Donald Cargill’s Preaching near Carnwath in 1680

Carnwath Moss  © Walter Baxter and licensed for reuse.

On 17 November, 1680, one of the Society people named John Potter, who is variously described as a ‘former servant’ of Lord Cardross, a ‘labourer’ or ‘a farmer in Uphall [parish?]’ in Linlithgowshire, confessed to the privy council that he had attended one of Donald Cargill’s field preachings.

Map of Uphall

According to his interrogation:

‘Confesses he was present at a Field-Conventicle near Carnwath Sunday was a fortnight [i.e., 31 October, 1680], where [Donald] Cargill Preached.’ (Anon., A True and Impartial Account Of the Examinations and Confessions Of several Execrable Conspirators Against the King & His Government In Scotland, 10.)

Carnwath parish lies in Lanarkshire.

Map of Carnwath

The preaching near Carnwath appears to be the same as Cargill’s preaching ‘besouth’ of Linlithgow recorded by William Row.

Cargill had come to preach near Carnwath after he preached at Largo Law in Fife on 24 October, 1680.

‘That Sabbath, in the night, he came to Kirkcaldy, (where the Chancellor [, the duke of Rothes,] was waiting for the Duke of York’s landing), and lurked all Monday [25 October] in a private house till Tuesday’s night [26 October], when he crossed [the Forth] at Burntisland, and the Sabbath following, October 31, he preached in the fields besouth Linlithgow’. (William Row in M’Crie (ed.), Life of Blair, 581.)

The location of the preaching is not known. Carnwath Moss to the north of the village was used as a field preaching site by Covenanters. In June, 1681, Cargill preached in the same parish at Benry Bridge.

Text © Copyright Dr Mark Jardine. All Rights Reserved.

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~ by drmarkjardine on December 14, 2012.