Rev Donald Macrae, Min. of Kintail

"Reverend Donald McRae the third son of Rev. Farquhar Macrae, He became Vicar of Urray in 1649. He was Chaplain to the regiment contributed by Seaforth to the expedition which ended in the defeat of the Royalist troops at Worcester on the 3rd of Sept. 1651, but does not appear to have accompanied it to England, as he was chosen Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in that year, and was present, after his return from the Assembly, at a meeting of the Dingwall Presbytery at Contin on the 19th of August in that year, when the brethren expressed their satisfaction with the manner in which he had performed his duties as their Commissioner. In 1656, he was translated to Kintail as fellow labourer and “conjunct” Minister with his father. On the death of his father in 1662, Mr. Donald became sole Vicar of Kintail until his own death in 1681. He was followed in this station by his nephew, Rev. Donald Macrae, the second son of Alexander of Inverinate by his second wife. He was the Vicar of Kintail from 1681 until 1721 when he died. He was the last Episcopalian Minister of Kintail. The old Church of Kintail was destroyed by the English in 1719, at the same time that Ellandonan Castle was rased, and act of sacrilege, the only possible excuse being that the Minister, Rev. Donald Macrae was an ardent Episcopalian and Jacobite. He was an old man when his church was destroyed and he died his shortly afterwards, in 1721. There was no Minister for some time after his death and in 1730 a Presbyterian Minister was appointed, the Rev. John Mclean. Another church was built that lasted until 1855 when it was declared unsafe and the present church as built.

It is so frequently the custom to speak only of what was wild and unsettled in the Highlands of two or three centuries ago that to anyone interested in the social history of that part of the country, it must be very pleasant to contemplate the life long work of such men as the Rev. Farquhar Macrae, his son the Rev. Donald Macrae, and his grandson the Rev. Donald Macrae, son of Alexander of Inverinate, in a parish so Highland and so outlying as Kintail. The principal men of the district were keenly interested in the great religious and political movements of their day. Perhaps in no other district of the Highlands was the religious and political feeling of the people more pronounced at this time than in Kintail. This fact is fully borne out by the tone of the Fernaig Manuscript, which is a collection of Kintail poems of this period, most of which were written by the Macrae Clan Chieftain, Duncan, oldest son of Alexander of Inverinate. Rev. Donald Macrae married Isabel, daughter of Murdoch Mackenzie.

Biographical Summary

"Donald Macrae, son of preceding; adm. to Urray before 21st Jan. 1645 ; pres. by the Presb. 24th June, trans. and adm. (assistant and successor) 20th July 1656 ; died about 1681. He marr. Isobel, daugh. of Murdoch Mackenzie of Hilton, and had issue — Alexander, tacksman of Druidaig; John; Colin; Mary (marr. John Matheson of Bennetsfield)."

SOURCE: Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae: the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation, Vol. VII, page 152