At the very hour of his birth, soldiers under warrant of the Privy Council, were searching the house to seize his father, but the latter, having exchanged clothes with the physician's man-servant, succeeded in escaping.

He served as chaplain in the house of his kinsman, Sir John Maxwell of Pollok, and for several years he was librarian to the University of Glasgow.

In 1707 he was one of a Committee of Presbyterians appointed to consult and act with the Commission in Edinburgh as to the best means of averting the evils with which the Union of the Kingdoms seemed to threaten the church and people of Scotland.

On the accession of George I. in 1714, he was principal correspondent and adviser of the five ministers sent by the Assembly to London to plead the rights of the Church, and particularly to petition for the abolition of patronage.

He assisted Principal Hadow in drawing up the Act of Assembly (1731) for the filling up of vacant parishes, the passing of which in the following year gave rise to the Associate Presbytery.

An enthusiastic collector of information on the history and personal ministry of the Church, he left behind him a vast accumulation of interesting and illuminative MSS.

[citation needed] The work was approved by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and dedicated to George I, who recognised its semi-official character by, on 26 April 1725, authorising the payment out of the exchequer of 100 guineas to Wodrow.