Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T07:23:02.163Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Condition of the Restoration Church of Scotland in the Highlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2014

ALLAN DOUGLAS KENNEDY*
Affiliation:
S2.6–7 Samuel Alexander Building, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL; e-mail: allan.kennedy@manchester.ac.uk

Abstract

Despite the prominence of religious issues in the historiography of Restoration Scotland, understanding of the position of the Kirk in the Highlands remains sparse. This article seeks to address this lacuna through analysis of two related themes. Firstly, it looks at provision, discussing the Kirk's financial, material and manpower resources, as well as the challenge posed by Gaelic. Secondly, it traces the extent of Nonconformity, both Presbyterian and Roman Catholic, with a view to judging the degree of adherence to the established Episcopalian structure. It concludes that the Kirk, while facing challenges, retained a position of unrivalled religious dominance.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Grant, I. F. and Cheape, H., Periods in Highland history, London 1997, 168–70Google Scholar; Fry, M., Wild Scots: four hundred years of Highland history, London 2005, 40–1Google Scholar; Newton, M., Warriors of the word: the world of the Scottish Highlanders, Edinburgh 2009, 215–16Google Scholar.

2 Todd, M., The culture of Protestantism in early modern Scotland, London 2002, 409–10Google Scholar; J. Kirk, ‘The Jacobean Kirk in the Highlands, 1567–1625’, in L. Maclean (ed.), The seventeenth century in the Highlands, Inverness 1984, 24–51.

3 NLS, ms 3932, fo. 153r–v; John Cahassy to [?] Everard, 3 Dec. 1683, Blair letters, SCA, BL/1/90/2.

4 NRS, CH2/111/1, fos 60–1, 87–8, 92–7; CH2/984/1, fos 298–303, 305–10, 319–23, 349–50; CH2/1153/1, fo. 31.

5 Records of the presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, ed. W. Mackay (Scottish History Society, 1896), 12, 24, 29, 73–4; NRS, CH2/47/1, fos 42–4; CH2/106/1, fos 6–8, 10, 34–5, 47–50.

6 NRS, CC11/1/2, fos 8–9.

7 Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 4–5, 8–9.

8 NRS, CC4/3/1, fos 87–8.

9 NRS, CH2/984/1, fos 290–4, 298–303, 305–10, 319–23.

10 NAS, CH2/345/1, fos 308–9.

11 NRS, CH2/47/1, fos 135, 141.

12 Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 342–3; NRS, B28/7/3, fos 123v–124r.

13 Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 55.

14 NRS, CH2/111/1, fos 87–97.

15 NRS, CH2/984/1, fos 292–3, 299, 306–7, 320–1.

16 Ibid. fos 294–8.

17 NRS, CH2/111/1, fo. 85.

18 NRS, CH2/47/1, fo. 121.

19 NRS, CH2/271/3, fo. 25.

20 Scott, H., Fasti ecclesiae Scoticanae: the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation, Edinburgh 191528, p. viiGoogle Scholar.

21 Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 12, 16.

22 Ibid. 20; NRS, CH2/271/3, fos 64, 66.

23 NRS, CH2/47/1, fos 89–90.

24 Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 84–7; NRS, CH2/271/3, fos 132–5.

25 NRS, B28/7/3, fo. 21r–v.

26 NRS, CH2/984/1, fos 171–2, 275–8; Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 65.

27 NRS, CH2/271/3, fo. 86.

28 Baxter, Richard, Catholick communion defended against both extreams, London 1684 (Wing B.1206A), 87Google Scholar.

29 NRS, CH2/47/1, fos 47, 58–9, 65, 122, 141, 148, 191.

30 Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 17–30, 75–83.

31 Cowan, I. B., The Scottish covenanters, 1660–88, London 1976, 50–5Google Scholar.

32 Todd, , Culture of Protestantism, 57–8, 366–7, 379Google Scholar; Foster, W. R., Bishop and presbytery: the Church of Scotland, 1661–1688, London 1958, 106–7Google Scholar.

33 Withers, C. W. J., Gaelic Scotland: the transformation of a culture region, London 1988Google Scholar.

34 RPS, 1663/6/58; 1663/6/59.

35 RPCS iv. 116–17, 280.

36 Mann, A. J., The Scottish book trade, 1500–1720: print commerce and print control in early modern Scotland, East Linton 2000, 105, 108Google Scholar.

37 Connolly, S. J., Divided kingdom: Ireland, 1630–1800, Oxford 2008, 331Google Scholar; Lenihan, P., Consolidating conquest: Ireland, 1603–1727, Harlow 2008, 245–6Google Scholar.

38 Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 9.

39 NRS, CH2/111/1, fo. 68r.

40 NRS, CH2/106/1, fos 21–3.

41 NRS, CH2/47/1, fos 130–1.

42 Anon., An account of the design of printing about 3000 Bibles in Irish, with the Psalms of David in metre, for the use of the Highlanders, n.p. 1690 (Wing A.274A).

43 Withers, Gaelic Scotland, 115.

44 MacInnes, J., ‘Clan unity and individual freedom’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness xlvii (1972), 338–73 at p. 352Google Scholar.

45 The Fernaig manuscript is transcribed in Reliquiae Celticae: texts, paper, and studies in Gaelic literature and philology, ed. A. Macbain and J. Kennedy, Inverness 1892–4, ii. 1–137. For an English translation of one poem see D. MacRae, ‘Rìgh na cruinne ta gun chrìch [King of the world without end]’ in Gàir nan clàrsach: an anthology of 17th century Gaelic poetry, ed. C. Ó Baoill, Edinburgh 1994, 182–3. It could be argued that such piety reflected not principled Episcopalianism, but simply the kind of non-denominational ‘Celtic Christianity’ recorded in the first two volumes of Alexander Carmichael's influential anthology of folk hymns, Carmina Gadelica (1900–71). See D. E. Meek, ‘Alexander Carmichael and “Celtic Christianity”’, in Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart (ed.), The life and legacy of Alexander Carmichael, Port of Ness 2008, 82–95 at pp. 82–3.

46 NRS, CH2/984/1, fos 353–4.

47 Black, J., Kings, Nobles and commoners: states and societies in early modern Europe, London 2004, 41Google Scholar.

48 G. Bossenga, ‘Society’, in W. Doyle (ed.), Old regime France, Oxford 2001, 42–77 at p. 56; J. Berenger, ‘The Austrian lands: Habsburg absolutism under Leopold i’, in J. Miller (ed.), Absolutism in seventeenth century Europe, Basingstoke–London 1990, 157–74 at pp. 159–60; A. Upton, Charles XI and Swedish absolutism, Cambridge 1998, 177.

49 Price, J. L., The Dutch republic in the seventeenth century, Basingstoke–London 1998, 87106CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 Spurr, J., The Restoration Church of England, 1646–1689, London 1991, 42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; J. Smyth, ‘The communities of Ireland and the British state, 1660–1707’, in B. Bradshaw and J. Morrill (eds), The British problem, c. 1534–1707: state formation in the Atlantic archipelago Basingstoke 1996, 246–61 at p. 249.

51 Macinnes, A. I., Clanship, commerce and the house of Stuart, 1603–1788, East Linton 1996, 124Google Scholar.

52 Hyman, E. H., ‘A Church militant: Scotland, 1661–1690’, Sixteenth Century Journal xxvi (1995), 4974CrossRefGoogle Scholar passim.

53 Wodrow, Robert, The history of the sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the revolution, Glasgow 1828–40, i. 324–8Google Scholar. The exact number of Kirk sessions in the Highlands is uncertain; 149 is an estimate derived from Scott, Fasti ecclesiae Scoticanae.

54 RPS, M1661/1/23.

55 Wodrow, History of the sufferings, i. 129.

56 Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 344–5; RPCS viii. 29–30.

57 RPCS i. 303, 311.

58 NRS, CH2/47/1, fos 61–2.

59 Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 125–32; Letters of two centuries, chiefly concerned with Inverness and the Highlands, from 1616 to 1815, ed. C. Fraser-Mackintosh, Inverness 1890, 118; John Lauder, Historical notices of Scottish affairs, ed. D. Laing, Edinburgh 1848, ii. 834.

60 NRS, CH2/1153/1, fo. 34r.

61 Wodrow, History of the sufferings, ii. 3.

62 Alexander Stuart, 5th earl of Moray, to John Maitland, 2nd earl of Lauderdale, 1662, Lauderdale papers, BL, ms Add. 23117, fo. 14; James Fraser, Chronicles of the Frasers: the Wardlaw manuscript entitled ‘polichronicon seu policratica temporum, or, the true genealogy of the Frasers’, 916–1674, ed. W. Mackay, Edinburgh 1905, 458; John Campbell of Glenorchy to Lady Lauderdale, 7 Sept. 1676, Lauderdale papers, ms 23138, fo. 21; The earls of Cromartie: their kindred, country and correspondence, ed. W. Fraser, Edinburgh 1874, i. 12; NRS, CH2/47/1, fos 167–8.

63 Anon., Some reasons why Archibald Campbell sometime lord Lorne, ought not to be restored to the honour or estate of his late father Archibald sometime marquess of Argyle, n.p. 1661 (Wing S.4581A), 4.

64 W. Ralston and John Cunnigham to Archibald Campbell, 9th earl of Argyll, 26 Nov. 1672, Campbells, earls of Argyll, NLS, ms 975, fo. 13r; Ralston to Argyll, papers of the Campbell family, dukes of Argyll, NRAS,1209, bundle 125.

65 NRS, CH2/111/1, fos 103v–104r.

66 NRS, SC54/17/4/2/3.

67 Earls of Cromartie, i. 11–14.

68 Brodie, Alexander, The diary of Alexander Brodie of Brodie, ed. D. Laing, Aberdeen 1863, 313Google Scholar.

69 RPCS x. 408, 412–13, 521.

70 Letters illustrative of public affairs in Scotland, addressed by contemporary statesmen to George, earl of Aberdeen, ed. J. Dunn, Aberdeen 1851, 71–2.

71 Fraser, James, Memoirs of the Rev. James Fraser, of Brea, A. D. 1639–1698, Inverness 1889, 23–6, 237–8, 269–90Google Scholar.

72 RPCS vi. 417, 431; Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 345; Wodrow, history of the sufferings, ii. 3–4.

73 RPCS x. 421.

74 George Mackenzie of Tarbat to Lauderdale, 18 Jan. 1679, Lauderdale correspondence, 1657–98, EUL, La.III.354, fo. 75.

75 Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 338–9; RPCS viii. 157–8.

76 Hyman, ‘Church militant’, 53–4.

77 Fraser, Memoirs of the Rev. James Fraser, 257.

78 MacLean, D. C., ‘Catholicism in the Highlands and isles, 1560–1680’, Innes Review iii (1952), 513 at pp. 7, 1113Google Scholar.

79 A. Roberts, ‘Roman Catholicism in the Highlands’, in J. Kirk (ed.), The Church in the Highlands, Edinburgh 1998, 63–88 at pp. 75–81.

80 Macdonald, F. A., Missions to the Gaels: Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Ulster and the Highlands and islands of Scotland, 1560–1760, Edinburgh 2006, 174–7Google Scholar.

81 Mr Dunbar to William Leslie, 9 Sept. 1682, Blair letters, SCA, BL/1/73/14.

82 Cahassy to Everard, 3 Dec. 1683, ibid. BL/1/90/2.

83 Anson, P. F., Underground Catholicism in Scotland, 1622–1878, Montrose 1970, 69, 80–2Google Scholar; Robert Munro to Robert Barclay, 12 June 1678, and Mr Dunbar and Mr Burnet to Leslie, 22 Nov. 1687, Blair letters, BL/1/54/7; BL/1/100/15.

84 Macinnes, Clanship, 93, 174.

85 Cahassy to Everard, 3 Dec. 1683, Blair letters, BL/1/90/2; Memoirs of Scottish Catholics during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, ed. W. Forbes-Leith, London 1909, ii. 101–2; Blundell, O., The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, London 1909–17, i. 56–7, 103Google Scholar; ii. 8–17, 27–9, 62, 86, 117–19, 162–73; MacDonell, A. and McRoberts, D., ‘The mass stones of Lochaber’, Innes Review xvii (1966), 7181 at pp. 72–3Google Scholar; Macinnes, A. I., ‘Catholic recusancy and the penal laws, 1603–1707’, Records of the Scottish Church History Society xxiii (1987), 2763 at pp. 30–5Google Scholar.

86 NRS, CH2/271/3, fos 28, 37–8, 44, 60, 83–6; Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 3; Memoirs of Scottish Catholics, ii. 125.

87 Cahassy to Everard, 2 Dec. 1683, Blair letters, BL/1/90/2; Macdonald, Missions to the Gaels, 172.

88 Martin Martin, A description of the western islands of Scotland circa 1695 ed. C. W. J. Withers, Edinburgh 2002, 29, 58, 60, 63, 69, 131, 142, 149, 152, 156, 165, 166, 167, 174.

89 Presbyteries of Inverness and Dingwall, 43, 48–9, 77; NRS, CH2/271/2, fos 415, 432–7; James Nicoll to Aeneas Macdonald, 13 Sept. 1680, and George Gordon to Mr Whyteford, 26 Sept. 1687, Blair letters, BL/1/63/20; BL/1/101/11.

90 RPCS ii, 322–3; Macdonald, Missions to the Gaels, 174–6; Mr Rian to Angus Macdonnell, 23 June 1681, Blair letters, BL/1/72/9.

91 Robert Munro to Aeneas MacDonnell, 4 Feb. 1681, Blair letters, BL/1/72/6.

92 Roberts, ‘Roman Catholicism’, 77–81.