... He also gives
account of those who gave any assistance to his uncle; and
we have seized thereupon the goodman of the uppermost
Ploughlands, and another tenant about a mile below that is
fled upon it.... I have acquitted myself when I have told
your Grace the case. He has been but a month or two with his
halbert; and if your Grace thinks he deserves no mercy,
justice will pass on him; for I, having no commission of
justiciary myself, have delivered him up to the
Lieutenant-General, to be disposed of as he pleases."[55]
It is singular that neither Wodrow nor Walker makes any mention of this
nephew, whose presence on that day, taken in connection with his share
in the affair at Newmills,[56] puts the uncle in rather a different
light. There happen also to be one or two affairs known about this John
Brown which are worth noting. For instance, his name is found on a list
of proscribed rebels and resetters of rebels, appended to a royal
proclamation of May 5th, 1684, which will naturally account for his
"having been a long time upon his hiding in the hills," as Wodrow
ingenuously confesses. In other words, this Brown was an outlaw and a
marked man. He was by profession a carrier--"the Christian carrier," his
friends called him, for the fervour and eloquence of his preaching,
which was remarkable even in a neighbourhood where the gift of tongues
was not uncommon.
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