John Brown (1627–1685), also known as the Christian Carrier, was a Protestant Covenanter from Priesthill, a few miles from Muirkirk in Ayrshire, Scotland. He became a Presbyterian martyr in 1685.
Brown's cottage home was the meeting place for a society of Covenanters. Several families came across the broad moor on Sabbath morning, and remained till evening. Sometimes they traveled both ways at night, for fear of the Dragoons. The day was spent in prayer, reading the Bible, singing Psalms, and conversing on doctrines of redemption. This society continued to meet until Brown and other members were killed by the authorities.
In 1685, Brown was executed by Graham of Claverhouse outside his home in the presence of his wife, Isabel, and two children. Brown had refused to swear that he would not take up arms against the king (as he had done before), and to take the Oath of Abjuration: "I do hereby abhor, renounce and disown in the presence of Almighty God, the pretended Declaration of War lately affixed at several parish churches, in so far as it declares war against his sacred Majesty, and asserts that it is lawfull to kill such as serve his Majesty in Church, State, Army or Country, or such as act against the authors of the pretended Declaration now shown to me."[1][2]