James Knox (d. 1633)

James Knox (d. 1633) taught as a Regent at Edinburgh University from 1598 to 1605. He was the son of William Knox, Minister of Cockpen, and probably a grand-nephew of John Knox the Reformer. He studied under George Robertson (d. 1604) at Edinburgh University and graduated MA on 28 July 1596. Upon the resignation of Charles Ferme in 1598, James Knox was appointed as a Regent and saw two classes through to graduation in 1601 and 1605. Among Knox's students in this second class was the poet William Drummond of Hawthornden, who became one of the University's earliest private benefactors through a major donation of books to the University Library in 1626. Knox resigned in 1605 to become minister of Kelso, a charge in which he remained until shortly before his death in August 1633. According to church historian Hew Scott, while Minister of Kelso, Knox 'used as a dwelling-place vaults in the ruined abbey, one as a hall and kitchen, another as a bedchamber and closet' (p. 71).

Archives at Edinburgh University

• Signatures, 28 July 1596 (as student), 30 July 1601, 27 July 1605 (as regent), First Laureation & Degrees Album, Edinburgh University Archives (EUA IN1/ADS/STA/1/1)

Sources

• A Catalogue of the Graduates in the Faculties of Arts, Divinity, and Law, of the University of Edinburgh since its Foundation (Edinburgh: Printed by Neill and Company, 1858)
• Andrew Dalzel, History of the University of Edinburgh from its Foundation (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1862)
• Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ: The Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation, vol. II (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1917)