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Learning in Literature

John Barbour Anniversary

Categorised in: Medieval
John Barbour

The 614 year anniversary of the death of John Barbour - recognised as the father of literature in Scots - will occur on 13 March 2009. John Barbour was born about 1316 and obtained the archdeanary of Aberdeen in 1356. He is known to have visited England and France in the 1350's and 1360's, partly to study, and was designed 'master' by 1368 which means he must have been a university graduate. He was among the following of Lord Robert The Stewart who became King Robert II in 1371. John was at court during the 1370's and 1380s' and is known to have written at least two major works of literature for his patron the king. One of these, The Brus - detailing the exploits of the king's grandfather - has survived, and is the oldest work of literature in the Scots language. Barbour as appointed an auditor of the exchequer in 1373, and again during 1383-85 and, in 1378, he was granted an annual pension of £1 payable from the Aberdeen burgh rentals. The king granted John a further pension of £10 a year from 1388. Barbour died on 13 March 1395 in Aberdeen. He is commemorated in a carved wooden memorial in St Machar's Cathedral, opened in 1997, and a plaque on the Castlegait of Aberdeen.