BOOK IV.

BOOK IV.

DECEMBER, A.D. 1662-1664.

DECEMBER, A.D. 1662-1664.

DECEMBER, A.D. 1662-1664.

State of the West and South—Bishops—Curates—Their reception—Tumult at Irongray—Commission sent to Kirkcudbright and Dumfries—Field-preaching—Rothes and Lauderdale arrive in Scotland—Parliament—Warriston’s arrest and execution—Principal Wood of St Andrews and other ministers silenced and scattered—Troops ordered to enforce the Acts of Parliament—Their outrages—Sir James Turner—High Commission Court—Its atrocities—Privy Council—Its exactions—Prohibits private prayer-meetings or contributing money for the relief of the sufferers—William Guthrie of Fenwick laid aside—Donaldson of Dalgetty’s case—Death of Glencairn—Political changes.

While these struggles were going forward at court, the affairs of Scotland were in a state of the most woful confusion. Almost the whole parishes in the west and south had been deprived of their ministers; and as their own churches remained vacant, the people in crowds flocked to those where the few old Presbyterian ministers were yet allowed to officiate. These assemblies having been denounced by the council’s proclamation, attracted the attention of the soldiers; and numerous parties patrolled the country to disturb the meetings and levy the fines to which offenders were liable.

When the vacant charges came to be filled, (1663,) new sources of disturbance arose. No preparation had been made for such an exigence as bad now arisen. The regular candidates for the ministry were too few; and of these but a small proportion were willing to pursue their studies under the direction of the bishops, or accept of Episcopal ordination. The north was therefore ransacked, and a great number of ignorant, uneducated youngmen, not more deficient in talents and acquirements than in decent common moral conduct,[31]were hastily brought forward to supply the places of the ejected ministers, who in general were both pious, learned, and of respectable abilities; many of them eminently so, and all laborious in the discharge of their duties, exemplary in their lives, and dear to their people. These presentees, who were contemptuously styled by the people “bishops’ curates,” when intruded upon them without any regard to their wishes or choice, were received in many places with the most determined opposition; in some, they were compelled to retire; and, in others, obliged to enter by the windows, the doors being built up; and thus literally to display the scriptural characteristic of spiritual thieves and robbers. The Presbyterian ministers had uniformly classed prelacy and popery together; and, at the settlement of the new clergy, the prelates justified the charge by employing the military to enforce their ecclesiastical appointments, and ordaining their parsons at the point of the sword. The patrons, in most cases, had allowed their rights to devolve upon the bishops; and thus the whole undivided obloquy rested on their consecrated heads, which was not lessened when some of the careless or profane heritors, to ingratiate themselves with the rulers, feasted the clergy at their settlements, and, aping the loyalty of their superiors, conducted their entertainments with an equally jovial disregard of decency and temperance.

31.Bishop Burnet, himself an Episcopalian, thus characterizes them:—“They were the worst preachers I ever heard. They were ignorant to a reproach; and many of them were openly vicious. They were a disgrace to their order and the sacred function, and were indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts. Those of them who were above contempt or scandal, were men of such violent tempers, that they were as much hated as the others were despised.”

31.Bishop Burnet, himself an Episcopalian, thus characterizes them:—“They were the worst preachers I ever heard. They were ignorant to a reproach; and many of them were openly vicious. They were a disgrace to their order and the sacred function, and were indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts. Those of them who were above contempt or scandal, were men of such violent tempers, that they were as much hated as the others were despised.”

31.Bishop Burnet, himself an Episcopalian, thus characterizes them:—“They were the worst preachers I ever heard. They were ignorant to a reproach; and many of them were openly vicious. They were a disgrace to their order and the sacred function, and were indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts. Those of them who were above contempt or scandal, were men of such violent tempers, that they were as much hated as the others were despised.”

But there was also an opposition of a more solemn and impressive nature offered by the serious part of the people in different parishes, who received the intruders when they came among them with tears, and entreated them earnestly to be gone, nor ruin the poor congregations and their own souls. Neither of these methods, however, had any effect; the thoughtless wretches entered upon that awful charge—the care of souls—as if they had beentaking forcible possession of an heritable estate to which they had a legal right.[32]

32.The following appears to have been the clerical mode of infeftment:—At the admission of Mr John Ramsay to the parish of Sconie, in Fife, “Mr Jossia Meldrum, minister of Kingorne, after sermon ended, he tooke his promise to be faithfull in his charge of that flock: and ther was delivered to him the bibell, the keys of the church doore, and the bell-tou.”Lamont’s Diary, p. 192.

32.The following appears to have been the clerical mode of infeftment:—At the admission of Mr John Ramsay to the parish of Sconie, in Fife, “Mr Jossia Meldrum, minister of Kingorne, after sermon ended, he tooke his promise to be faithfull in his charge of that flock: and ther was delivered to him the bibell, the keys of the church doore, and the bell-tou.”Lamont’s Diary, p. 192.

32.The following appears to have been the clerical mode of infeftment:—At the admission of Mr John Ramsay to the parish of Sconie, in Fife, “Mr Jossia Meldrum, minister of Kingorne, after sermon ended, he tooke his promise to be faithfull in his charge of that flock: and ther was delivered to him the bibell, the keys of the church doore, and the bell-tou.”Lamont’s Diary, p. 192.

As the south had been favoured with remarkably faithful pastors, the strongest resistance appeared there. Irongray was the first settlement where open “tumultuating” took place. The curate not being able to obtain peaceable admission, returned with a party of soldiers to force an entrance, when a band of women, led on by a Margaret Smith, attacked the guard with stones, and triumphantly beat them off the field. Margaret, the fair heroine, was brought to Edinburgh, and sentenced to slavery in Barbadoes; but she “told her tale so innocently,” that the managers, not yet steeled to compassion, permitted her to return home. The parish was not, however, allowed to escape with impunity. Upon hearing of this disturbance, and a similar one at Kirkcudbright, the privy council, as if the country had been in an actual state of rebellion, appointed the Earls of Linlithgow, Galloway, and Annandale, with Lord Drumlanrig and Sir John Wauchope of Niddry, to proceed on a commission of inquiry to that district, attended by an hundred horse and two hundred foot of the king’s guard, with power to suppress all meetings or insurrections of the people, if any should happen.

At Kirkcudbright, the commission held several diets, and examined a number of witnesses. Of about thirty-two women whom they apprehended, five were sent to Edinburgh; and Bessie Laurie, with thirteen others, were bound over to keep the peace. Lord Kirkcudbright—who had declared if the minister came there he should come over his body, and that he would lose his fortune before he should be preacher there; but at the same time admitted, that, if the minister had come in by his presentation, he could have raised as many men as would have prevented a tumult—was transmitted under a guard to Edinburgh. James Carson of Fenwick, the late provost, although not in power, and John Ewart,who had refused to accept the office, because they had declined interfering upon the occasion, were also sent prisoners to the capital, where they were kept in confinement several months;[33]besides, in addition, being severely fined. The five women were sentenced to stand at the cross of Kirkcudbright two hours on two market days, with labels on their foreheads denoting their crimes, and thereafter to find bail to keep the peace. New magistrates were appointed for the burgh, who, on accepting the nomination, signed a bond in their own name and that of the haill inhabitants of the place, binding and obliging them, and ilk one of them, during their public trust, and all the inhabitants, to behave themselves loyally, and in all things conform to his majesty’s laws, made and to be made, both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs! and besides, to protect the Lord Bishop of Galloway, the minister of the burgh, and any other ministers that were or should be established by authority.

33.The following singular order was issued by the council on this occasion; and it deserves to be noted, that it was issued the very first meeting after the archbishops had taken their seats as members:—“June 23d. The lords of council being informed that ministers and other persons visit the prisoners for the riot at Kirkcudbright, now in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, and not only exhort but pray for the said persons to persist in their wicked practices, affirming that they are suffering for righteousness’ sake, and assure them that God will give them an outgate—recommend it to the keeper to notice who visits them, and what their discourse and carnage is when with them.”Wodrow, vol. i. p. 188.

33.The following singular order was issued by the council on this occasion; and it deserves to be noted, that it was issued the very first meeting after the archbishops had taken their seats as members:—“June 23d. The lords of council being informed that ministers and other persons visit the prisoners for the riot at Kirkcudbright, now in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, and not only exhort but pray for the said persons to persist in their wicked practices, affirming that they are suffering for righteousness’ sake, and assure them that God will give them an outgate—recommend it to the keeper to notice who visits them, and what their discourse and carnage is when with them.”Wodrow, vol. i. p. 188.

33.The following singular order was issued by the council on this occasion; and it deserves to be noted, that it was issued the very first meeting after the archbishops had taken their seats as members:—“June 23d. The lords of council being informed that ministers and other persons visit the prisoners for the riot at Kirkcudbright, now in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, and not only exhort but pray for the said persons to persist in their wicked practices, affirming that they are suffering for righteousness’ sake, and assure them that God will give them an outgate—recommend it to the keeper to notice who visits them, and what their discourse and carnage is when with them.”Wodrow, vol. i. p. 188.

At Dumfries, the commission also examined witnesses, but the mighty insurrection dwindled into a “great convocation and tumult of women;” yet the whole party, horse and foot, were quartered upon the parish, and a bonus levied for remunerating the clerks. The whole heritors were likewise compelled to sign a bond of passive obedience to laws known and unknown, in terms similar to that of the magistrates of Kirkcudbright.[34]

34.The council ordered to be advanced for this expedition, the sum of £500 to the soldiers as part of their pay, £120 to the Earl of Linlithgow, and £50 to the Laird of Niddry for their expenses; so that probably these petty squabbles would cost the two parishes not much under one thousand pounds sterling, equivalent to nearly five in later times.

34.The council ordered to be advanced for this expedition, the sum of £500 to the soldiers as part of their pay, £120 to the Earl of Linlithgow, and £50 to the Laird of Niddry for their expenses; so that probably these petty squabbles would cost the two parishes not much under one thousand pounds sterling, equivalent to nearly five in later times.

34.The council ordered to be advanced for this expedition, the sum of £500 to the soldiers as part of their pay, £120 to the Earl of Linlithgow, and £50 to the Laird of Niddry for their expenses; so that probably these petty squabbles would cost the two parishes not much under one thousand pounds sterling, equivalent to nearly five in later times.

Instead of reconciling the people, or terrifying them back tothe churches, these severities exasperated them; nor was it to be expected that they would willingly attend the ministrations of men, whose preaching they despised, and who were thus ushered in. Outrageous expressions of dislike were not, however, approved of by the godly and judicious Presbyterians, they mourned in private over the desolation of the church, and sought, by attending the family exercises of the younger ministers who were “outted,”[35]but sojourned among them, to receive that instruction, and enjoy that social worship, of which they were so tyrannically deprived! Sometimes the numbers who assembled to enjoy this privilege were so great, that a house could not contain them, and the minister was constrained to officiate without doors; till at length they increased so much that they were under the necessity of betaking themselves to the open fields; and, like him whose servants they were, beneath the wide canopy of heaven, preached the gospel of the kingdom to multitudes upon the mountain’s side. Mr John Welsh and Mr Gabriel Semple began the practice of field-preaching, which quickly increased, and, to the great alarm of the bishops, had pervaded almost every quarter of the country, when the political arrangements being completed, Rothes arrived as commissioner to open the parliament.

35.“Outted,” turned out of their churches.

35.“Outted,” turned out of their churches.

35.“Outted,” turned out of their churches.

Lauderdale accompanied the Earl to Scotland, professedly to inquire into the origin of that conspiracy against his majesty’s royal prerogative—the balloting act;—in reality to secure his own ascendancy in Scotland, and, by pushing to the utmost the advantage he had gained over the Middleton faction, to prevent any attempt being made against him from that quarter for the future. The Chancellor made some feeble show of opposition, but the universal spirit of submission to the will of the crown which pervaded the higher classes, and their selfish eagerness to obtain a share in the spoils of their unhappy country, not only blighted every appearance of patriotism, but precluded every plan of association among the aristocracy themselves for maintaining their own rank and station independent of the minions of the court. The Presbyterians who rejoiced in Middleton’s fall,soon found that they had gained very little by the change. At the first diet of council, (June 15, 1663,) the two archbishops were admitted, with Mr Charles Maitland, Lord Hatton, Lauderdale’s brother; but Crawford having refused the declaration, was deprived of the treasurership, and Rothes, the commissioner, that same day was appointed to succeed him in the office.

On the 18th, parliament met, and, by an alteration in the method of appointing the Lords of the Articles—allowing the spiritual lords first to name eight temporal lords, then the temporal lords to choose eight spiritual; and these sixteen, or such of them as were present, to elect the representatives of the barons and burghs—they virtually gave up the privilege of nominating this important committee, to the servants of the crown, and surrendered the last check they had upon the prerogative. The tyranny of the council was next legalized, and a practice introduced which continued till the Revolution:—the most oppressive acts of the former sessions, together with the acts of council, enlarging and explaining their vindictive clauses, were approved of by a retrospective declaratory enactment; and every mode of persecution which had been adopted upon trial since last session, was incorporated into the statute law of the kingdom. Thus an act against separation and disobedience of ecclesiastical authority—introduced early in the session—besides recapitulating all the penalties to which the non-conforming ministers had been previously subjected, ordained those who still dared to preach in contempt of law, or did not attend the diocesan meetings, to be punished as seditious persons, and despisers of the royal authority. Absence from church on Sundays—a finable offence—was now denounced as sedition; and whoever wilfully should withdraw from the ministrations of the parish priest, however incapable he might be, were, if noblemen, gentlemen, or heritors, to lose the fourth part of their yearly income—if yeomen, tenants, or farmers, such proportion of their moveables, after payment of their rents, as the council should think fit, not exceeding a fourth part—but if a burgess, his freedom, along with the fourth of his moveables, and, in addition, the council was authorized to inflict such corporeal punishment as they should see proper. The declarationwas ordered by another act to be taken by all who exercised any public trust; and persons chosen to be councillors or magistrates of burghs, if they declined to subscribe, were declared for ever incapable of holding any office, or exercising any occupation, trade, or merchandise. To complete the organization of the hierarchy, an act was passed for the establishment and constitution of a National Synod, bearing the same resemblance to the estates of Scotland that the Houses of Convocation did to the English parliament: both emanated from his majesty’s supremacy, and consisted of the bishops and their satellites, only the Scottish assembly was to meet in one place, and was even more servilely abject than their elder Episcopalian sister, and could not be constituted without the presence of the king or his commissioner. The balloting act was, after long investigation, rescinded with every mark of detestation, the parliament declaring they had never consented to any such thing! and, that it might not appear in judgment against them, was ordered to be erased from their minutes. Sensible that the measures now pursued in Scotland must necessarily lead to insurrection, and that a military force would be requisite to carry them into effect, Lauderdale procured from this servile crew the offer of an army of twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse, to be raised for his majesty’s service when required, under the ridiculous pretence of preserving Christendom against the Turks!! This number never was demanded; and it was alleged that the secretary had carried the measure to ingratiate himself with the king, and to show him what assistance he might derive from Scotland in any attempt to destroy the liberties of England. From the beginning, the Scots had been harassed by the king’s guard, but from this date the troopers were more unsparingly employed to enforce clerical obedience, while the act hungin terroremover the hands of the dissatisfied Presbyterians, and afterwards became the foundation of the militia.

Arrest of Lord Warriston anno 1662.Vide page103Edinr. Hugh Paton, Carver & Gilder to the Queen, 1842

Arrest of Lord Warriston anno 1662.Vide page103Edinr. Hugh Paton, Carver & Gilder to the Queen, 1842

Arrest of Lord Warriston anno 1662.Vide page103Edinr. Hugh Paton, Carver & Gilder to the Queen, 1842

Middleton’s first session set in blood; Rothes closed under as deep a stain. Sir Archibald Johnston, Lord Warriston, had been forfeited and condemned by parliament when Argyle and Guthrie were arraigned, but escaping to the Continent, had remained concealedin Holland and Germany, chiefly at Hamburgh, till most unadvisedly, in the latter end of 1662, he ventured to France. Notice of this having been carried to London, the king, who bore him a personal hatred for his free admonitions when in Scotland,[36]sent over secretly a confidential spy, known by the name of “Crooked Murray,” to trace him out and bring him to Britain. By watching Lady Warriston, Murray soon discovered her lord’s retreat at Rouen in Normandy, and had him seized while engaged in the act of secret prayer. He then applied to the magistrates, and, showing them the king’s commission, desired that they would allow him to carry his victim a prisoner to England. The magistrates, uncertain how to act, committed Warriston to close custody, and sent to the French king for instructions. When the question was debated in council, the greater part were for respecting the rights of hospitality, and not giving up his lordship till some better reasons were shown than had yet been given; but Louis, who was extremely desirous to oblige Charles, and sympathized cordially in his antipathies against the Protestant religion and liberty, ordered him to be delivered to the messenger, who carried him to London and lodged him in the tower in the month of January 1663. While the parliament was sitting in June, he was sent to Scotland with a letter from the king, ordering him “to be proceeded against according to law and justice,” and landed at Leith on the 8th, whence, next day, he was brought bareheaded to the tolbooth of Edinburgh. Neither his wife, children, nor any other friend, were permitted to see him, except in presence of the keeper or guard, and that only for an hour, or at farthest two at a time, betwixt eight o’clock in the morning and eight at night. Here he was detained till July 8th, when, no more trial being deemed necessary, he was brought before parliament to receive judgment. His appearance on this occasion was humiliating to the pride ofhuman genius, debilitated through excessive blood-letting and the deleterious drugs that had been administered to him by his physicians,[37]the faculties of his soul partook of the imbecility of his body, and, on the spot where his eloquence had in former days commanded breathless attention, he could scarcely now utter one coherent sentence. The prelates basely derided his mental aberrations, but many of the other members compassionated the intellectual ruin of one who had shone among the foremost in the brightest days of Scotland’s parliamentary annals. When the question was put, whether the time of his execution should be then fixed or delayed? a majority seemed inclined to spare his life, which Lauderdale observing, rose, and, contrary to all usage or propriety, in a furious speech, insisted upon the sentence being carried into immediate effect; the submissive legislators acquiesced, and he was doomed to be hanged at the cross of Edinburgh on the 22d of the same month, and his head fixed upon the Nether Bow Port, beside Mr Guthrie’s.

36.“The real cause of his (Warriston’s) death, was not his activity in public business, but our king’s personal hatred, because when the king was in Scotland he thought it his duty to admonish him because of his very wicked, debauched life, not only in whoredom and adultery, but he violently forced a young gentle-woman of quality. This the king could never forgive, and told the Earle of Bristol so much when he was speaking for Warriston.”Kirkton’s Hist. of the Church of Scot.p. 173.

36.“The real cause of his (Warriston’s) death, was not his activity in public business, but our king’s personal hatred, because when the king was in Scotland he thought it his duty to admonish him because of his very wicked, debauched life, not only in whoredom and adultery, but he violently forced a young gentle-woman of quality. This the king could never forgive, and told the Earle of Bristol so much when he was speaking for Warriston.”Kirkton’s Hist. of the Church of Scot.p. 173.

36.“The real cause of his (Warriston’s) death, was not his activity in public business, but our king’s personal hatred, because when the king was in Scotland he thought it his duty to admonish him because of his very wicked, debauched life, not only in whoredom and adultery, but he violently forced a young gentle-woman of quality. This the king could never forgive, and told the Earle of Bristol so much when he was speaking for Warriston.”Kirkton’s Hist. of the Church of Scot.p. 173.

37.“Through excessive blood-letting and other detestable means used by his wicked physician, Doctor Bates, who they say was hired either to poison or distract him, and partly through melancholy, he had in a manner wholly lost his memory.”Kirkton’s Hist.p. 170. Mr C. K. Sharpe, the editor, thinks his mental imbecility was occasioned in some measure by fear, and quotes a passage from one of Lord Middleton’s letters to Primrose. “He pretends to have lost his memory,” &c. “He is the most timorous person ever I did see in my life,” &c.Note.But it was not to be expected that Middleton would allude in the most distant manner to any thing that could be supposed to countenance in the least the then general belief.

37.“Through excessive blood-letting and other detestable means used by his wicked physician, Doctor Bates, who they say was hired either to poison or distract him, and partly through melancholy, he had in a manner wholly lost his memory.”Kirkton’s Hist.p. 170. Mr C. K. Sharpe, the editor, thinks his mental imbecility was occasioned in some measure by fear, and quotes a passage from one of Lord Middleton’s letters to Primrose. “He pretends to have lost his memory,” &c. “He is the most timorous person ever I did see in my life,” &c.Note.But it was not to be expected that Middleton would allude in the most distant manner to any thing that could be supposed to countenance in the least the then general belief.

37.“Through excessive blood-letting and other detestable means used by his wicked physician, Doctor Bates, who they say was hired either to poison or distract him, and partly through melancholy, he had in a manner wholly lost his memory.”Kirkton’s Hist.p. 170. Mr C. K. Sharpe, the editor, thinks his mental imbecility was occasioned in some measure by fear, and quotes a passage from one of Lord Middleton’s letters to Primrose. “He pretends to have lost his memory,” &c. “He is the most timorous person ever I did see in my life,” &c.Note.But it was not to be expected that Middleton would allude in the most distant manner to any thing that could be supposed to countenance in the least the then general belief.

Mr James Kirkton, author of the “History of the Church of Scotland,” who visited him, says—“I spake with him in prison, and though he was sometimes under great heaviness, yet he told me he could never doubt his own salvation, he had so often seen God’s face in the house of prayer.” As he approached his end, he grew more composed; and, on the night previous to his execution, having been favoured with a few hours’ profound and refreshing sleep, he awoke in the full possession of his vigorous powers, his memory returned, and he experienced in an extraordinary degree the strong consolations of the gospel, expressing his assurance of being clothed with a white robe, and having anew song of praise put into his lips, even salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb!

Before noon, he dined with great cheerfulness, hoping to sup in heaven, and drink of the blood of the vine fresh and new in his father’s kingdom. After spending some time in secret prayer, he left the prison about two o’clock, attended by his friends in mourning, full of holy confidence and courage, but perfectly composed and serene. As he proceeded to the cross, where a high gibbet was erected, he repeatedly requested the prayers of the people; and there being some disturbance on the street when he ascended the scaffold, he said with great composure—“I entreat you, quiet yourselves a little, till this dying man deliver his last words among you,” and requested them not to be offended that he used a paper to refresh his memory, being so much wasted by long sickness and the malice of physicians. He then read audibly, first from the one side and then from the other, a short speech that he had hurriedly written—what he had composed at length and intended for his testimony having been taken from him. It commenced with a general confession of his sins and shortcomings in prosecuting the best pieces of work and service to the Lord and to his generation, and that through temptation he had been carried to so great a length, in compliance with the late usurpers, after having so seriously and frequently made professions of aversion to their way; “for all which,” he added, “as I seek God’s mercy in Christ Jesus, so I desire that the Lord’s people may, from my example, be the more stirred up to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation.”

He then bare record to the glory of God’s free grace and of his reconciled mercy through Christ Jesus—left “an honest testimony to the whole covenanted work of reformation”—and expressed his lively expectation of God’s gracious and wonderful renewing and reviving all his former great interests in these nations, particularly Scotland—yea, dear Scotland! He recommended his poor afflicted wife and children to the choicest blessings of God and the prayers and favours of his servants—prayed for repentance and forgiveness to his enemies—for the king, and blessings upon him and his posterity, that they might be surroundedwith good and faithful councillors, and follow holy and wise councils to the glory of God and the welfare of the people. He concluded by committing himself, soul and body, his relations, friends, the sympathizing and suffering witnesses of the Lord, to his choice mercies and service in earth and heaven, in time and through eternity:—“All which suits, with all others which he hath at any time by his spirit moved and assisted me to make, and put up according to his will, I leave before the throne, and upon the Father’s merciful bowels, the Son’s mediating merits, and the Holy Spirit’s compassionating groans, for now and for ever!”

After he had finished reading, he prayed with the greatest fervour and humility, thus beginning his supplication—“Abba! Abba! Father, Father, accept this thy poor sinful servant, coming unto thee through the merits of Jesus Christ.” Then he took leave of his friends, and again, at the foot of the ladder, prayed in a perfect rapture, being now near the end of that sweet work he had been so much employed about, and felt so much sweetness in through life. No ministers were allowed to be with him, but his God abundantly supplied his every want. On account of his weakness, he required help to ascend the ladder. Having reached the top, he cried with a loud voice—“I beseech you all who are the people of God not to scorn at suffering for the interest of Christ, or stumble at any thing of this kind falling out in these days. Be encouraged to suffer for him, for I assure you, in the name of the Lord, he will bear your charges!” This he repeated again while the rope was putting about his neck, forcibly adding—“The Lord hath graciously comforted me.” Then asking the executioner if he was ready to do his office, and being answered that he was, he gave the signal, and was turned off, crying—“Pray! pray! praise! praise!” His death was almost without a struggle.

Sir Archibald Johnston, Lord Warriston, was an early, zealous, and distinguished covenanter, and bore a conspicuous part in all the remarkable transactions of the times, from 1638 till the Restoration. The only blemish which his enemies could affix to his character was, what he himself lamented, his accepting officeunder the usurpers, after having previously so violently opposed this in others, when yet every prospect of restoring the Stuart family seemed hopeless, and when numbers of his countrymen and of his judges themselves had submitted to a tolerant commonwealth, that did not burden the conscience with unnecessary oaths, or require any compliances which might not, in the circumstances of the case, have been considered venial, if not justifiable. His talents for business were of the first order. His eloquence was ready, and his judgment clear. He was prompt and intrepid in action, and adhered steadily to his Presbyterian principles, notwithstanding his officiating under a liberal government of a different persuasion—conduct we now allow to be not incompatible with integrity. His piety was ardent, and, amid a life of incessant activity, he managed to spare a larger portion of time for private devotion than many of more sequestered habits. He habitually lived near to God, and died in the full assurance of hope.

Parliament having sat upwards of three months, rose on the 9th of October. Even during its sitting, the council never intermitted their oppressive acts; and, so far was this branch of the legislature from interfering to check their immoderate abuse of power, that they had shown themselves upon every occasion the willing instruments of their oppression, ready when called upon to legitimate without a murmur their foulest usurpations. On the other hand, the executive acted as the humble tools of the prelates, ready to support their most arrogant assumptions or gratify their cowardly and cruel revenge. St Andrews, the primate’s seat, first required to be thoroughly cleansed; and all who would not countenance the archbishop in his treachery, were of necessity removed as unwelcome remembrancers of his former profession. Mr James Wood, principal of the Old College, pious, learned, and assiduous in his duty, who had been an intimate friend and companion of Sharpe’s, and one of the many excellent men who had been his dupes, was, on the 23d of July, summoned before the council and required to show by what authority he came to be principal. Without being suffered to offer any remarks, when he acknowledged “that he was called by the Faculty of the College at the recommendation of the usurpers,” the place was declared vacant,and he was commanded to confine himself within the city of Edinburgh till further orders.

Yet such was the estimation in which he was held, that his enemy, though by falsehood, endeavoured to shelter his apostacy under the shadow of his name. Not long after this, when Mr Wood was on his deathbed, March 1664, and greatly weakened by disease, Sharpe called once or twice upon him; and he having said, as a dying man in the immediate view of eternity, that he was taken up about greater business than forms of church government, and that he was far more concerned about his personal interest in Christ than about any external ordinance, Sharpe took occasion to spread a report that he had said Presbyterian government was a matter of no consequence, and no man should trouble himself about it, which coming to the sufferer’s ears, he emitted a declaration before witnesses of his unshaken attachment to Presbytery as an ordinance of God, and so precious that a true Christian is obliged to lay down his life for the profession thereof, if the Lord should see meet to put him to his trial.

Along with Mr Wood, a great number of ministers from every quarter of the country, were removed from their charges, some confined to Edinburgh, others banished beyond the river Ness—all forbid to preach the gospel under the threatening of severer penalties. Heavy were the complaints of the clergy; the ministers refused to attend their synods, and the people persisted in neglecting their sermons. The council, therefore, appointed “the Lords Archbishops of St Andrews and Glasgow, the Marquis of Montrose, the Lord Secretary and Register, to wait on the Lord Commissioner, his Grace, to think on a general course what shall be done, as well anent those ministers that were admitted before 1649, and carry themselves disobediently to the laws of the kingdom, as those who were admitted since.” While the committee were deliberating, the evil increased; and, on the 30th of the same month, six of the west country ministers were before the council to answer the heavy charge of “convocating great multitudes of his majesty’s subjects for hearing their factious and seditious sermons, to the great scandal of religion and prejudice of the government of the church.” To shorten their labours, however,and probably upon a report of the archbishops and their assistants, a most harassing and contradictory act was passed, commanding all “outted” ministers, under pain of sedition,i.e.being processed criminally, to remove themselves and their families twenty miles from the bounds of their own parishes, six miles from every cathedral, and three miles from every royal burgh, thus depriving them of any means of support they might have derived from their own industry or that of their families, in the only places of trade or traffic, and scattering them among strangers, far from the bounty or assistance of their friends. But as one “outted” minister only could reside in one parish, the act, besides, involved an alternative of death or apostacy; for the whole of Scotland could not have accommodated the sufferers, and no relaxation could be obtained but from the privy council or the bishop of the diocese. The older ministers, who still continued to preach, but withdrew from the synods, were now to be treated as contemners of his majesty’s authority.

To enforce their acts, the privy council ordered the Earl of Linlithgow to send as many troops to Kirkcudbright as, with those already there, would make up the number of eightscore footmen with their officers in that district. Sir Robert Fleming was directed to march two squads of his majesty’s life-guards to the west, and to station one in Paisley and the other in Kilmarnock. The object of these military missionaries was to episcopalize the refractory south and west, by collecting the fines and compelling subjection to the bishops and their curates. Sir James Turner, who had signalized himself by his zeal in fighting for the covenant, was singled out to superintend the pious service in the south, which he performed so much to the satisfaction of his employers, that, on the 24th of November, a letter of thanks was recommended to be written him “for his care and pains taken in seeing the laws anent church government receive due obedience.” The excesses which were committed under sanction of these orders and commendations, were never attempted to be justified, though the parties afterwards mutually endeavoured to shift the blame from themselves. When it was deemed necessary to make the General the scape-goat, it was assertedthat he had exceeded his instructions; but he averred, and with greater probability of truth, that he had not even acted up to their tenor.[38]The exactions were enormous; and, as the fines for non-attendance were generally appropriated by the soldiers, they were summarily levied, and not unfrequently to far more than the legal amount. The process against non-conformists, in places where there were Episcopalian incumbents, was short. The curates were the accusers—the officers of the army, or sometimes even private sentinels, the judges—no proof was required—and no excuse was received, except money. If a tenant or householder were unwilling or unable to pay, a party was quartered upon him, till ten times the value of the fine was taken, and he was ruined, or, as they termed it, “eaten up;”[39]then, after every thing else was gone, the household furniture and clothes of the poor defaulters were distrained and sold for a trifle.

38.“Sometimes not exceeding a sixth part, seldom a halfe.”Turner’s Memoirs, p. 114.

38.“Sometimes not exceeding a sixth part, seldom a halfe.”Turner’s Memoirs, p. 114.

38.“Sometimes not exceeding a sixth part, seldom a halfe.”Turner’s Memoirs, p. 114.

39.To understand the meaning of this phrase, it is necessary to recollect the situation of the rural tenantry in Scotland about this time. They lived almost entirely upon the produce of the lands they rented, and kept usually a small stock of oatmeal, cheese, and salted provisions, as public markets were almost wholly unknown.

39.To understand the meaning of this phrase, it is necessary to recollect the situation of the rural tenantry in Scotland about this time. They lived almost entirely upon the produce of the lands they rented, and kept usually a small stock of oatmeal, cheese, and salted provisions, as public markets were almost wholly unknown.

39.To understand the meaning of this phrase, it is necessary to recollect the situation of the rural tenantry in Scotland about this time. They lived almost entirely upon the produce of the lands they rented, and kept usually a small stock of oatmeal, cheese, and salted provisions, as public markets were almost wholly unknown.

The soldiery employed in this execrable work, were the lowest and most abandoned characters, who readily copied the example of their officers—measured their loyalty by their licentiousness, and considered that they served the king in proportion as they annoyed the Whigs. Religion was the object of their ridicule. In the pious hamlets where they quartered, family worship was interrupted by mockery or violence; and “The Cottar’s Saturday Night,” not only treated with derision, but punished as a violation of the laws of the land! Upon the Sabbath, the day peculiarly devoted by the covenanters to holy rest, and the quiet performance of their sacred duties—for the covenanters made conscience of the moral obligation of the Sabbath—a scene of dismay and distress hitherto unknown was commonly exhibited; and the day to which they had in other times looked forward as the glory of the week, was now dreaded as the signal of their renewed torments. Multitudes were brutally driven to church, or draggedas felons to prison; and hesitation or remonstrance provoked only additional insult or blows. Lists of the parishioners were no longer kept for assisting the minister in his labours of love, but were handed over to the troopers, with directions for them to visit the families, and to catechise them upon their principles of loyalty and their practice of obedience to their parsons. After sermon, the roll was called by the curate, when all absent without leave were delivered up as deserters to the mercy of the military. At churches where the old Presbyterian ministers were yet allowed to remain—for a few still continued to preach at their peril, or through the interest of some influential person—the outrage and confusion were indescribable. As they were generally crowded, the forsaken bishops and their underlings were enraged, and the soldiers were instigated to additional violence. Their custom was to allow a congregation peaceably to assemble, while they sat carousing in some alehouse nigh at hand, till public worship was nearly over; then they sallied forth inflamed with liquor, and, taking possession of the church-doors or churchyard-gates, obliged the people, whom they only suffered to pass out one at a time, to answer upon oath whether they belonged to the parish; if they did not, although their own parish had no minister of any kind, they were instantly fined at the pleasure of the soldiers; and if they had no money, or not so much as would satisfy them, their Bibles were seized, and they were stripped of their coats if men, or their plaids if women; so that a party returning from such an expedition, appeared like a parcel of villanous camp-followers, after an engagement, returning from a battle-field, laden with the spoils of the wounded and slain.

To such an extent had these plunderings been carried, that even the privy council found it necessary to interfere. Towards the end of the year, they issued an explanation of their former acts, and restricted the exactions of the soldiery, “allenarly to the penalty of twenty shillings Scots, from every person who staid from their parish churches on the Sabbath days.”[40]

40.Three of the prelates died in course of the past year. Bishop Mitchell of Aberdeen, who was succeeded by Burnet; Sydeserf, who was succeeded in the bishopric of Orkney by Mr Andrew Honeyman, formerly minister of St Andrews; and Archbishop Fairfoul of Glasgow, who was succeeded in the arch-episcopate by Bishop Burnet of Aberdeen, Dr Scougall being appointed to that see.

40.Three of the prelates died in course of the past year. Bishop Mitchell of Aberdeen, who was succeeded by Burnet; Sydeserf, who was succeeded in the bishopric of Orkney by Mr Andrew Honeyman, formerly minister of St Andrews; and Archbishop Fairfoul of Glasgow, who was succeeded in the arch-episcopate by Bishop Burnet of Aberdeen, Dr Scougall being appointed to that see.

40.Three of the prelates died in course of the past year. Bishop Mitchell of Aberdeen, who was succeeded by Burnet; Sydeserf, who was succeeded in the bishopric of Orkney by Mr Andrew Honeyman, formerly minister of St Andrews; and Archbishop Fairfoul of Glasgow, who was succeeded in the arch-episcopate by Bishop Burnet of Aberdeen, Dr Scougall being appointed to that see.

[1664.] Even this symptom, small as it was, of moderation, was not at all agreeable to the prelates. Like all upstarts, suddenly raised beyond their expectations, their arrogance became insupportable, and could brook no opposition. Glencairn, in particular, who had been so instrumental in their rise, began to feel the truth of what he had been repeatedly told—“that the bishops would never rest content with being second in the state, and that moderate Episcopacy was all a jest.” He had said to Rothes that “it was the noblemen’s interest to repress the growing power of bishops, otherwise they would be treated by them now as they had been before 1638.” This remark being carried to Sharpe, he treated the Chancellor with greathauteur, and publicly threatened to destroy his interest at court—an affront that Glencairn could never forget, and which is said to have preyed upon his spirits to his dying day.

Fearing a relaxation of “the wholesome severities,” the primate hastened to London with heavy complaints against many of the noblemen, for their backwardness in executing the laws made in favour of the church; and, through the influence of the English bishops and high churchmen, prevailed upon the king to re-establish in Scotland the most detested of all the arbitrary courts that had been abolished—the High Commission Court.

His majesty, by virtue of his royal prerogative in all causes and over all persons, as well ecclesiastic as civil, granted the most exorbitant powers to that antitype of the Inquisition. It consisted of thirty-five lay members,[41]and of all the prelates, exceptLeighton, who had the honour to be excluded from the nomination; and any five constituted a quorum, provided always an archbishop or bishop was of the number. Under pretext of seeing all the acts of parliament and council in favour of Episcopacy put in vigorous execution, they were authorized to suspend or depose, fine, and imprison all ministers who dared to exercise any of their sacred functions without the license of a bishop—who should preach in private houses or elsewhere—who should keep meetings for fasts or for the administration of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper not approven by authority: to summon, call before them, and punish all who should speak, preach, write, or print to the scandal, reproach, or detriment of the government of the church or kingdom as now established—and all who should express any dissatisfaction at his majesty’s authority. The commanders of the forces and militia, the magistrates of every description, were required to apprehend and incarcerate delinquents upon their warrants, and the privy council to direct letters of horning for payment of the fines—one half of which was appropriated to defray the expenses of the court, and the other to be employed for such pious uses as his majesty should appoint. And by a final comprehensive clause, the High Commission, or their quorum, were authorized to do and execute whatever they should find necessary and convenient for his majesty’s service—for preventing and suppressing of schism and separation—for planting of vacant churches—and for procuring of reverence, submission, and obedience to the ecclesiastical government established by law.

41.The following were the lay members:—The Chancellor, Treasurer, Duke of Hamilton, Marquis of Montrose, Earls of Argyle, Atholl, Eglinton, Linlithgow, Home, Galloway, Annandale, Tweeddale, Leven, Moray; Lords Drumlanrig, Pitsligo, Fraser, Cochrane, Halkerton, Bellenden, the President of the Session, the Register, the Advocate, Justice-Clerk; Charles Maitland, the Laird of Philorth, Sir Andrew Ramsay, Sir William Thomson; the Provosts of St Andrews, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Ayr, and Dumfries, Sir James Turner, and the Dean of Guild of Edinburgh. From among these, the primate, who managed the whole, could easily pick out a quorum to suit his purposes; and thus he got rid of all the members of the privy council who had either the spirit or the policy to resist his unbounded presumption—a presumption heightened by his being now ordered to take precedence of the Chancellor, the nobility, and all the officers of state.

41.The following were the lay members:—The Chancellor, Treasurer, Duke of Hamilton, Marquis of Montrose, Earls of Argyle, Atholl, Eglinton, Linlithgow, Home, Galloway, Annandale, Tweeddale, Leven, Moray; Lords Drumlanrig, Pitsligo, Fraser, Cochrane, Halkerton, Bellenden, the President of the Session, the Register, the Advocate, Justice-Clerk; Charles Maitland, the Laird of Philorth, Sir Andrew Ramsay, Sir William Thomson; the Provosts of St Andrews, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Ayr, and Dumfries, Sir James Turner, and the Dean of Guild of Edinburgh. From among these, the primate, who managed the whole, could easily pick out a quorum to suit his purposes; and thus he got rid of all the members of the privy council who had either the spirit or the policy to resist his unbounded presumption—a presumption heightened by his being now ordered to take precedence of the Chancellor, the nobility, and all the officers of state.

41.The following were the lay members:—The Chancellor, Treasurer, Duke of Hamilton, Marquis of Montrose, Earls of Argyle, Atholl, Eglinton, Linlithgow, Home, Galloway, Annandale, Tweeddale, Leven, Moray; Lords Drumlanrig, Pitsligo, Fraser, Cochrane, Halkerton, Bellenden, the President of the Session, the Register, the Advocate, Justice-Clerk; Charles Maitland, the Laird of Philorth, Sir Andrew Ramsay, Sir William Thomson; the Provosts of St Andrews, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Ayr, and Dumfries, Sir James Turner, and the Dean of Guild of Edinburgh. From among these, the primate, who managed the whole, could easily pick out a quorum to suit his purposes; and thus he got rid of all the members of the privy council who had either the spirit or the policy to resist his unbounded presumption—a presumption heightened by his being now ordered to take precedence of the Chancellor, the nobility, and all the officers of state.

By this instrument the whole kingdom was laid at the feet of the prelates; for no quorum of the Commission could be complete without a bishop, while five bishops could form a quorum without a layman. The practice was agreeable to the constitution of the court, and such as may always be expected where churchmen are intrusted with civil authority. True ministers of Christ would never in their ministerial capacity accept it, andworldlings who have assumed that sacred office to serve purposes of ambition, have ever been the greatest curse of Christendom. The records have been mislaid or lost, but the cases that remain, amply justify the epithets bestowed upon this nefarious tribunal by all who have mentioned it.

James Hamilton of Aikenhead, near Glasgow, was among the first brought before them, accused of not hearing Mr David Hay, curate of the parish—Cathcart—-in which his estate was situate. His defence was, the unclerical and ungentleman-like conduct of the clergyman. In collecting his stipend, which he did rigorously, Mr Hay had borne particularly hard upon some of Mr Hamilton’s tenants, and, in consequence, a quarrel had ensued, in which the curate had descended to very intemperate and abusive language, and in return had been not less roughly answered. Mr Blair, the “outted” minister, happening accidentally to be upon the spot, interfered, and rescued Hay from the hands of his furious parishioners. When the affray was over, Mr Blair spoke seriously to the curate, and represented how opposite it was to his own interest for him to turn informer against his people. Hay, in return, thanked him for his kindness and advice, and gave him his solemn promise that he would follow it; yet within a very short time, he went to Glasgow and “delated” (i. e.denounced) them to the archbishop, who immediately dispatched Sir James Turner, then in the west, with a party of soldiers, to seize the delinquents. When Mr Hamilton came to be informed of the circumstances of the affair, he considered the low prevaricating conduct of Hay as so base, that he would never again enter the church door, and he kept his promise; for this he was fined a fourth part of his yearly rent. When he had paid the fine, the court was so fully sensible of the misconduct of Hay, that the Archbishop of Glasgow came forward and promised that he would be removed, but insisted that Mr Hamilton should come under an obligation to hear and acknowledge the minister he meant to place in his room; and, upon refusing to do any such thing till he knew who that person should be, he was mulcted another fourth of his income, and remitted to the archbishop to give him satisfaction as to his loyal and peaceablebehaviour. The prelate, however, not being satisfied, he was again summoned before the court, upon some vexatious charges of keeping up the church utensils and session-books from the curate. Offering to swear he knew nothing at all about them, he was accused of not assisting the curate in the session when called upon, and suffering some of his family to absent themselves from church! Whether he might have been able to acquit himself of these heinous crimes is uncertain, for Rothes cut the business short, by telling him he had seen him in some courts before, but never for any thing loyal, and therefore tendered him the oath of allegiance. He had no objections, he replied, to take the oath of allegiance, were it not mixed up with the oath of supremacy. Sharpe, interrupting him, said “that was the common cant, but it would not do.” Then he requested to be allowed to explain, but was politely answered by the president—“he deserved to be hanged!” and, upon refusing to become bound for all his tenants’ good behaviour, he was fined three hundred pounds sterling, and sent to confinement in Inverness, to remain during pleasure!

John Porterfield of Douchal, an excellent person, singled out for more than common oppression, was summoned also for not hearing. He alleged the unfounded calumnies the curate had spread against him as the reason why he could not wait upon his ministry. The reason was allowed to be cogent, and, at his own desire, he was permitted to prove it. His first witness bore him out in all that he advanced, and his vindication would have been complete; but he was too much respected and esteemed in the neighbourhood, and his acquittal might have encouraged others. His proof was therefore stopped, and he was required to take the oath of allegiance. As had been expected, he stuck at the supremacy, and offered an explanation. The natural consequence followed—the curate was sent home to enjoy his incumbency, and Porterfield, for daring to offer a defence, was sentenced to pay a fine of five hundred pounds sterling, his estate sequestrated till it should be paid, and himself confined to the town of Elgin, where he continued for four years.

Mr Alexander Smith, who had been turned out of his parishof Cowend, Dumfries-shire, by the Glasgow act, had since then resided at Leith; but having been guilty of preaching or expounding the Scriptures privately in his own house, was called before the court to be examined. In answering some of the queries Sharpe had put to him, he omitted the primate’s titles, and only styled him, Sir, which Rothes observing, meanly truckling to the priest, asked him, “if he knew to whom he was speaking?” “Yes, my lords, I do,” answered the prisoner firmly; “I speak to Mr James Sharpe, once a fellow-minister with myself.” For this high misdemeanour, the worthy man was immediately laid in irons and cast into the filthiest corner of the prison—the thieves’ hole. He was afterwards banished to one of the desolate Shetland Isles.

At the settlement of Ancrum parish, where a James Scott, who had been presbyterially excommunicated, was appointed to fill the place of Mr Livingston, a country woman of the name of Turnbull, with more zeal than prudence, attempted, as he was going to be inducted, to dissuade him from undertaking the pastoral charge of so unwilling a people; and when he would not stop to listen to her reasoning, seized him by the cloak. Impatient at this detention, he turned in wrath upon the female remonstrant, and beat her unmercifully; which unmanly conduct provoking some youths present, they threw a few stones, but none of them touched Scott or any other person. This pitiful affair was instantly magnified into a seditious tumult, and the ringleaders were apprehended by the Sheriff and thrown into jail—a punishment certainly more than adequate to the offence, but it was no sufficient atonement for the indignity done to the clergy, and the business was brought before the High Commission; there these ministers of mercy sentenced the woman to be whipped through Jedburgh—her two brothers, married men with families, they banished to Virginia—and four boys, who confessed that they had each thrown a stone, were first scourged through the city of Edinburgh, then burnt in the face with a hot iron, and, finally, sold as slaves, and sent to the island of Barbadoes, which severe punishment they endured with a patient constancy that excited much admiration.

Bad as were the other courts in Scotland at this time, there was at least a probability that even a Presbyterian might by accident escape if accused, but before the High Commission no such thing was known. If proof was wanting, the declaration and the oath of allegiance were always at hand; and as the conscientious adherents of that persuasion were well known when brought before them, their trial was as short as their fate was certain. The exorbitant assumptions of the prelates were for some time supported by Rothes, but at length so disgusted the nobility, and brought such odium upon the court, that few of them would countenance its proceedings. While the uniform and flagrant injustice of their sentences rendered men desperate, who, rather than answer their summons, suffered themselves to be outlawed, or withdrew into voluntary exile in Ireland; till, in little more than a year and a half, the detested Crail court, as it was commonly called,[42]sank first into contempt and then into disuse.

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