Local History

Following the Jacobite uprising of 1745, the Duke of Cumberland on his march north to the battle of Culloden in April 1746 stopped briefly at Stonehaven. On his orders the Episcopal Chapels at Muchalls and Drumlithie were entirely razed to the ground, on the grounds that all Episcopalians were suspected of being loyal to Prince Charles Edward Stuart. The chapel at Stonehaven was only rescued from a similar fate by the pleading of Sherriff John Young. However, all of the furnishings were taken out into the High Street of Stonehaven and burned and the chapel was unceremoniously converted into stables for the King's cavalry.

After Culloden, laws were swiftly enacted enacted to ensure the loyalty of all to the Hanoverian monarch, George II. Strict limits were placed on the number of those who might be present at Episcopalian Services and all clergy were required to take oaths of allegiance to King George and to pray aloud in divine worship for the King and royal family by name. The penalty for conviction on a first offence was six months' imprisonment and for a second transportation to the colonies.

So it was that in the early months of 1748 Alexander Greig, "Episcopal Preacher in Stonehyve" was brought to Court in Stonehaven before Sheriff Young, indicted with performing Divine service with more than five persons present and "without praying for the King's most Excellent Majesty, his Heirs and successors by name, and for all the Royal Family". This legal process went on for several weeks with Mr Greig being found guilty.

On 5 December that year Alexander Greig was again tried before Sheriff Young, but this time the Rev. John Petrie of Drumlithie and the Rev. John Troup of Muchalls were also arraigned. Against all three clerics charges of conducting worship to more than the permitted number (40 persons were recorded at Stonehaven) and of failing to pray for the sovereign were found proven and the three were sentenced to be incarceration in the Tollbooth on the north quay of Stonehaven harbour. Their six-month imprisonment was over the winter period of 1748/49.

As far as they were able, they continued to minister to their congregations and during their confinement they received every attention from their followers who, when the gaoler's back was turned, joined them in divine service. It is said that Mr Greig baptised two persons through the barred window and Mr Petrie none. But John Troup is said to have baptised a considerable number, mostly infants of fisherman's wives from Skateraw (now part of Newtonhill). They were often to be seen trudging along the beach and clambering over the rocks with creels on their backs concealing their sleeping bairns and waiting for an opportune moment to approach the Tollbooth window undetected by an official of the court.

After their release, all three clergymen returned to their homes and continued to minister to their flocks without further intervention. Alexander Greig continued at Stonehaven for many years, but in 1751 there was appointed to an Episcopal meeting-house in Stonehaven a certain Rev. John Watt, who, having been made deacon by the Bishop of Gloucester and priested by the bishop of Durham, was more acceptable to the authorities since he had taken the oaths of allegiance to King George.

A little over a century later a young painter named George Washington Brownlow, a native of Newcastle, came to reside in Muchalls for three years. He captured this scene in his painting "A baptism from a Stonehaven jail", the original of which belongs to the Bishop of Brechin. Mr Troup is at the jail window baptising a child brought by their parents from Skateraw or one of the other villages. Brownlow used local people as his models in the painting. Masson, Christie and Lees all can be identified. Today the descendants of these models take great pride that their ancestors are in the painting.

** Adapted from an article published in Grapevine (the Magazine of the Diocese of Brechin), Spring 2003