366 OBITUARY NOTICE— EEV. JAMES FARQUHARSON 



The office of the pastorate of Selkirk is of extreme anti- 

 quity, stretching back to the date, probably in the 11th 

 century, when the establishment of a church for the Forest 

 Shiels gave rise to the name of Scheleschirche. The first 

 known "Abbot of Selkirk" (1113-1116) succeeded St. Bernard 

 as head of the Benedictines in Tiron, France ; and the long 

 roll of priests, vicars, and ministers, who have filled the 

 parish pulpit since that time, contains many distinguished 

 names, perhaps the most remarkable being that of Welsh, the 

 son-in-law of Knox, for years Protestant minister of St. Jean 

 d'Angely. None of them can have surpassed the clergyman 

 whose death we now record, in single-hearted and strenuous 

 devotion to the duties of his office. The first thing to which 

 Dr Farquharson had to devote himself was the erection of 

 a new church, the old one (built in 1748) being small and 

 unhealthy. Not without difficulty he had the new building 

 begun in 1861, and in 1863 it was formally opened — com- 

 modious internally, but in external architecture something 

 worse than a failure, and an unhappy contrast to its beautiful 

 predecessor of 1629, described by Mr Lowther as "a very 

 pretty church, in form a cross house, the steeple fair, 

 handsomely tiled as the Royal Exchange at London, having 

 at each corner four pyramidal turrets, etc." It has since 

 been slightly improved in appearance by the addition of an 

 apse, in which room has been found for an organ of excep- 

 tionally fine tone, Dr Farquharson being a keen supporter 

 of the movement for improving the services of public worship. 

 His parish was twice reduced in area during his ministry — 

 once in 1857 by the absorption of part of it into the quoad 

 sacra parish of Caddonfoot, and again in 1878 when a large 

 portion was taken to form the quoad sacra parish of 

 Heatherlie; but, owing to rapid increase between 1860 and 

 1890, the population of the parish was at his death as 

 large as when he became minister. In addition to the care 

 of his parish, he undertook the duties first of Clerk of 

 Presbytery, and then of Clerk of Synod, was a regular attender 

 at the General Assembly, and gave valuable service on several 

 of the Church Committees. Although he had been selected 

 to preach before the Lord High Commissioner, Dr Farquharson 



