An excerpt from Roger's SOCIAL LIFE IN SCOTLAND

Part II.

I managed to get hold of a three volume set of books that had quite a bit of information about John McNaughton and his club. It was written in 1888 and was quite whitewashed of information. I bet Roger's publisher made him rewrite that section a half a dozen times before it as found passable. There are a good deal of other sources which give us a more complete glimpse into this bit of lost history for those with the time and resources to search them out. If you do, I would appreciate it if you would contact me and share them.

These pages from Roger's book will give some depth of understanding to anyone who is interested.

Chapter 15 of Roger's SOCIAL LIFE IN SCOTLAND, page 410 to the end of the volume.

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...societies for the reformation of manners, which arose at the time of the Union, prevailed a movement of which the promoters fostered levity and abhorred restraint. Writing under May 1726, Wodrow remarks :—

“ We have sad accounts of some secret Atheisticall Clubs in or about Edinburgh. ... I am told they had their rise from the Hell-fire Club about two or three years ago at London, the secretary of which, I am well informed, was a Scotsman, and came down not long since to Edinburgh; and I doubt not propagate their vile wickedness. He fell into melancholy, . . . and physicians prescribed bathing for him, and he dyed mad at the first bathing.”(1)

These clubs, each possessing an unhallowed name, and associated with demoralizing orgies, had their real origin in the more degrading rites of a rude and pre-Christian superstition. The fires with which their observances were associated symbolized not the spiritual Gehenna, but the sacrificial fires of Druidic worship. There were Baalic or hell-fire clubs in the capital and on the coast. Of a Hell-fire club at Edinburgh, the president was named the Devil; it assembled in secret haunts, and, according to Dr Robert Chambers, practiced rites not more fit for seeing the light than the Eleusinian mysteries.”(2) The Sweating Club, partaking of the same character, flourished at Edinburgh about the middle of the century. In a state of intoxication, the members sallied forth at midnight, when they attacked or jostled any inoffensive citizen whom they chanced to meet.

On the west coast, at every point where prevailed a contraband trade, a Hell-fire Club obtained scope and footing. Those who constituted the membership were the smugglers and their abetters, who had banded against the excise, and who kindling fires on the coast to guide the skippers in making for the shore, leapt through the burning embers, as did the boys through the Beltane fires. The contrabandist clubs of eastern Fifeshire culminated in a society which met at Anstruther under the designation of the Beggar's Benison. Of this fraternity the existence may be traced to 1732, when it was instituted as a knightly order. At its origin and long afterwards, the members assembled annually in the ruin of Castle Dreel, at Anstruther, where in a small chamber designated the temple they enacted their mysteries. At the annual meeting, on the 30th November or collar day, they severally bore upon their breasts a silver medal, while the chief or sovereign wore a medal pendant from a green sash.(3)

The temple derived a dim light from an upper window. Towards the centre was placed a small table designated an altar, on which were placed symbols such as those used by John Wilkes in his Order of St Francis, and which were irreverently consecrated by the monks of Isernia. At the sound of a small trumpet or breath-horn were novices severally admitted to the initiatory rite. The ceremonial was derived from the Druidic rites of Ashtoreth and those of the Roman Lupercalia. When proceedings in the temple had closed, festivities were conducted in the inn. There the knights were entertained with verses in the style of William Dunbar and with prose dissertations in the strain of Rabelais. The Beggar's Benison having some years fallen into abeyance, was revived about 1764 by John M’Nachtan, who, at Anstruther held office as Collector of Customs. The Order was then described as being founded by James V., in commemoration of an incident which-happened to him while travelling in disguise. In the dress of a piper he had proceeded on foot to the annual fair at Anstruther, when, finding that the Dreel bum which he required to cross was in flood, he accepted the service of a sturdy beggar-woman, who bore him through the stream upon her shoulders, and from whom, on rewarding her with gold, he received a benison or blessing. The story is fictitious. In Ruddiman's Magazine for 1768, it is set forth that on Wednesday the 30th November 1768, being Collar-day of the most puissant and honourable Order of the Beggar's Benison, the Knights Companions reelected as Sovereign, Sir John M’Nachtane, being the fourth year of his guardianship.” In his Humphrey Clinker, composed in 1770, Dr Tobias Smollett has, in Mr Melford's letter to Sir Watkin Phillips, described a dinner given by the chairmen of Edinburgh to their patrons after the Leith races, and the Beggar's Benison is named as one of the toasts. The Knight Companions of the Order, thirty-two in number, included Thomas Alexander Erskine, the eminent musician, afterwards sixth Earl of Kellie; Lord Newark, whose progenitor was the celebrated General David Leslie; Sir Charles Erskine, Bart, a brave officer who fell at the battle of Laffeldt in 1747; James Lumsdaine of that ilk, James Lumsdaine of Stravithie, William Ayton of Kippo, and David Anstruther of the old family of that name. But the most ingenious of the early members was Colonel Alexander Monypenny of Pitmilly, who was constituted laureate. To his pen has been ascribed a humorous composition, of which is preserved the following fragment:—

“ Oh, were you e'er in Crail toun ? Igo and ago; An saw you there Clerk Dischington ? Iram coram dago.

“ His wig was like a droukit hen, Igo and ago; The tail o't like a grey goose pen, Iram coram dago.

“ Ken ye ought o Sir John Malcolm ? Igo and ago; If he's a wise man I mistak him, Iram coram dago.

“ Ken ye ought o Sandy Don ? Igo and ago, He's ten times dafter than Sir John, Iram coram dago.

“ To hear them o their travels talk, Igo and ago; To go to London 's but a walk, Iram coram dago.

“ To see the wonders o' the deep, Igo and. ago ; Wad mak a man baith wail and weep Iram coram dago.

“ To see the leviathen skip, Igo and ago; An wi' his tail ding cure a ship, Iram coram dago.”

Colonel of the 56th Regiment, Colonel Monypenny was representative of a family which had possessed the lands of Pitmilly from the thirteenth century ; at a very advanced age he died in December 1801, surviving, after the lapse of half a century, to remark that his popular Benison ode was parodied by Burns in an Epistle to Captain Grose. The families of Dischington, Malcolm, and Don, of which the representatives are depicted in the Colonel's verses, deserve a passing notice. Prior to 1330, William of Dischington married Elizabeth, younger sister of King Robert the Bruce. His eldest son John, a skilful architect, reared the Gothic fabric of St Monan's Church, which was completed at the cost of David II., his near relation. His descendant, Sir William Dischington, obtained in 1429 the lands of Airdrie. Three members of the house, Thomas, George, and Andrew Dischington, were charged with being privy to Kizzio's murder.(4) In 1626 Sir Thomas Dischington was one of the keepers of the royal park at Farnham.(5) The Town-Clerkship of Crail became in the family an hereditary office. George Dischington succeeded his father as Clerk of Crail in 1642, and was in turn succeeded in 1708 by his son George, who was doubtless the Clerk of the ode. Sir John Malcolm of the Beggar's Benison was originally a writer in Kirkcaldy ; he succeeded to the baronetcy of Lochore, and possessed the estates of Balbedie and Grange, the latter not distant from Anstruther. Originally distinguished by wealth and culture, the Malcolm family were latterly to be remarked for their peculiar manners. Ignorant and boastful, Sir John's eccentricities subjected him to ridicule. He died prior to 1747, and in the baronetcy was succeeded by Sir Michael Malcolm, who when he came to the family honours was a working joiner, first at Kinross, afterwards in London. Sir Michael was also celebrated in rhyme, probably by the laureate of the Benison. Thus:—

“ Balbedie has a second son, They ca' him Michael Malcolm; He gangs about Balgonie dykes Huntin’ and hawkin'; He 's stown away the bonny lass, And kept the widow waukin’.”

Alexander, described as   Sandy Don, Colonel Monypenny’s third hero, was parish schoolmaster of Crail He was a relative of Sir James Don of Newton, and the scion of an old family which owned an estate at Doune in Perthshire. The schoolmaster of Crail was famous for his jocundity. Among other officers, the “ Beggar's Benison engaged the services of a chaplain, who was bona fide a clergyman in orders. The diploma by which the Reverend John Naime, minister of Anstruther, was on the 27th May 1767 constituted a knight brother and chaplain of the order, has been preserved. Representing on its engraved surface certain Isemian symbols, the diploma proceeds : By the super eminently beneficent and superlatively benevolent Sovereign of the most ancient and most puissant Order of the Beggar's Benison and Merry Land (6) in the fourth year of his guardianship, and in that of the Order 5771. Having nothing more sincerely at heart than the happiness of our well-beloved subjects in our celebrated territories of Merry Land, and the promoting of Trade Manufactures and Agriculture in that delightful colony, and whereas we are well-informed that the Rev. John Naime has all manner of inclination, as well as sufficient ability and other qualifications for these laudable purposes, and willing that such well-qualified and bold adventurers should have all suitable encouragement, we do there-fore elect, admit and receive him, &c.” In respect of his chaplaincy, Mr Nairne was styled “Dean of the Order for the shire of Argyle and of the Western Isles.” He held office till his death in 1795, when as his successor was appointed the Right Reverend David Low, D.D., Bishop of Rosa, who ministered to a small congregation at Pittenweem, the adjacent burgh. Bishop Low died in 1865 at the age of eighty-seven. Several years previously he requested that in the records of the Benison his name might be expunged from the proceedings of each of the forty anniversaries in which he had taken part. This request suggested the propriety of destroying the register. Already the order had ceased, for on the 30th November 1836 the knights met for the last time. The dissolution was agreed upon, Lord Arbuthnot only expressing his dissent. After a considerable interval, and when he had become the sole surviving member, the secretary, Mr Conolly, handed the balance of funds, amounting to 70, to certain local administrators, in order to provide prizes in reward of merit at the Austruther schools. (7)

1 Wodrow's Analecta, iii. 309. 2. Chambers's Traditions of Edinburgh,” 1869, p. 170. 3. In his  Memoirs of the Hon. Henry Erskine (pp. 147-155), Colonel Alexander Fergusson, who supplies some notices of the “ Beggar's Benison, remarks that each knight wore a sash, and that the medals were of gold. In reality the sovereign only possessed a sash, and all the medals were of silver. By Colonel Fergusson has been presented as an illustration a seal displaying three fishes in a triangle, and which he holds had some mysterious connection with the Order. In point of fact, the seal so represented is that of the Burgh of Anstruther-wester, which the Town Clerk, being also Secretary of the Benison, had accidentally placed in the Pandora Box, which contained the symbols of the Order. 4. “Register of Collegiate Church of Crail,” Grampian Club, 1877, pp. 13-15. 5. Earl of Stirling's   Register of Royal Letters, i. 101. 6. The term Merry Land was suggested by Colonel Monypenny, the laureate, in allusion to the ballad of The Jew's Daughter, of which there was a special version published in Fife. See Percy's  Reliques, Lond. 1869, 12mo, p. 20; and Johnson's  Scots Musical Museum, iv. 499. 7. To our friend Dr J. F. S. Gordon, incumbent of St Andrew’s Church, Glasgow, son-in-law of the latest secretary and last surviving member, Mr M. F. Conolly, we are indebted for many of these particulars.

See also Professor David Stevenson of St Andrews University of Scotland has written a new book about the Beggars Bennison club.