EARLY MARTYRS

Kessog a monk, follower of Columba and a bishop resident at Luss, Dunbartonshire, murdered c 600.
Donan a monk on the island of Elgg in the Outer Hebrides, murdered by Picts, 618.
Blathmac a monk on the island of lona, murdered by Viking raiders, 825.
Ebba abbess of Coldingham and successor to an earlier St Ebba, this abbess was murdered by Vikings, c 870.

REFORMED MARTYRS

Patrick Hamilton (1503-1528), first martyr of the Scottish Reformation. Appointed titular abbot of Fearn, Ross-shire, in 1517. Ordained priest, 1526. Married 1527.
Charged by Archbishop James Beaton of St Andrews with teaching Lutheran heresy in 1528, found guilty and burnt at the stake.

Henry Forrest (d. 1533) from Linlithgow. Executed for heresy at St Andrews. Norman Gourlay (d. 1534). Executed for heresy at Edinburgh.

David Straiton (d. 1534) from Woodstone. Excommunicated for non-payment of the tithes. Indicted for heresy, found guilty and burnt at Edinburgh.

Thomas Forret (d. 1539). Executed for heresy at Castle Hill, Edinburgh.

Duncan Simson (d. 1539). Executed for heresy at Castle Hill, Edinburgh.

John Kyllour (d. 1539). Dominican friar and playwright. Charged with heresy, found guilty and executed at Castle Hill, Edinburgh.

John Beveridge (d. 1539). Dominican friar. Indicted for heresy and executed at Castle Hill, Edinburgh.

Robert Forster (d. 1539). Executed at Castle Hill, Edinburgh.

Jerome Russell (d. 1539). Franciscan monk charged with heresy. Executed at Glasgow.

Thomas Kennedy from Ayr. Executed at Glasgow.

George Wishart (c.1510-1546). Charged with heresy while a schoolmaster in Montrose, 1538. Lived in Germany, Switzerland and England, 1538-43. Preached the doctrines of the Reformation in Scotland, 1543-46. Charged by Cardinal David Beaton with heresy, found guilty and burnt at the stake, 1546.

Walter Milne (d. 1558). Last of the Protestant pre-Reformation martyrs. Executed 1558.

POST-REFORMATION CATHOLIC MARTYRS

Father Robeson (d. 1574) hanged at Glasgow, 1574, for saying Mass.

John Ogilvie (1579-1615). A convert to Catholicism, he entered the Jesuit college at Olmutz, Bohemia, in 1598. Returned to Scotland, 1613, working as a priest mainly in the north east and Edinburgh. Captured in Glasgow, 1614. Found guilty of treason and hanged at Glasgow Cross, 1615. Beatified in 1929 and canonised (recognised as a saint) in 1976.

There were also the following political-religious Catholic martyrs, executed arguably because of their unpopular or unwise secular policies rather than their religion:

David Beaton (c.1494-1546) Politically unpopular Cardinal, assassinated at St Andrews by followers of the martyred reformer George Wishart.

John Hamilton (c.1512-1571) Marian, Lutheran-inclined Archbishop of St Andrews, executed at Stirling.

Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587). Queen 1542-1567. Forced to abdicate, Mary fled Scotland in 1568 seeking refuge with her cousin, Elizabeth I of England.
Imprisoned in England for 19 years. Executed at Fotheringay Castle, Northamptonshire, 1587, for allegedly plotting against Elizabeth.

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