Reginald John Mapleton
| Revd. Reginald John Mapleton | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Mapleton, Reginald John.jpg | |||||
| Born | 1817 | ||||
| Died | 1892 | ||||
| Occupation | church | ||||
| |||||
Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
not in a1
worked on same material as Rev. William Greenwell q.v.
Notes From Elsewhere
Reginald John Mapleton (9 December 1817[1] – 30 January 1892) was an English Anglican priest in the last quarter of the 19th century.[2]
Mapleton was born in Christ Church, Surrey,[3] to Rev. James Henry Mapleton.[4] He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge.[5] He was ordained deacon in 1842 and priest in 1843.[6][7] He married Emily Male in 1849 and was Vicar of Great Glen, Leicestershire and then St Columba's Kilmartin before becoming Dean of Argyll and The Isles in 1886.[8][9][10] He died in post in 1892.[11]
His son, Lt Col Reginald William Mapleton RAMC (1851-1905), was an eminent doctor.[12]
The Rev. Reginald John Mapleton (1818 - 1892) was the son of the Rev. James Henry Mapleton. He attended St. John's College Oxford, and went on to hold various appointments in Yorkshire, Warwickshire and Leicestershire in the 1840's and 1850's.
In 1859 he was selected by the Malcolms of Poltalloch as incumbent of St. Columba's, Poltalloch, where he remained until he death. From 1886 to 1892 he was Dean of Argyll and the Isles.
I will now refer to "The Kilmahonaig Diaries" (which appeared in slightly abbreviated form in "Kist" 53 and 54) - the journal kept by a Dr. Blatherwick who with his family spent three summer months of 1871 at Kilmahumaig, which he spelt as "Kilmahonaig". [It may have been the form at the time].
The Blatherwicks regularly attended church at Poltalloch, being rowed across from Crinan to Duntroon, and walking to St. Columba's. The Mapletons lived in Duntroon Castle, and the two families became friends, exchanging visits back and forth across the loch. From the Journal we learn that:
Mr. Mapleton is a great authority on all questions affecting natural history - he is domestic gamekeeper at home" and that he "owns 12 dozen snares for rabbits" and "1670 rabbits have been slain by him".
He joined shooting parties with the Blatherwick sons, and "taught the party the correct mode to snare rabbits". He also contributed a list of 119 species of bird found in the area around the Crinan Canal.
There is a casual mention that the Blatherwick boys were at Duntroon practising for "the forthcoming cricket match between Poltalloch and Ardrishaig". In all these respects the Rev. Mr. Mapleton seems to have lived the life of an old-fashioned English country parson.
His archaeological interests were not neglected for such rural pursuits. Professor Simpson, in an article in the Appendix to PSAS 6 aforementioned, dealing with cup-and-ring markings, notes the "ring markings on a large stone at Nether Largie first discovered by the Rev. Mr. Mapleton, to whose extreme courtesy I - and other antiquarian visitors to the district - feel most deeply indebted". In describing the rock carvings at Achnabreck he refers again to Mapleton, who "has most carefully examined the sculptings". It seems as if Mapleton was in the habit of conducting archaeological tours for interested visitors.
His first main excavation at Kilmartin was of the chambered tomb at Kilchoan in December 1864; the article in the RCAHMS Inventory remarks that his account of the material found in the three compartments is unusually full for its time.
It is clear that features that he observed are now altered or missing, and that the tomb itself must now be filled with about a metre of debris (he gives the height of a compartment as over 8ft (2.5m) whereas now it is only 1.5m). He remarks that the tomb "had long been a play place for children and was full of shells and broken crockery". The local name for the tomb had been "the burying place of St. John, but there was no chapel found or told of. In 1870 he carried out excavations of the cists in the cairn at Ri Cruin, but as these had been investigated some forty years previously it is possible that the grave goods had been rifled.
He noted that the side slabs had grooves to take the end slabs, one of which was still in position. This report is in PSAS 8, The cairn at Barr a' Chuirn was excavated by him in 1864 and reported in PSAS 6 in the Appendix; he found two cists with burnt bone, and a skeleton "of later date between them, but probably put there by the men who destroyed the cairn". [See Kist 62 p.10]. His most innovative operation took place in 1870 when he borrowed divers currently working on the Crinan Canal to investigate a crannog in Loch Coille Bharr. [The Canon and The Dean Mrs.Adeline Clark in The Kist The magazine of the Natural History and Antiquarian Society of Mid Argyll Issue no. Sixty-five Spring 2003]
Before entering the cairn, I had the pleasure of a visit from the Rev. R. J. Mapleton of Duntroon, who kindly came with his great experience
Mapleton, Rev. R. J., M.A., Duntroon : Kilmartin, Lochgilphead.
Publications
External Publications
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland vols 6 and 8 (1864 and 1870)
House Publications
note on a cist with engraved stones on the Poltalloch Estate, County of Argyll, NB [22 Mar 1870]
report on prehistoric remains in the neighbourhood of the Crinan Canal, Argyllshire [8 feb. 1870]
Related Material Details
RAI Material
plan of the cist found near Crinan Canal in box 202