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DALGLEISH,
a surname derived from a table-land of that name on the borders of
Dumfries-shire, originally Dalglise, (De l’eglise,
pertaining to the church). The name possesses an historical interest from
the circumstance that the earl of Bothwell who married Queen Mary had a
confidential servant of the name of George Dalgleish, who was hanged and
quartered for being concerned in the murder of King Henry (Lord Darnley),
and whose very circumstantial and most interesting deposition is inserted
with others in Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, vol. iii. page 495. In
the sixteenth century there was an eminent minister of the name of Nicol
Dalgleish, who was at one time one of the regents of the university of St.
Andrews, and afterwards minister of St. Cuthberts parish, near Edinburgh.
In December 1584, he was accused of praying for the banished ministers,
but acquitted on trial of all the crimes laid to his charge, except the
reading of a letter which Mr. Walter Balcanquhal had sent to his wife out
of England; for which he came in the king’s will. He was detained in the
Tolbooth for several weeks, during all which time the scaffold stood ready
for his execution. He was afterwards transferred to the castle of St.
Andrews, where he was for some time kept in ward. He subsequently took a
prominent part in the affairs of the church, and was elected moderator of
the General Assembly which met at Edinburgh the 2d of July 1591. |
