A number of the gravestones of
Fetteresso belong to the 17th century, one with the name defaced being
dated 1600. A mutilated slab in the area of the church bearing a shield
charged with the Hay arms is inscribed:- "Heir lyes Francis.....son
to the laird of wry 1610." The Hays of Errol acquired Ury from the
Frasers of Cowie about the year 1413. The burial-place of the Duffs of
Fetteresso is in the North-East corner of the church, while the
Rickart-Hepburns of Rickarton and the Gordons of Newhall are interred in
the North aisle. A stone with the Mowat and Harvey arms impaled bears
the inscription:- "Heir lyes a godly and provident man John Mowat
sometime in Glithno, who departed 6 July 1655. Isobel Hervy, his verous
spous, who departed the 1 of August 1650." A shield bearing the
same arms boldly carved, with the initials JM, IH, is built into the
East wall of the church. William Cruickshank, tenant in Mountboys and an
Elder in the parish, died in 1795 aged 74 years. His tombstone relates
that "A consummation devoutly to be wished for by every good man
was by the kindness of Providence appointed for him. On his way home
from church he was instantly translated without a groan from earth to
heaven."
There is a stone in memory of William Moncur, late Sergeant in 71st
Regiment of Foot, who after suffering the fatigue and calamity of war in
Spain and at Waterloo, died in peace at Toadstack in Fetteresso, the
24th October, 1816, aged 32 years. Appedended to the inscription are the
lines:-
"No force can death resist, no flight can save.
All fall alike, the fearful and the brave.
Live to the Lord, that thou may'st die so too.
To live and die is all ye have to do."
Of Robert Christie, Skaterow, who died in 1856, aged 31,
the following pathetic record is given:-
"Pain was my portion, physic was my food.
Sighs was my devotion, Drugs did me no good.
Till Christ my Redeemer, who knows what is best,
To ease me of pain, has taken me to his rest."
The Kirks of Cowie and Fetteresso
by Rev J B Burnett
1927
