OF ALEXANDER JAFFRAY, PROVOST OF ABERDEEN, ONE OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSIONERS TO KING CHARLES II., TO WHICH ARE ADDED, PARTICULARS OF HIS SUBSEQUENT LIFE, GIVEN IN CONNEXION WITH MEMOIRS OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PERSECUTIONS, OF IN THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND; AMONG WHOM HE BECAME ONE OF THE EARLIEST MEMBERS. BY JOHN BARCLAY. "IF TRUTH DO ANY WHERE MANIFEST ITSELF, SEEK NOT TO SMOTHER IT WITH GLOZING DELUSION; LONDON: PUBLISHED BY HARVEY & DARTON, GRACECHURCH STREET; AND WILLIAM WHYTE AND CO., EDINBURGH. MDCCCXXXIII. DKF91 581951 INTRODUCTION. THE following Work consists of two distinct parts. The first part is a religious DIARY, nearly two hundred years old, now for the first time committed to the press; the Writer of which filled some responsible public stations about the period of the Commonwealth, but, shortly after the close of his narrative, and while in the meridian of life, was among the earliest in his native city of Aberdeen, to join himself in communion with the people called Quakers. The second division of this Work, carries forward what is known of the subsequent career of Alexander Jaffray, in conjunction with historical MEMOIRS Of his cotemporaries and companions in the profession of the same Christian principles. With regard to the Diary, it came into my hands in the following manner. Travelling in Scotland in the autumn of 1827, I visited Ury, near Stonehaven, the place of my ancestors, and well known to the Society of Friends as the residence of Robert Barclay, their "Apologist." My mingled feelings of interest, in passing a night or two under the roof of the hospitable proprietor, my cousin, I need not enlarge on; yet must not forbear expressing the emotions of desire and hope, which attended me from the first, that the inquiry and search I was about to make, for documents relative to that family as Friends, might be turned to a beneficial account, by throwing light upon the history of that remarkable religious experience, for which some of them in former times were distinguished, and are to this day deservedly held in reputation. Among other MSS. to all appearance much neglected, and which might have |