Biography

Rev. Alexander Stewart was born in Benbecula in 1829. His father was tax officer of the Western Isles for over twenty years, although the family moved to Oban when Alexander was a young child. He went to school in Oban and then to Kirkmichael School in Perthshire before attending the University of St Andrews in 1843, graduating with honours.

He received his preaching licence from Paisley Presbytery in 1851 and went into ministry for the Church of Scotland in Ballachulish and Ardgour, where he served for fifty years, until he passed away. It was not that other congregations did not want him. Alexander had chosen to remain where he was because he had grown very fond of the people and of the district.

For twenty years he wrote for the Inverness Courier, producing a column that discussed a wide range of topics related to the Highlands – history, culture, customs, beliefs, literature, and the natural environment. He wrote under the pseudonym Nether Lochaber, and a book of his writings was published under that name in 1883. Another book, Twixt Ben Nevis and Glencoe, was published in 1885. His name also appears in many periodicals. The University of St Andrews conferred on him the LLD in 1884, in recognition of his standing as a scholar of science and literature. He was elected a member of many learned societies, both national and local.

In 1852 he married the eldest daughter of Captain Morrison of Sallachan House in Ardgour, and they had two children together, a daughter and a son. A celebration marking fifty years of his ministry was being planned for April 1901, but he died on the 17th of January at the age of 72.

Near Onich a monument was erected in his memory: a Celtic cross about twenty feet high. Carved on it are the words from 1 Kings 4:33: "And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes."

List of compositions

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