Presbyterian Strathspey in the Jacobite Era

Examines correlations between religious allegiance in Highland Scotland and resistance to the Jacobite rebellions

• Presents a case study into the achievements and limitations of early eighteenth-century Scottish Presbyterianism
• Uses church records to document the extension of Presbyterian ministries throughout Strathspey and Badenoch between 1690 and 1740
• Challenges existing narratives of the church and civil histories of the Central Highlands of Scotland in the Jacobite era
• Archive material from Castle Grant affirms the Revolutionary and Hanoverian loyalties of the lairds of Grant from 1688, correcting frequent misconceptions
• Acknowledgement of the preferred neutrality of many of the Grant elite, and of the Jacobite commitment of others, modifies any simple correlation between clan, dynastic and religious allegiances in 1745-6
  
• Engages with histories of Clan Grant as well as with leading authors in the field of Jacobite era studies

This book explores the significance of religious faith in forming the personal choices, the course of events and the structure of society in Highland Strathspey in the Jacobite era. Combining study of the Presbyterian establishment in Strathspey’s parishes with an account of the Jacobite wars in the region, it challenges misconceptions about the lack of Presbyterian reach north of the Tay in the early eighteenth century.

Frank D. Bardgett studies church records to account for the Revolutionary settlement as a veneer imposed by proprietorial authority on traditional Gaelic culture. He also shows that the acceptance of parish ministries was achieved through interaction with communal aspirations. With a chronological structure focusing on the period 1689 to 1746, the book interweaves ecclesiastical developments with political and military activities and traces the significance of both religion and clan to personal and communal identity in this area of the Scottish Highlands.