Chapter III: Book III: August, A.d. 1661-1662

Lord High Commissioner sets out for Court—his 61
reception—Deliberations of the Council—Episcopacy resolved
upon as the National Religion of Scotland—Glencairn,
Rothes, and Sharpe appointed to carry the tidings to
Edinburgh—King’s letter—Privy Council announce the
overthrow of Presbytery—forbid the election of
Presbyterian magistrates in burghs—prosecute
Tweeddale—Ministers summoned to London to be episcopally
ordained—their characters—their consecration—Grief of the
Presbyterians—Re-introduction of Episcopacy—Restrictions
on the press—Witchcraft—Synods discharged and bishops
ordered to be honoured by royal patent—their
consecration—Parliament restores their rank—asserts the
King’s supremacy—The Covenants declared unlawful—Act of
fines—defeated—Lord Lorn—Blair and other ministers
deprived—King’s birth-day—Middleton’s visit to the West
and South—Case of Mr Wylie—Brown of Wamphray—Livingston,
&c.—Middleton removed and Lauderdale appointed

BOOK IV. DECEMBER, A.D. 1662-1664.

State of the West and South—Bishops’ curates—their 96
reception—Tumult at Irongray—Commission sent to
Kirkcudbright and Dumfries—Field-preaching—Rothes and
Lauderdale arrive in Scotland—Parliament—Warriston’s
arrest and execution—Principal Wood of St Andrews and
other ministers silenced and scattered—Troops ordered to
enforce the Acts of Parliament—their outrages—Sir James
Turner—High Commission Court—its atrocities—Privy
Council—its exactions—prohibits private prayer-meetings or
contributing money for the relief of the sufferers—William
Guthrie of Fenwick laid aside—Donaldson of Dalgetty’s
case—Death of Glencairn—Political changes

BOOK V. JANUARY, A.D. 1665-1666.

Partial moderation of the King—Sir James Turner’s campaign 127
through Kirkcudbright and Galloway—Unpaid fines
levied—Students’ oaths—All meetings for religious purposes
forbid—Quietude of the country—Proclamation of the
council—Apologetical Relation—Sir James Turner’s third
campaign extended to Nithsdale—visits Mr Blackadder at
Troqueer—More troops raised—Rigorous acts more rigorously
enforced—Rising of the persecuted—they gather
strength—their operations—Defeated at Pentland—Prelatic
revenge—Testimony of the sufferers—Torture
introduced—Nielson of Corsack—Hugh M’Kail—Executions in
Edinburgh and the west country—William
Sutherland—Executions at Ayr

BOOK VI. JANUARY, A.D. 1667-1669.

Dalziel sent to the South and West—his cruelty, and that of 169
the inferior officers—Sir Mungo Murray—Sir William
Bannatyne—Arrival of the Dutch fleet—Crusade
abates—Forfeitures increase—Standing army
proposed—Convention of estates—Cess—King’s letter—West
country disarmed—Sir Robert Murray sent to Scotland—Army
partially disbanded—Political changes—Bond of peace—Trials
of Sir James Turner and Sir William
Bannatyne—Field-preaching proscribed—Michael Bruce—John
Blackadder—Attempt upon Sharpe’s life—Search for the
assassin—Remarkable escape of Maxwell of Monreith—Case of
Mr Robert Gray, merchant—Mrs Kelso and Mrs Duncan—Death of
Mr Gillon, minister of Cavers—Field-preaching and
family-worship punished—Mr Fullarton of Quivox before the
Council—Mr Blackadder patrols his “diocese” untouched
safely—Mr Hamilton, minister of Blantyre

BOOK VII. JULY, A.D. 1669-1670.

An indulgence proposed—partially accepted by the 187
ministers—Mr Hutchison’s address—Proclamation against
those who refused it—Archbishop of Glasgow’s
remonstrance—Parliament asserts the king’s supremacy—vote
the militia, and a security for orthodox
ministers—Field-meeting in Fife—Difference between
Presbyterians and prelatists in doctrine and
teaching—Curates disturbed—Lecturing forbid—Compromising
ministers—Success of the gospel—Remarkable meeting at the
Hill of Beath, &c.—Rage of the Primate—Strange escape of
four prisoners

BOOK VIII. JULY, A.D. 1670-1674.

Parliament—Act against conventicles—Bond—Leighton’s efforts 207
to reform the Episcopate—Council appoint a
committee—Leighton attempts an
accommodation—Conference—Rigid treatment of indulged
ministers—Conventicles increase—Implacability of the
prelates—Lady Dysart—Ascendency of
Lauderdale—Parliament—Finings—Indulgence—Dissensions of
the ministers—Sufferings of the indulged—Mr Forrester and
Mr Burnet abandon Prelacy—their testimony—Proceedings at
the meeting of estates—Mr Blackadder’s tour in
Fife—Ministers’ widows’ petition—its consequences—Sharpe’s
troubles

BOOK IX. A.D. 1674-1676.

Divisions among the ministers respecting the church and 238
self-defence—Armed meetings—Severities increase—Lord
Cardross—Religious revivals in the North—Mr
M’Gilligan—Civil oppression—Home of Polwart—Finings—Durham
of Largo—Magistrates of Edinburgh—Sufferers sent to France
as recruits—Proclamation to expel the families of
gospel-hearers from the Burghs, and enforce the
conventicle act—Instructions for the indulged—Progress of
the gospel—Rage of the prelates—Mitchell tortured

BOOK X. A.D. 1676-1677.

Remarkable sacramental solemnities occasion harsher 256
measures—Council new-modelled—Committee for public
affairs—Kerr of Kersland—Kirkton—The expatriated pursued
to Holland—Colonel Wallace

BOOK XI. A.D. 1677.

Meeting of the ministers in Edinburgh—Prosecutions for not 265
attending the kirk—Lord Cardross—Conventicle at
Culross—Bond—Lauderdale comes to Scotland—Pretended
moderation—Alarm of the bishops—Carstairs attacks John
Balfour’s house—Council’s design of raising a standing
force—Resolutions of the West country
gentlemen—Conventicles increase—Communion at East
Nisbet—Common field-meeting—King authorizes calling in the
Highland clans

BOOK XII. A.D. 1678.

Privy Council forbids emigration—Mitchell’s trial and 286
execution—Highland host—Committee of the council arrive at
Glasgow—Deputation from Ayr sent to the Commissioner—Bond
refused—Committee proceed to Ayr—Earl of
Cassilis—Law-burrows—Case of Lord Cochrane—Ravages of “the
Highland Host”—their return home—Earl of Cassilis goes to
court—Duke of Hamilton follows—Complaints dismissed—State
of the country

BOOK XIII. JANUARY TO MAY, A.D. 1679.

Public teachers and students required to take the oath of 336
supremacy—A boy imprisoned for refusing—Husbands punished
for their wives’ contumacy—landlords for their
tenants’—Overture of the council—Country put under
military law—Reprisals—Outrages of the commissioners of
shires—Death of Sharpe—Escape of Veitch—Murder of
Inchdairney

BOOK XIV. MAY TO DECEMBER, A.D. 1679.

Outrages of the soldiery—Dissensions among the 359
persecuted—Commotions in the West—Rutherglen
declaration—Rising of the Presbyterians—Skirmish at
Drumclog—Royal troops retire to Edinburgh—Divisions among
the Presbyterians—Arrival of Monmouth—Battle of Bothwell
Bridge

BOOK XV. A.D. 1680.

Perplexity of the moderate ministers—Murder of Mr 397
Hall—Queensferry paper—Cargill joins Cameron—Sanquhar
declaration—Council’s proclamation in
reply—Reflections—Bond—Fresh plunderings by
Dalziel—Skirmish at Airs-moss—Death of Cameron—of
Rathillet—Cargill—Torwood excommunication—York arrives in
Edinburgh—Spreul tortured—Skene, Stewart, and Potter
executed—Effigy of the Pope burnt

BOOK XVI. A.D. 1681.

Edinburgh College shut—Isobel Alison and Marion Harvy 414
executed—Other executions—Search for covenanters—Thomas
Kennoway’s exploits—Mock courts held by Cornet Graham and
Grierson of Lag—Mr Spreul tried—acquitted—sent to the
Bass—John Blackadder, Gabriel Semple, and Donald Cargill
seized—Walter Smith, William Cuthil, and others
apprehended, tried, and executed

BOOK XVII. A.D. 1681.

Parliament—Act for securing the Protestant 437
religion—asserting the divine right and lineal succession
of their kings—for securing the peace of the country—Lord
Bargeny’s case—THE TEST—debate upon
it—Belhaven—Argyle—objections to its imposition—Argyle
takes it with an explanation—his trial—escapes from the
Castle—forfeited—Fraser of Brea—fined—banished

BOOK XVIII. A.D. 1681-1682.

Society-men—their first general meeting—State of the 452
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

BOOK XIX. A.D. 1682-1683.

Persecution instigated by the curates in the South and 465
West—Noble conduct of a boy—Rapacity of the
military—Instructions of the council—exploits of
Claverhouse, Meldrum, &c.—Retributive justice—Justiciary
court—Lawrie of Blackwood—Circuit courts—Rye-house
plot—Scottishmen implicated—Various instances of
oppression

BOOK XX. A.D. 1684-1685.

Persecutions increase—“Killing Time”—Proscription and 481
plundering—Husbands fined for their wives’ non-attendance
at church—Torture—Executions—Campbell of Cessnock—Paton of
Meadowhead, &c.—Females sold for
slaves—Spence—Carstairs—Baillie of Jarvieswood—Circuit
courts—Porterfield of Douchal—Finings—Proceedings of the
society-men—Review of the state of the country during this
period—Death of Charles

BOOK XXI. A.D. 1685.

Accession of James VII.—Proceedings of the privy 510
council—Field murders—Northern
commission—Indemnity—Outrages in the south—Two women
drowned—John Brown, “the Christian
Carrier”—Parliament—Argyle’s expedition—Suspected persons
sent to Dunotter—Argyle defeated—taken—executed—Colonel
Rumbold—Nisbet of Hardhill and other sufferers

BOOK XXII. A.D. 1686-1688.

Conduct of the soldiers—A riot—Recantation of 533
Sibbald—Alexander Peden—Proceedings of the
society-men—Synod of Edinburgh—Parliament—Disputes among
the persecuted—Indulgence—Thanksgiving for the Queen’s
pregnancy—Seizure and death of Mr Renwick—Dr Hardy’s trial
and acquittal—Rescue of David Houston—Murder of George
Wood—Arrival of the Prince of Orange

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