Patrick Scougal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Denomination | Church of Scotland |
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| Senior posting | |
| See | Diocese of Aberdeen |
| Title | Bishop of Aberdeen |
| Period in office | 1664–1682 |
| Predecessor | Alexander Burnet |
| Successor | George Haliburton |
| Personal | |
| Date of birth | 1607 |
| Place of birth | Haddingtonshire |
| Date of death | 16 February 1682 |
| Place of death | Aberdeen |
Patrick Scougal (1607-1682) was a 17th century Scottish churchman. A native of Haddingtonshire, and cousin of the painter John Scougal[1], in 1624 he graduated from the University of Edinburgh as Master of Arts. In 1636 he became a minister of Dairsie parish, Fife, moving on to Leuchars in 1645 and then to Saltoun, near Edinburgh, in 1659. He refused an offer to become Professor of Divinity at Edinburgh University in 1662.
In this period Scougal showed himself without doubt to be an extremely religious ideologue, preaching against papists and playing a leading role in the national witchhunt of the 1660s. However, his views on episcopacy became clear when in early 1664 he was offered and accepted the post of Bishop of Aberdeen. Perhaps because of his known and well-established religious fervour, hostility to Scougal's newly shown pro-episcopacy sentiments was comparatively muted. In the same year, Scougal became Chancellor of King's College, Aberdeen.
Scougal took an active role in the suppression of Quakerism and was part of a prosecution of James Gordon, the parson of Banchory-Devenick, who had written the catholic-leaning theological tract called The Reformed Bishop (1679). Scougal was also charitable, and undertook many charitable deeds, including raising money for two Polish protestant students. When he died (aged seventy-three) of asthma on 16 February 1682, he left his much of his wealth to the hospital of Old Aberdeen, King's College Library and Aberdeen Cathedral.
Scougal married one Margaret Wemyss, and by her had five children, including the famous minister Henry Scougal. He was buried in Aberdeen Cathedral.
[edit] References
- ^ Brydall, Robert, Art in Scotland, Edinburgh & London, 1889: 92
- Keith, Robert, An Historical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops: Down to the Year 1688, (London, 1924)
- Mullan, David George, "Scougal , Patrick (1607–1682)", in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 23 Feb 2007
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| Preceded by Alexander Burnet |
Bishop of Aberdeen 1664–1682 |
Succeeded by George Haliburton |
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