Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty

I recently attended the Urquhart Clan event in Scotland celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty who was born in 1611 in Cromarty. After attending King’s College of the University of Aberdeen, he toured Europe until 1636. Charles I knighted him after he joined a Royalist uprising. In 1642 upon the death of his father, he inherited a large estate with heavy debts that followed him for the rest of his life.
He sided with the monarchy during the civil war between parliament and Charles I and met defeat at the Battle of Worcester. He endured imprisonment at the tower of London while Charles I lost his head. Sir Thomas secured his release by Oliver Cromwell and finished his life in exile on the continent.
He achieved notoriety for his literary accomplishments, some of which were bizarre. Among there were a complex new method of mathematics, a genealogy that traced his lineage through 153 generations to Adam and Eve, and a new universal language. His best writings were translations of the works of Rabelais.