Analecta
^{_{(Wodrow, Maitland Club, 4 vols., 1842–1843)}}

Introduction to its content Robert Wodrow (1679–1734), minister of Eastwood and the leading historian of the later Covenanting period, kept extensive private notebooks filled with anecdotes, oral traditions, and “remarkable providences” concerning Scottish ministers and pious Christians. These materials were published posthumously by the Maitland Club in four volumes (1842–1843), under the title, Analecta: Or materials for a History of Remarkable Providences; Mostly Relating to Scotch Ministers and Christians, by the Rev. Robert Wodrow, Minister of the Gospel at Eastwood, edited by Matthew Leishman.

Analecta is a Latin word meaning “things gathered” or “collected excerpts.”

In the title of Robert Wodrow’s work, Analecta: or, Materials for a History of Remarkable Providences, it simply means a collection of miscellaneous notes, anecdotes, and observations that he gathered over many years.

The Analecta is especially valuable for Guthrie research because it preserves a rich body of contemporary and near-contemporary stories about the two most prominent 17th-century ministers of the name: James Guthrie (minister of Stirling, executed in Edinburgh on 1 June 1661) and William Guthrie (minister of Fenwick, d. 1665, author of The Christian’s Great Interest). The volumes contain eyewitness and second-hand accounts of their preaching, personal character, predictions, sufferings, and the providential events said to have accompanied their lives and deaths. Spelling in the original manuscripts is usually “Guthry.” Occasional references to other individuals of the surname also appear.

Woodrow’s Analecta: Volume 1

Entry – William Guthry’s prediction against the Curate & related traditions about James Guthry

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Recorded by Wodrow on 21 December 1703
• The ejection of William Guthry from Fenwick occurred after the restoration of episcopacy (ca. 1662–1665)
• James Guthry’s execution took place on 1 June 1661

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, p. 47 (HathiTrust copy – image 65 of 400)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry – minister of Fenwick; ordered by the Council to leave his charge
• Mr James Guthry – minister of Stirling; later executed

Other primary individuals named

• Mistris Luke (informant)
• Jonet . . . . (source of the curate story)
• An unnamed curate from near Edinburgh (paid 5 lib. sterling)
• Mistris Pont
• Mr David Gillespy
• The King (Charles II)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• After Mr William Guthry was ordered to leave his charge by the Council, none of the western curates would declare the kirk vacant. A man was brought from near Edinburgh and paid 5 lib. sterling to do so. He met Mr Guthry, who told him that the money “should be dear money, for within forty-eight hours he should be in eternity!” — which proved true.
• The same Mr William had predicted years earlier that Mr James Guthry would be hanged and that he himself would die of the gravel; both predictions came to pass.
• Wodrow’s father reported that when James Guthry swore the Covenant he said: “I knou I will dye for what I have done this day; but I cannot dye in a better cause!”
• Mistris Pont stated that while in prison James Guthry refused to allow Mr David Gillespy to visit him. It was generally said the King was angry at Guthry’s death and had intended Gillespy to be the one executed.

Historical or genealogical significance

• A clear oral tradition linking the two principal 17th-century Guthrie ministers
• Documents the circumstances of William’s ejection from Fenwick
• Records a long-standing prediction of James’s martyrdom
• Preserves James’s reported words at the Covenant

Additional notes

• Spelling is consistently “Guthry”
• Source chain: Jonet … → Mistris Luke → Wodrow (21 Dec. 1703)
• HathiTrust catalog record for the set: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – James Guthry’s last sermon at Stirling (nose-bleed)

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Recorded by Wodrow on 28 June 1705
• Event occurred on James Guthry’s final Sabbath preaching at Stirling (ca. 1660–1661)

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, p. 63 (HathiTrust copy – image 81)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthry – minister at Stirling; former colleague of Mr Robert Rule

Other primary individuals named

• Mr M. Simson (Wodrow’s informant)
• Mr Robert Rule (Minister at Stirling; when young, colleague to James Guthry)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr M. Simson told Wodrow that he had the account from Mr Robert Rule
• On the last Sabbath James Guthry preached at Stirling (or at all, as far as Rule knew), Mr Rule lectured before him
• After Mr Guthry had read out the text, “his nose fell a bleeding soe violently, that he was obliged to stope and give over, and Mr Rule preached for him”

Historical or genealogical significance

• One of the last recorded public acts of the martyr before his imprisonment and execution
• Preserved as a “remarkable providence” by a former colleague
• Provides a concrete, near-contemporary detail of James Guthry’s final ministry at Stirling

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthry”
• Source chain: Mr Robert Rule → Mr M. Simson → Wodrow (28 June 1705)
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – James Guthry, the Middleton excommunication, and related providences

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Recorded by Wodrow ca. 1707
• Core events: 1660–1661 (excommunication of the Earl of Middleton and James Guthry’s final ministry)

Page

• Volume 1, pp. 105–107 (HathiTrust)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthry / Mr Guthrie – minister of Stirling; later prisoner and martyr

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Russell (Episcopalian informant at Stirling)
• Earl of Midletoun (Middleton)
• The King (then at St Johnstown / Perth)
• A Nobleman (bearer of the royal letter)
• Mr Guthry’s wife
• Mr Robert Rule (colleague)
• Wodrow’s father (eye- and ear-witness; amanuensis)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr Russell gave a harsh character of James Guthry: a man of “stiff, uneasy temper,” pertinacious, and guilty of a “most notorious act of rebellion” by publicly intimating the General Assembly’s sentence of excommunication against the Earl of Middleton in the Church of Stirling.
• On the Sabbath morning the sentence was to be intimated, Guthry received a letter (from the King, or via a Nobleman) earnestly pressing him to delay. After reading it he answered the messenger: “Yow may come to Church and hear sermon, and after sermon yow shall get yowr answer.” He then proceeded to make the public intimation.
• Wodrow’s father (an eye- and ear-witness) gave a slightly variant account: the letter came via a Nobleman rather than directly from the King; Guthry’s wife encouraged him to follow the light the Lord gave him.
• On another Sabbath, while lecturing on Hebrews 11:32 to the end (the “famous believers… martyres, and confessours, who loved not their lives unto the death”), Guthry’s nose began a violent bleeding. He was forced to stop and call on his colleague Mr R. Rule to succeed him in the pulpit.
• Wodrow’s father, who was writing the discourse after him, recorded an immediate impression that Mr Guthrie himself would be a sufferer, writing: “As thou has been discoursing to us just now from the word of the Lord about sufferings… so the Lord, in his Providence, has given us a sign… that thou shall be one of that number thyself!”

Historical or genealogical significance

• Preserves both a hostile Episcopal assessment and sympathetic Covenanting traditions about James Guthry’s character and final ministry
• Documents the famous Middleton excommunication incident in two slightly differing near-contemporary versions
• Links the nose-bleed episode (also recorded elsewhere) to a prophetic sense of Guthry’s coming martyrdom
• Confirms the close involvement of Wodrow’s own family with the events

Additional notes

• Spelling varies slightly in the text between “Guthry” and “Guthrie”
• Source chain includes Mr Russell, Wodrow’s father, and oral tradition collected in 1707
• The well-known story of blood from Guthry’s head falling on Middleton’s coach appears on the immediately following pages
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – Blood from James Guthry’s head falls on Middleton’s coach

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Recorded by Wodrow in 1707
• Event occurred sometime after James Guthry’s execution (1 June 1661)

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, p. 107 (HathiTrust copy – image 125)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr Guthry – the recently executed minister of Stirling (James Guthry)

Other primary individuals named

• Earl of Midletoun (Middleton)
• Mr Andrew Mortown (source of the story; told it to Wodrow’s father)
• Physicians consulted by Middleton

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Sometime after Mr Guthry was executed, the Earl of Midletoun was coming up in his coach from the Canongate to the High Town
• As the coach was just entering the Netherbow, “Mr Guthry’s head dropped down a considerable number of droops of blood on the top of the coach”
• Several people were eye-witnesses
• The blood could not be washed or wiped off by any means
• Middleton enquired of some physicians whether any natural cause could be assigned; they knew of none
• He was therefore obliged to get a new coach
• Mr Andrew Mortown told Wodrow’s father the story and affirmed he knew it to be a certain truth

Historical or genealogical significance

• One of the best-known “remarkable providence” stories attached to James Guthry’s martyrdom
• Circulated widely in Covenanting tradition as a sign of divine judgment on Middleton
• Preserved through a direct oral chain to Wodrow’s family

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthry”
• Source chain: Mr Andrew Mortown → Wodrow’s father → Wodrow (1707)
• Continues the longer Middleton / Guthry narrative that begins on p. 105
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – James Guthry (and other ministers) confer with the Marquis of Montrose in the Tolbooth, 20 May 1650

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Events of Monday, 20 May 1650 (the morning before Montrose received his sentence)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1709 from an account written earlier and approved by the informant

Page

• Volume 1, pp. 160–163 (HathiTrust)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthry / Guthrie – minister; one of four ministers appointed by the Commission of the General Assembly to visit Montrose

Other primary individuals named

• Marquis of Montrose
• Mr Robert Trail
• Mr James Durham
• Mr Mungo Law (the other three ministers present)
• Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace (keeper of the Tolbooth)
• Mr Patrick Simson (Wodrow’s informant; the only person then living who had been present)
• Mr David Dickson (mentioned as having visited Montrose some days earlier)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• On Monday morning, 20 May 1650, four ministers appointed by the Commission (James Guthry, Robert Trail, James Durham, and Mungo Law) went into the Tolbooth to the room where Montrose was kept.
• Mr James Guthry opened the conference, laying before Montrose several points that might “marr his light”: his aspiring and lofty temper; his personal vices (especially “being too much given to weemen”); taking a commission from the King to fight against his own country; employing Irish and Popish rebels; the spoil and ravage committed by his men; and the much blood shed by his cruel followers.
• Montrose listened patiently, then answered at length, mixing in Latin sentences. He acknowledged some faults, defended others, and maintained that the Covenant he had taken he still owned, but that he could not regard as sin what he accounted his duty.
• At the close Guthry declared that, since they found no penitence, they must leave him under the sentence of excommunication and the judgment of God.
• Montrose replied that he was sorry any of his actions had offended the Church of Scotland and would gladly be reconciled, but not on terms that required him to call his duty a sin.
• The same day Montrose was refused a barber and any knife or weapon. He remarked that they would have allowed such things even to a dog.
• About eleven o’clock he was called to the bar, received sentence to be hanged (with body parts sent to Glasgow, Aberdeen, etc.), and was executed the following day (Tuesday, 21 May 1650). He had expected to be beheaded and said angrily that it became them rather to be hangmen than him to be hanged.

Historical or genealogical significance

• A rare, near-contemporary record of James Guthry acting in an official capacity for the Commission of the General Assembly
• Shows Guthry as the spokesman who opened and closed the conference with Montrose
• Provides insight into the political and religious tensions of 1650 and Guthry’s role among the leading Resolutioner / Covenanting ministers
• Preserved through a carefully verified oral-to-written chain (Simson → Wodrow)

Additional notes

• Spelling alternates between “Guthry” and “Guthrie” in the text
• The account was written by Wodrow from Mr Patrick Simson’s own mouth, read back to him for corrections, and later signed by Wodrow after Simson’s death
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – William Guthry: the day the Curate declared Fenwick vacant, his character, and related remarks (June 1664)

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Events of June 1664 (the Wednesday fast, the Sabbath, and the day the Curate came)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1709 from an informant who was present in the house

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, pp. 163–164 (HathiTrust – images 181–182)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry / Guthrie – minister of Fenwick

Other primary individuals named

• The Curate of Calder near Glasgow (thought to be named Mr Mill)
• The commander of the party that accompanied the Curate
• Glencairn, Chancellor
• Wodrow’s unnamed informant (staying in the house for several days and present on the Sabbath)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• On the Wednesday before the Curate came, Guthry kept a fast in his congregation. His text was Hosea 13:9 – the first part (“O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself!”) on the fast day and the latter part (“But in me is thy help”) on the Sabbath. He preached two sermons that Sabbath with an interval between them. The informant especially remembered the sweet expression: “All that is in me is in and for thy help, as all that is for thy help is in me.”
• After the people were dismissed they met the soldiers bringing the Curate of Calder. The Curate came into the house with his party and intimated the sentence of deposition to Mr Guthry before going to the pulpit. Guthry called for a drink and drank to the commander of the party.
• The informant does not remember hearing Guthry denounce judgment against the Curate, but states as certain that the Curate never preached again after Fenwick and died within a fortnight of an iliac passion; his wife, children, and whole family died within a year.
• Guthry told the informant that Glencairn, the Chancellor, had sent word advising him to quit Fenwick without resistance, warning that if he resisted they would bring “Mauchline-Muir and all the work long-syne” upon him, and that neither Glencairn nor all his means could save him.
• Despite his natural merriment, Guthry remained ready for spiritual duty. When spoken to about his cheerfulness he said: “It makes me sometimes shed many salt tears when alone; but I cannot be seriouse two hours, but the gravell comes on.” Asked whether his people stumbled at his recreations, he replied: “No… they are blyth that I dou do it!”
• He remarked: “When I keep Christ’s birth-day, it’s time enough to think on keeping the King’s birth-day!” and applied Aaron’s words in Leviticus 10:19 against the prevailing doctrines and covenants.
• He seldom or never used doctrinal excommunication at his Communions, yet was very authoritative—once refusing a woman who had stayed away from several tables at Eaglesham to come to the last (incomplete) table, and raising her after she had sat down.
• It was remarked that it was well ordered that Mr Guthry died in Angus; had he died in Fenwick the people would have been in hazard of idolizing his grave.

Historical or genealogical significance

• Provides the fullest near-contemporary account of the day William Guthrie was formally deposed from Fenwick
• Gives a vivid personal portrait of his temperament—cheerful yet deeply serious, authoritative yet restrained in censures
• Confirms both high-level political pressure (from Chancellor Glencairn) and the popular belief that judgment fell on the Curate and his family
• Explains the strong attachment of the Fenwick people and why his death occurred away from the parish

Additional notes

• Spelling alternates between “Guthry” and “Guthrie”
• The same eye-witness informant supplied the entire narrative
• Complements the earlier prediction story recorded on p. 47
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – James Guthry as principal penman of public papers

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Period after the death of Mr George Gillespie (December 1648) until the Resolutioner–Protester breach (1651)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1709

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, p. 168 (HathiTrust)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthry – minister; principal author of public papers for the Protesters

Other primary individuals named

• Mr George Gillespie (whose death marked the beginning of Guthry’s major role)
• Mr John Smith (who generally penned the Resolutioners’ papers after the breach)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• After Mr George Gillespie’s death, Mr James Guthry penned many of the public papers until the breach between Resolutioners and Protesters.
• Thereafter the Protesters’ papers were generally penned by Mr Guthry, while the Resolutioners’ papers were generally penned by Mr John Smith.

Historical or genealogical significance

• Identifies James Guthry as the leading literary and theological spokesman for the Protester party in the critical years 1649–1651
• Confirms his central role in drafting the official documents that defined the Protester position
• Useful for tracing the authorship of key Covenanting declarations and protests of the period

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthry”
• Appears in the section of brief memoranda on ministers
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – William Guthry: manuscript sermons, ejection, death, and brother

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Put out (ejected) 1664
• Died at Brechin about a year later (ca. 1665)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1709

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, p. 169 (HathiTrust)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry – minister of Fenwick; left manuscript sermons

Other primary individuals named

• Mr John Guthry (his brother), to whom he imparted some things about the times that were never disclosed

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr William Guthry left his manuscript sermons.
• He was put out (ejected) in 1664 and died at Brechin about a year after.
• He did not die of the gravel, though he had been much afflicted with it throughout his life.
• He imparted some things about the times to his brother Mr John, which the brother never discovered (i.e., never revealed).

Historical or genealogical significance

• Confirms the date of William Guthry’s ejection (1664) and place of death (Brechin, ca. 1665)
• Corrects or qualifies the common association of his death with the gravel
• Provides the only known reference in this source to a brother named John Guthry and to confidential information about “the times” that was never made public
• Notes the existence of manuscript sermons that were left behind

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthry”
• Appears among brief memoranda on ministers
• Complements the longer accounts of his ejection and character on pp. 163–164
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – Mutual predictions and remarks between William Guthry and James Guthry (and on Patrick Gillespie)

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Recorded by Wodrow in May 1709 (added to earlier accounts)
• The remarks themselves date from the 1650s–1660s

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, p. 208 (HathiTrust)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry – minister of Fenwick
• Mr James Guthry – minister of Stirling

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Patrick Gillespy (Gillespie)
• Mr James Stirling (who supplied the additional information)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• To the earlier account of Mr William Guthry is added that he said he was thinking “the Malignants would be Mr James’ death, and the stony gravell his.”
• Concerning a paper subscribed by Mr Patrick Gillespy (still in Mr James Stirling’s hands in 1709), the subscribing of which was termed “a coming under a civill guilt,” Mr James Guthry said of him: “Hath he suffered soe many things in vain, if it be in vain?”

Historical or genealogical significance

• Provides a second, independent witness to William Guthry’s prediction that James Guthry would die at the hands of the Malignants (royalists) while he himself would die of the gravel
• Preserves James Guthry’s pointed comment on Patrick Gillespie’s later compromise
• Strengthens the oral tradition linking the two Guthry ministers through mutual awareness of each other’s likely ends

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthry”
• These are short additions to earlier accounts already recorded by Wodrow
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – Early intimacy between James Guthry and Robert Leighton (Bishop Lightoun)

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Period when Robert Leighton was still a Presbyterian (before his “turn” to Episcopacy, i.e., before 1661)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1710 from “good hands”

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, p. 274 (HathiTrust – image 292)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthry – then a leading Presbyterian minister

Other primary individuals named

• Bishop Lightoun (Robert Leighton), later Archbishop of Glasgow
• An unnamed servant of Leighton (source of some of the details, who had died not long before 1710)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• From good hands that valued and knew Bishop Lightoun, Wodrow learned that he and Mr James Guthry were very intimate while Leighton was still a Presbyterian.
• Before the change (Leighton’s acceptance of a bishopric), they occupied the same bed together when in Edinburgh.

Historical or genealogical significance

• Documents a close personal friendship between James Guthry and Robert Leighton in their Presbyterian years
• Highlights the later divergence of two men who had once been intimate friends
• Useful for understanding the personal networks among leading Scottish ministers in the late 1640s and 1650s

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthry”
• The remainder of the paragraph concerns Leighton’s character, pride, alleged doctrinal laxity, and personal habits, and does not further mention Guthry
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – William Guthry’s conversion under Samuel Rutherford

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• While a student at St Andrews (early 1640s)
• Recorded by Wodrow c. 1710 from Mr Webster

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, p. 277 / image 295 of 400

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthrie – then a student at St Andrews

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Samuel Rutherford (his professor)
• William’s father
• Queen Mary (later valued his book)
• Archbishop Tillotson
• Dr John Owen

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr William Guthrie was converted when a student at St Andrews under Mr Rutherford by a casual sentence at the close of one of Rutherford’s public lessons. Rutherford was pressing his scholars to mind religion and said he feared the labour might be lost on some who were strangers to grace yet thought they had religion. The words sank deep in Guthrie; he became very melancholy. When his father visited and complained that he had sent his son to be a scholar and he was turning a dolt, Rutherford replied: “Noe… he will, if I mistake not, be the greatest credite ever your family had!”
• His piece on the Saving Interest (The Christian’s Great Interest) was much valued by Queen Mary and by her means translated into French; Archbishop Tillotson commended it as one of the best-written books; Dr Owen almost always carried it about with him.

Historical or genealogical significance

• Provides the classic account of William Guthrie’s conversion
• Links him directly to the Rutherford circle at St Andrews
• Records the early and lasting international reputation of his most famous work

Entry – William Guthry’s relations with the Earls of Eglinton and Glencairn

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Cromwell’s time (Glencairn in prison) and ca. 1663 (when Glencairn was Chancellor)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1710 from good hands

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, pp. 283–284 (HathiTrust – images 301–302)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry / Guthrie – minister of Fenwick

Other primary individuals named

• Earl of Eglintoun (commonly called Gray-steel)
• Earl of Glencairn (later Chancellor)
• Fairfoul, Bishop of Glasgow
• Laird of Rowallan and other gentlemen

Content summary / key passage(s)

• The Earl of Eglintoun (Gray-steel) had a great veneration for Mr William Guthrie. When the Earl died he left Guthry his own horse, a very fine one worth thirty or forty guineas, as a mark of respect. Guthry refused it as of no use to him and bestowed it on the Earl’s son.
• In Cromwell’s time, when the Earl of Glencairn was in prison and in straits, Mr Guthry (among others) visited him and offered to advance whatever money he needed that lay in his power. Glencairn declined the offer but “mightily resented” Guthry’s generosity.
• About 1663, when Glencairn was Chancellor and had been at Eglinton with his father-in-law Gray-steel, the Earl of Eglinton took a promise from the Chancellor to speak to Fairfoul, Bishop of Glasgow, in favour of Mr Guthrie. The Chancellor willingly undertook it.
• When the Chancellor saw the Archbishop in Glasgow and asked the favour—that he would spare and not molest Mr William Guthrie—the Bishop answered sharply: “My Lord, that cannot be done. He is a turbulent, disaffected person,” etc.
• The Chancellor came downstairs in great agitation, buttons springing off his coat and vest. When asked what was the matter he exclaimed: “Woes me… we have advanced thir men to be Bishops, and they will trample upon us all.”

Historical or genealogical significance

• Illustrates William Guthry’s high personal standing with leading noblemen even after the Restoration
• Shows both the protection attempted on his behalf and the firm hostility of the new episcopal authorities
• Provides a vivid contemporary anecdote of the tension between the restored nobility and the bishops they had helped to advance
• Confirms Guthry’s reputation for generosity and independence

Additional notes

• Spelling alternates between “Guthry,” “Guthrie,” and “Gutherie”
• The stories come from “good hands” and were current in 1710
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – William Guthry’s deposition at Fenwick and related character notes (full Simson account)

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• About June or July 1664 (the day the party came to dispossess him)
• Additional remarks from the same period
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1710 from Mr Simson, who was present

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, pp. 299–302 (HathiTrust – images 316–320)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr Guthry / Guthrie – minister of Fenwick

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Simson (eye-witness; stayed with Guthry that day and night and frequently at other times)
• The Curate of Calder (within four miles of Glasgow; name thought to be Milne / Mill)
• The Commander of the party
• Chancellor Glencairn
• Mr Dunlope, Principal (mentioned for comparison of temperament)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr Simson was at Fenwick with Mr Guthry the day the party came to dispossess him of his church and stayed with him all that day and the night after.
• On the Wednesday before, Guthry kept a congregational fast. His text was “Thou hast destroyed thyself!” On the Sabbath he preached the other branch, “But in me is thy help.” He began between four and five in the morning, preached twice with an interval, and dismissed about eight or nine. As the people left they met the soldiers and the Curate.
• The Curate of Calder came into the manse with the Commander and intimated the sentence of deposition. A conference then took place (of which Wodrow had a written account). Mr Guthry called for a drink, craved a blessing, and drank to the Commander.
• Simson (who was in the room above) does not remember hearing any threatening denounced against the Curate. It is certain, however, that the Curate never preached again after Fenwick and died within a fortnight of an iliac passion; his wife and all his family (several children) died within a year or less.
• After the intimation the Curate went into the church with his soldiers and preached less than a quarter of an hour to no one but his guards and some children and boys who made a great disturbance.
• That same morning Guthry remarked on the Hebrew particle in the text, turning it to mean: “all that is in me is in or for thy help; and all that is for thy help is in me!”
• Guthry told Simson that Chancellor Glencairn had sent word advising him to quit the place without resistance at the first fair opportunity, warning that if he resisted, or if anything could be laid to his charge, neither the Chancellor nor all his influence could save his life, for they would bring Mauchline-moor and all the work long since upon him.
• Simson observed that, however merry and sportsome Guthry might be, the moment an occasion of immediate worship arose he was instantly in a spiritual frame. When asked whether his merriment ever caused offence, Guthry answered that it made him shed many salt tears in secret, but that if he were serious two hours together without diversion the gravel came on him; and that his people were “blyth” that he did it.
• It was remarked that it was well ordered that Mr Guthrie died in Angus, for his congregation would have idolized his grave if he had died among them at Fenwick.
• He was very authoritative in his own church. At an Eaglesham Communion a woman who had repeatedly drawn back from the tables sat down at the last (nearly empty) table; he refused her the elements, raised her, and ended the work. He seldom or never used doctrinal excommunication or formal debarring from the Table.
• He was inclined to think that most baptized infants who died in infancy, without having rejected the Gospel covenant made at baptism, were saved; God, he said, very seldom cast away any of the Church’s bairns.

Historical or genealogical significance

• The fullest surviving eye-witness account of William Guthry’s formal deposition
• Provides the richest personal portrait of his temperament, preaching style, pastoral authority, and private piety
• Confirms both the political pressure from Glencairn and the popular belief that judgment fell on the Curate and his entire family
• Explains the intense attachment of the Fenwick people and why his death occurred away from the parish

Additional notes

• Spelling alternates between “Guthry” and “Guthrie”
• Footnote in the original notes that part of this material was reported earlier in the volume
• Source: Mr Simson (present throughout) → Wodrow, 1710
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – Dr John Owen’s praise of William Guthry’s Saving Interest

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Recorded by Wodrow from Mr Vetch (who knew Owen well)

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, p.336 / Image 354

Guthrie Identified

• Guthry – author of The Christian’s Great Interest (referred to as “Guthry’s ‘Saving Interest’”)

Other primary individuals named

• Dr John Owen
• Mr Vetch (informant)
• Mr Baillie of Jerviswood (mentioned in the same conversation)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Dr Owen, speaking of the great spirits of Scotland, pulled Guthry’s Saving Interest out of his pocket and said: “that author has been one of the greatest divines. I cary this still about with me. I have written folios, but that conteans more than they all!” Owen also caused it to be reprinted at London.

Historical or genealogical significance

• Independent English testimony to the exceptional stature of William Guthrie’s little book among the leading Puritan divines of the age

Entry – Sir George Maxwell of Pollock’s gift to Mrs Guthrie (James Guthry’s widow)

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• A little after James Guthry’s execution (June 1661)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1710

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, p. 305 (approx.)

Guthrie Identified

• Mrs Guthrie – relict (widow) of Mr James Guthrie

Other primary individuals named

• Sir George Maxwell of Pollock
• Mr George Lang (Sir George’s chaplain, who carried the gift)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• A little after Mr Guthrie’s execution, Sir George Maxwell of Pollock, hearing that the widow was in want, called his chaplain Mr George Lang and said he was mighty uneasy. He had little ordinary money by him, but took out a purse of gold (mostly old Scots coins of which he was very curious) worth five or six hundred merks and sent Lang express to Edinburgh with it and a letter to Mrs Guthrie. Lang, knowing Sir George’s curiosity about the coins, borrowed the equivalent sum in Glasgow, left the gold in pledge, and delivered ordinary money to the widow. When Sir George later obtained money he redeemed the gold with great satisfaction.

Historical or genealogical significance

• Shows the immediate practical support given to James Guthry’s widow by a leading west-country gentleman
• Illustrates the network of sympathy that continued after the execution

Entry – Confirmation of William Guthry’s prediction concerning James Guthry

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• The remark itself was made in the 1650s or early 1660s
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1711

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, p. 373 (HathiTrust)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry – speaker of the prediction
• Mr James Guthry – the person about whom the prediction was made

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Alexander Dunlop (in whose hall in Paisley the words were spoken)
• James Couie (present when the remark was made)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• The expression of Mr William Guthry to Mr James Guthry — “the Malignants would be his death, and the stonny gravell his” — was spoken in Mr Alexander Dunlop’s hall in Paisley.
• James Couie was present.

Historical or genealogical significance

• Supplies a precise location and an additional named witness for one of the best-attested predictions linking the two principal Guthrie ministers
• Strengthens the reliability of the oral tradition already recorded earlier in the volume

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthry”
• This is a brief confirmatory note added to earlier accounts of the same prediction
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – Character of James Guthry: calm reasoner, Royalist, and the King’s opinion

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Remarks recorded by Wodrow in December 1711
• The underlying events belong to the 1650s and to the time of Guthry’s execution (1661)

Page / Image Number

• Volume 1, pp. 374–375 (HathiTrust)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthry – minister of Stirling; executed 1661

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Gillespy (Patrick Gillespie)
• The King (Charles II)
• James Couie (Guthry’s Reader)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr James Guthry was a mighty calm reasoner and was never known to be in a heat in reasoning. When others grew hot in debate he would say, “Let us divert to some other subject, for I find our debates losse their end, and we cannot be bettered by them nou.”
• The King was angry when he heard that Guthry had been executed and Gillespie spared, saying that Mr Guthry was the honestest man of the two and more by far his friend.
• Mr Guthry was a great Royalist and a very strong opposer of Cromwell’s authority; he would make no concessions to the English at all.
• James Couie, his Reader, once went out of curiosity to hear the Sectaries in Stirling. Guthry was very much offended and said, “James, James, goe not up to Gilgall nor Bethaven!”

Historical or genealogical significance

• Provides a consistent contemporary portrait of James Guthry’s temperament—calm, principled, and unyielding
• Confirms the tradition that Charles II regarded Guthry more highly than Gillespie and regretted his execution
• Underscores Guthry’s firm Royalist stance and refusal to compromise with the English regime
• Shows his pastoral concern even in small matters (rebuking his Reader for attending a sectarian meeting)

Additional notes

• Spelling is consistently “Guthry”
• These are among the final notes on James Guthry in Volume 1
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Wodrow’s Analecta: Volume 2

Entry – James Guthrie troubled by a “guest” (ghost/spirit) in his house

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• During James Guthrie’s lifetime (before 1661)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1712 from “good hands”

Page / Image Number

• Volume 2, p. 32 (HathiTrust image 42-43 / 410)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthrie – minister of Stirling

Other primary individuals named

• Several unnamed ministers and Christians whom he called to join him in secret prayer

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr James Guthrie was troubled with a “guest” (footnote: a ghost or spirit) in his house for a considerable time.
• He spent much time in prayer concerning it and called in several ministers and Christians to join him in secret prayer.
• After this he was freed of it.

Historical or genealogical significance

• One of the few personal “remarkable providence” stories attached to James Guthrie that concerns a supernatural disturbance in his own household
• Shows his reliance on collective secret prayer as the means of deliverance
• Typical of the kind of anecdotal material Wodrow collected about leading Covenanting ministers

Additional notes

• Spelling here is “Guthrie”
• The footnote explicitly identifies the “guest” as a ghost or spirit
• Appears early in Volume 2 (1712 section)
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – William Guthrie’s dream of Fenwick while a student

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• While William Guthrie was at College or a student of Divinity (early 1640s)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1712

Page / Image Number

• Volume 2, p. 62 (HathiTrust – image 72)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthrie – then a student of Divinity

Other primary individuals named

• None

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr William Guthrie, when at the College or a student of Divinity, dreamed that he was in the West of Scotland.
• In the dream he went into a house beside a new kirk; the impression remained very fresh upon his mind.
• The first time he came to Fenwick the idea was still fresh, and he could observe no difference between what he had dreamed and what he saw.

Historical or genealogical significance

• A classic “remarkable providence” story linking William Guthrie’s later ministry at Fenwick to a premonitory dream from his student days
• Typical of the kind of anecdotal material Wodrow collected to illustrate divine guidance in the lives of the leading Covenanting ministers

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthrie”
• Appears in the 1712 section of Volume 2
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – William Guthry: preaching on Arran, an incident in Angus, and related anecdotes

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Various occasions during William Guthrie’s ministry (chiefly 1650s–1660s)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1712 from Mr Robert Muir, who had the accounts from eye-witnesses and from John Gemble (Guthrie’s former servant for several years)

Page / Image Number

• Volume 2, pp. 64–65 (HathiTrust – images 74–75)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry / Guthrie – minister of Fenwick

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Robert Muir (informant)
• John Gemble (Guthrie’s former man-servant)
• A Glasgow merchant (eye-witness of the Arran sermon)
• A “Malignant” gentleman of considerable estate in Angus and his three daughters
• An unnamed elder of Guthrie’s

Content summary / key passage(s)

• On Arran: A Glasgow merchant, cast ashore on Arran on a Sabbath and fearing he would hear only an Irish sermon, went to church and found Mr William Guthry in the pulpit. He had never seen such concern in a congregation — scarce a hearer without tears, many old people weeping. A formerly dissolute gentleman was so overcome that he could not contain himself; from that time he became a very eminent Christian.
• In Angus: Guthrie and a companion lost their way late at night and came to the house of a gentleman known as a great Malignant (whom Guthrie had heard of but never met). After the usual civilities Guthrie asked a blessing on the drink and then conducted family worship. The gentleman’s three daughters were deeply moved. The next day (Saturday) they pressed their father to invite Guthrie to preach; he did so, Guthrie consented, and the three young gentlewomen were converted at that sermon.
• Guthrie very frequently preached with little or no prior advertisement. When he had a clear call he sometimes began at the first or second bell and often had great enlargement and sensible success. The relater had seen him do this in Glasgow when coming off a journey.
• After one of his Communions, while Guthrie was waiting courteously on some gentlemen and ladies (some of them not very religious), one of his elders remarked: “They that made Mr Guthry a Minister spoiled a good Malignant!”

Historical or genealogical significance

• Provides vivid contemporary testimony to the emotional power and evangelistic effectiveness of William Guthrie’s preaching, both in his own locality and farther afield (Arran and Angus)
• Illustrates his willingness to preach opportunistically and his personal courtesy even toward those of opposite political or religious leanings
• The “spoiled a good Malignant” remark is a classic piece of Covenanting humour about Guthrie’s character

Additional notes

• Spelling alternates between “Guthry” and “Guthrie”
• Source chain: eye-witnesses & John Gemble → Mr Robert Muir → Wodrow (1712)
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – Mr Guthrie of Irongray and his peculiar antipathies

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Recorded by Wodrow in 1712 (the experiences themselves belong to Mr Guthrie’s earlier life)

Page / Image Number

• Volume 2, p. 85 (HathiTrust – image 95)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr Guthrie of Irongray (James Guthrie, Minister of Kirkpatrick-Irongray, 1694–1759)

Other primary individuals named

• His landlord (whom he loved as a father), who died when Guthrie was a child of six or seven

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr Guthrie of Irongray related a strange personal “sympathy” or antipathy: he cannot eat or drink in any place where he knows there is a dead corpse; if he does, he immediately vomits.
• The origin of this was in childhood. When he was about six or seven his landlord (whom he loved as a father) died while he was out. On returning, the women gave him bread; while he was eating they began to dress the corpse. The sight affected him deeply, and from that time the antipathy remained.
• He also had a long-standing natural antipathy to swine’s flesh (could not see or smell it at table without great difficulty). He later deliberately tried to overcome it by eating small amounts of pork, becoming sick the first times, but eventually succeeded so that he could see and eat a little without uneasiness.

Historical or genealogical significance

• One of the few personal anecdotes Wodrow recorded about James Guthrie of Irongray
• Illustrates the kind of private psychological or “providential” peculiarities that Wodrow sometimes noted about ministers

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthrie”
• There were two distinct Guthrie ministers associated with Irongray:
  • John Guthrie of Irongray – the 17th-century Covenanter minister and field preacher (ejected after the Restoration, died 1669)
  • James Guthrie of Irongray – minister of Kirkpatrick-Irongray from 1694 to 1759 (the speaker in this and the later 1717 entry)
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – James Guthry: final days, trial, imprisonment, and death (accounts from those present)

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Events of 1661 (trial, imprisonment, and execution on 1 June)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1712 from James Cowan and others who were with him at his death, and from additional informants

Page / Image Number

• Volume 2, pp. 137–138 (HathiTrust – images 147–148)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthry – minister of Stirling; the martyr
• Mr John Guthry – brother of Mr William Guthry of Fenwick; described as a friend of James Guthry who visited him in prison

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Robert Douglas
• Sir John Cunningham (one of Guthry’s lawyers)
• Mr David Walker, Minister at Neilston
• The Marquess of Argyle
• James Cowan and other eye-witnesses
• Wodrow’s father (who as a student visited Guthry in prison)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Despite differing from Guthry on the Resolutions, Mr Robert Douglas said near the end of his life: “Mr Guthry! I love him as my oun soul.”
• At his trial Guthry astonished his own lawyers by his exact knowledge of the acts of Parliament brought against him…
• While in prison his friend Mr John Guthry (brother of Mr William Guthry) brought in Mr David Walker of Neilston, saying, “Sir, here is ane honest West country Minister come to see you.” Guthry replied that there were many honest West-country ministers, “but the day is coming, when it shall be crime enough to be a West country man!”
• When the judges were debating his sentence… Guthry later said he had never had nearer communion with God…
• On the Monday the Marquess of Argyle called at Guthry’s room to take farewell…
• An informant sat up all night with Guthry the night before his death; he slept calmly, woke in tears of devotion, and faced the day with remarkable cheerfulness…

Historical or genealogical significance

• One of the fullest contemporary collections of personal details about James Guthry’s trial, imprisonment, and last hours
• Confirms the presence and friendship of John Guthry (brother of William Guthry of Fenwick) during James’s imprisonment — further evidence of the close ties between the Stirling and Pitforthie/Fenwick Guthrie circles
• The Pitforthie Guthries (William and his brother John) were maternal-side cousins to James Guthrie of Stirling, their grandmother having been a (still unidentified) daughter of the Guthries of that Ilk
• Preserves the memorable prediction that it would become “crime enough to be a West country man”

Additional notes

• Spelling is consistently “Guthry”
• Source chain includes James Cowan and others present at the death, Sir John Cunningham, and Wodrow’s own father
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – Mr William Guthrie

1712 (recording date) Events described: c. early 1650s (Resolutioner–Protester controversy) and 1660–1661 (period of the Restoration)

Page / Image Number

• Printed pages 141–142
• HathiTrust images 151–152

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry – the well-known Covenanting minister of Fenwick (author of The Christian’s Great Interest), d. 1665.

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Durham (James Durham, minister in Glasgow, d. 1658)
• Mr Burnet of Falkirk
• Lady Lochead (present in Sir Daniel Carmichael’s household)
• Sir Daniel Carmichael (Treasurer-depute)
• Mr Fergison (minister, identified with Kilwinning in the account)
• Mr H. Peebles
• Mr Colvil (minister of Lochwinnoch)
• Mr Nisbit
• Mr Robert Rogers

Content summary / key passage(s) Three distinct anecdotes concerning William Guthry appear on these pages:

1. Dinner with Mr Durham Guthry was “exceeding merry” and, through “pleasant facetiouse conversation,” made the normally grave Durham smile and even laugh out loud. Immediately afterward Guthry was called on to pray after dinner and “fell immediat[ly] to the greatest measure of seriousness and fervency, to the astonishment and moving of all present.” Durham embraced him and said: “O! Will, you are a happy man! If I had been soe daft as you have been, I could not have been seriouse, nor in any frame for forty-eight hours!”
2. Prayer at Sir Daniel Carmichael’s house (1660 or 1661) Reported by Mr Burnet of Falkirk, who had the story from Lady Lochead (then in Carmichael’s family). Amid the universal rejoicing at the King’s Restoration, Guthry prayed: “Lord! the whole country is rejoicing at this man’s being brought home; but Thou knowest hou soon, for all this, he may walter in the best blood of Scotland!” Sir Daniel reacted roughly: “This man will put us all in hazard to be hanged!”
3. Conflict and reconciliation with Mr Fergison
   • During the height of the Resolutioner–Protester controversy, Fergison preached violently against the Protesters at Kilwinning and named “Mr William Guthry, by name and sirname.” When later challenged by Mr Peebles, Fergison wept and attributed the outburst to local pressures within his own presbytery.
   • A fuller version of their reconciliation (cross-referenced to “Mr Guthry’s Life”) took place at the Communion of Lochwinnoch. Mr Colvil mediated between the two men, securing mutual promises that neither would raise public controversies in the pulpit. After preaching they “embraced one another, and wer both mightily taken with the other’s sermon.”

Historical or genealogical significance These are valuable near-contemporary character sketches of William Guthrie of Fenwick preserved by Wodrow. They illustrate:

• his unusual capacity to move instantly from light-hearted social ease to intense spiritual seriousness;
• a strikingly sober (almost prophetic) assessment of Charles II at the very moment of the Restoration;
• the personal tensions between leading Resolutioners and Protesters, and the eventual personal reconciliation between Guthry and Fergison.

The material adds colour and human detail to the more formal biographical notices of Guthrie and confirms the high regard in which he was held even by some who differed from him ecclesiastically.

Additional notes

• Spelling throughout is “Guthry” / “Mr William Guthry.”
• Wodrow’s own editorial note on p. 142 refers the reader to his Biographies for a fuller account of the Lochwinnoch communion story and remarks that “there are also numerous memoranda of Mr Guthry preserved in these Analecta.”
• The Lady Lochead anecdote is explicitly placed in 1660 or 1661.
• The Gillespie family material that appears on the same pages is unrelated to the Guthrie entries and has been omitted from the summary above.

Entry – William Guthry of Fenwick: observed weeping with joy in prayer and preaching

1713 (recording date)

Page 148 / Image 158

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry – the Covenanting minister of Fenwick (d. 1665). Distinct from James Guthrie of Stirling.

Other primary individuals named

• None in the Guthrie passage itself.

Content summary / key passage(s) A brief character observation recorded by Wodrow:

“It was observed of Mr William Guthry, that he weeped in prayer and preaching; and he weeped soe heartily, and with such a pleasant countenance, that it appeared he took pleasure in it, and it was as it wer a joy to him.”

Historical or genealogical significance Adds a further contemporary or near-contemporary detail to the personal piety of William Guthrie of Fenwick. The note emphasizes not merely that he wept while praying and preaching, but that the weeping was accompanied by a pleasant countenance and seemed to be a source of joy to him—consistent with other anecdotes that portray him as a man of both deep emotion and spiritual composure.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthry.”
• This short observation stands alone on the page after unrelated material concerning Mr M‘Lellan.

Entry – James Guthry of Stirling: predominant sin, early Episcopal leanings, serious illness, and Wariston’s prayer for his life

1713 (recording date)

Pages 158–159 / Images 168–169

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthry – minister of Stirling, the well-known Protester and martyr (executed 1661). Distinct from William Guthrie of Fenwick.

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Stirling (informant)
• J. C. (present during Guthry’s illness)
• Lord Wariston (Archibald Johnston of Wariston)

Content summary / key passage(s) Several personal recollections of James Guthry, reported by Mr Stirling from those who were present:

1. At a ministers’ meeting in his own house the conversation turned to “predominant sins.” Guthry declared that he thought his own was “a too violent desire to suffer a publick and violent death for Christ and his cause.” He argued that a public death was preferable to death in bed because in the latter “we losse our senses… We cannot be soe distinct in the exercise of faith,” whereas in a clear public death “we can, and doe stepp in to eternity with the outmost distinctness, and in the immediate exercise of prayer and faith.”
2. Guthry “was at first of the Episcopall way, and soe farr engaged in it that he courted one of the Bishop’s daughters.” The informant had not learned how he was brought off from that course.
3. During a severe illness in which few expected him to recover, he asked J. C. to read Romans 9. When the reader reached “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,” Guthry burst into tears and said: “James, that is the only place in all the Scripture I have to gripp to!”
4. While he lay near death, several ministers and Christians prayed for him. All who prayed before Wariston were conditional in their petitions. Wariston, however, was “mighty peremptory,” refused to take a denial, and said: “Lord, thou knouest this Church cannot want him!”

Historical or genealogical significance These are valuable first-hand or near first-hand character notes on James Guthrie of Stirling. They reveal his early Episcopal associations, his intense desire for martyrdom (which later became reality), his reliance on the doctrine of sovereign mercy in extremity, and the high regard in which he was held by leading Covenanters such as Wariston.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr James Guthry.”
• The Wariston material that continues onto p. 159 concerns Wariston’s own later career and is only loosely connected; the direct Guthrie references end with the prayer for his recovery.

Entry – William Guthry of Fenwick: hawking, lark-snaring, advice on Conformists, and exchange with Mr Mouat

1713 (recording date)

Pages 158–159 / Images 168–169

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry – minister of Fenwick (d. 1665). Distinct from James Guthrie of Stirling.

Other primary individuals named

• Fergushill (young acquaintance and informant)
• Mr M. Mouat (minister of Kilmarnock)

Content summary / key passage(s) Recollections supplied by Fergushill, who knew William Guthry while still a youth:

• At parting with his people Guthry “did not advise… to forsake hearing the Conformists.”
• Fergushill was often with him at hawking. When the hawks were gone off, Guthry would sit down “at the back of a hill and pray.”
• In the season of “lavrocking” (snaring larks) Guthry would come very early to Craufurdlaw, call out the young men, and once the nets were ready at break of day would say: “Lads, nou, is all cords, &c., ready?” When they answered yes, he would reply: “Then goe away and saint yourselves” (i.e., commend themselves to God in prayer) before they began the sport.
• On one occasion, jesting with Mr Mouat of Kilmarnock, Guthry remarked that he seemed to get better “change” (i.e., more of Mouat’s people came to hear him). Mouat answered: “God give you good of them, Billy, and blesse you and them both; that is my only care.”

Historical or genealogical significance These anecdotes give an attractive picture of William Guthrie’s private life and pastoral manner—his enjoyment of field sports combined with habitual prayer, his moderate advice regarding Conformist worship, and the friendly, uncontentious relations he maintained with neighbouring ministers such as Mouat.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthry.”
• The informant is identified simply as “Fergushill,” a young acquaintance.

Entry – Correction: Mr James Simson (not James Guthrie) sent to London with Patrick Gillespie

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Time of the debates about the Protesters (early 1650s)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1713

Page / Image Number

• Volume 2, p. 161 (HathiTrust – image 171)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthrie – mentioned only to correct a previous misattribution

Other primary individuals named

• Mr James Simson of Perth (father-in-law of the informant; the person actually sent)
• Mr Patrick Gillespy
• Mr Mair in Culross (informant’s source)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr Mair told Wodrow that his father-in-law, Mr James Simson at Perth, was sent up to London with Mr Patrick Gillespie in the time of the debates about the Protesters.
• It was not Mr James Guthrie, as had been stated in some earlier account.

Historical or genealogical significance

• A minor but useful correction of a common confusion between James Guthrie and another minister involved in the Protester negotiations
• Shows Wodrow’s care in verifying details about the principal actors of the 1650s

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthrie”
• The note appears in a longer discussion of various ministers and events of the Resolutioner–Protester period
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – William Guthry, son of James Guthry of Stirling: childhood memory of his father’s execution and early death as a student

1713 (recording date)

Pages 230–231 / Images 240–241

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthry – minister of Stirling, the Protester martyr (executed 1 June 1661).
• William Guthry – his son, aged four or five at the time of his father’s death.

Other primary individuals named

• None beyond the father and son.

Content summary / key passage(s) Wodrow records:

“Mr James Guthry had a son, William, who was but a child of four or five years of age when he was execute. It was much for them to gett him keeped from playing in the streets that day his father dyed. His father said to him: ‘Will, they will tell you that your father was hanged; but think not shame of it; it is upon a good cause!’ These words afterwards wer matter of thoughtfulness to him, when he came to some more age, and the beginning of his seriousness. He came to be very studious, and a youth of extraordinary parts and greater piety, but was cutt off, I think, just when entering upon his tryalls to be licensed.”

Historical or genealogical significance This is a rare and valuable personal note on the immediate family of James Guthrie of Stirling. It confirms that he left a young son named William, records the father’s final words of encouragement to the child on the day of the execution, and states that the boy later showed marked studiousness and piety but died while preparing for licence as a minister. The account supplies both a touching domestic detail and a genealogical endpoint for this particular line in the immediate next generation.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr James Guthry” and “William” / “Will.”
• Wodrow’s phrasing (“I think”) indicates some uncertainty about the precise stage at which the son died, but places it at the point of entering trials for licence.

Entry – A servant’s edification under William Guthrie’s preaching at Fenwick

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• About 1660 or 1661 (the year of the fire and the servant’s death)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1713 from Lady Hartwood and others

Page / Image Number

• Volume 2, pp. 253–254 (HathiTrust – images 263–264)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthrie – minister of Fenwick

Other primary individuals named

• John Dinsmoor (carrier of butter, eminent Christian)
• His wife and children
• The servant lass (singularly pious; died in the fire)
• Lady Hartwood (principal informant)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• In the account of a tragic house fire in which a pious servant and two children perished, it was remarked that the servant, the day before or the Sabbath before, had been hearing Mr William Guthrie at Fenwick.
• She had been so deeply affected by the preaching that, coming home, she said to some that she had got as much as she could bear, and thought as much as would take her to heaven.

Historical or genealogical significance

• A small but vivid contemporary testimony to the spiritual power of William Guthrie’s ministry at Fenwick
• Shows the reach of his preaching beyond his own parish into the lives of ordinary pious people in neighbouring areas

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthrie”
• The main story concerns the fire and the remarkable composure of John Dinsmoor; the reference to Guthrie is incidental but positive
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – James Guthrie in prison: remark to Mr Walker about being a West-countryman

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• While James Guthrie was a prisoner (late 1660 – early 1661)
• Recorded by Wodrow in 1713

Page / Image Number

• Volume 2, p. 263 (HathiTrust – image 273)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthrie – then a prisoner

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Walker (thought to be the minister at Beith), the person to whom the remark was made

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr Walker (I think, Minister at Beith) was the minister to whom Mr James Guthrie, while in prison, said it would be crime enough to be a West-countryman.
• Wodrow adds the cross-reference “Vide supra” (see above), indicating the fuller context appears earlier in the volume.

Historical or genealogical significance

• A small but characteristic remark illustrating James Guthrie’s dry humour and the political suspicion attached to men from the western shires during the Restoration crackdown
• Useful as a minor personal detail from his imprisonment

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthrie”
• The note is very brief and points the reader back to an earlier passage
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – James Guthrie’s distress of mind about election and subsequent relief

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• While James Guthrie was minister at Stirling (before 1661)
• Recorded by Wodrow in June 1714

Page / Image Number

• Volume 2, pp. 284–285 (HathiTrust)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthrie – then minister at Stirling

Other primary individuals named

• James Couie (his Reader / companion), who may have cited the verses to him

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr James Guthrie, while at Stirling, was at one time in no small distress of mind about election and other things.
• Either while in family worship reading the ninth chapter of Romans, or when James Couie happened to cite verses 18–19 to him, he burst out in tears and obtained full relief.

Historical or genealogical significance

• A rare personal glimpse into James Guthrie’s own spiritual struggles, specifically over the doctrine of election
• Shows that even one of the most resolute Covenanting leaders experienced periods of deep inward conflict and found comfort in the very chapter that treats divine sovereignty
• Links the relief to either private family worship or the presence of his trusted Reader, James Couie

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthrie”
• Wodrow records the detail with a slight uncertainty (“if I remember”) about the exact circumstances
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – Mr James Guthrie, Minister at Irongray, on his predecessor John Sinclair and parish events

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• Recorded by Wodrow in November 1717
• Events concern the ministry of John Sinclair (predecessor) and later parish occurrences under James Guthrie of Irongray

Page / Image Number

• Volume 2, pp. 326–327 (HathiTrust – images 336–337)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthrie, Minister at Irongray (the informant; distinct from James Guthrie of Stirling)

Other primary individuals named

• Mr John Sinclair (his predecessor at Irongray; son of Mr John Sinclair, Minister of Ormiston)
• Members of the Irongray Session and congregation

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr James Guthrie of Irongray told Wodrow that his predecessor was Mr John Sinclair, who was at Irongray for about three years.
• Sinclair, in his youth, had been in great spiritual exercise. When alone in a garden he was somehow frightened. At times, both alone and in company, he was heard speaking in a rough, austere voice quite unlike his own; sometimes that voice would utter horrid blasphemy, while at other times he would be heard praying in his ordinary voice, disclaiming the blasphemies. The change of voice could also be very marked when he asked a blessing or gave thanks. He was a great mathematician, much given to that learning, and melancholy.
• Some years earlier a heavy fever seized about sixty of the best and most religious people in the parish within a few days. Guthrie and the Session agreed on a Congregational Fast; after the fast not one of the remaining sick persons died.
• After Guthrie took the Oath of Abjuration in 1712, fourteen young people left his ministry, formed two societies in different parts of the parish, and tried to spread divisive courses. Within a year almost all of them fell into scandalous sins (mostly fornication); two of them, awakened by the others’ fall, returned to ordinances.

Historical or genealogical significance

• Provides one of the fuller personal notices of James Guthrie of Irongray (a later Covenanting/Presbyterian minister, not the 1661 martyr)
• Preserves an unusual account of his predecessor’s spiritual and psychological struggles
• Illustrates both the pastoral challenges and the perceived providential outcomes in the Irongray congregation in the early 18th century

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthrie”
• This James Guthrie of Irongray is a distinct individual from both James Guthrie of Stirling (executed 1661) and William Guthrie of Fenwick
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – William Guthrie goes to hear Robert Leighton at Newbattle

Date / Date Range / Estimated Date or Year

• While Robert Leighton was still Minister at Newbattle (before he became Bishop of Dunblane, i.e. before 1661)
• Recorded by Wodrow in September 1721 from Professor Stirling (who had it from Mr John Law)

Page / Image Number

• Volume 2, pp. 348–349 (HathiTrust – images 358–359)

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthrie – minister of Fenwick

Other primary individuals named

• Mr (later Bishop) Robert Leighton (then Minister at Newbattle / “Neu Botle”)
• Mr John Law, Minister at Edinburgh (source of the story)
• Professor Stirling (who told it to Wodrow)

Content summary / key passage(s)

• Mr William Guthrie, attracted by the fame of Mr Leighton’s affecting manner of preaching, sometimes went out to Newbattle to hear him.
• His remark afterwards was that while hearing Leighton he was “as in heaven,” but he could scarcely bring one word away with him out of the church doors — referring to Leighton’s haranguing style of preaching without formal heads or divisions.

Historical or genealogical significance

• Provides a rare personal comment by William Guthrie on the preaching of Robert Leighton
• Illustrates both the high regard in which Leighton’s delivery was held and Guthrie’s own preference for a more structured, “headed” style of sermon
• Adds a small human detail to the relationship (or at least mutual awareness) between two of the most notable Scottish ministers of the mid-17th century

Additional notes

• Spelling is “Guthrie”
• Newbattle is the modern form of “Neu Botle”
• HathiTrust catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001663860

Entry – William Guthry of Fenwick: assisting Andrew Gray at a crowded Glasgow Communion

May 1722 (recording date)

Page 364 / Image 374

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry – the popular Covenanting minister of Fenwick (d. 1665). Distinct from James Guthrie of Stirling.

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Andrew Gray (recently settled in Glasgow)
• Mr Durham (James Durham)
• Unnamed Minister and “worthy Christian at Glasgow” (chain of informants)

Content summary / key passage(s) Wodrow records an account (received via Mr John Anderson of Kirkmaiden) of a Communion Sabbath in Glasgow some time after Andrew Gray’s settlement there:

Gray “was exceedingly followed, and had for his helper Mr William Guthry, and some others of the most popular preachers.” The Outer Church was so thronged that people could not get near the door and several were carried out sick and fainting. The Inner Church, initially thin, filled with those who could not gain entry to the Outer. When Mr Durham entered the pulpit and preached on Matthew 22:5 there was “a remarkable Divine presence,” with many converted and far more edified. The relator regarded it as one of the greatest days of power he had ever witnessed.

Historical or genealogical significance A minor but useful contemporary notice placing William Guthrie of Fenwick among the most sought-after preachers assisting at major Communions in Glasgow during the height of his popularity, alongside Andrew Gray and James Durham.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthry.”
• The reference is brief and incidental; Guthry is named only as one of the popular helpers, with the main focus of the anecdote falling on Durham’s sermon in the Inner Church.

Wodrow’s Analecta: Volume 3

Entry – William Guthrie of Fenwick: visiting David Dickson at family exercise

1723 (recording date)

Page 9 / Image 25

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthrie, Minister at Finwick (Fenwick) – the well-known Covenanting minister (d. 1665). Distinct from James Guthrie of Stirling.

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Dickson (David Dickson)
• Sir Patrick Houston (earlier in the wider passage, but not directly tied to this anecdote)

Content summary / key passage(s) Wodrow records:

“Mr William Guthrie, Minister at Finwick, came in one day to visite Mr Dickson, when at family exercise; he desired Mr Guthrie to pray, but he would not. Mr Guthrie said of him, ‘He went away and prayed about ten words; but I confess,’ said he, ‘every word that he uttered would have filled a furlott!’”

Historical or genealogical significance A brief but characteristic anecdote illustrating both William Guthrie’s deference toward the older David Dickson and his high admiration for the spiritual weight of Dickson’s short, concentrated prayers. It adds a personal, informal detail to the relationship between two of the leading Covenanting ministers of the period.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthrie” and “Finwick” (for Fenwick).
• The anecdote sits within a longer series of recollections about David Dickson; only the Guthrie portion is extracted here.

Entry – William Guthrie of Fenwick: his preaching gift compared to that of Mr John Dury

1723 (recording date)

Page 25 / Image 41

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthrie – minister of Fenwick (d. 1665). Distinct from James Guthrie of Stirling.

Other primary individuals named

• Mr John Dury, Minister at Dalmeny
• Mr Ephraim Melvil (mentioned in the wider context)

Content summary / key passage(s) In a notice of Mr John Dury, Wodrow records that he was “much esteemed of in his time, as having a taking and soring gift of preaching, much like Mr William Guthrie’s gift.”

Historical or genealogical significance A brief contemporary comparison that places William Guthrie of Fenwick’s preaching style as a recognised standard of popular, elevated, and effective pulpit gift among the Covenanting ministers of the period.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthrie.”

Entry – William Guthry of Fenwick: sermon on praising God that influenced Robert Stirling

1723 (recording date)

Page 26 / Image 42

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry – minister of Fenwick (d. 1665).

Other primary individuals named

• Robert (younger brother of John Stirling; the narrator’s uncle)
• Mr Andrew Hutcheson, Minister of Stewarton

Content summary / key passage(s) Robert Stirling, troubled by his brother John’s deep spiritual exercises, went to Fenwick to hear Mr William Guthry. Guthry preached that day on “that noble and seraphick exercise of praising God.” After pressing the duty, he answered possible objections and, looking out at the pleasant weather, said:

“Yes! has thou nothing to praise God for, will thou praise God, man, for good weather to the lambs?”

The word “took my uncle Robert by the heart, and made him knou what troubled his brother John.” The next day, under the preaching of Mr Andrew Hutcheson at Stewarton, the conviction was driven home.

Historical or genealogical significance A concrete example of the practical, searching, and memorable character of William Guthrie’s preaching. The simple, vivid illustration about praising God for good weather to the lambs proved instrumental in awakening spiritual concern in a hearer and is preserved as a personal family recollection within the Stirling circle.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthry” and “Finwick.”
• The anecdote forms part of the early religious history of the Stirling family.

Entry – William Guthry of Fenwick: instrument of Alexander Stirling’s conversion

1723 (recording date)

Page 36 / Image 52

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry – minister of Fenwick (d. 1665). Distinct from James Guthrie of Stirling.

Other primary individuals named

• Alexander Stirling (grandfather of the narrator)
• Mr Andrew Hutcheson, Minister at Stewarton (informant to the narrator’s mother)

Content summary / key passage(s) Wodrow records that Alexander Stirling, described as “really a godly and very wise man,” gave great satisfaction to his four sons at his death and “sheued them that Mr William Guthry was the instrument of his conversion.”

Historical or genealogical significance A direct personal testimony that William Guthrie of Fenwick was the means of Alexander Stirling’s conversion. This links Guthrie to the spiritual origins of a family that produced several serious Christians and ministers in the following generation, and adds another named individual to the circle of those influenced by Guthrie’s ministry.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthry.”
• The notice sits within a longer family memoir of the Stirlings.

Entry – William Guthry of Fenwick: Mr Ferguson’s pulpit attack and later reconciliation at Beith Communion

1723 (recording date)

Pages 41–42 / Images 57–58

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry of Finwick – the Covenanting minister of Fenwick (d. 1665).

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Ferguson (minister of Kilwinning)
• Mr Peeblis (Peebles)

Content summary / key passage(s) Wodrow records (via Mr Peeblis) that Mr Ferguson, through his strong support of the Public Resolutions, became cold toward the more consistent godly and on one Sabbath in the pulpit of Kilwinning spoke against “worthy Mr William Guthry of Finwick.” A parishioner of Mr Peeblis reported the incident. Peeblis would not believe it until he later met Ferguson and questioned him. Ferguson could not deny it, burst into tears, and said:

“O! if ye kneu hou we in this Presbytery are handled! If I had been in your Presbytery, it’s like you should have heard as litle of me as of any Minister in this Church.”

Peeblis rebuked him for carrying so toward “such a Minister of the Gospell as Mr Guthry is.”

Thereafter the two men would hardly preach together until, at a Communion in Beith, Peeblis with some difficulty got them to preach without reflecting on one another. Afterwards both spoke highly of the other’s sermon to Peeblis: Ferguson said he was “much refreshed in hearing Mr Guthrie preach so well,” and Guthrie said the same of Ferguson.

Historical or genealogical significance This is a parallel (and in some details variant) account of the tension and eventual personal reconciliation between William Guthrie of Fenwick and Mr Ferguson of Kilwinning during the Resolutioner–Protester controversy. It confirms the earlier tradition recorded in Volume 2, while locating the reconciliatory Communion at Beith rather than Lochwinnoch, and preserves Ferguson’s emotional explanation of the local pressures that led him to attack Guthrie by name.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthry of Finwick” / “Mr Guthrie.”
• This Volume 3 version should be read alongside the related anecdote already extracted from Volume 2, pp. 141–142. The core facts (pulpit attack, tears, and later mutual commendation) are consistent; the location of the Communion differs.

Entry – James Guthrie: concern for his safety after the Battle of Dunbar

1723 (recording date)

Page 53 / Image 69

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthrie

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Carstairs (John Carstairs)
• An unnamed poor woman who came to him among the dead

Content summary / key passage(s) Mr Carstairs was taken among the dead at Dunbar, stripped naked, and lay for some time among the corpses. A soldier stepped on him near the groin, but he remained still to avoid being slain. Eventually a poor woman came to him. He asked her for a napkin because he was weeping sorely, and then enquired whether she had seen Mr James Guthrie ride by her, “for he was much concerned about his safety.”

Historical or genealogical significance A brief but telling detail from the aftermath of the Battle of Dunbar (3 September 1650). It shows that even in extremity John Carstairs was anxious for the welfare of James Guthrie, indicating the regard in which Guthrie was already held among leading Covenanting ministers at that date.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr James Guthrie.”
• The anecdote forms part of a longer recollection about Carstairs’ experiences at and after Dunbar.

Entry – William Guthrie of Fenwick: biographical recollections (ministry, character, preaching, family, and death)

1723 (recording date)

Pages 66–70 / Images 82–86

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthrie, ordained Minister of Finnick (Fenwick / New Kilmarnock)
• His brothers: one (possibly David) to whom he gave his estate; Mr John and Mr Alexander (ministers); Mr Robert (expectant)
• His daughter Mrs Warner

Other primary individuals named

• Mr James Hutcheson of Killellan
• Agnes Biggart
• James Cowie
• Mr John Durie
• Mistress Dunlop (narrator’s mother-in-law)
• Mr Foster
• Earl of Glencairn
• Archbishop of Glasgow
• Chancellor Cunningham
• Rewallan and Crawfordland
• Mr Skinner (brother-in-law, Brechin)
• Laird of Johnstoun

Content summary / key passage(s) Wodrow gathers a substantial set of recollections under the heading “MR WILLIAM GUTHRIE”:

• Ordained to Finnick (Fenwick), a new erection. Came out of Angus; “a very well-born gentleman, and was the head of a family himself.” Possessed a rare gift of popular preaching and an excellent gift of prayer.
• Mr James Hutcheson heard him at a Communion: the first prayer on the Sabbath morning (about an hour long) was of such liberty, spirituality, fervency, and melting of spirit, with many tears, that Hutcheson thought he had never heard a greater prayer.
• Agnes Biggart observed that in one sermon he would go over a great part of the spiritual exercises of a true Christian. He had a remarkable gift for persuading sinners to close with Christ and answering objections, yet remained humble despite the crowds that followed him.
• James Cowie was much taken with his cheerful and pleasant way of conversing, which never marred his spiritual frame. Cowie tried to imitate him but could not. When told that Cowie would have been content to go through the world with him, Guthrie replied: “And he kneu me a litle better, he would not say so!”
• He used vivid, homely illustrations. On one return to his people he remarked that the kirk floor and seats looked mouldy because the hearers had left the preaching “mouling” behind them instead of taking it with them.
• At a Communion where Mr John Durie preached a highly searching sermon that “laid by” most of the Christians present, Guthrie rose and said God had sent a minister from the East country to tell them the truth. The following Sabbath morning he laboured to bring back those who had been discouraged.
• He had a peculiar gift of speaking to common people in their own dialect and a winning way of “stealing them off their feet to Christ.”
• During the English occupation he visited the imprisoned Earl of Glencairn and offered to advance him money if needed. The Earl never forgot the kindness; after the Restoration he tried (unsuccessfully) to persuade the Archbishop of Glasgow to allow Guthrie to remain in his charge.
• He was of a melancholy temperament and therefore diverted himself with fishing, hunting, and hawking. In the midst of sport he would sometimes say to his companions, “I think, Sirs, we will pray a litle here,” pray with great fervency, and then resume the sport.
• He died at Brechin in 1665 at the house of his brother-in-law Mr Skinner, in extreme pain from the gravel, saying he would have been content to dig his grave with his own nails. He was about 45 years of age. His daughter Mrs Warner reported that he told her mother he would gladly give a whole world for one forenoon’s free conference with the Council of Scotland.
• Shortly before the “sad Revolution” of 1661 he preached in the High Church of Glasgow and said: “Sirs, there will be changes, changes, changes, and ye will not knou what to make of them all!” He also remarked that the cause of God must not want witnesses, even if they had to be brought out of France to lay down their lives at the Cross of Edinburgh (later seen as fulfilled in Wariston).
• Family: He had three brethren besides the one to whom he gave his estate (identity uncertain, possibly David). Mr John and Mr Alexander were ministers; Mr Robert was an expectant (Wodrow is unsure whether he died of wounds at Pentland).

Historical or genealogical significance This is the most detailed single block of personal testimony about William Guthrie of Fenwick in the Analecta. It supplies:

• confirmation of his Angus origin and status as head of a family,
• extensive contemporary praise of his preaching and prayer,
• vivid illustrations of his manner with people of all ranks,
• his relations with Glencairn and other public figures,
• the circumstances of his death,
• and the only connected notice of his brothers and daughter.

The material is of high value for both biographical and family-history research.

Additional notes

• Spelling: predominantly “Mr William Guthrie” / “Finnick” / “Finwick.”
• The section is presented by Wodrow under the explicit heading “MR WILLIAM GUTHRIE.”
• Several shorter anecdotes about him that appear elsewhere in the Analecta (hawking and prayer, the Ferguson reconciliation, etc.) are consistent with the character drawn here.

Entry – John Guthrie of Tarbolton: brother of William Guthrie of Fenwick

1723 (recording date)

Pages 70–71 / Images 86–87

Guthrie Identified

• Mr John Guthrie, brother to Mr William Guthrie; ordained Minister of Tarbolton (Presbytery of Ayr)

Other primary individuals named

• Isobel Stirling (his servant; mother of Mr James Livingstone, Minister of Strathblane)
• Mr William Guthrie (his brother)
• Mr David Dickson (in a related note about William)

Content summary / key passage(s) Wodrow records under the heading “MR JOHN GUTHRIE”:

• Brother to Mr William Guthrie. Ordained Minister of Tarbolton. “A most holy and pious man, of a most strict life and tender walk,” according to his servant Isobel Stirling. He did not possess so popular a gift as his brother William, but was not short of him in eminent piety and holiness.
• William said of him: “If John once come forth to the ministry, he will darken me much.”
• On the text “With his stripes we are healed,” he remarked: “O what a strange thing was [it] that one stripe should heal another stripe.”
• Like his brother William, he was an excellent musician.
• Wodrow heard that he was at Pentland and died sometime after that.

(A related note about William is inserted here: when other parishes sought his translation and the people of Fenwick testified to his usefulness, David Dickson, as Moderator, said he would not “spoil the sport” of the Lord Jesus having gone “a-pouting” on the muirs of Fenwick.)

Historical or genealogical significance This short notice establishes John Guthrie as a younger brother of William of Fenwick, a minister of recognized holiness, present at (or connected with) the Pentland Rising, and dead not long afterward. It also preserves William’s high estimate of his brother’s future usefulness and adds the detail that both brothers were accomplished musicians.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr John Guthrie.”
• The section is presented under the explicit heading “MR JOHN GUTHRIE.”
• The brief remark about William and the proposed translation is retained here because it appears in the same continuous passage.

Entry – James Guthrie of Stirling: close friendship and mutual examination with Samuel Rutherford

1723 (recording date)

Page 90 / Image 106

Guthrie Identified

• Mr Guthrie, late Minister of Stirling (James Guthrie)

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Rutherford (Samuel Rutherford)
• An unnamed servant woman in Guthrie’s house
• James Cowie (present at a later prayer meeting mentioned in the wider context)

Content summary / key passage(s) Wodrow records that Rutherford “had such a great love to worthy Mr Guthrie, late Minister of Stirling, that he would have come and stayed with him at his house eight or ten dayes together.”

A servant woman in Guthrie’s house observed Rutherford walking alone in his chamber, meditating and praying. She heard him utter three petitions at intervals:

• “Lord, make me beleive in Thee!”
• “Lord, make me love Thee!”
• “Lord, make me keep all Thy commandments!”

Guthrie and Rutherford would examine one another on how they spent their time. Rutherford was heard to say to Guthrie: “I think it would be a good recreation after dinner for you to go out and visit three or four families in the toun.”

Historical or genealogical significance A rare intimate glimpse of the personal friendship between two of the leading Covenanting figures. It shows Rutherford’s deep affection for James Guthrie, their mutual accountability in the use of time, and Rutherford’s characteristic intensity of private devotion even while a guest in Guthrie’s house.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr Guthrie.”
• The anecdote appears within a longer series of recollections about Samuel Rutherford.

Entry – James Guthrie of Stirling: biographical recollections (parentage, early life, character, imprisonment, death, and family)

1723 (recording date)

Pages 92–104 / Images 108–120

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthrie, Minister of Stirling (executed 1 June 1661 at Edinburgh)
• His son William Guthrie (young child at the time of the execution)
• Brief reference to Mr William Guthrie, Minister of Finnick (Fenwick), who had been his student

Other primary individuals named

• James Cowie (precentor and amanuensis at Stirling; principal informant)
• Isobell Dougal (later Cowie’s wife; former servant)
• Lord Wariston
• Sir William Bruce of Stenhouse
• Mr Patrick Gillespie
• Mrs Warner (daughter of William Guthrie of Fenwick)
• Sir Thomas Nicolson of Carnock
• George Stirling (chirurgion)
• Jonat Bruce (Dr Sir Thomas Burnett’s Lady)
• Sir George Maxwell of Newark
• Mr Rule (colleague)
• Mr Hasty
• Mr Gilbert Hall (Kirkliston)

Content summary / key passage(s) Wodrow gathers a substantial body of personal recollections, largely from James Cowie:

• Heard called “son to the Laird of Guthrie, in Angus.” First a Regent (probably at St Andrews). Initially Prelatic and for the Ceremonies; was courting a bishop’s daughter. When going to take the Covenant he met the hangman, which made him pause and resolve to adhere to it even if it cost him a violent death. He later acknowledged the incident after sentence was passed in 1661.
• James Cowie stated that Guthrie’s life and walk preached more to him than all he delivered in the pulpit. Though a great and learned man, he remained as fresh and lively under deep exercise as a young convert.
• At the Restoration he ordered a bonfire at Stirling out of loyalty, citing Romans 13. He was a kind and Christian master to his servants. On one occasion he calmly corrected a maid for answering her mistress again. When that same servant (Isobell Dougal) married James Cowie, Guthrie himself presented her to the bridegroom.
• He took little practical care for his family’s provision or for the expenses of his journeys on Church business, leaving such matters to his wife.
• Extensive correspondence with Wariston before the latter’s compliance with the English; Wariston described strange bodily motions in prayer as “a signe of His presence in my flesh.” After Wariston’s compliance, Guthrie wrote freely and sharply to him.
• He spoke freely to Sir William Bruce of Stenhouse about compliance, and also dealt sharply with William Guthrie of Fenwick for going some length with Patrick Gillespie. William replied with tears that he took the freedom in good part, having always looked on James as his father (James having been his Regent). Looking at William one day, James remarked that the Malignants would bring him (James) to death, while the stone and gravel would be William’s death—both of which later occurred.
• His house at Stirling was greatly troubled by the Devil at certain times; he prayed much, kept family fasts, and wrote to other ministers and Christians requesting the same.
• He had only one son, William, who was so young and unconcerned on the day of the execution that Cowie could scarcely keep him from playing. The father spoke to the child, telling him not to be ashamed if comrades cast it up that his father was hanged, because of the honourable cause. The boy later became a most serious seeker of God, would shut himself away for long periods of prayer, and (Wodrow thinks) was either a preacher or preparing for it, but died young. He frequently went out to look at his father’s head after it was set up.
• On the way to the scaffold the authorities, angered by Argyll’s courageous bearing, tried to impose marks of contempt (bare-headed, hands bound). Guthrie, suffering from gout, insisted he needed his staff to walk; they therefore only lightly bound his hands and allowed the staff.
• After death a Christian friend (believed to be George Stirling, surgeon) anointed the body with fragrant ointment. Several gentlewomen, including Jonat Bruce, dipped their napkins in his blood, intending to hold them up in prayer that the blood might cry for vengeance.
• Sir Thomas Nicolson of Carnock was a great strengthener and encourager to him at Stirling.

Historical or genealogical significance This is one of the richest single blocks of personal testimony about James Guthrie of Stirling preserved by Wodrow. It supplies:

• a statement of Angus (Guthrie of that Ilk) parentage,
• details of his early Prelatic phase and decisive taking of the Covenant,
• intimate domestic and pastoral character,
• his relationship as former Regent to William Guthrie of Fenwick,
• the only detailed contemporary account of his young son William,
• and numerous particulars of his imprisonment, last days, and the treatment of his body.

The material is especially valuable for both biographical and family-history purposes.

Additional notes

• Spelling varies slightly within the section (“Guthrie,” “Guthry”).
• The long section is presented by Wodrow under the explicit heading “MR JAMES GUTHRIE.”
• Several of the anecdotes (hangman incident, son William, correspondence with Wariston, dealing with William of Fenwick) appear in shorter or variant form elsewhere in the Analecta; this is the most connected and detailed version.

Entry – William Guthrie of Fenwick: remark on Mr James Rowat’s love for Christ

1723 (recording date)

Page 113 / Image 129

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthrie

Other primary individuals named

• Mr James Rowat, Minister of Kilmarnock
• Mr Mathew Mowat (his colleague)

Content summary / key passage(s) In a notice of Mr James Rowat, Wodrow records that Mr William Guthrie used to say of him that he thought Mr Rowat “behoved to love Christ much, for he was rarely out of his mouth, he was so much taken up in speaking of Christ and his worth.”

Historical or genealogical significance A short but characteristic testimony from William Guthrie of Fenwick to the Christ-centred conversation and evident devotion of a neighbouring minister. It adds one more personal observation to the network of mutual regard among the Covenanting ministers of Ayrshire and the surrounding district.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthrie.”
• The remark appears within a brief biographical sketch of James Rowat.

Entry – William Guthrie of Fenwick: Mr Mathew Mowat’s high regard for his preaching

1723 (recording date)

Page 115 / Image 131

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthrie

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Mathew Mowat, Minister of Kilmarnock
• Mr James Osburn (earlier in the wider sketch)
• Mr David Henderson (baptizer of Mowat)

Content summary / key passage(s) In a notice of Mr Mathew Mowat, Wodrow records that Mowat “was so taken with Mr William Guthrie’s gift of preaching, that (when he had been abroad) he would have stolen in to some secret corner of Finwick Kirk to hear Mr Guthrie preach.”

Historical or genealogical significance A small but telling indication of the esteem in which William Guthrie of Fenwick’s preaching was held by a neighbouring minister of recognized piety. The detail that Mowat would deliberately and quietly enter Fenwick Kirk to hear him underscores Guthrie’s reputation as a preacher of unusual attraction and power.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthrie” and “Finwick Kirk.”
• The remark closes the biographical sketch of Mathew Mowat.

Entry – William Guthry and John Dury: humorous classification of Assembly members

1725 (recording date)

Page 193 / Image 209

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry

Other primary individuals named

• Mr John Dury
• Mr James Stirling (informant)

Content summary / key passage(s) Mr James Stirling reported that Mr William Guthry and Mr John Dury used to divide the members of the Assembly, in their factious way, into Vocales and Consonantes, and Mutæ and Liquidæ, and Diphthongæ. Wodrow notes that the application of these categories to most numerous meetings is pretty obvious.

Historical or genealogical significance A light, characteristic anecdote illustrating the dry humour shared by William Guthrie of Fenwick and John Dury in observing the dynamics of large Church assemblies.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthry.”

Entry – James Guthry of Stirling: prevented by a mob from preaching; personal holiness and moderation

1725 (recording date)

Pages 193–194 / Images 209–210

Guthrie Identified

• Mr James Guthry, when Minister of Stirling

Other primary individuals named

• Mr James Stirling (informant)
• An unnamed person who lived in the family with him

Content summary / key passage(s) Mr James Stirling related that when Mr James Guthry was going to preach one day he was met by a mob and hindered. He went home and preached to a good many who came to him. When finished he was very cheerful and said he believed God had accepted his design to do Him service.

The same informant (or the person who lived in the household) observed that Guthry’s holy and tender life was a greater conviction of his high attainments in real religion than all his sermons and public appearances. He was extremely moderate in his meat and drink, and on the Sabbath kept much the same meals as on other days.

Historical or genealogical significance Two further personal details: one showing Guthry’s composure and spiritual cheerfulness when publicly obstructed, and another underscoring the impression made by his consistent private holiness and self-denial in ordinary living.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr James Guthry” / “Mr Guthry.”

Wodrow’s Analecta: Volume 4

Entry – Agnes Guthry at Bogton: spiritual experience associated with Mr William Guthry

1729 (recording date)

Page 47 / Image 61

Guthrie Identified

• Agnes Guthry (mother of the informant)
• Mr William Guthry (named in her covenanting prayer)

Other primary individuals named

• John M‘Gilchrist’s wife (née Smith; the informant)
• Agnes Guthry’s grandmother (present with her at Bogton)

Content summary / key passage(s) The informant related that her mother, Agnes Guthry, was with her grandmother at Bogton in the parish of Cathcart at the time of “Mr Guthry’s death.” During that period Agnes was exceedingly serious and often went out in the summer evenings to the walk of trees for prayer and covenanting. One night, about twelve o’clock, she obtained much liberty in taking hold of God “as her father’s God, Mr William Guthry,” and in covenanting. Afterwards she sought confirmation that the experience was not a delusion. On opening her Bible the following places came up in turn and gave her much consolation:

• “Go thy way, eat thy bread, thou art accepted!”
• Thomas’s words: “My God and my Lord!”
• “My God, whose I am, and whom I serve, hath appeared to me!”

Historical or genealogical significance The passage records a personal spiritual experience in which Agnes Guthry explicitly linked herself in covenant to the God of Mr William Guthry. It places her and her grandmother at Bogton, Cathcart, around the time of a death associated with the name Guthry. The precise family relationship (if any) between this Agnes Guthry and William Guthrie of Fenwick is not stated in the text and should not be assumed from the phrasing alone.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Agnes Guthry” and “Mr William Guthry.”
• The expression “her father’s God, Mr William Guthry” is best read as claiming the same covenant God that William Guthry served, rather than as a direct assertion of biological parentage.

Entry – William Guthry of Fenwick: correspondence with Mr Robert Trail of Edinburgh

1729 (recording date)

Page 60 / Image 74

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Robert Trail (elder), Minister at Edinburgh
• Mr Robert Trail (nephew; Minister in the North)
• Mistress Trail (widow of the elder Trail)
• Mr Alston (married to a niece of Mistress Trail)

Content summary / key passage(s) While enquiring at Edinburgh about the papers of the late Mr Robert Trail of London, Wodrow asked the nephew, Mr R. Trail (a minister in the North), about “the course of Letters betwixt his father, Mr Trail, Minister at Edinburgh, and Mr William Guthry, of which he speaks in his edition of Mr Guthry’s Interests, London, 1705, or therabout.”

The nephew could not say what had become of them. He added that his aunt, Mistress Trail, had a niece married to one Mr Alston, and as far as he could guess the letters must be in Mistress Trail’s or Mr Alston’s hands.

Wodrow comments: “It will be worth while to cause make enquiry about them, and, if possible, recover them; for certainly a course of Letters on spirituall exercise between Mr Trail and Guthry, for some years, is a treasure.”

Historical or genealogical significance This notice confirms the existence of a sustained correspondence on spiritual exercise between William Guthrie of Fenwick and Robert Trail, Minister of Edinburgh. The letters were still known in 1705 (when the nephew edited The Christian’s Great Interest) but their whereabouts were already uncertain by 1729. The reference underlines both the close ministerial friendship and the high value contemporaries placed on Guthrie’s spiritual counsel.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthry.”
• The edition of The Christian’s Great Interest mentioned is the London printing of approximately 1705.

Entry – William Guthry of Fenwick: instrument of Robert Wodrow’s father’s awakening; family connection to the Wodrows

1730 (recording date; entry under 20 April)

Page 114 / Image 128

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry
• Two of his grandchildren (one married to Wodrow’s uncle by marriage; another married to Robert Wodrow himself)

Other primary individuals named

• Mrs Luke (informant)
• Robert Wodrow’s father
• Robert Wodrow (the annalist)

Content summary / key passage(s) Mrs Luke told Wodrow that his father frequently expressed high regard for Mr William Guthry and satisfaction that his brother-in-law had married one of Guthry’s grandchildren. Wodrow adds that, had his father still been living, he would have been even more pleased that Wodrow himself had married another grandchild of William Guthry.

Beyond this family connection, Guthry was the first instrument God used to awaken Wodrow’s father. As a young lad living at Eaglesham he walked some miles to Fenwick to hear Guthry. In the first prayer Guthry confessed, in the name of the congregation, the sins of heaviness and weariness in prayer and of sleeping during it. The young man later fell asleep in that very prayer. When Guthry began his lecture or sermon he remarked that he believed some present might already be guilty that day of the very sins they had just been confessing. The young man’s conscience was struck by the fact that he had slept, and this became the beginning of very serious reflections.

Historical or genealogical significance Two points of lasting interest:

1. Confirmation that Robert Wodrow (the annalist) married a granddaughter of William Guthrie of Fenwick, and that another granddaughter had earlier married into the same wider family circle.
2. A concrete, personal account of William Guthrie’s preaching and prayer as the means of spiritual awakening in the previous generation of the Wodrow family.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthry” / “Finwick.”
• The awakening anecdote is a classic example of Guthrie’s searching, practical application in prayer and sermon.

Entry – Agnes Campbell, Mrs Guthry: mother of Wodrow’s mother-in-law; longevity note

1730 (recording date; events of late June / early July)

Pages 161–162 / Images 175–176

Guthrie Identified

• Agnes Campbell, Mrs Guthry (wife of Rev. William Guthrie of Fenwick; mother of Wodrow’s mother-in-law)

Other primary individuals named

• Wodrow’s mother-in-law (born 7 July 1655; the speaker of the observation)
• The Lady Skeldon (grandmother of Wodrow’s mother-in-law)
• Mr Warner (in Ireland at the time of the illness)

Content summary / key passage(s) Toward the end of the month Wodrow’s mother-in-law was suddenly taken ill with a violent fever while Mr Warner was in Ireland. She appeared to be under the expectation of death, especially as she was near the close of her seventy-fifth year (born, Wodrow thinks, 7 July 1655). She observed that several of her female ancestors had all died precisely in their seventy-fifth year:

• her mother, Agnes Campbell, Mrs Guthry,
• her grandmother, the Lady Skeldon,
• and her mother (i.e. the great-grandmother).

Nevertheless the Lord brought her through the illness into her seventy-sixth year.

Historical or genealogical significance This passage explicitly identifies Agnes Campbell as “Mrs Guthry.” Combined with the earlier statement (Vol. 4, p. 114) that Robert Wodrow married a granddaughter of William Guthry, and with known family records, the lineage is:

• Rev. William Guthrie of Fenwick married Agnes Campbell
• Their daughter Mary Guthrie married Patrick Warner
• Their daughter Margaret Warner married Robert Wodrow, Minister of Eastwood (the annalist)

Wodrow’s mother-in-law is therefore Mary Guthrie (Mrs Warner), daughter of William Guthrie of Fenwick and Agnes Campbell. The longevity observation, while incidental, preserves a family tradition across three generations of women.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Agnes Campbell, Mrs Guthry.”
• This entry, read together with the awakening anecdote and family-connection notice on p. 114, firmly anchors William Guthrie of Fenwick within Robert Wodrow’s own immediate family circle.

Entry – Parish of Guthrie (place-name) and death of Wodrow’s son Sandy

1730 (recording date; Commission meeting)

Pages 187–188 / Images 201–202

Guthrie Identified

• Guthrie (parish name in Angus)
• Indirectly: the Guthrie line through which Wodrow’s children descended

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Archibald (the minister under discussion)
• Mr Glass (comparative case)
• Professor Hamilton
• Sandy Wodrow (Robert Wodrow’s son)

Content summary / key passage(s) In the Commission’s handling of Mr Archibald’s case, Wodrow notes that Archibald “is only declared not Minister of Guthrie, and no Minister of this Church.” This decision is contrasted with the previous year’s deposition of Mr Glass for similar irregularities, and is presented as an inconsistency that exposes the Church courts.

During the same Commission meeting, Wodrow’s son Sandy died on the Thursday morning. Wodrow describes him as “a smart and pleasant boy, with many excellent qualitys.” He had been long under trouble yet showed much patience, and had much peace and some comfort at his death.

Historical or genealogical significance The place-name reference is minor and concerns the parish of Guthrie in Angus.

Of greater family interest is the death of Sandy Wodrow. Through his mother, Margaret Warner (daughter of Patrick Warner and Mary Guthrie), Sandy was a great-grandson of Rev. William Guthrie of Fenwick and Agnes Campbell. The notice therefore records the death of a child in the direct descending line from William Guthrie of Fenwick.

Entry – Guthry (place-name): reference in the case of Mr Archibald

1731 (recording date; Assembly business)

Pages 261–262 / Images 275–276

Guthrie Identified

• Guthry (place / parish name)

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Archibald (the minister under discussion)
• Mr Glass (comparative case)
• Professor Hamilton
• Mr Smith

Content summary / key passage(s) In the Assembly discussion of the complaint brought by the Synod of Angus and Mearns against the Commission, Wodrow notes the Commission’s action in “reponing Mr Archibald to his ministry, though not at Guthry.” The Synod had objected that this ran contrary to precedents and acts that discharged Commissions from overturning Synod sentences. The Assembly ultimately did not approve the Commission’s procedure but left matters standing as they were.

Historical or genealogical significance A purely place-name reference to Guthry (the parish of Guthrie in Angus). It appears in the context of early-eighteenth-century Church of Scotland disciplinary and jurisdictional disputes and has no direct bearing on any individual of the Guthrie surname.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Guthry.”
• This is not a personal entry; it is recorded only for completeness of Guthrie-related mentions in the Analecta.

Entry – William Guthry of Fenwick: visit to Bahan at Haddington while writing The Christian’s Great Interest

1731 (recording date)

Pages 271–272 / Images 285–286

Guthrie Identified

• Mr William Guthry

Other primary individuals named

• Mr Randy (informant)
• Bahan (or Baham), a poor Christian living in the Abbey of Haddington, and his wife

Content summary / key passage(s) Mr Randy reported an account from persons alive in Mr Guthry’s time. While writing his treatise of a Saving Interest (The Christian’s Great Interest), Mr William Guthry endeavoured to inform himself of all the Christians in the Church who had been (or still were) under great depths of exercise, and was inclined to converse with them.

There was one Bahan who lived in the Abbey of Haddington, about a mile from the town, who had been under great depths and distress and had been delivered from them. Guthry made a special journey to see him. He stayed all night and the next day, much taken with the conversation of the poor man and his wife.

Next morning after breakfast Guthry said he would divert himself a little and proposed going fishing. The goodwife wondered that such a man would spend his time so. He answered that he had pleasure in it. She replied, “Solomon sayes, He that loveth pleasure shall be in poverty!” Nevertheless he and the husband went fishing. When they returned Guthry was very facetious in conversation, as he used to be, and then they went to worship.

On leaving, Guthry said to the goodwife, “I hope you do not mistake my freedom in conversation?” She answered, “No, no! Sir; but I observe that, after all the freedom in talk and conversation, when you come to prayer you seem to lament it to God.”

Wodrow adds: “Great was the freedom Ministers and Christians used one with another in former times.”

Historical or genealogical significance A valuable contemporary anecdote illustrating both William Guthrie’s method of gathering experiential material for The Christian’s Great Interest and the well-attested combination in his character of cheerful, free conversation with deep spiritual seriousness. The wife’s final observation matches other reports of Guthrie’s ability to move easily between light-hearted talk and intense prayer.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Mr William Guthry” / “Mr Guthry.”
• The treatise is referred to here as “a Saving Interest,” the familiar short title for The Christian’s Great Interest.

Entry – Bishop Guthry’s Memoirs: publication note and alleged alteration

1731 (recording date)

Page 299 / Image 313

Guthrie Identified

• Bishop Guthry (Henry Guthrie, Bishop of Dunkeld; author of the Memoirs)

Other primary individuals named

• Mr J. Hamilton (informant)
• The old Duchess of Hamilton
• Earl of Clarendon
• Dr Burnet

Content summary / key passage(s) Mr J. Hamilton reported what he had from the old Duchess of Hamilton’s own mouth. Bishop Guthry’s Memoirs was published a little before Clarendon’s History (first printed at Oxford in 1710). It was then generally believed that the edition of Bishop Guthry had been much altered from the Bishop’s original papers through the influence of the Oxford gentlemen who had the publishing of Clarendon in their hands.

(The rest of the passage concerns the Duchess supplying papers about her father to Clarendon and is not further related to Guthrie.)

Historical or genealogical significance A contemporary note on the 1710 (or near-contemporary) printed edition of Bishop Henry Guthrie’s Memoirs. It records the suspicion, current at the time, that the published text had been altered under the influence of the same Oxford circle responsible for the first edition of Clarendon’s History. Useful for anyone evaluating the reliability of the printed Memoirs as a source.

Additional notes

• Spelling: “Bishop Guthry.”
• This refers to Henry Guthrie, Bishop of Dunkeld, not to John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray.