Hello (cousin?) easterross, welcome to RootsChat.
I have now found my copy of MacArthur's
New Monkland Parish: Its History, Industries and People.
He quotes extensive from Robert Wodrow's
The history of the sufferings of the church of Scotland from the restoration to the revolution, and in particular he lists John Waddell
in New Monkland as one of the five executed in November 1679 at Magus-muir, and later on says that the five were to be "carried to the muir of Magus, in the Sheriffdom of Fife .... upon the 18th of November instant, and there to be hanged ....."
So there is some doubt whether the date is the 18th of November, as in the Lords' sentence quoted above, or the 25th, as on the stones erected later to commemorate them. What is not in question is the place of death, which is Magus Muir, not in the parish of New Monkland.
Among the Covenanters aboard the Crown of London are listed William Waddell, who survived, and James Waddell, who did not. A proclamation dated 5th May 1684 listed William Waddell in Riding as one of the fugitives in the parish of New Monkland.
Matthew Waddell in Ryding was fined in 1706, and imprisoned in Hamilton until he paid up. William Waddell in Ryden was fined six pounds for his wife and bairns, their being at a preaching.
MacArthur quotes from the East Monkland Kirk Session minutes a list of those who lost during the persecutions of the 1680s including James Waddell, in Arnbuckle; James Waddell in Standridge; John Waddell in Auchengray; William Waddell in Ryden. Matthew Waddell in Ryden also wrote an account of his own losses. The same source lists among those who suffered after Bothwell Bridge John Waddell, put to death; James Waddell, son to John Waddell, in Ridge, transported and died in the shipwreck; William Waddell
in Craigneuck, transported and escaped from the shipwreck. Margaret Waddell, aged about eighty,
wife of John Martin, was cast out of her house face down on a dunghill and, being unable to move, would have died there but for being rescued by friends. Two John Waddells in Wester Arnbuckle were taken to Edinburgh at another period, and lay there for a considerable time. John Waddell in Auchengray was also wounded and captured at Bothwell Bridge.
Later on, MacArthur describes John Craig Waddell (1813-1882) who was "the descendant and representative of the Ryden Waddells .... who suffered so much during the religious persecution in the seventeenth century". He goes on, "It is recorded that John Waddell, of Ryden .... was hanged along with four others at Magus Muir, while his son William was banished for seven years to the plantations in Virginia. The mother of this John Waddell, when above eighty years of age, was .... dragged outside and would have perished had not some friends come to her relief."
It doesn't take an eagle eye to spot inconsistencies. The earlier sources say that the eighty-year-old lady dragged out but saved by friends was the wife of John Martin, not the wife of a Waddell, and the William Waddell sentenced to transportation is termed 'in Craigneuck' in part of the earlier source, and a William Waddell
in Ryden was among those fined in 1706.
The escaped William is generally said to have fled to Ireland, where he became the progenitor of the Waddells of Ouley in County Down.
The more I look at this, the more confused I get about exactly who was who
