About Samuel Rutherford Crockett
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LIFE
‘Galloway has always had a cult which counted many true worshippers. I am only one among them. It chances that I have concentrated more, but that is all.’
Samuel Rutherford Crockett was born in the parish of Balmaghie, at Little Duchrae Farm on 24th September 1859.
Raised by his Cameronian grandparents William and Mary, the family attended the Cameronian ‘Kirk on the Hill’ in preference to Balmaghie Kirk– undertaking a round trip of nearly 20 miles each Sunday.
In 1867, the family moved to Cotton Street, Castle Douglas where Crockett lived until, on winning the Galloway Bursary, he went to study at Edinburgh University in 1876. His journalistic career began to support his studies.
Travels followed, as a tutor, through Europe and abroad. Returning to Edinburgh in 1882 he studied for the ministry, got his first charge at Penicuik Free Church in 1886 and married Ruth Milner in 1887.
They had four children, Maisie (known as Sweetheart) Philip, George (known as Toady Lion) and Margaret.
In 1893 Crockett’s sketches of Galloway life ‘The Stickit Minister and some common men’ became a bestseller. In 1894 this was followed by novels ‘The Raiders’ and ‘The Lilac Sunbonnet’ and his reputation as one of the foremost Scots writers of the time was consolidated. In January 1895 he left the ministry. He spent the rest of his life writing and travelling. He died on April 16th 1914 in France and was buried, according to his wishes, at Balmaghie Kirk on April 24th along with other family members.
‘mayhap that is the best fortune of all, to be loved by a few greatly and constantly, rather than to be applauded and immediately forgotten by the many’.
Samuel Rutherford Crockett was born in the parish of Balmaghie, at Little Duchrae Farm on 24th September 1859.
Raised by his Cameronian grandparents William and Mary, the family attended the Cameronian ‘Kirk on the Hill’ in preference to Balmaghie Kirk– undertaking a round trip of nearly 20 miles each Sunday.
In 1867, the family moved to Cotton Street, Castle Douglas where Crockett lived until, on winning the Galloway Bursary, he went to study at Edinburgh University in 1876. His journalistic career began to support his studies.
Travels followed, as a tutor, through Europe and abroad. Returning to Edinburgh in 1882 he studied for the ministry, got his first charge at Penicuik Free Church in 1886 and married Ruth Milner in 1887.
They had four children, Maisie (known as Sweetheart) Philip, George (known as Toady Lion) and Margaret.
In 1893 Crockett’s sketches of Galloway life ‘The Stickit Minister and some common men’ became a bestseller. In 1894 this was followed by novels ‘The Raiders’ and ‘The Lilac Sunbonnet’ and his reputation as one of the foremost Scots writers of the time was consolidated. In January 1895 he left the ministry. He spent the rest of his life writing and travelling. He died on April 16th 1914 in France and was buried, according to his wishes, at Balmaghie Kirk on April 24th along with other family members.
‘mayhap that is the best fortune of all, to be loved by a few greatly and constantly, rather than to be applauded and immediately forgotten by the many’.
LITERATURE
‘Whatever I have written for other people I have always kept the best for you, and if I forget Galloway, my little Fatherland, may my right hand forget its cunning.’
Crockett’s output is extensive. His greatest success was in serialisations most of which were subsequently published as novels. From a total of nearly seventy published volumes over a third were set in Galloway. These include stories of his own boyhood.
He wrote works of history, adventure and romance. His influences included Scott, Stevenson, Galt and Hogg. He was contemporary with J.M.Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle. His style, however, was all his own. He generally wrote from the perspective of the ordinary rural dweller and his writing spans Scottish and European history from the fifteenth century up to the contemporary early twentieth century.
His popularity was at its height in the 1890s and his most famous works remain ‘The Raiders’, ‘The Lilac Sunbonnet’ and ‘The Men of the Moss Hags,’ though other works such as ‘Cleg Kelly,’ ‘Kit Kennedy’ and most appropriate to Balmaghie ‘The Standard Bearer’ are also popular among his readership.
In a career spanning more than two decades, he experimented in style and structure. With the benefit of hindsight it is possible to see how important and influential his work is in the history of Scottish literature.
‘In Scotland literature begins on the principle that hungry dogs hunt the best.’
Crockett’s output is extensive. His greatest success was in serialisations most of which were subsequently published as novels. From a total of nearly seventy published volumes over a third were set in Galloway. These include stories of his own boyhood.
He wrote works of history, adventure and romance. His influences included Scott, Stevenson, Galt and Hogg. He was contemporary with J.M.Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle. His style, however, was all his own. He generally wrote from the perspective of the ordinary rural dweller and his writing spans Scottish and European history from the fifteenth century up to the contemporary early twentieth century.
His popularity was at its height in the 1890s and his most famous works remain ‘The Raiders’, ‘The Lilac Sunbonnet’ and ‘The Men of the Moss Hags,’ though other works such as ‘Cleg Kelly,’ ‘Kit Kennedy’ and most appropriate to Balmaghie ‘The Standard Bearer’ are also popular among his readership.
In a career spanning more than two decades, he experimented in style and structure. With the benefit of hindsight it is possible to see how important and influential his work is in the history of Scottish literature.
‘In Scotland literature begins on the principle that hungry dogs hunt the best.’
LEGACY
‘All authors have just one hero, that is the self they would have liked to be, the gallant boy they were not.’
Credited with creating the first tourist boom in Galloway this son of the Glenkens attained worldwide celebrity in his lifetime. After his death he was still fondly remembered locally though as time passed he became less well known further afield.
On the centenary of his death in April 2014 he was dubbed ‘Scotland’s Forgotten Bestseller’ and the Galloway Raiders was formed to advocate and promote his life and works for a new generation.
Scathing commentary on the hypocrisy of hierarchy is rooted underneath Crockett’s beautiful and accurate natural description.
He is truly the writer of the places and people of Galloway’s past. Crockett wrote the first car chase in fiction in ‘Vida’ and his dog Quharrie possibly inspired Conan Doyle’s ‘Hound of the Baskervilles.’ From medieval Douglas to 18th century Maxwell, his Galloway stories are steeped in the social history of the area, while his European adventure stories give a picture of life for the rural working folk of France, Spain, Italy and beyond.
‘When in doubt, always shut your head and… observe! Take my word for it, you are not wasting your time. They say in our country ‘Keep a thing seven years and you will find a use for it.’ But I say, ‘Remember a thing… exactly, mind you… thirty or forty years and you will find a place expressly hollowed out for it, where it will grow and branch out and seed like a potted plant’
Credited with creating the first tourist boom in Galloway this son of the Glenkens attained worldwide celebrity in his lifetime. After his death he was still fondly remembered locally though as time passed he became less well known further afield.
On the centenary of his death in April 2014 he was dubbed ‘Scotland’s Forgotten Bestseller’ and the Galloway Raiders was formed to advocate and promote his life and works for a new generation.
Scathing commentary on the hypocrisy of hierarchy is rooted underneath Crockett’s beautiful and accurate natural description.
He is truly the writer of the places and people of Galloway’s past. Crockett wrote the first car chase in fiction in ‘Vida’ and his dog Quharrie possibly inspired Conan Doyle’s ‘Hound of the Baskervilles.’ From medieval Douglas to 18th century Maxwell, his Galloway stories are steeped in the social history of the area, while his European adventure stories give a picture of life for the rural working folk of France, Spain, Italy and beyond.
‘When in doubt, always shut your head and… observe! Take my word for it, you are not wasting your time. They say in our country ‘Keep a thing seven years and you will find a use for it.’ But I say, ‘Remember a thing… exactly, mind you… thirty or forty years and you will find a place expressly hollowed out for it, where it will grow and branch out and seed like a potted plant’
