His lordship’s position in regard to the proceedings was most
unfortunate. Donald Ross, writing as an eye-witness of these evictions,
says--
“Some years ago Lord Macdonald incurred debts on his property to
the extent of £200,000 sterling, and his lands being entailed, his
creditors could not dispose of them, but they placed a trustee over
them in order to intercept certain portions of the rent in payment of
the debt. Lord Macdonald, of course, continues to have an interest
and a surveillance over the property in the matter of removals, the
letting of the fishings and shootings, and the general improvement
of his estates. The trustee and the local factor under him have no
particular interest in the property, nor in the people thereon, beyond
collecting their quota of the rents for the creditors; consequently
the property is mismanaged, and the crofter and cottar population are
greatly neglected. The tenants of Suisinish and Boreraig were the
descendants of a long line of peasantry on the Macdonald estates, and
were remarkable for their patience, loyalty, and general good conduct.”
The only plea made at the time for evicting them was that of
over-population. Ten families received the usual summonses, and
passages were secured for them in the _Hercules_, an unfortunate ship
which sailed with a cargo of passengers under the auspices of a body
calling itself “The Highland and Island Emigration Society.” A deadly
fever broke out among the passengers, the ship was detained at Cork in
consequence, and a large number of the passengers died of the epidemic.
After the sad fate of so many of those previously cleared out, in
the ill-fated ship, it was generally thought that some compassion
would be shown for those who had been still permitted to remain. Not
so, however. On the 4th of April, 1853, they were all warned out of
their holdings. They petitioned and pleaded with his lordship to no
purpose. They were ordered to remove their cattle from the pasture,
and themselves from their houses and lands. They again petitioned
his lordship for his merciful consideration. For a time no reply was
forthcoming. Subsequently, however, they were informed that they would
get land on another part of the estate--portions of a barren moor,
quite unfit for cultivation.
In the middle of September following, Lord Macdonald’s ground officer,
with a body of constables, arrived, and at once proceeded to eject in
the most heartless manner the whole population, numbering thirty-two
families, and that at a period when the able-bodied male members of
the families were away from home trying to earn something by which to
pay their rents, and help to carry their families through the coming
winter. In spite of the wailing of the helpless women and children,
the cruel work was proceeded with as rapidly as possible, and without
the slightest apparent compunction. The furniture was thrown out in
what had now become the orthodox fashion. The aged and infirm, some
of them so frail that they could not move, were pushed or carried
out. “The scene was truly heart-rending. The women and children went
about tearing their hair, and rending the heavens with their cries.
Mothers with tender infants at the breast looked helplessly on, while
their effects and their aged and infirm relatives, were cast out, and
the doors of their houses locked in their faces.” The young children,
poor, helpless, little creatures, gathered in groups, gave vent to
their feelings in loud and bitter wailings. “No mercy was shown to
age or sex, all were indiscriminately thrust out and left to perish
on the hills.” Untold cruelties were perpetrated on this occasion on
the helpless creatures during the absence of their husbands and other
principal bread-winners.
Donald Ross in his pamphlet, “Real Scottish Grievances,” published in
1854, and who not only was an eye-witness, but generously supplied the
people with a great quantity of food and clothing, describes several
of the cases. I can only find room here, however, for his first.
Flora Robertson or Matheson, a widow, aged ninety-six years, then
residing with her son, Alexander Matheson, who had a small lot of
land in Suisinish. Her son was a widower, with four children; and
shortly before the time for evicting the people arrived, he went away
to labour at harvest in the south, taking his oldest boy with him.
The grandmother and the other three children were left in the house.
“When the evicting officers and factor arrived, the poor old woman
was sitting on a couch outside the house. The day being fine, her
grandchildren lifted her out of her bed and brought her to the door.
She was very frail; and it would have gladdened any heart to have seen
how the two youngest of her grandchildren helped her along; how they
seated her where there was most shelter; and then, how they brought her
some clothing and clad her, and endeavoured to make her comfortable.
The gratitude of the old woman was unbounded at these little acts of
kindness and compassion; and the poor children, on the other hand,
felt highly pleased at finding their services so well appreciated. The
sun was shining beautifully, the air was refreshing, the gentle breeze
wafted across the hills, and, mollified by passing over the waters of
Loch Slapin, brought great relief and vigour to poor old Flora. Often
with eyes directed towards heaven, and with uplifted hands, did she
invoke the blessings of the God of Jacob on the young children who were
ministering so faithfully to her bodily wants.
Nothing could exceed the beauty of the scene. The sea was glittering
with millions of little waves and globules, and looked like a lake of
silver, gently agitated. The hills, with the heather in full bloom,
and with the wild flowers in their beauty, had assumed all the colours
of the rainbow, and were most pleasant to the eye to look upon. The
crops of corn in the neighbourhood were beginning to get yellow for the
harvest; the small patches of potatoes were under flower, and promised
well; the sheep and cattle, as if tired of feeding, had lain down to
rest on the face of the hills; and the dogs, as if satisfied their
services were not required for a time, chose for themselves pleasant,
well-sheltered spots and lay basking at full length in the sun. Even
the little boats on the loch, though their sails were spread, made no
progress, but lay at rest, reflecting their own tiny shadows on the
bosom of the deep and still waters. The scene was most enchanting; and,
although old Flora’s eyes were getting dim with age, she looked on the
objects before her with great delight. Her grandchildren brought her
a cup of warm milk and some bread from a neighbour’s house, and tried
to feed her as if she had been a pet bird; but the old woman could
not take much, although she was greatly invigorated by the change of
air. Nature seemed to take repose. A white fleecy cloud now and then
ascended, but the sun soon dispelled it; thin wreaths of cottage smoke
went up and along, but there was no wind to move them, and they floated
on the air; and, indeed, with the exception of a stream which passed
near the house, and made a continuous noise in its progress over rocks
and stones, there was nothing above or around to disturb the eye or the
ear for one moment. While the old woman was thus enjoying the benefit
of the fresh air, admiring the beauty of the landscape, and just when
the poor children had entered the house to prepare a frugal meal for
themselves, and their aged charge, a sudden barking of dogs gave signal
intimation of the approach of strangers. The native inquisitiveness of
the young ones was immediately set on edge, and off they set across the
fields, and over fences, after the dogs. They soon returned, however,
with horror depicted in their countenances; they had a fearful tale to
unfold. The furniture and other effects of their nearest neighbours,
just across the hill, they saw thrown out; they heard the children
screaming, and they saw the factor’s men putting bars and locks on the
doors. This was enough. The heart of the old woman, so recently revived
and invigorated, was now like to break within her. What was she to
do? What could she do? Absolutely nothing! The poor children, in the
plenitude of their knowledge of the humanity of lords and factors,
thought that if they could only get their aged grannie inside before
the evicting officers arrived, that would be safe,--as no one, they
thought, would interfere with an old creature of ninety-six, especially
when her son was not there to take charge of her; and, acting upon this
supposition, they began to remove their grandmother into the house. The
officers, however, arrived before they could get this accomplished; and
in place of letting the old woman in, they threw out before the door
every article that was inside the house, and then they placed large
bars and padlocks on the door! The grandchildren were horror-struck at
this procedure--and no wonder. Here they were, shut out of house and
home, their father and elder brother several hundred miles away from
them, their mother dead, and their grandmother, now aged, frail, and
unable to move, sitting before them, quite unfit to help herself,--and
with no other shelter than the broad canopy of heaven. Here, then, was
a crisis, a predicament, that would have twisted the strongest nerve
and tried the stoutest heart and healthiest frame,--with nothing but
helpless infancy and old age and infirmities to meet it. We cannot
comprehend the feelings of the poor children on this occasion; and
cannot find language sufficiently strong to express condemnation of
those who rendered them houseless. Shall we call them savages? That
would be paying them too high a compliment, for among savages conduct
such as theirs is unknown. But let us proceed. After the grandchildren
had cried until they were hoarse, and after their little eyes had
emptied themselves of the tears which anguish, sorrow, and terror had
accumulated within them, and when they had exhausted their strength in
the general wail, along with the other children of the district, as
house after house was swept of its furniture, the inmates evicted, and
the doors locked,--they returned to their poor old grandmother, and
began to exchange sorrows and consolations with her. But what could the
poor children do? The shades of evening were closing in, and the air,
which at mid-day was fresh and balmy, was now cold and freezing. The
neighbours were all locked out, and could give no shelter, and the
old woman was unable to travel to where lodgings for the night could
be got. What were they to do? We may rest satisfied that their minds
were fully occupied with their unfortunate condition, and that they had
serious consultations as to future action. The first consideration,
however, was shelter for the first night, and a sheep-cot being near,
the children prepared to remove the old woman to it. True, it was small
and damp, and it had no door, no fire-place, no window, no bed,--but
then, it was better than exposure to the night air; and this they
represented to their grandmother, backing it with all the other little
bits of arguments they could advance, and with professions of sincere
attachment which, coming from such a quarter, and at such a period,
gladdened her old heart. There was a difficulty, however, which they
at first overlooked. The grandmother could not walk, and the distance
was some hundreds of yards, and they could get no assistance, for all
the neighbours were similarly situated, and were weeping and wailing
for the distress which had come upon them. Here was a dilemma; but the
children helped the poor woman to creep along, sometimes she walked a
few yards, at other times she crawled on her hands and knees, and in
this way, and most materially aided by her grandchildren, she at last
reached the cot.
The sheep-cot was a most wretched habitation, quite unfit for human
beings, yet here the widow was compelled to remain until the month of
December following. When her son came home from the harvest in the
south, he was amazed at the treatment his aged mother and his children
had received. He was then in good health; but in a few weeks the cold
and damp of the sheep-cot had a most deadly effect upon his health, for
he was seized with violent cramps, then with cough; at last his limbs
and body swelled, and then he died! When dead, his corpse lay across
the floor, his feet at the opposite wall, and his head being at the
door, the wind waved his long black hair to and fro until he was placed
in his coffin.
The inspector of poor, who, be it remembered, was ground officer to
Lord Macdonald, and also acted as the chief officer in the evictions,
at last appeared, and removed the old woman to another house; not,
however, until he was threatened with a prosecution for neglect of
duty. The grandchildren were also removed from the sheep-cot, for they
were ill; Peggy and William were seriously so, but Sandy, although ill,
could walk a little. The inspector for the poor gave the children,
during their illness, only 14 lbs. of meal and 3 lbs. of rice, as
aliment for three weeks, and nothing else. To the grandmother he
allowed two shillings and sixpence per month, but made no provision for
fuel, lodgings, nutritious diet, or cordials--all of which this old
woman much required.
When I visited the house where old Flora Matheson and her grandchildren
reside, I found her lying on a miserable pallet of straw, which, with
a few rags of clothing, are on the bare floor. She is reduced to a
skeleton, and from her own statement to me, in presence of witnesses,
coupled with other inquiries and examinations, I have no hesitation in
declaring that she was then actually starving. She had no nourishment,
no cordials, nothing whatever in the way of food but a few wet potatoes
and two or three shell-fish. The picture she presented, as she lay on
her wretched pallet of black rags and brown straw, with her mutch as
black as soot, and her long arms thrown across, with nothing on them
but the skin, was a most lamentable one--and one that reflects the
deepest discredit on the parochial authorities of Strath. There was
no one to attend to the wants or infirmities of this aged pauper but
her grandchild, a young girl, ten years of age. Surely in a country
boasting of its humanity, liberty, and Christianity, such conduct
should not be any longer tolerated in dealing with the infirm and
helpless poor. The pittance of 2s. 6d. a month is but a mockery of
the claims of this old woman; it is insulting to the commonsense and
every-day experience of people of feeling, and it is a shameful evasion
of the law. But for accidental charity, and that from a distance, Widow
Matheson would long ere this have perished of starvation.
Three men were afterwards charged with deforcing the officers of the
law before the Court of Justiciary at Inverness. They were first
imprisoned at Portree, and afterwards marched on foot to Inverness, a
distance of over a hundred miles, where they arrived two days before
the date of their trial. The factor and sheriff-officers came in their
conveyances, at the public expense, and lived right royally, never
dreaming but they would obtain a victory, and get the three men sent
to the Penitentiary, to wear hoddy, break stones, or pick oakum for at
least twelve months. The accused, through the influence of charitable
friends, secured the services of Mr. Rennie, solicitor, Inverness, who
was able to show to the jury the unfounded and farcical nature of the
charges made against them. His eloquent and able address to the jury in
their behalf was irresistible, and we cannot better explain the nature
of the proceedings than by quoting it in part from the report given of
it, at the time, in the _Inverness Advertiser_:--
“Before proceeding to comment on the evidence in this case, he would
call attention to its general features. It was one of a fearful series
of ejectments now being carried through in the Highlands; and it really
became a matter of serious reflection, how far the pound of flesh
allowed by law was to be permitted to be extracted from the bodies of
the Highlanders. Here were thirty-two families, averaging four members
each, or from 130 to 150 in all, driven out from their houses and
happy homes, and for what? For a tenant who, he believed, was not yet
found. But it was the will of Lord Macdonald and of Messrs. Brown and
Ballingal, that they should be ejected; and the civil law having failed
them, the criminal law with all its terrors, is called in to overwhelm
these unhappy people. But, thank God, it has come before a jury--before
you, who are sworn to return, and will return, an impartial verdict;
and which verdict will, I trust, be one that will stamp out with
ignominy the cruel actors in it. The Duke of Newcastle had querulously
asked, ‘Could he not do as he liked with his own?’ but a greater man
had answered, that ‘property had its duties as well as its rights,’
and the concurrent opinion of an admiring age testified to this truth.
Had the factor here done his duty? No! He had driven the miserable
inhabitants out to the barren heaths and wet mosses. He had come with
the force of the civil power to dispossess them, and make way for
sheep and cattle. But had he provided adequate refuge? The evictions
in Knoydart, which had lately occupied the attention of the press and
all thinking men, were cruel enough; but there a refuge was provided
for a portion of the evicted, and ships for their conveyance to a
distant land. Would such a state of matters be tolerated in a country
where a single spark of Highland spirit existed? No! Their verdict
that day would proclaim, over the length and breadth of the land, an
indignant denial. Approaching the present case more minutely, he would
observe that the prosecutor, by deleting from this libel the charge
of obstruction, which was passive, had cut away the ground from under
his feet. The remaining charge of deforcement being active, pushing,
shoving, or striking, was essential. But he would ask, What was the
character of the village, and the household of Macinnes? There were
mutual remonstrances; but was force used? The only things the officer,
Macdonald, seized were carried out. A spade and creel were talked of
as being taken from him, but in this he was unsupported. The charge
against the panel, Macinnes, only applied to what took place inside
his house. As to the other panels, John Macrae was merely present. He
had a right to be there; but he touched neither man nor thing, and he
at any rate must be acquitted. Even with regard to Duncan Macrae, the
evidence _quoad_ him was contemptible. According to Allison, in order
to constitute the crime of deforcement, there must be such violence
as to intimidate a person of ordinary firmness of character. Now,
there was no violence here, they did not even speak aloud, they merely
stood in the door; that might be obstruction, it was certainly not
deforcement. Had Macdonald, who it appeared combined in his single
person the triple offices of sheriff-officer, ground-officer, and
inspector of poor, known anything of his business, and gone about it
in a proper and regular manner, the present case would never have been
heard of. As an instance of his irregularity, whilst his execution of
deforcement bore that he read his warrants, he by his own mouth, stated
that he only read part of them. Something was attempted to be made of
the fact of Duncan Macrae seizing one of the constables and pulling him
away; but this was done in a good-natured manner, and the constable
admitted he feared no violence. In short, it would be a farce to call
this a case of deforcement. As to the general character of the panels,
it was unreproached and irreproachable, and their behaviour on that day
was their best certificate.”
The jury immediately returned a verdict of “Not guilty,” and the poor
Skyemen were dismissed from the bar, amid the cheers of an Inverness
crowd. The families of these men were at the next Christmas evicted in
the most spiteful and cruel manner, delicate mothers, half-dressed,
and recently-born infants, having been pushed out into the drifting
snow. Their few bits of furniture, blankets and other clothing lay
for days under the snow, while they found shelter themselves as best
they could in broken-down, dilapidated out-houses and barns. These
latter proceedings were afterwards found to have been illegal, the
original summonses, on which the second proceedings were taken,
having been exhausted in the previous evictions, when the Macinneses
and the Macraes were unsuccessfully charged with deforcing the
sheriff-officers. The proceedings were universally condemned by every
right-thinking person who knew the district, as quite uncalled for,
most unjustifiable and improper, as well as for “the reckless cruelty
and inhumanity with which they were carried through.” Yet, the factor
issued a circular in defence of such horrid work in which he coolly
informed the public that these evictions were “prompted by motives of
benevolence, piety, and humanity,” and that the cause for them all
was “because they (the people) were too far from Church.” Oh God!
what crimes have been committed in Thy name, and in that of religion!
Preserve us from such piety and humanity as were exhibited by Lord
Macdonald and his factor on this and other occasions.