Volume 6

793
and to actual rebellion. On the other side, field conventicles were pro-
scribed by proclamations founded 011 positive law; the conventiclers were
dispersed by the military under positive orders for that end; and the
government finally went the full length of bringing from the mountains the
Highland host to live upon the western shires at free quarter (u). On the
8th of June 1682, a commission was issued, appointing Andrew Atchison
to be sheriff-depute of Renfrewshire, and under the direction of certain
commissioners to execute the laws against persons who were guilty of dis-
orders in that shire (v). In 1684, under that commission, several heritors
of some consequence in Renfrewshire were prosecuted and fined (w). In
1685, the Earl of Argyle, after fording the Clyde from the opposite side to
Renfrew, and endeavouring to retire to Argyle, was attacked by some militia-
men when in the act of crossing the Cart river near Inchinnan, was taken
prisoner, and soon recognised, though he was disguised like a peasant with a
long beard (x).
Twelve years after, Renfrewshire was disgraced by imposture and by
trials for Witchcraft. It is apparent from the circumstances of the case, that
the whole of this affair, in which three men and four women, who were
called witches, were tried, found guilty, and executed, originated in the
artifice and imposture of Christian Shaw, the daughter of John Shaw of
Bargarran, with the ignorance and folly of her mother. This girl was only
eleven years of age, but she appears to have been mistress of much art.
After the previous examination of witnesses at Bargarran before commis-
sioners who were appointed for that end, several women and men were
tried at Paisley for witchcraft (y). Margaret Laing defended herself on
her trial with uncommon ability and eloquence, yet, says a bye-stander,
who published what he saw and heard, " I thought that when she spoke
(u) It was at the end of 1676 that the highland host was let loose on the western shires. MS.
Diary or Journal.
(v) Wodrow, ii. 235.    See the commission itself, in his App. No. 81.                 (w) Ib. 335-6.
(x) Ib. 537.
(y) The particulars of this tragic affair, from beginning to the end, were collected by John
MacGilchrist, the town clerk of Glasgow, and they were embodied in a copious narrative by
Mr. Francis Grant, advocate, who was afterwards a lord of session with the title of Lord Cullen.
This "true narrative'' was printed at Edinburgh by James Watson, in 1689, 8vo., and it was
reprinted at London in the same year in 4to. Christian Shaw, the young impostor who produced those
disgraceful proceedings, afterwards exercised her ingenuity to a better purpose by originating the
manufacture of fine thread, which was carried to a great extent in Renfrewshire. Stat, Acc., ix. 74 ;
Wilson's View of Agricult., 244.