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, 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.
Transcript of Precognition of Witnesses regarding the sudden death of Euphemia McMillan, 1852. McMillan (widow, Balevullin) died after drinking spirits at the inn of Lachlan Maclean in Kilmoluaig.
Statements are provided by:
Lachlan Maclean (Innkeeper, Kilmoluaig) Archibald Maclean (Seaman, Kilmoluaig) John MacMillan (Fisherman, Balevullin) Neil McMillan (Fisherman, Balevullin) Sarah Kennedy (Balevullin) Donald MacNeill (Fisherman, Balevullin) Sarah Cameron or MacMillan (wife of John MacMillan, Balevullin) Lachlan Cameron (Fisherman, Balevullin) Ann Macdonald (Servant to and residing with Lachlan Maclean, Kilmoluaig) Niel Lamont (son of John Lamont, Cornaigmore)