John Knox born at Giffordgate, Haddington.
A more complete description of John Knox can be found in this link.
Amongst the many significant religious figures that have come from East Lothian, John Knox stands head and shoulders above them all. In a life of barely sixty years he rose from a position of obscurity, a tutor to the sons of East Lothian gentry, to unquestioned patriarch of the reformed national church and the father of Presbyterianism, a revolutionary whose acts and teaching continue to reverberate around the world. (John Gray Centre website)
Haddington’s most famous son and founding father of the Reformation, Knox was born in Giffordgate and educated at Haddington Grammar School and St Andrews University. He served as a Notary Apostolic at St Mary’s Collegiate Church until converted by the preacher George Wishart. Following a stint in the French galleys and exile in Geneva, he returned to Scotland to lead the Protestant Reformation. His magnum opus is the History of the Reformation in Scotland, but Knox is mostly remembered for his polemical pamphlet, The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. The 19th century building of Knox Academy was dedicated to John Knox in 1877. ©️ Marie Macpherson 2024