WODROW, ROBERT, the faithful
and laborious author of the "History of the Sufferings of the Church of
Scotland," was born in Glasgow, in the year 1679. He was the second son of
Mr James Wodrow, professor of divinity in the college of that city, a man of
singular piety and learning. His mother, Margaret Hair, was the daughter of
William Hair, the proprietor of a small estate in the parish of Kilbarchan,
Renfrewshire. In this parent, he was equally fortunate as in the other. To
all the piety of her husband, she added a degree of strength of mind, not
often associated with her sex.
In 1691, young Wodrow was
entered a student in the university of his native city, and went through the
usual course of academical education then adopted there, and which included
several of the learned languages, and various branches of philosophy.
Theology he studied under his father, and, while engaged in this pursuit,
was appointed librarian to the college; a situation to which the peculiar
talent which he already displayed for historical and bibliographical
inquiry, had recommended him. This office he held for four years; and it was
during this time that he acquired the greater part of that knowledge of the
ecclesiastical and literary history of his country, which he applied, during
the course of his after life, to such good purpose, as to have the
effect of associating his name, at once honourably and indissolubly, with
those interesting subjects. At this period he imbibed, also, a taste for
antiquarian research, and the study of natural history, which introduced him
to the notice, and procured him the friendship, of several of the most
eminent men of the day. But all these pursuits were carefully kept
subordinate to what he had determined to make the great and sole business of
his life, the study of theology, and the practical application of its
principles. To the former, he devoted only his leisure hours; to the
latter, all the others that were not appropriated to necessary repose.
On completing his theological
studies at the university, Mr Wodrow went to reside with a distant
relation of the family, Sir John Maxwell, of Nether Pollook; and, while
here, offered himself for trials to the presbytery of Paisley, by whom he
was licensed to preach the gospel, in March, 1703. On the 28th of October
following, he was ordained minister of the parish of Eastwood, near Glasgow,
through the influence of the family with which he resided. Eastwood was, at
that period, one of the smallest parishes in Scotland; but it was just such
a one as suited Mr Wodrow: for its clerical duties being comparatively
light, he was enabled to devote a portion of his time to his favourite
studies in history and antiquities, without neglecting the obligations which
his sacred office imposed upon him; and of this circumstance he appreciated
the value so highly, that he could never be induced, though frequently
invited, to accept any other charge. Glasgow, in 1712, made the attempt, in
vain, to withdraw him from his obscure, but beloved retreat, and to secure
his pastoral services for the city; and Stirling, in 1717, and again in
1726, made similar attempts, but with similar success. The sacrifices which
he made, however, by rejecting these overtures, were amply compensated by
the affectionate attachment of his little flock, who rejoiced in his
ministry, and were made happy by the amiableness of his manners, and the
kindliness of his disposition. Although the charge in which he was placed
was an obscure one, Mr Wodrow’s talents soon made it sufficiently
conspicuous. The eloquence of his sermons, the energy and felicity of the
language in which they were composed, and the solemn and impressive manner
in which they were delivered, quickly spread his fame as a preacher, and
placed him at the head of his brethren in the west of Scotland.
The popularity and reputation
of Mr Wodrow, naturally procured for him a prominent place in the
ecclesiastical courts which he attended; and in this attendance, whether on
presbyteries, synods, or the General Assembly, he was remarkable for his
punctuality. Of the latter, he was frequently chosen a member; and on
occasions of public interest, was often still more intimately associated
with the proceedings of the church, by being nominated to committees. In all
these instances he took a lively interest in the matters under discussion,
and was in the habit of keeping regular notes of all that passed; a practice
which enabled him to leave a mass of manuscript records behind him,
containing, with other curious matter, the most authentic and interesting
details of the proceedings of the Scottish ecclesiastical courts of his
time, now in existence.
In 1707, Mr Wodrow was
appointed a member of a committee of presbytery to consult with the brethren
of the commission in Edinburgh as to the best means of averting the evils
with which it was supposed the Union would visit the church and people of
Scotland; and, on the accession of George I., he was the principal adviser
of the five clergymen deputed by the Assembly to proceed to London to plead
the rights of the former, and to solicit the abolition of the law of
patronage, of which he was a decided enemy. In this the deputation did not
succeed. The law was continued in force, and Mr Wodrow, with that sense of
propriety which pervaded all his sentiments and notions, inculcated a
submission to its decisions. He did not deem it becoming the character of a
Christian minister to be in any way accessary to acts of insubordination or
of resistance to the laws of his country by irregular and unconstitutional
means. The same feeling of propriety induced him to continue on friendly
terms with those clergymen whose consciences permitted them to take the
abjuration oath, although he, in his own case, resisted its imposition. But
so far from taking offence at those who did, he exerted all his influence to
reconcile the people to them, and to induce them to believe that compliance
was no proof of apostasy.
Mr Wodrow’s life presents us
with little more of particular interest than what is contained in the
circumstances just narrated, until it becomes associated with that work
which has made his name so memorable, namely, "The History of the Sufferings
of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution." This
work, for which his integrity, candour, liberality of sentiment, and
talents, eminently qualified him,
he contemplated from an early period of his life; but it was only in the
year 1707, that he began seriously to labour on it. From this time, however,
till its publication in 1721 and 1722, a period of between fourteen and
fifteen years, he devoted all his leisure hours to its composition.
On the appearance of Mr
Wodrow’s History, which was published in three large folio volumes at
separate times, in the years above named, its author was attacked by those
whom his fidelity as an historian had offended, with the vilest scurrility
and abuse. Anonymous and threatening letters were sent to him, and every
description of indignity was attempted to be thrown on both his person and
his work. The faithful, liberal, and impartial character of the history,
nevertheless, procured its author many and powerful friends. Its merits
were, by a large party, appreciated and acknowledged, and every man
whose love of truth was stronger than his prejudices, awarded it the meed of
his applause. Copies of the work were presented by Dr Fraser to their
majesties, and the prince and princess of Wales, and were received so
graciously, and so much approved of, that the presentation was almost
immediately followed by a royal order on the Scottish exchequer for one
hundred guineas to be paid to the author, as a testimony of his majesty’s
favourable opinion of his merits. The warrant for the payment of this sum is
dated the 26th April, 1725. In 1830, a second edition of the History was
published, in 4 volumes 8vo, by Messrs Blackie and Fullarton of Glasgow,
under the editorial care of the Rev. Dr Burns of Paisley, now of Toronto,
Canada.
Mr Wodrow’s literary labours
did not end with the publication of his History. He afterwards planned and
executed the scheme of a complete history of the church of Scotland, in a
series of lives of all the eminent men who appeared from the beginning of
the Reformation down to the period at which his preceding work commenced.
This valuable production, which contains an accurate and comprehensive view
of some of the most important and interesting events in the history of the
kingdom, has never yet been entirely published. It lies still in manuscript
in the library of the university of Glasgow.
Besides these works, Mr
Wodrow has left behind him six small but closely written volumes of
traditionary and other memoranda regarding the lives and labours of
remarkable ministers, and comprising all the occurrences of the period which
he thought worth recording. These volumes are designated by the general name
of Analecta, and the entries extend over a space of twenty-seven
years, viz., from 1705 to 1732. The Analecta contains much curious
information regarding the times of its author, and is full of anecdote, and
amusing and interesting notices of the remarkable persons of the day. It is
preserved in the original manuscript in the Advocates’ library at Edinburgh,
where it is often consulted by the curious inquirer into the times to which
it relates; so often indeed, that the greater part of it has found
its way to the public, though in a disguised and unacknowledged shape,
through the medium of various publications in which its matter has been
wrought up with other materials.
A large portion of Mr
Wodrow’s time, all of which was laboriously and usefully employed in the
discharge of his various duties, was occupied in an extensive epistolary
correspondence with acquaintances and friends in different parts of the
world, but this was no idle correspondence. He made it in all cases
subservient to the purposes of improving his general knowledge, and of
adding to his stores of information; and with this view he was in the habit
of transmitting to his correspondents lists of queries, on subjects of
general and public interest, and particularly on matters connected with
religion, as they stood in their several localities. With all this labour,
he regularly devoted two days in every week to his preparation for the
pulpit, and bestowed besides the most assiduous attention on all the other
duties of his parish.
In the case of professor
Simpson of Glasgow, the successor of Mr Wodrow’s father, who was suspended
from his office by the General Assembly for his Arian sentiments, Mr Wodrow
felt himself called upon as a minister of the gospel, and a friend to
evangelical truth, to take an active part with his brethren against the
professor. The latter, as already said, was suspended, but through a feeling
of compassion the emoluments of his office were reserved to him; a kindness
for which, it is not improbable, he may have been indebted, at least in some
measure, to the benevolent and amiable disposition of the subject of this
memoir. Soon after this occurrence Mr Wodrow took occasion, when preaching
on the days of the 10th and 11th June, 1727, in the Barony church of
Glasgow, to illustrate the divinity of the Saviour in opposition to the
sentiments of the Arians and Socinians. These sermons had the effect of
rousing the religious zeal of one of the former sect, a Mr William Paul, a
student of theology, to such a pitch as to induce him, on the day following,
to challenge Mr Wodrow to a public or private disputation or to a written
controversy. This challenge, however, the latter did not think it prudent to
accept.
In the affair of the
celebrated Marrow Controversy, which opened the way to the Secession
in 1733, Mr Wodrow decided and acted with his usual prudence, propriety, and
liberality. He thought that those who approved of the sentiments and
doctrines contained in the work from which the controversy took its name,
viz., the "Marrow of Modern Divinity," went too far in their attempts to
vindicate them, and that the Assembly, on the other hand, had been too
active and too forward in their condemnation. On the great question about
subscription to articles of faith, he took a more decided part, and ever
looked upon the nonsubseribers as enemies to the cause of evangelical
Christianity.
On this subject he
corresponded largely with various intelligent and some eminent men in
different parts of the three kingdoms, especially in Ireland, from whom he
collected a mass of opinion and information regarding presbyterianisin in
that country, which for interest and importance cannot be equalled.
The valuable and laborious
life of the author of the History of the Sufferings of the Church of
Scotland, was now, however, drawing to a close. His constitution had been
naturally good, and during the earlier part of his life he had enjoyed
uninterrupted health; but the severity of his studious habits at length
began to bear him down. He was first seriously affected in 1726, and from
this period continued gradually to decline till 1734, an interval of pain
and suffering of no less than eight years, when he expired, on the 21st
March, in the 55th year of his age; dying, as he had lived, in the faith of
the gospel, and love to all mankind. His remains were interred in the
church-yard of Eastwood, where his memory has lately been commemorated by
the erection of a monument.
Mr Wodrow was married in the
end of the year 1708, to Margaret Warner, grand-daughter of William Guthrie
of Fenwick, author of the "Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ," and
daughter of the reverend Patrick Warner of Ardeer, Ayrshire, and minister of
Irvine. He left at his death four sons, and five daughters. The eldest of
the former succeeded his father in the parish of Eastwood, but was compelled
to retire from it by an infirm state of health.
The History of the Sufferings of the
Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution
By the Rev. Robert Wodrow of the Gospel at Eastwood with an original memoir
of the author, extracts from his correspondence, a preliminary dissertation,
and notes by the Rev. Robert Burns, D.D., F.A.S.E. (1828) in four volumes
(new edition) ADVERTISEMENT BY
THE PUBLISHERS The character of
"The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland," by the Reverend
and Venerable Rebert Wodrow, is ťo universally known and so fully
established as to render any culoghlin upon its merits altogether
superfluous. Perhaps no history ever gave a more complete view of the period
nor, in most instances, a more graphic description of the events which it
professed to embrace. Possessing, at once, a fulness of detail that Inis
left itrle to be supplied, and an accuracy with regard to [natters of lad
that during the lapse of a century has never been successfully called in
question, it has always been regarded as die grand depository of those
maxims of justice and of truth which the invincible baud of Scottish
Patriots, Confessors and Martyrs, watered with their blond, and roitseerated
with their dying hearth, as the unalienable inheritance of their posterity.
1'rom this work, since the era of its publication, as from n common source,
have been drawn all Ilie more respectable narratives approaching the men of
those times; and to the information it contains, the most diligent compilers
have been able to add almost nothing..
The first and only edition of this invaluable work appeared in 1721—72, in
two large folio volumes; and it Is now entirely out of print. The present
edition, while in respect of typography and convenient size, it is vastly
superior to the original one, is printed from it word for word, nothing
being either added or omitted; Only, the original papers which In that
edition form so many appendixes to each volume, are in this, printed at the
font of (he pages to which they refer, and this has been done principally
for the advantage of the reader in the way of easy reference. Typographical
and other errors, in the names of persona and. places, particularly, have
been corrected; and the “additions and amendments" inserted by the author at
the beginning of his second volume, have been inserted in the places to
which they severally belong. A few notes are added, partly original, and
partly selected from extemporary authors, and millers of a later date, to
which Wodrow could not be supposed to have accost. In these, brevity has
been studied, and nothing has been hazarded either in the way of original
remark or quotation, that did not seem necessary for the purposes of
historical evidence and illustration.
The interesting Memoir of the author has been drawn up by the Rev. Dr. Burns
of Paisley, a gentleman, whose literary talents, access to the author’s
unpublished manuscripts, and opportunities of communicating with the
surviving branches of his family, eminently qualified him for the task. To
this Memoir are appended some valuable specimens of the Correspondence of
Wodrow, from original MSS. These form a very appropriate and pleasing
introduction to the History.
There has been lately published in London a new and improved edition of the
works of Archbishop Leighton, preceded by a Life of the Author, by the Rev.
John Norman Pearson, A. M., a clergyman of the Church of England, who now
holds, we believe, the important attention of Principal to the Church
Mission College- In that publication, Mr. Pearson, has been pleased to
characterize Mr. Wodrxw as “a disingenuous Historian" and has in various
instances given what we consider an unfair representation of the Covenanters
and their times. We trust that the Parliamentary Dissertation to thia work,
by Dr. Burns, will be found io contain a sufficient vindication of Wodrow
and the Covenanters; and we request the attention of Mr Pearson hud his
readers to the following Testimonies in favour of Wodrow: the reader will
perceive that they are not all Presbyterians who so favourably characterize
his work.
Mr. Chalmers, the learned author of the Biographical Dictionary, says of It:
“It is written with a fidelity that has seldom been disputed; and confirmed,
at the end of each volume, by a large mass of public and private records."
Saya Mr. Dibdin, whose accurate knowledge of books has been rarely equalled:
“I proceed not only to the notice, but to the strong recommendation of
Wodrow’s History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland. Considering
that these volumes have long richly deserved republication, one Is surprised
that so valuable a work in so repulsive a garb (for it is most wretchedly
printed) has been suffered to remain without improvement."
Dr. Robert Watt, the laborious and learned author of the Bibliotheca
Britannica, says ol Wodrow’s History, “This History is written 'with a
fidelity seldom equalled.”
Mr. Fox, in his History of the Early Part of the Reign of James II, thus
expresses himself: "No historical facts are better ascertained than the
accounts of them which are to he found in Wodrow. In every instance where
there has been an opportunity of comparing these accounts with the records,
and other authentic monuments, they appear to be quite correct.”
Among modern writers of distinguished eminence we have to quote the
sentiments of Dr. M'Crie, author of the Lives of Knox nud Melville, &c. as
stated in a letter to the Rev. Dr. Burns:- "You are too well acquainted with
my opinion of Mr. Wodrow's valuable History uf the Sufferings of the Church
of Scotland, to make it necessary for me to say any thing on that head. It
gave me great satisfaction to hear that a new Edition of the work, in a more
portable form, and at a moderate price, was about to be printed at Glasgow.
I have just seen the first number of that edition, and am much pleased with
its neatness, and, so far as 1 have examined it, with its correctness. The
information that you have agreed to superintend the publication; is to me
all the pledge which 1 could desire for the accuracy with which it will be
executed. Accept of my best thanks for the pleasure I have derived from
reading your interesting Memoir of the worthy Author, which, together with
the selections from his original Letters, must prove an acceptable and mast
appropriate addition to the work.
“THOMAS M'CRIE, D.D.
“Edinburgh 26th March, 1828."
We have also been favoured with the following testimony from the Rev. Dr.
Cook, the eminent historian of the *Reformation,' and of the 'Church of
Scotland: "From a very careful examination of Wodrow's History of the
Sufferings uf the Church of Scotland, to which I was led in the prosecution
of my own historical researches, l can, with confidence, state, that it is a
most valuable work. It comprehends a period deeply interesting; and the
industrious and, highly intelligent Author has not only, with great
clearance, and often with much feeling, detailed the sad events which it was
his province to record; but he has collected an immense number of precious
documents which are now nowhere else to be found, and which throw great
light upon the opinions and manners of the age with which they arc
connected. As the work had become so scarce as to be inaccessible to the
generality of readers, the republication of it is, in my opinion, an
essential service to the public.
“GEORGE COOK, D. D.
“29th February, 1828.“
We shall close this series of testimonies with one which has been politely
presented to us by the Rev. James Kidd, D. D. Professor of Oriental
Languages In Marischal College, Aberdeen — “The interval from 1660 till 1688
is not exceeded in interest by any other in the Annals of our country. The
public affairs of this period, both in Church and State, are the most
momentous that Scotland ever saw. To the struggles of our Protestant
forefathers, during this time, we owe almost all tha liberty and light which
we now enjoy; while the ruinous tendency of the Interference of wicked men
with the affairs of the Church of Christ appears very evident, in the
conduct of the rulers nf Britain in those eventful times.
“Wodruw, the distinguished Historian of this period, is pre-eminently
careful in search of Truth, wherever it can be found; he writes like a man
who witnessed every circumstance which he relates, and his descriptions are
given with singular accuracy and unadorned simplicity. The subtilty and
perfidlousness of Archbishop Sharp are related with a plainness that
indicates, neither hatred nor asperity on the part of the writer; while the
tale is so recorded, as so awaken all the sympathies of the reader’s heart
for the hapless victims of persecution. Indeed, were there nothing to
recommend Wodrows History but his description of the behaviour of ihe
Marquis of Argyip and the Rev. Mr. James Guthrie, the Work ought tu be
possesed and read by every true Presbyterian, and by all to whom the memory
of the covenanted cause is dear.
“Such are the subjects which comprise the records of this Interesting
History. The edition now offered to the public is the cheapest ever
published, and I account it a privilege to recommend to my fellow-citizens
and countrymen this faithful Narrative of the Sufferings of the Church of
Scotland.
"JAMES KIDD, D.D. F.R.A.S.
“Aberdeen, January 25th, 1828."
We hope the plates In this edition will be considered as a valuable
appendage. They are all derived from the most authentic sources, and are
executed in the best style. We have been exceedingly anxious to obtain a
true portrait nf the historian himself; but after a laborious search among
the descendants of his family still in Scotland, we have been disappointed
in our wishes. It is not impossible that such a thing may be in the
possession of those descendants of the family now in America and who have
been written to on that point: if so, our readers shall be favoured with it
as soon as it reaches us.
Glasgow, May 20th, 1828
Volume 1 |
Volume 2 |
Volume 3 |
Volume 4
The Correspondence of the Rev.
Robert Wodrow
Edited from Manuscripts in the library of the Faculty of Advocates,
Edinburgh by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie
Volume
1 |
Volume
2 |