Boston Public Library - Electric Scotland

28 JOHN ALISON—THE EXILED COVENANTER.
CHILDREN liOIlN AT WIXDYEDGE, SCOTLAND.
2. Jean Alisons, ni. James Torrance. Kes. at Dead waters, parish of Lesmahagow,
county of S.
4.
Lanark, Scotland.
John Alison^ (7), b. 1652. He was one of the 1,200 prisoners taken at
Bothwell Bridge, and was banished to Virginia. His sword is
still in jjossession of relatives.
Michael Alison' (8), b. 16.54, a sturdy Covenanter, was at the siege of
Londonderry. Ireland.
5. Archibald Alison'', b. 16o6, and suffered martyrdom at the Grassmarket,
Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1680. He was in the battles of Drumcloy,
Bothwell Bridge, and at Airsmoss battle was taken prisoner.
His dying testimony is published at great length in "A
Cloud of Witnesses," a book formerly, and now greatly, read in
Scotland.
6. Margaret Alison^, m. James Steele. Res. Lesmahagow, county of
Lanark, Scotland.
7. John Alison 2
[3] (James ^). He was born, in 1652, at
Windyedge, which was one of the farms belonging to the
original estate of Cairnduff, in Avondale, county of Lanark,
Scotland. With his two brothers, Michael and Archibald
Alison, he was a stiff and zealous Covenanter, and fought at
Bothwell Bridge, where the Covenanters were sorely defeated.
He was one of the 1,200 prisoners taken; was tried at Edin-
burgh, and banished to Virginia in America. His name is
recorded in the well known Porteous Roll, a roll which contained
the names of the criminals who were imprisoned in
those days, most of whom were pious Covenanters. After
his term of exile came to an end, he joined the settlement of
the Pilgrim Fathers in Massachusetts, and there was considerable
communication between him and his friends in Avondale,
for they were accustomed to hear that the heat in Virginia
was so great that people could boil an egg upon the
sand, and how, in New England, they had to climb trees to
escape from the wild beasts ; how they were caught in gin
set for deer; how the Indians formed their houses by bend-
ing branches and matting them over like an arbor; how their
graves were filled with bows and arrows and other instru-
ments of warfare ;
and how they caused the forests to reecho
by the discharge of their muskets. These and many such
reminiscences have been handed down from father to son
among the relatives who remained in Scotland, to the present
time. His sword is still in the possession of his relative,
William Allison, of Hawbank, East Kilbride, near Strathavon,
county of Lanark, Scotland.
If !^Ir. Alison left any descendants in America, they are
unknown to the relatives in Scotland.
8. Michael Alison^ [4] (James ^). He was born at Win-