THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES OLD CHURCH LIFE IN SCOTLAND. OLD CHURCH LIFE IN SCOTLAND LECTURES ON KIRK-SESSION AND PRESBYTERY RECORDS. SECOND SERIES. BY ANDREW EDGAR, D.D., Minister at Mauchline. ' ' Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many genera- tions." — Deut. xxxii. 7. " Yone is the court rethoricall : Yone is the facound well celestiall : Yone is the court of joyous discipline." —Palice of Honour. Gavin Douglas. ALEXANDER GARDNER, PAISLEY; and 12 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 1886. mo PREFACE. This volume is a sequel to one that last year was published under the same title. Both volumes consist of lectures which, in a shorter form, were given in Mauchline in the spring of 1884, with the view of exhibiting the Church life and Church rule that prevailed in the parish in days gone by. Last year's volume comprised half of the lectures embraced in the course referred to, and the other half of the lectures are now published in this volume. The first volume was published at the request of some parishioners ; and the favour with which it was received by the press and public has emboldened me to venture on this second publication. Four of the lectures published in this volume are on subjects of general interest, but it may be said that the subjects of the other two lectures are scarcely of that character. I trust, how- ever, that these two lectures, written principally for the enter- tainment of parishioners, will nevertheless be found to have a wider bearing and interest than their parochial title indicates. The book abounds in quotations from Kirk-Session and Presbytery records, and most of these quotations are taken from records that are unpublished. The manuscript records I have consulted and gleaned from are the Registers of the Presbyteries of Ayr and Irvine, and the Registers of the Kirk- Sessions of Mauchline, Galston, Kilmarnock, Fenwick (1645- 1699), and Rothesay (1658-1662). To the custodians of these vi. Preface. documents I have publicly to acknowledge my obligations, and to tender my warmest thanks. And I owe the same courtesies to the Rev. John Patrick, Monkton, for several extracts of much interest he kindly sent me from the records of his Kirk- Session. It need scarcely be said that it was not the selection but the interpretation of extracts that cost me most care and considera- tion in the writing of this book. It is in that part of my work, too, that error and misjudgment are most likely to be dis- covered, notwithstanding the pains I have taken to " prove all things." On several points I have found it necessary to solicit in- formation and counsel from friends, and even from strangers. To many gentlemen I am more or less indebted for help in this way ; but, of these, I must specially name the Rev. Dr. Leishman, Linton ; Dr. Joseph Anderson, Edinburgh ; Rev. Dr. Joass, Golspie ; and the Rev. James Strachan, Barvas. Many defects and omissions will doubtless be noticed in this volume. It may, by some people, be thought strange that I have said little or nothing about the Scotch marriages at Gretna Green and Portpatrick. These marriages scarcely came under the scope of my subject, because the " contracting parties," being English or Irish, were not amenable to the Courts of the Church of Scotland. It may possibly appear to some readers that Church life, as depicted both in this and the previous volume, was very petty and parochial. It must be remembered, however, that it is only the parochial aspects of Church life that are presented in Session records ; and it is with such records that, in these lectures, I have had mainly to deal. The higher aspects of Church and clerical life must be sought elsewhere. A number of archaic words, disowned in dictionaries, are Preface. vii. freely used in the course of this volume. It will generally be found that these words occur in old Acts and other public documents bearing on Church life in Scotland. A. E. The Manse, Mauchline, June, 1886. CONTENTS. Lecture I. — Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. The Church's notions of duty to the poor, i ; Deacons, 3 ; Sources of pro- vision for the poor — ist, assessment — 2nd, church collections, 14 ; How gathered, 14 ; Amount of congregational and individual contributions, 18 ; Bad coppers, 22 ; 3rd, Fines, 24 ; 4th, Dues and fees, 25 ; 5th, Bell- penny, 27 ; 6th, Mortcloth, 28 ; 7th, Benefactions, 32 ; 8th, Sale of pau- pers' effects, 34 ; 9th, Interest on stock, 35 ; Rent of land, 35 ; Bills and pledges, 36 ; Distribution of poors' funds, 38 ; The Parochial Board, 38 ; Heritors and elders, 38 ; Inspectors of poor, 39 ; Deacons or elders or kirk-treasurers, 40 ; Meeting for granting allowances to poor, 42 ; Pensions, appointments, and precepts, 43 ; Principle on which amount of allowance to the poor fixed, 43 ; Amount of allowance per week to regular poor in money or meal, 45 ; Orphan children, 47 ; Casual poor and vagrants, 48 ; Miscellaneous cases of charity, 51 ; Badges for begging, 53 ; Beggars at church doors, 57; Cost of poor to the country, 58 ; On whom the cost fell, 59 ; Kindliness and care of Kirk-Session, 61. Lecture IL — Provision for Education in Olden Times. Three educational periods, 63 ; First period from 1560 to 1633, 64; Reformers' views of schools, 64 ; What done in parishes by individual ministers, 66 ; Ecclesiastical visitations, 161 3, 68 ; Report on education, 1627, 70 ; Church courts had entire management of schools, 71 ; Second period from 1633 to 1872, 72 ; Educational Acts, 72 ; State of education from 1633 to 1646, 73 ; from 1646 to 1750, 74 ; Mauchline school in old times, 75 ; Schoolhouses, how provided, 76 ; School at the kirk, 79 ; Primitive character of schoolhouses, 80 ; Schoolmasters, 80 ; Their appointment, 81 ; Examination by Presbytery, 84 ; Tenure of office, 85 ; License to teach, 86 ; Sources of maintenance, 87 ; Salary, 87 ; Dwelling house, 98 ; School fees, 99 ; Kirk dues, 105 ; Education of poor children, 108 ; Bursars, 11 1 ; Examination of schools, 114 ; Comparative state of educa- tion now and formerly, 116; In regard to school attendance, 116; Sub- jects taught in schools, 118 ; Advanced instruction, 120 ; Religious educa- tion, 121 ; Sunday schools, 124 ; Respect in which learning was held, 130. X. Contents. Lecture III. — Marriages in Olden Times. Marriages sometimes regular and sometimes irregular, 134 ; Kirk-Sessions and Church Courts had to do with both kinds of marriages, 135 ; Proclamation of banns, 135 ; Proclamation fees, 141 ; Consignations, 143 ; Marriage festivities, 150; Proclamations sisted or stopped, 157; by parents or guardians, 157 ; on account of scandal, 160; Ignorance, 163 ; Neglect of ordinances, 164 ; Pre-contract, 164 ; Marriage already formed and not dissolved, 165 ; Youth and near relationship, 168 ; Marriage in church, 170; Marriage service, 175; Irregular marriages, 177; Old and High Church doctrine of marriage, 178 ; Lower and more secular doctrine held by some Protestant ministers and denominations, 179 ; Curious case at Kilmarnock, 181 ; Irregular marriages at one time always or almost always celebrated by a minister, 182 ; Severe Acts anent clandestine marriages, 185 ; Frequency of irregular marriages last century, 186 ; Causes of that frequency, 187 ; Sessional procedure — first ascertain whether parties really married, 189 ; Proofs of marriages-certificate, 189 ; Different views on subject of legal marriage, 191 ; Acknowledgment and habit and repute, 193 ; When found unmarried, pronounced scandalous, and interdicted from living together, 195 ; When found married, censured for breach of Church order, had marriage confirmed, were fined, 196 ; What done when husband and wife separated, 202. Lecture IV. — Baptisms and Burials in Olden Times. The main points of controversy in regard to baptism, 204 ; Mode of adminis- tering baptism, 204 ; Lawfulness or unlawfulness of private baptism, 207 ; Infant baptism, 214 ; Sponsors at baptism, 214 ; Right to baptism, 219 ; Early baptism, 220 ; Baptism disallowed to the ignorant and scandalous, 221; Baptism of adults, 224; Registration of baptisms and fees, 225; Baptismal banquets, 228. Burials, 230 ; Religious ceremonies and sermons at funerals, 230 ; So-called " Services " at funerals in Scotland, 232 ; Time spent at funerals, 237 ; Lyk-wakes, 239 ; Coffining, 241 ; Smoking at funerals, 241 ; Coffins for poor, 243 ; Burial without coffins, 243 ; Biers and common mort-kists, 246 ; Cost of coffins, 249 ; Cists, 250 ; Sanitary and orderly interment, 251 ; Burial in fields, in church-yards, and in churches, 252 ; Civil respects at funerals, 255 ; Bell-ringing, 256 ; Mortcloths, 258 ; Curious panic, 1777, about people's being buried alive, 260; Resurrectionists, 263; Horse-hearses and hand-hearses, 265. Lecture IV. — Ministers and Ministerial Life at Mauchliiie, 1650-1655. Scope of preceding lectures, 267 ; What to be learned from sketches of a par- ochial ministry, 26S ; Progress of Reformation in Mauchline before 1560, 269 ; Robert Campbell of Kingencleugh, 272 ; Ministers of Mauchline ; Contents. xi. Robert Hamilton, 274 ; How parishes supplied with ordinances, 274 ; Superintendents and their appointments, 274 ; Testimonial to Kingen- cleugh and Mr. Hamilton, 277 ; Peter Primrose, 280 ; Union of parishes, 280 ; Three phases of outward organisation in church during Mr. Prim- rose's pastorate, 280 ; Book of Policy and Judicial Committees, 281 ; Spanish Armada, 282 ; Committee of prime conference at General Assem- blies, 284 ; The Assembly after the king's marriage, 285 ; Settlement of Episcopacy, 287 ; John Rose, 291 ; George Young, 291 ; Episcopal form of induction, 292 ; Mr. Young and Baillie, 293 ; Transportation of minis- ters, 294 ; Mr. Young's business talents, 295 ; The Service Book and National Covenant, 297 ; The nocent ceremonies, 300 ; The public reso- lutions, 302 ; Death and character of Mr. Young, 306 ; Steps taken to find a successor to Mr. Young, 306 ; Thomas Wyllie, 308 ; His condi- tional acceptance of the cure, 308 ; A conciliatory protestor, 309 ; Duke Hamilton's engagement to relieve the king, and skirmish at Mauchline moor, 311; The whigamore's raid, 319; Mr. Wyllie's translation to Kirk- cudbright, 320 ; Re-establishment of Episcopacy in the Church of Scot- land, 320; Mr. Wyllie's persecutions, 326; His indulgence, 331 j His death and character, 333. Lecture VI. — Ministers and Ministerial Life at Mauchline, 1656-1800. James Veitch, 335 ; Regent in University of Glasgow, 337 ; Invective against Professor Baillie, 339 ; Settlement in Mauchline, 340 ; Beginning of per- secutions in Church, 341 ; The first restraint, 345; The indulgencies, 347; Banishment to Holland, 351 ; Persecution by his own allies, 351 ; Tole- ration of 1687, 352 ; Return to Mauchline, 353 ; The Church of Scotland from 1687 to 1690, 356 ; Mr. Veitch's death and character, 357 ; David Meldrum, 358 ; Mode of admission, 358 ; Mode of appointing elders in 16S5, 360 ; Scene in church about a doxology, 362 ; Episcopal leanings in distributing charity, 363 ; Demission and reception into Presbyterian Church, 364; William Maitland, 366; Mode of appointing ministers, 367 ; Services at ordination, 369 ; Pastoral work, 371 ; Deputations to the north, 373 ; Leazed by viragos, 375 ; Death and character, 376 ; William Auld, 377 ; Pastoral work and popularity, 378 ; His preaching, 379 ; Parochial discipline, 380 ; Literary work, 384 ; Not a prominent member of church courts, 387 ; Archibald Reid, 3S8 ; His sorrows, 389 ; His gifts and goodness, 393 ; End of old church life and beginning of modern church life in Mauchline, 394 ; Mr. Tod and Mr. Fairlie, 394 ; Conclu- sion, 396. Appendix. Burns's Marriage, 399 ; Notes on Old Church Life (First Series), 405. Index, . . . , . . .411 Old Church Life in Scotland. LECTURE I. PROVISION FOR THE POOR IN OLDEN TIMES. The Church's notions of duty to the Poor — Deacons — Sources of Provision for the Poor— 1st, Assessment — 2nci, Church Collections — How gathered — Amount of Congregational and individual Contributions — Bad Coppers — 3rd, Fines — 4th, Dues and Fees — 5th, Bell-penny — 6th, Mortcloth — 7th, Benelactions — 8th, Sale of paupers' effects — 9th, Interest on stock — Rent of land — Bills and pledges — Straits to which Kirk-Sessions were sometimes reduced — Distribu- tion of Poor's Funds — The Parochial Board — Heritors and Elders — Inspectors of Poor — Deacons or Elders or Kirk-Treasurers — Meeting for granting allow- ances to Poor — Pensions, appointments and precepts — Principle on which amount of allowance to the poor fixed — Amount of allowance per week to regular poor in money or meal — Orphan children — Casual poor and vagrants — Miscellaneous cases of Charity — Badges for Begging — Beggars at Church doors — Cost of poor to the Country — On whom the cost fell — Kindliness and care of Kirk-Session. Next to the exercise of discipline the most important duty that devolved on Kirk Sessions in olden times was the susten- tation of the poor. This was a duty that the Church of Scot- land, from the earliest period of her history, considered to be specially entrusted to the Christian Church. It was a duty en- joined on Paul and Barnabas when they received at Jerusalem the right hand of fellowship from the twelve Apostles and were sent to Christianize the heathen. It was a duty therefore that the Scottish Reformers and their successors regarded as part 2 Old Church Life in Scotland. of Christianity itself, and which they took particular care to sec fulfilled.* In the First Book of Discipline (1560;, it is stated that " every several Kirk must provide for the poor within itself" And the way in which Knox thought that provision for the poor should be made was by stipends drawn from the teinds. The whole of the teinds, he maintained, are the inalienable property of the Church, and ought to be applied to the support of the ministry and teachers of youth, the maintenance of the poor, and the repair of church fabrics. The Church of Scotland, however, never succeeded after the Reformation in getting possession of the teinds. They were in the first instance either seized by rapacious potentates or gifted by the Crown to favourites, who, under the desig- nation of Titulars, held them on the condition of paying to the clergy a sufficient stipend. About seventy years later the teinds were valued, and the owners of lands were allowed to possess the teinds on their own properties on payment to the Titular of a sum equivalent to nine years' purchase. The new possessors of the teinds came under the same obligations to support the clergy as did the former Titulars. But the teinds never were made available to the Church for support of the * The whimsical views of Fletcher of Sakoun, on the causes and remedies of pauperism, may be quoted here as a political curiosity. Writing in 1698 he says, " At length I found the original of that multitude of beggars which now oppress the world to have proceeded from Churchmen, who, upon the first establishment of the Christian religion, recommended nothing more to masters in order to the salva- tion of their souls, than the setting such of their slaves at liberty as would embrace the Christian faith." As a remedy for the evil, he proposed that " ever)- man of a certain estate should be obliged to take a proportionable number of those vaga- bonds, and either employ them in hedging and ditching his grounds, or in some other sort of work," and hold them in slavery as did the ancients. "And for example and terror three or four hundred of the most notorious of these villains, which we call jockies, might be presented by the Government to the state of Venice, to serve in their gallies against the common enemy of Christendom." Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 3 poor. Still, out of teinds or not out of teinds, the Church of Scotland maintained that the poor must be provided for by the several Kirks. In the Reformed Church of Scotland there was at one period a class of officers, who went by the name of Deacons, and were specially entrusted with the distribution of charity to the poor.* Their function originally was somewhat wider than this. In the first Book of Discipline it was proposed that they should receive and collect all the teinds, and then at command of the ministers and elders pay what was appointed for stipend to the minister, the schoolmaster, and the reader, and also what was voted for the hospital, if there were such a foundation in the parish. In the Second Book of Discipline (1578), it was declared that the office of the deacons is " to receave and to distribute the haill ecclesiastical gudes unto them to whom they are appoyntit." The function of Deacon, however, was in practice if not in theory restricted in the Church of Scotland to the distribution of alms. At the Westminster Assembly when the office of deacon was under discussion, it was con- tended by some of the Erastians that a Diaconate is un- necessary in the Church, seeing that in England the law of the * In a small tractate published in 1701 under the title of " Preshyterial Govern- ment by a Presbyter " (Rev. James Clark of the Tron Church, Glasgow), it is stated that "as for Deacons they have no authority in courts, but in counts they have : being concerned in church collections, provisions for the poor, and the like." The word Deacon is used in a totally different sense in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland from what it is in the Episcopal Church of England, or was in the Church of Scotland under Episcopacy. One of the articles in the Bill, or complaint against the " pretended Bishops" in Scotland in 1638 was, " whereas the office of a Deacon is set forth in the Book of Discipline, etc., ... to have no medling with the preaching of the word, etc., . . . yet they have given to certain persons the name and title of ' preaching Deacons ' and have refused to admit divers men to the calling of the ministry before they be admitted to that order." — " Peterkin's Records," p. 96. 4 Old Church Life in Scotland. land makes provision for the poor. P)Ut the majority of the Divines maintained that the office of Deacon is of perpetual standing, on the ground apparently that whatever the State may do in the way of providing for the poor, the care of the poor nevertheless devolves on the Church by divine appointment. One member of the Assembly is reported to have said that " the provision of civil officers made by the Civil State for the poor should rather .slip into the office of a Deacon than the reverse, because the latter bears the badge of the Lord." And this statement may be said to express the doctrine held by the ministers of the Church of Scotland both long before and long after the Westminster Assembly. In 1588 the clergy of Scotland were much exercised by a sermon that was preached by Dr. Bancroft at St. Paul's Cross, London. In that sermon the Presbyterians and their tenets were severely handled. Replies by Scotsmen were of course instantly forth- coming, and in one of these, which has been published and preserved, the following passages occur: — "The Church officers are appointed of God to execute all ecclesiastical matters. . Will you have the magistrate preach the Word, administer the sacraments, take the charge of watching over the manners of the people, and distributing to the poor zvithin his parish. . These are matters ive account ecclesiastical, and wherein alone we hold it lawful for Church officers to deal." As recently as 1729, the Presbytery of Ayr delayed giving orders that a certain new act of the local justices in reference to the poor be read from pulpits, on the special grounds " that it would occasion some difference about a point of the power of an office of divine institution,*' and might bring the " management of mortifications into other hands than those to which it has been restricted by the donors." Although the Church of Scotland continued lon-j after Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 5 the Westminster Assembly to hold that Deacons are a dis- tinct order of Church officers, it was in many parishes found impracticable to carry out the theory by the erection of a sep- arate Eldership and a distinct Diaconate. In a Parish like Mauchline it was not easy to find a dozen men to undertake the office of Elder and another dozen the "humbler duties of Deacon. Although therefore there were in the seventeenth and the earlier part of the eighteenth century many parishes with a staff of Elders and another staff of Deacons, there were probably more parishes in which there were not two such staffs of officials. About the beginning of last century some Episco- pal writers alleged that the Diaconate had become extinct in the Presbyterian Church, and there was scarcely a parish in Scotland where a Deacon could be found. To this allegation a Presbyterian polemic, Anderson of Dumbarton, replied in 17 14 that there were "Deacons in every congregation where they could be had — to my certain knowledge in the lesser as well as larger towns ; yea, in many country congregations."* In the " Treatise of Ruling Elders and Deacons," at- tributed to James Guthrie, the Covenanter and Martyr, and which, if penned by Guthrie, must have been written about 1650, it is stated that although the Deacon is an officer distinct from the Elder, yet " it is a defect and fault in some congregations that they put no difference betwixt these two, but so confound * In their round of parochial visitations in 1710 the Presbytery of Irvine found that in Kilmaurs there was a "competent number of Elders and sotue Deacons," but that in Dreghorn there were no Deacons distinct from Elders. The Presby- tery recommended the Kirk Session in Dreghorn to take steps for the appointment of Deacons according to the constitution of the Church. In 1695 a curious report was given in to the Presbytery by the Minister at Beith. " He had Elders distinct from Deacons, who were all sober and assisting to him, but being of the vulgar had not authoritie." At the beginning of the present century there were sixteen Deacons in the West Parish, Edinburgh. (Sime's Hist, of St. Cuthbert's, Edin- burgh.) 6 Old Chu7'cli Life in Scotland. and minj^rlc tlicm both together as if they were one, either ap- pointing none for the office of Deacon but leaving that charge upon the Elders, or else giving the Deacons the same power and employment with the Elders." In Mauchline Parish, and in many other parishes, it was long the custom to ordain men to the office of Elder and Deacon. Such a form of ordination, however, seems to have been unnecessary, for as Guthrie re- marks, "Whatsoever the Deacon may do by virtue of his office that same may be done by an Elder, as whatsoever is done by an Elder may be done by a Minister, because the higher and more eminent officers in the Church include the powers of the lower." Between forty and fifty years ago a movement was made to revive the office of Deacon in the Church of Scotland. It was alleged that one reason why many excellent men, especially in large towns, declined to join the Eldership, was the trouble it entailed in attending to the wants of the poor. It was alleged also that unless the office of Deacon were revived the care of the poor would pass from the Church to the State, and would become a civil instead of a religious duty. The overseers of the poor might then be men of no religious profession what- ever. They might receive their appointment, just because they were stern to the poor and would keep down pauperism. These strict Ecclesiastical views are now things of the past. The impracticability of meeting the wants of the poor by Christian charity alone forced itself on the mind of the legisla- ture forty years ago, and the result was the Poor Law of 1845. From the main principles of that law we cannot now recede; and however defective that law may be, it at least makes bet- ter provision for the poor than did the system it supplanted. And the Church may well rejoice that she has been relieved by the State of an arduous work and a heavy responsibility. Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 7 In this lecture the two main questions to be considered, are — first, what in olden times were the different sources of provision available for support of the poor in Scotland, and secondly, how was the money contributed for the poor expended. From a very early period one source of provision for the poor in Scotland was assessment. In 1579, an Act of Parliament was passed ordaining magistrates in towns, and judges in land- ward parishes, to tax and stent the whole inhabitants " according to the estimation of their substance," in such weekly charges as shall be thought expedient for the sustentation of the poor of the parish. It does not appear, however, that the practice of levying assessments in terms of this Act ever became general in old times, for in 1672 another Act of Parliament was passed, directing that when the contributions at the church are insufficient to maintain the poor, deserving paupers should be supplied with badges or tickets entitling them to ask alms within their parishes. In other words, instead of being supported by assessment, the poor were to make their living by licensed beggary.* The records of the Presbyteries of Ayr and Irvine shew that for a long time there was a general disinclination in this county to have recourse to assessments for support of the poor. The objects aimed at for many a day, both by the Presbyteries and * There were cases of assessments for the poor both in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1561, a duty of I2d. Scots was imposed on every ton of wine sold in Edinburgh, to be given to the support of the poor, "failed merchants, and craftsmen." And in 1564, the Magistrates of Edinburgh were authorised by the Queen to tax the inhabitants, at their discretion, according to their ability, for relief of the poor and bearing of the common charges of the kirk. Authority too was given "if need be, to poind and distrain therefor," (Lee's Lectures, Vol. IL, p., 393). In September 1687, the church collections at Ratho were "so inconsiderable that the box was not able to maintain the poor, so an assessment was proposed according to Act of Parliament," (Fasti). In September 1687, it may be here remarked, the collections in many churches were nothing more than nominal. See Lecture VI. in this Volume on James Veitch. 8 Old Church Life in Scotland. the Commissioners of the shire, were to make each parish supjjort its own i)oor and to relieve each parish of all poor except its own, but without assessment. In 1725 an act of the local justices was by order of the Presbytery of Ayr read from all pulpits within the bounds of the Presbytery, directing Kirk Sessions to " provide for the poor of the parish by weekly collections, rents, and interests of mortifications, and begging with certificates within the parish," and to have a Sabbath-day's special collection for defraying the cost of " delivering parishes from poor that are not their own." Five years later, a stent was proposed as the be.st means of making up the deficiencies of voluntary contributions for the poor, but in very few parishes was the proposal adopted. In some cases Heritors and Kirk Sessions reported to the presbytery that they " maintain their poor within themselves, and so there is no stent laid on," in other cases they reported that they had " no occasion to obtain a stent because of the paucity of their poor." The Kirk Session of Coylton intimated that they had allowed such poor " to beg as were able to go," and " provided their bedrids with collections." Ayr, so far as I have noted, was the only parish in the presbytery in which at that day a stent was levied. And a small stent it seems to have been. For, first of all the heritors and then the different societies of merchants, sailors, writers, etc., made voluntary contributions, and thereafter the magistrates assessed " the inhabitants for the remains." Six years later there were a few more cases of assessment for the poor in South Ayrshire. In 1736, the heritors of Galston assessed themselves at a penny sterling for every hundred pounds Scots of valued rental, and the following year, on find- ing this assessment insufficient, they ordained their "stentmaster to stent moneyed men and tradesmen and others, conform to the Act of the Justices of Peace." In Mauchline, too, there was Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 9 an assessment for the poor in 1736, for in the Session Records of that year there is a minute, of date 4th January, which states that " the poor are to be served off the public stent by Robert Millar, collector, appointed by the heritors for that purpose." There is abundant evidence that the practice of assessing for the poor, which was instituted in Ayrshire about or shortly after 1730, was in many parishes, not continued long. In the records of Kilmarnock Session for 1755, reference is made to the fact that about 22 years before, there had been a stent levied in that parish for the maintenance of the poor, and hope is expressed that the stent may be soon re-imposed. In 1771 a new agitation arose in the county. The Presbytery of Ayr drew up a memorial to the Justices of Peace and Commissioners of Supply, setting forth that the practice of vagrant begging, which for a while had been happily restrained, had of late years revived and had come to a very great height : that many disorders, such as lying, stealing, and drunkenness, had accompanied this increase of vagrancy ; and that the poor of every parish were wronged by vagrants intercepting a considerable part of public charity. The Presbytery accordingly besought the concurrence and assistance of the Justices in a stricter execution of the laws relating to the poor, and suggested that while the poor should be confined to their own parishes, " the rule of three years' residence giving settlement should be uniformly observed over the county." The Justices and Commissioners thereupon renewed former acts anent the poor, " with several amendments and alterations," and the Presbytery, having passed an Act conform to this Act of the Justices, enjoined each minister within the bounds to read both Acts from his pulpit on the first Sabbath of October at the close of the forenoon service, " and on the afternoon of the same day to preach on a subject suitable to the occasion." It might have been expected that from this date the practice lO Old Church Lije in Scotland. of assess! n^^ for the poor would h.-ivc become general over all Ayrshire, and tli.it when once introduced the practice would never afterwards have been discontinued. It is doubtful if cither of these things happened. Heritors were loth long ago to adopt new schemes that involved taxation, and they were not the least scrupulous on pretexts of inconvenience to aban- don good practices after they had been adopted. In his sur- vey of Ayrshire, published in 1811, Mr. Alton says that "ex- cept in the Parish of Kilmarnock, and sometimes in Newmilns and a few others, such stents (for the maintenance of the poor) are unknown in Ayrshire." What happened in Mauchline pro- bably happened in a number of other parishes ; and I shall therefore explain, so far as extant records enable me, the course that events took in this parish. On the 31st October, 1771, a meeting of the Heritors of Mauchline was held to consider the state of the poor in the parish, and the proper way of providing for their maintenance. At this meeting it was found that a sum of ^^19 los. 2d. in ad- dition to the Session's funds would sufificeto maintain the poor of the parish for a year, without begging ; and that it would be a great saving to the parish if begging were stopped. It was agreed therefore to raise this sum of £\g los. 2d. by assess- ment of the heritors according to their valued rent, with re- lief to the heritors of one half of the rate from their tenants. It was agreed further that to prevent people "being oppresied by begging poor from other parishes," the Act anent vagrants . should be rigidly enforced, and that the constables should re- ceive 2s. 6d. for each beggar they apprehended within the parish and took to the prison of Ayr, over and above the al- lowance granted by the county in their said Act." And, so zealous were the minister and elders in this work of parochial reformation, that even before the heritors had passed these Provision for the Poor in Olden l imes. 1 1 resolutions the Kirk Session were giving vagrants notice to be- take themselves out of Mauchline as fast as they could. On the 12th September, 1771, information was lodged with the Session that " Alexander Adam, a poor man from Sorn, is re- siding at present (within) and begging up and down this parish." The Session thereupon ordered " their officer to ad- vise the said Alexander to return to the Sorn, with certifica- tion, that if he do not, he will be sent to Ayr Tolbooth." Year after year the Kirk Session expressed in their minutes a hope that the heritors would be pleased to continue to levy the assessment, and one year at least the gratifying fact was announced that since the stent had been imposed the church collections had increased and the poor were better provided for. The heritors also referred year after }'ear to the " happy effects " that had arisen from the imposition of the stent, and stated that " all begging within the Parish of Mauchline had been prevented, and the poor of the parish were decently main- tained." How long the stent continued from 1771 to be imposed for relief of the poor is not made clear in the Records. From what is said in the account of the parish published, under date 1791, in Sir John Sinclair's statistical work, it might be inferred that from 1 77 1 to 1 79 1 the stent had been annually levied and lifted. The course of taxation, however, did not run smooth in those days, and long before 1791 Parochial troubles had arisen in Mauchline out of this assessment. Burns' fiiend, Mr. Gavfn Hamilton, had for three years been entrusted with the collection of the stent, and had failed to deliver to the Kirk Session all the money that should have been laised. He declined also on the ground presumably that it was to the heritors and not to the Session he was accountable — to give the Kirk Session any explanation of the matter, beyond stating that he retained 12 Old Church Life in Scotland. no money of theirs in his own hands. A long and bitter quarrel between Mr. Hamilton and the Kirk Session ensued, and the assessment, as the bone of contention, was dropped. At a meeting of heritors and heads fjf families held in January 1783, to consider the destitution that prevailed in the parish, it was " represented, that a few of the heritors had not paid up their proportion of poor's stent for a few years preceding the dis- continuance of the same ;" and it was minuted that "whereas there are some arrears in Mr. Ilamiltfjn's h: nds, or in the heritors' hands, during the three years in which he was collector, Mr. Hamilton is desired and appointed anew to uplift the arrears of these years, or give a list of those that are deficient." This interesting minute, it will be seen, not only shews that the im- position of a stent for the poor had been discontinued in Mauchline previous to 1783, but explains how Mr. Hamilton failed to satisfy the Session on the subject of his collections, and also how it happened that after the suppression of vagrancy in the parish in 1772, there could in 1785 have been in Nanse Ronald's such a gathering of jolly beggars- as Burns witnessed and has immortalised.* Whether between 1783 and 1791 the stent for the poor was re-imposed or not in this parish, it is clear that in 1796 and for some 3'ears previous there had been no assessment levied. In September 1796, during the unpopular incumbency of ^Ir. Reid, the Session minuted that "in examining the Treasurer's accounts they found the whole funds in his hands exhausted. They found also that the monthly disbursments for the poor amount to £1 1 6s., that the ordinary collections do not exceed 40s. monthly, * In August 17S5, within three months of the date of the Beggars' "splore" in Mauchline, a motion was made in the Presbytery of Irvine "anent the suppression of vagrant beggars, who are become a great burthen and a nuisance to the country." Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. \ 3 and that the whole stock of the poor, amounting to ^^83 6s. 4d. including accumulate interest, is lying in the heritors' hands." The Session expressed a hope therefore, that the heritors would " at least order payment of what might be necessary, from time to time, to answer deficiencies, while the stock lasts," and that when exhausted, " a meeting of the heritors and parish might be held, in order that they may assess themselves for the future support of the poor." This minute will suffice to show not only how variable were heritors in rural parishes in their actings with Kirk Sessions, but also how hard pressed Kirk Sessions some- times were to find ways and means to keep the poor alive, and how anxiously Kirk Sessions busied themselves in this impor- tant department of their duty. Occasionally there was a little tiff between heritors and Kirk Sessions, which in rural parishes must have tended to relieve the tedium of church life. In 1817, the Kirk Session of Mauchline recorded in their Register, that notwithstanding their efforts " to administer with as much economy as possible the funds levied from the heritors and those collected from the congregation for the support of the poor," the heritors are not satisfied, and one gentlemen in particular has thrown out *• reflections which the Session considers quite unwarranted." The Session being much aggrieved by these circumstances, resolved to give up the management of such of the poor's funds as were provided by the heritors, but to continue their distribu- tion of the church collections " till the heritors shall establish their rights to these or any part thereof" The mcmor}' of that quarrel, however, has long since died away, and the heritors generously continue in this year of grace 1886 voluntarily to assess themselves for the poor as they did in 1771, and in the most friendly manner to associate the Kirk Session with them in the distribution of the stent. The legal assessment 14 Old C/iinrh Life in Scotland. authorised by the Act, 1.S45, has not yet been introduced into Mauchh'nc parish, and the burden of poor's rates is unknown to its happy householders. A second source of provision for the poor in olden times was church collections. Indeed, although called here the second source of provision, these might well have been mentioned first. Long before there was any stent for the poor, there were in most if not in all rural parishes voluntary collec- tions for the poor, at the church on Sundays, and often on those week days on which there was preaching at church. In the very first minute in the extant records of Mauchline Session there is an entry, "collected the foresaid day (26th December, 1669), and upon Januar second, Januar 9, and Januar 16, 1670, £(^ 14s. 4d." In Galston Records there are still earlier entries of church collections. On the first Sunday of April 1592 there was collected at Galston Church, 3s. ; on the second Sunday, IIS. 2d.; on the third Sunday, 3s. 8d. ; and on the fourth Sunday, 8s. 9d. And although the sums just quoted are small, it was church collections nevertheless, that till within a very recent date, constituted in most if not in all rural parishes the main source of provision for the poor.* In 1771 the stent in Mauchline realised about ;^20, and the church collections about twice that sum. It may not be out of place to state here, that the mode of collecting contributions on Sundays for the poor, has varied from time to time in the Church of Scotland. In the Westminster Directory for public worship, it is stated that on Communion * Kirk Sessions sometimes hinted that the church-iloor collections on Sundays were not so liberal as they should have been. In 1674 the Kirk Session of Kilmarnock went the length of putting on record that "they think fitt that the minister exhort the people to extend their charities." • Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 1 5 Sabbaths " the collection for the poor is so to be ordered that no part of the public worship be thereby hindered." * This is a very vague rubric, and it evidently allows great latitude of procedure. It neither indicates when nor how the collection is to be made. At one time it was common in Scotland for communicants to give their contributions to the poor on retiring from the tables,! and there is nothing in the Westminster Directory to forbid this practice. In 1648, however, that is three years after the Westminster Directory had been adopted by the Church of Scotland, the attention of the General Assembly was called to the fact that on ordinary Sundays " the collection for the poor in some kirks in the country is taken in the time of divine service." This was held to be an " unseemly disturbance of divine worship," and the General Assembly accordingly required all ministers and Kirk Sessions to take some other way and time for receiving collections. Pardovan states that in his day, (1709) the common practice was either to collect at the church door when people were entering the church, or within the church immediately before the blessing was pronounced. It may be presumed from what is stated in * In the Scottish Service Book, 1637, (Laud's Liturgy), it was directed that on Communion Sabbaths, after the sermon, the curate should exhort the people to remember the poor, and that the deacon or one of the church wardens should then receive the devotions of the congregation "in a bason provided for that purpose." When all present had made their offerings, the bason " with the oblations therein " was to be reverently delivered to the presbyter, who was to " present it before the Lord and set it upon the holy table." At the close of divine service the collection was to be divided in presence of the presbyter and church wardens ; one half to the presbyter "to provide him books of holy divinity," and the other half to be " employed on some pious or charitable use for the decent furnishing of the church or the public relief of their poor." t In the diary of Lamont of Newton for instance it is stated that at the Communion at Scoonie in 1650, " there was no collection for the poore at the table as was oidinar. This custom was discharged by the late General Assembly 1649, and therefore instead of this there was a collection at the church door both forenoone and afternoone." i6 Old Chunk Life in Scotland. the Session records of Galston, that previous to 1635 the collection for the poor in that parish had been made within the church ; for it was that year intimated from the pulpit that "the collection for the poor sail be ^^cthcrcd in tytne aiming zX. the cntric ^^{ the people in the k-irk." From the tenor of a minute in the records of Kilmarnock Session it may be inferred that in 1646 the collection for the poor in that town was also made outside of the church, as the congregation entered. The minute I refer to states, that " the Session apoyntis the vacand rowme betwixts Peter Aird's seat and the meikle door ane seat to be builded for the use of the Elders that collectis the charities, that they may the more easilie enter and goe furth as yr office requyres."* In Mauchline parish, as probably in most parishes, the mode of lifting the church collection has been changed more than once or twice. At the present day all collections, whether ordinary or special, are made in an open plate as people enter the church, but many of us remember that forty years ago the collection was every Sunday lifted in ladles, which were carried through the church after the last Psalm had been sung. It is also said that in the latter days of the old church, about seventy or eighty years ago, the plan of collecting by ladles was in use ; and that, to prevent all suspicions of dishonest dealing with the poor's funds, the elders who collected in the galleries, which were very low, handed down their ladles to their brethren beneath in presence of the congregation. For aught I know the story may be true, and the reason alleged for such ostenta- tious procedure may be quite correct also, for ever since Judas bare the bag and learned to love money the public have been * As far back as 1573, the General Assembly ordained that " no collections for the poor be made in time of the ministration of the table of the Lord Jesus, nor yet in time of sermons, hcreafier, within the kirks, but only at the kirk doore." Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. ly ready to suspect honest men's integrit}', and honest men have found it necessary to clear themselves of all possible grounds of suspicion. It was not within the church, however, but outside the church, that the collections for the poor were gathered in Mauchline a hundred years ago. At a meeting of heritors called in 1783, to consider the state of the churchyard dykes, it was reported, that " the Session as Trustees for the poor, think it their duty to insist that there shall be none but one entry into the churchyard, at which two Elders may attend to receive the contributions of the congregation every Sabbath morning." And it was added that " the disadvantage of h-^ving two or three entries into the church}'ard must be obvious to every person as occasioning loss to the poor." This was not very complimentary to the congregation. It was as much as to say, that while few people would have the hardi- hood to pass the plate without dropping something into it, there w^ere many that would be glad to save their pockets by taking a circuitous route to church by a side stile where no plate would confront them. But at an earlier period, as well as at a later, the misers in Mauchline did not get the chance of passing the plate. The ladle was presented to them individually in church. On the fly leaf of an old scroll minute-book of the Kirk Session, there is a note of " the order that the elders are to collect for the poor, and their names." The note is dated 3rd Sept., 1704, and gives the names of fifteen elders. Of these, twelve were appointed " for the body of the Kirk," and one for " Killoch and my Lord's loft." The remaining two elders were Netherplace and Ballochmyle, but these two, it is stated, " doe not collect, being two principal heritors in the Parish." It seems probable that at a period still farther back, the mode of receiving collections had been by a plate at the principal entrance to the churcli, for in 1676 the 11 1 8 Old ChunJi Life in Scotland. Session ordained that " the tzvo elders who collect on the Sabbath shall goe throuj^^h the town, and search who are in the houses the tyme of sermon."* How much it was customary for people to put into the plate or ladle on Sundays, a hundred years ago or two hundred years ago, it is not very easy to ascertain. There are on record, as might be expected, many instances of very small and niggardly collections. In 1667 it was reported to the Presbytery of Lanark that at Lamington there is "a box for the poor, but nothing in it, and that they used to give nothing almost on the Sabbath for the poor." It is possible, however, that an unpopular incumbency, or a secession during the Episcopal usurpation at that date, may have been the cause of this unfortunate state of matters. At Mauchline, the collec- tions in 1687 fell to IS. 6d. Scots per diem, but a few months later when the old exiled Presbyterian pastor of the Parish was restored to his people, contributions rose to 20s., 303., and even 50s., on a Sabbath. Opening the Mauchline records quite accidentally I find that on a day in 1673, during Mr. Veitch's ministry; and on another day in 1709, during Mr. Maitland's ministry ; and on another day still in 1746, during Mr. Auld's ministry, the amount of collection was exactly 39s. 6d. Scots. In 1776, when sterling money had come into common use, the average Sunday collection at ]\Iauchline was 12s. * Complaint was sometimes made of old, both in Kirk-Sessions and in Presby- teries, that Elders were remiss in attending at the plate. In 1699 a complaint to that effect was made in the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock, and it was "enacted by the Session that any Elder absent on his proper day from the plate be fined 4s. Scots. At the visitation of Coyllon in 1714, it was reported to the Presbytery (of Ayr) that " they do not collect for the poor but at the Church door, when the people enter, and the Elders do not attend in ihoir course in due time for that effect." Provision for the Poor in Olden limes. 19 Sterling, or £'j 4s. od. Scots,* and in 1796 during Mr. Reid's pastorate, it was much the same. These statistics do not show how much individual persons were in the way of giving to the poor on the Sabbaths of old — whether it was a penny or a half-penny that people usually dropped into the plate, and whether there were few or many that passed the plate altogether. But I can furnish other statistics which will help to show what was the measure of Christian liberality in Mauchline a hundred years ago. The number of communicants who partook of the sacrament at Mauchline in 1788, was 1400, and it is not improbable that in the church or church-yard there were that day other 1400 worshippers who did not communicate. The total amount collected for the poor on that bright autumn Sabbath of high solemnity was ^4 14s. lod., or 11 38 pence. For each com- municant therefore who sat at the Lord's table that day, and was exhorted to extend his charity, there was less than a penny contributed to the poor ; and if there were as many non- communicating as communicating worshippers at the church or tent service the average contribution all over must have been less than a half-penny each ! * * A minute in the Session Records of Aiichinlcck, states that ia 1753 it was agreed by the Kirk-Session of that Parish that the Poor's funds should henceforth " be counted in Enghsh money." It was probably about the same date that the ecclesiastical nomenclature of the coinage was changed in the neighbouring parishes. * Burns must have come very near the truth when in the following stanzas of the Holy Fair he described the usual contributions to the plate, and the larger donation expected from him as a poet and a man of consequence. " When by the plate we set our nose, Weel heaped up wi' Iia f^cncc, A greedy glowr black bonnet tlirows And we maun draw our tippcncc." The collection at Mauchline sacrament in i/SS, was about eight times the amount of an ordinary Sabbath's collection. The following note of collections at the Kil- 20 Old Chiin/i Lije in Scotland. Of course it must be kcjjt in mind that monc)' went a great deal further a hundred years ago than it does now, and consequently that when good copper was given in charity, a penny represented far more generosity then than it now docs. In 1744 the minister of the West Church, Edinburgh, made a gift of £\o to the poor of his parish. And the gift was belauded by his Session in their minutes as a most wonderful instance of liberality. In the sermons of Mr. Dun of Auchinleck published in 1790 the following passage occurs in a discourse on Divine Providence. " Providence, oh ye needy ones, has inter- posed remarkably for you ! There is come to my hand, owing to the generosity and humanity of the family of Dumfries, as much money, which I shall distribute to you to-morrow, as will purchase fuel that may serve you during the more rigid winter months." In a note prefixed to the sermon, Mr. Dun explains that this signal interposition of providence for all the poor of the parish was a gratuity of ;^5 sterling, which he distributed on the Monday after the sermon was preached. He then pathetically adds, " the author's heart was gladdened on the Tuesday, a very cold frosty but fine clear sunny day, to see columnsof smoke ascending from so many little huts, the houses of the poor now warmed with that bounty." And that Mr. Dun's account of the capabilities of a five pound note was not very much overstrained, will appear from the tenor of a letter marnock " preachings " in 1716 and 1722 is interesting as shewing the probable comparative attendance on the different days of solemnity. 1716. On Fast Day, ,, Saturday, Preparation day, ,, Sabbath, - ,, Monday, Thanksgiving Day, ;^iS3 7 4 Scots /141 6 5 In the decade 1750-1760, the usual amount collected at the sacrament in Kilmar- nock was about £20 sterling. In the West Church, Edinburgh in 1695, there was collected at the ci)miiuiiii>>n £\ iSo .Scots, or ^^"98 6s. Sii. Sterling. ■Ll\ 4 8 1722. /"26 II ■ 35 17 4 29 5 10 - 62 6 48 7 7 - 50 19 4 37 2 Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 2 1 received by the Presbytery of Irvine in 1767 from a gentleman designated " Doctor Hugh Baylie, Esquire." In this letter it was stated, that Dr. Baylie, Esqr.,had "sent £6 i6s. sterling, as a charitable donation to be distributed unto two old women in each of the seventeen parishes of the Presbytery after ist November next, in the way of bying coals for them and some oyl for sight to enable them to spin at night for their better subsistence." Each of thirty-four women received from this donation the sum of 4s., and this sum of 4s. was expected either to keep an old woman in coals and oil for a whole winter, or to go a considerable way in doing so.* Making due allowance, however, for the facts that money went further, and that there was less wealth in the country a hundred years ago than there is now, the contributions to the church * The history of prices is a large subject which would require for its full treatment a large space. The following notes will serve to illustrate partially the changes that have taken place in the value of money. In September 1639, writes Spalding, " ane Holland schip with store of cheiss (cheese) cam in to Abirdein, 24 pund wecht thairof sauld for 8 shillinges Scottis, quhairof the people wes weill content." That is, three pounds of cheese were sold for one penny of sterling money. A hundred years later, in 1740, an Ayrshire farmer purchased a milk cow for £2 2s., and another Ayrshire farmer sold a stallion for ;^5 5s., " which were both so much talked of as extraordinary prices that people came a considerable distance to see those animals. The ordinary price of draught horses was from £z to ;^3, and of milk cows from 20 to 30 or 35 shillings. Till after 1770 butter was sold at from 4d. to 6d. per pound of 24 ounces." Alton's Survey of Ayrshire, p. 112. In 1797, however, matters were changed. The Presbytery of Irvine on the 2Sth March of that year, minuted that considering "the high price of provisions they should for this day and henceforth pay for dinner £\.^^ In 1612 Mr. James Pitcairn, the minister of Northmaving died, and left behind him an enormous stock of cattle, corn and other goods, of which the following par- ticulars may be quoted : — (Fasti). 16 hors, pryce of the piece over-head, £(i 13 3 scots, /.£•. ^o 11 lister. 19 meirs, ,, ,, ,, 50 oxen, ,, ,, ,, 56 ky, 782 of zeiris lambis and zeild scheip, - Ane littel goblet for acqua vitie, pryce thereof, 8 £^ 13 3 scot S, i '.e.£o II I 6 ,, 10 II 16 8 8 ,, 13 4 I ,, I 8 :f,8 ,, 13 4 22 Old Church Lijc in Scotland. plate last cc.itury revealed anythiiv^f but a common 1 able spirit of Christian libcralit)'. Tlierc was wide-spread hypocrisy in ch irch charity, and if there had been as much unreality in pro- fessions of piety the state of religion would have been rotten to a degree that words could scarcely exaggerate. Kirk-Sessions had in those days what was termed a kirk box. Into that box all the collections, or such part of them as was not presently c'istributcd, were poured Sabbath after Sabbath, and at the close of the financial year the box was opened, and its contents examined and counted. In the rcj )rds of Mauchline Session the following entry occurs, under date 1748, " found in the box, of good money £6(b ys. 66. Scots, and of bad copper ^43 19s. yd." And for many years afterwards, when the Mauchline Kirk box was opened, a similar fact was revealed. For every three pennies of good copper there were two of bad. The con- clusion is forced on our mind that in olden times a large num- ber of people kept their bad coppers for charitable purposes, so as to appear to be giving to the poor when they were not giv- ing, and to be lending to the Lord when they were holding back, and the left hand doubtless knew on these occasions what the right hand did.* Every other year there was at IMauchlinc a sale of bad coppers when the contents of the Kirk box were examined. The £4^ 19s. yd. of bad coppers found in the box in 1748 were disposed of at the rate of 7d. per Dutch pound, and they realised £y 17s. 6d. In other words every penny of bad copper put into the plate, a; a contribution for the poor, was worth only * In 1674 the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock thought " fitt that the minister exhort the people not to give their doutts (doits) to the poor now, when none will accept of them as currant." That ju tanl pious exhortation seems to have been disre- garded by the Kilmarnock pev,ile, for in 1706 the Kirk-Session directed their trea- surer " to dispose and sell the doyts, an 1 other bad money he got from the last treasurer, to the best advantage." Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 23 the sixth part of a penny or little more than half a farthing. In 1753 the pri:e of bad coppers rose to 8d. per pound, whether because they were more run on for charitable purposes, or for some other equally laudable reason, is not stated, but it is at least pleasant to think that the poor derived some profit by the enhanced value of what was given for their support. In 1774 the market for bad coppers became very drug, possibly from being overstocked, and it was minuted that " every member of Session is desired to try the several smiths and coppersmiths to buy the bad copper." Like nuts at the end of a fair, they were to be had at a bargain — penny a quarter, two pence a half pound — cheap, cheap, cheap !* * As recently as 1785, the Session of Mauchline had on hand several pounds of bad copper and bad silver. Among the obsolete coins mentioned in the Mauchline records as having been found in the kirk box are dollars, rix-dollars, turners, bodies, and doits. A Leg, or Leggat Dollar, named from Liege, the place of coinage, was equal to £2 i6s. od., and a Rix-doIIar to £2 i8s. od. Turners and Bodies might be described as two penny pieces of Scots money. There were different sets of turners, however. In 1639 Charles' turners were cried down at the cross of Edinburgh from two pence to one penny, while James' tur- ners remained at their former value, and " the kaird turnouris simpliciter dischargeit as false cungzie" (Spalding, Vol. I., p. 235). The following year, 1640, Charles' turners " wold give nothing, penny nor half penny." In the Mauchline Kirk Accounts for 1748 it was stated that there were "got for one shilling sterling of turners us. Scots, and for three shillings sterling of bodies £\ 13s. od. Scots." On 27th July, 1691, there was entered on the Mauchline Session Register, " Received this day 3 shillings sterling of doits." The doit was a Dutch coin, and was of the value of a penny, or (some say) a penny and a third of a penny Scots. In the printed records of the Burgh of Glasgow for 1660 there is a curious entry to the effect that the "country is like to be abused be the inbringing of French Doyts." Groats and bawbees, which are reckoned coins of small value now, bulked largely at one time, from their being of sterling denomination. In Galston Records (1639) we find "collected 11 shillings. Gevin thereof to H. P., iwo groats. Rest three shillings, gevin to the poor." In other words a groat counted for four shillings Scots, and it was two hundred years ago the common payment for dressing a corpse, and for digging a grave. In the same record (1675) there is another curious entry, "gevin fourteen shillings and zballne (bawbee) for a peck of meall to old Peter, o 14 6." In other words a bawbee was a sixpence Scots. Another odd entry in Galston Records (1645) is " seven shillings of French lobbis in the Laird of Cessnock's hands," 24 Old Church Life in Srotlajid. TIic fines exacted hy Kirk Sessions from delineiucnts, togctlier with certain jicnalties imposed by the Civil Courts, formed in .all parishes a third source of provision for the [)oor. It is not to be inferred from this that all fines and penalties went to the poor. In many or perhaps most parishes there was one bag or box for the church collections, and another bag or box for the penalties. And each of these bags or boxes had its own keeper. At Kilmarnock in 1649, one Robert Crawford was chosen " thesaurer to the consignations and penalties" and on the same day one Robert Paton was chosen " thesaurer for keeping of the charities." Among the pious uses for which in Galston Parish penalties were appropriated may be men- tioned "peyment of ye east glass windo" of the church (1638) : " dails to bridge and work at bridge" (1640) : "com- missioners to the General Assembly, £6 8s. 4d. salary of Presbytery beadle, and allowance for drink to workmen (1640):" bottoming the pulpit, mending and making furmes, providing a heid to the Kirk spade, 5s., washing the baptism cloth, 4s., (1643). Most of the fines, however, that came into the hands of Kirk Sessions were destined either in whole or in part, by special statutes, for the benefit of the poor. And so, on every other page of old Church Records we meet with instances of fines' being thus applied. In 1673, ^^ irritable woman appeared before the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock, and confessed that in her wrath and haste she had said " the devill ryd to hell on James Thomson and leave the horse behind him." For giving utterance to this coarse malediction she was appointed to make public acknowledgment before the pulpit, and " pey 30s, to the poor."' In many parishes, Mauchline among others, fines and church collections seem all to have gone into one box, and to have been applied in the first instance to certain church purposes, such as payment of the Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 25 session clerk's and the church officer's salary, and thereafter in alms and charity. And at one time a considerable sum must in every parish have come in to the poor from fines. The Session Records of Kilmarnock shew that from 8th September 1754 to 20th October, 1756, the fines received by the Session of that parish for " absolution from fornication " alone, amounted to ;^ii5 i6s. od. Scots. In Mauchline Parish, fines as I have else- where shewn were in olden times rigorously inflicted, and in the days of Mr. Auld particularly, were, out of zeal for the poor, lifted with a measure of goodwill that bordered on enjoyment. Besides fines there were certain dues and fees that brought in a small return for behoof of the poor, and these may be said to have constituted a fourth source of provision for the indigent. How far Kirk-Sessions had it in their power to exact such dues and fees, fix the amount of them, and determine their destina- tion, need not be discussed. Lawyers say that the exaction and appropriation of these dues, for payment of precentors, session clerks, beadles, or for the good of the poor, were regulated mainly by the immemorial usage of each particular parish, and that Kirk-Sessions could not " enact the payment of new fees not sanctioned by such usage." When the Kirk- Session of Mauchline for instance passed a resolution in 1778, " that if parties proposing marriage shall choose to be proclaimed in the church for two several days only, they shall pay a crown for the poor, and a guinea if the proclamation be completed in one day," it might have been found that the Kirk- Session could not exact such extra fees ; but unless these fees were paid, persons desiring to be proclaimed would have to content themselves with what the law entitled them to demand, namely, a proclamation protracted over three several Sundaj's. People were willing therefore for the sake of convenience to pay the extra dues. There was fairness in the arrangement. 26 Old Church Life in Scotland. People asked a favour and they made a payment which went to a good use. Oriijinally, the dues exacted for ]ki[)tisms, Proclamations of Banns, Marriages, Testimonials and Citations went cntircl}' to the session-clerk, and church-officer.* In 1673, for instance, the dues exigible in Mauchline parish Averc declared to be, in the case of a Proclamation of Marriage 20s. Scots, of which i6s. went to the clerk and four shillings to the officer ; in the case of a baptism, 8s., of which 6s. went to the clerk and 2s. to the officer. But when people in the progress of refinement came to say, we wish our proclamation to be completed on one Sunday or two Sundays, we wish our marriage to be solemnised in our own houses in- stead of in church, and we wish our children to be baptised at home, they were told that besides rendering to the Session clerk and beadle all the customary dues payable to these offi- cials, they must make an extra paj-ment, which might be called a fine, to be given to the poor. Hence there came to be in- cluded in Poor's funds, fines or voluntary concessions, for pri- vate or chamber marriages, for private or chamber baptisms, and for abbreviated proclamations of banns. In 1750 both private baptisms and private marriages were quite common in Mauchline Parish, but apparent!}' the shortening of proclama- tions had not come into use. In 1750 there were 12 private baptisms, for which a sum of £^ 8s. Scots was realised for the poor,t and 13 private marriages, for which a sum of iTii 7s. 6d. Scots was obtained for the poor's benefit. The tax on private * In some cases to the reader and church-ofticer, but the reader and session-clerk were generally, if not always, the same person. t In Kilmarnock the fines, or whatever else they may be called, were for private marriages, 2s., for private baptisms, 4s., and for "Twice proclaiming on same day los. 6d., more if it can be got." During the two years between September 1754, and October 1756, the money received in Kilmarnock for private marriages and proclaiming twice in one day amounted to ^^'j los. od. Prevision for the Poor in Olden Times. 27 marriages seems to have been remitted soon afterwards, for neither in tlie Session's abstract of receipts for 1778 nor in their abstract for 1779 is there any entry of moneys got from private marriages. Probably by that date the more modern practice had been introduced of having a collection at the wedding, and giving it as a gratuity to the beadle, who should have opened the church door to the bride but didn't. The tax on private baptisms, however, was still continued in these years, and there are entries also for proclamations, which means proclamations completed on less than three Sundays. In each of these two years the money drawn for private baptisms was 13s. sterling, which implies that there were thirteen private baptisms each year. In 1778 the amount realised for special proclamations was 8s. and in 1779 it was 22s. 6d. These sums would not go far at the present day in making provision for the poor, but when the cost of maintaining the poor was only fifty or sixty pounds a year they were a welcome and an appreciable help. Another item that figures prominently in the accounts of kirk treasurers long ago is the bell-penny, and this also in many parishes went to the poor, and became a fifth source of provision for their wants. The bell-penny, it need scarcely be said, was a due that was paid for the ringing or tolling of the church bell at funerals. It is stated in books of law that dues for the ringing of bells at funerals do not belong to the poor, but should be retained for the maintenance of the church fabric. Whether legal or not, however, the bell- penny in Mauchline and in many other places was retained for the poor. In 1696 the Kirk-Session minuted in a somewhat pompous style of latinised English that " considering tlie numerousness and indigency of the poor thc\- did think it reasonable that whoever desired the tolling of the bell ;;t the funeral of their relations should pay some small quintity of 28 Old Cliurch Life in Scotland. mf)iu>y to tlic cluircli treasurer to he disposed of for the poor's use, hut upon some consideration did delay to make a particular determination ancnt the quota." T\vr) months afterwards, the Session concluded in equally (grandiose phraseolof^y that for each time the bell was tolled on the occasion of a funeral "those most nearly concerned in the defunct should give for the poor's use at least 12 pence Scots." Instead of 12 pence Scots 12 shillings Scots came to be a common allowance for bell-penny in this par- ish,* but the amount being left to the payer's pleasure it ranged in 1750 from six shillings to twenty shillings. That year there were thirteen payments of bell-penny made to the Session of Mauchline, and the sum of these payments was £6 lOs. od. Scots. In 1778 and 1779, the receipts from bell-pennies had fallen to is. 8d. Sterling in the one year and to is. in the other. The most notable contribution to the poor, in the way of bell- mone>-, that appears in our parish records, was in the year 1705, when for ringing the bell to the Lady Gilmilnscroft's funeral there was handed to the Kirk-Session the handsome sum of one pound. A sixth source of revenue for the poor in most parishes, and a much more valuable one than the bell-penny, was the lend- ing out of mortcloths for burials. From a very early period mortcloths were used at funerals b}' all that could afford to pay for such trappings. But mortcloths were sometimes kept and given out on hire by trade corporations, funeral societies, and private persons as well as by Kirk-Sessions, and it was only when the\- were given out by Kirk-Sessions that the hire paid for them reverted to the poor.f For instance, in the parish of • In 1698 the Kirk-Session of Greenock appointed that " none have the privilege of ringing the kirk-bell at funerals unless they pay 40s. Scots in to the treasurer, and 2s. Scots besides to the bellman for ringing the said bell." + The law on the subiect of mortcloths is thus laid down by Mr. Dunlop, and it Provision for tJie Poor in Olden Times. 29 St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, the different incorporated trades had, previous to i/OO, mortcloths of their own. Shortly after that date, however, all these mortcloths were bought up by the Kirk Session, except those belonging to the Cordiners in the West- port, which were surrendered without payment, on condition that the poor of that guild should in all time coming have from the Session free use of a velvet mortcloth at interments. The following minute, of date 1635, occurs in the Session re- cords of Galston, " The quhilk day, William Farquhar in Buckles- toune, and William Black, tailzeour in Galstune desyred libertie of the Sessioune to buy upon their awne chairges and to have the commoditie and benefite of ane mortclaith for buriall, the sam)'n to be keipit within the claghan, the quhilk request the Sessioune thought reasonable ; nevertheles the Sessioune had rayther have the beneiite thereof to the Kirk, and therefore has ordainit that the Sessioune sail provyde the samyn betwixt and the first day of May nixt to cum, or failzeing, the said W. F. and W. B. sail have the place and libertie thereof, and no otheris." In the records of Mauchline Church there is reference to a mortcloth, belonging to the Kirk Session, in 1672, which is nearly as far back as our extant records go. Like other perishable things this mortcloth in the course of time got is illustrated by what is stated on page 30 to have taken place in Mauchline parish — " Kirk-Sessions, by immemorial usage, may acquire the exclusive right of let- ting out mortcloths to hire within the parish, and of charging certain dues therefor, which are generally appropriated to the use of the poor. Corporations or private associations may, by similar usage, acquire a joint right to let out mortcloths for hire, but, except where such a right has been so acquired, no individual nor associa- tion can let out mortcloths to the prejudice of the Kirk-Session's privilege. Private individuals may no doubt use mortcloths belonging to themselves, but they cannot lend them out to others even gratuitously ; nor, it should seem, can a number of individuals subscribe for the purchase of a mortcloth for their joint use, although nothing be charged to each individual on the occasion of its being required, as this wuukl effect an evasion of the privilege of ,he Kirk Session." 30 Ohl Cliiinh Life in Scutlniui. worn out, and for many )'cars,a[)parcntly diirin;^^ the whole of Mr. Mailland's ministry (1695-1739), there was no mortcloth owned l)y the Kirk-Session. ]5ut during that long period of Sessional impecuniosity there was in the parish a mortcloth, which belonged to a private individual and was let out for hire. In 1744, a year or two after Mr. Auld's settlement, the Kirk- Session took into consideration "the necessitous circumstances of the poor and the small sum available for support of the poor,'' and resolved that the " old custom in Mr. Veitch's time of having a mortcloth for the benefit of the poor should be revived." The Session were alive to the fact, however, that no good would come to them from having a mortcloth, unless the use of all other mortcloihs in the parish were prohibited. A committee of Kirk Session was accordingly appointed to wait on " Bruntwood and Mr. Arnot, Bailies of the Regalitie of r»Iauchline, in order to have other mortcloths discharged, and the privilege of providing a mortcloth for all such as are buried in the church-yard secured to the Kirk Session." It was further resolved by the Session to petition the heritors and others having an interest in the church-yafd, to " disallow and hinder the digging of graves in the church-}ard to any but sucli as will use the Session's mortcloth as soon as it shall be pro\idcd. ' And, either by prohibition or persuasion, either h\- coercion or constraint of the parish, the Session very quickly succeeded in securing for themselves the privilege they desired. About a month after the last quoted resolution was taken, a committee of their number was appointed " to speak with William Gibb to bu\' his mortcloth if they can agree upon the price." And so, first one mortcloth, then another and another was purchased, till the Session had a large wardrobe of mort- cloths of all sizes and qualities to suit different requirements and different fancies. Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 3 1 Charges for the use of mortcloths varied in different parishes, and in the same parish in different periods. In Galston a mortcloth was in 1643 pi'ovided by the Kirk-Session, and the scale of charges fixed for the use of that mortcloth was 12s. Scots, to people within the parish, and 24s. to people out of the parish. The earliest rates, that I have discovered, in Mauchlinc were higher. In 1675 it was fixed by the Session that the payment for use of the mortcloth by people in the parish should be 30s. Scots, or at least 24s. according to the discretion of the outgiver. And this was over and above what had been previously appointed as fee to the officer for " carry- ing the mortcloth to persons within the town and paroch." Very likely the Mauchline mortcloth was woven of finer and more costly material than what sufficed for the Galston folks. Certain it is that the charge for the use of mortcloths depended on the class and quality of mortcloth used. In 1775 the Kirk- Session of ?klauchline minuted, that " having provided a new mortcloth of Genoa velvet and furniture conformed," they considered that the lowest rate at which they could lend it to people in the town or within a mile of the town was 6s., and to parishioners more than a mile from the town, 7s. But the chr.rges for the " old mortcloth and the little mortcloth " were only 2s. and is. respectively. In 1716 the Kirk-Session of St. Cutiibert's, Edinburgh, had " twelve mortcloths which bring in money to the poor, and six poor's cloaths, in all eighteen." These were elaborately classified by a double nomenclature A I and A 2, B i and B 2, etc. The charge for the use of A i was " 10 merks, whereof i merk to the keeper : for A 2, ^^"4 Scots, whereof los. to the keeper : for A 3 4s. Sterling, whereof 8s. Scots to the keeper," etc. The sum of money derived b}- Kirk-Sessions in the course of a year from the hire of mortcloths was often considerable. At 32 Old Church Life in Scotland. Mauchlinc it amounted in 1674 to more than ;^22 Scots. A hundred years later it averaged about £df sterh'ng.* A seventh source of provision for the poor in olden times was got from benefactions. The earliest entry of a benefaction to the poor that I have noticed in the records of Mauchlinc is one of .^5 i6s. Scots by the Earl of Dumfries in. 1690. This may seem an odd sum to be given as a donation, and it may be wondered why his Lordship did not lay down even money, such as five pounds or ten pounds. The sum, however, that looks so odd when stated to be £^ i6s. was in reality the aggregate value of two coins called rix-dollars, and a present of two such coins was, like a brace of grouse or partridges, quite a lordly form of gift. Since 1690 many benefactions ranging from a few pounds Scots to i^200 Sterling have at different times come to the Kirk-Session of this parish for the benefit of the poor. And a similar thing may be said of nearly all parishes.f ' So numerous in fact were such benefactions and so necessary did Kirk-Sessions think it was to make publicintimation of them, that in almost every church long ago there was a black board hung up, with a list of all donations received for charitable purposes * It does not surprise us to hear that Kirk-Sessions kept mortcloths for hire. But it may surprise many to hear that some Kirk-Sessions gave out their communion plate on hire. It is shewn in Old Church Life, p. 141, that many parishes had little or no communion plate for years after the re-establishment of Presbyteiy at the Revolution. When the communion was celebiated in such parishes, plate had to be Ijorrowed, and in some cases the loan had to be paid for. The Kirk Session of Kilmarnock (1754-1756) drew £,t, sterling a year for the loan of their communion cups, and that was nearly as much as they realised from the loan of their mortcloths. In 1708 the Kirk-Session of Greenock "appointed that no neighbouring paroch have the use of them (the communion cups) except they ingage to answer for them and give 40s. Scots at each occasion, for the use of the poor of the paroch." t In the Session records of Greenock there are several acknowledgments of mor- tifications made to the poor by sailors when "in eminent danger." In 1706 for instance "James Galbreath, skipper in Carsdyke, and Archibald Yuill his mate, being present, informed the Session that they and company, having been in eminent danger on February last by-past made a free will offering of nine pounds sterling to be dis- • posed of for behoof of the poor of this paroch," etc. etc. Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 33 within the parish from time immemorial. And it is not unlikely that ambition to have their names emblazoned on the board stimulated the charity of not a few people who desired to stand well with the public. Indeed this object was frankly avowed by the Kirk-Session of St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, in 1727, when they ordered a board to be suspended in their church. For they expressed in their minutes a hope "that the said mortifications being conspicuously inscribed in gold characters may be a motive to others to follow the example of the mortifiers."* And many acts of very paltry generosity have been extravagantly praised for this ostensible purpose. In the Session books of Dairy in Galloway there is a minute under date 25th November 1828, which is not inserted in its regular place as a record of Sessional procedure, but is written upside down on the middle of a page where it is sure to arrest attention. It states that this day a row of lime trees was planted on each side of both approaches to the church ; that the two trees nearest the church-yard gate were planted by the minister, and the next tree on each side by the minister's wife, and that the plants cost twopence ster- ling each, except "the two red twigged" ones planted by the minister's wife, which were threepence each. It is then added that " it has been thought proper to enter a * In 1770 the Kirk-Session of Mauchline resolved to hang up a board in church "for engraving thereon the names of such as shall make charitable donations for behoof of the poor in the parish of Mauchline." Next year one of the elders be- queathed £t, to the poor and got his name stuck up, and one of the heritors, deter- mined not to be behind hand, made a gift of £'^ to the poor. In Kilmarnock the board was hung up as early as 1 718, but I have not investigated the immediate effects it produced in that town. It can scarcely be doubted that some benefactions in some parishes have been lost sight of from not being properly recorded. An excellent plan was adopted a few years ago in the Presbytery of Ayr for preventing such occurrences. A separate Register is kept, in which are entered notes of all the mortifications held in trust by Kirk-Sessions, with a statement of how and where they are invested, signed by the minister of the parish to which they are severally conveyed. C 54 Old CJiurcJi Life in Scotland. statement of this circumstance in the records of the Session, that all future incumbents and members of Session may know how inucli they arc obliged to (the minister), for thus en- deavouring to beautify their, even now, beautiful church-yard, and that they may be encouraged to go and do Hkewise " ! As virtually constituting an eighth source of provision for the poor, it may be mentioned that Kirk-Sessions were able occas- sionally to recoup in part their outlay on particular paupers, by the sale of these paupers' effects. The Kirk-Session of Kilmar- nock, for instance, enacted in 1700 that none get relief till they assign their belongings to the Session. And the rule adopted in Kilmarnock was generally followed in other parishes. In 1752 the Mauchline Session "unanimously resolved, that from this time forth, they would admit none to be stated pensioners on their charity funds but such only as should make assignation of all their means and effects to the Session their Treasurer, to be rouped after their death for the use and behoof of the poor." And the Session Records shew that this resolution was for a while rigorously carried out. Indeed, before the resolution was passed, the Kirk-Session had on some occasions, after a pauper's decease, exposed his effects for sale. In a mutilated minute, which cannot now be wholly deciphered, and which bears the date July 1740, it is recorded that the Session having taken on themselves the burden of supporting Jean INIackie, who had departed this life about the beginning of June, and having considered that " none that belonged to her would own her whilst alive, nor burie her when dead, they thought proper to petition the Bahe of Regality for a warrant to roup her household plenishing and body-cloths in order to defray their charges.'' And it is added in an apparent tone of satisfaction that the Session's petition was granted, and that " the goods of the said Jean !Mackie wQxefaithfullie rouped.'' Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 35 It may be mentioned here that Kirk-Sessions had generally on hand some accumulated funds or possessions which they called stock. The interest of such stock constituted a ninth source of provision for the poor in a great many parishes. For instance, it is minuted that in November 1773 the stock in the hands of Mauchline Session amounted to ^^"104 19s. lyod. while at the corresponding date in the previous year it was only ^^87 5s. Sx'gd. This implied that the stent, collections, fines, and dues, for the past year, had more than met the expenditure on the poor ; and shows how stock might accumulate at times. The occurrence of such items as x¥ of a penny and ^t o^ s- penny shows too that some pennies of Scots money, which were equal in value to a twelfth of the same denomination of Sterling coin, were in 1772 still in cir- culation. And not only had Kirk-Sessions stock in the shape of money, but they were sometimes owners of land. In 1755 the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock had as much stock lent out as yielded ^28 Sterling of interest ;* and they had, besides, what they termed a farm, which was let at ;;^i6 Sterling a year. Even the Session of Mauchline had in 1777 a pendicle named Braefoot, and another known as Hunter's yards, which together yielded a rental of ;^i 7s. 6d. Sterling. How land should have come into the hands of Mauchline Kirk-Session will be seen from the following minute, dated 23rd May, 1776. "The Session having convened the nearest of kin to Agnes Paterson the late proprietor (of Braefoot) . . . have got a disposition signed by the said persons to the said yard of Braefoot, for * The Session of Galston too owned at times both stock and land. As far back as 1642 it is recorded that " G. Richmond in Milrig peyit to the Sessione i^S of anwel rent for the money in his hand and his brether preceding Witsonday, 1642." In 1752 they held no less than eleven bills for sums ranging from ^104 Sterling to ;!^I5 Scots. In 1700 the lands of Braehead, over which they held a mortgage, were given up to them under protestation of the right of redemption in terms of mortgage. 36 Old Church Life in Scotland. which the Session have ^m'vcii ffjinicily to Agnes Patcrson, late proprietor, and to A^^ncs Cook her mother, the sum of £"6 6s. 46. and h'kewisc on signing the disposition by the foresaid persons the Session did agree to give to each of these persons lis. 6d., and also to Margaret Paterson for keeping the deceased Agnes Paterson one half year, 15s., amounting in all to £\o 15s. lod. Sterling." The land of Bracfoot therefore fell to the lot of the Kirk-Scssion of Mauchlinc, as the forfeited security given by the proprietor for repayment of money advanced to her, when she was in reduced circumstances. And there are several instances recorded of pensioners in this parish giving up to the Kirk-Scssion not only an inventory of their household plenish- ings but other securities. The following minute of Session, dated 1777, shews how business of this kind was conducted : "J. W. (one of the pensioners) hereby assigns a Bill of £6 Sterling (whereof i^2 9s. od. are paid) accepted by J. M. In witness whereof, this bill is delivered in presence of the Session to James Paton, treasurer, to pursue for payment thereof." Kirk-Sessions, it may be said, plied the vocations of Parochial bankers, pawnbrokers, and bill exchangers. When they had monc\' on hand they were in the habit of lending it out on bills and bonds. As far back as 1678 we find reference in the records of this parish to " Bardarroch's ticket for ^^^^ Os. od." Scots, as constituting part of the Session's property. And in 1 7 19 the Session of Mauchline had a bond for i^ 107 Scots from John Reid of Ballochmyle, but " because of the said gentleman's circumstances they were ordered (by the Presbytery) to do diligence against him for recovery of the sum." Four years later, at a visitation of the parish, the Presbytery found that the Session had proceeded against Ballochmyle " as to personal dili- gence, but had done nothing so as to effect his real estate with others of his creditors, and so it appears that there is no expecta- Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 37 tion of its recovery." The Presbytery accordingly found the Kirk- Session guilty of culpable negligence in the management of what were trust funds, and they not only minuted disapproval of that negligence but threatened to pursue the Session for recovery of the sum that was lost. The Kirk-Session of a parish, however, it need scarcely be said, is a permanent body ; and in Mauchline it survived the loss of what was lent to Ballochmyle. Under good management its stock again accumulated, and in 1748 there was ^5 Sterling of lying money in the treasurer's box. The Session, remembering the parable of the wicked and slothful servant, resolved to put their stock to usury ; but, taking warning from former experience, they declared it should only be on " sufficient security," and they recommended their treasurer " to look out a good hand for it." * A very strange entry in Mauchline records is " a list of pledges and bills in Mr. Auld's custody" in the year 1745. There is no account of how these pledges and bills came into Mr. Auld's hands, but it may be assumed from what is said elsewhere about the Session's revising their bills, that the pledges were securities deposited against advances or loans of money by the Kirk-Session. The " list" referred to comprised five gold rings, six bills, and " thirty-two pounds, four shillings, and six pennies of bad money in two baggs." The five rings are each specifically described so as to be identified when redeemed by their respective depositors. One is described as *As was shewn in Old Church Life (Vol. I., p. 20), the slock held by Kirk- Sessions was sometimes laid out in the erection of church pews which were rouped or rented for behoof of the poor. In the records of Kilmarnock Session the follow, ing " inventorie of the pewes in the Kirk built by the Sessioun, and set for the use of the poor and for maintaining a schollmaster " appears under date 1691. " Two pewes at the head of the Skollars seat, 6 pounds each, - - £\2 " Two ,, between John Aird of Miltoun his seat and the south door, £^ "Eight „ in the syde loft, called the Elder-s' loft, ■ . . ,1^63." 38 Old Cluinh Life in Scotland. plain ami posicd, "where love I find my heart I bind," another is said t(^ be carved and posied, and another to be plain and stoned. Such were the principal sources of provision for the poor in Scotland in olden times. I have now to show how the supply was distributed. At the present day there is in every parish a Parochial Board. This board makes up the roll of the poor, fixes the allowances for paupers, and imposes assessments for support of the poor. In parishes where the Poor Law Act, 1845, has been adopted, and that means nearly every parish in Scotland, the Parochial Board consists of the owners of lands and heritages of the yearly value of i^20, the Provost and Bailies of Royal Burghs, several members of Kirk-Session, and several elected representatives of the remanent ratepayers. It may be said that ever since the Reformation there has been in every parish a Parochial Board for watching over the interests of the poor. The constitution of that Board, however, has undergone from time to time con- siderable alterations. For the first thirty years after the Refor- mation, the care of the poor, so far as that was provided for by civil law, was in the case of landward parishes entrusted to Justices appointed by the King's Commissioners.* In 1597 this jurisdiction was transferred to Kirk-Sessions, and in 1672 it was committed to the Heritors and Kirk-Session of each parish con- jointly, and in their hands it continued till the passing of the Act 1845. A minute of date May, 1673, in the records of the Kirk-Session of Mauchline, shews how and when the Act 1672 was brought into operation for the first time in Mauchline parish. This minute states that " the Session appoints Robert Millar, Alexander Milliken, and John Reid, Elders, to meet with * Of course in these pristine days of the Reformed Church there was an ecclesias- tical administration of charities and collections. Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 39 Kingencleuch and Ballochmyle (heritors) anent the giving up a list of the poor in the parish upon Wednesday next." From 1597 to 1672 it was the Kirk-Session alone that determined how the poor's funds should be distributed, and from 1672 to 1845 it was the Kirk-Session and heritors jointly. In every parish at the present day there is a salaried officer called the Inspector of Poor, who lays before the Parochial Board a list of applications for relief, with a detailed statement of the circumstances of each applicant, and conveys to paupers the allowances appointed them by the Board. It may be said that formerly the deacons of the church were the Inspectors of the Poor.* They were not paid for any work they did, but they watched over the poor in their respective districts, reported cases of poverty to the Kirk-Session, and carried to the poor whatever gratuities the Kirk-Session were pleased to grant. When it happened that in a parish there was no separate body of church officers distinctively called deacons, the elders acted as both elders and deacons, that is they both fixed, either with the minister alone in Session, or with the minister and heritors together as the case might be, the allowances for the poor, and personally distributed these allowances. It was com- mon for Sessions to appoint one of their number to hand over one part of their charity, and another of their number to hand over another part of their charity, to particular persons * In the First Book of Discipline (1560) Cap. X. Sec. 13, it is said " we think it not necessary that any public stipend shall be appointed, either to the elders or yet to the deacons, because their travell continues but for a year; and also because that they are not so occupied with the aftairs of the kirk, but that reasonably they may attend upon their domesticall businesse. " In the .Second Book of Discipline (157!^) Cap. IX. Sec. 4, it is said that there was anciently a fourfold division of the patri- mony of the kirk, of which one part went "to the elders and deacons," etc. : and " we adde hereunto," etc. : as if to say that stipends were still claimed on behalf of what, in a sense quite different from the old meaning of the words, were called elders (Presbyters), and deacons. 40 Old CJiurcJi Lije m Scotland. named. In the Session records of Kilmarnock for 1647 there is a minute which states that "the Session ordaines ane distribution to be made of charities to the poor, and two merks to be given to ilk ane of them contained in the roll, to be divyded by the discretion of the elders in their respective quarters." Some- times a stricter rule was found necessary. In 1650 the Kirk- Session of Fenwick "finding some inconvenience upon private disbursements of the collection both to poor strangers and to the necessitous within the parish, ordained that no part nor oortion of the said collection be distribut, bot in face of Session." In like manner it was agreed by the Session of Mauchline in 1772, "that in order to prevent the dividing of charitable donations according to partial favour, whatever is given to any of the members of the Session for the use of the poor shall be intimated by that member to the Session at the next meeting, and the advice of the Session taken in dividing the same." In parishes where paupers were numerous and the poors' funds were large, it was probably customary from a very early period to have in the Kirk-Session a treasurer, to furnish the Session from time to time with a statement of the moneys received and disbursed. But the association in 1672 of heritors with elders in the distribution of poor's funds made the appointment of such a treasurer after that date all but necess- ary. The heritors and Session did not meet together more than once or twice a year, perhaps not so often, and the Kirk- Session had therefore to account for intromissions over a con- siderable period. And to the credit of the Church of Scotland be it said, that down to a very recent date in the present cen- tury this office of treasurer was discharged in every parish by one of the elders, generally if not universally without money and without price, often without thanks, and not seldom with Provision for the Poor in Oldeti Times. 41 censorious faultfinding, always amid temptation and pecuniary risk, and sometimes with actual loss of both money and char- acter. And the treasurer not only kept the accounts of the poor's funds, but he often was burdened with the distribution of the poor's aliment. This duty sometimes brought the treasurer into serious trouble. In 18 17 complaint was made to the Kirk-Session of Mauchline that their treasurer, being a huckster, was in " the constant habit of forcing the paupers to take goods from his shop, instead of paying them in money, as he was bound to do." The Kirk-Session took occasion, on hear- ing that complaint, to record as their opinion that it is " very improper to employ a person as Kirk treasurer who keeps a huckster's shop," because it gives grounds for allegations that the poor " are compelled to purchase articles at a dear rate " from his shop, whether there be truth or not in such stories. In some old Session Records we meet with the expres- sion, " keeper of the poor." At Galston, in 1640, one John Paterson was " ordainit keipar of the poor," and he held that office for at least several years. In the year 1783 a new point of departure was unauthorisedly taken in Mauchline Parish. For some reason or other, the work of distributing the pensions was rolled over on the church-officer. His professional train- ing led him to take a different view of church work from what the elders had been brought up to. He was a stipendiary, and they were not. To his mind, therefore, wage was the correla- tive of work. He thought with the temple servitors in the days of Malachi, that it was preposterous to expect any one to shut a door for nought, or kindle a fire on the altar for nought. He accordingly took on himself to charge the paupers a penny each time he delivered them their pension ; but for this un- authorised proceeding he was taken to task and censured. At what date payment to the keeper of the poor, or whatever else 42 Old Church Life in Scotland. the upliftcr and dislributor of the poor's funds was called, came to be commonly alhnvcd in country parishes, I am not prepared to say. When a stent was levied for the poor, the collector, or overseer, as he was termed, seems to have usually had some fee for his work, and probably when the clerical labour of the treasurer was considerable he also would receive some re- muneration.* At the present day, allowances to paupers arc fixed and minuted at the meetings, half-yearly in most parishes, of the Parochial Board, and allowances determined at one meeting hold good till the next revisal of the roll. Long ago it was different. Sometimes, as at Galston in 1641, the Session dis- tributed on the Sunday whatever they found in the church plate. More frequently the Session met fortnightly on a week day, and allotted what they had gathered since their last meet- ing. As early as 1643, during the incumbency of a famous Covenanter, Mr. Blair, the practice was introduced at Galston of having half-yearly meetings in January and June, and a special meeting after the communion, at which the whole or the greater parts of the funds on hand were divided.f These periodical meetings, at long intervals of six or twelve months, became more common after heritors were, in 1672, associated with Kirk-Sessions in the management of the poor's money. But besides cases of permanent poverty from age or infirmity, there were always cases of sudden calamity or temporary hard- ship or vagrant misery cropping up, and these had to be dealt • The Proclamation of 1692 does not appoint a salary for the overseers to be paid out of the assessment, but it declares that the fees of the officer (or constable) " to serve under the said overseers for inbringing of the maintenance, and for expelling stranger vagabonds from the parish, is to be stented on the parish, as the rest of the maintenance for the poor is stented. " tThe practice of giving out grants every Sunday was soon afterwards resumed at Galston. Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 43 with in a special way. The way of dealing with these cases doubtless changed in every parish from time to time. In Kil- marnock, from about 1720 to 1750, there was a classification of the different modes of granting relief to the poor under the three heads, or Ps, of pensions, 'pointments and precepts. The pensions were the weekly allowances fixed for the regular poor. The appointments were special grants made and minuted at meetings of Session. The precepts were orders by the minister on the treasurer during the period which intervened between Session days. The precept system in the hands of compassion- ate and generous ministers was obviously open to abuse, and in 1755 the Kilmarnock Board thought it necessary to minute a resolution that " no minister shall grant precepts upon the treasurer betwixt Session days to supply strangers or vagrants; but in case of any extraordinary emergency, either of the min- isters may give out what he thinks absolutely necessary, and it may be allowed him by vote of the Session at their next meeting, and so be marked as part of that day's appointment." The principle on which Parochial Boards at the present day proceed in granting allowances for the poor, is to consider what each applicant requires per week, and then to grant the sum, with option of a ticket to the poorhouse. Long ago, the principle of allocation was different. Kirk-Sessions just gave what they had to give. They cut according to their cloth, and preached according to their stipend. If a Session had little on hand, so much the worse for the poor, and if a Session was rich and increased in goods, so much the better for the poor. There was no uniform mode of distribution over all Scotland at any one time, nor in any one parish during all periods of its history. Sometimes, as in Galston in 1641, the whole collection was given one Sunday to one person, and another Sunday to another person. More frequently distribution was 44 Old Chnnh Li/c in Scotlatid. made every Sabbath or every Session day to a number of pensioners. Tlic main feature of dissimilarity, however, be- tween distribution t(j the poor in olden times and distribution in modern times, is that formerly the amount of charity given varied very much from week to week. When, as at Galston in 1 64 1, the whole collection was given to a separate pauper each Sunday, some, fortunate in getting a good day for their collection, would receive 30s. Scots, while others less fortunate in their day, would have as little as los. Scots. At Mauchline, in 1673, the aliment was distributed fortnightly, but not always in equal sums to the same person. One man, in the middle of August of that year, received 6s. 8d. Scots, and the same sum was given him at each of the next two distributions. But in the beginning of October his allowance was raised to 8s. 8d., and it continued at that rate till the 24th November, when it fell to 8s. The same irregularity appears in later distributions. But as time wore on, this irregularity contracted itself within narrower limits, as if the fact were being more and more re- cognised that the poor need, and ought to get, for their main- tenance as much one week as another. And it was doubtless owing to the difficulty that Kirk-Sessions had in maintaining regular and sufficient grants to the poor out of fluctuating generosity, that assessments for the poor were introduced. It is sometimes said that dissent originated assessments for the poor, that up till the first secession in 1733 there were no such assessments in Scotland, and that after 1733 they be- came common. This is not the case. Dissent was not on its first appearance in Scotland such an enfant terrible as to dis- turb the whole social system, and necessitate a new mode of providing for the poor. The State judged it necessary in 1579 to provide by Act of Parliament for the imposition of a stent to sustain those that had to depend on alms. And in order to Provision for the Poor in Olden Times, 45 determine what should be expedient and sufficient for this pur- pose, the Act directed that a hst of the poor in each parish should be drawn up, and that it should be ascertained from those on the list what " they may be maid content of their awin consentis to accept daylie to live unbeggand." In 1692 the reigning sovereigns (William and Mary) required by pro- clamation of Council the " heritors, ministers, and elders of every parish " to levy and uplift such a stent as was necessary to entertain the poor in their parish according to their respec- tive needs. And assessments for the poor were actually im- posed in Scotland before dissent arose.* As far back as 1729, that is four years before the first secession, there was a stent imposed for the poor in Kilmarnock, and what is more strange, it appears to have been discontinued the very year in which the secession occurred. Either in 1729 or in 1730, there had been a movement made over Ayrshire generally to have assess- ments levied for the poor, and in 1730 the most of parishes were, as we have seen, excusing themselves to the Presb}'tery for negligence in that matter. The allowance to the poor per week varied both in different parishes at the same time and in the same parish at different times. In 1674 the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock " having in- formation of the low condition that James Stewart's family is in, think it fitt that he have 12s. (that is 12s. Scots, or is. Ster- * The statement that it was dissent which necessitated the imposition of assess- ment for the poor is supported by the high authority of Sir Henry Moncreiff, who says, "there was scarcely any regular assessment for the poor, which was continued for any length of time in any parish of Scotland previous to 1755. As long as there was no secession of Presbyterians from the Established Church, the weekly collec- tions under the management of the Kirk-Session were in general found sufficient for the maintenance of the poor. In some years of peculiar hardship or scarcity, such as 1696-1700 and 1740, voluntary assistance was no doubt given, and in some instances temporary assessments were resorted to, to enable the Kirk-Session to meet unusual emergencies." The strain on Kirk - Sessions was greater than Sir Henry Moncreiff supposed. 46 Old Church Life in Scotlajid. ling) wecklic till March 1675." In 1699 the whole number of pcnsioHLM-s on the roll of Kilmarnock Session was 87, and the total sum allowed them per week, " to some less and to some more," was £17 19s. od., or about 4d. each on an average.* In 1737 the allowances per week to paupers in Galston ranged from 4d. to is. Sterling, and the sum given to one aged couple was IS. 8d. At Kilmarnock a proposal was made in the Ses- sion in 1755 " that no pensioner have above ninepence or ten- pence per week, except those nursing children, who are to be maintained no longer than they are able to beg or shift for themselves." And it was further proposed that " no pensioner have anything by appointment except in case of sickness or death bed." In Mauchline parish in 1748 the highest grant to any one pauper was 24s. Scots, or 2s. Sterling per month, while the average allowance was but half that sum, and there was one pensioner who received a pittance of three halfpence a wcck.f In 1 77 1, the year in which the stent was imposed to put a stop to begging, the allowance had increased to nearly four times what it was twenty-three years previously, and ranged from is. 6d. to 7s. Sterling per month. In 1839, six years before the passing of the present poor law the weekly al- lowance was in some cases as high as 4s. per week, or about the same as it still is. Sometimes meal was given to the poor instead of money. • Fletcher of Saltoun writing in 1698 speaks of the regular poor as being " very meanly provided for by the church bo.xes." He says also, "the first thing which I humbly and earnestly propose to that honourable court (the Parliament) is that they would take into consideration the condition of so many thousands of our people who are at this day dying for want of food." Terrible statement if true, but Mr. Fletcher drew a long bow. tThe number of poor in the West Kirk Parish, Edinburgh, in 1731, was 60, and their monthly pension ranged from £1 Scots to £4, Scots each per month, (Hist, of ^^ est Kirk, p. 112.) In 1574 the ordinary poor in Edinburgh received 2s. Scots a week, and in cases of sickness 2s. 6d. and 3s. Scots. — Lee, H. p. 393. Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 4^ In 1651 the Kirk-Session of Galston "ordained Thomas Young and Archibald Thomson to provyde half a peck meil each week for ane old man named Robert Cameron, quhilk the Ses- sion ondertakes to pay." At a much more recent date I find that when meal instead of money was given to paupers in Mauchline it was at the same rate of a half peck per week to each person. The Session of Kilmarnock, however, were more liberal in their supplies, for in 1646 they ordained "the trea- surer of the charities to give weeklie the pryce of ane peck meall for the space of ane half year, to lame John Boyd for his helpe to ane trade."* The old law of Scotland gave to destitute children under fourteen years of age a title to parochial relief, but judging from a minute inserted in the records of Mauchline Parish in the year 1773 it would seem as if Kirk-Sessions were reluctant at times to obtemper that law in a generous spirit. The minute referred to states that A. B.'s " grandchild is now full nine years old, and that he may shift for himself with the help of his friends in time coming." What amount of help the boy's friends could afford to give him is not indicated, but it may safely be affirmed, that if the boy at nine years of age was suf- ficiently educated and sufficiently strong to be set to constant work, he must have been a wonderful specimen of precocious culture and precocious power. One would have liked to hear what became of that boy in after life, whether, for instance, he * Mr. Dun of Auchinleck, in one of his volumes of sermons, published in 1790, says that Kirk-Sessions "provide for the poor as much oatmeal as mixed with water keeps them from dying of hunger." That the pension to the poor in Mauch- line in 1783 was given in meal and not in money may be inferred from the follow- ing minute of Kirk-Session recorded that year — "The Session order every one of their pensioners to bring a pock with their name upon it to . . . their officer, in which they are to receive from him their monthly pension, with certification that they who refuse to obey this order shall receive no pension." 48 Old CJiurcli Life in Scotland. m.'ulc a fortune, and Icfl a legacy to the parish in grateful ac- knowledgment of kindness received in early youth. Besides regular pensioners, parochial boards at the present day have an outlay to incur on what are termed casual poor. Long ago Kirk-Sessions had the same thing to do, and whether there were more or fewer people on the tramp then than now, it is certain that they met with much more commiseration than they now do from the custodians of the poor's funds. Down to 1690 or thereabouts, the stranger poor figure very promin- ently in the records of Mauchline Parish. At a later period, such as 1748, there occur in the notes of the treasurer's dis- bursements in this parish many such entries, as, "to a poor man," "to a poor soldier," "to a poor sailor" ; but these are few and far between, compared with similar entries in the older records. And there is a wonderful variety in the designations of these supplicants. One is a poor schoolmaster, another a robbed merchant, another an Irish gentleman, another one of the king's bluegowns, another a man reduced by cautioning, another a woman with many children. Sometimes the casual is said to be a poor man recommended by the S}'nod or Pres- bytery, and in one instance* 24s. was given by the Session of Mauchline to a poor man recommended by Mr. Alexander Peden. This last-named donation was made in January, 1683, and it is just possible, therefore, that the Alexander Peden t who gave the recommendation may have been the famous Covenanter of that name, who was doubtless well known to * In 1687 a pauper solicited charity from the Presbytery of Ayr, and the allow- ance he received was "a day's collection out of every parish within the lx)unds where there is preaching." That looks liberal enough. But in 16S7 there were few parishes in which there was a Presbyterian Church. t More probably it was Alexander Peden of Blocklerdyke, whose name appears in the list of " rebels and fugitives from our laws "' appended to the Royal Pro- clamation, 5lh May, 16S4 (vide Wodrow). Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 49 both the minister and elders of Mauchline. A remarkable feature in the old Sessional entries of donations to casual paupers was their kindliness of expression. Tender language is invariably used, and the objects of relief are designated by- words that spring from compassion and awaken pity. In the Mauchline records we read of " distressed gentlemen " and " castaway sailors," and although supplicants are sometimes described in a way that is more graphic than sympathetic, such as " Turkey John," " Dumb Hugh," and " A man with polypus on his nose," there is a want of that unadjectived baldness which is characteristic of modern officialism. In the records of Galston Session, a similar sympathy appears united with similar humour. In 1672 a collection was appointed to be miade in Galston on behalf of a poor man " trysted ivith a sad dispensation of fyr." The same year a donation was sent to " an old godly sick man in Sorn." A less sympathetic entry, however, appears the year after, in the following terms, " to a Paslay body called Findlay." Sometimes very sorrowful tales, both of calamity and persecution, were comprised in entries of gifts to vagrants.* In 1642 there was collected at Galston, "for the help of those poor naked people come from Ireland, 50 merks." In 1686 there was given by the Session of Mauch- line 30s. Scots to " Mr. Samuel Muet, late minister at Kirk- connell, and now under straits." This Mr. Muet was one of those faithful ministers who were deprived of their office for refusing to take the test in 168 1, and were then left to starve in the cold.t In 1687 the charity of Mauchline Session was * Sometimes the story of calamity is so sad as to be of suspicious verity. In 1641, for instance, the Kirk-Session of Galston accepted the story of a supplicant who re- presented that he "had his house, and father and mother and children, and all he had, burned up with fyre." fMuet or JMowat was minister first at Kirkconnell and afterwards at Crawford- john. He seems to have been an Episcopalian, but one of the small number of D 50 Old CIninli lAfe in Scotlana. extended to another minister in straits, but in this instance the straits were not occasioned by persecution. The minute relat- ing to this gift is as follows: — "October 5. Gevin at the Synod for the use of Mr. Cameron, late minister at Greenock, who, being under a sad distemper of mind, has by Act of Synod a dollar every year for his maintenance from every kirk-box, and there being two years resting, two dollars now paid, £^ 12s." Two years later the case of this minister is again referred to in the Synod records, and he and his family are stated to have been then in starvation. The recommendation was accordingly renewed that " each minister should send in from his Session funds something for the relief of Mr. Cameron, to be gevin to his wife by the Synod clerk." Another instance of poverty in the family of a clergyman is quietly recorded without com- ment in the Mauchline kirk treasurer's journal for 1742. Fol- lowing the note of grants to ordinary paupers, there is an entry " to Mrs. Simpson, relict to Mr. Simpson, minister of Finnik, ^3 Scots."* Episcopalians who refused to take the test in i68l. For this he was deprived of his living at Kirkconnell. lie was settled in Crawfordjohn, however, before the Revolution ; but when the Revolution came he was, like other Episcopalian ministers, ousted by the parishioners. He was thus persecuted on both sides. In his old age he tried to pick up a living by celebrating clandestine marriages, but in that also he came to grief, for it was a statute offence he committed, and he was there- fore, in 1702, apprehended and imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. During one of his periods of persecution, that is, either after his deprivation at Kirkconnell in 1681, or his ejection from Crawfordjohn in 16S9, he was "'recommended by the Archbishop of Glasgow to the charity of all good Christians, because of his wife and family." His being an Episcopalian enables us to understand how he should have been so generously treated in 16S6 by the Mauchline Kirk-Session, for it was an Episcopalian, Mr. David Meldrum, who was then otiiciating as minister at Mauchline. (See Fasti.) * This is by no means a solitary instance of sessional charity to a minister's widow. Several cases are mentioned in Scott's Fasti. In addition to those referred to by Dr. Scott, I find in the records of the Presbyter)- of Irvine that in 1695 " Margaret Muirhead, widow of the Rev. Mr. Young, Dreghorn, was recommended by the General Assembly of 1694 to Presbyteries for charitable supply," and that in the Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 5 1 Kindly as Kirk-Sessions were to the poor, they were occas- ionally guilty of acts that had an appearance of inconsiderate- ness at least, if not even harshness. In the records of Mauch- line there is an entry on the 25th June, 1699, " Collected this day, £Af 7s. 2d.," and then it is added that " the whole of this collection is appointed to be given to James Leech, with this proviso, that he shall seek no more charity or supply from the Session of Mauchline." Perhaps less was meant than is here said, but the minute literally construed looks very like a con- tract by which old Leech was required to undertake that when his £^ 7s. 2d. Scots (7s. 3d. sterling) was exhausted, he would close his mouth and die in peace. And such provisos as were attached to the collection for Leech, were not uncommon. In 1675 the Session of Galston agreed to give a woman the muni- ficent sum of one merk, " providing she trouble not the Session further." A much fairer stipulation, however, was made the same year by the same Session, with a man named Wilson. The Session " advanced " him los. sterling, on condition that they should " not be troubled with him further until such time as the rest of the families in the paroch of his condition get as much." One of the works of mercy for which a special collection in church, or a public contribution, was required in olden times, was medical attendance, especially when a surgical operation was needed. On a Sabbath in 1652 there was at Galston " anc publick collectione for the satisfeing of the doctour ingadging Presbytery of Irvine there was "gevin in to the clerk for supply of Mr. Young's relict," by Mr. Warner £2 i8s., by Mr. Hunter ^^i 8s., and by other two ministers 19s. 6d. each. In the same records it is stated that in 1732 Mrs. Clerk, a minister's widow, "in indigent circumstances and phrenetic," was receiving charitable aid from Kirk-Sessions. A very touching case of poverty and kindly treatment is the following, which appears in the records of the Session of Kilmarnock for 169S: — " The Session unanimouslie appointed a load of meal to a poor, honest, indigent member of the Session, whose name is concealed." 52 Old Church Lijc in Scotland. to cure Jiuncs Walker of his infectious disease of the French pox." So frightened were the Galston worthies that Walker's pox would break out into a pla<^ue amongst them, that they contributed " to nuich to satisfic the doctour," and the ordinary- poor got the unex[)ccted benefit of a considerable surplus.* In 1697 the Session of Kilmarnock went about a similar work of mercy in a way that was more characteristic of Scotsmen. Having ordained that some course should be taken to defray the expense of curing Janet Brown's breast, they first of all enquired what the cost would be. Then having learned from " Dr. Maitland and the chirurgeons . . . that as the cure was dangerous so no less than 20 dollars or ^5 sterling would be required to defray the charges," they appointed elders to go through the parish and collect to that amount It may interest farmers at the present day, when so much is said about bad times and agricultural depression, to hear that their predecessors groaned under the same sorrows and had sometimes to fall back on the charity of the church for help. On the 2nd March 1735, "being the day appointed for the col- lection upon the account of those who had lost their corns by the storms of a year agone, the minister exhorted (the people at Mauchline) to extend their charity," and charity was accord- ingly extended to ^8 los. od. Scots. And the loss to indivi- dual farmers by storms was sometimes so great that the charity of the whole Presbytery was invoked. In 1736 a representa- tion was made to the Presbytery of A}t that " Matthew Goudie in Haugh Yett was a great loser by the haill that fell last har- vest," whereupon " the Presbytery recommended him to the several sessions in their bounds for charitable supply."* * At Galston, in 1633, there was " collectit ^14 (Scots) and gevin to Afaggie Watsonne haveing her leg culit of." The same year there was a donation given at Galston to " ane unstevfull wyff." t Willie wo have thus incidentally in Presbytery books the record of a severe hail Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 53 Besides granting relief in money to parishioners and stran- gers, Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries and Synods were in the habit of giving badges or tokens to poor persons within their bounds to entitle them to the privilege of begging their livelihood. The law was very severe in its punishment of " Strang beggars and vagabonds," but when badges or licenses were granted to poor people by competent authorities these badgers and licentiates were allowed to beg with impunity. This begging system was even sanctioned by Act of Parliament. The Act 1672 already referred to, directed heritors and Kirk-Sessions " to condes- cend upon such as, through age and infirmity, are not able to work, and appoint them places wherein to abide, that they may be supplied by the contributions at the paroch kirk, and gifthe same be not sufficient to entertain them, that they give them a badge or ticket to ask alms at the dwelling houses of the in- habitants of their own paroch only, without the bounds where- of they are not to beg."* Long before the passing of this Act, however, the system of licensed begging was in operation in Scotland. The Act 1579, which authorised the levying of as- sessments for support of the poor, also authorised that " quhair collecting of money may not be had" license be given to " sik and so many of the saidis pure people as they sail think gude, to ask and gadder the charitable alms of the parochiners at their awn houses." As far back indeed as 1424 certain " thig- garis " were by statute " tholit to beg," but were required to have " ane certane takin on thame, to landwart of the schiref, and in the burrowis ... of the Alderman or of the Bailies." Local acts of similar import were passed also by the storm in 1735, we have in the minutes of Kilmarnock Kirk-Session the record of an earthquake in 1732. The date is Sabbath, 9th July, and the words of the record are — " this day a sensible shock of an earthquake was felt here, and (at) several other places a little before two in the afternoon." 54 Old Church Lije in Scotland. courts of the Church. In 1642 the Presbytery of Ayr, on an overture from Mr. George Young of Mauchline, ordained that in all time coming such of the poor as should be thought by the Minister and Session of each parish worthy- of a license to beg within the parish " should be marked with stampes of lead upon their breasts, for the purpose of discovering them from strangers and idle vagabonds." There came thus in course of time to be several orders of licensed beggars. There were first and foremost in the order of privilege and distinction the king's bluegowns, who had a badge to pass and repass over the whole country, and who made good and diligent use of their privilege, as old Session records testify. In 1673 the Session of Galston, in their liberality, gave " to tuo blewgowns 4s. 8d.," and in 1693 the Session of Mauchline shewed even more liberality, by giving to one bluegown 8s. Other beggars, again, had their badges from Church courts, such as Synods, Presbyteries, and Kirk-Sessions, and the perambula- tions of these suppliants were confined to the bounds of the jurisdiction of the court that granted license. It was appointed by the General Assembly that these Church licenses should also be limited to a specified time, at the end of which they might be renewed, if thought expedient. We find, accordingly, that in 1695 the members of the Presbytery of Ayr were ordered " to call back what general recommendations for charity they had gevin, and to beware of the l}-ke in t}-mc coming under pain of censure." And in authorising their clerk that year to sign a recommendation for charity in favour of two poor men, the Presbytery minuted that the license was confined to the *John Ker, the minister of Lyne (1593-1627), took another way with beggars. He first 'satechised them and then gave them liberally ! ! — Select Biog. Wodrow Society Pub. Fasti. In 1644 the Session of Edinburgh ordained that the poor " be deprived of their weeklie pensione if they cannot answer to the catechise." — Lee's Lectures, Vol. IL, p. 395. Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 55 bounds of the Presbytery and " restricted to the space of thrie months." But while Synods and Presbyteries were fostering, with the one hand, one kind of beggary, they were at fully as much pains, with the other hand, to put another kind of beggary down. Deserving people in units and tens plied the trade with badges, while undeserving people in hundreds and thousands plied it without badges. Vagrancy, imposture, de- bauchery, and blackguardism of all sorts were thus rampant, and Church Courts were sorely exercised all last century about these evils and how to get them remedied.* In 1725 the Presbytery of Ayr ordered a special collection to be made in all the churches within the bounds, on the 7th November, " to be applied for suppressing of vagrant beggars, who are to be carried to Ayr prison by constables." There were occasions, too, when the vagrancy nuisance went to greater heights than usual, and then Presbyteries came down upon it with sterner prohibitions. In 1747 the Presbytery of Ayr minuted that "in times when victual is dear many of the idle and slothful are tempted by the unusual value of a small quantity of meal to go a-begging at a distance from home, where their circumstances cannot easily be distinguished, and that by this means some covetous persons have been enabled to revel in drunkenness, * It is not to be inferred that the begging nuisance did not exist in Scotland till last centur}'. Far from that. But the Church last century made a specially vigorous effort to put it down. Fletcher of Saltoun, in words that are often quoted, states that at the end of the seventeenth century there were constantly about 100,000 vaga- bonds wandering up and down the country "without any submission either to the laws of the land or to those of God and nature " — fathers living in incest with daugh- ters, mothers with sons, and brothers with sisters. " In years of plenty many thou- sands meet together on the mountains, where they feast and riot for many days, and at country weddings, markets, burials, and other the like public occasions, they are to be seen, both men and women, perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting together." Fletcher's statement, however, is generally considered an ex- aggeration of facts. 56 Old Church Life in Scotland. unclcanncss, and profanity, while those from whom they have extorted supply are often pinched with want." Kirk-Sessions were accordingly instructed for the fiftieth or hundredth time to do what an Act of Parliament required them to do, and grant only such badges as would entitle paupers to beg in their own parishes.* In practice, these restrictions were often a dead letter. But they were better than no restrictions, nevertheless, and that there was need for their being enjoined by Presby- teries was shown by the conduct of not a few Kirk-Sessions. The tickets granted by the Kirk-Session of Mauchline were, to say the least of them, very vague and sometimes ultra- parochial. In 1672 one woman, apparently a widow, received "a testimonial of indigence with a recommendation to the charity of neighbours^' and in 1674 a man was allowed "a testi- ficat of indigence to goe to other places to seek supplie." In 1676 a sum of 8s. was given for a barrow to carry Daniel Reid, who evidently was a cripple and was to have the privilege of being carried in state, like an oriental magnate, from door to door. And of all public nuisances within living man's memory, there were few greater than the old custom, not fifty years ex- tinct, of cripples' being carried about in hand-barrows. Every householder was obliged, or thought himself obliged, to pass on the cripple, and when, as often happened in rural districts, the next house was a mile or two miles distant, the hardship im- posed by the custom was intolerable. There are annoyances, * In 1693 the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock ordered sixty " bages " (badges) to be made for the poor, and to be given to the poor of the place that they may be known from strangers. They also ordered lists of the poor of the parish to be given to the liailie, and an elder of ever)' quarter to attend him at the distribution of the " bages." In 1698 a Committee of the Kirk-Session of Monkton was appointed " to cause provide badges with the inscription of Muncktoune on the one side and Prestwick on the other, and that conform to the list given them or to be given them by the minister." The independent paupers of Monkton Parish, however, refused at that time, although they consented afterwards, " to take or wear badges." Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 57 however, that at the present day we are subjected to without remeid, which the impecunious long ago were not free to inflict at their own sweet will on the generous public. We are accus- tomed, for instance, to be dunned for subscriptions to all kinds of charities — from the purchase of footballs for children to the erection of churches and organs — and nobody thinks of asking either ecclesiastical or civil authority to go round the parish with a subscription paper. But in olden times it was different. In 1776 one of the village carters of Mauchline had the mis- fortune to lose a horse, and, as generally happens in such cir- cumstances, he had not the wherewithal to buy another. He was forced, therefore, either to crave the assistance of his neighbours in the purchase of a new horse or to do without a horse. But he dared not crave that assistance without Sessional permission. He accordingly went to the Kirk-Session with a petition " for their authority to go through the parish for a col- elction in order to enable him to purchase another horse." The carter, who was both poor and lame, got, of course, what he wished (for Kirk-Sessions, although they stood on their dignity and rights, were usually kind-hearted) ; but the point to be noticed is, that without the Session's warrant he thought it would either be unsafe for him to solicit subscriptions, or very unlikely he would get many. In comparatively recent times there used to be enormous gatherings of beggars at funerals, although the Act of Parlia- ment passed in 1672 specially ordained that the poor were not to go begging to " kirks, mercats, or any other places where there are meetings at marriages, baptisms, or burials." And while it was customary for beggars to congregate wherever there was any thing special going on, or any unusual demonstra- tion was being made, it seems to have been their common practice to ply their vocation about church-doors. In 1586 the 58 Old ChiircJi Life in Scotland. Kirk-Scssion of Perth instructed the bellman " to tak tent that no person who receives weekly alms beg at the kirk-door," under pain of losing his pension ; and in 1587 there was an order issued in Aberdeen that "puir folk sittand at the kirk- door bcggand almous, pluckand and pulland honest men's gowns . . . must sit without the stile." There is no trace in our records of habitual beggary at the door of Mauchline church, but there is one entry of 3s. given on a Sabbath-day in 1699 "to some objects of charity at the door." In the Galston records for 1644 and 1645 mention is made more than once of charities to the poor, and to cripples and blind, at the kirk- door ; but it was usually, if not always, at the preachings in connection with the communion that these alms were bestowed.* We have seen what amount of pension was given at differ- ent periods to regular paupers individually, and what casual donations were given to strangers and vagrants. It may be asked now, how much money over and above what was evoked or extorted by begging, did the poor annually cost the country a hundred years ago and two hundred years ago. I am not in possession of facts to answer that question even approximately.! * I have noL given in the text a full and formal account of the distribution of the communion collections in olden times. I may state here that these collections were not in very old times given wholly to the poor. At Galston, in 1641, there was collected on the several days of the preaching in connection with the communion, £26 IIS. Out of this there was paid i8s. 4d. for setting up tables, I2s. to the beadle for his attendance, 7s. 6d. to the smith for nails and tickets, and 33s. 4d. to the reader, etc., leaving for division among the poor ^22 13s. Of this ;f^22 13s., only £iq 143. was actually distributed among the poor, and it was distributed as follows among eighteen persons : — 2 merks, or 26s. Sd., to each of eight, 20s. to each of six, and 12s. to each of four. At Kilmarnock, in 1704, the communion collections amounted to ^190, but all that was allowed to the poor out of that sum wi.s £'jg 17s. 4d. The surplus often went to stock for the poor. + In 1839 a report by the General Assembly was laid before Parliament anent " the maintenance of the poor of Scotland for the years 1S35, 1S36, and 1837." From that report it appears that while during the years 1S07-1S16 the average annual proceeds of the poor's funds for Scotland amounted to ;ifii4, 194, the aver- Provision for the Poor in Oldeii Times. 59 I will show, however, what the poor cost the Parish of Mauch- line at different dates, and it may be presumed that the pro- gressive cost of the poor in this parish would be similar to the progressive cost in other parishes of correspondingly progressive populations. In the year 1706 there was an abstract of the kirk treasurer's accounts entered in the Session book, and it is the earliest abstract of the kind I have observed in our records It is a very meagre abstract, but it shews that, from the 12th June, 1704, to the 13th May, 1706, which was nearly two years there was raised for the poor by collections and fines, etc., the sum of ;^I93 los. 2d. Scots, and that during the same period there was expended on the poor £206 14s. 8d., leaving the Kirk-Session in debt to their treasurer for £i'i) 4s. 6d. Scots. It may be said, therefore, that about 1706 the poor cost the parish yearly £102, 7s. 2d. Scots, or £2, 12s. 5d. sterling. In 1 77 1 the amount raised for the poor was ;^37, but it came short of the poor's requirements by £\g los. 2d. In 1773 the actual disbursements for the poor amounted to £62 los. id., and in 1883 they amounted to ;^394 is. id.* Every one knows on whom the burden of supporting the poor falls at the present day. In most parishes it falls equally age in the years 1835-1837 was ;^I55,II9. These two sums were made up as follows : — Church Collections, 1S07-16, - ^34,069 1835-7,^38,300 Voluntary Contributions, ,, - 10,702 18,976 Sessional Funds, ,, - 19,705 20,604 Assessments, . ,, - 49,718 77,236 In the years 1835-37 the average annual expense of administration was ^7088, of which ;i^4i20 was incurred in lifting assessments, and ;i^2968 in management of the poor. The average number of paupers on the permanent roll was 57,969, who cost each £1 i8s. 6%A. per annum. The average number of casual poor was 20,348, who cost each 14s. 8d. a year ; and the average number of lunatic poor was 11 12, on each of whom was annually expended ;i{^io 12s. 4d. * In Alton's survey, the total cost of the poor of Mauchline in 181 1 is said to have been ;^ 1 05. 6o Old Church Life in Scot/and. on the owners and occupiers of all lands and houses and heri- tages within the parish. In Mauchline it is all, except about a sixteenth part, borne by the heritors exclusively. But in old times it was matter of complaint that the land owners did not contribute their proper proportion for the support of the poor. Mr. Auld, in his account of the parish published in Sir John Sinclair's statistical work, says that the burden of main- taining the poor in Mauchline " falls almost entirely on tenants, tradesmen, servants, and charitable persons attending church, while other people, however rich, particularly non-residing heritors, whatever their income may be, contribute little or nothing to the charitable funds of the parish. Hence there is, in general, ample ground for the common observation, that it is the poor in Scotland who maintain the poor." There is no ground now for such irritating remarks. On the contrary, the heritors have themselves to this day borne a burden that they might have thrown on the general community forty years ago. As an illustration, however, of the justice of Mr, Auld's state- ments at the time they were written, I may here refer to what happened in 1783. The winter of 1782-83 was a time of great scarcity and hardship.* The fiars' prices don't indicate that there had been such an extraordinary dearth of meal as was witnessed in 1799 and 1800 ; but the state of matters was such that in Mauchline a special meeting of "heritors and heads of families " was called from the pulpit, to take into consideration the condition of the poor, and the question of " preserving a * The following sentence occurs in Lord MoncrieflPs address to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, on the 4th February, 1S84, as reported in the Scotsman: — "Things must have been somewhat discouraging for the farmers in 17S2, for a paper is noticed in the second volume of the Transactions, by Dr. Roebuck of Sheffield, who was the manager of the Carron Iron Works, recommending farmers not to cut their corn green in October, although there was ice three quarters of an inch thick at Borrowstonness, because corn would fill at a temperature of 43 degrees. " Provision for the Poor in Olden Times. 6i supply of meal within the parish." Lord Loudoun was repre- sented at the meeting by his factor, but very few of the other heritors were present either personally or by proxy. Owing to the absence of heritors, no engagement could be entered into in their name, and there is nothing to show what they did at an adjourned meeting which was appointed to be held at a subsequent date. But the plebeian heads of families did some- thing at the meeting. " Several farmers present offered to present and supply the parish with such meal as they could spare," and all honour to their memory for that timeous act of liberality. And to give "charitable people attending the church " an opportunity of shewing their consideration for the poor, it was agreed that a voluntary contribution should be made the Sabbath week thereafter in aid of destitute families. It may be asked. Were the poor content with the treatment they received long ago ? Absolutely content we could scarcely expect them to be. Poverty is a hard lot, and few people can bear the strain of poverty for many years without murmuring. But the poor long ago were neither more clamorous nor more dejected than they are now. A hundred years ago, and two hundred years ago, their weekly pension was smaller than it is at the present day. But their habits were simpler and their wants were fewer ; and what is more to the point, money went a great deal farther. They saw, moreover, that although it was little that the Session gave, it was all that the Session had to give. The funds at the Session's command did not admit of greater liberality to the poor, and Sessions were unremitting in their exertions to increase their means of supply. Congrega- tions were urged to extend their charities, fines for iniquity were exacted to the uttermost farthing for the purpose of benefiting the poor, and heritors were importuned by Synods and Presbyteries to impose assessments that the work of charity 62 Old CJiurcJi Life in Scotland. might be made perfect. And what Kirk-Sessions did was done lovingly, which enhanced the value of their little gifts. Al- though a passing sneer or snarl may sometimes be provoked therefore, when acts of seeming stinginess on the part of old Kirk-Sessions are related — acts that perhaps appear stingy merely because the record of them is ill worded, or the purport of them ill put — we must still honour the Kirk-Sessions for the care they took of the poor and the lovingness with which they ministered their bounties. Not harsh and hard-hearted men were these old ministers and elders whose doings we have been criticising, but men of as true kindliness, as burning a zeal for God, and as ripe Christian understanding as the best among ourselves. All honour to their names, and may their works follow them ! Provision Jor Education in Olden Times. 63 LECTURE II. PROVISION FOR EDUCATION IN OLDEN TIMES. Three educational periods — First period from 1560 to 1633— Reformers' views of Schools — What done in parishes by individual ministers— Ecclesiastical Visitations, 1613 — Report on Education, 1627 — Church Courts had entire management of Schools — Second period from 1633 to 1872 — Educational Acts — State of Education from 1633 to 1646 — from 1646 to 1750 — Mauchline School in old times — Schoolhouses — how provided— School at the Kirk — Primitive character of schoolhouses — Schoolmasters — their appointment — examination by Presbytery — tenure of Office— license to teach — Sources of maintenance — salary — dwelling house — school Fees — other dues — Education of Poor Children — Bursars — Examination of Schools — Comparative state of Education now and formerly — In regard to school attendance — subjects taught in Schools — advanced instruction — religious education — Sunday Schools — Respect in which learning was held. The history of primary or common education in Scotland from the Reformation downwards embraces three periods. The first of these periods extended from 1560 to 1633; some might say to 161 7, but no great mistake will be made by our saying, to 1633. During that first period the State, or at least the State speaking by the mouth of Parliament, made no provision for the establishment and maintenance of schools, and all that was done for schools was done by the Church through her Synods, Presbyteries and Kirk-Sessions, or the private beneficence of some of her ministers or members. The second period in the history of education in Scotland stretched from 1633 to 1872. During that second period the State came to the help of the Church ; Parliament made provision for the ^4 Old Clnirdi Life in Scotland. establishment of schools and the support of schoolmasters, and associated the Church in more ways than one with the heritors of parishes in the management of schools. The third educational period commenced in 1873, when the education act of the preceding year came into operation. The State then assumed the direct and entire responsibility of providing primary education for the people ; and, without giving any thanks to the Church of Scotland for her past services, intimated that her assistance in the management and super- vision of schools was no longer wanted. I have not much to say in this lecture about Scottish education during the first of the three above defined periods. Our own Session records do not go so far back as that period, neither do any of the unpublished local records that I have examined, except one volume and a few sheets of the minutes of Galston Session. It is necessary, however, that I should indicate what schooling there was in Scotland from the earliest times subsequent to the Reformation ; and how that schooling was provided. In his life of Andrew Melville, Dr. M'Crie states that prior to the Reformation all the principal towns in Scotland had grammar schools in which Latin was taught, and they had also " lecture schools " or reading schools in which children were instructed in the vernacular language. After the Reformation was established the means of education were still further extended. The Reformers were all ardent educationists. They asserted that Popery owed its existence and continuance to ignorance, and that for the advancement of the reformed doctrine nothing was so helpful as general education and popular enlightenment. In the first book of discipline, 1560, Knox and his colleagues declared that in every considerable parish there should be a school, with a schoolmaster fit to teach Provision for Education in Olden Times. 65 the grammar and the Latin tongue, and that in small parishes the reader or minister should take care that the youth* be instructed "in the first rudiments, especially in the Catechisme, as we have it now translated in the Booke of the Common Order." In the Second Book of Discipline, agreed on by the General Assembly in 1578, it is said that under the denomi- nation of " clergy" there are included clerks of assemblies, and " schuile-maisters also, quhilk aucht and may be weill sustenit of the same gudes,"t that is of the teinds, if these " gudes " could only be secured for their proper destination. And not only did the Reformers draw up educational schemes, but they set themselves to promote educational work. In 1565 they petitioned the Queen to allow the Church to have the superintendence of schools, so that none might be permitted to instruct the young except such as were found by the superintendents or visitors of the Kirk to be sound and able in doctrine.^ And in 1567, by the first Parliament held after * A courteous reviewer of Old Church Life (Vol. I.) objects (in the SatitrJay Review) to my using the word youth-head. It is not English he says. It is a respectable old word, nevertheless, quite suitable to be used in a semi-antiquarian book. It occurs oftener than once in the First Book of Discipline. " The youth-head and tender children, says Knox, shall be nourished and brought up in virtue," etc. — Chap. VII. Sec. 3. " Youthheid " in a slightly different sense of the term, is also one of the characters in Gavin Douglas' Allegory of King Hart — " Fresche Delyte come rynnand wonder fast And with ane pull gat Youthheid be the slief." t The word clergy is used here in a very peculiar sense. It does not mean pastors or ministers, for the pastor is mentioned in one category, and " elders and deacons and all the clergy''' in a different. See Second Book of Discipline, Chap. IX., Sec. 4, and Chap. XII., Sec. 12. The term clerici was applied in ancient times to the lectores, psalmista:, osiiarii, etc., as well as to the "three proper orders" of clergy. (Smith's Diet, of Christian Antiquities, p. 396-397). + Sixty years later (1616) when the Church was under Episcopal government, the General Assembly being informed that " certaine women taks upon them to bring up the youth in reading, sewing, and uthers exercises in schools, under pretext and colour quhereof traffiquing Papists, Jesuiles, and Seminarie Priests has their appoyntit time of meeting, at the quhilk time they catechise and pervert the youth in their growing and tender age " — statute and ordainit that it shall not be leisume £ 66 Old C It link Lijc hi Scotland. the Queen's alxlicalion, this important crave by the Church was granted. Indeed, before this Parh'amcntary sanction was obtained, the Ciiurch, in her zeal f(jr education, had begun to exercise the power for which she petitioned. The Queen had intimated that she would concur in ^vhalever Parhament should say about the supervision of schools, and the Church seems to have assumed that that was virtually a concession of the privilege solicited. The Assembly, therefore, in 1565 gave commission to Mr. John Row to visit the kirks and schools in Kyle, Carrick, and Cunningham, and to remove or suspend ministers and readers in those parts as he found them offensive or incapable. This commission shows that in 1565 there had been schools as well as kirks in Ayrshire, and it is possible that Mauchline, which w^as a place of ecclesiastical importance long before the Reformation, may have been one of those favoured parishes that were then blest with a school. For the first forty years after the Reformation, (1560-1600), people in country parishes were a good deal indebted for what education they had, to their own ministers. In some parishes where there was a school, the minister was both minister and schoolmaster, and this union of offices in those impecunious times was doubtless to many poor pastors a most welcome source of much needed help. It w^as not always a popular arrangement, however. In the eyes of some it rather dero- gated from the dignity and sanctity of ministerial functions. Others thought it deprived the people of part of their rights and dues in the way of pastoral attention. In 1572, the minis- ter of Haddington was appointed schoolmaster also of the parish at a salary of ;^40 a year, but in 1574 the scholastic to quhatsoever persone or persones to hold any schools for teaching of the youth, except, first they have the approbation of the Bischop of the diocie, and be trj-it be the ministers of the Presbytery quhere they dwell, and have their approbation to the effect forsaid." Provision for Education in Olden Times. 67 appointment was cancelled, and the Town Council passed a resolution that "in no time coming should the minister of the Kirk be admitted schoolmaster of the Burgh."* There was a converse arrangement, however, which these Town Councillors seem not to have considered. While the minister was debarred from appointment to the office of schoolmaster, there was no prohibition of the schoolmaster's appointment to the office of minister. And, strange to say, the minister who, in 1574, was removed from the office of schoolmaster, was, in 1585, succeeded in the ministry by the schoolmaster of the Burgh, who continued to hold both offices till his translation in 1587. But the experience of that ministerial schoolmaster did not form an encouraging precedent. At a presbyterial visitation of the parish it was found that there were only thirty persons present, and it was reported to the Presbytery that the " principal part of the towne come not to the Kirk, and the gentlemen in landwart cam never but to baptism and marriage." In other parishes, where apparently there was no school, the minister sometimes followed the example of the royal preacher who was wise, and taught the people knowledge. In the Parish of Loudoun, in our own neighbourhood, there was from 1597 to 1637 a minister of exceptional zeal, both in pulpit and pastoral work. He preached, we are told, with such ardour and vehemence that sometimes when he enforced his doctrine by striking one hand on the palm of the other, the blood oozed from the tips of his fingers. But what is more to his credit, it is said that one winter he taught forty persons, each above forty years of age, to read, in order that they might profit by personal perusal of the Scriptures. There were cases also in * In 1579 a complaint at the instance of the schoohnaster was made against the minister of Crail for teaching bairns. The grounds of that complaint are quite intelligible. There was a question of fees to be considered. 68 Old Church Life in Scotland. whicli ministers blessed with more than the common minis- terial share of worldly fortune, built and endowed schools for the benefit of their parishioners. In 1603 the minister of Cam- buslang informed the General Assembly that not only had he " thir divers zcirs bycjane intcrtenit and kc^jit ane skuil at his kirk and intended sa to doe in tyme cumming during his lyf- tyme," but that he had endowed with a hundred merks yearly a school which had been erected in the parish by royal authority.* While in many parishes a great deal was thus done by indi- vidual ministers, both in the way of teaching and in the way of providing schools for their parishioners, the Church by her courts was no less laborious in the promotion of education over the country generally. Visitations of parishes were from time t ) time made by ecclesiastical appointment, and schools were rjcommended or ordered to be erected as the visitors thought desirable or necessary. In the years 161 1 and 1613 a visitation was made of the northern part of the diocese of St. Andrews, and the record of that visitation, which has fortunately been preserved, is often referred to for illustration of the Church's zeal in the cause of education at that date.f In the course of this visitation it was * Long after 1603 ministers continued to endow schools. "Some of the leaders of the Covenanters," says Principal Lee, "distinguished themselves by their zeal and activity in providing the means of instruction. Mr. Alexander Henderson, about the year 1630, endowed a school in the Parish of Leuchars, where he was then minister, and another in his native Parish of Creich. Both endowments were liberal, and others were afterwards made by ministers of the National Church on a scale not much smaller. Thus Mr. Gabriel Semple, minister of Kirkpatrick-Dur- ham, mortified 2000 merks for maintenance of a schoolmaster in that parish.' — Lectures, Vol. IL, p. 429. tM'Crie's Melville, IL, p. 502. Dunlop's Parochial Law, 4S7. Records of Synod of Fife. It is shown in Old Church Life in Scotland (Vol. I.) that the hours of worship on Sundays were very early in olden times. School hours were very early also. In 161 5 Provision for Education in Olden Times. 69 found that schools had been planted in two thirds of all the parishes visited, and the report of the visitors shews how these schools were sustained. At Forgan it was " ordained that ilk pleuch in the paroche sail pay to the skolemaster 13s. 4d. (or one merk Scots), and ilk bairn of the paroche sail pay 6s. 8d. in the quarter. Strangers that are of ane uther paroche sail pay 20s. or 30s. as the maister can procure, as it is agreid in uther congregationis." In several parishes the parishioners raised yearly a sum of 50 or 60 merks for salary to the teacher, and to that contribution the minister added 5 or 6 merks more. Although it was not till 1633 that provision was made by Parliament for the establishment of parochial schools in Scot- land, the State was not meanwhile altogether unmindful of education. In 1607 complaint was made that the knowledge of Latin was " greatlie diminischit within this realm to the heav}- prejudice of the common weall of the samyn," and that the special cause of this decline was the want of a uniform method of teaching " all the pairtis of grammar." It was there- fore declared expedient by the King and Estates that instead of " maisters of scholis baith to burgh and land taking upoun them eftir thair fantesie to teache suche grammar as pleisis them — there shall be ane satlit forme of the best and maist the Kirk-Session of Lasswade instructed their clerk " to ring the bell ilk morning at seven hours as near as he can, he his judgment, to advertise the bairnes to come to the school." One of the rules for the schools established at Holyrood house in 1687-1688 was that "all shall be in their respective schools by a quarter before eight in the morning, and shall there stay until ten and an half: again at a quarter before two until half an hour after four." It may be added that meetings of Presbytery were held at very early hours too, although many of the members must have had ten or fifteen miles to travel on foot or on horseback to such meetings. In April, 1688, the Presbytery of Ayr minuted that they had "altered their diet of meeting from nine to ten o'clock in the fore- noon." In 161 1 the Synod of Fife appointed their committees to " meitt at sevine and he full assemblie at ten hours before noon^." 70 Old Church Life in Scotland. common and approvin grammar, and all pairtis thereof coUectit, cstablischit and prcntit to be universallie teacheit." In 1616 a still more important proclamation was issued by the King's council, directing that in every parish, " w/-^;-^ convenient means viay be had for entertaining a school, a school shall be established, and a fit person appointed to teach the same upon the expense of the parochinaris, according to the quality and quantity of the parish." The mode of "entertaining the school," whether by assessment or otherwise, was not specified in this proclamation. Bishops were only instructed " to deal and travell " with parishioners, " to condescend and agree upon some certane solide and sure course hoiv and by what means " a school might be provided and maintained. In 1626 the King was informed that the proclamation 1616 had not been put into execution, and he wrote to the Bishops that this neglect should be repaired without delay. The following year (1627) an order of some kind " seems to have been transmitted to the different Presbyteries calling on the clergy to make a minute and authentic return of the existing parochial establishments within their bounds."* Some of these returns have been pre- served and printed, and they throw light on the educational as well as ecclesiastical state of the country at that time. A very common entry is, " no school in this parish, although there is much need of one." Sometimes special details are added ; such as in the case of Greenock, " for a schoole there is greit necessitie, in respect it is far distant from towns, neir adjacent to the hiclandis and great popilnes of people;" and in the case of Shapinshay, " na schoole in the paroche nor never was, becaus the people are puir laboureris of the ground, and * All the quotations in this paragraph are from ditterent volumes published by the Maitland Club. Prevision for Education in Olden Times. 71 thairfoir are content that thair bairns be brought up to labour with thame." In a mingled strain of pathos and humour it was said that at Mordington there is " greit necessitie of ane skule, for not ane of the paroche can reid nor wryt except the minister." In some parishes again where schools had been established they were in such a languishing condition as to be little more than schools in name. In Ednam there was a school, but it was very poorly provided, and " maist pairt of the parentis is not able to pay thair school waidges." There were other parishes however, even small ones, where a more credit- able state of things existed. At Ormiston, for example, where there were only 280 communicants, there was a school " sustained by the good will of the tenants." During the days of what I have called the first period in the history of education in Scotland since the Reformation, the Church courts undertook the entire management of the parochial schools. Kirk-Sessions as a rule appointed the teachers, compelled such people as could afford to pay for education to send their children to school under pain of censure, and provided education gratis for the poor. Presby- teries and Synods made trial of the qualifications of school- masters for their appointments, and sometimes ordered " the haill schoolmasters within their bounds to kcip the exercise (that is the weekly meeting of the clergy for conference on the Scriptures) that yai m}'t be the better frequented with the heids of religion." As an illustration of the way in which schoolmasters were elected to their office, the following extract from the records of the Parish of Newbattle published in the Appendix to Principal Lee's lectures may be quoted. On the 15th Oct., 1626, it was minuted that "the Session with ane consent has set thair harts on Mr. WiUiam Trent, sone to James Trent in Newbattle, to be yair scholemaster, and yrfore 72 Old CJnircJi Life in Scotland. wills the minister to intimate to this parrjchinc the next Saboth clay of yair foresaid conclusion and of him on whom they have casten thair eyis to be yair scholemaster, and to desyre Mr. William to be i)rcsent in the Session the r.cxt day to rcssave his calling." For the sustentation, too, of this schoolmaster, the Session minuted their "consent that there suld be ane set rent pro- vidit ... by and attowre his quarter's payment." The amount of stent to be imposed on each district of the parish was then specified, and six months later a committee was appointed to go through some of these districts and "poynd yaim wha hes not payit their stent." I pass on now to speak of the provision for education in Scotland during the second of the three periods that have been defined. This period extends from 1633 to 1872, and may be described as the period during which the State came to the help of the Church, and the Church and State were associated in educational work. It is this period that I have mainly to treat of in the present lecture : and a very interesting period it is, not because the history of it reveals unexpected facts of grand school buildings, with high-salarie i teachers, existing in Scotland two hundred years ago, but rather because it shows that educational work in Scotland was at first of a ver}- humble character, and was prosecuted by ministers, Kirk-Sessions, and Presbyteries under much discouragement and with much quiet persistency. One prominent feature of this period was the number of educational enactments. During the times of Episcopacy there were two Education Acts passed. One of these was in 1633 and the other in 1662. During the Presbyterian times no fewer than six Education Acts were passed by Parliament. These were of dates 1646, 1693, 1696, 1803, 1845, and 1S61. The Provision for Edjicatioii in Olderi Times. 73 two acts passed in Episcopalian times were much alike in their provisions, and they differed widely and essentially, as will be seen, from those that were passed under the reign of Presbytery in Scotland. The Act 1633 ratified the Act of Council, 1616, in regard to the establishment and maintenance of schools where convenient means for that end could be had. But it contained this addi- tional clause, that " the Bishops in their several visitations should have power, zvith consent of tJie heritors, and most part of the parishioners, ... to set down and stent upon every plough land or husband land, according to the worth, for main- tenance of the saidis schools," with reservation to aggrieved parties of the right of appeal to the Lords of Council. The Act 1646 was more stringent in its provisions. It statiited Q.r\d ordained "that there be a school founded and a schoolmaster appointed in every Parish (not already provided) by advice of the Presbyteries, and to this purpose that the heritors in every congregation meet among themselves, and provide a commodious house for a schoole, and modify a stipend to the school master, which shall not be under ane hundred merks nor above twa hundred merks, to be paid yearly at two terms." This Act 1646 was, of course, repealed by the Act Rescissory of 1 66 1, which undid all the legislative work in Scotland sub- sequentto 1633. The Education Act of 1633 accordingly was then revived, and, with some slight modifications in 1662, it continued in force till after the revolution. The records of the Presbytery of Ayr give us some informa- tion about the state of education over the southern division of the county between 1633 and 1646. In 1642 there were paroch- ial schools in Mauchline, Ochiltree, St. Ouivox, Dalrymple, and Cumnock, and in 1644 there was a stipend settled for the 74 Old Church Life in Scot hind. school at Maybolc. On the other hand there was no school at Muirkirk, nor any at Dundonald, Tarbolton, Barnwcill, Craigie, nor Riccarton. In Auchinleck there was "no con- venient place for a school in respect of the great distance of the parochinars from the kirk, but honest men kciped thair bairnes at schoole at some (place) besyde themselves." It might be supposed that after the Act 1646 was passed there would be a school in every parish. And that is what one Church historian has said there was. " At the King's return (in 1650) every Paroche, says this historian, had a minister, every village had a school, every family almost had a Bible, yea in most of the country all the children of age could read the Scriptures, and were provided of Bibles either by their parents or their ministers." This statement is much too strongly worded. There was undoubtedly an educational movement in 1646, but it had not in 1650 achieved the results Mr. Kirkton describes. In 1647 the Synod of Fife had under discussion "overtures for promoveing of scooles," and in 1649 there was laid before the Synod a report anent the provision of schools within the bounds. In this report it was stated that the Pres- bytery of Dunfermline had already planted their schools, with one or two exceptions, and that the Presbyteries of St. Andrews and Kirkcaldy had " done their diligence." The Presbytery of Cupar, however, had been dilatory and required to be stirred up by exhortation. If such was the state of matters in the forward S\'nod of Fife in 1649, we may be certain that in 1650 there was nothing like a school for every parish in Scotland, nor was there for a long while after 1696, when a new Act was passed making the establishment of a school in every parish imperative on the heritors. In 1706 there was no school at Girvan. In 171 1 there was neither school nor school- master in Dailly, and the heritors assigned as a reason " that Provision for Education in Olden Times. 75 there was no need of a school in the parish, from the circum- stances of it, the houses being far scattered, and there is no accommodation about the church for the conveniency of the children who are to be taught." It is minuted in the records of the Presbytery of Ayr, that in 1735 " these who have no school provyded nor a sallary to a schoolmaster according to law, and have taken instruments against their heritors for not doing it are the Paroches of Dalgain, Riccarton, Kirkoswald, Craigie, New Cumnock, Dailly, Bar, Moorkirk, Auchinleck, Symington, Stair, and Monkton." As recently as 1752 it was reported to the Presbytery that there was no school nor salary for schoolmaster in Auchinleck, and in 1758 New Cumnock was in the same unblessed condition.* It may be presumed that ever since 1642, and possibly ever since the Reformation or even from an earlier date, Mauchline has at no time been without a school and a schoolmaster. In Chambers' Lives of Eminent Scotsmen it is said that the famous statesman and jurist, the first Lord Stair, who was born in 16 1 9, received his education "at the Parish School of Mauchline and the University of Glasgow." Our parish records begin in December 1669, and they make reference to the school as far back as 167 1. And after that date there are * The unblessed condition of New Cumnock in 1758 was nothing remarkable. The General Assembly that year thought it necessary to give orders that " Presby- teries enquire whether or not a parochial school be established in every parish in their bounds, and, lohere such schools are wanting X^sx'iX they make application to the Commissioners of Supply for having parochial schools with legal salaries, erected in every parish, as law directs." It may seem strange that heritors were so reluctant to implement the instructions of Acts of Parliament anent schools. As a class heritors were very poor in those days. Fletcher of Saltoun says (169S) " the condition of the lesser freeholders, or heritors as we call them, is not much better than that of our tenants, for they have no stocks to improve their lands, and living not as husbandmen — but as gentlemen they are never able to attain any." Sometimes when there was no parochial school, there were private schools or itinerant tutors ill a parish. 76 Old Church Life in Scotland. both in the parish records and in the Presbytery records frequent references to the school at Mauchhne. Not a few of the schoolmasters in Mauchline too seem to have been men of more than averai^e standing in their profession. One, appointed in 1699, had testimonials of his "capacity to teach a grammar school." He was succeeded two years later by one of whom it is said in the Presbytery records that he " had the Latin tongue and might be useful to teach a school if he ivere diligenty Another appointed in 17 19 was declared by the same reverend court " very well qualified " to teach not only the grammar but authors, in other words to carry on his pupils till they could read and appreciate the classic works of literature. In fact, schoolmasters long ago were usually or frequently students of divinity, who afterwards became ministers. They were thus University men and excellent scholars. The schoolmaster in Mauchline from 1637 to 1642 was John Gemill, subsequently minister at Symington (Ayr- shire), who lived a faithful Presbyterian through all the time of the sufferings and died Father of the Church in 1705. And the Church was anxious to have learned men for schoolmasters* In 1706 the General Assembly recommended those who had the power of settling schoolmasters in parishes, to prefer thereto men that have passed their course at Colleges and Universities, and taken their degrees, before others that have not, ceteris paribus. Speaking of schools' being founded or established naturally suggests the question how were school-houses or school-rooms provided in parishes during the period under consideration. At the present day school boards have the privilege of ordering school-houses to be built wherever they are thought needful. And the houses now erected for the in- struction of youth are grand palatial buildings that at one Provision for Education in Olden Times. yy time would have been reckoned good enough for colleges. These school-houses too are built from rates imposed on all proprietors and occupiers of heritages, except such occu- piers as pay a rent of less than £4. a year. Previous to the passing of the Education Act, 1872. heritors were bound to provide a school-house, and as a rule they did so in a modest way, which was deemed sufficient for teaching purposes. This obligation had rested on heritors ever since 1696, for in the Act of that year it was expressly statuted that the heritors in every parish shall " meet and provide a commodious house for a school." The Act 1646 contained the same provision ; but in many places that Act was never put in execution ; and long after 1646, we find Kirk-Sessions, both at Mauchline and elsewhere, paying rent for school-rooms. In 1677 the Kirk- Session of Mauchline paid " for Matthew Hunter's chamber, which was the schole," a rent of £4, and in 1689 there was "given for school house" by the Session, £6 13s. 4d., which looks an odd figure when so written, but assumes a rounded appearance when put in the equivalent form of ten merks.* A humbler style of apartment seems in 1647 to have sufficed for the school at Galston, for in that year there was paid by the Session out of the penalties only 40s. Scots (3s. 4d. Sterling) to "John Adam for his house to the school." And the Galston schoolmaster had sometimes to be doing with a less comfort- able shieling for his school than we may suppose John Adam's "house" to have been, for in 1671 there was paid "to Margrat Lambie for maill of her barn, the tym of winter, to keep the school in, ^i 13s. 4d." Even in such important towns as Ayr, teachers had at one period to exercise their craft in hired * Besides renting a class-room the Kirlv-Session of Mauchline had at this date to incur expenses for school furniture. 78 Old Church Life in Scotland. houses. In 1627 there was paid at /\> r t(j the " maistcr of the grammar scule . . for his hous maill, /J'13 6s. 8d. . . . for the sculc-hous mail), i^20 . . . and for the maill of the musik sculc, £?>!' Even after tlieir obh'i^ation to provide school-houses had become clear and unquestionable, heritors were reluctant to build. In 17 1 8 it was reported to the Presbytery of Ayr that at Tarbolton there were a school and a schoolmaster with a salary, but "no school house." As recently as 1747 it was reported to the Presbytery of Irvine that "the school-house at Dunlop continues yet in ruins," and althouijh the Presbytery gave orders that a sufficient school-house be built, nothing was done in the matter for several years afterwards. In 1750 it was again reported to the Presbytery that the school-house in Dunlop had been destroyed ten or twelve years a^o by accidenta.] fire, that the heritors had often met and professed their willing- ness to rebuild the house, but could never come to an agree- ment about the modus operandi. This subterfuge was too much for Presbyterial patience, and the minister was instructed to bring the case at once before the Commissioners of Supply But, indeed, so difficult in some instances was it to get heritors to fulfil their statutory duty of building school-houses, that the unassessed portion of the public had to offer assistance by voluntary contribution. In the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock it was represented in 1704, "that the school house is deca}'ed and weak and ready to fall, and that the heritors and town could not be obliged to repair it without difficulty and expense." The Session there- upon thought it " expedient to apply to the Magistrates to authorise a public voluntar collection, to be gathered from house to house through the town, and also that the heritors should be severally spoken to, to see what each of them would Provision for Education in Olden Times. 79 contribute thereto." The work went on, and the school-house was repaired at a cost of ^173 4s. 8d. The Session "disbursed, as their proportion of expenses," £2\ Scots, but when all that could be got was counted up, there remained a deficit of £'j^ 1 8s. iod.,and the Session minuted that, " having paid their proportion, they could do nothing further, till the heritors had paid their several proportions also." It would appear, how- ever, that the heritors gave little heed to this remonstrance, for in 1 7 10 it was pathetically proposed in the Kirk-Session that "in regard of the difficulty to oblidge the heritors to repair the school-house, the money advanced for that end be payed out of the deficient seat rents when recovered." An expression that one frequently meets with in old Session and Presbytery Records is " school at the kirk." It occurs in connection with proposals or resolutions to erect a school in a parish, and it defines the locality of the proposed school. It means that the school is not to be built in some outlying district of the parish, or in some upstart village making pre- tension to be considered the head centre of the parish, but at the old constitutional place of convention, where on Sundays all the parishioners meet for instruction in doctrine, and on •week days for being heckled on the question book. It was indeed not an unusual arrangement long ago to have the school-room in some superfluous or disused part of the church. For many a day the parish school of Mauchline was held in the east end or chancel of the old church, and the surrounding church-yard was the boys' play-ground. Part of the Church of St. Bride, at Douglas, was also at one time used as the parish school, and in the ancient Abbey of Jedburgh there was an aisle appropriated for a similar purpose, which was therefore called the Latiners' Alley. When the school was not actually within the church, it was generally, during the 17th and first 8o Old CJinrch Life in Scotland. part of the iSth ccntiin-, as near the church as it could be planted. For instance, in 1654 the Kirk-Session of Fen wick "resolved to build the church-yard dyke, and a school-house at the north-west corner of it." There are several entries in the records of the Presbytery of Ayr which shew how very primiti\'e school buildings were, even so recently as the middle of last century. Monkton is an old parish of considerable note, and we should expect that the school accommodation in Monkton Parish would be a not un- fair sample of school accommodation in parishes generally. In 1766, however, the Presbytery of Ayr found that at Monkton "a partition is necessary to separate the school-house from the schoolmaster's house." Dailly is another parish in Ayrshire that for wealth and amenity will compare well with its neighbours. In 1735 it was one of those laggard parishes that were reported to the Presbytery as having no school. But in 1 741 a school-house was ordered to be erected in Dailh' — a school-house which we may be sure was intended to be up to the mark of the times, and here were its dimensions and furnishing : " thirty foot lenth, and fourteen foot wideness within the walls, with side walls six foot high, having four windows of two foot and a half by one foot and a half, of the form of closs sash windows, with a hewnstone door, also two seats of fir dais for the schollars, running along both sides of the house from one gavill to the other, with a dask- also of fir dale before one of the seats, of the same lenth, and a fire vent in each gavill." From the subject of the school-house we shall pass on now to the subject of the schoolmaster, and the first questions we have to ask regarding him, are, what was the mode of his appointment, and what was the tenure of ofifice he held in olden times. Provision for Education in Olden Times. 8 1 At the present day the appointment of schoohnasters in public schools is vested in the Parish School Board. For many years prior to the passing of the present Education Act, the nomination of schoolmasters to parish schools was entrusted to the parish minister and such heritors as pos- sessed, within the parish, lands that had a valued rental of ^loo Scots.* During the first period in the history of edu- cation in Scotland — that is, before 1633 — it was usually, if not invariably, the Kirk-Session that appointed the schoolmaster. But, what may seem more strange, the Kirk-Session had often a voice in the appointment of the schoolmaster during the early part of the second educational period also. It is minuted, for example, in the records of Mauchline, that on the 15th Oct., 167 1, the Kirk-Session "did admit Mr. William Reid, the Clerk of the Session and Schoolmaster in the Parish." In 1673 the minister of Galston was suffering confinement in Edinburgh for infraction of the evil laws of that time, but, during his absence, " the elders, having considered that Mr. James Brown has been schoolmaster, precentor, and clerk to the Session, do continue him in the same station for the ensuing year, and ordain him to have his ordinary salarie and casualties as for- merly." And lest it should be thought that these sessional appointments were only local customs, I shall now add an extract from the records of a parish outside of Ayrshire. In 1 66 1, the Session of Rothesay " did unanimously elect the said Mr. James, and embraced him to be their schoolmaster for a year, his beginning to be at Lammas next, appointing him for * It may be necessary to explain that the " vahied rent " of land is very different from the real rental. The real rental of land is what the land is actually rented at or considered worth to its possessor. The valued rental is the old valuation that was set on the land by Commissioners more than two hundred years ago, and which continues to be the basis on which several Parochial burdens and assessments arc still apportinned. F 82 Old Chunk Life in Scol/aiul. r^cll as was formerly ciijoj'cd by cither .schoolmasters, according to the Act made thcrcancnt, together with the marriage and baptism moneys according to use and wont, and all other casualties belonging to the said school." And it may interest sonic people to hear ihaL the principle of non-intru-^^ion was adopted by the General Assembly of 1638 in respect of school- masters as well as of ministers. It was agreed by that Reform- ing Assembly that "anent the presenting either of pastours or readers and schoolmasters to particular congregations, there be a respect had tcj the congregation, and that no person be intruded in any office of the Kirke contrarc to the will of the congregation to which they are appointed." The Act of Parliament, 1696, ordained that "a schoolmaster be appointed in every Parish not already provided, by advice of the heritors and minister of the Parish." It might have been thought that from that date Kirk-Sessions would have ceased to have any vote or voice in the schoolmaster's appoint- ment. There were many parishes, however, in which the Act was disregarded down to the middle of last century, and con- sequently for that reason, if not for some other also, there were parishes in which Kirk-Sessions still continued to take part in the schoolmaster's election. In 1 721, it was formally reported to the Presbytery at Ayr that the schoolmaster in Mauchline had the salary prescribed by Act of Parliament, but no legal security for it be)-ond use and wont. It was probably for that reason, and because part of the schoolmaster's salary was con- tributed by the Kirk-Session, that when the office of school- master at Mauchline became vacant in 1698 it was filled up by the heritors and Session conjointly. The minute of appoint- ment in the Session Records is as follows : — " Sederunt. ]\Iinis- ters and Elders. The quhilk day, the Ministers and Elders, with consent and special advice of the Heritors, admitted Provision for Education in Olden Times. 83 Mr. Ga\in Houston their Schoolmaster and Session-Clerk,* and ordained him the usual encouragements of ane hundred merks to be payed out of the merk lands in the parish, together with ten pound Scots of the Town's goods, and eight pund Scots from the Session for his chamber, and whatever further encouragement the Session is in capacity to give at the year's end." i\ similar mode of appointment was followed in Galston from 1700 to at least 1718. In 1701 the heritors and Kirk- Session of that parish had a joint meeting, at which the " Heri- tors present and the whole Session did unanimouslie desire the Minister to invite him (the person proposed for schoolmaster) hither, and did promise he should have the ordinary salary settled by law." In 171 8 a minute was entered in the same Records, ending in these words — " till a schoolmaster be orderly chosen by Heritors and Session together." And the expres- sion " orderly chosen " leads me to remark that the school- masters in the good old da}'s of mutual confidence were some- times appointed in a slightl)' inorderly manner. In 1697, the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock minuted "that there is one Mr. Irvine, one of the Doctors of the Grammar School in the Canongate of Edinburgh, fitted and qualified for schoolmaster in this place. Therefore, it is recommended to Rowallan to take information of the man, and in that affair do as he thinks fit." Seventy years later, how^ever, the appointment of school- master was gone about more cautiously at Kilmaruick. The mastership of the Grammar school there became vacant in * Everyone knows that the parish schoohnaster used to be also the Session Clerk, but it is perhaps not generally known that the two offices are referred to as conjoint in an old Act of Parliament. The Education Act of 1646 — at that dale both Church and State were alike zealous for the covenant and alike ecclesiastical in their way of thinking — declares a certain stipend "to be due to the Schoolmaster and Clerk of the Kirk-Session." 84 Old Cluirck Lijc ill Scotland. 1764, and a distinguished scholar was wanted for the post. The heritors had a secret, and probably a very well-founded, misgivinfT about their competency to judge of scholastic attain- ments, and they prudently resolved to act on advice in filling up the vacancy. 'I'hcy accordingly sent in a memorial to the Presbytery of Irvine, stating that they were " willing, upon a comparative trial of the different candidates, to bestow the appointment on the most sufficient," and craving the Presby- tery "to appoint a Committee of their number to be present at a meeting of Heritors, and, in conjunction with such other judges as the Heritors shall have there present, to judge of the literature and qualifications of the candidates." The Presby- tery were doubtless flattered by the high compliment thus paid them, and so, " finding the desire reasonable, they appointed a Committee to meet as craved and impartially prefer the most sufficient of the Candidates." A similar course was followed at Irvine in 1797. It is well known that for many a day schoolmasters in Scot- land had, before entering on a public charge, to pass an examination by the Presb}'tery of the bounds. The Act 1S03 required every schoolmaster, elected under the provisions of that Act, to carry to the Presbytery a certificated copy of the minute of his election, and to be examined by the Presbytery ' in respect of morality and religion, and of such branches of literature as b}' the majority of heritors and m.inister shall be deemed most necessary and most important for the parish." The Presbytery were also required, if satisfied with the attain- ments of the appointee, to grant a certificate that he had been found "duly qualified for discharging the duties of the office to which he had been elected." In olden times, however, Presby- teries exercised a higher function than this. They gave men a general license to teach, and granted extracts of such license. Provision for Education in Olden Times. 85 It may be said, therefore, that at one time all parish school- masters were certificated teachers. In 1697, a man appeared before the Presbytery of Ayr, and " having given proof of his ability to teach, and made profession of his principles to be according to those of this kirk in doctrine and government, and offered to sign the Confession of Faith when required, he is licensed to teach a school at New Cumnock, where he is invited." A more common form of minute was that a man appointed to a school in a particular parish, and found com- petent for the office by the Presbytery, was " licensed to teach in the said Parish, or where he may be employed within the bounds of this Presbytery." And these Presbyterial examina- tions were not shams. Incompetent presentees to schools were mercilessly plucked and sent home to complete their educa- tion.* The appointment of a schoolmaster used, in days we remember, to be ad vitani ant cnlpam. But it was not always so. In olden times teachers were often appointed for a limited period or under special contract, and they were sometimes very unceremoniously dismissed for failure to fulfil their part of the compact. In 1685, the Kirk-Session of Mauchline minuted that " George Moor was allowed to teach the school during pleasure, and to receive the ordinary benefit therefor." A year afterwards, the Session minuted that " the minister had discharged George Moor for misbehaviour, and that there was a vacancy of schoolmaster in the Parish." In 1665, the Kirk- Session of Fenwick minuted that they had appointed A. B. "to be schoolmaster for a year," and for some time thereafter they * About the end of last century this Presbyterial duty was often neglected. In 1796 there were within the bounds of the Presbytery of Irvine, not only private teachers but parish schoolmasters who had never been examined by the Pres- bytery. 86 Old Chill I h Life in Scotland. aiiiuall)' iniiiuLcJ lluit the said A. V>. was " continued school- master." In i^>75, the Session of Galston minuted that they h.id chosen a man to be schoolmaster, clerk, and i)recentor, and that i1k\- had " bari^ained with him till Martinmas next." In the published records of Dumbarton Burgh, the following minute will be found under date, I2th March, 1670: "The Provost, baillies and couuslH having heard and understood sjrfijiently that William Campbell, present schoolmaster of the grammar school and presenter of the church, is unqualified and n )t able to te ich, and that the children have not profited in L-arning under his instruction ; and that he is not qualified nor instructed in the airt of music, to the scandall of the public worship of God, it is therefore ordained that he be warned to remove from the school and prescntcrship, coiifonne to the con- tact qiihilk lie had falsified!' Besides schools with salaried masters there were in Scotland, from a very earl)- period, many private or adventure schools. In 1644 it was reported to the Presb\-tery of Ayr that at Tarbolton there w^as " no schole at ye kirk, for lack of main- tenance, but two private schools abroad in the Parish." The teachers of these schools required, like other schoolmasters, to have ecclesiastical license to teach ; and, whether they held any appointment or not, they were in some waj-s under the control of the Kirk-Scssion. Where there was a public school there was a restriction on private schools. Public schoolmasters did not like to have the bread taken out of their mouths by Hals of the W\'nd, and they complained when a parish was over- s:hoiilcd. In 170 1, the teacher of the English School in Kil- marnock petitioned the Session to take some course " for reguhiting inferior women schools within the town and suburbs. " In 1692, the Kirk-Session of Mauchline passed a resolution which shews that the educational doctrine they held Provision for Education in Olden Times. 87 was not free trade but fair trade in teaching — not scholastic equality but protection and privilege to the established and endowed parochial schoolmaster at the kirk. The terms of this resolution were " that there should be no school within ane mile of Mauchlin, and that all who would keep school within the Parish should come to the minister and be tried of their qualifications and fitness for that office, and crave liberty to teach from the Session." And the Kirk-Session of Mauchline were not peculiar in holding this doctrine of protection with regard to schools. In 1697, the Kirk-Session of Greenock, with consent of heritors, ordained that " no school be kept in the Parish except the publict school, they considering that private schools were pre- judicial to it, providing always the said school be in a com- modious place of the Parish." The following year, the same Kirk-Session allowed a man " in Longvennel to teach a school, with this express provision, he instruct none above the New Testament exclusive, that so the public school may not be prejudged." The next question we have to ask regarding schoolmasters, is, what provision was made in olden times for their main- tenance. The Act 1633 empowered bishops, with consent of heritors and a majority of parishioners, to impose, in all parishes within their jurisdiction, a stent for the maintenance of a school. That power, however, was not taken advantage of to any great extent. But, in 1646 another Act was passed, which ordained that the heritors of every congregation meet among themselves, and both provide a commodious house for a school and modify a stipend to the schoolmaster. This Act was peremptory enough in its provisions, but it was passed in troublous times when it was not easy to get acts rigidly enforced, and it was 88 Old Church Life in Scotland. ncjt rigidly enforced. It was annulled, moreover, by the Act Rccissory, 1661. 'I'hc I'crmissive Act, 1633, came thus to be revived, and with a new clause added in 1662,* continued law till after the Revolution Settlement. Practically, therefore, there was no legal salary secured for schoolmasters till 1696 ; and it falls to mc, consequently, to shew separately how salaries Averc provided for schoolmasters before that date and after that date. Previous to 1696, Kirk-Sessions had generally to provide the s;hoolmaster's salary either in whole or in part. The Session Records of Mauchline are not very explicit in stating what was done for education in this parish before that date. But, laying one statement alongside of another, it is clear that in 1 67 1 the Kirk-Session had, in inconsiderate generosity, guaran- teed the schoolmaster a salary of ^^"90 Scots, or;i^7 los. Sterling a year. This was reckoned a big sum in 1671, and the Session found that it was not easily raised in the parish. When the salary came to be paid at the year's end there was a deficiency of funds, and the following entry was made in the minutes of Session : — " Givin to Mr. William Reid, in part of payment of his stipend from the sixteen of October, 1671, to the sixteen of October, 1672 ; Imprimis of voluntar contributione, £62 4s. od. ; Item, out of the box, £1"/ 9s. od." These two sums amounted to £'/g 13s. od., and that this was all the encouragement the Kirk-Session could give Mr. Reid, is shewn by the pitiful account of parochial poverty which follows : "The quhilk day, charge and discharge being compared according as they stand in the book, nothing remains of money at present in the box." And with no bank at hand, there was no convenient means of borrowing money. The schoolmaster had therefore to practise * This clause was inserted as a rider in an Act "anent ministers and masters in universities." Provision for Education in Olden Times. 89 patience, and content himself with partial payment of his fee, till the Kirk-Session, by some means or other, got a few pounds collected. It is said that deliverance comes to the righteous, and the adage proved true in this instance. In March, 1673, the unexpected happened, and the Kirk-Session had the advantage of a considerable wind- fall. A fickle wooer, after he had been proclaimed with one spinster, changed his mind and married another; and for failing to implement his first marriage contract had forfeited, as will be explained in the lecture on marriages, his consignation money. This amounted to ^10 Scots, and the Session allowed " Mr. William Reid the same, as part of his fie for the former year, beside the three score and nineteen pounds, thirteen shillings, quhilk he got formerly." There was still ^"5, /s. wanting to make up the guaranteed salary, and for this remanent sum the Session had again to go to their box. It was near the end of April before the box could give much help ; but by that date there was such an accumulation of coppers, good and bad, that the Session were able to wipe off all debts of more than half a year's standing. It was then minuted that " the boxmaster is ordained to give Mr. William Reid five pound, seven shillings, quhilk compleits him of 90 lib. Scots." It will thus be seen that in 1672 the Kirk-Session, in the first instance, raised as much as they could for the schoolmaster's salary by voluntary contributions, and then supplied the deficit out of their own funds. A forfeited consignation came in very opportunely to the Kirk-Session in 1673. Two years later, the Kirk-Session had an equally good turn of luck. A special collection had been made in the church for the relief of persons taken captive by the Turks — which, it m.ay be remarked in passing, was a fre- quent object of collection both in ]\Iauchline church and in all 90 Old Lit inch Life ill S col land. churches over the country two hundred years ago — ^and for this benevolent purpose, in i675,sixty pounds Scots were contributed. It was afterwards fcnind that the \Wi)\-\Qy was not needed for the ca[)tivcs, and the Session resolved to utilise it "for relief of the extreme necessity of the poor, and for inaintaininj^f the school." It is not to be supposed, however, that previous to 1696 the salaries of schoolmasters were always made up by voluntary contributions and drafts from the kirk box. Sometimes they were raised, either wholly or in part, b}' a stent on the land, and sometimes by a house tax. From a few detached entries in our parish records, I am constrained to think that from and after 1675 a "proportion" of the schoolmaster's salar)- in Mauchline was contributed by the Kirk-Session, and another part of it was provided by the heritors. But it was not readily and cheerfully that the heritors, in those days, paid their pro- portion. More than once, payment had to be extorted from them by letters of horning, at the instance of the Kirk-Session. In some other parishes, the schoolmaster's salary was paid by stent, either wholly or partly, long before 1675. The school- master of Cumnock complained to the Presbytery of Ayr in 1643 that his stipend was not regularly and punctually paid, and the Presbytery gave orders that letters be raised against the heritors for recovery of all that was due to him. In 1649, the Kirk-Session of Kingarth, in Buteshire, ordained and "applotted" for maintenance to the schoolmaster there, " halfc ane merk upon every merk > eirlie land within the parish, and forty pennies upon every cottar that brooks land,"* with ^20 out of the penalties, and his other casualties at marriages and baptisms. In Banff- shire, at the end of the seventeenth century, the usual salary * Lee's Lectures, Vol. II., p. 437. Provision for Education in Olden Times. 91 for a schoolmaster was " a haddish of victual out of ilk oxgate, or a firlot of meal off each plough in the parish." At Galston, in 1639, there Avas another form of stent levied. A reader was that year appointed in Galston, and, for " his service in the kirk and for the gud attending on ana schoole " he was allowed, inter alia, " three shillings Scots from ilk fire house within the paroch, both cottar and tennant." This obnoxious house tax seems to have been soon after discontinued, and in 1646 and several subsequent years the salary of the schoolmaster was drawn from the annual rent of stock held by the Session, with an eke from the penalty box. Prior to 1677, the heritcjrs became to some extent responsible for the salary, and as at Mauchline they shewed at times a covenanted disinclination to contribute their quota. For " outreacheing the schoolmaster's fie," therefore, the Kirk-Session had that year to send a " decreet east for raising of letters of horning thereupon." As at Mauchline so at Kilmarnock, the schoolmaster's salary was at one time made up jointly by the Kirk-Session, the heritors and the town. In 1697, which it need not be said was after the Act 1696 had been passed but was probably before the Act had been put into execution, the master of the grammar school at Kilmarnock was allowed a salary of 300 merks to be made up as follows: "^^126 13s. 4d. Scots by Session; ^^"53 6s. 8d. Scots by the heritors, and ^^20 Scots out of the common good of the town." And it may be mentioned that besides finding or helping to find a salary for the master of the grammar school, the Kilmarnock Kirk-Session, from a very early period, gave a salary to a second or assistant teacher. In 167 1, they ordained that, in addition to a specified share of certain casualties, the " Doctor is to have .^20 Scots b}' year as the Session's part of a cellarie for him, with twentie merks yeirlie of the Commu.non silver." And, four years later, a 92 Old Chunk Life in Scotlaiut. characteristic resolution was minuted, to the effect that "the Doctor is to have 20 merks yeirlie at the Communion, to be peyed whether there be Communion or not." * Sucli were the varied ways in wliich, previous to 1696, salaries were found for schoolmasters. I have now to show how such salaries were provided, after that date. The Act 1696 appointed "that the heritors in every Parish meet, . . . and settle and modify a salary to a schoolmaster, which shall not be under one hundred merks nor above two hundred." The Act provided also that "the said salary be laid on comformably to every heritor's valued rent within the Parish, allowing each heritor relief from his tenants of the half of his proportion." It declared further that this salary was to be given to the schoolmaster, "by and attour the casualties which formerly belonged to the readers and the clerks of the Kirk-Session." In many Parishes, the heritors for many a day resolutely declined to do what this Act required them. For the first half of the eighteenth century, returns continued to be entered in Presbytery books of parishes that had no legal salary provided for the schoolmaster ; and Presbyterial injunctions were year after year given to the ministers of these parishes to take effec- tive measures for compelling the heritors to provide such salaries. In 1697, all the members of the Presbytery of Ayr " were required (by the Presbytery) to use diligence to gett salaries for schoolmasters settled in their Parodies, conform to a late Act of Parliament, and report" what success or unsuccess they meet with. A few months * To shew clearly who was meant by the term Doctor, the following minute of Kilmarnock Session, 1704, may here be quoted. The Session "voted that the new schoolmaster should have 200 merks of salar)- yearly, and l6s. Scots of quarter wages from each scholar, also that there should be allowed to a Doctor J[^^o of salary, and Sd. of quarter wages fur each scholar." Provision for Education in Olden Times. 93 later, several ministers reported to the Presbytery that they found " inconveniency " in pressing the heritors to provide schoolmasters' salaries, and that " they must labour to bring them up to it by degrees'' And it was by very slow degrees that some heritors were brought up to a sense of their legal duty. Kirk-Sessions were thus burdened still with such pro- portions of schoolmasters' salaries as they had been in the use and wont of paying. As recently as 1730, the Presbytery of Irvine, at a visitation of Kilmarnock parish, had to declare their opinion " that the heritors should free the Session of any part of the schoolmaster's salary from henceforth." In 17 10, the schoolmaster of Dreghorn seemed to have his modest salary of 100 merks sufficiently secured, for the heritors had " obliged themselves by bond," to make payment to him of that sum yearly. Several of these heritors nevertheless refused to imple- ment their bonded engagement, on the ground that the school at the kirk was too distant for the children of their tenants. In 1724, the salary of the schoolmaster at Fenwick was reported to be only six bolls of oatmeal, and the heritors were, in a very Christian spirit, recomuiended by the Presbytery to make it up to the legal minimum. The Presbytery's recommendation however had no effect, and the schoolmaster of Fenwick had for nearly twenty years longer to content himself for salary w ith such a modicum of meal as could furnish his family with a one- pound bowl-full of porridge daily. In 1729, the heritors of Dunlop wrote that though they- could not " refuse the Pres- bytery's diligence to oblige them to make a legal salary to a schoolmaster, when the season would allow them to meet, they thought they gave as much salary as should satisfy for a schoolmaster of such sufficiency as they needed, to teach read- ing and writing English." In 1727, the schoolmaster of Ar- drossan's salary was only £40 Scots, and was not even punc- 94 Old Clntick IaJc in Seal land. tually paid. TIic Prcsbylciy, in their conciliatory way, "re- commended the punctual payment thereof, and that it be made u[) to loomcrks."* To this most reasonable recommendation one noble [)r()prictor replied, that he was "willin;^ that the schoolmaster be payed punctually, but as to the making of that salary legal the heritors would not be liable, because it was agreed to and in use before the Act of Parliament in King William's time." Strange to sa)', it was reported to the Presby- of Irvine in 1767 that the schoolmaster of Bcith was not pro- vided with a legal salary, "although the parish was populous, and the valuation as large as any in the bounds." A Presby- terial recommendation, however, seems to have done some good in this instance, for in 1769 it was announced that the salary of the schoolmaster at Beith had been raised to ^131 Scot.s. But, out of that sum £1 were to be deducted, as payment of ^i a year to each of three teachers of private schools in outlying parts of the parish ; and it may be remarked that stipulations of this kind were not unusual about the middle of last centurx-. In 1769, the schoolmaster of Dunlop was allowed ten merks extra to his salar\', on a condition of very questionable benefit to him, namely, that he should pay it to a teacher who should keep a private school at the upper end of the parish. The schoolmaster at Mauchline was not so unfortunate as some of his Ayrshire brethren. In 1698, he received, as we have seen, 100 mcrks from the mcrk lands, and £\o Scots from the town's good. His salary was subsequently raised to i^ioo Scots, and in 1764 it was augmented to ;^I20 Scots ; but * Witliin tlie bounds of the I'resbylcry of Ayr, as well as of Irvine, some school- masters had very inadequate salaries during the first half of last century. In 1721 the schoolmaster's salary at Straiton was 80 merks, at Dalmellington ^40 Scots, and at St. Evox 8 bolls of victual, derived from a mortification. In 1766 the minister of Monkton reported that in his parish the schoolmaster's salar}' was only 50 merks, "and that he (the minister) could not find a proper man for that sum." Provision for Education in Olden Times. 95 although these successive augmentations look liberal, on the principle of geometrical progression, we must remember that £,120 Scots means only ^10 sterling, and this was all the salary that the schoolmaster of Mauchlinc, so far as I can trace, received till the beginning of the present century. It is stated by Mr. ^Vuld in his statistical account of the parish (1790), that about the time of his settlement in Mauchline there were " only two or three families in the parish who made use of tea daily ;"* but, he adds, " now it is done by at least one half of the parish, and almost the whole of it occasionally. At that period," he also goes on to say, " good twopenny strong ale and home spirits were in vogue, but now even people in the midd- ling and lower stations of life deal much in foreign spirits, rum-punch, and wine. As to dress, about fifty years ago there were few females who wore scarlet or silks. But now, nothing is more common than silk caps and silk cloaks, and women in a middling position are as fine as ladies of quality were formerly." Unless the schoolmaster in the early period of Mr. Auld's min- istry had happened to have something more than his salary of £\\, 6s. 8d., or even £\o sterling a year to come and go upon, he must have been one of those unfortunates referred to as nc\cr having the luxury of tea at their command, and as being content on occasions of high festivity to allay their thirst with hunic brewed ale of the twopenny quotation. When he went '■ In sume farm houses within six miles of Mauchline Church, tea was unknown fifty years ago. The female members of the family were on Sabbath mornings re- galed with a decoction of peppermint or agrimony, but on the other mornings of the week both men and women had to content themselves with porridge and milk, and a course of home bakeil breatl and milk afterwards. The afternoon tea indulgetl in by well-to-do people fifty years ago went, as is well known, by the name of " f mr hours," and this phrase as applied to an afternoon meal or tipjde is of very old standing. In 1589 complaint was made to the Presbytery of Hadding- ton by the parishioners of Aberlady, that their minister went to "thecommown oistlar houses daylie to \{\i Jour Iionres.^' (Fasti). g6 Old Chunk Life in Scot /and. abroad, too, it could scarcely have b^cn in scarlet doublet or silken hose, but in plain hodden gray, the homely produce of parochial flocks. Pitiable, however, as was the school- master's position, not in this parish only but over all the country, in the middle of last century, it seems to have been a great deal worse at the beginning of the present century. Oatmeal was then at a famine price, and while the wages of workmen generally may have risen somewhat with the dearth of provisions, the schoolmaster's salary had bounds appointed to it by an Act of Parliament more than a hundred years old, and these bounds could not be overpassed. The General Assembly therefore, in 1802, emitted a declaration, shewing that while parochial schoolmasters, from the honour- able and useful work they were engaged in, were " well entitled to public encouragement, yet from the decrease in the value of money their emoluments had descended below the gains of a day labourer, that it had consequently been found impossible to procure qualified persons to fill parochial schools, that the whole order was sinking to a state of depression hurtful to their usefulness, and that it was desirable that some means should be devised to hold forth inducements to men of good principles and talents to undertake the office of parochial schoolmasters." * And that the Assembly might not be chargeable with saying much and doing little, the moderator and procurator were instructed to correspond with the officers of state for Scotland on the subject of the declaration, and to co-operate in the most prudent and effectual way to forward * In 1761 a lelter was lead in ihe I'resbylery of Irvine, probably in many other Presbyteries, from the Preses of the Established schoolmasters in Scotland, "craving that the Presbytery may entreat their Commissioners to the General Assembly to assist in obtaining a voluntary collection, to enable them to af/ly to Parliament for an Act whereby their widows may be provided in a yearly annuity, by a fund iiitciulcii for that purpose." Provision for Education in Olden Times. 97 any plan for the relief of parochial schoolmasters, and give it all the weight it could derive from the countenance of the Church. What influence this declaration had on subsequent legislation it might be presumptuous for a minister of the Church of Scotland to say; but it is certain that in 1803 an Act of Parliament was passed, raising the minimum salary of schoolmasters to 300 merks, or three times what it was before, and the maximum salary to 400 merks, or twice its previous amount. The heritors of Mauchline were generous enough to allow at once the maximum salary to their schoolmaster. This was £22 4s. 5^d. The Act 1803 empowered the heritors, in 1829, to commute the 400 merks of salary into the money value of two chalders of oatmeal at the average price of meal for the twenty-five years preceding, and this commutation raised the schoolmaster's salary to ^^"34 4s. 4id. An Act passed in 1861 ordained that, in Parishes where there is only one school, the schoolmaster's salary should not be less than ^35 nor more than £^0, and in Parishes where there are two or more schools, the amount of salaries paid to all the teachers together should not be less than ^^50 nor more than £,^0. After the passing of this Act, the salary of the parish school- master in Mauchline became ^^50, and under the new School Board the salary of the principal teacher in the old public school was continued at that amount. Now that this salary has come to be paid from rates levied on the parishioners generally, according to the value of the heritages owned or occupied by them, the question of reducing or raising salaries has come to be a question of general interest and parish politics. It is a question, however, that ought to be considered by all parishioners in a true and broad, and not in a false and narrow, spirit of economy ; for just in the same way as a farmer finds it profitable to give a good price for a good horse, rather than 98 Old Church Life in Scotland, procure an indifferent cob or a sorry nag at a small figure, so is it better for a parish to have good teaching at the market rate, than indifferent teaching at half the cost. Besides a salary, schoolmasters have generally from a very early period had either a dwelling house or an allowance in money for house rent. Prior to 1803 they were not entitled by law to a dwelling house, and from 1803 to 1861 the whole extent of accommodation they could claim was a room and a kitchen. The Act 1872 does not compel School Boards to provide any dwelling house at all for schoolmasters, and there are consequently some parishes where the schoolmaster has enough ado to find a local habitation. In this parish the schoolmaster never enjoyed the luxury of having a house he could call his own. In 1803 he might have demanded a " but and a ben," but he didn't. He accepted, instead, a small pittance as allowance for house rent. And in so doing he revived an old parochial custom. In the seventeenth century his predecessors had a similar perquisite paid them by the Kirk-Session. Its old designation was chamber mail, sometimes written chamber meall. It is stated in the Session records that in 1675 there was paid " for the schoolmaster's chamber £?> os. od." In 1692 the Session passed, what, on the margin of their minute book, is termed an Act, appointing " ten merks to be given for the schoolmaster's chamber maill from Martinmas 1691 to Martinmas 1692, as also they have appointed his chamber mail to be pa}-ed in all time coming, quhairever it shall be, so long as he is schoolmaster in this place."* In 1696, the Session, for profound and mysterious reasons of their own. * In 1704 the teacher of the Enghsh school in Kihnarnock applied to the Kirk- Session "for help to pay his house rent. The Session, considering it the town's concern to encourage him, as well as the Session's, did unanimouslie allow him £t^ Scots, provided the town would advance as nmch." ProvisioJi for Education in Olden Times. 99 included the old allowance for chamber mail to the schoolmaster in their salary to him as Session-Clerk. They minuted that " considering Mr. Patrick Yorston, schoolmaster here, and offici- ating as Session-Clerk, hath had no particular quota determined as his salary for being Session-Clerk, did determine that during his officiating as Session-Clerk he should have yearly iJ"20 Scots, including that which used to be given to the schoolmaster for chamber meale." Two years later the Session reverted to their old practice, and, in "admitting" Mr. Gavin Houston to be " their schoolmaster and clerk," ordained that among other en- couragements he should have "eight pounds Scots from the Session for his chamber." In 1703, the same allowance is entered in a list of the dues belonging to the schoolmaster, but how long after 1703 the Session continued to pay the chamber mail I am, from the loss of the Kirk-Treasurer's books, unable to discover. The Session probably found when the next vacancy occurred in the school, that the offices of schoolmaster and Session-Clerk, although usually and with much advantage held by the same person, were quite distinct, and that while the Session appointed and paid their own clerk, they had, after the adoption of the Act 1696, nothing whatever to do with the appointment, admission, or payment, of the schoolmaster. Another source of provision for the schoolmaster was school fees. From the earliest period, wages have in Scotland been charged for children attending school. These fees, in the case of public schools under Government inspection, are now fixed by the parish School Board. The Act 1803 appointed that they should be fixed by the minister and qualified heritors. In earlier times the Kirk-Session, or Kirk-Session and heritors, appointed the fees. The Session Records of this parish shew that in 1673 ^^e schoolmaster here was authorised by the Session to charge 20s. Scots for Latin, and 13s. 4d. Scots for lOO Old Church Life in Scotland. English. About a huiulicd }cars later, 1764, when the school- master's salary was raised to iJ^i20 Scots, the fees were also raised by the Session to 30s. Scots (or 2s. 6d. sterling) per quarter for Latin, and to i8s. Scots (or is. 6d. sterling) for English and writing. A third fee was also that year sanctioned, if not for the first time introduced, of 24s. Scots (or 2s. sterling) for arithmetic. In 1803, after the passing of the Education Act of that year, the heritors and minister met and drew up a revised table of fees, which, in terms of the Act, was signed by the preses of the meeting, and hung up in the schoolroom. This table had a scale of four charges : 2s. 6d. for English per quarter ; 3s. for English and writing per quarter ; 3s. 6d. for English, writing, arithmetic, and Latin per quarter ; and 14s. for a course of book-keeping. The high charge for book-keeping shows that in 1803 ^^^'^ branch of educa- tion was a new and special subject of tuition, as arithmetic was in 1764. The charge for English, writing, arithmetic and Latin, all combined, must strike every one as being partic- ularly moderate, and will explain how in olden times the chil- dren of common labourers in Scotland were able to enrich themselves at the parish school with an education that fitted them to enter a University. A notion seems to have gone abroad of late that at one time there were no fees charged for children attending school. There was a system, it is said, of free education. Such, however, is not the case. There may have been some endowed schools here and there where school fees were not charged, and it is just within the illimitable bounds of possibility that there may have been cases where the heritors, or parishioners, stented themselves so liberally as to supersede the necessity of fees. I never happened to hear of any such case. Such a scheme was never cntciUiined by the Scottish Reformers, even when Provision for Education in Olden Times. loi they advocated the application of the kirk's patrimony to the erection and maintenance of schools. It was for the children of the poor only that free education was designed. In the short sum of the Book of Discipline, for the instruction of ministers and readers, it is said "men suld be compellit be the kirk and magistratis to send their bairnes to the schulis, pure men's childrein suld be helpit."* And this is the principle on which the Church has always acted. Whether schoolmasters had salaries or not, salaries large or salaries small, they charged fees for teaching the children of such as could afford to pay. In 1596, the Kirk-Session of Anstruther Wester " thoght meit, for provyding a teicher to ye youth, that everie man within the town that has bairnes suld put his bairnes to the school, and for everie bairne suld give los. in the quarter ; . . . and as for the children of the purer sort, they shall be put to the school, and for their intertinement they that the Lord has granted habilite to shall contribute." We have seen what fees were charged in Fifeshire in 161 3 ; and at Newbattle in 1617, "the doctor to the school " was to have " 4s. of ilk quarter fra everie bairne." It might be supposed that after the passing of the education Act 1646, which provided for the schoolmaster a salary of not less than a hundred merks yearly, school fees would cease to be exacted. The remarks of Mr. Hill Burton on this Act rather countenance such a supposition. "The great service performed by this statute was," he says, "that in each parish the maintenance of the school was made an absolute rent-charge on the land. The schoolmaster's salary was like the minister's stipend, an established pecuniary claim. In money denomination it was small of course, in the pecuniary equivalent of the present day, * Copious and comprehensive summary of the Laws, etc., of the Church of Scot- land from 1560 to 1850. Aberdeen, 1853. P. 122. I02 Old Churcli Life in Scotland. but in its own it was a provision putting its owner not only above want, but if he were thrifty, above sordid anxieties." Notwithstanding what is here said by Mr. Burton about the competency of the schoolmaster's salary under the Act 1646, school fees were either generally or universally demanded and paid during the period in which that Act was in force.* One of the articles agreed on by the Synod of Fife in 1647, for the " promoveing of scooles," was that " parents frequently be ex- horted, in the course of visitation, to send children to schooles, upon their own charges iff thei be able ; and whar thei are not able to intertaine them, that the Session provyde for the best remedie ; and in caise of slackness, that the parents of the one and the other condition be threatened with processes." The Kirk-Session of Fenwick the same year (1647) ordained "school- masters within the parish to give in the names of poor scholars not able to pay their quarters wages, as also the names of such as must be helped to buy books." In 165 1, the Kirk-Session of Monkton resolved to make provi- sion for the appointment of " ane able young man for training of ye children in the knowledge of ye Latin and English tongue ; " and with that view they agreed that an assessment should be levied, at the rate of 35s. " upon ilk hundred merks of rental," one half of which should be paid by the proprietor, and the other half by the tenant. The following year an able young man was found for the school, and was appointed schoolmaster, at a salary of 100 merks, in addition to which he was to receive of "everi ane of his scholars 13s. 4d. quarterli." We have al- ready seen what a liberal salary for the schoolmaster was pro- * In many parishes the comfortable salary provided for the schoolmaster by the Act 1646 was not raised. At Monkton, for instance, a teacher was appointed in 1652 at a salary of lOO merks, according to the Act, but the following year the silary from assessment was reduced \.o £\o Scots. Provision for Education in Olden Times. 103 vided at Kingarth, in 1649, but we find, nevertheless, that shortly after his appointment the schoolmaster went to the Session with a complaint and declaration that he had waited on the school for a fortnight, " that there came none to him but five or six bairnies, and that he would not attend longer unless the Session took some course for causing these that had children to send them to theschole." This remonstrance by the school- master simply meant that over and above his salary he must have fees. In 1654, the Kirk-Session of Dalyell gave to their schoolmaster a salary of ;^44, besides marriage and baptismal casualties, and also allowed him to charge 12s. a quarter for every scholar. Instances of school fees' being charged and paid at later dates, of which we have fuller extant records, could be multiplied indefinitely. It is enough to say that what was minuted by the Kirk-Session of Newbattle in 1626 was the common practice over Scotland when salaries came to be provided for schoolmasters, namely, that " set rent " allowed was " by and attowre " the quarter's payment.* * In 1636, the Kirk-Session of Galston ordained "that the reader sail have in tym coming fra (Martinmas?) nixt the half of all penalties, with four shillings of ilk baptism, and sixteen shillings of ilk proclamation ; and for keiping of ane schoole, and for gud wayting on, in respect of the small number of bairns, he sail have 20s. in ye quarter." The Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock in 1676 appointed "the quarter payments for the schoolmaster to be as they were in Mr. David Airth's tym, which was 23s. 4d. for Latine, and i6s. 8d. for the Scots." In 1704, the same Kirk-Session agreed that the schoolmaster should have l6s. of quarter wages from each scholar, and " the Doctor 8 pence of quarter wages to him for each scholar." In 1689, a woman appenred before the Presbytery of Ayr, alleging a claim of promise of marriage against a man to whom she had borne a child, and consenting to pass from that claim "upon condition that the said John would defray the charges of the education of the said child." In 1772, "the minister and Kirk-Session (of Monkton), by and with advice and consent of the heritors of the parish," appointed the school- master's fees to be, "for teaching to read English is. 6d. per quarter, for wryting 8(1., and for wryting and arithmetic ten pence each per month." And it was further minuted that "the schoolmaster is expressly prohibited and discharged from taking scholars for less time than a quarter or month respectively, or discounting any part of the wages aforesaid tho the scholars should not remain at school for and I04 01 (J Clninh Life in Scotland. Besides fees for teaching, schoolmasters long ago had the privilege of receiving from their pupils sundry gifts and pay- ments on great occasions. In many of the schools in Galloway at the present day it is customary for the pupils to present their teachers with some little token of esteem and respect on Candlemas. These gifts are sometimes rendered in the form of a goose or a turkey, and at other times in the form of books or trinkets. Long ago they were paid down, all the country over, in hard cash. They were known as the Candlemas offering, or in other places as the New Year's Day offering. They varied in magnitude from the smallest to the largest of silver coins from each pupil, and sometimes they were paid in gold. Pupils were cheered according to the amount of their donations. When a half-crown was laid on the table the dominie shouted vivat, when a whole crown was produced he cried fioreat bis, and when gold was tendered, he gave vent to his delighted feelings in a jubilant exclamation of gloriat. High dis- tinctions too were conferred on the chief givers. The boy that made the biggest offering was proclaimed king of the school, and was treated to a semblance of regal state. Similar honours were paid to the girl that topped the list of female contributors.* But something worse remains to be told. during the whole of the said space, with certification to all the inhabitants that, if they shall refuse to pay the full wages when the same shall fall due and be demanded, the heritors and Kirk-Session will order prosecution against all such according to laiu. Wodrow states, as a thing without precedent and a most reprehensible bid for popularity, that in 1687 and 16S8 " Popish schools were very carefully set up (by James II.) at the Abbey of Holy Rood House," . . . "and according to the methods of the Papists, who spare no charges to gain proselytes, all were to be taught ^/-a/zV. " • See Grant's History of the Burgh Schools of Scotland. In Ayrshire this ofl'ering was in my remembrancee made on New-Vears' day. I have no recollection of any viavts ox gloriat s, but there was a proclamation of King and Queen. There was a huge jug of whisky toddy— verj- weak, of course — Provision for Education in Olden Times. 105 Fasten-een by long use and wont was a night devoted to mirth and revelry in Scotland as well as elsewhere. The day of which that boisterous evening was the joyous close was made a holiday at school. It was not to fields and streams, however, that the children in quest of amusement betook themselves that day. There was sport provided for them indoors. The schoolroom was turned into a cock pit, and every boy that owned a game- cock brought his bird to the school, to compete for honours in bloody and deadly combat. The owners of the cocks paid to the schoolmaster a small sum, in name of entry money, and those who did not provide a combatant had to pay an extra sum for admission to the spectacle. It was a gala day in the schoolmaster's calendar, for not only had he the benefit of pocketing the entry and admission money, but he had the privilege of picking up the carcases of the slain and seizing the persons of the fugitives. In some places, not only in the North but in the South of Scotland, this barbarous and brutal practice continued down to the present century. In Mauchline, it was put a stop to by Daddy Auld in 1782.* In olden times the schoolmaster usually held other parochial offices, for which he received some remuneration, and the allow- ance for which was taken into account in estimating the value of his appointment. He used to be reader, and conducted the reader's service in church on Sundays before the minister's ser- vice commenced. He was usually session-clerk and precentor provided by the schoolmaster and every boy as he came up to the table with his offering was treated to a glass of the national beverage, and contrary to some of the old acts of the Kirk was taught to drink healths. * " So late as 1790, the minister of Applecross in Ross-shire, in the account of his parish, states the schoolmaster's income as composed of 200 merks, with is. 6d. and 2s. 6d. per quarter from each scholar, and the cock fight dues, which are equal to one quarter's payment for each scholar." Chambers' Book of Days, Vol, I, p. 238. lo6 Old Chuirh Life in Scotland. likewise, and it was common, before the adoption of the Mduca- ticjn Act of 1696, for Kirk-Sessions to record in one minute the ap[)()intincnt of a man to the three associated offices of school- master, clerk, and precentor. Although associated in the person of one man these offices were nevertheless distinct and separate, and sometimes there was a special salary attached to each. In 1574, the stipend assigned to the reader in Mauchline was the "haill vicarage," and in 1788, it was i8s. sterling. In 1696, the schoolmaster had for his session-clerkship £20 Scots, which was to include the grant formerly made for chamber mail.* At Kilmarnock, in 1647, the doctor of the school acted as precentor, and the Kirk-Session of that town, " considering the services he hes done and for his singing in the kirk, ordained that he sould resave twentie mcrkis money, so long as he sail be employed to sing, and that ycirlie." As a rule, however, readers, session clerks, and precentors, were not paid by salary, but either wholly or in part by fees and dues. In 1639, the Kirk-Session of Galston passed a resolution that the reader in the kirk should have no wages nor fee for his service, "except that quhilk the mariages and baptisme presentlie peyis, to witt, sixteine shillings for the proclamation and mariage, and four shillings for the baptisme." And the dues which in this instance were said to be assigned to the reader were in other cases assigned to the session clerk. At Mauchline, for instance, it was appointed, in 1 671, that for ever}' testimonial granted to any one leaving the parish the clerk should have 3s. 4d. Scots ; and in 1673, that for every pro- * As shewing what a Session-Clerk's work was at one time, and how Session- Clerks were paid, the following minute of the West Kirk Session Edinburgh, 15S9, may be quoted : — " Agreit that a Clark is necessarie to be had in ps kirk, to wryt in ye assemblie, tak up ye psalms, proclaim ye bands of marriage, go in visitation with ye ministeris and elderis, geve tickets at ye communion, wait upon ye e.Kaminations, and do uther thingis in yis kirk yat is to be done be ye dark." For this work he was to have a standing stipend of ;^20 in money, with casualtiej- Sinie's Hist, of Wes' Kiik. Provision for Education in Olden Times. 107 clamation of marriage the clerk should have i6s. Scots, and for every registration of baptism or certificate of baptism he should have 6s. Scots. But, whether appointed to reader or to clerk, these dues either always or almost always came to the man that was schoolmaster. Sometimes a contention arose about some of these fees. It occasionally happened that a schoolmaster was timber-tuned, and had either to fill the office of precentor by proxy or leave it to the occupancy of some other person. In 1681, a man named Cowper was schoolmaster at Mauchline, and another named Grey acted as precentor. For " taking up the Psalm," Grey received an allowance of i^i6 Scots per annum. But as it fell to him to read the proclamations, he concluded that if the proclamation fees exceeded £16 di year he should have the benefit of the surplus. These fees, however, were not a perquisite of the precentor's, but part of the casualties that pertained to the clerk. They were paid, not for reading the proclamations aloud, but for receiving and recording the order for proclamation, and for writing the certificate of proclamation which authorised marriage afterwards. In March 1682, Grey's claim was submitted to the Session, and it was minuted that " count being made with John Grey for the time that he precented since the admission of the present schoolmaster, and he being paid at the Session's hand, the superplus of the pro- clamation money, (whether in his hand or in any other), is concluded to return to the schoolmaster, . . . ar.d he (the schoolmaster) is ordained in time coming to receive it himself from those who are to be proclaimed."* * Questions like this have repeatedly arisen and been submitted to the courts of law. In one instance, that of " .Marquis of Tweddale and the Kirk-Session of Dumfermline," the Lords of Session found that "the fees belonged to the I'recentor." In the report of the case it is slated that " the decision went upon io8 Old Church Life in Scotland. It may be asked now, and a very important question it is, what provision, if any, was made long ago for the education of poor children ? It is clear that although schools had been erected in every parish, and able schoolmasters provided for, the blessings of education might still not have been brought within the reach of all the parishioners. There have always been in every parish some people so poor as to be unable to pay school fees for their children, and it may be asked, were the children of such people in olden times left untaught? It is well known that the Education Act of 1872 makes provision for the educa- tion of the children of poor parents. Parochial Boards are authorised to grant certificates of poverty to people that cannot afford to pay school fees, and these certificates entitle the chil- dren of such people to education at their Parochial Board's expense. The Act 1803, also, provided " that the schoolmaster shall be obliged to teach such poor children of the Parish as shall be recommended by the Heritors and Ministers at any parochial meeting." But long before Acts of Parliament made such provisions, Kirk-Sessions were in the habit of getting education for the poor of their own congregations. As far back as 1595, the Kirk-Session of Anstruther Wester, in their zeal for education, ordered that all the youth in the town should go to the school for instruction. " Sic as are puir shall be furnished upon the common expenses, . . . and the manner of their help sail be — they shall haif thrie hours granted to them everie day throu the toun to seek their meit.'' At a later date, the same Kirk-Session agreed to pay the fees of all the poor children in the parish, according to what they learned at school. The Synod of Fife, in 1641, passed the following specialties, and that the contrary seems to be the general rule." The general rule is very pointedly laid down by Lord Kilkerran in his report of .mother case before the court in 1740. See Dunlop's Parochial Law, Prevision for Education in Olden Times. 109 ordinance regarding school attendance within their province : " If the parents be poor, the Kirk-Session shall tak order for paying the schoolnnaster his due, either out of the poores box or ellis be a quarterlie collection made for that purpose in the Congregation afore divine service ; but if the parents be able, then let them be oblished to send their bairnes when the Session gives order for it, and not to remove them till the Session be acquainted therewith." In 1705, the General Assembly appointed and ordained that " ministers take care to have schools erected in every Parish, . . . for the teaching of youth to read English, that the poor be taught upon charity, and that none be suffered to neglect the teaching of their children to read." It will be seen, therefore, that in old times, Kirk-Sessions and General Assemblies enacted all or nearly all that the boasted legislation of 1872 did, in regard to making education compulsory and making it free to the poor. Of course, Kirk- Sessions had not the machinery, for executing and enforcing the Acts of the Church, that School Boards now have for executing and enforcing the Act of Parliament. There is a stronger executive now than there was formerly. The Church of Scotland, nevertheless, anticipated by two hundred years the legislation of 1872, in the two important points I have just mentioned. In 1677, the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock appointed,* " that the elders in their respective quarters shall * In 1698, the Kirk-Session of Greenock considering "that there were many poor children in the Paroche, either without parents or having parents who were not in case to keep their children at school, ... it was.overtured that these poor children be distributed thorow several quarters and proportions of the Paroche, in order to their being maintained and kept at school." This overture was carried out. In 17 1 1, the same Kirk-Session minuted that they had paid " to Alex. Watson for teaching poor scholars two shilling sterling, which compleats all due preceding Ihed.ilc."' no Old Church Life in Scotland. brin:::;- in a list of the bjycs fit for the school, that their parents ma)' put them to school. Also, the Session appoynts that non be put to inferior schools who are fitt for the publict school." The Synod of Glasgow and Ayr passed an Act in 1700, enjoining " ministers in Kirk-Sessions to take particular notice of schools and the Christian education of youth, and to suffer no parents to neglect keeping their children at school, till they can read the Scriptures distinctly." It was added that the children of the poor were to be taught gratis. In Mauchline parish, during Mr. Auld's ministry at least, if not also during the ministry of his predecessors, great pains were taken by the Kirk-Session to see that poor children were properly educated. In 1764, the heritors in revising and raising the school fees, made the following provisions — "In regard there may be people in the parish in low circumstances, who have children to teach but cannot afford to pay the above rates, appoint the schoolmaster to teach them at the former rates, upon a certificate from the Kirk-Session, who are hereby appointed to be judges of such circumstances. And in regard parents who arc upon the public charit\' or in poor circumstances may also have children to put to school, appoint the schoolmaster to teach them gratis, upon the like certificate." From that date there are frequent instances of poor children's being examined by the minister or Kirk-Session, and thereafter, when the Session thought proper, allowed to attend the school for another quarter. In 1770, it was minuted that it had been "represented to the Session, by the schoolmaster, that the half of a quarter's wages was too small an allowance for teaching the children of the poor," and that the Session agreed " to allow two shillings per quarter for each poor scholar, on condition that the said poor scholar shall be presented to the Session and examined by the minister, both at the beginning and ending of every quarter in Provision for Education in Olden Times. 1 1 1 which they attend the school."* And, following up this resolu- tion in a thoroughly business-like manner, the Kirk-Session, in 1775, intimated that the parents of poor children must apply to the Session, at the commencement of every quarter, for their children's school wages, if they desire or expect any favour of that kind. The number of children so assisted by the Kirk- Session every year was probably not great. On the page opposite that on which the foregoing resolution in 1775 is en- tered, there is a minute stating that the Session allowed the schoolmaster eight shillings and four pence for teaching some poor children. But although this may seem a small sum, we must remember that, in those days, there was a much smaller number of people than there is now soliciting charity. The provision made by the Kirk- Session for the education of poor children was probably as much as was needed or wished. And it was not simply for elementary education to the poor that Kirk-Sessions long ago taxed themselves. They did something also for higher education. In 1645, the General Assembly enacted that every Presbytery consisting of twelve kirks should provide a bursar every year at the college — that the bursar should have at least i^ioo Scots a year — that the provision for the bursar should be " taken forth of the kirk penalties " — and that the sum required for the bursar should be raised by a proportional stent of the several kirks in the Presby- tery, according to the number of their communicants. It cannot * A small amount of education was supposed to equip a poor boy sufficiently for the work of life a century ago. The Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock in 1755 minuted a resolution that education to the poor was "not to exceed five quarters, till they could read the Bible." The Kirk-Session of Cullen found it necessary in 1723, to impose a similar restriction. The time allowed for the education of poor children at Cullen, however, in 1723, was three years, which would indicate either that the Kirk-Session of that parish was richer than the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock, or that the boys of Cullen took longer to learn to read the Bible than the sharp-witted urchins of Ayrshire. 112 Old Church Life in Scotland. but occur lo us that it would liavc been more correct to make the stent for the bursar proportional to the number of sinners, instead of communicants, in each several kirk, for if his provision was to be taken from kirk penalties, there would be nothing whatever for him in such kirks as were without spot or wrinkle. But possibly the law of average was supposed to hold good in the Church, as well as in the realm of nature, and that the pro- portion between church goers and sinners was a fixed quantity. Be that as it may, the stent imposed on the kirk of Mauchline was £^^ Scots per annum, and the payment of that sum to the Presbytery bursar, as he was termed, recurs over and over, between 1670 and 1692, in the notes of the Session's disburs- ments.* . Besides this annual payment to the bursar there were also occasional gifts to poor scholars. In 1672, there was given " to a poore schollar at Uchiltrie school, 20s," and in 1679 "to a poor boy at the College £\ 6s. 8d."t It is much to be wished that a similar zeal for higher education were still to be found. The greatest boon that can be conferred on all classes of people, poor as well as rich, is the opportunity * On the fly leaf of an old volume of the records of Kilmarnock Session, which dates from 1647, there is the following "list of the burse money payable out of the several parishes within the Presbytery of Irwin " : — Irwin, ;^8 os. od. ; Kilmaurs, £"] OS. od. ; Dreghorn, ;^5 os. od. ; Kilmarnock, £\o os. od. ; Stewarton, £•] OS. od. ; Dunlop, £0^ os. od. ; Kilwinning, £Z os. od. ; Finnick, ;^5 os. od. ; Beith, £,■] OS. od. ; Kilburnie, ^^"5 os. od. ; Dairy, £(> os. od. ; Stinstoun, £d, OS. od. ; Ardrossan, ^^5 os. od. ; Kilbryd, £(i os. od. ; Largs, £-1 os. od ; Newmills, £(> os. od. ; Siimma £\QO os. od. + The Session of Galston expressed themselves more guardedly in 1671, by minuting that they gave " to a poor lad who call himself a. poor scollar, Ss." Besides providing for a presbytery bursar, the Presbytery of Irvine, in 1693 and 1694, had collections in all the churches within the bounds, "to maintain some students and scholars who have nothing to maintain themselves with." In the former of these years, the goodly sum of £^66 2s. od. Scots was collected for that purpose, and in the latter year, £2.^,^ 5s. 2d. These sums were divided in grants of graded amount among eight or nine scholars. At Kilmaurs there was in 1710 an endowinent '* for the maiiilcnancc of four poor scholars." Provision for Education in Olden Times. 113 of advancing their children in the world ; and one of the most certain as well as most honourable means of doing so is by superior, or as it is now-a-days called or mis-called, secondary education. It is a matter both of national interest and of national honour that there be high education, as well as popular education, in the country ; and it is greatly to be desired that bursaries be provided for the help and encouragement of students at the University. But, these bursaries should never be given on the score of poverty. The nation will derive no benefit from helping poor people to get a University education, if these poor people have no special gifts for learning ; and bursaries are always marks of degradation when they are bestowed as charities. Bursaries should in every instance be given for scholastic merit alone ; and that should be tested by some form of examination, open alike to rich and poor, for the one purpose of promoting scholarship and encouraging young men of talents (and none others) to prosecute learning. One of the most crying evils in our Scottish Universities, at the present day, is the fact that lads, with a very slender amount of attainments and culture, enter without hindrance the classes at college, in order to get admission into one or other of the learned professions. These youths never become, and they never even try to become, such scholars as their professions should require them to be, and the public accordingly find the ranks of the professions swelled by men of imperfect education. How much the General Assembly in its wisdom guarded against this evilj a hundred and eighty years ago, may be seen from the following sentence in their Act 1705, which has already been referred to: — "In no Parish shall the Minister recommend youth to be taught Latin upon charity in any grammar school, but after examining the said child or children in presence of three or four members of the Session, as to their promptitude 1 14 Old Chunk Life in Scot /and. ami dexterity in rcadinjr and competent skill in writing, as to their virtuous inclinations, and as to the hopcfullness of their proficiency ; and that none be received into grammar schools to be taught Latin upon charity but upon such recommendations : and also, that each Presbytery appoint a Committee of their number yearly, to examine \.\\q. poor scholars in the grammar school, and such within their bounds as go to Colleges with an eye to bursaries, and suffer none to proceed but such as are very forward, and good proficients, and of good behaviour ; and that ministers recommend none to bursaries but such as are so qualified." It is well known that, for many years prior to the passing of the Education Act in 1872, all parochial and most private schools in the country were annually visited and examined by committees of presbytery. As far back as 1595, presbyteries were enjoined by the Assembly to " take order for visitation and reformation of grammar schooles, in touns within their bounds ; . . . and to appoint some of their counsell to attend carcfullie on their schooles and to assist the maister in discipline." How long this Act was faithfully observed by presbyteries I will not here say. Such records of presbyteries as I have seen are very silent on the subject of the visitation of schools during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Inquiry was made whether there was a school in every parish, whether there was a schoolmaster, and how he waited on his duties, and whether there was a legal salary provided for his maintenance. But the examination of schools by committees of presbytery was, I think, a custom of no great antiquity, in this district at least. It was the minister and elders, not a committee of prcsb}-tcr}-, that long ago were expected to visit schools. In 1700, the S}'nod of Glasgow and Ayr instructed " ministers in Kirk-Sessions to take particular notice of schools Provision for Education in Olden Times. 1 1 5 and the Christian education of youth ;" and many ministers, in the first half of last century, considered the visitation of the parish school an important part of their work. It is stated in biographies of Ebenezer Erskine that, before his secession from the Church of Scotland, he was a noble example of what a Christian pastor should be, and that he " regularly visited the parish school, heard the children repeat the catechism, and prayed." This is doubtless what many ministers, besides Mr. Erskine, did. A little before the middle of last century the Ayrshire Presbyteries seem to have begun to visit i\\e principal schools within their bounds. In 1726, the Presbytery of Irvine visited the grammar school of Irvine, and appointed a committee to visit Kilmarnock school, "at their conveniency." In 1738, the Presbytery of Ayr not only appointed a large committee to visit the grammar school of the county town, but appointed the "classes of Cumnock, Maybole, and Galston," to visit the grammar schools within their respective bounds, at their first classical meeting.* It seems to have been subsequent, perhaps seventy or eighty years subsequent, to the later of these dates before the parish schools of Ayrshire came to be systematically and annually visited by Presbyterial committees. And looking back to these old visitations I cannot but say that, although the examination may not in every instance have been very skilfully or very thoroughly conducted, their moral effect on the school was good, perhaps as good as any inspection unaccompanied by substantial rewards and penalties could be. * In 1807, a motion was made in the Presbytery of Ayr, "and agreed to, that the Presbytery should appoint committees of their number to examine the schools within the bounds of the Presbytery, and report the number of scholars attending such schools, the different branches taught in them, and the diligence of the different teachers." This looks like the first institution of Presbyterial examinations of schools in South Ayrshire, and I suspect it was so, and that it arose out of the commotion about Sun Jay schools which will be described farther on. I lO Old Church Life in Scotland. And now, liavini; shewn how much was done by the Church of Scotland, throui;h her General Assemblies, Presbyteries, and Kirk-Sessions, to further the cause of national education, I have, in conclusion, to indicate what was the state of education in the country a hundred or two hundred years ago, compared with what it is at the present da}.* First of all, education was not so general then as it is now. Parishes were not so uniformly provided with schools, nor were schools so much taken advantage of Notwithstanding the Act of Parliament 1633, authorising bishops, with consent of heritors and parishioners, to make provision for the erection and main- tenance of schools in every parish, and notwithstanding the far more stringent Act of Parliament 1696, requiring heritors in every parish to provide school-houses and salaries for schoolmasters, there were, as we have seen, many parishes, even in Ayrshire, the land of covenants and song, that continued till about the middle of last century to have no school at all. And education, although made as compulsory as Acts of Synods and General Assemblies could make it, was not taken advantage of as largely as it might have been. The remarks of Pardovan, on the singing of Psalms in church, shew that, at the beginning of last century, there were supposed to be many people in every parish unable to read, and that the number of such people was much less than it had been fifty or sixty years previously. * The Highlands are left out of consideration. About sixty years ago, Principal Baird, in travelling through these regions, on his educational mission, "found nearly 100,000 human beings unable either to read or write, and innumerable districts where the people could not hear sermon above once a year, and had seen thousands of habitations where a Sabbath bell was never heard." At an earlier date, matters were, if possible, still worse. When Boyd was appointed Bishop of Argyll, in 16 13, "he found his see full of ignorance and disorder, and in many places the name of the Saviour unknown." In 175S, there were, says Principal Lee, (Lectures, Vol. IL, p. 429) 175 parishes in the Highlands in which parochial schools had never been erected . Provision for Education in Olden Times. 1 1 7 And writing was a much less general accomplishment than reading. Of 222 persons that signed the Solemn League and Covenant at Dundonald in 1644, there were 179 that did so by- proxy. In the early Session Records of Galston, there is clear evidencethat writing was an art which had been learned by vc y few people in that parish in the days of the Covenant. In 171 1, two masons and three slaters were appointed, as skilled workmen, to inspect the church of Kilwinning and report to the Presbytery of Irvine what repairs were needed. The two masons subscribed their oaths with their own hands, as men that had contracts to sign should, but the three slaters " touched the pen, and allowed the Clerk of Presbytery to subscribe for them, declaring they could not write." * In 1764, the Kirk-Session of Mauchline had a case before them in which evidence was led. There were seven witnesses examined, and they were each asked to sign their depositions. One of the witnesses was a man, who signed his * In Old Church Life in Scotland, instances are given of people in Mauchline Parish doing servile work on the Sabbath, from their not knowing that it was Sunday. People in other parishes were quite as benighted. In 1652, three men were delated to the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock " for profaning the Lord's day by waking their hose." They compeared and confessed, "but thought the Sabbath had been passed, and the Session finding them sensible of their sinne did rebuke them only judicially." Some cases of superstition are quoted also in Old Church Life. The following may be added, to shew the state of general intelligence or want of intelligence last century. In 1720, a man in Dreghorn was reported to the Presbytery of Irvine to have consulted " a person supposed to have a familiar spirit, for a sock which had been stolen from him." In 1746 a man in Saltcoats was delated to the same Presby- tery, for " using an unlawful charm, by causing a key to be turned in the Bible for discovering some stolen leather, and who in consequence thereof had scandalised in an indirect way John Millar, shoemaker there, as the thief of said leather." The following entry in the " Brulie minutes" of Mauchline Session will shew that in 17S4, when Burns was living in the parish, there was as gross superstition here as there was in Saltcoats in 1746, or in Dreghorn in 1720. The date of the minute is 28th June, 1784, " Compeared James Vance, and declares that, on the night alleged, he heard James Dykes desire James Gay to come in and see if the spell woman would cut the cards, in order to find out who had stole the Lawn." ii.S Old Cliurcli f.ifc in Scotland. name in letters that are stiff, crude and almost illef^nblc. Of the six female witnesses, two wrote their names in fairly good characters, one scratched her initials, and the other three confessed they could not handle a pen. Two or three years ago, there appeared in the newspapers an interesting account of an old lady connected with this parish, who died at Brechin in the hundred and second year of her age. This old lady was in her youth schooled at Kilmaurs, and she used to tell that in the days of her childhood (1790-1800) "there were only four families in the neighbourhood who were at the expense of teaching their daughters to write and count." Long ago there were, also, fewer subjects taught in ordinary schools than there are now. Grammar, geography, drawing, modern languages, and the smattering of uncouth nomenclature falsely called science, were unheard of at school by our great grandfathers. Old tables of fees give us a very correct notion of what used to be taught in schools. In 1673, the Mauchline table of fees contained only two charges — one for the teaching of English, and the other for the teaching of Latin. In 1764, a new table of fees was drawn up at Mauchline. Writing was mentioned as part of the instruction in English, as it had pro- bably been long before,* and arithmetic was added as a special subject with a special fee attached. Down to 1764, therefore, it may be considered that counting was not reckoned in this parish a necessary equipment for the work of life. And so, the high charge, which I have already stated was fixed in 1803, for the teaching of book-keeping, in Mauchline, shews that at that date England was only becoming a nation of shop-keepers, and that the modern system of business was then reckoned as profound as one of the occult sciences. The other branches of * As far b.ick as 1691 there was paiil by the Kirk-Session of ^faucliline for the setting up of a writing table in the school, the sum of lis. 81I. Provision for Education in Olden Times. 119 modern education, such as English grammar, geography, and French, were probably taught in very few parish schools, before the present century. Music is now, I presume, taught in every school. Middle aged people, however, remember when there were few or no school s in which children learned singing. Some may imagine, therefore, that the teaching of singing in schools is a novelty. But it is not so. It is rather the revival of a very ancient custom.* Not only were there numerous "sang schools" in Scotland three hundred years ago, but in 171 3 the General Assembly, " for the more decent performance of the public praises of God, recom- mended to Presbyteries to use endeavours to have such school- masters chosen as are capable to teach the common tunes, and that Presbyteries take care that children be taught to sing the said common tunes ; and that the said schoolmasters not only pray with their scholars, but also sing a part of a psalm with them, at least once every day."t And it was not in separate song schools, but in common lecture schools, that in old pre- reformation times music was taught. In one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales there is an account of an old monastic school, where boys — " Acquired each, year by year, Such kind of learning, as was taught them there, Tliat is to say, to sing, and read, as good Small children ought to do in their childhood." * An Act passed in 1579 ordained that song schools should be provided in Burghs, and we have seen that in 1627 there was such a school in Ayr, separate from the Grammar School. The master of the music school in Ayr (1627) had, "for teaching of the music scule and taking up of the psalmes in the Kirk, 10 bolls of victuall and £iT,. 6s. 8d. " Scots per annum. At Newbattle, in 1626, the Kirk-Session ordained " everie scholar to pay los. for lairning to reid and write Scottis, and for musicke to pay 6s. Sd., and for learning of Latine only 13s. 4d. qutirterlic." t The tunes that the General Assembly in 17 13 wished children to be taught at school were the covmion Psalm tunes. In 1758, the Presbytery of Irvine received "a letter from the ProvQst and Magistrates of Irvine, ac([uainting them that as Mr, I20 Old Church Life, in Scot hind. And how tlic school was conducted may be inferred from what one of the " good small " boys said about himself : — '• I Icani tlic soiif^ l)iit do not know the fjramairc." It must not be inferred, from any thing I have said, that there were no classes of advanced pupils in parish schools long ago. The parish schools were not all elementary schools. On the contrary, they were often called grammar schools, and were taught by men of good ripe scholarship. In the records of the Presbytery of Ayr, there is an account of the examination of the grammar school of May bole in 1709, which would do no dis- credit to the schoolmasters of that town at the present day. There were three classes of humanity, that is of Latin, taught in the school. Those in the lowest class had been three quarters of a year at school, which probably means three quarters of a year at Latin, and had advanced to the chapter, "prepositio quid est ? " The second class had been at school two years and a half, had learned the first part of the grammar, had advanced to the end of " regimen noniinativil'' and had read the whole authors of the Rudiments and several of the Epistles of Ovid. The third class had been three and a half years at school, had learned the third part of the grammar, and had read a large portion of the works of Ovid, part of Sallust, part of the Ala- jora CoUoqiiia Erasjni, the Eclogues of Virgil, and the first book of the Aeneid. In 1729, a committee of the Presbytery of Irvine examined the school of Irvine. "They found that the Henderson, teacher of music in Irvine, had made great progress in accomplishing sevcralls in singing some new Church tunes, ihey desired that he, with his scholars, (might be allowed to give) a specimen thereof in publick, at the Presbytery's next meeting, if it was not disagreeable to the Presbytery. The Presbytery desired Mr. Cunningham to report unto the Magistrates that it would be nowayes disoblidgeing to them, but that they were well pleased wiih every new improvement of this kind." The records don't stale whether the proposed entertainment came off or not, nor what the reverend fathers thought of it. Provision for Education in Olden Times. 1 2 1 first class translated a part of the Greek Testament into Latine, and some of the Roman authors into English, answered the questions put to them, and translated many English sentences into elegant Latine with great dexterity. They found also a sett of globs and mapps, for instructing students in the elements of geography and astronomy, and that the masters teach arith- metic and navigation to such as desire instruction therein." As far back as the Reformation, or even farther back than that date, there was good secondary education given in some of the grammar schools in Scotland. Nothing in its way is more delightful than James Melville's account of his school life at Montrose, about the time of the Reformation. At Montrose, we were, he says, " weill treaned up bathe in letters, godlines, and exercise of honest geams." The training in letters included the reading of such Latin authors, as Virgil, Horace, and Cicero, " dyvers speitches in Frenche, with the right pro- nunciation of that toung." As a training in godliness " the cate- chisme and prayers, par coeur," were taught, with notes of Scripture. And for games, he says, we " war be our maister teached to handle the bow for archerie, the glub for goff, the batons for fencing, also to rin, to leape, to swoum, to warsell." Equally charming is his account of College life at St. Andrews, where at first he did " nathing but bursted and grat at his les- sons, and was of mind to haiff gone haim again." But his kind regent, seeing the distress he was in, "tuik (him) in his awin chalmer, causit (him) ly with him selffe, and everie night teached him in private, till he was acquainted with the mater." It is unquestionable, however, that long ago the foremost place in school education was assigned to religious instruction. An Education Act passed by the Parliament of Scotland in 1567, declares it to be "tinsel baith of thair bodies and saulis, gif God's word be not ruted," along with secular instruction, in 122 Old C/niirh Life in Scotland. the minds of the young. In 1695, the schoolmasters of Ayr compeared before the Presbytery, and the exhortations they received were "to instruct their scholars in the principles of religion, and to keep none that walk disorderly, and to convene and dismiss the school with prayer." * One of the instructions given by the Presbytery in 1747 to ministers, for the visitation of schools, was to see that schoolmasters enquire into the behaviour of children out of school, by means of censors, who should re- port every Saturday ; another was to see "that the ancient and good custom of repeating the catechism in church on the Lord's day, before sermon in the forenoon, and betwixt sermons, (that is at the reader's or schoolmaster's service), be continued, and that a portion of holy scripture be read, after repeating the *The power of extempore prayer in olden times was what might put us to shame at the i:)resent day. Every head of a house was expected and required to have family exercise daily, at which he prayed with his wife and children, without any Euchologion or aids to devotion. In 1652, a man called Hew Caldwell "was often summondit (before the Session of Kilmarnock) for neglect of family exercise." At length he compeared and confessed neglect of that duty, "because he judged himself not able to doe it. The Session did rebuke him, and did exhort hun to doc as he could, whereunto he did bind himself." In 1710, some of the ministers in the Pres- bytery ol Irvine reported that they met once a month, as required, with their Elders for prayer. " Others," it was said, " do not, in regard their elders are bashfull and in confusion from the presence of the minister, and so not fit to go about that duty, but, where it is so, they convean among themselves without the minister, and pray together." In the solemn acknowledgment of public sins and breaches of the Covenant, drawn up in 1648, the following curious passage occurs : — " Ignorance of God and of His Son Jesus Christ prevails exceedingly in the land. The greatest part of masters of families among Noblemen, Barons, Gentlemen, and Commons, neglect to seek God in their families . . . and albeit it hath been much pressed, yet few of our nobles and great ones ever to this day could be persuaded to perform family duties themselves and in their own persons, which makes so necessary and useful a duty to be misregarded by others of inferior rank." Bishop Burnet (an Episcopalian) says that in 1662 the Presbyterian Clergy "had brought the people to such a degree of knowledge, that cottagers and servants would have prayed extempore. I have often overheard them at it, and though there was a large mixture of odd stuff, yet I have been astonished to hear how copious and ready liiey were in it." f Provision for Education in Olden Times. 123 catechism." * And a living historian of high fame extols the wisdom of our ancestors, in paying so much attention to the teaching of creed and conduct. " They understood," he says, "perfectly well what they meant. They set out with the prin- ciple, that every child born into the world should be taught his duty to God and man. The majority of people had to live, as they always must, by bodily labour, therefore, every boy was as early as convenient set to work. . . . He was appren- ticed to some honest industry. . . . Besides this, . he was taught reading, that he might read his Bible, and learn to fear God, and be ashamed and afraid to do wrong. . . . And the ten commandments and a handicraft made a good and wholesome equipment to commence life with. . . The original necessities, too, remain unchanged. The ten commandments are as obligatory as ever, and practical ability, the being able to do something, . . . must still be the backbone of the education of every boy who has to earn his bread by manual labour." As confirming the statements of Mr. Froude with regard to the practical tendency of some of the early educationists in this country, it may be mentioned that in 1641 there was an over- ture before the Scottish Parliament, that " in each shire there should be a house of virtue erected." This house of virtue was to be a technical college for teaching the art of weaving, and it was proposed that each parish in the country should send to the house of virtue for seven years one or two children, accord- ing as the parish was under or over 5000 merks of valuation. * In 1599, the minister of Forgan reported to the Presbytery of St. Andrews " that the gentlemen of his parochin desyrit him in their names to seek the Presby- tery's license to Mr. Samuel Cunningham, their schoolmaster, to catechise the barnes upon Sundays before the sermonth, unto the quhilk desire the brethren agrees, and gives license to the said Mr. Samuel." Lee's Lectures, IL, p. 441. 124 Old Clinnlt Life in Scotland. In 1661, an Act was passed for the formation of companies to make linen cloth, and it enacted that poor children (va^^abonds and other idlers) in every parish should be taught to work wool and knit stockings. The Sunday School is looked to now-a-days as the chief in- strument for conveying religious instruction to the young. But the modern Sunday school cannot compare, as an instrument of religious instruction, with the means employed in former times. In one sense, Sunday schools may be called a modern institution, but in another sense they are not. Long ago, more than two hundred years ago, it was customary to have a cate- chetical service in the church in the afternoon. That was just a Sunday school, with the minister or reader for teacher, the whole youth of the parish for scholars, the Bible and the Cate- chism for text books, and the indoctrinated conviction that the church was holy ground for a principle of self-discipline and order. In later times, when that old custom had gone out of use, the day school became the place where the young were grounded in re- ligious knowledge. And admirable was the religious instruc- tion then given. In 1794, the General Assembly enjoined " all parochial schoolmasters, and all teachers of schools within the Church, to cause the Holy Bible to be read as a regular exercise in their schools ; and also that the children at school be required to commit the Shorter Catechism to memory, and by frequent repetition to fix it deep in their minds." A few years later (1800), the Assembly enjoined Presbyteries to give in a list of all the schools within their bounds, specifying what is taught in each school, and to state whether the schools be held on the Lord's Day or on other days of the week.* It will be seen, therefore, * The first Sunday school in Scotland was, it is said, instituted at Brechin by the Rev. David Blair, Parish Minister, in 1760. In 1782 Sabbath schools were estab- lished in the Barony Parish of Glasgow. In 17S7 a society was formed in Edin- \ Provision for Education in Olden Times. 1 2 5 that in 1800 Sunday Schools had been instituted in some places, and Presbyteries were required to report anent them. These Sunday Schools, however, were, as a rule, conducted by dissenters, and they were looked upon with suspicion by the Church of Scotland as a device of her enemies. The chief founder of them was James Haldane, a layman of great religious zeal, who did not attach himself to any particular church, but was a sort of prototype of the modern Plymouth Brother. He considered that the Gospel was not faithfully preached by a large number of ministers in the Church of Scotland, and he travelled about from parish to parish, with one or two associates, listening to the sermon in church in the fore- noon, and then holding in the afternoon an open-air meeting, at which he criticised and denounced the discourse of the min- ister. Much more attention was given by the church in those days to these proceedings than would now be given. The General Assembly, in 1799, issued a pastoral letter about them, declaring that it was much to be lamented "that there should of late have arisen among us a set of men whose proceedings threaten no small disorder to the country. They assume the name of missionaries, as if they had some special commission from heaven ; they are going through the land as universal itinerant teachers, and as superintendents of the ministers of religion ; they are introducing themselves into parishes, without an}' call, and erecting in several places Sunday Schools, without burgh for promoting religious knowledge among the poor, and similar societies were soon afterwards formed in Glasgow. Paisley, Greenock, Perth, and Aberdeen. Sunday schools were the means by which these societies sought to effect their object. "Having been originated and organised by sectarians," however, the Sunday school "system was in these times of high political excitement deemed favourable to the cause of democracy, and was even stigmatised as a hotbed of disaffection and sedition." — Report on Sabbath Schools to the General Assembly, 1876. 126 Old Cliuirh Life in Scotland. any countenance from the Presbytery of the bounds or the minister of the parish ; the)' are committing in these schools the reh'^Mous instruction of youth to ignorant persons, altogether unfit for sucli an important charge ; and they are studying to alienate the affections of the people from their pastors, and en- gaging them to join their new sect, as if they alone were pos- sessed of some secret and novel method of bringing men to heaven." One or two members of the Presbytery of Irvine were in 1798 much exercised by the spread of sectarian Sunday schools in North Ayrshire. For the suppression of this ecclesiastical annoyance, the following motion was made and seconded in the presbytery, "That, as it is in the knowledge of this Presbytery that Sunday evening schools have been set up in different Parishes within their bounds, patronised and conducted by seceding clergy and their adherents, without consulting the established ministers of the Parishes, the Presbytery, appre- hending that this is an encroachment upon the power and jurisdiction of the Church of Scotland, and is an evil which requires a timely check, do overture the General Assembly to take this matter into their consideration, and adopt such measures as in their wisdom shall seem meet and proper for supporting the authority and jurisdiction of the Church, and enact such regulations as they may judge necessary for direct- ing the conduct of Presbyteries in these and all similar cases that may occur." The presbytery, to their credit be it said, were not ripe for such an overture, and they gave it what is called the go-bye. The movers of the overture, nevertheless, reflected the prevalent spirit of the times, as the Assembly's pastoral letter the year following shewed. When this pastoral letter came down to the Presbytery of Irvine in 1799, immediate action was taken thereon. "In obedience to the Provision for Education in Olden Times. 127 injunction of the General Assembly, the Presbytery resolved to call before them all teachers of youth within their bounds, in order to make trial of their sufficiency and qualifications, in those branches of education which they profess to teach ; and accordingly ordered the teachers of Sunday schools and private schools within (certain named parishes) to appear before them at next meeting, to undergo examination." For a couple of years, there was a great ado in the presbytery about this busi- ness. Some of the teachers disregarded the presbytery's citations, and the presbytery resolved to consult the procurator of the Church, concerning the course to be taken with these " refractory " persons. Most of the teachers, however, whether bond or free, sound or schismatic, obeyed the summons, and presented themselves before the court or its committees. After consultation, it was agreed that four questions should be put to all the cited teachers, whether of private week-day schools or of Sunday schools, and these questions were " ist, are you will- ing to subject yourself to the doctrine and discipline of the Church as by law established ; 2nd, are you willing to take the oaths to Government, and to have your school registered in the county books ; * 3rd, do you receive payment from your scholars or from any other person ; 4th, have you any commission from or connection with any missionary society, or with any society beyond the bounds of )-our own parish." Most of the teachers of private schools answered all these questions satisfactorily. They were loyal members of the Church of Scotland, making an honest livelihood, as many others had done ever since the Reformation * The teachers of all schools, other than parochial, burgh, General Assembly, or S. P. C. K. schools, were, by the Disarming Act, 19 Geo. II., c. 38, required, under penalty of six months imprisonment, to register, in a book kept by the sheriff-clerk, a description of their school, and a certificate that they had taken the oaths recjuired of persons in public trust. 128 Old Cknych Life i)i Scotland. or perhaps before it, by tcachinj^. Others were dogmatic dis- senters, and said that, as "covenanted anti-burghers, they could not submit to the discipline of this Church," nor take oaths to Government. \n no case did it appear that any of the teachers had " commission from or connection with any missionary society," or in other words were Haldanites. There were at least six parishes in North Ayrshire in which Sunday schools were held in 1799, but the action taken by the Presbytery of Irvine rather lessened the number of these schools. Two Natha- naels in Kilbride took instant alarm, and wrote to the Pres- bytery, " that they had come to the full determination of ceasing from this date to attend the Sunday evening schools, in assisting to catechise the few children who have, for a very few Sunday evenings, attended in this place." One good that resulted from this hubbub was a most elaborate and excellent return of all the schools, week day and Sunday, within the bounds of the Presbytery, with a report on the church connection, and scholastic attainments of all their teachers. The Presbytery's report on Sunday schools is now, from the altered state of public opinion within the Church of Scotland on these seminaries of religious instruction, somewhat noteworthy, and I shall therefore give it entire : — " Sunday Schools. — One at Kilmarnock, taught by William Stevenson, preacher of the gospel. This school is under the direction of the magistrates and ministers, and a committee of the inhabitants by whom Mr. Stevenson is paid. One at Irvine, taught by Mr. Gemmell, J. Neil, H. Allan, T. Harvey, all of the Relief Church. They have all taken the oaths to Government, and are qualified to do what they profess, namel}-, to hear children repeat the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, and read portions of Scripture. They receive no payment, and have no connection with any missionary society. One at Beith, taught Provision for Education in Olden Times. 129 by John Barr of the Relief Church, by whom he is paid. He teaches and explains the Shorter Catechism, and Brown's Catechism. He was found unqualified to explain the Catechism. He is unconnected with any missionary society. One at Largs, taught by P. and W. Hall, weavers, J. Moodie, J. Malcolm, J. Lyle, J. Crawford, weavers, W. Jamieson, farmer, and Archd. Hillj all Burghers. Only Mr. Hall appeared. The rest refused to attend the Presbytery. Archibald Hill replied to the summons by a very insolent letter to Mr. Rowan, the min- ister of the Parish. The Presbytery know not whether these men be qualified or not. Which scheme the Presbytery ap- proved of, and ordered the same to be transmitted to the General Assembly and Sheriff of the county." Apparently, there was not in the Presbytery of Ayr such a violent hostility to Sunday schools during the period from 1799 to 1806, as there was in the Presbytery of Irvine. So far as I have noted, the only reference in the records of Ayr Presbytery to a Sunday school within the bounds during that period, is to one at Girvan in 1801. In that school there were seven teachers, all of whom were so loyal as to take the oaths to Government. And yet I cannot but think there must have been several Sunday schools at that time in South Ayrshire. In Mauchline Parish there was one. It was held on the Sun- day evenings ; and in winter every scholar brought not only a Bible and a Catechism to the school, but a candle, which was lit at the door by the beadle. One of the scholars at that school in 1794* was the centenarian who died at Brechin two or three years ago. It is stated in the newspaper account of her, already referred to, that this Sunday school was held in the Parish Church, and was taught by the parish minister and * This is the date given in the newspapers, but I think it likely that the real date was a year or two later. I 130 Old Clatrch Life in Scotland. his ciders. This is certainly a mistake. The Sunday school system was in 1794 not unfavourably looked on by some of the ministers of South Ayrshire. Mr. Dun of Auchinleck, in a note to one of his sermons printed in 1790, speaks of " the use- ful Sunday schools," but at the same time declares them far in- ferior as a means of religious instruction to the old custom of ministerial catechising. As a rule, however, Sunday schools at the end of last century were regarded by churchmen as seminaries of schism and nurseries of dissent. It must have been in the Burgher Meeting-house that the .Sunday school at Mauchline was held in 1794, or soon after that date. The centenarian's relatives in this parish attended the Meeting- house, and there are documents still in existence which shew that in 1804 there was a Sunday school in connection with the Seceders' congregation. And it was natural that dissenters should institute Sunday schools. The mother Church had control of the week-day schools. Her ministers could enter them at pleasure, and, like Ebenezer Erskine, might catechise the children. Dissenters might feel, therefore, that if the in- fluence of their ministers was to be brought to bear on the young, it must be through other schools, the cheapest, readiest, most effective and most novel of which were Sunday evening schools. It only remains to be stated that learning, although much extolled and honoured and promoted by the clergy and the Courts of the Reformed Church, was, for two hundred years after the Reformation, not encouraged nor reverenced as it should have been by an appreciating public. The clergy had a sore fight to get schools erected in parishes, even after their erection had been made imperative by Act of Parliament. The charitable disbursements to "poor scholars" shew, too, that it was generally the humbler classes of people that devoted their children Provision for Education in Olden Times. 1 3 1 to learning.* Man}^ of the students at the Universities had actu- ally to beg for their bread. Mr. Froude seems to think that this begging was a good thing. " The thirty thousand students," he says, " who gathered out of Europe to Paris to listen to Abelard, did not travel in carriages and they brought no portmanteaus with them. They carried their wardrobes on their backs, t They walked from Paris to Padua, from Padua to Salamanca, and they begged their way along the roads. The laws against mendicancy in all countries were suspended in favour of scholars wandering in pursuit of knowledge, and formal licenses were issued to them to ask alms." It may very well be doubted if such a custom of asking alms was in any way good for students. It requires little stretch of imagination to perceive great evils that must have attended such a loose way of living. Far more honourable and far more conducive to self-respect it would have been had students endeavoured to support themselves, either wholly or in part, by some honest industry, manual or literary. The privilege of begging which was extended to some students led others to beg without license. The Act of 1579, for the repression of sorners and masterful beggars, makes mention of " vagabond schollers of the Universities of St. Andrews, Glas- gow and Abirdene, not licensed be the Rector and Deane of Faculty to ask almes." These people, the Act avers, were a public nuisance, like the Egyptians, and the minstrels, and the tale-tellers, and in the interests of public order they were to be apprehended and sent to prison. And the lowering effect that * A very interesting entry in the Mauchline records is " 1670, 14th Aug., given to German scholler 30s." t It is said of William Leslie, minister at St. Andrews-Lhanbr)-d (1779- 1839) that he was ' ' a man of singular benevolence and given to hospitality. Before stage coaches were introduced into Elginshire, and long subsequent to that event, he en- tertained at the manse young men from the West coast, wending their weary way to enrol at the Divinity classes of the Aberdeen Colleges, and gave them sustentation on their homeward 'ourney." — Fasti. 132 Old ChiD'cJi Life in Scotland. this life of beggary had on the students shewed itself in their after history. Many of them when they became ministers and readers acted also as tapsters and tavern keepers. Not only so, but the General Assembly in 1576, thought it necessary to direct the commissioners, as those were then termed who were formerly called superintendents, to exhort such ministers or readers as tapped ale and kept open tavern to preserve decorum within their premises.* Less than a hundred years ago the emoluments of placed schoolmasters — beneficed men — holding a multitude of public parochial offices — were, as we have seen declared by the General Assembly* to be scantier than those of a field labourer, and schools were in danger of being abandoned for want of proper men to undertake their charge. Matters are now mended. Learning and education are valued. Students are not subjected to any degradation. Ministers are not allowed to exercise any calling inconsistent with or calculated to bring reproach or discredit on their pastoral office. The profession of teacher is one that men are pressing into ; it is every day demanding higher qualifications ; and it is both honoured and remunerated, as from its usefulness and dignity it ought to be. The cause of education is therefore greatly advanced in Scotland beyond what it was either two hundred or one hundred years ago. But there is an evil doctrine in the air. It is openly * In 1649, a minister, who bore the honoured name of John Knox, was deposed by the Presbytery of Kintyre for "keeping change in his house, selHng drink, etc." In 1603, the minister of Yester was accused among other things of being " a maker of acquavitae. " He admitted that "his wyfe maks acquavitae for thair av\in use, bot selHs nane." The Presbytery bade him, under the pain of deposition, "by acquavitae and mak nane." The word aquavitae it may be remarked was sometimes applied to other drinks than whiskey. In HolHnshead's Scottish Chronicle it is said (p. 2S) that the ancient Scots, when " determined of set purpose to be merry, used a kind of aquavitae ; void of all spice, and only consisting of such herbs and roots as grew in their own gardens." Provision for Education iri Olden Times. 133 proclaimed by many people that the main purpose of education is to enable youths to read the newspapers and fit themselves for mercantile appointments. Education should have higher objects than these in view. It should aim at making boys become honest, well conditioned, well mannered, intelligent, and cultured men, with a taste for literature, and a capacity to enjoy what in literature is best and greatest. In other words, there should be in every parish provision for secondary as well as for primary education. By that means, more than by any other, will the chief avenues to honour, distinction and social advancement be made free ; and then it will be said that, as the prize of a field-marshal's baton is in France open for competi- tion to the private soldier, so in Scotland are the Principalships of Colleges within reach of the sons of every humble artisan. 134 Old Church Life in Scotland. LECTURE III. MARRIAGES IN OLDEN TIMES. Marriages sometimes regular and sometimes irregular — Kirk -Sessions and Church Courts had to do with both kinds of marriages — Proclamation of banns — Pro- clamation fees — Consignations — Marriage festivities —Proclamations sisted or stopped — by parents or guardians — on account of scandal — ignorance — neglect of ordinances — pre-contract — marriage already formed and not dissolved — youth and near relationship — Certificate of proclamation refused after pro- clamation made — Marriage in church — Marriage service — Irregular marriages — Old and High Church doctrine of marriage — Lower and more secular doctrine held by some Protestant ministers and denominations — Curious case at Kilmarnock — Irregular marriages at one time always or almost always cele- brated by a minister — Severe Acts anent clandestine marriages — Frequency of irregular marriages last century — Causes of that frequency — Sessional procedure — first ascertain whether parties really married — proofs of marriage — certificate — Different views on subject of legal marriage — Acknowledgment and habit and repute — When found unmarried, pronounced scandalous, and interdicted from living together — When found married, censured for breach of Church order, had marriage confirmed, were fined — \\Tiat done when husband and wife separated. Another very important matter that in olden times came under the jurisdiction of Church Courts, and especially of Kirk-Sessions, was marriage. And in Scotland there have, from a very early period, been two kinds of legal marriage, recognised under the two designations of regular and irregular. Regular marriages have always been defined as marriages celebrated according to the regulations of the Church, by authorised ministers, and with religious solemnities, or, as a certain class of ecclesiastical writers are given to say, with sacerdotal benediction. The definition of an irregular marriage has not been so constant and unquestioned. In the strict sense- Marriages in Olden Times. 135 of the term, a marriage may be said to have been irregular, when the regulations of the Church were not fully complied with ; and, as these regulations varied from time to time, mar- riages that at one period were held to be regular may at another period have been pronounced irregular. Some in- fringements of the Church's rules, however, were reckoned much graver than others. For the last two hundred years, it has been considered a much greater violation of order to be married without proclamation of banns than to be married in a private house. Some irregularities in marriage were, therefore, less regarded than others by Kirk-Sessions; and, during the greater part of last century at least, the reproach of irregularity was not attached to marriages in which the breach of order was not very serious. In this lecture, I shall endeavour to show what was the Church's procedure, and what were her regulations : first, in regard to marriages that were counted orderly, and secondly, in regard to marriages that were counted inorderly. From the time of the Reformation, and indeed from a date long prior to the Reformation, regular marriages have always been preceded by a notice of marriage, publicly read in church. The technical term for this notice of marriage is banns, a word derived from bannuin, which in ecclesiastical Latin means pro- clamation. In the Canon Law, banna, or banns, are defined to be "proc/ainationes sponsi et sponsae in ecclesiis" — the pro- clamations of betrothed persons which are made in churches ; and Calderwood, the Presbyterian historian, speaks in one of his books o{ " indictio nuptiaruui quain banna vacant" — the notice of marriage, which people call banns. The common phrase "proclamation of banns" is thus a redundancy. It is a phrase, however, that is sanctioned by long and constant •usage, and it appears in the title of one of the General As- 136 Old Church Life in Scotland. sembly's Acts of 1880. Sometimes, in old writings, the ex- pression "bands of marriage " occurs, and in such a connection as to make tlic reader suppose tliat the terms banns and bands were used indiscriminately, as if they were only different modes of spelling the same word.* The two terms are distinct, never- theless. Bands of marriage meant contracts of marriage, and banns were the proclamations of these bands. In the Galston Records (1643), we read of "bands of marriage" being com- pleted, not in the sense that banns or proclamations of marriage were read three times, but in the sense that contracts of mar- riage were ratified and concluded by solemnisation. In one instance, we read that, the "bands being compleit, ye consigna- tiones were delyverit back;" and in another, that, " failzeand in performing ye bands of marriage, their consignation was givin in to the Session." In pre-Reformation times, the solemnisation of marriage was preceded by a formality of espousals or betrothal. After the Reformation, the same custom continued under the name of contracts. In 1569, a case was submitted to the General Assembly, which indicates the successive steps that at that time were taken in the process of marriage. " Ane promise of marriage made, before the readers and elders, in ane reformit kirk, the parties contractit compeirs before the minister and sessione, and requires their bands to be proclaimit ; quhilk beand done, .... when the Kirk requires them to pro- ceid to the solemnisation the woman refuses.'" It will thus be * In the Book of Common Order (Knox's Liturgy), the following expression occurs : " After the haiins or contract hath been published." In 1597, the General Assembly forbade readers " to celehrat the banns of marriage, without special com- mand of the minister of the kirk.'' This did not mean, as some have supposed, that readers were not to publish banns, but that they were not to solemnise mar- riage without special order. See Calderwood, Vol. V., p. 647. It looks as if in both of these instances bands, and not banns, were meant. Marriages in Olden Times. 137 seen that, first of all, a promise or band was made in presence of certain authorised witnesses, a reader and elders ; secondly, that the parties contracted repaired to the Kirk-Session and required proclamation of their band ; and, last of all, that the Church held the parties bound to implement their contract by solemnisation.* Six years later, a question was put to the General Assembly, in the following- terms : " Whether the con- tract of marriage, used to be made before the proclamation of bantis, should be in words of the present time, or there should be no contract or promise till the instant time of solemnisa- tion?" The answer given to this question was : " Parties to be married sould come before the Assemblie (Kirk-Session), and give in their names, that thair bands may be proclaimit,. and no further ceremonies usit." It may therefore be said that from this date, 1575, espousals ceased to be regarded in the Church of Scotland as a formal ecclesiastical act. The ingiving of names for proclamation, with a view to marriage, neverthe- less, continued to be called and considered a marriage contract. In 161 1, the Synod of Fife ordained that, " heirafter, all con- tracts of persons to be joyned in marriage be maid publictlie in the Sessione, the parties being first tryed upon thair knowledge of the Lord's Prayer, Belieff, and Ten Commandis." Even at the Westminster Assembly, in 1644, it was remitted to a com- mittee to " consider of something concerning contracts or espousals, to be added to the Directory of Marriage "t — that is, to consider whether betrothal, as well as solemnisation of mar- riage, should not be regarded as a religious ceremony, and be * In 1570, the General Assembly was asked if it was not expedient and necessary that a uniform order should be observed in all kirks in making promises of marriage, and the answer was that " a promise of marriage per verba de fiituro sail be made according to the order of the Reformed Kirk, to the minister, exhorter, or reader." t Minutes of Westminster Assembly, p. 7. 138 Old CIiuvcIl Life in Scotland. rcc^ulatcd by ecclesiastical rules. The divines at Westminster appear to have come to the same conclusion as the General Assembly did in 1575, namely, that persons craving marriage shall give in their names to be proclaimed, and that "no further ceremonies be usit." The idea of espousal or contract, how- ever, was still associated with the ingiving of names for pro- clamation, and in the Marriage Register of this parish, the phrases " contracted and married," and " contracted in order to marriage," frequently occur at dates subsequent to 1730. Many different enactments, in regard to both the ingiving and the outgiving of the names of persons craving marriage, have from time to time been made by the several Courts of the Church. In 1579, the Kirk-Session of Perth ordained that no notice of banns before marriage be received except on the ordinary day of the Session's meeting, which was Monday. Five years later, this rule was modified to the extent that " no contracts of marriage should be received on the Monday in time of Assembly," that is, while the Kirk-Session was sitting on business. Parties to be contracted were required, however, to pass with their parents or two near kinsmen " to the minister's chamber, or any other place assigned to them by the minister, and there, before the minister and two elders, give up their banns." In 1676, the Kirk-Session of Galston ordained that " when any come to gi\-e up their names in order to pro- clamation for marriage, they shall acquaint the minister there- with, beforehand, and bring the elder of their quarter along with them." It will thus be seen that particular Sessions had rules of their own anent the ingiving of the names of persons to be married. But there were Acts of Assembly on the subject also. In 1699, the General Assembly ordained that, before an}- banns of marriage were published, there should be given in to the minister the names, not only of the persons to be married, but Marriages in Olden Times. 139 of their parents and tutors; and that the minister should ascer- tain whether or not the parents and Guardians consented to the marriage. This Act, in the course of a hundred years or less became a dead letter; and, in 1784, the Kirk-Session of Mauch- line saw occasion to lay down the following rule for observance in this parish, that " immediately upon parties giving in their names to the clerk, he should send a note of their names, parentage, and place of residence to the minister, who is to consult the Session before a second proclamation." A few months later, the General Assembly passed an Act of similar tenor, discharging session-clerks from making any proclamation of marriage till they received from the minister, or, in the case of a vacant parish, from two of the elders, permission to pro- claim. One principle, it will be observed, pervaded all this legislation, both of Kirk-Sessions and of General Assemblies which was, that applications to be proclaimed for marriage must be lodged with, and be judged by, some specific authority, before proclamation is made. In regard to the outgiving of names, the old law and custom of the Church was that banns of marriage must be published three several days in the congregation. This is declared in the First Book of Discipline to be expedient, " for avoiding of dangers," and is referred to in Knox's Liturgy as an understood rule. During the first period of Episcopacy (1610-1638), some relaxations of this law were introduced, and the Presbyterians were not slow to allege that great scandal had arisen therefrom. One of the charges brought against the bishops, in 1638, by the " noblemen, barons, burgesses, ministers and commons, coven- anters (which were not commissioners to the Assembly),"* was, * In the Large Declaration by the King, (1639), the indictment or bill from which these words are taken is thus described : " They, (the Covenanters), caused to be drawn up a most false, odious and scandalous libell against the Archbishops 140 Old Church Life in Scotland. that the said prelates had "gevin h'cense to sundry ministers to solemnize marriafje without asking three scverall Sabbaths be- fore;* upon which have followed divers inconveniences ; a man hath been married to a woman, her husband being alive, and they not divorced ; some have been married to persons with whom they have committed adultery before, and some have been married without the consent or knowledge of their parents." The Assembly of 1638, therefore, which abolished Episcopacy, and deprived the bishops both of Episcopal func- tions and ministerial calling, passed a new Act for the more orderly celebration of marriage. This Act premised that mar- riage without proclamation of banns had been in use tlicse years bygone, and had produced many dangerous effects ; and it accordingly discharged, for the future, all marriages without regular proclamation, " except the Presbyterie in some neces- sarie exigents dispense therewith." On the downfall of the second Episcopacy, in 1690, a similar Act was again passed by the Presbyterians ; and this Act, although latterly much evaded continued nominally in force till recent years. On points of detail in marriage banns, many regulations have at different times been enacted by the Church. These need not be particularly recited. But there is one matter I and Bishops ; which, out of our love to the Christian religion, >ve wish might never come to the notice of any pagan, and out of our love to the religion reformed, we wish might never come to the notice of any Papist. But it cannot be concealed," p. 20S-209. * The Book of Discipline (1560) says that in certain cases where no suspicion of danger can arise the "time maybe shortened at the discretion of the ministry." What was meant by the ministry? The Episcopalians said it was the Bishop, and the Covenanters (1638) said it was the Presbytery. Each party from its own point of view was right. The discretionary power is now by Act of Assembly 1880 vested in the minister alone. In 1643, it was reported to the Presbytery of Ayr that one of the strictest of Covenanters and Puritans, Mr. George Hutcheson of Colmonel, had "caused pro- claim himself twyse in one day." Marriages in Oldett Times. I41 must here refer to. There may happen, by a time, to be no service in a church on a Sunday, and some special provision must then be made for the pubHcation of banns. At the present day, banns may in such circumstances be read at the church door, by the Session clerk, in the presence of witnesses. And from time immemorial this procedure has been recognised as legal. It is evident, however, that occasions might arise on which this practice, from want of publicity, might be open to abuse, and fail to answer the end for which proclamations of marriage were enjoined. Especially might this be the case when, from troubles of one kind or another^ the church was imperfectly equipped with ministers, and there were many parishes very irregularly provided with ordinances. For such occurrents, therefore, there behoved to be some modification of the general rule. And there often was. For instance, in 1688, when Episcopal curates held the parish churches and Presby- terians had to worship in other buildings called meeting-houses, the Presbytery of Irvine "appoyntit, that the proclamation of intended mariage of pairties, in vacant Parishes, be once of thryce on a day when ther is public preaching at the meeting- house in the vacant Parish, ... or else at the meeting- house of the next adjacent Parish where there is a minister fixed." In November 1690, four months after the re-establish- ment of Presbyterian government in the Church, but before the Church had found an adequate supply of ministers for all her parishes, the Presbytery of Ayr enacted that " no proclamations be at vacant church doors hereafter, but in the next adjacent Parish where there are settled ministers." The subject of proclamation fees may seem a very paltry one to be introduced into a lecture, but our sketch of old Church customs would be incomplete without a word or two on this financial subject. The General Assembly, in her enactments, 142 Old Church Lijc in Scotland. has always, till 1880, contemplated the continuance of procla- mations over three Sabbaths, as the common rule and practice. " Necessary exigents " were provided for, but the common rule was that proclamations were to be extended over three several Sundays. And some ecclesiastical martinets were more zealous to uphold that rule than to maintain good works. There being, except in very peculiar cases, only one mode of proclamation, namely, once on each of three several Sabbath.s, there was originally, I presume, in all parishes only one fee for proclamation. That fee may have been higher in some parishes than in others. In 1673, the Kirk-Session of Mauchline "appointed that the clerk shall have 16s. (Scots) for each proclamation, and the officer 4s." In 1703, the same charges were continued. We may infer, therefore, that at that date there were few or no proclamations in Mauchline that were completed in less than three days. Before 1703, however, cases of double proclamation in one day had been heard of in Presbyterian churches. In 1695, it was minuted by the Kirk- Session of Kilmarnock that " James Cairns and Anna Ferrie are alloivcd to be proclaimed twice the next Lord's day." And exceptions that are in any circumstances allowed are very apt, if found convenient or advantageous, to increase in number. It is difficult to draw the line, and say when the rule must be adhered to or the exception allowed. And it is clear that, -during the last quarter of last century, the practice had become very common in this parish for people to get themselves cried out on two Sundays, or even on one Sunday. In 1778, the Session minuted a resolution, " that if parties proposing marriage shall choose to be proclaimed in the Church for two several days only, (they) shall pay a crown for t/te poor, and a guinea for one day." This means that the dues to the Session clerk and church-officer were to continue as before — whatever Marriages in Olden Times. 143 should be the number of Sabbaths over which proclamations were extended — but that when a proclamation was completed on fewer than three Sabbaths an extra charge should be made, either as a fine or as the price of a favour, and that this extra charge should be devoted to some charitable purpose. It is very likely that the Session could not in a court of law have compelled payment of this extra charge, but, unless people paid it beforehand, they would have had to submit to the inconvenience of a prolonged proclamation. Besides paying fees for the publication of their banns, people had long ago, in giving in their names for marriage, either to table, or to produce a bond or caution for, a certain sum of money called the consignation.* There is no mention of this word in the usual indices to Acts of Assembly, but the word frequently occurs in old records of Kirk-Sessions, and the con- text often shews plainly enough what the word meant. The consignation fee or bond was a pledge of two things — first that the parties seeking proclamation of banns would proceed in due course to the solemnisation of marriage, and secondly that they would marry without scandal. As far back as 1570, the General Assembly passed an Act which was almost equivalent to a warrant for the exaction of consignations in pledge of the * In some cases rings were consigned. In the Book of the Kirk of Canongate, the following entries are said to occur : " 1630, Robert Neill and Isabel! M'Kinlay gave up their names to be proclaimed, and consigned ane gold signet ling. . . John Moole and Elspet Abernethy. . . consigned ane gold ring with ane quhite stone." Lee's Lectures I. 216. The date of these extracts, 1630, pertains to an Episcopal period in the Church's historj', and the acts recorded are perhaps explained by the fact that in most Episcopal Churches rings are regarded as the symbols of pledges or contracts. In some districts goods were accepted as consignations. In 1725, the Kirk- Session of a parish in the Highlands enacted, that "no couple be matrimonially contracted within the parish, till they give in to the Session clerk £t, Scots, or a white plaid, or any other like pennieworth, worth £1 Scots, as pledge that they should not have pennie weddings. " Scottish Church, March, 1866. 144 Old Church Life in ScotlaJid. fulfilment of promises of marriage. " Persons, after promise of marriage and proclamation of the bands, desyrand to be free from the bands, should," it is said in this Act, "be free, sires est intcgra, and their inconstancie punished!' The modern way in which this inconstancy is punished is by an award of damages in the civil court, for breach of promise. An equally effective, and much less costly way was adopted in old times by Kirk-Sessions. A certain sum of money was deposited, or a bond or caution for that amount was given when the proclama- tion was desired, and if marriage did not follow within due time the consignation was forfeited for the good of the poor or some other pious use.* In 1698, the Kirk-Session of Alauchline passed a resolution " appointing the parties to be proclaimed to consumat yr. marriage, within six weeks after the proclama- tion is over, under the pain of losing their consignation money, unless sickness or some relevant excuse, quhairof the Session is judge, hinder the same." And consignations were frequently forfeited from this cause. In 1643, the reader at Galston gave in to the Kirk-Session of that parish " £^ of penaltie and consignatione, quhilk Agnes Anderson in Allanton had consignit, when she gave in her bands of marriage with X. Y, parochinar in Avondale, and did not performe the said band." And similar things happened in Mauchline more than once. In 1673, '^^ session of this parish, "considering that Robert Miller, who was married tipon December third, was the other year proclaimed upon another woman and did not marry her, therefore, they being clear that his consignation money is for- feited doe forfault the same, and allow j\Ir. William Reid (the schoolmaster) the same, as part of his fie for the former year." Another case of forfeiture occurred in 1686. In this case, how- * The " resiling of parties after proclamation " was commonly called "scorning the Kirk " — Pardovan. Marriages in Olden Times. 145 ever, the consignation money had never been deposited.* Caution had only been given for payment, if required, and the cautioner was taught a wholesome lesson in caution, which he was not likely to forget. " The Session considering that David Patterson had forfaulted his penaltic of ^5, not having married Bessie Wallace with whom he was proclaimed, there- fore James Gib, kirk-officer, who was cautioner for the penaltie, was ordained to pay himself, of his fie for the year, ^,5." There were cases, again, in which marriages were stopped or delayed by sickness or some other equally unavoidable hindrance ; but there being " a relevant excuse " in these instances, the con- signation money was either returned or allowed to lie in pledge for a further period. t In 1640, a man named Richmond ap- peared before the Session of Galston, " being summondit for compleating of his marriage with Christian Mitchell, and was excused be reasoun that the woman was sicke, and undertakes to compleit the band on Sunday (eight) dayes nixt.'' The same day there compeared before the same session a woman * The following minutes, taken from the records of the Session of Galston, will shew the forms of security that were given to Kirk-Sessions in 1627 for the comple- tion of marriages after proclamation : — " Compeirit William Wod and Jeane Millar, and gave in their bands of marriage to be solempnizat. For the compleating where- of, John Gebie became cautioner for the part of the said William Wod, and James Neisbit in Greinholm became cautioner for the said Jeane Millar." 8th July — " Compeirs William Muir in Bruntwood, and obleish him to compleit the band of matrimonie with Euphame Patoun, betwix and Lambes nixt." A form of caution that would not be tolerated in a modern commune was some- times exacted from the poor. In 1674, the Session of Kilmarnock ordained " that all persons poor, yett to be maried, sail before their mariage give sufticient caution not to be burdensome to the session, or els remove themselves out of the congrega- tion." + It should be stated that proclamation fees as well as consignations were returnetl when a marriage was stopped. The following minute occurs in our Session Re- cords, 16S2, January 17: — -"John Car is allowed to have his money rendred for his first proclamation, because the marriage went not on. Christina Alexander is allowed to have her consignation rendred, because the going on of ye marriage was stopped." I 146 old Chunk Life in Scotland. from " Ratchaitounc (Riccartonj, being summondit for yc same effect," and she pled a similar excuse, alleging that "yc man lately, with ane fall, brack some ribbes and his collar bone." It was rather odd, to say the least of it, that so many people in Galston should happen to fall sick, or get their " ribbes " broken, immediately after being cried in the kirk, and the session became suspicious that excuses which were so relevant might have been invented for the occasion. The elder in the Ratchartoune district was, therefore, " ordanit to try whether it (the woman's statement) was the treuth or not." The consignation money was not only a pledge that the persons to be proclaimed would complete their marriage within the time prescribed, but it was a pledge that they would com- plete the marriage without scandal.* It was laid down as a rule by the Kirk-Session of Mauchlinc, in 1676, and by many other Kirk-Sessions at different dates, that all consignations, deposited by persons craving proclamation of marriage, shall lie in the clerk's hands for the space of three quarters of a year after the marriage. And in 168 1, this resolution was specially renewed and re-minuted. The Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock were not quite so exacting. They ordained, in 1670, " that no pawnes, given in at the contracting of persons in order to marriage, shall be gevin up to the persons who married, before half a year be expyred." And when scandal arose during the period covered by the pledge, whether it were half a year or three quarters of a year, the consignation was peremptorily forfeited. Sometimes Sessions were importuned by unfor- tunates to temper justice with mercy. But it was seldom that * This custom may have been founded on the deliverance of Assembly, 1570, wliich declares that " p-.oniisc ul marriage sail be made according to the order of tiie reformed kirk to the minister, exhorter, or reader, taking caution fur abstinence till the mariaire be solemnized." Marriages in Olden Times. 147 such importunities availed. In 1681, a man made trial of the Kirk-Session of Mauchline in this way, alle^^ing that although by the strict letter of the Session's act his consignation had been legally forfeited, it was under circumstances in which he thought his offence might be overlooked. The Session, how- ever, would take no such lenient view of sin as affected by cir- cumstances, and ordered the treasurer to retain the money till he got instructions for its disposal. I have said that security or caution was sometimes accepted by Kirk-Sessions, from persons who found it inconvenient to deposit their consignations in coin. We have seen that in 1686 the kirk-officer was accepted by the Session of Mauchline as cautioner for a friend v/ho was entering the matrimonial state, and that the cautioner was made to smart for his kindness. In 1705, the farmer at Lourland was inconsiderate enough to be- come cautioner for a bridegroom, and that wicked bridegroom had the effrontery, a few months afterwards, to express his admiration of good men's simplicity and to congratulate himself on Lourland's liability. Similar misadventures doubtless occurred at Kilmarnock, for in 1695 the Kirk-Session of that town ordained that " no consignations should be trusted, and that no proclamations should go on without consignation or caution within the Session." Sometimes, however, Kirk- Sessions would not accept bonds or letters of caution from intending brides and bridegrooms, and then it must have been hard on poor folks that had no rich friends like Lourland to advance the needful pledge. In 1691, the Kirk-Session of Mauchline instructed their clerk " to take neither bond nor cautioner for consignation money, but to require that the money be laid down, to remain in his hand for the space of three quarters of ane year." The Session of Galston, the following year (1692), passed a similar resolution, that " none 148 Old C/iitnh Life in Scotland. be proclaimed till they lod^^c consignation, and that no cautioner be received."* How long this old custom of depositing, or granting bonds for, consignation money, prior to the publication of banns of marriage, continued in this parish, I am not prepared to sa)'. The custom was not abolished, by any formal act or resolution of Session, but simply fell into abeyance. It is probably not much more than a hundred years since it died out ; for, on a page at the end of a small volume of scroll minutes still ex- tant, there is a writing, under date 23rd November, 177 1, which has all the appearance of being a genuine matrimonial consig- nation bond. It is the only one I have ever seen, but I pre- sume there must be many such in existence.! There were other forms of scandal, besides the one hinted at in the foregoing remarks, for which consignations at marriage were forfeited. The Kirk-Session of Rothesay, in 1658, ordained that whoever had a piper playing at his wedding should lose his consignation. The same rule was laid down at Kilmarnock, in 1648, and at Galston, in 1635. It was customary, also, for Kirk-Sessions to appoint limits to the number of people that might be asked to a wedding. And *The Kirk-Session of Galston passed a similar acl at an earlier date. In 1629, it was " slatut and ordained, be consent of the haill sessioune, that in all tynie com- ing there sail be no caution fundin anent proclamatione of marriage, bot onlie con- sigiiatione of money, to wit ;^5 for ilk partie. " t Underneath is a verbatim copy of this very curious document. The words " conly " and " seally " are contractions for conjointly and severally. Mauchline, 23rd November, 1771. Gentlemen, Conly and seally, and nine months after date, pay to Robert Millar, Kirk Treasurer in Mauchline, the sum of Ten Pounds Scots, in case of ante-nuptial fornication or non-performance of marriage betwixt you John Stewart, in the Parish of Sorn, and Jean Black, in this Parish — this for the use of the poor of this Parish. Accept John Stewart. Accept Jean Plack. Marriages in Olden Times. 149 this rule was sometimes enforced by forfeiture of consignation, either in whole or in part, as penalty for non-observance. The Session of Fenwick, for instance, passed an act in 1647 " anent extraordinary conventions at brydals." By this Act, all con- ventions at brydals in the Parish of Fenwick were restricted to " forty persons on both sides," under the penalty of confisca- tion of half the consignation money. Some parishioners com- plained of this restriction, and one outspoken man had the hardihood to upbraid the Session for their social tyranny. That was not the way to get matters mended. " He that roars for liberty Faster binds the tyrant's power." And SO, in this case, the reviler was delated to the Session for his railing speeches, while the rigid rule of which he com- plained was enacted anew, under double penalty. The Session, so runs their minute, finding " that the abuse of extraordinary conventions at bridals doth daily continue and grow, notwith- standing that hitherto the one half of consignations has been confiscat when parties to be married did convein above forty persons on both sides, therefore, for remedying of abuses that fall out at such occasions, statutes and enacts that whoever at their marriage shall convene above forty persons on both sides, whether in the Parish or brought out of another parish, shall confiscat their whole consignation, without modification, less or more, on any pretence whatsoever." Not only, too, were conventions at weddings restricted by Sessional edicts, but charges at weddings were restricted also, and under the same form of penalty. In 1620, the Kirk-Session of Dumbarton ordained that, " in respect of the charseness of victualls, bryddell lawingis sail not exceid fyve schilling at dinner, and at supper three schilling four pennies, utherwayis the parties married to loss their consignatione." The parishioners of I50 Old Church Life in Scotland. Dundonald seem to have been subjected to a similar ordinance of moderation, for, in 1637, a bridegroom appeared before the Kirk-Session of that Parish and craved leave to " tak from the parishioners, who was to accompany him at his marriage feist, six schillins for their bridal lawin." The circumstances in his case, he avowed, were peculiar, and they fairly warranted an extra charge. The marriage was to be out of the parish. And the Kirk-Session so far acknowledged the force of this plea, that they came to terms with the bridegroom ; and, instead of exacting forfeiture f)f his whole consignation for breach of license, they allowed him to make the charge he named, upon his agreeing to pay, "out of his consignation money, the soume of 24s. to the powre." A cynical bachelor who wrote a history, and had as great a prejudice against Scottish Presbyterianism as he had against matrimony, has made a statement about marriages in Scot- land, which is worthy of quotation, as one of the curiosities of sarcasm. " In every country, it has been usual," he says, " to make merry at marriages, partly from a natural feeling, and partly, perhaps, from a notion that a contract so often produc- tive of misery might at all events begin with mirth. The Scottish clergy, however, thought otherwise. At the weddings of the poor they would allow no rejoicings ; and at the wed- dings of the rich, it was the custom for one of them to go for the express purpose of preventing an excess of gaiety." It would have been more correct if the great historian of civiliza- tion, for he is the author referred to, had said that civilization in mirth, like every other form of culture, is the slow pro- duct of time, and that it was the misordcrs and barbarism of mirth, or at least these mainly, that the Church of Scotland two hundred years ago was so zealous in her efforts to repress. Had mirth been less coarse and boisterous, and been less Marriages in Olden Times. 151 associated with drunkenness and lasciviousness, the Church would have been more tolerant than she was in respect of amusements. Besides, the Church of Scotland was not peculiar in the action she took regarding festivities at wed- dings. An English Episcopalian wrote, in 1659, "confess I do, that between the customary excess of riot and licentious dissoluteness, frequently attending nuptial solemnities, and this most dreadful mystery" (of the Lord's Supper, which was celebrated at marriages), " there seems to be a misbecoming greeting, and they suit not well together. Yet, why should the Church in her most solemn and decent establishment" (of religious offices) "be justled out by accessory abuses? Why not rather the abuses themselves reformed, so far as they stand separate from the rules of sobriety and religion ? Such, I am certain, was the discipline of the ancient fathers. It was not fit, they said, in one of the canons of a General Council, that Christians at weddings should use balls and dancing, but to dine or sup temperately, as becometh Chris- tians.* What the Church of Scotland in the seventeenth century aimed at, in her Acts anent weddings, was just the resuscitation of this old canon of the ancient Church. She wanted people to give up riots and rackets at weddings, and " dine or sup temperately, as becometh Christians ; " and with that view many acts and resolutions, all of a similar tenor, were passed at different times by different Kirk-Sessions, limiting the number of people that might be asked to penny bridals, forbidding piping or dancing either before or after supper, and discharging " loose speeches, singing of bawdy songs, and profane minstrelling," during the wedding feast. In 1658, for instance, the Kirk-Session of Rothesay, " for the better regu- * Alliance of Divine Offices, p. 297. 152 01 if Cliiiirh IJ/c in Scotland. l.itini^- of Ihc disorders tluiL falls out at penny bridells, appointed that there be no more than eight mensc at most, that there be no p\pin_L( nor promiscuous dancing under the penaltie of the parlies niarycd losing their consignation money, and that there be no sitting up to drink after ten o'clock at night under the penaltie of 40s." And the Church in Ayrshire was quite as inu'itanic in this matter as was the Church in Bute. In 1658, the Kirk-Scssion of Kilmarnock found "it most necessarie and expedient to interdyte all parties to be maryed not to convene at one mariadge more than fourtie persons at most, and that they be entertained only for one dyate, so that if they dyne, public supping is absolutely discharged." The same year, they also interdicted a certain piper from playing in any " of the congregations about at mariadges," because it was " instru- mental of much profanity and lasciviousness." And how piping should have been associated with two such apparently unconnected consequences as profanity and lasciviousness will appear from the following minute, recorded by the same Kirk- Session on the 29th July, 1658 : "The quhilk day, there being a number of vaine wantoune lasses summondit for their lasciviouse and scandalous carriadgc, in promiscuouse dancing with men, in mutual kissing and giveing ribbens as favours to the men, upon Whitsunday, in the town of Irvine, in the tyme of pir aching, . . . the forsaids women, together with the piper, confessed, and were ordered to confess their sin from the public place before the congregation." Old pipers, too, either from overflowing humour or latent profanity, were rather given to the trick of spoiling solemnities by striking up incongruous tunes: and the customs of good people in very strict times gave occasional opportunities, and even presented temptations, for this unseemly amusement. In 1642, John Kennedy, son to the goodman of Ardmillan, was delated to the Presbytery of Ayr Marriages in Olden Times. 153 " for his misbehaviour at a marriage in Cammonell, in causing a pyper to play upon his pype after dinner, in the tyme of singing of a Psalm."* And although some may think that the wedding party on this occasion were righteous over- much, in singing Psalms when merry, there can be no doubt that the " minstrelling" and dancing at marriages long ago were misorders that needed to be restrained. f It should be stated that restrictions on marriage festivities, in olden times, were sometimes enjoined on economic, fully as much as on religious, grounds. The old Scottish character was very frugal, and extravagance was reckoned much more repre- hensible than penuriousness. In 1635, which was during one of the periods of Episcopacy in the Church, the Kirk-Session of Galston, " considering how that the great multitudes of per- sons callit to br)'dells dearthis the coitrie, and taks men frae their labor,'' do therefore statute and ordain " that all marriages solemnizet in this kirk, in tyme coming, shall not exceed the number of 24 persons, twelve on everie syd, and that the brydell lawing sail not exceid the sowme of five shillings (Scots) in money. And siclyke, in respect that the minstrells and * The Marriage service in church, and in 1642 all marriages were solemnised in church, was concluded by the singing of a Psalm. It does not seem, however, to have been the singing of this church Psalm that was disturbed by the piper, but the singing of a Psalm at the wedding feast, "after dinner." tin 1752, there was printed under the title of "Scotland's Glory and her Shame," a poem which gave an account of the amusements and manners of the Scottish people. The author was grieved at the moral state of the country, and especially deplored such rude customs as penny weddings. (See Mason's Glasgow Public and Private Libraries.) For an account of dancing in 1711, see Spectator, Essay 67. Strathbogie is a place that has been long famed for its reels, and it has in recent years acquired additional celebrity in connection with ecclesiastical procedure. It is perhaps not generally known, however, that in r627 a minister was censured by his Presbytery "for making ane pennie brydall within Straithboggie to his dochter in law." So ill looked on were penny weddings a hundred years later, that the then minister of Abbey St. Bathans was "suspended for having a penny wedding in his house, which gave great scandal to the neighbourhood." — Fasti. 154 ^^^^^ Church Life in Scotland. pipers who is at brydclls is oftymcs the cause of fyghting and jarrcs ranin;.,^ out amoni^st the people, therefore the Session hes concUuht that all pypers, fidlers and uther minstrclls be dischar- t^eit frac brydells in tymc coming. And if the pairteis to be marcid does in the contrair hereof, and contraveens that act, they shall lossc their consignations, and if the hostlers bcis found to break the same they sail pey ;^5." And these Sessional acts were not dead letters. A few months after the Galston act, 1635, was passed, a newly married man appeared before the Session, and " confessit ye breck of ye actes and statutes of Sessioune concerning brydells, and was ordainit to pey his penaltie the next day. Likewyse compeired Thomas Browne, hostler, and grantit himself con- vict, and prctcndit ignorance, and was likewise decernit to pey his penaltie, to wit £^, ye nixt Sabbath." And it was not Kirk-Sessions only that restricted the size of marriage gather- ings, and the cost of marriage festivities. An Act of Parlia- ment, in 1 68 1, during the reign of that merry monarch and anti-covcnantcr Charles the Second, ordained that "at marriages, besides the married persons, their parents, children, brothers and sisters, and the families wherein they live, there shall not be present at any contract of marriage, marriage, or in-fare, or meet upon occasion thereof, above four friends on either side, with their ordinary domesticated servants, and that neither bridegroom nor bride, nor their parents or relatives, tutors or curators for them and to their use, shall make above two changes of raiment at that time or upon that occasion." * * There was perhaps need to restrain the extravagance attending marriages. In 1729, the minister of Traquair, having got into debt, was required by the Presby- tery to give an account of his losses and the unusual expenses he had been put to. One item he submitted to the reverend court was, " by courting during my widow- hood, near eight years, considering the diflFerent persons I was in quest of, and the distance of place, ^1000 !" — Fasti. Marriages in Olden Times. 155 What may seem still more strange than any of the foregoing regulations, Kirk-Sessions were sometimes importuned to pass, and they actually did pass, protective acts securing to particular persons the exclusive privilege of purveyance at marriage banquets within the parish. In 1635, there was presented to the Session of Galston " ane petitioune and supplicatioune, be the hostlers and changers of meit and drink within the claghan of Galstoune, anent the halding and keiping of brydell diners, burialls and baptismes diners in landwart with uthcr hostlers, to the hurt and prejudice of them within the said claghan." The petitioners alleged that " they durst not hazard provi- sioune, because the said hostlers in landwart rypit the most pairt of the benefite of the conventiounes foresaid, quhilk wald be the ruine and decay of the said claghan, and great detriment to ye poore ones quha gate help and supply in }'er necessitie at sic lyke meltings." This queer petition seemed to the Kirk -Session most reasonable; and that considerate and benevolent court did, therefore, "with ane consent, decerne and ordainc all baptismes, marriages and buriall diners to remain and be haldin within the said claghan in tym coming, excep- tand the personnes pairties goe home to yer awne hous." And this act, which was ordained to be put in execution at once, was appointed to stand "during the Sessioune's will and the good behaviour of the hostlers within the claghan." It is to be hoped that, under such exceptional legislation, the clachan of Galston flourished and prospered, and that its hostlers set a worthy example of Christian behaviour to all their brethren in the trade. But what of the poor " hostlers in landwart ? " Were they to go to decay both financially and spirituall}' ? What restrictions on penny weddings were imposed by the Kirk-Session of Mauchline, in the puritanic period between 1638 and 1660, I have unfortunately no mc;.ns of ascertaining, 156 Old C/iiin/i Life in Scotland. for the simple reason that our parish records do not extend Ijack tcj that period. The Session of Mauchh'ne doubtless did then as Kirk-Sessions in other covenantinc^ parishes ditl. Ikit, conu'nt^ down to a later date, we find that whether allowed by the Kirk-Session or not, there were in Mauchlinc considerable jollifications over marriages.* The orgies began with the contract or ingiving of the names. A few of the most convivial friends of the bride and bridegroom met on such occasions in one of the village alehouses, and sent for the Session-clerk The business on hand was soon despatched, bickers of beer were called for, and toasts and sentiments followed. Under the inspiring influence of generous liquor, imprisoned spirits were let loose, wit was wakened and affection kindled, song succeeded song, and the jollit}' at times went beyond ecclesias- tical notions of decorum. In 1755, Daddy Auld and the Kirk- Session were, to use a cant phrase, "exercised " on the subject, and minuted, that whereas " upon meetings commonly called giving in names for marriages, there sometimes happens revell- ing and drunkenness with other abuses, they think it their duty to testify against the same, and, in order to prevent such offensive behaviour, ordain that the persons proposing marriage shall signify t/ieir purpose to the minister, who shall cause proclaim the same before the congregation, and the precentor is hereby forbidden proclaim any without a line or order from the minister, and this is to be intimated from the pulpit."' It is just possible that this resolution of the Kirk-Session of Mauchline, in 1755, throws a side light on the General * It is alleged that in 1723 Mr. Wyllie of Clackmannan said in a sermon: — "There is a young generation got up worse than their fathers, they have dancing at their contracts. They'll provoke God to blast their marriage and lessen their affec- tion for one another. Some idie vagabonds came to the town with fiddles. Put them out of the town and break their fiddles, and I'll pay them." — Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed. Marriages iii Olden Times. 157 Assembly's Act of similar import thirty years later. The proclamation of banns by Session-Clerks, without previous sanction from the minister, may have been found an evil, not merely because names were now and again banned in sport, but because discreditable scenes of uproarious revelry arose out of sederunts with clerks in the alehouse.* Considering what was the object of proclaiming purposes of marriage, none will be surprised to hear that banns of marriage have been often sisted or stopped. They have been sisted or stopped, too, for many different reasons. In the First Book of Discipline, it is said that marriages should not be proceeded with till either the parents of the parties de- siring marriage give their consent, or it be found that there is no reasonable cause for the parents' withholding consent. The Westminster Directory says that the consent of parents or guardians should be obtained to the first marriage of children, and especially if the children be under age. Pardovan in the beginning of last century, declared that such consent is necessar}^ " iieeessitate praecepti sed non necessitate inedii,'' whatever that may mean beyond what could have been expressed in plain English. There are cases on record, therefore, in which procla- mations of marriage have been sisted or stopped, or attempted to be stopped, by parents and guardians, on the ground that parental or tutorial consent had not been given to the proposed union. In i6i4,the minister of Kirkintillochwooed and purposed to nuirry the daughter of one of the city ministers of Glasgow. The bride's father was dead, and her curators attempted to prevent the marriage. The case came before the Presbytery * la 1716, the Kirk-Session of Monkton, "finding that people, in giving in their names to fie proclaimed in order to marriage, sit frequently too late upon the Saturday night att drink, and incroatch upon the Lord's day, therefore they ha\c made an Act discharging any bookings to be upon the Saturday, in all tymc coming. ' 158 Old Church Life in Scotland. of rilasL^ow, but the Presbytery told the curators that they " hail no place to stay the marriage, and ordained the said Janet to betak herself to some of the ministers' houses that are within the town, quhich it sail please her to choose, till the solemnization of her marriage." In 164S, one John Shaw, de- scribed as merchant in Straiton, gave in a petition to the Pres- bytery of Ayr, that " his proclamation of marriage, which wes stayed in Mayboill, might go on with Katharine Girvan there." It is stated, however, in the Presbytery records, that "in respect that John Kennedy, notare in Mayboill, father-in-law to the said Katharine, gave in reasons why the said proclamation of marriage ought to be stayed, the Presbyterie delayed the matter till the next meeting ; and, in the mean time, ordained John Kennedy his said bill and reasons therein contained to be sub- scry vcd by his wyf, the mother of the said Katharine, and a coppie thereof to be deliverd to the said John Schawcomplainer." These cases shew that parents and curators were not allowed, without just and sufficient reasons, to hinder the marriage of their children or wards ; but that, in the words of the First Book of Discipline, when the ministry find no just cause why the marriage may not be fulfilled, they may enter in the place of parents, and allow the marriage to proceed.* In 1704, the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock " ordered Archibald Fulton, and Margaret Wilson's proclamation to be stopped, in regard his parents were against it.f It is possible and probable, although * The Westminster Directory says that "Parents ought not to force their children to marry without their free consent, nor deny their own consent without just cause." t In 1744, the Presbytery of Irvine drew up an overture, for transmission to the General Assembly, with the view of repressing irregular marriages. The first clause in the overture was a proposal "that any person, x\oi /oris /amiliiU, who marries irregularly, without advising with his or her parents or using any proper means to obtain their consent, shall be publicly rebuked for such a plain contemp of the Fifth Commandment." Marriages in Olden Times. 159 not declared in their minute, that the Session in this instance found the opposition to the marriage reasonable, and that this was the ground on which the proclamation was stopped. In 17 1 2, a session-clerk at Galston, who had the previous year been found by the Presbytery of Ayr " incompetent to teach a Latin school," had the good fortune to win for himself an honourable degree in courtship, by engaging the heart and hand of a blooming and well-to-do widow. Bent on immediate mat- rimony, he besought the minister to publish his banns, but the minister, at the earnest entreaty of the bride's nearest relatives, declined to order proclamation. Instead of seeking redress at the hands of the Presbytery, w'hom perhaps from his ignorance of Latin he feared to approach, the clerk had recourse to a number of expedients, of which it need only be said that each successive one was more foolish than the one before. Having failed by courteous request to induce the minister to order proclamation, he tried the effect of menace : and "by a public instrument in the hands of a nottar" required the minister to proclaim. This requisition being fruitless, he next went with the same formidable instrument to the beadle and required that functionary to read the proclamation. The beadle refused to do what the minister had declined to do, and the irate clerk had to think of some other device. He betook himself, therefore, to one John Smith in Killknow, and desired John to publish the banns, which John did at the beginning of divine service on two successive Sabbaths. It was now the minister's turn to take action, and this he did in a way that must have frightened the schoolmaster. The matter was brought before the Presbytery. And the sentence of the Pres- bytery shews that the clerk, notwithstanding the objections of bride's relatives, might have got himself proclaimed and married with very little trouble, if he had gone about the busi- l6o Old Cliiinh Life in Scot/and. ncss in a sen iiblc manner. J5ut a scandal had been created by his conduct ; and so, in the first place, Smith, whose behaviour was pronounced " most offensive and a great profanation of the Lord's da\-," was sentenced to public rebuke, and in the next place, the clerk Tcvr.f deprived of his clerkship for his disorderly proceedings. The proclamation, however, was appointed to be orderly made three several Sabbaths, by the church officer, on a warrant from the Presbytery. And so, the wedding came off at length, and possibly ended as marriages mostly do, happily enough, notwithstanding its cold and joyless beginning. Although a delicate subject to speak upon. I cannot pass over the outstanding, but now much-forgotten fact, that in very old times proclamation of intended marriage was re- fused when either of the parties was found to be under scan- dal. In the First Book of Discipline it is stated that "if any commit fornication with that woman he requires in marriage, they do lose this foresaid benefit, as well of the kirk as of the magistrate, for neither of both ought to be intercessors or advocats for filthy fornicators." * This statement enables us to understand the grounds on which the Kirk-Session of Perth, in 1585, ordained " that all persons to be married give their oath the night before, under pain of 40s. Scots, or make their repen- tance public on the stool." In the older records of Galston parish (1633, for example), instances are frequent of men compearing before the Kirk-Session, and " purging " themselves of sinful dealings with particular women. In 1671, two persons having purpose of marriage, and " being slandered by some of their relations," appeared before the Kirk-Session of Galston, and offered "to purge themselves by oath.'' In 1677, two * In 1565, the General Assembly enacted that "such as lye in sin under promise of marriage, deferring the solemnization, should satisfy publicly, in the place of re- pentance upon the Lord's day before they be married.'' Marriages in Olden Times. l6l other persons appeared before the same Session, " and de- sired to give their oath that they were free of carnal dealing with others, and declaring solemnly that they were free of each other." The Session, it is added, "ordained them to be married, without giving of oaths as formerly was thought fit."* An equally conspicuous zeal for purity was shewn at Mauch- line in old times. In 1673, John Ronald's proclamation of marriage was ordered to be sisted, till he cleared himself of an alleged scandal.f Even in large towns like Kilmarnock similar proceedings were adopted. In 1699, two persons who had been living in sin compeared before the Kirk-Session of that town, and were subjected in the usual way to censure and penalty. But it is added, in the minute of their case, that they " suppli- cated the Session for the benefit of proclamation in order to marriage, which was granted, provided they would find bail to * As an illustration of old forms of procedure before marriage, the following minute in the records of (ialston Session may be here quoted. The date of the minute is 1644. "Compeirit Johne Gemill in Allantone, and purgeit himself, be his oath, that he was free of anie carnall deall with Agnes Andersone. And he and the said Agnes actis themselves to abstein frae all suspect places, and that they sail not keip house together all nyght until the tyme of the mariage, and that under the penaltie of ten punds each of thame in case they failzie, and hes given comand to subscryve this Act for them. '"Hector Campbell, notar, at comand." + In 1595, the Kirk-Session of Perth required a man "to declare his public repentance before his marriage, because that these years by past he gave himself out for a fool and profane sporter, walking in a foolish garment and playing tbe counterleit man, which is slanderous." When women played the counterfeit man at Perth it fared still worse with them. In 1632, "a servant lass was accused of indecent wantonness in putting on men's clothes upon her. She answered that she simply drew upon her a pair of breeks, and cast them immediately, and promised never to do the like hereafter. She is committed to ward, therein to remain the space of three hours." Sessions were equally diligent in their efforts to prevent scandal. In 1621, " delation was made (to the Xirk-Session of Perth) that Janet Watson holds ane house by herself, where she may give occasion of slander, therefore I'. Pitcairne, Elder, is ordained to admonish her in the Session's name either to marry or pass to service. I62 Old Church Life in Scotland. fulfil tiu'ir [Ji-oiniscs in satisfyinf^ the church." A still more remarkable case occurred at Kilmarnock fifty years before the one now narrated. A Craigie man, named John Paton, was, in November 1648, ordered to begin his course of public repen- tance for the sin of killing his sister. This cour.se of repentance should, according to an Act of Assembly passed that very year, have lasted fifty-two Sabbaths, " in case the magistrate did not his duty in punishing the crime capitally." John, however, accomplished his work of repentance long within the prescribed time ; and in February, 1649, he was permitted to receive the covenant, and then in March following he " was licensed by the Session to have the bencfite of ye communion, and marriage, as occasion should serve, lyk the rest of the parochioners." It is quite clear, therefore, that marriage with religious solemnities and sacerdotal benediction, although not held to be a sacra- ment, was in olden times regarded in Scotland as a Christian privilege, to which none but persons within the church and free from scandal should have access. And such I am more than half inclined to think should still be the case. There would be no hardship in such an ecclesiastical rule, because there is now provided for those that do not profess to be Christians, or that disgrace the name of Christianity by unhallowed lives, a form of civil marriage, which is as binding as the conjunction rati- fied by the Church.* * In 1620, the Kirk-.Scssion of Dumbarton, having heard a fama regarding two persons, "already proclaimed and to be married on Tuesday next,"' challenged ihem with the scandal and obtained from them a confession of guilt. In respect, however, of "tlie preparation of the marriage banquet, and that they were so long of challenging,"' the Kirk -Session appointed the parties to "crave pardon the day of their marriage,"' and appear in the place of repentance the Sabbath following. In 1636, the Synod of Fife refused the privilege of marriage to a man and woman, because the man had broken the seventh commandment with her, during the life- time of his first wife. As recently as 1779, a similar case was referred by the Kirk- Session of Kilwinning to the I'resbytery of Irvine for advice, and the Presbyter)-, Marriages tn Olden Times. I63 During the early days of the Reformed Church in Scotland, the privilege of Christian marriage was regularly refused to all that were not " indifferentlie weill instructed in the chief points of the Christian religion." It was a very common ordinance of Kirk-Sessions that none be received to complete the band of matrimony, till they rehearse, to the reader or minister, the Lord's prayer, the creed, and the ten commandments. And either a consignation was demanded in pledge of the fulfilment of this requirement or a fine was exacted in case of failure. In the Session records of Monifieth for 1564 an entry occurs, shewing that " Andro Findlay and Elspet Hardie ratified the contract of marriage: and the said Andro promised to have the creed before the solemnisation of the marriage, and the commandments before the ministration of the Lord's Supper, under the pain of other five merks."* And not only was a certain amount of Christian knowledge required of all candi- dates for matrimony, but in some cases Kirk-Sessions insisted on regular attendance on public ordinances. As recently as 1700, the Kirk-Session of Galston, "considering that there were some who lived still within the parish, who did not join with the congregation in public worship, nor submit themselves to "as the case was new to them, and they found some difficuUy therein, agreed to refer it to the Synod." The published records of the Presbytery of Strathbogie shew that in 1644 (a I'resbyterian period) ministers were faulted for marrying persons under scandal, and the records of the vSynod of Galloway shew that in 166S (an Episcopal period), the minister of Buittle was suspended from the exercise of his ministry for two ofilences, one of which was "drinking with Caigton upon the Lord's day in the time of divine service, when he himself ought to have been preaching," and the other was, granting the benefit of marriage to a man lying under gross scandal. * In 1578, the minister and elders of Perth, " perceiving that those who compear before the Asembly (i.e., the Kirk .Session) to give up their banns for marriage are almost ifltogether ignorant, and misknow the causes why they should marry, ordain all such, first, to compear before the reader for the time, to be instructed in the true knowledge of the causes ot marriage." 164 Old Cininh Life in Scotlaiid. discipline, and yet cravctl common privileges of members of this congregation, such as proclamation in order to marriage, concluded that none such should have privileges, until they should engadge to live orderly for the time to come." And it is added that there compeared before the Session, that same day, one of the persons referred to as dishaunting ordinances, and who craved to be proclaimed in order to marriage. The Sessions resolution was intimated to him ; whereupon, he " engadged, through God's grace, to live orderly and to wait upon gospel ordinances more particularly, and was then alloived to be proclaimed." In the Westminster Directory, pre-contract is mentioned as one of the impediments to marriage. At the present day it is not customary to impede marriages on this ground. Dis- appointed and injured lovers seek their solace and revenge, for breach of promise, by actions for damages in the Civil Courts. But, at one time, contracted parties occasionally refused to set each other free,* and if either of them got proclaimed to some * Some people maintained that a promise of marriage was more than a civil con- tract, that it was a "covenant of God," and could not be dissolved. (See Minutes of Westminster Assembly, p. 7. ) Luther said that when a man made a promise to marry a maid two years hence, he must at the end of that time marry her, and it was not in his power to alter his mind in the interval. The Church of Scotland did not adopt these views. In 1570, the General Assembly declared that parties desiring to resile from a contract of marriage should, if nothing had followed on the contract, be set free! Documents called "discharge of marriage" were often given in to church courts, and were sustained, if only wrong without previous contract of marriage, or contract without subsequent wrong, had taken place. A man, in 1570, went to the General Assembly, and "suted liberty to marrie. " For three or four years he had craved that privilege from " his awin particular kirk," but had been refused the privilege, unless he would take for his wife an old servant whom he had wronged. He produced a discharge from the servant, but the Kirk-Session disre- garded the document. The General Assembly, however, sustained his appeal, ordered him to have the liberty he craved, and added in their finding, "yea, and there is injury done to him already." In 1688, a man, who had a promise of mar- riage from a certain damsel, \\hose Christian name was Margaret, appeared before the Presbytery of Irvine, "and did discharge the said Margaret of any such promise, Marriages in Olden Times. 165 one else the other tried to sist the proclamation. In 1689, one John Meikle, described as servant to the laird of Galston, was cited to compear before the Presbytery of Ayr, to declare why he impeded the marriage of Janet Campbell in the Parish of Riccarton. John had been previously engaged to Janet, or rather Janet had been engaged to him, and that was the reason why he objected to her marrying another man. In a written paper, however, which he gave in to the Presbytery, he generously condescended " to pass from any claim of promise, and said that he would never marry any woman against her will." The Presbytery, thereupon, found and discerned that Janet was at liberty "to marry any other free man." In Mauchline, a still stranger case than this occurred. In 1777, a woman made application to the Kirk-Session to have her proclamation stopped, because she had changed her mind, "and was now engaged to proceed in marriage with another person." But her first lover claimed her as his by the covenant of God, and urged the Session to proceed with the proclamation. The Kirk-Session did not admit the claim. They remembered the consignation theory, and held that the engagement was not in- dissoluble, but that parties might resile, under penalties, before the fatal knot was tied. The proclamation was, therefore, ordered to be stopped ; and in justification of their conduct, the Session minuted that " there would be an obvious impropriety in proceeding further in the proclamation, after being certified by the woman of her resolution not to marry the petitioner." There have been cases, again, in which proclamations were sisted, not on the ground merely of precontract, but on re- port that one of the parties was already married. And, that such cases should have occurred is not to be wondered at. One and allow her to marry whom and when she pleased, which discharge was presented to the meeting, and returned to the said Margaret." iCC Old Church Ufc in Scotland. of the main objects of marriage banns is to prevent bigamous alliances, and such alhanccs have been consummated, notwith- standing the fact tliat marriage banns were ];)reviously pub- lislu'd. That ihc publication of banns, therefore, should have prevented the execution of some bigamous projects is only what might have been expected. And when Kirk-Sessions had sufficient evidence that one of the parties craving marriage was aH'cady a married person, their course was clear. The procla- mation had to be stopped. But when there was only a rumour, or report, that one of the parties seeking proclamation of marriage was already married, the Kirk-Session sisted procla- mation, inquired into the matter, heard evidence, and when the evidence was found conclusive, one way or another, proceeded with the proclamation or stopped it altogether. And when evidence was conflicting, and no clear conclusion could be come to. Sessions just did as they did in cases of doubtful scandal : they sisted procedure till Providence should shed further light on the subject. A notable instance of such sisted procedure occurred at Mauchline, in 1771. A woman, whose name we shall say was Mary Gray, was proclaimed for the first of the three requisite times, on the 17th November of that year. A story then came out that Mary had previously been wedded to a sailor. The proclamation was at once sisted, and Mary was summoned to appear before the Session. One meeting of Session did not suffice to make matters clear. Several meetings were held, and a great deal of evidence pro and con was ad- duced and discussed. Some witnesses deponed that Mary had shewn marriage lines, and that these were subscribed by a person named Wodrow. Other witnesses deponed that they saw the sailor himself write marriage lines for Mar\-, which was about equal to saying that the signature "Wodrow" was either a forgery or a frolic. With such eastward and westward Marriages i7i Olden Times. 167 evidence, the Session were in a quandary, and they concluded that, in order to remove all impediments to her proclamation, Mary should be required to produce a letter from her alleged husband, " signifying that he had no claim to her as his wife." Doubtful policy, it may be said, but we are not here concerned with questions of policy. We are simply in quest of facts explanatory of Sessional procedure. And the fact we have ascertained is that the Session would have accepted the sailor's disclaimer as the charter of Mary's freedom. But, such a letter as the Session desiderated was not easily got ; for, the alleged husband had gone off on a voyage, no one knew where. Whole four years Mary had thus to remain under "scandal," and was interdicted from entering into any matrimonial project. The roses began to fade on her cheeks, and the lustre to leave her eyes ; and she saw that, if ever her reproach were to be taken away, and she were " to be clothed with ane husband," there would need to be no more time lost. She, accordingly, presented herself before the Kirk-Session in August 1775, and craved to be freed from the scandal of having made an irregular marriage with a sailor. The Session minuted that, having taken into consideration " the distance of time when this was alleged, and the depositions of two witnesses" (who had sworn that Mary and the sailor had only joked about marriage, and called themselves husband and wife in jest) she should be absolved from her scandal, and exhorted to behave more prudently in time coming. I have not traced the future career of Ma'-y, but it may be questioned if she ever got another chance of shewing imprudence. And I make this remark, not with the view of turning her sorrow into ridicule, but of denouncing the hardship which the law, or the supposed law, of the land or of the Church, inflicted on ignorant people, who (lid not know the import of what they were doing. This just l68 Old C/iiinh Life in Scotland. means that the law on marriatje should be very explicit, and that prescribed formalities of a very definite character, whether civil or rclii^ious, should be c^one through before marriage can be legally constituted.* Of course, it was requisite that people proclaimed, in order to marriage, should be of age, and should not be within the forbidden circle of relationship. On the subject of age, the Church in olden times was extremely liberal. The General Assembly in 1600, considering, that " there is no statute of the Kirk, . . . defining the age of persons which are to be married, ordained that no minister within this realm presume to join in matrimony any persons in time coming, except the man be fourteen years of age, and the woman twelve complete !"t In the matter of forbidden degrees, the Church was extremely rigorous. In 17 13, the minister of Stair refused to marry a couple, who had been duly proclaimed, because the * The following case came before the Presbytery of Irvine in 1737. A man who was claimed by one woman was proclaimed with another. The claimant alleged " that in the end of harvest, four years, one night he and she met in a glen, . . and repeated the words of the marriage oath to one another ; and that, as there were no witnesses present, the said Robert took heaven and earth to witness, also the moon and stars, wishing they might never shine upon him, and that he might never see the face of God in mercy, if he did not observe his marriage engadgment. She also produced a Bible which then Robert gave her, adding that they did this in order the better to assert a story, which they had trumped up, that they were married by a Curate, etc." The man denied the woman's statement ; and the Kirk- Session, before whom the case came in the first instance, referred the matter to the Presbytery for advice, "as being somewhat uncommon, and attended with some difficulty." The Presbytery ordered the Session to deal with the man, and, if no new light were obtained by such dealing, to put him on oath. This was done ; and the man, having purged himself of the accusation by his own oath, was allowed to proceed with his proclamation. Two things were here implied, — first, that in the opinion of the Presbytery the alleged proceedings in the glen would, if acknow- ledged, have constituted a marriage ; and secondly, that for want of confirmator}- evidence, either party could have sworn himself or herself out of a marriage that was really completed. The former of these implications should have been dis- allowed by the law, and the other should have been made impossible. t The same ages are named in the First Book of Discipline. Marriages in Olden 1 inies. i6g man was grand-uncle to the bride. The minister's refusal was reported to the Presbytery, and the Presbytery confirmed it, with an emphatic declaration that " such a marriage would be incestuous."* Incestuous or not incestuous, however, the wonder is that any young lady would have consented to be proclaimed to her grand-uncle. And this leads me to remark that proclamations have sometimes been made without the knowledge of the lady who was chiefly interested. A practical joke of this sort was perpetrated in Mauchline church in 1778. The lady, resenting the liberty taken with her name, complained to the Session ; f and the Session, to mend matters, ordered their clerk " to publish, next Lord's day, that the proclama- tion was occasioned by a false report or mistake." They also minuted a resolution, that, " no proclamation of Banns in order to marriage shall hereafter be made, without sufficient evidence of the consent of both parties." And the evidence of mutual consent that, from time immemorial, has been required in this parish, is a warrant for proclamation, signed by the ingivers of names. This procedure enables the Kirk-Session to bring up for censure all persons under their jurisdiction, who shall be guilty of deceit in such an important matter, and enables those banned without consent to take action in the Civil Courts for damages, t * In 1731, an irregular marriage was reported to the Presbytery of Ayr. The banns had been forbidden, because the woman's first husband was grand-uncle to her new bridegroom. The lovers made off for Carlisle and got married there irregularly. The Presbytery pronounced the happy pair "guilty of incest," and discharged them from living together. This Presbyterial interdict was disregarded, and excommunication followed. t Our grim forefathers were rather fond of practical jokes of this kind. In 1 760, a man was summoned before the Kirk-Session of Kirkoswald. and afterwards before the Presbytery of Ayr, for "giving in the name of Thomas M'Harvey to be prayed for in the Congregation, as a man in great distress of mind, which was done, not- withstanding that the said Thomas M'Harvey was in perfect health." For this act of jocular spleen the Kirkoswald humourist had to stand a Presbyterial rebuke. X Of course a register of these warrants is kept. And such registers have been in 170 01 (^ Cliunli Life in Scotland. It may surprise some people to be told that the written law of the Church of Scotland has always required the solemnisation of marriaj^c to be publicly conducted in church. In the First Book of Discipline, it was declared that, " in a reformed kirk, marriacfe is not to be secretely used, but in open face and public audience of the kirk ; and the Sunday before noon we think most expedient." In 1581, the General Assembly "concludit, be common con.sent of the haill brethren, that in tymes coming' no marriac;^e be celebrat, nor sacraments mini.strate, in private houses, but solemnlie, according to good order hitherto obscrvit' In the Westminster Assembly there was an interesting dis- cussion about marriage, which is briefly narrated in the published minutes of that convention. " Many stumble at the point of marriage," said Mr. Goodwin, the Independent, " because it is appropriated to the ministry, whereas in the Old Testament it was appropriated to the rulers of the city." " I should be very sorry," replied the Earl of Pembroke, who was sitting there as a commissioner from the English Parliament, " that any child of mine should be married without a religious solemnit}' by a minister." "It undoubtedly belongs to the state," said Mr. Calamy, "to declare what will constitute a legal and valid marri- age ; but, if we advise a solemnisation of it in public we shall do God a good service." The outcome of the discussion was that the Westminster Assembly, while declaring that marriage is not a sacramentj judged it expedient that marriages should be solemnised by a lawful minister of the Word, in the place appointed for public worship, and before a competent number of credible witnesses. But, unlike John Knox, the Westminster use in the Church (if Scotland for a very long time. In 1676, the Session of Galston minuted an appointment that "the tynie of the receiving the consignation, and of the marriage, be marked severally, in a leaf of the Session book."' Marriages in Olden Times. 17 1 Divines advised that marriage should not be solemnised on the Lord's day,* and forbade that it should be solemnised on any day of public humiliation.! The conclusion of the Westminster Assembly, on the subject of marriage, was regarded by Baillie as a great victory for the representatives of the Scottish Church. " After two days' tough debate, and great appearance of irre- concileable difference, we have, thanks to God," he says, " gotten the Independents satisfied, and ane unanimous consent of all the Assemblie that marriage shall be celebrate only by the minister, and that in the church, after our fashion." | The Westminster Directory was adopted by the General Assembly in 1645, ^"d, in terms of the advice given in that Directory, marriages in Scotland came to be generally solem- * As far hack as 1627, the minister of Ayr made public intimation "yat nane should desire him to marrie thame upone onyie Sabhothe daye hereftir, because of ye great prophanitie yat followes." Farther back still, in 1584, the Kirk-Session of Perth minuted, that, " forasmeikle as sundry poor desire to in landward, because they have not to buy their clothes, nor to make bridals, marriages should be as well celebrated on Thursday, within our Parish kirk in time of sermon, as on Sunday.'' + It was an old law in the Church of Scotland that marriages should not be solemnised on a Fast day. In 15S0, a young couple at Perth were ordered to make public repentance and pay a fine, " because, in time of our public humiliation and fasting, they passed up at once to their feasting and solemnising of marriage, con- trary to all good order." On the occasion of the King's setting sail to Denmark, in 1589, in quest of a wife, the Kirk-Session of Perth, considering it their "bounden duty to be instant in prayer for the King's Majestie, that God would send him ane happy voyage through the sea and ane joyful returning to this country' again with his Queen, . . thought good (28th Oct.) that Sunday next, and all other Sun- days as shall be thought meet, ane fast shall be kept, and that the same may more solemnly be done, no marriages to be used in the time." X Baillie's Letters, Vol. II., p. 243. " Noble Mr. Vines," as Baillie terms that gentleman, contended that marriage maybe celebrated by candle light as well as by day light," and " in a chamber as well a? a church." Minutes of Ass., p. 12. It may be here mentioned that in the ancient Catholic Church the custom was for bridegroom and bride to place themselves "at the church door, where the Priest (lim the pulpit how indecent . . such an abuse was." They likewise applied to the Civil Judge to suppress the scandal, and obtained "an Act of Court" prohibit- ing under severe penalties all fiddling at Leickwakes in time coming. — See Scottish Church, March, 1SS6. Baptisms and Burials in Olden Times. 24 1 be supposed that the tobacco and pipes here referred to were meant for the entertainment of the watchers. If so, great must have been the Hberality of the old Kirk-Session of Mauchline, in 1675. But such liberaHty on the part of strait- laced Covenanters is simply incredible, and we must look for some more feasible construction to put on the words of the entry. It is certain that, whatever may have been the custom two hundred years ago, it was quite common one hundred years ago to distribute pipes and tobacco to the company at funerals. The centenarian I have so often referred to used to tell that, in her youth, she had witnessed this custom ; and that " the pipes, being stuck by the men into the bands of their hats, gave a very odd appearance to the procession, as it filed along to the kirk -yard." And it is matter of current tradition that, a hun- dred years ago, it was customary in this part of the countr}', when a death took place, for one or two women to be set to watch the corpse by night. The object of this watch was not to guard the soulless body from dishonour, at the hands of vagrant evil spirits ; but to protect it from mutilation by rats and cats. And an occupation frequently provided for these female warders, during these weird weary nights, was to prime the pipes for the funeral. It is not unlikely, therefore, that the 3s. put down in our Session books, in 1675, to the cost of a wake, was only part of the modest funeral expenses of two friendless paupers. The custom, still prevalent in Ayrshire, of having a number of friends and neighbours convened at coffinings is sometimes represented as a relic of the old Popish lykewakes. It may be so, but I rather think not. In 1686, an Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament, that, with a view to encourage the manu- facture of linen, no corpse should be dressed for burial in any shirt or sheet except of plain linen, made and spun within the 242 Old C/iiin/i fJ/c in Scot/and. kingdom, without lace or point. In 1707, this statute was not simply recalled or repealed, but it was more nearly reversed. The use of Scotch linen for winding sheets was prohibited, and good loyal subjects were ordered to array the corpses of their friends in plain woollen cloth. Hut, whether in linen or in woollen cloth, corpses had in old times to be wound in some specified material, and in no (jthcr. Care had to be taken, therefore, that this instruction was duly attended to. Another Act of Parliament was accordingly passed, in 1695, ordaining that "the nearest elder or deacon of the Paroch, with one neighbour or two, be called by the persons concerned, and present to the putting of the dead corps in the coffin, that they may see the same done : and that the foresaid (order anent the winding sheet) be observed." The coffining of a corpse is no more a religious service than is the washing or dressing of the corpse ; and the presence of a minister or elder on the occasion, with or without one or two neighbours, is not a thing that either the law of the Church or the nature of the operation on hand requires. It seems to me that ceremonial coffinings, when no practical object is to be served by them, is an unnecessary stimulation of grief ; and that, although they include a service of prayer, which at any time and on any occasion is a thing that is good, they might, without any dis- advantage or impropriety, be abandoned, especially since there is now, whenever it is in the minister's power to be present, devotional exercise in the house of the deceased on the day of burial. The real cause for an elder's presence at coffinings long ago was to see that the corpse was sheeted according to law ; and the elder attended for that purpose, not so much in his ecclesiastical as in his quasi constabular capacity. He was called in, simply, as the most convenient public official to act as inspector or policeman, and report. Baptisms and Burials in Olden Times. 243 In the Session Records of Mauchline there is an entry, of date 28th December, 1675, which is open to two different con- structions. It records a resolution or ordinance of the Kirk- Session, " that none hereafter shall take upon them to buy a cofine to any poore that shall die heirafter in this Paroch with- out consent of the Session." I shall not make any hyper- critical remarks on the structure of this minute, as if it meant to say (what it actually does say) that if any poor people should die in the Parish witJiotit consent of the Session, they should, for such contempt of ecclesiastical authority, be de- prived of the honours of coffining altogether. I shall assume that what the Session meant to say was, that no coffin should, without consent of the Session, be purchased at the Session's cost, for the interment of any poor person who should die in the Parish. But what does that mean ? It may mean that no individual elder was to order a coffin at the Session's expense, without the Session's consent. Such resolutions had often to be passed by Kirk-Sessions to restrain the indiscriminate liber- ality of some of their members. No farther back than 175 5? the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock ordained that "coffins were not to be allowed by single elders, but by the whole Session : and coffins were not to be granted when there were clothes and other effects belonging to the deceased, that if roupcd could provide a coffin." There is another construction, however, that may be put on the Mauchline resolution of 1675. The Session may have meant that the poor were to be buried without coffins. And this construction is to some extent supported by other entries in the Session Records. These records date from Deer. 1669, and for the first six years thereafter, ending Deer. 1675, they contain, so far as I have noticed, only three entriesof payment for coffins. In Feb. 1674, there was " givin for a coffinc and sheet 244 Old C'/iiiirh Life in Scollmid. to William Saurc, £df los. ; " and in April, 1675, there was given for a coffin to a child, i' of Ayr, " 1643, Feb. 22, Mr. Alexander Blair expectant preached his popular sermon in relation to his calling to the ministerie of the Kirk of Galston, was removed, censured, and fully approven thairin by the brethren. . . . And thairfore it was enacted that Edict suld be given out unto him to be served and used at the kirk of Galston, the nixt Lord's day, according to order . . . March 8th, Mr. A. B. returned his edict orderlie served, and endorsat by Hector Campbell, nottar in Galston." (No objectors ap- peared). "Whereupon the Presbyterie appointed" (five of their number) "as commissionars from them to admit and give imposition of hands to the said Mr, A, Ministers of Mauchline^ i6j6-i8oo. 359 Episcopalians. They were men of a different stamp from the stern and serious Covenanters they supplanted, and they never acquired any hold of the congregations to which they minis- tered.* It was, of course, their misfortune to belong to a party that was ill looked on, and they may have been misjudged and hated without a cause. But it is a fact that they were particu- larly unpopular in their own parishes. During the anarchy which followed the abdication of James II., at the end of 1688, when the " rabble " took the work of reformation in hand, they were every one evicted by their parishioners. Mr. Simpson, on a cold winter day, was taken out of his manse, treated to an hour's parley with his head uncovered, then marched across the water of Irvine, and told to be gone for ever from Galston. Mr. Watson, of Auchinleck, fared worse. His settlement, in 1684, had been effected by three troops of dragoons, and his removal was enforced, in a like military style, by swords and staves. A band of nearly a hundred men, all armed, invaded his manse, dragged him out to the church-yard, interdicted him from ever preaching again in the church, and to complete his humiliation tore his gown into tatters. f These parochial rebellions arc in B. to the ministerie and cure of the Kirk of Galston. . . . March 22d. This day report was maid to the Presbyterie that according to their ordinance Mr. A. B. was admitted to the ministerie of the Kirk of Galston ; whereupon the brethren gave him the right hand of fellowship." The Induction of Mr. Wyllie to the parish of Mauchline in 1646, was in like manner entrusted to a committee, who afterwards reported to the Presbytery his admission. * Bishop Burnet says of the curates who were placed in Parish Churches in Scot- land, during the time of the persecutions, that " they were the worst preachers I ever heard, they were ignorant to a reproach : and many of them were openly vicious," etc. etc. The former incumbents however, who were for the most part Protesters, like Mr. Veitch and Mr. Wyllie, " were a grave sort of people. Their spirits were eager and their tempers sour, but they had an appearance that created respect." This is very important testimony from one who was himself a con- formist. t Some of the curates were much more roughly and shamefully handled than either Mr. Simpson or Mr. Watson. The incumbent at Tinwald, after being rabbled, 360 Old CIntrch Life in Scotland. no way to be commended or applauded, but they show how intense was the fceh'ng of aversion with which Episcopacy was regarded in Ayrshire. And it will be seen that, on being in- ducted into Mauchline, in room of a respected and zealous Covenanter like Mr. Veitch (who was exalted in the eyes of his parishioners by the persecutions he endured), and at the hands of such time-servers as Messrs. Simpson, Watson and Blair were rightly or wrongly accounted, Mr. Meldrum did not commence his ministry here under favourable auspices, but must have had many prejudices to remove by a prudent walk and conversation. The first piece of work Mr. Meldrum had to do in Mauchline was to choose a Kirk-Session. The way in which elders are at the present day, and have from time immemorial been, appointed to their office, in the Church of Scotland, is well known. They are first elected by the existing Kirk-Session (or if there be no Kirk-Session, by a Committee of Presbytery), either with or without advice of the congregation ; * their names are next announced from the pulpit, that members of the congregation may have opportunity of objecting to the ordination of the persons named ; and then, if no objections are offered and found valid, the ordination is appointed to take place. In the spring of 1684, however, an erastian and tyran- nical proclamation was published by the King, with advice of attempted to re-possess his Manse, whereupon, he was assailed by a mob of women, " who tore his coat and shirt off him, and had done so with his breeches, but that he pleaded with them from their modesty.'" Fasti. * In 1842, an Act of Assembly was passed, by which the nomination of persons for the eldership was " transferred to the people, and the Session were placed in the somewhat invidious position of being possibly compelled to vindicate the purity of the eldership by the rejection of parties unanimously approved of by the congre- gation." (Cook's Styles of Writs etc., p. lo.) Complaints of the working of this Act, says Dr. Hill, "were very general ; and in one year the returns to an overture for rescinding the Act were so numerous, as to enable the Assembly 1846, at once to set the obnoxious Act aside." (Hill's Practice in the Church Courts, p. 5.) Ministers of Mauckline, 1656-1800. 361 the Privy Council, directing " the ministers of parishes . , . to give in lists to the bishops, their ordinaries, of such persons as are fit to serve as elders in their parishes," and declaring that all such persons shall, on their bishop's approval, become bound to serve as elders, under severe penalties in case of refusal. Mr. Meldrum had, therefore, on coming to Mauchline, in August 1684, to give in a list to his ordinary of such persons as he thought suitable for elders. The minute of his admission con- tains, accordingly, what without explanation looks very odd, a " list of the elders the minister afterwards chused." On this list stand fifteen names ; and it appears from subsequent minutes that either all or most of the persons named were admitted elders. From the length of time that elapsed before their admission, it would seem, too, that in these Episcopal times, of alleged imperious moderatism, the appointment of elders was not gone about with indecent haste. The list was drawn up in August, and the first meeting of Session held by Mr. Meldrum was on the 22nd February following, when it was recorded that " ye minister gave ane account of what was receaved for the poor by the beddal since his entry, till the i8th day of January, which day the elders began to collect." It will thus be seen that more than four months passed before Mr. Meldrum got his elders installed in office, which indicates that bishops did not, in an off-hand way and without enquiry, approve whatever lists were submitted for their approbation, but took time to consider the qualifications of all persons named for the eldership. Although Episcopacy means only a form of Church govern- ment, and might co-exist with any form of doctrine or worship, it is a fact that, in the Church of Scotland, at least. Episcopacy has always encouraged a little more ritualism and latitude in worship than Presbytery has done. About the year 1640, as 362 Old CInircJi, Life iti Scot/and. was said in last lecture, a very strong spirit of Puritanism, in respect of worship, began to shew itself among the Presby- terian ministers in Ayrshire. Mr. George Young of Mauchline did not go in with that new movement. On the contrary, he declared himself passionately against it. liut Puritanism was part of the spirit of these times ; and so, without any express prohibition by the General Assembly, the repetition of the Lord's prayer and the singing of doxologies came to be dis- continued in public worship. On the restoration of Episco- pacy, in 1662, the use of doxologies was in many parishes resumed, at the recommendation or order of the Diocesan Synod. As Mr. Veitch was a strong anti-prelatist, who would neither bend nor bow to Episcopal authority, it may be pre- sumed that during his ministry in the parish neither the Lord's prayer nor any doxology would ever be heard in Mauchline church. But Mr. Meldrum was one of those that conformed to the Episcopal government, and he very probably desired to stand well with his bishop, and also to strengthen the cause of ecclesiastical order, which was too much broken down in Scot- land. He resolved to be Episcopally proper, therefore, and he gave out a doxology to be sung. And the congregation, generally, either found no fault with this procedure, or did not venture to express their minds on the subject. Indeed, it might be asked how could they find fault — for the singing of doxologies was an old custom in the Presbyterian Church — a custom defended by many of the stoutest advocates of Presby- tery — and a custom that had never been forbidden nor disap- proved by the General Assembly. But there was one man in the congregation — a sort of parochial oddity — named Sandy Sim, who cared nothing for either Presbyterial custom or the eternal reason of things. The doxology was to his un- tutored mind simply an abomination, and so, when it was given Ministers of Matichline, 1656-1800. 363 out to be sung, he sprang to his feet as if he had heard the blast of an organ or had seen a pair of horns protruding through the floor. Seizing his cap, he clapped it hastily on his head, and with an air of insulted sanctity proceeded to make his exit from the church. But, if Sandy expected that this dis- play of pride and purity would either pass unnoticed or over- awe the bishop's creatures, he was, for once, mistaken. It is not quite clear whether he was allowed to leave the church, or was stopped before he reached the door, and made to sit out the rest of the service. It is certain, however, that he was promptly challenged for his irreverent conduct, and was made to appear before the Session at the close of public worship. And what the Session did will be best stated in the words of their own minute: — " March 8 (1685). The said day, Alex- ander Sim having committed a scandal, by his irreverent carriage in rising from his seat and offering to go forth, with his head covered, in time of singing the doxology, was exam- ined, and, by vote of Session, was enjoined to appear in the public place of repentance, the first Lord's day the minister should be at home, he being to go abroad." The Episcopal leanings of Mr. Meldrum seem to be further indicated in one or two entries of donations to poor strangers. In the latter days of Mr. Veitch, we find, in the records of collections and disbursements, an entry of i^io, given to " a poor man in the shire of Angus, whose house was burned by a wicked partie, for entertaining a Presbyterian minister in his house." That entry may be considered as shewing how the sympathies of Mr. Veitch tended. But there is a different turn of sympathy displayed in some of the entries during Mr. Meldrum's curacy. In 1685, an attempt was made by the Earl of Argyle "to recover the religious rip-hts and liberties of the kingdom of Scotland," in other words, 364 Old CliurcJi Life in Scotland. to remove Episcopacy from the Church and place limitations on monarchy in the state, according to the will of the people. The attempt, as all readers of history know, was unsuccessful, and led to the execution of the Earl, within two months after his landing in Kintyre. The fact, however, that there had been a rebellion, or the semblance of one, gave indolent people a pretext for spreading themselves over the country, and representing that they had been ruined by Argyle. Some of these travellers found their way to Mauchline, and were treated there as sufferers in a good cause. The gratuities given them from the kirk-box were not large, but they were recorded in such feeling terms, as to show how the tide of sympathy was flowing in the Parochial Board of that day. On the loth March, 1687, 2s. Scots (2d. Sterling) was "givin to a poor man, herried by Argyle" and, on the 23rd July following, a similar sum was given to "one Duncan Campbell, robbed by Argj'le in his rebellion." The arrival of Mr. Veitch, at the end of October of that year, put a timely stop to this species of imposture, and beggars beseeching bodies from the Session had thenceforth to " Sing another song, Or choose another tree." What became of Mr. Meldrum for several years after July 1687, when his ministry at Mauchline practically ended, I do not know. Dr. Scott states (Fasti) that " he was deprived, by the Act of Parliament, 25th April, (1690) restoring the Presbyterian ministers." After this, his position for a while was miserable. He was starved and boycotted, and had to seek a livelihood by professing his conversion to the Presby- terian discipline. On the 24th Februar}', 169 1, it was " reported (lo the Presbytery of Irvine) that ]\Ir. David Meldrum, late conformist at Machlin, . . . scriouslie Ministers of Mauchline, 1656-1800. 365 regrated his conformitie, taking the test, etc., being convinced of the divine right of Presbytrie, and that Episcopacie was but ane human invention, and that he desired to be receaved, withal being to leave this country, that he might have the Presbytrie's testificat." A committee was appointed to confer with Mr. Meldrum, and make inquiries regarding " his carriage, during the tyme of his conformitie and incumbencie." More than six months were spent by the Presbytery on these in- vestigations, before their minds were "ripe" for pronouncing judgment. At length, on the ist September, Mr. Meldrum personally compeared before the court, " and acknowledged his sin, in conforming under Prelacy and taking the test."* He also declared " that he was heartilie grieved and sorrowfull for this his sin and rashness ; and that, now, he looked on prelacy as a mere human invention, having no foundation in the Word of God ; and further, that he owned the Confession of Faith, in all articles and heads in opposition to Poprie, Socinianism and Armenianism, and that he wold, throw grace, adhere to the same Confession of Faith, commonly called the Westminster Confession, and to the present government of this Church. Which confession of his, together with some aggravating circumstances that did attend it (particularly, that he was dissuaded from that course, at the time of his compliance, by a letter from his uncle, the Rev. Mr. George Meldrum, here present), and this his declaration, was judged by the Presbytrie a sufficient ground to grant unto him this following recommendation." t The recommendation is too lengthy, and * In the Test Oath, it was commonly held that, " Presbyterian and Covenanting principles were abjured." Cunningham's Church History of Scotland, Vol. II., p. 271. Wodrow says that, "at first view, and to every body's uptaking, it over- turned our Solemn Covenants and for ever excluded the Presbyterian Establish- ment." Book III., Chap. 5. t How rigorously, Conformi.4s were dealt with by Presbyteries, at the time of 366 Old Church Life in Scotland. too empty to be inserted here ; and, altliouj^h it was avowedly given to enable Mr. Meldrum "to be useful in this Church," it could not have done him much good. It was not till more than other six months had passed, that he was received as a probationer, by going through the form of preaching before the Presbytery. Most of men would, by that time, have broken down and been fit for nothing. But Mr. Meldrum seems to have had a stout heart and a vigorous constitution, and to have suffered very little by his hardships and humilia- tions. In November, 1693, he was appointed Chaplain of the Tolbooth, Edinburgh ; and the following summer he was promoted to the parish of Tibbermore, where he lived and laboured, and we may hope enjoyed himself, for more than 57 years ! At the time of his death, which was in December 1741, he held the honoured and envied position of being the father of the Church of Scotland. The successor of Mr. Veitch, in Mauchline, w^as Mr. Maitland, whose tombstone may be seen in the church-yard. He was or- dained minister of the parish in 1695, and he died in 1739, after a long and peaceful ministry of 44 years. The mode of his appointment to the parish was somewhat peculiar, and may be here told. The law in regard to the appointment of ministers the Revolution, may be judged from the following extract from the records of Irvine Presbytery. The date is 1689. "Mr. William Gemmil, Probationer, made this day a voluntarie confession of his sad failing in the hour of tentation, by taking the Band of Regularitie, and declared his sorrow and grief for the same coram ; and that he had done this sooner, if his health had permitted him to have attended the Presbyterie ; which confession and declaration the Presbyterie judged sincere and of a truth, and therefore declared the scandal removed as to themselves, and admitted him to their fellowship, and appointed (two of their number) to speak to him that, when he hes occasion to preach publicklie, he doe something, the first tyme, in a prudent way, befoir the people, for their satisfaction and removing the scandal as to them." Two years previous to that, namely in 1687, the same Presbyter)' appointed a committee of their number to meet, " for accepting of the acknowledgements of the offence given by some of the Eldership of Ir\-ine, by their fainting in the houre of tentation." Ministers of Mauchline, i6j6-j8ou. 367 to parishes has, it is well known, undergone many changes. Down to the year 1649, ministers received their appointments from patrons, except when the church courts interfered (as they did very often after the year 1638), and ordered that this man be planted in this parish and that man in that parish, as was conceived to be for the greatest good to the greatest number. During the establishment of Episcopacy in the Church, from 1 66 1 to 1690, patronage was again the source of legal appoint- ments to parishes ; but the rights of patrons were not a little encroached on by the assumptions of the King and his council. From 17 1 2 to 1875, patrons had their third lease of power, under one set of regulations during one part of that period, and under another set of regulations during another part. While there have thus been three separate periods in the his- tory of the Church of Scotland, during which ministers have been appointed to parishes by patrons, there have also been three periods, but of shorter duration, during which the ap- pointment of ministers has been committed more or less fully to congregations. The first of these periods extended from 1649 to 1 66 1 ; the second from 1690 to 171 2 ; and the third is the one that is now current, and has been since the ist Janu- ary, 1875. The Act of Parliament, 1649, directed Presbyteries to proceed to the planting of vacant parishes,* " upon the sute * Sir James Balfour thus comments on the Acts of Parliament and Assembly, in 1649, regarding the appointment of ministers to parishes. "The Parliament passed a most strange acte this monthe, abolishing the patronage of kirkes which pertined to laymen since euer Christianity was planted in this Scotland." . " And this acte, to make it the more spetious, they coloured it with the liberty of the people to choysse their awen ministers ; zet, the General Assembly, holden at Edinburghe in the monthes of July and August this same yeire, made a wery sore mint to have snatched this shadow from the people, notwithstanding their former pretences, colationed the sole power on the Presbyteries, and out fooled the people of that right they formerly pretended did only and specially belong to them Jure divino." The covenanting ministers in 1649 were much divided in opinion on the question of appointing ministers. "Mr. Calderwood," says Baillie, "was per- 3^8 Old CInirck Life in Scot land. and callin^^ or with the consent of the congregation " ; and remitted to the General Assembly to " condescend upon a certain standing way for being a settled rule," in regard to the mode of procedure. The General Assembly, accordingly, framed, in the same year, a Directory for the election of ministers ; in which it was enacted, that the Kirk-Session should elect the minister, and then submit their choice to the approval or disapproval of the congregation. It will thus be seen that the General Assembly did not give congregations the full measure of electoral privileges which the Act of Parliament conceded. The Assembly granted to congrega- tions only the second, and the much less valuable, alternative which the Act of Parliament provided — namely consent but not suit — confirmation but not election — a negative but not a positive voice in the appointment — just, in fact, such a privi- lege as Lord Aberdeen's Act gave to congregations under patronage. The Act of Parliament, 1690, proceeded on the lines of the General Assembly's Directory of 1649, in giving to congregations a negative voice in the appointment of their ministers ; but, instead of vesting the election or nomination of ministers in the hands of the Kirk-Session, the Act 1690 emptor that, according to the Second Book of Di.scipline, the election should be gevin to the Presbytery, with power to the mayir part of the people to dissent, upon reason to be judged of by the Presbyterie. Mr. Rutherford and Mr. Wood were as peremptor to put the power and voyces of election in the body of the people, contradistinct from their eldership ; but the most of us was in Mr. Gillespie's mind, that the direction was the Presbytery's, the election the Session's, and the consent the people's," III. 94. Beattie in his History of the Church of Scotland during the Commonwealth, says, (p. 7-S) "it is remarkable how much the supporters of patronage have been disposed to overlook and consign to oblivion the anti-patronage act of 1649." • "Dr. Cook does not mention it in his History of the Church of Scotland." The Parliament 1649, which sat when there was no King on the throne, is by some authorities held to have been only a parliament in name. Dr. Cook, in his jjamphlet on Patronage and Calls (1834), says (p. 8) "By an act oi what assumed to ce a Parliament^ and which met in 1649, Patronage was abolished," etc. Ministers of Manchiine, 16^6-1800. 369 assigned that privilege to the elders and Protestant heritors jointly. The Act, 1874, declares the right of "electing and appointing ministers . . . to be vested in the congrega- tions," subject to such regulations, in regard to the mode of naming ministers by a congregational committee, and of con- ducting the election, as shall from time to time be framed by the General Assembly. It will thus be seen that the Act 1874 extends the powers and privileges of congregations far beyond what these had ever been before. Instead of having only a negative voice, congregations have now, what they really never had previously (although it is often said they had), the positive and sole right of election and appointment. Mr. Veitch was the only minister appointed to Mauchline under the Act 1649, and Mr. Maitland the only one under the Act 1690. And this digression from the proper subject of lecture, to the law on the appointment of ministers to parishes, will enable us now to understand the significance of the following entry which ap- pears in our Session Records, after the death of Mr. Veitch in 1694. "The heritors and elders are to meet, anent the seeking after a minister, and some are to be appointed for managing it aright and following it out." In the records of the Presbytery of Ayr there is an appointment minuted in reference to the ordination of Mr. Maitland, which it may not be amiss to mention. Mr. Maitland was directed to " observe a day of humiliation the Sabbath preceding his ordination." In very old times fasting was included in the ceremonies of ordination in the Church of Scotland. In the West- minster form of Church government it is directed that " upon the day appointed for ordination, ... a solemn fast shall be kept by the Congregation." And this custom was continued in some parts of the country d(j\vn to the beginning 370 Old Chuych Life in Scotland. of last century. I'coplc, however, were by that time coming to think that "the ordination day is more proper for thanksgiving than fasting ; . . . and that, on account of some things convenient to be done that day, another before were fitter to be observed for the Fast."* The Presbytery of Ayr had by 1695 arrived at that conclusion, and had even presumed to act on it, notwithstanding the written law of the Church. And Fasts preparatory to ordination were observed in the Presby- tery till 1737 at least, if not latent Seeing that the selection of a minister was, in 1694, com- mitted to such a popular committee as the elders and heritors must have been — the men of highest standing, highest character, and best education in the parish — it might have been supposed that Mr. Veitch's successor would have been a man of superior gifts and conspicuous merits. The most popular form of election possible, however, gives little security that the minister chosen will have gifts the least beyond com- * Pardovan. t The ordination service has from time immemorial been followed by a dinner, with the view of expressing kind wishes to the new minister and thanking the mem- bers of Presbytery who have come from a distance to take part in the service. To shew how our fathers in the ministry sometimes fared and fed on such occa- sions, I may here quote from Dr. .Scott"s P'asti, the dinner bill at an ordination at Carsphairn in 1737. To John Paterson in Knockgray for meal Inought by him for the ordination dinner, ----- ^^5 S o ,, John Hair in Holm for a boll of malt brought by him for the said ordination dinner, . . - . ,, the said John I lair for a "Weather and a Lamb to be fur- nished on the said occasion, . . - . ,, Hugh Hutcheson, in Lamloch for a Weather, - ,, George Stevenson for a Lamb, . - - - ,, Mrs. M'Myne, in Damelintoun for Flour and Baking on said occasion, ------ The money of course was Scots. 9 5 3 12 I 4 2 14 ^26 iS Ministers of Maiichline, 16^6-1800. 371 mon, and it affords no security at all that he will prove a faith- ful and diligent pastor. Mr. Maitland was an amiable man, and there is a good tradition of him in the parish. The fact, recorded in a previous lecture, that once, when a person under scandal offered to clear himself by oath, Mr. Maitland was put into " such a consternation he could not administer the oath till next Lord's day," says a great deal for both his amiability and conscientiousness. For a while, too, his ministry was in all respects satisfactory. At a Presbyterial visitation of the parish, in 1698 — three years after his settlement — the Session reported that he was diligent in his pastoral work, and " that they were well satisfied with him." Later on, however, there were grumblings heard. At a Presbyterial visitation, in 1723, the heritors and heads of families reported that " their minister was often absent from his charge, and they often wanted public ordinances, and that he does not enter so soon to public wor- ship on the Lord's day as were desirable, much of the Sabbath being thereby idly and sinfully misspent. They complained, also, that he had not visited and catechised the parish, save once, these three years."* We have seen in a former lecture that, during his incumbency, the business of the Kirk-Session was very inefficiently conducted.! Minute-books went amiss- * Although the common cause of complaint against a minister at Presbyterial visitations — if complaint was made, which was very seldom — was indolence and in- attention, there are instances on record where the Presbytery were re(|uested to advise the minister to take things more easily. At the visitation of Kilmarnock, by the Presbytery ot Irvine, in 1691, Mr. Rowat, one of the ministers, in commend- ing the zeal of his colleague Mr. Osburne, "desired that the Presbytrie wold admonish him to be discreat in his diligence, his health being much endangered by his great painfullness." He was admonished to that effect, accordingly, " lest, by too much (painfullness), he laid himself by altogether from his Master's work." t Minute-books went amissing in the same way in other parishes. In 1727, it was reported to the Presbytery of Irvine that at Ardrossan there was " No Session register, (many of their schoolmasters, who were Session-clerks, going off and not leaving the minutes), and that they had only some few minutes on loose paper." 372 Old Church Life in Scotland. iii<4, poors money was lent on doubtful security and lost, and in other ways the want of a firm and careful directorate was painfully evident. Constitutional indolence must have been at the bottom of this negligence, although it was alleged that these shortcomings proceeded, in part at least, from causes that claim our sympathy. In 1723, he was asked by the Presby- tery what he had to say to the complaints of his parishioners ; and he answered that " he had been often under much indis- position of body, and that he had fallen under some difficulties in his affairs (that obliged him to be often abroad contrair to his inclinations), which had hindered him in his work more than he intended." And there is no doubt that he was a valetudinarian. It is minuted in the Session records that, in 1698, from the 3rd of January till the 24th of April, there had been no meeting of Kirk Session, " by reason of the minister's indisposition, he having been long troubled with ane extra- ordinarie quartane ague." On the 3rd of August, of the same year, it is minuted in the Presbytery records that " Mr. Alait- land is not yet well recovered of his health.'" And the follow- ing year, he was still infirm of body. But, making all allow- ances for the state of his health, it must yet be said that he was provokingly negligent in the discharge of his duties ; and although censured by the Presbytery and exhorted to be up and doing, he took censure and admonition good-naturedly, and continued to idle in his old ways.* * In the records of the Presbytery of Ayr there is a curious reference to the numerous niercats in Mauchline, as a source of either expense or extra labour to the minister, and apparently as furnishing a good plea for an augmentation of stipend. At a Presbyterial visitation of the parish, in 1719, Mr. Maitland reported that he had some complaints to make ' ' about his gleib and stipend, and the many public mercats which are kept in the place, that are gravaminous to him, but that he inclines first tt) lay the matter before the Right Honourable the Earl of Loudoun, who is principally concerned in the place." Ministers of Maiichline, i6j6-i8oo. 373 The times in which Mr. Maitland's lot was cast were much less troubled than those in which Mr. Young, Mr. Wyllie, and Mr. Veitch lived. There was some extra-parochial work, however, of an onerous and unpleasant character, which ministers had to do. After the re-establishment of Presbytery in 1690, the General Assembly met, and in its wisdom thought lit to appoint two Commissions to visit respectively the countries north and south of the Tay. These Commissions were authorised and instructed " to purge out all (ministers) who, upon due trial, shall be found to be insufficient, supinely negligent, scandalous, or erroneous." They were directed, in what looks like a spirit of conciliation and generosity, " to be very cautious of receiving information against the late Conformists, and to proceed in the matter of censure very deliberately, so as none may have just cause to complain of rigidity ; yet so as to omit no means of information ; and not to proceed to censure, but upon relevant libels and sufficient probation." These instructions seem to have been read by the commissioners — whose zeal for Presbytery was of the degree of fervour that makes men both martyrs and persecutors — very much in the light in which villagers are apt to interpret the order against an obnoxious brother, " don't nail his cars to the pump." The result of the visitations was that sufficient reason was found, after formal process led, for the deposition of so many ministers that whole districts north of the Tay were left without a single clergyman to conduct a service in the parish church. Who can believe that all these unfortunates were such rogues or heretics as to deserve the treatment they got ? Be that as it may, however, so many depositions took place that there was not in the church a sufficient number of probationers to fill the vacant cures ; and for nearly twenty years after- wards the General Assembly had to supply ordinances in 374 '^i^i Church Life in Scotland. the north by deputations of ministers from the south/ These prcachint^- tours were not pleasure excursions. Travelling, north of the Tay, was not so enjoyable in 1700 as it is now a clays, thanks to railways. The preachers that went on these expeditions were not too courteously entreated cithcr.f Although allowed good enough pay, many ministers were very unwillincf to "o on the northern circuit.! One of those that had * Cunningham's Church History, Vol. II., p. 296. Besides the districts rendered spiritually destitute by the extrusion of the old Episcopal clergy, there were other districts on which the light of the Reformation had never dawned. These were in the Western Highlands. In 1707, the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge was formed, and, by the instrumentality of that society, schools were established in various parts of these benighted regions. In 1725, the King signified to the General Assembly " his gracious inclination to contribute yearly the sum of ;^iooo sterling, to encourage itinerant preachers and catechists to go to these parts." The Royal Bounty is still continued and is applied for the main- tenance of " ordained ministers, licentiates, student missionaries or catechists," at something like 60 or 65 stations. The itinerants seem now to be abolished. In 1747, the Presbytery of Irvine overtured the Assembly to direct that the Royal Bounty " be applied in making new erections in the Highlands and Islands of Scot- land, rather than in hiring itinerant preachers, who from experience are found to do very little service." t On one occasion a preacher of the muscular christian type went to one of these Episcopalian parishes to supply the vacancy. A gentleman in the parish advised him not to attempt to preach, lest it should cost him his life. The minister would not take advice, but gave orders that the bell be rung. After a few tinkles, the bell stopped ringing ; and the minister, going out to see what had happened, found two scoundrels pomelling the bell-man. Rushing to the rescue, he laid hold of the assailants, knocked their heads together, and stood beside them till the bell was rung out. He then invited the onlookers, who were probably a good deal amused, and not very ill pleased, to follow him into the church, where he would tell them something they had never heard before. And the story goes that they went inside, and were so entertained with the sermon that they crowded round the minister, as he went off, and invited him to visit them again. — Fasti. Part 6, p. 511. X In 1696, an Act of Parliament was passed, allowing to preachers and ministers, for preaching in vacant parishes benorth Forth, 20 merks Scots for each Lord's day that they preach forenoon and afternoon. This grant was allowed, moreover, "albeit that sometimes, by reason of the shortness of the day or the people's un- timeous convening," there were not two separate diets of worship. This Act was repealed by the Act 171 1, which restored patronages, and, along with patronages, the rights of patrons to disjiose of vacant stipends for pious uses. Ministers of Matickline, 16^6-1800. 375 no liking for the business was Mr. Maitland. In 1C98, he was appointed to go north ; but a convenient sickness gave him a good excuse for declining the honourable commission. The following year his appointment was renewed, and he went north, but did not complete his term. The convenient sickness overtook him again, and he returned, with testificates that he had preached in the district assigned him " some Sabbaths, but falling sicklie he culd not tarry to supply any furdcr." And his failing to fulfil appointments was so common as to be al- most habitual. He had generally some excuse, however, which saved him from censure ; and he was so genial a man that rigidity could scarcely get angry at his indolence. The most notable minute in our Session records in reference to Mr. Maitland is one of date i6th June, 1706, in which it is stated that two viragoes, a mother and a daughter, " were cited before the Session, next Fryday, for leazing Mr. Maitland." The word leasing is often used as a noun, and when so used means falsehood. We read in the Psalms, " thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing," which the translators of the revised version have changed into " thou shalt destroy them that speak lies." The word leasing does not so often occur as a verb, but T presume its meaning in the sentence quoted is slandering or reviling. * And however much people may be inclined to smile at a complaint of slander, the slandering of a minister has always been held by the Church as a very heinous offence. Both in 1642 and in 1694, the General Assembly enacted that all such slanders should be punished "with the censures of the Kirk, even to the highest," according as the degree or qualitx- of the scandal should be found to deserve. i\nd not only * In the Overtures, 1705, the word " lesed" occurs more than once, in the sense of injured or wronged, chap. III. sec. 8, clause 5, chap. IV. sec. 6, clause 2. This word, although similar in sound, has a different derivation from leasing, which means falsehood. 3/6 Old Clinrch Life in Scotland. church censures, but civil punishments were inflicted on people for offences of that kind. In 1679, a carpenter was brouj^ht before the Town Council of Dumbarton for calling his minister " ane liar, anc knave, and ane rascal," while the minister was, in the exercise of his duty, reproving the carpenter for drunken- ness ; and the truth of the charge " being maid evidentlie appear," it was ordained that the slanderer's " friedom be cried doun be tuck of drum, and he put in the stocks." * We can understand, therefore, how Mr. Maitland felt so sore on the sub- ject of his being leazed ; and in the commotion made over the leazing we have a common feature in old ministerial life quietly and quaintly exhibited. When the slander came to be investi- gated, the Session thought it so mild a calumny that it might be sufficiently censured by a private rebuke. Mr. Maitland was not satisfied with this decision, and intimated his purpose to complain to the Presbytery. The records of Presbytery con- tain no allusion to the case ; and it may thus be presumed that the affront was forgotten and the sore healed. Some entries in the Session records towards the close of Mr. Maitland's ministry are very touching. On the 14th May, 1738, it is said "the minister preached o?ily, being indisposed." The following Sunday he both preached and lectured ; but, on the 28th May, there was " no sermon, the minister being indis- posed by a fall from his horse." On the 2nd July he preached * In the Session Records of Galston, mention is made of a man that, in 1635, gave signs of repentance in sackcloth for slandering of his minister before the Presbytery. And this was not all the punishment he underwent ; for, in another minute, it is stated that " W. Meikle, wha, at the meeting of the brethren afore- said, wes committed to waird in the tolbuith of Ayr, for his irreverent misbehaviour to the Presbytery, and objecting to his minister the filthie fact of simony — was ordered to repair to his paroch kirk, and in sackcloth, bairfuted, and bairlegged. to put himself in the penitent place all the tyme oi the sermon ; and, before his enter- ing, to pay ;i^20, to be bestowed in pious uses by the minister and Session of Galstnn." Ministers of Mauchline, 16^6-1800. 2)77 once more, but it was in the manse, and, except on that Sunday in July, the pulpit was either vacant or supplied by neighbour- ing ministers, till the end of September, and then the record closes. In labours Mr. Maitland was not abundant, but in genial indolence he was representative of a worthy class of gentlemanly ministers, who exercised a kind of influence for good on a rude community, and who are not so common now as they once were. The minister that succeeded Mr. Maitland is one whose name is a household word wherever the poems of Burns are read. From the way in which that minister is spoken of in the writings, and in some of the biographies of the poet, it is not unlikely that the opinion entertained of him by the public generally is neither very exalted nor very favourable. William Auld was, nevertheless, a man of far more than common force of character, besides being a minister of exemplary faithfulness. Of all the ministers that ever lived in Mauchline, not even ex- cepting Mr. Wyllie or Mr. Veitch, I am inclined to say that Mr. Auld is the one that was most abundant in pastoral labours, and that left on the parish the clearest and most en- during mark of himself. -J- He was a younger son of the laird of Ellanton's, in the parish of Symington, and he not only passed with credit through the ordinary curriculum of study at the University of Glasgow, but had a finish given to his education by a term or two at the University of Leydcn. s He was of a large boned family, and the conspicuous feature of his intellect and will, as well as body, was vigour. He was a grave, solemn man — an ultra Sabbatarian — and a bishop, who not only lorded over his parish, but ruled with apostolic rigour in his own house. There was, however, a stately courtesy, with much kindness of heart, underneath his austere and rigid manners. While a terror to evil-doers, he was the praise of those that did well 378 Old ClinrcJi Life i)i Scotland. J lis nephew (the late Dr. Auld of Ayr), who was broiir^rht up by him in the manse of Mauchh'nc, used to speak of him with unbounded affection, as a man terribly strict but exceedinj^dy kind.* He was settled in Mauchline in the year 1742, and died at Mauchline in Deer. 1791, in the 8ist year of his age, and the 50th of his ministry.! Compliments were not .so frequent in Mr. Auld's days as they are now, and they were probably not so overstrained. And never was the heart of a minister cheered by a more touching, simple and truthlike compliment than that which was paid to Mr. Auld, in 1788, by the honour- able Lady Anne Whiteford, after her departure from Balloch- myle. As a memorial of her husband's family, she left to the parish a beautiful silver bason, for baptisms, which, in a note to Mr. Auld, she described as "a small gift from me to the church of Mauchline, in grateful acknowledgment and lasting remem- brance of the many happy years I passed in that place, under your exceljent instruction and ministry." But the surest and clearest proof of his popularity as a preacher and minister, is the statistical table of attendances at his communions. From 1751 to 1756, the number of communicants each year averaged 600. In 1757 and 1758 the numbers were respectively 450 and 490. In 1763 the number rose to 700, in 1771 to 850, 1773 to 1000, in 1779 to 1 100, in 1780 to 1300, and in 1786 and 1788 (the two years in which Burns figured in the Kirk-Session) to 1400. t On the death of Mr. Auld the number went down * My informant is a member of Dr. Auld's family. t When Burns published his poems, in 17S6, Mr. Auld was an old man, in the 76th year of his age, and was entitled from his gray hairs to a little more respect than Burns showed him. I^The "Holy Fair" was written in 17S6. In Old Church Life I have given reasons for saying that in Mr. Auld's day there must have been occasionally seventeen or eighteen tables at a sacrament. This is a large number of tables for a communion, and whatever may have been thought of such a number in 17S6 it was at an earlier period much marvollcil ;it, and referred Id -is evidence of a minister's extraordinary Ministers of Mauchline, 1656- 1800. 379 to 700, then in a year or two to 600, and a year or two after- wards to 500. Now, whatever opinion we may have regarding the good or evil of these great communion gatherings, the figures quoted indicate at least the reputation Mr. Auld enjoyed both within and beyond his parish. Through the kindness of a relative of Mr. Auld's I have been favoured with specimens of his sermons and lectures, that I might see what kind of prelections the people of Mauchline heard from the pulpit in the days of Burns and Holy Willie. Mr. Auld's sermons were not written for the press, and they would not have been fit to appear in print without considerable corrections. They were not finished compositions, but rather scrolls or first drafts of sermons, such as a preacher who did not restrict himself to a manuscript might consider a sufficient preparation for his Sunday work. They were, however, vigo- rous and sensible productions, sound in doctrine and direct in application, and if delivered with animation and improved by impromptu embellishments, they would, in their day, be counted good specimens of plain preaching. They were thoroughly practical discourses. They neither soared into regions of airy sublimity, nor went down beneath the foundation of things. Nor were they weary wandering seas of barren foam and decla- mation. What they were will be fairly illustrated by the following sentences, taken at random from a manuscript ser- mon on the text : — " His servants shall serve Him, and they popularity. It is said of John Row of Carnock that " having been a godly, zealous man, and his ministry much attended from using the Presbyterian form at com- munions, he had no less than seventeen. tables on that solemn occasion in 1635." Fasti. It is said of Mr. Watsone of Burntisland, that the persecutions he was sub- jected to for his opposition to Episcopacy made him such a favourite with the popu- lace that at his communion in 1610 there were served " nineteen tables and a half, quherin, as was supposit thair was at euery table fifty communicants," and in the three following years there \\e:e respectively, eighteen and a half, nineteen and a half, and twenty-one and a half tables. 3^0 Old CJiurcJi Life in Scotland. shall sec His face." Besides being preached at Mauchlinc this sermon was preached in the tent at Auchinleck in 1770; at Muirkirk, on the evening of the sacrament, in 1774; and at Kilmarnock, on the Stairhead, on 13th Nov. 1774. It had been reckoned a sermon, therefore, that could stand repetition ; and, in one of the heads of application, Mr. Auld remarks: — "What has been said will suffice to reprove those who do not serve God on earth, yet hope to serve him in heaven. This is inconsistent with common sense and reason, and the more unaccountable in rational creatures that no man is so foolish and unreasonable with respect to the affairs of this life. None hope to reap where they did not sow, none of us will pretend to be fit to speak in a language which we never learned, and if we hope to be fit to be employed in any valuable art or calling we know that we must first serve an apprenticeship and pass through a proper course of education in order thereunto. Know, then, that this life is a sort of seed time, or apprenticeship, for eternity ; and believe that the plenty of the harvest does not more depend upon the right improvement of the seed time, nor the dexterity and success of the artist upon his application and diligence when an apprentice, than does our happiness here- after upon our good behaviour now, or our fitness for serving God in heaven upon our care to serve him on earth. Let none, then, who habitually neglect to serve God on earth, and have no delight in the places and exercises of his worship here below, delude themselves with the vain hope of ever entering into the heavenly sanctuary and of serving God there, for we have shewn that both the constitution of nature and the con- stitution of the God of nature forbid this." But, while Mr. Auld was doubtless a popular and powerful country preacher, he was a particularly painstaking, energetic, and strong-minded pastor. Discipline was never so stringently Ministers of Manchline, i6j6-i8oo. 381 and methodically administered in the parish as it was in the days of his ministry. No delicacy of feeling, or shyness of disposition, or, as some people would prefer to say, no moral cowardice ever restrained him from openly doing what he thought his ministerial duty. His lot was cast in a rude, rough age, in which gross licentiousness and shameless perfidy prevailed, to an extent that many people have no idea of ; but against all the abounding iniquity of the parish he contended like a hero, and by his firmness and determination of character he enforced at least an outward homage to the claims of righteous- ness and religion. The moment any person was delated in the Session for a fault, the " inquisition " was set in motion, like the machinery of a modern court of detection ; and it was carried on and never dropped (or at least very rarely) till either guilt was established or cause was seen to believe inno- cence. And, while no man was sterner in reproving sin wher- ever it was proved, few men ever forgave more fully after sin was confessed and censured, or were more resolute in uphold- ing charitable judgment where guilt was not made evident. In 1773, a fama arose about the Session Clerk, and it had to be in- vestigated. The case came first before the Session, and then went up to the Presbytery. It was one of those cases in which there is no evidence, except the accuser's own word ; and, unfor- tunately for the accuser, if her accusation was true, her credi- bility was injured by a false statement on a collateral point. The Presbytery, therefore, unanimously assoilzied the clerk ; but there were some people in the parish, nevertheless, who would not believe him innocent of the charge. Among others, three of the elders were of that opinion. These three elders, without intimating any reason, withdrew from meetings of Kirk-Ses- sion ; and no notice, for a while, was taken of their conduct. At length, when some months had elapsed, Mr. Auld presented 3S2 Old Church Life in Scotland. to the Session a requisition that these elders, who " had de- serted the duties of their station, and purposely absented them- selves from the monthly and weekly meetings of Session," should not be received again by the Session till they con- descended on such reasons for their desertion and neglect of duty as should satisfy both the Session and the Presbytery. The three elders were, accordingly, cited to appear before the Session, in the first instance. Two of them, in response to their citation, appeared, and frankly stated that they could not in conscience remain in the Session so long as a man of such evil repute as their clerk was retained in office. A formal answer to this declaration was afterwards given in to the Ses- sion by Mr. Auld, and the tenor of that answer, which is en- grossed in the Session records, will give us a good idea of what a practical, sound-headed, and strong-willed man he was. " It is true," said Mr. Auld in this paper, " that the clerk some months ago had the misfortune of a heinous charge brought against him ; but it is well known that he stood his trial before the proper court, and was unanimously acquitted, so that he was then legally, and is according to the rules of the Church to be held, guiltless. The secrets of his and every man's heart and life must be referred to the judgment of God. After justice has taken its course, charity should have free scope. Then, charity, which thinketh no evil, should lead every Chris- tian to think the best, and in doubtful cases to err on the charitable side. It might have been expected that the fore- said persons would have joined the rest of the elders, in en- deavouring to preserve peace and harmony in the parish, by setting an example of charity, and of submission to superiors, and to the order of the Church. But, instead of this, their example has had a pernicious influence ; and their late be- haviour tends to bring upon themselves the imputation of Ministers of Mmichline, 1656-1800. 383 pride, perfidy, and gross inconsistency — of pride, in thinking themselves wiser than the whole Presbytery ; of perfidy, in wil- ful violation of their ordination engagements to submit to the government of the Church ; and of gross inconsistency in matters of conscience, particularly in thinking light of the sins just now mentioned, and in magnifying beyond measure the imaginary sin of sitting in a Session with a clerk, of a character supposed by them immoral, though legally assoilzied. Is not this to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel." More need not be quoted. The language is somewhat after the style of old Bishop Hugo's of Lincoln — "pipere mordacior" — spicier than pepper ; but, if allowance be made for it on that score, it is otherwise an admirable remonstrance with upsetting prejudice, and a very proper vindication of the rights of a man that had stood his trial and been acquitted by his judges. In parish matters, Mr. Auld was a great reformer. He had his eye on every misorder and abuse, and he was instant, in season and out of season, in getting things put right. Some of his faithful contendings have already been mentioned in former lectures. He had a long fight to get the church and church-yard protected against desecration, and in appealing to the heritors to aid him in that work he well described the sentiment he invoked as an " honourable regard to the house of God and the burial place of our fathers." We have seen what zeal he had for the poor ; how he pleaded for assessments that the poor might be better provided for ; how keen and careful he was in the exaction of fines, how pliable in the abbreviation of marriage banns, how ready to baptize or marry in a private house, how zealous in urging the use of public mortcloths, and how assiduous in the erection of church seats wherever there was available space, that by these means a little augmentation might be made to the poor's funds. We have s.een how he put 384 Old CJinrch Life in Scotland. clown " the cruel and inhuinnn custom of cock-fifjhting at r\istcn-c'cn ;" how he strove to repress the social evil of irregular marriage ; and how vigorously he dealt with every form of Sabbath profanation. One bad custom in the parish, long ago, was the intimation on Sundays at the church gate, of roups and public sales. This was not a work of necessity, Mr. Auld thought, and in 1755 he prevailed on the Session to discharge " their officer from proclaiming any roups for the future, and to speak to the officers in the town not to use that practice."* Mr. Auld is said to have been a man of considerable learn- ing ; but, except that he was fairly well informed in Church law and Church procedure, we have no evidence that his acquirements were more than ordinary. Only two publications are known to have come from his pen. One of these was a sermon, printed at the request of the Presbytery, on the * In the records of Kilmarnock Session it is incidentally stated, in the course of a process before that consistory in 1710, that, a cow having been lost out of a drove of cattle in the neighbourhood of Ochiltree on a Saturday night, the owner " went to Ochiltree kirk on Sabbath morning, with a design to cry it." The beast turned up at Barskimming bridge, and the proclamation had not to be made. The civil magistrate, a hundred years ago, asserted more authority in the Church than he now does. Local Justices expected their acts, on such subjects as "the running, using and selling of French brandy," to be solemnly read from pulpits. This was Erastianism ; and the Presbytery of Ayr, to vindicate their spiritual independence, found it necessary, in 1730, to enjoin that "when any acts of the lustices come to ministers' hands, in the intervals of Presbyter)-, to be intimate, brethren are not to do it, till the matter is laid before the Presbyter)- at their first meeting.'" In 1790, (during Mr. Auld's ministry), an unpleasantness arose at Mauchline about the reading of "a paper relating to the meeting of freeholders." This paper was sent to the Kirk-Session, by the Sherifl", with an order that it be read on a certain specified Sabbath, "at the Kirk of Mauchline, immediately after divine service in the forenoon." The Session minuted that "such a long paper was never required before by the Sheriff' of this county " to be read at the kirk, and they were dubious of the " reasonableness of this innovation." Finding, however, that " the requisition for reading runs thus, ^ at the Kirk of Machlin,' they allowed the Precentor, if he pleased, to read or cause read it in the church-yard." Ministers of Majichline, 16^6-1800. 385 pastoral duty of ministers ; and the other was the statistical account of the parish, to which I have already referred. The sermon, if it now exists at all, survives only on the dusty shelf of the antiquary ; but the statistical account is of easy access, and is a very readable compilation. It is not remarkable for any recondite learning, but it is written in a vivacious and vigorous style, very wonderful for a man nearly four score years old. The most notable statements in the statistical account are two, but they are notable for something else than learning. One of these statements is about the battle at Mauchline moor, which was fought the day after the sacrament in 1648. Mr. Auld, in zeal for the parish and the covenants, declares, in sublime ignorance of fact, that the battle ended in the total rout of Middleton and his dragoons ! The other remarkable statement in Mr. Auld's statistical account of the parish, is, if possible, even more striking than that about the battle on the moor. It is a statement, too, that has evidently called forth much admiration, for it has been copied verbatim into a series of successive publications, as if it were some marvellous utterance of profound wisdom. It is about the channel of the river Ayr, which, in some places, lies between steep rocks of red sandstone from forty to fifty feet high. " How this passage was formed," says Mr. Auld, " whether by some convulsion of nature, or by the water gradually forming the channel for itself, cannot now be ascer- tained." There is a ring of decided finality in this judgment. It cannot now be ascertained how the passage between the rocks was formed. Certainly, there i$ no man now living that saw the process of formation from the beginning. The same kind of human testimony cannot be got on that subject as can be got on questions of history. But, it is not on tradition that geology is based. Geology goes far behind and beyond the 3'S6 Old CJiuych Life in Scotland. period of authentic human history, and the conclusions she presents are as ascertainable to-day, and will be thousands of years hence, as they were thousands of years ago. Geology adduces facts from many sources — from the observed action of all natural agencies at the present time, and from all historical accounts of changes in former ages on the earth's surface — and, resting on these facts as her basis, she shows in what manner, and in what probable length of time, certain formations and ex- cavations could have been accomplished ; and then she asserts that the way in which visible phenomena can be most simply accounted for, is the way in which we cannot but believe them to have been produced. And, when theories, which at first were tentative, are found on examination to accord with an increasing mass of observed facts, these theories acquire an in- creasing degree of probability, till eventually they become as firmly established as any of the convictions, in matters of every day experience, that rest on moral evidence. And yet, while thus criticising Mr. Auld's statement about the bed of the Ayr, it must be admitted that in that statement, faulty as it is, there is a certain latitude of thought discernible. To Mr. Auld's mind, in 1790, it was at least conceivable that the Ayr had worn out a channel for itself, by the friction of its waters and of the stones it carried down in its currents. It may be safely afifirmed that a hundred years ago there were many men considered well educated and advanced in thought, who were neither educated nor advanced in thought to that degree. It is neither by his literary, nor by his parochial labours, however, that Mr. Auld's name is destined to be transmitted to future ages. It is by his accidental association with the poet Burns, and the consequence is that, being presented to view in the poet's writings as the censor of the poet's irregu- larities, and as a man at variance with some of the poet's Ministers of Mauchline, 1656-1800, 387 friends, only certain aspects of his character are brought to light and others are undisclosed. But notwithstanding what has been said of him either in malice or in ignorance, he was both a well meaning and an active energetic man — most faith- ful and diligent in his ministerial work — thoroughly parochial in his ways and notions — and not only had he the good of the parish at heart, but he did a great deal of good in and for the parish. Mr. Auld's ministry in Mauchline extended over half a cen- tury ; and that half century, from 1742 to 1792, is by no means devoid of interest to the student of Scottish ecclesiastical history. Mr. Auld, however, was not associated with any public movement, either of thought or action, outside of his own parish. ' Some of Burns's biographers have called him a leader of the Old Light party in the Church. He certainly be- longed to that party, and he may have been considered an out- standing member of it in the upper district of Kyle ; but, in no legitimate sense of the term could he be called a leader either of that or of any other party. He made no figure in Church ' Courts. The chief thing standing to his name in the Presby- tery records is a motion " that Commissioners to the General Assembly be sent by rotine." Indeed, so far from occupying a high pedestal of honour in the Presbytery, he more than once was subjected to a mild rebuke in that court. Apparently he had thought with Pardovan that there is no law in the Church requiring ministers to preach sermons on week days ; and he very probably thought that, for all the good they did, such ser- mons might be left unspoken. But these were not the views of those who walked blindly by the rule of use and wont. He was, therefore, in 1744, enjoined by the Presbytery "to have week- days' sermons, as was usually observed in that place (Mauch- line), except in seed time and harvest." And, what was very 3«S8 Old ChurcJi, Life in Scotland. extraordinary in so squarc-tocd a man, he once had the hardi- hood to deliberately disregard an important instruction he re- ceived from the Presbytery. In 1767, a misguided brother in the Presbytery fell under scandal, and some witnesses in the case had to be examined in Glasgow. Mr. Auld and Mr. Moody* of Riccarton were appointed Commissioners to attend the Presbytery of Glasgow at this examination. Neither of them went to Glasgow, and the Presbytery " called on them to answer for their conduct. Mr. Moody excused himself upon the account of his health, he being so much indisposed that he could not travel. Mr. Auld excused himself because he could not get a horse" If The Presbytery, "after reasoning," found Mr. Moody's excuse relevant, but Mr. Auld's not ; and Mr. Auld was, accordingly, admonished " from the chair, for his neglec- ting to obey the Presbytery's orders." It is comforting to find that such a strict martinet as Mr. Auld could be overtaken in a fault, and that even he had to learn the art of admonition by receiving reproof The successor of Mr. Auld was Mr. Archibald Reid. In the common sense of the phrase, he was not a successful minister. The congregation did not flourish under his care, and the com- munion crowds decreased. It was during his ministry, too, * This was the Mr. Moody known to the readers of Burns, as one of the con- tentious Calvinists, who fell out with each other on their way home from a sacramental Monday's service. The Presbytery Records support the poet's insinua- tions that Mr. Moody was a hasty and an indiscreet man. In 1766, a fama reached the Presbytery that he had been guilty of perjury in a process in the civil courts. The Presbytery found that there was "no foundation for the charge of perjury," but that Mr. Moody had been " guilty of a want of prudence, generosity and grati- tude, and that he should be censured for his conduct, and admonished to behave better for the future. " t Mr. Auld's excuse was not without precedent. In 16S9, a member of the Presbytery of Irvine was appointed to do duty in a vacant parish, and did not. He reported to the Presbytery, at their next meeting, that " Ardrossan sent not ane horse for him, else he had satisfied them as he had promised." Ministers of Ma2icJiline, 16^6-1800. 389 that dissent obtained in the parish a local habitation, by the erection of what was then, and long afterwards, called the meeting house.* It is only fair to state, however, that Mr. Reid's want of success was largely due to adverse circum- stances. He was literally broken down by misfortunes, which seem to have had no foundation in any fault of his. His first appointment, not as a minister exercising sacra- mental offices, but as a preacher or missionary, was, in 1776, to the chapel of ease now known as the East Church of Greenock. In 1779, he received a presentation to the Parish of Fenwick ; but the people of that parish were, for some reason or other, unwilling to have him as their minister. They objected in the Presbytery to his appointment, and instituted in the Church Courts one of those vexatious processes known as cases of disputed settlement! The case came before the * Before the meeting house was erected (1794), religious services were conducted by the seceders in the open air, on the Knowe, at or near the site of the present U. P. place of worship. One that regularly attended these meetings was James Humphrey, known to the readers of Burns as the " bletherin " body. During the sermon, James usually lay flat and at full length on the sward, with his face earth- wards, as if fast asleep. He was, nevertheless, an attentive hearer, and took in all that the preacher said : and, what is better, he weighed what he heard, in the balance of reason and testimony. One day, the preacher, quoting a verse of Scripture, told his auditors where they would find it. " Na, na," cried James, lifting up his head, to the astonishment of his neighbours, "ye're wrang for ance, it's no in Ephesians, it's in Philippians." The congregation stared, as they well might, and wondered what would happen next ; but the preacher was a self-possessed good-humoured man, who could take occasion by the hand, and he put his audience instantly at ease, and raised himself in their estimation, by acknowledging the correction. " Thank you, my friend," he said, "it's very likely I have made a slip, and I am glad to think I have such an intelligent auditor listening to my discourse." + The popular dislike of patronage was at this date so vehement that the most unrighteous means were used by people, professing zeal for the glory of God, to prevent the presentees of Patrons obtaining settlement in the parishes to which they were appointed. Malicious and injurious falsehoods regarding presentees were invented and circulated, and threats were fulminated against all that would sign their call and concurrence. In 17S7, a Mr. Millar was presented by the Earl of Eglinton to the parish of Kilmaurs. The people wished to choose their own yjo Old Church Life in Scotland. General Assembly in 1780, and was decided in Mr. Reid's favour ; but, after vindicating his professional character and legal rights, Mr. Reid was content to resign his appointment * and wait on some other presentation, which might give him better promise of ministerial comfort and usefulness. He had to wait twelve weary years before another chance of prefer- ment came his way ; and when at length, in 1792, he received from the Earl of Loudoun a presentation to the Parish of Mauchlinc, he again met with an unfriendly reception from the people. The spirit of disaffection, too, which was manifest at the time of his settlement, was never perfectly laid during his incumbency. There was not only no kindness shewn him, and no encouragement given him in his work, but he was subjected to insults, annoyances, and what he thought wrongs. He con- minister, and they raised the hue and cry that the presentee was a drunkard and had killed both his father and brother ! The story happened to admit of easy refutation, and " severals were undeceived." When the day for what is techni- cally termed "moderating in the call " arrived, no one " durst appear to subscribe, for fear of a mob of seceders and vagabonds !" The doctrine of the Moderates, who formed the majority in the Church Assemblies, was that a call from the Parishioners was not requisite, and that Presbyteries were bound to admit every qualified minister who held a legal presentation. Mr. Millar was, therefore, in the end admitted to Kilmaurs. * The following interesting minute regarding Mr. Reid was entered in their records by the Presbytery of Irvine, in March 1781. " The Presbytery took into their serious consideration the undeserved treatment that Mr. Archibald Reid, preacher of the gospel at Greenock, had lately met with from a parish in their bounds, unto which he had been presented. And, entertaining a very high opinion of his Christian and ministerial qualifications, think it incumbent on them to give some public testimony of that approbation and regard for him, and they are of opinion that they cannot do this in any way more proper than by one which may enal)le him to be more useful than he, as a Christian teacher and minister, at present is. This Presbytery, therefore, agree unanimously to ordain him as minister of the gospel ; and appoint Mr. W. to let him know this resolution of the Presbytery, and, if he shall agree thairto, to desire him to attend their next meeting " and submit himself to the customary trials. In a subsequent minute it is stated that Mr. Reid acquitted himself, " in every piece of Tr)'al, to their (the Presbytery's) great satisfaction ;" and he was accordingly ordained a "minister of the gospel of Christ, and of the Church of Scotland." Ministefs of MaucJiline^ i6j6-i8oo. 391 sidered himself ill-used, and probably so he was. And thus, between one vexation and another, his heart gave way. He became silent and reserved, was seen — " Causeless walking in the wintry wind," and when he met people on the road passed them by ungreeted, as if he neither saw nor heeded them. What seemed to be his only pleasure was a solitary walk to the hill of Skeoch, which he took almost daily, both for a constitutional exercise and for the sake of the splendid prospect he never wearied of surveying from " the long ridge of Kyle." Exceedingly little is either recorded or remembered of him, although he died in the present century, within the memory of men still living. In making enquiries about him I went to an old woman, nearly ninety years of age, who spent the early part of her life in this parish, expecting to obtain from her some information, or ancient gossip, about his preaching or his pastorate. " I remember him well enough," said the old woman, " but can't tell you what sort of man or minister he was. I saw him once on a Sabbath morning pass through the churchyard in his black silk gown, and I thought he was the devil." * That was all she had to record of Mr. Reid, and a humbling moral may be drawn from the fact. Little * People still living remember when such gowns were denounced by some good folks in Scotland, as the rags of popery. The wearing of black gowns by ministers, when either performing divine service or attending Church courts, was enjoined by Act of Parliament 1609, and subsequent Royal Proclamations founded thereon. In 1612, it was minuted by the Synod of Fife that " the haill number of the brethren present were found in their gownes, exceptand some few, quho in the next Session wes found sic lyk to gif obediens." The wearing of a gown came, thus, to be thought a compliance with Erastianism— submission to the King's command— and a badge of Prelacy. At the reforming Assembly of 163S, when Episcopacy was abjured, Bishop Burnet remarks that " the Marquis (of Hamilton) judged it was a sad sight to see such an Assembly, for not a gown was among thepi all, but many had swords and daggers about them." 392 Old CJuircJi Life in Scotland. docs any one know what other people arc thinking or saying of him. Little does the blooming bride, fluttering with pride and joy, as she trips to church on the arm of her happy husband, surmise what the tattlers of the kirk-yard are whispering. As little docs the swash and belted trooper, strutting down the street in all the majesty of athletic form, divine what nautical observations are being made on his shapes and paces by untutored urchins that have not been taught to distinguish the sublime from the ridiculous. And little does the well-proportioned clergyman, sailing down the alleys of his church in all the glory of sacerdotal vestments, conjecture what whimsical thoughts of manhood and millinery are lighting up the features of some bucolic worshipper. But the subject has a pathetic as well as humorous aspect ; and it is humiliating to think that a man, who had spent more than twenty years in the work of the ministry, should, in the place where he lived and before the generation that knew him passed away, have left behind him no remembrance or tradition except that he was once mistaken for the fiend and arch-enemy of his race. Mr. Reid was not known to have had a single relation either to care for him while living, or to mourn at his death. He lived and died as lonely and friendless as ever a man born of woman did. Fortunately for his memory there was one person that knew him well and loved him much ; and that person has done himself honour in protecting the name and credit of his friend. On Mr. Reid's tombstone he has caused to be inscribed a kindly epitaph, which says that the lone heart-broken minister who sleeps beneath was "a man beloved by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance." But in this epitaph there is something beneath the surface — something mournful as well as graceful. The silent tombstone is made Ministers of Maiichline, 1656-1800. 393 to reveal the fact, which time might have covered with obh'vion, that Mr. Reid was little known and little appreciated — that he was a stranger to his own people and but a wayfarer in his own parish — and that although loved by all that knew him, he was loved and known by few. It is pleasant to say, however, that Mr. Reid's reputation rests on something surer than the partial testimony of one well-affected acquaintance. Mr. Reid has left behind him a small publication, which enables us to form an estimate of his mental powers, his literary attainments, and his bent of mind. Previous to his settlement at Mauchline, he was minister of the Chapel of Ease at Greenock, and he was employed to write the account of Greenock for the national work of Sir John Sinclair. In this publication, brief and meagre as it may be thought now-a-days, Mr. Reid shows himself to have been a man of no mean talents. He writes with fluency and grace, like a gentle- man of culture and scholarship, who might have made for him- self a name in literature. He had an original and a picturesque way of describing scenery, and he seems to have been an acute observer of nature's beauties and curiosities. That he directed his thoughts to political economy, too, as well as to matters of science, may be inferred from the remarks he makes, in a foot- note, on the cultivation of potatoes. " The culture of potatoes, in the neighbourhood of towns, by sedentary mechanics, con- tributes greatly to their health," he says. "When potatoes, which is often the case at Greenock, are sold at sixpence a peck, and good fresh herrings at seven or eight a penny, what a blessing to poor families ! " Trite and paltry observations these, cynics may say ; but the man that made such observa- tions was evidently one who thought about his neighbour's welfare, and had he not been soured and sickened by mis- fortune, he should never have grown into a recluse, but should 394 ^^'^ Church Life in Scotland. have been a minister of active benevolence and of wide and generous sympathies.* Mr. Reid died in 1803, ^^'^^ was succeeded by Mr. John Tod. Mr. Tod was a very worthy, estimable man ; and the lady he selected for his wife was the little daughter of Gavin Hamil- ton, who, on the last Sabbath of July, 1787, importuned her father for new potatoes to dinner, and, by thus tempting him to break the Sabbath, brought him again to loggerheads with his old tormentors in the Kirk Session. With the death of Mr. Reid and the induction of Mr. Tod old church life in this parish may be said to have come to an end. With the commencement of Mr. Tod's ministry the Session Registers begin to assume a modern and familiar aspect. Old things passed away and all things became new. The singing of Paraphrases was introduced into public worship, and the old practice of the precentor parcelling out the Psalms in single lines, which he first chanted in monotone and then sung in tune, was discontinued. Charity too began to step out of the old grooves and enter on new lines. Collections were * Some people can't understand how a minister, if he gets his stipend paid him, can ever be troubled or vexed. The truth is some ministers have been vexed till their lives became miserable. In 171 1, the minister of Kilmaurs craved from the Presbytery the privilege of demitting his charge, on account of " discouragment, persecution and broken down spirit," — Records of Irvine Pres. It is told of one of the ministers of Cupar that, in 1771, he "died of a broken heart, from meeting some of his parishioners going to worship in a dissenting meeting-house at Auchter- muchty." Fasti. That Mr. Reid was naturally a kind and good man, and was very grateful for any expression of regard he received, appears from the inscriptions, in his own hand- writing, on some of his books, which are still in this district. On the fly leaf of a small Church Bible, which belonged to him, is the following inscription, " On his leaving them, in June, 1792, to be admitted minister of Mauchline, the beloved and most respectable congregation of the Chapel of Ease in Greenock, where he had officiated as a preacher and minister of the gospel, for about the space of fifteen years, presented this Bible and a gown to Archibald Reid," Greenock, 26th Juno. 1792. Ministers of Mauchline, 16^6-1800. 395 made in church in aid of a Bible Society, and of a Parochial Female Association, and, by and bye, in aid of missions estab- lished by the General Assembly. The administration of dis- cipline underwent an important change. The old delinquent's desire for a " gentlemanny punishment " was granted to all his successors in sin — the public exhibition of offenders on what was scofifingly termed the " cutty stool " was relinquished as a monopoly to the seceders — and both the "dyvours " garment and the sack-cloth robe were relegated to the old clothes' press or turned into washing clouts. The Sunday School was opened as an adjunct to, not as a substitute for, the religious instruc- tion of the week-day school. Dissent, too, came to be recog- nised as a de facto institution, which must at least be tolerated and allowed ; and was seen to be in reality the safety valve that secures the Church's peace. And, what is more notable, there were indications of neighbourly and brotherly feeling rising up between the members of different religious denominations. In the description of the parish furnished for, and published in, the New Statistical Account of Scotland (1837), Mr. Tod states, as a matter of congratulation if not of wonderment, that " people of different religious opinions now regard each other as brethren." This profession of Christian brotherhood, too, was well supported by overt acts of inter-denominational friendship. According to the custom of the times, Mr. Tod regularly assisted at the communion in several parishes, and on these occasions the church of Mauchline was vacant. The Dissenters annually chose to have their communion at Mauchline on one of these "silent Sundays ;" and year after year, for their better accommodation, they were on their sacrament Sabbath allowed the use of the parish church. In the Session-clerk's memo- randum book there occurs again and again the following 396 Old CI Lurch Life in Scotland. entry : — no sermon tin's day, the church occupied by the "Burgers" for their communion. And to this entry it is generally, if not invariably, added : — " the l^urgcrs gave a pound for the poor." It was in the last days of Mr. Tod's ministry that the much to be lamented secession of 1843 occurred. Mr. Tod was then laid aside from active duty, and in the fierce controversy which led to that secession he had no part. But he was spared to see the secession, and to see people who used to " take sweet counsel together, and walk to the house of God in company," separated and disfriended for ever.* Time has smoothed down many asperities since 1843, but we have still to deplore the prevalence of sectarian dissensions and sectarian rivalries. Alas that Christ should be so divided. And it is not Acts of Parliament that will remove these strifes and jealousies, but the outpouring of a better spirit on all professing Christians. And now, in concluding this course of lectures, I have only to say that in the Old Church Life we have been considering there was a great deal for us all to admire and lay to heart. Doubtless there were some spots and wrinkles on the face of that life, and right it is that these should be noted and correctly designated. Along with burning zeal for God and deep rooted piety, austere righteousness and rigorous discipline, grand Sab- batarian solemnity and singular unweariedness in long religious services, there were sometimes to be seen imperfect culture and rude manners, narrowness of sympathy and fierceness of party spirit, intolerance of what was thought to be error, and a want of that sweetness which is one of the best as well as fairest pro- ducts of Christian doctrine. But let us not be censorious. Superficial minds can always discern imperfections. It requires * The successor of Mr. Tod was Mr. James Fairlie, a man of great learning and much amiability of character. Ministers of Maiichline, 16^6-1800. 397 deeper insight and more justness of judgment to recognise merits and virtues. And, whatever else there may have been in the Old Church Life of Scotland, there was at least a con- spicuous display of faith and spirituality, of stedfastness in the hour of temptation, and of that elevating respect to the recom- pense of reward which is sometimes sneeringly called other- worldliness. These virtues made the lives of our fathers in the Church sublime, and they form a splendid contrast to the debasing love of lucre and pleasure so prevalent now, in what Scotland's greatest orator has termed " our degenerate days." And so, while we cast off every thing that in the old life was unlovely, let us see that we retain of it all that was pure and saintly, manly and godly. APPENDIX BURNS'S MARRIAGE, P. 199. Many of the poet's biographers maintain that Burns was legally married to Jean Armour previous to his censure in Mauchline Church in 1786. He had given Jean, they allege, a written acknowledgment of marriage, and that acknowledgment, they assert, constituted mar- riage. It is certain that Burns, in the spring of 1786, gave Jean some writ- ing regarding their marriage; but it seems to me not quite so certain what was the precise tenor of that writing. Even supposing, however, that the "unlucky paper," as the poet terms it, contained a declaration by Burns that Jean was his wife, it is questionable if the law would on that account have held them married persons. Lord Eraser says that although some writers on law had, before 1786, affirmed that sponsalia de presenti constitutes marriage, their opinion was not supported by any judicial authority. Lord Braxfield, in 1796, declared from the Bench that consent de presenti does not constitute marriage " without the priest's blessing or some- thing equivalent ; " and Sir Islay Campbell said " I deny in principle that consent makes marriage without ceremony or coitus." Church Courts, during the greater part of last century, scarcely knew what to recognise as marriages. Had Burns's alleged marriage by the unlucky paper come before the Civil Courts in 1786, and the fact of consent de presenti been clearly established, it is at least doubtful if the mar- riage would have been afifirraed. There is reason to think that all the length the Court would have gone would have been to grant an order to compel solemnisation. Proceeding on the questionable assumption that Burns and Jean were legally married before their compearance for public rebuke in 1786, some authors have taken on themselves to rate Mr. Auld 400 Appendix. severely for the part he took in rebuking Burns, and giving him after- wards a testimonial that he was an unmarried man. In a small book, privately printed in 1883, under the title of " Robert Burns and the Ayrshire Moderates," it is said (p. 23), " the indignant father (of Jean) destroyed the document, which was the only evidence of the marriage; ... he also, by fear or otherwise, influenced his daughter to give up her lover, and, by so doing, to ap- pear dishonoured before the world. The minister, led by him, is in- duced to punish the poet in that ignominious manner." The anonymous author of these sentences shows no animus against Mr. Auld ; but has, to my personal knowledge, treated documentary evidence with great candour and fairness, not stretching it to serve an argumentative purpose where it might have been so stretched. The author says of Mr. Auld, that he " seems really to have considered it his duty to administer the public censure to the poet," and that he "showed some kindness and sympathy by making the situation as little painful as it could be made." The views expressed by one who writes in such a strain may be considered as fairly representative of the views held by many well-informed people, who are uninfluenced by prejudice in the formation of their opinions. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that the production of marriage lines, or a mutual acknowledgment of irregular marriage, by Burns and Jean, in 1786, would have saved them from the "ignominious" punishment of public censure. The law of the Church w-as, and still is, "that all married persons under publike scandall of fornication committed before their marriage (although the scandall thereof hath not appeared before the marriage) shall satisfie publikely for that sin committed before their marriage, their being in the estate of marriage notwithstanding, and that in the same maimer as they should have done if they were not married." Act Ass. 1646, Sess. 7. -[^ How this Act of Assembly was obtempered by Kirk-Sessions, last century, will be seen from the following extract from the records of Mauchline. The date is 1706, but the discipline in 1706 was precisely the same as it was in 1786, "James Wilson and Helene Leprivick appeared publickly and wer absolved, haveing stood two dayes, although they should have stood three. The reason that they were absolved was, because their childe was weak, and to gett the benefit of baptism to the same, notwithstanding of the Act of the Generall Assembly which reckons their ante-matrimoniall fornication Appendix. 401 as culpable as if no marriage followed the same." Had Burns and Jean proved themselves to be married persons in July 1786, they would have come under double censure : — censure for immorality in the first instance, and for breach of Church order in the second. People, unacquainted with the discipline of the Scottish Church, may possibly be surprised to hear that offences of the kind described in the foregoing Act of Assembly are still visited with censure. The only differences in the disciplinary procedure, now-a-days, from what it was in the days of Burns, are (first), that the censure is ad- ministered before the Session and not before the congregation, (secondly), that only one compearance is required, and (thirdly), wherever there is room for doubt in regard of guilt, charity lets judgment pass and "thinketh no evil." In the pamphlet referred to about Robert Burns and the Ayrshire Moderates it is said further, that the discipline imposed by Mr. Auld and his Kirk-Session on Burns, in 1786, was " intended to pronounce the poet unmarried and Jean free," and that Mr. Auld "made a serious mistake in performing a ceremony intended to have the effect of separating a couple really married." There is a passage in one of Burns's letters which seems to furnish some pretext for these observations. On the 17th July, 1786, the poet wrote to a friend, " I have already appeared publicly in church . . . I do this to get a certificate as a bachelor, which Mr. Auld has promised me."* * Burns's remarks about his affair with the Session in 1786 are not free from in- accuracy. In a letter dated 17th July, of that year, he says, that "Jean and her friends insisted much that she should stand along with me in the kirk, but the minister would not allow it, which bred a great deal of trouble I assure you, and I am blamed as the cause of it, though I am sure I am innocent : but I am very much pleased, for all that, not to have had her company." Burns and Jean had each to stand three times before the congregation, and it is certain that on the last of these occasions, whatever may have been the case on the other two occasions, they stood together ; not of course in the same seat, but at the same time. The minute of Session runs thus: 1786, "August 6, Robert Burns, John Smith, Mary Lindsay, Jean Armour, and Agnes Auld, appeared before the congregation, professing their repentance, etc. . . . and they having each appeared two several Sabbaths formerly, were this day rebuked and absolved from their scandals." The rebuke is extant, written out by Mr. Auld along with other admonitions addressed to other offenders during his long ministry. I have been favoured with a copy of it fur 402 Appendix. It cannot be supposed, hoAuvcr, that Mr. Auld promised that if Burns would condescend to receive censure he would get his marriage anniilli'd. Mr. Auld was too upright a man to do anything of the sort. Mr. Auld tniist liare helievcd tJiat J3i/rns was not tnarried. Possibly he had never heard of the unlucky paper. Possibly, or probably, although he had heard of the ])apcr he would still have considered that Burns had not completed his marriage. He might have told Burns that unless discipline were submitted to, a testimonial could not be granted him on his leaving the country, as in Church law it could not ; and as to its being a certificate of bachelorship, that was a matter of course, for no allegation of his being a married man had ever been made to the Kirk-Session. From a Church law point of view, the thing most difficult to explain in the Kirk-Session's dealing with Burns and Jean Armour, was their passing over the scandal, or apparent scandal, of March 1788. Burns and Jean, although regarded as unmarried persons at the time of that scandal, were never brought to book for it by the Kirk-Session. There is not a word of reference to it, so far as I have noticed, in any part of the Session records. But there are two entries anent it in the Brulie minutes, that is, in the scroll minutes. On the 2nd of December, 1787, certain women, of whom Jean Armour was one, were reported to the Session as being under scandal ; and, on the 9th December, it was entered in the scroll minutes that "Jean Armour sent excuse that she cannot attend until next Sabbath." There is no further reference to the matter, in either the Brulie minutes or the extended record. It is well known that soon after this date Jean was by her father, on the publication by the possessor, the Rev. John W. Ritchie, Langside, great-grand- nephew of Mr. Auld, and the following is its tenor : — "July, 30th, 17S6. "Rt. Burns. "Smith. "Jean Armour. "You appear there to be rebuked, and at the same time making profession of repentance for ye sin of fornication. The frequency of this sin is just matter of lamentation among Christians, and affords just ground of deep humiliation to the guilty persons themselves. We call you to reflect seriously in contrition of heart on all the instances of your sin and guilt, in their numbers, high aggravation, and unhappy consequences, nnd say, having done foolishly, we'll do so no more. Heware of returning again to your sin as some of you have done, like the dog to ilia vomit, or like the »ow yt is washed to her wallowing in the mire." Appendix. 403 supposition that she was a doubly dishonoured spinster, turned out of doors and left to find a home where she could. On the 3rd March, 1788, she gave birth to twins, who died soon afterwards. Their burials are entered as follows in the Burial Register (1788) of Mauchline, now in the Register House, Edinburgh : — " Jean Armour's child un- baptized, buried March 10. . . . Jean Armour's child unbaptized, March 22." The next reference to either Burns or Jean Armour in the Session books is in the Brulie minutes of 30th July, 1788, where their names appear on the list of " persons under scandal since last sacrament," with this note attached, "their recent affair not settled." * We have seen that, on the 5th August, 1788, Burns and Jean were taken by the Kirk Session solemnly bound to adhere to one another as husband and wife all the days of their life. No one will dispute that, whatever they were before, they were from and after that date married persons. f But they claimed to have been previously married in an irregular way, and they were rebuked for that acknowledged irregularity. It is, strange to say, not stated in the Session records, when, where, how, or by whom they were married in this irregular manner. In the Register of Marriages, now in the Register House, Edinburgh, it is stated that they "acknowledged they were irregularly married soiv.e time ago" but the date is not condescended on. In his Life of Burns, Lockhart says that the poet, " as soon as his bruised limb was able for a journey, rode to Mossgiel (1788) and went through the ceremony of a Justice of Peace marriage with Jean, in the writing chambers of his friend Gavin Hamilton." Allan Cunningham says that Burns " reached Mauchline towards the close * A stroke is drawn through their names, as if to show that the scandal they were under was at length removed, and that they left the parish for Ellisland with a clean bill. t It is somewhat remarkable that on both the occasions on which Burns was re- quired by the Kirk-Session of Mauchline to own a fault, he subscribed the minute. In 1786, he subscribed a minute acknowledging the paternity of the twins after- wards born that year ; and, in 17S8, he subscribed the minute of adherence to Jean as his wife. Such subscriptions were rarely, if ever, except in the case of Burns, required by the Kirk-Session of Mauchline. Mr. Auld and Holy Willie possibly thought that when they took in hand to deal with the poet they would need to make their procedure sure. 404 Appendix. of April, . . . and that, on his arrival, he took her (Jean) by the hand, and was re-married according to the simple and effectual form of the laws of Scotland."* Whether Mr. Auld would have considered that this alleged marriage in April was a marriage at all, or was only legalised and completed by the solemnisation in the Kirk-Session, on the 5th August following, we need not here discuss. WvX the question arises, if the irregular marriage alleged did not take place till April 1788, how did it happen that Burns and Jean were not subjected to public censure for the scandal of the 3rd March ? I cannot give a confident answer to that question. Allan Cunningham says that " Daddy .'\uld, and his friends of the old light, felt every wish to be modernte with one whose powers of derision had been already proved." That sugges- tion will not do without some more explanation. If Burns and Jean were clearly unmarried persons in March 1788, Mr. Auld was bound to deal with them as scandalous persons ; and, in as much as the scandal on Burns's part would have been a case of trilapse, the poet would have been required to appear not only before the congregation of Mauchline, but before the Presbytery of Ayr. Fending further information, I am inclined to think that on some consideration or other Mr. Auld had, prior to July 1 788, been led to believe that the twins, of March 3rd, had been born in legal wedlock ; or that a plea to that effect, if advanced by either Burns or Jean, would present difficulty to , the Session. It is significant that the references to Jean in the Brulie minutes, 1787, were never transferred to the per- manent record. ^ The story of the unlucky paper of 1786 may, in the spring of 1788, have come to Mr. Auld's knowledge ; and it may have been represen- ted to him that the mutilation of this paper was neither a voluntary dissolution nor a legal discharge of contract. It may have been fur- ther represented to Mr. Auld and his elders that, if this paper did not of itself constitute marriage, it formed a contract which subsequent " coitus," to use Sir Islay Campbell's expression, converted into mar- riage. For these or other reasons, well or ill founded, the Kirk-Session may have seen difficulties in the way of establishing a clear case of scandal against Burns and Jean in March 1788, and have thought it expedient to take no action in the matter. I need scarcely add that * In respect of precise dates, these statements are open to criticism. Appendix. 405 after the heavy sorrows Jean had passed through, the Kirk-Session would be well pleased to find themselves able to take a view of her conduct that did not involve her in further humiliation. These conjectures regarding the Kirk-Session's procedure are to some extent confirmed by several remarks in Chambers's Life of the poet. " It does appear, indeed," says Chambers, " that before the 3rd March, 1788, Burns had found reaso?i to fear that he might, after all, be liable . . to trouble on account of Jean Armour, if she, or any other person, should feel interested in bringing evidence against him for the establishment of previous nuptials," or, as some might say, contract. And again Chambers says : — " Had Burns never resumed his acquain- tance with Jean . . there could have been no claim on their (the Armours') part towards him, however the legal question might have been ultimately ruled." Into these personal matters concerning Burns I would not have en- tered, had it not been that the conduct of the Kirk-Session, in their dealings with the poet, has been the subject of considerable animad- version. For many reasons it would be better to let some of the frailties of distinguished men be buried in oblivion. It is only in his " Poet-forms of stronger hours " that Burns is to us a subject of living and admiring interest, and whatever he may have been in his weaker moments, he was in his moods of inspiration like Saul among the people, a man that from the shoulders upwards was higher than all his fellows. NOTES OX OLD CHURCH LIFE, FIRST SERIES. The following extracts from the Records of the Kirk-Session of Kilmarnock may be of interest to readers as bearing on some of the points discussed in the previous volume. Sittings in Churches. 1676. Considering "the great oppression that is in the Church floore through a multitude of chaires, thrust in without warrand from the Session, whereby many old deserving women cannot win neir to heir sermon, nor cannot get roume to have ane chaire set in to sit on, whereas many young women have them that may better stand nor they, upon which the Session thinks fit that the tables be not taken doun untill such tyme as some course be taken thereanent," 406 Appendix. " The Session think fit that the Elders in their several quarters take up ane list of the most fit and most deserving to have chaires in the Cluirch and to present the said lists to the Session against the next day to be examined." The Session " doe unanimouslie conclude that ther be only five score chaires in the Kirk floore and no moe, and these to have no arms, and all of on magnitude, and this Act to continue for a year's tym." 1689. The Session ordered "that none presume to bring into or keep in this Kirk any armed chairs, or any other size than as follows, viz,, each chair to be allowed by the Session might be 16 inches in height, i5}4 inches in breadth, and 12 inches the length of the seat bands, betwixt joynt and joynt, all inches of rule or measure. ' 1695, The chairs in the body of the church were removed, and " furmes " set instead. Some of these furmes had "breasts." At an early date there were forms as well as chairs in the church. In 1671 " the Session ordered some of the elders to go throw the town houses, and sie if they could find any of the Church forms in them and to cause bring them bak ;" and in November of the same year the Session ordained that no forms be given out of the church without their order. 1695. On the erection of a new loft, the Session allowed "Laird of Rowallan four pewes from the face of the loft backward, with an entrie to them by himselfe ; the Laird of Craufurdland other four pewes with an entrie to them ; and the Laird of Grange three pewes with an entrie to them off the head of the stair. And that the rest of the loft should be completely furnished with furmes and destinate for the use of the common people both in town and landward." The area beneath was at that date all occupied with pews, and the rents of the pews were ai)plied by the Session to such pious uses as were found most needful. Churchyards and Houses on Churchyard Dykes. Owners of houses on churchyard dykes paid annually to the Kirk- Session sums ranging from 13s. 4d. to £,2 Scots, "conforme to the tack. ' Appendix. 407 1650. One of these owners supplicated the Session "for hbertie to mak ane door to his high house on the churchyaird, he oblcidging himselff that no ashes nor any thing prejuditial to the churchyaird, or unbeseeming to honest men's buriall places, should be casten out at the said door." The crave was granted, with certification that if the terms were infringed the door would be closed up. 1693. "The kirk yard was laying open as a plain path road," and the Session considered how it might be fenced, but nothing was con- cluded. " In the mean time, Charles Dalrymple was appointed to give warning by the drum that no person defile the same by laying dunghills thereon." Behaviour in Church during Service. 1656. "Compeared and confessed his profanation of the Lord's day in fighting for a seat in the time of divine service." 1677. "Compeared Jean Brown and complained on Sara Reid for lifting her chaire out of the place that the elders had placed it, and putting in hers." Sara was found in the right, but both were sharply reproved for " their abuse of the Sabbath day in contending about their chaires, when they were come to sermon." 1677, 22nd March. "This day ther came in ane complaint that in tym of divine service ther used some young lads to gather together in corners of the kirk, and did fight and play, and used to creep under the furmes and prick men with pins, and wer a great prejudice to their hearing that sat nixt to them." 1698. Intimation made that "none move out of their seats, nor presume to go out of church, until sermon be ended, prayers said, psalms sung, and blessing pronounced ; otherwise the elders would take notice of them at the several church-doors, and give up their names to the Session, and next to the minister, to be read publicly out of pulpit." 1699. Children playing in the churchyard in time of divine service, " if found henceforth, they should be apprehended and imprisoned in the steeple, and afterwards condignly punished by scourging or other- wise, for profanation of the Lord's day." Co^iMUNioN Services. 1695. Agreed that the deals that were used for tables at the Com- munion should be kept allenarly for that use from year to year. 1701. Hours of service on Communion Sabbath, "at 8th of the 40^ Appendix. clock precisely . . . the kirk doors not being opened until six of the dork." On Monday, the service commenced at nine precisely. In Old ("hutch Life (First Series) it is stated that, while common wheaten bread and port wine are now generally used at Communions, at one time it was customary to use shortbread and claret. At Kilmarnock, in 1708, "it was moved (in the Session) if the sacrament bread shall be changed. Agreed that it be not changed, but that the same bread be used that was last Communion." .\t the winter Com- numion in Kilmarnock in 1719, there were used "28 pints claret wine at 26s. per [jint, and bread ^4 Scots."* Total charge, ^40 8s. In 1 7 12, the Communion elements cost;^69 i6s. 4d. Scots. Duties of Elders. 1671. " The Session judged it convenient that the minister from the pulpit give advertisement to the congregation that the elders are to visit their severall quarters every Sabbath night after sermon." 1676. An act was renewed that the elders go through their several quarters every Saturday night at nine o'clock, to see who are drinking. 1706. The Earl of Kilmarnock was ordained an elder, and ap- parently by a very simple ceremony. " The Moderator proposed some queries to his Lordship, anent his belief of a Deity, the govern- ment and discipline of the Church, which he satisfactorily answered, and therefore was admitted and received to be ane elder." 1723. The following are the questions appointed by the Presby- tery of Irvine to be put to elders at privy censures : — " I St. Do ye visit the sick in your division, speak to them, and pray with them when you are called. 2nd. Do ye inform yourself of the conversation of your division, particularly whether they have family worship and attend ordinances. 3rd. Do ye give account of what scandals fall out, which deserve public censure. 4th. Do ye deal with their consciences who are guilty of such escapes as do not deserve to be represented to the Session. 5th. Do ye deal with persons under scandal to bring them to repentance. 6th. Do ye attend judicatories as ye can conveniently. 7th. Do ye make conscience to rule your own family, and endeavour to give them a good example. 8th. Do * One Scotch pint of wine is equal to 3-581091 English pints, and as an English pint is equal to i^ of the pints now in common use, 28 Scotch pints are equal to 6X dozen quarts. Sec Lord Hailes' Proposal for Uniformity of Weights and Measures, p. 30. Appendix. 409 ye visit your division every half year, and see whether strangers have brought testimonials." Public Morals. The period from 163S to 1651 is by many people regarded as the period of greatest piety and purity in the history of the Church of Scotland. There were certainly during that period a great deal of re- ligious zeal and a great deal of moral austerity in the Church and country, but there was also more barbarity than is sometimes repre- sented. In 1647 the following resolution was minuted by the Kirk- Session of Kilmarnock : — " Finding the increase of that unnatural sinne of husbands and wyvis stryking on another, and feiring, that gif it sould be passed over without censure, that it sould tend to the contempt of discipline and dissolving of families, therefore, have ordained, for the curbing of the sinne, whasoever sail be found guiltie of this sinne sail stand in the public place of repentance and sail pay." Old Church Life (First Series of Lectures), 1885. Corrigenda et Notanda. P. 8, line 16, "chestnut-tree" should be "elm-tree." P. 29, line 26, also p. 30, line 4, "handles " should be "hands." P. 30, " There was no clock-face on the east gable of the old church within any living man's memory." I have learned that a year or two before the old church was taken down, the old knock was furnished and set up anew in'its ancient habitation. P. 44, line 25, "fray in 1684" should be "in 1648." P. 46, " Mary Morrison's window." The family of Adjutant Morri- son latterly Uved in the house mentioned, but in the days of Burns they resided in another part of the village. P. 47, " Two of his (Burns's) children are buried there." In a mo- dern inscription on the tombstone the name of only one child is given, viz., that of Elizabeth Riddell, who was born in Dumfries in 1792. From the fact that one of the twins of 1786 is said to have been brought up by the Armours, and to have died before her mother's ex- pulsion in 1788, I infer that that child is also buried in the Armours' enclosure. There is no record of her burial, however, in the Register, The twins of 1788 are registered as having been buried in Mauchline unbaptized. B 2 4IO Appendix. P. 171, "Mr. M'Clatchic (then a probationer, (Vc)." Leave out the clause in brackets. The M'Clatchie mentioned was j^robably the min- ister of Mcarns. P. 229, note. The decision of the Justices (1740), finding the heritors of West Kirk, P^dinburgh, not liable to assessment for the poor, was owing to s])ecial circumstances in the case. P. 287, note. Since that note was published I have been informed by a most respectable parishioner that she has frequently heard her father and mother say that the seat which at present stands in the bay of the south window of the vestry in the tower of Mauchline Church, is the veritable repentance stool of the old church, on which Burns should have sat in 1786. I have failed to find any independent con- firmation of this tradition ; and two " authorities " who remember the stool, assure me that the form in the vestry with its ornamental legs is not the old seat of penance, nor has any resemblance to what that plain piece of joiner work was. Other considerations would have led me confidently to the same conclusion, and I put this statement on record to guard against the origin of a myth at some future time. INDEX. Acts Civil, read from pulpits, 384 Adherence in Marriage, 198 Allegiance, obnoxious oath of, 344 Allowances for Paupers, variable, 44 Angelic Assembly, the, 288 Anniversary Solemnities, 328 Antecedent judgment of the Kirk, 178- 321 Appointing Ministers, different modes of, 367 Aquavitae, 132 Argyle's soldiers 1648, misconduct of, 319- Armada, the Spanish, 282 Assembly General, forms at opening of, 293 Assessments for Poor in Olden Times, 7 ; aversion to, 7 ; evasion of, 8 ; cases of in eighteenth century, 8 ; not long continued last century, 9 ; move- ment in 1771 for, 9 ; after 1771 good effects of, II ; subsequent discon- tinuance, 1 1 ; origin of, 44 Auld William, settlement in Mauchline, 377 j popularity, 378 ; specimen of his preaching, 379 ; character as a pastor, 3S0 ; his remonstrance with elders, 382 ; parochial reforms, 383 ; published writings, 384 ; not a leader in Church Courts, 387 ; rebuked by the Presbytery, 388 ; rebuke of Burns. 402. Badges for begging poor, 7-8, 53-56. Bands of marriage, 136 Banns of marriage, 135 ; on three several Sundays, 139 ; rules anent, 139 ; in vacant churches, 141 ; on less than three Sundays, 142 ; for- bidden by relatives, 157 ; refused when parties under scandal, 160 ; or pre-contracted, 164 ; or when one of the parties already married, 165 ; published in sport, 169 Baptism, mode of administration, 204 ; in private houses, 207, 210; registers of, 209, 228 ; to be preceded by preaching, 211; administered by laymen, 212 ; when irregular, de- clared null, 213 ; of infants, 214 ; to whom allowed or disallowed, 219, 221 ; early baptism, 220 ; of adults, 224 ; fees, 226 ; banquets, 228 Bargour, Campbell of, 271 Bawbees, high value of, 23 Beggars, to be imprisoned, 10, 11 ; a nuisance, 12 ; number and character of, 55 ; at kirk doors and funerals, 57 ; questioned on creed, 54, 273 Bells at burials, 27, 256, 258 Benefactions for poor, 32 ; by sailors in danger at sea, 32 Biers at burials, 246 ; in Highlands, 247 ; construction of, 248 ; on wheels, 266 Bills and bonds to Kirk-Sessions, 37 Blair of Galston, mortification for pious uses, 295 Bletherin bodie, anecdote of the, 3S9 Bluegowns, 54 Board black, hung in Churches, 33 Bodies, their value, 23 Book-keeping in 1803, 118 Bridge building, a pious use, 333 Brownists the, on burial, 252 Buckle on marriages in Scotland, 151 Burial, ceremonies at, 230 ; service at, 231 ; true Christian, 238; without coffins, 245 ; in fields, 252 ; of ex- communicates and persons unbaptized, 253 j within Churches, 254 Burke and Hare, panic about, 263. Burns, his marriage, 199, 401 ; his father's burial, 265 ; his rebuke from Daddy Auld, 402 ; children buried in Mauchline, 409 Bursars, iii. Campbell of Bargour, 271 Campbell of Kingencleuch, 272 Candlemas, gifts to schoolmaster, 104 Canons, book of, 297 Carsphairn, erected into a parish, 253 Casual poor, 48, 49 Catechising beggars, 54, 273 Ceremonies, the nocent, 300 412 Index. Chairs in Churches, 405, 406 Chamber-mail, for schoolmasters, 98 Charities and Church lL-aninf;;s, 363 Charles II., {^ood cx|)ectatinns of, 306 Churcii and echication, 161 1, 68 Church, behaviour in, 407 ; sittings in, 405. 406 Church dues, contentions about, 107 Church liberality a hundred years ago. Church-yards, their dykes and houses, 406, 407 Cists of Hal stones, 250 Civil Acts read from pulpits, 3S4 Civil marriaE^es, 179 Civil respects at funerals, 255 Clandestine marriages, iSo „ ,, see irregular Classes, Act of, 303 Clergy, peculiar meaning of term, 65 Clock on old church of Mauchline, 409 Cock fighting in schools, 105 Coffinings, 241 ; elders to attend, 242 Coffins, poor buried without, 243 ; for poor, 243 ; the parish coffin, 247 ; providing of parish coffin a pious use, 248 ; slip coffin, 249 ; cost of coffins for poor, 249 Cohabitation interdicted, 195 Coins, obsolete, found in Kirk-box, 23 Collections for poor, at church, 14 ; amount of on Sundays, 18 ; instances of small, 18 Collections for poor at communions, 19, 20; lifted at tables, 15 ; how bestowed, 58 Collections, special, for surgical opera- tions, 51 ; for farmers in bad years, 52 Collections at marriages, 175 Communion, arrangement at, 407 ; a- mount of bread and wine at, 408 Communion plate lent on hire, 32 Competitive prayers, 236 Compulsory education, 109 Conjuration at baptism, 205 Consignations, 143, 146 ; cautioners for, 145, 147 ; time they lay, 146 ; speci- men of bond, 148 Constables for apprehending beggars, 10 Contracts of marriage, 136, 138; consi- dered covenants of God, 164 ; not reckoned by the Church indissoluble, 164 Coppers, bad, 22 Corpses lifting, panic about, 263 Counterfeit man, punished for playing the, 161 Courtship, an expensive, 154 Covenant, National, 298 Covenanters, tyranny of, 322 Creed and conduct, chief parts of educa- tion, 123 Creed repeated at baptism, 222 Cripples, hand barrows for, 56 Cromwell a lay pope in Scotland, 336 Cross, sign of, at baptism. 205 Curates (1660- 1690), character of, 359 Dalgarno, William, 358 Davidson, John, of Prestonpans, poet, 273 Deacons in Church of Scotland, 3 ; different from deacons in Church of England, 3 ; seldom appointed in Church of Scotland, 5 ; revival of office fifty years ago, 6 ; unpaid, 39 Dergies, 265 Disarming Act, 127 Discretion "in diligence" recommen- ded, 371 Disputed settlements, scandalous scenes at, 389 Disruption of 1651, 304 Dissent, its effect on provision for poor, 44, 45 Distribution of charities to poor, persons that made, 39, 41 ; rules, anent, 40 ; how made, 42 ; ancient and modern principles of, 43 Doctor, an assistant teacher, 91 Doits, their value, 23 Dollars, Leg and Rix, their value, 23 Doxology, trial of, in Mauchline church, 362 Drowned, recovery of persons, 260 Dwelling house for schoolmaster, 98 Earthquake at Kilmarnock, 53 Ecclesiastical state of Scotland, 16S7-90, 353 Education, primary, three periods in history of, since Reformation, 63 ; before Reformation, 64 ; Reformers' views on, 65 ; state of, in 161 1, 68 ; in 1627, 70 ; Acts anent, 72 ; state of, in three periods, 1633-1646, 1646- 1650, 1696-1758, 74; in Highlands, 116 ; aim of, 133 Elders, how appointed, 360 ; how in 1684, 361 ; their duties in olden times, 408 Engagement the, of Duke Hamilton, 3" Episcopacy, Establishment of (1610), 287 ; re-establishment of ( 1661), 320 ; abjured by General Assembly, 163S, but not by Westminster standards, 325 Index. 413 Erastus on baptism, 222 Espousals, 136 Examination of schools by committees of Presbytery, 114 Fairlie, James, 396 Fair not free trade in teaching, 87 Family exercise, 122 Farmers, collections for, 52 Fees, school, 99 Fees for proclamation of marriage, 141 Fees at baptisms, 226 Fees, extra, as fines, given to poor, 25 Festivities at marriages, 148 ; at marri- age contracts, 156 ; at baptisms, 228 Fines for irregular proclamations of marriage, 142 ; for irregular marri- ages, 199 ; a source of provision for poor, 24 Flitting ministers, payment for, 295 Four hours, an old expression, 95 Frankincense for corpses, 259 Free education, 100 Funeral service, 231 ; sermons, 232 Funerals, time spent at, 237 ; drunken- ness at, 238 ; smoking at, 241 Gillespie Patrick, Principal of Glasgow College, his appointment, 338 ; his little insight into Latin, 338 Godfathers at baptisms, 215 Gordon, Bishop of Galloway, 275 ; famous sermon, 277 Gossopes, 217 Grace, before a glass of wine, 234 Graces, long, 237 Grammar uniform, 1607, for all schools. Graves, digging of, 251 Groats, their value, 23. Haldane James, 125 Hamilton Gavin, and poor's money, 11 Hamilton Robert, settlement at Mauch- line, 274 ; testimonial in favour of, 277 Hamilton Robert, of St. Andrew's, 27S Hearses at funerals, 265 Heritors, unwilling to provide schools, 78, 92 Hours early, for school, Church, and Presbytery, 69, 407 Ignari appointed to offices in the Uni- versity by Cromwell's Commissioners, 338 Incestuous marriages, 169 Indulgences to Presbyterian ministers, 331. 347. 352 ; breaches of 332, 349 ; prejudice against acceptors of, 348 Ingiving of names for marriage, 138 Inspectors of poor, 39 Interments, indecencies at, 251 Irregular marriages, 177 ; ancient doc- trine of Church anent, 179, 181, of bench, 180 ; popular opinion, 180 ; penalties for, 185, 199 ; frequency of last century, 186 ; causes of that fre- quency, 187 ; opinions of Church Courts in 1753 on legal marriage, 193 ; irregular followed by regular marriage, 196 ; censure for irregu- larity, 196 ; confirmation, 1 98 ; pro- secution by Fiscal, 201 James Sixth on Presbytery, 286 Judicial committees for trial of slander in lives of ministers, 282 Keeper of poor, 41 Kindliness of Kirk-Sessions, 49, 61 Kingencleugh, Campbell of, 272 Knox John, at Mauchline, 271 Laud's Liturgy, 297 Learning not appreciated in olden times, 130 Lecture schools, 64 License to teach, 84 Loans by Kirk- Sessions, 36 Loudoun, laird of. Bailie of Mauchline, 269 Lykewakes or Lykwakes, 239. Mail, school and schoolmaster's, 77 Maitland William, settlement in Mauch- line, 366 ; how appointed, 367 ; his ministry, 370 ; leazed, 375 ; illness and death, 376 Marriage regular, 134 ; banns and bands, 135 ; contracts, 136 ]Marriage, civil, clandestine, incestuous, irregular, see under these headings. Marriage forbidden, to persons under scandal, 162 ; to persons grossly ignorant, 163; to persons that neglect ordinances, 163 ; to persons under age, 168 ; to persons within certain degrees of consanguinity, 168, 169 Marriage impeded, by precontract, 164; by report of previous marriage, 165 Marriage in sport, 166, 194 ; for limited period, 194 Marriage legal, what constitutes, 16S ; was celebration necessary, 191 Marriage, oath of God in, 194 Marriage proved, by certificate, 189; by oath of parlies, 190 414 Index. Marriage, place of, cluircli, 170; cliam- l)cr, 171, 173, 174 Marriage, day of, Sunday or lecture day, 170, 172; not on fasl-day, 171 Marriage service, 175 Marriage, celebration of by dissenting ministers, 191 Marriage, swearing out of, 168 Marriages at early hours, 172 Matrimonial quarrels (in 1647), 409 Matrimonial separations, 202 Mauchline moor, battle at, 312 ; trial of ministers for conduct at, 317 ; ap- ]iroval of the rebels at, 318 Mauchline parish, a heavy charge, 308 Mauchline school in early times, 75 Meal to poor, 46, 47. Meeting houses in 1687, 356 Meldruni, David, settlement in Mauch- line, 358 ; deprived, 364 ; becomes a Presbyterian, 365 ; minister at Tibbcr- muir, 366 ; dies father of Church, 366. Melville, James, at school and college, 121 Middleton, Earl, 327 Ministers, what they did for education, 66, 68 ; acting as schoolmasters, 66 Ministers' families, poverty in, 50 Ministers outed in 1662, 346 ; kindly treated by friends, 346 Minstrelling, evils of, 152 Money, value of in old times, 20 Moody, W., of Riccarton, 388 Morrison, Mary, her window, 409 Mortcloth, hire of, a source of provision for poor, 28 ; obligation to use Ses- sion's, 30; charges for, 31 ; use of, 259 Mortifications, see benefactions Mowat, Matthew, 312 Muet, Samuel, persecutions and history of, 49 Music in schools, 119 Nesmyth, or Nasmyth, James, 307 Nocent ceremonies, 300 Non-intrusion of schoolmasters, 82 North, Commissioners to Supply ordi- nances in, 373 Oath of allegiance, 1661, objectionable to Covenanters, 331 Oath of purity before marriage, 161 Old church life, end of, 394 ; features of, 396 Ordination, Episcopal, at Cathedrals, 292 Ordination, Presbyterial, sometimes by committees, 358 Ordination preceded by a fast, 369 Ordinalif)n dinner, 370 Orphan children provided for, 47 Outgiving of names for marriage, 139 Overseers of poor, 42 Parishes, several after Reformation, under one minister or readers, 274 ; insufficiently provided with ministers (1596), 2S0 Parochial Board, constitution of, at different dates, 38 Paupers' effects sold, 34 Peden, Alexander, 48 Penny weddings, scandals at, 153 Pensions, precepts, and 'pointments, 43 Persecution, beginning of, under Charles II., 326, 341 Pew, the marriage, 173 Pews erected from poor's stock, and rented for good of poor, 37 Pledges given to Kirk-Session, 37 Pluralities, 280 Poor, provision for, reckoned church's duty, I, 4 ; Kirk-Sessions straitened in providing for, 13 ; state of in 1698, 46 ; cost of, 58 ; by whom supported, 59 ; were they content, 61. Poor, the casual, 48, 49 Poor children provided for, 47 ; educa- tion of, 108 Poverty from persecution, 49 ; in ministers' families, 50 Prayer extempore, a common acquire- ment, 122 Prayers competitive, 236 Presbytery established in 1592, 281 Prevention of scandal, 161 Prices, 21 Prime conference, committees of, 284 Primrose Peter, 280 ; on provincial committee for trial of scandals, 282 ; one of the " specialles of the ministerie," 284 ; one of the moderator's assessors at Assembly, 285 ; his threatened protestation at the Angelic Assembly, 2S9 ; death and character, 291 Propagation of Christian knowledge, society for, 374 Protestations, 289 Protesters the, 302 ; conference for reconciliation with resolutioners, 305, 309 Rabbling the curates, 359 Read, number that could not, 200 |)"ears ;igo, 116 Index. 415 Recommendations of people for charity, 48 Records, how lost, 371 Reformation in Scotland, established 1560, and 1567, 2S0 Register of baptisms, 209 Register of securities, 33 Reid Adam, of Barskimming, 269 Reid Archibald, his misfortunes, 389 ; settlement in Mauchline, 390 ; broken heart, 391 ; mistaken for the devil, 391 ; attainments and character, 393 Religious instruction, 121-124 Repentance stool, Mauchline, 410 Resolutioners the, 302 ; conferences with protesters for union, 305-309 Rings consigned at marriage contracts, 143 Rose John, 291 Roups, intimation of from pulpits, 384 Rye-house plot, 350 Sabbath day not known, 117 Sabbatical customs, origin of some, 286 Salaries of schoolmasters, small, 94 ; commuted, 97 ; not paid, 102 Scandal, prevention of, 161 Schools, at Reformation, 66 ; how in 1611 provided, 69; how in 1616 provided, 70 ; management of (1560- . 1633), 71 Schools, private and women's, 65, 86 School at the kirk, 79 School-houses, how provided, 76 ; sometimes leased, 77, state of, from 1740 to 1760, 80 School-houses, repair of, 78 Schoolmasters 1560- 1633, appointment of, 71 ; provision for, 72 Schoolmasters, after 1633, appointed by Kirk-Sessions, Si ; by Kirk-Session and heritors, 82 ; by competition, 84 ; appointed for limited time, 85 ; dismissal, 86 Schoolmasters, maintenance of, salary, 87 ; raised by Kirk-Sessions, 88, 93 ; by land or house tax, 90 ; by Kirk- Session and heritors, 91 ; fees, 99. Schoolmasters, poverty of, in 1802, 96 Schoolmasters, ]")arish offices held by, 106 Schoolmasters, examined and licensed to teach by I'rcsbytcry, 84; their scliolarshii), 76 Scorning the kirk, 144 Secondary education, 1 1 1 - 1 20 Separation of si)ouses, 202 Service at burials, meaning of, 233 ; graced or ungraced, 236 Service book, 297 Session Clerks, dues of, 106 Sim, Alexander, 362 Singing in schools, II9 Sittings, church, 405 Slandering of ministers, 375 Slavery, Fletcher's apology for, 2 Smoking at Funerals, 241 Sorn or Dalgain disjoined from Mauch- line, 309 Sponsors at baptism, 214 ; different en- gagements in Scotland from what in England, 216 ; when parents not pre- sent, 219 ; qualifications required of, 222 Stent, see assessment. Sterling coinage introduced, 19 Stock for provision of poor, 35 ; invest- ment of, 37 Students begging, 131 Subscriptions, liberty from Kirk-Session to solicit, 57 Sunday schools, 122 ; in disfavour, 126 ; in Ayrshire, 128 Superintendents or quasi bishops, 274 Superstitions in Ayrshire last century, 117 Sureties at baptism, 215 Surgical operations, collections for, 51 Tapsters, ministers acting as, 132 Tea, use of, 95 Teachers of private and Sunday schools (179S) to be questioned, 127 Technical colleges, 123 Teinds claimed by Church, 2 Testimonial to Mr. Hamilton and King. encleugh, 277 Thorn in the right foot, 299 Tiff between Session and heritors in Mauchline, 13 Tod, John, his settlement in Mauchline, 394 ; the new church life, 394 Torvvood, excommunication of Charles II. at, 323 Transportation of ministers, 294, 306 Treasurer or thesaurer of Kirk-Session, 40 ; should not be a huckster, 41 Tunes, new, at Irvine, 119 Turners, their value, 23 Union, conferences for, between Protes- ters and Resolutioners, 305, 309 University, appointments in, how made (1652), 337 Unplanted kirks visited, 274 Vagabonds and vagrants. Sec beggars. Vagabond scholars, 131 4i6 Index. Vcitch, Jnmcs, 335 ; his Icarninij, 337 : his ])itiful invective, 339 ; his iiiinis- tiy, 340 ; his |)crscciilioiis in 16O2, 343 ; threatened assassination, 348 ; breaches of confinement, 349 ; exile in Holland, 351 ; persecution aljroad, 351 ; return, 353 ; death and charac- ter, 356 Virtue, houses of, 123 Visitation of churchless districts, 274 Voluntaryism in 1687, 354 Wakes, 239 Weddings, festivities at, 14S, 151 ; gatherings at, 149 ; charges at, 149, 153 ; privilege of purveying for, gran- ted to special hostlers, 155 Whigamore's raid, 319 Winding sheets, Acts of Parliament anent, 242 Winding sheets of leather, 244 Winter severe, 17S2-83, 60 Witnesses at baptisms, 217 Wishart, George, at Mauchlinc, 270 Women's schools, 65 Writing a modern part of elementary education, 117 Wyllic, Thomas, settlement in Mauch- line, 308 ; at the moor, 311 ; trans- lated to Kirkcudbright, 320; perse- cuted, 326 ; indulged, 331 ; death and character, 333 Young, George, settlement in Mauch- linc, 291 ; friendship with Baillie, 293 ; tact in business, 295 ; public services, 299 ; death and character, 306 Youth-head, the, 65 2Q --. t) UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. TO7D LD Uire AUG 1^^1986 I I Form L9-25wi-8,'46 (9852) 444 U^aVLl.^ ;. [FORNIX BR 783 E23o 2d ser. (3 UCLA-Young Research Library BR783 .E23o 2d ser. 009 518 301