( t SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY FOURTH SERIES VOLUME 8 Papers on Sutherland Estate Management Volume i PAPERS ON SUTHERLAND ESTATE MANAGEMENT i802-1816 edited by R. J. Adam, M.A. Volume 1 ★ ★ EDINBURGH printed for the Scottish History Society by T. AND A. CONSTABLE LTD 1972 © Scottish History Society 1972 •$> B 134 FEC x 19 73/ ' SBN 9500260 3 4 (set of two volumes) SBN 9500260 4 2 (this volume) Printed in Great Britain PREFACE The Society’s invitation to edit these volumes came when I was already engaged on a detailed study of the history of the Sutherland Estate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. That being so, it was necessary to decide on the precise division of material between this work and the book which I hope to publish on the wider aspects of the history of the estate. The decision taken by my fellow-editor, the late Mr A. V. Cole (Senior Lecturer in Economics in the Uni- versity of Leicester, and one-time Lecturer in Political Economy in the University of St Andrews), and myself was to publish evidence which would illustrate the general working of the estate manage- ment, and to concentrate in the introduction, where space was neces- sarily limited, upon the economic aspects of estate policy. It was our intention, on account of our different disciplinary approaches, that I should assume responsibility for selection and textual preparation, while Mr Cole should analyse the material from an economic stand- point and write a major part of the introduction. I was fortunate to have Mr Cole’s help and guidance in the early stages of selection, and to come to know something of his thinking on the broad issues presented by the evidence. But he was unable, to my deep regret, to complete his share of the introduction before his death, and the work is the poorer for it. Had he lived, the introduction would have taken a rather different form. At the Society’s request I have rewritten and expanded my own share of the introduction. In doing this I have endeavoured to con- centrate upon the early history of the policy of improvement, upon financial policy, and upon certain important but relatively little- known aspects of estate management. I have made little or no refer- ence to the well-known and controversial themes associated with the Kildonan and Assynt riots of 1813, the Strathnaver removals of 1814, and the trial of Patrick Sellar, although readers will find in the text material relating to all of these. I intend to discuss these episodes in greater depth in my history of the estate. I have many debts to acknowledge. The first is to my former colleague. Over a number of years I was fortunate to be able to work with Mr Cole, both in Sutherland and St Andrews. The vi SUTHERLAND ESTATE MANAGEMENT present volumes cannot adequately show how much I have been indebted to his refreshing and critical approach to the subject. They may stand as a tribute, however imperfect, to his memory. To the Countess of Sutherland, a member of the Society, I am indebted for many years of personal friendship and for the complete freedom with which she has allowed me access to the Dunrobin Castle archives. The work which this has entailed in the-still in- complete-organisation of the archives has, I hope, brought with it a fuller understanding of the working of the estate. I am further indebted to the Trustees of the 4th Duke of Suther- land, who have deposited the Trentham Papers in the Staffordshire Record Office, and to the County Archivist, Mr F. B. Stitt, and his staff for their courtesy and patience in helping me during my use of these papers. With the Society, I owe an enormous debt to the Trustees of the Leverhulme Trust, whose generous grant has enabled this work to be published in two volumes. I can only hope that as a contribution to the history of Scotland it will justify their confidence. I owe further thanks to the Warden and Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford, who elected me to a Visiting Fellowship in 1967. During the time I enjoyed the hospitality of the College I was able to think deeply on the problems of estate accounting and finance. In this I was much helped by discussions with Professor H. J. Habbakuk, now Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, to whom my thanks are also due. Mr J. M. L. Scott, factor on the Sutherland Estates, has helped me greatly on my visits to Dunrobin Castle. Mr Ian Scott has made elegant and skilful sense of my draft maps. Mrs A. H. G. McNeill has typed much of the manuscript. Lastly, and importantly, Dr T. I. Rae, Secretary of the Society, has been endlessly patient when confronted with the problems of steering editor and manuscript through the press. I have greatly valued the care with which he has read and commented upon the introduction; his suggestions have removed many errors and inconsistencies. R. J. ADAM St Andrews April, 1972 A generous contribution from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland towards the cost of producing this volume is gratefully acknowledged by the Council of the Society b CONTENTS Preface v Introduction xi SUTHERLAND ESTATE MANAGEMENT PAPERS 1802-1807: The factory of David Campbell 1 1807-1811: The factory of Cosmo Falconer 11 1811-1816: The factory of William Young 40 APPENDICES Sutherland Estate Management (Tables) 214 The finance of famine relief 258 MAP end pocket Introduction THE PROPRIETORS AND THE ESTATE THE HEAD OF THE SUTHERLAND FAMILY during the period with which this work is concerned was Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland (1765-1839). Left an orphan when she was little more than a year old, she was brought up under the care of tutors, who conducted the defence of her title in the celebrated Sutherland Peerage Case of 1771. She married, in 1785, George Granville Leveson-Gower, eldest son of Earl Gower, who succeeded his father as Marquis of Stafford in 1803; their eldest son, George Granville, bom in 1786, took the courtesy title of Earl Gower after his father’s succession. The Countess was the possessor, under an entail of 1705, of the ancient earldom and estate of Sutherland. She also held other lands which had come into the family’s hands since 1705, including the barony of Assynt. By her marriage settlement the Countess resigned these for a fresh infeftment in terms of the entail, but made them over in liferent to her husband. The estate of Skelbo, after a legal process extending over almost a century, passed into the joint hands of the Countess and her husband in 1808. Skelbo, a barony held of the Earls of Sutherland by the family of Sutherland, Lord Duffus, was forfeited after the last Lord Duffus’ participation in the Fifteen. As the heritable debts on the estate were considerable, the Sutherland family did not choose to resume possession immediately, but instead proceeded over a long period to buy up the debts and then to bring an action of ranking and valuation. This met with opposition from the wadsetters on the estate, and finally the Court of Session ruled that the Countess must either take the estate with the whole debts upon it, or bring it to a judicial sale. The latter course was followed, Xll SUTHERLAND ESTATE MANAGEMENT and Alexander Mackenzie, the Countess’ law agent, bought the estate in 1787 for .£21,400. He was acting for the Countess, to whom, with her husband, he gave title to hold of him. After his death in 1805 the estate passed to the Countess; in 1808, when the last debts had been paid off and the last wadsets redeemed, she and her husband took a fresh title. Skelbo, together with the earlier acquisitions and others made after 1808, was finally incorporated into the earldom by a new settlement and entail in 1835, following the death of the Marquis (who had become 1st Duke of Sutherland in 1833). Even including Skelbo, the Sutherland estate did not cover the whole of the parishes of the ancient earldom-Kildonan, Loth, Clyne, Golspie, Dornoch, Rogart and Lairg. In Clyne, the estate of Carrol or Gordonbush (held by John Gordon of Carrol) straddled Loch Brora; in Golspie, Uppat was held by George Sackville Sutherland, and later by William Munro; Dornoch contained two separate estates (Embo and Skibo, held respectively by Robert Home Gordon and George Dempster of Dunnichen); in Rogart, Dempster also held the small property of Langwell, and Duncan Sutherland of Kinnauld that of Lettie; and in Lairg the family lands stopped at the east bank of the river Shin and Loch Shin, beyond which lay the barony of Gruids (Colonel Innes Monro of Poyntz- field) and William Munro’s small property of Achany, Munro also holding some lands around Loch Craggie on the east side of Loch Shin. Outside the ancient earldom, the estate included all of Assynt, but in Creich, only Invershin and Achinduich, the remainder of this parish being divided between six independent proprietors.1 In the parish of Farr the barony of Strathnaver, now part of the earldom, comprised the greater part of the parish, but Armadale and Strathy were possessed by William Honeyman, Lord Armadale, and Lord Reay held the small property of Ardbeg. In the remaining parishes of Eddrachilles, Durness, Tongue and Reay, the Sutherland family held nothing. Between 1812 and 1816 the Marchioness and her husband took several opportunities to extend their property. In 1812 they bought Uppat and Carrol and in 1813 Armadale and Strathy; they also 1 These were Sir Charles Ross of Balnagown (Strathoykel), William Baillie (Rose- hall), Robert McLeod of Cadboll (Inveran), Hugh Houston (Creich), Dugald Gilchrist (Ospisdale) and George Dempster (Skibo).