blackadder – The Reformation
Rev John Blackadder
John Blackadder was one of the most zealous and popular of the Covenanter`s field preachers and preached at many conventicles, often in the companionship of John Welch of Irongray, the great
grandson of John Knox.
Like many of the other Covenanter ministers Blackadder came from a reasonably well off family – the Blackadders of Tulliallan, Perthshire, and of a distinguished line of fighters. The original home was in Berwickshire where in the 15th century his forebear was Cuthbert Blackadder who, with his seven sons, were called “ The Black Band of the Blackadders “ and fought valiantly for the Lancastrians ( Red Rose ) against the Yorkists ( White Rose). Three of the sons and Cuthbert died at the battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485 but because of their bravery King James of Scotland granted their heirs the unique privilege of carrying on their shields the two roses. The Berwickshire branch lost its dominating position and younger sons acquired by marriage the estates of Tulliallan in Perthshire. John Blackadder was in later life entitled to the title of a baronetcy and the carriage of the badge of honour awarded the family, but he chose not to do
so.
John Blackadder was born in December 1615 and educated at Glasgow University where his uncle, the Rev Dr Strang, was the Principal. He spent many years travelling the country preaching and was thirty seven years old when he was ordained minister of the parish
of Troqueer
in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbrightshire in 1652. He had 7 children of whom his eldest son, Dr Blackadder and his second son suffered imprisonment several times. His fifth son was a brave and daring soldier who had joined the Cameronian regiment as a cadet in 1689 and served with the colours under John, Duke of Marlborough , in Flanders and Germany. He retired from the army as Lieutenant Colonel of the 26th or Cameronian Regiment , was Deputy Governor of Stirling Castle. in 1711, and died aged
sixty five in 1729.
Blackadder worked hard for the common people of his parish who were backward and ignorant and some practiced `popery`. However, by patient application , home visiting, encouraging education and reading the Bible; and preaching twice on the Sabbath he gradually brought his congregation together. But along with some 300 other ministers he was ejected from his living in 1662. – and his family physically so in his absence by no less a person than
Sir James Turner, later to be captured by the Pentland rebels.
Blackadder had heard that he was to be arrested and had gone to nearby Dumfries when soldiers arrived at his home and foreced his wife and children to leave the house and seek cover in the Parish of Glencairn. In 1665 another attempt to seize him failed because he and his wife were safe in Edinburgh but, again in his absence, the children were turned out of their beds and his house ransacked, the brave troopers even stabbing at the beds with their swords while uttering threats to roast the children on the fire. In the confusion a ten year old son escaped and ran in his nightshirt to the Bridgend of Mennihyvie ( Moniave) where he
was found asleep at the village cross the following morning.
He belonged to a more moderate section of the Presbyterians; disapproving of the Indulgence which aimed to lure ministers back to a modified form of service. But he was unhappy at the use of force and as a result he was not at any of the encounters with the royalist soldiers. Perhaps importantly, he did not accept the die hard position adopted by Richard Cameron in the Sanquhar Declaration. Almost contradictory is that he was among the ministers who encouraged the hard core of prisoners held in the Greyfriars Prison not to sign bonds for good behaviour. The leader of the prisoners, a Robert Garnock, a blacksmith from Stirling was influenced by a letter from Blackadder but was hanged
for his resistance
He did not at first commence field preaching and kept a low profile for some time but the barbarous behaviour of the troopers seemed to convince Blackadder that an offensive was needed . He soon became prominent amongst the field preachers and helped organise conventicles. Under his influence there emerged an underground church with regular committee meetings and even its own church court. From the government view point he was becoming a dangerous nuisance since he also preached in private houses which were more difficult to detect and meant that persons of
influence were being drawn to congregations.
He preached wherever and whenever opportunity afforded itself, whether in houses or fields for some twenty years. He ranged far afield to Fifeshire, the Lothians, Lanarkshire, in Carrick and Cunningham in Ayrshire and among the hills of Galloway. During this time he preached at Fenwick in January 1669 where there had been no Presbyterian teaching since the Pentland Rising three years before. He established a new congregation at Bo`ness and had a crowd of 1200 hanging on his every word at Paisley. At Dunscore in the midst of deep snow it is said that he sat on a chair in the open and preached to the populace who pulled up lumps
of heather on which to sit and listen.
At the Hill of Beath near Dunfermline in the summer of 1670 he and John Dickson preached to a large crowd during which a lieutenant in the militia road up, dismounted and listened to the sermon which then happened to be about brotherly love and was not treasonable. Being satisfied the lieutenant went to remount and was surrounded by beligerent members of the congregation. Blackadder stopped his sermon and intervened, allowing the soldier to be on his way. This conventicle is also remembered as one of the first at which people carried pistols and swords for defence, so it was a lucky lieutenant who rode away unscathed. It says something of the demand on the physical man that Blackadder took over seven hours to ride home from this conventicle , having to go the long way round via Stirling, as there was no boatman to
take him across the estuary from Dunfermline to Edinburgh.
Blackadder preached with the outed John Welch of Irongray on several occasions, notably so in 1678 at what have been called the Communion Stones at Skeoch Hill near Irongray . Here rows of stones in an ampitheatre in the hills are a natural setting, surrounded by high hills from which look outs could keep watch for the troopers.. At Skeoch some 14,000 people attended over a period of three days and 3,000 took Communion. Another remembered Communion was that at East Nisbet in the Borders conducted in idyllic surroundings, in a field next a stream where sixteen tables were set up, each seating one hundred
communicants, so that about 3,200 took communion that day.
He spent some time in Holland in 1680 and was eventually arrested at his home in Edinburgh on 6 April 1681 and arraigned before General Dalzell and then
before
a Committee of Council who ordered his incarceration forthwith. He was sentenced to imprisonment on the Bass Rock where he was duly committed the next day, such was there haste to be rid of him. With his health failing a bid was made to get him released but he died there in December 1685 before this could be done. He is buried in North Berwick churchyard where his gravestone begins with the
inscription:
“ Here lies the body of Mr john Blackadder, minister of the Gospel at Troqueer, in Galloway, who died on the Bass after five years imprisonment, Anno Dom
1685, and of his age sixty three years. “
A memorial
plague in Troqueer parish church bears the following inscription:
To the Glory of God in memory of The Reverend John Blackader Born 1615 Ordained minister of the Parish of Troqueer 1653 Extruded 1662. Outlawed for preaching in the fields 1674 Imprisoned on the Bass Rock 1681 Died after a cruel confinement 1685 “ Faithful unto death “ Erected AD
1902.
18/02/2010