“It all started with a Scotsman who just couldn’t hold his tongue! ”

— David J Whyte

This is rather a long tale, enough for a book or indeed a Netflix series but I’ll do my best here to give you the gist. It all started with a Scotsman who just couldn’t hold his tongue! “Why does that ring a bell?” pipes up my girlfriend.

PHILANTHROPIC PHYSICIAN

Robert Reid Kalley was born in 1838 near Trongate in the centre of Glasgow. The ambitious young Scotsman embarked on a medical career, first becoming a ship’s doctor and then a GP in the town of Kilmarnock before he and his wife, due to her poor health relocated to the balmy shores of Madeira.

Once they got settled, Kalley and his wife were appalled at the poverty and illiteracy they found on the mid-Atlantic island. The good doctor decided to offer the disadvantaged his medical services for free, meanwhile surcharging his more wealthy patrons.

Soon he’d gathered enough funds to build a small hospital & pharmacy and open no less than 17 small schools around the island that catered to children during the day and unlettered adults in the evenings.

“What can possibly be wrong with that?” I hear you say!

An antique map of the island of Madeira, circa 1858.

EVANGELISTIC ARDOUR

The magnanimous Kalley couldn’t resist proselytising his particular brand of Protestantism to the exclusively Catholic parishioners he was caring for. So successful was he at converting the poorer classes to the Presbyterian brand that the Catholic church could no longer ‘turn a blind eye’ or indeed ‘the other cheek’!

“Kalley couldn’t resist proselytising his particular brand of Protestantism”

In 1841, the Catholic Bishop of Funchal decided to put a dampener on Kalley’s evangelistic ardour and forbade him to deliver any religious lectures.

In 1843, Scottish Bibles that he had widely distributed throughout the island were confiscated and meetings at his home, which were becoming increasingly popular, were forbidden.

But the good doctor could not desist. Kalley continued with his mission albeit in a more subdued manner, concentrating his efforts on the village of Santo da Serra.

SCOTS KIRK

Then he went one step too far. Along with a newly arrived missionary, the Rev. William Hepburn Hewitson, Kalley founded the first ‘Presbyterian Church of Portugal’ in Funchal, ‘The Scots Kirk’.

This was a step too far for the island’s Catholic hierarchy and Kalley and his Portuguese followers were formally charged with blasphemy and heresy, which at the time were punishable by death!

In 1846, all the schools he had founded were closed, the 2000 bibles he had distributed were burned and a warrant was issued for Kalley’s arrest!

There are various alarming accounts of the following period and I’m not sure which to believe but it sounds like the situation became quite ugly with houses of the adherents vandalised and burnt, the new Protestant ‘Calvinists’ beaten up and perhaps even a death or two. One hesitates to accept that such behaviour could occur due to ‘diverse religions’ but, as we’ve witnessed throughout the centuries, this was probably the case!

DOCTOR IN DISGUISE

The hapless Kalley, in fear for his life, sought sanctuary at the British Consul in Funchal and soon after escaped the island disguised as an old woman, reminiscent of Bonnie Prince Charlie at the end of the Scottish Jacobite rebellion a hundred years before.

“Kalley looked back to see his house engulfed in flames!”

As he set sail from Funchal harbour, Kalley looked back to see his house engulfed in flames!

The philanthropic physician took passage to the United States while his beleaguered followers, at least 2000 of them, perhaps more, were also ordered to leave their Madeiran homes, most travelling to the islands of Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean to seek work as labourers in the recently established sugar plantations.

A BRAVE NEW WORLD

“Maderians prospered in the New World”

The story doesn’t end there!

Protestant groups in the USA learned of the plight of the dispossessed Madeirans and invited them to join the burgeoning Presbyterian communities of Jacksonville and Springfield, Illinois, southwest of Chicago (not the same Springfield of the modern-day cultural icon, Homer Simpson).

But it was the same Springfield that saw the start of Abraham Lincoln’s career as a lawyer and politician. Lincoln’s wife, also employed a Madeiran girl, Charlotte Rodrigues as a seamstress and housemaid and she became Lincoln’s family's firm favourite.

THE BOND CONNECTION

The Maderians prospered in the New World!

The family of film director, Sam Mendes whose films such as ‘American Beauty’, the James Bond movies, ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Spectre’ along with the most excellent ‘Road to Perdition’, was part of the diaspora. An area of Jacksonville, Illinois became known as "Portuguese Hill" with around 1,000 Madeiran Portuguese living in this one area alone.

SPIRITUAL FATHER

The indomitable Kalley meanwhile, travelled back to Europe, firstly to Malta then later to Beirut in 1851 where his ailing first wife died. He remarried the following year and Kalley and his new wife visited the Presbyterian settlements in Illinois sometime later.

The good doctor continued his missionary work, establishing the first permanent Protestant church in Brazil, spending many years there and suffering similar resistance from the Brazilian Catholic Church - but never quite as tumultuous as in Madeira.

Dr Kalley returned to Scotland in 1876 and spent a further 12 years communicating with the leaders of the churches he had helped to establish in Brazil, the Portuguese mainland, the islands of Madeira, Tobago, Trinidad and central Illinois. He had become a ‘spiritual father’ to these Presbyterian communities as well as a mentor to an entire generation of ministers and missionaries who emulated his sagacity, enthusiasm and dedication to the Presbyterian cause.

The Wolf from Scotland