Gustavus Aird (1813–1898) was a Scottish minister of the Free Church of Scotland who served as Gaelic

Moderator of the General Assembly The moderator of the General Assembly is the chairperson of a General Assembly, the highest court of a Presbyterian or Reformed church. Kirk sessions and presbyteries may also style the chairperson as moderator. The Oxford Dictionary states th ...

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

in 1888. He was an active campaigner against the

Highland Clearances The Highland Clearances ( gd, Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulte ...

Life

He was born on 28 June 1813 at Heathfield in

Kilmuir, Easter Ross Kilmuir is a former fishing village, located on the north eastern shore of Nigg Bay, southeast of Kildary and northeast of Invergordon. Geography The village of Kilmuir is within the former parish of Kilmuir Easter. The parish was situated p ...

, the youngest son of Gustavus Aird and his wife Ann Grant. He studied Divinity at

King's College, Aberdeen King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, the full title of which is The University and King's College of Aberdeen (''Collegium Regium Abredonense''), is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and now an integral part of the Universi ...

. In 1839 he was licensed to preach by the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

and Presbytery of

Tain Tain ( Gaelic: ''Baile Dhubhthaich'') is a royal burgh and parish in the County of Ross, in the Highlands of Scotland. Etymology The name derives from the nearby River Tain, the name of which comes from an Indo-European root meaning 'flow'. The ...

. In 1841 he was ordained at Croick in

Kincardineshire Kincardineshire, also known as the Mearns (from the Scottish Gaelic meaning "the Stewartry"), is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area on the coast of northeast Scotland. It is bounded by Aberdeenshire on the north and w ...

. His

manse A manse () is a clergy house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and other Christian traditions. Ultimately derived from the Latin ''mansus'', "dwelling", from '' ...

stood on the Black Water. During his period here he struggled to protect his congregation against eviction by the

laird Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...

, William Robertson of Kindeace House, as part of the

in the

area. 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.Who Built Scotland: 25 Journeys in Search of a Nation, by

Alexander McCall Smith Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British writer. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law and ...

& c. He left the established church in the

Disruption of 1843 The Disruption of 1843, also known as the Great Disruption, was a schism in 1843 in which 450 evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland. The main conflict was over whether the Church of S ...

and joined the Free Church of Scotland. He left Croick and moved to the Free Church in the rather similarly named

Creich Creich ( gd, Craoich, ) is a substantial parish on the north side of the Dornoch Firth the largest settlement being Bonar Bridge. It lies in Sutherland, Scotland. There is a church (now in ruins) and graveyard for the Parish of Creich. Creich M ...

, which is close to Croick. All but two families left the original congregation and followed him to Creich. The local laird died in London in April 1844 and was succeeded by his son Major Charles Robertson, formerly of the

Black Watch The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The regiment was created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881, when the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment ...

, 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. In 1885

Aberdeen University , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

awarded him an honorary doctorate (DD). In 1888 he served as Gaelic Moderator in

whilst the standard location in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

appears to have not been used in that year. He appears photographed in the Moderator's robes in 1888, and records indicate he was the only Moderator in that year. He died in

Sale, Manchester Sale is a town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, in the historic county of Cheshire on the south bank of the River Mersey, south of Stretford, northeast of Altrincham, and southwest of Manchester. In 2011, it had a population of 1 ...

on 20 December 1898 but is buried in Migdale Free Churchyard at

Bonar Bridge Bonar Bridge ( gd, Drochaid a' Bhanna, ) is a village on the north bank of the Kyle of Sutherland to the west and the Dornoch Firth to the east in the Parish of Creich in the Highland council area of Scotland. The Kyle of Sutherland ("the Kyle" ...

. There is also an ornate memorial at Creich.

Publications

*''Religious Life in Ross'' *''Daorsa Agus Saorsa'' *''Sketch of Rev. Mr Fraser'' - Biography of Rev. James Fraser of Brea *Searmon a rinneadh leis an ure (Glasgow, 1889) *Farewell Gaelic and English Sermons preached in Creich Free Church, 15 Nov. 1896 (portrait) (Inverness, 1897) *Sermon (Dingwall, n.d.) *Sermon (Edinburgh, 1916) *Bondage and Liberty (Edinburgh, 1917)

Family

In 1861 he married Mary Sim (1818–1900), the fourth daughter of William Sim JP. He was the maternal uncle of Gustavus Aird Murray (born 1833).

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aird, Gustavus 1813 births 1898 deaths People from Ross and Cromarty 19th-century Ministers of the Free Church of Scotland Highland Clearances