The Persecuted

Since time immemorial, Mankind has taken divergent spiritual paths. The pages of history record blood spilled through opposing religious views as often as any other cause. We have recorded some of those poor souls who carried our Project surnames.

Fleurus FREMAUT

On 10 April 1568, Fleurus Fremaut, a Protestant of Wasquehal, Flanders, was hanged in Lille.

(John Peters, A FAMILY FROM FLANDERS, 1984, p.66)

Janet FRAME

Janet Frame was born c.1655 in Blackburn Mill Scotland. (REGISTER OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL OF SCOTLAND Book 23, Vol.8, p.648)

James FRAME

On May 5, 1684, James Frame, weaver, of Strathaven, Avondale parish, Lanarkshire was on a list of fugitives published by the Privy Council in Edinburgh 'Against rebels lately in arms in the West...They will be prosecuted and brought to punishment. All subjects are to aprehend them.' S2567. [Crawford.bib Ryl Tudor V2, pp.400-1]

Janet FRAME

Janet Frame was born c.1655 in 'Rutherfuird' [Rutherford], Scotland. (REGISTER OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL OF SCOTLAND Book 23, Vol. 9, p. 672

William FRAME

William Frame was a Covenanter from Calder [Cadder], Clydesdale in Scotland. He was captured after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge 22 June 1679 and imprisoned at Greyfriars. In November 1679, William Frame was transported from Leith bound for the West Indies on the Crown of London commanded by Master Thomas Teddico. The ship was wrecked off Orkney in December 1679 during a storm, with more than 200 lives lost. However, William Frame was one of the 49 survivors. He was later transported to Jamaica. [CEC#212/5][SW#198][RBM]. (Genealogical Publishing Company, Scottish Immigrants to North America, 1600s-1800s. Scots Colonists: Caribbean Supplement, 1611-1707)

William FRAME

William Frame was a Covenanter from Carluke, Lanarkshire. On May 9, 1668, a proclamation was issued ordering all magistrates and officers of the standing forces to seize persons who refused to accept indemnity by signing a bond of peace. William Frame was among the fourteen seized in Carluke parish. (William Crookshank, The History of the State and Sufferings of the CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, From the RESTORATION to the REVOLUTION, 1812, p.220)

Robert FRAME

Robert Frame of Lanark, Lanarkshire was among the men charged with High Treason after the battle between Covenanters and Royalists at Bothwell Bridge on June 22, 1679. Open rebellion had been inevitable since the Restoration of 1660, which reintroduced Episcopacy and reversed twenty years of Presbyterian worship. The battle this day resulted in defeat for the Covenanters and cost many their lives. In 1681, some of the Lanarkshire men indicted, accused and facing execution were:

'Robert Frame, in Lanerk

John Scott, elder, in Kenmuir

John Corse, in Clydsmilne

James Thomson, portioner, of Garnquen

Alexander Wardroper, in Sheltoun, portioner of Midlequarter

David Lindesay, portioner of Jacktoun

John Nimmo, in the Forth

George Muirhead, of Steinstoun

Archibald Cleland, of Knowenoblehill

James Hamilton, of Halsyd

James Hamilton, of Stonhall

John Holmes, of Newtoun

Robert Russill, portioner oof Windie-edge

Henry Boswell, portioner of Dunsystoun

John Wardroper, portioner of Denishill

James Meik, portioner of Fartisset

Archibald Prentise, in Staine

James Muirhead, of Breidisholme

Mr. Robert Black, of Silvertounhill'

‘Indyted and accused for the crymes of treason and rebellion at lenth mentioned in their dittay.’

Details of the ‘Proceedings against the Lanerkshire Men’ including Robert Frame may be read in full in Cobbett’s Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason (by Thomas Bayly Howell, Thomas Jones Howell, William Cobbett, David Jardine, 1811) at Google Books.

Wikipedia has an overview of the Battle of Bothwell Bridge here.

The 50 year period of the Covenanter Killing Times was a brutal chapter in Scotland’s history. It is to be hoped that it is one that will never be repeated or forgotten. Keeping the memory alive is a passion to many Covenanter descendants across the world, including those within the Frame kinship network. Since the establishment of the Frame DNA Project, we discovered that the Scruggs family were very closely related to the Frame family. In 2007, Mike Scruggs wrote an article titled THE COVENANTERS and their American Legacy. He has kindly allowed us to include it here.

Mike Scruggs is a retired financial consultant and corporate business executive. He holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BS from the University of Georgia. He is a USAF combat veteran of the Vietnam War, holding a Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart. He was recently Chairman of the Board of a ClassicalChristian School and is a former Republican County Chairman. He writes and lives in Hendersonville, NC. He is the author of The Un-Civil War: Truths Your Teacher Never Told You (2006) and Lessons from the Vietnam War: Truths the Media Never Told You (expected date of publication: September 1, 2009). He has written over 150 articles for the Asheville Tribune (NC), The Hendersonville Tribune NC), and the Greenville Times Examiner (SC). He is an occasional contributor to Vdare.com.

THE COVENANTERS

And Their American Legacy

By Mike Scruggs

From about 1638 to 1688 the Presbyterian Church, which was the Church of Scotland, suffered severe persecution by the English crown. In 1638 the Scots protested the imposition by Charles I of Episcopal standards and doctrines on the Scottish Church by signing a covenant vowing to defend their religion. A major issue was that Charles believed he was both king and head of the church by divine right. The Scots could not agree with either, but Charles’s claim to be the head of the church was in severe conflict with Presbyterian doctrine, which held Christ alone to be the head of the church. Charles also tried to impose as mandatory, Anglican worship forms and the Anglican Book of Common Prayer in place of Presbyterian worship forms and doctrinal standards. He also tried to impose bishops over them, which they refused. When the ministers and people of the Church of Scotland continued to resist, persecution began.

There was some temporary relief when the Scots allied themselves with the victorious Puritans and the Parliamentary Party during the English Civil War from 1642 to 1646. However, in 1660 the monarchy was restored and Charles II became king. He soon reinvigorated the persecution.

The severest persecution was from 1680 to 1685 under James II, when over 18,000 Covenanters were killed, and many more dispossessed. The persecution was so severe that absence from an Anglican service was cause for arrest, and attending the services of Presbyterian ministers was a capital offense. Since Presbyterian ministers were forbidden to hold services, most of these were held at secret locations outdoors. These meetings were called conventicles. Yet thousands attended these conventicles. The more the English crown persecuted them the more the covenanters resisted.

The persecution became so brutal that many covenanters were shot, cut down with the sword, or hanged on the spot without trial. Many were imprisoned or banished. Some were drowned, refusing to renounce their faith and the Covenant.

The persecution came to an end in 1688 with “the Glorious Revolution,” when William and Mary of Orange became regents of England, replacing James II, who was forced to flee.

Unfortunately, the Covenanters and their courageous resistance to religious and political tyranny have been largely forgotten by a complacent American and British church. Even worse, their heroic struggle has been distorted and the character of its leaders and martyrs blackened by modern, politically correct writers with strong prejudices against any orthodox form of Christianity. That is small wonder considering the prevalent modern allergy to the substantive study of history and the sweeping success of politically correct tyranny in academia.

Yet the heritage of the Covenanters lives on though little recognized as such. Much of that heritage has come through their descendents who were heavily represented in Scottish and Scotch-Irish immigrants to the American Colonies in the early 1700’s. By the time of the Revolutionary War the religiously intense Scotch-Irish made up a third of the population of the American Colonies and were especially numerous in the Middle Atlantic and Southern Colonies. Given their history, they had little tolerance for British religious, economic, or politically tyranny. Hence they became fervent supporters of independence from Britain. They served, sacrificed and died for the cause of American independence in disproportionate numbers. More than 50% of Revolutionary soldiers belonged to Presbyterian churches. Many in Britain recognized the underlying religious background of the colonial revolt.

Many features of the U. S. Constitution such as limited government and freedom of religion, speech, and the press were heavily influenced by the Covenanter experience in both the British Isles and America. The wording of the Declaration of Independence borrowed heavily from the Mecklenburg Declaration, a proclamation by the heavily Presbyterian Scotch-Irish in North Carolina, penned by surgeon and Presbyterian Elder, Ephraim Brevard.

Although the Presbyterian Church in America seemed to be the major center of resistance to British tyranny during the Revolutionary War, they were joined by many individuals and families from other denominations. George Washington, for example, was Anglican, now termed Episcopalian in the United States. Because the Presbyterian Church failed to evangelize on the frontier as fervently as the Baptists and Methodists, many Covenanter descendents today are spread over a wide range of protestant denominations. Scotch-Irish Covenanter blood and their spirit of intense religious fervor are particularly strong among Southern Baptists. The Covenanter legacy in the South was reinforced as many of the Scotch and Scotch-Irish who settled originally in the Middle Atlantic States later migrated to the South. The so-called “Bible Belt,” stretching from Virginia and Northern Florida on the east to Texas and Oklahoma on the west, is essentially a legacy of the Covenanters.

To most Americans the Covenanters are forgotten, even in the South, where their descendents are so numerous. But it is largely through the Covenanters that they have inherited a legacy of strong faith, courage, and liberty. Long live the Covenant! No king but Christ!