History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with ... - Electric Scotland

i 4 o JOHNSTOUN OF WARRIESTON
the Rye House Plot. Helen, the wife of George Home of Graden, who,
after imprisonment for being a Covenanter, died of wounds received at the
battle of Bothwell Bridge. His widow was fined £26,000 for nonconformity by
the Sheriff of Teviotdale— really because of her devotion at Baillie's execution, 1
and that she was Home's widow, and Warrieston's daughter.
Janet, another of Warrieston's daughters, married Sir Alexander Mac-
Kenzie of Coul ; and her next sister became the wife of Roderick MacKenzie.
Euphan died unmarried in 171 5. Margaret, who was her father's companion
in the Tower, married first Sir John Wemyss, secondly Benjamin Bressey.
She was imprisoned, with other Covenanting ladies, in 1674, and afterwards
banished for presenting a petition to the Privy Council for freedom to be
granted to their ministers to use their own form of worship.
Charles's Government restored Episcopacy to its ancient footing in Scot-
land, on the ground of consistency with its Irish policy, and put forth an edict
to oblige all the clergy to present themselves before the Bishops, to take oaths
to them as well as to the King, and to receive fresh presentations to their
benefices. In the North these terms were generally accepted ; but Burnet
shows that it emptied the parishes in the West, which, he says, were " filled
by men of the best families, not always with much learning, but leading
respectable lives, and having an extraordinary hold over the laity, even the
gentry, and exercising an authority over offenders equal to magistrates and
judges." They had, in fact, brought in a more orderly social condition, which
was not easily maintained when they were ejected. Symon Johnstoun had
kept his post as Parson of Annan since 1606, by conforming to Episcopacy or
Presbyterianism when required ; and was married to Lady Hartfell's aunt.
But he had taken oaths to Cromwell's Government, and was ejected in favour
of William Baillie, who was deposed in two years and the Rev. Patrick Inglis,
a graduate of St. Andrews, appointed (1664).
The attitude of the Presbyterians was stiffened by the reports that
reached Scotland of the wildness of the Court, and the terrible famine which
set in about this time was by many supposed to be a judgment. Donald
Cargill, in 1661, describes the black, pale faces to be seen in Dumfriesshire,
showing famine typhus; but three years before the county pleaded poverty as an
excuse for sending no member to Parliament. Potatoes were not introduced
till 1725, but quickly spread over Scotland. Glasgow diminished in population
from 14,600 in 1660 to 12,500 in 1707, and other districts in the west of
Scotland suffered in proportion. It has been said that the Scots wasted their
corn in making distilled liquors, but very little wheat was at that time grown in
the country, and, though whisky was smuggled over from Ireland and the Isle
of Man, it was not much drunk by the upper classes on the Borders, as
they imported wine. This is shown in the household bills of the Galabank
family.
1 She attended him in prison and on the scaffold, and even remained while all the horrible
sequence to the execution of a supposed traitor was gone through, that she might collect what
was left in a cloth to have it buried ; the head and limbs being exposed in some public place.