Robert Baillie was a Church of Scotland minister who became famous as an author and a propagandist for the Covenanters.
Allan Ramsay was a Scottish poet, playwright, publisher, librarian and impresario of early Enlightenment Edinburgh. Ramsay's influence extended to England, foreshadowing the reaction that followed the publication of Percy's Reliques. He was on close terms with the leading men of letters in Scotland and England. He corresponded with William Hamilton of Bangour, William Somervile, John Gay and Alexander Pope.
David Calderwood was a Scottish minister of religion and historian. Calderwood was banished for his nonconformity. He found a home in the Low Countries, where he wrote his great work, the Altare Damascenum which was an attack on Anglican episcopacy. He was present at the Glasgow Assembly in 1638, and saw episcopacy and the high church liturgy swept away from the Church of Scotland. He died at Jedburgh, a fugitive from his parish of Pencaitland; and buried in the churchyard of Crailing, where the first years of his ministry were spent.
Robert Dundas of Arniston, the elder, 2nd Lord Arniston (1685–1753) was a Scottish lawyer, and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1722 to 1737. In 1728 he reintroduced into Scottish juries the possible verdicts of guilty or not guilty as against proven or not proven. He was Lord President of the Court of Session from 1748 to 1753.
Robert Wodrow was a Scottish minister and historian, known as a chronicler and defender of the Covenanters. Robert Wodrow was born at Glasgow, where his father, James Wodrow, was a professor of divinity. Robert was educated at the university and was librarian from 1697 to 1701. From 1703 till his death, he was parish minister at Eastwood, near Glasgow. He had sixteen children, his son Patrick being the "auld Wodrow" of Burns's poem Twa Herds.
Andrew Cant (1584–1663) was a Presbyterian minister and leader of the Scottish Covenanters. About 1623 the people of Edinburgh called him to be their minister, but he was rejected by James I. Ten years later he was minister of Pitsligo in Aberdeenshire, a charge which he left in 1638 for that of Newbattle in Midlothian. In July of that year he went with other commissioners to Aberdeen in the vain attempt to induce the university and the presbytery of that city to subscribe the National Covenant, and in the following November sat in the general assembly at Glasgow which abolished episcopacy in Scotland. In 1638 Cant was minister of Pitsligo in Aberdeenshire. In 1640 he was chaplain to the Scottish army and then settled as minister in Aberdeen. Though a staunch Covenanter, he was a zealous Royalist, preaching before Charles I in Edinburgh, and stoutly advocating the restoration of the monarchy in the time of the Commonwealth. Cant's frequent and bitter verbal attacks on various members of his congregation led in 1661 to complaints laid before the magistrates, in consequence of which he resigned his charge.
Andrew Millar was a British publisher in the eighteenth century.
The Edinburgh Courant was a broadsheet newspaper from the 18th century. It was published out of Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Its first issue was dated 14–19 February 1705 and was sold for a penny. It was Scotland's first regional newspaper and it was produced twice weekly for five years, thereafter continuing as the Scots Courant until April 1720.
George Drummond was a Scottish politician and accountant who served as the Lord Provost of Edinburgh multiple times between 1725 and 1764.
Daniel Campbell was a Scottish merchant, slave trader and politician who sat in the British House of Commons representing the constituency of Clyde Burghs from 1716 to 1734. He was nicknamed "Great Daniel" due to his weight and personal fortune.
The Caledonian Mercury was a newspaper in Edinburgh, Scotland, published three times a week between 1720 and 1867. In 2010 an online publication launched using the name.
Covenanters were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who claimed to have a "Covenant", or agreement with God. They supported a Church of Scotland, or kirk, that was Presbyterian in structure, and the primacy of church leaders in religious affairs. It originated in disputes with James VI and his son Charles I over church organisation and doctrine, but expanded into political conflict over the limits of Royal authority.
The Hon. John Campbell, of Mamore, was a Scottish Whig politician who sat in the Parliament of Scotland from 1700 to 1707 and in the British House of Commons between 1708 and 1727.
William Leechman or Leishman (1706–1785) was a Scottish minister, theologian and academic. He was Professor of Divinity and later Principal at Glasgow University.
Andrew Gray (1633–1656), was a Scottish divine. Gray was baptised on 23 August 1633. He was the son of Sir William Gray of Pittendrum, and Egidia Smith. He graduated from St Andrews University with an M.A. in 1651. He was licensed as a minister in 1653 and called on 5 September. He was ordained by the Protesters on 3 November 1653 but his ministry was a short one. He died on 8 February 1656.
The Mercat Cross of Edinburgh is a market cross, the structure that marks the market square of the market town of Edinburgh. It stands in Parliament Square next to St Giles' Cathedral, facing the High Street in the Old Town of Edinburgh.
Sir George Campbell of Cessnock in Ayrshire was a 17th-century statesman. His lineage was from the Campbells of Loudoun. His father was Sir Hugh Campbell and his mother was Elizabeth Campbell.
John Rae was an English parish minister.
Duncan Forbes 5th of Culloden was a Scottish lawyer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1721 to 1737. As Lord President and senior Scottish legal officer, he played a major role in helping the government suppress the 1745 Jacobite Rising.
James Wood was a Covenanter and Church of Scotland minister. He was appointed to be Professor of Divinity and Principal of the Old College, St. Andrews by Cromwell's government. He was deposed after the Restoration under the influence of Archbishop Sharp in 1663. He was then holding Presbyterian principles at a time when Charles II was promoting Prelacy. He died in 1664.
