Kalley (Dr Robert Reid)

He was born at Mont Floridan, near Glasgow, in Scotland, on 6 September 1809, the son of Roberto Kalley and Joana R. Kalley, and he died in the city of Edinburgh on 17 January 1888. In 1832 he completed his degree in medicine at one of the British universities.

Some six years later, on 2 October 1838, Dr Kalley arrived in Funchal, where, apart from short intervals, he lived until 9 August 1846. He became famous for the Protestant proselytism he carried on so widely among us and for the grave disturbances he brought into the heart of Madeiran family life. He was a man of extraordinary talent and a most distinguished physician, with the rare gift of holding crowds in thrall with his suggestive and eloquent speech, which was the chief secret of the effectiveness of his propaganda. He was no doubt a believer, but above all he was a fanatic. A fierce and hate-filled sectarianism ruled him, and he would never have yielded a single step in his bold and tireless propaganda had he not been forced to leave this island in haste.

At first he confined himself to practising medicine free of charge, in which he soon became renowned, to charity towards the poor and to founding schools. Together with his attractive personal qualities and the prestige of his words, this surrounded his name with an aura of sympathy, esteem and respect among all the social classes of our land. Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) publicly paid him a lofty tribute for his services to education and for his acts of philanthropy towards the unfortunate, and the government in mainland Portugal exempted from duty at the customs house of this city the medicines he imported for treating the poor. The benefactor later turned into a fierce propagandist, and it became clear that in him proselytism outweighed in every respect the disinterested practice of charity. This became even more marked after a journey he made to England, where he stayed from June to September 1845. It is said that the meetings he held there with the leaders of the Bible societies and with important figures interested in anti-Catholic propaganda greatly inflamed his natural sectarian ardour and gave him greater courage and boldness in spreading Protestant ideas.

On his return, Dr Kalley launched an even more intense campaign. The very patients he treated at his house were made to listen to his religious addresses, although they showed their reluctance to do so. By then the outcry against the bold propagandist was general. Yet neither the warnings and orders issued by the authorities nor the popular threats, which rumbled beneath the surface, cooled the fervour of the celebrated Scottish physician. With his house surrounded by the police and the insults hurled at him ringing in his ears, he fearlessly went on spreading his religious ideals.

The affronts to the Catholic religion turned the people of Madeira as a whole against Dr Kalley. He had come among us to tear from the people the beliefs of their forefathers and to sow the most baneful dissension within families. The reaction that such bold proselytism naturally provoked led to serious disturbances, and the local authorities had to intervene to curb the excesses of the propagandists. There followed deeply regrettable scenes, in which excesses were committed by Catholics and Protestants alike. These would have been avoided entirely had Dr Kalley not begun his campaign, or at least had he not given it so markedly fanatical a character.

Since he was a British subject, he was treated with genuine moderation and prudence. More than once the Protestant physician formally declared, before the local authorities and other persons of high social standing, that he would put an end to the evangelisation of his creed among Madeirans and confine his campaign to foreigners living in Madeira or who might chance to put in here. He broke every one of these promises, and feelings grew ever more inflamed, reaching their regrettable epilogue in the sad events of 9 August 1846.

Dr Robert Reid Kalley lived on a quinta (country estate) at Vale Formoso (‘beautiful valley’), and it was there that his converts held their meetings. The house had long been guarded by the police, for it was feared that popular anger would break out in reprehensible excesses. Meanwhile, the apostolic zeal of the fanatical propagandist allowed him no rest. He also worked with remarkable energy as a physician, treating the sick free of charge and distributing medicines and alms among the poor, while it was claimed that he worked wonders in the art of healing.

On 9 August 1846, in broad daylight, Dr Kalley’s house was surrounded by an enormous crowd of townspeople, which the police were powerless to hold back. Excesses of every kind were then committed. The crowd broke down the doors of the residence and, storming inside, searched every corner for Dr Kalley, who fortunately found safe refuge from the fury of the attackers in flight. He took shelter in the house of a fellow countryman, and there the British consul advised him to leave Madeira without delay. Dressed in women’s clothes and carried in a hammock (rede, slung from a pole and carried by two bearers) to the beach of this city, he managed to board a British ship and leave this island, to which he never returned.

Dr Robert Reid Kalley went to Illinois, in the United States of America, and called to join him many of the Madeirans who had followed his teachings. Others, fearing persecution, and an even larger number driven merely by a spirit of adventure, emigrated and swelled the Portuguese colonies of Demerara, Trinidad and the United States of America.

The Portuguese government sent António José de Ávila, later Duke of Ávila and Bolama, to Madeira to investigate these events. He came accompanied by the new civil governor, Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) José Silvestre Ribeiro.

Through his government, Dr Kalley claimed compensation for the damage done to the library and furniture of his house, and the Portuguese government paid the sum of 1574 pounds sterling, or about seven contos (one million réis) de réis, at which this damage had been assessed. We do not know when the claim was lodged, but we know that only some years after the events that prompted it did Councillor José Silvestre Ribeiro, civil governor of this district, report confidentially to the government in mainland Portugal on the claim for compensation, on 25 July 1851 and on instructions from above. In his opinion it ought to be granted on the terms in which it had been made (see Protestant Proselytism).

Besides the countless articles that the newspapers of the day printed on the Kalley Affair, the following pamphlets were also published: Exposição de Factos, by R. R. Kalley, Funchal, 1843, of which a 2nd edition appeared in Lisbon in 1875; An Account of the recent persecutions in Madeira, by Dr Kalley, London, 1844; Revista Histórica do proselitismo protestante exercido na ilha da Madeira pelo Dr. Roberto Reid Kalley, medico escossez, by Manuel de Sant’Ana e Vasconcelos, Funchal, 1845; and Perseguições dos Calvinistas da Madeira, by João Fernandes da Gama, São Paulo (Brazil), 1896, 218 pp.

The claim made by Dr Kalley through his government, seeking substantial compensation for the damage done to his residence by the rioting populace, was the subject of several debates in the local and mainland press and aroused the keenest interest throughout our country and abroad as well. The diplomatic case took a long time to resolve, for only seven years after the regrettable occurrence did the Portuguese government pay the compensation demanded by Dr Roberto Kalley. Various incidents took place and a number of diplomatic notes were exchanged between the governments of Portugal and England before an amicable settlement was finally reached. The Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time was the illustrious Madeiran the Viscount of Atouguia, who set out the grounds of the claim in a detailed report; the interesting information that follows is taken from this important document:

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The Administration of 18 June 1849 having issued a ministerial order (portaria) on 7 February 1851 to the Civil Governor of Funchal, instructing him to carry out every inquiry into the damage which Dr Kalley had represented as having been caused to him by a popular tumult that took place in that same city of Funchal, that Magistrate complied on 25 July 1851 with his report.

The present Administration, after a scrupulous examination of all the papers relating to this claim of the British Government, and above all in the light of the report given by the aforementioned Civil Governor (Councillor José Silvestre Ribeiro), could not but recognise the right of Dr Kalley to compensation for the damage he suffered on the island of Madeira as a consequence of the said tumult, which had taken place on 9 August 1846.

Not wishing, however, to take upon itself the responsibility of fixing any sum on that account without ordering fresh inquiries, the same Administration confidentially instructed the Civil Governor to answer three questions it had sent him and at the same time to give his opinion on the claim in question. When that Magistrate sent the required reply on 3 November 1851, he added that, as regards his opinion, he referred to the last part of his report of 25 July 1851.

In that report the said Civil Governor, after assuring the Government that he had given this matter the most serious attention and had used every possible means to ascertain the truth with the greatest scruple, detail and impartiality, observed that in the tumultuous and disorderly scene of 9 August 1846, in which the house of Dr Kalley had been subjected to outright pillage, many things must necessarily have been damaged, broken, ruined and lost, besides those that fell prey to the flames.

In these circumstances, pressed by the Government of Her Britannic Majesty to pay that compensation, and not wishing to be accused of bad faith, the Government of Her Majesty agreed to pay the sum claimed of seven contos eighty-four thousand six hundred and thirty-one réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis), equivalent to 1574,7 pounds, shillings and 3 pence at the exchange rate of 4,500 réis each, the amount at which the said damage was shown to have been calculated, in three instalments, which were paid at the agreed times.’

Secretariat of State for Foreign Affairs, 20 June 1853. – Viscount of Athouguia.