220 Two Irongray Traditions. 



II. — The Fergusons of Hallhill. 



My second tradition also comes to us on clerical autho- 

 rity : — 



" Ev'n ministers, they liae been kenn'd 

 In holy rapture 

 A rousing whid, at times, to vend 



And nail't wi' Scripture." 



It is told by the Rev. J. H. Thomson, of Hightae, in The 

 Martyr Graves of Scotland. It is repeated almost word 

 for word in Mr Morton's very interesting new volume, 

 Galloway and the Covenanters. It concerns the execution 

 of the Irongray martyrs, whose tombstone is close to Iron- 

 gray Church. Wodrow's story runs that on 19th of Feb- 

 ruary, 1685, Captain Bruce seized six Covenanters on the 

 moor of Lochenkit, in Urr parish; four were shot on the 

 spot, but two, Alexander M' Robin or M'Cubin, of Glencairn, 

 and Edward Gordon, of Galloway, were brought to the 

 Bridge of Urr, where Lagg was pressing the oath of abjura- 

 tion on the country folk. On their refusing to swear, Lagg 

 wished to execute them at once. The Captain, however, 

 persuaded him to put off till to-morrow. " And the next 

 day they carried them to the parish of Irongray, whither 

 Lagg and the party were going, and hanged them upon an 

 oak tree near the Kirk of Irongray, at the foot of which 

 they were buried. When at the tree foot an acquaintance 

 of the said Alexander's asked him if he had any word to 

 send to his wife. He answered, ' I leave her and the two 

 babes upon the Lord, and to His promise, a father of the 

 fatherless and husband to the widow is the Lord in his holy 

 habitation.' When the person employed asked him for- 

 giveness, he said, ' Poor man, I forgive thee, and all men ; 

 thou hast a miserable calling upon earth. ' They both died 

 in much composure and cheerfulness."* 



Messrs Thomson and Morton add to this the following 

 tradition : — " The reason these men were executed hear 

 Irongray Church was that it might be within sight of Hall- 

 hill, then occupied by a family named Ferguson, well known 



* Wodrow, iv., 240, ed. 1830. 



