'The People Are Not There' E-Book

David Taylor

• Herausgeber: John Donald
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 731

Beschreibung

Winner of the Saltire Society Scottish History Book of the Year Award Badenoch today is a landscape of empty glens and ruined settlements, but it was not always so. This book examines the transformative events that shaped the region's destiny: climate and market forces, hunger and relief measures, sheep farms and sporting estates, agricultural improvement and proprietorial greed, and the evolution of clanship. Although this is an intensely localised study, the dramatic nature of change is explored against the wider context of events not just across the Highlands, but also within the British state and its global empire. Badenoch's journey moves from the relative prosperity of the Napoleonic Wars into the terrible post-war destitution that devastated peasant, tacksman and Duke of Gordon alike. Estate reform and 'improvement' gradually brought a degree of economic and social stability, but inevitably resulted in depopulation as people were forced off the land to seek refuge in the impoverished 'planned villages' or to abandon their Gaelic homeland for life in the Lowlands. For those with the means, however, emigration provided lucrative opportunities unimaginable at home. Through extensive use of documentary evidence, much of it previously unseen, David Taylor paints an intimate portrait of the historically neglected region of Badenoch – one that provides a compelling new perspective on Highland history.

Leseprobe

‘THE PEOPLEARE NOT THERE’

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

John Donald, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd

West Newington House

10 Newington Road

Edinburgh

EH9 1QS

www.birlinn.co.uk

ISBN: 978 1 910900 81 9

Copyright © David Taylor 2022

The right of David Taylor to be identified as the authorof this work has been asserted by him in accordancewith the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form, orby any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying,recording or otherwise, without the express writtenpermission of the publisher.

The publishers gratefully acknowledge the support ofthe Scotland Inheritance Fundtowards the publication of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library

Typeset by Biblichor Ltd, Edinburgh

Printed and bound in Britain by T. J. International, Padstow, Cornwall

For the forgotten generations of Badenoch’s deserted glens

‘And desolation saddens all thy green’

(Oliver Goldsmith, ‘The Deserted Village’)

Contents

List of illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgements

Explanatory notes

Principal characters

Glossary

Maps

Introduction: ‘A man among men’

1  ‘Sheep of the glens will not keep off the French’: 1800–1815

2  ‘That wretched and ruined country’: 1815–1829

3  ‘A discontented peasantry’: 1830–1840

4  ‘We might at once give up our holdings’: 1840s–1850s

5  ‘The whole country is in such a ferment’: Emigration

Conclusion: ‘Badenoch is not what it has been’

Appendix: Gu ’m a slàn do na fearaibh

Notes

Bibliography

Index

List of illustrations

Black and white plates

1.  Badenoch and Strathspey Farming Society schedule, 1806.

2.  Kingussie village, George Brown’s plan, 1812.

3.  Kingussie, John Thomson’s map, 1830.

4.  Newtonmore, Thomas Telford and Joseph Mitchell, 1828.

5.  Proposed plan of Insh village, 1828.

6.  Tombstone of Samuel Davidson.

7.  John Clark’s lease of Tom Fad, 1812.

8.  Schedule of John Robertson on arrival in Van Diemen’s Land.

9.  Shinty in Sydney, 1842.

10.  William Robertson’s house, ‘The Hill’, in Victoria, Australia.

Colour plates

1.  Badenoch landscape, the upper Spey looking westwards.

2.  Badenoch landscape, looking eastwards down the Spey.

3.  Ballindalloch Castle, home of George Macpherson Grant.

4.  Dalnavert, tacksman’s house.

5.  Cluanach, Dunachton, the Robertson home.

6.  Plan of proposed inn at Strathmashie.

7.  Plan of new timber bridge at Laggan.

8.  Pre-improvement landscape, Glen Banchor.

9.  Shielings on the Allt Mor, Glen Feshie.

10.  Pre-improvement farm, Tom Fad.

11.  Corn kiln, Tom Fad.

12.  Lime kiln, Dunachton.

13.  Spey flood, Insh Marshes.

14.  Drainage canal, Insh Marshes.

15.  Stone-faced floodbank, Dalnavert.

16.  Reclamation floodbanks, Cluny.

17.  Township ruins, Presmuchrach, Drumochter.

18.  Sheep stell, Lynvragit, Glen Feshie.

19.  Ruigh Fionntaig and the old Forest of Feshie.

20.  The Duchess of Bedford’s ‘Huts’, by Landseer.

21.  Glen Feshie house, by Miss Ellice.

22.  ‘Ardverickie from the Garden’, by Queen Victoria.

23.  Queen Victoria at Loch Laggan, by Landseer, 1847.

24.  The William Robertson family, Van Diemen’s Land.

25.  William Robertson’s writing box.

26.  Hook for the ‘floating bridge’, Ardverikie.

27.  Plaid presented to Donald Cattanach.

28.  Sword presented to Major Robert Macpherson.

Preface

Walking Badenoch today you cannot but stumble across the scattered remains of townships and shielings, reminders of a once vibrant living landscape. These ruined settlements – many already lost to the invading forces of bracken and heather – have increasingly become the focus of my retirement years. Depopulation, not least the debate around ‘clearances’, is without doubt one of the most contentious topics of Highland history. Indeed it was during a heated argument in 1883 over the causes of local depopulation that the Reverend Evan Gordon, born and brought up in Badenoch, commented with obvious frustration: ‘The people are not there. That is the point.’*

My previous book, The Wild Black Region, discussed the huge social upheaval of the post-Culloden decades but found comparatively little evidence of depopulation by the end of the eighteenth century. Many of those now-deserted townships were indeed still occupied, some even prospering under the wartime cattle boom of the 1790s – hence the need to explore further into the nineteenth-century background to depopulation.

Badenoch’s history in general has unfortunately been much neglected by the academic world – hopefully this book will help the region take its place in Highland history alongside more widely known areas like Skye and Sutherland. But a region’s history is also for its people. To that end my main focus has been on the Badenoch narrative itself rather than the intricacies of historical debate, though the devotee of Highland history will surely recognise the key controversies without the need for signposting. The book is arranged in a broadly chronological rather than a thematic format in order to capture the constantly evolving nature of change, an interwoven tapestry of personal and impersonal forces rippling through time. It is these transformative forces that form the core of the narrative, for therein lies the key to understanding not just the complex nature of local depopulation, but the paradox of why so many of Badenoch’s emigrants became successful citizens of empire while those at home were slaves to poverty.

The timing of this book meant that I could not but engage with the current public debate and soul-searching surrounding Scotland’s often unsavoury relationship with empire. Reconciling the attitudes and moral values of past societies with those of today is a minefield of political sensitivities, but such is the present-day legacy of colonialism that these issues had to be confronted even though at times tangential to the central narrative – a Pandora’s box of troubling moral and ethical reflections on the Gaelic diaspora.

Badenoch’s history also sits uncomfortably with the current promotion of the Highlands as ‘wild land’ – an attractive marketing ploy that unfortunately appears to deny the past. In truth, for over 5,000 years Badenoch has, from riverside to mountaintop, been to a greater or lesser degree, a managed landscape. Human presence is evident wherever you walk: hut circles and tombs; townships and shielings; turf dykes and wire fences; shooting butts and bulldozed tracks; forestry plantations and blackened moors. To call this ‘wild land’ is disingenuous. It also by implication wipes history clean of an often unpalatable past, erasing the memory of those countless generations who over the millennia tamed what had indeed once been a genuinely wild and primeval landscape, converting it into one that was both life-sustaining and economically productive. It would perhaps be more appropriate to designate today’s landscape a ‘manmade wilderness’ – a term that at least acknowledges its human past. More importantly it begs the question for visitor and resident alike of why so much of Badenoch’s landscape today – its ‘wild land’ – is utterly devoid of human habitation.*

_________

*   Report of Commissioners of Inquiry into the Condition of the Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Napier Commission), vol. 4 (1885), p. 3130, Q. 4911, Evidence of the Reverend Evan Gordon.

*   See David Taylor, ‘Developing cultural heritage in the Cairngorms National Park: the case of Glen Banchor’, parkwatchscotland.co.uk, 21 May 2018. While objecting to the term ‘wild land’, I have no trouble with the term ‘rewilding’, which inherently recognises human influence on the environment.

Acknowledgements

My greatest debt of thanks remains with the University of the Highlands and Islands, who provided me with the opportunity to research Badenoch’s history for my PhD (2009–14); much of the material for this book was indeed covered during those years. The UHI’s support has been ongoing and invaluable, in particular through the Centre for History where Professor David Worthington has been extremely supportive, not just providing advice and encouragement but facilitating research arrangements. Likewise many of the Centre’s staff have given their support in various ways, with Alison MacWilliam providing much needed administrative help with her usual quiet efficiency.

I am particularly indebted to Elizabeth Ritchie and Matthew Dziennik, who read sections of the work, giving useful advice and suggestions. My biggest thanks, however, are to Jim Hunter, who not only inspired my PhD research and ideas but has also read this entire volume, providing much helpful and constructive criticism throughout.

Libraries, archives and museums are, of course, the beating heart of research. Thanks are due to the staff of the National Library of Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Highland Archive Centre, Highland Folk Museum, Historic Environment Scotland, Sir Duncan Rice Library in Aberdeen, Edinburgh University Archive, Ballindalloch Estate Archives, Sir Thomas Macpherson Archive (Creag Dubh), Clan Macpherson Museum, (English) National Archives and Woburn Abbey. Particular thanks are due to Ross Noble, Bob Powell and Rachel Chisholm at the Highland Folk Museum, to Claire and Oliver Russell and Guy Macpherson-Grant at Ballindalloch Castle, to Chris Fleet in the National Library and to Eve Boyle of HES, all of whom have contributed much to my understanding of Badenoch’s history, archaeology and landscape. Thanks are also due to the UCL team working on ‘Legacies of British Slave-Ownership’ – a vital resource for slavery.

There are, of course, many people in Badenoch deserving of mention, though it is impossible to acknowledge them all. Local history societies like Laggan Heritage, Kingussie Heritage, Badenoch Heritage, the Badenoch and Strathspey Local History Group, the Highland Folk Museum and the Gaelic Society of Inverness have all played a part, not least by asking me to give talks, which have helped focus my ideas. The organisers of these groups – among them Mairi Brown, Walter Dempster, Graham Fraser, Ian Moffett, Pete Moore, John Robertson, Sheena and Campbell Slimon – provide a huge and often unsung service to the community, and of course the even more unsung helpers without whom such events could not happen – door, lighting, sound, catering, publicity, setting up, clearing away, and no doubt many more. Apologies to those I have missed, but rest assured that you are much appreciated. Local history needs you all!

Badenoch has been experiencing a prolific era of historical research and writing over the last few years, building on the pioneering articles of George Dixon published in the ‘Strathy’ from the 1970s to the 1990s – the essential starting point for most subsequent local history research. Though the current generation of local historians are too numerous to be individually listed, certain names do have to be mentioned for their help: John Barton, Rosemary Gibson, Graham Grant, Seumas Grant, Ian MacGillivray, Pete Moore, John Robertson, Campbell Slimon, Ann Wakeling and Jamie Williamson have willingly discussed and shared information from their own research and knowledge, often informing me of things I could never have found otherwise. Maureen Shaw has willingly shared her PhD research on Badenoch textiles. Shirley Nield very kindly allowed me access to the wonderful Robertson letters that initiated my research on emigration to Australia, and also provided help with accommodation now that I am a Badenoch exile. Special thanks go to Mary Mackenzie for sharing her detailed knowledge of local individuals and families, which helped provide a deeper understanding of some of Badenoch’s principal characters, and also for kindly reading the entire book to check my local knowledge. Alison and Thomas Macdonell and the staff of Glenfeshie Estate deserve a particular mention for helping me explore ruined settlements that I could not easily have reached on foot. Historians beyond the bounds of Badenoch have also provided helpful advice on specific aspects of Highland history: Malcolm Bangor-Jones, John Barrett, Hugh Cheape, Finlay McKichan, Andrew Mackillop, Hugh Dan MacLennan, Meryl Marshall and the late Eric Richards, while from south of the Border, Keir Davidson has willingly provided his specialist expertise on the Duke and Duchess of Bedford.

My emigration research would not have been possible without the help of numerous historians and researchers overseas, some of whom have provided wonderful family letters: in the USA, Sophia Burwell, Laura Lovett, LeeAnn Moss; in Canada, Marjorie Clark, Peter Cook, Bruce Dawson, Karly Kehoe, Llewella McIntyre, Lois McLean, Katie McCulloch, Luisa Martin, Guelph Museums and Heritage Mississauga; in Australia, Alison Alexander, James Donaldson, Graham Hannaford, Rob Linn, Ann MacArthur, Athol Macdonald, Thelma McKay, Robert McLaren, Bill McPherson, Ann Rackstraw, Malcolm Robertson, Peter Rymill, New South Wales State Library and the Tasmanian Archives, many of whom have gone well beyond the call of duty in providing information, explaining aspects of their country’s history and commenting tactfully on my sometimes wayward interpretations. For any names inadvertently omitted from these lists I sincerely apologise. Judy McCutcheon in Tasmania deserves special mention not just for her hugely impressive research work into Badenoch history, but for her invaluable transcriptions of the census returns.

The support of Hugh Andrew and all the staff at Birlinn, particularly Mairi Sutherland and Camilla Rockwood, has been unfailing; without it this book would not have seen the light of day. Scotland is very fortunate to have a publisher dedicated to Scottish writing and willing to take on books that are never going to be bestsellers. The same is true of the Scotland Inheritance Fund, whose very generous financial support underpinned the production of this book.

Family and friends are, of course, a vital part of the research and writing process. Chris and Stewart Adam, Maggie and Hugh Green, and Agnes and Bruce Wood have all helped with accommodation during my Edinburgh research visits. My brother Iain very kindly saved me a trip to London by tracking down some documents for me at Kew. Most important of all, however, has been the constant encouragement of my wife, Ailsa. Since I began my PhD in 2009 she has read and corrected every word in my thesis, articles, first book and now this one, not just once but several times over – a dedication far beyond our marriage vows of fifty years ago!

Explanatory notes

Original spelling and punctuation are retained within quotations except for clarification; likewise ‘sic’ is used only where essential for meaning. Italics and round brackets within quotations are original unless otherwise specified; square brackets indicate the insertion of words required for clarity. Place-names have generally been standardised to OS map spellings, though some rather dubious OS versions and non-OS names have been left as in the documents. The main exception is Benchar instead of Banchor because this was the form used consistently through the early nineteenth century. For clarification, Glen Banchor is used to refer to the whole geographical glen, while the form Glenbanchor is used to distinguish the specific farm settlement of that name; likewise Glen Truim and Glentruim estate. Though the term Lowlands generally refers to the area south of the Highland line, it can also include the eastern Lowlands of the Moray Firth and Aberdeenshire.

Highland surnames (Mc/Mac) were still largely random in the early nineteenth century, and these have generally been standardised into the form Macpherson or Mackintosh, except where an individual specifically used an alternative form. Macdonald and Macdonell were also interchangeable during this period, though the latter would still have been pronounced with the emphasis on the middle syllable rather than the modern stress on first and third. Because of the inevitable confusion over clan names (as with the many John Macphersons), some are identified by farm name, though a character list is also provided. Macpherson Grant is written without the modern hyphen as that was how the original George Macpherson Grant wrote his name.

Changes in the local estates throughout the period can prove confusing. In 1800 there were five main estates: the Duke of Gordon’s Lordship of Badenoch, Cluny, Invereshie, Belleville (Balavil) and Mackintosh. In 1830 Glentruim was created as a new estate, and when the Gordon family sold off the Lordship, they retained the small estate of Kinrara, later passing to the Duke of Richmond, making a total of seven estates.

Money is given in pre-decimalisation pounds sterling (£ s d): there were 20s (shillings) to £1, and 12d (pennies) to 1s. Though rather arbitrary, converting nineteenth-century monetary sums into modern equivalents does provide a useful point of reference. Modern equivalents are occasionally given in brackets, but a general multiplication of 100 gives an easy, though very approximate, indication. For more precise measurement, the online ‘Bank of England Inflation Calculator’ is probably the best resource. Calculations based on a wage index, however, suggest a much higher inflation rate of over 1,000 times – a similar figure can be reached by measuring a nineteenth-century Badenoch labourer’s daily wage against today’s minimum wage.* Hence the sum of £20 in the early 1800s might translate very approximately to £2,000 or as high as £20,000, depending on the measure used.

The term ‘famine’ has become the subject of semantic controversy in Highland history. Some historians argue that a hunger crisis can only be described as famine if there is evidence of considerable excess mortality, hence alternatives like ‘dearth’ and ‘destitution’ are preferred. I have, however, stuck with ‘famine’ where appropriate because many of the crises described were potential famines and would have certainly have become so without outside intervention. Furthermore, ‘famine’ was the term used by those at the time to describe the crises that faced their communities.

_____________

* https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator; https://www.measuringworth.com.

Principal characters

Marquis of Abercorn (1811–1885)

James Hamilton, Marquis then Duke of Abercorn; Conservative politician and member of government; married Louisa Russell, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford; leased Ardverikie c. 1836–60, when he transferred the lease to Lord Bentinck.

John Anderson (1759–1839)

Minister of Kingussie, 1782–1809, then of Bellie 1809–19; improving farmer at Dell of Killiehuntly 1789–1809; factor for Invereshie, Belleville, Phones, Etterish, Invernahavon and Benchar at various times 1790–1806, and for the Duchess of Gordon at Kinrara c. 1796–1806; Badenoch factor for Duke of Gordon 1806–9; Gordon estate manager in Fochabers 1809–38.

Evan Baillie (1741–1835)

Son of Hugh Baillie of Dochfour; Bristol merchant; West Indian slave-owner; MP for Bristol; succeeded to Dochfour 1799; Dochfour then passed to his grandson, also Evan Baillie, in 1835.

James Evan Baillie (1781–1863)

Son of Evan Baillie; West Indian slave-owner, merchant and banker in partnership with his brothers Peter and Hugh; MP for Tralee and then Bristol; received huge slave compensation in 1830s; purchased various Highland estates in 1830s; most of his Badenoch estate passed in 1863 to his nephew Evan Baillie of Dochfour.

John Batman (1801–1839)

Australian grazier in Van Diemen’s Land; involved in the Black War; co-founder of the Port Philip Association and led the exploration of the Port Philip area of what is now Victoria; founded the settlement that later became Melbourne.

Duke and Duchess of Bedford

Georgina/Georgiana (1781–1853), daughter of the 4th Duke and Duchess of Gordon; married John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford (1766–1839) in 1803; a long involvement with Glen Feshie and Rothiemurchus 1818–53; affair with Landseer.

Professor John Stuart Blackie (1809–1895)

Professor of Greek at Edinburgh University; radical thinker and Scottish nationalist; strongly pro-crofter; critic of deer forests and clearances in the Highlands.

Sir David Brewster (1781–1868)

Scientist and inventor famous for his work on physical optics, including the kaleidoscope; married Juliet Macpherson (1776–1850), daughter of James Macpherson (senior) of Belleville; ran Belleville estate 1833–36.

George Brown (1747–1816)

Land surveyor used by Duke of Gordon and other local landowners.

Rev. Donald Cameron (1792–1846)

Minister of Laggan 1832–46.

William Cameron

Badenoch factor 1825–34; from Croft of Rothiemurchus.

Donald Cattanach (1838–1906)

Merchant; President of the Newtonmore Land League; grandfather had been evicted from Glen Banchor; presented evidence to the Deer Forest Commission of 1892.

Malcolm Cattanach (1822–1899)

Slater; uncle of Donald (above); another prominent Land League agitator who presented testimony to the Deer Forest Commission.

Clarks of Dalnavert

Capt. Clark (1754–1819), tacksman of Dalnavert.

James Clark (?–1837), son of above; tacksman of Dalnavert and South Kinrara 1819–37; succeeded by widow, Jane.

Isabella Clark (1809–1857), sister of James; married John A. Macdonald, Prime Minister of Canada.

Alexander Davidson (1802–1874)

Dunachton stonemason; emigrated to Australia on the St George with wife Anne Robertson; wealthy sheep farmer; returned to Alvie 1853 to recruit more emigrants.

Lachlan Davidson (1747–?)

Emigrated from Dunachton to Cannington in Upper Canada 1822; member of the Provincial Government of Canada West.

Edward Ellice (1783–1863)

Nicknamed ‘the bear’; shooting tenant at Invereshie 1834–38; extremely wealthy merchant, fur trader, director of the Hudson’s Bay Company, slave-owner, politician; purchased Glenquoich estate 1838.

Robert Flyter

Gordon estate factor in Lochaber; Badenoch factor 1819–25.

Joseph Gellibrand (1792–1837)

Former Attorney-General of Van Diemen’s Land; partner of John Batman in the Port Philip Association; involved in exploration of Port Philip area in 1836 where he was assisted and saved by William Robertson; died in another exploration in Victoria in 1837.

The Gordons

Alexander (1743–1827), 4th Duke.

Lady Jane Maxwell (1748/49–1812), 4th Duchess; married Alexander in 1767; estranged during 1790s; given estate of Kinrara 1796; mother of Duchesses of Richmond and Bedford.

George (1770–1836), Marquis of Huntly; 5th Duke; took over estate 1827.

Elizabeth Brodie (1794–1864), wealthy heiress; married Marquis of Huntly 1813; 5th Duchess 1827–36.

Reverend Evan Gordon (1822–1903)

Born at Balno on the outskirts of what is now Newtonmore; minister of Duke Street Free Gaelic Church, Glasgow; outspoken critic of clearances; gave important evidence to the Napier Commission.

Mrs Ann Grant of Laggan (1755–1838)

Laggan minister’s wife; farmer at Gaskbeg; author of Letters from the Mountains.

Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus (1797–1885)

Daughter of John Peter Grant, Edinburgh lawyer and laird of Rothiemurchus; family fled to India in 1827 after father bankrupted the estate; married Colonel Smith, moved to Ireland; author of Memoirs of a Highland Lady and The Highland Lady in Ireland.

General James Grant (1720–1806)

Laird of Ballindalloch; governor of Florida; important figure in British military establishment; slave- and plantation-owner; sister Grace married George Macpherson of Invereshie; grand-uncle of George Macpherson Grant.

Sir Edwin Landseer (1802–1873)

Famous artist; spent much time at Glen Feshie and Ardverikie; had affair with Duchess of Bedford.

Alexander Low

Land surveyor for Duke of Gordon.

Capt. Donald McBarnett of Ballachroan (c. 1777–1840)

From Lochaber; married Helen, daughter of Capt. John Macpherson of Ballachroan (the Black Officer), becoming tacksman there; bankrupt early 1820s; moved to smaller farm at Clury in Morayshire; died in Forres; brother Alexander a wealthy Caribbean slave-owner who purchased Attadale and Torridon estates in 1837 and 1838.

Alexander McBean (1817–1903)

From Dunachtonmore; brother of Lachlan McBean; married Margaret Robertson, daughter of Duncan Robertson (Drumstank); emigrated to Australia 1853.

Lachlan McBean (1810–1893)

From Dunachtonmore; emigrated to Australia 1838; brother of Alexander.

Rev. Donald McCole

Gordon estate factor 1811–19.

Dr Angus Macdonald (1751–1825)

Formerly of Gallovie; studied medicine in Edinburgh; doctor in Taunton, Somerset.

Rev. John Macdonald (c. 1760–1854)

Minister of Alvie, 1806–54.

Alexander Macdonell (?–1808)

Tacksman of Garvabeg; drover; sheep farmer.

Mackintosh of Mackintosh

Aeneas, clan chief 1770–1820; Badenoch lands consisted of Dunachton, Kincraig, Dalnavert and South Kinrara (Inshriach); succeeded in 1820 by second cousin Alexander, a Jamaican merchant and slave-owner; succeeded by his brother Angus in 1827, a Canadian merchant who later returned to the Highlands; succeeded by his son Alexander 1833.

WilliamMackintoshof Balnespick (1777–1817)

Tacksman of Dunachton and Kincraig.

William Mackintosh/McIntosh (1818–1905)

Presnacalliach/Presnacaillach near Leault, Kincraig; emigrated to Australia on the St George in 1838; joined there by brother John in 1853; McIntosh is the Australian spelling.

Donald McNab (1767–1839)

Originally from Perthshire; sheep farmer in Lochaber; 1806 married Louisa, sister of John Macpherson of Dalchully; leased Dalchully 1808; also the huge sheep farm of Gallovie, Kinlochlaggan, and Innerwidden; sheep farmer and agricultural improver; factor on Cluny estate.

John McNab (1771–1847)

Originally from Shennagart in Argyll; Catholic; married Jessie Macdonald, daughter of Alexander Macdonell of Garvabeg, 1801; major sheep farmer at Garvabeg and Sherrabeg.

Macphersons of Belleville

James Macpherson (1736–1796), of Ossian fame, known locally as ‘Fingal’; born Invertromie; became laird of Raitts estate, renaming it Belleville, 1788; also purchased Phones, Etteridge, Invernahavon 1788, and Benchar 1795; succeeded by

James Macpherson of Belleville (c. 1756–1833), son of James Macpherson; officer in India; laird of Belleville 1796–1833; succeeded by

Miss Ann Macpherson of Belleville (c. 1778–1862), laird of Belleville 1833–62; daughter of James Macpherson (senior); held conjointly with brother-in-law Sir David Brewster in 1830s (see above).

Macphersons of Cluny

Colonel Duncan McPherson (1748–1817), son of clan chief Ewen Macpherson (Cluny of the ’45); British military officer; clan chief; annexed estates restored 1784; succeeded by

Ewen Macpherson (Old Cluny) (1804–1885), son of Colonel Duncan; succeeded as clan chief in 1817.

Macphersons of Invereshie

George Macpherson of Invereshie (c. 1702–95), laird of Invereshie c. 1730–95; married Grace Grant (sister of General James Grant of Ballindalloch); succeeded by

William Macpherson of Invereshie (1733–1812), eldest son of George Macpherson of Invereshie; laird of Invereshie 1795–1812, absentee for much of his life.

Captain John Macpherson of Invereshie (c. 1751–99), younger son of George Macpherson; British army officer, seriously wounded 1777 in American War of Independence; returned to run estate firstly for his father (1780–95) and then for his brother William (1795–99); effectively acting laird; leading agricultural improver.

Macpherson Grants of Invereshie and Ballindalloch

George Macpherson Grant of Ballindalloch (1781–1846), son of Capt. John Macpherson of Invereshie; inherited Ballindalloch from General James Grant in 1806; inherited Invereshie from his uncle William Macpherson 1812; MP for Sutherland 1809–12, 1816–26; Baronet 1838; succeeded by John Macpherson Grant.

John Macpherson Grant, 2nd Baronet (1804–1850), Laird of Ballindalloch and Invereshie 1846–50; succeeded by George Macpherson Grant.

George Macpherson Grant, 3rd Baronet (1839–1907), Laird of Ballindalloch and Invereshie (1850–1907).

Capt. Aeneas Macpherson of Nuide (1791–1875)

From Strathnoon; married Ann Clark of Dalnavert; tacksman of Nuide from at least 1832 to 1849; factor to James Evan Baillie during his purchase of Badenoch; emigrated to Australia 1849, then New Zealand 1861.

Colonel Barclay Macpherson of Catlag/Catlodge (1774–1858)

Son of Colonel Duncan Macpherson of Breakachy and Bleaton, and nephew of Colonel Duncan Macpherson of Cluny, the clan chief; lifelong army officer; retired to Stirling.

Colonel Donald McPherson of Strathmashie (1774–1851)

Professional officer in the Peninsular War, Canada, Australia and India before returning to Kingussie in 1837; visited by Queen Victoria in Strathmashie 1847; died in Forres.

Duncan Macpherson (1785–1866)

Farmer, postmaster and businessman in and around Kingussie; business partner of John Russell, Kincraig; bankrupt 1844; emigrated to Australia 1849.

Duncan Macpherson (c. 1815–1893)

Drumgask (Laggan); shepherd; emigrated to Australia 1854; brother of Ewen (below).

Ewen Macpherson (1821–1896)

Drumgask (Laggan); shepherd; emigrated to Australia 1854; brother of Duncan (above).

Major Ewen Macpherson Glentruim (1782–1847)

Son of Lachlan Macpherson of Ralia, who was tacksman of Breakachy 1773–1813; made fortune in India as major in 42nd Madras Native Infantry; purchased Glentruim estate 1830 from Duke of Gordon; built Glentruim house c. 1835–40; succeeded by son, Colonel Lachlan Macpherson, in 1847.

John Macpherson (1776–1845)

Son of Robert Macpherson of Benchar (Parson Robert); improving farmer at Dalchully; became chamberlain to Lord Macdonald in Skye, 1808; sister married Donald McNab.

Lachlan Macpherson of Biallid (1769–1858)

Son of Andrew Macpherson of Crubenbeg; tacksman of Biallidmore 1804–58; leading member of clan gentry; clan historian, bard and writer; wrote an important account of deer forests used by Scrope in The Art of Deer-Stalking (1838); better remembered as ‘Old Biallid’.

Major Robert Macpherson (1774–1823)

Son of Andrew Macpherson of Benchar; brother of Captains John, Evan, Graeme; made fortune in India.

Charles Matthews (1803–1878)

English actor; visited Duke and Duchess of Bedford in Glen Feshie, 1833; friend of Landseer.

William Mitchell (1756–late 1830s)

Son of Ayrshire sheep farmer Andrew Mitchell; Tullochroam sheep farm, then tacksman of Gordonhall 1804; sheep farmer and agricultural improver farmer; died bankrupt.

Lord Ossulston (1810–1899)

Charles Bennett, 6th Earl of Tankerville; frequent visitor to Glen Feshie and Ardverike for shooting and stalking; friend of Landseer.

Robertsons

The Cluanach Robertsons

Duncan, Crofter at Drumstank, Dunachton, oldest brother of the Van Diemen’s Land Robertsons; never emigrated.

John (1822), William (1822), James (1825), Daniel (1829), Christiana (1829) and Margaret (Mackay, 1853), all emigrants to Van Diemen’s Land.

The Dunachton Mains Robertsons

John, William, Duncan, Anne and her husband Alexander Davidson emigrated to Australia on the St George 1838; first cousins of the Van Diemen’s Land family; settled in Victoria and South Australia; joined in 1850s by brother Angus and nephew Alexander McEdward.

The Lynwilg Robertsons

Angus and William emigrated to Australia early 1850s; joined by father Duncan and rest of family on the Storm Cloud 1855; originally from Dunachtonbeg, then Ballinluig in Wester Lynwilg; Duncan was first cousin of the above two Robertson families.

John Russell (c. 1787–1858)

Incomer; tacksman of Kincraig; improving farmer and entrepreneur; ran the Dunachton lime quarry.

Helen Shaw of Dalnavert (1777–1862)

Mother of John A. Macdonald, Prime Minister of Canada.

Rev. George Shepherd (1793–1853)

Minister of Laggan 1818–25; Kingussie 1825–43; leader of the Disruption in Badenoch 1843; transferred to Elgin 1852.

William Tod

Badenoch factor 1769–82, then manager of Gordon estates 1782–1806.

Glossary

anker

An old liquid measure of roughly ten gallons.

auchten, aughteen

A measure of land (one-eighth of the farm arable) within the old runrig system based on cultivable extent rather than monetary value.

Baron Baillie

A magistrate with responsibility for cases in either a Baron court or a burgh court.

bere, bear

An early form of barley.

boll

Traditional Scottish measure of crops; one boll equalled 136–140 lb.

bushel

A British measure for corn of around 60 lb.

cottar

Lowest level of agricultural subtenant, possessing house, garden and a cow’s grass in return for labour.

customs

Rents paid in kind (produce).

davoch

Ancient administrative division of land, aka daugh, managed by a Principal Tacksman who kept some of the land for his own farm and sublet the rest to subtenants.

deer forest

Mountain reserves for deer hunting, generally with no trees, and cleared of all people and farm livestock.

duthchas

Traditional right to land within the clan system.

Enlightenment

An eighteenth-century intellectual movement advancing science, improvement and rationality of thought.

feu

A portion of land or estate bought from a superior for which an annual feu duty was paid.

forfeited estates

Estates confiscated by the Crown after the ’45.

gall/gaul cattle

Foreign (Lowland) cattle brought into Badenoch for summer grazing to supplement incomes.

garrons

Highland ponies.

haughs

The rich, low-lying riverside lands prone to regular flooding.

heritors

Landowners. The term is often used in the context of their responsibilities for maintaining school and church, and paying stipends to teacher and minister.

kelp

Seaweed gathered and processed in the coastal crofting districts to produce an alkali for industrial use.

lb

Pounds weight. Today there are 14 lb in 1 stone, but then a stone was often 28 lb.

long-carriages

Labour service required of tenants as part of rent involving one or more long journeys, e.g. to Inverness to collect or deliver produce.

Lordship of Badenoch

That part of Badenoch controlled by the Duke of Gordon.

lot

A small plot of land set aside for agricultural workers post-improvement, often given to the former runrig tenants; equivalent to cottar status and to village acres.

meliorations

Improvements made to farm or buildings for which compensation was due when the tenant left – paid either by landlord or incoming tenant, depending on circumstances.

multi-tenant farm

A farm worked usually by four to eight tenants sharing aspects of work and equipment, but each responsible for his own rent and crops.

pauper

The lowest social class, dependent on the Kirk Session for help.

poinding

Confiscating/impounding straying livestock and extracting a fine from the owner.

rack rent

Rent well above market value.

roup

Public sale of stock and gear by outgoing or bankrupt farmer.

runrig

System of landholding for a township (group of small tenants) where land is laid out in arable rigs (strips) intermixed between the farmers to ensure a fair distribution.

services

Compulsory free labour required of tenants as part of rent.

servitude

Traditional right of tenantry, for example, to timber or peat.

sett

Formal letting of estate by landowner to tenants.

sheep walk

A large farm exclusively for sheep, usually involving the clearance of the small farm tenants.

single-tenant farm

Small farm run by one farmer, created out of the old multi-tenant runrig ones as part of the improvement process.

souming

Allowance of animals for each tenant on farm or estate.

tacksman

Gentry holding land from landowner as principal tenant and subletting it to peasant farmers; formerly officers in the clan system, often related to the clan chief.

tenant-at-will

A farmer without a lease, and therefore under permanent threat of eviction.

thirlage

A feudal restriction forcing tenants to grind their corn at the estate mill, giving the miller a monopoly often exploited for profit.

township

A multi-tenant runrig farming settlement.

transhumance

The system of moving from the home farm to live in the summer shielings for a few months each year.

tryst

Market.

wedder, wether

Castrated young male sheep.

Badenoch in the Central Highlands, landlocked and mountainous, withthe narrow strath of the River Spey providing the main settlement zone.

Boundaries, parishes and settlements in Badenoch, c. 1830.

Introduction

‘A man among men’

‘A very trifling beginning’: Emigrant success

To be born with a horn spoon in your mouth and die with a silver one on the table – entirely through your own endeavours – is no mean achievement. But this was the reality for the Robertson brothers from the small farm of Cluanach (green meadow) on the grassy plateau of Dunachton estate. Such success was, of course, nigh impossible within their native Badenoch, but was achieved on the distant shores of Australia where so many from the region would later follow, acquiring status and wealth inconceivable back home. That success indeed throws into harsh relief the hardship experienced by those friends and relatives they left behind, many of whom were ensnared in poverty and destitution through the first half of the nineteenth century.1

Arriving in London after the long journey south, John and William Robertson, aged 26 and 24 respectively, applied to the Colonial Office to settle in Van Diemen’s Land. It was their carpe diem moment: 19 July 1822. Perhaps they were late or were swithering over this momentous decision, for their ship, the Regalia, was due to sail just six days later, on the 25th. Their hurried applications, stating that they wished to be ‘agricultural settlers’ and had the requisite capital, were submitted by Francis Whiston, a London merchant and perhaps financial backer – Whiston himself providing the necessary testimonials.2 Captain Collins luckily delayed the Regalia’s departure, for their grants did not come through until the 26th.3 What personal possessions the young men took with them is not known, but there was at least one treasured item, perhaps a parting gift: a small but very fine writing box with a brass plaque inscribed ‘William Robertson 1822’.4

The Regalia finally sailed on 2 August 1822 with John and William on board. The magnitude of that decision is hard to appreciate today. Van Diemen’s Land was a notorious penal colony and had only recently opened its doors to free settlers, the government being desperate to attract a more desirable class of immigrant, particularly agricultural, to develop the economy. Furthermore, no one from Badenoch had as yet set foot on the Australian continent; British North America (modern Canada) was then the principal destination for emigrants – cheaper, easier and with already established Gaelicspeaking networks. What pushed the Robertsons to take such a huge gamble is unclear, but Van Diemen’s Land was certainly being promoted with rose-tinted imagery in the early 1820s. In January 1822 the Scotsman had carried a Colonial Office advertisement for ‘persons desirous of settling in New South Wales or Van Diemen’s Land’, dangling the most tempting bait – free land grants as long as applicants had a minimum £500 cushion to see them through the first few months.5 A flurry of newspapers, journals and books extolled the colony’s virtues. James Dixon, who had sailed from Leith to Van Diemen’s Land in his ship the Skelton in 1820, timeously published his glowing account of the island in Edinburgh in February 1822, portraying the climate as ‘much superior to Australia’, the wheat ‘uncommonly fine’, not to mention ‘large extensive plains . . . excellent for sheep and cattle’.6 For two young Highlanders who had honed their pastoral skills in the harsh environment of Badenoch it was a powerfully seductive, almost Utopian, vision – even more so because of conditions back home.

John and William had been brought up by their parents Donald Robertson and Christian McBean on the Mackintosh-owned Dunachton estate in the parish of Alvie. All the Robertson children were born at Cluanach, a small to middling mixed farm with its marginal arable at around 1,200 feet, valued in 1796 – the only extant rental – at just £6.7 By 1817 Donald had become a tenant in the lower-lying multi-tenant township of Dunachtonmore – perhaps using Cluanach as a small sheep run, for William later stated that his father had been a sheep farmer. Like all Badenoch children, the boys had been ‘brought up amongst sheep and cattle’, whether on their home farm or the summer shielings, expert in every branch of animal management – and their future success would prove just what a fine apprenticeship that had been.8

By the early 1820s, Donald Robertson’s social status appears to have been slightly above the lower ranks of runrig tenantry and crofters, but his rent of possibly around £20 was a far cry from the large neighbouring tacksman farm of Kincraig at £133, even further from the great sheep walks of Laggan, like Garvabeg at £545.9 By 1822, however, conditions in Badenoch were exceptionally difficult, the region devastated by a prolonged economic depression that had set in after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Just a month or two before the brothers emigrated, a local factor had commented on the ‘badness of the times’ and ‘scarcity of money’ in Badenoch.10 Moreover, the Robertson farm had just been advertised for let by the landowner, Mackintosh of Mackintosh, suggesting that the family’s future was far from secure, and Donald Robertson’s name indeed disappears from the estate rentals at this point.11 Estate policy across Badenoch was to create larger – and therefore fewer – farms, severely reducing the prospect of land for the next generation, while the region’s lack of industry meant that secure, well-paid jobs were non-existent. Faced with a landless future of intermittent low-paid agricultural labour at home or the squalor and misery of Lowland factory and slum, Van Diemen’s Land perhaps appeared somewhat less daunting.

Quite how John and William raised the substantial sum required to qualify for land grants is not known, but on arrival in Hobart on 30 December John declared his capital to be £350 cash with £230 of merchandise – an assortment of fashionable materials and ironmongery that he had brought out to sell.12 William had presumably done likewise, for the Land Department later noted that the brothers had ‘by the sale of their property augmented their capital so as to entitle them to a larger quantity of land’, increasing from the initial 500-acre grants to 700 acres each, with the labour of seven convicts.13 William somehow acquired a further 800 acres, making them owners of 2,200 acres within weeks of arrival.14 They chose adjoining lands on the Elizabeth River near what would become Campbell Town, running it as one large joint farm, and because much of the surrounding countryside was as yet untaken the brothers were entitled to graze stock well beyond the bounds of their own lands.

Success came quickly. By 1824 they had more than 2,000 sheep and lambs as well as nearly 50 cattle ‘of the best breed this Colony can produce’, and using their ‘knowledge and long experience’ of farming, they were starting to ‘improve the breed of fine Woolled Sheep’; they even requested more land ‘to fence in proper Paddocks for their Merino Rams . . . and also for their lambs when required to be weaned’.15 The local commandant, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Cameron, another Highlander, acknowledged their ‘rapid progress’, while emphasising ‘their very respectable character for industry and sobriety’.16 So successful were they that in 1827 they sold their farms for considerable profit, the Land Commissioners reporting that, ‘They have by uncommon industry and perseverance realised from a very trifling beginning, about five or Six thousand pounds, in a very short space of time by the sale of their land and Stock.’ The brothers had shrewdly realised that as the land around them became more heavily settled the profitability of their sheep was falling, and according to the Commissioners they ‘thought it better to sell off at once, and commence some other mode of life’.17 That decision may also have been influenced by the escalating violence of the ‘Black War’ in the Elizabeth River region as the Aboriginal population, witnessing the destruction of their traditional hunting grounds by white settlers such as the Robertsons, began to retaliate.18

As news of their success filtered back, younger brother James (25) had already come out to join them in 1825, followed in 1829 by the youngest, Daniel (20) and sister Christiana (18) – both James and Daniel immediately establishing their own farms.19 John and William meanwhile launched their new enterprise in 1829: a ‘commodious Warehouse [in Hobart] with an extensive and elegant assortment of Merchandise’, purchased in London by John himself, cash down to enable the most competitive prices.20 Targeting the rising middle class of Van Diemen’s Land with quality household goods and the latest London fashions, including a ‘superior assortment of silks and ribbons . . . and the most fashionable patterns for ladies’ dresses’, proved so successful that in 1831 James and Daniel opened a second store in Launceston.21

As their retail business boomed, the brothers continued their interest in farming and stock-breeding, while indulging in some lucrative land speculation. In 1835, John and William were also active in the early exploration of what is now Victoria in mainland Australia, helping establish and fund the Port Philip Association, which aimed to exploit the area’s grazing potential. William was personally involved in Gellibrand’s exploration of the region in 1836, his prodigious strength and endurance helping to ensure the safety of the party.22 The following year he purchased a total of 13,000 acres in Victoria at £1 an acre, with another 40,000 acres in 1849, gradually establishing himself as one of the finest stock breeders in all Australia, and though a retrospective claim that his stud cattle were ‘unsurpassed in the world’ may be stretching the hyperbole, there is no doubting that the Robertson brothers had most emphatically seized their moment.23

Through their mercantile empire the Robertson siblings, Christiana included, became an integral part of the new Van Diemen’s Land elite, acquiring an economic and social status inconceivable back in their old homeland of Badenoch. To further illustrate the divide, their other sister, Margaret Cameron, recently widowed with seven children, was brought out by John to join them in 1853. Within a few months John died, leaving her a legacy of £20,000 with £1,000 for each of her children – an astonishing change in fortune for someone who had been a female agricultural labourer earning at best one shilling a day.24 That the Dunachton Robertsons had done exceptionally well for themselves is self-evident, Daniel and William recently being numbered amongst the richest ever Australians.25 Back in Badenoch, their oldest brother, Duncan, the only one to remain at home, farmed the small eight-acre croft of Drumstank in Dunachton – annual rent, £8 15s.26 Nothing could better illustrate the vast potential of emigration; nothing could better illustrate the impoverishment of the Highlands. The Robertson siblings will feature again later, but underlying the entire Badenoch narrative is the nagging paradox of emigrant and non-emigrant.

‘So remote from markets’: Geography, environment, estates

At the very time the agricultural, industrial and transport revolutions were turning Britain into the world’s first superpower, the north of Scotland was becoming increasingly peripheral and marginalised. Yet ‘Highland society was not a dinosaur, unable to adjust to new conditions’; it was just that geography, environment and climate conspired to isolate the region from the dynamic transformation sweeping Lowland Scotland and England.27 Dramatic change – economic, social and cultural – did, nevertheless, overtake the Highlands in the nineteenth century, though not always with the positive outcomes experienced further south, for change in the Highlands was consumed by structural upheaval, social turbulence, famine, clearance and emigration. Though these largely negative forces constituted a broadly shared experience across the Highlands, the timing, extent and consequences inevitably varied from region to region according to circumstances. The destination might be broadly similar, but the route varied considerably. It is Badenoch’s journey through the first six decades of the century that forms the focus of this book, recognising where the region conformed to the broader Highland pattern but more importantly exploring those divergences – not least the nature of depopulation – which gave the region its distinctively nuanced history.

Badenoch lies at the geographic heartland of the Highlands, but that very centrality made its historical development somewhat atypical. Whereas historians like to divide the Highlands into west-coast crofting districts and east-coast farming districts, Badenoch fell between, neither as poor as the crofting areas nor as fertile as the east coast.28 Lacking the economic advantages of a coastal location – fish, seaweed, shipping – Badenoch remained as isolated in the first half of the nineteenth century as it had been in the eighteenth. Horse-drawn traffic through the tortuous and sometimes impassable mountain roads of Drumochter and the Slochd provided the only link with a booming southern economy that was ironically being driven by ever faster and cheaper modes of transport. Badenoch’s isolation was captured by that most observant of commentators, Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus, describing not some humble abode, but an early nineteenth-century laird’s household:

At this time in the highlands we were so remote from markets we had to depend very much on our own produce for most of the necessaries of life. Our flocks and herds supplied us not only with the chief part of our food, but with fleeces to be wove into clothing, blanketing, and carpets, horns for spoons, leather to be dressed at home for various purposes, hair for the masons. Lint seed was sown to grow into sheeting, shirting, sacking . . . We brewed our own beer, made our own bread, made our own candles; nothing was brought from afar but wine, groceries, and flour.29

Even by private coach the journey from Perth to Rothiemurchus took three days. Nor was isolation the only geographic disadvantage. Just 4 per cent of the total land mass was of improvable agricultural quality, and with most of that lying within the 900–1,200 foot contours (Laggan being the highest parish in the Highlands) crops were at the mercy of the region’s sub-arctic climate, while the richest farmland on the riverside haughs suffered frequent devastation from the River Spey and its mountain tributaries.30

Remoteness and lack of raw materials prevented the growth of any significant industry. The region’s only economic lifeline had always been the great cattle-droving trade, but even that was subject to the fluctuations of southern markets. Indeed, as a reflection of the region’s economic weakness, the army was probably the most important source of income behind farming – and that, of course, was dependent on the unlikely scenario of perpetual war. If Badenoch had any geographic advantage it was that, for those on foot, its mountain passes facilitated an annual exodus to the Lowlands for seasonal labour.

Badenoch’s social hierarchy had remained relatively intact even after the post-Culloden repression. At the turn of the century landownership remained largely in the hands of long-standing families. Macphersons, Macdonalds/ Macdonells, and Mackintoshes remained the principal clans; the Macphersons were naturally dominant in their heartland, the hereditary chieftainship remaining within the Cluny family in the person of Colonel Duncan Macpherson, son of Ewen of the ’45.31 The next layer of society was the tacksman class, the clan gentry, who held substantial swathes of land known as davochs (or daughs) from chief or landlord – much of which they then sublet to the small tenants for profit. At the turn of the century the local tacksmen, to a far greater degree than in most of the Highlands, still largely belonged to traditional clan families and still provided much of the economic and social leadership within the region. By 1800, only a handful of outsider tacksmen had infiltrated the area, so that the broad community was still primarily controlled by a native Gaelic-speaking leadership. The common people were also, of course, Gaelic speakers, though English was steadily gaining ground thanks to seasonal labour. But any semblance of clanship in its traditional sense had long since evaporated as the desire of the gentry for commercial expansion and profit had already driven a wedge between the clan elite and their erstwhile clansmen, not to mention the numerous hardships that many of the latter had suffered at the hands of their social ‘superiors’.

Though in itself a distinct Highland region, Badenoch comprised three parishes – Alvie, Kingussie and Insh (later a parish in its own right), and Laggan – stretching from the Cairngorm massif to the milder, wetter lands of Loch Laggan 40 miles to the west. Even within these parishes, each of the long glens penetrating the mountain ranges on both sides of the Spey, from Glen Markie in Laggan to Glen Feshie in Alvie, had its own micro-history, its own nuanced version of the general scene. But these micro-histories were given yet another layer of divergence by the differing policies of the five estates that controlled Badenoch’s land.

In 1800, most of the region – the old Lordship of Badenoch – remained under the sway of the Gordon family. The 4th Duke, Alexander, who had already been in control for over 30 years, was more laissez-faire than reformer, vaguely paternalistic but unwilling to invest in his Highland estates, preferring to think of them as his personal hunting domain, a pleasurable escape from the humdrum routines of administration and politics. Alexander’s estranged wife, the charismatic 4th Duchess, Lady Jane Maxwell, was, however, a hands-on improver who achieved much for the area. Having been given her own small estate at Kinrara in 1796, she spent much of her time in Badenoch. Mrs Ann Grant of Laggan captured something of her volatile personality: ‘very amusing and original [with] strong flashes of intellect, which are, however, immediately lost in the formless confusion of a mind ever hurried on by contending passions and contradictory objects’.32

By 1800, however, the Gordons were on the verge of financial collapse. With no significant source of external wealth, colonial or industrial, they were dependent on internal estate income – but family expenditure was far outstripping estate revenue. The Duke’s extravagant schemes of personal aggrandisement, whether his political ambitions or the opulence of Gordon Castle, had seriously drained the estate in the 1770s and 1780s.33 But the biggest culprit by far was the Duchess. Though given Kinrara along with the rest of the Duke’s Alvie lands and a post-separation annual allowance of £3,600 (complaining that even the £4,000 she demanded would not be enough ‘to give me even the necessaries of life’), she continued to spend well beyond her income, simply passing bills – and her taxes, which she ‘refused’ to pay – on to her husband’s estate.34 Her bitterness became increasingly deranged: at Kinrara, which she purportedly loved, she was ‘a prisoner, and really upon bread and water’; likewise in London she was ‘a prisoner spending £200 [£20,000 today] a month in a wretched Hotel . . . the object of every body’s pity’.35 Wallowing in narcissistic self-pity, she deflected the blame onto ‘the depravity of the Gordon Castle Family’ – particularly, of course, her husband.36 Even in death her magnificent 25-day funeral procession from London to Kinrara in 1812 pushed the estate ever closer to the brink.37 And as if the Duke and Duchess were not themselves problem enough, their son, the Marquis of Huntly (later the 5th Duke), had cost the estate nearly £90,000 between 1791 and 1809, causing his father to lament that it was ‘heart breaking . . . that all my savings for many years back . . . must go to pay for Huntly’s great extravagance’, his fear, prophetically, being that it ‘must end in the ruin of the family’.38

Landowners of a different kind were the Macphersons of Invereshie, for their estate, spread primarily across the parishes of Alvie and Insh, had enjoyed the rare advantage of being run by a financially prudent resident lairdship. Captain John Macpherson, who had managed the estate since 1780, firstly on behalf of his elderly father, George, and then his older brother William, was one of the outstanding figures of the late eighteenth-century Highlands. He and his father had gradually modernised the estate, replacing the old runrig townships with small but self-sufficient single-tenant farms, and much practical agricultural improvement was already in progress. On Captain John’s death in 1799, however, the estate reverted to William – a lazy, absentee hypochondriac with, in his own words, ‘an amazing stock [of ] indolence’ – who displayed little interest.39 Management thus devolved on the heir, Captain John’s son George Macpherson, a young man just completing his legal training in Edinburgh. In 1806, George styled himself Macpherson Grant after inheriting the much wealthier estate of Ballindalloch further down the Spey courtesy of his granduncle, General James Grant. Grant had been a leading military figure in the British establishment and, as governor of Florida, had acquired considerable wealth through a lucrative indigo slave plantation.40 When his uncle William died in 1812, the young George Macpherson Gant simply incorporated Invereshie into the much grander Ballindalloch estate. The Reverend John Anderson of Kingussie – a close friend of the family – had no illusions, warning the Duke, ‘You have a legal and a Sharp Man to deal with in the Laird of Ballindalloch; and he will contend the last shilling with you as far as he can’ – a total contrast to the Gordon family.41

The other principal Macpherson estate was that of the clan chief, Colonel Duncan Macpherson of Cluny, whose disjointed lands were spread through the parishes of Laggan and Kingussie. Because of his father’s involvement in the 1745 Rising, the estate had been forfeited, only being restored to Colonel Duncan in 1784. This was another financially secure estate, the Colonel having acquired considerable wealth from imperial service. Anderson was even more cutting in his observations on Cluny, commenting during an exchange of letters that he did not think it fair to discuss a complex issue like feudal superiorities with the Colonel because, ‘as a Gentleman bred to Arms and not to the Quill you might not fully understand’.42

The Alvie lands of Dunachton and Kincraig on the north side of the Spey, and Dalnavert and South Kinrara (now Inshriach) on the opposite bank, constituted a small outpost of the estates held by clan chief Mackintosh of Mackintosh. Another absentee, Mackintosh showed little interest in his Badenoch lands until the 1790s, when wartime demands made the substantial timber reserves of Glen Feshie and Inshriach an attractive proposition. But by the early 1800s he too appears to have been in financial difficulties, borrowing at least £5,000 from other local lairds.43 With Mackintosh reportedly having an ‘aversion to changes’, it was hardly surprising that there had been little economic progress on his Alvie lands by 1800.44

The only estate to have fallen into new hands was Belleville, a scattered amalgam of the bankrupt estates of Raitts, Phones and Etteridge, purchased in 1788 by the locally born James Macpherson (of Ossian fame), with Benchar estate added in 1795. On his death in 1796 Macpherson was succeeded by his son (also James), who, though Macpherson in name, was a total stranger to the Highlands. James senior had obvious concerns, expressing, again according to Anderson, ‘an uncommon anxiety that the Management of his affairs should not fall into the Hands of his own nearest of Kin’.45 Elizabeth Grant, who knew the younger James well, was equally critical: ‘believing his resources inexhaustible, he lived ostentatiously – open house – a crowd of servants – handsome equipages – and tours of pleasure’, until he virtually bankrupted the estate, abandoning Badenoch for a lodging house in London.46 A Gaelic eulogy on James senior prophetically commented on the new laird:

’S aobhar mulaid d’ a thuath e, –

Bhi mu ’n cuairt da na laidhe;

Ach, cha ’n aithnich iad mùthadh,

Gus an tùirling an t-ath-fhear;

Math dh’ fhaoidte nach diù leis,

Aon sùil thoirt ’g an amharc,

Ach an òrduch’ air faondradh,

’S fear na daorsainn a ghabhail.

It is cause of sadness to his tenantry to be about him in his lying; but they will not know the difference until the successor comes down. Perchance he will not consider it worthy to give a single glance to behold them, but to order them a-wandering, and to [become] the oppressor.47

The dominant personality in Badenoch was not, however, to be found amongst the proprietors. The Reverend John Anderson of Kingussie, born in Morayshire and educated at Marischal College in Aberdeen, had been hailed as ‘a Young man of Genius, well versed in point of Literature, and of a most unexceptionable Character’, and was clearly head-hunted as the Duke’s presentee to the vacant parish of Kingussie in 1782.48 Faced with the opposition of the Presbytery of Abernethy because of his non-Gaelic background, Anderson met the challenge by going to the Highlands ‘to make himself perfectly master of the Language’, returning shortly after to preach in Gaelic in Kingussie – a remarkable achievement, leading the estate factor to acknowledge that he had ‘done superbly to learn the language so well in so short a time’.49

A man of prodigious energy and imbued with the spirit of the Enlightenment era, Anderson’s religious duties, perhaps as the presbytery feared, soon took a back seat. Starting off in the farm of Kerrowmeanach just east of Kingussie, he moved in 1789 to Dell of Killiehuntly, the largest farm on Invereshie estate. Captain John Macpherson indeed expressed delight at securing a tenant ‘of his honourable principles and abilities’.50 Anderson was an enthusiastic and exemplary farmer: ‘We are draining Bogs – and clearing Fields; and planning a Thousand Improvements.’51 Like many a minister, he was a good friend – and drinking companion – to the local gentry. More importantly, he acted as adviser and factor to the estates of Invereshie, Benchar, Belleville and also for the Duchess in Kinrara, before becoming the Duke’s Badenoch factor in 1806 and, three years later, general manager of the Gordon estates in Fochabers – where he somehow continued his ministerial duties in his home parish of Bellie in Morayshire, until the General Assembly eventually ruled in 1819 that he could not satisfactorily combine both functions.

Anderson was a shrewd and at times stinging judge of character. Even the Duchess, for whom, like many a man, he admitted his ‘partiality’, was not spared: ‘I am neither the Lady’s retained Counsel; nor Her domestic Chaplain – flattering Her for Preferrment: nor do I know that I ly under any Obligation to Her of any kind’ – though he confessed that his comments were uttered through ‘the Spirit of Wine that sometimes leads me to speak too strongly’.52 Of the Duke and his advisers he could be even more contemptuous, writing – before his appointment as an estate official – that the Badenoch gentry would ‘never have really Peace or Comfort; and will never be free of some jarring and Interference . . . so long as they hold a foot bread of Land from the family of Gordon or pay them groat [coin] of Rent’.53 But Anderson was, above all, his own man: ‘Accustomed to feel my weight as a man among men, I do not easily hear Contradiction, or Command from my Equals.’54

John Anderson’s value to the historian, however, lies primarily in his epistolatory talents, for not only was he minister, farmer, entrepreneur, factor and estate manager, but no matter which hat, he was also a wonderfully witty, pithy, impassioned writer. His vast correspondence covering nearly six decades of detailed observation is shrewd and forthright, full of integrity and humanity. Moreover, it presents a uniquely detailed study of the economics of change, the complex situations and sometimes agonising decisions confronting Highland estates, and, of course, a deep personal insight gleaned through his different personae into a period of profound social upheaval.