Highland Labourers and their Establishment. 



1821.] 



public interests, will doubtless be the 

 care of the public; thus restoring, 

 under Divine Providence, the tone of 

 our British society, and renewed pros- 

 perity to our native land. 



Benjamin Wills, Hon. Sec. 

 King's Head, Poultry, March, 1821. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



ABOUT sixty years since, Mr. 

 Adams of London, undertook to 

 furnish granite paving-stones, in the 

 form of blunt wedges, for the carriage- 

 way of the streets of the metropolis, 

 then in a state of miserable disrepair. 

 To accomplish this, he brought a con- 

 siderable number of industrious men, 

 with their families, from the North 

 Highlands to Aberdeen, for the pur- 

 pose of raising tliese stones from the 

 quarries near the termination of the 

 Grampians, south of the River Dee, 

 where that sfoue is found in inexhaust- 

 ible quantity, for many miles along all 

 the rocks which mark the boundaries 

 of the German Ocean in that district. 



These industrious people were su- 

 perintended by skilful jjersons, who 

 taught them the use of the pickham- 

 mer, and they soon became very expert 

 in quarrying, and in the formation of 

 the stones. The business was carried on 

 with a considerable degree of briskness 

 and spirit, for many years, but as the 

 London streets were finished, the de- 

 mand slackened, and the workmen of 

 course betook themselves to other em- 

 ployments, some as labourers, others 

 as woolcombers, and other branches 

 connected with the then state of manu- 

 factures at Aberdeen. 



They, however, had in a manner 

 domesticated themselves with their 

 families here, the fathers, mothers, 

 and some of the elder children, all 

 speaking the Gaelic language, to which 

 tlicy had been accustomed from their 

 infancy, and in which they had been 

 instnicted from the pulpit in their na- 

 tive districts of the North. They were 

 all Protestants, and, it is believed, in 

 general, strict Presbyterians, according 

 to the system of Calvin. Accustomed 

 to receive religious instruction in their 

 native tongue, and not so intelligent 

 in the idiom and phraseology of the 

 English language, they were desirous 

 of obtaining tlie advantage of public 

 worship, if possible, in the Gaelic 

 tongue. 



Their funds, as might be expected, 

 were small, but they were sober and 



323 



industrious, and as they themselves 

 expressed it, had a firm dependence on 

 " Providence," who had hitherto been 

 their guide. 



Their association for a purpose so 

 commendable, met with that coun- 

 tenance which it justly merited from 

 several respectable individuals from 

 the Highlands, who were resident in 

 Aberdeen. 



That they might, however, proceed 

 with prudence, tliey requested some 

 citizens, in whom they had confidence, 

 to assist them as managers, and occa- 

 sionally to afford them aid in their se- 

 cular atfairs. In the first instance they 

 made clioice of Mr. Colquhoun M'Gre- 

 gor, merchant ; Mr. J. Chalmers, prin- 

 ter; Mr. Patrick Hobertson, leather- 

 merchant, and Mr. John Ewen, mer- 

 chant. 



In the year 1789, or 1790, these- 

 gentlemen drew up a petition, and 

 presented it to the magistrates and 

 council, requesting the use of St. 

 Mary's Chapel, under the East Church, 

 as a temporary place of Worship, for 

 these industrious and well-disposed 

 people. With prompt liberality, this 

 request was most cordially granted^ 

 and, with the sum of £26, the only 

 fund they were then possessed of, seats 

 and a reading desk were immediately 

 furnished. 



Several merchants and mantifactu* 

 rers, in whose employment dift'erenti 

 members of the congregation had been, 

 influenced by the good opinion they 

 had formed of them, agreed to afford 

 them a little pecuniary aid ; and the 

 managers, thus encouraged, opened a 

 subscription in which they themselves 

 readily joined, and by this means, a 

 sum, little more tlian £50, was raised. 

 To this was added the produce of the 

 small collection of the congregation, 

 on the Sabbath Day, at the door of St. 

 Mary's Chapel. In this place they 

 chiefly contented themselves, in the 

 outset, with reading a portion of Scrip- 

 ture, prayer, singing psalms — and oc- 

 casionally, a short exhortation by mem- 

 bers of the congregation : but soon after 

 in the year 1791, they found that by a 

 little enlargement in the collections 

 they might be enabled to employ a 

 preacher, to whom they could afford 

 to give a small annual salary. The 

 Rev. Ronald Bain, then residing in 

 Elgin, and who was pastor of a congi-e- 

 gation there, had afforded them in their 

 first establishment, much beneficial 

 aid— and his friendly advice was never 

 wanting 



