Digitised copy of Letter from Malcolm McLaurine, chamberlain of Tiree, to the Duke of Argyll, 15 Apr 1803. McLaurine discusses: carrying out the plan of four mail lands; threat of emigration; crofts; joint occupation of the mail lands; obtaining compliance with the mail lands scheme; fishing; mills; encroachment of the Reef; barley and distilling; smuggling of gin brandy and tobacco. In a post script, McLaurine discusses tenants, mail lands, and quarrying tools.
Click to view a record for this item on Inveraray’s online catalogue.
Digitised copy of Letter from Malcolm McLaurine, chamberlain of Tiree, to James Ferrier, 22 Mar 1803. James Ferrier was one of the Principal Clerks of Session. Also included is an incomplete copy of this letter.
In this letter McLaurine discusses cutting down the farms of Scarinish, Hianish [Heanish] and Balemartine and opposition to the plans to establish four mail lands from tenants of Barapoll [Barrapol] and Kenovar. McLaurine names Archibald McLean as being the most active protester and mentions that the inhabitants do not wish to ‘adopt any improvements inconsistent with their old customs & habits’ and that ‘their old hereditary customs and practices must be sacrificed’. McLaurine ascribes the inhabitants aversion to crofts and fishing as being due to ‘the idleness and laziness of their habits’. McLaurine also mentions the removal of ‘whisky delinquents’ to ‘upper Canada’.
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’.
Digitised copy of Letter from Malcolm McLaurine, chamberlain of Tiree, to the Duke of Argyll, 10 Mar 1802. In this letter McLaurine discusses: timber claimed but not proved; sending a sample of wine from a cask lying in a barn; rents due; distilling; barley and coals; Clyde Packet; the island being cut off due to stormy weather; opening a weekly communication with the post office at Tobermory; the ground officer; methods to find a good school master; model of a wind miln [windmill]; poor enclosure on McLaurine’s farm.
Digitised copy of Letter from Malcolm McLaurine, chamberlain of Tiree, to the Duke of Argyll, 14 Jan 1802. In this letter McLaurine discusses: sending specimens of barley, pottery, clay and fossil sand; an analysis of sand by Dr Gardner; corresponding with Captain Campbell; writing to Greenock; difficulty in finding boys willing to go to Inveraray to learn to be Quarriers, and the reasons for their reluctance; illegal distilling of whisky; removals from the island, including the schoolmaster and the miller at Crossapol; the Bailie; the farm at Crossapol; replacing the ground officer, Angus Munn, with Neil McLean (previously a sergeant in Lord Lorne’s fencibles), and remarks on their characters; using wood cast ashore to repair the byre and stable at the Factor’s house; a model of the windmill; problems with sending post in the winter.
Digitised copy of Letter from Malcolm McLaurine, chamberlain of Tiree, to the Duke of Argyll, 15 Dec 1801. In this letter McLaurine expresses gratitude to the Duke of Argyll for giving him the farm at Balephuil and agreeing to build a house on it; the factor; the division of the farm at Crossapoll into crofts; instructing the people of Tiree in farming; enclosing and subdividing the farm at Balephuil; plans to develop a large garden and nursery; using the Volunteer Company to maintain the social order of the island and to supress smuggling and distilling; the Argyllshire Companies.
Digitised copy of Description of farms in Tiree. Contains observations made by ‘the minister McColl’ to the Duke of Argyll upon ‘the situation of improvements in Tiry in consequence of a conversation with his Grace in August 1786’. There is no transcript for this item.
Click to view a record for this item on Inveraray’s online catalogue.
From the archives of the Dukes of Argyll at Inveraray Castle, made available through the Written in the Landscape project.
Digitised copy of Instructions for the chamberlain of Tiree, 1771. These instructions were sent from the Duke of Argyll and include: rents; over population of Tiree; establishing a fishing village; present system of husbandry including runrigs, introducing wheeled carriages, sand blowing, cutting bent, pulling barley, gredden, distilleries, introducing flax and hemp; mills; the minister’s Glebe; taking bear [barley] in payments of rent; draining lochs; roads in Tiree; selling of wood. There is no transcript available for this item.
Click to view a record for this item on Inveraray’s online catalogue.
From the archives of the Dukes of Argyll at Inveraray Castle, made available through the Written in the Landscape project.
Digitised copy of Remarks on the island of Tiree, 1771. The remarks made by the document fall under the following headings: The island over-peopled; the propriety of establishing a fishing village in Tiry [Tiree]; plan of executing the design of building a village in Tiry; method of tillage and cultivation; runrig abusive; too many horses and servants employed in plowing and other works of a farm; Tiry a fit country for wheel carriages; division of large runrig farms into smaller ones proper; the small tenants occupy too little land; remedy proposed; by seting the thirdes of the island to gentlemen farmers; and the other two thirds to small tenants; common pastures prejudicial; they should be divided on the adjacent farms; land: blowing of the reef and encroachment on it should be prevented; sand blowing; Tiry over stocked with sheep; which causes sand blowing; cutting bent encourages sand blowing; flax and hemp little cultivated in Tiry should be encouraged; pulling barley from the root hurtful; milns [mills] of Tiry on a bad footing; a new miln necessary; a wind miln might be of use; greddan a most barbarous custom; minister’s Glebe too large; distilling should be discouraged in the most effectual manner; bad consequences of it; a method of collection the rents of Tiry without much arrears; fresh water lochs easily drained; roads and landing places should be more attended to in Tiry; factors should be restricted from demanding services as a duty prestaball [prestable] to them by the tenants.
There is no transcript available for this item.
Click to view a record for this item on Inveraray’s online catalogue.
From the archives of the Dukes of Argyll at Inveraray Castle, made available through the Written in the Landscape project.
