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JAMES VI. was at first, by
profession at least, a zealous Presbyterian. After he was assailed by a mob
while attending a meeting in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and especially after
he had a certain prospect of ascending the throne of England, he began to
look coldly on Presbyterianism, as being, in his opinion, incompatible with
the prerogatives of monarchy. He therefore laboured till he succeeded in
introducing the office of bishop into the Church, and also several religious
ceremonies, such as the confirmation of youths, the observance of holidays,
private baptism, private communion, and kneeling at the Eucharist, which
were commonly called the Five Articles of Perth, from having been adopted at
a General Assembly held at that town. He was contemplating still further
innovations, when he died, in 1625, leaving it as an injunction on his son
and successor Charles, to prosecute with all vigour the scheme on which he
had himself so foolishly entered. In this way he laid the foundation of an
unhappy contest, that raged in Scotland for more than half a century, that
caused an incalculable amount of t disorder, cruelty, and bloodshed, and in
the end was the means of driving the Stewart dynasty from the throne of
these realms.
Charles I., true to the
doctrines in which he had been educated, and madly bent on executing the
scheme projected by his father, at length ordered that a liturgy and book of
canons should be introduced into the service of the Scottish Kirk. The great
body of the Presbyterian clergy met this order with the most strenuous
opposition, as they regarded it as an unwarrantable innovation on the proper
mode of conducting public worship, and as wholly invalid, inasmuch as it had
not received the sanction of the General Assembly. The bishops, finding the
order disregarded, caused the Privy Council to pass an Act to enforce its
observance, under the pain of homing. The minister of Biggar, and most of
the other ministers of the Presbytery of Lanark, refused to introduce the
service-book and book of canons into their ministrations. The Bishop of
Glasgow, in whose diocese they were, therefore, sent a messenger of arms to
the Presbytery with a letter, commanding every member to buy the obnoxious
books, and on his refusal to put him to the horn. The Presbytery were
nothing daunted. They met, and resolved to petition the Privy Council
against the introduction of the two books; and as their moderator, Mr John
Lindsay of Carstairs, who was a subservient tool of the Bishop of Glasgow,
would not join in the petition, they requested him to resign his office.
Lindsay, therefore, closed the diet, and, with two or three others, left the
meeting. Those who remained, constituted themselves into a new meeting of
Presbytery, and chose Alexander Somervail of Dolphinton as moderator pro
tempore, when the petition was unanimously adopted. The Privy Council,
instead of lending an ear to this petition, and others of a similar kind,
passed an Act making it treason for any body of men to meet for the purpose
of adopting such memorials.
This arbitrary step* and the
commotions which took place in Edinburgh on the first introduction of the
service-book in the Church of St Giles, on Sabbath, the 23d of July 1637,
led to an organization of all ranks, and ultimately to the adoption of a
Solemn League and Covenant. This document was signed on the 28th February
1638, in the Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh; and copies of it were immediately
transmitted to every parish, to receive the names of those who stood well
affected to the Presbyterian cause. Before the end of March it had been read
in nearly all the churches of the Upper Ward, and signed, amid
demonstrations of weeping and enthusiasm, by nearly the whole people. The
only notable exceptions to this unanimity were the parishes of Douglas,
Carmichael, and Carstairs, in which clerical or baronial influence prevailed
in favour of the innovations.
The General Assembly that met
at Glasgow in 1638, set the authority of the King’s Commissioner at
defiance. It declared the proceedings carried on and sanctioned by the six
previous Assemblies to be null and void, and denounced and abolished the
canons, the liturgy, the High Commission Court, the Articles of Perth, the
forms of consecration, and the whole Episcopal system, root and branch. The
gauntlet was thus thrown down to the King. He took it up, and both sides
prepared for war. The Earl of Wigton, and his son John Lord Fleming, had
signed the Covenant, and publicly declared that they would always maintain
the doctrine and discipline now established by the General Assembly and the
voice of the nation. Lord Fleming immediately took the field at the head of
his father’s retainers. His Lordship, and Lords Montgomery, Loudon, Boyd,
Lindsay, and others, seized the Castle of Strathaven, and compelled all the
gentlemen in Clydesdale suspected of favouring the royal cause to give
security that they would not rise in arms. They then marched to Douglas,
where they expected a hot reception from the Marquis of Douglas. They had no
cannon, and entertained little hope of being able to make a successful
assault on the strong Castle of Douglas; but the Marquis did not remain to
offer any resistance; so they readily obtained possession of the Castle, and
left it garrisoned with a detachment of their troops.
Lord Fleming, in all
likelihood, came to Biggar from Douglas, and completed his levies. He soon
marched down the Tweed and joined the other Covenanters, who had now
assembled in considerable numbers under the command of General Leslie, an
old veteran, trained to war under the renowned Gustavus Adolphus, King of
Sweden. The King had also raised a considerable army, and the blazing
balefires soon gave token that he had crossed the border, and was
penetrating into the country. He published a proclamation at Dunse,
requiring the rebels to submit within ten days, fixing a price on the heads
of the leaders, and confiscating their estates. He intended also to make
this proclamation at Kelso, and a strong detachment wall despatched thither
under the command of the Earl of Holland. The Scots getting information of
this intended movement, Lords Fleming, Munro, and Erskine, with their
followers, to the number of a thousand horse and foot, met them before they
could accomplish their purpose, and offered them battle. The English,
however, did not relish the encounter, and fled, losing two hundred men in
the pursuit. Principal Baillie says that it was thought that Holland’s
commission was to cut off all opposition; but his soldiers that day were a
great deal more nimble in their legs than their arms, except the cavaliers,
whose right arms were no less weary in whipping than their heels in jading
their horses.
The Scottish army afterwards
encamped on Dunse Law, and presented a strange spectacle of military and
religious enthusiasm,—the din of warlike evolutions intermingling with the
voice of psalms, and the prayers and sermons of the preachers. 4 Every
company/ says Baillie, ‘had fleeing at the captain’s tent-door a brave new
colour stamped with the Scottish arms, and the motto, “ For Christ’s Crown
and Covenant,” in golden letters. Our soldiers were all lusty and full of
courage, the most of them stout young ploughmen; great cheerfulness in the
face of alL They were clothed in olive or grey plaiden, with bonnets having
knots of blue ribands. The captains, who were barons or country gentlemen,
were distinguished by blue ribands worn scarf-wise across the body. None of
our gentlemen were anything the worse of lying some weeks together in their
cloaks and boots on the ground. Every one encouraged another. The sight of
the nobles and their beloved pastors daily raised their hearts. The good
sermons and prayers morning and evening, under the roof of heaven, to which
the drums did call them instead of bells, also Leslie’s skill, providence,
and fortune, made them as resolute for battle as could be wished.’ The King,
seeing the resolution and warlike spirit of the Scots, considered it
hazardous to risk an engagement, and therefore an agreement was entered
into, to settle the differences by negotiation. A conference was accordingly
held at Berwick by commissioners on each side; but their proceedings were in
the end rendered abortive by the obstinacy and duplicity of Charles, who
would not recede from his design to establish Episcopacy in the northern
part of his dominions. No alternative was left but a fresh appeal to arms.
The Scots had disbanded their
army, but the tocsin of alarm was again sounded. The barons summoned forth
their retainers, and the clergy beat the c drum ecclesiastic* with fury and
effect. Lord John Fleming once more set up his standard at Biggar, and
called on the retainers of his house, and others in the district well
affected to the cause, to assemble around it. At a meeting of the Presbytery
of Lanark, on the 25th June 1640, a communication was read from his
Lordship, desiring every minister in the Presbytery to intimate from his
pulpit, that the muster of men, according to the stipulated number, would
take place at Biggar on Thursday first. The Presbytery at the same time
chose Alexander Livingstone, minister of Carmichael, and afterwards of
Biggar, to be chaplain to his Lordship’s Upper Ward Regiment He was to
continue a month at this post, and at the end of that time was to be
relieved by George Bennet, minister of Quothquan, who was assured that, in
the event of his not receiving payment from the general fund for support of
the army, he would be paid by the Presbytery at the rate of 80s. per day.
The Scottish army, amounting
in all to 28,000 infantry and 8000 cavalry, struck their tents in the month
of August 1640, and marched into England. On arriving at the Tyne, they
found that General Conway, the commander of the English army, had erected
batteries on its banks near Newburn, to oppose their passage. The Scots were
nothing discouraged. They opened so severe a fire from their artillery that
the English were forced to .abandon their guns; and a detachment of the
Scots having crossed the river, encountered the English cavalry, and put
them to flight. Conway’s army was thus thrown into a state of rout and
confusion, and the cavalry retreated to Durham, and the infantry to
Newcastle. The Scottish troops were induced, by the solicitations and
subsidies of the Puritan party in England, to prolong their stay till their
grievances were redressed. After some negotiation with the Royalists, it was
ultimately agreed that all oppressive courts should be abolished, that no
money should be levied without consent of Parliament, and that Parliaments
should be summoned every three years. The Scottish army, on the completion
of these transactions, received L.800,000, in name of brotherly assistance,
and returned to their native country.
At the very time at which
Lord Fleming and his retainers from Biggar were in England upholding the
cause of the National Covenant, and contending against the arbitrary designs
of the King, a meeting of nineteen Scottish noblemen was held at Cumbernauld
House to support the royal cause. .They subscribed a bond, in which they
declared that, from a sense of the duty which they owed to their religion,
their king, and country, they were forced to join themselves in a covenant
for the maintenance and protection of each other. Their country, they said,
had suffered by the special and indirect practising of a few individuals,
and therefore their object was to study all public ends which might lead to
the safety of the religion, laws, and liberties of the poor kingdom of
Scotland. This meeting was convened principally by the efforts of James,
Marquis of Montrose, who, at first, took part with the Covenanters, and was
at Dunse Law and Newbum; but, conceiving that his merits had been
overlooked, and feeling special offence that Argyle was made his superior in
the Senate, and Leslie in the field, he had obtained a secret interview with
Charles when in England, and pledged himself to support his cause. The
document, signed by the Earl of Wigton and the other noblemen,—1 Montrose's
damnable Band,' as Baillie terms it,—was ordered by the Committee of Estates
to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman, and Montrose was seized and
thrown into prison.
The Earl of Wigton, having
thus embraced the side of the Royalists, was honoured by receiving several
letters from the King’s own hand. They are still preserved, and present a
very creditable specimen of caligraphy. In one of them, dated Oxford, 21st
April 1643, the King, after expressing his desire to preserve the affections
of the people of his native kingdom, and to do' everything to contribute to
their happiness, goes on to say: *but knowing what industry is used (by
scattering seditious pamphletts, and employing privat agents and instruments
to give badd impressions of us and our proceedings, under a pretence of a
danger to religion and government) to corrupt their fidelities and
affections, and to engadge them in ane unjust quarrell against us their
King, wee cannot, therefore, but remove those jealousies, and secure their
feares from all possibilitie of any hazard to either of these from us. Wee
have, therefore, thought fitt to require you to call together your freinds,
vassalls, tenents, and such others as have any dependencie upon you, and, in
our name, to show them our willingnes to give all the assurance they can
desire, or wee possibly graunt (if more can be given than already is), of
preserving inviolably all those graces and favours, which we have of late
graunted to that our kingdome, and that wee doe faithfullie promise never to
goe to the contrarie of any thing there established, either in the
eccle-siasticall or civil government, but that wee will inviolably keip the
same according to the lawes of that our kingdome.’
The Earl himself does not
seem, after all, to have taken a very active part in the support and
advancement of the cause of Charles. It was otherwise with his son John, who
had been suspected of leaning towards the King when he was with the Scottish
army in England, and who now fairly turned his back on his old friends the
Covenanters. After his relative Montrose had gained the brilliant victories
of Tibber-muir, Inverlochy, Auldeme, Alford, and Kilsyth, he threw off all
disguise, and at the head of a body of his vassals, joined the army that had
fought so gallantly and successfully in behalf of the King.
He marched with Montrose to
Philiphaugh, near Selkirk; the object of that general being, now that all
opposition was beat down in Scotland, to make a diversion in favour of the
Royalists on the soil of England. Montrose posted his infantry on an
elevated piece of ground on the left bank of the Ettrick, while he himself
and his cavalry occupied the adjaoent town of Selkirk, and thus allowed the
river to divide his forces into two portions. General Leslie, who had been
despatched from England with a detachment of 5000 or 6000 men to oppose
Montrose, taking advantage of a thick mist, on the morning of the 13th
September 1645, fell on both flanks of his opponent’s infantry at one time.
The left flank was immediately thrown into confusion, and driven from the
field; but the right occupying a more advantageous position, with a wood in
the rear, fought for some time with great obstinacy, but in the end had to
yield to the furious onsets of the Covenanters. Montrose, with Lords
Fleming, Napier, and Erskine, Sir John Dalziel, and other officers, so soon
as the din of the battle was heard, rallied the cavalry, and hastened to the
scene of action. They did everything that skill,and bravery could suggest to
retrieve the disasters of the day; but all their efforts were unavailing.
They were forced to retire, and seek safety by speedy flight. They hastened
up the Yarrow, struck along the bridle-road over Minchmuir, and came to
Traquair House. Receiving little countenance here, although the Earl of
Traquair was also a partisan of the King, they proceeded up the Tweed to
Peebles, where they halted a short time during the night, and early next
morning pursued their journey. They came to the Upper Ward and crossed the
Clyde, and here they met with the Earls of Crawford and Airley, who had
escaped by a different route. Montrose and a number of his friends fled to
the Highlands, while Lord Fleming and others concealed themselves in the
Lowlands.
The Convention of Estates
were not disposed to pass over the delinquencies of those who had taken up
arms against them, and subjected them to so much terror, inconvenience, and
expense. They appointed a section of their number, called the Committee of
Processes and Money, to institute actions against those persons who had
taken part in what they termed the Rebellion of Montrose.
Lord Fleming remained
concealed for some time, but the Committee of Processes permitted him, on
the 9th of February 1646, ‘to repair home to his owne dwelling house on his
giving James, Earl of Callender, as a cautioner, that he would appear before
the Committee on the 8th of March following, at Linlithgow, or where they
should happen to be sitting at the time, and that he would conduct himself
with all due propriety, under a penalty of fiftie thousand punds.’ The
Committee, on taking his case into consideration, decided that he should pay
a fine of L.6400; but agreed to remit a portion of it, should the allegation
of his Lordship, that he had expended large sums in the support of troop
horses, foot soldiers, dragoons, and others in the public service, be
satisfactorily established. In a document which his Lordship laid before the
Committee, he stated that he had possession of no lands or teinds belonging
to his father’s estate, ‘ except onely twentie chalders victuall payed to
him of the estate and lands lyand about Biggar, within the shyre of
Cliddisdaill, quhilk is allowed upon him be his father for keiping his purse
and buying his cloathes.’ He declared that he had no casual rent, no money
owing him by (band9 or otherwise, and no moveable goods or geir that could
be escheated. He had borrowed, he said, L.20,000, which he had expended in
the public service, viz., ‘be out reicking himself ane colonel at the first
two expeditions, be buying of armes and uther necessre fumitour for his
regiment, and by paying his officers and men,’ and supporting himself, as he
had never received any of the public money at all. Besides, there were the
charges, expenses, and pay of a garrison of forty soldiers, with a captain
and lieutenant, who had occupied the Castle of Boghall of Biggar since the
14th of September last, and had been maintained solely out of his own
portion, and the revenues of his father’s estates; large sums were also due
for the soldiers that had been quartered, and the depredations that had been
committed on his father’s lands in and about Biggar and Cumbernauld ; and
further, all public orders had been obeyed, the monthly contribution paid,
and ‘ twenty horsemen of trouperis and dragounners with forty-aucht foot
sojouris had been out reicked and put furth be my Lord’s rent and estaite
sufficientlie armed and mounted since the said fourteine day of September
last bypast.’ The whole expense incurred in the equipment and maintenance of
twenty dragoons and ninety-eight foot soldiers, including those lying in the
Castle of Boghall, amounted to 8090 merks. The Committee, having duly
weighed all the pleas advanced, decided that the account rendered by John
Lord Fleming was sufficient to ‘ exhaust the wholl fine abovewritten imposed
upon him for his delinquency, doe therfor discharge the said John Lord
Fleming of the said fyne.’ His Lordship thus appears to have got rid of the
heavy exaction imposed on him for the crime of taking part in what was then
called the Rebellion of Montrose.
Charles II. had scarcely been
restored to the throne, when he utterly repudiated the engagements into
which he had entered in the days of his adversity, to uphold and maintain
the Presbyterian form of church government, and the covenanted work of
Reformation. He resolved to overturn the whole fabric of Presbyterianism,
and to set up Prelacy in its stead, which the great majority of the Scottish
people hated nearly as much as Popery itself. The Covenants were repealed;
the opposition to Episcopal church government was denounced as sedition; the
clergy who had been admitted to livings subsequent to the abolition of
patronage were declared to have no title to them, and were required within
four months to obtain presentation from the patrons and collation from the
bishops, with assurance, if they did not comply, that they would be ejected
by military force. The consequence of this edict was, that about the end of
1662, no fewer than three hundred and fifty clergymen threw up their livings
rather than do violence to their conscientious convictions. The valedictory
sermons which they delivered, the high esteem in which they were held, and
the destitute circumstances to which they were reduced, made their flocks
rally round them, and listen to their instructions with a keener relish than
ever. Hence arose the practice of holding meetings for public worship in the
fields, which became so obnoxious to Government, that an Act was passed
prohibiting the ejected ministers from approaching within twenty miles of
their former parishes, and declaring it sedition for any person to
contribute to their support. The people disregarded the edicts of the
drunken and infuriated man who at that time swayed the destinies of
Scotland, and doggedly refused to abandon their old pasters and wait on the
ministrations of the ignorant and subservient curates who now occupied their
pulpits. Hence fines, imprisonments, tortures, and death, were resorted to;
and the people on several occasions were goaded on to repel aggression, and
assert their liberties and their rights, with arms in their hands.
From a list published by
Wodrow, it would seem that in 1662 the whole of the ministers of the
Presbyteries of Lanark and Biggar left their pulpits. This is rather
surprising, as some of them are understood to have had a strong leaning
towards Episcopacy, and, in fact, to have been the creatures of the bishops.
It may be that even these parties were indignant at the violent and
tyrannical conduct of Middleton and his drunken associates, and were thus
induced to throw in their lot with their brethren. Wodrow’s list of the
members of the Biggar Presbytery is as follows:—Alexander Livingstone,
Biggar; Anthony Murray, Coulter; James Donaldson, Dolphinton; Patrick
Anderson, Walston; James Bruce, Archibald Porteous, Alexander Barton, John
Rae, Symington; John Crawford, Lamington; William 1 Dickson, Glenholm; John
Greg, Skirling; and Robert Brown, Broughton. These men chose rather to throw
themselves on the wide world, and to subject themselves to all the hardships
of an unsettled life, and all the contumely and persecution of an infuriated
Government, than do violence to their convictions of duty, and succumb to
the dictates of tyranny. It must ever be a matter of regret, that almost
nothing of their subsequent history is known. John Rae, minister of
Symington, as mentioned by Wodrow, was apprehended in 1670 for preaching and
baptizing in his own house, and sent to Edinburgh, where he was confined in
the Canongate Tolbooth. After an examination he was sent to Stirling, but
his fate is not stated. Anthony Murray of Coulter was held in high esteem by
the Nonconformists, though we are not aware that he got into further trouble
on account of his adherence to the covenanted work of Reformation, than
being forced to abandon his manse and stipend. Wodrow states that he was a
relative of the Duchess of Lauderdale, and that in consequence of this
connection, he was selected by a number of influential ministers to present
an address to the Duke in favour of the Covenanters. It is a tradition, we
are told, that after leaving his clerical -charge, he continued to reside in
the parish of Coulter, and employed himself in practising the healing art,
facetiously remarking, that he would now make the doctor keep the minister.
At this period, an Anthony Murray acted as factor for the Biggar estate of
the Earl of Wigton. We have examined several of the books of his accounts,
which are still preserved in the Fleming archives; and as he appears to have
resided in Biggar or its neighbourhood, and to have enjoyed much of the
confidence and respect of his employer, we have been rather disposed to
think that this is the same person as the outed minister of Coulter. It will
be observed, that his name appears twice in the inventory of old effects
sold at Boghall Castle in 1681.
The work of imposing fines
for nonconformity was early commenced in the Upper Ward. Middleton’s
Parliament, which met at Glasgow in 1662, fined the parish of Biggar L.1071,
5s., Quothquan L.181, 2s. 6d., Walston L.808, 8s., Dunsyre L.177, 12s.,
Camwath L.6789, 19s. 8<L, Lanark L.5000, etc. Heavy fines were imposed on
many individual gentlemen in the same district Among others may be
mentioned, Christopher Baillie of Walston, L.9600; William Brown of
Dolphinton, L.1200; Andrew Brown of the same parish, L.600; William Bertram
of Nisbet, L.480; James Baillie, St John’s Kirk, L.240; Thomas Gibson,
Quothquan, L.860; John Kello, there, L.260; and John Braid, Hillhead,
Covington, L.600.
The Covenanters who rose in
arms, in 1666, in the south-west of Scotland, after capturing Sir James
Turner at Dumfries, proceeded to the Upper Ward. They halted a short time at
Douglas, and then inarched to Lanark, where they listened to sermons
preached by some of the clergymen who accompanied them, and with great
solemnity and uplifted hands renewed the Covenants.
From the strong leaning of
the people of Biggar and its neighbourhood in favour of the principles of
the Covenant, and the intense indignation which they felt at the tyrannical
measures of the Government, it is likely that some of them took part in this
insurrectionary, or, as it may rather be called, defensive movement. We know
that Major Learmont, proprietor of Newholm, in the parish of Dolphinton, and
the Rev. Wm. Veitch, tenant in the Westhills of Dunsyre, and son of the Rev.
John Veitch, for forty-five years minister of Roberton, joined the
Covenanters at a hill above Galston, and took a leading part in their
proceedings. Major Learmont was appointed to the command of one of the
divisions of cavalry, and escorted Sir James Turner out of the town of
Lanark, to protect him from the assaults of the inhabitants. The Covenanting
army marched from Lanark to Bathgate in the midst of extremely stormy
feather, and ascertaining that they were to receive no assistance from the
inhabitants of the Lothians and the city of Edinburgh, they resolved to make
a detoujr by the end of the Pentland Hills and march to Biggar. Mr Yeitch
was sent in disguise to Edinburgh, to hold an interview with their friends
in the city; but he was apprehended and detained as a prisoner. On his
expressing his readiness to march against the Whigs, he was less strictly
guarded, and effected his escape, and thus witnessed the conflict at Rullion
Green, and arrived that same night at the herd’s house in Dunsyre Common.
Major Learmont fought bravely on the field of Rullion Green. He commanded
the party that defeated the second charge of the enemy. General Dalziel,
seeing his men give way, hasted forward a detachment to their rescue, when
Major Learmont was attacked by four horsemen, and his horse was shot under
him. He started to the back of a fold dyke, shot the first trooper that
approached, mounted his horse, and escaped.
It was near the close of day
when Dalziel advanced his whole army to the last charge; and as his numbers
were 3000 against 900, the poor Covenanters had no alternative but to
scatter themselves among the deep defiles of the Pentland Hills, where they
were safe from the pursuit of the cavalry, and where they were soon hid by
the darkness of the night. Large numbers on the day following hasted to
their homes by Camwath and Biggar.
James Kirton, who from 1655
to 1657 was one of the ministers of Lanark, in his ‘History of the Church of
Scotland,’ has brought a severe charge against the inhabitants of these
towns, for their cruelty to the poor distressed fugitives. His information,
he says, was obtained at the spot, and therefore was entitled, as he
insinuates, to the most implicit credit. His statements, which are deeply
tinctured with the superstitious notions that prevailed at the period, can,
however, at the most, only apply to a few individuals, and not to the mass
of the inhabitants. He refers to the subject more than once, but we will
quote only one of his passages. He enumerates various reasons why the people
listened more readily to the ministrations of the outed clergymen than of
the curates, and among others gives the following, viz.: ‘Another reason was
the strange judgments seen upon those who were or had been persecutors. It
i9 well known and observed what happened those who injured the poor Whigs
who fled from Pentland. In the Upper Ward of Clydesdale, when some of them
fled through Carnwath, one of the townsmen carried some of them into the
moss and murdered them. It was told by the people of the village to myself
within a little time thereafter, that frequently a fire was seen to arise
from that place in the moss where the murder was committed, and thereafter
creeping overland, it covered the murderer’s house. Himself, as I was told,
perished, and his children are beggars to this day. What curses befell the
people of Biggar who were equally guihy of this fact, and bow poor Laurence
Boe died in high despair, accusing himself of the secret murder of two, was
well known, and as well remembered by the neighbours.’ It would be most
interesting to us at the present day to know what the curses were to which
Kir-ton refers. They were, he says, well known at the time he wrote his
history; but whatever they were, they are now utterly forgotten.
The curates who were thrust
into the pulpits of the Upper Ward were, from all accounts, weak and
despicable individuals; and some of them, particularly the curate of
Carnwath, were known to lead profligate and licentious lives. The
description given by Bishop Burnet of the curates generally, was, no doubt,
applicable to those of the Upper Ward. ‘They were,’ he says, ‘the worst
preachers ever I heard; they were ignorant to a reproach, and many of them
openly vicious. They were a disgrace to their order and to the sacred
function, and were indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts.’ Such
preachers were not likely to recommend the cause of Prelacy, and induce the
people to wait upon their ministrations. Some of the Upper Ward churches
appear to have been entirely deserted. We jnay refer in this respect to the
Church of Symington. The manse and church, in consequence of standing some
time unoccupied, fell into a state almost of ruin. On the 21st of June 1676,
Gavin Steven and Hugh Telfer, masons and wrights, Biggar, at the instance of
the curate, Robert Lawson, who, at that time, had most likely been newly
appointed, underwent a lengthened examination, on oath, before some clerical
brethren, regarding the state of the manse and church. They declared that it
would take 400 merks Scots to pat the manse in habitable order, making it,
as they said, ‘water tight and wind tight, frith new theiking, glass
windows, boards and cases, locks, sneckes, and slots, and casting the house
without and within.’ In regard to the kirk, they reported that the'west
gable had slidden, and had a rift in it, and that if it were not helped it
was likely to fall, and that very shortly; and that, as there were no glass
in the windows, no pulpit, and no reader’s desk, it would be necessary to
supply them* The whole expenses for the repair of the kirk, it was
estimated, would be L.48 Scots. On the 5th of July following, Robert Lawson,
the curate, reported, at a meeting of his clerical colleagues, that after a
search he had succeeded in finding the kirk box, the session book, the iron
stauncher, and the iron holder, in which the sand-glass stood; anjl that the
only thing now a wanting was the key of die kirk box.
The practice of attending
field-meettags, or conventicles as they were called, was still obstinately
maintained in the Upper Ward, as well as in inany other districts in
Scotland. The Parliament, in 1670, passed a severe enactment against these
meetings. Every unauthorised person, who should preach, expound Scripture,
or pray in any place, except in his own house find with his own family, was
to be imprisoned till he found caution, to the amount of 5000 merks, not to
be guilty of a similar offence again, or otherwise agree to remove out of
the kingdom altogether; but if he so officiated at a meeting in the fields,
he was to suffer death and the confiscation of his goods. It was also
enacted, that all persons who should attend such ministrations should be
fined toties quoties in certain specified sums, according to their stations
in life; and that these sums should be doubled if the ministrations were
conducted in the open air. The fine of a landed proprietor was the fourth
part of his annual rent; of a farmer or master tradesman, L.25 Scots; of a
cottar, L.12 Scots; and of a servant, the fourth part of his yearly fee.
Notwithstanding the severity of the Government, a number of conventicles
were held in the neighbourhood of Biggar. The Rev. John Kid, who was taken
prisoner at the battle of Bothwell Bridge, and executed at the Gross of
Edinburgh on the 14th of August 1679, preached one day on the hill of Tinto,
to a large assemblage of the inhabitants of this district. Patrick Walker,
the packman of Bristo Port, Edinburgh, who wrote the lives of several
Covenanting worthies, and who most likely was present on this occasion,
tells us that Mr Sad, in the course of the service, gave out a part of the
second psalm to be sung, and accompanied the reading of it with a
commentary. When he came to the sixth verse, viz.,
'Yet, notwithstanding, I have
Him
To be my King appointed;
And over Sion, my holy hill,
I have Him King anointed,’—
he exclaimed, with many
tears, 4 Treason, treason, treason, against King Christ in Scotland. They
would have him a King without a kingdom, and a King without subjects. There
is not a clean pulpit in all Scotland this day, curate nor indulged.
Wherefore, come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord, and
touch not these unclean things; and I will be a Father unto you, and ye
shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Almighty.’
The hill of Tinto, situated
in the midst of a populous district, and affording concealment and security
in its deep declivities, was a favourite preaching place with several of the
other heroes of the Covenant. Donald Cargill, who was in the habit of saying
that he felt more liberty and delight in preaching and praying in the glens
and wilds of tjie Upper Ward of Clydesdale than in any other place of
Scotland, came to this district in the beginning of June 1681, after a tour
through Ayrshire and Galloway, and intended on the Sabbath following to
preach on Tinto. Mrs Baillie, the Lady of St John’s Kirk, who professed a
warm attachment to the Covenant and its champions, but who was looked on
with suspicion by some of its more zealous and rigid partisans, as a person
whose fidelity was likely to give way in the hour of trial, had begun to
feel uneasiness at the frequent conventicles held in her neighbourhood. When
she learned Cargill’s design to preach on Tinto, she held a correspondence
with some of the leading Covenanters in the country round; and it appears
that they entered so far into her views as to permit her to issue an
announcement, that the meeting on Sabbath would take place on a common in
tbe parish of Glenholm, at the back of Coulter Heights. Mr Cargill had taken
up his abode in the house of John Liddell, at Heidmire, in the neighbourhood
of St John’s Kirk; but though communication could thus have been very
readily held with him, he received no notice that the place of meeting had
been changed. He rose early on the Sabbath morning, and going out to
meditate in the fields, he observed numbers of people travelling to the
south. On learning from some of them to what place they were going, he said,
‘ This is the Lady’s policy to get us at some distance from her house, but
she will be discovered.’ He did not return to Mr Liddell’s house to get
breakfast; but being anxious that the great multitudes from Biggar and the
surrounding country, whom he understood were flocking to the place of
rendezvous, should not be disappointed, he immediately set out on his
journey. The day was very warm, and the road was long and difficult; the
consequence was, that by the time he reached the sequestered spot where his
friends were assembled, he was very much exhausted. Before he commenced his
labours, a man went to a rivulet and brought him a drink of water in his
steel bonnet, and supplied him with another draught in the same way between
sermon?; and these were all the refreshments which he tasted during the day.
He discoursed on the 6th chapter of Isaiah in the forenoon, and in the
afternoon delivered a sermon on the words in the 11th chapter of Romans, ‘Be
not high-minded, but fear.’ We can easily conceive the thrilling effects
that would be produced by religious discourses preached in a region so
solitary and mountainous, and by the lips of a man so full of ardour and
faith as Donald CargilL Holmes’ Common can never be surveyed without
identifying it with that great meeting.
A short time afterwards,
Cargill preached his last sermon on Dunsyre Common, on the text, in the 20th
verse of the 26th chapter of Isaiah, ‘ Come, my people, enter thou into thy
chambers,’ etc. Walker the packman, who was present, says, 4 He insisted
what kind of chambers these were of protection and safety, and exhorted us
all earnestly to dwell in the clefts of the rock, to hide ourselves in the
wounds of Christ, and to wrap ourselves in the believing application of the
promises flowing therefrom, and to take our refuge under the shadow of His
wings, until these sad calamities pass over, and the dove come back with the
olive leaf in her mouth.’
After sermon, he did not
leave the muir till it was dark, as he was afraid of falling into the hands
of his enemies, who, he knew, were eager to apprehend him, and obtain the
reward of 5000 merks offered by the Government for his person. The Lady of
St John’s Kirk was present, and desired him to accept accommodation at her
house; but he felt a great reluctance to comply, as he could not bring
himself to regard her with entire confidence, and was m the habit of Baying,
4 Whatever end she might make> there would be foul wide steps in her life.’
Mr Walter Smith and Mr Boig, two lay gentlemen who had devoted themselves to
the work of upholding the persecuted faith in Scotland, insisted that he
would accept the invitation, and he so far yielded that he accompanied the
lady to Covington; but refusing to go farther, he and Messrs Smith and Boig
found accommodation in the house of Andrew Fisher, Covington Mill.
James Irvine of Bonshaw, a
brutal individual, and a dealer in horses, having got a commission from the
Privy Council to hunt down and apprehend all persons who attended field
conventicles and were obnoxious to Government, and hearing that a great
Covenanting meeting was to be held in the Upper Ward, left Kilbride on
Sabbath evening with a party of dragoons, and arrived about sunrise at St
John’s Kirk. He searched the house Very closely; but finding none of the
individuals of whom he was specially in quest, he pro-eeeded to the Murrays,
or Muirhouse of Thankerton, the residence of a well-known Covenanter, Mr
James Thomson. A fine opportunity was thus presented to the Lady of St
John’s Kirk to apprise her Mends at Covington Mill of their danger; but the
good lady was too much paralysed with her own fears to cause anything of
this kind to be done. Bonshaw, disappointed in not finding any of the
leading Covenanters at the Murrays, set off with his troop to the house of
Andrew Fisher, and his spouse, Elisabeth Lindsay, at Covington Mill, and
there he apprehended Messrs Cargill, Smith, and Boig. He was Vastly elated
with his success, and blessed the day that he had been bom to find so rich a
prise. He carried the prisoners to Lanark, and lodged them in the Tolbooth
till he obtained refreshments; and then mounting them on the bare batiks of
horses, he tied Mr Cargill’s feet below the home's belly, with circumstances
of great cruelty. In this posture he conveyed them hastily to Glasgow; and
after halting a short time in that city, transferred them to the prison of
Edinburgh. They were arraigned before the Court of Justiciary on the 26th of
July 1681, found guilty of high treason on their own confessions, and
oondemned to be hanged next day at the Cross of Edinburgh, and their heads
to be placed on the Nether Bow. This was accordingly done; and thus their
names were added to the roll of martyrs who have Ifedd down their lives for
opposition to tyranny and in defence of religions liberty. Irvine of Bonshaw,
as is well known, a short time afterwards, was killed in a squabble with one
of his drtinken associates at the town of Lanark; and it has ever sinoe been
considered by some persons as a special mark of divine vengeance, that he
suffered punishment in the place where he had exercised his oraeUies on
Donald Cargill
After this period Mrs
Baillie, or, as she was usually termed, the Lady of St John's Kirk, fellinto
considerable odium with the faore rigid of the Covenanters. It was rumoured
that she had been accessory to the capture of her late friends at Covington
Mill, Tbe rumour, it appears, had even reached those men in their
confinement in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, short as the time wa* which they
were allowed to live. One» of them, Walter Smith, in his dying testimony, as
inserted in the (Cloud of Witnesses,’ however, exonerates her from that
oharge. In reference to this he says, 4 As to my apprehending* we were
singularly delivered by Providence into the adversaries1 hands, and, for
what I could know, betrayed by no one, nor were my acoessory to our taking
more than we were ourselves. And particularly, let none blame the lady of St
John’s Kirk.’ Thia lady, in the killing years that followed, actually, it is
said, became a perse* outor, and allowed no person to dwell on her lands
unless they took the oath of abjuration, and attended the ministrations of
the curates. When Mr John Johnston in Grangehill of Pettinain, and Francis
Leverance of Covington, two of her old Covenanting friend^ waited on her to
remind her of her solemn declarations in favour of the covenanted work of
Reformation, and to remonstrate with her on her inconsistent and injurious
conduct, she refused to hold conversation with them, and ordered the door to
be shut in their faces. The dread of imprisonment and the forfeiture of the
family estate, had, no doubt, produced this change in her professions and
deportment; and this incident furnishes another illustration of the unhappy
effects produced by persecution fbr religion’s sake.
But two of the most
remarkable religious meetings, that took place in the Biggar district were
held in the Castle of Boghall, under the personal auspices of the Dowager
Countess of Wigton, a daughter o* Henry Lord Ker, and widow of John Fleming,
Earl of Wigton. These meetings were addressed by various outed ministers,
and were largely attended by the inhabitants of Biggar and the country
round. So daring a contravention of the Act to which we have referred, of
course attracted the attention of the tyrants who conducted public affairs
in Sootland, and, therefore, the following persons were, at the instance of
John Niabet of Dirletoa, his Majesty’s advocate, summoned to appear before
the Lords Commissioners and Lords of the Privy Council at Edinburgh, pn the
25th of July 1672, viz., Anna, Countes* of Wigton, James Crichton, John
Kello, James Brown, John Dalziel, John Henderson, John and Laurence Tait,
James Brown, wright, John Tod, mason, Alexander Gardiner, tailor, John
Nisbet, and Alexander Sknith, all residing in Biggar;?nJames Paterson,
Carwood; James Crichton, Westraw; William Cleghoro, Edmonston; Alex* ander
Story, there; William Thomson, Boghall; Malcolm Brown, Efhnonston} James
Cuthbertson, there; Peter Gillies, Skirling Wauk-miil; John Robertson,
procurator, Lanark; John Watson, notax, Carnwath; Thomas Criohton, Wolfdyde;
James Glasgow, Whitcastle; John Tweedie, Edmonston; Robert Lohean, Skirling;
William Forrest, there; John Newbigging, Carstairs; John Hutchison, Harelaw;
John Lochie, Ranstruther; Malcolm Gibson, Wester Pettinain; Ronald Spence,
Thankerton; James Thomson, Muirhouse of Thankerton; and James Adam in
NetherwamhilL All of these persons obeyed the summons, and appeared in
Edinburgh on the day appointed. The first person brought before the Privy
Council was John Robertson of Lanark. He admitted that he had been at the
conventicles kept at Boghall; and being commanded to declare upon oath all
that he knew regarding the persons who were present at these meetings, and
the business that was transacted, he refused to do so, and therefore was
ordered to be carried to prison, and there to remain until he should receive
further sentence. The Privy Council very likely saw that it would be a
difficult and tedious matter to deal with so many offenders, and it was on
this account, perhaps, that they appointed the Earls of Linlithgow, Murray,
and Dumfries; a sub-commission, to examine the others, and to imprison such
of them as would not become informers and give satisfactory answers, and to
impose fines on those who were less resolute, and promised to attend no more
conventicles in future. Fourteen of them, whose names deserve to be held in
remembrance,— viz., James Crichton and John Dalziel, Biggar; James
Paterson,' Carwood ; William Cleghom, Malcolm Brown, and James Forrest,
Edmonston; Peter Gillies, Skirling Waukmill; Thomas Crichton, Wolf-clyde;
James Glasgow, Whitcastle; James Lindsay, Netherwamhill; James Thomson,
Muirhouse; John Newbigging, Carstairs; John Hutchison, Harelaw; and Malcolm
Gibson,—were then examined before the Committee, and as they resolutely
refused to give the satisfaction required, they were condemned to suffer
imprisonment. What the ultimate fate of these individuals was, and of the
others who were arraigned on the same indictment, we have not been able to
ascertain. Some of them were, no doubt, subjected to as heavy fines as they
could bear, and others may have endured.a long captivity on the Bass, or in
the dungeons of Dunottar, or even may have been banished to the plantations
of America. The Countess of Wigton was fined in the sum of 4000 merks, which
she was ordered to pay to Sir William Sharp, his Majesty’s Treasurer.
One of those who attended the
conventicles at Boghall was Peter Gillies, of the waukmill of Skirling. His
subsequent fate is well known to those who are conversant with the history
of the Covenanting struggles. He had given refuge to some of the hard-hunted
and oppressed preachers of the Covenant, sheltered them for a night under
his roof, and supplied them with such victuals as his humble cottage
afforded This act of humanity had been reported to James Buchan, the curate
of Skirling, and this professed servant of Christ was never at rest till he
got Sir James Murray, the proprietor of Gillies’s little tenement, to throw
him and his family adrift on the world. After wandering about for some time,
he settled at length in the parish of Muiravoqside, in the county of
Stirling. Gillies was none of those faithless and faint-hearted individuals
that could be daunted by persecution, and led to change their opinions and
their practices to please the minions of power. He was still a staunch
Presbyterian, and readily attended a conventicle, or befriended an outed
minister, as often as an opportunity occurred. He thus incurred the
resentment of Andrew Ure, the curate of the parish in which he had settled;
and in 1682 this worthy obtained a troop of dragoons to apprehend him, but
at this time he happily escaped their fangs. He at length returned to his
family, and continued to pursue his humble vocation till April 1685, when
the curate caused another party of soldiers to apprehend him, and John
Bryce, a weaver from West Calder. The soldiers treated him most brutally,
and threatened to kill him before his wife, who a day or two previously had
been delivered of a child. They searched his house, carried off everything
that they could readily transport, and then hurried him away with them to
the west of Scotland. On the 5th of May he was served with an indictment at
Mauchline, charging him with having cast off the fear of God, and his
allegiance and duty to the King; with having approved of the principles of
rebellious traitors and blasphemers against God, and of the practice of
taking up arms against the King and those commissioned by him; with adhering
to the Covenant, and refusing to pray for his most gracious majesty the
King. He was tried on these charges before Lieutenant-General Drummond and a
jury of fifteen soldiers, found guilty, and condemned to be hanged next day
at the Town-end of Mauchline. This sentence was accordingly carried into
execution. No coffin was prepared for his remains; some of the soldiers and
two countrymen dug a hole in the earth, and there deposited his body in the
same state as it had been cut down from the gibbet. Thus died the once
humble tenant of Skirling Waukmill, the friend of suffering humanity, the
victim of relentless persecution, and the unflinching adherent of the
covenanted work of Reformation.
Biggar and its neighbourhood
furnished a contingent to the muster of Covenanters that took place, in June
1679, at Bothwell Bridge. The number of countrymen who assembled on this
occasion was considerable, and they might have produced very important
effects on the Government of Scotland, had they been commanded by proper
officers, and not allowed themselves to be tom asunder by contentions
regarding topics which, however important they might be in themselves, were
completely out of place at such a juncture. On the 22d of June they were
attacked by the royal troops under the command of the Duke of Monmouth, and
completely routed. Many of the men of the Biggar district escaped. In the
fugitive rolls of the period, we find the names of the following, among
other persons, who either had been at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge, or had
sheltered some of those who fled from that unhappy conflict, viz.: James
Crichton; Gideon Crawford, merchant; John Gilkers, heritor; Robert Aitken,
merchant; and Alexander Smith, weaver, all belonging to Biggar;—John Fisher,
Covington Mill; Robert Brown, smith, Covington Hillhead; James Thomson,
Muirhouse, Thankerton; James Weir, Lamington; Andrew Gilroy, Walston; and
Hugh Sommerville, Quothquan.
The names of all the persons
connected with the Biggar district, who were taken prisoners at Bothwell,
cannot now be ascertained. The following have been preserved on account of
the fate that ultimately befell them, viz.: John Rankin, Biggar; and James
Penman, James Thomson, and Thomas Wilson, Quothquan. The prisoners owed
their lives to the clemency of the Duke of Monmouth. Some of the Royalists,
and particularly Claverhouse, who was smarting from the defeat which he had,
a short time before, sustained at Drumclog, urged that they should all be
shot on the field; but Monmouth, who had a leaning towards the Covenanters,
would not listen to such a barbarous proposal. Numbering in all about 1400
men, they were marched in a most deplorable state to Edinburgh, and confined
like so many cattle in an enclosure called the Inner Greyfriars Churchyard.
They were pent up in this place without any covering from the blasts and
dews of heaven, and were forced to lie all night on the cold ground; and any
one that stirred or made a noise was liable to be fired at by the sentinels.
Their allowance of food was four ounces of bread and a small quantity of
water daily. Many persons in Edinburgh pitied their condition, and were
willing to contribute to their comfort; but the food, clothing, and money
which they sent, were, in many instances, not admitted, or appropriated by
the sentinels to their own use.
After they had continued in
this wretched state for some time, a proposal was made that they should sign
a bond not again to take up arms against the King or his authority. Nearly a
thousand signed this bond, and were set at liberty; but the remaining four
hundred obstinately refused to sign it, and no entreaty, nor even the report
that they would all be put to death, could induce them to comply. Day after
day they submitted to the most severe privations, and endured the most acute
sufferings. As the rigours of winter drew on, the hearts of the authorities
began a little to relent, and they were treated with more indulgence and
humanity. A few huts were erected to shelter them from the inclemency of the
weather, and a more ready access was given to their friends. The consequence
was, that about a hundred of them effected their escape, either by climbing
over the walls, or being disguised in women’s clothes; and a few more, at
the earnest solicitation of some Presbyterian ministers, were induced to
sign the bond. Their numbers were now reduced to 257 individuals. From the
want of sufficient nutriment and exposure to the weather by day and night,
their bodies were fearfully emaciated, and many of them were afflicted with
acute diseases. It was understood that some of them were now rather disposed
to submit to the requirements of Government; but the Privy Council,
irritated perhaps by their obstinacy, passed, on the whole of them, a
sentence of banishment to Barbadoes. Early on the morning of the 15th
November, after they had been confined in the churchyard nearly five months,
they were marched to Leith, and put on board a vessel belonging to William
Paterson, merchant, Edinburgh, where their sufferings, from want of water,
food, and fresh air, and from being jammed together in a narrow hold, were
worse than ever. They sailed from Leith Roads on the 27th November, and on
the 10th of the following month, when passing the Orkney Islands, were
overtaken by a storm, and the ship was ultimately dashed on the rocks. The
captain had ordered the hatches to be locked and chained down; and when the
vessel struck he refused to open them, but provided for the safety of
himself and his men. The consequence was, that some time elapsed before the
prisoners could get on deck. About forty of them, by means of boards,
reached a place of safety, and the remainder found a watery grave amid the
tempestuous surges of the Pentland Firth. Among those saved was James
Penman, Quothquan; and among the drowned were James Rankin, Biggar, and
Thomas Wilson and James Thomson, Quothquan. Biggar thus furnished at least
one unflinching martyr in the cause of the Covenant, whose name is entitled
to be held in remembrance in the annals of the town.
The Rev. Dr Robert Simpson of
Sanquhar, in his work entitled 4 Gleanings among the Mountains,' relates an
incident of the Covenanting times, which, he says, occurred at Biggar. It is
to the effect that two brothers, of the names of Thomas and James Harkness,
were apprehended in the wilds of Nithsdale by a party of dragoons, and
conveyed to Edinburgh, where they were placed in confinement. By some means
or other they contrived to escape, and, in returning to their native place,
had occasion to pass Biggar. The good town, it seems, still possessed some
of the persecutors spoken of by Kirton, and, among others, the leader of the
very party who had captured the two brothers. Resolving to give him a taste
of the terrors which he was in the habit of occasioning to others, they
obtained firearms, went to his house, and demanded to see him. His wife
denied that he was at home, but a little boy betrayed the place of his
concealment. He was instantly seized, dragged to the fields, and ordered to
prepare for death. The brothers having blindfolded him with a napkin, caused
him to kneel and offer up a prayer; and this being done, they presented
their muskets and fired. Their intention, however, was not to kill him; so
after the volley they plucked off the napkin from his eyes, and raised him
in a state of almost entire insensibility to his feet. This event made a
powerful impression on his mind. He began to reflect on his previous course
of life, and was struck with its injustice, cruelty, and sinfulness. He
ceased to be a persecutor, and entering on a new course of conduct, became
an entirely altered man. How far this story may be founded on fact, we have
no means of deciding.
Graham of Claverhouse, in
course of his murderous raids through the western shires of Scotland, paid
occasional visits to the Upper Ward, and there exercised the cruelties for
which, in all succeeding times, he has been so infamously distinguished. He
was ranging up and down this district in 1685, when he met with James Brown
of Coulter, fishing in the Clyde. He caused him to be searched; and a
powder-horn having been found on his person, he denounced him as a knave and
ordered him to be shot. He commanded six of his troopers to dismount and
carry his sentence into execution; but the Laird of Culterallers, who
happened to be present, interceded in his behalf, and so his life was spared
till next day. He was bound with cords and carried off to the south by the
soldiers. He was ultimately confined in the Tolbooth of Selkirk, from which
he contrived to escape, and thus eluded the fangs of that stem persecutor,
who seldom felt much scruple in imbruing his hands in the blood of his
fellow-men.
In order more thoroughly to
overawe the people of Biggar and the country adjacent, a detachment of
soldiers was stationed in the Castle of Boghall. These soldiers no doubt
embraced every opportunity of exercising their cruel and tyrannical
propensities on the poor and oppressed inhabitants, and carrying out the
behests of a blind and infuriated Government. We find that the Committee on
Public Affairs, on the 16th July 1684, wrote a letter to Sir William Murray
of Stanhope, Sir Archibald Murray of Blackbarony, and John Veitch of Dawick,
stating that they had been informed that conventicles had been held at
CamhiU and Colston’s Loup, in the county of Peebles, and complaining that
these gentlemen had furnished no information legarding the persons who had
been present, in violation of the terms of the proclamation of Council, in
1682. They were therefore ordered to make diligent search for, and to
apprehend, both the preachers and hearers on these occasions; and to avail
themselves in this work of the assistance of the garrison of Boghall.
The Covenanters in the Upper
Ward, in spite of all the efforts of Government, kept up their meetings. By
means of the Societies which were first formed in December 1681, they
maintained a complete organization, and were, no doubt, regularly trained to
the art of war, in order to be ready to take advantage of any favourable
juncture that might arise, to assert their claims. They carried on a
continued correspondence with the Prince of Orange, mainly through Sir
Robert Hamilton; and when that Prince arrived in England, they lost no time
in holding a great meeting, in the Church of Douglas, on the 29th April
1687, at which it was resolved in fourteen days to raise two battalions,
each to consist of ten companies of sixty men each. The result of this step
was the formation of a regiment, which still exists, under the name of the
26th, or Cameronian Regiment, and which, on various occasions, has greatly
distinguished itself by achievements on the battle-field. |
