Digitised copy of Letter from Malcolm McLaurine, Chamberlain of Tiree, to the 5th Duke of Argyll, 29 Mar 1802. In this letter, McLaurine discusses the removal of people from the island. Those selected for ‘Removings’ include: those found guilty of illegal distilling, two young millers at Cornaigmore who ‘paid no attention to the machinery, nor to their work’, and Malcolm McDonald (Caoles) for taking trees from Loch Sunart to sell in Coll. Those in fishing stations were under warning. McLaurine also discusses: the division of land into four mail lands; Major Maxwell and George Langland; the use of the Reef by cottars and the lack of ‘grass mail’ paid by them. McLaurine mentions the 5th Duke of Argyll’s instructions to remove ‘every 10th man, and those the most criminal’.
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From the archives of the Dukes of Argyll at Inveraray Castle, made available through the Written in the Landscape project.