THE CHUECH OF HUME 229: 



parish), may be inferred from the absence of any popular 

 demonstration on one side or the other in the parish. 



It is plain that there were two parties holding either to the 

 easier Prelatic notions or the sterner Puritan mind of the pre- 

 vailing Presbyterianism. Before the Protestant Reformation as 

 well as under Episcopacy, the people had been accustomed to 

 great liberty on the Sunday. Accordingly this new interference 

 with popular rights and customs was not easily brooked. Sunday 

 desecration increased. So the aid of the Presbytery of the bounds 

 was given to the Kirk Session, to put it down at all costs. *^ On 

 29th July 1645 the matter was brought under the notice of the 

 Presbytery of Kelso, and information laid against the Hume 

 people. It was decided to bring them to book by the means of 

 the Minister and the Kirk-Session. 



The slight connection of the ecclesiastical history of Hume with 

 the stirring incidents and battlefields of Covenanters and Cavaliers 

 may be mentioned as showing the sense of religious responsibility 

 which animated the military leaders of the day. Captain Ker 

 was then governor of the castle of Hume. On 23rd September 

 1645, at his desire the Presbytery of Kelso appointed Mr John 

 Sommerwell to preach the next Lord's Day in Hume Castle. But 

 one of their small number (there were only eight ministers in 

 the Presbytery, then,) had to accompany the army, and the 

 burden of preaching in the Castle became heavier than they 

 could well bear. So the Synod was applied to for assistance, 

 but they got no relief further than the expression of a kindly 

 sympathy with them in their trials and the pious desire for 

 the speedy removal of the garrison. 



It may be of considerable interest to note the scarcity of 

 Covenanters or martyrs in the Parish. The minister, the 

 Rev. David Stark, had conformed to Episcopacy, with other 

 four of the Presbytery of Kelso and continued to exercise 

 his holy office in the parish. Lord Home's predisposition 

 towards Romanism was well known. It is not surprising 

 that the parishioners admirably concealed any leanings towards 

 the Covenant. Thomas Ker, a portioner in Hume, was mulcted 

 in £360 by the Earl of Middleton as Royal Commissioner, and 

 acting under the Scottish Parliament of 1661.*^ 



*^ Records of the Presbytery of Kelso. 



*2 Wodrow's SufCerings of the Charch of Scotland, Vol. i., p. 56, 



