WILLIAM

See also:

• ELPHINSTONE, MOUNTSTUART (1779-1859)
• WILLIAM ELPHINSTONE (1431-1514)

ELPHINSTONE (1431-1514)  , Scottish statesman and prelate, founder of the university of Aberdeen, was born in Glasgow, and educated at the university of his native city, taking the degree of M.A. in 1452 . After practising for a short time as a lawyer in the church courts, he was ordained priest, becoming rector of St Michael's church, Trongate, Glasgow, in 1465 . Four years later he went to continue his studies at the university of Paris, where he became reader in canon law, and then, proceeding to Orleans, became lecturer in the university there . Before 1474 he had returned to Scotland, and was made rector of the university, and official of the see of Glasgow . Further promotion followed, but soon more important duties were entrusted to Elphinstone, who was made bishop of Ross in 1481 . He was a member of the Scots parliament, and was sent by King James III. on diplomatic errands to Louis XI. of France, and to Edward IV. of England; in 1483 he was appointed bishop of Aberdeen, although his consecration was delayed for four years; and he was sent on missions to England, both before and after the death of Richard III. in 1485 . Although he attended the meetings of parliament with great regularity he did not neglect his episcopal duties, and the fabric of the cathedral of Aberdeen owes much to his care . Early in 1488 the bishop was made lord high chancellor, but on the king's death in the following June he vacated this office, and retired to Aberdeen . As a diplomatist of repute, however, his services were quickly required by the new king, James IV., in whose interests he visited the kings of England and France, and the German king, Maximilian I . Having been made keeper of the privy seal in 1492, and having arranged a dispute between the Scotch and the Dutch, the bishop's concluding years were mainly spent in the foundation of the university of Aberdeen . The papal bull for this purpose was obtained in 1494, and the royal charter which made old Aberdeen the seat of a university is dated 1498 . A small endowment was provided by the king, and the university, modelled on that of Paris and intended principally to be a school of law, soon became the most famous and popular of the Scots seats of learning, a result which was largely due to the wide experience and ripe wisdom of Elphinstone and of his friend, Hector Boece, the first rector .

The

building of the college of the Holy Virgin in Nativity, now King's College, was completed in 1506, and the bishop also rebuilt the choir of his cathedral, and built a bridge over the Dee . Continuing toparticipate in public affairs he opposed the policy of hostility towards England which led to the disaster at Flodden in September 1513, and died in Edinburgh on the 25th of October 1514 . Elphinstone was partly responsible for the introduction of printing into Scotland, and for the production of the Breviarium Aberdonense . He may have written some of the lives in this collection, and gathered together materials concerning the history of Scotland; but he did not, as some have thought, continue the Scotichronicon, nor did he write the Lives of Scottish Saints . See Hector Boece, Murthlacensium et Aberdonensium episcoporum vitae, edited and translated by J . Moir (Aberdeen, 1894) ; Fasti Aberdonenses, edited by C . Innes (Aberdeen, 1854) ; and A . Gardyne, Theatre of Scottish Worthies and Lyf of W . Elphinston, edited by D . Laing (Aberdeen, 1878) . EL RENO, a city and the county-seat of Canadian county, Oklahoma, U.S.A., on the N. fork of the Canadian river, about 26 m . W. of Oklahoma City .

Pop . (189o) 285; (1900) 3383; (1907) 5370 (401 were of

negro descent and 7 were Indians); (1910) 7872 . It is served by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf (owned by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific), and the St Louis, El Reno & Western railways, the last extending from El Reno to Guthrie . El Reno lies on the rolling prairie lands, about 136o ft. above the sea, in an Indian corn, wheat, oats and cotton-producing and dairying region, and has a large grain elevator, a cotton compress, and various manufacturing establishments, among the products being flour, canned goods and crockery . El Reno has a Carnegie library, and within the city's limits is Bellamy's Lake (18o acres), a favourite resort . Near the city is a Government boarding school for the Indians of the Cheyenne and the Arapahoe Reservation . Fort Reno, a U.S. military post, was established near El Reno in 1876, and in 1908 became a supply depot of the quartermaster's department under the name of " Fort Reno Remount Depot." The first settlement here, apart from the fort, was made in the autumn of 1889; in 1892 El Reno received a city charter .