Arrochar Parish Church
History
THE CHURCH OF THE CLAN MACFARLANE.
By THE LATE REV. WILLIAM BARR MACFARLANE, M.A.,
SECOND LIEUTENANT IN THE FIFTH KING'S OWN SCOTTISH B0RDERERS.
THE Parish of Arrochar is the most northerly in the modern county of Dumbarton, and Luss is just south of it.
These two parishes were one at the beginning, and as they now stand they are the result of a most interesting struggle between the idea of its Church as the Church of a Clan, and the idea of it as the Church of a Territorial District.
The story, however, centres round the first of these ideas-round the Church, in fact, of the Clan Macfarlane-and it is in connexion with the story of that Clan, that I now propose to treat the history of the Church of Scotland in the Luss and Arrochar country.
The eponymous ancestor of the Clan Macfarlane, was a certain chief, Parlan or Partholan (Latinised into Bartholomew) who flourished at Arrochar in the reign of David ii. (1329-1371) but the history of the Clan must, I believe, go back far beyond that time. The name Parlan, however it came in, is non-Gaelic, and several things go to show that the Clan are the modern representatives of the Athacots (or Attacotti) whom Richard of Cirencester describes as dwelling in the Lennox country at the time of Agricola and Agricola's successors. (Chalmers, Caledonia. Irving, Book of Dumbartonshire, vol. I County.) But who were the Athacots? We find them distinguished from the Picts, Scots, Britons and Saxons; and their country, Loch Lomondside, if Richard of Cirencester's description be correct, is just the place where we should expect to find some old remnants of a prehistoric people, still working out their destiny. The Lennox country indeed, is a mountainous wedge between the old spheres of the other contending powers; and admirably suited for such a last refuge. My own idea (if I may venture to have one) is that the Athacots were a part of the pre-Celtic, Iberian, "dolichocephalic" people, whose chambered cairns are scattered over Argyllshire, Arran and Bute, and who apparently gave us the one or two Shemitic idioms which we find in modern Gaelic. "These Athacots," says Richard, "deserved high praise" for having sustained the attacks of the enemy after "the subjugation of the neighbouring provinces;" in fact, so determined was their opposition that the Athacots got a character from the Romans of the utmost ferocity, S. Jerome even describing them as cannibals. This character agrees somewhat with that given to the Clan in the days of the Stewart Kings of Scotland.
To such a people, assuming our facts are right, it was that the earliest Christian missionary came about the year MD. 500. This missionary was S. Kessog. In a delightful little pamphlet entitled "Saint Kessog and his Home," lent me by the Rev. Mr. Dunlop, minister of Luss, Miss Mary Colquhoun, the "Bardess" of the Colquhoun Clan, tells what we know of the Saint, and the church which he founded.
The date of the death of S. Kessog (or Mac-Kessog) is given in some calendars as 10th March, A.D. 520. Now the 10th of March, if it was his day, is, curiously enough, the New Year of the Druids-the day near to which the mistletoe was gathered, and we may have here a link between the present Church of Luss and the old pagan religion. The year of death is put somewhat later by David Camerarius (De Scot. Pict, lib. iii.) who says "Superis dedit Makkessogum Boina sub annum Christi DLX, anno Congalli regis secundo." The name itself, "Mac Kessog," shows the high repute in which the Saint must have been held, by the people he worked among. "Mac" is really for "Mo"-a title of honour; and "og" here is a term of endearment.
Mac Kessog was of Royal lineage, like S. Columba, and came of that dynasty which held his birth-place, the commanding Rock of Cashel. Which of the great schools of Ireland had the honour of educating him for the ministry is not known, but according to some authorities, Kessog was also called "Moshenog of Beithach." Perhaps this name "Moshenog,"-"my little o1d man (?)" gives us an inkling of S. Kessog's personal appearance. In Scotland we trace his pilgrimmage in the dedication of the church at Luss, and in other dedications at Auchterarder and Callander. There is a Kessog's Ferry at Inverness, and fairs called after S. Kessog were held on the Saint's day at Comrie and Cumbrae.
But it was at Luss that the Saint made his home. Half warrior himself-he was known as the "Priest-Soldier"-his message and his whole bearing went straight to the hearts of the brave men of the Lennox. Dempster (Menologium) tells us that his name was invoked by the warriors of Leven as they went to battle; while his picture, as a soldier carrying a charged bow, lent them courage.
But I have no doubt that S. Kessog, like S. Columba, taught also the higher virtues of Christianity. Indeed he showed his own essential humility and distrust of the world by retiring finally to Inch-ta-Vanach on Loch Lomond ("the island of the two monks") and there, perhaps with an attendant, he would ring his "little bell" outside his modest chapel, to call to the holy offices of the Faith-a little bell that down to the Seventeenth century was held in great veneration in the Lennox. For we find that so late as the year 1675, James, Earl of Perth, was retoured in the lands of Barnachills with the Chapel and Holy Bell of S. Kessog.
How long S. Kessog lived at Inch-ta-Vanach, or how he met his death, is not now known. Tradition asserts that he fell by the hand of assasins at Bandry, a mile and a half below Luss village, and just where the United Free Church now stands. Perhaps his slayers were men of an outlying Clan, for another legend tells that he suffered martyrdom among foreigners in a foreign land, and that his remains, embalmed with sweet herbs, were brought for interment to the church on Loch-Lomondside, at the village where his home had been. This village was then called Clachandhu-"the black hamlet" ; but lo! one of the herbs sprang up from his grave, and spread itself over the wall of the church ; wherefore the Parish took the name of "'Lus," which in Gaelic signifies a plant or herb. This herb, it is added, continued to flourish as long as the old church stood, but when it was pulled down it perished. The church thus became celebrated, and numerous devotees went to it on pilgrimage.
The original "church" would be a little oratory, built by S. Kessog on the shore, almost opposite to his own little chapel on Inch-ta-Vanach, an oratory from outside of which he would preach, and inside which he would celebrate the Eucharist. It is quite likely that it was the first of many successors on the spot where the Church of Luss now stands.
At Bandry there was a cairn known as S. Kessog's Cairn (Carn-na-Cheasaig). This existed as late as 1796. In the middle of the Eighteenth century, when the military road along Loch Lomond was formed, the cairn was partly removed. In it a large stone was found carved as a recumbent effigy for the tomb of an ecclesiastic. It is supposed to have been placed by mediaeval devotion on the traditional site of S. Kessog's martyrdom. It is now in the chapel at Rossdhu, and represents a Bishop or Abbot, mitred and habited in eucharistic vestments-alb, stole, tunic, chasuble, maniple and amice. (S. Kessog and His Home.)
The Saint indeed was long held in reverence, and on the 6th of March, 1316, we find King Robert the Bruce confirming to John de Luss, knight, a charter by Malcolm, fifth Earl of Lennox ; and granting therewith, "for the honour of his patron, the most holy S. Kessog, to his beloved and faithful bachelor (baculario) freedom from exactions for the Royal household during the king's progresses within the lands of Luss, and exemption from appearing as a witness (ratione testimonto perhibendi) before the king's justiciar." (Reg. Levenay p. 21, quoted in Origines Parochales.)
More significant still-on 18th March, 1315, King Robert the Bruce granted to the Church of Luss the privilege of Gyrth or Sanctuary for three miles round by land and water, partly for the honour in which he held S. Kessog, and partly, I suppose, in token of his friendship for Earl Malcolm who was one of the Bruce's most devoted servants and adherents.
The church of Luss possesses now a set of Communion vessels with the figure of S. Kessog engraved upon them.
We have these legends and these material links revealing to us S. Kessog and his coming. After him the light grows dim. For six centuries the darkness continues, and to many of our Scottish historians the country north of Dumbarton as far as Glen Falloch becomes almost a lost land. We know however, that by the time of the great king Cadwallawn (circa A.D. 633) the district had come under the sway of the Briton rulers of Strathclyde. In Glen Falloch, above Loch Lomond, just a little beyond the point where Perthshire and Dumbartonshire meet, is a stone called Clach-na-Breaton, which marked the northern boundary of their kingdom. Now in Gaelic and Welsh we have many old poems and records dealing with this ancient British country and its frontier wars. Tighernac, for example, in 711, records a great conflict between Britons and Scots at Loirgeclat (probably Loch Arklet), where the Britons were defeated ; and another battle in 717 at the stone called Minvircc, probably Clach-na-Breaton.
In these battles the ancestors of our present Clan Macfarlane would, in all likelihood, be fighting; and when we have worked out the Celtic sources for these dim years between the Sixth and the Twelfth centuries we should have something very interesting to add anent the origin of the Clan and the historical connexion of the present church of Luss with that old one of S. Kessog's. In Glenloin above Stronafyne are some old mineral workings which may belong to this time. (Note from C.J.T. Macfarlane, Esq., Stronafyne, Arrochar.)
When light begins to break again we find a chief Alwyn ruling the Lennox in a Scotland now consolidated under the wise and godly rule of King David I. (1124-53). Alwyn's ancestry is lost in the mists of the years before his date, though some have traced his descent from an English noble who fled to Malcolm Canmore's protection after the Battle of Hastings, and others have connected him with Kenneth III. (971-995), and the royal Scottish House. But Alwyn's name, which is Welsh or British, betrays affinity with the Kingdom of Strathclyde, and he may have simply been (Celtic records should help us here) the lineal heir of the chiefs who led the men of Glenfalloch and Arrochar to battle in the time of Tighernac. Whatever may have been his origin, it is interesting to note that there is no break in ancestry between this chief and the latest chiefs of the Clan Macfarlane.
This Alwyn, who held the title of Earl, seems to have taken a wide interest in the ecclesiastical and civil life of the reign of King David I. There is scarcely a charter indeed of that "'Sair Sanct for the Crown" which he does not witness. And he himself was very generous to the Church. For instance, he mortified to the Church of Kilpatrick in his Earldom the lands of Cocknach, Edinvarnan, Baccum, Finbealuch, Craig in Tulloch, Monach, Dalmanach, etc. These lands were soon transferred to the Abbey of Paisley, and formed for long its most valuable appanage.
To Alwyn succeded his son Alwyn II who made a promise of the lands of Luss, in his earldom, to Maldwin, Dean of Lennox.
Maldwin would be rural dean of Lennox or "Dean of Christianity" there. He would be vicar of the Church of Luss, and would exercise a superiority over the clergy of the "deanery of Lennox "-an ecclesiastical division which corresponded to the modern Presbytery of Dumbarton.
Maldwin evidently was married, and he may have been connected with the house of Earl Alwyn, whose eldest son was also called Maldwin.
And this other Maldwin, the heir of Earl Alwin, when he in turn succeeded to his father's power, confirmed his father's promise and handed over the aforesaid lands of Luss to his namesake. These lands never passed from the possession of Maldwin the Dean's family; they remain to-day in possession of the Colquhouns, one of whom married the heiress of Luss about the year 1390.
But Alwyn II. had made another promise, viz., of the lands of the Upper Arrochar or the "plough-land" of Luss-to Gilchrist his second son. (In this testament we are shown the derivation of the name Arrochar. It is evidently the name for an old Celtic division of land - almost equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon "carucate" - and would seem to be a cognate of the Latin "aratrum," a plough.)
When the new earl came to his earldom he confirmed Gilchrist in these lands.' Legal evidence of this earliest "donatio" lies bound up with many of the original Macfarlane charters in the Procurators' Library, St. George's Place, Glasgow. So that we have now (circa 1220) three, or rather four, owners of the ancient territory, viz., (1) the Church, with various possessions; (2) Maldwin the Dean with Luss in his own right, minus its upper plough-land; (3) Gilchrist with the "Arrochar" aforesaid ; and, (4) Maldwin, the Earl, with Dumbarton Castle and the richer lands to the south. In 1238-to finish our list of owners-King Alexander II. caused Earl Maldwin to hand over Dumbarton Castle to his Royal authority. Dumbarton Castle has ever since remained a national fortress.
With this we enter upon the history of the Clan Macfarlane proper and of its church. For to Gilchrist of Arrochar was given the rule not only of a lovely land of lochs, and waterfalls, and glens, but also of a warlike people, the men who held the frontier of the earldom against Bredalbane and Argyll ; and in his lands the old history of the Lennox Clan, as a real clan, went on without a break. And so did the Clan's connexion with the Church at Luss, only in a way that is very curious -and significant.
Gilchrist's men, on their separation, found themselves not without a church indeed-for they still regarded Luss as their own ; but with a church in the lands of a man who was not their Chief. If the territorial system had then been in the ascendency, Gilchrist would simply have built a new church in his new barony; but the clansman clung to the old associations in a way perhaps unparalleled in Church history ; (cf. However the connexion of Argyll with the graveyard in Kilmun, in the Lamont country. - F.A.S.) and right down through the centuries till 1658, Luss remained the Church of the Macfarlanes, and its graveyard, the burying place of their chiefs. The present church covers a portion of the ground on which was their vault later on ; and built into one of the northern gables is a stone which bears the following inscription engraved underneath a skull and other emblems of life's transitoriness, thus:
HERE IS THE PLACE OF BURIAL
APPOINTIT FOR THE LAIRD
OF ARROQVHAR BVILDIT BE
JHONE MACKFARLAN LAIRD
THAIROF. 1612
EFTER . DEATH .
REMAINS . VERTEW .
MEMENTO . MORI .
J . M . 1612
This stone is crumbling and needs attention badly.
In the part of the Churchyard of Luss adjacent to the north gable containing this inscription, are several tombstones to the memory of members (one supposes) of the chiefs family for they have carved on them the Macfarlane shield. On the back of one tombstone is a particularly fine semi-relief of the full Loch Sloy coat-of-arms.
But far more ancient than these, a rare "sow-backed" stone lies in the churchyard near 'the gate, and at least three stone coffins are shown, lying now among the other tombs. These stone coffins were dug up when the foundations of the new church were being prepared. They are made of two stones placed one above the other with the insides (of both) hollowed out.' (There are similar stone coffins in Peterborough Cathedral Churchyard and at Lincoln. Note by Mr. Horace Macfarlan, Boston, U.S.A., who has examined the stones at Luss.) "R. McF." is engraven on one, but whether this is an ancient mark or not it is hard to say.
The first minister of Arrochar, after Arrochar had been formed into a separate parish, is buried here. His tombstone bears the inscription: "Here lies the corpse of Master Archibald McLachlan, late minister of the gospel at Tarbet," (i.e. West Tarbet, Arrochar) "who departed this life October, 1731, and of his age 94 years." Mr. McLachlan's was one of the longest services in the Church of Scotland.
The continued clinging of the MacFarlanes to the church at Luss is all the more remarkable, in that the Rector of the Church before the Reformation, like its minister afterwards, was always appointed under the patronage of the Laird of Luss, till patronage was abolished in the latter half of last century.
An added interest is given to this association from the facts that as far back as 1390 the old lairds of Luss (who were probably real Lennox people themselves) had passed away, and their heiress married a Colquhoun, the laird of a castle and lands further to the East; and that with the Colquhouns the Macfarlanes were sometimes at deadly war. An interesting sidelight on this circumstance appears in the records of the Presbytery of Glasgow, in which, under date 1610, John Campbell, A.M., is accused of assisting the Clan Gregor-the old ally of the Macfarlanes-against his patron at Glenfriun (Battle 1603).
What indeed did the Lairds of Luss do about their church? Maldwin, the Dean to whom the grant was made, circa 1220, would as Dean hold on to the old church, and so would his ecclesiastical successors ; but Gilchrist of Arrochar and Gilchrist's successors-Duncan, Maldwin, Parlan, Malcolm, Duncan-evidently maintained their position as its chief adherents; so much so that we find the Colquhouns, who succeeded to Luss about the time of this last Duncan, seeking a place of worship elsewhere! That was, perhaps, a reason why the Chapel of Rossdhu was built; This chapel is just beside Rossdhu House, the modern residence of the Colquhouns, and is in Luss Parish. No records of this chapel earlier than the Seventeenth century have been discovered ; but the building is obviously very ancient, and has indeed been ascribed to the Twelfth century. Beneath its stone floor is the burying place of the family of Colquhoun of Luss. In the chapel, at its west end, the effigy of S. Mackessog which was found in his cairn at Bandry, has been placed for preservation, as already noted. One old notice of this chapel is interesting. In 1556 a vacancy having occurred in the office of Chaplain by the death of Sir James Wright, Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, undoubted patron of the church or chapel of Rossdhu, went on 12th April to the Altar of the blessed Virgin Mary in the Church of Rossdhu, in the diocese of Glasgow, and there presented Sir Thomas Henderson to be chaplain of the said church or chapel, by delivering 'to him a missal book, a cup, and other vestments of the altars according to the form and tenor of the foundation of the same.' (Original instrument at Rossdhu. Quoted Sir W. Fraser "Chiefs of the Clan Colquhoun.")
Thus we see the Clan system, even in the so late as Sixteenth century, proving itself too strong for the Territorial. We have a clan, the Macfarlanes, whose church is not in their own barony; and we have another clan, the Colquhouns, who find themselves able to lay only the claim of patronage to the " Parish" church which is in their lands, while they worship in a church of their own, which is simply the church of their clan and of its chief, and not the church of a parish at all!
It must here be mentioned that away up Glen Luss there is another old chapel about which not much is known. It is said to have been dedicated to S. Michael; and in 1838 gold coins of the reign of King James IV. were found in a corner of the wall. At that time the chapel is described as having an arched vault, with narrow lancet openings, a stone which held a cross, and a stone spout which is now used in the adjoining farm. Further, there is reason to think that the home of the priest who officiated at the chapel was at Edintagart in Glen Luss, on the site of the present farm-house of that name. (Original instrument at Rossdhu. Quoted Sir W. Fraser "Chiefs of the Clan Colquhoun.")
A third chapel dependent on Luss stood at the mouth of the Endrick, in the lands of Buchanan and near the residence of the Lairds of Buchanan. (Origines Parochiales.) The lands of Buchanan formed part of the Parish of Luss till 1621. Probably the Buchanan family erected this chapel for their own use, and never had it erected into a parish church. Here again we see, how in early times a church began in connexion with a family rather than a parish; and we get some inkling of a way in which Patronage might in such cases arise and be justified. After 1621 the parish church of the Buchanan district was that of Inchcaillach, now in ruins, but still having round about it several Macgregor and Macfarlane gravestones. To-day the parish church of this district is that of Buchanan.
There is also a burying ground at Auchenheglish (or Auchnaheglish) part of the estate of Auchendennan Righ, in a part of Bonhill parish, which, till 1648, belonged, to Luss. At any rate, several ecclesiastical remains were found there some time ago, when the foundations of a new building were being laid, and the name Auchhaheglish tells us that the place is " the field of the Church." (From the late Rev. William Simpson, D.D., minister of Bonhill.)
Only in the barony of Arrochar itself was there no church ; and yet there was one sacred spot in the lands which Gilchrist had heired. It was Gilchrist's son, Duncan, I think, who was ruling in Arrochar when the Battle of Largs was fought in 1263. Before that battle King Haco sent an expedition, under one or two of his lieutenants, to ravage Loch Lomondside, and the Glen of Tarbet. Tradition says that a desperate fight took place between Duncan's clansmen and the Norse. I do not know if the dates will fit properly, but it is said that the chieftain's young grandson, Parlan, led the clan to a glorious victory, and that henceforth and forever his enthusiastic followers acclaimed themselves "MacPharlain," while the name of Gilchrist, by which they had hitherto been known, dropped away. To bury the slain in this action the little graveyard at Ballyhenan was begun, half-way between Arrochar and Tarbet and just where the United Free Church now stands. Here also are many ancient Macfarlane stones which should tell a story when examined properly-many with the shield of the chiefs family sculptured on them; and there are at least two old stones there adorned with what looks like ancient Celtic tracery. It is only right to add that there is another tradition about this old graveyard-to the effect that it originated after an attack of plague in which many people died, and had to be buried at once.
At Loch Sloy are one or two mounds that look like the coverings of graves. Recent excavations, however, have disclosed nothing. It has been suggested that these mounds are merely "lazy beds "-an old agricultural expedient for making potatoes grow quickly ; but then men do not often go from home to grow potatoes in the wilderness. There was no clachan at Loch Sloy-we only know it as the traditional gathering place of the clan.
The records of the Macfarlanes' church at Luss yield many instances of the interesting kind of ecclesiastical procedure we have noticed in the case of Rossdhu. Concerning these records we shall note only that between 1426 and 1432, John Cameron, Bishop of Glasgow, erected this church into a prebend of his cathedral, with consent of its patron Jno. de Colloquhone, Lord of Luss. It was agreed that the patron and his successors should have the right of presenting to the prebend ; and that the cure of the parish should be served by a vicar-pensioner bound to make continual residence, whose provision and collation should belong to the bishop, and who should receive a yearly pension of 20 merks. [So Origines Parochiales.]
At the Reformation the church of Luss was supplied by "James Layng, reader," who had probably served there in Roman Catholic times as parish priest, but was not able, or was not trusted by the Reforming leaders, to do the preaching that was now required. The records [in Hew Scott's Fasti] concerning William Chirnsyde, first reformed minister of Luss, bring clearly before us the difficulty then found in supplying parishes with clergymen. William Chirnsyde was appointed minister of Luss in 1572, and in the course of the seven years which followed he was twice withdrawn to be minister of other places, and twice brought back and installed in Luss to be minister there again.
From the Reformation to the Revolution, the history of the Clan itself is bound up with the history of the Church of Scotland as a whole. Duncan Laird of Macfarlane in the reign of James V. was "one of the first of any account who made open profession of the Christian (!) religion "-so runs a quotation from William Buchanan of Auchmar, "in this Kingdom." ("An account of the surname Macfarlane," in An Historical and Genealogical Essay upon the family and surname of Buchanan," etc. Wm. Buchanan of Auchmar, Glasgow 1723. Earliest printed account of the clan.) He joined Lennox and Glencairn at Glasgow Muir; but fell fighting against the English at Pinkie, Sept. 1547. Duncan's son, Andrew, led his clan at Langside, and decided the battle for the Earl of Murray, as the historians of that battle tell us. Andrew's grandson, Walter, supported Charles I., and, after being twice besieged in Inveruglas during Cromwell's usurpation, had his castle there burned down by a party of Cromwell's soldiers (1650 ?).
Walter's grandson, John, evidently supported Lauderdale, Charles II.'s minister, against the Covenanters. "At Bothwell Bridge," to use Sir Walter Scott's words in Old Mortality- "the defence made by the Covenanters, was so protracted and obstinate that the royal generals began to fear it might be ultimately successful. While Monmouth threw himself from his horse, and rallying the Foot-Guards, brought them on to another close and desperate attack, he was warmly seconded by Dalziel, who putting himself at the head of a body of Lennox Highlanders-the men of the clan Macfarlane-rushed forward with their tremendous war-cry "Loch Sloy." After a short and bitter struggle the passage of the bridge lay open, the Guards and Highlanders poured over, the dragoons of Claverhouse soon followed them, and after a still shorter struggle on the other side, the day, though not the cause, was lost and won. For even John Macfarlane himself sided with the Revolution party in 1638, and was appointed colonel of a volunteer force raised in his own vicinity.
But there was one of these chiefs [between say, 1542 and 1688], whose name I have omitted and who showed his interest in the Church in another way. This was John Macfarlane, son of that Andrew who fought' at Langside, and father of the chief whom Cromwell's men besieged at Inveruglas. His name has been carried down to us through the three centuries that have passed since he ruled at Arrochar, on the inscription above referred to on the old 1612 stone built into the wall at Luss church. Towards the foot of this inscription we read-(it will be remembered)
EFTER DEATHE
REMAINIS VERTEW.
It was more than mere empty praise. For John Macfarlane (in the reign of James VI.) had built and endowed at his own expense an Almshouse at "Bruitfort" on the mainland opposite to his castle on the island called Eilean-a-Vow (Bhuth ?) The Macfarlanes seem to have had five places of residence during the years of their occupation of Arrochar. (1) On an island at the very head of Loch Lomond, now almost silted round by sand from the Falloch. (2) Eilean-a-bhuth also called "Elenore" = "Eilean Ur," the New Island. (3) Inveruglas. (4) At East Tarbet (5) at West Tarbet or Arrochar.
The alms-house was endowed with ample resources for the reception of poor wayfarers passing through the district. On its front there was a stone containing the armorial bearings of John, the chief, impaled with those of his fourth wife, Margaret Murray or Strowan, being 3 mullets, the well-known cognisance of the Murrays. The alms-house referred to no longer exists, although at a place opposite Eilean-a-Vow on the mainland the wall tracks of a house can still be traced. The spot is called " Croiteaphurte," generally pronounced, " Crutty forst," or " Cruta forst," (Sir William Fraser's spelling " Bruitfort?" (So Sir William Fraser, Chiefs of Coloquhoun.) It means the croft of the landing, or place where people embark or disembark from a small boat.
In 1648 negotiations were opened to have Arrochar separated from Luss, but so troublous were the times that the matter was not finished till 1658, when the Council of State appointed commissioners. In 1659 Sir John Colquhoun of Luss denuded himself of the tithes of Arrochar ! and John Macfarlane fiar of Arrochar- evidently the Chief at the time of Bothwell Bridge, and the Revolution later on-took over the whole responsibility, binding himself to erect a church and a manse, and to provide a competent glebe. The question of the old tithes of Luss make an interesting study in Church Law. We will only note here that - though John Macfarlane must have taken over a considerable amount of Free teind over and above that actually apportioned to the living of Arrochar, Arrochar has now lost its Free teind. At one time or another the Laird of Macfarlane must have gained an approbation of a reduction of all this Free teind. This reduction would not be disputed within the statutory forty years, and so there is now no possibility of augmentation of the Arrochar living from the teinds. A church was not built in Arrochar till 1733. The present church dates from 1847, the present manse was built in 1837.
There is now a United Free Church in the pass half-way between Tarbet and Arrochar villages-a change from the days of 1839 when the Rev. Peter Proudfoot could write in the New Statistical Account: "There are no Government Churches, no Chapels of Ease, no Dissenting Chapels, and no Dissenters within the Parish. The teinds are exhausted." The notice of Arrochar in the Old Statistical Account (circa 1790) has also some dry remarks by the Rev. John Gillespie, Peter Proudfoot's predecessor: "The greater part of the people in this Parish are Macfarlanes, who have always had, till of late, a strong attachment to the Laird, as their chief; and while this subsisted, misanthropy and ferocity of manners were prominent features in their character. Military roads &ldots;&ldots; the settlement of graziers from the low country"-much resisted at first- "and the sale of the Estate of Arrochar" to Ferguson of Raith in 1785 "have all contributed to extinguish the remains of that system of barbarity (!) which so long retarded the progress of civilization in Europe. The people are now well-bred, honest, industrious and not addicted to the immoderate use of spirituous liquors."
We may surmise that the Rev. John Gillespie was angry with the late Laird, John Macfarlane, the last of his race to hold his ancestral home. For the Laird became bankrupt about 1785, and the estates had been sold-moreover, the Laird owed to the Kirk Session at that time a sum of money running into three figures! And yet, even in 1790, the money was coming gradually back to the Kirk Session from the Macfarlanes' estates in Jamaica ; and the Rev. John Gillespie's own Session records show, under date 1801, that, to this Kirk Session at least, the Macfarlanes paid 20s. in the £1
Almost inevitably the estates passed from the hands of Ferguson of Raith into the possession of the Colquhouns, and that very soon. However, the Colquhouns were good landlords, for the New Statistical Account continues: "Within the last twenty years the population has considerably increased ; the system of feuing has continued, the character of the people, during the same period, has also considerably improved. A better conducted system of education based on Scriptural principles has been introduced ; and the establishment of a Sunday School, which has been in existence (1839) for upwards of twenty years,"-this is notable- "and the regular church-going habits of the people, have, it is hoped, been attended with the most beneficial results." A few of the old people at Arrochar still remember the Rev. Peter Proudfoot, and one old lady told me that she got all the schooling she had in this Sunday School of his, held in the Manse kitchen. The Rev. Peter Proudfoot knew no Gaelic at first, but he got an old man to teach him it, that he might be able to put up a prayer, at least, in the old language; and to this old man, for his pains, he gave a little house at the corner of his glebe to stay in.
In 1839, as he tells with some pride, there were no Dissenters among his flock, but in 1844 at the Disruption the minister himself came out, or nearly so. He wavered. It is said he held one service as a Free Church minister from the steps of Arrochar House, and then went back to his old church. But, poor man, he did not long enjoy his reconciliation, for he died that same year 1844. A note written by himself about his old church officer may be transcribed -here. Thus: "The old church officer who for upwards of two years was confined to bed, had the utmost horror of coming upon the poor's box ; and, from his salary being continued, from marriage dues, from the kindness of the benevolent, and from that disposition which was indicated by his own significant expression, "Providence is large, and I'll no come upon the poor's box" ; he lived and died without receiving a farthing from the Session, and he had safely husbanded for many a long day a guinea to pay for his coffin. It is to be feared that the feeling so remarkably exhibited by him is gradually, if not rapidly, diminishing." Several of this church officer's descendants are living in Arrochar, or elsewhere in Scotland, to-day.
At one time the people of Ardlui asked the minister-was it Mr. Proudfoot? for services at their end of the parish; and he promised to conduct such there if a pulpit was provided for him. Whereupon the existing hole in the " Pulpit Rock" on Loch Lomondside was blasted out, and a door put to it, and turf seats built up round about. But the first attempt at blasting ended in a tragedy, for in it the blaster lost his eyesight-Robert Macfarlane long afterwards known among the Tarbet people as "blind Rabble." The blast was completed by a certain Neil (?) Sinclair. Now the door has been burned by tinkers for fuel, and the seats have long disappeared ; but many services must have been held there in the memory of people living still, both by Mr. Proudfoot and by the Rev. Dr. John Macfarlane.
In the time of those older ministers the Sacrament Sunday was a wonderful day at the village church. Once, it is said, as many as seven steamers lay at Arrochar over Sunday for the occasion; for people came from all quarters to observe the sacred rite. The Pulpit Rock now had a novel part to play: it was there that refreshments were sold to the worshippers from a distance!
The Rev. John Macfarlane, D.D., succeeded Mr. Proudfoot. He was a close friend of the Very Rev. Duncan Macfarlane, Principal of Glasgow University, Moderator of the General Assembly for the second time in 1843; for he was put into the chair after the Free Church party had withdrawn. The Principal's ancestors are buried in Ballyhenan churchyard : his father was minister of Drymen, and while minister there held the office of factor on the estate of Arrochar. It is notable that another clergyman, Dr. Stewart, the great Gaelic scholar, who was minister of Arrochar (1774-6) and later of Luss, also held the office of factor for the Laird.
After the Rev. John Macfarlane came the Rev. James Dewar, M.A., the much loved minister of Arrochar, who held the charge from 1869 to 1902. Next (1902-7) the Dugald Macfarlane now of Kingussie; then the Rev. Coll Archibald Macdonald, B.D., now of Logierait, till 1913. The present minister is the Rev. H. S. Winchester, B.D.
One other personal note concerning the ministers of Arrochar must be given. In 1701 Rev. Archibald MacLachlan, first minister of Arrochar (who has already been mentioned as having been buried in the churchyard at Luss), was getting old, and had already been threatened (1697) with a libel by his parishioners for negligence in parish duty and family worship. The solution found by the Presbytery seems to have been to appoint a sort of assistant and successor-whom they called and ordained in December, 1701; But this assistant and successor was a certain Robert Macfarlane, and he refused to accept of the living, to the great indignation of the Presbytery who had educated him as their bursar eight or nine years, with the express view of getting him to fill one of their Gaelic-speaking parishes. The Synod, however, compelled him to undertake the charge, but declared him "transplantable" on his proving to the satisfaction of that reverend body that there was neither church, manse, glebe, kirk-session, or school in the parish ; these, indeed, were all to come later. Robert Macfarlane went to Fintry in 1705. [Irving, Book of Dumbartonshire, Vol. II.]
It is interesting to observe that out of the seventeen ministers of Arrochar since the parish was erected in 1658, four have been of the name of Macfarlane.
Sir Ian Colquhoun is the owner now of the Arrochar estates. Sir Ian succeeded to the lairdship of the Lennox country on the death of his father, Sir Allan Colquhoun, in 1910.
Thus, at the present time, the Macfarlanes are not in power in their old parish and countryside. But the two principal farms of the district are managed by Macfarlanes, i.e.,
Stronafyne.-Col. James Turner Macfarlane, J.P., C.C., Member of Parish Council, Chairman School Board.
Tullich.-Robert Macfarlane, J.P., Chairman of Parish Council.
Let us hope that "An Comunn Chloinn Pharlain" will revive more and more the interest of the clan in the Holy Place where their ancestors fought and worshipped-gaining through centuries of warfare and hardy existence in the glens of Arrochar, a communion with the Higher Things in their church, the Church of the Clan Macfarlane.