Richard Cameron

Richard Cameron kăm´eren , 1648-1680, Scottish leader of the Cameronians, an extreme group of Covenanters . In 1672, under the influence of the open-air preacher John Welch, he became a Covenanter preacher and was known for his eloquence. Strongly opposing the measures aimed at reestablishing the Episcopal Church in Scotland, and objecting to any state control of the church, he led a small company who, in the Sanquhar Declaration (1680), disowned the royal authority of Charles II. A price was set on Cameron's head and within a short time he and a little band of supporters were overtaken by royal troops. Cameron and many of his group were killed. Later (1743) the Cameronians, growing in numbers, formed a presbytery, taking the name Reformed Presbyterians. This denomination is still represented by congregations in Scotland, the north of Ireland, and North America, but the greater number united (1876) with the Free Church of Scotland, which, in 1929, incorporated them in the reunited Church of Scotland. A body of Cameronians formed the nucleus (1689) of the celebrated Cameronian regiment of the British army.

Bibliography: See biography by J. Herkless (1896).

Cameron, Richard (d. 1680), Scottish Covenanting leader. He was an eloquent field-preacher in the Covenanting cause. In 1678 he went to the Netherlands, where he was ordained. Returning to Scotland, in 1680 he joined in the ‘Sanquhar Declaration’, which disowned allegiance to Charles II and attacked Covenanters who accepted the royal indulgence then offered.

Cameron, Richard (1648–80). Covenanting leader. Born in Falkland in Fife where he was a schoolteacher, Cameron became a presbyterian field preacher in the south-west of Scotland. In 1678–80 he was in Holland, missing the covenanting defeat at Bothwell Bridge in June 1679. On his return he joined in issuing the Sanquhar declaration, which denounced Charles II and his brother James and declared them deposed. Tracked down by royal troops, Cameron and his brother were killed at Aird's Moss, near Auchinleck in Ayrshire. His followers, the reformed presbyterians, refused to accept the 1689 church settlement in Scotland. See Cameronians.

J. A. Cannon