Alexander Peden | |
|---|---|
 Peden's cloth mask and wig displayed in the Museum of Scotland | |
| Personal | |
| Born | 1626 |
| Died | January 26, 1686 (aged 59–60) Sorn, Ayrshire, Scotland |
| Resting place | Cumnock, Scotland 55°27′19″N4°15′44″W / 55.455364°N 4.262325°W |
| Religion | Christianity |
| School | Presbyterianism |
Alexander Peden (1626 –26 January 1686), also known as "Prophet Peden", was one of the leading figures in the Covenanter movement in Scotland.
Peden was born at Auchincloich Farm near Sorn, Ayrshire, about 1626. [4] He was the son of a small proprietor. His name can also be spelled Peathine or Pethein. [5] He was possibly the Alexander Peden who was the restored heir of his grandfather in Hillhead of Sorn, 16 March 1648, and on the same day heir of Auchinlonfuird.
Of his early training, there is no clear record, but he may have attended the parish school of Mauchline, and he was a student at the University of Glasgow from 1643 to 1648. [6] [7] For a time he acted as schoolmaster, precentor, and session-clerk at Tarbolton, Ayrshire, [8] and, according to Robert Wodrow, was employed in a similar capacity at Fenwick.
In 1660 he was ordained minister of New Luce in Wigtownshire. [8] As he was about to receive license from the Presbytery of Ayr, an accusation of immorality was raised against him, but was found to be false. In 1659 he was ordained to this charge, and was deprived by Act of Parliament 11 June, and Decreet of Privy Council 1 October 1662. When he preached his farewell sermon, he is said to have occupied the pulpit till nightfall, and on leaving it, to have knocked three times on the pulpit door with his Bible, saying, "I arrest thee in my Master's name, that none enter thee but such as come by the door, as I have done."
Following his ejection, Peden became perhaps the most celebrated field preacher of his time. He wandered all over the south of Scotland, obtaining by his figurative and oracular style of address and his supposed prophetic gifts an extraordinary influence over the people, which was further increased by his hardships, perils, and numerous hairbreadth escapes.
After the Restoration of Charles II, Peden had to leave his parish under Middleton's Ejectment Act in 1663. For ten years he wandered far and wide, bringing comfort and succour to his co-religionists, and often very narrowly escaping capture, spending some of his time in Ireland. [8] To hide his identity, Peden took to wearing a cloth mask and wig, which are now on display in Edinburgh's Museum of Scotland. On 25 January 1666, he was denounced as a rebel, and was excepted from the pardon after the Pentland Rising. On 16 August 1667, he was declared a fugitive. [9] He fled to Ireland in 1670, but returned in 1673.
In June 1673, while holding a conventicle at Knockdow near Ballantrae, Ayrshire, he was captured by Major William Cockburn and condemned by the Privy Council to four years and three months' imprisonment on the Bass Rock and a further fifteen months in the Edinburgh Tolbooth. [8] He was confined on the rock from 26 June 1673 to 9 October 1677, when he was removed to the Edinburgh Tolbooth, where he remained until December 1678. A petition for liberation was refused, and he was sentenced instead to perpetual banishment. In December 1678, he and 60 others were sentenced to banishment to the American plantations. [8] They were transported by ship to London, where they were to be transferred to an American ship. The American captain of the ship which was chartered to convey Peden and his companions to the Virginia plantations, however, on discovering they were being banished for their religious opinions, not as convicts, declined to take them aboard, and they were set at liberty. [6] From London, Peden found his way back to Scotland, and again to the north of Ireland.
In 1682, Peden performed the wedding ceremony of John Brown and his second wife, Isabel Weir. He told Isabel after the ceremony, "You have a good man to be your husband, but you will not enjoy him long; prize his company, and keep linen by you to be his winding sheet, for you will need it when ye are not looking for it, and it will be a bloody one". On the night of 30 April or morning of 1 May 1685, troops commanded by Captain John Graham of Claverhouse shot John Brown for his refusal to take the 1684 Oath of Abjuration [10] or to swear not to rise in arms against the king. This oath did not require one to proclaim the king as the head of the church. However, it would have been understood by a Covenanter to be a promise not to resist the king's claimed supremacy, ecclesiastical as well as civil. Peden was 11 miles away. He prayed with the family of John Muirhead in his home, "Lord, when wilt Thou avenge Brown's blood? O, let Brown's blood be precious in Thy sight." Peden told them of his vision of Brown's wife weeping over his corpse and of Claverhouse killing John Brown.
Peden's privations and anxieties had gradually undermined his health. Resolving to spend his last days in his native district, he found shelter in a cave on the River Lugar in the parish of Sorn, near his brother's farm just north of Ochiltree, part of Auchinleck Estate. [11] [8] Having a presentiment that he had not many hours to live, he left the cave one evening and went to his brother's farm, where he died on 28 January 1686. [11] He was buried in the Boswell aisle of Auchinleck Church.
Forty days after, a troop of dragoons from Sorn Castle took his corpse two miles to Cumnock gallows, and were about to hang it up in chains. However, William Crichton, 2nd Earl of Dumfries, objected, so they buried it at the foot of the gallows. In 1891 a monument was erected to mark the spot. After the 1688 Glorious Revolution, the inhabitants of the parish of Cumnock, in token of their esteem for Peden, abandoned their ancient burial-place, and formed a new one round the gallows hill.
He was the most eminent and revered of all the Scottish covenanting preachers, and his influence upon the mass of the people was so great that they gave him the name of "The Prophet," and were accustomed to regard him as almost possessed of the prophetic afflatus. [5] [12] Peden receives attention in Jack Deere's 1993 book Surprised by the Voice of God, which records prophetic and other charismatic gifts practised by historical reformed figures.
The Alexander Peden Stone south of Harthill, Shotts was one of the places where Rev. Alexander Peden and others were said to have preached to Covenanters. The monument was erected around 1866 and is maintained by a local Covenanters' committee. The stone on which the monument is mounted would have been used as the plinth by preachers.
John Michael Welsh of Irongray was a leader of the Scottish Covenanter movement. Dunlop, an early 20th century writer, says: "It is a noteworthy fact that there exists no memoir of John Welsh of Irongray, though from the Battle of Rullion Green till Bothwell Bridge he was the most conspicuous Covenanting minister in Scotland. Had he glorified God in the Grassmarket, or fallen in some scuffle with Claverhouse's dragoons, or even like his friend Blackadder of Troqueer languished in prison on the Bass Rock, some pious hand would have been moved to write his story." Dunlop also wrote: "The events of Welsh's life must be sought for in the pages of Wodrow and Kirkton and in the letters and State papers of the reign of Charles II. After spending a fortnight hunting him in the British Museum, I have come to sympathise with Clavers and his dragoons. Mr John Welsh is a most elusive gentleman."
Donald Cargill was a Scottish Covenanter who worked to uphold the principles of the National Covenant of 1638 and Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 to establish and defend Presbyterianism. He was born around 1619, and was the eldest son of Laurence Cargill of Bonnytoun, Rattray, Perthshire, a notary public, and Marjory Blair. He was educated perhaps at University of Aberdeen and at the University of St Andrews, where he matriculated as a student of St Salvator's College in 1645. He was licensed by the Presbytery of St Andrews on 13 April 1653 and was ordained in 1655. He was later deprived by the Privy Council, on 1 October 1662, for disobeying the Act of Parliament in not keeping a day of thanksgiving for His Majesty's Restoration, and not obtaining presentation and collation from the archbishop before 20 September. He was ordered at the same time to remove beyond the River Tay before 1 November under penalties. Disregarding this sentence, he was charged to appear before the Council on 7 January 1669, and appointed to continue in his confinement, but on petition he was allowed to visit Edinburgh about law affairs. He turned down an offer of a parish at Eaglesham and refused to appear before the privy council to account for his unauthorised preaching. On 16 July 1674 he was affectedly outlawed for holding conventicles and subsequently declared a traitor. In 1679 he joined Richard Cameron in founding the Cameronians, who embodied their principles in a Declaration at Sanquhar, on 22 June 1680, disowning the king's authority. A reward of 3000 merks was offered for his apprehension, dead or alive. For excommunicating at Torwood in September 1680 Charles II., James, Duke of York, and others, the Privy Council increased the reward to 5000 merks. After numerous hair-breadth escapes he was apprehended at Covington Mill, Lanarkshire, during the night of 12 July 1681 by a party of dragoons led by James Irving of Bonshaw. Tried for treason before the High Court of Justiciary, he was found guilty, and executed at the Cross of Edinburgh with four others [Walter Smith, William Cuthil, William Thomson, James Boig], 27 July 1681. His forfeiture was rescinded by Act of Parliament 4 July 1690. He married Margaret, daughter of Nicol Brown, burgess of Edinburgh, widow of Andrew Bethune of Blebo.
Richard Cameron was a leader of the militant Presbyterians, known as Covenanters, who resisted attempts by the Stuart monarchs to control the affairs of the Church of Scotland, acting through bishops. While attempting to revive the flagging fortunes of the Covenanting cause in 1680, he was tracked down by the authorities and killed in a clash of arms at Airds Moss in Ayrshire. His followers took his name as the Cameronians and ultimately formed the nucleus of the later Scottish regiment of the same name, the Cameronians. The regiment was disbanded in 1968.
Sorn is a small village in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It is situated on the River Ayr. It has a population of roughly 350. Its neighbouring village is Catrine. Sorn Castle lies just outside the village.
Cumnock and Holmhead, a police burgh of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the Lugar, 33+3⁄4 miles S. of Glasgow by road, with two stations on the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The population in 1901 was 3,088.
Robert Douglas (1594–1674) was the only minister of the Church of Scotland to be Moderator of the General Assembly five times.
John Nisbet (1627–1685) was a Scottish covenanter who was executed for participating in the insurgency at Bothwell Brig and earlier conflicts and for attending a conventicle. He took an active and prominent part in the struggles, of the Covenanters for civil and religious liberty. He was wounded and left for dead at Pentland in 1666 but lived and fought as a captain at Bothwell Bridge, in 1679. He was subsequently seized and executed as a rebel. He was a descendant of Murdoch Nisbet, a Lollard who translated the Bible into the Scots language.
William Guthrie (1620–1665) was a Scottish Covenanter minister and author. He was the first minister of Fenwick parish church in Ayrshire, Scotland. He is known primarily for his book on assurance, The Christian's Great Interest.
Robert Garnock was a Scottish covenanter. He was baptised by James Guthrie and like him was hanged in Edinburgh although at a different time and place; Guthrie was executed about 20 years before Garnock.
Peden's Cave is at least partly artificial and is set into a craggy outcrop of red sandstone rocks overlooking the River Lugar just below the farm of Auchinbay in East Ayrshire, Scotland, close to the town of Ochiltree. Traditionally it is said that this cave was used as a hiding place for Covenanters, including the famous Covenanter minister Alexander Peden in the 17th century, mainly during 'The Killing Time' of the 1680s.
Robert Bennet of Chesters was a 17th-century Scottish gentleman. He lived in the Scottish Borders. Chesters or Grange lies on the banks of the Teviot and is close to the town of Ancrum in Roxburghshire.
Patrick Anderson of Walston was a 17th-century minister and Covenanter.
Michael Potter was a covenanter. He graduated from Edinburgh on 27 July 1663. He was licensed to preach the gospel in 1673. He was a tutor to the family of George, the Laird of Dunglass of that ilk. He was ordained by presbytery for the adherents in the parish of St. Ninians in 1673. He was elected a schoolmaster to Culross by the magistrates. This led to them being summoned before the Privy Council in 1677.
Alexander Dunbar was a Covenanting field preacher and school teacher. He was imprisoned on the Bass Rock for about a year between 1685 and 1686.
Thomas Ross of Nether Pitkerrie, was born about 1614. He was the son of George Ross of Nether Pitkerrie. He continued in Kincardine after the establishment of prelacy and owes his leaving to a meeting with John M'Gilligan.
Robert Ross was a Presbyterian preacher. He did not have a government licence to preach. He was apprehended at Leith and sent to the Bass Rock. He was kept in confinement there for upwards of three months from April 4-July 19, 1679.
Robert Ker (the younger) (1634–1680) known as Robert Ker of Kersland was a Covenanter. He sympathised with the insurgents who fought at Rullion Green and consequently was declared a rebel and his lands became forfeit. He escaped to Holland but following his wife home on business he was captured while visiting her in her sick-bed in Edinburgh. He spent many years in various jails. He is remembered by Christian historians and biographers such as Wodrow and Howie as one who suffered for the Presbyterian cause in Scotland.
John King was an outlawed minister of the Covenant, chaplain at one time to Lord Cardross, but seized by Claverhouse among the insurgents after the affair at Drumclog. King was taken to Edinburgh along with another preacher named John Kid. They were each subjected to torture, condemned to death, and executed. Following his death King's head and limbs were displayed at the Netherbow Port on Edinburgh's Royal Mile beside James Guthrie's skull.
John Kid was an outlawed minister of the Covenant. He was seized by Claverhouse among the insurgents after the affair at Drumclog. He was released by the insurgents but recaptured in a bog a few miles from Bothwell Bridge with a sword in his belt. Kid was taken to Edinburgh along with another preacher named John King. They were each subjected to torture, by the boots, condemned to death, and executed. Following his death Kid's head and limbs were displayed at the Netherbow Port on Edinburgh's Royal Mile beside James Guthrie's skull.
John Balfour of Kinloch was the principal actor in the assassination of Archbishop Sharp in 1679. For this crime his estate was forfeited and a large reward offered for his capture. He fought at Drumclog and at Bothwell Bridge, and is said to have escaped to Holland, and to have there tendered his services to the Prince of Orange.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . This cites A. Smellie, Men of the Covenant, ch. xxxiv. 
Media related to Alexander Peden at Wikimedia Commons
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Peden, Alexander". Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 44. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
