John Farquharson (Jesuit)

[7][8][9] Farquharson was also a folklorist and Celticist, a collector of oral poetry from the Fenian Cycle of Celtic mythology, and of local Scottish Gaelic literature.

[10] During the Victorian era, the lost folklore collection of John Farquharson served as an inspiration to former British Army officer and folklorist Colin Chisholm of Lietry.

[11][12][13][14] Along with his brother, Charles Farquharson, "Maighstir Iain" remains a folk hero about whom many stories were collected from the oral tradition by John Grant of Glencairn and published in Legends of the Braes o' Mar.

[17] Lewis Farquharson is also said, despite being extremely elderly at the time, to have raised his Clan and personally led them into battle along with the rest of the Chattan Confederation during the Jacobite rising of 1715.

He completed his theology at the Scotch College, Douay, in 1729, and in October that year landed at Edinburgh to serve as an underground Catholic missionary priest.

According to historian of the Catholic Church in Scotland Dom Odo Blundell, upon his arrival in Strathglass, he "had there to begin a systematic study of it with the assistance of Mrs. Fraser of Culbokie".

Several of the female attendees followed their priest anyway and, when they reached the burn known as Allt a bhodaich, Màiri ni'n Ailein, the aunt of future Canadian Bishop Alexander MacDonnell, was struck with a sabre while trying to remove Farquharson chasuble.

Farquharson was first imprisoned at the chief's residence of Erchless Castle and then interrogated at Fort Augustus, but was then released[25] due to the intercession of the Clan Chisholm tacksman of Strathglass and returned to his ministry.

"[28] According to Colin Chisholm and Dom Odo Blundell of Fort Augustus Abbey, the three priests' residence and secret Mass house was inside a cave known as (Scottish Gaelic: Glaic na h'eirbhe[29][30] lit.

[33][34] According to Monsignor Thomas Wynne, "It was in the nature of a summer sheiling, a command center for monitoring the traditional activities of cattle reivers; as such it combined a civilising role with the building up of a Catholic mission outside Cameron territory in a way which must have reassured Lochiel on both counts.

[36] Whenever it was not possible for the three priests to safely leave Glen Cannich, their parishioners would come to the cave at Brae of Craskie for Mass, the sacraments, and, especially, for the illegal Catholic baptisms of their children.

[40] This may mean that, similarly to what was common practice at the time among persecuted Catholic Gaels in Ireland,[41] the natural cup stone had been brought to the cave from the ruins of a local church or monastery dating from before the Scottish Reformation.

The clerk was allegedly fly fishing without permission for Atlantic salmon in the River Glass near the Mass house which stood beside the modern bridge at Fasnakyle.

Satirical poetry and it's authors have traditionally been viewed in the Gàidhealtachd with supernatural terror ever since pre-Christian times,[46][47] but in this case there was added urgency, as the brothers Farquharson were both widely believed in Strathglass to have, "the gift of prophecy.

Alexander and Charles declined this suggestion and, seeking to buy time for his fellow priests to escape, Farquharson walked across the River Cannich towards the detachment, met them, and surrendered to them.

One Protestant member of the detachment, Iain Bàn Chisholm, is alleged to have first told the Jesuit that he was wanted by the Chief at Comar and then to have physically assaulted Farquharson before they took him into custody.

[52] According to Monsignor Thomas Wynne, "Bishop Hugh must have been equally saddened by the news of John Farquharson's arrest, and also moved by his heroism and self-sacrifice for his fellow priests.

"[58] Fr Cameron's biographer Thomas Wynne alleges that these official orders actually preceded Culloden, "A proclamation was on 6th December 1745, putting into operation certain laws which were more or less obsolete - the Act of Queen Elizabeth, cap.

[61][62] According to MacWilliam, "The Farquharsons took to the woods but when the officer in command announced his intention of burning every Catholic homestead and driving their cattle and sheep to the camp if the priests did not give themselves up without delay, they surrendered to the redcoats so as not to involve their people in total ruin.

"[64] For a long period after the Battle of Culloden, HMS Pamela served, like many Royal Navy vessels filled with more than 900 both real and imagined Jacobites, as a prison hulk anchored off Gravesend in the River Thames.

Following an interview with prison hulk survivors Donald and Malcolm MacLeod, Robert Forbes wrote, "They lay for months together in a most deplorable state of misery, their cloaths (sic) wearing so off them that many at last had not a single rag to cover their nakedness with.

[64] According to Father Charles MacDonald, "the survivors were brought before the Duke of Newcastle, who informed them that the Government was disposed to deal leniently in their case, and therefore would sentence them to perpetual banishment from the country, provided they could give bail of £1,000 that they would never return.

Fr Farquharson, who may have been suffering from psychological trauma and preferring not to talk about the real memories of his incarceration, alleged in later years that it was decided in Edinburgh that he was to be transported to "a penal settlement" in the Electorate of Hannover.

As soon as the vessel got clear of the Hanoverian coast, the priest suddenly appeared at the Captain's table, and he was brought safely back to his native country without having incurred any real danger or expense.

Farquharson had been arrested yet again, "For some years past we have been suffering more than ordinary persecution... the soldiers, too, in hopes of gaining as much money as they know has already been paid to their comrades for captured priests, are constantly endeavouring to lay hands on the clergy.

Father John Farquharson, S.J., was committed to prison, but on giving bail was set at liberty; now, however, the recognizance having been forfeited; it is uncertain how the affair will end.

Farquharson, who was a man, "of elegant manners, and much respected by everyone", was temporarily protected from arrest and expulsion by the local population of Douai and by the Parlement of the County of Artois, who refused to enforce the King's decree.

[79] Upon encountering the Jesuit's funeral procession to the same churchyard while on horseback, James Duff, 2nd Earl Fife immediately dismounted, removed his hat, and said, "I wish to God I were such as he was; I would gladly lie where he does.

[1][81] The bullaun, or natural cup stone, known as (Scottish Gaelic: Clach a Bhaistidh) and used by the three Jesuits to perform secret baptisms in the cave at Glen Cannich was removed from the Cave, "in order to protect it from damage", by Black Watch Regiment Captain Archibald Macrae Chisholm and placed upon a stone column,[82][40] upon which it is still preserved and venerated as a relic by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aberdeen at St Mary and St. Bean's Roman Catholic Church at Marydale.

[1][40] According to Odo Blundell, as of 1908, both a flask and a copy of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola formerly belonging to Fr John Farquharson were in the possession of Rev.