Campbells of Aberuchill and Kilbryde. It was originally built in 1602,
but has since been modernised and enlarged. The Crown granted a
charter of the lands of Aberuchill in 1596 to Colin Campbell, second
son of Sir Colin Campbell of Lawers. His son James was made a baronet
of Nova Scotia by Charles I. in 1627. He fell fighting for Charles II.
at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Sir Colin, only son of Sir James,
succeeded him. He was the most distinguished of the family. Bred to
the law, he rose to the position of Lord of Session with the title of
Lord Aberuchill. Sir Colin was a Whig and a Presbyterian when the most
of the gentry of Strathearn were either Episcopalians or Popish
Jacobites. His name is associated with the massacre of Glencoe,
inasmuch as he was a member of the Council that refused the certificate
of the Sheriff-Depute of Argyle that M'Donald of Glencoe had taken the
oath of allegiance to King William, unless they got a warrant to
receive it from the King. From 1693 to 1702 he represented the County
of Perth in the Scottish Parliament, and died in 1704. From the
Campbells, the estate passed into the hands of the Drummonds. It is
now the property of Captain Robert Dewhurst, son of George C. Dewhurst,
Esq., lately deceased.
It would be unpardonable to write anything about Comrie without making
allusion to the earthquakes which have made it famous. In the
Statistical Account of Scotland, published in the year 1794, the Rev.
Mr M'Diarmid, minister of the parish, gives an account of the first
recorded earthquake in the district. During the autumn of 1789 loud
noises, unaccompanied by any concussion, were heard by the inhabitants
of Glenlednock; but on the 5th of November of that year they were
alarmed by a loud rumbling noise, accompanied with a severe shock of
earthquake, which was felt over a tract of country of more than twenty
miles in extent. The Rev. Mr Mackenzie, successor to Mr M'Diarmid,
writing in 1838, in the last Statistical Account, says that "at and
after the time of the last Statistical Account the earthquakes were so
frequent and violent, and accompanied with such noises, as to occasion
great alarm, especially one which occurred on a Sabbath while the
congregation was assembled." The year 1839, however, was the time of
the great earthquakes. Writing in 1842 in the last Statistical
Account, the Rev. John Ferguson, minister of Monzievaird, says:--"At
this time they began to be frequently felt, nearly 20 shocks being
occasionally experienced in 24 hours. The most violent one happened
about ten o'clock on the evening of 23d October, 1839. The shock
seemed to pass along through the parish of Monzievaird from north-west
to south-east. For a second or two every house for miles around the
village of Comrie was shaken from top to bottom; and while the motion
was passing away to the eastward it was accompanied by a tremendous
noise like the roar of 100 pieces of ordnance discharged at once and
gradually dying away in the distance. This earthquake was partially
felt throughout a great part of Scotland, as far as Inverness, Dunbar,
Berwick, and the banks of Loch Awe. In this neighbourhood it was very
alarming. Several individuals fainted, and most of the inhabitants of
the village of Comrie spent the whole night in the streets, or in the
churches, which were very properly opened for prayer. Many stone dykes
were thrown down, walls of houses rent, and chimney-stalks shattered,
the stones being frequently shifted from their places, but no serious
damage was sustained. The shocks have again diminished both in
frequency and violence since the autumn of 1839." Another severe shock
occurred in November, 1846, but from that date they have decreased both
in number and intensity. The cause of these subterranean commotions is
in this as in similar cases a matter of conjecture, but there is good
cause for thankfulness that they have hitherto been attended with no
serious damage to life or property.
The Session records of some parishes in Scotland are of some historical
value, but this is not so with those of Comrie. Beyond the perpetual
reiteration of cases of discipline and doles to the poor, there is
little to be found in them to throw light upon the Christian life and
work of the parish. So meagrely kept were these records that until the
year 1829 the Christian name and surname of the Moderator and Clerk
never appear in the minutes--not even the Secession of 1843 is
recorded, though the minister left the church with a great majority of
the congregation to worship upon Tomachessock. The only exception to
what we have just stated, perhaps, is a minute of Kirk-Session dated
17th November, 1772, recording the honour due to Patrick Campbell, Esq.
of Monzie, then deceased, and the Rev. Robert Menzies, minister of the
parish, for the active and benevolent part they took in the building of
the Dalginross Bridge over the Earn. The bridge was built in 1756 at a
cost of £230.
The Parish Church was erected in 1805, and holds 1044 sitters. The
manse was built in 1784, and an addition was made to it in 1822. A new
church was built in St. Fillans in connection with the Church of
Scotland in 1878, and in March, 1895, it was endowed and erected into a
parish _quoad sacra_ under the old name of Dundurn. It is curious to
note how the land has been changing hands during the last 180 years.
In 1715, the heritors were the Earl of Perth, Duke of Athole, the
proprietors of Aberuchill, Lawers, Monzie, Cultabraggan, Ardvoirlich,
Comrie, Strowan, Drummond-Ernoch, and Balmacuin. At present they are
the Earl of Ancaster, Marquis of Breadalbane, and the proprietors of
Ardvoirlich, Dunira, Aberuchill, Strowan, Lawers, Dalchonzie, and
Drumearn.
ON THE BANKS OF THE DEVON
By Rev. E. B. SPEIRS, B.D., Glendevon
Seeing that "St. Serf's Bridge" still spans the Devon at one part
within the parish of Glendevon, and that the good Saint did not himself
build the bridge, but, following a common practice, baptised and made
Christian what was a Pagan structure, reared in this instance by the
Imperial legionaries, it might be permissible for the local historian
to go back at least to the times of the Roman occupation. After
describing the camp and the Roman road which still exist in the mind's
eye of the antiquaries, he might then go on to tell of holy St.
Servan's feats in the way of detecting sheep-stealers by making them,
like Speed under the influence of Proteus' reasoning, cry "Baa," or
relate some such pretty human story as that of how he turned water into
wine for the sake of a sick monk, or unfold the thrilling tale of how
he fought the Dovan dragon, as Wyntoun sings, or at least says:--
"In Dovyn of devotyoune
And prayere, he slew a fell Dragoune,
Quhare he was slayne, that place wes ay
The Dragownys Den cald to this day."[1]
The more exact methods of writing history now in vogue, however, almost
compel the chronicler to begin with the first certain mention of
Glendevon in accredited records, and that belongs to the year 1521. On
the eleventh of July of that year an interesting ceremony was gone
through down at Cambuskenneth, on the banks of the Forth. Abbot Mylne,
a man both of culture and character, who to a genuine love of letters
added a love of art and architecture, and who was ultimately the first
President of the Court of Session, had re-built the great altar, the
chapter-house, and part of the cloister of his Abbey, and had laid out
two new cemeteries. In order to signalise these notable additions and
restorations he invited the Bishop of Dunblane to conduct a
consecration and dedication service. The Bishop was directly assisted
in this solemn function by three of his principal clergy--his
archdeacon, George Newton; John Chesholme, prebendary of Kippane; and
"Jacobus Wilson, prebandarius de Glendowane." John Tulydaf, warder of
the Minorites of "Striueling" (Stirling), preached on the efficacy of
dedication after the celebration of the Mass, and amongst those present
were the "noble and powerful" Lord John Erskin, Jacobus Haldene of
Glenegges (Gleneagles), Knight, and various others of the local clergy,
nobility, and gentry, together with a large concourse of people from
the surrounding district. The official account of what took place on
this high day when Glendowane, Glendovan, Glenduen, or Glendevon, first
emerges into the light of history, is duly signed by Jacobus Blakwood,
presbyter of the Diocese of Dunblane, public notary by apostolic
authority, who was on the spot and saw everything properly done.[2] The
name of Prebendary Wilson occurs in several documents both before and
after this, all of which have reference to matters connected either
with Cambuskenneth or Dunblane. He gets prominent mention in a paper
dated from Cambuskenneth, June, 1530, in which he is styled "Canonicus
Dunblanensis," heading a list of "venerable and discreet" gentlemen,
including Alanus Balward, vicar of Kalender, and Andreas Sym, vicar of
Cumry, but we cannot trace him further down than March of the following
year. It is clear from this that Glendevon was attached to the "Kirk
of Dunblane," and that the Parish Church was served from there, not, it
is to be hoped, in the slovenly fashion characteristic of these times,
when the stipend was too often fought for by different teind hunters in
the shape of the bishop of the diocese and the abbot of some
neighbouring monastery, a state of things to which Prebendary Wilson
himself bears witness. There is something almost pathetic in the
thought that less than forty years after that dedication service in
which the Prebendary of Glendevon took part, these additions were to be
pulled to pieces by the savage mob which wrecked, amongst other
religious houses, the stately monastery on the Links of the Forth; and
it is just possible that the great destroyer--spiritually at least--of
what Canon Wilson helped to build up was in his parish in 1556. At any
rate a spot is still pointed out on the glebe where, according to
tradition, John Knox preached. We know from his own statement[3] that
he spent some time in the early part of the summer of that year at
Castle Campbell--which is only some four or five miles distant--"whare
he taught certane dayis"; so it is at least not utterly improbable that
he may have come through Glenquey past the Maiden's Well, and visited a
possible congregation in Glendovan, exhorting them to "prayaris, to
reading of the Scriptures, and mutuall conference unto such tyme as God
should give unto them grettar libertie."[4]
The second direct mention of Glendevon in public records is of a
somewhat unsavoury order, and affords a rather curious illustration of
the beliefs of the people of Scotland in the seventeenth century. John
Brughe, one of the most notorious necromancers and wizards of his day,
was tried at Edinburgh on November 24th, 1643, for practising sorcery
and other unholy arts, and amongst the charges brought against him was
that he had met Satan thrice "in the kirkyeard of Glendovan at quhilkis
tymes ther was taine up thrie severall dead corps, ane of thame being
of ane servand man named Johne Chrystiesone; the uther corps, tane up
at the Kirk of Mukhart, the flesch of the quhilk corps was put above
the byre and stable-dure headis" of certain individuals in order to
destroy their cattle.[5] John's object in collecting Glendovan "muild"
was, according to this indictment, not a beneficent one; but it is to
be remembered to his credit that he used the powdered bones of the dead
and other materials, notably "ane inchantit stane of the bignes of a
dow egg,"[6] for the healing of man and beast, and we are told that for
curing a number of oxen afflicted with the murrain by administering a
pint of one of his patent medicines, accompanied with the invocation,
"God put thame in their awin place," repeated thrice, he got "ellevin
od schillings, with twa peckis of meill and thrie tailyeis of beiff."
In those days, when not only human nature but Nature herself lay under
the black shadow of one of the foulest of superstitions, the fair banks
of the Devon were much frequented by the devil, who had whole "covins"
of witches and wizards in his service, so that it is not surprising to
hear that John was frequently in his company. "That John Brughe had
been with the devil at the Rumbling Brigs and elsewhere was affirmed by
Katherine Mitchell to be of veritie, at the tyme of hir criminall
tryell at Culrose, and immediately befoir hir executione, the said John
Brughe being confronted with hir at the tyme."[7] We can claim this
renowned empiric not only for the Glendevon district, but in a sense
for the Presbytery, since it was alleged against him that he had got
his uncanny knowledge "from a wedow woman, named Neane Nikclerith, of
threescoir years of age, quha wis sister dochter to Nik Neveding, that
notorious infamous witche in Monzie, quha for her sorcerie and
witchecraft was brunt fourscoir of yeir since or thereby." Spite of
all he had done for the "bestiall," and all the testimonials he had
from patients whom he had cured of their "seiknessis" by enchanted
drinks, Glendovan and Mukhart mould, and sympathetic conjuring of
"sarkis, coller bodies, beltis, and utheris pertaining als weill to men
as to wemen," John was found guilty and condemned to be strangled and
burned. These were the real Dark Ages, when intimations were
frequently made from the Glendevon and other pulpits that the minister
and session would be glad to receive information against suspected
witches, and when the common pricker who pricked poor witches "with
lang preins of thrie inches" to discover the marks of Satan, was
specially busy in the vale of Devon, where in a record year no less
than sixteen of the local "covin" were burned. In the Roll of
Fugitives from kirk discipline drawn up by the Synod of Perth and
Stirling in 1649, Glendevon was represented by a warlock, "Mart.
Kennard, suspect of witchcraft," but of his fate we know nothing. In
this connection it may be remarked that though the "Kirkyeard of
Glendovan," immortalised by John Brughe's ghoulish visit, contains no
epitaphs, humorous or otherwise, it possesses a "Plague Stone," a large
rough slab, under which lie those who died of what is vaguely called
the Plague (1645?), and the lifting of which was duly guarded against
by a solemn curse pronounced over it on whoever would dare to remove
it, for two hundred years ago a curse could break bones or "ryve the
saull out of ye."
Two years after John Brughe suffered at Edinburgh, the quiet of the
usually peaceful valley of the Devon was broken by the clatter of
cavalry and the skirling of the pipes, as Montrose, having in his usual
brilliant fashion outwitted Baillie, marched through, burning and
plundering as he passed, leaving Muckhart, Dollar, and, above all,
Castle Campbell, the lowland hold of the detested Argyles, heaps of
blackened ruins, a march which was to end in the bloody Battle of
Kilsyth, that "braw day" when, as the Highlander with grim humour
remarked, "at every stroke I gave with my broadsword I cut an ell o'
tamn'd Covenanting breeks." When Chambers says[8] that "the
Covenanting army marched close upon the track of Montrose _down
Glendevon_, at the distance of about a day's march behind," he, of
course, means down the Devon valley, and not down Glendevon proper,
since it is pretty certain that Montrose, in making his descent from
the north, entered the low country not by Gleneagles, but by the
south-east end of the Ochils. Glendevon Castle--originally built, it
is supposed, by the Crawfords[9] in the sixteenth century--thus escaped
the fate which befel Castle Campbell[10] and Menstrie House, and other
places in the Devon and Ochil district at this time, when the fierce
strife was not merely between cavaliers and Covenanters, but quite as
much, and specially during the Devon valley march, between the Ogilvies
and Macleans on the one hand, and the Campbells and their friends on
the other. It is, however, impossible, to say whether the Keep, which
has been in the possession of the Rutherford family since 1766, was
actually at this time in the hands of the Crawfords, and, indeed, the
traditions regarding its ownership are so vague--one of them assigning
it to the Douglases--that, in the absence of authentic records, it is
impossible to make any really satisfactory statement regarding its
origin and history.
{195}
Some years later the parish of Glendevon came prominently before the
public in connection with the deposition and excommunication of its
doughty true-blue Presbyterian minister, the Rev. William Spence, M.A.,
though it was not till he had been removed from his living that the
really romantic part of his career began. He had graduated at St.
Andrews in 1654, and after some years of schoolmastering[11] and
probationership he was, in 1664, duly admitted on the new Black
Prelatic conditions to the parish of Glendevon. Under the mild rule of
Bishops Leighton and Ramsay he lived quietly there for fourteen years.
His name occasionally appears on the Synod and Presbytery Committees
during this period, and he seems to have done his best to get the
brethren stirred up to "better the provision of Glendovan." The Bishop
and Synod did actually order a "perambulation" to be made to see if
anything could be annexed from the adjacent parishes, especially
"Denying and Fossoquhy," so that, as Mr Spence put it, "ane
augmentation proportionablie might {196} be made to him out of the
vacant teindes of the said paroches in respect of the poornes and
meannes of his stipend for the present."[12] The perambulation, beyond
affording a pleasant outing to the visitors in the long May days, does
not seem to have had any practical result. Mr Spence had, however,
been thinking of higher things than teinds and augmentation, and had
been looking far beyond the bounds of his own parish, and, spite of the
extreme gentleness of the somewhat mongrel Prelatic-Presbyterian rule
under which he was, and the general atmosphere of conformity which he
breathed, he began to have serious searchings of heart about the state
of the "poor afflicted" Church. Accordingly, towards the end of 1678
he took the bold step of presenting a paper[13] to the Presbytery of
Auchterarder drawing the attention of the Court to the sundry gross
corruptions under which the Church was suffering and to the horrid
defection from its first purity, obvious to {197} every man who did not
wilfully shut his eyes. The evils against which he asked the Court to
testify were doctrinal, liturgical, disciplinary, moral, and what may
be called ecclesiastical. He includes in the sweep of his very
impartial denunciation not only the pernicious tenets of Pelagianism,
Arminianism, Latitudinarianism, and Popish errors, but "the dotage of
Quakers and other enthusiasts," human inventions in worship, and the
private essays made to introduce or impose an unwarrantable liturgie of
unsound and useless form, the loose spirit of atheism, profaneness, and
ungodliness reigning in all corners of the kingdom, and the dreadful
differences that prevailed, and calls for a return to sound doctrine,
the practice of "the gude Kirk primitif," the exercise of a strict
discipline, and the ways of peace. At the special meeting of
Presbytery called to consider his paper he asked to have it back,
apparently because he now thought its terms were not strong enough, and
meanwhile a committee was appointed not to deal but to confer with him
"until he should get full satisfaction of everything that was his
scruple." He refused, however, to meet the Committee or attend the
Presbytery, on the ground that he had {198} not "clearness" as to the
authority and constitution of a semi-prelatic Court. The Bishop and
Presbytery thereupon suspended him, and he was summoned before the
Synod in April, 1679, but did not attend, on account of "ane aguish
distemper which had seized on him." A Synodal Committee with full
powers was then appointed, before which he compeared in May, but spite
of earnest entreaties of the Bishop he would withdraw nothing, and even
added that he did not think the present Church government agreeable to
Scriptural rules--a view shared by some of the Episcopalian bishops
themselves. The Bishop and Committee recorded their opinion that the
paper was contrived and adhered to for advancing some private interest
against the unity and peace of the Church, and rather unfairly
insinuated that Mr Spence was the more hardened therein by the late
execrable murder of the Bishop of St. Andrews and the expectation of a
Revolution to follow thereupon, and unanimously resolved that this
unruly and unreasonable member be deposed. Mr Spence was quite
prepared for this, and, "with some signs of choler in his countenance,"
handed a second paper to the Bishop, which turned out to {199} be a
protest against the sentence of the "pretended" Bishop and Synod of
Dunblane passed on him. He was asked to retire for a little till they
should consult, but he scornfully replied that he did not own their
jurisdiction, and was making for the church-door when the Bishop
ordered the beadle to lay hold of him, and carry him to his house, and
desire the Baillie to keep him safely until he should find caution to
answer before a competent judicatory. This was Mr Spence's first taste
of imprisonment, of which he was to have a very large supply, of very
different quality, too, later on. The good Bishop on his own
responsibility sent three of the brethren that night to reason with
him, but Mr Spence would not yield, and was let out on bail. He
appeared at the next meeting of Synod, but, spite of the threat of
excommunication, stuck to his guns and argued against his treatment on
technical grounds, and on the following day, when, after being duly
cited, he neither compeared nor pled "ane aguish distemper," the Bishop
and Synod charged the Presbytery of Auchterarder to proceed with the
excommunication, which after some bungling they did, and finally the
superior Court ordered the {200} intimation of the excommunication to
be read from every pulpit in the Diocese on the first Sabbath of
January, 1681, but no attempt was made to detain the unruly member, and
the door of grace was left open to the very last, quite remarkable
leniency when it is remembered that 1680 was the year of the Sanquhar
Declaration and Airds Moss, and that the peroration of Mr Spence's
protest would have done credit to Cuddy Headrigg's mother. "For these
reasons specially, and many others I need not mention now, I, the said
William Spence, protest against the sentence aforesaid, and disown the
same, seeing the said inflicters have hereby proclaimed themselves to
be the patrones and abettors of all the said corruptions, supplanters
of the Gospel faction for Anti-christ, promoters of the powers of
darkness, enemies to the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and such from whom
all good Christians ought to separate because of their maintaining and
defending soul-murdering heresies, and in persecuting with the utmost
violence and rigour any man who darr open his mouth for the truth of
Christ. (_Sic Subscribitur_), Mr William Spence."[14]
{201}