SIB FOLK NEWS - Orkney Family History Society

Issue No. 47 September 2008 NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY 9
“November’s sun with slanting ray,
Beam’d feebly on the wintry morn.”
By the autumn of 1822 more than a quarter of a century
had passed since worshippers from Shapinsay
first made the journey by sea from the village of
Elwick (present-day Balfour) to Carness, a point on the
Orkney mainland about three miles or so north of Kirkwall,
to attend services at the Secession Church in the
town.
The Secession Movement enjoyed immense popular appeal
in Orkney following a long period when evangelical
teaching had been virtually non-existent. Ministers of
the Established Church were proverbially indolent and
inefficient, remiss in their duties, and some of them not
very exemplary in their lives. Writing in 1795 George
Barry, the somewhat controversial cleric in Shapinsay,
said “[that owing] to the extreme ignorance of the people,
the communion had not been administered for fifty years
and only once or twice in a hundred years.” There is little
evidence to show that this deplorable situation noticeably
improved during Barry’s own incumbency (1793-1805) as
he seems to have been primarily pre-occupied with gathering
material for his voluminous work, The History of
the Orkney Islands, which was published in Edinburgh
(1805), the year of his demise at age 57.
It was against this background of spiritual degeneration
that John Russell (or Rusland), 1 a tailor in Kirkwall
and eldest son of a Shapinsay farmer, inspired a group of
fellow tradesmen to form the first Secession Congregation
there.
In August 1796, a meeting-house was opened for public
worship and was filled to overflowing Sunday after Sunday;
one observer described it as having the appearance
of “well-packed herring barrel.” At least three of John
Russell’s brothers were also members of the Secession
Church, including this writer’s great-great-great-grandfather
Arthur (born 1780) and Alexander, a tailor and
general merchant, who was ordained an elder on 16 October
1804. Another elder ordained that day was William
Borwick, also a merchant in Kirkwall, who came originally
from the parish of Harray. Sometime around 1820,
Borwick had retired from business and taken the tenancy
of a farm on the island of Shapinsay.
There is nothing to suggest that the 3rd of November
1822 was different from any other Communion Sunday and
we know that several boats filled with devout islanders left
Shapinsay that morning “to worship at a distant fane.”
By Peter Groundwater Russell Member No 161
Who could have foretold what terrible tragedy was to
befall this happy band of pilgrims? George Bell, farm
manager of Sound, gave a graphic account of what happened
later that day, in a letter he wrote to the laird,
Captain William Balfour, who was staying in Edinburgh.
Bell did not apportion blame but simply said it was “the
provealing (sic) hand of Providence.”
There was no disorder or confusion among the peaceful
and well-disposed worshippers; no anticipation of danger
or alarm as they clambered into their small boats for the
homeward journey. A favourable wind was blowing from
the southwest, ideal for returning to Shapinsay, and in
less than half-an-hour they would have expected to land
safe and sound at the little harbour of Elwick.
The boat concerned,
probably a North Isles
yole, was described as
being sixteen feet in
length and carried sixteen
passengers, namely:
William Borwick;
four of his children,
Helen (only child of his
first marriage to Helen
Hourston, from the
parish of Sandwick),
Euphemia, Margaret
and William (children
by his second wife,
Euphemia Laughton,
from the parish of
Holm); Thomas, son
of George Bell, above,
and Janet Currie; Thomas,
son of Andrew
Groat and Elizabeth
Maxwell; Thomas, son
A North Isles yole, similar to the vessel that
foundered. Orkney Photographic Archive.
of James Heddle and
Helen Nicolson; Magnus
and William Laisk
(or Leask); Elizabeth (wife of William Laisk), Peter and
William, children of Peter Peace and Elizabeth Tullock;
James, son of Thomas Shearer and Marion Hepburn;
Thomas, son of William Shearer and Margaret/Marabel
Shearer; and Mary Smith.
William Laisk, an experienced seaman, was steering
and Thomas Heddle was handling the foresail; the aft
sail was not unfurled. George Bell wrote, “No person inA