When Was John Knox Born?

[VirginiaHuguenot]

I have seen varying dates given for the year in which John Knox was born. Some authorities cite 1512, 1513 or 1514, while others say 1505. If the latter is correct that would make this year the 500th anniversary of his birth. What is the most likely date for his birth and what reasons or authorities would support this conclusion?

 

[D. Paul]

David Silversides' audio Bio of Know stated 1505. I didn't know there was speculation.

I also thought I heard 2006 is a major Vatican anniversary? Ironic.

 

[PuritanCovenanter]

In the Dictionary of Scottish Church History & Theology it says 1514.

My bio by Thomas McCrie, DD. says......1505. McCrie is older (1772-1835)

Got me

.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

I have misplaced, or the borrower is not admitting to having, my Critical Reviews by David Hay Fleming which I think has some underlying research to question the early date for Knox's birth. However, this I find should suffice for a summary of the issue, out of William Croft Dickinson's Introduction to his edition of John Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland (NY: Philosophical Library, 1950) 1.xxxi-xxxii:

Of Knox's early life we know almost nothing. The old accepted statements that he was born about 1505 and that he attended the University of Glasgow, where he sat under John Major, are now distrusted. More recent research would advocate 1514 for the year of his birth, and the possibility of St. Andrews for his university.1

[size=-2]1. The date of Knox's birth can be calculated only from his age at death. He died in 1572, and his age at death was probably fifty-seven or fifty-eight. Knox's own reference to "our youth," in 1547 (infra, 1, 88) may be a reference to his own age; if so, he could hardly have been born in 1505: and although his name does not occur in the registers of the University of St. Andrews, the reisters at that time were not well kept and are by no means complete. The interested reader is referred to the contributions by Hay Fleming to The Scotsman (27 May 1904) and The Bookman (September 1905), and the article by Cowan in The Athenaeum (3 December 1904).[/size]

Thus the early date is now questioned, and the later c. 1514 is favored. However, this was written 55 years ago; I am not aware of any recent research pointing back toward the earlier date.

[Edited on 11-22-2005 by NaphtaliPress]

 

[NaphtaliPress]

To follow up on this a bit more. This is from The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 6
http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc06/htm/iii.lxx.vii.htm

John Knox

Neither the place nor the date of the birth of John Knox, the great Scotch Reformer, is settled beyond dispute; but the weightiest considerations favor Giffordgate, a suburb of the town of Haddington (16 m. e. of Edinburgh) as the place and 1513 or 1514 as the year (cf. H. Cowan, John Knox, pp. 22-25, 45-48). He died at Edinburgh Nov. 24, 1572. His father was William Knox, of fair, though not distinguished, decent, who fought at Flodden, and had his home in the county of Haddington. His mother's name was Sinclair. He received the elements of a liberal education in Haddington, which early possessed an excellent grammar-school-- one of those schools originally monastic and due to the public spirit which, at least as regards education, animated the Scottish Church even antecedently to the Reformation. Thence he proceeded either to the University of Glasgow, where the name "John Knox" occurs among the incorporati in 1522, or to St. Andrews, where he is stated by Beza to have studied under the celebrated John Major (q.v.), a native, like Knox, of East Lothian and one of the greatest scholars of his time. Major was at Glasgow in 1522 and at St. Andrews in 1531. How long Knox remained at college is uncertain....

The Cowan is: John Knox - The Hero of the Scottish Reformation by Henry Cowan (NY: G P Putnam's Sons: 1905). Probably has same info as article by Cowan referenced in my earlier post. I am fairly certainly that the DHF pieces are in his Critical Reviews Relating Chiefly to Scotland (London, 1912).

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

At least we know that John Knox died on November 24, 1572.