Grampian Club > Monuments and monumental inscriptions in Scotland > Volume 1

244 ROXBURGHSHIRE.
Dundee, Scone, and Paisley, as a reparation for the slaughter.
Bad blood was, however, kept up, and the result was the slaughter
of Sir Walter Scott as above described. After a long delay Sir
Walter Ker, of Cessford, yielded to the wishes of his friends by
consenting in St. Giles's Church, Edinburgh, on the 23rd March,
1564, to acknowledge his guilt and ask forgiveness from Almighty
God and the relatives of the slain knight. A matrimonial alliance
between the families was also arranged.
A mural tablet in the old church celebrates the Eev. Alexander
Orrock, minister of the parish. It is thus inscribed : —
" Siste viator. Hie jacet corpus Domini Alexandri Orrock, verbi
divini in ecclesia Havico fidelissimus. Vir erat vere eximius. In
vitiosis reclamandis summe audax. Ob multifariam eruditioneni
et vitse innocentiain doctis piisq. viris admodum probatus. In
disciplina ecclesiastica ajqualium nemini secundus. Qui annos
XXII. officio pastorali hac in ecclesia functus, in usum schola3
publicge novem mille, et pauperum indigentium mille et sexcentas
marcas Testamento designavit. Tandem ob dorniivit in Domino
annum agens sexagesimum ^r* Christianse MDCCXI Kal Mali.
Ps. cxii. 9.
Dispersit largiens pauperibus :
Semper ejus liberalitas stab it."
Orrock studied at the University of St. Andrews, and was
licensed in 1687. Having in a sermon named the King as an
idolater and denounced episcopacy, he was seized at St. Andrews
by command of the archbishop and removed to Edinburgh. He
was called to the second charge at St. Andrews in 1690, but the
Synod refused to proceed with his settlement. He Avas ordained
at Hawick in 1691. During the meeting of the General Assembly
in 1705 he insisted on speaking, though he was not a member of
the House, and was forcibly ejected. Though addicted to contro-
versy he was faithful and exemplary as a clergyman. He be-
queathed 9,000 merks Scots for the endowment of a grammar school,
and 1,600 merks towards the support of the poor.
A tombstone in the old churchyard presents the following
inscription : —