History and traditions of the land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns

18 LAND OF THE LINDSAYS.
thirteen years of age, leaving him and two daughters. The
daughters were married to respectable villagers of Edzell, of the
names of Thomson and Lindsay. The latter was an ingenious
self-taught mechanic, who, to his trade of general merchant,
added that of watch and clockmaker ; and having had his shop
robbed on an Edzell market night, the peculiarity of the tools
with which he wrought led to the discovery of the felon,
a notorious provincial highwayman, who, for this crime, was
hanged on Balmashanner hill at Forfar, in 1785, and is said
to have been the last person who suffered capital punishment
by the decree of any Sheriff in Scotland.
Low began his studies at Aberdeen, and afterwards went
to St. Andrews ; and being taken to Orkney in 1766, by Mr.
Alison, then minister at Holme, he became tutor to the family of
Mr. Grahame, a wealtny merchant in Stromness, with whom he
remained six years. While there, he studied assiduously for the
ministry, and his divinity studies being incomplete, in order to pre-
pare him for examination previous to license as a preacher, he
received "lessons," as was then usual in such cases, from some
of the ministers in the Presbytery.
On leaving the family of Mr. Grahame, he went to Shet-
land, where he preached in various parts for two years, during
which time he became acquainted with Mr. Pennant, whom he
accompanied on his celebrated Shetland tour. From his great
botanical knowledge, he was of vast service to Mr. Pennant,
through whose influence, Sir Lawrence Dundas, then patron of
most of the churches of Orkney and Shetland, presented Mr. Low
to that of Birsay and Harry, where he was settled on the 14th
of December, 1774. Two years after, he married Helen, daughter
of his former benefactor, " the learned Mr. Tyrie, of Sandwich ;"
but she died within sixteen months, after giving birth to a still
born child. Her husband survived until the 18th of March, 1795,
and dying at Birsay, was buried in the church, below the pulpit.
A correspondent informs us that " he latterly accustomed him-
self to study in bed, which, on many occasions, was more like
the dormitory of the dead than of the living."
In addition to the works above noticed, Mr. Low left a
history of Orkney in manuscript, which fell into the hands of Mr.
Alison of Holme, who gave it to Dr. Barry, by whom " it was