The anonymous A Cloud of Witnesses or the Royal Prerogatives of Jesus Christ; being the last speeches and testimonies of those who have suffered for the truth in Scotland since the year 1680 (Edinborough, 1714) documents the sufferings of the Covenanters under the late Stuarts in the same way that John Foxe's Book of Martyrs does for English Protestants under Mary Tudor. The brief notice of David Steel was greatly expanded by John H. Thompson in his edition of 1871.
Lieutenant Crichton did most barbarously, after quarter, shoot David Steel, in the parish of Lesmahagow, December [20], 1686. [David Steel was tenant of the farm of Nether Skellyhill, in the parish of Lesmahagow. He was at Bothwell Bridge, and henceforward he was a marked man. His name occurs on the fugitive-roll of 1684. So rigorous was the search made for him, that he dared not pass the night in his own house, but generally slept in a hut about four miles from Skellyhill, near the source of the Nethan. A writer in the "Edinburgh Christian Instructor" for 1830, says that the traces of this hut are still preserved, and pointed out by the shepherds. In the close of 1686, he ventured to return to, and take up his stay at, Skellyhill. On December 20th, Lieutenant Crichton, with a detachment of horse and foot, came to the house. David Steel got the alarm shortly before they arrived, and slipped through a back-window, and ran to the Logan water, about a quarter of a mile away, with the soldiers behind him in pursuit. He crossed, but in crossing he fell into the water, and wetted the powder of the musket he had taken with him. He still, however, continued his flight to the steep and bush-grown banks of the Nethan, about a mile away, where he would soon have stayed the progress of his pursuers. But ere he reached the Nethan, the dragoons were almost upon him, and his strength failed him; while Crichton called him to surrender, and he should have quarter, and be taken to Edinburgh, and have a fair trial. David Steel surrendered on these terms; but Crichton had no intention of fulfilling them. He took him back to Skellyhill, where his wife, Mary Weir, had been watching his flight. With her only child in her arms, she ran to meet him. Crichton took David to the field before his own door, and ordered the dragoons to shoot him; but they reminded him of his promise to spare the man's life; and on his peremptorily commanding them to fire, they declared they would neither shoot him nor see him shot, and mounted their horses, and rode off to Upper Skellyhill. Crichton now turned to his foot soldiers, who were Highlanders, and the ignorant savages had no scruples. They fired, and several balls pierced the martyr's head. The murderers immediately left, and when the neighbors arrived, they found the widow by the mangled corpse of her husband. Tradition relates that the first words which 'she was heard to utter were, "The archers have shot at thee, my husband, but they could not reach thy soul: it has escaped like a dove, far away, and is at rest!" And then, clasping her hands, she prayed, "Lord, give strength to thy handmaid that will prove she has waited for Thee, even in the way of Thy judgments." Skellyhill is still tenanted by a descendant of Steel. Two thorn bushes near the house mark the place where he was murdered. A monument was erected in 1858 or 1859, within a few yards of the spot. The remains of Steel lie in Lesmahagow churchyard. The inscription on the monument over them is in the Appendix. - ED.]
"Here lies the body of David Steel, martyr, who was murdered by Chrichton for his testimony to the Covenants and work of Reformation, and because he durst not own the authority of the tyrant destroying the same. He was shot at Skellyhill on the 20th of December 1686, in the 33d year of his age. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
"David a shepherd first, and then
Advanced to be king of men,
Had of his graces in this quarter
This heir, a wand'rer, now a martyr,
Who for his constancy and zeal,
Still to the back did prove true Steel.
Who for Christ's royal truth and laws,
And for the covenanted cause
Of Scotland's famous Reformation;
Declining tyrant's usurpation,
By cruel Chrichton murdered lies,
Whose blood to heaven for vengeance cries."
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