Re: The history time often forgets.
- From: "Robert Peffers." <peffers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 22:11:44 +0100
"The Highlander" <micheil@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:bt9g63pko2brckf1t9fjom7ucge9gkrgvp@xxxxxxxxxx
On Thu, 7 Jun 2007 11:02:30 +0100, "Robert Peffers."The two things that struck me about The Gairney Bank incident was that this
<peffers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
There are small things that happen that have great historical
significance.
Just up the road from my cottage one of these incidents happened yet I
never
knew about it until I stumbled upon it quite by chance.
Gairney Bank is a small hamlet between Kelty in Fife and Kinross in Perth
&
Kinross Shire. It lies just next to the M90 motorway. N56.172090
W-3.406020.
Not many people have the courage of their convictions and stand up for
what
they believe. So when both ministers and their congregations rebelled
against their own church in Scotland against the "God given" right of
land-owner to appoint a minister it was rather an unique event.
From, "A Historical Guide to the County of Kinross."
"Some 3 miles south of Kinross on the B.966 road is an obelisk erected in
1883 to commemorate the formation in 1733 of the first Secession Church.
Its
members, who met in an inn or cottage close by, wanted to have the right
to
appoint their own ministers instead of having to accept the nominees of
the
local patrons or Lairds. Soldiers had been brought to Kinross Kirk to
force
the congregation to open up the church for the induction of the Patron's
nominee. The Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, a famous preacher and freethinker, who
had been minister at Portmoak Parish, came from Stirling to meet the
protesters here at Gairneybridge, and together they formed the first
Secession congregation. The Secession Movement for freedom in worship
spread
throughout Scotland, and by 1765 there were 120 churches with 100,000
members altogether."
A momentous event with great historical effects throughout the World from
a
wee wriggle of cottages of otherwise no great significance.
There was a similar story from Ardnamurchan, when the local laird
refused local people the right to build a Free Church on his land.
So the people built a church on a float and anchored it offshore,
where the laird's hand could not reach.
I don't know if you know about "Creideamh a bhata bhuidhe?" (The
Yellow Stick belief), so called because Colin MacDonald of Boisdale,
decided that his tenants should convert to the Church of Scotland and
on a Sunday, drove his tenants to the church door, beating them with a
gold-topped cane.
As late as the 1770s Catholics were still viewed as probable Jacobites
and education [literate people often emigrated of their own volition]
played a part in the emigration from the Highlands.
MacDonald made strenuous efforts to convert his Catholic tenants of
South Uist to Protestantism, and his use of strong-arm tactics was
dubbed by Catholic Gaels 'Creideamh a' bhata bhuidhe', or the
'yellow-stick belief'. MacDonald, who was raised a Catholic but
converted to the Church of Scotland, sought to convert the people
initially by procuring the attendance of Catholic children at schools
on the island established by his father.
A Catholic historian of the late nineteenth century reported with
horror 'scurrilous and even immoral sentences were set to the poor
children to copy; and in the Lent of 1770 attempts were made to force
flesh-meat into their mouths'. The parents withdrew their children
from the schools in protest, and MacDonald responded by assembling his
tenants and ordering them to sign a declaration renouncing Catholicism
or face eviction. The islanders refused, stating their readiness to
beg from door to door rather than embrace the Church of Scotland.
MacDonald responded with the proposal that if the children were
brought up in the 'reformed' manner, the tenants could retain their
holdings without further molestation. The tenants answered that they
valued the souls of their children as much as their own.
The islanders for their part had come to realise that they would have
to choose between their homes and their religion, and they chose the
latter; they appealed to Bishop Hay, Vicar apostolic of the Lowlands,
for assistance in emigrating to America. Subscriptions were raised
from Catholics throughout Scotland, and a large number of the South
Uist Catholics left. This episode is one case of emigration resulting
from causes other than economic, although MacDonald of Boisdale was an
'enterprising' landlord who was probably glad to be free of such
obstinate tenants. The Catholic hierarchy did not view the outcome in
an entirely negative light. In a letter addressed to Propaganda and
dated 10 July 1772, the three Scottish bishops expressed the hope that
this exodus might have a good result; the spread of the 'true faith'
in distant lands.
This story is ascribed to many islands, including the Isle of Rum.
was the first such successful rebellion in Scotland and it was within
spitting distance of my own cottage, (the road outside is the B966) yet I
had never heard of it before.
--
Robert Peffers,
Kelty,
Fife,
Scotland, (UK).
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: The history time often forgets.
- From: Adam Whyte-Settlar
- Re: The history time often forgets.
- References:
- The history time often forgets.
- From: Robert Peffers.
- Re: The history time often forgets.
- From: The Highlander
- The history time often forgets.
- Prev by Date: Re: Joan MacKenzie (Seonag NicCoinnich) 1929-2007
- Next by Date: Re: Critical acclaim for Julie Fowlis
- Previous by thread: Re: The history time often forgets.
- Next by thread: Re: The history time often forgets.
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
