Adam Blackwood

Adam Blackwood

Author, b. at Dunfermline, Scotland, 1539; d. 1613. He was a great-nephew of Robert Reid, Bishop of Orkney (1541-58), who provided for his education, both his parents being dead, at the University of Paris. On the bishop's death, Queen Mary's generosity enabled Adam to complete his studies at Paris and Toulouse. He taught philosophy at Paris and published there a funeral poem on King Charles IX (1574) and a work on the relation between religion and government (1575). Archbishop James Beaton recommended him to Mary for the office of Judge of the Parliament of Poitiers (Poitou was under her jurisdiction as Dowager of France), and here he married Catherine Courtinier. Blackwood collected a good library, and wrote several books, one an "Apology for Kings", denouncing Buchanan's views with much bitterness, and another a vigourous defence of Queen Mary, published in Paris (nominally in Edinburgh) after her death. Other works by him were a book of pious meditations in prose and verse and an ascetic commentary on the fiftieth Psalm. Blackwood died in 1613, and was buried at Poitiers. His widow married Francois de la Mothe le Vayer, and one of his daughters became the wife of George Crichton, Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Paris.

Adami Blacvodoei opera omnia (Paris, 1644), ed. GABRIEL; NAUDE (with a portrait and prefatory life); IRVING, Scottish Writers, I, 161-169; DEMPSTER, Hist. Eccles: Gentis Scotorum, 116; BLACKWOOD, Martyrs de la Royne d'Escosse is included in JEBB, De vitâ et rebus gestis Mariae Scot. Reginae (1725), II, 175 (Maitland Club tr., 1734).

D.O. HUNTER-BLAIR