patrick_couper – The Reformation

PATRICK COUPER

Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, H Scott (1915) rev 1917, 1920

vol 5 p 227 Pittenweem, 1692

PATRICK COUPER [or COWPER],born in Scone 1660; educated at Univ. of St

Andrews; M.A. (22nd July 1678); was much persecuted as a Presbyterian.

One Sunday evening, when engaged in family worship, he narrowly escaped capture by the magistrates of Perth, and was several times compelled to flee from that city. In 1679 he was taken prisoner there one Saturday on his way to a field meeting, though unarmed, called before two of the bailies, and imprisoned for nonconformity, until after the battle of Bothwell Bridge when he was released under the royal indemnity. Next year he was again detained in prison for three months for attending conventicles, but was liberated by his parents paying a fine of fifty merks, and a fee to the jailer of £11. A third time he was seized at Elithhead in Strathaven when on duty on horseback as a sentinel at a conventicle. He was taken to Perth where he was received with derision by the Episcopal congregation, and was kept in prison for three months, fined £106, and bound over to enter into ward again under a severe penalty. Having determined to go abroad he sailed for Holland, and from thence to Konigsberg. He returned to Holland and obtained a licence to preach the Gospel at Rotterdam in Dec. 1684. He proceeded to Scotland, landed at Borrowstounness, and travelled to Perth, where he wrote to his wife to join him, but they were forced to flee to Edinburgh, and had to leave that city after two months as a search was made for him. He returned to Perth, spent the winter there, and returned to Holland in the spring with his wife, his mother- in-law, and his brother Thomas, afterwards Professor of

Divinity.

 In Feb. 1687 he came back to Kirkcaldy and found the Toleration had been proclaimed. He again went to Holland in Aug., and when further restrictions were taken off he came home, landing a second time at  Borrowstounness.   He was invited to preach at St Ninians; ord.in the meeting-house at Bannockburn 14th Aug. 1688; called 4th April, trans, and adm. 5th May1692, his admission being opposed by certain Jacobite heritors who barricaded the church. The magistrates, however, broke open the doors and drove out the offenders; died 14th June 1740. ” He studied to follow a clear and distinct method in his sermons, and abhorred jingling, bombastic words, that airy self-seeking men affect much.” In bodily appearance he was “small and thin,” and when young nearly lost the sight of one of his eyes through illness, yet at seventy sevenhe could read the smallest print without spectacles even in candle light. He was the first who ( in 1716) proposed the raising of the Ministers’ Widows’ Fund. He marr. June 1682, Janet (died 1702), daugh. of George Halyburton, min. of Aberdalgie, and had issue— Andrew, a licentiate; Thomas; Joseph; Janet (marr. Andrew Burn, min. of Anstruther Wester) Jean; Margaret; Isabel; Sophia; Jean; Isabel;

Anna (marr. Murdoch Macdonald, min. of Durness.).