William Niven, a smith from Pollokshaws in Cathcart parish, Renfrewshire (now part of Glasgow), lived through some of the harshest years of the Covenanter persecutions in late 17th century Scotland. His religious nonconformity led to repeated imprisonments, torture, and eventual transportation across the Atlantic.
In May 1678, Niven was arrested after attending an illegal conventicle and refused to name those who had preached or attended. For this, he was sentenced to transportation to the plantations. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh Tolbooth and, by December, placed aboard the St Michaell of Scarbrugh, intended for Virginia. However, the ship never left port as the contractor responsible, London merchant Ralph Williamson, failed to appear and the prisoners were released at Gravesend. [Another in the party was William Layng from Hawick who was also later transported to East Jersey.]
Niven returned to Cathcart around September 1679, but his freedom was short-lived. In 1684 he was again imprisoned, this time in the Canongate Tolbooth, accused of disloyalty to Church and Crown and refusing to take pledges of allegiance. In May 1685, he was formally sentenced to banishment. He was among the many Covenanters held in grim conditions at Dunnottar Castle. During his captivity, he took part in a failed escape attempt and suffered torture by lit matches tied to his fingers.
On 5 September 1685, Niven was shipped aboard the Henry and Francis as a banished prisoner. He arrived in Perth Amboy, East Jersey, on 7 December 1685. A legal case brought in early 1686 by the ship’s captain, Richard Hutton, shows that Niven was among the prisoners successful in opposing his claim for their transportation costs. Despite his traumatic exile, Niven managed to return to Scotland by around 1692.
Back home in Pollokshaws, he appears to have resumed a normal life. By 1703, he had some social standing, serving as an elder in the local Church of Scotland. He had at least one child, also named William. He died sometime after 1703.