The book Arran; - Cook Clan

142 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
acted for less than a twelvemonth (April to October 1651)
before he was summoned to Kilbride. From this date till
1688 we have no intimation of any clergyman in Kilmorie.
Then another M'Lean, this time hailing from Coll and Epi-
scopal, who was accordingly deprived after the Revolution,
having been minister for only a few months, and who, as we
might guess, found a home in Ireland.
Then come two successive Bannatynes, the first being
the Rev. Dugald in 1701. In his time occurred the memorable
fire at the manse, November 7, 1710, of which the cause
remained unknown ' unless it was from the air,' that is by
lightning, according to the expression in the Session Records,
where the account is as follows, dated five days after;
It being known to all the paroch, that the Manse was, in the holy
and most wise providence of God burnt to ashes, with all the furniture
therein except a very little but that all the souls therein were signally
and wonderfully preserved. The Minister reports that the two Communion
Cups belonging to this Isle together with the two Cups belong-
ing to the Lowland Congregation of Campbeltown, with the Sum of
thirty pounds Scots of poors money collected at the time of the
Sacrament last all were lost with ye fire which was upon the Seventh
day of this date of this instant, betwixt five and eight of the Clock
in the morning.
Another notice of this surprising event informs us that,
' Nothing escaped but he (Mr. Bannatyne) and his wife,
and their servants, with their lifes, by leaping out at the
windoues.' ^ Part of the old fabric remains in the present
manse, which thus may claim to be the oldest inhabited
manse in Scotland. Mr. Bannatyne died in 1748 after a
ministry of forty-seven years, and the Charles Bannatyne
who immediately followed was his son, but he remained for
only nine years, while his successor was transferred from
Kilbride, the father of the Rev. Gershom, who spent his
last nine years in the western parish.
1 IVoodrow's Analecta or History of Remarkable Providences, \o\. i. p. 307.