The Belfry Winter 2019 / 2020

The

Number FIFTY NINE

WINTER 2019/2020

Balquhidder Church, 27.11.19 Photo by Gill Waugh

From the Manse CONNECTION Two stories: The first concerns a very successful businessman and company director who was at the pinnacle of his career.

One night, he left his wife sleeping in their bed and slipped out to his car. He drove a few hours down the motorway on route to Stonehenge. The newspaper report quoted him as saying that he wanted to be there in that ancient and spiritual place to observe the sunrise. The reason – despite his financial and social standing he felt “empty” inside and was searching for something deeper and more meaningful.

The second concerns a runaway public schoolboy from Rugby. The press traced the 16 year old to a beach in Barbados! He said that he was desperate to “escape” life at the famous boarding school and felt he was under pressure to live up to the expectations being placed on him. Reflecting on his life, he realised that the path that lay before him was a University degree, a career, a mortgage and then death. He was searching for something more!

We live in a wonderful age of science and technology and it does seem that we are the most “connected” human beings who have ever lived with the Internet, Skype and mobile phones. Yet in some other ways we are part of a “disconnected” culture, removed from our history, our traditions and the wisdom of the past. The Christian Gospel is about “connection” at its centre. There is wisdom, power and hope in its message but many people miss that.

It is often said that today we are the most “connected” generation in history thanks to the internet and smart phone technology. They are probably right in many ways. Nonetheless, I have some reservations. A few years ago, I was in the top deck of an Edinburgh bus heading from the eastside of the city into the centre of town. It was a journey that I often made and I loved to look out of the window throughout the journey.

The Georgian architecture of the city never looks ordinary but always inspiring. Along the way we passed the hill called Arthur’s seat which provides a brilliant panoramic view of the city from its top and then the nearby geological phenomenon that are the Crags (a place many geology students visit from all over the world). Then in the distance it was possible to see the Pentland Hills which provide fabulous walking opportunities for the city population creating an excellent backdrop to the whole picture. In the sunshine, all of this was splendid to see and experience as it always is. However, as I looked around the bus I realised I was the only one gazing out in pleasure, joy and no small amount of wonder. Everyone else…and I mean everyone…was looking at screens, either laptops or mobiles. Many had ear phones in. Even couples were not in conversation with each other they were only focussed on the screen in front of them. I wanted to shout out “look what you are missing!” But I didn’t.

Obviously, I was connected and connecting to something very different that day from the other passengers: a little parable for everyone who is religious or spiritual in the modern world; we sometimes seem to be on another planet!

I do not write this pejoratively - only descriptively. But I do ask whether we are in danger of losing something special regarding connectivity whilst at the same time gaining much in another sense. The late Abraham Heschel wrote: Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for the want of appreciation.

The beginning of our happiness lies in understanding that life without wonder is not worth living.

What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder.

Amen to that! Perhaps the problem is that our senses have become dulled to certain things, as a result of modern living. Perhaps, within the cacophony of noise that surrounds us these days, it is hard enough to tune into our own voice - far less that of another, especially the Divine. Perhaps, in the world of soundbites and instant gratification, the disciplines of waiting, searching, wrestling and working through our existential questions or issues just seem like a hurdle too far. Perhaps, in all the restless of our perpetual becoming we have lost the art of just “being.”

A good place to start that process is either a contemplative walk in Balquidder Glen or a quiet moment sitting in the stillness of the church.

May God Bless you all.

Russel 2

Hello everyone and welcome to our winter edition of The Belfry.

Inside you can find the final part of the Victorian lecture by the Rev James MacGregor.

He must have felt that he couldn’t speak at length about his beloved Balquhidder without mentioning his namesake Rob Roy MagGregor and this last segment has some interesting light to shed on that particular character.

At the end of the piece, you can read the last will and testament of Rob Roy himself. A little hard to follow because of the old legal language and spelling, but fascinating nonetheless.

On page 9 we have a wonderful piece of much more recent history as Leslie MacKenzie writes about Balquhidder’s ‘Last Crofter’.

Thanks as usual to our Minister, the Rev. Dr Russel Moffat, for his musings - thought provoking, as ever.

Very best wishes to you all, for a peaceful and happy Christmas.

Gill Gill Waugh • Stronvar Farm • Balquhidder • FK19 8PB

Note from the

Editor

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND Balquhidder Parish Church WEEKLY SERVICE Every Sunday at 11.30am

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Balquhidder and District in Victorian Times Exerpts from a lecture

by the Rev. James MacGregor, D.D., Oamaru Part Four

I had known Balquhidder when I was a very young boy, now more than 30 years ago; and having occasion to revisit it in 1876, at a time when I had much need of “the healing powers of nature” in her solitudes, I found what I had not sought—a lecture to be delivered to Celts in New Zealand.

In my time, the Balquhidder tradition of Rob Roy was quite living and fresh. And the hero of that tradition was a wholly different being, not only from the desperate “Highland Rogue” of ancient hue and cry, but even from the “noble savage” warrior of recent romance and song, such as Wordsworth’s tall talk about, “The eagle he was lord above, and Rob was lord below.” You can hardly believe that the real hero of tradition was in temper not a man of war, but emphatically a man of peace. Thirty years ago Donncha Ciar (“Duncan the Mouse-brown), of Auchtoo, gave me many a “yarn” about Rob Roy. This sennachie, who delighted in narratives of Rob’s prowess with hand and foot, yet in spite of himself always brought into view a character which was essentially that of quiet, neighbourly goodness and kindness. So the Rev. Mr MacGregor told me that Rob was remarkable for kindness to the poor, and was universally esteemed for his good qualities by gentle and simple—a thing which was strikingly shown at his funeral (A.D. 1738). He is supposed to have been born about 1660. His funeral was the last in Balquhidder conducted with the old Celtic ceremonial of bagpipe music, and solemn public procession. And it was attended not only by the neighbours in the district, but by the whole gentry of the region around, excepting the Duke of Montrose—an exception which may have been regarded as discrediting, not the dead lion, but the living dog.

The MacGregor country of Rob Roy’s time was in the Trossachs district of Perthshire, about the head waters of the southern branches of the Forth, and towards Loch

Glengyle House

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Probably the earliest and best known engraving of Rob Roy, c 1820. Artist unknown.

Lomond, whose waters go down Strathleven into Clyde. Thus Rob himself, in his early prime, was of Craigrayston and Inversnaid; and his elder brother was of Glengyle. But you can hardly approach Balquhidder without becoming aware that that is a MacGregor country at this hour. In my young days there were six James MacGregors in the little cross-street of Callander in which I was born. In Auchtoo hamlet, over against King’s House of Balquhidder, I suppose that a majority of the crofters and cottars were MacGregors, mostly of the subnames of Ciar and MacAlpine. Between the two sections of that hamlet, westward, there is the burying-place or “chapel,” and a little eastward of King’s House, at Edinchip, there is the mansion of that family which now claims the hereditary chieftainship of the clan—a family whose ancestor, Sir John Murray MacGregor, Bart., at the beginning of this century gave (in A.D. 1818), gratuitously, to Highlanders the excellent edition of Ossian’s poems in Gaelic by Hugh MacLaughlan of Aberdeen.

Rob’s father had been proprietor of Ardchoill. We are thus carried northward beyond even Balquhidder, in which Rob and his family settled in the later period of his life.

Still the clan in those early times was restless, because it had become unfortunately landless. For its own original lands, centring in Fortingall, it had neglected to obtain parchment titles such as came into use under the feudal system, and held only by the old Celtic tenure of the sword. Hence neighbouring clans, the Campbells especially, were able to apply the letter of the law to dispossess them of lands which had been theirs from time immemorial. Consequently, they had to move from district to district; they got into strife with clans jealous of their approaches or encroachments; and at last they came into a position of outlawry, extending over the centuries from Ciar Mar to Rob Roy, which has made their history quite unique among the clan histories of Scotland. During that long period they were proscribed as a clan, were given over to fire and sword of enemies with sanction of royal authority, and their very name prohibited upon pain of death,—so that Rob Roy, e. g., had (in the Lowlands) to call himself Robert Campbell.

Their long, successful resistance to every attempt to suppress them may have tended to form in them elements of character truly valuable, as Scotland was hammered into a character of stubborn unconquerable tenacity by the 314 pitched battles of the wars of independence. But the attempts to repress them at the same time occasioned a restlessness on their part, with occasional acts of ferocity, which to others may have seemed to justify a series of acts of proscription, now read as curiosites of legislative barbarism.

Ronald, the youngest son of Rob Roy, if my memory serve me right, died about 1780, in the ninety-sixth year of his age.

But what follows may bring the matter still further home to our feeling of nearness in time. Greatly esteemed for his Christian character, Ronald had a son who practised as a physician in Greenock. Some of his sons, who repaired and completed the family lair in Balquhidder, were general officers in India. Not of their stock is the Mr MacGregor, of the “Rob Roy” canoe, who is so well-known for his exploits as a solitary navigator,

and is distinguished as a Christian philanthrophist in London.

He is a son of that Colonel Macgregor, of whom you may have read in the thrilling narrative of the burning of the Kent East Indiaman. He, in fact, is the then infant boy who was saved from the flames. But among Rob Roy’s great grandchildren are the world-renowned shipbuilding Lairds of Birkenhead; one of whom, Mr Macgregor Laird, died in Africa in an enterprise like that of David Livingstone, intended to spread by means of commerce through that benighted continent the blessed light of Christian civilisation.

Now, about the sword of Rob Roy. It shows that he was in some sense a professed man of the sword. For the sword was placed over him by his own choice, or by that of his friends, although it had been carved on the slab as early as the fifteenth century. The stone of which the slabs are made, though found in the district abundantly—the primitive gneiss—is extremely hard, and thus difficult to work.

Therefore it was convenient to find one ready made. And that was easily found; because, when one family had died out of the district, the family lair, with the old memorial slab, could without difficulty be appropriated by survivors or successors.

But a family of standing so good as Rob’s would not accept a present of a stone that was not in its character fitted for a monument of him. We therefore may rest assured that the sword was fitted and intended as an appropriate emblem of one leading aspect of his character and life. Thus on other slabs in the churchyard we find other characters or pursuits represented by their appropriate symbols: e. g. the Gow, (“smith”), by his bellows and anvil: and the tailor, perhaps, by his sheers and his goose (“clothes-smith,” from the German Schmieden, “forge,” “fabricate,” giving the name to all skilled handicraftsmen—whence the countless multitudinousness of the clan Smith). But the fact of Rob’s having thus been a man of the sword by no means shows that he was at all a swashbuckling sworder, or in any way characteristically a man of strife. A sword occurs often on other monuments, ordinarily along with the symbol of some special profession, such as that of the blacksmith or the arrow-maker (Macalisteir, Fletcher, Flechier, Fr.) Its prevalence only reminds us how stirring and perilous were the old times in that district, where now so peaceful, in God’s acre, “the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.” In those times every capable man had to be a man of the sword, and to be known to be able as well as willing to use it trenchantly; as the nation which will be at peace must hold itself manifestly prepared for war. And one

good effect of the habit thus occasioned is shown by the singular fact that Rob Roy, through his long life in a stormy period, is not known to have once in anger shed a drop of human blood. For, with many occasions for strife, he had in him the qualifications of a most formidable fighter. Calm, keen, swift, resolute, skilful, he was at the same time “light footed and heavy-handed,” of extraordinary strength and agility, proverbial through following generations for manly powers as an athlete. And with the broad-sword he was confessedly without a rival; so that, even in sport, he himself was never touched with antagonistic sword but ones; and on that occasion he is supposed, out of State policy connected with the Jacobite cause, to have allowed his peaceful adversary an advantage which he could easily have withheld from him. If such a man, in such times as his were, and in a career so agitated and often stormy as his, never once shed human blood in anger, he surely must have been at heart a man of peace, while all the more able to play the man of peace because he notoriously was a most capable man of war. In truth, he appears to have been far too warlike to be quarrelsome: as he will be slow to strike who knows that his hand is a “dead hand.”

Though Rob’s disposition was peaceful, his character as a capable warrior has naturally left the most vivid impression.

The traditional impression is illustrated by the following story—which I have read in a book on Rob Roy—of a tour of Rob and a select party of friends far into the North-west Highlands, to the region— Where the hunter of deer and the warrior strode To their mountains surrounding the sea,— That is, to the Sound of Skye; or, more precisely, to the Loch Duich branch of Lochalsh, known as the country of ‘the wild MacRaes.’ At Sheriff-Muir one of these MacRaes met Rob Roy in command of five hundred MacGregors. Here, you may remember, Rob played the politician when pressed to play the warrior. He and his men calmly looked on the battle now at its crisis. While strong considerations weighed in favour of the Argyll side, old political feelings drew him and his men towards Marr’s. And at bottom they seriously hated the Campbells from of old. For that race, to them and other clans in the South-west Highlands—a race powerful, politic, ever grasping—had long been the bête noir of existence; as Sir

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Balquhidder and District in Victorian Times continued from previous page Walter’s ‘innocent,’ speaking of a life otherwise completely happy, confessed that he was ‘sair forfauchten wi’ the bubblyjock’ (male turkey). And so, when at the crisis of the battle urgently entreated to go and help the bubbly-jock, Rob would not move, but simply said, ‘If they canna’ do it without us they canna’ do it with us.’ One fiery Celt imputed this to pusillanimous weakness on Rob’s part. That ‘wild MacRae,’ whom he has recognised and ‘interviewed’ this day, knows better, and will deem Rob’s inaction a probably ‘masterly inactivity.’

They had met thirty years before. And this MacRae, then a tough and fell fighter, apparently with as many lives as a cat, had left the meeting with a rifle-bullet through his body— shot, however, not by Rob, but by one of his party of tourists.

The occasion of the tour and meeting was this. From far Loch Duich the ‘wild MacRaes’ had come down: A band of fierce barbarians from the hills, Sweeping the flocks and herds

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Of quiet people in Perthshire, peacefully reposing under the guarantee of Rob’s contract of blackmail—or cattle insurance, ‘unlimited.’ This would never do. So he invited the select party aforesaid to accompany him on that walking excursion to the North-west Highlands—armed for possible battle. On their way they had one skirmish with the marauders, in which the Sheriff-Muir redivivus got his quietus for a time. But they did not overtake the main body and the missing cattle until they had reached the Saddle, where you enter the head of Loch Duich from the head, of Glenshiel. There they found the missing cattle, all but two that had unfortunately been eaten—the thieves, poor fellows, had perhaps been very hungry. They went away home with them to Perthshire; no doubt, like John Knox after visiting Queen Mary, ‘with a reasonable merry countenance,’—having previously, and decisively, so to speak, punched the heads of ‘the wild MacRaes.’

His practice of black-mail has occasioned the mistaken view that Rob was something like a commonplace lawless robber in his life. It must be remembered that he was by birth and up-bringing a gentleman of good standing. The fir-tree on his tombstone, the emblem of the clan, still bears traces of being of much more recent execution than the sword; as if it had been placed there when the old stone with the sword was appropriated by Rob or his family. The motto accompanying is not that which I have cited, As Rioghall neo dhreams Ardchoille, speaking of descent from Gregory the son of Alpine, king of the Scots; but another one, referring to some king’s deliverance from a wild boar that had turned upon him in hunting. A young chief of the clan Gregor, seeing the king’s deadly peril, sprang to the rescue, with a fir-tree which he had torn up for a weapon. Politely asking leave to strike the ‘redding stroke’ in the fray, he was graciously permitted, in a phrase which thenceforward was a motto of the clan—’E’en do, and spare nocht.’ It bears, you perceive, a certain character of trenchancy,—more so than the considerate response of a Highlander at Waterloo, to a Frenchman who cried for ‘quarter’:—’I hae na time ta quarter ye tha noo; a’ll jeest cut ye in twa.’ But though Rob had the trenchancy, he personally

had a more direct special interest in the old Gaelic motto, with its reference to ‘Ardchoille’; for Ardchoil, as I have said, had once belonged to his father. Further, his elder brother was head of the family of Glengyle, one of the claimants to the hereditary chieftainship of the clan. After that brother’s death he was tutor, or plenipotentiary guardian, of Glengyle during his nephew’s minority. His occupation as a cattle drover was then familiar in the practice of men of gentle blood. His long series of annexations, of money and cattle from the Duke of Montrose, was by himself and others regarded as justifiable reprisals, under a clan system which permitted private war, on account of a ducal injustice which had ruined Rob in his business, so that, as Bailie Nicol Jarvie says, he was driven to the hillside, ‘a broken man.’

I have never heard of any one action of his which by Highland gentlemen of his time would be regarded as we regard an act of robbery or theft, making due allowance for the custom of private war—a custom inseparable from the Celtic clan system. His spoliations, though technically unlawful under the Lowland constitution, and though on this or that occasion they should have been intrinsically unjust, fall, in an estimate of his character and conduct, to be regarded simply as forcible acts of what he and others regarded as justice, in a form sanctioned by the use and wont constitution of the community as it existed then and there.

The notion of a Balquhidder harum-scarum Robin Hood, underlying the representations of prose and poetic fiction, is really no better than a romancing popular hallucination.

Then and there the custom of black-mail was warranted by a system of public policy, whose abstract legitimacy no one called in question. It was in effect cattle insurance against robbery or theft. And in order to this effect it was necessary that the insurer should be able, with an armed force, to keep watch and ward over the land and cattle insured, to pursue and punish robbers, and in this way to act as if he had been regularly commissioned by the National Government to act as the captain of an armed police. He might abuse this position, for purposes of extortion or concealment of crime; as also may a regularly commissioned officer of Government. Or he might push his business by force, as an insurance manager now may push his business by fraud. But the possibility of abuse adheres to many an innocent usage. The ostensibly serious flaw was, that this manner of insurance was not authorised by law, and that the individual or community undertaking it in that maimer had no regular commission from the nation. And that flaw was not really serious, at least in relation to the question of personal character. For under the clan system, then still in operation, the national Government stood in a loose and ill-defined relation to the clans and their chiefs. Rob, you will remember, died before the abolition of heritable jurisdictions (1747), when the chiefs became lairds, owners of the soil which had belonged to the clan, and the clan was placed under the direct and sole authority of sheriffs, or others commissioned by the nation. And before that time every clan was a sort of little nation by itself, owning no magistracy but that of its own chiefs, asserting a right to make war or peace with other clans or districts, and acknowledging in the national Government only a vague suzerainty which, according to varying circumstances, might practically amount

to either everything or nothing. (Jut-side of every clan association there would always be a number of individuals without a chief, or other close connection. And in such circumstances, the action of a capable captain like Rob Roy in forming a band of associates, and acting as their military head for civil purposes, was no more an offence against ordinary morality, or even against consuetudinary Celtic law, than the similar action of such a chief as Hyder Ali before Britain had established a really effective government of India.

The soundness of this reasoning appears to be evinced

by Hob’s own career, through a life in which he was really respected and trusted by his well-conducted neighbours, to an honoured old age, and a memory of affectionate respect in the tradition and in the heart of the people of his own country. But how was it with his children?

Sir Walter Scott, in his book Rob Roy, brings this matter into view in a manner at once amusing and affecting. Thus, when honest Bailie Jarvie presses upon his cousin the offer to give his sons an apprenticeship to weaving, the haughty Celtic gentleman breaks out into scornful rage. But on reflection, he confesses that his heart is sometimes sore when he thinks of the future of his boys. It is said that some such interchange of sentiment actually took place between Rob and a real cousin—Doctor Gregory, of Aberdeen, head of a long illustrious line in the intellectual aristocracy of Britain.

And reflection on that future of his children must, to a man of his forecasting sagacity, have been bitterly depressing.

Such reflections are expressed in Göthe’s fine tragedy, by Götz of the Iron Hand, who, just when chivalry was passing over into discredited outlawry, himself could go on in the old way while maintaining the respect of himself and others, but had dark forebodings of the fate in store for his son. And Rob was precisely in such a position. He was on the safe side of a dividing line between one state of society and another.

His sons were, after his death, on the unsafe side. Not only so far as they imitated his irregular practices, they were against the law, now precisely defined and made applicable to all. They were in a position which, more and more, was reckoned dishonourable by ordinarily decent neighbours and friends. They were thus on a steep and slippery incline— from what was deemed compatible with the character of an honourable gentleman, to what, in the common estimation of themselves and others, was tainted with the vulgarity as well as immorality of the common robber or swindler. In

their history, too, we have a commentary on our abstract moralising.

Ronald, as we have seen, lived his long life as a Christian citizen of the new time; and his example has been followed with beneficent distinction by at least four generations of his posterity. But that may have been by the extraordinary grace of God, perhaps operating on the youngest son through a salutary terror occasioned by the sad fate of all his brothers.

One of these, Coll, is happily not known to fame beyond this, that when quite a youth he was shot to death by a King’s party, or soldier, in Dunkeld. Two others, Duncan and Robert (Robin Oig, ‘Young Rob,’ a mispronunciation by the Lennox and Menteith Lowlanders), as is still seen at full in the Justiciary Records of Scotland, were tried for an infamous crime, and Robert was hanged in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh. Not so sad inexpressibly, but yet very very sad, is the story of Seumas Mòr (‘Big James.’) he alone appears to have inherited the trenchant ability, as well as valour, of his father. At the battle of Preston pans, he and MacDonald of Keppoch were foremost on Charles Edward’s side in the resistless and shattering rush of the Highlanders’ army on the King’s; and he continued to direct, and even threaten, his men after he was laid low on the field with five wounds, including two shots through the body. After the collapse of the rebellion, he appears to have been employed in some subtle (and ‘shady’) negotiations between State parties. But he is last found at Paris, among continued overleaf

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Balquhidder and District in Victorian Times continued from previous page other broken-hearted followers of Prince Charles, writing a miserable begging letter to some who had neglected him,—avowedly in a state of utter destitution And there is no apparent reason to doubt that Seumar Mòr, the hero of Prestonpans, the son of Rob Roy, then and there, in a Parisian garret, died in extremity of want, if not literally of starvation!

That woeful family history was really an evolution out of Rob Roy’s own career. If his children reaped the whirlwind, he had sown the wind. The conventional Rob Roy, of Sir Walter Scott and others, may be parted from with a smile, and shake of the head—’a mad wag, my masters!’—in the spirit of Bailie Jarvie’s memorable description of a sadly mixed character, ‘he was ower guid to ban, and ower bad to bless, like Rob Roy.’ But that implies a very great underestimate, not only of the awful calamities in which his example involved his children, but also and especially of his own masculine ability and natural worth. A man so clear and far-seeing cannot be excused from forecasting the natural consequences of his conduct. A man so resolute and strong, with so much of good, both by nature and by habit, is deeply guilty, no matter what are the circumstances which warrant his detailed actions, if he persevere in a course whose native results to his children are so dismally tragic. Our interest in that celebrated person is partly caused by those circumstances.

Sir Walter is fond of quoting the dictum of Mrs Montague, that the most interesting natural scenery is found where the mountains pass into the plains. He applies this to illustrate the peculiar interest, represented by his Waverley, of the transition stage in human manners and customs from two types so strongly contrasted as the ancient Highland and the modern Lowland or English. And that peculiar interest is deepened in Rob Roy’s case by the peculiarities in his case,— of a high-born Highland gentleman, beggared and broken through treacherous injustice, driven beyond the pale of public law, and yet maintaining throughout a character of recognised distinction, in respect not only of sheer force but of amiability and worth. But to make him on this account a mere stage hero of romance, to be excused because his character and career have been romantic, is to degrade him.

He is appreciated only when he is condemned severely. For no one failing to condemn him as deeply faulty, in relation to great fundamental duties of man to man can be in the right mental attitude towards him, of regarding him as a real man, of great and varied powers, rarely gifted with ‘the kingly governing faculty.’ When such a man leaves a heritage of inevitable woe to his children, no sentimental emotion heals our bitter grief, even, when poets sing his praises, and tradition loves his memory, after his contemporaries have laid him in a singularly honoured grave.

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The Will of Rob Roy MacGregor (1671 - 1734) Transcript of Testament of Rob Roy MacGregor Robert Roy Campbell The Testament Dative and Inventary of the goods, gear, cattle, Household plenishing, and others which pertained to the Deceast Robert Roy Campbell in Innerlochlang beg, within the parish of Balquhidder and Commissariot of Dunblane, the time of Decease which was in the Moneth of December last, Faithfully made and given up by Mary Mcgrigor alias Campbell, the Defuncts Spouse only Executrix Dative Decerned as Credetrix to her said Deceas’d husband, for payment and Satisfaction to her of the sum of four hundred and thirty six pounds ten shillings and four pennies Scots money, Expended and Deburs’d by her on the Defuncts funerals and for Masters rent, and Servants fees and for medicaments and other Necessaries furnished during his Sickness, Conform to a particular Accompt and Several Instructions thereof produced, Whereon she made faith as use is. As also for payment of the expences of Confirmation hereof, By Decreet of the Commissary principal of the said Commissariot as the samen of the date of these presents in itself more fully Bears. There was pertaining and belonging to the Said Defunct the time of his decease forsaid the goods, gear, and others aftermentioned of the values after express’d According as the Samen were valued in Virtue of the said Commissarys warrant Vizt.

Imprimis Two Tydie Cows at eight pound Scots per piece Inde Sixteen pound.

Item Two Yeald Kine estimate at Six pound Scots pr. piece Inde Twelve pound.

Item Two old Kine with a Stirk estimate at Six pounds thirteen shilling And four pennies Scots per piece Inde Thirteen pound Six shilling and eight pennies.

Item Two forrow Kine with a Stirk estimate at Seven pound Six Shilling and eight pennies Scots oer piece Inde fourteen pound Thirteen Shilling and four pennies.

Item Two Six quarters old queys estimate at Two pound thirteen Shilling and four pennies Scots per piece Inde five pound Six Shilling and eight pennies.

Item a ten quarter year old quey estimate at Three pound Item thirteen Ews and one Ram estimate at fourteen pound Item seven hoggs estimate at three pound ten shilling It[em] fourteen Goats with a Buck estimate at Twenty pound .

Item eight Minchaks estimate at four pounds Item Ane Old Mair with a filly estimate to eight pound It[em] two horses estimate to thirty pound It[em] a Blind horse estimate to One pound ten shilling.

Item Two Bolls of Gray Corn with the Straw estimate to ten pound.

Item the Key estimate to Twelve pound.

Item the Saddle and Armes estimate with the Bridle Twenty four pound.

Item Betwixt his body Cloaths and heall house plenishing estimate to eighty four pound Six Shilling and eight pennies.

Item The said Defunct had Justly addebted and resting to him the time foresaid of his decease By Alexander Mcfarlane in Coreitlet the Sum of One hundred pounds Scots money and whole annualrents thereof as a part of the sum of Six hundred merks Scots money principal Specified in a Bond Granted by him to the said Defunct therein Designed Robert Campbell of Innerfuait.

Dated the Twenty eight day of November One thousand seven hundred and seven years.

Summa Confirmed 6th February 1735 Raynold Drummond and John Fisher of Tayenrouyoch Cautioners

Balquhidder’s Last Crofter Chrissie MacRae 1927-1989

Balquhidder’s Last Crofter

Balquhidder’s Last Crofter

Chrissie MacRae 1927 - 1989 Chrissie MacRae 1927-1989

Chrissie with her pet goat and white cat Auchtubh 1980s c Sheena

‘She Thei cam from he w

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cam Chrissie MacRae lived in Balquhidder at Auchtubh No. 8, on the Halliday and first corner past Coshnachie as you turn into the glen. Her house and Chrissie MacRae lived in Balquhidder at Auchtubh was small and home-made. She had a croft-size amount of land men and many animals – including a few cows, chickens, sheep, goats, No 8 on the first corner past Coshnachie as you turn into der fi cats and a dog, Snowy. She would also rescue injured wild animals the glen. Her house was small and home-made. She had a Chris of th croft-size amount of land and many animals – including a few and look after orphaned lambs for Balquhidder sheep farmers.

Auch Then cows,chickens, sheep, goats, cats and dog Snowy. She would Her Chrissie pint-sized kitchen had a Raeburn and she was always ready MacRae 1927-1989 sa). L also rescue injured wild animals and look after orphaned‘She was to invite you in for a cup of tea. She always wore wellies. Funny, herd lambs for Balquhidder sheep farmers. Her pint-sized kitchenTheir mot entertaining and altogether admirable, she resolutely maintained had a Raeburn and she was always ready to invite you in for acame hom that Auchtubh No 8 (also spelt Auchtoo) was a Croft even though Mean father and mother and her Funny, Auntie Peigi at cup ofwith tea.her She always wore wellies. entertaining andfrom bein the Crofting Counties act of 1880 had long since abolished crofts Chrissie new Auchtubh-1950s c Anne Collier altogether admirable, she resolutely maintained that Auchtubhhe was ov in Perthshire. their No 8 (also spelt Auchtoo) was a Croft even though the Croft Chrissie’s mother was a Balquhidder Campbell and had always ‘She was always very good to us’, says Anne. not g ing Counties act of 1880 hadatlong since abolished crofts inHis story i lived at Auchtubh No. 8. Chrissie was the oldest daughter. She Their mother died relatively young, 63 years old, so Chrissie beca Perthshire.

Chrissie withtoher pet goat andher white Auchtubh 1980s c Sheena had another sister, Morag, close to her in age and there were Chrissie with petcatgoat and cat came home Balquhidder to look after herwhite old Dad who apart camesician to S Halliday Auchtubh in the 1980s.

Sheena Halliday from being a at shepherd was very good©with horses.

He lived until and went three other younger sisters: Jean, Anne and Margaret. to im mother was a Balquhidder Campbell and had always was Chrissie’s over ninety.

Of the siblings, Anne (who sadly passed away last month, he aged Chrissie with her father and mother and her Auntie Peigi at ironw Chrissie lived in Balquhidder at Auchtubh and their lived atMacRae Auchtubh Chrissie MacRae Auchtubh-1950s c Anne No.8.

CollierChrissie was the oldest daughter. She 88) was able to remember details 1927-1989 from the girls’ childhood. They the G men there had another sister, Morag, herable inasage and were HisNo story an interesting one andclose Annetowas to it:there he the first corner past Coshnachie youtell turn intofirst 8 ison would walk twogoat miles to Balquhidder every day though their Chrissie withthe her pet and white cat Auchtubh school 1980s c Sheena der fishing ‘She was always very good to us’, says Anne. came Scotland with his two brothers.

They over a truck three otherhouse younger sisters: Jean,home-made.

Annecame and Margaret. thetoglen.

Her was small and She inhad a sometimes they would get a lift with the milkman who brought the Halliday up a l Their mother relatively young, at 63 is years old, soisChrissie andcroft-size went to died Falkirk to work in a many foundry making ceramics/pottery Now, of the siblings, only Anne left – she 86 and livesof the dan amount of land and animals – including a few milk from Balquhidder Station. came home to Balquhidder to look after her old Dad who apart he g and ironworks.

When heremembers arrived he details only spoke Gaelic and the ThenLorne in Callander.

She from the girls’childhood. lived in Balquhidder at Auchtubh cows,chickens, sheep, goats, cats with and dog Snowy.

She would Chrissie When sheMacRae left school Chrissie got a job at Dalmeny in East Lothian Annd from a taught shepherd was very good horses.

He lived until menbeing there him English.

They would come up to Balquhidsa). Later They would walk the two miles to Balquhidder school every No 8 on the first corner past Coshnachie as you turn into also rescue animalswife and look–after orphaned where she became a dairymaid for Lord Rosebury. Her butter was heder was over ninety.injured fishing he sometimes met wild his future probably atmilkman one herd Isles! in Br dayforand though wouldthere get pint-sized a lift with the the glen. and She had a lambs Balquhidder sheepthey farmers. kitchen famous andHer shehouse wouldwas getsmall prizes forhome-made. it – sometimes the rest of of the the dances for which Balquhidder wasHer famous in those days. who brought the milk from Balquhidder Station. croft-size amount of land and many animals – including a few His story is an interesting one andalways Anne able to(now tellyou it:Dhanakhohe had Raeburn she was ready to invite in first for a family would go down to visit her.

Then hea got a job and as hill shepherd at was Ledcreich Chrissie with her pet goat and whitecats cat Auchtubh c Sheena cows,chickens, sheep, goats, and dog 1980s Snowy.

She would came to Scotland with his two brothers. They came over in a truck Meanwhile Ailee sa).cup Later his brothers alsowore left Falkirkone became a hill and shep Halliday ‘They were always very good to us’ , says Anne. of tea.

She always wellies.

Funny, entertaining also rescue injured wild animals and look after orphaned and went When she left school Chrissie got a job at Dalmeny in East Lonew lives, to Falkirk to work in a foundry making ceramics/pottery to wr herdaltogether in Bridgeadmirable, of Orchy and the other one went tothat Galashiels. lambs Their mother died relatively young,Her at pint-sized 63 years kitchen old, so Chrissie she resolutely maintained Auchtubh for Balquhidder sheep farmers. and ironworks.

When she he arrived only spoke and the Her thian where becamehe a dairymaid forGaelic Lord Rosebury. their two s Chrissie MacRae lived in Balquhidder at Auchtubh came to Balquhidder look after old Dad from No 8butter (also spelt Auchtoo) was awould Croft come even though the Crofthadhome a Raeburn and she wasto always readyher to invite you who, in for apart a men there taught himfamous English.

They up toforBalquhidwas and she get prizes it – sometimes not going Meanwhile, while he and his brothers were making themselves No 8 on the first corner past Coshnachie as you turn into being was very with horses.

He lived and until der he was ing Counties act ofhis 1880 hadwife long sinceto crofts cup a ofshepherd, tea. She always woregood wellies.

Funny, entertaining fishing met future there –abolished probably at onein theand restheof the would go down visither her.Auntie new lives, back onwith thefamily family croft in mother North Glendale, South theninety. glen. Her house was small and home-made. She had a Chrissie her father and and Chrissie her father and mother her Auntie Peigi at Uist, because, b over altogether admirable, she resolutely maintained that Auchtubh of thePerthshire. dances forwith which Balquhidder was and famous in those days. croft-size amount of land and many animals – including a few their two sisters, Peigi and Mairi Anndra (Chrissie’s Aunties) were sician and Peigi at Auchtubh, 1950s. © Anne Collier c Anne Collier (alsoisspelt Auchtoo) was a Croft even though thetoCroft No His8story an interesting one and Anne was able tell it: Then he first he Auchtubh-1950s got a job as hill shepherd at Ledcreich (now Dhanakhocows,chickens, sheep, goats, cats and dog Snowy. She would not going unnoticed. In fact they became very well known there to immers ing Counties act of 1880 had long since abolished crofts in Later his brothers also aleft Falkirk- one became hill shepcame Scotland with hisanimals two brothers. over in sa). a because, truck Chrissie’s mother1929 was Balquhidder Campbell anda had always alsotorescue injured wild and lookThey aftercame orphaned between and 1934, American photographer, muwas always very to us’,one says Anne.

Perthshire. herd‘She in Bridge of Orchy andgood the other went to Galashiels. their croft and wentfortoBalquhidder Falkirk to sheep work in a foundry making kitchen ceramics/pottery lambs farmers.

Her pint-sized lived atwriter Auchtubh No.8. Fay Chrissie was the oldest sician and Margaret Shaw arrived in thedaughter.

HebridesShe keen Their mother died relatively young, at 63 years old, so Chrissie the Gaelic and ironworks.

When he arrived he only spoke Gaelic and the men had a Raeburn and she was always ready to invite you in for a to immerse herself in Morag, Gaelic culture.

Sheinmaking stayed with had another sister, close to her age and therethem wereon Meanwhile, while and his brothers Chrissie’s was awore Balquhidder had always came home tohe Balquhidder to lookwere after her oldthemselves Dadstories who apart their way o cuptaught of tea.mother She English. always Funny, and there him Theywellies. wouldCampbell come entertaining upand to Balquhidder fishing their croft for six whole years recording the songs and of threeback otheron younger sisters: AnneGlendale, and Margaret. the family croftJean, in North South Uist, lived Auchtubh No.8.

Chrissie the oldestthat She new lives, altogether admirable, she resolutely maintained Auchtubh being aPeigi shepherd wasthem veryand good withneighbours, horses.

Helearning lived untilup a life lon and he at met his future wife therewas – probably atdaughter. one of the dances for thefrom Gaelic oral tradition their their two sisters, and from Mairi Anndra (Chrissie’s Aunties) Now, of the siblings, only Anne is left – she is 86 andwere lives had another sister, Morag, close to her in age and there were No 8Balquhidder (also spelt Auchtoo) was a Croft evendays. though the Crofttheir way of life,ninety. taking photographs andvery film well footage andthere striking Lorne Cam which was famous in those Then he got a job as he was over not going unnoticed.

In fact they became known three other younger sisters: Jean, Anne and Margaret. in Callander. She remembers details from the girls’childhood. ing Counties act of 1880 had long since abolished crofts in upalso a life between long friendship which endured afterphotographer, her marriage to John Anndra be hillNow, shepherd Ledcreich his lives brothers because, 1929the and 1934, American muof the at siblings, only(now AnneDhanakhosa). is left – she isLater 86 and They would walk two miles to Balquhidder schooland every Perthshire.

Lorne Campbell and their move to Canna.

And so Peigi Mairi leftinFalkirk one became a hill shepherd in Bridge of Orchy and the sician and writer Margaret Fay Shaw arrived in the Hebrides keen His story is an interesting one and Anne was able to tell it: he firstIsles!

Callander. She remembers details from the girls’childhood. day though sometimes they would get a lift with the milkman Anndra became the most photographed crofters in the Western Chrissie with her pet goat and white cat Auchtubh 1980s c Sheena to immerse herself in with Gaelic culture.

She stayed with them ona truck other one went to Galashiels.

They would walk the two miles to Balquhidder school every came to Scotland his two brothers.

They came over in Chrissie’s mother was a Balquhidder Campbell and had always who for brought the milk fromrecording Balquhidder Station.and stories of Isles!

C Halliday their croft six whole years the songs day Meanwhile, while heChrissie and would hiswas brothers making though sometimes they get liftwere with the milkman lived at Auchtubh No.8. the aoldest daughter.

Shethemselves and went totradition Falkirk from to work in and a foundry making ceramics/pottery the Gaelic oral them their neighbours, learning Aileen So who brought the milk from Balquhidder Station. new lives, back on the family croft in North Glendale, South Uist, Coming soon! had another sister, Morag, close to her in age and there were ironworks.

When he arrived only spokeand Gaelic and the theirand way of life, photographs andhefilm footage striking When she taking left school Chrissie MacRae lived in Balquhidder at Auchtubh to write t three other younger sisters: Anne and Margaret.

Aileen Solari one day Chrissie hopes got a job at Dalmeny in East Lotheir two sisters, Peigi andJean, Mairi Anndra (Chrissie’s Aunties) were men there taught him English.

They would come up to Balquhidup a life long friendship which endured after her marriage to John thian where she became a dairymaid for Lord Rosebury.

Her When she left school Chrissie got a job at Dalmeny in East Logran Now, of the siblings, only Anne is left – she is 86 and lives on the first corner past Coshnachie as you turn into No 8 to write the full story of her not going unnoticed. In fact they became very well known there Lorne Campbell and their move Canna.

Andthere so Peigi and Mairiat oneThe two sis derbutter fishing and he life. met histowould future wife –it probably thian where she became a dairymaid for Lord Rosebury.

Her was famous and she get prizes for – sometimes in Callander.

She remembers details from the girls’childhood. grand-father’s the glen.

Her house was small and home-made.

She had a because, between 1929 and 1934, American photographer, musician Iconic image Peigi milking themilking family cow.

Fay Shaw Iconicofimage of Peigi the cfamily Anndra became photographed crofters inMargaret the cow Western of the dancestheformost which Balquhidder was butter was famous and shemiles would prizes itschool – sometimes They would walk the toget Balquhidder every go down visitfamous her. in those days. © Margaret FaytoShaw croft-size amount of two land and many animals including a fewkeen and writer Margaret Fay Shaw arrived infor–the Hebrides to rest of the family would Isles! the day rest though sometimes they go would gettoavisit lift with the of the family would down her. the milkman Then he got a job as hill shepherd at Ledcreich (now Dhanakhoimmerse herself insheep, Gaelic culture.

She stayed with them cows,chickens, cats and dog Snowy.

She would who brought the milk fromgoats, Balquhidder Station.

Coming sa).

Later hissoon! brothers also left Falkirk- one became a hill shepon their croft forinjured six whole years recording also rescue wild animals and lookthe aftersongs orphaned Aileen Solari one day hopes herd in Bridge of Orchy and the other one went to Galashiels. and stories of the Gaelic oral tradition from them and lambsshe forleft Balquhidder sheep Her pint-sized When school Chrissie gotfarmers. a job at Dalmeny in Eastkitchen Loto write the full story of her their neighbours, learning their oftoRosebury. life, thian where she became dairymaid for Lord Her grand-father’s life. had a Raeburn and sheawas alwaysway ready invitetaking you in for a Meanwhile, while he and his brothers were making themselves butter was famous and she would get for itentertaining –up sometimes photographs and film footage andprizes striking a life and cup of tea.

She always wore wellies.

Funny, the friendship rest of the family would go down to visit new lives, back on the family croft in North Glendale, South Uist, long which endured after herher. marriage to altogether admirable, she resolutely maintained that Auchtubh their two sisters, Peigi and Mairi Anndra (Chrissie’s Aunties) were JohnNoLorne Campbell and their move to Canna.

And so 8 (also spelt Auchtoo) was a Croft even though the CroftPeigi and Mairi Anndra became the most photographed not going unnoticed. In fact they became very well known there ing Counties act of 1880 had long since abolished crofts in crofters in the Western Isles! because, between 1929 and 1934, American photographer, muPerthshire.

Leslie MacKenzie sician and writer Margaret Fay Shaw arrived in the Hebrides keen Balquhidder to immerse herself in Gaelic culture. She stayed with them on Chrissie’s mother was a Balquhidder Campbell and had always their croft for six whole years recording the songs and stories of lived atsoon...

Auchtubh No.8. Chrissie was the oldest daughter. She Coming the Gaelic oral tradition from them and their neighbours, learning had another sister, Morag, close to her in age and there were The twotheir sisters & Mairi.

Mairi reaping.and striking Aileen Solari one day hopes toAnne write wayPeigi of life, taking andAnndra film footage The two sisters Peigi andphotographs Mairi; threeimage otherofyounger sisters: Jean,cow. and Margaret.

Iconic Peigi milking the family c Margaret Fay Shaw c Margaret Fay Shaw Margaret Fay to Shaw The two sisters P up a life long which endured after cher marriage John Mairifriendship Anndra reaping. theNow, full story of her grandfather’s life. of the siblings, only Anne is left – she is 86 and lives Iconic image of Peigi milking the family cow. c Margaret Fay Shaw © Margaret Fay Shaw Lorne Campbell and their move to Canna. And so Peigi and Mairi in Callander. She remembers details from the girls’childhood.

Anndra became the most photographed crofters in the Western9 They would walk the two miles to Balquhidder school every Isles! day though sometimes they would get a lift with the milkman The two sisters Peigi & Mairi.

Mairi Anndra reaping.

Iconic image of Peigi milking the family cow. c Margaret Fay Shaw c Margaret Fay Shaw c Margaret Fay Shaw who brought the milk from Balquhidder Station.

Coming soon!

Balquhidder’s Last Crofter

Balquhidder’s Last Crofter

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