(published in the May 2008 edition of “The Ulster-Scot” newspaper by the Ulster-Scots Agency)
By Dr Lawrence Holden (Queens University) and Mark Thompson (Chairman, Ulster-Scots Agency).
~~~~~~~~~
In the wake of the government's attempt to suppress support for the National Covenant in Ulster through the “Black Oath” being forced upon the Ulster Scots in 1639, many people had fled back to Scotland, leaving an abandoned, wasted landscape in parts of east Ulster, and a growing anger and militancy among the people who remained to face persecution. Sir James Hamilton, Viscount Clandeboye, reported that when he tried to impose the Oath upon his tenants, the Ulster Scots ‘fled out of the country’...
~~~~~~~~~
Many resettled along the west coast of Scotland, preferring to leave the corn harvest in the fields rather than to take an oath they saw as ‘contrary to the one which the Scotch had taken in 1638’. As a result, it was reported that ‘the south of Co. Antrim is already waste’.
1641: The “Scotch Rising” in Ulster
In April 1641, the authorities in Ulster reported ‘disorders lately attempted by some of the inferior sort of the Scottish nation in the Counties of Down and Antrim’. Copies of Scotland’s National Covenant were circulating in Ulster - one of the suspects who had been arrested reported that ‘that there was such a scroll, and that it had been carried through the country and signed by 1,000 people and more’. Ulster Scots also protested at parish churches, and rumours abounded that the ‘rowtes’ (riots) in Antrim and Down had been instigated by ‘beacon fires on the Scotch Mountains’. As events escalated King Charles I acknowledged that he had heard news of ‘the Scotch rising in Antrim and Down… in contempt of the State and Established Church’ , ordering his forces in Ulster ‘to stop outrages, you shall declare martial law wherever you use troops’.
The violent Irish rebellion which broke out on 22 October caused further devastation amongst the Scots settlements. In response to the massacres taking place, a Scots army finally arrived in Ulster in April 1642.
1642: The Scots Army arrives
Presbyterian ministers arrived along with the ten regiments, each with their own minister. For example Hugh Peebles was chaplain to Glencairn’s regiment, John Baird to Colonel Campbell’s, Thomas Peebles to Eglinton’s, James Simpson to Sinclair’s, John Scott to Major-General Monro’s, Jon Aird to Hume’s. Many of the other ministers’ names are recorded in the historical sources.
One further minister who crossed with the army was John Livingstone, the former minister of Killinchy and passenger on “Eagle Wing”, and the man who had taken the National Covenant to London.
The army chaplains were ordered to set up Kirk Sessions and a Presbytery when the army was in Ulster. Accordingly the first official Presbytery sat on the 10th June 1642 at the Scots army headquarters in Carrickfergus. A sculpture in Carrickfergus town centre, and the “Carrickfergus Window” at Presbyterian Church House in Belfast commemorate the event.
The Presbytery was inundated with calls from across Ulster for ‘having the Gospel planted amongst them’. The Presbytery set up ‘elderships’ or Kirk Sessions across east Ulster; the people petitioned the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In emotive language the petition called for ministers ‘claiming interest with you in common Covenant that according the good hand of God upon us, you may send us ministers’. Specifically the Ulster Scots requested their first ministers be returned to them; the Assembly was sympathetic and in September 1642 they sent Robert Blair (formerly of Bangor) and James Hamilton (formerly of Ballywalter).
1644: The Solemn League and Covenant
The new church structure and the returned ministers provided the foundation for the Solemn League and Covenant to be brought to Ulster. In April 1644 the Presbytery ordered it to be administered to the Scots army where it was garrisoned throughout Ulster. Rev James Hamilton of Ballywalter, described as “a faithful minister in this kingdome and whose integritie is well knowne in Ireland” was to oversee the Solemn League and Covenant in Ulster, assisted by Hugh Henderson (of Dalry, Ayrshire), William Adair (Ayr) and John Weir (Dalserf, Lanarkshire). The ministers understood their commission to administer the Covenant not only to ‘the officers and souldiers of our army’ but also to ‘all such others of the British as shall be willing to enter into this covenant’.
A Persecutor Revealed
The Solemn League and Covenant was first administered in Carrickfergus on 4 April 1644. 1400 Scottish soldiers and 400 civilians both renounced the “Black Oath” and accepted the Covenant. Amid the universal scenes of rejoicing, one man refused the Covenant. He was Major Tam Dalzell, a Scottish soldier aged just 29. It was a sign of things to come, for in twenty years time, Dalzell would become one of the most brutal persecutors of the Covenanters in Scotland, known as “Bluidy Tam”.
The Ulster Museum’s Holywood Covenant
For the three months from 4th April 1644 at Carrickfergus to 30 June 1644 at Killyleagh, the Solemn League and Covenant was administered and signed by the Ulster Scots people at 26 locations across the province, from Ballywalter in Co Down to Ballyshannon in Co Donegal. Remarkably, one of these original Covenants survives to this day, signed by the people at Holywood on 8 April 1644, and is in the collection of the Ulster Museum. It has just 67 of the original signatures - we hope to publish it this year.
Belfast and the Covenant
The news of the success of the Covenant in Ulster reached Scotland within days. In his published Memoirs, Rev William Guthrie of Fenwick, Ayrshire wrote “...There was a brave day in Ireland on the last Lord’s Day (April 7th) at the swearing of the Covenant in Belfast by our army and sundry others..."
Londonderry and the Covenant
The most detailed description of the Solemn League and Covenant in Ulster is found in “Adair’s Narrative” (recently reprinted by the Presbyterian Historical Society), with six pages devoted to the Covenant in Londonderry. To this day, First Derry Presbyterian Church has a large marble plaque in the vestibule which reads “...from 1605AD onward, many Scotsmen settled in Londonderry and the neighbourhood, so many that in 1644, when the Solemn League and Covenant was publicly signed in the Diamond, they formed the bulk of the population..."
“...in those places where the Covenant was administered to the army, the whole country about came and willingly joined themselves in the Covenant...”
The People and the Covenant
Throughout Ulster the people supported the Covenant with great rejoicing – ‘in those places where the covenant was administered to the army, the whole country about came and willingly joined themselves in the covenant’. The enthusiasm of the Ulster Scots for the Covenant was not novel. As we have seen already, copies of the 1638 National Covenant were circulating prior to the “Scotch Rising” of 1641, so the community was in fact renewing its Covenanting sympathies, but this time under protection of the Scots army and under the leadership of Scots ministers.
The ministers themselves estimated the numbers who received the Covenant in 1644, and though no independent accounts exist to verify their accuracy, they appear to be moderate. Inside six weeks, over 16,000 Ulster Scots had taken the Solemn League and Covenant. This was reported by the Presbytery (sitting at Bangor on 25 May 1644 with Rev James Hamilton of Ballywalter as Moderator) to the General Assembly in Scotland, outlining that ‘the persons of age and standing in these parts, who have already embraced the Solemn League and Covenant of the three kingdoms with much zeal and forwardness, are above sixteen thousand, besides those of the Scottish forces that are among them’.
Repentance and Rejoicing
The renouncing of the Black Oath and calls to public repentance generated great emotion during the taking of the Covenant in Ulster. With the persecutions and the sufferings of the Irish rebellion still fresh in the minds of the people, the communal Covenant meetings became a vent for the community’s emotion.
Adair, who had the use of the diary of one of the ministers, describes scenes where ‘sighs and tears were joined together’. In scenes reminiscent of the great open air communion services which appeared in the wake of the 1625 revival, and became part of the practice of 17th century Ulster Presbyterianism, the ministers preached to the crowd then ‘expounded more fully the covenant, and, among other things, told the people that their miseries had come from those sorts of people who were there sworn against’.
In repentance the community came and were empowered by the message that the very taking of the Covenant was an act of defiance against religious enemies, healing the grievance of recent years and empowering them for action for the future. The community had described themselves as ‘scattered as sheep’ a result of persecution by ‘cruel Task-masters [which] have made us who were once a people, as it were, no people, an astonishment to ourselves, the object of pittie and amazement to others, and hopelesse of remedie’.
In the churches and market places where the people gathered they were called to abjure the Black Oath and enter into the Covenant by ‘lifting up their hands and countenances…which was done with many tears by the multitude’.
In Coleraine the people ‘by lifting up hands to God entered into the Solemn League and Covenant, with which were mixed prayers and singing of psalms’.
The tense emotion of entering the Covenant gave way to joy, in Ballymena ‘the ministers were directed to insist on sweet and suitable subjects’. One Bible text, Psalm 102, verse 13, which was preached upon in the then small garrison town encapsulates the feeling of the people and the mood of the time: ‘Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time is come’.
It was a defining moment for the Ulster Scots; they described themselves as ‘scattered sheep’ that became a chosen people, who again found favour after suffering - a people chosen by ‘the Lord of Hosts [who] hath left to himself a remnant as a precious seed to embrace the covenant’.
The King is the Law?
From the warm renewal that Ulster was experiencing, the temperature back across the water in Scotland and England was about to rise even further.
In late 1644 the close friend of the early Ulster ministers, Rev Samuel Rutherford, published “Lex Rex”, (the Prince and the Law). Presbyterian ministers like Andrew Melville and George Buchanan had written similar books arguing against the Kings of the 1500s, and “Lex Rex” was another brilliant demolition of the King’s claim to absolute authority, specifically the doctrine of “Rex Lex” (the King is the Law). Subtitled “the lawfulness of resistance in the matter of the King’s unjust invasion of life and religion”, Lex Rex was based on Deuteronomy chapter 17 and is still today regarded as one of the greatest works on government, law, church and state ever written. Rutherford was later accused of “laying the ground for rebellion”, with people who owned copies “treated as an enemy to the government”.
1651 - The Covenanters crown Charles II
England descended into Civil War; King Charles I, Archbishop Laud and Thomas Wentworth were later executed. England was declared a republic, with Oliver Cromwell becoming “Lord Protector” of England. The Covenanters, despite their opposition to the King, were appalled by his execution. Cromwell turned against the Covenanters and sent armies north into Scotland.
In 1651 the Covenanters invited the late King Charles I’s son, also called Charles, to Scotland where he was crowned King Charles II at historic Scone near Perth. As part of the coronation ceremony, King Charles II swore the National Covenant, the Solemn League and Covenant as well as the Coronation Oath. Covenanter leader the Marquis of Argyll placed the crown on his head, but to the gathered crowd it must have seemed a strange event. Just three months before, Charles had fled from the Covenanters in Perth – now he was being crowned by them.
1661 - The “Restoration" of the Monarchy
It was an entirely political move, the Covenanters had been exploited by Charles in his ambition to retake the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland. He again went into exile on the continent almost immediately, but was fully “restored” to the throne of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland in April 1661.
Persecution would now be unleashed in Scotland and Ulster with greater ferocity than ever before.
.............................
BEYOND ULSTER:
Manorhamilton Castle in County Leitrim was built by Sir Frederick Hamilton around 1630. Sir Frederick was the major figure in the Scottish settler community of north Leitrim, he signed the Covenant, and died in Scotland in 1647 where he was serving in the Covenanter army.
In April 1644 Rev William Guthrie of Fenwick in Ayrshire (right) wrote that
“...There was a brave day in Ireland...at the swearing of the Covenant in Belfast...”
.............................
CARRICKFERGUS:
As well as being the location of the first Presbytery in Ireland in June 1642, Carrickfergus was also the place where the Solemn League and Covenant was first administered, to 1800 people, on 4 April 1644. The photo here is the impressive “Carrickfergus Window” at Presbyterian Church House, Belfast. On that day in Carrickfergus, only one man refused to take the Covenant - Thomas Dalyell - who would later become one of the Covenanters’ bloodiest persecutors.
.............................
COVENANT MEMORIAL
Solemn League and Covenant Memorial plaque, First Derry Presbyterian Church, Londonderry
Currently undergoing major refurbishments, the vestibule of First Derry Presbyterian Church (on the world famous Walls) has a number of large marble plaques. The detail shown here describes the arrival of Scottish settlers in the area from 1605 onward, and also describes the signing of the Solemn League and Covenant in the Diamond. The building will reopen when the refurbishments are complete.
.............................
THE SURVIVING COVENANT
The Holywood Covenant (8 April 1644) in the Ulster Museum
The Ulster Museum is also currently undergoing major refurbishments, and the Covenant in their collection hasn’t been on display for many years. The signatures on it include Rev William Adair, Charles Hall, John Wright, Thomas Reid, Thomas Bailie, Alexander Waddell, John M'Cormick, John Waugh, John Scott, John M'Bride, James Fairlie, Thomas Russel, John Pentland Alexander Gillespie, John Martin, James Webster and John M'Clelland. There were some newspaper articles published about it in September 1912, around the time of Ulster’s Solemn League and Covenant.
.............................
Comments