The Covenanters in Moray and Ross

LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY BX9081 .M31 1875 Covenanters in Moray and Ross Murdoch Macdonald. Srom i^t feifirarg of (pxofcBBox n5?ifftant ênrg (B>reen 5$equeafêb fij? îm fo tê fei6rari? of (princefon Cêofogtcaf êminarg THE COVENANTERS MORAY AND ROSS: BY REV. MURDOCH MACDONALD, NAIRN. NAIRN: J . T . M E L V E N . EDINBURGH: MACLAREN & MACNIVEN. ELGIN : J. S. FERRIER. FORRES I R. STEWART & SON. : A. &: R. MILNE. INVERNESS : JAMES MELVEN. ABERDEEN 1875. THE PATRON, JOHN ARCHIBALD DUNBAR DUNBAR, Esq., TOUNGER OF SEAPARK, THE DIRECTORS, AND MEMBERS FORRES MECHANICS' INSTITUTE AND LIBRARY, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. PREFACE The following chapters originated in a series of popular Lectures prepared at the request of the Mechanics' Institute of Forres, and delivered in that town, and in Nairn, Inverness, Invergordon, and Elgin. There was no intention of giving them, either a wider pub- licity, or a more permanent form; but the audiences in the several places having expressed a wish to see my manuscript in print—probably because they felt that the ear required the aid of the eye in following the details of the narrative, — it is now published. The sketch has grown somewhat in the reproduction, but the demands of a laborious pastorate have for- bidden any attempt to recast it in a more strictly his- toric form, or to bestow upon it a treatment worthier of the subject. Whatever its imperfections, I trust that, at the least, the men of Moray and Eoss Avill recognise it as a well-meaning, if feeble, attempt to keep alive the memory of men and of deeds that ought not to be forgotten by us. I had cherished the hope of being able, «ome day, to follow up the subject by tracing the history of VI PREFACE. religious life and ecclesiastical activity in this district, from the Eevolution to the present day, but that hope has now to be abandoned. Perhaps some Moray man better acquainted than I with the district and its memories will take it up. I gratefully acknowledge the obligations under which James D. Miller, Esq., Forres, the Rev. Gustavus Aird of Creich, and several other friends, have laid me, by kindly permitting me to draw on the stores of their memories and their book-shelves. M. M. Naihn, 24th July 1875. — CONTEXTS. CHAPTER I. SUBSCRIBING THE COVENANT. PAGE Moray in 1638—" No Bishop, no King"—Bishop Guthrie put- ing on his Sleeves— The Tables—The Covenant and the Earl of Sutherland—Bishop Maxwell conducting Service in the Chanonry of Ross—Letter to the Baron of Kil- ravock—Andrew Cant's Address at Inverness— Signing the Covenant in Moray—Robert Bruce of Kinnaird The Clans taking the Covenant—The Bishop Fortifying Spynie—The Glasgow Assembly — Card-Playing and Dancing Bishops—David Prott, the Gillie of Gicht—Sir Robert "Munro and his Soldadista—The Carved Screen of Elgin Cathedral—The Solemn League and Covenant —Robert Todd of Rothes, and his Kirk-Session, - - 1 CHAPTER II. FIGHTING FOR THE COVENANT. Montrose and Colkitto—Ravaging Moray—The Battle of Auldearn—The Graves of the Covenanters—The Siege of Letheu—Middleton Chasing Montrose from the Ness to the Beauly—Lord Brodie at Breda—King Charles of Scotland and King Milne of Garmouth— Glencairn's Expedition—Duel on the Links of Dornoch—The Citadel of Inverness—Troopers Settling in the North—The Fast at Lethen, -------33 CHAPTER IIL PROSCRIBING THE COVENANT. The Restoration—The King's Tools—Sharp's Perfidy—Pres- bytery Abolished—The Scottish Hierarchy — Bishop Mackenzie of Moray—Ministers and Elders Deposed- Thomas Hogg of Kiltearn—John M'Killican of Fodderty —Sir Hugh Campbell of Cawdor, and the Lord's Prayer —Fines, Evictions, and Imprisonment, - - - 66 — Vlll CONTENTS, CHAPTER IV. SUFFERING FOR THE COVENANT. PAGE Hogg, BI'Killican, and Urquhart, in the Tolbootb of Forres Ministers "falling about the Work of Preaching" Fraser of Brea—The Field-Presbytery of Moray—Thomas Ross of Kincardine—The Ladies of the Covenant— Hear- ing the Curates—The good Lady of Kilravock— Lilias Dunbar—"The Tolbootb of Tain in Inverness"— The Clatterin Brig—Fines and Imprisonment—Communion at Obsdale— Principles of the Covenanters—The Bass Rock—Incidents of the Imprisonment, - - - 101 CHAPTER V. BONDS AND BANISHMENT AND DEATH FOR THE COVENANT. The Thane of Cawdor—Northern Ministers again Imprisoned — Death of Lord Brodie—Thomas Hogg in Holland Nonconformist Preachers in Moray—Commission of Privy Council sitting in Elgin—The Fiery Cross— Satisfaction of the Clergy— Imprisonment substituted for Banishment —Power of Conscience among the Episcopal Clergy, - 1 31 CHAPTER YL THE TRIUMPH OF THE COVENANT. Closing Scenes—Death of John M'Killican—Thomas Hogg's Return;—Restored to Kiltearn—Domestic Chaplain to the King—Death in Peace— Thomas Hogg's Grave—Charac- ter of Thomas Hogg— Spiritual Direction—Mrs Campbell of Torrich—William Balloch and Jane Taylor—Hugh Anderson of Cromarty—Grace Crombie and the Apple- tree—Fraser of Brea—The Magistrates of Inverness Conclusion, .._..- 171 APPENDIX. [illustrative EXTRACTS. Burning of the Clavie — Seaforth's Covenant — The Strong House of Lethen — Brodie on the Consecration of the Bishops—Hugh Rose of Nairn on Prayer, etc.—Marks of Conversion—M'Killican 's Diary—Marrying without Pro- clamation of Banns—Another Thomas Hogg—Pringle of Torwoodlee, and Pringle of Greeu-Knowe— The Fiery - - Cross in Moray, - - - - 199 THE COVENANTERS IN MOEAY AND ROSS. CHAPTEE I. Moray in 1638—"No Bishop, no King"—Bishop Guthrie putting on his Sleeves—The Tables—The Covenant and the Earl of Sutherland—Bishop Maxwell conducting Service in the Chan- onry of Ross—Letter to the Baron of Kilravock—Andrew Cant's Address at Inverness— Signing the Covenant in Moray—Robert Bruce of Kinnaird — The Clans taking the Covenant — The Bishop Fortifying Spynie — The Glasgow Assembly — Card- Playing and Dancing Bishops— David Prott, the Gillie of Gicht —Sir Robert Munro and his Soldadista—The Carved Screen of Elgin Cathedral—The Solemn League and Covenant—Robert Todd of Rothes, and his Kirk-Session. Îy object in this short course of Lectures is to sketch the history of the Covenanting Cause, as far as it was acted out in Moray, or involved the action of Moray men. By Moray, I mean specially the Province so designated—the district of country between the Bogie and the Beauly. I take the liberty, however, of annexing, for the purpose of these Lectures, the ad- joining counties of Eoss and Sutherland, regarding myself at liberty to roam round the three-horned head of the Prith, from the mouth of the Spey on the south to the Ord of Caithness on the north. The close con- 2 THE COVENANTERS IN MORAY AND ROSS. nection, social and ecclesiastical, which subsisted, dur- ing the period under review, between Moray proper and the neighbouring counties to the north, is my excuse for this act of annexation. For many years the Synod of Moray embraced the United Presbytery of Eoss and Sutherland. By the Covenanting Cause, T mean the principles and aims of the party to which the great National Covenant of 1638 gave form and a name. The survey will carry us over half a century —from the adoption of the Covenant to the triumph of its principles in the Eevolution of 1688. Let us go back in imagination, and glance at the Moray of 1638. We meet with the same towns with which we are familiar in the present, but they are smaller, more compact, more picturesque, and, sooth to say, more filthy. Elgin wears a decidedly ecclesiastical look. Its noble Cathedral is, indeed, in ruins, but the great tower in the centre is still standing, and to certain painted rooms therein, Eoman Catholics repair to say their prayers, as the excellent Lauchlan Shaw testifies. Forres and Nairn consist, each of a single street, w4th "closes," or narrow lanes, abutting; and a Tolbooth, not in the best of repair, protruding into the roadway. In Inverness, two streets cross each other at right angles, under the shadow of the Castle, and communicate by a bridge of oak, with a straggling suburb on the left bank of the river. Dingwall is a long muddy street of mean houses with their gables to the roadway, flanked on the north by a marsh, which spreads round the church and the extensive ruins of the stronghold of the proud Earls of Eoss. Tain, a compact little town, with an air of importance and substantial comfort, clusters round its Tolbooth MORAY IN 1638. 3 and handsome cliurch, on the brow of the terrace over- looking the ruins of St Duthus. Cromarty—a laby- rinth of fishermen's cottages, the owners of which can converse fluently in Latin with Sir Thomas, Lord of the Manor.—inclines more to the Southern Sutor than the modern town, and finds itself rather confined between the encroaching sea and the base of the tall, gaunt, keep of the Urquharts. The Chanonry of Eoss, a group of manse-like dwellings, seems to divide its allegiance bet^veen the towering Castle of Lord Sea- forth and the decaying Cathedral, the southern aisle of which is still used as a place of worship. Findhorn is a seaport of considerable importance. Its hardy skippers keep up a brisk trade mth Holland, and sup- ply the gentlemen of the Province with strong waters, and other commodities of less questionable utility. In Burghead, neither the ancient earthworks, nor the chapel within their lines, have yet been removed. The village itself, consisting of a few cottages, does not seem to prosper much, notwithstanding the annual "Burning of the Clavie,"* and the blessing it invokes.

Load more