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Came
across the following while trying to make room for Andrew when he returns.
Thought it might be of interest to those doing research in Argyll.
Think
it is from "MACTALLA Argyll Teachers Magazine" Spring 1954 by Colin M.
MacDonald, M.A., D.Litt., Emeritus Director of Education for
Argyll.
"The Valuation Roll of Argyll for the year 1751, compiled at a time
when the stirring and momentous events of the Forty-Five were fresh in the
memories of all Highlanders, is of very great importance to the interested
student of the Geography and History as well as of the Finance of
Argyll.
When
the Roll was written the boundaries of the County differed very considerably
from those with which we are now familiar and enclosed in their spacious ambit
territories that no longer form part of modern Argyll.
As is
generally well known, the County from the North to the South is now divided into
the Administrative Districts of Mull, Ardnamurchan, North and South Lorn, Mid
Argyll, Cowal, Kintyre and Islay but two hundred years ago the Districts as they
appear in their illogical order in the Valuation Roll were Cowal, Kintyre,
Islay, Lorn and Mull.
Of
these Districts Argyll covered the most extensive area and included - in
addition to the familiar Parishes of the present time - four others: (1)
Inishail and Clachandisart (the old ecclesiastical name of Dalmally), (2)
Kilchrenan and Dalavich, (3) Kilmelford and (4) Kilberry and Kilcalmonell, for
many centuries part of the domain of the MacDonald Lords of the Isles. The
reasons for the inclusion of these parishes in old Argyll were partly historical
and ecclesiastical but mainly administrative for this old Argyll formed the main
portion of the Sheriffdom of Argyll, which, prior to 1633, was a Campbell
Sheriffdom with the Knights of Lochawe (the Campbell Earls) as Hereditary
Sheriffs.
Cowal,
it may be noted with some surprise, overran the borders of modern Mid0Argyll
through the inclusion in its area of the Parish of Kilmalieu or Glenaray, now so
closely associated with Inveraray and its neighborhood. The modern Parish
of Kilmodan - an obvious ecclesiastical name - had the alternative geographical
title of Glendaruel, while Dunoon, which had not yet passed from the state of
villagehood to burghal dignity, was situated in the Parish of Kilmun and Dunoon
rather than of Dunoon and Kilmun.
Kintyre as a district was composed of one insular Parish, that of Gigha,
and three extensive mainland Parishes (1) Killean, Saddell and Kilchezie, (ii)
Kilkerran, Kilmichael, and Kilchousland and (iii) Kilcolmkill, Kilblaan and
Kilkivan. These very names in themselves show how pervasive was the
influence of the Church in Kintyre in ancient times for they all, with the
exception of Saddell, recall the names of Saints, the majority of whom are
Celtic, while Saddell itself owned its celebrity to the Abbey, the foundation of
which was initiated by the great Somerled of the Isles, whose son Reginald
carried to fruition about the middle of the Twelfth century the pious
aspirations of his father.
Islay
- which is invariably spelt "Ilay" in the Valuation Roll - differs
from the majority of the other Districts in that no Parishes at all are shown
and the land is valued according to the estates of the individual
proprietors. The landlord with the largest stake in the island was Daniel
Campbell of Shawfield, who shard the Island with other landowners, all of whom,
wit h the solitary exception of a Charles Murray, were members of Clan Campbell
that had ousted the Macdonalds of Dunivaig from their ancestral lands more than
a century earlier. By a somewhat strange contrast we find in this District
a reference to a Parish in Jura but not of Jura s in modern times and the name
of this comprehensive Parish of "Kilcarnadile" has become entirely
obsolete in Argyll terminology.
The
District of Lorn was made up of fewer Parishes than those now embraced in the
area of modern North and South Lorn, which have expanded their boundaries at the
expense of the old Argyll now represented more or less satisfactorily by the
"real" Argyll, the Mid-Argyll of our own
days."
Ok -
going cross-eyed. If anyone's interested I will finish second part of
article - it gives info on the land owners of Argyll on the
Roll.
Jul
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