I have two deeds dated in 1539-40, and 1541, granted by "William Commendator and Usufructuar of Culross, and John be the permission of God Abbot of that ilk, and Convent of the samyn," signed, "Villelmus Commendatarius de Culross, Johannes Colvile Abbas," and by "Frater Johannes Christeson," and the other brethren of the convent. Another deed, dated 20th March 1564-5, is signed by William Commendator, &c., along with the brethren of the Convent; John Colville, Abbot, having probably died before this. William Commendator of Culross filled the office of Comptroller from 1546 to 1550. His name occurs among the signatures to the Book of Discipline, see page 258. That the Commendator as well as the Abbot was a Colville might be shown from several incidental notices. One instance may suffice; in the Register of Signatures, there is recorded the Confirmation of a pension of £61, 6s. 8d., and "twenty bollis rynnand met of quheit, granted by umquhill Williame Commendator of Culross, and Convent thairof, to Maister Robert Colvill brother To The said umquhill Commendator," 15th April 1569.
II. John Abbot Of Lindores, 1540-1566.
There is much less certainty in regard to this Abbot. In a deed dated 19th February 1539-40, John Abbot of Lindoris signs as Coadjutor and Administrator of the Abbey of Kelso, during the minority of Lord James Stewart Commendator, who was then under age. In 1540, John Abbot of Lindores had a seat in Parliament; and four years later he appears as one of the Lords of Session. In the Provincial Council held at Edinburgh in 1549, he sat as Abbot; and, as Knox states under the year 1559, (vol. i. p. 392,) having submitted to the Congregation, he was stigmatized as an apostate. In August 1560, he gave his sanction to the Confession of Faith. John Commendator of Lindoris is named as having been present at the meeting of the General Assembly, 25th June 1566, but probably did no long survive.
In the "Epistolæ Regum Scotorum," there is a letter addressed by John Duke of Albany, Governor of Scotland, to Pope Hadrian the Sixth, dated 9th March 1521-2, which may assist in ascertaining this point. It states that the venerable father, Henry Abbot of Lundoris, on account of the increasing infirmities of age, "ad solicitudines et vigilantiores loci sufferandos labores, præcipuum et probatum virum Johannem Philp, inibi professum Monachum Presbyterum, delegit;" and therefore he had resigned to him the Abbacy, reserving to himself for life the revenues of this benefice, requesting his Holiness to confirm the said John Philp as Abbot. "Johannes Philp" appears in the list of Determinants in St. Salvator's College, St. Andrews, in 1536; and the following year "M. Johannes Philp" is included among the Licentiates for the higher degree of Master of Arts. That this person may have been the son or nephew of the Abbot is by no means improbable.
It is not ascertained how long Abbot Henry, who sat in Parliament in 1513, may have survived the appointment of his coadjutor in 1522. That Abbot John may have held the office for a period of forty-five years, is, at least, a probable conjecture; and in the absence of more direct proof, that this individual was John Philp, it may be noticed that several persons of that name appear connected with Lindoros for a length of time. Among others, (1.) James Philp of Ormeston, (who died in 21st January 1579-80,) and Margaret Forrest his spouse, had a charter of lands in the Grange of Lindores, 24th March 1574. According to his testament, confirmed 26th April 1583, John Philp, burgess of Newburgh, was his brother-german, and mention is made of Henry and John Philpis, as his lawfull barnes. (2.) James Philp, junior, and Margaret Philp his spouse, had a lease of 31⁄2 acres of land in the regality of Lindoris, 18th October 1580. (3.) Letters of Legitimation of Henry Philp, bastard, natural son of Mr. John Philp in Newtoun of Lindoris, were granted 10th September 1580. (4.) The same person styled simply Henry Philp, son of Mr. John Philp in Newburgh, had a charter of five acres in the Hauch of Lundores in Fife, 21st December 1592.
III. John Bishop Of Ross and Abbot of Lindores, 1560.
A few particulars may be added respecting another Abbot of Lindoris, who was much more distinguished both in his literary and political career—John Lesley, Bishop of Ross. He was born 29th September 1527. Knox, at page 141 of this volume, calls him "a priest's gett," or bastard; and this assertion is fully confirmed by some original documents which Bishop Keith examined, showing that he was the natural son of Gawin Lesley, parson of Kingussie in Badenoch, and Official of the See of Murray. In 1537, John Lesley obtained a dispensation, notwithstanding the defect of his birth, to become a clergyman. He was inducted to a canonry in the Cathedral Church of Aberdeen and Ellon in August 1550. He then spent four years abroad, in the study of the civil and canon laws in the University of Poictiers; and was created a Doctor of Laws at Paris. He returned to Scotland in April 1554; four years later, in April 1558, he was appointed Official at Aberdeen; and in July 1559, he was inducted to the parsonage, canonry, and prebend of Oyne. In April 1561, he was deputed, on the part of the Roman Catholic party, to invite the Queen to Scotland, after the death of Francis the Second. He returned to Leith in the same vessel with her; and for a period of upwards of twenty years continued one of the most active and zealous adherents and assertors of the rights and character of his Royal Mistress. On the 19th January 1563-4, he took his seat as a Lord of Session, by his designation as Parson of Oyne. Soon afterwards he obtained the Abbacy of Lindores in commendam; and upon the death of Henry Sinclair, Bishop of Ross, having been promoted to the vacant See, his appointment was confirmed in April 1566.
Among the various documents relating to John Lesley parson of Oyne, and afterwards Bishop of Ross, of which Keith has given some account, is one, No. 7, which, if correctly stated, would have shown that the name of the Abbot, his immediate predecessor, was also John Lesley. It will be seen, however, that this is a mistake. Having obtained a sight of the original paper, which is written in a small hand, and full of contractions, it may be described as a petition intimating in the usual form, that John, Abbot of the Monastery of Lindoris, of the Order of St. Benedict, in the diocese of St. Andrews, had resigned the Abbacy in favour of John Leslie, Clerk in the diocese of Murray, and a Doctor of both Laws, who had a seat on the bench as one of the Lords of Council in Scotland. To this added the fiat ut petitur, granting Lesley a dispensation to hold this benefice in commendam. It is dated "Rome apud Sanctum Petrum sexto Kal. Martij, Anno Primo." That this was during the first year of the Pontificate of Pius V., (who was elected on the 7th, and crowned on the 17th January 1565-66,) is evident from the document itself, which refers to letters in favour of Lesley, "by Henry and Mary, King and Queen of Scotland," thus fixing the date to the 24th February 1566.
In June following, John Bishop of Ross, and Commendator of Lindores, obtained a Royal mandate, and took an active part in regard to the confirmation of various feu-farms of lands pertaining to the Abbey of Lindores. In the letter describing Riccio's murder and the Queen's conduct, addressed to the Council of England by the Earl of Bedford and Sir Thomas Randolph, the 27th March 1566, it appears that Bishop Lesley, along with his colleague James Balfour, Parson of Flisk, was that night in Holyrood,—"Atholle had leave of the Kinge, with Flyske and Landores, (who was lately called Lyslaye, the Parson of Ovne,) to go where they wolde; and being convoide oute of the courte," &c. (Wright's Queen Elizabeth, vol. i. p. 229.)
The latter portion of Bishop Lesley's life is well known, and need not be detailed—his imprisonment in England in 1571—his long residence in different parts of the continent, and his death near Brussels on the 31st May 1596, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. See in particular the account of his life and writings, by Dr. Irving in his "Lives of Scotish Writers," vol. i. p. 122, &c.