George Hay

Who was George Hay?

George Hay was a Roman Catholic bishop and writer who served as the Vicar Apostolic of the Lowland District in Scotland from 1778 to 1805.

Born in Edinburgh on 24 August 1729, his parents were members of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Destined for a medical career, young Hay began his studies at the University of Edinburgh. During the Jacobite Rising of 1745, when he was sixteen, Hay was summoned to attend wounded soldiers after the battle of Prestonpans. He afterwards followed the victorious Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart for some months; but before the decisive fight at Culloden, illness compelled him to return to Edinburgh. He was later arrested for having participated in the rising, and taken to London, where he was kept in custody for twelve months. Here a Catholic bookseller named Neighan gave him his first insight into Catholic teaching, and on his return to Scotland he studied John Gother's work, The Papist Represented and Misrepresented.