William Abernethy Drummond

William Abernethy Drummond (called Abernethy; 1719?–1809), was a bishop of Edinburgh.

Drummond, born in 1719 or 1720, was descended from the family of Abernethy of Saltoun in East Lothian.

He at first studied medicine, and took the degree of M.D., but was subsequently for many years minister of an Episcopalian church in Edinburgh. Having paid his respects to Prince Charles Edward, when he held his court at Holyrood in 1745, he was afterwards exposed to much annoyance and even danger on that account, and was glad to avail himself of his medical degree, and wear for some years the usual professional costume of the Edinburgh physicians.

He took the additional surname of Drummond on his marriage, 3 November 1760, to Mary Barbara, widow of Robert Macgregor of Glengarnock, and daughter and heiress of William Drummond of Hawthornden, Midlothian, grandson of the poet.

He was consecrated bishop of Brechin at Peterhead, 26 September 1787, and a few weeks later was elected to the see of Edinburgh, to which the see of Glasgow was afterwards united. About the middle of February 1788 the news reached Scotland that on 31 January of that year Prince Charles Edward had died at Rome. Drummond was the first among the bishops to urge that the time had now come for the Episcopalians to give a public proof of their submission to the House of Hanover by praying in the express words of the English liturgy for the king and royal family. This was accordingly done throughout Scotland on 25 May. A bill of ‘relief for pastors, ministers, and lay persons of the episcopal communion in Scotland’ having been prepared, Drummond, with Bishops Skinner and Strachan, set out for London in April 1789 to promote its progress through Parliament.

Drummond continued bishop of Edinburgh till 1805, when, on the union of the two classes of Episcopalians, he resigned in favour of Dr. Daniel Sandford. He retained, however, his pastoral connection with the clergy in the diocese of Glasgow till his death, which took place at his residence, Hawthornden, 27 August 1809, at the age of eighty-nine or ninety. His wife died at Edinburgh, 11 September 1789, in her sixty-eighth year, having had an only child, a daughter, who died before her.

...
Wikipedia