John Spottiswoode (Spottiswood, Spotiswood, Spotiswoode or Spotswood) (1565 – 26 November 1639) was an Archbishop of St Andrews, Primate of All Scotland, Lord Chancellor, and historian of Scotland.
Contents
Life
He was born in 1565 at Greenbank in Mid Calder, West Lothian, Scotland, the eldest son of John Spottiswood, minister of Calder and superintendent of Lothian, and wife Beatrix Crichton. He was educated at the University of Glasgow (MA 1581), and succeeded his father in the parish of Calder in 1583. In 1601 he attended Ludowick, Duke of Lennox, as his chaplain, in an embassy to the court of France, returning in 1603. He followed James VI and I to England on his accession at the Union of the Crowns. He was sent back to Scotland to attend Anne of Denmark as her almoner or "elemosynar", receiving a yearly stipend of £80. In the same year he was nominated to the Archbishop of Glasgow, his consecration in London, however, not taking place until October 1610.
Spottiswoode had originally become prominent as an ardent supporter of the strict Presbyterian party, but gradually came to see the inconveniences of "parity of ministers", attributed little importance to the existing matters of dispute, and thought that the interests of both church and state were best secured by keeping on good terms with the king. He was therefore ready to co-operate with James in curtailing the powers of the Kirk which encroached on the royal authority, and in assimilating the Church of Scotland to that of England. On 30 May 1605 he became a member of the Scottish Privy Council. In 1608 he worked closely with George Home, Earl of Dunbar in appointing suitable ministers to vacant parishes in the Borders as part of James' programme for bringing peace to the region. In 1610 he presided as moderator over the assembly in which the supremacy of presbytery was abolished. That same year he was consecrated bishop on 21 October by the bishops of London, Ely, Rochester, and Worcester. In 1614, he was instrumental in the arrest and subsequent trial and condemnation to death of John Ogilvie. In 1615 he was made Archbishop of St Andrews and primate of Scotland, and in 1618 procured the sanction of the privy council to the Five Articles of Perth with their ratification by parliament in 1621.