The Reverend Gentleman
The ‘Reverend Gentleman’ and Mrs Meikle
Clambering back up the family tree, we come back to
strong religious convictions in the shape of the
Reverend James Meikle, the likely author of several
religious tracts: “The Edenic Dispensation” (published in
1849) and two volumes on the “Mediatorial
Dispensation its Nature, and its Administration” (the
former in 1853 and the latter in 1859). By way of
warning, these tracts are not an easy read and give
some idea of the stern evangelical convictions of many
Scots during the first half of the nineteenth century.
James Meikle and his wife were the maternal
grandparents of Coll Macdonald’s wife, Agnes Crawford.
I can easily remember a portrait of James Meikle and
his wife hanging on the dining room wall in my
grandparents’ house. These somewhat severe portraits
were accompanied by a portrait of James’ father and
also by a portrait of my grandmother.
The Spook
My father told us with some humour, that the portrait
of James’ father was used to cover a water tank in the
attic of his childhood home. And certainly we, as
children, knew this gentleman as “The Spook”.
Seemingly this person was “a crofter” who managed to
have his portrait painted, his thumb resembling a
sausage in this rather poor painting where the frame
itself would vastly out-value the painting.
Mrs Meikle wears a necklace which along with all the
portraits mentioned above are still in the possession of
my son, Hamish, in Sydney, Australia. Previously they
hung, for many years, in my own childhood home in
County Wicklow, Ireland.
My grandmother:
Jessie Macdonald
The ‘Spook’
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From left to right: Evelyn Clarke, Eva Clarke (nee Macdonald),
‘Stanley’ Stokes, Jessie Stokes (nee Macdonald)