Fife: Donald bringing about that state of affairs which ultimately ended in the Outlaws in triumph of Covenanting principles. These were Donald Cargill, Cargill. Richard Cameron, John Balfour of Kinloch, and David Hackston of Rathillet. Cargill had, since October 1662, been the outed minister of the Barony, Glasgow, where he had served seven years. He was the son of Laurence Cargill, notary, and laird of a small estate in Rattray, and of his wife Marjorie Blair. He matriculated in St. Salvator's College in 1645, and was licensed by the Presbytery of St. Andrews on 13th April 1653.1 At the height of this conventicling period he was in his prime, and well able to attempt the memorable long 'Cargill loup' over the fearful chasm in the Keith, when he was chased from the Haerchen Hill. A sad, silent, prayerful prophet was Cargill, mourning a dead wife, lamenting the destruction of the Church, and uttering malisons thus: 'Wo, wo, wo to him [the King], his name shall stink while the world stands for treachery, tyranny, and leachery . . . if these men die the ordinary death of men, then God never sent me, nor spoke by me.'2 Cameron. Among the names of conventiclers in 1675 appear those of Richard 'Allan Cameron, merchant in Faulkland, Margaret Paterson, his spouse, Mr. Richard Cameron, his son, Michael Cameron, indweller there.'s Richard Cameron was born in Falkland, matriculated in St. Andrews in March 1662, and took the degree of M.A. on 22nd July 1665. Thereafter he became schoolmaster and precentor in Falkland. Cameron came under the influence of the stirring outlawed preacher, John Welwood, whom we find in 1675 writing to Richard: You have the honour to be persecuted for righteousness : have a care, be not lifted up, for there may be several tryals before your hand. '5 Welwood also wrote from Dundee: 'My desire is that the Lord may help you to be holy and harmless in a crooked genera ... 1 Patrick Walker, Some Remarkable Passages in the Life and Death of . Cargill, 1732; Six Saints, ii. 1-62, 119-222; Biog. Presby., ii. 1-54 (Edin., 1837). 3 Wodrow MSS., xxxiii. 142. 2 Six Saints, ii. 8, 10. Patrick Walker, Life, in Biog. Presb., i. 191-319; Six Saints, i. 218-365; ii. 155-98; Downie, The Early Home of Richard Cameron, 1-38; Herkless, Richard Cameron (Famous Scots Series, passim). 5 Edin., 13th Dec. 1675: Laing MSS., 359, fol. 4. John Balfour- tion.' He accompanied Welsh in his wanderings, and won the esteem of that good man for his piety and gifts. When the itinerant Presbytery met at Henry Hall's house, Haughhead, Teviotdale, Welsh, Semple, and other ministers licensed Cameron, knowing that he was an enemy of the Indulgence. They sent him on a mission to the unregenerate in Annandale, and on his appearing timid, Welsh encouraged him with the moving benediction, 'Go your way, Ritchie; set the fire of hell to their tail.' This the clerical Samson effectively did. That imported flame, stirring the inflammable Celtic disposition of Cameron, made him an uncompromising antagonist of the Government and of their lukewarm allies-the indulged. After joining Welwood and Kid in their perilous and discouraging campaign against the favourers of compromise with the regnant party in State and Church, Cameron deemed it expedient to seek a refuge on the Continent, whither Welwood sent him a letter, on 26th January 1677, grudging him his 'stay where no religion is.'" 3 Among the auditors of the field-preachers in Fife, in the summer of 1672, was 'John Balfour, portioner in Kinloch,' in the parish of Collessie. He was a squat, squint-eyed, fierce-looking man, and was known as Burly.' With the strain of the wild unreliable Balfour of Burleigh blood in him, it was not singular that he should disobey the order of the court to compear and answer for conventicling, for which contempt of court he was under warrant for apprehension. In all likelihood he is the same criminal mentioned in a list of escheats granted to Sir William Sharp, and also in the 'Letters of Intercommuning.'' Balfour's brother-in-law, David Halkerstoun, or Hackston, proprietor of Rathillet, in Kilmany parish, succeeded his father in 1670.5 He was esteemed a gallant country gentleman, at first of the prelatic party, and having employment of some kind from 2 Laing MSS., 359, fol. 33. 1 Six Saints, i. 219. 3 John Balfour of Kinloch, son of John Balfour and Grizzel Hay, daughter of Hay of Paris, Perthshire, born c. 1640; served heir to his grandfather Robert, 26th February 1663; married Barbara Hackston, sister of Hackston of Rathillet. His confiscated property went to Lord Lindores Scot. Mag., i. 130 (September 1817). 4 Wodrow MSS., lx.; Wodrow, ii. 287, 288 note. 5 Miller, Fife, ii. 318. (Photographed from a Portrait in the possession of Charles Pearson, Esq., Alloa, by Mr. A. Pithie, Allca. Prepared by Mr. C. Sweet, Rothesay) ston of Rothes. A sordid transaction on the part of Archbishop Sharp David Hackresulted in his being brought into active alliance with the con- Rathillet. venticlers. It is a story of agrarian outrage. The estate of Cunnoquhie in Monimail, a gift of James III. to the church of St. Andrews, was held by a family of Lovells, the last of whom, William, became bankrupt, and in resisting a distraint in 1671 killed the sheriff-officer, for which he was summoned to the Justiciary Court. On the restoration of the hierarchy, Sharp became superior of Cunnoquhie, and, on Lovell's failure to pay the feu-duties, resumed Possession of the fief, to the detriment of the heirs and creditors." Hackston appears to have had two interests in the estate, being a Creditor, and also acting as collector of the Episcopal rents for his friend, Sharp. For a bond of £1000 Scots, Sharp sold his interest to Hackston. Sharp was notorious for avariciousness. Hackston failed to implement his bargain, or to give satisfactory count and reckoning, with the result that Sharp threw him into jail, where he lay for months. On his release Hackston swore, 'God damn him if ever he went to church so long as there was a bis hop in Scotland." The popularity of the Primate was not increased by the fact that his brother, as cash-keeper to the King, intromitted with the fines, and by the suspicion that Rothes and the Archbishop worked to each other's hands. The King blamed the authorities for winking at conventicles in order to get fines, and said to Monmouth that if Rothes and the other nobles had done their duty there would have been no conventicles in Fife." of James Mitchell, The unsuccessful attempt of James Mitchell, in December 1675, Brutal torture to break the Tolbooth, gave the Privy Council an opportunity to examine that undischarged prisoner. The new charge was that he January 1675. was in the rebellion of 1666; and his alleged confession to that effect before the Council, now produced to the Lords of Justiciary, he renounced. To elicit the facts, the Council authorised a joint Just. Rec., ii. 58, 60, 63; Book of Adjournal, 17th July 1671. 2 Act. Parl. Scot., v. 449. 3 A True Relation, etc., Anal. Scot., ii. 388. * MacWard Papers, Wodrow MSS., lx. (Iac. 5. 1. 10), 88. |