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Reptiles and Amphibians
| Robert Paterson - Old Mortality |
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| Written by Administrator |
| Monday, 17 May 2010 06:39 |
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Old Mortality - Robert Paterson No description of the Covenanting times is fully complete without mention of “Old Mortality” – the now historic name of Robert PATERSON who, some 50 years after the end of the Struggle, commenced to erect and maintain many of the gravestones, marking the last resting-place of Covenanting martyrs. Paterson, was a stone-mason, working from Gatelawbridge Quarry, near Thornhill, Dumfriesshire. He left home in 1758 and, it is said, never returned home to his wife and children for 40 years! He preferred to roam a large part of the country, carrying out his trade, and shaping and erecting simple stones to individual martyrs. His work so inspired Sir Walter SCOTT, that he wrote the novel “Old Mortality”, which, later, gave Robert Paterson his name and place in history. He was born near Hawick in 1715, and died at Bankhead of Caerlaverock, where he is buried, in 1801. His devoted work endured that the grave of so many Covenanter martyrs were properly marked and recorded for future generations.
'Old Mortality', or Robert Paterson was by profession a stone mason, born in the parish of Hawick in 1715. He settled in Dumfriesshire and married around 1745. To begin with he seems to have done some paid work and spent the rest of his time travelling round the area attending conventicles and setting up memorial stones to remember 'the righteous', but from 1758 he seems to have spent all his time travelling leaving his wife and family to fend for themselves. His wife in desperation sent her oldest son, then 12 to look for him and persuade him to come home, but he took no heed, the same happened when she sent her 2 daughters, so eventually she moved to Balmaclellan in 1768 and opened the school where she worked until her death in 1785. Two of their sons, Robert and Walter became stone engravers in Balmaclellan, and many years later Joseph Train met Robert and passed his father's story on to Sir Walter Scott. Robert senior, travelled all over south west Scotland working for nothing, though he never lack lodging, and finally died at Caerlaverock in 1801 in possession of the sum of £7 7s 10d where he is buried in an unmarked grave. "In all his wanderings, the old pilgrim never seemed to need, or was
known to accept, pecuniary assistance. It is true, his wants were very few; for wherever he went, he found ready quarters in the house of some Cameronian of his own sect, or of some other religious person. The hospitality which was reverentially paid to him he always acknowledged, by repairing the gravestones (if there existed any) belonging to the family or ancestors of his host. As the wanderer was usually to be seen bent on this pious task within the precincts of some country churchyard, or reclined on the solitary tombstone among the heath, disturbing the plover and the black-cock with the clink of his chisel and mallet, with his old white pony grazing by his side, he acquired, from his converse among the dead, the popular appellation of Old Mortality. Quote from "
by Sir WAlter Scott
Original drawing by J. MacWhirter |
| Last Updated on Wednesday, 19 May 2010 09:21 |
