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It is but right that the
Gaelic Society of Inverness should, with other objects, endeavour to
preserve memorials of families in the Highlands once of importance, who,
from lapse of time, have been scattered or become extinct.
The two most important
offshoots of Glengarry were those of Scotus and Barisdale, springing
respectively from Angus and Archibald, second and fifth sons of Reginald,
counted 17th of Glengarry. Lochgarry was of the third son. Through the
failure of the direct male line, Æneas Ronald Macdonell, the last proprietor
of Scotus, succeeded to the chiefship, his grandson being now chief. The
history of the Scotus branch is pretty generally known, as is that of
Lochgarry.
Of the once important family
of Barisdale, little has been recorded, and even the name of the last
Archibald Macdonell of Barisdale, though he left a considerable fortune, is
not recorded in the ancient churchyard of Kilchoan. Kilchoan, now united
with Glenelg, was anciently an independent parish, dedicated to St Coan.
This saint was held in great repute, and Mr Mackenzie, in his history of the
Glengarries, when referring to the 15th chief, commonly called “Donald Mac
Angus,” who died, aged over 100 years, 2nd February, 1645, the day the
battle of Inverlochy was fought, says that “the Rev. John Mackenzie of
Dingwall charged Glengarry, with other offences, as ‘ being an idolater, who
had a man in Loch Broom making images, in testimony of which he (Mackenzie)
carried South the image of St Coan, which Glengarry worshipped, called in
Edinburgh Glengarry’s god, and which was burnt at the Town Cross.’”
The parish of Kilchoan
extended from Loch Houra on the north-west to Loch Morar on the south-east,
and was at one time solely the property of Glengarry, comprehending the
districts of Knoydart betwixt Loch Houm and Loch Nevis, and North Morar
twixt Loch Nevis and Loch Morar. North Morar was sold a long time ago to the
Lovat family, who still retain it, but Knoydart proper was only sold within
our own times. Barisdale was the extreme north-west portion of the Glengarry
property, and is one of the surest and most beautiful farms on the west
coast. It has miles upon miles of frontage to the sea-loch, sloping upwards
to great heights, of which the finest is the well known “Mam Barisdale.”
My attention was more
particularly drawn to the family from having become possessed many years ago
of letters written by Coll Macdonell, father of the last Barisdale,
extending over the period from 1786 to 1816. Anyone who peruses those
letters would be struck with the sagacity, knowledge, and innate power of
the writer. From them, other documents connected with the family, and
information kindly supplied to me by Mr Sheriff-Clerk Macandrew, ex-Provost
Fraser of Inverness, and Mr Fraser, Barnhill of Glenelg, I have framed this
paper. I have also referred to a very scarce little book entitled “Memoirs
of Archibald Macdonald of Barisdale, 1754,” and infer that the compiler was
Mr Andrew Henderson, who wrote, with other works, “Life of Dr Archibald
Cameron.” The work is hostile and partial—a mere catch-penny production, not
to be relied on, and of it Provost Fraser tells me that he saw in the house
of Barisdale a copy, on the margins of which were written, in the
handwriting of Barisdale, emphatic contradictions of many of the assertions
therein made.
I do not find that Archibald,
the first Barisdale, had any written title to the property, and it was not
until the year 1725 that Coll Macdonell, the second Barisdale, received a
charter.
Of Archibald, who fought at
Killiecrankie, it is said that he was an excellent scholar, able to argue in
Greek with learned divines. He was alive in 1736.
Coll, the second Barisdale
(the famous “Coll-Ban”), was the most noted of his race. He married Helen,
daughter of George Mackenzie of Ballamuckie, who was one of the officials on
the West Coast estates of Seaforth. Coll was in great favour with his cousin
and chief, John Macdonell, nineteenth of Glengarry, who, besides granting
Barisdale, gave him different charters to the Kytries, Cullachies, and
Inverguseran, some of which were afterwards renounced. In these he is styled
eldest lawful son to Archibald Macdonell of Barisdale. He built a large
house at Barisdale, which was burnt shortly after the battle of Culloden by
a party of Ross-shire militia. The writer of the memoirs describes it “ as
beautifully covered with blue slate, and having eighteen fire rooms, besides
as many more without chimnies.” There can be little doubt that Coll was
neither more nor less than a robber of cattle on a great scale. The writer
of the memoirs describes some of his transactions, and mentions that he had
a great instrument of torture erected near his house to compel disclosures.
On the other hand, he warmly protected all those who were faithful to and
stood by him. An instance of the devotion of his people is shown in the case
of his piper, who was confined in Castle Moil, and who composed the
well-known plaintive air “Colla-Mo-Run.” At least, I have always understood
that the Coll mentioned in the air was this Coll of Barisdale; but Mr Fraser
has just informed me that the people in Knoydart say that it was not Coll
Barisdale, but Coll “ Kiotach.”
In the valuable collection
made by the late Mr John Anderson, W.S., who died about fifty years ago, for
an intended history of the Highland clans, at page 150 of the manuscript he
says:— “Barisdale is supposed to have furnished Scott with the original for
Fergus Maclvor in ‘Waverley' being a man of polished behaviour, fine
address, and remarkably handsome. Barisdale raised £500 per annum from his
art of imposing black mail; and, whilst strictly faithful to his own
followers, he punished with the severest rigour any associates of another
that interfered with them.”
At length, Coll's
proceedings, particularly a lift or reclamation, through his means, as he
alleged, of cattle stolen from Perthshire, off a part of the Cameron country
of Lochaber, which, curiously, notwithstanding their own depredations in
Moray, the Camerons did not at all relish when applied to themselves,
brought the authorities down upon him. From the memoirs, it would seem that
Coll and his people committed a direct theft in Lochaber; that he was tried
for the offence in 1730, and got off by witnesses* perjuring themselves in
his defence. I cannot find any trace of such a trial. Coll, described as
“younger of Barisdale,” was certainly tried in 1736 before the High Court of
Justiciary, at the instance of Archibald, John, and Angus Mac-Ian-Allistere,
alias Fletchers, in Bartarurich, in Glenorchy, and Gilbert Mac Alpine there,
with concourse of Duncan Forbes, His Majesty’s advocate. The charge against
him was being “ guilty and accessory, or art and part of soliciting and
inticing and the fraudulent suborning and eliciting diverse persons to bear
false witness against their knowledge and conscience ... by rewards,
promises, threats, and other corrupt means, to bear such false witness in a
process he then told them was intended to be brought against the pursuers,
and which process was accordingly brought, when he imagined he had prevailed
with those upon whom he practised to comply with his request in conspiring,
by false witnessing, to defame and ruin the pursuers.” It was further
alleged that the panel, “by subornation of witnesses, had endeavoured to
found a charge against them for being art and part in several depredations
committed upon James Menzies of Culdares and his tenants.” Coll’s defence
discloses a strange story. “Whether the disputes that have sometime ago
risen among the heritors in Breadalbane and Glenlyon, touching their
marches, have given any occasion to the depredations and robberies from the
grounds of one of the heritors, the pannell shall not here determine. This,
however, is certain, that these depredations have of late been more
frequent, in so much that the persons from whom the cattle have been stole
were like to be altogether ruined, and their country V cast waste. And
although, from time to time, some of the cattle
I have been recovered by the
owners from the remote parts of the Highlands, yet this was attended with
very heavy charges, more than the value of what was ordinarily recovered;
and it being impracticable so frequently to carry off such quantities of
cattle from one heritor’s possession, by persons wholly unacquainted in the
country, without the assistance of some one or other in the | neighbourhood,
it naturally occurred that the proper remedy for preventing of such
practises would be to endeavour to discover by whose assistance in the south
part of the country it was that these depredations were committed on the
property of a single gentleman, while his neighbours around remained unhurt;
that the assistants and outhoundere being detected and punished, and thereby
the thieves and robbers deprived of protection and encouragement, their
lawless practises might at least meet with greater difficulties for the
future.”
In February, 1734, “the
pannell, being at Edinburgh about his lawful affairs, had occasion in
coffee-houses and such publick places to s?e the gentleman who had suffered
by the depredations, with whom before that time he had not the least
acquaintance, and the conversation having turned upon the gentleman’s
sufferings, nothing further past, but that the pannell, like an honest man,
I heartily regreted the
damage, and that any persons in the neighbourhood where he lived should have
been guilty of practises by which the same was occasioned.
“In August, 1734, new
depredations having been committed, the pannell had a message from Mr
Menzies of Culdares, upon the generall acquaintance contracted in the manner
above sett forth, representing the loss he had sustained, and praying the
pannell’s assistance in finding out the cattle, which were supposed to have
been lodged in his neighbourhood, and, in pursuance thereof, the pannell did
apply himself to his cousine MacDonell of Glengary, who frankly gave his
concurrance in making the discovery; and the cattle being accordingly found,
one parcell of them in Glengary country, and another parcell in the country
which belongs to Cameron of Lochiel, they were furthwith returned to Mr
Menzies, under the care of John Cameron, Peter Macnaughton, and other
tenants in Rannach, the persons who were sent in order to recover the same.
At the Fair of Crief, which
commenced the 29th of September, 1734, Mr Menzies and the pannell had
occasion to meet, where Mr Menzies gave the pannell thanks for the service
he had done him, and earnestly desired he would continue his friendship and
assistance in the like discoveries when any such misfortune should
thereafter fall out, which the pannell having promised, he had very soon
occasion for endeavouring to perform.
“For, about the middle of
October thereafter, a good number of cattle having been stole from Mr
Menzies and his tennants grounds, severall of the saids tennants went in
pursuit of the cattle by the tract of their feet, which led through grounds
belonging to the M‘lnlesters, the prosecutors, near by their houses, and so
going forward upon the tract, which stopped at the Braes of Lochaber, in a
place belonging to MacDonell of Keppoch. The persons who followed the tract
came into the country belonging to Lochiel and Glengary in search of their
cattle, and having applied themselves to all the gentlemen in these
countries, and, among others, to the pannell, he did use his endeavour to
discover where the stolen cattle were, and being informed that some of them
were in Lochiel’s country, he wrote to Mr Cameron of Clunes, Lochiel’s
Baillie (Lochiel himself not being in the country for the time), and, upon
enquiry, the cattle having been discovered in Lochiel’s country, so many of
them as were extant were returned to the tennants who had followed the
tract, and promises given that the price of the remainder, which had been
killed, should be paid.
“It was during the enquiry
after the last depredation that Evan More M‘Phie and Kenneth Kennedy, with
some others, were discovered to have been concerned in making the same, and,
upon challenge, they not only acknowledged their own guilt to Mr Cameron of
Clunes and to Mr MacDonell of Shian, but further informed these gentlemen
that the M‘Inlesters, now prosecutors, were accessary thereto, and this
report having been carried back to Mr Menzies by the tennants who returned
with the cattle, he desired of the pannell that he would bring along with
him to Culvullin in Rannoch Mackafie and Kennedy, that he might have an
opportunity more narrowly to enquire into the circumstances of the
Maclnlesters accession, which accordingly was done, and the said Mackafie
and Kennedy, in presence of several gehtlemen of good character and repute,
did voluntarily and openly inform of the particulars of the said M‘Inlesters,
their accession and out-houndingr, and that one of them had been requireing
his share of some of the booties.”
The trial took place on the
10th of February, 1736, when the jury, by a plurality of voices, found the
prisoner not guilty. Whether this is the trial referred to by the memoirs, I
cannot say, but one thing is certain, that the Camerons showed in the future
great hostility to Barisdale. Firstly, they seized him and his son in 1746,
and shipped them off prisoners to France, for reasons which Archibald, third
Barisdale, in his defence, did not choose to particularise; and, secondly,
the only unofficial witness for the Cromi against the above Archibald was
Cameron of Innerskilli-voulin.
Coll thereafter was on his
better behaviour. He did not lose the confidence of his chief, and on the
breaking out of the insurrection of 1745 he was appointed one of the
colonels of the Glengarry regiment. He was accompanied by his eldest son
Archibald, then a youth of about twenty. The memoirs describe him as born on
the 25th December, 1725, but he says himself he was only out of school at
the rising. The writer of the memoirs is severe upon Barisdale for not being
active and to the front as occasion required. He is frequently found in
communication with Lord Lovat. Shortly before the battle of Culloden,
Barisdale had been sent to the northern counties to neutralise any efforts
of the Earl of Loudoun, the Earl of Sutherland, and other Hanoverians to
re-assert themselves, they being then, m a sense, hiding in the North. The
writer of the memoirs states that Barisdale was at Beauly in the morning,
and might have come up timeously to the battle. This is, however,
contradicted. It is known that the resolution to fight was hurriedly arrived
at, and as the hour of dinner at that time would be one o’clock, the fact of
Barisdale dining at Bailie Alexander Mackenzie’s house in Dingwall the very
day of the battle, and having come from the east, would indicate he had not
received intimation to attend. The affidavits bring before us not only the
name of Barisdale, but that of Rob Roy’s son, styled Colonel Macgregor of
Glengyle, and of Macleod of Raza. They were given to me years ago by Captain
Dunbar Dunbar, and are most interesting:—
“At Dingwall, September 27th,
1748, compeared John Brown, late factor to Sir Harrie Munro of Fowlis, who,
being solemnly sworn and interrogated, depones—That for a whole month, viz.,
between the middle of March and middle of April of the year 1746, he, the
deponent, had frequent opportunities of seeing the person then called
Glengyle, a colonel in the rebel army, but whether his surname was Macgregor
or Grame, he knows not. That he saw Coll Macdonald of Barisdale ride at the
head of his own men the very day the battle of Culloden was fought, and that
he and his men marched all to the west, on the road to Dingwall; and that
the regiment of Macgregors, with their colonel (Glengyle), marched a little
after Barrisdale and his men ; and this is the truth as he shall answer to
God.
(Signed) “ John Brown.
( „ ) “ Hugh Rose.”
“Compeared Alexander
Mackenzie, present Baillie of Dingwall, who, being sworn and interrogated,
depones—That some day in March (as he thinks), seventeen hundred and
forty-six, he saw Glengyle dining with the late Earl of Cromarty at his, the
deponent’s, house. That Glengyle and his regiment were all in arms, and, a&
the deponent heard, were then in pursuit of Lord Loudoun and his men. Also,
that Barrisdale was several times at deponent’s house, and, in particular,
that Macleod of Raza and Barrisdale dined at his house the very day the
battle of Culloden was fought; and this is the truth as he shall answer to
God.
(Signed) “ Alexander
Mackenzie.
( „ ) “ Hugh Rose.”
“Compeared Colin Mackenzie,
late Baillie of Dingwall, who, being solemnly sworn and interrogated,
depones—That on some days between the middle of March and middle of April,
seventeen hundred and forty-six, when the late Earl of Cit>martie led a
party of the rebel army from Inverness to Sutherland in pursuit (as he
heard) of Lord Loudoun, the deponent saw Coll M‘Donald of Barrisdale and
M‘Leod of Raza in arms, and wearing white cockades, as they passed through
the town of Dingwall with their men. That he also saw at that time, and in
the same circumstances, a man called Glengyle, but with whom the deponent
had no personal acquaintance ; and this is the truth as he shall answer to
God.
(Signed) “Col. Mackenzie.
( „ ) “ Hugh Rose.”
“Compeared William Fraser,
late Baillie of Dingwall, who, being solemnly sworn and interrogated,
depones—That on some days between the middle of March and middle of April,
seventeen hundred and forty-six, when the late Earl of Cromartie marched
with a party of the rebel army from Inverness to Sutherland, he, the
deponent, saw Coll M‘Donald of Barrisdale and M‘Gregor of Glengyle in arms,
and wearing white cockades; that Glengyle was his lodger, and stayed eight
or ten days in his (the deponent’s) house ; and this is the truth as he
shall answer to God.
(Signed) “William Fraser.
( „ ) “ Hugh Rose.”
The after history of Coll
Macdonell may be shortly given. Though he was not attainted, the name of his
son Archibald was included in the Act—a suspicious circumstance, and
affording some corroboration of the charge made against Coll that he was
inclined to betray Prince Charlie. The documents bearing on this point among
the Stuart papers, printed in Browned Highlands, are so well known that I
merely refer to them. It is said he surrendered at Fort-Augustus, and was
discharged, but was so much hated that he went abroad to vindicate himself;
and, returning some years afterwards, he found his house burnt and cattle
driven away. The writer of the memoirs, so hostile to Barisdale, had
evidently some pique against Mr Rose, minister of Nairn, a purchaser of some
of the cattle, against whom he makes the gravest charges. Coll was
afterwards apprehended, and confined in Edinburgh Castle, where he died of
fever, after several years1 confinement, being so heavy that it is said six
soldiers could hardly carry the coffin. Thus ended the career of the famous
“Coll Ban.”
I now come to Archibald
Macdonell, the third Barisdale, included in the Act of Attainder, and
described as “Archibald Macdonald, son to Coll Macdonald of Barisdale.” He
appears to have held the appointment of major, but there is little known to
justify his being singled out as one of the not numerous body against whom
the Act was passed. He is said to have been born on the 25th of December,
1725, and, if that were correct, he wr»uld have been in his 21st year.
Archibald himself made the following statement in course of the high treason
proceedings against him in 1754:—“I cannot understand myself to be the
person attainted by this Act of Parliament. I was then a boy, lately
returned from school, under the influence of a father who was unluckily
engaged in the Rebellion, 17 45. If he had had not been able to justify or
atone both for his own conduct and mine, can it be supposed that he should
have passed unattainted, and that I, his minor son, should be destined for
punishment.” This was just and powerful pleading.
Next, as to what occurred
after the battle of Culloden, it would seem that the father and son
separated, and, Coll having soon made his peace with the Government,
Archibald appears to have acted with great prudence. He says:—“Soon after
his Royal Highness’s victory over the rebels at Culloden, the prisoner heard
that his father had made his peace with the Government, and that he had been
received in or near the camp at Fort-Augustus; secondly, that the prisoner,
being afterwards informed that an Act of Attainder was passing about that
time, in which names might be inserted which might possibly be mistaken for
his, he, the prisoner, went in quest of his father, and found him at his
house of Inverie in Knoydart, and told him his intention of surrendering,
and that his father thereupon went along with him to a place called
Kinlochindal, in the Isle of Skye, and shire of Inverness, where they
understood Sir Alexander McDonald of Slate then was, and the prisoner knew
him to be not only repute a Justice of Peace in that county, but also to be
then at the head of a militia party employed in His Majesty’s service.
“That upon one or other of
the days of June, 1746, at least on or before 12th July that year, the
prisoner did, in company with his father, who had gone by himself the day
before to see the said Sir Alexander M‘Donald, repair to the said place of
Kinlochindall, where the said Sir Alexander M‘Donald then was, with a
considerable party of militia under his command, and did surrender and
deliver himself up to the said Sir Alexander M‘Donald. The prisoner also
sayeth that the said Sir Alexander M‘Donald was in His Majesty’s nomination
of Justice of Peace for the shire of Inverness subsisting in the year 1746 ;
that Sir Alexander did not committ the defendant to prison, but allowed him
his liberty upon the defendant’s giving his parole to render and submitt
himself again to justice when called for.
That in June, 1746, the
prisoner got from Lord Albemarle a pass, which he made use of on several
occasions, and showed to many different persons in His Majesty’s service.
“That the prisoner went to
his father’s house of Inverie, where he was seized with a fever, and was
confined to his bed for some weeks.
“That in the month of August,
1746, he went with his father to the countrys of Moydart and Arisaig, where
he and his father were both seized by some people of the name of Cameron,
who had taken offence at the prisoner and his father, for reasons
unnecessary to be here mentioned, and carried them both on board a French
privateer, then lying off that coast, where they were put in irons, and
carried over to France.
“The prisoner also sayeth, as
a fact notourly known, that he and his father were kept in close custody in
France, first at St Malo’s, and afterwards at Saumeur, for about a
twelvemonth, after which he made his escape, and returned to the North of
Scotland.
“That his father, having
likewise made his escape, returned to Scotland; and in the year 1749 both of
them were apprehended by a party of the King’s forces That his father was
carried prisoner to the Castle of Edinburgh, where he died, after a long
confinement; but that the prisoner, upon a just representation of the facts
above sett forth, was immediately dismissed, and since that time lived
peaceably and openly at Inverie, or in the neighbourhood thereof, till the
month of July last, when he was again apprehended, and carried prisoner to
the Castle of Edinburgh.”
Here it may be noticed that,
since the time of Eneas, who was created Lord Macdonell and Aros by Charles
II., the Glengarry family and its offshoots, Scotus, Lochgarry, and
Barisdale, invariably spelt their surname “Macdonell.” I may say I put only
one “r” in Barisdale, that being the mode used by Coll, fonrth Barisdale.
Barisdale found it necessary
in his position of danger to endeavour to disown even his name and
designation, and to plead that his father was not “Macdonald of Barisdale,”
as in the Act, but “Macdonell of Inverie.” This defence was, perhaps,
rightly repelled; but the other, that he had duly surrendered, was relevant,
and ought to have been remitted to proof.
The Lords of Session of that
period were partisans in the highest degree, strained the law, and sentenced
Archibald Macdonell to an ignominious death, with those attendant horrors in
the case of traitors. Barisdale offered in support of his defence of due
surrender upwards of thirty witnesses, including Lord Loudoun; Macleod;
Donald Macdonell, his late servant; Donald Macdonald, sometime servant to
Coll Macdonell of Inverie; Donald M'Dougal, alias M‘Ianoig, piper at Inverie;
Allan M'Dougall, the piper's son; Mr Muir, secretary to the Laird of M‘Leod;
Mr McDonald, valet de chambre to the deceased Sir Alexander Macdonald of
Sleat; and Roderick M‘Donald, writer in Brora, in the Isle of Skye ; but, as
I said before, the Lords present, and let their names be here registered, ad
perpetuam memoriam^ viz., Lord Justice Clerk Erskine (who spoke so
unfeelingly when Dr Archibald Cameron was before him), Lord Min to, Lord
Strichen, Lord Elchies, Lord Drummore, and Lord Kilkerran, pronounced this
shameful judgment:—
“Found the said Archibald
McDonald his plea of surrender, as formerly and now pled, and specially sett
forth in the said condescendance, is not relevant or sufficiently qualified
in terms of, and as required by, the Act of Attainder, and therefore repells
the defence founded thereon, and refuse the prisoner any proof thereof.”
The next step was to prove
the identity of the prisoner at the bar with the person named in the
Attainder, and this was done for the Crown by Alexander Cameron, Vic-Coul,
tacksman of Inerouskillivouline; Lieutenant Donald M‘Donald, late of Lord
Loudoun’s Highland regiment; Ensign James Small, late of the same regiment;
and Major Alexander Mackay, of Colonel Howard’s regiment of foot.
The final doom was pronounced
upon 22nd March, to take effect 22nd May, 1754. The youth of the accused,
the fact that no execution for treason had taken place in Edinburgh since
1681 (when an Englishman was executed for being accessory to the Rye House
Plot), and the panic connected with Dr Cameron’s seizure and execution
having allayed, all tended to create a feeling in Barisdale’s favour, and,
through the intercession of friends, the following letter of reprieve was
sent on the 10th May :—
“Whitehall, May 10th, 1754.
“My Lord,—I am commanded to
signify to you the King’s pleasure that the sentence of death which was
passed by the Lords of Justiciary, in the month of March last, upon
Archibald Mac-Donald of Barrisdale, an attainted rebell, now prisoner in the
Castle of Edinburgh (and which was to have taken place on the 22nd of this
instant May), shall not be put in execution till His Majesty’s pleasure be
signified for that purpose.—I am, my lord, your lordship’s most obedient
humble servant,
(Signed) “ Holdernessk.”
This letter could not have
taken ten days to reach Edinburgh, as such were generally expressed, but the
Justice Clerk probably did not inform the prisoner on receipt, at least did
not record it till the 20th May, when doom was postponed till the 23rd
October. On the 12th August the order of respite is till 27th November,
1754. On the 25th November he is respited during His Majesty’s pleasure; and
on the 29th March, 1762, a letter of remission is recorded, which remission
is dated at Westminster, 1st March, 1762.
Mr Fraser mentions that there
is a tradition in Knoydart that it was through his wife’s intercession with
the King Barisdale was reprieved, and that the notice only came to the
authorities a few minutes before it would have been too late. The dates
above given show that this pleasant tradition is inaccurate. Indeed, it is
doubtful if he were married at the time of his trial. His wife was Flora
Macleod, daughter of Norman Macleod (“Tormaid na mirt”), the first of the
Diynoch Macleods, who settled in Glenelg, at Eileanreoch.
The following glowing
inscription was placed by his son upon Norman’s tomb in Glenelg:—
Normano Macleod de Drynoch,
viro inter suob primario ; inter alien oe laudalisaimo ; spertate fidei ;
HoBpit&litatis exemplo ; inopum atque infelicium asylo; Homini ad amicitiam
nato, Parent i dulcissimo ; De omnibus bene; de liberis optime merito ;
Donaldus filius lubentissime posuit anno aerae Vulgaris.
After Archibald’s discharge
in 1762, I lose sight of him for four-and-twenty years.
In 1786 Mr John Knox was
appointed to survey the western coasts, &c., at the instance of the British
Society, for extending tie fisheries; and he published his tour the
following year. Having arrived at Loch Hourn, where a great shoal of herring
and herring vessels, called “busses,” were, Mr Knox says :—
“The shore was covered with
little hovels or tents, which serve as temporary lodgings to the natives,
who flock to these fisheries, and who, in their turn, were full of
complaints against the bussmen. This year Mr Macdonald, junior, of
Barrisdale, a gentleman of great bodily strength, and who is both loved and
feared in this loch, attempted in vain to preserve peace and good order. By
him I had an invitation to his father’s house at Barrisdale, a pleasant
little bay on the south side of the loch. This gentleman had been in the
last rebellion, was taken prisoner, and confined nine years in the Castle of
Edinburgh, from which he wa& relieved through the intercession of friends.
He lives in silent retirement upon a slender income, and seems by his
appearance, conversation, and deportment, to have merited a better fate. He
is about six feet high, proportionately made, and was reckoned one of the
handsomest men of the age. He is still a prisoner, in a more enlarged sense,
and has no society, excepting his own family and that of Mr Macleod of
Amisdale. Living on opposite sides of the loch, their communications are not
frequent.”
In the year 1786 Archibald
Macdonell of Barisdale and Duncan Macdonell of Glengarry entered into a
submission of all questions betwixt them, and particularly relating to the
lands of Inverie and others, to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, who in 1790
pronounced a decree for £800 in favour of Barisdale, but who had to give up
all claim to lands. After 1790 the Barisdale family were merely tenants.
Before this decree was given, both Archibald of Barisdale and Duncan of
Glengarry had died. Archibald left Flora Macleod his widow, one son, Coll,
the fourth Barisdale, and two daughters, Catherine, and Flora, married to
Donald Macleod of Ratagan.
Knox speaks of Coll, the
fourth Barisdale, as a man both loved and feared. He and his son Archibald,
the fifth and last Barisdale, were magistrates of the county, and Coll
dispensed justice with a firm hand. Provost Fraser, who was tenant of
Barisdale, tells me that Coll used to hold courts at fixed periods on a
little island near Freochland, about a mile from the house. He always sat
with his feet in a hole dug for the purp6se, with the people all around, the
spot having been pointed out to the Provost. He had also fishing rights and
interests to guard.
In a letter, 4th April, 1786,
he says :—“When I was at Invergarry, I spoke to Glengarry for two or three
letters in my behalf for a continuation of the office I held under the late
honourable Board of Commissioners, but which is now carried on under a Board
of Trustees. My former deputation was from the Point of Ardnamurchan to
Gairloch North.”
Twenty-five years afterwards,
in a letter dated 4th January, 1811, Coll says:—“I had a letter by last post
from the Secretary of the Board of Trustees for Fisheries, desiring me to
call for & new substitution from your Sheriff Clerk. Be so good as call for
it, and send it to me, with Mr Kinloch’s statement of charges. I have also
to beg your advice in the form of procedure; for example, one or more enter
a petition to me of being defrauded or hurt in any other way by one or more
people. Is it proper for me to give a warrant on the back of the petition to
the sheriff-officer to summon the people complained of before me? And give
me the form of the warrant, and the form of a decreet to be given after
examination of the parties. And if they do not then pay the sum demanded,
how soon can they be poinded, and what is the form to be used by the
sheriff-officer for poinding, or is he to get a warrant from me and the
form? I depend upon hearing from you by second post at furthest, as I have
several petitions on my bands.”
This extract will give an
idea how busily engaged Coll Macdonell was kept. He was also a very active
officer of the reserved forces, and complains bitterly of being charged in
1809 for a riding horse, while exempt as a “field officer.”
It has been already mentioned
that the fine house of Barisdale was burnt, in 1746, and the temporary place
erected for Archibald became so ruinous and insufficient that Coll moved to
Auchter-tyre in Lochalsh about 1790, which continued to be his chief
residence. Glengarry rather wished that Barisdale should reside there, and,
in a letter of the year 1810, Coll says :—“Glengarry always wishes me to
build at Barisdale. It is my ambition to do so, if circumstances would
admit. The lease is, however, getting short, but there is no doubt but my
chief and friend has it in view to continue us before he would desire me to
build.” They did agree, and the last Barisdale was on the old place after
the estate was sold. Provost Fraser says that the house is one of two
storeys, with attics and suitable outhouses, comfortable enough if well
looked after. Barisdale is an early place. Coll mentions in a letter of 1808
that the whole crop had been sown and everything finished by the 3rd April.
Though closely hemmed in on three sides with high mountains, it commands a
view on the one side to Skye, where the Isle Omsay lighthouse is at night a
prominent object; on the other, the view goes to the head of Loch Houm and
the high enclosing mountains, whose eastern waters, running into Glenquoich,
find their outlet at Inverness. This water-shed is actually no more than
three miles from Loch Hourn. There are some fine old trees, larches, limes,
<fca, of considerable age near the house.
I now give some specimens of
Coll Macdonells letters, and have selected them as they deal with subjects
perhaps more pressing now than at the beginning of the century. Writing
early in the year 1811, Barisdale says:—
“Glengarry seems willing to
give me Barisdale on something like my terms, but under restrictions. These
restrictions may be so harsh that they may put an end to the business. Lee
and Munial he wishes put up to public roup. But if I do not get them for my
offer, I am determined to hold off. I made an offer that I don't think he
will get from any person except the like of White. Times are most alarming.
Who will ouy over stock when our manufacturers are ruined ? Three years
will, I believe, make an awful change in this country. Glenelg is sold, the
present race must leave it; our first-rate farmers have taken the alarm.
Sorry as I should be to leave my country, it is better for me to do so in
time than beggar myself and disappoint my landlord My neighbour Ardintoul is
speaking of it, and many more of his class. If a man had but fifty acres, it
is some comfort that he is improving them for his own family.”
Later on, same year, he
says:—"Some of my nearer friends have views of trying the new world. Lands
in the Highlands are become now a greater burthen than anything else. The
proprietors who do not know the value of them trust to a Brown or Black to
value them, who, to ingratiate himself, without the least knowledge of even
the poorest farm in the Highlands, puts on a rent that he is sure will agree
with the landlord's feelings. Such was the case in Skye last year, and in
the Lews. Behold the consequence ! the very people who took the lands are
going off to America, and Macleod now must give the lands to a set of
beggars ! Such will soon be the case in many other parts of the Highlands ;
the best people will take themselves away, while they have any means left,
and leave plenty room for ‘ Mr Brown* and his employers.”
Five years later, in 1816, he
says:—“Glengarry did not use to be so harsh with his tenants, and, without
putting them to the expense of a lawsuit, I think his factor could have
settled at home. I assure you this is not a year to push farmers, and
sequestrations will not drive money out of them, and it is not an easy
matter now to get new ones in their places. I find it is the same over most
of the Highlands, and if landlords are not resolved to nurse their tenants,
they will soon have plenty of waste land.”
The last circumstance
connected with Coll, the fourth Barisdale, I intend referring to, is the
riot which occurred at his mother's funeral.
The venerable Mrs Flora
Macleod survived her husband, the 3rd Barisdale, upwards of twenty-five
years, dying at an advanced age at Auchtertyre, early in the month of
February, 1815. It seems to have arisen from an old ill-feeling or feud
betwixt the people of Glenelg proper and Lochalsh ; and Mr Fraser of
Barnhill writes me that the affair is still spoken of in the west, and that
it began “ by a fight between a Glenelg man, Domhnull Mac Ailein, and a
foxhunter in Lochalsh from Lochaber, named MacMaster.
The Lochalh party had to take
to their boats, and the Glenelg men stoned them off the shore.”
Coll Barisdale was very much
displeased, and did all he could to bring the offending Glenelg men to
justice. One of several letters on the subject will sufficiently indicate
what occurred. The interment would appear to have been at Glenelg, and not
at Kilchoan, and it is to that part of the parish of Glenelg called Glenelg,
Coll, in his wrath, suggests Bibles should be sent.
“Auchtertyre, 10th February,
1815.
“This will be handed you by
MacMaster, and enclosed you will find Archy’s (Coll's eldest son)
declaration, taken before Mr Macrae, Ardintoul, who came here yesterday, by
the desire of the Sheriff-Substitute of Ross, to take the declaration of
boat crew who attended the gentlemen of the country. I have a notion that
Archy might be a little flustered at the time, he having charge of one of
the tables. What makes me think so is his jumping out of the boat to recover
the oar amongst a parcel of barbarians, who seemed intent on taking away
their lives ; but he looked on all the gentlemen in the boat as under his
protection, they having gone there upon our account and by our invitation.
And so intent was he to procure the oar and get the boat away out of reach
of the stones that he cannot say whether he got his head cut by their sticks
or the stones. I was at the time in the house with some friends who chose to
sit longer, and did not hear of this unprovoked attempt to murder till next
morning. I went to Beolary that night, a distance of at least three miles,
and, the night being very dark, I brought one of my servants with me with a
lantern, and, to show you the savage disposition of the people, when my
servant was returning back again to the public-house with the lantern in his
hand, he was met by two or three of the Glenelg men, who challenged him as
one of my servants and a Lochalsh man, and, without any further
conversation, gave him some blows, and was obliged to run away for his life,
and find his way, by private roads, to the rest of my servants. Mr John M‘Ra,
minister of Glenshiel, will inform you, if you please to ask him the
question, how they abused his horse in the stable, while he was at dinner
with the company. The poor brute had for many days horrid marks of Glenelg
kindness. Such ferocity is only now, thank God, to be met with on the coast
of Africa; and if yon advertize for a subscription to purchase a parcel of
Bibles for that part of the parish of Glenelg called Glenelg, I will pay for
the advertisement, and I wish you to do it.”
I have no information as to
the date of Barisdale’s death. The only memorial in Kilchoan is Coll
M'Donell of Barrisdale.
By His Sod.
I have now come to the fifth
and last Barisdale, Archibald Macdonell. He had a younger brother William in
the India Company’s service, who died abroad. Nothing is more pleasing in
Coll Barisdale’s correspondence than the strong paternal feeling evinced. In
1816 Coll gets the Laird of Mackintosh to write to Sir James Mackintosh and
Raasay to write to Earl Moira on behalf of his son William, then in Bombay.
Archibald, the fifth Barisdale, was from his youth of a shy and retiring
disposition, which grew more and more upon him as he advanced in years, and
remained a bachelor. Coll, as early as 1807, apologises for his son Archie
not calling upon an old friend at Inverness, and says : —“ I found much
fault with Archie for not calling on you. He was quite alarmed with the
appearance of the weather, and he knew I would be anxious about him. He only
was an hour at Inverness, yet, I say myself, in that hour he should have
seen you. When he left this, I wished him, and he wished it himself, to go
to Invergarry and spend a few days there, but his cousin, Mrs MacGregor,
would not part with him, and, as she then expected to leave the country for
India, he was, on account of his Ratagan friends, the easier imposed on. He
is young, poor man, but he is a good-hearted lad, free of any vice, thank
God, and, I trust* when he has time to get acquainted with his friends, they
will think of him as I do.”
Even in his father’s time,
Archibald lived much at Barisdale and latterly there exclusively. In 1820,
when Glengarry was creating Inverness Academy votes, one of the number was
“Archibald Macdonell, younger of Barisdale.” He was very kind to the poor,
and much respected, not only for his own merits, but as the last of his race
He never went from home except on two occasions in the year, viz., to the
Inverness Wool Market and to his banker at Fort-William. He always dealt
with the same purchaser, never touching on the subject until late on the
Saturday night, when the bargain was struck in these words:—Seller— “ You’ll
be wanting the wedders and ewes as usual?” Purchaser —“Oh, well, we will try
to do with them.”
In the year 1863, Barisdale,
then about eighty years of age, gave up the farm, and was succeeded by
Provost Fraser. He died shortly afterwards, possessed of considerable
wealth.
Provost Fraser tells an
excellent story of a late well-known surgeon in the North, and which
Barisdale, who had a horror of evictions, used himself to relate with much
satisfaction. It occurred in 1853, at the time of what is called the
Knoydart evictions by the Glengarry trustees. It was stated that there were
several people ill who could not be removed, but, it being doubted by the
evictors whether there might not be a good deal of shamming, it was thought
advisable to have a doctor present at the evictions, who would certify those
fit or un6t. The whole affair created intense ill-feeling on the West Coast,
and that a doctor was coming was known beforehand, and his visit not
altogether appreciated. The doctor was on horseback, and, it is understood,
travelled all the distance from Inverness. Invergarry was comparatively easy
of access. Tomdown, ten miles further, was a stiff part. From thence it is
at least 23 miles to the top of the mountains, and from the next water-shed,
along Loch Houm to the house of Barisdale, ten miles further. The doctor’s
destination was Inverie, on Loch Nevis, over the Barisdale range, a distance
of twelve miles, over the worst possible bridle-road of bad construction.
There was no accommodation after passing Tomdown, and, as the road passes
the house of Barisdale, no doubt the doctor thought lie would get the
much-needed refreshment. But it was not to be. Barisdale was hospitable
enough when he chose, but on this occasion he had resolved to mark his
disapprobation of the threatened evictions in every form. Sitting in his
usual place, at 4 gable window, which commands the road to Loch Hourn head,
he espied a mounted traveller coming slowly, foot-sorely, along. When within
a little distance of the house (I now quote Provost Fraser’s words), “
Barisdale went out to meet him, and, in the most kind manner, saluted him,
and in the usual style remarked, Ton’ll be going to Inverie?’ This the
doctor admitted, and then Barisdale, in the most frank way, accompanied him,
and told him that the road was straight before him, that he could not go
wrong, and, after the river was crossed, there would be no difficulty. This
road, however, was particularly steep and high, being over ‘Maam Barisdale,’
and on the worthy doctor protesting that he would like to rest after such a
long journey, Barisdale pretended not to hear of any fatigue, insisting that
the road was straight before him, and, having seen him a good way past the
house, abruptly left, wishing him good-bye. The reason of this was more than
niggardliness—he did not wish to show any hospitality to anyone connected
with the Glengarry evictions, and always boasted of having been able to shew
the doctor on his road without entering his house.”
All the B&risdales, except
Coll the second, rest in Kilchoan, and, although their names are not
commemorated, they are not forgotten by the few remnants of people still in
Knoydart.
Perhaps in no part of the
Highlands have there been greater changes within the last hundred years than
in Knoydart and the two Morars. Then there were numerous resident gentlemen
like Barisdale, Scotus, Armisdale, Morar, Colin-Tray, Ranald-Scammadale,
Archibald-Sandaig, Hugh-Meople, James-Guidale, and many others in the rank
of gentlemen. The people were numerous, and lived primitively and
inexpensively. The local representative of Glengarry in Knoydart, John
Mackinnon, at Ardnashishinish, asks in 1796 that young “Glengarry give him
the allowance that his father gave to uplift his rents, that is, whisky for
the meetings, and that the tenants must appear at the appointed day, when
proclaimed, as soon as to a factor.” Surely an inexpensive official.
The times, indeed, are
changed in “the country” of Knoydart, as its people loved to designate it No
longer shall such as the gay and dashing, but extravagant, Æneas-Scotus (who
married the accomplished Ann Fraser of Culbokie), accompanied by a noisy and
merry band of followers, together with his deerhounds, Ranger and Bran; his
slowhounds, Drummer, Mountain, Finder, Wilks, and Daisy; his mongrels, Red
Mountain and Ranger; his terriers, Groag, Claret, Conan, Lyon, Coisy, Brocky,
and Conis, be seen ranging over “the country,” eagerly engaged in “hunting
the fox.” No longer does a Glengarry, with a numerous retinue, headed by
Allan Dali, hold high festival in Glendulochan. No longer shall the shepherd
or herd-boy, overpowered by sleep after his mid-day repast, awake in
trembling, to find the noontide hag, “Glaslich,” glaring upon him with fixed
and malevolent eye, whose hated presence can only be ridded by invocation
and the sign of the cross. Yes, these are gone; the ancient peoples are
gone. But the mountains, the streams, the lakes, remain—now as then, and
then as now—Things of beauty; joys for ever. |
