spreul2 – The Reformation

John Spreul – Torture and conviction by a special Act of

Council.

Spreul was again brought before the Privy Council on Wednesday 17 November and again he refused to subscribe to previous answers. He was sent back to his cell while the hangman was summoned and the  instruments of torture made ready. Returning to the Council chamber where the Duke of York was in attendance, Spreul was  threatened and the charges read.  This time, despite protestations at it`s illegality, the hangman  put his leg into the boot and inserted the wedges. At every question the hangman gave four or five blows to the wedges and drove them down into the boot. Spreul gave nothing, not even yielding to the pain. Such was the anger at him that the hangman was ordered to get another type of boot ( probably with a metal casing)  with which there was no success. In temper, Dalziel accused the hangman of being

soft
to

which he was bade to do it himself ( Dalziel declined). At this juncture Spreul related the tale of how martyrs at the stake would pray in apparent ecstacy as the flames consumed them; he likewise felt no pain because God was with him. Frustrated in their design the Council remitted him to prison under close guard and ordered that he was not to be given help or a doctor to be called. In his cell Spreul was able to dress his crushed leg with cloth soaked

in warm wine, which brought some relief.

John Spreul`s wife was refused permission to see him or provide any material comforts such as food or clean clothes; he was then taken and imprisoned in the infamous  Edinburgh Tolbooth. Here, amongst the planted spies and informers, Spreul was closeted with a spy named Green. This man was soon cosseting two Covenanters who had been brought in, and making a great show of his opposition to prelacy. Spreul was suspicious and turned the tables on Green, talking him into betraying himself and perhaps saving two lives. It was March 1681 when the Lord Advocate himself – Sir George “Bluidy” Mackenzie, indicted Spreul before the High Court of Justiciary. On this occasion he was charged with treason and rebellion for alleged

accession to Bothwell Brig. 

The act of announcing his indictment must have been both amusing and of great levity to a man who had suffered as much as John Spreul. He describes how three Lyon Heralds and three Messengers at arms, clothed in their official robes, approached with sound of trumpet. They paused at the entrance to the hall and proclaimed themselves; then again at the entrance to his cell. Spreul took his indictment and kissed it, then invited the officials to sit while he read two verses of Psalm xci, and verses 9-12 of Revelations xiv. He asked that the Messengers take back to Mackenzie and the Duke of York the message that the facts of the Psalm preserved him from fear and despondency at

the blast of their trumpets.

In what had now become a repetitive process, Spreul was called before the Lords Justiciary several times – on 2 March, on 6 June and then 13 June before sufficient witnesses were obtained to swear against him. These Spreul rejected as illegal and paid informers, and throwing down a dollar to the clerk of the Court, took instruments ( a legal declaration) against the illegal proceedings,  There was much tedious debate and cross questioning of witnesses, some of whom had been threatened with torture if they did not prove

Spreul`s guilt. It slowly began to dawn

on the Court that nothing could be proven and Spreul`s lawyers demanded he be set at liberty. Mackenzie then produced an Act of the Privy Council that had been prepared beforehand in the event of acquittal, by which Spreul was charged with attending conventicles, ordered to be  fined five hundred pounds sterling ( a huge sum in those days) and imprisoned until paid. The following day he was escorted by a troop of dragoons to North

Berwick and the Bass Rock prison.

Spreul on the Bass Rock.