Edinburgi. Execudebat Robertus Waldegraue Typographus
Regius 1599. 4to. pp. 16
Gathelus, seu Fragmentum de origine Gentis Scotorum. This
poem was first printed along with ‘Jonstoni Inscriptiones
Historicae Regum Scotorum.’ Amestel. 1602.
Pro supplici Evangelicorum Ministrorum in Anglia –
Apologia, sive Anti-Tami-Cami-Categoria. 1604. A petition had
been presented to the king by the English Puritans, commonly
called, from the number of names attached ti it, the
millenary petition, for redress of their grievances, which
was opposed by the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. This
satirical poem, attacking the resolutions of the universities,
was written by Melville, in defence of the petitioners, and
circulated extensively in England.
Select Psalms turned into Latin verse, and printed
(probably at London while he was in the Tower) in 1609.
Nescimus Quid Vesper Serus Vehat. Satyra Menippaea
Vincentii Liberii Holandii. 1619. 4to. Another edition 1620.
Ascribed to Melville.
Viri Clarissimi A. Melvini Musae et P. Adamsoni Vita et
Palinodia et Celsae commissionis – descriptio. 1620, 4to, pp.
67. John Adamson, afterwards principal of the college of
Edinburgh, was employed in collecting Melville’s fugitive poems,
but it is uncertain whether he or Calderwood was the publisher
of the Musae. Melville himself was not consulted in the
publication of them, nor was he, says Dr. M’Crie, the author, as
has often been inaccurately stated, of the tracts added to them.
De Adiaphoris. Scoti
tou tucoutos
Apholismi. Anno Domini 1622. 12mo. pp. 20.
Andreae Melvini Scotiae Topographia. This poem is prefixed
to the Theatrum Scotiae in Bleau’s Atlas.
Melville contributed largely to a collection of poems, by
Scotchmen and Zealanders, ‘In Obitum Johannis Wallasii Scoto
Belgae. Ludg.Batav. 1603' 4to. There are two poems by him in
John Johnston’s ‘Sidera Veteris Ćvi,’ p. 33. Salmurii, 1611. He
has also verses prefixed to ‘Comment. in Apost. Acta M. Joannis
Malcolmi Scoti. – Middleb.’ 1615.
Among his works in MS. Dr. M’Crie enumerates the
following:
D. Andreae Melvini epistolae Londino e turri carceris ad
Jacobum Melvinum Nouocastri exulantem scriptae, cum ejusdem
Jacobi nonnullis ad eundem. Ammin supra millesimü sexcentessimo
octavo, nono, decimo, undecimo. Item Ecclesiae Scoticanae Oratio
Apologetica ad Regem An. 1610, mense Aprilis. This volume is in
the library of the university of Edinburgh. It brings down the
correspondence between Melville and his nephew, Mr. James
Melville, till the end of the year 1613.
Six Letters from Andrew Melville to Robert Dury at Leyden.
In Bibl. Jurid. Edin. M. 6. 9. num. 42.
Fioretum Archiepiscopale; id est, errores Pontificii,
assertiones temerariae, et hyperbolicae interpretationes. Ibid.
num. 47. They are extracted from Archbishop Adamson’s academical
prelections at St. Andrews, in Melville’s handwriting, and
subscribed by him.
Paraphrasis Epistolae ad Hebraeos Andreae Melvini (Harl.
MSS. num. 6947-9); a metrical paraphrase of the epistle to the
Hebrews.
A. Melvinus in cap. 4 Danielis. In bibl. Col. S. Trinit.
Dublin.
There are verses by him, in his own handwriting, among the
Sempill papers, and in a collection of Letters from Learned Men
to James VI. His biographer says that copies of Melville’s large
‘Answer to Downham’s Sermon’ were at one time not uncommon. Four
letters from Melville to David Hume of Godscroft are prefixed to
the ‘Lusus Poetici’ of the latter.
The manuscript of ‘Commentarius in Divinam Pauli Epistolam
ad Romanos, auctore Andrea Melvino Scoto,’ in possession of Mr.
David Laing, Librarian to the Writers to the Signet, was
published for the first time, with an English translation, in
one of the volumes issued by the Wodrow Society, under the
editorial care of the Rev. David Dickson, D.D., minister of St.
Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh.
MELVILLE, JAMES,
an eminent divine and scholar, nephew of the preceding, was the
son of Richard Melville of Baldovy, minister of Maryton,
Forfarshire, by his spouse, Isabel Scrimgeour, and was born July
25, 1556. After receiving his school education at Logie and
Montrose, he was, in November 1571, sent to St. Leonard’s
college, St. Andrews, where he studied for four years. It is
recorded of him that, first when he attended the lectures, which
were delivered in Latin, he was so mortified at not being able
to understand them, that he burst into tears before the whole
class; which induced his regent, or professor, William Collace,
to give h im private instructions in the Latin language. His
father intended him for the law, but James had a strong
predilection for the church, and as a practical intimation of
his desires, he composed a sermon, and placed it carefully in
one of the Commentaries which his father was in the habit of
consulting. The stratagem succeeded; and on the arrival of his
uncle, Mr. Andrew Melville, from the continent, he was put under
his charge, when he revised, under his directions, both his
classical and philosophical education. He accompanied his uncle
to Glasgow, in October 1574, on his becoming principal of that
university, and in the following year James Melville was elected
one of the regents, as the professors were then called. He was
the first regent in Scotland who read the Greek authors to his
class in the original language. In 1577 he was appointed teacher
of mathematics, logic, and moral philosophy, at Glasgow; and
while he continued in this capacity, having strictly admonished
the afterwards celebrated Mark Alexander Boyd for his
irregularities, he was assaulted by him and his cousin,
Alexander Cunninghame, a relation of the earl of Glencairn, for
which Cunninghame was obliged, bareheaded and barefooted, to
crave pardon publicly.
When Andrew Melville was translated to the New college of
St. Andrews in December 1580, he took along with him his nephew,
who was admitted professor of the oriental languages there. He
also divided with his uncle the duty of preaching in the town
during the vacancy in the parish church. Amid all the
difficulties which Andrew Melville had to encounter, he found an
able and useful coadjutor in his nephew, upon whom, when the
former, in 1584, fled to England, the management of the affairs
of the college chiefly devolved. He taught theology from his
uncle’s chair, besides continuing his own lectures, and
undertaking the management of the revenues of the college and
the board of the students. In May of that year, after the
parliament had decreed the overthrow of the presbyterian form of
church government, Archbishop Adamson of St. Andrews obtained a
warrant for James Melville’s apprehension, for corresponding
with his uncle, of which being apprised in time, he escaped to
Dundee, whence he proceeded, in the disguise of a shipwrecked
seaman, in an open boat to Berwick. He was soon after joined by
his wife, who was a daughter of John Dury, minister of
Edinburgh. Being invited by the earls of Angus and Mar, then in
exile at Newcastle, to go and preach to them, he at first
refused, because, as he says himself, he was not entered in the
ministry, neither was he of any experience of knowledge in their
matters, being but a young man brought up in the schools, and
therefore had resolved to keep his own calling. The truth was,
however, that he was afraid to have anything to do with them,
being the king’s rebels, and not knowing their cause well and
disposition of heart. (Diary, p. 120). On reaching
Newcastle, on his way to London, he was persuaded to remain, and
accordingly entered on his ministerial labours. While with the
banished lords he drew up a letter and order of discipline for
their guidance, and at their request an account of the abuses
and corruption of the kirk and commonweal of Scotland; also a
letter to the ministers in Scotland who had subscribed to the
supremacy of the king and the bishops, all of which will be
found in Calderwood (vol. iv.) In February 1585, on the exiled
lords proceeding to London, he returned to Berwick, where he had
left his wife, who had there borne a son, and soon after
followed the former to the capital. After the taking of the
castle of Stirling, he returned, in the ensuing November, to
Scotland, and in March 1586, resumed the duties of his
professorship at St. Andrews, when he occupied himself in
setting the college affairs in order.
James Melville’s zeal in behalf of the church, though less
impetuous than that of his uncle, was equally uniform and
consistent; and he could, when occasion required, evince similar
intrepidity. In the beginning of April 1586, he preached the
opening sermon at the meeting of the synod of Fife, in the
course of which, turning towards Archbishop Adamson, who was
present, he charged him with attempting the overthrow of the
presbyterian church, and exhorted the brethren to cut off so
corrupt a member from among them. The archbishop was in
consequence excommunicated, but he retaliated by excommunicating
both Andrew and James Melville, and other obnoxious ministers,
in return. For their share in this transaction, uncle and nephew
were summoned before the king, who commanded the former to
confine himself beyond the Tay, and the latter to remain within
his college.
In July 1586, James Melville became, at the solicitation
of the people, minister of Anstruther, to which were conjoined
the adjoining parishes of Pittenweem, Abercrombie, and Kilrenny.
Having some time after succeeded in procuring a disjunction of
these parishes, and provided a minister for each of them, he
undertook the charge of Kilrenny alone, where, besides building
a manse, he purchased the right to the vicarage and tithe-fish,
for the support of himself and his successors, and paid the
salary of a schoolmaster. He likewise maintained an assistant to
perform the duties of the parish, as he was frequently engaged
in the public affairs of the church. Some years afterwards he
printed for the use of his people a catechism, which cost him
five hundred merks.
In 1588 he was the means of affording shelter and relief
to a number of distressed Spaniards who had belonged to the
Armada destined for the invasion of England, but whose division
of the squadron, after being driven to the northward, had been
wrecked on the Fair Isle, where they had suffered the
extremities of hunger and fatigue, and had at last taken refuge
off the harbour of Anstruther.
At the opening of the General Assembly at Edinburgh, in
August 1590, he preached a sermon from 1 Thess. v. 12, 13. in
which, after insisting on the necessity of maintaining the
strictest discipline, he exhorted his hearers to a more zealous
support of the presbyterian establishment, and recommended a
supplication to the king for a full and free assembly.
In the spring of 1594 he was unjustly suspected at court
of having furnished the turbulent earl of Bothwell with money
collected for the protestants of Geneva, and at the meeting of
the Assembly in May of that year, some of the brethren thought
that as he was a suspected person he should not be sent as one
of the commissioners from the church to the king as usual; on
which he stood up and said that he had often been employed on
commissions against his will, but now, even for the reason
alleged, he would request it as a benefit from the brethren that
his name should be on the list, that he might have an
opportunity of clearing himself, and if they declined sending
him, he was determined to go to court himself, to see if any one
had aught to say against him. He was accordingly included among
the commissioners. On their arrival at Stirling, where the king
was, they were most graciously received. After they had executed
their business with the king, James Melville stepped forward and
requested to be informed if his majesty had anything to lay to
his charge? The king replied that he had nothing to say against
him more than against the rest, except that he found his name on
every commission. He answered that he thanked God that this was
the case, for therein he was serving god, his kirk, and the king
publicly, and as for any private, unlawful, or undutiful
practice, if there were any that had traduced him to his majesty
as being guilty of such, he requested that they should be made
to show their faces when he was there to answer for himself. But
no reply was made. After this the king took him into his
cabinet, and having dismissed his attendants, conversed with him
alone on a variety of topics with the greatest affability and
familiarity. He sent his special commendations to his uncle, Mr.
Andrew Melville, and declared that he looked upon both of them
as faithful and trusty subjects. “So,” says James Melville, “of
the strange working of God, I that came to Stirling the traitor,
returned to Edinburgh a great courtier, yea, a cabinet
councillor.” (Diary, p. 212.)
With his uncle and two other ministers he accompanied the
king, in October 1594, in his expedition to the north, against
the popish lords, and when the royal forces were about to
disperse, for want of pay, James Melville was sent to Edinburgh
and other principal towns, with letters from the king and the
ministers, to raise contributions for their aid. In this service
he was successful. For ten years subsequently, the life of James
Melville was principally distinguished by his zealous and
unwearied opposition to the designs of the court for the
re-establishment of episcopacy, which he early had the
discernment to detect.
He went with his uncle to London in September 1606, when,
with six other ministers, they were invited thither to confer
with the king, as was the pretext, as to the measures best
calculated to promote the tranquility of the church. After the
committal of Andrew Melville to the tower, (see above) James was
ordered to leave London in six days and confine himself to
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and ten miles round it. Previous to his
departure he made an unsuccessful attempt to obtain some
relaxation of his uncle’s confinement. He left London 2d July
1607, and went by sea to Newcastle, and during his residence in
that town several attempts were made to gain him over to the
support of the king’s views; but neither promises nor threats
could shake his attachment to presbyterianism. He even rejected
a bishopric, which was offered to him by Sir William, or, as Dr.
M’Crie calls him, Sir John Anstruther, in the name of the king.
Having been a widower for about two years, he took for his
second wife, while in exile at Newcastle, the daughter of the
vicar of Berwick. He was afterwards ordered to remove to
Carlisle, and subsequently to Berwick, where he wrote his
‘Apology for the Church of Scotland,’ which was not published
till thirty-one years after his death, under the title of
‘Ecclesiae Scoticanae libellus supplex Apologeticus.’
Although many efforts were made for his release, it was
not till 1614 that he obtained leave to return to Scotland, but
he had not proceeded far on his way home when he was taken
suddenly ill, and he was with difficulty conveyed back to
Berwick, where he died the same year.
His works, a list of which is given in one of the notes to
Dr. M’Crie’s Life of Andrew Melville, may be mentioned as
follows:
In 1592, as he says himself, he “first put in print sum of
his poesie; to wit, the Description of the Spainyarts Naturall,
out of Julius Scaliger, with sum Exhortationes for warning of
kirk and countrey.”
His Catechism was published under the title of “A
Spirituall Propine of a Pastour to his People. Heb. 5. 12.”
Edinburgh, 1598, 4to. Pp. 127.
A poem, called ‘The Black Bastill, or a Lamentation of the
Kirk of Scotland, compiled by Mr. James Melville, sometime
minister at Anstruther, and now confyned in England,’ was
printed in 1611.
His ‘Diary,’ printed for the Bannatyne Club in 1829, one
vol. 4to, contains much curious information relative to the
ecclesiastical and literary history of Scotland between the
years 1555 and 1600. The MS. is preserved in the Advocates’
Library. New and improved edition, published by the Wodrow
Society, with Supplement, &c.
A MS. volume in the Advocates’ Library, deposited by the
Rev. William Blackie, minister of Yetholm, contains poems in the
Scottish language by James Melville, in the handwriting of the
author. They appear, says Dr. M’Crie, to have been all written
during his banishment. The greater part of them are expressive
of his feelings on the overthrow of the liberties of the church
of Scotland, and the imprisonment and banishment of his uncle.
Dr. M’Crie thinks that another MS. in the same library,
entitled ‘History of the Declining Age of the Church of
Scotland,’ bringing down the history of that period till 1610,
was also composed by James Melville.
The letters which passed between Andrew Melville and his
nephew, from 1608 to 1613, as stated in the account of the MSS.
of the former, are preserved in the Library of the College of
Edinburgh.
MELVILLE, ROBERT,
an eminent military officer and antiquarian, was the son of the
minister of the parish of Monimail, Fifeshire, where he was born
October 12, 1723. In 1744 he entered the army, and served in
Flanders till the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. IN 1756 he
obtained the rank of major in the 38th regiment, then
in Antigua, and soon after he was employed in active service,
particularly in the invasion of Guadaloupe, for which he was
created lieutenant-colonel; and in 1760 was appointed governor
of that island. Shortly after, he proceeded as second in command
with Lord Rollo to the capture of Dominica. In 1762 he
contributed much to the taking of Martinico, which was followed
by the surrender of the other French islands; and Colonel
Melville, now promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, was
made governor-in-chief of all the captured possessions in the
West Indies. After the general peace he travelled over Europe,
and made numerous observations to ascertain the passage of
Hannibal over the Alps. He also traced the sites of many Roman
camps in Britain, and applied his antiquarian knowledge to the
improvement of the modern art of war in several inventions. He
was a fellow of the royal and antiquarian societies, and had the
degree of LL.D. conferred on him by the university of Edinburgh.
A treatise of his, ‘On an Ancient Sword,’ is inserted in the 7th
volume of the Archaeologia. In 1798 he was appointed a full
general, and died unmarried, in 1809.
Memoirs of his own Life by Sir
James Melville of Halhill (pdf)
