William Wallace

(Lowland District) Born near Huntly, 1767/68, the son of a non-Catholic father (who died when the boy was young) and a Catholic mother; to Scalan, 1784, and at Scots College, Douai, from 1788 until March 1793 (when it closed because of the French Revolution); ordained a priest, 1798, and remained to teach humanities until c. 22nd November 1808 when, because of the French invasion, he escorted the students home (via Corunna, in a British brig of war, to Falmouth); at Fetternear, 1809, and Stobhall, Perthshire, 1812; returned with students to Valladolid, 1816, but left for Scotland, 12th September 1818; chaplain at Traquair House, 1821 until his death there, 24th October 1854. (MT)

Obituary of William Wallace from the Scottish Catholic Directory of 1855.

Pray for the soul of the Rev. William Wallace, who died at Traquair, on the 24th of October, 1854, in the 87th year of his age, and 57th of his priesthood.

This venerable Clergyman, who has lately been gathered to his fathers at the patriarchal age of eighty-seven years, was born in the old parish of Kinnore, near Huntly. His father, an extensive farmer in the parish, who was a member of the Episcopalian Church of Scotland, died while his son was an infant; his mother, who survived for several years, was a Catholic. In early youth, by the intervention of the Rev. William Guthrie, then Missionary at Mortlach, and that of the Rev. Charles Maxwell, Huntly, he was admitted into the Ecclesiastical Seminary of Scalan in Banffshire. The Superiors there at that time were the Rev. Messrs. Alex. Farquharson and Andrew Dawson. Bishop Hay also made Scalan his usual place of abode. After a residence there of three years and a half, he was sent, in 1788, to prosecute his education in the Scots College of Douay. Here the course of his studies was interrupted by the breaking out of the French Revolution, and, along with his fellow-students, he was obliged to make his escape from France, which he effected, not without much difficulty and danger, in March, 1793. Having, in the course of the summer, succeeded in reaching his native land, he was not suffered to remain long at home, but was sent in the following September, along with four companions, to the Scots College of Valladolid. In this ancient establishment, he was left to complete his studies without further interruption. The Rev. John Gordon, then Vice-Rector, was his Professor of Philosophy, and he studied Theology under the learned Abbe Darrell, formerly Grand Vicar to the Archbishop of Auch, and then an emigrant residing in the College. The Rector was the Rev. Alexander Cameron, afterwards Bishop. He was raised to the Priesthood about Easter, 1798. After his ordination, he remained in the College as Procurator and junior Professor for the following ten years. In the autumn of 1808, the troops of Bonaparte having burst into Spain, and rendered that country an unsafe residence for British subjects, it was deemed advisable to break up the College for a time, and Mr. Wallace was sent home in charge of the students. He sailed with them from Corunna in a Government brig of war, in which a passage had been granted by Admiral de Courcy, and landed at Falmouth early in January, 1809. After spending some months at Aquhorties, he was appointed Chaplain at Fetternear, and preceptor to Mr. Leslie of Balquhain’s three younger sons. On resigning this office, he was sent in the beginning of 1812 to take charge of the Mission of Stobhall in Perthshire. Here his zeal for the interest of Religion urged him to attempt what, in those days, was no easy task—the erection of a Chapel in Perth. He had already collected some funds for the purpose, when, in the summer of 1816, he received orders from Bishop Cameron to hold himself in readiness to return once more to Valladolid, where the College was about to be re-established. He embarked at Aberdeen for his destination on the 7th November, 1816, along with the Rev. John Cameron, now Rector of the College, and eleven students, of whom the Right Rev. Dr. Murdoch and the Rev. Neil Macdonald of Drimnin are now the only survivors on the Mission. On his arrival, the post assigned to him was that of Vice-Rector, conjointly with that of Procurator.

It was the intention of Mr. Wallace’s ecclesiastical Superiors, as it was his own wish, that he should end his days at Valladolid. But man proposes, and God disposes. Before the lapse of two years, he was obliged to return home in charge of two students, whose health had become so precarious that it was judged advisable to assign to him the task of taking care of them on their journey. His hopes of going back to Spain were now at an end, and he was appointed in November, 1818, to the Edinburgh Mission, in which he served for three years. At Martinmas, 1821, he became Chaplain to the noble family of Traquair, in which capacity he passed the last thirty-three years of his life, beloved and respected by all who enjoyed his acquaintance.

During the better part of this long period, Mr. Wallace (being the only Priest between Edinburgh and the English border) had occasionally to extend his services to a considerable distance beyond the walls of Traquair House. In one of these missionary excursions—having discovered in the town of Hawick a numerous colony of Catholics without Priest or Chapel, but still faithfully adhering to the creed of their forefathers—he generously resolved to apply himself to the arduous work of providing them with a place of worship. For several years he devoted much of his time to the ungrateful task of soliciting subscriptions for this pious purpose; and partly by the donations thus obtained, among which were most conspicuous those of the Earl of Traquair and the Honourable Lady Louisa Stuart, but principally by his own savings, he had the happiness at length of seeing his labours crowned with success. A handsome Gothic edifice, affording accommodation for 400 persons, and furnished with all the requisites for Catholic worship, was solemnly opened for Divine service on the 22d May, 1844. While the Catholics of Hawick will continue, for all time to come, to bless the memory of the pious founder of their Chapel, there is abundant reason to believe that the Protestants of the town have seen no reason to repent of the liberal feeling which they manifested at the commencement of the undertaking, nor feel disposed to quarrel with its results at the present day. Up to the last days of his life, Mr. Wallace continued to cherish the Hawick Mission with the affection of a parent, and about twelve months before his death, he invested in the public funds a considerable sum, the interest of which is to be applied in perpetuity to the support of a Catholic school in connection with the Chapel of Hawick.

By the establishment of the Hawick Mission, Mr. Wallace was relieved, on one side, of a large portion of the extensive field hither­ to under his sole charge. But for many years he had still to supply the spiritual wants not only of the few Catholics in the immediate vicinity of Traquair House, but also of a much larger number, either resident in the town of Peebles, or scattered over the county. At the age of fourscore years and upwards, he was still to be seen, from time to time, in the streets of Peebles, and occasionally at a much greater distance from home, directing his tottering steps towards the sick-bed of some poor member of his widely-spread flock. It was simply to relieve him of this burden—too heavy by far for his great age and increasing infirmities, and not for any of the wise reasons invented by ingenious bigotry—that his ecclesiastical superior, in concert with his kind friends of Traquair House, introduced, some four years ago, another Priest into the county, and settled him in the county town. And now that the good old man has passed away, and been borne with honour to the grave by all that was most respectable for several miles around, perhaps many amongst us will remember, not without a blush, the indecorous outcry which then arose against an arrangement so obviously and so imperatively demanded by the dictates of common humanity. During the last years of his life, Mr. Wallace’s constitution was rapidly breaking down, and about twelve months before his death he officiated for the last time, and the duties of Chaplain were, in the meantime, performed by the Rev. James Clapperton of Peebles. Since then he was almost constantly confined to bed, and, though he suffered much, he bore his sufferings with admirable patience, surrounded to the last with all the kind attentions which his noble friends could supply, and fortified with all the rites of the Church which he had so long and so zealously served, he calmly expired, full of faith and hope, on the 24th of last October.

In his intercourse with the world, Mr. Wallace was much beloved and respected for his unobtrusive virtues, not only by Catholics, but also by those who differed with him in religious belief, as was evinced by the large and respectable concourse that followed his mortal remains to the grave. The funeral obsequies were performed, in the absence of the Bishop, by the Very Rev. John Macpherson, President of Blairs College and Vicar-General of the District, on the 30th October, in the old Chapel of Traquair House, and his ashes repose in the Parish Churchyard of Traquair, close to those of the Rev. Alexander Gordon and the Rev. James M'Gillivray, who had both been Chaplains to the noble family in which he had so long resided. Although Mr. Wallace was never much engaged in the more active and laborious duties of the Missionary life, except during the three years he passed in Edinburgh, yet his was not a life of ease and inaction. He was full of earnestness in whatever be undertook, and pursued his purpose with unflinching tenacity, without suffering himself to be diverted from it by obstacles which, to others, would seem unsurmountable. His mind was well stored with classical learning both ancient and modern. He was deeply read in theology and polemics, and was in every respect the accomplished scholar and pious ecclesiastic. He was a close observer and attentive follower of the changes that were so rapidly succeeding one another in endless variety in the religious world, and was the author of several small controversial tracts that bore on questions agitated in his own time. In a style peculiarly his own, he displayed in these much theological acumen, mingled with a certain pungency of remark and quaintness of expression which insured their perusal by all into whose hands they fell. His career was long, but not unprofitable; it was spent in serving his God and in doing good to his fellow-men, and hence, it may be fondly hoped, his reward will follow him.