Kilkerran Cemetery

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View through locked gate	Ronald McAlister, Sexton Kilkerran Cemetery
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The Kilkerran Cemetery Records are transcripts of the inscriptions of more than 4,000 headstones at the "Old Section" of Campbeltown's Kilkerran Cemetery. The transcription work was completed in the early 1980's by Campbeltown historian David McEwan, as he more eloquently describes in his "Foreword" below.

Introduction

Let me try to reassure those of you who think I might have chosen a more cheerful spot for our afternoon ramble. I am not going to attempt to write an elegy on Kilkerran, and I am not going to moralise on the brevity of human life or on the futility of human plans. Further, I am not going to talk to you about ancient gravestones or monumental art for two very good reasons: first, as I told you last year when talking about Campbeltown Cross, Kilkerran as a burial place does not date back beyond A.D. 1600 and, with the possible exception of one tombstone, there is nothing in it of the slightest interest to the antiquary: and, second, even if it did contain anything of antiquarian interest, I don’t profess to be an authority on such matters. My object in asking you to accompany me this afternoon on a ramble round the Old Graveyard is simple. I am going to select a grave or a tombstone here and there and use it as a spindle, from which to spin to you some old Kintyre yarn, or as a peg on which to hand some story, gossip, tradition, or reminiscence, relating to our town and its people in bye-gone days, gathered from books and records, from tales told to me by old Campbeltonians, and from information collected for me by kind friends, among whom I wish specially to mention Mr McKinlay. In short, while “Kilkerran” is my text this evening, I am going to ask you to extend to me the same privilege which you so freely give to your ministers on Sundays (or, at any rate, the privilege which your ministers so freely use), and permit me to wander far from my text and to return to it just when it suits my views to do so. Most of what I shall tell you is true, some of it is probably untrue: but I agree with the American, F.F. Murphy, who says, "If we are only to believe what is true we shall miss much harmless enjoyment."

The same American has said, "As we wander through a cemetery we wonder where all the sinners are buried." Now, I am well aware that in speaking to you, a Campbeltown audience, about Kilkerran I am "skating on thin ice," but I hope I shall speak no evil to-night about those who rest in the Old Graveyard, for I know no evil about any of them, and their memory is sacred, and the ground in which they lie is “consecrated,” in the truest and best – if not in the ecclesiastical – sense of that word, to all of us here.

I have here a sketch plan of the Old Graveyard, very kindly prepared for me by Mr McArthur and by its means I hope you will be able to keep in touch with me during our ramble. When I mention a grave or tombstone, I shall give it a number, and the same number on the plan indicates the position of that grave or tombstone in the Old Graveyard.

Now, enter the Old Graveyard with me by its north gate, the gate nearest the Sexton’s house, and we find ourselves standing on a gravelled pathway, the only pathway in it. We are now in the most modern, but by no means the least interesting part of the Graveyard, for the ground covered by the pathway and the line of tombs on each side of it was acquired by the Town Council, as an extension to the Graveyard in 1807.

Sheriff MacTavish

Just opposite the gate by which we entered, you will notice a concrete step leading up to the grassy part of the Graveyard, and just above it a man, well known and much respected in Campbeltown in his day and generation, Sheriff MacTavish, was buried (No.1 on the plan). No stone marks his grave, and the tradition is that his body was exhumed, and taken to the burial place of his family at Kilmartin.1 Tradition hands down the Sheriff as a man of strong common sense, as a firm upholder of old customers and as one who refused to “suffer fools gladly.” He was the last man in Campbeltown to wear the old-fashioned queue and top boots, and, when out of doors, he always carried a Malacca cane, about five feet long, like the modern “alpine stock.” He built Kilchrist, I think, at any rate he lived and died there, and the room in which he died was never opened from the day of his funeral until Kilchrist was acquired by the late Misses MacTaggart about the year 1887. When it was opened the dust of years lay on the floor and furniture, the Sheriff’s hat and coat were hanging on a peg behind the door, and his traditionally, well remembered old stick stood in a corner. He was the representative of a very old Argyllshire family, one might almost call it a Kintyre family, the MacTavishs of Dunardry, an estate which lay near to what is now the south bank of the Crinan Canal and now incorporated in the Poltalloch estate. The MacTavishs held Dunardry as feudatories of the Campbells of Auchenbreck, who were at one time the most powerful family in the Clan Campbell next to the Argylls and the ruins of their old stronghold, Carnassary Castle, still stand near Kilmartin. In 1685 the 9th Earl of Argyll raised the standard of rebellion and issued his “declaration” here in Campbeltown, and then sailed north to Tarbert, where he was joined by his kinsman and clansman Auchenbreck and, with Auchenbreck, came his henchman MacTavish of Dunardry. As you all know, that rebellion soon collapsed. The Earl was taken prisoner, and in due course died a hero’s death on the scaffold. Auchenbreck escaped to Holland; but MacTavish was taken prisoner when Carnasssary Castle surrendered to a body of Highlanders, chiefly McLeans, who had been raised in King James’ interest, and was hanged in front of the Castle. Auchenbreck returned to Scotland as a trusted adviser of King William, and was restored to his honours and estates. He then submitted a claim to the Scottish Government for compensation for the loss he had sustained on account of his participation in Argyll’s Rebellion. In that claim he asked for compensation for the death of MacTavish, and also for £2,000 on account of damage done to his property by "McKerchnie of Kintyre."

Who McKerchnie was no-one seems to know exactly: but he, apparently, was the leader of one of those gangs of Highlanders, belonging to clans hostile to the Campbells, who were let loose on the estates of Argyll and his supporters after the collapse of the rebellion. Whoever he was, he and his assistants evidently knew their job and did it thoroughly for they made a clean sweep of Kintyre and left desolation behind them. An old book in the local Library gives details of the damage done to particular villages and farms by those men in Kintyre and elsewhere, and it is instructive as showing what our ancestors here had to put up with occasionally, especially in the 17th century.

Peter Macintosh

Just above Sheriff MacTavish’s grave is the tombstone of a man who, if alive now, would, no doubt, be a useful and enthusiastic member of our Society, Peter Macintosh, who wrote a “History of Kintyre” about 70 years ago (No.2 on plan). I cannot recommend his “History” as being accurate, and it is certainly very disjointed: but it is full of quaint old Kintyre tales and legends, and it is well worth perusal. Peter carved and erected his own tombstone and it stood for many years before his death with the inscription complete, except that the date of his death was left blank. In the inscription he described himself as an “Elder of the Free Church of Scotland” – the only instance in Kilkerran where a man was sufficiently proud of being an elder of the Kirk to have the fact recorded on his tombstone. He also commemorated his connection with the Kirk by carving the arms of the Kirk of Scotland, the burning bush and the motto, “Nec tamen consumebatur,” on the back of his tombstone. It is fortunate he did not leave out the motto, as without it the burning bushy might easily have been mistaken for a cabbage. One may smile at old Peter’s tombstone, but, I imagine, if we had to carve our own tombstones, not one of us in five thousand would make as good an attempt at the feat as he did.

Turning to our right and going along the pathway, we soon come to the tombs of two old officers of that distinguished regiment, the Royal Marines, Lieutenant Macfarlane and Captain Macmillan (Nos. 3 and 4 on plan), and these tombs give you the first of many indications which you will notice during our ramble, of the close connection of Campbeltown, in the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th Centuries, with the naval and military forces of the Crown. Captain Macmillan was, I believe, one of the Macmillans of Lephenstrath, for many years the leading family of the name in Kintyre. The Macmillans now own no land in Kintyre, but they are still numerically very strong in our midst, and our voters’ roll shows more voters of that name than of any other.

Smuggling Days in Kintyre

Just beyond Captain Macmillan’s tomb is the tomb of Sheriff Duncan Campbell, who was Sheriff-Substitute in Kintyre for about thirty years prior to 1822 and who was twice Provost of Campbeltown (No.5 on plan). During his period of office smuggling was the most prevalent form of crime in Kintyre, and the tradition is that he was, perhaps, just a little too sympathetic towards offenders who came before him charged with the offence. The following story about him was given in the “Life of the Rev. Dr Norman MacLeod.” One day an old woman, a “habit and repute” smuggler, was brought before him charged with smuggling, and, the case against her being fully proved, it fell to the worthy old Sheriff to pronounce sentence. He seemed to be very fidgety and uneasy, but at last said to the accused: “No doubt my good woman it is not often that you have been guilty of this fault.” Quickly came her reply, “Na, na, Shirra, I ha’ena made a drap since yon wee keg I sent yourself.” Few, if any of you, I imagine, have any idea of the extent to which smuggling was carried on here during the period from, say, 1750 to 1822, and of how people of all classes sympathised with the smugglers, even if they did not themselves engage in the traffic in contraband. It was only last spring when, with Mr McKinlay, I was allowed to make a search through the old records of the local Custom House, that I got to know something about the old smugglers and their doings. Sanda was the most famous overseas smugglers depot in these parts, and Rathlin was a good second. Fast sailing vessels, specially built for the smuggling trade, brought cargoes of spirits, tobacco, tea, salt and other contraband to those islands, where the goods were landed and temporarily concealed, and whence they were eventually distributed along the mainland by vessels ostensibly engaged in the fishing and coasting trades. That enormous quantities of contraband goods were successfully smuggled, is certain: but luck was not always with the smugglers, and great captures of them and their goods are frequently recorded in the Custom House records. For example, on the 16th February 1778, the preventive officers captured a vessel discharging a cargo of smuggled goods in Carskey Bay, and seized 250 casks of spirits, 30 chests of tea and other contraband. Encounters, by no means always bloodless, between the smugglers and the preventive men were frequent. One real good fight of that kind occurred near Peninver, and another near Tonrioch, and, with deep regret, I must admit that on the later occasion the smugglers were led by two individuals called McKinlay and Mactaggart: but, in extenuation of the conduct of possible relatives of Mr McKinlay and myself, I may point out that the Custom House records describe both men as being “very poor” and regretfully admit that it was impossible to get anything in the shape of a fine out of them, and the poor wretches had to live somehow I suppose. But, now that Mr McKinlay and I are “in the soup up to our necks,” we may as well have good company there so I may tell you that the worst smugglers in these parts were the Breakenridges of Red Bay in Antrim. Judging from their name, they must have been Kintyre folks, temporarily resident in Ireland for smuggling purposes and I should not be a bit surprised if one distinguished relative of theirs were still among us here in Campbeltown. Very reprehensible was the conduct of a “leading merchant of Campbeltown,” whose name I am going to keep as a little secret for my own special use – but I may say it was not McKinlay, Mactaggart or Breakendridge – in whose house in the year 1784, were discovered 20 gallons of white wine and 220 gallons of brandy, and, about the same time, in his son’s house 90 gallons of white wine and 993 gallons of brandy were found. All that good liquor was smuggled into Campbeltown on a local ship, named the “Countess of Argyll,” when bringing a cargo of salt here from Portugal. What the Customs people complained most about was, that when they did manage to catch smugglers and put them into the old Jail of Campbeltown, of which this room where we meet was a part, those prisoners almost invariably escaped in a few days or even a few hours. Friends seem to have had free access to the prisoners at all hours and were allowed to supply with the provisions, spirits, tobacco and anything else they wanted, and it is easy to understand that, under those circumstances, a prisoner had no difficulty in getting files, chisels or anything else he required to effect his escape. Many a good “wigging” the local Magistrates got about their Jail, and at last they found it necessary to place seven respectable citizens on duty as guards at the Jail and the keys were made over to the Collector of Customs every night: but apparently escapes still continued to occur and did not cease till a modern jail was built on the Castle Hill and a sensible system of prison discipline was introduced, I may mention that Donald Blank (for this occasion) a local butcher, the individual referred to in the old Campbeltown rhyme:

"What’s the news? What’s the news?
Donald Blank is killing coos.
That’s the news! That’s the news!"

Broke out of the old Jail just because he thought it was time he had a drink and a spree, and, having had his drink and spree, he broke into the Jail and reoccupied his cell, much to the surprise of Sandy Campbell, the Jailer, who did not expect his captive to report himself for duty after such a brief holiday.

The “Resurrectionists”

Further along the pathway, and on the left hand side, we come to the burial place of a family of lawyers and distillers – not an infrequent conjunction of professions in old Campbeltown – the Lambs (No.6 on plan). Robert Lamb was Town Clerk of Campbeltown in the beginning of the 19th century and, in the distilling industry the name of “Lamb” was familiar to us, in the firm of “Lamb, Colville & Co” up to very recent years. With the Lambs is buried Charles Mowatt Mactaggart, a grand uncle of mine, who was one of the doctors in Campbeltown during the great cholera epidemic of 1832. The Lambs’ tomb is interesting because it is the only tomb in Kilkerran – the only tomb in Kintyre, I think – having an iron grated roof, which encloses the graves in a kind of iron cage, an expedience which was very commonly adopted in other parts of Scotland to keep graves safe from the attacks of “The Resurrectionists”. Next time you go along Ingram Street in Glasgow, if you look into the “Ram’s Horn” Graveyard, you will see many of the tombs in it protected in the way I have mentioned (or, at any rate, they were so protected, when I was a boy at College in Glasgow), and that graveyard from its proximity to the old College in the High Street was, no doubt, specially liable to notice from the “Resurrectionists”. Many of you, I imagine, think that Kintyre, owing to its distance from the medical schools, and owing to the difficulty which must have attended the secret exportation of bodies from here to Glasgow, would escape the attention of the “Resurrectionists”, but I, personally, have no doubt that these men did ply their nefarious trade here, and that bodies were lifted from our graveyards and exported to Glasgow. The traditions on the subject, extending as they do to individual cases, are too definite to be altogether false, and an old medical man, a native of this town, who rose to a distinguished position in my own Service, and whose word could be absolutely relied on, told me that his elder brother, when a medical student in Glasgow, saw, on one of the tables, in the anatomy room in the College, the body of a well-known Campbeltown woman, the wife of a prosperous farmer. Her body was lifted from a graveyard near Campbeltown – not Kilkerran. So you see the precaution taken by the Lamb’s to protect their dead was not, perhaps, so unnecessarily elaborate as some may have imagined it to have been. Almost opposite the tomb of the Lamb’s is the burial place of another Campbeltown family – the Beatsons – (No.7 on plan) and the record of the men of that family, as shown on the tombstones, in the land and sea service of the Crown, is second to that of no other family buried in Kilkerran.

The Old Revenue Cutters

Just here we are beside a group of graves of the Commanders of the old revenue cutters, for Captains Henry Dundas Beatson, Thomas Lacy and James Melville, men who were closely connected during life by family and service ties, not inappropriately, lie close together in Kilkerran (Nos. 7, 8, 9, on plan) and here I may now try to tell you something about the revenue cutters and their officers and men, who, in the later decades of the 18th and the early decades of the 19th century, played such a large part in the maritime and social life of Campbeltown. I have already referred to the prevalence of oversea smuggling, and it was in consequence of that trade that the revenue cutters, fast sailing, armed vessels, capable of outsailing and, if necessary, fighting the vessels engaged in smuggling, came into existence. The cutters were not naval vessels, although many of their officers and men had served in the Navy. Campbeltown, with its splendid harbour and occupying a strategic position commanding the North Channel and the Irish Sea, naturally, became one of the chief centres for the cutters, and four first-class cutters had their headquarters here, and their officers and men had their homes in the town. These four cutters, the “Campbeltown Cutters” I may call them, were the “Swift” commanded by Captain Henry Dundas Beatson, the “Wellington” commanded by Captain James Melville, and the “Wickham” commanded by Captain John Fullarton. Other cutters which frequented this port, whose officers’ and men’s names can be traced on the Kilkerran gravestones were the “Prince of Wales”, commanded by Captain John Campbell, younger of Carradale (probably the first cutter to be stationed on these coasts), the “Liverpool”, the “Margaret”, the “Chicester” and the “Diligence”. We may be very sure that the cutters, when first stationed in Campbeltown, were not a popular addition to the shipping of the port, and their officers and men seem to have formed a small community which kept pretty much to itself and was more or less boycotted by the people of the town. Only on such a supposition is it possible to explain the intermarrying among the families of the old cuttersmen. To take the commanders of the “Campbeltown cutters” as an example, Lacy and Melville were married to sisters of Beatson, and Beatson and Fullarton were married to sisters: but as time went on and smuggling became less popular, conditions evidently changed and, when Norman MacLeod was a boy, the cutters had become a sort of local institution, and the officers and men were popular and respected, as the following extract from the story of his life shows:

“As the Highlands gave Norman his strong celtic passion, so Campbeltown inspired him with sympathy for the sea and sailors, besides creating a world of associations which never left him. It was a curious little town and had wonderful variety of character in its society and customs. No fewer than seven large revenue cutters had their headquarters in Campbeltown, and were commanded by naval officers, who in the good old days received a pay which would startle modern economists. These cutters were powerful vessels, generally manned by a double crew, and each having a smaller craft acting as tender. The officers and men of the cutters made Campbeltown their home, and villas, generally built opposite the buoy which marked the anchorage of their respective cruisers, were occupied by the families of the different commanders and the element thus introduced into the society of the town had many important effects. It not only gave cheerfulness to its tone, but added a flavour of the sea to its interests. The merits of each officer and cutter were matters with which every man and woman but especially every boy was familiar and how old Jack Fullarton had carried on till all seemed going by the board on a coast bristling with sunken rocks: or how Captain Beatson had been caught off the Mull in the great January gale and with what skill he had weathered that wild headland were questions which every inhabitant, old and young, had repeatedly discussed.”

The Campbeltown Cutters

Practically nothing is on record regarding the size, sail area, armament and strength of the crews of the old cutters and there is only one authentic picture of a “Campbeltown Cutter” in existence, a fine oil painting of the “Wickham” which is now in Eagle Park. A book called “Cutters and Smugglers” was published in London two or three years ago, and, as reviews of it gave promise of its containing valuable information about the old cutters, a copy of it was got for the local Library: but, excepting a photographic reproduction of the picture of the “Wickham” already referred to, it contains nothing very instructive about them. The “Campbeltown Cutters” were apparently vessels of about a hundred and forty tons, and the most striking features about them was the great size of their masts and spars and the great extent of their sail area, as compared with the size of the boats themselves. They were also fitted with large “yards” which, when not in use, were carried on deck, and thus they were able to set a large amount of “square” canvas when “running” before the wind. The picture of the “Wickham” shows that she carried 14 guns, 7 on each broadside. An entry in the Custom House records shows that two of the very early cutters had crews of 60 and 55 men respectively: but the “Campbeltown Cutters” certainly had much larger crews. The cuttersmen were chiefly drawn from the Highlands, and among their names, as recorded on the Kilkerran tombstones, the following are conspicuous, Macmillan, McMurchy, MacKinnon, McNab, McAllister, McIsaac and McInnes. The officers and men of the cutters seem to have been well paid, and they often came in for considerable sums as “prize money”. The best “prize” ever captured by the “Campbeltown Cutters” is, traditionally, said to have been a fine American schooner, specially built for the smuggling trade, and called in Campbeltown dialect the “Sally and Rosa” (probably a corruption of a Spanish name). The story is that one of the old commanders, either Lacy or Beatson, got definite information that she was coming to this country but he could not find out whether her route was by the south or the north of Ireland so he had to take another commander into his confidence. Eventually the “Swift” and the “Hardwick” sailed, one to watch for the “Sally and Rosa” on the north and the other on the south of Ireland. She was captured by the “Hardwick” after a long chase and a stiff fight, and the tradition is that Captain Lacy’s share of her “Prize money” amounted to about £9,000.

Overmasted and oversparred as the old cutters look in the picture of the “Wickham” they were evidently splendid sea boats capable of holding the sea in almost any weather, and only one of the local cutters, the “Diligence” came to an unfortunate end. She foundered with all hands in a great gale off the coast of Ireland, and several Campbeltown men went down with her, among others the father of the late Bailie McQueen, and, from a stone erected to his memory in Kilkerran, not far from where we are now standing, we can fix the date of that disaster, the greatest in the history of the cutters, as the 7th January 1839.

One of Nelson’s Officers

At the very end of the pathway, and against the west wall of the Graveyard, we come to the tomb of a fine old officer, Captain John Fleming of the Royal Navy. (No.10 on plan). He was one of Nelson’s officers and, for his bravery and for his serices to his country, he received a sword of honour from the City of London. He was the Laird of Muasdale and Glencreggan and built “Fleming’s Land” on the Castle Hill. He was one of the Ballivain Flemings and, through his mother, Jean Porter, he was connected with two other old Kintyre lowland settlers’ families, the Kilpatricks of Caliburn and the Porters of Crossibeg. One of his uncles was Sam. Kilpatrick who served in India under Lord Clife and rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Indian Army: another was Lt Colonel John Porter, who commanded a regiment of Argyllshire Fencibles which did good service during the Irish Rebellion. I believe an Irish story says that the Argyllshire Fencibles when their rations fell short, used to boil down a few Irish babies for soup: but that is, of course, an Hibernian fable: probably founded on the fact that the Fencibles were fond of catching and eating the young pigs attached to Irish homesteads, and we may be sure that the Campbeltown men among the Fencibles were fond of roast pork, for the pig was popular in old Campbeltown and under the name of “The Dhurrie” was a greatly privileged inhabitant of the town and possessed “the freedom of the Burgh”. “The Dhurrie’s” privileges were greatly curtailed and he ceased to be a household pet in Campbeltown in consequence of the cholera epidemic of 1832. There is a tradition that “the Dhurries” sometimes met with fatal accidents through falling from attic windows. An old lady who had a particularly large pig in her attic was asked how she had managed to get him up the stair. “Up the stair!” she exclaimed in surprise, “He has never been doon.” Lt Colonel Porter, after he retired form the service lived at Drumore and was elected Provost of Campbeltown in 1794. He is buried in Kilchousland.

The Mystery Tomb

Now turning to the left, and keeping along the west wall of the Gravyard, we come to what I may call “The Mystery Tomb” of Kilkerran (No.11 on plan) – a queer piece of monumental architecture with which most of you are, no doubt, familiar. I may describe it as a pyramid built on a longtitudinal arch, one end of the arch being filled in by masonry, and the other by a wooden door. It is the only tomb in Kilkerran which might, possibly, be described as a “vault”. Now I have always known that old tomb as “Strichen’s Tomb” and have always believed that one of the Frazers of Strichen was buried under it. Kilkerran and old Campbeltown had no doubt as to its identity and always called it “Strichen’s Tomb” and other old Campbeltonians have told me the same story. It is easy to account for the connection of the Frazers of Strichen with Campbeltown. Lady Anne Campbell, a daughter of the old “Limecraigs Duchess”, Elizabeth Tollmache, married first, the Earl of Bute and, second, Frazer of Strichen , a judge of the Court of Session. I do not think that the Frazer buried in Kilkerran was the Laird of Strichen, I am pretty sure he was not; but he was a member of the Strichen family who came here, probably as a result of Argyll influence, as Collector of Customs, an appointment which, although the actual salary was small, had very considerable “pickings” attached to it. He was a lawyer by profession and was also Town Clerk. He commanded one of the three companies of militia raised here in the “Forty-Five”, marched with it to Inveraray, and served with it during that rebellion in the Highlands. Children often have strange thoughts and fancies and when I was a small boy, “Strichen’s Tomb” had a great speculative interest for me. I used to think that “Strichen” with a roof over him must rest dryer and more comfortable than any one else in Kilkerran; but one day I heard Dr Cameron preach a sermon on the parable of Dives and I came to the conclusion that, for a rich man at any rate, to whom a drop of water was a serious consideration, a roofed in tomb might have its disadvantages. Imagine my utter disgust when, not long ago, a good friend of mine tried to upset all my early beliefs about the old tomb by telling me that, if it is to be called a tomb, it should be called “Crichen’s Tomb” and that nobody is buried under it. His view is that it was built by a man named “Crichen” who was at one time in charge of the local coal pit and made the canal which used to connect the coal pit with the town. He further says “Crichen” became bankrupt and left Campbeltown so his body was never placed in the tomb which he had prepared for it. Now there is this to be said in favour of that theory. There certainly was a man called ”Crichen” resident in Campbeltown about 1765 and he certainly had charge of the local coal pit for an entry in the old Custom House records shows that “Mr McDougall of Crichen” was making great efforts to raise enough coal to work the salt works at “Mary Pans,” the old name for Machrihanish. Now you have the two theories as to the identity of this old tomb before you and you can elect for yourselves whether you will call it “Strichen’s Tomb” or “Crichen’s Tomb” but, as for me, I plump for “Strichen” and I am not going to allow my good friend already referred to, or anyone else, to shatter my old beliefs or delusions about “Strichen’s Tomb”.

Keeping along the west wall, the next tomb to “Strichen’s” is that of an old military officer, Captain Charles Campbell (No.12 on plan) who served with the 79th Highlanders during the Napoleonic wars. He was well known and respected in Campbeltown as “Big Charlie”, and after his retirement from the Service, he lived at Belgrove and became Provost of Campbeltown in 1820.2

The Macneals of Ugadale

A little beyond “Big Charlie’s” grave we come to the tomb of the Macneals of Ugadale, an old Kintyre family whose history is too well known for me to attempt to tell you anything new about it. (No.13 on plan). The earlier members of the families of Mackay of Ugadale and Macneal of Lossit are, no doubt, buried in Saddell and Kilkevan respectively and the first of the family to be buried in Kilkerran was, apparently Torquil Macneal, described on his tombstone as “Vir probus et pins” who died in 1728. He was twice Provost of Campbeltown and is probably the Macneal referred to in an old story of the Kirk Street Kirk, which some of you may not have heard. The old “Limecraigs Duchess”, Elizabeth Tollmache was, as most of you know, a firm supporter of the Kirk Street Kirk and a great admirer of its famous Minister, Mr Boes and, no doubt, her conduct in kirk during service was exemplary; but the behaviour of the young ladies, her nieces and others who lived with her at Limecraigs was, apparently, not always what Mr Boes and his Kirk Session thought it should have been so they decided that the girls must be taught a lesson. Next Sunday when the Duchess, followed by the usual procession of young ladies arrived at the Kirk door, she was allowed to enter as usual, but Macneal of Ugadale, who was the elder at the plate, stepped between her and the young ladies and forbade the latter entry to the Kirk. The Duchess turned round and asked what was the matter, and Macneal replied, “Your Grace can go in, but I am going to cut off your tail”, so the young ladies had to go home, serviceless, to Limecraigs. Tradition does not relate if they felt their punishment severely but, as Mr Boes was in the habit of preaching for over two hours and as his sermons were no doubt a good deal “over their heads” we may conclude that they bore it with more equanimity than Mr Boes and his Session expected. Doubtless when the Duchess got back to Limecraigs after that Sunday service, the atmosphere in the old house was a bit sultry and, if her tongue was as vitriolic as her pen certainly sometimes was, the young ladies must have remembered that Sunday afternoon for the rest of their lives.

Not far from the Ugadale tomb and still keeping along the west wall we come to the tomb of the last of the old McEachran lairds of Oatfield and Kilellan (No.14 on plan), Colin McEachran, who died in 1841.

Treasure Trove

Between Colin McEachran’s grave and the burial place of the McNeills of Ardnacross (No.15 on plan ), the only treasure trove ever discovered in Kilkerran (so far as is known) was found when a grave was being dug about thirty years ago. It consisted largely of old English coins of the 14th and 15th Centuries and, no doubt, they formed part of an English subsidy paid to some of the McDonalds whose loyalty to the Scottish crown was not always above suspicion. Most of the coins, including those of any intrinsic or historic value, are in the Edinburgh Museum and the residue is in the local Museum.

The McNeills of Ardnacross

In the burial place of the McNeills of Ardnacross there is an interesting old wall tablet with a Latin inscription, now illegible in parts, erected to the memory of Francis Farquharson of Finzeen, an Aberdeenshire laird who, like Frazer of Strichen, came here as Collector of Customs and died here. Up to the time of the Rev Hector McNeill who was Minister of the Castlehill Church at the time of the Disruption and subsequently first Minister of the Lochend Church, the McNeills of Ardnacross were more closely connected with Islay than with Kintyre; but one of them played a happy part in an incident in our local ecclesiastical history which I may tell you about. Nearly a hundred and sixty years ago when the Longrow Congregation seceded from the Lowland Church, they proceeded to build the old Longrow Church but very soon their building operations were brought to a standstill owing to the hostility of the Duke of Argyll and the other local landlords who refused to allow the sand and gravel needed for building to be taken from the shores of their estates. McNeill of Ardnacross who was resident in Islay hearing of that offered the Congregation any sand and gravel they needed, free of charge, from the Ardnacross shore. When the Church was completed all its pews with one exception were sold by auction and became the personal property of the purchasers and in that way £1,400, a large sum in those days, was raised to pay for the building of the Church. It is noteworthy that, in the many old legal documents which exist dealing with the ownership of the pews, these pews situated on the ground floor of the Church are described as “pew No. --- in the pit.” The one pew which was not sold was given by the Congregation, as a free gift in perpetuity, to the Laird of Adnacross for the time being, in recognition of the help which had been given to them in their time of needs. Whether, when the Longrow Church was built, the Congregation remembered their old obligation to the Ardnacross family and, at any rate nominally, set apart a pew in it for their use I don’t know: but, for the sake of tradition and the old story, I hope they did.

Campbeltown as a Seaport.

Not far from the Ardnacross tomb, and near the south-west corner of the Graveyard, is a simple old tombstone erected to the memory of “James Gray, Mariner” (No.16 on plan), and it is to the word “Mariner” on that tomb-stone that I wish specially to direct your attention. Wherever you go in Old Kilkerran you will frequently see on the tombstones the descriptive words “Shipmaster” and “Mariner”, and they serve to bring to notice the fact that, in the old days, Campbeltown was a far more important seaport than it now is: indeed, I am not exaggerating when I say that in the latter half of the 18th century, it was, if not the greatest, certainly one of the greatest seaports on the west of Scotland. Nothing could prove the truth of that statement better than the figures relating to recruiting for the Royal Navy during the American War, which are happily available. During that war something over three thousand four hundred naval recruits were obtained from the whole west coast of Scotland, from Cape Wrath to the Mull of Galloway, and of these, one thousand, more than a quarter of the whole, came from Campbeltown.

It is not difficult to understand the causes which led to the rise of Campbeltown as a fishing and commercial port, and to its subsequent decline. Its rise was due to its splendid natural harbour, which provided a safe anchorage for the old sailing vessels and good facilities for the transhipment of merchandise, and to the fishing bounty. Its decline was due to the introduction of steam power, especially railways and to the abolition of the fishing bounty. Prior to the days of railways merchandise was distributed mostly by coasting vessels and the commercial success of a seaport depended very little on its inland communications: but, with the introduction of railways, a complete change in trading conditions set in, and Campbeltown, from its practically insular position and with no facilities for the distribution of merchandise by rail, necessarily lost its commercial importance.

The Fishing Bounty

The fishing bounty was a subsidy paid by Government to boats engaged in the fishing industry, and its objects were the improvement of the national food supply and the provision of seafaring men for the Navy. Its effect on the prosperity of Campbeltown was enormous, and, during the years it was in force, the population of the town is said to have doubled itself. Adam Smith and other political economists condemned the fishing bounty, I believe, but, whatever its effects were on the Nation as a whole, it certainly was an excellent thing for Campbeltown, Stornoway and other fishing ports on the west of Scotland. The bounty was paid at only two ports in Scotland, a port in the Shetlands and Campbeltown, and every fishing vessel had to register in, and resort to, one of these two ports in order to draw her bounty. The tradition is that it was not unusual for two hundred and sixty large fishing boats to be in this harbour when the bounty was being paid. The old fishing boats were called “busses” and were square sterned vessels of from twenty to ninety tons register. Eighty tons was considered the best size for a fishing “buss” and a boat of that size carried a crew of eighteen men and twenty thousand square yards of nets. In order to clear expenses such a boat had to catch one hundred and thirty barrels of fish, valued at one guinea a barrel, during a three months’ fishing trip. The bounty paid to a boat was at the rate of thirty, subsequently raised to fifty, shillings a ton of her registered tonnage, and a bounty of two shillings and eightpence was also paid for each barrel of fish landed in good condition. To earn her bounty a boat had to be absent from her port continuously for a period of not less than three months, and regularly engaged in fishing. The old “busses” fished much further from home than our present fishing boats do, and, apparently carried salt and barrels and cured their catch at sea. Before starting on a fishing trip the boats were examined by the Customs Authorities, and were obliged to have on board provisions and equipment according to a scale laid down by Government, and the Custom House records show that there was often difficulty in getting the salt beef, which was required to be on board, in Campbeltown, which in those days was evidently not so well supplied with enterprising butchers as it is now.

Foreign Trade

In its best days Campbeltown carried on a large export and import trade with Scandinavia, Virginia, the West Indian Islands and other foreign countries. General cargo was exported to these places, and timber, spirits, tobacco, and other goods were imported from them. Dalintober House and the adjoining Free Church Manse were the first houses erected in Dalintober, and they were built in connection with the Virginian trade, their lower flats being originally tobacco stores, and their upper flats the houses of the agents of the shipping companies. The direct trade with America lasted till well on in the 19th Century, two boats belonging to the McNairs, the “Gleaner” and the “Rosina”, being probably the last vessels engaged in it. As late as 1847 the “Gleaner” sailed from Campbeltown with over a hundred local emigrants, who, practically, all went to Willow Creek, Argyll County, in the State of Illinois. There they founded a prosperous town and there their descendants are still proud of their Kintyre blood, and the fine Presbyterian Church which they have built is still called a “daughter church” of our Longrow Church, to which most of the emigrants belonged prior to leaving Campbeltown.

Campbeltown Whalers

Another important factor in the shipping of old Campbeltown was the Greenland whale ships. Two fine local ships, if not more, were employed in whale fishing, the “Argyll” of 400 tons, commanded by Captain John Munro and the “Campbeltown” of 300 tons, commanded by Captain Mark McCallum. These ships sailed from here for the Arctic regions in March every year, and returned in June. In July they started on a second voyage, returning from it at the beginning of winter. They brought the whale blubber here in casks or tanks, and, on their arrival in the harbour, masonry furnaces were built on their decks supporting iron cauldrons, in which the blubber was boiled down into oil. The oil and whalebone were eventually landed and stored at a building at the Trench Point, the ruins of which some of us can remember, and the furnaces were then dismantled and their fragments thrown overboard. Campbeltown fishermen tell a strange story of submerged building on a shoal off the Trench Point called the “Shoalmeeth,” and assert, quite truthfully, that nets dragged over that shoal bring up fragments of masonry; but don’t let that story disturb your minds, and don’t from it imagine that a former Campbeltown was submerged by a great convulsion of nature, such as an earthquake or a tidal wave. The masonry of the “Shoalmeeth” is simply the fragments of the furnaces of the old whalers which, twice a year over a long series of years, were thrown overboard at the spot where the ships were in the habit of anchoring. The boiling of the blubber and the cleaning of the whalebone must have been very unsavoury processes, and one wonders what those supersensitive persons, who were described at a recent Town Council meeting as being unable to cross the Esplanade without holding their handkerchiefs to their noses, would have done, and what they would have said, had they lived in old Campbeltown; when an east wind was blowing; the tide was out; the Mussel Ebb was exposed from the Lochend Dyke to near the “Quay Neb” and the whalers were busy boiling blubber and cleaning whalebone, Ceylon’s fabled “spicey” breezes and her breezes can be very “spicey” especially in Colombo harbour, could not have been in it for “spiciness” with the breezes of old Campbeltown; but I have failed to notice anything on the old Kilkerran tombstones to show that our ancestors here did not live as long as people in other places, in spite of the whalers and the Mussell Ebb.

Menaced by Paul Jones

Perhaps the best proof of the former greatness of Campbeltown, as a fishing and trading port, lies in the fact that it attracted the notice of Commodore Paul Jones, one of whose pet schemes was the destruction of the town and its fishing and trading fleet, and the plans he prepared with that object are still, I believe, preserved among the records at Washington: so I may try to tell you a little about him and about the precautions which our ancestors took to preserve our town from his attentions. Americans are fond of referring to Paul Jones as an “American patriot”, but, as a matter of fact, he was a Scotsman, a traitor to his King and Country, who very richly deserved the hanging which would certainly had been his fate had he fallen into the hands of our Government. He was the son of a gardener and was born at Artigland, Kirkcudbright in 1747. He went to sea at twelve years of age and at twenty-eight joined the American Navy as a lieutenant. He first appeared off our coast in 1778, in command of the “Ranger” the first ship to fly the American flag in European waters. In that ship he fought and captured the British warship “Drake” off Carrickfergus, burned Whitehaven and looted Lord Selkirk’s house at St. Mary’s Isle. He appeared in the Forth before Kirkcaldy and the fate of the “Lang Toon” seemed to be sealed, but the Minister, an aged and infirm man, had himself carried down to the water’s edge in a chair, the tide being then at its ebb, and there he prayed fervently for the preservation of the town, concluding his appeal with these words – “I hae been lang Thy servant O Lord! But, gin ye dinna turn the wind aboot and blaw this scoundrel oot o’ our gate, I’ll no stir a foot, but will just sit here till the tide comes in and droons me”. Fortunately for Kirkcaldy, and the Minister, the old man’s prayer was speedily answered: the wind changed to a strong gale from the north-west and Paul Jones was blown out of the Firth of Forth. About that time, assisted by some American privateers, he did great damage to our shipping, and one of those privateers, the “Black Princess” of Boston, specially devoted herself to our local coasts. In one afternoon, the 17th of July 1780 she captured four Campbeltown ships near Sanda, one of which was called the “Dove” and another the “Princess Augusta,” and not long afterwards she captured another Campbeltown ship the “Hope” and also the packet boat which plied between Tarbert and Islay. Paul Jones did not get the help and support, which he thought he was entitled to, from his Government: but eventually he found himself in command of a fairly powerful squadron, consisting of the “Richard”, 42 guns, the “Alliance”, 36 guns, the “Pallas”, 30 guns, the “Cerf”, 18 guns, and the “Vengeance”, 12 guns and with it he sailed from France intending to exact a ransom of £100,000 from the City of Leith. Off the Yorkshire coast he fell in with a convoy of our Baltic merchant ships, escorted by the “Serapis”, 41 guns, one of the finest frigates in our Navy and the “Countess of Scarborough”, 20 guns. A great sea fight which was watched by thousands from Flamborough Head, then took place. After a three and a half hours’ action, the “Serapis” and the “Countess of Scarborough” were captured by Paul Jones; but his flagship, the “Richard”, sank soon after the fight and the convoy of our merchant ships reached Scarborough in safety. He carried the “Serapis” and “Countess of Scarborough” to the Texel and then, for some reason or other, his activities against this country ceased. He joined the Russian Navy and fought successfully against the Turks. After living in retirement in France for a few years, he died in Paris in 1792. In 1857 his body was exhumed and taken to America, where it was buried in the Congress Cemetery in Washington, and most decent Scotsmen will say “Served him right”.

Campbeltown’s Fortification

Now why did Paul Jones not attempt to carry out his scheme against Campbeltown? The answer is easy. After his death papers were found which clearly proved that he had a spy in our Admiralty, who kept him fully supplied with information as to the movements of our war ships and the measures taken for coast defence, and he doubtless knew that Campbeltown was prepared to give him a warm reception: for it was not caught napping like Kirkcaldy, and our ancestors had wisely decided that, if Paul Jones appeared in the Loch, the prayers of their Ministers would be none the less efficacious if they could be backed up by effective artillery fire so, helped by the influence of the Duke of Argyll, they got guns from the Government and fortified the town. A strong battery, called the “South Battery” was placed above Red Quarry, and another, the “North Battery” at the foot of Limecraigs Avenue, where Markland Cottage now stands. The tradition is that another battery and entrenchment were placed where the shipbuilding yard now stands, and from that circumstance the place got its name of “The Trench” or “The Trench Point”. The name of the battery at “The Trench” was probably “Fort Argyll” hence the name still given to the farm steading in the vicinity.3 The guns mounted on the batteries were 18 pounders, heavy metal for those days and superior to anything Paul Jones had, as the biggest guns on his ships were 12 pounders. The old guns, or some of them at any rate, which saved Campbeltown, remained here for nearly 50 years, and were returned to Leith Fort in 1828. There is an old story which said that Paul Jones did appear in “The Loading” on a Sunday while the people of the town were at church. The ladies in those days wore red cloaks when at church and on other special occasions, and it is said that they took off these cloaks and made them over to their men folks, who put them on and marched in procession down the Kilkerran Road. Paul Jones is supposed to have seen through his telescope the long line of red coated men and is said to have taken them for soldiers and cleared out; but if the story of his appearance in “The Loading” be true, I am inclined to think that it was the old eighteen pounder guns at the Quarry and at Markland and not the red cloaks of the ladies, which made him decide to give Campbeltown a wide berth.

Campbell Tombs

On the high ground near the south-west corner of the Graveyard, is a group of Campbell tombs, prominent among them being the burial place of the Campbells of Kildalloig, the present day representatives of the old Campbells of Auchenbreck ‘(No.17 on the plan). I have already told you that at one time the Auchenbrecks were second in importance only to the Argylls among the families of the Clan Campbell. Their great estates covered a large part of Cowal, South Argyll and Knapdale, and their principal residences were at Loch Gair, on Lochfyne, and at Carnassary Castle near Kilmartin. One chief of the family, Sir Duncan Campbell, led the Campbells at Inverlochy, and fell on that fatal field and another, Sir Duncan, his grandson, I think, was engaged in Argyll’s Rebellion, as I have already told you. The downfall of the family dates from his time. He became security for a friend to the extent of £30,000, which sum had to be paid from his estate after his death and his wife, Lady Henrietta Lindsay, a step-daughter of the 9th Earl of Argyll, was extravagant so the great family estates had to be sold. In 1815, owing to the failure of direct heirs, the baronetcy became “dormant” and it remained so till 1841, when it was successfully claimed by Sir John Eyton Campbell of Kildalloig.

Just beside the Kildalloig tomb is the burial place of another old Campbell family, the Campbells of Kinloch (No.18 on the plan) who were Chamberlains to the Argylls in Kintyre for generations and some of whom lived at Limecraigs. The first of the family to be buried in Kilkerran was John Campbell, described on his tombstone as “Chamberlain to the Earl of Argyll in Kintyre”, who died in 1669. The inscription on his tombstone is as clear and distinct as on the day when it was first carved, and his tombstone is the oldest stone with a fully legible inscription in Kilkerran. The last male of the family to be buried in Kilkerran was Captain Frederic Campbell who served with distinction during the Peninsular War with that grand old regiment, long ago disbanded, the 94th, The Scots Brigade. After he retired from the Service, he lived in Dalintober House and died there in 1829. With the Campbells of Kinloch is buried another old man who lived and died in Dalintober House, Dan. Mactaggart, the first of three Mactaggarts who, in direct succession, have held of office of Procurator Fiscal for Kintyre for over 110 years. I want to put that fact against the old Mactaggart smuggler’s record.

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