David Whitford

a Scotch man born, Son of Dr. Walter Whitford of Monkland, Bishop of Brechen, and of the house of Milneton, was elected one of the Students of Ch. Ch, from Westm. School an. 1642 aged 16 years, bore Arms for his Majesty soon after within the Garrison of Oxon, and elsewhere, took one degree in Arts, after the surrender of that garrison, and in 1648 was thrown out of his Students place by the impetuous Visitors appointed by Parliament. So that at present being out of all employ, he adhered to the cause of K. Ch. 2, paid his obedience to him when in Scotland, served him in the quality of an Officer at Worcester fight 1651, at which time he came to obtain his rights and inheritances, then most unjustly usurped by Fanaticks; was there wounded, taken Prisoner, brought to Oxon and thence among other Prisoners carried to London, where by the importunity of friends he was released. Afterwards he was relieved by Edw. Bysshe Esq. K. of Arms, and became Usher to James Shirley the Poet when he taught School in the White-fryers near Fleetstreet in London. After the Kings return in 1660, he was restored to his Students place, was actually created Master of Arts, and having had no preferment bestowed upon him for his Loyalty, (as hundreds of Cavaliers had not, because poor, and could not give bribes and rewards to great and hungry Officers) he was taken into the service of John, Earl (afterwards Duke) of Lauderdale, and became his Chaplain, I mean that Earl whose Sirname was Maitland, who dying at Tunbridge Wells in Kent on S. Bartholomews day 1682, his body was conveyed by Sea to Scotland, and there deposited in a Church of his own erection called Lauder Church, where is the Mansion House and Seat of his Family. The said Dav. Whitford who was always accounted an excellent Greecian and Philologist, hath published, with a translation in latin verse,

Musaei, Moschi & Bionis, quae extant, omnia. London 1655. qu. in Gr. and Lat.

Selectiora quaedam Theocriti Eidyllia, in Gr. and Lat. Both dedicated to Bysshe before mention’d, who is by Whitford stiled Asylum & perfugium afflictis & egenis. He also translated into Latine the said Bysshe his notes an old authors that have written of Armes and Armory as I shall tell you when I come to speak of that Person, under the year 1679. He also wrot an Appendix to The compleat History of the Wars in Scotland under the conduct of James Marquess of Montrose or Montross, as I have been credibly informed by those that knew him well: which History was written by the learned and famous Geor. Wishart D.D. as I shall tell you elsewhere. What other things this Mr. Whitford hath written, published, or translated, I know not, nor any thing else of him, only that he dying suddenly in his Chamber in Ch Ch. in the morning of the 26. of Octob. in sixteen hundred seventy and four (at which time his Bedmaker found him dead,1674. lying on his bed with his wearing apparel on him) was buried in the south trancept joyning to the Cathedral Church there, near to the body of his elder Brother called Adam Whitford Bach. of Arts and sometimes Student of the said house, who was buried 10. of Feb. 1646. There was another elder Brother, a stout and desperate man, called Colonel Walter Whitford, who had a prime hand in dispatching that notorious Villain Is. Dorislaw, as I have told you before in Jo. L’isle, pag. 228. Which Colonel was not executed in Scotland by the covenanting party there in June 1650 (as a certain ((a))((a)) Bulst. Whitlock in his Memorials of English affairs, in the month of June 1650, p. 444. a. author tells us) as having been one of the party under the illustrious and truly valiant Montross before mention’d, but is still (Sept. 1691.) living in Edenburgh, and in opinion a R. C. The said author tells ((b))((b)) Ibid. p. 442. b. in June 1650. us also, that about the same time (June 1650) one Spotswood another Officer, Son of a Bishop was beheaded on the said account, at which time was an acknowledgment made, as he farther adds, that he was one of those that murdered Dr. Dorislaus in Holland.