John Farquharson (Jesuit)

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John Farquharson (Scottish Gaelic: Maighstir Iain,[1] an-tAthair Iain Mac Fhearchair) (1699–1782), was a Scottish Jesuit priest and folk hero in the Scottish folklore of Lochaber and Strathglass.[1]

Early life[edit]

Farquharson was born in the valley of Braemar, Aberdeenshire, to the Clan Farquharson Tacksman of Inverey on 19 April 1699. His brother, Lewis Farquharson of Auchindryne, later inherited their ancestral mantle as Chief of Clan Farquharson. Through his brother, Fr John was the uncle of future Chief Alexander Farquharson.[2]

John Farquharson entered the Society of Jesus at Tournai. He completed his theology at the Scotch College, Douay, in 1729, and in October that year landed at Edinburgh to serve as an underground Catholic missionary priest. He was stationed at Strathglass and Lochaber where he acquired a fluent knowledge of the local dialects of the Scottish Gaelic language. On 2 Feb. 1735–6 he made profession of the four vows.[3][4]

The Cave in Glen Cannich[edit]

When Fr John Farquharson was arrested by a posse of redcoats while offering the Tridentine Mass at the covert Mass house at Balanahaun, only the priest's threat to excommunicate anyone of the male parishioners who used violence to defend him saved the lives of the Redcoats. Several of the female attendees followed their priest anyway and, when they reached the burn known as Allt a bhodaich, Màiri ni'n Ailein, the aunt of future Canadian Bishop Alexander MacDonnell, was struck with a sabre while trying to remove Fr. John's chasuble. Màiri survived, but her scalp was left scarred for life. Fr. John was first interrogated at Fort Augustus but then released and returned to his ministry in Glen Cannich.[5]

Glen Cannich. River between Loch Mullardoch (far right) and Loch Carrie

He was ultimately joined there by two fellow Jesuits; his brother Fr. Charles Farquarson and future Catholic martyr Fr. Alexander Cameron.[6] According to Colin Chisholm and Dom Odo Blundell of Fort Augustus Abbey, the three priests' residence and secret Mass house was inside a cave known as (Scottish Gaelic: Glaic na h'eirbhe), which was located underneath the cliff of a big boulder at Brae of Craskie, near Beauly (Scottish Gaelic: A' Mhanachainn) in Glen Cannich (Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Chanaich).[7][8]

According to Monsignor Thomas Wynne, "It was in the nature of a summer sheiling, a command center for monitoring the traditional activities of cattle reivers; as such it combined a civilising role with the building up of a Catholic mission outside Cameron territory in a way which must have reassured Lochiel on both counts."[9]

This secret dwelling remained the centre of the Catholic mission in Lochaber at the time, where Fr. Cameron and the two brothers secretly ministered to the local Catholics and secretly visited the covert "Mass houses" at Fasnakyle, Crochail, Strathfarrar (Scottish Gaelic: Srath Farair).[1]

Whenever it was not possible for the three priests to safely leave Glen Cannich, their parishioners would come to the cave at Brae of Craskie for Mass, the sacraments, and, especially, for the illegal Catholic baptisms of their children. A natural cup stone known as (Scottish Gaelic: Clach a Bhaistidh) was used by the three priests as a baptismal font.[10]

Shortly before the Jacobite rising of 1745, Fr. John informed his two colleagues that a posse sent by the Chief of Clan Chisholm was on the way to arrest them. Fr John suggested, "Let us go to meet them then, and save them the trouble of coming all this way for us." Frs. Alexander and Charles declined this suggestion and, seeking to buy time for his fellow priests to escape, Fr John walked towards the posse, met them, and surrendered to them at a field known as (Scottish Gaelic: Achadh beulath an tuim).[11]

Prisoner of conscience[edit]

Fr. John Farquharson was conveyed to Edinburgh in his sacerdotal vestments, where it was ultimately decided by the Whig single party state for the Jesuit to be transported to "a penal settlement" in the Electorate of Hannover.[12]

According to Colin Chisholm, "The Captain of the vessel that took him to that penal settlement was a man of discernment, who rightly judged that he might benefit by the company of the prisoner. So he provided him with a separate berth and had him at all meals in the cabin with himself." For a long period after the Battle of Culloden, however, the ship served, like many others for both real and imagined Jacobite prisoners, as a prison hulk anchored off Gravesend in the River Thames.[13]

After Royal Navy Captain John Fergussone grudgingly allowed Fr. John Farquarson to board HMS Furnace to minister to a dying prisoner, the priest found himself face to face with an emaciated Fr. Alexander Cameron. After Fr. John arranged for his friend's transfer to his own prison hulk, Fr Cameron offered the Tridentine Mass while Fr. John Farquharson served him at the altar. Soon after, Fr. Alexander Cameron died, after first receiving Holy Communion and the Last Rites, and with Fr. Farquarson by his side[14][15] on 19 October 1746. Fr. Cameron's remains were taken ashore and buried in the nearest graveyard to the ship; the Church of England cemetery attached to St George's Church, Gravesend,[16] which also holds the grave of Pocahontas.

According to Colin Chisholm, "After a favorable passage, the Captain landed Mr. Farquarson in Hanover, and in doing so whispered in his ear that his engagement was now at an end; that he would be leaving Hanover at such a time, and that he would be happy of his company on the homeward voyage. The hint was enough. As soon as the vessel got clear of the Hanoverian coast, the priest suddenly appeared at the Captain's table, and he was brought safely back to his native country without having incurred any real danger or expense. He soon made his way to Strathglass, where he remained until he was selected as prefect of studies for the Catholic College at Douai."[17]

Later life and death[edit]

Upon the suppression of the Jesuits, Fr. Farquharson returned to Scotland in 1772 and lived principally in the valley of Braemar, while serving as chaplain and spiritual director to his nephew, the Laird of Inverey and Balmoral, the latter of which was where he died on 13 October 1782.[18]

Fr. Farquarson lies buried in the churchyard at Castletown, in what is now the village of Braemar. His brother, Fr. Charles Farquharson, similarly continued to serve as an underground Catholic missionary until his own death at Ardearg on 30 November 1799.[19]

Legacy[edit]

During his secret missionary work in Lochaber and Strathglass, Fr. John Farquharson also indulged in a hobby of being an amateur folklorist and Celticist. As a man with the almost unheard of ability to read and write in the Scottish Gaelic vernacular, Fr. John transcribed an immense manuscript collection of local Scottish Gaelic literature and oral poetry. The original folio manuscript in his own handwriting was donated in 1772 to the Scots College at Douai. Instead of being carefully preserved, however, the manuscript was used to light fires at the College by those unfamiliar with its great importance.[1] The manuscript reportedly included many tales from the Fenian Cycle of Scottish mythology; all of the poems of Ossian were reportedly in this collection, and other compositions not known to James Macpherson, or, at least, not published by him.[20]

Furthermore, the natural cup stone known as (Scottish Gaelic: Clach a Bhaistidh) and used by the three Jesuits to perform secret baptisms in the cave at Glen Cannich is now preserved now preserved as a relic by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aberdeen at St Mary and St. Bean's Roman Catholic Church at Marydale, Beauly, Glen Cannich,[1] [21] which was built following Catholic Emancipation in 1829, completed in 1866, and solemnly consecrated in 1868.[22]

Folklore[edit]

In local Scottish folklore, Fr. Farquarson is said to have had a face to face confrontation with the Devil upon Cannich Bridge and to have forced his opponent to dive into the River Cannich with a hissing sound.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Christianity in Strathglass, From the Website for St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Beauly.
  2. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 141-142.
  3. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Farquharson, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  4. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 141-142.
  5. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 142-143.
  6. ^ MacWilliam, A. S. (1973). A Highland mission: Strathglass, 1671-1777. Innes Review xxiv. pp. 75–102.
  7. ^ Odo Blundell (1909), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, London, page 203.
  8. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 141-146.
  9. ^ Wynne, Thomas (30 August 2010). The Conversion of Alexander Cameron. The Innes Review. 45 (2): 178–187.
  10. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 143-144.
  11. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, p. 144.
  12. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 144-145.
  13. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 144-145.
  14. ^ According to B. G. Seton and J. G. Arnot, Jacobite Prisoners of the '45 Vol. I (Edinburgh,1928), 224, Alexander Cameron 'died at sea' (aboard the 'Furnace' before reaching the Thames estuary)
  15. ^ Blundell, Catholic Highlands, 188.
  16. ^ Thomas Wynne (2011), The Forgotten Cameron of the '45: The Life and Times of Alexander Cameron, S.J., Print Smith, Fort William, Scotland. Page 89.
  17. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, p. 145.
  18. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Farquharson, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  19. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 145-146.
  20. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Farquharson, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  21. ^ "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, p. 144.
  22. ^ History of the Marydale Church, From the Website "Christianity in Strathglass."

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Farquharson, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Further reading[edit]

Periodicals[edit]

  • "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 141-146.
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