THE COLONSAY CATECHIST - Part 10
Dr. Domhnall Uilleam Stiubhart's series of articles has covered entirely new ground. 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.
Daniel Campbell of Shawfield
Reading the records of the Presbytery of Kintyre, we can see that Daniel Campbell of Shawfield, who at that time owned much of Jura, had been keen for some time to rehabilitate the parish. As we have seen, in 1726 Shawfield had bought the Islay estates previously owned by the Campbells of Cawdor, estates which also included much of Jura as well. Like Malcolm MacNeill, he not only envisaged a new commercial order on these estates; he also intended to rework his tenants’ hearts, minds and souls. One way to do this was to support the Presbytery of Kintyre’s requests for catechists for their bounds. Thus it was that on 12 June 1729 he wrote a letter to the Royal Bounty Committee, promoting the presbytery’s plans for catechists:
particularly to Ilay, Jura, Scaraby and Colonsay very much needing the same, and Shewing his Purpose to do something in Places where he has Interest, in Order to a more Plentiful Dispensation of Gospel Ordinances.
It is clear from a letter written on the 25 June to Nicol Spence by the Rev. James Boes or Boas of the Lowland Charge in Campbeltown that if the catechists were indeed supplied in the relevant islands, then Shawfield would be encouraged:
to go on in that laudable design he hath in a more comfortable & full satisfying planting of Jura & Yla wt more min[iste]rs in these 2 Islands at least one in each such a valuable design I hope will be encouraged by the Reverend Committy
As we saw previously, because of administrative incompetence on the part of the Presbytery of Kintyre, the existing local catechists had still not received their salaries for the previous year – indeed, Donald MacLean in Colonsay had already, unbeknown to the authorities, left his position. The Royal Bounty Committee was impressed by Shawfield’s promises, and recommended that the catechists’ salaries were to be continued:
The Committee having Considered this Letter did Referr it to their Subcommittee to take Care that in the Scheme they are to bring in, the forsaid Islands be Competently Provided with Missionaries out of the Royal Bounty, and appoints that a Letter of Thanks be wrote to Shawfield, taking Notice of his Purpose abovementioned & intreating him to Prosecute the same.
In 1730 the Synod of Argyll instructed the Presbytery of Kintyre to write to Shawfield concerning their attempt to split the parish of Jura, an injunction repeated twice over the next two years. However, no immediate progress was made, possibly because Shawfield had other more pressing matters to worry about: he was then preoccupied with building the north wing of Islay House near Bridgend to accommodate his large family. Meanwhile, the Rev. Neill Campbell renewed his complaints, sending an "Address and Representation" to the Synod showing:
his very great and greivous burden under so heavy, large and vastly Discontiguous a Charge together with his Decay of Strength Occationed throw his continual Toyll and fatigue both by Sea and Land and his utter inability at any time of his Life or in the best circumstances of his health to Discharge the Duty of a Pastor to the said Parishes..
The Synod requested that the £27 sterling which had been granted by the Royal Bounty Committee for a preaching catechist in Jura be renewed:
there being no parish in Scotland Equal to it for Extent of bounds and Discontiguity nor any within our Synod encompassed with such Dangerous seas and rapid Currents so that tho the Minister who for the greater part of the year lives in Colonsay were never so healthy and strong yet for most of the winter and spring quarters he can hardly sett out with a boat nor tho he shoud now then be in capacity to come to Jura is he able now to travel any other way than by mantaining a boat and shippage which tho all other things answered (the smalness of his stipends being litle more than 700 mrks) will not allow.
A new attempt to split the parish
Eventually the presbytery appealed to a higher authority: on 19 May 1735 it gave in a petition to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland asking for legal assistance in order to secure a manse, glebe and assistant for the minister of Jura and Colonsay. The affair was put into the hands of Nicol Spence, the legal agent for the church, who sent the Synod of Argyll a paper for the Presbytery of Kintyre; this paper was to be subscribed to by the local heretors in order, finally, to split the parish in two.
It seems that later that year the Presbytery of Kintyre once more wrote to Nicol Spence about the possibility of the new parish, sending with it a copy of their original 1724 report. In his reply, produced at a presbyterial meeting of 25 February 1736, he asks for more up-to-date information about the rents, further details about the heretors, and praises Shawfield for having "shown a good example to the rest of the heretors". Malcolm MacNeill had hardly proved himself a particularly good landlord to the Rev. Neill Campbell in the past, refusing to supply him with manse, glebe, increase of stipend or even free transport to and from Colonsay. It was probably at the urging of Daniel Campbell of Shawfield that he changed his tune.
Despite the long-standing problems the minister had with his local heritors, it seemed that these two entrepreneurial landowners par excellence were willing to adopt a more positive approach. Partly, we might expect, their newfound enthusiasm for fulfilling their ecclesiastical duties arose from the realisation that otherwise it would be exceptionally difficult for them to secure a successor for the ageing Rev. Neill Campbell. At the same time, we should never forget the close relation between material and spiritual progress in the eyes of many eighteenth-century improvers – a relation which comes through clearly in the records of the SSPCK.
The willingness of Campbell of Shawfield to allocate a glebe and manse for the Rev. Neill Campbell, at long last, might explain the minister’s finally appearing before the presbytery on 21 April 1736. For at least a decade the presbytery had been attempting to make the Rev. Neill deliver an exercise, in other words to expound a set text before his colleagues: a viva, or perhaps a punishment, for apparently negligent ministers. One and a half years after promising to deliver his exercise in six months time, the Rev. Neill Campbell finally appeared, and – doubtless an example of dry ministerial humour – was made to give a sermon on Romans 8:35: "Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"
A new landlord for Jura
Whatever ambitions MacNeill of Colonsay and Campbell of Shawfield had for the parish of Jura, they were never to come to fruition. At a meeting of the presbytery on 20 April 1737, to which we shall return, the minister of Jura asked for his colleagues’ help as follows:
Mr. Niel also represented that Shawfield as proprietor of a part of Jura sometime ago, signified his willingness, that a place should be designed for a manse & Glebe, & that the last time he was in the Island he was displeased it was not done, & Craved the Presbyteries advice.
In other words, the baillie of the island, Archibald Campbell of Sannaig, had done nothing to obey his master’s orders and select a location for a manse and glebe in Jura. The presbytery agreed to ask Shawfield for permission to make a visitation to the island to search for a suitable site themselves. But whatever they might have done, they were too late.
The previous year Archibald Campbell of Sannaig had succeeded his father, the ninety-five year old John Campbell, inheriting his wadsets and his position as baillie and forester of Jura under Daniel Campbell of Shawfield. Although, of course, he had probably been acting baillie in place of his father for several decades, it may well be that it was only now that he was able fully to put into practice his own ideas for the island, introducing more commercially-oriented methods of running the estate. In 1739 Archibald Campbell bought the Shawfield estates in Jura. The Campbells of Sannaig thus became the Campbells of Jura; their estates now had to pay their way. Great changes were looming on the horizon. Desire to avoid the troubles and stress of a regime under a landowner they knew only too well may explain why a good number of Diùraich, both tenants and tacksmen, were willing to leave the island in the two major emigrations of 1739 and 1754. As we have seen, the church seems to have little place in Archibald Campbell’s plans for Jura, and once more the parish lapsed into neglect.
The death of the catechist
James Moore, however, continued to receive eight pounds a year. Malcolm MacNeill of Colonsay continued, of course, to look after his catechist, as can be seen from the Royal Bounty Committee records from 28 November 1734, the first year he was allowed his full salary once more:
James Muir Catechist at Colonsay, having drawn Bills for his Salary for the year past, but sent no Certificate of his Service, being at a great distance from the presbyterie Seat; The Committee granted warrand for payment of his Salary resting, upon an obligement by Mr. McNiel son to the Laird of Colonsay to procure proper Certificates.
However, Moore was to enjoy his full pay for scarcely two more years.
The Presbytery of Kintyre held a meeting in Campbeltown on 20 April 1737. After they had finished, they were surprised by the hasty arrival of a colleague they had not seen for a whole year. He had some sad news:
Mr. Niel Campbell having come to the place, it not being possible for him to arrive sooner by reason of contrary winds, desired a Presby to be called. The Presby being met he he [sic] represented to them, that Mr John Logan preaching Catechist appointed by the Committee, Died about the Close of March last, & that James Muir Catechist in Colonsay died upon the 19th Decr. last; He further represented that Mr. Logan had appropriated the money owing him by the committee to pay his board, Funeral Charges & other Debts to Donald Campbell of Ardmenish.
The Presby appoints a letter to be written to the Committee apprising them of Mr Logan’s death, bearing the time of this service, Diligence & success & the money Due to Donald Campbell as also of James Muir’s death.
John Logan had just arrived from Rannoch for a six-month stint supplying Jura when he died. It was intended that he take up another post in the Isle of Harris after he finished; but he never made it. As a replacement for Moore, Campbell suggested none other than the previous catechist who had deserted his post nearly a decade earlier:
Mr Niel Campbell also represented that Donald Maclean formerly examined by the presby & found qualified, is a proper person to succed [sic] the said James Muir, & that the people are desirous to have him, and craves that the presbytery would write to the Committee to this effect; which they agreed to do.
SSPCK records, however, tell us that somebody else taught in Moore’s stead until MacLean took over. On the 19 October 1737 a letter was read from the Presbytery of Kintyre:
craving payment for Donald MacLean & also some allowance for one Archibald McDuffie one of the schoolers in the said school who keept up the said school from the time of James Muirs death till forsaid 1st May last.
For replacing Moore, Donald MacLean was awarded six months of Moore’s salary: two pounds from the SSPCK, which would recommend that the Royal Bounty Committee give the same. For his trouble, the society gave Archibald McDuffie twenty shillings sterling.
