BOOK XX.

A.D. 1684-1685.

Persecutions increase—“Killing Time”—Proscription and plundering—Husbands fined for their wives’ non-attendance at church—Torture—Executions—Campbell of Cessnock—Paton of Meadowhead, &c.—Females sold for slaves—Spence—Carstairs—Baillie of Jarvieswood—Circuit courts—Porterfield of Douchal—Finings—Proceedings of the society-men—Review of the state of the country during this period—Death of Charles.

[1684] The preceding year went down in darkness—the present rose even more gloomily. Religious persecution, like the plague spot, if once it touches the system, grows deeper and deeper, till the whole be infected. It had continued increasing in virulence during the entire reign of “the merry monarch,” which had commenced in hypocritical perjury, and was now about to set in unvarnished blood and massacre. There is one peculiarly disgusting feature in the persecution waged by priests against those who hold opposite opinions, and that is, it descends to the very lowest grade of society—it enters the humblest cottage and tortures the poorest of the poor; and while inflicting mental wretchedness, remorselessly strips its unfortunate victims of every ingredient of earthly happiness.

We now enter upon that period of our history, emphatically designated “Killing Time,” by the persecuted people in the west, from the inhuman practice introduced this year of murdering the wanderers in the fields without trial, if found guilty of having a Bible in their possession, or caught in the act of praying to theirGod, or refusing to answer ensnaring questions; and we may form some idea of the general severity of the government, when the council, in one of their acts, granting commissions for trying and judging the “rebels,” consider permitting their officers to sentence such as appeared penitent to be banished to the plantations in America, as allowing them to give the poor sufferers “a taste and share of his majesty’s great clemency and mercy.” John Gate, a wright in Glasgow, who also kept a small alehouse, being employed in repairing the roof, some soldiers came in, and calling for ale and brandy, the officers desired the landlord to come and take a glass with them. He came unwillingly, but durst not refuse. When he entered, he was ordered to drink the king’s health. This he modestly declining, was instantly seized and sent to prison—his wife at the same time being apprehended and confined to another room in the same jail. Their family, consisting of eight young children, was scattered; and although several of them were sick of a fever, yet were they barbarously turned out of doors, and every article of furniture sold. The woman being with child, pined in prison, and only got out upon a surgeon’s certificate; but when liberated, the magistrates would not even permit her to return to her own desolate home; and the inhabitants being terrified—as prosecutions for “reset or intercourse with fanatics” were now common, and subjected any who were disposed to show humanity to the sufferers, to be treated themselves as disaffected—this sickly destitute female and her helpless family had no lodging-place but the street, till “the excellent” Lady Ardrey allowed her the use of a brew-house, where three of her children died. Her husband was banished to Carolina, and never returned.

Insatiable in their craving for money, while the avaricious wretches were plundering the fanatics, they were not less assiduous in pilfering the produce of their spoils from each other, and from government, whenever they could find opportunity. Queensberry, therefore, and others of the members of council, who found that the wages of their iniquity were but ill paid, being chiefly stopped on the road by their own minions, equally unprincipled with themselves, procured a letter from his majesty, read in council,January 3d, authorizing them to call all judges and magistrates to account for the fines they had received, and for which they had not reckoned, as well as for the remainder, “left as an awband over the heads of the heritors.” The only result of this call which appears upon the record, is a sum of between eight and nine thousand pounds, Scots, (£685. 16s. sterling,) levied by the magistrates of Edinburgh upon the good town; off which they were allowed £200 sterling for their trouble in collecting—no bad remuneration. Grasping at every farthing they could snatch, the council had perceived that women, who were the great transgressors and chief fomenters of conventicles, called by parliament “rendezvouses of rebellion,” could be restrained by nothing except making their husbands liable for their fines, referred the subject to his majesty. He—as has been often remarked, like all profligates who profess great affection for the persons of women, set no value on their worth and pay as little regard to their feelings—determined against the ladies. But it having been found that this fell heavily upon some of the fiercest loyalists, who were unequally yoked, the privy council sent a letter to the king, requesting to be allowed in particular cases to dispense with the fines imposed upon the husbands for the irregularities of their wives, when there was no proof of their connivance with the refractory dames. His majesty was graciously pleased to authorize the council to dispense with the fines on loyal husbands “who do not connive at their obstinate wives’ ways, and are willing to deliver them prisoners!”

On this subject the Earls of Aberdeen and Queensberry differed—the former being for the milder, the latter for the harsher, measures, and those which would bring cash into the treasury, with which Perth coincided; and the consequence was, that Aberdeen was dismissed from the chancellorship, and Perth installed into the office, to which he had long been aspiring. The elevation of Perth—a man ready to sacrifice every principle of honour or religion to his ambition—augured ill for the cause of the sufferers. Perth was a cold-blooded, heartless politician, who would allow neither the feelings of the man nor the precepts of the religionist to stand in the way of his promotion. Could the Roman Catholicreligion be divested of its intimate connection with civil power, the absurdities and the idolatries of its profession would disgust any rational mind; but when interwoven with politics, and presented as a state religion for securing the obedience of the lower ranks to their superiors, then it is viewed in a very different light by these superiors, who willingly unite with the clergy to keep the commonalty in darkness and degradation; and disguise it how we may, the prelacy of Scotland at this period was Roman Catholicism both in spirit and action. Perth knew this; and when he consented to compliment the Duke of York with his religion, it was merely offering the sacrifice of a form for the substantialities of a place. He showed the sincerity of his conversion by flattering York in the most abhorrent part of his religion—remaining to witness the agonies of the tortured. The royal Duke looked calmly on the excruciating torments of the sufferers, as if he had been witnessing some curious or agreeable experiment, when all those who could escape shrunk from the spectacle. Perth superintended and viewed similar inflictions with all the complacency of a thorough-bred inquisitor.

The number of the individuals in lower life subjected to such treatment, under his inspection—the sameness of their tortures—and the similarity of their testimonies—it would be tedious to repeat; because, although these worthies all died in the faith, their holy brotherhood of suffering presents few distinguishing characteristics. But as an example, we may take that of a youth of nineteen, Archibald Stewart:—“I am more willing to die,” said he, “for my lovely Lord Jesus Christ and his truths, than ever I was to live. He hath paved his cross all over with love. Now all is sure and well with me. I am brought near unto God through the blood of his Son Jesus Christ; and I have no more to do but to lay down this life of mine that he hath given me, and take up house and habitation with my lovely Lord.” He was executed at Glasgow, with four others, whose last words were to the same purport. At their execution, one Gavin Black of Monkland, who had discovered some tokens of sympathy, was seized by the soldiers, imprisoned, and, because his answers to the usual inquiries were not deemed satisfactory, was banished to Carolina: andJames Nisbet belonging to the parish of Loudon, in Ayrshire, having come to attend their funeral, was recognized as a covenanter by a cousin of his own, a Lieutenant Nisbet, and apprehended. When examined, he refused to own the king’s supremacy, and for this was condemned to suffer. During his confinement, he was treated very harshly, and was executed at the Howgate-head of Glasgow, on the 5th of June this year. He died in much peace and assurance, and expressed his joy that he had been counted worthy to suffer for the cause of his Lord.

Military atrocities, however detestable, do not produce that feeling of contempt which mingles with an abhorrence of legal murder. Neither Dalziel nor Claverhouse, justly as their memories are execrated, awaken the same loathing that the recollection of the bloody Mackenzie’s judicial murders call up, because in the conduct of the latter we see unmingled cowardice in its most revolting personification, safe from danger, and rioting in the spoils of its unfortunate victims. Yet I know not that men suffering for the cause of truth can be called unfortunate.

Sir Hugh Campbell of Cessnock’s memory stands upon an elevation, that his most distant relations might well be proud of being connected with. His persecutors are despised by the humblest of our virtuous peasantry, who still on a solitary Sabbath, between sermons, moralize amid the tombs of the Greyfriar’s churchyard. He was arraigned, March 24th. His indictment stated, “that, having met some runaways from the westland army, (i. e.the covenanters), he said that he had seen more going than coming,” “and that he liked not runaways”—“that they should stick to the cause, and they would get help if they wud bide bye it.” It does not appear that even the words are authenticated. He offered to prove that he was not at the place where the expressions were said to be used; also, that the witnesses bore him ill will. One had said—“if he was out of hell, he would be revenged upon him.” Another had received money to be an evidence against him. All his preliminary defences were, however, rejected, and the process was ordered to proceed. The cause, of course, was deemed hopeless, and the crown counsel, Mackenzie, brought forward his evidence. First, Thomas Ingram: he being sworn, theold and venerable panel rose up, and addressing him, said—“Take heed, now, what you are about to do, and damn not your own soul by perjury; for, as I shall answer to God, and upon the peril of my own soul, I am here ready to declare I never saw you in the face before this process, nor spoke to you.” Struck with the solemnity of the address, the tutored suborned witness declared when examined, that he could not swear distinctly to what the prisoner had said. A loud shout and clapping of hands immediately arose in court, which so irritated the advocate, that he started up in a fury, and said—“He believed Cessnock had hired his friends to make this uproar to confound the king’s witnesses: that he had never heard of such a protestant roar, except upon the trial of Shaftsbury: that he had always had a kindness for their persuasion, till now that he was convinced in his conscience it hugged the most damnable trinkets in nature.” Perth, the justice-general, whose brother, Lord Melford, had received a previous gift of the anticipated forfeiture, repeatedly questioned Ingram as to the truth of his assertion, when Nisbet of Craigintenny, one of the jury, interposing, declared they would only pay attention to the witness’s first deposition, though he should be examined twenty times. Perth, with some warmth, replied—“Sir, you are not judges in this case.”—“Yes, my lord,” said Somervell of Drum, “we are the only competent judges as to the probation, though not of its relevancy!” And the whole jury rising, adhered to what he said. Another witness was brought forward—Crawford. He also could speak nothing with regard to the criminality of Cessnock, not having seen him for a considerable time either before or after Bothwell Bridge. A fresh shout from the spectators announced their sympathy with the prisoner. In vain the justice-general and the advocate stormed. The jury brought in a verdict of—not guilty. Yet was he sent to the Bass, and detained a prisoner for life, and his estate forfeited and given to Melford. The witnesses were laid in irons and the jury charged before the privy council with having created a riot in court. Nor were they dismissed till they made an apology.

The heartless levity with which these scoffers at Presbyterian sanctity, perpetrated the most revolting cruelties, would scarcelybe credited, did not their own records furnish the proof. One George Jackson, who had lain in irons during all the winter, was brought before a committee of council on the 13th of May. Being hastily summoned, he happened to enter with his Bible in his hand. “Come away,” said the advocate, “let’s see where the text lies.” George replied, “I was never a seeker out of texts; that is the work of a minister.” Then said the advocate, “put up your Bible, we are for no preaching now.”—“I am not come to preach,” answered the prisoner; “but I charge you, and all of you, as ye shall answer one day before our Lord Jesus Christ, when he shall judge——.”—“You came here to be judged and not to judge,” retorted Mackenzie; “send him to prison.” He was accordingly re-conducted to jail, and executed in December.

Some idea may be formed of the wide range to which the proscription of the best of Scotland’s population now extended, from the rolls printed at this date, May 5th, in order to reach all who could be accused of harbouring any who were proclaimed fugitives—not less than two thousand were declared outlaws; and when it is recollected, that the parent durst not speak to the child, nor the child to the parent; the husband to the wife, nor the wife to the husband—we may form some faint idea of the misery inflicted upon the suffering country. On the 9th of the same month, Captain John Paton of Meadowhead suffered. He had distinguished himself during the civil war; but after the battle of Worcester, settled upon the farm where he had been born, and became a member of Mr William Guthrie’s session, in the parish of Fenwick, till the Restoration. He was at Pentland and Bothwell, and was so marked a character that a large sum was offered for his head; and he experienced several remarkable escapes, till at last, early this year, he was taken in the house of Robert Howie of Floack, in the parish of Mearns. Dalziel, who had known him as a brave soldier, is said to have taken some interest in him, and to have obtained a reprieve from the king; but that falling into the hands of Bishop Paterson, he kept it up till the Captain was executed, which seems the more probable from the short notice in the council record, April 30:—“John Paton,in Meadowhead, sentenced to die for rebellion, and thereafter remaining in mosses and muirs to the high contempt of authority, for which he hath given all satisfaction that law requires, reprieved till Friday come se’enight, and to have a room by himself that he may the more conveniently prepare for death”—a treatment so uncommonly favourable, that it looks very likely that something more had been intended. But he was honoured to suffer on the gibbet for the principles he had so strenuously contended for on the field. He died most cheerfully forgiving all his persecutors all the wrongs they had done to himself, and desiring they might seek forgiveness of God for the wrongs they had done to his cause.

But probably no case sets the iniquity of the then justiciary lords in a stronger point of view, than that of James Howison, maltman in Lanark, accused of being at Bothwell. The case as proved was, he resided in Lanark; and when a party of the west country army came there, he was, as all the inhabitants of the place were, obliged either to converse with them or retire. He could not retire, and was seen in conversation with some of the rebels, but without arms; for this the court sentenced him to be hanged at the Grassmarket, and his lands and goods forfeited to the king!

The partiality of the council was not less conspicuous. Having ordered the Lord Advocate to prosecute all heritors upon whose lands rebels were seen, among others, the Laird of Dundas was charged with this new crime; and his defence was, that he did not know of any persons either going to or coming from a conventicle, nor had he even heard of it till some time after. The lords repelled the defence; yet the very same day, the Earl of Tweeddale, accused of an exactly similar crime, was allowed to state his ignorance as his excuse, and the excuse was sustained.

It may be imagined, but I hardly think even imagination could conjure up a worse species of punishment than what was practised on well educated females—and such were the daughters and wives of the covenanters[154]—for no fault but their opinions:—to be sentoff the country as common felons, and sold in the colonies as common slaves; and not only was this villany effected, but worse; their companions who came to visit and take farewell of their young friends—some of whom had been prematurely, illegally, and cruelly created widows—were frequently subjected to a similar fate, being seized and sent themselves to the plantations. One girl, Elizabeth Linning, when a prelatical slave-ship was lying in the Clyde, in the month of June this year, ready to sail for Carolina, went on board to condole with an acquaintance, she was immediately detained by the captain’s order, carried to Carolina, and offered to be sold for a slave, when she fortunately made her escape; and having got her case laid before the governor, he ordered her liberation. She returned, I believe, to her native land, but it does not appear that the captain was punished.

154.All the young women in Scotland at this time ought to have been taught to read. From every account, traditionary or otherwise, it appears the daughters of the covenanters generally were; and some of their published diaries, which have been held up to scorn, are even in point of elegance equal to many English writers who have been praised as the improvers of the English language; but this is a subject which deserves greater attention than I can afford in a note. I hope at no distant period to discuss it more fully.

The manner in which these victims of clerical oppression were used on their passage, does not admit of transcription. The indelicacy they were exposed to, bad as it was, was not equal to the filth that was perpetrated upon them. That so many of them died was less wonder than that any survived. The African middle passage might be a purgatory—the passage of the covenanters across the Atlantic would have been a stage below, had not the divine comforts that supported them in such a situation assuaged all the miseries their persecutors could inflict; and even amid the suffocation of the crowded mid-ships, enabled many triumphantly to wing their way to heaven.

Nothing steels the heart against every feeling of humanity equally with a false religion; and it is no less remarkable that its two principal ingredients ever have been a love of money and a love of power. Argyle’s proceedings touched both these main-springs in the bosom of the Scottish rulers, and they were determined by every means they possessed to elicit information respecting them. His correspondence had been obtained, but the charactersrequired three keys to decipher them. They had the Earl’s secretary in their possession, Mr William Spence; and he was ordered to undergo the boot. He did so without communicating any thing of importance. They therefore had recourse to a diabolical expedient. On the 26th July, they passed an act “ordaining General Dalziel to receive Mr William Spence from the magistrates of Edinburgh, and to appoint a sufficient number of officers and soldiers to watch him by turns, night and day, and not to suffer him to sleep; and to take down in writing every thing he should say.”[155]Yet nature sustaining even this, a new instrument of torture, imported from Russia by General Dalziel, was employed—the thumbkins—iron screws for compressing the thumbs, productive of the most exquisite pain. These had been first tried upon Arthur Tacket, a tailor in Hamilton, whose legs being too slender for the boots, the attendant surgeons recommended the squeezing of his thumbs, which was accordingly done previously to his execution, to extort from him a declaration of who preached at a field-meeting he had been apprehended on leaving. They were now applied to Spence. He had only one key, and they of course obtained but very partial information, and even that he had the resolution to stipulate should not be used judicially against himself or any of the persons mentioned. He had said, however, that Mr Carstairs possessed another key; and they, in violation of all good faith, not long after subjected him to similar torture. Previously, they had tried to obtain by insidious kindnesses the information they wanted; but Carstairs resisting all their advances, the chancellor, Perth, was so enraged, that he told him as he had refused so many singular favours that had been offered him beyond any prisoner, before God he should be tortured, and never a joint of him left whole. Against this he protested, as torture was prohibited by the civil law, and was unknown in the country where the crimes were said to be committed; but the Lord Advocate replied, he was now in Scotland,and though the crimes had been committed at Constantinople, he might be tried for them. Carstairs answered, that the crimes of which he was accused being said to be committed in England, his majesty’s laws were there equally in force for the security of his government as they were in Scotland, which they were not at Constantinople. The king’s smith was called in to settle the point. “I do acknowledge,” says Carstairs, who has himself left an account of the process, “I was much afraid I should not have been able to go through with that scene of torture: and if I had not, I was miserable; for I should have been brought to speak against every man they mentioned, but God kindly ordered it otherwise.” It is unnecessary to repeat an examination which was totally unsatisfactory to the persecutors, but it is impossible to dismiss it without awarding a meed of praise to the sufferer for a constancy, which we of these days are not perhaps fully able to appreciate.

155.He was, after the torture, put into General Dalziel’s hands; and it was reported that, by a hair-shirt and pricking (as the witches are used), he was five nights kept from sleep, till he was half distracted.—Fountainhall, vol. i. p. 299.

In the course of these various examinations, nothing decisive respecting the English plot could be obtained against Baillie of Jarvieswood; he was therefore ordered to be prosecuted before the privy council for corresponding with the rebels; and refusing to criminate himself by answering their ensnaring questions, he was fined six thousand pounds sterling, and turned over to the justiciary. Within a few days, he was brought to trial, though in the last stage of a decay, produced by the cruel treatment he had met with. Upon the most defective proof, he was condemned to die for a crime which he declared he abhorred, and of which the public accuser had declared to himself in prison that he did not believe him guilty. After receiving sentence, a friend asked him how he felt. “Never better,” was the reply; “and in a few hours I’ll be well beyond all conception.” Shortly after, he added, “they are going to send my quarters through the country. They may hag and hew me as they will, I know assuredly nothing shall be lost, but all these my members shall be wonderfully gathered and fashioned like Christ’s glorious body.” He was that same day sent to the scaffold, lest a natural death should have disappointed the malice of his enemies, who unintentionally were eager to encircle his brow with a brighter crown than that whichmonarchs wear. He died with Christian magnanimity and resignation; and his last moments were soothed by the heroic tenderness of his sister-in-law, a daughter of Warriston, who had watched over him in prison and waited upon him on the scaffold. His speech, declaring his attachment to the constitution of his country, and his hatred of popish idolatry, which he feared would be the plague of Scotland, he was prevented from delivering on the scaffold, but it was printed after his death, and, widely circulated through both kingdoms, tended greatly to promote the cause for which he died.

About the end of July, a few of the wanderers having rescued, at Enterkin-path, among the hills near Moffat, seven of their friends, whom a party of soldiers were carrying prisoners from Dumfries to Edinburgh, the privy council, on the 1st of August, passed a most barbarous act, ordering the execution of rebels to follow their conviction, within six hours in Edinburgh, and three hours in the west country. Meanwhile the murders went on in the fields. William Shirinlaw, a youth of eighteen, was met by a party at Woodhead, in the parish of Tarbolton, who, after asking him a few of the ordinary questions, and finding or alleging that his answers were unsatisfactory, immediately shot him. The subaltern, one Lewis Lauder, who commanded this party, seized other three, and would have proceeded in an equally summary manner with them, but his men positively refused to obey, remarking, one in one day was sufficient.

About the same time, five of the wanderers were found by a party under Claverhouse, sleeping in the fields. When awoke, on attempting to escape, they were fired at, and some of them wounded and carried off. When they were halted at a house for the purpose of plundering, a poor woman, for offering to dress their wounds, was also made prisoner. They were marched bleeding to the capital; and, on their arrival, tried and executed the same day. In a joint testimony which they hurriedly wrote, they expressed their willingness to die:—“We bless the Lord we are not a whit discouraged, but content to lay down our lives with cheerfulness, and boldness, and courage; and if we had an hundred lives, we would willingly quit with them for the truth ofChrist. Good news! Christ is no worse than he promised. Him that overcometh will he make a pillar in his temple. Our time is short, and we have little to spare, having got our sentence at one o’clock, and to die at five in the afternoon this day. So we will say no more; but farewell all friends and relations, and welcome heaven, and Christ, and the cross for Christ’s sake.”

James Nichol, a merchant in Peebles, being accidentally present at the execution, exclaimed, in the bitterness of his heart—“These kine of Bashan have pushed these good men to death at one push, contrary to their own base laws, in a most inhuman manner.” For this speech he was instantly seized, and within a few days sent after them to the gallows.[156]Along with him was executed William Young from Evandale, a good man, but “distempered and crazed in his judgment,” which certainly any rational person would have imagined ought to have exempted him from suffering on account of his opinions; yet was he solemnly tried and condemned by the horrible justiciary, after being most barbarously used. Having attempted to escape from the Canongate tolbooth, he was re-taken and bound so firmly with cords that his whole body was racked. “A pain this,” said he, “which would be intolerable, if eternal; but now I am near the crown, and rejoice in the full assurance of it.” It was observed of him by his fellow prisoners, that when engaged in serious conversation, reading, or prayer, he was always very composed, although exceedingly restless at other times.

156.On this most infamous judicial assassination, Sir Walter Scott remarks—“It is strange how the ferocity of persecution begets in those who are exposed to it a corresponding obstinacy and pertinacity. In the present case, one may say with the jailer in Cymbeline, that ‘unless a man would marry a gallows and beget young gibbets, I never saw one so prone.’” The fact was, he was on horseback riding home, when he was stopped by the crowd in the Grassmarket, and remained till the three were turned over, when, unable to repress his honest indignation, he expressed himself in the words for which he suffered.

It has been remarked, that during the period of the first ten Christian persecutions, the Roman world formed then one wide prison-house, from which there was no escape. The prelatical persecutors in Scotland appeared anxious to imitate their heathen predecessors; and in order to secure their victims, a proclamationwas issued, 15th September, requiring all masters of vessels to present to the magistrates lists upon oath of all their passengers, whether leaving or returning to the kingdom; and on the 16th, another was published, forbidding all persons to travel from one shire to another without a government-pass, under the penalty of being punished as disaffected!—restrictions, of which it is difficult to say whether any could have been contrived more detrimental to the trade of the country and the liberty of the subject, as it would be difficult to conceive any act more tyrannical than one passed by them the same day, ordering such as would not declare the rising at Bothwell rebellion, the primate’s death murder, or owned the covenants, or who only hesitated respecting them—to be prosecuted criminally,i.e., in other words, to be put to death!

These were preparations for the circuit courts, which set out for the south and west in the beginning of October. On the 2d, the division of which Queensberry, his son Drumlanrick, and Claverhouse, were the judges, sat down at Dumfries. As money was the everlasting cry of all these political cormorants, Queensberry procured an offer of five months’ cess for eight years from the county; but when he proposed a similar vote at Ayr, Lord Dumfries opposed it, desiring to know when there would be an end of taxes, and then he would offer as cheerfully as any. To make up for this disappointment, the heritors were all required to take the test, and the recusants were fined. They were besides required to swear whether they had held any communication with the rebels, for this most cogent reason, “that no man can complain when judged by his own oath, by which he is in less danger than by any probation of any witness whatsomever;” and they were finally to swear that, upon hearing or seeing any who were or should be denounced, they should raise the hue and cry, or give notice to the nearest garrison, in order to their apprehension. There does not appear to have been any murders committed at this time by the court of Dumfries; but one case of extortion deserves to be mentioned. A young man, William Martin, a son of Martin of Dullarg, having been lately married, when at Edinburgh Queensberry sent for him and offered to purchase the propertyhe held in right of his wife, the heiress of Carse. Martin refused to part with it for the sum Queensferry offered, when the latter told him he would make him repent it, and threatened to pursue him for his life, to escape which Martin let him have the estate upon his own terms. Yet, notwithstanding, he was at this time fined in seven hundred pounds, Scots, and his wife forced to give bond for another hundred pounds, having had a child baptised by a Presbyterian minister.

The court of which Mar, Livingstone, and General Drummond, afterwards Lord Strathallan, were the commissioners, sat down at Ayr in the beginning of October; and the heritors, being assembled in various sections, were told that they would display their loyalty to great advantage were they to petition to have the test administered to them, when those who agreed were dismissed, and those who refused were sent to prison, and had indictments for crimes which many of them were incapable of committing. Some young men who lived with their parents were charged with irregular marriages, and others who had no children with irregular baptisms; but none were set at liberty even after the absurdities of the charges were evident, till they found exorbitant bail to appear at Edinburgh when called. Almost all the indulged ministers were silenced by this vile junto, and those who would not oblige themselves to exercise no part of their ministry were sent to the Bass or other prisons; while, to terrify some young gentlemen recusants into compliance, a gibbet was erected at the cross, and pointed out as a most convincing argument. Quintin Dick, when urged to take the oath of allegiance, declared “he was ready to take it in things civil, but as to supremacy in matters ecclesiastical, he was too much the king’s friend to wish him such an usurpation upon Christ’s kingdom, being persuaded that the church of Christ hath a government in ecclesiastical matters independent upon any monarchy in the world, and that there are several cases which in no way come under the king’s cognizance.” For this saying, he was fined in one thousand pounds sterling, and ordered to be banished to the plantations.

The western circuit court, of which the Duke of Hamilton, with Lords Lundin (afterwards Earl of Melford) and Collington,were the judges, met at Glasgow on the 14th, when they commenced their proceedings by issuing a proclamation for disarming the counties of Clydesdale, Renfrew, and Dumbarton. They then imprisoned Schaw of Greenock, Sir James Montgomery of Skelmorly, Sir John Maxwell of Pollock, Cunningham of Craigends, and Porterfield of Douchal, all of whom they served with indictments for resetting rebels, which having no proof they referred to their oath, declaring their confession of guilt should not infer life or limb, but with a design to fine them in sums nearly equivalent to their estates. Next, they declared the parishes of the indulged ministers vacant to the number of thirty-six, whom they also imprisoned for some alleged breach of the council’s instructions. They likewise prevailed with the gentry and freeholders to become bound for the conformity of themselves, their families, and tenantry, to the whole of the present ecclesiastical constitution; and further, to offer voluntarily to the king three months’ cess more than was voted by parliament for the maintenance of an additional troop of horse for two years. They finished their proceedings in this quarter by fining Mr Archibald Hamilton, advocate, in five hundred merks, for not attending them, though he was burying his servant, who was accidentally drowned in Irvine water.

The heritors of Stirlingshire voluntarily came forward with a bond similar to the above, accompanied by a loyal address, expressing their abhorrence of all rebellious principles and practices, declaring their dutiful and absolute submission to his majesty’s authority and government, and offering their lives and fortunes to support the same.

The Merse circuit, of which Lord Balcarras, Lord Yester, and Hay of Drumellzier, were the commissioners, appear to have interested themselves to afford some relief or redress to the sufferers. They fined Pringle of Rigg, sheriff-depute, in five hundred merks, for oppressing the people, besides “modifying and discerning the restitution of the parties’ damage,” and fined one Alexander Martine, in Dunse, £1000 sterling, and deprived him of his place as clerk. The shire of Berwick being urged either to vote four months’ cess or maintain a troop, agreed to give two,which was opposed by Home of Wedderburn and some others, when the Earl of Home struck in “and out-bad a month more.”

Unless some special providence prevent, continued persecution must at last drive religion from a land. This was accomplished by the inquisition in Spain, and partially by the horrible St Bartholomew festival in France; and in Scotland, now it must have been driven to skulk in holes and corners, where even some worthy men were glad to meet a few disciples, but for the fearless Christian intrepidity of one pious youth! James Renwick, who, during all these dark and stormy times, when almost every other minister had left the service, continued to carry on the warfare, and when many of the standard-bearers fainted, planted his in the high places of the field; and his ministrations were wonderfully owned of God. He attracted crowds and revived with more than primitive vigour those field-meetings which the tyrants had prematurely imagined were crushed for ever. This added fuel to their fury. Letters of intercommuning were issued against him and his followers, and all loyal subjects were not only forbidden to hold the least intercourse with the wanderers, but ordered to hunt them out of their most retired deserts, and to raise the hue and cry wherever they appeared; in consequence of which, many of the poor persecuted pilgrims were reduced to incredible distress through hunger and cold, while secret informers, and hypocritical professors, were bribed to associate with them, to discover their hiding-places, and give information to the satellites of the prelates and the underlings of government. At the same time, the country was traversed incessantly, night and day, by a bloody and merciless soldiery, composed of the lowest offscourings of society, aided by the sleugh-hound, in ever active pursuit of those under hiding—several of whom they shot, after asking them merely a few questions—while the sea-ports were shut, and flight, the last refuge of the denounced, denied them.

Every rational ground upon which a government can ask, or has a right to ask, obedience from a subject, being thus wantonly trampled under foot by the apostate prelatists of Scotland, nothing was left to a brave and a hardy race, placed beyondthe pale of society, but to resign themselves and their children to hopeless slavery, or to resist. Fortunately for succeeding generations, they chose the latter; and, having done so, they resolved at a general meeting, held October 15, in order “to evite their ineluctable ruin, to warn intelligencers and bloody Doegs of the wickedness of their ways, and to threaten them in case of persisting in malicious shedding of their blood, or instigating or assisting therein, that they would not be so slack-handed in time coming to revenge it.” They therefore caused Mr James Renwick, on the 28th October, to draw up a declaration for this purpose, which he did in “The apologetical declaration and admonitory vindication of the true Presbyterians of the church of Scotland, especially anent intelligencers and informers.” In it they testify their constant adherence to their covenants, and also to their declarations, wherein they had disowned the authority of Charles Stuart, and declared war against him and his accomplices. But they utterly detested and abhorred the hellish principle of killing all who differed in judgment from them, and proposed not to injure or offend any, but to stand to the defence of the glorious reformation and of their own lives; yet they declared unto all, that whosoever stretched forth their hands against them by shedding their blood, either by authoritative commanding, as the justiciary; or actual doing, as the military; or searching out and delivering them up to their enemies, as the gentry; or informing against them wickedly and willingly, as the viperous and malicious bishops and curates; or raising the hue and cry, as the common intelligencers—that they should repute them enemies to God and the covenanted work of reformation, and punish them according to their power and the degree of the offence.

This declaration was affixed to several market-crosses, and posted upon a great many church-doors in Nithsdale, Galloway, Ayr, and Lanark shires, and produced considerable effect upon the baser sort of informers, who were deterred for some time from pursuing their infamous vocation, and a few of the most virulent curates in Nithsdale and Galloway, who withdrew for a time to other quarters.

The state of the country, which had been rapidly declining,was now wretched beyond conception. What prosperity it had begun to enjoy under the equitable and liberal dominion of Cromwell, was now blasted in the bud. The little commerce which he encouraged, and the agricultural improvements which the English army are said to have introduced, were interrupted and destroyed by the cultivators being in vast numbers called to attend the autumnal circuits, or forced to wander as fugitives, while the soldiers rioted in the spoliation of their crops, the breakage of their utensils, and the seizure of their horses. A famine threatened, and the bishops had appointed a fast to mourn for the sins of the land; but neither they nor the rulers appear to have had any sympathy for the suffering people.

The persecution continued with unabated or rather increasing violence; and the following are a few instances illustrative of the style in which it was conducted:—William Hanna, in the parish of Turnergarth, in Annandale, had been imprisoned in the year 1667, and fined one hundred pounds for hearing a Presbyterian minister preach. After his liberation, the curate of the parish was exceedingly troublesome, citing him before his session, and threatening him with excommunication. When one of his children died, the curate would not allow it to be buried in consecrated ground, because it had not been “regularly” baptized! and when some friends came to dig a grave in William’s own burying-ground, he came out of the manse in great fury, and carried off the spades and shovels, telling them “if they buried the child there by night or day he would cause trail it out again.” In 1681, he had a horse worth four pounds sterling carried away for not paying thirteen shillings Scots of cess; and after a train of constant harassings he was at last denounced and declared fugitive. He then hoping to find a little repose, went into England; but no sooner had he crossed the border, than he was seized and sent back prisoner to Scotland, which Queensberry no sooner heard of than he ordered him to be laid in irons in Dumfries jail, till he was sent to Edinburgh (October this year) to be immured in a dark hole under the Canongate jail, where he had neither air nor light. Here, being taken ill, he begged only for a little free air; but the soldier who guarded him, told him to“seek mercy from Heaven, for they had none to give.” In this dungeon he lay till sent to Dunotter.

His son William, a youth not sixteen years of age, was denounced for not keeping the church—How many youths in Scotland would be denounced if that werenowa crime?—and forced to flee to England a year after his father, where he abode some time. Venturing to return home in September 1682, he fell sick of an ague, and, while labouring under this disorder, was captured by some of the straggling soldiery, and forced to accompany them on foot for several days, in their ranging through the neighbourhood. At one time, coming to a martyr’s grave, who had been shot in the fields, they placed him upon it, and covering his face, threatened him if he would not promise regularity and ecclesiastical obedience, they would shoot him. The intrepid youth told them, “God had sent him to the world and appointed his time to go out of it; but he was determined to swear nothing he thought sinful.” Instead of respecting this courage in one so young, they sent the boy to Edinburgh, where he was first tortured with the thumbkins, then laid him in irons so strait that his flesh swelled out above them, after having been robbed of all the money sent him by his friends. This year he was banished to Barbadoes, and sold for a slave.

Age or sex was no protection. A respectable woman, seventy-three years old, who dwelt in Carsphairn, had a son cited to appear before one of these courts, 1680, for hearing Mr Cameron preach. Not, however, making his appearance, he was intercommuned—his mother’s house was searched for him, when not finding him, the soldiers spulzied the furniture. This year the military ruffians came again, and again missing the son, and finding nothing worth plundering, carried the mother to Dumfries. Here she was offered the test, and was about to comply, when the monsters in human shape, seeing her likely to yield, added a clause to the oath, that she would never speak to or harbour her son. This her maternal feelings refused; and for this was publicly scourged through Dumfries on the next market day. Nor was she even after her punishment liberated till she paid two hundred merks.

Enraged at the Apologetical Declaration, the council were still more infuriated by what seemed a practical following up of its principles, in the putting to death of two soldiers, Thomas Kennoway [vide p. 420] and Duncan Stuart. Kennoway was returning from Edinburgh, whither he had been for instructions with a list of one hundred and fifty persons he was required, it was said, upon his own information, to apprehend. Meeting Stuart at Livingstone, they both went into a public-house, when Kennoway produced his commission, and boasted over his cups that he hoped in a short time he would be as good a laird as many in that country, only he regretted he was turning old, and would not have long to enjoy his good fortune. They thence adjourned to Swine-Abbey, where they were both murdered, but by whom was never discovered. The authors of the declaration were, however, immediately suspected; and the council resolving upon an indiscriminate revenge, consulted the session as to whether avowing or refusing to disavow the declaration constituted treason? That prostituted court replied in the affirmative. But the forms of law were too dilatory for the sanguinary council. On the same day they voted “that any person who owns or who will not disown the late treasonable declaration upon oath, whether they have arms or not, shall immediately be put to death;” and on the day following, gave a commission with justiciary powers to Lords Livingstone, Ross, Torphichen, and a number of other officers of the army, five to be a quorum, with instructions to assemble the inhabitants of Livingstone and the five adjacent parishes, and to murder upon the spot, after a mock trial, all who would not disown the late traitorous declaration or assassination of the soldiers; and if any be absent, their houses to be burned and their goods seized; and as to the families of those who were condemned or executed, every person above the age of twelve years, were to be made prisoners in order to transportation. They also approved of an oath (known by the name of the abjuration-oath) to be offered to all persons whom they or their commissioners should think fit, renouncing the pretended declaration of war and disowning the villanous authors thereof.

The extortions were tremendous. In the month of December,six gentlemen of Renfrew were fined in nearly twenty thousand pounds sterling, and although some abatement was made, yet had Sir John Maxwell of Pollock to pay five thousand; the Cunninghams of Craigends, elder and younger, four thousand; Porterfield of Fulwood, upwards of sixteen hundred; and Mr James Pollock of Balgray, five hundred pounds sterling; besides various other gentlemen in the same districts, who were robbed of upwards of twenty thousand pounds sterling, by the council and the sheriffs. The pretexts under which such impositions were levied were, the dreadful negative treason of not attending ordinances in their own parish churches, and the more positive delinquencies of hearing Presbyterian ministers preach the gospel, or holding converse with the proscribed—men of whom the world was not worthy.

The real cause will be found in the grants which the debased and thievish councillors received of the spoils.[157]To accomplish their laudable designs, they despatched Lieut.-General Drummond to the south and west, to pursue and bring the rebels and their abettors to trial, and pass sentence upon them as he should see cause; and likewise ordered him to plant garrisons where he should think it expedient, especially in Lanarkshire; and besides gave commission to William Hamilton, laird of Orbiston, to levy two hundred Highlandmen of the shire of Dumbarton, not only “to apprehend the denounced rebels and fugitives in that quarter, and in case of their refusing, to be taken, to kill, wound, and destroy them,” but “to employ spies and intelligencers to go in company with the said rebels and fugitives, as if they were of their party, the better to discover where they haunt and are reset.”

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