An Angus Parish in the Eighteenth Century

STRATHMORE t 'J* Rev. VV. Masoi\ Inqlis M.A. FS.A.(Scct.) T/? ofAuchterhouse M. L 6ENEALOGY COLLECTION, An Angus Parish Eighteenth Century Rev. W. mason INGLIS, M.A., F.S.A. (Scot.), MINISTER OF AUCHTERHOUSE. I Author of " The Annals of an Angus Parish" ^c. DUNDEE: Printed by John Leng & Co., Ltd., Bank Street. 1904. ' PREFACE. nTHIS volume is practically a sequel of an earlier work, now out of print, entitled " The Annals of an Angus Parish," which dealt chie% with the 17th Century, and is written mainly with the view of describing and illustrating the many quaint and curious phases of old Parochial and Ecclesiastical life in Angus as are to be gleaned from the Parish Records of the 18th Century. 1378382 While more immediately concerned with Auchterhouse Parish, the volume is meant to have a much wider bearing and range, and may possibly prove interesting to those fond of antiquarian lore, old family history, and the past manners and customs of the County. It has been the intermittent labour of a lengthened period, and is the result of extensive reading and research into every available source of information Avithin reach. My best thanks are due to friends who have supplied photographs, and to those parishioners and others who have so kindly furnished me with much curious information regarding the old smuggling times—a subject to them not without many touches of romantic and personal interest. W. M. I. Auchterhouse, 1904. — AN ANGUS PARISH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. CHAPTER I. The Parish about 1700—Features of the Landscape—The State of Agriculture — The Houses—Farms—Crofts—The Struggles of the- People —The Kain Eents —The old Rent Rolls — The Farm-houses of the olden time--Furnishings and Fittings— Round the Peat-fire —The Farm-yard—The Stock —Fields and Crops— Conveyances Implements—Farmers and Farm-Servants—The Linen and Woollen Industries —Other Home Industries—Wages—Ways of Living Tlie Lairds and Tenants—Habits and Customs — Moral Tone of the Period— Rural Life —The Great Dearth—The Kirkton^Religious- Life —The Prime Minister of Scotland. AUCHTERHOUSE in the early days of the Eighteenth ^^ Century was not the well-farmed, richly-wooded, and salubrious resort that it is to-day. Change now is everywhere' in the landscape ; except in the main physical outlines and features ; in the valleys and surrounding hills and the distant peaks of the Grampians. Standing conspicuously out were the heath-clad Sidlaws, dotted here and there with pre-historic cairns and thickly strewn with stony debris ; whilst shelving off from them were rugged knolls and spurs. Through the low- lying portion of the Parish there went the still familiar winding; rivulet, fed by numerous water-courses, on its way through the valley seawards. Open and exposed to every wind that blew ; almost treeless like most of the Scottish Parishes then ; save for the patches of birch, fir, rowan, and other natural woods which grew on the rocky scaurs and the patches of willows and alders which 6 AN ANGUS PARISH fringed the marshy banks of the streams and the plantations round the remains of the old stronghold of the Ramsays and the adjoining baronial residence of the historic families of the Lyons and Ogilvies, and a few trees which sheltered the old thatched Church and Manse—abounding in morasses and moors and miles of country clad with moss, whin, fern and heather, it would present a wild, bleak, inhospitable appearance. Most of the country round was quite as rude, unenclosed, undrained, and untilled. Its population like that of rural parishes in general was small (about 600), and broken up into small farms, crofts, and insignificant hamlets. Those located on the bleak uplands and braesides must have had a hard and weary fight in reclaiming -strewn waste and clearing what was for the most part a boulder ; whilst those on the lower ground were dependent on land mainly reclaimed from morass, subject at any moment to storm and flood. Doubtless, there was some good land reclaimed and tilled by those wonderful agriculturists, the early Churchmen, capable of bearing good crops and pasture ; but there was little of a superior quality. Most of the people, therefore, found a precarious living in the old-world pastoral and agricultural methods ; for new ideas in land cultivation and stock manage- ment were sIoav in penetrating into such remote quarters. The only roads in those days Avere bridle-paths and drove- Toads over the wilds, through bracken and whin and by semi- malarious swamps only traversible by foot or by pannier ponies —roads which brought forth many maledictions from the troopers of General Monk Avhen they had some experience of them on the memorable raid of Alyth, during the siege of Dundee in 1651. Houses of any pretension were out of the question amongst those tough, hardy, weather-beaten sons and daughters of toil. There was the old baronial residence with its policies, meadows, and woods around, occuined by a Scion of the House of Strathmore. There Avas no lack of picturesque features common IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. / to such mansion-houses of tlie period, in many relics of the past lying round ; in its ancient Wallace Tower ; in its dove-cot and quaint Scottish garden set amid romantic surroundings. There •was the home-farm, part of the old demesne, and still on that account known as the jMains. There were the cottar-houses occupied by a few retainers and ground-officers. There were barns and store-houses for meal and grain and other produce from the land—for these were the days—the poverty-stricken days, when the hard-iip laird got in "his racked rents, his coals, his kain, and a' his stents (his corn-rents and assessments)." The ecclesiastical records of the period indicate the names of farms and crofts which remain to this day ; whilst many have disappeared entirely, owing to the gradual effacement of many old pendicles and too many ancient and interesting landmarks. Most of the allotments were small ; but quite large enough to struggle on with. The tenure was as a rule leasehold, and owing to the scarcity of money amongst all classes, the rents were mainly paid in kind, that is to say—from the ordinary produce of the farms and home industries. Looking over old rent-rolls of the period, we find that rents were paid in wheat, barley, oats, straw, horse-corn, cocks and hens, capons, ducks, geese, chickens, Avethers, cheese, butter, eggs, peats, wool, tallow, malt, yarns, ells of linen, or by the carting of peats used for fuel or by driving thatch for roofing purposes or by ploughing, sowing and reaping throughout the spring, summer and autumn months for the laird. These old rent-rolls are full of interest and instruction. Here is the value of certain articles taken from a rent-roll of the period. Barley appears at 7/- per boll, oatmeal at 7/- per boll, wethers at 3/4 each, lambs 1/1, geese 1/1, capons 6d., hens 6d., chickens 1/8 per dozen, poultry 3d. each, eggs one penny and a third per dozen, winterings 2/9 per wintering, kids at 1/1 each, straw 1/1 per turse, cheese 2/9 per stone, butter 6/8 per stone, linen 7d. a yard, peats 2/- a load. It is curious to observe, however, how the prices bargained for vary in different rent-rolls. Homeliness and 8 AN ANGUS PARISH plainness on the verge of poverty characterised farm life. It was very much " A snug thaik hoose, before the door a green, Hens on the micklen, clucks in clubs are seen. On this side stands a barn, on that a byre, A peat-stack joins and forms a rural sc^uare." Occasionally might be seen a farm-house of some pretension ; but for the most part " the auld clay biggin' " type predominated. It generally consisted of a " but and a ben," one storey high, rattled together in a miraculously short time from the nearest boulders, stone-slabs, quarry pavement, divots, and rough timber at hand. If not too remote from the parish kirk-yard, it was not unusual to select a few much fancied ancestral tomb-stones, cart them off and have them fitted up and built in, where they were reckoned to be most serviceable as jambs for doors and high- class fire-places. The builders too frequently were the tenants themselves ; so that they were quite as primitive in their taste and style as the architects. The rule laid down by the much- loved local land-steward was, " There is your allotment, slap up the houses to the best of your ability, and be sure and ask no more." They were, as a rule, dark, damp, foul, smoky rookeries, which sorely tried the tempers of many amiable Avomen, and made many sparks fly from those of a highly fractious disposition. Mud, moss, litter, anything in the way of rubbish filled up the crevices ; whilst the floor was simply the roughly levelled soil. The stable and the cow-byre adjoined, and the occupants, animals, and poultry lived wonderfully happy and contented all together. Heather, divots or thatch covered the roof. Light was obtained by slits and slaps in the walls which in wet and stormy weather were blinded with straw, fog, bracken, or rags. The furniture was of local or home construction— rude, hard, and solid. It was made entirely for wear and tear, and meant as a fixture for many a long day. A capacious box-bed required a fair amount of room. Rough chairs, stools, old log stumps, IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Load more