1666 John Hart of West Quarter in Glasford was executed on 19 December 1666 in Glasgow after the Pentland Hills uprising. Wodrow lists "John Hart in Westquarter in Glasford" as one of four men indicted "that Terror might be struct into the West Country" by a judiciary commissioned after the Pentland uprising. The four men were convicted in Glasgow of rebellion and treason on 17 December 1666 and executed two days later. In describing the executions, Wodrow writes, "They were accordingly executed that day. The men were most cheerful, and had much of a sense of the Divine Love upon them, and a great deal of peace in their sufferings. It was here that abominable practice was begun, which turned afterwards so common, of the soldiers beating drums when the sufferers spoke to the spectators before their death. Reflections need not be made upon this barbarous unchristian practice, scarce any where used, but by the Popish Inquisitors, and is a plain evidence of an ill cause, which cannot bear the Light. The persecutors were afraid, lest the words of these dying witnesses for truth, would confirm and strengthen honest people in their adherence to, and appearance for liberty and reformation; and I cannot say they were mistaken in their fears, for the Christian and manly carriage of those noble sufferers, had a mighty influence upon multitudes. Few, if any, were terrified by their publick death, and many were convinced of the goodness of their cause, and fixed in their resolutions to adhere to it." [1] [2]
1690 John Hart and others were pardoned and their lands and possessions restored by the Parliament of Scotland. The "Act rescinding the forefaultures and fynes since the yeare 1665" voided "the decreits and doomes of forefaulture pronounced against the persons after named: viz, ... John Hart in Westquarter of Glasford ... and generally all and whatsomever decreitts and doomes of forefaultures, given and pronounced against any of the subjects of this kingdome, either by the heigh court of parliament or ordinary or circuit courts of justiciary, or any other court or commissione from the first of January jM vjC and sixtie fyve, to the fifth of November 1688, with all escheats fallen upon the grounds of the said forefaultures since the said day ... Lykeas, their majesties and three estates rehabilitats, reintegrats and restores soe many of the saids persones as are living, and the memorie of them who are deceased, their aires, successors and posterity, to their goods, fame and worldly honour ..." [3]
1694 The kirk-session of Glasford parish directed that an account of people of the parish who had suffered for non-conformity be inserted into the parish register. The people described include, "Item, John Hart, in Westquarter, who had been at the engagement at Pentland Hills, after his return home, was apprehended, carried to Glasgow, and there executed on the foresaid account." [4]
Research Notes:
One of the Fasti books suggests that the minister John Hart's father may have been the John Hart executed on 19 December 1666 in Glasgow after the Pentland Hills uprising. [5]
One interpretation of the use of the word "noble" in the gravestone inscription describing the ancestry of the minister John Hart may be that it is a reference to the courage displayed by the Westquarter John Hart and those executed with him.
However, since the minister John Hart was born about 1617, his father was likely born by about 1595, and would thus have been about 71 years old or older in 1666. It seems somewhat unlikely that the John Hart accused of abetting or participating in the engagement at Pentland Hills was that old.
[1] Robert Wodrow, The History of the Sufferings of the church of Scotland, from the Restauration to the Revolution: Collected from the Public Records, Original papers, and Manuscripts of that Time, and other well attested Narratives, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: James Watson, 1721), 1:259, [HathiTrust].
[2] Robert Wodrow, The History of the Sufferings of the church of Scotland, from the Restauration to the Revolution, with ... a dissertation, and notes by Robert Burns, 4 vols. (Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton, & Co., 1829), 2:51-52, [GoogleBooks], [InternetArchive].
[3] K. M. Brown et al., eds., The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707 (St Andrews: 2007-2014), 1690/4/80, [RPS].
[4] The New Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol. 7 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1835), 296, [GoogleBooks].
[5] Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, new edition, 8 vols. (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1914–1950), 3:262, citing "Reid's Ireland, ii., 359 Blair's Autob.; Wodrow's Hist., ii., 52," in the section about the Hamilton states, "John Hart, perhaps son of John H. in West Quarter, parish of Glasford, who suffered death at Glasgow in 1666; adm. 2nd Jan. 1653. In 1656 he was transl. to Taughboyne, Ireland ...", [InternetArchive].