Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

xlii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE
station as Primus, and, above all, his personal influence as a
man of business as well as of letters, will account for the
prominent part he acted as the representative and advocate
of the Episcopal Synod. 11
While those discussions were occupying the attention of
Bishop Keith, he was not regardless of his favourite eccle-
siastical and historical researches. This appears by the fol-
lowing extract from the " Bishops 1 Record," lately in the pos-
session of the Right Rev. James Walker, D.D., Bishop of Edin-
burgh and Primus, who died in 1842 sincerely regretted by
the Church : — " At Edinburgh, Tuesday, August 23, 1743. —
After the [Diocesan] Synod was constituted by prayer,
Bishop Keith having presented a List of the MSS. relating
to this Church, which were delivered by the late Bishop
Rose of Edinburgh his lady 1 to the late Bishop Fullarton
of Edinburgh, for which this last named Bishop gave receipt
to Bishop Rose's lady, dated September 1720 ; therefore,
charge was given to Bishop Keith to inquire after, and, if
possible, to recover the said MSS. out of the hands of the
heirs, &c. of the late Bishop Fullarton, and to report his
diligence to the next Synod. 112
1 This must refer to the sister of Bishop Rose, as that venerable Pre-
late was never married.
2 The List of the MSS. reported by Bishop Keith to this Diocesan
Synod will be interesting to the reader, and it is annoying to state that
most of those valuable MSS. are now probably lost, or are irrecoverable.
Bishop Keith's List was as follows —
" 1. A Book of the Synods of Edinburgh.
2. Some Transactions of the College of Bishops.
3. Presbytery Book of the Mearns [Kincardineshire].
4. Register Book of the Bishops, Five Volumes.
5. Presbytery Book of Forfar.
6. Presbytery Book of Aberbrothwick.
7. Register of the Provincial Assembly of Fife, Five Volumes.
8. Session-Book of [the Parish of] Innerkip [in Renfrewshire!,
Two Volumes.
9. Register of Baptisms at Innerkip, from 1665 to 1680.
10. Provincial Book of Argyll.
11. Presbytery Book of Dunfermline.
12. Provincial Assembly Book of Glasgow and Ayr, Two Volumes.
13. Rental of the Bishopric of Edinburgh."