Life and diary of Lieut. Col. J. Blackader

20 LIFE OF COL. BLACKADER. CHAP. I.
The act that extruded the presbyterian ministers,
strictly forbade residence or intercourse with their
vacant parishes. The penalties of the law, in case of
nonconformity, were a total suspension of their sala-
ries, banishment without the bounds of their respec-
tive presbyteries, and a prohibition to settle within
ten miles of their former churches. In compliance
with these injunctions, Mr Blackader had retired to
Glencairn, which was beyond the boundaries of the
act. There he was accommodated with the house of
Barndennoch, a seat of the Dowager Lady Craigdar-
roch, in the immediate neighbourhood of Minnyhive.
In this retreat, he had continued until the winter of
1666, when he was obliged, for greater security, to
withdraw to Edinburgh, as reports of his boldness in
field-preaching had reached the ears of the council,
and attracted the notice of the military who were
posted in the districts of Galloway and Nithsdale, to
guard the new Episcopal incumbents, and compel the
refractory parishioners to attend their sermons.
A party of Sir James Turner's men attacked his
house,but fortunately he had made his escape. Disap-
pointed of their prey, they threatened to wreak their
vengeance on the objects that remained. They burnt
the furniture, destroyed or carried away books and pro-
visions, and having pillaged the house, they left the
helpless family to shift for themselves. The eldest son
went to Edinburgh. The Colonel, then a child, and
the rest of his brothers, were secreted by such people
in the neighbourhood as dared, on their account, to
hazard the penalties of Reset and Converse. From the
state of the country at that time, when it was peremp-
torily forbidden to hold intercourse with disaffected