A True Account OF THE HORRID MURDER Committed upon His GRACE, The Late Lord Archbishop OF St. ANDREWS, Primate and Metropolitan of all SCOTLAND ', and one of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council of that KINGDOM.  
WITH A DETECTION Of the LIES Published in a late Scandalous RELATION of that MURDER; and of the pretended occasion thereof.  
Published by Authority.  
DUBLIN, Reprinted. 1679.   

A True Account OF THE HORRID MURDER Of His GRACE The Lord Archbishop of St. Andrews etc.  
AFTER that GOD had Restored to these Kingdoms their KING and Liberty, (Mercies never to be forgot, till by our Ingratitude for them we have deserved to be thrown back into those Miseries, that we have so lately escaped) Reasonable men might have concluded, That we would have rested with much satisfaction, under those great blessings, for which we had so much longed. But that restless Bigotry, which had in the late Rebellion, dissolved Monarchy, unhinged our property, and enslaved our Liberties, did soon prompt the Execrable Authors of Naphthali, and Jus Popuali, who in those Books endeavoured to persuade all men to Massacre their Governors and Judges by the misapplyed Example of holy Phineas, and did in Specific Terms assert, That there could be no greater Gift made to JESUS CHRIST, than the sending the Archbishop of St. Andrews' Head in a silver Box to the KING: 
Jus populi, pag. 471, & 472.  Which Doctrine prevailed with Mr. James Mitchell, a Zealous Naphthalite, to attempt the Killing of the said Lord Archbishop upon the chief Street of Edinburgh, in face of the Sun, and of the multitude. And he having died owning his Crime as a duty, and others having writ Books comparing him in this crime to Samson; Twelve, or more, of the same sect, did upon the third day of May last murder the said Archbishop in this ensuing manner.  
After His Grace had gone from the secret Council, where (to aggravate their Grime) he had been pleading most fervently for Favours to them, having Lodged at a Village called Kennoway in Fife, upon Friday night, the second of May, He took his Journey next morning at ten a Clock towards St. Andrews; and his Coachman having discovered some Horsemen near Magus, (a place near two miles distant from St. Andrews) advertised the Archbishop thereof, ask, If he should drive faster? which His Grace discharged, because he said he feared no harm: They drawing nearer His Daughter seeing Pistols in their Hands, and them Riding at a great rate, she persuaded her Father to look out, and he the reupon desired his Coachman to drive on; who had certainly outdriven them, if one Balfour of Kinloch, being mounted on a very Fleet Horse, had not cunningly passed the Coach, (into which they had in vain discharged very many Shot) and after he found that he could not wound the coachman, because his coach-whip did fright the sprightly Horse, wounded the Postilion, and disabled the foremost coach-Horses: whereupon the rest coming up, one of them with a Blunderbuss wounded the Lord Primate in the coach, and others of them called to him to Come forth Vile Dog, who had betrayed Christ and His Church, and to receive what he deserved for his Wickedness against the Kirk of Scotland; and reproached him with Mr. James Mitchell's death. Whilst he was in the coach, one run him through with a sword under his shoulder, the rest pulled him violently out of the coach. His Daughter came out and on her Knees begun to beg mercy to her Father: But they beat her and trampled her down. The Lord Primate with a very great calmness, said, Gentlemen, I know not that ever I injured any of You; and if I did, I promise I will make what Reparation you can propose. Villain, and Judas, said they, and Enemy to God and His People, You shall now have the Reward of your Enmity to God's People: which words were followed with many mortal wounds, the first being a deep one above his Eye. And though he put them in mind that he was a Minister, and Pulling off his Cap, shown them his Grey Hairs entreating, That if they would not spare his Life, they would at least allow him some little time for Prayer; they returned him no other answer, but That God would not hear so base a Dog as he was; and for Quarter, they told him, That the Strokes, which they were then giving, were those which he was to expect. Notwithstanding of all which, and of a Shot that pierced his Body above his Right Pap, and of other Strokes which cut his Hands, whilst he was holding them up to Heaven in Prayer, he raised himself upon his Knees, and uttered only these words, God Forgive you all. After which, by many strokes that cut his Skull to pieces, he fell down dead. But some of them imagining they had heard him groan, returned, saying That he was of the Nature of a Cat, and so they would go back, and give one Stroke more for the Glory of God. And having stirred about his Brains in the Skull with the points of their swords, they took an Oath of his servants not to reveal their names; and so desiring them to take up their Priest, they road back to Magus, crying aloud, That Judas was Killed, and from thence made their Escape. But God having in an unexpected way furnished Probation against all who were Present, it cannot but with a Dutiful Confidence be expected, that His Divine Majesty, who is so highly offended, will, by the same care, bring the Assassinates themselves to suffer for that Crime.  
This Narrative, warranted by the Depositions of many famous Persons upon Oath, will discover the many false Insinuations expressed in a late Relation printed at London: For whereas it is pretended, That this Murder proceeded from a Private jujury done to one of the Assassinates, the contrary will easily appear by these Subsequent Considerations.  

First, That this Murdering principle has been Printed and practised by others formerly against the same Person, such as he never knew nor offended.  
Secondly, It appears by the many Expressions aforesaid that he suffered for his Function.  
Thirdly, Many of the same Persuasions had foretold it in several Places; and one of the Murderers had that morning, after a Sacrilegious Form of Devotion, held up his Hand and sworn, That that Hand should Kill the Arch bishop; whereupon his Hostess Kissed him. Nor can it be denied, but that he, who commanded the Foot for Mr. Welsh upon Reupar-Law, (that famous Field Conventicle) owned That their Friends thanked God for the Archbishop's Death, but were sorry they knew not to whom they owed the Obligation.  
Fourthly, It is known both by all the Archbishop's acquaintance, and the present low State of his Fortune, that he never used any Rigour to his Debtors: And one of the Lords of Session, who transacted that inconsiderable Affairs relating to Hackstoun, (on which the sale Narrative charge this Murder) did declare publicly amongst his Brethrens Judges, That the Archbishop had dealt most Generously with that Miscreant, who was never a servant to his Grace. And how can it be be pretended, in a Nation where no Man was ever murdered for using Legal Execution, even in the greatest Concerns, that the other Eleven would have hazarded their Lives and Fortunes in Killing a Church Man, and a Privy Councillor, to satisfy the useless Revenge of one of their Number in so mean a matter? And, their not taking his Gold nor Watch, and a considerable sum which lay open enough in the Coach, did convincingly prove, That there was more of Bigotry than of Avarice in that Undertaking.  
Fifthly, It is undeniable, that those of the same profession and Way, have lately wounded many of His Majesty's Officers, for putting of his Uncontroverted Laws in Execution; and particularly they contrived the Death of the Town Major of Edinburgh, and in pursuance of that Design, did with many Wounds leave him, and some of His Majesty's Soldiers, almost dead upon the place, one of them having been actually Killed. They also at Loudoun Killed one of His Majesty's Soldiers in his Bed, and Wounded and Rob others of them without the least Provocation; pretending in defence of their Cruelty, That the Soldiers were Enemies to Christ, and that they would conclude themselves Damned, if they paid the Cess granted by the Convention of all the Three Estates for the necessary Defence of the Kingdom.  
Sixthly, by a Manifesto dispersed some few days before the murder, His Grace, and all who served the King in Fife, were threatened with certain Death. All which does but too much justify the Courses taken in that Kingdom against such People, and refutes such as make that pass for Cruelty, which is but necessary, and self-defence: And by all which it appears, that this murder was not occasioned by Private resentments, but by the Principles of Naphthali, and such as were notorious Ringleaders in that tribe, and their Conventicles.   
It is likewise very observable, That the Author of that most scandalous Narrative, has Impiously Lied, in asserting that the Bullets did not pierce the Archbishop's Body; insinuating there by that he was hard: Whereas by a Declaration under the Hands of a Physician and three Chirurgeons, (of which William Borthwick to whom that Author impudently appeals, is one) is most evident that the Archbishop's Body was pierced by one of those Shots: The, Words of which Declaration (still remaining amongst the Warrants of the Privy Council) are these, The first of these Wounds, being two or three Inches below the Right Clavicle, betwixt the Second and third Rib, which was given by a Shot not reaching the Capacity of the Breast, Captain Carstaires likewise had no Commission from the Archbishop, but from the Privy Council, and Buily Charmichaell had no Commission from the Privy Council, but from the Earl of Rothes, Lord High Chancellor, and Sheriff Principal of Fife, by inheritance.  
The Horror that attends this Fact, the dreadful Events for which it makes way, and the Scandal that it raises upon the True Protestant Religion, cannot but breed in all Just Men, a detestation of the Principles from whence it flowed, and an Abhorrence of Those, who endeavour to extenuate it with false Pretences.  
FINIS