JANUARY, A.D. 1667-1669.
Dalziel sent to the South and West—His cruelty, and that of the inferior
officers—Sir Mungo Murray—Sir William Bannantyne—Arrival of the Dutch
fleet—Crusade abates—Forfeitures increase—Standing army
proposed—Convention of estates—Cess—King’s letter—West country
disarmed—Sir Robert Murray sent to Scotland—Army partially
disbanded—Political changes—Bond of peace—Trials of Sir James Turner
and Sir William Bannantyne—Field-preaching proscribed—Michael
Bruce—John Blackadder—Attempt upon Sharpe’s life—Search for the
assassin—Remarkable escape of Maxwell of Monreith—Case of Mr Robert
Gray, merchant—Mrs Kelso and Mrs Duncan—Death of Mr Gillon, minister
of Cavers—Field-preaching and family worship punished—Mr Fullarton of
Quivox before the Council—Mr Blackadder patrols his “diocese”
untouched safely—Mr Hamilton, minister of Blantyre.
The army followed fast upon the heels of the justiciary, and the devoted
west and south were again subjected to military oppression. Dalziel
established his head-quarters at Kilmarnock, and, in a few months,
extorted from that impoverished district, the sum of fifty thousand
merks, besides what was destroyed by the soldiers in their quarterings
through mere wantonness and a love of mischief. Whoever was suspected of
favouring Presbyterianism was apprehended and brought before the
General. If he possessed money, the process was short. A private
examination was generally terminated by a heavy fine or loathsome
imprisonment in a vile dungeon, where men and women were so crowded
together, that they could neither sit nor lie, and where decency and
humanity were at once violated. An instance of the summary mode in which
Dalziel exercised his authority will show, better than any general
description, the miseries of military rule. David Findlay at Newmilns, a
plain country man, who had accidentally been at Lanark when the
covenanters were there, but had not joined, was brought before him; and,
because he either would not, or could not, name any of the rich Whigs
who were with the army, he was instantly ordered, without further
ceremony, to be shot. When the poor man was carried out to die, neither
he nor the lieutenant who was to superintend the execution, could
believe that the General was in earnest, but the soldiers told him their
orders were positive. He then earnestly entreated only for one night’s
delay, that he might prepare for eternity; and the officer went to
Dalziel to request this short respite, when the ruffian threatened him
for his contumacy, and told him that “he would teach him to obey without
scruple.” In consequence, there was no further delay; Findlay was shot,
stripped, and his naked body left upon the spot.
Nor were the inferior officers unworthy of their commander. Sir Mungo
Murray having heard that two cottar tenants had lodged for a night two
of the men who had escaped from Pentland, bound them together with
cords, and then suspending them by their arms from a tree, went to bed,
and left them to hang for the night in this torture, which, in all
probability, would have finished them before morning, had not some of
the soldiers, more merciful than he, relieved them from their painful
situation at their own peril. Sir William Bannantyne, in Galloway,
caused even the removal of Turner to be regretted. He took possession of
Earlston House, which he garrisoned, and thence sent out his parties who
plundered indiscriminately the suspected and those who had given no
cause for suspicion, whose only crime was their property. Some, who
could not purchase forbearance, they stripped almost naked—then thrust
them into the most abominable holes in the garrison, where they were
kept till nearly dead, before they were suffered to depart; and one
woman, whom they alleged to have been accessary to her husband’s escape,
they tortured, by burning matches between her fingers with such
protracted cruelty, that she fevered, and shortly after died; and so
great was the universal consternation produced in these quarters among
the conscientious Presbyterians, that such as could get out of the
country, fled to foreign parts; and those who remained, lurked during a
severe winter, in caves, pits, or remote unfrequented places of the
land.
The arrival of a Dutch fleet in the Frith of Forth (April) relieved the
afflicted west a little. This squadron, which had threatened Leith, and
fired a few shots at Burntisland, occasioned the collecting of the whole
troops in Scotland to defend the east, while the success that attended
an attack upon the shipping in the Thames, obliged the government to
suspend their crusades against the Presbyterian heretics, in order to
guard their coasts from foreign insult. At the same time, the
exasperation of the English, on account of their national disgrace,
enabled the king to get rid of Lord Clarendon, a troublesome minister,
whose habits of business, and ideas of economy, ill suited the beloved
indolence and unmeaning, and worse than useless, profusion of his
master, and whose regard for the decencies of life were opposed to the
utter shamelessness of his profligate court.
But though relieved, in some measure, from military execution, the
property of the Presbyterians was reached by a more base and cowardly
mode of rapine. Heretofore, in cases of treason, the estates of rebels
could not be confiscated, as the rebels themselves could not be tried in
absence; and so express was the law on this subject that, in a former
reign, it was deemed necessary to bring the mouldering bones of a
traitor from his grave, and produce them in court, before he could be
legally forfeited. The Lord Advocate, however, judged it proper to
procure the authority of the court, previously to proceeding in
opposition both to the statutes and common practice; and, therefore,
proposed to the judges the following query—“Whether or not a person
guilty of high treason might be pursued before the justices, albeit they
be absent and contumacious, so that the justices, upon citation and
sufficient probation and evidence, might pronounce sentence and doom of
forfeiture, if the dittay be proven?” The lords answered in the
affirmative, and established a precedent, which was afterwards improved,
for forwarding the severe measures of a party already sufficiently
disposed to disregard all the ordinary forms of justice. All the
gentlemen of property who had gone into exile, were in consequence
forfeited, and their estates divided between the rulers and their
friends.
Continual dissensions among the Scottish politicians had been the bane
of Scotland almost ever since the nation existed. At this period they
proved of some small service, by diverting, for a short space, the
attention of the persecutors to their own personal affairs. Sharpe, by
his duplicity, had incurred the displeasure of the king; and a strong
party in the Scottish council, consisting of the military officers and a
majority of the prelates, were opposed to Lauderdale, whom they still
suspected of being too much attached to his old friends, and envied for
enjoying so much of the favour of the king. This party, to secure their
ascendancy, proposed to continue and increase the standing army, and to
enforce the declaration, under pains of forfeiture, upon all the
Presbyterians, fanatics, or Whigs, whom it was necessary to extirpate as
incorrigible rebels, whose principles were hostile to all good
government, and Lieutenant-General Drummond, with Burnet, archbishop of
Glasgow, had been sent to London to procure the king’s concurrence.
A convention of estates, held at Edinburgh in the month of January in
order to further these objects, voted a cess of sixty-four thousand
pounds a month, and, besides, offered to maintain all the forces the
king should think proper to raise.[60] Lauderdale instantly perceived
that this would give his enemies an overwhelming power in Scotland, by
throwing into their hands the disposal of the forfeitures and the army
commissions, and he obtained from the king a letter which, although it
authorized very arbitrary proceedings, yet effectually counteracted the
scheme of his opponents. It empowered them to tender the oath of
allegiance and declaration, and to incarcerate in case of refusal: it
authorized disarming the gentlemen in the disaffected shires—seizing all
serviceable horses in possession of suspected persons—ordered the
militia to be modelled—arms and ammunition to be provided—the legal
parish ministers to be protected from violence—and all engaged in the
late rebellion, to be criminally pursued without further delay.
Proclamations were in consequence issued for again disarming the west
and seizing the horses; and no person in future, who did not regularly
attend his parish church, was to be allowed to keep a horse above one
hundred merks value; but as nothing had been said by his majesty about
forfeitures, the declaration was little heard of, and the leading men
being changed shortly after, the afflicted country obtained a brief
glimpse of repose.
Footnote 60:
A convention of estates differed from a parliament, in being convened
for one specific purpose, commonly like those for raising money.
Lest, however, it might be supposed that any relaxation was meant to be
shown in supporting prelacy, a letter was transmitted from court, early
in May, expressing the royal determination not only to encourage and
protect the bishops in the exercise of their callings, and all the
orthodox clergy under them, but also to discountenance all, of what
quality soever, who should show any disrespect or disaffection to that
order or government; and earnestly recommending to those in power, to
give the utmost countenance to the orthodox clergy, and to punish
severely any affronts put upon them, “to the end,” it is added, “that
they may be the more endeared to their people, when they see how careful
we, and all in authority under us, are of their protection in the due
exercise of their calling.” The council in consequence issued a
proclamation, rendering heritors and parishioners liable for all the
damages that might be done to their ministers, which, in the sequel, was
most rigorously enforced, although it had certainly little tendency or
effect in producing any sentiments of endearment in the breasts of the
people towards pastors who required such eminent exertions of royal and
magisterial care.
Not long after, Sir Robert Murray, distinguished for his love of science
and his moderation of temper, was sent down to Scotland to procure, if
possible, an accurate account of the state of the country. He was at
this time high in the confidence of Lauderdale, whose interest he
assiduously promoted, and whose party he essentially strengthened by the
mighty accession of character he brought them. The bishops and their
party were extremely anxious to have, above all things, the army
continued, and used every method to induce Sir Robert Murray to coincide
with them in opinion. Burnet, archbishop of Glasgow, protested that, if
the army were disbanded, the gospel would depart out of his diocese; and
the Duke of Hamilton said he did not think his life would be secure even
in following his sport in the west; when Tweeddale, with many
professions of care for his Grace’s life, proposed a squadron of the
life-guard might be sent to quarter on his premises—a mode of protection
with which the Duke did not appear very highly enraptured. But their
guardian, Hyde, was in disgrace—an unfavourable peace had terminated an
unsuccessful Dutch war—and a show of temporary moderation, at least, was
required by the circumstances of the nation. Peremptory orders were
therefore sent to Scotland to disband the whole army, except two troops
of horse and one (Linlithgow’s) regiment of foot guards, which was
accordingly done to the great joy of the country, but much to the
distress of many idlers who had lately bought their commissions for the
purposes of plunder, and considered a captaincy equal to an estate,
although numbers, especially of the higher ranks, had their losses more
than compensated by their shares of the forfeited estates.
Lauderdale was too good a politician to allow the present humiliation of
his opponents to pass unimproved. The indolence and dissipation of
Rothes had laid him open to the charges of inattention and neglect of
duty during the Dutch visit. He was therefore, as an honourable
dismissal, made Lord Chancellor preparatory to losing the
Commissionership. The Earl of Tweeddale’s eldest son, Lord Yester,
having been married to Lauderdale’s only daughter and presumptive
heiress, his father was named one of the commissioners of the treasury
along with Kincardine and Sir Robert Murray, who had also been appointed
Lord Justice-Clerk; and his party in the privy council had been still
further augmented by the admission of the Earl of Airly, Lord Cochrane,
and others. The first trial of strength between the factions, was upon
the important question, how the peace of the country was to be secured
when the army was disbanded? As the same vile and mischievous system of
forcing a hated hierarchy upon the people was determined to be persisted
in, the prelates and military were for pressing the declaration
according to the king’s letter; for although they had now no immediate
prospect of touching the money, yet they always had a kind of natural
propensity to urge the harshest measures, and those which would promote,
rather than appease, the troubles of the land. The Lauderdale party
proposed a general pardon and a bond of peace, so moderate in its terms,
as that it would be either cheerfully taken, or render those who refused
it inexcusable. The contest was long and hotly maintained; and when the
council divided, their clerk, Sir Peter Wedderburn, affirmed that the
declaration was carried; this, Sir Robert Murray denied, and the vote
was again put, and again the clerk affirmed a majority was for the
declaration; Sir Robert still contended that this was not the case, and
the Chancellor warmly asking, if he doubted the clerk’s fidelity? Sir
Robert replied he would trust the evidences of his own senses before any
clerk in the world, and insisted that the names should be distinctly
called, and the votes accurately marked; when it plainly appeared that a
majority was for the bond, which, but for his firmness, by an impudent
shameless falsehood would have inevitably been lost.
Pursuant to these resolutions, a pardon was proclaimed; but the
exceptions were so numerous that it was of no avail to any person who
possessed either influence or property, and it was remarked that already
more than half the number of those who had been at Pentland, were either
executed or forfeited; and those who were pardoned, were only the
persons whom from their obscurity it would have been impossible to
discover, or from their poverty, fruitless to forfeit. The bond was
short, and ran thus:—“I, _A. B._, do bind and oblige me to keep the
public peace, and not to rise in arms without the king’s authority, and
that if I fail I shall pay a year’s rent: likewise, that my tenants and
men-servants shall keep the public peace; and in case they fail, I
oblige myself to pay for every tenant his year’s rent, and for every
servant his year’s fee. And for more security, I am content thir
presents be registrate in the books of council.” Excepting, perhaps, the
hardship of obliging a landlord to bind himself for his tenant and
servant, there does not appear, at first sight, any thing objectionable
in this obligation. But the government had entirely lost the confidence
of the upright Presbyterians by their uniform endeavours to ensnare
their consciences with oaths and obligations, conceived in general
terms, to which a double meaning was attached; and which, when any
dispute arose, they insisted should always be understood according to
the sense the administrators of the oath imposed upon it. Now this bond
was constructed in the usual manner, and the expressions—“keep the
public peace, and not rising in arms”—were the ambiguous phrases; and
numbers refused to sign, unless allowed to explain that by these
expressions they were not to be understood as binding themselves to
support the prelatical religion, to attend their churches, and desert
the preaching of the gospel by their own ministers, or acknowledge the
doctrine of passive obedience. Many pamphlets were printed, and much
discussion took place upon the subject; but the bond being soon laid
aside, the controversy became unimportant, except in so far as
succeeding events plainly showed that the objections to the bond were
not unmeaning scruples, and that those who refused to sign, acted from a
complete knowledge of the persons with whom they were dealing, who would
allow of no interpretation inconsistent with entire, implicit,
unconditional submission. The proclamation for disarming the west was
also in part recalled, and orders issued for restraining the
irregularities of such soldiers as were kept in pay—a number of
gentlemen who had been imprisoned in 1665 were liberated—and the year
closed with the illusive prospect of a deceitful calm.[61]
Footnote 61:
In December, “Naphtali, or the Wrestlings of the Church of Scotland,”
written by Sir James Stuart of Goodtrees, and Mr James Stirling,
minister of Paisley, was ordered to be burned by the hands of the
hangman, and all who had copies of it after that date to be severely
fined—a very foolish but not uncommon mode of publicly confessing that
a book is unanswerable. Honeyman, bishop of Orkney, attempted to
answer it, which produced an able reply by Sir James—“Jus populi
vindicatum.”
[1668.] Great expectations were entertained that some legal protection
might be again enjoyed by the harassed Presbyterians, as during last
year a commission had arrived from the king to bring Sir James Turner to
trial for his tyranny and oppression in the south. But it soon appeared
that whatever might have caused the act of justice, it was no sympathy
for the sufferings of the “Fanatics.” The extortions, harassings,
imprisonments, and other charges against Sir James, were easily
established; but it did not appear that he had either acted without or
beyond his instructions, or appropriated much of the spoil for himself,
and he was only dismissed the service, while those he had robbed
received no compensation. Sir William Bannantyne’s trial followed. The
accusations against him were more atrocious, torturing and rape being
offered to be proved in addition to plunder and rapine. But, perhaps,
what was his most indefensible crime, he could not account for the
monies he had received. He was therefore banished and fined in two
hundred pounds sterling—a gentle sentence for such conduct.[62] Little
real relief was however afforded to Presbyterians, whose principles
would not bend to the times, or to those who, at the risk of reputation,
property, liberty, or life itself, refused to abstain from preaching the
gospel to their fellow-sinners, or those who would not consent to
forsake the worship of God, or leave his ordinances dispensed by his
ministers—to attend on a profanation of all sacred service by hirelings
who were—(scarcely even the disguised)—enemies of the cross of Christ.
In proportion as lenity was exercised to others, so much the more was
hatred evinced towards ministers and those who frequented conventicles.
Footnote 62:
He went afterwards to the low country, and was killed by a cannon-ball
at the siege of Grave, which drove his heart out of his body—a mode of
death he had been accustomed to imprecate upon himself.
Hitherto there had been but few field-meetings, yet preaching and
exhortation in private houses, barns, and other convenient places, had
been very common and well attended; and, from the concurring testimony
of all who were accustomed to frequent them, who have left any record,
the Spirit of God seems in an eminent manner to have blessed these
calumniated, despised, and persecuted assemblies.[63] In a letter from
the king, January 16, which settles the meaning of “the public peace,”
these meetings, which were peculiarly obnoxious to the bishops and
curates, are thus pointed out to the notice of the council:—“We most
especially recommend to you to use all possible means and endeavours for
preserving the public peace under our authority, and with special care
to countenance and maintain Episcopal government, which in all the
kingdom we will most inviolably protect and defend. You must by all
means restrain the gatherings of the people to conventicles, which are
indeed _rendezvouses of rebellion_, and execute the laws severely
against the ringleaders of such faction and schism.” The council, with
prompt obedience, appointed any of their number to grant warrants for
seizing and haling to prison all “outted” ministers or others who should
keep unlawful convocations; and the Earl of Linlithgow, commander of the
few forces, was directed to distribute them over the country in such
manner as might be calculated most easily to dissipate these illicit
concerns. A company of foot was, in consequence, ordered to lie at
Dumfries; another, with fifteen horse, at Strathaven, in Clydesdale;
forty troopers at Kilsyth; two companies and fifteen horse at Glasgow;
one company at Dalmellington; and a last at Cumnock, in Ayrshire.
Footnote 63:
Memoir of Fraser of Brae, p. 126-7.
To stimulate their exertions, and still farther “to endear” his beloved
prelates to the lieges, the king, on the 25th July, requires them to rid
the kingdom of all seditious preachers or pretended ministers who had
kept conventicles or gathered people to the fields since January last;
“for we look on such,” he adds, “as the great disturbers of the peace
and perverters of the people.” And the council urged their officers to
be upon the alert; even Tweeddale, who was generally supposed friendly
to the Presbyterians, or at least moderate, was not less anxious than
his associates to prevent or extinguish the light of the gospel which
from these conventicles was spreading over the country. In writing to
the Earl of Linlithgow, he says—“Your lordship knows the counsel’s
desing reachith furder then to make them peaceable when the rod is over
their head, which I beleive your lordship will follow as far as
possible; for, iff ther be not som of thes turbulent peopel catched, all
is in vayn: when they are chassed out of one place, they will flie to
another: for God’s sake, therefor, endeavour by all means possible to
learn wher they haunt and whither they are gon;” and then he advises the
commander colonel-commandant to send parties “to catch them wher they
can be had, wer it 100 mils off, especially Mr Michael Bruce.”
Michael Bruce, thus denounced, was of the family of Airth, so highly and
deservedly esteemed in the annals of the Reformation, himself “a worthy,
useful, and affectionate preacher.” He had been driven from Ireland,
where he had been settled, and was now zealously and boldly preaching in
Stirlingshire to large auditories, generally in houses, but occasionally
in the fields, and had “presumed also to baptize and administrate the
sacraments without any lawful warrant,” he was therefore pursued by the
soldiers as a wild beast, and at last surprised, wounded, and taken
prisoner. After his wounds would allow of his being moved, he was
brought to Edinburgh and sentenced to banishment, but, on his being sent
to London, his sentence was altered, and he was ordered to be carried to
Tangiers in Africa. He, however, obtained the favour of being permitted
to retire secretly to Ireland. Several of the other “outted” ministers
were likewise ordered to prison, and some fined for similar
misdemeanours; numbers, however, in Fife, in the north, and even in
Edinburgh,[64] laboured with much success, while “Mr Blackadder and his
accomplices” were not less assiduous in their visits to the west and in
the south. Professions of greater indulgence to the Presbyterian
ministers were, notwithstanding these proceedings, held out to them by
Tweeddale, who had had interviews and made proposals to several of the
most eminent then under hiding, when an unfortunate circumstance put an
end to all hope of favour for the present.
Footnote 64:
Kirkton, Welsh, Blackadder, Donald Cargil, and many others, at this
time resided in the capital for months together, and secretly
exercised their ministry.
James Mitchell, a preacher, who had been at Pentland, and was by name
exempted from the indemnity, considering Sharpe the prime instigator of
all the calamities his country had endured, and was enduring, as well as
the author of his own exclusion from pardon, and having heard of his
keeping up the king’s letter till the last six were executed at
Edinburgh, determined to free the land from such a monster, whom he
viewed in the light of an enemy whose life he had a right to take in
self-defence, as well as in the service of his country.[65] In pursuance
of this resolution, he waited for the primate, July 11th, at the head of
Blackfriar’s Wynd, where his house was, on purpose to effect it; and
having allowed him to be seated in his coach, deliberately walked up and
fired at him, but Honeyman, bishop of Orkney, who was in the act of
getting up, received the shot, by which his arm was shattered, and
Sharpe, for the present, escaped. Mitchell, after firing, walked away
coolly, and turning down Niddry’s Wynd, went thence to Stevenlaw’s
Close, shifted his clothes, and returning to the High Street, without
being discovered, mixed with the multitude who had collected, but who
were giving themselves very little concern about the matter, when they
heard that it was only a bishop that had been shot.
Footnote 65:
Vide Testimony, Naphtali.
Immediately the hue and cry was raised—the city gates were shut—the
magistrates were ordered to make strict search after Whigs in the city
or suburbs—the constables were called out, and a hundred soldiers sent
to assist them. The town being considered a place where those who were
proscribed could best conceal themselves, several of this description
were then secretly residing there, and had narrow escapes, none of the
least remarkable of which was that of Maxwell of Monreith.
Being unacquainted with the town when the search began, he came running
to Nicol Moffat, a stabler in the Horse Wynd, and begged him to conceal
him, for he knew of no shelter. “Alas!” answered Nicol, “there is not a
safe corner in my house.” But there was an empty meal-barrel that stood
at the head of a table in his public room, and he added, if he chose to
go in there, he would put something over and cover him. There was no
alternative, and in Mr Maxwell went. Scarcely was he out of sight when a
constable arrived, with a band of soldiers, and demanded if there were
any Whigs there? “Ye may look an’ see,” replied Nicol carelessly, and
the constable, deceived by his manner, proceeded no further; but, being
thirsty, called for some ale for his party, and they sat down at the
table. While drinking, they began talking about their fruitless search,
when one said he knew there were many Whigs in town, and he did not
doubt but there were some not far distant, to which another answered
with an oath, knocking at the same time on the head of the barrel,
“there may be one below this;” but they were restrained from lifting the
lid; and when they had finished their potations, they went quietly away.
Others were not, however, so fortunate. The servant girl of a Mr Robert
Gray, a merchant in Edinburgh and a godly man, having quarrelled with
her mistress, out of revenge went to Sharpe, and told him that there
they would find a receptacle of Whigs, and might discover the assassin,
on which Mr Gray was brought before the council. Conjecturing what his
servant might have told, he at once informed them that Major Learmont,
Mr Welsh, and a Mrs Duncan, a minister’s widow, had dined with him not
long before; but with regard to the assassin he knew nothing. The
advocate then going up familiarly, after a short conversation, took the
ring off his finger, telling him he had use for it, and dispatched a
messenger of his own with it to Mrs Gray to tell her that her husband
had discovered all, and sent this as a token that she might do the same.
Deceived by this trick, worthy of the Inquisition, she acquainted them
that Mr Welsh sometimes lodged with Mrs Kelso, a rich widow, and
preached in her house, and also where Mrs Duncan was to be found. Mrs
Gray and her two female friends were immediately sent to prison, and
soon after brought before the council, when Mrs Kelso was fined five
thousand merks and banished to the plantations. Mrs Duncan also was
sentenced to banishment, and only escaped torture by Rothes observing,
“it was not customary for gentlewomen to wear boots.” After a long
confinement, the sentence of banishment was relaxed; but Mr Gray felt so
keenly, from having been the innocent cause of so much suffering, that
he sickened, and died within a few days. Mr Gillon, the “outted”
minister of Cavers, likewise met his death upon this occasion in a very
inhuman manner. He had retired to Currie, a few miles from Edinburgh,
for the benefit of his health, where, being apprehended about midnight
by two or three rascally soldiers, who pretended to be searching for the
bishop’s assassin, he was forced, in sport, to run before them a
distance of nearly four miles to the West Port, where, after he arrived,
he was kept standing for some hours in the open air before he could
obtain admission, and then was sent to lodge in a cold jail. Next day,
on being brought before the council, he was recognized and dismissed,
but he did not survive the treatment he had received above forty-eight
hours. During this year, to compensate for the loss of the regulars, the
militia were modelled, properly officered, and prepared for service—a
circumstance which, as it was a time of profound peace, might have
created some misgivings respecting any alteration in the plans of
government.
[1669.] Flattering themselves still with the returning favour of
government, the ministers pursued their prohibited labours, and
conventicles continued to increase, while the council, impelled on by
the repeated injunctions of the king and solicitations of the prelates,
not unfrequently forgot their professions of moderation, and proceeded
to acts which might have dispelled the delusion. Conventicles found no
mercy. The magistrates of burghs were now made responsible for any that
might be held within their bounds; and early this year, the civic rulers
of the capital were fined fifty pounds sterling, because “Mr David Hume,
late minister of Coldingham, took upon him to preach in the house of
widow Paton on the last Sunday of February”—a circumstance, it is highly
probable, the worthy provost and bailies had never heard of till they
were summoned to pay for the exercise. An act of council immediately
followed, prohibiting every person from having their children baptized
by any other than the Episcopal clergy, under the penalty, to an
heritor, of the fourth part of his valued rent—a tenant £100 Scots and
six weeks’ imprisonment—and a cottar twenty, and the same. To enforce
this decree, the militia were to be employed in seizing the disobedient,
and ordered to be supported by them, while on this service, at the rate
of one shilling and sixpence sterling each man, and three shillings each
officer per day; at the same time, collectors of fines were appointed to
take care that the whole penalty was exacted; and among these, it is
somewhat ludicrous to observe the Earl of Nithsdale, a papist, required
to see a measure faithfully executed, the professed intention of which
was, to prevent the growth of popery! then it seems lamentably on the
increase—an increase the council had the effrontery to aver, was owing
to the frequency of field-preaching.
The archbishop of Glasgow, whose jurisdiction was grievously annoyed by
these pests, was peculiarly virulent in his opposition, prevailed upon
Lord Cochrane (created Earl of Dundonald next year) to bring before a
committee at Ayr, eleven ministers of that district who had been guilty
of preaching and baptizing irregularly. Upon examination, the committee
were inclined to dismiss them, but his lordship insisted upon their
being sent to Edinburgh. There they were examined before a committee of
the privy council, and acknowledged that they had allowed others,
besides those of their own households, to attend when they worshipped
God in their families and expounded the Scriptures, but none of them had
been guilty of the enormity of field-preaching, and all promised to
demean themselves peaceably, as they had hitherto done, and to give no
just ground of offence. Their brethren, who were aware that temporizing
would serve little purpose, were dissatisfied that they had not asserted
their indefeasible right as ministers of Christ to preach his gospel;
and they appear to have been convinced that they had acted too faintly
in his cause, for when they were called to receive sentence, Mr
Fullarton, the “outted” minister of St Quivox, in name of the rest,
addressed the Chancellor. After reminding him of the unshaken loyalty
which the Presbyterian ministers had displayed towards his majesty in
his lowest estate, and the unlooked for return they had met with, he
added—“But now seeing we have received our ministry from Jesus Christ,
and must one day give an account to our Master how we have performed the
same, we dare have no hand in the least to unminister ourselves; yea,
the word is like a fire in our bosoms seeking for vent; and seeing,
under the force of a command from authority, we have hitherto ceased
from the public exercise of our ministry, and are wearied with
forbearing, we therefore humbly supplicate your lordship, that you would
deal with the king’s majesty on our behalf, that at least the indulgence
granted to others in our way within his dominions, may be granted to
us.” Then, after requesting to be delivered from the oppressive tyranny
of their collector of the fines, a Mr Nathaniel Fyfe, whom Kirkton
styles “a poor advocate, and alleyed to one of the bishops,” he
concluded by telling him it would be no matter of regret when he entered
eternity and stood before Christ’s tribunal, that he had acted as a
repairer of breaches in his church. The council was crowded and very
attentive, but the ministers were only excused for the time, and
straitly charged in future to abstain from similar practices, on pain of
being visited not only for any new, but likewise for their old
transgressions; and the same day a proclamation was issued, strictly
forbidding all conventicles, and rendering all the heritors in the
western shires liable to a fine of fifty pounds sterling for every such
meeting, on pretence of religious worship, as should be kept in any
houses or lands pertaining to them.
How Mr Blackadder escaped, is astonishing, for during this year he seems
to have been the most active of all the ministers, as well as the
boldest. In the month of January, he preached publicly at Fenwick, and
continued labouring in the west, till his over-exertions, more suited to
the earnest desires of the people than his bodily strength, produced an
illness which confined him for several weeks.[66] When recovered (June)
he went again to his “diocese,” round by Borrowstownness, where he
established a congregation and secured to them the freedom of
undisturbed worship, through the interest of his relation Major
Hamilton, who was the Duke’s bailie of regality, and lived at Kinniel
House. At the request of the Ladies Blantyre, Pollock, and Dundonald, he
preached to large auditories, sometimes not fewer than two thousand. In
Livingstone, he administered the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and the
example was followed in fifteen or sixteen adjacent parishes. The
preaching of the gospel and dispensation of the ordinances were attended
with such blessed effects that it was no wonder the enemy raged. Upon a
humiliation day, in the muir of Livingstone, the four ministers who were
to preach called aside several of the gravest and most sagacious men of
the bounds, and inquired at them what were the most reproveable sins
they observed as necessary to be confessed unto God in these bounds, and
whereof the people were to be admonished that they might the better know
how to carry on the following work of the day; the men, after a
deliberate pause, answered, as to public scandals and every kind of
profanity, they could not say much, for they had not heard of any
outbreakings of fornication, adultery, or drunkenness, scarce these
seven years past, in that parish or in several parishes about, since the
public preaching of the gospel had broke up among them.
Footnote 66:
“Money frequently was offered him for bearing accidental expenses.
Several gentlemen contributed sums, and collections were made in
purpose, but he uniformly declined receiving any donation, ‘lest his
ministry might bear the imputation of a covetous and mercenary spirit,
or the enemy have occasion to reproach their cause as if money made
them eager to preach.’”—_Crichton’s Mem. of Blackadder_, p. 148.
About the same time, Mr Hamilton the “outted” minister of Blantyre was
apprehended and sent to Edinburgh to answer to the council for holding a
conventicle in his own house in Glasgow. Being asked how many hearers
were in use to attend his meeting? he archly answered, that for these
several years past the poor ministers of Christ who were forced from
their flocks, could with difficulty support themselves and families, and
could neither hire palaces nor castles. They might then easily judge
what kind of houses they were able to rent, and whether they could hold
large companies. His reply to whether others than his family were
present? was equally pointed—“My lords, I have neither halberts nor
guards to keep any out.” One of the members who thought his sarcasms
bore hard on the archbishop, reminded him of the favour he had got from
his lordship, in being permitted to remain so long in Glasgow. “Not so
much,” retorted the prisoner, “as Paul got from a heathen persecuting
Emperor, for he dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and
received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and
teaching those things that concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all
confidence, no man forbidding him; but both the honest people of Glasgow
and myself have been often threatened with violence if we did not
forbear.” Finding themselves no match at this species of interrogation,
the council demanded if he was willing to give bond to preach no more in
that way. He replied, he had got his commission from Christ, and would
not voluntarily restrict himself whatever he might be forced to do. “An’
where got you that commission?” asked the Chancellor. “In Matthew 28th
chapter and 19th verse, Go teach and baptize.” “That is the apostles’
commission,” rejoined Rothes; “an’ do you set up for an apostle?” “No,
my lord,” said Mr Hamilton, “nor for any extraordinary person either,
but that place contains the commission of ordinary ministers as well as
of extraordinary ambassadors.” When again asked, if he would give
assurance that he would neither preach nor exercise worship anywhere but
in his own house, he repeated his refusal, and was sent to prison, where
he lay till his health became so much impaired that his brother, Sir
Robert Hamilton of Silvertoun Hill, made interest and got him released,
he giving bond of a thousand merks to compear when called.
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