Robert Forman (died 1530) was a late medieval Scottish churchman. He was the son of one Janet Blackadder and her husband, a Berwickshire landowner named Nicholas Forman of Hatton.[1] Sometime before 11 February 1500, he was made Precentor of Glasgow.[2] He was Dean of Glasgow from 1505, a position he would hold until his death.[3] Between 1506 and 1511 he was also in possession of the Chancellorship of the diocese of Moray.[4]

After the death of William Elphinstone (d. 24 October 1514), the bishopric of Aberdeen became vacant. At Rome Pope Leo X provided Forman to the vacant see. However, the canons of Aberdeen prepared to elect a successor. According to John Spottiswoode, Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly, pressured the canons to elect his own cousin, also Alexander Gordon, a man who was at that time the Precentor of Moray.[5] Forman was persuaded by his brother Andrew Forman, Archbishop of St Andrews, to yield his claim to Gordon upon the promise of the next vacancy.[6]

He never, however, obtained any other bishopric. He died as Dean of Glasgow on 19 November 1530.

Notes

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  1. ^ McGladdery, "Forman, Andrew (c.1465–1521)".
  2. ^ Watt, Fasti Ecclesiae, p. 159.
  3. ^ Watt, Fasti Ecclesiae, p. 155.
  4. ^ Watt, Fasti Ecclesiae, p. 227.
  5. ^ Dowden, Bishops of Scotland, p. 135, quoting John Spottiswoode (i.209).
  6. ^ Dowden, Bishops of Scotland, pp. 135-6; Innes, Registrum, pp. li-ii.

References

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  • Dowden, John, The Bishops of Scotland, ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)
  • Innes, Cosmo, Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis: Ecclesie Cathedralis Aberdonensis Regesta Que Extant in Unum Collecta, Vol. 1, (Edinburgh, 1845)
  • Keith, Robert, An Historical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops: Down to the Year 1688, (London, 1924)
  • McGladdery, C. A., "Forman, Andrew (c.1465–1521)", in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , Retrieved 1 May 2007
  • Watt, D.E.R., Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638, 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969)
Religious titles
Preceded by
Richaed Muirhead
Dean of Glasgow
x 1505–1530
Succeeded by
Preceded by Bishop of Aberdeen
elect
x 1515–1515 x 1516
Succeeded by