8314: Rev Alexander Simpson

Rev Alexander Simpson (1761-1830) was born in Ferintosh, studied in Aberdeen and came to Keose as assistant Minister to Rev John Fraser in 1787. After the death of Mr Fraser, he was admitted as Minister of the charge on 12 March 1793. He died on 23 June 1830, having been in the Parish as assistant and minister for 41 years.

Oral tradition states that he refused to marry or baptise anyone unless they took a full part in psalm singing during his services. His methods did not please everyone and Rev Norman C Macfarlane, in Men of Lewis, writes of the "dark Simpsonian period":

Lochs Parish was the darkest bit of the Lews. It had for nearly 40 years a minister whose character was a blot… The Gospel which he was ordained to serve he seemed ignorant of and it was a strange substitute he preached… The stories of how he degraded the pulpit and desecrated the Sabbath and betook himself to whisky filled the Island.