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[0:00] Thank you Mr. Jager for your kind words. It is a delight to be here with you again.

[0:11] I feel I must confess at once that I am not going to deliver a lecture, not at any rate in any formal sense, and certainly not in the sense that I have done on previous occasions here.

[0:28] When I have had historical and biographical subjects about characters who, to say the least, have been household names in the Church of God.

[0:43] I seem to remember speaking on Isaac Watts, on John Newton, on Samuel Rutherford, and then perhaps some others.

[0:54] But this evening it's different, for I have chosen to speak of Marian Veitch, of whom I suspect that many of you will never have heard.

[1:09] I met her some time ago, but not until about 18 months ago did I begin to make any sort of close acquaintance.

[1:22] She was, let me say immediately, the wife of the Reverend William Veitch, a Scottish Covenanting Minister, whose adventurous and hazardous and much-blessed life she shared to the full.

[1:42] And that will tell you immediately that she lived a good while ago. She was in Shantorn in 1639 and died in 1722.

[1:55] And when she died, it was found that she had left behind a written account of the Lord's dealings with her.

[2:08] That account is now in the National Library of Scotland, and I have with me a complete photocopy of it.

[2:18] Marian in this account tells us a good deal concerning herself, but not everything by any means. And all I really wish to do this evening is to speak almost in a conversational way with you about her life and her experience from the standpoint of having, over the last 18 months, engaged in a measure of what I suppose can only be honestly called original research.

[2:58] Marian, as I say, left behind this writing which she intended for her family. It is headed an account of the Lord's gracious dealing with me, and of his remarkable hearing and answering my supplications.

[3:21] Its content is mostly a spiritual account of the Lord's dealings with her. And what I am endeavouring to do, in a serious way, is to fill in the framework so that she stands out as a living character.

[3:43] Her husband, William Beach, also wrote a memoir in which he told us the name and the family of his wife. She was a family of his wife.

[3:53] Otherwise, we wouldn't know even that. But she came from the family, a noted family, a Scottish nobility, the Fairless, the Braid.

[4:09] Braid today is within the city boundaries of the city of Edinburgh. In the 17th century, of course, it was a country estate outside.

[4:22] And various members of the Fairless family were the Lairds, in other words, the Seqire. Lairds of Braid.

[4:35] They were a very old family. Their descent goes back to King Robert II, of Scocca. The most notable member of the family was probably Robert Fairley, who was an intimate friend of John Knox, with whom John Knox took private counsel in the things of God and in the affairs of church and state on many occasions.

[5:05] And Calderwood's history of the Kirk of Scotland, which is the great, authentic, first-hand account of things in Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries, tells us again and again of Robert Fairley's contribution to the church and its affairs.

[5:29] Robert Fairley was with John Knox on his deathbed. Robert Fairley's son, Alexander, married John Knox's daughter, named Martha.

[5:40] One of the things I have been trying to investigate is whether our heroine, Marion Fairley, was in fact descended from John Knox.

[5:54] That much I have not yet been able to establish. I have been able to establish, beyond any doubt, the date of Marion's baptism, which was on the 20th of December, 1639, in the old parish church of Canongate.

[6:21] The parish church of Canongate in those days was the abbey church of Holyrood House. And if you've ever taken that famous walk down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, you know what meets you at the bottom, Holyrood Palace, with the ruins of the abbey on the left-hand as you face it.

[6:39] That, in those days, was the parish church of Canongate. And there, on that date, in 1639, James Fairley and Euphemia Kincaid, his wife, brought their little baby daughter, Marion.

[6:57] They were, of course, Presbyterians, and as Presbyterians, they practiced the infant baptism. So that establishes Marion's approximate date of birth, beyond any question.

[7:12] One other thing I have been able to establish concerning the Fairley family is the coat of arms, which, with the kindness of the court of the Lord Lyre in Edinburgh, has made it possible for me to get a copy of this family crest.

[7:33] It's quite a remarkable thing, but although it was such a notable family, not a lot is recorded about it. But here is the family crest with the motto, I am ready.

[7:51] Now, may I go on to read just the opening sentence or so, in Marion's memoir.

[8:02] It pleased God of his great goodness early to incline my heart to seek him.

[8:14] And I bless him, I was born in a land where the gospel was at that time purely and powerfully preached. Also, that I was born of godly parents and well educated.

[8:30] But above all things, I bless him that he made me see that nothing but the righteousness of Christ could save me from the wrath of God.

[8:44] how right she was in saying that she was born in a land where at that time the gospel was purely preached. She was born in 1639.

[8:54] It was in 1638 that the national covenant of Stottland was signed. Now, Marion was born then in the parish of Canongate, which is now part of Edinburgh.

[9:08] Then it was a separate number. But the next thing that we find anything about her in terms of her location, we find her in the little town of Lanark, the county town of Lanarkshire, which is the rural, not the industrial part of Lanarkshire.

[9:29] We find her there. How the family came to be there, why they left Edinburgh, I have not yet been able to find, except the possibility that in 1645, when Marion was six or seven years of age, plague came on the city and the locality and people fled into the country for safety.

[9:56] That may or may not account for how she came to be in the little country town of Lanark, perhaps some 20 miles west of the leveclyde.

[10:14] Here is an interesting thing. The next thing she records. One day, having been at prayer, I'm coming into that room where one was reading a letter of Mr. Rutherford's, Samuel Rutherford.

[10:35] Then, she says, only in manuscript. Directed to one John Gordon of Rusco, giving an account of how far one might go and yet prove an hypocrite and misheaven, which occasioned great exercise to me.

[10:56] misbelief said, I would go to hell. But one day at prayer, he was graciously pleased to set home that word, to whom shall we go?

[11:13] For thou hast the words of eternal life. And at another time, that word, they that seek me early shall find me. And at another time, that word, the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy.

[11:35] Which was very refreshing to me. Well, that letter of Samuel Rutherford's was written in the year 1637, when Rutherford was a prisoner, for the gospel's sake, in Aberdeen, torn away from his people and his territory and was by the Solway.

[12:00] And I have traced this particular letter and would like to read quickly that part in it which concerns, which was the part that evidently struck home in Marion's experience.

[12:14] Remember, says Rutherford, to his correspondent, one of his parishioners at Anwalt, John Gordon, remember, he says, many go far on and reformed many things and confined tears as Esau did and suffer hunger for truth as Judas did and wish and desire the end of the righteous as Balaam did and profess fair and fight for the Lord as Saul did and desire the saints of God to pray for them as Pharaoh and Simon Magus did and prophesy and speak of Christ as Caiaphas did and walk softly and mourn for fear of judgments as Ahab did and put away gross sins and idolatry as Jehu did and hear the word of God gladly and reform their life in many things according to the word as Herod did and say to Christ, Master,

[13:15] I will holiday with us soever thou goest as the man who offered to be Christ's servant and may taste of the virtues of the life to come and be a partaker of the wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit and taste of the good word of God as the apostates who sin against the Holy Ghost and yet all these are but like gold in clink and colour and watered brass and base metals.

[13:45] These are written that we should try ourselves and not rest till we be a step nearer Christ than sunburnt and withering professors can come.

[13:59] Your lawful and loving pastor Samuel Rutherford. Well that was written in 1637. Thirty years were to pass before that was printed and published and by today godly people know Rutherford's letters and are grateful for them.

[14:18] But it raises the question whether Marion and the Fairley family were friends either of Rutherford or of John Gordon of Rusko which was in the parish of Ann Welfe where Rutherford was minister.

[14:34] How otherwise would the letter come into her possession? But the deeper matter is that the reading of the letter and the registering of it in her mind and heart shows the reality and the depth of the work of God's grace in her heart and in her soul.

[14:56] it was something that had a part in her experience. We know nothing beyond Marion's education except the fact that she tells us she was well educated which means pretty clearly that she was educated by private tutors in the home.

[15:21] the next thing we meet with concerning her is her marriage which took place in Lannan.

[15:32] But before I come to that I ought perhaps to say a word or two about the young man that she married. for just a year after Marion was born in the Canongate of Edinburgh a boy a fifth son was born to a man named John Leach the parish minister of Robertton a little village a tiny village in Lanarkshire some ten miles away.

[16:00] This boy was named William he was one of four sons in that family who became ministers of the gospel all of whom suffered immensely as such.

[16:12] John Leach was a learned man and he tutored his sons at home each in turn till they were ready to go to Glasgow University which they all did in turn and William the youngest graduated MA there in the year 1659.

[16:33] Having graduated young William Leach became tutor in a nobleman's family. That's a very common way of a graduate's beginning an academic career or a ministerial career in Scotland in those days.

[16:51] The family of Sir Andrew Kerr of Greenhead had several young members and William was put to be tutor and chaplain and instructor.

[17:03] At that time he had no fault of entering the minister. But Sir Andrew Kerr had a friend in the person of John Livingston of Ancrum in Roxburgh.

[17:18] John Livingston is perhaps best remembered for the great revival of religion that broke out at an open air communion service at a place called Kirk of Shops also in Annandshire back in the 16 family now John Livingston different family from David John Livingston was a great and godly man and under his influence William was inclined toward the work of the gospel.

[17:50] He then became chaplain in another family way in the north of Scotland in Murrayshire to Sir Hugh Campbell of Corder, and there he catechized the children and the servants.

[18:02] He preached wherever the opportunity offered, and he taught. But these were troublous times in Scotland, as well as in England, and troublous times in the church.

[18:12] The Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Church of John Knox, that had come about in 1560, had passed through deep waters.

[18:25] Affairs of state, the influence of the king, all manner of things had contributed to a decline, and now, for the second time in Scotland, the Church of Scotland entered what is known as the Second Episcopacy.

[18:44] In other words, this church that was delivered from Roman Catholicism and any kind of episcopal or prelatic system, this church was now under the influence of the king, brought back to that system.

[19:01] And through royal influence, ministers were forced on the Church of Scotland. And just as in England, godly ministers were thrust out of the Church of England in 1662, ejected, so in Scotland there were many godly ministers firmly committed to the Reformed faith and the Presbyterian view of things.

[19:24] They were dismissed. And William Leach, though he wasn't a parish minister, but simply a chaplain in a noble family, he was dismissed his office.

[19:37] In the meantime, his father had returned out of his church at Robertson. And he had secured a post as a schoolmaster in the town of Lamech.

[19:52] Well, when William was dismissed way up in the north, he went back home to his father. That was around 1663, 1663, and there, as among many other things, he tells us, he says, falling in acquaintance with the godly families of the place, I was induced to match with a young virgin in that town called Marion Fairley, who proved a wife of eminent Iatee.

[20:26] and I have secured from the Registrar-General for St. Hopland a copy of the entry in the old parish register of the parish of Lamech for October the 15th, 1664, where the minister of that time and Mr. Robert Burney records that on the ninth day of October, Mr. William Veach and Marion Fairley, both within this parish, gave up their names to be proclaimed in the band of marriage.

[21:09] And so they were. They were married on November the 23rd by the parish minister.

[21:20] I would still like to know where they were married. It might have been in the parish Kirk. It might not. Because you see, in Scotland, the Reformation was very radical.

[21:37] And the inmost never took place in church relatives. But the superstition, it was reaction, you see, from the Roman emphasis.

[21:51] And marriages very often didn't take place. And to this day, it is quite normal and quite common for marriages to take place on non-church premises. However, I may yet be able to find out.

[22:06] At any rate, the ruins of the old Kirk of Manoch are still there. There's still an impressive ruin. Well, now let me quote you Marion's account of how she entered the marriage statement.

[22:25] She says, some years after, when Providence seemed to call me to change my lot, because many suitors came. It was often my earnest supplication to the Lord that I might be matched in him, and for the glory which graciously he was pleased to grant me.

[22:47] Yet, in this business, I met with difficulties. several of my friends dissuading me from it by divers reasons, and this, among others, that it was an ill time, and I might be brought to straits in the world which bred trouble to my spirit, and put me many time to seek his mind in it.

[23:14] At length, he set home that word, Psalm 22, for our fathers trusted in thee, and thou deliverest them. And verse 5, they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

[23:31] Upon this, I was inclined to trust him, both for spirituals and temporals. And these promises were remarkably made good to me in all the various places of my sojourney, in diverse kingdoms, which I hear mentioned to the commemoration of his faithfulness.

[23:58] His word in this has been a true word to me, worthy to be recorded, to encourage me to trust him for the future. And heretofore, has not only provided well for me and mine, but made me in the places where my lot was passed useful to others, and made that word good to Corinthians 6.10, as having nothing, yet possessing all things.

[24:35] Before I move on to speak about the beginning of their married life, here, picture, here's a picture of William Beach, a photograph, a puppet from a portrait in oils.

[24:54] I've been trying to trace the original, but it's an unsuccessful search so far. It is possible that this was painted by the famous portrait painter of the 17th century, Sir Peter Leely.

[25:09] Well, there is William Beach in the normal ministerial guard of the day, somewhat older there, probably about 40, rather than 24, which is what he was when he was married.

[25:25] So then, these two young people were married. Marion was 25, William was 24. What, then, were they to do?

[25:35] there was no possibility of his taking an appointment as a minister of the Church of Scotland because he refused to accept episcopal jurisdiction, he refused to use liturgies.

[25:55] Well, I've read to you from Marion's memoir her expectation of trouble if she married a minister. In those troubled days when covenanting ministers were officially silenced.

[26:08] Well, she didn't have to wait long for the fulfilment of that expectation. William tenanted a small farm in the village of Dunsire, some five or six miles away from Lannock.

[26:27] A farm known as The Hills, a farm which is still there with still many of its old buildings. It so happens that the present parish minister at Dunsire, Mr.

[26:39] Valentine, as a young man, went to Sunday school with my wife, and through that means of instruction, I have been able to get his help on certain points of inquiry.

[26:54] Well, this was the thing then, William tenanted this farm, in order to maintain himself and his wife. He was not allowed to preach in public, but he did preach in private.

[27:07] He preached in conventicles, which of course was the spiteful dying that was given by the authorities to any meeting not held in the parish church according to the law of the land.

[27:24] This happened in England, of course, it happened in Scotland also. Here's a little quote from the parish registers, from the presbytery registers of Lanark, dated September the 6th, 1666.

[27:43] This day, Mr. William Thompson reported, that as for the conventical kept of late, the Gunn Hardenton's house, and as another godly young man in the parish of Dunsire, he, Mr.

[27:59] Thompson, can prove it by witnesses that Mr. Nicol Black preached there. And the presbytery recommended that the justice of the peace to take note thereof for the breach of the act of Parliament.

[28:20] Another famous Covernante minister, was named John Natheter, who had also been turned out of his church down in Galilee, near Dumfries.

[28:32] He, on a journey toward Edinburgh, came to a point concerning which he wrote this. He says, I rode on and came to the parish of Dunsire on Saturday night to Mr.

[28:45] Veach's house at Hills, where I preached on the morrow, being Sabbath, put a few persons. Blackadder and Veach became close friends, fellow ministers, fellow covenanters, fellow sufferers.

[29:04] Blackadder later baptized William and Marion's third child. You remember that these two people were Presbyterians and practiced infant baptism.

[29:15] But of course, you must remember also that the godly covenanters among them would not submit their children for baptism to Episcopal clergy, to unworthy ministers.

[29:30] The result was, of course, that there were many baptisms which were, strictly speaking, illegal. They were clandestined, they were in houses, they were out on the moors, and so on and so forth.

[29:45] But anyway, twelve months before Blackadder appeared at Dunstire, William and Marion had welcomed their firstborn, a little girl named Mary.

[29:57] But six months after that, they were sat and by her death. And her mortality, as you realize, was very high in those days.

[30:11] But that was not the only thing. After two years, was at Dunstire, we read this in Marion's memoir.

[30:24] A little after I was married, the storm of persecution arose upon us to the parting of my husband and me, and increased so as I was necessitated to leave my native land, having born four children ere I came out of Scotland, two of them died of the land, the other two I brought with me, and being deprived of what once I had then, I renewed my suit to God for me and mine, and that was that he would give us the tribe of Levi's inheritance, for it said, they had no inheritance, for the Lord God was their inheritance.

[31:18] When I entered into a strange land, that was England, of course, which was a separate kingdom at that time, when I entered into a strange land, I brought, I besought the Lord that he would give me food to eat and raiment to put on, and bring me back to see his glory in Scotland, this promise was exactly made out to me.

[31:50] Now, what brought this all about? Well, it was the Battle for Pendlems, sometimes known as the Battle of Rullion Green, which was fought on November 27, 28, 1666.

[32:08] after Marion and William had been living at Berkshire, and after they had been married for two years. Now, here is a feature of covenanting history in Scotland, which, with one possible exception, is not found in England at all, and that is the taking up of arms in the cause of the gospel.

[32:34] you may like to think and debate and discuss, is it right, is it wrong? But if you do, please remember that it's very easy to do that in an armchair in the middle of the 20th century.

[32:49] These dear people were living in the heat of trouble and persecution. You see, when the Presbyterian reformed way of worship was outlawed by the introduction of the Second Episcopacy in Scotland, the forces of the crown were employed against the public actors to stop them worshipping privately in homes, to stop them worshipping in the fields.

[33:22] But it didn't stop at just breaking up gatherings. It went beyond that point to the point of the most terrible and ferocious cruelty beyond all reason that was used against them.

[33:42] Now, I simply stay to state the fact that on certain occasions the Covenanters were provoked to take up arms themselves.

[33:54] against the royal forces and in self-defense. There are three famous battles of Covenant in history, the Battle of Bothell Bridge, the Battle of Drum Clog, and the Battle of the Pentlands or Runyon Ring.

[34:14] Now, all three of those places are in the Lanarkshire area. so that that fact by itself tells you that the area where William and Marian were living was a tremendous thronghold of Covenanting interests.

[34:33] John Welsh, who was a descendant of John Knox, himself an outed minister from Galloway, took the initiative on this occasion and induced William Veitch to join in this particular fight against the Royal Forces under the headship of Colonel Thomas Dale at Penfield.

[34:59] A neighbour, a godly neighbour from Dumsire, whose home still stands there and whose family is still there, Joseph Leomont became the he led the cavalry.

[35:14] Well, that particular battle was lost. The Covenanters were routed and those that were captured didn't live very long.

[35:25] By a miracle, William Veitch escaped with his life. But of course, having escaped with his life, the one thing he dared not do was to return home to Mary, because that was the obvious place where he would be sought.

[35:43] And the charge against the Covenanters was, not surprisingly, treason. Treason.

[35:55] So what he did was to flee to the home of his brother, one of his four ministerial brothers, his brother John, who was the parish minister in the little village of Westfowl in Berwickshire.

[36:07] Westfowl. When he got there, the information was given to him that his name was included in a royal proclamation for arrest and death.

[36:20] The only course open to him was to flee Scotland and seek refuge in England. This, of course, is what he did.

[36:34] And he arrived in Newcastle on Tyre in the winter of 1666, 67, just about this time of the year.

[36:47] Like a good many before him, he was forced to assume another name. Just as John Knox, long years before him, had, in certain situations for safety, passed by the name of John Sinclair, which was his mother's maiden name.

[37:05] So William Veitch, passed by the name of William Johnson, Johnson being his mother's maiden name. But he found friends there. There were godly people in Newcastle on Tyre.

[37:19] And in particular, he found a family whose name also happened to be Johnson, one William Johnson, who was a former board mayor of the city for the continent.

[37:34] a Presbyterian, a reformed believer. And this William Johnson and his wife took the other William Johnson, the fugitive William Veitch, into their home as chaplain.

[37:51] This, of course, is what happened to so many of the ejected ministers, both in England and in Scotland. The rest of parishes, the rest of income.

[38:01] many of them, of course, had to turn to one trade or profession. But in order to set them free for the ministry of the word, in private, if not in public, again and again, families of means and ability would engage a minister as chaplain.

[38:19] And he would minister to the family, and the family would invite him to their friends, and the company would get larger and larger according to what was possible and what was reasonable, within the limits of safety at the time.

[38:33] Well, William Theach made this connection, and through this connection he was introduced to godly men and godly ministers in England, he travelled, he's known to have preached in various parts of Yorkshire, in Nottingham, in Blackburn, in Chester, in London.

[38:53] In London on one notable occasion, he had the celebrated carnal blood in his congregation, and there were irate hearers who were not discerning ears of the truth at all, but they regarded him as a man who was preaching treason, that is rich, was preaching treason, with the famous carnal blood, that got up at the end and the end and he said you all cry treason, treason, I can hear nothing but reason, reason, the reasoning out of the word of God.

[39:28] Well, Vietje's ministry was blessed, but you see, it was isolated, it was itinerant, it was here and there, there was nothing connected, there was nothing settled about it.

[39:40] The other particular sphere of his ministry during this period, about 1667 to 1772, was in Northumberland, that very rural part stretching up over the northern end of the Pennines towards Carter Bar and the Scottish border.

[40:04] That area was wild in the extreme. There had been no gospel preaching there since the famous Bernard Gilpin, who was known as the Apostle of the North, preached there in the time of Queen Elizabeth.

[40:19] His Gilpin family, of course, is a famous family. In after years, Marion was to sit under the ministry of one of his descendants, Richard Gilpin, in Newcastle.

[40:31] Some of us are familiar with the ministry of another man named Bernard Gilpin in Harford. And other members of the Gilpin family connected with Pulver Batch in Cheshire.

[40:42] It's all the same family. One of those remarkable families that God has honoured and used. Well, there it was. Gilpin preached the gospel. But Gilpin had been dead a hundred years and nobody else had gone in a sense.

[40:55] But these people were all blessed and used him. And among a wild and reckless people, there was a transformation of behaviour and conduct brought about, there was a hearing for the word of God.

[41:12] But, of course, I must ask to come back now to the question, what was happening to Marian all this time, who he had left at home at Dunstire? Well, during this period, 1662, on several occasions, William visited her.

[41:31] secretly, of course, taking his life in his hands, of course, every time he crossed the Scottish border.

[41:43] But he did so from time to time and visited her there at Dunstire. And he found, of course, that in his absence, the soldiers and others had constantly visited the farm, the hills, and Marian was being constantly harassed and insulted.

[42:00] They searched for her husband. She just said, well, he's away, he's in England, God has given him his liberty, and you may search as you will. Well, the point came when William advised his wife to leave the farm at Dunstire and go back to her relatives in Edinburgh.

[42:21] And this she did. During this period, three other children were born. One was named William, and his baptism is recorded as taking place at Smaelum in Roxburghshire, which is a long way, both from the English border and from Edinburgh.

[42:40] And one wonders whether it wasn't specially arranged as a point of rendezvous. Marian went down with the babe from Edinburgh, and William came up from somewhere, surreptitiously over the border from England.

[42:54] And in any case, the minister at Smaelum, Thomas Donaldson, was a godly covenant minister. That was son William.

[43:04] Then there was another son, Samuel. He was baptized in Edinburgh by John Blackburn. Then there was another little boy, James, who died with Emma.

[43:17] But these two sons, William and Samuel, grew up, and they each became eminent men in their own sphere, in their own time.

[43:34] So I come on now to speak a little bit about another period in Marian's life, and that's the period when she was in England, from early 1672 to late 1687.

[43:50] How then did it come about that Marian came to leave Scotland and go to settle in England? Well, among the various groups of people to whom William ministered in the remote parts of North North Ireland, there was a group that met at a farmhouse called Fallalees, in the parish of Rothbury, on the Simon-side hills, and they asked William to come and be their pastor.

[44:26] They asked them to bring his wife and family to settle down among them. The owner of that farm at that time was a man named Charles Hall, and he was a godly man and a thoroughgoing Protestant, and he rented the farm to William as a tenant partner.

[44:50] Well, it so happened, as you well know, that the English Act of Indulgence came out. Charles II's Act of Indulgence came out in March 1672, and looking at the register of those indulgences, one finds this entry, a license issued to William Johnson to teach at Fallalees and Harlem Hall, Presbyteria.

[45:18] William Johnson was, in fact, William Rich, and so armed with a certificate from the King, under the English Declaration of Indulgence, William and Marion set up house, there was a bit of farming, there was a bit of preaching, there was a bit of gospel life and testimony there among them.

[45:46] One wonders how Marion made that journey from Edinburgh down to Fallalees. Surely she didn't do it alone. But then surely William wouldn't be able to go to fetch her.

[46:02] He would risk his life. The one thing, the only thing we know about that journey that Marion made from Edinburgh to Fallalees is the fact that across the haunches of the horseshoe road were slung two fishermen's creels, the wiper baskets, the fishermen use.

[46:26] And in one of those creels was one little boy, son William, aged two, and in the other creel was the other little boy, son Samuel, aged one.

[46:44] So the family was reunited. These two boys, I say this at this point because I know I'm not going to get through anywhere, anything like through the matter that I've been able to gather.

[46:58] These two boys, William and Samuel, Marion coveted for the Lord, but not only for the Lord, she had it upon her heart that they should become ministers.

[47:14] Point of fact, they didn't. They both became soldiers, professional soldiers, and administrators. I have managed to get a photograph, a portrait of Samuel.

[47:32] He became, as I say, a soldier, and here is the portrait of him, which was painted round about 1700, when he would have been about 30, 35 years of age, dressed in coat of mail, of course, according to the custom of the time.

[47:55] course. Not only that, I have managed to get a photograph of a monument which exists in Nova Scotia, which you will not be able to read, but I will read to you.

[48:15] It is headed Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. Samuel Vetch. Vetch. Samuel preferred that form of the name when he grew up.

[48:27] He didn't call himself Vetch, but Vetch. Samuel Vetch, adjutant general of the force under Colonel Francis Nicholson, which captured Port Royal, capital of Acadia, in 1710.

[48:45] Acadia was the original name of what is now known as Nova Scotia, and Nova Scotia, of what simply means New Scotland. The inscription goes on, First governor and commander-in-chief, a notable figure in colonial history, an able soldier and administrator.

[49:09] With imperial vision he strove to extend the realm of Britain beyond the seas. So in these days when the British empire has fallen apart, we are taken back through Marion's family to the days when it was expanded, when colonial enterprise was going on, and Samuel Vetch, one of those two little boys that rode in the creel, was the first British governor of Nova Scotia.

[49:42] I have also managed to get a photograph of the commission that was given by Queen Anne to Samuel Vetch, which you'll not be able to read, and I can't read it myself except to say here is the royal seal, and here is the Queen's signature.

[50:06] But the commission was issued to Samuel Vetch in 1709, just before he left London for America to organize the expedition against Canada, and it was, in fact, part of his work to bring the whole of Canada under the British crime.

[50:29] But that's running ahead quite a lot. William and Marion are now settled at Fallolees in Northampton. The ministry there is blessed.

[50:41] But every blessed ministry is followed by trouble, and there were random Catholics and there were others around Fallolees and Harnam Hall, who made it their business to make things difficult.

[50:54] But there was a blessed ministry, the fruitful ministry. Other children were born there, including the son, Ebenezer, who did gratify his mother's heart and become a minister, although he predeceased his father and mother.

[51:12] But he had a short ministry in Edinburgh and at Hare in southwest Scotland. England. Then the family moved from Farolees to a place called Stanton Hall, which is not so far from Morbeth.

[51:36] This seemed to be a more settled centre. But alas, there was trouble again, the deacon went to parish. And then Thomas Bell, a Scotsman, who in point of fact had been tremendously helped by William's brother, John, John Beach, who was minister of Westchester.

[51:57] This man stirred up trouble against William and Marion. And his object was to chase him back to Scotland, because in England he was beyond the Scottish law, at least officially.

[52:13] once over the Scottish border, that old act of treason would hold against him. Marion speaks about this.

[52:26] Let me read a little to you. She says, Several years after, it pleased the Lord to let my husband fall into the enemy's hands, who took him January the 17th, about five o'clock in the morning, 1679, in Stanton Hall, which bred some trouble and new fear to my spirit.

[52:53] But he was graciously pleased to set home that word, Mark 7, 37, he does all things well, trust in the Lord, and fear not what men can do.

[53:06] Which brought peace to me, in such a measure, that I was made often to wonder, for all the time the officers were in the house, he supported me, so that I was not in the least discouraged before them.

[53:23] Which made Major Obelthorpe to say, he wondered to see me. I told him, I looked to a higher hand than his in this.

[53:36] I knew he could not go one hair breadth beyond God's permission. He answered, he permits his enemies to go a great length.

[53:48] Then they took him, that is, my husband, they took him to prison, where he lay about twelve days.

[54:02] But this time I was under much exercise of spirit. Prison was in Morphe. I was under much exercise of spirit, which made me go to God many times on his behalf.

[54:19] He made that word often sweet to me. He performeth the things appointed for him. And that verse, he is of one mind, and who can turn him.

[54:33] Much means was used for his liberty, but all to none effect, which bred new errands to God for him and me.

[54:46] but misbelief coming in and telling many ill tales of God was like to discourage me. Namely, that I was a stranger in a strange land and had six small children and little in the world to look to, but he comforted me with these words, says, Oh, why art thou cast down my soul?

[55:16] What should discourage thee? And why with vexing thoughts art thou disquieted in me? Still trust in God, for I shall have good cause to praise him.

[55:30] Psalm 43, 5. At length, says Mariam, he helped me to give him freely to him, to do with him as he pleased.

[55:42] And if his blood should fill up the cup of the enemy and bring about deliverance to his church, I would betake myself to his care and providence for me and my children.

[56:01] And while I was speaking to God in prayer, that word was wonderfully brought into my mind, Genesis 22, 11, Abraham, hold thy hand, for I have provided a sacrifice, which comforted me concerning my husband.

[56:21] And that word, 1 Kings 17, 14, the meal in the barrel shall not waste, nor the oil in the crews, until the Lord send rain on the earth, which brought much peace to my troubled spirit, concerning my family.

[56:37] I thought I had no grounds to believe he should not die, he wrote to me in the night, that there was an order from the king to remove him to enter.

[56:50] When I opened the letter, he had that expression, deep calleth unto thee, but he was pleased to set home that word, good is the word of the Lord, which silenced my misdilogue.

[57:06] I rode along with the man, the man servant, in that night, but could get no access to the morning.

[57:17] In other words, she went to Morbeth to visit her husband, she already went away to Edinburgh, but I could get no access until the morning. When I came in, the soldiers were guarding him, the kettle drums beating, the troops presently, sorry, I can't believe that one, we were soon parted, and he carried out, and he carried out to the streets, and set on horseback among the ranks.

[57:50] The townspeople running to gaze, all these things were against me, and conspired to frighten me. But that word, being set home, wonderfully supported me, Isaiah 8, 12, 13, Fear thou not the fear of man, but let the Lord be your fear and your dread.

[58:14] I went after to a friend's house in the town, and wept my fill, and some friends with me. Well, I haven't time to read it on.

[58:31] But what happened was, of course, the freedom was taken to Edinburgh. There was a trial of sports. There was a great deal of delay, but through the intervention of a friend, and Gilded Elliot, a lawyer, who later became born at Minto, and also, strangely enough, through the Duke of Lauderdale, who was a distant relative of Beech's.

[59:00] Finally, Beech was released. Marion went to Edinburgh, and met him, and together, they came back home to their house, and there they were at.

[59:16] After a few months, prisoning, she says, my good God, was pleased to give orders for his liberty. When the news came to my ears, that word came in my mind, he hath both spoken it, and himself hath done it.

[59:34] I will walk softly in the bitterness of my spirit all my days. So, we both came home in peace to our children, where we lived, at Stanton Hall, three miles from Norbeth, in Northumberland, August 1669.

[59:56] What then? Well, William resumed his ministry, his foes abandoned, there were conventicles, both on the English and on the Scottish side of the border.

[60:07] It is a fascinating story. I haven't really even begun to tell you the exciting things, how the Earl of Argyle escaped out of Edinburgh Castle, and he, of course, was the great leader of the Protestant cause, escaped from Edinburgh and came in disguise to reach his home at Stanton Hall, had reached minister to him and took him in disguise to London in terrible times and terrible circumstances.

[60:39] But finally, of course, the day came when liberty was nearer at hand and Marion moved into Newcastle on time because her husband went away and went abroad.

[61:01] She moved into Newcastle. That's when she sat under the ministry of Dr. Richard Gilpin. Then in 1687, of course, James II issued another declaration of indulgence, giving liberty for teaching and that made some ministry possible.

[61:21] Now, when that happened, Reach was called to a meeting house, just wrote from the Scottish border, in the parish of Moore Battle.

[61:31] I was going to read you the course that the churches, that the people there sent to him, that there was the time. In 1690, after, of course, what our fathers always referred to as the Glorious Revolution, when William of Orange came and there was the act of toleration of the liberty, William, William and Marion were able to go back to Scotland.

[62:03] And Marion had her heart's desire in getting back to the land of her birth. They went to Peebles, and he was minister to the gospel there, and had a lot of trouble, but with a lot of blessing, for four years.

[62:16] Then, through certain circumstances, troublesome circumstances, they had to move, and they went to Dumfries, to Dumfries on the Solomon, not so far from Rutherford, Helen's Awards.

[62:33] And from alternating school, if God ranound Cheers. Thank you.