Grampian Club > Genealogical memoirs of John Knox and of the family of Knox

150 GENEALOGICAL MEMOIRS OF JOHN KNOX.
other family of the name. The " Declaration " of Cromwell's
commissioners not having been acted upon, Captain Welsh
remained in Ulster, hut his name does not reappear ; if he
left descendants they are certainly extinct.
John Welsh, minister of Kirkpatrick-Irongray, in the
county of Dumfries, is known to have been a son of Mr
Josias Welsh. He studied at the University of Glasgow,
where he graduated in 1647. He was ordained to the
charge of Kirkpatrick-Irongray, in January 1652-3. Being
obnoxious to the Government of the Eestoration, he was
deprived by the Acts of Parliament 11th June and of the
Privy Council 1st October 1662. He was the first who
preached in the fields, where he drew immense crowds, who
bore weapons of defence. Beginning in Galloway, he_
preached in the northern parts of England and in the
counties of Ayr, Perth, Edinburgh, Haddington, Eoxburgh,
and Fife. By the Government declared a traitor, a reward,
first of £400 and afterwards of £500, was offered for his
apprehension ; he was consequently attended by a number of
armed persons, who were known as his "body-guard." A
system of telegraphy was devised to warn him and his com-
pany of approaching danger. Thus Graham of Claverhouse,
who rode forty miles in a winter night, in the hope of
arresting him, was foiled in the attempt.
With a frame singularly robust, Mr Welsh could endure
fatigue and suffer privation to an extent rare even among the
Covenanters themselves. Kirkton relates that on one occa-
sion, when sorely pressed, he was three days and two nights
without sleep — one night being occupied in preaching. 1
1 Kirkton's Secret and True History of the Church, Ediub. 1817, 4to,
p. 119,