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COVENANTING OUTBREAK AT
DALRY - THE INSURGENTS RENDEZVOUS AT IRONGRAY CHURCH, AND THEN MARCH TO
DUMFRIES-THEY OCCUPY THE TOWN, AND MAKE SIR JAMES TURNER PRISONER-THEY
CONVENE AT THE MARKET CROSS, AND EXPLAIN THE REASONS OF THEIR MOVEMENT-ONE
OF THE BAILIES PROCEEDS TO EDINBURGH WITH THE ALARMING NEWS THAT A
REBELLION IS RAGING, AND THAT THE CHIEF TOWN IN THE SOUTH IS AT THE MERCY
OF THE ENEMY -THE INSURGENTS PROCEED WESTWARDS-TURNER'S DESCRIPTION OF
THEIR APPEARANCE AND EQUIPMENTS-THEY MOVE TOWARDS THE CAPITAL-BATTLE OF
THE PENTLANDS, AND DEFEAT OF THE COVENANTERS BY SIR THOMAS DALZIEL -
JUDICIAL VENGEANCE - TWO FUGITIVES FROM THE FATAL FIELD SENTENCED TO DEATH
AT AYR, AND EXECUTED AT DUMFRIES-MEMORIAL STONES OF THE MARTYRS IN ST.
MICHAEL'S CHURCHYARD-THE INDULGENCE- MILITARY PREPARATIONS OF THE
COUNTY-THE CASTLE OF DUMFRIES GARRISONED.
WHEN such explosive
materials as these existed, it required but a trifling incident to fire
the train. In November, 1666, the flames of insurrection broke forth in
Galloway under such unpremeditated circumstances as we are about to
describe. On the 13th of that month, a party of Turner's soldiers,
stationed at St. John's Clachan of Dalry, in the hilly region of Glenkens,
confiscated a patch of corn belonging to a poor old man named Grier, and
threatened him with personal maltreatment unless he paid the balance of
church fines with which he was charged. At this juncture, four Covenanting
refugees entered the village in search of food-one of them Mr. M'Lellan of
Barscobe, who had been subjected to much persecution for conscience' sake.
They felt much sympathy for their fellow-sufferer, but, smothering their
feelings, withdrew to a small change-house, [The house in which they sat
is still standing, but was partially rebuilt a few years ago; it was
called Midtown. John Gordon then occupied it as a kind of tavern. Mr.
Train says: "My friend, Mr. John M`Culloch of New Galloway, kindly
procured from the proprietor for me one of the old rafters, of which I
intend to make some articles of vertu." - History of Galloway, vol. ii.,
p. 158.] where, soon after, tidings reached them that the soldiers,
carrying their menaces into effect, had stripped Grier naked in his own
house, with the intention of subjecting him to torture, by setting him on
a red-hot gridiron.
The four wanderers could
remain patient no longer: hurrying to the old man's house, they
remonstrated with the soldiers, who told them to mind their own business,
and not to interfere, or it might be worse for them. After a brief
altercation, several country people entered, and began to remove the
bandages with which Grier's arms were fastened. The soldiers then drew
their swords, and wounded two of them; upon which one of the latter
retaliated by firing a pistol, loaded with a piece of tobacco pipe for
bullet. A general fight, of short duration, ensued, terminating in the
defeat of the troopers, who were all made prisoners and disarmed. What to
do next became a matter for serious consideration. There was another party
of ten or twelve soldiers at the neighbouring village of Balmaclellan;
and, lest they should resort to reprisals, some of the country people set
off early next morning, and made the whole of the soldiers captive, except
one man, who offered resistance, and was killed. The outbreak was carried
to its second stage, for the purpose of securing the safety of those
accidentally led to engage in it: but if they now dispersed, they would
certainly be pursued by the merciless soldiery belonging to the rest of
Turner's force; and if they should succeed in escaping, the district would
be subjected to such vengeful devastation as was fearful to contemplate.
These reflections induced M`Lellan and his comrades to unfurl boldly the
flag of insurrection. They were joined by another gentleman of the
district, Mr. Neilson of Corsack, by Mr. Alexander Robertson, son of an
outed minister, by Mr. Andrew Gray, an Edinburgh merchant, who happened to
be in the district at the time; and these, the leaders of the movement,
easily succeeded in raising a considerable force, the rural population all
round being ripe for insurrection.
A council of war was held,
at which a march on Dumfries, for the purpose of surprising Sir James
Turner, was resolved upon; the place of rendezvous being fixed at Irongray
Church, about six miles distant from the town. With wonderful secrecy and
despatch, due notices were given and acted upon; and on the day after the
casual skirmish at Dalry, a force of two hundred infantry and fifty
horsemen mustered at the appointed place; the blue banner of the Covenant,
the ensign of rebellion against the Government-rather, we should say, of
righteous resistance to a tyrannical faction-flying above their small but
resolute ranks. Gray-who seems to have been a fussy, pretentious
gentleman, without any real regard for the cause with which he was
prominently mixed up-was appointed leader of the little host. Starting
from Irongray Church soon after sunrise on the 15th, they marched quietly
on their appointed way, reaching the Bridgend of Dumfries about ten
o'clock in the morning. Sir James Turner has sometimes been spoken of as a
model soldier: yet though rumours of the insurrection had reached him, he
appears to have made no preparations for meeting it, even when it was
rolling to his very door; and, strange to say, though in the midst of a
warlike people, who bore him no good-will, he had not, on this critical
occasion, a solitary sentinel posted at the entrance of the town from
Galloway.
Accordingly, when Captain
Gray and his men reached the place where the populous burgh of Maxwelton
now stands, they were agreeably surprised at finding the bridge unguarded,
and the road to the headquarters of the renegade "malignant" open before
them. Matters being in such a favourable train, it was thought best to
allow the foot soldiers to remain outside, while a party of the horse rode
across to pay the compliments of the morning to Sir James. Corsack and
Robertson were entrusted with this delicate and perilous duty. Followed by
several others, about half-past eight o'clock they crossed the bridge,
passed up Friars' Vennel, and then down to Turner's lodgings, in Bailie
Finnie's house, High Street. Aroused too late by the ring of the horses'
hoofs upon the pavement, he rose in great alarm, ran in his night-dress
[Sir James Turner's Memoirs, p. 148.] to the window, and, seeing an armed
band below, exclaimed, "Quarters! gentlemen, quarters! and there shall be
no resistance!" "Quarters you shall have," said Corsack, "on the word of a
gentleman, if you surrender at once without resistance." "Quarters he
shall have none!" said Gray, who now came up; and, suiting the action to
the words, he presented a carabine at Turner; and had not Corsack, who was
the real leader of the enterprise, interposed, the unscrupulous agent of
the Government would have been instantly sent to his account. One soldier
only, as at Balmaclellan, resisted, and died of the wounds he received;
all the others giving themselves quietly up, according to the example and
orders of their commander.
According to Turner's own
statement, no more than thirteen of his men were in town at the time, the
rest being quartered in the country on persons who "refused to give
obedience to church ordinances." "Some few of my sogers," he adds, "were
taken in their lodgings. They [the insurgents] looked for Master Chalmers,
the Parson of Drumfries, but found him not, yet did they bring away his
horse." [Sir J. Turner's Memoirs, p. 149]
There was great rejoicing
in Dumfries on account of this overthrow of the tyrant captain and his
troop. "He had," says Gabriel Scruple, "been reigning [there] like a king,
and, lifted up in pride, with insolence and cruelty over the poor people;"
and it is no wonder that, to signalize his degradation, they, as the same
authority informs us, "set him on a low beast, without his vest-raiment,
and carried him through the town in a despicable manner." It says much for
the forbearance of the insurgents and the people of the Burgh, that Sir
James Turner received no worse treatment than was involved in this
pardonable exhibition of him in his new character. They then held a
meeting at the Cross, where the leaders explained and vindicated their
conduct; and to show that it was not the monarchy, nor the King, but his
despotic ministers, against whom they had taken up arms, they expressed
aloud their devoted attachment to his Majesty's person-a sentiment that
was readily responded to with cheers by the listening crowd.
The Town Council of
Dumfries had seen with horror the capture of the Government troops and the
occupation of the Burgh by an insurgent band; and they too convened a
meeting, differing very much in character, however, from the exuberant one
outside. To think that their loyal town had been the scene of such a
scandalous insult to the dominant powers, and that their sycophantic
selves might be implicated in the disgrace and its consequences ! The very
idea of such an affront upon the State, and such a stain upon their own
escutcheon, was intolerable. Dismal faces and troubled shakings of the
head were seen, lugubrious regrets and sad misgivings were expressed, at
this conclave of the Burgh magnates; and, before it broke up, it was
resolved to send Bailie Stephen Irving to Edinburgh, [Town Council
Minutes; and Wodrow, vol. ii., p. 19.] for the double purpose of
acquainting the Privy Council with what had occurred, and putting the best
possible face on their own connection with it. Late on the following
evening (the 16th) the magistrates announced to Lauderdale and his
colleagues that a Covenanting rebellion had broken out, headed by Neilson
of Corsack, M'Lellan of Barscobe, M'Cartney of Blaiket, Alexander
Robertson, son of a conventicle preacher, and the notorious Nonconformist,
James Callum, glover in Dumfries; that Dumfries was in the hands of the
triumphant insurgents, greatly to the sorrow of its loyal lieges and their
rulers; and that, in order to crush the audacious traitors, decisive
measures would have to be promptly resolved upon. This was astounding
intelligence indeed: alarm was the first emotion that prevailed among the
Privy Councillors; rage followed; then incontrollable fury, that found
vent in a resolution, which was speedily put in force, to exact a fearful
measure of revenge.
Meanwhile the insurgents,
now numbering three hundred, marched from Dumfries to the Church of
Glencairn, situated at a distance of fifteen miles on the west bank of the
Nith; and on the 16th they re-entered Dalry, still carrying with them
their prisoners. Here, as we learn from Turner himself, Hugh Henderson,
the outed minister of Dumfries, in the spirit of genuine Christian
charity, returned good for evil to the man by whom he had been harshly
maltreated. Mr. Henderson had taken refuge in the neighbourhood, and
hearing of what had occurred, got permission from Gray to entertain Sir
James at dinner, and even pleaded, though without success, that he should
be set at liberty. "Though he and I," says Turner, "be of different
persuasions, yet I will say that he entertained me with very reall kindnes."
[Memoirs, p. 152.] A beautiful trait of character is thus presented, which
those who take delight in disparaging the Nonconformist clergy of this
period would do well to study. At Dalry, we also learn from Turner,
Captain Gray, the "By-ends " of the movement, gave his men the slip: "for
the day before he had sent away the money and other baggage, which he had
got from me; and thinking he had sped well enough, resolved to retire
himself before the fire grew hotter."
When the Edinburgh
Covenanters heard of the rising at Dalry, many deemed it premature; but
the general opinion was, that since it had Occurred it ought to be
supported. Not a few of them accordingly made common cause with their
insurgent brethren; and among other men of note who joined them in the
west country were Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace, who had earned distinction
in the civil wars; Maxwell of Monreith in Galloway; John Welsh, [Grandson
of the still more celebrated John Welsh, who took a leading part in
opposing the Prelatical encroachments of James VI.] the outed minister of
Irongray; and two other preachers also well known-William Veitch,
afterwards minister of Dumfries, and Hugh M'Kail of Ochiltree. The
somewhat irregular host was properly organized; Colonel Wallace was
appointed commander; and a resolution was adopted to march towards the
capital, with the view of calling out their friends there in greater
force, and, if possible, of making a powerful demonstration against the
Government. Continuing their journey during a protracted storm, they
passed through Cumnock and Muirkirk, arriving at Douglas on the 24th of
November, where a council was held, at which it was conclusively resolved
to proceed with the enterprise at all hazards.
At Douglas another question
was debated : whether the persecuting chief, delivered by Providence into
their hands, should not be put to death. The propriety and duty of thus
dealing with Turner were vehemently insisted upon by the more violent of
the leaders; whilst Corsack and others contended as stoutly that his life
ought to be spared. Sir James, as we learn from his own account of the
matter, had a narrow escape. "That night," he says, "a councell or
committee was keepd, where it was concluded that nixt morning, the
Covenant should be renewd and sworne. And the question was, whether
immediatlie after they should put me to death; they who were for it
pretended ane article of the Covenant obliged thorn to bring all
malignants to condigne punishment. Bot it was resolved that I sould not dy
so soone, bot endeavors sould be used to gaine me. All this was told me by
one of my intelligencers before two of the clocke nixt morning. Yet I have
heard since, that it was formallie put to the vote whether I sould die
presentlie, or be delayed, and that delay was carried in the councell by
one vote onlie." Even after the insurgent army had been pelted by the
elements, it made a creditable appearance in the eyes of Turner, military
martinet though he was, and by no means anxious to present a flattering
picture of his captors. "The horsemen," he tells us, "were armed for most
part with sword and pistoll, some onlie with suords; the foot with musket,
pike, sith, forke, and suord; and some with staves, great and long. There
[at Douglas] I saw two of their troops skirmish against other two (for in
foure troopes their cavallerie was divided), which I confess they did
handsomelie to my great admiration. I wondered at the agilitie of both
horse and rider, and to see them keepe troope so well, and how they had
comd to that great perfection in so short a time." He closes his verdict
by saying: "I never saw lustier fellows than these foot were, or better
marchers; for though I was appointed to stay in the car, and
notwithstanding these inconveniences [of darkness and tempest], yet I saw
few or none of them straggle." [Memoirs, p. 167.]
It is not necessary that we
should follow the various steps of these bold, devoted men. Their
enterprise was one of the most daring of that adventurous day. Forlorn and
desperate it proved ; but had they received even a moderate degree of
support from their suffering fellow-countrymen, the issue might have been
more favourable, and "from Fate's dark book a leaf been torn." For their
unpremeditated outbreak the country was not prepared. Arrived at Lanark,
numerous recruits joined them, swelling their ranks to two thousand men or
more: but when the vicinity of Edinburgh was reached, they had to lament
numerous desertions; and, what was worse, they found the gates of the city
barred against them, and no friends hurrying from it to hail their
approach. In this dilemma they learned that General Dalziel was following
rapidly on their track; and in the dead of' night, faint with hunger and
fatigue, heart-sore with disappointment, the wandering host, retreating to
the Pentland hills, encamped on the elevated table-land of Rullion Green,
there to "dree" what fortune had in store for them. Defeat, death by the
sword and on the scaffold, were in the cup. The insurgents did not now
amount to more than nine hundred, and they had suffered much in condition
as well as in numbers, being, as a contemporary described them, "pitifully
bad appointed-neither saddle nor bridle, pistol or sword, amongst the ten
men of them; baggage-horses, some whereof not worth forty shillings. ...
They are mighty weary with marching. [Robert Mein's (postmaster of
Edinburgh) report to Government, quoted iii the Fifty Years' Struggle, p.
166.] They were encountered on the 28th of November by Dalziel, at the
head of three thousand soldiers, and, after a gallant resistance, in which
they thoroughly repelled several headlong charges, were put to the rout,
fifty of them falling on the unequal field, and about one hundred and
thirty surrendering as prisoners, on receiving a promise that their lives
would be spared. But the scaffold was set up, and Sharpe resolved that it
should not be cheated out of its anticipated victims.
The insurgents who spared
Sir James Turner's life had no such mercy meted out to them. Twenty were
adjudged to death at Edinburgh: and "all of them," says Mein, "died
adhering to the Covenant, declaring they never intended in the least any
rebellion; and all of them prayed most fervently for his Majesty's
interest, and against his enemies." Amongst the sufferers were the heroic
Mr. Neilson of Corsack, and the pious and accomplished Hugh M'Kail, who
died on the scaffold in the true spirit of martyrs; and their constancy
and devotedness were emulated by "a cloud of witnesses," executed on
account of their being connected, some of them very remotely, with the
Pentland rising. No fewer than thirty-five were hanged or shot in various
parts of the country, in addition to those executed in Edinburgh; a large
proportion of them being natives of Nithsdale or Galloway, as many rude
memorials, scattered over our moorlands, hill-sides, and churchyards,
still attest. .
On the 30th of December,
1666, the obsequious Town Council of Dumfries met for the purpose of
receiving orders for the disposal of two poor fugitives from Pentland,
who, on returning to their native district, had been tracked, caught, and
tried at the instance of the Government. It need scarcely be added, that
they were convicted and doomed to death. A justiciary court-or rather a
military tribunal, presided over by Lieutenant-General Drummond-had been
held at Ayr, where these two prisoners, with ten others, were capitally
sentenced; [Town Council Minutes; also. Wodrow, vol. ii., p. 53.] and as
they had been captured within the jurisdiction of the Dumfries
magistrates, to them was assigned the duty of carrying the sentence into
effect. The orders from the court enjoined the authorities "to sie their
sentence for hanging the persounes, and affixing of the heides and right
armes of Jon Grier in Ffour-merk-land, and William Welsch in Carsfairne,
upon the eminenest pairts of this Burgh;" and this mandate having been
communicated by the magistrates to the Council, the latter "condescendit
that the bridge-port is the fittest place quhereupon that the heids and
armes should be affixed; and therfoir appoynted them to be affixed on that
place." [Town Council Minutes] Martyred the two men were, as a matter of
course; and we can find no trace of the Dumfries authorities being
troubled with any " compunctious visitings" on the subject, though we
doubt not the inhabitants generally pitied and honoured these poor victims
of oppression. And when, in pursuance of their sentence, their heads and
right arms were pilloried on the bridge, the gory spectacle would be
viewed by many a tearful eye, and elicit many a burst of indignation.
When the severed relics of
the sufferers had wasted for several weeks in the wintry air, a rumour
reached the authorities that a design had been formed for removing them.
How the honourable gentlemen must have been shocked by this report! They
intended the bridge-port exhibition to tell with salutary terror on the
people far and near, to teach them that the exercise of free thought, and
resistance to "the powers that be," were treasons rightly involving death,
and that there was no safety for the subject, except in entire submission
to the decrees of the Privy Council; and yet, in daring contempt of these
lessons, the silent teachers of their truthfulness were threatened with
removal ! Lest the menace should be carried into effect, the Town Council
directed application to be made to the Earl of Lauderdale, to allow the
martyrs' heads and arms to be transferred to the top of the tolbooth, for
their better security, and thus to disappoint the "disloyall persounes,"
who, it was feared, would "take them away under cloudes of night, to the
prejudice of this burgh." [Town Council Minutes.] Prejudice of the Burgh,
indeed! Alas for the time when the honour or credit of the town was
thought to be bound up in the safe retention of those ghastly mementoes of
the tyrant's persecuting rage!
When other and happier days
came round, the real feeling of the townspeople towards the two sufferers
expressed itself in the erection of memorial stones over their honoured
remains in St. Michael's churchyard; and till this day an interest is felt
in the humble tombs of Welsh and Grier, or Grierson, which vies in depth
with that awakened by the proud mausoleum reared beside them, above the
dust of the national poet-the poet who, in one of his best moods, after
reading a narrative of the Persecution in Galloway, penned the well-known
lines:
"The The Solemn League and
Covenant
Cost Scotland blood, cost Scotland tears;
But it sealed freedom's sacred cause:
If thou'rt a slave, indulge thy sneers!"
On the 9th of May, 1668, a
royal proclamation was issued for the apprehension of about one hundred
outstanding "rebels," sixteen of whom belonged to the Shire of Dumfries.
The name of Mr. James Callum, glover, appears upon the list. He seems to
have been a devoted, consistent, and courageous Covenanter. How terribly
lie suffered for conscience' sake, is shown in the following affecting
extract from Wodrow's "History:" - "James Callum, merchant in Dumfries,
was forfeited some time after Pentland, but his being there was never
proven; he was indeed present, being dwelling in the town, at the taking
of Sir James Turner; but no other guilt was ever made out against him, but
mere nonconformity. In the years 1662 and 1663, for refusing to hear the
curates, he paid, for a year's space, forty pence every Monday for himself
and wife. He underwent much trouble, and several imprisonments, for his
Parliament-fine-five hundred merks-and paid the half of it, and fifteen
pounds sterling riding-money, and more by far than the other half in
expenses, and clerk's fees to get his discharge. Sir James Turner, before
Pentland, exacted considerable sums of money from him. When he was
declared rebel, most unjustly, after Pentland, he left the kingdom, and
was seven years in the East Indies. At his return he was taken by
Claverhouse, and imprisoned at Dumfries fourteen months, and at Edinburgh
a year and a half; after which he was banished to Carolina, where he died.
When the accounts of this came home, his wife and daughters at Dumfries
were attacked for nonconformity, and spoiled of any thing they had, and
forced to wander up and down in the hills and mountains for three years
and a half" [Wodrow, vol, ii., p. 79]
At the close of the same
disastrous year (1668) the inhabitants of the Burgh were required by the
Council to subscribe a statement, declaring that they "deteste and abhor
the rebellioune laitly broken out in Galloway and in other places in the
West;" that they will not, in any way whatever, assist or intercommune
with those concerned in it; and that they were ready to venture their
"lives and fortounes against thes traitors, for suppressing their horrid
traysone and rebellioune." Every one was required to sign this
declaration, it being intimated that refusers would be looked upon as
sympathizers with the insurrection, and as such be proceeded against
according to law. [Town Council Minutes.]
When the insurrectionary
outbreak had been thoroughly suppressed, and the vengeance of the
Government been sated, Lauderdale, under the influence of what seemed to
be a conciliatory whim, cashiered Sir James Turner, Sir William Bannatyne,
and other military tools, who had become odious to the common people, and
sought to propitiate the Presbyterian ministers by getting the Privy
Council to pass the Indulgence, in virtue of which those who still refused
to receive collation from the bishops might be reinstated in their manses
and glebes, with a royal annuity instead of stipends, on condition hat
they would restrict their preaching to their own parishes, and submit to
State control in other ecclesiastical matters. There is every reason to
believe that these proposals were devised for the purpose of dividing the
Covenanters, and thus weakening them, and for forming part of a plan by
which Scotland was to be kept quiet, whilst preparations were being made
by the Duke of York, Charles's brother and heir, to re-establish Roman
Catholicism in both kingdoms, should a favourable opportunity for doing so
arise. Many ministers accepted the Indulgence: between those who scorned
it and the Government a wider gulf than ever was formed; and Lauderdale
found, in their rejection of the measure, a motive and a pretext for
increased severity towards the frequenters of conventicles. During the
lull produced by his temporary moderation, he hastened on the formation of
a militia in Scotland, in order that he might foreclose other rebellious
outbreaks, and be ready in time of need to give the despotic Romanizing
party of England a helping hand.
We find numerous traces in
the Dumfries County Records of the steps taken at this period to raise the
quota of men required from the Shire and its various towns, and otherwise
provide for the maintenance of the military despotism wielded by
Lauderdale and his colleagues. The chief agents in the business were the
Commissioners of Excise, as county gentlemen when acting in their
corporate capacity were then styled. A meeting of the Dumfriesshire
Commissioners was held at Thornhill on January 28th, 1668, at which two
Acts of the Privy Council were read and adopted, regulating the way the
parishes, twelve miles round the County town, were to provide hay and
straw for a troop of fifty horse stationed there. The supply for each
horse was fixed at sixteen pounds of hay or eighteen pounds of straw in
the twenty-four hours; and it was provided that "in case the country
people will not sell the same, the Commissioners were to constrain
[Minutes of the Commissioners] them." At another meeting, held in Dumfries
on the 24th of September following, the Earl of Annandale read his
Majesty's instruction regarding the establishment of a militia regiment in
the County, consisting of eight hundred foot and eighty-eight horse
(afterwards reduced to seven hundred foot and seventy-seven horse), of
which he had been appointed colonel, and Drumlanrig lieutenant-colonel,
These instructions were chiefly as follows:-All the commissioned officers
were to be nominated by the colonel and lieutenantcolonel, and were to
sign the declaration against the Covenants; the colours, drums, and
trumpets were to be provided at the expense of the Shire; the foot were to
be armed with muskets having a bore for sixteen balls to the pound, "
which may be had of Alex. and Robt. Mills, merchants in Lithgow, at eight
merks a piece," and with pikes fifteen feet long, "which may be had in the
country, good and cheap, made by Alex. Hay, the king's bow-maker in the
Cannon-gate;" two-thirds of the men in each company were to be musketeers,
the rest pikesmen; the horsemen were to be sufficiently mounted and armed
with swords and pistols at the expense of the heritors; and those soldiers
who removed from their parishes without leave of their officers were to he
fined or imprisoned, or both. Much difficulty was experienced in getting
some of the parishes to co-operate. Though each minister, with "three
discreet men" to assist him, was ordered to make up a roll of all the
fencible men in his parish, and though afterwards a committee of
Commissioners was appointed for a like purpose in each Presbytery, the
lists produced were manifestly defective: till at length, on the 30th of
December, the baffled Commissioners resolved to apply for special
assistance to the Privy Council; which having been given, the rolls were
rendered rather more complete. To determine the proportion of men to be
raised by the burghs, was the next duty of the Commissioners. They met for
this purpose on the 22nd of April, 1669, and resolved that Dumfries should
be required to provide forty men, Sanquhar and Annan four each, and
Lochmaben three; leaving the rest to be raised in the rural districts, at
the rate of one man for each three hundred merks of rent. [Minutes of the
Commissioners.]
By the Parliament of 1672,
increased measures of repression were directed against conventicles. More
soldiers were therefore needed ; and accordingly, on the 20th of March of
that year, the Dumfriesshire Commissioners of Excise received a letter
from the Privy Council enjoining the heritors of the County and the
magistrates of its burghs to raise forty-one men, as their proportion of
1000 required to be levied in the kingdom for his Majesty's service. A
committee, with Robert, Lord Maxwell, as preses, was appointed to put the
matter into shape; who reported next day that the Burgh of Dumfries would
have to "outreik " and provide two men, also "the twentieth part of a
third man," for assisting the burghs of Annan, Sanquhar, and Lochmaben,
who were to raise said third man on receiving such fractional support; and
that the remaining thirty-eight soldiers were to be provided by the County
at the rate of fifty merks for each. The report was approved of; and at a
subsequent meeting the Commissioners resolved that there should be
expended on each man £24 Scots, to furnish him with a good blue cloth
coat, well lined with sufficient white stuff or serge, a pair of
double-soled shoes, a pair of stockings, a black hat, two shirts, two
cravats, an "honest" pair of breeches, and an inner coat: a goodly outfit,
certainly, for forty shillings sterling - money going a far way at this
period of our history. It was also arranged that the men were to meet on
the 21st of April at Locharbridge-hill, a common place for military
gatherings, and then march to the town of Leith. [Minutes of the
Commissioners.] As time rolled slowly on, the hills around Dumfries became
more than ever the haunt of the persecuted Covenanters; and the
Government, instead of sending away troops from it, felt the necessity of
placing a large force in the town.
The Commissioners, on the
5th of August, 1675, were honoured with a visit from the Earl of
Queensberry, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, who, being also one of
themselves, attended to assist in the discussion of the following letter,
subscribed by him and fourteen other members of the Privy Council:-"We
have emitted an act appointing garrisones to be in divers places,
particularly at the Castle of Dumfries, in which there is to be fifty foot
and twelve horsemen, who are ordered against the 6th of August to be at
the said place. We have ordered you to convene any three or four of the
Commissioners of Excise of the Shire of Drumfreis, and have appoynted you
and your depute, with the said Commissioners, and Captain Dalziel, who has
the command of said garrisone, to sight the said Castle of Drumfries, and
see the same be made ready to receive the garrisone against the said day;
also that you and the said
Commissioners cause furnish the said
garrison with bedding, potts, pans, coal, and candle, as is ordinar; and
sett prices upon the hay, straw, and come for the horse; and caus carry
in, and delyver to the soldiers and the garrisone, such quantities as
shall be necessary for the horses, upon payment of the said prices. We
expect your ready obedience, and ordain you to return an
account of your dilligence between and
the 10th of Aug. next." [Minutes
of the Comiiiissioners.]
The order thus
given to "sight" the old Castle, enables us to
get a slight glimpse of its condition in the middle of the seventeenth
century. It was all but demolished, as we have seen, by the Earl of Sussex
and Lord Scrope, in 1570; with the consolatory qualifications, however,
that the defective stories contained "dales lying there to repair them,"
and that the vaults and first story over them would supply ample
accommodation for a greater garrison than the one for which quarters were
required. A misunderstanding arose as to the sources from which the
soldiers were to be maintained, whereby the preparations for their
reception were delayed; and the Privy Council, losing temper, sent letters
of horning to the tantalized Commissioners, ordering them to proceed at
once, and draw upon the revenue of the Excise for the support of the
troops. Thereupon the Commissioners, on the 14th of September, ordered
their collector to supply, for the garrison, 499 ells of plaiding for
thirty-one beds, at 5s. Scots per ell; coverlets uniform, at £82 19s.;
"harden" uniform, at £84; for every eight soldiers a five-quart pot, at £4
each; six pans, two quarts each; three quart stoups, and six cups; thirty
load of peats weekly, at 2s. per load; and seven lbs. of candle weekly, at
5s. per lb. A report was received at the same meeting, to the effect that
£80 Scots would make the roof water-tight; and the business was finished
by a resolution "advising the collector, with the magistrates of
Dumfries," to see the horsemen sufficiently provided with corn, hay, and
straw, at the ordinary rates. In all these warlike preparations the
gentlemen of the Shire were well assisted by the Burgh authorities; the
latter of whom, in June, 1667, gave directions to store up "pouder and
leid" in the Castle; to place "all the gunes and partizanes" there; "that
thair be 24 men and a captaine upon the
gaird every night thair, according to the order and
row
sett doun be the provest and baillies; as also that the toun ports be with
all expeditioun put up, and that thair be four scoir or a hundredth pykes
maid for the toune’s uyseis." |
