CAMERONIANS, the name given to that section of the Scottish Covenanters (q.v.) who followed Richard Cameron (q.v.), and were devoted to the covenanting faith and the main tenance of the Presbyterian form of public worship. Refusing to take the oaths of allegiance to an "uncovenanted" ruler, or to exercise any civil function, they passed through a period of trial and found some difficulty in maintaining a regular ministry; but in 1706 they were reinforced by some converts from the estab lished church, and in 1743 their first presbytery was constituted at Braehead, when they took the official title of Reformed Pres byterians. In 1863 the Cameronians, or Reformed Presbyterians, decided to inflict no penalties upon those members who had taken the oaths, or had exercised civil functions, and consequently a few congregations seceded. In 1876 the general body of the Reformed Presbyterians united with the Free Church of Scot land, leaving the few seceding congregations as the representatives of the principles of the Cameronians. In the British army the first battalion of the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) is directly descended from the "Cameronian guard," which, composed of Cameronians, was embodied by the convention parliament in 1689, and was employed to restore order in the Highlands.
See J. H. Burton, History of Scotland, vols. vii. and viii. (Edin burgh, 1905) ; A. Lang, History of Scotland, vol. iv. (Edinburgh, 1907) ; Herkless, art. "Covenanters" in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. iv.