Algie and Park's Monument

Woodside Cemetery

46 Broomlands Street

Paisley

Renfrewshire

NGR - NS 470639

 

The obelisk, which is 25 feet tall, is located in the lower part of Woodside Cemetery, behind the church. It was erected in 1835. In 2001 the SCMA in association with the Martyrs' Church erected an information plaque. The inscriptions on the obelsik is as follows:

 

[west side - now has new marble slab]

 

HERE  LIE THE CORPSES  

OF JAMES   ALGIE   AND   JOHN   PARK

WHO SUFFERED AT THE CROSS OF PAISLEY FOR REFUSING THE OATH OF ABJURATION FEBRUARY 3 1685

 

[The original had the above plus the poem below]

 

Stay, passenger, as thou goest by,

And take a look where these do lie;

Who for the love they bore to truth

Were deprived of their life and youth.                                                              Though laws made then caused many die,

Judges and 'sizers were not free.

He that to them did these delate,

The greater count he hath to make;

Yet no excuse to them can be;

At ten condemned, at two to die.

So cruel did their rage become,

To stop their speech caused beat the drum.

This may a standing witness be

'Twixt Presbtry and Prelacy.

 

[south side]

 

ERECTED BY

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF

CHRISTIANS OF DIFFERENT DENOM-

INATIONS IN AND ABOUT PAISLEY TO RENEW

AND PERPETUATE A MEMORIAL OF THE

RESPECT AND GRATITUDE WITH

WHICH POSTERITY STILL CHERISH

THE MEMORY OF THE MARTYRS

OF SCOTLAND

MDCCCXXXV

 

[north side]

The stone containing the Epitaph

transcribed on this Monument, was

erected over the grave, on the Gallow-

green, the place of Common Execution;

and on occasion of the ground being

built upon, it was removed near to this

spot along with the remains of the

MARTYRS, by order of the Magistrates,

JOHN STORIE, JOHN PATISON, &

JOHN COCHRANE.

MDCCLXXIX

 

[east side]

 

            Their blood is shed

                In confirmation of the noblest claim,

         Our claim to feed upon immortal truth,

        To walk with GOD, to be divinely free,

            To soar, and to anticipate the skies.

       Yet few remember them, they liv'd unknown

              Till Persecution dragg'd them into fame

                And chas'd them up to Heav'n.

James Algie & John Park

 

James Algie and John Park were the tenants of a farm at Kennishead, in Eastwood parish, Renfrewshire. It is claimed that Algie supported episcopacy until a few months before his death. They were asked to take the 'Test Oath' but had refused, so were taken to the tolbooth in Paisley where they were imprisoned. They were willing to take the Oath of Abjuration, but not the Test Act. The commissioner, the Laird of Orbiston, told them that if they did not take the Test, then they would hang. The two still refused. They were sentenced at 10 o'clock in the morning and were hanged at Paisley Green at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The soldiers beat their drums until they were dead, to drown out their dying testimonies.

Algie and Park were executed at the Cross of Paisley on 3 February 1685. They were buried at the Gallow Green, near the foot of Maxwellton Street. When development work was taking place in the area in 1779 their remains were disinterred and reburied at what was known as the Broomlands Burying Ground, where this monument was erected.