Rebellion & Enlightenment

John Livingstone's Diary. The Diary of a Covenanting Minister, 1626 - 1667

Period:

17th Century

Description:

This handwritten diary has as its earliest inscription ‘From the library of John Macky 16th April 1720’ and this is followed by an inscription by Thomas Younger as owner in 1736. Its history after that is obscure but it passed to the Wigtown County Library in 1931 from Mr James Muir of Newton Stewart, and then to the Museum Service which separated from the library at Local Government reorganisation in 1975.

The opening eight pages of this text are missing, but other manuscript copies of the diary exist, for example in the Advocates Library, Edinburgh. These were examined and a collated text by Rev W K Tweedie was published by the Woodrow Society in 1845. The Society has also published correspondence and sermon texts by Livingstone.

Place of Production:

Stranraer

Materials/Media:

paper

Source:

Stranraer Museum

Accession Number:

WIWMS:1988.108

Digital Number:

SRBK005a-f

Copyright:

Dumfries & Galloway Council

Further Information

Further Information:

Rev John Livingstone 1603-1672

John Livingstone was the son of William Livingstone, Minister at Kilsyth (then called Monyabrock), whose own father, Alexander, was also a Minister. The family were related to the Livingstones of Callender and Kilsyth.

John was sent to school at Stirling, and then to the College of Glasgow. He graduated in 1621 and returned home to assist his father in Lanark, where he had moved in 1614. He wanted to go to France to study medicine, but his father refused to give his permission, as he had planned for John to manage land of his at Kilsyth. Their kinsman Sir William Livingstone of Kilsyth wanted to buy the land to found a burgh of barony. In John’s own words

‘Now being in these straits, I resolved I would spend one day before God
my alone; and knowing of one secret cave in the south side of Mouse
Water a little above the house of Jerviswood, over against Cleghorn
Wood, I went thither, and after many to’s and fro’s, and much confusion
and fear anent the state of my soul, I thought it was made out to me
that I behoved to preach Jesus Christ, which if I did not, I should have
no assureance of salvation. After which I laid aside all thoughts of
France, and medicine, and the land, and betook me to the study of
divinity.’

Sir William bought the land, and John went back to his studies. He preached his first sermon on 2nd January 1625 but had difficulty finding a parish due to his ‘unconformity’ in the eyes of the church authorities. In 1630, he was called to Killinshie in Ireland, and in 1638 to Stranraer. He stayed there until 1648 when he moved to Ancurum and stayed there until exiled to Holland in 1662. He settled in Rotterdam, where in died in 1672.

His ‘unconformity’ related to opposition to the Episcopal system of church government whereby the state controlled the church through bishops, as opposed to the Presbyterian system whereby each congregation contributed to decision-making. The struggle between the two systems began in Scotland with the Reformation in 1559, and was particularly intense under Charles I, Charles II and James II from the 1630s to 1680s until William and Mary established the Presbyterian system in 1690.

As a leading Minister of the ‘Covenanting’ group (supporters of the National Covenant of 1638) Livingstone had a varied and often dangerous life. He travelled to London secretly with the Covenant and had to flee, to escape imprisonment. He was ousted from his parish in Ireland, and served with the Scots army during the Civil Wars in Ireland and England. He attempted to emigrate to America and was forced back by storms. He was also one of the Scots commissioners who negotiated with Charles II in Holland in 1649. After the Restoration he was tried for his dissent and forced into exile abroad.

He died in Rotterdam on 9th August 1672 having lived through one of the most turbulent periods in Scottish history, without seeing the ultimate triumph of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland.