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Presbyterial notices of Mac
Mhaighstir Alastair, and some of his contempories in Ardnamurchan and Morven
Through the courtesy of the reverend members of the Presbytery of Mull, I
was recently enabled to peruse the earlier records of that Court; and I
propose this evening to give you a few gleanings from them concerning our
great Gaelic bard, Alexander Macdonald (better known as Mac Mhaighstir
Alastair), and some of his associates, and throwing considerable light on
the state of society in the Western Highlands during the first half of last
century.
Macdonald is first mentioned in these records in September 1729, when he
appears as teacher and catechist in the service of the Society for
Propogating Christian Knowledge, and the Committee for managing the Royal
Bounty, in his native parish of Ardnamurchan. This post he has apparently
occupied for some time. His father was minister of Ardnamurchan in the days
of Episcopacy, but refusing to conform when Presbyterianism was established,
he was deprived of his living in 1697. He still continued to labour in the
parish, however, and the bard was born there about the year 1700. The child
early displayed signs of that intellectual vigour which distinguished him in
after life; and, as he approached manhood, his father dreamed of future
eminence for him in the Church, while his chief, Clanranald, harboured the
more worldly intention of educating him for the Scottish bar. The youth was
sent to the University of Glasgow, which he attended for some sessions; but
an early marriage made it difficult for him to prosecute his studies, and,
like many another poor Highland student, he lapsed into a charity-teacher,
supported by the Society and Committee which I have mentioned.
The Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge had its origin in the design
of a few private gentlemen, who met in Edinburgh in the year 1701, to
establish charity schools in the Highlands. Their first school was started
at Abertarff, which was then “the centre of a country where ignorance and
popery did greatly abound but the teacher was so harshly treated by the
people, that he fled the parish in less than two years, and no successor was
appointed. The Edinburgh philanthropists were, however, not discouraged.
They planted schools in other parts of the Highlands, secured the
co-operation of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, collected
money throughout the kingdom, and, in 1709 obtained letters-patent from
Queen Anne, erecting certain of their number into a corporation under the
title which it still bears.
In 1725 King George the First gave a donation of £1000 to the General
Assembly, “to be employed for the reformation of the Highlands and Islands,
and other places where popery and ignorance abound.” This donation, being
annually repeated by the First George and his successors, was placed under
the control of a Committee nominated by the General Assembly, and called the
Committee for managing the Royal Bounty; and it was this Committee that
joined, as we have seen, with the Society in supporting the teacher and
catechist of Ardnamurchan.
The times in which Macdonald lived were wild and unsettled, and the people
among whom he laboured prone to war and factious disputation; but catechist
and teacher, and elder though he was, he was no peace-at-any-price man, and
into the quarrels and disputes of his time he threw himself with all the
energy of which his fiery spirit was capable.
Early in 1732 Mr James Stevenson, the minister of Ardnamurchan, was (to
quote from the Presbytery records) “carried off by the Presbytery of Lorn to
the parish of Ardchattan, within the bounds of the said Presbytery, and
fixed minister there, without ever acquainting the Presbytery of Mull or
parish of Ardnamurchan, to both which he was related.” The Presbytery of
Mull and parishioners of Ardnamurchan were naturally indignant; but the
latter speedily recovered their equanimity and looked round for another
parson, and at a meeting of the Presbytery held at Tayinlone, in Mull, on
6th December 1732, the bard appeared “as Commissioner from said parish, with
a petition signed by the gentlemen, heritors, and elders of said parish,
directed to the Presbytery of Mull, craving one of their number to moderate
a call for a minister to them.” The Presbytery granted the prayer of the
petition, and appointed Mr Archibald Campbell, minister of Morven, to
supervise a call. This duty was performed, however, not by Mr Campbell, but
by the Rev. John Maclean, of Kilninian and Kilmore; and on 9th May 1733, the
bard appeared before the Presbytery in order to prosecute a call to Mr
Daniel Maclachlan, a probationer. Mr Maclachlan being present, and the call
having been offered to him, “he submitted himself to the Presbytery,” who
forthwith ordered him to be prepared at next meeting with an exegesis on the
Infalibility of the Church, and a sermon on the text, “Not giving heed to
Jewish fables and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.” The
probationer passed these “trials” to the satisfaction of the Presbytery, and
the 15th of August was appointed for his Ordination; but before that day
arrived rumours reached the Synod of Argyll that the young man’s moral
character was not of a particularly high order, and the Presbytery was
requested not to proceed with the ordination until the truth of these
reports was inquired into. A libel, charging him with the odious crimes of
drunkenness, swearing, and singing of indecent songs, was duly drawn up5 and
on 25th April 1734, the case came on for trial at Knock, in Morven, the
principal witness being John Richardson, accountant to the York Buildings
Company, who, at the time, were working the lead mines of Strontian; and
among the other witnesses being “Collector Campbell,” and “Robert Bowman,
Officer of Excise”—names proving that even at that early period wild
Ardnamurchan was not beyond the reach of the “resources of civilisation.”
The case against Maclachlan broke down through insufficiency of evidence;
and on 18th September 1734 he became minister of Ardnamurchan, to the great
satisfaction, no doubt, of Mac-Mhaighstir Alastair, the Commissioner who
prosecuted his call.
But, alas for the poor parish! In less than two months the new incumbent
applied to the Presbytery for permission to go to Edinburgh for the purpose,
as he alleged, of obtaining a Decreet for his stipend, and arranging for the
erection of a second charge within his extensive bounds. Leave of absence
was cordially granted. “The Presbytery having much at heart the desolate
condition of that spacious parish, and highly approving the design, did not
scruple to allow Mr Maclachlan sufficient time for that purpose, even the
whole winter session.” The winter session, however, passed away, and Mr
Maclachlan did not return. After a time reports reached the Presbytery that
he left Edinburgh without making any attempt to get the Decreet, or arrange
for the new erection; and that, after visiting Ireland, he made his way to
London, where he filled the cup of his iniquity, by “ writing and publishing
a profane and scandalous pamphlet intituled, ‘An Essay upon Improving and
Adding to the Strength of Great Britain and Ireland by Fornication.’ Enquiry
was set on foot; the reports were found to be too true; and the ambitious
Essayist was deposed, and “excommunicated from the fellowship and society of
Christians, as one unworthy to be counted a member thereof, to the example
and terror of others.” In these circumstances, the Presbytery, on 16th July
1735, appointed a Committee to visit the Charity School of Ardnamurchan,
“and to recommend earnestly to Alexander Macdonald, schoolmaster and
catechist there, to be more than ordinary painful in catechising the people
in the different corners of the said parish, and report his diligence by
certificates from the places where he was employed.” It is possible that
Macdonald had incurred the suspicion, if not the displeasure, of the
Presbytery in connection with the Maclachlan fiasco.
In addition to the loss of his living in Scotland, and his excommunication,
Maclaehlan’s pamphlet brought him into trouble in England, where he was
arrested, prosecuted at the King’s instance before the Lord Chief-Justice,
and imprisoned. Having, however, renounced and recanted his extraordinary
doctrines before the Bishop of Rochester, he was in 1737 dismissed from
prison, and allowed to go “over seas to Jamaica,” where, a few years
afterwards, he died.
The call to Maclachlan, and the subsequent proceedings against him, give
rise to another fama clamosa in the neighbouring parish of Morven—that
“Highland parish” which has become so famous for its clerical race of
Macleods, and whose “Annals” have been so charmingly recorded by one of
them. We have seen that the Rev. Archibald Campbell of Morven, was
aj(pointed to supervise the Ardnamurchan call, but that he failed to do so.
Campbell, it was suspected, was opposed to Maclach-lan’s settlement, and
rumour pointed to him as the one who reported the young probationer’s
drunkenness, swearing, and singing of indecent songs, to the Synod. The
latter resolved to have his revenge by fighting the minister of Morven with
his own weapons, and at his instigation his relative, Alexander Maclachlan,
tacksman of Lawdell, appeared before the Presbytery on 27th June 1733, and
lodged an “information” against Mr Campbell, “charging him with the odious
crime of intemperate drinking, swearing, and squabbling, and the neglect of
his ministerial functions” —charges wonderfully like those preferred against
Maclachlan himself, only that Campbell apparently had not the gift of
singing. These charges could not be ignored, and on 15th August, the
Presbytery met at Kill in Morven, and opened a preliminary enquiry which
extended over three days, and ended in the following libel being given in at
the instance of the said Alex. Maclachlan, and of Dugald Maclachlan in Glen,
and Archibald Cameron in Rahuoy:— “Forasmuch as we are well assured from
undoubted evidence, that upon the 21st of April, or the first Wednesday
after Easter last, betimes in the morning, the Rev. Mr Archibald Campbell,
minister of the gospel in Morven, in company with John Maclean, Esquire, in
Achaforce, and Mr Charles Campbell, now preacher in Ardnamurchan, set
himself down to drink at the Change House of Knock, in Morven, after having
drank a considerable quantity of cold drams and ale, they got some punch. Mr
Campbell, being toast master, called for Mr Maclean’s toast, who answered,
sir, I give you your Lady-Mistress, which Mr Archibald taking amiss, told
him he was impertinent, and gave him some very bad language. To this Mr
Maclean answered he would take no notice of him, as he was but a silly
fellow. Upon this Mr Archibald struck him violently upon the breast with his
fist. Mr Maclean returned the blow ; and they were then separated from one
another by Mr Charles and his servant. Mr Maclean fancying himself affronted
by this un-gentlemanly treatment, told Mr Archibald if he was not a minister
he should know how to use him, and get satisfaction. Upon this Mr Archibald
said, God damn you, sir, if you let anything pass with me on that score; and
God damn me if I let anything pass with you upon that consideration; for, by
God, I am ready to fight you by to-morrow morning, anyhow you will. The
sederunt having continued from about eight o’clock in the morning till six
in the afternoon, the gentlemen were all very merry, especially Mr
Archibald, who exposed himself quite drunk, to Allan Mclan vie Evven vie
Alastar and Donald Bane his brother; John Macintyre, servant to Lachlan
Maclean, Esquire, in Kinlochalin; and John Macwilliam, now beadle to the
said Mr Archibald. As he attempted to make the best of his way home lie
always staggered, stumbled, and fell down, and could never have made it out
if Mr Charles and his servant had not come to his assistance, one under each
arm. He, finding himself thus supported, told them he was not at all drunk.
They allowing him to take his own swing, he immediately turned down, and,
endeavouring to recover himself, cursed furiously, and damned the place. He
at length got home ; asked his wife for his supper. She answered she was in
no great hurry to give him any, for that she fancied he had got his dinner
pretty well wherever he was. Upon this he kicked her furiously several
times.........Mr Charles reprimanding him was obliged to defend himself with
one chair, he coming on with another, and, violently struggling, tumbled
down in each other’s arms. They both recovering, stript, got two sticks, and
so cudgelled strongly, with great fury, for a great while. But being at last
struck with a sense of their extravagance, they both sat down, mourned,
wept, called the family to prayers, and so went to bed. . . . We, therefore,
do hereby charge you, the said Reverend Mr Archibald Campbell, Minister of
the Gospel in Morven, with the odious sins of drunkenness, swearing,
squabbling, beating, and offering to fight with sword; and we desire the
Reverend Presbytery of Mull may proceed against you with censure, according
to the Discipline of the Church, by summoning immediately before their
Judicatory, there solemnly to be sworn (as to the narrative of this our
libel) the following witnesses, to wit. ... In confirmation, therefore, of
what we have hereby undertaken and desired as above specified, we subscribe
ourselves, reverend sir, your obedient humble servants,
The Presbytery having considered the libel, admonished and exhorted the
accused to glorify God by an open and ingenuous confession of the crimes
libelled but he failed to see the force of the strange exhortation, and
refused to plead guilty. The case was accordingly sent to trial, and on 7th
November the Presbytery met at Morven, and commenced to take evidence. For
days the trial proceeded from morn to night, and on 12th November the Court
was adjourned sine die, without closing the proof.
Mr Daniel Maclachlan, who had hitherto contented himself by assisting his
kinsmen to conduct the prosecution on their own behalf, now got a
“Commission upon stamped paper” from them, authorising him to act for them,
and to press the complaint to a decision. But he was in bad odour himself,
and his progress as prosecutor was slow ; and, although subsequent meetings
resumed the proceedings, and took further evidence, it was only on 16th July
1735—after Maclachlan had deserted his own charge—that the debate on the
evidence took place. Campbell’s pleadings were able and ingenious. “The
first article [Drunkenness, Swearing, and Fighting] is not proven, nor any
part in it. . . . Swearing, no doubt, is a very great fault; but then it is
certain that some may be excited to it by provocations and passions, when
sober enough. But are the oaths libelled proved] Far from it. Does not Mr
Charles and Mr Maclean agree that there passed but one oath 1 But they do
not agree in the expression. One says one thing, and one another. If any
asseveration that was swearing dropt from me, I am heartily sorry for it.
But it was, I am sure, insensibly, and I cannot recollect any such thing.”
It was stated in evidence against him that, when on one occasion, at the inn
at Rahuoy, baptizing a child of the landlord of that establishment, he was
“touched with liquor,” went to bed without family worship, complained of the
scarcity of the bedclothes, and called the landlord balach and a liar. These
charges he disposed of in the following manner :—“Allan Cameron alleges
three reasons for which he believed me the worse of liquor, but he submits
the weight of them to judgment. The first is no reason at all, it being
certain that if I had not scarcity of bed-clothes I would not have used my
big coat, which I used to give my servant when abroad, because however the
master is served, he gets no supply. The second, calling the landlord Balach,
has, I am convinced, been mistaken for Allaich, which in other countries is
a familiar word, and never gives offence. But if I called him so, several
will subscribe my opinion who know the man, and though I had called him a
great deal worse. I travelled in a most boisterous, wet, and cold evening,
over mountains and rocks, to oblige him, when I might have made him come my
length ; and everybody may see I had but a coarse and unkind reward. As for
the third reason, my neglecting to pray, I own it to be a very great fault;
but I am afraid ’tis one which I and others of my reverend brethren might
have fallen into when far enough from liquor. Ministers of the most
unsuspected temperance have been known to neglect prayer—sometimes a psalm
even—in divine service on a Lord’s Day. Whatever fault this be, I hope
charity, nay, justice, will attribute to forgetfulness. For, the deponent
being asked if he thought this neglect being owing to my incapacity at the
time, declared he did not, for that I discoursed articulately and freely
enough on other subjects.”
One of the witnesses having described Mr Campbell’s state on a certain
occasion by the word corghleus, which the Presbytery translated “the worse
of liquor,” the accused delivers himself of the following delicious
dissertation:—“Corghleus, or the word inverted, Gleus-cor, shows no more
than that cheerful humour which a moderate glass puts one in, which humour
or temper is not his ordinary, or which he did not fully discover at first
sitting down. That was the term the deponent used to express my disposition
that night; but wrongously translated in the minutes. I appeal still to the
deponent, with whom I was conversing, with some others, if this be not the
notion he affixes to it. But further, this phrase, ‘the worse of liquor,’
admits of a great latitude ; for if one exceeds the due measure that
suffices nature, which with most constitutions is a single dram, he
oppresses it, and is indisposed in his health —and in proportion as he
exceeds this strict measure; so that he may be said to be the worse of
liquor in both cases. Yet, is it not true that at every sitting, most exceed
the precise measure] Notwithstanding of what I have been obliged to advance
here in my own vindication, I am always obliged to acknowledge, and now do
with concern, that a false modesty, with a mistaken notion of agreeableness,
and an ill-placed confidence in my company, might, about this time [that is,
before this prosecution was commenced], have inclined me sometimes to
comply, beyond what I now and since condemn in strict duty and decency. I
bless God for it, I can want liquors absolutely. I can boldly avow that I
never did incline to them for their own sakes.”
But these amusing pleadings, which I must not follow further, were of no
avail. Poor Campbell was found guilty, and suspended for a year; and,
although he resumed his ministerial functions at the end of that period, the
wicked did not cease from troubling him, and he demitted or resigned in
1741. He died in 1754, in the twenty-fifth year of his ministry. His stipend
as minister of Morven was £50 a-year.
Early in 1744 another great clerical scandal began to agitate the bounds of
the Presbytery of Mull; and, as usual, Macdonald, the bard, had a finger in
the pie. At a meeting of the Presbytery held at Aros in March of that year,
and attended by the Bard, Macdonald of Kinlochmoidart, and “ Doctor
Macdonald, brother to the Laird of Morar, commonly known by the name of
Bishop Macdonald,” appeared and lodged a complaint against Mr Francis
Macdonald, Presbyterian preacher at Strontian, and at one time Roman
Catholic priest in Moidart, accusing him of incest with his sister, and
other crimes. They gave in a circumstantial and well drawn “information,”
extending to twenty-five foolscap pages, and written “by John Stewart,
drover in Knock, in Mull, and Alexander Macdonald, schoolmaster at
Ardnamurchan.” The prosecutors being of the Romish Church, the first
questions which the Presbytery had to consider were—“ How far
Kinlochmmoidart, a professed Papist, should be received as an accuser
against a minister, while lie is actually under process for adultery before
the Kirk Session of Ardnamurchan ; and whether Doctor Macdonald, who is well
known to us all, not only to assume the character, but also to exercise the
functions of a Popish Bishop, should be sustained by us as a party in this
question;” and “in case a process shall commence, how far Popish evidences
shall be admitted, considering the known principles of that party, the
slavish subjection in which they are known to be, particularly in that
corner [Moidart], to the Bishop and lairds, and the rough and unpolished
manners of the ignorant populace, who even already, as we are informed,
threatened to destroy Mr Francis, who is become the object of their
resentment, by his coming over from them, and having the impudence, as some
of them term it, to live under their eye and act the Protestant minister;”
and, “whether, if Mr Francis can make it appear that he had a moral
character while a Popish priest, and that he was well liked as such by those
who now hate him, this should not be sustained as a sufficient exculpation,
especially seeing that she [his sister], is still a professed Papist,
continues firm in giving one of the children she brought forth to the
Bishop, and the other to Kinlochmoidart, who was suspected, even by his own
lady, of going astray from the marriage-bed in that instance.”
These were questions too weighty for decision by the Reverend Court, and a
memorial embodying them was sent to the Procurator for the Church, Mr
William Grant, subsequently Lord Advocate during the troubles at and after
the Rebellion, aud thereafter a Judge of the Court of Session under the
title of Lord Preston grange. “I am very apt,” replied the Procurator, “to
believe, or to apprehend, or suspect, that this accusation may proceed from
malice or the resentment of Papists and Highlanders against one whom they
look 011 as an apostate from the true Church. At the same time, I can’t take
it for granted beforehand, that the accusers are all villains, or that their
witnesses will be all perjured, and, therefore, I think it concerns the
interest of religion in general, and the credit of the Church of Scotland,
to give this matter a fair and full trial, that Mr Francis Macdonald may be
vindicated, if he is innocent, as I hope he is, and, if otherwise, that he
may be dismissed from his station in this Church.....It is, in my humble
opinion, no good objection against Dr Macdonald, for which he should not be
sustained an accuser or complainer, that he is a Papist, or that he is a
Bishop, or of whatever denomination in that persuasion, for he is still a
Scotchman and a Christian ; and I would be inclined even the rather to give
a fair hearing and trial to his accusation, by reason of the singularity of
his character as a pursuer before the Ecclesiastical Courts in Scotland.”
With reference to the other questions, Mr Grant advises the Presbytery “to
examine all the witnesses whom the accuser shall adduce, who are liable to
no other objection than their religion. At the same time,” he adds, “I am
very sensible that the circumstances mentioned in the papers I have read, of
Mr Francis Macdonald’s being what they call an apostate, and the visible
marks of resentment conceived against him by persons who formerly appeared
to esteem and cherish him, are such as may justly affect the credibility of
these witnesses when the proof comes to be weighed, and advised, and
compared with the exculpatory evidence.”
Mr Francis Macdonald was in the pay of the Committee for managing the Royal
Bounty, who requested the papers connected with the case to be sent to them
for consideration. This was done; and in March 1745 it was recorded by the
Presbytery that the accused had been removed by the Committee to Skye, and
that the “clerk was appointed to signify to Kinlochmoidart that Mr Francis
has left our bounds, so that we are no further judges of the controversy
betwixt him and them.’'
The Sound of Sleat having thus been placed between Mr Francis and his
accusers, it is not likely they followed him further; and, indeed, they were
soon engaged in more exciting scenes. In July Prince Charles arrived at
Lochnanuagh, resolved to conquer the kingdom; and his cause was immediately
espoused by Kinlochmoidart, Bishop Macdonald (the Mr Hugh Macdonald of
history), and Mac Mhaighstir Alastair. The Bard’s later experiences as
Presbyterian catechist and teacher had not been encouraging. When we first
meet him in 1729 his salary is £16 a year. In 1732 it is raised to £18,
whereof £3 is contributed by the Society, and £15 by the Committee; and it
continues at this figure till 1738, when it drops to £15, being £3 from the
Society and £12 from the Committee, ‘‘because the funds can bear no more.”
Next year the Committee—“because the funds are exhausted”— give £11 only,
and in November their contribution is further reduced to £9, making the
total salary £12. That this remuneration did not keep the wolf from the door
appears evident from the Presbytery’s minute of 28th April 1741—the very
year in which Macdonald gave to the world his Gaelic and English Vocabulary.
“The visitors of the Charity School of Ardnamurchan report that when they
attended there in order to visit said school, Alexander Macdonald,
schoolmaster thereof, sent an apology to them for absence, viz., that
through the great scarcity of the year he was under immediate necessity to
go from home to provide meal for his family. The appointment is therefore
renewed upon said visitors.”
In the Beauties of Gaelic Poetry, as well as in the sketches of Macdonald’s
life prefixed to the recent editions of his poems, he is said to have been
parochial schoolmaster of Ardnamurchan. This, however, is not correct. In
his day there was no parochial school in that parish, and throughout his
teaching career he was in the service of, and exclusively supported by, the
Society and Committee. On account of the great extent of the parish, his
school was, as it was termed, “ transported ” from time to time. For the
first few years he taught at Eilean Finnan; in March 1738, he was ordered to
“ set-up his school with his first conveniency, and as soon as may be at
Killechoan and next year he and his school were “transported” to Corryvullin,
where he closed his pedagogic career in 1745. Hitherto he has been supposed
to have given up his school after the landing of Prince Charles ; but at a
meeting of Presbytery held on 15th July, four days before the Prince cast
anchor in Lochnanuagh-—the minister of Ardnamurchan reported “that the
charity school in this parish has been vacant since Whitsunday last by the
voluntary desertion of Alexander Macdonald, the former schoolmaster of this
country.” In the same way it has been assumed that he joined the Church of
Rome to please the Prince; but the part he took with prominent Roman
Catholics against the ex-priest in 1744, seems to indicate that secretly, if
not openly, he believed in the doctrines of that Church even before he
ceased to be catechist and teacher. At the same time it is right to note
that in the preface to the Gaelic and English Vocabulary, published in 1741,
he speaks in the highest terms of the work of the Protestant Society for
Propagating Christian Knowledge, and places “Popish Emissaries” among the
evils from which the Highlands then suffered.
“In the Highland army Macdonald held a commission, and was looked upon as a
kind of poet-laureate to the Prince. “He was,” observes Mackenzie of the
Beauties, “the Tyrtseus of his army. His spirit-stirring and soul-inspiring
strains roused and inflamed the breasts of his men. His warlike songs
manifested how heartily he enlisted in, and how sanguine he was of the
success of the undertaking.” After Culloden he concealed himself for a time
in the recesses of his country; and on the passing of the Indemnity Act, he
received from Clanranald the office of Bailie of the Island of Canna—a
position which he occupied when, in 1751, he published the first edition of
his poems. He subsequently resided in Knoidart, and thereafter in Arisaig,
where he is said to have closed his mortal career at a good old age. If we
may credit Dr Scott’s Fasti Ecclesice Scoticance (part V. p. 81), he was
addicted to the use of opium, and died in a lunatic asylum; but in his day
neither opium nor lunatic asylums were plentiful in the Highlands, and this
story is highly improbable.
I have now fulfilled the object which I placed before me in commencing this
paper ; and if some of the circumstances which, in the interests of truthful
historical enquiry, I have considered it necessary to relate, are unsavoury
and unpleasant, they throw considerable light on the state of society in the
Western Highlands during the first half of the eighteenth century; and for
that reason, if for no other, they ought not to be suppressed. But in
considering them we must keep in view that these presbyterial records,
however accurate, only exhibit the worst phases of life. So long as a man
lived without reproach no notice was taken of him; but if he chanced to
lapse from the paths of rectitude, he was cited before the Church Courts,
which faithfully chronicled the particulars of his sin. And that there was
much goodness, and kindliness, and true chivalry within the bounds of the
Presbytery of Mull, even in the stormy times of which I have been speaking,
is not difficult to prove. When, for instance, the Church of Scotland was in
the heat of that ecclesiastical conflict with Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine,
the most momentous event of which was the secession of 1733, the Presbytery
of Mull showed an example of Christian charity and tolerance which it is
unfortunate others did not follow: they instructed their Commissioners to
the General Assembly to “ side the most moderate party with respect to Mr
Erskine’s affair, as it is our opinion that if he be chargeable with nothing
but defending the rights of the Christian people in the choice of their
pastor, he ought to be treated with all tenderness and charity by such as
differ from him and his adherents.”
Then the Laird of Kinlochmoidart, who prosecuted Mr Francis Macdonald, and
who, in 1746, laid down his life for Prince Charles, on the Gallows flill of
Carlisle, was the hero of the beautiful story thus told by Sir Walter Scott
in his first note to the “Monastery.” “In the civil war of 1745-6, a party
of Highlanders, under a chieftain of rank, came to Rose Castle, the seat of
the Bishop of Carlisle, but then occupied by the family of Squire Dacre of
Cumberland. They demanded quarters, which, of course, were not to be refused
to armed men of a strange attire and unknown language. But the domestic
represented to the captain of the mountaineers, that the lady of the mansion
had been just delivered of a daughter, and expressed her hope that, under
these circumstances, his party would give as little trouble as possible.
“God forbid,” said the gallant chief, “that I or mine should be the means of
adding to a lady’s inconvenience at such a time. May I request to see the
infant1?” The child was brought, and the Highlander, taking his cockade out
of his bonnet, and pinning it on the child’s breast: “That will be a token,”
he said, “ to any of our people who may come hither, that Donald Macdonald
of Kinlochmoidart has taken the family of Rose Castle under his protection.”
“The lady,” adds Sir Walter, “who received, in infancy, this gage of
Highland protection, is now Mary, Lady Clark of Pennycuik; and on the 10th
of June still wears the cockade, which was pinned on her breast, with a
white rose as a kindred decoration.”
And, without further multiplying examples, you will find in the poems which
Mac Mhaigstir Alastair wrote amid the hardships and distractions of his
life, a grandeur of conception, a nobleness of sentiment, a power and
felicity of language, and a richness of description, which would do credit
to any nation in any age.
After the above paper was read before the Society, Mr Colin Chisholm
communicated with the Rev. Charles Macdonald, C.C., Moidart, regarding the
bard’s place of burial, &c., and in reply he received the following letter
:—
Mingarky, Moidart, 1st June 1885.
My Dear Sir,—The constant tradition here, and in Arisaig, is that the bard,
Alastair Mac Mhaighstir Alastair, was buried in Arisaig. After leaving
Knoydart he settled in Arisaig. For some time he was living at
Strath-Arisaig; then at a place between Camus-an-talamhainn and Rliu;
finally he removed to Sanntaig, and it was at Sanntaig that he died. His
remains were buried in the Arisaig Church-yard, close by the present
Catholic Church of St Mary’s.
John Macdonald, an old man, living near me, tells me that he was born on the
very spot where the bard died, but not in the same house. This house, being
probably a turf one, had fallen down, but John’s grandfather, or father,
built another of the same kind on the identical spot. I have examined into
this account, and find that there is no reason to doubt it.
The old people add that on the night preceding the bard’s death, two young
men, belonging to Arisaig, had been sent to watch by his bedside, and to
assist him in his last moments. These young persons were rather disappointed
at the duty imposed upon them, because it prevented them from taking part in
the rejoicings connected with a wedding which was taking place that night at
Strath-Arisaig, and at which most of the country people were present. To
relieve the monotony of their duty, they began reciting songs, and made an
attempt at composing something of their own. The bard, who had been
listening to their efforts, made some remarks upon their want of success.
Fearing, however, that they might feel hurt or ashamed at what he had said,
he helped them with a few verses of his own making. He had scarcely done
this when he fell back on the pillow and expired.
The bard’s father, Maighstear Alastair, is buried at Eilean Fhionan. Miss
Bell Macdonald, Dalelea, who lived at Dalelea House before the Rhu Family
came to Moidart, used to tell the younger people that the minister’s body
was under a monument having a skeleton (hideous enough) sculptured on it.
This Miss Bell knew more of our local traditions than any other person in
her time, and I have no doubt that she was correct in this.— Yours
faithfully,
Charles Macdonald. |
