1 2 Transactions. 



When I visited the graveyard about five years ago, in tlie com- 

 pany of the Rev. James Hutton, of Closuburn, I was taken to the 

 stone, but was told that for some reason or other Mathieson's 

 representatives had put another stone upon the top of it, so that 

 wliile I could see the sides of the stone, the inscription itself was 

 no longer visible. Matliieson was seized by a party of dragoons 

 and banished to New Carolina. Shortly after his arrival he 

 managed to escape, but he had many adventures and much 

 sufiering to pass through before he got back to Closeburn, in the 

 autumn of 1687. He survived his wanderings for many years 

 and died October 1, 1709. Dr Simpson, of Sanquhar, says 

 " there is a pretty large account of his sufferings and wanderings 

 written by himself in the jsossession of a family in Galloway, but 

 it is questionable if it can be recovered." Dr Simpson does not 

 seem to have known of the existence of a rare ISmo.. volume 

 printed in Kilmarnock in 1806, for the non-hearer, John Calder- 

 wood of Clanfin, entitled — "A Collection of Dying Testimonies 

 of some Holy and Pious Christians, who lived in Scotland before, 

 and since the Revolution." It contains a Testimony by Matliie- 

 son extending to eleven pages. It is very possible that this 

 Testimony is the account to which Dr Simpson refers. Along 

 with a great deal of testifying against what he regarded as evils 

 of his time it gives a brief but vivid narrative of his sufferings. 

 This rare volume did not escape the wide research of Lord 

 Macaulay. In a note to the sixteenth chapter of his history he 

 calls Mathieson's Testimony "one of the most curious of the 

 many curious papers written by the Covenanters." 



In Dalgarnock Churchyard there is a stone to the memory of 

 James Harkness, farmer in the east end of Closeburn. James 

 Harkness was a man of unusual daring, and took a leading part 

 in the deliberations of the Presbyterians of his district. He 

 became a marked man, and found it prudent to retire to Ireland, 

 then a place of refuge to Scotsmen, but after a short stay he 

 returned to Scotland. Here he and some friends were captured 

 by Claverhouse, and sent to Edinburgh for trial. They were 

 imprisoned in Canongate jail, but on September 16, 1683, he and 

 twenty-five othei's managed to escape. In reading the story of 

 the escape as given by Wodrow [Book III., chapter vii., section 

 2] it seems exceedingly like the work of a skilful and fearless 

 man, such as Harkness was. He afterwards planned and success- 



