124 Transactions. 
anything which might tend to disunite us at this time, so I joined 
in the subscription with others, though ye first project of enlisting 
was not quiet conclusive in case more money could be got than 
to answer ye present exigency. My present view, and which I 
flatter myself your Grace will approve of, is to have nothing to 
do with that money in paying ye above number of men, ych I 
propose to raise upon yt emergency. I expect a good many will 
come out on their own charge, and to ye rest I propose to give 8d 
per day, ych will amount to no great sum, as I don’t suppose we 
can be long together, nor would it indeed be proper we should, 
as we have no person of authority to conduct us.” 
The skirmish which Mr Fergusson refers to in the beginning of 
his letter was probably that at Clifton which I have already 
mentioned, but his information represented a rather more favour- 
able result for the Government forces than was actually the case. 
We also learn from this letter that some of the members of the 
committees of the Presbytery and county gentlemen appointed in 
September previous were not satisfied with the resolution not to 
arm the county, and that they took some independent and informal 
steps to this end, only to meet with discouragement at head- 
quarters. 
Of the meeting of the Presbytery of Penpont referred to by 
Mr Fergusson, there is no mention in the records of that body ; 
but we get some evidence of the “meeting at Dumfries of the 
gentlemen and clergy,” which, when writing on 18th December, 
he states as taking place on Monday last, which was the 16th. 
That meeting was organised by a Standing Committee of the 
Synod of Dumfries appointed with special reference to the then 
existing condition of affairs on 8th October, 1745, but the actings 
of that Committee do not appear in the minutes of the Synod. 
In the minutes of the Presbytery of Dumfries, however, there 
occurs under date 11th December, 1745, the following entry :— 
“ Tt being represented that a meeting of the Standing Committee 
of Synod that it had been agreed that the ministers of the bounds 
should join with the gentlemen of the town and country in an 
association for the defence of the King and the present happy 
Constitution against the Popish Pretender, in whose favour the 
Rebellion was now carried on by Papists and other disaffected 
persons in the kingdom, headed hy the said Pretender’s son, and 
it being represented that the said association was now opened in 
town, and a subscription of money begun in support of the said 
