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Family Links
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Spouses/Children:
1. Unknown
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CHALMERS, Alexander of Murthill, Provost of Aberdeen 1
- Born: About 1395
- Marriage (1): Unknown
- Died: 8 October 1463 1
Another name for Alexander was DE CAMERA, Alexander.1
User ID: Z687.
General Notes:
"The seal of this alderman, attached to a charter dated 6th December, 1449, preserves the earliest example we know of the coat armorial of the Chalmers family .......
... On the north wall of Collison's Aisle there is a tablet built into the wall, not in situ, however, with the following inscription: -
'Hic jacet prouidus et honorabilis vir Alexander de Camera | de Murthill prepositus huius burgi de Aberdene qui obiit viii. die mensis Octobris anno dni., MCCCCLXIII., cuius anime patietur deus omnino.'
A translation of which may be given as -
Here lies a prudent and honourable man, Alexander Chalmers of Murthill, provost of this burgh of Aberdeen, who
died on the eighth of October, a.d. 1463, whose soul God will wholly absolve.
Menteith, in his Theater of Mortality, gives the date of the inscription as 1413, and this has been faithfully copied by subsequent writers who have taken notice of the inscription, although a close examination shows that the figure taken for x is really a combination of 1 and x, and must stand for Ix., as there was no Alexander Chalmers in the civic chair till 1443."
from Aldermen and Provosts 1
Research Notes:
"PROVOST of Aberdeen"
The term 'provost', or more accurately its Latin equivalent, was used by ecclesiastical rather than civil authorities in the Middle Ages. Munro says:
"The title given to the chief magistrate in burghs has changed at various times and in different places, but the following are met with in Scotland : - mayor, burgh grieff, alderman, provost, and lord provost. The former two terms, mayor and burgh grieff, so far as is known, were never used in Aberdeen, but the other three designations occur in the order stated. The earlier records are, as a rule, written in Latin, and some difficulty has been experienced in the interpretation of the term " prepositus," especially as used during the fourteenth century. In the Exchequer Rolls there sometimes appear in a single year, as rendering the burgh accounts, no less than three persons called " prepositi," and it is supposed that the term, as then used, would more closely correspond with the burgh baillies as opposed to the " ballivi," who, at the same period, were more properly the receivers of the Crown revenues. In Aberdeen, the term " prepositus," as meaning provost, came into general use about 1460,
although alderman, in use prior to that year, is continued to a later date in minutes written in English." (Preface vi.)
Users of Patrick's People should note that, for uniformity, "provost" is used to describe the main holder of civic authority in Aberdeen, even before 1460. 1
Noted events in his life were:
1. Provost, 1443, of Aberdeen. 1
2. Provost, 1446, of Aberdeen. 1
Alexander married.
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