ELTHINSTONE, WILLIAM, a celebrated Scottish prelate, and founder of King's col lege, Aberdeen, was b. in the year 1430 or 1431. He was the son of William Elphin stone, rector of Kirkmichael, and archdeacon of Teviotdale, and, as the marriage of ecclesiastics was then prohibited, his birth was illegitimate. E. studied at the univer sity of Glasgow, where lie took his degree of M.A. at the age of 24, at the same time that he took priest's orders. He seems to have acted as his father's curate at Kirk michael for four years, but being strongly attached to the study of law (he had practiced as an advocate in the church courts before this), he went to France in his 29th year, at the instigation of his uncle, Laurence Elphinstone, who supplied him with the means of studying at the most celebrated schools of the continent. E. so highly distinguished himself, that after three years he was appointed professor in the university of Paris, and afterwards at Orleans, which had then the highest reputation as a legal school. So greatly were his learning and talents appreciated, that the parliament of Paris used to ask his opinion on great questions. After a residence of nine years abroad, he returned to Scotland, and was made successively official-gen. of the diocese of Glasgow (1471-72), rector of the university (1474), and official of Lothian in 1478, " then probably," says Mr. Cosmo Innes (Sketches of Early Scottish History, Edin. 1801), "the second judicial office in the kingdom, which he filled for two years, sitting in parliament, and serving on the judicial committees, which formed the supreme civil jurisdiction in Scotland. His dignity, learning, and prudence now began to procure him universal respect. He was the principal member of a great embassy sent from Scotland to France, to settle certain disputes that had sprung up between the two countries, and threatened the stability of their ancient alliance. In this important affair, he was eminently success ful. On his return, he was made bishop of Ross in 1481. In 1483, he was removed to the see of Aberdeen; and between this period and the death of James III. he was sev eral times engaged in embassies to France, England, Burgundy, and Austria. For a few months before the death of that monarch, he held the office of chancellor of the kingdom. He lost this great office on the accession of James IV., but, says the author ity already quoted, "lie was speedily restored to favor, and to the royal councils, and seems to have been keeper of the privy seal from 1500 till his death." He did not suffer his office to withdraw him from the care of his diocese, where he applied himself to the faithful discharge of his episcopal functions, endeavoring to reform the clergy, the ser vice, and the ritual of his church. He next concluded (while on a mission to the conti nent for another. purpose) a treaty with Holland, which was beneficial to Scotland. E.
seems to have had a genuine desire for the enlightenment and improvement of his coun trymen. Whenever leisure permitted, we find him engaged in devising means to this end, It appears to have been chiefly through his influence that the first printing-press —that of Chepman and Miller—was established in Scotland. He superintended the preparation and printing of the Breviary of Aberdeen, and collected the materials for the lives of the Scottish saints contained in that work. He procured from the pope (Alexander VI.) a bull for erecting a university in Aberdeen. The bull was sent in 1494, but the college was not founded till 1500, when it was dedicated to St. Mary—a name afterwards changed to King's college. E. built also the great central tower and wooden spire of his cathedral church at Aberdeen, provided its great bells, covered the roofs of its nave, aisles, and transept with lead; and, at his own expense, built a stone bridge over the Dee for the benefit of his townsmen. The fatal battle of Flodden, 9th Sept., 1513, broke the spirit of E., who was never seen to smile after. He died 25th Oct., 1514, and was buried before the high altar of the chapel of the college which he founded. E. was a man of great vigor of mind and nobleness of nature—" one of those prelates," says a writer in the Quarterly Review (No. clxix, p. 141), "who in their munif icent acts, and their laborious and saintly lives, showed to the Scottish church, in her corruption and decay, the glorious image of her youth." " We know him," says Mr. Ines, " in the history of the time as the zealous churchman, the learned lawyer, the wise statesman; one who never sacrificed his diocesan duties to mere secular cares, but knew how to make his political eminence serve the interests of his church; who, with manners and temperance in his own person, befitting the primitive ages of Christianity, threw around his cathedral and palace the taste and splendor that may adorn religion, who found time, amidst the cares of state and the pressure of daily duties, to preserve the Christian antiquities of his diocese, and collect the memories of those old servants of truth who had run a course similar to his own; to renovate his cathedral service, and to support and foster all good letters, while his economy of a slender revenue rendered it sufficient for the erection and support of sumptuous buildings and the endowment of a famous university." Some volumes of notes made by E. when studying in the law schools, are preserved in the library of the university of Aberdeen. A transcript of Fordun's Seotiehronican, with some additions, in the Bodleian library at Oxford, was long erroneously ascribed to him. His Braciarium A.berdonense, printed in 1509-10, was reprinted in two vols. 4to at London in 1853.