COPY OF AN ORIGINAL MEMORIAL DOCUMENT BY
JOHN WALKER SENR.
A.D.
1715
No. 1 MEMORIAL of the Losses & Sufferings of John Walker Senr. Farmer in Beanston & Athelstaneford, in the Rebellion in the year 1715. -----------

A considerable part of the Rebel Army having been embarked at Fife in Hoops & Boats to cross the Firth, for the purpose of subduing East Lothian were, by roughness of the weather, driven east too Scoll before they could get landed & then came west the coast untill they arrived at Aberlady: From there they came to Haddington, & severely pillaged the town & neighbouring country for some days.

The Postroad eastward at that time, lay through Beanston, & Mr. Walker was Postmaster there; &, when the Rebels came to Beanston, they ordered him to open his desk etc., which he was obliged to obey & took there from £350 sterling of cash besides innumerable articles of provisions & furniture, in the presence of his son John, a young man in the prime of life; Every lap of linen in the house was also taken away besides twelve of his best horses.

His Lordship took pity on his sufferings & gave him a letter to raise all the men he could get; & recommending the farmers in the country to do the same, for the purpose of endeavouring to drive the rebels from Haddington & the adjacent country. Mr Walker accordingly rode round all the country with two of his sons-in-law, & his own son, & by the day appointed to meet his Lordship with the men he could get, on Beanston-muir, at an early hour of the morning, they assembled to the number of about 2,000 astonishingly well armed with swords & pistols & all on horseback.

Some of the Rebels being lodged in the Tolbooth, an old & high building, perceived the two bodies & being surprised at such a number, were struck with a panic & fled precipitately from the town westward by the Post-road.

In the mean time Mr Walker having kept his men at a good pace came to the cross of Haddington which was the rendezvous appointed. 20 minutes before His Lordship, without meeting with a single man of the enemy. The whole detachment he commanded entreated him to let them pursue the rebels & try to have the honour of cutting them off, if possible, to which Mr Walker assented, & they set off at a rapid pace.

Mr Walker, sometimes in the van & sometimes in the rear, encouraged his men, & cried to them "Just as you are, & your face to the "Tranent", which is the origin of the proverb in East Lothian to this day. And upon coming to the westward of Gladsmuir, they had a full view of the rebels who were there, then going up the brae to the eastward of Tranent. At this moment, up came Lord Belhaven, galloping on horseback alone & was pretty severe on Mr. Walker for not waiting his arrival at the place of rendezvous. Mr. Walker told His Lordship that the rebels had all fled before he came to the town, & his men had been so impatient to meet them, & he himself so fired with indignation at the treatment he had received, that he could not restrain them from pursuing & now begged His Lordship to let them proceed forward, in which he was seconded by all the men who cried out they would venture their lives in attempting to cut off the rebels, but His Lordship at that time also thought the risk so great that he would not allow them to attempt attacking such a superior force, & ordered them back to Haddington to join his detachment. Mr. Walker having argued in vain with His Lordship against these orders, lost all temper at not getting himself revenged on the Rebels, sprung from his horse, struck his sword to the hilt in the ground, broke it throu & threw it away. His Lordship begged him to restrain his temper, for he would take care that he should be represented to His Majesty who would most certainly refund him for the losses & sufferings he had sustained.

Mr. Walker however, never got a farthing & Mr. Finlay of Drummore, before he went to the East Indies has heard Lord Belhaven often regret the neglect he had made of not getting Mr. Walker's sufferings represented to His Majesty. This was just before His Lordship embarked for the Island of Barbados to which he was appointed Governor & consequently could not get it done but determined to do it when he returned home, & in all likelihood he would have performed his promise had he not been lost on the Scilly Isles in his passage to Barbados.

Mr. Walker lived for several years after His Lordship's death & continued to carry on his different occupations till his own death which happened about the year 1728, & retrived his affairs considerably, though to never half the height they were formerly in, as he was before the Rebellion, one of the most popular farmers in East Lothian.

PRIVATE ANECDOTES OF HIS LIFE.

Mr Walker was born with a poetical genius & one of the finest singers of the age. By these means he became intimately acquainted with His Grace, John Duke of Roxburgh & Sir William Bennet, who came very often to Beanston & staid two or three days at a time along with Alland Ramsay, the famous Scots Poet: Sir William was also a Poet & he sent three large bundles of his songs to Mr Walker to set tunes to them as he often said 'Nobody could do them better.'

His Grace & Sir William left each of them a silver cup to Mr Walker's widdow as a Testimony of their esteem for his memory, which are in possession of the family at this time, & Sir William came from the south of Scotland to Mr Walker's burial accompanied with Mr Ramsay, but the Duke being in London attending the Parliament at the time could not come.