Scholar and Tutor to James VI
Most people who know about the rather barren early years of King James VI of Scotland associate his teaching with the eminent but fearsome scholar George Buchanan. He was a man with little time for royalty and indeed he hated the king's mother Queen Mary. There was little warmth but much effective learning from Buchanan, even if the king ruefully remembered later in life that he had been forced to learn Latin almost before he could speak Scots. The rigid influence of Buchanan was mitigated to some extent by the secondary teacher, Peter Young of Dundee, who was a more sympathetic tutor to the orphaned monarch.
Peter Young was born at Dundee on 15th August 1544, son of John Young, a burgess in both Dundee and Edinburgh. The family claimed descent from the Young family of Ochterlony. The Youngs were evident elsewhere in Angus, with one branch owning Aldbar Castle. One of the Dundee branch was William Young who lost his life at the battle of Glasclune in Strathmore in 1392. His mother Margaret belonged to the Scrymgeour family who were the hereditary constables of the burgh. Young was gifted academically and was encouraged in his studies by his parents. He was sent abroad at the age of 18 and studied in Geneva under the renowned Theodore Beza, an associate of the reformer Calvin. Young's maternal uncle Henry Scrymgeour was also teaching at the University of Geneva.
At the beginning of 1569 Young was appointed as secondary tutor to the young king by the regent the earl of Moray. By all accounts Young was highly regarded by the old and irascible Buchanan, despite the difference in their ages and temperaments. The duties in the royal castle of Stirling were evidently not onerous because Young is recorded as saying that he regarded his position of tutor as being more like a hobby than a job. He does not seem to have needed the job for financial reward since he had inherited land in Fife, Perth and Elgin. Young's first wife Elizabeth Gibb was a daughter or grand-daughter of Robert Gib, court jester of King James V. They married in 1577.
As well as being the king's almoner until his death, Young was employed on various embassies and was involved in education. He was also a member of the Privy Council. Young purchased the estate of Easter Seaton, part of the lands formerly owned by Arbroath Abbey, where the mansion house was built in 1583. The following decade he bought the nearby estate of Kinblethmont. Peter's youngest brother Alexander was doorkeeper of the inner bedchamber of King James VI. He died in Dundee soon after Christmas 1603.
Some sources state that Young was sycophantic towards the king, but this is uncertain. In comparison with the nobles and great favourites at court, Young was not lavishly rewarded. One of the greatest payments to him was in September 1580 when the king gave him £2,000 , 'to buy sum pece of land and to plenishe the same to be a resting place to him hiswyff and bairnis in consideration of his lang trew and thankfull service'. Young played a conspicuous part in the embassy to Denmark to arrange for the king's marriage to Princess Anna. There is one negative incident associated with this venture, for the tutor wished to travel with the Earl Marischal, but the latter refused to go with him, being 'perswaded,and it is true, that the sayd Peter will robbe him of all his honour, beinge an ambycyowse fellow, and aqaynted there, and specyally by his pryvy instruccyons'. There is some hint that the nobility resented him because of his relative lowly birth. But King James remained grateful to Young throughout his life and regarded him with considerable fondness. He was knighted by the king at Whitehall in February 1605 and was given an annual pension of £300. Elizabeth Gibb died at Leith in 1595 and Young afterwards married Janet Murray, Lady Torphichen. Unfortunately she died in the same year. His third wife was Marjory Mavine.
Later Years as an Angus Laird.
The Fight Against the Burgh of Forfar
Although a wealthy man who was well-known and respected throughout Scotland and England, Young did have local troubles in his native region, particularly a long-standing feud with the authorities of Forfar which seems to have been caused by a dispute about the use of the forest of Mortreathmont, part of which Young had received as an inheritance from his father. There is a record of this dispute in the records of the Privy Council under the year 1607 of a complaint by Peter Young of Seton, that, upon 16th June last, the Provost and Baillie of Forfar had convocated the whole inhabitants of the said burgh to the number of 300 persons, who, all armed with corslets, jacks, steel bonnets, spears, halberts, lances, swords, and other weapons, came 'with sound of drum' to that part of the common muir of [Montreathmont] which had been peaceably possessed by the complainer's predecessors past memory of man, and there, with spades and swords, 'cuttit and destroyit the haill turves and dovallis then cassin and win,' and chased Young's servants away. The provost Walter Lindsay and baillies were named and gave evidence. But the decision went against Young because the delegation from Forfar stated they had merely gathered to ride and restore the historic marches or boundaries of the land belonging to the burgh. The quarrel continued however and in the following year the provost and baillies were bound over to keep the peace and not to harm Sir Peter Young, under the penalty of 500 marks each or 4000 marks collectively.
Peter Young died at Easter Seaton on 7th January, 1528, and he was interred at St Vigeans.
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| Sir Peter Young aged 79 |
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