[31]. Bishop Burnet, himself an Episcopalian, thus characterizes them:—“They were the worst preachers I ever heard. They were ignorant to a reproach; and many of them were openly vicious. They were a disgrace to their order and the sacred function, and were indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts. Those of them who were above contempt or scandal, were men of such violent tempers, that they were as much hated as the others were despised.”
But there was also an opposition of a more solemn and impressive nature offered by the serious part of the people in different parishes, who received the intruders when they came among them with tears, and entreated them earnestly to be gone, nor ruin the poor congregations and their own souls. Neither of these methods, however, had any effect; the thoughtless wretches entered upon that awful charge—the care of souls—as if they had been taking forcible possession of an heritable estate to which they had a legal right.[[32]]
[32]. The following appears to have been the clerical mode of infeftment:—At the admission of Mr John Ramsay to the parish of Sconie, in Fife, “Mr Jossia Meldrum, minister of Kingorne, after sermon ended, he tooke his promise to be faithfull in his charge of that flock: and ther was delivered to him the bibell, the keys of the church doore, and the bell-tou.” Lamont’s Diary, p. 192.
As the south had been favoured with remarkably faithful pastors, the strongest resistance appeared there. Irongray was the first settlement where open “tumultuating” took place. The curate not being able to obtain peaceable admission, returned with a party of soldiers to force an entrance, when a band of women, led on by a Margaret Smith, attacked the guard with stones, and triumphantly beat them off the field. Margaret, the fair heroine, was brought to Edinburgh, and sentenced to slavery in Barbadoes; but she “told her tale so innocently,” that the managers, not yet steeled to compassion, permitted her to return home. The parish was not, however, allowed to escape with impunity. Upon hearing of this disturbance, and a similar one at Kirkcudbright, the privy council, as if the country had been in an actual state of rebellion, appointed the Earls of Linlithgow, Galloway, and Annandale, with Lord Drumlanrig and Sir John Wauchope of Niddry, to proceed on a commission of inquiry to that district, attended by an hundred horse and two hundred foot of the king’s guard, with power to suppress all meetings or insurrections of the people, if any should happen.
At Kirkcudbright, the commission held several diets, and examined a number of witnesses. Of about thirty-two women whom they apprehended, five were sent to Edinburgh; and Bessie Laurie, with thirteen others, were bound over to keep the peace. Lord Kirkcudbright—who had declared if the minister came there he should come over his body, and that he would lose his fortune before he should be preacher there; but at the same time admitted, that, if the minister had come in by his presentation, he could have raised as many men as would have prevented a tumult—was transmitted under a guard to Edinburgh. James Carson of Fenwick, the late provost, although not in power, and John Ewart, who had refused to accept the office, because they had declined interfering upon the occasion, were also sent prisoners to the capital, where they were kept in confinement several months;[[33]] besides, in addition, being severely fined. The five women were sentenced to stand at the cross of Kirkcudbright two hours on two market days, with labels on their foreheads denoting their crimes, and thereafter to find bail to keep the peace. New magistrates were appointed for the burgh, who, on accepting the nomination, signed a bond in their own name and that of the haill inhabitants of the place, binding and obliging them, and ilk one of them, during their public trust, and all the inhabitants, to behave themselves loyally, and in all things conform to his majesty’s laws, made and to be made, both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs! and besides, to protect the Lord Bishop of Galloway, the minister of the burgh, and any other ministers that were or should be established by authority.
[33]. The following singular order was issued by the council on this occasion; and it deserves to be noted, that it was issued the very first meeting after the archbishops had taken their seats as members:—“June 23d. The lords of council being informed that ministers and other persons visit the prisoners for the riot at Kirkcudbright, now in the tolbooth of Edinburgh, and not only exhort but pray for the said persons to persist in their wicked practices, affirming that they are suffering for righteousness’ sake, and assure them that God will give them an outgate—recommend it to the keeper to notice who visits them, and what their discourse and carnage is when with them.” Wodrow, vol. i. p. 188.
At Dumfries, the commission also examined witnesses, but the mighty insurrection dwindled into a “great convocation and tumult of women;” yet the whole party, horse and foot, were quartered upon the parish, and a bonus levied for remunerating the clerks. The whole heritors were likewise compelled to sign a bond of passive obedience to laws known and unknown, in terms similar to that of the magistrates of Kirkcudbright.[[34]]
[34]. The council ordered to be advanced for this expedition, the sum of £500 to the soldiers as part of their pay, £120 to the Earl of Linlithgow, and £50 to the Laird of Niddry for their expenses; so that probably these petty squabbles would cost the two parishes not much under one thousand pounds sterling, equivalent to nearly five in later times.
Instead of reconciling the people, or terrifying them back to the churches, these severities exasperated them; nor was it to be expected that they would willingly attend the ministrations of men, whose preaching they despised, and who were thus ushered in. Outrageous expressions of dislike were not, however, approved of by the godly and judicious Presbyterians, they mourned in private over the desolation of the church, and sought, by attending the family exercises of the younger ministers who were “outted,”[[35]] but sojourned among them, to receive that instruction, and enjoy that social worship, of which they were so tyrannically deprived! Sometimes the numbers who assembled to enjoy this privilege were so great, that a house could not contain them, and the minister was constrained to officiate without doors; till at length they increased so much that they were under the necessity of betaking themselves to the open fields; and, like him whose servants they were, beneath the wide canopy of heaven, preached the gospel of the kingdom to multitudes upon the mountain’s side. Mr John Welsh and Mr Gabriel Semple began the practice of field-preaching, which quickly increased, and, to the great alarm of the bishops, had pervaded almost every quarter of the country, when the political arrangements being completed, Rothes arrived as commissioner to open the parliament.
[35]. “Outted,” turned out of their churches.