Note 292 — MEMORIAL CONCERNING THE HIGHLANDS WRITTEN BY ALEXANDER MACBEAN, A.M. MINISTER OF INVERNESS

Robert Bruce, ordained minister at Edinburgh 1587; Moderator of the Kirk 1588 and 1592, was the son of Bruce of Airth, Stirlingshire, a rude and powerful baron of a family collateral with the royal Bruces. At first Bruce was in high favour with James VI., who placed him on the council of regency when he went to Denmark to be married, 1589, and appointed him to officiate at the coronation of Queen Anne the following year. Subsequently he thwarted the king in his ecclesiastical policy as well as in refusing to acknowledge the guilt of the Earl of Gowrie, who had been his pupil. James had him deposed from his parish, and banished from Edinburgh, 1600. Part of his exile was passed at Inverness (1605-9, and again 1620-24), where he preached to crowded congregations every Sunday. He died at Kinnaird, 1631.