TRINITY-GASK AND KINKELL
(Kinkell had Readers, and two Ministers.)
1584-1594—JOHN HAMMYL. Deposed.
1637-1639—JOHN MURRAY, A.M., removed to Trinity-Gask, with which the parish has ever since been united.
MINISTERS OF TRINITY-GASK
1576-1593—ALEX. GALL. Formerly at Muthill and Strageyth.
1596-1608—WILLIAM OSWALD.
1639-1662—JOHN MURRAY, A.M., died in December.
1664-1673—JAMES BRUCE, A.M.
1674-1682—RICHARD DUNCAN, A.M. Hanged at Crieff on a charge of child murder, a reprieve arriving twenty minutes too late. This is supposed to be the historical fact underlying the well-known popular rhyme, erroneously attributed to Little Dunkeld:—
"O what a parish, sic a terrible parish,
O what a parish is that o' Kinkell;
They hae hangit the minister, drooned the precentor;
Dang doon the steeple, an' drucken the bell."
The Churches of Trinity-Gask and Kinkell are on opposite sides of the Earn, and the precentor is supposed to have been drowned in crossing between them. The Church of Kinkell is now a ruin, and has no steeple. Its bell was recently discovered in the possession of a church in East Lothian.
1683-1698—JAMES ROY, A.M., died in that year. He and the minister of Muckart were the only members of Presbytery who continued in their charges after the Revolution.
1700-1718—JOHN MURRAY, A.M., died 22nd November.
1720-1755—PATRICK PROVAND, died 29th November. The parish is popularly known as Tarnty. "Mr Provand, minister of Tarnty," was once ushered into the presence of Lord Kinnoull by an English footman as "Mr Providence, the minister of Eternity."
1756-1769—JAMES REID, A.M., died 24th August.
1770-1776—JOHN KEMP, tr. to New Greyfriars, Edinburgh. Afterwards D.D.; colleague in Tolbooth Church with Dr. Webster, and Secretary to the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, in which capacity he visited most of the Hebrides, founding schools. A man of conciliatory and engaging manners. (See pp. 114-115.)
1777-1793—JOHN WRIGHT, tr. to Scone.
1794-1834—JAMES BRUGH, D.D., died 23rd July. Changed spelling of his name to Burgh.
1836-1866—ALEX. HILL GRAY, died 15th May. Had a narrow escape of being vetoed, but, there being some irregularity in the making up of the roll of heads of families, his appointment was sustained.
1866-????—GEORGE WRIGHT KEMP.
Note.—The Information in above lists is largely derived from Dr. Hew Scott's Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticana. It has, however, been supplemented and brought down to date. G. D. M'N.