Marion Harvie

MARION HARVIE was a servant-maid in Borrowstounness.  She says, in her answers before the Privy Council, that her father had sworn the Covenants, so that, in all probability, she had enjoyed the advantage of a religious education  But she was fifteen before religious teaching produced good effect upon her mind, and it would seem that it was a sermon of Richard Cameron which awakened her to a sense of sin and led her to the Redeemer.  Henceforward she embraced every opportunity of hearing the persecuted preachers.  She speaks of having heard Donald Cargill, John Welch, Archibald Riddell, and Richard Cameron.

She was apprehended in November 1680, through means of a scheme intended to entrap Mr. Donald Cargill.  James Henderson of North Queensferry, an informer in the service of Middleton, the governor of Blackness, found out Cargill in Edinburgh, and got him persuaded to agree to come to Fife and preach.  Meanwhile, a party of soldiers were lying in wait at Muttonhole, not far from Edinburgh on the way to Queensferry.  James Skene, Archibald Stewart, Mrs Muir, and Marion Harvie, set out on foot, while Donald Cargill and James Boig were to follow on horseback.  When they came to Muttonhole, they were seized by the soldiers, but, in the confusion, Mrs Muir escaped.  She fled towards Edinburgh, and stopped Cargill and Boig when on the way, so that they both escaped.  Marion Harvie, James Skene, and Archibald Stewart were brought prisoners to Edinburgh.  Henderson, says Patrick Walker, got the price of blood, and bought or built a passage-boat, which he called “The Katharine;” but many feared to cross the water in her.  Henderson, after this, turned miserable and contemptible in the eyes of all well-thinking men, and, some affirm, died cursing, after he got that reward for his treachery.

Marion Harvie was brought before the Privy Council.  Her answers to the questions put to her form the first part of her Testimony.  There was the same levity in the questions which her enemies {132} put to her, as in the examination of Isabel Alison; and Dalziel, with characteristic ferocity, threatened her with the Boots; yet her demeanour was calm and dignified.

On the 6th of December, she was brought before the Lord-Justice and the Commissioners of Justiciary.  The books of the Justiciary Court have preserved the following record of her examination:

“Edinburgh, 6th December 1680.—In presence of the Lords Justice-Clerk and Commissioners of Justiciary sitting in judgment, compeared Marion Harvie, prisoner, and being examined, adheres to the fourth article of the fanatics’ New Covenant, the same being read to her, and disowns the king and his authority, and the authority of the Lords of Justiciary, and adheres and abides at the treasonable Declaration emitted at Sanquhar, and approves of the same, and says it was lawful to kill the Archbishop of St Andrews, when the Lord raised up instruments for that effect, and that he was as miserable and perjured a wretch as ever betrayed the Kirk of Scotland; declares that ministers brought them up to these principles, and now they have left them, and that she has heard Mr John Welch and Mr Riddell preach up these principles she now owns, and blesses God she ever heard them preach so, for her soul has been refreshed by them.  She approves of Mr Cargill’s excommunicating the king. Declares she can write, but refuses to sign the same.

Marion Harvie’s indictment was drawn up from this statement, and she was tried on Monday the 17th of January 1681.  “Her discourse before the Justiciary Court” forms part of her Testimony.  She was found guilty, but sentence was delayed till the following Friday.  Her sentence was, “that she be taken to the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, upon Wednesday next, the 26th instant, betwixt two and four o’clock in the afternoon, and there to be hanged on a gibbet till she be dead, and all her lands, heritages, goods, and gear whatsomever, to be escheat and inbrought to our sovereign lord’s use; which is pronounced for doom.”

In her Testimony she emphatically condemns her enemies, and leaves her blood upon their heads.  The first compilers of the {133} “Cloud,” in a note, remind the reader that such statements are to be interpreted like those of James Skene, as a warning to persecutors rather than as manifestations of a revengeful spirit.  The Rev. James Anderson, in his interesting volume, “The Ladies of the Covenant,” in his notice of Marion Harvie, has very appropriately quoted a passage from a letter of Gray of Chryston, one who suffered much himself during those times, to Wodrow, which quite agrees with the views of the compilers:

“As to their leaving their blood upon their enemies in general, or upon particular persons accessory to their trouble, I could never understand that they meant more by it than the fastening a conviction upon a brutish, persecuting generation, who vainly justified themselves as acting by law, and inferred that not they, but the legislature, were answerable, if any injustice was done.”

Marion Harvie’s Testimony closes with an account of her last moments.  She preserved her faith and hope and confidence to the end.  When she came to the scaffold, she and Isabel Alison sang the 84th Psalm, and it is said the tune they sung was the fine old tune, “Martyrs,” verifying the rude lines—

After reading what was said by her and her fellow-sufferer Isabel Alison, Peden’s short but characteristic eulogium on them will be felt to be well merited: “They were two honest, worthy lasses.”

No execution of those cruel times seems to have excited more sympathy or a deeper interest throughout the country.  In the somewhat coarsely-executed, yet expressive engraving, prefixed to the first edition of Alexander Shields’ “Hind Let Loose,” published in 1687, “Women hanged,” evidently Isabel Alison and Marion Harvie, occupy a place side by side with “The drowned at stakes at sea,” viz., the Wigtown Martyrs, Margaret Wilson and Margaret M’Lauchlan.  Fountainhall twice notices their end, and once tries to defend their execution.  One of his chronological notes under 1680 is—

“Janet [Isabel] Alison in Perth, and one —— Harvie in Borrowstounness, two Cameronian women, were hanged at Edinburgh, 26th January 1681; they called the king and bishops perjured bloody {134} men.  There were five other women executed with them for murder of their children.”

In his “Historical Observes” he has this remark, under date—26th January 1681.—“There were hanged at Edinburgh, two women of ordinary rank, for their uttering treasonable words and other principles and opinions contrary to all our government; the one was named Janet [Isabel] Alison, a Perth woman, the other [Marion] Harvie, from Borrowstounness.  They were of Cameron’s faction, bigot and sworn enemies to the king and the bishops; of the same stamp with Rathillet, Skene, Stewart, and Potter; of whom supra, where we debate how far men (for women are scarce to be honoured with that martyrdom, as they think it), are to be punished capitally for their bare perverse judgment without acting.  Some thought that threatening to drown them privately in the North Loch, without giving them the credit of a public suffering, would have more effectually reclaimed them than any arguments which were used; and the bringing them to a scaffold but disseminates the infection.  However, the women proved very obstinate, and for all the pains taken would not acknowledge the king to be their lawful prince, but called him a perjured bloody man.  At the stage, one of them told, so long as she followed and heard the curates, she was a swearer, Sabbath-breaker, and with much aversion read the Scriptures; but found much joy upon her spirit since she followed the conventicle preaching.”

Mr. George Johnston, referred to in the questions, was minister of Newbattle.  He was deprived of his charge by the Act of Council at Glasgow, 1662.  In April 1670, he was seized in Edinburgh on the charge of frequently keeping conventicles, and confined to the parish of Borthwick during the Council’s pleasure.  In August 1675 his name, along with Donald Cargill, James Frazer of Brea, and many others, occurs in the Letters of Intercommuning issued by the Council.  Some time previous to the trial of Marion Harvie he must have accepted the Indulgence.  He survived the Revolution.

As to the “rock, cod, and boboons” spoken of in her answers before the Privy Council, the rock was a distaff, the staff around which the flax is arranged, and from which it is drawn for spinning; the cod, i.e., the pincushion or pillow; and boboons, i.e., bobbins, the small pieces of wood with a head on which the thread is wound, in making lace.  The phrase is thus equivalent to spinning and lace-making. {135}

Marion Harvie leaves her testimony on “Andrew Cunningham, that gave me my doom.” The Doomster, or Dempster, was at that time an officer of the Court of Justiciary, whose duty it was to proclaim formally the extreme sentence of the law on the prisoner at the bar.  This odious office was usually held by the public executioner.—ED.]

An Account of her Answers before the Privy Council.

THey asked first, How long is it since ye saw Mr. D. Cargill?  I said, I cannot tell particularly when I saw him.  They said, Did ye see him within these three Months?  I said, it may be I have.  They said, Do ye own his Covenant?  I said, What Covenant?  Then they read it to me; and I said, I did own it.  They said, Do ye own the Sanquhar Declaration?  I answered, Yes.  They said, do ye own these to be lawful?  I said, Yes; because they are according to the Scriptures, and our Covenants, which ye swore yourselves, & my father swore them.  They said, Yea, but the Covenant does not bind you to deny the King’s Authority.  I said, So long as the king held by the Truths of GOD, which he swore, we were obliged to own him; but when he brake his oath, and robbed Christ of His Kingly Rights, which do not belong to him, we were bound to disown him, and you also.  They said, Do ye know what ye say?  I said, Yes.  They said, Were ye ever mad?  I answered, I have all the Wit that ever GOD gave me.  Do you see any mad Act in me?  They said, Where was you born?  I ans. In Borrowstounness.  They asked, What was your Occupation there?  I told them, I served.  They said, Did ye serve the woman that gave Mr. Donald Cargill Quarters?  I said, That is a Question which I will not answer.  They said, Who did ground you in these Principles?  I answered, CHRIST, by his Word.  They said, Did not Ministers ground you in these?  I answered, when the ministers preached the Word, the Spirit of GOD backed and confirmed it to me.  They said, Did ye ever see Mr. John Welch [of Irongray]?  I said, {87} Yes; my soul hath been refreshed by hearing him.  They asked, If ever I heard Mr. Archibald Riddell?  I answered, Yes; and I bless the LORD, that ever I heard him.  They said, Did ever they preach to take up arms against the King?  I said, I have heard them Preach to defend the Gospel, which we are all sworn to do.  They asked, If ever I sware to Mr. Donald Cargill’s Covenant?  I said, No; but we are bound to own it. They said, Did ye ever hear Mr. George Johnston?  I said, I am not concerned with him.  I would not hear him, for he is joined in a Confederacy with yourselves.  They said, Did ye hear the Excommunication at the Torwood?  I said, No; I could not win [get] to it.  They asked if I did approve of it?  I answered, Yes.  They asked, If I approved of the killing the Lord St. Andrews?  I said, In so far as the Lord raised up instruments, to execute his just Judgments upon him, I have nothing to say against it; for he was a perjured Wretch, and a betrayer of the Kirk of Scotland.  Then they asked, What Age I was of?  I answered, I cannot tell.  They said among themselves, That I would be about Twenty Years of Age, and began to regret my Case, and said, Would I cast away myself so?  I answered, I love my Life, as well as any of you do; but would not redeem it upon sinful Terms; for Christ says, He that seeks to save his Life shall lose it. [Luke 17.33.]  They said, A Rock, the Cod, and Boboons, were as fit for me to meddle with as these things:  Then one of them asked, when the Assize should sit? and some other of them answered, On Monday.  Then they asked, If I could write?  I answered, Yes.  Will you subscribe, said they, what you have said?  I answered, No.  They bade the Clerk set down, that I could write, but refused to subscribe.  Then they asked, if I desired to converse with any of our Ministers?  I said, What ministers?  They said, Mr. Riddel.  I said, What would ye have me to do with him?  They said, He might convince you of that Sin.  I said, What Sin?  They said, The Sin of Rebellion.  I smiled, and said, If I were as free of all Sin, as the Sin of Rebellion, I should be an innocent Creature.  They asked, If they should bring Mr. Riddel to me.  I said, It was an evidence he was not right, since they had him so much at their Will. And I told them, I would have none of their Ministers.  This is all I can remember at this present.

Her Diſcourſe before the Justiciary Court.

FIrst, I was brought and set in the pannel [i.e., at the bar], with the Murderers, and they read over my indictment, and asked me, If I did confess with these things?  I answered, Yes.  Then they read the Sanquhar Declaration, and asked, If I owned it?  I answered, Yes.  They read that paper which they call the New Covenant, and asked, if I owned it?  I answered, Yes.  Then I protested they had nothing to say against me, as to matter of Fact; but only because I owned Christ and his Truth, and persecuted Gospel and Members, of which [I said] ye have hanged some, others you have beheaded and quartered quick, [i.e., alive, as Hackston of Rathillet].  To that they replied nothing; {88} but called the Assizers, [jurymen], who had no will to appear, till they were about to fine them, and then they came forward.  One of them said, He did not desire to be one of the Assize, but they would have him.  He bade them read our Confession; for he knew not what they had to say against us.  They bade him hold up his Hand, and swear, that he would be true, and he could not, but fell on trembling.  The Advocate bade the Assizers look if I had anything to say against them.  I said, I knew none of them, but what were all bloody Butchers together.  And when the Assize were set in a Place by themselves, I said to them, Now, beware what ye are doing; for they have nothing to say against me; but only for owning Jesus Christ and his persecuted Truths: For ye will get my Blood upon your Heads.  So that Man that fell on trembling before, desired them to read my Confession to him, and they read it.  And after that the Advocate had a discourse to them, and said, Ye know these women are guilty of Treason.  The Assize said, They are not guilty of matters of Fact.  He said, but Treason is Fact, and taking [correcting] himself again, he said, It’s true, it’s but Treason in their Judgment; but go on according to our Law, & if ye will not do it, I will proceed; And when they had read my Confession, they had set down, that I had said the Ministers had taught me these Principles.  I said, That is a Lie, and it is like the rest of your Lies; so I said, That it was Christ by His Word, that taught me.  They answered nothing to that; but said, Would I own the rest of my Confession?  I answered, Yes.  The Advocate said, We do not desire to take their Lives; for we have dealt with them many Ways, and sent Ministers to deal with them, and we cannot prevail with them.  I said, We are not concerned with you and your Ministers.  The Advocate said, It is not for Religion, that we are pursuing you; but for Treason.  I answered, It is for Religion, that ye are pursuing me; for I am of the same Religion that ye are all sworn to be of; but ye are all gone blind.  I am a true Presbyterian in my Judgment.  So they put the Assize into a Room by themselves, and removed me without the Guard, into another Room; then they read the Delay till Friday at 12 of the Clock:  And I charged them before the Tribunal of GOD, as they should answer there; For, said I, ye have nothing to say to me, but for my owning the persecuted Gospel.

The Dying Teſtimony and Last Words of Marion Harvie.

CHristian Friends and Acquaintances, I being to lay down my Life on Wednesday next, January 26, 1681,  I thought fit to let it be known to the World wherefore I lay down my Life, and to let it be seen that I Die not as a Fool or as an evil doer, or as a busy body in other men’s matters; no, it is for adhering to the Truths of JESUS CHRIST, and avowing Him to be King in Zion and Head of His {89} Church; and the Testimony against the ungodly Laws of Men, and their robbing CHRIST of His Rights, and usurping His prerogative Royal, which I durst not but testify against:  And I bless His Holy Name, that ever he called me to bear witness against the sins of the times, and the defections of upsitten [indifferent, callous] Ministers and Professors.  (1st) I adhere to the Holy and sweet Scriptures of GOD, which have been my Rule in all I have done, in which my Soul has been refreshed.  (2ly) I adhere to the Confession of Faith, because agreeable to the Scriptures.  (3ly) I adhere to the Larger and Shorter Catechisms.  (4ly) I adhere to the Covenants, National and Solemn League, and the work of Reformation.  (5ly) I adhere to all the Faithful Testimonies which have been left by our Faithful Ministers of JESUS CHRIST, either on scaffolds or Fields.  (6ly) I adhere to the Papers found at the Queensferry, on Henry Hall.  (7ly) I adhere to the Declaration at Sanquhar, and the Testimony at Rutherglen, and the Papers found on worthy Mr. Richard Cameron.  (8ly) I adhere to the Excommunication at the Tor-wood.  (9ly) I adhere to the Excommunication of the Bishops and their underlings [The bishops were deposed and excommunicated by the General Assembly, at Glasgow, session 20, December 13, 1638.—ED.]; and I die in the Faith of it, that the Lord hath ratified that in heaven, which His Faithful Servants have done on Earth, as to the casting out these Traitors to GOD out of the Church.  And now I desire to bless the LORD for my Lot.  My lot is fallen [to me] in pleasant Places, and I have a goodly Heritage. [Psalm 16.6.]

I leave my Blood upon the Traitor that Sits upon the Throne; then on James, Duke of York, who was sitting in the Council, when I was Examined the first Day.  And I leave my Blood on the Bloody crew, that call themselves Rulers.  And I leave it on James Henderson in the North-Ferry, who was the Judas that sold Archibald Stewart and Mr. Skene, and me, to the Bloody Soldiers, for so much Money.  I leave my blood on Sergeant Warrock, who took me, and brought me to Prison.  I leave my Blood on the Criminal Lords, as they call themselves, and especially that Excommunicate tyrant George Mackenzie, the Advocate, and the 15 Assizers; and on Andrew Cunningham, that gave me my Doom; and on that Excommunicate Traitor Thomas Dalziel, who was Porter that Day that I was first before them, and threatened me with the Boots.[1]

I give my Testimony against the burning of the Covenants, which were solemnly sworn by the three Nations with uplifted Hands to the great GOD of heaven and earth.  I leave my testimony against all the bloodshed and massacres of the Lord’s people, either on Scaffolds or in the Fields.  I protest against banishings and Finings, and cruel Murderings, especially the inhuman Murder of worthy David Hackston. {90}  I leave my testimony against the paying of the Cess, employed for the bearing down the Preaching of the Gospel, and the taking and killing the poor followers of JESUS CHRIST.  I leave my Testimony against the professors, that say this is not the Truth of GOD for which I suffer, and call the way of GOD Delusion.  I leave my Testimony against Mr. Archibald Riddell, who became Servant to the Bloody Lords, and made it his work to make me deny CHRIST, and betake myself to the ungodly Laws of Men, and to call the Truths of GOD Delusions, which I am to Seal with my Blood;  And I rejoice that ever He counted me worthy so to do.  O! I may say, What am I, or what is my Father’s House? That He should have called me out to Seal His truths with my Blood? — which Truths, both Ministers and Professors have counted prudence to disown and deny; for which the Land will be made to mourn, and sorely to smart, ere all be done.  I leave my Testimony against Mr. John Blair, that said I had no more Grace than his Staff had, and was Witness to my Sentence that Day I got it; and his Wife, that said I had no more Grace nor [than] her old Shoes, as if Grace were not free, and as though CHRIST had not enough to give me.  I leave my Testimony against both Ministers and Professors that have joined themselves in any of these courses of Defection with the Enemies, and are fast in their Camps.

I leave my Testimony against Popery, Prelacy, Quakerism, and Indulgency, and desire to mourn for it that ever I joined with them in hearing them, or any of those that connive at them.  I leave my Testimony against all Jesuitical Principles, although our Professors say that I adhere to them; I deny it; and I take GOD to be my Witness, that I hate all Opinions that are contrary to the sound Truths of GOD.  And since ever GOD called me to follow His persecuted Gospel, it was still my desire to stick close by him, and the Rule he has set down for poor sinners to walk by.  And it was always my Rejoicing to serve him, and to act and do for his Truth and to vindicate it.  And many a sore heart I have had with them in vindicating his Truths, when they have been denying them, and casting Dirt in the Faces of faithful Witnesses of Jesus Christ; and I desire all these, that are endeavouring to contend for Christ and his Truths, that they would be faithful in their Witnessing for him, and eschew the least appearance of sin.  For I, a dying Witness of Christ, obtest you, as you will answer, when ye stand before him, in the day of your appearance, that ye be faithful in owning him, in all his Truths, and not yield a hoof to these ungodly, Perjured, Bloody and Excommunicate Traitors, and Tyrants; For there is much advantage to be had in faithfulness for Christ; and that I may set to my Seal to the Truth of.  And I think, CHRIST is taking a narrow [close] view of his Followers at this time; for there are few that yield a hair-breadth of the Truths of GOD that readily win [get] to their feet again; but go from one degree of Defection to another. {91}

And again I desire to bless and Magnify the LORD, for my Lot, and may say, He hath brought me to the Wilderness to allure me there, and speak comfortably to my Soul.  It was but little of Him I knew when I came to Prison; but now He has said to me, Because He Lives, I shall live also;  and He has told me, I am He, that hath blotted out thine Iniquity for My own Name’s sake.  Kind has He been to me, since He brought me out to witness for Him.  I have never sought anything from Him, that was for His Glory, since I came to Prison, but He granted me my desire.  For the most part I have found Him in everything that hath come in my way, ordering it Himself, for His own Glory.  And now I Bless Him, that thoughts of Death are not terrible to me.  He hath made me as willing to lay down my Life for Him, as ever I was willing to Live in the World.  And now, ye that are His Witnesses, be not afraid to adventure upon the Cross of CHRIST, For His yoke is easy, and His Burden is light.  For many times I have been made to think strange, what makes Folk cast at [i.e., object to] the Cross of CHRIST, that has been so light to me, that I found no burden of it at all; He bore me and it both.  Now, let not the frowns of Men; and their flatteries, put you from your Duty.  Keep up your Societies, and the assembling of yourselves together, for there is much profit to be found in it.  Many times hath it been found comfortable to me, to hear of the few in Scotland in which CHRIST was Delighting; and that there was much love to GOD’s Glory, and Zeal for His Honour amongst them. 

Now, be humble and lie in the Dust, and never give over crying in behalf of the Church, which is so small that it can scarcely be discerned; and never give over till He appear, for I think He is near at hand.  O watch! and double your Diligence, and hold fast till he come, and let none take your Crown, for He is good to the Soul that seeks Him. [Rev. 2.25; 3.11; Lam. 3.25.]  If I were to Live again, I would let that Perjured Crew see, that I should be more guilty of that which they call Rebellion, in Serving my Lovely King, and in acting and doing for him and his Glory, if he called me to it; And it is my grief that I have not been more faithful for my Master Christ.  All His dealings with me have been in love and in Mercy.  His Corrections have been all in love and free Grace.  O! free love!  O!  I am oft made to wonder what it was that made him take a Blasphemer to witness for him and his Truths.  I may say, I am a Brand plucked out of the Fire, [Zech. 3.2]; I am a Limb of the Devil pluck’t out from his fire-side.  O! I am made to wonder and admire at his condescending Love! 

Now I leave my Testimony against Jean Forrest, for saying that I was going to the Grave with a lie in my right hand, and charging my Blood on my own head.  O my friends, come out from among them, and touch not the unclean thing. [2 Cor. 6.17.]  It will never be well, till there be a separation from sin.  I bless the Lord, that ever I heard Mr. Cargill, that faithful Servant of Jesus Christ: I bless the Lord, that {92} ever I heard Mr. Richard Cameron, my Soul has been refreshed with the hearing of him, particularly at a Communion in Carrick, on these words in 85th Psalm verse 8: The Lord will speak peace to his Saints and People, but let them not return back to folly.  Now, I leave my Testimony against all the backsliding Ministers, who, when I began to hear the Gospel, Preached the same Truths, which I am to lay down my Life for at this time, but now they are joined in a combination against GOD, and for the most part are all at the Enemies’ will, for when I got my Sentence, the bloody Traitors promised to bring any of our own Ministers to us, when before them; and so this gives me ground to say, they are become their Servants.

Now, the LORD knows I have a sore Heart to mention these things; but when I saw some of them there, and they offering us any of the rest, it gives me ground to set it down with a sore Heart.  Now, what shall I say?  I have sinned against Him, and I am guilty of the defections, for which my carcase must lie in the Wilderness, and not see the King come Home to his Habitation.  But O! I am content, and heartily content, that He gives me my Soul for a Prey; and well is me for it; I think myself not behind.  O my Love!  O my Love, O my Love!  My altogether Lovely CHRIST. [Cant. 5.16.]  The common report through the Country is, That I might have had my Life on very easy Terms; but I could have it on no easier Terms than the denying of my Lord and Master, CHRIST.  First, they asked if I would retract my former Confession, and particularised all the Papers I had owned before, and if I would not call Charles Stuart an Usurper, and the Devil’s Vicegerent.  I told them I would not go back in anything, for ye have nothing, (said I,) to lay to me, but for the avowing CHRIST to be King in Zion, and head of His own Church.  And they said, they did not usurp Christ’s Crown:  But I said they were blinded and did not see.  They said there were but a few of us for these Principles;  I said they had all the wyte [blame] of it, and it was most bitter to us, that our Ministers had spoken against these Truths.  And indeed I think they had not been so cruel to me, were it not these Ministers.  And so I think our Ministers are not free of our Blood; for when they spake against us and the Way, it hardened these bloody Traitors, and emboldened them to take our Lives.

I leave my Testimony against them, for they have caused many poor things to err from the Way of GOD, and many have made Ministers their Rule, and so the Blind have led the Blind, and both have fallen into the Ditch together.  And some think and say: O! can we quit so many Godly Ministers?  We dow not [i.e., cannot bring ourselves to] quit them.  But I assure you ye shall get a share of the Wrath and Stroke which GOD hath prepared for these Backsliders and Betrayers of their Trust.  O, I wonder what is the reason that Men count it their Wisdom to deny GOD, who has been so {93} kind to them, and who have many a day delighted to commend his love to me, with the Hazard of their Lives; for which I shall be a Witness against them.  Now, I have no more to say: be faithful unto the Death, or else, woe! woe! woe! to you that are owning him at this Day, if ye do not own him in all his Offices, as King, Priest, and Prophet. O, my dear love! well is me that ever he let me know that his Love was better than Life.  Woe to that Creature that will not love my lovely Lord Jesus Christ.  Now, farewell Holy and sweet Scriptures, which were aye [ever] my Comfort in the midst of all my Difficulties.  Farewell Faith, farewell Hope, farewell Wanderers, who have been comfortable to my Soul, in the hearing them commend Christ’s Love.  Farewell Brethren, farewell Sisters, farewell Christian Acquaintances; farewell Sun, Moon, and Stars!  And now, welcome my lovely and heartsome Christ Jesus, into whose Hands I commit my Spirit throughout all Eternity.  I may say, Few and evil have the days of the Years of my Pilgrimage been, [Gen. 47.9,] I being about 20 years of Age.

From the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, the Woman-House on the East Side of the Prison, Jan. 11th, 1681.

MARION HARVIE.

This martyr, though both young in Years, and of the weaker sex (which heightens the discovery, how Brutally furious and mad these Persecutors were,) was so singularly assisted of the Lord in his Cause, and had such discoveries of His special Love to her Soul, that she was nothing terrified by her Adversaries [Phil. 1.28,] when she was brought from the Tolbooth to the Council-House, to be carried to her Execution.  As she came out of the Tolbooth Door, several Friends attending her, she was observed to say, with a Surprising Cheerfulness and Air of Heavenly Ravishment: Behold, I hear my Beloved saying unto me, Arise my love, my Fair One, and come away. [Cant. 2.13.]  And being brought to the Council, Bishop Paterson being Resolved, seeing he could not destroy her Soul, yet to grieve and vex it, said, “Marion, you said you would never hear a Curate, now you shall be forced to hear one,” upon which he ordered one of his Suffragans, whom he had prepared for the purpose, to pray.  So soon as he began, she said to her Fellow-Prisoner, Isabel Alison, “Come, Isabel, let’s Sing the 23d Psalm,” which accordingly they did, Marion Repeating the Psalm, Line by Line, without Book, which drowned the Voice of the Curate, and extremely confounded the Persecutors.  Being come to the Scaffold, after singing the 84th Psalm, and reading the 3d of Malachi, she said: “I am come here to-day, for avowing Christ to be head of His Church, and King in Zion.  O! seek him, sirs, seek him, and ye shall find him.  I sought him, and I found him; I held him, and would not let him go.” [Cant. 3.4.]  Then she briefly narrated the manner how she was taken, and recapitulated in short the heads of her written Testimony, saying to this effect, “I was going out of Edinburgh to hear the Persecuted Gospel in the Fields; was taken by the way with Soldiers, and brought in to the Guard; {94} and afterwards I was brought to the Council, and they Questioned me if I knew Mr. Donald Cargil, or if I heard him Preach?  I answered, I bless the Lord I heard him, and my Soul was refreshed with hearing him, for he is a faithful Minister of Jesus Christ.  They asked, if I adhered to the Papers gotten at the Ferry.  I said I did own them, and all the rest of Christ’s Truths.  If I would have denied any of them, my Life was in my offer; but I durst not do it, no, not for my Soul.  E’re I wanted [lacked, missed] an hour of His presence, I’d rather die ten Deaths.  I durst not speak against them lest I should have sinned against GOD.  I adhere to the Bible and Confession of Faith, Catechisms and Covenants, which are according to this Bible (whereupon she clapped her hands upon the Bible.)  I also adhere to the Testimonies given by the Faithful Witnesses of Christ, that have gone before us on Scaffolds and in the Fields.  I leave my Testimony against all Quakers, Jesuits, Indulgences, and all Profane and Ungodly Persons, and mainly all Covenant-breakers and Persecutors of his Way and Truths, which I am come here to Seal with my Blood; against all payers of Cess, and Bonders, and against all Oppression or Murdering.  They say, I would Murder; but I declare I am free of all matters of Fact.  I could never take the Life of a Chicken but my Heart shrinked.  But it is only for my Judgment of things, I am brought here.  I leave my Blood on the Council and the Duke of York.”  At this the Soldiers interrupted her and would not allow her to Speak any.  But she cried out: “I leave my Blood on all Ungodly and Profane Wretches.”  The most of her Discourse was of GOD’s love to her, and the Commendation of Free Grace; and she declared she had much of the LORD’s presence in Prison, and said, “I bless the LORD the snare is broken, and we are escaped.” [Psalm 124.7.]  And when she came to the Ladder Foot, she Prayed.  And going up the Ladder, she said, “O! my fair one, my lovely one, come away;” and sitting down on the ladder she said: “I am not come here for Murder, for they have no matter of Fact to charge me with; but only my Judgment.  I am about 20 Years of Age.  At 14 or 15 I was a hearer of the Curates and Indulged, and while I was a hearer of these, I was a Blasphemer and Sabbath-breaker, and a Chapter of the Bible was a burden to me; but since I heard this Persecuted Gospel, I durst not Blaspheme, nor break the Sabbath, and the Bible became my delight.”  With this the Major called to the Hangman to cast her over, and the Murderer presently choked her.

[Robert Wodrow adds: “I am informed they were executed with some three or four wicked women, guilty of murdering their own children, and other villanies, which was very grievous to these two.  One of the Episcopal ministers of the town, who waited upon the others on the scaffold, railed bitterly upon these sufferers, and assured them they were in the road to damnation; while he, without any evidence of penitence, was sending the other wicked wretches straight to heaven.  However, Isabel Alison and Marion Harvie were not commoved, but sang some suitable Psalms on the scaffold, and prayed, and died with much composure and joy.”—ED.]

Footnotes:

1. Understand this paragraph with the caution given Page 62 [from the original edition of the Cloud]: These and the like sentences, which may possibly be met with in some other testimonies, ought not to be mistaken as the effects of a revengeful ungospel Spirit, but rather as a simple declaration of their being guilty of blood in condemning them; to serve as a warning to the persecutors, not to proceed further in these wicked courses, and to waken them to repentance (if possible) for what they had already done; and is much parallel in its nature with that of Jeremiah, in his apology before the princes, chap. 26.15.