Henderson, ALEXANDER

Henderson, ALEXANDER, a famous Scottish ecclesiastic, born in 1583, and educated at St Andrews, where in 1610 he was placed in the chair of Rhetoric and Philosophy, being soon after presented by Archbishop Gladstones to the living of Leuchars, in Fife. Although the nominee of a prelate, he soon embraced the popular cause, and became one of its foremost leaders. He is supposed to have had a great share in drawing up the National Covenant; he withstood to the face the lukewarm theologians of Aberdeen, and was unanimously placed in the moderator's chair at the memorable General Assembly at Glasgow in November 1638, which in the face of the king's commissioner restored all its liberties to the Kirk of Scotland. In all the tortuous negotiations with the king Henderson took a principal part, and had many interviews with him. He was moderator at Edinburgh in 1641, and again in August 1643, and drafted the famous Solemn League and Covenant. which was soon adopted also by the English parliament. Henderson was one of the Scottish commissioners that sat in the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and in its work spent his last three years in England. He died at Edinburgh, 19th August 1646, and was buried in Greyfriars' Churchyard. See the Lives by Aiton (1836) and M'Crie (1846), and Baillie's Letters and Journals.