Robert Barclay and James II: Barclay's "Vindication," 1689

Abstract

Notes and Documents Robert Barclay and James II: Barclay's "Vindication," 1689 Edited by John E. Pomfret* Robert Barclay of Ury, Scotland, ranks with George Fox and William Perm in the history of Friends. His writings, his work as a great minister and a missionary, and the role he played as governor of East Jersey are well known. Less well understood is his relation to the Stuarts, particularly the unfortunate James II. Colonel David Barclay, Robert's father, had served the Stuarts as a soldier, and this they never forgot. So high did the senior Barclay stand in Charles IFs favor that the Barclay estate at Ury was erected into a free barony with civil and criminal jurisdiction granted in perpetuity to Colonel Barclay and his heirs. In 1685 this honor was confirmed by James II and the Scottish Parliament for the "many faithful services done by Colonel David Barclay and his son, Robert Barclay, to the King and his most royal progenitors in times past." Charles I was also indebted to Colonel Barclay for the modest sum of 300 pounds, and although the younger Stuarts did not always honor their father's debts, they never forgot those who had aided him. Through his mother, Katherine Gordon, Robert Barclay was distantly related to James II and to others of high influence at court. Particularly did he have access to James, Duke of York, through his ill-starred cousins, the Earl of Perth and his brother, Viscount Melfort, when James was in exile in Scotland from 1680 to 1682. Perth and Melfort practically ruled Scotland from 1682 to 1688. During the period before James's accession to the throne, Barclay was on good terms especially with Perth, but with the latter's display of cruelty and his conversion to Catholicism, this friendship was permitted to lapse. Indeed it was no longer necessary, for James was steadily * John E. Pomfret, a member of Friends Historical Association, is Director of the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California. 33 34Bulletin of Friends Historical Association attracted to Barclay personally, as he was to William Penn; and he aspired to gain the support of the Friends, because he needed other than Catholic approbation for his devious policy of "freedom of conscience." Barclay, like Penn, never ceased to hope that he could persuade James to adopt a policy of religious toleration for Great Britain. Strangely enough, James always believed that he was engaged in just such a policy. Knowing this, Barclay never abandoned his efforts with James. True, he was able to secure temporary relief for the Friends in Scotland, but he was interested in achieving far more. When, in 1687, at the request of the General Meeting of Aberdeen, Barclay drew up and personally presented to James II an address thanking him, on behalf of Scottish Friends, for his proclamation of liberty of conscience, his was a justly personal triumph. The last meeting between King and Quaker, a few days before the arrival of William, was an historic one. As related by Christian Barclay, Robert's widow, the King observed "that the wind was now fair for the Prince of Orange his coming over." To which Barclay replied, "It was hard that no expedient could be found out to satisfy the people." It was then that James answered that "he would do anything becoming a gentleman , except to part with liberty of conscience which he never would, while he lived." With William's coming, a smear campaign raged through a disturbed England and Scotland. Barclay was popularly identified as a Jesuit and a Papist, among other things. To these accusations he replied in his "Vindication" in an ageless Christian spirit. The "Vindication," which is printed here, is one of a group of more than one hundred documents and letters concerning the Barclay family. This collection spans a period beginning in 1675 and ending in 1742. It was published privately in London in 1870 by lithographic process and only thirty-seven copies were issued. The only copy in the United States is in the possession of the Quaker Collection, Haverford College Library. The "Vindication" itself originated at Ury, the homeplace of the Barclays...