Wodrow, Robert

(1679-1734)

   Church historian, s. of James W., Prof. of Divinity in Glasgow. Having completed his literary and theological education there, he entered the ministry of the Church of Scotland, and was ordained to the parish of Eastwood, Renfrewshire. Here he carried on the great work of his life, his History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland 1660 to 1688. W. wrote when the memory of the persecutions was still fresh, and his work is naturally not free from partisan feeling and credulity. It is, however, thoroughly honest in intention, and is a work of genuine research, and of high value for the period with which it deals. It was pub. in two folio vols. in 1721 and 1722. W. made large collections for other works which, however, were not pub. in his lifetime. The Lives of the Scottish Reformers and Most Eminent Ministers and Analecta, or a History of Remarkable Providences, were printed for the Maitland Club, and 3 vols. of his correspondence in 1841 for the Wodrow Society. The Analecta is a most curious miscellany showing a strong appetite for the marvellous combined with a hesitating doubt in regard to some of the more exacting narratives.