CARMICHAEL, William RC Priest, Reverend Mr ^{1 2 3}

  General Notes:

"It is probable that the two brothers, Donald and William, who were named after their priestly relations, were always intended to be students for the priesthood, or that this was at least encouraged from an early age. Both were sent abroad to study for the priesthood: Donald, as we have seen to Vaugirard at the age of eleven and William, who began his seminary training at the age of fourteen, to the Scots College, Rome (1858– 67), having first attended Blairs from 1855....
... William evidently possessed a fierier disposition than the mild-mannered Donald, and even the usual eulogistic style of the obituaries does not attempt to conceal the more mixed aspect of his personality. For example the panegyric offered by Canon George Richie of Shieldmuir reports that William was:

First and foremost a Catholic and a true Ultramontane. He was the 'malleus haereticorum' . . . to many he seemed to be of a stern and
severe disposition, but those who knew him best are aware that never beat in man a kindlier, gentler heart.

Likewise, a fellowmember of the Ardrossan school board, a Mr J. Pringle, commented with a dextrous equivocation:

Those of us who have sat around this table when we were dealing with defaulters must have been struck at times with his righteous
indignation against such defaulters, but I am sure we are all convinced that his indignation was born of a very sincere love of children.

Even more revealing is a newspaper report entitled 'Sketches of Local Clergy' ( Herald, 30 August 1877), which carries a report, written from a Presbyterian angle, of a Mass at which William was the celebrating priest. William was much criticised in this article for using the sermon both to attack his congregation for drinking too much and to accuse the local police of anti-Catholic prejudice, instead of preaching on the day's readings, which the writer thought would have been more fitting. In William's handwriting, marking his copy of the newspaper, is the following withering comment: 'the fool has misquoted'. Also the passage is underlined and marked every time the unfortunate journalist has shown his ignorance about Catholic worship. Perhaps the last word on William Carmichael should go to the reporter from the Observer, January 1914, who wrote, rather ambiguously: 'He is gone, but many generations will pass away before he is forgotten.' "

from My Dear Nephew by Lisa Curry ²