without religion or morals; but cunning enough; yet without abilities of any kind' (Works, 1814, x. 313). On the other hand it is asserted that 'he was a person of great parts, much improved by study, travel, and conversation with the best,' and that 'his manly yet easy eloquence shin'd in the House of Commons upon many important and nice occasions' (Annals of Queen Anne, 1707, v. 495). Methuen married, in February 1671-2, Mary, daughter of Seacole Chevers of Comerford, Wiltshire, by whom he had, with other issue, an only surviving son, Sir Paul Methuen [q. v.] His onlydaughter, Isabel, died unmarried, aged 29, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 12 April 1711. One of his sons was killed in a brawl abroad in 1694 (Luttrell, iii. 362). A quantity of Methuen's correspondence is preserved in the Hatton collection (Hist. MSS. Comm. 1st Rep. p. 26), and a number of his letters will be found among the Additional Manuscripts in the British Museum (see Indices to Addit. MSS. for 1836-53, 1854-75,1882-7), and in the Spencer and Ormonde collections (Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 16, 7th Rep. App. i. App. 765, 833, 834). There is a mezzotint engraving of Methuen by Humphreys.
[Luttrell's Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs, 1857; Letters illustrative of the Reign of William III from 1696 to 1708, addressed to the Duke of Shrewsbury by James Vernon, edited by G. P. R. James, 1841; Correspondence of Henry Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, and Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, 1828, vol. ii.; O'Flanagan's Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland, 1870, i. 489-96; Burke's History of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland, 1879, pp. 97-100; Hertslet's Commercial Treaties, 1827 ii. 24-5, 59, 1840 v. 413-14; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England (Noble), ii. 216-17; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers, 1876, pp. 264, 272, 390; Foster's Peerage, 1883, p. 484; Haydn's Book of Dignities, 1890.]
METHUEN, PAUL (fl. 1566), Scottish reformer, originally a baker in Dundee, was an early convert to the new doctrines. Although imperfectly educated, his eloquence and intimate acquaintance with scripture enabled him to render such good service to the protestant cause that he became obnoxious both to the prelates and the secret council; and the latter not only issued an order for his apprehension, but also forbade the people to listen to his orations or to harbour him in their houses. Methuen avoided arrest through the intrepidity of Provost Haliburton, and to show their disappointment at his escape, the secret council fined the town of Dundee in the sum of 2,000l. During the war between Scotland and England, which began in the autumn of 1556, and continued through the following year, the protestants enjoyed considerable liberty, and their numbers rapidly increased. Methuen, William Harlaw, John Douglas, and John Willock now began to preach with greater publicity in different parts of Scotland. On 10 May 1559 Methuen and other prominent reformers were placed on their trial before the justiciary court at Stirling for usurping the ministerial office, for administering without the consent of their ordinaries the sacrament of the altar in a manner different from that of the catholic church, in the burghs of Dundee and Montrose, and for convening the subjects of the realm in those places, preaching to them erroneous doctrines, and exciting seditions and tumults. Being found guilty, he was 'denounced rebel and put to the horn as fugitive'(Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials, i. 406).
He was nominated by the lords of the congregation to the church of Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, 19 July 1560, in which year and the following he was a member of assembly. He was deposed from his incumbency, with some difficulty, towards the end of 1562, for adultery with his servant, and sentence of excommunication was also pronounced against him. Thereupon he fled to England and resumed his ministerial office there. In 1563 it was declared in the assembly that he was 'verie sorrowful for his grievous offence, and wald underly whatever punishment the kirk would lay upon him,' which declaration, on 27 Dec. 1564, 'the haill Assemblie with ane voyce are content to receive.' After an absence of up wards of two years the assembly, on 26 June 1566, ordained his public repentance. He was ordered to appear at the church door of Edinburgh when the second bell rang for public worship, clothed in sackcloth, bare-headed and bare-footed; to stand there until the prayer and psalms were finished; when he was to be brought into the church to hear the sermon, during which he was to be 'placeit in the publick spectakill [stool of repentance] above the peiple.' He was to repeat this procedure at Dundee and Jedburgh, where he had officiated as minister. Methuen went through a part of this discipline, but being overwhelmed with shame, or despairing to regain his lost reputation, he stopped in the midst of it, and again returned to England.
