In 1679 John Graham of
Claverhouse rode out from Glasgow with 180 dragoons to punish the Covenanters.
Loudoun Braes: The churchyard contains several interesting tombstones which commemorate martyrs to the cause of liberty. "To the memory of John Nisbet of Hardhill, who suffered martyrdom at the Grassmarket, Edinburgh, 4th December, 1685. Animated by a spirit to which genuine religion alone could give birth, the pure flame of civil and religious liberty alone could keep alive. He manfully struggled for a series of years to stem the tide of national degeneracy, and liberate his country from the tyrannical aggressions of the perjured house of Stewart. His conduct in arms at Pentland, Drumclog, and Bothwell Bridge, in opposition to prelatic encroachments and in defence of Scotland's Covenanted Reformation, is recorded in the annals of those oppressive times. His remains lie at Edinburgh, but the inhabitants of his native parish, and friends to the cause for which he fought and died, have caused this stone to be erected."
To the left of the stone to the memory of John Nisbet, there is another which states that it was "Erected September 1829 by the Parishioners of Loudoun in testimony of their deep admiration of the noble struggle in defence of the civil and religious liberties of their country against the despotic and persecuting measures of the house of Stuart, maintained by the undernamed martyrs belonging to this parish, who suffered and died for their devotedness to the Covenanted work of Reformation:--
MATTHEW PATON, shoemaker in Newmilns, who was talem at Pentland, and executed at Glasgow, Decr.
19th, 1666.
DAVID WOOD, taken at the battle of Bothwell Bridge, and executed at Magus-muir, Nov. 25th, 1679.
JOHN NISBET, in Glen, executed at Kilmarnock, April 14th, 1683; and
JAMES NISBET, in Highside, executed at Glasgow, June 11th, 1684.
'These are they who came out of great tribulation. Rev. vii. 11.'"
Matthew Paton was tried along with three others who had been taken prisoner with him, and in spite of every plea set up on their behalf all four were put to death. Wodrow says "they were executed that day. The men were most cheerful, and had much of a sense of the Divine love upon them, and a great deal of peace in their suffering."
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It was the most comprehensive and thoroughly Biblical exposition of the Christian Faith the world has yet to see. The Society People in particular owned very strictly to this cause, though many who were not as strict as the Societies did likewise die for (albeit less strict) adherence to the Covenanted Reformation. Herein is a (necessarily) partial listing of the several thousand of Christ's faithful (though faithful in more or less degrees) who lost their lives, particularly from 1661-1688, in the struggle that ensued to preserve the True Reformed Religion and the Covenants (National and Solemn League) made with Jesus Christ. A full account shall never be known, as even the most detailed authors of the day gave up in attempting to account for all of the martyrs. Besides these, thousands more were fined, banished, enslaved, imprisoned, wounded, tortured, made homeless wandering in caves and woods, and none can be entirely certain how many of these died from these afflictions at this time. Many also died after 1688 as a result of complications from previous tortures.
Somewhere it has been estimated that between May 1661 and February 1688 "... were one way or other murdered and destroyed for the same cause about eighteen thousand..."
The book, "Cloud of Witnesses For The Royal Prerogatives Of Jesus Christ" states, "TO give an account of the many hundreds, who either died or contracted their deaths in prison, by the severities they met with of cold, hunger, thirst, want of room and air, fetters, tortures, stigmatising [i.e., branding with a hot iron], whipping, etc., would be a work of immense labor; nor can any full account; thereof be had, considering the vast numbers of such, and the neglect of writing memoirs of these things, or their being seized by the persecutors, who were industrious to suppress such accounts of their own villainies from the view of posterity."
Who lived in the parish of Fenwick, and suffered at the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, May 9th, 1684.
"DEAR FRIENDS AND SPECTATORS, - You are come here to look upon me a dying man, and you need not expect that I shall say much, for I was never a great orator nor eloquent of tongue, though I may say as much to the commendation of God in Christ Jesus as ever a poor sinner had to say. I have been a great sinner as ever lived; strong corruptions, strong lusts, strong passions, a strong body of death have prevailed against me; yea, I have been chief of sinners. I may say, on every back look of my way (though the world cannot charge me with any gross transgression this day, for which I bless the Lord), Oh! what omissions and commissions, what formality and hypocrisy, that even my duties have been my grief and fear, lest Thou, a holy God, had made them my dittays [i.e., indictments], and mayest do. My misimproven time may be heavy upon my head, and cause of desertion, and especially my supplicating the council, who have, I think, laid their snares the closer to take away my life, though contrary to their own professed law. I desire to mourn for my giving ear to the counsel of flesh and blood, when I should have been consulting Heaven, and to reflect upon myself, though it lays my blood the closer to their door; and I think the blood of my wife and bairns; I think their supreme magistrate is not ignorant of many of their actings, but these prelates will not be found free when our God makes an inquisition for blood.
"And now, I am come here, desired of some indeed, who thirst for my life, though by others not desired. I bless the Lord, I am not come here as a thief or murderer, and I am free of the blood of all men, but hate blood shed directly or indirectly. And now I am a poor sinner, and could never merit anything but wrath, and have no righteousness of my own; all is Jesus Christ's, and His alone; and I have laid claim to His righteousness and His sufferings by faith in Jesus Christ; through imputation they are mine; for I have accepted of His offer on His own terms, and sworn away myself to Him, to be at His disposal, both privately and publicly, many times; and, now, I have put it upon Him to ratify in heaven all that I have essayed to do on earth, and to do away all my imperfections and failings, and to stay my heart on Him. And I seek mercy for all my sins, and believe to get all my challenges and sins sunk in the blood and sufferings of Jesus and His righteousness, and that He shall see of the travail of His soul on me, and the Father's pleasure shall prosper in His hand.
... "And now, farewell wife and children. Farewell all friends and relations. Farewell all worldly enjoyments. Farewell sweet Scriptures, preaching, praying, reading, singing, and all duties. And welcome Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I desire to commit my soul to Thee in well-doing. Lord receive my spirit.