Letter from John Paterson

I shall give some account of the Marnoch proceedings concerning John Edwards the majority of the presbytery carried him [as] one against the will of the parish they all dissented from him but one and took him on his trials and was going to place him but the whole seven has been suspended one year and one half but they have got on with the placing of him by the court of Session in January and it was a day that I never saw the like of about eleven o’clock they commenced at the manse of Marnoch and from that to the church and the parishioners was ordered to come to the low church and the strangers to the loft and it was filled to excess and one of the beams sprang about one foot and the crowd dismissed and it sprang back but there was no ill done and the seven suspended ministers commenced to place him but the parishioners protested against their proceedings and left the church and beat them at their breasts and Thompson of Keith proceeded to the pulpit but was held back by the mob and there was a very roch church for about three hours and they were roaring in the loft and hissing down on the minister snowballs were thrown from all directions upon Edwards and rest of his brethren but the police and the magistrates got peace made in a hurry and they got on with placing of him and he has been preacher ‘till now but he is up to the general assembly and we suppose now will preach no more but we shall wait until next week and give full account with newspaper Mr Henry has been preaching at the Incheline every sabbath morning and in Fogieloan in the afternoon and there has been great collections through all Scotland and England and Ireland and America and all the way from the Cape of Good Hope to build a church to them there was three hundred pounds collected in Aberdeen in one day and four in Edinburgh and they are getting on with the building of it but they are expecting to get there once again but if the Court of Session interferes once again there will be an uproar that the like has not been this 200 years before the members are allowed to make their right good no more at present but remain your brother John Paterson

Lorraine Threadgold, South Australia,  transcribed the original letter posted at Aberchirder by John Paterson to his brother, Walter, in Mt. Barker South Australia in 1841, and still in the possession of his great -grandson C. J. P. Hedges.