George Wishart

George Wishart was the son of James and brother of Sir John of Pitarrow, both ranking themselves on the side of the Reformers. He was educated at the University of Aberdeen, then recently founded, and travelled afterwards on the Continent.^[1] It is thought that it was while he was abroad that he first turned attention to the study of the Reformed doctrines. He engaged for some time in teaching Greek at Montrose. Wishart afterwards proceeded to Cambridge and resided there for about six years, from 1538 to 1543. He returned to Scotland in the train of the Commissioners who had been appointed to arrange a marriage with Prince Edward and the Queen of Scots. He preached to the people with much acceptance at Montrose, Dundee, and throughout Ayrshire. On passing East to the Lothians, Wishart, who spoke latterly as in near prospect of death, was apprehended by Bothwell in the house of Cockburn, of Ormiston. He was carried captive to St. Andrews, where he was tried by a clerical Assembly, found guilty, and condemned as an obstinate heretic. The following day he was executed at the stake on Castle Green, his persecutor, Cardinal David Beaton or Bethune, looking on the scene from the windows of the castle, where he himself would be assassinated within three months.^[2]

Memorials[edit]

The Martyrs Memorial at St Andrews was erected to the honour of George Wishart, Patrick Hamilton, and other martyrs of the Reformation era.


Dundee's East Port (also known as Cowgate Port), the remains of a gateway in the town's walls, is known as the Wishart Arch. The Arch is the only surviving portion of the town's walls, and probably survived owing to a story that George Wishart preached from it in 1544 to plague victims. However the connection of the Arch with Wishart has been described as 'probably-mythical' and the structure is thought to have been built around 1590, long after Wishart's death.^[10] Wishart was also commemorated in Dundee with a United Presbyterian church being named after him. Wishart church was built in Dundee' Cowgate in 1841 and could seat over 700 people. It was this church that the missionary Mary Slessor was a member of when she lived in Dundee. It was renamed Wishart Memorial Church in 1901, a year after it had become part of the United Free Church of Scotland, and 1929 became part of the Church of Scotland. In 1975 the church congregation was united with Dundee church and the building was sold to Dundee Cyrenians who turned it into a hostel for people with alcohol problems called the Wishart Centre.^[11] There is a house at Saint Kentigern College in Auckland, New Zealand, named after him. A lodge of the Scottish Orange Order, formed with a warrant in Dundee but often meeting in near by Forfar, is named The Wishart Arch Defenders in his honour.