Ministers of Galloway who were outed. Extract from Galloway and the Covenanters A.S.Morton ()1914) [For large image click on thumbnail ]

Henry VIII, Supreme Head of the Church of England An Act concerning the King’s Highness to be the supreme head of the Church of EngIand, and to have authority to reform and redress all Errors, heresies, and Abuses, in the same. Cap. 1. Albeit the king’s majesty justly and rightly is and ought to be […]

The Decay and Dissolution of the Monastic System. By the time the Mendicant Friars appeared on the scene in 1221-1224 AD, the established monks were already beginning a downward turn in their level of education. In part this reflected a growing diminution of standards as monasteries and convents became refuges ( and comfortable ones at […]

Martyrdom in Piedmont and Provence in the sixteenth century. In the English and Scottish Reformations the Inquisition never gained a foothold, and although hundreds suffered by hanging and burning at the stake ( in Scotland the occasional drowning) the methodology of ecclesiastical murder was far greater in Europe, and quite extraordinarily inventive, cruel and sadistic. […]

St Giles Cathedral , Greyfriars Kirk and the National Covenant. A stool was thrown On Sunday, July 23, 1637 at St. Giles Cathedral in the Old City of Edinburgh a woman by the name of Janet or Jenny Geddes objected to the use of a new prayer book written by Scottish Bishops and largely amended […]

The background to the Divorce of Henry VIII and Catharine of Arragon. Catharine of Arragon had been a good wife to Henry and had tried  hard to give him the son he wanted. In the event six children were born, including two sons, but five were still born or lived but a few days. Only […]

The United Irishmen and the United Scotsmen. The United Irishmen movement began at a meeting off Crown Entry in 1791 in Belfast with quite philanthropic objectives  – to secure equality under the law and representation for all people without regard to religious beliefs and stemmed, amongst other things, from the desire of The Catholic Committee […]

Robert  Grostete, Bishop of Lincoln. [Sources include, Foxe`s Acts and Monuments; and Memorials of the Dawn of the Reformation in Europe, Nelson, London (1847) ] Robert Grostete or Greathead ( Foxe in his Acts and Monuments calla  him Grosthead) was born of poor parents in in the parish of Stradbrook, the Hundred of Hoxne, in […]

They suffered for their beliefs.  These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  (Revelations 7.14) The Scots Worthies is an often quoted source for the numbers of Presbyterians who died or were subject of `the utmost hardships and extremities`. […]

JOHN CARMICHAEL. Firm opponent of the King`s innovations. Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, H Scott (1915) rev 1917, 1920 vol 5 p 208 Kilconquhar, 1603 JOHN CARMICHAEL, son of David C. of Balmedie, and Isobel, daugh. of David Barclay of Collairnie educated at Univ. of St Andrews; M.A. (3rd Dec. 1584); adm. to Newburnin 1595; app. one […]

THE VOLUNTEERS The Treaty of Limerick in 1691 saw thousands of Jacobite supporters leave the country and the soldiers ( the ” Wild Geese “) take up service with France and Spain. This was of itself ominous but it left the vast majority (4/5ths) of the population, Roman Catholic, excluded from the political process.  It […]

The Plantation Scheme 1610 – 1630 The rebellion by Sir Cahir O’Dogherty on 19 April 1608 led to the sacking of Londonderry and the use of Scottish levies from Ayr to take Carrickfergus – the first use of Scottish troops by the English for conquest abroad. The troops remained and became a further source of […]

United Irishmen and other Irish patriots mentioned in  “Speeches from the Dock” by T. D., A.M., and D. B. Sullivan. Theobald Wolfe Tone. Founder member of the Society of United Irishmen. b 20.6.1764 Stafford St, Dublin. Liaised with the French and twice raised a force for the invasion of Ireland – at Bantry Bay, December […]

Escapes from the Tolbooth An early record of an escape – rather a liberation, concerned Kirkaldy of Grange who  in 1570 descended on the tolbooth from the castle with armed guards and forcibly removed a servant from custody, and on 1 May 1571  he again seized the tolbooth and Council House. His intervention with the […]