John Farquharson () (19 April 1699 – 13 October 1782), was a member of the Scottish nobility who became a priest in the Northwest Highlands for the illegal Catholic Church in Scotland.
John Farquharson was born in the valley of Braemar as the son of the chief of Clan Farquharson and laird of Inverey and Auchindryne. After studying at the Scots College, Douai and being ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, Farquharson returned to Scotland. He lived in a cave with two fellow Jesuits as outlawed "heather priests" and underground missionaries to Clan Chisholm and Clan Fraser of Lovat in and around Strathglass during the era of the Penal Laws.Odo Blundell (1909), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, Volume I, London, pp. 194–195. After a government crackdown, with the collusion of both Chisholm of Chisholm and Lord Lovat,"A Highland Mission: Strathglass, 1671-1777", by Very Rev. Alexander Canon MacWilliam, Volume XXIV, Innes Review, pp. 75-102. Farquharson composed a work of satirical poetry denouncing Lord Lovat for being unfaithful to the Holy See, as "a traitor to both kings", and the religious persecution of the many Catholics of Clan Fraser, predicting that Lord Lovat's body would soon be without his head."Simon, Lord Lovat's Warning", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, November 1881, pp. 49-52.
Despite not having played a role in the Jacobite rising of 1745, during the Hanoverian crackdown following the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Farquharson surrendered to Major James Lockhart. Following imprisonment, Farquharson was expelled from the British Isles and ordered never to return. He returned to Scotland almost immediately, however, and went back to his former missionary apostolate in Strathglass, where he remained until being appointed prefect of studies at the Scots College in Douai in 1753. Following the suppression of the Jesuits, he returned to Scotland and worked as a resident chaplain and tutor to his nephew. He died at Balmoral Castle, then the property of the chiefs of Clan Farquharson, in 1782."Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 141-146.
Farquharson was also a folklorist and Celticist, a collector of oral poetry from the Fenian Cycle of Celtic mythology, and of local Scottish Gaelic literature. His lost manuscripts played a role in the later Ossianic controversy. During the Victorian era, the lost folklore collection of John Farquharson served as an inspiration to former British Army officer and folklorist Colin Chisholm of Lietry. Lietry sought to collect and publish as much of the local oral tradition as he could salvage, both from local informants and from his many correspondents throughout the global Scottish diaspora.Colin Chisholm (1885), Unpublished Old Gaelic Songs with Illustrative Traditions, Printed at the Courier Office, Inverness."Traditions of Strathglass" (PDF), by Colin Chisholm, a series of Victorian era articles about the oral tradition of the region published in The Celtic Magazine. Along with his brother, Charles Farquharson, "Maighstir Iain" remains a folk hero about whom many stories were collected from the oral tradition by John Grant of Glencairn and published in Legends of the Braes o' Mar.Roberts, A. (2020), "Jesuits in the Highlands: Three Phases". Journal of Jesuit Studies, 7(1), pp. 103-115.John Grant (1876), Legends of the Braes o' Mar, A. King & Company 2 Upperkirkgate, Alex. Troup, 33 Queen Street, Aberdeen. pp. 189-197, 228-234.
Early life Farquharson was born in the valley of Braemar, Aberdeenshire, to the chief of Clan Farquharson and Laird of Inverey on 19 April 1699. His father was Lewis Farquharson of Auchindryne (, lit. "Thornfield"). According to a manuscript written by his other son Charles Farquharson at the request of Bishop John Geddes, Lewis Farquharson was a younger son and not expected to inherit the estate and accordingly became a local Church of Scotland minister through his older brother's influence. He was instead persuaded to give up his living and convert to Catholicism by John Innes, an illegal Catholic missionary priest then assigned to Glengairn.John Grant (1876), Legends of the Braes o' Mar, A. King & Company 2 Upperkirkgate, Alex. Troup, 33 Queen Street, Aberdeen. pp. 189-197. His eldest brother, Lewis Farquharson, alias "Young Auchindryne" in Scottish parlance, later inherited their father's mantle as chief of Clan Farquharson. Through his brother, John was the uncle of future chief Alexander Farquharson."Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 141–142.
John Farquharson entered the Society of Jesus at Tournai. He completed his theology at the Scotch College, Douay, in 1729, and in October that year landed at Edinburgh to serve as an underground Catholic missionary priest. He was stationed by Bishop Hugh MacDonald, the equally underground Vicar Apostolic of the Highland District, in Strathglass and Lochaber.
Religious work While working, Farquharson was arrested and first imprisoned at the chief's residence of Erchless Castle and then interrogated at Fort Augustus, but was then released"Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 142–143. due to the intercession of the Clan Chisholm tacksman of Strathglass and returned to his ministry.John Watts (2004), Hugh MacDonald: Highlander, Jacobite, Bishop, John Donald Press. pp. 120. He was ultimately joined there by two fellow Jesuits; his brother Charles Farquarson and future Catholic martyr Alexander Cameron.MacWilliam, A. S. (1973). A Highland mission: Strathglass, 1671-1777. Innes Review xxiv. pp. 75–102. According to Colin Chisholm and Dom Odo Blundell of Fort Augustus Abbey, the three priests' residence and secret Mass house was inside a cave known as (Odo Blundell (1909), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, Volume I, London, page 203. lit. "the hollow of the hard-life"),Malcolm MacLennan (2001), Gaelic Dictionary/Faclair Gàidhlig, Mercat and Acair. Page 182.Collected by Fr. Allan MacDonald (1958, 1972, 1991), Gaelic Words from South Uist and Eriskay – Edited, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Second edition with supplement, published by the Oxford University Press. p. 113. which was located underneath the cliff of a big boulder at Brae of Craskie, near Beauly () in Glen Cannich ().Odo Blundell (1909), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, London, p. 203."Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 141–146.
Soon after, Farquharson's clerk, Alexander Chisholm (), was arrested and imprisoned inside "The Red Dungeon" at Beauly Castle by Lord Lovat, the chief () of Clan Fraser of Lovat. When Lord Lovat, despite being a Catholic himself, refused an in-person request for the release of his clerk, Farquarson, who was not a native speaker of the language, composed a satirical Gaelic poem reviling Lovat. Farquharson also predicted, correctly, that Lord Lovat would soon be both lacking his head and despised as a traitor "to both kings". Upon hearing the poem, which was a very accomplished literary work, recited to him during a dinner party at Eskadale, Lovat first thought it was the work of the acclaimed local poet, Mrs. Fraser of Guisachan in Glen Affric, until he heard the real author named. Satirical poetry and its authors have traditionally been viewed in the Gàidhealtachd with supernatural terror ever since pre-Christian times,Odo Blundell (1909), The Catholic Highlands of Scotland, Volume I, London, pp. 204–205."Simon, Lord Lovat's Warning", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, November 1881, pp. 49–52. but in this case there was added urgency, as the brothers Farquharson were both widely believed in Strathglass to have, "the gift of prophecy."John Grant (1876), Legends of the Braes o' Mar, A. King & Company 2 Upperkirkgate, Alex. Troup, 33 Queen Street, Aberdeen. p. 230. As Lord Lovat did not wish to call down upon himself, "any more disagreeable prophecies," he immediately ordered the clerk's release. Even so, Lord Lovat continued to aid the joint governmental and local Presbyterian synod's crackdown against the three priests and the Catholics of Clan Fraser of Lovat.
In September 1744, Farquharson was arrested after surrendering to the authorities."Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, p. 144. "The field of the frontal blow").Malcolm MacLennan (2001), Gaelic Dictionary/Faclair Gàidhlig, Mercat and Acair. Page 3, 35-36, 354. John Farquharson was then conveyed to Edinburgh in his sacerdotal vestments."Rev. John Farquharson, Priest of Strathglass", by Colin Chisholm, The Celtic Magazine, Volume 7, 1882, pp. 144–145. He must have been released at the very latest when Edinburgh fell to the Jacobite Army, as he and Charles were back to ministering in Strathglass well before the Battle of Culloden."A Highland Mission: Strathglass, 1671-1777", by Very Rev. Alexander Canon Mac William, Volume XXIV, Innes Review, p. 92.
However, he was again taken prisoner with his brother and held in Inverness Gaol, until "they were taken to London from Inverness in HMS Pamela and confined for 2 1/2 months in the hold of a man-of-war in the Thames, where they had to endure the insults of their guard and even physical violence.""A Highland Mission: Strathglass, 1671-1777", by Very Rev. Alexander Canon Mac William, Volume XXIV, Innes Review, p. 99. For a long period after the Battle of Culloden, HMS Pamela served, like many Royal Navy vessels filled with more than 900 both real and imagined Jacobites, as a prison hulk anchored off Gravesend in the River Thames.
After the cries of a dying Catholic prisoner for a priest were heard by the captains of the surrounding prison hulks,John Watts (2004), Hugh MacDonald: Highlander, Jacobite, Bishop, John Donald Press. pp. 121. Royal Navy Captain John Fergussone grudgingly allowed John Farquarson to board HMS Furnace to minister to the dying prisoner and the Jesuit found himself face to face with an emaciated Alexander Cameron. After first receiving Holy Communion and the Last Rites, Cameron offered the Tridentine Mass while John Farquharson served him at the altar. Soon after, Alexander Cameron died with Farquarson by his sideAccording to B. G. Seton and J. G. Arnot, Jacobite Prisoners of the '45 Vol. I (Edinburgh,1928), 224, Alexander Cameron 'died at sea' (aboard the 'Furnace' before reaching the Thames estuary)Blundell, Catholic Highlands, 188. on 19 October 1746.