Robert Leighton 1612-1684

Robert LEIGHTON 1612-1684

Biographical Note

Leighton was born in Newcastle-upon Tyne in 1612, the son of the Scottish-born Alexander Leighton (c.1570-1649), who became a noted religious controversialist as well as a physician. Robert attended the University of Edinburgh between 1627 and 1631, when he graduated MA. He thereafter travelled for almost a decade on the continent, developing his theological knowledge, coming into contact with the followers of Cornelius Jansen, and feeling much affinity with those stressing the importance of personal piety in a religious life while playing down the importance of the keenly argued differences in dogma and organization of the various Christian churches. Having returned to Scotland, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1641, and became minister of Newbattle near Dalkeith, a few miles south-east of Edinburgh. He was there until 1652, when he was appointed by Oliver Cromwell Principal and [occupation::Professor]] of Divinity at Edinburgh University, a post he held until 1661. Following the Restoration of Charles II and the reimposition of episcopacy, he became Bishop of Dunblane. He was a reluctant bishop, and an even more reluctant Archbishop of Glasgow, which post he was persuaded by the King to accept in 1671. However, terminally disillusioned by the way ecclesiastical policy was going in Scotland, he retired to be near his sister in Broadhurst, Sussex, in 1674, dying in London on 25 June 1684. He was known to his contemporaries as an ascetic, a great scholar and a excellent preacher.

Books

Leighton as a theological scholar over a relatively long life built up a collection of just under 1400 volumes; some theological books were inherited under his father’s will. The collection was wide-ranging, encompassing such subjects as philosophy, mathematics, history, geography, medicine, language and literature, but was understandably particularly strong in divinity, with Hebrew studies being a special strength. His great knowledge of Greek was also evident, but there were also many books in various contemporary western European languages. By his will, Leighton left his library to the diocese of Dunblane for the use of its clergy, and the books were transported there in 1687, where a free-standing building was constructed to house them. The books are still housed in the same building, with some furnishings surviving from its earliest days.

Leighton himself drew up a catalogue of his library very shortly before his death, with some additions added by his nephew when the books were still in England, and this has survived, now in the National Library of Scotland. Various other catalogues were constructed over the centuries, the first of which is the important list compiled by the former Bishop of Dunblane, Robert Douglas, in 1691. The current catalogue of the Leighton Library collection is now on-line as part of the catalogue of Stirling University Library. Around a hundred of Leighton’s volumes, and over ninety pamphlets (of 149) have disappeared since Leighton’s day.

The Leighton Library became a subscription library in 1734, and items were added to Leighton’s collection from the start. It is still administered by independent trustees.

Characteristic Markings

Leighton was a great writer of notes and marginalia in his copies and where present these markings can identify his copies conclusively. With other copies, definite identification is much more difficult.

Sources

• Robert Leighton’s manuscript catalogue of his own library, c.1683-84, with some pre-1687 additions (NLS MS 21193, ff. 89-114).
• Ouston, Hugh ‘Leighton, Robert (bap. 1612, d. 1684), archbishop of Glasgow’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Willis, Gordon, ‘The Leighton Library, Dunblane: its History and Contents’, The Bibliotheck, 10 (1981). 139-157.
• Information from Murray Simpson.