THE HISTORY OF THE KIRK OF SCOTLAND, FROM THE YEAR 1558 TO AUGUST 1637. BY JOHN ROW, MINISTER OF CARNOCK: WITH A CONTINUATION TO JULY 1639, BY HIS SON, JOHN ROW, EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR THE WODROW SOCIETY. M.DCCC.XLII. PREFATORY NOTICE. THE COUNCIL of the WODROW SOCIETY, in considering the works most suitable for commencing the series of their publications, were desirous of furnishing the Members with a volume relating to the History of the Church immediately subsequent to the period of the Reformation. For this purpose, the Manuscripts of JOHN Row, minister of Carnock, so frequently referred to by subsequent writers, were brought under their notice. It was indeed known that an edition of Row's History was actually in the press for the Maitland Club, Glasgow, while another was announced as contemplated by the Spalding Club, Aberdeen; but it was considered that any such publications, restricted as either of these editions would necessarily be to a very limited number of members, or a local circulation, should present no adequate reason to deter the COUNCIL from authorising the work to be printed in a more accessible form. In coming to such a decision, the COUNCIL were not uninfluenced at the time by the circumstance that they could indulge only a very distant and somewhat uncertain prospect of being able to undertake the publication of the larger and much more important History of the Church, from Calderwood's Manuscripts; a work, which, from the subsequent increase of their Members, has since been happily commenced, and is already far advanced. Although I had no personal concern in recommending Row's HISTORY to the COUNCIL, and was rather desirous of taking charge of some other work in preference to it, I had the less hesitation in acceding to the request to superintend it through the press, after examining several of the Manuscripts, and ascertaining that the work admitted of being published in such a form as would at least preclude it from being regarded as a mere reprint of any other edition. In this volume, therefore, the History appears for the first time, as revised and amplified by the AUTHOR himself during the latter period of his life. The text is given from a MS., which is wholly in the handwriting of his Son, JOHN Row, minister of Aberdeen, and which serves, I think, to remove certain difficulties that have hitherto presented themselves in regard to the authorship of the several portions of the work, as will elsewhere be stated. But I was anxious to give this previous explanation lest any misapprehension should exist, as if the COUNCIL had a design to interfere in an unwarrantable manner with the publication of another Society. SIGNET LIBRARY, EDINBURGH, November 1842. DAVID LAING. ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF MR JOHN ROW, MINISTER OF CARNOCK. THE name of Row is peculiarly and honourably distinguished in the ecclesiastical history of this country, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The founder of the family was John Row the Reformer; and five of his sons, with several of their children, continued to emulate his example, in devoted adherence to the cause of Presbytery, and in zeal and fidelity as ministers of the Reformed Church of Scotland. It is not, however, necessary in this place to give any detailed account of the numerous progeny of the Rows,' but a very brief sketch of the Reformer's life may serve to introduce the notices respecting his son, the Historian. Dr JOHN Row, the Reformer, was born at a place of that name in the neighbourhood of Stirling, about the year 1526.2 He was educated at the grammar school of Stirling, and afterwards prosecuted his studies at St Andrews. In the Records of the University, we find the name JOHANNES ROVE Loudon, as having matriculated in St Leonard's College in 1544. The designation affixed to his name, denoted his being a native of the academical district of Lothian, which embraced nearly the whole southern part of Scotland. Having completed his philosophical course, and taken the degree of A.M., he devoted himself to the study of the Canon 1 Additions to the Coronis, pages 447 and 456. 2 See Memorials of the Family of Row, Edinb. 1828, 4to; and Scott's Lives of the Protestant Reformers in Scotland, Edinb. 1810, 8vo. |