Wigtown Martyrs' Monument

Windy Hill

Wigtown

Wigtownshire

NGR - NX 430554

The tall memorial on Windy Hill was erected in memory of all of the Wigtown Martyrs.

The inscription is as follows:

(i) West side

A general desire having been manifested

to commemorate by some suitable monument

the piety, constancy and courage

of the Scottish Martyrs

especially those whose ashes repose

in the Churchyard of Wigtown,

a committee of gentlemen from the district

was appointed to carry out this object

and a considerable fund being raised

by public subscription and otherwise

the present Monument was erected in the year

1858

(ii) South side:

Inscription on the Tombstone of

Margaret Wilson in the Churchyard of Wigtown

Let earth and stone still witness bear,

There lies a virgin Martyr here

Murdered for owning Christ supreme

Head of His Church and no more crime,

But not abjuring Presbitery

And her not owning Prelacy

They her condemned by unjust law

Of Heaven or Hell they stood no awe

Within the sea tied to a stake

She suffered for Christ Jesus sake

The actors of this cruel crime

Was Lagg, Strachan, Winram and Graham

Neither young years nor yet old age

Could stop the fury of their rage

(iii) East side:

MARGARET WILSON aged 18 daughter

of a farmer in Glenvenoch

AND

MARGARET MACLACHLAN, aged 63 tenant in

the farm of Drumjargan both in this County

were drowned by sentence of the Public Authorities

in the water of the Bladnoch near this place

on the 15^th May 1685

because they refused to forsake the principles

of the Scottish Reformation and to take the

government oath abjuring the right of the

people to resist the tyranny of their rulers

Also

WILLIAM JOHNSTONE gardener, and JOHN MILROY

chapman in Fintilloch, and GILBERT WALKER

servant in Kirkala, all in this County were

summarily executed in the town of Wigtown, in

the same year and for the same cause

(iv) North side:

This Monument

has been erected

in memory of the noble army of Martyrs

in Galloway and other parts of Scotland

by whom during the age of persecution our

Religion and Liberties as now established

were secured

AND

as a lesson to posterity never to lose or

abuse these glorious privileges

planted by their labour, rooted in their

suffering and watered in their blood