Some Incidents in Troqueer Parish. 159 



macious, and, in addition, John Ferguson in Carruchan, James 

 Rig, John Wright, Janet Wright, spouse to Robert Wright, all 

 in Cargen, and John Carlyle, Betwixt the Waters. Finally on 

 the 18th December " Jean Rig, John Allan, wright, William 

 Smart, and Dougald Roddan were casten out of the Church of 

 Christ by Pronouncing the sentence of the Greater Excommuni- 

 cation. Agnes Hutton was reported dead, and Jannet Bridges 

 and John Lewars had deserted the Romish ReHgion. The mem- 

 bers of the Presbytery met at Newabbey, where the sentence was 

 pronounced, and the day was observed " as a solemn day of 

 Fasting and Prayer. ' ' The ministers report that " endeavours 

 were used in order to have discoursed wt these in Kirkconnel 

 Toun, but that none of them were found." The Presbytery also 

 remitted " entirely the management of the Depending Process 

 against the Apostates therein to the minister and session to 

 proceed or not therein, as they .should see cause." 



The " fearful sentence ' ' of the great excommunication was 

 the last word the Church had to say upon a person. It here used 

 with tremendous effect all the force of social ostracism. If it did 

 not go the length of seeking the lives of its opponents, it sought to 

 take away the means whereby they lived. No member of the 

 Church, under pain of its censure, was to have any dealings with 

 the excommunicated person, even to letting houses to them or 

 selling them the necessaries of life. Naturally this fell most 

 severely upon the poorer members. It was only the Earl of 

 Nithsdale in this district who could say that " he had no regard to 

 the sentence of excommunication." Let us .see how it affected 

 some of the people in the district. Jean Rig was an innkeeper in 

 Kirkconnel Toun, and the Presbytery, " because their may be as 

 ordinary frequenting of the sd Jean her house for drinking and 

 doing business as ever, by those who come that way to Dumfries 

 from Colven, Kirkbean, and Newabbey if some course be not 

 taken to prevent it, therefor they appointed the Ministers of the 

 said Parodies respectively to Discharge their Parocheners hereof 

 publickly with Certification the Trangressores will be taken notice 

 of and Censured accordingly." William Smart's was not an 

 isolated case. He was a " domestick servant to the Laird of 

 Kirkconnel, a notour Papist, which is contrair to Act of Par- 

 liament " (Act 28, Sess. 2, Pari. 1) "they appointed their Clerk 

 to require the sd Gentleman to put away from his 



