BEATON, JAMES, ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW
Arms.—On a Bishop's cross. Quarterly, first and fourth, arg., a fess between three mascles or; second and third arg., a chevron sa., charged with an otter's head erased of the first. Beaton. At the base of the shield, the fish of Glasgow holding a ring in its mouth.
Legend.—Iacobvs a betovn archiepiscopvs glasgvensis 1576.
[Hours of the Diocese of Salisbury. 1526.]
James Beaton (born 1517, died 1603) was a son of John Beaton of Balfour, Fife. He was a man of high character and much esteemed both in Scotland and in France, where circumstances caused him to spend a considerable portion of his life. Beaton acted as Ambassador from Scotland at the French Court, and lived in Paris at the Scots College, an Institution of which he was very proud, and to which he bequeathed the greater part of his fortune.
Beaton also took a leading part in the politics of his time, and was a staunch friend to Mary Queen of Scots. In 1552 he was, in Paris, consecrated Archbishop of Glasgow, and he also held several important ecclesiastical preferments in France.
