The following pertinent observations appeared in the _Dundee
Advertiser_, of 10th January, 1914. They are from the pen of a notable
Dundee lawyer, Mr. John Walker, who has made a special study of the
legal aspects of the Highland Clearances:--
At the time of Patrick Sellar’s trial the ruthless evictions carried
out by the Stafford family had been so long in process of execution
that no one had the slightest doubt of the facts of these taking
place. The question tried was not whether they took place, but whether
they were carried out, in one particular instance, in such a way as
to directly cause the death of Donald M’Beath and Janet M’Kay, two
helpless, old, bedridden people. The trial took place at Inverness.
Of the 15 jurors 8 were landed proprietors, and the rest were mostly
either factors or those interested in factors. The most of the
witnesses for the prosecution were evidently terrified to say one word
against the accused. When Sellar was arrested, he emitted a declaration
which was put in evidence at the trial, and, to be strictly fair,
I shall confine myself to that. The gist of it is as follows:--In
December, 1813, the crofting lands were advertised to let, and at the
set, where apparently the lands were disposed of to sheep farmers,
a paper was read that the removed tenants would get allotments “in
the lower part of the county.” “That Lord and Lady Stafford directed
the declarant (Sellar) to offer at the set for any farm he chose a
few pounds beyond the highest offerer; and they directed Mr. Young
on his so offering to prefer him.” That thus Sellar got possession
of the farms of Rhiloisk and Rossal. That in April, 1814, decrees of
removing were got against all the tenants on these farms. That the
ejections were carried out in June, 1814, and “that his directions to
the officers were that they should lawfully eject the tenants, and
that after ejecting ... they should remove the roof of every house
in Rhimsdale excepting those occupied by families, wherein sickness
was mentioned to have been.” That he was present at the first part
of the ejections (of the towns of Garvault, Ravigill, Rhiphail, and
Rhiloisk), but after they had ejected from a few houses and had
unroofed these the tenants of the others “in the neighbourhood yielded
obedience to the warrant, and removed themselves.” “Interrogated. If
the declarant’s orders to the officer and party were not to throw down
the couples and timber of the different dwelling-houses, barns, kilns,
and sheep cots? Declares that the declarant directed the officers ...
to remove the tenants’ property and effects from the premises; and
thereafter to unroof the huts to prevent them from retaking possession
after the declarant should leave that part of the county.” Sellar
himself admitted burning only in one case. The proceedings from a
judicial aspect were largely a farce, as can be judged from the fact
that the first evidence adduced for the defence consisted of written
certificates from three landed proprietors, who did not appear, as to
“Mr. Sellar’s character for humanity,” and that these certificates,
although not evidence, were founded on in Lord Pitmilly’s charge to the
jury. But the important thing is that Sellar’s declaration implicates
Lord and Lady Stafford as being by their own instructions the direct
instruments of putting this tyrannical under-factor in the position of
rendering homeless some hundreds of their helpless tenants. The little
crofts were made into large sheep farms, which were advertised to let
to the highest offerer, and the exposure was a farce, because the
Sutherland family had personally arranged that Sellar was to be allowed
to cap the highest offer. One would require a double-power microscope
to see the noble philanthropy of that transaction! I have extracted
the above summary from the report of the trial, which was prepared and
circulated by Sellar’s own junior counsel.
On the other hand, the stories yet told in Sutherland represent a much
harsher state of matters. I personally have talked with men whose
fathers were as young children turned out on the hillside to see their
little cottages burned to the ground, and I have had pointed out to me
the sites of these same cottages and crofts, where now there is nothing
but miles and miles of dreary waste; and this did not happen in one or
two instances, but in the whole of Strathnaver, Strathbrora, and many
other places in all parts of the county.