21 World Changing Women, Day 2

Let Me Go

Margaret Wilson (1667-1687)

"Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."

Luke 23:43

Margaret had been good with kids from a young age and cared for her two younger siblings, Thomas and Agnes, with love. Thomas and Agnes looked up to their older sister, so when Margaret agreed with a group of people during that time called Covenanters, Thomas and Agnes followed in her steps. Covenanters were groups of people who wanted the Scottish church to turn back to the Protestant way. They held meetings in secret, in the hills. When Margaret was 16, Thomas 14, and Agnes 11, the three set out to join the Covenantors, because a soldier had threatened the Wilson family. Margaret had become an outlaw and now she had to take care of both her siblings as they journeyed to Airriequhillart, a forest in Scotland, where they hoped to meet up with the Covenanters. The Wilson siblings were searched for by soldiers, but they found safety with the Covenanters. The were in hiding until 1685, when Margaret was 18 years old. In February of 1685, Margaret and Agnes decided to visit some friends in secret. While there, they were trapped then betrayed to the authorities. Margaret and Agnes stood trial on April 13th, two months after their arrest, where their father paid a large sum of money for Agnes' freedom. Margaret was sentenced to death. On May 11, 1685, Margaret and a 63 year old Covenanter, Margaret McLachlan, were tied to stakes in the ocean where the tide would come up and drown them. Margaret was forced to watch Margaret McLachlan's death and while the water rose, Margaret Wilson sang a psalm to God. Before she was taken by the water, someone pulled her up and told her to say, 'God save the king'. She replied, "God save him, if he will, for it is his salvation that I desire." They told her to sign an oath to follow the king and his religion, but she refused. "I will not," she said, "I am one of Christ's children; let me go." So he let her go beneath the waves. She died for Christ that day in May of 1685.