Beautiful rainbows there

The Martyr's Monument - Old town cemetery
 

The two girls belonged to Wigtonshire, the daughters of Gilbert Wilson, a
committed Episcopalian. Despite this, the sisters were followers of the
Covenanters, an extreme Presbyterian group strongly opposed to the
Anglican reforms of Charles II. Margaret and Agnes, aged 18 and 13
respectively, were arrested for their beliefs and along with Margaret
McLauchlan, an elderly neighbour, tried for and found guilty of high treason.
All three were sentenced to death by drowning. Agnes’s father was able to
buy her freedom but despite a temporary reprieve the others were led to a
point below high water mark on the treacherous Solway Firth, tied to stakes,
and left to drown in the incoming tide. Margaret McLauchlan, by then in her
late 60s, had no resistance to the powerful current and soon succumbed to
its force. Margaret Wilson was offered her freedom, but refused to relinquish
her convictions and died for her faith on May 11th 1685.


The marble group was commissioned from Handyside Ritchie (the sculptor of
all the statues in the graveyard and of ‘Wee Wallace’ on the canopy of the
Athenaeum in King Street) by William Drummond, a brother of Peter
Drummond. It was erected in 1859, without its protective cupola. The cupola
was designed by John Rochhead, famous for his design of the National
Wallace Monument on Abbey Craig, and it was cast at the Sun Foundry in
Glasgow. It was put in place in 1867, necessitating the removal of a
symbolic marble lamb, which lay at the girls’ feet. Several other examples of
William Drummond’s munificence are to be found in the graveyard, each
with its own story. The story behind this one has no connection whatsoever
with Stirling, but is an eloquent indicator of Drummond’s obsession with
religion.