John Farquharson (Jesuit)

John Farquharson (Scottish Gaelic: Maighstir Iain, an-tAthair Iain Mac Fhearchair) (1699–1782), was a Scottish Jesuit.

Farquharson was born in the valley of Braemar, Aberdeenshire, on 19 April 1699, entered the Society of Jesus at Tournai. He completed his theology at the Scotch College, Douay, in 1729, and in October that year landed at Edinburgh to serve the mission. He was stationed at Strathglass and Lochaber where he acquired a fluent knowledge of the Scottish Gaelic language. On 2 Feb. 1735–6 he made profession of the four vows. He became a veteran "heather priest" who often travelled disguised in a kilt and tartan hose to evade capture by the priest hunters. He was ultimately joined there by his brother Fr. Charles Farquarson and by future Catholic martyr Fr. Alexander Cameron.

Dom. Odo Blundell of Fort Augustus Abbey stated that the three priests' residence was located under the cliff of a big boulder at Brae of Craskie, near Beauly (Scottish Gaelic: A' Mhanachainn) in Glen Cannich (Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Chanaich).

According to Monsignor Thomas Wynne, "It was in the nature of a summer sheiling, a command center for monitoring the traditional activities of cattle reivers; as such it combined a civilising role with the building up of a Catholic mission outside Cameron territory in a way which must have reassured Lochiel on both counts."

This secret dwelling remained the centre of the Catholic mission in Lochaber at the time, where Fr. Cameron and the two brothers secretly ministered to the local Catholics and secretly visited the covert "Mass houses" at Fasnakyle, Crochail, and Strathfarrar (Scottish Gaelic: Srath Farair).

About 1745 he was taken prisoner while celebrating Mass, and conveyed to Edinburgh in his sacerdotal vestments. After enduring many sufferings he was restored to liberty. Subsequently to the suppression of his order he lived principally in the valley of Braemar, where he died on 13 October 1782.

He formed an immense collection of Scottish Gaelic literature and particularly of the oral poetry of Lochaber and Strathglass. The original folio manuscript in his own handwriting he deposited in 1772 in the Scots College at Douay. Instead, however, of its being carefully preserved, it was suffered to be thrown aside and to perish. The whole of the poems of Ossian were reportedly in this collection, and other compositions not known to James Macpherson, or, at least, not published by him.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Farquharson, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.