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CARGILL, DONALD,
an eminent preacher of the Church of Scotland, in the reign of Charles II.
was the won of respectable parents in the parish of Rattray, Perthshire,
where he was born about the year 1610. He studied at Aberdeen, and became
minister of the barony parish, Glasgow, in 1650. On the establishment of
the episcopal church, he refused to accept collation from the archbishop,
or celebrate the king’s birthday, which caused his banishment, by act of
council, beyond the Tay. Paying little regard to this order, he was, in
1668, called before the council, and commanded peremptorily to observe
their former edict. In September 1669, upon his petition, he was permitted
to go to Edinburgh upon some legal business, but not to reside in that
city, or go near Glasgow. He now became a field-preacher, and so continued
for some years, during which period he had many remarkable escapes from
the vigilance of the government. He refused the indulgence offered to the
presbyterian clergy, and denounced all who accepted it.
In 1679 he was
at Bothwell Bridge, where he was wounded, but made his escape. He
afterwards went to Holland, but early in the summer of 1680 was again in
Scotland. On June 3d of that year, he made a narrow escape from being
seized in a public-house in Queensferry by the governor of Blackness, who,
in the struggle, mortally wounded his companion, Mr. Henry Hall of Haugh-head.
In the pockets of the latter was found a paper of a violent nature,
generally supposed to have been written by Mr. Cargill, which is known in
history by the name of the Queensferry Covenant, from the place where it
was found. Mr. Cargill also appears to have been concerned with Richard
Cameron in publishing the declaration at Sanquhar on the 22d of June. In
the subsequent September he preached to a large congregation in the
Torwood, between Falkirk and Stirling, when he formally excommunicated the
king, and the dukes of York, Monmouth, Lauderdale, and Rothes, Sir George
Mackenzie, and Sir Thomas Dalzell. In consequence of this violent
proceeding, the privy council offered a reward of 5,000 merks for his
apprehension, but for several months he eluded the vigilance of the
soldiery. In May 1681 he was seized at Covington, in Lanarkshire, by
Irving of Bonshaw, who treated him with great cruelty, and carried him to
Lanark on horseback, with his feet tied under the horse’s belly. He was
soon after sent to Edinburgh, where, on the 26th of July, he
was tried, and being condemned to suffer death for high treason, was
accordingly hanged and beheaded, July 27, 1681. |
