a. and sb. [f. the name Cameron + -IAN.] A. adj. Pertaining to Richard Cameron, his tenets, or his followers. B. sb. A follower of Richard Cameron, a noted Scottish Covenanter and field preacher, who rejected the indulgence granted to nonconforming ministers and formally renounced allegiance to Charles II. His followers afterwards constituted the body called the ‘Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland.’
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Cameronians, Field-Conventiclers (in Scotland).
1691. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 228. The Cameronians … pretend neither to acknowledge king William or king James, but king Jesus, and declare for the old covenant.
1693. Apol. Clergy Scot., 15. Cameronian Zealots in the Western Shires.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., Introd. The religious sect called Hill-men, or Cameronians, was at that time much noted for austerity and devotion.
1886. W. G. Blaikie, in Dict. Nat. Biog. s.v. R. Cameron, It ought to be added that the ‘reformed presbyterians’ decline the term ‘Cameronian,’ although to this day it is applied to them in popular use.
2. Cameronian Regiment: the title of the old 26th Regiment of Foot in the British Army (now the 1st Battalion of the Scottish Rifles), formed originally of the Cameronians and other Presbyterians who rallied to the cause of William III., and fought at the Battle of Killiecrankie.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiii.
