Alexander Arbuthnot (1538–1583) was a Scottish ecclesiastic poet, "an eminent divine, and zealous promoter of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland".
He is not included in Nicol Burne's list of periurit apostatis, but his policy and influence were disliked by James VI, who, when the Assembly had elected Arbuthnot to the charge of the kirk of St. Andrews, ordered him to return to his duties at King's College.
[3][4] The praise of women in the first poem is exceptional in the literature of his age; and its geniality helps us to understand the author's popularity with his contemporaries.
[5] He also wrote a Latin account of the history of the Arbuthnott family, Originis et Incrementi Arbuthnoticae Familiae Descriptio Historica, held in Aberdeen University Library in a volume containing a contemporary translation into Scots by William Morrison.
[6] An English continuation of the Arbuthnott history, by Dr John Arbuthnot, is preserved in the Advocates Library, Edinburgh.