David Lindsay, 1st Lord Lindsay of Balcarres (born 1586 or 1567 – 1641) was a Scottish nobleman.
He was born in Edinburgh,[citation needed] Lindsay was the younger son of John Lindsay of Balcarres, Lord Menmuir and Marion Guthrie.[1] His year of birth is given as either 1586 or 1587.[1][2]: 236 Lindsay succeeded his older brother John, who died unmarried in 1601.[2]: 236 Lindsay was well-educated and was given a licence to visit France in 1607.[2]: 236 Ignacio-Miguel Pascual-Valderrama and Joaquín Pérez-Pariente place Lindsay in the city of Poitiers from 1608 to 1609 using manuscripts from his book collection.[2]: 236 An inscription in another of his books suggests he was in Paris at the end of 1609.[2]: 237
Lindsay returned to Scotland by 1612 as he married Lady Sophia Seton, daughter of Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline, on 16 February 1612.[1][2] He was created Baron Lindsay of Balcarres on 27 June 1633.[1] He was a staunch royalist.[citation needed] He was buried in the Chapel at Balcarres, Fife.[citation needed] He had one son, Alexander, later the first Earl of Balcarres,[2]: 236 and a daughter Sophia, who died in childbirth following her marriage to Robert Moray.[citation needed]
Lindsay's private library was "one of the largest in early modern Scotland",[2]: 234 estimated to contain around 1000 to 1200 works.[2]: 242 Poet William Drummond of Hawthornden wrote in a letter that it was difficult to find Lindsay a book which he did not already have.[2]: 237 It was largely destroyed or dispersed after his death in 1641, with a small remainder being owned by the Earl of Crawford.[1] In 1901, the manuscripts of the Crawford collection and part of Lindsay's library were bought by Enriqueta Augustina Rylands and given to the John Rylands Library.[2]: 238 The Library became part of the University of Manchester in 1972 and the Balcarres and Crawford papers were given to the National Library of Scotland in 1988.[2]: 238