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decerned to be executed to death, demeaned [i.e., punished] as a traitor, and underly [i.e., undergo] the pains of treason when apprehended; and now being apprehended, the Lords appoint him to be taken to the Grassmarket, on Friday, December 4th, betwixt two and four in the afternoon, and there to be hanged till dead.

In his testimony he reports the questions that were put to him on his trial. They were of the usual character. He tells that he left behind him a wife and seven children.

Kaemuir, where Edward Marshall lived, is a farm near to the Hill Farm, on the river Avon, in the parish of Muiravonside. There is no mention of his name in the parish records, and the family left the district more than forty years ago, previous to our informant, Mr Henderson, session-clerk, coming into office. The tradition of the parish is, that a family of the name of Marshall once lived at Kaemuir, and that one of the family suffered to the death for the cause of freedom.-ED.]

T

HE LAST TESTIMONY of EDWARD MARSHALL, Of
Kaemure, in the parish of Morren Side [i.e., Muiravon-
side], who suffered at the Grassmarket of Edinburgh,
December 4th, 1685.

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First, I leave my testimony against all that have joined with the malignant party, either in rising in arms,

or in paying of cess, or any manner of way contrary to our Covenants and Work of Reformation, once famous and maintained by the whole ministry, noblemen, gentlemen, and commons of all sorts, but now opposed and borne down by the generality of this kingdom; and particularly against such persons as once owned the Covenant, and avowed the cause of Christ, and are now employing their strength for overturning the same, as it is in Ps. lxxiv. 6.

"Now, the things upon which I was accused and sentenced were: My joining in arms with that party at Bothwell, and owning of the truth and Covenants, and for adhering thereunto; for they questioned me, if I would call it rebellion? But I would not, but accounted it my duty.

"Then they asked me if I would own James VII. as king of Britain? And I told them, I owned him as far as he owned God, His cause, and people.

"Then some of them said, That was not all.

"Then they asked, If I would pray for the king of Britain? I answered, This is not a place appointed for prayer.

"Then they laughed, and said, Remove you.

"Now, dear friends, be not discouraged, although they threaten you with imprisonment or death for the cause of Christ; for He that calls you to suffering is able to support and bear you up under it ; for I found more of His presence since I came to prison, than I did heretofore for Christ suffered imprisonment and death for us, and ought not we to suffer for Him? As concerning this, that my enemies and carnal friends reproach me with self-murder, I am conscious to myself, that it is not so, but out of love to Christ and His covenanted work.

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"Now I recommend my wife and seven children to the good guiding of my God, who hath hitherto protected me; for He has promised to be a husband to the widow, and a father to the fatherless, providing they will walk in His ways, and keep His commandNow, I recommend my soul to God, who hath preserved me hitherto, and who unexpectedly has singled me out to suffer for Him, who am the unworthiest of all sinners, and I never thought that He should have so highly privileged me, as to account me worthy to give a testimony for Him, though sometimes it entered into my thoughts, O if I would be called to it!

"Now, farewell dear wife and sweet children. Farewell all friends and relations, especially such of you as have given up your names to Christ. Farewell sun, moon, and all worldly enjoyments. Welcome Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, into whose hands I commit my spirit. "Sic subscribitur,

"EDWARD MARSHALL."

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John Nisbet.

OHN NISBET, of Hardhill, is one of the most interesting of the sufferers during the twenty-eight years' persecution. His great-grandfather, Murdoch, attached himself to the precursors of the Reformation in Scotland--the Lollards of Kyle. In consequence of the persecution that arose, Murdoch had to flee from Scotland, and took a copy of the New Testament "in writ" with him. The manuscript New Testament was preserved in the family till John Nisbet's time, and had been bequeathed to the martyr by his father, a man who is said to have very carefully trained up his family in the fear of God.

John Nisbet was of a tall and powerful frame. Like his friend Captain Paton, in the neighbouring parish of Fenwick, he passed his early manhood in military service abroad. He returned to his native country shortly after the peace of Münster in 1648, which closed the Thirty Years' War, and soon afterwards had the happiness to be married to Margaret Law, a young woman, says his son, "who proved to him an equal, true, and kind yoke-fellow."

He was present at the battle of Pentland, November 28, 1666, and was left for dead upon the field, but he revived and escaped under covert of night, although it was a year before his wounds were entirely healed. The soldiers came to the house in quest of him, "but missing him" (says the son, in a passage in his Diary, which gives a vivid picture of the sufferings of the time, extracts from which Dr M'Crie has given in the Appendix to the Memoirs of Veitch and Brysson), "they held a drawn sword to my mother's breast" [who was soon to give birth to a child, the writer of the Diary], "threatening to run her through unless she would discover her husband. She, weeping, told them that for anything she knew he was killed (for she heard that it was so), and that she had not seen him; so they took what made for [i.e., suited] them in the house, and went off."

"But some days after, getting notice that he was still alive, they returned with greater fury than before, and threatened her with pre

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