Scottish Parliament and Sanquhar Representation. 123 



sented the Burgh the Bridge across the Nith was " totalie fallen 

 down and ruined," and he was successful in getting Parliament 

 to pass an Act in favour of the Burgh to assist in the rebuilding 

 of it. By this Act " His Majestie, with advice and consent of the 

 Estates of Parliament, have ordained and ordaines ane contribu- 

 tion and voluntar collection to be made and ingathered with all 

 parodies both burgh and landward on the south side of the water 

 of Forth for building of said bridge, and hereby seriously recom- 

 mends to and requires all noblemen, gentlemen, magistrates, 

 ministers of the law and Gospell within the said bounds to be 

 assisting to the said Magistrates of Sanquhar for so good a work 

 and for ane liberall contrilnition for that effect." 



Williamson sat also in the Parliaments of 1662 and 1663, and 

 also represented the Burgh in the Convention of Burghs for 1660, 

 but in 1665 his place was taken by Robert Carmichael, who was 

 also a scion of an old Sanquhar family. The Carmichaels appear 

 to have been resident in Sanquhar from at least the beginning of 

 the 16th century. They belonged to the same stock as the Car- 

 michaels of Meadowflat in Clydesdale. He is called Carmichael 

 of Corp, but where that place is or was I have been unable to 

 discover. It may be a corruption of Crawick or Cog. He was a 

 Bailie in Sanquhar at the time of his election, and two years later 

 he became Provost. He continued member up till 1686, but he 

 was not Provost for so long. He represented Sanquhar in the 

 Convention of Royal Burghs from 1655 to 1688. Although mem- 

 ber in from 1665 to 1686 he does not appear to have attended 

 every Parliament during those years, for in 1673 the Commis- 

 sioner's name for Sanquhar is omitted, but in the appendix to the 

 Record of the proceedings of Parliament his name is given. Pro- 

 bably he had been re-elected member, but had not attended the 

 deliberations of the House. Carmichael appears to have died 

 about 1686, and there is no record of a member being elected 

 again till 1689, when " Mr John Boswall " represented the Burgh. 

 By this time the Stuarts had been dethroned. At the Cross of 

 Sanquhar in 1680 Richard Cameron and a few followers had de- 

 nounced the reigning sovereign Charles II. because of his having 

 broken his Coronation oath. In 1685 James Ren wick with a 

 larger retinue had at the same place protested against the pro- 

 clamation of James VII., and in 1689 the people as a whole 

 followed the example of those two and declared that as the S*^uarts 



