242 Sanquhar Burgh Cross. 



far as the main road was concerned, and doubtless this had some- 

 thing to do with its being placed there. It also sat about the 

 centre of the town, being almost equidistant from the Council 

 House, which marks the boundary of the Royal Burgh on the 

 North-West, and the Townfoot Burn, on the South-East. The 

 Cross has, unfortunately, disappeared, the only portion of it 

 which is left is the capital, which is fixed on the apex of the porch 

 of the West United Free Church. Underneath it is a stone bear- 

 ing the inscription, "Top of Sanquhar Cross. 1680." Whv the 

 date 1680 should have been placed there it is impossible to tell, 

 for the Cross was certainly in existence long before that date. 

 The Cross itself consisted of a circular base of five steps, on the 

 top of which v.as a square block of freestone, from which the 

 shaft sprung. The shaft was not more than nine inches in dia- 

 meter and was surmounted by a plain capital. The Cross was the 

 centre of the life of the Burgh. It was there that all proclama- 

 tions were mad?, whether national or local. The markets were 

 held around it, and in times of danger it was the rallying point of 

 the Burghers. In 1587 we find it mentioned in the Records of 

 the Privy Council as " a place for the selling of nolt (cattle)." 



In 1598 the Burgh was advanced to the position of a Royal 

 Burgh, and in the charter granted then by James VI. the burghers 

 are granted the right to have " perpetually and at all times a 

 market place and a market cross." Not only was it used by the 

 Magistrates for their proclamations, others considered it a sufii- 

 ciently important point to publish their declarations regarding the 

 Government of the country. It was here that in 1680 Richard 

 Cameron with some twentv followers boldly asserted that as King 

 Charles II. had broken his Coronation Oath his subjects were no 

 longer bound to regard him as their Sovereign Lord. It was a 

 bold step to take and one which cost its author and many of his 

 followers their lives, but in 1689 the Scottish Parliament really 

 asserted the self same principles as the Covenanters had done at 

 the Cross of Sanquhar when they declared the throne vacant since 

 the King had broken the fundamental laws of the country. 

 Simpson tells us that this declaration was published by Michael 

 Cameron (brother of Richard) amidst solemn silence, but from 

 the proclamation which was immediately issued by the royal 

 authorities regarding it we learn that " it was after a solemn 

 procession and singing of psalms " that the proclamation of the 



