Sir John Bellenden of Auchnole and Broughton (died 1 October 1576) was, before 1544, Director of Chancery, and was appointed Lord Justice Clerk on 25 June 1547, succeeding his father Thomas Bellenden of Auchnoule. John was knighted before April 1544.

Career

With Sir Robert Carnegie, he agreed an indenture with English commissioners for peace on the Scottish border at Berwick upon Tweed. In 1555 Sir John Bellenden audited accounts for fortifications built by Mary of Guise at Inchkeith. He was a Commissioner for the Treaty of Peace with Anna of Oldenburg, signed at Aberdeen 19 October 1556 confirmed by Mary, Queen of Scots, 26 September 1557. With James MacGill, he prepared a short guide to Scottish law, the Discours Particulier D'Escosse, written in French for Mary, Queen of Scots, and Francis II of France. After the Siege of Leith, in the articles of the Treaty of Edinburgh, Bellenden was nominated to negotiate the French withdrawal from Scotland on behalf of the Lords of the Congregation. His brother, Patrick Bellenden was present at the murder of David Rizzio at Holyrood Palace. Rizzio hid behind Mary, Queen of Scots. According to Mary, Patrick Bellenden pointed his gun at her pregnant belly. John Bellenden attended at the coronation of King James VI of Scotland on 29 July 1567 at Stirling. In February 1572, during the Marian Civil War, Regent Mar sent him and Robert Colville of Cleish to greet two English ambassadors, Thomas Randolph and William Drury, in Edinburgh and invite them to supper. Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, writing in the seventeenth century, tells us that "Sir John made the conquests, and left his eldest son Sir Lewis a fair estate, viz. the barony of Broughton, with the superiority of the Canongate and North Leith, having therein near two thousand vassals; the baronies of Auchnoul, Woodhouslie, Abbot's-grange, and many others. And to the eldest son of the third marriage he left the barony of Carlowrie, (Linlithgowshire), and Kilconquhar, Fife, and diverse lands about Brechin."

Family

Sir John married three times: His third marriage, to Jonet Seton, was in January 1565. She was a gentlewoman of Mary's bed chamber and was given a purple velvet gown with gold trimming.