Richard Cameron (1648-1680) was a leader of the Presbyterians who refused to submit themselves to the Crown’s High Church Anglican form of church governance. He was ordained a Church of Scotland minister at the Scots Kirk in Rotterdam in late July or early August, 1679. While attempting to revive the flagging fortunes of the Covenanting cause in 1680, he was tracked down by the authorities and killed in a clash of arms at Airds Moss in Ayrshire.
At Cameron’s ordination the Rev. Robert MacWard, who conducted the ceremony, reportedly said to the onlookers, “Richard, the publick standard of the Gospel is fallen in Scotland; and, if I know anything of the mind of the Lord, ye are called to undergo your trials before us, and go home and lift the fallen standard, and display it before the world. But, before you put your hand to it, ye shall go to as many of the field ministers as ye can find, and give them your hearty invitation to go with you; and if they will not go, go your lone, and the Lord will go with you. Behold, all ye beholders! Here is the head of a faithful minister and servant of Jesus Christ, who shall lose the same for his Master’s interest; and it shall be set up before sun and moon in the public view of the world.”
