Alexander, Which Brought 214 Highland Scottish Roman Catholics, Whose Reli- Perthshire, Estates Were Being Annexed Catholics to St
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erhaps because passenger lists are about by the Agricultural Revolution, The Laird of Glenaladale so rare, the search for them contin- which began in Britain about the same Pues to tantalize genealogists. The pain- time. The large-scale displacement of The year 1770 was a bad year to be a ful truth is that no lists were ever created population caused by the new practices MacDonald, a Highlander, a Roman for most shipments of emigrants from in agriculture and the concurrent rises Catholic, a tacksman or a known Jacobite Britain to Canada.* Even where lists do in rent did not reach the Highlands until sympathizer; John MacDonald had the exist, they tend to be uninformative, of- the late 1760s. There the whole situation misfortune of being all five. Widowed fering scant help for the researcher try- was compounded by the failed rebellion and childless, still only in his 28th year, ing to match names from the list with of 1745 and the resultant disarming of Glenaladale found himself in a precari- ancestors. the clans; the banning of Highland cus- ous position. Once held at bay by the Passenger lists, then, should not be toms and garb; the confiscation of es- Highlands' inaccessibility, British power taken as an end in themselves, but there tates and the replacement of existing was reaching out towards the Glenaladale is often a fascinating story wrapped lairds with people sympathetic to the lands, where the standard of rebellion around each extant list. In the case of the British cause; and a general suspicion of had been raised in 1745. Beginning in Alexander, which brought 214 Highland Scottish Roman Catholics, whose reli- Perthshire, estates were being annexed Catholics to St. John's Island in 1772, the gion was only tolerated, though not northwestward by the Crown. The re- story behind the emigration is well banned outright. port of the Commissioners for Manag- known; it is the passenger list that is In British North America, the peace ing the Annexed Estates in Scotland for missing. Believing that there are other of 1763 opened up vast new territories 4 August 1774 reveals this trend. ways of obtaining the information on a that the British were anxious to people Borrisdale was annexed in 1771; Locheil, passenger list without finding the docu- with loyal subjects. When St. John's Is- Lochgarry, and Kinlochmoidartin 1772. ment itself, I have set about the task of land (Prince Edward Island), was par- Inroads were being made as far away as reconstructing such a list. The results celled off in lots in 1767 to friends of the South Uist where the estate of Boysdale follow. Crown, many of them Scots, settlement had been assumed by a cousin of requirements were built into the terms Glenaladale's, one Colin MacDonald. A of the grants. Thus, by the late 1760s, all zealous Protestant who enjoyed the sup- Push and Pull the "push-pull" factors of emigration from port of the British, Boysdale began an the Highlands to St. John's Island were active persecution of his Catholic ten- Itmightbe argued thatthe circumstances in place. ants in 1769 with the help of an equally conspiring towards the emigration of Nevertheless, any such migration zealous schoolmaster, who was on the the "Glenaladale Settlers" in 1772 had scheme would take a lot of capital and payroll of the same Commission. their roots in the 1707 Union of the decisive leadership if it was to have any Boysdale's persecutions on Uist coin- Scottish and English parliaments and chance of success. Those factors came cided with massive increases in rent on the socio-economic changes brought together between the years 1770 and 1772 in the person of young John MacDonald, eighth Laird of *The truth about passenger lists — as well as the Glenaladale and chief tacksman text of all the extant lists for emigration to Prince of the Clanranald MacDonalds. Edward Island — can be found in Numbers 1-3 of The Island Magazine. Passengers on the ALEXANDER By James P. Lawson GENEALOGY 34 the mainland Clanranald estates, espe- protect Scots Catholics from economic The Emigrants cially those under the leadership of new ruin and religious persecution at the lairds. Confronted with the advent of a hands of lairds like Boysdale on South Virtually none of the people enlisted for money economy and a more professional Uist. Both parties invested heavily in the the voyage had the money to pay their approach to estate management, the venture, MacDonald selling his passage, nor is it apparent that they were ancient clan system was breaking down. Glenaladale estate for the purpose. expected to. By and large, the religious The traditional bond between clan chief In 1771, events came to a boil. Bishop refugees on Uist were to have their pas- and clansmen was giving way before the Hay published his "Memorial concern- sage paid by the Church. Glenaladale's chiefs' determination to extract as much ing the Persecution raised against the mainland recruits (mainly from Arisaig rent a s possible from their lands. Caught and Moydart) were being financed by in the middle were tacksmen such as the MacDonald brothers in return for a Glenaladale, who had traditionally served fixed term of indentured service. They as middlemen between the chiefs and were also promised a parcel of land on the people on the land. As a class, they long lease upon arrival on the Island. It were fast becoming extinct. was the MacDonald brothers' scheme to The Sheriff of Argyll described the lure their followers with deals signed situation in March of 1774: "Another before the sailing to St. John's, guaran- reason that contributed much to the teeing 3000-year leases — a measure of Emigration of the people is. That some security unheard of in the Highlands. Gentlemen had large tracks [sic] of land With all the components for the emi- in Tack from the proprietors, when their gration falling into place on the main- Leases were near out, and that the Pro- land, the colonizers turned their atten- prietors insisted for higher Rents, these tion to the Uist people. In company with Gentlemen, finding that they could not Bishop MacDonald, Glenaladale made a live in such affluence as formerly, de- trip to South Uist in January of 1772 to clined to give the augmentation de- offer similar promises of land in return manded; published their intention of for the islanders' subscriptions to the going to America, expecting thereby, to venture. Word of the scheme had al- bring the Proprietors to their own terms, ready reached Boysdale, who tried to and when disappointed, used all the al- outmanoeuvre his cousin by signing the lurements in their power to move the Uist tenants to new leases before the poor people that lived under them, and arrival of the mainland entourage. others, to follow their fortune, and (Leases were typically signed at haunted all publick occasions with Drink, Martinmas or Whitsuntide.) Aware of Pipes and Fiddles, to rouse their Spirits JohnMacDonald (1742-1810), 8thLaird the indentures signed by the mainland- to the Expedition." of Glenaladale, from an illustration in A ers, he gleefully told his tenants that Glenaladale appears genuinely t o have Knight of the 18th Century, by Anna they were signing themselves into sla- felt responsible to the Higlanders who MacDonald, a pamphlet re-printed from very by subscribing to the voyage. The depended on Clanranald for protection The Messenger (1903). potential emigrants wavered. Being illit- and sustenance. He could see that there erate, they had no way of judging the was little future for them where they matter for themselves and in the end, were; he could say the same about him- Roman Catholicks in the Western Is- only 11 Uist families — about 55 people self. Emigration would be the ticket out lands," which exposed the situation on — made the journey.* for them all, and inspired by similar South Uist and broke precedent by The balance of the Hebrideans, an- emigrations of Highlanders at the time, openly advocating emigration as the only other eight families, were actually from he began devising a scheme to establish means of relief for these people, as "has Barra, well outside Boysdale's jurisdic- a new estate on St. John's Island. It would actually been done by many in the tion, in the ancestral home of Clan provide a safe haven for those being neighbouring Protestant Countrys." MacNeil. Presumably, the Barra people oppressed by their landlords; atthe same Meanwhile, Glenaladale sent his younger time, he would secure lairdship of a sort brother Donald, his chief factor at for himself. Glenfinnan, Sandy Macoiloig His partner in the enterprise was the [MacKellaig], and a small party of men *Bishop Hay's often-quoted assessment of the Scottish Catholic Church, notably Bish- to St. John's Island, to scout for a suitable number of people on the voyage, "210 in all, 100 ops John MacDonald and George Hay. lot and to test the soil with small grain from Uist and the rest from the mainland," has been taken too literally b y scholars oitheAlexander They had their own motives for pro- crops. Late in 1771, Glenaladale pur- migration. A letter from Bishop MacDonald to moting such an expedition. They sought chased (upon generous terms) Lot 36, a Bishop Hay, dated 14 February 1772, refers to 9 to use the threat of mass emigration to well- situated township straddling the families, "amounting in all to twenty-five grown upper reaches of the Hillsborough River, persons, and eighteen children of different ages from James Montgomery, Lord Chief from one monthe [sic] to twelve years." The estimate of 55 Uist emigrants simply extrapolates Advocate of Scotland, who, in turn, had that known total for nine families to eleven.