A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF ARTIFICIAL THINGS.
Mitres, crosiers, and keys, have made up the arms of several churches,
churchmen, and laics too, who have had 'a dependence on the church, or from
their names relatiye thereto, as those of the name of KIRK, who, in our old and
modern books of arms, carry gu/es, a bishop's crosier or, with a sword saltier-ways
arge:ti, and on a chief of the second,, a thistle vert.
The last figure shows, them to have been of a Scots extraction, and to have assumed
the surname from the kirk, or church, probably upon account of some office
belonging thereto.
Sir William Kirk is mentioned in the first book of Knox's History of the Reformation,
(whom Pe'irie, in his Church History, Part 11. page 172, says he was u
priest) tind that he was the first, amongst many others, whom Cardinal Beaton
summoned before jbifo, in the Abbey-Kirk of Holyroodhouse, anno 1534, because
ha favoured the Reformation ; but King James V. being there present, and inter-
posing his authority, commanded Sir William to return to his former principles,
to which he submissively acquiesced, and publicly burnt his bill.
He was brother to David Kirk, burgess of Edinburgh, whom the above John
Knox, in his History, mentions to be slain, anno 1549,
in Edinburgh, valiantly
fighting with the Laird of Stenhouse, then provost thereof, who was defending the
privileges of the town against the insults of some Frenchmen.
His son was Mr James Kirk, writer in Edinburgh, father of Mr John Kirk,
writer there, whose son was Mr James Kirk, minister at Aberfoyl in Perthshire.
He had seven sons; the eldest, Mr James, became minister at Balmaghie in Galloway,
and his seventh and youngest son, Mr Robert Kirk, became minister at Aberfoyl
1685. He was a man of good parts; he translated King David's Psalms with
great exactness into Scottish and Irish verse, which the Privy Council, upon examination,
highly approved of, and ordained the same to be printed, anno 1684.
He wrote also several other books : handsomely He died at Aberfoyl i4th of May
1692, being twice married, first to Isabel, daughter to Sir Colin Campbell of Mon-
chaster, second son to Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, by whom he had Colin his
eldest son : And by his second wife, a daughter of Campbell of Fordy, descended
of the family of Lawers, he had Mr Robert Kirk, minister at Dornoch.
Mr ROBERT, the father, carried the above arms within a bordure indented argent;
crest, a crosier and dagger saltier-wr ays : motto, Optimum quod primum; as now
used by his eldest son Colin Kirk, Writer to the Signet, who married Jean, second
(laughter to George Stirling of Herbertshire, of whose arms before. See Plate of
Achievements.
Some of this name with us carry, in place of the crosier and sword saltier-ways,
gules, on a saltier argent, a thistle slipped vert, and, on a chief of the second, three
cushions azure; crest, a church, proper: motto, Fotis y Conamine, as by JAMES
KIRK, Merchant in Edinburgh. L. R.
There are several considerable families of the name of KIRK, in England, who
carry other figures, as in Guillim's Display of Heraldry; by Sir JOHN KIRK of East-
ham in the county of Essex, descended from Sir David Kirk, who was Governor
and proprietor of Newfoundland in America, carries parted per fesse, or and gules,
a lozenge counter-changed, w r ith a canton azure, thereon a lion supporting a cut-
las, chained and collared argent; which canton was given as an augmentation to
the said Sir David Kirk, and to Lewis Kirk, Governor of Canada, and to Captain
Thomas Kirk, Vice-Admiral of the English Fleet, and to their descendants, for
their good services done in encountering and vanquishing the French navy, and
bringing the admiral prisoner to England, and for taking the said country of
Canada, then belonging to the French, which was fortified by them ; in which
expedition the above Sir David took the governor, and brought him prisoner to
England.
The surname of GIBSON, with us, gules, three keys fesse-ways in pale, wards
downward or.
The first of this name, says Sir George Mackenzie, in his Manuscript, was a
churchman, who took keys to show he was such: The name afterwards was much
raised and advanced by Mr George Gibson, first a Clerk of the Session, and after