ADDITIONAL NOTICES RELATIVE TO THE INSURRECTION OF 1679.
From “A History of the Rencontre at Drumclog,” etc.
By William Aiton, Esq.
“Mr. Douglas having agreed to preach at Hairlaw, or Glaisterlaw, about a mile north-west of Loudon Hill, on Sabbath, June 1, 1679, the Fife men and Mr. Hamilton, dreading the Conventicle might be attacked by the military, collected a number of their friends on the Saturday evening, in a house near Loudon Hill, where they lay under arms all night. They also sent off an express to Lesmahagow, to bring forward their friends from that quarter, and who were up just in time to join in the skirmish. But very few of their friends from Kilmarnock came forward to that Conventicle.
“A considerable number of people assembled at that field-meeting, and, as usual in these times, the greater part of them came armed. Captain Grahame of Claverhouse was, by Lord Ross, who commanded the military in Glasgow, sent out with three troops of dragoons to attack and disperse that Conventicle. He had seized, about two miles from Hamilton, John King, a field-preacher, and, according to Mr. Wilson’s account, seventeen other people, whom he bound in pairs, and drove before him towards Loudon Hill.
“Captain Grahame and his officers eat their breakfast that day at the principal inn, Strathaven, then kept by James Young, writer, innkeeper, and baron-bailie of Avendale, known in that district by the name of Scribbie Young. The house which he then occupied stood opposite the entry into the churchyard, and, from its having an upper room or second storey in the one end, with an outside stair of a curious construction, was denominated ‘the tower.’[27] Having been informed at Strathaven that the Conventicle was not to meet that day, Captain Grahame set out towards Glasgow with his prisoners. But, upon obtaining more correct information about a mile north of Strathaven, he turned round towards Loudon Hill, by the way of Letham. On being told at Braeburn that the Covenanters were in great force, he said that he had eleven score of good guns under his command, and would soon disperse the Whigs.
“Soon after worship had commenced, the Covenanters were informed, by an express from their friends at Hamilton, as well as by the watches they had placed, that the military were approaching them; and they resolved to fight the troops, in order, if possible, to relieve the prisoners, or, to use the words of their historian, Dr. Wodrow, to ‘oppose the hellish fury of their persecutors.’ Their whole force consisted of about 50 horsemen, ill-provided with arms, 50 footmen with muskets, and about 150 more with halberts and forks. Mr. Hamilton took the chief command, and David Hackston, Henry Hall, John Balfour, Robert Fleming, William Cleland, John Loudon, and John Brown, acted as subalterns under Mr. Hamilton. Mr. Wilson says, ‘Hamilton gave out the word that no quarter should be given to the enemy.’ The Covenanters did not wait the arrival of the military, who could not have reached them but by a circuitous route; neither did they take shelter in the mosses that lay near, and into which the cavalry could not have followed them; but they advanced eastward about two miles, singing psalms all the way.
“When Grahame reached the height at Drumclog, and saw the Whigs about half a mile to the north of that place, near to where Stabbyside House now stands, he placed his prisoners under a guard in the farmyard of North Drumclog, and, having drawn up his three troops of cavalry, he advanced to attack the Whigs. Mr. Russel says, Claverhouse gave orders to his troops to give no quarter to the Covenanters; and that ‘there was such a spirit given forth from the Lord, that both men and women who had no arms faced the troops.’ The dragoons had to march down an arable field of a very slight declivity, at the foot of which a small piece of marshy ground (provincially termed misk or boggy land) lay between the hostile parties. As many of the insurgents resided in that immediate neighbourhood, they could not fail to know that this marshy place, on the north side of which they had taken their stand, was in some places too soft to support the feet of horses. But as this swamp was covered with a sward of green herbage, and was but of a few yards in breadth, and lying between two fields of arable land, the declivity of which was on both sides towards the bog, it is evident that Grahame did not perceive it to be a marsh; and to this, above all other circumstances, is his defeat to be attributed.
“This ground, so favourable to the Covenanters, appears to have been taken up more from accident than design. If it had been their wish to have taken their station in or behind a bog, they could have found many of them much nearer to where the congregation first met, and much more impenetrable to cavalry than that where the rencounter happened. In advancing from Hairlaw Hill to the place of action, they passed several deep flow-mosses, some of them of great extent, and into which cavalry could not have entered. Even when the hostile parties came in sight of each other, the Covenanters were nearer to a flow-moss than they were to the marshy ground behind which they placed themselves. Had Captain Grahame known the ground, he could have easily avoided the marsh, and passed the extremity of it by a public road, only about two or three hundred yards to the westward.
“The troops fired first, and, according to tradition, the Covenanters, at the suggestion of Balfour, evaded the fire of the military by prostrating themselves on the ground, with the exception of John Morton in Broomhall, who, believing in the doctrine of predestination, refused to stoop, and was shot. The ball entered his mouth, and he fell backward at the feet of the great-grandfather of the writer of this account. Grahame ordered the troops to charge; but a number of the horses having, in advancing to the Covenanters, been entangled in the marsh, the ranks were broken, and the squadron was thrown into disorder. The Covenanters, who had no doubt foreseen what was to happen, seized the favourable opportunity of pouring their fire on the disordered cavalry, and, following it up with a spirited attack, soon completed the confusion and defeat of the troops. The commander of the Whigs cried, ‘O’er the bog, and to them, lads!’ The order was re-echoed, and obeyed with promptitude; and, from the involved state of the military, the forks and halberts of the Covenanters were extremely apt to the occasion. The rout of the cavalry was instantaneous and complete, and achieved principally by the insurgents who were on foot, though the horsemen soon passed the bog and joined in the pursuit. Mr. Wilson says that Balfour and Cleland were the first persons who stepped into the bog; but the traditionary accounts allege that it was one Woodburn, from the Mains of Loudon, who set that example of bravery.
“Thus far the traditionary accounts and that of Mr. Wilson have been followed. But Mr. Russel says that Claverhouse sent two of his men to reconnoitre, and afterwards did so himself, before he made the attack. If he did so, it is surprising that he did not perceive the marsh, as well as the road by which it might have been evaded. Russel also says that Captain Grahame sent forward twelve dragoons, who fired at the Whigs, and that as many of them turned out and fired at the cavalry. This, he says, was twice repeated, without a person being hurt on either side. On their firing a third time, one dragoon fell from his horse, and seemed to rise with difficulty. Claverhouse, he says, then ordered thirty dragoons to dismount and fire, when William Cleland, with twelve or sixteen armed footmen, supported by twenty or twenty-four with halberts and forks, advanced and fired at the military. But still no one was injured, till Cleland advanced alone, fired his piece, and killed one dragoon; and when the Whigs were wheeling, some of the military fired, and killed one man. Claverhouse next advanced his whole force to the stanck, and fired desperately, ‘and the honest party, having but few guns, was not able to stand, and being very confused at coming off, one of the last party cried out, “For the Lord’s sake, go on”; and immediately they ran violently forward, and Claverhouse was tooming the shot all the time on them; but the honest party’s right hand of the foot being nearest Cleland, went on Clavers’s left flank, and all the body went on together against Clavers’s body, and Cleland stood until the honest party was joined among them both with pikes and swords, and William Dingwell and Thomas Weir being on the right hand of the honest party, all the forenamed who fired thrice before being together, and, louping ower, they got among the enemies. William Dingwell received his wound, his horse being dung back by the strength of the enemy, fell over and dang over James Russel’s horse. James presently rose and mounted and pursued, calling to a woman to take care of his dear friend William Dingwell, (for the women ran as fast as the men,) and she did so. Thomas Weir rode in among them, and took a standard, and he was mortally wounded and knocked on the head, but pursued as long as he was able, and then fell. The honest party pursued as long as their horses could trot, being upwards of two miles. There was of the enemy killed thirty-six dead on the ground, and by the way in the pursuit, and only five or six of the honest party.’
“Lieutenant Robert Grahame, Cornet John Arnold, and thirty-four privates of the King’s forces were killed on the field, and several more wounded. Five of the military were taken prisoners, and afterwards allowed to escape. Of the Covenanters, John Morton, Thomas Weir in Cumberhead, William Dingwell, one of the murderers of the Bishop, James Thomson, Stonehouse, John Gabbie in Fioch, and James Dykes in Loudon, were all mortally wounded, and died either on the field, or soon after the skirmish.
“The Covenanters pursued the troops to Calder Water, about three miles from the field of action. A person of the name of Finlay, from Lesmahagow, armed with a pitchfork, came up with Captain Grahame, at a place called Capernaum, near Coldwakening, and would probably have killed that officer, had not another of the Covenanters called to Finlay to strike at the horse, and thereby secure both it and the rider. The blow intended for the Captain was spent upon his mare, and the Captain escaped by mounting, with great agility, the horse of his trumpeter, who was killed by the Whigs.
“The Covenanters came up with some of the dragoons near Hillhead. The troopers offered to surrender, and asked quarter, which some of the Covenanters were disposed to grant; but, when their leaders came up, they actually killed these men, in spite of every remonstrance. The men so killed were buried like felons, on the marsh between the farms of Hillhead and Hookhead, and their graves remained visible till the year 1750, when they were sunk in a march dyke, drawn in that direction. The late Mr. Dykes of Fieldhead declared to the writer of this narrative, that his grandfather, Thomas Leiper, of Fieldhead, had often told him that he was present when these soldiers were killed, and did what he could to save their lives, but without effect.
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“When the discomfited dragoons returned through Strathaven, they were insulted and pursued by the inhabitants, down a lane called the Hole-close, till one of the soldiers fired upon the crowd, and killed a man, about 50 yards east from where the relief meeting-house at Strathaven now stands.
“Captain Grahame retreated to Glasgow, and he is said to have met at Cathkin some troops sent out to his aid; but he refused to return to the charge, observing to his brother officer, that he had been at a Whig meeting that day, but that he liked the lecture so ill that he would not return to the afternoon’s service. Another account says, that when Captain Grahame rode off the field, Mr. King, the preacher, then a prisoner, called after him, by way of derision, to stop to the afternoon’s preaching.[28]
“The relations of the two officers that were killed went to Drumclog next day after the skirmish, to bury them; but the country people had cut and mangled the bodies of the slain in such a manner that only one of the officers could be recognised. The coffin intended for the other was left at High Drumclog, where it remained many years in a cart-shed, till it was used in burying a vagrant beggar that died at the Mount, in that neighbourhood. This fact has been well attested to the writer of this account from sources of information on which he can rely.”
CHAPTER VII.
Heart of Mid-Lothian.