[108] _General Assembly Records_, 1648-49, p. 264. [109] _General Assembly Records_, 1648-49, p. 270. The instructions given to the Commissioners suggest the process known to us in modern times as "rubbing it in" (the phrase is a technical one). [110] In March of the following year, 1650, occurred the descent of Montrose on the north of Scotland, which ended so disastrously for him. After spending a few weeks in the Orkneys, where he collected a few recruits, he landed in Caithness, and proceeded into Sutherland, where he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Strachan and Halket, the generals who had successfully suppressed the insurrection in the north in the previous year. Montrose was taken prisoner, and was executed in Edinburgh, on Tuesday, 21st May, 1650. [111] Baillie's _Letters_ (Edinburgh, 1841), ii. 84. [112] Robert Douglas (1594-1674) had been chaplain to a brigade of Scottish auxiliaries, sent with the connivance of Charles I. to the aid of Gustavus Adolphus, in the Thirty Years' War. He was minister of the second charge of the High Church, Edinburgh, and then of the Tolbooth Church, and was five times Moderator of the General Assembly (1642, 1645, 1647, 1649, and 1651). Wodrow says, "He was a great man for both great wit, and grace, and more than ordinary boldness and authority and awful majesty appearing in his very carriage and countenance." Burnet affirms that he had "much wisdom and thoughtfulness, but was very silent and of vast pride" (_Dictionary of Nat. Biog._ xv. 347). [113] _Works_, p. 279. [114] Carlyle's _Oliver Cromwell_, iii. 148. [115] Carlyle's _Oliver Cromwell_, iii. 154. [116] _Works_, p. 408. [117] _Cal. State Papers, Dom._ [118] _Ibid._ [119] _Works_, p. 408. [120] _Works_, p. 419. Roger Williams (c. 1600-c. 1684) was himself a remarkable man. He was a native of Wales, was educated at Oxford, and entered into holy orders; but his aversion to the government and discipline of the Church of England led him to seek for greater freedom in America. He was a strenuous asserter of religious toleration at a time when it was little understood and less practised anywhere. His liberty of thinking and speaking led to his being banished from Massachusetts; and, thereupon, he purchased a tract of land from the Indians, and founded a settlement, which he named Providence. At the time when he generously interceded in favour of Sir Thomas Urquhart, he was residing in London as the agent of the new settlement, of which he was afterwards chosen president. He was on intimate terms with Cromwell, Milton, and other leading Puritans, and consequently would be in a position to render great service to his friend Urquhart. [121] The leave granted was for five months from the 14th of July, 1652. Before the expiration of this time, Sir Thomas asked for liberty to stay for six weeks longer in Scotland, and this was granted (_Acts of Parliament_, vol. vi. pt. 2, p. 748_b_). [122] _Works_, p. 377. [123] _Ibid._ p. 378.