rented a house in St. Martin's parish, and immediately began to distinguish himself by his activity in parochial affairs, serving successively, as he himself said, ‘every parochial office except that of watchman and beadle.’ In 1805 he was appointed churchwarden, and, along with his colleague and the vicar, he established a number of almshouses for decayed parishioners in Pratt Street, Camden Town. He also gave proof of his public spirit by enrolling himself in the Royal Westminster Volunteers, in which he became a captain. At the special request of the Duke of Northumberland he was placed in the commission of the peace, and from this time he began to frequent the Bow Street police court, in order to obtain a practical acquaintance with magisterial duties. In the absence of the stipendiary magistrates he sometimes presided on the bench, and with such efficiency that he was at length appointed police magistrate at Union Hall, from which he was a few years afterwards promoted to the Bow Street office. In February 1820 he headed the police officers in the apprehension of the Cato-street conspirators. He took the responsibility, in the absence of the soldiers, who failed, as they had been ordered, to turn out at a moment's notice, of proceeding at once to attempt the capture of the band, before they were fully prepared and armed. In this dangerous enterprise he, according to a contemporary account, ‘exposed himself everywhere, encouraging oflioers to do their duty, while the balls were whizzing about his head.’ At the funeral of Queen Caroline in August 1821 he displayed similar decision and presence of mind in a like critical emergency, and when Sir Robert Baker, the chief magistrate, refused to read the riot act, took upon himself the responsibility of reading it. Shortly afterwards Baker resigned, and; he was appointed to succeed him, the honour of knighthood being also conferred on him in September following. During his term of office he was held in high respect by the ministers in power, who were accustomed to consult him on all matters of importance relating to the metropolis. He also retained throughout life the special favour of George IV. He died on 29 April 1832.
[Gent. Mag. cii. pt. i. pp. 470-1; Ann. Reg. lxxiv. 198-9.]
BIRNIE, WILLIAM (1563–1619), Scotch divine, was only son of a fabulously ancient house, William Birnie of ‘that ilk.’ He was born at Edinburgh in 1563, entered student in St. Leonard’s College, St. Andrews, 3 Dec. 1584, proceeded in his degree of BLA. in 1588, became a ship-master merchant, but sustaining heavy losses at sea returned to his studies, and attended divinity three years in Leyden. He is found in exercise at Edinburgh 25 Jan. 1596, and was presented to the vicarage of Lanark by James YI on 28 Dec. 1597. There had been internecine feuds in the parish for a number of years. But Birnie, a man of commanding presence, was able to wield a sword, and thus is said to have gradually reconciled parties. He was constituted by the king, 4 Aug. 1603, master and economus of the hospital and almshouse of St. Leonard’s, and appointed dean of the Chapel Royal 20 Sept. 1612. Earlier he had shown sympathy with the brethren confined in Blackness Castle previous to their trial in 1606 at Linlithgow. He appears as a member of the general assembly of the kirk of Scotland in 1602, 1608, 1610. He was nominated ‘constant moderator of the presbytery ’ by the assembly of 1606, and the presbtery were ‘charged by the privy council 17 Jan. thereafter, to serve him as such within twenty-four hours after notice, under pain of rebellion.’ He was also named on the court of high commission 15 Feb. 1610, and presented to the deanery of the Chapel Royal of Stirling, which was ‘to be hereafter callit the Chapel Royal of Scotland,’ 20 Sept. 1612. The acceptance of the ‘constant moderatorship’ showed episcopal leanings. In 1612 he was transferred from Lanark to Ayr, to ‘parsonages prima and secundo, and vicarages of the same, and to the parsonage and vicarage of Alloway’- the scene of the Tam o' Shanter of Burnson 16 June 1614. He was a member again of the high commission 21 Dec. 1615, and one of the commissioners for the suppression of popery agreed to by the assembly in 1616. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Lindsay, parson of Carstairs. Their issue were three sons and two daughters. He died on 19 Jan. 1619 in the fifty-sixth year of his age and twenty-second of his ministry. A kind of doggerel epitaph runs :-
He waited on his charge with care and pains
At Air on little hopes, and smaller gains.
For generations stories were told of him all over the southern shires of Scotland. One represents him as so agile that he could make the salmon’s leap ‘by stretching himself on the grass, leaping to his feet, and again throwing them over his head.’ He was the author of a prose book entitled ‘The Blame of Kirk-bviall, tending to perswade Cemeteriall Civilitie. First preached, then penned, and now at last propyned to the Lord’s inheritance in the Presbyterie of Lanark by M. William Birnie, the Lord his minister in that ilk, as a pledge of his zeale and care of that
