ABERCROMBIE, ROBERT [SSNE 5217]
- Surname
- ABERCROMBIE, ABERCROMBY, ABERCRUMBIE, ABIRCOMBE, ARNBERNBENIUS, SANDIESOUN
- First name
- ROBERT, SANDERS
- Title/rank
- PRIEST, TEACHER
- Nationality
- SCOT
- Region
- MURTLIC (MURTLE, ABERDEEN?)
- Religion
- JESUIT CATHOLIC
Text source
Robert Abercrombie (c.1530-1613), a Jesuit priest ordained in Rome, apparently left Scotland for Poland in 1564, arriving at Braniewo, near Elblag/Elbing. There he taught grammar and rhetoric, served as an advisor to the rector before he was sent on to other schools in Posen/Posnan in 1574, Wilno/Vilnius in 1580 and Cracow in 1586. He also had a school in Brunsberg. Despite his stay in the country he was apparently not too good at the Polish language. He returned to Scotland for a time in 1580 and then for 20 years from 1587. He was also known as Sanders Robertson, and Robert Sandiesoun, and lived in disguise as King James VI's [SSNE 1531] falconer, and thus celebrated mass at the Stuart court and is alleged to have converted Queen Anna [SSNE 5217] to Catholicism. He also sent Scots to Braniewo and Wilno (where there was a papal seminary). After the 1605 Gunpowder Plot he was sentenced to death with a price of £10,000 on his head. This led to his return to Poland in 1607 where he died in Braniewo on 27 April 1613.
Sources:
A.F. Steuart, Papers Relating to the Scots in Poland 1576-1793, (Edinburgh, 1915), p.xv; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. xiv, p.487; A. Bieganska, "In Search of Tolerance, Scottish Catholics and Presbyterians in Poland" in Scottish Slavonic Review, 17 (1991), p.47-8; A. Bieganska, The Learned Scots in Poland (From the Mid-Sixteenth to the close of the Eighteenth Century) in 'Canadian Slavonic Review, Vol. XLIII, No. 1, March 2001, pp.7-8.
Service record
- POLAND-LITHUANIA, BRANIEWO (BRAUNSBERG) POSNAN
- Arrived 1564-01-01
- Departed 1579-12-31
- Capacity PRIEST, purpose RELIGIOUS, ECCLESIASTICAL
- SCOTLAND,
- Arrived 1580-01-01
- Departed 1580-12-31
- Capacity PRIEST, purpose RELIGIOUS, ECCLESIASTICAL
- SCOTLAND, WILNO/VILNIUS, CRACOW, POLAND-LITHUANIA
- Arrived 1581-01-01
- Departed 1586-12-31
- Capacity PRIEST, purpose RELIGIOUS, ECCLESIASTICAL
- SCOTLAND, STUART COURT
- Arrived 1587-01-01
- Departed 1606-12-31
- Capacity PRIEST, purpose RELIGIOUS, ECCLESIASTICAL
- SCOTLAND, BRANIEWO, POLAND-LITHUANIA
- Arrived 1607-01-01
- Departed 1613-04-27
- Capacity PRIEST, purpose RELIGIOUS, ECCLESIASTICAL
- SCOTLAND, ST ANDREWS
- Departed 1551-12-31
- Capacity STUDENT, purpose ACADEMIC