Sandy's Blog
Churches and Weddings
by Casagrandeblog - 20:59 on 16 June 2013
This week our focus is on the Cromarty churches. Note the plural! Not only do we have the existing Church of Scotland Parish Church (still called ‘the West Church’), but also the historic East Church, the Gaelic Chapel, St. Regulus Scottish Episcopal Church, and the recently-demolished Mission Hall in Big Vennel. There is even a very recent addition to the list - namely the First Sunday congregation that meets monthly in the Victoria Hall. So there should be a lot to remember at our ‘Memories’ session on Thursday evening.
Here, to get us started, is a story from the ‘Ross-shire Journal’ of 20th June 1887 which doesn’t show the church in a very good light.
On Wednesday last a farm labourer and a woman from Resolis had their banns proclaimed, and they then applied to the Minister of the Established Church in Cromarty to marry them. He refused - 'the stock of intellect in both cases being a somewhat limited quantity.' They left the Manse and went to the Registrar, but he was out. They then paraded about the town till about 10pm with two bridesmaids appealing to the sympathies of crowds of boys who enjoyed the fun immensely. They went to the Church on the following Sunday, when the would-be groom stood up and declared 'Johanna, I take you to be my wife'.
The 'Ross-shire' doesn’t tell us what the final outcome was, and whether the couple lived happily ever after. But denying marriage to people of ‘limited intellect’ seems a bit un-Christian to me.
Marriage was clearly a serious business in the 19th century. In 1896 there was a Breach of Promise case in the Court of Session featuring Cromarty man Colin Thomson (no relation), livery stable keeper, High Street, Cromarty. He had been courting Ann Somerville from Gourock for 14 years, and then upped and wed another. Ann sued him for £1,000. I’m sorry I don’t know the outcome. Hope she won. Colin was clearly a bad lot. But I wonder how he managed his long-distance courting in the pre-internet age?
Thanks for the laugh,
Rachelle Thomson
Add your comment
