Chapter XXVI: The Covenant
The Earl of Abercorn was especially obnoxious as a suspected Papist, and from the days of Mr. Boyd of Trochrig he had been carefully looked after by his neighbours the ministers of the Abbey. Very soon after the famous Assembly at Glasgow, the Presbytery ordered Mr. Henry Calvert and another minister to go to him and “speak to his Lordship anent the subscription of the Covenant and anent his coming to the church, and anent the bringing back of his eldest son, according to the act of the Provincial Assembly.” [4] The Earl answered to their demands that “he was entered in conference with the brethren at Edinburgh, and that he was going east again, and was to continue in conference with them ; and anent his son, the ministers reported his Lordship shews he had recommended him to a very religious friend and Protestant for his education, namely, a cousin-german of his late wife's.” This soft answer on the part of the Earl does not seem to have turned away the wrath of the Presbytery. Again they ordered Mr. Calvert “to go to him and intimate to him the act of the General Assembly both anent his religion and transportation of his children, and to report this day fifteen days.” The Earl did not satisfy the church on these points, and had to suffer as his mother had done before him. After some more vexatious interference with himself and his family by the Presbytery, the General Assembly took up the case, and in 1649 he was excommunicated by that court, and ordered to transport himself out of the kingdom. [5] This sentence of banishment was put in force, and the Earl, in consequence of the persecutions to which he was subjected, was compelled to part with his estates, and to leave Scotland altogether. In 1652 he sold the lordship of Paisley to the Earl of Angus, who, in the following year, sold it to Lord Cochrane, afterwards created Earl of Dundonald, and the Abbey passed away for a time from the descendants of Lord Claud.
Mr. Calvert and his colleagues carried matters with a very high hand, and seem to have had it all their own way. In 1649, the Town Council ordered the market day to be held on Friday, and sermon to be preached on the forenoon, during which “no business to be done under pain of five pounds, and every person to go to the kirk.” Later on, they ordained that on the Sabbath day any horse kept on the common land should be tethered, so that the Lord's day be not profaned by persons abiding out of church in time of sermon, and in gathering together and using profane¬ness after sermon. “Penny bridals” were forbidden by the Presbytery, and all pyping and dancing at weddings, as “leading to blasphemy and profanity.” The people were under very rigid government.
One instance of the rule of the covenanting clergy we may briefly relate, though the case to which we refer bulks very largely in the Records of the Presbytery. In the east end of Paisley, at Ferguslie, there lived a respectable family of the name of Wallace, the head of which was termed the granter of Paisley, as possibly enjoying some of the privileges of the old monastic official who bore that title. His wife, Margaret Hamilton, went by the name of the “Guidwife of Ferguslie,” and whether from upbringing or from conviction, had leanings towards Romanism, and did not attend the Abbey to hear Mr. Calvert or his colleague as often as they thought she should. Mr. Calvert reported her to the Presbytery, and for several years between 1643 and 1647 that reverend court was greatly exercised regarding the opinions of the good wife and her family. The full report of the case of this unfortunate woman would occupy many pages. In vain her husband pleaded her inability to attend church on account of her health. The ministers of the Abbey were appointed to confer with her, and to examine her on oath whether it was inability or scruples of conscience that prevented her attendance on their ministrations. She was cited, and monished, and prayed for. On one occasion Mr. Calvert reports to the Presbytery [6] that “he went to Margaret Hamilton, and there did both read God's Word and raise observations thereupon, did sing psalms, her daughter and youngest son being present, but that he catechised none, unto all which exercises the said Margaret gave attendance.” “The brethren did again ordain Mr. Calvert to go to the said Margaret, and put her upon oath whether it were inability of her body onlie that restrains her from coming to God's house for hearing His Word, or if she have scruples of conscience anent the religion professed in the Kirk and Kingdom. Likewise he is ordained to catechise the said Margaret and the rest of her family.”
[4] 19th May, 1642.
[5] This Earl of Abercorn seems to have presented to the Abbey the communion cups now in use.
[6] June 8, 1643.