Sir James Melville, a Scottish soldier, born at Raith, Fifeshire, about 1535, died at Hal-hill, in the same county, in November, 1607. At the age of 14 he went to the continent, where he was taken into the service of the constable Montmorency, and made several campaigns in France and Flanders. In 1557 he took part in the battle of St. Quentin, where he was wounded and taken prisoner. In 1559 he went on a secret mission to Scotland, and after the fall of Montmorency he went to Germany and entered the service of the elector palatine, with whose son he visited France in 1561. After his return to Scotland he entered the service of the queen, who sent him twice on a mission to Elizabeth. After the murder of Darnley he remonstrated with her on her partiality for Bothwell, whereupon he lost favor, but nevertheless adhered to her until she was imprisoned in Lochleven castle. On the accession of James he was made a gentleman of the bedchamber and a member of the privy council, and was even pressed by the king to accompany him to London when he went to take possession of the throne of England. He declined this invitation, and devoted his latter days to his "Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Hal-hill, containing an Impartial Account of the most remarkable Affairs of State during the last Age." The earliest edition is London, 1683; the best, Edinburgh, 1827.