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"Nor
be it e'er forgotten how by skill
Of cloistered Architects, free their souls to fill
With love of God, throughout the Land were raised
Churches on whose symbolic beauty gazed
Peasant' and mail-clad Chief with pious awe;
As at this day men seeing what they saw,
Or the bare wreck of faith's solemnities,
Aspire to more than earthly destinies."
Wordsworth.
We
cannot say when Longforgan village took its rise, and whether it
gathered itself first round the church or the castle. Probably it was
round the church. Its name seems to indicate this. There was a church
before we know of a castle. It was usual to speak of the village as the
Churchtown. Unfortunately, we have no information as to the appearance
of the earliest church. Down to the year 1794 the people used to worship
in what was the old pre-Reformation building. It is not known, exactly,
when it was built. In form and architecture it resembled the old church
of Fowlis, which makes it likely that both the churches were built about
the same time, and by the same member of the house of Gray to whom both
estates belonged. One who used to worship in it last century has given
us a sketch of its appearance, "It was," he says, "an old, long, narrow,
and inconvenient building, consisting of two parts, and evidently built
at very different periods. The eastmost, which belonged entirely to the
estate of Castle Huntly, was a substantial building, all of ashlar
Kin-goody stone; and from a very handsome cross on the east gavel, and
several recesses of hewn stone within, probably for altars, or shrines
of some favourite saints, it had every appearance of having been the
original church when the Roman Catholic religion prevailed. . . . The
west end of the church, though apparently older, must have been of a
much later date. It was a very insufficient building, of bad materials."
The church tower was not added till 1690.
Previous to the Reformation, Longforgan Church and its emoluments
belonged to the Priory of St. Andrews. The parish was served by a
resident vicar-pensioner. Benvie had a rector (Rector de Benvie, Joh.
Spanky, a.d.
1479-95); Longforgan had a vicar. There are
several references to the church in the Chartu-lary of the Priory of St.
Andrews. It is mentioned in a bull of Innocent the Fourth in 1248; and
Martin, in the fourth year of his popedom, refers to the church of
Langforgrunde. (Cf. p. 413,
Lib. Cart.y
Bannatyne Club.) A charter of William, Bishop of St. Andrews, dated 6
Kal. Feb. 1292, exists, granting to the Prior and Canons the vicarages
of Forgrund in Gouirryn and of Forgrund in Fyf. (Appendix, p. 34.)
Another is a charter of David the Bishop in reference to the church of
Forgrund in Gouerin. This charter gives to God and to the Canons of the
church of St. Andrews, the church of Forgrund in Gouerin, " cum decimis
oblationibus et terris et omnibus aliis ad dictam ecclesiam de jure
pertinentibus."
A
little further light may be got from the following entry, which gives
the valuation of the churches:—
Still
a further entry may be given from another source—from the valuations of
all the benefices of the kingdom of Scotland made by the legate of the
Roman Pontiff.
Two
of the St. Andrews Synodal Statutes in the fifteenth century may be
referred to, as shedding light 011 the life of the church. One made it
binding on every rector or vicar under severe penalties to report the "
name of every person, of whatever condition or age, dying within his
parish, to the first Consistory to be held after Easter, in the parish
church of St. Andrews for the arch-deaconry of St. Andrews, in the
church of St. Giles at Edinburgh for the archdeaconry of Lothian." I his
has fairly been described as laying the foundation of parochial
registers. (Stat.
Ecc. Scot., Preface, 186.) Then each priest
was bound to have a seal with his name for the authentification of writs
and citations that might be sent to him.
There
are few references in historical documents to the church. King James
III. gave a charter under the Great Seal in 1471, confirming, for the
salvation of his soul, grants made to the church of St. Andrews—amongst
others, " ecclesiam de Langforgrunt, cum terra de Pilmure, et pertin, et
una bovata terre in Monorgunt," etc.
A
charter of some local value exists, granted in favour of the Perth
Dominicans by the Countess of Huntly, which reflects curiously the life
of the time. It does not refer directly to the church. When the
reforming spirit began to show itself in Scotland, an attempt was made
by some of the more serious Romanists to grapple with the abuses which
threatened to crush the church. In this, the Dominican friars took a
lead, and, in consequence, won for themselves considerable favour. After
the death of the third Earl of Huntly, the countess, who, it may be
mentioned, was the widow of Lord Glammis, made a grant to the Dominicans
of her half-lands of Littleton in the barony of Longforgan, for the
repose of her husband's soul and of her own. 'I he charter is dated
1525. It begins so—
"To
all who shall see or hear this charter, Elizabeth Gray, Countess of
Huntly, wishes salvation in Him, who is the common Saviour. From the
beginning of the world, the Father Almighty, the universal Creator,
three yet always one, ordained and hath rendered holy, by his laws both
of the Old and New 1 esta-ments, the nuptial band between the man and
the woman, and which he had strengthened also by the knot of mutual
friendship and special love, so that the one party does not use to be
forgetful of the other, whether they be present companions, or one of
them has passed from this mortal life: I, therefore, being now mindful
of my most beloved husband, Alexander, late Earl of Huntly, Lord of
Badenoch, who conferred many benefits upon me, and being also devoutly
striving for the salvation of his and of my soul, have determined to
procure the assured suffrages of pious prayers, and to found, and by
God's grace perpetually to establish, in some religious places, sacred
obsequies for the augmentation of the divine service; And because among
the several societies, in this kingdom of Scotland, who receive in
common any property, such as lands and annual rents, the Predicant
Friars are poor, promoters of religion, conforming to the Institutes of
their spiritual fathers, reformed, abstaining, agreeably to their own
Constitutions and those of their fathers, from all kinds of flesh, so
that in life and doctrine they are an excellent pattern to the people, I
have chosen that they chiefly shall perform the foresaid prayers and
divine obsequies."
Then
follow certain conditions on which the lands are given.
"The
said Friars or their successors, to render to me and my heirs, for
satisfaction of my lord superior of the said lands, two pennies of the
current money of Scotland on the ground of the said lands, in the name
of maill. Also the said Friars and their successors shall be bound and
obliged as in law and equity they may, to chant and celebrate solemnly,
with a memorial, in their dark blue vestments with deacon, sub-deacon,
and acolytes in their choir, between the hours of seven and nine daily,
a Mass of Repose for the comfortable rest of my soul, and of the soul of
the late Alexander, my husband, except on solemn days and principal
festivals, which, according to the Ordinary or Calendar of the said
Friars, are double, on which a Mass shall be celebrated for us out of
the Festival, with a collect, and memoriam for our souls. Also, every
year, on the clay of the decease of my said husband — namely, the 16th.
of January — they shall celebrate for our souls funeral exequies, or an
anniversary, with nine lessons, with due solemnity."
In
the event of the Friars failing to comply with the conditions, they were
to " resign and renounce into the hands of the Lord Superior for the
time the said lands of Littleton," etc.
The
Friars found considerable difficulty in getting the land. Upon her
death, which took place a year or two after the gift, Lord Glammis, the
countess's son by her first marriage, contested the alienation. It took
about a quarter of a century to settle the matter, but the Friars got
it.
At
the Reformation, along with other properties belonging to St. Andrews,
Longforgan was annexed to the Crown. Nearly a century later, in 1641, it
was transferred by King Charles to the magistrates of Dundee, for the
benefit of the burgh. Alexander Wedderburn was, at the time, Town Clerk
of Dundee, and amonofst favours which he obtained from the king for the
city was " a gift of the patronage and tithes of the parochine of
Longforgan, for maintenance of the ministrie and other pious works."
Twenty years after, in 1661, the Scottish Parliament confirmed the
charter which had been burnt at the siege of the city in 1651. The Act
runs: "And, moreover, Our Soverane Lord, with the consent of the Estates
of this pnt. Parliament, ratifies, approves, and confirmes the Charter
of Mortification, granted be his Maiestie's said Royall Father, of
everlasting memorie, with consent of his Commissioners of Exchequer
therein-speit, of the date the said fourteinth day of September 1641, to
the Provost, Bailies, Councill, and Community of the forsaid burgh of
Dundie, and their successors, and annexed and incorporated to the
forsaid burgh, of the tiend-shaves of all and sindrie touns, .lands,
barns, and others whatsumever lying within the paroche of Long Forgund,
and Shireffdome of Pearth, dispensing with the generallitie: As also of
the advocation, donation, and right of patronage of the samen paroche
kirk of Long Forgund, with power to them to present a sufficient
minister to the forsaid kirk, and modified stipend thairof, so oft as
the same shall vaik: which tiends and patronage his Maiestie's said
Royall Father dissolved from the Crown and united and annexed the sanien
to the forsaid burgh."
This,
it need not be said, was a valuable source of revenue to the town ; but,
as may be supposed, it was not without difficulty that it obtained its
rights. The times were unsettled, the roads were few, access was
difficult; and when measures were taken to collect the tithes, it proved
anj'thing bul easy to do so. "At an early period," Mr. Maxwell writes,
"the Earl of Kinghorn, one of the principal heritors, entered into a
temporary ' contract with the town anent his tithes,' but the other
parochiners did not pay their teind-bolls for the crop 1642, and
although the Council gave warrant to the treasurer to agree with them '
at moderate prices,' they neither paid in money nor in kind, and a legal
charge had to be made against them for that crop. ' The laird of
Monorgan alleged that he had already got ane tack of his teinds, which
he proposed should be ratified,' but the Council cautiously ' continued
their answer till they advise with their lawyers thereanent'; and when
he pressed ' for the answer anent the renewing of his tacks,' they
resolved 'to entreat the Lord Fothrines' — a Senator of the College of
Justice—'to meet for them in a friendly communing, and quhen he shall
return to the country ane day to be appointed.' ... A little later,
'William Bruce, tenant of the Knapp, gave a band in payment of his
bygone teinds, the present crop being included, for five hundred merks';
but the most of the lairds were obdurate "
{History of Old Dundee, pp. 448-9). The
Master of Gray, for example, would not hear of his tenants of Littleton
and Lochton paying any at all. The patience of the fathers of Dundee
was, at length, worn out. They named two of their number "to deal with
the haill heritors and tenants of the parochine for ane sattled course
for recovery of the teinds." And after David Yeaman, notary, had "caused
denunce such of the heritors as hes been charged," poinding of their
produce followed. But even this proceeding, as Mr. Maxwell adds, did not
"prove to be very effectual, for the victual which was seized having
been brought into the burgh, it was ' wrangouslie taken upon Saturday
last be ane number of poor people perteining to the Countess of Kinghorn
and Lord Brechin,' who carried it off to some place of hiding.
Whereupon, ' it was thought expedient that the Council sail still try
quhat meal can be yet gotten in secret in the town, and quhat can not be
gotten thereof that the Lord Brechin and the Countess be dealt with to
share with the town.' Lord Brechin, afterwards the Earl of Panmure, was
father of the Countess, and he about this time held the Earl of
Kinghorn's Perthshire estate of Castle Huntly under mortgage.;
consequently he would have an interest in the poinding and recovery of
the victual" (p. 450). This is not the end of the tale. Failing by force
to win the lairds, the Council tried to persuade them, and so they
determined "to convene with the parochiners of Longforgan, to treat
concerning such byrun teinds as they are awing to the town, and to set
them at such a heich rate as may be had therefor." This, however, came
to nothing. The heritors would not yield, and this, in spite of their
being threatened with "the pain of horning, and being presently denuncit
for non - payment." ''"he difficulty was, at length, overcome in this
way. The Council resolved that instead of using the tithes for the
ordinary purposes of the town, the stipends of two of the ministers
"presently serving the cure of the kirk in the burgh shall be providit
from the teinds of Longforgan," and to this they were eventually
destined, "saving and expecting as much thereof as is or sail be
appointed to Mr. Alexander Mylne, the present minister." 'The tithes now
began to be paid, the Earl of Kinghorn and Colonel Brown of Muirtone
leading the way. One or two held back, among these being the Master of
Gray; but the Council "were content to supersede any process against him
until his lady be weill." Nevertheless, they came in, and' so
plentifully that, in addition to providing for the minister of
Longforgan and two ministers in Dundee, it was definitely proposed to
support-the third minister of the burgh from them.
This
was too much, and, fortunately, it did not take place. The Civil War
entailed a heavy expenditure on Dundee, and involved it in debt, and, to
relieve the situation, the Council determined "that the teinds shall be
sold to any of the heritors who will buy the same." These were readily
bought. So, in a short time, the magistrates of Dundee had alienated the
grant of King Charles, and the right of patronage passed into the hands
of the Earl of Strathmore, from whom it was subsequently acquired by Mr.
Paterson.
Earl
Patrick of Strathmore makes this entry in 1689: "Two years agoe I
settled wl the Archbishop of St. Andrews for a new Tack of
the Teinds of my Lands of Castle lyon for the pay1 of the
former tack dutie of .£40 lib. stg. yeare, and six chalders of victuall
to the minister of Lonforgan yearlie, I gave him bond for the entry wch
was agreed upon to be tuelve hundreth pounds scotts" (Glands
Book of Record, p. 96).
Longforgan is now in the Presbytery of Dundee. In the draft scheme of
Presbyteries presented to the Assembly of 1586, which continued " till
Episcopacy came in, and, with a few alterations, was standing at the
Assembly, 1638," Langforgand appears in the Presbytery of Angus and
Mernes along with Dundie, Maynes, Lyf (Lyphe), Inner Gowrie, Foulis,
Inchestare, Banvy, etc. It was only last century that Forfar and Meigle
were constituted independent Presbyteries. |
