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THE COVENANTERS

It was during a three week stay in Nithsdale in the closing months of 1678 that Richard Cameron firmly established himself as a field preacher of true worth, ‘Great crowds flocked to hear him and reports of his preaching spread far and wide’ [Grant]

It was during a three week stay in Nithsdale in the closing months of 1678 that Richard Cameron firmly established himself as a field preacher of true worth, ‘Great crowds flocked to hear him and reports of his preaching spread far and wide’ [Grant]. The parishioners of New Cumnock had not too far to travel down the River Nith valley to hear the ‘Lion of the Covenant’. It was probably at this time that Cameron accepted an invitation to preach at Old Cumnock and New Cumnock, which in itself was another indicator that although the parishes had been conjoined in 1667, they were developing separate identities.

When Cameron arrived in Old Cumnock he was confronted by local heritors including the lairds of Horsecleugh and Logan, 'who urged him to leave the district and not to be a source of dissension among the people.' Cameron declined and was determined to preach there even 'if they should bury him at the tent side' and he did so on Thursday 26^th December. Three days later on the Lord’s Day the 29^th December he preached at the parish of New Cumnock where he would have been met with a less hostile reception [Grant].

Cameron’s views were not to everyone’s taste. To the more experienced and leading field preachers of the day, who were actively seeking ways to accommodate the Indulged ministers, he was a firebrand and a fanatic. In May 1679 Cameron went to Holland that great refuge for Scotland’s persecuted and returned as an ordained minister, Mr Richard Cameron, in September of the same year. The victory at Drumclog and the heavy loss at Bothwell Bridge had passed him by in body, but not in soul.

Cameron and his closest followers then entered into a bond ‘We the under –subscribers bind ourselves to be faithful to God, and to be true to one another, and to all others that shall join us…’ [Grant]. The names of the original twenty six subscribers are recorded, but not their home parishes. Joining the names of Cameron and his brother Michael on the bond are John Gemmill, Patrick Gemmill and John Crichtoun, all of whom this research will attempt to show belonged to the parish of New Cumnock.

On the 22nd June 1680, the first anniversary of the Battle of Bothwell Bridge, Cameron and twenty of his men rode into Sanquhar, Upper Nithsdale, (only 10 miles downstream from New Cumnock). Here, his brother Michael read out the ‘Sanquhar Declaration’ at the Market Cross and disowned ‘Charles Stuart, who hath been reigning or rather (we may say) tyrannizing on the throne of Britain these years past’ [NAS1]

The Government’s response was swift and on the 30^th June 1680 the Privy Council issued a warrant for the apprehension of ’notorious Traitors and Rebels against Us and Our authority’

‘'And for the better encouragement all such as shall apprehend and bring in the said traitours dead or alive, the apprehender of Mr Richard Cameron shall as a reward, have five thousand merks, and for Mr Thomas Dowglas, Mr Donal Cargill and the for the said [Michael] Cameron, brother to Mr Richard , who read and affixt the said traiterous declaration at Sanquhar, three thousand marks for each of them, and one thousand merks for each one of the rest of the traitours above mentioned, to be instantly payed to them by the Commissioners of our Tresuary' [RPC]

Thirteen names of ‘notorious traitors and rebels’ appeared on the warrant and alongside the name of Cameron appeared those of

‘____ Creichtoun, sone of Robert Creichtoun, of Auchtitinch, now of Waterhead and Patrick Gemmill, sone-in-law to Charles Logan, messenger at Cumnock Maines’

Creichtoun is certainly John Creichtoun whose name appeared in the aforementioned bond. Waterhead, in the parish of New Cumnock, sits near the source of the Nith. In 1684, his father Robert, aged 63, is found in the adjoining property of Craigman. In the same year John’s name appears in the proclamation for the apprehension of rebels as ‘Crichton of Craigman’.

Patrick Gemmill too was one of the subscribers of Cameron’s bond and like Creichton his name also appears on the 1684 proclamation as ‘Patrick Gemmil at the old castle of Cumnock.'. The castle stood in the heart of the parish of New Cumnock and there was now a small community developing about the site of this ancient seat of the barons of Cumnock. Indeed, as we will discover later, a field by the name of Gemmill’s Meadow, sat adjacent to the castle. Nearby, stood Cumnock Maines (also known as Castle Maines) the chief farm associated with the castle, where Gemmil’s father-in-law, Charles Logan lived. He was a kinsman of the Laird of Logan, one of the heritors in the parish of Old Cumnock who urged Cameron not to preach there in December 1679.

N.B Charles Logan was one of the parishioners of New Cumnock interrogated in 1684, at which time he was 50 years old, and he was now at Little Maynes of Cumnock, adjacent to Cumnock Maines. Taking into account his father-in-law’s age, Patrick was certainly a young man when he rode into Sanquhar with Richard Cameron in 1680.

There is no mention of the name of John Gemmill in the Warrant for the apprehensions of those at Sanquhar Cross. Of the thirteen names that do appear, eleven are original subscribers of the Cameron Bond and it is reasonable to suggest that the eight ‘unrecorded Covenanters’ at Sanquhar were also subscribers, including John Gemmill.

On the same day that the warrant was issued the Earl of Airlie is ordered to march with his entire force of horse and dragoons from Ayr to Cumnock Castle. Four days later on the 4^th July, he responds to General Tam Dalyell, in a letter addressed from the “Old Castle near New Kirk of Cumnock”–

‘By your order I am come now to this place with three troops of dragons and two troops of horse. Sir John Cochrane* and many of the Gentlemen in the parish, and the brother of the dragoon who was murdered have been with me, who cant give me no other information of Cameron but that the greatest part of his partie has left him, and divided them following into twos and threes. They have resolved to be with me this night and tomorrow with what intelligence they can learn’ [Airlie]

*Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree, uncle to Jean Cochrane, wife of Claverhouse

On that same day Richard Cameron was only a few miles from Cumnock Castle ,at the Gass Water in the parish of Old Cumnock, where he predicted ‘I will be but a breakfast to four-hours to the enemies some day shortly, and my work will be finished, and my time both’ [Grant]. Still, on that day the Earl of Airlie informed the Earl of Linlithgow of his order written at “Old Castle near New Kirk of Cumnock” [Airlie] -

By the generals orders I am come to this place and cannot learn any news of Cameron as yet there is a partie out of 36 dragoons commanded by Livingston and Creichtoun* who had order to look after him and not yet returned on that front’

On the 5^th July, Airlie sent another letter to Linlithgow, addressed on this occasion from “Gemmells Medow neir the old Castle of Cumnock”, containing a report from Captain Strachan on a sortie carried out by his forces near Sanquhar ‘intelligence that Cameron with a partie of 13 or 14 horss marched to Corsancone toward Cummerhead and Crawford John’ [Airlie]

Gemmel’s meadow is undoubtedly the property of young Patrick Gemmil of the old castle of Cumnock. Clearly Cameron and his men had recently been in the parish of New Cumnock, at Corsencon hill, on the boundary between Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire.

Cameron and his followers continued to elude capture but on the 22^nd July 1680, Airlie and his forces, who had been searching for Cameron in the passes of Annandale, are ordered to march to Cumnock Castle, on the basis of new information received from Sir John Cochrane regarding Cameron’s whereabouts, possibly from on his tenants near Airdsmoss.

Note: From the record of another encounter fours years later it appears that Cochrane had a tenant spy at Airdsmoss. On the 15^th June 1684, in a letter to General Dalyell, Graham of Claverhouse writes –

‘I parted from Paisley, went by Kilmarnock and Mauchline, but could hear nothing of these rebels. So hearing Colonel Buchan was at the old castle of Cumnock, I took by Ochiltree (i.e. Cochrane of Ochiltree), who sent an express to a tenant’s house of his, near Airdsmoss, and he brought certain notice that they had been at a meadow near his house the night before, to the number of fifty-nine, all armed.’ [Warwick]

Government troops under the command of Bruce of Earlshall tracked Cameron and his men down to the bleak Airds Moss near Muirkirk, Ayrshire. Despite a valiant effort the Covenanters numbering no more than thirty, were defeated by the superior force of over a hundred dragoons. Twenty-four on the Government side and nine Covenanters were killed during the Battle of Airds Moss. The fallen Covenanters were Richard Cameron, his brother Michael Cameron, Robert Dick, John Hamilton, John Fouler, James Gray, Robert Paterson, Thomas Watson and John Gemmill of St. Brydsbank, in the parish of New Cumnock.

Five more Covenanters were captured that day. William Manual and John Vallance died of their wounds whilst John Malcolm, Archibald Allison and David Hackston were later executed; the latter suffering a William Wallace like public execution, only this horror was committed at the hands of fellow Scots. Andrew Stuart, James Skene and John Potter were captured later and executed in December 1680.

CAMERONIANS

(1) Original signatories of Cameron Bond

(2) Names appearing onWarrant for being at Sanquhar Declaration

(3) Killed at Airdmoss (or in the aftermath)

	(1) Cameron Bond	(2) Sanqhuar	(3)Airdsmoss
Thomas Douglas	X	X
Richard Cameron	X	X	X
Robert Dick	X		X
Alexander Gordon of Creuch	X	X
William Stewart	X
David Farrie	X
James Stewart	X	X
Robert Stewart	X
John Patterson	X
John Potter	X		X**
James Grierson	X
John Hamilton	X		X
James Edward	X
John Moody	X	X
J. Vallance	X	X	X*
Thomas Campbell	X	X
John Crichtoun	X	X
John Gemmill	X		X
John Maccolm	X		X*
Patrick Gemmill	X	X
John Wilson	X
Samuel McMichael	X
Joseph Thomson	X
Michael Cameron	X	X	X
John Fouler	X	X	X
James McMichael	X
Daniel McMichael		X
Francis Johnstoun		X
James Gray			X
Robert Paterson			X
Thomas Watson			X
William Manuel*			X*
David Hackston*			X*
Archibald Allison			X
John Pollock*			X*
James Skene**			X**
Andrew Stuart**			X**

* taken prisoner at Airdsmoos and died / executed

** captured later and executed

In the ensuing years of 1686-1687, James VII issued two new Indulgences, and many of the ministers that had previously been outed from their churches in 1662 for refusing to conform to Episcopacy, were readmitted

In 1690 Epsicopalianism was abolished and Presbyterianism was restored in Scotland, however the Covenants were not. For the Cameronians the revolution, which saw James VII disposed to be replaced by William and Mary as joint sovereigns, was far from glorious ‘the old exclusive claims for Presbyterianism as the only godly form of church government, and insistence on independence from state influence were abandoned’. [Stevenson]. Although Richard Cameron was killed in 1680 and his mantle of the leader of the remnant of the Covenanters passed first to David Cargill and then to James Renwick, both of whom were later executed, his name lived on in the hearts and the minds of those that refuse to abandon the Covenants; and in particular in the parish of New Cumnock.

Alexander Shields continued to preach amongst the Society People and was joined by fellow preachers Thomas Linning and William Boyd, both of whom had returned from their studies in Holland. On the 3^rd March 1689, at Borland Hill in the parish of Lesmahagow, these 3 ministers, 12 elders and 88 others renewed the Covenants, the 88 from the following parishes – parish of Air (2 persons); Disdeer (3); Glencarn (1); Carmichael (3); Crawfordmure (10); Dunsyre (5); Pentland (1); Cambusnethan (3); Edinburgh (2); Levinstoun (2); Lowdoun (3); Kirkconnel (1); Shotts (2); Merse (3); Hamilton parish (3); Camslang (2); Kilbrid (1); Kilmarnock (3); Lesmahago (2); Evandale (7); Lennoxshire (6); Inch parish (1); Camonel Carrick (2); New parish of Cumnock (14); Galstoun (3); Ocheltree (2); Elie in Fife (1). [NAS2]

The parish of New Cumnock was the most represented parish on Borland hill that day, and the names of those New Cumnockians in attendance deserve their place in the roll of honour of the Cameronian Kirk.

‘James Wood, Robert Middleton, Alexander McMillan, John McMitchell, John Row, William Hamelton, William Moodie, James Elwood, Hew [Rowat]*, George [Edwards]**, John Hutchinson, George Hutchinson, Andrew Hutchinson and William Hutchinson ‘ [NAS2]

* probably Howat, **possibly Craufurd

The surnames Wood, McMitchell (or McMichael), Moodie, Hutchinson and, Howat all appear in the Covenanting traditions and records of the parish. John and George Hutchesons of Dalgig are recorded as having ‘Gone forth from parish about ane yeir since,Disorderly persones’. A local covenanting tradition tells of Hugh Hutchinson of Dalgig witnessing the martyrdom of three Covenanters on nearby Carsgailoch hill.

When the General Assembly gathered in Edinburgh in 1690, all three ministers, Linning, Shields and Boyd joined the ‘Revolution’ church, deserting the Camerionans and for sixteen years, the Society People endured without a minister.

In 1706 the Reverend John McMillan, minister of Balmaghie, Galloway, having left the Established Church received a call from the Society People to be their minister. On 27^th July 1712, a thousand communicants gathered at Auchensaugh Hill, Douglas to celebrate the first Communion of the Cameronians, since 1690, 'The Queen and Parliament and all opposers of Our Covenants and Covenanted Reformation' were barred from the Communion Tables on that historic day [Barr]. M’Millan was later joined by the Rev. Thomas Nairn and together with a number of ruling elders on the 1^st of August, 1743, they constituted a Presbytery under the title of The Reformed Presbytery, in the name of Christ, the alone King and Head of his Church, also known as the Dissenting Presbytery.

Fifty years later, the First Statistical Account of Ayrshire (1793) reveals that 12 parishioners out of 1200 were Seceeders from the parish church in New Cumnock. In the opening years of the new century the Reformed Presbyterians built a small meeting house in New Cumnock. Until that time they had held open air services, like their Cameronian predecessors. With no minister of their own they relied on preachers visiting from the neighbouring parishes.

The dissenters of the day were –

‘Auld Dalhanna' (Campbell) was one of the original dissenters from the Established Kirk; Stitt, Hastings, Wilson, Milligan and Campbell were elders; Logan and Orr were deacons; Paterson, Craig, Proudfoot were farmers with long associations with the church; and Sharp and Beattie were precentors’ [Sanderson]

By 1831, the membership of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the parish of New Cumnock had increased to 117, compared with the 1752 for the Established Church and with 299 of Seceeders of ‘various denominations’. This represents an increase from 1% of the church going population in 1793, to approximately 5% in 1831 – a healthy increase for the small church.

In 1833, a new parish church was built to replace Hew Craufurd’s ageing church, now the Auld Kirk, which had stood on the castle-hill since 1659. Ten years later in the Disruption Year of 1843, the parish minister and the majority of his congregation left the Established Church and set up a new Free Church, adjacent to the ruins of the Auld Kirk.

In 1859, the Reverend Matthew Hutchison, 30 year-old, from Lasswade, Edinburgh, answered the call to become the first minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in New Cumnock. The small meeting place was replaced in 1866 with a fine new church, with seating for 300 and a manse for the minister. Ten years later as schisms and unions in the church in Scotland continued, the Reformed Presbyterian Church joined with the Free Church. Helen J Steven captures the moment-

In 1876 the congregation joined the Free Church, so that the Cameronians or Covenanters as they were called in the district lost their distinctive title and became members of that greater body.

Despite being isolated in a remote upland Ayrshire parish the Reverend Hutchison attained national acclaim within the Reformed Presbyterian Church, as its historian following the publication of his ' The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland: Its Origin and History, 1680-1876'.. Within its pages Hutchison reaffirms his church's historical link with Richard Cameron.

'In Richard Cameron and his associates we see the founders of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and the Sanquhar Declaration was the first public announcement of its separate position. Without binding itself to every form of expression or detail, that Church has ever regarded this document as embodying principles that are of high importance in themselves, of enduring value, and of world-wide application'

Hutchison, was also the editor of the Reverend J.H. Thomson's acclaimed and colossal work 'The Martyrs Graves of Scotland’

The Reformed Presbyterian Church may have been extinguished in New Cumnock in 1876 and the stones of the church knocked down in the 1970's. However, what cannot be extinguished is the contribution that New Cumnock has made to that church. The Reverend Matthew Hutchison became the recognised historian of the church. More remarkably, if those twenty-one Covenanters, including Partick Gemmel and his father John Gemmell of New Cumnock hadn't ridden into Sanquhar Cross in 1680 to publicly disown the monarch, there would have been no Sanquhar Declaration and probably no Reformed Presbyterian Church.