Escaping from Prison – Canongate Tolbooth – SFH096

Escaping from Prison – Canongate Tolbooth – SFH096

Many Covenanter prisoners were kept in the fearful conditions of the Canongate Tolbooth. Anyone would want to escape, and more than a few Covenanter prisoners actually managed to gain their freedom. We find out more about that in this episode but also look at those who exited the prison still under punishment. Episode 77 covered Gabriel Semple and his time here in 1681.

Gabriel Semple’s Prison Prayer – Canongate Tolbooth – SFH077

Gabriel Semple’s Prison Prayer – Canongate Tolbooth – SFH077

The field preacher Gabriel Semple was incarcerated in the Canongate Tolbooth in 1681. But it was only a brief interlude in a long history of preaching despite persecution. We find out how his experience here fits into the rest of that eventful life of being hunted down with a large price on his head. “What does it matter” he once asked, “how long we suffer in the furnace if [it is] with the company of the Son of God?”