For Christ's Crown & Covenant!

Posted at This Day in Presbyterian History: More than an ordinary man? Alexander Peden was born sometime during the year 1626 in Scotland. His father was a small business man who left him a small inheritance. He could have entered into any of the social positions in the area, but a call from God came to him early to seek the proclaim the good news of everlasting life to his neighbors. Graduating from the University of Glasglow, he was ordained and became the pastor of New Luce, in Galloway, in his native Scotland. It was here that his congregation discovered that Pastor Peden was more than an ordinary man. Let Rev. J.M. Dryerre sum it up for us. He writes, “his prayers were conversations with a personal friend. His sermons were visions of the glory of God which had come to him in his meditations, and filled his people with awe. His talk was about God and His will in regard to downtrodden Scotland. Tall in stature and well-built, he proclaimed his message from God.” (Heroes ...

By Dr. Mark Jardine - Posted at Jardine's Book of Martyrs: Matthew MacIlwraith’s death is one of the most difficult events of the Killing Times to place in a chronological context. He was shot by John Graham of Claverhouse ’s troops in Colmonell parish in Carrick at some point in 1685, but no specific date for that event is given. For all the sources about his death, see here . McIlwraith’s Grave © Keith Brown and licensed for reuse . When I first wrote about MacIlwraith, it was not clear when he was killed. However, after further research, there is a way of narrowing down the broad time frame for his death by looking at the known movements of Claverhouse in the historical sources for 1685. Where was Claverhouse? Claverhouse was involved in operations in Galloway in late 1684, when he was involved in the killings at Auchencloy after a raid on Kirkcudbright Tolbooth . However, the debacle of the raid and its aftermath led to him being replaced in the field by his rival, Colonel Ja...

By Dr. Mark Jardine - Posted at Jardine's Book of Martyrs : Renwick's Tree in 2006 - Image from Jardine's Book of Martyrs It is a curious fact, that James Renwick , the minister of the Covenanters, has remarkably few places named after him considering his central role in their struggle in the 1680s. That stands in marked contrast to Alexander Peden, whom Renwick opposed, who has a plethora of trees, caves and stones associated with him. One reason for that may be that Peden’s wanderings through the landscape had a superb and evocative publicist in the form of Patrick Walker, whose Life of Peden was a very popular work in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. One place where Renwick is remembered in the landscape is at his place of birth, Moniaive, in his native parish of Glencairn in Dumfriesshire. There a monument was erected ‘about 100 yards from the place where he is supposed to have been born’ just over the hill to the north of the monument. Thanks to Evelyn Boyes ...

From Jardine's Book of Martyrs : The 500th post... In 1693, George Ridpath , one of the first Scottish journalists, published a list of Covenanters who had been summarily executed in the fields. Ridpath’s list was copied from the list found in Alexander Shields’ A Short Memorial in 1690. It appeared in his pamphlet An Answer to the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence (1693), 39-42 . ‘A LIST of those Murdered in Cold Blood, without trial, conviction, or any colour of Law. ONE Finlay shot at Belmoynock, by General Dalzel’ s orders, because he could not discover who was in arms at Pentland, Anno 1666; James Davie in Bathgate parish, and several others at divers times, shot, as hearing sermons in the fields, before the insurrection at Bothwell-bridge [in 1679]. Henry Hall of Haughhead , murdered at the Queen’s Ferry [in 1680], by Thomas George Waiter, after several wounds from Middleton, Governor of Blackness . John Graham of Claverhouse and his troop of horse. William Graham in Galloway, s...