The business was put in charge of Robert Hamilton, a man of good birth and education, but violent and rash, without any capacity for command and, if some of his own side may be trusted, of no very certain courage.  With him went Thomas Douglas, one of the fire-breathing ministers, Balfour and Russell and some seventy or eighty armed men.  Glasgow had been originally chosen for the scene of operations; but a day or two previously a detachment of Claverhouse’s troopers had marched into that city from Falkirk, and the little town of Rutherglen, about two miles to the west of Glasgow, was chosen instead.

On the afternoon of the 29th Hamilton and his party made their appearance in Rutherglen.  They first extinguished the bonfire that was blazing in the King’s honour; and, having then lit one on their own account, proceeded solemnly to burn all the Acts of Parliament and Royal Proclamations that had been issued in Scotland since Charles’s return.  A paper was next read, containing a vigorous protest against all interferences of the English Government with the Presbyterian religion, and especially those subsequent to the Restoration.  This paper, which was styled the Declaration and Testimony of some of the true Presbyterian party in Scotland, was then nailed to the market-cross of the little town, and the party withdrew.  All this, be it remembered, was done within only two miles of the royal forces, some of whom, it is said, were actually spectators of the whole affair at scarce musket-shot’s distance.  It was fortunate for the party that Claverhouse was not in Glasgow at the time.

He was then in Falkirk, from which place he had, as we have seen, written to Linlithgow on the very day of the Rutherglen business of a rumour he had heard of some particular gathering appointed for the following Sunday, June 1st.  Though he did not believe it, he thought it well to join forces with Ross in case there might be need for action.  This was done at Glasgow on Saturday; and at once Claverhouse set off for Rutherglen to inquire into the affair of the 29th.  As soon as he had got the names of the ringleaders he sent patrols out to scour the neighbourhood for them.  A few prisoners were picked up, and among them one King, a noted orator of the conventicles, formerly chaplain to Lord Cardross, whose service he had left, it is said, on account of a little misadventure with one of the maid-servants.  The troops halted for the night at Strathavon, and early next morning set off with their prisoners for Glasgow.  On the way Claverhouse determined on “a little tour, to see if we could fall upon a conventicle,” which, he ingenuously adds, “we did, little to our advantage.”

During his search for the Rutherglen men he had heard more of the plans for Sunday.  It was clear something was in the air, and report named Loudon Hill as the place of business, a steep and rocky eminence marking the spot where the shires of Ayr, Lanark, and Renfrew meet.  To Loudon Hill accordingly Claverhouse turned his march, and soon found that rumour had for once not exaggerated.