The Birkenburn MS

Transcription notes: This work passed into the hands of William Mackay and from there to the National Library of Scotland. I am most grateful to the staff there for showing such great consideration towards my own difficulties. The MS has been digitised and is available for inspection at the National Library. I am also grateful to Sharon Hay for the initial typing up - which took far longer than she expected or allowed for - and to David Caldwell of Edinburgh for assistance and advice with the Latin and the Greek.

The work was written on one side of the page only, but has been heavily annotated in a different hand, largely on the left hand pages. I have incorporated these annotations into the text - differentiated by their being in blue. I show all the original page numbers in brackets in red. Where the annotations run on over a page I have nevertheless united them so that each annotaion is entire and in one piece. I hope that readers who wish to concentrate on the original text will find it easy to allow their eye to skim over the blue sections to next piece of original (black) text. I have included a transliteration of the Greek in purple.

Part I and Part III are contained each in their own page, but Part II is far too big - so I have chopped it up at suitable places. The start of each page is provided with a hyperlink in the table below.

Given the reference to Birkenburn, we assume the author to be Rev Francis Grant, for whom the Fasti ecclesiae Scoticanae offers biographical notes adapted thus:

[FRANCIS GRANT (d.1805) licenced by the Presbytery of Forres 2nd July 1776; ordained by the Presbytery of Fordyce as missionary at Enzie 11th May 1785; presented (to Knockando) by Sir James Grant of Grant before 20th June, and admitted 14th Aug. 1788. He married, 4th Feb. 1785, Jane Stuart, who died 25th Aug. 1839, aged 80, and had issue —

(i) Agnes, born 7th Nov. 1785;
(ii) Helen, born 2nd Aug. 1788;
(iii) Jean, born 15th Oct. 1789, died 13th Jan. 1837;
iv) Elizabeth, born 16th Sept. 1791;
(v) Patrick John, born 14th April 1796.]

 

The Birkenburn MS

[National Library of Scotland MS 3568]

(i) Owners signature:William Mackay, Netherwood, Inverness

(ii) Foreword:Aptissime quoque dabunt Dii (Juvenal)

Vix ex ephebis excesseram, cum proclara apud Scotos nomina legere ac relegere haud parum attulit voluptatis. In primis enimvers animum in tribum illam, qua deductum genus sive stemma nimirum proprium, sicut proditum memoriæ, intendebam. Hac viros per complura secula utraque Pallade cum sagata tum togata insignes videre licet! Quos complectitur a primævis temporibus historia, in animum jamdudum subiit ex obscuro eripere. Incæpto quædam obstabant: quapropter, quæ sequitur historia, (procul dubio,) vana sit jure habenda.

Scribebam apud Birkenburn, qua non longe distal Keith villa in Proscestura Banfiensi, Kal: Jun: 1782

(iii) Dedication: To Mr Lud Grant Edinburgh January 15 1783

(iv) Title: A Succinct Account of the Grants

At genus immortale manet, mullosq. per annos
Stat fortuna domus, & avi numerantur avorum
Præterea regem non sicÆgyptus, et ingens Lydia,
Nec populi Parthorum, aut Medus Hydaspes
Observant: rege in columi mens omnibus una est:
Ille operum custos: illum admirantur, et omnes
Circumstant fremitie denso, stipantq. frequentes;
…..et corpora bello
Objectant, pulchramq. petunt per vulnera mortem.

Virg. Geor. Li p.207

(v) Preface:

A complete history of the Grants would certainly be very acceptable to many. The following is, in many respects, very imperfect; for, besides the want of chronological evidence, the tracts preserved by the Clan seem to have been written by careless hands; and are so stuffed with trifling stories, that they tend more to expose the subject to ridicule, than to satisfy an enquirer into the genealogy and history of his predecessors. The compiler of the following sheets was obliged to transcribe a great many of these. At the same time, however, he has, in the course of his reading, extracted several facts from (vi) the historians he has fallen in with, that he never saw in any of the trifling registers of the Clan that have come into his hands. Yet, from his present situation, having access, neither to the public archives of the country, nor the private repositories of individuals, he cannot aver the truth of either time or succession, so far as he trusted private memoirs. The facts, nevertheless, he has selected from contemporary writers, are well enough vouched. Imperfect as the performance is, and must unavoidably be, it has afforded him no small pleasure at vacant hours; and may, for aught he knows to the contrary, be of some service to those who apply themselves to walk the unbeaten path. To multiply excuses for the defects, would but serve to exaggerate them; & therefore, he must acknowledge the errors, notwithstanding that they have cost him the work of several years.

(vii) Contents: