Reverend Alexander Hugh Peden, Minister of the Gospel at New Luce

REVEREND ALEXANDER PEDEN

SOMETIME MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT NEW LUCE IN GALLOWAY

Disputed Ancestry

Proposition One

The ancestry of the Reverend Alexander Peden has not been satisfactorily identified. Hew Scott suggested that he may have been the grandson of Alexander Pethein in Hillhead of Sorn, Fast IIi: 345 who was identified as Alexander Pethein of Auchinlongford by James Paterson, However, proof of relationship is wanting. History of Ayr II: 427

Proposition Two

Running contrary to Hew Scott's proposition, it has also been claimed that he was the son of Hugh Pethein of Auchinlongford, and the grandson of Sir Alexander Pethein of Auchinlongford and his wife, Lady Margaret Hamilton. Peden Family History

Proposition Three

Another proposition published by Find A Grave seems to follow the Peden family history, but claims that he was the son of Andrew Hugh Peden, and the grandson of Sir Alexander Pethein and Margaret Hamilton in Sorn, Ayr, Scotland. Find A Grave Memorial

Biographical Summary

1. Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae. The Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation. By Hew Scott, DD. New Edition. Volume II Synofd of Merse and Teviotdale Dumfries and Galloway (Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1917), 468 pp. including indexes

Biographical Summary

Alexander “Sandy” Peden was born in Ayrshire, Scotland around 1626. He went to Glasgow University before becoming minister in New Luce in 1559. In 1662, Peden was one of the 300 ministers who were forced to leave their churches after the Restoration of Charles II and the beginning of the persecution. Immediately, he began preaching in the fields all over Southern and Central Scotland, and he soon became one of the best known field preachers.

The fact that Peden was so well known however made him one of the most wanted men in Scotland by the government. He started wearing a mask when he was travelling about so that the soldiers wouldn’t recognise him. Even this wasn’t going to keep him safe forever though, so in 1670 he fled to Ireland where he stayed until 1673. He spent part of the time in Armagh. Peden preached to many, many people in the fields, and condemned the rest of the Presbyterian ministers in Ireland as sinful for not doing so themselves. Around this time, those Presbyterians who still held to the Solemn League and Covenant [link to Covenanters in Ireland – Key Documents – Solemn League and Covenant in Ireland] began to hold separate society meetings for fellowship. Peden came to Ireland often and his preaching helped strengthen these Irish Covenanters.

When Peden returned to Scotland in 1673 he was arrested and spent the next four years imprisoned on the Bass Rock with forty other Covenanters. The year after he was released, he was back in Ireland for a short time, during which he again condemned the mainline Presbyterian ministers, this time because they sent letters to the government saying that they did not approve of the battle of Bothwell Bridge which the Covenanters in Scotland had just fought at.

In 1682, he returned to Ireland where he hired himself out as a farm worker to a farmer called William Steel and his wife, who lived in Glenwherry, between Ballymena and Larne. After each day’s work, Peden would sleep in the barn with the Steel’s young servant boy. After two days of this however, the servant boy complained to his mistress that this new Scottish man didn’t actually sleep, but instead spent all night praying by name for the suffering members of the Church of Scotland. At tea time that night she got her husband to ask Peden if he was a minister, and he said that he was, and that he wasn’t ashamed of it. After this they didn’t make him sleep in the barn or work in the fields again, but instead they got him to preach and minister to those in the surrounding area.

Peden stayed at Glenwherry until 1685, before going back to Scotland, where he preached his final sermon. He died in January 1686. Forty days later, in a final attack on his memory, government troops were sent to dig up his body and bury it two miles away out of disrespect.

On April 29, 1611, Hugh Pethein was retoured heir of his father, Alexander Pethein, in Sorn in the half-merk lands of Auchenlonfuird within the lands of Bruntishiells and Lairdship, and regality of Kylesmuir. (from the Inquistiones Generales, Ayr, No. 176).

Hugh suffered martydom, and was shot by orders of Claverhouse, while standing by St. Mary's Loch.