He was licensed by the Presbytery of Dalkeith 29 September 1631 and became tutor to George Hay, afterwards second Earl of Kinnoul, by whose father, the Lord Chancellor's recommendation, he was appointed master of the Grammar School of Perth in June 1632.
He was so actively engaged in support of the Covenanting party that on the approach of Montrose to Aberdeen in 1646 he was compelled to take refuge in Dunnottar Castle.
Subsequently he acted as tutor of George Hay (afterwards second Earl of Kinnoull); and on 2 November 1619, at the instance of the kirk session, confirmed by the town council, he was appointed master of the grammar school of Kirkcaldy.
[3] In 1643 he published a Hebrew lexicon, which he dedicated to the town council, receiving from them "for his services four hundred merks Scots money."
Row proved to be a zealous co-operator with Cant in exercising a rigid ecclesiastical rule over the citizens (Spalding, Memorialls, passim); and showed special zeal in requiring subscription to the solemn league and covenant (ib.
He was one of the six ministers appointed to assist the committee of despatches in drawing up instructions to the commissioners sent to London to protest against the hasty proceedings taken against the life of Charles I (Sir James Balfour, Annals, iii.
When the rescinding of the Act of Classes allowed, in resolutions, those they considered tainted to assume roles in public life they protested.
Patrick Gillespie strenuously opposed the "Engagement" for the rescue of Charles I, helped to overthrow the government that sanctioned it, and advocated severe measures against all 'malignants.'
He considered the terms made with Charles II unsatisfactory, and after the battle of Dunbar (3 September 1650) he assembled a meeting of gentlemen and ministers in the west, and persuaded them to raise a separate armed force, which was placed under the command of officers recommended by him.
Soon after the commission of assembly passed resolutions in favour of allowing malignants, on profession of their repentance, to take part in the defence of the country.
His appointment to the principalship of the University of Glasgow followed in 1652, over protests on the grounds that the election belonged to the professors, that he was insufficient in learning, and had been deposed from the ministry.
In 1653 Cromwell turned the general assembly out of doors, and in the following year he called Gillespie and two other protesters to London to consult with them on a new settlement of Scottish ecclesiastical affairs.
[2] It was probably his independent principles that commended Row to the notice of Cromwell's parliament, by whom he was in 1652 appointed principal of King's College, Aberdeen.
Having saved no money while he held the principalship, Row now found himself in his old age compelled to maintain himself by keeping a school in New Aberdeen, some of his old friends also contributing to his necessities by private donations.
In his final years he retired to the manse of his son-in-law, Rev John Mercer, minister of Kinellar, where he died about 1672.
It is quaintly entitled "Supplement to the Historie of the Kirk of Scotland, from August Anno 1637, and thence forward to July 1639; or ane Handfull of Goate's Haire for the furthering of the building of the Tabernacle; a Short Table of Principall Things for the proving of the most excellent Historie of this late Blessed Work of Reformation.