Footdee (1861)
At the mouth of the river Dee and within the boundaries of the city of Aberdeen, lies the erstwhile fishing village of Footdee Fifty years ago this village consisted of two large squares of small, red-tiled, white-washed houses, contained some four score families, and possessed about twenty fishing-boats. Eight houses formed a side to, each of the squares, which were named North (or Fittie) Square, and South (or Torry) Square. The village hall, used as a day school, had a, length of two houses-namely, fifty feet - and could barely be outwardly distinguished from the surrounding houses. The villagers were wild, impulsive, and superstitious, and, in relation to God and His Gospel, lived in heathen darkness.
Donald Ross was appointed in the end of July 1858, the first secretary and superintendent of the North East Coast Mission, whose sphere was to extend along two hundred miles of a coast containing 57 towns and villages. Blessing from on high attended the labours of its godly and faithful missionaries, and Mr Ross's first annual report contained such sentences as "At Bervie, Gourdon, Downies, Cove, St. Combs, Inverallochy, Cairnbulg, and Broadsea the blessing has descended; waters have broken out in the wilderness and streams in the desert. At the present time there are hundreds crying, "What must we do to be saved?" Seven hundred copies of the Scriptures have been disposed of during this year.
The Mission's founder, Mr Rosie, had in 1859 been appointed missionary to the Bombay Harbour Mission. The report containing the above-quoted words reached him in India a few days before his death and was read by him with mingled joy and awe. Donald Ross continued at the head of the Mission for twelve years, during which time he witnessed, and was the chief instrument in, three noteworthy works of grace in Footdee~those of 1861,1862, and 1869.
THE REVIVAL OF 1861.
On a Sunday afternoon in 1859 the free and artless way of salvation was preached in the open air within the squares of the village for almost the first time in its history. The preacher, Donald Ross, made then a housie-to-house visitation of the people and found only one Christian - John Main, a young ship captain, who had come home to die. Main, who had, some years previously, been translated from darkness to light in Sunderland, had prayed long and earnestly for the entrance of the Gospel into his native village. He passed away a month before the first awakening in Footdee in 1861. Donald Ross continued to preach at regular intervals, at least once a fortnight, throughout the whole of the year 1860 'to audiences of three or four- generally children- without seeing any fruit of his labours.
Indeed, the fisherfolks despitefully used him, and he would often cry out, while preaching in the open air, with a sympathy born from above, "Cold Footdee! Cold Footdee!" During this time he prayed regularly for a storm to the intent that the fishermen would be kept at home. Towards the end of January 1861, the storm did come. The schooner "Mary," of Fraserburgh, lay windbound in Aberdeen harbour. Her captain, Wilson Summers, was an earnest Christian of but ten months' standing, and, having previously become acquainted with Donald Ross at Fraserburgh, was delighted to help his friend in the work of proclaiming the Gospel in Footdee. The singing by Mr Summers and one of his sailors of Wesley's hymn, "Behold the Saviour of mankind," with chorus, "O, the Lamb, the bleeding Lamb, the Lamb upon Calvary," attracted about twenty fisher girls into the village hall. The intimation was given out that a meeting would be held on the morrow if the " Mary " still lay windbound; and she did continue, providentially, to lie in harbour for ten days. On the second night the audience was doubled. Between two and three hundred villagers gathered on the third day to hear the singing and the preaching, which were at once simple and powerful. The windows of heaven soon opened in blessing; the village was inundated; and the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters. Probably about a tenth part of the dwellers in the village during the months of February and March were delivered from out of the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God's love. Mr Ross watched over and nourished these his children in the faith with a jealous care, and, out of men and women who could barely read or write, there arose men - such as Andrew Allan, Geo. R. Masson, Andrew Baxter, and Alexander Caie - who became earnest preachers, of the Gospel of God's grace and women who sang the "songs of Zion" with rare feeling. Mr Ross filled their hands with work. The men "opened the meeting" nightly in regular rotation. The women travelled much with him to such southern fishing villages, as Burnbanks, Cove, Findon, and Portlethen. At Cove and Findon there was real spiritual blessing, similar in intensity to that experienced in Footdee. The "songs of Zion" were often sung to the "world's tunes," and Mr Ross would occasionally remark to his noble army of travelling songstresses, "Girls, it's a pity we cannot take all the devil's music from him." It may be here said that Mr Ross journeyed in those days from one coast town to another on a small pony.
From, 'Donald Ross, Pioneer Evangelist,' pages 134-9.
Additional Information
This is the church in Footdee that is still active today. Footdee is made up of two squares together, but no longer has many seamen.