Why did William Reid promise to give himself up to the authorities as a wanted field preacher? And why did he once preach in church with a loaded pistol hung around his neck? There are other stories of narrow escapes even in his death when he escaped the malice of the leader of the Jacobite troops, Lord George Murray who wanted “to have the old dog’s bones to bristle in the flames of his own manse”. We can see why Thomas Boston described Reid  as “a worthy man, one of the old sufferers in the persecution”.

Note: Cover Photograph by Simon Warren. This depicts the Rollo Standard referred to in the podcast episode. It was captured at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679 by Major Archibald Rollo, 3rd Lord Rollo (d. 1701), who fought for the royalists. It now hangs in the private collection of the home of the present Lord Rollo, who lives near Dunning in Perthshire and is not readily accessible (information from the Scottish Covenanter Memorial Association).