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Nliiiiiiiind *6000432182* mi 2m 2-i^5- 5CS.5Ht)5. 15 L+vimki SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY FIFTH SERIES VOLUME 15 Protestant Piety In Early-Modern Scotland Protestant Piety In Early-Modern Scotland Letters, Lives and Covenants, 1650-1712 edited by David George Mullan EDINBURGH Printed for the Scottish History Society Scottish History Society 2008 The date of 2001 on the spine refers to the nominal year in the Society’s annual series of publications. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The editor of this volume gratefully acknowledges the financial contribution towards its publication by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, through a standard research grant made to him in 2002. ISBN 0-906245-24-9 Printed in Great Britain J | V CONTENTS Preface vi Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 Archibald Johnston of Wariston, ‘Diary’, 31 6 January 1650-23 March 1650 John Baird, ‘Anent Personal Covenanting’, 1677 47 Personal Covenants 71 James Nasmyth, i 688 Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, 1692 William Gordon, 1699 John Welwood, ‘Letters’, 1675-1677 78 Gabriel Semple, ‘Life’, c.1685 140 Quintin Dick, ‘A Brief Account’, c.1688 167 Adam Blackadder, ‘A True Narration’, c.1703 197 Henry Duncan, ‘The Most Memorable Passages’, c.1710 213 John Bell, ‘The Most Memorable Passages’, 1706 281 James Murray, ‘Diary’, c.1698 288 Index 307 PREFACE In my current interest with religious autobiography in general, and the early-modern Scottish variety in particular, I am conscious of standing in an editorial tradition which has witnessed notable contributions from former generations of students who have seen through the press such works as the narratives of Alexander Brodie of Brodie and James Nimmo and Marion Veitch. All of these works are important representatives of a genre in their own time and place, and cast a bright if tendentious light on their surroundings. The Scottish History Society has been at the centre of Scottish historical publication for over a century, and has lent its patronage to editors of religious (and non-religious) self-writing; I am grateful for its interest in and support of my own work in this area. In the year 2001, first Ashgate Publishing Company contracted with me for a large collection of Scottish women’s religious self-writing, and then a few months later the SHS approved this book of mascuHne writings. As is ever the case, I have incurred many debts amongst the members of the scholarly community. I am particularly grateful to Julian Goodare for friendship and scholarly advice, the latter given in his capacity as an honorary publications secretary for the Society and whose lunchtime conversations are so helpful to me whenever I am in Edinburgh; to Sharon Adams whom I first met when she was a post- graduate student under Julian’s supervision at the University of Edinburgh, and who has now succeeded him as a publications secretary and has generously bestowed her time and her patience upon this project and its editor who is ever revising his submission; to Louise Yeoman, an enthusiastic conservator and researcher of Scotland’s rich historical heritage, formerly of the National Library of Scotland, and now of BBC Scotland; to Jane Dawson, New College, who shares my editorial interests and knows the trials and tribulations which await those who tread this path; to Professor Ramsay MacMullen of Yale University who pointed me in the direction of Dionysius of Halicarnassus and solved the problem of what was to me an obscure classical reference; to Professor David Wright, New College, who once again gave advice on a Latin term; to all the staff who attended my requests at New College Library, the National Library of Scodand, the National Archives of Scodand, and special collections at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St Andrews. And here at home, staff in the library of Cape Breton University have played their accustomed and indispensable role in helping me, and especially with respect to inter-hbrary loans. In academic years 2003-2004 and 2004- 2005 I have been reheved of teaching one-third of my regular course load, and I am grateful to colleagues and administrators who have by this means supported my research—in particular Dr Graham Reynolds, Chair of the Department of History and Fine Arts; Dr Joanne G alii van, Dean of Research; and Dr Arthur Tucker, Dean of the School of Arts and Community Studies. Standard research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to me in 1998 and 2002 have made possible the numerous trips to Edinburgh which underlie my research and publications. I am profoundly grateful to the Council and its staff, and to all those scholars who have graciously written time- consuming evaluations of my proposals. Of course I cannot name them here—in fact I do not know who have actually written—but they will recognize themselves in my words and understand my gratitude. Finally, it is a husband’s happy privilege to render heart-felt thanks to his wife Arlene whose encouragement and patience has supported my prolonged research in distant archives. In addition to the works cited in the footnotes, others—^whether in traditional or digital format—have been of great use to me, even if not mentioned there. These include various Oxford English Dictionaries-, the [old] Dictionary of National Biography; The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edn., ed. E. A. Livingstone (Oxford, 1997); R. Young, Analytical Concordance to the Bible, 7* edn. (Edinburgh, [1899]); and J. Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (London, 1894, &c.); http://bible.crosswalk.com, an online concordance of the Bible; The Scottish National Dictionary, 10 vols., eds. Wm. G. and D. Murison (Edinburgh, 1931-1976); A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, 12 vols., eds. Wm. A. Craigie et al (Oxford, 1937-2002); and the ‘Gazetteer for Scotland’, Department of Geography at the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, at www.geo.ed.ac.uk. I am grateful to the trustees of the National Library of Scotland for their kind permission to publish manuscripts from the collections under their care; to the University of Edinburgh Library for permitting the manuscripts by John Baird, William Gordon, and Archibald Johnston of Wariston to appear in this volume; and to the St Andrews University Library for permission to include the personal covenant of James Nasmyth. Finally, I am grateful to Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, Bt, for permitting the inclusion of his ancestor’s personal covenant, found in the family’s muniments which are housed in the National Archives of Scotland. The book is dedicated to the memory of my father, David John Mullan (1906-1989); and to the memory of my father-in-law, Henry Koop (1929-2004). D.G.M Ash Wednesday, 2004 ABBREVIATIONS Analecta R. Wodrow, Analecta, 4 vols. (Bannatyne Club, 1842-3). AV Authorized Version of the Bible, 1611, commonly called the King James Version. Diary The Diary of Alexander Brodie of Brodie, 1652-1680. And of his son, James Brodie of Brodie, 1680-1685 (Spalding Club, 1863). DNB Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1993). EUL Edinburgh University Library. FES H. Scott (ed.), Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, new edn., 11 vols. (Edinburgh, 1915-2000). GB Geneva Bible, 1560 (facsimile reprint, Madison, Wisconsin, 1969). History R. Wodrow, The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution, 4 vols. (Glasgow, 1828-30). NAS National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh. NC New College, Edinburgh. NLS National Library of Scodand, Edinburgh. RPC, 3rd ser. Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 3rd ser., 16 vols. (Edinburgh, 1908-1970). SB W. K. Tweedie (ed.). Select Biographies, 2 vols. (Wodrow Society, 1845-7). SHS Scottish History Society. X Song Song of Solomon, also known as Canticles. Source Book W. C. Dickinson and G. Donaldson (eds.), A Source Book of Scottish History, 2nd edn., 3 vols. (London, 1958-61). SP D. G. Mullan, Scottish Puritanism, 1590-1638 (Oxford, 2000). STC Short Title Catalogue, 1641-1700, ed. D. Wing, 2nd edn., 3 vols. (New York, 1982-94). WLW D. G. Mullan (ed.), Women’s Life Writing in Early Modern Scotland: Writing the Evangelical Self, c. 1670- c.1730 (Aldershot, Hampshire, and Burlington, Vermont, 2003). INTRODUCTION 26th March [1700]. I think I had never more persuasion of God’s accepting my renewing of covenant than that yesterday. I rejoice I have done it, when I think on it; and I am persuaded God has accepted it; for I have had covenanted strength since, as well as the token aforesaid. That Word was made sweet to me in my ordinary last night, Isaiah 54:6, ‘The Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God’.' In the shadow of persecution, as Scottish presbyterianism continued its slide into a state of permanent division, there emerged a vibrant evangelicalism which crossed the divisions of ecclesiological definition. It included the indulged and the Cameronians during the reigns of Charles II and James VII, and thereafter folk belonging to the societies (many coalescing around John MacMillan of Balmaghie) and others who found places for themselves in the restored presbyterian Church of Scotland. Of course, this form of piety was not invented only after the Restoration, under the rod of Stewart despotism. Its roots were deep in the Scottish Reformed experience, finding clear expression from about 1590 and embracing both presbyterian and episcopalian divines. Everything presented here can be traced back to that earfier time in at least seminal form, and so there is no suggestion of a great disjunction arising from a fit of theological creativity.