1 May 1685 A.D. Scottish Covenanter, John Brown, murdered
1 May 1685 A.D. Scottish Covenanter, John Brown, murdered. Murdered with premeditation, cool malice aforethought, and with the specific
and developed formation of "intent," all the essential elements to
satisfy the legal requirements for homicide in the first degree.
Dr.
Rusten tells the story this way.
The story is told by
Dr. Rusten. Rusten, E.
Michael and Rusten, Sharon. The One Year
Christian History. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2003. Available at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Year-Christian-History-Books/dp/0842355073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393302630&sr=8-1&keywords=rusten+church+history
John
Bacon was shot point-blank in the head by an English officer, an officer of the
Crown. Mr. Bacon’s wife and infant were
present. The wife laid the child on the
ground, bound up the head, and prepared him.
A poem by Henry Inglis captures the story:
The child on the moss she laid
And she stretched the cold limbs of the dead,
And drew the eyelid’s shade,
And bound the corpse’s shattered head,
And shrouded the martyr in his plaid;
And where the dead and living slept,
Sat in the wilderness and wept.
The
backstory.
Scottish
Covenanters were Presbyterians who resisted English Prelacy from 1637-1690,
imposed variously by King Charles 1, Charles II, and James VI. The Covenanters opposed the idea of the
“divine right of kings” with a limitless and unbounded sovereignty. Christ, directly and sovereignly, was the
Head and Lord of the Church, not an English King. During Charle II’s reign, Scottish
Covenanters were hunted, jailed and killed in large numbers.
John
Brown was a poor farmer in Priesthill, Scotland. He aspired to be a Covenanter minister, but
he stuttered. But, he was
intelligent. He loved the English Bible
and taught it to local youths in his barn. Students were inspired by him and he
had a reputation for being a Covenanter.
In
1682, a Covenanting Presbyterian minister, Alexander Peden, married John Bacon
and Isabel Weir. After the ceremony, the
Pastor told Isabel, “Isabel, you have a good man; but you will not enjoy him
long. Prize his company and keep his
linen by you to be his winding sheet; for you will need it when you are not
looking for it, and it will be a bloody one.”
On
1 May 1685, the king’s troops came
to Priesthill looking for Pastor Peden, but they found John Bacon in the
field. They took him back to his house,
ransacked the place, and found Covenanter literature. An interrogation ensued and John Bacon spoke
clearly and without his usual impediment.
His strong answers induced the officer to ask, “Are you a
preacher?” He answered in the
negative. The officer replied, “Well, if
he has never preached, much has he prayed in his time. God to your prayers, for you shall
immediately die.”
Bacon
fell to his knees. He implored the
officers for mercy on the Covenanters.
Brown
said to his wife, “Now, Isabel, the day is come that I told you would come when
I spoke to you first of marrying me.”
Isabel
responded, “Indeed, John, I can willingly part with you.”
Brown
said, “That is all I desire. I have no
more to do but die. I have been ready to
meet death for years past.”
Brown
was allowed to kiss his wife and baby.
The troops were ordered to shoot Brown, but the officer broke in, pulled
his pistol, walked over, and shot John Brown in the head.
The
officer brusquely asked, “What do you think of your find husband now?
Through
tears, she answered, “I have ever thought much good of him, and more now than
ever.”
As
the poem tells, Isabel lad her baby on the ground, bound up her husband’s head,
straightened out his body, covered him with a plaid blanket, sat down and wept.
The poem is worth repeating:
The child on the moss
she laid
And she stretched the cold limbs of the dead,
And drew the eyelid’s shade,
And bound the corpse’s shattered head,
And shrouded the martyr in his plaid;
And where the dead and living slept,
Sat in the wilderness and wept.
On
1 May 1685 the Scottish Covenanter, John Brown, was murdered. Lest we forget.
Someone must have missed a meal before typing this up.
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