Publication Info
Publication Details
Introduction
On behalf of Stonehaven Heritage Society I am delighted to provide a foreword for this booklet on the complete Memorial Inscriptions for the Kirkyard of St Ciaran’s Fetteresso. Can I thank the Aberdeen and North East Family History Society and especially the team that have worked carefully and tirelessly over the many years to bring this project to publication. St Ciaran’s Fetteresso is named after St Ciaran (515-548 AD) an Irish monk and like St Columba a pupil of St Finnian. St. Ciaran was the founding Abbott of the ancient monastic settlement of Clonmacnoise in the County of Offaly Ireland. He and his followers were missionaries to the Picts; however, it is very unlikely that St Ciaran himself ever came as far as the Mearns. The Church was officially dedicated on May 26th 1246 by Bishop David de Bernham. The surviving ruin situated on a knoll above the Carron Water is the 1720 rebuild of the earlier church. A medieval door way still exists and reused medieval stone work is still visible in the walls. Within the Church is the burial aisle of the Duff family, the last main landowners of Fetteresso Estate. A number of notable graves also lie within the Church including a recumbent stone lying below where the pulpit would have been, this marks the resting place of the last minister of the old Kirk Rev George Thomson. All grave stones are important but there’s one that is of particular interest to genealogists and family historians, that of Alexander Wood (number 451 in this booklet). You have this gent to thank for the introduction of statutory records in Scotland in 1855. His failure to write a will ended up in one of the most extensive court cases in Scotland, Willox v Farrell. The Kirk Session Records could provide no evidence as to who Alexander’s Grandfather was and therefore who should be the beneficiary of his £5.2 million pound fortune. This court case was used as one of the main legal arguments for the necessity of keeping statutory registration records in Scotland. St Ciaran’s is one of the most extensive and the most important old Kirkyards in Kincardineshire. The Church with its extensive grave yard has some 860 grave stones and is situated in the picturesque Conservation Village of Kirktown of Fetteresso on the outskirts of Stonehaven. The village and the Kirk are well worth a visit, whether you are tracing your family history or visiting the important scheduled ancient monument of St Ciaran’s Fetteresso. This reference publication will I am sure be used extensively and sit alongside that of the companion ANESFHS publications of Dunnottar and Cowie Kirkyards MI Booklets, as an invaluable resource for those tracing their family roots and history in Kincardineshire. Dr Keith Stewart Vice Chairman Stonehaven Heritage Society Scottish Charity No. SCO 20573 http://www.stonehaven-heritage.org/
Acknowledgements
As so often, the first recording of the MIs at Fetteresso appear to have been made by Andrew Jervise in the 1870s - but, as usual, he recorded only a small number of stones, generally commemorating what he described as “men of mark”. But as he reported on some stones which have deteriorated or disappeared, we include some of his versions where they can add to what is now visible. And again, as so often, the first draft version lodged with ANESFHS was done by the late Sheila Spiers. Her readings were later revised by Marjory and Sandy Edward, but there remained problems with the kirkyard plan, which was incomplete, and which had got out of kilter with the transcriptions. The plan was eventually overhauled in 2015-16 and a final check made of some doubtful readings. We are pleased to record the generous financial contribution made by the Stonehaven Heritage Society to the costs of printing this booklet. Gavin Bell MI Co-ordinator October 2016
