Local historian Harry Gray uncovers stories from Wick graveyard

WICK historian Harry Gray kept a large audience enthralled this week as he revealed the fascinating stories behind many of the old gravestone inscriptions in the town's St Fergus churchyard.

There were tales of murder and suicide as well as tragedies involving seafarers from as far away as England and even Norway who had come to grief on Caithness shores.

Mr Gray's illustrated talk in Mackays Hotel, entitled A Grave Outlook, was organised by Caithness Family History Society as a taster for the forthcoming annual conference of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies, taking place in the Pulteney Centre on Saturday, April 27.

The murder case mentioned by Mr Gray dated back to 1825 and involved James Small, mate of the Rose of Wick. He was attacked in a pub by four men who took his body and threw it over the Pulteneytown harbour wall.

Mr Gray also highlighted the great and the good of the Wick community for whom the Parish graveyard was to be their last resting place. These included James Bremner (1784-1856), the great harbour-builder and ship-raiser, and John Kirk (1785-1863), a notable local merchant and generous benefactor.

Mr Gray pointed out that the building known as the Sinclair Aisle is a surviving fragment of the ancient Kirk of St Fergus from the 16th century.

Ian Leith – vice-chair of Caithness Family History Society – gave a summary of the forthcoming conference which will attract speakers, delegates and family history groups from across Scotland. In particular he urged members of the public to go along to the family history fair (free entry) which will run throughout the day alongside the conference programme.

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