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RESOLUTION TO ERECT A NEW
PLACE OF WORSHIP -FUNDS FOR IT OBTAINED BY IMPOSING A DUTY ON ALE - MUTINY
OF THE BREWERS AGAINST THE IMPOST-ALARMING RIOT-PEACE RESTORED, AND THE
BUILDING SCHEME PROCEEDED WITH-THE RUINS OF THE CASTLE PURCHASED, IN ORDER
TO ACQUIRE A SITE FOR THE CHURCH-QUARREL BETWEEN THE COUNCIL AND THE
CONTRACTORS-COMPLETION OF THE CHURCH -ARRANGEMENTS OF THE PRESBYTERY
RESPECTING IT-FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES OF THE BURGH-A RENEWAL OF THE ALE
DUTY, AND THE IMPOSITION OF A DUTY ON IMPORTS AND SHIPPING APPLIED
FOR-SUCCESS AND COST OF THE APPLICATION -SALE OF BARKERLAND - A STEEPLE
PLACED ON ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH-THE CHURCH REBUILT.
LONG before the outbreak of
the Rebellion, the want of adequate church accommodation was fully
recognized by the authorities; and when peace was restored they adopted
measures for obtaining a second place of worship. A difficulty having been
experienced in compensating the inhabitants for their sacrifices when the
town was threatened by the Jacobites, the device was hit upon of applying
to Parliament for authority to levy such a duty on malt liquor as would
discharge these patriotic claims, as well as build the church. On the 9th
of April, 1716, the initiative in this ingenious scheme was taken by the
Council; and when the bill took shape, the Legislature was asked by it to
impose a duty of two pennies Scots on every pint of ale or beer brewed and
sold within the Burgh for the purposes referred to-the preamble stating as
regards one of them, "that the present church doth not accommodat more
than the half of the congregation." In due time the bill was passed,
Government being very willing in this way to acknowledge the loyal
services rendered by the Dumfriesians. In October of the following year,
they were required by the Council to "give in upon oath the accounts of
horse meat and man's meat furnished by them, by the Marquis of Annandale's
order, to the country people in defence of the town, the time of the late
Rebellion, and how much is resting to them unpayd, to the effect ane
account thereof may be laid before the overseer named in the Act of
Parliament, anent the duty lately granted to the Burgh." [The outlay
incurred must have been very heavy: a minute of Council dated 5th
November, 1715, states that, owing to the extraordinary and inevitable
expenses "entailed on the town, the treasurer is intirely exhausted of any
effects;" and that he was authorized to borrow £80 sterling on that
account.]
It was a comparatively easy
thing for Provost Crosbie and his colleagues to acquire a right to tax the
national beverage, but to enforce the duty was a different matter. Whilst
they were preparing to give it effect, an adverse storm was brewing among
the brewers. What ! Punish the beer-drinking lieges, and ruin our trade,
by your kirk-building schemes? Not, by St. Michael! if we can help it!
Actuated by such a spirit, the malting interest petitioned against the
bill; and when that was of no avail, resolved doggedly and defiantly to
look upon it as a dead letter. At this time there were no fewer than
ninety-one brewers and retailers of ale in the Burgh: some of them had
large establishments; others, little shebeens that could not boast of more
than a couple of barrels each. The rating on the whole of the stock,
numbering 255¼ barrels, amounted to £14 for six weeks, which would realize
£112 per annum. About one-third of the trade quietly paid the impost; the
rest offered a sullen, passive resistance; and when a determined effort
was made to overcome their obstinacy, they rose with the occasion,
forcibly encountered his Majesty's representatives, and made the streets
ring with the voice of tumult. A warrant having been granted to distrain
"the goods and cattels" of the recusants to the extent of their liability,
varying from £1 sterling down to 8d., the Burgh officers issued forth on
the 8th of April, 1718, to carry it into effect. But the publicans, banded
together, easily beat off the legal emissaries; whereupon the magistrates
personally, accompanied by several burgesses, undertook the perilous task
of poinding the defaulters. Meanwhile a mob of beerloving sympathizers had
rallied round the victuallers, and joined in their cry of free trade in
ale and confusion to the exciseman. The Provost and Bailies, nothing
daunted, pushed forward in the belief that their dread presence would
disperse the clamorous rabble. Vain delusion ! Before the august
authorities could, with official finger, touch a plack's worth of
furniture, they were hustled by the crowd and driven violently from the
streets. The magistrates and their supporters took shelter from the
popular storm in the town clerk's chamber; but as it had not been made, to
resist a siege, they were soon joined in their retreat by the ringleaders
of the populace; and though the Riot Act was read, and the friends of law
and order offered a stout resistance, King Mob became for the time being
master of the town and of its rulers, the latter of whom received no
mercy. The rioters first broke the office windows, next threw stones and
softer unsavoury missiles on the inmates; and having succeeded in forcing
the door, they-how shall we tell it!-literally beat with their irreverent
fists the magistrates of the Burgh. After perpetrating this crowning
indignity, the rabble retired triumphant but appeased; and doubtless would
be treated to a supply of "reaming swats that drank divinely," by those in
whose behalf they had fought and conquered.
This serious emeute having
been brought under the consideration of the Council at their next meeting,
a resolution was adopted to transmit a report to the Government regarding
it, and to prosecute the rioters at the town's expense. The brewers, on
their part, continued their opposition to the duty, transferring the war
against it from the streets to the Court of Session; but an amicable
interview having been brought about between them and the magistrates,
mutual concessions were made, according to which the litigation was
abandoned, and the obnoxious duty on beer was modified so as to amount
only to "thirteen shillings four pennies Scots upon each barrel,
consisting of twelve gallons, and soe proportionally for greater or lesser
quantities, after deduction of the seventeenth pairt made by wrong
valuation, and of two and ane half of each twentie-three shillings."
Though this arrangement does not seem very intelligible to us, it was
deemed satisfactory by the publicans, who agreed henceforth to pay the
duty in peace; and the mollified magistrates, overlooking the insulting
treatment .liven to them, dropped the criminal process they had raised
against the rioters, [A curious compromise was effected. "The brewers
engaged in the late riot agreed to come under the judgment of the
magistrates, while the magistrates engaged to endeavour to get the diet
deserted against them in the Court of Justiciary; each party to pay the
half of the fees to the King's advocate and the clerks of Justiciary for
deserting the diet." The Provost went to Edinburgh, and succeeded in his
mission of getting the diet deserted at an outlay of £,8 12s.-Pamphlet by
MR. W. R. M`Diarmid on the Established Churches of Dumfries, pp. 21-2.]
and proceeded with the scheme that had been the innocent cause of all
these disturbances.
In October, 1722, a
committee of the Council, appointed to select a site for the proposed
ecclesiastical edifice, reported that " John M'Dowall, younger of Logan,
had been communed with anent selling ane part of the Castle closs and
Castle garden pertaining to him, for that purpose; [They had, some years
prior to 1715, been purchased from Lord Nithsdale by Mr. M`Dowall.] and
that Logan declared himself willing to sell to the town such an part of
the said closs and garden, with the stones of the old castle and old
houses adjacent, as the burgh should have use for." The committee
recommended that this site should be purchased; and early in the following
year a bargain was made with " Logan," in virtue of which the ground, and
what it still bore of the venerable historical fortress, became the
property of the town for £85 sterling. It was not till the beginning of
1724 that the building was actually proceeded with. The contractors for
the mason work were James Waddell, William and Andrew Mein, and William
White, who agreed to supply materials, and erect the church and steeple,
after a design furnished by Mr. Alexander M'Gill, architect, for £730
sterling. The joiners engaged were: William Copland, Matthew Frew, James
Johnston, and John Swan, who were to receive £820 for their materials and
labour. No difficulty was experienced by the Council as regards a supply
of stone and wood, and men to use them, such as they encountered when the
Mid-Steeple was contracted for; but the undertaking, for all that, did not
progress smoothly, and was not completed satisfactorily.
The masons were accused by
the Council of violating their agreement; and at a meeting held in May,
1726, the latter resolved to send the contract to their Edinburgh agent,
"that horning might be raised on the same," so that the undertakers and
their cautioners might be compelled to implement their obligations. On the
5th of the following July, a petition on the subject was presented to the
Convention of Royal Burghs by the Commissioner from Dumfries, setting
forth that the Burgh had contracted with sundry of its own inhabitants for
building a new church at a cost of £1,550; that though the town had
advanced nearly the whole of that money, yet the work was far from being
finished; that "by a modest computation" it would cost above £400
additional to complete the church; and that it appeared to the Council the
contractors had erroneously estimated sundry of the articles. On these
grounds the Convention were asked to appoint a committee of their number
to view the works, examine the accounts, "assist with the best advice, and
grant such releefe to the undertakers as was necessary for finishing" the
same. In accordance with this prayer a committee was appointed, consisting
of the Commissioners from Sanquhar, Annan, and Lochmaben.
To these gentlemen was also
entrusted the duty of "answering the ends" of another petition from
Dumfries, which represented "the very great burthens of debts" the town
was suffering from, with the probability of their being increased,
"especially by the apparent danger of three arches of our bridge that were
likely to fall;" that several portions of the commons lay unimproved, and,
by reason of their remoteness, were very liable to be trespassed upon by
neighbouring heritors and tenants; and prayed that the Convention would
allow the Burgh to feu or let long leases of the land at the sight of a
committee of their number, in order that a fund might be raised towards
liquidating the debts of the town.
Through the agency of this committee, the matters at issue between the
Council and the contractors were adjusted. Some slight deductions were
made from the sum originally bargained for, on account of deficient work;
new charges were allowed for additional work; and when the balance was
struck, the town had to pay a supplementary account of £335, which brought
the entire cost of the church, including site, up to £1,970, or about £470
more than the cost of the Mid-Steeple, with its accompanying buildings.
After all, the original design was never fully carried out. The spire was
scrimped of its fair proportions, and had a squat, stunted appearance,
that contrasted badly with the handsome square tower on which it was
placed. The New Church, as the building was named, was opened for worship
on the 5th of September, 1727; arrangements for the settlement in it of
Mr. Robert Paton, the colleague of Mr. Patrick Linn in St. Michael's
Church, having first been completed between the Council and the
Presbytery.
That reverend body met at
Torthorwald Manse, and came to a deliverance on the subject, the principal
points of which were as follows:-The Presbytery find, from many years'
experience, that the old church of Dumfries is not large enough to
accommodate the whole parish; that the town has now built a new church for
the greater and better accommodation of the ' inhabitants, and that they
at this time are not in a condition to mate suitable provision for a third
minister; that the Presbytery therefore judge, in present circumstances,
"it will be for the glory of God, the greater interest of the Gospel in
the place and corner, and to the further usefullness as well as comfort
and satisfaction of their reverend bretherine the ministers of Dumfries,
that each of them preach and dispence all other Gospell ordinances in a
separate church;" and seeing that this whole affair has been remitted to
the Presbytery, they therefore, from a sincere desire to promote the
foresaid ends, hereby ordain that the Reverend Robert Paton, and his
successors in office, shall preach and dispense ordinances in the new
church, and have pastoral care over that part of the town that lies " from
the bridge to Hoddam's stone house, including that and the whole closs
adjoining on the one side, and from the Townhead to the end of Lochmaben-gate,
including the west part of that street, on the other side with the
Mid-raw, containing about one thousand three hundred and thirty-four
examinable persons, from ten years old and upwards." They likewise appoint
the Reverend Patrick Linn, and his successors in office, to preach and
dispense ordinances in the old church, and have under his pastoral
superintendence "the whole country parish, with that part of the town
which lyes next to the said church, extending to the end of Lochmaben-gate
on the east side, and to Hoddam's lodging on the other side, containing
about six hundred and ninety-five examinable persons, from ten years old
and upwards, in that part of the town beside the landward parish." For
purposes of discipline, the Presbytery judge it expedient that there be
only one session; that the same shall meet every Thursday, or any other
day on which the weekly sermon is preached, and which is required to be in
the two churches alternately.
The Presbytery also
proposed "that the town shall pay or give bond to Mr. Paton for the sum of
one hundred pounds sterling yearly, in regard that he has in his old age
undertaken a separate charge, reserving to him also what he already
possesses in teinds, glebe, and manse; [A curious little document lying
before us furnishes an "Inventory of Household Plenishing pertaining to
the Town of Drumfries, and left in the Manse thereof, for the use of Mr.
Robert Paton, Minister of the Gospell of the said Burgh, to be made
forthcoming to the said Burgh be him, his airs and executors." It is drawn
up by Mr. Paton himself, as follows:- "Imprimis, ane old Dutch cupboard in
the high hall; Item, four bedsteads; it., four graits; it., ane large
cupboard in the kitchen; it., ane kitchen table there, and shelfs for
peuthery." The minister acknowledges his obligation to produce the
articles if called upon, by appending his signature to the list.] and that
the town shall become bound to allow Mr. Linn also the sum of one hundred
pounds per annum." These and other conditions were agreed to by the
Council, who, in their minute. of approval, pointed out in more detail the
sources from which the stipends for St. Michael's Church were derived; it
being there stated that Mr. Linn was to receive six hundred merks over and
above his previous income of one thousand two hundred merks, derived from
the teinds payable to the Crown out of the Parish, and the rents formerly
payable to the bishop out of the parish of Newabbey; the whole amounting
to eighteen hundred merks, or fully one hundred pounds sterling. Thus the
town obtained the additional church that it needed so much; and in the
course of a few years afterwards, as we shall see, chapels or
meeting-houses for other religious communities than the Established
Church, began to rise up. Many of the stones in the new structure had
rather a singular fortune : at first they formed part of the Friary; then
of the old fortress; and last of all, they were retransferred for a
religious purpose, by being embodied in the walls of the new place of
worship. [When, in 1866, the New Church was taken down, many stones were
discovered that had evidently belonged to the Castle, and some which, it
is supposed, had formed part of the Monastery. From an interesting paper
regarding them, read to the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and
Antiquarian Society by Mr. Barbour, architect, we borrow the following
notice of the Castle stones:-"A number of rope mouldings; two curved and
moulded stones that have formed part of the corbelling of a corner turret;
portions of steps of a wheeling stair; several pieces of a fine
string-course corbelling, consisting of three cavettoes, one over the
other, and having ovolo dentils in each cavetto. There is a part of a very
beautiful tapering pinnacle, probably from the top of a door-piece; the
stone has a rope bead on each corner, a semicircular hollow on each side,
and fillets between the hollows and beads. There is one large block
corbel, such as is usually found under the parapets. There are portions of
two stones that seem to have formed part of a coat of arms; on one of them
is a naked figure, with the head broken off, and there is a broken line
extending from the hand across the shoulder, which seems to indicate a
club. From the boldness and richness of the few details of the Castle that
have come down to us, I think it may be safely inferred that, grand as the
remaining baronial buildings of Scotland are, the Castle of Dumfries has
not been below the average in its imposing appearance and ornamental
character. The upper parts of the walls have been corbelled out so as to
overhang the lower portions, and the corbellings have been enriched with
mouldings and dentils. The corbellings, after running horizontally, have
suddenly taken a perpendicular course for a short distance, and then
returned again to the horizontal. Large rope mouldings have been
interwoven with the building, and probably followed horizontal and
perpendicular courses like the corbellings; and circular turrets have
projected from the corners, resting on corbellings and projecting their
cone-shaped roofs above the main building, thereby giving an irregularity
arid picturesqueness to the outline in harmony with the broken line of the
mouldings."]
Mr. Paton, who died in
1738, was succeeded by Mr. John Scott of Holywood; and he, at his death,
in 17 70, was succeeded by Dr. Andrew Hunter. The latter was appointed
professor of divinity in the University of Edinburgh in 1780; and the
vacancy thus occasioned was filled up by Dr. William Burnside, whose
manuscript history of Dumfries has been frequently quoted from in these
pages. Dr. Burnside was made first minister of the Parish, by his
translation to St. Michael's, in 1794. His successor in the New Church was
Dr. Alexander Scott, who also, ten years afterwards, succeeded him in St.
Michael's. In 1806, Dr. Thomas T. Duncan of Applegarth became minister of
the New Church, continuing so till his death, in 1858. Mr. Andrew Gray
(now of St. John's, Glasgow), Mr. Malcolm C. Taylor (now of Crathie), and
Mr. Donald M'Leod, have since successively been incumbents of the New
Church, which is now (September, 1867) about to be rendered vacant by the
translation of the latter clergyman to Montrose.
A few years after the remains of the Castle had been absorbed in the
building of the New Church, the more modern stronghold, that stood
north-east of the Market Cross - the New Wark - was partially demolished,
on account of its dangerously ruinous condition. In 1737 it was, for the
same reason, still further reduced; what remained of the roof, the entire
gables, and other portions, having been taken down at that date by the
order of the Town Council. Only about one half of the edifice was left
after these repeated assaults; and much of that, incorporated with a range
of dwelling-houses, remained till 1846, when it was removed with them, in
order that Queensberry Square might be rendered more spacious and
salubrious.
The Committee appointed by
the Convention of Burghs, in 1726, did little to help the town out of its
financial difficulties. These increased, till absolute bankruptcy stared
its rulers in the face. Year after year the expenditure had gone on
increasing; the new buildings erected, and the general improvements made,
being far too costly for the resources of the Burgh. In 1731, the
desperate device was resorted to of selling a portion of the Burgh lands ;
but even after that had been done, a Committee of the Council reported, in
1735, that the debts amounted to £3,807 11s. sterling, the interest of
which was £120 7s. 6½d.; that the yearly salaries, ministers' stipends,
and other annual disbursements, with the interest on the debt, amounted to
£770 10s. 6½d.; that the revenue arising from grass maill rents, customs,
multures, seats in the New Church, feu duties, and miscellaneous sources,
with a sum of £112 11s. 6d, due by the deceased Robert Johnston of Kelton,
amounted to only £552 12s. 4d. yearly; so that there was an annual balance
on the wrong side of £217 18s. 2½d., and no provision made for liquidating
the debt. Still further, the Committee reported that the public
school-house was in a very ruinous condition ; that sundry arches of the
bridge were very much decayed; that •the navigation of the river was in a
miserable state; and that heavy annual charges would have to be incurred
for repairing the churches, mill, caul, pavements, bridges, and other
public works.
Truly a disheartening
report. The Committee did not give way to despondency, however, but
unfolded another scheme for relieving the town from its embarrassment.
They proposed that Parliament should be asked to allow the town to
continue the duty on ale-which was at first granted for nineteen years
-and to impose certain other duties and customs, so as to bring the income
to something like an equality with the outlay. This proposal was adopted,
and carried into effect. A bill in accordance with it was prepared, and
Provost Corrie and Mr. John Goldie of Craigmuie, who were commissioned to
watch over the measure in London, had the satisfaction of being able to
report to the Council, in May, 1737, that it had been sanctioned by the
Legislature. Their report may be quoted from, as it is instructive and
curious. They set out on horseback for the English metropolis-a momentous
journey at that period-on the 21st of February, arrived on the 4th of
March, and remained there five weeks, facilitating as best they could the
passage of the bill. William Kirkpatrick, Esq., member for the Dumfries
Burghs, " did exert himself in a most active manner, not only in obtaining
dispatch in the Houses, but also in getting it done at the most frugal
charge, in which he was exposed to charges out of his own pocket." All the
members of this neighbourhood cheerfully assisted him, as did Mr. Erskine,
the Solicitor-General, the latter gentleman having been especially of
service "in prevailing with my Lord Findlater to take on him the
management" of the bill in the House of Peers. They left London on the 8th
of May, and reached home on the 16th; bringing with them, as the best
proof of their success, a copy of the bill, now clothed with the authority
of law. [The entire expense of their mission was £215 18s. 6d., which sum
was made up of the following, among other items:-Retaining fee paid to
William Murray, Esq., counsellor-at-law, £2 2s.; paid to John Crawford for
the fees of Parliament, and his own fees "soliciting the affair," £143
14s. 4d.; to the clerk of the committees, £11 2s. 2d.; expense of their
journey to London with a servant, £6 12s. 11½d.; expense of their horses,
five weeks in London, £8 13s. 6d.; expense of barbers there, 18s.; charges
for their lodgings, fire, and candles, £2 13s.; for their spendings, £28
19s. 10d.; expense of their journey home, £7 1s. 6d.]
The Act took effect on the
24th of June, 1737, and was to remain in operation for twenty-five years,
and until the end of the next session of Parliament. Though needed to
extricate the Burgh from its difficulties, its influence upon trade must
have been discouraging. It imposed a duty of eightpence sterling on every
ton of "goods, wares, merchandise, or other commodities," brought into the
port or exported from it, with the exception of coals, lime, and
limestone; and a duty of threepence per ton on every vessel from foreign
parts, and of three-halfpence per ton on every vessel from Great Britain
and Ireland, entering the port. It also renewed the duty on ale for the
same period. The latter impost proved much more productive than the one on
general goods and shipping. During the first year the entire dues, after
deducting the charge for collection, amounted to about £214 sterling,
four-fifths of which were yielded by the ale duty; and by this welcome
addition, increasing with the trade of the port, the financial
difficulties of the Burgh were considerably reduced.
It appears that the Burgh's
application to the Convention, for liberty to feu out a portion of its
landed patrimony, was granted. A beginning was made with Barkerland - a
fertile tract comprising about a hundred and fifty acres, lying southeast
of the town, and which had belonged to it from time immemorial. On the
11th of February, 1731, two sections of this estate were disposed of-one
to Bailies Bell and Ewart, for £150 premium, or grassum, and an annual feu
of £5 10s.; and the other to Bailie John Johnstone for £50 premium and a
feu of £1 10s. The money thus acquired and the ordinary revenue were
insufficient to meet the requirements of the Council; and their language
was still like that of the thriftless Lord of Linne :
"My gold is gone-my money is
spent;
My land now take it unto thee :
Give me the gold, good John o' Scales,
And thine for aye my land shall be."
Acquisitive men like John
o' Scales were standing by ready to take advantage of the straits of the
town to enrich themselves; and as regards the further slices of Barkerland
obtained by each, the words of the same ballad were still applicable:
"Then John he did to record
draw,
And John he gave him a god's pennie;
But for every pound that John agreed,
The land, I wis, was weel worth three."
Again the disinheriting sales were proceeded with. Commissary Goldie and
Mr. Hynd purchased, on the 10th of January, 1738, a lot for £60 premium
and an annual feu of £2, with 8s. of teind or tithe; on the same day, Mr.
Thomas Kirkpatrick acquired another for £74 premium, an annual feu of £2
3s. 4d., and 8s. 8d. teind; and a third lot became the property of Mr.
George Gordon for £32 premium, fen 25s., and teind 5s. There was still a
goodly fragment of the estate left. "Shall we keep it, or let it go with
the rest?" "We cannot afford to keep it. Who bids for the last lots of
Barkerland?" Bailie Francis John stone did, on the following 6th of
February, he paying for his portion £84 premium, feu £2 5s., teind 6s. -
the feu including the house occupied by the herd [The present mansion of
Frankfield occupies the site of the herd's house.] who, in happier days,
looked after the cattle of the burgesses as they grazed on the surround
ing meadow; Mr. Thomas Kirkpatrick acquired a second section for £31, feu
£2 6s. 8d., teind 7s.; and Mr. Robert Corsane of Meiklenox had a third
section knocked down to him for £35 premium, feu £2 13s. 4d., teind 8s.
All the lots that we have specified were sold by public auction-clogged
with this condition, however, that none but resident burgesses or heritors
were allowed to make an offer. A few good patches-cuttings and carvings
left over when the large lots were squared off still remained; and these,
with several roods that did not form part of Barkerland, were acquired
privately by Bailie Francis Johnstone, price £56, feu £1 10s., teind 4s.;
by Mr. Robert Corsane, price £3 13s. 10d., feu 5s. 8d., teind 10½d.; and
by Mr. George Gordon, price £25, feu £1 5s., teind 2s. 6d. The amount
received for the whole of Barkerland was £590 13s. 10d. of premium, £22
14s. of feu duty, and £2 10s. 0½d. of teind - a small sum indeed: when the
feus are capitalized, at thirty years' purchase, and added to the
premiums, the aggregate is less than £8 10s. per acre. By these sacrifices
the Council obtained at least temporary relief. Upwards of a thousand
acres still remained to the Burgh, a great proportion of which lay in moss
and pasture.
With the view, we suppose,
of putting St. Michael's Church on a footing of equality with its younger
sister fabric, its patrons resolved, in 1740, to place a spire on the
tower attached to it; and on its being ascertained that the walls of the
tower were too weak to bear the proposed superstructure, the bolder and
better proposal for an entirely new steeple was eventually adopted. At
first a contract for the erection of a tower eighteen feet square on the
site of the old one was entered into; and that having been finished, an
agreement was made, in 1742, with Alexander Affleck and Thomas Tweddle,
masons in the Burgh, to build upon the tower, for £100, "a stone spire
fifty feet high, with an iron spire of nine feet, surmounted by a
weather-cock, the cock and other ornaments on the top of the spire to be
exactly such as on the New Church." The cost of these erections appears to
have been exclusively defrayed by public subscriptions, Lord John
Johnstone, the repentant Jacobite, generously contributing £31 10s., or,
as nearly as we can learn, about a sixth part of the whole.
When the steeple, which is
a very handsome and stately one, was completed, it made the little
building below look more insignificant than it had ever done; it was,
besides, getting rather debilitated; and so, after sundry ineffectual
attempts to put it into a decent state of repair, the Council determined
to rebuild the Church. On the 3rd of September, 1744, Provost Ewart, in
name of a committee appointed to contract with tradesmen for the purpose,
reported that they had entered into a contract with the two craftsmen
aforesaid, Alexander Affleck, deacon-convener of the Trades, and Thomas
Tweddle, mason, as principals, and William Reid, blacksmith, as cautioner
for them, "to take down the old walls of the church to the foundation, and
twa east-most pillars thereof to the floor, dig a new foundation for the
out walls, four feet deep from the surface of the earth and four feet
wide, and to erect and build the whole stone and mason work of the said
church of new, sixty feet wide and sixtyseven feet long, betwixt and the
first day of July next to come," according to the plan produced, the
contractors providing all materials necessary for the said work except
centres and scaffolding; "for which the committee, in name of, and having
full power and commission from, the Council, and taking burden on them for
the heritors of the country parish," became bound to pay to the said
contractors the sum of £185 3s. 10d. sterling. As also, that the committee
had agreed with James Harley, wright, as principal, and Thomas Tweddle,
Alexander Affleck, and William Wood, wrights, as his cautioners, "for the
whole carpenter work of the roofs and windows of the said church, to be
finished after the walls and arches are built, the contractor to provide
all timber and rails that are required, and deals for scaffolding to the
masons, for which the committee become obliged to pay to him the sum of
1186 sterling." This report was approved of by the Council; and they
recommended the committee to provide lead for the gutters and spouts,
slates for the roof, glass for the windows, locks, bolts, and bands for
the doors, as these articles were not included in the previous contracts.
At the same meeting the Council took into consideration an Act of the
Presbytery, in which the cost of the Church was estimated at £402 3s.
1½d.; and the country heritors were required to pay, as their proportion
of that sum, £130, on being assigned a fifth part of the area for their
accommodation. The Council agreeing to this arrangement, passed a
resolution requesting the Presbytery to assess the heritors, according to
their valued rents, in the foresaid amount; and the Council, in the event
of all the conditions being complied with, bound themselves, their
successors in office, and the community, "to keep up the fabrick of the
said church, when rebuilt, in sufficient repair, for all time coming, upon
the town's expense, except in the case of rebuilding the same, if by decay
or otherwise it shall become necessary to be rebuilt." A portion of the
gallery, amounting to two thirds of its whole extent, was assigned to the
Seven Incorporated Trades, on their agreeing to fit up the same, and
contribute £80 towards the erection of the Church.
Whilst the operations were
being proceeded with in the following year, the town was taken possession
of by the Highland army under Prince Charles; and there is a tradition
that the building was placed in serious peril by a party of the rebel
clansmen. Whilst wandering up and down in search of plunder, or to gratify
curiosity, they passed unceremoniously within the precincts of the sacred
edifice; and, on being chased by the workmen, they snapped their pistols
among some straw, by which the wood-work was set on fire, and then
decamped. Fortunately the flames were extinguished before much damage had
been done; though, it is said, the mischievous Celts withdrew in the
belief that they had ruined the fabric. As the old materials were
extensively used, and as no site had to be purchased, the modern St.
Michael's Church cost much less than the New Church, though it is a more
imposing structure; and the steeple-a Gothic spire on a Roman tower-has a
beauty which the stunted steeple of the latter building could not boast
of.
On the death of Mr. Linn,
in 1731, Mr. Robert Wight became minister of St. Michael's Church. He was
succeeded by Dr. Thomas Mutter in 1764; and the latter was succeeded by
Dr. William Burnside. Dr. Alexander Scott was the next pastor of the
Church, his induction taking place in 1806. He had as successor Dr. Robert
Wallace, who died in 1864. Early in the following year, Mr. John Duncan of
Abbotshall was appointed to the charge; and on his translation to Schoonie,
Dr. James Fraser, formerly of Glasgow, became his successor; but Dr.
Fraser died six months afterwards, causing a vacancy in St. Michael's,
which at this date (September, 1867) has not yet been filled up. |
