A.D. 1681-1682.
Society-men—their first general meeting—State of the country—Ure of Shargarton—Wavering of the Episcopalians—Lanark declaration—burned at Edinburgh—Harvey hanged—Mr P. Warner—York recalled to court—New government—Robert Gray executed—Dalziel sent to the west—Meeting at Priest-hill—at Tala-linn—Major White and the Laird of Meldrum—their proceedings—Hume of Hume executed—Lauderdale’s death.
Deprived of their regular teachers by banishment or legal murder, the consistent covenanters, now proscribed wanderers, formed themselves into societies for mutual edification, by reading the scriptures, prayer, and exhortation. As might have been expected in such circumstances, some were apt to carry their principles to an extreme which, in more peaceable times, they would never have thought of; but in general their conduct evinced a soundness of judgment and sobriety of understanding which could only result from the powerful influence of religious truth upon their minds. When “the blasphemous and self-contradictory test” had been enacted, several of the most pious among them in the west, considered it their indispensable duty to give some public testimony, as far as they were capable of doing it, corresponding to the notoriety of the sin, lest they might interpretatively be looked upon as consenters or at least connivers at such a wickedness, but wished it should be done by the whole collectively as far as was possible, and therefore that delegates from each of the societies should hold “general meetings” at such times and places as might be agreed upon.
The first was kept upon the 15th of December 1681, at Logan-house, in the parish of Lesmahago, Lanarkshire, “at which time,” as Michael Shields deplores, “the condition of the country was lamentable; the cruelty and malice of the enemy was come to a great height; they were pressing conformity to their iniquitous courses; and alas! they were much complied with. Defection was growing, sin was abounding, and the love of many was waxing cold; snares and temptations were increasing, and, which was sad, people wanted faithful warning of the sin and danger of the time; for ministers were lying bye from the public preaching of the gospel, and did not, as becomes watchmen, set the trumpet to their mouth to give a certain sound! But especially the case of the scattered, reproached, persecuted, and yet contending party, was sad; reduced to very great straits of hiding, chasing, wandering, imprisonment, and killing, and to have foul reproaches and odious calumnies cast upon them, especially by some ministers and professors, they resolved that a declaration should be published at Lanark on the 12th January following.” Then, after settling the plan of a general correspondence, and arranging the regular quarterly meetings, they dispersed.
A.D. 1682 commenced with vexatious proceedings. On the 7th of January, the council wrote to the king, telling him that the day for taking the test had passed over, and that they had sent him a list of the jurisdictions become vacant by the refusal of their holders to subscribe that oath, together with the names of those they recommended to fill them, adding, with great glee—“After serious reflection upon the whole matter of the test, we may sincerely say, that it has been a most happy expedient for filling all offices with persons who are well-affected to the protestant religion and your majesty’s government.”
In November last year, the privy council granted warrant to Sir George Mackenzie, king’s advocate, to prosecute criminally forty-six persons in the shires of Linlithgow, Stirling, and Ayr for being concerned in the rebellion at Bothwell. On the 9th of January this year, twenty-two were proceeded against, but only nine forfeited, the rest having either contrived to make their escape or bargained for their freedom by making a renunciation of their estates to the lords of the treasury; but James Ure of Shargarton was singled out for particular severity, because, having left the Episcopal communion, he had joined the persecuted ministers, and had his children baptized by them. His goods were seized, his rents arrested, and himself intercommuned; so that he never slept in bed three nights for nine years, during which parties of soldiers were sent to his house above thirty times, and dragoons quartered upon him for whole weeks together—his mother, an aged gentlewoman of seventy years, was carried to Glasgow and thrust into the common jail. Her petition “for leave at least to win to the prison doors for air” could not be granted; so she died there in the crowd.
Meanwhile, £100 sterling was offered to any who would bring in the said James Ure, dead or alive; but he escaped to Ireland, whence he occasionally ventured home, though he durst not remain in his own house, but was forced, both himself and his lady, to lie several weeks in the wood of Boquhan all night, when the cold was so great that the clothes would have been frozen together about them when they awoke. At daybreak he retired to a tenant’s house, and she returned home, where, about this time, she was apprehended and carried to Stirling, with a child on her breast, and detained there and in the Canongate tolbooth, Edinburgh, till she found bail for two thousand merks to appear when called; and, through the interposition of the Earl of Perth’s chamberlain, was finally dismissed.
Encouraged perhaps by the scruples of the first nobles in the land, twenty-one of the prelatical clergy refused the test, and the council, on the 12th of this month, wrote to the patrons of the parishes to present fit and qualified persons in their room; but, upon re-considering the matter, the great part of them appear to have got over their scruples, and upon application were reponed to their benefices and stipends.
While the Episcopalians were wavering, the societies were acting. About forty armed men on the set day marched to Lanark, and, after burning the test, read and affixed to the cross their declaration, which it is impossible to peruse without deep interest, when we consider that, unlike a common declaration written by those who are themselves in safety or at ease, it was penned by men in jeopardy every hour, and proclaimed by them at the peril of their lives:[[145]]—
[145]. Indeed this ought never to be lost sight of in reading any of the productions of the persecuted, and should lead us to make every allowance for any warm expressions which they suffered to escape them, when contending not only for their own rights, but the rights of their posterity—for those privileges which we now enjoy but too lightly prize, because we seldom think of the price at which they were purchased. For some expressions in this, such as calling themselves “a meeting of the estates,” &c. they afterwards apologized in the informatory vindication.