James Drummond

Who was James Drummond?

James Drummond was a seventeenth-century Scottish prelate. The third son of the Reverend James Drummond, minister of Foulis in Strathearn, he began his church career in 1650 as minister of Auchterarder, before becoming the incumbent at Muthill in 1655.

When in December 1684, the Bishop of Brechin, Alexander Cairncross, became Archbishop of Glasgow, Drummond was appointed his successor at Brechin; receiving consecration at Holyroodhouse by Archbishop Rose on 25 December 1684. Drummond was said to owe his promotion to James Drummond, Earl of Perth, then Chancellor of Scotland.

Bishop Drummond, like all Scottish bishops, was deprived of his temporalities after the Revolution of 1688, and preached his last sermon at Brechin on 14 April 1689. Afterwards, he spent much time in the household of John Hay, 12th Earl of Erroll. He died unmarried of dropsy on 13 April 1695, aged sixty-six years old.