Transactions. 83 
spelled, Gretna. His name stands alone among the eminent men of 
that parish in the Statistical Account of Dumfriesshire, where it is 
also mentioned that many of his MSS. are in the possession of 
the ‘Misses Gibson, Edinburgh.” These ladies, now long 
deceased, were my grand aunts, and then well known in Edin- 
burgh society. It was when a boy, spending part of my holidays 
in Gretna, that I first heard the name of Mr Gatt mentioned 
with reverence and regard ; but the old people who then loved to 
speak of him are all dead; and, indeed, since the railway invaded 
what was then a secluded parish these old-world stories, as I may 
eall them, have gradually given place to new and more exciting 
narratives. 
My present purpose is to supplement the information which 
has been already published by a few traditions within my own 
knowledge, chiefly obtained from the late Rev. Mr Smith, 
minister of Tillicoultry, who in his boyhood heard them from his 
uncle, the late Rev. Mr Smith, minister of Morton, in Dumfries- 
shire, both of whom entertained through life feelings of great 
veneration and regard for Mr Gatt’s memory. 
Mr Gatt sometimes spelled his name Gath, but I understand 
this was because in Latin “‘Gatheus” is more euphonious, and 
Gatt was his proper surname. In the Statistical Account it is 
spelt Galt, which has been a printer’s error. He was born 10th 
January, 1700, in Cullen, Banffshire ; studied theology in the 
University of Edinburgh ; was examined and licensed in 1727 ; 
and appointed assistant and successor to the Rev. Mr Black, 
then minister of Gretna, towards the close of the same year. 
He was ordained minister of the parish, 30th April, 1730, and 
died as father of the Synod, 3lst October, 1787, in his 88th 
year, and after a pastorate in the parish of altogether 60 years. 
He married in 1741 Miss Jean Gowanlock, daughter of the 
then minister of the adjoining parish of Kirkpatrick-Fleming, 
who died in 1786, being a year before himself, aged 86; and 
both are buried in the parish churchyard of Gretna. 
They had no family, and adopted a niece, Miss Maclaurin, who 
died in Edinburgh unmarried, a venerable and highly respected 
lady, in 1818, aged 88. 
A portrait in crayons of Mr Gatt represents a shrewd, kindly, 
and intellectual countenance beneath a very old fashioned white 
wig, and dressed in canonicals. This portrait has been sent to 
