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FLEMING,
a surname derived from Flandrensis, a native of Flanders. In the
Chartularies of Paisley and Kelso, it is written Flandrensis, Flaming, and
Flammaticus, originally borne by one who came from Flanders. Among those
who accompanied William the Conqueror to England was Sir Michael le
Fleming, a relative of Baldwin earl of Flanders, whose descendants still
exist, and enjoy a baronetcy, in the county of Westmoreland. The Scots
Flemings descended from natives of Flanders, the most enterprising
merchants of their time, who in the twelfth century emigrated first to
England, whence being banished they removed into Scotland. [Chalmers’
Caledonia, vol. i. page 600.] Several of this name are witnesses to
charters of Malcolm the fourth, William the Lion, and the three Alexanders.
Baldwin, a distinguished Flemish leader, settled, with his followers, at
Biggar in Lanarkshire, under a grant of David the First. He was first
designated Baldewin Flamingus, but assumed from his lands the name of
Baldwin de Biger. He was sheriff of Lanark under Malcolm the Fourth and
William the First, and it has been supposed that this office became for
some time hereditary in his family. His descendants, though legally
designed of Biggar, retained the original name of Fleming, as indicative
of the country whence their ancestors derived their origin. The Flemings
of Biggar appear to have obtained a footing in Lanarkshire earlier than
even the more celebrated race of Douglas, for about 1150, Baldwin de Biger
witnessed the charter granting lands on Douglas water to Theobald the
Fleming, and the first of the Douglas name on record is after 1175 (see
DOUGLAS).
Baldwin’s son,
Waldeve, was taken prisoner with William the Lion at the siege of Alnwick
castle in 1174. Willielmus Flandrensis, supposed to be Waldeve’s son, is
witness to two charters of William the Lion, and also to a donation of
Richard le Bard (now Baird) to the monastery of Kelso, which was confirmed
by Alexander the Second in 1228.
Sir Malcolm
Fleming, probably his son, was sheriff of the county of Dumbarton in the
reign of Alexander the Third. At this period the Flemings were very
numerous in Scotland. Dominus Johanes Flemingum, and eight other principal
persons of the name, swore fealty to Edward the First in 1296.
Sir Robert
Fleming, supposed to have been the son of Sir Malcolm, was one of the
chief men of Scotland who proposed the marriage of the Princess Margaret
of Scotland to Prince Edward at Brigham, 12th March 1289-90.
Although he had sworn fealty to the English monarch, he was among the
first to join Robert the Bruce in his attempt to obtain the crown, and
recover the independence, of Scotland, and assisted at the slaughter of
Comyn at Dumfries in 1305. The barony of Cumbernauld in Lanarkshire, which
had belonged to the Comyns, was, with the barony of Leny, bestowed on him
by King Robert. He died before 1314. He had two sons, Sir Malcolm, his
successor, and Sir Patrick Fleming, sheriff of Peebles, who got the barony
of Biggar by his marriage with one of the daughters and coheiresses of the
brave Sir Simon Frazer, lord of Oliver castle, county of Peebles, upon
which account this branch of the Flemings quartered the arms of Frazer
with their own.
The elder son,
Sir Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, stood high in the favour of Robert the
Bruce, by whom he was appointed sheriff of the county, and governor of the
castle of Dumbarton. He got grants of the whole barony of Kirkintilloch,
which had also been their property, also of the lands of Auchindonan in
the Lennox, and of the lands of Poltoun in Wigtonshire.
His son, Sir
Malcolm, also governor of Dumbarton castle, firmly adhered to the fortunes
of King David Bruce, even when most overclouded. At the battle of
Halidonhill, 19th July 1333, he was engaged in the second body
of the Scots army, and was one of the few that escaped the carnage of that
disastrous day. He immediately secured the castle of Dumbarton, the last
resource of the remaining adherents of the young king, then in his ninth
year, and resolutely defended it against the English. For safety King
David and his queen were conveyed to France, being attended thither by Sir
Malcolm Fleming. On the return of the latter he kept the castle of
Dumbarton against Edward Baliol and the English, and in it gave shelter to
the high steward of Scotland, afterwards Robert the Second, who, after the
fatal battle of Halidonhill, had first taken refuge in the island of Bute.
Sir Malcolm subsequently went to France, and accompanied King David and
his queen on their return to Scotland, in May 1341 (see Dalrymple’s
Annals, vol. ii. p. 209, note). On 9th November 1342 he was
created by his grateful sovereign earl of Wigton. The king also bestowed
on him a grant of regality, with power to judge in the four pleas of the
crown. It is supposed that by this grant, the king intended, besides
rewarding his fidelity, to circumscribe the overgrown power of the
Douglases, lords of Galloway. The earl of Wigton was taken prisoner at the
battle of Durham 17th October 1346, and with his royal master
and others was conducted to a long and dreary captivity in the Tower of
London. He sat in the meeting of the Scots estates at Edinburgh 26th
September 1357, when commissioners were appointed to conclude the treaty
for the release of King David, after a captivity of eleven years, which
was accordingly done at Berwick on the 3d October following. The earl’s
seal is appended to the concluded treaty. His only son, John, was one of
the hostages for the ransom of King David, but he is said to have died
before his father in 1351. The earl is supposed to have had also two
daughters, the one married to Sir John Danielston of that ilk, and the
other, Marjory, to William de Fawside.
His grandson,
Thomas Fleming, second earl of Wigton, was also one of the hostages for
King David, and as such he was in custody of the sheriff of
Northumberland, 10th November 1358. He sold the earldom of
Wigton to Archibald Douglas, lord of Galloway, who could not brook the
erection of a new regality within his territory, and resolved to obtain it
for himself. The deed of sale, dated at Edinburgh 8th February
1371-2, was confirmed by King Robert the Second, on 7th October
following. Thereafter Sir Thomas Fleming ceased to be styled earl of
Wigton, the title in those feudal times being inseparably connected with
the territory which conferred it. He died without issue, and was succeeded
by his cousin, Sir Malcolm Fleming of Biggar, the son of Sir Patrick,
above mentioned.
Sir Malcolm
Fleming, who thus inherited Cumbernauld as well as his own patrimony of
Biggar, was taken prisoner at the battle of Durham, but soon made his
escape. In 1364 he held the office of sheriff of Dumbarton. He had two
sons, Sir David, his successor, and Patrick, ancestor of the Flemings of
Bord.
Sir David
Fleming of Biggar and Cumbernauld, the elder son, received a safe-conduct
to pass into England, 20th May 1365. He distinguished himself
at the battle of Otterbourn in 1388; and on 6th July 1404 he
was one of the commissioners for a truce with the English. He attended
James prince of Scotland to the Bass in February 1405, and saw him safe on
board the ship appointed to carry him to France, when on the voyage he was
taken prisoner by the English. On his return home Sir David was attacked
by James Douglas of Balveny, afterwards seventh earl of Douglas, and
killed, at Longherdmanstoun, six miles west of Edinburgh, on the 14th
of that month. He was buried at Holyroodhouse. Wintoun says of him:
“Schire Davy Fleming of Cumbirnald
Lord, a knycht stout and bald,
Trowit and luvit wel with the king;
This ilke gud and gentyl knycht
That wes baith manful, lele, and wycht.”
He married, first,
Jean, only daughter of Sir David Barclay of Brechin, and by her had a
daughter, Marion, who became the wife of William Maule of Panmure, and in
her right the latter claimed the barony of Brechin. He married, secondly,
Isabel, heiress of Monycabow, by whom he had two sons, Sir Malcolm and
David.
Sir Malcolm, the
elder son, was knighted by King Robert the Third. He was one of the
hostages for James the First, when he was allowed to visit Scotland on 31st
May 1421. He was also one of the hostages for his release, by the treaty
of 4th December 1423, when his annual revenue was estimated at
six hundred marks. He had a safe-conduct to go to England, to meet James
the First, 13th December that year. He was among those arrested
with Murdoch duke of Albany in 1425, but was soon released. He was the
friend and counsellor of William sixth earl of Douglas, and on the
treacherous invitation of the governor Livingston and the chancellor
Crichton, he accompanied the former with his brother, David Douglas, to
the castle of Edinburgh on 24th November 1440, when they were
summarily arrested, and after a brief and hurried trial beheaded, Sir
Malcolm Fleming sharing their fate. [See DOUGLAS.] He married Lady
Elizabeth Stewart, third daughter of the regent, Robert duke of Albany,
and by her had two sons, Malcolm and Robert, and a daughter, Margaret,
married to Patrick, master of Gray.
Malcolm, the
elder son, is specified as one of the supplementary hostages for King
James the First, 9th November 1427, and released 20th
June 1432. He appears to have died before his father, without issue.
Sir Robert, the
younger and only surviving son, entered a protest against the illegal and
unwarrantable sentence of execution and forfeiture passed on his father,
and King James the Second, when he came of age, issued precepts for
infefting him as heir of his father, who was found by inquests to have
died at the faith and peace of his majesty. A safe-conduct was granted to
him to accompany Sir James Stewart, called the Black Knight of Lorn, to
England, 22d November 1447. He was created a peer of parliament, by the
title of Lord Fleming, but the date of creation is not known, probably by
James the Second, who died in 1460. His name occurs in the records of
parliament, 11th October 1466. He had a safe-conduct to pass
into England, with twenty persons in his retinue, 2d November 1484, and
died in 1494. He was twice married, and by his first wife, Lady Janet
Douglas, third daughter of James, seventh earl of Douglas, he had two sons
and two daughters.
Malcolm Fleming
of Monycabow, the elder son, was one of the commissioners appointed to
negociate the marriage of James prince of Scotland and Cecilia, daughter
of Edward the Fourth, 18th October 1474. He died before his
father. He married Eupheme, daughter of James Lord Livingston, and by her
had two sons and two daughters. Sir David, the elder son, died in the
lifetime of his grandfather.
John, the
younger son, second Lord Fleming, was one of the three lords appointed in
July 1515, guardians of King James the Fifth in his infancy. He was sent
ambassador to France, and on his return he was, in January 1517, appointed
chancellor of Scotland. In 1519, he was sent over to France to urge the
regent duke of Albany to return to Scotland; and he was one of the three
noblemen appointed by parliament 1523, to abide with King James the Fifth,
each for three months. He was assassinated while enjoying the sport of
hawking, by John Tweedie of Drummelzier, James Tweedie his son, and
others, 1st November 1524. He married, first, Euphemia, fifth
daughter of David Lord Drummond, and by her, who was poisoned with two of
her sisters in 1501, (see DRUMMOND), he had issue. He married, secondly,
Lady Margaret Stewart, eldest daughter of Matthew second earl of Lennox.
She got a charter from her husband of the lands of Biggar and Thankertoun
March 12, 1508-9. They were soon after divorced, and she resigned the
lands in his favour October 26, 1516, and was then designed ‘olim
reputatae spousae dicti Johannis.’ She afterwards married Alexander
Douglas of Mains. In 1508 he had been denounced rebel at the king’s horn,
and fined in the penalty of five hundred merks for not entering John
Fleming of Boghall, for whom he had become surety or bail, for trial,
charged with art and part of the rape or ravishment of the said Lady
Margaret Stewart. Lord Fleming married, thirdly, Agnes Somerville, whose
parentage is not stated.
Malcolm, third
Lord Fleming, the eldest son, born about 1494, was great chamberlain of
Scotland. On December 1, 1530, he was constituted sheriff of Tweeddale and
Peebles. A great number of charters were granted to him of lands in the
counties of Peebles and Roxburgh. He accompanied King James the Fifth on
his matrimonial expedition to France in August 1537, and was made prisoner
at the rout of Solway in November 1542, but obtained his liberty 1st
July 1543, on paying a ransom of one thousand merks sterling. In August of
the same year he was one of the nobility to whom was committed the safe
keeping of the queen-mother and the infant queen Mary in Stirling castle.
When the project of marriage between Queen Mary and Prince Edward of
England was set on foot, he at first joined the English party, but soon
deserted it. He had been accused of treason, but parliament, on 3d October
1545, declared that he was innocent of all crimes alleged against him, and
a true baron and liege to the queen. He was grand carver to William St.
Clair, earl of Orkney, the founder of Roslin chapel, who lived in Roslin
Castle in the style of a prince. In 1545 Lord Fleming founded the
collegiate church of Biggar, and largely endowed it for the support of a
provost, eight prebendaries, four singing boys, and six poor men. It is
built in the form of a cross; the fabric is still entire, but the steeple
and spire have never been finished. He was killed at the battle of Pinkie,
10th September 1547, in the 53d year of his age. By his wife,
Johanna or Jonet Stewart, natural daughter of King James the Fourth, he
had two sons, James, fourth lord, and John, fifth lord, and four
daughters.
James, fourth
lord Fleming, with Lord Erskine, accompanied the young Queen Mary to
France in 1548, her majesty having been committed to their faith and care.
With them also went the Lady Fleming, his lordship’s mother and aunt of
the queen, with twelve young ladies and two hundred gentlemen and
servants. He was continued great chamberlain of Scotland for life, by
letters patent under the great seal, 10th March 1553. He was
also appointed guardian of the east and middle marches, and invested with
a power of justiciary within the limits of his jurisdiction. He was one of
the eight commissioners elected by parliament, 18th December
1557, to represent the Scottish nation at the nuptials of Queen Mary with
Francis, dauphin of France, 24th April 1558. Three of these
commissioners died at Dieppe, on their return to Scotland, on the night of
the 28th November 1558, supposed to have been poisoned. Lord
Fleming, who was also suddenly taken ill at Dieppe, being the youngest of
them, was not immediately cut off, and in the hope of recovery, hastened
to Paris, where he died on the 15th December following, in the
twenty-fourth year of his age. He married Lady Barbara Hamilton, eldest
daughter of the regent duke of Chatelherault, and had by her one daughter.
He was succeeded
by his brother, John, fifth Lord Fleming, who was appointed great
chamberlain of Scotland for life, by commission, dated 30th
June 1565, and in 1567 he had a grant of the office of justiciary within
the bounds of the overward of Clydesdale, and sheriffdom of Peebles, and
governor of the castle of Dumbarton, which he secured for Queen Mary. He
entered into the association on her behalf at Hamilton, 8th May
1568, and after the battle of Langside, he and Lord Livingston and the
master of Maxwell, accompanied her majesty when she fled to Carlisle. He
was forfeited by parliament, 17th November 1569. During the
civil war that followed, he held out the castle of Dumbarton for the queen
till it was taken by surprise on 2d April 1571, by Captain Thomas Crawford
of Jordanhill, who scaled the rock during the night, and made prisoners of
the garrison. Lord Fleming, the governor, managed to escape down the face
of an almost perpendicular cleft or gully in the rock, and passing through
a postern which opened on the Clyde, threw himself into a fishing-boat,
and sailed over to Argyleshire. Thence he proceeded to France to obtain
succours. He returned to Scotland in June 1572, and was mortally wounded
by some French soldiers discharging their pieces for a volley on their
entrance into Edinburgh, some of the bullets, rebounding from the
causeway, having hit him above the knee, 5th July following. He
was carried to the castle of Edinburgh, whence he was conveyed, in a
litter, to Biggar, where he died of his wounds on the 6th
September the same year. He married Elizabeth, only child of Robert,
master of Ross, killed at Pinkie in 1547, and had a son, John, and three
daughters. Among the prisoners taken at Dumbarton castle, when that
fortress was surprised in 1571, was Lady Fleming, the wife of the
governor. She was treated by the regent with great courtesy, and permitted
to go free, and to carry away with her, her plate and furniture.
John, sixth Lord
Fleming, the only son, was created earl of Wigton, Lord Fleming and
Cumbernauld, by patent dated at Whitehall, 19th March 1606.
[See WIGTON, earl of.]
_____
An ancient
family of the name of Fleming possess the estate of Barochan in
Renfrewshire. William Fleming (Flandrensis) of Barochan is mentioned as a
witness to a charter granted by Malcolm earl of Lennox to Walter Spruel,
in the reign of Alexander the Third, and in another charter of James high
steward of Scotland, grandfather of Robert the Second. [Nisbet’s
Heraldry, vol. i. p. 153, erroneously printed 192.] One of his
successors, William Fleming of Barochan, was sheriff of Lanark in the
reign of James the Fourth, and with six of his sons, was slain at the
fatal battle of Flodden. In Crawfurd’s Description of Renfrewshire, and in
the Old Statistical Account of Scotland, this laird of Barochan is called
William, but in the New Statistical Account he receives the name of Peter,
it being conjectured that he had two proper names. In those days, however,
it was not usual for a person of his rank to bear more than one proper
name. In 1488 William Fleming of Barochan was one of the arbiters betwixt
the abbot of Paisley and the town of Renfrew. He was an expert falconer,
and his tersel beat the falcon of James the Fourth, upon which the king
took the hood from his favourite hawk, and put it on the tersel. The hood,
which was richly ornamented with precious stones, and a pair of silver
spurs which belonged to Fleming, are still preserved in the family. Most
of the precious stones were stolen. One only remained of great value, but
about 1832 it fell out, and not being missed at the time, it was lost. A
few seed pearls only now remain. Falconry was long practised at Barochan.
John Anderson, falconer on the estate, was present, in appropriate
costume, under the patronage of the duke of Athol, at the coronation of
George the Fourth. The above William or Peter Fleming, who by his wife
Marion Houston, a daughter of the family of Houston, had seven sons, was
succeeded by the youngest, James, from whom in direct descent was
Alexander Fleming of Barochan who, with two of his sons, was in 1596
pursued at law by Patrick Maxwell of Dargavel, for the forcible abduction
of Rebecca Maxwell his daughter. [Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, vol.
i. p. 377.] This was a crime rarely attempted but with heiresses. He died
in September 1622. He was succeeded by his second son, William, the eldest
having predeceased him. The son of this William, Malcolm Fleming of
Barochan, married in 1780, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of William Fergusson
of Doonholm in Ayrshire, and had by her, with four daughters, two sons,
namely, John, who died young, and William Malcolm Fleming, who succeeded
his father, on his death in 1818. William Malcolm Fleming of Barochan
Tower, a magistrate and deputy lieutenant of Renfrew, and a commissioner
of supply for that county, was at one period in the civil service of the
East India Company in the Bengal presidency.
One of the most
striking antiquities of Renfrewshire is Barochan Cross, an ancient stone
monument, the history of which is involved in obscurity. It is described
in the Old Statistical Account, and in the Topographical, Statistical, and
Historical Gazetteer of Scotland, (under the article HOUSTON, in which
parish it is situated). It first stood in the barony of Barochan on the
side of the public road, but was removed by Malcolm Fleming of Barochan
(who died in 1818) to a neighbouring hill, where the old mansion-house of
Barochan formerly stood. This house is reputed to have been burnt by the
English, during one of the invasions of Scotland by Edward the First. An
engraving of Barochan Cross, which is eleven feet high, forms the
frontispiece (both the east and the west sides being represented) of
Hamilton of Wishaw’s Description of the shires of Lanark and Renfrew,
printed by the Maitland Club in 1831, in one volume quarto.
Sir Alexander
Fleming of Ferm, commissary of Glasgow, was created a baronet of Nova
Scotia in 1666, but dying without issue, the title appears to have become
extinct.
FLEMING, ROBERT,
a much esteemed divine of the seventeenth century, author of the
‘Fulfilling of the Scripture,’ and other religious works, was born in
1630, at Bathans, or Yester, in East Lothian, of which parish his father,
James Fleming, who was son-in-law of John Knox, having married Martha, the
eldest daughter of the great reformer, was long the minister. The subject
of this notice was his son by a second marriage. He was a very sickly
child, and in his boyhood he nearly lost his life by the stroke of a club,
which for some time affected his eyesight. These facts he himself recorded
in a brief record found in manuscript after his decease, which he entitled
‘A short Index of some of the great appearances of the Lord in the
dispensation of his providences to his poor servant.’ His choice of the
ministry seems to have been fixed from a circumstance recorded in a short
note in the ‘Index,’ where he specifies as a gracious manifestation from
God, “a strange and extraordinary impression I had of an audible voice in
the church at night, when being a child, I had got up to the pulpit,
calling me to make haste.” After having acquired the usual rudimentary
part of education, he was sent first to the university of Edinburgh, and
afterward to that of St. Andrews, and at the latter place he studied
divinity under Samuel Rutherford. “At the age of twenty, and probably at
the close of his college life,” says one of his biographers, “and before
he had been licensed to preach, we find him in the ranks of the Scottish
army under David Leslie, but whether as a military volunteer in arms, or
as a non-combatant, we cannot now discover. It is certain, however, that
he was present at the disastrous conflict at Dunbar, and had a full share
in its dangers, experiencing also, as he has noted in his ‘Index,’ ‘the
Lord’s gracious and signal preservation and deliverance.’” He was soon
after licensed, and in 1653, when the Church of Scotland was purely
presbyterian, he was ordained minister of Cambuslang, in Lanarkshire,
where he remained till after the Reformation. In 1662, in consequence of
the passing of the Glasgow act, he was ejected, along with four hundred
other ministers, on the attempt to establish episcopacy in Scotland. After
this he resided mostly at Edinburgh and in Fifeshire, and other parts of
Scotland, preaching when opportunity offered, till September 1673, when he
was summoned, along with the ejected ministers in Edinburgh and its
neighbourhood, to appear before the privy council, to receive sentence of
imprisonment, and have the place of his ward appointed; on which he
withdrew to London. During the following year his wife, who had remained
in Scotland, died, when he ventured to return to his native country. On
his journey north he fell under the York coach, the great wheel of which
passed over his left leg, but without doing him any injury. After making
some stay in Scotland, he returned to London, preaching, as formerly,
among the presbyterian congregations of the English metropolis and the
adjacent counties. In 1677 he received a call from the congregation of the
Scots church at Rotterdam, to become their minister, which he cordially
accepted. In 1678 he passed over to Edinburgh for the purpose of bringing
his children to Holland with him. While in that city he ventured, in spite
of the severe laws against holding conventicles, to collect meetings of
his old friends, for preaching and devotional exercises, for which he was
arrested and thrown into the Tolbooth, where he remained several months. A
short time after the battle of Bothwell Bridge, he was brought before the
council. He agreed to their demand to give bail for his appearance when
called upon, but refused to consent to yield passive obedience to the
royal authority, in all things, and was in consequence remanded to prison.
He was soon, however, liberated, when he returned to Rotterdam. He was
escorted to the ship by three of his friends, and after an interval of
silence, he was overheard uttering to himself that “God will put a period
to the race of the Stuarts, and that very shortly.” After the Revolution
of 1688, he repeatedly visited London, where he remained several months at
a time. During one of these visits, in the summer of 1694, he was attacked
with his last illness, a fever. He died on the 25th July that
year, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. He was the author of the
following works:
The Fulfilling
of the Scripture: or an Essay, shewing the exact accomplishment of the
word of God, in his works of providence performed, and to be performed;
for confirming the believers, and convincing the atheists of the present
time; containing in the end, a few rare histories of the works and
servants of God in the church of Scotland. First part, Rotterdam, 1669,
folio. The Second part, under the title of The Faithfulness of God,
considered and cleared in the great event of his word, was afterwards
published; and the Third part had the title of The Great Appearances of
God for his church, under the New Testament; with many choice speeches of
suffering and dying Christians. London, 1681, 2 vols. 12mo; 3d edition
without name of place, 1681, 12mo. Reprinted in one volume folio in 1726.
Numerous editions. An edition of The Fulfilling of the Scripture, with a
Memoir of the Author, was issued by the Committee of the Free Church of
Scotland for the publication of the works of Scottish Reformers and
Divines in 1845, in 2 vols. 8vo.
The Confirming
work of Religion.
The Treatise of
Earthquakes.
The one thing
necessary.
The Truth and
Certainty of the Protestant Faith.
The Epistolary
Discourse, dedicated to Queen Mary. In two parts.
The Survey of
Quakerism.
The present
aspect of the Times.
The Healing
Work; written on account of divisions in Scotland.
All these it was
intended to have published in another folio, but the design was abandoned,
and they are now extremely scarce.
Sermon on
Eccles. vii. 1. 1692, 8vo.
Sermon on Jer.
xviii. 7-11. 1692.
Discourse, 1701.
8vo. – On Job xiv. 14. 1704, 8vo.
FLEMING, ROBERT,
a learned and pious divine, author of ‘The Rise and Fall of the Papacy,’
and other religious works, son of the preceding, with whom he is often
confounded, was born at Cambuslang, in Lanarkshire, during his father’s
incumbency of that parish, although the precise year of his birth is now
known. He received the rudiments of his education in Scotland, and studied
for the ministry, first at the university of Leyden, and subsequently at
that of Utrecht, in Holland. He has himself recorded in his ‘Christology,’
that, when very young, his overhearing his father declare in conversation
with some friends, that he had bound himself by a solemn resolution, while
at college, to prosecute the study of divinity for life, divesting
himself, as far as possible, of all prejudices, whether of education,
party, or interest, determined him to devote himself to the ministry, with
a similar preparation. After having studied with great diligence and care,
the classical writers, the philosophers of the heathen world, and the
fathers of the Christian church, and made himself thoroughly master of the
controversies of the day, he finally returned exclusively to the study of
the bible. In 1688 he was, by several ministers of the Church of Scotland,
at that time refugees in Holland, privately ordained to the ministry, but
without being set apart, as pastor, over any particular charge. Soon after
he repaired to England as domestic chaplain to a private family, and
remained there for about four years. At this period he published several
poetical productions, which, like many contemporary pieces of a similar
kind, have passed into hopeless obscurity. On his return to Holland, he
received, in 1692, an invitation from the English presbyterian church at
Leyden, to become their minister, with which he complied. On the death of
his father, two years thereafter, he received a call to his vacant charge
at Rotterdam, and was accordingly inducted to the Scots church there in
1695. In little more than three years he received an invitation from the
Presbyterian church congregation of Lothbury, London, to which King
William the Third, who, when prince of Orange, had known him in Holland,
added the weight of his personal request, and having accepted it, he
removed to London, and became their minister in the middle of 1698. His
majesty had such a high opinion of his learning, wisdom, and abilities,
that he frequently consulted him on the affairs of Scotland, but so great
was his modesty that his interviews with the king were always conducted in
secrecy at his own express desire. He was held in high estimation both by
churchmen and dissenters, and in particular was on terms of friendship
with the archbishop of Canterbury and other church dignitaries. By the
dissenting ministers of London, although he belonged to another communion,
he was elected one of the preachers of the Merchants’ Tuesday Lecture at
Salter’s Hall. Satisfied with his position, he not only refused several
parochial charges in Scotland, but even declined the office of principal
of the university of Glasgow, which had been placed within his reach by
his kinsman Lord Carmichael, secretary of state for Scotland, and
chancellor of that university, to whom he dedicated his ‘Discourses on
Several Subjects’ published in 1701. In his dedication he mentions his
being related to his lordship, and acknowledges his obligations for the
offer of the principalship, which circumstances, he says, had compelled
him to decline.
After
distinguishing himself by his writings as a firm friend to the British
constitution and the protestant religion, Mr. Fleming died at London, May
24, 1716. Of the various sermons and tracts of which he was the author,
the most celebrated is his ‘Discourse on the Rise and Fall of the Papacy,’
published in London in 1701. This remarkable work contains several
passages founded on what he himself modestly calls a “conjectural”
interpretation of the pouring out of the fourth vial in the Revelation,
which strikingly coincide with the early events of the first French
revolution, particularly as relates to the downfall of the monarchy. The
Discourse, which had been almost forgotten for nearly a century, was by
that astounding outbreak suddenly recalled to recollection. Fleming’s
words, written in 1701, are: “There is ground to hope that about the
beginning of another such century, things may again alter for the better;
for I cannot but hope that some new mortification of the chief supporters
of Antichrist will then happen; and, perhaps, the French monarchy may
begin to be considerably humbled about that time; that whereas the present
French king takes the sun for his emblem, and this for his motto, ‘nec
pluribus impar,’ (a match for many,) he may at length, or rather his
successors, and the monarchy itself, at least before the year 1794, be
forced to acknowledge that in respect to neighbouring potentates he is
even ‘singulis impar’ (not a match for one). But as to the
expiration of this vial, I do fear it will not be until the year 1794.”
And again, “We may justly suppose that the french monarchy, after it has
scorched others, will itself consume by doing so, its fire, and that which
is the fuel that maintains it, wasting insensibly, till it be exhausted
towards the end of this century, as the Spanish monarchy did before
towards the end of the sixteenth age.” It was in the commencement of 1793,
when Louis the Sixteenth was about to die by the guillotine, that
Fleming’s speculations, guesses, or conjectures, written ninety years
before, and found to have been correct, were recalled to remembrance, and
brought before public attention, not only by extracts published in
newspapers, but by reprints of the work itself, both in England and
America. It was also translated into different languages. After these
events had passed away the work again fell into neglect, when the
revolution of 1848 again brought it into notice. Referring to Italy,
Fleming says, “The fifth vial, which is to be poured out on the seat of
the Beast, or the dominions that more immediately belong to, and depend
upon, the Roman see; that, I say, this judgment will probably begin about
the year 1794, and expire about the year 1848.” The latter year, according
to his interpretation of apocalyptical prophecy, he believes to be the
date of the commencement of the downfall of the papal power, not rapid and
sudden, but by gradual though sure decay. “We are not to imagine,” he
says, “that this vial will totally destroy the Papacy (though it will
exceedingly weaken it), for we find this still in being and alive when the
next vial is poured out.” With regard to the pouring out of the sixth
vial, current events (in 1853) give a wonderful significancy to his words.
“The sixth vial,” he says, “will be poured out upon the Mohammedan
Antichrist as the former was on the papacy; and seeing the sixth trumpet
brought the Turks from beyond the Euphrates, from their crossing which
river they date their rise, this sixth vial dries up their waves and
exhausts their power, as the means and way to prepare and dispose the
Eastern kings and kingdoms to renounce their heathenish and Mohammedan
errors, in order to their receiving and embracing Christianity.” . . .
“Supposing then that the Turkish monarchy should be totally destroyed
between 1848 and 1900, we may justly assign seventy or eighty years longer
to the end of the sixth seal, and but twenty or thirty at most to the
last.” The year 2000 he calculates as the commencement of the millennium.
A neat and carefully edited edition of ‘The Rise and Fall of the Papacy,’
reprinted from the edition of 1701, with an interesting memoir of the
author, prefixed by the Rev. Thomas Thomson, was published at Edinburgh in
1849.
Mr. Fleming’s
works are:
Poetical
Paraphrase on the Song of Solomon; with other Poems. Lond. 1691, 8vo. This
is the general title to the volume, but each portion of it has distinct
paging and titles.
Discourses on
several subjects, viz. The Rise and Fall of the Papacy, &c. 1701. Various
editions.
A Practical
Discourse on the Death of King William; with a Poetical Essay on his
memory. Lond. 1702, 8vo.
Christology; or
a Discourse concerning Christ. London, 1705-8, 2 vols. 8vo.
The First
Resurrection; a Dissertation on the prior and special Resurrection of the
most eminent Christian Witnesses. Lond. 1708.
The Rod or the
Sword; a Discourse from Ezekiel, chap. xxi. 13. Reprinted at London,
subjoined to a Sermon on the Execution of Louis XVI. by Henry Hunter, D.D.
London, 1793, 8vo.
Speculum
Davidicum Redivivum; or the Divine Right of the Revolution evinced and
applied.
Theocraty; or
the Divine Government of Nations.
The Mirror of
Divine Love.
The History of
Hereditary Right. |
