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Timeline
Roman Catholic Scotland
565AD St.
Columba and his followers remained in the district for a long
time preaching the Gospel and again turned the Pictish people
into Christians. The first church of the Celtic Faith in the Foyers
district was founded shortly after St. Columba, by St. Moluag,
another Iona saint, who built the church of St. Moluag at nearby
Inverfarigaig. The first Roman Catholic Church in Foyers itself
was probably founded in the 12th century by David I, that "sair
Sanct tae the croon" whose gifts to the church left the Scottish
Crown quite impoverished.
In 664AD the Synod of Whitby decided that Northumbria
(the seat of British power) should cease to look to Ireland for
its spiritual leadership and turn instead to Rome. The Irish monks
of Lindisfarne, with others, went back to Iona. Cuthbert became
prior of Lindisfarne. Wilfrid
(in Ripon) had won the argument to look to Rome where he was
trained, under the sponsorship of the Queen of England.
Kings of Scotland
THE HOUSE OF ALPIN
During this Dynasty Gaelic eventually replaced Pictish as the language of the North, the Celtic Church gave way to the Roman Catholic and only small pockets of Picts remained in places like Foyers, Stratherrick and Glen Urquhart - many of whose descendants are still living in these districts today.
Kenneth Macalpin (843-859)
Donald I (860-863)
Constantine I (863-877)
Aed (877-878)
Eochaid (878-889)
Donald II (889-900)
Constantine II (900-942)
In AD 911, in the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Charles the Simple left to the Viking chief Rollo (Rollon), the territory now known as Normandy. Rollo thus became the first Jarl (or Duke) of Normandy. After two successful extensions into Western Neustria (colonised mainly by Norwegians), the Norman territory had almost achieved its present frontiers by AD 933.
Some time between 954 and 962 a party of Vikings from Orkney, led by the sons of King Eric Blood-Axe raided the Buchan coast but were defeated by the natives. The exact site of this battle is unknown but one account would suggest that it was on the slopes of the Aldie Hill at Cruden.
The invasion of Frankia ceased, but the taste for foreign expeditions persisted in the Normans, who went on to found principalities in southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th-12th centuries, and conquered England after the Battle of Hastings in AD 1066.
THE HOUSE OF DUNKELD
Malcolm I (942-954)
Indulf (954-962)
Dubh (962-967)
Cuilean (967-971)
Kenneth II (971-995)
Constantine III (995-997)
Kenneth III (997-1005)
Malcolm II (1005-1034)
A
large force of Danes under the command of Canute (later King Canute)
landed at Cruden in 1012. They built a fort on the links where
the golf course now stands. King Malcolm II gathered an army and
following a very fierce battle the Norsemen were defeated. Casualties
on both sides were very high. Duncan I (1034-1040) Macbeth
(1040-1057) Lulach (The Fool) (1057-1058)
THE HOUSE OF CANMORE
Malcolm III (Canmore) (1058-1093)
King Harald of Norway
(commonly known as Harald Hardrada) was one of the many claimants
to the throne of England. He believed he had a right to the throne
of England based on a treaty between the King of Norway and one
of earlier Kings of England. In early September 1066, Harald invaded
northern England with a fleet of 300 ships and about 15000 men.
He was assisted by the estranged and exiled brother of Harold
Godwinson, Tostig Godwinson. Initially the Norwegian invaders
were successful and were able to capture the city of York. The
army of Harold Godwinson was rushed to the north of the country
to battle the invaders. A fierce battle took place at Stamford
Bridge on 16th September 1066, and theNorwegian invaders suffered
a crushing defeat. King Harald of Norway was killed in the battle.
Out of the 300 ships that had reached England, only 24 could return
with the injuredwarriors. Though the English army was victorious
in the battle of Stamford Bridge, it also suffered losses. It
was in a battered and weakened state which adversely affected
its capacity to repel the Norman invasion of England. William of Normandy, distant cousin of the recently dead King of England (Edward the Confessor who died in January 1066), believed Edward had promised him the throne. This was contested by Harold Godwinson. William decided to settle the matter once and for all and invaded England 28 September 1066. Under William's rule the English Church was more in line with Rome, although toward the end of William's reign he was arguing with Pope Gregory VII who believed Rome should rule above Kings. The Normans rebuilt churches in England to a high standard, replacing Anglo Saxon styling with what scholars call Romanesque
Donald Ban (1093-1094)
Duncan II (May-November 1094)
Donald Ban and Edmund (1094-1097)
Edgar (The Peaceable) (1097-1107)
Alexander (The Fierce) (1107-1124)
David I (1124-1153)
Malcolm IV (The Maiden) (1153-1165)
William (The Lion) (1165-1214)
Alexander II (1214-1249)
Alexander III (1249-1286)
Margaret (Maid of Norway) (1286-1290)
THE HOUSE OF BALLIOL
John Balliol (1292-1296)
THE HOUSE OF BRUCE
Robert I (The Bruce) (1306-1329)
David II (1329-1371)
THE HOUSE OF STEWART
Robert II (1371-1390)
Robert III (1390-1406)
James I (1406-1437)
James II (1437-1460)
James III (1460-1488)
James IV (1488-1513)
John
Knox (1505-1572), was Scotland's most powerful political and
religious leader for the last twelve years of his life. He is
reputed to be the only man that Mary, Queen of Scots, feared.
Knox preached that Romish traditions and ceremonies should be
abolished as well as "that tyranny which the pope himself has
for so many ages exercised over the church" and that he should
be acknowledged as "the very antichrist, and son of perdition,
of whom Paul speaks." In public challenge, Knox said, "As for
your Roman Church, as it is now corrupted - I no more doubt but
that it is the Synagogue of Satan; and the head thereof, called
the Pope, to be that man of Sin of whom the Apostle speaketh."
James V (1513-1542) Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587) The beginning
of Protestantism in Scotland can be traced to the 1520's. However,
the first significant incident in the history of the Scottish
Reformation was the death of the first Protestant martyr, the
fiery evangelist George
Wishart, who was burned at the stake at St. Andrews in 1546.
1558. Elizabeth becomes queen of England. 1559. Elizabeth repudiates
Romanism. Act of Supremacy makes her head of Church of England.
Romanist bishops expelled. Coverdale and other leading Protestants
return to England. Matthew Parker made Archbishop of Canterbury.
1567. Mary Stuart abdicates throne of Scotland, is succeeded by
her son James under Protestant regency. 1587. Death of Mary Stuart,
Queen of Scots. 1588. Destruction of Spanish Armada.
James VI (1567-1603) of Scotland and also James 1 of England to 1625
Lands in Scotland were handed out as rewards for support in battle, or forfeited for betrayal or causing defeat
1603: Union
of the Crowns in which King James V1 of Scotland also became
King James 1 of England, this brought a common royal family. New
Scotland established Sir William Alexander with King James
devised a settlement scheme of granting the title "Baronet of
Nova Scotia" to any who would purchase large grants of land in
New Scotland (Nova Scotia), secure and settle those lands. These
Baronets of Nova Scotia received their lands in New Scotland (Nova
Scotia) during the ancient ceremony of "Earth and Stone" while
standing on a plot of land deemed by imaginative legalese to be
part of New Scotland (Nova Scotia). Amongst these were the Sinclairs
of Caithness. William Alexander, son of Sir William Alexander,
brought out settlers to Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, in the late
1620s and established Charles Fort there. When the colony again
went back to the French, about three years after their arrival,
these Scottish emigrants were required to return to Scotland.
1605. English Romanists attempt to blow up Parliament in the "Gunpowder plot," arousing great and lasting public indignation against Rome.
1607. Work on King James Bible begun.
1608. Pilgrim Fathers leave England for Holland.
1611. King James Bible (dedicated to James) published and authorized in England.
1618. Beginning of Thirty Years War on Continent.
1625 Charles succeeded as the second Stuart King
of England (Romanist)
1630The
Coventanters movement
1642. Parliament raises an army and makes war against the despotic king Charles and his Romanizing bishops. • Brian Walton (Romanist) deprived of office.
1643. Westminster Assembly convened.
1645. Archbishop Laud put to death.
1647. Westminster Confession published.
1648. Parliament adopts the Westminster Confession of Faith, establishing Calvinistic doctrine and presbyterianism in England. • Buxtorf assails Cappel's view of the Hebrew vowel points. • Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War on the continent, legitimizes Calvinism.
1649. King Charles I put to death. Cromwell rules as "Protector of the Commonwealth." • John Owen (Puritan) preferred to offices. • George Fox disrupts church service in Nottingham, begins preaching Quakerism.
1651 Oliver Cromwell's troops seized and damaged Dunbeath, Dounreay and Ackergill. Cromwell also sent a garrison of 70 foot and 15 horse to hold Girnigoe/Sinclair castle. Cromwell was punishing the Scots who supported Charles as they were Romanist.
1658. Death of Cromwell.
1660. Monarchy restored with king Charles II
1665. Great Plague of London kills over 68,000.
1666. Great Fire of London.
1685. Death of Charles II. He is succeeded by a Roman Catholic king, James II.
Ships
that emptied Scotland 1685 onward
1685 -- George
Scot transported Covenanters on the Henry and Francis, who
had refused to take the oath of allegiance to the king, and thus
were banished to the Americas where they were known as the "Redemptioners". They arrived to Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
1688. James II deposed by Parliament, and replaced by William of Orange, with regulation for Protestant succession and greatly enlarged powers of Parliament. Threat of Romanism forever ended in England.
1692
Glencoe Massacre. Many escapees descendants became Montana
residents living with the Nez Perce Indians in the turbulant
times of anti-Indian actions by the US Government.
1707: Act
of Union
1716 -- Jacobite Rebellion ships transported prisoners.
These passenger lists are still being transcribed at ISTG.
The
Scipio sailed from Liverpool, England to Antigua/Virginia,
the Americas. The
Wakefield Liverpool, England to South Carolina, The Americas.
Briggantine
Two Brothers Liverpool, England to Jamaica, West Indies Liverpool
April 26, 1716 to Montserrat, June 1716 (unconfirmed).
Susannah Liverpool, England to South Carolina, the Americas.
The
Friendship Liverpool, England to Annapolis. The
Hockenhill Liverpool, England to St. Christophers, Leeward
Islands, West Indies.
From about 1725, in the aftermath of the first Jacobite Rising,
Highlanders had begun emigrating to the Americas in increasing
numbers. The
Disarming Act of 1716 and the Clan Act made ineffectual attempts
to subdue the Scottish Highlands, and eventually troops were sent
in. Government garrisons were built or extended in the Great Glen
at Fort William, Kiliwhimin (later renamed Fort Augustus) and
Fort
George, Inverness, as well as barracks at Ruthven, Bernera
and Inversnaid, linked to the south by the Wade roads (constructed
for Major-General George Wade). These had the effect of limiting
organisational travel and choking off news and further isolated
the clans. Nevertheless, conditions remained unsettled for the
whole decade. In
1725 General Wade raised the independent companies of the Black
Watch as a militia force to keep peace in the unruly Highlands.
This increased exodus of Highlanders to the Americas. Increasing
demand in Britain for cattle and sheep and the creation of new
breeds of sheep such as the black-faced, which could be reared
in the mountainous country, allowed higher rents for landowners
and chiefs to meet the costs of their aristocratic lifestyle.
As a result, families living on a subsistence level were displaced,
exacerbating the unsettled social climate. In 1792 tenant farmers
from Strathrusdale led a protest against the policy by driving
over 6,000 sheep off the land surrounding Ardross. This action
was dealt with at the highest levels in government, with the Home
Secretary Henry Dundas getting involved. The Black Watch was mobilised;
it halted the drive and brought the ringleaders to trial. They
were found guilty, but later escaped custody and disappeared........What
became known as the Clearances were considered by the landlords
as necessary "improvements". They are thought to have been begun
by Admiral John Ross of Balnagowan Castle in Scotland in 1762.
MacLeod of MacLeod (i.e. the chief of MacLeod) began experimental
work on Skye in 1732. Chiefs engaged Lowland, or sometimes English,
factors with expertise in more profitable sheep farming, and they
"encouraged", sometimes forcibly, the population to move off suitable
land.
1746
Culloden Following defeat at the Battle of Culloden, life
and times became very difficult in the Highlands. The people were
forbidden to speak their language (Gaelic), play the Bagpipes
(considered instruments of war) or to wear their Highland dress.
The economy went from bad to worse, and the atrocities committed
on the Highlanders by Butcher Cumberland and his followers left
tales almost too horrible to tell. The Highlanders, if they could,
left. Catholics were persecuted, and ClanRanald in particular were forced to leave en masse over the next 40 years.
1749 -- The
Fair Lady sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia from Glasgow.
1764: The disquiet
leading to the American Revolution
The
Forfeited Estates, administered by the Crown since the Jacobite
Rebellion, are restored to their owners.
1766 William,17th Earl of Sutherland and his wife
die after an illness triggered by the death of their baby, who
died from an accidental fall from her father's arms. The remaining
orphaned daughter Elizabeth
goes to live with her maternal grandmother, Lady Alva, in Edinburgh.
1770 -- The
Edinburgh sailedfrom Campbeltown, Kintyre to Cape Fear, North Carolina.
1770 Tax on distillation of spirits introduced
1771 Sir Walter Scott born
1772 Slavery declared illegal in Britai. The Alexander (Glenaladale ) sails from Greenock, to St Johns, Prince Edward Island, Canada
1773 'The
Hector' sails to Nova
Scotia in the first major Highland emigration to Canada, arriving
September 15th. Most on board were from Wester Ross, Sutherland
and East Inverness-shire. The emigrants were recruited by John
Ross, an agent for the Philadelphia Land Company which owned 200,000
acres of wilderness land in Pictou. The ship was owned by John
Pagan.
1774 The
Lovely Nelly sails with passengers from Kirkudbrightshire
and Dumfriesshire, departing Whitehaven to Prince Edward Island,
many of the emigrants moving on to Pictou.
The John and Jean sailed from Aberdeen to Halifax
and Quebec the same year, arriving June 7th.
1775: The
ship, the Glasgow, was the last ship to sail to America before
the Revolution. It sailed with people intending to settle in the
Mohawk Valley. As it turned out they were forced to join the 84th
Regiment. However, ships were sailing to Canada. The Lovely
Nelly sailed from Dumfries to Prince Edward Island, emigrants
arrived then mostly moving on to Pictou later.
76th McDonald Highlanders were raised to fight
in the American Revolution, like other battalions, survivors came
back and were disbanded in Stirling in 1783. 1776: 71st Highlanders
sailed for North America with Archibald
Campbell leading his men in the few battle achievements such
as retaining Georgia.
1778 -- The
Highland Society of London was formed
1780s (late) -- Donald Cameron of Lochiel begins
clearing his family lands, which span from Loch Leven to Loch
Arkaig. Many sailed on the notorious ship, the Dove,
to Pictou, or had departed earlier on the Hector.
The Mac Sheumais (or McHamish) Gunns continued to live in Strath Kildonan first at Killeaman and later at Badenloch at the top of the Strath until the old line died out in 1782.
1780 -- From this point on the Aborigines
of Australia suffered during the following centuries of colonization.
The Australian environment was very harsh for a low technology
people, but they adapted well, and bred up to somewhere between
200,000 and 500,000 people. Their technology was not advanced,
but it served them pretty well and they were able to spent a lot
of their time finger-painting on the walls of caves and making
up stories about the Dream Time. European settlers with more advanced
technology arrived in 1788 from England and began re-colonizing.
They got on rather badly with the locals. Two primitive cultures
based on force and exploitation (and nothing else in common) were
bound to clash badly. The European settlers were embarrassed by
this, and the English ordered the Australian Governor to make
a treaty with the native population. He was unable to do so, partly
because of limited resources (life was not just brutish and short
for the Aboriginal population) but mostly because there was no
central Aboriginal authority to deal with. The Aborigines were
in relatively small tribes, spoke many different languages and
spent much of their surplus waring with each other. Negotiating
with all of them was nearly impossible. The Local Governor reported
this to his English command. The English were embarrassed by this,
and as a convenience they declared Australia 'Terra Nullius' (effectively
uninhabited). The European settlers passed many diseases to the
Aborigines, who through their isolation for so long, had little
resistance. In particular, two plagues of small-pox in 1792 and
1822 swept through the Aboriginal populations and wiped many of
them out. There was also a plague of venereal disease, but many
believe this was contracted from non-European fishermen in the
north of Australia.
1782 -- Thomas Gillespie and Henry Gibson lease
a sheep-walk at Loch Quoich, removing more than 500 tenants, most
of whom eventually emigrate to Manitoba, Canada.
1782 Tartan wearing legalised again after a 35-year
ban.
1782 -- the Act of Proscription is repealed, but
many Highland landowners, who have been born and raised in London
or other metropolitan areas, remain in their urban homes, distancing
themselves from the tenant Clan members on their lands.
1783 -- The Sally sailed from Aberdeen to Halifax, N.S arriving in August. 39 died onboard, and others died soon after arriving.
1784 -- The Glasgow sailed from Greenock to Halifax, N.S. carrying indented passengers who petitioned for land in Pictour on arrival.
Same year The John sailed from Aberdeen first to Halifax, N.S. then Sherbourne, then Philadelphia, USA.
The Laki eruption, in Iceland, resulted in a noxious fog which travelled down through Norway, Germany, France and across to Britain, causing panic when farm labourers began dropping like flies. People at this time had no idea where the fog had come from or that sulphur dioxide was mixing with water vapour in the lungs to choke victims. Research into parish records has led to estimates of more than 20,000 deaths in Britain alone during the summer of 1783.
1785 First large clearances on
Glengarry's estates. Same year, the marriage of Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland to the Marquess of Stafford.
Morrison Gunn, the Clan Chief, dies in battle abroad, leaving no heir.
1786 Large emigrations to Canada
from Knoydart, on Glengarry's
property.
1787 French Revolution begins: storming of the Bastille
1788 The Langwell estate was purchased from Robert, son of James Sutherland, by Sir John Sinclair for £9,000, using his wife's dowry (see A History of the Highland Clearances: Emigration, protest, reasons
By Eric Richards). On this estate was the small village of Auchencraig, where the Gunns were born, who were eventually cleared to Badbea by order of Sir James Sinclair.
"The last of the lairds of Langwell was the
elder brother of George Sutherland of Midgarty. He lived at the
property at the beautiful and romantic place of Langwell, on terms
of amity and friendship with all his relatives and fellow-proprietors,
and in the exercise of an unbounded hospitality. His estate furnished
him with the choicest luxuries of the table, such as mutton, beef,
salmon, venison, and game of every variety, while, from a wellstocked
garden, he had the best fruits and vegetables which the soil and
climate could produce. He was himself an epicure in no ordinary
measure, but so social was his disposition that, even if his table
groaned with good things, he could not eat a morsel with relish
or comfort, unless he had one or more guests to enjoy them along
with him. He was, besides, an excellent landlord, and, the desolating
system of sheep-farming being then unknown, the straths of Berriedale
and Langwell were the happy homes of a numerous peasantry, all
of whom were ardently attached to their warm-hearted landlord.
His eldest son and heir was, however, unworthy of his father and
of his race. He was a determined prodigal. During his father's
lifetime, he married Miss Sinclair, sole heiress of Brabster and
West Canisbay, which, united with his paternal inheritance, afforded
him the prospect of a very handsome income. But his extravagance
and profligacy blasted his prospects. His loose habits so alienated
the affections of his wife, that she felt herself compelled to
sue for a divorce, whilst, by his extravagance after his father's
death, he found himself so overwhelmed in debt, that he was obliged
to sell his fine paternal estate far under its value. " There
is an account of the downfall of the lairds of Langwell on p.
106 of "Memorabilia
domestica; or, Parish life in the North of Scotland" by the
Rev Donald Sage
1789 Robert
Graham planted half an acre of ground with potatoes on the
croft of Neilstone, to the north of the town of Kilsyth, where
he at that time resided as factor on the estate of Kilsyth. This
is the first account of the commercial cultivation of potatoes
in Scotland, and excited considerable interest.
1790 The
Great Cheviot sheep are brought to Ross and Caithness. In
1790 Captain
John Mackay sold the land in Strathy to William Honeyman,
an Edinburgh lawyer. Honeyman was later to become Lord Armadale
of Strathy when he was appointed a judge in Edinburgh's Court
of Session. 1790 The ships Jane and Lucy sailed from Drimindarach to Prince Edward Island, Canada.
The British Queen sailed from Arisaig to Prince Edward Island, Canada
1791 --The Society of the Propagation of Christian Knowledge reports that over the previous 19 years more than 6,400 people emigrated from the Inverness and Ross areas.
1791 -- "The dis-peopling in great measure of large tracts of country in order to make room for sheep (is taking place)," observes the Reverend Kemp after visiting the Highlands.
The Dunkenfield and another vessel sail Glasgow to Pictou taking mainy Roman Catholics from the Western Isles. They were dispersed on Prince Edward Island, Antigonish and Cape Breton.
1792 -- Sir
John Sinclair of Ulbster brings the first Cheviot Sheep to
his Caithness estates. These sheep would later be referred to
as four-footed Clansmen, indicating the tenants' rage at being
removed in favor of animals.
1792 (late July to early August) -- Angry tenant
farmers drive all the Cheviots in Ross-shire to Boath. The 42nd
Regiment intervenes, and the sheep are returned to Ross-shire.
1793 Execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of France.
1793 The whole Parish of Uig was being advertised as a sheep farm. By 1803, three vessels took 600 Lewis emigrants to Pictou from Stornoway, one of the vessels was The Alexander.
"The captain died on the passage and the owner who was on board took sick, when the vessel was taken charge by Mr David McGregor, afterward MP for Glasgow and Secretary to the Board of Trade, but then only a child"
1799 Napoleon Bonaparte made First Consul of France.
1794
91st Argyllshire Highlanders renumbered 1798
1799 - 1881, 93rd Sutherland Highlanders The
raising of the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, in April 1799, was
an even more feudal affair than the raising of the 98th. In the
remote and mountainous north, Elizabeth Countess of Sutherland
delegated the task of raising a Sutherland Regiment to her cousin
Major-General William Wemyss of Wemyss. He assembled 259 men from
the recently disbanded Sutherland Fencibles and most of the rest
were drawn from the Countess's tenantry by a process which, though
highly original, amounted to a form of conscription.
1800 Food
riots in Glasgow.
1801 -- Many ships sailed this year. The Alexander sailed from Fort William to Pictou carrying mostly Roman Catholics from the Western Isles and the West Highlands. The Good Intent sailed from Fort William to Pictou taking mostly Roman Catholics from Glen Moriston. The Hope of Lossie sailed from Isle Martin (Ullapool) to Pictou, taking 122 souls from the estate of Strathglass. The Nora left Fort William to Pictou, with 65 adults and five children succumbing tosmallpox, arrivals moved to PEI, Truro, Antigonish and Cape Breton. The Dove sailed from Fort William to Pictou carrying passengers mostly from Invernesshire, the Sarah also sailed with passengers from Invernesshire to Pictou.
1802-1803 Sir Walter Scott publishes 'Border Minstrelsy'.
1800-1813 -- Extensive clearances in Strathglass, Farr, Lairg, Dornoch, Rogart, Loth, Clyne, Gospie, Assynt, and lower Kildonan. James Horne purchased the Langwell Estates from Sir James Sinclair for £40,000. His son Donald made fishing the main occupation for the people of Badbea, many of whom lost their lives at sea.
1801 -- Large numbers of Catholic Highlanders are transported to Pictou on six vessels, The Hope, of Lossie,(100 passengers) left from Ullapool; and from Fort William left the Nova with 500 passengers; the Golden Text, of Aberdeen, numbers of passengers unknown; 219 on the Dove; 350 on the Sarah, of Liverpool. 65 children died from smallpox on the Nova. 75 years later, Margaret Chisholm told "of the horrors of that long, long voyage. How that at the starting nought could be heard but the laughter and frolic and crying of children, how that one by one their tiny bodies were consigned to the angry deep, until at last the laughter and frolic and crying were hushed, and the hearts of the mothers were filled with anguish."
1801 -- The first clearances of the Strathglass area by William, the 24th Chisholm. Nearly 50% of the Clan living there are evicted. The emigrant ship The
Sarah sails from Fort
William to Pictou. By contemporary laws, only 489 slaves would
have been allowed to be carried in the ship's holds. But no such
laws govern emigrants, and almost 700 people are crammed into
the ship, with nearly 50 people dying on the journey and countless
others falling ill. The
Dove sailed with many McDonalds onboard to join other settlers
in Pictou.
1802 70 Sutherland families were sent on The Tweed, of Ullapool to Pictou and a further 500 followed on The Favourite, of Kirkaldy in 1803. The Sutherlanders founded the Mill Brook and New Lairg 20 miles up the Middle River from Pictou Harbour. In the same year about 900 sailed to Pictou on vessels unknown, from Lochboisdale. These were Catholics from the Clanranald Estate in South Uist and Barra who mainly settled in Antagonish and Cape Breton. The Northern Friends took 340 from Moidart to Sydney, Cape Breton, mainly Catholics from Inverness-shire. The Aurora sailed from Fort William to Pictou, again, taking mostly Catholics from Invernesshire.
1803 -- Seeing their labour-base diminishing because
of emigration, landowners in the Hebrides work towards the passage
of the Passenger Act, which limits the number of people who can
emigrate to other countries, trapping and keeping many tenants
in poverty. The
Commerce sailed from Port Glasgow to Pictou on 10th August, 1803 with those cleared mostly from Perthshire. The Alexander and two other ships sailed from Stornoway to Pictou with 600 souls. Four unnamed vessels took 480 people from the Moray Firth to Pictou. Major Simon Fraser, who had been transporting people since the 1790's also removed people on two unnamed vessels this year.
1804 Oughton Scotland to Prince Edward Island, Canada
1805 -- The Polly sailed to Canso, Cape Breton, The Sir Sydney Smith sailed from Stornoway to Pictou, but no further details are available. The Nancy sailed from Tobermory to PEI, landing passengers at Three Rivers.
1806 -- The Pallas sailed to PEI, Sydney. Pictou and Quebec. The Elizabeth and Ann sailed from Thurso to PEI with 107 passengers from the North East Highlands. The Hope sailed with 47 souls from Glasgow to Halifax and Quebec.
1807 (Whitsun) -- Evictions at Farr & Lairg -- the first major Sutherlandshire clearances.
1807 (October) -- The
Rambler, carrying 133 emigrants (from Farr, Lairg and Rogart) from Thurso, headed for Pictou, sinks in the Atlantic. Only three passengers survive.
1807 (November) -- A gathering of The Northern Association of Gentlemen Farmers and Breeders of Sheep agree to move their activities into Ross-shire, Sutherlandshire, and Caithness. This decision would lead to massive clearances in those areas.
1808 -- The
Clarendon sails to Prince Edward Island from Tobermory with
people from Mull and Perth.
1809 -- The Chisholm enacts another large clearance of his lands in Strathglass, advertising to interested sheep-farmers lots holding between 1,000 and 6,000 sheep.
Glen Loth was cleared at the same time as nearby
Kildonan, in three waves in 1809. 1813 and 1819.
1809, 16th August, Meikle
Ferry Disaster when 99 of the 111 passengers died on the overladen ferry.
1810 -- 31 sail on The Favourite from Oban to Pictou.
1811 -- More than 50
shepherds are brought into Sutherlandshire and made Justices
of the Peace -- thereby giving them legal control over the native
tenants.
1811 - 1851 -- The demand for seaweed (or kelp) falls. The harvesting of kelp was taken up by many cleared farmers who were relocated to the coast of Scotland. The lowering demands for kelp returns those farmers to poverty.
1811 -- Sir James Sinclair sold the Langwell Estate
for £40,000 to James
Horne, whose nephew, Donald Horne, inherited in due course.
1811 -- The Ploughman sails from Aberdeen to Pictou with 28 onboard. 12 sail on the Malvina from Aberdeen to Quebec. 30 leave on the Mary from Aberdeen to Halifax, N.S. 26 leave from Stornoway to Pictou on The Anne. 18 sail on the Centurion to Halifax from Aberdeen.
1812 -- 12 sail on The Ploughman from Aberdeen to Pictou, and 20 on The Mary from Aberdeen to Halifax; 33 on the Cambria from Aberdeen to Halifax.
1812 --
America declares war against the British.
1813 -- Lord and Lady Stafford, the landowners of
Sutherlandshire, hire James
Loch to oversee the clearing of their lands.
1813
Evicted tenants travel to Stromness to board the Prince
of Wales to sail to Hudson Bay; 25 sail on The Oswald, 7 sail on the Ploughman from Aberdeen to Halifax, N.S.
Another
source says: 1813 and 1819 - so savagely that these clearances
provoked the first recorded dissent against the evictions anywhere
in the Highlands. The clans here were Gunns, Mathesons, Mackays,
Macbeths and Sutherlands - all the peoples of the Sutherland/Caithness
border region, but Kildonan was predominantly Gunn territory,
and it was the Gunns who resisted in 1813. They first ran off
a Mr Reid, agent for some southern sheep-farmers, who had visit
the strath, asking questions and taking notes; Mr Reid declared
to anyone who would listen that he had been attacked by a mob
and had barely escaped with his life. IT WAS JUST THE EXCUSE the
Duke of Sutherland's factors had been praying for. The male staff
of the estate were sworn in as special constables and a detachment
of infantry sent out at the double from Fort
George. This was more than the Gunns could withstand and their
resistance melted away. Within three months large areas of upper
Kildonan had been entirely cleared, and the people offered tiny
allotments of poor land on the clifftops near Helmsdale, or sent
into exile in Canada - the choice of many of the younger people.
In June of the year they sailed from Stromness in Orkney, bound
for the Red River settlement in Manitoba. IN 1819 THE LAST INHABITANTS were cleared from lower Kildonan. This time there was no dissent; the people had learned by bitter experience that neither government, nor law courts, nor their church, would speak a word or lift a hand in their defence. They went quietly into exile; to Glasgow; to whatever patch of land they might be offered to scrape a living. Some went to join their kinsmen across the Atlantic. After the events of 1813, there had been further evictions and emigrations in 1815, when 700 Kildonan clansfolk left for the Canadian settlements along the Red River and in Glengarry County. They had a hard time and had to fight both the harsh Canadian winter, Cree Indiansand renegade Frenchmen. They called their new home Kildonan.
1813 -- Sir George MacKenzie of Coul writes a book justifying the clearances, citing: "The necessity for reducing the population in order to introduce valuable improvements, and the advantages of committing the cultivation of the soil to the hands of a few...."
1813 (Spring) -- Lady Stafford writes that she would like to visit her Sutherlandshire estate but: "At present I am uneasy about a sort of mutiny that has broken out in one part of Sutherland, in consequences of our new plans having made it necessary to transplant some of the inhabitants to the sea-coast from other parts of the estate."
1813 (Spring) -- a group of Strath Kildonan residents
march towards Golspie in order to have their grievances against
the clearances heard. They are met by
soldiers and the Sheriff, who, aided by local church ministers,
intimidate the tenants into returning to their homes to await
their eviction notices.
1813 (December 15) -- Tenants of the Strathnaver
area of Sutherlandshire go to Golspie at the direction of William
Young, Chief Factor for Lord and Lady Stafford. The tenants are
told they have until the following Whitsunday to leave their homes
and relocate to the wretched coastlands of Strathy Point.
1813 -- Two ships sail from Aberdeen to Halifax with a total of 42 passengers: the Cambria and Ploughman.
1814 (April) -- Under the direction of Patrick
Sellar, a Factor for Lord and Lady Stafford, heath and pastures
surrounding Strathnaver are burned in preparation for planting
grass for the incoming sheep. The native tenants of Strathnaver
make no motion of moving to Strathy Point, or anywhere else.
1814 (June 13) -- Patrick Sellar begins burning Strathnaver. Residents are not given time to remove their belongings or invalid relatives, and two people reputedly die from their houses burning. Known as 'The Year of the Burnings'.
In 1814, George Gunn, son of Hector (great grandson
of George Gunn of Borrobol, the brother of the sixth MacKeamish,
was
declared chief of Clan Gunn by someone, nobody seems completely
sure who, but it was not the Lyon Court. It is probable that he
simply assumed the role of chief due to the erroneous belief that
his father was chief. It is doubtful that George Gunn of Rhives
(Rhives being the estate given to him by the Countess, who hired
him as her factor at Assynt) was ever accepted as chief by many
of the clan.
1814 Walter Scott's 'Waverley' published.
1814 -- 30 sail on the Mary from Aberdeen to Halifax, N.S; unknown number of passengers sail on the Perseverance from Cromarty to Pictou; 35 sailed on the Cambria, 7 on the Halifax Packet from Aberdeen to Halifax N.S
1815 Kildonan's
evicted tenants emigrate to Canada aboard the Prince
of Wales and settle near Lake Winnipeg. The Eddystone convoyed with them, carrying
Hudson Company men from Orkney, to Canada.
Seven of them applied for grants
of land in the Selkirk settlement. Selkirk
took 100 of them and these made the party that sailed from Stromness
on The Prince of Wales, in convoy with the Eddystone which arrived
with servants and officials of the Selkirk's settlement, and under
the protection of a sloop-of-war. Selkirk made it clear that the
sea-passage would cost each emigrant 10 pounds. The money was
paid, and many of the people were able to bank more with Selkirk,
to be drawn upon when they reached Canada. Source: The Highland
Clearances by John Prebble, page 114 A contemporary book "The
Selkirk Settlers" written at the time describes the hardship
of the settlers.
1815 -- 242 passengers, mostly from Scotland, sailed
to Quebec from Greenock on the Atlas.
194, mostly from Edinburgh,sailed on the Dorothy
from Greenock to Quebec. 194 from Edinburgh sailed on the Baltic
Merchant to Quebec. 123 from Ediburgh sailed on the Eliza
to Quebec.
1815 Battle of Waterloo. Whenever men were sent off to fight from Caithness and Sutherland, invariably, once they were gone their families were thrown out of their homes and their crofts were destroyed.
1815 -- The Sheriff-Substitute for Sutherlandshire arrests Patrick Sellar for: willfull fire-raising...most aggravated circumstances of cruelty, if not murder. Not surprisingly, a jury of affluent landowners and merchants acquit Sellar.
1815 -- The
Prince William sails from Thurso to Pictou, carrying Sutherland
emigrants. 29 passengers sail on the Amethyst, 4 on the Fame, 35 on the Mary, 3 on the Halifax Packet, 19 on the Seven Sisters, 2 on the Ruby, 17 on the Glentanner, 4 on the Helen from Aberdeen to Halifax, N.S. Number unknown sail on the John from Fort George to Halifax, N.S; number unknown sail on the Perseverance from Cromarty to Halifax.
1816. Soon after, Sellar continues clearing vast areas of Sutherlandshire.
1816 -- 36 sail on the Amethyst, 36 on the Louisa, 17 on the Yohan from Aberdeen to Halifax N.S. 70 sailed from Leith to Halifax, N.S. 37 sailed on the Phesdo from Aberdeen to Halifax and St John, N.S. 7 sailed on the Ploughman from Aberdeen to Halifax, 23 on the Surrey from Greenock to Halifax. 144 people of Tobermory sailed from Dundee to Pictou. 42 passengers petitioned for land in Long Point, Cape Breton (Catholics).6 sailed from Aberdeen to Halifax on the William, 12 on the Cambria from Aberdeen to Pictou and Miramichi. 83 sailed from Leith to Halifax on the Dorset. 29 sailed from Dumfries to Pictou on the Lovely Mary. 20 sailed on the Sprightly from Aberdeen to Halifax, Pictou and Miramichi. 81 sailed from Cromarty and Thurso to Pictou on the Vine. 139 sailed from Thurso to Halifax on the Aimwell. 2 left from Greenock to Halifax on the Diadem. 69 left from Fort Wiliam to Pictou on the Good Intent. 12 left Greenock for Halifax and Pictou on the Lord Gardner. 55 left Fort William for Pictou on the Nymph. 8 left from Greenock for Saint John and Halifax on the Protector. 148 passengers boarded at Stornoway and 158 at Leith on the Three Brothers bound for Pictou and Miramichi. 13 left on the Louisa from Aberdeen to Halifax.
1817 -- 32 on the Aimwell sail from Aberdeen to
Halifax and 30 on the Good Intent from Aberdeen to Pictou. 65
sailed on the Louisa, 8 on the Phesdo from Aberdeen to Halifax.
100 on the Skeene, 72 on the Margaret from Leith to Halifax. An
unknown number sailed on the Protector from Greenock to Halifax
and St John. 115 sailed from Dumfries to Pictou and Miramachi.
7 on the Douglas, 5 on the Hunter from Aberdeen to Halifax. 164
on the Nancy, 193 on the Prompt, 200 on the Agincourt from Leith
to Halifax and Quebec. 126 sailed from Thurso to Halifax on the
Amity, 93 from Kirkaldy to Halifax on the Helen. 40 sailed from
Leith to Halifax on the Traveller. Foundered but all crew and
passengers saved. Landed in Charlottetown, PEI. 161 (from Barra)
sailed on the Hope from Greenock to Sydney, N.S. Settled near
the Narrows. 26 sailed from Fort William on the Minerva to Halifax
and Quebec. 221 (from Barra) sailed from Greenock to Canso, Cape
Breton. 24 left on the Earl of Dalhousie from Aberdeen to Halifax.
18 left from Dumfires to Pictou, Miramichi, Quebec on the General
Goldie. 166 sailed from Tobermory to Pictou and Quebec. 136 sailed
from Fort William on the Frances Ann and 19 sailed from Aberdeen
to Halifax on the Louisa. 30 sailed from Leith to Halifax on the
Prince Leopold and 120 on the Scotia.
1818 -- Patrick Sellar retires to his Sutherlandshire estate, given to him by Lord and Lady Stafford in acknowledgment of his work.
1818 --
Norman McLeod sailed to Pictou on the the Frances Aini. 150
sail from Lochinver to Pictou on the Perseverance. The passengers
wanted to settle near Norman
MacLeod but there was insufficient land. They later moved
to St Anns, Cape Breton. The Rowena sails with numbers unknown
to Pictou. 33 sail on the Aimwell, 40 on the Louisa from Aberdeen
to Halifax, N.S. 120 sail from Dumfries to Pictou and Miramichi
on the Augusta. 85 sailon the Skeene from Leith to Halifax. 53
sail from Dumfries to Pictou on the Lovely Mary. 129 sail from
Cromarty from Leith to Halifax on the Ann. 131 sail from Leith
to Halifax on the British Queen. 113 sail from fort William to
Pictou on the Bassettere.
1819 (May) -- Another violent clearing of Strathnaver residents. Donald Macleod, a young apprentice stonemason witnesses: "250 blazing houses. Many of the owners were my relatives and all of whom I personally knew; but whose present condition, whether in or out of the flames, I could not tell. The fire lasted six days, till the whole of the dwellings were reduced to ashes or smoking ruins."
1819 (May) -- The Kildonan area is cleared. Donald MacDonald later writes: ...the whole inhabitants of the Kildonan parish, with the exception of three families--nearly 2,000 souls--were utterly rooted and burned out.
1819 (June) -- The Sutherland Transatlantic Friendly Association is formed to assist cleared tenants who wanted to emigrate to America. It generates little interest and soon folds.
1819 -- An unknown number sail to Pictou on the Victory. An unknown number sail to Halifax from Aberdeen on the Louisa. 150 sail on the Skeen, 32 sailed on the Mary, 85 on the Percival, 200 on the Agincourt, 150 on the Leopold from Leith to Halifax and Quebec. 150 emigrants from Lochaber sailed from Oban to Pictou and Quebec on the Speculation. Number unknown sailed on the Caledonia from Alloa and Greenock to Halifax and Pictou. 90 sailed on the Garland from Leith to Halifax. 120 sailed from Tobermory to Pictou on the Louisa. 47 sailed from Leith to Halifax and Quebec on the Minerva. 264 sailed on the Morningfield from Tobermory to Picou and Charlottetown. 285 sailed from Tobermory on the Economy to Pictou. 60 sailed from Cromarty to Pictou on the Ann.
1820 -- James Loch publishes his account of enacting the clearances, or, as he calls them, 'the improvements'. He declares that Gaelic will become a rarity in Sutherlandshire.
1820 -- Journalist Thomas Bakewell severely criticizes both Loch's book and his actions during the clearances.
1820 (February and March) -- Hugh Munro, the laird of Novar, clears his estates at Culrain along the Kyle of Sutherland. A riot ensues when the Sheriff and military arrive to evict the tenants. Remonstrated by the minister Donald Matheson, the tenants eventually cease fighting and move away.
1820 'Radical War': rising of Scottish radicals at Bonnybridge and Strathaven.
1820 Death of George III.
1820 -- An unknown number sailed from Tobermory to Pictou on the Dunlop. 120 sailed from Greenock to Halifax, St John and Quebec on the Speculation. 26 sailed from Leith to Halifax on the Manchester. 141 sailed from Tobermory to Cape Breton and Quebec on the Glentanner. 14 sailed from Greenock to Halifax on the Recovery.
1821 (April) -- Officials bearing Writs of Removal for the tenants
of Gruids, near the River Shin, are stripped, whipped, and their
documents are burned. Fearing another riot like Culrain, military
and police accompany the Sheriff back to Gruids where, faced with
such strong opposition, the tenants gathered their few belongings
and moved to Brora. The
Ossian sailed from Cromarty to Pictou with cleared Sutherlanders
on 25th June, 1821.
1820 -- 350 from Barra and Uist sailed on the Harmony to Sydney, N.S. Most settled in Boisdale. An unknown number sailed to Halifax on the Tamerlane. 9 saled from Aberdeen to Halifax on the Louisa. 8o sailed from Dumfries to PEI, Pictou, Miramichi, Richubucho on the Thompson's Packet. An unknown number sailed on the Prompt from Tobermory and Fort William to N.S and Quebec. 108 sailed from Cromarty to Pictou on the Ossian.
1822 Emigration poster.
1822 George
IV's visit to Edinburgh.
1822 -- An unknown number from Muck sailed from Tobermory to Port Hastings, Cape Breton on the Commerce. 14 sailed on the Union from Greenock to Pictou. 133 sailed from Dumfries to Pictou and Quebec on the Thompson's Packet. 122 on the Harmony and 125 on the Ruby, from the Duke of Sutherland's estate, sailed from Cromarty to Pictou.
1823 -- An unknown number from Plockton, Lochalsh and Ardintoul Bay in Wester Ross sailed from the Lochalsh to Pictou and Cape Breton on the Atlantic.
The
Emperor Alexander sailed from Tobermory with 160 emigrants
from South Uist to Sydney, Cape Breton July 1823. John McEachern
was named as the "steward on board".
1824 -- 227 sailed on the Dunlop from Greenock to Sydney and Quebec.
1826 -- The Island of Rum is cleared except for one family. MacLean of Coll pays for the other natives to emigrate to Canada.
1826 -- The emigrant ship James arrives in Halifax. Every person on board had contracted typhus during the voyage.
The St
Lawrence sailed to Ship Harbour, Cape Breton from Leith on
12th July 1826 (some say 1828), former residents of the Isle of Rhum. Around 100 from the Hebrides sail from Greenock to St.Andrews, N.S on the Northumberland. 5 sail on the Mercator from Greenock to Halifax, N.S. 55 from Morth Morar sail on the Tamerlane from Greenock to Quebec and Sydney. 16 sail from Tobermory on the Highland Land to N.S and Quebec. An unknown number sailed from Tobermory on the Cadmus to Canso, Cape Breton and Quebec. An unknown number sailed from Greenock to Halifax on the Mercator. An unknown number sailed on the Thetis from Greenock to Pictou. An unknown number sailed on the Douglas from Greenock to Halifax, N.S.
1826 -- The
first immigrant ships to arive at Port Nicholson (Wellington)
New Zealand. The first was the Rosanna
1827 -- Lady Stafford visits her Sutherland estate and receives gifts from the tenants. "Those gifts," wrote Donald Macleod, "were provided by those who would subscribe would thereby secure her ladyship's favor and (that of) her factors -- and those who could not or would not were given to understand very significantly what they had to expect by plenty of menacing looks and an ominous shaking of the head."
1827 -- An unknown number from Edinburgh sail to Port Hastings on the Aurora. 23 sail from Aberdeen to Halifax on the Aberdeenshire. An unknown number sail from Alloa to Halifax on the Mars. 18 sail from Greenock to Halifax on the Mercator. 236 sailed from Stornoway from Leith to Halifax and Quebec on the Harmony. 13 people died on the crossing. 200 sailed from Tobermory to Cape Breton and Quebec on the Active. 228 sailed from Tobermory to Cape Breton on the Columbus. 193 settlers from North and South Uist, Benbecula and Barra sailed from Tobermory to Cape Breton on the George Stevens. 24 sailed on the Isabella from Dundee and Tobermory to Cape Breton. 170 sailed from Tobermory to Sydney, N.S on the Stephen Wright. More than a third contracted smallpox, 3 died on ship, 2 on landing. 80 sailed from Greenock to Halifax on the Corsair.
1828 -- An unknown number from Carinish, North Uist sail from Stornoway to Sydney. 135 sail on the Mary from Stornoway to Sydney, N.S. 36 sailed from Inverness and Fort William on the Caroline. 30 sailed on the Thetis from Greenock to Pictou. 209 sailed from Stornoway to Sydney, N.S on the Ann. 12 sailed from Greenock to Halifax on the Mercator. 464 sailed on the Universe from Stronoway to Sydney. 208 from the Isle of Rhum sailed on the St Lawrence from Leith to Ship Harbour, Cape Breton. 160 left Greenock for Sydney on the Two Sisters, 40 contracted smallpox, no deaths. 8 sailed from Aberdeen to Halifax on the Aberdeenshire. An unknown number sailed on the Isabella from Greenock to Halifax.
1829 (September) -- The Canada Boat Song, a poem
protesting the clearances, appears in Scotland's "Blackwood's
Magazine." George
Gunn (Chief of Clan) now factor for Lady Stafford, involved
in evictions.
1829 -- 170 "very poor" passengers sailed from Stornoway to Sydney on the Louisa. 30 sailed on the Two Sisters from the Clyde to Pictou. 18 sailed from Aberdeen to Halifax on the Albion. 300 passengers from Uig and Skye sailed to Prince Edward Island. Passengers left from Greenock to Arican, Cape Breton, but the ship was wrecked off Newfoundland and all were saved by the crew of the ship the Mermaid. 157 left Greenock for Pictou on the Hero and more on the Nero. 301 emigrants from Skye left from Tobermory to PEI on the Vestal. 28 sailed on the Aberdeenshire from Aberdeen to Halifax.
1830 -- Lady Stafford visits her Sutherlandshire estate and visits the tenants living in primitive sheds. Unable to comprehend how people could live under such conditions, but speaking no Gaelic, she is not able to ascertain the condition of her tenants lives.
1830 (October 20) -- While stonemason Donald
Macleod was off working in Wick, his wife and children were
surprised in their home: "...a party of eight men...entered my
dwelling (at) about 3 o'clock, just as the family were rising
from dinner." "The party allowed no time for parley, but having
put out the family with violence, proceeded to fling out the furniture,
bedding and other effects in quick time, and after extinguishing
the fire, proceeded to nail up the doors and windows in the face
of the helpless woman.... Messengers had (previously) been dispatched--warning
all the surrounding inhabitants, at the peril of similar treatment,
against affording shelter, or assistance, to wife, child, or animal
belonging to Donald Macleod. ...After spending most part of the
night in fruitless attempts to obtain the shelter of a roof or
hovel, my wife at last returned to collect some of her scattered
furniture, and (built) with her own hands a temporary shelter
against the walls of her late comfortable residence...(but) the
wind dispersed (the) materials as fast as she could collect them."
"Buckling up her children...in the best manner she could, she
left them in charge of the eldest (who was only seven years old),
giving them such victuals as she could collect, and prepared to
take the road for Caithness" (in search of her husband). "She
had not proceeded many miles when she met with a good Samaritan
and acquaintance...Donald Macdonald, who, disregarding the danger
incurred, opened his door to her, refreshed and consoled her,
and still under cover of night, accompanied her to the dwelling
of (a friend), William Innes...of Sandside."
1830 -- Rev.
John McDonald led 206 Catholics (some from Ireland) from Greenock
to PEI on the Corsair. An unknown number left from Greenock to
N.S on the Dunlop. 7 left from Aberdeen to Halifax on the Albion,
6 on the Aberdeenshire for Halifax. 270 settlers from Skye left
from Tobermory for Sydney and Quebec on the
Malay (also referred to as the Mallory), also
1831 -- 17 left on the Albion from Aberdeen to Halifax, N.S and the Romulus left Greenock for Halifax and went ashore in the Bay of Islands but all crew and passengers were saved. 140 left on the Six Sisters from Stornoway to Wallace NS and Cape Breton. 218 left on the Corsair from Cromarty from Leith to Pictou and Quebec. 116 sailed on the Rover from Cromarty, Thurso from Leith to Pictou. 20 left from Aberdeen to Halifax on the Aberdeenshire. 57 sailed on the Industry from Cromarty to Pictou and Quebec. An unknown number sailed on the Lord Broughton from Cromarty to Pictou and Quebec. 267 emigrants sailed on the Breeze, 392 sailed on the Cumberland to Sydney, N.S.
1832 -- Despite the fact that he forcibly evicted them, exiled members of Clan Chisholm swear allegiance to their chief back in Scotland.
1832 -- 98 sailed on the Charlotte Kerr from Glasgow and Tobermory to Pictou. 79 sailed on the Aberdeenshire to Halifax. 31 sailed on the Albion from Aberdeen to Halifax. 14 sailed on the Clyd, 10 on the Isabella from Greenock to Halifax. 150 sailed on the Phoenix from Greenock to Prince Edward Island. 237 left on the Sylvannus from Cromarty for Pictou and Quebec. 132 left Cromarty for Pictou and Quebec on the Blagdon. 241 sailed on the Canada from Cromarty to Pictou and Quebec. 121 sailed on the Mary Ann from Stornoway to Sydney, N.S. 102 sailed on the Six Sisters from Stornoway to Sydney. 240 sailed on the Albion from Loch Indall (Islay) and Tobermory to Sydney and Quebec. 20 sailed on the Earl of Fife from Stornoway to Sydney. 121 sailed on the Eldon from Tobermory to Sydney. 313 (emigrants from South Uist) sailed on the Jessie from Tobermory to Sydney. 9 sailed on the Arcadian from Greenock to Halifax.
1832 (late summer) -- Cholera runs through the Inverness area, claiming almost 100 lives. Many fear the illness came from the impoverished cleared tenants who beg on the streets, and strict laws are enacted to persecute these itinerants.
1833 -- At a party in honor of King William IV, Lord and Lady Stafford become the first Duke and Duchess of Sutherland.
1833 (winter) -- After the Duke of Sutherland's death, plans are made by some of the gentry for a monument to be erected in his honor. The tenants are "asked" to contribute, but Donald Macloed writes: all who could raise a shilling gave it, and those who could not awaited in terror for the consequences of their default.
1833 -- 50 left from Glasgow to Pictou on the Charles Hockin. 34 sailed on the Aberdeenshire, 57 on the Albion from Aberdeen to Halifax. 6 sailed on the Jean Hastie, 3 on the John, 8 on the Arcadian from Greenock to Halifax NS. 41 sailed on the Highlander from Leith to Halifax. 50 sailed on the Charlotte Kerr from Glasgow to Pictou. An unknown number sailed on the Poland from Cromarty to Pictou and Quebec. 89 sailed on the Economist from Cromarty, Leith to Pictou and Quebec. 170 sailed on the Jane Kay from Cromarty and Thurso to Pictou and Quebec. 8 left on the Jean Hastie from Greenock to Halifax. 150 left Cromarty for Pictou and Quebec on the Zephyr. 258 left Tobermory on the Amity for Ship Harbour, Cape Breton. 66 left on the Robert and Margaret for Pictou and Quebec. Up to 106 left Tobermory for Sydney and Quebec on the Adrian. 11 left Greenock for Halifax on the Arcadian.
1834 -- 35 left on the Aberdeenshire from Aberdeen to Halifax. 14 left on the Arcadian, 13 on the Jean Hastie from Greenock to Halifax, N.S. 119 left on the Chieftain, 103 on the William Henry from Cromarty to Pictou. 31 left on the Albion from Aberdeen to Halifax. 47 left on the George Barclay, 5 on the Mercator from Greenock to Pictou. 7 left on the Jean Hastie from Greenock to Halifax.
1835 -- 25 sailed on the Albion, 14 on the Aberdeenshire from Aberdeen to Halifax. 6 left from Greenock to Halifax on the Arcadian, 106 left on the Paragon from Cromarty to Pictou and Quebec.
1836 -- 49 sailed on the Albion from Aberdeen from Aberdeen to Halifax. 22 sailed on the Ann Grant from Greenock to Pictou. 75 sailed on the Albion from Cromarty, Loch Eriboll from Leith to St Anns, Cape Breton and Quebec. 140 left Thurso and Loch Eriboll to Quebec on the Mariner. 42 sailed on the Albion from Aberdeen to Halifax. 206 sailed on the Clansman to Sydney and Quebec. Many arrived suffering from smallpox.
1836 (autumn) -- a famine strikes the Highlands and Islands, leaving thousands to starve, despite efforts to fund emergency rations.
1837 -- 41 emigrate on the Albion from Aberdeen to Halifax. 43 sail from Stornoway to Sydney on the Harvey and William. 190 sail from Greenock to Pictou on the Isabella. 112 sail on the Hercules from tornoway to Pictou and Quebec. 100 sail from Tobermory to Sydney on the Eclipse. 124 sail on the Isabella from Greenock to Sydney and Pictou. 65 sail on the Thistle from Stornoway to Sydney.
1837 -- The European historian/economist J.C.L.J. de Sismondi writes of Sutherlandshire: "But though the interior of the county was thus improved into a desert--in which there are many thousands of sheep, but few human habitations, let it not be supposed by the reader that its general population was in any degree lessened. So far was this from being the case that the census of 1821 showed an increase over the census of 1811 of more than two hundred... the county has not been depopulated - its population has been merely arranged in a new fashion. The Duchess of Sutherland found it spread equally over the interior and the sea-coast, and in very comfortable circumstances--(but) she left it compressed into a wretched fabric of poverty and suffering that fringes the county on its eastern and western shores."
1837 Accession of Queen Victoria.
1837-1840 The Bounty Scheme Twenty ships that brought 4000 Scots to Australia
1838 -- Unknown number of people from South Uist arrived at Cape Breton. 250 sailed from Tobermory to Sydney and Quebec on the Corsair. 37 sailed on the Isabella from Greenock to Pictou. 21 sailed on the Albion from Aberdeen to Halifax.
1839 -- 1839
-- The Oriental, Aurora, and Adelaide sailed to New Zealand with
a total of 800 immigrants.
Oriental Ship: 506 tons Captain: William Wilson Surgeon Superintendent: Dr J. Fitzgerald Sailed London 15th Sept 1839 - arrived Port Nicholson 31st Jan 1840
First ship to sail from London, and second to reach Port Nicholson, was the Oriental, 506 tons, Captain William Wilson, by which 155 people came out, 62 being males and 93 females. Among the prominent passengers may be mentioned the Hon. Henry Petre (son of Lord Petrie), Major Hormbrook, Mr Francis Molesworth (brother of Sir William Molesworth, Bart.), Mr George Duppa, Mr W. B. D. Mantell (son of Dr Gideon Mantell, an eminent geologist) and Mr Dudley Sinclair (son of Sir George Sinclair, Bart., M. P.). Sailing from Gravesend on September 15th and Deal six days later, she called at the Island of Santiago, Cape Verde Group, and that was the last land seen until on January 22nd she entered Port Hardy, that being the day the Aurora reached Port Nicholson. Some natives seen here advised them there was a pakeha on the island, and they set off in their canoes to fetch him, spreading their blankets for sails. The man was Maclaren, the whaler, who brought a letter left by Colonel Wakefield ordering the ship to Port Nicholson. The wind blowing strong into the harbour , it was three days before the Oriental got out, and even then she just escaped going ashore on the rocks called Nelson's Monument. It was not until the 29th the the ship was off Port Nicholson, and then the wind failed, Captain Wilson was a good deal perplexed by the long line of rocks that runs right out from Sinclair Head, and next day he sent the mate away in the cutter to investigate. Of course the mate soon discovered the entrance, but there was no wind, the weather was thick, and there was a strong ebb tide, so the anchor was dropped. The following morning Colonel Wakefield came out in a ships boat, bring with him a pilot. Though there was a head wind, the Oriental beat into harbour, and at 6p.m. on January 31st she dropped anchor off Somes Island, receiving a salute of guns from the Cuba and the Aurora. Then began the work of embarking. For a few days the weather was rough, but on the 3rd February, a fine spell set in. It was decided to settle the new arrivals on the banks of the Hutt river, about a mile up from the mouth. On the 5th the disembarkation started in real earnest.The ship's boat's were used to take the heavy stuff up the river, but the bulk of the passengers tramped to their new home, over a roughly-made track, carrying in their hands or on their backs such light things as they could manage. By the 15th of the month all the cabin passengers, who had until then lived aboard, moved ashore, and by March 6th the last of the cargo was out.
The Duke of Roxburgh followed the other ships in early October, 1839, departing from Plymouth while the Bengal Merchant was also due to sail from Glasgow on October 31st with 161 emigrants.
118 sailed from Greenock to Pictou on the Isabella. 59 sailed on the Albion from Aberdeen to Halifax. 33 sailed on the Arcadian from Greenock to Halifax.
1839-51 (Various) Assisted immigrants arriving at Port Phillip, Australia
1840 - 1841 --
Donald Macleod publishes a series of letters in the Edinburgh
Weekly Chronicle, describing his own eviction and other eyewitness
testimony of the clearances.
1840 Treaty of Waitangi: Maori Chiefs hand sovereignty of New Zealand to Great Britain.
1840, 30,000 Highlanders were forced to move to Glasgow. None of them could speak English, none of them had ever seen a city before and none of them had ever performed any kind of work other than tending their own patch of land and their few cows and chickens. They were forced from a life of subsistence farming to one of working indoors in a factory. Others were Cleared from their Highland homes to the seaside fishing villages where they too had to give up the only way of life they knew and learn overnight how to fish in order to survive
1840s -- Donald Horne had decided that his fishermen
at Berriedale should give up herring in favour of higher-value,
and abundant, salmon.
1840 -- 31 sail on the Albion from Aberdeen to Halifax. 37 sailed on the Isabella from Greenock to Pictou. 150 sailed from Cromarty and Thurso to Pictou and Quebec. This was one of three vessels (British King, Quebec Packet) wuth a total of 403 people, 248 were from Caithness, 60 landed at Pictou and the rest went to Quebec. 140 sailed on the Deveron from Lochinver from Greenock to Pictou. 157 sailed on the British King from Cromarty to Pictou and Quebec. 195 sailed from Stornoway to Sydney on the Cruickston Castle. An unknown number sailed on the Isabella from Greenock to Pictou. 400 passengers boarded the Nith from Skye and 150 boarded at Tobermory in Mull arrived Prince Edward Island and Sydney. 150 left Uig and Tobermory on the Rother and arrived Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. 4 sailed on the Arcadian from Greenock to Halifax.
On the 13th August, 1840, the barque London chartered by the New Zealand Company,sailed from the Port of London bound for Port Nicholson with 228 emigrants aboard. She arrived on the 12th December, 1840. There had been four infant deaths during the voyage and six new births.
1841 (February) -- Henry Baillie, Parliament Member for Inverness, forms a committee to investigate the situation in the Highlands. The committee concludes that there are too many people living in the Highlands and that a course of aggressive emigration should be established.
1841 (August and September) -- Given writs of removal by legal officials, the tenants of Durness and Keneabin riot and attack police and sheriffs with stones and sticks. Only after being threatened with an onslaught of military troops do the tenants accept the writs and grudgingly move away.
1841 -- 193, mostly former tenants of Duke of Sutherland,
sail from Thurso to Pictou and Quebec. 240 sailed from Cromarty
and Thurso to Pictou and Quebec on the Lady Grey; typhus broke
out causing 6 deaths; passengers protested ill treatment during
their passage. "The Lady
Gray departed from Cromarty and arrived in Pictou, Quebec on 16th
July 1841. The ship had between 240 and 250 passengers all
bound for Pictou, Quebec. It arrived on 16th July 1841 with typhus
on board. Because there was no hospital in Pictou the passengers
were removed to shore and presumably quarantined while the ship
was cleaned. By 23rd September 1841 , 26 of the passengers had
caught typhus and 6 of them died. They were buried in the graveyard
at Cariboo Beaches. Dr. Martin the health officer of the port
seems to have also caught typhus and died. Originally 75 of the
passengers were to have disembarked at Pictou with the remainder
- 240'ish going onto Quebec. However 135 of them could not be
persuaded to get back on the ship, given what they had gone through
and given that they had liked what they saw in Pictou. The passenger
list is drawn up from a list of those who signed a protest against
their treatment during the voyage. It totals 44 men, who as head
of households presumably signed for their families." Emigrant
lists were drawn up by the Sutherland
Estates. 35 sailed from Glasgow to Halifax on the Mariner.
105 sailed from Thurso on to Pictou on the Unicorn. 28 sailed
from Aberdeen to Halifax on the Albion. 450 sailed on the Banffshire,
400 on the George, 450 on the Tay from Lochmaddy to Cape Breton
(where other Catholics had settled). These three vessels took
a total of 1300 emigrants from N.Uist "of the poorest class".
22 sailed from the Clyde to Pictou on the Cleostratus; 5 cases
of smallpox on board ship. 124 former tenants of the Duke of Sutherland
sailed on the Universe from Thurso to Pictou and Quebec. 55 sailed
on the Isabella from Glasgow, destined for Pictou; vessel stuck
on ice off Cape North, Cape Breton, passengers treated badly by
local people until they finally arrived in Pictou to a warm welcome.
(Presbyterian v Catholic issue, no doubt).
1842 -- Queen Victoria first visits Scotland.
1842 -- An unknown number sail from Glasgow to Pictou and Halifax on the Eagle. 191 left Cromarty and Thurso for Pictou and Quebec on the Superior. 64 left Glasgow for Pictou and Sydney on the Cleostratus. 150 left Cromarty, Thurso and Loch Lomond for Pictou and Quebec on the Lady Emily. 133 "very poor" passengers left Lochmaddy for Cape Breton on the St Andrew. 59 left on the Hercules from Lochmaddy to Cape Breton and Quebec; passengers described as "very poor". 16 left Greenock for Halifax on the Arcadian.
1842 -- The
barques, the Duchess of Argyle, (667 tons) and Jane Gifford,(558
tons), left the Port of Glasgow on June 9th and June 18th,
1842. The 'Duchess' carried 172 men, 171 women and 192 children
and the 'Jane Gifford' 82 men, 81 women and 92 children, the vessels
arriving on October 9th. During the long arduous journey there
had been 34 deaths between the two ships, many of them small children
and babies in arms. There were 16 new births recorded in the log.
Disembarking began using the ship's boats taking the passengers into Mechanic's Bay. It was
low tide and the longboats grounded in the soft mud. The boatloads
of migrants were forced to carry their children and boxes on their
shoulders, while knee deep in the soft mud which lay between them
and the sandy beach. The families crowded into the thirty rhaupo
huts erected along the foreshore.
1842-1855 (Various) Unassisted immigrants arriving at NSW, Australia
1843 -- Disruption
of the Church of Scotland: foundation of the Free Church.
1843 -- 307 emigrants sailed from Cromarty, Thurso and Loch Laxford from Dundee to Pictou and Quebec; disease broke out before arrival at Pictou and emigrants were taken to temporary accomodation on beaches. 275 "destitute" passengers left Tobermory for Cape Breton and Quebec but the ship put into Belfast in distress. Passengers shipped on John and Robert. 405, mostly Roman Catholics, left Tobermory for Cape Breton and Quebec on the Charles Hammerton; a number from Eigg, others from Gairloch and Torridon together with a few from Skye.
1844 -- 13 emigrants sailed from Aberdeen to Halifax on the Albion. An unknown number sailed from Cromarty and Thurso to Quebec on the Pacific. An unknown number left from Cromarty and Thurso for Quebec on the Harriet. 13 left on the Albion from Aberdeen to Halifax.
1844-59 (Various) Assisted immigrants arriving at Sydney & Newcastle, Australia
1845 -- Denied shelter within the church itself
and believing themselves to be cursed by God, ninety evicted tenants
of Glencalvie take temporary shelter in the churchyard
at Croick, and leave messages scratched into the glass windows:
...Glencalvie people the wicked generation... ...John Ross shepherd...
...Glencalvie is a wilderness blow ship them to the colony...
...the Glencalvie Rosses...
1845 -- The potato blight, which had devastated Ireland the previous year, wipes out most of the potatoes in the Highlands.
1845 -- 13 passengers left on the Albion from Aberdeen to Halifax. An unknown number left from Cromarty and Thurso for Quebec on the Joseph Harrison. The Sovereign sailed from Lochmaddy and Stromness to Sydney, Pictou and Quebec - nos unknown.
1846 Highland potato famine. 1846-1849 Irish potato famine. 1846 (December) -- The Reverend Norman Mackinnon of Bracadale Manse wrote to the Chaplain in Ordinary to Queen Victoria: "Oh, send us something immediately.... If you can send but a few pounds at present, let it come, for many are dying, I may say, of starvation..."
1847 -- 117 emigrants sailed from Thurso to Pictou on the Serious. 50 sailed from Greenock to Pictou on the London (smallpox aboard). The Charlotte sailed from Glasgow to Boston.
1847 (February) -- James Bruce, a writer for "The Scotsman," reports that "The Highlanders' problems are 'due to their own laziness and suggests the best solution is for the native tenants, as soon as they are able to labour for themselves, be removed from the vicious influence of the idleness in which their fathers have been brought up and have lived and starved."
The Free Church of Scotland were influenced by
Edward
Wakefield's praise of the new colony and the promises of a
settlement. Committees were set up in Edinburgh and Glasgow and
urged on by the Rev. Thomas Burns, two ships were chartered by
the church to make the journey. The Philip Laing carried 247 emigrants
and the John Wickliffe 97 families. They left England on the 27th
November and the 14th December, 1847 bound for Otago Harbour and
the new settlement of Dunedin. Port Chalmers, 1848 The 'John Wickliffe'
was the storeship for the expedition and was heavily laden with
a vast supply of goods. There were thousands of bricks and slates,
tools for the plumbers and painters, blacksmiths and wheelwrights
supplies, wheelbarrows, spades, pickaxes, guns and a large consignment
of general provisions. Cash, gold and silver, to the value of
£500, was carefully locked away in the ships strongroom. The "Philip
Laing" entered Otago Harbour on the 15th April 1848, just 23 days
after the arrival of the ''John Wickliffe''. These vessels were
followed by the immigrant ships Victory, Blundell and Bernicia.
1848 -- Cholera epidemic in Glasgow.
1848 -- 137 people, mainly collier families for
Albion mines paid for by the company, sailed on the Hope
for Pictou and later went on to the USA. 62 sailed from Glasgow
to Pictou on the London.
The Duke of Sutherland chartered the Ellen
to take 154 passengers from Loch Laxford to Pictou. Col. John
Gordon assisted the passage of his tenants (of South Uist) to
sail on the Lulan
from Glasgow to Pictou. They were deceived the ship was sailing
to Pictou, in fact it would have sailed to Boston, USA. They found
out and left the ship and waited a long time for another to take
them to Nova Scotia. On arrival they were ill from disease and
suffering extreme poverty, and 24 died shortly after arriving.
Many were intending to work at the Albion Mines and Nova Scotia
authorities had to pay for their passage. These emigrants eventually
moved to PEI.
The morning of the 19th August, 1848, will long be remembered in Wick. The sky on the preceding evening had a very unfavourable appearance about sunset, especially towards the east, where a mass of dark lurid cloud, streaked with fiery red, hung around the horizon, like a warning signal of the coming gale. The barometer, too, was observed to have fallen considerably. Notwithstanding these ominous prognostics, a number of boats left the harbour, and proceeded to the fishing ground. Early in the morning the threatened storm burst forth with all the suddenness and fury of a tropical hurricane. The wind blew from the south-east with the utmost vehemence. Houses shook, and windows rattled, and families were roused from their slumbers by the unusual noise. Hundreds in the first moments of alarm ran to the harbour. The bay was fearfully agitated; and the heavy surge ever and anon broke over the bar, sweeping everything before it. Consternation was painted in every countenance. It was an appalling scene, deepened into tenfold intensity by the distress and agony of those who had relatives in the tiny craft that were dimly seen at times tossing on the crests of the foaming billows, and making for the shore, which was surrounded with a tremendous surf. Destruction was imminent, and no power of man could avert it. On that fatal morning forty-one boats were lost, and no fewer than thirty-seven men perished, many of them within a few yards of the harbour.
from
History of Caithness by J.T. Calder Chapter 1 - Page 6. (Transcribed on caithness.org)
From Aberdeen Journal:
CREWS and Nos drowned
William Doull and son Wick - 2
David Geddes and Crew, Staxigoe - 6
On Board the "Rose" of Slickly - 2
On Board the "Harmony" of Pulteneytown - 6
Murdoch Morrison & Crew, Lews, - 5
George Swanson, "Peggy" of Thurso - 1
James Manson and Crew , Longhope - 5
Murdoch MacDonald and Crew, Lews - 5
Donald Morrison and part Crew, Lews, - 3
On Board the "Hope" or Pulteneytown - 2
Total - 37
Thirty-seven men from Wick alone drowned leaving 17 widows and 63 children. Eighteen boats were lost on the rocks.
1848-1849 Revolutions in France, Austria, Sicily, Naples, Hungary and Prussia.
1848-59 (Various) Assisted immigrants arriving at Moreton Bay, Brisbane, Australia
1848 The Ellen sailed from Loch Laxford, Sutherland and The Lulan sailed from South Uist & Glasgow and the Hope sailed from Glasgow and The London (in April and July) sailed from Glasgow to Pictou, Nova Scotia.
1849 -- Despite some rioting by the native tenants,
Lord
Macdonald clears more than 600 people from Sollas on North
Uist.
1849 -- 'Thomas Mulcok, a somewhat bizarre writer and journalist with the Inverness Advertiser' arrives in the Highlands and vigorously attacks landlords and factors in print. So vigorously, in fact, that he eventually flees to France when faced with charges of slander.
1849 -- 50 sail from Glasgow to Pictou on the Sarah Botsford. The Joseph Huchison takes an unknown number from Glasgow to Cape Breton.
1850s (early) -- Clearances of thousands of tenants in the Strathaird district, Suishnish, and Boreraig on Skye; and Coigach at Loch Broom.
1850 -- 82 sail from Cromarty, Thurso and Loch Laxford to Pictou and Quebec on the George. The Charlotte Harrison sails from Greenock to New York
1851 -- Sir John MacNeill, under the direction of the Home Secretary, tours the Highlands and reports back that the Highland poor are "parading and exaggerating their poverty and are basically lazy." The only solution MacNeill sees is emigration.
1851 -- 18 sail from Glasgow to Pictou on the Sarah Botsford. 68 of Sir James Matheson's tenants of Lewis sail from Stornoway and Glasgow to Quebec. 500 more of Matheson's tenants sail on the Marquis of Stafford, courtesy of their landlord, to Quebec.
1851 (August) -- The clearance of Barra
by Colonel Gordon of Cluny. The Colonel called all of his tenant
farmers to a meeting to "discuss rents", and threatened them with
a fine if they did not attend. In the meeting hall, over 1,500
tenants were overpowered, bound, and immediately loaded onto ships
for America. An eyewitness reported: "...people were seized and
dragged on board. Men who resisted were felled with truncheons
and handcuffed; those who escaped, including some who swam ashore
from the ship, were chased by the police...." When officials in
Glasgow complained to the Colonel about many of Barra's homeless
wandering their streets, he stated: "Of the appearance in Glasgow
of a number of my tenants and cottars from the Parish of Barra--I
had no intimation previous to my receipt of your communication.
And in answer to your enquiry--what I propose doing with them--I
say 'Nothing'."
1851 the parish of Loth was united to that of Kildonan,
and by this means the number of the population was more than restored.
Meanwhile, however, many of the old clan of the Gunns had gone
out to the world, never to return to the scenes of the doughty
deeds of their ancestors.(ref Electric Scotland)
In 1851
the Margaret sailed from Cape Breton. She was followed six months
later by the Highland Lass. The ships, carrying 300 migrants
in all, arrived in Australia at the height of the Victoria gold
rush. The emigrants found that good coastal land was available
only at exorbitant prices. After a number of their group, including
three of Norman
McLeod’s sons, died in a typhoid epidemic, it was decided
that they should leave Australia and try to obtain land in New
Zealand. The first group of Nova Scotians arrived in Auckland
in September 1853. They immediately petitioned the government
for a block of land on which they could settle together. Four
ships followed from Nova Scotia, the Gertrude in 1856, the Spray
in 1857, the Breadalbane in 1858, and the Elten Lewis in 1858.
In addition, eight families came directly from Scotland to join
relatives from Cape Breton. In all more than 800 people took part
in the migration. While most settled at
Waipu, others formed sister settlements at Whangarei Heads,
Leigh, Okaihau and the valleys North of Whangarei - Kamo, Whau
Whau, Hukeranui and 1-Tikurangi - linking the far North in a web
of kinship and community.
1852 -- SUTHERLANDSHIRE.
BONAR BRIDGE TO LOCH INTER — SCOURIE — DURNESS —
TONGUE, LAIRG AND GOLSPIE.
The extensive county of Sutherland presents the striking
peculiarity of having the whole of its surface of 1800 square
miles under sheep, with the exception of a narrow border of
arable land along its eastern coast. More than four-fifths of
this great territory belongs to the Sutherland family, who
have recently, too, by marriage, made the large accession of
the Cromertie estates adjoining, on the west of Ross-shire —
an extent of property altogether unparalleled in this king-
dom. In its superficial configuration and aspect, Sutherland-
shire is distinguished by several marked features. It is
surrounded on three of five sides by the ocean.
Extracts from 'Black's Picturesque Tourist of Scotland', 1852.
1852 -- 19 emigrants sail from Glasgow to Boston
and Pictou on the Lulan. 26 left from Glasgow to Pictou on the
Tongataboo and 23 left from Glasgow to Pictou on the Lulan. The
Georgiana was one of the ships that carried assisted
emigrants to Australia. It left Glasgow on 13th July 1852 carrying
around 300 passengers and shortly before its arrival in Geelong
nearly 4 months later, a mutiny occurred on board and the crew
deserted the ship.
1852 the following sailed from Highlands & Islands to Point Henry, Geelong, Australia: The Mangerton, Borneuf, the Araminta, the Georgiana, the Blanche, The Ticonderoga.
The Medina to Adelaide, Australia. The Ontario to Sydney, Aus., The Marmion to Portland and the Louisa to Hobart, Tasmania. 1852-53 The Allison, Priscilla, Arabian and Thomas to Melbourne (Geelong).
1852
- 1875 the SS Great Britain took thousands of UK citizens from Liverpool to Australia. 1852-1857 Highlands and Islands emigration to Australia
1853 -- Knoydart is cleared under the direction of the widow of the 16th Chief of Glengarry.
More than 400 people are suddenly and forcibly evicted from their homes, including women in labor and the elderly. After the houses were torched, some tenants returned to the ruins and tried to re-build their villages. These ramshackle structures were then also destroyed.
Father Coll Macdonald, the local priest, erected tents and shelters in his garden at Sandaig on Loch Nevis, and offered shelter to as many of the homeless as he could. Donald Ross, a Glasgow journalist and lawyer wrote articles outlining the clearance of Knoydart, which generated little sympathy.
1853 The Panama sails from Highlands & Islands to Hobart, Tasmania. The British Queen sails from Highlands & Islands to Melbourne, Australia
1854 -- The clearing of Strathcarron in Ross-shire. Some Clan Ross women tried to prevent the landlord's police force by blocking the road to the village. The constables charged the unarmed women, and, in the words of journalist Donald Ross: "...struck with all their force. ...Not only when knocking down, but after the females were on the ground. They beat and kicked them while lying weltering in their blood....(and) more than twenty females were carried off the field in blankets and litters, and the appearance they presented, with their heads cut and bruised, their limbs mangled and their clothes clotted with blood, was such as would horrify any savage."
1854 -- Archibald Geike, describing a recent clearance
on Skye, states he saw: (The house was) "a wretched hovel,
unfit for sheep or pigs. Here 6 human beings had to take shelter.
There was no room for a bed so they all lay down to rest on the
bare floor." "On Wednesday last the head of the wretched family,
William Matheson, a widower, took ill and expired on the following
Sunday. His family consisted of an aged mother, 96, and his own
four children - John 17, Alex 14, William 11, and Peggy 9 - the
old woman was lying-in and when a brother-in-law of Matheson called
to see how he was, he was horror struck to find Matheson lying
dead on the same pallet of straw on which the old woman rested;
and there also lay his two children, Alexander and Peggy, sick!
Those who witnessed this scene declared that a more heart-rending
scene they never witnessed." "Matheson's corpse was removed as
soon as possible; but the scene is still more deplorable. Here,
in this wretched abode, and abode not fit at all for human beings,
is an old woman of 96, stretched on the cold ground with two of
her grandchildren lying sick, one on each side of her."
1854 -- An emigrant ship is described by "The Times" as: The emigrant is shewn a berth, a shelf of coarse pinewood in a noisome dungeon, airless and lightless, in which several hundred persons...are stowed away, on shelves two feet one inch above each other...still reeking from the ineradicable stench left by the emigrants on the last voyage... After a few days have been spent in the pestilential atmosphere created by the festering mass of squalid humanity imprisoned between the damp and steaming decks, the scourge bursts out, and to the miseries of filth, foul air and darkness is added the Cholera.
1854 -- Highland landowners are asked to gather troops from their tenants to fight the Crimean War. Most of the Highlanders refuse, one telling his laird: "Should the Czar of Russia take possession of (these lands) next term that we couldn't expect worse treatment at his hands than we have experienced in the hands of your family for the last fifty years."
1853-54 The Sir Allan McNab sails from Highlands & Islands to Hobart, Tasmania. The Utopia Highlands & Islands to Portland, Australia
1854 The Arabian, the Edward Johnstone sail from Highlands & Islands to Portland, Australia. The Hornet Highlands & Islands to Geelong, Australia.
The James Fernie, the Switzerland, the Royal Albert sail from Highlands & Islands to Adelaide, Australia. 1854-55 The Derry Castle sails from Highlands & Islands to Portland, Australia
1856 -- Horne sold Langwell for £90,000 to the 5th
Duke of Portland.
1855 - Donald Horne was the only name given when the John o'Groats journal reported an accident on the Bridge of Ord, Caithness, when his female workers were returning to Navidale from turnip hoeing on his property in Langwell. The horse pulling the cart took fright and overturned the cart and caused the death of at least 4 of the women, seriously wounding the remainder.
1857 The Persian sails from Highlands & Islands to Hobart, Tasmania. HMS Hercules sails from Highlands & Islands to Cook, Adelaide, Melbourne, Australia
1859 Gunn of Rhives died and his two sons not long after. In legal and genealogical terms, the office of chief of the Clan Gunn became vacant with the death of Morrison Gunn in 1785 and remains vacant today.
1859 The Broomielaw sailed from Scotland to Launceston, Tasmania
1860 The Langwell Estate was purchased by the 5th Duke of Portland for £90,000 who turned the area into deer forests.
1860-79 (Various) Assisted immigrants arriving at Sydney ,Australia
1861 Lady Egidia sails from Greenock to Otago, New Zealand, New York
1862 The Helenslee sails from Glasgow to Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. In (April and July) the Elizabeth sails from Londonderry to St John, New Brunswick (several Scots on board). The Nubia sails from Londonderry to Quebec (many Scots on board)
1863 The Golden Empire sails to Brisbane, Australia
1866 The Steamer Iowa sails from Glasgow to New York. The Doctor Kane sails from Glasgow & Londonderry to Halifax & St. John , Canada
1867 The Caledonia sails from Glasgow to New York.
1868 The SS Britannia sails from Glasgow to New York.
1876 The SS State of Pennsylvania and the Alsatia sail from Glasgow to New York
1877 The SS State of Nevada and the SS Anchoria sail from Glasgow to New York
1878 Glasgow to New York: SS Devonia 2 January , SS State of Pennsylvania 3 January, SS Anchoria 7 January, SS State of Nevada 10 January, SS State of Virginia 19 January, SS California 21 January, SS Ethiopia 23 January.
SS State of Indiana 26 January, SS State of Virginia 10 April, SS Bolivia 17 April, SS Victoria 25 April, SS State of Georgia 25 April, SS Ethiopia 16 September,
SS State of Pennsylvania 18 September, SS Bolivia 24 September
1878 SS Austrian Glasgow to Quebec, Canada (ISTG)
1879 Glasgow to New York:
SS Anchoria 2 January, SS Bolivia 9 January, SS State of Pennsylvania 10 January, SS Devonia 23 January, SS State of Indiana 25 Janusry,
SS State of Virginia 1 February, SS Anchoria 3 February, SS State of Pennsylvania 15 February, SS State of Nevada 24 February,
SS Devonia 26 February, SS State of Indiana 28 February, SS State of Virginia 10 March, SS Bolivia 17 March, SS Anchoria 20 March, SS Circassia 24 March, SS State of Georgia 17 April
1880-96 (Various) Assisted immigrants arriving at Sydney ,Australia
1881 SS Manitoban Glasgow to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Steamer Northern Dundee to New York, SS State of Indiana 10 November
1883 SS Circassia Glasgow to New York
1885 Hanoverian Glasgow to Halifax , Nova Scotia
1887 SS Anchoria Glasgow to New York
1888 Glasgow to New York:
SS State of Indiana 17 December, SS Furnessia 18 December, SS Ethiopia 26 December, SS State of Georgia 28 December
1894 SS State of Nebraska Glasgow to New York
1896 SS Hibernian Glasgow to Boston
1903 SS Mongolian Glasgow to New York
1910 UK to Australia (includes Scottish)
Threat of evictions
continues in Scotland, such as in Aberdeen,
2010.
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