BOOK VI.

JANUARY, A.D. 1667-1669.

Dalziel sent to the South and West—His cruelty, and that of the inferior officers—Sir Mungo Murray—Sir William Bannantyne—Arrival of the Dutch fleet—Crusade abates—Forfeitures increase—Standing army proposed—Convention of estates—Cess—King’s letter—West country disarmed—Sir Robert Murray sent to Scotland—Army partially disbanded—Political changes—Bond of peace—Trials of Sir James Turner and Sir William Bannantyne—Field-preaching proscribed—Michael Bruce—John Blackadder—Attempt upon Sharpe’s life—Search for the assassin—Remarkable escape of Maxwell of Monreith—Case of Mr Robert Gray, merchant—Mrs Kelso and Mrs Duncan—Death of Mr Gillon, minister of Cavers—Field-preaching and family worship punished—Mr Fullarton of Quivox before the Council—Mr Blackadder patrols his “diocese” untouched safely—Mr Hamilton, minister of Blantyre.

The army followed fast upon the heels of the justiciary, and the devoted west and south were again subjected to military oppression. Dalziel established his head-quarters at Kilmarnock, and, in a few months, extorted from that impoverished district, the sum of fifty thousand merks, besides what was destroyed by the soldiers in their quarterings through mere wantonness and a love of mischief. Whoever was suspected of favouring Presbyterianism was apprehended and brought before the General. If he possessed money, the process was short. A private examination was generally terminated by a heavy fine or loathsome imprisonment in a vile dungeon, where men and women were so crowded together, that they could neither sit nor lie, and where decency and humanity were at once violated. An instance of the summary mode in which Dalziel exercised his authority will show, better than anygeneral description, the miseries of military rule. David Findlay at Newmilns, a plain country man, who had accidentally been at Lanark when the covenanters were there, but had not joined, was brought before him; and, because he either would not, or could not, name any of the rich Whigs who were with the army, he was instantly ordered, without further ceremony, to be shot. When the poor man was carried out to die, neither he nor the lieutenant who was to superintend the execution, could believe that the General was in earnest, but the soldiers told him their orders were positive. He then earnestly entreated only for one night’s delay, that he might prepare for eternity; and the officer went to Dalziel to request this short respite, when the ruffian threatened him for his contumacy, and told him that “he would teach him to obey without scruple.” In consequence, there was no further delay; Findlay was shot, stripped, and his naked body left upon the spot.

Nor were the inferior officers unworthy of their commander. Sir Mungo Murray having heard that two cottar tenants had lodged for a night two of the men who had escaped from Pentland, bound them together with cords, and then suspending them by their arms from a tree, went to bed, and left them to hang for the night in this torture, which, in all probability, would have finished them before morning, had not some of the soldiers, more merciful than he, relieved them from their painful situation at their own peril. Sir William Bannantyne, in Galloway, caused even the removal of Turner to be regretted. He took possession of Earlston House, which he garrisoned, and thence sent out his parties who plundered indiscriminately the suspected and those who had given no cause for suspicion, whose only crime was their property. Some, who could not purchase forbearance, they stripped almost naked—then thrust them into the most abominable holes in the garrison, where they were kept till nearly dead, before they were suffered to depart; and one woman, whom they alleged to have been accessary to her husband’s escape, they tortured, by burning matches between her fingers with such protracted cruelty, that she fevered, and shortly after died; and so great was the universal consternation produced in these quarters among the conscientious Presbyterians, that such as could get out of thecountry, fled to foreign parts; and those who remained, lurked during a severe winter, in caves, pits, or remote unfrequented places of the land.

The arrival of a Dutch fleet in the Frith of Forth (April) relieved the afflicted west a little. This squadron, which had threatened Leith, and fired a few shots at Burntisland, occasioned the collecting of the whole troops in Scotland to defend the east, while the success that attended an attack upon the shipping in the Thames, obliged the government to suspend their crusades against the Presbyterian heretics, in order to guard their coasts from foreign insult. At the same time, the exasperation of the English, on account of their national disgrace, enabled the king to get rid of Lord Clarendon, a troublesome minister, whose habits of business, and ideas of economy, ill suited the beloved indolence and unmeaning, and worse than useless, profusion of his master, and whose regard for the decencies of life were opposed to the utter shamelessness of his profligate court.

But though relieved, in some measure, from military execution, the property of the Presbyterians was reached by a more base and cowardly mode of rapine. Heretofore, in cases of treason, the estates of rebels could not be confiscated, as the rebels themselves could not be tried in absence; and so express was the law on this subject that, in a former reign, it was deemed necessary to bring the mouldering bones of a traitor from his grave, and produce them in court, before he could be legally forfeited. The Lord Advocate, however, judged it proper to procure the authority of the court, previously to proceeding in opposition both to the statutes and common practice; and, therefore, proposed to the judges the following query—“Whether or not a person guilty of high treason might be pursued before the justices, albeit they be absent and contumacious, so that the justices, upon citation and sufficient probation and evidence, might pronounce sentence and doom of forfeiture, if the dittay be proven?” The lords answered in the affirmative, and established a precedent, which was afterwards improved, for forwarding the severe measures of a party already sufficiently disposed to disregard all the ordinary forms of justice. All the gentlemen of property who had gone into exile, were inconsequence forfeited, and their estates divided between the rulers and their friends.

Continual dissensions among the Scottish politicians had been the bane of Scotland almost ever since the nation existed. At this period they proved of some small service, by diverting, for a short space, the attention of the persecutors to their own personal affairs. Sharpe, by his duplicity, had incurred the displeasure of the king; and a strong party in the Scottish council, consisting of the military officers and a majority of the prelates, were opposed to Lauderdale, whom they still suspected of being too much attached to his old friends, and envied for enjoying so much of the favour of the king. This party, to secure their ascendancy, proposed to continue and increase the standing army, and to enforce the declaration, under pains of forfeiture, upon all the Presbyterians, fanatics, or Whigs, whom it was necessary to extirpate as incorrigible rebels, whose principles were hostile to all good government, and Lieutenant-General Drummond, with Burnet, archbishop of Glasgow, had been sent to London to procure the king’s concurrence.

A convention of estates, held at Edinburgh in the month of January in order to further these objects, voted a cess of sixty-four thousand pounds a month, and, besides, offered to maintain all the forces the king should think proper to raise.[60]Lauderdale instantly perceived that this would give his enemies an overwhelming power in Scotland, by throwing into their hands the disposal of the forfeitures and the army commissions, and he obtained from the king a letter which, although it authorized very arbitrary proceedings, yet effectually counteracted the scheme of his opponents. It empowered them to tender the oath of allegiance and declaration, and to incarcerate in case of refusal: it authorized disarming the gentlemen in the disaffected shires—seizing all serviceable horses in possession of suspected persons—ordered the militia to be modelled—arms and ammunition to be provided—the legal parish ministers to be protected from violence—and all engagedin the late rebellion, to be criminally pursued without further delay. Proclamations were in consequence issued for again disarming the west and seizing the horses; and no person in future, who did not regularly attend his parish church, was to be allowed to keep a horse above one hundred merks value; but as nothing had been said by his majesty about forfeitures, the declaration was little heard of, and the leading men being changed shortly after, the afflicted country obtained a brief glimpse of repose.

60.A convention of estates differed from a parliament, in being convened for one specific purpose, commonly like those for raising money.

Lest, however, it might be supposed that any relaxation was meant to be shown in supporting prelacy, a letter was transmitted from court, early in May, expressing the royal determination not only to encourage and protect the bishops in the exercise of their callings, and all the orthodox clergy under them, but also to discountenance all, of what quality soever, who should show any disrespect or disaffection to that order or government; and earnestly recommending to those in power, to give the utmost countenance to the orthodox clergy, and to punish severely any affronts put upon them, “to the end,” it is added, “that they may be the more endeared to their people, when they see how careful we, and all in authority under us, are of their protection in the due exercise of their calling.” The council in consequence issued a proclamation, rendering heritors and parishioners liable for all the damages that might be done to their ministers, which, in the sequel, was most rigorously enforced, although it had certainly little tendency or effect in producing any sentiments of endearment in the breasts of the people towards pastors who required such eminent exertions of royal and magisterial care.

Not long after, Sir Robert Murray, distinguished for his love of science and his moderation of temper, was sent down to Scotland to procure, if possible, an accurate account of the state of the country. He was at this time high in the confidence of Lauderdale, whose interest he assiduously promoted, and whose party he essentially strengthened by the mighty accession of character he brought them. The bishops and their party were extremely anxious to have, above all things, the army continued, and used every method to induce Sir Robert Murray to coincide with them in opinion. Burnet, archbishop of Glasgow, protested that, if thearmy were disbanded, the gospel would depart out of his diocese; and the Duke of Hamilton said he did not think his life would be secure even in following his sport in the west; when Tweeddale, with many professions of care for his Grace’s life, proposed a squadron of the life-guard might be sent to quarter on his premises—a mode of protection with which the Duke did not appear very highly enraptured. But their guardian, Hyde, was in disgrace—an unfavourable peace had terminated an unsuccessful Dutch war—and a show of temporary moderation, at least, was required by the circumstances of the nation. Peremptory orders were therefore sent to Scotland to disband the whole army, except two troops of horse and one (Linlithgow’s) regiment of foot guards, which was accordingly done to the great joy of the country, but much to the distress of many idlers who had lately bought their commissions for the purposes of plunder, and considered a captaincy equal to an estate, although numbers, especially of the higher ranks, had their losses more than compensated by their shares of the forfeited estates.

Lauderdale was too good a politician to allow the present humiliation of his opponents to pass unimproved. The indolence and dissipation of Rothes had laid him open to the charges of inattention and neglect of duty during the Dutch visit. He was therefore, as an honourable dismissal, made Lord Chancellor preparatory to losing the Commissionership. The Earl of Tweeddale’s eldest son, Lord Yester, having been married to Lauderdale’s only daughter and presumptive heiress, his father was named one of the commissioners of the treasury along with Kincardine and Sir Robert Murray, who had also been appointed Lord Justice-Clerk; and his party in the privy council had been still further augmented by the admission of the Earl of Airly, Lord Cochrane, and others. The first trial of strength between the factions, was upon the important question, how the peace of the country was to be secured when the army was disbanded? As the same vile and mischievous system of forcing a hated hierarchy upon the people was determined to be persisted in, the prelates and military were for pressing the declaration according to the king’s letter; for although they had now no immediate prospect of touching the money, yetthey always had a kind of natural propensity to urge the harshest measures, and those which would promote, rather than appease, the troubles of the land. The Lauderdale party proposed a general pardon and a bond of peace, so moderate in its terms, as that it would be either cheerfully taken, or render those who refused it inexcusable. The contest was long and hotly maintained; and when the council divided, their clerk, Sir Peter Wedderburn, affirmed that the declaration was carried; this, Sir Robert Murray denied, and the vote was again put, and again the clerk affirmed a majority was for the declaration; Sir Robert still contended that this was not the case, and the Chancellor warmly asking, if he doubted the clerk’s fidelity? Sir Robert replied he would trust the evidences of his own senses before any clerk in the world, and insisted that the names should be distinctly called, and the votes accurately marked; when it plainly appeared that a majority was for the bond, which, but for his firmness, by an impudent shameless falsehood would have inevitably been lost.

Pursuant to these resolutions, a pardon was proclaimed; but the exceptions were so numerous that it was of no avail to any person who possessed either influence or property, and it was remarked that already more than half the number of those who had been at Pentland, were either executed or forfeited; and those who were pardoned, were only the persons whom from their obscurity it would have been impossible to discover, or from their poverty, fruitless to forfeit. The bond was short, and ran thus:—“I,A. B., do bind and oblige me to keep the public peace, and not to rise in arms without the king’s authority, and that if I fail I shall pay a year’s rent: likewise, that my tenants and men-servants shall keep the public peace; and in case they fail, I oblige myself to pay for every tenant his year’s rent, and for every servant his year’s fee. And for more security, I am content thir presents be registrate in the books of council.” Excepting, perhaps, the hardship of obliging a landlord to bind himself for his tenant and servant, there does not appear, at first sight, any thing objectionable in this obligation. But the government had entirely lost the confidence of the upright Presbyterians by their uniform endeavours to ensnare their consciences with oathsand obligations, conceived in general terms, to which a double meaning was attached; and which, when any dispute arose, they insisted should always be understood according to the sense the administrators of the oath imposed upon it. Now this bond was constructed in the usual manner, and the expressions—“keep the public peace, and not rising in arms”—were the ambiguous phrases; and numbers refused to sign, unless allowed to explain that by these expressions they were not to be understood as binding themselves to support the prelatical religion, to attend their churches, and desert the preaching of the gospel by their own ministers, or acknowledge the doctrine of passive obedience. Many pamphlets were printed, and much discussion took place upon the subject; but the bond being soon laid aside, the controversy became unimportant, except in so far as succeeding events plainly showed that the objections to the bond were not unmeaning scruples, and that those who refused to sign, acted from a complete knowledge of the persons with whom they were dealing, who would allow of no interpretation inconsistent with entire, implicit, unconditional submission. The proclamation for disarming the west was also in part recalled, and orders issued for restraining the irregularities of such soldiers as were kept in pay—a number of gentlemen who had been imprisoned in 1665 were liberated—and the year closed with the illusive prospect of a deceitful calm.[61]

61.In December, “Naphtali, or the Wrestlings of the Church of Scotland,” written by Sir James Stuart of Goodtrees, and Mr James Stirling, minister of Paisley, was ordered to be burned by the hands of the hangman, and all who had copies of it after that date to be severely fined—a very foolish but not uncommon mode of publicly confessing that a book is unanswerable. Honeyman, bishop of Orkney, attempted to answer it, which produced an able reply by Sir James—“Jus populi vindicatum.”

[1668.] Great expectations were entertained that some legal protection might be again enjoyed by the harassed Presbyterians, as during last year a commission had arrived from the king to bring Sir James Turner to trial for his tyranny and oppression in the south. But it soon appeared that whatever might have caused the act of justice, it was no sympathy for the sufferings of the “Fanatics.” The extortions, harassings, imprisonments, andother charges against Sir James, were easily established; but it did not appear that he had either acted without or beyond his instructions, or appropriated much of the spoil for himself, and he was only dismissed the service, while those he had robbed received no compensation. Sir William Bannantyne’s trial followed. The accusations against him were more atrocious, torturing and rape being offered to be proved in addition to plunder and rapine. But, perhaps, what was his most indefensible crime, he could not account for the monies he had received. He was therefore banished and fined in two hundred pounds sterling—a gentle sentence for such conduct.[62]Little real relief was however afforded to Presbyterians, whose principles would not bend to the times, or to those who, at the risk of reputation, property, liberty, or life itself, refused to abstain from preaching the gospel to their fellow-sinners, or those who would not consent to forsake the worship of God, or leave his ordinances dispensed by his ministers—to attend on a profanation of all sacred service by hirelings who were—(scarcely even the disguised)—enemies of the cross of Christ. In proportion as lenity was exercised to others, so much the more was hatred evinced towards ministers and those who frequented conventicles.

62.He went afterwards to the low country, and was killed by a cannon-ball at the siege of Grave, which drove his heart out of his body—a mode of death he had been accustomed to imprecate upon himself.

Hitherto there had been but few field-meetings, yet preaching and exhortation in private houses, barns, and other convenient places, had been very common and well attended; and, from the concurring testimony of all who were accustomed to frequent them, who have left any record, the Spirit of God seems in an eminent manner to have blessed these calumniated, despised, and persecuted assemblies.[63]In a letter from the king, January 16, which settles the meaning of “the public peace,” these meetings, which were peculiarly obnoxious to the bishops and curates, are thus pointed out to the notice of the council:—“We most especially recommend to you to use all possible means and endeavours for preserving the public peace under our authority, and with specialcare to countenance and maintain Episcopal government, which in all the kingdom we will most inviolably protect and defend. You must by all means restrain the gatherings of the people to conventicles, which are indeedrendezvouses of rebellion, and execute the laws severely against the ringleaders of such faction and schism.” The council, with prompt obedience, appointed any of their number to grant warrants for seizing and haling to prison all “outted” ministers or others who should keep unlawful convocations; and the Earl of Linlithgow, commander of the few forces, was directed to distribute them over the country in such manner as might be calculated most easily to dissipate these illicit concerns. A company of foot was, in consequence, ordered to lie at Dumfries; another, with fifteen horse, at Strathaven, in Clydesdale; forty troopers at Kilsyth; two companies and fifteen horse at Glasgow; one company at Dalmellington; and a last at Cumnock, in Ayrshire.

63.Memoir of Fraser of Brae, p. 126-7.

To stimulate their exertions, and still farther “to endear” his beloved prelates to the lieges, the king, on the 25th July, requires them to rid the kingdom of all seditious preachers or pretended ministers who had kept conventicles or gathered people to the fields since January last; “for we look on such,” he adds, “as the great disturbers of the peace and perverters of the people.” And the council urged their officers to be upon the alert; even Tweeddale, who was generally supposed friendly to the Presbyterians, or at least moderate, was not less anxious than his associates to prevent or extinguish the light of the gospel which from these conventicles was spreading over the country. In writing to the Earl of Linlithgow, he says—“Your lordship knows the counsel’s desing reachith furder then to make them peaceable when the rod is over their head, which I beleive your lordship will follow as far as possible; for, iff ther be not som of thes turbulent peopel catched, all is in vayn: when they are chassed out of one place, they will flie to another: for God’s sake, therefor, endeavour by all means possible to learn wher they haunt and whither they are gon;” and then he advises the commander colonel-commandant to send parties “to catch them wher they can be had, wer it 100 mils off, especially Mr Michael Bruce.”

Michael Bruce, thus denounced, was of the family of Airth, so highly and deservedly esteemed in the annals of the Reformation, himself “a worthy, useful, and affectionate preacher.” He had been driven from Ireland, where he had been settled, and was now zealously and boldly preaching in Stirlingshire to large auditories, generally in houses, but occasionally in the fields, and had “presumed also to baptize and administrate the sacraments without any lawful warrant,” he was therefore pursued by the soldiers as a wild beast, and at last surprised, wounded, and taken prisoner. After his wounds would allow of his being moved, he was brought to Edinburgh and sentenced to banishment, but, on his being sent to London, his sentence was altered, and he was ordered to be carried to Tangiers in Africa. He, however, obtained the favour of being permitted to retire secretly to Ireland. Several of the other “outted” ministers were likewise ordered to prison, and some fined for similar misdemeanours; numbers, however, in Fife, in the north, and even in Edinburgh,[64]laboured with much success, while “Mr Blackadder and his accomplices” were not less assiduous in their visits to the west and in the south. Professions of greater indulgence to the Presbyterian ministers were, notwithstanding these proceedings, held out to them by Tweeddale, who had had interviews and made proposals to several of the most eminent then under hiding, when an unfortunate circumstance put an end to all hope of favour for the present.

64.Kirkton, Welsh, Blackadder, Donald Cargil, and many others, at this time resided in the capital for months together, and secretly exercised their ministry.

James Mitchell, a preacher, who had been at Pentland, and was by name exempted from the indemnity, considering Sharpe the prime instigator of all the calamities his country had endured, and was enduring, as well as the author of his own exclusion from pardon, and having heard of his keeping up the king’s letter till the last six were executed at Edinburgh, determined to free the land from such a monster, whom he viewed in the light of an enemy whose life he had a right to take in self-defence, as well as in the service of his country.[65]In pursuance of this resolution, he waited for the primate, July 11th, at the head of Blackfriar’sWynd, where his house was, on purpose to effect it; and having allowed him to be seated in his coach, deliberately walked up and fired at him, but Honeyman, bishop of Orkney, who was in the act of getting up, received the shot, by which his arm was shattered, and Sharpe, for the present, escaped. Mitchell, after firing, walked away coolly, and turning down Niddry’s Wynd, went thence to Stevenlaw’s Close, shifted his clothes, and returning to the High Street, without being discovered, mixed with the multitude who had collected, but who were giving themselves very little concern about the matter, when they heard that it was only a bishop that had been shot.

65.Vide Testimony, Naphtali.

Immediately the hue and cry was raised—the city gates were shut—the magistrates were ordered to make strict search after Whigs in the city or suburbs—the constables were called out, and a hundred soldiers sent to assist them. The town being considered a place where those who were proscribed could best conceal themselves, several of this description were then secretly residing there, and had narrow escapes, none of the least remarkable of which was that of Maxwell of Monreith.

Being unacquainted with the town when the search began, he came running to Nicol Moffat, a stabler in the Horse Wynd, and begged him to conceal him, for he knew of no shelter. “Alas!” answered Nicol, “there is not a safe corner in my house.” But there was an empty meal-barrel that stood at the head of a table in his public room, and he added, if he chose to go in there, he would put something over and cover him. There was no alternative, and in Mr Maxwell went. Scarcely was he out of sight when a constable arrived, with a band of soldiers, and demanded if there were any Whigs there? “Ye may look an’ see,” replied Nicol carelessly, and the constable, deceived by his manner, proceeded no further; but, being thirsty, called for some ale for his party, and they sat down at the table. While drinking, they began talking about their fruitless search, when one said he knew there were many Whigs in town, and he did not doubt but there were some not far distant, to which another answered with an oath, knocking at the same time on the head of the barrel, “there may be one below this;” but they were restrained from lifting the lid;and when they had finished their potations, they went quietly away.

Others were not, however, so fortunate. The servant girl of a Mr Robert Gray, a merchant in Edinburgh and a godly man, having quarrelled with her mistress, out of revenge went to Sharpe, and told him that there they would find a receptacle of Whigs, and might discover the assassin, on which Mr Gray was brought before the council. Conjecturing what his servant might have told, he at once informed them that Major Learmont, Mr Welsh, and a Mrs Duncan, a minister’s widow, had dined with him not long before; but with regard to the assassin he knew nothing. The advocate then going up familiarly, after a short conversation, took the ring off his finger, telling him he had use for it, and dispatched a messenger of his own with it to Mrs Gray to tell her that her husband had discovered all, and sent this as a token that she might do the same. Deceived by this trick, worthy of the Inquisition, she acquainted them that Mr Welsh sometimes lodged with Mrs Kelso, a rich widow, and preached in her house, and also where Mrs Duncan was to be found. Mrs Gray and her two female friends were immediately sent to prison, and soon after brought before the council, when Mrs Kelso was fined five thousand merks and banished to the plantations. Mrs Duncan also was sentenced to banishment, and only escaped torture by Rothes observing, “it was not customary for gentlewomen to wear boots.” After a long confinement, the sentence of banishment was relaxed; but Mr Gray felt so keenly, from having been the innocent cause of so much suffering, that he sickened, and died within a few days. Mr Gillon, the “outted” minister of Cavers, likewise met his death upon this occasion in a very inhuman manner. He had retired to Currie, a few miles from Edinburgh, for the benefit of his health, where, being apprehended about midnight by two or three rascally soldiers, who pretended to be searching for the bishop’s assassin, he was forced, in sport, to run before them a distance of nearly four miles to the West Port, where, after he arrived, he was kept standing for some hours in the open air before he could obtain admission, and then was sent to lodge in a cold jail. Next day, on being brought before the council, he was recognizedand dismissed, but he did not survive the treatment he had received above forty-eight hours. During this year, to compensate for the loss of the regulars, the militia were modelled, properly officered, and prepared for service—a circumstance which, as it was a time of profound peace, might have created some misgivings respecting any alteration in the plans of government.

[1669.] Flattering themselves still with the returning favour of government, the ministers pursued their prohibited labours, and conventicles continued to increase, while the council, impelled on by the repeated injunctions of the king and solicitations of the prelates, not unfrequently forgot their professions of moderation, and proceeded to acts which might have dispelled the delusion. Conventicles found no mercy. The magistrates of burghs were now made responsible for any that might be held within their bounds; and early this year, the civic rulers of the capital were fined fifty pounds sterling, because “Mr David Hume, late minister of Coldingham, took upon him to preach in the house of widow Paton on the last Sunday of February”—a circumstance, it is highly probable, the worthy provost and bailies had never heard of till they were summoned to pay for the exercise. An act of council immediately followed, prohibiting every person from having their children baptized by any other than the Episcopal clergy, under the penalty, to an heritor, of the fourth part of his valued rent—a tenant £100 Scots and six weeks’ imprisonment—and a cottar twenty, and the same. To enforce this decree, the militia were to be employed in seizing the disobedient, and ordered to be supported by them, while on this service, at the rate of one shilling and sixpence sterling each man, and three shillings each officer per day; at the same time, collectors of fines were appointed to take care that the whole penalty was exacted; and among these, it is somewhat ludicrous to observe the Earl of Nithsdale, a papist, required to see a measure faithfully executed, the professed intention of which was, to prevent the growth of popery! then it seems lamentably on the increase—an increase the council had the effrontery to aver, was owing to the frequency of field-preaching.

The archbishop of Glasgow, whose jurisdiction was grievouslyannoyed by these pests, was peculiarly virulent in his opposition, prevailed upon Lord Cochrane (created Earl of Dundonald next year) to bring before a committee at Ayr, eleven ministers of that district who had been guilty of preaching and baptizing irregularly. Upon examination, the committee were inclined to dismiss them, but his lordship insisted upon their being sent to Edinburgh. There they were examined before a committee of the privy council, and acknowledged that they had allowed others, besides those of their own households, to attend when they worshipped God in their families and expounded the Scriptures, but none of them had been guilty of the enormity of field-preaching, and all promised to demean themselves peaceably, as they had hitherto done, and to give no just ground of offence. Their brethren, who were aware that temporizing would serve little purpose, were dissatisfied that they had not asserted their indefeasible right as ministers of Christ to preach his gospel; and they appear to have been convinced that they had acted too faintly in his cause, for when they were called to receive sentence, Mr Fullarton, the “outted” minister of St Quivox, in name of the rest, addressed the Chancellor. After reminding him of the unshaken loyalty which the Presbyterian ministers had displayed towards his majesty in his lowest estate, and the unlooked for return they had met with, he added—“But now seeing we have received our ministry from Jesus Christ, and must one day give an account to our Master how we have performed the same, we dare have no hand in the least to unminister ourselves; yea, the word is like a fire in our bosoms seeking for vent; and seeing, under the force of a command from authority, we have hitherto ceased from the public exercise of our ministry, and are wearied with forbearing, we therefore humbly supplicate your lordship, that you would deal with the king’s majesty on our behalf, that at least the indulgence granted to others in our way within his dominions, may be granted to us.” Then, after requesting to be delivered from the oppressive tyranny of their collector of the fines, a Mr Nathaniel Fyfe, whom Kirkton styles “a poor advocate, and alleyed to one of the bishops,” he concluded by telling him it would be no matter of regret when he entered eternity and stood beforeChrist’s tribunal, that he had acted as a repairer of breaches in his church. The council was crowded and very attentive, but the ministers were only excused for the time, and straitly charged in future to abstain from similar practices, on pain of being visited not only for any new, but likewise for their old transgressions; and the same day a proclamation was issued, strictly forbidding all conventicles, and rendering all the heritors in the western shires liable to a fine of fifty pounds sterling for every such meeting, on pretence of religious worship, as should be kept in any houses or lands pertaining to them.

How Mr Blackadder escaped, is astonishing, for during this year he seems to have been the most active of all the ministers, as well as the boldest. In the month of January, he preached publicly at Fenwick, and continued labouring in the west, till his over-exertions, more suited to the earnest desires of the people than his bodily strength, produced an illness which confined him for several weeks.[66]When recovered (June) he went again to his “diocese,” round by Borrowstownness, where he established a congregation and secured to them the freedom of undisturbed worship, through the interest of his relation Major Hamilton, who was the Duke’s bailie of regality, and lived at Kinniel House. At the request of the Ladies Blantyre, Pollock, and Dundonald, he preached to large auditories, sometimes not fewer than two thousand. In Livingstone, he administered the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and the example was followed in fifteen or sixteen adjacent parishes. The preaching of the gospel and dispensation of the ordinances were attended with such blessed effects that it was no wonder the enemy raged. Upon a humiliation day, in the muir of Livingstone, the four ministers who were to preach called aside several of the gravest and most sagacious men of the bounds, and inquired at them what were the most reproveable sins they observed as necessary to be confessed unto God inthese bounds, and whereof the people were to be admonished that they might the better know how to carry on the following work of the day; the men, after a deliberate pause, answered, as to public scandals and every kind of profanity, they could not say much, for they had not heard of any outbreakings of fornication, adultery, or drunkenness, scarce these seven years past, in that parish or in several parishes about, since the public preaching of the gospel had broke up among them.

66.“Money frequently was offered him for bearing accidental expenses. Several gentlemen contributed sums, and collections were made in purpose, but he uniformly declined receiving any donation, ‘lest his ministry might bear the imputation of a covetous and mercenary spirit, or the enemy have occasion to reproach their cause as if money made them eager to preach.’”—Crichton’s Mem. of Blackadder, p. 148.

About the same time, Mr Hamilton the “outted” minister of Blantyre was apprehended and sent to Edinburgh to answer to the council for holding a conventicle in his own house in Glasgow. Being asked how many hearers were in use to attend his meeting? he archly answered, that for these several years past the poor ministers of Christ who were forced from their flocks, could with difficulty support themselves and families, and could neither hire palaces nor castles. They might then easily judge what kind of houses they were able to rent, and whether they could hold large companies. His reply to whether others than his family were present? was equally pointed—“My lords, I have neither halberts nor guards to keep any out.” One of the members who thought his sarcasms bore hard on the archbishop, reminded him of the favour he had got from his lordship, in being permitted to remain so long in Glasgow. “Not so much,” retorted the prisoner, “as Paul got from a heathen persecuting Emperor, for he dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things that concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him; but both the honest people of Glasgow and myself have been often threatened with violence if we did not forbear.” Finding themselves no match at this species of interrogation, the council demanded if he was willing to give bond to preach no more in that way. He replied, he had got his commission from Christ, and would not voluntarily restrict himself whatever he might be forced to do. “An’ where got you that commission?” asked the Chancellor. “In Matthew 28th chapter and 19th verse, Go teach and baptize.” “That is the apostles’ commission,” rejoined Rothes; “an’ do you set upfor an apostle?” “No, my lord,” said Mr Hamilton, “nor for any extraordinary person either, but that place contains the commission of ordinary ministers as well as of extraordinary ambassadors.” When again asked, if he would give assurance that he would neither preach nor exercise worship anywhere but in his own house, he repeated his refusal, and was sent to prison, where he lay till his health became so much impaired that his brother, Sir Robert Hamilton of Silvertoun Hill, made interest and got him released, he giving bond of a thousand merks to compear when called.

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