HAY, George of Rannes, Minister of Rathven, then of Eddleston parish, Reverend Mr ^{1 2 3 4}

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  General Notes:

"George Hay, rector of Rathven in the falling fortunes of the Church of Rome, was able to obtain a grant of the barony of Rathven, including Rannas, Freuchny, Fyndachtie and Farskyne."

from Records of the County of Banff




"George was a Catholic priest, ministering to the Banffshire parish of Rathven. He conformed at the reformation and became Secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots and a very early Moderator of the General Assembly. He secured the estate of Rannes in Banffshire and married a daughter of Henderson of Fordell. He was succeeded in 1588 by his son James, who built the House of Rannes in 1592."

from Clan Hay website




"In 1563 the manse was disponed, with the consent of the Dean and Chapter, by Master George Hay - who had turned Protestant, and had shortly before this time been disputing with the Abbot of Crossraguel - rector of Edlestoun, to his brother, Andrew Hay, rector of Renfrew, 'an honest, zealus, frank harted gentleman, . . . wha lyked never those bishopries'."

from The Regality Club




(at Rathven in 1558)

"George Hay, born about 1530, was a younger son of William H., fifth of Talla, Tweedsmuir, and Janet Spottiswood (see Note below) of that family. He appears first as rector of Rathven on 10th July 1558, and held the benefice in conjunction with Eddleston by a dispensation from the Pope.

He conformed at the Reformation and retained both charges. On 19th Jan. 1560 he granted the kirk lands of Rathven and Eddleston to his brother William Hay of Barro (Barra). On 24th Oct. 1561, at a meeting held in the study of James McGill at Edinburgh, he supported the proposal to deprive Queen Mary of the Mass.

As min. of Eddleston, he attended the General Assembly, 29th June 1562, when he was app. to preach throughout Carrick along with the Superintendent, John Willock, and another. Knox preached in Kyle, the result of their co-operating labours being a large accession to the Protestant cause and the subscribing of a covenant at Ayr on 4th Sept. Knox mentions that soon afterwards, when the Abbot of Crossraguel presented himself in Maybole to dispute about the Mass, 'the voyce of Maister George Hay so effrayed him, that efter ones he wearyed of that exercise'.

On 8th May 1563 he sold the prebendal manse of Eddleston, on the north side of Rotten Row, at Glasgow, to his brother Andrew, rector of Renfrew. At a later date he signed various charters as Canon of Glasgow. In a minute of the General Assembly, 30th Dec. 1563, he is called 'minister to the Privy Council', and in 1564 he is spoken of as 'minister to the Court'. In 1565 he had a commission from the Assembly to visit kirks, schools, and colleges, to eradicate idolatry, etc., from Dee to Spey.

In subsequent Assemblies he took a prominent part and acted on the chief committees and commissions. In 1567 he had a third of the stipend of both his charges on condition that he adequately supplied that at which he did not usually reside, and in 1568 he was sharply rebuked for failing to implement this with respect to Eddleston. On 5th March 1570 he was elected Moderator of Assembly, and desired to be relieved of his duties as commissioner in the north, but that was not done. In 1574 Forsken, Dundurcus, and Bellie were in this charge.

In 1575 he was app. commissioner of Caithness. In 1577 he was app. one of the deputies to the General Council at Magdeburg for constituting the Augsburg Confession. Next year, on 25th July, Parliament app. him a Visitor for the College of Aberdeen. In 1585 he appears as commissioner for Banff; died in 1588. He marr. Marion Henderson of the Fordel family, who died Oct. 1577, and had issue George of Rannes, died v.p.; James of Rannes, ancestor of that family, died about 1630; William, tailor burgess, Edinburgh; Janet. Publications The Confutation of the Abbot of Crossraguel's Masse (Edinburgh,1563); Against Tyrie the Jesuit 1573). "

from Fasti Ecclesiae (vol 6) ^{2 5 6}

George married Marion HENRYSON of Fordel.^{1 2} (Marion HENRYSON of Fordel was born about 1535 and died in October 1577 ^{1 2}.)

  Marriage Notes:

(at Eddleston in 1560)

"George Hay, son of William H., fifth of Talla and Linplum, and Janet Spottiswood, and brother of Andrew H., rector of Glasgow Univ. ; was parson of this parish and of Rathven, which he held by a dispensation from the Pope, but conformed at the Reformation. In 1562 he was a member of Assembly, and appointed (as superintendent of Glasgow) to preach alternately with another in the unplanted kirks of Carrick till the ensuing Assembly. So great was his influence that he was called 'the minister of the Court';; when appointed to argue against Knox on the obedience due to magistrates, he declined, being of a similar opinion with him. In 1568, on a complaint to the General Assembly by Andrew Murray of Blackbarony, in name of the parishioners, of his neither preaching the Word nor ministering the Sacrament, he was sharply rebuked. He appears to have gone to his other benefice, where he died in 1588. He marr. Marion Henryson, who died in Oct. 1577, and had issue James, founder of the Rannes family. Publication The Confutation of the Abbot of Crossraguel's Mass (Edinburgh, 1563). [Booke of the Kirk, Keith's and Calderwood's Hists., Reg. Min., Murray's MS. Petition, Wodrow's Biog., M'Ure's Glasg.]"

from Fasti Ecclesiae (vol 1) ¹