page_title: John Blackadder (preacher)
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: John Blackadder (preacher) / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: St. Andrew Blackadder Church, North Berwick The present church is the latest in a long line of churches, in the town, dedicated to St. Andrew, stretching back, at least, to the late 12th. century. The church was formerly part of the Free, then United Free, Kirk but is now part of the congregation of the Church of Scotland. The Blackadder refers to the Reverend John Blackadder, minister of Troqueer Church in Dumfries, who was forced in out to the fields and hills to preach. He opposed the introduction of a new prayer books being forced upon the people of Scotland by the Stuart kings in London. John was later outlawed, 'tried' and imprisoned on the Bass Rock where he died in December 1685, a martyr to the Established faith in Scotland. He was a member of the eminent Blackadder of Tulliallan family and later inherited the title, Baronet of Tulliallan, a title he never used. The Blackadders hailed, originally, from Berwicksire from where they assumed their name. John Blackadder was interred at St. Andrew's kirkyard in Kirk Potts in the town on a cold and bleak December day, a bleak day for Scotland amidst the Covenanting Wars - 'The Killing Times'. John Blackadder is very high up on my own top ten of greatest Scots and he surely was moulded in the form of a Christian hero.
context_page_description: John Blackadder was an eminent Presbyterian Covenanter preacher in Scotland during the period of the Commonwealth of England. Of the times MacPherson said that "after the first rejoicings of the Restoration were over, the Covenanters — Resolutioners as well as Protesters — were speedily disillusioned, and it became evident that the aim of Charles II and the junta of self-seeking noblemen who were in control of the affairs of Scotland was to establish in Scotland something approximating to an oriental despotism. The Presbyterian system, in which an Assembly of ministers and elders controlled the affairs of the Kirk, had to be supplanted by an Episcopal, with a hierarchy controlled by the Crown and easily manipulated in the interests of tyrannical rule." Despite a government ban he continued to preach in the fields. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1681 and died in jail on the Bass Rock.
context_section_description: Andrew Crichton, author of the Life of Colonel Blackadder, compiled the Memoirs of the Rev. John Blackadder in 1826, mostly unpublished manuscripts written during his imprisonment.
  John Blackadder is commemorated by the Blackadder kirk in North Berwick, originally a congregation of the Free Church of Scotland opened in 1845, following the Disruption of 1843. The Marine Hotel guide relates: "Soon after the Disruption of 1843, Mr James Crawford, W.S., at that time of the Rhodes, conceived the idea of building a Free Church in North Berwick, in commemoration of the Martyrs of the Bass, because, as he
  believed, the principles for which the Martyrs suffered were the same as those for which the Free Church had seceded. This was the object set forth on the collecting cards circulated among his friends, which bore the picture of the Bass. And it was to raise funds for this purpose that he persuaded his friends M'Crie the Historian, Anderson the Martyrologist, Hugh Miller the Geologist, and Professors Fleming and Balfour to unite together in writing that most exhaustive and interesting of all books on the Bass: The Bass Rock." The congregation joined the United Free Church of Scotland in 1900 and became part of the Church of Scotland in 1929. The Church of Scotland congregation united with its sister congregation of St Andrew's in 1989, to form the congregation of St Andrew Blackadder.
  There is a plaque in Troqueer his parish church.
  The inscription on his tombstone in North Berwick reads: "Here lies the body of Mr John Blackadder, minister of the gospel at Troqueer, in Galloway, who died on the Bass, after five years' imprisonment. Anno Dom: 1685, and of his age 63 years.
  Blest John, for Jesus' sake, in Patmos bound. 
  
  His prison Bethel, Patmos Pisgah found. 
  
  So the bless'd John, on yonder rock confined, 
  
  His body suffer'd, but no chains could bind 
  
  His heaven-aspiring soul ; while day by day. 
  
  As from Mount Pisgah's top, he did survey 
  
  The promised land, and view'd the crown by faith,
   
  Laid up for those who faithful are till death. 
  
  Grace formed him in the Christian Hero's mould 
  
  Meek in his own concerns in's Master's bold ; 
  
  Passions to Reason chained, Prudence did lead 
  
  Zeal warmed his breast, and Reason cool'd his head.
   
  Five years on the lone rock, yet sweet abode. 
  
  He Enoch-like enjoyed, and walk'd with God ; 
  
  Till, by long living on this heavenly food, 
  
  His soul by love grew up too great, too good 
  
  To be confined to jail, or flesh and blood. 
  
  Death broke his fetters off, then swift he fled 
  
  From sin and sorrow, and by angels led, 
  
  Enter'd the mansions of eternal joy ; 
  
  Blest soul, thy warfare's done, praise, love, enjoy.
   
  His dust here rests, till Jesus come again, 
  
  Even so, blest Jesus, come come, Lord Amen.
caption: St Andrew Blackadder Church, North Berwick, named after John Blackadder
exif: {}