THE WODROW SOCIETY, INSTITUTED MAY, 1841, FOR THE PUBLICATION OF THE WORKS OF THE FATHERS AND EARLY WRITERS OF THE REFORMED CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE REV. ROBERT WODROW, MINISTER OF EASTWOOD, AND AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF THE EDITED FROM MANUSCRIPTS IN THE LIBRARY OF THE FACULTY BY THE REV. THOMAS M'CRIE. VOLUME FIRST. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR THE WODROW SOCIETY. M.DCCC.XLII. 943 ANDOVER - HARVARD THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY .... PREFACE. ROBERT WODROW, the Historian of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, whose Correspondence is now printed for the first time from the original MSS., was the second son of Mr James Wodrow, Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow, who died September 25, 1707. Robert was born at Glasgow in the year 1679. His mother's name was Margaret Hair, daughter of William Hair, a small proprietor in the parish of Kilbarchan ; she was a woman of considerable strength of mind, and of eminent piety. Robert entered the University of Glasgow in 1691, and after finishing the usual course of academical education, devoted himself to the study of theology under his father. While thus employed, he was chosen Librarian to the College, an office which he held for four years. Even at this early period of life, he entered with ardour on these ecclesiastical researches, which, in the course of his life, he prosecuted to such an extent; and, among other pursuits, devoted considerable attention to natural history, a branch of study then scarcely known in Scotland. On concluding his theological career, Mr Wodrow resided, for some time, in the family of a distant relation, Sir John Maxwell of Nether Pollock, one of the Senators of the College of Justice, and a man dis |