The name comes principally from the period of 1638 when a document known as the National Covenant was drawn up to assert the right of the Church in Scotland to be independent of the State. It is a lengthy document but it sets forth the reasons for this action and the ultimate achievement of it, namely Civil and Religious Liberty.

In February 1638, this document having been approved by the leaders and ministers of the Church was presented to a large congregation in Greyfriars Church where the nobles and commissioners from across Scotland signed the document. After copies were made the ordinary people signed the document and the occasion was marked by all kind of emotion as the people pledged through the signing of the Covenant to LIVE “in obedience to the commandment of God”.

From then on they were known as the Covenanters. For the next 50 years the struggle was between the government and the King and those who were Covenanters who took as one of their slogans the words: For Christ’s Crown and Covenant.

All over Scotland monuments are found in over 300 locations giving details of those who suffered.

In St. Giles the first martyr, in 1661, is remembered. He was the Marquis of Argyle who, as he stood on the scaffold before being beheaded, said. “I set the crown on the King’s head. he hastens me to a better crown then his own.”

In 1666 Hugh McKail, after being sentenced to die, saw his friend as he was led to the Tolbooth prison and said, “Only four more days till I see Jesus.”

In Newmilns several monuments are found the Churchyard reminding the viewer of the cost of devotion and loyalty in that area of Ayrshire. One small monument reminds us of John Law who was trying to rescue some Covenanters who were attending a prayer meeting but had been taken captive by the troopers. For his efforts John Law was shot by the troopers.

Lonely Priesthill brings one of the most harrowing scenes of martyrdom. John Brown was a devoted Covenanter but had been apprehended by Claverhouse the arch enemy of the Covenanters. John Brown was taken out in front of his cottage, where his wife and children were forced to witness this terrible deed. The taunts of Claverhouse were brutal and fierce against this helpless wife and mother. Tradition gives an aspect of the story which reveals the cruelty of Claverhouse. His soldiers, it says, refused to shoot John Brown and Claverhouse had to shoot him with his own musket. Cut down in the prime of life simply for being a Covenanter.

At the Bladnoch Burn which flowed into the Solway Firth another cruel deed was carried through. Two women, one a widow over 60 years of age and the other in her late teens were tied to stakes, awaiting the on rushing tide of the Solway. As the waves lapped over the older woman Margaret Wilson made her retort to the taunt of a soldier. “What do I see but Christ wrestling out yonder. Think ye that we are sufferers, not it is Christ in us.” She took her Bible and read from Roman 8 and then sang from Psalm 25 “My sins and faults of youth, do thou O Lord forget!”

She succumbed to the waves and entered the presence of her Lord.

James Renwick was the last martyr to died in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, in February 1688. He was a young man of 26, but he was regarded as being ‘of old Knox’s principles.’ Before he climbed the ladder to the final place of execution he looked out on the crow and said to them, ‘Keep your ground and the Lord will send you teachers and ministers and then, these despised truths shall become glorious in the land again.”. He then prayed and in his prayer he uses these words. “Lord, I die in the faith that thou wilt not leave Scotland at this time, but will make the blood of the martyrs the seed of the Church.”

One other martyrdom took place in June of that year. Near Sorn in Ayrshire, George Wood, a 16 year old boy, was shot by a trooper simply because he was carrying a Bible.

These were harrowing times and some 18,000 were martyrs or suffered in other ways for their faith. It is reckoned that there were around 9,000 martyrs the remainder bore severe penalties of fines; imprisonment, deportation to Virginia, Carolina or the West Indies, torture and loss of all things material.

Simply for being A COVENANTER - ONE WHO WAS IN COVENANT WITH GOD.