308 An Account of Simprin, Berwickshire, by Jas. Hardy. 



out, and meeting with the master of the family, shewed him the evil of that 

 unseasonable practice." When he was desirous of friendly intercourse, he 

 resorted to Kersfield (now Milne Graden) , the house of Lady Moriston ; 

 " and by the help I had to season converse there, I was more encouraged to 

 enter on company." Weary of travelling weekly to and fro from Dunse, he 

 determined to settle at Simprin, which he accomplished, Dec 6th, bringing 

 his father to reside with him. The parish contained in all 88 examinable 

 persons ; and he regularly catechised his flock. " In the winter- season, our 

 meetings for it were in my house, and in the night ; in the summer they 

 were in the kirk, at the time of the day wherein the men rested from their 

 labours ; for the people were servants to Langton." In this exercise " he 

 had many a sweet and refreshing hour." In his visits he sometimes " found 

 great ignorance prevailing." For those wishing baptism for their children, 

 who were " grossly ignorant and hardly teachable in the ordinary way," he 

 drew up a small catechism for their private instruction. Twice every Lord's 

 day, he preached winter and summer ; and he had also a sermon weekly in 

 the kirk. On June 17th, 1700, he married Katherine Brown of Culross, 

 whom he extols as a woman of many virtues. Medical practitioners were 

 then scarce, and she became " remarkably useful to the country-side, both 

 in the Merse and in the Forest, through her skill in physic and surgery." 

 For a time he and his wife had submitted to the wretched accommodation of 

 the old dwelling, in which they set up housekeeping ; but in the end of the 

 year 1700, " the winter being begun, we removed into the new manse, built 

 for me from the foundation, and by that time covered ; but little of the 

 wright's work within it was then done; but it was a -doing through the 

 winter. The ground whereon it was built, being quite new, we were obliged 

 at first to straw the floor of our bed-chamber with shavings, which was after- 

 wards laid with -deals. The hardships of entering the new house, we preferred 

 to suffering the inconveniences of the old. Langton' s estate going then 

 from hand to hand, it was not without considerable difficulty, and expence 

 too, that I got that house carried on. Afterwards I formed a large garden, 

 and built the dike ; the which was a work of some time, trouble, and expence 

 too." On April 13th, 1701, he lost his father, in the 70th year of his age. 

 ' ' His body lies interred in the churchyard of Simprin, in the burial place of 

 the ministers there." In October, 1701, Boston was elected Synod Clerk, 

 which helped to amend his limited salary. The clerkship yielded £100 Scots 

 communibus annis. This office he demitted in April, 1711. When Boston 

 settled at Simprin he had very few books, which occasioned him to borrow, 

 as he had access. In the first year of his ministry, as he was sitting one day 

 in a house in Simprin, ' ' he espied above the window-head two little old 

 books," one of them the first part of the "Marrow of Modern Divinity," 

 which had been brought from England by the master of the house, a veteran 

 of the period of the civil wars. The Marrow, Boston " relished greatly, and 

 having purchased it at length from the owner, kept it from that time to this 

 day." Having "digested the doctrine thereof in a tolerable measure;" 

 he began to preach it ; and it gave his sermons " a certain tincture which 

 was discerned." The republication of this book, formed an era in Scottish 



