by Walter Scott
NOTE A--Author's connection with Quakerism.
It is an old proverb, that "many a true word is spoken in jest." Theexistence of Walter Scott, third son of Sir William Scott of Harden, isinstructed, as it is called, by a charter under the great seal, DominoWillielmo Scott de Harden Militi, et Waltero Scott suo filio legitimotertio genito, terrarum de Roberton.*
* See Douglas's _Baronage,_ page 215.
The munificent old gentleman left all his four sons considerable estates.and settled those of Eilrig and Raeburn, together with valuablepossessions around Lessuden, upon Walter, his third son, who is ancestorof the Scotts of Raeburn, and of the Author of Waverley. He appears tohave become a convert to the doctrine of the Quakers, or Friends, and agreat assertor of their peculiar tenets. This was probably at the timewhen George Fox, the celebrated apostle of the sect, made an expeditioninto the south of Scotland about 1657, on which occasion, he boasts, that"as he first set his horse's feet upon Scottish ground, he felt the seedof grace to sparkle about him like innumerable sparks of fire." Upon thesame occasion, probably, Sir Gideon Scott of Highchester, second son ofSir William, immediate elder brother of Walter, and ancestor of theauthor's friend and kinsman, the present representative of the family ofHarden, also embraced the tenets of Quakerism. This last convert, Gideon,entered into a controversy with the Rev. James Kirkton, author of the_Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland,_ which is noticed bymy ingenious friend Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, in his valuable andcurious edition of that work, 4to, 1817. Sir William Scott, eldest of thebrothers, remained, amid the defection of his two younger brethren, anorthodox member of the Presbyterian Church, and used such means forreclaiming Walter of Raeburn from his heresy, as savoured far more ofpersecution than persuasion. In this he was assisted by MacDougal ofMakerston, brother to Isabella MacDougal, the wife of the said Walter,and who, like her husband, had conformed to the Quaker tenets.
The interest possessed by Sir William Scott and Makerston was powerfulenough to procure the two following acts of the Privy Council ofScotland, directed against Walter of Raeburn as an heretic and convert toQuakerism, appointing him to be imprisoned first in Edinburgh jail, andthen in that of Jedburgh; and his children to be taken by force from thesociety and direction of their parents, and educated at a distance fromthem, besides the assignment of a sum for their maintenance, sufficientin those times to be burdensome to a moderate Scottish estate.
"Apud Edin., vigesimo Junii 1665.
"The Lords of his Magesty's Privy Council having receaved informationthat Scott of Raeburn, and Isobel Mackdougall, his wife, being infectedwith the error of Quakerism, doe endeavour to breid and trains upWilliam, Walter, and Isobel Scotts, their children, in the sameprofession, doe therefore give order and command to Sir William Scott ofHarden, the said Raeburn's brother, to seperat and take away the saidschildren from the custody and society of the saids parents, and to causeeducat and bring them up in his owne house, or any other convenientplace, and ordaines letters to be direct at the said Sir William'sinstance against Raeburn, for a maintenance to the saids children, andthat the said Sir Wm. give ane account of his diligence with allconveniency."
"Edinburgh, 5th July 1666.
"Anent a petition presented be Sir Wm. Scott of Harden, for himself andin name and behalf of the three children of Walter Scott of Raeburn, hisbrother, showing that the Lords of Councill, by ane act of the 22d day ofJunii 1665, did grant power and warrand to the petitioner, to separat andtake away Raeburn's children, from his family and education, and to breedthem in some convenient place, where they might be free from allinfection in their younger years, from the principalls of Quakerism, and,for maintenance of the saids children, did ordain letters to be directagainst Raeburn; and, seeing the Petitioner, in obedience to the saidorder, did take away the saids children, being two sonnes and a daughter,and after some paines taken upon them in his owne family, hes sent themto the city of Glasgow, to be bread at schooles, and there to beprincipled with the knowledge of the true religion, and that it isnecessary the Councill determine what shall be the maintenance for whichRaeburn's three children may be charged, as likewise that Raeburnhimself, being now in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, where he dayleyconverses with all the Quakers who are prisoners there, and others whodaily resort to them, whereby he is hardened in his pernitious opinionsand principles, without all hope of recovery, unlesse he be separat fromsuch pernitious company, humbly therefore, desyring that the Councellmight determine upon the soume of money to be payed be Raeburn, for theeducation of his children, to the petitioner, who will be countabletherefor; and that, in order to his conversion, the place of hisimprisonment may be changed. The Lords of his Maj. Privy Councell havingat length heard and considered the foresaid petition, doe modifie thesoume of two thousand pounds Scots, to be payed yearly at the terms ofWhitsunday be the said Walter Scott of Raeburn, furth of his estate tothe petitioner, for the entertainment and education of the said children,beginning the first termes payment therof at Whitsunday last for the halfyear preceding, and so furth yearly, at the said terme of Whitsunday intym comeing till furder orders; and ordaines the said Walter Scott ofRaeburn to be transported from the tolbooth of Edinburgh to the prison ofJedburgh, where his friends and others may have occasion to convert him.And to the effect he may be secured from the practice of other Quakers,the said Lords doe hereby discharge the magistrates of Jedburgh to sufferany persons suspect of these principles to have access to him; and incase any contraveen, that they secure ther persons till they be therforepuneist; and ordaines letters to be direct heirupon in form, as effeirs."
Both the sons, thus harshly separated from their father, proved goodscholars. The eldest, William, who carried on the line of Raeburn, was,like his father, a deep Orientalist; the younger, Walter, became a goodclassical scholar, a great friend and correspondent of the celebrated Dr.Pitcairn, and a Jacobite so distinguished for zeal, that he made a vownever to shave his beard till the restoration of the exiled family. Thislast Walter Scott was the author's great-grandfather.
There is yet another link betwixt the author and the simple-minded andexcellent Society of Friends, through a proselyte of much more importancethan Walter Scott of Raeburn. The celebrated John Swinton, of Swinton,nineteenth baron in descent of that ancient and once powerful family,was, with Sir William Lockhart of Lee, the person whom Cromwell chieflytrusted in the management of the Scottish affairs during his usurpation.After the Restoration, Swinton was devoted as a victim to the new orderof things, and was brought down in the same vessel which conveyed theMarquis of Argyle to Edinburgh, where that nobleman was tried andexecuted. Swinton was destined to the same fate. He had assumed thehabit, and entered into the Society of the Quakers, and appeared as oneof their number before the Parliament of Scotland. He renounced all legaldefence, though several pleas were open to him, and answered, inconformity to the principles of his sect, that at the time these crimeswere imputed to him, he was in the gall of bitterness and bond ofiniquity; but that God Almighty having since called him to the light, hesaw and acknowledged these errors, and did not refuse to pay the forfeitof them, even though, in the judgment of the Parliament, it should extendto life itself.
Respect to fallen greatness, and to the patience and calm resignationwith which a man once in high power expressed himself under such a changeof fortune, found Swinton friends; family connections, and someinterested considerations of Middleton the Commissioner, joined toprocure his safety, and he was dismissed, but after a long imprisonment,and much dilapidation of his estates. It is said that Swinton'sadmonitions, while confined in the Castle of Edinburgh, had aconsiderable share in converting to the tenets of the Friends ColonelDavid Barclay, then lying there in the garrison. This was the father ofRobert Barclay, author of the celebrated _Apology for the Quakers._ Itmay be observed among the inconsistencies of human nature, that Kirkton,Wodrow, and other Presbyterian authors, who have detailed the sufferingsof their own sect for nonconformity with the established church, cens
urethe government of the time for not exerting the civil power against thepeaceful enthusiasts we have treated of, and some express particularchagrin at the escape of Swinton. Whatever might be his motives forassuming the tenets of the Friends, the old man retained them faithfullytill the close of his life.
Jean Swinton, grand-daughter of Sir John Swinton, son of Judge Swinton,as the Quaker was usually termed, was mother of Anne Rutherford, theauthor's mother.
And thus, as in the play of the Anti-Jacobin, the ghost of the author'sgrandmother having arisen to speak the Epilogue, it is full time toconclude, lest the reader should remonstrate that his desire to know theAuthor of Waverley never included a wish to be acquainted with his wholeancestry.
NOTE B.--TOMBSTONE TO HELEN WALKER.
On Helen Walker's tombstone in Irongray churchyard, Dumfriesshire, thereis engraved the following epitaph, written by Sir Walter Scott:
