I.
THE Highlands of Lesmahagow, Muirkirk, Avondale, and Douglas, form a wide and dreary tract of bleak mountains, desert muirs, and almost impassable bogs and morasses. To the agriculturist, or the lover of the grand, the picturesque, or the beautiful in landscape, those cold and misty mountains, and the dull and dismal wastes, stretching out for miles around their base, present no attractions whatever: neither are there any classic reminiscences associated with them. But not without interest are the Muirlands of Lesmahagow to the “Westland Whig,” for, in their brown and barren deserts his forefathers found refuge from the fury of their persecutors: and, frequently from their rugged ravines, and almost inaccessible morasses, the cry of him that was ready to perish, or the psalm of praise or of supplication, commingled with the bleatings of flocks, the wailings of the wild curlew, and the roar of the mountain storm, ascended, and entered into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth; who is at once the God of nature, and His people’s God—the God of their salvation. Innumerable anecdotes are still told respecting those holy men, by their descendants, not a few of whom yet inhabit the district; and the shepherds, as they follow their peaceful occupations, still converse with horror about “Bludie Claverhouse,” and the “killing times”; and are delighted to point out to the Christian antiquary the retreats of the “Martyrs”; and to show the places where God hid his servants in the shadow of his hand, when the ministers and elders of his Church met to consult and pray for “Scotland’s covenanted work of Reformation”; and where
“Leaning on his spear—
The lyart veteran heard the word of God,
By Cameron thunder’d, or by Renwick pour’d
In gentle stream.”
The people of Lesmahagow, generally, were in those fearful days, steadfast and immoveable in the work of the Lord; and were much honoured in being accounted worthy to suffer for His name. The venerable historian of the “Sufferings of the Church of Scotland” informs us that they were pillaged by finings, and “spoilings of their good”; and that a strong garrison was placed in that parish to overawe the people, and to prevent them from giving assistance to the persecuted Presbyterians; and that moreover the whole inhabitants, above sixteen years of age, both men and women, were ordered, in 1680, to appear before appointed authorities, and make oath whether they had, or had not, received into their houses, or otherwise relieved, any of those who had been proscribed by the Government. Wodrow further gives us a list of thirty-nine who had been compelled to flee from home for their lives; and informs us that, in the rolls of the period, he found the names of sixty who stood criminally charged with having “resetted,” that is, received into their houses their persecuted brethren; or, with having held conversation with them, which action the persecutors, in their rage against the saints of the Most High, had converted into a heinous offence; or, with having absented themselves from the ministrations of the wicked and “feckless” curates, who had been obtuded into the pulpits of their own rightful, able, and holy ministers. The words “bishop” and “curate” are used, to this day, in the vernacular dialect of Clydesdale, in a manner which sufficiently denotes the opinion entertained by our covenanting forefathers, of the two classes of episcopal clergy with which they were best acquainted. A mother will often address a fretful, discontented boy, whom nothing will please or pacify, by the style and title of “cankert bishop”; and, of a slothful, dronish person, it is said that he is a “perfect curate”; or, of a maundering individual, who speaks much, but little to the purpose, that he is a “puir claverin’ curate.”—(See Jamieson’s Supp. to Scott. Dict.—Word Bishop). The following is a character of those curates, drawn by a bishop who was much employed in endeavouring to saddle episcopacy on Scotland, and must, therefore, be as favourable as truth could possibly warrant—”They were generally very mean and despicable in all respects. They were the worst preachers ever I heard; they were ignorant to a reproach, and many of them were openly vicious. They were a disgrace to their orders and to the sacred functions, and were indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts. Those of them who rose above contempt or scandal were men of such violent tempers that they were as much hated as others were despised.—(Burnet). When to this is added the consideration that they were willingly employed by Government, as informers against those holy men, into whose pulpits they had intruded themselves, could it otherwise be that they should be abhorred—and that justly—by the Presbyterians?
The first act of flagrant persecution to which the servants of God in Scotland were subjected, after the restoration of Charles the Second—which event was greatly brought about by the loyal exertions of the Presbyterian ministers, and which exertions, Charles requited, by persecuting, even unto death, the very men who had set the crown upon his head—was the seizure, and imprisonment, by the Committee of estates, of ten ministers, and two ruling elders, one of whom was Andrew Hay of Craignethan, who had met to draw up a humble address and supplication to his majesty on matters affecting religion. This illegal and unprecedented step was taken, on that very day on which, a hundred years before, the religion of popery was abolished in Scotland, and the blessed Reformation established in its stead: and from that day forward, for twenty-eight long years, Charles II. and his brother James, scrupled at no measure, how lawless soever, or satanic, it might be, to enslave the free kingdom of Scotland; and to subjugate her independent and glorious church to the yoke and bondage of the Ruler of the darkness of this world—that fallen spirit who wrought so powerfully in those two children of disobedience, and led them captive at his will.
Andrew Hay made his escape when his brethren were apprehended; but he was afterwards taken, and imprisoned. In 1685, the council allowed him to be liberated in consequence of sickness, but confined him to the town of Edinburgh, under a bond of 10,000 merks, to appear when called; and ordered his former bonds, granted at Glasgow to be given up.
In 1666, numbers of the Presbyterians of the West, goaded to madness, by the most atrocious oppression, rose, and marched upon the capital, claiming redress of their intolerable grievances. They passed through Lesmahagow, and were met by William Lawrie, the laird of Blackwood, who vainly strove, at Lanark, and twice afterwards during their march, to induce them to lay down their arms. For these peaceful services, he was, after several imprisonments, tried in 1683, for countenancing the “rebels.” The crimes laid to the charge of Blackwood, are manifest, says the indictment, from the circumstance, that by far the greater number of his tenants were in the “rebellion;” and were, after the defeat of the “rebels” at Pentland, actually received back by him, and allowed to farm his lands as before. Among those tenants (who thus are stigmatized as “rebels,” merely because they neither would tamely allow their liberties to be trampled in the dust, nor change their religion, at the beck of a profligate king, and of his equally profligate courtiers, were John Alston, son of John Alston, miller, who is charged with having murdered, that is, slain in battle, Cornet Graham, one of the persecutors; Thomas Allan, in Mungriehill; John Rae, in Kirkmuirhill; John Rae, his son; and Thomas Watson, in Chapel, who was afterwards killed at Ayrs Moss. William Lawrie was, of course, found guilty; and was adjudged to be “taken to the merkat-cross of Edinburgh; there to have his head severed from his body; his name, memory, fame, and honours to be extinct; and his lands to be forfeited to his majesty, for ever”—a sentence for which the shameless and greedy king formally thanked the lords who passed it. Lawrie was, however, respited from time to time, till at last, about a year after, his sentence was, upon a petition from the Marquis of Douglas, which procured the intercession of the Council, remitted.
James Thomson was farmer of Tanhill, on the west side of Leshmahagow parish, from which farm the family departed about 1780, having, it is said, possessed it as “kindlie tenants,” for about 350 years. No particulars are known respecting him, except that he fell at Drumclog, and was interred in the church-yard of Stonehouse, where the Thomsons, formerly of Tanhill, have their burying-ground. On his tomb is the following inscription:—
“Vive memor lethi, fugit hora.
“Here lies James Thomson, who was shot in a rencontre at Drumclog, June 1st, 1679, by bloody Graham of Claverhouse, for his adherence to the word of God, and Scotland’s covenanted work of Reformation. Rev. xii. and 11th. Erected, 1734.
“Memento mori.
This hero brave, who doth lie here,
In truth’s defence he did appear,
And to Christ’s cause he firmly stood,
Until he sealed it with his blood.
With sword in hand, upon the field,
He lost his life, yet did not yield.
His days did end in great renown;
And he obtained the martyr’s crown.”
James Thomson’s descendants, of whom the writer of these “Notices” is one, have been very numerous; and the God of providence and of grace appears not to have deserted the children of the righteous. In 1832, sixty-eight males and sixty-eight females had legitimately descended, in the male line, from this Christian; of which numerous offspring, it may be said, that, though chiefly in the lower walks of life—peasants, as James Thomson himself was—none of them have been forsaken, nor any of his posterity “For bread we have beggars been.” Many of them have been ruling elders of the Church of Scotland, to which they have continued devotedly attached, and, proud of their descent from “Parents passed into the skies,” they have caused their ancestor’s tomb to be renewed, at their mutual expense, and the ancient inscription, which had been much effaced, to be restored. “The just man walketh in his integrity, his children are blessed after him.” Of this martyr, Thomas Thomson, of Whiteside, Lesmahagow, is the great-great-great-grandson and representative.
John Thomson, farmer in Tannahill, the only child of James, just now mentioned, was, along with his wife, imprisoned for religion in the castle of Blackness.
Thomas Weir lived at Waterside, on Logan Water. He was at Drumclog, and fought on horseback. When Claverhouse and his dragoons fled before the small band of Covenanters, the reins of Weir’s bridle broke, and he lost the command of his horse, which carried him into the midst of his enemies, by whom he was instantly shot. His body was interred in the church-yard of Lesmahagow, where his son Gavin, who was proclaimed a fugitive and a “rebel,” in 1684, subsequently occupied the same grave. On the tomb-stone is the following inscription, which is a little effaced:—
“T. W. B.
16-0.*
“Here lies Thomas Weir, who was shot, in a rencontre at Drumclog, June 1st, 1679, by bloody Graham of Claverhouse, for his adherence to the Word of God, and Scotland’s covenanted work of Reformation. Rev. xii 11
“As also Gavin Weir, in Waterside, who departed this life, July 25th, 1732, aged 79.”
George and Robert Weir, who probably were relatives of Thomas, were, with George Draffan, taken prisoners at Bothwell Bridge, and sentenced to banishment. The ship was wrecked off the Orkneys, and the two Weirs, along with one hundred and ninety-eight other sufferers, being closed under hatches, were drowned. George Draffan escaped, and was carried to America.
The Marion Weir of Cumberhead, who was the first to visit the widow of John Brown of Priesthill, after he was martyred by Claverhouse, and Mary Weir, the wife of David Steel of Skellyhill, were probably connections of the same pious family.
John Wilson and John Smith, of Lesmahagow, were shot in February, 1685, by Colonel Buchan and the Laird of Lee. In the beginning of March following, Lieutenant Murray shot John Brown of Blackwood, in the same parish, who had quietly surrendered himself, upon promise of quarter. The white snow was crimsoned with the martyr’s blood. His body was buried, under the cloud of night, in the field before Blackwood House, where he had been so treacherously murdered; and the following epitaph was engraven upon his tomb:—
“Murray might murder such as godly Brown,
But could not rob him of that glorious crown
He now enjoys. His credit, not his crime,
Was no-compliance with a wicked time.”
In the summer of the same year, Joseph Wilson of Lesmahagow, the brother, it is probable, of John, already mentioned, was shot, along with other two men, at Knockdon Hill, near the Water of Kyle, by a party of soldiers who overtook them, and learned from their own admission that they were returning from Galloway from hearing James Renwick preach in the fields. They were not allowed time even to pray; but the safety of their souls did not depend upon their prayers, but upon their interceding Head.
(To be continued.)