Reverend Hugh Scott (1791-1872): A scholar and minister in Anstruther

Living in the East Neuk of Scotland is always full of wonderful surprises, and recently I became aware that one of the most important nineteenth-century historians of the Scottish kirk was a minister for many decades in my home village of Anstruther before he passed away in 1872. His church, the oldest parts of which date to the middle ages, is now the Dreel Halls, a wonderful facility where many civic events take place on any given weekend (the other parish church, Anster Easter, built in the later 1500’s, now serves as the parish church).

The Dreel Halls today

A painting of Anstruther Wester Kirk from 1842

The Reverend Hew Scott (1791-1872) was minister of Anstruther Wester parish from 1839 until his death in 1872. He attended for a time the University of Edinburgh, and then received his degrees from Aberdeen. As part of working his way through university he took on various jobs as assistant researcher and librarian, and doing this work made him aware of the need to put together a compendium of detailed biographies of every minister and parish in the Kirk since the Reformation. This resulted in his great accomplishment, the comprehensive, multi-volume work, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae: The succession of ministers in the parish churches of Scotland, from the reformation, A.D. 1560, to the present time. This incredible work of scholarship is a detailed, biographical record of each of the ministers of each of the parishes of the Church of Scotland from 1560 to 1870.  It is regularly updated by the Church of Scotland until this day. Reverend Scott was given an honorary doctorate by the University of St Andrews as a tribute to this great work.

Reverend Hew Scott

Thinking of Reverend Scott toiling away at this project while in my home of Anstruther is something I find particularly moving. Also, it is an important reminder of the vast amounts of scholarship, often local history, which countless parish ministers contributed over the centuries. It was poignant this weekend, on the eve of the 151^st anniversary of his passing, to visit his grave, along with my daughter Meg Hyland who took the photos and transcribed the now almost-faded inscription on the stone, and think about his great accomplishments while looking out over Anstruther harbour and the sea.

Fasti Ecclesiae Scotticanae

Memorial stone of Hew Scott and his wife Sarah Kennedy

Inscription:

Erected by Jane Kennedy

In memory of

The Rev Hew Scott D.D. F.S.A.Sc

Minister for 33 years

Of Anstruther Wester

And Author of

Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae

Who died 12 July 1872

Aged 81 years

Also of her sister

Sarah Kennedy

Spouse of the above

Who died 1st of May 1874

Unity in God’s Good Time

Like many of us, I love wandering around in old graveyards, a natural place for quiet contemplation and thoughtful reflection. While on a lunchtime stroll in the graveyard around St Andrews cathedral, I was moved by the gravestone of the Victorian bishop Charles Wordsworth, whose zeal for Christian unity, a cause very close to my own heart, was expressed so well in his epitaph:

These words and sentiments from the late nineteenth century were engraved at a time when church attendance was very high all across Scotland, with thriving parishes of the Church of Scotland everywhere, with those of others, like Bishop Wordsworth’s own Scottish Episcopal Church, also ministering to large flocks.

Times have changed, and the Scottish Kirk, here in the East Neck of Fife as in many other places, is now contemplating the closure of a vast number of churches, including some beautiful historic buildings that have stood at the heart of their communities for centuries. The decline of active members, decrease of clergy vocations, and the cost of maintaining old buildings, all factor in. I have to admit at times this reality gives rise to a vast melancholy in my heart.

In PIttenweem, our neighbouring village, stands a centuries-old parish church which is due for closure in the near future, on the site of what had been a medieval abbey:

PIttenweem, Parish church.

Just across the kirkyard from it is the much smaller but very lovely Episcopal church, which even has one of its walls border on the same kirkyard:

St John Scottish Episcopal church.

The symbolism of these two churches, both of them on the grounds of the same medieval abbey, and sharing but separated by a kirkyard, seems to speak for itself, a symbol of the long-divided post-reformation church in Scotland. But now, in the changed circumstances of our own day, it also presents opportunity. The growing closeness of various Christian churches in Scotland, along with declining numbers, accelerates the need to overcome old divisions and find creative ways to share buildings; such sharing can allow pooling of resources, and perhaps even lead toward the breaking down of old barriers and prejudices and new fellowships. And, just perhaps, help people realise that “God’s good time” for unity may indeed be upon us….