Dr. William Buchan M.D. 1729 – 1805 Eighteenth century Scotland was a difficult time for the children of all classes as medical knowledge and treatment of childhood diseases was as at best primitive. Although there had been success eradicating plague, and typhus and cholera had declined, there was still malaria until the late eighteenth century […]
Freemen and Burgesses – merchants versus craftsmen. Scotland was slow to distinguish craft-men from merchants, and possibly garnered the idea of trade societies (unions) from Germany where the craftsmen had been pursuing representation on Town Councils since the thirteenth century. But in Scotland the merchant burgess were a class apart with wealth, privileges and life […]
Jan (John) Hus (1374-1415) and Master Jerome of Prague Jan Hus was a Bohemian (Czechoslavakian) priest ordained in 1401, who shared similar views with John Wyckcliffe concerning the excesses of the medieval Catholic Church. He came from a modest background and by scrimping and saving his parents put him through the university of Prague where […]
The Plantation of Ulster. Lord Deputy Chichester to the Earl of Salisbury 3rd October 1610 Cited in Old Belfast, Ed R.M.Young (1896) For the instrumentes of the Plantation, I meane the Brittysh Undertakers, those from England are for the most part plaine countrie gentlemen, who maye promise much, but geve unto us small assurance or […]
The Lollards in Scotland. In Scotland, the Lollards were quite strong in numbers within the districts of Kyle and Carrick, in Ayrshire, where the proprietors of the estates of Carnell, Kinzeancleuch, Ochiltree, Cessnock, Barr, Gadgirth, and Terinzeon were supporters of the sect’s beliefs. Lollards were also in Fife. The appointment of Robert, Duke of Albany […]
THE ACT AGAINST THE MESSE. [ 10 July 1560 ] In the Parliament haldin at Edinburgh, the tent of Julij, the year of God Jm fyve hundreth threscoir yearis, the said Parliament being continewed to the first of August nixt thairafter following, with continewatioun of dayis, upoun the twenty-four day of the said moneth of […]
THE COVENANTER’S DEATH. Slow sank the red sun down to rest Amid a stormy bank of cloud That gathered deep’ning in the west, As forming for that sun a shroud, In which to quench the last faint ray That shed a glory o’er departing day. That setting sun was but a form And shadowy type […]
The Gowrie Conspiracy. The Gowrie Conspiracy is one of the mysteries of the reign of King James VI. The 2nd Earl of Gowrie had been involved in the Ruthven Raid, and had caused the boy King James to burst into tears when he blocked his way from leaving the room they were in. The Earl […]
A Petition of the Presbyterian Ministers and People in the North of Ireland, to William and Mary. ( Wodrow Collection f 51, No 48; reproduced in Two Centuries of Life in Down, R J Stevenson.) The Petition sheweth— That whereas His sacred Matie & Royal Consort of ever blessed memory from their princely clemency & […]
Economic and social reasons for migration. The motivation to migrate from Scotland and Ulster because of religious persecution was certainly a serious cause between about 1630 and 1720. After this period the factors became much more economic and social as both agrarian and industrial revolutions began to exert influence. In the early 1700s landlords still […]
Act of the Six Articles 1539 Extract from Foxes Monuments, Ed Rev Geo Townsend (1846) Vol 5 p 262). In this parliament, synod, or convocation, certain articles, matters, and questions, touching religion, were decreed by certain prelates, to the number especially of six, commonly called ‘The Six Articles’ (or, ‘The Whip with Six Strings’), to […]
Carberry Hill 15 June 1567 and its consequences. Following the murder of Lord Darnley in the explosion on 9 February there was a strong groundswell of opinion against both Queen Mary and her paramour the Earl of Bothwell. A trial of Bothwell had come to nothing when his prosecutor the Earl of Lennox failed to […]
Proclamation of Archbishop Chichesley, against the Lollards (and against English Books) 1 July 1416. Henry, by the grace of God, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, and legate of the chief seat; to our reverend brother in the Lord Richard, by the grace of God, bishop of London, health and brotherly love, with continual […]
`Alexander Ales, also known as Alesius. In the early sixteenth century there were more and more priests and friars disenchanted with the Roman Church and its excesses; many took up the evangelical cause even though it could mean a charge of heresy and a fiery death at the stake. These often unsung Christians were important […]