Colvill (Colville, or Colwil)

is the name of a number of Scotch clergymen:

1. ALEXANDER (1), was born in 1620, near St. Anirews; became rector of the University of Edinburgh, and died there in 1676, leaving, among other works of controversy Fludibras Ecossais, a poem in the style of Butler, directed against the Presbyterians. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.

2. ALEXANDER (2), was licensed to preach in 1755; called to the living at Gask in 1763; transferred to Ormiston in 1765, and died November 3, 1813. He published An Account of the Parish. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae 1:303; 2:765.

3. GEORGE, D.D., studied theology in the Edinburgh University; was licensed to preach in 1821; presented to the living at Kilwinning in 1824, and ordained; transferred to Beith in 1831, and died May 13, 1852. His son George was minister at Canonbie. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae, 2:161,183.

4. HENRY, was presented to the parsonage and vicarage of Mukhart in 1577, and to the living at Orphir in 1580, and continued in 1595. He was "hunted to a savage death on the Noup of Nesting," July 9, 1596, and Gilbert. Pack was beheaded at the market cross, Edinburgh, for his part of the murder. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae, 3:399.

5. JOHN (1), took his degree at the University of St. Andrews about 1561; was presented to the chantry of Glasgow in 1567, and remained the minister at Kilbride when it was separated in 1569. He was accused of neglect and non-residence in 1575; deserted his charge in 1578, but on examination before the synod was acquitted. He was appointed master of requests the same year; was ambassador to queen Elizabeth in 1582; was found guilty of treason in 1584, and imprisoned in Edinburgh; afterwards restored, and named one of the lords of session in 1587, but resigned within a month. Disappointed, he joined the earl of Bothwell in his seditious practices, was driven from the kingdom, became a papist, wrote bitterly against Protestant principles, and died at Paris in November, 1605, in great want and misery. His several published works were chiefly in defence of his own erratic conduct. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae, 2:288.

6. JOHN (2), took his degree at the University of St. Andrews in 1635; was admitted to the living at Kirknewton in 1648, and died in February, 1663, aged about forty-eight years. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae, 1:142.

7. JOHN (3), A.M., was regent in the old college, St. Andrews, presented to the living at Mid-Calder in 1663, and died in 1671, aged about forty- one years. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae, 1:175.

8. PATRICK, took his degree at Edinburgh University in 1629; was appointed to the living at Beith in 1645, and ordained; was a member of the General Assembly in 1648; was appointed, in 1654, one of those for authorizing admissions to the ministry; elected moderator of the synod in 1661, which was the last meeting they held previous to the reestablishment of the presbytery after the Revolution. He was a very learned and good man, and died in May 1662, aged about fifty-three years. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanen, 2:159.

9. ROBERT (1), became minister at Culross in 1593; was one of the forty who, in 1606, consulted about holding the assembly at Aberdeen against the king's authority; signed, with forty-one others, a protest to parliament against the introduction of Episcopacy, and was one of the fifty-five who petitioned parliament in behalf of the liberties of the Kirk in 1617. He continued in 1629 with an assistant, and died in 1630. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae, 2:584.

10. ROBERT (2), took his degree at Edinburgh University in 1682; was appointed to the living at Barra in 1694; transferred to Glenluce in 1698; resigned in July, 1714, and retired to Stranraer, where he died, June 6, 1729, aged seventy years. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae, 1:334, 766.

11. ROBERT (3), took his degree at Edinburgh University in 1691; became schoolmaster at Jedburgh, aind was licensed to preach there in 1695; admitted to the living at Annan in 1696, and ordained: transferred to Yetholm in 1699, and died before March 2, 1731, aged about sixty years. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae, 1:477, 613.

12. ROBERT (4), was licensed to preach in 1758; presented to the second charge at Dysart the same year, and ordained. A libel was charged against him, to part of which he confessed, and for which he was suspended in 1784, but allowed an assistant. He died January 23, 1788. He published, Britain, a poem (1757): — Caledonian Heroine, a poem (1771): — Atalana, a poem (1777): — The Downfall of the Papal Confederacy (1788): Poetical Works (1789, 2 vols.): — Savannah, a poem (1793): — To the Memory of the Hon. William Leslie, a poem: — Extracts from Synod Sermon, etc. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae, 2:538.

13. WILLIAM (1), brother of lord Colvill, took his degree at the University of St. Andrews in 1617; was elected minister of Cramond in 1635; changed to the second charge at Greyfriars in 1638; was a member of the General Assembly the same year; promoted to Trinity College Church, Edinburgh, in 1639; the same year sent by the Covenanters to the king of France to solicit his aid against the despotic actions of Charles I. He and his papers were seized in England, and he was imprisoned, till released in 1640 by the Scottish army. When the Tron Church was made a new parish, in 1641, he was appointed the first incumbent. In 1645 he obtained protection from the marquis of Montrose, for which he was suspected of treason, in 1648 suspended, and deposed in 1649. In 1652 he was made a prisoner, but was restored to the ministry in 1654; appointed to the Collegiate Church at Perth in 1655; refused a bishopric, and was promoted to the principalship of Edinburgh University in 1662. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae, 1:31, 55, 133; 2:615.

14. WILLIAM (2), took his degree at Edinburgh University; was licensed to preach in 1821; presented to the living at Eaglesham in 1829, and ordained. He died March 12, 1859, aged fifty-nine years. See Fasti Eccles. Scoticanae, 2:66.