Robert Clark, Kinlochbervie

Robert Clark was a Sutherland man, educated at King’s College, Aberdeen, where he obtained his M.A. He was a schoolteacher in both Eddrachillis and Tongue. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Tongue and ordained to the Eriboll Mission in 1819. He was translated to the Gaelic Chapel Aberdeen in 1822 and to the Duke Street Gaelic in Glasgow the following year where he remained for eleven years. Whilst there he had, from July 1831, the undoubted honour of having the Rev John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan afterwards the famous missionary to the Jews and Professor of Oriental languages, as his English assistant. David Brown in his biography of John Duncan states: 

The minister of Duke Street Gaelic Chapel, of which Mr. Mackay was an elder, was in feeble health, nor were his pulpit ministrations quite suited to the strong appetite of his thoughtful Highlanders. Might he not be willing to take Mr. Duncan as his assistant, in the capacity of afternoon lecturer, if the congregation agreed to defray all expenses? The arrangement was cordially gone into by both parties, and Mr. Duncan having left Persie in the end of July, as I have stated, immediately entered on his duties in Glasgow.

Mr Clark was presented and ordained  to the Kinlochbervie charge in 1834, against the will of most of the congregation. He was only the second minister of the quoad sacra Parish of Kinlochbervie, the first minister, David Mackenzie being deposed for contumacy five years after being ordained. Mr Clark died in 1856. His ministry in Kinlochbervie was an unhappy one as can be gathered from the extracts below from Rev. Alex. Macrae’s history – Kinlochbervie, Being the story and traditions of a remote Highland parish and its people:

In 1834 a royal presentation was issued in favour of Rev. Robert Clark, a native of Tongue, who was then minister of the Gaelic Chapel in Glasgow. The people, however, had set their hearts on having Mr. Archibald Cook, of Berridale and Bruan. He had been there previously giving supply, when he preached both on Sabbath and week-days. A petition in his favour, signed by 137 heads of families, was sent to the Presbytery. Mr. Cook had promised to come if he received a presentation.
At this juncture the people did something that stands to the credit of their loyalty as clansmen, and to the nobility of their Christian spirit, though it reveals a pathetic lack of ordinary worldly wisdom. The Crown as patron presented Mr. Robert Clark. Such was the people’s trust and confidence in their superior that they actually petitioned the Duke of Sutherland, who had permitted them to be harried and fired out of their ancient homes, to recommend to the Crown a minister who would be an acceptable spiritual guide to them!
The people were opposed to Mr. Clark as he was not their choice. He was a man of good standing and of good qualities, but they would not have him. Mr. Angus M`Gillivray, of Strathy, was appointed to moderate in a call to Mr. Clark. There was a large congregation present, but only the factor and ten heads of families signed the Call. When persons came forward to sign, audible disparaging remarks were made about their public and private character, which had the effect of intimidating others. In any case only ten signed.
The three elders of the congregation, Angus Calder, Robert Gunn, and John Mackenzie, were appointed to petition the Presbytery against Mr. Clark and in favour of Mr. Cook. The terms of the petition are as follows:-

“The petition of the undersigned inhabitants of the district of Kinlochbervie humbly sheweth that the late most noble and excellent Duke of Sutherland, in answer to a petition from the people of Kinlochbervie, was pleased to signify to them his intention to recommend to them the fittest person for being their minister, who should be agreeable to his tenants of that district, being satisfied that the usefulness of a minister depends both on his own acquirements and his being generally agreeable to those over whom he may be called upon to preside. That favourable communication was generally understood as granting the petitioners their request, and accordingly a deputation from them attended upon and obtained from the Rev. Presbytery their authority to call ministers or preachers in connection with the church to preach at Kinlochbervie in the interval between their own supplies, that in virtue of this authority, flit, Rev. Archibald Cook, an ordained minister of long standing in the church, whose eminently pious character and singular diligence and faithfulness were previously well known to many of the people, was invited to preach at Kinlochbervie, and did so on the Sabbath and a week-day to the universal satisfaction of a very numerous congregation: that immediately thereafter another petition in which every individual in the district, except two or three, harmoniously joined was sent to the present Duke and Countess Duchess of Sutherland, earnestly praying to get Mr. Cook to be their minister, which the petitioners have no doubt would have been conceded to them if improper representations had not been made of the case by persons wholly unconnected with the district. The petitioners beg leave to say that they are fully sensible of their noble Landlord’s deep interest in their welfare, and, that the selection of a fit person had been the real and only object at heart with them: and therefore the responsibility of those persons, who have misrepresented Mr. Cook to them must be very great and awful: and now it rests with the Rev. Presbytery alone to decide whether the people of Kinlochbervie, after the well known lamentable circumstances in which they were recently placed in regard to a minister, shall be deprived again of their dearest and most valuable rights as a Christian people, by refusing to give them the minister of their unanimous choice, and by intruding another upon them, who, for what they consider weighty and important reasons to be stated in due time, is unacceptable to the whole parish, at least to a great majority of them.

Your petitioners, considering that the Rev. Presbytery have already signified their willingness to give the people their choice, providing the appointment fell into their own hands, beg leave most humbly and respectfully to express their confidence that they will give no countenance to a violent settlement of the presentee against the will of the congregation, but on the contrary shall stop proceeding in the settlement until they are fully satisfied as to the harmony of the parish. Your petitioners are aware that Mr. Cook, on whom the mind of the people is fixed, has been represented to the most noble landlords as deficient in ministerial qualifications, but the Rev. Presbytery, constituted in the name of Christ, and acting by His authority alone, will judge as it belongs to them to do so, whether he is really qualified by life and doctrine according to the rule of the Apostle 1st Tim. iii., and whether he is not by his principles and habits of life particularly suited to the people of Kinlochbervie, among whom there are none of a higher rank than schoolmasters and fishers. It has been observed that men of decided piety, and of universal diligence, and of close application to the duties of the ministry, though of ordinary talents, have often been more useful in the church than men of greater talents and learning, and unquestionably this is the sole ground on which the religious public in general, and the people of Kinlochbervie do particularly cleave to Mr. Cook, 1st Cor. i., 26-29. And Mr. Loch has admitted in his letter that a doubt is not even intimated against the piety of Mr. Cook’s character and conduct. Consequently the petitioners cannot help viewing the intrusion of a minister of a different stamp upon them, and one who by accepting the presentation to Kinlochbervie in face of repeated intimations given him of the feelings of the people and from other circumstances stands on a footing with them very different from what he did formerly, as a direct violation of the rights of the Christian people, and the promise made to them to be allowed to choose their own minister, as well as contrary to the word of God and the standards of our church. May it therefore please the Rev. Presbytery of Tongue only to consider the promises, and not to sustain the presentation in favour of Mr. Clark until they have made inquiry into the harmony of the parish, and to act therein in all respects as they will judge to be most to the glory of God and the edification of the people, thus uniting them together in a regular attendance on divine ordinances, according to the Word of God and the rules of the church, and your petitioners shall ever pray.”

The petition was signed by the three elders and 137 persons, heads of families, in the parish. It is difficult to understand how the ministers who constituted the Presbytery at that time could have intruded a crown presentee upon a people like those of Kinlochbervie. They did so, however, with the result that the three elders resigned office, and the body of the people never owned Mr. Clark’s ministry and never attended his church.1

After the intrusion of Mr. Clark, the people continued to meet under the leadership of the elders who had resigned, together with Donald Lamont, Badcall Inchard, and Angus MacKay, Oldshoremore. The latter was a man of high religious standing among the people and was doing the work of a catechist, though he never received an appointment or remuneration as such. The Presbytery was petitioned to appoint him as catechist, but for want of funds this was not done. These men were not only ministering with devotion to the spiritual needs of the people, but were at the same time keeping them in touch with the revived spiritual life, that was spreading over the land, and that issued finally in the Church of Scotland Free.
From the first, Mr. Clark did not find it easy to work in the parish. For some years he had but few to help him, and when the Disruption took place, he chose to remain in the state connection. The enthusiasm with which that historic event was hailed by the people who had suffered for years the spiritual disadvantages of an intrusion, was widespread. The entire population declared for the Free Church, with the exception of three families. One man, a native of Tongue, on being asked why he continued to attend Mr. Clark’s ministry, replied, “Do you suppose I could forsake a man who had his back to the wall?”
Mr. George Tulloch, minister of Eddrachillis, and Mr. William Findlater, minister of Durness, helped to organise and consolidate the congregation. Mr. Eric Findlater had just received license and was sent to serve the parish for a time. Many years afterwards he wrote his reminiscences in “The Free Church Monthly Record.” “My first sermon in the Free Church was under the shadow, or more strictly speaking, in the shelter of a rock, the people sitting on the high road. This was in the parish of Kinlochbervie; and although comparatively young and inexperienced, and certainly not possessed of popular pulpit talents, the whole church going population of the district came to hear me, not only on that but on every succeeding Sabbath, while I sojourned among them. Although we were not out of sight of the parish church that day, the minister chose, rather than open the church, to go to a distant corner of the parish, where, if he had any Service, he must have held it along with an old Gaelic Society Schoolmaster and another man, who happened to be a native of the same parish as himself.”
Though Mr. Clark had lost the entire respect of the people as a minister of Christ, there was no act of disrespect towards himself or the church, such as amused and even disgraced other parishes. In Durness on the first Sabbath after the Disruption, the tongue of the church bell was rapt in an old stocking, so that it gave no sound, while in Farr, a dead dog was suspended above the pulpit.

Mr Macrae also wrote of the situation with respect to the schools in Kinlochbervie

The first regular school was opened in Oldshore by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge. A Church or Assembly School was subsequently erected on the shore at Badcall Inchard. When the road from Rhiconich to Oldshore was constructed, a new school was erected at the roadside, which was meant to serve the whole district from Achlyness to Kinlochbervie. It consisted of one large class-room and a room and kitchen for a dwelling house. A large garden was laid out and walled round for the use of the teacher. That was in 1846.
The total cost of the house and grounds when finished was ₤315 17s. 6d. The value of the site was ₤9 7s. 6d., that of the garden ₤45. The erection of the garden wall cost ₤11 10s., while the schoolroom, dwelling house, desks and forms cost ₤250.
The first teacher appointed to the new school was Mr. John Cameron, a student, studying for the ministry of the Church of Scotland. Being a student, his appointment was only temporary. He was succeeded in 1847 by a Mr. John Jack, who remained only for two years. His successor was Mr. Alexander McKellar, a professional teacher, who remained for some years.
His position was by no means a happy one. He was appointed by the E. C. Presbytery of Tongue, but as the children were all Free Church and attended the Free Church School, he was often without any pupils. A complaint was lodged with the Presbytery that he was neglecting his work and that the school was for days never opened: He suspected that the complainant was the Rev. Robert Clark, his minister, and his reply was not likely to placate that gentleman, while it throws a clear light on the educational and social life of the time.
His letter, dated, April 12/52, runs, “I am in receipt of yours of the 6th, and in reply beg to say that I am no day during school hours, if not in the Schoolhouse, out of sight of the premises, except on Tuesday now and then, when I go a distance of half a mile to see the newspapers, and even then I am not more than one hour absent, and it is a well-known fact to those who are acquainted with this locality that it is no fault of mine there being no children attending this School, for since I came there have been none spoke to me of coming, except last winter was a twelve month, six made their appearance, when there was no teacher in the Free School, but as soon as they secured a teacher they left, with the exception of two, and these left when they had finished their quarter.”
The reply did not satisfy the Presbytery, who again wrote asking whether “he has from the time of his appointment opened the School regularly at the usual hours.” His reply, addressed to the clerk of Presbytery, was worthy of a good lawyer. It effectually exposed and closed up the minister.
“I have to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 29th. November, 1852, enquiring whether I have from the time of my appointment opened the School in this parish regularly at the usual hours, and in reply I beg leave to state that I consider the fact of the Rev. Mr. Clark having hitherto signed my certificate at the end of each term, sufficient proof in every respect of proper conduct on my part up till Martinmas last, and that since that period I have punctually attended to such scholars as are under my charge, and in proof thereof I invite investigation into my conduct.” The Presbytery allowed the matter to drop.

Mr Clark had, at an earlier, period been instrumental in persuading the Gaelic School Society to come to the Parish as can be seen in a letter he addressed to the Society.

Although it is implied by Mr Macrae (above) that few attended Mr Clark’s ministry before the Disruption, the Report of The Commissioners of Religious Instruction, Scotland, 1837 gives a somewhat different picture:

Present population of the parish is 1040. All were classed as belonging to the Established Church, on the personal knowledge of the minister and surveyors. The poor and working classes amounting to 1027. The poor and working classes are principally persons paying from L1 to L5 of rent. Great poverty exists among them, The population is dispersed in small townships along the sea-coast, there being only four families inland, It consists of small tenants, with a few exceptions.

The [church] attendance throughout the year is about 200. In spring and winter, the want of roads interferes to prevent attendance, and in summer many attend the herring fishing on other parts of the coast; so that the attendance in summer varies little from what it is in winter. The number in the habit of attending is not stated, but all the parishioners occasionally attend, though many of them are, from circumstances, very irregular. All, with very few exceptions, are of the poor and working classes.

Communicants: number 87. The communicants were ascertained by the surveyors from inquiries at the parties themselves, or their neighbours; but the minister’s impression is that the number is not quite so high. All are parishioners. Increase or decrease not ascertained. All of the poor and working classes.

The minister is only obliged to officiate in the parish church. He has been in the habit of visiting the villages and catechising on the Sabbath evenings in summer. The minister states that the want of roads, and the other physical obstructions prevent him from extending his week-day superintendence to the whole of the parishioners, with the exception of the 23 families in the neighbourhood of the church; and that the same causes concur to deprive the distant parishioners of the means of religious instruction and pastoral superintendence. The roads which have been commenced lately, will make a great and beneficial change; but even then, to meet the exigencies of the parish, it would require to remove the present church, and plant two new ones, viz. one in the north end of the parish, and the other about two miles south-east from the present, at Achriskill, in the east district.

A catechist, Donald Ross, is employed and paid by the people of this parish and that of Eddrachillis. Owing to their poverty, he receives very little. There is a Sabbath school, taught by a teacher employed by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge in Scotland, and various schools for ordinary tuition.

The minister was informed, that for the last two and half years there had been meetings of the people in two distant parts of the parish, on Sabbath, during divine service, for prayer and reading, conducted by pious persons. One had been given up; but the other, at Achriskill, in the east end of Loch Inchard, continued, and was attended, on an average by not more than 25 persons. These meetings were commenced without communication with the minister. He considered it the duty of the people to attend such meetings on a stormy day, while the roads were unfinished.