Covenanter Grave Kirkconnell Moor #History #Scotland
James Clement, Kirkconnell Moor, Tongland parish, Kirkcudbrightshire. Died 1685.
Shields:
‘Sir Robert Grierson of Lag, having command of a part of Claverhouses Troop & Strauchans Dragoons, surprised Jo. Bell of Whiteside, David Haliday portioner of Mayfield, Andrew Macrabeit, James Clement, and Robert Lennox of Irlintown, and barbarously killed them after Quarters, without time allowed to pray; when John Bell of Whiteside begged a little time to pray, Lag answered, What Devil have you been doing? Have you not prayed enough these many years in the hills? and so shot him presently in the parish of Tongland in Galloway, Febr, 1685.’ (Shields, A Short Memorial, 37-8.)
Stone erected 1702-1714. Inscription:
‘Here lyes James Clemet who w[as] surprised and shot to death on this place by Grier of Lagg for his adherence to Scotlands Reformation Covenants National and Solemn League 1685.’
No poem.
Based on Shields.
The grave was recorded the first edition of Cloud of Witnesses (1714), but those pages are missing in the copy held by the National Library of Scotland. The following lines come from the second edition of 1720, which copied the first edition:
‘In the parish of Tongland in Kirkconnel hill, upon the body of James Clement, shot to death there by the laird of Lagg, Anno 1685.’
Map of Grave on Kirkconnell Moor
