Beaton (or Bethune), James
Beaton (Or Bethune), James, a Scottish prelate, was first chanter in the Church of Glasgow, and in 1543 got the Abbey of Aberbrothock, which he held until 1551, when he was preferred to the see of Glasgow. He was consecrated at Rome in 1552, and held the see of Glasgow until 1560; at which time he, perceiving the wild fury of the reformers in pulling down churches and monasteries, thought it prudent, for the preservation of the acts and records of his Church, to transport them out of his kingdom; so he took the opportunity and went away into France with the forces oi that nation the same year, and carried with him all the writs pertaining to the see of Glasgow. He was appointed by queen Mary her ambassador at the court of France, and her son king James VI continued him in the same character, notwithstanding their difference in religious sentiments. After all these various changes, the king, by act of Parliament, restored bishop; Beaton to the temporality of the see of Glasgow, which he enjoyed until his death, April, 1603. By his last will he left all his goods to the Scots College in Paris. — See Keith, Scottish Bishops, p. 259-262.
