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Rev John Blackadder
John
Blackadder was one of the most zealous and popular of the
Covenanter`s field preachers and preached at many conventicles,
often in the companionship of John Welch of Irongray, the great
grandson of John Knox.
Like many of the other Covenanter ministers Blackadder came from a
reasonably well off family – the Blackadders of Tulliallan,
Perthshire, and of a distinguished line of fighters. The original
home was in Berwickshire where in the 15th century his forebear
was Cuthbert Blackadder who, with his seven sons, were called “
The Black Band of the Blackadders “ and fought valiantly for the
Lancastrians ( Red Rose ) against the Yorkists ( White Rose).
Three of the sons and Cuthbert died at the battle of Bosworth
on 22 August 1485 but because of their bravery King James of
Scotland granted their heirs the unique privilege of carrying on
their shields the two roses. The Berwickshire branch lost its
dominating position and younger sons acquired by marriage the
estates of Tulliallan in Perthshire. John Blackadder was in
later life entitled to the title of a baronetcy and the carriage
of the badge of honour awarded the family, but he chose not to do
so.
John
Blackadder was born in December 1615 and educated at Glasgow
University where his uncle, the Rev Dr Strang, was the Principal.
He spent many years travelling the country preaching and was
thirty seven years old when he was ordained minister of the parish
of Troqueer  in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbrightshire in 1652. He
had 7 children of whom his eldest son, Dr Blackadder and his
second son suffered imprisonment several times. His fifth son was
a brave and daring soldier who had joined the Cameronian regiment
as a cadet in 1689 and served with the colours under John, Duke
of Marlborough , in Flanders and Germany. He retired from the
army as Lieutenant Colonel of the 26th or Cameronian Regiment ,
was Deputy Governor of Stirling Castle. in 1711, and died aged
sixty five in 1729.
Blackadder
worked hard for the common people of his parish who were
backward and ignorant and some practiced `popery`. However, by
patient application , home visiting, encouraging education and reading
the Bible; and preaching twice on the Sabbath he gradually
brought his congregation together. But along with some 300 other
ministers he was ejected from his living in 1662. – and his
family physically so in his absence by no less a person than
Sir James Turner, later to be captured by the Pentland rebels.
Blackadder
had heard that he was to be arrested and had gone to nearby
Dumfries when soldiers arrived at his home and foreced his wife
and children to leave the house and seek cover in the Parish of
Glencairn. In 1665 another attempt to seize him failed because
he and his wife were safe in Edinburgh but, again in his
absence, the children were turned out of their beds and his
house ransacked, the brave troopers even stabbing at the beds with
their swords while uttering threats to roast the children on the
fire. In the confusion a ten year old son escaped and ran in
his nightshirt to the Bridgend of Mennihyvie ( Moniave) where he
was found asleep at the village cross the following morning.
He belonged
to a more moderate section of the Presbyterians; disapproving of
the Indulgence which aimed to lure ministers back to a modified
form of service. But he was unhappy at the use of force and as
a result he was not at any of the encounters with the
royalist soldiers. Perhaps importantly, he did not accept the die
hard position adopted by Richard Cameron in the Sanquhar
Declaration. Almost contradictory is that he was among the
ministers who encouraged the hard core of prisoners held in the
Greyfriars Prison not to sign bonds for good behaviour. The
leader of the prisoners, a Robert Garnock, a blacksmith from
Stirling was influenced by a letter from Blackadder but was hanged
for his resistance
He did
not at first commence field preaching and kept a low profile
for some time but the barbarous behaviour of the troopers seemed
to convince Blackadder that an offensive was needed . He soon
became prominent amongst the field preachers and helped organise
conventicles. Under his influence there emerged an underground
church with regular committee meetings and even its own church
court. From the government view point he was becoming a
dangerous nuisance since he also preached in private houses which
were more difficult to detect and meant that persons of
influence were being drawn to congregations.
He preached
wherever and whenever opportunity afforded itself, whether in
houses or fields for some twenty years. He ranged far afield to
Fifeshire, the Lothians, Lanarkshire, in Carrick and Cunningham in
Ayrshire and among the hills of Galloway. During this time he
preached at Fenwick in January 1669 where there had been no
Presbyterian teaching since the Pentland Rising three years
before. He established a new congregation at Bo`ness and had a
crowd of 1200 hanging on his every word at Paisley. At Dunscore
in the midst of deep snow it is said that he sat on a chair
in the open and preached to the populace who pulled up lumps
of heather on which to sit and listen.
At the
Hill of Beath near Dunfermline in the summer of 1670 he and John
Dickson preached to a large crowd during which a lieutenant in
the militia road up, dismounted and listened to the sermon which
then happened to be about brotherly love and was not
treasonable. Being satisfied the lieutenant went to remount and
was surrounded by beligerent members of the congregation. Blackadder
stopped his sermon and intervened, allowing the soldier to be on
his way. This conventicle is also remembered as one of the
first at which people carried pistols and swords for defence, so
it was a lucky lieutenant who rode away unscathed. It says
something of the demand on the physical man that Blackadder took
over seven hours to ride home from this conventicle , having to
go the long way round via Stirling, as there was no boatman to
take him across the estuary from Dunfermline to Edinburgh.
Blackadder
preached with the outed John Welch of Irongray on several
occasions, notably so in 1678 at what have been called the
Communion Stones at Skeoch Hill near Irongray . Here rows of
stones in an ampitheatre in the hills are a natural setting,
surrounded by high hills from which look outs could keep watch
for the troopers.. At Skeoch some 14,000 people attended over a
period of three days and 3,000 took Communion. Another
remembered Communion was that at East Nisbet in the Borders
conducted in idyllic surroundings, in a field next a stream
where sixteen tables were set up, each seating one hundred
communicants, so that about 3,200 took communion that day.
He
spent some time in Holland in 1680
and was eventually arrested at his
home in Edinburgh on 6 April 1681 and
arraigned before General Dalzell and then
 before
a Committee of Council who ordered his
incarceration forthwith. He was sentenced to
imprisonment on the Bass Rock where he
was duly committed the next day, such was there
haste to be rid of him. With his
health failing a bid was made to
get him released but he died there
in December 1685 before this could be done.
He is buried in North Berwick churchyard
where his gravestone begins with the
inscription:
“ Here lies
the body of Mr john Blackadder, minister of the Gospel at Troqueer, in
Galloway, who died on the Bass after five years imprisonment, Anno Dom
1685, and of his age sixty three years. “
A memorial
plague in Troqueer parish church bears the following inscription:
To the
Glory of God in memory of
The
Reverend John Blackader
Born 1615
Ordained
minister of the Parish of Troqueer 1653
Extruded
1662. Outlawed for preaching in the fields 1674
Imprisoned on
the Bass Rock 1681
Died after a
cruel confinement 1685
“ Faithful
unto death “
Erected AD
1902.
18/02/2010
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