THE COLONSAY CATECHIST - Part 8
Dr. Domhnall Uilleam Stiubhart's series of articles continues with the specific details of Colonsay's experience. Readers are reminded that the finished work will now be published in book form. When the series is complete, information about such a publication will appear here. Advance subscribers and expressions of interest will be welcomed by the Editor.
The following piece deals with the breakdown in communications which could occur between the authorities and the islands at a time when transport was slow and erratic, and the post none too trustworthy. The attempt by local ministers to cover up any problems from an official authority obsessed with ensuring that its monies were used conscientiously, only caused them more trouble. The real sufferer, however, was the innocent catechist stuck in the middle.
Supervising the catechists
Donald MacLean, the new catechist for Colonsay, was presented by his minister the Rev. Neill Campbell to the Presbytery of Kintyre on 5 August 1727. It is most unfortunate that there is a gap in the presbytery records between that month and February 1732, but it is clear that MacLean was swiftly recommended to the Royal Bounty Committee in Edinburgh. Charles Stewart, clerk to the Presbytery, wrote to the Committee on the 4 October 1727. His message was that it was impossible for it to send any probationer minister to Jura, given that there was none in the bounds of the presbytery. He proposed that instead of paying for a probationer, the Committee might want to use the salary to pay for catechists instead. This is probably the reason why "Donald McLean in Colonsay" appears on the roll of Royal Bounty catechists for November of that year. He was to be paid £5 for a year’s work – evidently what the presbytery had requested.
On 2 January 1728 MacLean braved the winter storms to cross the sea to Campbeltown, a journey which one suspects would not normally be undertaken except in dire necessity. The reason for this unwonted excursion is to be found in the rules of the Royal Bounty Committee, which required that all preachers and catechists:
produce to the Presbyteries they come to, before they be employ’d a Certificate upon trial, from a Presbytery of this National Church, Of their Orthodoxy, Piety, Literature, Prudence and other necessary Qualifications for the Work they are respective called unto; As also An Authentick Certificate from a proper Judge of their Loyalty to His Majesty King George and good Affection to His Royal Family and Protestant Succession therein
Without the necessary certificates, the catechist would not be registered and would not receive any salary. Thus it was that at Campbeltown MacLean stood before David Campbell, baillie of Kintyre and the local Justice of the Peace. Together with the other catechists in the presbytery, he proved that he was a loyal subject of King George by taking "the Oaths appointed by Law to be taken by all persons in publick Trust namely the Oaths of Allegiance & Abjuration and Signing of the Oath of Assurance". However, MacLean would not remain long at his post.
The Royal Bounty Committee expected that its catechists "teach according to the Scriptures of Truth, the Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms the Standards of the Doctrine of this Church, and keep close thereby". Not only were they to instruct their neighbours; their bearing and conduct was expected to be exemplary. The Committee urged its employees:
that in the prosecution of this good and great design, you may act conscientiously Depending upon God for Counsel, Strength, furniture and Success, Be much in Prayer to God, and be resign’d to His Will, Let His Glory and the Good of Precious Souls be your chief Motive, Lay your Account with opposition, Study Humility, Self denyal, Patience, Forebearance and Prudence, And carry with Meekness and Love, Let your Deportment and Managment be such as that these with whom you have to do, may see that you seek their Good, And take the most gaining methods with them, Be always affraid, lest this Excellent design suffer through your fault.
The Committee was setting high standards. If the intention was to impose discipline upon individual behaviour throughout the Highlands, they had to begin with their own. As we have seen, the Committee was obsessed with closely scrutinizing its employees. Each and every catechist was:
to return the Committee An authentick Testimonial from the Presbytery in whose bounds they serve, Bearing their Production of the foresaid Certificates, the time they laboured there, how many Lord’s Days these Minsters and Probationers did preach among them, and where, And giving Account of their Diligence and good Behaviour, And they are not to get payment of the last Moyetie of their foresaid Allowances till the said Testimonial be produced.
Each year the work of every minister and catechist in the service of the Royal Bounty Committee was to be assessed. The entire ongoing process of evangelization was to be firmly regulated by the authorities in Edinburgh. It was not long, however, before it became clear that such a minute and careful control of remote and often inaccessible islands was quite impracticable. The Committee recognised with a notable lack of grace. Nevertheless, it expected that the Presbytery of Kintyre regularly send the required certificates to Edinburgh, testifying that the catechists in their pay had in fact been carrying out their duties. Until these credentials were received, no salaries would be allowed.
Communication problems
However, for whatever reason, the Presbytery of Kintyre neglected to send the relevant certificates to Edinburgh. Inclement weather, or indeed his own fecklessness, may have prevented the Rev. Neill Campbell from reporting to his fellow ministers how the catechists were faring. Then again, as we shall see, Campbell may well have been having problems with his new assistant. At the end of 1728 the Committee in Edinburgh sent them a letter, evidently wondering just what was going on. The presbytery would take over two months to reply.
In a covering letter on 5 March 1729 to Nicol Spence, the agent for the church, together with the certificates of Donald MacLean and his fellow catechists, the presbytery excused themselves as follows:
Sir
We receiv’d a Letter from the Revd & Honble Comittee for the royal Bounty of the 26th Decr last, to which it was not practicable for us to give an Answer sooner, & were the state of our Bounds & the vast distance that our Members are at from this Country, where our Meetings for ordinary are, well known to the Comittee, there wou’d be no Exception taken at some little informalities, much less so far as to deprive some of our remote Isles of what they thought themselves so well entitled to, not only by the Grant of the Comittee but by their oun most clamant circumstances. There are even in the Rules of the Comittee Exceptions of remote corners & none have better ground to plead the benefit of these, than the vast and insupportable Charge of Jura, Colinsay & adjacent Islands, all under one Ministers Inspection...
The presbytery went on to stress that, as a result of the Royal Bounty Committee’s fastidiousness in not paying their employees without having received their certificates, the catechists had suffered badly that winter:
The Catechists have been so restricted to their Office that they could use no other Shift for their oun Subsistence, which in this hard & straitning Year puts them in danger of Starving if they get not their Sallaries We entreat that the Money be paid to Mr David Campbell Bailie of Kintyre who will take care to deliver it to the respective Catechists.
At a meeting of 22 May 1729, having read the letter, the Committee recognised the difficulty faced by members of the clergy in Islay, Jura and Colonsay:
to keep a Correspondence with the Committee it being Seldom the Ministers of these Islands can attend their own Presbyterys by reason of their great Distance therefrom, and Dangerous Seas Interjected, The Committee having Considered the Case did Appoint the Cashier to pay the whole Catechists named by them for those places according to their Certificates, of what is resting, ever since the time their Salaries were Appointed, But it is hereby Declared, this is not to be a Precedent, and in time Coming the Rules are to be observed.
This time the Committee had relented. It would not do so again. Subsequent events, however, were to suggest that the problems with the Colonsay catechist was rather more serious than just a breakdown in communications.
A new catechist for Colonsay
Scarcely had one problem been laid to rest than another appeared. On the 25 October 1729 the Presbytery of Kintyre sent another letter to Nicol Spence. The Presbytery of Kintyre had sponsored Donald MacLean as a catechist for the year 1728-9; at last, he had received his salary. But all was not well: in fact, MacLean had not been at his post at all that year:
Sir
We did the last Year give you the Trouble of representing the clamant Circumstances of Ila, Jura & the other adjacent Islands and did beg the favour of you to lay the same before the Reverend & Honourable Comittee entrusted with the managem[en]t of the Royal Bounty & we do now return you our hearty thanks for your good Offices. We are now obliged in pursuance of what was then granted to inform you that Donald McLean then nominated Catechist for Colonsay for the current Year was otherwise preingag’d before Yours came to hand, & there being none found fitter to officiate in that Station than James Muir School Master there who hath since November last taught the Children to read the Scriptures & the Elder People the principles of Religion, He being employed by the Minister & his Session in that work, of which we were only of late appriz’d, they lying at such a distance from us, as we formerly told you, that we can but seldom have communication with them. And they having sent up the said James Muir now to be examind by the Presbytry, we can upon good grounds attest, that after examining of him, we judge him a person that may be very useful in that remote corner. And He having qualified as the Law directs, we entreat you may be pleas’d to use your Influence with the Rev’d & Honble Comittee to procure him payment of the five Pounds Str allowed by them the current Year for the said Isle. We have got no particular Accott of what Allowance the Revd & Honble Comittee made of the Royal Bounty for our Bounds the ensuing Year....
Donald MacLean had left his job, doubtless scunnered by the non-payment of his already low salary. Later on we shall see that it is likely that he left to work with his brother Gilbert, a local merchant.
Apparently, however, there was already another teacher on Colonsay. As we have seen earlier, the Synod of Argyll had paid for a schoolhouse on the island, as well as a salary for a schoolmaster there between 1722 and 1724. That teacher may well have been James Moore. Subsequently, it appears from the letter, he was employed by the minister and the kirk session. In this case, however, the "Session" probably means one man only, namely Malcolm MacNeill of Colonsay. Indeed, given his name, Moore may well have been called over by MacNeill from Kintyre for that very purpose.
Originally from Ayrshire, and of strong covenanting sympathies, a number of Muirs had been taken over as tacksmen, and indeed as officers, as part of the Lowland plantation of Kintyre by the marquis of Argyll in the middle of the seventeenth century. Although the new catechist is almost always referred to as "Muir" in official papers, in certificates he spells his own name after the somewhat high-falutin’ anglicizing eighteenth-century fashion, "Moore". As we shall see, subsequent events suggest that Malcolm MacNeill of Colonsay held Moore in high regard, and was prepared to take some pains to retain him in his post.
"James Moor catechist in Colensay" had already taken the oaths required of him at Campbeltown on the 8 October 1729. The presbytery were in effect presenting the Royal Bounty Committee with a fait accompli; they had a catechist ready in place of Donald MacLean. It is interesting that the ministers wrote to Nicol Spence – a possible ally? – rather than risk writing straight to the committee itself.
Problems with the pay rise
The presbytery blamed the Rev. Neil Campbell, his (possibly non-existent) kirk session, and the remoteness of the parish. However, it did not look at all good, the more so because on 30 October 1729, while the letter was still making its way to Edinburgh, Donald MacLean had been given a pay rise, and a second set of employers. His salary was now eight pounds sterling, paid jointly out of the funds of the Royal Bounty and the SSPCK – in effect a saving of one pound by the committee, compared to the five pounds they had allowed MacLean previously. Yet Donald MacLean was no longer catechist in Colonsay. Indeed, he may well have left the country.
Disastrously, the Committee’s letter to the Presbytery of Kintyre informing them of MacLean’s pay rise crossed over the presbytery’s letter informing them that the catechist was no longer at his post. Having heard of the Committee’s decision, the presbytery had no option but to write another letter, on 12 December 1729, this time to the Royal Bounty Committee itself, informing them again about their new employee in Colonsay:
We receiv’d Yours of Octr 30th & in answer thereto, the Presby is fully satisfied with the Persons you have nominated for Catechists the ensuing Year for our bounds, & with the particular Proportions of Sallary allowed to each of them, only as to Donald McLean in Colonsay, as we wrote in our last, He is otherwise employed, but one James Muir School Master there has been officiating the bygone [supra: half] Year & now being examined by the Presby is found sufficiently qualified for that Work, And if the Rev’d & Honble Comittee, please to allow him to succeed in that office, we shall send him, according to your Instructions, an Extract of your Letter for his Commission...
The little alteration of James Moore’s time in office from a year to half a year is telling; the presbytery are trying to make out that Donald MacLean was in his post for at least some of the time he received his salary, that the Committee had not wasted five pounds on a non-existent catechist. In addition, Moore had only taken the official oaths of allegiance, abjuration and assurance on 8 September 1729; before then he was strictly speaking not legally qualified to work for the Royal Bounty Committee. The letter, before the "half" was added, suggested that Donald MacLean had left employment around the end of 1728.
The Royal Bounty Committee accepted the new candidate, but of course not without certain reservations, demanding "that the said Presbytery be wrote to, to inform the Committee more Particularly where and what way the said Donald McLean is Employ’d". Moore was to be paid the same amount as MacLean for one year, but only from the beginning of the previous month, "with a Salary of Eight Pounds Sterling whereof the one half to be paid by the Treasurer of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge (as Appears by a Resolution of their Committee produced this Day) And the other half by the Cashier of this Committee".
The presbytery has to come clean
Three months later, however, the Presbytery of Kintyre made a major blunder. On the 19 March 1730 they wrote another letter, asking that, because Donald MacLean had "left these bounds" about Martinmas (1 November) 1728, that the salary awarded to MacLean after that time – a full year’s payment – should be given to Moore instead.
We can now understand why the minister and presbytery were so reluctant, or perhaps unable, to send the Committee the necessary certificates of Donald MacLean’s "Diligence and good Behaviour" towards the end of 1728. He was in fact no longer working for them. It looks as if ever since then they had been quietly employing James Moore in an unofficial capacity, perhaps in the expectation that Donald MacLean would eventually return to his post. We might suspect that now Moore was agitating to be paid for all his work: that is, ever since he had taken over in November 1728. The Royal Bounty Committee, however, would only pay him for the time he had been officially employed: in other words, since the beginning of their current "financial year" in November 1729. The presbytery eventually had to come clean about their – or most probably the Rev. Neill Campbell’s – clumsy stratagem. It had blown up in their faces.
Once more a letter was sent not to the Royal Bounty Committee, but to Nicol Spence. It apparently was an attempt by the presbytery to have Spence use his personal influence with the committee in order to try to have it pay Moore the five pounds contribution which should have been due to MacLean. Nevertheless, the letter found itself in the hands of the Royal Bounty Committee, and it was not best impressed by the presbytery’s apparent subterfuge. Moore’s business was discussed on 30 April 1730. The committee refused point-blank to backdate his claim:
the said James Muir is Appointed to be Catechist Jointly Employ’d in Collonsay for one Year after Martinmass last, with a Salary near twice as much as what was formerly allowed to the forsaid Donald McLean, and that for this and other Reasons the Committee Can allow no Salary to the above Mure for any service preceeding Martinmass last.
The committee had other suspicions too, as can be seen from the second point made in its reply. It is clear from the note that "It does not Yet Appear to the Committee but the above Donald McLean may be presently in the Committee’s Service Elsewhere"; that is, that it was suspected that the Presbytery of Kintyre had quietly made a deal with the Presbytery of Skye to transfer Donald MacLean to Earlesbeg in that island, where a catechist of the same name had begun employment on 1 August 1728. The fact that the moderator of the presbytery was himself a MacLean may have further increased the Royal Bounty Committee’s misgivings. Henceforth, the Presbytery of Kintyre were ordered to send all letters concerning catechists to the moderator of the Royal Bounty Committee (in other words, not to their friend Nicol Spence); they were to supply full explanations for any catechists who left their posts; and they were immediately to send a letter back acknowledging receipt of these orders.. The presbytery had attempted to pull the wool over the eyes of the authorities in Edinburgh, and had been given a sharp slap on the wrist for its pains. A suspicious and rather frosty relationship ensued.
The Committee take their revenge
That September Moore was again allowed eight pounds sterling from the Royal Bounty Committee and the SSPCK. On 14 October 1730 the Rev. Neil Campbell wrote a letter to the SSPCK:
With a List of Scholars at the School of Collonsay James Muir Master Consisting of Sixteen Boys One Girl, But giving no account of their Learning, Neither is the List subscrib’d, And also A Receipt by the Minister of the Books sent to the School was produced; The said Letter represents the need the Isle of Collonsay & other Isles adjacent to it, are in, of more Schools & Catechists; The Committee appointed That the Minister & Schoolmaster be desired to have the said School visited & a regular Report sent, And found That the Society’s funds cannot allow of more Schools to the foresaid Isles.
Campbell’s letter was evidently neither informative nor written according to the proper form, did not reach Edinburgh until nearly a full six months after it was (apparently) written, and may have done more harm than good, increasing the authorities’ suspicions that there was something wrong with the school at Colonsay. On 16 August 1731, the following resolution was passed by a rather vengeful Royal Bounty Committee:
That James Muir Jointly Employed in the Island of Colonsay, in the paroch of Jura and Colonsay and presbyterie of Kintyre, who has had Annually Eight pounds Sterling for this and the preceeding year, Which is Annually Three pounds more than what the said presbytrie Craved for him; Therefore the said James Muir is now continued, Dito place another year, after November next, With Six pounds Sterling, whereof the one half to be paid by the forsaid Society, And the other half by this Committee.
Thus, in one stroke, the unfortunate James Moore lost one quarter of his salary. The Committee deftly put the blame on the Presbytery of Kintyre, who had requested only five pounds for the previous catechist four years previously. The matter, of course, would not be allowed to rest there.
