Andrew is proud Covenanter

Jul 23 2010 by Lorraine Howard, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

AYRSHIRE’S Andrew Blakely is an active member of the Scottish Covenanter Memorials Association.

Part of this member’s involvement sees him preserve graves and memorials of the Covenanters who were persecuted for their religious beliefs during the 17th century.

And his latest project was restoring a martyrs’ monument in Irvine’s Old Parish Church.

He spent weeks carrying out the intricate job of cleaning the monument.

“It’s something that’s very important to us and I enjoy finding new memorials, they’re all over the country,” said Andrew, 74.

“Many are located on remote moorland, marking the spot where Government soldiers killed supporters of the Covenant. Others are to be found in parish kirkyards either erected at the time or often replaced by modern memorials.”

But who were the Covenanters?

Andrew explained: “The Covenanters, put in simple terms, were those people in Scotland who refused to subscribe to the belief of the Stuart kings that the spiritual head of the Scottish church was the king.

“The Scots knew only one head of the kirk and that was Jesus Christ.

“Many signed the National Covenant in 1638 and from then until 1688, persecutions and punishments of all kinds, fines, tortures, murder and executions were the weapons used to quell this rebellion.”

Here, he tells us about Ayrshire’s involvement in the movement.

AFTER the battle of Rullion Green in the frozen foothills of the Pentlands on November 28, 1666, more than 50 hopelessly outnumbered, ill-armed Covenanters, fighting for their Presbyterian system of church government free of state interference, lay dead in the icy, bloodstained fields, while Government troops robbed the corpses and shot the wounded.

At least another 60 were taken prisoner and marched off to Edinburgh where they proceeded as criminals.

Twelve of them were transferred to Ayr and charged with treason. The verdicts of guilty were a foregone conclusion and two were taken to Dumfries for execution, two to Irvine and the remaining eight were due to be hanged at Ayr on December 27.

But the Provost of Ayr had a problem.

The town hangman was unwilling to execute brave men who had fought in the cause of their religious freedom and he had fled the area.

The hangman at Irvine, a Highlander by the name of William Sutherland, was duly called in to perform the tasks.

Sutherland, although a man of little formal education, had taught himself to read and was well acquainted with his Bible.

He had made his way south from Strathnaver, working as a cattle herd until he reached Irvine and out of work, took up the post of public executioner.

But when he heard that those he was to hang were God-fearing men who had been oppressed by Bishops, he decided to have nothing to do with it and to depart.

However, it being a Sunday, he devoutly went to church in both the morning and afternoon. Here he was roughly seized and dragged out of the kirk by some soldiers and hauled before the Provost who wanted to ensure this hangman would do his job properly.

When Sutherland declared he would not do it, he was thrown into the Tolbooth and threatened with various tortures before he was put in the stocks. After a while he was bound to a stake and four soldiers appeared before him but the shots were never fired.

After a while, the authorities realised he would rather die than change his mind. He was sent back to prison and told he was out of a job.

But the Provost still had his problem and the solution seemed to be a simple one – he offered a free pardon to any one of the eight men who would hang the other seven and Cornelius Anderson accepted the offer.

When he asked the others if they would forgive him, they said they would wish him “repentance and forgiveness.” Nevertheless, when the day of the executions dawned, Anderson was so full of guilt he had to be plied with copious amounts of brandy.

Eventually, after much drunken fumbling, the seven prisoners were hanged. Later on, Anderson performed the same duty on the other two at Irvine.

Afterwards, his conscience troubling him and being reviled by all and sundry, he fled to Ireland but his reputation preceded him and he was refused work and lodgings. Eventually, he built himself a cottage but it was burnt to the ground with him in it by arsonists.

In the graveyard of the Auld Kirk in Ayr, is a monument to the seven executed men, erected in 1814.

At Irvine High Kirk, a flat stone erected in 1823 commemorates the two hanged in the town.

It reads: “These honest countrymen whose bones lie here, victims fell to prelates’ cruelty.

“Condemned by bloody and unrighteous laws,

“They died martyrs for the good old cause which Balaam’s wicked race in vain assail.

“For no enchantments against Israel prevail.

“Life and this evil world they did contemn.

“And died for Christ who died first for them.”