Rev Alexander Geddes, min of Birsay & Harray 1736-1751

[Fordyce]

According to Orkney's Fasti, he was born abt1709 in Keith, Banffshire and died 23 Apr 1751.
According to a website http://genealogy.northern-skies.net/genealogy.php?number=16 he died age 44, implying he was born abt1707. Can this age be confirmed? Source?

I think I've found him preaching as a Probationer in Deskford parish, Banffshire at least four times 1734-1735 (Deskford Kirk Session Minutes). Slightly earlier (the same?) Alexander Geddes was appointed Schoolmaster (during 1728) plus Session Clerk and Precentor (end 1728). He neglected his duties, making such a hash of the Session Minutes that his successor described those 1731-1734 as 'lost except a few confused scrapes' [sic].

The same Alexander Geddes married Janet Cuie in 1729 and had three children 1730, 1732, 1733, after which there is nothing more on him and the children - presumably because he/they had gone to Birsay. So how come he quickly married Elizabeth Fea on 1 Dec 1736? The issue is complicated by the possibility Janet Cuie herself remarried locally in 1739.

He was known as Alexander Geddes Elder. My 5xgtgdfather lived at the same place (Nether Clune, Deskford) at the same time and was known as Alexander Geddes Junior. I'm now trying to make sense of things. My first step is to work out Rev Alexander Geddes' parentage, so confirming his age when he died is crucial.

[GR2]

The list of graduates of King's College, Aberdeen, says he graduated M.A. on 7th April 1727:

https://abdn.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/delivery/44ABE_INST:44ABE_VU1/12152726310005941?lang=en&viewerServiceCode=AlmaViewer

He's on page 228.

There is also a book The Schools and Schoolmasters of Banffshire, by William Barclay (1925). I can't see it available to read on line, but it probably takes its information from the sources you have already used.

[Fordyce]

Thanks GR2. I've got that info; it's Deskford Kirk Session that has most details. What strikes me, now I think about it, is his age when he achieved his MA. A sensible inference from the Fasti is that he can only be the son of George Geddes & Margaret Innes, because although their son Alexander was born in Bellie, they moved to Kempcairn in Keith parish by 1721. And with Margaret Innes being a dau of Sir John Innes 5th of Edingight, they were just the sort of family that Schoolmaster and Rev Alexander Geddes would come from.

But he was bapt 18 Dec 1709 but that makes him only 17 on 7 Apr 1727 - is that not just too young? Being 44 in 1751 implies he was 20 which is reasonable but which makes him someone else's son.

Barclay states that there was a schoolhouse built c1725 but not where. Past 1786 the school plus house was in what is now part of the kirkyard. Nether Clune seems quite a distance from the old schoolhouse, so don't really know what to make of that.

[GR2]

The usual age for entry to university was perhaps 14 or 15. It might be worth looking at some contemporary biographies in the Fasti to see examples of other ministers where definite years of birth and graduation are known to see what was common.

[Forfarian]

Might the University archives have some more information about him?

[Fordyce]

An update: after a serious canter around Minutes from several Presbyteries and Kirk Sessions in Banffshire and Orkney, Strathbogie Presbytery Minutes 7-3-1733 (pg 241 CH2/342/5) has this "Mr Alexander Geddes Student in Divinity now in Keith Parish...". Alexander Geddes h/o Janet Cuie was in Nether Clune in Deskford before and after this date, so that settles it: the Probationer who preached at Deskford and the Schoolmaster who messed up his Deskford Kirk Session Minutes are two different people.

I'm interested in the Schoolmaster rather than the Probationer, so I can put the latter to my MiscRef files, tentatively assigned as son of George Geddes & Margaret Innes of Kempcairn, Keith (thus born late 1709 which I still think is too young to have graduated in 1727, at only age 17).

But a big skeleton fell out the cupboard. Our Birsay Alexander Geddes was accused of Jugling (look it up!), Disenginuity, Breach of Promise and Indecent Behaviour. His ordination had to be delayed because it was objected to; and the alledging Presbytery of Kirkwall clashed with the neighbouring Cairston Presbytery which Birsay parish is in. The latter defended him to the hilt; the former was severely put out and got cuttingly pompous in the criticism of their so-called affectionate brethren down the road; and I think the Synod got involved. Maybe Orcadians know all about this Island-wide scandal of the 1730s. And I do now...

These Minutes, all now freely available of course, can be a goldmine if one can take the time to wade through them.