Chapter XXII: The New Order
Andro Knox was very faithful in Paisley in looking after suspected persons and subjecting them to discipline, and the Council of Paisley seconded his efforts. They passed an Act “[14] anent sic persons that willfulie remains fra the kirk in tyme of Sermount on the Sonday.” They were to be apprehended, fined twenty shillings for each offence, and, if unable to pay this fine, were to be “put and halden in the stocks be the space of xxiii. hours.” The inhabitants were also ordered to give regular attention to morning and evening prayers, [15] which were read from the Book of Common Order in the Chapel of St. Mirin by the “reader;”[16] and as there was a service in the Abbey every Tuesday, all merchants were required to shut their doors during prayers, and to attend the kirk for hearing of the Word, under pain of eight shillings. [17] All “disobedient to the kirk were to be put in ward till they find caution to compear before the session of the kirk.” Under this “iron rule,” Mr. Andro Knox bade fair to stamp out all “Papistrie” in his parish.
In consequence of his energy in this work he was appointed by the Presbytery to watch the proceedings of all Roman Catholics within their bounds, to collect information from his brethren, and to report to a central committee in Edinburgh. This was very congenial employment for Mr. Andro, and he achieved in it great success. The Roman Catholics, goaded to despair by the fierce persecution to which they were subjected, began to intrigue for the overthrow of the Government that sanctioned the system under which they were so terribly oppressed. Their leaders entered into negotiations with Philip the Second of Spain, in the hope that foreign assistance might enable them to obtain some relief from their tormentors. Suspicions of this were very general, and Presbyteries were on the watch for conspirators. Mr. Andro was especially active, and having heard that a certain George Ker, a doctor of laws, and brother to the Abbot of Newbattle, who had been excommunicated for Popery by the Presbytery of Haddington, was in the neighbourhood of Paisley, he at once proceeded to enquire after him. Setting off with a body of armed men, furnished by his parishioner Lord Ross of Halkhead, [18] the minister traced Ker to Glasgow, and thence to one of the islands of the Cumbrae, where he apprehended him during the night on board the vessel by which he was about to proceed to the continent. Suspicious papers were found on him, and the minister bore him off in triumph to Edinburgh. It was on a Sabbath toward the end of December that he reached the capital. The ministers hearing of the approach of the prisoner shortened their sermons, and the populace, under the influence of their exhortations, went out to meet the captive with every expression of insult. [19] His captor received the thanks of the council for his diligence, and went back to Paisley a happy man. A few years [20] after he performed another exploit similar to the capture of Ker. A catholic laird, Barclay of Ladyland, seized Ailsa Craig, in the Frith of Clyde, with the intention of fortifying it and then delivering it to the Spaniards, who had promised to make a descent upon Scotland. Andro Knox discovered the plot, and with a few daring assistants sailed to the rock, attacked the desperado, and “reduced him to such extremity that, rather” than be taken alive, he rushed into the sea, and in one moment chocked both himself and his treason. [21]
It is somewhat amusing to find this disciplinarian minister falling himself into the grasp of the law. He seems to have been on bad terms with a certain Gavin Stewart, minister in Paisley, who probably resented his high-handed proceedings, and who was bound over by the Magistrates [22] not to molest the minister directly or indirectly. The peace was not long kept between them, for before they left the “town house of the Tolbuith the minister made an attack upon Gavin in presence of Lord Abercorne and the baffles, and struck him on the head with a key to the effusion of his blood, upon the occasion of certain words which fell furth rapidly between them.”
[14] Town Council Records, 1546, Jan. 27th.
[15] Town Council Records, 1602, Jan. 28.
[16] See Brown's History of the Grammar School.
[17] Ibid, Nov. 22, 1603. Ibid, March 3, 1668.
[18] Tytler, Vol. II., p. 316. Other accounts say he was accompanied by students of Glasgow University. I have followed the account of Tytler as most probable.
[19] Cunninghame, Vol. II., p. 313.
[20] 1597.
[21] Tytler, Vol. II., p. 260.
[22] 1st Oct., 1604. Council Records.