YEAR 1774
WHEN I look back on this year, and compare what happened therein with the
things that had gone before, I am grieved to the heart, and pressed down
with an afflicted spirit. We had, as may be read, trials and
tribulations in the days that were past; and in the rank and boisterous
times of the smuggling there was much sin and blemish among us, but
nothing so dark and awful as what fell out in the course of this unhappy
year. The evil omen of daft Jenny Gaffaw and her daughter’s sacrilege,
had soon a bloody verification.
About the beginning of the month of March in this year, the war in
America was kindling so fast that the government was obligated to send
soldiers over the sea, in the hope to quell the rebellious temper of the
plantations; and a party of a regiment that was quartered at Ayr was
ordered to march to Greenock, to be there shipped off. The men were wild
and wicked profligates, without the fear of the Lord before their eyes;
and some of them had drawn up with light women in Ayr, who followed them
on their march. This the soldiers did not like, not wishing to be
troubled with such gear in America; so the women, when they got the
length of Kilmarnock, were ordered to retreat and go home, which they all
did but one Jean Glaikit, who persisted in her intent to follow her joe,
Patrick O’Neil, a Catholic Irish corporal. The man did, as he said, all
in his capacity to persuade her to return, but she was a contumacious
limmer, and would not listen to reason; so that, in passing along our
toll-road, from less to more, the miserable wretches fell out, and
fought, and the soldier put an end to her with a hasty knock on the head
with his firelock, and marched on after his comrades.
The body of the woman was, about half an hour after, found by the
scholars of Mr. Lorimore’s school, who had got the play to see the
marching, and to hear the drums of the soldiers. Dreadful was the shout
and the cry throughout the parish at this foul work. Some of the farmer
lads followed the soldiers on horseback, and others ran to Sir Hugh, who
was a justice of the peace, for his advice.—Such a day as that was!
However, the murderer was taken, and, with his arms tied behind him with
a cord, he was brought back to the parish, where he confessed before Sir
Hugh the deed, and how it happened. He was then put in a cart, and,
being well guarded by six of the lads, was taken to Ayr jail.
It was not long after this that the murderer was brought to trial, and,
being found guilty on his own confession, he was sentenced to be
executed, and his body to be hung in chains near the spot where the deed
was done. I thought that all in the parish would have run to desperation
with horror when the news of this came, and I wrote immediately to the
Lord Eaglesham to get this done away by the merciful power of the
government, which he did, to our great solace and relief.
In the autumn, the young Laird Macadam, being ordered with his regiment
for the Americas, got leave from the king to come and see his lady
mother, before his departure. But it was not to see her only, as will
presently appear.
Knowing how much her ladyship was averse to the notion he had of Kate
Malcolm, he did not write of his coming, lest she would send Kate out of
the way, but came in upon them at a late hour, as they were wasting their
precious time, as was the nightly wont of my lady, with a pack of cards;
and so far was she from being pleased to see him, that no sooner did she
behold his face, but, like a tap of tow, she kindled upon both him and
Kate, and ordered them out of her sight and house. The young folk had
discretion: Kate went home to her mother, and the laird came to the
manse, and begged us to take him in. He then told me what had happened;
and that, having bought a captain’s commission, he was resolved to marry
Kate, and hoped I would perform the ceremony, if her mother would
consent. “As for mine,” said he, “she will never agree; but, when the
thing is done, her pardon will not be difficult to get; for, with all her
whims and caprice, she is generous and affectionate.” In short, he so
wiled and beguiled me, that I consented to marry them, if Mrs. Malcolm
was agreeable. “I will not disobey my mother,” said he, “by asking her
consent, which I know she will refuse; and, therefore, the sooner it is
done the better.” So we then stepped over to Mrs. Malcolm’s house, where
we found that saintly woman, with Kate and Effie, and Willie, sitting
peacefully at their fireside, preparing to read their Bibles for the
night. When we went in, and when I saw Kate, that was so ladylike there,
with the decent humility of her parent’s dwelling, I could not but think
she was destined for a better station; and when I looked at the captain,
a handsome youth, I thought surely their marriage is made in heaven; and
so I said to Mrs. Malcolm, who after a time consented, and likewise
agreed that her daughter should go with the captain to America; for her
faith and trust in the goodness of Providence was great and boundless,
striving, as it were, to be even with its tender mercies. Accordingly,
the captain’s man was sent to bid the chaise wait that had taken him to
the lady’s, and the marriage was sanctified by me before we left Mrs.
Malcolm’s. No doubt, they ought to have been proclaimed three several
Sabbaths; but I satisfied the session, at our first meeting, on account
of the necessity of the case. The young couple went in the chaise
travelling to Glasgow, authorising me to break the matter to Lady
Macadam, which was a sore task; but I was spared from the performance.
For her ladyship had come to herself, and thinking on her own rashness in
sending away Kate and the captain in the way she had done, she was like
one by herself. All the servants were scattered out and abroad in quest
of the lovers; and some of them, seeing the chaise drive from Mrs.
Malcolm’s door with them in it, and me coming out, jealoused what had
been done, and told their mistress outright of the marriage, which was to
her like a clap of thunder; insomuch that she flung herself back in her
settee, and was beating and drumming with her heels on the floor, like a
madwoman in Bedlam, when I entered the room. For some time she took no
notice of me, but continued her din; but, by-and-by, she began to turn
her eyes in fiery glances upon me, till I was terrified lest she would
fly at me with her claws in her fury. At last she stopped all at once,
and in a calm voice, said, “But it cannot now be helped, where are the
vagabonds?”—“They are gone,” replied I.—“Gone?” cried she, “gone
where?”—“To America, I suppose,” was my answer; upon which she again
threw herself back in the settee, and began again to drum and beat with
her feet as before. But not to dwell on small particularities, let it
suffice to say, that she sent her coachman on one of her coach horses,
which, being old and stiff, did not overtake the fugitives till they were
in their bed at Kilmarnock, where they stopped that night; but when they
came back to the lady’s in the morning, she was as cagey and meikle taken
up with them, as if they had gotten her full consent and privilege to
marry from the first. Thus was the first of Mrs. Malcolm’s children well
and creditably settled. I have only now to conclude with observing, that
my son Gilbert was seized with the smallpox about the beginning of
December, and was blinded by them for seventeen days; for the inoculation
was not in practice yet among us, saving only in the genteel families
that went into Edinburgh for the education of their children, where it
was performed by the faculty there.
[Picture: Kate]