166 QUARRELWOOD ChURCH AND ITS MINISTERS. 



that the Cameronians took their name. The " society " consisted 

 •of those who owned the testimony as then stated; in other words, 

 occupied the position taken up by Cameron — " separation from all 

 other Presbyterians w-ho accepted the Indulgences, or in any way 

 held communion with the indulged, or ceased to be open wit- 

 nesses, and separation from the State as expressed in the San- 

 quhar declaration." Along with this, adhesion to the doctrinal 

 standards of the Church and to the whole attainment of the 

 .Second Reformation was required. 



Within the last generation, a trace, I believe, of the old 

 " praying societies " remained in Quarrelwood. The late Mr John 

 • Cowan told me that in his boyhood, there still lived in Quarrel- 

 wood an old woman, Grizzel Kirkpatrick, who, when a company 

 had met for study of the Bible and prayer, did not hesitate when 

 no man was present to take the Bible and conduct the whole 

 service. 



While Quarrelwood was the centre of Mr Courtass' 

 operations, his charge included the whole south and west 

 •of Scotland. If you draw a line through Lanark, running 

 west on the one side and east on the other, then take all south 

 of that line in Scotland, and you have an idea of the extent 

 of his parish. He had no church at Quarrelwood. He was 

 accustomed to travel from place to place on horseback, often 

 accompanied by some of his elders or leading members of his 

 congregation, traversing the whole country west to Stranraer out 

 towards the Mull of Galloway, and east to the Merse. Preach- 

 ings were held in barns in the winter time, and on the hillsides in 

 summer. When any district was visited, summons were sent out 

 inviting all who were favourable to the meetings. John Courtass 

 and John M'Millan (the second) carried on the whole ministerial 

 charge of the " Societies " for seven years, until 1763. You may 

 well understand then they were in "labours oft." What, with 

 baptisms, marriages, and funerals they must have been busy men. 

 In the Scottish Presbyterian Magazine of September, 1848, a 

 Mr John Sprott, writing from the manse of Musquodoboit, in 

 Canada, gives an interesting sketch of the Cameronian ministers 

 of Nithsdale and Galloway. It is well to hear what a contem- 

 porary says about these men. He says: — "I remember when 

 they were a small sequestered people. They worshipped in 



