PUBLICATIONS OF THE SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY SECOND SERIES VOL. XVII I DIARY OF SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON OF WARISTON VOL. II March 1919 Al;i- 22I94S DIARY OF SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON "' OF WARISTON VOLUME II 1650-1654 Edited from the Original Manuscript, with Notes and Introduction by DAVID HAY FLEMING, LL.D. GtiVbV^LtDGfCAL SOCIETY OP TME CHURCM OP .JE<;US CMRIST OP LAnER.OAV SAINTS EDINBURGH 3035'i Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constable for the Scottish History Society 1919 CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION .... ix DIARY— 22 March l650 to 7 April l650 . 1 22 July 16"50 to 20 August l650 2 5 October l650 to 21 November l650 27 28 March 1 651 to 12 April 1651 31 12 April 1651 to 1 July l651 38 14 July 1651 to 12 October 1651 78 1 April 1652 to 22 September l652 151 17 January l654 to 19 February 1654 195 50 February l654 to 6 April l654 208 7 April 1654 to 12 May l654 229 12 May 1654 to 8 June 1654 256 8 June 1654 to 5 July 1654 266 6 July 1664 to 3 August 1654 . 280 4 August l654 to 29 August l654 291 APPENDIX A 311 APPENDIX B . .' . 317 INDEX 321 ; INTRODUCTION The previous volume of this Diary, so admirably edited by Sir George M. Paul, ended in February 1639, and this one begins in March 1650, so that there is a gap of eleven years, save for the fragment, extending from May 1639 to August 1640, included in Volume xxvi. of the publica- tions of this Society. The present volume comes down to August 1654, but is not continuous, and some of the gaps are rather tantalising. It has been extracted from fourteen of Wariston's note-books, little oblong volumes, mostly bound in sheepskin, small enough to be easily carried in the pocket. 1 The first of these, no part of the Diary proper, is almost exclusively occupied with notes of sermons. It has only yielded three short paragraphs. The next is ' inscribed : First note book after great book put in Castel ' 22 July 1650.' The date suggests why the ' great book was put in Edinburgh Castle. It was on that day that Cromwell, with an English army, crossed the Tweed. On the 5th of February 1649—only six days after the execution of his father in front of Whitehall— Charles the Second had been, by order of the Scottish Parliament, proclaimed at the Market Cross of Edinburgh as King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland. The young King landed at the mouth of the Spey on the 23rd of June 1650, after signing the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant and eight days later the document bearing his signature ^ Eleven are in sheepskin, one in calf, and two are without boards. The largest, including boards, is 5^ inches by 3i by i, while the smallest is only 3f by 2i by ^%. ' X WARISTON'S DIARY was produced in Parliament by Wariston.^ Though he was not one of the commissioners sent to treat with the King at Breda, he played a prominent part in the affairs of Scotland at that time, as well as before and immediately after it, and therefore it is to be much regretted that his ' great book ' cannot be found. The very little one which followed it covers the first four of the six anxious weeks preceding the calamitous battle of Dunbar.2 Some of its disjointed jottings are fragmentary and obscure, but it furnishes fresh proof of the confusion, lack of harmony, and divided counsels by which the fighting power of the Scottish army was so sadly weakened. While the King was still in Holland, Wariston had written to him ' shewing that his dissembled incoming to the Covenant would sooner ruyne him nor his fayther's 12 years opposition ruyned him.' ^ Provost Jaffray, one of the commissioners, suspecting the King's sincerity, had * tried to dissuade him from signing the Covenants ; and John Livingstone, who administered the oath, was anxious that it should be delayed ; but Charles, seeing no other way of reaching his throne, had swallowed his scruples and would not be put off .^ After landing he found that suspicion » P. 139, n. 5. 2 Pp. 2-27. •' Pp. 131, 132. * Diary of Alexander Jaffray, 1833, p. 33. — 'Finding that, upon these terms only, he could be admitted to rule over us (all other means having then failed him), he sinfully complied with what we most sinfully pressed upon him ; where I must confess, to my apprehension, our sin was more than his {Ibid., p. 32). See infra, p. 299. * Select Biographies, Wodrow Society, i. 182, 183. — For the terms of the oath, see infra, p. 139, n. 5. In the fact that Charles did not sign the Covenants before leaving Holland, Dr. S. R. Gardiner perceived a proof of the long continuance of the struggle in his mind ( Charles the Second and Scotland in idjo, Scottish History Society, p. xxii). Parliament, however, on the 8th of March, had instructed the commissioners going to the King to demand from His Majesty, not before he left Holland, but ' so soone as he shall come to Scotland and befoir his admission to the exercise of his royall powar, he sail swear, subscryve and seall the Nationall Covenant and the Solemne League and Covenant ' {Acts of Parliament, vi. part ii. p. 559). Dr. Gardiner is no doubt correct in his interpretation of the significance of the marginal addition to the oath. : INTRODUCTION xi still attached to him ; and now he was asked to sign a declaration as absolutely necessary for the success of his cause. This declaration was so humiliating that he declined. Unrelaxing pressure was continued. By appointment of the Committee of Estates, Lothian, Wariston, and Robert Barclay, Provost of Irvine, went to Dunfermline on the 9th of August ' to presse the King's Majestic to emitt his Declaration.' They duly pressed him ' ' ' ' by many arguments ; all spak very freyly as also did Argyll.^ Both Loudoun and Wariston wrote t-o Argyll that he might use his influence with his Majesty.^ Loudoun also wrote two letters to the King himself urging him to give way,^ and met him personally ; but all in vain. The King though still a minor was resolute.* To supply the lack of a royal declaration, a very short one was drawn up and unanimously ^ approved by the ' Commission of Assembly on the 13th ; and, after sundry debayts,' the Committee of Estates did '.heartillie concurre therein.' This document, known as the Act (or Declaration) of the West Kirk, was printed next day ; and, taking advantage of Cromwell's challenge,^ Wariston caused copies to be distributed in the English army. By this propaganda it was hoped to convince the invaders that the Scots had not espoused the quarrel or interest of any malignant party, but were fighting on their former grounds and principles, disclaiming all the sin and guilt of the King ' Pp- 13-15- ^ Ancram Correspondence, Roxburghe Club, ii. 282, 287, 288. ' Charles the Second and Scotland in i6jo, pp. 131- 134. * P. 17. * * William Row says that the votes were equal ' (Blair's Life, Wodrow Society, p. 236). Wariston says 'unanimously.' The official record does not state whether there was any division over it or not, but preserves the report of the Committee of Estates bearing that that Committee did ' heartillie concurre therein' (Records of the Commissions of Assemblies, iii. 27). ' 'Send as many of your papers as you please amongst ours (i.e. our people) they have a free passage. I fear them not ' (Carlyle's Cromwell, letter cxxxvi.). xii WARISTON'S DIARY and his house, and resolved to own neither him nor his interest save in so far as he owned and carried on the work of God, and disclaimed his own and his father's opposition to that work. This statement might tend to unsettle the English soldiers, but the closing promise to ' vindicate themselves from all the falsehoods ' in Crom- well's papers could not be expected to mollify him. Leslie sent a copy to Cromwell, desiring him to make it known to all his officers. In his reply, Cromwell said that he had ' caused it to be read in the presence of so many officers as could well be gotten together.' ^ Wariston summarises his reply as ' a rapsodik aunsuer to our paper, shewing that he could not seperat our conjunction with the King from Malignancy, and that he was ready to feyght us.' On the other hand, it was reported that the Scots paper had ' vexed ' many of the English.^ Orders were now given to the foot-guard to apprehend Malignants ; and it was resolved to purge the King's household by excluding all ' who wer not of constant integrity in the cause and feared God,' and all who had been in arms against the cause or given counsel against it, and all who had not taken the Covenant. Captain Titus ^ was one of the four recommended as grooms in the royal bed-chamber. The officers of the army agreed on ' an honest Remonstrance to concurre with the Commissioners of the Church and Committee of Estats for stating the quarrel, purging of the King's family and leif-guard, and debarring the Malignants.' Wariston appointed this Remonstrance to be communicated to the King, and to be printed, believing that it would help ' to dill doune the many idle clashes of people ' against the Declaration of ' Carlyle's Cromwell, letter cxxxvii. ^ Pp, 17-19.