Trial of John Spreull - Tourture of the Boot - 1677

Among those Prosecuted for being concerned in the Bothwell affair, there were 16 Citizens of Glasgow, besides a great number of Heritors in the County of Lanark.   Those who resigned their Lands were dismissed, others having stood their trial, had their Estates forfeited.  To give some idea of the mode of procedure in suce cases, that of Mr. John Spreull, Apothecary in Glasgow, shall suffice.  Mr. Spreull's father was a Covenanter and a Merchant in Paisley.  After the Battle of Pentland, he was fined by the Earl of Middleton, and forced to abscond.  The son was then apprehended, because he would not discover where his father was.  After having withstood threatenings of being shot, or roasted alive, he was liberated in 1677.  He was afterwards cited before the Court at Glasgow for Nonconformity; but, having made his escape to Holland, he did not return till after the affair of Drumclog.  Soon after the Battle of Bothwell, he again absconded to Holland; during his absence, his wife and family were turned out of his house and shop, and all his movables confiscated.  On returning to this Country, in order to remove his family to Rotterdam, where he had now established a business, he was apprehended at Edinburgh, on the 12th of November, and next day carried before the Duke and Council, and interrogated with regard to the concern which he had in the affairs of Drumclog and Bothwell.  The usual ensnaring questions, which were put to all persons at that period, were also propsed to him such as, "Was the killing of Archbishop Sharp a murder?  Were the risings at Drumclog and Bothwell rebellions?"  Having refused to sign his Examination, and denied all concern with the affairs of Drumclog and Bothwell, he declined to pronounce them Rebellions, or to give any opinion with regard to the killing of the Archbishop.  The Preses, Lord Haltoun, then told him, "that unless he would make a more ample Confession, and Subscribe it, he would be put to the torture.  Mr. Spreull answered, "that he had been explicit, and would go no farther, and protested that if they put him to the Torture it would be illegal, and expression his hopes that God would protect him from accusing himself or others, while under the extremity of pain."  

His foot was then put into an Instrument, call the Boot.  The following Questions were proposed to him, and at every Query, the Hangman gave five strokes upon the wedges, viz "Whether he knew anything of a plot to blow up the Abbey, and the Duke of York?   Who was in the plot?  Where  Mr. Cargill was? and whether he would subscribe his confession?"  To the former he declared his utmost ignorance, and adhered to his refusal to subscribe.  The Court then ordered the old Boot to brought, alleging that the new one which had been used was not so good.  He, accordingly, underwent the Torture a second time, which he bore with wonderful firmness.  When the Torture was over, he was carried to the prison on a soldier's back and refused the assistance of a Surgeon.  On his recovery, he was served with an indictment for having wrote a petition in favour of John Murray, who was under Sentence of Death, for being found in arms at a Conventicle.  This Petition was construed into a Remonstrance instead of a Petition, and having acknowledged that he framed it, the Duke of York rose up and said with a frown, " Sir, would you kill the King?"  Mr. Spreull, after a pause, directing himself to the Chancello, said, "My Lord, I bless God I am no Papist, I loathe and abhor all such Jesuitical, Bloody, and Murderous Principles.  Neither my parents no the Ministers I heard ever taught me such principles."  A great silence followed, and many expected that Mr. Spreull would have been immediately put in irons.  After some other questions, which he delcined to answer, he was remanded back to Prison.  On the 6th of December, he was brought back, with the Diet was deserted; and on the 10th, he was Indicted for High Treason, in being with the Rebels at Bothwell, and in keeping company with Messrs. John Welsh and Samuel Aront, and the bloody and sacrilegious murderes of the late Archbishop of St. Andrews.   Among other charges, Sir George McKenzie, the Lord Advocate, demanded to know from the prisioner, "if the rising at Bothwell Bridge was a rebellions?  The prisoner answered, "That that was no part of the Libel."   Other matters having been discussed, the Jury returned a unanimous Verdict of Nothing Proven.  mr. Spreull expected now to get free;  he was however detained by an order from the Council, to undergo an Examination respecting his attending Conventicles.  On the 14th of February, 1678, he was brought before the Privy Council, when the matter was referred to his Oath, but he having refused to swear, was found guilty, and fined in 500 pound sterling, and sent to the Bass; where, having remained for six years, he got the applellation.