SPOTTISWOODE MISCELLANY: A COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL PAPERS AND TRACTS, ILLUSTRATIVE CHIEFLY OF THE CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. EDITED BY JAMES MAIDMENT, ESQ. ADVOCATE. VOLUME II. EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR THE SPOTTISWOODE SOCIETY. M.DCCC.XLV. PREFACE. N preparing for the press the Second Volume of the SPOTTISWOODE MISCELLANY, it has been the endeavour of the Editor to select such Papers as, independently of intrinsic worth or curiosity, might be acceptable to the general reader. As introductory remarks have been prefixed to most of the Articles comprehended in the volume, recapitulation is unnecessary. But the Editor may here take the opportunity of mentioning, that the "Account of the Sufferings of the Episcopal Clergy" is only one amongst a great mass of papers shewing the depressed state of the Church before and after the Union. Government, so long as the arrangements for the junction of the two kingdoms were in progress, did not choose to embroil itself with the Presbyterian ministers, and much was overlooked for the sake of "expediency" that would have not otherwise passed unnoticed. When the Union was effected the case was altered, and the oppressive proceedings adopted at the instigation of the Presbytery-though nominally by the Magistrates of Edinburgh—against the Rev. James Greenshields, an Episcopal clergyman regularly ordained by James Ramsay, Bishop of Ross, in 1694, although sanctioned by the Court of Session, were quashed by the House of Peers to the infinite dismay of the persecutors. That the Government took every method of conciliating the Presbyterian party, and getting it to lend its aid to the Union, is undoubted. The following extract from a letter by Wodrow to his father, the Reverend "Mr James Wodrow, Professor of Divinity in the Colledge of Glasgow"-contains curious evidence on the subject: "This comes only to tell you that we came all safe here, blessed be God, on Wensday night late; my lady is very much indisposed, but nothing the worse of her journey. On Wensday, the Parliament ended the first reading of the 1 Edin. Nov. 11, 1706. Wodrow Letters, MS. vol. iv. Articles, the nixt sederunt, which I suppose is to-morrow; they are to consider the security of the Church. The Court offers all things the Commission seek, provided they goe into an incorporating union. The Commission is to sitt this day, and to consider the Abjuration Oath, and the consistency of the going into the Union with the Covenants; we need very much concern for our conduct. Yesterday was kept in this Presbytery as a fast. I heard Mr Carstairs lecture before the Commissioner upon the 85th Psalm, and preach on Psalm v. 1, 2, 3, and Mr Meldrum in the afternoon in his own church upon Esai. lviii. 9. Mr Carstairs had a preface to this purpose, that many were gathered together to spy out ministers' management on a fast-day about the Union; but the reverend Commissioun had set it apart not to party themselves with any of the differing partys in Parliament-that was none of their concern, far lesse to create or indulge unacountable jealousies in some people's minds about this matter. Mr Meldrum preached against the rabble." Thus the great Carstairs-called by his opponents the Cardinal, and who indubitably was the leader of the Presbyterian Establishment-was induced to lend his aid to the incorporating union with England. Would he have done so if he had divined that in a few years afterwards the British House of Lords would endeavour to remove the yoke from off the neck of the Scotish Episcopal Church? The "Extracts from the Kirk-Session Register of Perth" were contributed by the Rev. JOHN PARKER LAWSON, M.A. Editor of the SOCIETY'S edition of Bishop Keith's "History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland," who also furnished the prefatory remarks, notes, and concluding illustrative observations. For revising historical details subjoined to the Article, the SOCIETY is indebted to WILLIAM Ross, Esq. Writer, Perth, whose antiquarian knowledge of the "Fair City" rendered his assistance peculiarly valuable. EDINBURGH, NOVEMBER 1845. JAMES MAIDMENT. 1 In one of these the word "Revolution" was by a slip of the pen written for " Restoration."-See p. 315, line 1. CONTENTS. CHARTER BY MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, WITH CONSENT OF THE THREE ESTATES, IN FAVOUR OF JAMES SANDILANDS, LORD ST JOHN, of THE POSSESSIONS OF THE TEMPLARS AND HOSPITALLERS, 24th JANUARY 1563, LETTER FROM SIR ROBERT ANSTRUTHER TO LORD CHANCELLOR HAY, 17-32 33-38 |