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Wylies Banished and Enslaved in America
Some of the early Wylie pioneers may have immigrated to North America against their will.
In fact, thousands of Scots were sold into slavery because of their religious beliefs.
The slaves listed below were sold in the American Colonies or Jamaica. Most eventually
escaped or were set free and those who may have returned to Scotland did so under penalty of death.
The following is an excerpt from
Cloud of Witnesses for the Royal Prerogatives of Jesus Christ; or,
The Last Speeches and Testimonies of Those Who Have Suffered for the Truth in Scotland, Since the Year
1680 [1714] and is only a partial listing of the many thousands of Scots who were martyred
or enslaved before.
Note: The Wylies listed below were captured at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge
June 22, 1679 and were aboard the Crown when it sank.
WFHP Editors.
A Cloud of Witnesses
[AT the time the "Cloud of Witnesses" was drawn up, the compilers do not seem
to have had access to such full information as Wodrow [History of the Sufferings
of the Church of Scotland Betwixt the Restoration and the Revolution, 4 vols].
Hence the list of the banished given by them is far from being full. It is,
however, generally accurate so far as it goes. The additional information given
has been inserted in brackets throughout the list.--ED.]
TO speak nothing of those whom the
cruelty of the persecutors forced to a voluntary exile, of whom there can be no
particular account had, besides the six or seven ministers [i.e., James Simpson
of Airth, Robert M'Ward of Glasgow, John Brown of Wamphray, John Livingston of
Ancrum, John Nevay of Newmilns, Robert Trail of Edinburgh, and James Gardiner of
Saddle] that were banished and went to Holland, and seven or eight country
people to France, several others [were banished] to Barbadoes, before the year
1666.
[Wodrow gives an account of the banishment of William Gordon of Earlstoun to
Holland; of four boys in 1664 to the Barbadoes; of two brothers to Virginia; of
John Sproul, apothecary, Glasgow, who, on his return, in 1680, from Holland, in
order to take his wife and family to Rotterdam, was apprehended, and put to the
torture, as stated in a former note (p. 98); and of several persons in 1665,
whose names are not given, to the Barbadoes.--ED.]
AFTER the year 1678,
there were banished to be sold for slaves, for the same cause for which others
suffered death at home, of men and women about 1700--viz. [herein is a partial
listing only]:
ANNO 1678.--To Virginia 60,
whereof three or four were ministers, who were all by the mercy of God delivered
at London.
[In May 1678, a conventicle was held at Williamwood, in the parish of
Cathcart, Renfrewshire. John Campbell of Sorn, Matthew Crawford of Eastwood, and
some others not mentioned, preached. An alarm was given which dispersed the
meeting. Several of the ministers escaped, but the dragoons pursued the people
that had been assembled, and about seventy were taken prisoners to Glasgow.
Among others were the well-known Alexander Peden, Robert Meikle, chaplain to Sir
James Stewart, and Adam Abercorn, chaplain. After a few days' confinement they
were taken to Edinburgh. On May 28th, and June 13th, the Council banished them
to his majesty's plantations in the Indies, and Ralph Williamson of London gave
security that he would transport them and sell them to the best advantage. They
lay in prison till December, when a warrant was given to deliver them to Edward
Johnston, captain of the St Michael of Scarborough, lying at Leith. Their names,
amounting to sixty-seven, are given in Wodrow. The passage between Leith and
Gravesend was five days longer than Williamson had expected, and when the ship
arrived he was not to be found. The captain waited for some time, and as
provisions ran short, and Williamson did not appear, he set them ashore and left
them to shift for themselves. Wodrow says that the country people were very kind
to them when they knew the cause of their sufferings, and they generally got
home safe after they had been absent from their homes about nine months. Wodrow
also gives, under the same year 1678, the sentence of banishment passed upon
William Temple, James Miller in Kirkcaldy, David Barclay, Robert Marnock, and
seven or eight more; John Harroway, Alexander Buchanan in Bucklyvie, and three
or four others there; Andrew Buchanan in Shargarton, and three more tenants
there; Thomas and William Govans, and nine others.--ED.]
ANNO 1679.--Of the prisoners
taken at Bothwell were banished to America, 250
[rather 257], who were taken away by (William) Paterson, merchant in Leith,
who transacted for them with Provost Milns, laird of Barnton [and bailie or
provost of Linlithgow], the man that first burned the Covenant: whereof two
hundred were drowned by shipwreck at a place called the Moul Head of Deerness,
in Orkney, being shut up by the said Paterson's order beneath the hatches
fifty only escaped. The names, so many of them as could be had, follow; those
who escaped being marked with a star for distinction's sake.
Out of the shire of CLYDESDALE:
City of Glasgow, Francis Wodrow, Walter M'Kechnie, Alexander Pirie, William
Miller. Parish of Govan, Andrew Snodgrass.
Parish of Kilbride, Robert Auld, John Struthers, James Clark, John Clark,
William Rodger.
Parish of Shorts, Peter Lermont, Robert Russel, John Aitkin, Robert Chalmers,
John Thomson,* John Killen, Alexander Walker. Parish of Cambusnethan,
William Scular.*
The Monklands, William Waddel,* William Grinlaw, Thomas Mathie, William
Miller, John Wynet, James Waddel, John Gardner,* Thomas Barton.
Parish of Bothwell, ___ More,* William Breakenrig.
Parish of Evandale, John Cairnduff, John Cochran, Robert Alison, Andrew
Torrence, Thomas Brownlee, John Watson, William Alison, Andrew Aiton. Parish of
Cadder, William Fram.*
Parish of Glassford, John Miller, John Craig.
Parish of Carnwath, Thomas Crighton, James Couper.
Parish of Quathquan, James Penman,* James Thomson, Thomas Wilson.
Parish of Carstairs, Thomas Swan.*
Parish of Biggar, John Rankin.
Parish of Lesmahagow, George Weir, Robert Weir, George Drafin,* [after his
escape he was conveyed to America.--ED.]
Out of the shire of AYR:
Parish of Fenwick, James Gray, Andrew Buckle, David Currie, David Bitchet,
Robert Tod, John White, Robert Wallace,* John Wylie, William Bitchet.
Parish of Loudon, Thomas Wylie.
Parish of Dalmellington, Hugh Simpson, Walter Humper, Walter Humper,
younger,* Hugh Cameron,* Quintin M'Adam.*
Parish of Cumnock, John Gemill, James Mirrie.
Parish of Ochiltree, Andrew Welsh. Parish of Auchinleck, Andrew Richmond.
Dundonald, Andrew Thomson.* Mauchline, William Reid, William Drips.
Parish of Muirkirk, John Campbell, Alexander Paterson. Parish of Digen [i.e.,
Dreghorn], James Bouston.
Parish of Galston, James Young, George Campbell.
Parish of Kilmarnock, Thomas Finlay, John Cuthbertson, William Brown, Patrick
Watt,
* Robert Anderson, James Anderson. Parish of Stewarton, Thos. Wylie, Andrew
Wylie, Robt. Wylie.
Parish of Barr, Alexander Burden.
Parish of Colmonell, Thomas M'Lurg, John M'Cornock, John M'Lellan.
Parish of Girvan, William Caldwell.
Parish of Dalry, David M'Cubbin, William M'Culloch.
Parish of Maybole, William Rodger, Mungo Eccles, John M'Whirter, Thomas Horn,
Robert
M'Garron, John M'Harie. Parish of Craigie, George Dunbar.*
Parish of Straiton, James M'Murrie, Alexander Lamb, George Hutcheson.
Parish of Kirkmichael, John Brice, Robert Ramsay, John Douglass, John M'Tire,
James M'Connel.
Parish of Kirkoswald, John White, Thomas Germont.
Out of the shire of FIFE:
Parish of Newburn, James Beal.
Parish of Largo and Kilconquhar, Andrew Prie, James Kirk. Parish of Ceres,
John Kirk, Thomas Miller.* Parish of Strathmiglo, Robert Boog.
Out of the shire of KINROSS:
Town of Kinross, James Lilburn.
Parish of Orwell, Robert Kirk,* Robert Sands.*
Out of the shire of PERTH:
Parish of Kilmadock, John Christison.
Parish of Kincardine, Patrick Keir, John Donaldson.
Parish of Glendevon, John Murie and Andrew Murie.
Out of the shire of BARONTHROW [i.e., RENFREW]:
Parish of Eastwood, James Cunningham.
Parish of Neilston, John Govan.
Paisley, William Buchan, William Auchinclose.
Out of the shire of LENNOX [i.e., Dumbarton]:
Parish of New Kilpatrick, James Finlayson.
Out of the shire of STIRLING:
Parish of Drummond, Daniel Cunningham.
Parish of Kippen, James Galbraith.
Gargunnock, Thomas Miller, Patrick Gilchrist, James Sands,* Thomas Brown,
James Buchanan.
Parish of St Ninian's, Thomas Thomson,* Andrew Thomson,* John Neilson, John
M'Nure.
Parish of Denny, James M'Kie.
Parish of Airth, Andrew Young, John Morison, Robert Hendrie.
Parish of Falkirk, Hugh Montgomerie.*
Muiravonside, Thomas Phalp.
Out of the shire of WEST LOTHIAN:
Parish of Torphichen, John Allan, John Thomson, John Pender,* James Easton,
John Easton,* Andrew Easton, John Addle, Alexander Bishop. Dalmeny, John
Thomson.
Livingston, Thomas Inglis, Patrick Hamilton, John Bell, Patrick Wilson,
William Younger, William Henderson, John Steven. Parish of Kirkliston, John
Govan. Bathgate, David Ralton.
Parish of Abercorn, John Gib, James Gib.
Parish of Linlithgow, Thomas Borthwick.
Parish of Kinneil [now Borrowstounness], Andrew Murdoch.
Out of the shire of MID-LOTHIAN:
Parish of Calder, James Steel, Thomas Gilchrist, James Graze, John Russel.
Mid-Calder, John Brown, Alexander Mutray. East Calder, David Samuel,*
Alexander Bissit.
Parish of Stow, Thomas Pringle. Parish of Temple, James Tinto.
Parish of Liberton, Thomas Mackenzie.*
Parish of Crichton, James Fork.
Parish of Cranston, Thomas Williamson.
Musselburgh, William Reid.
Out of the shire of EAST LOTHIAN:
Parish of Dunbar, James Tod.
Out of the shire of NITHSDALE:
Parish of Glencairn, David Mackervail, John Ferguson, Robert Milligan, John
Milligan,* John Murdoch,* John Smith,* William Ferguson,* James Colvil, Thomas
Rosper.
Parish of Closeburn, Thomas Milligan, John Kennedy.
Out of the shire of GALLOWAY:
Parish of Kirkcudbright, James Corson, Andrew M'Quhan,* John M'Bratney,* John
M'Gie*
[Wodrow gives an extract from a letter of James Corson, dated Leith Roads, in
which he says that all the trouble they met with since Bothwell
was not to be compared to one day in their present circumstances, that their uneasiness was
beyond words, yet, that the consolations of God overbalanced all; and expresses
his hope that they are near their port, and that heaven is open for them.--ED.]
Parish of Balmaghie, Robert Caldow,* James Houston. Parish of Kelton, James
Donaldson.
Parish of Kirkmabreck, Robert Brown, Samuel Beck, Samuel Hannay.
Parish of Penninghame, John M'Tagart, Alexander Murray.*
Parish of Borgue, Andrew Sprot, Robert Bryce, John Richardson,* John
Martine,* John Brice, William Thomson. Parish of Girthon, Andrew Donaldson.
Parish of Dalry, John Smith,* John Malcolm.*
Irongray, Andrew Wallet.
Balmaclellan, John Edgar.*
Lochrutton, Andrew Clark.*
Ettrick Forest, John Scot.
Parish of Galashiels, Robert Macgill,* Robert Young.
Out of the shires of MERSE and TEVIOTDALE:
Parish of Nethan [i.e., Nenthorn], Samuel Nisbet, John Deans, James
Aitchison.*
Parish of Cavers, James Leydon,* John Glasgow,* William Glasgow,* John
Greenshields, Richard Young, Samuel Douglas, James Young,* James Hopkirk. Kelso,
William Hardie.
Jedburgh, John Mather.
Parish of Ancrum, George Rutherford.
Parish of Sprouston, Walter Waddel and Thomas Cairns.
Parish of Melrose, John Young and Andrew Cook.
Parish of Castletoun, William Scot, John Pringle, Alexander Waddel, and John
Unnes.
Parish of Ashkirk, William Herd.
Parish of Baudon [i.e., Bowden], Andrew Newbigging.
Parish of Sudon [i.e., Southdean], James Couston, William Swanston,* John
Eliot.
Parish of Hobkirk, John Oliver.
THESE seven following were sentenced and banished to West
Flanders, who departed the kingdom, March 4, 1684: Thomas Jackson, George
Jackson, James Forrest elder, James Forrest younger, John Coline, James Gourlay,
___ Gillies [in Wodrow, Dennis Gilcreif.]
[Wodrow says the above-named were before the Committee for Public Affairs,
and in their joint testimony they relate that the Chancellor, after a long
speech charging them with rebellious principles, declared they were banished to
West Flanders, never to return under pain of death. In their testimony they
vindicate themselves from the charge of disloyalty and rebellion, and profess
their attachment to the Scriptures, Confession, and Covenants, against Popery,
Prelacy, etc. John Coline has a separate testimony of his own, in which he gives
the reason why he could not say "God save the king." He asked the committee to
let him know the meaning of the words, and they told it signified an owning of
his person, and government, and laws, and present actings. This, he says,
satisfied him that he was right in refusing to utter them.--ED.]
AFTERWARDS were banished to Carolina thirty, who were
transported in James Gibson's ship, called sometime Bailie Gibson in Glasgow, of
whom it is observed, that in God's righteous judgment he was cast away in
Carolina Bay, when he commanded in the "Rising Sun." They received their
sentence, July 17, 1684. The names of such as subscribed the joint testimony are
these: Matthew Machan, James M'Clintock, John Gibson, Gavin Black, John Paton,
William Inglis, John Young, John Galt, John Edwards, Thomas Marshal, George
Smith, William Smith, Robert Urie, John Buchanan, Thomas Brice, John Simon, Hugh
Simon, William Simon, Archibald Cunningham, John Alexander, John Marshal.
[In May 27, 1684, the Council passed an act, granting prisoners to Walter
Gibson, merchant in Glasgow, to be by him transported to America. On June 19,
Sir William Paterson reported to the Council that twenty-two prisoners are in
the tolbooth of Glasgow; and they are ordered to be transported in Walter
Gibson's ship. Many, if not all of these, seem to have been shipped along with
the twenty-one subscribers to the joint testimony against the king's supremacy
and the renouncing of the Covenants above mentioned. The ship was commanded by
Walter Gibson's brother, James, a person well known in Scotland at the time of
the publication of the "Cloud of Witnesses'' as the commander of the "Rising
Sun," a ship of sixty guns, and the chief ship in the second squadron sent out
to the ill-fated Darien settlement. When the settlement broke up, the "Rising
Sun" returned homewards, and had reached as far as the Gulf of Florida, when a
violent storm carried away the masts, shattered the boats, and compelled them,
with the help of a jury mast, to make for Carolina. In ten days they reached
Charleston, and lay at anchor until their guns were taken out so as to get over
the bar, when a hurricane arose, and the ship and all on board perished,
September 3, 1700. Captain Gibson behaved with extreme harshness to the
prisoners on the voyage. Their daily allowance of water was a mutchkin (less
than an English pint), and an ounce and a-quarter of salt beef; and during the
voyage they experienced all the horrors of what was known in the next century as
the middle passage.--ED.]
THEREAFTER in July 19, 1684,
John Mathieson, John Crighton, James M'Gachen, John M'Chesnie, James Baird, were
banished to New Jersey in America.
[Wodrow's date is June 19, 1684. "He says: At Edinburgh the Lords, by
sentence, appoint James M'Gachen in Dairy, John Crighton in Kirkpatrick, John
Mathieson in Closeburn, John M'Chesnie in Spittle, libelled for reset and
converse with rebels, found guilty by their confession judicially adhered to, to
be transported to the plantations."
John Mathieson survived the Revolution of 1688, returned home, and died Oct.
1, 1709. He wrote a testimony some years before his death, when he was under
sore sickness and in expectation of his approaching end. John Calderwood of
Clanfin published it in 1806 in his "Collection of Dying Testimonies," a volume
now very rare. John Mathieson, like not a few of the Presbyterians some years
after the Revolution, inveighs in strong terms against William III., possibly
because he was ignorant of the difficulties the king had to contend against --
difficulties that Burnet in his history unconsciously shows might well have
baffled even a more courageous spirit than the Prince of Orange. Mathieson's testimony had
been seen by Lord Macaulay, who calls it one of the most curious of the many
curious papers written by the Covenanters of that period; but he makes the most
of its intemperate language against King William, and forgets that such language
was a characteristic of the age. The first part of his testimony, in which he
records his sufferings, is not without its interest, and no doubt might be
parallelled by the experience of many of the sufferers of that time. He says:
"I am a poor man, and seemingly about to step out of this vale of misery; and
I may say with old Jacob, ' The days of the years of my life have been few and
evil, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers
in their pilgrimage' (Gen. xlvii. 9).
"As to my education, I was brought up with those that cared not much for
religion or the things that accompany salvation, if they got me seen [i.e.,
cared for] as to back and belly, but the Lord, who knew well what He had to do
with me, inclined my heart to better things from my youth, and at length brought
me to the knowledge of His way, by converse with some good neighbours, such as
Thomas Corsbie, etc. So, being married, I left off hearing the curates, and
withdrew from them, which afterwards brought on nay persecution; but not being
fixed and stable--as the generality of the country was --in bearing testimony
against the then defections; until I became acquainted with some of these who
were declared rebels, and then I was [i.e., got] to understand matters better,
and be as they were in judgment and practice. But this I observed, that I never
went out of His way (though I then did it ignorantly), but I met with
chastisement of one sort or other from the Lord to bring me back again to Him.
"And when it pleased His holy majesty to bring me to a wandering and
suffering lot for Him, wonderful was His loving kindness unto me, and strange
were the warnings He gave me at several times before I was apprehended, which I
forbear to relate: But at length, being apprehended on the Lord's day at my own
house by a party of the bloody dragoons whom Closeburn had sent for by, Doeg
John Kilpatrick in Bredgeburgh Head, I was, by his command, sent to prison in
Dumfries, where, after continuing for a season, I was carried from that to
Edinburgh with some others, and there sentenced, by a party of the bloody
Council, to Carolina, in America.
"When I was on the sea, and there, or in my way going, which was nineteen
weeks from our entering into the ship until we set our foot on shore and came to
land again, I endured a sore fight of affliction from the enemy of my salvation,
but the Lord helped me to resist that evil one.... We suffered great
straits while on shipboard, and on shore also, by him and his who carried us
captives to that land, yet the Lord was with me and was exceeding kind to me in
that strange land. Their cruelty to us was because we would not consent to our
own selling or slavery; for then we were miserably beaten, and I especially
received nine great blows upon my back very sore, by one of his sea-fellows, so
that for some days I could not lift my head higher nor my breast; which strokes
or blows I looked upon to be the beginning of all my bodily pains and diseases
that have been upon me since that time until now.
"But soon after, by a remarkable providence, getting free from these bloody
butchers, from Carolina we sailed to Virginia, in which voyage we suffered a
long and dangerous storm, and great hunger. From Virginia we went into
Pennsylvania, where I was near unto death by a great weighty sickness. From
Pennsylvania we went to East Jersey, where we met with the rest of our banished
brethren; and from thence we went into New England. But being sorely grieved
with the miscarriages of some of our friends there, I left New England, and
returned to East Jersey, whereafter soon I fell sick; and during which sickness
I was kindly entertained and taken care of by the man and his wife in whose
house I lay, and with whom I had bound myself. For, albeit we had escaped from
them that had brought us over, and could not work to them, yet we behoved to
work for something to bring us back again. From thence I came to New York on my
journey homeward, where I agreed with a shipmaster to bring me to London.
"During my abode or being in that strange land, the Lord helped me twice or
thrice to covenant with Him, but on these terms, that He would carry me and my
burden both, and save His noble truth from being wronged by me; still confessing
and acknowledging unto Him that I could keep neither word nor writ unless He
kept me and it both. And so, on His own terms, I took Him for my king, priest,
and prophet. After my first covenanting with Him in these lands, I wan [i.e.,
got] to such a clearness of my interest and salvation, that the very thoughts of
it made me often to leap for joy in the midst of all my sorrows, sore travail,
and labour, I had in these lands. And when alone, which was often, I was readily
best in my case, for I was grieved with the vain and wicked conversation of the
inhabitants of the land. And, now, what shall I say to the commendation of my
kind Lord and Master Christ? For many and wonderful were His loving kindnesses
unto me in all my travels in that land, even to me, one of the silliest [i.e.,
frailest] things that ever He sent such an errand; so that, as it passes my
memory to relate, I think truly, it would seem incredible to many to believe
when they heard them told, even what He hath done for poor insignificant
unworthy me, during my abode in these lands; which, betwixt being taken from my
own house, and my returning home, was something more than three years.
"But for all that, my heart was still at home with the poor suffering remnant
in Scotland. For though fire and sword had been in one end of it, I could have
been content to have been in the other end of it. So, from New York coming to
London, and from thence soon after I arrived in Scotland. So then at length
being safe there, and restored to my friends and relations, I clave to and
joined with that party after whom while in my banishment I had so great a
desire, and continued with them all alongst, hearing with much delight the
Gospel then faithfully preached, yea, powerfully preached as occasion offered,
by that shining light Mr James Renwick."
Dr Simpson, in his "Gleanings among the Mountains," tells a touching story of
his reception in his own house on his return home. When he entered the house,
his wife was busy preparing dinner for the reapers. She did not recognise him,
but took him for a traveller, who had come in to rest himself. She pressed him
to take some refreshment, which he did, when she went out to the field with a
portion for the reapers. As she went out, he rose, and followed her at a
respectful distance. She turned round, and fancying he had not been satisfied
with her hospitality, said to the bystanders, "The man wants a second dinner."
The words drew the eyes of the reapers on him, when one of his sons whispers to
his mother, "If my father be alive, it is him." She turned round, looked into
the stranger's face for a moment, and then ran to his embrace, crying out, "My
husband!'' John Mathieson died October 1, 1703. His remains lie in the
churchyard of Closeburn.--ED.]
THEREAFTER were taken away in banishment, by one Robert
Maloch, fourteen men, whose names are not recorded. [Wodrow's notice is equally
short: "And August 15, about fifteen more are ordered to the same place."--ED.]
ANNO 1685. In the time of
Queensberry's Parhament, of men and women were sent to Jamaica two hundred.
[Among these prisoners was Gilbert Milroy of Kirkala in Penninghame parish,
who survived the Revolution, and returned home, and was in 1710, says Wodrow, a
very useful member of the session of Kirkcowan. He wrote an account of his
sufferings. He and his brother William had doubts about abjuring the Societies'
Declaration, and so had kept from home out of the way of the soldiers. The
soldiers came and plundered their house, and carried away eighty black cattle
and about five hundred sheep, besides household stuff. Next day the brothers
were brought to Minnigaff, and, not answering the usual questions to
satisfaction, were sent on to Edinburgh, where they were imprisoned in Holyrood,
as the ordinary prisons were full. When brought before the judges, they refused
to take the oaths, and were sentenced to have their ears cut off and to be
banished for ten years. A few days after sentence, the prisoners were taken out
and tied six and six of them together, and marched to Newhaven, such as were not
able to walk being conveyed in carts, and put on board a ship lying there, and
thrust under deck two and two of them together to the number of an hundred and
thirty. In this state they were kept during the voyage, and so great were their
sufferings through insufficient food, a scanty supply of water, and want of
fresh air, that when they arrived at Jamaica, after a passage of three months
and three days, thirty-two had died on the way. They were landed at Port Royal,
and kept in prison ten days, until they were sold as slaves. The proceeds of
their sale were kept for Sir Philip Howard, an Englishman, who had received a
gift of them from the king. Sir Philip, however, did not live to enjoy it, for
when leaving London for Port Royal, he fell between two ships and was drowned.--
ED.]
THE same year, one Pitlochie transported to New Jersey
one hundred, whereof twenty-four were women.
[In 1685 there are several acts of Council banishing prisoners, and handing
them over to John Scot, laird of Pitlochie. Under March 10, he received a
warrant to go to the prisons of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Stirling, and transport
a hundred of the prisoners to the plantations. He seems also to have gone to
Dunottar, and to have got about thirty there, among others Patrick Walker, the
well known writer of "Remarkable Passages in the Lifes of Peden, Cameron,
Cargill, etc ;" but he escaped while they were waiting at Leith. The ship sailed
September 5. She had scarcely turned the Land's End, when fever broke out,
especially among those who had been confined for so many months in the dark
vault at Dunottar. The beef became putrid; the ship twice sprang a leak; and so
deadly was the voyage, which lasted for fifteen weeks, that their numbers were
about seventy less when they arrived at New Jersey (whither the wind drove them
rather than to Jamaica, where the captain had proposed to take them)--Pitlochie
himself and his wife being among the dead. On landing, the prisoners seem to
have been left at large, and the inhabitants of a town, not named, a little way
up the country, hearing of their circumstances, invited all who were able to
travel to come and live with them, and sent horses for such as were not, and
entertained them that winter freely and with much kindness. In spring
Pit-lochie's son-in-law sought to claim them as his property, and sued them
before the court of the province. The governor sent the case before a jury, who
found that the accused had not of their own accord come to the ship, and had not
bargained with Pitlochie for money or service, and therefore, according to the
laws of the country, they were free. Most of the prisoners retired to New
England, where they were very kindly entertained. "So," concludes Wodrow,
"Pitlochie proposed to be enriched by the prisoners, and yet he and his lady
died at sea on the voyage. He sold what re-mai-ned of the estate to pay the
freight, and much of the money remaining was spent upon the law-suit in New
Jersey. Thus it appears to be but a hazardous venture to make merchandise of the
suffering people of God."--ED.]
IN the same year thirteen more were sent to Barbadoes.
Their names are not in the hands of the publishers, if they be at all recorded.
[Wodrow does not mention this exact number, but under November 26, 1685, he
gives an extract from the Council registers, which sentences David Paterson in
Eaglesham, William Freugh there, James Rae, Uddingston, and John Park, weaver in
Lanark, for Conventicles and refusing the Oath of Allegiance, to be banished;
and under December 9, 1685, eleven more receive the same sentence.--ED.]
ANNO 1687 [1685], three-and-twenty men and women were
sent to Barbadoes, whose names that subscribed the Joint Testimony are as
follows: John Ford, Walter M'Min, Adam Hood, John M'Gie, Peter Russel, Thomas
Jackson, Charles Dougal, James Grierson, John Harvie, James Forsyth, George
Johnson, John Steven, Robert Young, John Gilfillan, Andrew Paterson, John
Kincaid, Robert Main, James Muirhead, George Muir, John Henderson, Anaple
Jackson, Anaple Gordon, Jean Moffat.
[1687 is here, from the place in which the paragraph stands, evidently a
misprint for 1685. The compilers do not seem to have known that these were part
of the banished given to Pitlochie. The substance of the joint testimony, with
the names here given, and five others, occurs in Wodrow, and is dated from Leith
Roads. August 28, 1685, while the ship was lying there waiting orders to
sail.--ED.]
ANNO 1686 [1687], March 30,
were banished to Barbadoes, John Stewart, James Douglas, John Russel, James
Hamilton, William Hannay, George White, Gilbert MacCulloch, Thomas Brown, John
Brown, William Hay, John Wright, John Richard, Alexander Bailie, Marion Weir,
Bessie Weir, Isabel Steel, Isabel Cassils, Agnes Keir.
[In Wodrow the same names and three others occur under 1687. He says, "April
this year I find that sixteen men and five women were banished to America, and
gifted to Captain Fairn, who carried them away in Captain Croft's ship, then
lying at Leith. Their testimony they jointly signed lies before, me, and therein
they signify the reason of their sentence was, because they would not
acknowledge the present authority to be according to the Word of God, nor disown
the Sanquhar Declaration, nor engage not to hear Mr James Renwick, and conclude
with leaving their testimony against the evils of the times, and sign thus."
Then follow their names.--ED.]
References Used and Discovered
A Cloud of Witnesses for the Royal Prerogatives of Jesus Christ; or, The Last Speeches and Testimonies of Those Who Have Suffered for the Truth in Scotland, Since the Year 1680 Edinburgh, [1714].:
An example of the heroic stories of the Scottish Covenanters and their religious persecution in the seventeenth century.
Originally published 1714, with editorial notes by John H. Thomson, 1871 [noted in backets with "--ED."]. It does NOT include the list of those banished or exiled before this time, except noting a precious few after 1661. This list is also absenting the few thousand enslaved and banished by Oliver Cromwell, being mainly a mix of resolutioner Presbyterians and highland malignants who fought against Cromwell for James II - the malignants fighting out of royalism, the Presbyterians because James swore the Solemn League and Covenant.
History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland Betwixt the Restoration and the Revolution, 4 vols. Wodrow
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