John Farquharson (Jesuit)

John Farquharson (Maighstir Iain, an-tAthair Iain Mac Fhearchair) (19 April 1699 – 13 October 1782), was a member of the Scottish nobility and son of the Chief of Clan Farquharson. After studying at the Scots College, Douai and being ordained as a Roman Catholic priest of the Society of Jesus, Farquharson returned to Scotland and, while living in a mountain cave in Glen Cannich, he served as an outlawed missionary to Clan Chisholm and Clan Fraser of Lovat between 1729 and 1753, during the era of the Penal Laws and the Jacobite rising of 1745. Fr Farquharson was also an early folklorist and Celticist and a poet in the Scottish Gaelic language. He remains a folk hero of Lochaber and Strathglass.

Early life
Farquharson was born in the valley of Braemar, Aberdeenshire, to the Chief of Clan Farquharson and Laird of Inverey on 19 April 1699. His father, Lewis Farquharson of Auchindryne (Ach' an Droighinn, lit. "Thornfield"), is said, despite being extremely elderly at the time, to have raised his Clan and personally led them into battle during the Jacobite rising of 1715.

His eldest brother, Lewis Farquharson, alias "Young Auchindryne" in Scottish parlance, later inherited their father's mantle as Chief of Clan Farquharson. Through his brother, Fr John was the uncle of future Chief Alexander Farquharson. John Farquharson entered the Society of Jesus at Tournai. 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. He was stationed by Bishop Hugh MacDonald, the equally underground Vicar Apostolic of the Highland District, in Strathglass and Lochaber.

According to acclaimed historian of the Catholic Church in Scotland Dom Odo Blundell, Fr. Farquharson did not know the local vernacular upon his arrival, "had there to begin a systematic study of it with the assistance of Mrs. Fraser of Culbokie".

Already having been prepared by his study of Ecclesiastical Latin and Koine Greek in the seminary, however, Fr. Farquharson swiftly acquired both fluency and the extremely rare skill at the time of literacy in the Scottish Gaelic language. On 2 February 1735–6 he made his profession of the four vows.

The Cave in Glen Cannich
When Fr John Farquharson was arrested by a posse of redcoats, under orders from the Chief of Clan Chisholm, while offering the Tridentine Mass at the covert Mass house at Balanahaun, only the priest's threat to excommunicate anyone of the male parishioners who used violence to defend him saved the lives of the Redcoats. 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 Fr. John's chasuble. Màiri survived, but her scalp and skull were left scarred for life. Fr. John was first imprisoned at the Chief's residence of Erchless Castle and then interrogated at Fort Augustus, but was then released and returned to his ministry in Glen Cannich.

On another occasion, Fr. Farquharson's clerk, Alexander Chisholm (Alastair Bàn MacDhomhnuill 'ic Uilleam), was, according to the latter's great-grandnephew, arrested and imprisoned inside "The Red Dungeon" at Beauly Castle by Lord Lovat, the Chief (Mac Shimidh Mòr) of Clan Fraser of Lovat, for allegedly fishing without permission for Atlantic salmon in the River Glass near the Mass house at Fasnakyle. When Lord Lovat, despite being a Catholic himself, refused an in-person request for the release of his clerk, Fr. Farquarson, who was not a native speaker of the language, composed a satirical Gaelic poem reviling the Clan Chief and predicting, correctly, that Lord Lovat would soon lose his head, and be despised as a traitor "to both kings". Upon hearing the poem, which was a very accomplished literary work, recited to him during a dinner party at Eskadale, Lord Lovat first thought it was the work of the acclaimed local poet, Mrs. Fraser of Guisachan, until he heard the real author named. Satirical poetry and it's authors have traditionally been viewed in the Gàidhealtachd with supernatural terror ever since Pre-Christian times and, as Lord Lovat, quite understandably, did not wish to call down upon himself, "any more disagreeable prophecies," he immediately ordered the clerk's release. During the 19th-century, Strathglass-born folklorist Colin Chisholm collected both the poem and the story behind it from the family oral tradition of the clerk's great-nephew, Alexander Chisholm of Craskie, and first published the Gaelic text with an English literary translation in The Celtic Magazine in November 1881.

He was ultimately joined there by two fellow Jesuits; his brother Fr. Charles Farquarson and future Catholic martyr Fr. Alexander Cameron. 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 (Glaic na h'eirbhe lit. "the hollow of the hard-life"),  which was located underneath the cliff of a big boulder at Brae of Craskie, near Beauly (A' Mhanachainn) in Glen Cannich (Gleann Chanaich).

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."

This secret dwelling remained the centre of the Catholic mission in Lochaber at the time, where Fr. Cameron and the two brothers secretly ministered to the local Catholics and secretly visited the covert "Mass houses" at Fasnakyle, Crochail, Strathfarrar (Srath Farair).

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. On such occasions, a Bullaun, or natural cup stone, known as (Clach a Bhaistidh, lit. "the stone of the baptism") was used by the three priests as a baptismal font.

According to Colin Chisholm, the cup stone had been used for performing baptisms in Strathglass, "from time immemorial". This may mean that the natural cup stone was used in baptisms before the Scottish Reformation in the now ruined 10th-century monastery and Christian pilgrimage site of (Kilbeathan) at (Clachan Comar), which is alleged to have been founded by St Bean, a monk from Iona, kinsman of St Columba, and early missionary in Strathglass, near the holy well known as (Sputan Bhain). Another possible origin for the cup stone may have been Beauly Priory, a 13th-century Valliscaulian monastery located in nearby Beauly.

Shortly before the Jacobite rising of 1745, Fr. John informed his two colleagues that a posse sent by the Chief of Clan Chisholm was on the way to arrest them. Fr John suggested, "Let us go to meet them then, and save them the trouble of coming all this way for us." Frs. Alexander and Charles declined this suggestion and, seeking to buy time for his fellow priests to escape, Fr John walked towards the posse, met them, and surrendered to them at a field known as (Achadh beulath an tuim).

Fr. Charles Farquharson is known to have been hidden by his kinfolk in the vale of Braemar. Fr. Alexander Cameron, who had refused to leave his priestly duties in the cave despite having fallen sick with what is believed to have been pneumonia, is known to have sought and received the protection of his eldest brother, Donald Cameron of Lochiel, at Achnacarry Castle in Lochaber.

According to Monsignor Thomas Wynne, "Bishop Hugh must have been equally saddened by the news of Fr. John Farquharson's arrest, and also moved by his heroism and self-sacrifice for his fellow priests. He knew that he had lost one of his finest priests on whom he had come to depend so much. However, he would have been consoled by the fact that Fr. Cameron was safe and enjoying a well-earned rest with his family at Achnacarry, where he would be secure, well looked after, and nursed back to health."

Prisoner of conscience
After managing to send word to his fellow underground priests in Glengarry to look after the mission in Strathglass until his return, Fr. John Farquharson was conveyed to Edinburgh in his sacerdotal vestments.

He must have been released at the very latest when Edinburgh fell to the Jacobite Army, as he and Fr. Charles were back to ministering in Strathglass during the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden.

According to Canon Alexander MacWilliam, "According to a letter written by Fr. John Riddoch, rector of the Douai College, to the General of the Society on 23 October 1747, the two brothers had given them an account of their misadventures. After the disaster of Culloden detachments of soldiers scoured the Highlands in search of priests. One such company came into Strathglass. 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."

According to Canon MacWilliam, "They were taken to London from Inverness in HMS Pamela and confined for 2 1/2 months in the hold of a man-of-war in the Thames, where they had to endure the insults of their guard and even physical violence." For a long period after the Battle of Culloden, HMS Pamela served, like many Royal Navy vessels filled with 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, 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. Here they were treated with the utmost barbarity and cruelty, with a view (as they suppose) to pine away their lives, and by piecemeal to destroy every single man of them. And indeed the design had great success, for many of them died. Donald MacLeod said he had reason to think that no less than four hundred men died on board three ships opposite to Tilbury Fort."

Historian J. MacBeth Forbes also confirms the inhumane conditions experienced by the 72 prisoners held in the cramped hold of the Pamela. After inspecting them on 20 August 1746, government surgeon Dr. Minshaw was so horrified by the stench coming from the hold and the emaciated and diseased condition of Fr John Farquharson and the other prisoners that he ordered all the prisoners immediately taken ashore to Tilbury Fort.

After Royal Navy Captain John Fergussone grudgingly allowed Fr. John Farquarson to board HMS Furnace to minister to a dying Catholic prisoner, the priest found himself face to face with an emaciated Fr. Alexander Cameron. After first receiving Holy Communion and the Last Rites, Fr Cameron offered the Tridentine Mass while Fr. John Farquharson served him at the altar. Soon after, Fr. Alexander Cameron died with Fr. Farquarson by his side on 19 October 1746. Fr. Cameron's remains were taken ashore and buried in the nearest graveyard to the ship; the Church of England cemetery attached to St George's Church, Gravesend, which also holds the grave of Pocahontas.

According to Canon MacWilliam, "The [priests'] condition was gradually eased until, after fifteen months imprisonment, they were set at liberty on condition that they left the country and never returned."

According to Father Charles MacDonald, "After a long confinement in London, 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. As this was an absurd proposal, these poor priests having neither friends nor money, the Duke compromised the matter by asking them to go bail for each other. They got over to Holland, but most of them came back again."

Even though all primary sources from the era confirm the reliability of the first account the Farquharson brothers told of their imprisonment in cruel, unsanitary, and inhumane conditions, according to The Celtic Magazine correspondent Colin Chisholm, Fr John Farquharson later lied in later years about the real conditions aboard HMS Pamela as described to his superiors in Douai. Fr Farquharson, who may have wished to not relive very traumatic memories of his imprisonment, alleged that it was decided in Edinburgh that he was to be transported to "a penal settlement" in the Electorate of Hannover.

According to Colin Chisholm, "The Captain of the vessel that took him to that penal settlement was a man of discernment, who rightly judged that he might benefit by the company of the prisoner. So he provided him with a separate berth and had him at all meals in the cabin with himself." These allegedly luxurious conditions continued while H.M.S. Pamela served as a prison hulk anchored in the Thames.

According to Colin Chisholm, "After a favorable passage, the Captain landed Mr. Farquarson in Hanover, and in doing so whispered in his ear that his engagement was now at an end; that he would be leaving Hanover at such a time, and that he would be happy of his company on the homeward voyage. The hint was enough. 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. He soon made his way to Strathglass, where he remained until he was selected as prefect of studies for the Catholic College at Douai."

Later life and death
The Farquharson brothers reportedly settled at the Scots College in Douai, where, according to historian A.S. MacWilliam, surviving letters reveal that the Rector, Fr. Crookshank, desperately wanted to be rid of them. Fr. John Farquharson remained in Douai, until, according to a 19 July 1748 letter from Fr. Crookshank to the General, he departed France to return to Scotland and his mission in Strathglass on 5 July 1748.

In a report by Bishops Hugh MacDonald and Alexander Smith to the Congregation for the Propaganda of the Faith on 1 November 1753, it was announced that Fr. 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."

Instead of remaining a fugitive in Scotland, however, Fr. Farquarson returned to the Scots College at Douai, where he was appointed as prefect of studies. The mission in Strathglass was reassigned to fellow Jesuit Fr. Norman MacLeod (Maighstir Tormod) (c.1717-1777), the son of Tormod Òig MacLeod, Clan MacLeod Tacksman of Garrabost on the Isle of Lewis.

After King Louis XV's suppression of the Jesuits within the Kingdom of France in 1763, Fr. 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. Eventually, the Jesuits had to move the College to Dinant, in what was then the independent Prince-Bishopric of Liège, but it was only a temporary respite and in 1773, when Fr. Farquharson was 74 years of age, Pope Clement XIV declared the Jesuits dissolved and the College in Dinant was also required to close.

Fr John Farqhuarson returned to Scotland, where Jesuit priests continued to serve in the Highland and Lowland Districts despite the suppression, in 1773 and lived principally in the valley of Braemar, while serving as chaplain and spiritual director to his nephew, the Laird of Inverey and Balmoral. After he died at Balmoral Castle on 13 October 1782, Bishop John Geddes eulogized Fr. John Farquharson as, "a man of primitive simplicity and exemplary virtue."

Fr. Farquarson lies buried in the churchyard at Castletown, in what is now part of the village of Braemar. His brother, Fr. Charles Farquharson, continued to serve as an underground Catholic missionary until his own death at Ardearg on 30 November 1799.

Legacy
During his secret missionary work in Lochaber and Strathglass, Fr. John Farquharson also indulged in the hobby of being a pioneering folklorist and Celticist. Farquharson transcribed an immense manuscript collection of local oral literature and oral poetry. The manuscript reportedly included many tales from the Fenian Cycle of Scottish mythology; all of the poems of Ossian were reportedly in this collection, and other compositions not published by James Macpherson and which Fr. Farquharson considered, in many cases, to be greatly superior to those in print. The manuscript in his own handwriting was, later described as, "in folio, large paper, about three inches thick, written close and in a small letter", was donated in 1772 to the Scots College, Douai. Instead of being carefully preserved, however, the manuscript was used to light fires at the College by those unfamiliar with both the Gaelic language and the manuscript's great importance to Scottish Gaelic literature.

Furthermore, the Bullaun, or natural cup stone, known as (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, 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, Beauly, Glen Cannich, which was built, despite the depopulation of much of the surrounding countryside by the Highland Clearances, following Catholic Emancipation in 1829, completed in 1866, and solemnly consecrated in 1868.

Folklore
In local Scottish folklore, Fr. Farquarson is said, while accompanied by his clerk, Alexander Chisholm, to have had a face to face confrontation with the Devil upon Cannich Bridge and to have forced his opponent to dive into the River Cannich, "with a noise like a thousand thunders, and spitting fire, flame, and smoke".

In popular culture
Despite having been alone in their priestly ministry among the Catholic population of Clan Fraser of Lovat during the time in which Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series of romance novels takes place, Frs. Alexander Cameron, John Farquharson, and Charles Farquharson do not appear in the novels or in the television adaptation of them, which center around a fictionalized depiction of the same Clan and whose central character of Jamie Fraser is a grandson of Lord Lovat. Those priests who do appear are depicted with far more comfortable standards of living than the often brutal winter conditions of the Cave at Glen Cannich, much better constructed Church buildings than the thatched Mass houses or open air Mass stones used during the period, and far less education, culture, and sophistication than the three outlawed Jesuits are known to have possessed.

Books

 * Odo Blundell (1909), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland. Volume I: The Central Highlands, Sands & Co., 21 Hanover Street, Edinburgh, 15 King Street, London.
 * Thomas Wynne (2011), The Forgotten Cameron of the '45: The Life and Times of Alexander Cameron S.J, Print Smith, Fort William, Scotland

Periodicals

 * "Simon, Lord Lovat's Warning", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, November 1881, pp. 49-52.
 * "Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 141-146.
 * "A Highland Mission: Strathglass, 1671-1777", by Very Rev. Alexander Canon Mac William, Volume XXIV, Innes Review, pp. 75-102.