Blackwood & MacCall's Gravestone

Irvine Parish Kirkyard

Peden Place

Irvine

Ayrshire

NGR - NS 322386

Blackwood and MacCall are commemorated by a tablestone located on the east side of the parish church (the white stone in photograph above).

The gravestone bears the following inscription:

STOP PASSENGER

THOU TREADEST NEAR TWO MARTYRS!

JAMES BLACKWOOD & JOHN McCOUL

who suffer'd at IRVINE

on the 31 st. of December 1666.

REV. XII, 11th

These honest Country-men whose bones here lie

   Both victims fell to Prelates, cruelty:

    Condemn'd by bloody and unrighteous laws.

They died Martyrs for the good old Cause:

    Which Balamn's wicked race in vain assail.

For no enchantments against Israel prevail:

    Life and this evil world they did contemn,

And died for Christ who died first for them. 

                                                                                                They Liv'd unknown

Till Persecution dragg'd them into fame

And chas'd them up to Heav'n

Erected by Friends to Religious Liberty

31st., Dec. 1823

Blackwood and MacCall's Gravestone

James Blackwood and John MacCall (or McCoul, as it is spelled on the gravestone) were captured at the Battle of Rullion Green in 1666. They were sent to Irvine for trial and execution.

The local hangman, a Highlander named William Sutherland, refused to carry out the executions. He was tortured in an attempt to persuade him, but he steadfastly refused.

Eventually, Blackwood and MacCall were executed in Irvine on 31 December 1666 by one of the Covenanters who had been held at Ayr awaiting execution, but who agreed to hang his friends there and in Irvine in return for freedom.