Aspects of the Religious History of Lewis
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ASPECTS OF THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF LEWIS Rev. Murdo Macaulay was born in Upper Carloway, Lewis, the eldest child of a family of four boys and two girls. On the day of his birth the famous and saintly Mrs Maclver of Carloway predicted that he was to be a minister of the Gospel. This prediction, of which he had been informed, appeared to have no particular bearing upon his early career. It was not until the great spiritual revival, which began in the district of Carloway a few years before the outbreak of the Second Worid War, that Mr Macaulay came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever thoughts he may have entertained previously, it was in a prisoner of war camp in Germany that he publicly made known his decision to respond to his call to the ministry of the Free Church. The Lord's sovereignty in preparing him for the ministry could make interesting reading. It included a full secondary education, a number of years of military training, some years in business where he came to understand the foibles of the public whom he had to serve, a graduation course at Edinburgh University and a divinity Course in Up to the Disruption of 1843 the Free Church College. Mr Macaulay has a studious mind, a retentive memory, and scholastic ability for research. He has a good working knowledge of six languages, yet he is more concerned about stating facts than about This document is scanned for research and appears never to have been clothing them in attractive language. copyrighted. It is shared here on a non-commercial basis for others to Statistical Accounts of the period treated are scanty in detail, and study, however, please contact me if any party has any objection to it being do not cover certain areas. Records of Church Courts concern only on the web as I can remove it. Other rare or out of print material like this their own transactions. Anecdotes and peculiar incidents which have can be found linked at www.alastairmcintosh.com/islandspirituality.com come down through oral tradition required checking and rechecking in order to get the actual facts. Present and future historians will appreciate this work, but it is mainly written for the general public. REV. MURDO MACAULAY Norman MacLeod. j: I; ASPECTS OF THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF LEWIS Up to the Disruption of 1843 /<fto REV. MURDO MACAULAY •u This book is dedicated to the Back Free Church Sabbath School and its many devoted teachers. PREFACE Having read practically everything, on which I could lay my hands, of what has been written about our beloved Island of Lewis, and being particularly interested in the island's religious background, as well as in the progress of religion in it, I felt constrained to make an effort to bring some of the most interesting aspects of our island's religious heritage together, so that others may come to know what I so much enjoyed myself in gathering together what we know of the wonderful works of God among our forebears. The treatment of the subject can in no way be regarded as exhaustive, for there is a great wealth of material, which, because of size and cost, had regrettably to be cast aside. I trust, however, that enough has been put together to whet the appetite, not only of the Lord's people, but also of others, and to encourage them to hold fast those things which have been handed down to us, both by other authors and by tradition, and so transmit them to a future genera tion, to whom, I hope, they will be very precious. To write about the religious life of our island up to the Disruption of 1843 means that we have to depend to a great extent on the labours of others, and it is difficult to gather this together without laying oneself open to the charge of plagiarism. I feel it necessary, therefore, to state that I have freely used the available sources open to me, as they themselves have used such before me. I acknowledge my indebtedness to the many who have laid their hand to put on permanent record what they had gleaned themselves from other records as well as from the traditions among our people. I am greatly indebted to Mr Morrison, the Stornoway Librarian, who has often helped me to procure material which is normally unavailable to the ordinary reader. I also acknowledge with grateful thanks the help received from the Rev. Norman MacLeod, Callan- ish, and from Mr Neil Murray, M.A., Back, and especially for their diligence and valuable suggestions as they went through the manu script. CONTENTS STh'57 ST."££ Mi. A*, d. d- i. d. d.,« 1681, (P^bly date of repairi), with the Initial* IB Our Roots 1 MK Celtic Missionaries 5 Ecclesiastical Structures 10 Early Proprietors 12 DeanMunro 13 Priories 15 Fife Adventurers 18 Synod of Argyll 21 Indweller 27 Martin Martin 35 Pre-Disruption Island ministers 42 Stornoway 43 Moral and Social Conditions of the Time 57 Funerals 59 Statistical Account 64 Barvas 68 Cross 74 Knock 83 Lochs 88 Uig 102 Harris 113 Times of Refreshing 116 Royal Bounty 120 Gaelic Schools 122 Sabbath Schools 127 FinlayMunro 130 John MacLeod 142 Angus Morrison 157 Donald Morrison 161 JohnMorison 164 Revival 169 Kitty Smith 188 Malcolm MacLeod 191 Angus MacLeod 192 P»wl««J by John G. Eccles Printers Ltd, Inverness Angus Maclver 198 ASPECTS OF RHI.KHOUS HISTORY OF LEWIS onald 200 202 ^onZ:::"::^..^ ™ icLean 208 >rrison 211 OUR ROOTS Few chapters in the Ecclesiastical history of Scotland are more ™ i\z interesting than the religious history of Lewis, and few also are so «t». 2« little known. leetings Ll\ Index Of the very early religious life in the Island of Lewis our know ledge is scanty. There are no records of the Synod of Argyll and the Isles before 1638, and it is to this Synod that the Church in Lewis then belonged. The earliest parochial register is dated 1780, and it was discontinued in 1791, but since 1825 records have been regularly kept. Although we have few documents to consult, it is generally accepted that salvation through Christ was known, at least to some of the Lewis inhabitants, before the arrival of St. Columba in Iona in 563. The Celts are a branch of the family of nations known as Aryan, (also referred to as Indo-Germanic, or Indo-European, or Japhetic), who moved west into Britain, coming as far north as the Forth and the Clyde. These Celts moved from central Europe, southward, eastward and westward. In the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. fresh hordes moved after the first wave, and pushed them westwards to the extremities of the British Isles, to become the ancestors of the people in the Highlands and Islands, Isle of Man and Ireland. The second invaders became the inhabitants of Brittany, Wales and Cornwall. In the North they mingled with the original natives, and became known as the Picts and Caledonians. They alone were able to resist the Romans. They had a practical religion, and their priests were known as Druids (c.f. Acts 8.9) Gaelic Druidh. They believed in immortality, but also in the reincarnation of their heroes. Their priests were supposed to have power over the elements, and in every undertaking their people moved sunwise, or 'deiseaP. This latter custom was practised in Lewis up to the 18th century. Their feasts were Bealltuinn, Lunasdail and Samhainn, names which are still with us. Three hundred years after Paul brought the Gospel to Europe, Scotland lay in dark paganism. The Roman army which occupied most of Britain had many Christians in it. Emperor Hadrian visited 1 ASPECTS OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF LEWIS OUR ROOTS Britain in 120 A.D., and built a wall 73 miles long from the Solway to followed the Roman custom there would have been no Synod of the Tyne, as a barrier against the Caledonia tribes. It was repaired by Whitby in 664. Severus in 209. About the same time as Ninian came to Whithorn, Christianity The first Christian missionary we hear of in Scotland was St. came to Ireland through St. Patrick, who was born in Dumbarton in Ninian. There are unauthentic stories about his parentage, such as 373. He felt called by God to go to Ireland, and within 200 years that one of the Roman soldiers, who was a Christian, married a Ireland had its own colleges for the training of students for the British girl. The actual fact is that Ninian himself has not left a single ministry. word that has come down to us, and his parentage is unknown. Even From Ireland in 563 came St. Columba. Many Scots had crossed to his place of origin is doubtful. The earliest mention of Ninian is Argyllshire from Ireland before this, but they drifted into paganism. about 300 years after his death, (d 432), when Bede states he was a Columba was of royal descent. Born c. 521, he was educated for the Briton, and gives his name as Nynia. He states that he had been church. He founded two monasteries, Derry in 546, and Durrow in regularly instructed at Rome, that he was a bishop, and founded a 550. He was blamed for causing a battle between the Dalriad Scots church of stone called Ad Candidam Casam. and Diarmad, king of Eastern Ireland, and so was excommunicated Bede says the Southern Picts, i.e. those south of the Grampians, by the Irish Ecclesiastical Synod.