History of St Thomas

St. Thomas Church was built in 1830-31, as a successor to a very modest cottage and chapel which had been erected in 1785 at Kempcairn, about one km outside the town.  Upon the death of Father W. Reid there in 1825, a new priest, Father Walter Lovi, was appointed to Keith, and he began raising money to build a new church.  To do so, he travelled throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.  From 1827 until the new church was finished, services were held in a little chapel in Land Street.

Father Lovi was a native of Edinburgh, and at that time there were many French Royalist refugees in the city.  The refugees were supporters of Charles X, who had been restored to the French throne in 1824.  As the Comte d’Artois, Charles had been given sanctuary in the Scottish capital following the French Revolution.  Here, he had been befriended by Adam Gordon, Governor of Edinburgh Castle, and son of Duke of Gordon , whose castle was in Fochabers, eight miles from Keith.