Introduction. In 1639 the Scots in Ireland represented a threat to the royal government in Ireland because Charles I was in conflict with his Scottish subjects. This dispute was settled by September of 1641, but the next month the Irish in Ulster rose in rebellion. The Irish, after some initial hesitation, attacked the Scottish settlers as vigorously as the English, and quickly the Scots, both at home and in Ireland, were transformed from being a threat to the government in Dublin to being one of the mainstays of its authority in the north of Ireland. Indeed, in 1642 the Scottish state sent an army of 11,000 men to Ulster in support of the king’s cause. With this army came Presbyterian ministers who established a Presbyterian church in Ireland. The role of the Scots in Ireland, however, again shifted in 1644. In 1642 the civil war between the king and parliament broke out in England, and the rebellion in Ireland spread throughout the country under the auspices of the Catholic Confederation, which had its headquarters at Kilkenny. The next year the king arranged a truce with the Confederation so that he could transfer troops from Ireland to fight parliament in England. In response, the English parliament formed an alliance with the Presbyterian Scots, which was cemented by an oath called the Solemn League and Covenant. Once again, therefore, the Scots in Ulster became of strategic importance in the context of the conflict taking place within the three kingdoms. Competition ensued between the royalist government in Dublin, led by the marquis of Ormond and the Scottish state for the hearts and weapons of the Scottish residents of Ulster. Scotland sent ministers to persuade the population to swear to the Solemn League and Covenant while Ormond sent agents to declare it illegal.

Derry was never captured by the Irish, and this account of what happened there in 1644 appears in this early history of the Presbyterian church in Ireland, much of which was written by Patrick Adair, who arrived in Ireland the next year as a Presbyterian minister and who was writing after the Restoration, but other ministers worked on the history before him. Thus, even if this section of the history does not represent an eyewitness account of these events, we may be sure that there was input from those who were in Ireland at the time, and other sources, including letters sent to Ormond, confirm the accuracy of much of this version of events. The narrative makes it evident that royal officials, such as Robert Thornton, the mayor of Derry, tried to prevent the adoption of the oath, but that some Scottish leaders, particularly Sir Frederick Hamilton, a Scottish planter, assisted the ministers and enabled them to harness popular support for the Scottish cause. From this account it is evident that popular sentiment among the settlers lay more with Scotland than with Dublin, and that the ministers believed they were fulfilling a divine mission.

Source. W.D. Killen (ed.), A true narrative of the rise and progress of the Presbyterian church in Ireland (1623-1670) by the Rev. Patrick Adair minister of Belfast (Belfast 1866) , pp. 107-12.

But a greater opposition met [the ministers] from Derry; for…they received a message and letter from the Mayor of Derry, one [Robert] Thornton, and from Colonel [Audley] Mervyn [Ormond’s agent], prohibiting their coming there upon their peril. Yet, they considering they had invitation from a well-affected people to go there, and that God had signally appeared for them in carrying on that work in all places they had been in, went forward, not intimating to their company their discouragements. Whereupon their convoy leaving them, they went on, and being met by Captain Lawson (one of those who had invited them), they were brought over the ferry to his house, which was without the wall, not knowing how to enter the town. But Providence appeared for them; for Sir Frederick Hamilton, a bold man, and one of a great interest in that country, then…being in Derry, came to the wall, and sent for them and brought them unto the gates to his own house, much encouraging them, and commending their coming forward, notwithstanding the threatenings they received. As they went toward his lodging through the streets, there seemed to be a commotion among the people, some by their countenance and carriage declaring their indignation – some their affection. Others were surprised at the so sudden coming of these worthy men… Sir Frederick did commend them for their policy in preventing a knowledge of the time they might be expected; but they referred it wholly to Divine conduct…Next day the Mayor, with the Aldermen, who were also Town Captains, came to their lodging, reminding them that he had written to them the day before not to come there, lest they bred division in the garrison and town…. He questioned them by what authority they came there with the covenant? They answered – 1st, upon a petition from the British in the North of Ireland for ministers to come and visit them from the [General] Assembly of Scotland; 2nd, that the Assembly had given them commission to give the covenant to the Scotch army and others who willingly should receive it; 3rd, upon a petition from the British of Ulster to the States of Scotland, desiring help in divers things, particularly in victualling and ammunition for Derry…and, above all, also the Solemn League and Covenant to be sent over to them, unto which, as the States of Scotland had respect, according to their capacity, to the rest of their desires, so particularly unto this….[The mayor] answered that was no legal warrant for them to take the covenant. They replied, these things put together, there was a sufficient ground for them to offer it, though they would press it on none....Notwithstanding all this, the Mayor did request them to forbear administering the covenant in that place. They again did entreat him to suffer them publickly to proceed. He answered them he would command, if they would not forbear for entreaty….Meantime, Sir Frederick comes into the room, and, in great boldness and animosity, according to his manner, said to the Mayor, “Mr. Mayor, take heed what you do or speak to these gentlemen.” Likewise a lieutenant present, and belonging to the town companies, did express his resolution to take the covenant in a daring way. So that the Mayor replied no more to the ministers, but that he would take it to advisement, and see them in the afternoon….In the afternoon the mayor sent Captain Hepburn to the ministers, to desire a conference with them in his own chamber – where they attended him. There he showed them a letter from the Parliament of England, recommending to them the taking of the covenant…and withal, a proclamation by those who then ruled in Dublin prohibiting the taking of it – and declared his great straits what to choose. Whereunto the ministers answered that he should lay the balance – on the one hand the gracious purpose of the Parliament of England for their true good, together with the hopes of support from them, and from Scotland, and their brotherly affection desiring to be in one league and covenant with them; and on the other hand the corrupt disposition of those who then ruled in Dublin, with the experience they had found of their small help, or what could be expected from them….[T]he ministers sent for the keys of the church against the next Sabbath. The mayor told them the sacrament was then to be administered in the great church, but they might have the little church that day….But the ministers, finding the little church not sufficient to contain the number of people there met, went to the market-place…and there preached on the subject of taking God’s people into the covenant, declaring the divine authority of it….They also laboured to make the people sensible of the sin of the Black Oath [see Document V], showing that, by engaging to obey all the King’s Royal commands…they had opened a door for the Prince to bring in what ever religion he pleased, if it were the Turk’s religion; and had deprived themselves of the liberty of passive obedience….The ministers required that all who were thus sensible of this evil, and who now resolved to enter into covenant by lifting up their hands and countenances, should abjure the one and enter into the other, which was done with many tears by the multitude there….This was on the Lord’s Day; and the Mayor and others coming from their Sacrament stood somewhat amazed, yet with reverence did behold what was a-doing in the market-place. The Lord’s Day being thus spent, the ministers desired the keys of the church on Monday, which were sent to them; the bells were rung, and the multitude, both from town and country, increased that day more than on the former, wherein the happy condition of a sanctified and true union was the subject insisted on. A great many more, and some persons of quality from the country, did embrace the covenant with much sign of affection, and thereafter, according to the usual way, much time was spent in subscribing it.

Michael Perceval-Maxwell