BALFOUR,
a very ancient name in Fife, derived from the lands of
Balfour, in the parish of Markinch, formerly belonging
to a family which were long heritable sheriffs of
Fife. Balfour castle was built upon their ancient
possessions, in the vale or strath of the Orr, a
tributary of the Leven, near their confluence. Bal-orr
is the original name. The family of Balfour, according
to Sibbald, possessed these lands as early as the
reign of Duncan the First, (Hist. of Fife, p.
366), and assumed from them their name. The first of
the family in Scotland was Siward, supposed to have
come from Northumberland, in the reign of that
monarch. His son, Osulf, who lived in the time of
Malcolm Canmore, was the father of Si-ward, to whom
King Edgar gave the valley of Orr, that is, Strathor
and Maev, "pro capite Ottar Dani." Siward’s son,
Octred, witnessed a charter of David the First about
1141. He was the father of Sir Michael Balfour, who
had two sons. William, the eldest, was the ancestor of
the Balfours of Balfour. About the year 1196 Sir
Michael de Balfour obtained a charter from William the
Lion, dated at Forfar. In 1229, in the fifteenth year
of the reign of Alexander the Second, his son, Sir
lngelramus de Balfour, sheriff of Fife, was witness to
a charter of confirmation by that monarch to the
monastery of Aberbrothock, of a mortification to them
by Philip de Moubray, ‘De uno plenario tofto in
Innerkeithing.’ His son Henry was witness to another
confirmation by the same monarch to that monastery of
a donation by Malcolm earl of Angus, ‘De terris in
territorio de Kermuir.’ He was the father of John de
Balfour, who, with many of the barons of Fifeshire,
fell at the sack of Berwick by Edward the First, 80th
March, 1296. His son, Sir Duncan de Balfour, adhered
to the fortunes of Sir William Wallace, and was slain
12th June 1298 at the battle of Blackironside, where
the English, under Sir Aymer de Valence, earl of
Pembroke, were defeated with great slaughter. Amongst
others present at the parliament held at Cambuskenneth,
6th November 1314, were David de Balfour and Malcolm
de Balfour, as their seals are appended to the general
sentence by that parliament of forfeiture of all the
rebels. In the parliament held at Ayr in 1315 were Sir
Michael de Balfour, sheriff of Fife, and David de
Balfour; their seals are appended to the act of that
parliament for settling the crown. (ibid. pp.
366, 367.) Sir Michael died in 1344, and in 1375, the
fifth year of the reign of Robert the Second. his
eldest son and successor, Sir John Balfour of Balfour
died, leaving an only daughter, Margaret, who married
Sir Robert de Bethune, ‘familiaris regis Roberti,’ as
he is styled. From them the present proprietor of
Balfour, J. E. Drinkwater Bethune, Esq., is descended.
Several of the other Fife heritors of the name of
Bethune, as the Bethunes of Bandon, of Tarvet, of
Blebo, of Clatto, of Craigfudie, and of Kingask, were
also descended from them. Of the most remarkable
personages belonging to the Bethunes of Balfour were
James Bethune, archbishop of Glasgow and chancellor of
Scotland; his nephew, Cardinal Bethune; and the nephew
of the cardinal, James Bethune, archbishop of Glasgow.
(See BETHUNE, surname of.) In the house of Balfour are
original portraits of Cardinal Bethune, and of Mary
Bethune, celebrated for her beauty, one of the queen’s
four Maries.
Besides many illustrious descendants in the
female line the surname of Balfour has been ennobled
by three peerages, namely, the baronies of Burleigh
and Kilwinning in Scotland, and of Balfour of
Clonawley in Ireland. In Sir Robert Sibbald’s time, at
the beginning of the eighteenth century, there were a
greater number of heritors in Fife named Balfour than
of any other surname. His list contains no less than
thirteen landed proprietors in that county of the
name, viz., the Balfours of Burleigh, of Fernie, of
Dunbog, of Denmylne, of Grange, of Forret, of
Randerston, of Radernie, of Northhank, of Balbirnie,
of Halbeath, of Lawlethan, and of Banktown. (Hist,
of Fife, App. No. 11.) In his Memoria
Balfouriana, he says the family of Balfour is
divided into several branches, of which those of
Balgarvie, Mountwhanney, Denmylne, Ballovy, Carriston,
and Kirkton are the principal.
Sir John Balfour of Balfour, already mentioned
as the father of Margaret the wife of Sir Robert de
Bethune, had an only brother, Adam, who married the
granddaughter of Macduff, brother of Colbane, earl of
Fife, and obtained with her the lands of Pittencrieff.
He died of wounds received at the battle of Durham, in
1346, and was buried in Melrose abbey. His son, Sir
Michael Balfour, was brought up by his kinsman Duncan,
twelfth earl of Fife, who in 1353 gave in exchange for
Pittencrieff the much more valuable lands of
Mountwhanney. The countess Isabella, daughter of earl
Duncan, also bestowed many grants of land upon her
"cousin" Sir Michael, who, at her death without issue,
should have succeeded as her nearest heir, but the
regent Albany, the brother of her second husband,
obtained the earldom in virtue of a disposition in his
favour by the countess. Sir Michael died about 1385.
His eldest son, Michael Balfour of Mountwhanney, had a
son, Sir Lawrence, of Strathor and Mountwhanney, who,
by his wife Marjory, had three sons: George, his heir;
John of Balgarvie, progenitor, by his son James, of
the Balfours of Denmylne, Forret, Randerston, Torry
and Boghall, Kinloch, &c.; and David Balfour of
Carraldstone or Carriston. The latter family
terminated in an heiress, Isabel Balfour, who married
a younger son of the fourth Lord Seton, ancestor of
the Setons of Carriston.
James Balfour, son of Sir John Balfour of
Balgarvy, in 1451 obtained from King James the Second
the lands of Denmylne, in the parish of Abdie, and
county of Fife, originally belonging to the earls of
Fife, and which fell to the crown at the forfeiture of
Murdoch duke of Albany. This James Balfour was slain
at the siege of Roxburgh, soon after the death of
James the Second, in 1460, as appears from a charter,
granted by James the Third, in favour of John Balfour
his son, who married Christian Sibbald, daughter of
Peter Sibbald of Rankeillor, and fell with his
sovereign, James the Fourth, at the battle of Flodden,
in 1513. Patrick his son was the father of Alexander
Balfour, whose son, Sir Michael Balfour, was knighted
at Holyroodhouse, 26th March 1630, by George Viscount
Dupplin, chancellor of Scotland, under a special
warrant from Charles the First, and the same year in
which his son Sir James received a similar honour. Sir
Michael was comptroller of the household to Charles
the First, and was equally distinguished for his
military courage and civil prudence. By his wife,
Jane, daughter of James Durham of Pitkerrow he had
five sons and nine daughters, seven of whom were
honourably married.
Of the eldest son, Sir James Balfour of Kinnaird,
the celebrated annalist and antiquary, a life is given
below.
The second son, Alexander, styled of Lumbarnie,
was a minister of the gospel, a man, says Sibbald, not
more respected for the dignity of his appearance than
for the wisdom and piety of his life.
Michael Balfour of Randerston, the third son,
was eminently distinguished for his experience and
skill in agricultural matters.
Sir David Balfour of Forret, the fourth son, was
admitted advocate 29 January 1650. In 1674 he was
knighted, and nominated a judge in the court of
session. He took his seat on the bench with the title
of Lord Forret. The following year he was appointed a
judge of the court of justiciary. In 1685 he was
elected a commissioner for the county of Fife to the
parliament which met that year, chosen one of the
lords of the articles, and appointed a commissioner
for the plantation of kirks. He died shortly after the
Revolution. (Haig and Brunton’s History of the
Senators of the College of Justice, p. 402.) His
second son, James Balfour, succeeded to the lands of
Randerston.
A subsequent proprietor of the estate of Forret,
probably a descendant of this learned judge, seems to
have entertained a design of erecting a convenient
place of refreshment for the members of the college of
justice at Edinburgh; for in a note to Kay’s
Portraits (vol. i. p. 22) we find the following
passage, which is curious as marking the habits of the
members of the bar about the middle of the eighteenth
century: "In the minutes of the Faculty of Advocates,
13th February 1741, there is an entry relative to a
petition presented to the Dean and Faculty by James
Balfour of Forret, stating that he intended to build a
coffeehouse adjoining to the west side of the
Parliament House, ‘for the conveniency and
accommodation of the members of the college of
justice, and of the senators of the court,’ and that
he was anxious for the patronage of the society. He
also mentioned that he had petitioned the judges, who
had unanimously approved of the project. A remit was
made to the curators of the library, and to Messrs.
Cross and Barclay, to consider the petition, and
report whether it should be granted; but nothing
appears to have been done by the committee." The
estate of Forret, which is in the parish of Logie,
anciently belonged to the Forrets of that ilk, a son
of which house, who had been vicar of Dollar, suffered
martyrdom on the Castlehill of Edinburgh in 1538. (See
FORRET, surname of.) It is now the property of a
family of the name of Mackenzie.
Of Sir Michael’s youngest son, Sir Andrew
Balfour, doctor of medicine, the distinguished
naturalist and scholar, a memoir is given below.
The descendants of Sir James Balfour, lyon king
at arms, continued long to possess the lands of
Denmylne. The family is now entirely extinct in the
male line, and is represented by Lord Belhaven as heir
of line. (See BELHAVEN, lord.) The complete extinction
of this family is the more remarkable, as it is stated
by Sir Robert Sibbald that Sir Michael Balfour lived
to see three hundred of his own issue, while Sir
Andrew, his youngest son, saw six hundred descendants
from his father. The ruins of the old church of Abdie,
on the western shore of the loch of Lindores, still
contain several monuments of this family.
About the close of the seventeenth century a
fatal duel occurred between Sir Robert Balfour of
Denmylne, and Sir James Macgill of Lindores, who were
near neighbours and intimate friends. Sir Robert was a
young man in his prime; Sir James was much more
advanced in years. Attended by their servants, they
had both gone to Perth on a market day, when Sir
Robert unfortunately quarrelled and fought with a
Highland gentleman on the street. Sir James came up at
the time and parted the combatants. In doing this, it
is said, he made some observations as to the
superiority of the Highlander, which offended Sir
Robert, who, chafed and angry, offered next to fight
his friend. They returned home together on the evening
of a long summer day. When at Car-pow they dismounted,
gave their servants their horses, and, ascending by
the road a considerable way up the hills, they stopped
at a spot on the slope of the Ochils where a small
cairn of stones, locally known by the name of Sir
Robert’s Prap, was afterwards raised to commemorate
the event. They there drew their swords. A shepherd,
who was sitting on a higher part of the hills, is said
not only to have seen what took place, but even to
have overheard what passed between them. It is said
that Sir James Macgill, who is alleged to have been by
far the more expert swordsman of the two, made various
attempts to be reconciled to his angry friend, and
even after they were engaged, conducted himself for a
time merely on the defensive. But from the fury with
which Sir Robert fought, he was forced to change his
plan, and to attack in turn. The consequence was that
Sir Robert was run through the body, and died on the
spot, when Sir James mounted and rode off, leaving his
corpse to the care of the servants. It is added that
Sir James immediately afterwards proceeded to London,
where he obtained a pardon from King Charles the
Second. Mr. Small, in his Roman Antiquities, tells a
foolish and very improbable story of Sir James being
obliged by the king to fight an Italian swordsman then
in London, who had previously acted the bully, but who
also fell beneath the skilful arm of the Scottish
knight. (Leighton’s Hist., of Fife, vol. ii. p.
178.) The fate of the last baronet of Denmylne is
equally remarkable. He set out on horseback from his
own house to pay a visit and neither man nor horse was
ever again heard of. It is supposed that he perished
in some of the lochs or marshes with which Fife then
abounded. Shortly after his disappearance Denmylne was
purchased by General Scott of Balcomie, the father of
the duchess of Portland and the viscountess Canning.
These lands were subsequently bought from her grace,
when marchioness of Titchfield, by the brother of the
present proprietor Thomas Watt, Esq. of Denmylne.
Another branch of the house of Balfour possesses
the lands of Balbirnie in the parish of Markinch,
Fifeshire. During the reign of Malcolm the Fourth, the
lands of Balbirnie belonged to Orm the son of Hugh,
abbot of Abernethy, the ancestor of the family of
Abernethy. (See ABERNETHY, surname of, ante, p.
14.) He exchanged them with Duncan earl of Fife, the
charter being conferred by William the Lion. Sibbald
says that anciently these lands belonged to a family
who took their name from them, and were designed
Balbirnie of that ilk. About the end of the sixteenth
or beginning of the seventeenth century, the lands of
Balbirnie were purchased from the Balbirnies, who held
them under the earls of Fife, by George Balfour, son
of Martin Balfour of Dovan and Lalethan, the ancestor
of the present proprietor. This Martin Balfour was, in
1596, served heir to his grandfather David Balfour, in
the lands of Dovan and Lalethan. He was descended from
Peter Balfour, a younger son of Balfour of Balfour,
who, having married a daughter of Thomas Sibbald of
Balgonie, obtained from his father-in-law a charter of
the lands of Dovan in the reign of Robert the Third.
The present proprietor of Bulbirnie seems, therefore,
to divide with Balfour of Fernie, the representation
of the ancient family of Balfour of Balfour.
BALFOUR of BURLEIGH,
Lord, an attainted barony in the peerage of Scotland,
formerly held by a branch of the Fife family of
Balfour. In 1445—6 Sir John Balfour of Balgarvie,
(from the Celtic Bal-garbh, the rough town or
dwelling,) had a grant of the lands of Burleigh in
Kinross-shire, which were erected into a free barony
in his favour, by King James the Second, in the ninth
year of his reign. He had two sons, Michael and James.
The latter is said to have been the ancestor of the
Balfours of Denmylne, Forret, and other families of
the name. The eldest son, Michael, was the father of
Sir Michael Balfour designed of Burleigh, who, besides
other charters, had one of the lands of easter and
wester Balgarvie, on the 16th February 1505—6, and
another to himself and Margaret Musshet his wife, of
the lands of Schanwell, 28th May 1512.
His grandson, Michael Balfour of Burleigh, was
served heir to his father in 1542. He had a charter of
half of the lands of Kinloch and office of coroner of
Fife, 18th June 1566. He married Christian, daughter
of John Bethune of Creich, and had an only child, his
sole heiress, Margaret Balfour, who married Sir James
Balfour of Pittendriech and Mountwhanney, lord
president of the court of session, whose life is given
below. Sir James’ eldest brother, Michael Balfour of
Mountwhanney, commendator of Melrose, was the
progenitor of the Balfours of Trenaby, in Orkney.
Sir James had six daughters and three sons. The eldest
son, Sir Michael Balfour of Burleigh, had a charter of
the lands of Nethertown of Auchinhuffis in Banffshire,
28th October 1577, and another of the barony of
Burleigh, 29th October 1606. By James the Sixth, he
was honoured with the title of Lord Balfour of
Burleigh, by letters patent, bearing date at Royston,
in England, 7th August 1606, Sir Michael being then
James’ ambassador to the duke of Tuscany and the duke
of Lorraine. (Sibbald’s Hist. of page 279.) He
was created a lord of parliament under the same title
at Whitehall 10th July 1607, without any mention of
heirs in the creation. (Carmichael’s Tracts.)
His lordship was subsequently sworn of the privy
council. On 7th Sept. 1614, a charter was granted to
Michael, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, of the barony of
Kilwinning, with the title of Lord Kilwinning, to him
and his heirs and assigns whatever. (Douglas’
Peerage, vol. i. page 180.) His lordship married
first, Margaret Adam son, and secondly, Margaret,
daughter of Lundie of Lundie, by whom he had a
daughter Margaret, who succeeded him as baroness
Balfour of Burleigh. She married Robert Arnot, the son
of Sir Robert Arnot of Fernie, chamberlain of Fife.
This Robert Arnot assumed on his marriage the name of
Baifour, and had the title of Lord Burleigh, in virtue
of a letter from the king. At the meeting of the
Scottish parliament in 1640, the estates, in
consequence of the absence of a commissioner from his
majesty, appointed Lord Burleigh their president, and
he was continued in that office in 1641. He was also
one of the commissioners for negotiating the treaty of
peace with England in 1640 and 1641, and in the latter
year was one of the privy councillors constituted by
parliament. During Montrose’s wars, he was actively
engaged on the side of the parliament, and seems to
have acted in the north as a general of the forces. In
September 1644 the marquis of Montrose, with an army
of about two thousand men, approached Aberdeen, and
summoned it to surrender, but the magistrates, after
advising with Lord Burleigh, who then commanded in the
town a force nearly equal in number to the assailants,
refused to obey the summons, upon which a battle
ensued within half-a-mile of the town, on the 12th of
that month, in which Burleigh was defeated. He was
also one of the committee of parliament attached to
the army under General Baillie, which, through the
dissensions of its leaders, was totally routed by the
troops of Montrose on the bloody field of Kilsyth 15th
August 1645. He opposed the "engagement" to march into
England for the rescue of King Charles, and was one of
those who effectually dissuaded Cromwell from the
invasion of Scotland. In 1649, under the act for
putting the kingdom in a posture of defence, Lord
Burleigh was one of the colonels for the county of
Fife, and the same year he was nominated one of the
commissioners of the treasury and exchequer. He died
at Burleigh 10th August 1663. By his wife, who
predeceased him in June 1639, he had four daughters
and one son. Jean, the eldest daughter, married, in
1628, David, second earl of Wemyss, and died 10th
November 1649, leaving one daughter, Jean, countess of
Angus and Sutherland. Margaret, the second daughter,
became the wife of Sir James Crawford of Kilbirnie,
without issue. Isabel, the third daughter, married
Thomas, first Lord Ruthven, and had issue. The
youngest daughter, whose name is not mentioned,
married her cousin, Arnot of Fernie.
John Balfour, third Lord Balfour of Burleigh,
spent his younger years in France, where he was
wounded. On his return home, on passing through
London, he married, early in 1649, without his
father’s consent, Isabel, daughter of Sir William
Balfour of Pitcullo, lieutenant of the tower of
London. His father, with the view of having the
marriage annulled, got it proposed, in a general way,
to the General Assembly the same year, but no answer
was given to the application. Lord Burleigh died in
1688, leaving, besides Robert, his heir, two other
sons and six daughters. His second son, John Balfour
of Fernie, was a lieutenant-colonel in the reign of
James the Seventh. He had two sons, Arthur, father of
John Balfour of Fernie, and John, who succeeded by
entail to the estate of Captain William Crawford,
whose name and arms he assumed, and left issue. Henry,
the third son of Lord Burleigh, was styled of Dunbog.
He was a major of dragoons, and one of the
representatives for the county of Fife in the last
parliament of Scotland, in which he warmly opposed the
union. He was the father of Henry Balfour of Dunbog.
Robert, fourth lord Balfour of Burleigh, was, in
1689, appointed one of the commissioners for executing
the office of clerk register. He died in 1713. His
lordship married Lady Margaret Melville, only daughter
of George, first earl of Melville, by whom he had a
son and two daughters. Margaret, the eldest, died
unmarried at Edinburgh 12th March 1769. Mary, the
younger, married in 1714 Brigadier-general Alexander
Bruce of Kennet, and died at Skene in Stirlingshire
7th November 1758, leaving a son and daughter; the
former became a lord of session under the title of
Lord Kennet.
Robert Balfour, fifth Lord Balfour of Burleigh,
was a man of a most daring and desperate character. In
his early youth, while still master of Burleigh, he
fell in love with a girl of inferior rank, whose name
has not been given, and in consequence his father sent
him to the continent, in the hope that travel would
remove the feeling of attachment for her from his
mind. Before setting out he exacted a promise from the
girl, that she would not marry any one in his absence,
declaring that if she did he would put her husband to
death, when he came back. Notwithstanding this threat
she married Henry Stenhouse, a schoolmaster at
Inverkeithing, although not without informing him of
the risk he incurred in taking her. On the return of
the master of Burleigh his first inquiry was after the
girl, and on being informed of her marriage, with two
attendants, he proceeded on horseback directly to the
school of Stenhouse, and calling the unfortunate
schoolmaster to the door, he shot him in the shoulder,
9th April 1707. Stenhouse died of the wound twelve
days after. Young Balfour was tried for the murder in
the High Court of Justiciary 4th August 1709, when his
counsel pleaded in defence that there was no malice
prepense; that the wound had not been in a mortal
place but in the arm, plainly showing that the
intention had been to frighten or correct, not to
kill; and lastly, that the libel had not been that the
wound was deadly, on the contrary it admitted that the
deceased had lived several days after it, and the
prisoner would prove ma-. lum regimen and a
fretful temper as the immediate causes of death.
Notwithstanding this ingenious defence the Jury found
him guilty, and he was sentenced, 29th November, to be
beheaded 6th January 1710; but a few days before that
date he escaped from prison by exchanging clothes with
his sister, who was extremely like him. (Maclaurin’s
Criminal
Trials.)
He
skulked for some time in the neighbourhood of Burleigh
Castle, Kinross-shire, and an ash tree, hollow in the
trunk, was long pointed out as his place of shelter
and concealment. From having been often the place of
his retreat, it bore the name of Burleigh’s Hole.
After sustaining the ravages of the weather for more
than a century, it was completely blown down in 1822.
On the death of his father in 1713, the title devolved
on him, and the next thing heard of him is his
appearance at the meeting of Jacobites at Lochmaben,
29th May 1714, when the Pretender’s health was
publicly drunk by them at the Cross on their knees,
Lord Burleigh denouncing damnation against all who
would not drink it. (Rae’s History of the
Rebellion, p. 49.) He engaged in the rebellion of
1715, for which he was attainted by act of parliament,
and his title and estate, which then yielded six
hundred and ninety-seven pounds a-year, forfeited to
the crown. He died without issue in 1757. The
representation of the family of Balfour of Burleigh is
claimed by Bruce of Kennet; also, by Balfour of Fernie.
Sir James Balfour, knight, the second son of Sir
James Balfour of Pittendriech, by Margaret his wife,
only child and heir of Michael Balfour of Burleigh,
Esq., was created by James the Sixth in 1619 a peer of
Ireland, under the title of Lord Balfour, baron of
Clonawley, in the county of Fermanagh. His lordship
died October 1634, when the title appears to have
become extinct. He was buried at St. Anne’s,
Black-friars, London. From his brother, William
Balfour, who settled in Ireland, are descended the
family of Townley-Balfour of Townleyhall, in the
county of Louth.
The John Balfour of Burley of Sir Walter Scott’s
novel of Old Mortality, was usually designed of
Kinloch. He was the principal actor in the murder of
Archbishop Sharp. His estate was forfeited, and a
reward of ten thousand marks offered for himself. He
fought both at Drumclog and at Bothwell Bridge, and is
said to have afterwards taken refuge in Holland, where
he offered his services to the prince of Orange. He is
generally supposed to have died at sea on his voyage
back to Scotland, immediately previous to the
Revolution. There are strong presumptions, however,
for believing that he never left Scotland, but found
an asylum in the parish of Roseneath, Dumbartonshire,
under the protection of the Argyle family, and that
having assumed the name of Salter, his descendants
continued there for many generations. The last of the
race died in 1815. (New Stat. Acc. of Scotland,
article Roseneath.)
We
learn from Schiller’s History of the Siege of Antwerp
from 1570 to 1580, that a Sir Andrew Balfour and his
company of Scots defended that city against the Prince
of Parma. The name seems still to exist in Holland,
for in the Brussels papers of 28th July 1808,
Lieutenant - colonel Balfour de Burleigh is named
Commandant of the troops of the king of the
Netherlands in the West Indies.— (Note 2, B. to
Scott’s Old Mortality.)
BALFOUR, SIR JAMES,
of Pittendriech, an eminent lawyer of the sixteenth
century, was a son of Sir Michael Balfour of
Mountquhanny in the parish of Kilmany, Fife. Being
designed for the church, he studied both divinity and
law, as was usual in those days. His brother David was
one of the murderers of Cardinal Bethune, and he
himself, after the murder, joined the conspirators in
the castle of St. Andrews. On the surrender of the
castle in June 1547, he was put into the same galley
with Knox, and carried prisoner to France. After his
return to Scotland in 1549, he abandoned his former
friends, and denied that he had been in the castle of
St. Andrews or the French galleys at all, for which
Knox has severely denounced him in his History. He was
appointed official of the archbishop of St. Andrews
within the archdeaconry of Lothian; and in 1559, he
gave his active support to the queen regent against
the lords of the congregation, which led Knox to
declare that "of an old professor he had become a new
denier of Christ Jesus and manifest blasphemer of his
eternal verity." (Knox’s History, page 173.)
From this it has been supposed that Balfour had become
a Roman Catholic. He seems to have been, with good
reason, suspected of tampering with some of the
protestant lords, as a boy of his was taken with a
writ which "did open the most secret thing that was
devised in the council, yea, those very things which
were thought to have been known but to very few."
(Ibid. p. 200.) He escaped the search of the
reformers of Fife in February 1560, when the lords of
Wemyss, Seafield and others were taken prison-ers, and
about the same time he was appointed parson of Flisk
in Fifeshire. Shortly after the return of Queen Mary
from France, 12th Nov. 1561, he was nominated an
extraordinary lord of session under the title of Lord
Pittendriech, and two years after, in 1563, he was
made an ordinary lord. In 1564, on the institution of
the Commissary Court at Edinburgh, he became chief
commissary with a salary of four hundred marks. In
July 1565 he was sworn of the privy council. On the
night of Rizzio’s murder, he was with the queen at
Holyroodhouse, and his enemies intended to have hanged
him at the same time, but he made his escape.
(Keith’s Hist. p. 332.) He was subsequently
knighted by the queen, and promoted to the office of
clerk-register, in place of Mr. James Macgill. In 1566
he was one of the commissioners for revising and
publishing the old laws called Regiam Majestatem, &c.,
and the acts of parliament. (Douglas’ Peerage,
vol. i. p. 177.) He is said to have been the original
deviser of the murder of Darnley, to have framed the
bond for mutual support entered into by the
conspirators, and to have prepared the house of the
Kirk of Field, at Edinburgh, which was possessed by
his brother, for the reception of Darnley.
(Chalmers’ Life of Mary, vol. ii. p. 25. —
Laing’s Dissert. vol. ii. p. 37.) It is certain
that on his removal to Edinburgh the unhappy Darnley
was "lodged in the mansion of the provost, or chief
prebendary of the collegiate church of St. Mary in the
Fields, as a place of good air. This house stood
nearly on the site of the present north - west corner
of Drummond Street, as is ascertained from Gordon’s
map of the city of Edinburgh in 1647, where the ruins
are indicated as they existed at that period. It is
said to have been selected by Sir James Balfour,
brother of the provost, and ‘the most corrupt man of
his age,’ (Robertson’s Hist. vol. ii. p. 354,)
as well fitted from its lonely situation for the
intended murder." (Wilson’s Memorials of Edinburgh,
vol. i. p. 78.)
Immediately after that dreadful event, which
took place 9th February 1567, Balfour was openly
accused of having been accessory to it, and a paper of
the following tenor was affixed to the door of the
Tolbooth of Edinburgh, on the night of the 16th of
February: "I, according to the proclamation, have made
inquisition for the slaughter of the king, and do find
the earl of Bothwell, Mr. James Balfour, parson of
Flisk, Mr. David Chambers and black Mr. John
Spence, the principal devisers thereof, and if this be
not true speir at Gilbert Balfour." (Keith’s Hist.
p. 368.) In the beginning of 1567 he had been
appointed deputy governor of Edinburgh castle, under
the earl of Bothwell, who committed to his care the
famous bond, signed by eight bishops, nine earls, and
seven barons, declaring that ambitious and
unscrupulous nobleman guiltless of Darnley’s murder
and a suitable match for the queen, which he
afterwards used with fatal effect against the regent
Morton. According to the enemies of Mary it was to Sir
James Balfour that Bothwell, after Mary’s surrender at
Carberry, sent for the casket said to contain the
letters that formed the alleged evidence of her guilt;
which casket he delivered, but on secret information
furnished by him, the messenger was seized by
the confederated lords, with whom he was at the time
tampering. (Buchanan, b. xviii. p. 51.)
After the imprisonment of Mary, Balfour
surrendered the castle of Edinburgh to the regent
Murray, on the following conditions: first, a pardon
for his share in the king’s murder; secondly, a gift
of the priory of Pittenweem, then held by the regent
in commendam; thirdly, an heritable annuity to
his son out of the rents of the priory of St. Andrews;
and, fourthly, a gift of five hundred pounds to
himself. These terms being fulfilled, the castle was
delivered into the hands of Sir William Kirkaldy of
Grange, who was appointed governor. He was continued
in the privy council by the regent Murray, to please
whom he resigned his office of clerk register, when
Sir James Macgill was re-appointed. For this service,
in December of the same year (1567) Balfour received a
pension of five hundred pounds, and was appointed
president of the court of session. He was present at
the battle of Langside on the side of the regent, and
was instrumental in obtaining the overthrow of his
former benefactress. (Melville’s Memoirs, p.
202.) Seldom long constant to any party, and equally
ungrateful to Murray for the honours conferred upon
him as he had been to his hapless sister, Sir James
Balfour, during the years 1568 and 1569, busily
engaged in intrigues in behalf of Mary, and was, in
consequence, in August of the latter year, apprehended
by the earl of Lennox, for participation in his son’s
murder. He was, however, set at liberty on caution,
but was never brought to trial, having made his peace
with the regent by means of large bribes to his
servants. (Ibid. p. 221.) After the
assassination of the regent in January 1570, he openly
joined the party of the queen. In Bannatyne’s Journal,
under date April 1570, there occurs the following
passage:
"The quenis factione, to wit the Hamiltones,
Argyle, Huntlie, Boyd, Crawford, Ogilbie, and Sir
James Balfoure, remained at Lynlythgow, and there,
after divers consultationes, vnderstanding that the
Englis armie was retired furth of Scottis boundis,
tuke baldness vpon them be oppin proclamatione to set
vp the authoritie of that murtherer and knawin
adultres called the quene, and so all farther
conference betwixt the two parties ceased; for the
lordis that sustened the kingis querrall answerit in
few wordis, that they culd have no farther commoning
with opin and periured traytoris, as they were everie
one. (Bannatyne’s Journal, p. 14.) At the time
Malt-land of Lethington and Kirkaldy of Grange
maintained the castle of Edinburgh for the queen,
Balfour joined them, and his name, with that of
Gilbert and Robert Balfour, occurs in a list of
persons forfeited on the 30th day of August 1571.
(Ibid. p. 258.) By the end of the following year,
he made his peace with the regent Morton, and was a
chief instrument in bringing about the pacification,
at Perth, between the king’s and queen’s party in
January 1573, which, by the submission of all the
queen’s lords, left Kirkaldy and Maitland entirely at
the mercy of their ruthless enemy, Morton. Bannatyne
says he "remaned not in the castle with the rest of
the traytoris, albeit he is als grit a traytor as ony
of thame all. He gave in a long scrole to the lordis
of the articles of the parliament, that he might be
restored to all thingis, &c., whairwith mony sturreth,
and in speciall the bischop of Orknay, now abbot of
Halirudhous, wha protestit for the copie of it; but I
hard no word that it was obteaned. Sindrie scroles
were gewin in vpon the said Sir James declaring his
treassonable dealingis in tymes bypast; nottheles his
dres is made with the regent, and he hes tane him in
his protectione." (Bannatyne’s Journal, p.
440.) He seems to have been at this time governor of
Blackness castle, on the frith of Forth, and to fill
up the measure of his treachery to his former friends,
when Sir William Kirkaldy’s brother, Sir James,
arrived there from France with a supply of money and
stores for the queen’s service, he received him with
due honour and pretended welcome, but the very night
of his guest’s arrival, he placed him in a dungeon
heavily chained, and with the money which Sir James
Kirkaldy had brought from France, departed for
Edinburgh to hand it over to Morton. He had compounded
with the regent for his pardon, and was to have paid
him a large sum of money for his composition; but,
says Bannatyne, "the getting agane the Bracknes, and
also Mr. James Kirkaldie payis that, as is reported;
for it was affirmed that he said to the regent, gif I
can get you as gude (or better) as my compositione,
sall not I be freed thereof; which the regent grantit.
For as I have said, it was alledgit that the said Sir
James had written to Mr. James Kirkaldie, befoir his
cumm ing out of France, to cum to the Blacknes, and
not to cum to the north; becaus that gif the lord
Huntlie had gottin the gold, he wald hald it to
himself, or elis the maist part thereof, and so give
to thame of the castle what he lyked. But howsoever
the mater was, the said Mr. James come and landit at
the Blacknes, a little efter the parliament, with his
cofferis, thinking it had bene sure for him as befoir;
and leist that ony thing suld be knawin, but that it
ware tane perforce, Sir James, or the Captane
Alexander Stewart, had gewin advertisment of the said
James cuming." (Ibid. p. 441.)
The regent Morton, however, was not disposed to
put his trust in a man who had betrayed and deserted
both sides as Balfour had done, and in the following
month of February, a complaint against him and his
brother for the murder of Darnley and other grievous
crimes, which are recited in full by Bannatyne in his
Journal, (pp. 444—455), was read before the lords of
the articles in parliament; in consequence of which he
was obliged to make his escape into France, where he
remained for some years. On the resignation of the
regency by Morton in 1578, he returned to Scotland,
and joined the party who watched for that nobleman’s
destruction. In 1579 Morton recovered his authority,
and Balfour again fled, when the forfeiture of 1571
was re-enacted.
In 1580, after James the Sixth had assumed the
reins of government, Balfour returned to Scotland to
organise a plan for the destruction of Morton. On the
trial of that nobleman he produced the celebrated bond
already mentioned, signed by him and others for the
support of Bothwell, as well as other written evidence
of his guilt, which he had so long preserved for such
an occasion. After Morton’s death he was restored
against the forfeiture of 1579, by act of parliament.
Sir James Balfour is supposed to have died in
January 1583 or 1584. He married Margaret, the
daughter of Michael Balfour of Burleigh and Balgarvie,
by whom he acquired these lands, and from him the
Lords Balfour of Burleigh were descended, as shown in
our account of that family inserted above. He is the
reputed author of the well-known collection of
decisions entitled ‘Balfour’s Practicks, or a System
of the more ancient Law of Scotland,’ a voluminous
work which remained in manuscript until 1754, when it
was published by the Ruddimans, in a folio volume of
684 pages, with a life of Balfour prefixed by Walter
Goodall. This work continued to be used by
practitioners till superseded by Stair’s Institutes.
Lord Hailes observes that Balfour’s work is
interpolated, for it mentions certain acts of
parliament and the names of certain peers that did not
exist till after the death of Balfour. It is very
likely to have been added to after his time.
BALFOUR, SIR JAMES,
of Kinnaird, Bart., an eminent herald, annalist, and
antiquary, eldest son of Sir Michael Balfour of
Denmylne, by his wife, Jane, daughter of James Durham
of Pitkerrow, was born about 1600. He soon displayed a
capacity for study, and a taste for poetry. The
accompanying portrait of him is from an original
picture in the possession of Lord Belhaven.
His youthful efforts in verse were noticed with
commendation by the poet Leach or Leochaeus, in his
Strencae, published in 1626. He had successfully
translated Leach’s Latin poem, Panthea, into
the Scottish vernacular; and Sir Robert Sibbald, who,
in his Memoria Balfouriana, gives an account of
his life and writings, tells us that he had seen a
volume of Latin and Scottish poems, written by
Balfour, not now extant. After some time spent abroad,
Sir James, on his return, devoted himself to the study
of the antiquities of his native country. "It was,
indeed, fortunate for his progress," says Sibbald,
"that several learned men had begun to illustrate the
history of Scotland. Of these, Robert Maule,
commissary of St. Andrews, had engaged in a work
concerning the origin of our nation, while David
Buchanan had applied an accurate criticism to the
older monuments of Scottish story.
Mr. David Hume of Godscroft had undertaken to
refute the objections against the high antiquity of
the nation; the labours of Sir Robert Gordon of
Straloch shed no inconsiderable light on the earlier
history of Scotland; while Robert Johnstone detailed
the transactions of British policy, in conjunction
with those of France, the Netherlands, and Germany,
from the year 1572 to the year 1628. Mr. William
Drummond of Hawthornden recorded the history of the
five Jameses; Mr. Guthry, the events which
characterized the progress of our civil war; and Mr.
Wishart, afterwards bishop of Edinburgh, commemorated
the actions of the celebrated marquis of Montrose. The
geographical delineation of the kingdom had been
greatly advanced by the labours of Timothy Pont, son
of that eminent promoter of letters, Mr. Robert Pont.
Sir Robert Gordon of Straloch, his son James, minister
of Rothiemay, and Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet,
director of the chancery, had likewise contributed
many topographical descriptions, and sundry maps of
the counties.
The right reverend primate, John Spottiswood,
archbishop of St. Andrews, had carried down both the
ecclesiastical and civil history of Scotland, from the
introduction of Christianity, until the death of James
VI.; while the history of the Scottish Church had been
detailed by David Calderwood, from the epoch of the
Reformation to the year 1625." In order to prosecute
the study of heraldry, Balfour repaired to London,
where he became acquainted with Sir Robert Cotton,
also with Sir William Segar, garter king- at - arms,
who obtained from the College of Heralds a highly
honourable testimonial in his favour, signed and
sealed by all the members of that body. He likewise
became known to Roger Dodsworth, and Sir William
Dugdale, to whom he communicated several charters, and
other pieces of information regarding Scottish
ecclesiastical antiquities, which they inserted in
their Monasticon Anglicanum, under the title
Caenobia Scotica, and which Balfour afterwards
expanded into a volume, called Monasticon Scoticum.
Amongst other distinguished persons of his own
country whose friendship he enjoyed, were Drummond of
Hawthornden, Sir Robert Aytoun, and the earl of
Stirling. By the influence of the Viscount Dupplin,
chancellor of Scotland, he was in June 1630 created
lord lyon king-at-arms, having some days previously
been knighted by the king.
In December 1633 he was created a baronet. On
the occasion of the coronation of Charles I. at
Edinburgh that year, Viscount Dupplin was created earl
of Kinnoul; and of this nobleman Sir James in his
Annals tells the following curious anecdote: The king
in 1626 had commanded, by a letter to his privy
council, that the archbishop of St. Andrews should
have precedence of the chancellor; to which the latter
would not submit. "I remember," says Balfour, "that K.
Charles sent me to the lord chancellor on the day of
his coronation, in the morning, to show him that it
was his will and pleasure, bot onlie for that day,
that he wold ceed and give way to the archbishop; but
he returned by me to his Majestic a very bruske
answer, which was; that he was ready in all humility
to lay his office doune at his Majestic’s feet; bot
since it was his royal will he should enjoy it with
the knowen privileges of the same, never a stoled
priest in Scotland should sett a foot before him, so
long as his bloode was hote. Quhen I had related his
answer to the kinge, he said, ‘Weel, Lyone, lett’s goe
to business; I will not medle farther with that old
cankered gootish man, at quhose hand ther is nothing
to be gained but soure words." Though a staunch
Presbyterian, when the civil wars broke out, Sir James
inclined to the cause of the king, but took no part in
the contest. He was, nevertheless, deprived by
Cromwell of his office of Lyon king-at-arms.
Living in retirement at Falkland palace, or at
his own seat of Kinnaird, he collected many
manuscripts on the art of heraldry, and wrote several
treatises on that subject, some of which are now in
the Advocates’ Library, while others were dispersed,
or destroyed by the English in the capture of Perth,
in 1651, to which city he had caused them to be
conveyed. Sibbald gives a catalogue both of his
original treatises and of the manuscripts which he was
at such pains to collect. (Memoria Balfouriana,
pp. 19—33.) For illustrating Scottish history, he
investigated all the charters, public registers, and
monastic chartularies and chronicles he could procure,
and he was able to form a large collection of these
documents. He formed, at considerable expense, a
library of most valuable books, and particularly rich
in Scottish history, antiquities, and heraldry. He
likewise collected and arranged ancient coins, seals,
and other reliques of the olden time, and wrote a book
of epitaphs and inscriptions on the monuments of
monasteries and parish churches. He left several
abridgments of the books of Scone, Cambuskenneth, and
others, and extracts from the histories of John Major,
Hector Boethius, Lesly, and Buchanan. His literary
correspondence was extensive with those of his
contemporaries who were eminent either as historians
or historical antiquarians, particularly Robert Maule,
Henry Maule of Melgum, David Buchanan, Sir Robert
Gordon of Straloch, Mr. Roger Dodsworth, Sir William
Dugdale, and Drummond of Hawthornden. At the request
of Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet he contributed not a
little to the geographical illustration of the
kingdom. He drew up an accurate description of the
shire of Fife, including observations on its
antiquities, and the genealogies of its principal
families, and he had begun to compile a geographical
description of the whole of Scotland, the manuscript
of which was of so much use to the Dutch geographer,
Bleau, that he dedicated to Sir James Balfour the map
of Lorn in his Theatrum Scotiae, appending to
it an engraving of his arms.
Besides his various treatises on heraldry, he
wrote annals of the life and reign of James I. and
II., and memorials of the reigns of James III., James
IV., and James V., and Mary. The reign of James VI. he
treated at greater length. He also wrote an account of
the kings of Scotland from Fergus I. to Charles I.,
and the annals of Scotland in two volumes, the first
extending from the accession of Malcolm Ill, to the
death of James VI., and the second from the accession
of Charles I. to the sixteenth year of his reign. When
it became necessary to form a separate establishment
for the Prince of Wales, who was also steward or
seneschal of Scotland, Sir James deemed it proper to
inquire into the amount of the revenue to which the
hereditary princes of Scotland were entitled, as well
as the extent of their privileges; and among his
manuscripts is one with the following title :—‘ The
True present State of the Principality of Scotland,
with the Means, how the same may be most conveniently
Increased, and Augmented; with which is joyned, Ane
Survey, and brief Note from the Publick Registers of
the Kingdom of certain Infeftments and Confirmations
given to Princes of Scotland, and by them to their
Vassals, of diversse Baronies and Lands of the
Principalitie, since the 15 year of the Reign of King
Robert III.’ To natural history he likewise gave his
attention, and composed in Scots an alphabetical
treatise on gems. He also wrote in Latin, an account,
collected from various authors, of the frauds
practised in the imitation of precious stones. He died
in February 1657. He is usually styled of Kinnaird,
having, in 1631, obtained, in favour of himself and
his spouse, a grant of the lands and barony of that
name in Fife. He was four times married; first, on
21st October 1630, to Anna, daughter of Sir John Aiton
of that ilk, by whom he had three sons and six
daughters, and who died August 26th, 1644; 2dly, to
his cousin, Jean Durham, daughter of the laird of
Pitkerrow, who died without issue, 19th July, 1645;
3dly, to Margaret, only daughter of Sir James Arnot of
Fernie, by whom he had three sons and three daughters;
4thly, to Janet, daughter of Sir William Auchinleck of
Balmanno, by whom he had two daughters. The family, as
stated above, is now extinct in the male line. From
his collection of MS., preserved in the Advocates’
Library, his ‘Annals and Short Passages of State,’
were published by Mr. James Haig in 1824, in four
volumes octavo.
BALFOUR, SIR ANDREW,
Bart., an eminent physician and botanist, and founder
of the botanic garden of Edinburgh, the brother of the
preceding, and fifth and youngest son of Sir Michael
Balfour of Denmylne, was born there January 18, 1630.
His education was superintended by his brother, Sir
James, the famous antiquary, who was thirty years old
at the time of his birth. He took his degree of A.M.
at the university of St. Andrews, and about 1650
removed to London, where he prosecuted his medical
studies under the celebrated Harvey, and other eminent
practitioners. He afterwards went to Blois, in France,
to see the botanical garden of the duke of Orleans,
then kept by his countryman, Dr. Morison. After
remaining some time at Paris, he completed his
education at the university of Caen, where, September
20, 1661, he received his degrees of bachelor and
doctor of medicine. On his return to London, Charles
the Second appointed him travelling tutor to the young
earl of Rochester, whom he in vain endeavoured to
reclaim. In his last illness his lordship expressed
his obligations to Dr. Balfour, for the good
instructions he had received from him. After spending
four years on the continent, they returned in 1667.
Dr. Balfour afterwards commenced practice as a
physician at St. Andrews. In 1670 he removed to
Edinburgh, where, among other improvements, he
introduced the manufacture of paper into Scotland.
Having a small botanical garden attached to his house,
chiefly furnished by seeds sent by his foreign
correspondents, he raised there many plants, till then
unknown in this country. His friend and botanical
pupil, Mr. Patrick Murray of Livingstone, had formed
at his seat a botanic garden, containing one thousand
species of plants; and, after his death, Dr. Balfour
transferred his collection to Edinburgh; and, joining
it to his own, laid the foundation of the first public
botanic garden in Scotland; for which the magistrates
of the city allotted a piece of ground near the foot
of Leith Wynd, and adjacent to Trinity Hospital, taken
down in 1845 for the convenience of the North British
railway. Here the Botanic garden continued till 1767,
when, by the exertions of Dr. Hope, a subsequent
professor of botany, it was removed to a piece of
ground between Leith and Edinburgh, on the west side
of Leith Walk. (See HOPE, John.) This place was
abandoned in 1822 for a more suitable situation at
Inverleith Row, where the Edinburgh Botanical Garden
is now in a flourishing condition.
Dr. Balfour was created a baronet by Charles the
Second. He has the merit of being the first who
introduced the dissection of the human body into
Scotland; and, with Sir Robert Sibbald, he planned the
Royal College of physicians, of which society he was
elected the first president. On the publication of the
Pharmacopoeia by the college in 1685, the whole
arrangement of the materia medica was committed to his
care. Shortly before his death he projected the
foundation of an hospital in Edinburgh, which is now
the Royal Infirmary. He died in 1694, bequeathing his
museum to the University. He never appeared as an
author, but in 1700 his son published a series of the
familiar letters which he had addressed to Mr. Murray
of Livingstone. The great merits of Sir Andrew Balfour
as a naturalist, physician, and scholar, are
commemorated, not only by Sir Robert Sibbald, in the
Memoria Balfouriana, and elsewhere; but also
more recently by Professor John Walker, in his Essays
on Natural History.
BALFOUR, ROBERT,
a distinguished scholar, and philologist, principal of
Guienne college, Bordeaux, about the beginning of the
seventeenth century, is supposed to have been born
about the year 1550. As he left his native country
young, very little is known regarding him. He is
supposed to have derived his lineage from the
Balgarvie branch of the Fifeshire family of Balfour,
but in his Commentary on Cleomedes (p. 196) he has
himself stated that he was a native of Forfarshire. He
studied first at the university of St. Andrews, and
afterwards repairing to France, he became a student in
that of Paris, where he distinguished himself by the
ability with which he publicly maintained certain
philosophical theses against all oppugners. He was
subsequently invited to Bourdeaux, by the archbishop
of that see, and became a member of the college of
Guienne. The precise date of his appointment to a
professor’s chair is unknown, but it appears from a
letter from Vinetus to George Buchanan, of date 9th
June 1581, that he must have been previous to that
year professor of the Greek language and mathematics.
He was subsequently appointed principal of the college
of Guienne, an office which he filled with much
prudence and reputation. He is thought to have
succeeded to the principalship on the death of Vinetus,
14th May 1586. His earliest publication was an
edition, the first that ap- -peared, of the ancient
history of the famous council held at Nice, in the
year 325, the author of which was Gelasius, a native
of Cyzicus, a city of Mysia, who became bishop of
Caesarea in Palestine. This work appeared in 1599, in
8vo. His next undertaking was an edition of the
Meteora of Cleomedes, with a copious and elaborate
commentary, published at Bourdeaux in 1605, 4to. "His
work," says Dr. Irving, "was commended by men eminent
for their learning, and his commentary continues to be
held in such estimation that it has been reprinted
within a very recent period in an edition of Cleomedes
published by Professor Bake of Leyden." (Lives of
Scottish Writers, vol. i. p. 243.) Balfour’s last
and greatest work was his Commentary on Aristotle. The
first volume, containing an exposition of the Organon,
or treatises relating to the science of logic, was
published in 1616. The second volume, comprising a
similar exposition of the ethics, appeared in 1620,
when the author must have been upwards of seventy
years of age. The date of his death has not been
ascertained. He was living in 1625. "Balfour," says
Dr. Irving, from whose life of him these particulars
have been gleaned, "left behind him the character of a
learned and worthy man. His manners are represented as
very pleasing; and he is particularly commended for
his kindness to his countrymen, many of whom at that
period wandered on the continent in quest of learning,
or learned employment. The only fault imputed to him
by one biographer, (D. Buchananus de Scriptoribus
Scotis, p. 129,) is his zealous adherence to the
Romish faith. This species of zeal he has testified by
introducing into his commentary on the Categories of
Aristotle, a defence of the astounding doctrine of
transubstantiation. As a proof of the estimation in
which he was held, it may be stated that François de
Foix de Candale, bishop of Aire, who died in the year
1594, bequeathed to him the mathematical part of his
library." (Lives of Scottish Writers, vol. i.
p. 244.) Morhof mentions Balfour as a celebrated
commentator on the philosophy of Aristotle, and
Dempster says he was "the Phoenix of his age; a
philosopher profoundly skilled in the Greek and Latin
languages; a mathematician worthy of being compared
with the ancients; and to those qualifications he
joined a wonderful suavity of manners, and the utmost
warmth of affection towards his countrymen." His
writings display an extent of erudition which reflects
honour on the literary history of his country. His
edition of Cleomedes, in particular, is spoken of in
high terms of praise by the erudite Barthius.
The following are the titles of Balfour’s works:
Versio et Notae ad Gelasium Cyzicenam de Cutus
Consilii Nicaeni et versio ad Theodorum Presb. de
Incarnatione Do-mini. Par. 1599, 8vo.
Versio et Comm. ad Cleomedis Meteora. Burd. 1605, 4to.
Commentarius R. Balforei in Organum Logicum
Aristotelis. Burd. 1616, 2 vols. 4to.
Comm. in Organum Aristotelis. Burd. 1618, fol.
Commentarli in AEthica Aristotelis. Par. 1620, 4to.
BALFOUR, JAMES,
of Plirig, near Edinburgh, an ingenious writer, was
admitted an advocate, November 14, 1730, but never had
much practice at the bar. In 1737, on the death of Mr.
Bayne, professor of Scots law in the university of
Edinburgh, he and Mr. John Erskine of Carnock,
advocate, were presented by the faculty of advocates
to the patrons of the vacant chair, who elected Mr.
Erskine, afterwards author of the ‘Institute of the
Law of Scotland.’ Balfour was subsequently appointed
sheriff-substitute of the county of Edinburgh. Having
a taste for philosophical science, he early opposed
the speculations of David Hume, particularly in two
treatises, which he published anonymously, the one
entitled ‘A Delineation of Morality,’ and the other
‘Philosophical Dissertations.’ With these Hume, though
they combated his own views, was so much pleased,
that, on the 15th March 1753, he wrote the author a
letter requesting his friendship as he was obliged by
his civilities. On the 28th August 1754 Balfour was
elected professor of moral philosophy in the
university of Edinburgh. In 1764, on the death of Mr.
William Kirkpatrick, professor of public law in that
university, he received a royal commission to succeed
him. In 1768 he published at Edinburgh his former
lectures under the title of ‘Philosophical Essays,’ in
which he subjected to a rigorous examination Lord
Kames’ Essays on Morality and Natural Religion. In the
spring of 1779 he resigned the chair of public law. He
died at Pilrig, 6th March 1795, aged 92.—(Bower’s
Hist. of the University of Edinburgh, vol. ii.
page 374.)
The following are his publications:
Philosophical Essays. Edin. 1768, 8vo.
Philosophical Dissertations. Edin. 1782, 8vo.
Of Matter and Motion; Of Liberty and Necessity; On the
Foundation of Moral Obligation; Nature of the Soul &c.
BALFOUR, ALEXANDER,
a miscellaneous writer, a native of the parish of
Monikie, Forfarshire, was born March 1, 1767. His
parents belonged to the humbler rural class; and being
a twin, he was taken under the protection of a friend
of the family, to whom he was indebted for support in
his early years. He received but a scanty education,
and when very young was apprenticed to a weaver;
notwithstanding which, he taught a school in his
native parish for several years. At the age of
twenty-six, he became clerk to a merchant and
manufacturer in Arbroath. The following year he
married. He made his first essays in composition when
only twelve years of age, and at a more mature age he
contributed occasional verses to the British Chronicle
newspaper, and to Dr. Anderson’s ‘Bee.’ In 1793 he
contributed several pieces to the Dundee Repository,
and not a few to the Aberdeen Magazine in 1796. Four
years after his removal to Arbroath he changed his
situation, and two years after, on the death of his
first employer, he carried on the business in
partnership with his widow. On her retirement, in
1800, he assumed another partner, and having obtained
a government contract to supply the navy with canvas,
he was in a few years enabled to purchase considerable
property. During the war with France he exhibited his
patriotism by inserting in the Dundee Advertiser a
succession of loyal poems and songs, most of which
were republished in London, and some of the latter set
to music and sung at places of public entertainment.
To the Northern Minstrel, published at Newcastle, he
contributed about twenty songs, and furnished several
pieces to the Literary Mirror, published at Montrose.
The account of Arbroath in Dr. Brewster’s Encyclopedia
was written by him, and he also contributed several
papers to Tilloch’s Philosophical Journal.
In the year 1814 he removed to Trottick, in the
neighbourhood of Dundee, to assume the management of a
branch of a London house, which was, in the succeeding
year, suddenly involved in bankruptcy; and he was
obliged to accept of the situation of manager of a
manufacturing establishment at Balgonie in Fife,
where, upon a limited salary, he continued for three
years. In October 1818, principally on account of his
children, he removed to Edinburgh, and was employed as
a clerk by Mr. Blackwood the publisher. In the course
of a few months he was seized with paralysis, and in
June 1819 was obliged to relinquish his employment.
For ten years thereafter he spent his days in a
wheel-chair, and devoted himself entirely to
literature. In 1819 he published a novel, called
‘Campbell, or the Scottish Probationer,’ which was
well received. At the close of the same year he
brought out an edition of the poems of his deceased
friend, Richard Gall, with a memoir. In 1820 he
published a volume, entitled ‘Contemplation, and other
Poems.’ About the same time he began to contribute to
Constable’s Edinburgh Magazine, tales, sketches, and
poems, descriptive of Scottish rural life, which he
continued to do till the close of that work in 1826.
One poetical series, entitled ‘Characters omitted in
Crabbe’s Parish Register,’ was so favourably received,
that he was induced to republish it in one volume in
1825. In 1822 he began to write novels for the Minerva
Press of London; the first of which, in three volumes,
was called ‘The Farmer’s Three Daughters.’ His second,
which was by far the best, appeared in 1823, also in
three volumes, and was entitled, ‘The Foundling of
Glenthorn, or the Smuggler’s Cave.’ In 1827, Mr.
Joseph Hume, M.P., presented a number of his works to
the premier, Mr. Canning, and a donation of one
hundred pounds was obtained for him from the Treasury,
in consideration of his talents and misfortunes. His
latest work was a novel, entitled ‘Highland Mary,’ in
four volumes, which, like his other novels, was
distinguished for the most touching pathos. He
contributed till his death to the periodicals of the
day, and wrote largely in particular for the
‘Edinburgh Literary Gazette,’ a publication long since
discontinued. He died on Sept. 12, 1829. A posthumous
volume of his remains was published under the title of
‘ Weeds and Wild Flowers,’ with a Memoir by Mr. D. M.
Moir.
Balfour’s works are:
Campbell; or, the Scottish Probationer, 3 vols. 8vo.
Edinburgh, 1819.
Contemplation, and other Poems, 1 vol. 8vo. Edin.,
1820.
The Farmer’s Three Daughters. A Novel, 3 vols, 8vo.
London, 1822.
The Foundling of Glenthorn, or the Smuggler’s Cave, a
Romance, 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1823.
Characters omitted in Crabbe’s Parish Register, 1 vol.
8vo. Edinburgh, 1825.
Highland Mary, a Novel, 4 vols. Edinburgh, 1827.
Weeds and Wild Flowers, posthumous, with a Memoir 1
vol. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1830.
Balfour from the Dictionary of
National Biography
