Sanquhar, United Kingdom

In the 9th and 10th centuries, waves of Gaelic settlers came to the area from Ireland. These Scoto-Irish people replaced the native Britons and became the dominant inhabitants for hundreds of years. In the 12th century, Norman colonization of the British Isles brought a feudal system of government and barons and sheriffs ruled the land for several centuries. In around 1213, Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland, made a grant of timber from the forest of Sanquhar for the construction of Paisley Priory.

From the late 13th Century, the border counties were often in a state of turmoil as groups raided each other across the dividing lines. During the war of Scottish Independence the English army took over the old castle at Sanquhar. The Lord of the Castle, Sir William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas, learned of this and came up with a clever plot where one man sneaked into the castle and threw open the gates, allowing Lord Douglas to seize it. The English began a counter-attack, but William Wallace learned of the battle and came to the rescue. As the English army retreated, Wallace chased them down and killed 500 of them. Wallace visited the castle on several occasions.

During the reign of Robert the Bruce the Crichton family obtained the lands round about Sanquhar and ruled over the area from the mid-14th until the mid-17th centuries. Mary, Queen of Scots, (cousin of Queen Elizabeth the 1st) came to Sanquhar in May 1568 after her defeat at the battle of Langside. Lord Crichton of Sanquhar was loyal to Mary, and harboured her until she escaped across the River Nith.

The end of the Crichton family power in the area was the result of a lavish party. In July 1617, the King of Great Britain, James VI and I, travelled through Scotland to Glasgow, and on his way home stopped at the castle in Sanquhar. The Crichtons welcomed him with a display so huge that it bankrupted them. It is said that Lord Crichton escorted the king to bed carrying a lighted torch made from £30,000 in bond notes that the king owed Lord Crichton. By 1639, the Crichtons had moved to Ayrshire, and sold their holdings in Sanquhar to the Earl of Queensberry.

A joke in the region is that many a young woman who worked for the Crichtons would "Go in the servants' entrance and come out the family way". However, one well-regarded member of Crichton family was James Crichton (known as 'The Admirable Crichton').

Sanquhar was a hotbed of unrest during the Covenanting period. With its position as the only major town in a large area, and situated by the River Nith, it seemed that whenever any remarkable political movement was going on people would go to Sanquhar to proclaim their testimonies on the subject. It was here, in 1680, that Richard Cameron, with a band of armed supporters, posted on the town cross the first declaration of Sanquhar renouncing allegiance to Charles II.

The year 1685 saw the second declaration, by James Renwick, who also took a large armed party into Sanquhar, frightening all the townspeople who thought a battle was coming. The Sanquhar Declarations, as they are known, set forth the basis of religious freedom in Scotland.

In the Victorian period the town's mercat cross was transformed into a monument bearing the inscription: In commemoration of the two famous Sanquhar Declarations, which were published on this spot, where stood the ancient Cross of the Burgh; the one by the Rev. Richard Cameron, on 22 June 1680; the other by the Rev. James Renwick, on 25 May 1685, during the Killing Time.

The end of the Covenanting period in the early 18th century was not the last religious upheaval for the area. The Church of Scotland was torn by several disputes over the years. One of the major issues was whether the local populations or church headquarters could hire local ministers. In the 1830s many churches seceded and in 1843 a large number of churches broke away to form the Free Church of Scotland. The time was known as the “Great Disruption”. In Sanquhar the minister joined the splinter group in 1843.

In the 1780s, the legendary Scottish poet Robert Burns was a frequent visitor to Sanquhar. When he was renovating a farm in 1788, he often passed through on the way back to his wife, Jean, in Ayrshire. Afterwards, he became a well-known face because of his excise duties. Burns called the town "Black Joan" in his ballad "Five Carlins" in which he represented the local burghs as characters. He would stay overnight at the Queensberry Arms in the High Street, making friends with the owner, bailie Edward Whigham and calling it "the only tolerable Inn in the place".