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Kinnell | |
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"Nec numero clauduntur opes, nec limite rura, Carnegi: servat mens tamen alta modum."And so great was the power of the two houses of Airly and Southesk at that time, that they would have been able to keep Forfarshire in its allegiance to Charles I. If they had not been overpowered from without. In 1716, on the attainder of the fifth Earl, Bolshan fell to the Crown. In 1720, it was sold to the York Buildings' Company; ;and in 1764, on the bankruptcy of the company, it was bought by Sir James Carnegie of Pittarrow, grandfather of the present proprietor, and representative of the ancient Earls of Southesk.
Sir Simon Fraser, heir, and, after his uncle's death, possessor of the chieftainship of his clan, is said to have been rewarded by King Robert Bruce with the barony of Kinnell, for gallant conduct in the battle of Bannockburn, and to have been thence called Knight of Kinnell, during his uncle's lifetime.
In 1407, Hugh Fraser of Lovat and Kinnell granted to his cousin, Peter de Striveline, a charter of the lands of Easter Braky, in the barony of Kinnell. The Strivelines have had various successors; - in the seventeenth century, Sir James Ogilvy of Newgrange, and his son, Sir Francis; in the eighteenth, Messrs Piper, Cooper, Gavin, great grandfather of the Marquis of Breadalbane, and Baird of Newbyth; and in 1810, Messrs Alison and Laing, by whom the estate was divided into two equal parts, - East Braky and Rinmure.
In 1642, Thomas Fraser, a descendant of Thomas, the third Lord Lovat, was proprietor of West Braky; and soon afterwards, Patrick Gray, and his son of the same name, Catholics, whom neither Presbytery nor Episcopacy could constrain to attend the Protestant worship. After these came Douglas of Brigford, and then three generations of Carnegies, who were descended from the house of Northesk; and from them it passed by purchase, about 1740, to the late Earl of Panmure, who entailed it along with his other estates, and transmitted it to his grandnephew, the present proprietor.
In 1659, the lands of Muirmills, along with the keepership of Monthrewmont Moor, belonged to Archibald Wood of Hilton, and soon afterwards merged in the estate of Bolshan.
In the castle of West Braky there exists a memorial of the Frasers, - a coat-of-arms with the date 1581. The blazon if the arms is azure, three cinqfoils argent, - the cognizance of Fraser. Impaled with quarterly, first and fourth, gules three crescents of the second, - the arms of Pierrepont; second and third, three mullets of the second, - the arms of Murray. There is no crest. Above the shield are the letters T. F.; and over the letters is the motto, "Soli Deo confido."
The foundation of the castle of Whitehills, which stood on the south side of the Lunan, and considerably higher up than the farm-steading of Kinnell's Mill, was dug up by the tenant, whose lease, after an occupancy of forty-three years, terminated in 1811. But it was a ruin in the seventeenth century, and furnished the materials for building what was called the Stone house, in the Kirktown of Kinnell, where a chamberlain or baronial officer resided, with the name of provost, in old time; and latterly, the tenant of the Kirktown, with the same appellation.
The castle of Bolshan, which, as Monipenny's Scottish Chronicles tell us in 1612, was Lord Ogilvy's special residence, has passed away with the other monuments of feudal grandeur. The cemetery and site of the chapel were subjected to the plough before 1767. The last remains of the castle were removed soon after. And now, for a long while. There has been no other remembrancer of the ancient glory of the place, that the peculiar appearance of the soil, a little to the westward of the present farm-house.
The Ogilvies, as proprietors, perhaps, of Bolshan, seem to have had a sort of heritable claim to the bailiary of the abbey of Arbroath.* In the minority of Sir John Ogilvy, the Master of Crawford, availing himself of the distractions which prevailed over all Scotland, in consequence of the similar minority of King James II., obtained possession of the office. But his insolence and oppression soon disgusted the monks; and the Ogilvies, under the conduct of Sir Alexander Ogilvy of Inverwharity, tutor of the claimant, took up arms to assert their right. The Earl of Crawford, who had hasted from Dundee to attempt a reconciliation between the contending parties, was recklessly slain as he went forward to hold a conference with Sir Alexander. His death was the signal for a general engagement, and victory declared on the side of his son. About 500 of the Ogilvies were slain, and among them Sir John Oliphant of Aberdalgay, and five lesser barons. Sir Alexander Ogilvy was taken, and carried to the castle of his rival at Finhaven, where, in a few days, he died of grief and wounds; and the Earl of Huntly, who, having been accidentally Sir Alexander's guest, chose to partake of his quarrel as well as his hospitality, escaped only by the swiftness of his horse. About 100 fell on the side of the victors. The battle was fought in the 24th January 1445-6, in the neighbourhood of Arbroath; and men did not fail to remark the speedy punishment which overtook the leaders of the two clans, and which they were unwittingly constrained to execute upon one another. For acting in concert with the Earl of Douglas, who had greatly increased the distractions of the times, they had been jointly engaged in plundering the vassals of the Bishop of St Andrews, and, indeed, were but speedily returned from Fife with their spoils. In memory of the battle, a spur and boot, which had belonged to one of the slain chieftains, were hung up in the south aisle of Kinnell Church. After the aisle was unroofed, and excluded from the church in 1766, the boot speedily fell to decay; but the spur still exists, measuring 8 inches in length, and 4 1/2 in breadth, and having a rowel as large as a crown piece. And the verses, in which the feats of the combatants were sung, have not yet altogether passed away from the remembrance of the people.
In 1790 and 1805, there was found between Hatton and Hatton-mill, in the face of the bank above the Lunan, a considerable number of silver pennies and halfpennies, which the owners had probably concealed in troublous times, and afterwards, through death or accident, found no opportunity of bringing forth again for the purposes of life. In both cases, the earthen pots which contained them were but slightly sunk into the gravelly bank; and, what is remarkable, they were in both cases discovered by boys going to school, and those boys were brothers. It is said that there was no specimen of any rare coin among them; and accordingly, instead of passing into the cabinets of the curious, they were almost all of them melted down; and a portion of the latter finding still exists not far from the spot where they were found, in an article of convivial utility, a ladle for a punch bow£ A halfpenny, however, still remains of John Baliol, having on one side a head crowned in profile and looking to the right, and a sceptre surmounted with a lily before it, with the legend, "Johannes Dei Gra;" and on the other side, a cross, with a spur revel in two of the quarters, with the legend "Rex Scotorum." The others were of Baliol's cotemporary, Edward King of England, with the full face legend of "Edw. R. Ang. Dns. Hyb," on one side, and on the other side, the cross, pellets, and place of coinage, "Civitas London. Cantor. Dublinie, Bristolie," &c. Three years ago, in time of harvest, a similar coin, from the mint of York, (Eboraci), was found in a field not far from the castle of West Braky.
But a piece far more valuable, both for rarity and intrinsic worth, was found, in 1829, in the farm of Mainsbank, by the side of a ditch, out of which it had probably been cast. It was an aureus, a gold coin of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, bearing on one side the Emperor's head, with the inscription "Antoninus Aug. Pius P. P. Imp. II.;" and on the other a victory, with the inscription "Tr. Pot. XIX. Cos. IIII." That is, "Antoninus Augustus Pius, father of his country; twice saluted with the title of Emperor (Imperator) by the army and senate; nineteen times invested with the tribunitian power; and four times with the consulship." And consequently it refers to the year 156 of the Christian era. This emperor fixed the northern boundary of the Roman empire to the Forth and Clyde; and though it does not appear that any province was erected permanently farther north, yet the transactions of commerce and war were sufficient to convey the Roman coin beyond the frontiers; and we know, that, in the beginning of the following century, the Emperor Severus lost many thousands in pursuit of the natives along the whole line of the eastern coast of Scotland.
On the top of the Wuddy-law, the highest point in the parish, there was a large tumulus or barrow, the diameter of which was about 45 yards, and the height 4. It was composed of alternate layers of stones and earth; and while the stones were removed during a course of several years for the filling of drains, earthen vessels containing a black fattish mould were occasionally discovered. And not far off, are the Gallow-law and Pit, where, if we may believe tradition, capital punishments were inflicted in ancient times. Above fifty years ago, a tenant cut across the top of this law, in the hope of falling in with hidden treasure, but he found nothing save some urns and half-burnt bones.
In 1835, on Westfield of Hattonmill, at the removal of a cairn about 15 yards in diameter, a grave was discovered, built of rude stones, and about five feet in length, lying north and south, and sunk two or three feet below the surface of the hillock on which the cairn stood. The bones which the grave contained, seemed large, and the skull had best resisted the work of decay. But the whole of them speedily crumbled down. Between the cairn and the original surface of the hillock, there was a flooring or coating of three or four inches of clay. The grave was not in the middle of the cairn. - At the Glesterlaw and other places, also, urns and bones have been discovered.
In the Battle Drum Wood, on the north-west of the parish, there are many cairns or circular heaps of moor stones. They lie chiefly in two lines, which are parallel to the Drum or ridge of the hill on the north, and to the Battle Burn on the south; and they might be inclosed within two acres of ground. A little farther east, but not in this parish, there are also the Battle Cairn, and the Battle Well, additional memorials of an event which has now no other record than those names and appearances. Tradition calls it a battle between the Picts and the Romans, - perhaps because the common name of the moor is Monroman, although most probably that name is a corruption of Monthrewmont, and consequently of much later date than the cairns. The Battle Burn is said to have flowed with blood as far as Fithy; and the herdsmen when they drank out of the well, used to throw into it a bit of their bread, lest the water should turn to blood, - a remnant, perhaps, of a very ancient superstition, which, peopling every department of nature with divinities, sought by means of presents to conciliate their favour, or avert their malignity. *Boechi Hist. Lib. 18, fo£ 365. Par. 1574.
Parochial Registers. - The parochial registers commence about 1657. But there are several chasms; and indeed records frequently contain nothing but the collections and disbursements for the poor. The average collection for one Sunday in the summer season, was, in 1657, 10 d. Sterling; in 1701, 2 s. 4 1/2 d.; in 1710, 1 s. 4 d.; in 1750, 1 s. 11 d. The collection on the communion Sunday, in 1657, was 14 s. 3 1/4 d.; in 1701, £ 3, 7 s. 2 1/3d.; in 1710, £ 2, 0 s. 3 d.; in 1750, £ 2, 5 s. 11 d. And in these last sums are included the collections on the other three sacrament days. Down to 1701, there was no other week-day service connected with the communion that the preparation service on Saturday at two o'clock. The last Episcopalian incumbent died in the following year; and under the present ecclesiastical establishment, no communion was administered till 1710, when the fast-day and thanksgiving day also make their appearance. Previously to 1702, there were on the communion Sabbath three several services, those of the morning, forenoon, and afternoon. The minister generally had two assistants. One of them preached the sermon in the morning, and the other the "thanksgiving" sermon in the afternoon. The first of these services began very early, probably not later than seven or eight o'clock. In 1660, the people were appointed to keep the communion, one-half at six o'clock in the morning, and the other half at eleven o'clock, and all to be present at the "Doctrine of Thanksgiving" at four o'clock in the afternoon. Of the collections of the communion Sunday, by far the greater part, probably more than two-thirds, were collected, not at the doors, but at the tables; and it was not till after 1729 that the practice of collecting at the tables was discontinued.
Of all the original parochial churches within the Presbytery of Arbroath, two only, those on Kinnell and Kirkden, continued to be rectories or parsonages at the time of the Reformation. Barry had been gifted to the Abbey of Balmerino; Guthry was itself become a kind of conventual establishment; and the other churches were in the hands of the Abbey of Arbroath. The lands of the parish, at one time at least, seem to have been partly within the regality of Arbroath and partly within the barony of Kinnell. And both under the Papal and under the Episcopal polity, Kinnell, as well as the parishes of the Presbytery, save Guthry, Panbride, and a part of Carmylie, was in the diocese of St. Andrews.
The following list of the ministers of Kinnell ascends almost to the time
of the Reformation:
Arthur Fethy was presented to Kinnell by James VI. In 1587, and
Translated to Inverkeilor in 1598.
John Guthrie, reader in Arbroath, was presented to Kinnell in 1599,
translated to Arbirlot in 1603, to Perth in 1610, to Edinburgh in 1620;
consecrated Bishop of Murray in 1623; deprived, along with other Scottish
Bishops, in 1638; and expelled from the Episcopal castle of Spynie in
1640. According to Keith, he was a venerable, worthy, and hospitable
prelate;; and having encountered the storm, from which such of the
bishops, as did not submit to Presbytery, fled for refuge into England, he
retired to his own house of Guthrie in Forfarshire, and died, says
Middleton, exercising his charity amongst the poor in the time of the
civil wars. His brother and son John were ministers of Arbroath and
Duffus.
William Kinnear, reader in Arbroath, was presented to Kinnell in 1603,
and
died in 1612.
Henry Futhie was admitted by the Archbishop of St. Andrews with
assistants
in 1612, and translated to Fowlis and Lundie.
James Guthrie was translated to Arbirlot in 1625.
David Kinnear died in 1638.
James Thomson, Senior, died after May 1681.
James Thomson, Junior, having received ordination from the Archbishop,
and
institution from the Archdeacon, (Dean), was admitted by the Presbytery to
be conjunct minister with his father in 1673, and died in his father's
lifetime in 1681.
David Thomson was admitted conjunct minister with his father in 1684, and
died in 1702, the last Episcopal incumbent.
Alexander Dallas, the first Presbyterian minister of Kinnell under the
present ecclesiastical establishment, was ordained by the united
Presbytery of Brechin and Arbroath in 1703, and died in 1705. At the
Revolution of 1688, the number of Presbyterian ministers in this part of
Scotland was so small, that the old Presbyteries of Brechin, Fordun, and
Arbroath, were obliged for some time to associate in one Presbytery; and
it was not till 1704 that the Presbytery of Arbroath was again disjoined,
and erected into a separate Presbytery by the Synod of Angus and Mearns.
Thomas Fraser, 1705-1708.
James Robertson, 1708-1723.
William Moncrieff, 1725-1742.
James Murison, minister of Edzel, was translated to Kinnell in 1743;
admitted Principal of St. Mary's College, St Andrews, and demitted the
ministry at Kinnell in 1747.
George Cruikshanks, minister of Arbroath, was translated to Kinnell in
1748, and died in 1753.
Alexander Chaplin was ordained in 1754, and died in 1813 in the
ninety-fifth year of his age. His successor, the present incumbent, was
ordained the 23d September 1813.
| In 1755 Dr Webster's census gave | 761 |
| 1792 Sir John Sinclair's | 830 |
| 1801 The Parliamentary | 783 |
| 1811 do. | 697 |
| 1821 do. | 732 |
| 1831 do. | 786 |
| 1836 The present incumbent's | 829 |
The disproportion of male and females in the preceding census is not only reversed, but is greater than accords with any ratio of difference, - a circumstance which is to be accounted for by the employment of more females than males in the spinning-mills, and at the loom at home, while the young men, chiefly the Muirside, are more extensively known as excellent farm-servants in the neighbouring parishes. Of 125 looms, which are at work in the parish, 78 are occupied by female weavers, and 47 by males; and of the whole number of looms in the parish, 90 are in the Muirside of Kinnell among 80 families. Thirty years ago, there were only three or four female weavers in the parish; and their number did not greatly increase till 1821, when the withdrawal of a great part of the Muirside lands, along with other circumstances, taught them to seek a readier and more convenient employment at the loom than in the distant fields of the farmers. The description of linen cloth which the weavers weave here at present is chiefly Osnaburg and sheeting; and it must also be remarked, that eight or nine looms at present unoccupied in the Muirside belong to men who find more congenial work in the construction of a railroad between Arbroath and Forfar.
There is no residence in the parish for any proprietors of the four estates; but, as almost all the estate of East Braky is at present not under lease, the proprietors of the estate avail themselves of the circumstance, by residing in the parish during the summer months. No families reside within the parish but such as are connected with the agriculturing or manufacturing operations.
Two men, now elderly, are more or less fatuous. In one family there are two children deaf and dumb. If the kirk-session should send them to Edinburgh for education, the can expect to accomplish their object only through the benevolent aid of Sir James Carnegie.**
Of late years, bothies have been provided for unmarried female servants also; for the farmers, finding it difficult to induce women to leave the loom for the working of the green crop, have been constrained to bring workers from the northern counties. The engagement of these workers is generally for a certain period, at about 8d. or 9d. a day till harvest, when higher wages are necessarily given. About thirty years ago, smuggling in gin and brandy and other articles prevailed to a considerable extent at various points of the adjacent coast; and, till a later period, the whisky, which was generally used, was chiefly from illicit distillation in the north. But a subsequent alteration of the law, by improving the spirits of the larger distilleries, and reducing the price, almost suppresses illegal distillation; and, if an increase of drunkenness was the immediate result of the reduction of price, in that evil also there has been a great abatement. It must be added, however, that there is still a coast-guard for the prevention of foreign smuggling. *The Parliamentary census of 1841 gave a population of 853. But in that number were included 23 strangers, who then lodged in the parish for the conveniency of building of the new turnpike road between Pitmuir Mill tolls and Brechin. **The two boys are still in the Edinburgh Deaf and Dumb Institution, at the expense of Sir James Carnegie.
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