Gustavus Aird

Gustavus Aird (1813–1898) was a Scottish minister of the Free Church of Scotland who served as Gaelic Moderator of the General Assembly in Inverness in 1888. He was an active campaigner against the Highland Clearances.

Rev Gustavus Aird c. 1880

Life
Creich Church

He was born on 28 June 1813 at Heathfield in Kilmuir, Easter Ross, the youngest son of Gustavus Aird and his wife Ann Grant.[1] He studied Divinity at King's College, Aberdeen.[2]

In 1839 he was licensed to preach by the Church of Scotland and Presbytery of Tain. In 1841 he was ordained at Croick in Kincardineshire. His manse stood on the Black Water. During his period here he struggled to protect his congregation against eviction by the laird, William Robertson of Kindeace House, as part of the Highland Clearances in the Tain area.[3][4][5] Despite assurances that if tenants paid their rent they could continue, the laird did not honour this promise, and the parish was greatly depopulated as a result.[6]

He left the established church in the Disruption of 1843 and joined the Free Church of Scotland. He left Croick and moved to the Free Church in the rather similarly named Creich,[7] which is close to Croick. All but two families left the original congregation and followed him to Creich.[8] The local laird died in London in April 1844 and was succeeded by his son Major Charles Robertson, formerly of the Black Watch, but this changed little in the parish. In May 1845 the tenants of Glencalvie were evicted 'en masse', despite Aird's protestation. 250 persons were so affected. They then had no house and no church within which to shelter, as the Free Church had yet to be built, and they worshipped in a field and slept under tarpaulins in the churchyard for two nights before dispersing to find new lives and new homes. Hand-etched writing on the current church east window describes their desperate plight. A further wave of clearances occurred at nearby Greenyards in 1854 at the hand of James Gillanders, son-in-law of Charles Robertson.[6]

In 1885 Aberdeen University awarded him an honorary doctorate (DD).[1]

In 1888 he served as Gaelic Moderator in Inverness whilst the standard location in Edinburgh appears to have not been used in that year.[9] He appears photographed in the Moderator's robes in 1888, and records indicate he was the only Moderator in that year.[10]

He died in Sale, Manchester on 20 December 1898[11] but is buried in Migdale Free Churchyard at Bonar Bridge.[12] There is also an ornate memorial at Creich.[13]

Publications

Family

In 1861 he married Mary Sim (1818-1900) fourth daughter of William Sim JP.

He was the maternal uncle of Gustavus Aird Murray (b.1833).[15]

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References
  1. "Gustavus Aird (1813-) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree". Wikitree.com. 2016-01-05. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  2. Ewing, William Annals of the Free Church
  3. The Highland Clearances, by John Prebble
  4. The Life of Gustavus Aird, by Rev Alexander Macrae of Tongue, 1908
  5. "Strathcarron 2". Abandonedcommunities.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  6. Who Built Scotland: 25 Journeys in Search of a Nation, by Alexander McCall Smith & c.
  7. "Ross & Cromarty Roots | Gustavus Aird". Gravestones.rosscromartyroots.co.uk. 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  8. NG Ross. "the official site. A record of the infamous Scottish Highland Clearances of the mid 1800s". Croick Church. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  9. Free Church Monthly May 1888
  10. Tain Museum Image Library (2017-01-02). "Tain Museum Image Library - Reverend Dr Aird". Tainmuseum.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  11. Free Church Monthly May 1899
  12. "Rev Gustavus Aird (1813-1898) - Find A Grave Memorial". Findagrave.com. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  13. Maciver, Allan (2012-09-07). "Rev Gustavus Aird DD Memorial Stone, Creich Free Church, B…". Flickr. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  14. Aird, Gustavus; Gustavus Aird's sketch is often bound with Fraser's Memoirs (1891). Short Sketch of Rev. Mr Fraser. Inverness: Melven. pp. v–vi. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  15. "Elizabeth (Aird) Murray (1798-1843) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree". Wikitree.com. 2016-01-05. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
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