Chronicles of Strathearn

by Unknown

"Alanerlye, for that our Souerane lordis, patroun of the sayd Kyrk of Creyf, has consentyt heirto, and commendit us to hys writtings to do the samyn, keip this our mandment for your warand, and cause the samyn to be fulfyllyt, sa that we heir na complant tharof in tymys cuming. Subscrivit wyth our hand at Edinbrugh, the v. day of March, the zer of God im. vc. xi. zeris. Et sequitur subscripcio manualis dicti Episcopi D. Candide Case et Cappelle Regie Striuelingensis Episcopus."

Then follows a narrative of proceedings in monk Latin, which I have been at some pains to translate thus:—

"Certain relevant documents having been publicly examined and shown in open Court, the said vicar immediately demanded from the judge that he should proceed with the augmentation of his annual pension of the said perpetual vicarage according to the tenor of the said two documents, especially because no reasonable bar had been alleged in Court why the augmentation in this kind should not be granted. And Master Abercrummy, the foresaid judge, having carefully examined the two documents and the foundation of the foresaid Chapel Royal, Stirling, particularly in that point where it treats of the erection of perpetual vicarages and of their annual pensions, as in the case of the Parish Churches of Suchwych (Southwick), Kellis (Kells), and Balmaclellan, belonging to the said Chapel Royal, augmented the annual pension of the perpetual vicarage of Crieff in the manner which follows, and ordained—viz., that the perpetual vicar of the Church of Crieff, in Strathearn, who has had, pro tempore, shall have in perpetuity of the fruits of that Church of Crieff for his own sustenance and for those dependent on him, wherewith he may be able to live in comfort, twenty-four merks of the usual money of Scotland and two acres of arable land adjacent to the said church of the town, which is called 'For,' pertaining to the same church and (origin?) the house built upon it, along with pasture for his own animals according to the congruency (convenience?) of the same said acres, and with 'hearth-rights in the muirs and marshes of the said town' (focalibus competentinus in moris et marresiis ejusdem villae.) [The Latin is barbarous, and may mean anything; but it does seem to have some connection with the right of digging peats.] And besides, that the forenamed vicar, who has been bound, pro tempore, so, hereafter is, in perpetuity, bound to pay annually to the bishop in ordinary of the place the procurations aucht and wount on behalf of the said church, the synodal moneys and expense in ordinary for the Dean of Christianity who has annually visited the said Church of Crieff, in Strathearn, and the parish thereof; and that the payment of the pension, as regards the said 24 merks, shall be made to the said vicar of Crieff for the time being, at the four usual annual terms, in equal portions, to be lifted annually out of the fruits of the said Church of Crieff—viz., at the Festivals of the Finding of the Holy Cross; of St. Peter of the Chain; of All Saints; and of the Purification of our Lady.

"Upon which premises—all and single—the foresaid John Broune, perpetual pensionary vicar of the said parochial Church of Crieff, in Strathearn, asked the present public instruments to be executed for him by me, notary public undersigned. These deeds were lodged in the Chapel Royal, near the town of Edinburgh, in the consistory of the same, at the twelfth hour before mid-day, or thereby, in the year, day, month, indiction, and pontificate as above, there being present discreet men, Masters Ninian Spottiswoode, Archdeacon of the furesaid Chapel Royal, Stirling; John Tod, Alexander Painter, William Atkyn, Nicholas Buchan, all of the Chapel; James Aikman, burgess of Edinburgh; John Abercrummy, and Alexander Ramsay, with divers others, witnesses to the premises.

(Signed) "J. PRYMROIS."

It would appear from all this that there was a deal of trouble in connection with the erection of the Church of Crieff. One is apt to get confused among the Popes, Bishops, principal officials, and notaries public who were all concerned in the erection. We seem to reach the close of the long process on the first day of September, 1537, the year of the marriage of James V. to Madeleine of France, the year which lies almost exactly midway between the Battle of Flodden and the outbreak of the Reformation in 1560. Upon the second day of December, 1537, "the reverend father in Christ, Henry, by the Divine compassion, Bishop of the forenamed Chapel and of Candida Casa, from the tribunal with the consent of his brother canons, or at all events of the greater part of them, being assembled in Chapter, and as a memorial of a perpetual thing, ordered, ordained, and decreed that the erection of the Vicar Church of Crieff should be registered by Master John Lambert, Prebendary of the sacred Chapel and scribe of the foresaid Chapter, and to be inscribed and placed upon the books of the Registrars of the oft-mentioned Chapel."

I am greatly indebted to A. G. Reid, Esq., Auchterarder, for kindly furnishing me with the above valuable extracts, and I bring the paper to a close with a word or two about the Crieff of a later time. The annals of Crieff as a kirk-town are a dreary waste in the judgment of one who assures us that he has waded through the records of services from 1549 to 1700. One incident, however, took place between these dates which may be mentioned as being the last expiring flicker of the old jurisdiction exercised by the Stewards of Strathearn. The Earl of Perth discharged the duties of the office—what remained of them—down to the abolition of heritable jurisdictions in 1748. In the year 1682, the minister of Trinity-Gask, by name Richard Duncan, was condemned to death for the murder of a child which was found concealed under his own hearth-stone. Lord Fountainhall reports that he was convicted on very insufficient evidence, and the country people took the same view of the case. He was hanged on the "kind gallows of Crieff," on the knoll near the Cemetery, still marked by a solitary tree. The story goes that a messenger was seen and heard approaching, bearing a reprieve, but he came too late. Local sympathy asserted that the hour of execution was anticipated to gratify the spite of some one in authority. However this may be, the hanging of the Episcopal minister of Trinity-Gask was the last exercise of criminal jurisdiction on the part of the Steward of Strathearn. This was the last time the "kind gallows of Crieff" bore its ghastly fruit. The Highlanders' salutation to it is familiar to everybody.

A pleasanter sight by far than a string of dangling caterans was the great annual tryst, or Michaelmas Market. It was largely frequented, as being the only market of any consequence between Stirling and Inverness. We have it on the authority of Macky, a Government secret agent, who visited Scotland in 1723, that no fewer than thirty thousand cattle were sold to English dealers for thirty thousand guineas. He came from Stirling expressly to see the market, and here is his graphic description of what he saw:—

"The Highland gentlemen were mighty civil, dressed in their slash'd short waistcoats, a trousing (which is breechen and stockings of one piece of striped stuff), with a plaid for a cloak and a blue bonnet. They have a ponyard knife and a fork in one sheath, hanging at one side of their belt, their pistol at the other, and their snuff-mull before, with a great broadsword by their side. Their attendance was very numerous, all in belted plaids, girt like women's petticoats down to the knee, their thighs and half of the leg all bare. They had each also their broadsword and poynard, and spake all Irish, an unintelligible language to the English. However, these poor creatures hired themselves out for a shilling a day to drive cattle to England, and to return home at their own charge. There was no leaving anything loose here but it would have been stolen."

The Michaelmas Market was shorn of its glory and its picturesque aspect by the transference of the cattle tryst to Falkirk in 1770. There was occasional bloodshed at these gatherings, the peace being with difficulty preserved by the authority of the Lord of Drummond, who collected the customs of the fairs of Crieff and Foulis. These customs amounted, in 1734, to nearly £600 Scots. The Lochaber axes carried by the guardians of the peace may still be seen in the armoury at Drummond Castle. This last shred of baronial supervision—the ghost of the ancient Stewardship—disappeared in 1831. But perhaps the most interesting memorial of the Crieff Michaelmas Tryst is a poem written by one of the Highland drovers, whose appearance moved the compassion of Macky, the tourist of 1723. His name is Robert Doun or Donn. He had left his heart behind him in his native glen, as people will do, drovers as well as others. There is a ring of genuine poetry in the verses in which he expresses his love-sickness—his desire to go upon the wings of the wind as it whistles northward, northward:—