112 CLAVERHOUSE IN DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY. 
Kirkcudbright, and Wigtown shires; and on 23rd November, 
Claverhouse was present in Council and signed the instructions 
given to the various judges, authorising the instant execution of 
all refusers of the test of allegiance. The court began its work 
in Dumfries on 2nd October, sitting in the Tolbooth. The 
first case was that of persons suspected of complicity in the 
Enterkin Rescue. Some were fined; absentees forfeited their 
bonds. In Dumfries these judges kept 23 men and women in 
custody, some of whom were sentenced to banishment. They 
sat in Kirkcudbright on 7th October, and called 170 suspects. 
Nearly all the parish curates compeared, bringing lists of the 
disorderlies in religious matters. Some were sent to the 
“ Joggs;’’ others to the Repentance Stool ; others to be scourged 
(two being women); others sent to prison; and a few ordered 
into banishment. It was on the 17th October they had before 
them a batch of 14 prisoners caught by Clavers’ men a few 
days before, among them being Lady Gordon of Holm; Mr 
William M‘Millan, a conventicle preacher; and James Graham, 
of Crossmichael, who was afterwards hanged in Edinburgh. 
The court sat in Kirkcudbright on 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 
13th, 17th, 18th October, and at Wigtown on 14th, 16th, 17th 
October. They were back in Dumfries on the 23d, and again 
sat on the 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 27th October. The minute 
books of these courts, with many interesting papers relative to 
them, are preserved in the Register House, Edinburgh. Not 
the least interesting are the long lists of suspects carefully pre- 
pared by the curates, and the depositions of witnesses and 
attested “tests ’’ of the persecuted for religion’s sake. 
He did not return to Council till the 15th November. A 
week later he voted on the question whether or not “ any persons 
who ounes or does not disoune the late traiterous declarations 
on oath, whether they have armes or not, should be immedi- 
ately killed before two witnesses.’’ This was carried in the 
affirmative, and on 23rd November Claverhouse signed the in- 
structions on the subject. This was the instruction that gave 
himself the authority to shoot John Brown of Priestshiel on 
Mayday, 1685. He was also present in the Council on 13th 
January, 1685, and signed the instructions which gave Lag and 
his brother David the authority to drown the Wigtown martyrs 
on the (2nd ?) 11th May. The instruction was in these terms:— 
