Strathendrick, and its inhabitants from early times

8 HISTORY OF STRATHENDR1CK
being fund groslie ignorant in the partis of Christianitie, to the knowledge of
the whole elders, which may hinder ther mariage for a tyme according to the
act of Session the 5 of Februar last, yet the Session taking to consideratioun
ther present estait and condition, quhilk is this — that both of them want ther
parentis of late and now has nane to guide themselfis or ther rowmes, and so
findis a necessitie of the present mariage gif they keip land as they intend ;
and therfore, lest the former appointment of Session suld be wholly broken,
they think it fitting that ther mariage (upon the foirsaid necessitie) goe on, and
that they oblidge themselfis to take paines and learne the groundis of religion
contained in the Catechis within thrie moneths eftir ther mariage under quhat
censure salbe thoght fitting to lay upon them."
No doubt, for twenty years, Mr. Adamson and his Session had been doing
their best for the parish according to their light, and had been particularly
severe on the drinking habits which prevailed ; it must, therefore, have been a
shock to the Session and people when it began to be whispered about 1654
that the minister had taken to drinking. The Presbytery took the matter up,
and the charge at this time was found not proven. The Session warmly supported
their minister, and denied that there were any grounds at all for the accusations,
and for some years matters went on in the parish much as before, the minister
and the Session striving to put down Sabbath profanation, and excessive drinking
at the " Ostlaries," of which there were a great many in the parish, and abuses
at "pennie brydails" through " promixuous dauncing," "lasciviousnes and
deboishrie." At the visitation of the parish by the Presbytery on the 16th
August 1659, the old charges, however, against the minister were renewed, and
this time by the elders, as well as others. One of the charges against him was
that he took money " or a bribe for suffering ane Corp to be buried in the
Kirkyard of Fintrie who was not a. parishioner," and another was of drunkenness
at the time of Communion. William Napier of Culcreuch said in evidence that
on one occasion he was " in his judgement drunk, qlk he discovered be the
drumlynes of his eyes, shaking of his body and hand that held the cup," and
Mr. Thomas Napier testified that on a certain day he saw him riding at some
distance off " roleing and noding upon his horse, and not sitting fast, and when
his boy, Neil Talzeor, cam up to him he asked if it was Mr. David, and if he
was sleeping, his boy answered — he was full." The end of the matter was that
on the 26th October 1659, Mr. Adamson was found guilty of drunkenness and
profanation of the Sabbath and was deposed, " Qlk sentence being read in the
hearing of the said Mr. David he acquiesced thairto, and with many teares
expressed sense of his falzeings, to the satisfactioune and convictioune of the
meteing." 1
1 Records of the Presbytery of Dunbarton.