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From the Book of Eminent Burgesses of Dundee 1513 to 1885.
Magister John Maxwell, Bishop of Ross - 4th July 1633
THE SAME DAY MAGISTER JOHN MAXWELL, BISHOP OF ROSS, IS ADDED TO THE NUMBER OF THE BURGESSES AND BRETHREN OF THE GUILD OF THE SAID BURGH, FOR THE SAME REASON.
The fact of the enrolment of four Prelates of the Episcopal Church upon the Burgess Roll of a Burgh so entirely devoted to Presbyterianism as Dundee then was requires some explanation. A comparison of dates will show that the admission of these four Bishops took place at the time when CHARLES I. was making a Royal progress through this part of the Kingdom after his Coronation.
At the end of June, 1633, the KING set forth from Edinburgh upon a sporting tour, journeyed by Linlithgow and Dunfermline to Falkland Palace, where he remained for several days, ultimately reaching Perth on the 8th of July. It was whilst he was at Falkland that the Bishops who had accompanied him game to Dundee for the purpose of being made Burgesses; their personal presence in the town being proved negatively, since it is not stated that the honour was conferred upon them in absence. It may therefore be concluded that the honour was paid to the KING in their persons rather than to the form of ritual which they sought to introduce.
JOHN MAXWELL, Bishop of Ross, was the son of MAXWELL of Cavens, a branch of the Kirkhouse family in Nithsdale, and belonged to the same race as the MAXWELLS of Tealing, to whom reference has been repeatedly made. He was born in 1591, and studied at St Andrews University, where he took his degree as Master of Arts on 29th July, 1611. He became Minister of Mortlach in 1615, and was transferred to the High Church of Edinburgh in 1622. During the succeeding eleven years, he was Minister successively of Trinity College Church, of the Old Church, and of S. Giles, Edinburgh, and was considered one of the leading clergymen in the Metropolis.
Through the influence of his Cousin, JAMES MAXWELL, afterwards EARL OF DIRLETON, one of the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to CHARLES I, he was promoted by the
KING to the Bishopric of Ross, on 26th April, 1633 about two months before his enrolment as a Burgess of Dundee and by the interest of his "intimate friend," ARCHBISHOP LAUD, be was made a Privy Councillor and an Extraordinary Lord of Session in the same year. That influential Prelate had recommended that the KING should appoint MAXWELL to the office of Lord High Treasurer, but the opposition of the EARL OF TRAQUAIR, who, then held the post, and of his noble friends, prevented the fulfilment of this project. He did his utmost, in conjunction with LAUD and GUTHRIE, to introduce the Episcopalian Ritual to the Scottish Church, and used the Service Book regularly for some time in his own Cathedral. He had thus “no small share in fomenting and widening the breach between the KING and his subjects," and suffered accordingly.
He was deposed and excommunicated in 1638, and fled for protection to the KING, in March, 1639, but never returned to his native country. Though accused before Parliament of treason against the State, he retained the KING'S favour, and was presented by him to the Bishopric of Killala and Achoury, in Ireland, in October, 1640. When the Irish Rebellion of 1641 broke out, he was seized by the rebels, stripped naked, and left for dead, but was discovered and rescued by a friendly nobleman, and conveyed to Dublin. Once more he had to take shelter with the KING at Oxford, and remained at Court until he was raised to the Archbishopric of Tuam, on 30th August, 1645. He returned to Dublin, but the news of the disasters which overwhelmed his Royal Master, and for which he was partly responsible, caused him acute suffering. On 14th February, 1646, having retired to his closet, he was found on his knees, dead, having then reached the age of fifty five years. By his wife, ELIZABETH INNES, he had four sons and four daughters.