A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Buchan, (Elspeth)
BUCHAN, (ELSPETH) Daughter of an Inn-keeper in the North of Scotland. Born 1738; died 1791.
At the age of twenty-one, was sent to Glasgow to get a place, and soon after married Robert Buchan, a workman in a Delft manufactory there. At the time of her marriage, Mrs. Buchan was of the episcopal persuasion; but her husband being a burgher seceder, she soon adopted his principles. She had been always a constant reader of the scriptures, and being of a visionary turn of mind, took many allegorical expressions in a strictly literal sense. In 1779, a great change took place in her opinions; she became the promulgator of many singular doctrines, and obtained many respectable, even clerical proselytes; among them, Mr. Whyte, of Troine: but, in 1790, the populace of that place broke all the windows of that gentleman's house, where the Buchanites, as they were then termed, were assembled; on which Mrs. Buchan and her converts, to the number of forty-nine, left the place; and after some peregrinations, settled at a farm house thirteen miles from Dumfries. They paid for every thing they received, always kept the bible about them, and conversed much about religion. Declaring the last day to be at hand; that none of their company should ever die, but soon hear the voice of the last trumpet, when all the wicked should be struck dead for a thousand years; but they should be caught up to meet our Saviour in the air, and return with him to possess the earth for that time; at the which, the grand enemy shall be loosed, and attack them; but be repulsed and conquered.
On adopting this persuasion, they neither married, nor considered themselves as bound by any earthly tie, or having any separate property. To live a holy life, to be careless of the morrow; and, if they work for others, to refuse wages, or any other consideration, doing it merely for the purpose of promulgating their opinions, were the principles of this harmless sect; which was soon greatly reduced in number.