page_title: John Brown of Priesthill
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: John Brown of Priesthill / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Johnston, Alexander; The Marriage of the Covenanter; Glasgow Museums; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/the-marriage-of-the-covenanter-84670
context_page_description: John Brown, also known as the Christian Carrier, was a Protestant Covenanter from Priesthill farm, a few miles from Muirkirk in Ayrshire, Scotland. He became a Presbyterian martyr in 1685.
  Among the numerous executions carried out by the government during The Killing Time of the 1680s, the allegations of brutality make this event one of the most controversial illustrations of the character of John Graham of Claverhouse, afterwards Viscount Dundee.
context_section_description: In order to protect the Presbyterian polity and Calvinist doctrine of the Church of Scotland, the pre-Restoration government of Scotland signed the 1650 Treaty of Breda with King Charles II to crown him king and support him against the English Parliamentary forces. At his Restoration in 1660, the King renounced the terms of the Treaty and his Oath of Covenant, which the Scottish Covenanters saw as a betrayal.  The Rescissory Act 1661 repealed all laws made since 1633, effectively ejecting 400 Ministers from their livings, restoring patronage in the appointment of ministers to congregations and allowing the king to proclaim the restoration of bishops to the Church of Scotland. The Abjuration Act of 1662 ..was a formal rejection of the National Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. These were declared to be against the fundamental laws of the kingdom. The Act required all persons taking public office to take the Oath of Abjuration not to take arms against the king, and rejecting the Covenants. This excluded most Presbyterians from holding official positions of trust. 
  The resulting disappointment with Charles II's religious policy became civil unrest and erupted in violence during the early summer of 1679 with the assassination of Archbishop Sharp, Drumclog and the Battle of Bothwell Bridge. The Sanquhar Declaration of 1680 effectively declared the people could not accept the authority of a king who would not recognise their religion, nor commit to his previous oaths. In February 1685 the king died and was succeeded by his Roman Catholic brother, the Duke of York, as King James VII.
caption: The Marriage of the Covenanter Alexander Johnston (1815–1891) Alexander Peden conducted the marriage of John Brown at Priesthill in Muirkirk parish in 1682[1]
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