John Hunter- A Covenanting Martyr 1685

Last year I visited this memorial beside the Moffat-Edinburgh road overlooking the Devil's Beef Tub to John Hunter. He came from the parish of Tweedsmuir in Peebleshire and while visiting a sick friend in the farm of Corehead in Moffat he was surprised by dragoons of Col Douglas who was searching the area for field conventicles of outlawed Presbyterian Covenanters. Hunter tried to flee up the hillside opposite the memorial. Trying to take to the steep ground unsuitable for horses was to no avail. He was captured and executed on the spot,marked by a boulder known as the Martyr's Stone. His body was recovered and taken back to Tweedsmuir where it was interred in the local parish cemetery. The gravestone was erected in the 18th century and cared for by Robert Paterson "Old Mortality" in the book by Sir Walter Scott. The Hunter,Welsh,Fraser,Hope,Tweedie and Porteous families were long associated with this area. See http://www.ajbhope.net/tweedsmuir-and-the-covenanters/ for more local information.