View source for Alexander Peden

{{Short description|Scottish covenanter (1626–1686)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| name             = Alexander Peden
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| image            = Alexander Peden mask dsc05516.jpg 
| caption          = Peden's cloth mask and wig displayed in the [[Museum of Scotland]]
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| religion         = Christianity
| school           = Presbyterianism
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| birth_date       = 1626
| birth_place      = [[Sorn, East Ayrshire|Sorn]], [[Ayrshire]], [[Scotland]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1686|1|26|1626|mf=yes}}
| death_place      = Sorn, Ayrshire, [[Scotland]]
| resting_place    = [[Cumnock]], [[Scotland]]
| resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|55.455364|-4.262325}}
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}}
[[File:Bass Rock 4.jpg|thumb|The [[Bass Rock]], [[East Lothian]]. Peden endured upwards of five years from 26 June 1673 to 9 October 1678 closely shut up in that "desolate sea-girt Rock".<ref name="Dickson">{{cite book |last1=Dickson |first1=John |title=Emeralds chased in Gold; or, the Islands of the Forth: their story, ancient and modern. [With illustrations.] |date=1899 |publisher=Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier |location=Edinburgh and London |page=225 |url=http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_000000058DB2#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=253&xywh=886%2C134%2C2067%2C1151&r=0|access-date=3 March 2019}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>]]
[[File:Bassrockitscivil00mcri orig 0204v2.png|thumb|right|Peden at [[Richard Cameron (Covenanter)|Richard Cameron's]] grave. Peden is reported to have said "Oh to be wi thee, Ritchie!" at the grave of Cameron's decapitated body.<ref name="Lays">{{cite book |last1=Menteath |first1=A. Stuart, Mrs |title=Lays of the kirk and covenant |date=1852 |publisher=New York : R. Carter & Brothers |pages=[https://archive.org/details/laysofkirkcovena00mentrich/page/n133 122]–133 |url=https://archive.org/details/laysofkirkcovena00mentrich |access-date=16 April 2019}}</ref>]]
[[File:Alexander Peden Memorial inscription, Cumnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland.jpg|thumb|right|Alexander Peden Memorial inscription, Cumnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland]]
[[File:GL GM 3016.jpg|thumb|right|''The Marriage of the Covenanter'', by [[Alexander Johnston (artist)|Alexander Johnston]] (1815–1891). Alexander Peden conducted the marriage of [[John Brown (Covenanter)|John Brown]] to Isabel Weir at Priesthill in Muirkirk parish in 1682<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jardine |first1=Mark |title=Alexander Peden: Prophecy, Ploughmen and Preaching in 1682 |url=https://drmarkjardine.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/alexander-peden-prophecy-ploughmen-and-preaching-in-1682/ |website=Jardine's Book of Martyrs |date=17 April 2014 |access-date=12 April 2019}}</ref>]]
[[Image:Plaque, Alexander Peden (geograph 2320459).jpg|thumb|right|Peden's blue plaque at Mistyburn, Antrim, Northern Ireland]]
'''Alexander Peden''' (1626{{snd}}26 January 1686), also known as "'''Prophet Peden'''", was one of the leading figures in the [[Covenanter]] movement in [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]].

==Life==
Peden was born at Auchincloich Farm near [[Sorn, East Ayrshire|Sorn]], [[Ayrshire]], about 1626.<ref name="Anderson">{{cite book |last=M'Crie |first=Thomas |title=The Bass rock: Its civil and ecclesiastic history |date=1847 |publisher=J. Greig & Son |location=Edinburgh |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bassrockitscivil00mcri/page/24 24]–57 |url=https://archive.org/details/bassrockitscivil00mcri |author-link=Thomas M'Crie the younger}}{{PD-notice}}</ref> He was the son of a small proprietor. His name can also be spelled Peathine or Pethein.<ref name="Fasti2">{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Hew |title=Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation |date=1917 |publisher=Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd |pages=[https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc02scot/page/345 345]–346 |volume=2 |url=https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc02scot |access-date=12 April 2019}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>  He was possibly the Alexander Peden who was the restored heir of his grandfather in Hillhead of Sorn, 16 March 1648, and on the same day heir of Auchinlonfuird. 

Of his early training, there is no clear record, but he may have attended the parish school of [[Mauchline]], and he was a student at the [[University of Glasgow]] from 1643 to 1648.<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB |last1=Henderson |first1=Thomas Finlayson |wstitle=Peden, Alexander|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofnati44stepuoft/page/205 205]–206 |noicon=1|volume=44}}{{PD-notice}}</ref><ref name="Morton">{{cite book |last1=Morton |first1=Alexander S. |title=Galloway and the Covenanters; or, The struggle for religious liberty in the south-west of Scotland |date=1914 |publisher=Paisley : A. Gardner |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gallowaycovenant00mort/page/318/mode/2up?q=peden 319]-328 |url=https://archive.org/details/gallowaycovenant00mort |access-date=12 April 2019}}</ref> 
For a time he acted as schoolmaster, precentor, and session-clerk at [[Tarbolton]], Ayrshire,<ref name="EB1911">{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Peden, Alexander|volume=21|noicon=1|page=37}}{{PD-notice}} This cites A. Smellie, ''Men of the Covenant'', ch. xxxiv.</ref> and, according to [[Robert Wodrow]], was employed in a similar capacity at [[Fenwick, East Ayrshire|Fenwick]]. 

In 1660 he was ordained minister of [[New Luce]] in [[Wigtownshire]].<ref name="EB1911">{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Peden, Alexander|volume=21|noicon=1|page=37}}{{PD-notice}} This cites A. Smellie, ''Men of the Covenant'', ch. xxxiv.</ref> As he was about to receive license from the Presbytery of Ayr, an accusation of immorality was raised against him, but was found to be false. In 1659 he was ordained to this charge, and was deprived by Act of Parliament 11 June, and Decreet of Privy Council 1 October 1662. When he preached his farewell sermon, he is said to have occupied the pulpit till nightfall, and on leaving it, to have knocked three times on the pulpit door with his Bible, saying, "I arrest thee in my Master's name, that none enter thee but such as come by the door, as I have done."

Following his ejection, Peden became perhaps the most celebrated field preacher of his time. He wandered all over the south of Scotland, obtaining by his figurative and oracular style of address and his supposed prophetic gifts an extraordinary influence over the people, which was further increased by his hardships, perils, and numerous hairbreadth escapes.
[[File:Alexander Peden's gravestone, Cumnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland.jpg|thumb|Alexander Peden's gravestone, [[Cumnock]], [[East Ayrshire]], Scotland]]

After the [[Stuart Restoration|Restoration]] of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]], Peden had to leave his parish under Middleton's Ejectment Act in 1663. For ten years he wandered far and wide, bringing comfort and succour to his co-religionists, and often very narrowly escaping capture, spending some of his time in Ireland.<ref name="EB1911"/> To hide his identity, Peden took to wearing a cloth mask and wig, which are now on display in [[Edinburgh]]'s [[Museum of Scotland]].  On 25 January 1666, he was denounced as a rebel, and was excepted from the pardon after the [[Battle of Rullion Green|Pentland Rising]]. On 16 August 1667, he was declared a fugitive.<ref>{{cite book |title=The records of the proceedings of the Justiciary court, Edinburgh, 1661-1678 |date=1905 |publisher=Edinburgh, Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constable for the Scottish History Society |page=[https://archive.org/details/recordsofproceed01edin/page/241 241] |volume=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/recordsofproceed01edin |access-date=12 April 2019}}</ref>  He fled to Ireland in 1670, but returned in 1673.

In June 1673, while holding a [[conventicle]] at Knockdow near [[Ballantrae]], Ayrshire, he was captured by Major [[William Cockburn (cavalry officer)|William Cockburn]] and condemned by the [[Privy Council]] to four years and three months' imprisonment on the [[Bass Rock]] and a further fifteen months in the Edinburgh [[Old Tolbooth, Edinburgh|Tolbooth]].<ref name="EB1911"/> He was confined on the rock from 26 June 1673 to 9 October 1677, when he was removed to the Edinburgh Tolbooth, where he remained until December 1678. A petition for liberation was refused, and he was sentenced instead to perpetual banishment. In December 1678, he and 60 others were sentenced to banishment to the American plantations.<ref name="EB1911"/> They were transported by ship to London, where they were to be transferred to an American ship. The American captain of the ship which was chartered to convey Peden and his companions to the Virginia plantations, however, on discovering they were being banished for their religious opinions, not as convicts, declined to take them aboard, and they were set at liberty.<ref name="DNB"/> From London, Peden found his way back to Scotland, and again to the north of Ireland. 

In 1682, Peden performed the wedding ceremony of [[John Brown (Covenanter)|John Brown]] and his second wife, Isabel Weir. He told Isabel after the ceremony, "You have a good man to be your husband, but you will not enjoy him long; prize his company, and keep linen by you to be his winding sheet, for you will need it when ye are not looking for it, and it will be a bloody one". On the night of 30 April or morning of 1 May 1685, troops commanded by Captain [[John Graham of Claverhouse]] shot John Brown for his refusal to take the 1684 [[Oath of Abjuration]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thereformation.info/abjurationoath/|title=abjurationOath}}</ref> or to swear not to rise in arms against the king. This oath did not require one to proclaim the king as the head of the church. However, it would have been understood by a Covenanter to be a promise not to resist the king's claimed supremacy, ecclesiastical as well as civil. Peden was 11 miles away. He prayed with the family of John Muirhead in his home, "Lord, when wilt Thou avenge Brown's blood? O, let Brown's blood be precious in Thy sight." Peden told them of his vision of Brown's wife weeping over his corpse and of Claverhouse killing John Brown.

== Death ==

Peden's privations and anxieties had gradually undermined his health. Resolving to spend his last days in his native district, he found shelter in a [[Peden's Cave (Auchinbay)|cave]] on the [[River Lugar]] in the parish of Sorn, near his brother's farm just north of [[Ochiltree]], part of [[Auchinleck House|Auchinleck Estate]].<ref name=CovenanterEncyclopaedia>{{cite book | title=The Covenanter Encyclopaedia | first=Dane | last=Love | year=2009 | publisher=Fort | isbn=9781905769179 | url=https://archive.org/details/covenanterencycl0000love/page/28 }}</ref><ref name="EB1911"/> Having a presentiment that he had not many hours to live, he left the cave one evening and went to his brother's farm, where he died on 28 January 1686.<ref name=CovenanterEncyclopaedia /> He was buried in the Boswell aisle of [[Auchinleck]] Church. 

Forty days after, a troop of dragoons from [[Sorn Castle]] took his corpse two miles to Cumnock gallows, and were about to hang it up in chains. However, [[William Crichton, 2nd Earl of Dumfries]], objected, so they buried it at the foot of the gallows. In 1891 a monument was erected to mark the spot. After the 1688 [[Glorious Revolution]], the inhabitants of the parish of Cumnock, in token of their esteem for Peden, abandoned their ancient burial-place, and formed a new one round the gallows hill. 
[[Image:Peden's Pulpit Dalry.JPG|thumb|Peden's pulpit in the Linn Glen, [[Dalry, Ayrshire|Dalry]]. The outcrop overlooks a natural amphitheatre.]]
He was the most eminent and revered of all the Scottish covenanting preachers, and his influence upon the mass of the people was so great that they gave him the name of "The Prophet," and were accustomed to regard him as almost possessed of the prophetic [[afflatus]].<ref name="Fasti2"/><ref name="Kerr">{{cite book |last1=Kerr |first1=Robert P. |title=The blue flag; or, The Covenanters who contended for "Christ's crown and covenant" |date=1905 |publisher=Richmond : Presbyterian Committee of Publication |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blueflagorcovena00kerr/page/108 108]–115 |url=https://archive.org/details/blueflagorcovena00kerr |access-date=12 April 2019}}</ref> Peden receives attention in [[Jack Deere]]'s 1993 book ''Surprised by the Voice of God'', which records prophetic and other charismatic gifts practised by historical reformed figures.

== Alexander Peden Stone ==
[[File:Peden stone Harthill Shotts Lanarkshire Jan 09.jpg|thumb|Peden stone [[Harthill, Scotland|Harthill]], [[Shotts]] near the modern Alexander Peden Primary School]]
The '''Alexander Peden Stone''' south of [[Harthill, Scotland|Harthill]], [[Shotts]] was one of the places where Rev. Alexander Peden and others were said to have preached to Covenanters. The monument was erected around 1866 and is maintained by a local Covenanters' committee. The stone on which the monument is mounted would have been used as the plinth by preachers.

==Bibliography==
*The Lord's Trumpet sounding an Alarm against Scotland by Warning of a Bloody Sword; being the substance of a Preface and two Prophetical Sermons preached at Glenluce, Anno 1682, by that great Scottish Prophet, Mr. Alexander Peden, late Minister of the Gospel at New Glenluce in Galloway,' was published at Glasgow in 1739, and reprinted in 1779.
*Letters to [[Patrick Simson|Mr Patrick Simson]] (and others)
*The Life and Prophecies of Alexander Peden by Patrick Walker
*Histories of Kirkton and Wodrow
*Howie's Scottish Worthies
*New Statistical Account of Scotland
*Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot. i. 168
*Scott's Old Mortality, note 18
*Watson's Life and Times of Peden, Glasgow, 1881.
*Reid's Ireland, ii.
*Six Saints of the Covenant, ed. by D. Hay Fleming pp.&nbsp;45–178<ref name="Fleming">{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=Patrick |last2=Fleming |first2=David Hay |title=Six saints of the Covenant : Peden: Semple: Welwood: Cameron: Cargill: Smith |date=1901 |publisher=London : Hodder and Stoughton |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sixsaintsoftheco01walkuoft/page/n90 45]–178 |volume=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/sixsaintsoftheco01walkuoft |access-date=15 April 2019}}</ref>
*Johnston's Alexander Peden, the Prophet of the Covenant, and Treasury of the Scottish Covenant
*Todd's Homes, Haunts, and Battlefields of the Covenanters
*Jean L. Watson's Life and Times of Peden
*Hewat's Peden the Prophet
*Carslaw's Exiles of the Covenant
*Tombstone
*Dictionary of National Biography<ref name="DNB"/>
*Biographia Presbyteriana<ref>{{cite book |volume=1|last1=Walker |first1=Patrick |last2=Shields |first2=Alexander |last3=Stevenson |first3=John |title=Biographia Presbyteriana |date=1827 |publisher=Edinburgh: D. Speare |url=https://archive.org/details/biographiapresby00walk/page/n59 |access-date=18 April 2019}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Craigie, South Ayrshire#Covenanters and Peden's Cave|Peden's Cave, Craigie]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline}}
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rymaHYnnqwc Peden's Pulpit video]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n45mkiNL1aY Video footage of Alexander Peden's Memorial.]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78caX53VqXw Dunton Cove, Covenanter's Hiding Place.]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ6l3-KLvhw Peden's Cave video footage]
{{Bass Rock Prisoners of Conscience}}
{{Scots Worthies}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DNB|wstitle=Peden, Alexander|volume=44}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peden, Alexander}}
[[Category:1626 births]]
[[Category:1686 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Sorn, East Ayrshire]]
[[Category:Covenanters|Peden, Prophet]]
[[Category:Scottish prisoners and detainees]]
[[Category:17th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland]]
[[Category:17th-century Scottish Presbyterian ministers]]
[[Category:Covenanting Prisoners of the Bass Rock]]