THE ARGYLL REBELLION 0F
1685.
A. I. B. Stewart.
Members of the Society were privileged at a recent "Bring and Tell" meeting to see Captain Hugh McShannon's copy of the original "Declaration and Apology of the Protestant People, That is the Noblemen, Barrons, Gentlemen Burgesses and Commons of all Sorts now in Arms within the Kingdom of Scotland." Printed according to the True Copye.
Captain McShannon had submitted his copy to the National Library of Scotland who up till then had known of only two editions. One of these bears the imprint "Printed in Campbeltown in Kintyre, in the shire of Argyll ANNO 1685." It does not have at the end the personal "Declaration of Archibald Earl of Argyle." Another edition is the possession of the National Library; like Captain McShannon' s copy it includes the Earl's declaration and occupies 8 pages. It has, however, a very different decoration on the title pages and bears the inscription "Reprinted more exactly than formerly conform to the True Copye," whereas Captain McShannon's bears the note "Printed according to the True Copye." There is apparently a third reprint in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
The events of May 1685 were probably those which most notably connect Campbeltown with national history. Argyll's disastrous and short lived rebellion started here.
I thought it might be interesting to present to readers of the Magazine the eye-witness account of these happenings confided to his diary by John Erskine of Carnock (1), a young Scottish laird who had fled to Holland to escape the rising tide of royal persecutions, and who joined the Earl there and accompanied him on his return to Scotland. After calling at Orkney and Islay the expedition set off for Campbeltown.
"20th May, 1685. We came to Kintyre this morning and did see a great part of the Coast of Ireland and Ilsay (Ailsa Craig) which lyes in the midst between Scotland and Ireland, where there are many kinds of fowl such as Solen geese etc. We anchored at Campbeltown and severals went ashore whereof I was one being upon the Cross when our Declaration was publickly read with sound of trumpet. I stayed ashore all night. Many of the gentlemen about fled pretending that they had taken bonds engaging them to the contrary."
"21st (May). This forenoon Mr. Thomas Forrester preached in the Kirk of Campbelltown upon Exodus 33 ch 14 and 15 v (2) from which he spoke excellently to the matter in hand and pleased the people well, The Declaration was read after the preaching and then a particular declaration of my Lord's to his own people, after which my Lord spoke a little, at which some seemed to be to be moved."
"22nd (May). This was the day of rendevous for Kintyre which was in the park at the town-head (Castlepark.). The men that came along were modelled and framed in Companies, I being made ensign to Henderson and carried the first colours made use of in the Cause, the motto being "For the Protestant Religion" and the motto of the other stand taken out this way was - "Against Popery Prelacy and Erastianism." Some gentlemen that had formerly withdrawn came in to us this day."
"23rd (May). This day we went to the Park. Several Companies being now formed of Lowlanders that dwelt in this country and arms delivered to them. Yesterday Mr. George Barclay was sent to Carrick to advertise that country and David Dickson was sent to Cunningham for that effect and to get advice where the forces of our enemies lay. There were seven or eight infants baptised in the Church on Thursday last by Mr. Forrester (3).
"24th (May). Mr. Thomas Forrester preached in a meeting house (4) in the town on Exodus 33 14 and 15 and Mr. Alexander Hastie (5) with Mr. John Forrester in the church (6) there being a necessity to be preaching in two places because of the confluence of people.
Many were offended with our lingering so long in this place now when the men we had were beginning to drop away, all the men we got in Kintyre being prest except those the town of Campbelltown and country about that had come from the Lowlands, many of whom had fled hither on account of religion and did now join from that principle, with a few others, and not as others only upon Argyle's account. Of all the men who did voluntarily enlist in Illay (Islay) who were about 80, there was scarcely twelve left present, so little to be trusted are so many of the Highlanders.
"25th (May). We had news from Mr. Barclay that people there were longing for us and could get about 1000 horses in a few days, and that some companies of our enemies that lay in Glasgow were in such fear that they fled to the Castle and Tolbooth and that Monmouth had set up his standard in England and had a great army.(7), his declaration being at Air already while ours was scarcely one mile off this being printed.
When this news came people were yet more displeased at our staying here longer when we were getting no more men and might probably lose many in the Lowlands. This night I went aboard the Anne to go to Tarbert, Sir Patrick Home being in her and a company of men divided among the three ships to defend them in case of opposition besides twelve fishing boats we carried from Campbelltown."
"26th (May). This morning we loosed from Loch Kilkerran at Campbelltown, my Lord and Sir John Cochran and others having gone by land that they might get such men as were upon the way to join with them, there being with them three Illay companies not complete there."
In less than a month it was all over and the Earl, left with only four companions was, on 19th June, captured while attempting to ford the Clyde at Inchinnan. In terms of a death warrant granted some years before, he was executed at Edinburgh on 30th June.
Highlanders were let loose in Kintyre and committed enormous depredations, Robert Hood in Campbeltown, Major John Cambell in Cleongart and Colin Campbell of Skipness were executed. Many of the common people were transported to the Americas.
In 1689 William of Orange landed and King James VII and II fled the country. Argyll's estates were restored to his son, Lord Lorne, who, in 1701, was created 1st Duke of Argyll.
Notes:
1. Erskine of Carnoch's Journal - (Scottish History
Society 1891/2)
2. "And he said, "my presence shall go
with thee and I will give thee rest.
And he said unto him, "If thy presence
go not with me, carry us not up hence."
3. Unfortunately, the Birth Register is blank between
1664 and 1686.
4. The meeting house is now the Kirk Street Hall. It
was founded by the Lowland congregation about
1654 - and rebuilt in 1706.
5. Mr. Hastie, after the revolution became Minister of
Torphichen and founded the Hastie
Bursaries at Glasgow University. (McKerral)
6. This was the original post reformation Parish Church,
built in 1643 in the form of a Geneva
Cross, where Creagdhu Mansions now stand. It was replaced by the Highland
Church in 1804, having been
ruinous since.1778
7. Monmouth did not in fact land at Lyme Regis till 11th
June.
COMMUNION
TOKENS
Captain Dugald McCallum
The use of Communion Tokens was a feature of Church life in Scotland for a great many years. Some ask if this was a necessity or mere ritual. The answer is that tokens were originally used because it was felt that there was a great need for them but latterly their use was mere ritual. I say "is" because they are still being used although largely superseded by the modem Communion Card. In the very early Christian Church there were certain excesses and intemperate behaviour in the celebration of the Sacrament or the Lord's Supper which led the Apostle Paul to pen the words of First Corinthians Chapter 11 - a chapter which must be read in its entirety in order to extract its real meaning and purpose. Similar, and much worse excesses existed in parts of Scotland in Post-Reformation days, if we are to believe certain contemporary writers, so that it was deemed necessary to confine the Sacrament to "approved" persons. In one parish, for example, it was decreed that such persons should be able to repeat 'the Shorter Catechism as formerly" while in another no one was to receive a token unless he or she was "weel instructit in the Belief, Lord's Prayer and Ten Commands." In early days, therefore, tokens were a means of preventing "imposters" (surely a most unusual expression) getting to the Communion Table.
The normal procedure was that tokens were distributed to "worthy believers" at services prior to Communion Sunday and collected in again immediately before the Sacrament, but it would appear that in many cases, especially in Covenanting times, the tokens were retained by communicants and used by them for identification purposes in similar fashion to the use of the fish symbol by the earliest Christians in times of religious persecution in Rome and elsewhere. In a period of some fifty years ending about 1688, Covenanters were fined, jailed, exiled, tortured and violently killed, so that the showing of a token led to the acceptance of a stranger as a sympathiser and not a Government spy.
A great deal of the solemnity of the Sacrament seems to have been attached to the tokens, making them objects of reverence and respect. An example of the almost superstitious awe or regard in which they were held was the tradition that the only acceptable way to dispose or old tokens was to bury them beneath the pulpit.
Many denominations, apart from the Church of Scotland, issued tokens and usually each parish issued its own so that there was a tremendous number of individual tokens of different size, shape, legend, design and even material used in their making. Most would seem to be circular or oval and from one inch to an inch and a half across, but square and heart-shaped tokens are known. Legends and designs varied from simply the minister's initials, name or initial of the parish to buildings, fish and the "burning bush," for example, on one side and a text or other writing on the other. Most of the tokens seem to have been made of lead or pewter, but copper, brass, leather, silver and even ivory ones are known. The heart-shaped tokens are said to symbolise Christ's love for sinners.
I recently bought a box of miscellaneous coins in Islay to further my collection of British coins and in it was a very dirty oval token dated 1886 with the legends "Parish of Kilarrow" on one side and "This do in remembrance of Me" on the other. It had been used in Islay's famous Round Church in Bowmore and is now in the Islay Museum at Port Charlotte as part of an interesting display of tokens, repeated gentle washings with warm soapy water having restored it to a presentable condition.
In another odd lot of coins I discovered yet another token. This time it was a Free church of Scotland token with "Parish of Kildalton and Oa" on one side and the "burning bush" on the other. Its condition was very poor and even careful cleaning has hardly made it presentable - not too surprising if its date, 1843, was the real date of its beginning life in Islay and not just a reminder of the Disruption.
More recently still, the Congregational Board of Port Ellen Church discovered a hoard of some eighty early tokens frorn the Parish of Kildalton. These tokens are very simple, being rectangular in shape with their only adornment the letter "K", just as the old Jura tokens had a "J" stamped on them.
A few years ago I was asked to identify an unusual "coin" found in Islay and you can imagine how surprised I was to find that it was an old German token with a text on one side and the maker's name on the other. Where in Germany was it used; how did it get to Islay: was it lost or thrown away in the garden from which it was dug up? Such questions immediately spring to mind but with no hope of having them answered. Although Scotland seems to have been the principal user of tokens, some use of them took place in other countries such as England, Germany and the U.S.A.
Tarbert Free Church is one of quite a number using tokens to this day but their tokens merely state "Free Church of Scotland" on one side with a text on the other. There is no mention of place or parish and this makes me wonder if they are of relatively recent manufacture. Most churches, however, now use Communion Cards while, even, in our own area (Kintyre), many old churches are no longer used as such. Some have become village halls, some private dwellings, while others have mouldered or are mouldering into decay. What has happened to the tokens which were formerly used in these Churches? I'd like to suggest that trying to answer this question would give the would-be collector the most fascinating, historical detective work imaginable. Many tokens have undoubtedly survived and not all of them by any means are in private collections - yet- though with dealers now very interested, as well as collectors, they can only become scarcer as time goes on.
Tokens can still be received as gifts; be bought; be tracked down and found. There is still time to start collecting them; cleaning and caring for them; writing up notes on them and in general supplementing the efforts of local museums to preserve this fast-vanishing facet of our national heritage. Collections of them will probably never compare with the value of collections or coins or stamps but then surely there is room in our lives for objects whose value is not measured in terms of hard cash!
Page 2: Schooling 160 Years Ago
Page 5: William Ralston of that Ilk
Page 6: The Press Gang in Campbeltown
Page 8: The Etiquette of Good Society: 1.
Breakfast
Bits and Bobs