Only 17-years-old and opposed to demands that her homeland of Scotland bend its knee religiously to the Church of England, convert to its beliefs and rules, and denounce its Presbyterian faith and beliefs.
Margaret was one of the resisters called Covenanters who refused to abandoned their Presbyterian faith and were persecuted and put to death for their resistance.
She helped and hid renegade Presbyterian preachers escape the capture of those who hunted and executed them.
In February 1685, Margaret was captured and imprisoned in “The Thieves Hole” for 2 months where the worst prisoners were jailed.
Transferred to another prison, she was tormented relentlessly to convert to the Church of England but adamantly refused to.
After which, she was sentenced to be flogged in the streets and executed.
On the day of her execution, she was tied to a stake hammered in the bed of a stream that the ocean tide flowed into above 50 feet.
And Margaret was told if she renounced her faith before the tide rolled in and drowned her to death she would be freed.
But Margaret refused to abandon her faith.
As the tide rushed in covering Margaret up to the waist, Margaret shouted, Psalm 25: 1-2: “To you O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in you; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me. ”
And as the tide buried her to death in its surging, suffocating waters, Margaret died a martyr for her faith and for her Lord.
Now you have read the true story of a courageous young woman, whose bravery and martyrdom is unknown by most, lost in the ever fleeting past.
I marvel at her bravery and her unwavering faith and principles in the face of an awful, underserved death.
An unholy execution administered by monstrous fanatics masquerading as pious avengers doing the Lord’s work, more like devils ruled by the sword of Satan instead of the love and grace of God.
Bob Boyd
