CLAVERHOUSE IN DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY. 109 
—the slaying of Whigs in order to stay the infectious plague of 
Whiggery. 
Doubtless with zest he followed the trail of the slayers of the 
Primate, and it was probably at this time he gave cause for the 
following epitaph in Galston Churchyard :—“ Here lies Andrew 
Richmond, who was killed by Bloody Graham of Claverhouse, 
nG79.”’ 
In January, 1680, he was on the southern hunt again. In 
the spring and the summer he was in London on marriage busi- 
ness and looking after forfeitures, remaining in London till 1681, 
when he returned to Scotland with the Duke of York. 
On 21st July, 1680, Claverhouse got a charter of Freuch 
(Stoneykirk) as a reward for his services, but he did not enter 
into possession of it for more than a year. We next find him on 
the jury that tried Argyll on 12th and 13th December, 1681. 
The Test wrought woeful changes in the country. Among those 
who refused to take it were Sir Andrew Agnew of Lochnaw and 
Viscount Kenmure, in consequence of which they forfeited their 
offices as Sheriff of Wigtown and Bailie of the Regality of Tong- 
land. Claverhouse was lucky successor in both posts. So that 
with a new commission as Sheriff-Depute in Dumfriesshire and 
Kirkcudbright he was omnipotent. 
The student is fortunate in having preserved in the Drum- 
lanrig charter room those letters which Claverhouse wrote at this 
time to Queensberry. They are easily and cheaply accessible 
in the Historical MSS. Commissioners’ Report XV., viii. Claver- 
house is found writing in New-Galloway on 16th February, 1682, 
informing his chief that the people at his feet were “in great 
_ dreed.’’ It is not the letter either of a soldier or of a respectable 
sheriff. It is the tally of a slaughter man, the report of a 
cunning exterminator, who writes:—“I will threaten much, but 
forbear sever exicution for a whyll, for fear people should grou 
desperat and increase to too much the number of our enimy.”’ 
The peasantry fled his presence as if it were the plague. At 
Dumfries, on 22nd February, he wrote, “I can catch nobody, 
they are all so alarumed.’’ He was not to be baffled. He 
invited them to meet him at church; and never had booted 
apostles such overflowing congregations, gathered from several 
parishes. For example, at Kirkcudbright he reported that 
“some that for seven years before had never been there were 
