RENWICK, JAMES, the last of the Scottish martyrs, was the only surviving child of a poor weaver, and was born in the parish of Glencairn, Dumfries-shire, in 1662. After he had entered the university of Edinburgh the Covenanting faith, in which he had been brought up, came boldly into action. He refused to take the oath of allegiance which was tendered to him at his laureation. At length he consecrated his life to the covenanting cause, by repairing to Holland at the request of the praying societies of Scotland, for the purpose of receiving ordination. Renwick returned to his native country in 1683, to enter into a perfect storm of persecution. Daring to take upon himself the task of preaching to the scattered Nonconformists in the south and west of Scotland, he provoked the savage malignity of many enemies. The government set a price upon his head, and declared him an outcast from society. Bands of dragoons were ready to hunt him down
wherever he appeared. Even some of the friends of the Covenant came to misrepresent his patriotic and religious zeal. He was reduced to the greatest shifts in the pursuit of his ministerial vocation. Often did he cower for bed and shelter in the holes of the ground. Often did he hold his meetings at the dead of night in the heart of the wilderness. At length he was caught one January morning on the Castlehill of Edinburgh; and in February 1688, on the scaffold in the Grassmarket, he met his death with the ecstatic welcome of a saint. (See Simpson's Life of Renwick.)