Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/255

 impossible—the militia had gone already as worshippers. In 1674, he was outlawed, and a reward of a thousand merks was offered for his apprehension; hut he nevertheless continued to preach occasionally to large assemblages in the fields. What may appear surprising, he often resided in the capital, without undergoing any annoyance, and contrived, notwithstanding the migratory nature of his life, to rear a large and well-instructed family. It does not appear that he approved of the insurrection of his friends, which was suppressed at Bothwell. Though engaged in duty immediately before this event, he fortunately was confined during the whole period of its continuance, by a rheumatism, and therefore escaped all blame on that account. In 1680, he made a voyage to Holland, and settled his son at Leyden, as a student of medicine; a circumstance which proves that the persecution to which these clergymen were subjected was not uniformly attended by pecuniary destitution. After spending several months in Holland, he returned to Scotland, and, in the succeeding year, was apprehended, and confined in the state-prison upon the Bass. He remained here for four years, when at length his health declined so much, on account of the insalubrious nature of his prison, that his friends made interest to procure his liberation upon the plea that he must otherwise sink under his malady. The government at first mocked him with a proposal to transfer him to Haddington or Dunbar jail, but at length, on a more earnest and better attested remonstrance, offered to give him liberty to reside in Edinburgh, under a bond for five thousand merks. Ere this tender mercy could be made available, he died in his islet prison, December, 1685, having nearly completed his seventieth year. John Blackadder lies interred in North Berwick church-yard, where there is an epitaph to his memory, containing, among others, the following characteristic lines:—



, an ingenious blind poet, was born, November 10th, 1721, at Annan; his parents were natives of Cumberland, his father a bricklayer, and his mother the daughter of Mr Richard Rae, an extensive cattle dealer. Before he was six months old, he lost his sight in the small-pox; and was thus rendered incapable of learning a mechanical trade, while the poor circumstances to which a series of misfortunes had reduced his father, placed equally beyond his reach an education for any of those professions where the exercise of the mental faculties is principally required. His affectionate parent seems to have been aware, however, that the happiness of his son, shut out from so many of the enjoyments afforded by the external world, must mainly depend upon his intellectual resources; and in order to form these, he devoted part of his leisure hours to such instruction as his poor blind boy was susceptible of he read to him, at first the books adapted to the understanding of a child, and afterwards those fitted for a maturer capacity, such as Milton, Spenser, Prior, Pope, and Addison. His companions also, who pitied his want of sight, and loved him for his gentle disposition, lent their assistance in this task of kindness; and by their help he acquired some little knowledge of Latin. Thomson and Allan Ramsay were his favourite authors; and it was as early as his twelfth year that he evinced still more decidedly his love of the poetical art by the composition of an ode, ad-