The ladies of the Covenant : memoirs of distinguished Scottish female characters, embracing the period of the Covenant and the persecution

Preface

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In collecting materials for “ The Martyrs of the Bass,” pub- ~ lished some time ago, in a volume entitled “ The Bass Rock,” it occurred to the author, from the various notices he met with of ladies who were distinguished for their patriotic interest or sufferings in the cause of nonconformity, during the period of the Covenant, and particularly, during the period of the persecution, that sketches of the most eminent or best known of these ladies would be neither uninteresting nor unedifying. In undertaking ^uch a work at this distance of time, he is aware of the disadjVantage under which he labors, from the poverty of the materials ^at his disposal, compared with the more abundant store from ^ which a contemporary writer might have executed the same task. 5pHe, however, flatters himself that the materials which, with some ^ industry, he has collected, are not unworthy of being brought to light ; the more especially as the female biography of the days C of the Covenant, and of the persecution, is a field which has been , trodden by no preceding writer, and which may, therefore, be i presumed to^have something of the freshness of novelty.

The facts in these lives have been gathered from a widelyj^scattered variety of authorities, both manuscript and printed. From the voluminous manuscript records of the privy council,

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deposited in her majesty’s general register-house, Edinburgh, and from the Wodrow MSS., belonging to the library of the faculty of advocates, Edinburgh, the author has derived much assistance. The former of these documents he was obligingly permitted to consult by William Pitt Dundas, Esq., deputy-clerk of her majesty’s register-house. And to the Wodrow MSS., he has,, at all times, obtained the readiest access, through the liberality of the curators of the advocates’ library, and the kind attentions of the librarians. He has also had equally ready access to such books in that invaluable library, many of them rare and expensive, as served to illustrate his subject. In the course of the work, he has had occasion to acknowledge his obligations to several gentlemen, from whom he has obtained important information. As to some of the ladies of rank here noticed, there probably exist, in the form of letters, and other documents, materials for more fully illustrating their lives, among the family manuscripts of their descendants, to which the author has not had access. The publication of such papers, if they exist, or of selections from such other papers as relate to the civil and ecclesiastical transactions of Scotland in the olden time, which may be lying, motheaten and mouldering away, in the repositories of our noble families, would furnish valuable contributions to this department of the literature of our country ; and an example, in this respect, well, worthy of imitation, has been set by Lord Inndsay, in his very interesting work entitled, ‘‘ Lives of the Lindsays.”

These Biographies it has been thought proper to precede by an Introduction, containing various miscellaneous observations bearing on the subject, but the chief object of which is to give a general view of the patriotic interest in the cause of religion taken by the ladies of Scotland, during the period which these inquiries embrace. The Appendix consists of a number of papers illustrative of passages in the text ; some of which have been previ-

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oiisly printed, and others of which are now printed fram the originals, or from copies, for the first time.

In compiling these memoirs it has been the aim of the author throughout to -reduce within moderate limits his multifarious

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materials, which might easily have been spread over •^a much larger surface. At the same time, he has endeavored to bring together the most important facts to be known from accessible sources respecting these excellent women, and has even introduced a variety nf minute particulars in their history, which he was at considerable, and, as some may think, unnecessary pains to discover. ^But he believes that careful research into minute particulars, in the lives of ladies so eminent, and who were closely connected with so important a period of the history of our church, as that of the struggles and sufferings of the Scottish Covenanters in the cause of religious and civil liberty, is not to be considered as altogether unnecessary labor. “ As to some departments of history and biography,” says Foster, ‘‘I never can bring myself to feel that it is worth while to undergo all this labor ; but,” speaking of the English Puritans, he adds, ‘‘ with respect to that noble race of saints, of which the world will not see the like again (for in the millennium good men will not be formed and sublimed amidst persecution), it is difficult to say what degree of minute investigation is too much — especially in an age in which it is the fashion to misrepresent and decry them.”* This remark is equally applicable to the Scottish covenantelrs. Their pre-eminent worth warrants and will reward the fullest investigation into their history, independent of the light which this will throw on the character and manners of their age. Of course, it is not meant to affirm that they were exalted above the errors and infirmities of humanity, or that we are implicitly to follow them in everything, whether in sentiment or in * Poster’s Life, vol. ii., p. 127.

1*

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action, as if we had not as good a right to act on the great protestant principle of judging for ourselves, as they had ; or as if they had been inspired like prophets and apostles. But it may be safely asserted that, though not entitled to be ranked as perfect and inspired men, they had attained to an elevation and compass of Christian character, which would have rendered them no unmeet associates and coadjutors of prophets and apostles ; and even many of their measures, ecclesiastical and civil, bore the stamp of such maturity of wisdom, as showed them to be in advance, not only of their own age, but even of ours, and the defeat of which measures, it may be said, without exaggeration, has thrown back the religious condition of Britain and Ireland for centuries.

Edinburgh, September ^ 1850.

J. A.

Contents

Introduction page 9

Lady Anne Cunningham, Marchioness of Hamilton 27

Elizabeth Melvill, Lady Culross 49

Appendix

No. I. — Letter of Mr. Robert M‘Ward to Lady Ardross page 473

II. — The Marchioness of Argyll’s Interview with Middleton,

after the Condemnation of her Husband 473

III. — Marchioness of Argyll, and her Son the Earl of Argyll. . 474

IV. — Letter of Mrs. John Carstairs to her Husband 474

V. — Suspected Corruption of Clarendon’s History 475

VI. — Indictment of Isabel Alison and Marion Harvey 476

VII. — Apprehension of Hume of Graden, and the Scuffle in

which Thomas Ker of Heyhope was killed 479

VIII. — The Fiery Cross carried through the Shire of Moray in

1679 480

IX. — Desired Extension of the Indulgence to Morayshire 484

X. — Sense in which the Covenanters refused to say, “ God

save the King!” 486

XI. — Countess of Argyll’s Sympathy with the Covenanters 487

XII. — A Letter of the Earl of Argyll to his Lady, in Ciphers. . 488

XIII. — Extracts from a Letter of the Countess of Argyll to her

Son Colin, Earl of Balcarres 489

XIV. — Sufferings of Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck 493