This day (11 May) in 1685 Margaret Wilson and Margaret McLachlan were executed by drowning in Wigton Bay, Scotland. They were to be tied to stakes fixed in the sand so the incoming tide would drown them. Both were Covenanters refusing to swear an oath declaring King James as head of the church. Of the two Margarets, Wilson became the more famous because of her youth. She had been arrested with her younger sister Agnes who had also been sentenced to drown. Their father Gilbert Wilson sold almost everything he owned and borrowed from friends and family, managing to raise a hundred pounds, a vast sum. He rode to Edinburgh to obtain his daughters’ pardon, but could only secure the young Agnes.

Soldiers marched the two women down to the sand, where Margaret MacLachlan was tied to a stake far out in the firth, so that the younger girl, made to watch her friend drown, might recant. After the older woman died, Margaret Wilson, the waters swelling around her, sang the stirring words of Psalm 25 from the Scottish metrical.

My sins and faults of youth

Do thou, O Lord, forget:

After thy mercy think on me,

And for thy goodness great.

God good and upright is:

The way he'll sinners show;

The meek in judgment he will guide

And make his path to know.

When she had finished the Psalm, she quoted the words of our text in Romans 8; “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”

When the water reached the young Margaret’s head, the soldiers loosened her cords and held her up so she might pray for the King. Margaret said she would pray for the salvation of all men as she wished no one to be condemned. The soldiers pushed her head under the water and tried again, even the crowd begged her to say the oath and save her life, but Margaret remained firm. She said, “No! No! No sinful oaths for me. I am one of Christ's children.” The soldiers cast her into the depths where she perished.