Robert Stewart

John Grierson

Robert Stewart, son of Major Robert Stewart of Ardoch (NX 634832), and John Grierson were in the party of Covenanters that was overtaken by Graham of Claverhouse and his dragoons at Auchencloy on 18 December 1684. Two days previously they had forced an entry into Kirkcudbright Tolbooth and released the Covenanters held there, during which a guard was killed. One week earlier they had taken part in the murder of the curate of Carsphairn. Claverhouse pursued the men to the Black Water of Dee where a skirmish took place. 'Black' James MacMichael and Robert Ferguson were killed alongside them. The bodies of Stewart and Grierson were taken to Dalry for burial, but their corpses were later exhumed and reburied on the northernmost corner of the kirkyard, a place usually kept for thieves or other malcontents