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Introd tion The res ter ario h at Disr tion

inisters
Earl Dissent The Laird The Elder

The ir to n and its Inha it nts

The Far To n The Far er The ill r and The ailie lain anners lain e h

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story a parish minister s life is and should be rarely told in print profession more likely to be devoid incident than the ministry a country parish I n its quiet routine preaching teaching isiting the sick comforting the a flicted a man may live a rich full life but seldom furnishes a the bio grapher shall leave it to others to judge hether the late minister of I nverurie and historian the Garioch was a proper exception to the rule thus laid down This brief emoir my father has been pre pared for the sake friends whose
INTRODUCTION sorrow at his loss testified to the af ection and esteem in hich they held him and was earnest of a pretty ide welcome such a memento as is here offered a good and wise man a faithful pastor and a learned antiquary
John D avidson was the son a farmer in the parish of whose early and violent death was to the son but a faint though pain ul memory The stock from which he came was the folk who are believed to have descended upon the north east coast of Scot land from Norway Northern Europe His mother survived for some ye rs his entrance into the ministry He was born the year after Waterloo An uncle living in Aberdeen took the wido and son into his house and the mother
INTRODUCTION worked hard for many years so that her boy might have the best schooling available James Melvin became rector of the Grammar School in and from him in the building in the the boy learned his Latin and derived that impress of character which was common to most of Melvin s pupils I f he had been accustomed to use the quasi psychological cant to day he would have said that the men who formed him we e James Melvin and John Cruickshank Professor of Mathematics in Marischal College whose valued friendship he enjoyed long as their lives ran together
Mathematics was his forte at the U niversity and graduated with honours in that subject and after wards taught it in Gray s School
INTRODUCTION
His period study at the D ivinity Hall ell among the Ten Years the Conflict Stirring as the times were they developed in the student little the spirit of com moderate in disposition hating his life long what he was wont to call he adhere to the Moderate party in the Church What it cost a young man to take that line we a younger generation can conceive only feebly My father never spoke it but to recall the pain he suf ered at being cut by his best friend a ong the clergy Aberdeen But all wounds were healed by the cordiality Of his reception by the members the Presbytery of Garioch which he entered in as assistant and successor to the Rev Robert minister of I nverurie
INTRODUCTION
I t the best praise Of his long ministry Of forty eight years that a detailed history Of it ould be uninteresting I take it that he sought to make no mark upon time save the stamp that the doing Of duty leaves life work is written the characters Of the people whom he influenced This sketch must perforce be con fined a brief account Of what characteristic in his manner and methods He preached sermons every Sunday discourses whose Moderatism was warmed by a deep personal faith in the Fatherhood Of God and the Love Of the it was in his prayers that his simple unaffected piety was the more closely brought home the
The language choice and terse probably none who ever
INTRODUCTION listened to him will ever forget certain of his intercessory phrases

or the deep emotion with which his communion addresses were imbued
I n his prime my father moved much about among his people For many years he took an annual census Of the parish covering the whole distance foot He thus kept himself in touch with outlying parishioners and at the same time Obtained an interesting and valuable record the changes that came over his semi rura semi burghal charge His knowledge Of the parish its families and its con figuration and divisions became extraordinarily exact and full Seeking early in his ministry for some additional outlet to his activity he one excursion into the philosophical fiel and
INTRODUCTION published a solid and well reasoned book entitled Belief What is it But taste and inclination immediately led him into what was for him the tr e and proper sphere literary labour He was a born antiquary having a natural craving to discover the orig ns of things And as fortune had set him in a district peculiarly rich in memories the past and given him the spiritual oversight a Royal burgh so ancient as I nverurie it was almost a thing course that he should write I nverurie and the Earldom the Garioch a monu mental local history which as Mr Leslie Stephen said it erred if at all the lines Of the school Of infinitesimal research I t was the product unwearied and protracted labour Only by aid of the habit of
INTRODUCTION constant occupation could it have been written at all My ather was rarely idle He stood to work and so saved himself from the writer s stoop I do know whether the choice that attitude had anything to the ease with which he could drop his writing at any point and resume it when ext at leisure Most I nverurie and the Earldom Of the Garioch was written at a breast high desk in a little study too barely furnished even to be dignified with the name Of library and in the picture Of my father which memory most Often recalls to his family he is standing there between window and door compos ing sermons and lectures or digesti g with infinite patience the mass materials which the research Of years had accumulated for
INTRODUCTION historical work He wrote rapidly in a bad hand and in a plain if elegant style H is interest in the subject did not lapse with the publication his book He pur sued with only little less diligence his inquiri s into the past Of the parish Of I nverurie and constructed what was practically a cadastral survey Of probably unexampled minuteness But age and infirmity fell upon him before he was able to put these later labours into shape it has been deemed sufficient to present to the public at present only the selection which follows from the lighter MS S he left behind The quantity Of these alone tells great industry and I am fain to believe that the reader Of these will endorse my interested judgment Of their truth
INTRODUCTION
The late minister Of I nverurie was a man Of uncommon shrewd ness and knowledge Of the world He had travelled much in his prime and broadened his mind by contact with men Of other countries Not people alone resorted to him counsel He was the val ed adviser his clerical colle gues and also Of the best Of the Garioch Iairds Of the last generation I n this respect the mantle his father law Dr B isset Of Bourtie fell upon him He took up too Dr B isset s constitutional Churchman in Presbytery and Synod and was a recognised and respected leader in both Courts But he had only a modest share in public life at any time the only large matter in which he was ever concerned outside the Church being I INTRODUCTION relations with the numerous dissent ing inisters who passed across the ecclesiastical stage in I nverurie during his long pastorate were friendly hardly ever intimate a natural shrinking from the parade emotion and a rooted distrust Of combination as a means to the improvement Of the public morals kept him aloof from most modern movements
I n the loc l government Of the burgh and parish he took an active part He was chairman the Parochial Boar from till death first chairman the School Board and president Of the Savings Bank long ago as he made an honorary burgess Of the burgh the Town Council thus marking their respect for him and their appreciation of the services he
INTRODUCTION rendered in connection with the delineation the burgh boundaries on the Ordnance Survey maps and twenty years later he was presented with his portrait which now hangs in the Council Chamber of I nverurie Though he entered the Masonic order comparatively late in life he rose in it and in the esteem Of the local brotherhood who also preserve his portrait in St Anthony s Lodge He was for many years chaplain the Gordon Highlanders and took a lively interest in volu teering
I refrain purpose y from ing upon his public co duct and rom speaking at all the manner in which he ordered his home life this memorial may be taken as a small tribute his family s love and ho our of his worth as a man