Publication Info
Publication Details
Introduction
Being both historic and picturesque, the kirkyard of Fordyce and its memorial inscriptions have long attracted the attentions of antiquarians and genealogists. One of the earliest was Andrew Jervise, who in 1879 published transcriptions of around 30 stones, although, as ever, he appears to have concentrated on the stones of what he regarded as “important” people. Then, in 1886, William Cramond, that industrious chronicler of Banffshire, recorded transcriptions of over 200 stones. Unlike Jervise and most other 19th-century antiquarians, he did not cherry-pick the monuments of “the Great and the Good”, but appears to have recorded every inscription which he could find. Our only quarrel with him is that, while he numbered most of the stones in a fairly consistent sequence, he does not appear to have made a numbered plan. With the rise of interest in genealogy in the later 20th century, two further sets of transcriptions appeared. Exactly a century after Cramond, Alan Davidson, a resident of Fordyce and an early member of ANESFHS, produced an updated version of the MIs, running to just over 300 stones, and including a rough sketch plan of the burial ground. There also emerged, seemingly around the same time, another version of the MIs, credited to a “Mr Green” who we have not been able to identify. This contained slightly fewer stones than the Davidson version, with a similar (but not identical) sketch plan, and a significantly different numbering system. In an effort to make sense of this incipient Tower of Babel, a joint team from ANESFHS and the Portsoy Salmon Bothy re-surveyed the kirkyard, starting in 2015, to produce a more accurate plan of all the visible stones, and then re-read the inscriptions on those stones. It immediately became obvious that Jervise and Cramond had seen wording (and entire stones) which are no longer visible, while even Davidson and Green may have seen details which are now lost. And, at a relatively late stage in the proceedings, a warm dry spell suggested the presence of a number of stones buried beneath the turf. In order to reconcile the various versions and provide a maximum of reliable information, the inscriptions are reported as follows: All stones which are currently visible and at least partly readable are given a plain numeric number and appear with this number in the main MI table and on the kirkyard plan. Where inscriptions have deteriorated, the text may be supplemented by data from Cramond or one of the other surveys. Stones recorded by Cramond, but no longer visible, are given a number preceded by “C” and appear in the secondary MI table. Where we are confident that we can identify the location of a buried “Cramond” stone, it will be shown on the plan with a dotted outline and its “Cnnn” number, and it will appear in the table with an asterisk beside the number. The small number of buried stones which we could not reliably link to one of Cramond’s transcriptions appear on the plan with a dotted outline and labelled “?” What follows represents the combined efforts of a small team of volunteers who gathered regularly over a period of three years to transcribe and check the stones whenever the uncertain Scottish weather permitted it. Sadly, two of those who contributed, Aileen Burnett and Brian Smith, did not survive to see the results of their dedication. On a more positive note, it is fortunate that all the legible inscriptions had been recorded when a violent summer storm in 2019 felled two substantial trees, leading to the destruction of several stones. That is surely a salutary reminder that even stones do not stand for ever. The transcriptions have been carefully checked, with unusual or inconsistent spellings reported as found, without comment. That said, reading worn and damaged gravestones is an art, not a science, so errors are always possible. Alison Smith Gavin Bell
Acknowledgements
Just as this booklet was being prepared for the press, we received the sad news of the death of Jean Shirer. Jean was a founder member of the Society, and proud of holding membership number 14. She took a leading part in many Society activities. Together with her late husband, Jim, she formed part of the original “Graveyard Gang” which in the 1980s started recording and publishing MIs, and she was active in projects to index Census and Poor Law records. But Jean will be best known to members and genealogists far and wide for her role in organising our Publications Department, and in staffing innumerable bookstalls, both at our own monthly meetings, and at genealogical venues up and down the country. We shall miss her.
