John and George Armstrong at Edinburgh / by William J. Maloney.

  • William Joseph Marie Alois Maloney
Date:
1950
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: John and George Armstrong at Edinburgh / by William J. Maloney. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    prayed publicly for her, the reigning sovereign. However, his pleasure led him to name his next son after the Dutch Stadtholder, William of Orange, who had delivered the saints from the Queen’s royal father in the Revolution of 1688. At the death of Anne, in August 1714, the Crown was conferred on George, Elector of Hanover. In 1715, partisans of the Stuarts rose against the Hanoverian. Whilst others led out the fighting men of the Church of Scotland to battle for King George and Presbyterian ascendancy, the Rev. Robert was given the strength to sit still. At Kelso, the Stuart Pretender was proclaimed king. The country around Castleton was in active revolt. An army of rebels, raised mainly from the neighbouring shires of Dumfries and Northumberland, invaded England, and penetrated as far south as Preston. After they had been hemmed in there, and the Highland forces of the Pretender had been checked at Sheriffmuir, the Rising of 1715 collapsed. In the aftermath, no one from Castleton appeared on the lists of the beheaded, hanged, exiled, or imprisoned. Having disposed of the rebels taken in arms, the Hanoverians next proceeded against the Jacobites among the clergy. The Abjuration Act of 1719 ordained that every religious gathering of nine persons or more should pray, “ in express words,” for King George. At the kirk of Castleton this law was doubtless fulfilled with more than the legal requirement of fervour ; and at the manse, a son born to the Rev. Robert’s old age was expressly called George. To support a wife and at least six children, to keep a pony on which to reach the remote parts of the parish, to maintain the manse in repair, and to meet the demands of charity as well as such other costs as fell to his office, the Rev. Robert received a tenth, or teind, of the fruits of Castleton. Teinds were paid partly in money and partly in kind. The crops were measured in chalders (note 3), usually of oatmeal and barley. The minister’s share of the average harvest was seventeen chalders. With the manse went a glebe of 25 acres, half of it arable. The glebe could not always be rented, and the value of the chalder varied with the market price of the crops ; but taking the good times with the bad, the Rev. Robert’s stipend, exclusive of the manse, amounted at most to eighty-two pounds sterling a year (note 4). On such a stipend, prodigies of economy were required, if the sons of the manse were to be trained for careers. The road to a career lay through the University. It was a long road, calling for an early start. Few set out earlier than the sons of the Rev. Robert. So diligently did he instruct them, and so well did they learn, that as soon as they were old enough to leave the manse, they were able to enter the University. John arrived at Edinburgh, probably by carrier’s cart, for the opening of the winter session, of 1720. At the convenience of the respective professors, the classes started in October (note 5) ; and some
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