In the previous post, Archie and his children noted it was 200 years since the passing of their ancestor, Mulmorich Darroch. Who was Mulmorich? Why was he a significant character in the town, the parish, and the Darroch family? To find out, we travel further back in time, to 1638.
It was a grey, overcast day in Clachan, in March of 1638. A cool wind from the ocean skirted around Dunskeig Hill and settled on the village. A stonemason led his horse and cart through the streets of Clachan. Four helpers walked alongside the wagon as it entered the Kilcalmonell Parish cemetery. The cart was carrying a large grave slab, weighing 75 stone. It was for no ordinary person, but for the parish minister, Reverend Mulmorich Darroch.
The mason had spent hours chiseling the epitaph and was now ready to place it on the grave. The cart pulled alongside the mound, and the helpers lowered the slab.
“Thank you, gentlemen,” the mason said. “I’ll stay a wee bit to finish up, but you can go.”
He pulled out his mallet and chisel and lay down beside the slab. Propped up on one elbow, he proceeded to carve some finishing touches into the stone. It was quiet in the graveyard, an ideal surrounding for the mason to reminisce as he worked.
It was hard to believe the parson had passed away. He had served here over twenty-four years, including officiating at the mason’s wedding, christening his children, and burying his father. His thoughts were interrupted when someone approached him from behind. Glancing over his shoulder, the mason’s eyes widened and he jumped up.
“Dugald! I mean to say, ‘Reverend Darroch.’”
Dugald smiled in recognition of his old friend. “Ye cannae call me ‘Reverend’ yet. I won’t be ordained until later this spring. My brother John is here from his parish in Jura. You may call him ‘Reverend’ if you are so inclined.”
Dugald studied the epitaph on the slab and said, “I like the line that he ‘Served the cure.’ That he did, and he did it well.”
“Aye. It was an honour to immortalize his work in stone.”
Dugald’s eyes moistened as he slowly nodded.
The stonemason’s work certainly did memorialize Reverend Darroch and his life’s work. How many of us can point to another ancestor’s gravestone that is over 380 years old? The fact that Mulmorich even had a stone signifies he was a man of influence. A 1631 book states, “Sepulchres should be made according to the quality and degree of the deceased person.... [P]ersons of a plebian sort shall be buried without any tomb or gravestone or epitaph….” Commoners were wrapped in a shroud and buried in an unmarked grave outside the church cemetery. Mulmorich’s slab attests to his success in the church and community.
Perhaps part of Mulmorich’s success was in adapting to change. When he moved to Clachan in 1614, the Macdonald clan ruled Argyllshire. Within a year, however, they fell to the Campbells. Clan Darroch was a branch of the deposed Macdonald clan, yet Mulmorich was not unseated from his charge. He similarly endured upheavals in the Church. Many of his pastoral colleagues had their ministerial status withdrawn, but not so with Mulmorich. He “served the cure” until his passing, in spite of clan warfare and insurrection in the church.
Mulmorich left a legacy of Darroch descendants who were men of the cloth, starting with his two sons mentioned in this story. John served as a minister on the Isle of Jura, across the strait and within eyesight of Dunskeig Hill. Dugald graduated from the University of Glasgow’s School of Divinity in 1638 and succeeded his father as the minister for the Kilcalmonell Parish in Clachan. His service was not limited to that parish, and he played a prominent role in the Synod of Argyll. Dugald also had a son ordained to the ministry. Others followed suit.
Mulmorich’s grave served as a gathering point and literal touchstone for Darroch descendants for over 380 years. The slab will not last forever, however, and relatively few descendants will travel to Clachan to see it. Does this mean the tradition of the stone will pass away? No. Frank Darroch kept the tradition alive by publishing his 1974 red book. Malcolm Darroch renewed the tradition in 2008, by starting the website www.Darroch.org. You keep the tradition each time you read or forward a family story to a family member.
Our next post will fast-forward seven generations to 1841, to Mulmorich’s great-great-great-great-grandson, Archie Darroch, who had been offered the opportunity to serve as precentor. We will watch him in action, in the same parish in which his ancestor Mulmorich served.
Please consider passing on these stories to your Darroch relatives. This keeps the tradition of the stone by honouring our ancestors’ legacies and preserving their hard-earned lessons for future descendants.
References:
[1] J. Weever, A Discourse of Funerall Monuments, 1631, (http://www.thereformation.info/gravestones.htm, retrieved March 4, 2018).
[2] For more on the Darroch ministers, see http://www.darroch.org/darroch_ministers.html
or Frank Darroch, A Darroch Family in Scotland and in Canada (1974), 32-36.
[3] For more on the disputes on the governance of the Church of Scotland in the 1600s, see this Bishops' Wars article.