A Crime Against Our Gaelic Heritage
A genealogical trip to Kintyre with an incredible outcome .
It is quite amazing how many of us are unaware of our past. Most do not realise that many of our ancestors experienced more than a few attacks on their own heritage . Both my parents died at a comparatively young age and being an only child , I found that I was largely ignorant of my own “ roots “.
My maternal grandmother Annabella Lamont ( maiden name McFarlane )was born in Glasgow . She died some ten years before I was born and I knew very little about her or her back ground . A little digging and delving in the records gradually allowed me to build up a picture of the family I did not know .Annabella’s parents were Mary and Archibald McFarlane ,who were in fact cousins ! Archibald had married an Anne McLean . They were both from the Parish of Kilcalmonell in Kintyre , Argyll . Archie was described in the Census returns as a “ spirit dealer “ and moved with Ann to Glasgow around 1845. Both were Gaelic speakers and although described in the Census as being unable to read or write one has to remember that that statement refers to one’s ability in the English language . Ann died in her early forties without having borne any children. Archie appears to have returned to his native soil to the small village of Clachan in Kintyre on the west coast of Argyll. His cousin Mary was in service in Campbeltown and the two married in 1864 . She was 31 years old and some 11 years younger than Archie . They settled back in Glasgow and in the 1881 Census were living in the Gorbals district of the City at 179 Crown Street . Surprisingly this is only a very short distance from where I attended school at Hutchesons’ Grammar in the 1950s ! Little did I know this at the time . The Gorbals had a somewhat tarnished reputation as a violent , overcrowded area troubled with the notorious razor gangs of the mid Wars period . When Archie and Mary were bringing up their family in the 1860s.70s and 80s it was a somewhat overcrowded area populated by a cosmopolitan mix of Irish , Highland Scots and interestingly the first influx of Jewish people from Germany , Poland and Russia . I can recall my mother telling me when I had just started “ Hutchie “ about the Gorbal’s grocer’s shop where Archie McFarlane Jr worked and how they stood outside to watch the arrival of these dark and strangely dressed Jewish immigrants . A somewhat parallel passage of history to that of 1970s and ‘80s !
Gorbals Main Street 1860
Archie and Mary had five children living with them in Crown Street in 1881 . Annabella aged 15 and working as a milliner ( hat maker ) , Archibald aged 14 – a grocer’s shop keeper , Elizabeth aged 12 - at school ,Mary aged 10 – at school and Duncan , the youngest at 8 and at school . Annabella was bi lingual in Gaelic and English . Perhaps not surprising as both parents had Gaelic as their first language .I recall my mother telling me that Annabella as a young girl used to help an elderly neighbour in an adjoining flat . That lady from a Highland village spoke only Gaelic and no English ! Hardly credible in this day and age |.
Things must have been tough in this small flat/apartment with so many .Archie , the father was now no longer working as a “ spirit merchant “ but as a general labourer in the docks that lined the shores of the Clyde in those far of days ! Sadly Archie a few years later of “ apoplexy “ aged 56. Apoplexy was a Victorian term used to indicate a sudden loss of consciousness and a bleeding of the internal organs .
This a brief synopsis of my McFarlanes and their life in Glasgow . I would now like to determine more about their home in far off Argyll and examine what life there would have been like in the mid 19th Century .
The McFarlanes were a big family and worked and lived mainly in the north of the Parish of Kilcalmonell . Archibald McFarlane , my great grand father had been born at Duppin , south of the town of Tarbert. The family were describes as cottars – small farmers – and had been there for many generations . His uncle Duncan McFarlane had also been a cottar and lived initially in the attractive small village of Whitehouse . This was mentioned by my mother when I was quite young . The picture shown here clearly illustrates the layout – a village green with small stone cottages on either side . These would originally have been heather clad but this had given way to the characterless slate or clad in the somewhat unattractive corrugated iron sheeting if used as storage accommodation . Duncan and family moved down the road to the aptly named village of Clachan – an attractive little place facing onto the Atlantic and giving spectacular views across to the Paps of Jura and a superb example of nature at its best as the grey seals play in their hundreds off the close by Ronnachan Point .Duncan became the tenant Landlord of the local inn/ pub in a property still standing there called Shanakill . The date, as far as I can ascertain would have been circa 1826 as his son Dugald had been born in Whitehouse in October 1825 and his son Archibald in Shenakill in August 1827 This was unfortunately not the best time to establish a business in the Scottish Highlands and in particular on the West Coast where the cottars / crofters were highly dependent on the fickle herring plus a staple diet of potatoes . Nature was not on their side as the fish moved to places new a fungus attacked the tatties in the ground . Duncan and his rapidly expanding family were , to put it mildly , in a somewhat insecure position . My great grandmother Mary McFarlane was their seventh child , born in Shenakill in 1833. It would have been fascinating to have chatted to her about life in this Highland village and have found out just how many trials and tribulations were so close to hand . James Hunter’s excellent book “ Insurrection- Scotland’s Famine Winter “ gives a graphic account of Highland Scotland in 1846 .The potato crop had been wiped out by blight and a huge relief effort came o late to prevent starvation and death Protests escalated throughout the Highlands in protest at the cost of the oatmeal That had replaced potatoes as people’s basic food stuff .
The Statistical Accounts are a somewhat unique record of economic and social conditions in the whole of Scotland prepared , it should be said , at the instigation of the Established Church of Scotland . It does not include the other member states of the United Kingdom . This synopsis is taken from the Wikipedia and is a fair analysis of the two Accounts that were taken in the 1790s and the 1840s:
Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster had studied German state surveys and wished to use what he called for the first time these “statistical” methods to measure the quantum of happiness that existed in the nation and find ways of improving this. In this he was a remarkable example of Enlightenment idealism at work. He stressed the empirical ideal of that age by lauding its anxious attention to the facts and he set about completing the work left unachieved by the previous attempt mentioned above. The results are crucial to an understanding of Scotland on the eve of both the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution.r
In 1790, Sir John sent structured questionnaires to over 900 parish ministers, covering the whole country. This contained 160 questions in 4 sections, namely
Geography and topography
Population
Agricultural and Industrial production
Miscellaneous questions
There were follow up questions in Appendices – six new questions in 1790 and four more in 1791. The general response was excellent, though the length and quality of submissions varied greatly, as can be seen by comparing those for two East Lothian parishes , Whittingehame (9 pages with detailed tables) and Stenton (2 pages of minimal information). Since the survey was not complete, Sir John sent out Statistical Missionaries in 1796 . The project was finished by June 1799, though much had already been published, and Sir John was able to lay before the General Assembly a detailed portrait of the nation. Taken as a whole, the reports are of inestimable historical value. Some are excellently written by ministers who were themselves meticulous Enlightenment scholars (see for example the response by the Rev Dr James Meek for the Parish of Cambuslang in Lanarkshire).
What then is the relevance of this to my McFarlanes and the other Gaelic speaking people of Clachan and Kintyre ? Finance or rather lack of it had seen education , particularly in Highland areas .The attitude held by the vast majority of Presbyterian ministers and indeed many members of their flock especially in the Lowland regions was quite narrow and very parochial in the extreme , showing little of Christian good will and understanding towards their Gaelic speaking countrymen.
Funding for Highland schools came mainly through a body known as the SSPCK - the Scottish Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge . This was in reality a bunch of middle class Edinburgh based do gooders who in reflection totally misrepresented themselves in a total denigration of Gaelic Society. In Clachan where my great grandmother Mary McFarland attended school with her siblings the only person who spoke English was the head teacher ! English was a language at that time was not spoken or understood by his pupils ! The Second Statistical Account published in the 1840s was quite blunt “ The Gaelic is the language of the Parishioners but the English is displacing it- and the sooner it overmasters it ,the better “ In Clachan , pupils were beaten if caught speaking Gaelic at school , something which seemed to prevail in more than few Highland places of education .
The fall in the population in Kintyre , or specifically the Parish of Kilcalmonell and Kilberry , was a fundamental reason for the decline in Gaelic heritage .It had not increased since 1821 owing particularly to the high level of emigration to the Americas ( the US and Canada ) .This forced emigration had been subsidised by the Government . The inability of the indigenous Gaelic Scots to meet higher rent requirements from falling resources saw the inevitable movement either overseas or to the “ Low Country “ that was the rapidly expanding Central Belt and Glasgow city . The situation had been exacerbated prior to this by the new landlord - the Dukes of Argyll who as reward for their services to the anti Jacobite powers had received rewards including that of the lands of Kintyre where their dreaded foes - The MacDonalds - Lords of the Isles- had been unceremoniously removed .
The Clachan Kirks
It is clear why my ancestors left this lovely land . It was not for any other reason than necessity with perhaps a bit of opportunism thrown in ! The family were split Duncan and Annabella were evicted from Shenakill for non payment of rent and returned to the family croft up the road in Whitehouse . Dugald McFarlane the second oldest sibling sailed from Liverpool to Australia and participated in the 1851 Ballarat Gold Rush - married a lass from Northern Ireland raised a big family and never returned .Elizabeth my great gran’s older sister married an Archibald McBeath, a gamekeeper from Athol in Perthshire . A descendant became head keeper to the Colquhoun’s of Luss . Duncan , his brother, moved to the Edinburgh area as a gardener , moved to Peebles , became a coal merchant , lived and died in Peebles .His brother Colin became a gardener and moved to East Lothian . His great grandson Tom Middlemass farms Mid Markle near Haddington and has become a friend of mine over the years. Peter McFarlane was a wood sawyer, married and raised a large family and settled in Glasgow . Duncan the Innkeeper died in Campbelltown in 1863 aged 72 and his wife Annabella died in Peebles in 1874 aged 84 .
One can see from the above tale that the family was not destroyed but adapted and moved elsewhere from their native soil .. What happened to their Gaelic roots and culture is another story. I am afraid much must have been assimilated into to the prevailing lifestyle of their new domicile . Let me however add a brief addendum to this tale .
I visited Kintyre together with faithful companion “ Murphy “ my Jack Russell terrier We took in Whitehouse , Clachan and Killean . A memorable if too short a trip . But a trip which allowed me to take in the beauty and charm of this quiet part of our Highlands ,
In researching my McFarlane ancestry some twenty years ago I made contact with Ian MacDonald , a local historian and expert in all that is Kintyre . Where abouts did Ian live ? Shanakill in Clachan - the old inn where Duncan had been landlord ! Ian had in his possession a lot of old papers concerning the eviction of the family from the dwelling ! The other bit of information was quite unbelievable !
You will recall that Mary McFarlane my great grandmother had married her cousin Archibald McFarlane who had been born at Duppin in the north of the Parish . Mary and Archibald shared a common grandfather , Duncan McFarlane born at Duppin about 1750 . Duppin has long been abandoned and is in reality now a mere pile of stones where the old steadings stood .Ian was quite slow to expand . “ Popular place Duppin these days with all those visitors from across the Pond “, he quietly spoke to me . I hesitated not quite sure what he was getting at . Ian continued : “ You know that President Ronald Reagan has been checking out his roots and that although his Reagan side came from Northern Ireland , he had a strong Scottish connection on the other side . His great grandmother was a Jane Blue . Blue may not sound it - but it is pure Scottish coming from the small island of Colonsay and also Kintyre . Jane Blue’s mother was Catherine McFarlane from Duppin who married Donald Blue . Catherine was in probability the daughter of Duncan McFarlane born in Duppin about 1750 “ . The penny dropped . Ronald Reagan -
Aka “ The Gipper “- was my long lost cousin !
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