‘Above Dee Water is a Kirk; and about that again there is a dearer kirkyaird.’
S.R.CROCKETT and BALMAGHIE KIRK
‘The sweetest and the sunniest God’s Acre in Scotland, and since such things must needs be, doubtless a right desirable place for any tired wanderer’s resting-grave.’
Samuel Rutherford Crockett was born at Little Duchrae on 24th September 1859. Brought up by his maternal grandparents William and Mary Crockett, the family moved to Castle Douglas in 1867.
In 1876 he won The Galloway Bursary to study at Edinburgh University. He supplemented his income by writing articles for a variety of popular and literary magazines. A writer was born.
In the 1880s he travelled extensively, finally returning to Edinburgh to study for the ministry. In November 1886 he took up the charge at the Free Kirk in Penicuik.
Crockett married Ruth Milner in March 1887 and they had four children. He continued writing, was ‘discovered’ by William Robertson Nicoll in 1892 and in 1893 his first collection of short sketches was published by T.Fisher Unwin as The Stickit Minister and some common men, which quickly became a bestseller.
In 1894 he followed up with The Raiders and The Lilac Sunbonnet and his reputation was established. After eight years as minister he resigned from the Kirk in January 1895 and devoted himself to the life of a writer. He continued to travel abroad regularly, as well as spending part of each year in Galloway.
More than 30 of his 70 published works are set in the Galloway of his childhood. A good place to start reading for those interested in the Balmaghie connection is his 1898 novel The Standard Bearer which offers a fictionalised version of the turbulent life of John Macmillan (The Cameronian Apostle). Crockett also wrote an introduction for H.M.B.Reid’s 1895 book The Kirk Above Dee Water.
Crockett died in France on April 16th 1914 and is buried in the Kirkyard here at Balmaghie according to his wishes: ‘when the years are over, many or few, and our Galloway requiem, “Sae he’s won awa,” is said of me, that is the bell I should like rung. And there in the high corner I should like to lie, if so the fates allot it, among the dear and simple folk I knew and loved in youth.’
Balmaghie also features in Crockett’s Covenanting novels The Men of the Moss Hags (1895) and its sequel Lochinvar (1897) and in Raiderland (1904)
There is a memorial to him at Laurieston and his memory is kept alive by the Galloway Raiders
For further information and insight into Crockett’s Galloway writing visit www.gallowayraiders.co.uk
Crockett’s Galloway fiction was republished in a centenary edition ‘The Galloway Collection’ by Ayton Publishing in 2014 and the books are available in paperback from the online bookseller www.unco.scot, Amazon and other retailers. Digital versions are also available including Reid’s The Kirk Above Dee Water and The Cameronian Apostle.
(Cally Phillips, October 2018)