[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

—
" SCOFFING BALLAD."
! when it was remitted to a committee. The following paragraph, in
$ the Caledonian Merciury, May 28, 1764, records the decision :
" This
\ day the committee proceeded to the consideration of the cause anent
i
I
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the settlement of the Collegiate Church of Kilmarnock, when, after a
\ long hearing, the Assembly reversed the sentence of the presbytery
( of Irvine, sustained the reasons for the transportation of Mr Lindsay
from Cumbray to the parish of Kilmarnock, appointed the presbytery
] to admit Mr Lindsay minister of Kilmarnock, betwixt and the 17th of
\ July next, and ordained them to report to the Commission their having
done so ; and the Assembly likewise empowered the Commission
finally to deteraiine any question that should come before them, by
complaint, reference, or appeal, relative to this cause."
The same journal, of July 21, says :— " By a letter from Kilmar-
;
nock, we learn that on Thursday se'nnight, the day appointed by the
< General Assembly for the transportation of the Rev. Mr Lindsay from
\ the Cumbraes to Kilmarnock, the patron, with a number of gentlemen
and ministers, went to the church, in order to proceed in the
settlement, but divine service was not well begun, when a mob of dis-
I
orderly persons broke into the church, throwing dirt and stones, and
> making such noise, that Mr Brown, the minister who officiated, could
\ not proceed, on which the patron, with the gentlemen and ministers,
retired to a house in the neighbourhood. 'Tis said Mr Lindsay is to
> be ordained in the presbytery-house in Lwine."
> This statement accords precisely with the narrative of the ballad.
\
But the Mercury supplies some additional particulars. At the Autumn
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Circuit Court at Ayr, " Alexander Thomson, William Wylie, James
\ Craufurd, John Hill, Adam White, David Dunlop, William Nimmo,
WiUiam Davies or Davidson, Hugh Thomson, alias Bullock, and Roi
I
bert Creelman, tradesmen and journeymen in Kilmarnock, were in-
dieted for raising a tumult at and in the church of Kilmarnock, at the
\
settlement of Mr Lindsay, as minister of that parish, in July last. The
\ last seven were acquitted by the jury, and the first three found guilty,
and sentenced to be imprisoned for a month, and whipt through the
\ streets of Air, and to find caution for keeping the peace, and a good
behaviour for a twelvemonth."
> Such a punishment now-a-days would be considered excessive. It
I
would appear, from the ballad, that the military were called into re-
\
quisition at the induction of Mr Lindsay :
H 57