1 Clotilde Prunier’s Anti-Catholic Strategies in Eighteenth-Century Scotland has come to hand since this paper was submitted. It is very well researched, with a fine chapter on education which complements the nineteenth-century concerns discussed here.

2 Withers, Gaelic Scotland, p. 142. See also Durkacz, Celtic Languages; Anderson, R. D., Education and the Scottish People (Oxford, 1995).Google Scholar

3 See Blundell, O., The Catholic Highlands of Scotland. 1 The Central Highlands (Edinburgh, 1909)Google Scholar; 2 The Western Highlands (Edinburgh, 1917); Roberts, A., ‘Roman Catholicism in the Highlands’, Kirk, J. (ed.), The Church in the Highlands (Edinburgh, 1998), pp. 63–88 Google Scholar; Downs, P. and Roberts, A., ‘Dom Odo Blundell (1868–1943): a different kind of historian’, IR, 55, 1 (Spring, 2005)Google Scholar, forthcoming.

4 Wilby, N. M., ‘The “Encreasce of Popery” in the Highlands, 1714–1747, IR, 17 (1966), p. 91 Google Scholar. It is likely that ‘women catechists’ went no further than the teaching of religion and were often themselves illiterate. Prunier, Anti-Catholic Strategies, p. 135.

5 MacLean, D., The Counter-Reformation in Scotland, 1560–1930 (London, 1931).Google Scholar

6 Anson, Underground Catholicism. Beginning with Counter-Reformation politics and aristocratic leaders, Scottish Catholicism survived among poor people in remote places. See Roberts, A., ‘The role of women in Scottish Catholic survival’, Scottish Historical Review, 190 (1991), pp. 129–50.Google Scholar

7 SCA/BL. Alexander Dunbar to William Leslie, Rome, 14 May 1675.

8 Bellesheim, A., History of the Catholic Church of Scotland, 4 (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 369 Google Scholar. In 1694 Thomas Nicolson was appointed as the first ‘Highland bishop’ since the Reformation, serving Gaelic-speakers from Lowland Banffshire.

9 SCA/BL. Thomas Innes to Lewis Innes, Paris, 9 Aug., 1698; Thomas Innes to William Leslie, 13 Oct. 1701. The name of George Panton does not appear in Records of Scots Colleges at Douai, Rome, Madrid, Valladolid and Ratisbon (Aberdeen, 1906).

10 Forbes Leith, Memoirs, p. 274.

11 McGillivray, D., ‘Development of Highland education’, Leabhar á Clachain: Home Life of the Highlanders, 1400–1746 (Glasgow, 1911), p. 79.Google Scholar

12 NAS. CH 1/5/51, f.350; CH 1/5/51, f.3.

13 Forbes Leith, Memoirs, p. 278.

14 Forbes Leith, Memoirs, p. 281. Three years later a senior seminary was opened at St James’s Abbey, Ratisbon (now Regensburg in Bavaria) to add to the Scots colleges at Rome, Paris, Douai and Madrid.

15 See Watts, J., Scanlan: the Hidden Seminary, 1716–1799 (East Linton, 1999).Google Scholar

16 SCA/BL. James Gordon, Glestirim, to William Stuart, Rome, 16 Oct. 1727.

17 Forbes Leith, Memoirs, p. 295.

18 J. L. Campbell, introducing Rea, South Uist, p.xvii.

19 Anson, Underground Catholicism, p. 154. For the SSPCK’s 1729 decision to concentrate resources on Protestant areas lacking permanent ministers, rather than Catholic ones where no headway could be expected, see Watts, J., Hugh MacDonald: Highlander, Jacobite and Bishop (Edinburgh, 2002), p. 81, n.38.Google Scholar

20 SCA/BL. Bishop George Hay, Edinburgh, to John Geddes, Madrid, 16 Aug. 1770.

21 SCA/BL. Alexander MacDonald, Barra, to Bishop George Hay, Edinburgh, 25 Sept. 1774. An account of the Uist persecution is found in Gordon, Catholic Church in Scotland, pp. 79–83. See also Bumsted, J. M., The People’s Clearance, 1770–1815 (Edinburgh, 1982).Google Scholar

22 Anson, Underground Catholicism, p. 179. Edinburgh also had an anti-Catholic riot in which the Blackfriars Wynd chapel off the High Street was destroyed.

23 The minister of Tullich, Glenmuick and Glengairn was given the assistance of a Royal Bounty missionary in 1739, but an SSPCK report of 1755 emphasised the difficulties of ‘three parishes under the charge of one minister assisted by one itinerant having three places of worship to attend in turn.’ NAS. GD 95/11/5. Provision of schooling was an even greater problem north of the River Dee.

24 SCA/BL. Lachlan McIntosh, Glengairn, to Bishop John Geddes, Edinburgh, 24 Nov. 1783. A Catholic Gaelic catechism for oral teaching by ‘questions’ had been compiled at Braemar earlier in the century. MacWilliam, A. S., ‘The Jesuit mission in upper Deeside, 1671–1731’, IR, 23 (1972), p. 35.Google Scholar

25 SCA/BL. Lachlan McIntosh, Glengairn, to Bishop George Hay, Aberdeen, 1784. For Glengairn, see Roberts, A., ‘Aspects of Highland and Lowland Catholicism on Deeside’, Northern Scotland, 10 (1990), pp. 19–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Gordon, Catholic Church in Scotland, pp. 296–7, paraphrasing a letter of 3 Jan. 1790. For a nuanced account of Highland Catholics making positive use of SSPCK schools, not always on the advice of priests, see Prunier, Anti-Catholicism Strategies, pp. 139–51.

27 The quality of education at Scalan may be inferred by the number and range of books held. Doughty, D. W., ‘Chapeltown, Braes of Glenlivet, and Tombae, “the debris of the old Scalan library”’ Deeside Field, 19 (1987), pp. 79–85.Google Scholar

28 Gordon, Catholic Church in Scotland, p. 308, Geddes to Hay, 11 Nov. 1790.

29 Gordon, Catholic Church in Scotland, p. 312, Geddes to Hay, 17 March 1791. For the work of Bishops Hay and Geddes towards advancing toleration, see Goldie, M., ‘The Scottish Catholic Enlightenment’, Journal of British Studies, 30 (1991), pp. 20–62 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘Common sense philosophy and Catholic theology in the Scottish Enlightenment’, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 302 (1992), pp. 281–320.

30 Gaelic Schools Society (1823), Appendix III, p. 18.

31 The Gaelic Society of Edinburgh’s policy was based on a Welsh model and avoided anti-Catholic animus. Durkacz, Celtic Languages, p. 112.

32 Campbell, Canna, p. 146.

33 Gaelic Schools Society (1823), Appendix II, p. 4.

34 Gaelic Schools Society (1822), Appendix III, p. 14.

35 Campbell, Canna, p. 145.

36 Durkacz, Celtic Languages, p. 63; Withers, Gaelic Scotland, p. 122.

37 Durkacz, Celtic Languages, p. 115. See also Prunier, Anti-Catholic Strategies, pp. 151–65.

38 Campbell, Canna, pp. 145–6.

39 SCA/OL. Donald McKay, Eigg, to Bishop Andrew Scott, Greenock. 8 Jan. 1838. All clergy letters following are to or from Scott. The Rev. Ewan MacEachen was responsible not only for the manual (or catechism) Iul a Chriostaidh of 1834 and An Cath Spioradail of the following year, but also for a pioneering Gaelic dictionary. See Roberts, A., ‘Maighstir Eobhan Mac Eachainn and the orthography of Scots Gaelic’ TGSI, 63 (2003–2005, forthcoming).Google Scholar

40 SCA/OL. William McIntosh, Arisaig, 26 April 1838.

41 SCA/OL. McIntosh, Arisaig, 27 May 1838.

42 Cruickshank, M., The History of the Training of Teachers in Scotland (London, 1970), p. 31 Google Scholar. McIntosh exaggerated progress outside the Highlands: ‘We fear that, in the majority of both parochial and private schools in the Lowlands, the intellectual or explanatory system of Mr Wood has not yet been adopted.’ Lewis, G., Scotland a Half-Educated Nation, both in the Quantity and Quality of her Educational Institutions (Glasgow, 1834), p. 34.Google Scholar

43 Handley, J. E., The Irish in Scotland (Glasgow, 1947), p. 125.Google Scholar

44 Gordon, Catholic Church in Scotland, p. 467.

45 Anderson, W. J., ‘J. F. S. Gordon and his contribution to the history of Scottish Catholicism’, IR, xvi (1965), pp. 18–26.Google Scholar

46 Fuller, R. C., Alexander Geddes, 1737–1802: A Pioneer of Biblical Criticism (Sheffield, 1984).Google Scholar

47 Darragh, J., Bishop Andrew Scott, Modern Apostles of the West of Scotland (Glasgow, 1946), p. 7.Google Scholar

48 Skinnider, M., ‘Catholic elementary education in Glasgow, 1818–1918’, in Bone, T. R. (ed.), Studies in the History of Scottish Education, 1872–1939 (Edinburgh, 1967), pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

49 Clelland, J., Enumeration of the Inhabitants of the City of Glasgow and the County of Lanark for the Government Census of 1831 (Glasgow, 1832), p. 260.Google Scholar

50 MacDonald, R., ‘Bishop Scott and the West Highlands’, IR, 17 (1966), pp. 116–28.Google Scholar

51 Macinnes, J., The Evangelical Movement in the Highlands of Scotland, 1688 to 1800 (Aberdeen, 1951), p. 199.Google Scholar

52 Roberts, A., ‘Catholic Kintail: a marginal community’, TGSI, 58 (1993), pp. 1–19.Google Scholar

53 Withers, Gaelic Scotland, p. 154.

54 SCA/OL. Coll MacColl, Bracara (North Morar), 10 July 1838.

55 For the Free Kirk set up after the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843, see chapters by Ansdell, Douglas, Meek, Donald and MacLeod, Donald in Kirk, J. (ed.), The Church in the Highlands (Edinburgh, 1998).Google Scholar

56 13,000 is a mistake. As the Catholic census shows (see below) there were 1684 Catholics on Barra and 293 Protestants.

57 Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, 42, Third Series (29 Mar.-18 May 1838), 1167. As the Chancellor of the Exchequer explained, £6,000 had been granted in 1836 to endow 41 schools in the Highlands but the money had never been applied due to an attempt to link it with church-building. The relevant Church Commission having ceased to exist, it was now proposed to fund ‘schools of a different kind’ paid for by the same property-owners who supported parish churches and schools. The Highland Schools Act (as it was known) came into force on 10 August 1838. It made possible the paying of teachers’ salaries out of general taxation and led to the opening of some 30 schools prior to the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872. Anderson, R., Education and the Scottish People, 1750–1918 (Oxford, 1995), p. 312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

58 Bossy, J., The English Catholic Community, 1570–1850 (London, 1975), p. 349.Google Scholar

59 A noted classicist and tutor of James VI and I, George Buchanan (1506–82) began his Latin paraphrase of the Psalms while confined for heresy in a Portuguese monastery.

60 William McIntosh wrote from Arisaig: ‘I cannot get a Testament from the school unless I either steal it or ask the loan of it. Now either might seem insidious and I am averse to run the risk of committing myself. Will it not suffice to get the deposition of two creditable witnesses should the assertion be denied or called in question?’ SCA/OL. McIntosh, Arisaig, 31 Jan. 1839.

61 SCA/OL. Scott to Chisholm, Bornish (South Uist), 7 June 1838.

62 Richards, E., The Highland Clearances: People, Landlords and Rural Turmoil (Edinburgh, 2000), p. 208.Google Scholar

63 SCA/OL. Chisholm, Bornish, 4 Feb. 1839.

64 SCA/OL. Scott to Chisholm, 13 Nov. 1840.

65 SCA/OL. Scott to Chisholm, 11 Aug. 1841.

66 SCA/OL. Chisholm, Bornish, 21 June 1838.

67 Hansard, Third Series 42, 1167.

68 SCA/OL. Scott to Chisholm, 5 Nov. 1838.

69 SCA/OL. Chisholm, Bornish, 4 Feb. 1839.

70 SCA/OL. John MacDonell, Keppoch, 5 Feb. 1839.

71 Campbell, Canna, p. 146.

72 SCA/OL. John MacDonell, Keppoch, 10 Dec. 1840.

73 SCA/OL. Alexander Gillis, Fort Augustus, 26 March 1840.

74 The Rev. Angus MacLaine of Ardnamurchan, which included Moidart, Arisaig and South Morar, lived far off at Kilchoan, facing Mull. In 1839 he was given leave to visit Australia on health grounds, which led to the Presbytery of Mull being censured by the General Assembly. Scott, H., Fasti Ecclesiae Scotticanae, 4 (Edinburgh, 1927), p. 107.Google Scholar

75 NAS. GD 95/9/7, GD 95/9/9. The Polnish chapel was served every third week when McIntosh first came to Arisaig but this was reduced to once in six weeks as the Ardnish population fell. Under his successor (although hardly an innovation) ‘Catechism and Instruction after Mass’ was advertised. The Catholic Directory for Scotland (Edinburgh, 1887), p. 131.

76 SCA/OL. McIntosh, Arisaig, 27 May 1838.

77 SCA/OL. McIntosh, Arisaig, 31 Jan. 1839.

78 See Roberts, A., ‘William McIntosh in the West Highlands: changing the practice of religion’, IR, 54, 2 (2003), pp. 111–41.Google Scholar

79 SCA/OL. McIntosh, Arisaig, 28 March 1839.

80 MacKay, I., ‘Clanranald’s tacksmen of the late 18th century’, TGSI, 44 (1964), p. 75.Google Scholar

81 Archibald MacDonald, Arisaig, 30 December 1823, Borrodale papers, Clan Donald Centre library, Armadale, Skye.

82 SCA/OL. McIntosh, Arisaig, 26 Aug. 1841.

83 SCA/OL. Scott to Chisholm, 26 Nov. 1841.

84 Angus MacDonald of Glenaladale was Arisaig’s main Catholic landholder. One of his sons moved from the Highland see to become Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh and another was Bishop of Aberdeen.

85 SCA/OL. McIntosh, 8 March, 1842.

86 CDS (1871), p.105.

87 Groome, F. H., Ordnance Gazetteer, Scotland, 1, (London, 1892), p. 56.Google Scholar

88 Undated press cutting.

89 SCA/OL. Rankin, Moidart, 11 March 1839.

90 SCA/OL. Dr Coll MacDonald, Lochshiel by Strontian, 22 Dec. 1839.

91 Ornsby, R., Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott of Abbotsford, 2 (London, 1884), pp. 233, 236Google Scholar. James Hope, a friend of John Henry Newman, was received into the Catholic Church at Easter 1851 along with the future Cardinal Henry Manning. Ffinch, M., Cardinal Newman: The Second Spring (London, 1991), p. 190.Google Scholar

92 See Blair, D. Hunter, John Patrick, Third Marquess of Bute, K.T. (1847–1900): A Memoir (London, 1921), pp. 105–9.Google Scholar

93 MacDonald, C., Moidart; Or Among the Clanranalds (Edinburgh, 1889, 1989), pp. 263–4.Google Scholar

94 Napier Report, 2113.

95 Napier Report, 2124.

96 Mackenzie, H. R., ‘Yachting and electioneering in the Hebrides’, The Celtic Magazine (1885), p. 407.Google Scholar

97 Hunter, J., The Making of the Crofting Community (Edinburgh, 1976).Google Scholar

98 NAS. AF 50/9/7. Macintosh had written a month previous to this letter of 12 Nov. 1883, both times addressing himself to Charles Fraser-Mackintosh M.P. as a member of the Commission.

99 The Scotsman, 25 Oct. 1883.

100 Quoted and discussed by J. L. Campbell in his introduction to Rea, South Uist.

101 Rea, South Uist, p. xix.

102 See FitzPatrick, T. A., No Mean Service: Scottish Catholic Teacher Education, 1895–1995 (Glasgow, 1995).Google Scholar

103 Aspinwall, B., ‘Catholic teachers for Scotland: the Liverpool connection’, IR, 44 (1994), p. 65.Google Scholar

104 See J. Darragh, ‘The Apostolic Visitations of Scotland, 1912 and 1917’; Gourlay, T., ‘Catholic Schooling in Scotland since 1918’, IR, 41 (1990), pp. 7–118, 119–31.Google Scholar

105 Burnett, R., ‘“The long nineteenth century”: Scotland’s Catholic Gaidhealtachd’, in Boyle, R. and Lynch, P. (eds.), Out of the Ghetto? The Catholic Community in Modern Scotland (Edinburgh, 1998), p. 174.Google Scholar

106 Rea, South Uist, p. xv.