A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Buchan, Elspeth
BUCHAN, ELSPETH,
Was the daughter of John Simpson, the keeper of an inn at Fitmy Can, which is the half-way house between Banff and Portsoy, in the north of Scotland; where he was still living in 1787 at the age of ninety. His daughter Elspeth, or Elizabeth, was born in 1738; and when she was twenty-one was sent to Glasgow to find herself a place. She there entered into the service of Mr. Martin, one of the principal proprietors of the delft-work manufactory. She was not long in this situation before she married Robert Buchan, one of the workmen in the service of the same Mr. Martin. Robert and Elspeth Bachan seem to have lived happily together, and had many children, whom they educated in a manner suitable to their station. At the time of her marriage Mrs. Buchan was an episcopalian, but her husband being a burgher seceder, she adopted his principles. She had always been a constant reader of the scriptures, and taking many passages in a strictly literal sense, she changed her opinions greatly, and about 1778, she became the promulgator of many singular doctrines, and soon brought over to her notions Mr. Hugh White, who was the settled relief minister of Irvine. She continued to make new converts till April, 1790, when the populace of Irvine rose, assembled round Mr. White's house, and broke the windows; and Mrs. Buchan with all her converts, to the number of forty-six persons, left Irvine. The Buchanites (for so they were called) went through Mauchlin, old and new Cumnock, halted three days at Kirconnel, passed through Sangahar and Thornhill, and then settled at a farm-house, the out-houses of which they had all along possessed, paying for them, and for whatever they wanted. This farm-house is two miles south of Thornhill, and about thirteen miles from Dumfries.
The Buchanites paid great attention to the Bible, always reading it or carrying it about with them. They read, sang hymns, preached, and conversed much about religion; declared the last day to be near, and that no one of their company should ever die or be buried, but soon shall hear the sound of the last trumpet, when all the wicked would be struck dead, and remain so one thousand years. At the same time the Buchanites would undergo an agreeable change, be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, from whence they should return to this earth, and with the Lord Jesus as their king, possess it one thousand years, during which time the devil should be chained. At the end of that period, the devil would he loosed, the wicked restored to life, and both would assail their camp, but be repulsed by the Buchanites, fighting manfully with Christ for their leader.
The Buchanites neither marry, nor consider themselves bound by conjugal duties, nor care for carnal enjoyments. But having one parse, they live like brothers and sisters a holy life as the angels of God. They follow no employment, being commanded to take no thought of the morrow, but, observing how the young ravens are fed, and the lilies grow, they assure themselves €rod will much more feed and clothe them. They, indeed, sometimes worked for people in their neighbourhood, but they refused all kind of payment, and declared that their whole object in working, was to mix with the world and inculcate their important doctrines.
Mr. Buchan remained in the burgher-secession communion, and had no intercourse with his wife. Mrs. Buchan died in May, 1791; and before her death her followers were greatly reduced in number.