William Elphinstone
- Name : Elphinstone
- Born : 1431
- Died : 1514
- Category : Religious Figures
- Finest Moment : Founding of Aberdeen's King's College in 1495.
Remembered mainly for his good deeds in Aberdeen, Elphinstone was born in Glasgow in 1431, possibly the son of a priest. He was himself ordained priest, about 1456, and also studied law in Paris and Orleans. Returning to Scotland about 1471, he was made rector of Glasgow University in 1474.
He became bishop of Ross in 1481, and was then translate to Aberdeen in 1483, being appointed Bishop there in 1483. A series of diplomatic missions were carried out by him for James III and James IV. He became keeper of the privy seal in 1492. Three years later, during his tenure of the see, he founded King's College, the third university in Scotland, the first in the north. It received the papal bull for the foundation in 1494, with the royal charter confirming Old Aberdeen as the university seat following in 1497.
He was partly responsible for Scotland's first printing press, established by Chepman and Myllar, with his Brevarium Aberdonense being published in 1510. He was to take up the Archbishopric of St Andrews in 1514, but died that year, on 25 October, in Edinburgh, at the grand old age of 83.