James Hay

Who was James Hay?

James Hay O. Cist. was a Cistercian abbot and bishop important in the early 16th century Kingdom of Scotland. At some stage in his life he achieved a doctorate in decrees, enabling him to be styled D. D..

After the death of Edward Story, Abbot of Dundrennan, on November 28, 1516, Hay was provided to the now vacant abbacy; he became abbot sometime between June 2 and August 9, 1517.

In 1523, following the death of Robert Cockburn, Bishop of Ross, the regent John Stewart, Duke of Albany, nominated Hay to become the new bishop there, a nomination which seems to have been accepted by Pope Adrian VI before the latter died on September 14, 1523.

It was not, however, until September 16, 1524, that the temporalities of the bishopric of Ross were given into Hay's possession, and he had still not received consecration by February 25, 1525.

Among the few things known of his episcopate, Hay was one of the commissioners who held parliament on March 11, 1538; one William of Johnstoun was convicted of heresy in Hay's court in April of the same year. Hay appears to have died in this year, by October 3 at the latest. He was succeeded by Robert Cairncross.