Adam Otterburn

Sir Adam Otterburn of Auldhame and Redhall (died 6 July 1548) was a Scottish lawyer and diplomat. He was king's advocate to James V of Scotland and secretary to Mary of Guise and Regent Arran.

In 1527 Otterburn was one of 30 councillors appointed to sit on the Session.

Adam Otterburn was an important servant of the Scottish monarchy as a lawyer and a diplomat. In August 1524, Margaret Tudor sent him to England with the Earl of Cassilis and Scot of Balwearie to negotiate peace, and a possible marriage for James V with Princess Mary. In May 1525, the English ambassador Dr Thomas Magnus recommended him to Cardinal Wolsey for an annual pension of £20. In 1528, Magnus and Otterburn again discussed the possibilities of a marriage between James V and Princess Mary.

When James V assumed the throne as an adult ruler and rejected the Douglases and their associates, Otterburn drew up charges of treason against them on 13 July 1529. On 8 November 1529, he was one of the Scottish commissioners who met English diplomats at Berwick-upon-Tweed. This meeting discussed the possible restoration of the Earl of Angus, an issue which Henry VIII could use as leverage to decide James's choice of future bride. A five-year truce was concluded and the Douglases were to go into English exile.

In May 1532, he was of the first 15 lawyers appointed as Senators of Justice. While in England he was knighted by James V (in his absence) as Sir Adam Otterburn of Redhall on 16 February 1534. Redhall, his other estate, is within Edinburgh near Longstone. Otterburn brought letters from Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell to Margaret Tudor in July 1536. In July 1538, Otterburn was consulted about the text of a speech in French which Henry Lauder was to give to welcome Mary of Guise to Edinburgh.

Around this time, Otterburn had a conversation with Thomas Wharton about gold mining in Scotland at Crawford Moor. Otterburn said that James IV had mines but only found loose pieces of gold or gold ore rather than a vein, and spent more on the work than he recovered. The Duke of Albany also opened mines. In 1546, Wharton had a gold medallion coined by Albany, said to be minted from Scottish gold.

Adam Otterburn signed a border peace treaty in London on 11 May 1534. After the English Reformation, in 1536, Henry VIII requested a meeting with James V, and Otterburn was sent to London again to discuss Henry's motives and the possible agenda. He was in London during the arrest and conviction of Anne Boleyn. In April 1537 Otterburn and other courtiers joked with the English messenger Henry Ray about English Friars who were now refugees in Scotland.

In June 1538 he wrote a speech with David Lyndsay in French to welcome Mary of Guise to Edinburgh, to be given by Master Henry Lauder. In August 1538 he was imprisoned in Dumbarton Castle and in November deprived of office and fined £1000 for communicating with the forfeited Earl of Angus. The English border official Thomas Wharton heard that the former comptroller James Colville was also imprisoned for "his accomptes".