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CLAVERHOUSE AND THE KILLING TIMES |
In 1635 King Charles I proposed to assume himself the title of Head of the Scottish Church and to extend the power of his Bishops. This would have destroyed the democratic Presbyterian system enjoyed by Scotland since John Knox achieved the Scottish Reformation in 1560. A "National Covenant" was drawn up in Edinburgh under the directions of a Moffat-born lawyer - Archibald Johnston and this required its signatories (or Covenanters) to utterly oppose the King's intent and thus maintain Presbyterianism in Scotland. "The superiority of any office in the Church above Presbyters is an insupportable grievance" The Covenanter's struggle caused mush martyrdom, including the public hanging of Archibald Johnston himself at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh. In particular the South West of Scotland became the scene of terrible atrocities as the Covenanters were in armed conflict against the Government forces. In 1688 the Covenanters finally achieved their goal.
A memorial stone to John Hunter can be seen by the side of the A701 Edinburgh Road, he was shot by pursuing dragoons "up the straught steep" of the Devil's Beef Tub on 12th August 1685.
Charged by the Scottish parliament with the maintenance of their anti-Presbyterian orders in the South West area was the infamous John Graham of Claverhouse. Having billeted himself at the BLACK BULL INN - Moffat, he imposed upon the people of Upper Annandale his severe authority. His men were billeted on local houses and those suspected of covenanter sympathies were interrogated under severe threat while daily pursuit of Covenanters among the hills continued.
The Covenanters too had been extreme and ruthless at times, so sympathy was by no means universal in Moffat. A bond was required of all landowners that "they nor their families nor tenants nor cotters shall attend conventicles (covenanter preaching's) under threat of severe penalties", All the heads of Moffat families had to assemble to individually make the declaration, and one of them, James Johnstone of Corehead, is recorded as accusing "two fellows of the surname of Reidford were haunting field conventicles by reason they were sometyme known to be a considerable tyme absent from their own houses". As a result the two were apprehended.
When Claverhouse felt able to boast to his Edinburgh masters that "this contry is now parfait peace" he shifted his command, largely composed of Highland Soldiers, further into the South West Region. From there he despatched groupings of chained prisoners to Edinburgh for hanging or transportation, and the old Churchyard on the High Street in Moffat became a terrible overnight halt for these doomed lowlanders.
In 1685 James VII was proclaimed King of Scots. He specifically directed himself against the Covenanters and a new Act made even attendance at a blanket preaching punishable by death. His appointment of Roman Catholics to the offices of Chancellor and Secretary of State confirmed the worse suspicions of Presbyterians and hardened local sympathy towards the outlawed Covenanters. The King's intolerance roused such national opposition that in 1688 he was forced to flee the country. A Revolution had been achieved. Retribution was harsh against those who had stood previously on the Government side. Such Ministers in Annandale were turned out of their manses on Christmas Day of that year, and in bitter weather they and their families were sent from their parishes, without belongings. Prayer meetings continued in the Covenanter tradition for some time in the Moffat area, although now quite openly. But the Kirk would not respect the National Covenant. The Covenanters held onto the principals for which they had suffered so much and formed the reformed Presbyterian Kirk outside of the new Church of Scotland and became regarded as extremists.
It is interesting to note that their armed protest perpetuated itself in the Cameronians, an elite regiment within the British Army which was referred to as the "Covenanter Regiment". The regiment owed its formation to Richard Cameron, the armed preacher whose name was taken to identify the men of Covenanter faith who, at Sanquar in 1680, formally disowned Charles I.
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