Dron Parish Church and Churchyard Detail of Mclaren Children, 1755 tombstone.

Description Dron Parish Church and Churchyard Detail of Mclaren Children, 1755 tombstone.

Date 1986

Collection Papers of Betty Willsher, historian, St Andrews, Scotland

Catalogue Number A 7339

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 803351

Scope and Content Gravestone of the McLaren children, Parish Church and Churchyard, Dron, Perth & Kinross This monument features twin winged souls with finely incised feathery wings and wearing periwigs. They represent the souls of the dead ascending to Heaven. In the centre of the stone is a shield carved with a 'mouline' (the metal brace which supports a millstone) and a pick (used for re-cutting the grinding surface of a millstone). The leafy wreath around the shield symbolises rebirth. At the base of the stone, below an inscribed scroll, is a pair of crossed bones and a skull (emblems of death), and an hourglass (symbol of the brevity of life). The majority of Scottish gravestones place the image of the soul at the top of the stone, and emblems of death at the bottom. This is partly a compositional device, as winged soul heads fit neatly into the arched tympanum (top part) of the stone, but on a symbolic level, it shows the human spirit triumphing over death. This gravestone commemorates the McLaren children, who all seem to have died in 1755. It is inscribed: 'HERE LYES INTERED THE BODY/OF WILLIAM McLAREN AGED/4 YEARS AND JANET McLAREN/AGED 6 YEARS, ANNA McLAREN.AGED 6 MONTHS, ROBERT McLAREN/AGED 4 YEARS, DAVID McLAREN/AGED 11 YEARS, HELEN AGED/17 YEARS CHILDREN TO LAWRENCE/McLAREN TENANT IN DRON &/HELEN GORDON HIS SPOUSE'. Perhaps a sudden illness struck the family, or the stone was carved at a later date to record a number of deaths over a longer period of time. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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