Calvin Born

Sir Walter Scott coined many phrases in his day.  Related to religious reformer John Calvin, according to Kenneth Stewart in “Ten Myths about Calvinism: Recovering the Breadth of the Reformed Tradition”, usage of the term ‘Calvinistic’ comes courtesy of Scott.

‘…The terms Calvinism and Calvinist have been in the English language since the 1570’s, but their enduring and widespread usage has reflected the embrace of a series of assumptions about Calvin and Geneva that are, on examination, overplayed *

‘* The compact edition of the Oxford English Dictionary of 1971 records an earliest usage of 1566 for the archaic form of Calvynian, of 1570 for Calvynisme, and of 1579 for Calvynyste; by contrast, the form Calvinistic does not appear until Sir Walter Scott employed it in 1820….’

In “Woodstock”, Scott shows how members of the Protestant clergy would sometimes dress like their Genevan counterparts, in honor of Calvin.  

‘After some time spent in waiting for him, Mr. Holdenough began to walk up the aisles of the chapel, not with the slow and dignified carriage with which the old Rector was of yore wont to maintain the dignity of the surplice, but with a hasty step like one who arrives too late at an appointment, and bustles forward to make the best use of his time. He was a tall thin man, with an adust complexion, and the vivacity of his eye indicated some irascibility of temperament. His dress was brown, not black, and over his other vestments he wore, in honour of Calvin, a Geneva cloak of a blue colour, which fell backwards from his shoulders as he posted on to the pulpit. His grizzled hair was cut as short as shears could perform the feat, and covered with a black silk skull-cap, which stuck so close to his head, that the two ears expanded from under it as if they had been intended as handles by which to lift the whole person. Moreover, the worthy divine wore spectacles, and a long grizzled peaked beard, and he carried in his hand a small pocket-bible with silver clasps. Upon arriving at the pulpit, he paused a moment to take breath, then began to ascend the steps by two at a time.’

John Calvin was born on July 10, 1509.

The Radical Laird

July 10 [1827]...Dined with John Swinton en famille. He told me an odd circumstance. Coming from Berwickshire in the mail coach he met with a passenger who seemed more like a military man than anything else. They talked on all sorts of subjects, at length on politics. Malachi's letters were mentioned, when the stranger observed they were much more seditious than some expressions for which he had three or four years ago been nearly sent to Botany Bay. And perceiving John Swinton surprised at this avowal, he added, "I am Kinloch of Kinloch." This gentleman had got engaged in the radical business (the only real gentleman by the way who did), and harangued the weavers of Dundee with such emphasis that he would have been tried and sent to Botany Bay had he not fled abroad. He was outlawed, and only restored to his status on a composition with Government. It seems to have escaped Mr. Kinloch that the conduct of a man who places a lighted coal in the middle of combustibles, and upon the floor, is a little different from that of one who places the same quantity of burning fuel in a fire-grate!

George Kinloch left Scotland in 1819, rather than face being sent to Botany Bay for seditious activities.  Kinloch was arrested on December 13^th (1819), after he had addressed a crowd on Magdalen Green in Dundee, but he managed to escape, subsequently fleeing to Paris.   Scott mentions Kinloch, the “Radical Laird” as he was known, inciting weavers in his journal entry of July 10, 1826.  Kinloch's activity was part of the lead-up to the "Radical War".  After returning from France, Kinloch became the first MP for Dundee.

James III of Scotland

One of the most unpopular of Scottish monarchs, James III was born on July 10, 1451 or 52.  His reign is marked by efforts to expand Scottish territory, by injustice, and by infighting amongst his family.  Perhaps his most significant contribution to Scotland was the acquisition, through his marriage to Margaret of Denmark of Orkney and the Shetlands. 

James quarreled often, including with his brothers, Alexander Stewart, the Duke of Albany, and John Stewart, the Earl of Mar.  Scott treats these episodes, which serve to illustrate James' sense of justice as well, in his "History of Scotland".  It ended poorly for Mar:

...The king, on his part, resorted to diviners and soothsayers to know his own future fate; and the answer (probably dictated by the favourite Cochrane) was, that he should fall by the means of his nearest of kin. The unhappy monarch, with a self-contradiction, one of the many implied in superstition, imagined that his brothers were the relations indicated by the oracle; and also imagined that his knowledge of their intentions might enable him to alter the supposed doom of fate.


Albany and Mar were suddenly arrested, as the king's suspicions grew darker and more dangerous; and while the duke was confined in the castle of Edinburgh, Mar was committed to that of Craigmillar. Conscious, probably, that the king possessed matter which might afford a pretext to take his life, Albany resolved on his escape. He communicated his scheme to a faithful attendant, by whose assistance he intoxicated, or, as some accounts say, murdered the captain of the guard, and then attempted to descend from the battlements of the castle by a rope. His attendant made the essay first; but the rope being too short, he fell, and broke his thigh-bone. The duke, warned by this accident, lengthened the rope with the sheets from his bed, and made the perilous descent in safety. He transported his faithful attendant on his back to a place of security, then was received on board a vessel which lay in the roads of Leith, and set sail for France, where he met a hospitable reception, and was maintained by the bounty of Louis XI.


Enraged at the escape of the elder of his captives, it would seem that James was determined to make secure of Mar, who remained. There occur no records to show that the unfortunate prince was subjected to any public trial; nor can it be known, save by conjecture, how far James III. was accessary to the perpetration of his murder, which was said to be executed by bleeding the prisoner to death in a bath. Several persons were at the same time condemned and executed for acts of witchcraft, charged as having been practised, at Mar's instance, against the life of the king...