William Veitch (minister)

William Veitch [alias: William Johnston] [alias: George Johnston]
Personal details
Born	27 April 1640 Roberton
Died	8 May 1722 Dumfries
Denomination	Protestant

William Veitch (27 April 1640 – 8 May 1722). He was the youngest son of John Veitch, the minister of Roberton, Lanarkshire. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, graduating with an M.A. in 1659. He became a tutor in the family of Sir Andrew Ker of Greenhead. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Lanark in 1664. Having identified himself with the Pentland Rising, he was outlawed, and escaped to Newcastle, where he became chaplain in the family of the Mayor. In 1671 he was ordained to a meeting-house at Fallowlees, a remote spot among the Simonside Hills, Rothbury. From that he removed to Hanamhall, in the same district, and afterwards to Seaton Hall, Longhorsly. Whilst living at the latter place under the assumed name of William [or George] Johnston, he was arrested on 16 January, and sentenced to the Bass Rock 22 February 1679. (See Anderson's note below). Veitch was liberated on 17 July 1680, and returned to Newcastle. He aided Archibald, Earl of Argyll, in his escape from Scotland in 1681. In 1683 he went to Holland, and in 1685 he was again in Northumberland acting as an agent on behalf of Monmouth. Soon afterwards he was settled as minister of a meeting-house at Beverley, Yorkshire. Having returned to Scotland, he was called to Whitton Hall, Morebattle, April 1688. In 1690 he was minister of Peebles, and in September 1694, he was admitted to Dumfries. He demitted on 19 May 1715. His death was on 8 May 1722. In 1705 he presented to the church two communion cups.

Life

William Veitch (1640–1722) was a covenanter. He was the younger son of John Veitch, the minister of Roberton, Lanarkshire, and was born on 27 April 1640. He studied at the University of Glasgow, where he graduated with an M.A. in 1659. In 1660 he became tutor to the family of Sir Andrew Ker of Greenhead at the University of Edinburgh. About 1664 he took license as a preacher and joined the presbyterians; but, being forfeited in 1667 for having been at Mauchline and the Pentlands, he escaped to England, where he lived under the name of Johnson. For some time he was chaplain to the wife of the mayor of Newcastle; and, after preaching in London and other places, he was in 1671 ordained minister of a meeting-house at Faldlees and afterwards at Hanamhall in the parish of Rothbury, Northumberland, whence four years afterwards he removed to Seaton Hall in the parish of Longhorsly. On 16 January 1679 he was apprehended, while living there under the name of Johnson, but having been on 22 February sisted before the committee of public affairs in Edinburgh, he was sent to imprisonment on the Bass Rock.

The Bass Rock

James Anderson in his "Martyrs of the Bass" casts doubt that the sentence was executed. He says:

"With respect to Mr William Veitch, although the Privy Council, on the 25th of February 1679, "approved the report of the Committee for Public Affairs that he be sent to the Bass," and, on the 11th of March, appointed him to be conveyed to that prison, yet this act was not executed; for, in an order of the 18th of that month, requiring the King's Advocate to proceed against him before the Justiciary Court, he is represented as "prisoner in the tolbooth of Edinburgh."(Wodrow's History, vol. iii. pp. 7, 8.) Had Veitch been a prisoner in the Bass, such a fact would undoubtedly have been recorded in his Memoirs of Himself, in which he describes so minutely the public sufferings he endured in the cause of Presbytery. But in that document, no reference to any such thing is to be found."

Later life

On 17 July following, he was, however, at liberty, and returned to Northumberland. When in December 1681 the Earl of Argyll escaped from prison, Veitch not only sheltered him in his house, but, being an adept in the shifts of a fugitive from justice, conducted him safely to London. Veitch had soon afterwards to make his own escape to Holland (in 1683), but during the Monmouth rising of 1685 was sent to Northumberland to foment an outbreak there. The Argyll fiasco put an end to the project; and, after remaining for some time in hiding under various names, Veitch became minister of a meeting-house at Beverley, Yorkshire, where he remained six or seven months. Returning to Scotland, he was called to the parish of Whitton Chapel in the presbytery of Kelso, where he was admitted in April 1688. In 1690 he was translated to Peebles, and in 1694 to Dumfries. He demitted his charge on 8 December 1714, and died on 8 May 1722.

Family

William's father John and brothers James and John were also ministers. His wife, Marion Fairlie of the house of Braid, was author of a diary which was published by the Free Church of Scotland in 1846. She died a day after her husband, and was buried in the same grave. By her Veitch had five sons and five daughters. The second son, Samuel, who adopted the spelling Vetch. He married 23 November 1664, Marion Fairley, of the family of Braid, Edinburgh [vide Diary of Marion Fairley (Edinburgh, 1846)]. She died the day before (Scott says the day after) her husband, and was buried in the same grave within the church of Dumfries. They had issue —

• William, educated at Utrecht, entered the army of the Prince of Orange, captain in the Darien Expedition, died at sea, off Port Royal, Jamaica, 1699 ;
• Samuel (who adopted the spelling Vetch for his surname), first Governor of Nova Scotia, born 1668, died 30 April 1732;
• Ebenezer, minister of Ayr;
• Elizabeth (married 7 June 1710, David M'Culloch of Ardwall);
• Sarah, born 7 November 1677 (married James Young of Gully-hill, Holywood);
• Agnes (married John Somerville, minister of Caerlaverock);
• Janet, buried 27 March 1693;
• and three others, who died young.

Works

He was the author of:

• Two Sermons preached before Her Majesty's Commons at the Opening of Parliament (Edinburgh, 1693)
• Two Sermons preached before the commission (Edinburgh, 1695)
• A Short History of Rome's Designs against the Protestant Interest in Britain (Drumfries, 1718)
• A Short Answer to a Letter pretendedly written by Mr John Hepburn, Division Maker, but really by Riddough and Hunter and other Romish Emissaries, who are Defenders of his Faith, both Summer and Winter (Dumfries, 1720)
• A portrait of Veitch is in the possession of his descendant, E. Denholm Young, W.S., Edinburgh

Bibliography

• Paton's The Book of St Michael's Church

References

Citations

Other sources

• Anderson, James (1851). The ladies of the Covenant. Memoirs of distinguished Scottish female characters, embracing the period of the Covenant and the persecution. New York: Redfield. pp. 159-180.
• Fairley, John A. (1913). Extracts from the Records of the Old Tolbooth from The book of the Old Edinburgh Club. Vol. 6. Edinburgh : The Club. p. 134.
• Fairly, Marion (1846). Memoirs of Mrs. William Veitch, Mr. Thomas Hog of Kiltearn, Mr. Henry Erskine and Mr. John Carstairs. Edinburgh: Printed for the Assembly's Committee.
• Gunn, Clement Bryce (1912). The book of the Cross Kirk, Peebles, A.D. 1560-1690 : presbyterianism and episcopacy. Peebles : A. Smith, Neidpath Press. pp. 195, 228.
• Gardner, Ginny. "Veitch, William [alias William Johnston, George Johnston]". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28174. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1899). "Veitch, William (1640-1722)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Hewison, James King (1913b). The Covenanters. Vol. 2. Glasgow: John Smith and son. pp. 278-279.
• Howie, John (1870). "William Veitch". In Carslaw, W. H. (ed.). The Scots worthies. Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier. pp. 607–622. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Laing, David, ed. (1844). Historical Notices of Scotish Affairs: Selected from the Manuscripts of Sir John Lauder of Fountainhall. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: T. Constable, printer to Her Majesty.
• Laing, David, ed. (1848). Historical Notices of Scotish Affairs: Selected from the Manuscripts of Sir John Lauder of Fountainhall. Vol. 2. Edinburgh: T. Constable, printer to Her Majesty. pp. 921.
• Mackenzie, William, of Galloway; Symson, Andrew (1841). The history of Galloway, from the earliest period to the present time. Vol. 2. Kirkcudbright: J. Nicholson. p. 168.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• M'Crie, Thomas (1847). The Bass rock: Its civil and ecclesiastic history. Edinburgh: J. Greig & Son. pp. 376–377. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• M'Crie, Thomas (1872). Annals of English Presbytery: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time. London: James Nisbet. pp. 280-282.
• M'Dowall, William (1876). Memorials of St. Michael's : the old parish churchyard of Dumfries ... Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black. pp. 357-363.
• McIntyre, Neil (2016). Saints and subverters : the later Covenanters in Scotland c.1648-1682 (PhD). University of Strathclyde.
• Porteous, James Moir (1881). The Scottish Patmos. A standing testimony to patriotic Christian devotion. Paisley: J. and R. Parlane. pp. 59. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Renwick, Robert, ed. (1910). Extracts from the records of the burgh of Peebles, 1652-1714. Glasgow: Printed for the Scottish Burgh Records Society.
• Scott, Hew (1917). Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation. Vol. 2. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Scott, Hew (1920). Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation. Vol. 3. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. pp. 323, 11–12, 49. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
• Smellie, Alexander (1903). "The Lion of the Covenant". Men of the Covenant : the story of the Scottish church in the years of the Persecution (2 ed.). New York: Fleming H. Revell Co. pp. 268.
• Steven, William (1832). The history of the Scottish church, Rotterdam. Edinburgh: Waugh & Innes, etc.
• Toit, Alexander Du. "Veitch [née Fairlie], Marion". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/45831. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Veitch, William; Brysson, George (1825). M'Crie, Thomas (ed.). Memoirs of Mr. William Veitch, and George Brysson. Edinburgh; London: W. Blackwood; T. Cadell.
• Wodrow, Robert (1835a). Burns, Robert (ed.). The history of the sufferings of the church of Scotland from the restoration to the revolution, with an original memoir of the author, extracts from his correspondence, and preliminary dissertation. Vol. 1. Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton & co., and Edinburgh: A. Fullarton & co. pp. 207-214.
• Wodrow, Robert (1835b). Burns, Robert (ed.). The history of the sufferings of the church of Scotland from the restoration to the revolution, with an original memoir of the author, extracts from his correspondence, and preliminary dissertation. Vol. 2. Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton & co., and Edinburgh: A. Fullarton & co.
• Wodrow, Robert (1829). Burns, Robert (ed.). The history of the sufferings of the church of Scotland from the restoration to the revolution, with an original memoir of the author, extracts from his correspondence, and preliminary dissertation and notes, in four volumes. Vol. 3. Glasgow: Blackie Fullerton & Co. p. 6.
• Wodrow, Robert (1835d). Burns, Robert (ed.). The history of the sufferings of the church of Scotland from the restoration to the revolution, with an original memoir of the author, extracts from his correspondence, and preliminary dissertation and notes, in four volumes. Vol. 4. Glasgow: Blackie Fullerton & Co. pp. 498-501.
• Wodrow, Robert (1842). Leishman, Matthew (ed.). Analecta: or, Materials for a history of remarkable providences; mostly relating to Scotch ministers and Christians. Vol. 1. Glasgow: Maitland Club. p. 170.
• Wodrow, Robert (1842). Leishman, Matthew (ed.). Analecta: or, Materials for a history of remarkable providences; mostly relating to Scotch ministers and Christians. Vol. 3. Glasgow: Maitland Club. pp. 55-56.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1899). "Veitch, William (1640-1722)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co.