Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lindsay, David (d.1641?)
LINDSAY, DAVID (d. 1641?), bishop of Edinburgh, was a son of Colonel John Lindsay, laird of Edzell in Forfarshire, and graduated at St. Andrews in 1593. He became master first of Montrose academy, and then in 1597 of Dundee grammar school, holding also from 1599 the ministry of Guthrie parish, and from 1605 of Dundee. Next year, however, he resigned his mastership, while petitioning the town council to 'take consideration of his estate, and that he may have ane sufficient moyan quhairupon he may lieve as ane honest man,' but it was not till 1620 that he obtained a full payment of the augmentation then voted to his stipend. Meanwhile, in 1616 he became a member of the high commission; in 1617 defended at St. Andrews, before James VI, some theses 'upon the power of kings and princes,' and in 1618 supported the 'king's articles' at Perth assembly. He advanced similar arguments in his 'Reasons of a Pastor's Resolution touching the reverendreceiving of the Holy Communion,' London, 1619, 12mo, and 'A true Narration of the Proceedings at Perth,' London, 1621, 4to. Nevertheless, according to Wodrow, he acknowledged that there was 'neither reason, scripture, nor antiquity for kneeling, but to avert the king's wrath thought it best to yield.' He was rewarded with the bishopric of Brechin, being consecrated at St. Andrews on 23 Nov. 1619. In 1633 he crowned Charles I at Holyrood. He lived on at Dundee until 1634, when he was translated to Edinburgh, and made one of the lords of exchequer. On 23 July 1637, the Sunday appointed for the introduction of the new service book, he was present at both the services in the Great Kirk of St. Giles. Both times he was pelted as he left the church, and in the afternoon there arose a great clamour in the streets, and the cry was 'Kill the traitour!' The Earl of Roxburghe took him up in his coach, but stones were cast at it, and some of them hit Lindsay so that with great difficulty he reached his lodgings at Holyrood. The anonymous author of 'A breefe and true Relation of the Broyle,' &c., first printed as an appendix to Rothes' 'Relation' (Bannatyne Club, 1830), is the sole authority for crediting Lindsay with displaying the most shameful pusillanimity on this occasion. Deposed and excommunicated by the Glasgow general assembly in1638, 'he retired,' says Mr. Lippe, 'to England, and died there in 1641.' Such is not, however, Wodrow's statement, and Jervise places his death between 1638 and 1640, as in the latter year his son John, by his wife Katherine Ramsay of Banff, Perthshire, was served heir to him in the estate of Dunkeny.
[Wodrow's Biographical Collections, ed. by the Rev. Robert Lippe (New Spalding Club, Aberdeen. 1890}; A. Maxwell's Hist. of Old Dundee (Edinb. 1884); Scott's Fasti Eccl. Scot. vol. iii. pt. ii.; Lives of the Lindsays; A. Jervise's Land of the Lindsays; Keith's Scottish Bishops, p. 167.]