Above:
Illustration entitled "The fight at Kirk o Shotts"
Taken from
"A True Account of My Travels in the Kingdom of the Scots and my Many Adventures and Discoveries There"
by Theophilus ten Caat (published Haarlem c.1692)
Illustration entitled "The fight at Kirk o Shotts"
Taken from
"A True Account of My Travels in the Kingdom of the Scots and my Many Adventures and Discoveries There"
by Theophilus ten Caat (published Haarlem c.1692)
Goededag Mynheer,
My journey from Edinburgh to take up my post as Trade Consul in Glasgow representing the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands with my secretary, the stylishly dressed Theophilus ten Caat, was somewhat interrupted by a singular occurrence at the village of Kirk o Shotts, which is around six miles west of Bargeddie at the south western end of the town. Our guide from our embassy was a young Scottish black man called Joseph Ritter who was previously resident at and an employee of our Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie establishment in Glasgow and had been detailed as my assistant owing to his knowledge of the mercantile life of the town and his companionable nature.
However as we travelled further west his previously cheerful demeanour became sombre and wary and his conversations with the natives seemed to lower his spirits still further. On my enquiring he announced that there were rumours of bands of Highlanders roaming the countryside, apparently with the approval of the absentee English king, and accosting honest folk. With this rather dispiriting news it was with a sense of relief that I saw a platoon of soldiers from Alexander Leslie's Regiment also heading to Glasgow and mentioned this to Joseph with the aim of lightening his spirits. This brought the retort that "They're nae sodgers, they're bluidy recruits on their wye to their regiment in Glasgow and they'll be no muckle use against they Heilan cannibals gin they hae nae training or leevin experience o warfare". I thought this rather pessimistic and said so to him eliciting the gloomy response "Aye, weel, we'll see". Theophilus scorned Joseph's dismal demeanour and drawing his sword made great play of thrusting and parrying with cries of "Attack au Fer! Moulinet! Froissement!", all the while stamping his feet and cutting down an imaginary opponent, which activity drew forth a cynical look and a muttering of "Clothes-horse, Jack-a-Dandy popinjay," from Joseph as he turned away.
As dusk was falling we decided to stay overnight at the inn by the burn at Kirk o' Shotts which, according to Joseph, was just a mile ahead. We were fortunate to have arrived and taken a room before the soldiers appeared as when they did arrive their leader, the curiously named Captain-Reverend Soulis, peremptorily commandeered the best room for himself and allocated the other rooms at the inn for his soldiery with the remnants being scattered to a nearby barn. After an adequate meal and a pipe we duly retired and slept the Sleep of the Just blissfully unaware of what the morrow would bring.
Our sleep was rudely broken at first light by alarmed shouts and orders from Sergeant McLachlan, the Reverend-Captain's subordinate. Running outside we discovered that a body of Highlanders had appeared at the Western end of the village and were apparently bent on our destruction. Sergeant McLachlan's commands alerted the guards at the other points around the inn and they moved up to the fence in order to engage the charging Highlanders who sped splashing towards us across the Shotts Burn. Several shots crashed out from the sentries and I saw a Highlander fall in the shallows at the far bank.
I was dismayed to notice that although the sentries were shooting at the Highlanders there was no fire from either the barn or the windows. (In my younger days I fought for our Dutch Republic's freedom from the occupying Spaniard and I have become convinced that once you let soldiers disappear into cover then there is no damned moving them.) This gloomy prognostication turned out to be only too correct and despite repeated orders from the Captain-Reverend there was no obvious response and when he burst from the front of the inn he was accompanied by only one other soldier.
By this time the Highlanders were over the fence and engaging the sentries while the crashing of musket shots announced that another group was crossing the bridge under fire from Sergeant McLachlan's quarter guard. Fortunately for the sentries the Highlanders were hindered in the narrow passage between fence and house by their long halberds, and I saw two of the young sentries fight and shoot down two of the attackers inside the fence; however the attackers forced their way out of their confined position and both the sentries were knocked down wounded and another was killed outright. From my vantage point at the front of the inn I saw several more Highlanders leaping the fence and a general melee ensued in the courtyard. It very quickly became obvious that not only were the defenders badly outnumbered but that the Highlanders axes and halberds were far more effective at close quarters than the musket butts of the soldiers. The crucial moment of the battle came when a large Highlander, being narrowly missed by a shot from the Captain-Reverend, brought his poleaxe swiftly down on the junction of his head and shoulder and 'unseamed him from nave to chaps' as our celebrated Dutch playwright Van Shakespeare put it in his Scottish play, Macbeth.
Deeming discretion to be the better part of valour I fled back inside the inn and into our room where my sword and pistol lay. Swift as my departure was I found that my companions had beaten me to it and my arrival in our room almost had me felled by a water jug wielded from behind the door by Joseph and run through by Theophilus who, despite a certain nervousness, had assumed the heroic pose of a character from Rembrandt's renowned 'Night Watch'. I slammed the door closed and we prepared to defend our lives as the tumult outside the inn died down.
After a few moments we could hear muttered conversation out in the hallway and I aimed my pistol at the door while Joseph raised the water jug and Theophilus raised a distinctly shaky sword and resumed the en garde position. After a tense moment there was a surprisingly gentle knock at the door and to my astonishment a voice in Hochsdeutsch said "It is all correct now. The battle is ended and we mean you no harm". Being born in Groningen and a regular traveller to Kleve over the border this tongue is pretty familiar to me but I was amazed to hear it spoken in this far-flung place.
After a few seconds consideration I unbolted the door and stepped back, lowering my pistol but keeping it within easy reach while Joseph lowered his water jug. The door opened and a tall, black-haired Highlander stood in the doorway - by his dress a man of some property and obviously the commander of the Highland band. As he walked in Theophilus, still in dramatic pose, decided to raise his sword once more and pointed it at the Highlander's chest only to have that worthy give a wearied look, reach over, take it from his nerveless grasp and throw it out the window before turning to me with a bow and introducing himself as Captain Duncan Fraser of Lord Lovat's Regiment.
The air of violence having dissipated somewhat Captain Fraser explained that his unit had come from a town called Airdrie on having received news of a Covenanter force moving towards Glasgow and hearing that they had camped at Kirk o' Shotts resolved to attack at dawn which they had done with great success. The Covenanters, despite being taken by surprise and being largely recruits had put up a spirited struggle initially but with the death of their leader the remnants either fled with their sergeant or surrendered almost immediately.
He announced that as Dutch trade ambassadors to Scotland and non-combatants we were free to depart with our goods and lives intact. He told me that three of his duine wassails had been killed and one wounded while in addition to the Covenanters’ leader two others had been killed and another two wounded and he had seven unwounded prisoners. Seeing him as an educated and civilised man I made a plea for the lives of his prisoners whom, I reminded him, had been captured in uniform and under their own flag. He smiled and said "Sir, I'm a devotee of your countryman Grotius and while I had half a mind to drag them aff to prison at Bothwell Castle I see they're naught but flibertigibbet bairns so we've ta'en their weapons and boots and they maun walk awa back tae Edinburgh - and a sair hike they'll hae o't tae get there".
Totsiens,
Your obedient servant,
Erasmus van der Ark.
Glasgow. 29th of November Anno Christi 1679
After a few moments we could hear muttered conversation out in the hallway and I aimed my pistol at the door while Joseph raised the water jug and Theophilus raised a distinctly shaky sword and resumed the en garde position. After a tense moment there was a surprisingly gentle knock at the door and to my astonishment a voice in Hochsdeutsch said "It is all correct now. The battle is ended and we mean you no harm". Being born in Groningen and a regular traveller to Kleve over the border this tongue is pretty familiar to me but I was amazed to hear it spoken in this far-flung place.
After a few seconds consideration I unbolted the door and stepped back, lowering my pistol but keeping it within easy reach while Joseph lowered his water jug. The door opened and a tall, black-haired Highlander stood in the doorway - by his dress a man of some property and obviously the commander of the Highland band. As he walked in Theophilus, still in dramatic pose, decided to raise his sword once more and pointed it at the Highlander's chest only to have that worthy give a wearied look, reach over, take it from his nerveless grasp and throw it out the window before turning to me with a bow and introducing himself as Captain Duncan Fraser of Lord Lovat's Regiment.
The air of violence having dissipated somewhat Captain Fraser explained that his unit had come from a town called Airdrie on having received news of a Covenanter force moving towards Glasgow and hearing that they had camped at Kirk o' Shotts resolved to attack at dawn which they had done with great success. The Covenanters, despite being taken by surprise and being largely recruits had put up a spirited struggle initially but with the death of their leader the remnants either fled with their sergeant or surrendered almost immediately.
He announced that as Dutch trade ambassadors to Scotland and non-combatants we were free to depart with our goods and lives intact. He told me that three of his duine wassails had been killed and one wounded while in addition to the Covenanters’ leader two others had been killed and another two wounded and he had seven unwounded prisoners. Seeing him as an educated and civilised man I made a plea for the lives of his prisoners whom, I reminded him, had been captured in uniform and under their own flag. He smiled and said "Sir, I'm a devotee of your countryman Grotius and while I had half a mind to drag them aff to prison at Bothwell Castle I see they're naught but flibertigibbet bairns so we've ta'en their weapons and boots and they maun walk awa back tae Edinburgh - and a sair hike they'll hae o't tae get there".
Totsiens,
Your obedient servant,
Erasmus van der Ark.
Glasgow. 29th of November Anno Christi 1679
