Digitised copy of a Report of Enquiries made regarding Donald Sinclair, 20 August 1886.
Donald Sinclair was a joiner and Chairman of the Land Law Reform Association and one of the six arrested crofters who were taken to Inveraray. The report details how Sinclair was convicted on charges of theft in October 1877 and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, after breaking into a spirit shop at 55 London Street, Glasgow, and stealing beer or porter, champagne and gin.
Enclosed is a copy of a statement made by Neil MacKinnon (24 Raglan Street, Glasgow), a childhood friend of Sinclair. MacKinnon provides details of Sinclair’s good character, particularly following his time in prison, and claims that Sinclair is now an evangelist, teaches Sunday School and preaches, and that he is a fluent speaker in Gaelic on religious and political subjects. MacKinnon also provides details of Sinclair’s marriage to the daughter of ‘the largest merchant in Tiree’. The following people gave evidence on behalf of Sinclair: Mr McIntyre (publican), Mr McKechnie (the contractor), John McDonald (watchman), Donald McKechnie (contractor’s foreman). Apart from the publican, these were all natives of Tiree.
From the archives of the Dukes of Argyll at Inveraray Castle, made available through the Written in the Landscape project.
Digitised copy of Memorial about the set of Benbuy (Beinne Bhuidhe), 1681. The Memorial discusses: the set (lease) of the land in 1678; numbers of livestock kept on the land (including ‘meares’, ‘deere’, cows and stirks); the management of deer on the land; salaries of the ‘taxmen’ (tacksmen – tenant farmers).
The Memorial names several tenants – McConochy, Nicoll McNicoll of Elerchemore and Dougall McEllure of Killblaan – and other place names. The second page contains further remarks on cows, ‘meares’ and ‘deere’ on the land and prospect of the 9th Earl of Argyll making an advance in exchange for half the ‘old benefite’.
Notes in a later hand record that document is ‘very interesting’ and that it contains the ‘handwriting of the 9thEarl of Argyll’ as well as old place names.
No transcript is available for this item.
From the archives of the Dukes of Argyll at Inveraray Castle, made available through the Written in the Landscape project.
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 Cash disbursed by James Turnbull, land surveyor, whilst going to the isle of Tiree, 1768-1769. Contains an itemised list of expenses for Turnbull’s journey from the Grassmarket in Edinburgh to Tiree, and his return journey.
Softback book ‘The Secret Island – towards a history of Tiree’, 2014. Published proceedings of a three-day conference held on Tiree by the Islands Book Trust in September 2013, with chapters by many authors on a wide variety of aspects of Tiree’s history and culture.
Printout from Inveraray Jail website about six Tiree men charged with plundering a wreck near Hough in 1834: John Beaton, Archibald Kennedy, Donald MacMillan, Malcom MacMillan, Peter MacDonald and James Black.
Photocopy of precognition and indictment of Hector MacDonald of Kirkapol/Earnal for the murder of his wife, Jane Seaton.
Description of the murder of Jane Seaton by her husband, Hector MacDonald in February 1857, the evidence against him and a list of witnesses and their testimony. MacDonald was convicted and given a life sentence at Inveraray Court of Justiciary in April 1857. He was then held in Inveraray Jail until his transportation with 282 other convicts to Western Australia in August 1858. Their ship, Edwin Fox, arrived in November of the same year.
