John Welsh

John Welsh (–1622) was a Scottish Presbyterian leader. He was born in Dumfriesshire and attended the University of Edinburgh to obtain his MA in 1588. He became a minister in Selkirk and married Elizabeth Knox, a daughter of John and Margaret Knox, before leaving Selkirk. Welsh later ministered at Kirkcudbright and Ayr, the latter of which was where he spent five years. His preaching resulted in his imprisonment by the order of King James VI of Scotland. The lawyer Thomas Hamilton wrote to James VI about Welsh, John Forbes, and others; the case was important because many Scottish subjects of James were devoted to the ministers. In 1606 Welsh was exiled to France, where he continued to preach. John Welsh of Ayr was the father of Josias Welsh and the grandfather of John Welsh of Irongray. Life John Welsh was the son of the laird of Collieston (or Colliston), and was born in the parish of Dunscore, Dumfriesshire around 1570. When he was young he ran away from home and joined a band of border reivers. After he learned being a reiver was less glamorous than expected, he sought reconciliation with his father, and was sent to the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained an MA in 1588. On 6 March 1589 he was nominated by the Privy Council as one of three people for maintaining the true religion in the Forest and Tweeddale, and was settled at Selkirk. In 1594 he was transferred to Kirkcudbright, and on 29 March 1596 he was appointed one of the visitors for Nithsdale, Annandale, Lauderdale, Eskdale, and Ewesdale. On 18 December, while occupying the pulpit of St Giles' Cathedral, Welsh preached against King James VI of Scotland's conduct shortly after the Presbyterians revolted against the king. He "[alleged] that his majesty was possessed of a devil, and after the outputting of that devil there joined to his highness seven devils, quhilk was his majesty's council"; and that as it was lawful for a son to bind a lunatic father, it was equally lawful "to his highness's subjects to bind his majesty, being in the like case". After failing to answer the charge of having justified the tumult, Welsh was denounced as a rebel on 17 January (ib.). On the petition of the assembly in the following March he was, mainly through the intervention of Lord Ochiltree (Moysie, Memoirs, p. 133), allowed to return to his charge.