Pedestrianism; or, An Account of the Performances of Celebrated Pedestrians During the Last and Present Century. / With a full narrative of Captain Barclay's public and private matches; and an essay on training.

by Walter Thom

(16.) David Barclay, 12th of Mathers, who was born anno 1580. He was polite and accomplished, and lived much at Court; but a taste for show and extravagance, led him to indulge in every fashionable expense, by which he greatly impaired his property, and he sold five valuable estates. He was twice married: first, to Elizabeth, the daughter of Livingston of Dunnipace, by whom he had five sons and a daughter; second, to Margaret Keith, grand-child to Earl Marischal. To his daughter he gave a handsome fortune, and to his sons a liberal education. The two eldest died when young: David, the third son, became eminently conspicuous: Robert, the fourth, was rector of the Scots College at Paris; and James, the youngest, was a captain of horse, and was killed at the battle of Philiphaugh, on the 13th September 1645, where he gallantly signalized himself.

(17.) Colonel David Barclay, the first of Ury, and third son of David of Mathers, was born at Kirktonhill in the county of Kincardine, in the year 1610. After being instructed in every accomplishment of the age, he went to Germany, and entered a volunteer in the Swedish service, under the great Gustavus Adolphus. His manly and elegant appearance soon attracted the attention of his majesty, and he acquired a high reputation for courage and bravery. He merited and obtained the distinguished favour of Adolphus. But his fame as an active and experienced soldier having reached his native country, he was pressingly solicited by his friends to return home to take a part in the civil wars with which Scotland was then distracted.

Accordingly, in the year 1646, as a proof of his character and high merit, we find him colonel of a regiment of horse, and at the head of an army quelling an insurrection raised by the Earl of Crawford, who, with a number of Scots and Irish troops had burned several towns, and ravaged the northern parts of the kingdom. The colonel came up with the earl at Banff, entirely routed him, and committed great slaughter among the Irish, who had perpetrated many acts of wanton barbarity throughout the country. In the same year, General Middleton and the colonel were sent with an army to relieve the town of Inverness, at that time besieged by the renowned Marquis of Montrose, and Earl Seaforth. Colonel Barclay, at the head of his regiment, forced the ford of the river Ness, where the enemy was strongly posted; and, being well supported by Middleton, attacked and drove them to the mountains, taking all their cannon and baggage. Inverness being thus relieved, the army retired to the south country; but the Marquis of Huntly taking advantage of its absence, attacked the town of Aberdeen, and became master of it, although bravely defended by the citizens and two regiments under the command of Colonel Harry Barclay, a relative of Colonel David’s, who was taken prisoner, with twenty of his officers. To dispossess Huntly, the parliament, in April 1647, sent Middleton and the colonel again to the north; but the marquis did not think proper to wait their approach, and hastily retreated to the Highlands. To prevent his return, however, they took possession of his strong holds, in which they placed garrisons. Colonel Barclay was appointed governor of Strathbogie and Middleton, of the Bog of Gight, now Castle Gordon.

In the following year, the colonel found leisure to attend to his domestic concerns, and married Catharine, eldest daughter of Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonston, who was second son of the Earl of Sutherland, by Jane, daughter of the Marquis of Huntly. Sir Robert Gordon was cousin to King James the Sixth of Scotland, by his grandmother, Lady Helen Stewart, his majesty’s grand-aunt; and being a man of great parts, was highly esteemed at Court. As the different estates which formerly belonged to the Barclays of Mathers, were now nearly all disposed of by the colonel’s father, he entered into a contract with Earl Marischal for the barony of Ury, where he fixed the future residence of the family, which has since been designed by the name of that property.

Colonel Barclay being an active and experienced officer, and perfectly devoted to the cause in which he had engaged, was appointed to command in the shires of Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness. The nation at that time was much interested in the fate of Charles I.; and the parliament of Scotland sent an army to his assistance in England, under the Duke of Hamilton; and the internal protection of the kingdom was committed to the Earl of Lanark, the laird of Gartland, and Colonel Barclay. The whole country to the north of the Tay, including the town of Perth, was placed under the colonel’s authority; and he executed this important commission with vigour and fidelity. But the Duke of Hamilton’s overthrow at Preston, destroyed the hopes of his friends; and the opposite party gaining the ascendancy, through Cromwell’s means, Colonel Barclay, and many other officers, were deprived of their commands.

From this time, it appears that the colonel laid aside his military character, and lived for several years in retirement at Gordonston, in Morayshire, the seat of his father-in law. But his friend, Earl Marischal, having been taken prisoner by General Monk at Elliot in Angus, and his estates seized, the barony of Ury was included in the forfeiture, on the pretence that it was not fully conveyed by the earl. Colonel Barclay was advised to obtain a seat in the Scots parliament, which would afford him the only means of recovering his property. He was accordingly elected for Sutherlandshire, through the interest of his cousin, the Earl of Sutherland; but he was returned to the next parliament by the counties of Angus and Mearns, through his own influence. He became so popular indeed, by his services, to the nobility and gentry of these districts, that he received their public thanks; and as a mark of their entire satisfaction with his conduct, they again elected him their representative in the year 1656. The colonel obtained the reversal of the forfeiture of his estate, and continued in parliament, successfully exerting himself in behalf of his friends and the distressed loyalists.

For several years, nothing remarkable occurred in Colonel Barclay’s life that deserves our particular consideration; but in 1663, he was unexpectedly arrested and thrown into Edinburgh Castle, by an order from Government. As no crime was alleged against him, he was soon liberated; but it does not appear that he received any compensation for the injury. His arrest was the more surprising, as he had suffered so much in the royal cause, and his principles were well known to be favourable to the Restoration. It is probable, indeed, that this event arose from the resentment of some personal enemy; for malevolence often pursues the best of men, and those eminent for their virtues are by no means exempted from its baneful effects.

Colonel Barclay’s military and political career had now drawn to a close; and his future life was devoted to study, religious abstraction, the practice of charity, and all the benevolent and amiable pursuits of the human mind. In the year 1666, he joined the sect called Quakers, and became as eminent for piety and zeal, in private life, as he had before been distinguished for courage and intrepidity in the field. Religious disputes, however, running high in the country, his life was checquered by many indignities and insults. Those who had caressed him, while at the head of an army, by every flattering mark of respect, now forgot their benefactor, and cruelly sought to embitter his days by persecution. But he steadily adhered to his principles; for it could scarcely be supposed, that a man who had been bred in the camp of the great Adolphus—who had fought for liberty of conscience, and had braved all the dangers of war—could be either intimidated, or diverted from his purpose by the assaults of power, or the threatening clamour of a senseless rabble.

The colonel now generally resided at Ury, enjoying the society of his friends, and disseminating among his neighbours the doctrines of the Quakers. Many of “good account” embraced their tenets; and weekly and monthly meetings of these peaceable and religious people were held at Ury, for devotional exercises. But the clergy looked on them with an eye of jealousy, and stirred up against them the malicious passions of weak and intolerant men. And in the month of March 1676, Colonel Barclay and others, were indicted at Aberdeen, before a committee of the privy-council, for holding meetings contrary to a statute enacted against armed field conventicles, which, under every latitude of interpretation, could not be applied to Quakers. They were, however, found guilty, and amerced in a fine to the amount of a fourth part of their respective valued rents, and committed to prison until payment should be made.