Archibald Riddell (minister)

His father was Sir Walter, second baronet of Riddell.{{cite web |last1=Lundy |first1=Darryl |title=Reverend Archibald Riddell |url=http://thepeerage.com/p55900.htm#i558993 |website=The Peerage |access-date=14 February 2019}} His mother was Janet, daughter of William Rigg of Athernie, in Fife. Archibald had two older brothers: Sir John, who succeeded his father; and William, who started the Riddells of Glen-Riddell, in Dumfries-shire.{{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Duncan |last2=Smith |first2=John (ed.) |title=The Covenanters of Teviotdale and Neighbouring Districts |date=1908 |publisher=A. Walker & Son |location=Galashiels |pages=[https://archive.org/details/covenanterstevi00smitgoog/page/n75 61]–76 |url=https://archive.org/details/covenanterstevi00smitgoog |access-date=13 February 2019}} Archibald graduated from Edinburgh University on 9 July 1656 with a Master of Arts degree.{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Hew |title=Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation |volume=1 |date=1915 |publisher=Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd |page=[https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc01scot/page/133 133] |url=https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc01scot |access-date=2 March 2019}}{{PD-notice}}

File:Crags and scree in the Corrie of Balglass (geograph 3061825).jpg. A conventicle was held there which was attacked when it did not disperse when ordered to.]]

Archibald was privately ordained to the ministry at Kippen by John Law around 1670.{{cite book |last1=Warrick |first1=John |title=The moderators of the Church of Scotland from 1690 to 1740 |date=1913 |publisher=Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier |location=Edinburgh, London |page=[https://archive.org/details/moderatorsofchur00warr/page/60 60] |url=https://archive.org/details/moderatorsofchur00warr |access-date=14 February 2019}} He was a field preacher along with John Blackadder and John Dickson. At one such conventicle, at which Robert Garnock was present there was an exchange of gunfire with government soldiers.{{cite web |last1=Jardine |first1=Mark |title=A most obstinate and malicious person': Robert Garnock, the Covenanters and the Croune of London |date=8 December 2011|url=https://drmarkjardine.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/a-most-obstinate-and-malicious-person-robert-garnock-the-covenanters-and-the-croune-of-london/ |website=Jardine's Book of Martyrs |access-date=27 July 2019}}{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/scotsworthies00howirich

|chapter=Robert Garnock

|title=The Scots worthies

|first1=John |last1=Howie |first2=W. H. |last2=Carslaw

|publisher=Oliphant, Anderson, & Ferrier |location=Edinburgh |year=1870|pages=[https://archive.org/details/scotsworthies00howirich/page/457 457]-475}}{{PD-notice}}{{cite book |last1=Kirkton |first1=James |title=The secret and true history of the church of Scotland from the Restoration to the year 1678 |date=1817 |page=[https://archive.org/details/secrettruehistor00kirk/page/431 431]-432|publisher=J. Ballantyne |location=Edinburgh |url=https://archive.org/details/secrettruehistor00kirk |access-date=18 July 2019}}

Riddell was caught for keeping conventicles, by the laird of Graden, a relative of his wife, in September 1680 and taken to Jedburgh tolbooth before being taken to the Edinburgh Tolbooth for about nine months.{{cite book |last1=M'Crie |first1=Thomas, D.D. the younger |title=The Bass rock: Its civil and ecclesiastic history |date=1847 |publisher=J. Greig & Son |location=Edinburgh |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bassrockitscivil00mcri/page/n376 217]–234 |url=https://archive.org/details/bassrockitscivil00mcri |access-date=11 February 2019}}{{cite book |last1=M'Crie |first1=Thomas |authorlink1=Thomas M'Crie the younger |title=The story of the Scottish church : from the Reformation to the Disruption |date=1875 |publisher=Blackie & Son |location=London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/scottish00mcri/page/340/mode/2up 340]-341 |url=https://archive.org/details/scottish00mcri}} "From there he was sentenced to the Bass Rock, on 8 July 1681 to remain prisoner there."{{cite book |last1=Fairley |first1=John A. |title=Extracts from the Records of the Old Tolbooth from The book of the Old Edinburgh Club |date=1915 |publisher=Edinburgh : The Club |page=[https://archive.org/details/bookofoldedinbur8191olde/page/110 110] |volume=8 |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofoldedinbur8191olde |access-date=16 March 2019}}{{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=Alexander |editor1-last=Prentice |editor1-first=Archibald |title=Life of Alexander Reid, a Scotish covenanter |date=1822 |publisher=printed by J. Garnett |location=Manchester |pages=46 |url=https://archive.org/details/lifealexanderr00reid/page/46/mode/2up |access-date=29 June 2020}}

Following a petition from George Scot (whose wife was Riddell's cousin){{cite journal |last1=Mather |first1=Edith H |title=George Scot, of Pitlochy |journal=Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society |date=1922 |pages=260–278 |volume=7 |url=https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofnew07newj_0/page/n571?q=%22archibald+riddell%22 |access-date=13 February 2019}} who had himself been a prisoner on the Bass he was released from prison to be banished to a plantation in America along with other prisoners several of whom had been tortured:{{cite book |last1=Erskine |first1=John |last2=Macleod |first2=Walter |title=Journal of the Hon. John Erskine of Carnock, 1683-1687 |date=1893 |publisher=Printed at University Press by T. and A. Constable for the Scottish History Society |location=Edinburgh |page=[https://archive.org/details/journalofhonjohn00erskrich/page/154 154] |url=https://archive.org/details/journalofhonjohn00erskrich |access-date=16 February 2019}}

"Edinburgh, 24th December 1684. The Lords of his Majesty's Privy Council having considered a petition presented by Mr George Scot of Pitlochie, desiring that, in regard the Council have granted him the benefit of some persons lately sentenced to the plantations, in order to their being transported thither, and that he is willing to transport Mr Archibald Riddell, prisoner in the Bass, liberty might be granted to him for some time to put his affairs in order, and attend several processes now depending both for and against him before the Session, upon the petitioner's being cautioner for him, that he shall immediately after his liberty, come to his own lodgings in Edinburgh, and confine himself there during his abode here, and, in the mean time, keep no conventicles; and be by him transported to East Jersey in America, and never return to this kingdom thereafter, without special licence from the Council : The said Lords do grant the said desire, and recommend to the Lord High Chancellor, governor of the said Isle of Bass, to give order and warrant to his deputy-governor of that isle, to deliver to the petitioner, or his order, the person of the said Mr Archibald Riddell, in regard the petitioner hath become caution to the effect foresaid, under the penalty of five thousand merks Scots money, in case of failure in any of the premises."

The voyage on the Henry & Francis was disastrous in that about 24 percent of the passengers died including George Scot and Riddell's wife and three of her relations.{{cite book |last1=Wodrow |first1=Robert |title=The history of the sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the restoration to the revolution |date=1835 |publisher=Blackie & Son |location=Glasgow |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofsufferi04wodr/page/332 332]–334 |volume=4 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofsufferi04wodr |access-date=13 February 2019}}{{cite web |last1=Tate |first1=Sheila |title=Henry & Francis of New Castle |url=https://www.immigrantships.net/v5/1600v5/henryandfrancis16851200.html |website=Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild |access-date=13 August 2021}} Riddell received calls to pastor three churches, one in New Bridge, one in Long Island and one in Woodbridge.{{cite book |last1=Chrystal |first1=William |title=The Kingdom of Kippen, its history and traditions |date=1903 |publisher=Munro |location=Stirling |page=[https://archive.org/details/kingdomofkippeni00chryuoft/page/121 121] |url=https://archive.org/details/kingdomofkippeni00chryuoft |access-date=13 February 2019}} He chose Woodbridge and preached there until the Glorious Revolution when he tried to return home.{{cite web |title=Pastors |url=http://www.fpcwoodbridgenj.org/history/pastors.php |website=First Presbyterian Church Woodbridge New Jersey |access-date=13 February 2019}} It is also recorded that he received a call from a church in Jamaica.{{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=James Madison |title=Two centuries in the history of the Presbyterian church, Jamaica, L.I.; the oldest existing church, of the Presbyterian name, in America |date=1862 |publisher=R. Carter & brothers |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/twocenturiesinhi00byumacd/page/71 71]–74 |url=https://archive.org/details/twocenturiesinhi00byumacd |access-date=14 February 2019}}

In June 1689 he boarded a ship for home, but just off the coast of England, on 2 August, he was captured by a French man-of-war. He and his ten-year-old son were taken as prisoners to France, where they were reportedly cruelly treated and imprisoned for around two years in prisons in Nantes, Rochefort and Dinard.{{cite book |last1=Dally |first1=Joseph W. cn |title=Woodbridge and vicinity : the story of a New Jersey township; embracing the history of Woodbridge, Piscataway, Metuchen and contiguous places, from the earliest times; the history of the different ecclesiastical bodies; important official documents relating to the township, etc. |date=1873 |publisher=A.E. Gordon |location=New Brunswick, N.J. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/woodbridgevicini00dall/page/84 84]–85 |url=https://archive.org/details/woodbridgevicini00dall |access-date=13 February 2019}} After this lengthy detention they were released by the French government in an exchange programme with King William's government. They were traded for two French priests who had been prisoners in Blackness Castle.{{cite book |last1=Whitehead |first1=William Adee |title=Contributions to the early history of Perth Amboy and adjoining country : with sketches of men and events in New Jersey during the provincial era |date=1856 |publisher=D. Appleton & Company |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/contributionstoe00whit/page/367 367]–372 |url=https://archive.org/details/contributionstoe00whit |access-date=13 February 2019}}

Riddell was called to become minister of Wemyss on 28 September 1691. His subsequently was translated to Kirkcaldy on 20 May 1697. His final charge was in Trinity College Kirk in Edinburgh in 1702 which was later demolished and rebuilt due it blocking Waverley Station.

He died on 17 February 1708 and was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard. His great-great-grandson, the advocate, antiquarian and peerage lawyer John Riddell was later buried with him.{{cite book |last1=Nichols |first1=John Gough |title=The Herald and genealogist |date=1865 |publisher=John Bowyer Nichols and Sons |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/heraldgenealogis02nich/page/n157 148] |volume=2 |url=https://archive.org/details/heraldgenealogis02nich |access-date=14 February 2019}} being the family's representative at the funeral.{{cite book |last1=Carre |first1=Walter Riddell |title=Border memories; or, Sketches of prominent men and women of the border |date=1876 |publisher=J. Thin |location=Edinburgh |edition=not all editions give his burial |url=https://archive.org/details/bordermemoriesor00carr/page/222?q=%22archibald+riddell%22 |access-date=14 February 2019}}

• Edin. Beg. (Marr. and Bur.)
• Douglas's Bar.
• Nisbet's Her.
• Wodrow's Anal.
• Playfair's Bar.

He married twice:

Firstly to Helen Aitkenhead, daughter of Rev Henry Aitkenhead, minister of North Berwick, and had two sons, Capt. Walter Bennet of Granton, Edinburgh (d.1738), and Dr John Bennet MD, physician in Edinburgh (d.1740).

Their daughter, Sarah Bennet Riddell, married Rev John Currie, minister of Oldhamstocks in 1703 who became Moderator in 1709.{{cite book |last1=Warrick |first1=John |title=The moderators of the Church of Scotland from 1690 to 1740 |date=1913 |publisher=Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier |location=Edinburgh, London |page=[https://archive.org/details/moderatorsofchur00warr/page/216/mode/2up 216] |url=https://archive.org/details/moderatorsofchur00warr}}{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Hew |title=Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation |volume=1 |date=1915 |publisher=Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd |page=[https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc01scot/page/370/mode/2up 370] |url=https://archive.org/details/fastiecclesiaesc01scot}}

He secondly married Jean Ker of the Canongate in 1694. who survived him.

{{reflist}}

{{Bass Rock Prisoners of Conscience}}

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Category:17th-century Presbyterian ministers

Category:Covenanters

Archibald

Category:Woodbridge Township, New Jersey

Category:Younger sons of baronets

Category:1708 deaths

Category:Scottish prisoners and detainees

Category:1635 births

Category:Burials at Greyfriars Kirkyard

Category:Covenanting Prisoners of the Bass Rock

Category:17th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland

Category:17th-century Scottish Presbyterian ministers