Page 34 - LOTN Issue 45

FAITH AND CULTURE

John serving Strathglass above Beauly
for many years. Charles Farquharson
studied at Madrid and Douai before
entering the Jesuit novitiate at Landsberg
in Bavaria. He acquired considerable
knowledge of medicine on the continent
which enhanced his reputation at home,
although he cautioned "I cannot work
miracles: my brother John can work
miracles." Both were in Scotland at the
time of the Forty-five Jacobite Rising
and spent time in Thames prison hulks.
Much later John Grant (whose brother
Colin became bishop of Aberdeen)
celebrated Fr Charles in Legends of
the Braes o’ Mar. Well worth quoting,
Grant’s style follows that of Walter Scott
and his examples of Gaelic speech add
authenticity.
An attempt was made by the laird
of Invercauld’s coachman to claim the
price set by government on a priest’s
head. While at prayer beside the Dee
Fr Charles was formally arrested. After
In this charming watercolour Ann Dean pictures the moment when Fr Charles teaches claiming responsibility for choice of
a would-be priest-catcher a lesson by "dunking" him in the Dee crossing he thrust the priest-catcher
under: "He allowed him to kick and
and frequently explain it. . ." struggle at full scope, and after a time
Credit must also be paid to these men’s physical endurance took him up. . . Down went the head again. . . The Jesuit,
over mountain tracks in the coldest corner of Scotland. Ministers however, in the nick of time raised him up and bore him to
came no further than Crathie. The Jesuit "way of proceeding" the Invercauld side of the river where, on a bed of soft moss,
relied on support from local leaders, and they found one in he laid him down beside his master the laird. He had been a
Lewis Farquharson. His father (laird of Inverey beyond the twin spectator of the whole transaction, holding his sides in an agony
villages of Auchindryne and Castletown of Braemar) sent him of laughter."
to Aberdeen for theological study. Lewis’s final academic task Another Deeside laird was James Duff Earl of Fife whose
was to "write a book against the Papists, and then he would get property finally swallowed up Inverey.
On a visit to Fr Charles he sought
support against poachers, but made
no objection when a haunch of "his"
venison was served. Evicted crofters
lamented by John Grant claimed
something back. Population was a
matter of concern to the priest who
listed "118 whole Catholik families"
and "about 500 communicants". The
place of the venison dinner was Ardearg
beyond Auchindryne, where Fr Charles
raised a bulwark to hold the river back.
Between house and chapel is a resting-
place where the priest read his breviary.
Father John Farquharson spent his
last years as chaplain to a nephew at
Balmoral, and was first to share Fr
Forsyth’s grave at Castletown. The Earl
of Fife joined Charles Farquharson’s
Ann Dean's illustration of the place where Fr Charles Farquharson would rest and pray
cortege saying "I wish to God I were
such as he was." The last burial was
a kirk." Much reading, however, led to his reception into the that of William Macleod or MacHardy, secular priest after the
Church of Rome by Henry Forsyth. Jesuits - and double-named after the one who baptised him.
Two of his sons went on to become Jesuit priests, the older

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