IN SEARCH OF FREEDOM Ch. 1
Chapter 1
IN SEARCH OF FREEDOM
It was mid-October in the year 1636. A small sailing ship of some 150 tons was in rather a desperate plight in the North Atlantic, about 800 miles from the rocky Newfoundland coast. Very strong winds from the North West, full of rain, had been blowing for several days, causing more and more damage to the struggling vessel. The rudder was broken, as well as the cross-tree. supporting the rigging of the main mast. This, dangling and swinging wildly. had entangled the rigging and caused the foresail to be badly torn. Towering waves had crashed down over the roundhouse on to the stricken boat, pounding the deck with such force that it caused one of the main beams to crack under the gunner-room door. A gaping opening appeared between some of the supported deck planks. Through this the seawater rushed in a flood to drench many of the 140 passengers crowded underneath between decks. Then the ship sprang a leak. It was now in great danger of being swamped and quick action was needed. This was immediately forthcoming. and the operation of tv.’o pumps was successful in restoring a r:1easure of safety to those on board. In those far-off days, no radio message could be flashed ashore to bring other vessels or aircraft speeding to the scene. The peril of that moment must have been nerve-wrecking to the passengers and to the crew.
However, strangely enough. as one of the leaders on board was to record, “During all this time, amidst much fears and dangers, the most part of the passengers were very cheerful and confident.’ Remarkably, too, these people were “landlubbers”, unacquainted with the discomfort and perils of 17th century sea travel. The most of them, on land. would probably have been engaged in some aspect of farm-work, perhaps as tenant farmers. their wives, labourers, or serving maids. This surprising cheerfulness of mind must be attributed largely to the character and religious outlook of the people and to the inspiration of their leaders, to whom they would constantly look for encouragement. Impressed, too, they must have been by the competence and courage of the ship’s master and his crew. So a buoyant hope would have been sensed as the prevailing spirit on board. Soon a determined effort was made to improve the seaworthiness of the ship. By the skill and dogged courage of one of the passengers, a Captain Andrew Agnew, from Lame, in Ulster, a temporary repair was effected to the rudder. Some of the ship’s crew, also, managed to remove the immediate danger from the dangling cross-tree and the torn, flapping sail.
Their troubles, though lessened, were by no means over. The powerful winds continued to whip up the green waters into mountainous waves, and no progress Westwards was possible. The ship’s master advised that they would be moving into even more adverse weather conditions. which would bring worse damage to the vessel. He urged the leaders to turn back and give him a chance to reach the shore they had left, some 1200 miles to the East. However, the calibre of those who led the people was such, that, even at that critical time, they told him they wouldseekGod’s guidance on the matter. Earnest prayers would be made, and, if in 24 hours, the storms showed no sign of abating, God was thus showing them not to proceed, Many of the people on board had been seasick at some time during the six weeks they had been sailing, Indeed, the oldest leader, Rev, Robert Blair. had been prostrate in a bunk for two weeks. unable, because of the recurring nausea, even to venture on deck, Yet it was to him that one of the younger men went to discuss the all-important decision at the end of the stipulated time, Such was his distressed condition, however. that when told that the storm, if anything, was becoming worse, he swooned, On his recovery, he, with the other leaders, decided that the Lord had shown that they should turn back, This decision was conveyed to the ship’s masterand preparations were begun to alter sails for their long journey Eastwards. Great care had to be exercised by the crew to prevent their small vessel’s being swamped by the turbulent waters, as it was manouvred into the right direction for the return voyage, At last. the turning about was accomplished in the teeth of the howling gale, and they were headed for the port from which they had set sail.
Some five weeks of most violent tossing ‘were to be endured by those on board before they reached the safety of their home waters, This they did on 3rd November, 1636, when they dropped anchor in the shelter of Loch Fergus, now called Belfast Lough, It was the end of a memorable attempt. Had we been there on that late Autumn day to watch these people disembarking. we would probably have noted their cheerfulness, even after such trials and disappointments. We should have discovered, too, that the leaders were fourPresbyterian ministers, Rev, Robert Blair. formerly clergyman at the town of Bangor, Rev, John Mclelland from Newtownards. Rev. James Hamilton, preacher at Ballywalter, and the one on whom much of the responsibility and decision making had devolved. because of Blair’s persistent seasickness, Rev, John Livingston, who had ministered at Killinchy, Most of the passengers were members of their congregations.
Although there were others from county Antrim, including Captain Andrew Agnew who had carried out such timely repair to the rudder, and a deaf mute called Andrew Brown from the parish of Larne, John Stuart, Provost of Ayr, had also taken part in that memorable voyage. We could also have been told that the wife of Rev. John Livingston had had the added task of tending her months old son, born at Malone. near Belfast, in June of that year. We should probably have learned in addition of an even younger baby, a son born during the voyage to the wife of Michael Colvert, of Killinchy. Mr. Livingston had baptized the child with the name Seabom on the Sunday morning following the birth. It must have been a great ordeal for the young mother under such trying conditions.
An old person and a young boy had died, too, since the start of the voyage. The committal of their bodies to the deep in the traditional naval way must have caused much anguish. not only to their relatives, but to everyone on board. Many of them would have shared the pain of these partings in the dimly lighted confines of the creaking. struggling vessel.
We should have surmised, by this time. from their broad dialect. the trews worn by some of the men, and the shawls of most of the women, in a variety of tartans, that these people were of the Scottish race, We may have wondered why they had not made for Loch Ryan, a few hours sailing farther East. Had we required, we should have been informed that it was from the small seaside village of Groomsport, in County Down in Ulster, that they had set out on 9th September. Their ship had been built there of Ulster timber from one of the many forests covering much of the land in those days, The construction had begun only in 1635, They would have probably pointed out with no little pride the name “Eagle Wing” on its stern, and may have taken for granted that we would know the source of the title, If it were not familiar, some of them would have advised us that it was from the book of Exodus, Chapter 19, verse 4 in the Bible, Someone would have quoted the verse containing it, where Moses is reminding the Israelites of the Divine help they had already received,
“Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you or eagles’ wings and brought you unto myself.”
We should then have better understood their unshakable confidence even in the midst of such dangers in mighty waters, Complete was their trust in the God of their fathers and firm their reliance on His guidance and help, The fortitude displayed on the voyage had been grounded on that trust. The same dogged courage and optimism must have been underlying the planning and building of the boat, the first of the very many constructed on Belfast Lough, Blair and Livingston had played a major part in this initial work, They were very close friends, Blair having been the younger man’s professor at Glasgow University some years previously. But why were these natives of Scotland wishing to leave the land of Ulster in which they h ad settled a few years before? Why had they been trying to reach the far-off land 0f America about which so little would have been known? The Pilgrim Fathers had landed on that coast only sixteen years before, and they had not fared very well in the severe weather of the winters, To Ulster these clergymen had come in answer to calls from their fellow Scots, who had migrated to this land at the beginning of the 17th century, and had been making quite a success of their settlement. They had set to, with a will, to clear the ground, to drain it, and bring under the plough, tracts which until then had never been cultivated, In spite of their progress, they had felt the need of spiritual guidance from religious leaders, and their requests were willingly answered. It must have been a really basic and strong motivation that built up within all these Ulster Scots into a determination to leave a land of such promise.
It is necessary to go back several decades in time in the history of their own country, Scotland, to find the reason for such a drastic decision. Briefly it could be described as the determination of their ancestors and themselves to worship God in the way they believed to be right and in accordance with the Bible. They could not, and would not, accept the rites and disciplines of either the Roman Catholic or the Anglican church, even when they were insisted on by king as well as by archbishop. John Knox, their great religious leader, had pointed the way, when he protested vigorously and unflinchingly to Queen Mary about her support of the Romanist church. Already such reformed preachers as George Wishart had been burned to death, because they would not accept the teachings of Rome. Knox’s words on that memorable occasion would have been strongly supported by many Scots of his day, “If princes exceed their bounds, madam, no doubt they may be resisted even by power.” In Andrew Melville, Knox had a worthy successor. He rebuked King James, himself, when called by that monarch to give reasons for his not agreeing to the appointment of Archbishops, in the Anglican way, to be permanent Moderators of the Church of Scotland. His reply was uncompromising, “No earthly king is a lord or head of the Church of Scotland.
There is King James, head of the Commonwealth, and there is Christ Jesus, the King of the Church, whose subject James the Sixth is, and of whose kingdom, James the Sixth is but a member.” For this defiance, Melville was confined for four years in the Tower of London. Such were the examples set by these unbending leaders. They were to have many steadfast followers in the years to come. In Scotland many Presbyterian ministers who would not conduct religious services according to the Anglican fashion were expelled from their churches, John Livingston’s own father had been of that number having been deposed from his meeting-house in Lanark. In a similar way, Edward Brice, who for several years had been- minister in Drymen in Stirlingshire, was dealt with, when he opposed the appointment of an archbishop as the permanent moderator of the Church of Scotland. He came to Ulster and settled at Broadisland, in County Antrim There in 1613. he became minister of the first Presbyterian church in Ulster. It was later known as Ballycarry. Some thirty clergymen with similar religious beliefs followed him.
These included Josias Welsh, grandson of the famous John Knox, who was installed at Templepatrick. At first, they were fairly generously received by the Episcopalian prelates in Ulster. several of whom they had known in Scotland. They were inducted into Parish churches without having to accept Anglican ordination, indeed they refused to do so. Several ordained Presbyterian ministers took part in these induction ceremonies which enabled Presbyterian licentiates later to minister to Presbyterian congregations in Episcopal churches, where they had been ordained in a Presbyterian fashion However with the coming of more determined and strict bishops, such as Archbishop Laud all this changed. Once again there was pressure that they would have to accept Episcopalian ordination and to conduct their services in the Anglican manner. Action was to be taken against those who refused to do so. John Livingston was later to say that he got “not above one year’s quiet ministry in Killinchy. Similar harassing tactics were employed against the other Presbyterian clergymen. Within a short time their form of worship was vastly curtailed throughout Ulster and pressure was being much increased. In 1634 was begun the planning that was to lead to the sailing of the “Eagle Wing,” Those involved were seeking to reach a land where they hoped they would be free to worship in their own way.
