Paul Maclachlan and the Ironmaster: A Case Study in Controversya

Born at the small Highland farm of Belachknockan in Glenlivet on 18 September 1805, Paul Maclachlan was the second of John Maclachlan and Helen Grant’s sons to be educated for the priesthood. There were already clergy kinsmen from Banffshire, a county which produced many priests for the increasingly industrial Lowlands of Scotland. Two James Maclachlans had attended the nearby seminary of Scalan, and Paul Maclachlan and his brother John, the older by nineteen months, were sent to the successor college of Aquhorties in Aberdeenshire. Paul, who won renown for his high intellectual qualities, entered the Lowland District seminary nine months ahead of his older brother on 17 March 1819. In January 1821 he was in the second class studying Caesar under the future Bishop James Kyle, while John was a year behind with the Rev. James Sinnott and Cornelius Nepos.