This article is about the Scottish poet. For his contemporary and namesake, the Edinburgh printer who produced the first edition of George Buchanan's History of Scotland in 1582, see Alexander Arbuthnot (printer).
He was the third son of Andrew Arbuthnot of Pitcarles, who in turn was the fourth son of Sir Robert Arbuthnot of Arbuthnot. His mother was Elizabeth Strachan, daughter of James Strachan of Monboddo.
His attitude on public questions earned him the condemnation of Catholic writers. He is not included in Nicol Burne's list of periurit apostatis, but his policy and influence were disliked by James VI, who, when the Assembly had elected Arbuthnot to the charge of the kirk of St. Andrews, ordered him to return to his duties at King's College.[1]
He died on 10 October 1583 and is buried in the Kirk of St Nicholas in central Aberdeen just in front of the pulpit.[2]
Works
His extant poetical works are three poems, The Praises of Wemen (4 lines), On Luve (10 lines), and The Miseries of a Pure (poor) Scholar (189 lines).[3][4] The praise of women in the first poem is exceptional in the literature of his age; and its geniality helps us to understand the author's popularity with his contemporaries.[1]
He wrote a volume entitled 'Orations on the Origins and Dignity of the Law', Orationes de origine et dignitate juris, 4to. (Edinburgh, 1572).[5]
He also wrote a Latin account of the history of the Arbuthnott family, Originis et Incrementi Arbuthnoticae Familiae Descriptio Historica, held in Aberdeen University Library in a volume containing a contemporary translation into Scots by William Morrison.[6] An English continuation of the Arbuthnott history, by Dr John Arbuthnot, is preserved in the Advocates Library, Edinburgh.[1]
^Sibbald, James (1802). Chronicle of Scottish Poetry: from the Thirteenth Century, to the Union of the Crowns. Edinburgh: J Sibbald. p. 329.
^Pinkerton, John (1786). Ancient Scottish Poems, Never Before in Print. But now published from the Ms. collections of Sir Richard Maitland, of Lethington, knight. London: C Dilly. p. 138.
^"History of the family of Arbuthnot (Originis et Incrementi Arbuthnoticae Familiae Descriptio Historica)" (1567-1606) [manuscript volume]. MS 2764 Papers of Arbuthnott of Arbuthnott, File: MS 2764/3/1/1. Aberdeen, Scotland: University of Aberdeen, Special Collections, University of Aberdeen.