At the Revolution there were eight hundred and seven parishes in Scotland filled by ministers of the Episcopal Church. On the accession of William and Mary and the Abolition of Episcopacy and the Establishment of the Presbyterian Church, all the bishops refused the Oath to the new Sovereigns, and a large number of the clergy left their parishes for the same reason.
At first there was much toleration, but as the bishops and the Episcopal clergy were all Non-jurors and maintained their allegiance to the exiled Stuart kings, they gradually became a Jacobite institution. Although very feeble, they were torn with internal dissension both doctrinal and ecclesiastical. As the pre-Revolution bishops died out, it was thought necessary in order to keep up the succession to consecrate new bishops, but this had to be done with utmost secrecy.
At first these bishops were appointed bishops at large without any diocese or territorial jurisdiction, and were known as the College of Bishops, but gradually the clergy demanded some sort of superintendence. Bishops were consecrated by one party and by others, but all on the understanding that they owed allegiance to the Stuart king. To avoid scandal the Jacobite managers and the Jacobite Court insisted that when bishops were elected the king should be informed so as to give congé d’élire before consecration. This power was afterwards compromised by the exiled king permitting the clergy to select all the bishops except the metropolitans of St. Andrews and Glasgow, and a Bishop of Edinburgh who might have to act as metropolitan under the title of Vicar-General of St. Andrews.
In the year 1741 John Murray, as Agent in Scotland for the Jacobite Court, sent up the name of William Harper, who was incumbent of St. Paul’s Non-juring Episcopal Church in Carrubber’s Close. He was well connected, being married to a daughter of Sir David Thriepland of Fingask, and he was also principal adviser to most of the prominent Jacobites of the time.
Some of the bishops did not want him, and Bishop Keith represented to the Chevalier through Murray that Harper was an objectionable person, and implored the king to withdraw his congé d’élire. Mr. Harper retired from the contest.
After much negotiation John Murray, apparently with the concurrence of the majority of the bishops, fixed upon Bishop Rattray as a man likely from his age and rank to put an end to the dissensions; and James sent from Rome a congé de lire to elect him Bishop of Edinburgh, apparently with certain metropolitan powers. Rattray, however, died a few days after this permission was received, and the see was not filled until 1776.
Bishop Rattray was a Perthshire laird, the head of the ancient family of Rattray of Craighall. His son John acted as surgeon to Prince Charles throughout the campaign of 1745-46. A volume recently published, A Jacobite Stronghold of the Church, by Mary E. Ingram (Edinburgh, 1907), gives much information about William Harper and the Episcopal Church in Jacobite times.
APPENDIX III
SIR JAMES STEUART
Sir James Steuart (afterwards Steuart Denham) of Goodtrees and Coltness, second baronet. His father had been Solicitor-General, and his grandfather Lord Advocate, and both belonged to the party of the Covenanters. Sir James was born in 1712, and in 1743 he married Lady Frances, daughter of the fourth Earl of Wemyss, and sister of Lord Elcho, one of the Jacobite leaders of the ’Forty-five. When Prince Charles came to Edinburgh, Sir James joined his Court, and he is the reputed author of some of the Prince’s manifestos. In the autumn of 1745 he was sent to France as the Prince’s agent.
In the Stuart Papers there is a document headed ‘A Copy of Sir James Stewart’s powers, Dec. 29, 1746.’