Glasgow (Baillie's Letters, vol. ii.,
pp. 414, 415). Gillespie was evidently desirous to effect a
reconciliation between the Resolutioners and Protesters, by means of
mutual concessions (Id. pp. 388, 401, 411). In the year 1553, he was
elected principal of the University of Glasgow, by the English
sequestrators (Id. p. 371, Lamont's Diary, p. 53).

No one in Scotland had more influence with Cromwell than Principal
Gillespie, who is said to have been the first minister in the Church
of Scotland, who prayed publicly for him (Nicol's Diary, p. 162). In
April 1654, the Protector called him up to London, along with Mr.
John Livingston of Ancrum, and Mr. John Menzies of Aberdeen, to
consult with them on Scottish affairs (Life of Livingston, p. 55).
He preached before the Protector in his chapel, and obtained from
him, for the University of Glasgow, the confirmation of "all former
foundations, mortifications, and donations made in its favour,
particularly that of the bishopric of Galloway, to which he added
the vacant stipends of the parishes, which had been in the patronage
of the bishop of Galloway, for seven years to come; and also in
perpetuity the revenues of the deanery and sub-deanery of Glasgow"
(Old Stat. Acc. of Scot., vol. xxi., Append. pp. 25, 26). Through
his influence with the Protector, he likewise procured a grant to
the town of Glasgow, "for the use of the poor who had been injured
by the fire in 1653," [1652] (Brown's Hist. of Glasg., p. 120) and
"assisted and pleasured sundry in the matter of their fines"
(Baillie's Letters, vol. ii. p. 390). As to what is said by the
editor of Kirkton's History, that after the Restoration, "Gillespie
had made great efforts for a pardon, and offered to promote
episcopacy in Scotland" (p. 111), the reader is referred to a Review
of that work, in the Christian Instructor (Vol. xvii. pp. 339, 340).
He died not long after this at Leith (Law's Memorials, p. 11).

Gillespie's work, entitled "The Ark of the Covenant Opened,"
(London, printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1677) has a preface from the
pen of Dr. John Owen, who was with Cromwell in Scotland, as one of
his chaplains, and in this way, no doubt, became acquainted with
Gillespie (Wood's Athenae Oxomensis, vol. ii., p. 738, London,