Signatories to the Covenant of 1638 in Borgue and Minigaff Parishes, Galloway. These are extracts from “Galloway and the Covenanters” by Alex.S. Morton (1914). They refer to the inhabitants of the two Galloway Parishes that signed a copy of the Covenant. Click on the image to enlarge to 600 pixel width; this image can be […]

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

THE CAMERONIAN`s DREAM. Called by Wodrow ” The Vision: A Poem on the Slaughter of Mr Richard Cameron and Others at Airsmoss, written by an ” Ayrshire Shepherd Lad.” It first appeared in the Edinburgh Magazine in 1821 when the author, James Hyslop, had charge of a school in Greenock. He was a school master […]

37 Prisoners bound for Dunnottar but returned to Edinburgh Tolbooth 20 May 1685. ( Extract from The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, Vol XI (1922) p 61-2.) Many of these were subsequently released on swearing oaths of allegiance and entering into bonds / financial penalties if they failed to comply.

 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  […]

James Graham: The Marquis of Montrose (1612 – 1650)    James Graham, Marquis of Montrose was born in 1612 and succeeded his father in 1627. He was among the first to sign the National Covenant in Greyfriars Kirk in 1638 and was, for a while, a most diligent servant of the Covenanters. He was ignored […]

Bond for regularity, signed by the shire of Stirling, October, 1684. [Extract from The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution. Robert Wodrow, Ed R Burns. Glasgow, Blackie & Son, (1835) Volume 4, p 133-134. ]  We undersubscribers, noblemen, heritors, and others, within the shire of Stirling, […]

The Scottish Covenanter Memorials Association. The Association was founded in 1966  by three men, William Stirling, Walter Storrar and William Miller, who saw that the memorials to the Covenanters were in poor condition. They made the first efforts to go round the countryside cleaning graves, painting railings and bringing the memorials to the notice of […]

James Renwick, James Renwick was a stalwart of the United Societies and the last minister to be a martyr.  He was born on 15 February 1662 in Knees Cottage, the village of Moniave, in the parish of Glencairn, Dumfriesshire. His father, Andrew, was a weaver by trade, and his mother Elizabeth Corsan had several children […]

Rev  Alexander  Henderson.  Along  with  his   friend, a brilliant   young  advocate named  Archibald  Johnson of  Warriston (later  Lord  Warriston )  Alexander  Henderson  was  responsible  for  the  drafting  of  both  the  National  Covenant  in  1638  and  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  in  1643. For  these  acts  alone  he  deserves  a  niche  in  Covenanting  history. But  it  […]

The Covenanter Prison in Greyfriars Kirk Yard. On the day of the battle of Bothwell Brig, 22 June 1679, the Edinburgh militia regiment, under the command of Sir John Nicolson, was quartered at Corstorphine, from where a convoy with 30 men was sent with arms and ammunition for the army in the west. In their […]

The Sense in which the Covenanters refused to say “God save the King.” The arguement is sometimes made that Margaret Wilson, one of the Solway Martyrs who was executed by drowning in  May 1685 for refusing to take the Abjuration Oath, could have saved herself by saying “God save the king”. But that is over […]

John Ashton – a “poor priest” John Ashton was one of the “poor priests” who went to preach to the people; he is variously described as a student, a bachelor of arts and a master of arts at Oxford University. By the summer of 1382 he had garnered sufficient notoriety in the Church`s eyes to […]

The Lanthorn of Light. Articles contained in an English Book, entitled, ‘The Lanthorn of Light” printed and published by John Clayton (Claydon, or Clayborn)  in 1415. The book was deemed heretical and burnt while John Clayton himself was declared a heretic by diktat of Henry Chichesley, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was committed to the secular […]