We know Roger Tempiltoun was a justice and sheriff officer of the royal court of justice in Edinburgh inasmuch as he appeared earning "wagis" in that capacity perhaps as early as 1546:* It was undoubtedly a position that required a deft hand negotiating delicate and on occasion quite dangerous political waters.

The decades spanning mid-sixteenth century Scotland were years of considerable change and upheaval. Tempiltoun came to his position while a regency ruled after James V died an untimely death after his defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss. Factional fights among the nobility and within the Church characterised the period that folled, an to complicate matters, the ever-meddlesome English king, Henry VIII (he, of many wives), embarked on his 'Rough Wooing' war upon the Scots. Through the time that we know Tempiltoun served the court, the realm endured the uncertainty of yet another regency -- an uneasy rule that saw competition between James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran and St Andrew's Cardinal David Beaton -- while the infant Mary, Queen of Scots' came of age. During this period the burghs associated in their own 'parliament', injecting a fourth, secular 'estate' into the national political mix. The nascent Reformation in Scotland injected further conflict between Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders and laity as it took root across the land and up-ended the church's influence in government and daily life.

The Reformation also altered the administration of justice with significant changes to the court system in Scotland through this period.2 It was in this rapidly changing and often violent maelstrom that we find Roger Tempiltoun, an officer of the courts of justice in Edinburgh.

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Our information on Mr Tempiltoun is fragmentary -- literally. The documentary view into his life consists principally of payments recorded in the Compota thesaurariorum Regum Scotorum (Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland), the scholarly notes attached to that record, and one mention in an history of the court of justice we've recently unearthed. We hope to add to this documentary record in coming months, and to embellish the historical context Roger Tempiltoun operated within.

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NOTES:

1) Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, Volume 9, p 377.
2) Scottish Legal History, New York University, online.