A fascinating question. Some of the more obvious possibilities are that Bremner was sick or on vacation and Tyrie was "standing in" for him, or that, as I believe was the custom, ministers occasionally used to "swap" on Sundays, each visiting the other's church to take the services there. This might entail a routine baptism. But I find (from www.genuki.org.uk/big/easter/index.html) that 12 March 1772 was not a Sunday but a Thursday, which I believe was a favoured day for baptisms. Digging deeper, I find (from John Smith, Church in Orkney, 1907; Fasti, 1929) that Bremner had been ordained in Walls the previous day, 11 March 1772. It was, I believe, the custom for several other ministers to attend local ordinations, so I suspect this was the reason why Tyrie had visited Walls on this occasion. But why was this baptism conducted by a visiting minister rather than the incumbant? Here I suspect the answer may lie with the parents of the child. Did either parent come from Sandwick, or were either relatives of Tyrie? If the answer to both these questions is no, then perhaps Bremner not popular with some of his parishiones (he had been presented the previous year by Lord Dundas and James Moodie of Melsetter), and the child's parents took this opportunity to snub their new incumbant. But this would have placed Tyrie in an awkward position, so I think this possibility unlikely. Alas the surviving Kirk Session Minutes for Walls do not go back before 1837, so you can't check there. James Irvine ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bruce Young" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 7:01 PM Subject: REV. JAMES TYRIE - REV. JAMES BREMNER > Would any readers care to suggest why Rev. James Tyrie, Minister of > Sandwick > Parish would travel to Walls Parish to baptize a Walls child there on 12 > March 1772, when Rev. James Bremner was the Minister in Walls at the time? > Thanks, > Bruce Young > [email protected] > > > > ______________________________