OS1/34/11/15

Continued entries/extra info

[page] 15

[Relating to Church (in Ruins) on page 14]

"There are two graveyards in this parish. The old is a full mile to the south-east of the town It surrounds the crumbling walls of what was once the parish church. When this church was built and when abandoned is utterly unknown. There was at least one other church between this ancient one and the present church. No feasible conjecture occurs to account for the adoption of a site for the Church so far from the town and so inconvenient for almost the whole inhabitants of the parish except this that it might have been originally the chapel connected with the Stewart's castle. The New Churchyard is in the centre of the town surrounding the present church" -

"Some of the inhabitants of this parish suffered hardship and loss in the time of the Covenanters. One man by name James Davie was shot by one of a party of Dragoons who dispersed a congregation assembled in a hollow on the farm of Blackdub in the western part of the parish. The worshippers had escaped across a strip of deep moss which interposed an effectual obstacle to the progress of their mounted pursuers. But while the [sic] stood on the other side gazing at their enemies and thinking themselves quite safe, the troopers fired their carbines at them across the moss. The only shot that took effect killed Davie. His body lies in the old churchyard of Bathgate with this inscription. "Here lies the body of James Davie who was shot at Blackdub April 1673 by Heron for his adhereing to the word of god and Scotland's Covenanted work of Reformation in opposition to Popery, Prelacy, Perjury and Tyranny."
New Statistical Account of Linlithgowshire page 157-8