1. The Prisoners
The account [news] of Argyll’s invasion turned hot towards the beginning of May 1685,2 and the managers at Edinburgh were alarmed with his being at Orkney, and coming about to the west; and fearing the Earl’s landing, and not knowing what the consequences might be, very suddenly it was resolved that all the prisoners for religion, especially those from the south and west, should be sent to Dunnottar Castle. Accordingly Mr John Fraser, Mr William M’Millan, Quintin Dick, with William Niven, and many others in Edinburgh and the Canongate Tolbooths, were, to their great surprise, on 18th May taken out of their prisons, about three hours before sunset, without suffering them to know what was to be done with them, that such of them as could might have prepared some way for such a journey, and carried out of town under a strong guard and delivered at the Netherbow to Douglas’ regiment, who guarded them down to Leith.
There they were shut up so close in the Court of Guard that their nearest relations and acquaintances were not so much as permitted to speak with them. From thence, with the prisoners at Leith, making in all above two hundred, they were carried down to the shore, and put into open boats, and hurried off the shore, without allowing them to receive any necessaries from their friends and relations, whereof good numbers were waiting on to take their leave of them, never expecting to see them again.
1The following account is extracted [by Rev D W B Somerset] from Robert Wodrow’s History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland (ed R Burns, 4 vols, Glasgow, 1830) vol 4, pp 322-5, with some additional footnotes. Wodrow’s account was based on manuscripts written by some of the sufferers such as John Fraser, Quintin Dick, and William M’Millan. In J M Wilson’s Tales of the Borders etc, (24 vols, London, 1888-89) vol 15, pp 104-114, there is a paper by Thomas Gillespie, Professor of Humanity at St Andrews from 1824 until his death in 1844, entitled “The Covenanters’ March” (see J C Johnstone, Treasury of Scottish Covenant (Edinburgh, 1887), pp 573,593). It gives an account of the prisoners’ journey from Edinburgh to Dunnottar, professedly based on the same MSS as Wodrow, but it is so much at variance with Wodrow and other sources that we have made no use of it.
2The years 1684 and 1685 were a period of intense persecution for the Covenanters, and are often called “the killing time”. In February 1685 Charles II died, and his brother James VII and II, a Roman Catholic, succeeded to the throne. In the summer of that year there was a rebellion, led in England by the Duke of Monmouth and in Scotland by the Earl of Argyll. As a precaution against this rebellion, the authorities transferred the Covenanting prisoners in Edinburgh to Dunnottar Castle, spectacularly situated just south of Stonehaven, on the east coast of Scotland. There the Covenanters were as badly treated as any large group of prisoners in British history.
Next morning, about break of day, they were landed at Burntisland. There about twelve score of them were crowded in two rooms in the Tolbooth, where, through the straitness of the rooms, and multitude of the prisoners, their miseries seemed to be but beginning, for as much as they had suffered. And Mr Dick remarks that it was a wonder to themselves how such a multitude could subsist for two days and two nights, when they were denied liberty separately to ease nature, and had nothing allowed for their subsistence; yea, a good many of them were not permitted to have bread and water for their money.
When thus pent up at Burntisland, one came over from the [Privy] Council, with orders to bring back to Edinburgh as many of them as would immediately swear the Oath of Allegiance, with the Supremacy in it.3 About forty, through the extremity of their misery and hardships, complied; the rest owned their allegiance, but stuck at swearing it with the Supremacy.4 At Burntisland, after two days, they were committed to the militia of Fife; and most of them had their hands tied behind their back with cords.5 Through their hard usage at Burntisland, some of them were fallen under rheumatisms, and other distempers, which made travelling afoot very uneasy, and would have hired horses with their own money, but this was not allowed.
The prisoners were carried afoot, generally speaking, through bypaths, so that the well-disposed persons in Fife, who came with necessaries to the prisoners, might be disappointed, as many were; and some who came were beaten off by the guard, and nothing was allowed to be given them. That night they were brought to a small village near Falkland, called Freuchie,
3The Oath of Allegiance, introduced in 1661, required the acknowledging of the King’s authority “over all persons and in all causes”. The precise bounds of this authority, if any, were left unclear (Wodrow, vol 1, pp 92-93). The Act anent Supremacy was passed in 1669 and explicitly asserted the King’s “authority and supremacy over all persons, and in all causes ecclesiastical” (Wodrow, vol 2, p 137).
4Two distinct lists of those imprisoned at Burntisland are given in The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland 1685-6, (third series, vol 11, Edinburgh, 1929), pp 289-293. They were included as an appendix in some copies of J H Thomson’s Martyr Graves of Scotland (Edinburgh, nd). A list of the prisoners sent from the Old Tolbooth in Edinburgh to Burntisland is given in The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club (Edinburgh, 1923), vol 12, pp 166-7, and a list of the compliant prisoners sent back from Burntisland to Edinburgh in The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club (Edinburgh, 1922), vol 11, pp 61-62.
5Elsewhere Wodrow adds, “Lieutenant Beaton of Kilrinnie was very rude, and beat some of the old women among them, when not able to walk so fast as he would have them, thrusting them forward, and crying to the soldiers to thrust their pikes in them, for they were feigning themselves, calling them old bawds and witches, wishing the devil to take them and their religion. . . . By the way the pipers derided them with their foolish songs” (vol 4, p 327).
and from thence next day they came to the waterside of Tay; their accommodation at both these places was very sorry. Upon the south side of Tay, the tide not answering them, about nine or ten score were crowded into three little rooms most incommodiously, till about break of day, when the tide made, and then they were ferried over to Dundee, and about sun-rising, put into the Tolbooth there, where they continued till about eleven o’clock, and were allowed refreshments for their money. From thence they were brought to a muir a mile beyond Dundee, and delivered to the Earl of Strathmore’s regiment and the militia of Angus, and marched, man by man, betwixt two of the militia, till they were brought to Forfar, where they were again crowded into the Tolbooth, to the great prejudice of their health. From Forfar they were brought to Brechin, and rested a while in the open fields near by, and had some refreshments allowed them for their money, which was now reckoned a great favour.
From thence at night they were brought to the north-water, or North Esk bridge; and there they were all of them set upon the bridge, and the soldiers kept strict guard at both ends of it. In this posture they were kept, exposed to wind and weather all night, without meat or drink. The night was exceeding cold and stormy, and many of them by this time weary and faint; yet they behoved to stand and lie as they best might upon the cold bridge, till three or four in the morning; and that day, May 24th, being the Lord’s day, they were carried to their resting place at Dunnottar. Some few found means to get off by the road, and they were, when they entered Dunnottar, in all eight score and seven persons.6
At Dunnottar, they were received by George Keith of Whiteridge, Sheriff-Depute of the Mearns. This large company was thrust into a dark vault underground, one of the most uncomfortable places poor people could be in. It was full of mire, ankle deep, and had but one window towards the sea.7 So throng were they in it, that they could not sit without leaning one upon another. They had not the least accommodation for sitting, leaning, or lying, and were perfectly stifled for want of air. They had no access to ease nature,
6A list of the prisoners who arrived at Dunnottar is given in James Anderson’s Black Book of Kincardineshire (Stonehaven, 1843), pp 11-14, taken from the Sheriff Court records. It contains numerous mistakes. From a comparison of the various lists of prisoners it would appear that well over a dozen prisoners escaped on the journey. At least four women were subsequently detained as prisoners in Dunnottar as a result of visiting their husbands or relations (Register of Privy Council 1685-6, vol 11, pp 178,381; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland 1686, third series, vol 12, Edinburgh, 1930, pp 249-50).
7The Whig’s Vault, as it is called, in fact has several windows, but the side ones were presumably blocked up for security. It is not underground, but it would have seemed so to the prisoners if the side windows were blocked up.
and many of them were faint and sickly. Indeed all their lives were in great danger. In this miserable vault about a hundred of them were pent up all this summer; and it was a miracle of mercy they were not all killed. The barbarities of their keepers and the soldiers are beyond expression.8 The prisoners had nothing allowed them but what was paid for, and money was paid for cold water. And when the soldiers brought in barrels of water, and had sold it out in parcels to them till they began to weary of it, they would pour it into the vault to incommode them the more.9 Considerable numbers of them died, and no wonder, through such hardships; and it was boasted of as an undeserved favour by the soldiers, that they received the dead corps, and disposed of them as they pleased, for none of their fellow-prisoners were allowed to see them interred; it was too great a favour to allow them so much of the free air.
When the whole number had continued for some days in the great vault, the Governor was pleased to remove about forty of the men to another small vault, which being narrow and low, they were not much less straitened than in the great vault; and they were in hazard to be stifled, there being no air nor light there, but what came in by a very small slit or chink.10 The walls, it seems, were a little decayed, and some little air came in at the bottom of the vault; and they used one by one to lie down on their belly on the bottom of the vault, that they might have some of the fresh air. By this means, some of them, particularly the Reverend Mr Fraser, contracted a violent cold and dysentery. After some time spent in this melancholy posture, the Governor’s lady came in to see the prisoners in the two vaults, and prevailed with her husband to make them a little more easy. Twelve of the men were removed from the forty to a better place, where they had room and air enough, and the women were removed from the large vault, and put into two several rooms. This was indeed a great kindness but they had abundance of hardships remaining.
8Perhaps some allowance can be made for the conduct of the soldiers on account of the fact that they were not receiving their pay. The arrangements for paying them are mentioned in Register of Privy Council 1685-6, vol 11, on May 19 (p 49), but on June 12 it was recorded that the money had been “wrongously” retained by the officers of the Aberdeenshire militia (p 67). The money was ordered to be delivered up within 14 days, but on June 24 it was reported that the Aberdeenshire militia had mutinied rather than hand over the money to the Dunnottar garrison (p 81).
9Elsewhere Wodrow mentions that “the Governor refused to permit the country people to help them with bedclothes”, and that “they were sadly disturbed by the sentinels when at worship” (vol 4, p 328).
10There is a puzzle here. It is presumed that Wodrow refers to the very small vault underneath the Whig’s Vault. This vault can hold 40 people – indeed over 60 crammed into it on a recent visit to the Castle – but one would think that the 40 men must have been greatly more straitened than they had been in the Whig’s vault, rather than less so.
Somewhat has been already hinted as to their strait for meat and drink; nothing was allowed them but what they bought and the Governor made even a monopoly of this. When the country people about were bringing in provisions to the prisoners for their money, they were stopped, and the soldiers were ordered to allow them no access; and one of them was very roughly treated, for insisting to get in to the prisoners with what he had to sell. The reason of this was, the Governor’s brother, who lived at Stone-hive [Stonehaven], not far from Dunnottar, resolved to have any money the prisoners had, and none was suffered to provide for them but he.
Such who were in the great vault were in the greatest misery, and not a few of them died.11 It was no great wonder that under such grievous hardships they essayed all innocent methods for their own safety. In order to this, they endeavoured, and got at length out by the window in the vault, which was just over the sea, one night, and crept along a most dangerous rock, to the utmost hazard of their lives; and indeed it was one to ten, that they were not either crushed by their fall, or drowned in the sea. Some twenty-five of them escaped before the alarm was given to the guard, by some women who were washing near the rock, and the rest were stopped. Upon the alarm, the outer gates were shut, and the hue and the cry raised, and all possible means used to retake them. Fifteen of them were apprehended, and it was a wonder all of them were not caught, being so weak that they were not able to flee far, and the country round about being disaffected to them and their way.12
Such as were seized were most barbarously used. I have the accounts of this mostly from the foresaid William Niven, who was one of those who were retaken. Not only were they most inhumanely beat and bruised when apprehended, but, when brought back to their prison, they were put in the guard-house, bound and laid on their backs on the floor, and most dreadfully tormented. In three different parts of the room they were tortured.
The said William, with Peter Russel, and Alexander Dalgleish in Kilbride,
11It is difficult to know how many of the prisoners died. The Covenanters’ gravestone in Dunnottar churchyard mentions nine people. In addition, James Forsyth’s wife, who had been imprisoned when she came to visit him in Burntisland, died soon after childbirth in Dunnottar (Wodrow, vol 4, p 322). Also the burying ground in Dunnottar Castle has a stone with the inscription: “A bairn of nine years lies here, 1685”. This is presumed to have been a child of one of the Covenanters.
12Two of the escapees, James Watson and another whose name is not recorded, did indeed fall to their death. They are mentioned on the Covenanters’ gravestone in Dunnottar churchyard. A list of those recaptured is given in The Black Book of Kincardine, p 27. In his journal for September 1, the Covenanter John Erskine of Carnock records meeting two of the men who had escaped, William Boyd and (Alexander) Smith, (Journal of Hon John Erskine of Carnock 1683-7, Edinburgh, 1893, p 153).
were laid upon their backs upon a form, and their hands bound down to the foot of the form, and a fiery match put betwixt every finger of both hands, and six soldiers waiting on by turns, one after another, to blow the match, and keep it equal with their fingers. This was continued for three hours without intermission, by the Governor’s order, merely for the fault of essaying to escape at the hazard of their lives. By this treatment William Niven lost one of the fingers of his left hand. Alexander Dalgleish died of the pain and the wounds he got, and an inflammation rising thereupon; and several others had their fingers burnt, and the very bone turned to ashes, and some, besides the last mentioned, died of this torture.13 Some accounts of those barbarities were sent into Edinburgh, and methods taken to lay them before the [Privy] Council. By the influence of some there, not altogether so merciless as others, orders were sent to the Governor to treat the prisoners with a little more humanity, and to accommodate them with some better rooms.
Since the writing of what is above, I find in the Council Registers, a petition presented to the Council, in favours of the prisoners at Dunnottar, which, as containing nothing but what the petitioners were ready to vouch, and consequently being one of the best accounts of the hardships used toward the prisoners, I insert here, with the Council’s act thereupon:14
“Anent a petition presented by Grizel Cairns and Alison Johnston, in behalf of Mr William M’Millan, and Robert Young, wright in Edinburgh, their husbands, and the rest of the prisoners in the castle of Dunnottar, showing, that the petitioners’ said husbands, who are under no sentence, with many others, having been sent prisoners to the said castle, they are in a most lamentable condition, there being a hundred and ten of them in one vault, where there is little or no daylight at all, and, contrary to all modesty, men and women promiscuously together, and forty-two more in another room, in the same condition, and no person allowed to come near them with meat or drink, but such meat and drink as scarce any rational creature can live upon, and yet at extraordinary rates, being twenty pennies each pint of ale, which is not worth a plack [the smallest coin] the pint, and the peck of sandy dusty meal is afforded to them at eighteen shillings per peck, and not so much as a drink of water allowed to be carried to them, whereby they are not only in a starving condition, but must inevitably incur a plague, or other fearful diseases, without the council provide a speedy remedy; and therefore humbly supplicating, that warrant might be granted to the effect underwritten.
“The lords of His Majesty’s Privy Council, having heard and considered
13Alexander Dalgleish survived long enough to be taken to the Leith Tolbooth on August 18 (Register of Privy Council 1685-6, vol 11, p 154). Presumably he died soon afterwards.
14This Petition was dated June 18 (Register of Privy Council, 1685-6, vol 11, p 70).
the foresaid petition, do hereby continue that part of the desire, for liberty, till they consider further of the petitioners’ cause; but, in the meantime, give order and warrant to the Deputy-Governor of the Castle of Dunnottar, to suffer and permit meat and drink, and other necessaries, to be brought in to the petitioners by their friends or servants, at the ordinary easy rates, and to allow the said Mr William M’Millan and Robert Young a distinct room from the rest; and, in regard of the heat of the season of the year, that all the prisoners may be so accommodated without throng, that their health be endangered as little as possible.”
This no doubt enraged the Governor exceedingly, and he drew up a paper, by way of declaration, in his own favours, wherein the subscribers testified they were gently treated, and wanted not conveniences since they came to Dunnottar; a very few, by threats and promises, were prevailed upon to sign it, but the rest peremptorily refused it, which further enraged the Governor, and they were yet more hardly dealt with.
School at Ingwenya1
James Macleod