# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Low, David (1768-1855)

​LOW, DAVID (1768–1855), bishop of Ross, Moray, and Argyll, was born at Brechin, Forfarshire, in November 1768. After studying at Marischal College, Aberdeen, he was appointed schoolmaster of Menmuir, Forfarshire. He subsequently read theology with Bishop Gleig, then minister at Stirling, and on his recommendation entered the Patullo family of Balhouffie as tutor. In December 1787 he was ordained, and took charge of a small nonjuring congregation at Perth. In September 1789 he settled as minister at Pittenweem, Fifeshire, officiating also at the adjacent town of Crail. On 14 Nov. 1819 he was consecrated bishop of the united dioceses of Ross, Argyll, and the Isles, and in April 1820 he received the degree of LL.D. from Aberdeen. He took an active share in promoting the interests of the episcopal church in Scotland, and lived in a state of celibate simplicity, that he might bestow two-thirds of his modest income in support of its schemes both for education and for church extension. In 1831, chiefly through his influence, was formed the Gaelic Episcopal Society, which had for its principal object the organisation of schools in the highlands under Gaelic teachers, and the training of candidates for holy orders, who might be capable of officiating in Gaelic. He took an important part in the movement for the repeal of the penal laws which had in 1746 and 1748 been directed against the Scottish episcopalians on account of their Jacobite sympathies. The great difficulty was removed in 1788 by the death of Prince Charles Edward without lawful issue, and in 1792 an act was passed repealing under certain conditions all previous statutes concerning the episcopal clergy of Scotland. The restrictive clauses were, largely owing to Low's exertions, considerably modified by the act of 1840. At the death of Bishop Jolly in 1838 the diocese of Moray was added to Low's jurisdiction. In 1847 he effected the separation of Argyll and the Isles from Ross and Moray, and endowed the new see with 8,000l. In August 1848 he was created D.D. by Hartford College, Connecticut, and by the college of Geneva in the state of New York. Increasing infirmities obliged him to resign his see in December 1850. He died at Pittenweem on 26 Jan. 1855.
Low's ‘personal appearance,’ says Lord Lindsay in the ‘Edinburgh Courant’ (cited in Gent. Mag. 1855, i. 423), ‘was most striking—thin, attenuated, but active, his eye sparkling with intelligence—his whole appearance that of a venerable French abbé of the old régime.’ His mind was eminently buoyant and youthful. He possessed a store of interesting historical information, especially about the Jacobite and cavalier party, to which he belonged by early association as well as by strong political and religious predilection. He had known veteran Jacobites, and stored his memory with their anecdotes and traditions. Nor was his traditional knowledge limited to the last century; it extended back to the wars of Claverhouse and Montrose, and to the attempted introduction of the service book in 1637, and ‘he was well-nigh as familiar with the relationships, intermarriages, and sympathies of families who flourished two centuries ago as with those of his parishioners.’ This unique knowledge rendered him an important witness before the committee of privileges of the House of Lords when the claim of Lord Balcarres to the earldom of Crawford was under discussion; a service gratefully recorded by Lord Lindsay in his ‘Lives of the Lindsays’ (ii. 260–82), and elsewhere.
The most valuable of Low's traditions were embodied by Robert Chambers in his histories of the rebellions in 1638–60, 1689, 1715, and 1745. Of his anecdotes of old Scottish manners, of which he possessed an abundant store, some were likewise taken down by R. Chambers, and published by him in ‘Scottish Jests and Anecdotes’ in 1832; others are given in ‘Chambers's Journal’ for 17 March 1855. Many of Low's humorous stories are given in Conolly's ‘Short Life.’
Low's only publications were two charges ​delivered in 1823 and 1826. His portrait by C. Lees was engraved by Quilley and by Warren.
[Blatch's Memoir; Conolly's Biog. Sketch, with portrait; Conolly's Biog. Dict. of Fife, pp. 299–305; Scottish Ecclesiastical Journal, February 1855; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, ii. 253.]
G. G.