Preface
The Lectures published in
this volume were in their first draught delivered in Mauchline during the
spring of 1884. They formed part of a course of lectures on "Our Parish
Church and Parish Records," and the object originally contemplated by them
was to furnish the people of Mauchline with such scraps of Parochial History
and illustrations of Old Church Life as could be gleaned from the Records of
Mauchline Kirk Session.
After I had agreed to publish
some of the lectures, it occurred to me that it would be desirable to recast
them and widen their scope, so that interest in them might not be limited to
people connected with Mauchline Parish. The lectures now published are
accordingly altered from what they were when delivered. They are also very
much lengthened, and although like a house that has been repaired and added
to, they may shew more trace than is desirable of their original design, it
is hoped that on the subjects of which they treat they will give a fairly
full and correct account of Church Life in Scotland during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries.
I am aware that the title
chosen for this volume is not free from objection, but it was the best title
I could think of. There is a great deal of old Church Life that is not
described in this volume. The higher forms and aspects of Church Life are
little noticed, but that is because the traces and evidences of such life
are not to be found in the official records I have had mainly to deal with.
It has to be remembered also, that the lectures now published formed only
the half of a course, so that the volume viewed as a treatise is incomplete.
It was thought that the publication of all the lectures would make too large
a book on a subject that is not of very general interest. The topics treated
in the lectures not published were, I may here state, the Church's provision
for the Poor, the Church's work in providing Education for the people,
Marriages, regular and irregular, Baptisms and Burials, and the roll of
Mauchline Ministers since the Reformation.
Besides having carefully read
over all the extant records of Mauchline Kirk Session from 1669 to the
present day of grace, I have had the privilege of examining the Records of
the Presbytery of Ayr from 1642 to 1650 and from 1687 to 1796. I have also
been favoured with a perusal of the Session Records of Galston from 1626 to
(about) 1750, the Session Records of Fen wick from 1645 to 1699, and the
Session Records of Rothesay from 1658 to 1662. I have not literally
ransacked these Recorcs. but I have appropriated all that on a cursory
examination caught my eye as bearing on the several subjects discussed in
the lectures. To those who favoured me with an inspection of these valuable
documents—my fathers and brethren of the Presbytery of Ayr, the Rev. John
Brown of Galston, the Rev. J. K. Hewison of Rothesay, the Rev. John Hall of
Fenwick, and Mr. Macnair, Session-clerk, Fenwick—I have publicly to express
my thanks and obligations.
It is not necessary to
enumerate the printed books that have been consulted and drawn from, in the
compilation of the lectures now published, because these books are for the
most part indicated by name in the passages where extracts from them are
given. It may be stated, however, that as this volume is meant for the
general public, and not for such readers only as are well versed in Church
history and church law, I have not hesitated, wherever I deemed it
advantageous for the purpose of exposition, to make quotations not only from
books that might be counted rare, but even from some that are well known and
easy of access to people in towns. I have also purposely violated what may
be termed one of the canons of literature, by engrossing into the text of
the lectures many and sometimes large extracts from session books. This plan
of composition, I am well aware, interrupts the flow of writing, and
produces dull and heavy reading; but if I should succeed in making my
meaning clear and in fully explaining all I attempt to expound, I shall not
be dissatisfied with the result.
Nearly half of the volume is
taken up with the subject of Church discipline, but in dealing with cases of
scandal I have generally withheld the names of persons involved, when I
thought it possible that such names could be identified with families still
represented in the district of Mauchline. To this rule, however, I have made
one notable exception. The public interest in the national poet is so
absorbing, and people are so anxious to know the whole truth about his
bright and sad career, that I have thought proper to tell nearly all that
the Session Records of Mauchline have to say about him and the persons that
figure in his poems. And the cause of this insatiate curiosity regarding all
places and persons associated with Burns is not far to seek. The poetry of
Burns more than that of any British poet, except perhaps Wordsworth, was the
outcome of his own life and surroundings. An intimate knowledge of that life
and of these surroundings is craved therefore by every one who makes the
poems of Burns a study ; and although it is not in Session Records that we
can expect to meet with what was best and greatest in the poet's life, we
still long to hear from these Records the minutest facts they contain about
him and his contemporaries.
I have only to add that
although I have been at much pains to be accurate, I cannot flatter myself
with the expectation that in a book containing so many statements as this
does, both on matters of fact and on matters of opinion, no slip nor
misjudgment will be found. One point on which, from following with
unquestioning faith the statements made in popular works, my remarks are
open to criticism and doubt, is the old monastic life at Mauchline. In
Appendix F, I have done what I could to set what may be termed the new state
of this question impartially before the public.
A. E.
The Manse, Mauchline,
2nd May, 1885.
Contents
Lecture I.—Churches, Manses,
and Churchyards in Olden Times
Mauchline Session Records—The Present Church of Mauchline—The Old Church and
its Outward Appearance—The Old Church as it was before the Reformation—The
Surrounding Monastery— Changes on and in the Church at the Reformation—Few
Fixed Seats—Fairs in Churches once—Introduction of Pew System—A Grievance in
Connection with the Pew System—The Galleries and Common Loft—The Bell—The
Clock—The Windows—Repair of Church Fabrics and Drink to Workmen—Manses of
Old Date— Size of Old Manses—Manses Thatched with Straw, and Roughly
Finished in many ways—Delivery of Manses by Executors of Former Ministers —
Churchyards — Tombstones—Association of Mauchline Churchyard with
Burns—Filthy Condition of Churchyards at One Time—Houses on Churchyard
Dykes—The Ash Tree in Mauchline Churchyard.
Lecture
