Son of William M'Kie. Ordained minister of Crossmichael and/or Balmaghie on August 23rd, 1739. According to Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae McKie "was noted for simplicity of character, plain uncultivated manners, superstitious credulity, and great eccentricity." Author of Some thoughts on the Sacred Ministry, the opposition it meets with, its triumph, and the spring of its victory, a sermon (1741). Allegedly also "author of a quaint and humorous old Scottish song, 'Nae Dominies for me, Laddie'".1
McKie is described by Boswell as "a strange Caliban of a clergyman",2 and "a great curler upon the ice [and] at the same time a great admirer of poetry [who] imagining that he has genius, is now and then bellowing out some uncouth clumsy ditty of his own composition." (Harvest, 170962) M'Kie was a relation of the 8th Lord Kenmure's, the lord's aunt having married a McGhie of Balmaghie.
Boswell probably met him at Lord Kenmure's on September 16, 1762, but his journal isn't entirely clear as to whether he merely referred something told to him by Lord Kenmure, or formed the description himself.