Posted at Jardine's Book of Martyrs : Thomas Stoddart was executed in the Grassmarket on 12 August, 1685. Matthew Bryce , David Law and Gavin Russell were hanged alongside him. ‘Men, Brethren, And Fathers, Hearken,—I being to take my farewell of the world, I leave this my dying testimony, according to the form of the Christians of old; I having like the same ground for it that he had who used that word; that was Stephen; who was condemned, because he spoke blasphemous words against the law and the temple. So, because I will not adhere to, nor approve of their laws, which now have power in their hands, they condemned me to die, though they could not witness so much against me for speaking against them, and they never essayed to prove the sentence upon me, which now I shall study in a word to give you an account of. And first, I received my sentence of banishment, and then notwithstanding of that I was committed to the justices to abide the assize, and they passed upon me th...
In honor of the brave and noble Scottish Covenanters