OLD CHURCH LIFE IN BALLINGRY: BEING THE HISTORY OF A FIFESHIRE PARISH, BASED CHIEFLY 0N ITS OLD SESSION RECORDS. BY THE Rev. DAVID JAMIE, B.D., MINISTER OF BALLINGRY. KINROSS: GEORGE BARNET, HIGH STREET 1890. Dedicated TO JOHN HOPE, ESQ., W.S., IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE INTEREST HE HAS TAKEN IN MY WELFARE, AND HIS GENEROUS KINDNESS TO ME THROUGHOUT MANY YEARS. PREFACE. SINCE the late Dr Edgar of Mauchline Published his book on Old Church Life in Scotland, many ministers and session- clerks have been looking into their old Session Records with a keener interest than before, to learn what these have to tell of bygone days. My indebtedness to Dr Edgar’s work is declared in the title given to this little volume. While the main body of facts recorded here is drawn from the Session Books, I have taken information from every available source, that the history of the parish might be as complete as possible. It is hoped this work will be found of interest throughout Fife and Kinross, and prove of more than local value as a contribution to Scottish Ecclesiastical History, and a record of Parish Life during the last two hundred years. My thanks are due to the Heritors and others who supplied me with notes respecting their several properties. It is only necessary to add that these chapters were originally prepared for delivery as lectures. DAVID JAMIE. BALLINGRY MANSE, LOCHGELLY, FIFE, December 1890. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. ANTIQUITIES AND GENERAL HISTORY 1 II. THE KIRK AND ITS MEMBERS, 18 III. THE MINISTERS OF THE PARISH, 34 IV. THE ELDERS AND THEIR DUTIES, 46 V. THE HERITORS AND THEIR DOINGS, 55 VI. SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS, 63 VII.THE CHURCH AND THE POOR, 77 VIII.LINKS WITH THE WORLD OUTSIDE, 87 ANTIQUITIES AND GENERAL HISTORY 1 CHAPTER I. ANTIQUITIES AND GENERAL HISTORY. THE parish of Ballingry consists of two small portions of land in the north-west corner of the county of Fife. The larger portion, having Navitie in the north, and Lumphinans in the south, with Rosewell in the east, and Benarty in the west, contains about four square miles. The other portion, lying to the north-east, separated from the rest of the parish by a piece of land which juts out from Portmoak, and comprising the two farms of Balbedie and Craigend, is about one square mile in extent. The name Ballingry has received various interpretations. Mr Hardy (1793) and Mr Greig (1837), the former ministers of this parish, who wrote the “ Statistical Accounts,” believed the word to mean “ the village of the cross.” The first part of the, word they took to be the Celtic “ bal,” so common throughout Fife; the rest they imagined to be made up of the initials of the Latin words that Pilate put upon our Saviour’s Cross, “I.N.R.I.” This is perhaps somewhat far-fetched. Dr Ross, in his book of Antiquities, published four years ago, adopts the Celtic origin for the latter part of the word, but the first syllable “ bal “ he connects with the Semitic “ ba-al,” and translates “ the place of worship of the king.” This also seems, in some degree, objectionable. Modern Gaelic scholars testify that the whole word is probably Celtic, that it comes from bal-an-rhi, and means the dwelling-place of the king “ In what way can we make it, appear that this name is applicable to the parish? It happens that Ballingry is not only the name of the parish, but also of an estate within the parish, possessing a fine old mansion-house and many stately trees. Stand at the door of this -mansion-house and look around-how magnificent is the view! Not only does the parish lie at your feet, but almost the whole county; while away on the horizon are descried North Berwick Law, the Bass Rock, and the island of the May. Ascend Dunmore (another Celtic name, meaning “the big hill “), which belongs to this estate, and you have before you not only the Fife county, but a large portion of many counties more. 2 OLD CHURCH LIFE IN BALLINGRY What better site could there possibly be for the dwellng-place of the ruler, not only of the parish, but of the whole kingdom of Fife? Moreover, it is probable that this very house became a resting-place for the later Scottish kings. We know how fond the Jameses were of Falkland Palace, and of hunting and hawking in the Falkland woods. We read of the journeys that they took between Falkland and Dunfermline, Edinburgh, and Stirling. We read of Mary of Guise and Queen Mary travelling between St Andrews and Dunfermline and Edinburgh, and stopping at Falkland by the way. A very likely place at which to make another halt by the way is Ballingry. It is a beautiful and well-sheltered spot, and nothing could be more cool and refreshing than the water that pours down the slope of Benarty. Even yet Ballingry, with its unrivalled situation, might be made a house fit for a king. The history of Ballingry parish is known to us from the very earliest ages. Its annals are written in the rocks, and in the strata revealed to us through the numerous bores that have been made in the search for coal in every part of the parish. Through these same bores we can tell beforehand what its future history is likely to be. Those who are best skilled in these matters tell us that at no very distant date the deep beds of coal in Benarty, Lochore, Crosshill, and Glencraig will be opened up, and our rural quietness exchanged for the bustle and activity of a populous mining place. It may be hard to believe, but it is undoubtedly true, that those wooded slopes and grassy fields upon which our eyes rest with so much complacency were once covered with almost perpetual ice and snow. We can trace the course of the glaciers that came, gliding down the valley in front of Benarty Hill; and to this day the children climb and play upon the mighty boulders that the ice-stream carried down in its bosom and left lying in the fields at Capeldrae. There have also been in prehistoric times many volcanic upheavals, and much internal disturbance within the limits of our parish boundaries, as the miners, and likewise the proprietors, have learned to their cost. That is the reason why the plough strikes so often upon stones in B’ingry. That accounts for Dunmore, for the quarry at Spailinn, for the knowes at Craigie-Malcolm, and for the general undulatory condition of the surface of the parish. That is ANTIQUITIES AND GENERAL HISTORY 3 likewise the reason why our fields are so uniformly fenced with whinstone dykes. The old legend was that Sathanus intended to fill up Lochleven with stones; but as he flew through the air, and just when he was in sight of the loch, his apron-string broke, and all the stones were scattered over our fields. Anyhow, our fathers found, as we do, the stones lying in the fields. To break them up and drag them to the side, and to build them up as fences, has been a work of enormous toil and expense; and still is, although now we have the friendly aid of dynamite. But it is a good work; those proprietors who attend to it are the benefactors of their race, for it is the first step towards bringing the land into cultivation, and thus providing food for man and beast. Within historic times our parish shares the history of the district to which it belongs-namely, the western portion of the county of Fife. And here we have first to deal with the presence of the Romans. Tacitus, the historian, relates that Agricola, the Roman general, invading Britain in the year 83 A.D., had determined to subdue the Caledonians, and having his ships in the Firth of Forth with his supplies, poured his soldiers into Fife. He built a series of camps at Carnock, at Prate Hill, three miles east of Dunfermline, at Coldrain, and likewise at the chapel of Lochore, in the middle of this parish. The Britons, too, had built a camp upon Benarty, and in the night they swept down upon the Romans, attacking their camp with skill and vigour; and, had not a scout escaped to another camp to summon Agricola with his light troops, the ninth legion would have been utterly exterminated. Several writers have described those camps. It is difficult to trace them now. Dr Ross affirms that in the days of Lord Cominissioner Adam, who was a friend of Sir Walter Scott, both of these camps within our parish were entire. Sir Walter, whose son, through marrying the heiress, became the proprietor of Lochore, was greatly interested in our antiquarian lore, and in a letter to his daughter-in-law graphically describes the rush the Britons made down the Bowhouse bank, and praises their intrepid valour as they threw- themselves upon the Roman ramparts. Two days after this, as Tacitus relates, Agricola withdrew his army south of the Forth. Besides the camp, there are other remains to recall the days of the Roman occupation. There is the word “ Blair,” the old name for 4 OLD CHURCH LIFE IN BALLINGRY Benarty estate, which is said by Mr Hardy to mean locus pugnae, the scene of a fight. In the digging of the ditches preparatory to the draining of Lochore, a Roman spear and other articles were found.