Alexander Shields

Alexander Shields or Sheilds (January 1660 – 1700) was a Scottish nonconformist minister, activist, and author.

The son of James Shields or Sheilds, he was born at Haughhead, parish of Earlston, Berwickshire, about 1660. He entered at Edinburgh University at an early age, and graduated M.A. on 7 April 1675, writing his surname "Sheils". He later wrote it "Sheilds"; it is often printed "Shields". He began the study of divinity under Lawrence Charteris, but his opposition to prelacy led him, with others, to migrate in 1679 to Holland. He studied theology at the University of Utrecht, entering in 1680 as "Sheill".

Returning to Scotland, Shields made his way to London, where he is said to have acted as amanuensis to John Owen. Supported by Nicholas Blaikie, minister of the Scottish church at Founders' Hall, Lothbury, he was licensed as preacher by Scottish presbyterians in London, declining as a Covenanter the oath of allegiance. Strict measures being taken shortly after (1684) for the enforcement of the oath, Sheilds proclaimed its sinfulness, and his licensers threatened to withdraw their licence.

Shields appears to have bound himself by the Apologetical Declaration issued by James Renwick in November 1684. On Sunday, 11 January 1685, he was apprehended, with seven others, by the city marshal at a conventicle in Embroiderers' Hall, Gutter Lane, Cheapside, and brought before the lord mayor, who took bail for his appearance at the London Guildhall on the 14th. He attended on that day, but being out of court when his name was called, his bail was forfeited. Duly appearing on the 20th, he declined to give any general account of his opinions, and was committed (by his own account, decoyed) to Newgate Prison till the next quarter sessions (23 February). King Charles II died in the interval.

Without trial in England, Shields and his friends were sent to Scotland on 5 March, arriving at Leith by the yacht Kitchen on 13 March. Shields was examined by the Scottish privy council on 14 March, and by the lords justices on 23 and 25 March, but persisted in declining direct answers. At length, on 26 March, under threat of torture, he was drawn to what he calls a "fatal fall". He signed a paper renouncing all previous engagements "in so far as they declare war against the king". This was accepted as satisfactory, but he was still detained in prison. A letter to his friend John Balfour of Kinloch, expressing regret for his compliance, fell into the hands of the authorities. They sent the two archbishops, Arthur Ross and Alexander Cairncross, with Andrew Bruce, bishop of Dunkeld, to confer with him. On 6 August he was again before the lords justices, and renewed his renunciation, adding the words "if so be such things are there inserted". A few days later he was sent to the Bass Rock; he escaped in women's clothes, apparently at the end of November 1686.

Shields made his way at once to Renwick, whom he found on 6 December 1686 at a field conventicle at Earlston Wood, parish of Borgue, Kirkcudbrightshire. On 22 December, at a general meeting of Renwick's followers, he publicly confessed the guilt of "owning the so-called authority" of James VII of Scotland. His Hind Let Loose is a vindication of Renwick's position on historical grounds. He went to Holland (1687) to get it printed, but returned to Scotland, leaving it at press.

After Renwick's execution (17 February 1688) Shields pursued his policy of field meetings, preaching on a celebrated occasion at Distincthorn Hill, parish of Galston, Ayrshire. He certainly approved of the Cameronian insurrection, under Daniel Ker of Kersland, at the end of the year, when the incumbents of churches in the west were forcibly driven from their charges. He was present at the gathering at the cross of Douglas, Lanarkshire, where these proceedings were publicly vindicated; giving out a psalm, he explained that it was the same as had been sung by Robert Bruce at the cross of Edinburgh, on the dispersion of the Spanish Armada. On 3 March 1689, with Thomas Lining and William Boyd, he took part in a solemn renewing of the covenants by a concourse of people at Borland Hill, parish of Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire.

On the meeting of the first general assembly under the presbyterian settlement, Lining, Sheilds, and Boyd presented two papers, the first asking for redress of grievances, the second (an afterthought, according to Shields) proposing terms of submission. The paper of grievances the assembly received, but declined to have publicly read, as contentious. The submission, dated 22 October 1690, was accepted on 25 October, and the three signatories were received into fellowship, with an admonition "to walk orderly in time coming". Shields was appointed on 4 February 1691 chaplain to the Cameronian regiment (26th Foot), raised in 1689 by James, Earl of Angus (1671–1692), son of James Douglas, 2nd Marquess of Douglas.

On 4 February 1696 Shields was called to the second charge in the parish of St. Andrews, but not admitted till 15 September 1697. On 21 July 1699 he was authorised by the commission of the general assembly to proceed, with three other ministers and a number of colonists, to Darien, this being the second expedition in pursuance of the ill-fated scheme of William Paterson. They sailed in the Rising Sun, and reached Darien late in November 1699. There were quarrels among the colonists. Sheilds made some expeditions inland; at length, with Francis Borland, he crossed over to Jamaica, but had scarcely arrived there before he went down with fever. He died on 14 June 1700 in the house of Isabel Murray at Port Royal, Jamaica. He left property valued at £6,483 16s. 10d.

Sheilds published:

• A Hind Let Loose, or an Historical Representation of the Testimonies of the Church of Scotland … by a Lover of True Liberty, 1687 (no printer or place of publication); reprinted Edinburgh, 1744; epitomised as A History of the Scotch Presbytery, 1691. The Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence (1692) describes the Hind Let Loose as "the great oracle and idol of the true covenanters" (p. 58). The title of this work is biblical; but it was suggested by John Dryden's The Hind and the Panther (published April 1687). It defended the murder of Archbishop James Sharp, and charged James II with poisoning his brother.
• An Elegie upon the Death of … J. Renwick, 1688, (anon.), on James Renwick.
• Some Notes … of a Lecture preached at Distinckorn Hill (1688).
• The Renovation of the Covenant at Boreland (1689).
• A Short Memorial of the Sufferings … of the Presbyterians in Scotland, 1690, (anon.); reprinted as The Scots Inquisition, Edinburgh, 1745.
• An Account … of the late … Submission to the Assembly, Edinburgh, 1691.

Posthumous were:

• Church Communion enquired into; or a Treatise against Separation from this National Church of Scotland, [Edinburgh], 1706 (edited by Lining, who was accused of modifying it in the interest of union); reprinted as An Enquiry into Church-Communion, 2nd edit. Edinburgh, 1747.
• A True and Faithful Relation of … Sufferings, 1715.
• The Life and Death of … James Renwick, Edinburgh, 1724; reprinted, Glasgow, 1806,; and in Biographia Presbyteriana, Edinburgh, 1827, vol. ii.
• The Perpetual Obligation of our Covenants in Richard Ward's Explanation … of the Solemn League, 1737.
• Two sermons and a lecture in John Howie's Collection, Glasgow, 1779; reprinted as Sermons … in Times of Persecution, Edinburgh, 1880 (edited by James Kerr).

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