Jump to content

William Struthers

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by FrescoBot (talk | contribs) at 08:25, 6 October 2022 (Bot: removing misplaced invisible LTR marks). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

William Struther(s) (1578–1633) was a high-ranking Scottish church minister and poet. He was involved in an infamous witch trial in Edinburgh.[1] He was renowned for his "spiced sermons".[2] His huge endowment in his will created the Struthers Bursaries in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, which was responsible for funding many hundreds of Divinity students.

Life

Struther's house, now known as Gladstone's Land

He was born in Glasgow around 1578 the son of the "reader" in Glasgow High Church. He studied at Glasgow University gaining an MA in 1599.[3]

He worked as an assistant ("expectant") in the Merse near Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1602. In 1607 he was ordained as minister of Kirkintilloch. He translated to the High Kirk of Glasgow in 1612.[4]

In 1614 he translated to St Giles High Kirk in Edinburgh, then still having a collegiate format. He remained there in 1625 when it was slit into four parishes (and physically subdivided) with Struthers taking the south-east quarter. In 1619 he was appointed to the Court of the High Commission. He appears to have left St Giles at some point but rejoined in 1626 and rose to be Dean of the diocese of Edinburgh.[5] At this time he lived 100m west of the church on the north side of the Lawnmarket (the house is preserved and now called Gladstone's Land).[6]

Struthers provided a poem in Ancient Greek flattering James VI and I for the celebrations at Dunglass Castle, East Lothian, on 13 May 1617 when the king returned to Scotland for the first time since the Union of the Crowns.[7]

When official news came to Edinburgh in 1623 that Prince Charles had left the country for the Spanish Match, the Earl of Melros ordered Struthers to ask his colleagues in the Church of Scotland to refrain from discussing the events in the kirks.[8]

Struthers was one of the clergy who counselled Margaret Wood, a servant of his Edinburgh neighbour, James Crichton of Frendraught, to confess her perjury. Wood had been tortured with the boot for her testimony after a fire at Frendraught Castle. As a perjurer, she was whipped and banished.[9]

In 1632 he was involved in a witch trial which resulted in the execution of one woman and torture of two others.[10] In this Marion Mure of Leith was accused of "folk healing". The trial took place in Leith. Marion was found guilty and executed on 23 February 1632 (probably at the Pilrig gibbet).[11]

He died in Edinburgh on 9 November 1633 and is presumed buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard. His will left 6000 merks (around £4000 or £1 million in 2020) to both Edinburgh University and Glasgow University to fund bursaries for Divinity students. In Glasgow this was merged with the Gilhagie Bursary in 1858.[12]

Family

He married Elizabeth Roberton (d.1641), daughter of Andrew Roberton of Stonehall. They had six children.

Publications

  • Christian Observations and Resolutions (1628)
  • A Looking Glasse for Princes and People with a Looking Glasse for Princes and Popes (1632)
  • True Happiness, or King David's Choice (1633)
  • Letter to the Earl of Airthe: Grievances of Ministers (1635)
  • The Sanctuary of the Troubled Soul

References

  1. ^ Development, PodBean. "Prayerbooks and Presbyters: William Struthers and St Giles Cathedral". gladstonesland.podbean.com. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  2. ^ https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2185&context=ssl [bare URL PDF]
  3. ^ Fasti Ecclesiastae Scoticana by Hew Scott
  4. ^ Fasti Ecclesiastae Scoticana by Hew Scott
  5. ^ Fasti Ecclesiastae Scoticana by Hew Scott
  6. ^ Development, PodBean. "Prayerbooks and Presbyters: William Struthers and St Giles Cathedral". gladstonesland.podbean.com. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  7. ^ Roger P. H. Green, 'The King Returns', Steven J. Reid & David McOmish, Neo-Latin Literature and Literary Culture in Early Modern Scotland (Brill, 2016), pp. 134-5.
  8. ^ David Dalrymple, Memorials and Letters Relating to the History of Britain , vol. 1, p. 149
  9. ^ John Spalding, Memorialls of the Trubles in Scotland and England, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1850), p. 20.
  10. ^ "Survey Database, Survey of Scottish Witchcraft, Scottish History, School of History and Classics, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland". witches.shca.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  11. ^ "Survey Database, Survey of Scottish Witchcraft, Scottish History, School of History and Classics, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland". witches.shca.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  12. ^ "University of Glasgow :: Story :: Bursaries: Gilhagie Bursary". www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Struthers&oldid=1114395047"