Lesmahagow

In the Session Records of the parish, the lairds of Blackwood and Corhouse are associated in 1651 as elders of the kirk. On the 31st March of the following year, "Mr John Hume, minister, gave in some reasons against the laird of Blackwood, proving that he was not taxable to be ane elder, which he promised to prove by the act of the Commission of the Kirk". These reasons have not been recorded, but the session voted same day whether or not he should sit in the session, when the affirmative was carried. William Lawrie was excluded from the act of indemnity, passed in 1662, until he paid a fin of £600 Scots. (Act of Parl., vii 422-3.) It is believed Lawrie of Blackwood, granted a charter in favour of Robert Lockhart of Birkhill, to which William Lawrie, his father, consents. (Charter of the lands of Pouneill, preserved at Kerse.) In 1678, George Weir was named as a Commissioner of Supply. ( Act Parl., viii. 224.)

William Lawrie acted a conspicuous part in covenanting times. In 1666, when the rising took place previous to the battle of Rullion Green or Pentland, he, although a friend of the cause, vainly attempted to dissuade the Covenanters, under Colonel Wallace, from proceeding farther than Lanark; and again at Collinton, acting as a messenger of peace, sent by the Duke of Hamilton, vainly entreated them to lay down their arms in the hope of procuring an indemnity. He acted as mediator with General Dalziel, and conveyed the letter embodying the views of the Covenanters to the Council at Edinburgh, who received it very coolly. For this he was imprisoned, but in the following year he was allowed to come out of the Castle of Edinburgh, and to have the liberty of the town while engaged about his own affairs. In 1682 he was brought before the Council, and they, upon hearing him as to his libel, passed an act "anent our Sovereign Lord's letter in the matter under written", the preamble being in substance, that albeit it be the duty of all his Majesty's good subjects to detect, discover, apprehend, and present to justice, any guilty of treason and rebellion, who have been their tenants, and haunt upon their grounds, and that by the laws of the kingdom, the harbouring and resetting of such persons, the furnishing them with food, house, or harbour, and the allowing them to labour, manure, or occupy their lands, as if they were free persons, is as severely punishable as crimes of a high nature; nevertheless William Lawrie of Blackwood, being a person who had deeply shared in his Majesty's bounty, by acts of indemnity emitted by his Majesty, albeit he was brought under the compass of the laws for negotiating with rebels in 1666, yet he, continuing and persisting in his disaffection to his Majesty's government, had ever since, by his aiding and abetting, assisting and countenancing rebels, given them too much encouragement to persist and remain in their rebellious courses, which was manifest, in so far as the greatest part of the tenantry of Blackwood were actually in the late rebellion, and after the defeat of the rebels were received back by him as tenants of the said lands, allowed to labour and manure the ground, and he did receive mail and duty from them, and particularly John Alston, son of John Alston, miller, who murdered Cornet Graham, Thomas Allan in Mungriehill, John Rae in Kirkmuirhill, John Rae his son, and Thomas Watson in Chapel, who was afterwards killed at Airds Moss, and had reset and corresponded with them as free person, albeit the had been by the Justices found guilty or declared outlaws; whereby the said William was guilty of an open and manifest crime, for which he ought to be punished in his person and goods to the terror of others. Being called and compearing on the 7th June 1682, alleged he was no heritor of these lands, but only administrator to his children for the two proceeding years, and during that period he did not live upon the estate. The Lords sustained their libel to be proved by witnesses, and repelled the defence, in regard he had intromitted with the rents, and the vicinity of the place, and the continuance of the time, and so was presumed to know all the tennants, except he should prove that in due time he had done legal diligence to apprehend the rebels, or so to discover them that they might be apprehended, or a least put off the ground before the commencement of the process. On a subsequent day, he being absent, the witnesses were called, and it was found that those named and some others had been harboured and reset by the defender upon the lands of Blackwood, and some of them in his own family. The Lord's in regard that the crimes were of so high a nature and the probation so full, referred the whole matter to the Justices, and ordained the advocate to insist against him.

January 1st, Mr Lawrie's process before the Justiciary began, and he was indicated that after he had been brought under the compass of the law for negociating with rebels at Pentland, and was indemnified, continued in his aiding, abetting, and encouraging rebels, in as much as, when many of the tenants of the lands of Blackwood had been at Bothwell Bridge, he received them back as tenants, and received rents from them as if they had been his Majesty's free lieges, therefore, he had incurred the pain of treason, al least was art and part with them in the said crimes; and by an additional libel he was indicated for commissionating, giving orders, or conniving at Jams Clelland and James Wilson, who, it was alleged, were known rebels, coming in the month of May or June 1679 to the House of Douglas, and taking away two cannon and several horses belonging to the Marquis of Douglas, and a horse of his own, which was employed by the said rebels; and his resetting, conversing with, and furnishing leases to the said James Wilson, and employing him in his affairs after the Rebellion; and another additional article, that he allowed the said James Wilson, in Townhead of Douglas, to stay in the Castle of Douglas, though a notorious rebel.

For the panel, it was answered that the concurred no farther in the business of Pentland with the rebels than as acting under instructions from General Dalziel, to go and intimate to them the proclamation of Council to lay down their arms and submit to the King's authority; that his converse with rebels, till once intercommuned, which the above-mentioned were not, inferred no the pains in the libel; that the persons named in the libel were tenants included in the indemnity, and the lieges, consequently, in bona fide to converse with, and receive them in their lands, though they had not taken the bond of peace when not intercommuned. And it was further urged by his lawyers, that this libel could not go to an assize unless the rebels were convicted as such; that a person pursued for reset and converse could not be tried unless the principal party were first convicted; and if this order were inverted, it might happen that one might be condemned as accessary and accomplice of the alleged crime of another, who, when he came to be tried, might be acquitted of the same crime, the person first condemned being absolutely innocent; also, that a public mark or ban was not set upon the so called rebels, and the prisoner Lawrie was not heritor of the lands.

In answer, the advocate insisted upon the notoriety of the fact, though not of law, which had previously been determined by the judges. The Lords repelled the defence, found the indictment relevant, and remitted the proof to an assize, and delayed the process until February 4th. On that day, Blackwood's lawyers insisted that the libel ought not to be remitted to an assize, and advanced several defences for the panel, as that the libel was not special, that Blackwood was tutor to his grandchild, that he lived at Edinburgh, were the Porteous Rolls of Shires were not intimated, that all persons named in the libel for many years had conversed openly at fairs, markets, etc., without any person to challenge them. The advocate replied, at the Lords had already, by their interlocutor, found that it is treason to converse with person denounced fugitives, or open and notorious rebels, though not intercommuned; and the Lords repelled the defences, and in particular that of notoriety in converse at kirk, market, and fair, etc., with persons of all conditions. It was further urged for the panel, that he was no way accessary to the taking away of the cannon from Douglas Castle; that he did not converse with James Clelland and James Wilson until October after, when the were openly a his father's burial; that the horse libelled was the Marquis of Douglas's not his; that James Wilson was a common and known drover, and as such he employed him, when the whole country about him did so openly. The Lords repelled all the defences, and remitted the matter to an assize, and delayed the process until February 6th. On that day the Lords, before proof was adduced, required the panel to declare that, as to probation, he submitted to the King's will. For proof, the advocate adduced the Porteous Roll, the books of adjournal, bearing that the persons with whom Blackwood conversed were in the Rebellion. Some of them compeared, and declared upon oath that they paid rent to Blackwood since 1679, though Wodrow states he did not find that they declared they were in the Rebellion. The Rolls and books of adjournal were the ground on which the advocate was desirous that the matter should stand, and other witnesses were adduced, and deponed they heard the former converse with Blackwood, and then the jury were enclosed. On the 7th of February, the assize returned their verdict, that they found the panel guilty of harbouring and conversing with declared rebels and fugitives, proven by the deposition of witnessess, and also found by his judicial submission as to the probation that he came under the King's will. The Lords adjudged the said William Lawrie to be taken to the Market Cross severed from his body, his name, memory, fame, and honour to be extinct, and his lands forfeited to his Majesty for ever.