page_title: Hugh Mackail
section_title: Return to Scotland, arrest and torture
hierarchical_section_title: Hugh Mackail / Return to Scotland, arrest and torture
caption_attribution_description: English: The Boots from James Mitchell in Scot's Worthies
context_page_description: Hugh Mackail, Scottish martyr, was born about 1640 at Liberton, near Edinburgh. His father was Matthew Mackail who was minister at Bothwell before being deprived of his ministry by the government in 1662. At an early age he went to reside with an uncle, Hugh Mackail, one of the ministers of Edinburgh. He entered the university, studying divinity, where he distinguished himself, graduating, as the records show, in 1658 under Thomas Crawford. Shortly afterward he became chaplain and tutor in the family of Sir James Stuart of Coltness and Goodtrees, then Lord Provost of Edinburgh. In 1661, being then in his twenty-first year, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh and afterward preached several times with much success. A sermon which he delivered in the High Church, Edinburgh, in September 1662, in which he declared that "the church of Scotland had been persecuted by an Ahab on the throne, a Haman in the state, and a Judas in the church," gave such offence that a party of horse was sent to apprehend him.
context_section_description: In 1666 he returned to Scotland, and immediately joined the band of covenanters who rose in arms in the west, previous to the defeat at Rullion Green, and continued with them from the 18 to the 27 of November, when not being able to endure the fatigue of constant marching, he left them near Cramond Water. He was on his way to Liberton, when he was taken by an officer of dragoons, and some countrymen, as he passed through a place called Braid's Craigs. He had then a sword or rapier, which of itself was a circumstance of suspicion against him. He was conveyed to Edinburgh and searched for letters, but none being found, he was committed to the tolbooth. Next day, he was brought before the privy council for examination, and on the 4 December he was subjected to the torture of the boot, with the object of extracting information from him relative to a conspiracy, which the government affected to believe extensively existed ; but he declared that he knew of none, and had nothing to confess. The strokes were repeated ten or eleven times, when he swooned away, and was carried back to prison.  The torture and the prison conditions brought on a fever, and as he was ordered to prepare for trial, for having joined in the insurrection, although he had left the party the day previous to the battle of Pentland, he petitioned the council for a delay of a few days, when it was remitted to two physicians and two surgeons to inquire into his case. His cousin, Mr. Matthew M'Kail, an apothecary in Edinburgh, afterwards a doctor of medicine, applied to Archbishop Sharp, to interpose in his behalf, but the prelate only desired him to assure the prisoner that he would befriend him, if he would reveal the mystery of the plot against the government, and as he was not able to do so, he was put to the torture. Still the cousin was determined to persevere in his efforts to save his unfortunate relative, and even followed the archbishop to St. Andrews. A note to M'Crie's edition of Veitch's Life gives the details.
caption: The Boots from Scots Worthies
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