James Wedderburn (c. 1495 – 1553) was a Scottish poet, the eldest son of James Wedderburn, merchant of

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

(described in documents as "at the West Kirk Style" to distinguish him from others of the name), and of Janet Barry, sister of John Barry, vicar of Dundee. He was born in Dundee about 1495, and matriculated at

St Andrews University The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...

in 1514. He was enrolled as a burgess of Dundee in 1517, and was intended to take up his father's occupation as a merchant. While at St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, he had come under the influence of Gavin Logie, one of the leading reformers, and he afterwards took an active part against

Romanism ''Romanism'' is a derogatory term for Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism used when anti-Catholicism was more common in the United States. The term was frequently used in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Republican Party (United ...

. After leaving the university he was sent to

Dieppe Dieppe (; ; or Old Norse ) is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department, Normandy, northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newhaven in England ...

and

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

, where it is probable that a branch of the Wedderburn family was settled in commerce. Returning to Dundee, he wrote two plays—a tragedy on the beheading of

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

, and a comedy called '' Dionysius the Tyrant''—in which he satirised the abuses in the Roman church. These plays were performed in the open air at the Playfield, near the west port of Dundee, in 1539–40; but they have not been preserved, though from references made to them by Calderwood and others they seem to have given much offence to ruling ecclesiastics. About this time, in conjunction with his brothers John Wedderburn and Robert Wedderburn, he wrote a number of sacred parodies on popular ballads, which were published apparently at first as broadsheet ballads, and were afterwards collected and issued in 1567, under the title . Only one copy of the edition of 1567 is known to exist, and there is no clue to the date of the first edition referred to on its title-page. As some of the songs plainly refer to incidents that took place in Scotland about 1540, the theory that these were circulated as broadsheets is not unreasonable. According to Calderwood, James Wedderburn "counter-footed the conjuring of a ghost" in a drama, which seemed to reflect upon

James V James V (10 April 1512 – 14 December 1542) was List of Scottish monarchs, King of Scotland from 9 September 1513 until his death in 1542. He was crowned on 21 September 1513 at the age of seventeen months. James was the son of King James IV a ...

, whose confessor, Father Laing, had scandalised the king by some mummery of this kind. Possibly this was the cause that action was taken against Wedderburn as a heretic, for in 1539 he was "delated to the king, and letters of caption directed against him", but he managed to escape to France, returning to Dieppe or Rouen and resuming his commercial occupation. An unsuccessful attempt was made by the Scottish factors there to have him prosecuted by the bishop of Rouen, and he remained in France until his death in 1553, not 1565, as sometimes stated. The date is proved by the return of his son John as heir to his father in October 1553. Wedderburn married before 1528 Janet, daughter of David Forrester in Nevay, by whom he had three sons; of these John (died November 1569) was grandfather of James Wedderburn, bishop of Dunblane.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wedderburn, James 1490s births 1553 deaths People educated at the High School of Dundee Alumni of the University of St Andrews Burgesses in Scotland Scottish merchants Kingdom of Scotland expatriates in France Writers from Dundee 16th-century Scottish poets 16th-century Scottish male writers 16th-century Scottish people Scottish dramatists and playwrights 16th-century dramatists and playwrights Scottish Protestants Poets from Dundee