1801
The Irish Parliament came to an end and the Governments of Great
Britain and Ireland were united A New History of Great Britain,
Mowat, page 615
1801 Population of Scotland estimated by Official Census
at 1,265,000. Cargoes of Despair and Hope, Scottish Emigration
to North America, Ian Adams and Meredyth Somerville, Page 2.
1801
The Dove of Aberdeen Sarah of Liverpool, Golden Text, Nora and
Alexander all sailed this year to Pictou, Nova Scotia with well
in excess of 500 on board from the Western Highlands. The manifests
indicate that Dove had 219 and Sarah 350 souls on board from this
area. There are no specific figures for Golden Text, Nora or Alexander
in this record. John Dye
1802
Tweed of Ullapool, Aurora of Greenock, Northern Friends of Clyde,
Scotch Mist, Schooner, Friends of Saltcoats, Jean of Irvine, Helen
of Saltcoats, Jane, Albion, Neptune of Greenock, Eagle and an
unnamed ship took a collection of folk, numbering perhaps 3,000
or more from "Western Highlands, Knoydart, Fort William and Loch
Nevis". Their passengers included "papists" (but not exclusively)
and their destinations were in all cases but one, Canada, ranging
from Pictou Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island through to upper
and lower Canada. The "odd man out" was the Northern Friends of
Clyde which sailed to Sydney. - John Dye
1803
An unnamed ship, organized by Selkirk sailed with passengers from
Skye and Mull to Prince Edward Island. - John Dye
1803 Eight hundred people from Skye, Uist and Wester Ross
sailed with the Earl of Selkirk to Prince Edward Island . "A
very Fine Class of Emigrants", Prince Edward Island's Scottish
Pioneers 1770-1850, Lucille H Campey, page 139.
1803
Proposal to improve ground and make new road up to the top bridge
£814.08 and keeping the new bed of the river in repair £5.50.0.
Clanranald & Robertson MacDonald papers ref E 482 MFS Nat
Lib Scot
1803
"At Inverness this twenty fifth day of June one thousand eight
hundred and four, in presence of Donald McPherson Esq one of the
Bailies of Inverness Compeared (sic) Wm Cuming Surveyor of land
etc who being solemnly Sworn depones that in the month of April
last he surveyed a line of road from Corran Ferry to Loch Moydart
head (?) in the Counties of Argyle (sic) & Inverness and he
further depones that the annexed is a true plan & measurement
of the same to the best of his knowledge as he shall answer to
God" Signed, Don MacPherson JP and Wm Cuming. Deposition on
plan in National Archives of Scotland ref RHP 11627
1803
Distances measured:-
From
the landing place near Loch Moydart head to the water of Moydart
1m 744y To the Farm of Langell 2m 816y
To the water of Sheil 2m 1176y
To the top of the hill NW of Sallen 3m
To the junction with the present road to Reispool 1m 744y
To Cammisachork 5m 744y
To the East end of the wood at Rannachan 1200y
To the Inn of Strontian 3m
...and
so on, Total 34m 860y. Schedule on plan in National Archives of
Scotland ref RHP 11627 - Jean Lawson
1803
Plan showing Water of Moydart with "canal" (named such on the plan
and, looking like such in the drawing) running from what is now
the modern fish farm to Nursery Pool as a straight cut in addition
to the then existing course, which meandered slightly north, as
shown on earlier plans. The name "Glackmore" appears on the plan
and is applied to what is now known as "Glac Mhor" on 1972 OS plan
( near to Ardmollich wood). Owner shown to be Col Macdon...(plan
torn at this place). There is an Inn shown on the Langal side of
the bridge across the mouth of River Moydart and also a second building
shown between the bridge and Glackmore, name illegible. Plan in
National Archives of Scotland ref RHP 11627 - Jean Lawson
1803 Following a report from Thomas Telford, the House
of Commons passed an Act granting a sum of up to £20,000 for
making roads and bridges in the Highlands. Consequent to this act,
a petition was submitted by The Duke of Argyll, the Trustees of
Sir James Riddell, the Guardians of Ronald George MacDonald of Clanranald,
Lieutenant-Colonel Donald MacDonald of Kinlochmoidart, Alexander
MacDonald of Glenalladale and others for money to build a road from
Kinlochmloidart to Ardgour. "The proprietors of these districts
are therefore most desirous to open up communications
from
Kinlochmoidart (a large and spacious harbour
.) to the Corran
of Ardgour from whence there is a safe and commodious ferry to the
Military Road from Fort William
.and it is proposed that the
line of the Road should be Lochmoidart to the Bay of Saline upon
Loch Sunart, to the village of Strontian, and from thence to Ardgour.
The extent may be thirty to thirty five miles and the expense of
making it, and of building the necessary Bridges over the rivers,
it is believed, would not exceed £3,500. Signed Henry Jardine,
Writer to the Signet." New Ways through the Glens, ARB Haldane,
Appendix lll.
1804
The Locheil and the Oughton, with passengers from the Western Highlands
and Islands sailed for Prince Edward Island and Upper Canada respectively.
The Nancy sailed as well and went to Prince Edward Island. Between
them they had at least 150 passengers, ignoring the Locheil, which
does not have a record listed - John Dye
1805
Trafalgar
1805
John MacDonald of Ardmolich paid 45 rents for the farm at Ulgary,
his predecessors had been tacksmen there for 200 years. Glenmoidart
Notes, Bonnalie/Impey Papers Ref 16
1805
Paid Neil MacInnes for his house built at Brunery, £2.0.0.
Clanranald & Robertson MacDonald papers ref E 482 MFS ms
3984 Nat Lib Scot
1806
The Rambler, the Humphries, the Spencer and the Isle of Skye sailed
to Prince Edward Island with 375 souls on board from the Western
Highlands and Islands. John Dye
1807
The Locheil made another trip to Prince Edward Island with an
unstated number on board of people from the Western Highlands
and Islands. John Dye
1808
The Elizabeth and the Mars sailed with just under 200 passengers
from the Western Highlands and Islands to Prince Edward Island.
- John Dye
1809
"MacDonald of Clanranald, who owned North and South Uist, was drawing
£17,000 in 1809 from kelp - early in the eighteenth century
his lands had not yielded £1,000 per annum. The Highland owners
were both greedy and short-sighted in these circumstances. They
seem to have creamed off a larger proportion of gross profits into
their own hands than did the Lowland lairds with the Lothian or
Aryshire farmers. Clanranald never ploughed anything back into the
Uists in the form, for instance of new harbours or roads or of encouragement
for new industry or a more diversified farming. He was content to
spend the kelp money on conspicuous consumption and in adding to
and servicing the heavy debt charge on his estate". TC Smout,
A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830 p 349
1810 Reminiscences of a Highland Parish, Norman Macleod - Second
Edition 1891
"
before sheep farming was introduced to the Highlands,
about seventy or eighty years ago
."
see
p12 for description of bird's eye view of parish
Reishiepol,
Loch Shiel, Lochaber, Loch Sunart, the Small Isles, Mull
.Ibid
The
Presbyterian Church is established in Scotland and the landed proprietors
in each parish are bound by law to build and keep in repair a church,
suitable school and parsonage or manse and to secure a portion of
glebe land for the minister. 13 Ibid
"Before
the new Poor Law Act was passed twenty two years ago,
.the
Ministers and the Church of Scotland conducted the whole business
in connection with support of the poor at not cost
.."
P31 Ibid
"The
shepherd Donald, son of Black John, is playing the Jew's Harp
.The
performances of Donald begin the evening and form interludes to
its songs, tales and recitations. He has two large "Lochaber
trumps", for Lochaber trumps were to the highlands what Cremona
violins were to musical Europe. He secures the end of each with
his teeth and grasping them with his hands so that the tiny instruments
are invisible, he applies the little finger of each hand to their
vibrating steel tongues. He modulates their tones with his breath
and brings out of them Highland reels, strathspeys and jigs
."
P36 Ibid
Comments
on charity from the community (especially Tacksmen) before they
went away and formal relief of the poor took place, at greater cost
.p44
Ibid
Description
of the class immediately below tacksmen, who lived in a very civilized
way
.but subsequently replaced by sheep. A great loss to the
Highlands. P45 Reminiscences of a Highland Parish, Norman Macleod
- Second Edition 1891
1810
The Phoenix and the Active, with an unstated passenger manifesto,
sailed for Prince Edward Island with folk from the Western Highlands
and Islands. - John Dye
1811
Anne of North Shields sailed for Pictou with 76 souls from the
Western Highlands and Islands. - John Dye
1811
As early as 1811, Protestant Highlanders from Mull, Tiree, Coll
and Muck had colonised the eastern side of Lake Ainslee (near
the Mabou Highlands in Prince Edward Island). They were also joined
by Catholics from Moidart, Arisaig and South Uist. On the Crofters'
Trail, David Craig, page 115.
1811
The Gaelic Society of Edinburgh formed to establish schools in
remote areas supplemental to those already run by the Scottish
SPCK. Many of these were "ambulatory", passing around the parish
at intervals of six months or so. TC Smout, A History of the
Scottish People 1560-1830 p 464
1811
Large population increases had been taking place in the Highlands.
Skye had risen from 13,000 in 1755 to 24,500 in 1811; Mull and
southern Inner Hebrides from 10,000 to 18,000. This meant that
what had been small farms, now became tiny farms. TC Smout, A
History of the Scottish People 1560-1830 p 349 Population of the
Highlands shown on census returns to be 362,000. Highland Folk
Ways, IF Grant, page 53
1811
Last major emigration from Highlands to Carolina. BBC Documentary
on Clearances
1812
It was under Colonel Robertson that most of the tenants emigrated
to America, viz about the year 1812. The natives of Ulgary, Kinlochuachair,
Brunery, and the lower parts of the strath, may be said to have
gone away in one body, leaving their lands to be incorporated
in one or two large holdings. The ship which was to take them
away was brought round to the Moidart coast, and anchored at Camus-a-linne.
Their departure seems to have been the deliberate act of people
themselves who were glad of the opportunity of leaving a poor
country in exchange for one where they could live more comfortably.....it
would appear from stories current in the district that tenants
from Ulgary for instance, while living comfortably enough for
six months in the year, had to endure for the other six of something
like downright starvation, and there is little doubt that this
hamlet was typical of many others in the district...To dissuade
people from emigrating to richer lands under circumstances like
these is absolute folly. Cases of this kind, of course, are not
to be confused with evictions, or driving the poor people away
from their houses against their will...The relations between the
Colonel and his people seem to have been of a friendly character...On
one occasion the Ulgary tenants having to suffer more or less
from the depredations committed by the deer among the crops.....sent
a deputation to the Colonel....who, half in a joke told them to
poind the trespassers...The tenants quietly took him at his word
and returned a few days afterwards to report that the thieves
were caught...The Colonel was very much surprised, but true to
his bargain, duly appeared to administer justice....The deer when
visiting the crops used to come down from the high grounds through
a narrow gorge with very steep sides called Pole-a-bhainne...by
erecting a rude but effective fence across the lower end... and
then seizing the upper end...kept the prisoners as effectively
as any sheep fank...the tenants were assisted by the proprietor
in having their arable ground well fenced against future incursions
of their troublesome neighbours. Moidart Among the Clanranalds,
p195 Charles MacDonald, Ed John Watts
1813
Clearance of Kindonan. BBC Documentary on Clearances
1813
"Although Reginald George MacDonald, 18th Chief of Clanranald,
was said to have drawn almost £25,000 a year from his estates
through rents and the sale of kelp, such sum was not enough to
fund the extravagant social and political lifestyle to which he
had become accustomed. In company with many other Highland landowners
after the breakdown of the dependent clan system he 'rushed to
the metropolis where he soon found himself beyond the depths of
his moderate income' and in 1813 was forced to start disposing
of his 700 year inheritance to pay for it. He married firstly,
Lady Caroline Edgecombe, daughter of the second Earl of Mountedgecombe
and, secondly Anne, widow of the second Baron Ashburton. Although
both brought him enormous wealth it was not enough to meet his
expenses and he eventually became bankrupt. His estates were first
vested in trustees for his creditors and then sold off piecemeal."
Inverailort , A short History by Iain Thornber
"When
the Clanranald of the day was forced through extravagant living
to part with his extensive estates, Moidart, or the estate of
Loch Shiel as it is described, and Eilean Shona was purchased
by Alexander MacDonald of Glenaladale. Archibald of Rhu inherited
the estate from him but never came to reside on it as the only
house on the property fit for residence, Dalilea, was let to Alexander
MacDonald known as the "Banker" and descended from Angus of Dalilea,
the eldest son of the noted Ardnamurchan Divine, Alexander MacDonald
"Maighstear Alasdair". Archibald died at his home at Rhu and was
buried at Arisaig. It was only after Alexander his son and other
members of his family had come to reside on the property at Dalilea
that his remains were brought for internment in the "Little Green
Isle". St Finan's Isle (Eilean Fhianain) - Alasdair Cameron
(North Argyll) - Jean Cameron
Some
of the purchasers (of land from Ranald MacDonald) were: Lochshiel
and Eilean-Shona, Alexander Macdonald of Glenaladale, about 1811;
Glenmoidart, Macdonald banker of Dalelea about 1814; Glenuig by
Major Macdonald of Bail Finlay in Uist; Inverailort by General
Cameron, previously living in Erroch, Lochaber. Moidart Among
the Clanranalds p202 Charles MacDonald, Ed John Watts
1814
Glenmoidart was sold by the Chief of Clanranald to MacDonald,
the banker from Dalelea. A long time tenant there was his brother,
known as MacDonald Lochans, because of his association. Moidart
Among the Clanranalds p202, p128 etc Charles MacDonald, Ed John
Watts
1814
Eilean-Shona, bought from Clanranald for £3,000 by Alexander
Macdonald of Glenaladale, was bequeathed to Archibald Macdonald
of Rhu after Alexander's death in 1814. However, the will reserved
the house at Bailly for Alexander's mother during her lifetime
and she lived there thenceforth until 1840. Her sister was Archibald's
wife. Moidart Among the Clanranalds p214 Charles MacDonald,
Ed John Watts
1815
Waterloo
1815
By the end of the Napoleonic wars, kelp fell from £20 per
ton to £10 and, when Leblanc alkali was introduced direct
to Glasgow in 1825, it fell to £3. Cattle prices fell too
and in addition, lowland producers had land for winter turnips
for cattle feed, which the Highlanders did not. Finally, the herring
moved off-shore. Of the four main Highland staples, only one remained
as profitable as before, namely sheep. The economic situation
in the Highlands started to look grim. Either the region reverted
to subsistence husbandry and increasing numbers of people lived
in a vast rural slum, existing off potatoes grown on tiny holdings,
or the region switched over in a big way to sheep. This demanded
a ruthlessness to replace men with sheep that not every landlord
immediately found in his heart. Most of the sheep farmers were
incomers who said that they needed in particular those hill shielings
where the Highlanders took their beasts in June: in fact within
a few decades after the introduction of sheep the overc ropping
of these green summer pastures in the hills made them largely
valueless. TC Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830
p 350
1815
Thus it can be said of the Hebrides that the peasant endured
extreme poverty all the time, and the main change after 1815 was
not so much in their condition as in that of the landowners, whose
income, having risen all the time from about 1750 until after
1815 as they diverted the whole profits of an expanding economy
into their own pockets, now began to slide away, and the debt
charges on their estates began steadily to mount. TC Smout,
A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830 p 353
1815
The Ellen, the Atlas, the Dorothy and the Baltic Merchant
sailed for Pictou Nova Scotia and Upper Canada with 700 people
on board, mainly from the Western Highlands. - John Dye
1815
Loch Shiel monument erected by Alexander Macdonald of Glenaladale,
marking the spot "where, on Monday 19th August 1745, a day of
mist and rain, the royal standard of King James the Eighth was
raised by his gallant son, Prince Charles Edward Stuart". The
Highlands of Scotland, W Douglas Simpson, page 247
1817
At the Royal Commission for Emigration in 1826 and 1827, it was
stated that MacDonald of Clanranald in the Uists, was left with
a third of the population landless, helpless and dependent on
his charity: he had had to spend £4,500 on buying meal for
them in 1817 and £1,100 in 1818. TC Smout, A History
of the Scottish People 1560-1830 p 352
1820
George III dies after ruling for sixty years, to be succeeded
George IV who reigned for only ten.
1820
For some time emigrant boats had been calling at the islands,
taking the crofters away to a new life in America. This had been
going on since 1740, generally on the initiative of the tacksmen,
but for the whole of the eighteenth century it had been opposed
by most proprietors. After 1800 and especially after 1820 it was
specifically encouraged and even to be arranged and paid for by
them, as the only relief they could see for overcrowding. There
is little hint (except for Rum and Jura in 1826 and Arran in 1828)
of men at this date being turned out to make room for sheep. The
misery of the Hebrides is primarily the misery of the congested,
not of the dispossessed. (Sutherland was classically different)
TC Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830 p 353
1821
Efforts to spread education had made so little progress (in
the Highlands) amongst a destitute, listless people, scattered along
remote straths and separated by moor, morass, and mountain from
the nearest school, it is said that half of the population of 400,000
people at this time were unable to read. The Social Life of Scotland
in the Eighteenth Century. H Grey Graham. Page 423.
1822 Opening of Caledonian Canal. Highland Ways and Byways,
Kenneth A Macrae, "Coinneach Mor", page 38
NOTES
RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES
ABOUT 1800 - 1825
Head
Dykes- Communally built around the in-by land to keep cattle
out Poindlers - People empowered to impound straying cattle and
levy a fine Cultivation - From mid seventeenth century, some shielings
had crops sown The Shieling 1600-1840 The Case of the central
Scottish Highlands, Albert Bil
Tathing
- Confining cattle or sheep within an area of the outfield to
manure it.
Infield/Outfield
- A rotational system of cropping land, based upon an infield
core, regularly manured and cropped and a wider area of ground
that was temporarily taken in and cropped as required.
Runrig
- The sub division of arable land amongst the various landholders
of a fermtoun or township, such that an individual tenant held
land, usually based on the plough rig, intermixed with his co-tenants
throughout the lands of a toun. This required a communal system
of management.
Head
dykes - Many medieval or later field systems were characterised
by a head dyke or a ring dyke that encloses the main area of arable
of a farm within an earthen bank, or bank and ditch. It is difficult
to say how early this form of enclosure was employed. Many of
the recorded head dykes are demonstrably later features indicative
perhaps of pressures on the common grazings in the post-medieval
period.
Rig
- There are many types of ridge and furrow and rig (cord-rig/broad
or reverse S rig/narrow curving rig/narrow straight rig/). The
last named is widely spread in Scotland where improved agriculture
was practised prior to the introduction of underground drains.
Lazy-beds (feannagan) - Ridges raised mainly by the use
of a spade or caschrom, 2 m to 5 m wide, sometimes the furrows
being even wider than the ridge where the soil is shallow. Unlike
plough-rig, they are often on slopes far too steep for the plough-team
to negotiate....Lazy-bedding is more labour-intensive than ploughing,
but more productive, an important consideration if arable is at
a premium.
Prior
to reorganisation as crofts - some, but by no means all townships
were farmed by small groups of tenants, holding their lands in
the form of runrig open fields. At the most, the open field system
represented by these runrig townships rarely involved more than
100 acres. This runrig was either cultivated on an arable/grass
or an infield/outfield basis.
The
old Scotch plough - was unwieldy but served its purpose well.
It needed a large team to pull it and because of this, turning
in a headland caused some of the team to start turning before
the plough had finished the row, leading to "reverse S" rig formations.
An improved plough made by James Small was developed at the end
of the eighteenth century; this produced straight narrow strips
and was widely used until the introduction of underground drainage
tiles in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. The
History of Soils and Field Systems, edited by S Foster and TC
Smout
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