Sir JOHN WHITEFORD of Milton (Carluke parish) was a wicked man, and such a persecutor, that he was said with his servants to have murdered severals when flying from Pentland, and had a principal hand in informing against Gavin Hamilton in Mauldslie, who was taken and executed with others at Edinburgh Dec. 7, 1666, and was one of the test circuits 1683. This and other pieces of the like employment made James Nicol a martyr say, That the world would see that house a desolation, and nettles growing in its closs:—which came to pass soon after the Revolution, when he became insolvent, his estate sequestrated, and orders obtained to apprehend him: which at last was effected although he defended himself some time with stones from the battlement. The lands changed many masters, and for some years lay desolate; and it has been observed, that till of late, no man dwelt in it above the space of seven years.—M. S.
—— DOUGLAS, laird of Stenhouse, was another of this fraternity. He assisted Maxwelton at the murder of William Smith in Hill; and, though but a man of mean estate, for this and his excessive harrassing, spoiling and fining the people of God, and because a professed papist, he was advanced to the honour of being sometime secretary to king James VII. (whether it was he that was advanced to be earl Milford, I know not) but his wicked honours were short lived; his name soon became extinct, having neither root nor branch, male nor female, for a remembrance left of him. Their fruit shalt thou destroy from earth, and their seed from among the children of men.
WILLIAM, Duke of Queensbury, was a prime instrument in managing the persecuting work in that period: he once said, they should not have time to prepare for heaven, hell was too good a place for them to dwell in. He was, while an earl, for his zeal in suppressing the rebels (as they called them) made a chancellor and treasurer in 1679.—Afterwards made a Duke and appointed commissioner by James VII. to the parliament 1685, where he got an act made for taking the test,—act of regularity,—act for taking the allegiance,—and that heaven-daring act declaring it treason to take the covenants,—with a great number banished during the parliament. Such was his vigilance by his factors and emissaries, that saints blood like water was shed; and his own tenants were cruelly spoiled and harrassed; and though he fell somewhat out of king James's favour in the last years of his reign, yet he still retained his persecuting spirit, even after the Revolution; for he opposed Mr. Vetch's settlement at Peebles, and for seven sessions pleaded it both before the lords and the church, till he {illegible} removed, 1694—But all this did not pass without a note of observation of divine vengeance even in this life; for, taking a fearful disease, it is said, that, like another Herod, the vermin issued in such abundance from his body, that two women were constantly employed in sweeping them into the fire. Thus he continued, till the fleshy parts of his substance were dissolved, and then he expired.[282]—M. S. History of the sufferings, &c.
JOHN MAXWEL of Milton, (commonly called Milton Maxwel) another of the persecuting tribe, caused apprehend George M'Cartny, and was president of the Assize who condemned those ten of the Pentland sufferers that suffered at Ayr and Irvine 1666; after which he harrassed the poor persecuted people in Galloway, particularly on the water of Orr. After Neilson of Corsack's execution, he came with a party upon his house and riffled it; carrying away every thing portable, he destroyed the rest, and turned out the whole family with the nurse and sucking child to the open fields (lady Corsack being then at Edinburgh). But, with all this ill gotten gain, then and afterwards he was but ill served; for, after the Revolution, he was reduced to seek his betters, and amongst other places came to the house of Corsack, and cringed for an alms from the same lady Corsack before her window, which she generously gave him; but at the same time reminded him of his former wicked life, particularly, his persecuting the people of God. He went off, but with small amendment; and some time after ended his wretched life.—Samson's riddle, A—d—k—n, &c.
—— NISBET, (commonly called lieutenant Nisbet) a man of no high extraction, but born of creditable parents in the parish of Loudon; being inlisted a soldier, obtained for his good services in the persecuting work some time after Bothwel, a lieutenant's post, which he managed with such fury against the poor persecuted wanderers for the cause of Christ, as made him break over all limits or bonds of religion, reason or natural affection or relation; so that he apprehended James Nisbet, a cousin-german of his own, while attending a friend's burial who was executed at Glasgow; where the said James was also executed; and while ranging up and down the country like a merciless tyger, he apprehended another of his cousins, John Nisbet of Hardhill, and with him George Woodburn, John Fergushill and Peter Gemmel (in the parish of Fenwick); which three last he took out, and immediately without sentence shot dead; and then carried Hardhill, after he had given him seven wounds, to Edinburgh, where he was executed. He also apprehended severals in the said parish that were banished; and upon their return at the Revolution, he was amongst the first they saw at Irvine after they landed. At first they were minded to have justice executed upon him; but on a second thought referred him to the righteous judgment of God. After the Revolution, he soon came to beg his bread (as old soldiers oftimes do) and it was said, that coming to a certain poor woman's house in the east country, he got quarters, and for a bed she made him (what we call) a shake-down before a mow of peats (being all her small convenience could afford). On which he lay down, she going out on some necessary errand; a little after, when she returned, she found the wall of peats fallen upon him, which had smothered him to death; a very mean end for such a courageous soldier.—Wodrow, &c.
JAMES GIBSON, (called sometime bailie Gibson of Glasgow) brother to the merchant, but one qualified to barter the bodies of Christ's suffering members. He got the command of his brother's ship with those sufferers that were banished to Carolina in the year 1684. The inhumanity he exercised upon them in their voyage is incredible: they were thrust below hatches, and a mutchkin of water allowed them in 24 hours: so that some of them died of thirst, although they had 14 hogsheads to cast out on their arrival.—These who were sick, were miserably treated; and two endeavouring to escape, were by him beat 8 times a-day, and condemned to perpetual slavery. Nor could they have liberty to serve God; when they began to worship, they were threatened by him in an awful manner. After their arrival, they were by him sold for slaves, and for the most part died in that country. He returned to spend their price till 1699, that he again set out captain of the Rising Sun, with that little fleet for the settlement at Darien.—But being one of the most wicked wretches that then lived, and some of the rest nothing better, the judgment of God pursuing him and them, they fell from one mishap into another, until put off by the Spaniards from thence, they went to Jamaica; from thence every one made the best of their way to their own country. Captain Gibson set off from Blue-fields July 21, 1700: but before he made Florida their masts were off by the boards, which made them with much difficulty come up to Carolina, and making Charleston bar, the very place where he landed Christ's prisoners, just as one of the ministers were gone out, and some more with him, a hurricane came down Sept. 3. and staved the ship all in pieces, where Gibson and 112 persons every soul perished in the surges of the rolling ocean. The Lord is known by the judgments which he executeth.—Wodrow, History of Darien, &c.
JAMES, Duke of York, a professed papist and another excommunicated tyrant, used no small cruelties while in Scotland 1679, 1681 and 1684; but after his ascension to the crown 1685, he threw off the mask, and set himself might and main to advance popery, and exterminate the protestant in-religion in these nations, and for that purpose set all his engines at work to repeal the penal statutes against papists; but that not speeding to his wish, he had recourse to his dispensing power and to an almost boundless toleration; of which all had the benefit, except the poor suffering remnant in Scotland who were still harrassed, spoiled, hunted like partridges on the mountains and shot in the field. Nay, such was his rage, that he said it would never be well, till all the west of Scotland and south of Forth were made a hunting field; and to recite the cruelties by his orders exercised in the west of England by shooting, heading, hanging, and banishing ever seas those concerned in Monmouth's affair, beggars all description. However matters go on; he sends Castlemain to the pope; the pope's nuntio arrives in England; the king declares himself a member of the royal society of jesuits, imprisons the seven bishops in the tower, and threatens to convert England to popery or die a martyr.—But the prince of Orange arriving in England and his army forsaking him, he sets off in a yacht for France, but is taken for a popish priest by some fishermen and brought back. His affairs becoming desperate, he sets off again for France; from thence, with 1800 French, he landed next year in Ireland being joined by the bloody Irish papists. He, like his predecessors, had no small art in dissimulation. Now he told them in plain terms, he would trust or give commissions to no protestants; they stank in his nostrils; he had too long caressed the damned church of England; but he would now do his business without them. Accordingly a popish parliament was called, wherein 3000 protestants were forfeited, and to be hanged and quartered when taken, whereof many were plundered and killed, his cut-throats boasting they would starve the one half and hang the other. In short, they expected nothing but another general massacre. But being defeated on the banks of the Boyn by king William, July 1, 1691. he set off to France never to return. Here he continued till 1700, or by some 1701, that he took a strange disease, which they were pleased to call a lethargy, wherein he became quite stupid and senseless, and so died at St. Germains in that situation, after he had lived ten years a fugitive exile. He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, &c.—History of popery under James, Martyrs in flames, &c.
Sir ARCHIBALD KENNEDY of Colzen, another violent persecutor in Carrick and parts adjacent; for having got the command of a troop of militia, he ranged the country in quest of the sufferers, (a very puny employment for a gentleman) and amongst other cruelties killed one Wm. M'Kirgue at Blairquachen mill 1685, and the same year surprized a meeting for prayer near Kirkmichael, and shot Gilbert M'Adam for essaying to escape. And, though he got over the persecuting work, he obtained no reformation of a cruel and wicked life for some time after the Revolution.—The remarkable occurrence at his burial is sufficient to indicate in what circumstance he died; for, if we shall credit one present, as soon as the gentlemen lifted his corpse, a terrible tempest of thunder arose, to the terror of all present: when going to the church-yard it ceased a little; but when near the place of interment it recurred in such a fearful manner, that the flashes of fire seemed to run along the coffin, which affrighted them all: nay, from the lightness of the bier, it is said, that some were apt to conclude the body was thereby consumed, or else taken away by the devil from among their hands, before they gained the place of interment. A note of God's fiery indignation on such a fiery persecutor. Upon the wicked he shall rain fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest.—Crookshanks, A—d R—n.
DUNCAN GRANT, a cripple with a tree leg who vaunted of his wickedness, was another of this hellish crew, (for so I may by this time call them). His leg did not hinder him from running, or rather riding up and down the country oppressing and killing God's people. In Clydesdale he uplifted 1500l. of fines. And being one of lord Airly's petty officers, he got a commission 1683, to hold courts in East Kilbride parish, upon which he quartered his party and harrassed them in a cruel manner. He spoiled the house and goods of John Wilson in High-Flet, to the value of 673l. seizing crops and land and all: and, though he got the gift of some land there, he did not long possess it; for, after the Revolution, he was reduced to extreme poverty, and went through the country now begging, (instead of robbing) until the day of his death, which was a very terrible one, if we may believe what I have often heard related by several judicious old men of good credit and reputation. He at last came to a kind of gentleman's house in the east country for quarters. The gentleman, coming to the hall, and seeing him in a dejected melancholy situation, asked the reason. At last, Grant told him, That, by a former paction, the devil was to have, him soul and body that night. Whether the gentleman believed the reality of this or rather took him to be crazed, I cannot say: but it was said, he gave him such advices as occurred to him, to break off his sins by repentance, and implore God's mercy, who was able to pardon and prevent his ruin, &c.—What answers he gave we know not; but he went to bed in the gentleman's barn. It appears, he asked no company, else they were not convinced fully in the matter. However, he was not like to open the door next morning, which made them at last break it open; where they found his body dissected on the floor, and his skin and quarters in such a position, as I shall forbear to mention, lest they should shock the humane reader's mind.—History of the sufferings &c. A—d R—n.
ALEXANDER HUME, commonly called sheriff Hume, probably because employed by the sheriff or sheriffs depute in Renfrew, as a kind of inferior officer, and of that kind to persecute, pursue and oppress the sufferers, in which he proved a most industrious labourer, wherein he would run upon the least notice of any field preaching, and harrass people, particularly, in the parish of Eglesham, where he mostly resided: for instance, hearing that Mr. Cameron was preaching at a place in that parish called Mungie hill, he and one R—t D—p, another of these vassals, set off, and, while in the tent, they laid hold on it to pull it down, because he was on Eglinton's ground. Mr. Cameron told them, he was upon the ground of the great God of heaven, unto whom the earth and its fulness did belong, and charged them in his Master's name to forbear; and so they were detained by the people till all was over. Sometimes he, with the foresaid D—p, would go to the outed people's houses, and offer to throw them down or inform against them, whereby he got sums of money or other considerations. But all this, besides a large patrimony by his parents of some thousands of pounds, did not serve him long; for he came to beggary, wherein he was so mean as to go to some of these men's houses he had before offered or laid hands on to cast down, some of whom served him liberally. We ought not to be rash in drawing conclusions on the occurrences of divine providence; but people could not help observing that, having a little pretty girl, who was one moon-shine night playing with the children in the village and a mad dog came and passed through them all, and bit her; whereof she grew mad, and it is said was to bleed to death, whereby his name and offspring of a numerous family of 17 or 18 children became extinct. At last she died in misery and was buried. Upon his grave the school-boys cast their ashes, (the school being then in the church) till it became a kind of dunghill, and so remains to this day. This needed be no observation, were it not that such a nauseous and infamous monument is suitable enough unto such nauseous service and an infamous life.—A—d R—n.