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KIRK
COVENANT :
1638
The
Story of Kirkmaiden Parish Church
EARLY
DAYS
In his
map published from a survey made about 1610, the early mapmaker
Pont shows the Parish Church - 'Kirk Madin' - on its traditional
site on Mull Farm, near to the site marked 'Maiden's Cave'.
(The variation in spelling is his). The outlines of this little
kirk are just discernible as grass covered mounds near to
what was known in living memory as the Kirk Burn. Before the
Reformation, this Church was served by the monks of Soulseat
Abbey, in the Parish of Inch.
After
the Reformation, by an Act of Parliament of 1587, the Church
of Kirkmaiden was vested in the King, James V1. The patronage
was included with the grant of lands of Drummore by James
to Ninian Adair of Kinhilt in 1602, and was eventually passed
with these lands into the possession of the Earl of Stair.
The story
of this old Church begins in 1638. In that year the Presbytery
of Stranraer received a petition from the Kirk Session of
Kirkmaiden that a new church be built for the Parish on a
site more convenient to the needs of the people. The Kirk
Session's petition was granted, but a dispute involving the
Heritors - the landowners of the Parish - delayed the completion
of the building for some years. However, the year 1638 being
the year when the National Covenant was signed in churches
throughout Scotland, later generations, albeit unofficially,
began to call this sanctuary 'Kirk Covenant'.
THE
DISRUPTION
 Its
small proportions might indicate that in 1638 the population
also was small. Two hundred years later the population had
greatly increased. When the Disruption of 1843 split the Church
of Scotland, it was very much on the issue of Patronage, and
the intrusion of Ministers to a Parish against the wishes
of the congregation. But for some members of Kirkmaiden, and
notably for William Todd - schoolmaster, session clerk and
historian - a powerful contributory factor was total inadequacy
of the Parish Church to give a seat to even half of those
who were by law supposed to attend public worship in it. So,
not surprisingly, he and a number of his fellow Elders, with
some 200 members of the congregation, 'came out' to form the
Kirkmaiden Free Kirk. They brought their Minister, the Reverend
John Lamb, with them.
The Patron,
Lord Stair, in an attitude that was rare among the landowners
of the period, granted the Free Kirk Session their request
of a plot of ground in Drummore village, on which they built
their church, and then a schoolroom for the teaching of their
own children. Later they built a handsome Manse for their
Minister, which is now called 'Ardmore'. In 1903 the congregation,
recently become the United Free Church of Scotland, moved
across the road to their new place of worship, which is now
St. Medan's Church. The original Disruption Church became
the Church Hall, and continues so today with only minor alterations.
The original schoolroom was sold to the Benevolent Society,
known as the loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds, and today it
belongs to the local Masonic Lodge.
THE
DIVIDED PARISH
In place
of Mr. Lamb, the Patron settled in the Parish Church the Reverend
William Williamson, who continued as Minister until his death
in 1888. His son, the Reverend David R. Williamson, was appointed
Assistant and Successor in 1881, and at his father's death,
became Minister of the Charge. As the system of Patronage
had been abandoned in 1874, the Reverend D.R. Williamson became
the first Minister of Kirkmaiden Parish to be called by the
free election of the congregation. He retired in 1914, but
lived on in the Parish as Minister Emeritus until his death
in 1941, almost a century after his father came to Kirkmaiden.
In 1885
the gallery of the Old Kirk was altered, giving extra seating,
and the belfry was repaired. Opportunity was taken to bring
down the ancient bell, which was reported to be damaged, and
the Heritors supplied a new one in its place. As in most congregations
the idea of 'a kist o' whistles' was long resisted, but eventually
a harmonium was installed in 1898, and an organist replaced
the traditional precenter who had raised the tune for all
those centuries.
The old
bell is on display in the Church. It bears a Latin inscription
telling that is was made in 1534 for Nicholas Ramsay, Lord
(or Laird) of Dalhousie, by one John Morrison. Tradition is
that it was acquired by the Gordons of Kenmure, who gave it
to their kinsfold of Clanyard Castle, who presented it to
the new Parish Church. So for two and a half centuries it
called the faithful to worship.
In 1921
a new vestry was added at the West door of the Church, and
the first heating system with a coal-fired boiler was installed.
About this time the Heritors were finally relieved of the
centuries-old responsibility for maintaining the Church and
Manse, and for the first time ever, the 'fabric' passed onto
the care of the congregation, under the General Trustees of
the Church of Scotland.
ALL
TOGETHER AGAIN - AND MORE
The established
Kirk and the Free Kirk in Scotland were happily reunited in
1929. For a short time there were two congregations of the
Church of Scotland in this Parish. The one centred in Drummore
elected to be called St. Medan's, while the folk 'up the hill'
held to the name Kirkmaiden. Fortunately, on a vacancy occurring
in St. Medan's, successful talks between the congregations
resulted in a very cordial re-union under the Minister of
Kirkmaiden, Mr. John Honey. The Ancient name of the Parish
was retained. Services were held in St. Medan's except on
the last Sunday of the month, when the whole congregation
went 'up the hill'. During the Second World War when heating
was difficult, these monthly services were cancelled for the
winter months, and so they have become something of a pilgrimage
for the congregation and their friends in the summer months.
In 1938 the Reverend Alan Shearer led a fully reunited congregation
in a memorable celebration of the Tercentenary of Kirkmaiden
Parish Church.
In 1988,
Kirkmaiden entered a linkage with the neighbouring Parish
of Stoneykirk and the Minister is based in Sandhead Manse,
central to the two Parishes. In the same year, Kirkmaiden
congregation and friends took part in another unforgettable
Celebration of Thanksgiving for the 350 years old - and still
working - 'Kirk on the Hill'.
PATRICK
ADAIR'S PRAYER
According
to Todd, the Parish Historian, the small wooden plaque was
found in the ruins of the earlier Parish Church on Mull Farm.
It was deemed to be from the head of a special chair, the
property of one of the Adair family who held lands of Drummore,
and the Patronage of the Parish Church, from the end of the
16th Century. The carved inscription reads:
'Padr
(for Patrick Adair) O God mak me to heir in faith and
pracktels in love they holy wird and comademetis thou art
only my suppoit God mak me thankful, 1618'
THE
'TREACLE BIBLE'
The 'Treacle
Bible' was given to the Church by the family of Peter McCosh
who came into the Parish from Ayrshire. It has lost its covers
and the title page, but has been identified as the 1574 edition
of the 'Bishops Bible', widely used before the new translation
of the Authorised Version in 1611. The name comes from the
quaint reading in Jeremiah 8:2, where the word 'treacle' is
used where we now read 'balm' in Gilead. .
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