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A Little More on John Law Killed at Newmilns in 1685
The OS Name Book, which was created in the 1850s, sheds a little light on John Law, a Covenanter who was killed in the assault on Newmilns Tower in late April, 1685… Newmilns Castle/Tower ‘This Castle...
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‘Prophet’ Peden and ‘Little John’ in the Bounds of Carrick in 1685
In the summer of 1685, Alexander Peden was with John Clark in Moorbrock, a fugitive and leading figure among the Society people. John Clark, aka. ‘Little John’, was from Carsphairn parish and with...
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‘The Wind of God’s Vengeance’ and ‘the Chaff’: Prophet Peden’s Carrick in 1685
Patrick Walker records a number of stories about Alexander Peden’s presence in Carrick in 1685, such as Peden being betrayed by an informer in Barr parish and hiding in the bounds of Carrick. At some...
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Prophet Peden’s Gil-Martin: James Hogg and the Covenanters
In James Hogg’s novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), Robert Wringhim, the central protagonist, is either followed by, haunted by, imagines or encounters Gil-Martin,...
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The Rigs O’ Barley, Prophet Peden and A Great Rain in 1685
Probably late in the summer of 1685, Alexander Peden was sick and hidden in a cottage in a village ‘near Cumnock’ in Ayrshire… Map of Cumnock ‘[Additional passages] 23. Lying sick in a Village near...
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Alexander Peden and the Alloway Witch
Before Robert Burns wrote Tam O’ Shanter, Alloway was associated with a witch in popular literature… At some point in 1685, perhaps in the latter half of the year, Alexander Peden encountered an...
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John Mathieson Encounters Prophet Peden in Ayrshire, 1685.
John Mathieson was one of Patrick Walker’s informants for the life of Peden. Walker and Mathieson probably knew each other from the late 1680s and from Mathieson’s service as a captain in the...
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The Lord’s Trumpet Sounding an Alarm Against Scotland by Warning of a Bloody...
Sermons are a neglected part of Scotland’s political history, but if you want to understand the Covenanters of the 1680s, there is no better place to start than with Alexander Peden’s two...
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Killed at Blackwood in 1685: The Other John Brown
The historical sources are remarkably consistent about what happened to the John Brown shot at Blackwood in Lesmahagow parish, Lanarkshire, which is probably a sign that they had little to go on...
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Glasgow Fugitives Banished in 1684
On 4 October, 1684, two proclaimed fugitives were brought before the circuit in Glasgow: ‘Peter and John Finisones in the printed fugitive roll being examined, ordered they be processed in order to...
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The Forfeited: Dumfriesshire Lairds
The following landholders in Dumfriesshire were forfeited for their part in the Bothwell Rising of 1679… It is worth noting just how few and how concentrated the Dumfriesshire lairds who joined the...
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Wanted Rebels and Traitors in Scotland in October, 1681.
In October, 1681, the privy council proclaimed a list of eighty-nine forfeited fugitives from the Presbyterian rising of 1679. (RPCS, VII, 216-8.) 45 of those listed were from Lanarkshire (Nos 1-45),...
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Christian Fyfe Declares that Charles II ‘Deserved to be Murdered’
On Sunday 19 March, 1682, Christian Fyfe entered the Old Kirk of St Giles and beat up the minister. Alexander Ramsay, at the end of his sermon. According to her confession, she went there with the...
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The Forfeited Covenanters, 1679 to 1688
In 1690, the Scottish Parliament passed an act rescinding most of the forfeitures which had taken place under the Restoration Stewart regime. The published list is not perfect. It contains minor...
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The Forfeited: Covenanters in Cumbernauld
The forfeited Covenanters of Dunbartonshire were a rare breed. Only two individuals were forfeited for their part in the Bothwell Rising of 1679. Both lived close to the march boundary of Cumbernauld...
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The Forfeited: Covenanters in Renfrewshire
Williamwood The Renfrewshire lairds did not play a significant role in the Bothwell Rising of 1679. There are no references to a body of Renfrewshire men present at the battle in the contemporary...
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Rediscovered: The Peden Stone near Auchensoul Hill
Congratulations to husband and wife team Ritchie and Lorna Conaghan who have probably rediscovered the Peden Stone near Auchensoul Hill. Reproduced by the kind permission of Ritchie and Lorna Conaghan....
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Halley’s Comet over Glasgow, 17 August, 1682.
On 17 August, 1682, a new comet appeared in the night sky over Glasgow. Its arrival and appearance was recorded by the minister of Easter Kilpatrick: ‘August 1682, did a comet appear in the north-west,...
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The Devil Attacks in Glasgow in 1684
The minister for Easter Kilpatrick reports that the presence of a suspected witch in Glasgow Tolbooth led to the Devil attacking both Covenanters and their guards in March and April, 1684: ‘March and...
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The Winter of 1682 to 1683: Comets, Crainroch and the Terrible Conjunction
And now for something completely different…the Scottish weather in the 1680s. At that time, there was more to the weather than simply a record of rainfall or the motions of the heavens… ‘January 1683....
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