Typed tale about John `Diùrach` MacLean – “Big Dewar of Balemartine, Tiree”
Typed account of John MacLean (Mull & Jura) who came to live in Balemartine,Tiree. Known locally as Dewar (Diùrach), he was reknown for his resistance to pay tax to the Duke of Argyll. Unknown date of birth but likely between 1750 and 1820.
Click here to view 2009.147.1
Appendix C: Report by Duncan Forbes of Culloden to Duke of Argyll 1737, from “Tiree – an unauthorised biography”
Printout of Appendix C: Report by Duncan Forbes of Culloden to Duke of Argyll 1737, from “Tiree – an unauthorised biography”. Report to the Duke of Argyll concerning Duncan Forbes` visit to mainland Argyll and its islands, the tenants, crofters and tacksmen that he met and their attitude to taxes etc.
Click here to view 2009.123.4
Appendix E: Gross sales from Tiree farms 1793-1794, from “Tiree – an unauthorised biography”
Printout of Appendix E: Gross sales from Tiree farms 1793-1794, from “Tiree – an unauthorised biography”. List of the gross sales from the different farms in Tiree according to the average of the past two years (1793-1794). Lists no. of tenants, mail-lands, name of farm, gross sales, rent paid/due, and total revenue from sales per product type.
Click here to view 2009.123.6
‘Tiree – an unauthorised biography’ – a history of Tiree and its people by William Clelland, 2009.
Text on CD-ROM about the history of Tiree and its people compiled by Australian descendant of Tiree, William Clelland. Includes chapters on the geography of the island, archaeology and first settlers, Christianity and the Gaelic language, Vikings and the wider Scottish history, overpopulation, black houses, kelp and education, evictions and emmigration, Napier Commission, Tiree bards. Index. Appendices including Tiree place names, weapons held by Tiree men and whether `rebel` in 1715, Argyll Estate report of 1737, prisoners of the `45 rebellion, sales from farms, Old Parish Register for marriages and baptisms 1766-1854, households and population 1747-1901, Napier Commission evidence and witness statements 1883, population census 1779-1891. For appendices see 2009.123.2-11.
Copy of Article about John Campbell, Chamberlain to the 7th & 8th Dukes of Argyll by R.K Campbell
Biographical article by Robin Campbell for Journal of the Clan Campbell Society, Number 31, 2004, pp.11-13, about his great-great-grandfather John Campbell or Am Bàillidh Mòr. Gifted to An Iodhlann by the author.
Click here to view 2008.82.1
Collection of six receipts from the United Free Church, Scarinish, 1930-33
Two Argyll Estate receipts for feu-duty dated 1930 made out to the United Free Church in Scarinish and Balinoe, and four receipts dated 1933 made out to the Tiree congregation of the United Free Church.
Framed photograph of Turnbull`s 1768-9 map of Tiree
Turnbull`s 1768-9 map of Tiree, original of which is in the collection of the Duke of Argyll at Inverary Castle and copied by RCAHMS.
Tiree in 100 Objects – 1 – The Turnbull Map
We start this epic series with a map. It is huge – 8 feet by 6 – and painted on canvas. It belongs to the Duke of Argyll and sits in his archives at Inveraray Castle. We have a small copy in An Iodhlann. In 1768 the Campbells had owned Tiree for less than one hundred years, but already the Duke had decided to use his crown jewel not as a clan chief, but as its landlord. Driving up revenues from this fertile island was this main aim, and moving a medieval farming system into the modern age was his method. First he needed to know the island’s potential.
Heanish area of Turnbull’s map of Tiree, hand-painted 1768
James Turnbull was his chosen surveyor for this enterprise. We know very little about him, other than it took him five weeks to travel to Tiree and return to his Edinburgh home. But he was obviously a supremely skilled professional and his map a thing of lasting beauty as well as being a treasure trove of information about the island in the 18th century. The boundaries of the old farming townships curve through the landscape (for example either side of the Caolas road), every house is drawn in its place and every field and its furrows are marked precisely. The map was drawn thirty years before the crofts were marked out: the thirty or so houses in Vaul are clustered at the bay, just east of Seaside, while the township’s cropped fields cover the golf course!
Turnbull also wrote an accompanying field-by-field report: ‘Barapol: Field number 44; Infield; A compound of loam, gravel and clay, a good soil’. He calculated that 3,474 acres, 25% of Tiree’s land area, were sown with oats and barley – numbers we can only dream about today!
Dr John Holliday, 2016
Information from the Scottish Records Office dated 1986 regarding crofter agitation on Tiree in 1886.
Letter from Murdo MacDonald, archivist at the Scottish Records Office, dated 24/2/1986 to Sandy MacKinnon of Crossapol about his query regarding crofter agitation on Tiree in 1886, detailing the action raised by the Duke of Argyll, the trial and verdict and the cost of copies of the High Court Minute Book.
Photocopied journal of Lord Lorne dated 23-28/4/1884.
The journal of Lord Lorne written during a visit to Tiree 23-28/4/1884 and in the form of a letter to the 8th Duke of Argyll.
Click here to view 1998.197.1
Photocopied page of two newspaper cuttings about the Duke of Argyll from an unknown publication dated around the 1960s.
(1) Article about the retiral of the chamberlain of Argyll Estates, Major Ian MacLennan, who plans to retire to his 300-acre farm on Tiree, where he was formerly the factor, (2) a legal case regarding the Duchess of Argyll.
Click here to view 1998.182.9
