Richard Cameron (religious leader)

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Richard Cameron (1648? - 1680) was a leader of the Presbyterians who resisted the Stuart monarchs. His followers took his name, the Cameronians, which ultimately formed the nucleus of the Scottish regiment of the same name.

Born at Falkland, Fife, he was initially a parish school teacher and then a highly successful field preacher of the strict Presbyterian school, a Covenanter. He spent some years in exile in the Netherlands when the authorities demanded that all preachers submit to the Crown's religion.

He returned to Scotland in 1680 and issued with others such as Donald Cargill the Sanquhar Declaration, calling for war against the king, Charles II and the exclusion of his brother from the succession. He was killed in a skirmish with government troops, at Airds Moss near Cumnock, later the same year, in a government attempt to suppress the Covenanters. This period was later given the title of "the Killing Time" because hundreds, if not thousands of Presbyterians were persecuted and martyred for holding Cameronian views. However, after the accession of William III his followers were pardoned and incorporated into the British Army as the Cameronian Regiment.