CARSTARES or CARSTAIRS, WILLIAM Scottish clergyman, was born in Cathcart manse, near Glasgow, on Feb. I1, 1649, and was educated at the University of Edin burgh and at Utrecht. He became a close friend of the prince of Orange. The British Government disliked Carstares for several reasons. He was the intimate of William; he had been the bearer of messages between the disaffected in Scotland and Hol land; and he was believed to be concerned with Sir James Steuart (1635-1715) in the authorship of a pamphlet, An Ac count of Scotland's Grievances by reason of the D. of Lauder dale's Ministrie, humbly tendered to his Sacred Majesty. On his return to England, at the close of 1674, he was committed to the Tower ; the following year he was transferred to Edinburgh castle, and only released in Aug. 1679. During 1682 he was in Holland, but in the following year he was again in London, and was implicated in the Rye House Plot. He was examined before the Scottish Council and put to the torture. Although he was assured that his admissions would not be used in evidence, they were in fact used against Baillie of Jerviswood. On his return to Holland he became court chaplain to the prince of Orange; and after the Revolution he continued to hold this office, under the title of royal chaplain for Scotland. He was the confidential adviser of the king, especially with regard to Scottish affairs. On the accession of Anne, Carstares retained his post as royal chaplain, but resided in Edinburgh, having been elected prin cipal of the university. During Anne's reign, the chief object of his policy was to frustrate the measures which were planned by Lord Oxford to strengthen the Episcopalian Jacobites—especially a bill for extending the privileges of the Episcopalians and the bill for replacing in the hands of the old patrons the right of patronage, which by the Revolution settlement had been vested in the elders and the Protestant heritors. He died on Dec. 28, See State-papers and Letters addressed to William Carstares, to which is prefixed a Life by M'Cormick (i774) ; Story's Character and Career of William Carstares (1874).