Death of Mr Macfie of Airds

The announcement of the death at Airds House, Appin, on Sunday of Mr Robert Macfie of Airds and Oban, was received in the district with very much regret. For some years the deceased, who was over fourscore, had been in failing health, and latterly had been much confined to the house. Mr Macfie in his day had been an active man of business, and at one time had been largely connected with the sugar refining industry, both in Liverpool and Greenock. He owned the beautifully situated estate of Airds, on the Appin shores of Loch Linnhe and Loch Crean, where the family mansion-house was located, as well as a large portion of the ground and property in the southern end of the town of Oban. His yacht, the Mona, was a familiar object in Oban Bay. In politics Mr Macfie was a staunch Liberal, and at the time of his death he held the office of hon. president of the Oban Liberal Association. He was also a substantial supporter of the Free Church, and in connection with the Free Presbytery of Lorn he had founded a benefaction amounting to 50 pounds annually to enable the ministers of that body to take a holiday. He also had endowed a lectureship with the object of promulgating the spiritual independence of the Free Church of Scotland. Very recently, Mr Macfie also gave 1000 pounds towards the cost of the new municipal buildings in Oban. His diamond wedding was celebrated at Airds in April last, when congratulatory addresses were presented by deputations representing the tenantry and others of the estates, the Oban Town Council, Oban School Board, the Presbytery of Lorn, and the Oban Liberal Association. The deceased who has left a widow and grown-up family of sons and daughters, is succeeded in the estates by his son William, a Liverpool merchant.

Bequests by Mr Macfie

We are informed that the late Mr Robert Macfie of Airds, and formerly a prominent citizen and magistrate of Greenock, has, by his will, left for church and charitable purposes the following legacies free of legacy duty:-

Fund for affording help to deserving poor exiled Jews 5000 pounds. To originate a fund for assisting by grants in aid the erection of comfortable churches and manses for congregations of the Free Church of Scotland in isolated districts of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland where comfortable churches and manses do not exist, or the improvement, so as to render the same comfortable, of the existing churches or manses in the districts referred to, 6000 pounds. Port Appin Free Church Sustentation Fund, Oban (English) Free Church, Morven Free Church, Inverkip Free Church, each 1000 pounds. Sustentation Fund of the Free Church of Scotland 2000 pounds. Foreign mission, Home mission, and Highlands and Islands and Jewish schemes of Free Church of Scotland each 1000 pounds. Greenock hospital and infirmary 2000 pounds. Greenock Female Benevolent Society 600 pounds.

Mr Macfie has also bequeathed a sum of 100 pounds to each pre-Disruption minister and missionary of the Free Church of Scotland now alive who signed the Deed of Demission in 1843.

Out of respect to the memory of the late Mr Robert Macfie of Airds, who was at one time closely connected with the sugar trade of Greenock, all the public buildings in the town displayed flags at half-mast. At the harbours, too and on the river steamers the same sign of mourning was displayed