This stone lies beside
NS3975 : The gravestone of John Brown, behind a locked gate in an enclosure beside the church halls of
NS3975 : Dumbarton Riverside Parish Church. The inscription is as follows:
"Sacred to the memory of the Rev. James Oliphant, minister of Dumbarton, who died on the tenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen years, in the 84th year of his age and the 54th of his ministry. He was licensed to preach the gospel by the presbytery of Kintyre, in Islay, 19th May, 1760; ordained nearly a year in Gorbals of Glasgow; was ordained by the presbytery of Irvine at Kilmarnock, and remained there until 23rd December, 1773, when he was ordained minister of the church and parish of Dumbarton, where he continued to labour until removed by death."
As a student, James Oliphant was associated with the Secession Church, but he later left it to join the established Church of Scotland. He held and expressed ultra-Calvinistic views; for this, Robert Burns, who had heard him preach at Kilmarnock, satirised him in the poem "The Ordination" (Oliphant's surname appears in the second stanza).
Oliphant was the author of "The Mother's Catechism", which saw wide distribution, and which was intended to counter Arminianism (anyone who is curious about the theological points that were being contested may find some good sources of information and comparison by searching for "Calvinism vs Arminianism").
He also supplied the description of the "County of Dunbarton" that appears in the Old Statistical Account (1792). These accounts were generally drawn up by the parish minister (if he was unable to do so for some reason, such as advanced age, he might delegate the task to an assistant minister).
Oliphant married twice; his second wife was Janet Colquhoun, daughter of Humphrey Colquhoun of Barnhill (who was a bailie of Dumbarton); for more on that family, see
NS4076 : Memorial to the Campbells of Barnhill (the enclosure in which the gravestones of James Oliphant and John Brown are now located was originally for the Campbells of Barnhill).
In connection with Oliphant's appointment to Dumbarton, Donald MacLeod, in his book "Ancient Records of Dumbarton and Glasgow" (1896), offers the following comments (and, by his standards, they are unusually direct): "Mr Oliphant was married to Janet, daughter of Humphrey Colquhoun by his second wife Margaret Williamson, and that accounts for his being minister of Dumbarton. He was not the choice of the people. He was forced upon them in the bad old times when might was right."
James Oliphant was blind for a few years before his death, which occurred in 1818.
[References: the inscription itself is difficult to see from outside the enclosure, but, helpfully, its text is reproduced in Donald MacLeod's "The God's Acres of Dumbarton" (1888). Joseph Irving's "History of Dumbartonshire" (1860), in a section on the succession of ministers, supplies some biographical details; a few more such details can be found in the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), Volume 42 (published in 1895).]