Aberdeen was one of the largest and most important burghs in Scotland with extensive trade links to northern Europe. It was also a town with two universities. The grammar school which Cargill attended was located on School Hill.

While he was there, he apparently lodged with the family of a cousin on his mother’s side, Patrick Blair, who was a merchant in the burgh. (Grant, No King But Christ, 15.)

Cargill’s time at the grammar school coincided with the political convulsions caused by the outbreak of the Covenanting struggle. Initially. The burgh’s elite and local ministers politely, but firmly, declined the “offer” that they should subscribe the Covenant and prepared to resist the Covenanters’ advance. However, after being deserted by Royalist Marquis of Huntly the burgh fell without resistance to a Covenanter force led by the Marquis of Montrose on 30 March, 1639. In May, the burgh briefly fell back into the hands of the Royalists for five days, when Sir George Ogilvy plundered the houses of prominent Covenanters in the burgh. What the young Donald made of those events is not known, but given the Covenanting sympathies of his family and Patrick Blair, it is likely that the return of Montrose and 4,000 men on 25 May to secure the town for the Covenanting was a cause for celebration.

After he finished his schooling, Cargill attended the newly created Caroline University at Aberdeen in 1643. As part of the Covenanting regime’s purging of the burgh of ‘malignant’ Royalist influences, the new university had been formed out of the merger of King’s College and Marischal College in 1641. His stay at the university would be brief, as war once again visited Aberdeen.

On 28 August, 1644, Montrose, who had now deserted the Covenanters, raised the Royalist standard in support of King Charles I at Blair Atholl. Soon after, he and his army, mainly made of Irishmen under Alasdair Mac Colla, defeated the Covenanters at Tippermuir (i.e., Tibbermore) outside of Perth and swept into the North East. After failing to take Dundee, Montrose’s army arrived before Aberdeen.

On 13 September, 1644, with his army outside of the burgh, Montrose wrote to its inhabitants in no uncertain terms:

‘Loveing freindes
Being heir, for the maintenance of Religion and liberty and his Maiesties just authority and service thes ar, in his Maiesties name to requyre you that immediately, upon the sight heirof you, rander and give up your towne In the behalf of his Maiestie Otherwayes that all old persons women and children doe come out and reteire themselfs, and that those who stayes expect no quarter
I am as you deserve
Montrose’ (Letter from the Marquis of Montrose to the Burgh of  Aberdeen, 13 September, 1644.)

The letter was sent with Montrose’s commissioner and a drummer to a parley with the provost and baillies of Aberdeen. However, as Montrose’s delegation was plied with drink the drummer was shot with a pistol and slain. When word reached Montrose of the Covenanters’ behaviour, he was outraged at such a flagrant breach of the rules of war. He ordered that no quarter should be given.

The Covenanters under Robert, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, had made hasty preparations to defend the burgh with a force of about 2,000 men. Although the government force was larger than that of Montrose it was largely inexperienced, as about half of it was composed local levies of whom many were reluctant defenders. At the time of the battle, Cargill was around sixteen or seventeen years-old. It is possible that he was among the local levies sent out to defend Aberdeen. If he was, this would have been his first taste of battle.

The battle took place at Justice Mills, which lay within a couple of miles of Cargill’s school. A combination of inexperience and poor leadership quickly led to the disintegration and rout of the Covenanters. Montrose’s men quickly pursued the fleeing levies into the burgh. What followed may have further coloured Cargill’s views on Royalists:

‘There was little slaughter in the fight; but horrible was the slaughter in the flight fleeing back to the town, which was our townsmen’s destruction; whereas if they had fled, and not come near the town, they might have been in better security, …The lieutenant [i.e., Montrose] follows the chace into Aberdeen, his men hewing and cutting all manner of men they could overtake within the town, upon the streets, or in their houses, or round about the town as our men were flying, with broad swords, without mercy or remead. Thir cruel Irishes, seeing a man well clad, would first tirr him, to save his cloaths unspoiled, syne kill the man. We lost three pieces of cannon, with much good armour, besides the plundering of our town, houses, merchants’ booths, and all, which was pitiful to see! The lord Burleigh, … and diverse other Covenanters, wan away. Montrose follows the chase into the town, leaving the body of his army standing close unbroken while his return, excepting such as fought the field. He had promised them the plundering of the town for their good service, but he stayed not, but returned back from Aberdeen to the camp this samen Friday at night, leaving the Irishes killing, robbing, and plundering of this town at their pleasure, and nothing was heard but pitiful howling, crying, and weeping and mourning through all the streets! Thus thir Irishes continued Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Some women they pressed to deflower, and others they took per force to serve them in the camp. It is lamentable to hear how thir Irishes, who had gotten the spoil of the town, did abuse the samen; the men they killed they would not suffer to be buried, but tirred their cloaths off them, syne left the naked bodies lying above the ground. The wife durst not cry nor weep at her husband’s slaughter before her eyes, nor the daughter for the father, which if they did and were heard, then they were presently slain also.’

For full accounts of the battle and its aftermath, see Gordon’s account, here, Spalding’s account, here, and the information from the Battlefield Trust.

Aberdeen exchanged hands for the fifth time a few days later after Montrose withdrew into the Highlands and 4,000 Covenanters under Argyll occupied the town on 19 September.

The losses caused by the Montrose’s forces were accessed at £135,000. At the same time, the burgh’s economy was suffering, not only from plundering, but the imposition of free quartering. (Lynch, The Early Modern Town in Scotland, 180.)

Soon after, Cargill abandoned Aberdeen for good and moved to the safety of St Andrews, where, early in the following year, he matriculated at St Salvator’s College. (Grant, No King But Christ, 16.)

For Cargill’s early life, see here.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved

One of Cargill’s last acts on the scaffold on 27 July, 1681, was to hand down his bible to a sympathizer and instruct them to pass it on to his sister. The incident is recorded in a handwritten entry in Cargill’s bible:

‘[Cargill] Bore this Bible to the Scaffold as his last best friend and handed it therefrom as his last sad legacy to be carried to his oldest sister Anne Cargill with these memorable words – ‘I am sure of my salvation being complete in Jesus Christ as I am of the truth of all that is contained in this holy this inestimable book of God!’ (Quoted in Crawford, Scotland’s Books, 214.)

Cargill had three sisters. His bible was handed down via the family of Anne Cargill, the eldest of them. A second sister, Grizel Cargill, was married to Donald Crockatt, a notary in Alyth parish, Perthshire.

A third sister may have been married to John Miller in Watershaugh in Shotts parish. Lanarkshire: ‘Mrs. Miller, the worthy spouse of the occupant of Watersaugh, was the sister of Donald Cargill, and Watersaugh thus became one of the haunts and hiding-places of Cargill.’ (Brown, Historical Sketches of the Parish of Cambusnethan, 147.)

His bible is recorded in Johnston’s Treasury of the Covenant:

‘Cargill’s Bible. In the village of Strathmiglo in Fife, in the possession of one who is lineally descended from a sister of Donald Cargill, is the Bible which he carried with him to the scaffold in 1681. It is a very beautiful Cambridge edition [of the King James Bible], printed in 1657, with red marginal lines, ornamentally bound, and strengthened with silver clasps, which the respect of its subsequent owners has added. This venerable volume shows on some of its pages the weather marks which it received, when on the lonely hill-side or on the naked moor Cargill held it in his hand, and under the passing storm proclaimed to those who received no mercy from man the sovereign and abundant mercy of God.’ (Johnston, Treasury of the Covenant, 640.)

He probably obtained his copy of the 1657 edition a few years into his tenure as the minister of Barony parish. He certainly obtained it after the death of his wife. It was the most up-to-date version of the text which was based on the 1638 revision of the King James Bible of 1611. The 1638 Cambridge edition is known for its ‘scholarly niceties’. In the view of Norton,‘Bible translation was of necessity a pedantic matter… [However,]… One man’s pedantry is another man’s fidelity, and it should never be forgotten that there were genuine problems in the first edition text [of 1611] that the Cambridge editors contributed greatly to remedying’. (Norton, A Textual History of the King James Bible, 91, 92.)

It may, or may not, be significant that Cargill did not use any of the post-Restoration minor revisions of the Bible. In general, Cargill was averse to post-Restoration developments in religion. However, the next influential revision of the biblical text in English did not take place until 1762. Cargill’s Bible is now held in the library of the University of St Andrews.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

Summer has arrived and it is time for a good day out and a walk. Can you help solve riddles about the renowned Covenanter and man-in-the-mask, Alexander ‘Prophet’ Peden? Can you find and photograph any of five missing sites connected to Peden? Can you make history?

1. Peden’s Stone near Barr, Ayrshire.
A real mystery here. A five-foot high boulder that is missing, but is probably still there. Can you find it?

Peden’s Stone lay about ‘1½ from Barr village, there stands on a hillside, near the Lane Toll, a large whin boulder which goes under the name of Peden’s Stone, as marking the site of one of his conventicles. This stone is 5 feet in height and 15 [feet] in circumference, and looks down on the Stinchar valley in front, with Auchensoul hill on the immediate right…’

Map of approximate location at Lane Toll by Auchensoul Hill

The full story of Peden’s Stone at Auchensoul is here. Can you find and photograph Peden’s Stone?

2. Peden’s Mount, near Colmonell Ayrshire.
One for the intrepid explorers who like a long walk in the country. Peden’s Mount is marked on the map, but is not photographed due to the remote location. It certainly exists.

Map of Peden’s Mount

The full story of Peden’s Mount is here. Can you find and photograph it?

3. Peden’s Tree, near Sorn in Ayrshire.
This is one of my favourites. Peden’s Tree was described a few years ago as an ‘enormous holly tree’ which stood on the ‘edge of a bluff’ on the Glenlogan estate. It was also described as ‘multi-trunked, and each trunk is of great girth. Many of them are very old indeed.’ Is it still there? Could be!

Map of Peden’s Tree

There is some doubt about the precise location of the tree, as it appears to be in slightly different locations on the old OS map and the modern OS map. Can you find out which one is right? The full story of Peden’s Tree near Sorn is here. Can you find and photograph the Peden’s Tree?

4. Peden’s Pulpit or Peden’s Point near Dalry in Ayrshire.
This one is quite a mystery. We know the site is still there and in which glen it is located, but it is not marked on the map. It sits is at the head, or top, of the Lynn Glen. Local knowledge may, or may not, be invaluable in locating the pulpit and/or point. It may be obvious when you see it. The picture of it on wikipedia is apparently not of Peden’s Pulpit or Point. Can you find and photograph Peden’s Pulpit or Point?

According to local tradition, the well-known Covenanter, Alexander Peden, is said to have preached at ‘Peden’s Pulpit’ aka. ‘Peden’s Point’, a rocky outcrop at the head of the Lynn Glen. The Caaf Water runs through the Lynn Glen to the south of Dalry.

Map of Lynn Glen at Dalry

5. The Peden Stone at Mid Linthills near Lochwinnoch in Renfrewshire.
Can you find and photograph the Peden Stone at Mid Linthills? The stone is described as a ‘large gray stone’ which is now located ‘next to a dyke at the gateway to a field in the farm of Mid Linthills’.

Map of Mid Linthills

The stone still exists, but is not pinpointed on the map and no photo of it is on the web. The locals may know exactly where the stone is. For the full story of the Mid Linthills stone see here.

If you find any of these Peden sites, please let us know where they are, what you found and photograph them. You can contact me on jardinesbookofmartyrs[insert ‘at’ symbol]gmail.com or post below.

Five sites. Five Challenges. Who will succeed in the Prophet Peden Summer Challenge?…

Good Luck!

In a footnote in F. R. Coles in ‘Notices of Rock-Hewn Caves’, he mentions that St Ringan’s Cave was also known as the ‘Covenanters Cave’. St Ringan is a popular name for St Ninain, which is in itself probably a scribal error for St Uinniau, i.e., St Finnian of Movilla.

The ‘Covenanters Cave’, aka. Saint Ringan’s Cave, either lies, or lay, beside the Billies Burn, near the ruins of St Cormac’s Church in Kelton parish, Kircudbrightshire. However, it does not appear on the map.

Billies Glen © Ed Iglehart and licensed for reuse.

Coles visited the cave before 1910 and described it as a four-foot wide manmade passage with a roughly-hewn arched roof six feet in height. On surveying the cave, he found that it was made up of a passage running thirty-three feet due east which ended in a recess. Near the end of that passage was a second passage of the same length which ran north which connected to a ‘third’ passage which ran north-west for a further fifty-four feet. At the ‘extremity’ of the latter he found a ‘squarish recess, with a seat-like block three feet wide’. He also found that ‘the floor was in some places several inches deep in water, which drips from the roof’. This was apparently due to a mill lade lying directly above a large proportion of the cave. (‘Notices of Rock-Hewn Caves’, PSAS, Vol. 45., 297-8.)

Coles provides a plan of the cave, which can be found in the article on page 298 (34/37 on the PDF.).

To access the article, go to this website.

Then click on ‘Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland’ and accept the terms of use.

Then click on Volume 45, 1910-11. The article mentioning the Covenanter’s cave is under ‘Notices of Rock-Hewn Caves in the Valley of the Esk and other Parts of Scotland. (pp 265-301) ‘. Click on the PDF link on the right. The Covenanters Cave is on p297 to 298 (or 33/37).

The Covenanters Cave?
There is no evidence beyond the local name for it for the cave being used by Covenanters. Some caves were used by the Covenanters, but many of them may be later traditional associations. It is not clear if the cave existed in the seventeenth century or when it was constructed.

Kelton parish was not a stronghold of the Society people.‘John Colton in Nether-third’ is the only fugitive from the parish found on the published Fugitive Roll of 1684. (Jardine, ‘United Societies’, II, 218.)

Netherthird lies a short distance to the south-west of Billies Burn.

Map of Netherthird                Aerial View of Netherthird

Where is the Cave?

Before going on, I must strongly advise against any amateur cave hunter trying to excavate or enter it, if it still exists. That is a job for professionals who know what they are doing. Do not risk your life.

My interest in the cave is about the local tradition which claimed that it was used by the Covenanters, if it is still there and where it is located. I want to know where the entrance is, not what is in it. It is not clear if the cave still exists. It may have collapsed or been filled in the century since Coles recorded it. It is not marked on either modern. or old, OS maps. Although, it may appear on the finest detail OS maps. There is no doubt that the cave existed before 1910.

From the description and map in the article, the entry to the cave appears to be located on the northern or eastern bank of Billies Burn, probably above/to the east of Billies Bridge.

Street View of Billies Bridge

Above the bridge, the arc of a mill laid which ran to a threshing mill at Billies, is still visible in the landscape. That same arc is on the map pictured above. That may be the mill lade above a large proportion of the cave.

Map of Billies Burn           Aerial View of Billies Burn

Kirkcormack and Motte © Chris Newman and licensed for reuse.

If you find the entrance to the ‘Covenanters Cave’, please let us know where it is and photograph it. Even if you do not find it, please let us know about where you searched and any information that you discovered.

Please follow the rules of access to farmland and do not risk you life.

Nearby is the site of St Ringan’s Well (and here) and St Cormac’s Church and a Motte.

Good luck!

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

Donald Cargill Monument at Hatton © Andreas Wilhelm and licensed for reuse.

Donald was the son of Lawrence Cargill and Marjory Blair, who were probably married in 1626. He was probably born in 1627, or perhaps 1628, and was the eldest of five children. Donald was named after his grandfather, a respected local notary and elder in Rattray parish who died in 1623. His father, Lawrence, remained in his family home until he purchased a small holding at Nether Cloquhat in Alyth parish, Perthshire, as a marital home in May, 1626. It was there that Donald spent his earliest years.

Map of Nether Cloquhat            Street View of Cloquhat

In 1634, Donald moved house after his father took up the tenancy of ‘Bonnytown’, now Bonnington, in Rattray parish

Map of Bonnington               Street View of Bonnington

In moving to Rattray parish, Lawrence was filling the shoes of his deceased father and elder brother, John, who were prominent members of the parish. Before the death of his brother in 1632, Lawrence had helped both his father and brother in their business as notaries. After the move to Bonnington, Lawrence took on their mantle as the local notary until his death in 1657. On his father’s death, James Cargill, Donald’s younger brother, inherited Bonnington, while Donald inherited a quarter share of the Wester Banchrie/Banchory in Blairgowrie parish.

Map of Wester Banchory          Street View of Wester Banchory

A monument to Cargill, pictured above, is located at West Hatton, to the east of Bonnington.

Map of Cargill Monument

The Hatton estate belonged to Cargill’s cousin, Donald Cargill of Hatton, the son of the John Cargill. The monument is vague about the date of Cargill’s birth due to an typographic error in Howie of Lochgoin’s Scots Worthies. Cargill took on the Hatton estate and several other local small estates in the 1660s as part of a concerted effort to free his cousin from debt.

One thing Cargill possibly witnessed when he a boy was the local football game for the Silver Ball of Rattray.

In 1637,  at the age of ten or eleven, Donald was old enough to continue his education at Aberdeen Grammar School. It was there that Donald first encountered the turmoil and violence of revolution.

Most of the above is based on an excellent summary of Cargill’s early life which is found in Maurice Grant’s No King But Christ. 11-15.

Cargill’s Leap at Blairgowrie is another local site connected with the Covenanter.

‘Little is known about this stone. It has been suggested that it is a boundary stone indicating the meeting point of four parishes: the Ayrshire parishes of Loudoun and Fenwick, the Renfrewshire parish of Eaglesham and the Lanarkshire parish of Avondale. Whether there is a definite link to the Covenanters is unknown.’ (East Renfrewshire Council Website.)

© Scott and licensed for reuse.

The Covenanters Preacher Stone is said to be located at OS Grid ref NS 588 451, which is close to turbine 64 in the Whitelee Windfarm. The OS ref suggests the site lies by the Glen Water.

The stone is clearly a boundary stone and is located where the boundaries of Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Renfrewshire meet. The list of parishes on the council’s website is not correct. The location of the Preaching Stones is where the parishes of [East] Kilbride (Lanark), Loudoun (Ayr) and Eaglesham (Renfrew) meet.

Map of Covenanters Preacher Stone           Aerial View of location of Preacher Stone

Border locations like those were often used by the Societies, not only for the cover that the hills and muirs provided against detection by government forces, but also as convenient meeting places for Society people from multiple shires.

Sites with a known connection to the Society people do lie close to the Covenanters Preacher Stone. It is possible the stone was used for field preaching in connection with the Societies’ convention site at Myres.

The Society people certainly used other ‘three shire’ sites, or locations close to them, in the 1680s, especially around the bounds of Lanarkshire.

The preaching site at Hynd’s Bottom and the convention sites at Panbreck, Cairntable and Friarminnan lie around Three Shire Hill where the shires of Lanark, Dumfries and Ayr meet.

Renwick’s Preaching at Black Loch/Whin Bog lay close to where the shires of Lanark, Stirling and Linlithgow meet.

The preaching site at Cairnhill, or Wolf Hole Craig, lies where the shires of Lanark, Peebles and Edinburgh meet.

There is also a suggestive cluster of sites in the area around where the shires of Lanark, Peebles and Dumfries meet.

If you find it, please let us know where it is and photograph it. Even if you do not find it, please let us know where you searched. Either post below or use my contact email here.

Good luck!

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

In 1899, John MacDonald recorded the following fanciful tradition about Donald Cargill.

‘In 1679 the famous Rattray Covenanter, Donald Cargill, while on a visit to his parents at the Hatton of Rattray, was pursued by dragoons, and only escaped by leaping the Keith [on the River Ericht] above Blairgowrie.’

‘[Where] the Ericht rushes impetuously down a gorge, forming a cascade known as “The Keith.” Tradition points out this as the scene of Cargill’s leap, when he was pursued by the dragoons of Claverhouse.’ (MacDonald, History of Blairgowrie, 43, 233.)

Cargill’s Leap lies in a narrow gorge on the River Ericht just upstream from Blairgowrie.

Map of Cargill’s Leap             Aerial View of Cargill’s Leap

You can see a video of Cargill’s Leap here.

Skepticism?

Cargill’s father, Lawrence, died in 1657. In 1679, Cargill would have been over fifty. John Graham of Claverhouse was only a captain of horse, rather than of dragoons, in 1679. Neither Claverhouse, nor Cargill, are recorded as being near Blairgowrie at that time.

If you are visiting the site, you may wish to use the riverside car park and follow the path up stream to the leap.

If you are hungry, Cargill’s Restaurant, which is named after the Covenanter, is nearby.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved

In 1911 a monument was erected at the place where Donald Cargill, Walter Smith and James Boig were captured in July 1681.

The monument stands beside the road at Covington Mill in Covington parish, Lanarkshire.

Map of Covington Mill            Street View of Covington Mill and Monument

The monument mentions Donald Cargill, but does not record the capture of Walter Smith and James Boig at the same time.

It is inscribed as follows:

‘1911

SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
REV. DONALD CARGILL
THE CELEBRATED COVENANTER
WHO WAS TAKEN PRISONER
AT COVINGTON MILL 11TH JULY
AND SUFFERED WITH
TRIUMPHANT COURAGE AT
THE CROSS OF EDINBURGH
27TH JULY 1681

THIS MEMORIAL WAS ERECTED BY
THE COVINGTON PARISH CHURCH
BIBLE CLASS AND A FEW FRIENDS’.

Text and Pictures © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

‘Brocklock or Brockloch. A small arable hill in the top of which is a hollow where Cameronians or Covenanters assembled for worship during the Persecution.’ (OS Name Book 1846.)

Map of Brockloch             Aerial View of Brockloch

Brockloch lies in Penninghame parish close to the River Bladnoch. The river is western boundary of the parish with Kirkcowan. Penninghame was probably the parish where the Society people were most active in Wigtownshire.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

We may never see it, but hidden is the pine forest in Carsphairn parish, Kirkcudbrightshire, is the Kirk Stone, which is a possible field preaching site…

Map of Kirk Stone

Congratulations has to go to Leslie Barrie for photographing such an inaccessible site. Before the recent forestation, the stones would have been obvious local landmarks. They may be visible again in the near future due to felling.

The Kirk Stone is located close to Starr in Straiton parish in Carrick, Ayrshire, which is a known hiding place of the Society people at the beginning of 1685.

The Kirk Stones © Leslie Barrie and licensed for resue.

According to the OS Name Book in 1849: ‘Kirk Stone. A large granite stone where sermons are said to have been preached during the religious troubles of the 17th century.’ (OS Name Book 1849.)

The Kirk Stone lies close to the boundary between Kirkcudbrightshire and Ayrshire, the kind of border location classicaly used by the Society people. It also lies on a track from Starr. It is perhaps possible that James Renwick preached here either in 1684, or 1685.

On the nearby hill of Meaul is a stone which allegedly marks the killing of John Dempster.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

A mystery could be solved…

In 1892, J. H. Pagan gave a paper to the Bothwell Literary Association on the antiquities of Bothwell [parish]. He recorded a ‘Covenanter’s Stone … a probable memorial of the battle of Bothwell Brig is the old stone which stands among the trees beneath Woodhead.’

The stone is not recorded on the OS maps. Pagan, the original source, possibly recorded local knowledge or tradition about a Covenanter’s Stone at Woodhead, which may lie either near Coatbridge, or Bothwell.

From his book on the antiquities of Bothwell, the Covenanter’s Stone looked like this,

Image reproduced by the very kind permission of Donald Iain Kerr.

All stones are by their nature ‘old’, but Pagan’s image indicates that it was a natural stone, which was either distinctive, or a prominent boulder. Some form of ancient standing stone is another possibility.

The area in which the stone was said to situated was visited in 1952, however, the official responsible reported that ‘no one seems to have heard of the existence of this stone and no trace of it was found during perambulation of the area (centred NS 6878 6300).’

In an industrial and urban area where the Covenanter’s stone was located, it is not that surprising, and I mean this in the kindest of terms being the product of one in Lanarkshire, that in the 1950s a large segment of the local population were deracinated of their connection to local history and tradition prior to industrialization.

However, it is not clear if the area searched for in 1952 was the right location. Is the stone still awaiting rediscovery? It perhaps is.

Woodhead near Newlands in the 1750s

Where was the Covenanter’s Stone?

Today, a Woodhead farm lies on the opposite side of the M73 from Newlands farm, both of which lie in Bothwell parish, Lanarkshire.

Map of area of Woodhead/Newlands              Aerial View of Woodhead/Newlands

Street View of Woodhead

From Pagan’s description of the location of the Covenanter’s Stone it is possible that it may have been sited somewhere down the slope from the farm, probably in the woods beside the North Calder Water which lie the the north and west of the farm.

Street View of Woods below farm

This site is the one listed by the RCAHMS Canmore site. See here (and click on the map on the website). However, that may not be the correct location, as will be discussed below. For the moment, let us assume that it is.

What Did The Covenanter’s Stone Commemorate?
It is clear from Pagan’s brief mention of the stone, that locals probably connected it to the Covenanters. Pagan thought that it was ‘a probable memorial of the battle of Bothwell Brig’, as the battle was fought within a few miles of Woodhead in 1679. However, Pagan’s guess is probably wrong. The stone is on the wrong side of the battlefield for any fleeing Covenanter, as the government army, which occupied the Bothwell parish bank of the Clyde, forced its way a cross Bothwell Bridge towards Hamilton during the battle. Anyone in flight from the battle would have fled away from the government forces, rather than through their lines.

In my view, if that location is correct, a better case can be made for a connection between the Covenanter’s Stone and the capture of ‘Alexander Wood in Newlands’, who was tried and executed in Glasgow in October, 1684. The story of Wood was badly recorded in histories of the Covenanters, but, as I’ve posted earlier, a lot more information can now be discovered about him when the fragments of his story are pieced together.

There is no doubt that Alexander Wood was from the Newlands, which lies beside Woodhead. That may suggest that the Covenanter’s Stone may be a lost fragment of Wood’s story. It may mark a location that local people associated with his capture.

The Other Woodhead

However, it is possible that the Canmore website records the wrong Woodhead. When I posted this article. Donald Iain Kerr, who lives locally, suggested a second site may be the right location. His site lies close to Bothwell Bridge in Bothwell parish.

Map of Woodhead by Bothwell            Aerial View of Woodhead by Bothwell

In the mid eighteenth century, that Woodhead looked like this

The shape of the trees on the old OS map correlates with the trees there today, although new houses have been built at Woodhead Avenue. It is entirely possible that the Woodhead by Bothwell Bridge is the Woodhead that Pagan referred to. This is what Pagan recorded on p44 of his book on the Antiquities of Bothwell (1892):

Image reproduced by the very kind permission of Donald Iain Kerr.

Pagan does not specify a location beyond the name Woodhead. However, a second source, By Bothwell Banks, which is based on Pagan and was published in 1904, does mention the two memorials in a chapter on ‘Orbiston: Its Antiquities’. Orbiston Tower lay to the east of the Bothwell Bridge close to the western bank of the South Calder Water. The other site mentioned in both accounts is Mary Rae’s Well, which now lies in Gordon Place in Bellshill. (Henderson and Waddell, By Bothwell Banks, 187.)

Street View of Mary Rae’s Well

By Bothwell Banks refers to sites located in the combined estate of Orbiston and Douglas Park, or Parkhead, which lay to the the west and south of Bellshill in Bothwell parish. It is not clear if the area of the combined estate included the Woodhead by the North Calder Water, as it lies at the opposite end of the parish from Orbiston.

The evidence of Pagan and By Bothwell Banks suggests that the Woodhead by Bothwell Bridge is a strong possibility for the location of the Covenanter’s Stone. If so, the stone may lie on the slope between Woodhead and the River Clyde. It  may be in a back garden of the modern houses. It may be buried below them.

If the stone lay near Bothwell Bridge, the stone would not be connected to the Alexander Wood executed in Glasgow, but may be linked to the battle. Why the Covenanter’s Stone is apparently on the wrong side of the bridge for the Covenanters is not clear. What is known is that the Covenanters defended the bridge, just down stream from the stone. The stone cannot be the grave of John Balfour of Kinloch, aka. of Burley in Walter Scott’s novel Old Mortality, as he survived the battle and probably drowned at sea in 1688.

If Donald Iain Kerr is correct, the official from the RCAHMS was looking for the stone around the wrong Woodhead in 1952. It may still be near Bothwell Bridge.

What Should You Look For?
The image near the top of this post gives a vivid picture of the stone. For examples of similar stones see, Dempster’s Stone, McWhann’s Stone, Smith’s Stone, and the Preaching Stone.

If you are searching for the Covenanter’s Stone at Woodhead by the North Calder Water, you may want to keep your eyes open for a cave of uncertain origin which also lies near Woodhead on the banks of the North Calder Water. It is sited on the opposite bank from the former site of Calderpark Zoo (aka. Glasgow Zoo). A picture and description of it can be found here.

No matter which site you search, if you find the Covenanter’s Stone, please let us know where it is and photograph it. Even if you do not find it, please let us know where you searched.

Good luck!

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

A lost Covenanters’ Cave lay on the northern bank of the North Calder Water in New Monkland parish, Lanarkshire. Today, the former site of it lies on the edge of Airdire.

According to the OS Name Book of 1857:
‘A small cave at the base of an old quarry on the N bank of the North Calder Water. It appears to be natural, and not artificial as suggested in OPS [Origines parochiales Scotiae (1851)]. Dr Clark of Wester Moffat states that it is natural, and was used as a hiding place by Covenanters. About fifteen years ago there were some coals wrought out of it. (Dr Clark is the only gentleman in the neighbourhood who knows anything about this cave.)’ (OS Name Book 1857)

Map of former site of the Covenanters’ Cave

A better map of its location can be found on the Canmore website.

When the site was visited in 1952 there was ‘no trace of this cave’ as it had ‘disappeared due to extensive cliff falls along the riverside.’

The cave is no longer marked on the OS map. Does anything remain?

The lost Covenanters’ Cave may, or may not, be related to a cave mentioned in the third Statistical Account of Scotland, which compiled in the mid twentieth century:
‘a large artificial cave, dug out of a bold rocky imminence on the banks of the River Calder, in the estate of Monklands, in a most romantic and sequestered spot. This seems to have been a most labourious undertaking. But whether it has been intended as an asylum in barbarous times [of the 1680s?], or the abode of the melancholy hermit, is left to the imagination of the individual reader.’

Monklands House, which has been demolished, lay a little down the North Calder Water from the lost cave.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

William Wallace, Alexander Peden and the Covenanters are commonly associated with caves in Scotland, but it is rare to find one in which both the Covenanters and Wallace allegedly hid.

One such cave is Wallace’s Cave on the South Calder Water in Bothwell parish, Lanarkshire. It lies, or lay, to the west of Cleland and near the former site of the Ravenscraig Steelworks.

Map of the Wallace Cave                 Aerial View of Wallace Cave

In 1795, the Old Statistical Account recorded that:

‘Upon the north bank of the Calder, in the middle of the steep rock upon which the house of Cleland stands, is a large natural cave which has been partly improved by art, capable of holding 40-50 men, and of difficult access. The entry was secured by a door and an iron gate. The fireplace and part of chimney and floor still remain. The tradition is that it was used as a place of concealment in the troublesome times of the country as far back as Sir William Wallace, perhaps by the hero himself, and his trusty band: Also during the violent feud, between the house of Cleland and Lauchope; and especially in the convulsions of this country [in the seventeenth century] under the Charles’s [I & II].’ (OSA, XVI, 325-6.)

The same text is found in the Imperial Gazetter of Scotland of 1854. (John M. Wilson (ed), Imperial Gazetter of Scotland, I, 188.)

In 1841, the New Statistical Account recorded an edited version of the earlier account: ‘At Cleland …A little above the house in a rock on the bank of the [South] Calder is a cave which is said to have been a hiding place for the persecuted [Covenanters], in the “troublous times”.’ (NSA, VI, 784.)

According to the Canmore website, when the cave was visited in 1953 the cave was much reduced and the connection to the Covenanters forgotten:

‘The remains of this cave are located in the centre of a cliff-face, making approach quite arduous. Rock-falls have reduced it simply to its back wall and a narrow ledge for its floor. It cannot now be described as a cave. No information, other than the traditional association with Sir William Wallace, was obtained relating to this cave.’

It is not clear if anything of the cave remains. It is no longer marked on the OS map. If anyone knows, please let me know.

Additional Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

In 1710, Wodrow heard a story from Thomas Linning, then minister at Lesmahagow, about one of James Renwick’s narrow escapes at a roadside on moor at an unspecified location and date:

‘At another time, in the muirs, he was purseued by the soldiers, and he fledd till they wer within sight of him; and he quitt his horse, and took himself to his feet, thinking to get in to some mosse, where they could not reach him. And just when he had quitt his horse, and they wer within veu, ther was a hole very near the highway, out of which some stones had been taken, and it came in his mind, that that place might be his refuge; and accordingly he stepped doun into it. They took his horse and his papers; and though the hole was perfectly open, and only just the deepth of a man, soe that his head almost might have been seen, yea, they wer soe near, that he heard the sound of the horses’ feet, and their words one to another, yet they did not discover him, though they searched ane hour or two thereabout.’ (Wodrow, Analecta, I, 289-90.)

There are distinct parallels between Linning’s story and Renwick version of his near capture at Dungavel on 30 July, 1684. At Dungavel, Renwick fled from the dragoons on horseback but was then forced to abandon his horse and continue on foot. On that occasion, he also hid in a hole and lost his papers. Linning’s version of the escape does not precisely tally with Renwick’s version, but the features they both have in common suggest that Linning’s account refers to the same escape.

Renwick’s escape prevented him from attending the Societies’ fifteenth convention, but Linning almost certainly did attend the same convention, as it issued him with a letter of recommendation to foreign churches. (‘To the Reformed Churches 31 July 1684. Intitled Recommendation of Tho: Linnen’, EUL MSS, La.III.350. No. 131.)

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

In 1710, Wodrow had a conversation with the former Societies’ minister, Thomas Linning, about James Renwick. Linning related a story about Renwick hiding in moors of Tweeddale for two days after a pursuit:

‘[Mr Thomas Linning] told me, likewise, that Mr James Renwick was one day closely purseued, and fled to Tweddail muirs, where he kneu nothing of the way, and was very farr from any house; and that between two mountains, he quitte his horse, and lett him goe beside him, and lay doun to pray, and continoued in that spote upwards of forty-eight hours, in prayer and meditation, and had the nearest communion with God that ever he had in his lifetime. He was in a perfect rapture all the time, and felt neither hunger nor heaviness all the two dayes and nights he was there. And after this, the third day, he took his horse, who stayed beside him eating all the time, and within a litle mett with ane honest man of his acquaintance, who took him to his house, and provided for him.’ (Wodrow, Analecta, I, 289.)

Linning’s account does not identify when Renwick was in Tweeddale, however, the escape possibly took place before Linning left for the United Provinces in 1684. That year Linning presented his testimony to the Societies at the fourteenth convention on 12 June and received a letter of recommendation to foreign churches at the fifteenth convention on 31 July. He probably left for the United Provinces soon after he was in possession of the letter. (Carslaw (ed.), Letters, 104; Shields, Life of Renwick, 63-4; ‘To the Reformed Churches 31 July 1684. Intitled Recommendation of Tho: Linnen’, EUL MSsS. La.III.350. No. 131.)

Renwick attended all of the Societies’ conventions in 1682, but was abroad for most of 1683. That suggests that Renwick was in Tweeddale either in 1682, or between October, 1683, and August, 1684. It is possible that Linning’s story refers to Renwick’s presence at the Societies’ third convention at Talla Linn in Tweedsmuir parish in June, 1682.

Map of Area of Talla Linn

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

The letter from Alexander Peden given below is both undated and sent to unidentified ‘friends’….

Peden’s reference to the ‘weak wind in former trials’ in comparison to ‘the strong wind’ of the ‘present trial’ suggests that he was referring to the Killing Times in the first half of 1685. Like his letter, a number of his sermons and sayings from that period also portray a forthcoming apocalyptic struggle on Christ’s return.

The ‘Friends’ to which the letter was addressed are not identified. However, ‘friends’ was a term commonly used in letters sent to the Society people.

The letter begins with a recommendation that the ‘friends’ choose suffering, rather than the sin of compliance with the oaths of the authorities. Why? Because in Peden’s view God was ‘giving his saints a little trial, somewhat sharper than ordinary, that they may come out of the furnace like a refined lump, that they may run and be ready at tuck of drum. It is honourable to serve and be a footman in Christ’s company’.

The letter is also notable for the violence of its imagery: ‘The day is near, when BLOOD shall be the sign of Christ’s soldiers and, NO QUARTERS shall be their word; DEATH and DESTRUCTION shall be written with broad letters on our Lord’s standard.’

The content suggests that Peden composed the letter soon after he returned to Scotland in March, 1685, and before the defeat of the Argyll Rising in June.

Letter from Alexander Peden to Some Friends.

‘Dear Friends,

I long to hear how you spend your time, and how the grace of God groweth in your hearts. I know you and some other of the people of God, by reason of the present trial, have got up a fashion of complaining on Christ; but I defy you all to say any ill of him, except you wrong him: speak as ye can, and spare not; only I request you, let your expressions of Christ be suitable to your experiences of him; and if ye think Christ’s house to be bare and ill provided, and harder than ye looked for, I assure you Christ’s mind is only to diet you, and not to hunger you: Our Steward knows well when to spare, and when to spend: Christ knows whether heaping or straiking agrees best with our narrow vessels, for both are alike to him; spariug will never enrich [>250.] him, and spending will never impoverish him: he thinks it ill won which is holden off his people. Grace and glory comes out of Christ’s lucky hand: our gifts are but feckless gifts; his fulness is most straitened when it wants a vent: ’tis sweet and easy to Christ when he is holden busy in dividing the fulness of his Father’s house to his poor friends: he desires not to keep mercy over night; every new day brings new mercies to the people of God. Christ is the best mercy that ever the people of God yoked with: if ye please the wares, and what of his grace makes for you, he and you will sort about the price; he will sell good cheap that ye may speer for his shop again, and draw all the sale to himself. I counsel to go no further than Christ: and now when it seems to be come to your door, either to sin or suffer, I counsel you to lay your account for suffering; for an outgate coming from any other airth will be prejudicial to your souls interest. For your encouragement, remember he sends none a warfare upon their own expences: and blessed be the man who gives Christ all his money; for ye will be forced to block with him at last, when ye have no handmoney, and thou hast no heart to suffer; and so it is best for you to keep in with your old acquaintance, for new acquaintance with strange lords is a ready way to make a wound in grace’s side, that will not heal in haste; yea, your eyes may close before your wounds dry up; for grace is a tender piece, and is very easily distempered in the backslidings of our times; and if the wheels of it be once broken with sin, all the moyen in the world will not make them go about again, until they be once through Christ’s hands. [>251.]

I hope I have said more upon the subject than needed; for I have seen the marks of tenderness deeply drawn upon your carriages: but the temper of our declining and backsliding times invites you to double your diligence in seeking God; for I think God has a mind to search Jerusalem with lighted candles, and to go thro’ the whole house to visit all your chambers, and there shall not be one pin within all your gates, but God shall know whether it be crooked or even. He will never rest till he be at the bottom of mens hearts: he has turned out some folks hearts already, and slitted others; it seems he has a mind to make the inside the outside. There was but a weak wind in former trials, and therefore much chaff was flickered and hid amongst corn; but God now has raised a strong wind, and yet Christ’s own cannot be driven away; he will not lose one hair of his peoples heads, he knows them all by head-mark; O! if our hearts and love were blazing after him, we would rather choose to die believing, than to sin by compliance.

I defy the world to steal a lamb out of Christ’s fold unmissed. What is wanting on the last day of judgment. Christ must make them all up. That storm will not ly long, when the people of God have the worst of it; when the wind is both on their face and on their back, a great fire in God’s furnace will soon divide the gold from the dross. God’s mill hath been grinding fast, and it will not stand for want of water. If the people of God would but hold out of the gate, and give enemies a redd field, that God may be full of his enemies flesh: why, may he not give enemies a stroke over his peoples heads? [>252.] God is giving his saints a little trial, somewhat sharper than ordinary, that they may come out of the furnace like a refined lump, that they may run and be ready at tuck of drum. It is honourable to serve and be a footman in Christ’s company. The weakest of God’s people to run at Christ’s foot from morn to even, he will not tyre, to gang and ride time about; he will take his friends on behind him, when they begin to weary, and dow not hold foot, Christ will wait on. O how sweet will it be to see Christ marching up in a full body, and all the trumpets sounding the triumph of the Lamb’s victory, when the sword shall be red with the blood of enemies; when all the Heathen shall be rounding amongst themselves, that he hath done great things for them. Verily I fear the followers of the Lamb shall be forced to tread upon the dead bodies of the wicked ere all be done: the whole land shall have enough to do to shool them in the earth, ere all the play be play’d. Christ will kill faster with his own hand, than all the hands of the kingdom shall be able to bury, Many shall be buried unstreight; and moals shall be the winding sheet of many that look life-like the day. The blood of God’s foes shall preach strange things to his people, and we shall rejoice with trembling. They that will not serve God, to themselves be it said. The day is near, when BLOOD shall be the sign of Christ’s soldiers and, NO QUARTERS shall be their word; DEATH and DESTRUCTION shall be written with broad letters on our Lord’s standard. A look of him shall be a dead stroke to any that runs in his gate. It is best for you to keep within the shadow of God’s wings, to [>253.] cast Christ’s cloak over your heads, until you hear him say, The brunt of the battle is over, and the flower is slacked. And I am confident the fairest way to cheap [i.e., keep] the way, is to speal out of God’s gate, and keep within the doors until the violence of the storm be gone, and begin to ebb, which is not full tide as yet. Christ deals tenderly with young plants, and waters them oft, least they go back. Be painful, and lose not life for the seeking.

I recommend this to you, to be read as an extract of God’s love, that in crosses, and out of
crosses, ye may rejoice.

Alexander Pedan.’ (John McMillan (ed.), A Collection of Letters, 249-53.)

For more about Peden, see here.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

Leeuwarden

Aerial View and Street Map of Leeuwarden

The letter was sent on 16 October, 1685, to the United Societies Convention in Scotland. It does not appear to have reached the hands of the Societies’ before the twenty-fourth convention on 21 October, 1685, but it would have informed the decision taken at the twenty-fifth convention at Friarminnan to reject union with the former followers of the earl of Argyll.

It is clear from the opening line of the letter that Hamilton he had been briefed about the negotiations in a letter which was probably sent from the Societies’ twenty-third convention at Blackgannoch on 1 October. There is no mention of a letter to Hamilton in the brief record of the twenty-third convention in Faithful Contendings Displayed, but the convention did discuss the drafting of a formal relation of their conferences Robert Langlands and George Barclay, two of the ministers who had joined with Argyll, and sending Colin Alison over to Hamilton to confer on the issue of union. (Shields, FCD, 169.)

On 28 September, a few days before the twenty-third convention, Langlands and Barclay had written to David Steel, Andrew Wylie, John Dick, John Campbell and John Cochran. (‘Letter Mr Rob Langlands to Dav: Steil &c. Sept. 28. 1685.’, EUL MSS. La.III.350. No. 162.)

David Steel, who may have been the preses of the convention, was a significant figure on the United Societies. After the schism in the Societies at the beginning of 1686, he continued to support Renwick. He was summarily executed in Lesmahagow parish in late 1686.

Andrew Wylie is perhaps the same individual as the fugitive named ‘Andrew Wylie of Logan’ in Sorn parish who was seized at  David Houston’s preaching in January, 1687. If so, it appears that Wylie also continued to support Renwick.

John Dick, who was from Benbain in Dalmellington parish, Ayrshire, did not attend the twenty-third convention and would go on to lead a breakaway section of Societies in support of Langlands and Barclay after the twenty-fifth convention. (Shields, FCD, 227.)

John Campbell is perhaps the John Campbell in Wellwood in Muirkirk parish who joined the former followers of Argyll in late 1685.

John Cochran is probably the most difficult to identify. He may be John Cochran of Craigie, a forfeited laird from Evandale parish in Lanarkshire. Cochran of Cragie and several other forfeited individuals, including David Steel’s cousin, John Steel in Over Waterhead, accepted a safe conduct from the Restoration regime in mid 1686.

It is reasonably clear that at the time that Hamilton wrote that pressures were building within the United Societies over union with the former followers of Argyll. At almost exactly the same time that Hamilton wrote, James Renwick was involved in discussions over the issue with two moderate presbyterians, Robert Boyd of Trochrague and John Maxwell of Nether Pollock. When he wrote, Hamilton did not know the outcome of those discussions.

What Hamilton also did not know when he composed it was that at the same time his pro-Argyll opponents in the United Provinces were plotting to undermine Hamilton’s reputation. John Haddow, who appears to have been in exile in Utrecht, delivered a series of charges about Hamilton’s scandalous conduct at Bothwell and over his use of the Societies’ money. Those charges were read at the twenty-fourth convention on 21 October and Hamilton invited to respond. Although Renwick made considerable efforts to save Hamilton’s reputation, including telling Hamilton how to respond, the damage was done. Hamilton never enjoyed the same influence over the convention again. From then on, Hamilton became more guarded about his opinions he offered the convention and more sporadic in his correspondence with them.

His letter of 16 October, 1685, testifies to the influence of Hamilton before his reputation was traduced.

The letter was not included in Faithful Contending Displayed, but it was printed in a rare volume of Hamilton’s correspondence, The Christian’s Conduct: Or, A Witness For the Truth against Error (Edinburgh, 1762), 35-40. The manuscript of it is held in the University of Edinburgh Special Collections. (‘R. H. [Robert Hamilton] Letter Octob. 16. 1685’, EUL MSS. La.III.344. Vol 2. No. 174.)

Letter of Robert Hamilton in Leeuwarden to the United Societies’ Convention of 16 October, 1685.

‘Kind and Christian friends,
As to the union of thir [these] lands you mention in yours, I know that they are walking by the same rules and measures that our plotters did, and are yet doing, viz. To an association of all whatsoever against the common enemy. I think indeed that the Lord, as he is now to bundle Antichrist, and all that side of the house; so all the Protestant churches, with her sons and her daughters, that have not been zealous for his declarative glory: and as he will utterly destroy the one; so the other he shall so purge, that there shall be but a poor handful left. And O! who shall be able to abide the day of his coming? Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision; but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel, &c. [Mal. 3.2; Joel 3.14,16.] As it will not be the strength of man, nor of princes, nor the wisdom of men, nor silver or gold, that will help; neither will it be a well stated cause, profession, &c., that will help in that day, if not found within the city of refuge, under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty. I confess for a soul to have it to say, that they were embarked in his cause, and contenders for him in the day of trial, will say much; yet this is not all: it is these that follow him in the regeneration, that shall sit with him on his throne of glory, judging the twelve tribes of Israel; even those which are come out of great tribulation, must have their robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.

O! Christianity is a great mystery, and the reality thereof little known; many have conceptions thereof within their hearts; but alas! the thing itself is but little known. Who knows what it meaneth to have an interest in the Lord God, thro’ the Saviour Jesus Christ? Who knows what this is, with boldness to approach the throne of grace, thro’ a Mediator? Who is it, that hath experience what it is, to have an heavenly and spiritual fellowship, a spiritual and hidden union and marriage with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, thro’ the alone Saviour, the Lord Jesus? Who knows the true excellency of an heavenly conversation, what it is to trade with heaven, and to entertain a daily fellowship with God, as our God in Christ? Alas! we are fair to deceive ourselves with a name, and some such like fancy; O what a plague is this? And what an evidence gives it of our deceitful hearts? O what need have we to look round about us, and consider seriously where we are, and on what ground we stand? for many undoubtedly deceive themselves, and know not that there is a lie in their right hand, [Isa. 44.20]; they rejoice often in a thing of nought, and hope nevertheless that all is well: they promise themselves assuredly heaven, without the least ground of solid hope. It is indeed a wonder to see how ready we are to sit down under the shadow of our gourd, [Jonah 4], and so to build mere castles in the air, and to found our eternal salvation and well-being on I know not what; and then to cry out, Peace, peace, [Jer. 6.14], to our soul, without laying to heart, that the very next hour we may be cast into everlasting ruin.

O! what an alarming passage is that of the five foolish virgins, who waited long, and no suspicion of being cast out; who rested assured, as it seems, in their hope and expectation, and none of the wise ones that conversed with them had jealousy of them; and were inferior to none, (so far as could be noticed) in zeal and diligence, and had a general longing to enjoy the Bridegroom’s presence eternally; crying, Lord, open unto us; and who nevertheless, after all this, got no other answer, than this, Depart from me, I know you not.

Were we but comparing our case with these, and how we are exercised in these matters; what could we do but burst out in wondering how it is possible that we are not more diligent in making our calling and election sure. [2 Pet. 1.10.] Heaven and eternal salvation will not come to us in our sleep. Shall many seek to enter in, and yet be debarred? and shall we imagine to enter, without the least trouble and pains? Alas! we spend our days, as if heaven were not worth the seeking, or needed not be enquired after by us. Ah! What do we for it? Is there a crown? Is there an eternal inheritance? Is there a kingdom to obtain? And are we slippery and careless, not once to try if we have any interest therein? Doth our days, weeks, months, and years, so pass over our heads, without once asking ourselves, how it is as to our state; without once sitting down, and asking our soul, O soul! where shall you lodge at the evening of this day, when it shall come to a close? Where will you live eternally? Shall you be in God’s presence everlastingly; or shall you inhabit with devils; and shall you be everlastingly banished from the blessed presence of God, and from the glory of his strength? [2 Thess. 1.9.] Determine ye, O soul, for heaven? What are your grounds? Are you certain that you shall not be deceived? Have you seen your name in the book of life? Are you assured that your hope shall not fail you? Have ye assurance, that providing death seized upon you in a moment, that ye should be carried up by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: Is it not possible that ye can be deceived? &c. I am confident, if eternity were really believed, and we had that impression on our hearts, as it ought, we could not live at random, and so great uncertainty in such a high and concerning business. Should we not be daily enquiring, Where our hearts are; where our treasure, crown, and our all is?

Now, dear friends, to know if we can answer these questions aright, and not with the foolish virgins build our hope on the sand, I judge these, or such things, ought often to be put to our souls. My soul, Have ye made choice of the Lord Jesus, as the only way to the Father? Are ye really married unto him? Is there an inviolable marriage and contract betwixt you both? Stands it firm, that he is yours, and you are his? Lieth he the whole night betwixt your breasts as a bundle of myrrh? Is he the standard-bearer in you, the chiefest among ten thousand? Hath he set up his throne in you? and is he the chiefest in your affections and estimation? And is it all your desire, to please, honour, and glorify him? Or, at least, is it your exercise to regret that you cannot love him more? Have you a continual filial fear to sin against his love, his unchangeable love; his inexpressible and endless love? O what shall I do for him? How shall I exalt him, as prince and king in my heart, that he may reign and rule in me without a competitor? And what is there, wherein I may acknowledge in any measure, his matchless infinite love and excellencies? O what an heaven is it, to have Christ thus in the soul? What a glory is it, to have the King of glory living and abiding in the heart? O what an unspeakable happiness is it, to have the Prince of the kings of the earth; the Prince of life, light, immortality, and eternity, lodging in our souls? If we know what this is, we are frequenters of heaven, and its glory. Christ in the soul, shewing his sceptre, as King, Lord, and Head, is heaven in the soul: Where he is and dwells, there also dwells the Father, and the Holy Ghost. Have we Christ? we have the Trinity, all the glory, all the happiness, with all the glory and refreshing that can be named. Wherefore then [are we] not more busy to seek after this JESUS. Know we not, that he who hath seen him, hath seen the Father also? Are we yet to know, that He is in the Father, and the Father in him; and that he and the Father is one? [John 14.9; 17.21; 10.30.] Wherefore are we not then always saying, Sweet Lord Jesus, Come; come, and take possession of the whole soul; come, and dwell; come, and rule; come, and take possession for ever; come, and command all; and let there be none besides thee; as also, none to partake with thee; none to oppose thee; none to grieve thee. O! let all be thine; thine for now and for ever, Amen. Let my soul cleave to, and embrace thee continually. Let my soul love thee, and I am made up. Let my soul seek after thee, and I am satisfied. Let my soul hunger and thirst after thee, and I am refreshed. Let my soul follow hard after thee, and I possess thee. Let my soul fear thee, and I am preserved from sin. Let my soul contemplate thee, and I behold God. Let my soul dwell in thee and with thee, and I am in heaven. Let my soul glorify thee, and I am glorified. Let my soul be one with thee, and I am one with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. O! come, come and make no longer tarrying. Make haste that I may see thy lovely countenance. Come, come, sweet Lord Jesus, that I may once be possessed of thee, and in thee, and may be with thee for ever. Let my soul be married unto thee, and be continually in love with thee; and then farewell all creatures, and all treasures and riches, for I have all in Jesus: possessing him, I possess all things. One beam of his lovely, shining, enlightening countenance, how would it darken all the other glories under the sun, and make its leaves to wither in a moment. O here is the fairest flower that ever did grow in the Lord’s paradise! O here is the chiefest of the pleasures in heaven! Let us here take a stand, and sit down and sing, and look upon it as all our joy and satisfaction. If we can but please him, let us not be troubled whom we offend, providing we can but glorify him. O! this is enough: in his glory is both our happiness and glory folded up. If we can but love him, all is well. O! will the Lord bestow his love on such as we? Will he bestow such an heaven, crown, and glory, on such as we? O wonderful and inexpressible free, free grace! O wonderful preventing love! Now I see that he is a God that doth wonders, and that all his works are wonders; for he is Wonderful. Let then all the angels wonder over this wonderful Wonder; and, O my soul, behold it, and wonder also, and long to be there, where ye shall have more will and capacity to wonder, and chant and sing over your wonders as new. I shall say no more, but the eternal blessing of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be with you, and all the sweet and pleasant remnant ye are going to, and my blessing so far as it will reach, who desires to be a sympathizer, and a servant unto you all, in the blessed and glorious work of our sweet Lord Jesus.
Rob. Hamilton.’

Additional Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

This letter is not included in the collections of Renwick’s correspondence, but was printed in Robert Hamilton’s The Christian’s Conduct, a rare and difficult to find volume which was published in Edinburgh in 1762.

It was sent from Robert Hamilton, the United Societies’ commissioner in Leeuwarden, to James Renwick in Scotland on 12 May, 1684. It contains words of encouragement to Renwick, mentions how the Protestation against the Scots Congregation at Rotterdam would make Hamilton ‘in a special way, a new storm, and a bitter one’, his planned embassy on behalf of the Societies to Switzerland and Geneva, how the colleges in the United Provinces were now closed to them, and his thoughts on sending Thomas Linning, the tutor of the Societies’ ‘expectants’, to him.

Letter of Robert Hamilton in Leeuwarden to James Renwick of 12 May, 1684.

‘Right Rev[erend]. and much honoured of the Lord,
What think ye now of Christ’s cross? O what doleful uptakings has many of it! and O wretched and deluded popish clergy, who are for having it in such speals [splinters], making their own purse heavy! and O deluded souls and consciences poor therewith! Wo to them that can either part with it, or divide that noble jewel, All Christ, and all his cross; I say, Christ and his cross, one speal whereof is more than able to weigh down a thousand worlds. O the worth! the unspeakable worth thereof! I confess, it often makes a light purse, though I confess, some in our day have made a trade of it, and so now is seen on it; yet great contentment, and a serene and desireable frame of spirit, and an heavenly peace of conscience, attend it. O dear brother, go on in that noble work, the deeper the sweeter. It was Christ’s lot (O noble forerunner) his legacy, a testament indeed like himself. O what witless and silly creatures are we, that would ever be at carving out our own lot otherways than eternal love and infinite wisdom hath contrived it: we are ready to think, O if we wanted this cross, we would swim bravely; as if they were appointed for dead weights to drown us: And O if we wanted this cross, we would be the more fit to grapple against the common enemy; whereas it is the very contrary; to harden Christ’s soldiers against all toils, and render them invincible against all assaults, expert in the use and handling of their arms; yea, proof against all engines, that nothing may pierce them; and not only to know where their strength lies, the worth of their leader and commander; but also to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. O foolish soul, that thinks or desires to be at heaven without a cross, or fancies they would travel the better to it, if all crosses were away: Far is it from the judgment of all the worthies that have gone before them, who always taught that Before they were afflicted, they went astray; that thro’ great tribulation we must enter into the kingdom; far from the fair plot, and eternal contrivance of the Lord Jesus, who hath not only entailed the cross to his followers, but blessings to the cross; and the more crosses, the more blessings, Matt. 5.10-12 [‘Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.’], that none might either mistake or scar[e] thereat. O poor things, that would be at serving God dry shod; nay, nay, when he is to court his bride, or a poor soul, he first brings her to the wilderness, and there speaks comfortably to her. [Hos. 2.14.] When there is any thing of moment he is to communicate to his servants, he first sets their feet in Jordan, ere he comes in speak terms with them; and there they are to stand still, and hear what the Lord has to say to them; and by an open profession and practice, bearing the ark of the Lord, entering Jordan, with this glorious burden on their backs. Alas! many fearing the ark would drown them, have cast it from them, and drowned themselves, and many with them. But oh! who would have the Lord without fail drive out the Canaanite, Hittite, Hivite, and Jebusite, and the Lord of the whole earth to pass over before them, whose stately steps, and obedience to his sweet commands, dries up the deeps, and over-awes the swellings of Jordan: let them keep fast by the ark, and no fear of their drowning; yea, it will fend for itself and them both. O wonderful! yet noble and experienced truth, that when the soul by faith wins to forsake its tents, with a resolution to deny itself, and take up its cross, and follow Christ, that oftentimes no sooner are their feet dipt in the brim of Jordan’s banks, (the sight whereof formerly was able to have drowned them) but their storms from above are not only calmed and removed, but made servants, to stand up, as it were, to receive their commands from them; and to rise up and give place, setting themselves in heaps, for bulwarks and walls of safety and defence round about them. As also these inward and underhand enemies, being the salt-petre of their afflictions, the salt-ocean of tribulation, not only cut off, but so sanctified, as made leaders and guides to land them safely and conveniently under the very walls of their adversaries, and in possession of a sure and glorious victory; yea, and of the land of promise, at one and the same time. O dear and honoured brother, what a glorious exchange shall that be, when they that are come out of great tribulation, having washen their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; having gotten the victory over the beast, his image, and his mark, instead of treading or standing any more in the swellings of Jordan, and marching thro’ the red and salt-seas of affliction, shall be eternally and firmly settled upon that glorious sea of glass, like unto crystal, before the throne of God; with the harps of God, singing the song of Moses, and of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, O thou King of saints: Who shall not fear thee, O Lord.

Dear Sir, I hope ye will recommend me much, while before the throne, to your Master, as also lay it upon all to do the same; Satan shoots sharply against me in a strange land, and separate from my brethren: And I see this protestation [against the Scots Congregation in Rotterdam] will make to me, in a special way, a new storm, and a bitter one. But O! his grace is sufficient for me; whose strength is made perfect in weakness [2 Cor. 12.9.]; neither dare I but prosecute it, cost what it will; and if he be glorified, and his cause advanced, we can have no skaith.—I have a door opened to go to Helvetia [i.e., Switzerland] and Geneva, but it will be September [1684] before I take journey. O lay it before the Lord; I see difficulties and trials abiding me wherever I go: I think the more secret it be kept, it will be the better; some trusty friends may know of it. I hope with the next occasion I will be more in case to inform of all matters than now. O to be much in wrestling and waiting, for the Lord cometh to judge the nations, and terrible shall the day of his coming be; however glorious to some.

Now, worthy and dearest friend, what can I say further to you, or unfold more of my heart unto you? O Scotland, the sweet remnant there, hath much room in my heart, and you no little, tho’ it is like we may never meet on earth; yet O, while alive, to be much in trysting before the throne, and living much faith’s life, in the sense, hope, and expectation of that general meeting of the first-born, where friends shall never part again; where Christ and his followers possess one another, in the lovely and everlasting mansions of endless eternity. O that honourable, lovely, and great work you are called unto, even to plenish Christ’s house, to weed, to sow, to harrow, to clod, to hedge and dyke in his vineyard, in his old and ancient habitation; to dig out the rotten stocks, and hunt out the cunning foxes, both old and young of them. O that the Lord may stand with you, and make you as a brazen wall against all his and your enemies, and replenish you with his Spirit, to whom the fulness thereof belongs: Stand on a hoof; Christ thinks more of a hoof now, than once of a bail cow: They have driven all from him; and, to speak with reverence of his holy Majesty, they say, He that hath but one eye, had need to keep it well. O his glory is dear to him, but never more than when so undervalued and trampled upon. O but it be a sweet Therefore that we read Psalm 119.126-128,—For they have made void thy law; Therefore I love thy commandments:—Therefore I esteem thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way. And O! as it is pleasant to God, so a promising token, where ever such a spirit is; a promising one to Moses and Israel, when this spirit kyths in him; to Esther and the Jews, when the zeal of God nailed honest Mordecai’s hat to his crown; as it keeped his and their heads on their shoulders, so it nailed Haman’s to the gallows. O! it is such a spirit he delights to honour; such a generation he will take pleasure in. Now again, I must say to you, my dearest friend, lay it on friends that they do nothing rashly in sending any abroad: I confess Scotland’s case calls greatly for it; but alas! we are but witless worms, and see but very short way; God knows how to perform his great work upon mount Zion, without colleges [the University of Groningen had effectively closed its doors to Societies’ students]; not that I was ever against learning, but if not well larded with grace, I think there cannot be worse company this day. O ye know what a fleece the Lord hath cast off in our land; I think they will be strange folk he will take on again; and whatever other qualifications they may be known by, I think this will be one, They will be folk lying very low in the dust, sitting upon dunghills that he will honour and chop upon. O but my heart be much with you, and the pleasant remnant there: I think the Lord will never honour the like of me to return to it again; but O the skaith [i.e., hurt] is small, if he be glorified, and his work flourish there. I hope ye will not forget me; I hope ye will not do it; for I may say, if ever I was in hazard to be jealous or afraid of you, it was upon that head, that I thought you had any esteem of me; and the Lord knows how sometimes that has given me work; however, I had the more freedom to give you my poor advice. Lay not your love easily upon any in this day, so as to confide too much I mean on them; and in a special way it lieth upon you to manage that noble grace well; which tho’ it thinketh no evil, yet it is a grace that is not blind, it rejoiceth only in truth: indeed what of God we see in any, we are to cherish it so far, yet seeing it is the gift of God conferred upon a poor, failing sinful creature; when lodged with much ill company, we are called to deal circumspectly in it: for in our noticing the poor creature too much, as we greatly wrong God, so often we ruin ourselves, and the person also thereby. And O dear Sir, I know by experience, that the too great intimacy of ministers in Scotland with poor things, has ruined many a poor soul: it broke them off from all faithful freedom and holy authority, and so lulled many asleep, and at last broke the necks both of ministers and people. Where ye have most hope, be most watchful in marking, in freely reproving in all brotherly kindness; a little small hole will drown the ship, at least sorely endamage the commodities and the finer they be, the easier damnified [i.e., damaged]: indeed there is a catching of poor things by wiles; but O Sir, ye know this better than I, that the little freedom there hath been among all ranks in faithfully reproving one another, is one of our lands sins, I think the Lord hath been provoked with; for it came to that, if we could have spoken of this exploit or the other; of this or that design of the enemy, and could have cried out against the bishops, indulged, tyrant, &c. then we reckoned we were bound to bear with all other things in one another; and so it is seen on it this day. Soul conferences, soul-cases were very rare; if begun by any, all about were silent, and it was soon let fall again; little commending Christ’s cross, and his way, in engaging, alluring, and first wooing the soul, except by a word in general; and little in commending Christ himself, and laying out all his ways with one anothers souls; their drawings and his holdings; or talking of access, communion and fellowship with him; little crying of missing him, except in a word, which could do more ill than good, when not accompanied with that earnestness, brokenness, and fervency, in seeking of him again, and putting others to it upon their account, telling what he had done to their souls; what a friend, what a husband, what a prize, what a jewel, how fair, how lovely, how sweet, how matchless; and that now they could swim thro’ death, tortures, yea, hell itself for him. I think I know partly, that to fall upon religion in general with some, and by some, is as dangerous a thing as ever was invented against a poor soul; I mean, when Christians that have a name, and especially ministers, fall upon generals with some poor things, and so draw them on generals again, and every one of them consenting to another: it were far better, I may say, that that poor soul were hearing devils roaring against it, than to be so handled. O Sir, I even lay out my soul to you; I expect you will not take it ill, and it may be, we will not have long correspondence together; for I think I have seen that sight now of that poor land that I was promised; and I think I am assured it is before a terrible storm; yea, a great desolation: however, O blessed is he that is working now while it is the day; and tho’ your case be more hard and more intricate than any that has gone before; yet his grace is sufficient for you, whose strength is perfected in weakness; and ye must look upon it as also having its own advantages; ye have the prints and footsteps of our worthies that have gone before you, not loving their lives unto the death, to look into; ye have the wrath of great ones of all qualities, sex and age, lying upon all hands of you, crying to be faithful; you have the rocks they split upon, by their ruins, discovered unto you; you have the holiness, justice, sovereignty, mercy, and condescendency of God, eminently and largely pourtrayed unto you; his holiness and justice, in that he cannot bear with sin, no not in his own; his mercy, sovereignty, and condescendency in passing by the great and perfecting his praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. [Matt. 21.16.] O! great is his faithfulness, and his mercy endureth for ever. The blessing of him that dwelt in the bush be with you, and all of you.

As for sending Thomas [Linning] over [to Hamilton in the United Provinces to train for the ministry], it is like a little time will determine you better than I can; for indeed, I think shortly the world will be swimming in blood: it has long swimmed in sin; the will of the Lord be done. The Lord himself will take the sceptre in his own hand, and he will rule in righteousness, the colleges, the pulpits, the doctrine and the discipline: he will make good scholars, else he will make sore skins.

Now, what shall I further say, I think I am loth to part with you, and I can write no more; Many good nights is loth to part. I hope you and friends will mind me, and the blessing of the great Master of assemblies, the Bishop of souls, be with you. The blessing of Him who dwelt in the bush, and led Israel as a flock thro’ the wilderness, who holds the stars in his right hand, and walks among the golden candlesticks, be with you, and all the pleasant remnant, the followers of the Lamb in that land, who hath said he cometh; and so let our souls say, Even so, come Lord Jesus.
Right Rev. and much honoured of the Lord,
Your assured friend, and real sympathizer,
Robert Hamilton.’

From the letter it appears that Cameron and Donald Cargill were still experiencing unexpected difficulties in meeting. Cameron wanted Earlstoun to confirm that he knew of ‘nothing to obstruct our appointment’ at Auchengilloch. He was keen that Earlstoun conveyed whatever information he had to him before the fast.

Letter from Richard Cameron to Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun of Saturday 22 May, 1680.

‘May 22. 1680.

Right Honourable,
I hope you’ll have me excused for not writing to you on Thursday last [20 May], for I was then perplexed for Mr. Donald[ Cargill]’s not coming, and had no time, but I met with him since: he is not to come to this country at this time. However, if you know nothing to obstruct our appointment on Friday next [28 May], I am willing, in the Lord’s strength, to keep it, and before that, if health and other things will permit[,] you. I desire to meet with your Honour upon Wednesday’s night [26 May], or Thursday’s night [27 May] at farthest. You may appoint the place, and I shall endeavour to wait upon you. If you be not able, you will write to me with the bearer, that he may be again at me once upon Wednesday [26 May].

We must go on in the strength of the Lord, whatever be the difficulties and discouragements in our way: Our Lord’s ends are well worth the pursuing, he is coming, his reward is with him, and his work, to wit, of judgment, is before him. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, what he hath prepared for them that wait for him; yea, blessed are the eyes who shall see what he will do for the remnant that are in this land, and for his church throughout the earth. Happy are they whom he is now chastening, that he may hid[e] them from the day of evil: A large share of present sufferings is well worth the [>247.] having; for the consolations of such shall much more abound: the Lord will make our hearts glad, according to the days wherein he afflicted us, and makes us to see evil. It is the better we cannot easily win out of our afflictions.

The blessing of the Lord be upon your lady [Janet Hamilton] and children [a son and Ann Gordon], whom I salute in the Lord; as also your sister [Margaret Gordon], and other friends, both young and old, particularly David Gordon, whom I look upon to be flourishing and full of sap in old age, which is rare in this day. Referring other things till meeting. Farewell.

If you can let us meet on Wednesdays night [the 26 May], I would be content to be at your house if convenient; but the Lord will do all well.
Richard Cameron.’
(McMillan (ed.), A Collection of Letters, 246-7.)

The 17th century house at Gilkerscleugh before it was demolished.

On Wednesday 14 April, 1680, Donald Cargill sent a letter to militants in the Glenkens district of Galloway …

Safe Houses
Cargill’s letter reveals that he had stayed at Earlstoun Castle. Cameron had also stayed there. Earlstoun was not the only recorded “safe house” used by Cargill and Cameron.

Cargill sent the letter from ‘Gilkie’, i.e., Gilkercleugh House, which formerly stood at Low Gilkerscleugh in Crawfordjohn parish, Lanarkshire.

Map of former site of Gilkerscleugh House     Aerial View of former site of Gilkerscleugh House

It was the home of Anna Hamilton, Lady Gilkerscleugh, the wife of [ John?] Hamilton of Gilkerscleugh. On 4 June 1680, the privy council ordered the processing of Lady Gilkerscleugh for the reset of John Balfour of Kinloch and other murderers of Archbishop Sharp, and of Richard Cameron and other notorious traitors, and for sheltering ‘the murther[er] of two country men’. (RPCS, VI, 455.)

Muirhouse, aka. The Murrays, near Thankerton © Mary and Angus Hogg and licensed for reuse.

A James Thomson, tenant under Robert Baillie of Jerviswood’s brother in Thankerton parish, Lanarkshire, was also ordered processed for the same charges as Lady Gilkerscleugh. In addition, he had been at Bothwell and had not accepted indemnity. His name appears on the published Fugitive Roll of 1684 as ‘James Thomson in the Murrays of Thankerton’ (RPCS, VI, 455; Wodrow, History, III, 195.)

The Murrays is now known as Muirhouse. It lay on the estate of, and next to the house of, Lady St Johns Kirk, who also was involved in protecting Cargill.

Map of the Murrays/Muirhouse            Street View of the Murrays/Muirhouse

It is a notable feature of the recorded houses used by Cameron and Cargill that elite women – Lady Earlstoun, Lady Gilkerscleugh and Lady St Johns Kirk – appear to have played a key role in sheltering them.

The Society people in the Glenkens.
Cargill addressed his letter to Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun, ‘Mr Ardoch, and Mr M’Millan in Arrendarroch’.

Earlstoun was well known to both Cargill and Richard Cameron.

Who ‘Mr Ardoch’ was is not known, but it is possible that ‘Mr Ardoch’ refers to the holder of the farm at Ardoch in Dalry parish, rather than a surname. A Robert Stewart of Ardoch was killed at Auchencloy in December, 1684.

Map of Ardoch             Aerial View of Ardoch

‘Mr M’Millan in Arrendarroch’ was probably the John McMillan in Arndarroch listed on the Fugitive Roll of 1684. (Jardine, ‘United Societies’, II, 217.)

McMillan lived at what is now the ruins of the old farm at Arndarroch beside the Kendoon Aqueduct in Dalry parish, Kirkcudbrightshire.

Map of Arndarroch             Aerial View of Ruins of Arndarroch

The Letter
Once again, it appears that Cargill, like Cameron, was prevented from visiting the Glenkens due to the pressing nature of their activities further north. Instead, Cargill sent the letter via ‘our brother’ who would fill in for Cargill and convey information to Earlstoun and the others. Whatever the information was, it was important to Cargill that word of it reached both the Glenkens and the mysterious unnamed individual he mentions. References about Cargill and Cameron failing to rendezvous in their letters to the Earlstouns suggest that the latter was Richard Cameron.

The essential message of Cargill’s letter to the godly of Glenkens was that they should withdraw from others: ‘for the fewer, we shall not be the less strong’. ‘If we must die in the common lot’ they would ‘leave a model to them that come after … that [they] may go on according to that pattern, and do well’. In particular, Cargill urged them not to join in worship with their former presbyterian brethren who had owned the King’s authority, even though they had previously joined with them: ‘accept of them not, till they seriously resent, and utterly renounce these things’.

It is probable that ‘our brother’ was the field preacher Thomas Douglas, as Cargill states that ‘he doth the work of the Lord; and ye shall find the Lord hath provided better for you than if I had come.’ Douglas was the only minister to join with Cameron and Cargill in 1680. Earlstoun did not require any introduction to Cameron.

Letter from Donald Cargill to Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun, Mr. Ardoch and Mr. [John] M’Millan in Arndarroch of Wednesday 14 April, 1680.

‘Gilkie, April 14. 1680.

Dearly Beloved,
I have purposed, according to your desire, to visit you, but have been hitherto hindered. The cause of my present return, after I was come mid-way, our brother [Thomas Douglas?] will shew you, and, I hope, will satisfy you; and if the Lord give opportunity, I shall yet fulfil my purpose. What I purposed to have imparted to —— [Richard Cameron?], who was gone before I came, I have imparted it to him, who will communicate it to you; so that I need not write of them further. Only leave your own things for a little, till ye receive them from God in a better way; for not only is the seeking but the receiving of favours from men, stated in such opposition to God, as not without a snare to the soul: and if it begets a just jealousy in God, to have any conversation with those with whom he hath such enmity, and seeing providence hath closed the door of doing for yourselves in these things, lay ye them aside also: and what comfort ye have within yourselves, what work ye shall give yourselves too; and what interest ye shall espouse: but let all things be little to you in respect of this, to have the land brought about to be the Lord’s, and to have the Lord reigning in it. Be frequent in prayer and humiliation, for I will assure you, ye [>243] will find those duties to be more easy and sweet in performance, more hopeful in their expectation, and more prevalent as to their effects, than before they have been. But never think yourselves right till ye have repented of what is past, and have intended to reformation in all things. And let the desires and designs of your hearts be such, that, in a manner, he cannot but both avouch you, and prosper them; and severe yourselves from the sins, interests, and courses of this present generation; otherways these who have been chastised by themselves, may be again chastised with them in their judgments, which shall be both dreadful and near. But haste you out of the city, for that hinders, and seek to be united to God, and to one another in truth and love; and this cannot be without the pouring out of the Spirit, which must be obtained by prayer; and beware of patching up with men, for they have their own cards to play, and their own way to go, which are not only diverse from, but directly opposite to God’s; and if I mistake not, God’s intention this time is clearly to sever us, that he may shew us kindness by ourselves (and till that be, we shall never have him as we would) and employ us as we desire to be employed: and fear not, for the fewer, we shall not be the less strong; and forget not to shut yourselves up in a covenant with him, that if we must die in the common lot, we may die with repentance, and such purposes in our heart, and leave a model to them that come after, of the temple we minded to build to him, that may go on according to that pattern, and do well.

As for our brother [Thomas Douglas?], ye both ought, and I [>244.] know ye will receive him gladly, and encourage him in all things, for he doth the work of the Lord; and ye shall find the Lord hath provided better for you than if I had come. The Lord establish you in every good work. Amen.
Yours, in true affection,
Donald Cargil.

P. S. There is one thing I have forgotten; Seek not to them that have been joined with us in some things, if they have owned that interest, or sided with these courses of defection: nor though they seek to you, accept of them not, till they seriously resent, and utterly renounce these things.’
(McMillan (ed.), A Collection of Letters, 242-4.)

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

In late March, 1680, Richard Cameron and other militant presbyterians began to plot a new direction for the presbyterian movement which would take them into direct confrontation with the Restoration regime. Cameron did not expect to survive the struggle. Martyrdom beckoned…

The evidence for Richard Cameron’s plans comes from letters to Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun and Janet Hamilton, Lady Earlstoun.

The letter to Alexander Gordon explains that Cameron had travelled as far as Nithsdale with the intention to visit Earlstoun, but he was diverted by important ‘business of moment’. He urges Earlstoun and his wife to send any letters they have for the United Provinces, possibly including any for Lady Earlstoun’s brother, Robert Hamilton, as Cameron’s brother was to depart for there at the end of the week.

It also discusses a meeting in Edinburgh, which Cameron was keen that Earlstoun attended in person as ‘considerable things’ were ‘in hand’. The meeting appears to have been about raising the Lord’s standard in Scotland. That work was begun at fasts at Darmead and Auchengilloch several weeks later. Cameron’s reference to Micah 4.13. appears to give an apocalyptic interpretation to their forthcoming struggle. It is clear that Cameron feared that he would not survive the confrontation. He was killed at Airdsmoss in July.

If Earlstoun did not attend the Edinburgh meeting, Cameron indicates that he would come to him and other militants in the parishes of Dalry, Kells and Glencairn to explain what was settled upon directly after the meeting.

Cameron ends by sending his regards to Earlstoun’s family. He appears to have been particularly attached to Earlstoun’s daughter, Ann Gordon, who was almost certainly either a baby or an infant at that time. It is a touching moment amid the plotting and thoughts of death. It also reveals that Cameron had previously visited Earlstoun, probably earlier in the year.

Letter from Richard Cameron to Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun of Monday 22 March, 1680.

‘Right Honourable,
I was this day [22 March] within five miles of [the river] Nith, in order to meet with your Honour; but one is come to me from other friends, who has made me turn my head to another airth: the business is of moment, of which you may after this (if the Lord will) be informed. But if you be to write to Holland (as I doubt not but both you and your lady [Janet Hamilton] will) I am to send a brother of mine [probably Andrew Cameron or perhaps Michael Cameron] thither; his voyage is not to be delayed, and therefore you will not delay to have one in once this week to Edinburgh [i.e., before 28 March]: I mean I will be content, if business will permit, and counsel sought from the Lord, that yourself were there [at the meeting]; for we are to have considerable things in hand; but if you cannot win [to the meeting], I’ll make all the haste I can to see you and friends with you, I intreat you to signify this to our friends in Dalray, Kels, and Glencairn [, i.e., Dalry, Kells and Glencairn parishes]: I hope the Lord has some work for them yet, though I were gone, which will not be while my Master has work for me. O to be ready to be bound, yea, and to die. I dare not sit this call, whatever be the hazard. The Lord will carry on his work maugre all opposition: The daughter of Zion shall yet arise and thresh, &c.  Micah iv. 13. [Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.]

I have several encouraging things to impart to you when there is an opportunity of once meeting afforded. I hope to meet in heaven with not a few out of the house of Earlston and Aird’s one family. O how refreshing will it be to see in that day severals who lived in the Glenkens, together with some from Balmagie and Corsemichal [i.e., Balmaghie and Crossmichael].

The Lord be with you all. I doubt not but you mind me in your prayers. My respect to both your ladies [i.e., his mother, Mary Hope (d.1696), and wife, Janet Hamilton (d.1696)], sisters, &c. [Earlstoun had a sister, Margaret Gordon, and a brother, William Gordon (d.1718),] not forgetting the young laird [an infant son?], as sure as any I know, and my own Mrs. Ann. [Ann Gordon was probably a baby] Referring other things till meeting, Sir, I bid you farewell.
Richard Cameron.’
(McMillan (ed.), A Collection of Letters, 244-5.)

Cameron’s Letter to Lady Earlstoun, younger.
The letter to Lady Earlstoun is undated, but must post date Donald Cargill’s letter to her of 22 February, which mentioned that he had not ever heard from Cameron, as Cameron mentions that Cargill had not attended an expected rendezvous. His record of the arrival of government forces at Dumfries may refer to the circuit court and accompanying troops led by John Graham of Claverhouse in March, 1680. (Wodrow, History, III, 190-1.)

Cameron’s letter to Lady Earlstoun may have been sent at around the same time as his letter to Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun on 22 March, as it appears to refer to the same set of events.

Cameron had stayed at Earlstoun, as he mentions that ‘we had some good days, not to be forgotten’. His reference to the fact that he was ‘more refreshed with my thoughts of the Laird, and of what God hath done and is doing to him’, may indicate that Earlstoun’s commitment to the cause was increasing since he had been forfeited. Cameron hoped that Earlstoun’s commitment would result in him being honoured ‘above’ his illustrious forebears.

Letter from Richard Cameron, to Janet Hamilton, the Lady Earlstoun, younger. No date.

‘Madam,
I once intended to have been at Earlston the last week, but was detained by the unseasonableness of the weather, and the present discomposure of the country, with the alarm of the soldiers being come to Dumfries, because the country will be unsettled, until they see what course is taken by the adversaries; and also because Mr. Donald [Cargill] has not come. I have now resolved to go to a place in Clydesdale, if the Lord will, from which I may conveniently ride into [>248.] Edinburgh, in order to meeting with friends, and after that to return with all the speed I can to Galloway, that I may see your Ladyship, or at least tryst with the Laird [Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun]. My Master laid ties on me to the Glenkens, and some other two parishes in Galloway, that I was not looking for. I am bound, while I live, to remember with thanksgiving the Lord’s condescendence and kindness to me in Earlston, where I am sure we had some good days, not to be forgotten. I am more and more refreshed with my thoughts of the Laird [of Earlstoun], and of what God hath done and is doing to him. I am hopeful that the Lord shall carry him and you through your tribulations, which may be great for a little time. And now you may be sure that your steps shall be more observed than any forfeited family in Galloway: therefore I hope you will not be high-minded, but fear; happy is the man that feareth the Lord always: You should also trust in him at all times, for in the Lord Jehovah there is ever-lasting strength: There is enough in him for bearing your charges. You have now a notable opportunity of giving proof of your love to our sweetest Lord Jesus, who hath done so much for us. Praise, praise, to him that hath pitched upon you to witness for him, and that he is still keeping possession of that family of which you are now a mother,—-and that the honour thereof is screwed up to so high a pitch in your time; and that this laird, who seems to be far inferior to the three that have gone before him, should in some respects be honoured even above his uncle and grandfather, whose names are, and will be savoury to the generations to come: This is the Lord’s doing; his ways and thoughts [>249.] are not as our ways and thoughts.

I desire to remember your son and daughter [Ann], &c. I intreat that your Ladyship. and sister [Jean Hamilton] may remember me: ye know what need there is for praying for one another.—– The Lord be with you all.
Madam, Farewell;
Richard Cameron.’
(McMillan (ed.), A Collection of Letters, 247-9.)

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

The agreement between Donald Cargill and Richard Cameron to restart field preaching and deny the King’s authority in 1680 was, in the words of an old tutor of mine, “perhaps the finest moment in Scottish history”. How did it come about?

A clue as to why the two preachers met appears in a letter from Donald Cargill to Janet Hamilton, Lady Earlstoun, younger, of Sunday 22 February, 1680. Janet was the spouse of Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun, who was forfeited for his role in Bothwell rebellion of 1679, and sister of Robert Hamilton, the commander at Bothwell.

Earlstoun Castle lies in Dalry parish, Kirkcudbrightshire.

Map of Earlstoun Castle

Cargill’s letter was in reply to one from Janet Hamilton, which she had apparently written to him at the time of the Earlstouns’ forfeiture on 19 February, 1680. At that time, she, but perhaps not her husband,  had taken a decision to withdraw from other presbyterian who acknowledged the authority of Charles II. Cargill commended her decision.

It is clear from the final paragraph that she had asked Cargill in her letter if he had heard from Richard Cameron, who had been secretly present in Scotland for several months. Cargill had not either met, or heard from Cameron, since he had returned to Scotland. Cargill also indicates that as far as he knew at that stage, he alone was prepared to join Cameron in restarting field preaching. It appears that Lady Earlstoun may have played a pivotal role in bringing Cargill and Cameron together.

Letter from Donald Cargill to Janet Hamilton, Lady Earlstoun, younger, of Sunday 22 February, 1680.

‘Madam,
I shall not pass the expressions of your affection to me: I am truely sorry, that there is nothing in me that can either requit the kindness, or answer the expectations of any. And I am truely refreshed to hear of your frame, and your courage and stedfastness in that way, which is God’s. And I am persuaded, the further you stand off from them, and the more zealously you detest their doings, it is still the better. Fear not, your forfeiture shall not be long, and your de novo damus [i.e., we give a new] shall be from heaven, more sure, and more blessed, if you take it not from earth; and your rent of one year lifted by another, (which to me yet is doubted) shall not enrich the receiver, and shall bear interest unto you. He is not only putting me on petitions for higher and greater things than these private, but also himself is making me to crave of himself, in behalf of these that are afflicted, the hundredfold in this life, and it shall be sure to them, or to their heirs. However, for the present, make sure, and bring your comfort not only mainly, but only from the other; for, as this is your season to seek, so you shall find it his season graciously to give; for, I think, he would never have suffered you to come to this strait for him, if he had not purposed to gratify you with his exceeding great reward: and I am persuaded if it be sought by all, nothing will hinder the performance; no, not our own personal sins, if they be rightly acknowledged.——

As for Mr. Richard Cameron, I never heard any thing from him, in the Lord’s truth, but I am both ready and willing to confirm it. But woes me that I have not more worth and authority for that cause: but truth itself, if it be rightly pleaded, will have authority upon consciences. My respects being remembered to your nearest friends, and all other friends that are right in his cause,
Madam,
Your servant in our Lord,
Donald Cargil.’
(McMillan (ed.), A Collection of Letters, 240-1.)

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

On 5 July, 1683, Michael Shields, the clerk of the United Societies’s General Convention, wrote a letter of encouragement to some ‘friends’ who lived somewhere outside of Scotland. To whom Shields wrote is not known, but his reference to the fact that ‘distance of place, or separation one of us from another, or being in diverse nations, should not be a cause of our forgetting one another’, probably indicates that they lived either in the north of England, or Ireland. If it was Ireland, Shields’ letter would mark an attempt to open a new front in the Societies’ struggle…

Shields wrote of the nation in which they lived that ‘ye dwell in a dark place’, i.e., that it had little, or no, recent tradition of contending for the Covenanted cause, and that they should labour to contend for Christ’s precious truths ‘against the enemies and their abominations in the place you live in’. He also mentions that the recipients of the letter ‘meet together in Christian fellowship for prayer’ and had ‘joined with the suffering remnant in Scotland’, i.e., the United Societies. He urges them to ‘keep up your meetings’ and to ‘continue’ in their sympathy for the Society people ‘in Scotland’. Wherever that society was based, it is clear that they had recently faced a degree of repression, as Shields wrote that ‘these three of you whom the Lord hath honoured with a prison, and to bear his cross’ were ‘the forestart of the rest’.

Shields felt ‘pressed in conscience’ to inform them that ‘since’ they adopted the Societies’ platform they needed to know that they were ‘in particular, … protesting against the unfaithfulness and sinful silence in [presbyterian] ministers, by their withdrawing from them’ and should ‘take good heed whom ye hear’. That position was based on the Societies’ second call to presbyterian ministers of 8 May, 1683. At the time of writing, no answer had been forthcoming to the second call.

Shields must have recently received some information about the society. He took the opportunity of a ‘bearer;, i.e., a courier, going there to send his letter. It appears that they had not written to Shields before, as he urges them to write back.

Ireland?
It is reasonably clear that Shields’ letter was not addressed to any society contacted by Renwick during his time in Dublin. Renwick had left Rotterdam at some point after 25 or 26 June, 1683, and he mentions in his correspondence that he was at Rye harbour in England on a Sabbath, i.e., possibly 1 or 8 July at the earliest, before spending several more days sailing to Dublin. It is, however, possible that Shields letter was intended for other militant presbyterians in Ireland. According to the historian Richard L Greaves, at around the time that Renwick was in Dublin a paper circulated urging moderate presbyterian dissenters “that they should stand for all those that have or would fly for Religion from Scotland and for their Bretherne that were under affliction there [i.e., the Society people] and that they were to assist them to the utmost of their endeavours.” Greaves suggested that Renwick was ‘probably responsible’ for circulating the paper. However, it is possible that the authors of the paper were inspired by the example of the Societies in Scotland, rather than by Renwick. James Caldwell, a bookbinder, and two coopers, James Coburn and John Robinson, who were all from Belfast, were allegedly responsible for ‘enlisting sympathizers’ to sign the paper which was to be sent to Glasgow. Due to a lack of subscribers, the paper was allegedly burnt before it was sent. (Greaves, God’s Other Children, 209.)

If Shields’ letter of 5 July was connected to those events, it would be the first recorded correspondence between the United Societies and sympathizers in Ireland.

Newcastle?
It is also possible that the letter was intended for a society in Newcastle in northern England. The Societies had previously had adherents in Newcastle, but those societies had been lost at end of 1682 after they had refused to accept withdrawing from the presbyterian ministry. However, it is clear that contacts remained, as Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun and Edward Aitken hid in Newcastle before they were captured at Tynemouth on 1 June, 1683. Contact was also reestablished at some point with ‘a society in Newcastle’, as in January, 1685, a delegate from that society attended the Societies’ seventeenth convention with a problem over relatives purchasing the liberty of prisoners. (Shields, FCD, 157-8.)

Shields’ letter may establish a time frame for renewed contact with a society in Newcastle.

The Letter
‘From Mr. Michael Shields, to some Friends           5 July, 1683.

Dear Friends,
Having the occasion of the bearer, I thought I could not omit, but write a line to you; insignificant as it is, counting myself obliged to do it, and more many ways. It is our duty to be sympathizing with, bearing burden, and minding one another; but as I am short in all duties, so in this also. Distance of place, or separation one of us from another, or being in diverse nations, should not be a cause of our forgetting one another; especially in this day when many have forgotten God their Maker, their vows to him, and his people, with whom they were once embarked. O let us not do so, but be minding and praying with and for one another, and provoking and stirring up one another to love, and to good works. And now when I have put pen to paper, what can I say? I am unfit for any thing; little I can say either for counsel or encouragement: but this I say, Look unto and, depend upon him who is all sufficient for both; yea, for all things ye want or can want. He the foundation and well spring of grace, glory, [>342] and happiness. Delight yourselves in him, and ye shall have the desire of your souls.

Dear Friends, since it hath pleased the Lord to determine your hearts to fall in love with him, and in token thereof to meet together in Christian fellowship for prayer, and other duties incumbent for you in your station: and not only so, but to join with, and cast in your lot among the poor suffering, tossed, reproached, condemned, and dispersed remnant of the church of Scotland, who is this day like a lily among thorns, and a silly chased bird among vultures and ravens. As you have begun, so hold on: endurers to the end only get the crown. O labour (if such an one as I may desire) to keep up your meetings; forget not the assembling of yourselves together; let not that stately tower that we have yet left in our Zion (of the many strong bulwarks, comely ramparts, and high hedges that once we had in and about her) fall down; lest it prove crushing and piercing. Seek him where he hath promised to be found; rest not till ye find him; refuse to be comforted till he return and be gracious, and be pacified towards the remnant of his heritage. Let your light so shine (ye dwell in a dark place) before men, that they seeing your good works may glorify God; and that they may have no ground to blame your good conversion in Christ. Labour to be living witnesses for Christ and his precious truths, and against the enemies and their abominations in the place you live in: and your sympathy with your afflicted brethren in Scotland, let it continue. It is a duty much commanded and commended by God in his word; and fellow-feeling with the suffering members of [>343] Christ, is a mark that we are members of that same body whereof he is the head. Let us not be lying at ease in a day of Jacob’s trouble, eating, drinking, and making merry, lest we be guilty of the woe pronounced against such, and be led forth with the workers of iniquity, when peace shall be upon his Israel. When trouble from the world abounds, let our love to him, and zeal for him, increase; and the more our Lord Jesus is persecuted by the wicked of this generation, and his image in his members bated, let us love him the more, and be known to the world that we do so, although persecution never so great follow; and labour to get his image more renewed in your souls. This is a day wherein we have a fair opportunity to give a proof of our love and loyalty to King Christ, who is wronged, wounded, slighted, despised and contemned, and spitted upon by the wicked of this generation; yea, and many of the wounds and wrongs he gets is in the house of his friends. O let us lay hold upon such opportunities: for many have longed for the like, and have not obtained. It sets us well, and is well our common, to fear, love and obey him, who loved us when we could not love ourselves, nor no eye pity us. O wonderful condescendency O let us labour to get our eyes and ears to affect our hearts, that we may be suitably affected, and deeply wounded and concerned with the many wounds precious Christ hath gotten, his glory, truths, cause, covenant and people have gotten and are getting this day. Let as resent and testify against these wrongs, lest we be found guilty. We ought to contend and suffer for hairs, hoofs, and pins of precious truth. [>344] O noble privilege, and high dignity to he honoured to suffer for the least of them, if any of them may he so called.

Dear Friends, let us rejoice in tribulation and persecution for his sake; let us rejoice in being robbed, spoiled, and nothing left us; let us rejoice in being put to wander, though it were in mountains, dens, and caves of the earth; (we have a cloud of witnesses that have gone before us) let us rejoice in cruel mockings, reproaches from enemies and pretended friends; yea, in being put to cruel tortures and deaths; none of all these things shall harm us, if we be followers of that which is good; yea, in all these things we shall be more than conquerors, through him that loved us, and washed us in his blood. Here is enough though we be under persecution all our days, it sets us to be silent, and not to quarrel with his doings, for he is the governor of heaven and earth, he can do us no wrong. O for submissive spirits, Let us bear his indignation patiently, because we have sinned against him: and to be learning the language of the rod, and him who hath appointed it. The dispensations that fall out in our day are very strange, deep, and mysterious: he is bringing to pass his act, his strange act. He is by them making himself to be known to be God, whose ways are equal, although many a time to us they seem crooked, when we measure them by the crooked rule of our own making. He is taking many ways to make himself great and high in his peoples eyes and estimation, by taking instruments (and these great ones) and means out of the way. I think this is one language that thir dispensations [>345] have, Be still, and know that I am God, &c. It sets us better to be sitting silent, and wondering and adoring at infinite sovereignty in his way of working, than to quarrel and cry out, Why is it thus? And another language is, Look unto me all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved; let us look to him only for salvation, both from inward and outward enemies, and no longer to hills and mountains. Let us stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who hath a holy hand in suffering us to be brought into so great difficulties, as it were the Red-sea before us, rocks on every hand, and the Egyptians behind, that he alone may be seen exalted and glorified in delivering us out of them. A look from himself can divide the Red-sea, and make his people to walk on dry land, and make the chariot wheels of our enemies to drive heavily.

Dear Friends, there is one thing I am somewhat pressed in conscience to tell you of, and that is, since you have joined with the suffering remnant in Scotland, and adhered to the controverted truths our dying martyrs have laid down their lives for, and our living witnesses are contending for, and in particular, that in protesting against the unfaithfulness and sinful silence in ministers, by their withdrawing from them, it were your wisdom to be even-down in this, and to take good heed whom ye hear, least, if rash in this, ye be found to contradict what they have done; especially now when we have given them a call [at the ninth convention on 8 May, 1683], which if they embrace, it is well, if not we, must stand still and not go to them, least we loose our ground, but they must return to us. Do not mistake me, as if I were desiring to cast at the gospel, or ministers: No; Lord [>346] forbid; the Lord is my witness, that is not my desire: it is only to have you to cease to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge, and to wait till we get the gospel, which we have sinned away, back again, faithfully preached by faithful ministers, that I design. It is my soul’s desire, if my heart deceive me not, to long to hear the gospel, and to see faithful ministers; (O what is more desireable than to hear Christ speaking to us in the calm voice of the gospel again, who hath been long speaking to us in the loud voice of his judgments and threatenings) and to long to see that day when the reproach of being against ministry and magistracy shall be rolled away from his people; and when both shall be duely and rightly administred according to his word. Dear Friends, let us mourn and weep for our former slighting of the sweet gospel, and wrestle with him night and day, that he would return and visit us with the offers of his gospel, and let yet the voice of the turtle be heard in our land, the time of the singing of the birds, and the spring time come. O let us long and thirst for such sweet and desirable days.

I draw to a close with this: These three of you whom the Lord hath honoured with a prison, and to bear his cross, have the forestart of the rest. I wish heartily grace, mercy, and peace, be their allowance, and the consolations of his Spirit make their prisons sweet to them; and that he may keep them in the hour of temptation, and help them to endure to the end: and it is the duty of all the rest of you to be preparing for suffering. [>347]

I earnestly desire ye would do me the favour as to write to me. I remain,
Your servant at command in the Lord,
Michael Shields.’

The letter is relatively unusual in that it was not included in Shields’ Faithful Contendings Displayed. It was printed in John McMillan (ed.), A Collection of Letters, Consisting of Ninety-three. Sixty-one of which wrote by the Rev. Mr. James Renwick;… (Edinburgh, 1764), 341-7. The manuscript of it is held in the Laing Collection in University of Edinburgh Special Collections. (‘Letter July 5. 1683’, EUL MSS. La.III.350. No. 92.)

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

In January, 1683, the burial vault of James V, King of Scots, and his first Queen, aka. Madeleine of France, was rediscovered. Lord Fountainhall went to explore the vault…Maybe we should?…

‘In this moneth of Januar[y] 1683, was discovered accidentally, by the removing some seats in the Church of Halirudhouse, the vault on the south-east end of the Church, wheir the body of King James the 5t. lyes buried. Skeen and others, in ther Chronologies of the Scots Kings, tell us, he was buried at Halirudhoufe, but the lenth of tyme and negligence had worne the particular place out of the memory of men. It was knowen to be him by the inscription on his leaden coffin.

I had the curiositie to goe and view the relics of that gallant Prince. In the pend or cell ther are six lead coffins. The first is King James the 5t. who dyed in the year 1542; but Drummond of Hawthorndene, in the very end of his life, tells us, this is not the place wher he was first interred, but that King Henry the 8t. of England’s army having defaced his tomb and monument, he was transported into this vault by King James the 6t. and reimbalmed; which appears by the freschnesse of his body and the liquor about him.

The second is his first Quean, Magdalen, daughter to Francis the 1st King of France, who dyed in 1537.

The third is Henry, Lord Darnely, father to King James the 6t. and Quean Marie’s husband, who was [blown up by gunpowder and] strangled in 1567: by his body he appears to have been a very tall proper man; others call this bodie Seigneur David Rizio’s, the Italian Musitian’s.

The 4t. is Ladie Jean Stewart, bastard daughter to King James the 5t. and Countesse of
Argile, who dyed in 1587.

The other 2 are some of their children. [Possibly James V’s sons by Mary of Guise? James, Duke of Rothesay, and Robert, Duke of Albany, the elder brothers of Mary, Queens of Scots, died in infancy in 1541.]

This was a humbling mortifieng sight, and a great instance and document of mortality, and vanity of the world; all the glory of that sprightly Prince being crouded into this lowly cell, Mors sceptra ligonibus aequat: Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regnumque turres: Et sic transit gloria mundi. Many ordinary persons have better buriall places now, then what this magnanimous restles Prince hes got. If our thoughts deschended ofter unto the charnel house and sepulchres of our ancestors, their dust [...] would serve to lay the peacok feathers of our vain proud aspiring projests, which we lay in such a train as if we ware immortall. [...] And it might have the same effest on us, which Virgil [...] tells us, the sprinkling a little dust on bees hes. [...] All the inhabitants of that dark valley have lean and pale cheeks, hollow eyes, fallen noses, and none of them wear the Jewells and other deckings, with which they glistred when they ware on life: but notwithstanding of this dissolution, we most all rise again at the great day of accounts.’ (Fountainhall, Historical Observes, 89-90.)

After the execution of three Society people in December, 1680, A weaver called Drysdale had had enough of ‘the murdering of the people of God’. He decided to strike down their oppressors…

‘On the 3d of December 1680, on[e] [John?] Drysdaill, a weaver, assaulted on[e] of his Majestie’s [Life]guard called [Adam] Masterson, about Kirkliston, railing upon him as on[e] of then that was accessory to the murdering of the people of God, and particularly [, in Drysdale’s view,] of James Skene and these other innocent persons who had suffered [execution] tuo dayes before [on 1 December], and wounded him with a sword; wheirupon the trouper pershueing him, did at last apprehend him and bring him in prisoner to Edenburgh, wheir he feingied himself to be distracted.’ (Fountainhall, Historical Observes, 13.)

Law also recorded Drysdale’s attack on Masterson in conjunction with the capture of another after Skene’s execution:

‘One poor man [unidentified], present at [t]his execution [that of James Skene, Archibald Stewart and John Potter on 1 December, 1680], declared his adherence to their opinions, and was seized on and made prisoner; another of that gang [i.e. Drysdale] sett upon the Earl of Marr’s servant, carrying home some things to his lady. He was a webster, and meeting with [Adam Masterton] the Laird of Grange, setts upon him also in the way, and told him he would kill him, because he was an enemy to God and his people, and struck att him with his sword. The gentleman shoots a pistol at him to fright him fra him, but the more eager he grew upon him. At length the gentleman rode him down and apprehended him.’ (Law, Memorialls, 168-9.)

Fountainhall’s weaver who attacked ‘on[e] of his Majestie’s [Life]guard called Masterson’ and Law’s webster, i.e., a weaver, who attacked ‘the Laird of Grange’ refer to the same individual.

Masterson of Grange
Adam Masterson of Grange (d.1695) appears to have belonged to His Majesty’s Troop of Lifeguards, a small unit of horse in the Scottish Army. Prior to the attack on him, Masterson was appointed by the privy council as one of the ‘commissioners of excise and for the militia and justices of peace in the shire of Perth’ on 4 August, 1680. (RPCS, VI, 522.)

He held the lands of Grange in Culross parish, in what was then an enclave of Perthshire.

Map of East Grange          Street View of East Grange

After the attack, Masterson was became a burgess in Edinburgh in 1684. He was known John Erskine of Carnock, a neighbour of his. On 18 December, 1683, Carnock saw ‘Grainge Masterton’ in Haddington, when the Marr and Queensberry’s sons and the Laird of Lundie took coach under escort. Masterson also waited on a pass for Carnock at Edinburgh on 19 December, 1684. (Erskine, Journal, 26, 99.)

He was later called as a witness in a case against Captain Alexander Bruce of Broomhall and petitioned on behalf of the nephew of John Philip, the minister of Queensferry, who was imprisoned on the Bass in 1683. (Fasti, I, 225.)

Masterson at Muttonhole
The evidence of Drysdale’s attempted assassination of Masterson suggests that the latter was in some way accessory to James Skene’s capture when Donald Cargill was ambushed at Muttonhole on Friday 12 November, 1680. It appears that the attack on Masterton was motivated by his role in Skene’s capture and execution, and was probably premeditated.

The attack took place near Kirkliston, which lies in Kirkliston parish in what was known as Linlithgowshire.

Map of Kirkliston

Drysdale’s attack on Masterson was not an isolated incident, as other attacks on the persecutors of Cargill’s followers were allegedly planned at around the time of the execution of James Skene, John Potter and Archibald Stewart on 1 December.

According to the interrogation of Archibald Stewart on 15 November, 1680, two of Donald Cargill’s followers, William Cuthill and John Murray, planned to attack the ministers of Bo’ness and Carriden, and Thomas Kennoway of the King’s Lifeguards for their roles in earlier near captures of Cargill.

William Cuthill, a seaman in Bo’ness, was later captured by ‘some of the earle of Mar’s men, with two pistolls and a durk, about him’. No date was given for his capture, but it was probably in early to mid 1681. He was executed alongside Cargill in July, 1681.

John Murray, a sailor in Bo’ness, was captured with Christopher Miller at around the time of the executions on 1 December.

Drysdale, too, may have been from Bo’ness, as a ‘John Drysdale, weaver in Borrowstonness’ was listed on the published Fugitive Roll of 1684. (Jardine, ‘United Societies’, II, 230.)

Map of Bo’ness

It appears that Cuthill and Murray’s planned attacks and Drysdale’s attack were all instigated by the followers of Cargill in Bo’ness. Some of those followers later emerged as a distinct sect known the Sweet Singers. Others were later executed as ‘notorious traitors’.

It is difficult to avoid the obvious conclusion that Drysdale and the others from Bo’ness were inspired by Cargill’s preaching to launch assassination attempts on those who were directly involved in the endeavours to capture Cargill and ‘the murdering of the people of God’.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

‘On the 27, and 28, and following days of October 1684, happened a great storme of snow and frost, with thunder and lightening and much shipwrack of many wessells at sea; and Holland was afraid to have been drowned, ther banks was so shattered with the sea. The snow lay some days at London, but had not been observed for many years to come so soon in the year, and thunder there is very unusuall: we say Winter’s thunder is Summer’s hunger, which God prevent.’ (Fountainhall, Historical Observes, 138-9.)

The cause of the disaster was probably a winter storm surge in the North Sea. Similar storms caused the All Saints’ Flood of 1570 in the Netherlands and the North Sea Flood of 1953.

Culross © David McMumm and licensed for reuse.

The storm brought strange portents of a new presbyterian rising against king Charles II. According to John Erskine of Carnock:

‘In the beginning of the last month [November, 1684] there came in a great abundance of fishes, some longer than herrings, but not so broad, having a neb out from their head about two inches long. They were got in greatest abundance on the north shore, about Culross, and Torrie people carried them away by horse loads.’ (Erskine, Journal, 98.)

The burgh of Culross and nearby Torry lies on the northern shore of the River Forth. Culross lay in what was part of Perthshire and Torry in Fife.

Map of Culross and Torry

According to Carnock:

‘It was a strong north wind when they came in; they did leap out of the water to the land, people catching them with their hands at the edge of the water. When the sea was out multitudes of them were found dead upon the shoar, with their nebs sticking in the sand. People did eat them, and some salted of them ; some said their coming was ominous, telling that they had come in immediately before [the ] Pentland [Rising of 1666].’ (Erskine, Journal, 98.)

Fountainhall also recorded the storm causing the appearance of the strange fish:

‘This tempest drove in also upon our shoares and sand a new kind of fisch like a mackrell or herring, but with a long snout like a snipe’s beik. Doctor [Robert] Sibbald sayes it is the Acus marinus, the sea neidle, described by him in his Naturalis Historia [i.e., Scotia illustrata of 1684]; they have been seen before, but are not frequent, and therfor are look’t upon by the vulgar as ominous.’ (Fountainhall, Historical Observes, 139.)

Sibbald was also the first to scientifically classify the Blue Whale in Phalainologia Nova, or ‘Observations on some Animals of the Whale Genus, lately thrown on the Shores of Scotland’, after a seventy-eight foot specimen was stranded in the Firth of Forth in September, 1692.

There is no doubt that Fountainhall’s scepticism about the portent of the ominous fish was well placed. However, in late 1684 there were rumours that the exiled earl of Argyll was plotting to initiate a new Presbyterian rising in Scotland.

One other event took place when the storm raged and the fish flew on to the beach. On 28 October, 1684, James Renwick, who was sheltering at Glengaber, composed the Society people’s Apologetical Declaration Against Intelligencers. It declared war on their persecutors and threatened to assassinate informants.

For other strange wonders of the 1680s, see here.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

After the Great Frost of 1683 to 1684 froze Scotland’s main rivers, Lord Fountainhall reported a series of strange events:

‘In March 1684, [...] At the fame tyme, 3 suns are seen in the morning by many in the town of Dale, in England, and 3 rainbows like cressents and halfe moons, to the great wonder and astonishment of the beholders, none of them having ever seen the like before.’

Two suns had also been seen over Glasgow earlier in the year.

‘In Scotland in the south, it was reported, that graves ware found cut out of the wholle earth, of the usual breidth and deepnesse, and the wholle lump laid inteer befyde it, as if it had been cut out with a knife; this prodigy was called the ominous forerunner of some pestilence or great mortality.’

There were disastrous floods and some profiteering immediately after the Great Frost:

‘The storme being broken which had destroyed many bridges, milnes, and coall finks, up and doune the country, to a great value; many fisches ware casten furth upon the shoar and sands dead, by the rigidity of the winter, which certainly ware very unwholesome food, tho’ they ware sold amongst other fisches.’ (Fountainhall, Historical Observes, 120.)

For other ‘wonders’ of the 1680s, see here.

In late 1683. the ‘Great Frost’ came to Scotland:

‘In the end of November, ther began with us a great frost, which continued till the end of Februar 1684, and longer, for three moneths and a halfe, with some stormes and snow now and then; so that the rivers [Tay] at Dundee, [and Forth at] Borrowstounnesse, and other places wheir the sea ebbs and flows, did freeze, which hath not been observed in the memory of any man before; and theirby the cattell, especially the sheip, ware reduced to great want of meat, that the like had not been since the winter 1674.’ (Fountainhall, Historical Observes, 116.)

John Graham of Claverhouse is said to have attempted to capture him three times. However, Alexander Brown escaped by hiding in a dugout cave by a river bank. At least, according to tradition…

As has been stressed many times before, later traditions are not a reliable guide to the history of the Covenanters. They record how the Covenanters were recalled over a 150 years later, usually for religious and pedagogical purposes. The following tradition was published in Greenshields’ Annals of the Parish of Lesmahagow in 1864. (See Appendix, p29.)

The Tradition of Alexander Brown
‘The following notice of Alexander Brown, a native of Muirkirk in Ayrshire, is taken from old manuscript papers and reports collected by friends and relations of the Covenanters of Lesmahagow. We give it nearly in the words of the original:—

Alexander Brown was a native of Muirkirk parish, and a farmer. He was cousin to John Brown of Priesthill. Their places of abode were contiguous and their intercourse great, and they often talked about the afflictions of the bleeding Church, which oppressors were trampling in the dust.

Brown was not recorded on the Fugitive Roll of 1684.

John Brown of Priesthill was summarily executed on the orders of John Graham of Claverhouse on 1 May, 1685. John Brown was a founding member of the United Societies. The Societies’ second convention was held at Priesthill.

Map of Priesthill

‘Tradition has not named the year the following incident took place.

[John Graham of] Claverhouse and his troopers were scouring the muirland districts of Ayr and Lanark; but [Alexander] Brown had hitherto eluded their vigilance, notwithstanding Clavers’ determination to have him caught. One day Brown was a short distance from his own house when he saw the dragoons approaching. He was fully aware of their design; he knew that they saw him where he stood, and found that he could neither flee nor conceal himself. As he was not personally known to his enemies, he concluded that he might escape detection by assuming a cool and careless demeanour, so he walked deliberately towards the advancing troopers, as if anxious to see the military parade. This movement on his part completely lulled the suspicion of his foes.’

A common feature of traditions of the Covenanters were fugitives boldly approaching their pursuers to outwit them.

‘“Know you if Alexander Brown be within?” asked the leader of the party.
“Not at present,” replied Brown, with the air of indifference.
“He went out lately, and I have not seen him return.”
“He is surely in the house,” replied they, “and you want to conceal the fact.”
“What I tell you is truth,” replied the Covenanter. “I know that he is not in the house at present.”
Claverhouse ordered his men instantly to dash forward and surround the house, and not mind the stupid fellow. In an instant the soldiers were at work, and made a strict search in every corner. Claverhouse enraged at the disappointment, ordered his troops to set fire to the whole steading, and in a short time the flames were seen darting through the roof. At length the whole range of buildings was in a blaze; whilst the troopers were sent to watch in case Brown should escape to the mountains under cover of the smoke. In this, however, they were disappointed. The persecuted man witnessed from the hill the entire destruction of his humble dwelling. After this he wandered from place to place for many months, till his enemies abandoned the search as hopeless.’

A later tradition is not a reliable guide to history, but if the preceding events took place at all, then they probably took place either before, or at that same time as, the death of John Brown of Priesthill on 1 May, 1685.

Carmacoup © Chris Wimbush and licensed for reuse.

‘After this he engaged himself as a shepherd at Carmacoup, a few miles from Douglas.’

A testament of Sarah Braidfoot, spouse to James Haddow, in Carmacope’ dates to 16 November, 1687.

Carmacoup lies in Douglas parish, Lanarkshire.

Map of Carmacoup        Street View of Carmacoup

A Second Encounter with Claverhouse
‘How long he remained there is not recorded in this scrip. There were enemies, treacherous men, who, for a sum of money, were willing to betray him. Claverhouse being apprised of his retreat, marched with great secrecy and expedition to Carmacoup. Brown seeing him coming rushing along the hill towards the house, which he had only left a few minutes before, threw himself in their way, as he had done on a former occasion, and quite composedly answered their questions respecting the man they were in search of, and the likelihood of his being found at Camacoup. Claverhouse hasted on his way, followed by his men, and thus Brown was again favoured with a deliverance when within the very grasp of his enemies.’

Hagshaw Hill © Chris Wimbush and licensed for reuse.

‘Finding the Carmacoup was no longer a safe retreat, he fled to the Hawkshaw hills, where he hid himself for a few days in the wild morasses.’

The area of Hackshaw, or Hagshaw, lies around Hagshaw Hill and the Hagshaw Burn, which runs north to join the Poniel Burn at South Bankend.

Map Hagshaw Hill          Aerial View of Hagshaw Hill

Ruins of South Bankend © Sarah Dalrymple and licensed for reuse.

Brown at Cleuchbrae

‘He then removed to Cleughbrae, a farmhouse in the parish of Lesmahagow, two or three miles west from the Hawkshaw hills, on the Nethan water, the banks of which on either side are steep and clothed with wood of different kinds.’

Map of former site of Cleuchbrae      Aerial View of former site of Cleuchbrae

‘Cleughbrae, at the time to which our narrative refers, was possessed by a very worthy family of the name Lean [or Linn] whose door was always open to the lonely wanderer, who for Christ’s sake had lost all that was dear to them on earth.’

Cleuchbrae was not a significant farm in the Lesmahagow parish. The 1695 Poll Tax records for Lesmahagow lists only a ‘William Lean, elder, in Cleuchbrae’. He may have been the father of Beatrix Lean and her sisters. (Greenshields, Annals of the Parish of Lesmahagow, 169.)

‘Here Brown met with a cordial reception. Lean’s family consisted of four daughters, one of them [Beatrix Lean?] being the sweetheart of Alexander Brown; but the precarious times prevented them from marrying.’

If the story of Brown and his sweetheart is true, it would have been their adherence to the Covenanted cause and his possible fugitive status that inhibited their marriage by Alexander Douglas, the “curate” of Lesmahagow parish. (Fasti, III, 314.)

‘It was agreed between them that he should retire to some secluded spot not far off, as Cleughbrae was a suspected house, being in the neighbourhood of Skellyhill, Waterside, Yondertoun, and Over Stockbriggs, places which Claverhouse had often visited, and where parties of his dragoons for weeks resided.

It being necessary that he should leave the house of his kind friends, the Leans, for fear of discovery, the next thing was to find a hiding place as near them as possible. Brown, assisted chiefly by his sweetheart, dug a cave in the opposite bank of the Nethan, among the bushes, and in full view of the house, where a signal hung in some particular spot when danger was apprehended, would warn him to conceal himself more closely. The operation was carried out very quietly during the night; Brown digging out the earth, which his sweetheart carried to some distance and buried up with leaves, so that no trace might be found that might lead to any suspicion.’

The location sounds like it lay on the farm of Over Stockbriggs, rather than at Cleuchbrae. One wonders if anything remains to substantiate the location of the dugout.

‘At last the cell was finished, and the entrance so completely concealed by the branches of the thickly tangled wood, that it baffled the strictest search of the soldiery. In this cave he remained for two years, and she, his companion, visited nightly this lonely abode with a supply of provisions, when they had many an hour of sweet counsel together; and in the long dark nights he frequently visited the hearth of his friends at Cleughbrae; and in case of surprise he had a way of escape from the back of the house into the hollow of the Nethan, where he could creep quietly into his den without being observed. However, he was tolerably secure at Cleughbrae, as none ever saw him, or had any suspicion of his being there, except a few in whom confidence could be placed.’

The time span of Brown’s hiding at Cleuchbrae suggests that he may have hidden there between 1685 and 1687, i.e., until James VII introduced toleration and the pace fo presession slacked.

Redshaw © Chris Wimbush and licensed for reuse.

‘John Black of the Redshaw, in the parish of Douglas, wished to engage Brown for his shepherd, but could not prevail on him to leave his place of security and peace, and expose himself again to his enemies. Mr Black paid him another visit six months afterwards, and succeeded in persuading him to leave his retirement. With much regret he took leave of his friends and sweetheart at Cleughbrae.’

Map of Redshaw            Street View of Redshaw

Brown at Redshaw

‘He had not long been at Redshaw when his troubles began, for Claverhouse was again in search of him.’

After Claverhouse was promoted to ‘Brigadier of Horse and Foot in Scotland’ on 18 May, 1685, he does not appear to have been active in the hunt for fugitives after that date. (Dalton, Scots Army, 165.)

Redshaw was not the best of hiding places, as roads to Douglas and Edinburgh lay on each side of it.

‘One Sabbath morning, when he was going out to look after his sheep, he saw a company of dragoons coming over the hills from Douglas. Seeing no chance of escape, he committed himself to Him who had hitherto protected him; and summoning up all his courage, he whistled up his dog, set his gude bluie bonnet firm on his head, and threw his plaid over his shoulder, then with a jovial air began to sing a cheerful Scotch tune at the top of his voice, which lively strain attracted the notice of the dragoons, who at once concluded that this could not be the man they were in search of, as no sober Covenanter could profane the Sabbath in such a way. When they came up to him they scarcely slacked their speed, but one of them cried “That at least is not Alexander Brown; he would not be going on in that kind of way on the Sabbath morning.” The whole company passed by without taking any further notice of him, when he betook himself to a deep hag in the neighbouring hill and hid himself. The dragoons soon arrived at Redshaw in pursuit of him, and after ransacking every corner of the steading they returned to Douglas. This was the last time our worthy was in danger, as the Revolution [of 1688] took place soon after, which at once emancipated the country from bondage.

After the Revolution

After the danger was over, Brown returned to sympathise with his friend at Redshaw, who had sustained much loss on his account by the spoilers, being reckoned a suspicious character for harbouring such men as Brown in house. Shortly after this, when the times became more quiet, the lovely companion of Brown’s solitude became his wife, as they had been already united both in affection and principle. They took up at a place called the “Wee Redshaw”, had a large family, and both died at a good old age, and were buried in St Bride’s churchyard, Douglas. Their descendents are numerous in the parishes of Douglas and Lesmahagow.’

An Alexander Brown married a Beatrix Lean in Lesmahagow parish on 16 December, 1692. The minister involved was Thomas Linning, who had been hurriedly ordained after Renwick’s death. Linning reunited with the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in late 1690 and took up the vacant charge at Lesmahagow in May, 1691. (Fasti, III, 314.)

Thomas Linning, his wife, Margaret Kerr, and two of their children, Robert and Barbara, all appear on the Poll Tax Roll for Lesmahagow parish. Margaret Ker was the sister of Daniel Ker of Kersland. Listed with them are Linning’s sister, Joan Linning, and a Marion Kerr, possibly a sister of Margaret, and a third servant, Archibald Campbell. (Greenshields, Annals of the Parish of Lesmahagow, 172.)

Neither Alexander Brown, nor Beatrix Lean, appear on the 1695 Poll Tax record for Lesmahagow parish.

Redshaw and Cleughbrae?

The farm of Wee, or Little, Redshaw may be the ruins of a rig and furrow farm which lies in the moor above Douglas close to the head of the Long Burn. It appears on Roy’s map of the 1750s as ‘Hirdshouse’, i.e., the home of shepherd, but had disappeared by the nineteenth century. Roy’s map also shows two sets of buildings at Redshaw, one of which may be Wee, or Little, Redshaw.

Map of Ruins of ‘Hirdshouse’            Aerial View of Ruins of ‘Hirdshouse’

Redshaw and the ruins of ‘Hirdshouse’ also lie to the east of the Arnesalloch Burn beside which lay another farm, and possibly a mill, called either Cleughbrae, or Cleuchbrae. The site of that Cleughbrae is now shrouded in Weston Wood. It lies between Carmacoup and Redshaw.

Map of Cleuchbrae

It may, or may not, be a coincidence, but according to another tradition recorded by Simpson, a Covenanter called James Gavin hid in a well-concealed cave by the side of the Arnesalloch Burn. Images of the cave can be found here. (Simpson, Traditions, 168-74.)

Simpson’s version of the tradition about Alexander Brown can be found here.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

Major John Balfour of Mar’s Regiment of Foot commanded the garrison at Glasgow. He was later gained renown as a persecutor of the Society people. In late 1683, the Societies tried to assassinate him…

‘On the 3rd December 1683, some phanaticks at Glasgow make the attempt to kill Major [John] Balfour and some of the officers of the army lying ther. They are apprehended, and wildlie condemne all other churches, even the Scots on[e] of fugitives at Rotterdam, as not pure eneugh. The Privy Counsell sends a commission to 4, at Glasgow, to judge them their; viz. [William,] the Lord Ross, Lieutenant Collonell [George] Winrahame, &c.’ (Fountainhall, Historical Observes, 113.)

Although Balfour became known as a persecutor, it appears that the alleged assassination attempt preceded most of his notorious deeds.

Those who allegedly attempted the assassination of Major John Balfour and the other officers were plainly Society people, as they condemned the Scots Kirk in Rotterdam.

The Societies had for some time been considering a protest against their former Presbyterian brethren at Scots Kirk in Rotterdam for their hostility towards James Renwick’s ordination. At the tenth convention at Cairntable in Ayrshire on 1 August, 1683, the Societies had commissioned Robert Hamilton to draft a protest against the Scots Kirk in Rotterdam for consideration by the eleventh convention at Darmead. After Hamilton’s draft of the protest did not appear at the Darmead convention, Michael Shields alleges that the Societies then drafted their own version. That protest was finally agreed at the twelfth convention at Woodside near Glasgow on 28 November, 1683. It was later published by Robert Hamilton in the United Provinces. (Shields, FCD, 98-99, 112.)

Woodside

The twelfth convention at ‘Woodside near Glasgow’ was probably held at Woodside in Barony parish, Lanarkshire, which lies on the east bank of the River Kelvin. The area probably belonged to John Campbell of Woodside, who was involved in the burgh politics and obtaining Glasgow’s common land. Woodside was probably hostile to the Society people. (RPS, 1681/7/182.)

Woodside lay in the area which is now to the north and south of the Kelvin Bridge on Great Western Road. A Woodside Mill lay by the Hillhead ford and a Woodside Muir to the east. of Woodside. An later image of Woodside can be found here.

Aerial View of Woodside

It would appear that the Society people involved in the alleged assassination attempt against Balfour may have known about the drafting of the Societies’ protestation which was approved only five days before the alleged assassination attempt. The published version of the Protestation can be found here.

Lieutenant-Colonel George Winram was generally recorded as Major George Winram. Although an experienced officer, he was not commissioned in His Majesty’s Regiment of Dragoons until May, 1685. He did not hold the rank of Lieutenant-colonel in the Dragoons until 7 November, 1685. (Dalton, Scots Army, 77n, 145.)

Winram was involved in the trial and execution of five Society people – James Johnston, John Main, John Richmond, Archibald Stewart and James Winning – in March, 1684. It is likely that at least some of them had been involved in the alleged attempted assassination.

He was also involved in the interrogation at Glasgow of prisoners taken after Renwick’s preaching at Paisley in July, 1684.

The Possible Involvement of James Nisbet in Highside
It is possible that James Nisbet in Highside, who was executed June, 1684, was in someway involved in the alleged assassination plot. According to Wodrow, Nisbet was related to one of the five men and knew some of the others: ‘He was acquaint with most part, and had been intimate with some of them’. (Wodrow, History, IV, 64, 65.)

One charge against Nisbet in Highside was that he had been ‘going up and down the country plundering and murdering, and so by their law made liable to punishment, even to the loss of my life; but I declare, who am within a little to appear before the righteous Judge, that I never intended to wrong any man’.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

This is a list of Covenanters who were allegedly martyred in the Killing Times of 1685. Some of them still appear on lists of martyrs, even though they are only known from traditions that were recorded over 150 years after their alleged killings.

There is no historical evidence to corroborate the deaths of these “Martyrs of Tradition”.

Feel free to browse through this list of eighteen martyrs and comment on them.

1. John Wilson who was shot by Buchan and Lee in Lesmahagow parish in February 1685.

2. An anonymous Covenanter who was killed Claverhouse’s men by the banks of the River Nethan in Lesmahagow parish.

3, 4, 5 & 6. Marion Cameron, Margaret Dun and two others who were killed in Ayrshire in 1685.

7 & 8. George Corson and John Hair who were killed by Highlanders in the summer of 1685.

9 & 10. The Craignorth Martyrs, Robert Morris and William Brown, who were shot by Lord Drumlanrig near Sanquhar in the summer of 1685.

11. An unknown Covenanter buried in Chapman’s Cleuch near Sanquhar.

12. ‘——-’ Gilbert of Gibb’s Corse in the Ae Forest.

13 & 14. George, or John, Allan and Margaret Gracie who were killed at Allan’s Cairn.

15. John Dempster who was killed by Lag in Carsphairn parish.

16, 17 & 18. The killings of the Black Clauchrie and Killoup Wood Covenanters and M’Roy in Halfmerk.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

In 1864, an advocate, J. B. Greenshields, published his Annals of the Parish of Lesmahagow. His chapter on the Covenanters of Lesmahagow was based on a manuscript by the Reverend Charles Thomson, entitled ‘Notices etc’, of 1832 (see p299-300). Both Thomson and Greenshields claimed that three martyred Society people were from Lesmahagow parish. Is there any substance to their claims?

According to Greenshields:

‘John Wilson and John Smith of Lesmahagow were shot in 1683 [actually February, 1685] by Colonel [Thomas] Buchan and [Cromwell Lockhart,] the Laird of Lee. The latter of those worthies lies interred in Muirkirk churchyard. In the month of March following [in 1685], Lieutenant [James] Murray shot John Brown at Blackwood, and his body was buried under cloud of night in the field where he fell.’ (Greenshields, Annals of the Parish of Lesmahagow, 114-115.)

The Tradition of John Wilson
Thomson/Greenshields is the only source to claim that a John Wilson was shot by Buchan and Lee. The sources for the shooting of John Smith mention that only one man was killed.

According to Michael Shields: ‘But though they all, (except one man [i.e., John Smith], who after apprehending was immediately shot) escaped’. (FCD, 162-3.)

James Renwick recorded that the Society people escaped ‘without any skaith, save the loss of one [i.e., John Smith].’ (Houston (ed.), Letters, 170.)

A letter to Colonel Buchan also mentioned the ‘killing one of them, and sending in three prisoners under guard’. (Wodrow, History, IV, 204.)

Greenshields’ John Wilson can only be regarded as a “martyr of tradition”.

‘John Smith of Lesmahagow’
Thomson/Greenshields claimed that John Smith was ‘of Lesmahagow’. It is possible that Smith was from the parish, however, an earlier source, Alexander Shields, only mentioned that Smith was shot ‘in’ the parish of Lesmahagow, rather than ‘of’ the parish: ‘Col. Buchan, with [Cromwell Lockhart] the Laird of Lee, and their men shot John Smith in the Paroch of Lesmahago[w], [in Lanarkshire,] Feb: 1685’ (Shields, A Short Memorial, 37.)

For more on Smith’s execution in the fields, see here.

‘Joseph Wilson of Lesmahagow’
Thomson/Greenshields also claimed that another historical martyr, Joseph Wilson, was ‘of Lesmahagow’ parish:

‘Joseph Wilson of Lesmahagow, probably a relative of the John Wilson, above mentioned, was shot in the summer of 1686 [actually 1685] by a party of soldiers at Knockdon hill, near the water of Kyle, in Ayrshire, upon the simple admission on his part that he was returning from Galloway from hearing James Renwick preach in the fields.’ (Greenshields, Annals of the Parish of Lesmahagow, 115.)

Wilson was shot at Carsgailoch hill in the summer of 1685. With the exception of the tradition related by Thomson/Greenshields, it is not recorded where Wilson was from.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

The church was in use when Renwick preached. It was restored in 1734 and finally replaced by a new church in 1772.

Map of Ruins of St Ninian’s Church, Stonehouse          Street View of Ruins of St Ninian’s Church, Stonehouse

Word of the preaching leaked out and a week later Gavin Hamilton of Raploch and John Somerville of Spittel. sheriff depute of Lanark, took down depositions about it. On Saturday 23 January, Somerville held an assembly of the people of the parish. Two of the depositions he collected describe intriguing incidents surrounding the crossing of the Avon Water, then swollen by a winter flood, by Renwick’s hearers.

The first is from James Miller in East Mains, which lies to the south-east of the ruined church above the southern bank of the Avon in Stonehouse parish.

Map of East Mains          Street View of East Mains

‘James Miller in Eastmaynes depones he knoues nothing of the conventicle, except in the morneing about —- hours, haveing missed his wyfe a litle, he arose and haveing gone out and go[t] his wyfe comeing homeward, she declared that she had risen out of hir bed haveing h[e]ard a dine about the house and efter she rose found tuo of thir horses prest out, and that upon the horses being taken on of his sones went out after the horse[s] which he got at the watter syde [of the Avon Water] fra the persones that had prest them out after they had gone thrice throw the watter with them; cannot say that ever his wyfe h[e]ard there oun paroch minister [Angus Mackintosh] since he cam. Cannot wrytt. Nota:– That nether his wyfe nor son compiered to depon upon there knowledge of knowing any of these persones who went throw the watter’. (RPCS, XI, 507.)

Linthaugh Bridge © Iain Thompson and licensed for reuse.

The second is from Gavin Hamilton in Linthaugh, Stonehouse parish. Linthaugh, or ‘Lintoch’, lies to the north-east of the ruined church close to above the Avon.

Map of Linthaugh             Street View of Linthaugh

His deposition concerns the crossing of the Avon after the preaching. The crossing probably took place close to the later Linthaugh bridge, perhaps at a location known as the ‘Lintoch Steps’.

Street View from Linthaugh Bridge

‘Gavin Hamiltoune in Lintoch, suorn, depones he knew nothing of the conventicle, except upon Sabaths night after midnight [, i.e., very early on Monday 18 January,] being abed there came some persones to his door and calld upon himto help them throw the watter [of Avon], which he refuissed, and they threa[t]ned him till he wes forced to ryse efter they had almost broken up his door, and then he took a horse and went to the watter syde with them, being tua persones armed, ane with a carrabin and suord and the uther with suord and pistole, on of which he that was armed with the carrabine and suord he judged to be Gavin Hamilton in Croftheids servant, but knous not his name, and when they came to the watter the watter wes so great that it wes not rydable and then he came home againe; depones farder that Margrat Granger, widow in Dalyell Kittimur, came to his house desiring help throw the watter, and that she being sitting speaking with his wyfe, he overhard hir say that there had beine a conventicle in the kirk and that she had beine present, and the deponents wyfe have[ing] asked if they were maney at it, she answered it wes so throng that the kirk walls were lyk to burst and that ther were thriee men of there number appoynted to come to the deponent to gett them help throw the watter; and this is truth as he shall answer to God. Sic Subscribitur, Gavin Hamiltone. Nota:— This Margrat Granger, widow, is apprehendit by Levetennent Murray and sent prisoner to Edinburgh.’ (RPCS, XI, 507-8.)

The armed servant of ‘Gavin Hamilton in Croftheids’ was not named. However, John Hamilton in Crofthead was of particular interest to Somerville, who also took a deposition from him:

Map of Crofthead              Street View of Crofthead

‘John Hamiltoun in Croftheid, suorn, depones that nether he nor non of his familie wes at the conventicle, but that on the Sabath afternoon [17 January] about sunsetting, his wife, and as he reme[m]bers Margrat Hamiltoune, daughter of Gavin Hamiltoune in Croftheid, told him that the conventicle wes to be h[e]ard since that Mr Jame[s] Rannie wes to preach, but does not remember whiter his wyfe and Margrat Hamiltoune told him or not; acknowledges he hes a bairne that wes borne about Mertimes last [, i.e., Martinmas, 11 November, 1685,] yett unbaptized and confesses that he never h[e]ard his oun paroch minister [Angus Mackintosh] preach as yett [i.e., since April, 1685]; nether his wyfe h[e]ard him; and this is truth as he shall answer to God; adds that his wyfe desired him to tak his child to be baptized there but would not. Sic subscribitur, John Hamiltoun.’ (RPCS, XI, 507.)

The Duke of Hamilton

After the depositions were taken, John Somerville of Spitell wrote to the Duke of Hamilton on Monday 25 January, 1686:

‘May in please your Grace, Before I receaved your Grace’s letter, which shall be faithfullie obeyed, being in Hamiltoune upon Fryday last [22 January], I wes told of the conventicle kieped in Stanehouse church which wes the first notice I got therof, quherupon imediatlie I orderd out officers to sumond all the inhabitants of that parish to appear before me upon Saterday morneing at the toune of Stanehouse, where I examyned the whole day these who knew anything of the conventicle. I have doubled there depositiones out of the clerks books and sent heirin inclosed to your Grace; as also I gave to Levetenant [James] Murray [of His Majesty’s Regiment of Dragoons] the names of these whom I learned by the depositiones that were present at the said conventicle, who sent me notice yesternight [Sunday 24 January] that he had apprehended severalls of them. Please your Grace, I find this parish verry irregular, for there wes fyve persones appeared before me who had all children unbaptized, being all about halfe ane yier old, of whom I got securitie that all of them should baptize there children yesterday with there oune parish minister [Angus Mackintosh] and that they should appear at Hamiltoune upon Fryday [29 January] and undergoe the law for not baptizeing them tymeouslie, and very few of the whole parish kieps the church. This wes all that I could doe in the affair in so shart a tyme. I beg to know of your Grace if any uther punishment are to be used against those who have beine present at this conventicle then the act of Parliament prescryves against those who were present at ane house conventicle, that the samyne my be obeyd in caice any shall afterwards compier befor me or be apprehended, or against those who lives about that church [at Stonehouse] and knew of it and did not give tymeouss notice therof, particularlie John Hamiltoune in Croftheid, whose depositiones your Grace may be pleased to read. Your Grace’s comands shall be waitted for by, may it please your Grace, your Grace’s most obedient and most humble servant. [Signed] Jo. Somervell.’ (RPCS, XI, 508-9.)

According to Alexander Shields, ‘Sommervail, of Spittel Sheriff depute, who, besides his other wayes of Persecution wherein he was most Active, drew from the poorest People above 1200 pounds [in Lanarkshire].’ (Shields, A Short Memorial, 31.)

Spittel had been appointed a commissioner for supply in Lanarkshire in May 1685. He also served the same function under William of Orange in 1690. (RPS, 1685/4/33.; 1690/4/44.)

Spittel noted that the parish was ‘verry irregular’ and that ‘very few of the whole parish kieps the church’. In particular, he recorded that ‘fyve persones appeared before me who had all children unbaptized, being all about halfe ane yier old’. The date he alluded to coincides with a change of minister in the parish. John Oliphant, an indulged minister, had held the parish until he was deposed in October, 1684. His replacement, Angus Mackintosh, an episcopal “curate”, translated to the parish at some point after 1 April, 1685, and held the charge until he fled at the Revolution. The imposition of Macintosh clearly met with considerable local hostility. On 28 or 29 December, 1689, a group of armed Society people symbolically removed the symbol of his office, his gown, after he had fled. (Fasti, III, 280; Jardine, ‘United Societies’, I, 237.)

It is possible that Renwick exploited local tensions over the new “curate” to further the Societies’ cause. Stonehouse is his only known use of a church as the setting for a preaching. According to one deposition, ‘the number of children baptizied [by Renwick after sermon] were about tuelve’. (RPCS, XI, 507.)

Who attended Renwick’s Stonehouse Preaching?
Between Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 January, 1686, Lieutenant James Murray captured Margaret Grainger and several others on the list of suspected attenders submitted by Somerville of Spittel.

Before the preaching, Lieutenant Murray had summarily executed John Brown at Blackwood in March, 1685.

A fortnight after he was in Stonehouse parish, Murray was involved in the capture and interrogation of William Steel, the son of John Steel in Rogerhill, and Thomas Steel, the son of the deceased laird of Skellyhill.

The prisoners captured by Murray after the preaching were sent to Edinburgh and held in the Canongate Tolbooth. Soon after they arrived, they were examined by Lord Livingston and General William Drummond.

The prisoners were:

1. James Miller in Spittal, Stonehouse parish, Lanarkshire.
Probably captured by Lieutenant Murray. Miller was the husband of Margaret Miller [No.2]. He claimed that he had not attended Renwick’s preaching, but acknowledged that his wife had attended and had their child baptised. Miller was a tenant of Cromwell Lockhart of Lee.

Map of Spittal          Aerial View of Spittal

‘James Miller in the paroch of Stenhouse, tennent to [Cromwell Lockhart] the Laird of Lee, being solemnlie sworne and interogat, depones he knowes nor heard of non that wes at the conventicle latlie keept at the Kirk of Stenhouse but Richard Mickle, a fewar in Silvertounhills, who he deponed [sic] heard was there; confesses his own wife [Margaret Miller] wes there and hade a child of his baptized there and that his child wes halfe a yeir old; depones he heard that Robert Hamilton in Coatcastle and his wife wes there, and that they are fled and John Mitchell in Cromoth were there and his wife and hade a child baptized and himselfe is since fled; depones he wes not there himselfe and that his wife, Margaret Miller, fled after the conventicle and that he heard that Alexander Hamiltoun in Langrig in [the laird of] Lee’s land, a fugitive, wes there; and depones he know[s] no more; and that this is truth as he shall answer to God. [Signed] James Miller.’ (RPCS, XI, 494.)

He was held prisoner in the Canongate Tolbooth. He supplicated and was released. (RPCS, XI, 495-6.)

Miller identified seven others who had allegedly attended Renwick’s preaching. They were:

2. Margaret Miller, the wife of James Miller in Spittal, Stonehouse parish, Lanarkshire.
She had her child by James Miller [No.1.] baptised at Renwick’s preaching. She fled her house to evade capture.

Tweedieside © Gordon Brown and licensed for reuse.

3. Richard Meikle, feuar in Silverton Hill, Hamilton parish, Lanarkshire.
According to James Miller [No.1.], he had heard that ‘Richard Mickle, a fewar in Silvertounhills’, was at Renwick’s preaching. Eupham Mitchell [No.17.] also claimed that she had heard that ‘one Richard Meikle, a fugitive, wes there’. He was not captured.

The farm at ‘Silvertounhills’ is now known as Silverton Hill and has become a suburb of Hamilton. The farm was located here.

Map of Silverton Hill                 Street View of Silverton Hill

His fugitive status suggests that he may have been the same individual as the ‘Richard Meikle in Tweedyside’ in Stonehouse parish who was listed on the Fugitive Roll published in May, 1684. Like some others from Stonehouse parish, Meikle was listed under Carluke parish on the Fugitive Roll. (Jardine, ‘United Societies, II, 194.)

Map of Tweedieside            Street View of Tweedieside

On 14 March, 1681, ‘Ritchard Meikle in Tweidiesyd’ had been indicted for his part in the Bothwell Rising of 1679. (CST, XI, 253.)

4 & 5. Robert Hamilton in Cot Castle and Mrs Robert Hamilton, Stonehouse parish, Lanarkshire.
According to James Miller [No.1.], he heard that ‘Robert Hamilton in Coatcastle and his wife’ attended Renwick’s preaching at Stonehouse Kirk. Cornet Innes noted that they had fled their home. They were not captured. The name Coat Castle refers to a nearby motte.

Map of Cot Castle              Street View of Cot Castle

6 & 7. John Mitchell, younger, in Crumhaugh and his wife, Katherine Hamilton, Stonehouse parish, Lanarkshire.
According to James Miller [No.1.], ‘John Mitchell in Cromoth were there and his wife and hade a child baptized and himselfe is since fled’. Janet Hamilton [No.15.] recorded that ‘Katherne Hamiltoun, spous to John Mitchell in Crommoth, who hade a child baptized’. A third record states that ‘John Mitchell, younger of Crumoch, absent. It is thought he had tua children baptizied at the conventicle.’ (RPCS, XI, 507.)

According to Cornet Innes, ‘John Mitchell in Crommoch his wife also baptised a child but they are both fledd’. They were not captured. Mitchell and his wife were neighbours of Robert Hamilton and his wife [Nos. 4 & 5.] in Cot Castle.

Map of Crumhaugh               Street View of Crumhaugh

8. Alexander Hamilton in Lanrigg in the Laird of Lee’s land, Stonehouse parish, Lanarkshire.
According to James Miller [No.1.], ‘he heard that Alexander Hamiltoun in Langrig in Lee’s land, a fugitive, wes there’. Hamilton was a tenant of Cromwell Lockhart, Laird of Lee. He was not captured.

Map of Lower Lanrigg                Street View of Lower Lanrigg

Like others in Stonhouse parish, ‘Alexander Hamilton in Langrig’ and a ‘John Hamilton, there,’ were listed on the Fugitive Roll of 1684 under Carluke parish. (Jardine, ‘United Societies, II, 194.)

9. Helen Miller in Spittal, Stonehouse parish, Lanarkshire.
Probably captured by Lieutenant Murray. She was the sister of James Miller [No.1.]. According to her deposition before Somerville, ‘Helen Miller in the Spitle in Stenhouse paroch, sister to James Miller, the first deponent, refuises to depone.’ She was held prisoner in the Canongate Tolbooth. She supplicated and was released. (RPCS, XI, 495-6.)

The farms at Crofthead (left) and Kittymuir (right) © G Laird and licensed for reuse.

10. Margaret Grainger, widow in Kittymuir, Stonehouse parish, Lanarkshire.
Captured by Lieutenant James Murray. A neighbour of John Hamilton in Crofthead. ‘Margaret Grainger, widdow in Kittiemuir under [Cromwell Lockhart] the Laird of Lee, being solemnlie sworne and interogat, refuises to depone.’ (RPCS, XI, 494.)

Map of Kittymuir            Street View of Kittymuir

She was held prisoner in the Canongate Tolbooth, Edinburgh. After supplicating, she was released. (RPCS, XI, 495-6.)

Thinacres © Elliott Simpson and licensed for reuse.

11. Andrew Alexander, tailor in Thinacres, Hamilton parish, Lanarkshire.
Possibly captured by Lieutenant James Murray.

Map of Thinacres           Street View of Thinacres

‘Andrew Alexander, taylior in the paroch of Hamiltoun, in Finaikers under the Duke [of Hamilton], being interogat, confesses the he wes at the conventicle and the kirk was full of men and women and that he knew non that was there except Alexander Mure who lives in the same toune with the declarant; confesses there wes some that hade armes but cannot condescend one there number and that he heard that it was Mr Reny [i.e., James Renwick] that preached. Being interogat if it be lawfull to take armes againest the King in defence of the Covennant, refuises to answer or to depone and cannot write.’ (RPCS, XI, 494.)

His fate is not known. Alexander named one other.

11. Alexander Muir in Thinacres, Hamilton parish, Lanarkshire.
Named by Andrew Alexander [No.10] as present. He was not captured.

12. Alexander Cairns in the Laird of Lee’s land, Stonehouse parish, Lanarkshire.
Possibly captured by Lieutenant James Murray. Cairns claimed that he was not present at the preaching. It is not clear where Cairns lived, but it was possibly near Spittal in Stonehouse parish. He also identified an individual in Canderwater.

Map of Spittal/Canderwater

‘Alexander Cairnes in the paroch of Stenhouse in the Laird of Lee’s land, being solemnlie sworne and interogat, depones that he himselfe wes not at the conventicle but that his wife [Janet Hamilton] told him that she was there and hade his child with her to be baptized, and that his child was tuenty weeks old or thereby and is called Agnes; depones that his wife told him that Margaret Miller [No.2.] wes there and had a bairn baptized; as also Thomas Hog [in Brackenhill] in the Laird of Lee’s land in Lesmahagow and one William Miller in Candor Watter in the said paroch [of Lesmahagow]; and this is all he knowes of the matter as he shall answer to God. [Singed] Alexander Kairnes.’ (RPCS, XI, 495.)

He was held prisoner in the Canongate Tolbooth, Edinburgh. He supplicated and was released. (RPCS, XI, 495-6.)

Cairns identified Margaret Miller [No.2] as having bairn baptised and his wife, Janet Hamilton [No.15.], as having their infant daughter, Agnes Cairns [No.16.], baptized.

13. Thomas Hogg in Brackenhill in the Laird of Lee’s land, Lesmahagow parish, Lanarkshire.
Hogg was identified by Alexander Cairns [No.12.] as present at Renwick’s preaching. Brackenhill, has now vanished, but it lay in the woods to the west of the industrial estate on the southern tip of Lesmahagow, i.e., at the end of Goldcrest Crescent on Google maps.

Map of Brackenhill             Aerial View of Brackenhill

William Steel, son of the farmer in Rogerhill, who was banished to Barbados in 1687, was captured after he had met David Steel in Cumberhead, Mary Weir, Steel’s wife, and Margaret Curro in Hogg’s house at Brackenhill in early, 1686.

Canderwater © Leslie Barrie and licensed for reuse.

14. William Miller in Canderwater in Lesmahagow parish, Lanarkshire.
Identified by Alexander Cairns [No.12.] and his wife [No.15.] as present at Renwick’s preaching. In the latter interrogation, he was identified as ‘William Miler’ in Dalserf parish. He was not captured.

‘Candor Watter’, now Canderwater, lies on the boundary between the parishes of Lesmahagow and Dalserf.

Map of Canderwater           Street View of Canderwater

15. Janet Hamilton, wife of Alexander Cairns in the Laird of Lee’s land, Stonehouse parish, Lanarkshire.
Possibly captured by Lieutenant James Murray.

‘Janett Hamiltoun, spous to the said Alexander Cairnes, being sworne and interogat, confesses she wes present at the conventicle and hade her child [Agnes (No.16.)] baptized there and that she told her husband of her goeing there but he wes not for her goeing to it, and that it wes Margerat Miller [No.2.], spouse to James Miler in Spitle, wes the persone that acquanted her of the said conventicle and that the said Margerat wes there and hade a bairn baptized, and confesses that her own bairn wes about halfe ane year old; confesses she saw Alexander Hamilton in the paroch of Stenhouse and David Steill in Cummerhead, Thomas Hoge in the paroch of Lesmahagow in Brakinhill, William Miller in Dalserph parich, Robert Hamilton in Coatcastle in Stenhouse paroch and Katherne Hamiltoun, spous to John Mitchell in Crommoth, who hade a child baptized, and Margaret Grainger in Kittiemure, all at the said meeting. The deponent is very ingenuous and penetent and promeises all punctuall obedience hereafter; and hes a young infant at home and nobody to caire for it. Cannot writ. [Signed] Livingstoune; W. Drumond.’ (RPCS, XI, 495.)

She was held prisoner in the Canongate Tolbooth, Edinburgh. She supplicated and was released. (RPCS, XI, 495-6.)

Hamilton took her daughter to be baptised at Renwick’s preaching.

16. Agnes Cairns, infant.
A possibly unique record of the name of an infant baptised by Renwick. She remained at home while her parents were in imprisoned in Edinburgh.

Janet Hamilton also identified a key Societies’ activist as present at Renwick’s preaching.

Cumberhead © Becky Williamson and licensed for reuse.

17. David Steel in Cumberhead, Lesmahagow parish, Lanarkshire.
Janet Hamilton [No.15.] claimed that ‘David Steill in Cummerhead’, aka. David Steel of Skellyhill, also attended Renwick’s preaching.

Steel originally farmed Cumberhead. He was shot at the nearby farm of Skellyhill in late 1686.

Map of Cumberhead

The presence of David Steel in Cumberhead at Renwick’s preaching appears to confirm that he remained in the Society people after he received a letter from Robert Langlands in late 1685. Renwick held a meeting at Cumberhead soon after his Stonehouse preaching.

Cornet Innes
Cornet James Innes of His Majesty’s Regiment of Dragoons was also involved in rounding those who had attended Renwick’s preaching.

On 24 January, Cornet Innes wrote to General William Drummond:
‘May it please your Excellence, Immediatly at sight of yours, I sent out a party to apprehend these people yow sent me the list of, but Lieutenent [James] Murray hade seased them befor. Robert Hamiltone in Coatcastle and his wife are fledd; John Mitchell in Crommoch his wife also baptised a child but they are both fledd; Eupham Mitchell, spouse to John Hamiltone in the Crommoch, whom I have sent prisoner to Lanerk, also baptised a child; her husband is also fledd, for I sent two partyes this last night to their houses but could get notice of none of them. I have got intelligence of some Lesmahagoe people who were also at the conventicle and am going to search for them, which is all the account can be given at present by, Sir, your Excellencies most humble servant, [Signed] [Cornet] James Innes.’ (RPCS, XI, 508.)

James Innes was commissioned in His Majesty’s Regiment of Dragoons in 1681. In 1686, Innes was the cornet in a troop commanded by Captain William Livingston of Kilsyth and Lieutenant James Dundas. (Dalton, Scots Army, 122, 144.)

Captain Livingston was perhaps William Livingston (1650–1733). He later married the widow of John Graham of Claverhouse. From 1706 he was Viscount Kilsyth. An opponent of Union, he was forfeited for his part in the 1715 Jacobite Rising.

18. John Hamilton in Crumhaugh, Stonehouse parish, Lanarkshire.
Said to have fled his house before it was raided by Cornet Innes. His wife, Eupham Mitchell [No. 19.] had a child baptised at Renwick’s preaching.

19. Eupham Mitchell, wife of John Hamilton in Crumhaugh, Stonehouse parish, Lanarkshire.
Mitchell had her child baptized by Renwick. She was captured by Cornet James Innes.

Mitchell and her husband, John Hamilton, were neighbours of John Mitchell and Katherine Hamilton in Crumhaugh [No 6 & 7.] and live nearby Robert Hamilton and his wife in Cot Castle [Nos 4 & 5.].

‘Eupham Mitchaell, spous to John Hamiltoun in Cromouth in Stenhouse paroch, being sworne and interogat, confesses she wes led away to conventicle, and hade a child with her to be baptized, by Robert Hamiltouns wife [No.5.] in Coatcastle, whose husband she beleives wes there, and knew non more that were there but Janett Hamiltoun [No.15.], her fellow prisoner, and heard that one Richard Meikle [No.3.], a fugitive, wes there; depones she saw no armed men there but one with a muskett in his hand standing at the door; depones she knowes no more of the matter and is soryfull for her fault; and this is the truth as she shall answer to God, and cannot write. [Signed] Livingstoune.’ (RPCS, XI, 495.)

She was held prisoner in the Canongate Tolbooth. She supplicated and was released. (RPCS, XI, 495-6.)

18. John Gilchrist, Carluke parish, Lanarkshire.
It is not clear if Gilchrist attended Renwick’s preaching at Stonehouse Kirk. Like Eupham Mitchell, he, too, was before General William Drummond and Lord Livingston on 29 January, 1686: ‘John Gilchrist in the paroch of Carluck, a fugitive remanded to prisone’. (RPCS, XI, 495.)

The Fugitive Roll of 1684 does not contain a fugitive called John Gilchrist in Carluke parish. However, a John Gilkerson, smith in Over-Kirkton’ in Carluke parish was listed on the Roll. (Jardine, ‘United Societies, II, 194.)

John Gilchrist was probably captured after David Houston’s preaching at the Polbaith Burn in January, 1687.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed a school named after him. Now, a memorial to Nisbet is, once again, under threat…

Nisbet’s execution was not recorded in contemporary records. A John Nisbet in Highside did exist, but neither the official records of government, nor keepers of journals, like John Erskine of Carnock and Lord Fountainhall, record his execution. That may be due to the circumstances of his execution by a justiciary court in Glasgow. The sources for those courts are fragmentary and both Carnock and Fountainhall were not present in Glasgow at the alleged time of Nisbet’s death.

However, his execution was recorded by Presbyterian sources. The earliest record is probably a document called ‘Hints of Sufferings’ which may have been composed in 1687 or 1688 at the request of the Societies’ convention. The first securely-dated records of it appear in the early eighteenth century when Wodrow and Cloud of Witnesses collected his martyrs’ testimony, and with the erection of a memorial stone on his grave.

Who was James Nisbet?
Early editions of Cloud of Witnesses and Wodrow identified him as from Loudoun parish, Ayrshire, but did not connect him with any specific location in the parish. However, in later editions of Cloud he was said to be from Highside, a small farm in Loudoun parish. (Thomson (ed.), CW, 364; Wodrow, History, IV, 65.)

A ‘James Nisbet in Highside’, Loudoun parish, was listed on published Fugitive Roll of 5 May, 1684. (Jardine, ‘United Societies, II, 208.)

If the James Nisbet of Loudoun parish was Nisbet in Highside, his name was not removed from the Fugitive Roll after his capture. Highside lies at the edge of the Calder Moss in Loudoun parish, Ayrshire.

Map of Highside         Aerial View of Highside

Street View of Entrance to Highside

The identification of Nisbet with Highside is logical, but not certain.

Little is known about Nisbet before his capture. According to his martyrs’ testimony, he had heard Richard Cameron and Donald Cargill preach between 1680 and 1681, and was involved in the prayer meetings of the Society people until his capture. His testimony does not mention the preaching of James Renwick, but Nisbet was captured soon after Renwick began preaching.

The Capture of James Nisbet
He was captured immediately after the execution of five Society people – James Johnston, John Main, Archibald Stewart, John Richmond and James Winning – on Wednesday 19 March, 1684.

According to a member of the Societies in Glasgow:
‘Ja: Nisbet[,] was taken at the 5 Martyrs burials, who suffered afterward here’. (‘Hints of Sufferings’, EUL MSS. La.III.344. Vol 2. No. 125.)

According to Wodrow, he was related to one of the five men, probably Richmond as he was from the neighbouring parish of Galston, and knew some of the others. (Wodrow, History, IV, 64.)

‘He was acquaint with most part, and had been intimate with some of them, and came into Glasgow to pay his last respects to them at their burial’. (Wodrow, History, IV, 65.)

Richmond had been captured by Major John Balfour in Glasgow in November, 1683. James Winning, a tailor in Glasgow, was captured in February, 1684. James Johnston and John Main both lived in parishes just outside of Glasgow. Archibald Stewart was captured near Lanark. According to tradition, when Stewart was captured, his companion, John Steel of Overwaterhead in Lesmahagow parish, escaped. Steel was one of the founders of the United Societies in late 1681.

Nisbet almost certainly witnessed the execution of the five men beside the tolbooth at Glasgow Cross.

Street View of Glasgow Cross

He was seized at the ‘burials’ of the five men, which would have taken place immediately after the execution.

The execution and burial of the Society people in burghs were often emotive and contested affairs. In several cases, the authorities were challenged by members of the crowd, particularly at the moments of highest tension, either immediately before execution, or when the bodies were cut down and taken for burial.

Prior to Nisbet’s capture, Gavin Black in Craigneuk, New Monkland parish, Lanarkshire, was seized at the execution.

‘At their execution, Gavin Black in Monkland was seized by the soldiers, upon mere suspicion, and some tokens of sorrow appearing in him, and put in prison; and when upon examination, he did not satisfy their queries, he was in a few weeks with many others banished to Carolina.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 64.)

Black was banished to Carolina soon after Nisbet’s execution.

Nisbet appears to have been recognised and taken in custody at some point during the process of burial. Where the five men were buried is not known, but it may have been at the Howgate execution ground, which lay outside of the burgh, as criminals were not buried in the town’s graveyard. It appears that the bodies of the five men were later exhumed and re-buried outside of Glasgow Cathedral. It is unlikely that they were initially buried there, as the Cathedral was the centre of episcopal worship in Glasgow.

According to Wodrow:

‘And at their burial, James Nisbet, a relation of one of them who were executed, was taken by one of the soldiers of his name. We shall just now meet with him in June, dying a public death. The persecutors and soldiers were very narrow in their observations at such public executions, and, as if they resolved to counter the known truth, sanguis martyrum semen ecclesia [i.e., ‘the blood of the martyrs in the seed of the church’], when people appeared affected at them, or the burials of such as were allowed public burial, they picked them up to fill the next stage with blood.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 64.)

Wodrow also mentions that ‘being known [at the burial], he was apprehended by lieutenant Nisbet a cousin german [i.e., by blood] of his own’. (Wodrow, History, IV, 65.)

Nisbet’s cousin was probably Lieutenant Robert Nisbet of the Grenadier company of Mar’s Regiment of Foot. Commissioned in June, 1682, he was the son and heir of Nisbet of Cartin. Lieutenant Nisbet was also said to be a relative of John Nisbet of Hardhill, who he captured with three others in November, 1685. In 1689, he married a daughter of the laird of Hillhouse from Dundonald parish, Ayrshire. Nisbet was promoted to the rank of captain after the Revolution. (Dalton, Scots Army, 115, 117n, 154.)

After he was captured, Nisbet ‘was straight carried to the guard, where he was soon entangled with their captious questions, the catechism of this period, and sent to prison.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 65-6.)

The remains of Glasgow Tolbooth

The Trial of James Nisbet
Nisbet was probably held in Glasgow Tolbooth until his execution.

From his testimony, it is clear that Nisbet was repeatedly offered banishment to Carolina: ‘Now I know there are many will brand me with self-murder, because I have got so many an offer to go to Carolina upon such easy terms’

Nisbet rejected the offers, which probably proffered banishment in return for recognition of royal authority.

According to Wodrow, ‘I have seen nothing of his trial, and I take it to have been before the commissioners for justiciary there.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 65.)

The record of his trial before the circuit court do not survive. However, he was probably tried before the commissioners in June, as Wodrow claims, possibly on around Tuesday 3 June if the date for his execution inscribed on his gravestone is correct.

According to Nisbet he was condemned for denying that Bothwell was rebellion, adhering to the Covenants and for his treasonable disowning the authority of the King, judges and governors. Many of the others who were held in Glasgow Tolbooth at that time were banished to Carolina for similar views.

Wodrow appears to have based his account of the trial on Nisbet’s testimony:

‘His sentence ran upon the common crimes, now made mortal sins, which I need scarce resume. He owned Drumclog and Bothwell lawful, in as far as they were acts of selfdefence, and appearances for the gospel. He refused to renounce the covenants, and to own the king’s authority, as he expressed, in so far as he had made the work of reformation and covenants, treason. After he was condemned, he was offered his life, if he would acknowledge the king’s headship and supremacy over the church, which they well knew he would never do.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 66.)

According to Wodrow, Nisbet was condemned only for his ‘sentiment and opinion’:

‘It will be a lasting blot upon this time, that so many good men, against whom they had nothing but matter of sentiment and opinion, and who had never been in any rising against the government, were thus from time to time cut off.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 66.)

However, Nisbet’s testimony hints at two other factors which may have tipped the balance of the judges’ sentence away from banishment and towards execution.

First, ‘in plain terms and direct words’ Nisbet denied ‘them to have any power to rule either in civil or ecclesiastic matters’. Nisbet’s strident public denial of authority may have swayed the judges.

Second, Nisbet eluded to a further charge which he did not deny: ‘Also these avowed enemies, who are thirsting for my blood [i.e., the judges], charged me with going up and down the country plundering and murdering, and so by their law made liable to punishment, even to the loss of my life; but I declare, who am within a little to appear before the righteous Judge, that I never intended to wrong any man.’

What form the ‘plundering and murdering’ took is not known, but it appears that his actions went beyond the mere ‘sentiment and opinion’ mentioned by Wodrow. Nisbet was condemned to be executed.

The Testimony of James Nisbet
Nisbet’s testimony appears to have been composed after he was condemned. It appears to have been intended to be readout on the scaffold. According to Cloud of Witnesses, Nisbet’s testimony was assembled from fragments. (Thomson (ed.), CW, 373.)

According to Wodrow:
‘He was hardly enough used, and so closely watched, as he could scarce get any thing writ to his friends in prison; yet he got a testimony writ, in which he complains he got only liberty to write incoherently.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 66.)

It is not known if Nisbet delivered a speech before execution.

Wodrow owned a copy of Nisbet’s testimony. (James Nisbet, Copy of dying testimony of 1684, NLS MSS. Wod.Oct.XXVIII, f.85.)

The version given below is that found in Cloud of Witnesses.

Nisbet’s testimony (in PDF format) can be found here:

Testimony of James Nisbet June 1684

In it he rejected the supremacy of the King in matters civil and ecclesiastic, taking bonds and paying the Cess and Locality. He also gave testimony in favour of the preaching of Cameron and Cargill, appearing in defence of the Gospel, and the Societies’ declarations and actions at Rutherglen, Lanark, Torwood, and the Queensferry Paper. Nisbet was a member of the United Societies.

His testimony is as follows:

‘Now I am brought hither this day, to lay down my life for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and for asserting Him to be Head and King in His own house, and for no matter of fact that they have against me. Wherefore, dear friends and all true lovers of Zion’s cause, if I could either speak or write anything to the praise and commendation of my lovely Lord and princely Master, Jesus Christ, King and Head over His own Church and people, although the most part of the men of this generation is counting it death to call Him so, yet I, as a dying man, live and die in the faith of it, that He shall appear to their confusion, and for His own glory now trampled upon, and lying so low; for He has said, ‘I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory will I not give to another’ (Isa. xlii. 8).

Now I am to lay down my life, and indeed I do it willingly, and not by constraint; and I bless Him that ever He carved out my lot such as to be a sufferer for Him, who am such a poor, unworthy thing. For if I would have acknowledged a mortal man to be supreme, I might have redeemed my life, viz., C[harles] Sftuart] to be supreme over all causes civil and ecclesiastic, as they have now set him up, which belongs to no mortal man upon earth, and to have prayed for him. And shall I pray for that man, in his person and government, who hath broken down the work of the Lord, and has laid waste the sanctuary of our Lord, who was given of the Father, as it is said, ‘And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church’ (Eph. i. 22); and in the second Psalm? Now I say, it is for the hope of Israel, and a witness for the name of Jesus Christ, of which hope I am not ashamed. Now I invite all who love His name, and the welfare of Zion, to praise Him, for I may set to my seal to it, that He is a good master to all who will come to Him; for I may say, He has been good to me, who has letten me see a sight of my sins and a sight of the remedy that He has purchased by His blood, and through His death, to me, who was born an heir of hell and wrath by nature; but glory be to His great name, who has made me free from my sin, and made me as if I had never sinned; O glory and praise be to Himself. But what shall I say? for heart cannot conceive, hand cannot write, tongue cannot express! for surely if I could say anything to the praise and commendation of my lovely Lord Jesus Christ, I have many things for which to do it.

1. For that, that He has not letten me deny His truths and cause, and His persecuted work; for there is nothing in me, as I am of myself, but I might have been amongst these that have displayed a banner against God, and have made the blood of His people to run in the streets, and have dyed their garments with their blood.

2. That He has carved out my lot to be in a land where He has set up His pure ordinances, both in doctrine, worship, discipline and government; for indeed he might have trysted [i.e., appointed] it to be amongst these that are worshipping antichrist, that whore of Rome, whose sentence may be read, Rev. xix. 2. [‘For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.’] And if C[harles] S[tuartJ has not overturned His work, and corrupted the whole land, by overturning the whole fundamental laws, both civil and ecclesiastic, I leave it to any judicious person, that is not biassed and drawn away by that woeful Erastian Supremacy, which is like to overspread the whole land.

3. That He hath given His word for a rule to walk by, which word is truth, and the true Word of God. He has made me to walk by it, and it to be my rule; and by His Word and Spirit bearing witness with my Spirit, making me spotless and clean; and I shall be clothed with these robes of His righteousness, which are spotless and clean.

Now I shall only give a short account of my principles, as the Lord shall assist; and the Lord help me to get it done in truth and sincerity; for there are many eyes looking on me; the eyes of an allseeing God, who is of purer eyes than that He can behold iniquity, and the eyes of men who are thirsting for my blood.

1. I adhere and sweetly set to my testimony to the covenant of redemption, betwixt the Father and the Son, made before the foundation of the world, for the redemption of poor lost mankind. I mean of these who are elected, called, justified, and sanctified ; for which my soul shall bless the Lord that ever I heard tell of the same, and that ever I heard tell that He came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

2. To the sacred Scriptures; that they are the true Word of God, and that there is life everlasting to be had in them, if ye will apply your hearts to search diligently, and pursue after them with a sincere and diligent seeking, with all the soul and heart; and without sincere endeavouring to make it your rule, there is no life; for, says our blessed Lord, ‘I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it.’

3. To the work of Reformation; as it was reformed in all the several steps thereof from under Popery, Prelacy, and Erastianism, and all other errors whatsomever, not agreeable to the Scriptures, the written Word of God.

4. To the Confession of Faith, the Sum of Saving Knowledge, Directory for Worship and Discipline, and to our Catechisms Larger and Shorter.

5. To the Covenants, National and Solemn League, whereby these lands were engaged unto the Lord ; and Scotland may bless the Lord that ever He engaged them in a covenant with Himself. I say to you that desire to own the same, make it your ground to plead with the Lord, till He come back again to these lands.

6. To the preaching of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it was faithfully preached by faithful ministers, called and commissionated, and sent by Himself; and also my testimony to the Acknowledgment of Sins and Engagement to Duties, and the Causes of the Lord’s Wrath against this land this day. But alas! it may be said, Many have gone backward, and not forward; the most part of this generation have refused to walk any more with Him, ever since Bothwell [in June, 1679], only these two, viz., Mr D[onald] C[argill]and Mr R[ichard] C[ameron], which I desire to set to my seal to the faithfulness of these two men’s doctrines, for my soul has been refreshed by them. And I set to my seal to all their proceedings and actings in the work they were called to, and my soul blesseth the Lord that ever I heard them preach.

7. To all the appearing in arms, in defence of the Gospel, and self-defence, both before Bothwell and since [i.e., the Society people].

8. To the Excommunication at the Torwood, by Mr D[onald] C[argill], as it is just and lawful, and will stand in force and record, ay, till repentance make it null, of which there is little appearance.

9. To the testimony given at Rutherglen, May 29, 1679; the declaration given at Lanark, January 12, 1682, by a party whom the Lord raised and stirred up by His Spirit, and owned them in that work, to give a public testimony against that soul destroying and lan’1 ruining thing called the Test, although many in this generation be pleading for the lawfulness of it, and disowning the Covenant, which we were all bound to. Oh! my heart trembles to think what will come on this generation, for their dreadful apostacy and departing from the way of the Lord.

10. To all the fellowship meetings of the Lord’s people [.i.e., of the the Society people], for reading, praying, and singing of Psalms, and all the other duties proper for, and incumbent upon them. I mean these that desire to wrestle and hold up the case of His ruined work, and his poor suffering remnant.

11. To the eight articles, called the New Covenant, taken at the Queensferry off worthy H[enry] H[all].

Now as I have left my testimony in short to the truths of God, so I desire to leave my testimony against the defections of the time, as the Lord shall help and assist. Therefore,

1. I, as a dying witness, leave my testimony against Popery and Prelacy, which is so much countenanced and set up in Scotland this day, especially by those who seemed to be most eminent, as it is in Gal. i. 6, ‘I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another Gospel.’

2. Against Quakerism, Independency, and all other errors which are not according to the Word of God, and our solemn Covenants and Confession of Faith.

3. Against the tyrant upon the throne of Britain and Ireland, for his tyranny, oppression, and bloodshed, and for overturning the laws, both civil and ecclesiastic, and not making the law his rule to be ruled by, but he ruling the law, and not the law him ; which is not according to the Word of God, as it is in 2 Sam. xxiii. 3, ‘He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.’ Even against that tyrant, and all upholders, aiders, assisters, and maintainers of him. Oh! what will become of this generation for their apostacy and departing away from God?

4. Against the Oath of Supremacy, for the setting up of persons as supreme, and following and making them their rule, and not taking the Word of God to be their rule.

5. Against that Bond taken in the Greyfriars kirkyard [after the defeat at Bothwell], although there be many that denied it, until the Lord in His own due time made it appear, when the trial came to agreater length; for He has said in His Word, that there is nothing done in secret, but He will have it manifested in the light.

6. Against that Bond called the Bond of Regulation, for their binding to walk according to the will of men, and not according to the will of God. Surely it is not according to the practice of the apostles : ‘But Peter and John answered, and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye’ (Acts iv. 19).

7. Against the Bond pressed by the Highland host in the west country [in 1678]. Oh! what may be said of this generation? It may be said, Ye have gone away backward from my ordinances, and ye have forsaken me the living God, and have hewed you out broken cisterns that can hold no water.

8. Against that land-ruining and soul-destroying thing called the Test [oath].

9. Against all coming out of prison upon Bond and Caution; whatever men may say of it, it is a complying with the avowed enemies, and a binding themselves to be the prisoners of men, and not the prisoners of Jesus Christ.

10. Against all compearing at courts and paying of fines; for it implies that we have done a fault against them; and also, it approves of these as just judges, that are imposing these things; but ye may see what they are, for there is no sober man will get leave to plead an action there. And can these be called judges, and owned as judges, who are grassators [i.e., robbers] and land judgments?

11. Against all Cess and Locality, which is imposed for the down bearing of the Gospel, and for maintaining bloody and avowed enemies to banish Christ and His Gospel out of the land, and to hunt, plunder, rob, spoil, and persecute the poor people of God; for in the very narrative of the Act, it is set down for that end, and declared to the world; see what is said against it: ‘But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink-offering unto that number. Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not’ (Isa. Ixv. 11–12).

12. Against hearing of curates, because they are wolves and boars, thrust in upon the Lord’s people to kill and destroy; and against the Indulgence first and last; and against the hearing of them, and joining with them, or pleading for them; because they are not entered in by the right door, and teach for doctrine the commandments of men. Therefore they are in so far not the ministers of Jesus Christ, but the ministers of men, as it is said: ‘Verily I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber’ (John x. 1). And against all ministers and professors, who are now lying at ease, when Zion is in trouble, and are shifting their duty for fear of hazard, and are sheltering themselves under the shadow of these avowed enemies, pleading in their favours, and have broken the poor people of God, and rent the bowels of the Church ; and especially those who appeared once in the fields, to hold up a banner for our lovely Lord and Master Jesus Christ. I shall be a witness against them, if repentance prevent it not.

Now, ye that are the poor wrestling remnant, weary not of the cross of Christ, for He is a good Master, and He sends none a warfare on their own charges, for He will own them in all that he carves out for them. Oh! double your diligence, and give Him no rest till He come back again. As in Isa. Ixii. 7, ‘And give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.’ Oh! what will come of poor Scotland, for the horrid iniquities and abominations, perjury and bloodshed, and Covenant-breaking? Oh! Scotland’s punishment will be sad; but my eyes shall be closed, and I shall not see it, and I am well content, seeing I get my soul for a prey. Now I am afraid God will not know many of this generation, that have gone such a dreadful length in defection and backsliding. But oh, what shall I say! I shall leave it to Himself to do as He may most glorify Himself, in preserving a seed and remnant to serve Him. Now I die in the faith of it, that He has a seed whom He will have preserved when He sends forth instruments with slaughter weapons; that He has a party that He will set a mark on, as it is said in Ezek. ix. 4: ‘And the Lord said unto him, go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.’

Now I say, weary not of the cross of Christ, although ye should suffer persecution, for He has said, ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me ye shall have peace.’ [Paraphrase of John 16.33.] And oh! but He taketh exact notice what is done to His people: ‘Thou shouldst not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldst not have looked upon their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity’ (Obad. 13). Oh! but that be a sweet word: ‘It is a faithful saying, for, if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us’ (2 Tim. ii. 11–12). Oh, sirs! lose not heaven for Mammon, and your own souls for what ye can suffer here. It is true none can merit heaven by their sufferings, but it is as true that He has said, ‘He that will not forsake all and take up his cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple.’ Now I know there are many will brand me with self-murder, because I have got so many an offer to go to Carolina upon such easy terms. But as to that I answer, Self-preservation must stoop to truth’s preservation. There are indeed many of this generation who pretend to keep their present ease and to be followers of Christ; but I defy any, if they be called to a public testimony, but they shall either lose their present possession, or else that which is of more worth, even their immortal souls and everlasting salvation.

Now as to the heads of my indictment whereon they have sentenced me to die, they are mainly these:

1. My approving of Drumclog and Bothwell, and being at Glasgow to be lawful and in the defence of the Gospel, and in self-defence, which both the law of God and nature allow.

2. For adhering to the National and Solemn League and Covenant; and they declare before my face that both their king and Council had disowned the Covenant, and had taken that way by their Acts of Parliament, and said that they were both unjust and unlawful; and shall such be owned and adhered to, who have declared themselves against King Christ, and have broken His laws, and have seated themselves in the room of Jesus Christ, which belongs to no mortal man upon earth, and much less to him who is a usurper and a tyrant, I mean Charles Stuart? And here I, as a dying witness, leave my testimony against that monstrous beast; for our Saviour calls Herod a fox, and says, ‘Go tell that fox, I work to-day, and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’ [Luke. 13.32.]

3. And mainly my sentence was, that I disowned their authority. For since they had rejected the Covenant, I was the more clear to disown them to be my judges or governors over the land; and they asserted it treasonable, because I said none of the people of God would say otherwise. And in plain terms and direct words, I deny them to have any power to rule either in civil or ecclesiastic matters. Also these avowed enemies, who are thirsting for my blood, charged me with going up and down the country plundering and murdering, and so by their law made liable to punishment, even to the loss of my life; but I declare, who am within a little to appear before the righteous Judge, that I never intended to wrong any man. And so it is evident they take away my life upon the account of adhering to truth; and I bless the Lord that ever He gave me a life to lay down for Him, and that ever He counted me worthy to lay down my life for His persecuted truth. O matchless free grace; that is making choice of the like of me, and poor weak things to confound the strong, and the poor foolish things to confound the wise!

Now there are three sorts of folk that I would speak a word to:

The first are these that have begun in the way of the Lord, and seemingly have gone a good length, and when the storm of persecution arose, for fear of the rough sea of trouble, have drawn back. Oh, mind that word in Heb. x. 38, ‘But if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him;’ and Rom. viii. 35, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ and many more places of Scripture.

A second sort are these who are going on in rebellion against God openly and avowedly, as ye may see in Psalm ii. 1, 4, 5, ‘Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.’ O poor Scotland, that once married away to the Lord, and now has provoked Him to depart and leave it, and give a bill of divorcement, as it were! Oh, Scotland has sinned dreadfully, what by Covenant-breaking, bloodshed, lying, and swearing.

Now a third sort are these who desire to keep their garments clean, and undefiled with the abounding sins of this generation. Go on in the way of the Lord, and fear not what man can do, for He has said, ‘Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: fear Him, which, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell.’ [Luke 12. 4–5.] I can set to my seal to it, that Christ is a good master, and well worthy the suffering for.

And now I can freely and heartily forgive all men what they have done to me, as I desire to be forgiven of my Father which is in heaven; but what they have done against a holy God and His image in me, that is not mine to forgive them, but I leave that to Him to dispose on as He sees fit, and as He may most glorify Himself.

Now I am to take my leave of all created comforts here. And I bid farewell to the sweet Scriptures. Farewell reading and praying. Farewell sinning and suffering. Farewell sighing and sorrowing, mourning and weeping. And farewell all Christian friends and relations. Farewell brethren and sisters, and all things in time. And welcome Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Welcome heaven and everlasting joy and praise, and innumerable company of angels and spirits of just men made perfect. Now into Thy hands I commit my spirit, for it is Thine.

Sic subscribitur,

James Nisbet.’

Townhead Interchange © Thomas Nugent and licensed for reuse.

The Execution of James Nisbet
‘James Nisbet, in the parish of Loudon, was hanged at the Howgate-head near Glasgow, in June.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 65.)

According to his gravestone and Cloud, he was executed on Thursday 5 June at Howgatehead, which may have been where the five Society people executed on 19 March were buried and Nisbet was captured.

The site is now covered by the Townhead Interchange.

Like the executions at the Gallowlee in Edinburgh, Nisbet was executed just outside of town, perhaps to prevent trouble with the crowd.

‘He died in much peace, and full assurance. And they saw good to execute him a little out of the town, and not at the cross, which very little diminished the confluence.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 66.)

According to one of the Society people in Glasgow, ‘[Major] Balfour s[ai]d q[uhe]n he was on the scaffold, put him off and be damned’. (‘Hints of Sufferings’, EUL MSS. La.III.344. Vol 2. No. 125.)

The alleged words of Major John Balfour of Mar’s Regiment of Foot at executions in Glasgow were of particular interest to the anonymous author of ‘Hints of Sufferings’. For other examples of Balfour’s “gallows humour”, see the Polmadie martyrs and the execution of James Lawson and Alexander Wood.

Nisbet was probably put off the scaffold by Walter Brock, Glasgow’s executioner. A few week later on 17 July, the burgh council ‘Ordains the thesaurer to pay to Walter Brock sixtie eight pounds six shilling, quherof nyntein poundis was formerly given to the executioner for mentaining him in the tolbooth when he was last here.’ (Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, III, online here.)

Memorials to Nisbet
The memorials to Nisbet in Glasgow have frequently been replaced and moved. A later memorial to him, Lawson and Wood is now under threat.

He was buried close to the site of the gallows. A few months later, Lawson and Wood were buried by him.

Street View of Approximate Location of Nisbet’s Burial

Nearby is the Martyrs’ Public School designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The school is named after the three executed Society people.

Street View of Martyrs’ School

At some point in the eighteenth century, a monument was erected on Castle Street close to the grave of Nisbet, Lawson and Wood. The inscription was as follows:

‘The dead yet speaketh. Behind this stone lyes James Nisbet, who suffered martyrdom at this place, June 5th, 1684. Also James Lawson and Alexander Wood, who suffered martyrdom, October 24th, 1684, for their adherence to the Word of God, and Scotland’s Covenanted Work of the Reformation.

“Here ly martyrs three,
Of memory,
Who for the Covenants did die:
And witness is
‘Gainst all the nation’s perjury
‘Gainst the Covenanted cause
Of Christ, their royal king.
The British rulers made such laws,
Declar’d ’twas satan’s reign.
As Britain lies in guilt, you see,
‘Tis ask’d, oh reader, art thou free.’

Today, a memorial stone lies outside of Townhead Martyrs’ Church. The church is going to be demolished.

Street View of Martyrs’ Monument

Nisbet is also listed at the bottom of a monument erected in 1829 at Loudoun parish church in Newmilns, Ayrshire.

Nisbet mentioned on memorial at Newmilns © Walter Baxter and licensed for reuse.

Curiously, it dates Nisbet’s death to Wednesday 11 June.

For related posts, see the execution of Lawson and Wood, the Carolina banishments and James Renwick’s preaching at Greenock.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

Filed under: 1684, Alexander Wood, Archibald Stewart (d.1684), Ayrshire, Covenanter Sites, Covenanters, Donald Cargill, Gavin Black, Glasgow, Glasgow Tolbooth, hangman, Highside, James Johnston (d.1684), James Lawson, James Nisbet of Highside, James Winning (d.1684), John Main (d.1684), John Richmond (d.1684), John Steel of Over Waterhead, Lanarkshire, Lieutenant Nisbet, Loudoun parish, Major John Balfour, Mar's Regiment of Foot, Richard Cameron, Scotland, Scottish History Tagged: Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Covenanters, Execution, Glasgow, History, Newmilns, Scotland, Scottish History ]]> http://drmarkjardine.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/the-execution-in-glasgow-of-james-nisbet-in-highside-put-him-off-and-be-damned/feed/ 2 drmarkjardine Mackintosh Martyrs Public School Glasgow Glasgow Tolbooth Townhead Interchange Covenanters Nisber Newmilns http://drmarkjardine.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/the-polmadie-martyrs-major-balfour-shoots-three-covenanters-near-glasgow/ http://drmarkjardine.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/the-polmadie-martyrs-major-balfour-shoots-three-covenanters-near-glasgow/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:16:56 +0000 drmarkjardine http://drmarkjardine.wordpress.com/?p=3676 ]]> On 11 May, 1685, Major Balfour and some horsemen entered the small weaving hamlet of Polmadie. Within an hour the dogs were licking up the blood of three slain men…

The first record of their summary executions was by Alexander Shields in 1690:

‘Major Balfour, together with Captain Maitland and their Party, Apprehended at their Work, Robert Tam, John Urie, and Tho: Cook, and instantly shot them, at Pomadee, near Glasgow, May, 1685.’ (Shields, A Short Memorial, 37.)

Cloud of Witnesses reproduced Shields’ text. (Thomson (ed.), CW, 547.)

The two military officers responsible for their deaths were Major John Balfour of Mar’s Regiment of Foot and Captain James Maitland of His Majesty’s Regiment of Foot Guards.

The hamlet of Polamdie was situated on the west side of the Polmadie Burn, just to the south of the road between Rutherglen and Little Govan which led to Glasgow. Today, the hamlet has been obliterated by Glasgow’s urban sprawl.

Street View of Former Location of Polmadie Village

The Grave of Cook, Thom and Urie
At some point in the early eighteenth century, a gravestone was erected on the site of their  burial in Old Cathcart churchyard. The church, which post dates 1831, is now a ruin.

Map of Old Cathcart Churchyard          Street View of Old Cathcart Churchyard

The gravestone is located in the west end of the churchyard and close to the entrance.
It is six and a half feet long and over three and a half feet wide. In Thomson’s day, it was set just a few inches above the ground. It is similar in form to Covenanter graves in Galloway that were erected between 1701 and 1713. An image of the grave came be found here.

The inscription on the grave is as follows:

‘THIS: IS: THE: STONE: TOMB: OF: ROB
ERT: THOM: THOMAS: COOK: AND:
JOHN: URIE: MARTYRS: FOR: OUNING:
THE: COVENANTED: UORK: OF: RE
FORMATION: THE 11TH: OF: MAY: 1685.

[Perpendicular to the above]

THE: BLOODY: MURDERERS: OF: THESE: MEN:
WERE: MAGOR: BALFOUR: AND: CAPTAIN: METLAND:
AND: UITH: THEM: OTHERS: UERE: NOT: FREE:
CAUSED: THEM: TO: SEARCH: IN: POLMADIE:
AS: SOON: AS: THEY: HAD: THEM: OUT: FOUND:
THEY: MURTHERED: THEM: UITH: SHOTS: OF: GUNS:
SCARCE: TIME: DID: THEY: TO: THEM: ALLOU:
BEFOR: THER: MAKER: THER: KNIES: TO: BOW:
MANY: LIKE: IN: THIS: LAND: HAVE: BEEN:
WHOS: BLOOD: FOR: WINGANCE: CRYES: TO: HEAVN:
THIS: CRUELL: WICKEDNESS: YOW: SEE:
WAS: DON: IN: LON: OF: POLMADIE:
THIS: MAY: A: STANDING: WITNESS: BE:
TUIXT: PRISBYTRIE: AND: PRELACIE: (Thomson, Martyr Graves, 70.)

Daniel Defoe’s Version
In 1717, Daniel Defoe recorded their deaths. Defoe is not a reliable guide to the events of the 1680s. However, he claimed that Captain Maitland was one of his sources:

‘Yet this compassionate Gentleman was forc’d (much against his Will, being under Command) to be present at a Village where three poor Men, Weavers by Trade, were dragg’d from their very Loom where they were at work, and, without Mercy, shot to death. Their Names are in the publick List mention’d before.’ (Defoe, Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, 247.)

Defoe was the first published source to mention that the executed men were weavers. Earlier sources, which were not published before Defoe wrote in 1717, indicate that two of the dead men were weavers. The third was possibly a landlabourer.

Wodrow’s Version
‘A third instance of the bloodshed of this day, I have before me, attested by two persons called to be witnesses to it, in terms of the council’s act [of 30 December, 1685], though I find it not used almost any where but in this case. It was committed at Polmadie, about a mile south of the city of Glasgow. I shall give the narrative in the words of the signed declaration. This violent and hasty murder, for any thing I know of, hath not been distinctly narrated hitherto, and yet it is as barefaced an instance of the barbarity of this period as many; and I hope it will be acceptable in the plain and natural narrative of the two country people yet alive, attesting it.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 250.)

Wodrow had obtained an account of the summary executions at Polmadie by March, 1711. (Wodrow, Correspondence, I, 212; ‘Account of the murder of Thomas Cook, John Thom and another by Captain Balfour and his company at Polmadie in 1685.’, NLS MSS. Wod.Fol. XXXIII. item 106.)

Wodrow also states that he had sent Cochran and Reid’s account to ‘Captain Maitland, who died much regretted a few years ago; and he acknowledged, the whole of the country men’s account was fact.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 251.)

Their account, as reproduced by Wodrow, is as follows:

‘We, under-subscribers, John Reid and Andrew Cochran, do declare, that we being then servants in Shawfield [, Rutherglen parish], were about our master’s business at Polmadiemill, [Monday] May 11th, 1685, saw major John Balfour, captain James Maitland, ‘——–’ Menzies, ‘——-’  Mackenzie, and some others upon horseback come to Polmadie;’  (Wodrow, History, IV, 250.)

The group which entered Polmadie appears to have been relatively small. Initially composed of four officers and some others on horseback, it was later joined by a detachment of twenty-one men, probably from Balfour’s regiment, Mar’s Foot.

Besides Balfour and Maitland, Cochran and Reid’s account named two other officers.

‘Menzies’ was almost certainly Lieutenant Duncan Menzies of Comrie who served in Mar’s Regiment of Foot. Menzies had been present at the Lesmahagow Incident in March, 1679, when Robert Hamilton’s conventicle had defied government forces. He was appointed Aide-Major of Mar’s Regiment, 19 October, 1681. At the Revolution he took the side of James VII and fought under John Graham of Claverhouse, aka. Viscount Dundee, in the Jacobite victory at Killiecrankie. Dalton believed that he was the ‘Major Menzies’ who was taken prisoner by the Williamite forces in the island of Cluny in October, 1690. (Dalton, Scots Army, 116n)

‘Mackenzie’ was either Captain Kenneth Mackenzie, or Captain Colin Mackenzie, both of Mar’s Regiment of Foot.

Kenneth Mackenzie of Suddie in the Black Isle was appointed captain of a new company which was added to the regiment on  7 April, 1681.

Aerial View of Suddie

He was mortally wounded in August, 1688, at the head of his company in the ‘last clan battle’, the battle of Mulroy, when he was assisting Mackintosh in collecting rents from Macdonald of Keppoch in Lochaber. He died at Inverness on 2 September, 1688. Mackenzie was either married to, or a son of, a sister of John Paterson, Archbishop of Glasgow 1687 to 1688. (Dalton, Scots Army, 116n)

Captain Colin Mackenzie was uncle to Kenneth Mackenzie, fourth earl of Seaforth. He was made a captain on 30 March, 1683, and resigned his command in favour of his son, Robert, on 7 Jan. 1688. He was attained by Act of Parliament 14 July, 1690, for his part in the first Jacobite Rising. (Dalton, Scots Army, 118n. See RPS, A1690/4/19. for details of Mackenzie’s role in the Rising.)

According to Cochran and Reid:
‘Major Balfour seeing us at the mill, asked us to whom we belonged. We answered, we were servants to Sir James Hamilton’s tenants in Shawfield. The major commanded us to stand still till he told us what to do.’  (Wodrow, History, IV, 250.)

‘We saw them apprehend three men, two whereof were weavers, whom they brought off their work-looms, Thomas Cook and John Urie, who had nothing upon them but their working clothes. Thomas Cook was first taken, and because he came not out to Balfour at the first cry, the major struck him on the face with the horse-whip, as the blood so gushed out that he could hardly speak. Then staving a cocked pistol in his face, keeping his thumb on the dog, cried, blood and wounds, he was a rebel.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 250.)

From the account, it appears that Balfour knew exactly who he was looking for. Presumably, he had received intelligence about the presence of at least Cook in Polmadie.

Cook was probably the ‘Thomas Cock, weaver in Longside’, i.e., in Langside, Cathcart parish, Renfrewshire, who appeared on the published Fugitive Roll of May, 1684. (Jardine, ‘United Societies, II, 202.)

The old village of Langside lay around Algie St in Langside.

Street View of Langside

John Urie’s name does not appear on the Fugitive Roll. However, a ‘Thomas Urie, in Little Govan’ does appear on the Roll. (Jardine, ‘United Societies, II, 197.)

A Robert Urie, also of Little Govan, was banished to Carolina in 1684.

It is possible that John Urie was related to the above. Although there is no record of why he was apprehended, it is possible that may have become a fugitive after evading the Abjuration oath in early 1685.

The village of Little Govan has been swallowed up Glasgow’s expansion, but it lay close by a bend in the river Clyde upstream from the seventeenth-century bridge between Glasgow and the Gorbals.

Map of Little Govan

In the seventeenth century, the small hamlet of Polmadie lay around 300 metres south-east of Little Govan.

‘Within a little there came up one and twenty footmen and a serjeant [probably from Mar’s Regiment of Foot], who ran through the houses, and apprehended Robert Tom a land-labourer, upon whom Balfour set a guard, saying he was a strong man, and called for match to bind him, but found none.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 250.)

A ‘Robert Thom, in Little Govan’, Lanarkshire, appears on the published Fugitive Roll of May, 1684. (Jardine, ‘United Societies, II, 197.)

A ‘—— Tom in Polmadie, Little Giveand [i.e., Little Govan] or Glasgow’ was captured after James Renwick’s preaching at Greenoock in mid 1684. (RPCS, IX, 131.)

The Robert Thom killed at Polmadie was probably, either the same individual as, or closely related to, the other Thom in Little Govan etc.

After The Capture
‘When all the three were taken, the officers consulted among themselves, and withdrawing to the west side of the town,…’

According to the inscription on their grave, they were taken to the loan of Polmadie.

‘[There, Balfour] questioned the prisoners, particularly if they would pray for king James VII? They answered, they would pray for all within the election of grace. Balfour said, Do you question the king’s election? They answered, sometimes they questioned their own. (Wodrow, History, IV, 250-1.)

The Summary Execution of Thomas Cook
‘Upon which he [i.e., Balfour] swore dreadfully, and said, they should die presently, because they would not pray for Christ’s vicegerent [i.e., James VII], and so without one word more, commanded Thomas Cook to go to his prayers, for he should die. Thomas desired the major he would let him live. The major asked how long. Thomas answered, two days. The major swore again, he should live no longer. The other [officer] said he could not help it then. And immediately Balfour drew out three musketeers, and placed them behind him, while he sat upon his knees praying. They took some cravats from some of the country men standing by, and covered their faces. Then the major ordered two of the musketeers to fire, and if Thomas stirred after that, the third was to fire, which was done, and he slain outright.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 251.)

Balfour appears to have chosen the fugitive, Cook, to be the first to be summarily executed. Although the account does not mention if the Abjuration oath was put to the prisoners, it is possible that the oath was proffered and refused. The purpose of the delay between Cook’s execution and those of Thom and Urie may have been to put pressure on them to publicly conform.

The Summary Execution of Thom and Urie
‘Then he commanded the other two [Thom and Urie] to bequeath themselves to God, for they were immediately to die, and straight did with them as with the first. All the three were murdered within an hour after they were apprehended. When dead, they drew off some of their clothes, saying they might do good to a soldier; but when they perceived their dogs licking the slain men’s blood, they cast them on the corps again, and ordered us to go our way and tell what we had seen.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 251.)

Reid and Cochran also stated that after the shootings:
‘We remember further, that Captain Maitland said to the rest of the men of Polmadie, why did you harbour those men so near a garrison [at Glasgow]? and holding up his hands said, ‘As the Lord liveth, I have no pleasure in the death of those men.’ The rest of the men in Polmadie were carried prisoners to Glasgow, and from thence near to Dunotter, ere some of them could win off.’ (Wodrow, History, IV, 251.)

Defoe also recorded that Maitland later claimed that he was a reluctant oppressor and critical of Balfour’s actions.

Major John Balfour was an effective and allegedly ruthless officer. On several occasions he is said to have threatened to shoot prisoners to gain information. That “enhanced interrogation technique” was used by John Graham of Claverhouse in the case of John Brounen. It was also allegedly used against John Bryce. Balfour was not unique in his use of it.

He had captured several Society people prior to the shootings at Polmadie.

In November, 1683, he captured John Richmond in Glasgow. (Wodrow, History, IV, 63.)

He allegedly threatened to shoot an individual captured after Renwick’s preaching at Tambowie Hill in July, 1684.

In September, 1684, he captured a weaver named Colin Alison in Glasgow. Alison’s son (Colin?) escaped from Balfour on the same day. (Wodrow, History, IV, 175.)

In October, 1684, Balfour was present at the execution of James Lawson and Alexander Wood in Glasgow.

He also allegedly threatened to shoot Thomas Jackson on Glasgow Green at the beginning of 1685.

On 6 March, 1685, he seized Robert Logan, George Muir, John Gilfillan and Sarah Kirkland. At about the same time, Balfour may have issued the orders which led to the capture of William Boyd and Mrs Gardiner, the widow of Reverend James Gardiner, in Glasgow. (Wodrow, History, IV, 255.)

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

According to traditions recorded in the nineteenth century, after John Hunter was killed above the Devil’s Beef Tub in 1685, his companion, ‘——-‘ Welsh, the ‘Babe of Tweedhopefoot’, escaped from Colonel James Douglas’s men.

Tweedhopefoot lies in Tweedsmuir parish to the north of the Devil’s Beef Tub.

Map of Tweedhopefoot            Street View of Tweedhopefoot

Fingland © frank smith and licensed for reuse.

There were two individuals named Welsh who lived in Tweedsmuir parish appear on the published Fugitive Roll of May, 1684.

A John Welsh ‘in Fingland’ lived a short distance down the River Tweed from Tweedhopefoot.

Map of Fingland          Aerial View of Fingland

Menzion © David Medcalf and licensed for reuse.

A second fugitive, ‘John Welsh in Munion’ i.e., Menzion, was also listed on the roll. (Jardine, ‘United Societies’, II, 223.)

Map of Menzion             Street View of Menzion

Menzion lies down the Fruid Water from Carterhope, a key location in the traditions of his escape.

It is possible that Welsh was one of the John Welshes on the Fugitive Roll, however, the stories of him belong to the realm of tradition, rather than that of history. Even Simpson, who first recorded the tradition, conceded that Welsh was a legendary figure: ‘How he acquired this soubriquet it is not easy to say, but he was a man of very great bodily strength; and stories are told of his wonderful feats, that seem to partake more of legend than of sober truth. He was, however, identified with the Covenanters. His house was a home to the ministers, and he had suffered many privations on account of the sympathy which he showed them.’ (Simpson, Traditions, 113.)

According Simpson, ‘[...] After the death of his companion [at the hands of Colonel Douglas’s men], Welsh continued his flight across the wilderness, intending, if possible, to reach a place called Carterhope.’ (Simpson, Traditions, 114.)

In 1892, a letter was sent to the author of Martyrs Graves from the minister of Tweedsmuir parish. It related a little more about what allegedly happened after Hunter was shot. The information it contained had come from a descendant of Welsh who had emigrated to and died in Australia.

‘Welsh got out through the Skail Step, otherwise named Coolin Pass, and on to the moor above, where for a time he was master of the situation, for the ground being rough with moss and hay, a hardy peasant could easily outstrip the best mounted trooper. On he flew past Earlshaugh, making for his aunt’s home at Carterhope, which he at length reached
in safety.’ (Thomson, Martyr Graves, 448-9.)

The Strait Step lies directly above the traditional spot for Hunter’s death.

Map of Strait Step

Earlshaugh © Iain Russell and licensed for reuse.

Earlshaugh lies across the moor to the north of the Strait Step.

Map of Earlshaugh           Aerial View of Earlshaugh

The Fugitive Roll of 1684 listed a ‘William Porteous in Earl’s-haugh’. He may have been banished to Barbados in either 1685, or 1687. (Jardine, ‘United Societies’, II, 223.)

Passing by Earlshaugh, Welsh fled on to Carterhope, which lies across the moor to the north-east.

Carterhope Burn © Richard Webb and licensed for reuse.

The Ruins of Carterhope now lie just below the waterline of the Fruid Reservoir.

Map of former site of Carterhope

The ruins of it are just visible below the water.

Aerial View of Carterhope

According to Simpson, at Carterhope, Welsh made one of those cunning escapes which are found in many later traditions about the Covenanters:

‘He arrived at the house without having been seen by the troopers, and placed himself by the fire, to wait the result. The soldiers, though they did not see him enter, had nevertheless followed in the track in which he had fled, and at length came to the place. They entered in their usual uproarious manner, while Welsh was sitting apparently unconcerned before the fire. The soldiers not expecting, perhaps, to find the object of their pursuit in the hut, and having no personal knowledge of him, did not seem to notice him. The mistress of the house, however, fearing lest a discovery should by some means be made, resorted to a kind of stratagem to prevent suspicion. She approached Welsh, who appeared to be carelessly dozing over the fire, and giving him a heavy slap between the shoulders, commanded him to rise and to proceed to his work, chiding him for his slothfulness in sitting all day cowering by the hearth, while his proper business was neglected. He took the hint, and withdrew from the apartment. The soldiers naturally conceived that he was a person belonging to the house, and consequently made no inquiries. He often remarked, that the kindest cuff he ever received was from the gudewife of Carterhope, whose presence of mind, at that critical moment, was in all likelihood the means of saving his life.’ (Simpson, Traditions, 114.)

According to the 1892 letter’s version of his escape:

‘Here his aunt made him strip and put on old working clothes, and then said, Sit ye doun by the fire. By and bye the soldiers came to the door and demanded the fugitive. She told them to search the house, and at the same time called out to Welsh, Get up and haud the sodgers horses. He did as he was bid. They searched the house in vain, then came out, mounted, and rode off, leaving Welsh exactly as they found him.’ (Thomson, Martyr Graves, 449.)

Additional Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

The first record of Peden’s Thorn was on Andrew Armstrong’s new map of Ayrshire in 1775. It stood on either the farm of Cultezeoun in Maybole parish, or Baltersan Mains in Kirkoswald parish, both of which are in  Carrick, Ayrshire. It possibly stood by the Cultezeon Burn which forms the parish boundary.

Map of Approximate location of Peden’s Thorn             Aerial View of Area of Peden’s Thorn

The demise of Peden’s Thorn was recorded the Reverend Roderick Lawson in 1892:

‘Until about 30 years ago [i.e., c.1862], a Thorn bush stood on Baltersan farm, near Maybole, which went by the name of Peden’s Thorn, as marking probably one of the places where he preached [...]. And it is a pity that the old tree was not allowed to remain, as relics like these make a countryside dearer to those who live in it.’ (Roderick Lawson, Places of Interest About Girvan, 121-2.)

Another thorn associated with Peden was located at Denholmdean in the Borders. A Holly tree, known as Peden’s Tree, is also located at Sorn in Ayrshire.

Donald Cargill was associated with a Hawthorn tree at Torwood in Stirlingshire.

Text Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

The field preacher Alexander Peden is said to have held a conventicle at a distinctive whin stone one-and-a-half miles from the village of Barr in Barr parish, Carrick. Is Peden’s Stone still there?

The stone does not appear on old or new OS maps, but it was recorded in 1892:

‘About 6½ miles from Girvan, and 1½ from Barr village, there stands on a hillside, near the Lane Toll, a large whin boulder which goes under the name of Peden’s Stone, as marking the site of one of his conventicles. This stone is 5 feet in height and 15 [feet] in circumference, and looks down on the Stinchar valley in front, with Auchensole hill on the immediate right, and Shalloch-on-Minnoch on the remote left.’ (Roderick Lawson, Places of Interest About Girvan, 121-2.)

Ruins of Lane Toll © Billy McCrorie and licensed for reuse.

Lawson gives some pointers towards the location of the large whin boulder which is Peden’s stone.

First, the stone lay, or lies, ‘near Lane Toll;. Today, the Lane Toll is a ruin by the B734.

Map of Lane Toll        Street View of Lane Toll

Second, the distances from Barr and Girvan given by Lawson may indicate that it lay, or lies, a short way before the ruin of Lane Toll when coming from the village of Barr.

Aerial View of Approximate distance from Barr        Street View of area

Towards Auchensoul Hill © Mary and Angus Hogg and licensed for reuse.

Third, Peden’s Stone lay, or lies, in a location with Auchensoul Hill on the right.

Map of Auchensoul Hill

And with view towards the distant high hill of Shalloch on Minnoch to the east.

Map of Shalloch On Minnoch

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

Can you resolve the mystery of the Martyr’s Stone of John Hunter? Can you find it? Can it be photographed?

The Martyr’s Stone marked the traditional location of the shooting of John Hunter by Colonel James Douglas in 1685. He is buried in Tweedsmuir churchyard. You can read Hunter’s story in full, here.

The place where Hunter was shot may still be marked by the Martyr’s Stone.

When it was first recorded on the Six Inch OS map, which was surveyed in 1857, the stone lay on the west side of the path below the Strait Step and above the Devil’s Beef Tub. (Dumfriesshire, Sheet IX)

The stone is simply described on the map as ‘Martyr’s Stone John Hunter shot here 1685’ and is marked by a rectangle at the bottom left of the ‘M’ in Martyr’s Stone and above the ‘hn’ of John.

It appears in the same location on the second edition of the Six Inch map which was revised in 1898. (Dumfriesshire Sheet IX.NW)

However, on the modern OS map it is marked at a short distance off to the east of what appears to be the same path. That location appears to accord with the circle and dot after ‘Stone’ on the original map.

Map of the Martyr’s Stone

Aerial View of Area of the Martyr’s Stone

It is clear from the original map that the circle and dot are common contour spot-height markers, rather than the Martyr’s Stone.

The Martyr’s Stone, or stones, was described in 1892 by a minister who had visited it:

‘The spot where Hunter was killed is marked by large blocks of undressed stone piled one upon another and grey with moss and lichen, and the surrounding scenery being stern and wild, is a most fit theatre for such a tragedy.’

Is it still there? Any information or photographs that would help to resolve this mystery would be appreciated. Any contribution will be acknowledged.

My contact email can be found here.

Access to the Martyr’s Stone
The easiest point of access for any search for the Martyrs Stone is from the Annandale Way, a new walking route which runs around the top of the Devil’s Beef Tub and meets the path down to the Martyr’s Stone above the Strait Step.

Map of the Annandale Way and the Martyr’s Stone

The Annandale Way can easily be joined at from the A701 above the Devil’s Beef Tub. There is plenty more to see on the route. See the official website here.

Street View of Access to Annandale Way from A701

Good Luck.

UPDATE

Photo of the Martyr’s Stone reproduced by the kind permission of Ronald Turnbull

Ronald Turnbull has visited the site and kindly sent me the following report of it.

‘I [have] pinned down the OS location of the ‘Martyr’s Stone’ as marked on the current Explorer map at NT 06681 12972 . This is 10m above (east of) the current signposted path leading from Corehead to the Strait Step. There is an old and tumbledown cairn on one of the many hillside stones hereabouts, alongside a small peaty spring. The accuracy of the gps should make the cairn within 10m at most of the dot marked on the OS map. …It’s an excellent short stroll to the stone from A701 via Annanhead Hill and the Strait Step, but it’s more easily accessed from Annandale on the signposted path via Corehead.’

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

John Hunter was shot escaping from a house at Corehead in Annandale in 1685.

His death was first recorded by Alexander Shields in 1690: ‘Item, the said Col: James Douglas and his party, shot to Death John Hunter for no alledged Cause, but running out from the house at Corehead, the same year, 1685.’ (Shields, A Short Memorial, 35.)

The officer held responsible for Hunter’s death by the Society people was Colonel James Douglas, the commander of His Majesty’s Regiment of Foot Guards.

Colonel James Douglas

When Was Hunter Shot?
Shields only dated Hunter’s death to ‘1685’, which from other cases suggests that he was shot between January and July of that year. That time frame can be narrowed down when the movements of Colonel Douglas are taken into account.

At the beginning of the year, Douglas was in Galloway where he was involved in the shootings at Caldons and that of Adam MacQuhan. In March, he was allegedly involved in a raid in Ballantrae parish, which lies next to Galloway.

Where he went after Galloway is not clear. However, on 27 March, he was granted a wide-ranging commission to pursue fugitives and Society people in the Southern and Western shires which lasted until 20 April. (Wodrow, History, IV, 207n.)

During that commission, Douglas executed Thomas Richard at Cumnock in Ayrshire on 5 April. At the end of his commission, he briefly attended the privy council in Edinburgh on 21 April (RPCS, XI, 24.)

At some point, probably before his judicial commission expired and certainly before 5 May, he was in Dumfriesshire, as Douglas, Robert Grierson of Lag and John Graham of Claverhouse sat on an assize in Dumfries which questioned Euphraim Threpland, aka. Mistress Macbirnie, about assassinations. (Wodrow, History, IV, 327.)

On 28 April, he was also involved an intelligence-led raid which resulted in the shooting of five Society people at Lower Ingliston in Glencairn parish.

It is probable that Hunter’s death took place at around the time of the assize and the raid on Ingliston, as a few weeks later, on 23 May, Douglas was with the Scottish army when it was stationed about Ayr to oppose the Argyll Rising. A month later, on 24 June, he was once again in Edinburgh at the privy council. (RPCS, XI, 78.)

Hunter was probably shot between mid April and mid May, 1685.

Hunter’s death was not recorded by Wodrow.

Corehead © Colin Kinnear and licensed for reuse.

The House at Corehead
Hunter was killed escaping from a house in Corehead, which lies by the Devil’s Beef Tub in Moffat parish, Annandale, Dumfriesshire.

Map of Corehead          Aerial View of Corehead

The estate was held by James Johnston of Corehead. In 1678, he was appointed a commissioner for raising the Cess Tax. In 1689, he was commissioned as a captain of the militia to defend the Revolution. (RPS, 1678/6/22; 1689/3/82.)

Corehead had a history of hiding fugitives. A ‘George Hunter, in Corehead’ was listed under Peeblesshire on the published Fugitive Roll of May 1684 for resetting fugitives. It is possible that John Hunter and George Hunter were kin. (Jardine, ‘United Societies’, II, 223.)

The meeting point of the boundaries of Dumfriesshire, Lanarkshire and Peeblesshire lies a little way to the north-west of Corehead.

Map of the meeting point of the three shires

The nodes where shire boundaries intersected were often used by the Society people as meeting points. Nearby sites associated with the Societies can be found at Talla Linn, which was used as a convention site, and Peden’s Pulpit in Gameshope.

John Hunter’s Grave © Walter Baxter and licensed for reuse.

Hunter’s Grave in Tweedsmuir
In 1726, a stone was erected on his grave in Tweedsmuir churchyard.

Map of Tweedsmuir Churchyard        Aerial View of Tweedsmuir Churchyard

The inscription on it is of a fairly standard form and adds no new information about his death. The opening lines of it are based on the text of Shields/Cloud:

‘Here lyes John Hunter
Martyr who was cruely
Murdered at Corehead
By Col James Douglas and
His party for his adherance
To the Word of God and
Scotlands covenanted
Work of Reformation
1685.
Erected in the year 1726.

[on reverse]

When Zions King was robbed
of his right
His witnesses in Scotland
put to flight
When popish prelats and
indulgancie
Combin’d gainst Christ to
Ruin Presbytrie
All who would not with
their idols bow
They sought them out and
whom they found they slew
For owning of Christs cause
I then did die
My blood for veangeance on
His en’mies did cry.’ (Thomson, Martyr Graves, 474.)

The inscription on the reverse was first recorded in the third edition of Cloud of Witnesses in 1730.

The historical sources indicate that Hunter was shot by Colonel Douglas’s troops when he attempted to escape from a house at Corehead in Dumfriesshire, probably between mid April to mid May, 1685.

His burial in Tweedsmuir parish kirkyard suggests that he was possibly connected to the parish.

In 1837 an obelisk dedicated to Hunter was erected in front of the the original parish church at Tweedsmuir. The original church, which was built in 1648, was replaced by the present building in 1874.

‘In Memory of
John Hunter
Martyr
whose
Gravestone
is in
the lower part
of this
churchyard
1837.’ (Thomson, Martyr Graves, 446-7.)

Fingland © frank smith and licensed for reuse.

Later Traditions.
In the nineteenth century, local traditions were recorded by Simpson and Thomson which interwove Hunter’s story with that of a companion, ‘——’ Welsh, the ‘Babe of Tweedhopefoot’. The traditions were primarily about the story of Welsh, rather than that of Hunter. How reliable a guide they are to the history of John Hunter’s death is not known.

Simpson’s tradition claimed that Hunter was a ‘native of the same place’ as Welsh, i.e., that he was a resident of Tweedsmuir parish. An ‘Adam Hunter, in Fingland’, Tweedsmuir parish, was listed under Peeblesshire on the published Fugitive Roll of 1684. (Jardine, ‘United Societies’, II, 223; Simpson, Traditions, 113.)

Map of Fingland              Aerial View of Fingland

Fingland lies just to the north of Tweedhopefoot, which also lies in Tweedsmuir parish.

Map of Tweedhopefoot          Street View of Tweedhopefoot

There is a Tweedhope Burn beside Corehead, but the tradition refers to the location in Tweedsmuir parish.

Map of Tweedhope Burn

According to Simpson’s tradition, Hunter and Welsh fled to ‘the solitudes of Corehead, near the source of the Water of Annan’, in order to evade capture by Colonel James Douglas. The River Annan rises at Annanhead, above the Devil’s Beef Tub and beside the location where Hunter was allegedly shot. Their flight was betrayed:

‘[Colonel] Douglas, however, having got notice of their flight, pursued them with his troop, and soon gained ground on the fugitives. When they saw that there was a likelihood of their being overtaken, they directed their course to a place called the “Straught Steep,” which, being difficult of access to the dragoons, they expected would afford them a safe retreat.’ (Simpson, Traditions, 113.)

Above the Strait Step © Chris Heaton and licensed for reuse.

The Strait Step lies south of both Tweedhopefoot and Fingland, and just over the shire boundary in Dumfriesshire. It also lies directly on a path to the north-west of the house at Corehead.

Map of Strait Step

‘By this time the horsemen were very near, and began to fire upon them. Hunter, who it seems was fully within the reach of the shot, was struck by a ball which proved fatal. He fell among the stones over which he was scrambling, and his life’s blood oozed forth upon the rocks, where he expired. His body was removed, and interred in the churchyard of Tweedsmuir.’ (Simpson, Traditions, 113.)

A second version of the tradition recorded in a letter to Thomson of 1892 tells a slightly different version of events. According to the letter, ‘Hunter was visiting the Welshes at Corehead when it was reported that Colonel Douglas and his troops were coming up the glen.’

They then ‘fled on foot up the hill at the back of the house. When two-thirds of the way up Hunter was seized with a violent pain in his side, and could run no farther. So, telling Welsh to go on and save his own life, he waited there to meet his fate. Up came the dragoons and shot him down like a dog.’ (Thomson, Martyr Graves, 448.)

The place where Hunter was shot is, or was, marked by the Martyr’s Stone. The location was first recorded on the original Six Inch OS map in 1857. The modern OS map places the stone in a slightly different position.

Map of the Martyr’s Stone

John Hunter Covenanter Monument at the Devil’s Beef Tub © Walter Baxter and licensed for reuse.

Another Monument
In 1955, a further monument to Hunter was erected beside the A701 at the Devil’s Beef Tub. The view from it looks towards the area of the Martyr’s Stone mentioned above. The inscription on it is as follows:

‘On the hillside
opposite
JOHN
HUNTER
COVENANTER
was shot
by
Douglas’s Dragoons
in
1685
THE GRAVE IS IN
TWEEDSMUIR KIRKYARD
1955’

Map of the 1955 Monument

To help resolve a mystery concerning the site of Hunter’s death, see here.

For the escape of Welsh after Hunter’s death, see here.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.