LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
PRINCETON, N. J.
BX 9081 .A52 1862 c.2 Anderson, James, 1804-1863 The ladies of the Covenant
^eir
i
THE LADIES OE THE COYENANT,
THE.
LADIES OF THE GOV
MEMOIRS OF
DISTLNGUISHED SCOTTISH FEMALE CHARACTERS,
ElilSiiACISQ THE
PERIOD OF THE COVENANT AND THE PERSECUTION.
Htv. JAMES ANDERSON.
BLACKIE & SON:
FREDERICK STREET, GLASGOW; S. COLLEGE STREET, EDINBURGH;
AND PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
MDOCCLXII.
GLASGOW :
W. O. BLACKIE AST) CO., PRINTEHS,
VILLAFIELD.
PREFACE.
In collecting materials for " The Martyrs of the Bass," published some time ago in a volume entitled " The Bass Ptock," it occurred to the author, from the various notices he met with of Ladies who were distinguished for their patriotic interest or sufferings in the cause of nonconformity, during the period of the Covenant, and particularly, during the period of the persecution, that sketches of the most eminent or best known of these ladies would neither be uninteresting nor unedifying In undertaking such a work at this distance of time, he is aware of the dis- advantage under which he labours, from the poverty of the materials at his disposal, compared with the more abundant store from which a contemporary writer might have executed the same task. He, however, flatters himself that the materials which, with some industry, he has collected, are not unworthy of being brought to light; the more especially as the female biography of the days of the Covenant, and of the persecution, is a field which has been trodden by no preceding writer, and which may, therefore^ be presumed to have something of the freshness of novelty.
The facts in these Lives have been gathered from a widely- scattered variety of authorities, both manuscript and printed,
b
VI PREFACE.
From the voluminous Manuscript Kecords of the Privy Council, deposited in her Majesty's General Eegister House, Edinbm^gh, and from the Wodro\v MSS., belonging to the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinbui'gh, the author has derived much assistance. The former of these documents he was oblio:inp;ly permitted to consult by William Pitt Dundas, Esq., Depute-Clerk of her Majesty's Eegister House. And to the Wodrow MSS. he has, at all times, obtained the readiest access, through the liberality of the Curators of the Advocates' Library, and the kind attentions of the Librarians. He has also had equally ready access to such books in that invaluable Library, many of them rare and expensive, as served to illustrate his subject. In the course of the work, he has had occasion to acknowledge his obligations to several gentlemen, from whom he has obtained important information. As to some of the ladies of rank here noticed, there probably exist, in the form of letters, and other documents, materials for more fully illustrating thek lives, among the family manuscripts of their descendants, to which the author has not had access. The publication of such papers, if they exist, or of selections from such other papers as relate to the civil and ecclesiastical transactions of Scotland in the olden time, which may be lying, moth-eaten and mouldering away, in the repositories of our noble families, would furnish valuable contributions to this department of the literature of our country; and an example, in this respect, w^ell worthy of imitation, has been set by Lord Lindsay, in his very interesting work entitled, ** Lives of the Lindsays."
These Biographies it has been thought proper to precede by an Litroduction, containing various miscellaneous observations
PREFACE. ^j.
bearing on the subject, but the chief object of which is to give a general view of the patriotic interest in the cause of religion taken by the ladies of Scotland, during the period which these inquiries embrace. The Appendix consists of a number of papers illustrative of passages in the text ; some of which have been previously printed, and others of which are now printed from the originals, or from copies, for the first time.
In compiling these Memoirs it has been the aim of the author throughout to reduce within moderate limits his multifarious materials, which might easily have been spread over a much larger surface. At the same time, he has endeavoured to bring together tlief most important facts to be known from accessible " sources respecting these excellent women, and has even intro- duced a variety of minute particulars in their history, which he was at considerable, and, as some may think, unnecessary pains to discover. But he believes that careful research into minute particulars, in the lives of ladies so eminent, and who were closely connected with so important a period of the history of our church, as that of the struggles and sufi'eiings of the Scottish Covenanters in the cause of religious and civil liberty, is not to be considered as altogether unnecessary labom\ " As to some departments of history and biography," says Eoster, " I never can bring myself to feel that it is worth while to undergo all this labour; but," speaking of the English Puritans, he adds, "with respect- to tliat nolle race of saints^ of which the world will not see the like again (for in the wdllenniuni good men will not be formed and sublimed amidst persecution), it is difficult to say %cliat degree of minute investigation is too much — especially in an age in which it is the fashion to misrepresent and decry
viii PREFACE.
them." ^ This remark is equally applicable to the Scottish Covenanters. Their pre-eminent worth warrants and will re- ward the fullest investigation into their history, independent of the light which this will throw on the character and manners of their age. Of course, it is not meant to affirm that they were exalted above the errors and infirmities of humanity, or that we are implicitly to follow them in everything, whether in sentiment or in action, as if we had not as good a right to act on the great Protestant principle of judging for ourselves, as they had; or as if they had been inspired like prophets and apostles. But it may be safely asserted that, though not entitled to be ranked as perfect and inspired men, they had attained to an elevation and compass of Christian character, which would have rendered them no unmeet associates and coadjutors of prophets and apostles; and even many of their measures, ecclesiastical and civil, bore the stamp of such maturity of wisdom, as showed them to be in advance, not oidy of their own age, but even of ours, and the defeat of which measures, it may be said, without exaggeration, has thrown back the religious condition of Britain and Ireland for centuries.
J. A. Edinburgh, Sejpiemher 1850.
^ Foster's Ldfe, vol. ii. p. 127.
CONTENTS
John Car;
itairs
Introduction
Lady Anne Cunningliam, Marchioness of Hamilton Lady Boyd .......
Elizabeth Melvill, Lady Culross .
Lady Jane Campbell, Yiscountess of Kenmnre .
Lady Margaret Donglas, Marchioness of Argyll
Mrs. James Guthrie, Mrs. James Durham, and Mr:
Lady Anne, Duchess of Hamilton
Mrs. William Veitch ....
Mrs. John Livingstone, &c. Lady Anne Lindsay, Duchess of Kothes . Lady Mary Johnston, Countess of Crawford Barbara Cunningham, Lady Caldwell
Lady ColviU
Catherine Bigg, Lady Caycrs .
Isabel Alison
Marion Harvey . . , . .
Helen Johnston, Lady Graden
Lilias Dunbar, !Mrs. Campbell
Margaret M*Lauchlan and jNIargaret Wilson
Lady Anne Mackenzie, Countess of Balcarres, afterwards Countess of
Argyll
Henrietta Lindsay, Lady Campbell of Auchinbreck
Grisell Hume, Lady Baillie of Jerviswood
Lady Catherine Hamilton, Duchess of Athoil . • . .
PAGR
xiii-xxxvi
1
13
31 49 82 115 189 181 209 234 252 262 291 308 335 3E7 373 392 427
449 502 546
588,
CONTENTS.
APPENDIX.
No. I.— Letter of Mr. Robert M'Ward to Lady Ardross . . .607 II. — The Marchioness of Argyll's interview with Middleton, after
the condemnation of her husband . . . . 607 IIL — Mai'chioness of Argj'll, and her son the Earl of Argyll . . 608 IV. — Letter of !Mrs. John Cai'stairs, to her husband . . . 608 V. — Suspected Corruption of Clarendon's History . • . -609 VI. — Indictment of Isabel Alison and ^lai'ion Harvey . . 610 VII. — Apprehension of Hume of Graden, and the scuffle in which
Thomas Ker of Heyhope was killed . . . .612 VIII. — The Fiery Cross carried through the shire of INIoray in 1679 614 IX. — Desired extension of the Indulgence to Morayshire . . 617 X. — Sense in which the Covenanters refused to say " God save the
King" 620
XL — Countess of Argyll's sympathy with the Covenanters . 62!^
XII. — A Letter of the Earl of Argyll, to his Lady, in ciphers . . 622 XIII. — Extracts from a Letter of the Countess of Argj-ll, to her son
Colin, Earl of Balcarres . . . . . 623
XIV.— Sufferings of Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck . . 626
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Lady Mary, Countess of Caitliness, intetceding with Middleton
for permission to remove her Father's Head . . Fro'ntispiece . Ornamental Tailpiece ........
Ornamental Tailpiece
Janet Geddes, in St. Giles's Chnrch, Edinburgh . . , Livingstone preaching at the Kirk of Shotts . . . «
Signing the Covenant, in the Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh Ornamental Tailpiece , , . . . . ,
Blackness Castle, Linlithgowshire
Administration of the Lord's Supper in the Eields . ♦ •
Tailpiece, Bishop's Mitre
Argyll remonstrating with King Charles IT. . . , •
Tailpiece, Portcullis
Strath aven Castle, Lanarkshire ...•••
Ornamental Tailpiece
Mrs. Livingstone presenting the Petition to Lord Chancellor Rothes
Old Parliament Close, Edinburgh
Funeral Procession of the Dul<:e of Eothes ....
Ornamental Tailpiece
The Old Tolbooth, Glasgow
Lady Caldwell and her Daughter taken to Prison .... The Bass Rock, from the south ......
Lady Colvill in prison
Tailpiece, Soldier with Matchlock and Rest, time of Chai-les IL Ornamental Tailpiece ........
CargiU preaching in the Fields
Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh, in 1640
Ornamental Tailpiece
X
xii
xix
8
26
SO
83
35
81
88
114
151
180
214
218
245
261
277
279
284
301
307
834
385
855
372
Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FAOB
Lady Graden reading to Robert Baillie ia Prison .... 384
Netherbow Port, Edinburgh 386
Ornamental Tailpiece , . . . . . . . 391
Drowning of Margaret M'Lauchlan and Margaret Wilson . . .439
Ornamental Tailpiece 448
Escape of Argyll from Edinburgh Cdstie 480
The Maiden, Museum of the Scot. Soc. of Antiquaries, Edinburgh . 501
Landing of the Prince of Orange in 1688 ... . . 538
Tailpiece, Arquebusier, time of Charles II 545
Lady Grissel Baillie and Sir Patrick Hume in the Vault . .552
Ornamental Tailpiece . . . . . . . . . 587
Huntingtower Castle, Perthshire 599
Tail] icce, Thmnbkins, time of Charles 1. . . . . » 606
INTRODUCTION.
The period embraced in the following sketches is the reigns of James YI., his son, and two grand-sons, but more particularly the reigns of his two grandsons, Charles II. and James VII., the materials for illustrating the lives of such of our female worthies as lived during their reigns, being most abundant. All the ladies here sketched, whether in humble life or in exalted stations, were distinguished by their zeal, or by their sufferings in the cause of religious truth ; and it is by this zeal and these sufferings that the most of them are now best known to us. Our notices, then, it is obvious, will be chiefly historical, though not so exclusively historical as to forbid the introduction of such illustrations of the personal piety of these ladies, as time has spared ; and of such portions of their domestic history as may seem to be invested with interest, and to furnish matter of instruction.
It is first of all worthy of special notice, that the peculiar ecclesi- astical principles contended for, or sympathized with by all these ladies, were substantially the same. This arose from the circumstance that all these monarchs sought to subvert substantially the same ecclesiastical principles. Bent on the acquisition of absolute power, they avowedly and perseveringly laboured to overturn the Presby- terian government of the Scottish Church, which, from its favourable tendency to the cause of liberty, was an obstruction in their path ;
XIV INTRODUCTION TO
and to impose by force, upon the Scottish people, the prelatic hierarchy, which promised to be more subservient to their wishes. As to the means for attaining this object, all these monarchs were unprincipled and unscrupulous; and each, more degenerate than his predecessor, became, to an increasing degree, reckless in the measures he adopted. James YI., who plumed himself on his king-craft, endeavoured, by corrupting and overawing the General Assemblies of the Church, to get them to destroy their liberties, by introducing, with their own hands. Prelacy, and the ceremonies of the Anglican Church. Charles I. adopted a more bold, direct, and expeditious course, attempting to impose a book of canons* and a liturgy by his sole authority, without consulting any church judicatory whatever, in which, however, he failed of success, his tyranny issuing in the triumph of the cause he intended to destroy. Charles II., following in the steps of his father, proceeded, on his restoration, to establish Prelacy on the ruins of Presbytery in like manner by his sole authority; and, having more in his power than his father, to enforce conformity by the exaction of fines, by imprisonment, banishment, torture, public executions, and massacres in the fields. James YII., who went even further than his brother, father, or grandfather, at- tempted to exercise absolute power in a more unmitigated form than they had ever done, and determined, what none of them had ventured to do, to make Popery the established religion throughout his doaiinions. And in this infatuated course he obstinately perse- vered, till he alienated from him the great body of his subjects of all ranks, and, till after a short reign of three years, he was driven from his throne. Thus, the same ecclesiastical principles being' assailed by all these monarchs, the testimony of our Presbyterian ancestors, under aU their reigns, was substantially the same. The great principles for which they contended may be reduced to these three, from which all the rest flow as corollaries : fii'st, That Christ is the
THE LADIES OP THE COVENANT. XV
alone King and Head of his church, having the alone right to appoint her form of government ; secondly, That Presbytery is the only form of church government which he has instituted in his Word ; and thirdly. That the church is free in her government from every other jurisdiction, except that of Christ. These principles, all the ladies sketched in this volume either maintained or sympathized with ; and many of them suffered much in their behalf. During the whole extent of the period we have embraced, there is evidence of the existence of a public religious spirit among the women of Scotland, and as we advance downward, we find this spirit becoming more generally diffused.
In the reign of James YI., ladies in every station of life warmly espoused the cause of the ministers who opposed the monarch in his attempts to establish Prelacy. Some of them even wielded the pen in the cause with no small effect. The wives of 'Mr. James Lawson and j\Ir. Walter Balcanquhal, ministers of Edinburgh, wrote vigorously in defence of their husbands, who had been compelled to fly to Eng- land for having publicly condemned in their sermons the black ads, as they were called, of the servile Parliament of 1684, by which Presbytery was overthrown, and the liberties of the church laid at the feet of the King. They boldly entered the lists with Patrick Adamson, Archbishop of St. Andrews, who had written in condem- nation of the conduct of their husbands, and answered him in a long paper, exposing with energy, acuteness, and success, the falsehood of his assertions and the imbecility or fallacy of his reasonings ; treating him at the same time with little ceremony. As to the old and common reproach, they say, against God's servants — troublers of common- wealths, rebels against princes, irreverent speakers against those in authority, they may bear witli it, since their Master was similarly reproached, yea, was even accused of speaking by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. " We will say but this much shortly," thej
XVi INTEODUCTION TO
add, "as Elias said to Ahab, 'It is tliou and thy father's house that trouble Israel.' It is thou and the remnant of you, pharisaical prelates, because ye are not throned up in the place of popes that would mix heaven and earth, ere the pomp of your prelacies decay." * The power of this defence may be estimated from the irritation which it caused the prelate, and from the manner in which he met it. So completely had " the weaker vessel " pinned him, that though he " haid manie grait giftes, bot specialie excellit in the toung and pen,*' * he shrunk from encountering these spirited females with their own weapons, and, skulking behind the throne, directed against them the 'thunderbolt of a royal proclamation, which charged them instantly, under pain of rebellion, to leave their manses. This they accordingly did, selling their household furniture, and delivering the keys of their manses to the magistrates. By the same proclamation, several other ladies of respectability, who are described as " worse aiPected to the obedience of our late acts of parliament," are commanded, undei the same pains, "to remove from the capital, and retire beyond the water of Tay, till they give farther declaration of their disposition."' The ardent and heroic attachment to the cause of Presbytery displayed by Mrs. Welsh, the wife of ^Ir. John Welsh, minister of Ayr, and the wives of the other live ministers, who, with him, were tried at Linlithgow in 1606, on a charge of high treason, for holding a General Assembly at Aberdeen in July the preceding year, is also worthy of special notice. When informed that a verdict of guilty was brought in by a corrupt jury — a verdict which inferred the penalty of death, " instead of lamenting their fate, they praised God, who had given their husbands courage to stand to the cause of their Master, adding, that like him, they had been judged and
1 Caldeiwood's Histon', vol. iv. p. 127. ^ James Melville's Diary, p. 293.
* » M'Crie'8 Life of Melville, voL i. p. 327.
THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT. xvii
condemned under covert of night." ' Of these ladies, J^Irs. Welsh, who was the daughter of our illustrious Eeforraer, John Knox,^ is best
> M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. ii. p. 271.
« Her name wa« Elizabeth. She was his third and youngest daughter by his second wife, Margaret Stewai-t, daughter of Lord Ochiltree, a nobleraan of amiable dispositions, and his steady friend under all circumstance?. A curious anecdote connected with Knox's marriage to Lord Ochiltree's daughter is contained in a letter written by Mr. Robert Millar, minister of Paisley, to Wodrow, the historian of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, dated November 15, 1722; and, as it has never before been printed, it may here be inserted: — "Mr. John Campbell, minister at Cra^ie," says Mr. Millar, "told me this story of Mr. Knox's marriage, so far as I mind it. I John Knox, before the light of the Reformation broke up, travelled among several honest lamihes in the West of Scotland, who were con- verts to the Protestant reU.-iou, particularly he visited oft Stewart, Lord Ochiltree's family, preacliing the gospel privately to those who were willing to receive it. The Lady and some of the faniily were converts ; her ladyship had a chamber, table, stool, and candlestick for the prophet, and one night about supper, says to him, * Mr. Knox, I think you are at a loss by want of a wife;' to which he said, 'Madam, I think nobody will take such a wanderer as I;' to which slie replied, 'Sir, if that be your objection, I'll make inquiry to find an answer 'gainst our next meeting.' The Lady accordingly addressed herself to her eldest daughter, telling her she might be very happy if she could maiTy Mr. Knox, who would be a great Reformer, and a credit to tlie church; but she despised the proposal, hoping her ladyship wished her better than to marry a poor wanderer. Tlie Lady addressed herself to her second daughter, who answered as the eldest. Then the Lady spoke to her third daughter, about nineteen years of age, who very frankly said, * Madam, I'll be very willing to marry him, but I fear he'll not take me ;' to which the Lady replied, * If that be ail your objection, I'll soon get you an answer.' Next night, at supper, the Lady said to Mr. Knox, ' Sir, I have been considering upon a wife to you, and find one very willing.' To which Knox said, * Who is it. Madam?' She answered, 'My young daughter sitting by you at table.' Then, addressing himself to the young lady, he said, * My bird, are you willing to marry me ? ' She answered, ' Yes, Sir, only I tear you'll not be willing to take me.' He said, ' My bird, if you be willing to take me, you must take your venture of Grod's providence, as I do. I go tlirough the country sometimes on my foot, with a wallet on my arm, a shirt, a clean band, and a Bible in it ; you may put some things in it for yourself, and if I bid you take the wallet, you must do it, and go where I go, and lodge where I lodge.* * Sir,' says she, ' I'll do all this.' ' Will you be as good as your word r ' * Yes, I will.' Upon which, the marriage was concluded, and she lived happily with him, and had several children by him. She went with him to Geneva, and, as he was ascending a hill, as there are many near that place, she got up to the top of it before him, and took the wallet on her arm, and, sitting down, said, ' Now, goodman, am not I as good as my word?' She afterwards lived with him when he was minister at Edinburgh." " I am told," adds Mr. Millar, " that one of that Lady Ochiltree's daughters, a sister of John Knox's wife, was married to ITiomas Millar of Temple, one of my prede- cessors.'*—Letters to Wodrow, vol, xix. 4to, no. 197.
XVlll INTRODUCTION TO
known. The curious interview which took place between her and King James, when she petitioned him for permission to her husband to return to his native country for the benefit of his health,^ must be too familiar to our readers to be here repeated.
Among the ladies of rank who, in the reign of James VI., were distinguished for their piety and devotedness to the liberties of the church, were Lady Lilias Graham, Countess of Wigton, to whom Mr. John Welsh, who intimately knew her, wrote that famous letter from Blackness Castle which has been repeatedly printed and often admired;^ Lady Anne Livingstone, Countess of Eglintoa who, " although bred at court, yet proved a subdued and eminent Christian, and an encourager of piety and truth ;"^ Lady Margaret Livingstone, Countess of Wigton, the friend and patron of Mr. John Livingstone, and whom, together with the two preceding, he classes among "the professors in the Church of Scotland of his acquaintance, who were eminent for grace and gifts ;" and, omitting many others, Lady Margaret Cunningham (sister to the Marchion- ess of Hamilton), who was married, first to Sir James Hamilton of Evandale, secondly to Sir James Maxwell of Calderwood ; a lady, whom Robert Boyd, in recording her death, which took place about September 1623, describes as "that virtuous lady, equal, if not beyond any I have known in Scotland," " a woman of an excellent spirit, and many crosses through her whole life," "diligent and active, and a fearer of God." *
In the reign of Charles I., a public-spirited interest in the cause of religious and ecclesiastical freedom prevailed still more among women of all classes in our country. Those in the humbler ranks
* Welsh, and the other ministers had been banished the King's dominions for life.
* Select Biographies printed for the Wodrow Society, vol. L p. 18. 3 Ibid., vol. i. p. 347.
« Wodrow's Life of Boyd, printed for the Maitland Club, p. 266.
THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT. ^^^
became famous for their resolute opposition to the reading of the "black service-book," which was to be read for the first time by the Dean of Edinburgh in the Old Church of St. Giles, on Sab- bath, July 23, 1G37. To witness the scene, an immense crowd of people had assembled, and among the audience were the Lord Chan- cellor, the liords of the privy council, the judges and bishops. At the stated hour, the Dean ascended the reading-desk, arrayed in his surplice, and opened the service-book. But no sooner did he begin to read, than the utmost confusion and uproar prevailed. The in- dignation of the people was roused ; " Ealse antichristian," " wolf," "beastly-bellied god," "crafty fox," "ill-hanged thief," were some of the emphatic appellations which came pouring in upon him from VB. hundred tongues, and which told him that he occupied a some- ■ what perilous position. But the person whose fervent zeal was most conspicuous on that occasion, was a humble female who kept a cabbage-stall at the Tron Kirk, and who was sitting near the reading-desk. Greatly excited at the Dean's presumption, this - female, whose name was Janet Geddes — a name familiar in Scotland as a househt)ld word, exclaimed, at the top of her voice, " Yiliain, dost thou say mass at my lug?" and suiting the action to the word, launched the cutty stool on which she had been sitting at his head, "intending," as a contemporary writer remarks, "to have given him a ticket of remembrance, but jouking became his safeguard at that time."' The same writer adds, "The church was imme- diately emptied of the most part of the congregation, and the doors
* " The immortal Jenet Geddis," as she is styled in a pamphlet of the period [Edin- burgh's Joy, &c., 1661], survived long after her heroic onslaught on the Dean of Edinburgh. She kept a cabbage-stall at the Tron Kirk, as late as 1661. She is specially mentioned in the Mercuruis Caledonius, a newspaper published immediately after the Restoration, as having taken a prominent share lq the rejoicings on the coronation of Charles II. in 1661. See Wilson's Memorials of Edinburgh in the Oiden Time, vol. i, pp. 93, 93, and vol. ii. p. 30.
XX INTRODUCTION TO
thereof barred afc commandment of the secular power. A good Chris- tian woman, much desirous to remove, perceiving she could get no passage patent, betook herself to her Bible in a remote corner of the church. As she was there stopping her ears at the voice of popish charmers, whom she remarked to be very headstrong in tlie public practice of their antichristian rudiments, a young man sitting be- hind her began to sound forth, 'Amen.' At the hearing thereof she quickly turned her about ; and, after she had warmed both his cheeks with the weight of her hands, she thus shot against him the thun- derbolt of her zeal : — ' False thief,' said she, ' is there no other part of the kirk to sing mass in, but thou must sing it at my lug ?' The young man being dashed with such a hot unexpected rencounter, gave place to silence in sign of his recantation. I cannot here omit a worthy reproof given at the same time by a trnly religious matron ; for, when she perceived one of Ishmael's mocking daughters to deride her for her fervent expressions in behalf of her heavenly Master, she thus sharply rebuked her with an elevated voice, saying, * Woe be to those that laugh when Zion mourns.' " '
At that period the gentler sex were particularly unceremonious towards turn-coat or time-serving ministers. Baillie gives a very graphic account of the treatment Mr. William Annan, the prelatic minister of Ayr, met with from the women of Glasgow: ''At the outgoing of the church, about thirty or forty of our honestesf women, in one voyce, before the bishope and magistrats, did fall in rayling, cursing, scolding, with clamours, on Mr. William Annan ; some two of the meanest were taken to the Tolbooth. All the day over, up and down the streets wliere he went, he got threats of sundry in
* *' Brief and True Eelation of tlie Broil wliicli fell out on the Lord's day, the 23d of July, 1637, throuj^h the occasion of a black, popish, and superstitious Service-Book, which was then illegally introduced and impudently vented within the Churclies of Edinburgh ;" published August thereafter. Printed in Rothes's Relation, &c.. Appendix, pp. 19B, 199.
THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT. xxi
words and looks; but after supper, ^yheIl needlesslie he will goe to visit the bisliope, he is no sooner on the causej, at nine o'clock on a week night, with three or four ministers with him, bot some hundreds of inragecl women of all qualities are about him, with neaves, and staves, and peats, but no stones; they beat hira sore; his cloak, ru£F, hatt, were rent ; however, upon Ids cries, and candles set out from many windows, he escaped all bloody wounds; yet he was in great danger even of killing''' ^
In this, and in some other instances, the indignation of the " honest women" of those days at renegade or persecuting clergymen may have carried them somewhat beyond the bounds of moderation. On other occasions, acting more decorously, they assembled peace- ably together to petition the Government for liberty to the noncon- forming ministers to preach wherever they were called or had opportunity.^ And, though precluded from bearing a part in public debates, they contemplated with the deepest interest those ecclesiastical movements, which, guided by men of great talents, firmness, and spiiit, issued in the glorious triumph of the church over the attemxpts of the court to enslave her. Nor was this interest limited to women in the humbler and middle classes of society. The baronesses, the countesses, the marchionesses, and the duchesses of the day partook of it, and encouraged their hus- bands and their sons to stand by the church in her struggles for freedom, regardless of the frowns and the threats of power. The zeal with which the Marchioness of Hamilton, Lady Boyd, and Lady Culross, maintained the good cause, appears from the brief notices of their lives which have been transmitted to our time, and to these might be added the names of other ladies in high life, many of whom would doubtless have gladly subscribed the
' Baillie's Letters and Journals, vol. i. p. 21. ' See p 213.
G
XXU INTRODUCTION TO
National Covenant of 1638, bad it been tbe practice for ladies to subscribe tbat document.^
In tbe reign of Cbaiies II., tbe fidelity of tbe Presbyterians was put to a more severe test tban it bad ever been before. Charles became a ruthless persecutor. Inclining at one time, in matters of religion, to Popery, and at another to Hobbism, it ^as natural for liim to persecute. Popery, the true antichrist, which puts enmity in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman, is essentially persecuting. Hobbism, which maintains that virtue and vice are created by the will of the civil magistrate, and that the king's conscience is the standard for all tbe consciences of his subjects, just as the great clock rules all the lesser clocks of tbe town, is no less essentially persecuting. T\^ether, then, Charles is considered as a Papist or as a Hobbist, he was prompted by his creed to persecute. In addition to this, it is to be observed, that the Presbyterian Church of Scotland had excited his irreconcilable hatred, not only from its being unfriendly to despotism, but from
1 Many of the subscribed copies ot the National Covenant, as sworn at that period, have been carefully examined by David Laing, Esq., Signet Library; and, from the absence of the names of ladies, it appears not to have been customaiy for ladies to swear and sub- scribe it. In describing some of the numerous copies of that Covenant, signed in different parts of the country in 1638, he, however, took notice, some time ago, in a communication to the Society of Antiquaries, of one in the So(;iety's Museum, which seems to be quite pecuhar in having the names of several ladies. Prom the notorial attestations en the back of a great many persons, in the parish of IMaybole, who adliered to the Covenant, but were unable to write, he inferred that this copy iiad been signed in that district of Ayrshire. In the fii'st line of the signatures towards the right-hand side, along with the names of Montrose, Lothian, Loudoun, and Cassilhs, are those of Jeane Hamilion, evi- dently the sister of the Marquis of HaraUton, and wife of the Earl of Cassilhs— and of Margaret Kennedy, their daughter, who afterwards became the wife of Bishop Burnet. Lower down, towards the riglit hand of tlie pai-chment, are tlie names of other ladies, who cannot now be so readily identihed— Margaret Stewart, Jeane Stewart, Grizil Blair, Isabill GimiJl, Helene Kennedy, Elizabeth Hewatt, Anna Stewart, Elizabeth Stewart, Dame Helene Bennett and Janet I'ergusone. For the information contained in thia note I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Laing, whose extensive acquaintance with Scottish history is so much at the senice of others.
THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT. XXIU
its strict discipline, the experience of wliicli, in early life, had made a lasting impression on bis mind. All these things being considered, the motives inducing his determination, a determination from which he never swerved, to destroy the Scottish Presbyterian Churcii, are easily explained. To assist him in this work, a set of n^en, both statesmen and churchmen, pre-eminently unprincipled, of whom Middleton, Lauderdale, and Sharp, may be considered as the representatives, were at his service. Many of these had sworn the Solemn League and Covenant, and had been zealous for it in the palmy days when its champions walked in silver slippers. But they were too worldly-wise to strive against wind and tide. They were in fact just such men as Bunyan describes in his Pilgrim's Progress, My Lord Turn-about, My Lord Time-server, Mr. Pacing-both-ways, Mr. Anything, Mr. Two-tongues, Mr. Hold-the-world, Mr. Money- love, and Mr. Save-all. Such servile agents, it is evident, were in no respect actuated, in persecuting the Presbyterians, by motives of conscience, as some persecutors have been, but solely by cor- rupted and interested views. Had the King changed his religion every half year, they would have changed theirs, and have been equally zealous in persecuting all who refused to make a similar change.
But this fiery ordeal, the faith, the devotedness, and the heroism of the pious women of Scotland stood. We find them, in every station of life, maintaining their fidelity to their conscientious con- victions in the midst of severe sufferings. With the ejected mini- sters they deeply sympathized ; and their sympathy with them they testified in many ways ; nor did they feel, or show much respect to, the intruded curates. This was true even as to the more ignorant of women in the lower ranks. Many of this class signalized themselves by their opposition to the intrusion of the curates, as in Irongray, where a body of them boldly assailed a party of the King's guard.
XXIV INTRODrCTIOX TO
who came to that parish with the view of promoting the intrusion of a curate into the place of their favourite ejected minister, Mr. John TTelsh. "A party with some messengers," says Mr. John Blackadder, "was sent with a curate, to intimate that another curate was to enter the kirk for their ordinary. Some women of the parish hearing thereof before, placed themselves in the kirkyard, and furnished themselves with their ordinary weapons of stones, whereof they gathered store, and thus, when the messengers and party of rascals with swords and pistols came, the women so main- tained their ground, defending themselves under the kirk dyke, that, after a hot skirmish, the curate, messengers, and party without, not presuming to enter, did at length take themselves to retreat, with the lionourable blae marks they had got at that conflict."* Nor was this by any means a singular case ; for the same writer adds, " Many such affronts did these prelates' curates meet with in their essays to enter kirks after that manner, especially by women, wliicb was a testimony of general dislike and aversion to submit to them as their ministers." In a similar way does Kirkton speak. After stating that " the first transgressors of tliis kind were (as I remem- ber) the poor people of Irongray,*' and that "the next offenders were in Kirkcudbright, where some ten women were first incarcerate in Edinburgh, and thereafter set with papers on their heads," he goes on to say, " but these were followed by, I believe, a hundred congregations up and down the country, though the punishment became banishment to America, cruel whipping, and heavy fines.'* He, however, at the same time adds, " These extravagant practices of the rabble were no way approvcn by the godly and judicious Presbyterians ; yea, they were ordinarily the actions of the profane and ignorant; but I think they were enough to demonstrate to the
* Blackadder's Memoirs, MS. copy in Advocates' Library,
THE I^VDIES OF THE COVENANT. XXV
world what respect or aiFection the curates should find among their congregations." '
This favourable disposition to the suffering cause was not, however, limited to ignorant women in the lower ranks. It was partaken of more largely, and displayed more intelligently, by tlie great body of tcell-informed women, in the lower and middle ranks, and even by many of them in the higher, to some of wliom the reader is intro- duced in this volume. At field meetings they were often present. " Not many gentlemen of estates," says Kii'kton, " dui'st come, but many ladies, gentlewomen, and commons, came in great multitudes." ^ The agents appointed by the Government throughout the country, for putting in execution the laws for suppressing conventicles and other " ecclesiastical disorders," had upon all occasions represented to the privy council that women were "the chief fomenters of these disorders." ^ Besides supporting the persecuted cause of Presbytery themselves, these ladies, by their intelligent piety and firmness of mind, had a powerful influence in infusing the principles of nonconformity into their husbands, and in sustaining on many occasions their wavering resolution. Archbishop Sharp complained heavily of this, and it gave peculiar energy and bitterness to his hatred of Presbyterian women, whom he was in the habit of branding with every term of opprobrium and contempt. Li a letter to a lady, who acquired notoriety in her day by the vigorous suppression of conventicles, and of whom we shall afterwards speak more par- ticularly,* he says, " I am glad to find your husband, a gentleman
1 Kirkton's History, pp. 162, 163.
^ Ibid., pp. 352, 353. *' A vast multitude," says the editor of Kirkton, "of the female sex in Scotlaud, headed by women of liigli rank, such as the Duchess of Hamilton, Ladies Rothes, Wigton, Loudon, Colvill, &c., privately encouraged or openly followed the field preachers."
2 Register of Acts of Frivy Council, January 23, 163i.
< This was Anne Keith, a daughter of Keith of Benholm (brother to Earl Mari-
XXVI INTRODUCTION TO
noted for his loyalty to the King, and affection to the church, is so happy as to have a consort of the same principles and inclinations for the public settlement, who has given proof of her aversion to join in society with separatists, and partaking of that sin, to which so many of that sex do tempt their husbands in this evil time, when schism, sedition, and rebellion, are gloried in, though Christianity does condemn them as the greatest crimes." ^
The unyielding steadfastness displayed by so many of the women of Scotland in the cause of nonconformity, was a perplexing case to the Government. Imprisonment they saw would not remedy the evil, for they could not find prisons to hold a tithe of those who were guilty. The method they adopted in making the husband responsible for the religious sentiments of his wife, and in punishing him, though a conformist himself, for her nonconformity, if not more effectual, proved, as may easily be conceived, a prolific source of domestic contention and misery. "Many husbands here," says a writer of that period, in relating the sufferings of Galloway and Nithsdale, ia 1GG6, "who yield to the full length, are punished by finiDg, cess, and quarter, for their wives' non-obedience, and ye know. Sir, that it is hard. There are many wives who will not be commanded by their husbands in lesser things than this; but I must tell you this hath occasioned much contention, fire, and strife in families, and brought it to this height, that some wives are forced to flee from their husbands, and forced to seek a shelter elsewhere, and so the poor good man is doubly punished for all his conformity." ^ Another writer of that period also says, " TVhen these
Bcliall), and, by the courtesy of the time, styled Lady Methven, her hushand beiug Patrick Smith of Methveu. Sharp's letter to her is dated St. Andrews, March 27, 1G79.
1 Kirkton's History, pp. 355-361.
' Wodrow MSS., vol. xxvii, 4to, no. 6.
THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT. >^^vu
delatiug courts ' came through the country, hubbauus were engaged to bring their wives to the courts, and to the kirk, or to put them away, and never to own them again, which many of them did. So after the women had wandered abroad, and when they came liome again, their husbands and other relations took them by force to the kii'k. Some of them fell a sound when they were taken off the horses' backs; others of them gave a testimony that enraged the curate."^ Pinding, after the persecution had continued for more than twenty years, that tlie zeal of the ladies against Prelacy was by no means abated, and that the methods hitherto adopted in meeting the evil had proved singularly unsuccessful, the Government came to the resolution of meeting it by severely fining the husbands of such ladies as withdrew from their parisb churches. Such a punish- ment, they imagined, was better calculated than any other, to strike terror and to make husbands active in their endeavours to persuade their wives to attend the church. Many husbands were thus fined in heavy sums for their wives' irregularities. The case of Sir TTilliam Scot of Harden was very severe. His wife, Christian Boyd, sixth daughter of Lady Boyd, who is noticed in this volume, having declined to attend the curate. Sir William was on that account fined by the privy council in November 1683, in the sum of £1500 sterling,^ and long imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh. He was forced to compromise and pay the fine, which in those days was an enormous sum. He desired the privy council to relieve him of responsibility for his wife's delinquencies in future, as she would on
^ Tliese were circuit courts, held in various parts of the country, for discovering and punishing nonconformists.
2 An account of tlie Sufferings in Tunnergirtli and other parishes in Annan, Wodrow MSS., vol. xxxvii, 4to, no. 14.
3 Eountainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 2i3.
XXVlll rNTHODUCTIOX TO
that husbands were to be accounted masters of their wives de pire^ whatever might be the case de facto. Lady Scot was under the necessity of leaving her husband, and she retired into England, and died at Newcastle. '
But the making husbands responsible for the conformity of their wdves, and thus throwing a bone of contention into families, was only a small part of the sufferings endured by many nonconforming women of that period, on account of their principles. The sufferings of a few, and only a few of them are recorded in this volume. None of our female worthies were indeed subjected to the torture of the boot, or of the thumbscrew, though some of them wxre threatened with the former punishment.^ But they were cruelly tortured in other ways. In the parish of Auchinleck, a young woman, for refusing the oath of abjuration, had her finger burned with fire-matches till the white bone appeared. In the same parish. Major White's soldiers took a young woman in a house, and put a fiery coal into the palm of her hand, to make her tell what was asked her.^ Hundreds of women were fined in large sums of money. Hundreds of them were imprisoned. Hundreds of them were banished to his Majesty's plantations, and discharged from ever returning to this kingdom, under the pain of death, to be inflicted on them witliout mercy ; and before being shipped off, thej
1 Wodrow MSS., vol. xl. folio, no. 3.
* ^Irs. Crawford, Mrs. Kello, a rich widoiiv, and Mrs. Duncan, a minister's widow, were so tlueatened. After Mitchell's attemjjt on the hfe of Archbishop Sharp, they were imprisoned, under suspicion of knowing who the intended assassin was, and, on being brought before the Council, and strictly interrogated concerning houses that lodged WTiigs or kept conventicles, or if they knew the name of the assassin, they were, on refusing to answer, threatened with the b(,ot; and tlie last of these ladies would one day have actually endured the torture, had it not been for the Duke of Rothes, who told the Council that it was not proper for gentlewomen to wear boots. — Kirkton's History, pp. 283, 234. Dalziel also threatened Marion Harvey with the boot.
3 Wodrow MSS,, vol, ?xxvii. 4to, no. 1. This paper was communicated to Wodro'-v by Mr. Alexander Shields.
THE LA.DIES OF THE COVENANT. XXIX
were in many cases burned on the cheek, by the hands of tlie hang- man, with a red-hot iron; while some of them, being too old to banish, after lying in prison till their persecutors were weary of confining them, and grudged the expense of supporting them, were whipped, burned on the cheek, and dismissed.* Hundreds of them, to escape imprisonment, banishment, and other hardships, were under the necessity of leaving their houses in the cold winter season, and of lodging in rocks and caves, amidst frost and snow. And not to mention those women who were put to cruel deaths, hundreds more, even when the hostility of the Government was not directed against themselves personally, were greatly tried, from the sufferings to which their husbands, from theii' opposition to, or noncompliance with, the oppressive measures of the Government, were subjected. In how many instances, while the husband was compelled to flee for safety, did the wife suffer the execrable barbarity of savage troopers, who, visiting her house, would abuse and threaten her in the very spirit and language of hell, seize upon her corn and meal, and throw them into the dunghill, or otherwise destroy them, plunder her of her poultry, butter, cheese, and bed- clothes, shoot or carry away her sheep, and cattle, reducing her and her family to great distress ! If the husband was fined, intercom- muned, imprisoned, tortured, banished, forfeited in life and property, or put to death, the wife suffered; and who can calculate the mental agony, and temporal privations, which many a wife with her children then experienced, in consequence of the injustice and cruel- ties perpetrated upon her husband? Such vfere the sufferings endured for conscience sake during that dark period, by thousands of the tender sex in our unhappy country.
Never, indeed, did a severer period of trial pass over the Church
^ Register of Acts of Privy Council, July 1-i, 1685.
XXX INTRODUCTIOX TO
of Scotland, than during the persecution. Previously she had fought, with various success, many a battle against kings and statesmen. But even when she had sustained defeat, she again mustered her forces, ctnd by persevering effort recovered the ground she had lost. During the persecution it was different. It was all disaster. She was not indeed destroyed, which was what her enemies aimed at. But she was laid prostrate, a bleeding and a helpless victim. All she could do was to exercise constancy, patience, and fortitude, under the fury of her enemies. Had the period of suffering been of short duration, these graces it would have been easier to exercise. But it lasted for nearly a whole generation. It was " The Twenty-eight years' Conflict," and a conflict of a very different sort from " The Ten years' Conflict" of our own day. The latter was running with the footmen in the land of peace; the former was contending with horses in the swelling of Jordan.
It is extremely gratifying to And that our country-women, who submitted to such sufferings in the cause of Presbytery, were generally distinguished for sincere and enlightened piety. Apart from this, knowledge, zeal, courage, and self-sacrifice, even to the death, are of little estimation in the sight of God, and of little advantage to the possessor. " Though I give my body . to be burned, and have not charity (love), it profiteth me nothing." But this charity, this love in its most extensive sense, embracing both God and man, was the predominating element in the character of those of whom we now speak. Their piety was indeed the true reason, and not obstinacy or fanaticism, as their enemies calum- niously affirmed, why they submitted to suffer what they did for matters of religion. The fear of God, and respect to his authority, were their governing principles; and so long as these principles lield the sway in their understandings, consciences, and hearts, they
THE LADIES OP THE COVENANT. XX \ I
could not, at the bidding of any man, renounce what they believed to be the truth of God, and profess as truth what they believed to be a lie, whatever it miglit cost them. Nor were the perse- cutors ignorant of the fact, that the sufferers were generally distin- guished for godliness. They knew it well, and resembling in disposition the first murderer Cain, who was of the wicked one, and slew bis brother, because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous, it was chiefly this which prompted them to hate and murder their inoffensive victims. So well did they know it, that they regarded irreligion or profanity as sufficient to clear a man or woman of all suspicion of the taint of Presbyterianism. As a proof of this, we may quote the following passage from Kirkton's history, in reference to what took place in the parish of "Wistoun, in Clydesdale: — "The church," says he, "being vacant, and a curate to enter, the people rose in a tumult, and with stones and batons chased the curate and his company out of the field. A lady in that parish was blamed as a ringleader in the tumult, and brought before the council; she came to the bar, and after her libel was read, the chancellor asked if these accusations were true or not? She answered briefly. The devil one word was true in them. The councillors looked one upon another; and the chancellor replied, *AYell, madam, I adjourn you for fifteen days ;' which never yet had an end, and there her persecution ended ; such virtue there was in a short curse, fully to satisfy such governors, and many thought it good policy to demonstrate themselves to be honest profane people, that they might vindicate themselves of the dangerous suspicion of being Presbyterians." '
In our sketches we have included several ladies, who, though not sufferers during the persecution, either in their own persons or in
^ Kirkton's History, pp. 354, 355.
XXXU INTRODUCTION TO
tlieir friends, sympathized with and relieved the sufferers. Nor was it only from such ladies as the Duchess of Hamilton, the Duchess of Rothes, and others who favoured the persecuted principles, that the evil-entreated Covenanters met with sympathy and relief, but even from many ladies, who, though not attached to the Presbyterian cause themselves, were enemies to intolerance and persecution. Many of the wanderers could bear the same testimony to the gene- rosity and humanity of woman, which is borne by a celebrated traveller:^ "To a w^oman," says he, "I never addressed myself, in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. If I was hungry or thirsty, wet or sick, they did not hesitate, like men, to perform a generous action. In so free and kind a manner did they contribute to my relief, that if I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught; and if hungry, I ate the coarsest morsel with a double relish." Of this, so numerous were the ex- amples that were constantly occurring during the persecution, as to corroborate the evidence upon which the poet ^ pronounces com- passion, as peculiarly characteristic of the female heart : —
•* Wlierever grief and want retreat. In woman tliey compassion find; She makes the female breast her seat, And dictates mercy to the mind.'*
But true as this eulogium on the female character may be in the main, instances are to be met with, in which even the heart of woman has become steeled against every humane feeling ; and such instances, though happily of rare occurrence, were to be met with during the period of the persecution. The Countess of Perth was one of these instances. Her treatment of the wife of Alexander Hume, portioner of Hume, in the close of the year 1GS2, was revolt-
1 Mr. Ledyaid. « Crabhe.
THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT. XXXUl
ingly atrocious. Mr. Hume was a nonconformist and though nothing criminal was proved against him, he was condemned to die at the market-cross of Edinburgh upon the 29th of December. He was offered his life if he would take the test, which he refused to do. By the interest of his friends at court, a remission was, however, procured from the King, which came down to Edinburgh four or five days before his execution ; but it was kept up by the Earl of Perth, a relentless persecutor, who was then chancellor. On the day of Hume's execution, his wife went to the chancellor's lady, and begged her, in such moving terms as might have softened even a cold and hard heart, to interpose for her husband's life, urging that she had five small children. But the heart of the Countess was harder than the nether millstone. She had no more feeling for the afflicted wife and her children than if they had been so many brute beasts. Not only did she refuse to comply with her prayer, but with infernal cruelty, barbed and venomed the refusal with language so coarsely savage, as is hardly to be repeated. Her answer was, ** I have no more regard to you than to a bitch and five whelps." *
Lady Methven, formerly referred to, is another instance. To put down a large field conventicle on her husband's ground, she boldly mai'ched forth, armed vntli a gun and sword, at the head of her vassals, swearing by the God of heaven, that she would sooner sacrifice her life, than allow the rebellious Whigs to hold their rebellious meeting on his ground. But this intrepid energy, for which the enemies of the Covenanters have held her up as a heroine, was nothing more than animal courage, the mere effect of iron nerves. From her letters, it is evident, if we are to judge from the oaths with which they are interlarded, that she was a profane godless woman ; and it is no less evident from them, that inveterate malignity
» Her answer is not recorded in Wodrow's History (vol. iii. p. 417) but it is given in his "MSS., vol xxx\u, 4Lo, no. 31.
XXxiv INTRODUCTION TO
to the Covenanters was her impelling principle. In a letter to lier husband, then at London with the Marquis of Montrose, dated !Methven Wood, October 15, 1678, she thus describes her exploits : — "My Peeciotjs Love, — A multitude of men and women, from east, west, and south, came the 13 day of this October to hold a field conventicle, two bows'-draught above our church; they had their tent set up before the sun upon your ground. I seeing them flocking to it, sent through your ground, and charged them to repair to your ba^other David, the bailie, and me, to the Castle Hall, where we had but 60 armed men : your brother with drawn sword and bent pistol, I with the light horseman's piece bent, on my left arm, and a drawn tuck in my right hand, all your servants well armed, marched for- ward, and kept the one half of them fronting with the other, that were guarding their minister and their tent, which is their standard. That near party that we yoked with, most of them were St. John- ston's * people ; many of them had no will to be known, but rode off to see what we would do. They marched toward Busbie: we marched be-west them and gained ground, before they could gather in a body. They sent off a party of an hundred men to see what we meant, to hinder them to meet ; we told them, if they would not go from the parisli of Methven presently, it should be a bluddie day ; for I protested, and your brother, before God, we would ware our lives upon them before they should preach in our regallitie or parish. They said they would preach. We charged them either to fight or fly. They drew to a council amongst themselves what to do; at last, about two hours in the afternoon, they would go away if we would let the body that was above the church, with the tent, march freely after them ; we were content, knowing they were ten times as many as we were, and our advantage was keeping the one half a mile from the other, by marching in order betwixt them. They seeing we
* Perth.
THE LADIES OF THE COVENA^'T. XXXV
were desperate, marched our the Pow, and so we weut to the church, and heard a feared minister preach. They have sworn not to stand with such an affront, but resolve to come the next Lord's day ; and I, ill the Lord's strength, intend to accost them with all that will come to assist us. I have caused your officer warn a solemn court of vassals, tenants, and all within our power, to meet on Thnrsday, where I intend, if God will, to be present, and there to order them, in God and our King's name, to convene well armed to the kirkyard on Sabbath morning by eight hours, where your brother and I, wi)^ all our servant men, and others we can make, shall march to them, and, if the God of heaven will, tliey shall either fight or go out of
our parish.' My blessed love, comfort yourself in this, that,
if the fanatics should chance to kill me, it shall not be for nought. 1 was wounded for our gracious King, and now, in the strength of the Lord God of heaven, I'll hazard my person with the men I may command, before these rebels rest where ye have power; sore I
miss you, but now more than ever This is the first opposition
that they have rencountered, so as to force them to flee out of a parish. God grant it be good hansell! There would be no fear of it if we were all steel to the back. My precious, I am so transported with zeal to beat the Whigs, that I almost forgot to tell you my Lord Marquis of Montrose hath two virtuous ladies to his sisters, and it is one of the loveliest sights in all Scotland, their nunnery.'* This letter is dated "Methven Wood, the 15th instant, 1678." ^ About a year after this, Lady Methven met with a melancholy death. She fell off her horse, and her brains were dashed out, upon the very spot where she opposed persons going to that meeting, namely, at the south-west end of Methven Wood.^
1 In auother letter to her husband, she sajs, " They are an ignorant, wicked pack ; the Lord God clear the nation of them I"
2 Kirkton's History, pp. 355-3C1. ^ Wodrow MSS,, vol. xxxiii. folio, no. 1^3.
XXX\-i IXTRODTJCTION .
Of a very different character were the ladies whose inemoii'S we have attempted. So far from hating, maligning, and adding to the hardships of the persecuted, they protected and relieved themi and in many cases shai'ed in their sufferings. They were indeed distinguished by general excellence of character, and are entitled both to the grateful remembrance and imitation of posterity. They form a part of the great cloud of witnesses with which we are encompassed. Though belonging to past generations, whose bodies are now sleeping in the dust, and whose spirits have gone to the eternal world, they yet speak. By their piety towards God, not less than their benevolence towards man, by the exemplary part they acted in every relation of life, as daughters, as sisters, as mothers, by their liberality in supporting the ordinances of the gospel, and in encouraguig its faithful ministers, by the magnanimity with which they suffered either personally or relatively in the cause of truth, often rivalling the most noble examples of Christian heroism to be found in the church's history ; they become instructors to the living generation in passing through this scene of temptation and trial. They have especially, by the magnanimity with which they suffered in the cause of truth, emphatically taught us the important principle that we are in all things and at all times to do what is right ; and as to the disapprobation, opposition, and persecution of men, in whatever way manifested, or to whatever extent, we are to let that take its chance — a principle, the importance of which it is difficult to over-estimate, which lies at the foundation of all that is great and good in character, which has enabled the greatest and the best of men, by the blessing of God, to achieve the great purposes they have formed for advancing the highest interests of mankind, and upon which it is necessary for the good soldier of Christ to act in every age ; in an age in wliich the church enjoys tranquillity, as well as when she suffers persecution.
LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
LADY ANNE CUNNINGHAM,
MAUCmOXESS OF HA^nLTOX.
Lady Axne Cuxxixgha^i was the fourth daughter of James, seventh earl of Glencaim, by his first wife Margaret, second daughter of Sir Colin Campbell of Glenurchy.* Her ancestors on the father's side were among the first of the Scottish peers who embraced the Eeformed doctrine. In 1540, her great-great-grandfather William, fourth earl of Gleneaim, and her great-grandfather, then Lord KiLinaurs, after- wards fifth earl of Glencairn, appear among the converts of the reformed faith. Her great-grandfather, in particular, whose piety and benevolence procured him the honourable appellation of "the good earl,'' ^ was an ardent and steady promoter of the reformation, for which he was eminently qualified by his superior learning and abilities, as well as by the influence of his high station; and he care- fully instructed his children in its principles. He regularly attended the sermons of John Knox, on the Eeformer's returning to Scotland in 1534 ; and in 1556 he invited him to administer the sacrament of the Lord's Supper after the manner of the reformed church, in his baronial mansion of Finlayston, in the parish of Kilmalcolm, when he himself, his countess, and two of their sons, with a number of their
1 Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, vol. i. p. 636.
2 Tkere is a portrait of this nobleman in Pinkerton's Scottish Gallery o^ Portraits, 7cj\. iL
2 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
friends, partook of tliat solemn ordinance.^ He also assisted the Re- formers by his pen, being the author of a satu'ical poem upon tho Roman Catholic moriks, entitled, ''An Epistle Dii'ect from the Holv Hermit of Allarit^ to his Brethi'en the Grey Friars/' Nor did he shrink from drawing the sword for their protection. In 1559, wlien the Reformers took up arms at Perth to defend themselves from the Queen Regent, who had collected an army and had advanced to Perth, to avenge the destruction of the popish images by the popu- lace of that town, he raised 1200 horse and 1300 foot in the West, and the passes being occupied, conducted them through the moun- tains, travelling night and day, till they reached Perth; which proved a seasonable aid to the Reformers, and by the consternation with which it inspired the Queen Regent, prevented the effusion of blood. This nobleman often visited Knox on his death bed ; and he died in 1574
Lady Anne's father, James, seventh earl of Glencairn, was also a friend to the liberties and religion of his country. He was one of those noblemen, who, when the Duke of Lennox, an emissary of the court of France, had acquired a complete influence over James YI. soon after liis assuming the reins of government, and had effected an entire change in the court, filling it with persons devoted to popery and arbitrary power, resolved to take possession of the king's person, and, removing Lennox and another favouiite, the Earl of An-an, from him, to take upon themselves the direction of public affairs. With this view, on meeting with the king returning from hunting in
1 M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. p. 178. Knox's History, Wodrow Society edition, vol. L p. 250. " The silver cups wliicli were used by Knox on tliis occasion are still carefully preserved; and the use of them was given at the time of dispensing the sacrament in the parish church of Kilmalcolm, so long as the Glencairn family resided at Finlayston."
* Thomas Douchtie of Allarit or Loretto, near Musselburgh. Tliis person was the founder of the Chapel of our Lady of Loretto in 1533. Knox's History, Wodrow Society edition^ vol. i. pp. 72, 75.
MAUCHIONESS OF HAMILTON. 8
Atliol, several of them invited liim to Rutliven castle, where thej effected their purpose ; and hence this entei-prise was called the Ptaid of E-uthven.
Of the early life of Lady Anne we possess no information. In the beginning of the year 1603, she was married to Lord James, the son and heir presumptive of John, first Marquis of Hamilton. By her marriage contract, dated 30th January 1603, which received the consent of both their fathers, the marriage portion is forty thousand merks, and the yearly jointui'c fifty-six chalders of victual, and five hundred pounds of money rent. '
Lady Hamilton inlierited from her father's family an ardent zeal for Presbytery. During the first part of her life an almost continued contest existed between James Yl. and the Church of Scotland, in reference to that form of church government. As has been said in the Introduction, James commenced that struggle for absolute power, which was resolutely persevered in by his son and his two grandsons; and to reach his purpose he deemed it necessary to undermine the Presbyterian government of the Church of Scotland. With his usual profanity, he asserted that Monarchy and Presbytery agreed as well as God and the devil. No assertion could be more unfounded. It cannot indeed be denied that the repubKcanism of Presbyterian Church government is unfriendly to absolute or despotic monarchy. The fundamental principle of Presbytery — that spiritual power is lodged exclusively in the church courts, uncontrolled by the civil magistrate — greatly limits the power of monarchs, saying to them, when they reach the borders of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, " Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther," and naturally leads men to conclude that, by parity of reason, temporal power should be lodged in a
» Descriptive Catalogue of the Hamilton Papers in the Miscellany of the Maitland Club, vol. iy. p. 201.
4 THE LADIES OF THE CO^rENAXT.
parliament. But that Presbytery is hostile to limited monarchy, is disproved by the whole of its history in Scotland ; for no body of people was ever more devoted to the throne than the Presbyterians ; and indeed they often carried their loyalty to a reprehensible and extravagant excess. It was not, however, a limited but an absolute monarchy on the erection of which James' heart was set ; and seeing clearly enough that Presbytery was the enemy of such a monarchy, he made every efPort to overthrow it, and to introduce Prelacy, which he well knew would be a more effectual instrument in advancing his design. These efforts he was not permitted to make without oppo- sition. A body of ministers, respectable for number, and still more respectable for their talents, piety^ and zeal, resolutely and perse- veringly resisted him till the close of his life. They maintained, that by attempting to impose upon the church the form of govern- ment and mode of worship which were most accordant with his incli- nations, and by endeavouring to control her in her administration, he was invading the prerogative of Christ, the sole king and head of the church, who alone had a right to settle the form of her government, and by whose authority alone she was to be guided in her adminis- tration. By threats, bribes, imprisonment, and banishment, James laboured hard to get them to yield to his vrishes ; but animated by a high sense of duty, they were not to be overborne, and, largely imbued with the spirit of martyrs^ they preferred enduring the utmost effects of his royal wrath rather than make the unhallowed surrender. So much importance did they attach to their principles, as to deem them worthy even of tlie sacrifice of their lives. "We have been even waiting with joyfulness," said one of them, " to give the last testi- mony of our blood in confirmation thereof, if it should please our God to be so favourable as to honour us with that dignity." ^ It is the
1 These are tlie words of Mr. John Welsh, wlien a prisoner in Blackness Castle, in reference to himself and his brethren who were proceeded against by the government
MARCHIONESS OF HAMILTON. 5
courage, zeal, aud self-sacrifice with which this party contended for the rights and liberties of the church, during the reigns of James VI. and Charles I., that imparts to this portion of our ecclesiastical history its principal charm.
To this party the Marchioness of Hamilton adhered \Yith great zeal, actuated by sympathy with the principles contended for, as well as by sympathy with the character of the men themselves, who, besides being the most gifted, were the most pious, active, and faithful ministers of the Church of Scotland in their day.
Her husband, the Marquis of Hamilton, w^as not equally stedfast with herself in maintaining the liberties of the church. Eacile and ambitious, he was induced, from a desire to please his sovereign, to become an advocate for conformity to the five ai-ticles of Perth, and to exert his influence to obtain their ratification in the Scottish parliament of 1621, where he was his majesty's high commissioner. This nobleman was cut off in the prime of life, having died at London on the 2d of March, 1625, in the 36th year of his age.^ " Sm.all re- gret," says Calderwood, " was made for his death, for the service he made at the last parliament."
The marchioness survived the marquis many years, during which time she was eminently useful as an encourager of the faithful ministers of the gospel, whom she was ever ready to shield from persecution, and to countenance in every way competent to her. When Mr. Robert Boyd of Trochrig had, a ie\7 months after his being admitted minister of Paisley, been driven out of that town by the mob, w^ho showered upon him "stones and dirt," Paisley being then, as Eow describes it, " a nest of papists," ^ she was earnestly
for holdiDg a General Assembly at Abercleeii in July, 1605, in opposition to the wishes of tlie monarch. — Select Biographies printed for th.e Wodiow Society, vol. 1. p. 23.
I Calderwood's History, vol. vii. pp. 469, 489, 630
« Bow's History of tlie Kirk of Scotland, p. 438.
6 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
desirous to take that great and good man under lier proteetion, and invited him to accept of the charge of the parish of Cambu slang, which was at that time vacant. Mr. James Bruce, writing to him from Glas- gow, in October, 1626, says, "The parish of Cambuslang is now vacant, and the Lady Marchioness is earnestly desirous to have you there. Her jointure lies there : it is within three miles of Glasgow, has a reasonable stipend, beside the lady's pension, which she will rather augment than diminish. You will live easier, and at more peace there than at Paisley; you will have the Lady Marchioness's company, which is very desii'able. This I leave to your consideration, and the Lord's direction." An end, however, was put to this matter by the growing illness of Boyd, which took him to Edinburgh, to consult with physicians, and on reaching the capital his sickness in- creased, till it terminated in his death, on the 5th of January, 1627. ^ The name of the marchioness stands favourably connected with that memorable revival of religion which took place at the kirk of Shotts, on the 21st of June, 1630, the Monday after the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Indeed, that revival may be said to be directly traceable to the piety of this lady, who was forward to embrace every opportunity of bringing within the reach of others the blessed gospel, which she herself so highly prized ; and it originated in a circumstance apparently incidental — the breaking down of her carriage on the road, at Shotts. How important the results either for good or evil to maidvind, which, under the government of infinite wisdom, have been produced by the most trivial events ! The sight of the spider's web and the pigeon's nest at the entrtmce of the cave in which Mahomet concealed himself diverted his pursuers from searching it, and saving the life of the false prophet, contributed to entail for ages upon a large part of the world the curse of
1 Wodrow's Life of Hohert Boyd, pp. 239, 240.
MAUCniONESS OF HAMILTON. 7
(lie Mahometan superstition; and in the Reformation throughout Europe, ineidents equally insignificant have, on tlie other liand, been big with consequences the most beneficial to mankind. The circum- stance of the breaking down of the marchioness's carriage, seemingly casual as it was, resulted in some hundreds of immortal beings experiencing that blessed change of heart which unites the soul to God, and which issues in everlasting salvation. The particulars, in so far as she was concerned, were these : — As the road to Edinburgh from the west lay by the kirk of Shotts, she frequently passed that way in travelling from the place of her residence to the capital, and on such occasions she received, in different instances, civilities from Mr. Home,* minister of the parish. At one time, in particular, when on her passing through Shotts, accompanied with some other ladies, the carriage in which they were riding broke down, in the neighbour- hood of the manse. Mr. Home, on learning the accident, kindly invited them to alight and remain all night in liis house, as they were at a considerable distance from any convenient place of entertainment. Having accepted his invitation, they observed during their stay that besides its inconvenient situation, the manse stood much in need of being repaired; and the marchioness, in return for his attentions, erected for him a new manjse, in a more agreeable situation, and with superior accommodations. On receiving so snbstantial a favour, Mr. Home waited upon her to express his obligations, and desired to know if there was any thing he could do by which to testify his gratitude. All she asked was that he would be kind enough to allow her to name the ministers he should have with him as his assistants at the celebration of the Lord's Supper. This request he cordially granted. She accordingly named some of the most distinguished
1 Gillies, in his Historical Collections, calls him Mr. Hance, hut this is a mistake. Both Li-angstone and Wodrow give his name as in the text
b THE L.VDIES OP THE COVENANT.
ministers of the day, Mr. Robert Bruce, ]\Ir. David Dickson, and some others "who had been remarkably successful as instruments in bringing many to the saving knowledge of the truth. The report that such celebrated men were to assist at the communion at that place soon circulated extensively through the country ; and a vast multitude, attracted by their fame, assembled from all quarters, many of them of eminent piety, among whom were the marchioness herself, and other ladies of rank, who attended at her invitation.^
The solemnity to which she was the means of bringing these ministers, and of gathering together so great a crowd of people, was accompanied in a very signal manner with the divine blessing. Tor several days before, much time was spent in social prayer. During all the days of the solemn occasion the ministers were remarkably assisted. The devout w^ho attended were in a more than ordinary degree refreshed and edified, and so largely was the spirit of grace and supplication poured out upon tliem, that, after being dismissed on the Sabbath, they spent the whole night, in different companies, in prayer. On the Monday morning, the ministers, nnderstanding how they had been engaged, and perceiving them, instead of retui'ning to their homes, still lingering at the place, as if um\illing to depart from a spot which they. had found in their experience to be as it were the gate of heaven, agreed to have sermon on that day, though it was not usual, at that time, to preach on the Monday after the dispensation of the Lord's Supper. The minister whose turn it was to officiate having become unweU, the work of addressing the people was, at the suggestion of Lady Culross, laid upon Mr. John Livingstone, then a young man, and chaplain to the Countess of AYigton. Livingtsone had before preached at Shotts, and had found more liberty in preaching there than at other places ; but from the
* ^V^odiow's Analecta, vol. i. p. 271; Gillics's Historical Collections, vol. i. pp. 309, 3ia
M.VRCHIONESS OF HAMILTON. 9
great multitude of all ranks assembled on that occasion lie became so diffident that when alone, in the fields in the morning, he began to think of stealing away rather than address the people. " But," says he, " I durst not so far distrust God, and so went to sei*mon and got good assistance. I had about an hour and a half upon the points I had meditated on, Ezekiel xxxvi. 25, 26, * Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you : and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I wiU give you an heart of flesh ;' and in end, offering to close with some words of exhortation, I was led on about an hour's time in a strain of exhortation and warn- ing with such liberty and melting of heart as I never had the like in public all my life."^ And such was the effect, that, as Mr. Meming observes, in his EulflUing of the Scriptui*es, " near five hundi'ed had at that time a discernible change wrought on them, of whom most proved lively Christians afterward. It was the sowing of a seed tiu'ough Clydesdale, so as many of the most eminent Christians in that country could date either their conversion or some remarkable confirmation in their case from that day."^ After this the prac-
^ Life of Mr. Jolin Li\-ingstone iii Select Biograpliies printed for the Wodrow Society, vol. i., p. 138.
^ It may not be uninteresting to quote some notices respecting this communion, given by Wodrow : —
"April 24, 1710. Tliis day being at the Shotts, and discoursing w-ith Mr. Law, the minister, he tells me that the sermon was in the west end of the churchyard. He let me see the end cf the Craigs to which, it is said, Mr. Livingstone went up to study, the morning before he preached, as the tradition is. Another should have preached on tlie Monday, but he fell indisposed. It was the Lady Culross who was there, and had special intimacy with Mr. Li\ingstone, that put the ministers upon employing him. The minister's name, at tliat time, was Mr. Home, a man of an easy temper, and no persecutor." And, after stating that the Marchioness of Hamilton had conferred some particular favour on Mr. Home; that Mr. Home allowed her to name the ministers he should have ^\iih. liim at the communion. Mr. Dickson, ;Mr. Bruce, and others, who ail came; with a great many
10 THE LA.D1ES OF THE COVEXA^-T.
tice of preacliiiig on the Monday following the sacrament became general.
The Marchioness of Hamilton was personally known to Mr. John Livingstone ; and in his Memorable Characteristics he has given her a place among " some of the professors in the Church of Scotland of his acquaintance who were eminent for grace and gifts." ^ Prom his Life we also learn that whatever influence she had with the court at London, she was well inclined to use it for the protection of the persecuted nonconformists. He informs us that, after he himself, LIr. Eobei't Blair, and others of his brethren in Ireland, had been deposed, in May, 1632, by the Bishop of Down, and when Mr. Blair went to London to represent their cause to the government, he himself, who was to follow Mr. Blair, went previously to Scotland, with the design of procuring letters from the Lady Marchioness of Hamilton, and other persons of rank, to some of their friends at court, vindicating him and his brethren from the charge of sth'ring up the
Christians, at the Lady's invitation, -n-ho was herself an excellent woman, Wodi'ow adds, " That he [^Ir. Law] hears the particular occasion of the first sensible motion among the people was this— in the time of Mr. Li^■ingstone's sermon there was a soft shower of rain, and when the people began to stickle about, he said to this purpose, 'What a mercy is it that the Lord sifts that rain through these heavens on us, and does not rain down fire and brimstone, as he did upon Sodom and Gomorrah.' " He farther adds, "Tliis night Mr. George Barclay tells me that he discoiu'sed Mr. Livingstone himself in Holland upon tliis communion, and he told him that he was such a stranger to all the ministers there, that the Lady Cub-oss was the person that put the ministers upon him, the minister that should have preached having fallen sick; that it was somewhat that incidentally he spoke that gave occasion to the motion among the people, and Mr. Barclay repeated the words above; and Mr. Livingstone added, 'Brother, when yon are strongly pressed to say any thing you have not premeditated, do not offer to stop it; you know not what God has to do with it.'" Analecta, vol. i., p. 271. There is one point in these two accounts as to wliich there seems to be some discrepancy. According to Mr. Law, Messrs. Dickson and Brace were among the ministers present; and, according to ^Mr. Barclay, Li^ingstone was " a stranger to all the ministers there." But Livingstone, before he was licensed to preach, knew at least Mr. Brace, who, as he informs us in his Life, had been in the habit of assisting his father at Lanark at the celebration of the Lord's Supper. 1 Select Biographies printed for the "Wodrow Society, vol i. p. 348.
IMAPtCniONESS OF HAMILTON. 11
peopia to ccstacies and cntlmsiasm, and requesting for them toleration to preach the gospel notwithstanding their nonconformity.^
During the stirring period when the Scottish people renewed the National Covenant, and successfully resisted the attempts of Charles I. to impose upon them a book of canons and a liturgy, ^ the mar- chioness warmly espoused the cause of the Covenant. Possessed of a strong and masculine spirit, she displayed an undaunted heroism in the cause, which neither the sight of personal danger nor the partiality of maternal affection could subdue. "WTien her son James, Marquis, afterwards Duke of Hamilton, who sided with Charles I. against the Covenanters, conducted an English fleet to the Forth, in 1639, to overawe them, she appeared on horseback, with two pistols by her side, at the head of a troop of horse, among tho intrepid thousands who lined the shores of Leith on that occasion, to resist his landing, and, drawing one of her pistols from her saddle-bow, declared she would be the first to shoot him should he presume to land and attack the troops of the covenant.^ It is said that she had even loaded her pistols with balls of gold ; but this rests on very doubtful authority.^ It is certain, however, that when the Marquis
* Select Biosrapliies printed for the "Wodrow Society, vol. i., p. 146.
2 The book of canons received the royal sanction, and became law in 1635. The service- book, or liturgy, was enjoined to be used by act of Privy Council, 20th December, 1636, and the act was the following day proclaimed at the Cross of Edinburgh; but the hturgy itself was not pubhshed till towards the end of May, 1637. These two books were ex- tremely unpopular in Scotland, both because they were forced upon the chuixh solely by royal authority, without the consent of the clnu'ch herself, or without her having been even consulted, and because of the matter contained in them. The book of canons, among other thmgs objected to, asserted the king's supremacy in all causes, ecclesiastical as well as civil, enjoined various unwarranted and superstitious rites in the observance of baptism and the Lord's Supper, proscribed sessions and presbyteries, and invested the bishopa with uncontrollable power. The semce-book was just the English hturgy with numerous alterations, by which it approached nearer the Roman missal.
3 Douglas's Peerage, vol. i., p. 704.
<• " The stoiy about the ' balls of gold,' rests on the authority of Gordon of Straloch's MS. (none of the purest to be sure); but the manly heroism of the old mai*chioness is
12 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
cast auclior ia (lie Forth, near Leith, loiteriug for the king, whose army was marching into Scotland to his assistance, she paid him a visit on board his vessel The particulars of this interview have not been recorded ; but the people anticipated from it the most favourable results. " The son of such a mother," thej said, " will do ns no harm." * Nor did they suffer any harm. The spirited conduct and intercession of his mother, it is supposed, was one cause which pre- vented the Marquis's debarkation of his troops. Other causes, how- ever, seem to have contributed to this. The number of his troops, which amounted only to about three or four thousand, was too small for the occasion. Besides, hearing that a part of the English army, being encountered by the Scots at Kelso, were defeated, with a loss of thi'ce hundred men, and put to flight, he was not in a disposition to engage with the Covenanters, who gave such decided proofs of earnestness; and soon after a pacification was concluded between them and the king, at the Birks of Berwick.
Respecting this lady, we meet with no additional facts, except that her last will is dated 4th November, 164-1 ; and that she died in 1617.^
It may be added, that there is a portrait of the marchioness in Pinkerton's Scottish Gallery of Portraits, vol. ii. " The portrait," says Pinkerton, "corresponds with the masculine character of the marchioness." He adds, " Johnson, the ingenious limner, died before he had finished the drapery of this di*awing, which is from a painting by Jameson, at Taymouth."
noticed by Spang, Hist. Motuum, p. 357." — "M'Crie's Sketches of Scottisli Church Eistoryj
2d edition, p. 255. ^ "Uliitelocke's Memorials, p. 29. 'Wliitelocke terms her "a rigid Covenanter." 8 Descriptive Catalogue of the Hamilton Papers in the Miscellany of the Mairland Club,
roL iv.,p. 207 J Douglas's Peerage, vol. i., p.70i.
LADY BOYD.
Lady Boyd, whose maiden name was Cliristian Hamilton, was the only child of Sir Thomas Hamilton of Priest field, afterwards first Eaii of Haddington, by Ms first wife Margaret, daughter of James Borth- wick of Newbyres. Her father, who studied law in Trance, was, on his returning to Scotland, admitted advocate, on the 1st of xSovember, 1587; and, soon distinguishing himself at the bar by his talents and learning, he was, on the 2d of November, 1592, appointed a Lord of Session, by the title of Lord Drumcaim. In Eebruaiy, 1596, he became King's Advocate ; and in May, 1612, Lord Clerk Begister of Scotland. He was next invested with the offices of Secretary of State and President of the Court of Session, which he retained till the 5th of Pebruary, 1626, when he was constituted Keeper of the Privy Seal; and on the 27th of August, 1627, he was created Earl of Haddmgton. He died on the 29th of May, 1637, in the 74th year of his age. By means of the lucrative offices he held, he acquired one of the largest fortunes of his time.^
The subject of this notice was first married to Bobert, ninth Lord Lindsay of Byres, who died at Bath, on 9th of July, 1616. To him she had a son, John, tenth Lord Lindsay of Byres, afterwards Earl of Crawford-Lindsay ; and a daughter, Helen, married to Sir William Scot of Ardi'oss.^ She did not long remain a vddow, having married, for her second husband, in the year 1617, Ptobert, sixth Lord Boyd,^
^ D&nglas's Peerage, vol. i., pp. 678, 679.
2 Ibid, vol. i., pp. 386, 679.
3 The marriage contract between her and that nobleman bears the date of that year. Chalmers' MS. account of the Koble lamilies of Scotland, in Advocates' Library, volume i., p. 22. Lord Boyd was a widower, having been previously married to Lady Margaret Montgomery, daugliter of Robert ^lontgomery of Giffen, and relict of Hugh, fifth Earl of
14 THE LADIES OF THE COYENANl'.
an excellent man, who studied at Saumur, under Lis cousin, the famous j\Ir. Robert Bojd of Trochrig, from whom he seems to have derived, in addition to secular learning, much religious advantage.
Like the Marchioness of Hamilton, Lady Boyd joined the ranks of the Presbyterians who resisted the attempts of James YI. and Charles 1, to impose prelacy upon the Church of Scotland. IVith many of the most eminent ministers of those times, as Mr. Robert Bruce, Mr. Robert Boyd, Mr. Robert Blair, Mr. Samuel Rutherford, and Mr. John Livingstone, she was on terms of intimate friendship; and her many Christian virtues procured her a liigh place in their esteem, and, Ludeed, hi the esteem of all ranks and classes of her countrymen. Experiencing in her own heart the saving influence of divine truth, she was desirous that others, in like manner, might experience its saving power; and with this view she encouraged the preaching of the gospel, exercising a generous hospitality and liberality towards its ministers, receiving them into her house, and supplying them with money. Li his Life, wiitten by himself, ^h\ John Livingstone speaks of residing for some time, during the course of his ministry, in the house of Kilmarnock, with ''worthy Lady Boyd; " and mentions her as one of four ladies of rank ' " of whom he got at several times supply of money."
During the struggles of the Presbyterians in behalf of the liberties of the church, for many years previous to the second Reformation, it was the practice of the more zealous among them, both with the view
Eglinton. (Douglas's Peerage, vol. ii., p. 35.) Tlie marriage contract between him and tliis lady is dated October, 1614; and in reference to tliis marriage, writing, June 22, 1614, from London to liis cousin, Mr. Robert Boyd of Trochrig, then on the Continent, he says, " Sir George [Elpliingstoun] and Six- Thomas have told me their commission, which is mar- riage with the Earl of Eglinton his wife [widow] and has shown me many good reasons." — Wodrow's Life of Robert Boyd of Trochrig, printed by the Maitland Club, p. 114.
1 The other ladies were the Countess of Wigton, Lady Innerteel, and the Countess of Eglinton.— Select Biographies printed for the Wodrow Society, vol. i., p. 148.
LADY BOYD. 15
of promoting tlieii- owu personal piety and of commending to God the desolate condition of tlie cliurcb, to hold meetings in various parts of the country, for humiliation and prayer, on such stated days as were agreed upon by general correspondence. And such as could not con- veniently attend at the particular place fixed upon in the part of the country where they resided, not unfrequently kept the diet either at their own house or at the house of a friend, where a few assembled ; and in these cases they endeavoured, if possible, to obtain the presence of a minister. Of these private social meetings Lady Boyd was an encourager ; and when it was inconvenient or impossible for her to be present at the appointed place of meeting in her locality, she spent the day in humiliation and prayer in her own house. A letter which she wi'ote to Mr. Eobert Boyd of Trochrig, then principal of the college of Glasgow, requesting him to favour her with his presence at her house on one of these occasions, has been preserved, and may be given as illustrating the pious spirit by which she was distinguished. It is without date, but from the subject matter, it was probably written about 1620 or 1621, and is as foUows : —
" Right Honotjeable Sir, — Seeing it hath pleased God, my hus- band,— my lord is content that I bring the bairns to the landwart,^ 1 thought good to advertise you of it, that you may do me that great pleasure as to come and briug your wife with you, on Thursday, for I would fain have good company that day, since I have great need of help, being of myself very unable to spend that day as I ought. Now seeing it hath pleased God to move your heart to take care of my soul, and to be very comfortable to me, being he to whom only I have opened my secret griefs, and of whom I must crave counsel in those things which my other fnends cannot, and shaU not, know. It is
1 '* Landwart," Scottice for "country."
lo TnE L.\J)IES OF THE COVENANT.
common to God's children and tlie wicked to be under crosses, but crosses chase God's children to him. 0 that any thing would chase me to my God. But, alas ! that which chases others to God, by the strength, of sin it holds me further from God ; for I am seeking for comfort in outward things, and the Lord will not let me find it there. When I should pray or read God's word, or hear it preached or read, then my mind is possessed with thoughts how to eschew temporal grief, or how to get temporal contentment. But, alas ! this doing is a building up of mountains betwixt my soid. and the sense of God's presence, which only ministers contentment to a soul ; and by thus doing, I deserve to be plunged in infinite and endless grief. Now, Sir, I will not trouble you longer with this discourse. Hoping to see you shortly,
" I rest your loving sister in Christ,
" Chejstian Ha:siilton.* '-'Badenheath."
These religious meetings, which contributed greatly to foster a spirit of opposition to the innovations then attempted to be imposed upon the Church of Scotland, the bishops regarded with great jealousy, and they endeavoured, if possible, to put them down by forcible means. Mr. E-obert Bruce having held two of them in his own house at Monkland, after his retmn to the south from Liverness, wliither he had been banished for several years on account of his principles, he was delated to the king ; and though tlie meetings were private, the number present at them not exceeding twenty, he was, in consequence, forced to retire from ^lonkland, and was ultimately again banished to Inverness. Mr. Bobert Boyd, the correspondent of Lady Boyd,
1 Woclrow's Life of Robert Boyd, pp. 271, 272. Wodrow says that " she %mtes in a very fair hand for that time."
LADY BOYD.
17
was also, for patroiiisiug such meetings, greatly harassed. At'ter the passing of the Perth Articles in the General Assembly of 1G18, Boyd, though opposed to these articles, had not, owing to the mildness and peaceableness of his disposition, interfered publicly with the controversies thereby occasioned ; from which the bishops concluded thatj if not friendly to the innovations, he was at least neutral; but his attendance at these meetings in Mr. Bruce's house,' and at similar meetings in other places, excited against him the hostility of the bishops and of the king, who, inferring from this his nonconforming propensities, immediately began to contemplate the adoption of harsh measures against him.^ In these circumstances, Lady Boyd addressed to him an encouraging letter. It is well written, and bears testimony to the high opinion she entertained of Boyd, as a man and a Christian minister, as well as finely illustrates the heroic spirit by which she was animated, and shows how well qualified she was to cheer up the hearts of such as were subjected to persecution for righteousness' sake. It is dated December 17, but the year is omitted. Its contents, however, indicate that it was written in the year 1G21; and it is as follows: —
" PtiGHT HoNOUiiABLE SiE, — I hear there is some appearance of your trouble, by reason the King's Majesty is displeased with you for your being with Mr. Robert Bruce. Since I heard of these unpleasant news, I have had a great desire to see you, for whatsoever is a grief to you is also grievous to me, for, since it pleased God to bring me to acquaintance with you, your good advice and pious instructions have ofttiraes refreshed my very soul; and now, if I be
^ Boyd regarded Bruce with peculiar respect and veneration. Speaking of him, he says, '•* whom one may call justly the Easile or Bernard of our age." — W^cdi-ow's Life of Boyd, p. 10. ''Ibid. p. 151.
18 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
separated from you, so as not to have occasion to pour out my griefs unto yon, and receive counsel and comfort from you, truly I wot not wliat to do. And as I regret my own particular loss, much more may I regret the great loss our kirk sustains, and is threatened with. But as for you, if the Lord should honour you, and set you to suffer for his name, I trust in his mercy he shall strengthen you, and make his power perfect in your weakness. The apostles rejoiced that tliey were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ, and the apostle says, ' Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.' Now if ye be called to this honour, I pray God give you his grace, that ye may account it your honour, for if ye suffer with Christ, you shall also reign with him. I trust in the mercy of God that all things shall work together for the best to you. If it might please our God, who is merciful, to continue you in your muiistry, I humbly crave it ; but if he will glorify himself in your suffering, his good will be done. Ye will lose nothing here, and what ye lose it will be recompensed a hundred-fold. The loss will be ours, who are left as sheep without a shepherd, ready to wander and be devoured of wolves. Now if I have a wandering soul, the Lord in mercy pity me ! for I am afraid of making defection, if the bread of life be not continued with me. In sincerity, it wiU not be philosophy nor eloquence will draw me from the broad way of perdition, unless a voice be lifted up like a trumpet to tell me my sin. The Lord give us 'the spirit of wisdom, even that wisdom that will prove wise in the end, when the wise men of this world win be calling upon the hills and the mountains ! 0 Lord, give us grace to provide our oil here, that we may enter in with the bridegroom, and be made partakers of his riches and joy, when they that have embraced the world and denied Christ shall have their portion with the devil ! Sir, I will not trouble you further at this time. If you have leisure I would be glad to see you, or at
LADY BOYD. 19
any other time, and to hear from you. So, remembering my duty to your wife, and commending you and her and the children to God,
"I rest your most affectionate sister at power,
" Christian? HA^iiLToy.^
"Badenhcath, Dec. 17."
From this letter it appears that Lady Boyd sat under the ministry of ]\L'. Boyd,2 which she greatly valued, as she had good reason to do, if we may judge of his pastoral instructions from the specimens of his theological writings which have been published; and Boyd, having become obnoxious to the bishops and the king, she was appre- hensive of being deprived of his public ministrations, as well as of liis society in private, by his being removed from his charge, and perhaps obKged to leave the country. The result was, that demitting his situation as principal of the college of Glasgow, he retired to his estate of Trochrig, and afterwards, to the day of his death, suffered, in various ways, on account of his nonconformity. " It is not easy," says Wodrow, "upon such a subject not to mix a little gall with my ink ; but I shall only say, it's a remairdng stain, and must be, in the eyes of all that fear God, and know what prayer is, upon the bishops of this period, and the government who were brought, by their importunity, to persecute such eminent persons as Mr. Bruce and Mr. Boyd, for joining in such meetings for prayer, in such a time as this. Mr. Bruce was confined ; Mr. Boyd was informed against to the king; and this, as the wiiter of his life notices, was one main spring of the violent opposition made against him. Such procedure, no doubt, is a reproach upon a Protestant, yea upon a country that bears the name of Christian."^
1 Wodro-^'s Life of Robert Boyd, pp. 272, 273.
2 At the time this Letter was written, Boyd, besides being Principal of the College of Glasgow was minister of Govan. 3 "Wodrow's Life of Robert Boyd, p. 151.
20 THE I^VDIES OF THE COVENANT.
As another specimen of the pious spirit which breathed in Ladj Boyd's epistolary correspondence, we may quote another of her letters to !Mr. Eoyd, which is ^it,hout date, but which Wodrow supposes was written about harvest 1622. She thus writes :
" My husband has written for me to come to your feast, but in truth it were better for me to be called to a fast. I trow * the Lord of Hosts is calling to weeping, and fasting, and sackcloth. I pray you, Sii', remember me in your prayers to God, that he may supply to me the want of your counsels and comforts, and all other wants to me ; and that at this time, and at all other times, he would give me grace to set his majesty before me, that I may walk as in iiis sight, and study to approve myself to him. Now Sir, I entreat you when you have leisure write to me, and advertise me how ye and yours are, and likewise stir me up to seek the Lord. Show me how I shall direct to you, for I must crave leave to trouble you at some times. Now I pray God to recompense ten thousand fold your kindness to me, with the daily increase of all saving grace here, and endless glory hereafter. Kemember me to Mr. Zachary; desire him to come and bear my lord company awhile after ye are settled. I entreat, when you come back again to Glasgow, that you may come here, for I think I haye not taken my leave of you yet. Till then and ever, " I rest your loving sister in Christ to my power,
'•'Christian HAiIILTo^^" ^
Li 162S Lady Boyd was left a widow a second time. Lord Boyd having died in August that year, at the early age of 33. To this nobleman she had a son, ".Robert seventh Lord Boyd, and six daughters: 1. Helen, who died unmai-ried; 2. Agnes, married to Sir
» ** Trow," Scot lien for " believe." « Wodrow*s Life of Robert Boyd, pp. 273, 271.
LADY BOYD. 21
George Morison of Dairsis, in Fife; 3. Jean, married to Sir Alexander Morison of Prestongrauge, in the connty of Haddington; 4. Marion, married to Sir James Dundas of Amistoun; 5. Isabel, married first to John Sinclair of Stevenston, secondly to John Grierson of Lagg-, and 6. Christian, married to Sir William Scot of Harden. *
At the period of the attempted imposition of the book of canons and the service book or liturgy upon the Scottish Church, by royal authority, many, both ministers and laity, were subjected to persecu- tion for resisting these invasions on the liberties of the church ; and to such persons, as might be anticipated from the benevolence of her character and her ecclesiastical principles. Lady Boyd was at all times heartily disposed to extend her encouragement and aid by letter, word, or deed. When Rutherford was confined to Aberdeen, she maintained epistolary intercourse with him; and that worthy minister repeatedly expresses how much his soul was refreshed by her letters, as weU as gratefuUy acknowledges that she " ministered to him in his bonds." ^ She also took a friendly interest in his brother, Mr. George, who was a teacher in Kh'kcudbright, but who, for nonconfor- mity, had been summoned in Nov. 1636, before the high commission, and condemned to resign his charge and to remove from Kirkcud- bright before the ensuing term of Whitsunday. ^ Rutherford fre- quently expresses his gratitude to her for her kindness to his brother, who, after his ejection, had taken refuge in Ayi'shii'c. He thus writes to her from Aberdeen, March 7, 1637: "I think myself many ways obliged to your ladyship for your love to my afflicted brother, now embarked with me in that same cause. His Lord hath been pleased to put him on truth's side. I hope that your ladyship will befriend him with your counsel and countenance in that country where he is a
1 Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, vol. ii., p. 85.
* Rntlierford's Letters, pp. 205, 617, THiyte and Kennedy's edition, 1848.
3 MuiTay's Life of Rutlierford, pp. 49, 93.
22 THE LADIES OF THE COVEN A^^^.
stranger; and your ladyship needeth not fear but your kindness to Ills own \Yill .be put up into Clirist's accounts." ^ In another letter to her from the same place, in September, that year, he says, "All that your Ladyship can expect for your good will to me and my brother, (a wronged servant for Christ) is the prayers of a prisoner of Jesus, to whom I recommend your Ladyship, and your house, and cliildren." * And in a communication to her from St. Andrews, in 1640, a con- siderable time after he had returned from his confinement in Aber- deen, lie thus expresses himself: "I put all the favoui's which you have bestowed on my brother, upon Christ's score, in whose books are many such counts, and who will requite them/'^
Meanwhile she was not neglectful of the cultivation of personal piety. As she advanced in life she continued with increasing ardour to practise the christian duties, to cultivate holiness of character, to confide in the Saviour, and to make sure of eternal life. That such were her chiistian aspirations, endeavours, and attainments is evident from her correspondence with the same excellent man; from which we learn, that as the Father of lights had opened her eyes to discover that whoever would be a Christian in deed and hi truth must exercise self-denial, she was resolved to practise that duty, — to pluck out the right eye, and to cut ofP the right hand, and keep fast hold of the Son of God; that she had not changed in ihe thoughts she had entertained of Christ; and that her purpose still was by all means to take the kingdom of heaven by violence.^ It was indeed her personal piety vrhich excited and enlivened her zeal in the public cause of God; and her valued correspondent, satisfied that the more she improved in the former, she would be the more distinguished for the latter, expresses his desire in a letter to her, in 164:0, that she might be builded more and more upon the stone laid in Zion, and then
1 Rutherford's Letters, p. 205. ^ ibid., p. 43i, ^ Ibid., p. 606. ^ Ibid., pp. 205, 492.
LADY BOYD. 28
slie would be the more fit to have a hand hi rebuilding our Lord's fallen tabernacle in this land, "in which," he acids, "ye shall find great peace when ye come to grip with death, the king of terrors." * As a means of promoting her spiritual improvement she was in the practice of keeping a diary, in which she recorded her religious exercises and experiences, her defects and attainments, her sins and mercies; an expedient whicli Christians have sometimes found to be of great utility in promoting their vigilance, humility, gratitude and dependence upon God. '* She used every night," says Mr. John Livingstone, " to wi'ite what had been the state of lier soul all the day, and what she bad observed of the Lord's dealing." ^ Sucb memorandums slie, however, appears to have intended solely for her own eye; and no remains of them have been transmitted to posterity.
Li the autumn of the year 1640, Lady Boyd met with a painful trial in the death of three of her brothers, and others of her relatives, in very distressing cu-cumstances. Thomas, second earl of Hadding- ton, and Robert Hamilton of West Binning, in the county of Linlith- gow, her brothers by her father's second wife,^ Patrick Hamilton, her natural brother. Sir John Hamilton, of E.edhouse, her cousin-germ an, and Sir Alexander Erskine, fourth son of the seventh earl of Mar, brother-in-law to her brother Thomas, all perished at Dunglass castle (in the county of Haddington) when it was blown up on the 30th of August that year. They had attached themselves to the Covenanters ; and when General Leslie marched into England that same year against Charles L, they were left behind by the Scottish Parliament, in order to resist the English incursions, and Thomas, second Earl of Had- dington, who had the command of the party thus left, fixed his quarters at Dunglass castle. While his lordship, about mid-day, on
^ Rutherford's Letters, p. 606. ^ Livingstone's Memorable Characteristics.
' Her father's second \vite was Margaret, daughter of James Fouhs of Cohntou, in the couuty of Edinburgh.
24 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
the 30tli of August, was standing in a court of the castle surrounded by his friends now named, and several other gentlemen, to whom he was reading a letter he had just received from General Leslie, a magaznie of gunpowder contained in a vault in the castle blew up; and one of the side walls instantly overwhelmed him and all his com- pany, with the exception of four, who were thrown by the force of the .explosion to a considerable distance. The earl's body was found among the rubbish and buried at Tyninghame. Besides this nobleman, three or four score of gentlemen lost their lives. It was reported that the magazine was designedly blo\\Ti up by the earl's page, Edward Paris, an English boy, who was so enraged, on account of his master having jestingly told him that his countrymen were a pack of cowards, to suffer themselves to be beaten and to run away at Newburn, that he took a red hot iron and thrust it into one of the powder barrels, perishing himself with the rest. ^ One of the most beautiful of Rutherford's letters was addressed to Lady Boyd on this melancholy occasion. " I wish," says he, " that I could speak or write what might do good to your ladyship, especially now when I think we cannot but have deep thoughts of the deep and bottomless ways of our Lord, in taking away with a sudden and wonderful stroke your brothers and friends. You may know that all who die for sin, die not in sin: and that 'none can teach the Almighty knowledge.' He answereth none of our courts, and no man can say, 'What doest thou?' It is true that your brothers saw not many summers, but adore and fear the sovereignty of the great Potter who maketh and marreth his clay- vessels when and how it pleaseth him Oh what wisdom
is it to believe, and not to dispute; to subject the thoughts to his court, and not to repine at any act of his justice ? He hath done it; all flesh be silent! It is impossible to be submissive and religiously
^ Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, vol. i., p. GSO. Scot's Staggering State of Scots Statesmen.
LADY BOYD. 25
patieut, if you slay your thoughts down among the confused rollings and wheels of second causes; as, ' Oh, the place !' * Oh, the time!' • Oh, if this had been, this had not followed ! ' * Oh, the linking of this accident with this time and place! ' Look up to the master motion
and the first wheel I believe, christian lady, your faith
leavetli that much charity to our Lord's judgments as to believe, howbeit you be in blood sib to that cross, that yet you are exempted and freed from the gall and wrath that is in it. I dare not deny but 'the king of terrors dwelleth in the wicked man's tabernacle: brim- stone shall be scattered on his habitation/ (Job xviii. 15;) yet, Madam, it is safe for you to live upon the faith of his love, whose arms are over-watered and pointed with love and mercy to his own, and who knoweth how to take you and yours out of the roll and book of the dead." '
Li less than three months after this visitation, Lady Boyd lost her son Lord Boyd, who died of a fever on the 17th of November, 164:0, at the early age of twenty-four. ^ But her sorrow under this bereavement was alleviated from the hope which, on good grounds, she was enabled to entertain that her son, who was deservedly dear to her, had exchanged the present for a better world. Trained up in the fear of God, he gave pleasing indications of early piety, and embracing the sentiments of the Covenanters, entered with all the interest and ardour of youthful zeal into their contendings, against the encroachments of the court on the rights of the chui'ch. To this ample testimony is borne in Hutherford's Letters. "Writing to him from Aberdeen in 1637, Hutherford, hearing of his zeal for the " borne-down and oppressed gospel," affectionately stimulates him to continued exertion in the same cause ; and in a subsequent letter to him he says, " I am glad to hear that you, in the morning of your
t Rutherford's Letters, p. 617, G18. ^ Douglas's Peerage, vol. ii. p. 635, 636.
20 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
short day, mind Christ, and that you love the honour of his crown
and kingdom Ye are one of Zion's born sons; your honourable
and christian parents would ventui'e you upon Christ's errands." ^ Addressing Lady Boyd from Aberdeen, May 1, 1637, Kutherford thus writes: "I have reasoned with your son, at large; I rejoice to see him set his face in the right airth, now when the nobles love the sunny side of the gospel best, and are afraid that Christ want soldiers, and shall not be able to do for himself." ^ And in another letter to her he expresses his gratitude to this generous and benevolent youth, "who," says he, "was kind to me in my bonds, and was not ashamed to own me." ^ Lord Boyd was one of those noblemen who, on the 22d of February, 1638, ascended the cross of Edinbui-gh, to protest against the proclamation which was tliat day made, containbg hia Majest/s approbation of the service-book, granting a dispensation to the noblemen and gentlemen who opposed it for their past meet- ings, and discharging all their meetings for the future under pain of treason.* He subscribed the national covenant when renewed on the 1st of Mai'ch that year, in the Greyfriars' church ; and zealously co-operated with the Covenanters in their proceedings in opposition to the measures of the coui't.
In her other son, John, tenth Lord Lindsay, afterwards Earl of Crawford-Lindsay, Lady Boyd had also much comfort. His religious sentiments coincided with her own, and his active zeal in defending the liberties of the church, was associated with sincere piety and a high character for moral worth, wliich he maintained unimpaired to the close of a long life. In a letter to him from Aberdeen in September 1637, Ptutherford \vrites, "Your noble ancestors have been enrolled amongst the worthies of this nation, as the sure
i Eutlierlbrd's Letters, pp. 139, 469. 2 Hjij.^ p, 303. 3 jtij., p. 548.
« Kotlies's Relation, &c., p. 67.
I
LADY BOYD. 27
friends of the Bridegroom, and valiant for Christ : I hope that you "H-ill follow on to come to tlie streets for the same Lord." ' Nor was the hope thus expressed disappointed. He was also one of the noblemen who, on the 22dof February, 1638, appeared at the cross of Edinburgh, to protest against his Majesty's proclamation ali*eady referred to. He likewise subscribed the national covenant when renewed at Edinburgh a few days after, and cordially supported the Covenanters, attending their meetings, and giving them the benefit of his counsel and aid. ^ He thus secured a high place in the con- fidence of his party. Writing of this nobleman and of Lord Boyd, to their mother, Ptutherford says, "Your ladyship is blessed with children who are honoured to build up Christ's waste places. I believe that youi* ladyship will think them well bestowed in that work, and that Zion's beauty is your joy." ^
Some of Lady Boyd's daughters were also distinguished for per- sonal piety, and for a resolute adherence to duty in the face of persecution. The sufferings endured by her daughter Christian, the wife of Sir William Scot of Harden, in the reign of Charles II., for attending conventicles, have been already briefly stated in the Intro- duction. We also know that another of her daughters, Helen, wife of Sir William Scot of Ardi'oss, was an excellent woman.
Eutherford when in London, in IGiO and in 16-14 corresponded with Lady Boyd, giving her accounts of the state of religious parties there, and informing her of the proceedings of the Westminster Assembly, of which he was a member. *
During the latter part of the year 164i4i, when the Marquis of Mon- trose came into Scotland, and during the greater part of the following
1 Rutherford's Letters, p. 466. 2 Hotlies's Eelation, &c., passim.
8 Rutherford's Letters, p. 605. The letter is dated St. Andrews, 16 lO. For a farther account of Lord Liudsay, see Notice of Duchess of Rothes. * Rutherford's Letters, pp. 625, 632.
2S THE LADIES OF TUE COVEXAXT.
year, our country suffered much from that ruthless renegade, who with an army composed of Highlanders and Irish papists, perpetrated the most atrocious deeds of cruelty, lust and rapine. But in September, 1645, he was completely defeated at Philiphaugh by Lieutenant-Gene- ral David Leslie, who had come home with some regiments from England, where the regular troops of Scotland had been engaged. The joy which this victory diffused among our countrymen was great, xls an evidence of this, we may mention the following incident, which took place on a Sabbath day at the parish church of Elie, where Lady Boyd was present hearing sermon. About the close of the afternoon's discourse by !Mi\ Robert TraiQ, the minister of the parish, David Luidsay, brother to Lord Balcarres, came into the church with a letter to her from her son. Earl of Crawford-Lindsay, containing the tidings of Montrose's defeat. PubKc worship being concluded, he delivered it to her in the chui'ch, and the people all staying to hear the news, the letter was read. On hearing its contents, they were so overjoyed, that they all returned into the church and solemnly gave thanks to God for the deliverance vouchsafed to the country, by this signal victory gained over an enemy, whose successes had made him formidable, and his barbarities very generally detested.^
Lady Boyd died in the house of her daughter Lady Ardross, in the parish of Elie, about the beginning of the year 1616. On her death bed she was frequently visited by Mr. Robert Traill, minister of that parish, who informs us in his Diary, that she died very comfort- ably.* Her funeral took place on the 6th of February, and was attended by a large concourse of people of all ranks. ALL the members of Parliament, which had been sitting in St. Andrews, were invited to it ; and though the Parliament closed on the 1th of that
* Extracts from Mr. Robert Traill's Diary, in MS. Letters to Wodro'w, vol. xix. no. 68., in Advocates' Library.
^ Extracts from Mr. Robert Ti*aill's Diary, in MS. Letters to Wodrow, voL xix. no. 68.
LADY BOYD. 29
montli, all its members staid in town, partly because the next day was appointed to be kept as a day of solemn humiliation through tlie whole kingdom, and partly to testify their respect for this lady, by following her mortal remains to their last resting-place. Mr. Robert Blair, then minister of St. Andrews, who was well acquainted with her, and who higlily appreciated the excellence of her christian character, also paid to her this last tribute of friendship, and wrote two epitaphs in honour of her memory, the one in Latin and the other in English ; ^ neither of which, however, we have seen. Ruther- ford, who was at that time in London, attending the Westminster Assembly, on hearing of the death of a friend and correspondent he so highly esteemed, addressed to her daughter. Lady Ardross, a consolatory letter. " It hath seemed good, as I hear," says he, " to Him that hath appointed the bounds for the number of our months, to gather in a sheaf of ripe corn, in the death of your christian mother, into his gamer. It is the more evident that winter is near, when apples, without the violence of wind, fall of their own accord oif the tree. She is now above the winter, with a little change of place, not of a Saviour; only she enjoyeth him now without messages, and in his own immediate presence, from whom she heard by letters and messengers before." He farther says, "Ye may easily judge, madam, what a large recompense is made to all her service, her walking with God, and her sorrows, with the first cast of tlie soul's eye upon the shining and admirably beautiful face of the Lamb that is in the midst of that fair and white army which is there, and wdth the first draught and taste of the fountain of life, fresh and new at the well-head ; to say nothing of the enjoying of that face, without date, far more than this term of life which we now enjoy. And it cost her no more to go thither than to suffer death to do her this
1 Row's Life of Robert Blair, p. ISO.
80 THE LADIES OF THE COVEXAXT.
piece of service : for by Uini who was dead and is alive, she was delivered from the second death. What then is the first death to the second? Not a scratch of the skin of a finger to the endless second death. And now she sitteth for eternity mail-free, in a very consi- derable land, which hath more than four summers in the year. Oh, what spring-time is there ! Even the smelling of the odours of that great and eternally blooming Eose of Sharon for ever and ever! What a singing life is there ! There is not a dumb bird in all that large field ; but all sing and breathe out heaven, joy, glory, dominion to the High Prince of that new-found land. And verily, the land is the sweeter, that Jesus Christ paid so dear a rent for it, and he is the glory of the land : all which," he adds, for Lady Ardross, as has been said before, was a ^oman of like spiiit with her mother, "I hope, doth not so much mitigate and allay your grief for her part, (though truly this should seem sufficient) as the unerring expectation of the dawning of that day upon yourself, and the hope you have of the fruition of that same king and kingdom to your own soul."*
* Rutherford's letters, p. 655, See a letter of Mr. Eobei-t M'Ward's to Lady ArJrcss in Appendix no. I.
TT r^-TT' —[-"T"
ELIZABETH MELVILL,
LADY CTJLROSS.
EuzABETH Melvill, a contemporary of the two ladies previously noticed, was the daughter of Sir James Melvill of Halhill in Fife. Her father, who was one of the most accomplished statesmen and courtiers of his age, was ambassador from Queen Mary to Queen Elizabeth, and a privy counsellor to king James YI. He was also a man of sincere piety, and as Mr. John Livingstone informs us, " pro- fessed he had got assurance from the Lord that himself, wife, and all his children should meet in heaven." ^ After a long and active life lie died on the 13th of November, 1617. Her mother was Christian, seventh daughter of David Bos well of Balmuto.^ Her husband, James Colvill, was the eldest son of Alexander Colvill, commendator of Cuh'oss. On the death of James, second Lord Colvill of CuLros?, in 1640, he became of right third Lord Colvill, but did not assume that title.
At what period the subject of this notice experienced the renewmg grace of the Holy Spirit we are ignorant, but few women of her day became more eminent for exemplaiy piety and religious intelligence, or more extensively known, and more highly esteemed among the ministers and professors of the Church of Scotland. Taking her place among those who resisted the attempts made to wrest from ilxz church her own free and independent jurisdiction, and to bring her in her worship and whole administration under the entire control of the crown, she interested herself greatly in their contendings. The
1 Livingstone's ^lemorable Cliaracteristics vd Select Biographies, printed for the Wodrow Society, vol. L p. 346. * Douglas's Peerage, vol. ii. pp. 113, 310.
6Z THE LADIES OF TEE COVENANT.
fortitude displayed by the defenders of truth and freedom commanded her admii-ation: tlieir sulTerings excited her sympathy. To these sentiments and feelings she gave expression in the following sonnet of her own composition, which she sent to Mr. John Welsh, when, for liolding a General Assembly at Aberdeen in July, 1G05, he was im- prisoned in the castle of Blackness, and so closely confined as to be secluded from all intercourse with his friends : —
" My dear brother, Tritli courage bear the cross, Joy shall be joined with all thy sorrow here. High is thy hope, disdain this earthly dross. Once shall you see the wished day appear.
** Now it is dark, the sky cannot be clear, After the clouds it shall be calm anon ; Wait on his will whose blood hath bought thee dear- Extol his name, though outward joys be gone.
" Look to the Lord, thou ai-t not left alone,
Since he is thine, what pleasure canst thou take ? He is at hand, and hears thy every groan : End out thy fight, and suffer for his sake.
*' A sight most bright thy soul shaU shortly see, "VNTien store of gloir ^ thy rich reward shall be." ^
The pious and generous feeling breathed in these lines could not fail to gratify and encourage this great and good man under his suf- ferings. In a similar strain she wrote to Mr. William Rigg of Athemie, bailie of Edinburgh, who was imprisoned in Blackness castle, in 1624 for refusing to communicate kneeling, after that practice had been introduced into the churches of the city, reminding him, among other things, by a pleasing and ingenious antithetic play upon the name and gloom of his prison, "that the darkness of Blackness was not the blackness of darkness." ^
1 " Gloir," Scottice for " glory." ^ Wodrow MSS., Adv. Lib,, vol. xxLx., 4to., no. 4.
* Livingstone's Characteristics in Select Biograpliies, printed for the Wodrow Society, \ol. i. p. 343.
LADY CULHOSS.
How much her heart went along with the contendings of the Presbyterians against the attempts of James VI., to establish Prelacy and its ceremonies, as well as how highly she was respected, is also evn'dent from the following incidental allusion to her in Kii'kton's
Blackness Castle. *
History. After stating that King James in his old age undertook a journey to Scotland, to establish the English ceremonies, the historian goes on to. say, '* So in a coiTupt Assembly at Perth, he first got his live articles concluded, and thereafter enacted in Parliament at Edin- burgh, in the year 1G21. This Parliament was always by common consent called 'The Black Parliament,' not only because of the grievous acts made therein, but also because of a number of dismal
^ For some account of this castle, see Life of Lady CaldwelL c
31 THE LADIES OF THE COVENAXT.
ominous prodigies which attended it, the vote itself which accomplished the design of the meeting being accompanied with a horrible dark- ness, thunderclaps, lire, and unlieard of tempest, to the astonishment of both Parliament and city, as was observed by all. The bishops had procured all the dissatisfied ministers to be discharged the town, so divers of them, upon the last day of the Parliament, went out to Sheens, near Edinburgh, where in a friend's house they spent the day in fasting and prayer, expecting the event, of which they were as then uncertain. After the aged ministers had prayed in the morning with great straitening, at length a messenger from the city, with many tears, assured them aU was concluded contrary to their request. This brought them all into a fit of heaviness, till a godly lady there present, desii'ed Mr. David Dickson, being at that time present, might be employed to pray, and though he was at that time but a young man, and not very considerable for his character, yet was he so wonderfully assisted, and enlarged for the space of two hours, that he made bold to prophesy, that from that discouraging day and forwai'd, the work of the gospel should both prosper and flourish in Scotland, notwith- standing all the laws made to the prejudice of it." ^ Kirkton has not recorded the name of the lady who suggested that Dickson should be employed in prayer ; but Livingstone, who narrates the same inci- dent in his Memorable Characteristics, informs us that Lady Culross told him she was the person by whom the suggestion was made.^
On the preaching of the gospel, Lady Culross attended with exemplary regularity. She was also much in the practice of frequent- ing sacramental solemnities. Li those days the dispensation of the Lord's Supper in the parishes of ministers famed for preaclung the gospel, was flocked to by vast multitudes from the surrounding
1 Kirkton'a History, pp. 16, 17, 18.
^ Select Biograpliies printed for the Wodrow Society, vol. i. p. 317.
LADY CULROSS. .33
tlistricts, so that often many tliousauJs ^vere assembled together to partake of, or to \ntness, this feast of love. These were interestmg occasions. They generally took place in the summer season ; and the sermons were preached in the open air. The solemnity of tlie public sendees powerfully engaged the attention as well as affected the heart; and in the fervent love which pervaded the private christian fellowship of the people with one another, there was exhibited a spectacle on which angels might have looked with delight. The families of the parish, on whom their minister was careful to enforce the duty of entertaining strangers, from the consideration that ''thereby some have entertained angels unawares," exemplified an open-hearted and open-handed hospitality. Many of them accommo- dated so great a number that their domestic circle had the appear- ance of a small congregation, and it seemed as if the primitive days of Christianity had returned, when the disciples had all things in common. Thus Christians from different parts of the country became acquainted with one another, fraternal love was cultivated, and by their religious conversation and devotional exercises, they strengthened the ardour of their mutual piety. It is no wonder that such seasons were looked forward to with eager expectation, and that they left beliiiid them a refreshing and an ever-cherished re- membrance. Eew were more in the habit of waiting upon these observances than Lady Culross ; and when circumstances prevented her from being present, she frequently secured the services of a friend to take notes of the sermons for her use. She indeed appears not to have been without fears of exceeding in her attendance on sacraments the bounds of duty, and of thereby neglecting the concerns of her family at home. At one time meeting with Euphan M'Cullen, a poor but pious woman in the parish of Kilconquhar, who was well known among the devout of her day, and who is said to have seldom prayed without getting a positive answer, Lady Culross requested her to
3G THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT,
pray for her in regard to the outward condition of her family. On being inquired at what answer she had got, the good old woman replied that the answer was, " He that provideth not for his own house, hath denied the faith." At wliich Lady Calross said, " Now you have killed me ; for I go to preachings and communions here and there, neglecting the care of my own family." Euphan replies, "Mistress, if you be guilty in that respect, you have reason to be humbled for it ; but it was not said in that sense to me; but the Lord said, * I that have said, he that provideth not for his own is worse than an infidel, will not I provide for her and her house, seeing she is mine ?' " ^
One of the prmcipal places wliich Lady Culross frequented for enjoying the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, was Lanark, the minister cf which parish, at that time, was Mr. William Livingstone, the father of the celebrated Mr. John Livingstone, minister of Ancrum. Residing in the family of the minister of the parish on these solemnities, and also occasionally at other times, she was struck with the promising piety, the love of learning, and the suavity of manners which charac- terized young Livingstone, and seems to have eai-ly anticipated his future eminence as a minister of the gospel, as she did that of Mr. David Dickson, when an obscure young man ; for among other gifts which distinguished her, she was an acute judge both of character and talents. Livingstone, on the other hand, formed a high estimate of her christian excellence, as well as of her intellectual endowments; and he records in his Life the benefit he derived from her religious conver- sation and demeanour, during those occasions on which she was a guest in his father's house.- An intimate christian friendship thus came to be formed between her and Livingstone, which lasted till her
^ Livingstone's Cliaracteristics in Select Biographies, vol. i. p. 339. 'Life of Mr. John Livingstone in Select Biographies, vol. i. p. 130.
LADY CULROSS. 87
death ; aud au epistolary intercourse was maiutained bet\Yecn tlicm. After the grave had closed over her, Livingstone continued to retain a lively and grateful recollection of her talents and piety. In his Memorable Characteristics he has given her a place among " the pro- fessors of the church of Scotland, of his acquaintance, uho were eminent for grace and gifts ;" and he thus describes her : " Of all that ever I saw, she was most unwearied in religious exercises ; and the more she attained access to God therein, she hungered the more. At the communion in Shotts, in June 1630, the night after the Sabbath was spent in prayer by a great many Christians in a large room, where her bed was ; and in the morning all going apart for their private devotion, she went into the bed, and drew the curtains, that she might set herself to prayer. William Rigg of Athernie coming into the room, and hearing her have great motion upon her, although she spoke not out, he desired her to speak out, saying that there was none in the room but him and her woman, as at that time there was no other. She did so, and the door being opened, the room mLed full. She continued in prayer, with wonderful assistance, for large three hours' time." ^
The account here given of Lady Culross's ardent devotional feeHng, as it appeared at the communion in Shotts, will perhaps excite the ridicule of some, who may be disposed to regard her as actuated more by ostentation and enthusiasm, than by modest, sincere, and en- lightened piety. Eut a slight attention to the simplicity of the times in which she lived, will show how little ground there is for pronouncing so harsh a censure. More primitive in their manners and habits thau in the present day, the people of those times are not to be judged of by modem customs, nor condemned for that which, though unfit for imitation in the altered state of society, conveyed to their minds
1 Livingstone's Memorable Characteristics in Select Biographies, voL i. p. 346.
38 THE LADIES OF THE COVENA^'T.
uothing incousistent with true delicacy. And before we censure her unusual earnestness in prayer, and the uncommon length of time during which the exercise was continued, let us remember that in that age the influences of the Holy Spirit were poured out upon the good in no ordinary measure, imparting to them a high degree of spii'itual vitality, and giving a peculiar depth and fervour to their piety. This consideration alone, not to mention other considerations, will serve to explain wliy public prayers and sermons, as well as social prayer, protracted to an extent to which the patience of few hearers would now be equal, so far from fatiguing, seemed only to refresh and invigorate our hardier and more devout ancestors. Ts^'or is it to be forgotten, should we feel a tendency to find fault with these simple annals of primitive piety, that on the very day on which this lady was engaged in the manner described, there took place such a remarkable outpoui'ing of the Spirit at the kirk of Shotts, as has hardly been equalled since the days of the apostles; and who can teU how far this was vouchsafed in answer to the prayers of this devout woman, — as well as in. answer to the prayers of those who passed the night between the Sabbath and Monday morning in this exercise, — poured forth with great earnestness and importunity to Him, who has promised the effusion of the Spirit upon the church as the fruit of believing prayer? It is also worthy of notice, that, as has been previously stated, it was at her suggestion that the ministers assisting iu the celebration of the Lord's Supper, on that occasion, laid the work of addressing the people on the Monday upon Mr. John Liviug- stone, whose discourse was the instrument, in the hand of the Spirit, of turning so many from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.
These fruits of Mr. Livingstone's ministry served to increase the high estimation in which Lady Cidross held him, as an ambassador of Christ; and upon the death of Mr. Robert Colvill, niinister of
LADY CULllOSS. 39
Culross, in 1030/ she was very desirous of having him settled miiiister of that pai'ish. This appears from a letter she wrote to him, dated 25th March 1631. "I confess," says she, "it is no time for me to quarrel * now, when God is quarrelling with us, and has taken away our dear pastor, who has preached the word of God among us almost forty years, plainly and powerfully: a sore stroke to this congregation, and chiefly to me, to whom he was not only a pastor and a brother, but, under God, a husband and a father to my children. Next his own family I have the greatest loss. Your sudden voyage has troubled me more since than ever, and many of this congregation, who would have preferred you to others, and would have used all means possible if you had been in this land; but now I fear the charm is spilt: yet you cannot go out of my mind, nor out of the mind of some others, who wish you here with our hearts to supply that place, and pray for it, if it be the Lord's wiU, though by appearance there is no possibility of it, for I think they have agreed with another; yet if God have a work, he can bring it about, and work contrary to all means, for there is nothing too hard for him."^ The wish expressed in this letter was not however gratified. The parish of Culross was supplied with another minister, Mr. John Duncan, ^ and Livingstone remained in L'cland, but was soon after, in consequence of his nonconformity, first suspended from the exercise of his ministry, then deposed, and next excommunicated by the Bishop of Down, and ultimately forced to leave the countrv.
1 On December 5, 1640 [? 1630], this minis fcer's son, Mr. Robert Colvill, in Culross, was retom-ed lieir to his father in the lands of Nether Kynnedder. in the regaUty of Dunferm- line, luquis. Eetor. Abbrev. File, no. 601.
2 In the preceding part of the letter she had been blaming Livingstone, who had gone to Ireland in the autumn of the year 1630, for his haste in leading Scotland.
3 Letters from Lady Culross to Mr. John Livingstone, in Select Biographies, printed for tlie Wodrow Society, vol. i. p. 3.58.
« Records of the Sjnod of Fife, p. 236.
40 THE LADIES OF THE C0VEXAN1\
It has been formerly said that Lady Culross and Livingstone maintained an epistolary correspondence. A number of her lettei-s to hhn have been lately printed. Written in the homely and quaint phraseology peculiar to that age, they yet contain nothing at variance with genuine good taste or sobriety of feeUng. Characterized throughout by the familiar, they occasionally indulge in the facetious, and their prevailing spirit is that of fervent piety, and an ardent attach- ment to the public cause, for which Presbyterians were then con- tending, combuied with a solid and enlightened judgment. As a specimen of her skill and ability in encouraging the ministers of the gospel under their sufferings for the sake of Christ, a part of her letter to Livingstone on the occasion of his being suspended from the ministry, dated " Halhill, 10th December 1631," may be quoted. It is headed with the following text of Scripture, " Surely the rage of man shaU turn to thy praise; the remnant of their rage wilt thou restrain;" and it begins as follows: "My very worthy and dear brother, I received your letter, and have no time to answer you as I would. I thank the Lord who upholds you in aU your trials and temptations. It is good for you to be liolden in exercise, otherwise I would suspect that all were not well with you. God is faithful, as you find by experience, and wiH not try you above your strength. Courage, dear brother, all is in love, aU works together for the best. You must be hewn and hammered down, and dressed and prepared before you be a living stone fit for his building. And if he be minded to make you meet to help to repair the ruins of his house, you must look for other manner of strokes than you have yet felt. You must feel your own weakness that you may be humbled and cast down before him, that so you may pity poor weak ones that are borne down with infirmities. And when you are laid low and vile in your own eyes, then will he raise you up, and refresh you with some blinks of his favourable countenance, that you may be able to comfort others with
LADY CULllOSS. 41
tkose consolations wherewith you have beeu comforted by Ilim. This you know by some experience, blessed be God ! And as strength and grace increase, look for stronger trials, fightings without, and fears within, the devil and his instruments against you, and your Lord hiding his face. [You are] deeply, almost overwhelmed with troubles and terrors; and yet out of idl this misery, he is working some gracious work of mercy for the glory of his great name, the salvation and sanctification of your own soul, and for the comfort of his distressed children there or here, or both, as pleases him. Up your heart then, and prepare for the battle! Put on the whole armour of God; though you be weak, you have a strong Captain, whose power is made perfect in weakness, and w^hose grace is sufficient for you. What you want in yourself you have in him, who is given to you of God to be your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, your treasure and treasurer, who keeps all in store. . . . Since lie has put his work in your weak hands, look not for long ease here; you must feel the weight of that worthy calling, and be holden under with the sense of your own weakness, that he may kythe^ his strength in due time; — a weak man and a strong God, who will not fail nor forsake you, but will furnish strength and gifts, and grace, according to that employment that he puts in your hands. The pain is but for a moment, the pleasure everlasting. The battle is but short, your Captain fights for you, therefore the victory is certain, and the reward glorious. A crown and a kingdom are worth the fighting for. Blessed be his name who fights aU our battles, and works all our works for us! Since all is in Christ, and he ours, what would we have more but thankful hearts, and grace to honour him in life and death, who is our advantage in life and death, who guides with his counsel, and will bring us to his glory. To him be aU honoui', power, and praise, now and for ever. Amen." ^
^ " Kv-the," Scot, for "show." « Select Biograpliies, vol. i. pp. 361, 3G2.
42 ^ THE LADIES OF THE COVENAXT.
Lady Culross was also the friend and correspondent of Mr. Samuel Rutherford, some of whose letters to her in 1636 and 1637 are preserved in the published collection of his letters. She was then considerably advanced in years, but had seen no reason for changing the sentiments on ecclesiastical questions which she had embraced in early life; nor had her zeal in adhering to them abated. When Rutherford was summoned to appear before the Court of Higii Commission at Edinbui'gh in 1636, more than thirty years had passed over her head since she addi^essed Mr. John Welsh in the prison of Blackness; but the sufferings of good men in the cause of religious freedom still made her heart swell with emotions of sympathy; and hearing of the unjust proceedings instituted against the minister of Anwoth, she addressed to him a letter giving expression to her sentiments and feeliugs. Rutherford lost no time in replying, and his answer is written with all the confidence of christian friendship.^
The best of God's people have sometimes been unequally yoked, and their children, instead of proving a comfort to them, have been the source of their most poignant grief. In these respects Lady Cuh'oss was severely tried. Writing to Livingstone from HalhiD, 10th December 1631, she says, "Guiltiness in me and mine is my greatest cross. . . . My great temptation now is, that I fear my prayers are tui*ned into sin. I find and see the clean contrary in me and mine, at least some of them.^ Samuel is going to the college in St. Andrews to a worthy master there, but I fear him deadly. I depend not on creatures. Pray earnestly for a blessing. He whom you know is like to overturn all, and has broken all bands.
1 Rutherford's Letters, pp. lOS, 109.
« She had a daughter as to whom this complaint did not apply. In a letter to her from
Aberdeen in 1637, Rutherford writes, "Your son-in-law, W. G., is now truly honoured for
his Lord and Master's cause. . . . He is strong in the Lord, as he hath written to me,
and his wife is his encourager, which should make you rejoice." — Rutherford's Letters, pp. 437.
LADY CULROSS. . 43
Lord, pity bim! There was some beginning of order, but all is wrong again, for the death of his brother makes him take liberty, so I have a double loss." ' It has been said that she " here most probably refers to her son James, whose conduct often occasioned great anxiety to his mother."^ We are rather inclined to think that the reference is to her husband.^ Five or six yeai-s after this she complains in a letter to E.utherford, of the heavy trial she met with from the misconduct of one of her sons, who, so far from proving " a restorer of her life and a nourisher of her old age," was to her a source of the bitterest sorrow. Kutherford, writing from Aberdeen 1637, says in reply, "As for your son who is your grief, your Lord waited on you and me till we were ripe and brought us in. It is your part to pray, and wait npon him. When he is ripe, he will be spoken for. TMio can command our Lord's wind to blow? I know that it shall be your good in the latter end. That is one of your waters to heaven, ye could not go about — there are fewer behind. I remember you and him, and yours as I am able."'^
Whether this letter refers to her third son Samuel, or to another of her sons, we are unable to determine. It is however certain that Samuel was far from embracing the principles or following the example of his mother. He was the author of the piece of Scottish Hudibras, entitled, "Mock Poem, or Whigs' Supplication, in two parts," printed at London in 16S1; a production which could not have been written by a man of strong "sympathies. Its evident object is to provoke the mii'th of the reader, by setting forth, in a ludicrous light, the sufferings endui'ed by the Presbyterians under Charles 11. and their endeavoui's to obtain the redress of their grievances. This betrays both bad taste and want of feelins:. If for men to make themselves
i Select Biographies, vol. i. pp. 362, 3G3. ^ xbid.
^ See p. 39. * Kutlierford's Letters, p. 437
44 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
merry, in any case, over scenes of oppression and wretchedness, is inconsistent with generons and humane feeling, it is evident, that to make the barbarities exercised towards our Presbyterian ancestors the means of ministering to our gaiety, abstracting altogether from the consideration of their principles, can on no ground be vindicated. It is in fact notliing better than would be the spectacle of a man, who, while looking on a fellow-creature under the rack,- amused himself by mimicking or by describing, in ludicrous phrase, the writhings and convulsions of the sufferer. Samuel Colvill was also the author of a work entitled, " The Grand Impostor discovered : Or, An Historical Dispute of the Papacy and Popish Religion ; 1. Demonstrating the newness of both; 2, By what artifices they are maintained; 3. The contradictions of the Roman Doctors in Defending them." It was printed at Edinburgh in 1673, and is dedicated to the Duke of Lauderdale. In the Dedication the author states, that he had the honour to be the Duke's con-disciple, adding, " at which time it did not obscurely appear what your Grace would prove afterwai'ds. Also having presented severaltrifl.es to your Grace, at your two times being in Scotland, you seemed to accept of them with a favourable countenance, which encouraged me to trouble your Grace afresh."
As we have abeady seen. Lady Culross cultivated a taste for poetry. One of her poetical effusions in particular, attracted the admiration of her friends, and was published at their request so early as 1603, It is a thin quarto, consisting of sixteen pages, and is printed in black letters, with the following title: "Ane Godlie Dreame, compyUt in Scottish Meter, be M. M. Gentlewoman in Culros, at the requeist of her Preindes. Introite per angustam povtam, nam lata est via quae ducit ad interitum. * Edinburgh : Printed be Robert Charteris, 1603." In this poem, as in Bunyan's immortal work, " The Pilgrim's Pro- gress," the progress and conclusion of the Christian's life is described
* ». e. " Enter ye in at the strait gate, for broad is the way that leadeth to destruction.**
LADY CULROSS. 45
nuder the similitude of a journey. Written with much liveliness of fancy and description, and with a fluency of versification superior to most of the poetical compositions of that age, it gained her at the time considerable reputation; and in the opinion of competent judges it establishes her claims to poetical powers of no mean order. As it is now rarely to be met with, a brief view of its subject matter may be given, and a few passages may be quoted as a specimen of the poetiy of that period. It is introduced with a description of the heaviness of heart which the writer felt, from her soKtary musings on the depraved state of the world in her day, which she calls "this false and iron age," and on the bias of her own heart to sin. Troubled with a train of reflections on these and similar topics, she endeavoured to pray ; but utterance failed her, and she could only sigh, until relieved by the effusion of tears when she poured forth her lamentations. Thus tranquillized she retii'ed to bed, and falling asleep dreamed that her grief and lamentation were renewed, and that with tears she besought God for succour: —
" Lord JesiTs come (said I) and end my grief, My sp'rit is vexed, the captive would be free : All \ice abounds, 0 send us some relief! I loathe to live, I wish dissolved to be."
While with sighs and sobs she was pourmg forth her complaint, she thought there appeared to her an angel of a shining countenance and loving looks, who enti'eated her to tell him the cause of her grief. Her reply is couched in these lines : —
" I sighed again, and said, Alas ! for me.
My grief is great, I can it not declare : Into this earth I wander to and fro,
A pilgrim poor, consumed "«'ith sighing sair. My sin, alas ! increases mair and mair,
I loathe my hfe, I irk to wander here : I long for heaven, my heritage is there,
I long to hve with mv Redeemer here.'*
46 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
The angel, pleased with this account of her ^ief, bade her rise up immediately and follow him, promising to be her guide, and command- ing her to refi-ain from her tears and to trust in his word and strength. By his endearing accents, and at the sight of his fair countenance, her weary spirit revived, and she humbly desired him to tell her his name. To which he answered — for he was no other person than the Angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ — ^that he was her Grod, adding, in amplification of the gracious relation in which he stood to her, that he was "the way, the truth and life," her "spouse," her ''joy, rest, and peace;" and then exhorting her thus : —
" Rise up anon, and follow after me,
I shall tliee lead into tliy d\velling place, Tlie land of rest thou long'st so sore to see; I am thy Lord that soon shall end thy rare."
Thanking him for his encouraging words, she declared her readiness to follow him, and expressed an earnest desire speedily to see " the land of rest," which he promised her. He answered that the way to it was strait, that she had yet far to go, and that before reaching it she behoved to pass through great and numerous dangers, which would try her "feeble flesh." She admitted that her flesh was weak, but hoped that her spirit was willing, and besought him to be her guide ; in which case she would not be discouraged. She next gives the history of her journey under his conduct : —
" Then up I rose and made no more delay,
My feeble arm about his arm I cast : He went before and still did guide the way,
Though I was weak my sp'rit did follow fast. Through moss and mires, tlirough ditches deep we passed,
Through pricking thorns, through water and through fire: Through dreadful dens, which made my heart agliast,
He bore me up when I began to tire."
After farther describing herself and her guide as climbing high mountains, passing through vast deserts, wading through great waters,
LADY CULROSS. 47
and wending their way through wild woods, in which, through the obstruction of briars, it woukl have been impossible for her, without his assistance, to have proceeded, sha says,
" Fonvard we passed on narrow brigs of tree,
O'er waters great that hideously did roar ; There lay below that fearful was to see,
Most ugly beasts that gaped to devour. My head grew light and troubled wondrous sore,
My heart did fear, my feet began to slide ; But when I cried, he heard me ever more,
And held me up, 0 blessed be my guide ! "
Escaping these dangers, and exhausted through fatigue, she at length thought of sitting down to rest ; but he told her that she must proceed on her journey ; and accordingly, though w^cak, she rose up at his command. For her encouragement, he pointed to that delightful place after which she aspired, apparently at hand ; and looking up she behcid the celestial mansion glistening like burnished gold and the brightest silver, with its stately towers rising full in her view. As she gazed, the splendour of the sight dazzled her eyes ; and in an ecstacy of joy she besought her guide to conduct her thence at once, and by a direct course. But he told her that though it was at no great distance, yet the way to it was extremely difiicult, and encourag- ing her not to faint, he bade her cleave fast to him. Having described the difficulties and dangers she subsequently met with in the course of her journey, she concludes the poem with an explanation of the spiritual meaning of the dream. The following is one of the con- cluding stanzas: —
" Rejoice in God, let not your courage fail,
Ye chosen saints that arc afflicted here : Though Satan rage, he never shall prevail,
fight to the end and stoutly persevere. Your God is true, your blood is to liini dear,
Fear not the way since Christ is yoiir convoy : When clouds are past, the weather will grow clear,
Ye sow in tears, but ye shall reap in joy."
48 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
To the "Godly Dream/' there is added a short poem entitled, "A Comfortable Song, to the Tune of ' Shall I let her go; ' " which ^ye here subjoin : —
"Away ! vain world, bewitcher of my lieart 1 My sorrow shows my sins make me to smart : let will I not despair, but to my God repair.
He has mercy aye, therefore will I pray ;
He has mercy aye, and loves me,
Though by liis troubling hand he proves me.
" Away ! away ! too long thou hast me snared : I will not tyne more time ; I am prepared. Thy subtle slight to flee ; thou hast deceived me,
Though they sweetly smile, smoothly they beguile,
Though they sweetly smile, suspect them,
The simple sort they syle,^ reject them.
" Once more away ! shows loath the world to leave. Bids oft away with her that holds me slave : Loath I am to forego that sweet alluring foe,
Since thy ways are vain, shall I them retain. Since Thy ways are vain, I quit thee. Thy pleasure shall no more delight me.
" A thousand times away ! ah ! stay no more ; Sweet Christ, me save, lest subtle sin devour : Without thy helping hand, I have no strength to stand, * Lest I turn aside, let thy grace me guide :
Lest I turn aside, draw near me : And when I call for help, Lord 1 hear me. ^
*' "VMiat shall I do ? are all my pleasures past ? ^
Shall worldly lusts now take their leave at last ? Yea, Christ these cartldy toys shall turn in heavenly joy 3, Let the world be gone, I will love Christ alone. Let the world be gone, I care not : Christ is my love alone, I fear not."
' To sile" or " svle/' Scot, for " to cover" cr " to blindfold.''
LADY JANE CAMPBELL,
TiscouNTESs OF kex:m:tjiie.
Lajjy Ja>'e Campeell, Viscountess of KE^':^a'EE, was one of the most eminent of the religious ladies who lived during the seventeenth century, and her name is well known to the religious people of Scot- land. No female name of that period has indeed been more familiar to them than hers for nearly two centuries. Nor is this owing to her having left behind her any autobiography or diary containing a record of the Chi'istian graces which adorned her character, or of the re- markable events of the times in which she lived ; for nothing of this kind is known to have ever existed. It is the letters of the cele- brated Mr. Samuel Rutherford — those wonderful effusions of sanctified genius — which have immortalized her memory, and made her name familiar to the pious peasantry of our land. "Who is there that has read the beautiful letters addressed to her by that eminent man, who has not felt the attractions of her character? although it is only indirectly that we can deduce from them the elements which rendered it so attractive.^
Lady Jane Campbell was the third daughter of Archibald, seventh Earl of Argyll, by his first wife, Anne, fifth daughter of "VyilHam, sixth Earl of Morton, of the house of Loclilevin. ^ The precise date of her birth is uncertain, but her parents were married before October, 1594;. Descended both on the father's and the mother's side
1 Rntherford 'was singularly free from the vice of flattery ; and this greatly enhances the value of the illustrations of ch;iracter ^vhich may he derived from his Letters. "I had rather commend grace than gracious persons," says he, to Lady Kenmure, in his Dedication of liis "Trial and Triumph of Faith" to her ; and on this principle he proceeded in writing his Letters.
2 Douglas' Peerage, vol. i. p. 94-. In vol. ii. p. 274, her mother is called Agnea.
O
50 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
from ancient and noble families of great distinction, she was particu- larly honoured in her paternal ancestors, who were renowned for the zeal with which thej maintained the cause of the Reformation. Her great grandfather, Archibald, fourth Earl of Argyll, who in extreme old age espoused, among the first of his rank, Protestant principles, was one of the Lords of the Congregation who subscribed the "Band,'' dated Edinburgh, 3d December, 1557, the first covenant or engage- ment of the Scottish Reformers for their mutual defence ;' and on his death bed,^ he left it as his dying charge to his son Ai'chibald Lord Lorn, afterwards fifth Earl of Argyll, " that he sliould study to set forward the public and true preaching of the EvaugeU of Jesus Christ, and to suppress all superstition and idolatry to the uttermost of his power." ^ Tills son, who was the granduncle of the subject of tliis notice, had previously embraced the Reformation cause, which he promoted with aU the ardour of youthful zeal, and he too was one of the Lords of the Congregation who subscribed the famous "Band" to which allusion has just now been made. Of her mother little is known. To her Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, inscribed his Aurora in 1604, and he gallantly says of his amatory fancies, that " as they were the fruit of beauty, so shall they be sacri- ficed as oblations to beauty," It may also be stated that Park, in his edition of Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, has a portrait of her mother, taken from a painting in the collection of Lady Mary Coke.* Of this parent she had the misfortune to be deprived in her tender years. Her father married for his second wife, on the 30th of November, 1610, in the parish chui'ch of St. Eotolph, Bishopsgate, London, Anne, daughter of Sir William Cornwallis of Brome, ancestor
' Knox's History of tlie Reformation in Scotland, Wodrow Society edition, vol. i. pp. 273, 274.
* Re died towards tlie close of the year 1558.
* Knox's Histon-, &:c, vol. i. p. 290. « Vol. v. p. PA.
LADY KEXMUllE. 51
of Marquis Cornwallis, by Lucy, daugliter of John (Ncvill) Lord Latimer. About eight years after this maniage, lie went to Spain, and having entered into the service of Philip III. distinguished him- self in the wars of that monarch against the states of Hollan;!. Through the influence of his second wife, who was a Papist, he embraced the Popish religion, although he had, for the best part of liis life, been a warm and zealous Protestant. He returned to Eng- land in 1G38, and died at London the same year, aged about 62. '
Li her early years Lady Jane was of a delicate constitution, and she suffered much from bodily afiliction. It was no doubt hard to human nature to languish at a period of life when she might naturally have looked for health and enjoyment ; but as we may gather from Mr, Samuel Rutherford's, and Mr. Robert M^Ward's letters to her, this became, by the divine blessing, the means of impressing upon her youthful mind a deep sense of the importance of religion, and of bringing her to the saving knowledge of Christ. Rutherford writing to her says, "I am glad that ye have been Acquainted from your youth with the wi'estlings of God." — " I think it great mercy that your Lord from your youth hath been hedging in your outstraying affections, that they may not go a- whoring from himself." — '' I knew and saw him [Christ] with you in the furnace of affliction ; for there he wooed you to himself and chose you to be his." ^ And M'Ward, in a letter to her, says, " He made you bear the yoke in your youth, and was it not in the wilderness that he first allured you and spoke to your heart ? and when come to greater age ye wanted not your domestic fires and house furnace." ^ In vouth too she imbibed that
^ Douglas' Peerage, vol. i. p. 94; and vol. ii. i). 274. — Playfair*8 Britisli Family Antiquities, vol. iii. pp. 127, 247.
2 Letters of Jlr. Samuel Hutlierford, Wliyte aud Keimedy's edition, Euiaburgh, Ibis, pp. 8, 45, 58.
'^ Wodrow MSS. vol. Iviii. folio, no. 53.
52 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
strong attaclimeut to Presbyterian principles, wliich distinguished her during the whole of her future Life.
This lady was first married to Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar, afterwards Yiscount of Kenmurc. The exact date of this uinon we have not ascertained ; but we find her mentioned as his wife early in 1626. Mr. John Livingstone, w^ho had visited Galloway in the beginning of the summer of that year upon the invitation of Sir John Gordon, informs us in his life, that during the short period of his sojourn in that district, he "got acquaintance with Lord Kenmure and his religious lady." ' Sir John w^as a man of accomplishment and piety, and, like his lady, a warm friend to the Presbyterian interest. As Hosco, the place of liis residence, was situated in the parish of Anwoth, he made no small exertions, and .ultimately with success, to effect the disjunction of that parish from two other parishes^ with which it was united, and to get it erected into a separate parish, having a minister exclusively to itself. He had fii*st an eye to Mr. John Livingstone as its minister, whom with that view, as we have seen, he invited to Galloway, but who, before the difficulties in the way of its erection into a separate parish were overcome, accepted a caU. from Torphichen. He, however, succeeded in obtaining for Anwoth Mr. Samuel Kutherford; nor was his zeal limited to his endeavours to obtain an efficient gospel minister to his own parish, the extension of the same blessing through the length and breadth of the land being an object in which he felt the deepest interest.^ Lady Gordon and her husband were thus placed under the ministry of ^Ir. Samuel Rutherford. This they accounted a high privilege, and they were in no small degree instrumental, both by the example
1 Select Bio^apliies printed for the Wodrow Society, vol. i. p. 135. Douglas is tliercfore mistaken in saying in his Peerage, (vol. ii. p. 27,) that their maiTiage took place in 16i28. « Tliese were Kirkdale and Kivkniabreck. 3 Rutherford's Letters, p. 7.
LADY KENMURE. 53
of a Christian dcportmeut, and by the influence of a high station ill promoting the interests of true religion among their fellow- parishioners.
From the beginning, Lady Gordon formed a very high opinion of Rutherford's talents and piety; and, as the course of his ministry advanced, she appreciated in an increasing degree liis pastoral diligence and faithfulness. Eutherford, on the other liand, highly esteemed her for the amiableness of her disposition, the humility of her demeanour, and the sanctity of her deportment, as well as for lier enliglitened and warm attachment to the Presbyterian cause. An intimate CJiristian friendship was thus soon formed between them ; and they maintained frequent epistolary intercourse on religious subjects till tlie death of Rutherford, the last of whose letters to her, dated July 24, 16G0, scarcely eight months before his own death, was written on his hearing that her brother, the Marquis of Argyll, was imprisoned by Charles II. in the Tower of London. Many of his letters to her have been printed, and are well known. All of them evidently indicate his conviction that he was writing to one whose attainments in religion were of no ordinary kind, as well as the deep interest which he took in her spiritual welfare and comfort ; and they abound in grateful acknowledgments of the numerous tokens of kindness and generosity which he had received at her hands. None of her letters to him have been preserved ; but, from the allusions to them in his letters, we gather that they were characterized by a strain of sincere and humble piety, by the confidence of genuine friendsliip, the warmth of Christian sympathy, and a spirit of active benevolence. She complained that, notwithstanding all the methods adopted by her Saviour to teach her, she was yet an iU scholar, lamented her defi- ciencies in the practice of holiness, and expressed her fears that she had little grace, but encouraged herself from the considera- tion that God's compassions failed not, although her service to him
5 i THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
luiscarried.' In all her difficulties, doubts, and trials, sbe applied to him for advice and comfort, in the happy art of communicating which he was equalled by few. And such was the coniidence she reposed in his piety, wisdom, and prudence, that she could communicate the state of her mind to him with more freedom than to almost any other individual with whom she was acquainted. Of all his friends, none took a deeper interest in his welfare than she took. Tender in her feelings, she warmly sympathized with him under his domestic afflic- tions, under the loss of his children and his wife.^ Her influence she was ever ready to exert in his behalf when he was subjected to public suffering in the cause of truth ; and instances are not wanting of persons in high places befriending him from a knowledge of the Christian intimacy which subsisted between him and this excellent Lady. When he was summoned to appear before the court of high commission in 1630, Mr. Alexander ColviUe, one of the judges, "Tor respect to your Ladyship,'' says Rutherford to her, " was my great friend, and wrote a most kind letter to me. I entreat your Ladyship to thank Mr. Alexander Colville w^ith two lines of a letter." ^ When he was before the same court in 1636, "the Lord," says he, writing to Marion M'N aught, " has brought me a friend from the Highlands of Ai'gyll, my Lord of Lorn,* who has done as much as was within the compass of his power ;" ^ an act of generosity which he doubtless owed to his friendship with Lady Gordon; for he was "a poor unknown stranger to his Lordship."^ And when her influence was insufficient to shield him from persecution, he could calculate upon being a sharer in her sympathies and prayers, as his numerous letters to her from Aberdeen, when confined a prisoner there by the high commission court, fully testify. Writing to her from his place of confinement,
J Rutherford's Letters, pp. 1-23, 183, 200, 203-205. 2 iijij. pp. 57^ 55^ gy. s ibid. p. 2L 3 Brother to Lady KenDiui'e, aiid afterwards tlie !XIarquis of Ar^'vll, "vrho suffered in 1661. « llutherford's Letters, p. 105. « Ibid. p. 107.
LADY KENMURE. 00
June 17, 1G37, he says, "I am somewhat encouraged in that your Ladyship is not dry and cold to Christ's prisoner, as some are." ' And in a letter to Lady Cdross, from the same place and in tne same year, he thus writes : — " I know also that ye are kind to my worthy Lady Kenmure, a woman beloved of the Lord, who hath been very mindful of my bonds. The Lord give her and her child to find mercy in the day of Christ!" 2
Ijady Gordon, who had suffered much from ill health in the previous part of her life, was, in Jidy, 1628, visited with sickness. Under ihis afiliction Hutherford reminded her, that He who "knew the frame and constitution of her nature,' and what was most healthful for her soul, held every cup of affliction to her head with his own gracious hand;" and that her "tender-hearted Saviour, who knew the strength of her stomach, would not mix that cup with one drachm weight of poison."^ About the close of the same year, or the beginning of the year 1629, she was bereaved of an infant daughter. On this occasion Rutherford visited her, to administer Christian comfort, and afterwards kindly addressed to her a consolatory letter. Among other things, he suggested to her these considerations, so finely expressed, and so well fitted to sustain the afflicted spirit of a mother under such a trial- — "Ye have lost a child; nay, she is not lost to you who is found to Christ ; she is not sent away, but only sent before, like unto a star, which going out of our sight doth not die and evanish, but shineth in another hemisphere. Ye see her not, yet she doth shine in another country. If her glass was but a short hour, what she wanteth of time, that she hath gotten of eternity ; and ye have to rejoice that ye have now some plenishing up in heaven. Show yourself a Christian by suffering without murmuiiug. Li patience possess your soul." *
i Rutherford's Letters, p. 4C9. ^ i^jj p_ 433. s jy^id p. 5, 4 n^id, pp. g, 9, 10.
56 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
In the autumn of the year 1G29, sbe and her husband removed from Kosco to London, where they intended to reside for some time.' The design of Sir John in going to London probably was to prosecute his views of worldly honour and ambition. By right of his mother, who was Lady Isabel Ruthven, daughter of William, first Earl of Gowrie, he expected that the honours of the house of Gowrie, attainted for high treason in IGOO, would be revived in his person. With the view of making this acquisition, he is said to have sold the lands of Stitehill,^ the ancient inheritance of the family, and to have given to the Duke of Buckingham, the evening before his assassination bv Felton, the purchase price, in a purse of gold, as a bribe to him to support his claims.^
Lady Gordon's change of residence, brought about by these circum- stances, in less than two years after Rutherford's induction, was no small loss both to him and to his people; and he lamented her departure as one of the heaviest trials he had met with since the Lord had called him to the ministry ; " but," says he, " I perceive God will have us to be deprived of whatsoever we idoKze, that he may have his own room." ^
Daring her absence, she and Rutherford maintained a regular epistolary correspondence. He assured her how exceedingly he
1 Murray, in his Memoirs of Lord Kenmure, prefixed to an edition of Ms Last and ITcaveuly Speeches, says that they removed to Edinburgh, but tliis must be a mistake ; for Rutherford, bidding Lady Gordon farewell on that orcasion, says that he "had small assiu-ance ever to see her face again till the last general assembly, where the whole church- universal shall meet;" language wliich he would not probably have used had she only removed to Edinburgh; and he farther says, "Ye are goiug to a country where the Sun of Righteousness in the gospel shineth'not so clearly as in this kingdom."— Rutherford's Letters, p. 10.
2 He was served heir to his father 20tli of March, 1629, his father having died in Kovember, ] G28. — Douglas' Peerage, vol. ii. p. 27.
' Douglas' Peerage, vol. ii. p. 27. * Rutherford's Letters, v. 11.
LADY KENMURE. 57
longed to hear of her spiritual welfare, and that it was liis constant pi-aver at the tlirone of grace, that while " deprived," as she then was, " of the comfort of a lively ministry," God might be to her as a little sanctuary; and that as she "advanced in years and stealed forward insensibly towards eternity, her faith might grow and ripen for the Lord's harvest." ^ In her communications to him, she com- plained of bodily infirmity and weakness ; but Rutherford reminds her that " it is better to be sick, providmg Christ come to the bed- side and draw by (aside) tlie curtains, and say, * Courage, I am thy salvation,' than to enjoy health, being lusty and strong, and never to be visited of God." ^ He also regrets her absence for the sake of the interests of religion in her native country. " We would think it a blessing," says he, " to our kirk to see you here." ^ She and her husband appear to have remained in England till about the close of the year 1631, when they retui'ued to Scotland, and settled at Ken- raure Castle, a place about twenty miles distant from Anwoth, and which has ever since been the residence of the family.* During her stay in England, notwithstanding reports to the contrary, she "had not changed upon nor wearied of her sweet master Christ and his service;" and Rutherford still "expected that whatever she could do by word or deed for the Lord's friendless Zion, she would do it." 5
Early in the year 1633, she was bereaved of another daughter, who died in infancy, as we learn from a letter written to her by Rutherford on the 1st of April that year. " I have heard also, madam, that your child is removed; but to have or want is best as He pleaseth. Whether she be with you or in God's keeping, think it all one ; nay, tliink it the better of the two by far that she is with him." ^
1 Rutherford's Letter?, pp. 17, 20, 8?. ^ Ibid. pp. 19, 20. 3 ibid. p. 17.
4 Ibid. pp. 39, 40. nUid. p. 44. e ibid. p. 5(5.
58 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
By letters patent, dated 8th May, 1G33, licr husband was created Viscount of Kennmre and Lord of Lochinvar, the title descending to his heirs male whatever bearing the name and arms of Gordon ; and she was with him in Edinburgh when he attended King Charles I. at the parliament in June that year ; but after staying only a few days they returned home to their country seat, the Castle of Kenmure. The reason of their early departure was this : In that parliament Charles intended to pass two acts, the one, ratifying the acts of Perth assembly and other acts made for settling and advancing the estate of bishops; and the other, asserting the king's prerogative to impose the surplice and other Popish apparel upon ministers ? ' Por neither of these acts could Lord Kenmure, according to his convictions of duty, give his vote ; but instead of attending the parliament, and honestly opposing the passing of these acts, as others nobly did, at a juncture when the safety of the Presbyterian cause demanded the most decided and energetic measures on the part of its friends, he pusillanimously deserted the pai'liament, under pretence of indispo- sition, for fear of incurring the displeasure of his prince, who had already elevated him to the peerage, and from whom he expected additional honours, — a dereliction of duty for which at the time, as he afterwards declared, he felt "fearful wrestlings of conscience," and which caused him the most bitter remorse in his dying moments. When in Edinburgh, Lady Kenmure had an opportunity of witnessing the imposing splendour and gaiety of a court ; but scenes which have so often dazzled and intoxicated others, only served the more deeply to impress upon her mind, what she had long before learned by the teacliing of the Spiiit of God, the empty and evanescent nature of all the glitter and pageantry of the world. "I bless the Lord Jesus Christ," says Rutherford to her on her return, " who liath brought
S'jot's Apolcgetical Narration, p. 3^iO.— Euilierford's Letters, p. 'lO'J.
LADY KENMUllE. 39
you Lome again to your country from that place where ye liave seen with your eyes, tliat wliicli our Lord's truth taught you before, to wit, that worldly glory is nothing but a vapour, a shadow, the foam of the water, or something less and lighter, even nothing ; and that our Lord hath not without cause said in his word, * The countenance or fashion of this world passeth away.' " ^
Worldly honour and splendour had however more attractions for her husband. So great an influence had they of late acquired over his mind, that tliough there is every reason to believe he was a con- verted man, yet he had fallen into a state of comparative indifference both as to personal religion and tlie public interests of the cliurch. Rutherford, it would seem, perceived this, and with his characteristic tideiity urges it upon Lady Kenmui'e as **' a part of the truth of her profession, to drop words in the cars of her noble husband continually, of eternity, judgment, death, hell, heaven, the honourable profession, the sins of his father's house.'' "I know," says he, "he looketh homeward and loveth the truth, but I pity him with my soul, because of his many temptations." ^ With this counsel, from her eminently religious character, we need not doubt that she would comply.
Iq the spring of 1634 she lost another daughter, -who had become dangerously ill towards the close of the preceding year, and who was only about a year old.^ Writing to Mai'ion M'Naught, April 25, 1634, Rutherford says, " know that I have been visiting Lady Kenmure. Her child is with the Lord ; I entreat you visit her, and desire the goodwife of Barcapple to visit her, and Knockbreck, ^ if you see him in the town. My lord her husband is absent, and I think she will be heavy." And in a consolatory letter addressed to herself on that occasion he thus WTites : " I believe faith will teach vou to kiss a
i Rutherford's Letters, p. 76. '"Ibid. p. 59. 3 Ibid. pp. 59, 63,
* JSobert Gordon of Knockbreck.
60 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
striking Lord, and so acknowledge tlie sovereignty of God in the death of a child, to be above the power of us mortal men, who may ])luck up a flower in the bud, and not be blamed for it. If our dear Lord pluck up one of his roses and pull down sour and green fruit before harvest, who can challenge liim?" '
Li tlie autumn of 1634:, she met with a still more severe trial in the death of Lord Kenmure. His lordship left Kenmure castle for Edinburgh in the month of August that year, probably on business connected with the earldom of Gowrie, to which he was so desirous of being elevated. But it was the ordination of Providence that his hopes of this preferment should never be realized. After staying some days in Edinburgh, he came home towards the end of August under much indisposition. It turned out to be a fever, of which, after enduring much sulTering, he died on the 12th of September, at the early age of thirty-five. Having, as we have just now said, been for some time past less careful in cultivating personal piety, and less zealous in promoting the public interests of the church than in former days, he was painfully conscious of his want of preparation for death ; and at first the most poignant remorse took possession of his con- science, causing many a pang of anguish and many a bitter tear to flow. Among the sins which at that solemn period came crowding into his memory, that which occasioned him the greatest agony was his deserting the parliament the preceding year. " Shice I did lie down on this bed," said he to 3klr. Andrew Lamb, the bishop of Gal- loway, who visited him, " the sin that lay heaviest on my soul and hath burdened my conscience most, was my withdi-awing of myself from the parliament, and not giving my voice for the truth against those thmgs which they call indifferent ; for in so doing I have denied the Lord my God." But by the judicious counsels of Eutherford,
1 Rutherford's Letters, p. G5.
LADY KENMURE. Gl
who continued with him at the Castle, ahnost from the commencement of his illness to his death, he was led to improve the peace-speaking blood of Christ ; and thus attaining to the full assurance that God in his abounding mercy had pardoned his sins, he enjoyed much comfort in passing through the dark valley of the shadow of death. A few minutes before its departure, Rutherford engaged in prayer, and " in the time of that last prayer, his lordship was observed joyfully smiling, and looking up with glorious looks, as was observed by the beholders, and with a certain beauty his visage was beautified, as beautiful as ever he was in his life. And the expiry of his breath, the ceasing of the motion of his pulse (which the physician was still holding), cor- responded exactly with the Amen of the prayer, — and so he died sweetly and holily, and his end was peace." ^
During the whole of his illness, Lady Kenmure watched over him with affectionate tenderness and care. Of her kind and unwearied attentions, as well as of her high Christian excellence, he was deeply sensible. " He gave her, diverse times, and that openly, an honoui'- abie and ample testimony of holiness and goodness, and of all respectfiu kindness to him, earnestly craved her forgiveness wherein he had offended her, desired her to make the Lord her comforter, and observed that he was gone before, and that it was but fifteen or sixteen years up or down." She felt, in a special manner, deeply anxious about the state of his soul. When, on. the first night of Rutherford's arrival at Kenmure Castle, his lordship expressed to him his fears of death, and desired him to stay with him and show him the marks of a child of God, " for," said he, " you must be my second in this combat ;" she judiciously observed, " You must have Jesus Christ to be your second ;" an observation in which he cordiallv concurred. At another
1 The Last and Heavenly Speeches and Glorious Departiue of John Viscount of Keiimnre, by Samuel Kuiherford.
6:2 THE ladies of the covEXAyT.
time, when, from the hopes of recovery, inspired by the temporary abating of the fever, he became much less concerned about the salva- tion of his soul than before, it is particularly mentioned in his Last and Heavenly Speeches, that this was to her a source of no small distress.
Under this painful bereavement. Lady Kenmure was enabled to exercise a pious resignation to the will of her heavenly Father, all whose dispensations towards her she believed to be in wisdom and love, a consideration which proved her chief support and surest consolation under all her afflictions. In attaining to this desirable state of mind, she was greatly aided by Rutherford, who, while he remained at the Castle, allayed her sorrow by his prayers and counsels, and who, on his return home, still addressing liimself to the task of soothing her grief, wrote her a very comforting letter two days after the fatal event. "And, albeit/' says he, "I must, out of some experience, say the mourning for the husband of your youth be by God's own mouth the heaviest worldly sorrow (Joel i. 8) ; and though this be the weightiest burden that ever lay upon your back, yet ye know, (when tlie fields are emptied, and your husband now asleep in the Lord,) if ye shall wait upon him who hideth his face for a while, that it lieth upon God's honour and truth to fill the field, and to be a husband to the widow." Speaking of Lord Kenmure, he says, ''Remember, that star that sinned in Galloway is now shining in another world." And, in reference to the past trials of her life, as well as to the present, he observes : — "I dare say that God's hammer- ing of you from your youth, is only to make you a fair carved stone in the high upper temple of the New Jerusalem. Your Lord never thought this world's vain painted glory a gift worthy of you ; and therefore would not bestow it on you, because he is to present you with a better portion. I am now expecting to see, and that with joy and comfort, that which I hoped of you since I knew you fully; even
LADY KENMURE. 63
that ye have laid such strength upon the Holy One of Israel that ye defy troubles, and that your soul is a castle that may be besieged, Ijut cannot be taken. What have ye to do here? This world never looked like a friend upon you. Ye owe it little love. It looked ever sourlike upon you." ^ In another letter he thus writes, in reference to the same subject :— " In this late visitation that hath befallen your ladyship, ye have seen God's love and care in such a measure that I thought our Lord broke the sharp point off the cross, and made us and your ladyship see Christ take possession and infeftment upon earth of him who is now reigning and triumphing with the hundred forty and four thousand who stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion." ^ Under this bereavement, she had the kind condolence of "many honourable friends and worthy professors." ^
To this nobleman, besides the three daughters, who, as we have already seen, died in infancy, she had a son, John, second Yiscount of Kenmure, who was served heir to his father in his large estates in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, 17th March, 1635, and whose testa- mentary tutors were xirchibald. Marquis of Argyll, and William, Earl of Morton.^ This son was born after his father's death, about the close of the year 1634, or early in the year 1635 ; ^ and died in infancy in August, 1639, at the age of four years and some months. He had long before been in so delicate health, as to excite tlie apprehensions of his mother, whose maternal solicitudes were all concentrated in her tender watchfulness over her infant boy. His
1 Kutlierford's Letters, pp. 68, 69. a i],id. p. 7-3. s Ibid. p. 73.
4 Douglas' Peerage, vol. ii. p. 27. Besides these cliildi-en, it is not unlikely she had some others who also died in infancy. Rutherford, writing to her in 1634, says, that the Lord liad taken away from her many children. — Hutherford's Letters, p. 78.
5 In one of Rutherford's Letters to her, dated Nov. 29, 1634, obvious allusions are made to her being near the time of her confinement, and tbe child born was evidently this son ; for Rutherford reminds her, after his death, that she had got a four years' loan of him. He would be some months more than four years of age.
G i THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
deatli therefore could uot be said to have come unexpected, nor could she be altogether unprepared for the stroke. But still the removal of this much loved and caressed child, inflicted a deep wound on the affectionate mother's heart. He was her only son and her only remaining child, the heir of his father's wealth and honours, and by his death the honours and estates of the noble house of Kenmure would pass into another family. All these circumstances would naturally intwine her affections around him, and increase the pangs of maternal agony when he was taken from her and laid in the grave. "I confess," writes Eutherfordto her, "it seemed strange to me that your Lord should have done that which seemed to ding out the bottom of your worldly comforts ; but we see not the ground of the Almighty's sovereignty ; ' he goeth by on our right hand, and on our left hand, and we see him not.' We see but pieces of the broken links of the chains of his providence ; and he coggeth the wheels of his own providence that we see not. Oh, let the Eormer work his own clay into what frame he pleaseth ! ' Shall any teach the Almighty knowledge ?' If he pursue the dry stubble, who dare say, ' What doest thou?' Do not wonder to see the Judge of the world weave into one web your mercies and the judgments of the house of Kenmure. He can make one web of contraries." ' God, however, does nothing without wise and holy reasons, and the spiritual improvement of his people is an end of which he never loses sight in all the trials with which he visits them. "But," adds Butherford in the same letter, "my weak advice, with reverence and correction, were for you, dear and worthy lady, to see how far mortification goeth on, and what scum
the Lord's fire casteth out of you I do not say, that heavier
afllictions prophesy heavier guiltiness ; a cross is often but a false prophet in this kind ; but I am sure that our Lord would have the
1 PkUtlierford's Letters, p. 578.
LADY KENMURE. 65
tin and the bastard metal in you removed; lest the Lord say, 'ITie bellows are biunt, the lead is consumed in the fire, the Founder melteth in vain,' " (Jer. vi. 20.) And in the conclusion, he thus counsels her, "It is a Christian art to comfort yourself in the Lord; to say, *I was obliged to render back again this child to the Giver; and if I have had four years' loan of him, and Christ eternity's possession of him, the Lord hath kept condition with me.' "
Lady Kenmure, on the 21st of September, 164:0, nearly a year after the death of her son, married for her second husband the Honourable Sir Hemy Montgomery of GiiTen, second son of Alexander, sixth Eaid of Eglmton. This new relation proved a source of happiness to both. Sir Henry was an excellent man. His sentiments on religious and ecclesiastical questions corresponded with her own ; and he is described as an " active and faithf d friend of the Lord's kirk." ^ But the union, which was without issue, did not last long ; she was soon left a widow a second time ; in which state she lived till a very venerable age. The exact time of Sir Henry's death we have not discovered. Eutherford addressed a letter to her on that occasion, from St. Andrews, but it wants the date of the year. ^ Though by this second marriage she became Lady Montgomery, we shall take the liberty stiU to designate her " Lady Kenmure," as this is the name by which she is most generally known.
Subsequently to this, Rutherford's letters to her fui'nish few addi- tional facts respecting her history. They contain repeated allusions to her bodily infirmities ; and from their tone, it is manifest that she had attained to much maturity in grace, and that " aU the sad losses, trials, sicknesses, infirmities, griefs, heaviness, and inconstancy of the creature," had been ripening her for heaven. There is also evidence
' Rutherford's Letters, p. 623. 2 n,:a. p. g23.
66 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
that she continued steadfast in the principles of the second reforma- tion, and adhered in her judgment to the Presbyterian party called the Protesters, regarding the policy of the Ilesolutioners, what it really was, as inconsistent with the obligations of the Solemn League and Covenant, of which, if she did not enter into it, she cordially approved. " I am glad," says Ilutlierford, writing to her from Glas- gow, Sept. '23, 1651, "that your breath servetli you to run to the end, in the same condition and way wherein ye have walked these twenty years past. Tlie Lord, it is true, hath stained the pride of all our glory, and now, last of aU, the sun hath gone down upon many of the prophets. ... I hear that your ladyship hath the same esteem of the despised cause and covenant of our Lord that ye had before. Madam, hold you there." ^
Much would it have gratified both these eminent saints to have lived to see " the despised cause and covenant of the Lord" honoured and prospering in the land ; but this neither of them was privileged to witness. Writing to her in the autumn of 1659, Rutherford tells her of the satisfaction it would afford him should God be pleased to lengthen out more time to her, that she might, before her eyes were shut, "see more of the work of the right hand of the Lord in reviving a swooning and crushed land and church." - More time was indeed lengthened out to her, but it was to see, not the work of God in reviving the church, but the work of man in laying it waste, and in persecuting even to the death its ministers and members. Her highly esteemed correspondent was removed by death on the eve of these calamities, having died on the 20th of March, 1661, just in time to escape being put to an ignominions death for the testimony of Jesus. ITe was taken away from the evil to come. She survived him above eleven years, witness-iug the desolations of tlie chiu'ch, and though
1 Rutherford's Letters, p. 679. ^ jiji^. p. 695.
LADY KEXMURE. 67
personally preserved from the fury of persecution, she suffered bitterly in some of her nearest relations.
After Eutherford was laid in the dust, she cherished his memory with affectionate veneration, and in token of her remembrance, libe- rally extended her beneficence and kindness to his widow and only surviving daughter. This we find adverted to in a letter addressed to her by Mr. Robert M'Ward, from Rotterdam, October 2, but without the date of the year. " Madam," says he, " Mrs. Rutherford gives me often an account of the singular testimonies which she meets with of your ladyship's affection to her and her daughter. If I could (though I had never had those personal obligations to your ladyship which I have, and under which I must die undischarged,) I would look on myself as obliged upon this account to pray that God may remember and reward your labour of love shown to the dead and continued to the living." * The letters Rutherford had written to her she carefully preserved ; and when, after his death, the publica- tion of a collection of his letters was resolved upon, very desirous that those of them in her possession should be included in the volume, she transmitted them to Holland, to ]Mr. M'Ward, under whose super- intendence the work was published at Rotterdam, in 1664;. ^Yhen it was published, M^lYard sent to her a copy in common binding, and some time after a copy bound in morocco, which, however, never reached her ; on learning which, he sent her another copy in the same binding. ^
Soon after the restoration of Charles 11., a deep wound was inflicted on the heart of Lady Kenmure by the cruel manner in which the government treated her brother, the Marquis of Argyll, who, imme- diately on his arrival at Whitehall, whither he had proceeded from Scotland to offer his respectful congratulations to his Majesty, was
» Wodrow, MSS. vol. Iviii. folio, no. 52. 2 ji^ij ^^i^^y^ ^q 53^
GS THE LxU)I£S OF THE COVENANT.
by liis orders thrown into the Tower of London, and afterwards brought to trial before the Scottisli Parliament, by which he was condemned to be beheaded.' Daring the course of these proceedings, and subsequently to them, she received kind letters of condolence from several of her friends. Hutherford, on hearing of the imprison- ment of her brother in the Tower, wrote to her from St. Andrews, July 24, IGGO, saying, among other things, "It is not my part to be unmindful of you. Be not afflicted for your brother, tlie Marquis of Argyll. As to the main, in my weak appreliension, the seed of God being in him, and love to the people of God and his cause, it shall be well." ^ After the execution of this nobleman, Mr llobert M'Ward, ^
1 The circumstances connected witli the apprehension, trial, and execution of the Marquis are more fully detailed in the Sketch of the Marchioness of Argyll's Life, which follows. In those days it would appear that, hke astrologers, who professed to foretell the fortunes of men from the aspect of the heavens, and the influence of the stars, plu'siognomists, with equal absurdity, pretended to read men's future destiny in their countenances. The follo^ving instance of this may be quoted as an illustration of the foohsh superstition which, at that period, existed in the best educated and most enhghtened circles of society : — "Alexander Colville, justice depute, an old servant of the house, told me that my Lady Kenraure, a gracious lady, my lord's (^larquis of Argyll's) sister, from some little skill of physiognomy, which Mr. Alexander had taught her, had told him some years ago that her brother would die in blood." — Bailiie's Letters, quoted in Kirkton's History, p. 107.
2 Rutherford's Letters, p. 707.
3 Mr. llobert M'Ward, whose name has frequently occurred before, became minister of the Outer High Church, Glasgow, upon the death of Mr. Andi-ew Gray, who died in Tebruary, 1656. He, and Mr. John Baird, who became minister of Paisley, when studying at the college of St. Andi-ews, were reckoned the two best scholars in all the college j and he maintained, through life, his reputation as a man of talent as well as of piety. ])istin- guished for the highly oratorical style of his pulpit com])0^itions, on which he bestowed much labour, he was very popular. Eef erring to his ornate style, a friend observed that he was "a brave busking preacher;" and, on one occasion, ^Mr. James Rowat, minister of Kilmarnock, said to him, " God forgive you, brother, that darkens the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by your oratory." M'Ward was a zealous Presb\i:erian, and strongly opposed to the public Resolutions. As might have been expected, he did not long escape persecution after the restoration of Charles II. Incurring the resentment of the govern- ment, for the freedom and fidehty with which he expressed his sentiments, in a sermon preached at Glasgow, from Amos iii. 2, in February, 1661, he was brought before the Parliaaicnt on the 6th of June that yearj and, on the oth or 6th of July, they passed
LADY KENMURE. B9
Oil Lis arrival in Holland, wrote to her a letter, in which, besides expressing his eordial sympathy with lier under this trial, he directs and encourages her, in reference to those dark times whieli had then come upon the Church of Scotland, as well as in regard to those still darker days which seemed to be at hand. After adverting to the many personal and domestic afflictions she had suffered, he adds, "And now, madam, it is apparent what the Lord hath been designing and doing about you in dealing so witli you ; for, besides tliat he hath been thereby making your ladyship to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light ; besides this, I say, whicli is common to your ladyship with all saints, he seems to have had this peculiar aim, to fit you for a piece of hard service ; and so your ladyship, after these more private and personal conflicts seemed to be over, or were for- gotten, hath had the honour amongst the first to be brought upon the stage, though not in your own person, yet in your honourable and deservedly dear relations, there to act a part very Uiipleasant to flesh and blood, even to see those who were to your ladyship as your- self slain (I may say it, and it is known to be true upon the matter,) for the word of God and their testimony which they held. Thus he Lath not liid sorrow from your eyes, and yet there is such a sweet mixture in the bitter cup as no doubt gives it so delectable and plea- sant a relish thci it is sweet in the belly, though, not pleasant to the taste. Yea, he hath left your ladyship still upon the stage (after that Vv'orthy hath been honourably dismissed and taken off with the appro- bation of 'Well done, good and faithful servant,' leaving his name
sentence of banishment upon him, but allowed him to remain six months in the nation. llemo\ing to Holland, he Ijecame minister of the Scottish congregation in Rotterdam, where, with some temporaiy interruptions, he continued to labour with diligence and success until his death, which took place about the year 1681 or 1682. He was married to the widowr of Mr. Jolin Graham, Provost of Glasgow.— Wodrow's Analecta, vol. iii. p.5i.
70 THE LADIES OE THE COVENANT.
for a blessiug to the chosen of the Lord, and having given a noble example of suffering with joyfulness, and of resisting unto blood, striving against sin ; a niercj whicli few are like to find in this gene- ration, wherein there is so strong a propension amongst all sorts to wrong the cause and wound their conscience before they endanger their persons,) I say, your ladyship is left still upon the stage, not only to act patience, and let it have its perfect work as to what is past, and give the world a proof that the grace of God can make a person endure as one whom affliction cannot make miserable, whereas one void of such a supporting principle, would in that case caiTy as if they thought they lived for no other purpose but to see themselves miserable ; but that you may act the faith and patience of the saints as to what is present, and in regard to what is approaching, arming yourself with Christian courage and resolution how to carry when ye shall see grief added to your sorrow, while ye behold that beautiful house wherein our fathers and we worshipped thrown down, and nothing left of all that< goodly fabric but some dark vestiges, to be wept over by them that take pleasure in the stones, and favour the dust of Zion. This calls your ladjship some way to forget the decay and (in the world's account, wherein things get not their right names,) disgrace of your ever honourable family and father's house, but now more honourable than ever, that ye may remember to weep with Zion, and lament because the glory is departed. 0 the sad days that your ladyship is like to see if He do not shut your eyes in death, and receive you in amongst the company of them who have come out of great tribulation, and can weep no more because they see God ! As for your ladyship's through-bearing in this backsliding time, trust him with that, who hath everlasting arms underneath you to bear you up when ye have no legs to walk. Hitherto hath he helped, and he will not lose the glory of what he hath done by leaving you now to faint and fall ofP. He will not give over guiding you by his counsel
LADY KENMUIIE. 71
till lie Lave brouglit you to glory, and put you beyond hazard of niis- giiiding yourself." '
Another of her relatives wlio sulTercd from the iniquity of the times was Lord Lorn, the eldest son of her brother, the Marquis of Argyll. Lorn, naturally indignant at the cruel treatment Avhich his father and family had received at the hands of the Parliament, gave free expression to his sentiments in a confidential letter he sent to his friend Lord DnlTas. This letter being intercepted and carried to Middleton, that unprincipled statesman resolved to make it the foundation of a capital charge against him. Disappointed in his hope of obtaining the estate of the Marquis of Argyll, which through the intercession of Lauderdale was gifted to Lord Lorn, who had married Ijauderdale's lady's niece, Middleton thought he had now found a favourable opportunity of getting into his rapacious grasp the spoils of the Argyll family. Accordhigly, he laid the letter before the estates of Parliament, which voted it treasonable, and sent informa- tion to his Majesty, with a desire that Lorn, who was then in London, should be secured and sent down to Scotland to stand trial before the Parliament. Lorn was ordered to return to Scotland, though, at the intercession of Lauderdale, who personally became bail for his appearance, he was not sent down as a prisoner ; and arriving in Edinburgh on the 17th of July, 1662, he was immediately charged to appear at the bar of the house on the afternoon of that day; which he did. That same night he was committed prisoner to the Castle, and on the 26th of August was sentenced to be beheaded, and his lands, goods, and estate forfeited, for treasonable speeches and writ- ings against the Parliament ; the time of the execution of the sentence being remitted to the king. He lay in prison in the Castle tiU Middleton's fall, when he was liberated, in June 1663, and was soon
I Wodi'ow MSS., voL Iviii folio, no. 53.
72 THE LADIES OF THE COVENANT.
after restored to liis grandfather's estate, with the title of Earl of Argyll.* During the time of Lom's imprisonment, M'Ward wrote to Lady Kenmure a letter, in wliich, among other things, he particularly animadverts upon this additional instance of the injustice and cruelty exercised towards the uoblc house of Argyll. The portion of it relating to Lom's imprisonment may be quoted, as, besides contain- ing a vindication of the prisoner's father, the Marquis of Argyll, and describing the true character of the proceedings of that unprincipled government, it illustrates the pious and patriotic spirit of this noble lady. "The men," says he, "who have sold themselves to work vrickedness in the sight of the Lord, liave stretched forth their hand against your ladyship's honourable and trulj noble family. They made tliat worthy whose name is savoury amongst his people, the butt of their malice, and as if that had not been enough, they per> sccute with deadly malice his honourable and hopeful posterity, that their name may be no more in remembrance. But have they slain and also taken possession ? and will he not bring evil upon them and their posterity for this, and for the provocation wherewith they have provoked him to anger and made Israel to sin ? But what wonder that they have stretched forth their hand against his worthies, who have been honoured to be singularly useful and instrumental in his v/ork, when it is come to this, that in a land solemnly sworn away to God, the Son of Man hath not so much left him, even by law, as whereupon to lay his head, except it be upon a cold stone in a prison! TVe have laws now framed by the throne of iniquity and in force, and by these laws he must die or be driven away. The men who have taken first the life and then the lands of him wliom God hath taken off the stage with so much true honour; they have spoiled Christ
* Wodrow*s History, vol. i. pp. 297, 3&3; Aikman's History, vol iv. p. 500; Row's Life of Robert Blair, p. 4^9.
LADY KEXMrHE. 73
also of liis prerogative, and saj, by what llicv do, This man sliall not reign over us, wc have no king but Cscsar;' and his people of their privilege, saying to thcni, * Bow down that wc may go over you.' I believe, while your ladyship remembers these last, ye forget the first: however, your ladyship, and all the rest of his honourable relations, may be confident and comforted in the hope of it, when he comes to count with these men and cause them answer for that Isese-majesty whereof they are guilty against God, he will make inquisition for blood, yea, tliat blood, and make them sensible how sadly he resents the injuries done to that house, and will, if ever he build up Zion and appear in his glory in the land, (as I desire to believe he will,) restore the honour of that family with such a considerable overplus of splendour, as shall make them who see it say, ' Yerily, there is a reward for the righteous ; verily, he is a God that judgeth in the earth.' But, madam, I know, since God hath learned you to prefer Jerusalem to your chief joy, (a rare mercy amidst a generation who are crying, 'Ease it, rase it, even to the foundation,') that ye forget to sorrow for your father's house, and weep when ye remember Zion ; it no doubt makes your sighing come before ye eat to see the ruins of tbat so lately beautiful fabric wherein ye, with the rest of his people, worshipped. "^Ylio can be but sad that hath the heart of a child to consider how the sonars of the sanctuarv are turned
o •
hito howling ?" *
From the allusion in the last sentence quoted, the reader will perceive tliat, at the time when this letter was written, the Presby-