10. Alexander Greig

Dates of Rectorship: 1745 – 1793
Dates of Life: Circa 1712 – 1793

Before –
Before 1745: Prizeman at King’s College, Aberdeen
Circa 1745: Ordained Deacon

Death –
Date: 28th June 1793
Place: Stonehaven

Additional Information –
Never married. It seems likely that he was not ordained a priest until after his appointment as the rector here. He certainly was ordained a priest, but details of where and when have been lost. In the present day, it is impossible for a deacon to be a rector, but in the 18th century in Scotland, it was relatively common, especially in rural parishes. He may have been the Dean of the diocese at one point, but sources conflict.

Even with the lack of information surrounding his life, any of Greig’s deeds would be eclipsed by that he is most famous for – the baptism from the jail.

Information on the role of the Non-Jurors in Stonehaven and in Scotland at large, as well as the effect of the 1745 Rising on the local area is explored in great detail elsewhere on this site and within the exhibition itself, so suffice it to say here simply that the chapel in the High Street was gutted by the advancing Hanoverian army, and the shell used to stable the Dragoons’ horses.
A law was enacted prohibiting any Episcopalian worship with more than five people in attendance, and the gutted chapel was confiscated by the government. All that remains of it today is the Belfry Stone, located in the Baptistry of the present church.

Episcopalian clergy devised an inventive solution to the restrictions – hold a service in a private house, with five people in each room. Naturally, Communion could not be conducted in this way, but Matins could be, and Matins was ubiquitously the “primary” Sunday service in that period.
Unsurprisingly, the courts considered this to be in breach of the act. Rev. Alexander Greig as well as Rev. John Troup of St. Ternan’s, Muchalls, and Rev. John Petrie of St. John’s, Drumlithie, were tried and sentenced to six months imprisonment in the Stonehaven Tolbooth.

A few things should be noted about the case. Firstly, the sentence may seem lenient, but this is because it was a first offence. Had it been a second offence, the penalty would have been transportation to America, for life. Secondly, many legal professionals throughout the subsequent centuries have commented that the text of Greig’s indictment (available elsewhere on this site and in the exhibition itself) is an incredibly sloppy work, and likely would have won the author a good deal of criticism from his fellows had the times not been so hectic.
Thirdly, the three priests were imprisoned for six months between 1748 and 1749. Often rendered “imprisoned over the winter” is used, but this does not appear in any documents from the period, with good reason as we shall see. Their term of imprisonment likely began immediately after their trial, which was in early March. With only a six month term, how do we arrive at concluding they were imprisoned in two separate years? Because, until 1752, New Year’s Day was 25th March, the Feast of the Annunciation, sometimes called “Lady Day”.

It should be noted, that Scotland had been observing 1st January as the New Year since 1600, but because England did not change the date until 1752, it seems likely that after the Act of Union, Scots criminal courts reverted to the pre-1600 practice in order not to confuse their English colleagues, and to ensure that at least this was consistent on both sides of the border.

Fishwives from Cowie would trudge across the bay, hiding babies in their creels, in order to have them baptised by the priests in the jail. This was the subject of a famous painting in the 19th century, which can be frequently seen in many Episcopal churches in Scotland. The artist, George Washington Brownlow, did his research. Local people, many of whom were familiar with the story due to having it relayed to them by their families, were used as models for the painting. Indeed, the window which the painting uses as its subject is real, despite commonly believed to be artistic license, and is still very visible today.

Until very recently, the painting was probably the most famous and widely seen image of Stonehaven in the world. We believe that this honour belongs today to the photograph of Dunnottar Castle which was included as a default desktop background on Windows 7.

After his release, he continued to minister to people in private houses in the same way that caused his arrest. This time, he was undetected, and after a few years the congregation were able to build a new chapel, in the grounds of what became Keith Lodge.

It is sometimes repeated that the three priests befriended a member of the Stuart dynasty who was also a Roman Catholic monk during their imprisonment, that they helped him escape, and that in return they sent him copies of the Scottish Liturgy, and he sent them copies of “On the Imitation of Christ” by St. Thomas a Kempis. This is totally untrue, and was written as a piece of fiction in the novel “The Prisoners of Craigmacaire” by another of our former rectors; Alexander Penrose Forbes.
However, every fiction has a grain of truth. There may have been no monk, but Greig, Petrie, and Troup, as well as other Episcopalians of the North-East, were in fact reading Roman Catholic spiritual works more recent than St. Thomas a Kempis. Instead, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis de Sales, St. John of the Cross, and St. Teresa of Avila were their fare. There is some speculation of how they obtained these books, but it is quite a well established fact that merchants from the Low Countries in Aberdeen were involved in the smuggling of all sorts of books of a “Catholic persuasion” into Britain. Therefore, it seems likely that they probably obtained them from a merchant in Aberdeen, and not somewhere more dramatic or cloak and dagger!