Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nimmo, James
NIMMO, JAMES (1654–1709), covenanter, only surviving son of John Nimmo, factor and baillie on the estate of Boghead, Linlithgowshire, by his wife Janet Muir, was born in July 1654. He was sent first to the school at Bathgate, whence, on account of a quarrel of his father with the schoolmaster, he was transferred to Stirling. He joined the insurgents after Drumclog, and was among those defeated at Bothwell Bridge, 22 June 1679. Being on this account proscribed, he fled to the north of Scotland, and was taken into the service of the laird of Park and Lochloy in Moray. There he married Elizabeth Brodie, granddaughter of John Brodie of Windiehills, the marriage being celebrated on 4 Dec. 1682 by the ‘blessed Mr. Hog.’ Shortly afterwards, on account of the arrival of a party of soldiers in search of outlawed covenanters, he had to go into shelter in the old vaults of Pluscarden. Ultimately he fled south to Edinburgh, where he arrived on 23 March 1683. Thence he went to Berwick-on-Tweed, and finally he took refuge in Holland. He returned to Scotland in April 1688, and after the revolution obtained a post in the customs in Edinburgh. Subsequently he was appointed treasurer of the city. He died 6 Aug. 1709. He had four sons and a daughter. Of the sons, John, like his father, was a member of the Edinburgh town council, and treasurer of the city. The ‘Narrative of Mr. James Nimmo, written for his own Satisfaction, to keep in some Remembrance the Lord's Ways, Dealings, and Kindness towards him, 1654–1709,’ was printed under the editorship of W. G. Scott-Moncrieff by the Scottish History Society, from a manuscript in possession of Mr. Pingle of Torwoodlee in Selkirkshire.
[Nimmo's Narrative, and the Preface by W. G. Scott-Moncrieff; Diary of the Lairds of Brodie (Spalding Club).]