John Burnett Pratt

The portrait in oils of Dr Pratt belongs to Saint James's, Cruden Bay, and is currently  in the care of the Arbuthnot Museum in Peterhead

Gerald Stranraer-Mull writes of a scholar priest and the secret Jacobite network he revealed

Dr John Burnett Pratt is buried close to the Nave Altar in Saint James’s Church, Cruden Bay. A memorial stone within the Church says simply JOHN BURNETT PRATT, PRIEST, AUTHOR AND FOR FORTY FOUR YEARS RECTOR OF SAINT JAMES’S.

Scottish Episcopal Clergy, the fine book by Dr David Bertie, gives more details. Dr Bertie describes every Episcopalian priest and every Parish between 1689 and 2000. Of Dr Pratt he says: 'Born 1798 Slacks of Cairnbanno, New Deer. Son of William Pratt and Jean Gray. King’s College, Aberdeen, MA 1820 LL.D 1864. Ordained 1821 by the Bishop of Aberdeen (Bishop William Skinner, (youngest son of the Bishop John Skinner and grandson of Dean John Skinner of Longside). Incumbent Old Deer 1821-25; Incumbent Cruden 1825-1969. Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Aberdeen. Died March 20th 1869. Married December 6th 1832 Anna Radcliffe (born 1798 died December 4th 1872.'

There follows a list of the publications he produced -- sixteen of them -- beginning with The Life and Death of Jamie Fleeman, the Laird of Udny’s Fool in 1833, which first appeared as a series of articles in The Aberdeenshire Magazine, followed by other historical books (usually explaining the unique place of the Scottish Episcopal Church or the lost Jacobite cause) and some theological works and then in 1858 the first edition of Buchan, an account of travels through the towns and villages of the north-east, before turning his attention once more to theology. Scandinavian Churches: their doctrine, worship and polity was published in 1863 and his final work, the editing of the Episcopal Church Communion service, in 1866.

His work on the Scandinavian Lutheran Churches was far ahead of its time. It brought a resolution in the Diocesan Synod to see whether there could be inter-communion. It didn’t happen then, and not for nearly a century and half, when the Porvoo Agreement between the Episcopalian Churches and the Scandinavian Churches was signed in 1996.

Adam Mackay, the Church of Scotland Minister of Cruden, writing in the early years of the 20th century, said that an 1840 book by Dr Pratt book was published across the English speaking world and endeared him to his own Communion. It certainly has a title whose length contends for entry into the Guinness Book of Records - The Old Paths where is the Good Way, or, The Notes of the Church in connection with which the Child of the Church is examined concerning Ecclesiastical Principles.

During his ministry in Cruden John Pratt oversaw the building of the Erroll Schools in 1834, persuading King William 1V and Queen Adelaide to subscribe to the cost; Saint James’s itself in 1843 and The Rectory in 1845.

Throughout his life he wrote books - and for Buchan, an iconic account of fourteen walks, he travelled from the Parsonage at Cruden across the north-east of Scotland. Adam Mackay said He brought to his task a cultured mind, a charitable disposition and a playful humour.

Let part of one journey serve for the all the others. The River Ythan is the southern boundary of Buchan and Dr Pratt’s walk to Ellon took him by way of Auchmacoy and along the riverbank, past Waterton. He describes Ellon as having three inns: 'The New Inn lately erected and with the Town Hall forming part of the design, the Buchan Hotel at the north end of the bridge and the Commercial Inn on the west side of the Square'.

There were three banking houses and a post office. Markets were held on the first and third Mondays of the month and an extensive business was conducted in cattle, grain, coals, lime and bone-dust. There were also fairs of older usage, the chief of these being the Marymas Fair on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (a day still kept as the Mary Festival at Saint Mary-on-the-Rock Church in Ellon each year).

Ellon today: the view from Hillhead

A principal industry at the time of Dr Pratt’s visit was the knitting of stockings, a hundred pounds a week being paid by Aberdeen merchants for them. There was no such thing as a clothes shop in the country districts of Buchan and so people were either reliant on the town merchants or itinerant tailors who moved from house to house making clothes for all (fisher blue or cottar brown being the usually available colours for men). The tailors were also chroniclers of news, scandal and gossip as they moved from house to house.

Dr Pratt said that could the annals of Ellon be recovered from the grave of centuries they would provide insight into the time when the Thane of Buchan came to Ellon three times a year to hold Court.

Here, with an array of retainers, came all who were the Thane’s vassals, those who held land by his will. The place of assembly was the Moot Hill and great decisions were taken as well as criminal trials held. The “doomsman’s” place of execution was close-by. Ellon, said Dr Pratt, was not an insignificant village but an Assize town with a metropolitan character.

Dr Pratt found Ellon to be a thriving and rapidly increasing place. Besides the Parish Church -- which he didn’t much like, preferring the account of the mediaeval church -- there were places of worship for the Free Presbyterians, the United Presbyterians, the Independents and the Episcopalians.

The view from Ellon Castle, one which Dr Pratt would have known.  The (former) Manse is on the left of the photograph and the (new) Parish church on the right. The (former) Rectory is in the middle distance and behind it is the only known picture of the Episcopal Church (1813-1870) which preceded the present Saint Mary-on-the-Rock

The Parish School was close to the Parish Church and there was a Free Kirk School at the west end of the village, near the Free Church. There was also a girl’s school at the north-east corner of the village, said to be on the very spot on which a hundred years previously had been the house of Mr Montgomery, the friend whom Dean John Skinner of Linsart was visiting when he wrote the song Tullochgorum. Mrs Montgomery thought that the reel Tullochgorum needed words and she asked John Skinner to write them. Cromek’s Reliques of Burns says He gratified her wishes, and those of every lover of Scottish song, in this most excellent ballad.

Dr Pratt left Ellon following the north bank of the river upstream to the estate of Auchterellon and to Turnerhall, a centre of Jacobite intrigue before, during and after the Jacobite Risings. He paused at Kinharrachie on the Turnerhall estate at 'The pretty cottage occupied for many years by the Episcopal clergyman of Ellon'. This was Nathanial Grieve who served Ellon's Episcopalians for sixty years from 1803 until he retired in 1863. Kinharrachie then became the residence of the Turnerhall Factor, James Murray, Advocate.

Not far from Kinharrachie is the Hill of Dudwick, a place of importance for Aberdeenshire Episcopalians. Dr Pratt says that the once fine House of Dudwick stood on the western slope. It was demolished for building stone in 1865 and replaced by a farmhouse, 'a building of no interest to either the architect or the antiquarian'.

Dr Pratt quoted one of his predecessors at Cruden, Alexander Keith, who wrote 'The View of the Diocese' in the early 18th century. He says In the last age it was the seat of General King, created Earl of Ythan, by King Charles 1. It later belonged to General Fullerton of Dudwick who left it to his nephew John Udny, son to Auchterellon, on condition of changing his name to Fullerton, which he accordingly has done.

General Fullerton provided a farm and home at Overton of Dudwick for Ellon's priest during the persecution of Episcopalians following the failure of the Risings. The priest was John Skinner, a future Bishop of Aberdeen and Primus and also the father of the Bishop who ordained Dr Pratt.

The farm of Overton of  Dudwick today

John Burnett Pratt made no secret of his affection for the Royalist cause of the House of Stuart. This is clear from his very first book about Jamie Fleeman, the Laird of Udny’s Fool It was also among his most successful books and was constantly in print in edition after edition during his lifetime.

From mediaeval times up until about 250 year ago a professed Fool was in attendance at every great house. Jamie Fleeman had all the elements of the office -- wit combined with apparent stupidity, unbending fidelity together with reckless audacity.

Why though should Dr Pratt write about the laird of Udny’s Fool? The answer is that Jamie Fleeman was a Jacobite courier, travelling across Buchan from one great house to another, with no one suspecting that he was part of the secret Jacobite network.

Dr Pratt said, 'Fidelity to those whom they esteem is a trait generally found in the character of Fools. They cannot bear to hear anything to the reproach of their favorites, and when entrusted by them with any charge, they seem to have a pride in executing it with fidelity and precision'.

Jamie was never known to betray the confidence reposed in him. After the defeat at the Battle of Culloden many of the gentlemen of the north-east who had joined the Prince’s army were lying concealed in the neighbourhood of their estates. The Countess of Erroll at Slains Castle had taken an active part in promoting the Rising and after its end kept up links with those who remained. She looked after their safety and met their immediate needs for food and money as they lay hidden while the Government army sought them. Jamie Fleeman was much employed by the Countess at this time. He could keep secrets and was skilled, with his ready wit, at evading the most rigorous questioning.

Slains Castle on the clifftop at Cruden Bay: the building is now a ruin

An example of this is when Jamie was carrying a message from Slains to Auchiries, the house in which Lord Pitsligo was hiding under the name of Mr Brown. En route Jamie passed the house of a laird who was a supporter of the Hanoverian government -- and, of course, Jamie had not much time for the likes of him.
"Where are you going?" asked the laird.
"To hell, sir," said Jamie and passed quickly on.
On his return they met again.
"What are they doing in hell", said the laird.
"Just fat they’re deeing here", Jamie replied, "Lattin’ in the rich fowk’ and keepin’ out the peer."
"What said the devil to you?" enquired the laird.
"Na muckle to me, sir," came the reply, "But he wis speering sair aboot you."

A Fool was no fool by modern usage of the word. One day Jamie went from Slains to Edinburgh with a message for the laird of Udny. When Jamie got to the city he did not know where the laird was living and so he watched the dogs in the streets until he recognized one from Udny, called it over as an old friend, tied a length of rope to it and said 'Hame wi’ ye'.

Jamie spent much of his early life at the house of Sir Alexander Guthrie but when that gentlemen fell on hard times he recommended Jamie to the Laird of Udny. Jamie possessed great strength and there is an account of his saving the charter chest of the Udny’s from a fire at Knockhall Castle at Newburgh-on-Ythan. The huge chest can still be seen at Castle Fraser. Afterwards the laird allowed Jamie a peck of meal and sixpence a week for life.

Jamie Fleeman

Jamie's picture was drawn by an itinerant artist called Collie at an inn near Longside. Dean Skinner acquired it from the artist and it was begged from him by a gentlewoman of the neighbourhood and from her by Lady Erroll. Jamie’s picture graced the drawing room of Slains Castle. The Fool was held in high regard for his loyalty to his friends and to the King over the water.

Jamie was born at Longside and baptized there on April 13th 1713. He died at the age of 63. In the early summer of 1778 he was caught in heavy rain and soaked. He became ill and wandered from house to house until he came to Little Ardiffery, near Cruden Bay. There he was injured when the opening of a steading door caused a plank of wood to fall on his head.

Mr Johnson, the farmer, and his daughters cared for Jamie. He knew that death was close and said to Mr Johnson, 'When I’m deid dinna bury me in Cruden but tak me to Longside and bury me amang freens'.

Mr Johnson, not thinking the moment was close, said Na, na we'll try ye here furst and if ye winna ludge we'll cairry ye ower the hull. Jamie sighed and walked the eight miles across the hill to Longside. It took all his strength. He reached his sister’s cottage at Kinmundy and Martha prepared a bed for him.

As he lay there on his final day he made his last request: 'Dinna bury me like a beast for I am of the gentle persuasion'. It meant he wanted a Christian burial and specifically an Episcopalian funeral.

His grave is in the old churchyard in Longside, not far from that of Dean Skinner. The grave is marked by a pillar of Aberdeen granite, placed there in 1861 and paid for by shilling subscriptions. The words say simply,

ERECTED IN 1861 TO INDICATE THE GRAVE OF JAMIE FLEEMAN
IN ANSWER TO HIS PRAYER "DINNA BURY ME LIKE A BEAST"

John Burnett Pratt's writing went alongside his careful and caring wok for the people of Cruden., who always came first in his thinking. There were a large number of Episcopalians and he was also much appreciated by the Presbyterians. When a new parish minister came to Cruden it was Dr Pratt who, in ecumenical harmony, took him round the parish to introduce him to the people.

Dr Pratt died on March 20th 1869 and is buried within Saint James's, the Church whose building he superintended and in the parish to which he ministered for 44 years.

A newspaper obituary, dated March 26th 1869, says,

All who knew the man will learn with unfeigned regret the announcement of the death of one so long endeared to the district. About six weeks ago this revered clergyman was seized with an attack of jaundice, but so little did he apprehend the danger of his death illness that he continued to attend to all his duties for several Sundays after the disease was full upon him.

Few men have been more universally respected and more justly regretted by those who knew him. A single and warm-hearted friend, a kind and agreeable companion, an elevated and faithful pastor, he has gone from among us to enjoy the reward of a Christian life.

Saint James's, Cruden Bay

Gerald Stranraer-Mull is Dean Emeritus of Aberdeen and Orkney and was Rector of Saint James's, Cruden Bay, and Saint Mary-on-the-Rock, Ellon, from 1972 to 2008

Duncan Mackenzie 1783-1858

Archdeacon of Moray and Ross
Priest in Strathnairn, Dingwall, Fortrose and the Gaelic Mission in Inverness

In the upper part of the wild and rugged glen through which the river Nairn flows, a numerous body of Episcopalians has existed since the Revolution of 1688. Till the population was thinned by emigration in the early part of the  century, the great majority of natives of the glen were devotedly attached to the Church of their Fathers [...] particularly so from the associations connected with the life and labours of the venerable "Parson Duncan", who spent here upwards of 40 years of his life in works of true Christian philanthropy, acting in the most unostentatious manner, not only the part of the Christian minister, but the medical adviser and the trusty counsellor of the whole glen.

-- words from a nationwide appeal in 1875 for funds to build a house for a priest in Strathnairn.

Duncan Mackenzie was born in Nether Lochaber around 1783. When he was in his mid-20s he began training for the ministry.  He was placed with the Reverend John Murdoch, the priest in Keith, learning from him as well as spending the winters studying at King’s College, Aberdeen, from which he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1817.

At King's he became interested in Gaelic studies and was later, during his Strathnairn years, to translate Scriptures and the Prayer Book into Gaelic.

He was ordained deacon in the year of his graduation and appointed incumbent of Strathnairn.  He was ordained priest two years later and immediately was given added responsibility as incumbent of Dingwall, 30 miles away. He remained in Strathnairn until his death 41 years later, although he resigned the charge at Dingwall after 32 years. During those years he was in Strathnairn and Dingwall on alternate Sundays. He also spent eight years as priest of Fortrose (1832-1840) and, for the five years before his death (1853-1858), was priest-in-charge of the Gaelic Mission in Inverness. In addition to all of this he served as Archdeacon of Moray and Ross and travelled throughout the north, both on foot and on horseback. His silver plated stirrups are preserved at Saint Paul's Church in Strathnairn.

Parson Duncan was prepared to minister to everyone, without thought of denomination, and was greatly liked and valued for his care, love and generosity.  In Strathnairn services were initially held in a church at Knocknacroshaig, near Brin Rock. The church was built in 1817, the year Duncan Mackenzie came to the glen. It is thought that it was destroyed in a fire and thereafter he held services in the open, while building another church on the site of the present Saint Paul's at Croachy.

Florence, his wife, and he lived in two rooms adjoining the new church but, in later years, his generosity to those in need could no longer be funded from his stipend of £15 a year and so, to augment it, he took on the tenancy of a farm at Tullich.  He died, still ministering and farming, aged seventy-five, in 1858 and is buried in the churchyard of Saint John's at Ballachulish. Florence outlived him by seven years.

The present Saint Paul's was built on the site of Parson Duncan’s church in 1868 and the west wall contains a rose window memorial to this great priest. One of his family members is a priest in the Episcopal Church today – the Very Reverend Norman MacCallum, former Dean of Argyll and the Isles and Provost of the Cathedral in Oban.

Gerald Stranraer-Mull

The Ethics of Church History

One of the many insights of Diarmaid MacCulloch's Gifford Lecture series on silence in Christian History, now released as a book, is that there is a profoundly ethical dimension to the careful and truthful telling of church history. His approach to silence is to see the theme in its variety of positive and negative forms. Those who are used to reading this blog will know that I have a particular fondness for telling the positive story of Christian silence insofar as it relates to under-appreciated mystical dimension of the faith, with its origins in the teachings of such early exponents as the Desert monastics, Pseudo-Dionysius and the author of the Cloud of Unknowing, and such modern champions as Thomas Merton, Bede Griffiths and William Johnston.

But it is the negative story where the question of ethics comes most into focus. Other forms of Christian silence have include the (not always complete and occasionally brutal) repression of heterodox ideas and, most significantly for contemporary Christianity, in the denial and obfuscation surrounding abuse. As well as the sexual abuse of children, MacCulloch reminds the churches of their enormous success in finding arguments to approve of the continuation of slavery and of their undeniable role in the formation and perpetuation of anti-semitic ideologies. The ethical task of the historian is the fearless identification of the causes and practice of such abuses, the analysis of the apparatus used to cover them up and the exercise of careful moral judgement in condemning wrongdoing. On that latter point, it is too easy for historians to excuse past behaviour with the qualification that it was 'reasonable by the standards of the time'. MacCulloch does the church a great service in not letting it use such a lazy way out. He points out that those who discovered some of the earliest recorded clerical abuse of children in the 17th century were fully aware of its evil. It is also important to remind ourselves that the acquiescence of a silent majority does not render moral judgement redundant. Evil is evil, even when the majority are too fearful to name it as such.

There is, I think, a relationship between MacCulloch's positive silences and the historian's task of 'demanding the constant rupture of silences around abuse'. The Christian mystical tradition places a significant emphasis on unflinching self-awareness, on tearful penitence and on inner transformation. With this in mind, the careful telling of the church's history strikes me as a deeply spiritual task as well as its most essential ethical one.

John McLuckie, 
justluckie.typepad.com 

Michael Fraser, Priest of Daviot and Dunlichity 1673-1726

Strathnairn is one of the most beautiful places in Scotland -- wonderful in summer and magnificent in winter, with its tranquillity cloaking a long history. The cairns and hut circles speak of a people long ago, the church sites of Celtic saints, and the glen itself of Bonnie Prince Charlie's desperate ride from the battlefield of Culloden.

And hidden stories can be found in the lives of those who lived in the glen. That of Michael Fraser, priest of Daviot and Dunlichity for 53 years, reveals a great survivor in troubled times. He was the child of Thomas Fraser and his wife Katherine Gordon, daughter of Sir Robert and Lady Gordon of Embo. He studied at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and in 1670 was appointed schoolmaster, often in those days a forerunner to ordination, at Thurso in Caithness. He was ordained on February 19th, 1672, and the Bishop of Moray, Murdo Mackenzie, nominated him as priest at Daviot and Dunlichity on October 20th that year.

Dunlichity Parish Church in Strathnairn

Michael Fraser's appointment came twelve years after the restoration of both King Charles II and of the Episcopal Church as the Church of Scotland. The latter change had produced little alteration in the worship within parish churches but pressure on Presbyterians gradually increased during these years. Ministers who would not conform to the Episcopal ways were forbidden to exercise their ministry and, indeed, from living within 20 miles of their former parishes. In Strathnairn Alexander Fraser, minister of Daviot and Dunlichity, was deposed for his Presbyterian views, thus creating the vacancy which the bishop wished Michael Fraser to fill.

There was, though, an immediate problem. Sir Hugh Campbell of Cawdor claimed that the bishop had no authority to appoint anyone to Daviot and Dunlichity as that right belonged to him as patron of the parish. Sir Hugh wanted to appoint the Reverend Donald Macpherson of Cawdor Church instead. Bishop and Presbytery united in favour of Michael Fraser, but Sir Hugh persisted in his claim until the bishop eventually withdrew his own nominee. However, having gained the victory, Sir Hugh himself now nominated Michael Fraser as the new priest, and his long ministry in Strathnairn began on March 4th 1673.

Bishop Mackenzie’s opinion of Michael Fraser soon changed and just after Christmas 1674 he rebuked him for being in Edinburgh and absent from the parish for too long. A few months later the Synod, annoyed by his artistic endeavours, demanded that he "abstain from all limning and painting which hitherto has diverted him from his ministerial duties". Patience had run out by 1678, the year Bishop Mackenzie died (he had resigned in 1677) and Michael Fraser was suspended from office. He was soon back in place but an enormous change was coming to the whole church. In 1688 there was revolution and James VII and II was succeeded by his daughter Mary and her husband William, the Prince of Orange. The Scottish bishops declined to recognise the new monarchs and in consequence, in 1690, the Episcopal Church was once more displaced as the Church of Scotland by a Presbyterian regime.

It made no difference in Strathnairn. Michael Fraser continued blithely on, and even when in 1694 the Presbytery formally declared the parish vacant he took absolutely no notice. And, indeed, the Presbytery took no further action against him for the next 21 years. Only after he played a prominent role in the 1715 Jacobite Rising did the Presbytery attempt another intervention. It declared him to be "an intruder at Daviot and Dunlichity". The priest then offered to resign, but only on condition that a competent person be appointed in his place.

Nothing came of it and so he stayed. Five years later a Presbytery visit to the parish received a hostile reception. Parishioners were quick to defend their priest and stones were thrown. The following year the leading gentlemen of the parish asked the Presbytery's forbearance for the priest, saying that they would concur with the Presbytery’s wishes in the event of his death "which now, in the course of nature, cannot be long". It was actually another four years, in 1726, before Michael Fraser, the great survivor, died -- still, of course, in office.

Saint Paul’s Church and Hall in Strathnairn

The Episcopal Church remained strong in Strathnairn and is today is represented by Saint Paul's at Croachy. The church building (the second on the site and the fourth in the glen) dates from 1868. A hall was added in 2002.

Gerald Stranraer-Mull

The Sad Story of James Lundin Cooper

Eleanor Harris is researching the 430 individuals who appear in the registers of Charlotte Episcopal Chapel, Edinburgh, 1794-1818. James Lundin Cooper of Kirkcaldy, and his unfortunate bride Sarah Brown, were amongst them...
In 1816, twenty-five-year-old James Lundin Cooper brought his bride Sarah Brown to Edinburgh to be married by Bishop Daniel Sandford in the stylish Charlotte Chapel. He was a writer in Kirkcaldy and she was the daughter of a local merchant. He appears a few years later practising his profession, administering the estate of a bankrupt businessman in Kirkcaldy.
Cooper was an ambitious man, and not content to remain merely a provincial lawyer he sought his fortune in business. By 1830 he was manager of the Kirkcaldy and London Shipping Company, which ran three ships and employed three Captains, rejoicing in the names of Moir, Morison and Mann. As the leading Manager (or vestryman) of the Episcopal Chapel in Kirkcaldy, he successfully charmed the energetic, young and dedicated priest Mr Marshall into replacing their decrepit old incumbent, even though the chapel could only offer a paltry £20 stipend. Meanwhile his family prospered: Sarah bore him three chidren, Elizabeth, Michael and Mary.
It quickly became clear to Rev Marshall, however, that Cooper and his fellow managers were running a racket, giving themselves huge discounts on seat-rents, keeping Marshall's salary low, and 'finding it convenient that the clause should fall into disuse' which stipulated that the whole congregation should choose their managers annually, preferring instead to appoint themselves for life.
When the priest tried to rectify the situation, the managers went to the bishop, accusing Marshall of immorality, neglect of duty, and (when this didn't work), insanity. This was a great mistake: Marshall was well-respected, and eloquent clergy weighed in to defend his character from this evident nonsense. Cooper, one of them reported, 'had the modesty to offer evidence to Bishop Torry that Mr Marshall is (or was) insane, and in his hand writing came forth a document in which that gentleman was charged with going to a theatre and dining out.' Cooper, who had been the man of education and status amongst the merchants and shoemakers on the vestry, was made to look very foolish by being represented in the lead actor in this farce.
Whereas other managers left the Episcopal Church altogether and began attending the Kirk -- although they still made a point of turning up to collect the contents of the collection plate, and chattering and laughing in the porch during Mr Marshall's service -- James does appear to have put his head down and attempted to make amends with the priest.
But it was too late. Whether it was divine judgement, the discrediting of his character, bad luck or similarly bad judgement in his business dealings, Cooper went bankrupt  in 1836. In 1838 his daughters Elizabeth and Mary died, and the following year James himself went to his grave. His teenage son Michael only outlived him by two years. I don't know what happened to Sarah. Perhaps she remarried.
One could take various morals from this story. I suppose the first might be, don't accuse your priest of insanity if you meet him at the theatre.
Eleanor Harris.