Chronicles of Muckledale

CHRONICLES OF MUCKLEDALE being the Memoirs of Thomas Beattie of Muckledale, 1736–1827 Edited by Edward J. Cowan Sources in Local History Contents Introduction iii Editor’s note v Acknowledgments vi Glossary vii Chronicles of Muckledale 1 Notes 371 Further Reading 394 ii Introduction his substantial document was brought to my attention by Victor Wilson of TDumfries, who had consulted it in the burgh’s Ewart Library. Enquiries to Graham Roberts, Archivist for Dumfries and Galloway Region, received a positive and characteristically enthusiastic response. He swiftly arranged the necessary permissions for the European Ethnological Research Centre to produce an edition to be placed online as part of the Centre’s Regional Ethnology of Dumfries and Galloway Project. The document was retyped by Ms Sheila Findlay who made many helpful suggestions and observations during the process. I subsequently discovered that Ms Paula Simcocks of Canberra, Australia had also worked on an edition, inspired initially by genealogical interests. She proved very willing to share her knowledge with us while still planning to publish a version of her own and indeed communicated some material of great interest. The document is neither a diary nor a memorial proper though both genres may have contributed to the final product. Rather Thomas Beattie seems to have written a summary of each year, when he felt so inclined, after plans to maintain a diary in his earlier years were gradually abandoned. Our designation, Memoirs, is intended as a shorthand compromise. Thomas Beattie was born on 13 July 1736 at Langholm, the son of John Beattie (1689-1781) and of Helen Armstrong (1709-93). He died on the 8 October 1827, aged 91, at Muckledale. For much of his life he was a stock farmer who leased, and eventually bought, hill farms in east Dumfriesshire and Roxburghshire for the raising of sheep and cattle. Muckledale is in the parish of Ewes, Dumfriesshire, a community which even today lacks a village. It extends north of Langholm through Ewesdale to the watershed where, at Mosspaul, it meets the Roxburghshire border. His Memoirs, which he began to write in 1788, inspired by the untimely death of his beloved daughter, iii paint a brilliant picture of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century life in a remote and little known part of the Border Country during a period of great social, economic and political change. Some of his property transactions are incredibly complex. He seems to have speculated on overburdened leases and farms whose owners were in extreme financial difficulties, as many appear to have been. He details his business dealings with the dukes of Buccleuch and their factors. He was well acquainted with the Johnstones of Westerkirk who produced an MP (whom Burns satirised), a Florida governor and William Pulteney, ‘the wealthiest man in Britain’ who patronised among others, Thomas Telford. Each year he lists the prices he earned for his produce, mainly cattle and sheep. He had endless difficulties, financial and personal, with drovers. He writes about weather in his moorland parish. He mentions the great events taking place off-stage and the impact they have on prices. His account of his upbringing is full of interest as he describes the internal dynamics of family life, inter-action with other families, his schooling, his years at Edinburgh University, his blossoming interest in literature, and local life in Langholm and district. He supplied Walter Scott with a version of ‘Gilpin Horner’. His sadly afflicted wife, Margaret Borthwick, was crazed for much of their married life, though with periods of some lucidity. While still married he fathered two other families for whom he provided, sometimes most reluctantly, because he was never absolutely certain that the children were his. The mothers led him a merry dance of blackmail and ultimatums, threatening to expose him to a community that already was no doubt well aware of his adventures. Thomas Beattie reveals his own doubts and reflections throughout the text. He is frequently overcome with guilt yet often sins again. He wants to do his best by his women, notably his unfortunate wife, always on his own terms, but he is usually duped by all of them into concessions of one kind or another. He was well aware of his own weaknesses and those of others. He was a moderate drinker but alcoholism was a huge problem among his contemporaries. Crooks and conmen abound in his pages. A much fuller discussion and assessment of the memoirs is in process and will appear at a later date. Meanwhile any corrections to, or comments on, the text will be most welcome. Local information on farms mentioned, or those that perhaps have disappeared, together with the folk who inhabited them, would be particularly valuable. Ted Cowan iv Editor’s note his edition of Thomas Beattie’s memoir is based on a typescript made Tin 1959 by James Beattie of Westerkirk Mains, Langholm, and held by Dumfries and Galloway Council Archives. James Beattie used as his source a handwritten copy made in 1880 by Alexander Hay Borthwick, which is now in the possession of a descendant in Australia. The current edition, therefore, is at least two removes from the original, which has not been traced. Chapters and chapter headings have been introduced to make the text more reader friendly. For the same reason, some of Thomas Beattie’s punctuation has been modernised and further punctuation introduced. Typographi- cal and transcription errors that appear to have originated in earlier copies have been silently amended. Abbreviations of place and personal names have been silently expanded. Otherwise, editorial interventions and comments have been inserted in [ ]. The endnotes are intended to illuminate and clarify the text. A glossary, comprising mainly Scots words and legal and farming terms, has been provided, as has a note on further reading. v Acknowledgments he editor and the European Ethnological Research Centre are grateful Tto Graham Roberts of the Dumfries and Galloway Archives Centre for allowing them to make a copy of James Beattie’s typescript of Thomas Beattie’s memoir, and to Hugh Beattie of Dumfries for granting them permission to use it as the basis for the present edition. The editor is also grateful to Ms Paula Simcocks of Canberra, Australia, for generously sharing her knowledge of Thomas Beattie and supplying information about her own research into his memoir and the copy made by Alexander Hay Borthwick. Warm thanks are also due to Mrs Kate Knott of Muckledale, Ron Addison and Tom Stothart of the Langholm Library, Bruce McCartney, co-author of The Ewes Valley, and Billy Young, author of A Spot Supremely Blessed. Thanks are also due to the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland for granting us permission to reproduce the detail from John Thomson’s Atlas of Scotland. Thanks are also due to the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland for granting us permission to reproduce the detail from John Thomson’s Atlas of Scotland and, for the front cover, the etching of Langholm from Walter Scott’s Border Antiquities of England and Scotland, Volume 2, Edinburgh,1817. vi Glossary Assoilzie to acquit by sentence of court, to pronounce not guilty Bield a shelter Boal (boll) a measure of capacity for grain and the article measured, in Scotland generally 6 imperial bushels Buist to mark cattle or sheep with the proprietor’s distinctive mark; the mark itself Carl a man, a fellow Codicil in Scots law, a writing by which the granter bequeaths legacies out of his moveable estate and which does not contain the nomination of an executor Cracking talking Criminal conversation adultery Decern in Scots Law, to decree, to order by a judicial decision Dinmont a wether between one and a half and two and a half years old Displenish especially of a farm, to sell off the stock, implements etc. Excambion an exchange of land Firlot both a measure of corn (a quarter of a boll), and the vessel in which the corn was measured vii Fly a one-horse carriage Foremailed earmarked for spending Gueld barren Herd a shepherd Hirsel both the number of sheep looked after by one shepherd, and the allotted area of pasturage to be grazed by a flock of sheep under the care of one shepherd Hog(g) a yearling sheep, a young sheep from the time it is weaned till it is shorn of its first fleece Hypothecate in Scots Law, to give, take or pledge as security Intromit in Scots Law, to handle or deal with funds or property, especially of another person living or dead, with or without legal authority Jilt a strumpet Jocky a trick Kyloe one of a breed of small Highland cattle, having shaggy hair and long curving horns Lammas/Lambas 1st August, one of the traditional quarter-days in Scotland, when servants were hired and rent, wages, loans etc. were payable Land setting letting land to tenants Led farm a smaller or outlying farm owned or rented by the possessor of another farm and managed by him through a representative Libbed castrated Maile rent Martinmas(s) 11th November, a traditional quarter-day that had become one of the two term-days recognised by law viii in Scotland, when servants were engaged for the winter half-year and rent, wages, loans etc. were payable Ment deliver Middle to interfere with, to bother, to harm Mug a breed of sheep, with long bodies and legs and characterised by a profusion of white wool, imported from England to improve the quality of wool in Scottish breeds Nabob the name given to someone who had returned to Britain after having made their fortune in official

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