 The historian Gordon Donaldson noted MacDowall as an example of a pluralist since in addition to wages and fees for his royal building work, as a priest MacDowall not only gained by royal patronage the incomes from several altars and churches but also exemption from paying dues back to the crown.MacDowall gained the vicarage of the parish of Leswalt in Whithorn diocese on 1 January 1559.After William's death, in March 1580, his vicarages of Leswalt and Inch, were given to Richard Waus, a natural son of Patrick Vans of Barnbarroch.