Dear Rory
You might want to look at the fact than no Sinclair was ever transported or
cleared we were the only highland clan treated that way. Our Chiefs
protected Caithness even starting industries among them the Harrow pavement
works. The Earl was attained after the second rising in 1715. We learned
our lesson We did not participate in the Jacobite 1719 or 1745 rising or
for a matter of fact in the 1709 rising. I did this little cronology for the
list then decided not to post it. One of the great stories about the 45
was when Bonny Prince Charlies Army reached Manchester they needed recruits.
They sent a drummer and a whore ahead of them to gather men. Between them
they only raised 200 history does not record if the drummer was a greater
success than the whore. The dream that we were there on the day (Culloden)
dies hard there is no cause as a cause lost to wax sentimental about. Sir
John's idea about sheep just backfired. Liked your comments about Henry
celebrations
13th Century -- The Seer Thomas of Erceldoune (aka Thomas the Rhymer or
True Thomas)
reportedly prophesied about the Highlands:"The teeth of the sheep shall lay
the (useless)
plough up on the shelf." 350 odd years later, Coinneach Odhar, augmented
Thomas' vision:
"The day will come when the Big Sheep will put the plough up in the
rafters......the Big Sheep
will overrun the country till they meet the Northern Sea... ...(and) in the
end, old men shall
return from new lands..."
1739 -- MacDonald of Sleat and Macleod of Dunvegan sell selected Clan
members as
indentured servants to the Carolinas.
1746 (April) -- After Culloden, some Highlanders are sent to the Caribbean
as slaves.
1747 -- the Act of Proscription bans the wearing of party cloth (tartan),the
teaching of Gaelic,
the right of Highlanders to "gather,"and the playing of bagpipes in
Scotland.
1747 -- the Heritable Jurisdictions Act forces Highland landowners to either
accept all English
jurisdiction or else forfeit their lands. Many Highland landowners and Clan
chiefs move to
London.
1762 -- Sir John Lockhart-Ross brings sheep to his Balnagowan estate, raises
tenant rents,
installs fences and Lowlander shepherds.
1782 -- Thomas Gillespie and Henry Gibson lease a sheep-walk at Loch Quoich,
removing
more than 500 tenants, most of whom emigrate to Canada.
1782 -- the Act of Proscription is repealed, but many Highland landowners,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.
1780s (late) -- Donald Cameron of Lochiel begins clearing his family lands,
which span from
Loch Leven to Loch Arkaig.
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.
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 favour 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.
As ever
Sinclair
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