Series 1 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society (First volume)

WITH ARCHBISHOP SHARP
275
1676]
Receiv heir inclosed a 2d Letter wch I have receavd from my
Lord Bp of Winchester. The trouth is I thinke the great
importunity of Mr Atkins puts the good Bp to all this trouble.
He brings costantlie to me his oune recomendations. I have
often said that I neither can nor will meddle, seing the King
hath put the power of recomeding into better hands. And
last day I told him that I was informed that it was resolved
amongst you to recomend the Bp of Moray to the Bprick of
Orkney.1 But nothing can put him off. Therfor I beseech
yor Gr. to write to me whom you will pitch on to yor vacant
Bpricks and thin we shall be quiet.—I am constantly, my Lord,
yor Gr8 most humble servant, Lauderdale.
[No address.]
XX
LAUDERDALE TO SHARP 2
Whitehall, June 1677.
May it please Yor Grace,—My Cousin, Sir Richard Mait¬
land,3 having received the inclosed Presentation from some
freinds of his in the shire of Aberdeen, who did not know that
it ought to be attested by your Grace, I would not passe it
July 6, which complains of ‘ a long and tedious debate of at least three hours
maintained by the Duke of Hamilton, the Earle of Kincardin, and the Lord
Cochrane and the Earle of Dumfries ... To give accompt of the particular
expressions of so tedious a debate is impossible; bot the sum of all that was
sayed wes justifieing the defender.’
1 Honyman, Bishop of Orkney, who had been shot by Mitchell, died in the
February of this year. James Atkins was a native of Kirkwall, and son of the
Sheriff and Commissary of Orkney. He was excommunicated by the General
Assembly ‘ for having conversed with the Marquis of Montrose ’ on his landing
in 1650. He was in Holland for safety from 1650 to 1653. At the Restora¬
tion he was presented by the Bishop of Winchester to the rectory of Winfrith in
Dorset. And now that Orkney was vacant he sought the appointment. He did
not obtain his desire, for, as intimated in the letter, Murdoch Mackenzie,
Bishop of Moray, was translated to Orkney. But his volo episcopari was gratified
by being appointed to succeed Mackenzie at Moray. See Keith’s Catalogue,
p. 153. The excellent George Morley was the Bishop of Winchester who
interested himself in pressing the claims of Atkins.
2 Written partly by a secretary.
3 Sir Richard Maitland, of Pittrichie, admitted an Ordinary Lord of Session
Dec. 1671. His appointment was discreditable, as he was ignorant of law.