UHI Thesis - pdf download summary A Society in Transition Badenoch, 1750-1800 Taylor, David Vaughan DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (AWARDED BY OU/ABERDEEN) Award date: 2015 Awarding institution: The University of Edinburgh Link URL to thesis in UHI Research Database General rights and useage policy Copyright,IP and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the UHI Research Database are retained by the author, users must recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement, or without prior permission from the author. Users may download and print one copy of any thesis from the UHI Research Database for the not-for-profit purpose of private study or research on the condition that: 1) The full text is not changed in any way 2) If citing, a bibliographic link is made to the metadata record on the the UHI Research Database 3) You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain 4) You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the UHI Research Database Take down policy If you believe that any data within this document represents a breach of copyright, confidence or data protection please contact us at [email protected] providing details; we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 07. Oct. 2021 A SOCIETY IN TRANSITION: BADENOCH 1750-1800 A thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of the Highlands and Islands. 2014 David V. Taylor (MA Hons, Edinburgh University, 1972) Declaration This thesis, ‘A Society in Transition: Badenoch 1750-1800’, has been researched and written entirely by me. It is an original work and no part of it has been published or submitted for any other degree. All quotations are identified and cited fully in footnotes. Signed David V Taylor Abstract This thesis explores how social and economic change within the the distinctive region of Badenoch compares with similar developments in other parts of the Highlands. It demonstrates that the Highlands were not an isolated periphery by placing localised issues not just within the wider dimension of the British state and empire, but also within the ideological framework that shaped and influenced contemporary thought. Society in Badenoch was divided into three clearly demarcated but inter-woven ranks: the aristocratic Dukes of Gordon, the gentry and the peasantry. The peasant economy operated at subsistence level, primarily pastoral and heavily dependent on a complex system of transhumance. But there was also a thriving cattle-based commercial economy driven by the indigenous tacksmen, who further demonstrated their entrepreneurship through diversification into agricultural improvement, sheep, textiles and timber. The conflicting demands for land, particularly the hill grazings, inevitably created tensions between the social ranks. The Badenoch economy suffered badly from climatic problems and fluctuating market prices, with two major famines occurring before the end of the century. These apart, however, the economy, and the lives of the entire community, experienced gradual improvement, not just through increasing commercialism, but also through the government’s military requirements for its imperial and European wars – a massive economic boost across the social spectrum. Change inevitably caused friction between the social classes over issues like rising rents, the appropriation of land (particularly for sheep) and clearances, which, along with the pressures of commercialism and government policy, had almost completely destroyed traditional clan society by 1800. The tacksman class, however, remained dominant despite the challenge to their traditional authority from both the Dukes of Gordon and the increasingly assertive commonalty. i Contents Tables and Figures ii Abbreviations iii Explanatory notes iv Glossary v Principal Characters viii Acknowledgements xiii Map of Badenoch farms xv Introduction 1 Chapter 1 The Social Hierarchy 22 Chapter 2 The Subsistence Economy 54 Chapter 3 The Commercial Economy 92 Chapter 4 1750-70: Reorganisation and Improvement 130 Chapter 5 The 1770s: A Turbulent Decade 171 Chapter 6 The 1780s: Continuity, Contrast and Seeds of Change 214 Chapter 7 The 1790s: Years of Optimism 253 Conclusion A Society in Transition 297 Bibliography 311 ii Tables and Figures Tables Table 1 Rental of Midtown of Gaskinloan 39 Table 2 Rental of Delfoure 39 Table 3 Rent increases on the Gordon estates in Badenoch 180 Table 4 Rent-cow comparison for Badenoch, 1750-1812 262 Table 5 Percentage increase rentals of some Laggan sheep farms 274 Table 6 Population change in Badenoch 1750s-1801 292 Figures Figure 1 Eighteenth-century Badenoch xv Figure 2 Tullichierro in Glen Banchor 3 Figure 3 Badenoch in the Central Highlands 6 Figure 4 The vertical alignment of a Badenoch farm 58 Figure 5 The runrig farm of Auctuchle 64 Figure 6 The vast hill grazings of Badenoch 73 Figure 7 Townships, shielings and grazings of the upper Spey 80 Figure 8 Glengynack shieling bothies 81 Figure 9 The throwing down and reclaiming of a shieling site 86 Figure 10 Allocation of the Drumochter shielings 91 Figure 11 Disputed land on Drumochter 93 Figure 12 Corrydoan 100 Figure 13 Drove routes from the north and west Highlands 117 Figure 14 The principal drove route 118 Figure 15 Raitts improvements 130 Figure 16 Pitmain improvements 139 Figure 17 Arable rigs on Tullochroam 154 Figure 18 Ballachroan improvements 196, 198 Figure 19 Gordon Castle 222 Figure 20 John Dow’s house at Ballachroan 230 Figure 21 Dalenlongart, site of the first shooting lodge 242 Figure 22 The Duchess’s cottage at Kinrara 264 Figure 23 The Belleville floodbanks 268 Figure 24 An eighteenth-century Badenoch turf house 289 iii Abbreviations Craigdhu Sir Thomas Macpherson Archive, Craigdhu House EUL Edinburgh University Library Goodwood Goodwood Archive, Sussex HFM Highland Folk Museum Archive HL Huntington Library, California INV Highland Archive Centre, Inverness LO Loudoun Scottish Collection, Huntington Library NLS National Library of Scotland NRS National Records of Scotland NRAS National Register of Archives for Scotland NSA New Statistical Account OSA Old Statistical Account RCAHMS Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland SHR Scottish Historical Review TGSI Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness iv Explanatory Notes Quotations from original sources have generally been left with their original spelling and punctuation, though occasional amendments have been made in the interests of clarity. Italics within quotations are original unless otherwise specified in footnotes. Place-names have been standardised into the Ordnance Survey map spellings both for consistency and to help with location, but where names no longer appear on modern maps, or where they appear within quotations, they have been left in their original form. The only exception is the use of Benchar (pronounced Benachar) for the modern Banchor because this was the form used consistently through the eighteenth century when referring to either farm or family. Significantly, the neighbouring glen was always differentiated, being written in its current form, Glen Banchor (Banachor). The name Glen Banchor refers to the whole geographical glen; the form Glenbanchor is used for the specific half-davoch / farm of that name within the glen. Similarly, Loch Laggan refers to the loch and surrounding area, while Lochlaggan is used for the estate. Though the terms Lowlands or Low Country generally mean the area south of the Highland line, they also broadly include the eastern Lowlands of the Moray Firth hinterland. The latter is specifically designated as such where appropriate. Highland surnames (Mc / Mac) in the eighteenth century were completely random, and these have generally been standardised into the form Macpherson or Mackintosh, unless there was a clear reason for not doing so. Because of the inevitable risk of confusion over the many similar clan names, particularly Macphersons, they are usually identified in a specific way as in John Dow, or Captain John, or by the name of their farm. Money is given in pre-decimalisation pounds sterling (£ s d) unless otherwise stated. For those not familiar with this currency, there were 20s (shillings) to £1, and 12d (pennies) to 1s. Decimal equivalents are given only where it helps to explain the relationship between monetary sums. Scots money occasionally appears in the primary sources: £1 Scots was one-twelfth of £1 sterling, and one merk was two-thirds of £1 Scots. It is impossible to convert eighteenth-century sterling sums into exact modern values, but a multiplication factor of at least sixty is required to achieve a rough equivalent. v Glossary Anker: An old liquid measure of roughly ten gallons. Annexed Estates: Estates forfeited after the ’45 and annexed by the Crown in 1752. Aughtens: A measure of land within the runrig farms based on extent (one- eighth, or aughten, of the farm arable) rather than monetary value. Baile: Farming township. Baron Court: Responsible for regulation and administration of estate affairs. Barons of Exchequer: Scottish court initially responsible for administering the forfeited estates. Board of Commissioners: Responsible for administering the annexed estates after 1752, though not till 1770 on Cluny estate. Commissioners: