After the death of Edward Story, Abbot of Dundrennan, on 28 November 1516, Hay was provided to the now vacant abbacy; he became abbot sometime between 2 June and 9 August 1517.[2]
It was not, however, until 16 September 1524, that the temporalities of the bishopric of Ross were given into Hay's possession, and he had still not received consecration by 25 February 1525.[4]
Among the few things known of his episcopate, Hay was one of the commissioners who held parliament on 11 March 1538; one William of Johnstoun was convicted of heresy in Hay's court in April of the same year.[5] Hay appears to have died in this year, by 3 October at the latest.[3] He was succeeded by Robert Cairncross.[6]
^Dowden, Bishops, p. 225; Watt, Fasti Ecclesiae, p. 270.
References
Dowden, John, The Bishops of Scotland, ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)
Watt, D. E. R., Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638, 2nd Draft, (St Andrews, 1969)
Watt, D. E. R. & Shead, N. F. (eds.), The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th Centuries, The Scottish Records Society, New Series, Volume 24, (Edinburgh, 2001)