John MacDonald (Gaelic Moderator)

Very Rev Dr John MacDonald DD (1779–1849) was a 19th-century Scottish minister of the Free Church of Scotland who served as Gaelic Moderator of the General Assembly in Inverness in 1845/46. He was one of several people known as the Apostle of the North.

Rev John MacDonald of the Gaelic Chapel
Urquhart Church

Life

He was born at Balnabein Farm Reay, Caithness, on 12 November 1779, the son of James MacDonald ("McAdie"), a farmer/weaver.

He was educated at Reay parish school (a church school) then from 1797, with the financial aid of Mrs Innes of Sandside,[1] studied Divinity and Mathematics at King's College, Aberdeen. He is said to have been the best mathematician in Scotland. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery Church of Scotland in Caithness in 1805.[2]

He was licensed to preach in 1805 and his first work was at missions in Achrenny and Halladale.[3]

He was ordained by the Church of Scotland as minister of Berriedale in 1806. In 1807 he was translated to the Gaelic Chapel on Castle Wynd in Edinburgh to replace Rev McLachlan. He lived at Ramsay Gardens.[4] During his time in Edinburgh he was portrayed by John Kay.

In 1813 he was translated to Urquhart to replace Rev Charles Calder. In the General Assembly of 1818 he was heavily criticised for preaching in the adjacent parishes of Strathbogie and Aberlour and encouraging dissent in those parishes.

In 1822 he made a mission voyage to the island of St Kilda, seeking to address its absence of church and minister. He spent two weeks on the island together with his friend Mr McLellan. He made a very detailed account of the inhabitants and the island.[5] He made three further visits to the island, 1825, 1827 and 1830, making a detailed journal of each visit.[6] The 1827 trip was paid for by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge to offer some much-needed Christian preaching (the island had no church). He stayed on the island for two weeks. He is one of the first to have given detailed written descriptions of the island.[7]

In 1827 he visited the Bishop of Cashel in Ireland.

In the Disruption of 1843 he left the established church and joined the Free Church of Scotland. He gave the very first sermon of the Free Church in Tanfield Hall in 1843, based around John 15:16. In 1845 when Rev Patrick MacFarlan was Moderator, MacDonald was chosen as Gaelic Moderator, serving a separate assembly held in Inverness.[8] As a minister he left the Church of Scotland at Urquhart and went to a new church at nearby Ferintosh.

He died on 18 April 1849 aged 69.

His biography was written by the Rev J. Kennedy of Dingwall entitled "The Apostle of the North", published in 1866.[9]

Family

He married twice: in 1806 Georgina Ross (d.1814) daughter of Simon Ross of Gledfield; and in 1818 Janet (Jessie) MacKenzie (d.1868) daughter of Kenneth MacKenzie of Millbank.

By his first marriage his first son John Macdonald (b.1807) became a Church of Scotland missionary in India after working as pastor of the Scots Church in Chadwell Heath in London. Simon (d.1808) died abroad. Margaret (b.1810) married Rev Duncan Campbell of Kiltearn. He had several children by his second marriage.

Publications
  • The Righteousness of God (1825)
  • Journal of a Visit to St Kilda (four visits:1822, 1825, 1827 and 1830)
  • Elegies on Eminent Ministers of the Church in Gaelic (1848)

Artistic recognition

He was portrayed around 1810 by the Edinburgh artist John Kay.

References
  1. Free Church Monthly December 1849
  2. "Full text of "Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae : the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation"". Archive.org. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  3. Disruption Worthies: John MacDonald
  4. Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1810
  5. "CCLXXXI. Rev. John McDonald of the Gaelic Chapel, Castle Wynd, Edinburgh - Kay's Originals Vol. 2 by John Kay". Edinburghbookshelf.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  6. The Apostle of the North: The Life and Labours of Rev John Macdonald by Rev J Kennedy
  7. Kay's Originals p. 331
  8. Ewing, William Annals of the Free Church
  9. Kennedy, J. (1866), The "Apostle of the North." The Life and Labours of the Rev. Dr. M'Donald, published by Nelson and Sons
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