126.James Corsan, in a letter to his wife, dated from Leith roads, says—“All the trouble they met with since Bothwell was not to be compared to one day in their present circumstances; that their uneasiness was beyond words: yet he owns in very pathetical terms, that the consolations of God overbalanced all, and expresses his hopes that they are near their port, and heaven is opening for them.”—Wodrow, vol. ii. p. 83.
126.James Corsan, in a letter to his wife, dated from Leith roads, says—“All the trouble they met with since Bothwell was not to be compared to one day in their present circumstances; that their uneasiness was beyond words: yet he owns in very pathetical terms, that the consolations of God overbalanced all, and expresses his hopes that they are near their port, and heaven is opening for them.”—Wodrow, vol. ii. p. 83.
126.James Corsan, in a letter to his wife, dated from Leith roads, says—“All the trouble they met with since Bothwell was not to be compared to one day in their present circumstances; that their uneasiness was beyond words: yet he owns in very pathetical terms, that the consolations of God overbalanced all, and expresses his hopes that they are near their port, and heaven is opening for them.”—Wodrow, vol. ii. p. 83.
127.It appears that some who had taken the bond, had, notwithstanding, been still detained.
127.It appears that some who had taken the bond, had, notwithstanding, been still detained.
127.It appears that some who had taken the bond, had, notwithstanding, been still detained.
“The ship being strong, endured several strokes ere she bilged. The captain and all the rest of the seamen, with about fifty prisoners, some of whom had been above deck before, others had broke out some other way down to the den, and so up again; so that they were to land with their life in: one or two died ashore. While these were thus escaping, the rest who had all been closed up between decks, crying most pitifully, and working as they could to break forth of their prison, but to little purpose; and all these, near two hundred, with lamentable shrieks of dying men—as was related to the writer by one who escaped—did perish. The most part were cast out on the shore dead, and after buried by the country people.”[128]
128.It is pleasant to notice instances of kindness and benevolence, in times such as these, among the influential men of the prelatical party. I quote from the Memoirs of Brysson, edited by Dr M’Crie, who remarks—“One of these kind lairds is evidently Sir William Drummond of Hawthornden, son of the celebrated poet,” p. 285,Note—“After our defeat, I wist not what to do. However, after some time lurking, I ventured home, where my sister and family were together, who had suffered many wrongs from the enemy, my mother being dead a year before this fell out; and that which is very remarkable, I dwelt betwixt two lairds who were both out in arms against us; and one of them never conformed to the Presbyterian government to his dying day, though he lived thirty-five years after this. And the other was of the same judgment, though he complied with the government afterwards. However, the Lord moved them to favour me in the day of my distress. For they sent for my sister before I came home, and advised her to put all the goods from off the ground, and every thing but what was of present use for the family. One of the gentlemen was so kind, that he desired my sister to send over the milk kine and let them feed with his, and to send over her servants morning and evening to milk them for the use of the family. And ordered her to pack up all things that she thought the enemy might make a prey of, and send them over to his house; which accordingly she did, where they were secure. The other gentleman was no less kind, for he desired her to send the milk ewes over to his ground that she might not lose their milk, and to send her servants to milk them. After that she sent away the horses, oxen, and other yeld beasts, to a friend who lived on the Earl of Wigton’s ground, who received them willingly. Thus the Lord trysted me with favour both from my friends and foes, for which I desire to adore his wonderful providence.”—Memoirs of George Brysson, pp. 284-5.
128.It is pleasant to notice instances of kindness and benevolence, in times such as these, among the influential men of the prelatical party. I quote from the Memoirs of Brysson, edited by Dr M’Crie, who remarks—“One of these kind lairds is evidently Sir William Drummond of Hawthornden, son of the celebrated poet,” p. 285,Note—“After our defeat, I wist not what to do. However, after some time lurking, I ventured home, where my sister and family were together, who had suffered many wrongs from the enemy, my mother being dead a year before this fell out; and that which is very remarkable, I dwelt betwixt two lairds who were both out in arms against us; and one of them never conformed to the Presbyterian government to his dying day, though he lived thirty-five years after this. And the other was of the same judgment, though he complied with the government afterwards. However, the Lord moved them to favour me in the day of my distress. For they sent for my sister before I came home, and advised her to put all the goods from off the ground, and every thing but what was of present use for the family. One of the gentlemen was so kind, that he desired my sister to send over the milk kine and let them feed with his, and to send over her servants morning and evening to milk them for the use of the family. And ordered her to pack up all things that she thought the enemy might make a prey of, and send them over to his house; which accordingly she did, where they were secure. The other gentleman was no less kind, for he desired her to send the milk ewes over to his ground that she might not lose their milk, and to send her servants to milk them. After that she sent away the horses, oxen, and other yeld beasts, to a friend who lived on the Earl of Wigton’s ground, who received them willingly. Thus the Lord trysted me with favour both from my friends and foes, for which I desire to adore his wonderful providence.”—Memoirs of George Brysson, pp. 284-5.
128.It is pleasant to notice instances of kindness and benevolence, in times such as these, among the influential men of the prelatical party. I quote from the Memoirs of Brysson, edited by Dr M’Crie, who remarks—“One of these kind lairds is evidently Sir William Drummond of Hawthornden, son of the celebrated poet,” p. 285,Note—“After our defeat, I wist not what to do. However, after some time lurking, I ventured home, where my sister and family were together, who had suffered many wrongs from the enemy, my mother being dead a year before this fell out; and that which is very remarkable, I dwelt betwixt two lairds who were both out in arms against us; and one of them never conformed to the Presbyterian government to his dying day, though he lived thirty-five years after this. And the other was of the same judgment, though he complied with the government afterwards. However, the Lord moved them to favour me in the day of my distress. For they sent for my sister before I came home, and advised her to put all the goods from off the ground, and every thing but what was of present use for the family. One of the gentlemen was so kind, that he desired my sister to send over the milk kine and let them feed with his, and to send over her servants morning and evening to milk them for the use of the family. And ordered her to pack up all things that she thought the enemy might make a prey of, and send them over to his house; which accordingly she did, where they were secure. The other gentleman was no less kind, for he desired her to send the milk ewes over to his ground that she might not lose their milk, and to send her servants to milk them. After that she sent away the horses, oxen, and other yeld beasts, to a friend who lived on the Earl of Wigton’s ground, who received them willingly. Thus the Lord trysted me with favour both from my friends and foes, for which I desire to adore his wonderful providence.”—Memoirs of George Brysson, pp. 284-5.
Nothing in the whole annals of these persecuting times presents a stronger argument against committing civil power to the clergy, than the uniform strenuous opposition made by the bishops and their satellites to every moderate or clement proposal of the Duke of Monmouth. The council, where they possessed a strong majority before his Grace arrived from the army, had written to the king for instructions how to dispose of the prisoners, promising “at the same time, on their part, to execute the laws against rebellion, faction, and schism, as the king should direct them, without gratifying the humours of such as are apt to grow more insolent by his majesty’s grace and goodness, who have been encouraged and hardened in an obstinate opposition to the church by his majesty’s condescensions and indulgences, and proposing that, after the ringleaders were punished capitally, the rabble should be transported to the plantations never to return.”
This model of princes, for whose restoration the cannon of the Castle of Edinburgh still continue annually to be fired, and the public offices still keep holyday, returned a gracious answer, approving of their proposal to send three or four hundred to the plantations, and bring the ringleaders before the justiciary, after which the rest might be dismissed upon signing the bond.
The treatment of the majority has been narrated. We shall now notice the proceedings against those considered ringleaders. The most conspicuous were their ministers Messrs King and Kid. Wodrow mentions an incident which occurred while the former was being carried to Edinburgh, too remarkable to be passed over, especially as that historian is neither a credulous nor an enthusiastic writer:—
“Upon the Lord’s day, orders were given to a party of soldiers immediately to march east and carry Mr John King withthem to Edinburgh; and we will find it was their ordinary [practice] to march, and especially to transport prisoners from place to place, on the Sabbath. My accounts of them are, that they were English dragoons. One of them, a profane and profligate wretch, after they were in the street and on horseback, ready to ride off with their prisoner, called for some ale, and drunk a health to the ‘Confusion of the Covenants,’ and another to the ‘Destruction of the People of God,’ and some more very horrid, and rode off. He met with one of his comrades at the Stable-green Port, who, knowing nothing of the matter, asked him where he was going? He answered, ‘to convoy King to hell,’ and galloped up to the rest, whistling and singing. The judgment of God did not linger as to this wretch; he was not many paces forward, in the hollow path a little from the Port, till his horse stumbled; and somewhat or other touching his piece—which was primed and cocked it seems—the carabine went off and shot him dead on the spot. The party went on and carried Mr King to Edinburgh.” Mr Kid was brought thither and imprisoned along with his friend in the tolbooth.
The tyranny of Charles, which was exercised in England as well as in Scotland, had excited much discontent there; and Charles’s advisers were extremely anxious to trace out some grand conspiracy which might enable them to resort to extreme measures there as well as in Scotland, that a similar despotism might be established in both kingdoms. The king therefore directed that these two should be especially examined by torture, in order if possible to discover the conspirators, with which the Scottish managers were very ready to comply, many of them anticipating a rich harvest of new forfeitures. Being disappointed in this, the prisoners were ordered to stand trial before the justiciary. Previously to being brought to the bar, they presented a petition, praying that they might be allowed to prove in exculpation—that they were only present with the army casually, and not intentionally, and were in a manner detained prisoners by them; and such naked presence, without assistance, was not criminal; and that they were so far from being incendiaries to incite the people, they, on the contrary, entreated them to lay down their arms. 2d,That the Duke of Monmouth, by his commission, had power to pardon; and they offered to prove by witnesses that he had proffered them a pardon if they would lay down their arms, and that they had accepted it. 3d, They were willing to engage to live peaceably, and never to keep field-meetings hereafter.
The lords refused this equitable request, or, as Fountainhall expressed it, “repelled their exculpation in respect of the libel,” and, on the 28th of July, their trial proceeded. They were accused of having been in the rebellion and in company with rebels, who, in May last, burned the king’s laws; that they had preached at several field-conventicles where persons were in arms; that they did preach, pray, and exercise to rebels, and continued with them till their defeat, and had been taken prisoners.
Their own confessions, that of Kid emitted under torture, were the only evidence produced against them, and coincided with what they had offered to prove. It was deemed sufficient that they had been with the rebels, and, notwithstanding any extenuating circumstances, must therefore be deemed rebels themselves. The jury brought them in guilty, in terms of their own confession; and the lords sentenced them to be taken to the market cross of Edinburgh upon Thursday, August 14, betwixt two and four of the clock in the afternoon, and to be hanged on a gibbet; and when dead, that their heads and right arms be cut off and disposed of as the council think fit; and that all their land be forfeited, as being guilty of the treasonable crimes foresaid. The judges themselves were so convinced of the peculiar hardship of the case, that they allowed this unusual space between sentence and execution, on purpose that they might have time to apply for a remission, and Mr Stevenson, a friend of theirs, rode post to London to apply for it; but all the avenues to mercy were shut. An evil influence pervaded the whole court; and it is worthy of remark, and ought never to be forgotten, that the most gay, most boisterously mirthful, most joyous, and most irreligious court, headed by the most facetious and witty monarch that ever sat upon the British throne, was the most unfeeling, cold-hearted, cruel, revengeful, and vile that has ever disgraced the annals of our country.
An act of indemnity had been passed; and it might naturally have been supposed that these good men would have received the advantage of it, but the very day on which it was to be proclaimed, was the day chosen on which they were ordered to be executed; so dead to every sense of common decency, as well as of common feeling, were the then rulers of Scotland. In the forenoon of the 14th of August, the magistrates of Edinburgh proceeded to the cross in their robes, and proclaimed the indemnity from a scaffold erected for the purpose. In the afternoon, these two worthies, on another scaffold, were put to death, as if to declare the entire worthlessness of all government clemency, whenever persons of unflinching principle were concerned. They both died with much calmness and serenity; and their dying speeches, which were afterwards published, may well rank with any of the compositions of the times, for elegant simplicity, honest integrity, and a plain energetic avowal of their principles, untainted either by party prejudice or political enthusiasm. Mr Kid, who was labouring under sore bodily indisposition, said—“It may be that there are a great many here that judge my lot very sad and deplorable, I must confess, death in itself is very terrible to flesh and blood; but as it is an outlet to sin, and an inlet to righteousness, it is the Christian’s great and inexpressible privilege.
“And give me leave to say this, 1st, That there is something in a Christian’s condition that can never put him without the reach of unsufferableness, even shame, death, and the cross being included in the promise. And if there be reconciliation between God and the soul, nothing can damp peace through our Lord Jesus Christ; it is a supporting ingredient in the bitterest cup and under the sharpest and fiercest trial he can be exposed unto. This is my mercy, I have somewhat of this to lay claim unto,viz.the intimations of pardon betwixt God and my soul; and as concerning that for which I am condemned, I magnify his grace that I never had the least challenge for it, but, on the contrary, I judge it my honour that ever I was counted worthy to be staged upon such a consideration. I declare before you all, in the sight of God, angels, and men, and in the sight of the sun and all that he has created, that I am a most miserable sinner, in regard of myoriginal and actual transgressions. I must confess they are more than the hairs upon my head, and altogether past reckoning; I cannot but say, as Jacob said, I am less than the least of all God’s mercies; yet, I must declare, to the commendation of the freedom of his grace, that I dare not but say, He has loved me and washed me in his own blood; and well’s me this day that ever I read or heard that faithful saying, ‘Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.’”
He then warned the servants of God against fomenting divisions to the detriment of the gospel, especially as there appeared at that time a great likelihood of its spreading, and dissension would prove a poison in the pot! “As for rebellion against his majesty’s person or lawful authority, the Lord knows my soul abhorreth it, name and thing. Loyal I have been and wills every Christian to be so; and I was ever of this judgment to give to Cesar the things that are Cesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” This excellent man and his most worthy coadjutor, not only had to suffer from the oppression of the oppressors, but from what to them was probably more trying, the cruel scourge of tongues from those they wished to esteem brethren. He therefore felt himself called upon to vindicate his character from these aspersions, and to leave a record of the doctrine he had preached. “According to the measure God has given me,” he continues, “it was my endeavour to commend Christ to the hearts and souls of the people, even repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ; and if this be devisive preaching, I cannot deny it.”
Mr King expressed himself to the same effect. “I bless the Lord,” said the dying martyr, “since infinite wisdom and holy providence hath so carved out my lot to die after this manner, that I die not unwillingly, neither by force; and though possibly I might have shunned such an hard sentence, if I had done things that, though I could, I durst not do; no, not for my soul, I durst not, God knoweth, redeem my life by the loss of my integrity. I bless the Lord that, since I have been a prisoner, he hath wonderfully upholden me, and made out that comfortable word, ‘fear not, be not afraid; I am with thee, I will uphold thee by theright hand of my righteousness.’ I bless his name that I die not as a fool dieth, though I acknowledge I have nothing to boast of myself. I acknowledge I am a sinner, and one of the chiefest that have gone under the name of a professor of religion; yea, amongst the unworthiest of those that have preached the gospel. My sins and corruptions have been many. I have no righteousness of my own; all is vile, like filthy rags. But blessed be God there is a Saviour of sinners, Jesus Christ the righteous, and that through faith in his righteousness I have obtained mercy; through him only I desire to hope for, and to have a happy and glorious victory over sin and satan, hell and death; that I shall attain to the righteousness of the just, and be made partaker of eternal life. I know in whom I have believed, and that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day. I have in my poor capacity preached salvation in his name; and as I have preached, so do I believe. With all my soul I have commended, and yet I do commend, to all of you the riches of his grace and faith in his name, as the alone and only way whereby ye can be saved. As for those things for which sentence of death is passed against me, I bless the Lord, rebellious I have not been. He who is the searcher of hearts, knoweth that neither my design nor practice was against his majesty’s person and just government. I have been loyal, and do recommend it to all to be obedient to higher powers in the Lord.
“That I preached at field-meetings. I am so far from acknowledging that the gospel preached that way was a rendezvousing in rebellion, as it is termed, that I bless the Lord ever he counted me worthy to be a witness to such meetings, which have been so wonderfully countenanced and owned, not only to the conviction, but even to the conversion of many thousands: if I could have preached Christ and salvation in his name, that was my work, and herein have I walked according to the light and rule of the word of God, and as it did become—though one of the meanest—a minister of the gospel.”
Both bore witness to the doctrine and worship, discipline and government, of the church of Scotland by kirk-sessions and presbyteries, synods and general assemblies, to the solemn covenants,also to the public confessions of sins and engagements to duties, and that either as to what concerned personal reformation, or the reformation of the whole land. They also bore witness and testimony against popery, which had so greatly increased, was so much countenanced, and so openly professed. The causes of God’s wrath with the land were particularly noticed and specified by Mr King:—1st, The dreadful slights our Lord Jesus has received in the offers of his gospel. 2d, The horrid profanity that had overspread the whole land. 3d, The horrid perjury in the matter of vows and engagements. 4th, The dreadful formality and supineness in the duties of religion. 5th, Awful ingratitude, what do we render toHimfor his goodness? 6th, Want of humility under afflictions. 7th, Dreadful covetousness and minding of our own things more than the things of God; and this among all ranks.
But they both departed, praying for Scotland, and rejoicing in the faith that there would be a resurrection of the name, word, and cause of Christ in their beloved country; and their last aspirations were, “O! that he would return to this land again! repair our breaches, and heal our backslidings! O! that he were pacified towards us! O! that he would pass by Scotland again, and make our time a time of love!” Their heads and right hands were, agreeably to their sentence, cut off, and had the honour of being placed beside those of the venerated Guthrie on the Netherbow Port, to bear witness to heaven, along with them, against the iniquity of the times.
Five others were next selected for immolation as a propitiatory offering to the shade of the grand apostate. Thomas Brown, shoemaker, Edinburgh; Andrew Sword, weaver, Kirkcudbright; John Clide, Kilbride; John Waddel, New Monkland; and James Wood, Newmills—charged with being accomplices in the murder of Archbishop Sharpe, although none of them were in that part of the country at the time when it happened—were accordingly brought before the justiciary on November 10th. Their indictment, as now became the custom, enumerated as charges against them all the occurrences which had taken place during the rising, aggravated by fictitious circumstances of the most revolting nature,i. e.throwing out of their graves the dead bodies of such children as belonged to the orthodox clergy in Glasgow; commanding, by a most insolent act of their supremacy and mock judicatory, all the said orthodox clergy to remove themselves, their wives and families, from the western shires, under pain of death; and threatening with fire and sword all such of his majesty’s good subjects as would not join them; plundering and ravaging their houses, and carrying off their horses and arms; declining the bond; and finally, and above all, refusing to call the late rebellion a rebellion.
Previously to proceeding with the trial, the bond was offered to them judicially, both the crown lawyers and judges upon this as upon several other occasions appearing to have entertained some sympathy for the sufferers; but they peremptorily refused to take it, as they considered that they would thereby have been condemning the rising at Bothwell, and their own conduct in what they considered a justifiable assertion of the principles to which they had solemnly sworn obedience in the covenants. Four of them resolutely avowed their having appeared in arms at Bothwell, and were of course found guilty by the jury upon their own confession of that fact alone; yet, by a strange vindictive perversity, the court sentenced them “to be carried to the moor of Magus in the sheriffdom of Fife, the place where his Grace the Archbishop of St Andrews was murdered, upon the 18th of November instant, and there to be hanged till they be dead, and their bodies to be hung in chains until they rot, and all their lands, goods, and gear to fall to his majesty’s use.”
James Wood was only proven by the evidence of some soldiers to have been taken at or after Bothwell without arms; and as numbers in that part of the country were known to have gone to the spot as mere spectators, a humane tribunal would have given them the advantage of the supposition that they had been present from a similar motive. But he was included in the same verdict, and doomed to the same punishment, which was accordingly inflicted at the place appointed, though some difference appears in the date of the execution and the date of their dying testimonies, the latter being dated 25th November, a week beyond the termallowed by the former, which might have been given to allow of an application to the king for mercy. If it was, they found none from their earthly sovereign; but they all died in the humble confidence of being reconciled to God by Jesus Christ.
Brown, who went up the ladder first, declared, before being turned off, “if every hair of his head were a man, and every drop of his blood were a life, he would cordially and heartily lay them down for Christ and this cause for which he was now sentenced.”
Sword sang the 34th Psalm, and said to the spectators, “I cannot but commend Christ and his cross to you. I would not exchange my lot for a thousand worlds!” He had lived four or five score of miles distant from that place, and never in his life saw a bishop that he knew to be a bishop.
James Wood also affirmed that he had never been in that part of the country before, nor seen a bishop in his life! and as to appearing at Bothwell Bridge, he added, “for my own part, I am so far from thinking it rebellion, that I bless God I was a man to be there, though a man most unable for war, and unskilful, because of my infirm arm: and I bless God that gave me a life to lay down for his cause; and though in remarkable providence he took not my life in that day, yet for holy and good ends he spared it to lay it down this day; and I am so far from rueing any thing that I had done that day in my appearing for Christ and his cause, that I would heartily wish if I were to live to see as many men every year gathered together for the defence of the gospel. I would count it my honour to be with them.” “And now, my friends, I am not a whit afraid to go up this ladder, and to lay down my life this day, for it is the best day ever yet mine eyes saw.” And being up almost to the top of the ladder, plucking up the napkin, he said, “Now I am going to lay down this life and to step out of time into eternity, and if I had as many lives as there are hairs on my head, or drops of blood in my body, I would willingly lay them down for Christ, and for you all that are here on Christ’s account.”
John Waddel, respecting the bishop’s death, said, “I declare I was never over the water of Forth in this country before this time.” “I am sentenced to die here because I would not call itrebellion being with my friends at Bothwell Bridge, and because I would not take that bond, binding me hereafter never to lift arms against the king nor his authority, which thing in conscience I could not do; for, whatever others think of it, to me it says, that it is a denying of all appearances for Christ and his cause that hath formerly been; and likewise it says to me, that we shall never any more lift arms for the defence of Christ’s gospel against any party whatsoever that seems to oppose it, which is far from the word of God:—‘If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him,’ and the covenants, National and Solemn League, which were publicly burnt in our nation—for which God in his own time will yet arise—which we are bound to maintain.” “And now, sirs, I am not a whit discouraged to see my three brethren hanging before mine eyes, nor before all this multitude to pray.” He then prayed; and being thrown over,
John Clide was brought to the ladder. When he had reached it, he turned round and said, “I think our being fetched here is like that which we have in Scripture about what Herodias said to Herod anent John the Baptist his head, to gratify the unsatiableness of that lewd woman; nothing would satisfy the lust of our persecutors, but our blood, and in this manner and place, to gratify the bishop’s friends. But the ground of my being sentenced is because I was found in arms with that poor handful at Bothwell Bridge and would not call it rebellion; and because I would not take that bond, which thing I had in my offer, and my life upon the taking of it; and was threatened by some to take it, and allured and persuaded by others, which I could not in conscience do, because it binds me hereafter that I should not appear for Christ and his cause. I durst not do it, for I was not sure of my life, no not one moment; and I durst not procure the wrath of God at such a rate; for I judge the loss of my soul to be more dreadful than the loss of the life of my body, and likewise that it is more hazardful the offending of God than gaining the greatest advantage in the world.
“I could not stay at home, but judged it my duty to come forth; for I could not see how I could evite that curse—‘Curse ye, Meroz; curse ye bitterly those that would not come out tothe help of the Lord against the mighty.’ And I bless the Lord for keeping me straight. I desire to speak it to the commendation of free grace; and this I am speaking from my own experience, that there are none who will lippen to God and depend upon him for direction, but they shall be keeped straight and right; but to be kept from tribulation, that is not the bargain; for he hath said that through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom, for he deals not with us as satan does—for satan lets us see the bonniest side of the tentation, but our Lord Jesus lets us see the roughest side and the blackest. After that, the sweetest thing comes! And he tells us the worst that will happen to us; for he hath not promised to keep us from trouble, but he hath promised to be with us in it, and what needs more?
“I bless the Lord for keeping me to this very hour: little would I have thought a twelvemonth since that the Lord would have taken me a poor ploughman-lad, and have honoured me so highly, as to have made me first appear for him and then keep me straight; and now hath keeped me to this very hour to lay down my life for him.” At the ladder foot, he addressed his brother and other relatives who were standing and weeping around him—“Weep not for me, brother; but weep for the poor land, and seek God, and make him sure for yourself, and he shall be better to you than ten brethren. Now, farewell, all friends and relations; farewell, brother, sister, mother. Welcome, Lord Jesus; into thy hands I commit my spirit!” And then lifting the napkin off his face, he said, “Dear friends, be not discouraged because of the cross, nor at this ye have seen this day, for I hope you have seen no discouragement in me, and you shall see no more!”
While these sanguinary proceedings were going forward, the Scottish rulers were not less assiduous in the more lucrative departments of persecution, rendering even their acts of indemnity or indulgence the means of pecuniary oppression; for the conditions upon which these were granted were so hard, and the penalties for their infraction so severe, that few would accept of them, and those who did, found them both burthensome to their conscience and heavy on their purse, as a common requisition was,that the parties should bind themselves, their families, and dependants, under a specified sum, to regular attendance on the ordinances and implicit compliance with all the injunctions of the established clergy, nor harbour or hold any communication with those who acted otherwise. Absence from the parish church, if accompanied with any suspicious symptoms, constituted rebellion; and associating with rebels, was construed into the same offence, punishable by death, but commutable by fining or confiscation of rents, money, and moveables; so that pretexts were never wanting for plundering the Presbyterians, wherever “the honest party” were possessed of property.
More effectually to scour the country, the justiciary was required to divide into two sections or circuit courts; the one to traverse the west and south, the other the north and east. By a proclamation sent before them, the proprietors or occupiers of the lands on which any of the rebels lived, were required to apprehend and imprison them till the courts arrived, when they were to present them for prosecution; and if they should be either under hiding or fugitive themselves, their wives, children, and servants were to be ordered off the ground. Clerks were sent before to take up lists of all who were named in the proclamation, or should be informed against as having been at field-conventicles, or having threatened, robbed, or abused the orthodox clergy, who were all to be summoned and examined upon oath respecting their possessions in lands, money, and bonds, in order that the proceeds might be forthcoming in case they should be found guilty. Witnesses were to be prepared and held in readiness—sixteen in every rural parish, and twenty-four in every royal burgh or burgh of barony, who were to give information, under a penalty of forty pounds Scots, of all who had been at Bothwell, or who had harboured any that were there. They were also to name all whom they heard or suspected of being there. The sheriffs and justices of peace were exceedingly active in searching out the proper victims for spoliation, and so rigid in their duty, that they included several in their rolls who had been dead or left the place some time before. The curates were very zealous; and their diligence in this business, contrasted with their carelessness in their spiritualfunctions, did not tend much to exalt their characters or endear their office. Extensive as the range of sedition had been made, yet were the insatiable managers unsatisfied. They therefore had recourse to an old statute, long in dissuetude, by which all who did not attend the king’s host were liable to be punished with death; and changing the award into a pecuniary mulct, they with rigorous impartiality fleeced the lieges in all the devoted counties where there had been the smallest symptoms of discontent.
In October, the circuit-courts commenced their operations; but, as they either kept no record of their proceedings, or these records have been destroyed, the particulars of their extortions are but imperfectly known, only the general devastation they spread was long remembered; the absent heritors were denounced, and numbers of them forfeited, whose estates were bestowed upon noblemen, gentlemen, and soldiers, as rewards for their ready and unflinching obedience to the most cruel and barbarous decreets of the council, which the greater part of them kept hold of till the Revolution restored them to their rightful owners.
Besides this, the council gifted the moveables of such as were reported to have been at Bothwell, which laid the whole of those who were known to favour Presbyterian principles open to the most vexatious visitations; for thedonators, to whom was committed “the uplifting of the spulzie,” literally “rode upon the top of their commissions,” exacting to the utmost, and, by returning oftener than once, frequently subjected the same persons to repeated pillage for the same accusation. Another source of wealth to the banditti who now ravaged Scotland, was the compositions of the fines paid to the clerks, or largesses to the officers, to escape the rifling searches of the soldiers, who, whenever they chose, could enter the houses of the most peaceable and destroy their furniture by casting it about, and rip up and render useless their beds and bedclothes, by thrusting them through with their swords, to find if any “cursed Whiggs” were concealed among them. The shires of Lanark and Ayr were peculiarly harassed—shires which, by every principle of sound policy, ought to have been peculiarly favoured, as they were the most industrious and wealthy, but unfortunately they were also reputed themost pious. Wretched as the country was, yet years more grievous followed. Monmouth while there had acted with as much moderation as circumstances would permit, and discouraged as far as possible the virulent spirit of clerical domination which the bishops and curates were so eager to display. When he went to London, he had carried with him very favourable impressions of the Scottish character, and was desirous to infuse somewhat of his own kindness into the councils of his father. Before he left Edinburgh, upon receiving a petition to present to the king, he said, “I think if any place get favour, it should be Scotland; for a gallanter gentry and more loving people, I never saw;” and previous to setting out, he procured what was termed the third indulgence, which was published at Edinburgh by proclamation, June 29. By it, ministers were prohibited under pain of death from holding field-conventicles, and all who attended were to be deemed traitors; but all laws against house conventicles south of the Tay, were suspended, “excepting the town of Edinburgh and two miles round about the same, with the lordships of Musselburgh and Dalkeith; the cities of St Andrews, Glasgow, and Stirling, and a mile about each of them; being fully resolved not to suffer the seat of OUR government nor OUR universities to be pestered with any irregularities whatsoever.” One preacher was to be allowed to each parish upon giving in their names to the privy council and finding security for their peaceable behaviour, provided they had not engaged in the late rebellion, nor been admitted,i. e.licensed, by the unconform ministers; assuring, at the same time, all who should offend, that we will maintain our authority and laws by such effectual courses, as, in ruining the authors, could not be thought rigid, especially after such unmerited favour. “This our forbearance being to continue only during our royal favour.”
These tokens of kindliness, stinted as they were, proved very unpalatable to the harpies who were fattening upon the spoils of their patriotic countrymen; and they immediately unbosomed their difficulties to their friend Lauderdale, in the form of an inquiring epistle from the council, dated July 12:—“There being doubts,” say they, “as to the sense of that clause in the proclamation,June 29, suspending all letters of intercommuning, and all other executions, if these words ‘all other executions’ do import that all persons, whether preachers at field-conventicles, or other persons, who being ringleaders of these rebellious rendezvouses, and have been seized according to former proclamations, promising sums of money to the apprehenders, the imprisoned should be set at liberty or not; and if such as have been imprisoned till they pay the fines imposed upon them by sentence of council or other judges, shall also be enlarged and set at liberty; and if these field-preachers and other persons, qualified as aforesaid, are to be liberate—they crave his majesty may declare his pleasure upon what terms and conditions they are to be liberate.” The answer appears to have been favourable to the persecuted.
Several ministers who were in prison for holding conventicles, but had not been at Bothwell, were now set at liberty upon enacting themselves in the books of privy council for their peaceable behaviour, and that they would not preach at field-conventicles. Others, who could not conscientiously enter into such engagements, were dismissed for the time, upon giving security to appear when called for. Among these were fourteen prisoners on the Bass, among whom was Fraser of Brea, who tells us in his memoirs that in twenty-four hour’s space, they found security for eight hundred pounds; “for we would not,” he adds, “give obligement not to rise in arms, nor to forbear field-meetings, because we saw no law for it, and because it was considered by us dishonourable, and to reflect upon our ministry.”
Anxious to improve this breathing time, a numerous meeting of ministers assembled at Edinburgh, August 8, to consider what steps should be taken, and proceeded to re-organize, as far as in them lay, the presbyterial form of their broken down and afflicted church; but before they could realize their intentions, indeed almost ere they enunciated them, the wind passed over them and they were gone! Towards the latter end of the same month, Charles was attacked with fever, and his life supposed in danger. The Duke of York, who had been obliged by the ascendency of the patriotic party to retire from court and reside abroad, was immediately sent for and quickly arrived at Windsor. His suddenappearance took his opponents by surprise, and, by the influence which he had over his brother, he effected the fall of Monmouth, who was sent into that exile from which he himself had so unexpectedly returned. With his elevation, all hopes of favour towards the Presbyterians vanished, and the persecution recommenced with renewed fury. A letter from the king, September 18, announced that he had recalled his commission to the Duke of Buccleuch and Monmouth as General. On the very next day, a warrant was granted by the council to Lieutenant-General Dalziel to apprehend whoever had not taken the bond or who harboured recusants, and secure them in prison till they be brought to justice—to dissipate field-conventicles and seize whoever were present at them; and they indemnify all slaughter or mutilation in case of resistance. They also granted him power, along with several others, to sequestrate the rents of lands, sums of money, and moveables belonging to heritors or others, who came under their denomination of rebels, in order to prevent their being embezzled!!
The Duke of York paid a short visit about this time to Scotland. With the characteristic cunning of a papist, who first cajoles before he ensnares a community, he carried himself towards all with as great suavity as his severe unyielding temper and ungracious manner would permit; but he especially cultivated the goodwill of the Highland chieftains, who had a leaning towards popery, and whose assistance he counted on to aid him in the contemplated destruction of a heretical religion, and forcible establishment of his own. Though admitted to act as a privy councillor, without taking any of the oaths at the king’s particular desire, he did not publicly interfere with political matters, but he paved the way for his subsequent rule, and received from the authorities, particularly the magistrates of Edinburgh, the homage and honour so readily paid to an heir-apparent, being feasted sumptuously, and lauded excessively for excellences which, if he did not, he ought to have possessed, and which they were willing to suppose his innate modesty alone prevented him from exhibiting.