t 'J*

STRATHMORE

Rev. VV. Masoi\ Inqlis M.A. FS.A.(Scct.)

T/? ofAuchterhouse

M. L

6ENEALOGY COLLECTION,

An Angus Parish

Eighteenth Century

Rev. W. mason INGLIS,

M.A., F.S.A. (Scot.),

MINISTER OF AUCHTERHOUSE.

I

Author of " The Annals of an Angus Parish" ^c.

DUNDEE: Printed by John Leng & Co., Ltd., Bank Street.

1904.

PREFACE.

nTHIS volume is practically a sequel of an earlier work, now out of print, entitled " The Annals of an Angus Parish," which dealt chie% with the 17th Century, and is written mainly with the view of describing and illustrating the many quaint and curious phases of old Parochial and Ecclesiastical life in Angus as are to be gleaned from the Parish Records of the 18th Century. 1378382

While more immediately concerned with Auchterhouse Parish, the volume is meant to have a much wider bearing and range, and may possibly prove interesting to those fond of antiquarian lore, old family history, and the past manners and customs of the County.

It has been the intermittent labour of a lengthened period, and is the result of extensive reading and research into every available source of information Avithin reach.

My best thanks are due to friends who have supplied photographs, and to those parishioners and others who have so kindly furnished me with much curious information regarding the old smuggling times — a subject to them not without many touches of romantic and personal interest. '

W. M. I.

Auchterhouse, 1904.

AN ANGUS PARISH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

CHAPTER I.

The Parish about 1700 — Features of the Landscape — The State of Agriculture — The Houses — Farms — Crofts — The Struggles of the- People — The Kain Eents — The old Rent Rolls — The Farm-houses of the olden time--Furnishings and Fittings— Round the Peat-fire — The Farm-yard — The Stock — Fields and Crops— Conveyances — Implements — Farmers and Farm-Servants — The Linen and Woollen Industries — Other Home Industries — Wages — Ways of Living — Tlie Lairds and Tenants — Habits and Customs — Moral Tone of the Period — Rural Life — The Great Dearth — The Kirkton^Religious- Life — The Prime Minister of Scotland.

AUCHTERHOUSE in the early days of the Eighteenth ^^ Century was not the well-farmed, richly-wooded, and salubrious resort that it is to-day. Change now is everywhere' in the landscape ; except in the main physical outlines and features ; in the valleys and surrounding hills and the distant peaks of the Grampians. Standing conspicuously out were the heath-clad Sidlaws, dotted here and there with pre-historic cairns and thickly strewn with stony debris ; whilst shelving off from them were rugged knolls and spurs. Through the low- lying portion of the Parish there went the still familiar winding; rivulet, fed by numerous water-courses, on its way through the valley seawards.

Open and exposed to every wind that blew ; almost treeless like most of the Scottish Parishes then ; save for the patches of birch, fir, rowan, and other natural woods which grew on the rocky scaurs and the patches of willows and alders which

6 AN ANGUS PARISH

fringed the marshy banks of the streams and the plantations round the remains of the old stronghold of the Ramsays and the adjoining baronial residence of the historic families of the Lyons and Ogilvies, and a few trees which sheltered the old thatched Church and Manse — abounding in morasses and moors and miles of country clad with moss, whin, fern and heather, it would present a wild, bleak, inhospitable appearance. Most of the country round was quite as rude, unenclosed, undrained, and untilled.

Its population like that of rural parishes in general was small (about 600), and broken up into small farms, crofts, and insignificant hamlets. Those located on the bleak uplands and braesides must have had a hard and weary fight in reclaiming and clearing what was for the most part a boulder -strewn waste ; whilst those on the lower ground were dependent on land mainly reclaimed from morass, subject at any moment to storm and flood. Doubtless, there was some good land reclaimed and tilled by those wonderful agriculturists, the early Churchmen, capable of bearing good crops and pasture ; but there was little of a superior quality. Most of the people, therefore, found a precarious living in the old-world pastoral and agricultural methods ; for new ideas in land cultivation and stock manage- ment were sIoav in penetrating into such remote quarters.

The only roads in those days Avere bridle-paths and drove- Toads over the wilds, through bracken and whin and by semi- malarious swamps only traversible by foot or by pannier ponies — roads which brought forth many maledictions from the troopers of General Monk Avhen they had some experience of them on the memorable raid of Alyth, during the siege of Dundee in 1651.

Houses of any pretension were out of the question amongst those tough, hardy, weather-beaten sons and daughters of toil. There was the old baronial residence with its policies, meadows, and woods around, occuined by a Scion of the House of Strathmore. There Avas no lack of picturesque features common

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. /

to such mansion-houses of tlie period, in many relics of the past lying round ; in its ancient Wallace Tower ; in its dove-cot and quaint Scottish garden set amid romantic surroundings. There •was the home-farm, part of the old demesne, and still on that account known as the jMains. There were the cottar-houses occupied by a few retainers and ground-officers. There were barns and store-houses for meal and grain and other produce from the land — for these were the days — the poverty-stricken days, when the hard-iip laird got in "his racked rents, his coals, his kain, and a' his stents (his corn-rents and assessments)."

The ecclesiastical records of the period indicate the names of farms and crofts which remain to this day ; whilst many have disappeared entirely, owing to the gradual effacement of many old pendicles and too many ancient and interesting landmarks. Most of the allotments were small ; but quite large enough to struggle on with. The tenure was as a rule leasehold, and owing to the scarcity of money amongst all classes, the rents were mainly paid in kind, that is to say — from the ordinary produce of the farms and home industries. Looking over old rent-rolls of the period, we find that rents were paid in wheat, barley, oats, straw, horse-corn, cocks and hens, capons, ducks, geese, chickens, Avethers, cheese, butter, eggs, peats, wool, tallow, malt, yarns, ells of linen, or by the carting of peats used for fuel or by driving thatch for roofing purposes or by ploughing, sowing and reaping throughout the spring, summer and autumn months for the laird. These old rent-rolls are full of interest and instruction. Here is the value of certain articles taken from a rent-roll of the period. Barley appears at 7/- per boll, oatmeal at 7/- per boll, wethers at 3/4 each, lambs 1/1, geese 1/1, capons 6d., hens 6d., chickens 1/8 per dozen, poultry 3d. each, eggs one penny and a third per dozen, winterings 2/9 per wintering, kids at 1/1 each, straw 1/1 per turse, cheese 2/9 per stone, butter 6/8 per stone, linen 7d. a yard, peats 2/- a load. It is curious to observe, however, how the prices bargained for vary in different rent-rolls. Homeliness and

8 AN ANGUS PARISH

plainness on the verge of poverty characterised farm life. It was very much

" A snug thaik hoose, before the door a green, Hens on the micklen, clucks in clubs are seen. On this side stands a barn, on that a byre, A peat-stack joins and forms a rural sc^uare."

Occasionally might be seen a farm-house of some pretension ; but for the most part " the auld clay biggin' " type predominated. It generally consisted of a " but and a ben," one storey high, rattled together in a miraculously short time from the nearest boulders, stone-slabs, quarry pavement, divots, and rough timber at hand. If not too remote from the parish kirk-yard, it was not unusual to select a few much fancied ancestral tomb-stones, cart them off and have them fitted up and built in, where they were reckoned to be most serviceable as jambs for doors and high- class fire-places. The builders too frequently were the tenants themselves ; so that they were quite as primitive in their taste and style as the architects. The rule laid down by the much- loved local land-steward was, " There is your allotment, slap up the houses to the best of your ability, and be sure and ask no more." They were, as a rule, dark, damp, foul, smoky rookeries, which sorely tried the tempers of many amiable Avomen, and made many sparks fly from those of a highly fractious disposition. Mud, moss, litter, anything in the way of rubbish filled up the crevices ; whilst the floor was simply the roughly levelled soil. The stable and the cow-byre adjoined, and the occupants, animals, and poultry lived wonderfully happy and contented all together. Heather, divots or thatch covered the roof. Light was obtained by slits and slaps in the walls which in wet and stormy weather were blinded with straw, fog, bracken, or rags.

The furniture was of local or home construction — rude, hard, and solid. It was made entirely for wear and tear, and meant as a fixture for many a long day. A capacious box-bed required a fair amount of room. Rough chairs, stools, old log stumps,

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. V

and a root of a tree were set on tlie floor for seats. A formidable old table, with many dints, scars, and stains, with an ample drawer, found a place. There was what was called the haik for dishes, and if you took note of them you would detect some rare old curiosities in the shai)e of caups, luggies, quaichs, and bickers, and others of the same class, and beneath the deas or dais you would observe a closed cup-board, and if you were an old friend or an acceptable guest, you might discover that there was a drop in the tappit hen or in the grey-beard in the laigh press.

On the walls were hung up all manner of articles associated with husbandry. If musically inclined, there was sure to be a set of pipes or a fiddle. There was the horn-book for instructing the young, consisting of a leaf set in a frame of wood with a slice of transparent horn in front, Avhich contained the alphabet, large and small, in black letter or in Roman, the Eoman numerals, and the Lord's Prayer. Hanging up as a support to it was a pair of leather tawse authorised and ■commended by the educational authorities of the time to maintain parental authority and lay in a commendable stock of good manners. As there was no Bank in Dundee, money was kept in the kist neuk or in the favourite pirly-pig.

From the kitchen rafters were suspended braxy mutton, haddocks, smoked flesh, ling from Dundee, and strings of onions from the Dutch boats which frequented the harbour of Dundee. There was generally a brcAving house not far off, where they made their own beer, Avhich was the popular drink of the period, and washed down many articles of diet. Down in Dundee they were fond of a guzzle, and a good many of the citizens were said to take their breakfasts in the alehouses, and French wine, sack and Rhenish brandy were hawked about the streets for sale ; but not much of that crossed rural lips, except on days and nights of special festivities.

Where there was a fireplace it was large, and over the peat- fire swung the cruik with the chain for suspending the capacious

10 AN AXGUS PARISH

and popular kailpot. Where there was no fireplace, there was the peat -fire raised in the centre of the kitchen, round which the family sat, and the smoke escaped through a hole in the roof or by the door. The occupants soon got accustomed to it ; but when strangers popped in they were soon like to explode with " the spewing reek and hoast-provoking smeek." AJl the same, many wonderful stories of the past were related round the old peat-fire, many weird tales of ghosts, wraiths, fairies, hob- goblins, witches, and all the folk-lore peculiar to an age which had not yet shaken itself free from the superstitious beliefs of a people quaint and primitive in the extreme. Many a fine old tale was there related, many a shrewd old proverb laid down, and many a telling life-maxim inculcated which went home.

In the " ben " there stood in state the best box-bed and a few simple articles of furniture, and the press Avith spare blankets and homespun linen, and what other finery there was. On the chest of drawers, kept with care, was the " big-ha " bible, with the much-prized and often tear-stained family register of births, deaths, and marriages, together with a few popular volumes of the old divines, and the catachetical works required to be found in all households by the Church at that time.

Light at night came from the glowing peat-fire, or from the oil cruisies, or from the bog candles made from splinters cut from resinous logs, picked out from the ancient bogs and dried over the kitchen cruik. But they required little light at night, as they went early to bed, and must be ready for their cows and stock in the morning. Fire was obtained for the early blaze from the tinder-box ; whilst the men struck their lights for their pipes from the flint and steel, on paper prepared from alum, the ever-popular " aum-paper." Inside the door there was the trap or ladder which led to the sleeping quarters of the loons or farm hands above the rafters ; whilst in other quarters the female servants were secluded. With all their old Scottish rudeness and readiness there was, after all, a wonderful amount of heartiness and contentment in those old An ejus abodes. No'

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 11

doubt ague, asthma, smallpox, rheumatism, and other maladies called for the attendance of the country doctor, Avho made his rounds Avith his Avallet strapped to his saddle, containing the quaint remedies of the times, his lancet for bleeding, and his sand-glass for testing and timing the pulse. No doubt it was a stern, trying life for many constitutions in those insanitary dwellings ; still, it must be remembered that the very pick of manhood and womanhood was reared in them, and many men distinguished in after days, and who held high places in the Church, in literature, in commerce, and in other spheres of life^ sprung from them, and were proud of looking back upon them,, and in after years revisiting them.

But let us pat in a kindly way the faithful and affectionate collie dog Avho is on duty by the door and neighbourhood, and gently make our way amid the lazy and tame groups of ducks, poultry, and farm-house favourites of many kinds moving round, to the outside of the house.

There was the louping-on stane or boulder set on end, by which the stiffish old man and rotund mounted his beast on his way to the out-field, or to kirk or market. There was the knockin' stone at the door, in which the lasses pounded their barley free from husks. There were quern-stones, still called into operation for grinding when the mills were stopped owing to the frozen-up ponds. There was the kailyard with its beds of onions, leeks, carrots, common-kail, and cabbage, and in a. corner a selection of herbs much prized for curing certain maladies — surrounded with its low turf dyke.

Farms then knew little of hedges, fences, and stone enclosures. Thistles, wild mustard, and other pests and plagues abounded, and were hard to keep under. The crops were of miserable grey oats or bear or barley. There were no turnips, no potatoes, and no grasses sown down in the earlier years of this century. The only hay was from wild, natural grass, or cut from the bog lands, and straw was very scarce and dear. Cattle and sheep were poor, thin, and scraggy frames, and

12 AN ANGUS PARISH

iDrought in little money. Horses were of poor quality and iStamina, and the sturdiest of them found three hundredweight -quite sufficient for them. Few pigs were kept ; as pork was far from acceptable as an article of food with the Scottish peasantry at this time.

The country being so open, all crops had to be protected from •cattle night and day ; so that the herd laddie Avas an important farm functionary in those days. After the reaping of the crops was over, the cattle simply wandered at large. The cattle, as a Tule, at night were enclosed by the herd in folds made of divot •dykes. The agricultural implements were few, and rude, and primitive at the best. What Burns says of the last quarter of the century, may be taken as fairly descriptive of the implements in use at this earlier period.

"Wheel carriages I hae but few, Three carts, and twa are feckly new ; As auld wheel-barrow, mair for token, Ae leg an' baith the trams are broken ; I made a poker o' the spin'Ie, An' my auld mither brunt the trin'le. For men, I've three mischievous boys, Eun deils for rantin' an' for noise. A gaudsman ane, a thrasher t'other, Wee Davock liauds the nowt in fother."

Teams of oxen, or miserably out-of-condition shalties, drew the ■cumbrous wooden plough. The flail was everywhere in use for threshing. There were few carts ; simply because the roads Avere unsuitable for them. There was no difficulty in procuring them, or in loading them, the real difficulty lay in getting them to move after they were loaded. kSledges drawn on runners were much preferred. Owing to the heaviness of the tracks, all •goods and market produce were despatched on creels or currochs slung on the backs of ponies. Even stone slates and ■slabs of the rough pavement, turned out by the local quarriers, had to be despatched on currochs. W^hen going to kirk or market the farmer generally rode with his wife seated behind liim. Anything was utilised as a saddle, and many a buxom

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 13

farmer's wife and good-looking lasa found a comfortable seat made from a newly-cut thick and pliant sod.

Flax was grown everywhere ; for home industries depended largely on it. Beside every farm was the lint-pond for steeping the flax. The lint was made into yarn. Spinning went on in ■every house, formed the very life of it, and occujDied much of the spare time. Every farmhouse had a shed adjoining, which ■contained the loom or looms for weaving. The shuttle had to he kept going, for the old weaver's song says : —

" Whae'er would hae a feckfu' winnin' He e'er maun keep the shuttle rinnin'."

Then, of course, there was the wool from the flocks, and the skins from the animals, and the cheese-making, and the ale- brewing. The woollen industry was also carried on with great heartiness and briskness. There was a good trade done in Dundee in spinning and weaving the coarse woollens called '" plaiding." These were not only largely utilised for home garments ; but were sent to the Dutch markets, and there thickened and dyed for clothing to the troops in various parts of Germany. Much as the woollen industry was cultivated by the peasantry in making their blue-bonnets, plaids, and garments of all kinds, still the linen industry found its devotees alike in castle and in cot, in the minister's manse, and in the ■divot-made biggin'. As an old writer says —

" Twa hunder j'ear an' mair sin syne, When fashions wer'na near sae fine, When common folk had scrimper skill, And gentles scarce had wealth at will. When sarks were stark an' no that saft, And lennel worn wi' washin's aft, And some had ane, an' some had twa, And many ane had nane ava. When wives wi' rocks and spindles span, And brawest lasses used nae can ; When lasses wi' their rocks gaed out To ane anithere nicht about. A full lang mile o' grund an' mair,

14 AN ANGUS PARISH

Sometimes no very free o' fear.

On hand reels then they reeled the yarn,

Before the use of wheel or pirn.

But a'thing has a time atweel,

A time to flourish, time to fail,

So the end of my old tale."

The linen trade of the rural districts was fostered by many quaint enactments. For example, the Scottish Parliament in 1686 passed an Act, that every person who died must be wrapt and buried in linen, under a penalty of £200 Scots for common people, and £300 Scots for those in the upper classes. This Act was passed in the interests of the trade ; so that no one dared bury any person in any kind of sheet except in the linen spun and Avoven at home. To ensure obedience to this Act, one-half of the penalty was to go to the informer, and the other half to- the poor ; and, further, every parish minister was bound to see the Act carried out to the letter, and he, or one of his elders,, was bound to be present at the wrapping-up of the dead body or the kisting, and take note of any parties who attempted to- evade the Act.

No exemption was allowed in the case of the richest or poorest, in the highest in rank or the lowliest. No matter though persons died of the most dangerous, most infectious, or most loathsome of diseases, the Act allowed not a hair -breadth of exemption. Consequently, the linen trade continued long to flourish, and ladies, even of the highest rank, never hesitated to sell to the agents and buyers who called on them the linen wrought by their own hands.

These were the days when everything went to barter or market. Nothing was wasted. Sound frugality was the order of the day. Every tick of wool, every skin from the home stock, was carefully looked after. The hands of the master, mistress, manservants and maidservants were never idle. Those not employed in weaving spent the winter nights in their bothies, making and mending their shoes, strengthening their winter brogues, overhauling their harness, ploughing gear, and

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 15

tackle, making or repairing their flails for threshing, or knitting stockings ; for the farm hands were capital knitters in those days. Wages were very small. Servants were in a state of utter poverty and servility. Women received about one pound sterling a year, with food and clothing, the latter consisting of a serge or drugget gown, two barn-shifts, two pairs of shoes, two pairs of stockings, and an apron. The men received between one and two pounds sterling a year, with their food and clothes, the latter consisting of a pair of shoes, a sark, and rough habiliments for farm labour. Labourers got 6d. a day, with food.

The lairds and gentry lived on the kain-fowls, salt beef, moor- fowl, and the game with which the hills and moors on their estates swarmed, and the salmon and trout with which the rivers and streams teemed. They drank freely of the home- breAved ale ; besides punch, claret, sack, and other kinds of foreign liquor, not difficult to be had in Dundee, which was in close communication with Continental markets. The farmers and servants, lads and lasses, took their meals together, which consisted of brose or porridge and milk to breakfast, kail to dinner, and sowens to supper. When meat was wanted — which was rarely — all killed it for themselves.

Cakes from oatmeal fired on the peats or on Culross girdles, and big girdle bannocks, along with cheese, washed down with home-brewed ale, kept them well together. The women found their green-horn spoons on the haik ; but the men found their's inside their blue bonnets, ever ready for action. Their stomachs were not destroyed then by tea, bad drink, and quack medicines ; so that they were ever sound, and in the best and most vigorous of tone. They put their food, and plenty of it, into good quarters. When those hardy fellows tackled brose, kail, and haggis the clearance was rapid, and the horn-spoons swept the boards in a twinkling, and then, with a good all- round rub round with their bonnets, they were off again for another spell of hard, honest work.

16 AN ANGUS PARISH

The leading proprietor in the parish and the other members of the Strathmore family dressed on high occasions in the full fashion of the period. They looked very radiant in cocked hats and gold lace, and strutted about as peacocks and superb dandies. Men of fashion wore the full bottomed wig, and their ordinary attire consisted of ample-skirted coats, long and richly- embroidered waistcoats, laced neck-cloths, breeches, stockings, and shoes with buckles. They also wore the conspicuous three- cornered hats, and carried swords by their side as a mark of rank and fashion. They were redolent of scents, carried jewelled snuff-boxes, affected gold or tortoise-shelled rimmed glasses, and swaggered mightily along with gold-topped canes. The ladies were not a whit behind the men in the novelty and variety of their dress. They -wore patches on their faces, studied the art of making up, and never spared the powder. The feature of fashion, which at once drew the wondering eyes and cynical smile, was the hooiD which turned the human form into a gigantic stalking birdcage. Their head-dress was piled up into massive clusters and handfuls of ringlets. The servants of those aristocrats were arrayed in liveries, and had even more airs than their masters.

SupjDer and card parties were the rage. The moral tone was extremely low. Drunkenness and gambling were the leading features of the licentious society Avhich abounded. Many were the disgraceful scenes which were witnessed in aristocratic circles. The generality of the country people Avore the grey, homespun garments, better known as hodden-grey. The best clothes for men and women were made by the Kirkton tailor, and the woollen garments of the women were made by the women themselves. She was, however, reckoned a very indifferent and handless Avife who could not make her husband's clothes as well as her oAvn.

The men went to church in bonnets and plaids, knee breeches, rough hose, and heavy brogues. The women wore mutches, homespun gowns, and shoulder-shawls. They went

IN THE EtGHTEENTH CENTURY. 17

to church with their bibles under one arm and a folding-stool under the other. The women seldom wore shoes, and even when they went to church they carried them slung round their necks, and put them on just before they entered the sanctuary. Of course, there were young women fond as usual of a taking bit of colour when they went to church ; so in summer days it was quite a common thing to see

" The lasses skelpin' barefit thrang In silks and scarlet glitter. "

Life in rural Scotland, at its best, was now a weary struggle for the small farmers and peasantry. It was a galley-slave's life, for which there was small remuneration and very little social sunshine. For the labouring man, with a wife and family, life was stern and trying. No wonder when the chain dropped off for an hour or two many forgot themselves in the ale-houses ; still they must not be judged too harshly. People then lived under exasperating, servile, and brutal conditions, and when they took their fling, they plunged, too many of them undoubtedly, into utter recklessness and lamentable excesses. Still we must be fair ; for many had to submit to social conditions which flesh and blood could scarcely be expected to stand. Not for one moment would the social oppression and tyranny then thought little of be tolerated now. It was the same all over the country. Depraved and debased as were the morals of rural Scotland at this time ; rough and boisterous as were the scenes in the rowdy, licentious ale-houses of the time, it is very doubtful if any Scottish ale-house or tavern in the land sported a sign-board with such an inscription as was read over a filthy gin-den in London at this time —

" Drnnk for one penny, Dead drunk for twopence, Clean straw for nothing."

The proprietors were very poor, and much of their poverty arose at this time from the heavy fines laid on by Cromwell

18 AX ANGUS PARISH

for the support rendered by them to the Stuart cause. The Strathmore family had simply been well-nigh cleaned out, and brought to the verge of poverty by the fines exacted by Cromwell. In addition to the domestic vicissitudes brought about by the political situation and varying administrations, there were other reasons for the ghastly poverty in aristocratic families. There was a great lack of self-control in society. Intrigues and plots were unending. Human passion in its Avildest moods prevailed. Consequently, owing to the dissipation, and betting and gambling, in fashionable society, the oldest and best-known families in the land were ever on the rocks for money. The young bloods amongst them gloried and swaggered when in their cups over their long pedigrees, and would fight like the wildest of demons to uphold their honour and their rights, they were ready for a fight with rapier or with pistol ; but to extract silver and gold from them was a ditierent matter altogether. The truth is, they had not the money to pay even their lawful debts. With bonds and bills they were •ever familiar, and Avhen pressed for money, as they often were in this parish, all that most of them could do was to give "precepts" upon their tenants, who in most cases knew not where to find it.

Few travelled abroad in those days, as the roads were not safe for law-abiding people. Highwaymen, foot-pads, dangerous characters, looked upon the country people as the readiest to fleece. There were no rural police in those days ; consequently, woe betide the countryman returning from Dundee or any of the local markets with his few hard-wrought-for merks or victuals of any kind if he could not wield his good thorn-stick with telling effect. It was nothing unusual for unprotected women to be assailed in their homes ; however, if there was a bill-hook near at hand the robbers frequently got the worst of it from those hardy, mettlesome dames. Beggars of every description prowled around, and scenes of appalling misery were to be witnessed daily in rural districts.

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 19

The last years of the 17th century, from 1693 onwards, M'ere characterised by heart-breaking distress. The seasons had been ■disastrous, the crops had nearly been lost, and in many districts people actually died on the roadsides from sheer starvation. The pitiful appeals for food at the farm-house door brought a handful of meal or a drop of kail, for extreme destitution was viewed by most of the country people then as a Divine visitation, and must be relieved as far as they were able. The Church had to take action through her Assembly and Church Courts. A solemn fast was appointed for the sore dearth and scarcity throughout the land.

This part of the country, with Dundee as its centre, suffered severely from 1693 to the beginning of the century from the ■calamity knoAvn as " the seven years' dearth." The siege of Dundee, which culminated in Monk's assault on the 1st September 1651, left a rich and thriving little town in a ruinous •condition, and no sooner was it beginning to recover somewhat than the long dearth came and told severely upon it and all the parishes adjoining. The annual average of marriages in Dundee for five years was reduced to fifty-four. The staple trade in plaiding, owing to the loss of French and Dutch privileges, fell •off after the Union, and the town never rallied from the efiects till several years after the Eebellion of 1745.

Life throughout the parish pendicles and farms was very much the same in its tear and wear for a living, and a hard struggle for rent. The parish capital was the Kirkton, which consisted of a cluster of heather or divot-covered hovels planted mainly on a foul bed of mud. This was the centre of parochial life and gossip. Here the workmen congregated when the day's work was over. Here the pedlars gathered, and the packmen, and the buyers-up of woollen and linen goods for sale, and the skins of stirks or stots, or any other marketable produce. Here bartering and bargaining went on over the ale-pot, followed by a hearty pull of that Irish blackguard, known as sneeshin' from the snuff-mull, or a few whiffs from the long luntin pipe. At

20 AN ANGUS PARISH

night the Kirkton was the favourite rendezvous, and in days when no newspapers were to he found, Avhat news was going; was pumped out of trarnps, old soldiers, wandering sailors,, pipers, sornari?, gipsies, and all kinds of riff-raff birds of passage..

The parish minister and the local elders, the schoolmaster, precentor and beadle, resided here, and keeping guard over them all was the old, grey, dilapidated kirk, with God's acre in a foul, gruesome, ill-kept condition round it. The tailor, smith, Wright, shoemaker, spinners, Aveavers, quarriers, and other local celebrities were to be found here. At the local change-houses- the lairds and local worthies foregathered, and although a sixpence went a long way in those days, the needful could be found for the liquor that was wanted.

Outside, some piper or strolling musician, or ballad reciter, might be heard endeavouring to win the hearts of the topers- and roysterers. Here the loose, roughish songs of the period were sung, and the still rougher jokes perpetrated. Here the rafters shook with hilarity until the rats even wondered, and the tables were thumped and banged in debates over the contemplated Union with England, over market prices and fairs, and the more recent parish scandals, and all the endless- worries of Kirk and State. Then when the closing hours came, they had to be bundled out or considerately escorted home. Such was social life in the early days of the 18th century in this typical old Angus Parish.

The religious condition of the country was deplorably unsatisfactory, owing to the persecutions and the interminable political and social strife and unrest. When Presbyterianism was toiling and struggling for dear life, the spiritual activity of' many earnest and devoted men was greatly retarded. The most notable personality in the Church of Scotland at this time, indeed the man who out-classed all his compeers for real grit and capacity, was William Carstairs, minister of Greyfriars, Edinburgh. He was not only a great statesman, but an ecclesiastic of exemplary life, and of commanding power and.

IX THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 21

influence. Gifted with fine scholarship, eloquence, polite address, and possessing great knowledge of men, and of Scottish political and ecclesiastical questions, no other man possessed a similar grasp of affairs, or played a more conspicuous part in bringing about the Revolution Settlement. In his efforts to shake off the tyranny which lay heavy on his country and his faith, he found himself in the hands of the Scottish Council. For one hour and a half he had the thumb-screws mercilessly applied, but with fidelity and fortitude he stood the test. jSTo amount of torture could wring from him the State secrets he possessed, or lead him to surrender the principles for which he fearlessly contended. With the Prince of Orange he was on terms of the closest intimacy, and became the confidential adviser and prime agent in inducing him to carry out the Invasion of 1688, and thus, there and then, stamp out the intolerable oppression. When the Prince Avas firmly planted on the throne, Carstairs really became the Prime Minister of Scotland, and the prop of the Scottish Church. What Presbyterianism owes him no words can fully show. This at least may be said, that the Church of Scotland never had a more powerful advocate and friend, nor liberty a more eloquent defender, than Principal Carstairs. So highly esteemed was he throughout the Church and country for his pure patriotism and splendid services to Presbyterianism, that, in the course of eleven years, he was four times elected Moderator of the General Assembly. He died in 1715, amid profound national sorrow, after a remarkable career, distinguished by great ecclesiastical and political sagacity. King William, who knew him since he was a student at Utrecht, said of him — " I have known him long, I have known him thoroughly, and I know him to be a truly honest man."

22 AN ANGUS PARISH

CHAPTER II.

Ecclesiastical Affairs — Church Troubles — The Church and Maiise — The Congregation — The Ordination of the Rev. Patrick Johnstone — The Presbytery — The Ordination Dinner — Opening Services — Collections — Supplicants and Beggars — The Chui'ch-Officer — Marriages — Thanksgiving Services — Putlic Examination — Pledges — "On the Pillar" — Testimonies — Education — School and School- master— Elders and their Duties — The Kirk-Box— The Sand-Glass — Patrick, Earl of Strathmore — The Family of Strathmore.

[VOW let US direct our attention to the ecclesiastical ®^ affairs of the parish. In " The Annals of an Angus Parish " we traced them to the days of the Revolution Settlement.

In July 1689, Episcopacy was formally abolished by Act of Parliament, and in 1690 the Presbyterian Church re-established. The Act of 1592 was revived, appointing a meeting of the General Assembly. On the 16th October 1690, an Assembly, consisting of one hundred and eighty members met, and this was the first Assembly which had met for forty years.

The Rev. John Robertson, who had been translated to the parish from the neighbouring parishes of Lundie and Fowlis in 1667, after the Rev. James Campbell (a brother of the Laird of Lundie) had brought disgrace upon himself and his sacred office, and had been pilloried by order of his ecclesiastical superiors for a scandal in which he and the Countess of Buchan had been involved, appears to have had a somewhat chequered and unfortunate ministry. The behaviour of his predecessor must have had a disastrous effect upon his influence, and come as a blight upon the parish. In those days it required men of great strength of character and high moral courage to withstand the influences around them, as there were many temptations placed in their way, and society, as it was known then, was morally

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 23

tainted and coiTU})t. To become closely identified with it was moral ruin ; to avoid it was to encounter the most bitter opposition. An unhappy state of aftairs seems to have continued till the death of the incumbent, which took place about the end of the century. The spiritual condition of the parish seems to have reached such a state of demoralization, indeed, that the Presbytery had to intervene, after a long delay in filling up the vacancy, mainly caused by opposition from the local leaders of the recently ousted Episcopal party, Avhose feelings of irritation at being supplanted had not yet calmed down. . The Presbytery accordingly stepped in and appointed the Eev. Patrick Johnstone to the living. He had studied at St Leonard's College, St Andrews, and graduated at that University on the 20th July 1695. He was licensed by the United Presbyteries of Dundee, Meigle, and Forfar, on the 14th June 1699, and called by the Presbytery jure devoluto on the 16th September, and ordained 29th December 1702. The ordination is thus recorded : —

Att Auchterhouse, 29<A December 1702.

The which Day and Place the United Presbyterys of Dundee, Meigle, and Forfar, convened to the ordination and admission of Mr Patrick Johnstone, to be Minister of the Parish of Auchterhouse, and every- thing conform to the rules and practice of this National Chui-ch both before, in order to, and about this action being duely observed. After sermon by the Reverend Mr Walter Ainzlie, Minister of the Gospel at Lundy, and before the Congregation there present actually did, in the Name and Authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, ordain, dedicat, and set apart by prayer, with imposition of hands, the foresaid Mr Patrick Johnstone to the office of the Ministry, to preach God's Word, administer the Holy Sacraments, and exercise all and sundry the'other parts of the Ministerial work. And did admitt the foresaid Mr Patrick Johnstone, Minister of the said Parish of Auchterhouse, to serve the cure and take pastorall charge of the said Parish in the Lord. Where- upon the said Mr Walter Ainzlie, together with the remanent members of the said United Presbyterys, gave him the right hand of fellowship.

No mention is made of the clergy who took part in the ordination service on that wintry day. The ordination of a

24 AN ANGUS PARISH

young minister is naturally an occasion of unusual interest and importance in a country parish, and the event must have been looked forward to with absorbing curiosity, and probably with not a little anxiety, by the local Presbyterians and the officiating clergymen, and more especially by Mr Johnstone. He was the nominee neither of the proprietor nor of the people, but of the Presbytery.

The minister would be well scrutinised, and many would be the comments upon him. The members of Presbytery would be Avell scanned also, as they made their Avay to the gloomy, old thatched manse, or the village inn, dressed in their big three- cornered hats and wigs, with heavy, long, blue, full-dressed clerical coats, and dismounted from their horses preparatory to the solemn services of Presbyterian ordination.

The manse was a plain, unpretentious building, containing a small garden with borders on which in summer the marigold, coxcomb, jelly flower, amaranthus, belladonna, and other flower favourites of the time blossomed, while by the kailyard were the offices suggestive of glebe crops and stock, very different in appearance and amenities from the Angus manses of to-day. The tower and church were then dilapidated, and the interior damp, cold, and uninviting.

There were no pews in those days, for the custom was to carry creepies or stools to church. There was no flooring but the soil; no light except from windows, partially filled with glass (for glass was very expensive), or from rude candles fixed up here and there by the beadle. There was a roughly-planed and mounted pulpit, with a lateran or precentor's box below, and a daske or fixed seat for the elders ; but a daske was a rarity, even for the minister's wife. The floor was often strewn with rushes, as these were used under the former regimes for kneeling on during prayers. The Presbytery officer would be to the front, of course, under the Presbytery clerk's orders, in his blue bonnet, heavy grey coat, and knee-breeches and thick- soled brogues, ready to do his part like a man, and, Avhen the

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. JO

clerk gave the word, take the tow-rope of tlie church bell in hand and wake the parish up after the old orthodox style. Then, with all due precision and solemnity, he would go with the Bible under his arm and place it down with all the self- importance and emphasis for which the beadles have ever been renowned.

The men in the congregation would be dressed in blue bonnets, warm plaids, and knee-breeches and winter brogues. The women in white mutches, heavy grey woollen dresses, big shawls, and shod with brogues also.

Every ordination in the olden time was followed by a hearty dinner. It would take place either in the manse or in the inn, and producing their jocktilegs, or pocket clasped knives, the members of I'resbytery would doubtless do ample justice to what was set before them. Just to illustrate the kind of banquet then provided, here is the account rendered after an ordination dinner of the olden time —

For meal brought for the ordination dinner,

For a boll of malt brought,

For a weather and a lamb,

For a weather, ....

For a lamb, .....

For flour and baking, on said occasion,

or £2 : 4s : lOd. Sterling.

After the toast of Queen Anne had been proposed, and all success wished to the newly-ordained minister, and a friendly pinch of snuff all round, the ministers would remount their horses and go home and relate in their manses all that had transpired at Auchterhouse on that memorable and historic day for the Parish and for Presbyterianism.

On Sabbath, Jan. 3, 1703, we find from the records that Mr Patrick Johnstone gave his first lecture and sermon. In a homely and kindly Avay the Session-clerk refers to him as

£5 8	0
9 0	0
5 0	0
3 12	0
1 4	0
2 14	0
E26 18	0 Scots,

26 AN ANGUS PARISH

"our minister." The collection, was 12 shillings and 4 pence Scots, or a trifle over a shilling sterling. There was given to the beddal 2 shil. Scots, or 2d. To Elizabeth Anderson, a poor woman, 4 shil. Scots, or 4d. To Agnes Millar, a poor woman, 6 shil. Scots, or 6d. ster. On Sabbath, 10th Jany., after lecture and sermon, the collection Avas 11 shil. Scots, or lid. ster. There was given to the beddal 2 sh. Scots, or 2d. To Isabel Martin, a poor woman, 6 shil. Scots, or 6d. ster. In the winter months the average collection was about 1/- ster.

The collection was taken up by ladles, which consisted of rough, little quaint boxes with long handles, which those in charge took round the congregation.

The poor then were entirely dependent on such methods of making church collections. It was at this time the only method of finding maintenance for them by the church authorities, with whom the entire poor administration of the time lay. Outside the church, or within its porch — no matter Avhat kind of weather it was — supplicants and beggars were ever to be found, eagerlj'' awaiting the distribution of the doles after service. The local poor, of course, were well known ; but kirk-sessions had many other claimants. Privileged beggars frequently turned up also, and produced their badges on their coat-sleeves or hats, or carried lead badges or tokens as their testificats from other localities. Impostors, frauds, Avell-known disreputable incorrigibles Avere bundled off at the double by the beddal, who threatened them with the jougs, and frequently with assistance escorted them beyond the bounds of the parish. The beddal generally parted with them Avith a strong word or tAvo of warning, and Avhat Avas more efficacious, the exhibition of the thick end of his staff.

The first man to receive payment, however, Avas the beddal, whose pay Avas 2 shil. Scots, or 2d. stg. Here is how the money was distributed : — To a beggar, 1 shil. Scots, or Id. ster. To a supplicant, 3 shil. : 6 : Scots, or 3 id. ster. To David Rae and his Avife, supplicants, 4 shil. or 4d. To two

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 27

gentlemen, supplicant-?, 4 shil. Scots, or 4J. star. To William Buack, supplicant, 10 shil. Scots, or lOd. ster. To James Dunbar, supplicant, 7 sh. or 7d.

On Sabbath, 4th April, in regaird our minister "was preaching at Ruthven, by appointment of the Presbytery, Mr James Marr lectured and preached twice. The collection was 8 shil. : 10 : or 8-|d. ster. INIistress Robertson, a minister's relict, received from the cliurch box 10 shil. or lOd. The beddal received 2 shil. or 2d., and Mrs M'Phearson in kinde (in goods), 7 sh. Scots, or 7d. May 30. — This day Mr Robert Robertson, in the parish of ?\'ewtyld ; and Anna Strachan, in this parish, being contracted were proclaimed p'^'o j'rimo.

According to the law of the Church, other two proclamations followed on successive Sundays. Throughout the summer months the collection averaged about 1/3 ster. On Sabbath, 25 July, there was given to Mr John Pitcairn, to account of his bygone cellarie (salary), four pounds Scots, or 6/8 ster. Mr Pitcairn was schoolmaster, precentor, and clerk.

On Sabbath, 22 Aug., after the forenoon sermon, there was a Proclamation read and intimat appointing a day of Solemn Thanksgiving to be kept on Thursday next, the 26th instant, for the Yictorys obtained abroad against ye French, and the people, after suitable exhortation, were acquainted that sermon would begin at the ordinary dyet (probably ten o'clock). This Thanksgiving was held, and the collection amounted to lOd. ster.

The war referred to here was the great war of the Spanish Succession, 1702-1713. The Spanish monarchy was at this time a very powerful one, as it included Spain, Spanish America, the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Sicily, the Milanese, &c. The question at issue was the balance of power in Europe. England, Holland, and other countries, reckoned it to be dangerous for such a monarchy as Spain to drop into the hands of the ambitious Louis XIV. of France, or into those of the Emperor Leopold I. of Germany. In May 1702, war was declared against France and Spain, and on Mariborough

28 AN ANGUS PARISH

•devolved the command of the English and Dutch forces, with Prince Eugene of Savoy as his assistant. In this year, Marlborough had swept the French before him and captured several fortresses in the Netherlands. His victories were hailed with rejoicing, and Thanksgiving Services were held throughout the Churches of the land.

Apart altogether, however, from their religious significance, such thanksgiving services disseminated amongst the people important information as to what was transpiring in Europe, and kept alive, in the absence of newspapers, the keenest possible interest in the great political and party movements of the times at home and abroad. ISI'ot only so ; but they fostered a commendable patriotic feeling amongst all classes of the Scottish people.

Received for use of ye inort-eloath 6/8 Scots, or 6d. ster. A morte-cofiin for Thomas Machan cost 2 : 13 : 4, or about 4/6 ster.

Sabbath 3 Oct. — William Gray and Isobel Crichton, both in this parish, were proclaimed pro I" — Mr William Crichton of Adamstone, giving his line for the woman's pledge, and James Martine in Crosshall, for the man's pledge.

Marriage at this time was viewed as a much more serious matter than it is by many to-day, largely owing to the poverty which prevailed. 'No rushing into matrimony was encouraged. Ample time was also very properly afforded for reconsideration. None at any rate were allowed to marry Avithout a full guarantee as to their respectability and church connection, and substantial pledges had to be given besides to the ecclesiastical authorities, under severe jjenalties, that the contract was a genuine one. These pledges were in money or in kind of all sorts, and many curious marriage jDledges there were. In this case, two well-known parishioners became cautioners that the parties would complete their marriage within the time prescribed, and without scandal. A few cautioners of a kindly and obliging disposition, however, discovered to their cost, that it was a little risky to become too closely identified with the

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 29

marriage contracts of the period. One or two got badly Avounded in being called upon to forfeit the pledge-money they had deposited for matrimonial aspirants. Sabbath, 17. — Given to the Synod and Presbytery clerk, £2 Scots, or 3/4 ster. To Barbara Read, a supplicant, 10 shil. 'Scots, or lOd. Sabbath, Deer 5. — No sermon, the minister being at Edinburgh, attending as a member of Commission. A visit to the capital at this time was such a serious venture by road and ferry, that it was quite the custom for travellers to make their wills before they started. The very thought of it would make the occupants of the manse or any other home tremble. Sabbath, 12. — No sermon. Sabbath, 19th. — Mr James Marr, minister at Muirhouse (Murroes), lectured and preached, in our minister's absence. Sabbath, 26. — No sermon, the minister being yet in Edinburgh. On Sabbath, Jan. 2, 1704, the minister had returned, for on that day he lectured and preached, and the collection was lOd. ster. There was given to Christian Biddie, a poor child, to buy her shoes, lOd, To the schoolmaster, to account of bygone salary as clerk, 3/-.

Sabbath, April 9. — This day ane Act of the General Assembly appointing a National Fast, together with ane Act of Presbytery appointing Wednesday next as the day to be observed for that effect, Avas read and intimat, and the people exhorted to a serious and suitable preparation for so solemn a work.

This Fast was appointed to be kept for the Public Defections of the Land, both past and present, which were specified in great detail. Serious exhortations to repentance were called for; the performance of many duties was strenuously urged, and fervent prayers were called for, to invoke the Divine blessing. This National Fast was observed, and the collection was lOd. Shortly before the solemn occasion, Elizabeth Anderson is an unlucky supplicant, for she gets nil. Alexander Kirkaldie, a supplicant, receives 2/- ster. Another supplicant, on ample recommendation, gets 1/6.

30 AX ANGUS PARISH

Not a few supplicants at this time were the starving families and relatives of former Episcopal clergymen in the county, who, on being thrown adrift, Avere in the direst poverty. To their honour, be it said, much sympathy was extended, and great kindness shown to such by the Presbyterian clergy and their people.

Sabbath, 28 May. — Publick Examination was intimat. Every minister was ordained to see that in every house where there is anyone who can read ; that there be at least one copy of the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the Confession of Faith, and the Directory for family worship. Strict catechizing and family worship were insisted upon, and ordered to be conducted by the heads of every home. The minister was ordained to examine all within the parish, of every rank and quality. There must be no favouritism in castle or in cottar-house. Young people must be put through their catachetical facings from tlie time they were reckoned to be capable of receiving instruction. No grossly ignorant persons were allowed to join in the Communion. For the first and second failures in examination candidates might be debarred (suppressing their names) ; for the third time, by expressing their names. If unable aiter this to satisfy the examiners as to their intelligence and knowledge of the Bible and the Catachetical Standards, then they were to be brought to Publick Repentance. Any minister who neglected this duty was to be sharply dealt with and summarily suspended.

Sabbath, June 4. — This day the minister being informed that Thomas Anderson and Elizabeth Peatrie were guilty of (serious misconduct), the beddal was ordered to summond them to compear before the Presbytery on Wednesday next, because there was no settled Session here. Having compeared and confest their guilt, they were rebukt and appointed to satisfie for the same, and accordingly Thomas Anderson was on the Pillar this day pro primo and publickly rebuked. He had to malce other twu public appearances on the Pillar, and, on the third occasion,

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 31

upon evidence of his sorrow, he was absolved. Elizabeth Peatrie followed on the Pillar on the next three successive Sabbaths. The beddal, no doubt, had the jougs or clasped padlocked collars ready outside for such offenders ; he had a strong pair of branks, with a good tongue for silencing parish gossips, flyters, and local pests ; he had his linen sheet and similar garments for arraying offenders in; he could even muster a tar-brush, which had a great reputation as a deterrent in this part of Angus ; now, hoAvever, we find the Pillar brought into operation. It was simply a prominent stand on which the culprit had to appear before the whole congregation. The beddal was in close proximity, and kept his eye steadily on the offender, and had his staff ready for any symptoms of outbreak, levity or misconduct. At the proper time, the offender received what was called The Wee Sermon, and unless of a most hardened character the wee sermon was a deliverance which from its force of language rarely failed to produce penitence, real or feigned. Further, William Christie in the Kirkton became surety for the money penalty inflicted — four pounds Scots, or 6/8 sterling.

Sabbath, 1st Octr. — This day a Proclamation for a National Thanksgiving for the late Victories by Sea and Land was made, appointing Thursday next to be keepit for that effect.

On July 2, 1704, Marlborough defeated the French at Donauvert on the Danube, and on the 2nd August Avon the great Battle of Blenheim. Marlborough and Prince Eugene there defeated the French and the Bavarians under Marshals Tallard and Marsin and the Elector of Bavaria. Tallard and his staff Avere taken prisoners, and all the baggage, colours, and guns fell to the victors. The enemy lost two-thirds of an army 60,000 strong. The Victory by sea was the capture of Gibraltar by Sir George Rooke and Sir Cloudesley Shovel, an event of European interest, and one adding immensely to the poAver and influence of this country in the Mediterranean. The Thanksgiving was held, and the collection amounted to 9|d.

32 AN ANGUS PARISH

Such a day of rejoicing brought the beddal a new pair of shoes, which cost 1/6 stg.

Given also to John Bruce, to help to maintain his son at the colledge, being recommended by the Presbytery — 2/- stg.

All Presbyteries at this time consisting of 12 members were enjoined to maintain a bursar of divinity, and where the number was fewer than 12, they were to be joined to those of another Presbytery whose number exceeds that. Much interest Avas taken now by the Church in the training of students in the Gaelic language, to meet the requirements of remote Highland districts and the Islands, which were in too many cases lying spiritually neglected. Given to Patrick Ogilvie's grand- child, being ane orphan, 8d. Given to the beddal this quarter, 1/4.

Sabbath, Deer. 31. — Testimony was given to Elizabeth Whitton. Elizabeth probably was leaving the parish for another, but she did not dare leave or set her foot in another parish without her passport, ticket-of-leave, or testimony from the minister. Such testimonies were frequently applied for at this time. The Law of the Church was — I., That care be taken of the conscionable (conscientious) receiving of servants, and that all such as give testimonials take heed that those to whom they give them be free from scolding, swearing, or such like more common sins, as well as other gross and heinous evils. II., That the ordinary time of giving testimonials be in the face of the congregation, and if any extraordinary exigent be, that they be given by the minister, and that if they have fallen into any sins, that their testimonials bear both their fall and their repentance. III., It will be a good remedy against Sabbath- breaking by carriers and travellers, that the ministers, where they dwell, cause them to bring testimonials fro:n the places where they rested on the Lord's days, wherein they were from home. That all persons who flit from one parish to another have sufficient testimonials. This law is to be extended to all

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 33

gentlemen and persons of quality and their retinue and followers who go to reside in the capital or elsewhere. Given to Isobel Martine, to buy her shoes, 1/-. To a supplicant, 6d.

Sabbath, 1 April. — Our minister being at the Assembly, Mr Thomas Ogilvie at Strathmartine had no lecture ; but preached twice. John Webster, in this Parish, and Elizabeth Shippart, in the Parish of Dundee, upon sufficient testimony being contracted on Saturday, gave in lieu of their pledges, £1 : 4 : sh. (Scots), or 2/- stg. This implies that the old system of obtaining cautioners had broken down, and a payment in money was to be insisted upon henceforth.

Sabbath, 29 April 1705. — Given to the schoolmaster in part payment of £24 Scots, or .£2 sterling, due to him as a year's cellarie, from Martinmas 1703 to Martinmas 1704, out of the mortification £5 10s. Scots, or 9/- stg.

No men were more zealous in the cause of education than the reformers. The heritors were bound by the law of the land to put down a school and provide a schoolmaster for every parish at a reasonable salary. This extract shows the way in which they fulfilled their obligations, and encouraged Scottish Elementary Education. Here was a parish schoolmaster, paid at the rate of £2 sterling a year — a beggarly pittance of which the landowners ought to have been ashamed. His schoolroom was in his house, a miserable hovel of divots, with nothing but an earthen floor, and if it possessed a fireplace at all, the fire was maintained by the scholars bringing peats with them for the purpose. If there were no peats forthcoming, there was no fire.

The state of education was deplorable, owing to the meanness and, in too many cases, the absolute poverty of the proprietors, and at the same time their reluctance to fall in with the admirable educational schemes laid down by Scottish reformers and statesmen. No man occupied a more pitiable position than the rural schoolmaster. His calling was derided, and his lot too frequently that of a serf of the soil.

34 AN ANGUS PARISH

With such a miserable pittance of a salary, no wonder the poor old dominie, often a wonderfully intelligent and capable man, but often with a bit of an infirmity, welcomed Fasten's Een or Shrove-tide, Avhen his scholars appeared with their fighting cocks and spent a whole day with him in a series of cock-fights. All the victims and coward cocks who would not fight were handed over at the finish as perquisites for the dominie, who for some days afterwards enjoyed some welcome rounds of cocky-leekie. This was his annual festival or gala- day.

Saturday, May 12. — John Anderson of Auchrannie pay'd for his son's buriall room in the church, .£3 : 6/- Scots, or 5/6 stg.

Burials frequently took place in the church at this time. There was no difficulty in doing so, as there was not a vestige of flooring. The meagre covering of bent or rushes was soon raked aside and the way made clear for burial. The church at this time was simply a cemetery, into which all could find access for burial, provided they paid the fees which were urgently required for the necessitous poor.

Sabbath, May 20. — This day an Act of the Generall Assembly was read and intimate, appointing a Fast on Thursday, the 24th inst. The people were exhorted to prepare and humble themselves, and to meet at the ordinary dyet of service.

Given to buy a coat to ane orphan child, 2/9 stg. Given to Walter Kinnaird, a supplicant, and for horses to carry him to Glamis, 6d. stg.

Sabbath, June 17. — That day the minister, after forenoon's service, intimate that he takeing to serious consideration the great loss the parish sustained by the want of ane eldership and the trouble he Avas put to upon that account, he had therefore given to the Presbytery the following list of persons for that office .... who were all desired to attend at the church to-morrow by two o'clock in the afternoon to be try'd as to their knowledge and other qualifications for that office by Mr

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 35

Hugh Maxwell, minister of Tealiiie, and our minister, by the Presbytery's appointment. Monday — The parties attended and were examined.

Given to James AVhitton in Acharn, for a thong to hang the

tongue of the bell, Ud. 1378382

Sabbath, 24. — Helen Eobertson (for misconduct) Avith Robert "Wilson, being examined by the Presbytery, and confessing guilt, was, according to their appointment, this day on ye Pillar pro 2)riino, and being rebukt by the minister, was continued. On two subsequent occasions the same party had to appear on the Pillar, and Robert "Wilson followed three times also. Given to "William Moncrieff, for mending the East Kirk style, 1/1. Given to Abram Xicoll (younger), for cleeks to fasten ye weyres (wires) on ye glass, and fixing in flagstones under ye glass, in ye church windows, 2/6. Glass at this time was very expensive, and windows Avere carefully protected with wire- guards. They were also provided with "storm-boards." Given to buy a tow to ye bell, 2/6. Given to Mr James Spark, a supplicant and late Episcopal minister, 2/6. Such an entry is of pathetic interest, as it shows to what straits the clergy of the Disestablished Church had fallen.

Sabbath, 5 July. — No sermon, the minister assisting at the church of ]Muirhouss (Murroes) ; then again, on the 19th, there is no sermon, the minister assisting at Liff.

Sabbctth, 9 August. — Xo lecture — The minister having signified that he was to insist a little longer on the text anent elders, and on generall and particular points of their duty and with exhortation to them anent the people, and to the people anent them. The text was I. Timothy, v. 1. Sermon and prayer being ended, the first Ordination of Elders for forty years was accordingly held. The meeting of Kirk Session was constituted, and at once proceeded to deal with certain offenders.

The elders in those days were selected with commendable caution. Tliey were, as a rule, the most respected men within

36 AN ANGUS PARISH

the bounds of the parish, and were appointed to co-operate with the minister not only in all matters ecclesiastical ; but were entrusted with the entire affairs of the parish. They formed the local authority, and not much was done Avithout their counsel. Their duties were manifold, and a good deal of their administration was made for them offensively inquisitorial. They were the administrators of church discipline, the local board of supervision, the local magistrates and police, and the parish school board. As a rule, they were typical and excellent representatives of the best manhood of Scotland. The elders are appointed to inform who have come without testimonies (church passports) to the parish. Also, the elders are appointed to survey the toun and change-houses, in time of afternoon's sermon.

After the forenoon's service was over, there was a rush made by those from a distance for the nearest change-houses or taverns for food and refreshments. Many found a sederunt over the cakes, cheese, and twopenny ale so refreshing and stimulating that they too frequently became forgetful of the afternoon's service. Burns knew the situation well, for he says : —

"Now but and ben the change-house fills,

Wi' yill caup (ale-pot) commentators ; Here's crying out for bakes (biscuits) and gills,

And there the pint-stoup clatters ; While thick and thrang, and loud and lang,

Wi' logic and wi' scripture, They raise a din, that in the end

Is like to breed a rapture 0' wrath that day."

The elders accordingly, after locking up their collections, made by the ladles, in their strong box, sallied out, paid a house- to-house visitation, and ran those they found unceremoniously out to the church. Those found in the taverns had to clear out in a twinkling, make a rush for the service, and take up their places with all the decorum they could muster. Some of them

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 37

after these mid-day Sunday carousals must have presented a good deal of haziness in their looks, which would be accentuated by the practice which then prevailed of keeping on their blue bonnets throughout the service. Some of them would be rather envious of the women, who, in the absence of stools or creepies, simply squatted down on their shawls which they spread out on the floor of the church. If they attempted to fortify themselves with a snuff from their mulls, they would find ere long that it was an expensive snuff. No such thing was allowed at this time.

Oct. 18. — Testimony given to Robert Hill to be married. Without a satisfactory testimony, it was useless to call at the manse in those days to make arrangements for marriage. The rule was — no testimony, no character ; no testimony, no marriage.

Helen Milne was twice on the Pillar, and rebukt by the Minister ; and only escaped a third compearance by paying a fine of £4 Scots, or 6/8, which went to the poor.

To buy the beddal's shoes, 2/6. John Elder was on the Pillar pro^° and upon rebuke and evidence of his repentance was absolved. He was fined 6/8.

Nov. 20. — This day Mr Patrick Johnstone, minister, and Miss Agnes Dalgleish, daughter of Mr John Dalgleish, minister at Dundee, were proclaimed pro jjrimo in order to marriage.

Nov. 27. — David Chalmers and Margaret Maxwell, both in this parish, being contracted, gave in lieu of their pledges, 2/- stg., and this day proclaimed pro^° at the church door, as use is, when there is no sermon, before witnesses. John Gray was appointed beddal, and received 2d.

Monday, 24. — Testimony given to John Elder and Helen Mylne that they had satisfy'd for ,^ their scandal. Then a testimony was given to Alexander Bruce, during his residence in the parish, which was eight years.

Jan. G, 1706. — Helen Robertson was twice in the Pillar, and once before ; but was not absolved, as she had relapsed. c

38 AN ANGUS PARISH

William Christie became surety for £2 : 10/- Scots, or 4/- for her penalty. She promised to answer when called, to finish her satisfaction, and pay the rest of her penalty when she could get it. To Patrick Ogilvie's grandchild, ane orphan, 1/6. To Miss Campbell, a supplicant, 2/6.

March 17. — This day Mistress Grizell Watson was, by appointment of the Presbytery, before the congregation, and exprest her sorrow for going to her mother's house with Ogilvie, younger of Peall, and staying some time in his company. Agnes Watson was ordered for this offence to appear three times in the Pillar, and was rebukt. A certain Ogilvie of Pole in Lintrathen subsequently took part in the Rebellion as a soldier in the Rebel Life Guards. He was taken prisoner in England, tried at York, but recommended to mercy by the jury. The last heard of him was, he was a prisoner in Aberdeen. There was on the same day collected for and given to a poor woman in Meigle, who had her house and effects consumed by fire, £2 Scots, or 3/4.

Wed., 3 April 1706. — The Session being mett, duely constituted, and all members present, the Kirk-box was opened and in it was found a bond granted to the Kirk-Session by Patrick, late Earl of Strathmore, of ye date the 7th Dec. 1681, for five hundred pounds Scots (£40 13s. 4d.), for the use and behoof of the school and native poor of the Parish of Auchterhouse, the same being delivered up to them by the Laird of Auchterhouse, and upon searching the records it was found that there was twenty years' annual rent resting thereon, preceding Martinmas last, 1705, except £64 Soots, which the schoolmaster received upon his receipt, in time of the vacancy of the Church, in part payment of his byegone rests.

The nobleman here referred to was Patrick Lyon, third Earl of Kinghorne and first Earl of Strathmore. He was the only son of John, second Earl of Kinghorne by his second wife. Lady Elizabeth Maule, only daughter of Patrick, first Earl of Panmure. He was born on 29th May 1642, and succeeded to

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 39

the title of the Earl of Kinghorne on the death of his father, 12th May 1646. He had troubles as a young Scottish noble of illustrious ancestry which have befallen few in his order. His father had played a conspicuous part as a soldier and officer under the great Montrose, when he was the leading general of the Covenanters. He fought at the Battle of the Bridge of Dee against the Marquis of Huntly, and his association with the great Montrose is thus commemorated in a ballad familiar at that time : —

" God bless our Covenanters in Fyffe and Lothean, In Angus and the Mearns quho did us first begin With muskit and with carabin, with money, speare and shield, To take the toune of Aberdeen and make our Marquess yield. God bless Montrois our General, The stout Earl of Kinghorne, That we may long live and rejoyce That ever they were born."

This Earl was a stalwart among the Presbyterians, and accordingly suffered severely for his support of the young King. Cromwell fined him £1,000, and misfortune after misfortune swept down upon the venerable House and family, until it was financially a ruin. The estates were heavily mortgaged, and the House was in the greatest depths of debt.

Such was the state of the family, when Patrick, only a child of four years of age, came into possession. His mother, besides, married again, and her husband, the Earl of Linlithgow, treated the young child shamefully, and laid fresh burdens on the estates. In the notes of his early misfortunes he says he had a very small and a very hard beginning. When he had completed his education at St Andrews University, he came, when seventeen years of age, to take up his residence at Castle Lyon or Huntly, in the Carse. The state of matters within this family residence was incredible. The place was stripped, and as bleak and bare as a cell. There was not a room habitable. He had to send to the Manse of Longforgan for a bed to sleep on, for there was none within his castle. There was

40 ' AN ANGUS PARISH

no furniture whatever, and he was compelled to shift for himself, until the furnishings of his plain student's apartment in St Andrews were brought across. The stables, byres, and barns were empty. The only four-footed creature, he says, he possessed was a pet dog, which he brought with him from the College.

When his sister, Lady Elizabeth Lyon, came to stay with him, efforts were made to collect some kitchen articles and bits of furniture from the old Castle of Glamis. All that they could muster were certain old pots and pans and a few odd pieces of furniture, only sufficient for two rooms — for Glamis had been cleaned to the last stitch and stick. The experiences of this young brother and sister of the Strathmore family in housekeeping at Castle Huntly reveal a remarkable story of family strain and stress. However, he pluckily held on his way, and resolved to do his utmost to retrieve the family misfortunes. When King Charles II. got settled on the throne the financial pressure on the house found some relief, and with care and economy he managed to surmount many difficulties.

He obtained a charter of the title and dignity of Earl of Kinghorne, Lord Lyon and Glamis; and on 1st July 1677 he was ordained to the title of Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. His rent-roll in Auchterhouse was 127 bolls of bear, 160 bolls of meal, and £3,569 17s. 4d. in money. He was married by Archbishop Sharp in the Abbey of Holyrood to Lady Helen Middleton, second daughter of the High Commissioner for Scotland. He died 15th May 1695. A very remarkable story is told of him, that he gave strict injunctions in his will that a service was to be conductecii every day at his grave at twelve o'clock. Four men arrayed in white coats, lined with blue serge, were engaged to read by turns a certain prescribed prayer over his grave, and if they were not capable of reading the prayer, it might be committed to memory and recited. His property in Auchterhouse he gave to his second son, the Hon. Patrick Lyon, who accordingly became the Laird of Auchterhouse.

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 41

The Ivirk-box in which Strathmore's bond was discovered with other bonds was opened generally quarterly or half-yearly, with not a little ceremony and anxiety. It was a strong box with a double lock, and the keys of two elders were required to open it. So little confidence had those old church worthies and functionaries in each other, that the box could only be opened when all were present and each man keeping an eye on the other. It must be borne in mind, however, that this was the Parochial Bank, and a depository of great importance.

"When it was opened a wonderful collection of all kinds of coins was displayed — good coins, bad coins, defaced coins, along with others which were clipped, obsolete, and of foreign mints, of all shapes and sizes. Many were the groans, and sighs, and maledictions expressed by the elders on the depravity and rascality of this system of surreptitious dropping of worth- less coins into the ladles ; but it was all in vain, for the practice long prevailed, and is not unknown even now. The minute proceeds.

There was also in the box of un-current silver money ,£1 : 13s : Id. Scots, and of un-current copper 19s.

Also the Minister received from the Laird of Auchterhouse, besides the box or these bonds mentioned above, and the money and the copper foresaid, the following particulars, viz. : — Three table cloaths used at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, dedicat to the Church by Mr James Auchinleck, sometime Minister here, marked with the initiall letters of his name ; also a napkin used at baptisms. Moreover, a silver cup of the old fashion, dedicat to the -Church by Walter Hay, sometime of Dronlaw. There Avas resting by the Session to the Presbytery Bursar two years' payment, viz., 13/4.

AYilliam Douglas was in the Pillar, rebukt and absolved. Patrick Douglas, his brother, became surety for ye penalty.

Monday 22. — Advanced to buy a sand-glass, 10 sh. Scots, or lOd. stg. This was the sand-glass for timing the minister's sermon. It was fixed upon the pulpit, and was ever an object

42 AN ANGUS PARISH

of interest in those days. The glass was guaged for half-an- hour, but that was an absurdly short discourse for that time. It was considered, however, too bad of a minister to exceed greatly the one glass ; however, he was ready for two glasses, or even three, if they carried their remonstrances too far. The sand-glass was often tampered with in those days. Many experiments were tried to hasten its running powers, with the result that the pulpit sand-glass had to be protected by a strong iron guard, and frequently another glass taken, just to have it out fairly with the tamperers. William Hill, the treasurer, is discharged of this office and all by-gone quarters, and James- Christie was chosen to succeed in his room.

21 April 1706. — The Minister and John Hill were appointed to go to the Earl of Strathmore anent the bye-gone annual rent, owing upon his Lordship's bond to the School and Poor.

May 22, 1706. Wednesday. — It was reported by the Minister and John Hill that on Monday last they went to Glamis and showed the bond to my Lord, with the true account of the by-gone annual rent ; but his Lordship, being thronged with business, desired them to come toAuchterhouse (his brother's residence) in the afternoon, which they did accordingly, and were desired to send Mr John Pitcairn, Schoolmaster, to Glamis, on Tuesday, the 21st instant, anent that matter, "who reported that he went there, and his Lordship surveyed the account of the by-gone annual rent, and found the extent thereof to be Five Hundred and Sixteen Pounds Scots ; whereupon his Lordship gave an obligatory ticket, bearing that if there were no receipt or discharge found in his Lordship's custody containing or makeing mention of any part of the same annual rent pay'd contrair to this stated account, then and in that case his Lordship would accumulate the five hundred pounds of by-gone annual rent to the bond of the equivalent sum of five hundred pounds of Principall, granted by his Lordship's father in 1681, which would amount to one thousand pounds in lieall. The Bond and

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 43

Ticket were put into the box. Also the Schoolmaster reported that his Lordship had given him a precept on James Christie in Pitpointie, for the Sixteen Pounds Scots which was over.

The nobleman referred to was John, fourth Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and the brother of Patrick Lyon of Auchter- house. He was the possessor of two of the finest seats in Scotland, namely, Glamis and Castle Lyon (Huntly). He was a good specimen of the courteous and accomplished nobleman of his day, and figured well in society from his tall and commanding appearance. In the reign of Queen Anne he held the office of Privy Councillor with others ; but in the new administration he took no part and held no office, owing, it was alleged, to his antagonism to Presbyterianism. In reading between the lines of the correspondence Avhich passed between him and the Kirk-Session, it is not difficult to see that, like most of the Scottish aristocrats of his time, he was in a very impecunious condition, apart altogether from the fact that he had no great willingness to do his part as leading heritor in a parish under a Presbyterian regime. He was strongly opposed to the Union also, and had he survived doubtless he would have thrown himself with enthusiasm into the cause of the Chevalier. He died on the 10th May 1712.

The family of Strathmore, which figures so prominently in the records of this period, have every reason to be proud of their ancestry. Few of the old Scottish families have a higher ancestral record in the country.

It is descended from Sir John Lyon, son-in-law and secretary to King Robert II., from whom in 1371-2 he obtained a grant of the Thanedom of Glamis ; so that part of the estates has been in the possession of the family for five hundred years. Various members of the family have played important parts in Scottish history.

The first Lord Glamis was one of the hostages for the ransom of James I. of Scotland. The widow of John, sixth Lord Glamis, was burned to death on the Castle Hill of Edinburgh in

44 AN ANGUS PARISH

1537, on a false and most monstrous accusation of conspiring by witchcraft against the life of James V. Such was the gruesome ignorance and fanaticism of the age, that many believed that as a charmer and sorcerer she could only expiate her crimes in the flames. With not a few, however, it may safely be inferred that the reason assigned for her cruel death was not the real reason. Patrick, the ninth Lord Glamis, was Captain of the Guard to James VI., who, as we have already mentioned, created him Earl of Kinghorne. The associations of their fine old historic seat and castle with Shakespeare's " Macbeth " has .given it a world wide renown.

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 45

CHAPTER III.

Thanksgiving for Victory -Precentors of the Olden Time — The ".SnufF- rest ■' — Spurious and Obsolete Coinage — Sabbath-breaking — Giving up the Key — National Fasts — Marriage Contracts — Inspection by Elders — Sacramental Occasions — A Time of Scarcity' — Strathniore's Bond — Cluirch Absentees — Thanksgiving for Deliverances — Pro- clamations— Visitation of Families — Victories of Marlborough — Result of a Duel— The Beadle in Trouble— The Rebellion of 1715— The Battle of Sheriffmuir — Jacobite Troubles — The Laird and Earl of Strathmore Killed.

^\/TAY 5, 1706. — To ]\fr John Turner, Schoolmaster of Va?) Fowlis, for a Session Eook of four quah's of paper, 3/8.

The beddal was ordered to suramond Margaret Fennie to compear and make publick satisfaction, and to order her to speak to the Minister before her publick appearance.

There being no elder in Dronlaw, it was agreed to find one, and Thomas Hill was chosen.

Thursday, 11th July 1706. — There was a Thanksgiving held this day. This Thanksgiving was for the great Victory obtained by Marlborough over the French at Ramillies. This victory led to the submission of Brabant and most of the Spanish ^Netherlands. The collection was 9d. The beddal received 2d. and a supplicant 3d.

Sabbath 14. — John Couper and Margaret Anderson got a testimony to be married at Litf.

To Hugh Lowson for a lock to the latrine. 6d. The latrine was the well-known box of the precentor or leader of the Church Psalmody, in Avhich many notable appearances were made in days when the musical portion of the service occupied a much more subordinate position than it does now.

In those days it was the practice of the precentor to enter the latrine some time previous to the appearance of the minister

46 AN ANGUS PARISH

and sing over the opening psalm. The precentors in those days were generally men of great vocal strength, and the most acceptable and popular were those who led the psalm in stentorian style. Occasionally, in the absence of an elder, the precentor went round with a collecting ladle.

A fine old type of the rural ^jrecentor once informed us that he heard really a grand discourse one day, from the text Proverbs x. 9 — " He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely." He said he had every reason to remember the text and sermon well, because it unfortunately happened, when he had completed his round with the ladle in the gallery and had reached the top of the stair on his way down, he fell all his length, and he and the contents of the ladle were found badly mixed up near the foot of it. It was quite clear, he said, that he had not been walking very uprightly, or he should never have come down the stair so abruptly as he did.

This same worthy remembered very well when snuff was preferred by some of his associates to bread. He said that in the church which he attended when a young lad the minister used to call a halt after a certain head of his discourse was ended, produce his snuff-mull, and take a hearty and vigorous pull. All the snuffers in the congregation took the hint ; and this was known as the "snufi'-rest." After a really refreshing and invigorating snuff, the voice of the minister was heard calling them to attention. Brethren ! Third head ! He sagely pointed out that one great advantage of the snuff-rest was, it prevented any disturbance of the kind during the rest of the service ; " for in some kirks the clattering of mulls was tarrible."

July 14, 1706. — Elizabeth Fyfe brought sufficient testimony from Errol preceding Martinmas 1704. A testimony was given to William White liveing att Edinburgh.

That day the Kirk-Session counted and cleared with James Christie for the by-past quarter, and allowed to Jiim for casting and carting fealls and divots to repair the beddal's liouse, 2/6.

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 47

Given to Henry Matthew, supplicant, lO^d. Put into the box of un-current copper, £1 : lis : 2d. Scots. Taken out of the box of cash, £1 : 4s : Hd. Scots.

The bad copper was either sold to the local blacksmith, or to hawkers who travelled regularly throughout the country with their pannier-ponies, buying up the worn and discarded copper. It was generally sold at about 7d. per Dutch pound. At this time obsolete dollars, rix-dollars, turners, bodies and doits found their way into the Session-box. They were found in considerable quantities in Dundee ; because the Port carried on a large foreign trade, and the sailors got rid of them in the ale-houses with which the Port was well stocked. The doit was a Dutch coin, and the name still lingers in the expression. "It's not worth a dite," and was a highly popular church coin, Bodies were equal to twopenny pieces of Scots money. The groats and bawbees were hailed with delight by the elders. The groat was equivalent to four shillings Scots, and the groat was the common payment for dressing a corpse or digging a grave. A bawbee was equivalent to a sixpenny piece Scots, or ^d.

On special occasions the elders placed collecting-plates at the kirk stiles, and in their blue or black Sunday bonnets they stood like trained sentries at their posts, and were fully prepared to pounce upion those who tried on their old tricks, with doits. This was precisely the kind of prank Burns would revel in and was quite familiar with, for he tells us : —

" When by the plate we set our nose, Weel heaped up wi' ha'pence, A greedy glower black-bonnet (the elder) throws, And we maun draw our tippence."

Aug. 18, 1706. — John Anderson and his accomplices being called, compeared and acknowledged their guilt before the Session, for yokeing their carts on Sabbath evening, and they being rebuked and haveing given solemne promise that they would never be guilty of the like again, the Session thought it best to dismiss them.

48 AN ANGUS PARISH

In those days all parishioners were compelled to go 1 o church. None were to be found on the roads or at street corners, except those who were viewed as past all reclamation. Any attempts to Avork man or beast on the day of rest met with severe censure and heavy penalties. Even children found playing at marbles, penny-stone or pal-aals, speedily found themselves in the hands of the local seizers, and spanked as effectively and in the same old Scottish fashion as George Buchanan Avhipped into order the future King of Scotland.

J^ov. 3, 1706. — This day John Hill, elder, laid down the charge of being elder, and gave in his key of the box, which was accepted of his hand. There was a Fast appointed by the Commission of the General Assembly for Her ]\Iajesty's Preservation (Queen Anne) and for the Protestant religion, and also for the Treaty then on foot between Scotland and England,

Xov. 10, 1706. — Abraham Nicol was put in the Pillar for the second time. Jean Smith was in the Pillar for the third time and absolvit. Abraham Nicol gave his ticket for 5/- of her penalty, and she laid a pledge in James Christie's hand for ye other £1 Scots, or 1/8.

It is very curious to note, that when a penalty was not forthcoming in the shape of money, even pledges in kind were received without the slightest compunction by the elders.

Given to aliment and transport Janet Sheriff to Montrose, 8d. When Kirk-Sessions found it to be a struggle to maintain their own poor, they never hesitated to remove new arrivals from the parish. In Aberdeen, they were so strict in keeping their collections for their local poor, that special badges were issued by the authorities for their ])rotection. They also appointed scourgers, and ordered them to whip all strangers mercilessly out of the town. In the 16th century, the Council of Dundee enacted " that no beggars be tholit within the Burgh but quilk are born within the same, and that nane of them be suffered to beg, except they (having the town's seal upon their hat or cloak) be auld, cruikit, or debilitatit be great seikness."

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 49

To Alexander Duncan, a poor schoUar, 2d. To Margaret Oliphant, to buy her shoes, 1/2. Eeceived Andrew Hill's penalty, 6/8. Received John Barrie's penalty, 6/8.

In January 1707, the Scottish Parliament agreed to the Parliamentary Union of England and Scotland, after long opposition from the Scottish people. The chief provisions were (1) The Union of the two Kingdoms as Great Britain. (2) The Crown of the United Kingdom to pass to the Electress Sophia of Hanover and her heirs, being Protestants. (3) Sixteen Scottish Peers and forty-five Members of the Commons to be elected. (4) The Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland to be maintained. (5) Scotland to keep her own laws and customs relating to property and private rights, and also the Court of Session and her courts. (6) All the rights of trade, free intercourse, and citizenship to be the same for Scottish and English subjects.

Feb. 2, 1707. — That day it was enacted that from henceforth, for preventing encroachment upon Sabbath days, no contracts should be held upon Saturday, but upon any other day of the week the parties concerned please, and tlie Minister is to intimat the same from the pulpit on Sabbath next.

Marriages at this time were very frequently of a very boisterous and over-festive description. Even when they were celebrated in Church it was customary to have the procession headed by a piper or pipers to and fro, and the subsequent proceedings were altogether lively in the extreme. The guzzling, ale-drinking, and piping, fiddling and dancing which went on till all hours in the morning Avere not quite conducive to Church attendance.

It was enacted also, that every Sabbath day the elders who gather the collections shall survey the change-houses and other houses in the Kirktoun after the first prayer, before the afternoon sermon, and reprove those tliey shall find there for the first fault, but, if found after, to delate them to ye Session.

June 1, 1707. — That day the Minister represented to the

50 AN ANGUS PARISH

Session that he spoke to the Earle of Strathmore anent the money resting to them by his Lordship for the use of the School and the native poor of the Parish, who promised to give a satisfactory answer thereanent in a short time.

The elders were also enjoined to have a narrow inspection of people's behaviour in their respective quarters, and to make report thereanent before the administration of the Lord's Supper.

Given to Andrew Hill for repairing Isobel Martine's hoose, being a poor blind woman, 8d.

1707. — July 6. — Sermon only once, the Minister assisting at the Sacrament at Liff. Sabbath 13. — The Minister made publick intimation that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper would be administrate on ye first Sunday of August, no impediment falling in the way, and exhorted the people to consider seriously the weightiness of this matter, and to make suitable preparation for the same. Sabbath 20. — The people are again exhorted to serious and suitable preparation for ye Sacrament. Sabbath 27. — That day the Minister exhorted the people again to serious preparation for ye Sacrament, and intimate that the Fast Day is to be on Thursday, 31st inst., and enjoyned the people to punctual observation thereof. Thursday, 31st July. — Fast Day observed. Mr Alexander Scott, Minister att Lifif, preacht in the forenoon, and Mr James Marr, Minister att Muirhouse (Murroes), preacht in the afternoon. Saturday, 2nd August. — Preparation Day observed. Mr James Hodge, Minister att Longforgan, preacht first, and Mr Walter Ainzlie, Minister att Lundie and Fowlis, preacht after him. Sabbath, August 3. — The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was celebrated, and Mr Thomas Mitchell, Minister att Abernyte, preacht first in the forenoon, and our ]\Iinister preached second. After- noon-— Mr John Dalgleish, Minister at Dundee, preacht. Monday, 4th. — Thanksgiving Service. Mr George Clephand, Minister at Newtyld, preacht, and then Mr John Dalgleish preacht after him and finished ye work. Given to several

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 51

beggars, 1/7 stg. To William Mann for mending the tables and seats in the Church, 5/10 stg. To beddal to buy his shoes, 2/-" Given for a bason for Baptism, 4/2 stg. To Thomas Kerr, Presbytery Bursar, 6/8. To Synod Clerk, 1/8 stg. To Presbytery Clerk, 1/8 stg. For transporting Walter Kinnaird, being paralytick, 4d.

Sabbath, 10th. — That day the elders are exhorted to invite the heads of families to family worship, and to exhort them to abstain from cursing and swearing, and to inform against those Avho absent from the Church without a relevant excuse, that they may be cited to ye Session. Monday, 25. — Received from John Christie, Balbeuchlie, due to the poor for Elizabeth Christie, his daughter, her buriall place in the Church, 5/6 stg. To John Anderson for mending the School, 4/- stg.

The Autumn of 1707 was marked by great distress, and the sufferings of the poor were great. Meal rose to 12 shillings Scots per peck, or 1/- stg.

1 708. — Jan. 5. — The Minister represented that by a transaction betwixt John, now Earl of Strathmore, and Mr Patrick Lyon of Auchterhouse, his brother, the said Mr Patrick Lyon had agreed to become Debitor to the Kirk-Session for the Principall Sum of Five Hundred Pounds Scots, contained in the deceased Patrick, Earl of Strathmore, their father his Bond, granted to the Kirk-Session for the use and behoof of the School and native poor of the Parish, and for Five Hundred Pound of the by-gone annual rent thereof contained in the said John, Earl of Strathmore, his Ticket given into the Session upon the 22nd day of May 1706; and that the said Mr Patrick Lyon had accordingly granted a heritable Bond to the Kirk Session for the use and behoof of foresaid, for the foresaid two sums, makeing in haill One Thousand Pounds Scots, as also that the Earle had drawn a Precept, payable to the Session, upon James Christie, his tenant, in Pitpointie, for Fourty-one Pound Five Shillings Scots, as a year and a half's annual rent of the Principall sum contained in the originall Bond, due from

52 AN ANGUS PARISH

Whitsunday 1706 to jNIartinmas 1707, being all the annual rents due for the said sum preceding the granting of the foresaid heritable Bond, excepting those contained in the Ticket before-mentioned, upon which the said Principall Bond and Ticket were delivered up to Auchterhouse, whereof the Session approve, and the said heritable Bond being produced in face of the Session was left in the Minister's hands.

The Session then took into their serious consideration the case and present circumstances of Mr John Pitcairn, their Schoolmaster, who is much discouraged by the long distressed case of his family, and the smallness of his sellarie in the place, being only £24 Scots (£2 stg.) and Four Pound (6/8 stg.) Clerk fie, payed wholly by the Session, and a week on the ploughs of the parish, and nothing paid by the heritors. The Schoolmaster's salary was raised to £3 stg. yearly.

That day there was as much un-current silver (obsolete silver) taken out of the Box as was valued at 3/- and given to the Minister to sell for the use of the poor. To a man recommended by the Magistrates of Dundee, who had his hoose brunt, 1/4.

Upon David Nicoll's address to the Session that he was poor, and his child at point of starveing because his wife had no milk to it, he was ordered to see one to nurse the child a quarter, and the Session agreed Avith Andrew Butchart at the Bridge- end of Dronlaw, in Lifi" Parish, that his wife should nurse the child a quarter for 11/8, and that they should get the money once the week, and if the child died before half of the quarter expire, the equal half of the money should be returned to the Session.

Jan. 14, 1708. — Which day the Minister exhorted the elders to take notice of the absentees from the Church in their severall quarters.

A Proclamation of a Fast was made to be held on Wednesday, to be kept throughout all this Isle. The Fast was held, and the collection was 1/10.

The Union which had been brought about was still creating

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 53

strong feeling throughout the country, which the Church of Scotland did its best to allay. There was undoubtedly a feeling abroad that Scotland had the worst of the bargain, and that the sturdy old feeling of national pride and independence, besides political individuality and fondly-cherished tradition, had been assailed, and that Scotland had knuckled down far too ignominiously to England.

25 June 1708. — Given to John Barrie for ale furnished by him in mutchkins, by the Session's orders, to Elizabeth Falconer, the spouse of David Lindsay, in Dronlaw, a seikly and poor Avoman and wanting milk to her infant.

In those days the parishioners made their own malt, and brewed it chiefly into the popular drink of the county, called " two-penny," which, until it became adulterated owing to the multiplied taxes laid on it, was long the favourite liquor of the district. It was a liquor neither much boiled nor much fermented, and always used two months after brewing. There were many brew-houses in the parish, and when the last of them Avas being taken down quite recently, a well was discovered beneath the kitchen floor, which created not a little surprise, although it was said the people always wondered where things went to when they dropped into crevices of the old floor.

May 29, 1708. — That day there was a Proclamation read and intimat, appointing a Thanksgiving on Thursday, 3rd June, for our graciouss and wonderfull deliverance from the late intended Invasion in ]\rarch last, 1708. This was the threatened Invasion of the old Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart, known to the Jacobites as King James the Third of England and Ireland, and the Eighth of Scotland, and to the Tories as the Chevalier de St George, and to the Whigs as the old Pretender. On the death of his father he was proclaimed King of England by Louis XIV. of France, with all ceremony at St Germains. The French King helped to fit out for him an expedition which, however, proved abortive. It is said that when Louis parted with him he remarked, " The best thing I

D

54 AN ANGUS PARISH

can wish you is, that I may never see your face again." He was not long, however, of seeing his face again, as the French Fleet which escorted him was pursued to the Firth of Forth by Admiral Sir George Byng, who took one ship and forced the rest back to Dunkirk. The Pretender fought for the French at the Battles of Oudenarde and Malplaquet, and very curiously he and his rival to the English Throne, Prince George Augustus of Hanover, fought on different sides at Oudenarde.

Given to Hugh Lawson for lead, &c., for making tickets of it for the church use, 1/9. The tickets referred to were tokens, still given out in the Church before communion.

22 July 1708. — That day a Proclamation was read and intimat for a Thanksgiving on Thursday, the 26th, for a Victory over the French near Oudenarde, in Flanders. In tliis month Marlborough and Eugene totally defeated the French under Marshal, the Duke of Vendome, at Oudenarde, on the Scheldt, "West of Brussels. The Fortress of Lille was captured, which was the key of Northern France, and the French forces were driven out of Flanders. Thursday, 26. — The Thanksgiving was observed. The elders are appointed to take notice of the people's behaviour, in order to private visitation of families. The following interesting recommendations were issued by the General Assembly for such visitations. They were not to be held as binding rules, but as "helps." (1) That ere a Minister set out to this work, he must labour to have his own heart in a suitable frame for it. (2) That he choose a suitable time of the year for it, and give due intimation of it. (3) That he be accompanied by the elder of the bounds. (4) "When they enter a house they are to take down the names of everyone within it, of all servants who have recently come, and take notice of those who can read, and of the age of children capable for catechizing, (5) Then the Minister may speak to them all in general of the necessity of regeneration, and the advantage of serious religion and godliness, of piety toward God, and justice and charity toward men. (6) And next, to the servants, of tlieir duty to

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 55

fear and serve God, and to be dutiful, faithful, and obedient servants, and of the promises made to such, recommending to them the reading of the Scriptures and prayer in secret, and love and concord among themselves, and, in particular, a holy care of sanctifying the Lord's day. Here follow other seven instructions of a similar character. Nov. 1708. — The Minister ■desired the elders to take notice of all scandalous behaviour in their severall quarters, and give an account thereof. Thursday, 16. — Enacted (1) That the two elders who collect each Sabbath shall, in the time of the afternoon's sermon, survey all the rooms in the change-houses, and shall impartially give an account of absentees from the Church. (2) John Davie in Easter Adamstone, and Robert Elder in East Leoch, are to be spoken to for being elders in their respective quarters, and they are to think upon an elder for ye Kirktoun. (3) The Minister told that James Whitton in the Kirktoun had bought two of the kirk-yaird trees, for which he paid £6 Scots, or 10/- Paid to him for a coffin for a poor woman, Margaret Esplin, 5/- For file to her buriall, 1/- To David Lindsay's distressed and poor family, 4/2 stg.

The beddal was ordered to uphold the church-yard dykes, according to use and wont.

Monday, 20. — Owing by John Thain for some beare and a €oat which belonged to Umquhl (late) Marjory Esplin, 2/8 stg. These effects, which curiously had become the property of the Session, were given to John Thain, he being poor and haveing a small family.

Mary Barker being thrice summond to the Session and not compearing, they declared her contumacious and referred her to the Presbytery.

Feb. 17, 1709. — There was a Thanksgiving observed for the good success Her Majesty and Allies had last Campaign. Collect. 5d. This Thanksgiving was held for the brilliant series of Victories won by Marlborough, in the great War of the Spanish Succession.

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The elders were desired to give ane account of the poor who cannot maintain themselves, that they may be supplied ; and inform also against all immorality, and who omitt family worship. No sermon, the minister being in Edinburgh, and none appointed to supply for him.

May 15. — That day James Christie, elder, being cited to attend the Justiciary Court at Perth, got 2/- to defray his expenses because he was poor.

June 2. — The people are appointed to come to church, Sabbath next, at 9 o'clock in the forenoon ; because the Minister is to be employed att the Sacrament of Tealine, and those who are able are exhorted to go there.

Monday, Aug. 1. — Which day the Minister represented to the Session that he heard from severall hands, of the bad circumstances of James Christie, in Pitpointie, who owes them ane <£100 Scots (£8 : 6s : 8d.) by bond ; as also that he had paid nothing of ye £41 : 5s. (Scots) precept granted by the Earle of Strathmore upon him, and that he paid not the annual rents of that bond punctually. The Minister was appointed, Avith the assistance of any of the elders he pleased, to use legall diligence against the said James Christie, and take all proper methods for getting payment of that money.

The elders are appointit to take notice of people's behaviour in their rexive (respective) quarters.

Charles Lyon being called, compeared, and on his knees before the Session confest his scandal, and Avas appointit to appear publickly next Sabbath, and to come to the Minister to be conversed with in private before sermons. Charles Lyon was on the Pillar for I" rebuked and continued. James Christie gave into the Minister of un-current coin, £2 : 14s. Scots. Charles Lyon was again on the Pillar, because he had not his penalty in readiness.

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 1709. — There was a Thanksgiving Service held for great Victory. This service was in gratitude for the Victory at Malplaquet. Marlborough and Prince Eugene, with

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 57

a great loss to themselves, and no adequate result, defeated the French under Marshals Villars and Boufflers at Malplaquet, near Mons. This led to the capture of Mons.

Nov. 27. — That day Her Majesty's Proclamation was read and intimat anent a contribution to relieve the people in the Canongate of Edinburgh, who had their houses demolished and their effects consumed by an accidental fire — Collect. 5/-.

Jan. 8, 1710. — 'No sermon, the Minister being sick. March 29th. — This day a Fast was observed. The causes were Success to Her Majesty's Arms by Land and Sea, and for settling a perpetual and lasting Peace. The peojile were appointed to mend their seats.

June 4. — Any who have aught to lay against the lives of Eobert Elder and Hugh Lowson and Andrew Anderson, why they may not be ordained elders, are desired to compear before the Session to be holden for that effect on Saturday next, the 10th inst., and object against the same, or be silent for ever. The elders are desired to give ane account of absenters from the Church, and who are at variance with their neighbours. That day Janet Fullarton was in the Pillar, and rebuked by the Minister.

A testimonial was given to John Ker, for six years and a quarter preceding Martinmas 1708.

Given in by Grizelle Watson, by appointment of the Presbytery, for her scandalous ongoing with Ogilvie of Peill, £10 Scots. To two supplicants, 1/2. To Mr John Gow, student in Divinity, 1/6. To two beggars, 2d.

Sabbath, 25.— Mr M'Gill preacht again upon Luke xv. 22. Our ^linister from Jeremiah 1. 5, and in the afternoon Mr James Hodge of Longforgan. His text was John xvi. 23.

Patrick Ogilvie, being cited to the dyet upon information of his scandalous behaviour, compeared and confest that he was guilty of swearing and cursing and scandalous carriage, and is appointed to compear before the congregation and inak a publick acknowledgement.

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The Lady Auchterhouse promised to pay Mary Barker's penalty, £8 : 8s. (Scots), 13/4. The Lady referred to was the daughter of Mr Carnegie of Findhaven, and the wife of the Hon. Patrick Lyon. Some observations of an offensive nature having been made by Lyon of Brigton regarding her personal character, during a drunken brawl in Forfar, led to a fight, in the course of which the young Earl of Strathmore was run through with a rapier by Carnegie of Findhaven, whilst endeavouring to separate the antagonists. This happened in 1728.

Given for a deall and one half to mend the communion tables, 1/-. To several beggars, 1/-. To John Anderson, seik and bed-fast, three farthings. To John Youlay for cutting and sawing a tree, and mending the kirk seats and tables, 3d. To David Anderson, for assisting at ye wark, -^d.

July 2. — John Gray, ye beddal, was before the congregation for drunkenness and scandalous behaviour, and rebukt by the Minister,

This is surely an example of a lamentable- lapse in unexpected quarters, when the Minister's fac-totum, the parish constable, the gravedigger, the beddal, and server of no end of citations, appeared to receive a castigation from his Bishop. This must have been a choice day for John's numerous admirers amongst the parochial gallants, worthies, and viragos he had led to the Pillar and devoted so much attention to.

Oct. 22, 1710. — To Thomas Anderson, two days meat and fie, and for casting seven hundred divots for repairing the school and work thereat, 1/8 stg. To John Gordon, deaf and dumb, 1/-.

Nov. 27. — There was a Thanksgiving held for a Victory h\ Spain and success in the last Campaign. Several successes had been obtained over the forces of Philip V. After these victories, however, General Stanhope and the English forces were driven to surrender by Yendome at Brihuega, north-east of Madrid. Spain was thus secured by Philip Y., and the

IN' THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 59

Bourbon Dynasty seated on the Spanish throne. In 1711, "Charles III." of Spain was elected Emperor of Germany as Charles YI., and all cause of war as regarded Spain Avas at an end. To David Lindsay, in his distress, for a firlot of meall, 2/10. It was enacted that the elders who make the collections survey the ale-houses and other houses in the Kirktoun in the time of the afternoon sermon. James Anderson being delated as a habitual swearer, the Minister was appointit to speak to him in private. John Anderson, his son, delated as one who absents from the Church is to be cited to their next sederunt. David Cuthbert and Patrick Low were delated for debateing about a bargain in the church-yaird on the Sabbath day. To Elizabeth Anderson, to pay her house meall (rent), 1/8. To two beggars at the kirk door, 2d.

Oct. 7. — Given to Barbara Hill going to attend the Justiciary Court at Perth as a Avitness, to bear her expenses, 3/4. For leading John Anderson (poor), his turfs, 7|d. Thomas Hill, in Greenburn, being delated for counting and drawing his sheep upon the Sabbath from David Thain's flock, was cited, called and compeared, and upon his humble confession and promise never to do any such thing in time to come, was rebukt and dismissed. Abraham Nicoll was delated for breach of the Sabbath, by flyting and threatening to strike Eobert Davie. He was rebukt and dismissed.

Dec. 16. — No sermon — the Minister attending his father at his death. To a tree, to be rungs to the steeple leeather (ladder), lOd. To a bell tow, 2/8.

Jan. 8, 1712. — The people frequenting the Church, and their carriage and keeping up of family worship is to be inquired into by the elders. To Jaiues Whitton, shoemaker, for a thong to ring the bell tongue, 1/1.

Sept. 5. — Charles Lyon was in the Pillar for the 5th time. To John Baillie, to help to pay Isobel Martin's coffin, 1/8. For a quire of paper, to contain the Session's minutes and accounts, 7d. To the beddal 2d; and to him for going to

60 AN ANGUS PARISH

Glaniis to summond Isobel Black to satisfy the Cliurch, Id. On the following Sunday, Isobel Black was twice in the Pillar, and paid in part of her penalty, 6/8 stg. The day being stormie and the people not well convened, Charles Empson's contribution was delayed till there should be a more frequent congregation. Lady Auchterhouse is still due 13/4 stg. for Mary Barker's penalty. Two new "broads" are appointed to be made for collecting the poor's money.

This day the Session renewed their Act, appointing the elders to visit the ale-houses and other houses in the Kirktoun in time of afternoon sermon. Balbeuchlie has paid his two buriall lairs in the Church — £13 : 6s. : 8d. Scots.

June 14, 1713. — There was a Proclamation intimat from the pulpit, by the Queen's authority, appointing a publick Thanks- giving for the Peace with France. The great war which had lasted since 1702, ended in March 1713 with the Treaty or Peace of Utrecht. France acknowledged the Hanoverian Succession in England, and withdrew her support from the old Pretender. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland were ceded to Britain. Spain gave up Gibraltar and Minorca. Great Britain was now in the front rank of European Powers.

To a Minister's relict, 1/- To a paralytick gentleman, 1/2. To William Gray for mending the thong that hings the bell tongue, 3d. To the Schoolmaster for teaching a poor scholar the summer quarter, 6|d. To Gilbert Fergusson for going to Kirriemuir on Session business, 3d. The elders were ordered to take notice of absentees from the Church, and of the disorders in severall quarters.

Jan. 24, 1714. — Charles Lyon, called and not compearing, is declared contumacious, and a fugitive from discipline. John Gray, the beddal, acted as sponsor for a child, baptised by the Minister on ye authority of the Kirk-Session, and presented the child for baptism. The father of this child was the above- named fugitive from discipline. Not long ago Ave found John Gray disciplined for drunkenness ; it is pleasing to find that he

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 61

has so far amended his habits as to be reckoned competent to act as sponsor on this occasion.

Sept. 18, 1715. — 'No sermon, the Minister being absent. Sept. 25. — [No sermon, the Minister being absent. Oct. 2. — No sermon, the Minister being absent on account of the Troubles of the Un-natural Kebellion. The cessation of divine service is suggestive of troublous and dangerous times, and the explanation is, that the famous Rebellion of 1715, known as the '15, had broken out.

To the great and bitter disappointment of the Popish and Jacobite party, George, of the House of Hanover, succeeded Queen Anne in 1714, under the title of George I. He was a brave soldier, a lover of peace ; but shy, sullen, and far from attractive in looks and manners. What specially distinguished him, and really brought him to the British Throne, was his staunch adherence to Protestantism. By all the Protestant Loyalists he was warmly welcomed, and no more reliable supporters did the Hanoverian Family find in the country than amongst the clergy of the Church of Scotland. The Jacobites were roused to activity by the accession of George ; riots took place all over the country, and the opposition increased, until the out-look was clearly Civil War. The Presbyterian Loyalists saw what was ahead ; that the Protestant religion, their laws, liberties, and lives, and all that was dear to them as men and Christians, as well as His Majesty King George and the Protestant Succession, were all in hazard by this Un-natural Rebellion. Dundee and the country round were in a ferment of excitement. The Magistrates of the town, influenced by the Episcopalian pastors, forbade all demonstrations on His INIajesty's birthday ; however, the sturdy Presbyterians set their orders aside, held a lively Loyalist demonstration, drank His ]\Iajesty's health, and finished off with a few rounds from their someAvhat antiquated blunderbusses. Further north, the Earl of Mar put himself at the head of the Jacobites, and at the Council which he summoned at Braemar on the 26th of August 1715, in the

62 AN ANGUS PARISH

interests of the Chevalier, amongst other prominent supporters present was the Hon. Patrick Lyon of Auchterhouse, the Laird of the parish, and the uncle of the young Earl of Strathmore. The parish was plunged into strife and division. The heather round the SidlaAvs was on fire. The White Cockade, the Stuart emblem, was abroad. The Jacobites in the County and in Dundee were plotting, planning, and briskly recruiting in town and country. Every effort was being made to bring out the farmers and peasantry. No property was safe. Every stable was emptied to provide horses for the troopers. Every cart was commandeered for baggage and transport. Every rick of hay was pounced upon. Farmers and flock-masters who hesitated to come out had to find substitutes from their plough- men and shepherds. We may be sure that the Minister was too loyal and sensible a man to encourage such a reckless and wild adventure. The excitement was great, and the backers of the Chevalier were confident of winning. Now they felt was their time to strike and carry their man.

The headquarters of the conspiracy in the parish was the old jNIansion-house occupied by the Hon. Patrick Lyon, who was one of Mar's right-hand men, and a very keen Jacobite. There must have been some remarkable gatherings under the picturesque roof of the old hall of the Mansion-house at this time. We can recall the stalwart figures, arrayed in the striking semi-military costume of the age, laying their heads together, poring over secret communications, and in keen, secret conclave over this perilous movement. They were embarking on a hazardous enterprise. They were practically staking their all on it, and well at least some of them must have known what awaited them if they lost and had the hands of a stern Government laid on them. With all their faults and vices the Members of the House of Hanover could strike, and mercilessly, when they resolved. Well had they been warned ; still they resolved to throw their fortunes in Avith the movement. How many men they succeeded in raising in the parish is not

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 63

recorded. Since the Minister had to close the Church, a good

many within the parish must have come out and taken up arms

in the Strathmore Company. Of King George the local

Jacobites had nothing to say but words of derision, mingled

with sneers and scowls of contempt.

" Wha the deil hae we got for a King, But a wee, wee German lairdie ! An' when we gaed to bring him hame, He was delving in his kail-yardie, Sheughing kail and laying leeks, Without the hose and but the breeks ; And up his beggar duds he cleeks, The wee, wee German lairdie ?

And lie's clappit down in our gudemau's chair,

The wee, wee German lairdie ! And he's brought fouth o' foreign trash, And dibbled thern in his yardie.

He's pu'd the rose o' English loons. And brake the harp o' Irish clowns. But our Scots thistle will jag his thumbs, The wee, wee German lairdie."

The Jacobite movement certainly gave rise to many songs of great beauty, dramatic power, and tenderness ; whilst, of course, there were many ditties of mere doggerel. They are all, however, touched with a scornful contempt for those wlio had touched tlie old Conservative feeling, and with a great dislike for the upstart foreigner. When we get behind the scenes a little, however, there is no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that the Jacobite Pretenders were not worth wasting romance, poetry, and song over, and that it was a good day for Scotland and its people when they saw the last of them.

The chosen leader of the Jacobites in Scotland was the Earl of Mar, who had won for himself the nickname of " Bobbing John," because he bobbed from one side to the other, just as his political whims carried him. Shortly before, he had actually been present at the Court of St James, London, and been received by King George as a loyal adherent of the Hanoverian cause. The Jacobite interests were in renegade

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hands accordingly to start with ; for, although a man of courage and of a certain kind of ability, he Avas the creature of impulse, and, as regards military capacity, of no account whatever. On the 6th of Sept., the Standard of the Chevalier was unfurled by him at Kirkmichael, on the Braes of Mar, before a small but resolute body of adherents. The fiery cross went round the Highlands like wild-fire ; the great Highland Chiefs and Lairds called out their men, and a great popular movement in favour of revolt commenced all over the Highlands. The Chevalier was everywhere proclaimed, and not only was the whole country north of the Tay practically in the hands of the Rebels ; but a powerful, though partially disciplined army, five thousand strong, was ready to fight to a man for the Stuart cause. Disaffection spread to the Southern Counties, the capital was in danger, and it seemed as if the Chevalier was to carry all before him. The Government, however, acting under the orders of the great Marlborough, woke up and took vigorous action. Summary proceedings were taken to nip in the bud the Jacobite movement in England. The Duke of Argyle, who had seen much service abroad under Marlborough, was hurried on to tlie front in Scotland to act as Commander-in-Chief of the Royal forces. Fortunately for the Duke, the great army imder Mar was lying still inactive at Perth. It would have been a different matter entirely had that splendid and eager body of Highlanders been under the leadership of a ]\Iontrose or Dundee, for all that was wanted Avas a leader of nerve and capacity. Mar's delay gave Argyle his opportunity, and he soon mustered some three thousand men, for the most part cavalry, amongst the regiments being the famous Scots Greys. In numbers, it was far inferior to the Highland army ; but in discipline far superior. On Nov. 10, Mar, at the urgent demand of the Highland Chiefs, who could not understand the meaning of this apathy and inactivity, left Perth, and, with reinforcements from the Western Clans, was now at the head of ten thousand men. The Duke, informed of his approach,

IK THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 65

inarclieJ out from Stirling to meet him at Sheriffmuir. The battle opened on Sunday morning, the IStli Nov., and both sides fought with the greatest valour. The Highlanders showed all their characteristic impetuosit)^ in the charge ; still the Duke and his army fought well, and held their ground tenaciously. The result was a drawn battle — each army having beaten the left wing of the other. The Duke lost about six hundred men, and Mar about eight hundred in killed and wounded. There was a great chance for Mar had he renewed the battle next day ; for his Chiefs were willing and the spirit of the clans was full of fight; but he lost his head, and withdreAv to Perth. The advantage remained with the Duke of Argyle, Avho not only returned to the field next day and carried off the wounded to Stirling, but stayed the march of the Highland army to the South. While riding over the Muir Avhere the dead and wounded lay, it is said that Argyle and his staff came upon a soldier guarding with loving fidelity the body of an officer w^ho had fallen in the fight. This was an old retainer of the Strathmore family standing by the body of the young Earl of Strathmore, who had been killed. It is said some one asked the old henchman — " Wha's that man there?" His reply was a strange, weird, and pathetic one — " He was a man yesterday." In a letter written after Sheriffmuir by Mar to Oliphant of Gask, he says : — " Poor Lord Strathmore was killed wdien he was a prisoner, and begging quarter, which is something horrid."

Mr Patrick Lyon, the Laird of Auchterhouse, and the uncle of young Strathmore, also fell in the battle. In the despatch sent by the Earl of Mar to Colonel Balfour, the Governor of Perth, dated Ardoch, Nov. 13, 1715, he concludes by saying : " We cannot find above seventy of our men in all killed, among whom were the Earl of Strathmore, the Captain of Clan Eanald, both much lamented, and Auchterhouse missing." Despatches were sent off to the French Coast to inform the Chevalier of what Mar called a great victory.

€6 AN ANGUS PARISH

Throughout September and October 1715, several weeks jjrevious to the Battle of Sheritfmuir, Mr Johnstone and his elders, and the presbyterians in the parish, must have had a somewhat anxious time. In the neighbouring parish of Kewtyld or Newtyle, scenes of incredible lawlessness were witnessed. The situation had long been a peculiarly trying one for the Minister of the parish, for the deprived Episcopalian clergyman, Mr MacKenzie, remained on duty, and Bishop HalHburton, one of the deprived Bishops, resided within a short distance of the Parish Church at the Haltoun, now Hatton Castle. The local influence being so strong and unscrupulous, the bulk of the people attended the Episcopal place of worship, under Mr ]\IacKenzie, whilst the presbyterians were in terror of attaching themselves to Mr Clephane, the parish minister. There was no Kirk-Session, and there was considerable risk in celebrating the communion. Scarcely a parishioner did the Minister dare visit or hold intercourse with.

One Sunday in October, Mr Clephane was stopped by a body of armed hirelings, sent by a local proprietor to prevent him from entering his own Church. He Avas forced to return to the manse and hold service there. Intimidation so prevailed, and the rebellious feeling became so rabid, that not only was the Minister driven out of the manse, but was compelled for safety to leave the country. Spies on one occasion having informed the ringleader that Mr Clephane had prayed for King George and the Hanoverian House, he sent him a letter informing him, if he dared to repeat those prayers he would have him taken prisoner to Perth. Shortly afterwards, this implacable and cowardly Jacobite Laird went with a body of armed men to the manse in search of the Minister, and in the course of their proceedings broke up the doors, smashed up his efi'ects, carried off his goods, and finished ofl' by gallantly sticking their claymores through his very bedding.

All this blackguardism and brutality Avent on before the helpless wife of the Minister and her family, while a Bishop

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. G7

was in residence within a stone's throw. Time works wonders. After the removal of the Episcopahan parson from the parish matters improved, and in the course of a few years, when the Jacobite Revolt had been suppressed and presbyterianism was allowed a free field for its activity, Mr Clephane, by his piety, zeal, and patience, lived to see the principles of his Church triumphant. This worthy, zealous, and faithful servant of Christ, who had long suffered for his principles, died 27th Jan. 1730, aged about 66, after a ministry of thirty-two years. His son, it is interesting to relate, succeeded him in the benefice.

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CHAPTER IV.

The Pretender at Glamis— at Dundee — in the Carse of Gowrie — at Perth— Mar's Army— A Local Jacobite — Mar's Proclamation on Kirk Door— More Jacobites — Female Disturbers of the Peace — Royal Proclamations — Pretender's Return aud Retreat — Tlie Duke of Argyle — Thanksgiving for Victories — " The Hue and Cry" — The Pretender's Subsec|uent Career — The Earl of Airlie now the Laird — The Campbells and Ogilvies — Lord Ogilvie — Fresh Invasion Threatened — "Judgment-like Seasons" — More Rebels — Communion Cups — The Communion — Mort-Cloths — Testimonies.

OjS" the 22nd Dec. 1715, the Pretender, with several of his Jacobite supporters, landed from the Coast of France at Peterhead, and proceeeded to Aberdeen. From this town they made for Fetteresso, in the Mearns, where they were joined by the Earl of Mar and Keith, the Earl Marischal. Here the Pretender was proclaimed King, and received addresses from the Magistrates of Aberdeen and the Episcopal Clergy of the Diocese, who were strongly in his favour. From this place he proceeded to Brechin ; thence to Kinnaird, the seat of the Earl of Southesk, and received quite a royal reception when he reached the ancient and historic seat of Glamis, on Thursday, 5th Jan. 1716. By this time his retinue had so increased, that it is said no fewer than eighty beds were prepared in the Castle for its reception. In a letter from the Castle, Mar wrote of the Pretender that he was a perfect Absalom for beauty and for manners, and the finest gentleman he ever knew ; but INlar's statements, as we may gather from his despatch from Ardoch after Sherifl'muir, were not examples of strict veracity.

Next morning, 6th Jan., the Pretender left Glamis with a gay cavalcade for Dundee, where he received a great reception, and did his iitmost to ingratiate himself with the populace. Mar and Keith were with him, and an escort of three hundred horsemen must have made an imposing display.

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 69

In the High Street lie drew up, and the people crowded round and gave him perhaps the heartiest welcome he ever received throughout his short stay in Scotland. He spent the night in the town house of Stewart of Grantully, at the head of the Seagate, the same house in which young Duncan, the future hero of Camperdown sea-fight, was horn. Next day he made for Mar's headquarters at Perth, by the Carse of Gowrie. He dined on the way at Castle Lyon, now Castle Huntly, and spent the night at Fingask, the residence of an ardent Jacobite, Sir David Thriepland. The entertainment at Fingask must have been a most memorable one, for it is thus quaintly recorded :

" When the King came to Fingask To see Sh' David and his lady, A cod's head, weel made wi' sauce, Took a hunner pund to mak' it ready."

From Fingask he made for Scone, and thence made his grand entry into Perth, where he was hailed as the heir of a long line of Scottish Kings, and one of the auld Stuarts. All preparations were made for his Coronation at Scone, and to provide a crown for him ladies of rank contributed old family heir-looms in the way of jewels. Receptions were held, and a brave attempt made to set up all the functions of a court. However, in Mar's army matters were not moving smoothly. Serious desertions had already taken place. Many of the restless members of the clans took to free-booting on their own account. The army was demoralised.

Then, again, the soldiers were disappointed in this descendant of a long line of Kings who had appeared amongst them. The Chevalier lacked the very qualifications they admired. He was shy, sullen, and awkward, and looked neither a man nor a soldier. To many of them he seemed to be a galvanised piece of matter, for they used to ask " Can it speak 1 " Accordingly, instead of finding a man of high bearing, and one possessed of those martial qualities dear to the clans, they found one quite unequal to such an enterprise and such a high venture in the

E

70 AN ANGUS PARISH

field. The Coronation was abandoned. Xot only so, but Argyle, strongly reinforced by Dutch troops, now after a long delay resolved to drive the Highland army out of Perth. When the tidings of Argyle's advance reached Mar, the order for the evacuation of Perth was given, and the Highland army was soon on the retreat through the Carse for Dundee.

March 15, 1716.— Gilbert Mearns, being cited and called to this dyet, compeared, and being asked — (1) "Why he did not attend the Church, answered that he wgs here sometimes, and att Lundie sometimes, and att Strathmartine sometimes, and this winter he had been infirm. (2) On being asked anent his declaring the Kirk vacant in September last in the ]Minister's absence, he refers that to probation (proof). (3) Anent fixing one of Mar's Proclamations on the Church door, he acknowledged the same. (4) Anent some obscene talk about Jean Luke, denied the same. This Rebel, it will be observed, had the audacity to proclaim the Parish vacant during Mr Johnstone's temporary discontinuance of divine service and absence, and had also fixed up Mar's Proclamation on the kirk door. Here is the famous Proclamation Gilbert ^Mearns fixed up, in which, it will be observed, the name of the Laird of Auchterhouse, Mr Patrick Lyon, appears, and which doubtless found many readers amongst the parishioners.

" Our rightful and hereditary King, James the VIII., by the grace of God, who is now coming to relieve us from our oppressions, having been pleased to entrust us with the direction of his affairs, and the command of his forces in this his ancient Kingdom of Scotland, and some of his faithful subjects and servants met at Aboyne, viz., the Lord Huntly, the Lord TuUibardine, the Earl Marischal, the Earl Southesk, Glengary from the Clans, (jlenderule from the Earl of Breadalbane and Gentlemen of Argyleshire, Mr Patrick Lyon of Auchterhouse, the Laird of Auldbair, Lieutenant-General George Hamilton, Major-General Gordon, and myself, having taken into consider- ation His Majesty's last and late orders to us, find that as this

IX THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 71

is now the time he ordered us to appear openly in arms for him, so it seems absolutely necessary for His ]\Iajesty's service, and the relieving of our native country from all its hardships, that all his faithful and loving subjects, and lovers of their country, should with all possible speed put themselves into arms. These are, therefore, in His Majesty's name and authority, and by virtue of the powers aforesaid, and by the King's special order to me thereunto, to require and empower you forthwith to raise your fencible men with their best arms ; and you are immediately to march them to join one and some other of the King's forces at the Indor of Brae-Mar, on Monday next, in •order to proceed to our march to attend the King's Standard with his other forces. The King, intending that his forces shall be paid from the time of their first setting out, he expects, as he positively orders, that they behave themselves civilly, and commit no plundering or other disorders, upon the highest penalties and Ms displeasure, which it is expected you'll see observed.

" Now is the time for all good men to shew their zeal for His Majesty's service — whose cause is so deeply concerned — and the relief of our native country from oppression and a foreign yoke, too heavy for us and our posterity to bear, and to endeavour the restoring not only of our rightful and native King, but also our country to its ancient, free, and independent constitution, under him whose ancestors have reigned over us for so many generations.

"In so honourable, good, and just a cause, we cannot doubt •of the assistance, direction, and blessing of Almighty God, who has so often rescued the Royal family of Stuart and our country from sinking under oppression.

" Your punctual observance of these orders is expected, for the doing all which this shall be to you and all you employ in the execution of them a sufficient Avarrant. Given at Brae-Mar, 9th Sept. 1715. "Mar."

Sabbath, April 15.— William Horn, Gilbert M'Millan, Wm. Kininmonth, David Lowson, John and James Gillies, were cited

72 AN ANGUS PARISH

to appear before the congregation this day for coming about 10 of the clock at night, when the Pretender landed in the nation, and ringing the bell and committing other insolencies, to the great surprize of the parish, at that time of night, and ane other day for building a bonfire, drinking the Pretender's health, and speaking many reproachfuU words against the King and Government. Being sharply rebuked by the Minister before the congregation, they were dismissed.

These adherents of the Chevalier Avere determined to rouse the parish, and they seem to have carried their proceedings through right lustily and royally. It is, however, all over now, and it is most interesting to recall these stirring incidents in an adventure in which they seem to have been deeply interested. "When we climb to the White Top of Sidlaw, where so many bonfires have been kindled on memorable occasions within recent years, it is interesting to remember, that on the same peak the Jacobites of the parish played their OAvn part in those eventful, picturesque, and romantic times, immortalised in the annals of their country.

It is not difficult, either, to recall one of the favourite songs of the time, which they rolled out in boisterous rural style, with the flowing ale-caups in hand : —

" Awa, Whigs, awa, Awa, Whigs, awa, Ye're but a pack o' traitor loons, Ye'll ne'er do good at a'.

Our thristles flourished fresh and fair,

And bonny bloomed our roses ; But Whigs came like a frost in June,

And withered a' our poses. Awa, Wliigs, &c.

Our ancient crown's fa'n i' the dust !

Deil blind them wi' the stoure o't, And write their names i' his black beuk,

Wha gae the Whigs the power o't. Awa, W^higs, &c."

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 73

And there was that other famous song, already well known in

the early days of the '15.

" The aiild Stuarts back again, The auld Stuarts back again, Let howlet Whigs do what they can, The Stuarts will be back again.

Then what are a' their West-land crews ? We'll gar the tailors tack again ; Can they forestand the tartan trews, And auld Stuarts back again ? "

Sabbath, 29th. — Matilda Stevenson and Isabel Couper, being cited and compeared, were dealt with successively for scolding and using scandalous and indecent language. These lively viragos were sharply rebuked by the Minister, and upon promise of future good behaviour were dismissed. It is pleasing to know that a marriage enlivened the parish also ; for on Saturday, the 28th, Samuel Brown, a souldier in CaiDtain Scot's Company in the Garrison of Dundee, and Margaret Finney, in this parish, were contracted.

It is interesting to notice from the records which follow the '15, that the eldership remained intact, and that the Minister had by his example succeeded in keeping the Session firm for the Hanoverian Government under great difficulties, threats, and bribes. Shortly after the Minister's return to duty, an Act of Assembly was intimat from the pulpit for a voluntary contribution for building a bridge over the Kiver Strome in Zetland.

While the Minister was assisting at the Lord's Supper at Lundie, Mr John Dalgleish (the father-in-law of Mr Johnstone) tender and guttish (sic), not able to go to the Church, preacht twice in the Minister's house. Agnes Christie was on the Pillar for the 3rd time, rebukt by the Minister, and paid her penalty, 5/-, and promised to pay the other 1/8 when she got money. His Majesty's Proclamation and Acts of Assembly and Acts of Parliament against Immorality were read from the pulpit.

74 AN ANGUS PARISH

Advanced at severall times in the time of the Rebellion to supplicants, 1/-. The Rebellion had brought untold misery to the poor wandering over the country. When Central Scotland was over-run by the soldiers of Mar and their camp-followers,, there was little support, it may well be understood, to be found by the poor. To other supplicants, 1/-. To a tow for bell, 2/6.

Jan. 1, 1716. — No sermon, the day being stormy. Collection 5d. To John Gray, seik and distressed, 8d. Buying oill to ye bell, 2d.

The stay of the Chevalier's army in Dundee was short. Argyle was moving along the Carse in close pursuit, and when he entered the town the insurgents were gone, and the rebels- amongst the magistracy and clergy wisely out of sight. The Provost, Bailies, and most of the Councillors, having sided with the Rebellion, Argyle at once on his arrival put the town into the hands of a temporary magistracy, and issued an order to that effect.

May 7th. — A Thanksgiving was held for the late Victories and Deliverances. This Thanksgiving was held in gratitude for the flight of the Pretender from Scotland. Seeing that all was lost when the army reached Montrose, steps were taken to get him safely out of the country. On the evening of Feb. 4, 1716, he was quietly got into a small boat and taken out to a ship not far off, bound for France. His melancholy and miserable retreat and ignominious escape brought down upon him many sallies of Whig contempt, the cleverest of which took the shape of a police " Hue-and-Cry." To understand it properly, however, it must be remembered that an absurd story was set abroad that the Pretender was not the Queen's son at all ; but a child which was smuggled into the Queen's room in a warming-pan. The joke was carried so far, that for many long years afterwards miniature tin warming-pans were worn in the button-holes of the Whiggish wags to show their contempt for the blatant and foolish pretensions of the Jacobites. Here is the Hanoverian " Hue-and-Cry," which hits oif the Pretender

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 75

with a vitriolic pen : — " Whereas, one James Stewart, ahas Oglethorpe, alias Chevalier, alias Pretender, alias King, alias no King, neither Caesar nor IS^ullus ; neither a man nor a mouse, neither a man's man, nor a woman's man, nor a statesman, nor a little man, nor a great man, neither Englishman, nor Frenchman, but a mongrelian between both ; neither wise nor otherwise, neither soldier nor sailor, nor cardinal, without father or mother, without friend or foe, without foresight or aftersight, without brains or bravery, without house or home, made in the figure of a man, but just alive and that's all ; hath clandestinely lately eloped from his friends through a back door, and has not been seen or heard of since, and, whereas the same alias pretended to come here to watch and to fight, to bring men and money with him, to train an army, and march at the head of them, to fight battles, and besiege towns, but in reality did none of these, but skulked, and whined, and speeched, and cried, and stole to his head-quarters by night, went away before morning, and having smelled gunpowder and dreamed of an enemy, burned the country and went away by the light of it."

In 1719 the Pretender married one of the wealthiest heiresses in Europe, Maria Sobieski, grand-daughter of John Sobieski, King of Poland, and by her had two sons, Charles Edward, born in 1720, known as the Young Pretender, and Henry Benedict, afterwards Cardinal York, born 1725. The Chevalier spent most of his later years in Rome, where he died in 1766, after a remarkable career, aged 78. He is described by one who saw him shortly before his death as a thin, ill-made man, extremely tall and awkward, of a most unpromising countenance, a good deal resembling James II., and as one who has extremely the air and look of an idiot, particularly when he laughs or prays — the first he does not do often, the latter continually. Mar died at Aix-la-Chapelle in exile.

The Rebellion, so often referred to in those records, caused the wreckage of many a proud old Scottish family, and an amount of misery which it took many years to eradicate. The

76

AN ANGUS PARISH

Highland army, utterly broken and sickened at heart, gradually melted away in detachments amongst the northern mountains, where, of course, it was imposssible for Argyle to follow them.

The Jacobite Rising in England being completely overthrown at the Battle of Preston, fought on the same day as Sheriffmuir, was followed by terrible reprisals.

I^oblemen of the leading families in the North of England were executed on Tower Hill ; others were hanged, and many others were transported as slaves to the North American Colonies. The King and Government showed little mercy, and many families lost their all. Retaliation in Scotland was not accompanied by such revolting displays of vengeance as in England. The estates of many of the Jacobites, however, were confiscated, and here is the rental of the real estate of Sir David Thriepland of Fingask, seized by the Hanoverian GoA'ernment : —

Money — Rent payable in money, ..... £147 1 4

Barley, 144 bolls, at 7/- per boll,

Oatmeal, 320 bolls, at 7/- per boll, and Oats, 10 bolls, at do.

Wheat, 48 at 7/- Pease, 21 at do.,

Yarn, 20 sps., 1 hasp, 3 heer, at 2/- per sp., .

Geese, 79 at 1/- Capons, 77 at 7d. each,

Hens, 33 at 5d. Poultry, 508 at 4d. each, .

Chickens, 20 at 2d. Straw, 21 tlirave at 4d.,

Given to John Whitton, wright, for mending a daske in the Church, and for furnishing timber and naills and other material, 3/4. It is amusing to read of so many entries regarding the repairs of daskes in the Church, and orders given to people to mend their seats. There Avere not many of them — only one or two — but old Angus worthies believed in patching.

Given to a supplicant who had his corns (sic) burnt by Mar's army, 1/- Mar, when at Perth, sent out three thousand men from the Perthshire garrisons, and ordered them, by the instructions of the valiant Chevalier, to burn and lay waste by fire and sword the villages of Auchterarder, Crieff, Blackford,

50	8	0
115	10	0
24	3	0
2	0	9
6	3	11
9	3	1
0	10	4
£355	0	5

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 77

Dunning, and Muthill, with what corn and forage they were unable to carry away. The Pretender, before he embarked at Montrose, left behind him a sum of money — all that he had left — addressed to Argyle, with the request that it might be given to the poor people whose villages he had been compelled to burn on his retreat, so that "I may at least have the satisfaction of having been the destruction of none at a time Avhen I came to free all."

Nov. 26. — The Minister received from the Countess of Strathmore, owing to the Session by precept granted by the Right Hon. John, Earl of Strathmore, on James Christie in Pitpointie — the same being unpaid by him — the sum of £41 5s., whereof given the schoolmaster to account.

Dec. 25, 1716. — The Session mett and constitut with prayer, and all the members being present, which day the Minister represented in Session that he had received from Mr Patrick Ogilvie of Balfour, in name of the Right Hon. David, Earl of Airlie, Two Hundred and Ninety-Seven Pounds of bye-gone annual rent, owing by (Umquhl) Mr Patrick Lyon of Auchterhouse, preceding Whitsunday 1715 : as also the sum of Seventy-five Pound from Whitsunday 1715 to Martinmas 1716, due by the said noble Lord at which Term 1715, the said Principall sum of One Thousand Pounds Scots, became to be due by the said noble Lord by the sale of the Barronie of Auchterhouse to his Lordship : whereupon this Session gave a discharge of all they had received both upon account of his Lordship. The money received in haill, whereof given to the schoolmaster, which with former receipts makes £144, which clears all Sallary and Clerk's fie due to him preceding the Term of Martinmas 1716.

The estates of the late Hon. Patrick Lyon who had been killed at Sheriffmuir, and who died without issue, passed now, as this minute shoAvs, into the hands of the Right Hon. David, Earl of Airlie. He was the brother-in-law of the late Hon. Patrick Lyon, having married in 1696 his sister, Lady Grisel.

78 AN ANGUS PARISH

This nobleman, when a youth, was until 1664 under the care of Mr George Halliburton, afterwards Episcopal Bishop of Dunkeld. His education cost 200 merks a year, or £11 5s. sterling, a sum which indicates the value of money in those days, and the amount received by a tutor yearly for educating a young aristocrat. He was sent to France about 1665 with Mr John Ogilvy as his governor, and settled at Orleans, where he is described by a friend as follows : — " I know not what for a man he'll prove, biit I have heard him speak very fat nonsense whiles." He returned from France with Lord George .Douglas after 6th March 1666, and after staying some time in London returned to Scotland. This Earl of Airlie had two sons, James and John. James, Lord Ogilvie, Avas educated in Dundee. He afterwards took part in the Rebellion of 1715, and his name frequently occurs in the Councils of the Earl of Mar.

It is not remarkable to find him in arms against the Duke of Argyle, for the Campbells and Ogilvies had often crossed swords before. A song, as old as the year 1640, recalls the event which led to the family feud : —

" 0 ken ye ought o' gude Lochiel, Or ken ye ought o' Airly ? They've buckled on their harnessing, And afF and awa wi' Charlie. ' Bring here to me,' quo' the hie Argyle, ' My bands i' the morning early ; We'll raise a lowe sail glint to heav'n I' the dwelling o' young Lord Airly.'

' What lowe is yon,' quo' the gude Lochiel,

• Whilk rises in the sun sae early ?' ' By the God o' my kin,' quo' the young Ogilvie,

' It's m}' ain bonny hame o' Airly ! ' ' Put up your sword,' quo' the gude Lochiel,

And ' put it up,' quo' Charlie ; ' We'll raise sic a lowe round the fause Ai'g3-le, And licht it wi' a spunk frae Airly.'

' It is na my ha' nor my Knds a' reft, That reddens my cheek sae sairly ;

IN THE EIGHTEEXTU CENTURY. 79

But the mitlier and babies sweet I left,

To smoor i' the reek o' Airly. 0 (Inle to thee, thou fause Argyle !

For this it rues me sairly ; Thou'st been thy King and thy country's foe,

From Lochj^'s day to Airly."

Having quitted the rebels just in time with the ^larquis of Huntly, Glengary, and others, Lord Ogilvie escaped with his life. It was a fortunate thing for him that he saw the hopelessness of the enterprise under such an incapable leader as Mar.

He was forfeited, however, by Act of Parliament in the life- time of his father, on whose death, in 1717, the title of Earl of Airly became dormant, in consequence of the attainder. Lord Ogilvie obtained a pardon and remission from the Crown, in 1725; returned home, and died without issue at Edinburgh, 12th January 1731, and was buried in the Chapel Royal of Holyrood House. Five weeks before his death, he married on the 6th December 1730, Ann, daughter of David Erskine of Dun, one of the Lords of Session. The marriage proclamation was made in Auchterhouse Church. His widow subsequently married Sir Alexander Macdonald of IMacdonald, a well-known Jacobite, and died in Edinburgh, 27th November 1735, aged 27.

Dec. 2, 1716. — The Minister and Andrew Anderson reported that they went to Dundee, according to the Session's appoint- ment, and bought two mort-cloaths — A velvet mort-cloath made with all the furniture requisite, and cloth to be a pock for holding it, price £198 Scots, or £16 : 10s. sterling; and an English cloth, unmade, for the meaner sort, costing £25 : 12s. Scots, or £2 : 2s. : 8d. stg. Given to Andrew Anderson, for making the cloth, mort-cloth, 3/4.

In remote times, many bodies were simply buried where they were found, in rude cists, after the pre-historic method. The north side of the cliurch-yard here was also reserved for the dead bodies of gipsies, beggars, and wanderers, which, like those of the unbaptized, excommunicated, and all outside the

80 AN ANGUS PARISH

pale of the Church, were buried without the shadow of decorum. Later on, a rude parish burying-box or coffin was called into use, the bottom of which slipped out with the body and the rest of the box was withdrawn for future use. The coffins of the 18th century were not mounted as they are now, ;ind were carried on spokes to the place of burial. Before the funeral, the beadle called at the manse for the mort-cloth, which was kept in a bag, and off he set to the funeral, ^yhen the coffin was placed on the spokes, he spread the heavy velvet mort-cloth over it and took up his place in front. He carried a hand-bell, which he rung at intervals, sometimes as a signal to relieve the men at the spokes by a fresh detachment, or to warn off evil spirits. When they reached the church-yard, the bell was placed near the head of the grave. The mort-cloth was an important source of revenue for the poor, and formed part of the poor fund. The charges varied according to the rank of the party who had died. It was considered a very special honour to the dead to hire the best mort-cloth, just as it was a mark of honour to carry the coffin shoulder-high. Kirk-Sessions which had a reputation for possessing a fine mort-cloth had frequent demands for it from neighbouring parishes. Whether used or not, the mort-cloth charges Avere strictly insisted upon. There has been much litigation over mort-cloths, and there has been some curious legislation over them. (1) Kirk-Sessions, by immemorial usage, may acquire the exclusive right of letting out mort-cloths to hire within the parish, and of charging certain dues, Avhich are appropriated generally to the use of the poor. (2) Corporations may acquire a joint right to let out mort-cloths for hire, but without that no individual nor association can let out mort-cloths to the prejudice of the Kirk- Session's privilege. (3) Private individuals may use mort- cloths belonging to themselves, but they cannot let them out to others even gratuitously. In other words, the old Kirk-Sessions were the custodiers of those funeral wrappings, and none dared encroach upon their privileges. An old parishioner had a

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 81

curious story to tell about a mort-cloth : — When the French prisoners of war, in the early years of last century, were taken from the port of Dundee to Perth prison by road, they frequently were billeted in the Parish Church of Inchture. A French prisoner getting his eye on the beadle's best velvet mort-cloth managed to secure it, and got it under his arm ready to proceed with it to Perth. The beadle, however, missed it, pounced upon the culprit when he was on the march, and when he asked him what he meant to do with his mort-cloth, he said, " It was just the very ting for velvet slippers."

Grizelle Paton, relict of the deceased John Christie of Balbeuchlie, paid for her husband's burial place in Church, 11/-. Prior to the Reformation, it was a common practice to bury within the body of the Church ; indeed, the Church was the favourite place of burial. This practice was repeatedly prohibited by the General Assembly after the Reformation, but their prohibitions, of course, had no legal effect or force on such a subject.

In 1643, the General Assembly forbade all burial within the body of the Church, where the people met for the hearing of the Word. But, strange to say, in spite of all the Acts of Assembly, and against all the laws of sanitation and the dictates of common-sense, burials long continued to take place in the Church. The Church, indeed, was simply a burial- ground for anyone who would pay the fees. Not only so ; but tablets were allowed, as in the Churches in England, to be laid down over the dead. The remains of many of those tablets, with inscriptions and coats of arms, may still be seen in the passages of the present Church.

This Church, like many others of the period, was not only a dark, damp, and dismal building, but the atmosphere was foul, and almost pestilential. It might be said of many of the congregations of this time, that when they appeared before God, like Job, they rolled themselves in dust and ashes — even the ashes of their fathers.

82 AN ANGUS PARISH

Given to Hugh Lowson, for a lock to the steeple, 8d. Given to the beddal for his shoes, last year, 3/4. Given to John Gray to buy him shoes, 2/6.

This day it was enacted, that they who have the use of the best mort-cloth within the parish shall pay for the same 2/6 ; and to the beddal for carrying it, 4d., and without the parish, 3/-. ; and sixpence to the beddal for carrying it. Robert Mason, a groom to His Grace the Duke of Gordon, offered to satisfy for scandal.

March 3, 1717. — Isabel Winton being cited to this dyet, and called, compeared, and being asked why she habitually absented from the Church, told it was for want of cloathes, and promised to give punctual attendance in time coming.

Wed., 3rd April 1717. — A Fast was held this day for ane Invasion threatened from Sweden and for the Judgment-like Season. The elders were desired to take special notice of those in their severall quarters who did not punctually observe the Fast.

N^o sooner was the Rising of 1715 suppressed than fresh conspiracies were hatched. The Invasion referred to was that contemplated by the Jacobites, who in considerable numbers had sought refuge abroad, backed up by a large body of troops — this time from Sweden.

The ambitious madman of a King, Charles XII. of Sweden, was so enraged at the support lent by the House of Hanover at the siege of Stralsund, that he made up his mind to drive King George from the throne of England, and supplant him by the Pretender. He also endeavoured to draw Peter the Great into the scheme.

The home Jacobites made the Swedish Embassy of London their rendezvous, and the foolish ambassador their tool. General Wade, however, dropped in upon him by the orders of the Government, seized papers which seriously compromised his King, and exposed the whole conspiracy.

Serious trouble was likely to arise, for no escapade was too

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 83

reckless for a King like Charles XII., suffering chronically from a badly swollen head. Lack of transports and ships of war to protect them, and the vigilance of the British squadrons on the seas, spoiled the project utterly ; but the one thing which burst it up entirely was the death, by a gun-shot wound, of the King of Sweden. The Kirk-Session was called upon to keep an eye on the local Jacobites, and report all who did not fall in with the celebration of this Fast. It is interesting to observe the unswerving loyalty of the Church of Scotland to the Government. The Scottish Episcopal Church was Jacobite to the core ; but, on the other hand, the ministers and elders of the Church firmly stood by the throne against all comers.

One disaster too frequently comes on the heels of another, and these national troubles were augmented by seasons so disastrous that they were reckoned "judgment-like." A severe frost had for some time previous to this prevailed over the country, and caused great distress throughout its length and breadth. The land was in its grips from 24th ^ov. 1715 to 9th Feb. 1716. Rivers and lochs and mill-ponds were every- where frozen up — the necessities of life could not be procured from the mills as water-power was gone, and the extraordinary and long continued fall in temperature came as a blight and desolation on the poor, weak, and suffering. The unusual spectacle was presented of a Fair held on the River Thames on which oxen were roasted, and scenes witnessed on an ice- bound river extremely rare in this country.

Janet Shippart gave David Thain, Bonniton, debtor for five pounds ; fourteen shillings of her penalty, of which she had paid <£! : 10s., and because she had no more money, she told her husband would pay the other sixteen shillings when he came to satisfie the Church. The j)eople were exhorted to convene against the morrow to receive their tokens. The Fast-day service to begin at 10 o'clock.

Saturday, 6tli June 1717. — William Horn called, compeared, and interrogated anent the disorderly baptism of his child. (1)

84 AN ANGUS PARISH

Denied that he was present at the baptism thereof. (2) That he did not know who baptized it. (3) He did not know who were witnesses att the baptism. However, he gave obligation under the penalty of £100 Scots, for himself and his family's good behaviour, and the attending of ordinances and discipline in time coming.

Next — David Lowson called, compeared, and being interrogat why he absented from Church, told — (1) That he was employed about his master's service in the house and garden. (2) That he could not endure the cold in the open Church, and refused to attend ordinances, and, especially, examinations ; and that he would take no sacrament and give no account of his principalis to the Minister nor any for him, and that he Avould rather keep his child unbaptized than have it baptized under the present Church, government, and so went off.

Next — Silvester and James Gillies called, compeared, and being interrogat and threatened anent their drunkenness and Sabbath breach, went off without giving any satisfaction.

Next — William Kinmouth called, compeared, and interrogat and examined about the profanity and abuse that was committed in his house, especially on the Sabbath day, was discharged (forbidden) to sell any more ale.

This batch of offenders against ecclesiastical and civil authority clearly shoAvs that some secret movement was again at work amongst the people, and that they were being instigated by men of influence in the parish and district to defy all authority.

July 17, 1717. — The beddal called at the most patent door if any person was present to object against the ordination of John and Thomas Hill and David Chalmers, and none compearing, the Minister is ordained to proceed to the ordination next Sabbath.

This day Janet Gibson was twice in the Pillar and rebukt by the Minister, and paid her penalty, 6/8. Charles Lyon, her party, Avas reported as having fled the country, and gone to be a souldier.

IX THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 85

Wednesday, 31. — The Fast before the Communion was observed. ]\Ir George Fleming, minister at Lundie, preacht first. ]\Ir Thomas Mitchell, minister at Abernyte, preacht second. Mr James ^Nlarr, minister at Muirhouse, preacht in the afternoon.

Saturday. — Mr James Goodsir, minister at Monikie, preacht first ; Mr Robert M'Gill preacht second. Sermon is to begin to-morrow, Sundaj^, at eight o'clock in the morning.

Sabbath, 4 th. — iNlr Robert M'Gill, minister at Kinross, preacht first ; our Minister preacht the action sermon before the tables, and Mr John Gibb, minister at Cleish, preacht afternoon. The people are appointed to meet on Monday at eight o'clock.

Monday, o.^Mr \Yilliam Wingate, minister at Kinnettles> preacht first, and the Rev. John Gibb preacht last. The total collection throughout the Communion celebration was £2 : 12s., whereof is given to two beggars 4d.

This entry is valuable and interesting as illustrating the character and length, of services at this period.

It will be observed that on the Fast-day three different ministers officiated. On the Saturday before the Communion two ministers ofliciated. On the Communion Sunday service began at eight o'clock, and three ministers officiated, besides serving the tables. On the Monday after the communion service began at eight o'clock, and two ministers officiated. The Communion season at this time was characterised by services of great length, and the sermons were, as a rule, of a ponderous order, and devoted to elaborate expositions of doctrine.

The Minister reported that the Session was owing Mr Charles Blair, goldsmith in Edinburgh, One Hundred Pounds, Seven Shillings, and Sixpence Scots (£8 : 7 : 6 stg.) for renewing the old Communion cup, dedicat by (Umqhl) Walter Hay of Dronlaw, and adding of money to make it equal in weight to another new one that was made by the Session, and for engraving on them, and a case to hold them, as is mentioned in ane account, unde the said Charles Blair his hand.

F

86 AN ANGUS PARISH

Acct— 26 July 1717.

Mr Johnstone, Minister att Auchterhouse, Mius. of the Gospel. To Charles Blair, Goldsmith. A pair of Communion Cups, 31 oz., 1.3 clwts., at £4 per oz., £127 4 0

Pay'd to a Graver, .3 0 0

Pay'd for a case to hold them, &c., . . . . 4 4 0

(Scots) £134 8 0 Received ane old Cup, weight 11 oz. 12 dwts., at £2 : 18s.

per oz.

34 1 6

(Scots) £100 7 6

The cups referred to are still in use, and bear the following inscriptions : —

"This Communion Cup. For the Kirk of Auchterhouse. Gifted Be Wr. Hay of Dronlaw, and Reneud Anno 1717."

"This Communion Cup, Belonging To the Parish of Aughterhouse. Bought with the Box Monie, Anno 1717." The un-current Copper, and what was in the Minister's hand before, was put in ye Box.

Sabbath, 18. — The elders are desired to take notice in their severall quarters of those who absent from the publick ordinance. Paid Henry Forrest, glazier in Forfar, for glass and weir (wire) for the Kirk windows, 18/6. Sept. 15. — Contribution to William Smith in Milnhill, who had his house and all his effects consumed with fire, 4/6 stg. Given to John Whitton for a chist (chest) to hold the box, mort-cloaths, and cups, 11/6. Form of marriage upon sufficient testimony — Silvester YouUie in this parish, and Elizabeth Watson in the parish of Lundie, Avere proclaimed pro primo.

Sabbath, 17th Nov. — The people are exhorted to come sooner to the Church because of the shortness of the day. For the second mort-cloath at a burial. Is. For the best mort-cloath at a burial without the parish, 3s. To Elizabeth Jackson for expenses att David Nicoll's buriall, 4s. To the beddall for attendance there, 4|d. Testimony given to Patrick Duncan and Isabel Elder, his spouse, preceding Whitsunday 1716.

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Dec. 15. — This day it was enacted that no servant be feed nor cottars sell without sufficient testimonies from the Paroch from whence they came last, and that they have an honest way of liveing, without being burthensome to this parish, which was appointit to be intimat by the Minister next Sabbath from the pulpit.

Jan. 5, 1718. — To the beddall for extraordinary service at the Sacrament, 8d. To him for this day, 2d. To two beggars, 2d. To Henry Forrest, in compleat payment of his glas account, 10s., discharged.

For lock and bands to the Session-chest.

The Session-chest was at this time the Parish Bank, and every precaution was taken to ensure the safety of the contents. We have this old lock in our j)ossession, and a rare old curiosity it is. It is made of brass and requires two keys to open and lock it. It required, therefore, the attendance of two elders before the box could be opened, just as it requires the attendance of so many officials at a modern bank before the strong-room or large safe can be opened. When an elder resigned in those days he was called upon to surrender his key.

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CHAPTER V.

Different Types of Beggars — Selling Ale on Sunday — The Church Bell — Penny Weddings — Funerals — Curious Collections — Parochial Feuds — Royal Proclamations— The Beadle as Public Cryer — The Plague — Scandals and Disorders— The Rev. John Glass of Tealing — Instructions to Elders and Beadle — Surveying the Change-houses —Breach of Promise Case — Church Absentees — The Victims of the Turks — Sabbath-breaking — The Pillar — Curious Supplicants — Plaids as Mort-cloths — The Preaching Tent— The Beddalship— New Session House — " Putting olf " the Doits.

I -j-I^^EN to John Strachan, carrier, Dundee, for bringing the cups from Edinburgh, 16 shill. Scots (1/4 stg.) This is a most interesting account paid to the old Edinburgh and Dundee carrier, for bringing the silver Communion cups.

To Walter Kinnaird, a paralytick supplicant, lOd. To horse- hyre for carrying him to the next Paroch Church, 4d.

In these records it is curious to note the different types of poor abroad. We find a highly-privileged class who carried testimonials with them licensing them to get relief. It wa& useless giving kSucIi written tickets of leave, because few could read them. Lead or pewter badges were given to them in the form of medals, which they carried on a string. Sometimes they wore a badge upon their right sleeve. These were known as supplicants, and were allowed to stand in church porches and approach the elders for relief from the box. The Session in the above-mentioned case hired a horse, and sent this paralytic on to the next church. Had they failed to do this, they were bound to maintain him, and to do so was to encroach upon the box.

In jDopulous districts the Session took the precaution of providing their local supplicants with tickets or tokens, which they were compelled to produce on their rounds.

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We have some very old tickets or tokens of this period which indicate from their roughness and Avant of finish that they may have been used by the Minister in any case where a local supplicant moved into another parish. A ticket was a great prize for a rover in those days. It was a passport and ticket- of-leave combined, and to lose the ticket was to be socially stranded. At this present moment, seamen especially know the meaning of " losing their ticket."

Sabbath, 16th Feb. — The elders are exhorted to rebuke sin in their severall quarters, and to exhort heads of families to family worship and to inform against those who neglect the same.

Sabbath, 15th June. — William Kinmouth and Margaret Proctor his spouse, being cited to this dyet, for selling ale on the Sabbath and at other unseasonable times, to the servants of Auchterhouse (Lord Airlie) and others, are discharged (forbidden) to do so any more ; otherways they will be proceeded against according to Church discipline.

Given to the schoolmaster for half-a-year's clerk fee, 3/4. George Cargill and Margaret Anderson, both in this parish, Avere contracted, and gave in lieu of their pledges 2/-. Received from Patrick Smith for the best mort-cloath and a grave-room in the Church for the deceasit Elizabeth Christie, 9/2.

Aug. 1, 1718. — This day an address (appeal) Avas made by the distressed Protestants of Lithuania in Poland, and ane Act of Assembly appointing a voluntary contribution for their relief Avas intimat from the pulpit.

The Protestants in this part of Poland Avere suffering great persecutions from an odious fanaticism Avhich had sprung up in -a country noAV in a state of utter anarchy. Some years after this, the General Assembly authorised the support of one or tAvo Lithuanian students in Edinburgh University by collections throughout the Church.

Nov. 30. — This day Janet Swan, in this parish, and Janet Watt, in the paroch of Newtyld, Avere cited for Sabbath

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drunkenness, called and convicted, confest their guilt. The Session appointed Janet Swan to appear before the congregation next Sabbath, and remitted Janet Watt with ane information of her scandall to the Kirk-Session of l!^ewtyld.

Dec. 17. — The elders were appointed to take notice of the people spending the Sabbath, and of their proficiency in knowledge and practice. It is enacted that the schoolmaster have att each Sacrament Three Pounds Scots (5-/) for his extraordinary service, and the beddal 3/4.

Jan. 18, 1719. — The contribution through the parish was gathered on Monday, the 12th, for helping to pay the refounding of the bell, and the Minister commended the people from the pulpit for their frank and generous contribution for so good a work, and exhorted deficients and strangers who often frequent the Church to imitate their example. Given for expenses of transporting the bell, 3/8.

Sabbath, Feb. 1. — Acts against abouses (abuses) at Penny Weddings were read from the pulpit. Penny weddings, or bridals, were functions in the social life of this century in every way characteristic of the times. When the hint of a marriage got abroad, the parochial wags and worthies must make it a bridal. On the approach of the wedding, invitations were freely issued to all likely to attend, on the understanding that each of them paid Is. Scots or Id. at least on arrival. This was meant to cover the expenses of the feast and help the providing. The consequence was that a real penny wedding was an event looked forward to with lively interest in rural circles. After the marriage service was over there was the old- fashioned Scottish feast — rough, ready, and hearty. Then the ale caups went round, and at least a thimbleful of aqua-vitae followed.

By-and-by the piper and fiddler dropped in, and when they prepared for action and set to work, scenes of upioarious hilarity ensued, which were kept up without a halt far into the morning. Doubtless there was much merriment to be found in

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 91

such gatherings ; still they degenerated too frequently into scenes of licentiousness. Many attempts were made to suppress them by the General Assembly ; still they long continued, and in certain communities survive to this hour.

In this parish the rural celebrities could quite hold their own with any of their neighbours in such entertainments. There was one held on a certain occasion in a hut located on a prominent spur of Sidlaw, which made such an impression upon a local worthy, that he was heard shouting through explosions of laughter, " Weel, weel ! if there's no been fun in the Neuk the nicht," and the place was afterwards well-known as Funny- Neuk. Classed among the lengthy category of social disorders by the stern guardians of public morality were the lyke-wakes also. At the time of the "kisting " or coffining of the dead, it was the custom to invite all the friends and neighbours of the deceased to be present. After the "kisting" was over the candles, were lit, and the party sat up throughout the night keeping vigil over the dead. So much drink was frequently consumed on such occasions, that the house of mourning became the scene of revelry.

This orgie was simply a relic of the wakes of Pre- Eeformation days, and the custom is still maintained in many Highland districts. An invitation to one of those semi-pagan rites was once strongly pressed upon us many years ago, on the plea that it was to be a meeting of a strictly religious character, at which all would be better of a word or two of consolation ; but knowing better, we declined, and no more was heard of this ancient rite in the parish.

Funerals were also disgraced by extraordinary scenes of guzzling and drinking. On one occasion, after a prolonged sederunt, it was considered advisable to proceed, more particularly because a certain functionary had so far forgotten what he had been invited to, that he had started the first verse of " Maggie Lauder," or something resembling this old rural favourite.

March 1, 1719. — The elders are appointit to come once every

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fortnight and converse with the Minister anent people's deport- ment in their severall quarters. To the beddal, 2d. To him for buying grease to the bell, 2d.

Sabbath, 15th March. — The INIinister intimat from the pulpit ■a voluntary contribution to be collected next Sabbath at the church door as ane help to George Webster, to pay Mr Smith of Perth for cutting his son of the stone graved. Collection, £\ stg , and a recommendation was made to the Ministers of Lundie, Liff and Benvie, Longforgan, Inchture, Kinnaird, and Abernyte to contribute for him in their severall parishes.

Testimony was given to James Brown for six years preceding Whitsunday 1717. David Tasker and INIarjory Buttar were on the Pillar in the forenoon, and he again on the afternoon.

Sabbath, 31. — David Gedlaw and Jannet Gibb were proclaimed for the second and third time, because he had young •children and no person to guide them. This is a quaint and curious entry. It evidently means that the marriage was accelerated, on the ground that the sooner David 1:)rought a wife home the better for all concerned.

The elders who collect are desired to survey ye change- houses and town houses in time of the afternoon sermon.

July 12, 1719. — The elders are appointed to inform anent scandalls and feuds, that the Minister may know how to deal with such persons att the distribution of tokens. Lent upon bill bearing interest to Thomas Hill in Scotstoun, till Candlemas 1720, £13 :6:8d., or £1 :8s.

The expenses incurred in refounding the Church liell were £105 : 18 : 2d. (Scots) or £8 : 16s. : 6d. One item reads as follows : — For expenses in taking down tlie bell, carrying it to Dundee, and weighing her, and from thence to Forgan — where she was founded — and bringing ye same back again that way, weighing her, putting her up again in the steeple, with drink money to the servants, £6.

August 25. — No sermon, our Minister preaching at Fowlis, their Minister beins seik.

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 93

Robert Gourlay and liis spouse were cited and called for scolding and slandering one another, and Elizabeth Hacket undertook to prove three acts of this against Lilias Gourlay, to witt, her stealing lint, &c. They were rebukt, and exhorted to ■abstain in time coming under pain of higher censure.

His Majesty's Proclamation against Profanity and Immorality ■was read and intimat from the pulpit.

March 1, 1720. — This day the Minister represented that lie had received from Mr Patrick Ogilvie of Balfour, in name of Mr John Ogilvie, second son to the deceased David, Earl of Airlie, the sum of £150 Scots, as three years' annual rent of the principall sum of £1,000 money for said dues by the said Mr John Ogilvie to ye Kirk-Session of Auchterhouse, for the use and behoove of the School and native Poor of the Parish, or bye-gone salary to the Schoolmaster, from ISIartinmas 1716 to Whitsunday 1717, £18, or £\ : 10s. stg.

Mr John Ogilvie, who is mentioned in this minute, afterwards Taecame Lord Airlie on the death of his brother. Lord Ogilvie, who fought at Sheriffmnir. John, Earl of Airly, was the father of David, Lord Ogilvie, who was a well-knoAvn figure in the Rebellion of 1745. We shall haA^e occasion to refer to him in connection with that period.

To William Gray for his service at the Sacrament, 2/- For ^ease to the bell, 2d. Allowed to Minister what he had allowed to supplicants, 2/6. It was enacted by the Session that the dues of the mort-cloth shall only be 6d. at children's burialls.

March 8, 1720. — The beddal is appointed to repnir the •church-yard dykes, and he is also discharged (forbidden) to cry anything at the church door on Sabbath, till he first acquaint the Minister and receive his orders. In those days the beadle acted as public crier and general advertiser of all local events. He generally mounted an old flat tombstone raised on pedestals near the church door, and there held forth with his intimations. He was often by local wags made the medium of making

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AN ANGUS PARISH

announcements of a racy and highly sensational character, which kept tongues going at least for a few days. Beadles are peculiar characters in regard to intimations. When oificiating on one occasion at a neighbouring Parish Church, a beadle of a very remote type brought an intimation to be made from the pulpit at the conclusion of the service, with the most precise orders possible, always finishing off by saying, " An' ye'll see and attend to that." To make matters doubly sure we made the intimation at the beginning of the service. He, however, did not hear it made, as he had been adjusting his bell-rope outside. Accordingly, the benediction was about to be pro- nounced when up the pulpit steps he came in a great panic of excitement, and asked, " Whaur is't?" meaning where is the intimation 1 " It's no made ! It's no made ava'." We did our best to calm him till the service was concluded. He then proceeded to condemn all round the new way of making intimations from the pulpit. A fine old type of the country elder did enjoy the situation, and with a broad grin on his- noble rural countenance remarked, " Eh eh ! but is'nt he a droll lad, Willie?"

The people were desired to come sooner henceforth to ye Church, because there would be two exercises in the forenoon, and examination and exercise after the afternoon's service. To four beggars, 2d. To a begging blind man, 3d. To a gentle supplicant, 1/-. To John Christie and two beggars, 3d.

July 3. — The Minister became full debitor for Hellen Cook, relict of Umquhl (late) William Fleeming, sometime of Milne of Dronlaw, for his grave room in the Church, and the use of the mort-cloth at his burial, 13/6. To the Minister to give to a supplicant, 8d. To three impotent beggars, 3d.

August 21. — The elders Avere desired to take notice in their severall quarters of those who absent from Church. To a beggar, Id. To ye Minister, 2/-. To a supplicant upon testificat, 1/-.

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Dec. 4. — An Act of Presbytery was read and intimate for a contribution to William Gordon in Longforgan Parish who had all his effects consumed by fire in Oct. last. Collection, 5/-.

Dec. 11. 1720. — This day a Proclamation from the King was read, appointing a day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer to be observed throughout the three Kingdoms, on account of the abounding sins of the nation and the threatening judgments of the Plague, which is rageing in ye neighbouring Kingdom of France, with which we have considerable commerce.

The outbreak of the malignant type of contagious disease referred to here, is the Plague which had attacked the city and harbour of Marseilles in 1720, and carried off 60,000 of its inhabitants — almost the half of the population. It was understood to have been brought to the city in a ship from a port in the Levant. Its ravages created great alarm throughout Europe and over these Islands.

In no town in Scotland did its dreaded approach create more alarm than in Dundee, for in the year 1.566 it had made great ravages in the town, and later on in 1607 claimed many victims. To John Gray, distressed by a fall, 5/-. To the Minister, what he had advanced to a supplicant, 2/-.

Sabbath, 18. — A Visitation of Families was intimat. To ane Lesly, a merchant, who had all his effects brunt by fire, 1/-. To buy greese to ye bell, 2d.

July 23, 1721. — The elders were appointed to inform anent scandalls and disorders and if ony be at feud with others.

Wed., Aug. 2. — Tokens were distribut Avith serious exhortations.

Aug. 6. — Communion Sunday. The Rev. John Glass of Tealing preacht first, and our Minister preacht the action sermon. The Rev. John Glass of Tealing was the well-known preacher and founder subsequently of the sect known as the Glassites. He was the son of the minister of Kinclaven, and was born at Auchtermuchty, 21st Sept. 1695. He was educated at Kinclaven, Auchtermuchty, and Perth. He studied at St

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AN ANGUS PARISH

Leonard's College, St Andrews, where he graduated, 6tli May 1713. He Avas licensed by the Presbytery of Dunkeld, 20th May 1718, and ordamed minister of Tealing, 6th May 1719. He had a great reputation as a popular preacher, and his sermons were remarkable for their length. Shortly after his settlement in Tealing, he gave utterance to opinions opposed altogether to his ecclesiastical position as a minister of the National Church. He held that there was no scriptural authority for a national establishment of religion, and may possibly be reckoned amongst the first to proclaim the voluntary principle in Scotland. He seems to have advocated a system of Church government essentially Congregational or Inde- pendent. The controversy which ensued between him and his brethren of the State Church %vas a long, violent, and most unhappy one, because ]\Ir Glass, with all his extreme views, was one of the best of men. He was deposed by the Commission of the General Assembly, 12th March 1730. He removed to Dundee, thence to Perth, and returned subsequently to Dundee, where he died, 2nd ISTov. 1773, in his 79th year, and 55th of his ministry. He married a most estimable lady, Katlierine, the eldest daughter of Mr Black, one of the ministers of Perth, and had 15 children, all of whom he survived. Notwith- standing his peculiar and fantastic views of Christiaia doctrine and practice, Mr Glass Avas a man greatly beloved by his people, and a man of much ability as a preacher, and of marked piety and personal integrity. He lived at a time when religious controversy was keen, when strong opinions were held, and when little toleration was shown to those inclined to swerve from the old conservative ecclesiastical position.

Between Tealing and Auchterhouse there has always existed a very friendly feeling. Said a minister of Auchterhouse one day to his somewhat witty and jovial neighbour. " It is a queer parish your's, sir ! because if you put the letter S before it, Tealing becomes ' stealing.' " " That is so ! my good friend and neighbour ! " he replied, " and suppose

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURV. 97

now you put an 8 and L before Auchterhouse, it becomes a much queerer parish, for it is converted into a 'slaughter- house.' " On a certain occasion, when the same clergymen were returning home together in a somewhat old-fashioned, elevated dog-cart from a rural ordination, the late Rev. Dr Adie, of Dundee, jocularly remarked to them. " Now, brethren ! see that you don't fall out by the way." By a remarkable coincidence the high-spirited steed bolted, and they both fell out by the way. They, however, survived.

The Church collections throughout this Communion season amounted to .£32 : 10s. Scots, or £2 : 14 : 2d. Given to stranger poor, 2/6. To a soldier and his wife, 2d. To Mr John Pitcairn for extraordinary service on this occasion, 5/-. To John Whitton, for two brods for collecting the poor's money. 2/-. For mending the Communion tables and seats, 8d. To Robert Stewart, a gentleman recommended, 1/2 To three supplicants, 1/6. To another supplicant, 5d. To William Gray and John Whitton of letter doits, 6|d.

By the advice of several of the elders, tliere was lent to John Hill in Kirkton (Thomas Hill in Burnhead, cautioner), £20 Scots, £1 :13:4d.

August 11. — It is recommended to the elders to take particular notice in their quarters of people's conversation, and notice those who keep up family worship, and deal with others who do it not very pressingly. It is recommended to the beddal to gather up the dues remaining for the mort-cloth money diligently. It is seriously recommended to the elders particularly to notice in their severall quarters, and in the congregation where they have access, people's observation of the Lord's Day punctuallie, and in case of severall faults of not attending publick ordinances or otherways profaning it; after admonitions suitable to delate them to the Session; and, lastly, Avhen they collect, they shall each Sabbath afternoon, when divine worship is begun, survey not only the change-houses, but other private houses in ye toun, and notice who misspend

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the Sabbath accordingly at home, that they may be suitably censured. The mort-cloth for child's funeral from Auchterhouse to Cortachie, 6d.

Sept. 3, 1721. — The elders who collect are enjoyned to survey the change-houses and toun houses in time of afternoon sermon, and to mark and reprove those who absent from the Church, or go home in time of sermons, or betwixt sermons, and after admonitions, to delate them. To Thomas Angus with ane universal cruel (pain), 1/-.

■ Nov. 19, 1721. — John Fleeming got a testimony to be married on Thursday, the 23rd, at Cortachie.

Jan. 7, 1722.- — The Minister told he was going to Edinburgh to-morrow, and that he had provided sermon for the next two ensuing Sabbaths, and he enjoyned the elders to curb vice and immorality, and to search the toun and change-houses in time of ye afternoon sermon. To James Wright, seik — his family being in poverty, 1/-.

Jan. 21. — Andrew Buttar and Catherine Butchart were not proclaimed (because Mr George Blackie, minister of Inchture, informed that the said Andrew Buttar was under promise to Euphan Boyd) till they should be confronted on ye head.

Sabbath, 18th Feb. 1722. — Ane Act of Assembly was intimat and read, appointing a contribution for erecting a fond (fund) for a stipend and place of worship in Kintail, in Strath-naver, where there is fifty miles in length and fifteen in breadth, and but one minister, and the Sacrament never administered but once since ye Eeformation, where the Lord Rhae (Reay) has promised great encouragement if this National Church shall concur with a voluntary contribution. Collect. 10/11. It is very curious to note the numerous calls made upon Kirk- Sessions at this time for contributions, not only for Churches ; but for bridges, tolbooths, harbours, and all kinds of public works over the country.

Sabbath, 28. — Andrew Buttar and Euphan Boyd being cited to this dyet, were called and compeared. She was asked what

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she had to object against his proclamation in order to marriage Avith Katherine Butchart. She alleged that he promised to marry her, which thing he denied, and as she could not give the least evidence thereof, the Session appointed his proclamation with Katherine Butchart to proceed. To William Gray, and to grease to the bell, 4d.

Monday. — Rohert Pitcairn pay'd the Minister his marriage pledges, heing 2s., and the Minister paid him his Presbytery fee for October, and for Synod, 1/8. To a dumb supplicant, 6d. To John Whitton, wright, part payment of a coffin, 1/8.

May 6, 1722. — The elders were exhorted to take notice in their quarters of those who absent from the Church, and try those who incline to communicate at Tealing this day fortnight.

Sabbath, 26. — "William Christie, ye Minister's servant, came ultroneously (sic) and complained that he Avas wrongously accused of Sabbath breach, and petitioned the Session to mak search after the first raiser of ye scandallous report, and if it could be made appear, profest himself willing to satisfie according to Church discipline.

To two distressed families who lost all by the wreck going to Virginia, 1/6. Given to James Graham, ane honest man ■distressed and his family in Burntisland, upon ample testificat, 1/6. To Robert Eraser, under gravel, 6d. To two broken, maimed seamen, 6d. To James Johnstone, old, decrepit, and troubled with the gravell, Is. To two merchants shipwrackt, '6d. To J. Brown, idiotish (sic) in Kirriemuir, 6d.

March 1, 1722. — To a poor seaman, taken and his tongue cutt oot by the Turks, 6d. At this time a considerable trade was carried on between the Scottish ports and those in the Mediterranean. Frequently ships loaded with cargoes of salted fish and other commodities of the kind were attacked by pirates •off Tarifa, at the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar. When they discovered there was nothing more valuable on board, they frequently seized the poor sailors and carried them off to the slave markets of Algiers and Tunis, and there disposed of

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them. Many were subjected to horrible treatment and torture- by their Arab masters. Frequent collections were made through- out the Churches at this time to purchase the release of those prisoners and captives.

To two gentlewomen distressed, come from Ireland, Is. Ta ane Campbell, under a sad epileptic, upon testificat, Is. To- John Jamieson, a blind and honest man, Is.

30th June 1723. — A Fast was appointed by the Presbytery to be observed on Thursday next, the 4th July, for the great Drouth and Scarcity, and the people were exhorted to serious humiliation and prayer for the sins of the land, ryfe and raging, and especially for the contempt and neglect of God's ordinances- in publick, private, and secret, and discharged (forbidden) from working either within or without that day. Thomas Wighton and Ann Gray compeared for building their turf stack on the Sabbath day, which they denyed. Informers stated that they saw Thomas on his truff stack on Sabbath, ye 30th of June last, that his wife was casting somewhat to him, and that they knew no more about the matter. The Session finding that Thomas Wighton was cited to this dyet, but failed to compear, they caused call the above Ann Gray, who accordingly compeared,, and confest that she Avas casting up some wrack to her husband upon the stack, in regard that they feared rain. The Session having considered this affair, they agreed to delay it to next meeting, and appoint Thomas Wighton to be cited against that time. Thomas Wighton came and confest his guilt of Sabbath breach to ye Minister before John Hill and Thomas Duncan, and promised never to be guilty of any such thing in time comeing. He was past on account of his ignorance.

Sabbath, 7. — No sermon, our INIinister assisting at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper at Longforgan. That day, upon sufficient testimony, Eobert Kinneir in this parish, and Janet Wandles in the parish of Meigle, were proclaimed 2->ro prima at the Church door in presence of Patrick Christie and David Butchart. For the best mort-cloth at Mr William

IX THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 101

Cricliton, Adamstone — his buriall, 2/6. For the second mort- cloth at Marion Boyd's child's buriall, 6d.

July 14. — This day the Minister intimat from the pulpit, that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was to be celebrat on Sabbath, the 28 th July, and a dyet of examination of those who had been formerly absent. James Eoss was on the Pillar for the 3rd time, and rebuked by the Minister.

The usual services were held, and amongst the ministers who officiated was Mr John Glass of Tealine, Avho preacht after our Minister on Sabbath, 28th.

Given to stranger poor, 2/6. To Mr James Christie, 1/6. To Mr Arbuthnot, 2/-. On Communion occasions the poor flocked from all quarters to take up their places at the Church doors imploring alms.

To John Whitton for makeing a trap for the Pillar, &c., 4/-. This was a ladder to assist offenders mounting to the Pillar or place of Repentance Avith a little more comfort and safety.

Here follows a considerable list of bills found amongst Mr Pitcairn's papers. It is very curious to observe how the system of banking and giving loans on bills prevailed at this time. It was quite the custom for all parties in various jiositions to approach Kirk-Sessions for loans, and the interest went to the poor. Meetings were statedly held by the Kirk- Session for dealing with such applications, and receiving the interest due on loans. Given for a bell tow, lOd. To three beggars, Id. To grease to the bell, 2d.

1st Dec. 1723. — A collection was intimat for building a breig (bridge) for making a convenient passage to and from the Churches of Lethnot and I^avar. Collect, made, 4/6. The Session resolves to inquire anent what was owing for the use of the two mort-cloths. It was found that there was owing £8 Scots. The beddal was ordered to get the money from those owing for a long time, and for others lately.

Feb. 23. — To a seaman taken by the Turks and abused, 3d. To Mr Calvin, late Episcopal minister, 1/-. To Mr Campbell,

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102 AN ANGUS PARISH

a gentleman, recommended by our Synod, 1/-. To a supplicant in the West, upon testificat, 6d. To two gentlewomen supplicants, going to the JS'orth, 1/-. To Mrs Peter, a poor woman in sad distress, upon testificat, 6d. To a broken gentleman in Kirriemuir, almost idiotish, 6d. To two dumb men, 6d. To a merchant in Ireland, who had all his effects consumed by fire, upon testificat, 1/-. To two men recommended by our Synod, 2/-. To Elizabeth Gellatly, well testified of, 6d. To John Kyd, blind, in Stirling, ane honest man and well testified of, 1/-. Doits amounting to £3 : lis. : 6d. Scots were put off by the Minister — that is to say, sold at the same value as formerly.

Feb. 3, 1724. — Given by the unanimous consent of the Session to James Christie in Kirktoun, having a poor, small family, to help him to buy a cow, 5/-. To Deacon Forrest, in Dundee, for glazeing some of the church windows, 12/8. To Mr George Mitchell, Presbytery bursar, 6/8.

This day the Minister represented to the Session that a sum of money had been lying by him since mid-summer, and he could get no sure hand to lend it out to. He enquired if any of them knew of a sure hand to get it. He was answered that they knew of none who would take it. The Minister being loath that the poor should be att so great a loss, ofi'ered to them to lay it out himself, and accordingly gave his bill for it, payable against Whitsunday 1724, the principall sum in the bill being £100 Scots. On the same day, a number of bills were renewed. To Thomas Hill, treasurer, for making and buying a coat to James Watt, a poor boy, 2/6.

Feb, 10. — This day it was enacted — (1) That there should only be a sixpence paid for the use of the second mort-cloth att children's burialls. (2) That all plaids upon corps (corpses) shall be discharged (forbidden) in time comeing, and that poor people who are not able to pay shall have the use of the second mort-cloth gratis, (3) That none without the parish bury here without our mort-cloth.

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 103

This was a time of grievous poverty, and many were in such straits that they were quite unable to pay even for the mort- cloth, but used their plaids as substitutes. A testimony was given to Helen Blair preceding Martinmas 1723, bearing that the Session objected nothing against her, except that she and her husband did not cohabit, and that he was residing in the parish of Fowlis. To buy oyll to ye bell, 2d.

May 17, 1726. — There was sermon only att afternoon, the Minister preaching at Tealine in the forenoon by order of the Presbytery.

The case of the Kev. John Glass was now before the Presbytery of Dundee, and for a lengthened period occupied the attention of the Church Courts. When brought before the Presbytery, he fully admitted that he disapproved of those passages in the Confession of Faith which dealt with the power of the civil magistrate in matters of faith, and worship, and of liberty of conscience, and he also explicitly denied the Divine authority of the Presbyterian form of Church Government.

To Robert Cassels, in sad distress, Is. Given to Mr Pitcairn {schoolmaster) as his proportion from "Whitsunday 1723 to Whitsunday 1724, £13 : 6s. : 8d. Scots, £1 : 7s. To a poor man haveing a rupter. Id. Advanced to ye Minister for Umqhl {late) Alexander Duncan's coffin, 4/6.

Dec. 20, 1724. — This day was read an Act and Recommen- dation of the General Assembly, for a voluntary contribution in favour of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge through the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Collection, 12s. This Society was started and incorporated in 1709 by certain Presbyterian members of a religious society, with the view of improving the spiritual condition of remote parts of the country. Its work was taken up by the Church, and a great deal of good was effected in establishing libraries, and in fostering secular and religious education, and planting churches and mission stations in poorer districts of Scotland. Given to Andrew Boyle to pay for a quarter's nursing of his child, 5/10.

104 AN ANGUS PARISH

Mr Pitcairn, the schoolmaster, having died, the Session resolved to ask Mr Robert Pitcairn, his son, a writer in Dundee, to give up all ye registers, writs, or other evidences in his hands, belonging to the Kirk-Session : — An old register commencing from 1641 to 1670; another register from 1702 to 1720; all the registers containing baptisms and marriages ; also a large Kirk-Bible in folio. All were delivered up, and a statement of all the bills in the hands of the Session was given in — one dozen altogether.

Oct. 25, 1725. — A Fast was held for the badness of the weather.

Feb. 24, 1726. — Mr Glass, the schoolmaster, was appointed Kirk Treasurer. To the beddal and a beggar, 4d. To defray John Christy's funeral, lOd. To teaching a poor scholar, 7d. To ye beddal for shoes, 3/4. To ye common beggars, 2/6. To other three beggars, 3d.

August 20, 1727. — For making a tent, 6s., or £3 :10s. Scots. This is an entry of much interest. The tent referred to was not such an erection as we now understand by the term " tent." It was not made of linen, cloth, or canvas ; it was not of the military order, or like a fair tent ; it was simply a temporary, rough, wooden pulpit for putting down as a rostrum for the preachers outside the Church, or in the churchyard, during the Communion season in summer. In the Act of 1645 it is said, when the parochiners are so numerous that their Parish Kirk cannot contain them, the brother who assists the Minister of the paroch may be ready, if need be, to give a word of exhortation, in some convenient place appointed for that purpose, to those of the paroch who that day are not to communicate, which must not be begun until the sermon delivered in the Kirk be concluded. At this time crowds of people assembled at the Summer Communions, not to communi- cate merely, but to attend the open-air meetings in the church- yard. When the tent was planted down by the beadle and his assistants, the people stood all round, or squatted down on the

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 105

grass, or sat on tombstones or the churchyard dykes, or wherever they could get a position to stand or lie on. Where the churchyard was inconvenient it was not unusual to hire for the purpose what was called a "preaching field." Constables were called in to keep the peace also, and accounts had frequently to be met by Kirk-Sessions for damage done to heritors' dykes by parties who had taken up their positions upon them. This may be taken as a time when tent preachings were becoming very popular. As services commenced earlier than usual at Communion times, it was a curious sight to witness people from all the country-side on foot, in carts, in gigs, on horseback, with more than Bibles and Psalm books in their pockets and wallets, pressing forward to the Church, as full of excitement as if they were bound for a country fair. When the tent was occupied by a highly popular pulpit orator, the sight was a most picturesque one as they pressed forward to catch every word he uttered. If the speaker who followed him was of a different type, his reception was distinctly cooler, and even quite a din ensued. Many pulled out their pipes or had a good round of sneeshin to break the monotony.

" But, hark ! the tent has changed its voice ! There's peace and rest nae langer ; For a' the real judges rise, They canua sit for anger. Smith opens out his cauld harangues

On practice and on morals ; And aff the godly pour in thrangs To gie the jars and barrels A lift that day. "

When the services were over, there was too frequently a rush for the change-houses, and scenes not at all in keeping with the day's proc(3edings were witnessed. Such open-air sacramental services still survive, in all their old, quaint, and picturesque features, in many parts of the Highlands and Islands.

Collection from all Communion days, £1 : 17s. stg. To ye schoolmaster for extraordinary services, 5/-. To ye beddal, 3/4.

106 AN ANGUS PARISH

To ye common beggars, 2/6. To supplicants, 2/-. Advanced by ye Minister to Mr Stewart, a dissenting minister in Ireland, of pledge money in his hand, 2/6. To ye beddal and John Smith's distressed family, 1/8. Mrs Stewart, a supplicant, 1/-. To ye beddal and to greese, 4d.

l^ov. 26. — This day appeared in the Pillar, Patrick Steel for I., and to continue.

Jan. 28, 1728, — The Session took under consideration the office of bedalship which was now vaccant, and resolve not to install any into ye office till Whitsunday ; but appoint James Crighton, in Auchterhouse, to officiate till that time for a tryal. To ye late beddal's daughter and a supplicant, 3d.

Feb. 14. — The Session did revise Andrew Anderson, the late treasurer's accounts, and found he was resting (owing) as the ballance of his accompts, ,£9 : 15s. : 4d. Scots. But considering ye straitening circumstances of ye said Andrew Anderson, they allow him the foresaid balance, and appoint David Davie to be treasurer. To ye beddal and to paper for ye minutes, 6d. To nails to ye Kirk door lock, 2d. To-day James Ross pay'd his penalty, <£1 : 2s. : 6d.

Nov. 8, 1728. — The Minister gave ye account of ye charges for building a Session-house, as follows : —

To 100 dales and 16 trees, ....

To 14 dales and 4 twelve ells more,

To George Watsou for bands, ....

To naills from Dundee and back,

To lock for door, and a sneck with a handle to ye Kirk door, ......

To two dales for making ye seat next to the elders, . To Henry Forest for glass and wire to a new window,

Scots £98 10 2 or £8 4 stg.

£69	0	0
12	13	8
2	12	0
7	0	6
0	18	0
1	4	0
4	6	0

The Session also proceeded to erect a number of seats in the Church, for which they drew up a scale of charges. Six seats furthest north, 8d. yearly. In the middle, 8d. Six in the

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 107

south, Is. Four, west from the elders' seat, lOd. per piece. Ye foot gang, at 4d. yearly. The seats at east side of elders' seat, lOd. yearly. To James Crichton for horsing a supplicant to Forgan, lUd. To Mr Gordon, a supplicant. Is. To a new bell rope, 2/6. To ye beddal for his ordinary, and for greese, 1 s. To ye beddal to buy a wallet for mort-cloth, 2s. For an ink-horn to ye treasurer, 2|d.

Feb. 23, 1729. — James Ogilvie, My Lord Ogilvie's footman, being reported for misconduct, ye beddal was ordered to summond him to appear on ye Pillar.

August 3, 1729. — No sermon, ye Minister at Tealing by Presbytery's appointment. The Rev. Mr John Glas, the minister of Tealing, was suspended in April 1728, hence this appearance.

August 12. — There was given to ye Minister of bad brass to put off, £2 : 10s. Scots, or 4/2. This day ye King's letter (George II.) was read for a voluntary collection for repairing ye harbour at St Andrews. Collect., 8/6.

Nov. 9, 1729. — This day intimation was made that all who have taken new seats, should attend on Thursday next by 10 o'clock to pay ye seat meall (rent).

A voluntary contribution was intimated for the distressed Protestants in Copenhagen. In the previous year the City of Copenhagen was nearly destroyed by a fire which consumed 1,650 houses, 3 churches, the University, and 4 colleges. Collection, 4s, Mrs Margaret Johnstone, a supplicant, received 1/2. Salmond pay'd his penalty, 13/4. To a chamber to keep ye school in, 1/8. Mr Glas returned good brass for ye sixpences he got out of ye box. Paid Mr Glas his salary for year, £10 Scots, or 16/8. For ye distressed widows and orphans in ye North, 9/6. To a supplicant from Glasgow, 1/2.

Dec. 13, 1730. — This day ye Right Hon. James, Earle of Airly, and Mrs Ann Erskine, lawfull daughter to My Lord Dun, were proclaimed in order to marriage. The Earl of Airly here referred to was Lord Ogilvie who fought at Sheriffmuir, and

108 AN ANGUS PARISH

who narrowly escaped the fate of other leaders. He was now residing in this parish, in the house previously occupied by the Hon. Patrick Lyon, who was killed at Sheriffmuir.

Twelve shillings of good money was handed in for ye doits. To ye beddal and a blind man, 3d. To Mrs Eobertson, in great straits, 2s. Allowed to John Farmer for to buy a horse, 15s. To John Farmer, more for buying a horse, 6s.

Julyl2. — Given to Minister of doits to put off, Thomas Thain do,

Robert Millar do,

Thomas Hill do,

James Crichton do, Robert Millar, bad half-pence do, Mr Glas do do,

David Thain do do.

This is a very quaint and amusing entry. The Minister and each of the elders have got a supply of worthless Dutch doits to put off.

Resting (due) by ye Laird of Adamstone for his brother ye best mort-cloth, 2/6. To common beggars, 3s. To other supplicants in and out of ye parish, 5/6. To John Whitton for mending the tent, 1/2.

Nov. 21. — Doits amounting to £9 : 2s. Scots were handed over to be put off as formerly, and of bad coppers got in from some contributions. They Avere not allowed to be returned to ye box. All the bills were imboxed in face of the Session.

£1 4	0
1 4	0
1 4	0
0 12	0
•2 0	0
1 10	0
0 6	0
0 12	0

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 109

I

CHAPTER VI.

Curious Payments — An Algerian Slave — Quaint Cases — The Minister's Death — New Minister — The Hand-Bell — The Inventory — War and Dearth — Great Drought — Distress — Fast Appointed by the King — Pawn-broking — Taken by Pirates — Brewing and Breweries — Rebellion of 1745 — The Rebels in Dundee — Lord Ogilvie takes the Field — His Battalions — His Officers — Non-Commissioned Officers — Battle of Falkirk— Lady Ogilvie— Battle of CuUoden— Flight of Lord Ogilvie — Imprisonment and Escape of Lady Ogilvie — End of Rebellion.

JAN. 2, 1733.— Received from ye Right Hon. Earl of Airly, Three hundred j)ounds, as six years' annual rent of ye principal bond of £1,000 due by him to the Session. To 3 ells plaiding to James Whitton, 2/6. To a thong to the bell, 1/5. To several supplicants, 1/3. Received for ye mare that ye Session bought to John Farmer, which they sold again, he being now dead, £1 : Is. : 6d. sterling.

July 24. — To David Butchart for repairing ye kirk-yaird dyke, £1 : 5s. : 6d., and for drink to ye workmen, 8d. To ye precenter and beddal, 8/6. To common beggars, 2s. To James Honour for a gentlewoman in Dundee, 4s. To John Whitton for mending the tent, 1/2. To the beddal and smith for mending the sword of the bell, 6d.

Sept. 16, 1733. — Elizabeth Boil appeared on ye Pillory for 3rd time, and was rebuked.

Jan. 9, 1734. — The Kirk-Session orders Isabel Chambers, in Edderty, to pay them £10 Scots, in regard that the mort-cloth was torn at her daughter's burial.

May 2. — This day there was £18 Scots of doits taken out of ye box and sold at £9 : 9s. Scots. Nine pound was imboxed, ye

110 AN ANGUS PARISH

other nine must be deduced. James Crichton paid in of seat meals (rents) 13/8. Gave to him for uplifting the same, Is. Also for carrying mort-cloth to Dundee to be