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Some of our Wylie ancestors were Presbyterian Covenanters who were martyred at the hands of the English Crown. Covenanters were groups of Presbyterians bound by oath to defend their religion. The name stems from the National Covenant, a document signed by Scottish churchmen on February 28, 1638, in Greyfriars' churchyard, Edinburgh. It rejected the attempt by King Charles I and the Archbishop of Canterbury to force the Scottish church to conform to English liturgical practice and church governance.

During their long struggle, which ended with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the restoration of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, Covenanters were persecuted and forced to worship in field meetings or Conventicles, held at secret locations outside of towns.

In June of 1679 as many as six thousand Covenanters were holding a service at Hamilton. News of this meeting had reached the Royalist forces and the Duke of Monmouth, the Earl of Linlithgow and Lord Graham of Claverhouse led ten thousand men to the Clyde Bridge at Bothwell.

Early on the morning of June 22, 1679 the military attempted to cross Bothwell Bridge and launch an attack on the Covenanters. A fierce battle ensued between a small group of Covenanters and the main Royalist force and, for awhile anyway, it seemed that the Covenanters would be able to hold the bridge. But they soon found themselves low on ammunition and, with no help in sight from the main body of Converters, they were forced to retreat and allow the Royalists to cross the Clyde. In the ensuing rout, several hundred Covenanters were killed and 1,200 - 1,400 were captured.

The captured Covenanters were chained and dragged to Edinburgh and confined in Greyfriars' churchyard. Some were eventually released after swearing to never again take up arms against the crown but, poorly fed and without shelter many others died in this prison. The rest lived "a life half dead, a living death, and buried" until "the dreary weeks of November." In November 1679 the 257 remaining confined Covenanters were marched to a waiting ship, the Crown of London, lying in Leith Roads and "crowded under deck in a space not sufficient to hold one hundred people". These were the worst of the Covenanters, probably the ringleaders or what remained of the actual Bothwell Bridge combatants and the Privy Council had decreed that they should be banished to the West Indies and sold as slaves. Of these 257 brave men who would not abandon their faith we find that at least 5 were Wylies.

• John Wylie of Finnick in Ayrshire
• Thomas Wylie of Loudoun in Ayrshire
• Andrew Wylie of Stewarton in Ayrshire
• Robert Wylie of Stewarton in Ayrshire
• Thomas Wylie of Stewarton in Ayrshire

They were confined in the hold of the ship until the Crown finally set sail in early December. The conditions there were so bad that one wrote "All the troubles we met since Bothwell were not to be compared to one day in our present circumstances." After what these men had already been through slavery might have seemed a welcome relief but most would soon face a much worse fate.

Off the coast of Orkney, on the night of December 10, 1679, the Crown ran into a severe storm. The captain "ran his vessel close inshore and cast anchor, locking and chaining the hatches over the prisoners in the hold." At 10 P.M. the ship was smashed against the rocks and broken in two. The captain and crew easily made it to shore but at least 200 of the Covenanters, including at least 4 of our Wylies, drowned in the hold of the ship. A few bodies washed ashore but most were never recovered. Perhaps 50 made it to shore alive and most of them were recaptured. Some managed to slip away and make their way to Ireland. Others are thought to have settled in Orkney or returned to Scotland. Some who were thought drowned may have actually survived but we can only know from the written accounts of history. Of our Wylies, only the fate of John of Finnick seems unsure. The Cloud of Witnesses lists him as a survivor of that fateful voyage but most other accounts do not.

Please use the following links to learn more about our Wylie heroes of the Battle of Bothwell Bridge and their plight aboard the Crown of London.

Related Articles:

• The Battle of Bothwell Bridge from Alexander Smellie's "Men of the Covenant".
• The Battle of Bothwell Bridge from Sir Walter Scott's The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.
• The Cloud of Witnesses At least 5 Wylies captured at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge.
• The Sinking of The Crown of London Wylies captured at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge were aboard the Crown when it sank..

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