Tour Scotland 4K Spring travel video of a road trip drive, with Scottish music, on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to the parish church and graveyard in Longforgan in Carse and Gowrie, Perthshire, Britain, United Kingdom. There has been a church on this site for at least 900 years. It replaced an earlier iron church, or Chapel of Ease. It provided a place of worship conveniently close at hand for people who previously had a long walk to church. The tower is dated 1690 and has an eight sided steeple and unusual clock. The main building by John Paterson is dedicated to Saint Columba and dates from 1795, the chancel was by Alexander Hutcheson from 1900. The ground floor of the tower, which also contains the entrance, was once used as the village jail. The western tower with spire contains two bells. They date from 1690 and 1889. The larger tenor bell is hung lower down at the same level as the clock so it strikes the bell on the hour. The clock was made in 1795. Several interesting tomb stones are in the graveyard. A record survives of Sir Patrick Gray, as Baron of Longforgan, holding a baronial court here in 1385 on the Longforgan or Hund Hill; a moot hill. The village was created a burgh of barony in 1672. William Wallace is said to have stopped here to rest after escaping from Dundee where he had killed the English governor's son. The name Longforgan may be derived from Scottish Gaelic lann, meaning " enclosure " or " church ", or lòn, meaning " marsh ", coupled with fothir grund, meaning a fertile field. Its form in modern Scottish Gaelic is Forgrann. Alexander Thoms was born on 9 November 1837 in Longforgan, the son of John Thoms of Clepington, and his wife, Barbara Wise. Around 1854 he went to Bengal in India and spent around three decades there managing tea plantations. He returned permanently to Scotland in 1884 and settled in St Andrews where he already had family links. He was a church elder in St Leonard's Church and served as Kirk Treasurer from 1889 to 1921. In 1905 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Ben Peach, John Horne, Robert Kidston and James Currie. He died on Boxing Day, 26 December 1925, at his home on Playfair Terrace in St Andrews. He married three times. Firstly in 1879 to Mary Watson Wemyss, born 1849, daughter of Dr Alexander Watson Wemyss of St Andrews, Fife. Mary died in March of the following year a few days after giving birth to their only child, who also died. He then, around 1885, married Jean Fowler Munro, born 1855, of Ratho. They had a son Alexander Thoms, born 1886. In April 1898 he married Clementina Christian Sinclair Heddle, born 1860, died 1942, daughter of Prof Matthew Forster Heddle of St Andrews University. Clementina emigrated to California in 1939. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome. The date for astronomical Spring is 20th March, ending on 21st June, while by the meteorological calendar, Spring starts on 1st March
When driving in Scotland slow down and enjoy the trip
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