Education
He studied at the University of Glasgow, graduated there in 1628, and in 1634 was ordained as minister of Cambusnethan by Archbishop Patrick Lindsay.
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James Hamilton
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He was deposed by the synod of Glasgow in April 1639 for signing the protestation of the bishops and their adherents against the assembly of 1638, but on professing penitence was restored by the assembly of 1639. The committee, to whom his case was referred, reported that "he was a young man of good behaviour, and well beloved of his parish, and guilty of nothing directly but the subscribing of the declinature". Thereafter he went with the times.
In 1648 he supported the "Engagement", and was urged by his kinsman the Duke of Hamilton to accept a chaplaincy in the army raised for the rescue of the king.
At the Restoration he was rewarded by a grant of money and the bishopric of Galloway, and along with Sharp, Leighton, and Fairfoul was consecrated at Westminster on 15 December 1661. Galloway was a stronghold of the extreme covenanters.
Many of the ministers refused to submit to episcopacy, and when deprived held field meetings, which were largely attended by their old flocks. At the request of the bishop and his clergy, whose ranks had been recruited from the north, soldiers were quartered on the frequenters of conventicles to compel their attendance at church, and there appears to be good authority for the statement that Sir James Turner, the officer in command, "was obliged to go beyond his instructions to satisfy the bishop".
Burnet describes him as "a good-natured man, but weak".
