sentences:  For some time he followed the trade of a dyer in the Canongate of Edinburgh.Subsequently, he became parson of Dumfries, where he remained until 1684 when, by the recommendation of the Duke of Queensberry, he was promoted to the see of Brechin, from which he was in a few months promoted to that of Glasgow.Having incurred the displeasure of the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Perth, he was in January 1687 removed from the see, but after the Glorious Revolution he obtained the notice of the new powers, and in 1693 was made Bishop of Raphoe in Ireland, where he remained until his death on 14 May 1701.