Here lyes John Hallume ....

Today's the day ………………….. for a Covenanter

I came upon this simple headstone today in the Old Kirkyard of St Cuthbert in Kirkcudbright. 

It commemorates the death in 1685 of one John Hallume, an inoffensive lad from the Parish of Tongland of about 18 years of age.  He was pursued by a Lieutenant Livingston, with a party of dragoons, and without being asked a single question, fired upon and wounded. They took him as a prisoner to the Tolbooth in Kirkcudbright and ordered him to take the Abjuration Oath. Upon his refusing to do so a jury of soldiers was empanelled, who, as a matter of course found him guilty, He was subsequently executed in the usual manner.

This sort of thing happened frequently to the Covenanters.  Simply put - the Covenanters were those people in Scotland who signed the National Covenant  in 1638. They signed this Covenant to confirm their opposition to the interference by the Stuart kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.  The Stuart kings held to the belief in the Divine Right of the monarch to be the head of the Church.  This was unacceptable to the Covenanters.  They could be asked to take an abjuration oath, which not only declared loyalty to the king, but also to accept him as head of the church.

From 1638 until 1688 - a great deal of suffering, torture, imprisonment, transportation and executions would ensue...………..