Live of Eminent Men of Aberdeen Author:James Bruce General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1841 Original Publisher: L Smith Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select ... more »from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: BISHOP WILLIAM ELPHINSTONE. The history of this eminent prelate, and munificent patron of learning, is so intimately connected with Aberdeen, that we believe the omission of an account of his life in this work would be felt as a great defect. Our city, however, -- which he loved with so warm an affection, and on which he conferred so many lasting benefits, believing, as he did, that he was called by his patroness, the Blessed Virgin, to watch especially over its spiritual and temporal interests, -- cannot claim the high honour of having given him birth. William Elphinstone was born at Glasgow in the year 1431, of an ancient family, said to have been of Hungarian or German extraction. " The Elphinstones," says Mackenzie, " say that they are descended from the Counts of Helphinston, in Suabia; and that the first of this name in Scotland came alongst with Queen Margaret, and settled here in the year 1061."f His father, William Elphinstone, the Orcm (Description of the Chanonry, Cathedral, and King's College, of Old Aberdeen, p. 59 -- Abdn. 1830), Keith (Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, p. lie -- Edinb. 1824), Pinkerton (Iconographia Sco- tica), and Crawfurd (Lives of the Officers of State, p. 47 -- Edinb. 1726), place Elphinstoue's birth in 1437; but, as we learn from Boece that he attained the age of eighty-three, and, as it is well ascertained that ho died in 1514, he must have been born, as Dr. Mackenzie (Lives of Scots Writers, vol. ii. p. 1) states, in 1431. t Mackenzie, vol. ii. p. 1 -- "Others, with more probability, think that the sirnamo is local; that these lands h...« less