The History of the Highland Clearances 31

The History of the Highland Clearances 31

In 1801, no less than 799 took ship at Fort William and Isle Martin from Strathglass, the Aird,

Glen Urquhart, and the neighbouring districts, all for Pictou, Nova

Scotia; while in the following year, 473 from the same district left

Fort William, for Upper Canada, and 128 for Pictou. Five hundred and

fifty went aboard another ship at Knoydart, many of whom were from

Strathglass. In 1803, four different batches of 120 souls each, by

four different ships, left Strathglass, also for Pictou; while not a

few went away with emigrants from other parts of the Highlands. During

these three years we find that no less than 5390 were driven out of

these Highland glens, and it will be seen that a very large portion of

them were evicted from Strathglass by the daughter of the notorious

_Marsali Bhinneach_. From among the living cargo of one of the vessels

which sailed from Fort William no less than fifty-three souls died,

on the way out, of an epidemic; and, on the arrival of the living

portion of the cargo at Pictou, they were shut in on a narrow point

of land, from whence they were not allowed to communicate with any of

their friends who had gone before them, for fear of communicating the

contagion. Here they suffered indescribable hardships.

 

By a peculiar arrangement between the Chisholm who died in 1793, and

his wife, a considerable portion of the people were saved for a time

from the ruthless conduct of _Marsali Bhinneach’s_ daughter and her

co-adjutors. Alexander Chisholm married Elizabeth, daughter of a Dr.

Wilson, in Edinburgh. He made provision for his wife in case of her

outliving him, by which it was left optional with her to take a stated

sum annually, or the rental of certain townships, or club farms. Her

husband died in 1793, when the estate reverted to his half-brother,

William, and the widow, on the advice of her only child, Mary, who,

afterwards became Mrs. James Gooden of London, made choice of the joint

farms, instead of the sum of money named in her marriage settlement;

and though great efforts were made by _Marsali Bhinneach’s_ daughter

and her friends, the widow, Mrs. Alexander Chisholm, kept the farms in

her own hands, and took great pleasure in seeing a prosperous tenantry

in these townships, while all their neighbours were heartlessly driven

away. Not one of her tenants were disturbed or interfered with in any

way from the death of her husband, in February 1793, until her own

death in January, 1826, when, unfortunately for them, their farms all

came into the hands of the young heir (whose sickly father died in

1817), and his cruel mother. For a few years the tenants were left

in possession, but only waiting an opportunity to make a complete

clearance of the whole Strath. Some had a few years of their leases to

run on other parts of the property, and could not just then be expelled.

 

In 1830 every man who held land on the property was requested to meet

his chief at the local inn of Cannich. They all obeyed, and were there

at the appointed time, but no chief came to meet them. The factor soon

turned up, however, and informed them that the laird had determined to

enter into no negotiation or any new arrangements with them that day.

They were all in good circumstances, without any arrears of rent, but

were practically banished from their homes in the most inconsiderate

and cruel manner, and it afterwards became known that their farms

had been secretly let to sheep farmers from the south, without the

knowledge of the native population in possession.

 

Mr. Colin Chisholm, who was present at the meeting at Cannich,

writes:--“I leave you to imagine the bitter grief and disappointment

of men who attended with glowing hopes in the morning, but had to

tell their families and dependents in the evening that they could see

no alternative before them but the emigrant ship, and choose between

the scorching prairies of Australia and the icy regions of North

America.” It did not, however, come to that. The late Lord Lovat,

hearing of the harsh proceedings, proposed to one of the large sheep

farmers on his neighbouring property to give up his farm, his lordship

offering to give full value for his stock, so that he might divide

it among those evicted from the Chisholm estate. This arrangement

was amicably carried through, and at the next Whitsunday--1831--the

evicted tenants from Strathglass came into possession of the large

sheep farm of Glenstrathfarrar, and paid over to the late tenant of

the farm every farthing of the value set upon the stock by two of the

leading valuators in the country; a fact which conclusively proved

that the Strathglass tenants were quite capable of holding their own,

and perfectly able to meet all claims that could be made upon them by

their old proprietor and unnatural chief. They became very comfortable

in their new homes; but about fifteen years after their eviction from

Strathglass they were again removed to make room for deer. On this

occasion the late Lord Lovat gave them similar holdings on other

portions of his property, and the sons and grandsons of the evicted

tenants of Strathglass are now, on the Lovat property, among the most

respectable and comfortable middle-class farmers in the county.

 

The result of the Strathglass evictions was that only two of the

ancient native stock remained in possession of an inch of land on the

estate of Chisholm. When the present Chisholm came into possession he

found, on his return from Canada, only that small remnant of his own

name and clan to receive him. He brought back a few Chisholms from the

Lovat property, and re-established on his old farm a tenant who had

been evicted nineteen years before from the holding in which his father

and grandfather died. The great-grandfather was killed at Culloden,

having been shot while carrying his commander, young Chisholm,

mortally wounded, from the field. The gratitude of that chief’s

successors had been shown by his ruthless eviction from the ancient

home of his ancestors; but it is gratifying to find the present chief

making some reparation by bringing back and liberally supporting the

representatives of such a devoted follower of his forbears. The present

Chisholm, who has the character of being a good landlord, is descended

from a distant collateral branch of the family. The evicting Chisholms,

and their offspring have, however, every one of them, disappeared,

and Mr. Colin Chisholm informs us that there is not a human being

now in Strathglass of the descendants of the chief, or of the south

country farmers, who were the chief instruments in evicting the native

population.

 

To give the reader an idea of the class of men who occupied this

district, it may be stated that of the descendants of those who lived

in Glen Canaich, one of several smaller glens, at one time thickly

populated in the Strath, but now a perfect wilderness--there lived in

the present generation, no less than three colonels, one major, three

captains, three lieutenants, seven ensigns, one bishop, and fifteen

priests.

 

Earlier in the history of Strathglass and towards the end of last

century, an attempt was made by south country sheep farmers to persuade

Alexander Chisholm to follow the example of Glengarry, by clearing out

the whole native population. Four southerners, among them Gillespie,

who took the farm of Glencruaich, cleared by Glengarry, called upon

the Chisholm, at Comar, and tried hard to convince him of the many

advantages which would accrue to him by the eviction of his tenantry,

and turning the largest and best portions of his estate into great

sheep walks, for which they offered to pay him large rents. His

daughter, Mary, already referred to as Mrs. James Gooden, was then in

her teens. She heard the arguments used, and having mildly expressed

her objection to the heartless proposal of the greedy southerners, she

was ordered out of the room, crying bitterly. She, however, found her

way to the kitchen, called all the servants together, and explained

the cause of her trouble. The object of the guests at Comar was soon

circulated through the Strath, and early the following morning over

a thousand men met together in front of Comar House, and demanded an

interview with their chief. This was at once granted, and the whole

body of the people remonstrated with him for entertaining, even for a

moment, the cruel proceedings suggested by the strangers, whose conduct

the frightened natives characterised as infinitely worse than that of

the freebooting Lochaber men who, centuries before, came with their

swords and other instruments of death to rob his ancestors of their

patrimony, but who were defeated and driven out of the district by

the ancestors of those whom it was now proposed to evict out of their

native Strath, to make room for the greedy freebooters of modern times

and their sheep. The chief counselled quietness, and suggested that the

action they had taken might be construed as an act of inhospitality to

his guests, not characteristic, in any circumstances, of a Highland

chief.

 

The sheep farmers who stood inside the open drawing-room window,

heard all that had passed, and, seeing the unexpected turn events were

taking, and the desperate resolve shown by the objects of their cruel

purpose, they adopted the better part of valour, slipped quietly out

by the back door, mounted their horses, galloped away as fast as their

steeds could carry them, and crossed the river Glass among the hooting

and derision of the assembled tenantry, heard until they crossed the

hill which separates Strathglass from Corriemony. The result of the

interview with their laird was a complete understanding between him and

his tenants; and the flying horsemen, looking behind them for the first

time when they reached the top of the Maol Bhuidhe, saw the assembled

tenantry forming a procession in front of Comar House, with pipers at

their head, and the Chisholm being carried, mounted shoulder-high,

by his stalwart vassals, on their way to Invercannich. The pleasant

outcome of the whole was that chief and clan expressed renewed

confidence in each other, a determination to continue in future in the

same happy relationship, and to maintain, each on his part, all modern

and ancient bonds of fealty ever entered into by their respective

ancestors.

 

This, in fact, turned out to be one of the happiest days that ever

dawned on the glen. The people were left unmolested so long as

this Chisholm survived--a fact which shows the wisdom of chief and

people meeting face to face, and refusing to permit others whether

greedy outsiders or selfish factors--to come and foment mischief and

misunderstanding between parties whose interests are so closely bound

together, and who, if they met and discussed their differences, would

seldom or ever have any disagreements of a serious character. Worse

counsel prevailed after Alexander’s death, and the result under the

cruel daughter of the notorious _Marsali Bhinneach_, has been already

described.

 

Reference has been made to the clearance of Glenstrathfarrar by the

late Lord Lovat, but for the people removed from there and other

portions of the Lovat property, he allotted lands in various other

places on his own estates, so that, although these changes were most

injurious to his tenants, his lordship’s proceedings can hardly be

called evictions in the ordinary sense of the term. His predecessor,

Archibald Fraser of Lovat, however, evicted, like the Chisholms, hundreds from the Lovat estates.