John Willock appears to have been a friar of the Franciscan House at Ayr.
14 Facts About John Willock
1.
2.
John Willock was found guilty of preaching against purgatory, holy water, priestly confession, and prayer to the saints, and of holding that priests might lawfully be married, he was for some time confined in the Fleet prison.
3.
John Willock preached for a time in London, in St Katherine's Church, when both he and John Knox, his fast friend, were granted general license to preach anywhere in England.
4.
When Mary Tudor came to the English throne in 1553, Willock fled to Embden, in the Protestant Duchy of Friesland.
5.
In 1559, when John Willock Knox had to leave Edinburgh in peril of his life, Willook took his place as the evangelist of the Reformation.
6.
In 1560, when Queen Mary of Guise lay dying, the Earls of Argyll and Moray, and other Lords of the Congregation advised her to "send for a godly, learned man of whom she might receive instruction"; and John Willock was chosen to minister to her, which he faithfully did.
7.
John Willock was one of the six Johns entrusted with the drawing up of the First Book of Discipline, the others being John Knox, John Winram, John Spottiswood, John Douglas, and John Row.
8.
John Willock was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly in 1563,1564,1565, and 1568.
9.
John Willock went again to Loughborough, and was there in 1570 when the Regent Moray was assassinated.
10.
John Willock was a native of Ayrshire, but nothing is known of his parentage.
11.
John Willock then embraced the reformed religion and went to London, where, about 1542, he became preacher at St Catherine's Church and chaplain to Henry Grey, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane Grey.
12.
John Willock had come to Perth in company with the Earl of Glencairn, and while there he and Knox had an interview with the Earl of Argyll and Lord James Stewart, from whom they received an assurance that should the queen regent depart from her agreement they would "with their whole powers" assist and concur "with their brethren in all time to come".
13.
Shortly afterwards Knox was elected minister of St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh; but after a truce had been completed with the queen regent it was deemed advisable that Knox should for a while retire from Edinburgh, John Willock acting as his substitute in St Giles.
14.
The result was that her authority was suspended, and a council appointed to manage the affairs of the kingdom until a meeting of parliament, John Willock being one of the four ministers chosen to assist in the deliberations of the council.