By Olive Ritch.
The slave trade reached Orkney’s shores on 10 December 1679, when the Crown of London, a slave-ship, was blown on to rocks at Scarva Taing. On board were two-hundred-and-fifty-seven Covenanter prisoners bound for the Americas where they were to be sold as slaves.
The stormy weather changed their stories and tainted Orkney shores with Britain’s slavery history. The culmination of that connection, moreover, should not be forgotten as two-hundred-and-ten men were murdered by Captain Patterson who ordered that the hatch to the hold be nailed down before he left the ship in Deerness. The consequences for the other forty-seven men who escaped are more unclear as some were recaptured and some settled on our islands, including my ancestor, John Richardson, who made his home in Rackwick.
Covenanters in Scotland suffered religious persecution after Presbyterians objected to Charles I’s wish to implement a new book of prayer in Scotland as a means of bringing the religious practices and services in line with England. That led to Covenanters signing the National Covenant in 1638 (promising to defend Presbyterianism from the Crown’s intervention). There followed a protracted period of history, known as ‘the killing time’, and during the Civil War, Covenanters, who refused to compromise their beliefs, were hunted, tortured, and eighteen thousand (approximately) were executed.
In my debut poetry collection, Weather Blinks, I reimagine John Richardson’s life in the title poem sequence.
He was imprisoned after the Battle of Bothwell Brig on 22 June 1679 and held at the Covenanters’ Prison at Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh until November of the same year. At that stage, the two-hundred-and-fifty-seven Covenanter prisoners in the aforementioned prison were sentenced to transportation for life to the Americas and they boarded the Crown of London at Leith for their transatlantic journey which ended in Orkney the following month.
A memorial for the Covenanters who lost their lives was built in 1888 and sits on the cliffs overlooking Scarva Taing.
Dr Olive Ritch is an Honorary Fellow of the WORD Centre for Creative Writing, University of Aberdeen
Weather Blinks by Olive M Ritch can be purchased from local bookshops or drunkmusepress.com/shop
The Orkney News has many articles about Orkney’s connections to the slave trade, and also several about the Covenanters Memorial.