The
stones of James Kirko or Kirka of Sundaywell, Dunscore.

James Kirk , also spelt Kirko, was one of two elders present with Rev John Guthrie of Stirling, who made a petition to Charles II on his restoration in 1660. The second elder, Andrew
Hay of Craignethan, escaped , but Kirk and Guthrie were imprisoned for several months. He was suspected of taking part in the Pentland Rising and
at Rullion Green in 1666. He was much vexed by the military and for three years he left the country to escape them. His house was a well used resting place by the coventicling ministers Blackadder, Welsh and Semple. He became an intercommuned
person forced to wander in the moors and hills for nearly
twenty years. He was betrayed by an informer and shot on
the Whitesands, Dumfries for refusing to take the
Abjuration Oath. The story is that he asked for more time
to make his peace with God but Captain Andrew Bruce, his
captor, rebuked him  thus ” Devil a peace ye get more
made up “, and had him shot on the spot. There is a modern
memorial on the Whitesands, Dumfries, next the river, with a St
Andrews cross of stones set in the pavement.

This
fragment  reads:

BY BLOODY
BRUCE AND WRETCHED WRIGHT
I LOST MY LIFE IN GREAT DESPIGHT
SHOT DEAD, WITHOUT DUE TIME
TO TRY
AND FIT ME FOR ETERNITY,
A WITNESS OF PRELATICK RAGE
AS EVER WAS IN ANIE AGE.

 Back to Old Mortality stones.

The stones of William Welsh.