John Knox - Early Life, 1505–1546

Early Life, 1505–1546

John Knox, a Lowland Scot, was born sometime between 1505 and 1515 in or near Haddington, the county town of East Lothian. His father, William Knox, was a farmer. All that is known of his mother is that her maiden name was Sinclair and that she died when John Knox was a child.

Knox was probably educated at the grammar school in Haddington. In this time, the priesthood was the only path for those whose inclinations were academic rather than mercantile or agricultural. He proceeded to further studies at the University of St Andrews or possibly at the University of Glasgow. He studied under John Major, one of the greatest scholars of the time.

There is record of a John Knox being ordained a presbyter by the Bishop of Dunblane, William Chisholm, on 15 April 1536. However, Knox first appears in public records as a priest and a notary in 1540. He was still serving in these capacities as late as 1543 when he described himself as a "minister of the sacred altar in the diocese of St. Andrews, notary by apostolic authority" in a notarial deed dated 27 March. Rather than taking up parochial duties in a parish, he became tutor to two sons of Hugh Douglas of Longniddry. He also taught the son of John Cockburn of Ormiston. Both of these lairds had embraced the new religious ideas of the Reformation, which were sweeping Europe.