La Garde Ecossaise Historical Fiction and Early Modern Studies Newsletter

No. 8 Conscientious Ministers and Sinful Parishioners: Restoration Parishes in Fife c.1660-1679.

Welcome

A warm welcome to the La Garde Ecossaise Historical Fiction newsletter – this is your fortnightly update on the novel series and early modern studies.

New Releases from La Garde Ecossaise

Podcast Season 1 Ep 1 ‘Dear Readers’. [To the Reader].

Podcast Season 1 Ep 2 ‘Religion in Early Modern Scotland’. [1 Edinburgh and Leith 1672].

These are the first episodes of the history podcast where we explore the real history behind the novel series. The titles in the brackets correspond to the book chapters.

The podcasts can be found on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.

Quote

‘As per the religious tensions of the time his ship was regularly searched both in Britain and France for whom he called ‘godly travellers’, Covenanters in Scotland and Puritans in England, who wished to escape…would try and stowaway on ship bound for the continent. Not only were these sorts of more fervent Protestants willing to flee Britain but there was also a very particular type of Protestant to be found in France known as Huguenots who were especially eager to cross the Channel to Britain’. La Garde Ecossaise Book 1 10-11.

View of the Alkmaar with Boats, 17th century. Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Early Modern Digest

Rare Tudor paintings in Cumbria https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd6jv5jdp6zo

17th century music ‘arca musarithmica’ computer https://hackaday.com/2025/04/12/a-17th-century-music-computer/

Do You Know?

Christian IV of Denmark sent an expedition to Greenland to rediscover the island and to find routes to America. See Vivan Etting, ‘The Rediscovery of Greenland during the Reign of Christian IV’, Journal of North Atlantic Studies (2010) pp. 151-160 https://www.jstor.org/stable/26686946

Premier état. Nouvelle planche gravée à partir de celle publiée par Theunis Jacobsz Lootsman en 1644. Publié dans : De Lichtende columne ofte Zee-Spiegel. 1650. Bibliotheque de la Sorbonne in cooperation with Wikimedia France.

Feature Article: Conscientious Ministers and Sinful Parishioners: Restoration Parishes in Fife c.1660-1679.

In our historical fiction novel, our main narrator Robert Meldrum introduces himself and gives us some information about his background:

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I was a lowly Episcopal minister working amongst the good parishioners of Corstorphine. I enjoyed performing the sacraments especially those that marked the stages of life from birth to death; baptism, marriage and funeral rites. My parish church stood at the centre of village life and I was happy there, distributing funds to the needy and admonishing people for their sins and offering daily instruction to individuals and families regardless of status throughout the parish’1

Robert Meldrum (AI Gencraft)

As you know from listening to the audio guide for chapter 1 ‘Edinburgh and Leith’, that despite his vocation and love for his work, Meldrum was struggling to minister a growing parish. Our narrator makes it clear that some of the problems were due to specific issues only experienced by that particular parish, but also other issues that were common across parishes in early modern Scotland.2

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There were those crammed at the back of the church who took no interest in the service at all, who chatted away sharing village gossip, telling jokes and drinking alcohol and there was Mr D who ran a betting stall3

The Betting Stall (AI Gencraft).

Meldrum also refers to the religious divisions in Scotland between Presbyterians and Episcopalians that loomed large over parish life in Scotland in 1672:

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whilst Scotland was being threatened by religious tensions which had been visible for sometime because the Covenanters, who still professed loyalty to the national covenants showed their disgust and contempt for a Scottish church for which they felt had lost its way.4

For Meldrum, a conscientious minister, he feels that he is failing in his duties despite his hard work. Furthermore, he feels that there is trouble brewing due to the religious tensions within the church. How much of this is reflective of the reality at the time? What was it really like to be a minister and live in a rural parish in Scotland during the reign of Charles II (1660-1685)?

Sources of Parish Life in Restoration Scotland

We are very fortunate in Scotland that a large volume of church records, memoirs, letters and chronicles have survived from the seventeenth century, and they offer a window into parish life in Scotland. For the Synod of Fife during this period we have a number of transcribed and accessible sources that overlap and concur with each other but also offer different perspectives on parish life in rural Fife in the mid to late seventeenth century.

These sources are:

The Chronicle of Fife or Diary of John Lamont of Newton 1649-1671

John Lamont of Newton, a factor to the Lundie family, kept a chronicle of all major events in Fife in the late seventeenth century. It contains references to national and international events and events involving the lives of the Fife aristocracy. Lamont was not at the centre of political power or religious movements. Therefore, John Lamont of Newton is viewing events on the sidelines as an ordinary lay person. The timeframe the diary encompasses major shifts in Scotland’s religious and political landscape. The diary transcends the political and religious changes of the era, reminding us that time is continuous and that humans evolve in relation to their changing circumstances. Most importantly, religious parish life is placed in the widest possible context showing the place of religion in the lives of ordinary people in Fife.5

Church Records

These are records pertaining to the church in Scotland, mainly consisting of Synod, Presbytery and Kirk Session records. These records reflect the hierarchical church courts that serve different functions and different geographical areas.

Synods stood at the top of the church hierarchy in local areas and covered the largest territory in terms of size compared to Presbyteries and Kirk Sessions. Synods dealt with situations that cut across all presbyteries and kirk sessions but also the most serious breaches of church procedures. For this feature article, we will be using the records from the Synod of Fife.6

Presbyteries were situated below synods in the Scottish church court hierarchy. These covered a particular town or a small number of local parishes. Presbyteries ordained and placed ministers in charges and transported them to other parishes, if required. For this feature article, we will be exploring the Presbytery of St Andrews.7

Kirk Sessions were the lowest court in the Scottish church hierarchy and their function was to discipline parishioners for their sins and transgressions. Depending upon the transgression, sometimes parishioners were also referred to the civil magistrate for punishment under civil law.8

Eckford Church in Scotland. Building dates from mid-seventeenth century. Walter Baxter / Eckford Parish Church. Wikimedia Commons.

Scotland’s People – Church Court Records

Many of the church court records are available online via Scotland’s People.

Conduct a virtual volumes search to find any historic church court record throughout Scotland. https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/help-and-support/guides/church-court-records 

Please note that some of these records may have been transcribed and printed in the nineteenth century, therefore I would strongly recommend that you conduct a search on archive.org before proceeding to the original as a transcribed version will be much easier to read! https://archive.org/

Religious Life Narratives

These are often retrospectively written biographies of someone’s religious life or experiences. They can also take the form of a diary written at the time and the individual writing the diary is reflecting upon events around them. These events were seen as part of God’s plan for them as individuals and the world. These kinds of diaries were common amongst Covenanters and Presbyterians. By their nature, these narratives are very introspective and intensely religious in outlook.9  

For this feature article, we will be examining the Life of Robert Blair, a staunch Presbyterian minister in Fife. This source, particularly in the 1660s, is written as a retrospective tribute to Robert Blair written by a fellow Covenanter after Blair’s death.10

Conscientious Ministers of Fife c.1660-1679

Being a minister in Restoration Scotland was hard work. They had several regular responsibilities towards the church, their parishioners and the government.

When Charles II returned to the throne in 1660, a day of thanksgiving was held in every parish in Scotland. The church did so on the orders of the Scottish Privy Council. Parishes throughout Fife followed orders from the Presbytery. The Presbytery stated that Charles II was ‘our rightfull sovereign’ and they would participate in the day of thanksgiving with duty and affection. A day of thanksgiving involved the delivering of a sermon on a theme relating to the day itself chosen by the minister. The sermon on this occasion was preached by Mr J. Makgill on 1 Rev, Chapter 10 v 9 ‘So I went to the angel and asked me to give him the little scroll. He said to me “Take it and eat it” it will turn your stomach sour but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey’ and Psalm 21 verses 1-8 was also sung. This was followed by prayers with blessings for the king. As Newton notes, in the parish of Largo in Fife, not everyone participated in the service with enthusiasm.11

Fast days, or days of humiliation, were performed by parishes at times of national crisis or to assist in the encouragement of God’s favour in times of war. In June 1665 a fast day was declared for repentance and for the success of the Royal Navy against the Dutch and another nationwide fast day was appointed in September 1665 to ease God’s wrath towards City of London. In the previous months, London had been struck by the plague which had resulted in thousands of deaths. Ministers were also required to collect money from parishes should there be a synod-wide or nationwide collection for charity. In Fife for example, there were charitable collections to help 20 families after a fire broke out in the town of Cupar and to help other families devastated by a fire in Kilmarnock.12

However, these were not regular occurrences. The regular activity of a Scottish minister typically involved organising communion, preaching sermons and conducting marriages and funerals. Death was a regular feature of parish life, but the circumstances could vary and often in tragic circumstances. For example, Susan Corstorphine died in Kenly Water whilst on her way to a marriage feast. Being on the east coast of Scotland, ministers in Fife also had to conduct funerals for fishermen who had lost their lives at sea.13

Emanuel de Witte, Old Church in Delft, 17th century, Hermitage Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Communion changed its character as the church moved away from Presbyterianism and towards Episcopacy. Presbyterian communion involved the setting out of tables for the congregation to partake in communion but if you were not committed to God as revealed through examination by the minister, or had not repented your sins, you were not allowed to take part. In 1661, Lamont notes, that 70 people were excluded from communion and others were absent. Whereas after the return of episcopacy, everyone in the parish regardless of their current or past behaviour was allowed to partake in communion and instead of examination, songs were sung, and bread and wine were used.14

Becoming a minister was not an easy task, you had to go through a trial period and not everyone was successful. If you were successful, before the reintroduction of episcopacy in 1663, minsters were ordained by the ‘imposition of hands’ and were admitted to the ministry by the Presbytery. Whereas after the restoration of episcopacy consecration feasts were held for bishops and no imposition of hands was required but approval from a bishop was essential for every appointment in the ministry. In the case of St Andrews, all appointments had to be approved by Archbishop James Sharp. It was also the presbytery’s responsibility to ensure a smooth transition should a minister be ‘transported’ to another parish.15

Sinful Parishioners: Elopement, Fornication and Murder

Like our fictional character Robert Meldrum, despite ministers’ best efforts, the behaviour of some parishioners was scandalous and broke both church and civil laws. Despite the pleasant nature of rural Fife there were cases of elopement, fornication and murder. Furthermore, due to the religious tensions at the time it was home to one of the most notorious murders in Restoration Britain.

Servants stole horses from their masters and young men and women eloped to marry each other at Gretna Green. Indeed, as was the case between a servant girl and a young aristocratic man, who brought shame on his family by doing so. His brother actively went looking for them and upon finding them in bed together, his brother physically punished him. We know from the synod and presbytery records that such elopements were quite common and because they contravened church procedure they were frowned upon. Even worse was ‘Mikkey’ Fife’s most notorious fornicator, who, after being punished by the Kirk stated openly that he was emigrating to Ireland, probably to get away from the church authorities. Whereas female fornicators could be sent to Barbados for their crimes.16

Murders were not unknown in rural Fife and stories about these murders travelled for miles as Lamont’s diary demonstrates. In December 1660, a young kitchen boy was shot dead in an aristocratic house in Balgownie over a dispute over non-existent broth and another man lost his life over a dispute about the cutting of a horse’s tail. In November 1661 two women went on trial for the burning of Mr Lawrence Oliphant, Minister, his manse and both women were accused of witchcraft. Despite pleading innocence they were hung at Cupar. In June 1662 a master meal miller who was a serial adulterer was murdered by his own son in Kirkcaldy.17

Yet the most notorious murder in Restoration Fife was that of Archbishop James Sharp. To fully understand it we need to explore the religious tensions in Fife.

The Murder of Archbishop James Sharp

The official account recalls the murder as follows:

After his GRACE had gone from the Secret Council, where (to aggravate their Crime) he had been Pleading most fervently fo favours to them, having lodged at a village called Kennoway in Fyffe upon Friday-night, the second of May, He took his journey next Morning at Ten a Clock towards St Andrews and his coach-man having discovered some Horse-men near to Magnus, ( a place Two Miles distant from St Andrews) advertised the Archbishop thereof; asking if he should drive faster which his GRACE discharged, because he feared no harm: They drawing nearer, his Daughter seeing pistols in their Hands, and them Riding at a great rate, she persuaded her Father to look out, and he thereupon desired the coach-man to drive on; who had certainly out-driven them, if one Balfour of Kinloch being mounted on a very Fleet Horse, had not cunningly passed the Coach (into which they had in vain discharged very many shot) and after he found that he could not wound the Coach-man because his Coach-Whip did fright the sprightly Horse, wounded the Postillion, and disabled the foremost Coach-Horses: Whereupon the rest coming up, one of them with a Blunderbus wounded the Lord Primate [Archbishop Sharp] in his Coach, and others of them called to him to Come forth Vile DOG, who had betrayed CHRIST and his CHURCH and to receive what he deserved for his Wickedness against the KIRK of SCOTLAND; and reproached him with Mr. James Mitchells Death. Whilst he was in the Coach, one run him through with a sword under his shoulder, the rest pulled him violently out of the coach. His daughter came out, and on her knees begun to beg Mercy to her Father: But they beat her, and trampled her down. The Lord Primate with a very great calmness, said, Gentlemen, I know not that ever I injured any of You; and if I did, I promise I will make what Reparation you can propose. Villain and Judas, said they, and Enemy to GOD and His People, you shall have the Reward of your Enmity to GOD’S People: which words were followed with many Mortal Wounds, the first one being deep one above his Eye…Notwithstanding of all which, and of a shot, that pierced his Body above his Right Pap, and of other stroaks which cut his Hands , whilst he was holding them up to Heaven in Prayer, he raised himself upon his knees, and uttered only these Words, GOD FORGIVE YOU ALL. After which, by many stoaks that cut his skull to pieces, he fell down dead.18

The murder of Archbishop Sharp: he is lying on the ground before his coach, his daughter is restrained from attending him as one of the surrounding men draws his sword. Line engraving by H. Bourne after W. Allan. Wellcome Collection. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Why was Archbishop Sharp murdered in such a gruesome way?

Before the King’s Restoration in 1660, the majority of Scotland’s laity and clergy still adhered to the pledge to preserve the reformed faith in Scotland as outlined in Scotland’s National Covenant of 1638. Although the National Covenant did not attack the bishops directly, it advocated a church based on Presbyterianism. Under this form of church government all ministers were equal and met collectively to govern the church at national and local levels. However, with the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, power was given to bishops to govern ministers and the church courts. This created resentment and anger amongst the ministry and laity who saw the National Covenant as a scared and inviolable oath between God and the people of Scotland. Furthermore, before his elevation to Archbishop, James Sharp had been a high-profile Presbyterian minister in the 1650s and was well regarded by many of his Presbyterian colleagues. Unfortunately, after accepting high office from Charles II in the 1660s, many of James Sharp’s colleagues turned against him. They felt Sharp had abandoned his oath to the Covenant and was corrupting the purity of the reformed kirk by assisting Charles II in the reintroduction of the bishops and episcopal church government in Scotland.19

The language used by William Row in his continuation of the life of Robert Blair gives a flavour of the local resentment and anger towards Sharp by his fellow ministers in Fife:

In September 1661, Mr. Sharp coming to St. Andrews, and the presbytery having had assurance of his deceitful carriage at court, and of the probability of his being made archbishop of St. Andrews.20

He was also accused of ‘giving wicked councel to set up bishops in Scotland’ as well as ‘malice and revenge to which his pride prompted him’ and was involved in ‘wicked and devilish’ designs.21
 

As the above account of his murder suggests, this was not the first time that James Sharp had been targeted for assassination, there had been a failed attempt to kill Sharp in Edinburgh in June 1668. As a security precaution had to ‘change his purpose’ and had to be careful about the routes he took. Clearly, these procedures were not enough to save his life.22

Memorial to Archbishop James Sharp on Magnus Muir Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

I hope you have enjoyed the latest edition of the newsletter. If you are reading this newsletter on the web and have any questions please leave a comment below or you can email me at [email protected]

1  Kirsteen M MacKenzie, La Garde Ecossaise : The Life of John Hamilton c.1620-1689, The Life of John Hamilton Part 1 (Aberdeen, 2022) 7-8.

2  MacKenzie, La Garde Ecossaise 7-10.

3  MacKenzie, La Garde Ecossaise 9.

4  MacKenzie, La Garde Ecossaise 7.

5  George R. Kinloch ed., The Chronicle of Fife [Diary of John Lamont of Newton] (Maitland Club; Glasgow, 1810) v-vii. Access the full text here: https://archive.org/details/diarymrjohnlamo00lamogoog/page/n8/mode/2up?q=killed

6  G.R. Kinloch and Andrew Dickson White eds., Ecclesiastical Records. Selections from the Minutes of the Synod of Fife M.DC.XI-M.DC. LXXXVI (Abbotsford Club; Edinburgh, 1837). You can access this edition here: https://archive.org/details/cu31924029475930/page/n11/mode/2up

7  G.R. Kinloch, Ecclesiastical Records. Selections of the Minutes from the Presbytery of St Andrews and Cupar M.DC.XLI-M.DC.XCVIII (Abbotsford Club; Edinburgh, 1837). You can read the records here: https://archive.org/details/cu31924029488586/page/n7/mode/2up

8  T.C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830 (London, 1998) 67-93. Chapter III ‘The Social Impact of the Reformed Church.’ Still the best introduction to the church courts within the Scottish kirk.

9  David George Mullan, Narratives of the Religious Self in Early-Modern Scotland (Farnham, 2010). This is the best book on the subject. 377-384 is a comprehensive list of religious diaries and memoirs in early modern Scotland.

10  Robert Blair and William Row, Memoirs of the Life of Mr. Robert Blair Minister of the Gospel Sometime at Bangor in Ireland, and afterword at St Andrews in Scotland In TWO PARTS. The first part wrote by himself, and second by Mr William Row sometime Minister of the Gospel in Ceres (Edinburgh, 1754). You can access the source directly here: https://archive.org/details/memoirsoflifeofm00blai/page/n3/mode/2up

11  Kinloch, Diary of John Lamont 124; Kinloch, Presbytery of St Andrews 78; Online Bible Revelation 10 | NIV Bible | YouVersion

12  Kinloch, Diary of John Lamont 179, 183; Kinloch, Presbytery of St Andrews 87; Kinloch and Dickson, Synod of Fife 185-186; Stephen Porter, The Great Plague (Stroud, 1999) 74-78. Porter estimates that 75,000 people died from the plague in London in 1664-1665.

13  Kinloch, Diary of John Lamont 128-129, 161, 172, 213.

14  Kinloch, Diary of John Lamont 141, 182, 200-201.

15  Kinloch, Diary of John Lamont 127, 141,162, 167, 168; Kinloch, Minutes of the Presbytery of St Andrews 78, 82.

16  Kinloch, Diary of John Lamont 151, 164; Kinloch, Presbytery of St Andrews 58; Kinloch and Dickson, Synod of Fife 184, 187.

17  Kinloch, Diary of John Lamont 128, 142, 150.

18  A True Account of The Horrid Murther Committed upon His Grace, The Late LORD ARCHBISHOP OF Saint Andrews (London, 1679) 4-5.

19  David Stevenson, The Scottish Revolution 1637-44 (Edinburgh, 2003) 85; Kirsteen M MacKenzie, The Solemn League and Covenant of the Three Kingdoms and the Cromwellian Union 1643-1663 (Abingdon, 2017) 162-164; Julia Buckroyd, Church and State in Scotland 1660-1681 (Edinburgh, 1980).

20  Blair and Row, Memoirs of the Life of Robert Blair 391.

21  Blair and Row, Memoirs of the Life of Robert Blair 394-395.

22  Kinloch, Diary of John Lamont of Newton 207.

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