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 GENUINE DECLARATION 
 
 OF 
 
 HANGMAN AT IRVINE; 
 
 WHEREI2T HIS 
 
 KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURES, HIS COURAGE, AND 
 BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS THE PERSECUTORS, 
 
 AXD THEIR 
 
 BARBAROUS TREATMENT OF HIM AT AIR, 
 
 ARE PLAINLY SET FORTH. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 
 FKiMTED BY AND FOR D. WEBSTER AND SO*, 
 HORSE WYND. 
 
 1821. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 RfADEK, 
 
 Thou art doubtless welf informed of the 
 sufferings of the persecuted Church of Scotland, 
 during the reigns of King Charles II. and his in- 
 fatuated brother James VII; and of the devoted 
 constancy, which in those days individuals of every 
 rank and degree displayed in a cause, on which 
 they conceived both the security of their lives and 
 the freedom of their thoughts depended. It was 
 an unhappy period, when the Judges of the land 
 did not hesitate to pronounce sentences, which a 
 poor hangman chose rather to suffer death than 
 execute. 
 
 May thy sense of what is right be as strong, and 
 thy conscience pure as his, and riches will never 
 tempt, nor power corrupt thee. 
 
 Fabewbll. 
 
THE 
 
 GENUINE DECLARATION 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM SUTHEKLAND, 
 
 HANGMAN AT IRVINE. 
 
 A t the battle of Pentland, about fifty were kiiled, 
 and sixty taken prisoners, of which eight were hang- 
 ed at Air, two at Irvine, and two at Dumfries. 
 — At Air, upon the 24th of December, 1666, the 
 Earl of Kellie, Lieutenant-General Drummond, 
 Charles Maitland of Hattoun, James Creightoun, 
 brother to the Earl of Dumfries, sit in judgement, 
 and have twelve more of the prisoners before them, 
 indicted by the solicitor for treason. They are 
 found guilty, and ordered to be executed at Air, 
 Irvine, and Dumfries ; and the sentence was put 
 in execution accordingly. 
 
 Thursday, the 27th of December, was ap- 
 pointed for the hanging of eight of them, James 
 Smith, Alexander M'Millan, James M'Milhm, 
 George M'Cartney, John Short, John Graham, 
 
James Muirhead, and Cornelius Anderson, in the 
 town of Air. The hangman of that town being 
 unwilling to imbrue his hands in the blood of these 
 good men, got out of the way, and no other could 
 be found to undertake this hateful work. The pro- 
 vost not being able to find one for this office, pro- 
 posed this expedient, which was gone into : that 
 one of the eight who were condemned should have 
 his life, if he would consent to become burner to 
 the rest ; and with difficulty enough Cornelius 
 Anderson is prevailed upon. When the execu- 
 tion day is come, the poor man's heart being like 
 to fail him, the provost, to secure all, took care to 
 make him almost drunk with brandy. Thus with 
 much difficulty they got their sentence executed. 
 
 Other two of them, James Blackwood and John 
 M'Coul, were executed at Irvine upon Munday 
 December last. When Mr Alexander Nisbet, mi- 
 nister there, visited them in prison, he found them 
 ignorant, and very much discouraged and damped 
 with the near views of death and eternity. After 
 he had bestowed some pains upon them, and in- 
 structed them in the way of salvation by faith in 
 Christ ; when the day of execution came they died 
 full of joy and courage, to the admiration of all 
 who were witnesses. Anderson, as I am told, was 
 likewise obliged to hang them, and id a few days 
 he himself died in distraction and great misery. 
 
 The courage and behaviour of William Suther- 
 land, hangman at Irvine, a man very much master 
 qf the scriptures, and blameless and pious, and the 
 carriage of the persecutors to hi i., deserve to be re- 
 
 
membered. His own declaration, which I am well 
 assured is genuine, and formed by himself, and ac- 
 count of his examination, will set this matter in its 
 native light ; and therefore, though the paper be 
 rude, and in a very homely dress, I have insert it. 
 This poor man, after the hangman at Air fled, 
 was by force brought from Irvine to that place, 
 and boldly stood out against all the fair and foul 
 means used to bring him to execute the above- 
 named persons there. When he had been put in 
 the stocks, and endured all the hardships he him- 
 self gives an account of, and still persisted in his 
 refusal, Lieutenant-General Drummond ordered 
 him to be taken out and bound to a stake, and 
 caused a file of musqueteers present their pieces, 
 assuring him he was a dead man, if he yielded not 
 to hang the condemned persons. This moved him 
 not. Then they covered his face, and after a little 
 the soldiers were ordered to run in upon him with 
 a shout, and all the noise they could make. Thus 
 they resolved to make him feel the fear of death, 
 though he escaped the pain of it. And this was 
 his martyrdom, which he underwent with a great 
 deal of composure and resolution.— IVodrow. ! 
 
 WILLIAM SUTHERLAND S DECLARATION". 
 
 The sense of God's goodness, who justifies the 
 ungodly, and calls things that are not, and the per- 
 swasion of Christian friends, to whose charity I 
 was much obliged during my imprisonment at Air 
 for many weeks, moved me to declare as follows : 
 
8 
 
 I being come of poor patent* in Strathnarer, 
 
 (the wildest part of the North Highlands,) who 
 not able to keep me, I was hired with a mas- 
 ter who sent me to bring back a horse that Colonel 
 Morgan's party had taken from him ; which party 
 I followed till the enemy fell betwixt me and home, 
 and being afraid to go back, and having a desire 
 to learn the Lowland tongue, 1 came alongst in n 
 sad condition with the said party, till I came to 
 Spey-side, where I herded cattle For a year in the 
 parish of Boharm, at a place called the New Kirk ; 
 from thence I came to the parish of Fyvic in Huchan 
 where I also herded cattle for another year; from 
 that place I came to the bridge of Stirling, where 
 I followed the same imploymcnt a third year, which 
 was the year the King came home; and from 
 thence I came to PaislyJ where after herding cat- 
 tle a fourth year, I fell in extreme want, and that 
 by the reason, the master whom I served being ow- 
 ing to one of the baillies, called John Weres, the 
 baillie seized upon mv masters goods, so that he 
 ran away, and I lost my fee, and was engaged by 
 the counsel of some honest men from that .scrip- 
 ture, suffer not a witch to live, to execute a witch, 
 and to cleanse chimney heads, whereby I gj 
 somewhat for livelihood; and having a mind to 
 learn to read, I bought a question book, but find- 
 ing the people there to scar at my company, so 
 that none would give me a lesson, 1 came from 
 Paisly to Irwin, about five years since, where, find- 
 ing the people more charitable, and to encourage 
 me in learning, I did so affect my book, the people 
 
and the place, that without engagement I did act 
 the part of an executioner, when they had any 
 malefactors to put to death, and so with much 
 trouble I attained to learn to read English ; and as 
 I grew acquainted with tiie Bible, I began to scru- 
 ple to execute any, except I was clear they deserv- 
 ed to die ; and when the business of being execu- 
 tioner to some Southland men in Air came to my 
 door, the scruples of my conscience grew upon my 
 hand, because I had heard they were godly men, 
 who had been opprest by the bishops, whom I 
 never liked since I loved the Bible; therefore I 
 having a jealousie in my mind, that I should be 
 .troubled, I had a mind to go from the town after 
 I heard some sermons ; it being the Lord's day, I 
 having come to the kirk, opened my book, and the 
 first place that came to my eyes, was that Scrip- 
 ture, Heb. iv. 12. to the end of the chapter. This 
 word, by the blessing of the Lord God blessing it 
 to me, was so strengtlyng and refreshing to me, that 
 all the trouble in the world was not able to quench 
 it out of my heart ; and I having gone again in 
 the afternoon to the kirk, I was taken out of the 
 kirk and brought before the provost, and I refused 
 to go willingly to Air. The provost told me I would 
 be forced against my will. I told him one might 
 lead a horse to the water, but twenty four would 
 not make him drink, no more should any make me 
 to do that deed ; whereupon I was put in the tol- 
 booth till Munday at night, (where I got much 
 comfort reading the fourth chapter of the Epistle 
 to the Heb.) when a Serjeant with six soldiers came 
 
10 
 
 from Air to Irwin for me, and the provost, to ter- 
 rify me, brought me out before them ; and when 
 they saw it would not do, then I was sent back 
 again to prison until Tuesday morning, then I was 
 constrained to go with the guard that came for me 
 to Air. They offered me meat and drink, but I 
 refused and would not take it, but bought a far- 
 thel of bread and amutchkin of ale; and when I 
 came thither I was brought before the provost, 
 and notwithstanding of many promises by the pro- 
 vost, and those that were with him, I refused to 
 undertake to execute the Southland men, where- 
 upon I was presently committed to prison in the 
 tolbooth ; and the first night I was prisoner, there 
 was one Mr White, a curate, came to me to per- 
 swade me to do my office on the said persons, and 
 said, What is this you are doing ? (Jo ye not know 
 that thir men are guilty of rebellion? and from 
 1. Sam. 15. told me, that the rebellion whereof 
 these men were guilty, was as the sin of witch- 
 craft : to whom I answered, that that rebellion 
 was SauTs rebellion against the immediate com- 
 mand and revealed will of God, and for sparing 
 Agag and the best of the cattle ; and was as the 
 rebellion spoken of the children of Israel, when 
 they rebelled and refused to go to the land of Ca- 
 naan, but would have chosen captains, and have 
 gone back again to Egypt ; and that is like the re- 
 bellion spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, all day long 
 have I stretched out my hands to a stiff-necked, 
 rebellious, and gain-saying people, I lold him 
 this was not rebellion against man, and in the New 
 
11 
 
 said to Peter, if thy brother trespass against thee, 
 Testament it is called a trespass, and our Lord 
 forgive unto seventy times seven. So I think, if the 
 Gallowpy men should trespass twenty times, it was 
 far fewer than seventy times seven, the King should 
 forgive them, tho' it were rebellion against him, 
 which I do deny : Remember what good King Da- 
 yid did when he fled from Absalom, when Shimei 
 came out and cursed him, and cast earth and stone 
 at him, but vet he forgave him, much more I think 
 our King should forgive the Galloway men, who 
 respected and prayed for him, and who if he were 
 amongst them, would not let a hair of his head 
 fall to the ground, lint, said Mr White, ^David 
 was a prophet and a merciful mas': "Well, said I, 
 SuTj will ye make ill men your example, and not 
 good men, what divinity is that ? At which he was 
 so ashamed, the soldiers laughing at him, that Iil; 
 said in his an^er, /rway with thee, the dfevil is in 
 thee, and thou hast dealing with familiar spirits. 
 I answered, if" the devil be in me, he is an unnatural 
 devil, for if he were like the rest of devils, he would 
 bid me take as many lives as I could, that he might 
 get many souls ; but the spirit that is in me will 
 not suffer me to take good mens lives." Then Mr 
 White left me, and a number of cursed blasphem- 
 ing soldiers came about me, and brought me before 
 the general and lieutenant-general, my Lord Kellie, 
 my Lord Provost, and several other gentlemen, 
 where they were met together in a lodging in the 
 town : some of them boasted me, and some of them 
 •corned me, and some of them said, I would go to 
 
12 
 
 the aevil with the rest of the country folk. Othen 
 asked me if I were a Covenanter, He must be a Co- 
 venanter. I said, though I was no Covenanter, yet 
 I had respect to it for Kis sake by whom it was 
 named, and who had in His w T ord threatened to send 
 a sword to avenge the quarrel of His covenant : and 
 I said, ^Pijiat a Covenant will ye give us ? Sf ye take 
 away the Covenant of God, ye will give us the Co- 
 venant of the Devil, for there is but two Covenant?, 
 a good one and a bad one!' Then they called for 
 the boots to put me in ; and I said, firing the boots 
 and the spurs too, you shall not prevail.' Then 
 they were angry, and said,ihe rogue scorns us, and 
 thinks no better than to do so," Then they men- 
 tioned that a cruise full of hot lead should be pour- 
 ed on my hands, and while the lead was melting 
 they went aside and spake Latin, as I thought, 
 among themselves, and when they had done, they 
 brought the lead to pour it on my hands, and I 
 was willing to receive it rather than to obey ; then 
 they were astonished and bad put it on the fire 
 again until they should get more speech out of me. 
 Then my Lord Kellie came unto me, and flattering 
 me, said,' ^oor man, I heard they wronged thee, 
 and brought thee out of the kirk on the Sabbath- 
 day betwixt the preachings, they might have let 
 thee hear^ the sermon, I heard they put thee in 
 the tolbooth ; who came to sec you when you were 
 in the prison ? Did not your minister, Mr Alex- 
 ander Nisbet, come to see you, nor any of the honest 
 men of the tow r n ? I answered, (as it was true) 
 done came to see me/ He said, Ihey have been 
 
13 
 
 very unkind ; did you not see Mr James Fergue 
 son since we came west ? I said, No. Then r x 
 the Lieutenant-general; ^j^way with him, they 1 ve 
 forbidden him to tell, and have said, nothing all 
 ail him, but he shall rue it when he shall be h g- 
 ed and casten out to be eaten of dogs. Tell e 
 quickly, said he, who learned you these answi 
 and forbad you to tell ; I perceive you have g* 
 ten a paper from some of these rebellious ministers, 
 and ha* gotten your answers perquire. I said, i{ot 
 so, my Lord, but God, that said, fear not when ye 
 shall be brought before kings and rulers for my 
 sake, it shall be given you in that hour what you 
 shall say, I will give thee a mouth, and wisdom 
 that thine adversaries shall not be able to answer ; 
 He makes his promise good to me.' Then a num- 
 ber of the gentlemen said^vay with him, the devil 
 is in him, he has dealing with familiar spirits/'' I 
 answered them, as I answered Mr White before. 
 Then said the Lieutentant-general, 1|bll me quickly 
 who put these words in thy month, or you shall be 
 hanged : To which I answered, £ven He who made 
 Balaam's ass to speak and reprove the madness of 
 the prophet ; and marvel not, for ^b that could 
 make a dumb ass to speak, can much more make 
 me a reasonable creature to speak, it is He that gave 
 me these answers, and likewise forbids me to do this, 
 it is He and no other/' Then said my Lord Kellie, 
 He thinks no better sport than to bring Scripture as 
 he would confound us with it, but you shall rue it 
 when you arc going to be hanged. I answered, il 
 this confound you, ye shall be better confounded 
 
 B 
 
14 
 
 yet, read ye never that chapter, 1. Cor. i. %6. 
 How not many wise men after the flesh, not many 
 mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath 
 chosen the foolish things of the world to confound 
 the tilings that are mighty, and base tilings of 
 the world, and things that are despised, hath God 
 chosen, and things that are not, to bring to nought 
 the things that are, that no flesh should glory in 
 his presence. Then said my Lord Kellie, 'take the 
 devil out of my sight, and put him in the narrow- 
 est place of the stocks. The Provost of Air, when 
 he saw me altogether refusing, he rounded in my 
 lug, what, are you afraid of the country folk ? I 
 shall give you fifty dollars, and you may go to the 
 the Highlands, or where your please.' 7 I answered 
 him, speaking out loud that all might hear, vfliat, 
 would you have me sell my conscience, Where can 
 I flee from God ? Remember Jonas fled from God, 
 but the Lord found him out, and ducked him over 
 the lugs, so shall he me if I go over the light of 
 my conscience/ Then I was taken away and put 
 in the stocks ; then came four musketeers before me, 
 and charged their muskets, lighted their matches, 
 the more to terrify me, and brought a cap for my 
 head. But when they saw me open my breast to 
 receive the shots, and that I was willing to die, 
 then came one and said, let him alone, he shall not 
 be sliot, he shall be hanged, and drawn out of the 
 town that dogs may eat him, for shots is over good 
 a death for him. While I was thus in the stocks, 
 I was very thirsty, and called for a drink ; then 
 thev intended to bring me a drink of wine, but on© 
 
15 
 
 of the soldiers, an Irishman, that could speak Latin, 
 forbad me to take of their wine, as he told me after- 
 wards, they had a mind rather to poison me, and 
 to give me that which would distract me ; and be- 
 cause I refused, they threatened in their anger, that 
 whosoever gave me a drink of water should get the 
 goad-loup ; so I lay until it was dark night, and 
 there was people that would have given me meat 
 and drink, but the soldiers would say blasphemous- 
 ly, if ye come one foot further here, I shall rash 
 my pike through your soul. Then I said to that 
 soldier that was centry over me, and sitting beside 
 mejijive me a chopin of water, and I will give you 
 a chopin of ale for it ; but he said, I dare not, you 
 heard what was threatened, but if you will give me 
 a sixpence I will hazard ; so I gave him a sixpence, 
 I having half a crown about me, art^ Vhirfkiiig to 
 die to-morrow, I thought a chopin of water was 
 better to me than all the money in the world : 
 then he brought me the chopin of water, and held 
 his cloke betwixt me and the light, for fear the 
 rest of the soldiers should see; and when I had 
 
 drunk I was much refreshed. Thereafter some 
 
 .. . - 
 
 standing by, said to me, *ihat needs you or any 
 others make din about bishops, seeing there is no 
 other gospel pressed upon you but what was be- 
 fore ? To whom I answered, Know ye not what 
 Paul says, Gal. i. (i. I marvel that ye are so soon 
 removed to another gospel, which is not another, 
 but there are some that trouble you, and pervert 
 the gospel of Christ ; and if any man says he brings 
 another gospel, or perverts the same gospel, let him 
 
16 
 
 be accursed, and consider to whom that belongs: 
 But what think ye of the bishops, said some? I 
 answered, that I truly think the bishops take more 
 on them than Christ, who was a better preacher 
 than any of them ; for he would not meddle with 
 the dividing the inheritance among the brethren; 
 as when the young man in the gospel came to 
 Christ, saying to him, master, bid my brother di- 
 vide the inheritance with me:"* but our Lord refus- 
 ed, saying, who made me a Judge Freeing he be- 
 ing a spiritual teacher, refused to meddle with civil 
 law, why will our bishops sit in Parliament, and go 
 in before earls ! I am informed, they sit and ride 
 in Parliament, and judge in worldly affairs; they 
 have their coaches to sit in, but neither Christ nor 
 his apostles had them ; they are lord^s over God's 
 heritage, and our Saviour says to his ministers, the 
 princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion, but it 
 shall not be so among you, but he that will be 
 greatest shall be servant of all. The bishops are 
 like the Scribes and Pharisees against whom the 
 Lord pronounced many a wo: wo be to you, Scribes 
 and Pharisees, ye love the chief seats in the syna- 
 gogues, so love our bishops the chief seats of the 
 parliament : wo be to you, Scribes and Pharisees, 
 for ye love to wear long robes, and to be called of 
 men Rabbi : the bishops desire side gowns, and a 
 man to bear up their tails to.), and they think they 
 never get their right stile till they be called my 
 lord, and some of them your grace ; you give grace 
 to a graceless face ; they oppress the poor people 
 to feed their own bellies, for which the Lord pro- 
 
17 
 
 nounces many a wo against them. Then said they, 
 Timothy and Titus were bishops. I answered, they 
 were preaching bishops, but not bishops over whole 
 dioceses ; and as the apostle says, 1 lim. iii. a bi- 
 shop should be blameless, the husband of one wife, 
 vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospi- 
 tality, apt to teach ; so I think a preaching bishop 
 should have but one flock, but they will not be con- 
 tent with one kirk ; and if every bishop had as many 
 of your wives as he has kirks, you would be as ill 
 pleased with them as I am. Remember ye not that 
 scripture, We that will not work should not eat.^The 
 bishops must have thousands in the year, but thev 
 preach but when they will. Then they asked me, 
 what think you of the king ? I said, would ye have 
 me speak treason ? the king is set over us all bv 
 God, and all his subjects should pray for him, and 
 defend his person and government, and obey in all 
 things, according to the word of God ; but I wish 
 that his majesty and all kings may take good heed 
 to the law of the Lord. Remember ye what befel 
 King Uzziah that went into the temple to burn 
 incense, which was not his office, and the priestt 
 forbad him, and said, jt shall not be for thy honour ; 
 and the plague of God broke out upon him, and he 
 remained a leper all his days ; so I think our king 
 should fear God's judgements for breaking and 
 changing the worship of God. Remember ye not 
 the king of Jerusalem, that made a covenant with 
 the king of Babylon, and the Lord owned it as His 
 covenant ; when he broke it, hje said he should bet 
 punished, his children were s'ain before his eye% 
 
IS 
 
 and his eyes plucked out, and he carried prisoner 
 to Babylon, where he died. Remember ye not how 
 Herod, in the 12th of the Acts, went up to the high 
 place to make an oration, and the people said," It is 
 the voice of a God, and not of a man,' and the Lord 
 sent his angel and smote him, and he was eaten of 
 worms, that he died ; so I perceive there is no dif- 
 ference before God between the king and the betf* 
 gar. Remember that covenant that was between 
 the Turk and the Christian king; the Christian 
 brake the covenant, and the Turk held up the co- 
 venant, and said, jf thou be a God, as the Chris- 
 tians say, and as we dream thou art, revenge the 
 quarrel of thy perfidious people, who in their deeds 
 deny thee to be a God /and he won the battle ; and 
 think ye not the king should be afraid for the break- 
 ing of his lawful oath ? Then Mr White came in 
 and disguised himself, and put on a gray hat and 
 gray clothes that I should not know him, and he 
 sat down upon the stocks beside me, and began to 
 sayj I wonder at these country folks, if they had 
 any other gospel preached unto them, it were 
 something. Then I answered,' ice what the Scrip- 
 ture says, Gal. i. 6\ I marvel that ye are so soon 
 removed from him that called you into the grace 
 of Christ, into another gospel, which is not another ; 
 but there be some that trouble you, and would 
 pervert the gospel of Christ ; but though I or an 
 angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto 
 you than that which we have preached unto you, 
 let him be accursed ; for do I now pcrswade mea 
 or God, or do I speak to please men ? for if I yet 
 
19 
 
 please men I should not be the servant of Christ. 
 Then said they,* have you learned your Latin, 
 Greek, and Hebrew, .that you should know these 
 things, as long as better scholars and great men 
 have done it, what needs you trouble yourself ? 
 That is, said I, as spoken in the gospel of John, 
 when the Scribes and Pharisees sent officers to take 
 Christ when hie spake that parable,** He that believ- 
 eth on jhc, as the Scripture hath said, out of his 
 belly shall flow rivers of living waters; then the 
 Scribes sent officers to take him, and when they had 
 not taken him, they asked, Why have ye not brought 
 him ? The officers answered, never man spake as 
 this man. : Then answered the Pharisees, 
 also deceived, have any of the rulers believed on 
 Him?*T3ut tills people who know not the law are 
 accursed. Kemember ye not what our blessed 
 Lord said,' I thank thee, O Father of heaven and 
 earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise 
 and prudent, and revealed them to babes. ^ How 
 know ye, but the Lord has revealed more to me 
 than your bishops with their side tails ? Then came 
 the captain of the guard, and said, jjfcu may see we 
 are right and they are wrong, for we have win and 
 they have lost. I did then remember what the 
 Scripture saith of John the Baptist, there was not 
 one greater born among women, who was the fore- 
 runner of Christ, yet when he had done the work 
 the Lord sent him for, he was beheaded by cursed 
 Herod ; many of you say that Herod was right, 
 and John the Baptist wrong. They were not able 
 to answer this, then I said, when Cromwel took his 
 
20 
 
 prisoners, he neither headed them nor hanged them 
 as ye do. Then they answered me, Cromwel had 
 not right nor law as we have. I said, I will seek 
 no other words against ybu than that of your own 
 mouth, for ye say, that Cromwel had no right nor 
 law, yet he won many a battle against you, and 
 over-ruled the best of you ; ye see a wicked man 
 may prosper in an evil cause, for your law, I trow, 
 it be like that cursed law, by our law he must die, 
 and by our law they must die. Then came some of 
 the soldiers, and said, we have heard tell of some 
 of your country men that have teen hanged for 
 Stealing kine, and horse, and sheep, but you are 
 the first v e have heard of laid down his life for re- 
 ligion. Then I answered, if one that is barbarous, 
 or come out of a barbarous place, has respect to his 
 conscience, what shall come of you who think your- 
 self brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, that has no 
 respect to your conscience, what think you shall 
 become of you when you shall be judged at the last 
 day ? Then said they, speak no more to him, let 
 him alone. Then after that I heard that thev 
 would take no more lives ; then came some of the 
 greatest men to me, and said, what think you of 
 yourself now ? -there is a barrel with pikes made 
 to put thee in, and roll thee up and down. I said, 
 I even think of as I did at first ; I said unto 
 
 him, why have ye not taken all their lives, seeing 
 they are all alike guilty ? Then said they, you are 
 more cruel than we are, for we have taken but 
 some to be example to others. Then I said, wo be 
 to your example, for your example is not according 
 
21 
 
 to the word of God, for remember what the word 
 of God saitb, the son shall not die for the father, 
 nor the father for the son/ far less should a man 
 be an example to one that is born in England or 
 Ireland. I heard that they were minded to strangle 
 me in prison, but they could not agree among 
 themselves; they said, we cannot tell how to do 
 it, but word will be gotten of it, and then it will 
 make us more odious. After I came out of pri- 
 son, my Lord Eglintoun sent for me, and asked 
 me of thir passages, and he said to me, poor man, 
 you did well in not doing what they would have 
 had you do : I answered to my Lord, yfc>u are 
 speaking treason, you say I have done well, where- 
 as you persecute them from the first to the last; 
 this tells me in experience, that you have gone 
 against the light or' your conscience ; wo will be to 
 you that go against the light of your conscience. 
 My Lord said, know you not I kept you from 
 being hanged, and are you telling me that ? I 
 answered, keep me from drowning too, I will tell 
 you the verity. 
 
 How odious injustice is to God and man, as be- 
 ing equally destructive to religion and human so- 
 ciety ; and how severely it has been heretofore 
 punished by both, may appear by the ensuing ex- 
 amples : 
 
 1. As to God, who is Capitalis Justitiarius 
 Ccell et Terras the grand never-erring Justitiary of 
 all the world. His sacred word prohibits nothing 
 
£2 
 
 more positively, nor complains of anv thing louder, 
 or with more repeated importunities. " Thou shalt 
 not wrest the judgment of the poor in his cause: 
 Thou shalt take no gift, for a gift blindeth the eye 
 of the wise, and per\erteth the words of the righ- 
 teous," Exod. xxui. 6, 8. " Thou shalt not wrest 
 judgment ; thou shalt not respect persons, neither 
 take a gift/' Sec Deut. xvi. 19. " Woe unto them 
 that justify the wicked for reward, and taketh 
 away the righteousness of the righteous from him,'' 
 Isa. v. 98, " A wicked man takelh a gift out of 
 the bosom ('tis done you see slyly and in the daik) 
 to pervert the ways of judgment,'' 1 Trov. xvii. 23, 
 4i Woe unto ye who turn judgment into wormwood, 
 and leave off righteousness in the earth,'* 1 Amos v, 
 7. " The good man is perished out of the earth, 
 and there is none upright amongst men; they all 
 lie in wait for blood ; they hunt every man ln6 bro* 
 ther, as with a net, that they may do evil with both 
 hands earnestly. The prince asketh, and the judge 
 gapeth for a reward ; and the great man uttereth 
 his mischievous desire, so they wrap it up : The 
 best of them is as a briar, the most upright it 
 sharper than a thorn hedge," Sec. Mic. vii. 2, 3, 4; 
 with many of the like texts. 
 
 2. As corrupt judges are thus obnoxious to the 
 curse of God, so hath his divine providence not 
 •eldom executed it upon them, even in this world, 
 by the hands of men. Nor indeed is there any 
 thing that can render kings (God's vicegerents) 
 more glorious, or better establish any state, than 
 to keep the current of justice clear and unsullied, 
 
23 
 
 and exemplarily to punish their subordinate minis- 
 ters, and especially judges, that shall presume to 
 i'm poison that sacred fountain. 
 
 Several heathen princes are renowned for this 
 wholesome severity. ,r Tis said of Alexander Se- 
 verus, the Roman emperor, that he had such an 
 aversion and abhorrence of unjust judges, that, at 
 the very sight of them, he would vomit choler, 
 and was ready with his fingers to pluck out their 
 eyes. Theatrum Hlstoricum, f. 546. 
 
 The mighty monarch Cambyses, king of Per- 
 sia, finding that one Sisamnes, his chief justice 
 {Presses our author calls him in Latin) had re- 
 ceived a bribe, and for the same pronounced an 
 unjust sentence, forthwith caused him to be exe- 
 cuted and curiously flead, and, with his skin, co- 
 vered the common seat of justice, and constituted 
 Otanes (the said Sosamnes 1 own son) judge in his 
 room, that so beholding daily those reliques of his 
 justly-punished father, it might serve as a memento 
 to him to act more uprightly. Chi onicon Carionis, 
 1. ii. p. 19. 
 
 But not to search so far off, our own nation ai- 
 fords us, perhaps, the most notable and numerous 
 examples of royal justice in this kind, of any in the 
 world ; for we find it recorded in that ancient law- 
 book, intituled, the Mirrour of Justices (most of 
 which is said to be compiled before the Conquest) 
 and augmented by the learned Andrew Horn, in 
 the reign of king Edward I. and which is often 
 cited by the famous Lord Coke, and to this day 
 continues in good repute amongst lawyers), tliat 
 
M 
 
 king Alfred, a renowned Saxon prince, who go- 
 verned this realm about the year of our Lord 900 y 
 did, in one year's space, bring to condign punish- 
 ment, no fewer than four and forty of his justices, 
 so the law terms those we call judges ; and this 
 was long before either justices of the peace were 
 established, or the courts fixed at Westminster; 
 but justice was, in those days, administered in the 
 country, in neighbouring courts, which yet (as ap- 
 pears by the nature of the offences alleged against 
 them) had Jus viice ct nccis 9 power of life and 
 death, and so may properly be called judges. 
 
 It is an abuse that justices and their officers, who 
 kill people by false judgment, be not destroyed, 
 which king Alfred caused to be done, who caused 
 forty four justices in one year, to be hanged as 
 murderers, for their false judgments. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 ERRATUM. 
 
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