John Knox
- Name : Knox
- Born : c.1530
- Died : 1572
- Category : Religious Figures
- Finest Moment : Writing the 'Scots Confession'
History of Scotland
Our ongoing history of Scotland that chronicles the events in Scotland over the past million years with a special focus on the last thousand as you might expect. We have also digitised a copy of Patrick Tytler's History of Scotland which is an eccentric but wonderfully written history of the the mediaeval years in Scotland. The project of chronicling Scotland's history is ongoing, as is the process of organising and structuring and linking the pages together.
John Law Financier
- Name : Law
- Born : 1671
- Died : 1729
- Category : Finance
- Finest Moment : Holding the French chequebook.
John Leslie
John Leslie, 6th Earl of Rothes
- Name : Leslie, 6th Earl of Rothes
- Born : c.1600
- Died : 1641
- Category : Famous Historical Figures
- Finest Moment : Drafting of the National Covenant in 1638
'One of the four noblemen who helped draft the National Covenant'
John Leslie succeeded to the earldom in 1621. He was a grandson of the 5th. Both the 4th and 5th earls had been aligned with the Protestant nobility, though exhibiting the very mixed emotions of the times the 4th had been acquitted of the murder of Cardinal Beaton and the 5th had sided with Queen Mary following her escape from Loch Leven in 1568.
John 6th Earl had stronger religious feelings however, and opposed James VI's concessions to the papacy and later Charles I's ill-advised reintroduction of the Prayer Book. John helped draft the National Covenant in 1638, and played a prominent role later that same year at the Glasgow Assembly, which the Lord High Commissioner failed to close. Bishops were banned naturally.
By 1640 the Covenanters were becoming divided with suspicion of Argyll, and it may have been that John was becoming more amenable to approaches by the King, but then he went and died the next year so we'll never know.
John Logie Baird
- Name : Baird
- Born : 1847
- Died : 1922
- Category : Scientists and Inventors
- Finest Moment : First transmission of a television signal, 1924.
John McAdam
- Name : McAdam
- Born : 1756
- Died : 1836
- Category : Inventors
- Finest Moment : Invention of the macadam road surface
John MacDonald MacCormick
Founder of the Scottish Nationalist Party in 1932 although never an MP. He helped redefine the relationship between Scotland and the rest of the UK.
John MacLean
The most notable of the "Red Clydesiders and a committed Marxist. Died in 1923 standing for parliament.
John Mackenzie Mountaineer
- Name : Mackenzie
- Born : 1856
- Died : 1933
- Category : Mountaineers
- Finest Moment : Many first ascents in the Cuillins of Skye including the first ascent of Sgurr Mhic Choinnich (1887), the Thearlaich-Dubh Gap (1891), Banachdich Gully & King's Cave Chimney (1898), the Cioch (1906, and named by Mackenzie). First professional mountain guide to work in Britain.
John Mair Major
John Mair (or Major) / Philosophers and Historians
- Name : Mair / Major
- Born : 1467/8
- Died : 1550
- Category : Philosophers and Historians
- Finest Moment : Teaching the cream of Europe in Europe. Teacher of John Knox & Jean Calvin
One of a large number of Scots who became renowned for their teaching of logic & philosophy.
Born in Gleghornie near Haddington, East Lothian, John Mair studied briefly at Cambridge before living in Paris for some time. He returned to Scotland, teaching there from 1518-25, first at Glasgow, then at St Andrews. He taught scholastic logic and theology, and although his methods, and those of similar bent from Scotland, were regarded as old-fashioned by many Europeans, in some ways they were in fact ahead of their time.
There were also a rather large number of such smarties for such a small country. Perhaps something to do with the long winter nights.
In 1521 he wrote Historia Maioris Britanniae, in which he favoured the union of Scotland and England. In St Andrews, he was Provost of St Salvator's College in 1533. John Knox, who was one of his pupils, held him in high regard. Mair did not live to see the Reformation, but would no doubt have had some interesting observations on it. He had made comments on the abuse of the Church, and in Paris Jean Calvin was probably a pupil.