Of his early training, there is no clear record, but he may have attended the parish school of Mauchline, and he was a student at the University of Glasgow from 1643 to 1648.

[6][7] For a time he acted as schoolmaster, precentor, and session-clerk at Tarbolton, Ayrshire,[8] and, according to Robert Wodrow, was employed in a similar capacity at Fenwick.

He wandered all over the south of Scotland, obtaining by his figurative and oracular style of address and his supposed prophetic gifts an extraordinary influence over the people, which was further increased by his hardships, perils, and numerous hairbreadth escapes.

For ten years he wandered far and wide, bringing comfort and succour to his co-religionists, and often very narrowly escaping capture, spending some of his time in Ireland.

[8] To hide his identity, Peden took to wearing a cloth mask and wig, which are now on display in Edinburgh's Museum of Scotland.

The American captain of the ship which was chartered to convey Peden and his companions to the Virginia plantations, however, on discovering they were being banished for their religious opinions, not as convicts, declined to take them aboard, and they were set at liberty.

He told Isabel after the ceremony, "You have a good man to be your husband, but you will not enjoy him long; prize his company, and keep linen by you to be his winding sheet, for you will need it when ye are not looking for it, and it will be a bloody one".

Resolving to spend his last days in his native district, he found shelter in a cave on the River Lugar in the parish of Sorn, near his brother's farm just north of Ochiltree, part of Auchinleck Estate.

Forty days after, a troop of dragoons from Sorn Castle took his corpse two miles to Cumnock gallows, and were about to hang it up in chains.

After the 1688 Glorious Revolution, the inhabitants of the parish of Cumnock, in token of their esteem for Peden, abandoned their ancient burial-place, and formed a new one round the gallows hill.

[5][12] Peden receives attention in Jack Deere's 1993 book Surprised by the Voice of God, which records prophetic and other charismatic gifts practised by historical reformed figures.