Covenanters
in Scottish history, the name given to the party which struggled for religious liberty from 1637 on to the revolution; but more especially applied to the insurgents who, after the passing of the act of 1662 denouncing the Solemn League and Covenant as a seditious oath (see above article), took up arms in defense of the Presbyterian form of Church government. The Presbyterian ministers who refused to acknowledge the bishops were ejected from their parishes and gathered around them crowds of their people on the hillsides, or any lonely spot, to attend their ministrations. These meetings, called "conventicles," were denounced as seditious, and to frequent them or to hold communication with those frequenting them was forbidden on pain of death.
The unwarrantable severity with which the recusants were treated provoked them to take up arms in defense of their opinions. The first outbreaks took place in the hill country on the borders of Ayr and Lanark shires. Here at Drumclog, a farm near Loudon Hill, a conventicle was attacked by a body of dragoons COVENTRY under Graham of Claverhouse, but were successful in defeating their assailants (1679). The murder of Archbishop Sharp Sharp on Magus Moor, and this defeat, this defeat alarmed the government, who sent a large body of troops under the command of the Duke of Monmouth to put down the insurgents, who had increased in number rapidly. The two armies met at Bothwell Bridge, where the Covenanters were totally defeated (June 22, 1679).
In consequence of the rebellious protest called the SANQUHAR DECLARATION, put forth in 1680 by Cameron, Cargill, and others, as representing the more irreconcilable of the Covenanters (known as Cameronians), and a subsequent proclamation in 1684, the government proceeded to more severe measures. An oath was now required of all who would free themselves of suspicion of complicity with the Covenanters; and the down the dragoons who were sent out to hunt down the rebels were empowered to kill anyone who refused to take the oath.
During this "killing time," as it was called, the sufferings of the Covenanters were extreme; but notwithstanding the great numbers who were put to death, their fanatic spirit seemed only to grow stronger. Even after the accession of William some of the extreme Covenanters refused to acknowledge him owing to his acceptance of Episcopacy in England, and formed the earliest dissenting sect in Scotland.