CARMICHAEL, Donald RC Priest at Tomintoul, Reverend Mr ¹

  General Notes:

Old Parish Register
Fortingall Parish Perthshire
Baptisms

"20th May
Carmichael
Donald son to Arch^d. Carmichael & Marg^t. McLaren in Gairth"

The following extract comes from an article by Lisa Curry that appeared the journal The Innes Review. The article and the letters themselves that are quoted, while extremely useful in a great many ways, should treated cautiously as genealogical information, as pointers for further research in other primary sources:

"The elder Donald Carmichael was born in Perthshire, May 1772 (see note in the Research section of this file), to a Protestant family...Carmichael entered Scalan in April 1795, and was later a student of Bishop George Hay (1729- 81) at the college of Aquhorties. After ordination in 1808, he was the priest at Tomintoul for thirty years, where he also spent his time farming. Whilst at Tomintoul, he contributed a short piece for the Scottish Catholic Directory of 1831 about the Roman Catholic chapel there, relating how a gallery had been added in 1820 to accommodate the steady increase in numbers attending the small church and that this addition, together with redecoration, had seen the building become 'one of the neatest Chapels in the north of Scotland'. In time, this chapel needed replacing entirely and it was largely down to the considerable efforts at fund-raising on the part of Carmichael that this was achieved. A wry anecdote relating to this can be found in Odo Blundell's first volume of The Catholic Highlands of Scotland:
'How great this labour was may be judged by the tradition, still existing in Strathavon, that it was sad to see the poor priest's hands, so worn and marked were they with carrying the bags of copper and silver which he had gathered during the fifteen months he was absent collecting for the building.'
During these years when the new chapel was under construction, Mass was said in a room in the region of Cults, near Tomintoul which was still being referred to in Blundell's time as the 'priest's room'. The new chapel, called St Michael's, was completed in 1839, although this was too late for Carmichael to celebrate Mass there since he had already been sent to Blairs College in Aberdeenshire. Of this he is said to have expressed the regret that 'Indeed I had a great work in building yon chapel, yet I never had the pleasure of saying Mass in it.'"

"Carmichael's life at Blairs and after can be told through the nine letters he wrote to young Donald, the eldest son of Archibald and Christian, who had been sent, at the age of eleven, to study for the priesthood in Europe. These letters detail Carmichael's trials and tribulations working on the land (during a period which encompassed the potato famine); his ministry; his opinions on the world around him; his reflections on the priesthood and reminiscences of his own life, vocation and training; and finally his demise in health. His correspondence shows that his mind was occupied with thoughts of agricultural improvements and property values, emigration, the well-being of family and, perhaps predominantly, the importance in developing amongst priests great skills in oratory and rhetoric, with which to maintain the Catholic faith against criticism. Given the conversion story of Carmichael's own family, the last of these is hardly surprising, since it was through skilful argument that his own brother was drawn to conversion. The letters reveal a lively and enthusiastic mind, a hard-working farmer, an affectionate, if occasionally stern, great-uncle, and a dedicated priest. They vary from high-minded philosophy, discussing the rival skills of classical orators,to the absolutely everyday ...
They also allow us to trace Carmichael's move from Blairs to Ballogie, then on to Peterhead where he died on 18 September 1854. The letters were obviously treasured by their recipient, since they were kept by him throughout his life and passed on to other family members after his death.

from My Dear Nephew by Lisa Curry


Donald Carmichael's brother, Finlay Carmichael, went to Canada and lived in the Toronto area. In later life it was his intention to return to Scotland, as these letters to his brother, Father Donald Carmichael, show:

Title: Letter from Bishop Michael of Toronto, Toronto to Revd Donald Carmichael, Blairs
Content:
The Bishop has made some enquiries regarding Revd Carmichael's brother, but needs more time. The priest who served occasionally in Toronto has died and the Bishop has not been able to replace him.

PL/3/469/16 30 Jul 1853
Title: Letter from Alexander MacNab, Toronto to Revd D Carmichael, Ballogie
Content:
Saying the letters he sent to his brother have now reached him and financial matters and news.

PL/3/485/4 1 May 1854
Title: Letter from Finlay Carmichael, Canada to his brother Mr Carmichael, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire
Content:
Regarding the feverish state of the land market in Canada since the railways commenced and the fact that he believes that Canada will be a far more attractive field for the British emigrant than Australia for some years to come; also, his impending move to Scotland in his old age.
PL/3484/5 10 Aug 1854
Title: Letter from Finlay Carmichael, Canada to his brother Mr Carmichael, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire
Content:
Regarding the fact that his move back to Scotland will have to wait another season; the temperature is 98 to 100 degrees in the shade; and cholera is raging in Toronto and Hamilton.

from Scottish Catholic Archives: Canadian Sources

Old Parish Register
Peterhead Parish Aberdeenshire
Deaths

"Sept r 1854
23 Re^v Donald Cormichael [sic] 72"

Note : although the Index heads these records as "Deaths", Scotland's People (GRO Scotland) reminds users in their help section that "Surviving registers may record the date of death or the date of burial or date of payment for hire of the mortcloth, but only one of these will appear in the index. There is no indication given in the index as to whether the entry alludes to a death or a burial or the mortcloth payment."
The 23 September 1854 may very well have been the date of burial of Father Carmichael, as his date of death is noted elsewhere as 18 September 1854 (http://libindx.moray.gov.uk/ using as a source Biographies 1867 biographical details in "Ecclesiastical Chronicle for Scotland" vol 4 by Rev J F S Gordon DD - LS 271)
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  Research Notes:

LETTERS OF DONALD CARMICHAEL

A source used for the history of Donald Carmichael and his immediate and extended family consists of letters he wrote as a Roman Catholic priest to a younger member of the Carmichael family who was also to become a Roman Catholic priest and who was also named Donald Carmichael. The dates of the elder Donald, the writer of the letters, were 1781-1854. The dates of the younger Donald, the recipient of the letters, were 1833-1902. The Innes Review [ 59 no. 1 (Spring 2008) 49-76] published an article by Lisa Curry entitled "'My Dear Nephew': letters to a student priest". Although the compilation letters were so named, the author makes clear in her introduction that the letters "were written by a Scottish priest, Donald Carmichael, to his great-nephew and namesake whilst the latter was a seminarian in Europe". The younger Donald, then was the great-nephew of the older man, not his nephew. To avoid confusion Lisa Curry refers to the elder Donald in the article as Carmichael and the younger simply as Donald.

A number of individuals in the family of these Carmichaels shred the same given names across the generations, and possibly within each generation as family names were used and re-used by siblings in their own families. This factor, as well as the slightly misleading title of the collection of letters, should sound an alarm for the family historian, creating very easily as it does the possibility of confusion. Most notably the year of the elder Donald Carmichael's birth is given as 1772. Carmichael died in November 1854 at an age recorded in the Church of Scotland parish register of Peterhead as 72 years, which if taken as absolutely accurate would make his year of birth 1781 or 1782, not 1772.


YEAR OF BIRTH OF DONALD CARMICHAEL

The date of Donald Carmichael's birth as offered in the text My Dear Nephew in the General Notes of this file, May 1772, is probably based on a combination of his supposed age at death and simple error. There is an OPR record in Peterhead parish Aberdeenshire that Donald Carmichael died aged 72 years in 1854.

John Watts, in his book Scalan: The Forbidden College 1716-1799, writes that the date and place of birth for Donald Carmichael was "(1782, Millhole)". The year of birth there is likely reached by taking his year of death - 1854 - and deducting his supposed age at death - 72 years - to give 1782.

Other evidence points to Donald Carmichael being the child of Archibald Carmichael and Margaret McLaren, as shown in this file, and his baptism was recorded in the Old Parish Register of Fortingall parish Perthshire as May 1781.


MILLHOLE

MILLHOLE is in the parish of Kinloch, Perthshire.
Millhole Millhole Millhole
J. Johnston Occr [Occupier] J. L. Campbell Esqr. Estate Map & Old Stat Acct. [Statistical Account]
052
A farm house and Offices also having a corn Mill attached. the property J. L. Campbell Esqr. of Ballied

CORN MILL [Millhole]
Corn Mill
J. Johnston J. L. Campbell Esqr. Estate Map
052
[Millhole] also having a corn Mill attached. the property J. L. Campbell Esqr. of Ballied

from http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk

\ulnoneGAIRTH

This is the Scots spelling for Garth in Fortingall parish Perthshire, where was found Garth Cottage, Garth Castle and Garth Lodge. Also Inchgarth.

The B846 connect Garth Castle and Weem at present. Garth and Weem were neighbouring, and rural, eg see this research on another family from this area about the same time:
"On April 18, 1761 James Irvine from Inchgarth, in Fortingall parish, Perthshire, Scotland, married Janet Menzies from the Kirkton (church©town), Weem parish, Perthshire. Their marriage banns were proclaimed at the parish church in Fortingall, Perthshire and also at the parish church in Weem, Perthshire, on the same day. In the 1700s and earlier in Scotland it was sometimes customary that the marriage banns be proclaimed in both the parish of the bride and the parish of the groom. The parishes of Fortingall and Weem are beside each other. James Irvine's family lived at Inchgarth (a farm), which is in a small valley called Keltneyburn (the valley of the river
Keltney). Keltneyburn is in the parish of Fortingall, Perthshire, Scotland. In the valley of Keltneyburn is a small castle called Castle Garth, and the neighbouring farms have names like Inchgarth, Garth, and Litigan. Often one farm would havefrom two to five families living there."

from JAMES IRVINE AND JANET MENZIES, Research of Garth Woodward and Others ^{2 10 11 12 13}