Wedderburn book; a history of the Wedderburns in ... - waughfamily.ca

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THE WEDDERBURN' IJOOK.
introd. Among persons mentioned a3 his friends are the Bishops of Winchester and
of Durham, Dr. Lindsell, an old and vahied intimate, and "our Archbishop."
It was to the last of these, the famous Laud, that Wedderburn owed his
ultimate rise and fall. Early in 1626 he had been appointed rector of
Compton, in the diocese of Winchester, and canon of Ely, but still retained
his professorship in S. Andrew's. He was, however, wearyirifj of his work
there. " Thinj^'s," he writes to Meric Oasaubon in -March Ifiid, "have now
to such a pass here, and there is so little chance of th>iir bettering,
that I have made up my mind to come to where you are (Oxford ?) an'd
spend the remainder of my days there." It is not clear when he came
south, as, although he was appointed vicar of Mildenhall, Norwich, in 1G28
and prebendary of Whitchurch in the church of Wells in 1G."]1, the duties'
of these offices were very likely not personally performed. Four years later
he was appointed Dean of the Chapel Royal and Bishop nf Dunblane, posts
which he held for something over three years, when he was excommunicated
by the General Assembly at Glasi:;ow, who determined on " the utter
abolishing of episcopacy." On 21 Nov. 1G33 he was cited to appear "as
Mr. James Wedderburn, pretendit Bischope of Dunblane," tlio charges an-ainst
him being that he had been "the confidential correspondent and acreiit of
Laud in introducing the new liturgy and popish ceremoiiit;s," as well as
those " that were generall to all bischopes, Arminianisme, popery, and
drunkennesse," and, on 10 Dec, he was condemned in his absence. "He was
not summoned personally," .says Robert Baillie in one of his letters, " havinofled
to England, yet he was excommunicated as one who had been a speciaU
instrument of our mischief*, having corrupted with Arniinianism divers, with
his discourses and lectures at S. Andrew's, whose errors and perverseness
kithes this day in all the nooks of the kingdom, having been a special
penner, practiser, urger of our books and all novations. Wiiat drunkenness
swearing, and other crimes were libelled I do not remember " [ly
In England he took up his residence at Canterbury, no doubt in order
to be near the Archbishop, but did not long survive, dyiiK' there on
23 Sept. 1639. He was buried in the Cathedral, in a spot still marked by
an inscription on the stone above his remains. A portrait of him by
Jamieson is reproduced in this volume (opp. p. 30). He left a will, but I
have not succeeded in discovering where it was registered.
John Wedderburn, the elder brother of the Bishop, and ultimately his
jqJj^
heir, was born in 1.583, and went out to Padua, where he
Wedderburn, -^^-as known as "a learned mathematician." When William
In Moravia, Lithgow, the traveller, visited Pailua in IGOD, he found
1583-1651.
Wedderburn there, and says that he taught him well in
Italian, and was in other ways most friendly to him. By 102S Wedderburn
had left Padua for Moravia, where he was " protomedicus," or chief doctor.
He now and again came home to Dundee, and on one of these visits
presented the " sang scooll " to the town. Through his absence abroad, he
is rarely mentioned in the records at home, but from a letter addressed by
was presently put in execution, notwitlistanding they wanted the wnmnt of any General
Assembly or of any continued practice of the form in time by-p-ust kIuco the Uefurmatiou
(Bishop Sage's Charter of Presbytery, p. 98, quoting Cal.lerwood, p. S'lO).
1 See the Letters of Rihert Baillie, Principal of Glasi/ow UoUe'/e (vol. i., p. lS:i ; Kilin.. 8 vo, 1775). J. W.
also refers to Aikman, iii.. Hi, 415 ; Sir James Balfour's Annuls of Smttand. 1057— 1S49 ; ii.,
299-300 ; and Cook's History of the Church before the Revolution -// ViS-i, ii., M6-6~, 42-.'-23,
where (he says) it is stated that the Book of Canons was comjiiled by Wedderh'jni and \nx episcopal
brfthren of Uoss, Galloway, and Aberdeen, and that to him and the lii-liup uf Ho-s »\n committed
the task of compiling a national Prayer Book for the whole of So.ll.ind. Wedderburn
had, of course, refused to acknowledge any legal authority in tlie rrt.->byterian synixl of
Glasgow, though he had been one of those who signed the remonstrance to i.'jc King, 5 .March
1638, on the danger of pressing the liturgy and the canons. See also Hcylin's Life of Archbishop
Laud, Bishop Guthrie's Memories of Scotland, Russell's History of the Church in Scotland,
and Keith's Scottish Bishops.