Tra)isactio)is. 1 1 5 



reading of Laud's liturgy the General Assembly declared 

 Episcopacy to be abolished, and in 1638 a National Covenant 

 was signed with great enthusiasm throughout every parish in 

 Scotland. So unanimous was this feeling in the parish of 

 Troqueer in favour of tlie covenant that in 1640 the captain of 

 its War Committee sent in the following report : — " Lancelot 

 Grier of Dalskarthe, captain of the parochin of Troqueer, declares 

 no cold or un-Covenanters within his bounds, except the 

 Maxwells of Kirkconnell and the Herrieses of Mabie." This 

 was an ancestor of the family called Grierson of Lag. 



In 1653, when the Rev. Mr Blackader was ordained minister 

 of the parish, he found that the teinds were claimed by the Earl 

 of Nithsdale, as appears from the following letter of the Countess 

 to Sir George Maxwell of Pollock, published in " Memoirs of the 

 Pollock family " : — 



Sin, — Since I cannot have the happiness to see you in this 

 countrie, I mu.st importune you by letters as one in whose wisdom 

 and affection to myself and my son I remain most confident. My 

 liusband had a tack of the tenths of the Church of Troquere in 

 Galloway from the College of Glasgow, whereof they be as yet 

 some years' standing ; and now, as I am informed, Mr John 

 Blackader, present minister of the said church, is putting in to 

 have the said tenth in his own hand. Therefore, I earnestly 

 entreat, as you wish the good of my son, you will stop his pro- 

 ceedings herein, since my son is now for many years by-past in 

 possession and willing to continue in pay for the said tenths as his 

 predecessors hath been, and if anything else shall be requisite he 

 shall submit to you therein. Thus, not doubting of your good- 

 will, I rest as ever, 



Your faithful friend to serve you, 



E. NiTISDAL. 



This 16 of February, 1654. 

 This letter, dated the year after Mr Blackader's unanimous 

 induction, was the beginning of many troubles, as detailed in his 

 published memoirs. 



Soon after the Restoration, in 1660, a Royal edict ordered all 

 parish ministers who had been ordained since 1649 to remove out 

 of the bounds of their Presbytery ; so, putting his children into 

 " cadgers' ci'eels " on either side of a horse, he went to Glencairn, 

 where he held open-air conventicles among the hills. 



The following is a vivifl account of his last visit to Troqueer, 



