Alexander Dunbar was a Covenanting field preacher and school teacher. He was imprisoned on the

Bass Rock The Bass Rock, or simply the Bass (), is an island in the outer part of the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland. Approximately offshore, and north-east of North Berwick, it is a steep-sided volcanic plug, at its highest point, and is home ...

for about a year between 1685 and 1686.

Early life

Alexander Dunbar was born about 1645, the same year as the

Battle of Auldearn The Battle of Auldearn was an engagement of the Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It took place on 9 May 1645, in and around the village of Auldearn in Nairnshire. It resulted in a victory for the royalis ...

. He was probably son of John Dunbar, minister of Edinkillie. He graduated from

King's College, Aberdeen King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, the full title of which is The University and King's College of Aberdeen (''Collegium Regium Aberdonense''), is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and now an integral part of the Univer ...

, with an M.A. in 1661. He was a school master at

Auldearn Auldearn () is a village situated east of the River Nairn, just outside Nairn in the Highland council area of Scotland. It takes its name from William the Lion's castle of Eren (''Old Eren''), built there in the 12th century. Auldearn is an e ...

from 1666 to 1670. He became chaplain and tutor at Kilravock.

Ministry

Having completed his student curriculum, he was licensed by a few of the "outed ministers," at Edinburgh, in 1682. He was ordained before 13 July 1678. Immediately, after being licensed, he began preaching which he assiduously carried on until the beginning of 1685, when he was apprehended. The indictment, which was a somewhat serious one, charged him with "keeping conventicles, withdrawing from the ordinances, inculcating seditious doctrine, plotting against the Government, supplying and harbouring rebels, and other public crimes and irregularities." When examined before a Committee of the Privy Council, at Elgin, in the beginning of the year 1685, he admitted that he had not attended the Parish Kirk and had officiated several times in private houses. He also refused to take the oath of allegiance to King James. Dunbar was, therefore, sentenced to penal servitude amid the plantations of the West being banished by the Privy Council 2 March 1685. His transportation, however, never was carried into effect. In lieu thereof, he was conveyed a prisoner to the Bass, in February 1685, where he remained one full year, after which he regained his liberty on the ground of the impaired state of his health.

After the toleration

On 6 July 1687, he was acknowledged by the Presbyterian ministers of Lothian at their first meeting after the Toleration. He was admitted to Auldern in 1689. Dunbar was a member of Assembly in the years 1690 and 1692. He died after an illness of three years, on 29 October 1707. Macdonald said his life and ministry in Auldearn were in thorough consistency with the testimony which he bore for the truth in imprisonment and in bonds. Sir Hugh Campbell of Cawdor refers to him in his book on the Lord's Prayer, as "the holy Mr Alexander Dunbar, minister of Auldearn." He left 200 merks to provide silver communion cups for the parish.

Family

He married (1) Margaret Meldrum, who died 29 September 1689 and (2) Beatrix Fowler, who survived him.

Bibliography

*Wodrow s Hist., iv., 196 *Moray Tests. *Brodie's Diary.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunbar, Alexander 17th-century Presbyterian ministers Covenanters 1707 deaths Scottish prisoners and detainees 17th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland 17th-century Scottish Presbyterian ministers Covenanting Prisoners of the Bass Rock