Jacobites and the Ferintosh Distillery

In the 1790's, Sir John Sinclair attempted to conduct the first census in Scotland. For this inaugural attempt, Sir John sent a questionnaire to the ministers of every parish and asked them to answer a number of questions. He compiled and published all the responses in the first statistical account of Scotland (1).

In Ferintosh, the Rev. Charles Calder responded for Urquhart and Logie Wester parish (2). Although his response was sent 8 years after the last Cameron child immigrated to America, his remarks still address life in Ferintosh during the decades, and even century, previous.

From the mid 1600s, the Forbes family owned a large portion of land in the Urquhart & Logie Wester parish called Ferintosh. Some time before 1689, the whisky distillery at Ferintosh was established at Ryefield. In 1690 it became the first legal distillery in Scotland, with exclusive duty free rights to produce whisky. Rev. Calder describes the events that led to this great favor:

"...Duncan Forbes of Culloden, one of those patriots, who, at the glorious period of the Revolution, stood up in defense of the religion and liberties of their country. By opposing the disaffected, and supporting the loyal subjects in his neighborhood, at much expense, he was materially instrumental in quashing a rebellion, which at that time threatened the north of Scotland. Going some time thereafter to Holland, in prosecution of the same patriotic plan, the Popish faction, during his absence, laid waste his estates, particularly the barony of Ferrintosh, and destroyed extensive distilleries... In compensation for the losses, which he had thus sustained in the service of Government, the Parliament of Scotland, by an act passed in 1690, farmed to him and his successors, the yearly excise rite of the lands of Ferrintosh..."

All was not quiet in Ferintosh after whisky distillation began in earnest, however. Rev. Calder describes how Ferintosh experienced yet more disquiet 25 years later:

"In 1715, the original granter’s son, adhering to the principals of the Revolution, raised all the men upon his estates, and deeply impaired his private fortune, by keeping them in arms at his own expense, until that rebellion was happily quelled."

I would expect Murdo Cameron and his son Duncan (b.1701) would have been called upon to join Forbes army. The Highlands rarely saw a long stretch of quiet years in the 17th and 18th centuries. If clansmen were not fighting each other, they were engaging in religious war with their neighbors. The rebellions of 1690 and 1715 were both tied to the Jacobite Rising.

At its heart, the Jacobite Rising was a religious civil war, and it began with the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. With no children to succeed her on the throne, Elizabeth's closest living relative was her cousin King James VI of Scotland, who became King James I of England.

James Stuart was Catholic, and a friend of France, neither of which set well with English nobles. Conflict between the religiously tolerant Stuarts and English Protestant nobles led to The Glorious Revolution of 1688, when King James II was overthrown by his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband, William of Orange, with the support of a large number of British nobility. James II fled to his Catholic allies in France.

James II's son, James Francis Edward Stuart, tried to reclaim the English throne in 1715, but he was unsuccessful. His eldest son, Charles Edward Stuart "Bonny Prince Charlie", returned to Scotland to appeal to the Clans to support his claim to the throne of England and Scotland. France was willing to support Charlie, and so the Jacobite Rising of 1745 was launched. The Lochiel of Clan Cameron was a particularly strong supporter of Prince Charlie, and he sent clansmen to accompany Charles in an invasion of England.

Despite some success in England, unfavorable conditions forced Charles and the Clans to retreat back to Scotland and eventually back to Inverness. The final battle of the Jacobite Rising occurred just east of Inverness at Culloden on April 16, 1746. The Scots suffered significant and unrecoverable losses and the Rising was over. Just 20 miles away, and seven months later, in Ferintosh, Jean Matheson Cameron gave birth to her first son John.

Duncan Cameron (b. 1718) and Jean Matheson (b. 1704) were married in 1744 and had nine children. All of the children were born in Scotland, but many of them immigrated to America. Below are dates of birth for their children, with dates of death given for those that I believe died in Scotland. I do not have further information on these children, and would welcome input from any living descendants! The children without a date of death listed here immigrated to and died in America, and their story will be continued in another blog post.

1. John Cameron - born Nov. 20, 1745 2. Margaret Cameron - born Sept. 25, 1747, married Alex McIntoshe, died in 1825 3. Alexander Cameron - born Sept. 12, 1749 4. Duncan Cameron - born Oct. 20, 1754, died Nov. 22, 1832 5. William Cameron - born Dec. 24, 1756 6. Donald Cameron - born Sept. 24, 1759 7. Allan Cameron - born Mar. 26, 1762, died in 1786 at age 24 8. Jean Cameron - born Mar. 19, 1765, married Don Simpson, died in 1815 9. Ewen Cameron - born Feb. 23, 1768

Duncan Cameron is listed by George as a taxman of Balgalkin. In 1868 a valuation was taken within the parish and of Balgalkin it was noted: "This name is applied to a dwelling house one storey high thatched and in middling repair it is situated about one mile to the south east of the village of Conon [altered to read Conan] Arthur Forbes Esqr Proprietor". The roll does not mention if the Cameron family still lived in this house (and rented from Arthur Forbes), but the name of the home was confirmed by a McKenzie, a McDonald, and a Ross (3).

Duncan is also listed as taxman of Tighnahoun, but I cannot find this location in any records. "Tigh-na" is Gaelic for "house of". "Houn" is not in the Gaelic dictionary, but I found at least one other place name that uses it. The mystery continues.

It is unknown whether the Camerons of Ferintosh supported Prince Charlie in the '45 Jacobite Rising as their cousins in Lochabar did. We do know that both the Ferintosh and Lochabar Camerons were Episcopalian, a religious minority in Scotland. Over half of the Jacobites in England were Episcopalians, who preferred the religiously tolerate Stuarts to the intolerant Protestant crown.

The Lord of Ferintosh, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, was a politician, judge, and strong supporter of the crown. Forbes met with clansmen to try to convince them not to support Prince Charlie. When the Jacobite Rising of '45 became impossible to ignore, Duncan Forbes raised over 2,000 men in support of the crown. Forbe's men participated in the Battle of Prestonpans in September of 1745, and then retreated to Skye at the beginning of 1746, where they heard about the decisive defeat at Culloden.

Although he was a taxman beholden to Lord Forbes, it is unlikely that Duncan Cameron joined Forbes' army because Jean became pregnant with their first child while Forbes and his men were retreating to Skye. Perhaps Duncan Cameron was a valuable craftsman whose absence would have been missed at Ferintosh. Some men surely had to remain in the Black Isle to contribute to the famous whisky distillery.

In 1760, Forbe's son expanded the distilleries at Ferintosh due to incredible demand. The new distilleries were built a mile away at Gallow Hill and Mulchaich Farm. By 1760, Duncan and Jean had six children and their oldest, John, was 15 years old. John chose not to pursue a career in whisky distillation or related industries, but instead to dedicate his life to religion. Perhaps he foresaw the trouble ahead, or perhaps he was simply weary of the trouble behind. John was educated at King's College, Aberdeen and was ordained as an Episcopalian priest by the Bishop of Chester in 1768 or 1770. It was sometime there after that the Cameron children began immigrating to America.

In 1784 the Wash Act was passed to reduce excise taxes in order to stimulate the legal distillation of whisky in the Highlands. This made whisky distillation more accessible, but also carried severe penalties and restrictions and effectively ended Ferintosh's right of exemption from duty. Forbes was offered a payment as compensation, but it was not enough to save Ferintosh's distilleries. Some of the Camerons immigrated prior to the Wash Act, but immigration from Ferintosh increased suddenly and dramatically after it was passed. Duncan and Jean's youngest son, Ewen, was 17 years old, and he left for America in 1785. The famous poet Robert Burn's would lament:

Thee, Ferintosh! Oh, sadly lost! Scotland lament frae coast to coast! Now colic grips, and barkin' hoast May kill us a'; For loyal Forbes's charter'd boast Is ta'en awa'!

Thae curst horse-leeches o’ th’ Excise Wha mak the whisky stells their prize! Haud up thy han’, Deil! ance, twice, thrice! There, seize the blinkers! An’ bake them up in brunstane pies For poor damn’d drinkers.’

Robert Burns, 'Scotch Drink', 1785

Rev. Calder notes a great decline in the population of the parish from 1779 (3022 souls) to 1789 (2597 souls). He contributes this decline to the loss of the whisky distilleries at Ferintosh due to loss of the duty. He explains: "Upon the extinction of this right, many of the people, being deprived of employment, were obliged to seek elsewhere for that support, which they had no expectation that the place could any longer afford; and in a little time thereafter, the inhabitants of the parish were found to have decreased some hundreds in number. The people of that district ... underwent in general a great deterioration, as to their circumstances and mode of living, from that event, against which few of them comparatively had made any provision. The monopoly they enjoyed, and the acknowledged superiority of the spirits produced from their small stills, occasioned a demand for them from all quarters, and a constant circulation of cash in the place, which brought the people in general an ease in their circumstances, and a fullness of the necessities of life, beyond what commonly falls to the class of farmers. A transition in these respects to the level of their neighours, so abrupt, would have been more severely felt; had it not found some mitigation in the distinguished humanity of the proprietor of these lands."

Rev. Calder describes a number of tradesmen in the parish: Masons (34), Carpenters (16), Millers (8), Weavers (29), Tailors (29), Shoemakers (18), and Smiths (7). All of these craftsmen would have suffered from a sudden drop in population. I believe Ewen Cameron must have apprenticed under one of the carpenters, because he would later become known for his carpentry skills in Tennessee.

The farms in the parish were mostly small crop farms, with a few large exceptions having livestock as well. Many of the population were tradesmen or day laborers. Rev. Calder notes that the poor population is fairly large, with the years 1783 and 1784 being the lowest income years in memory. Interestingly, the population is fluent in Gaelic, with many, but not all, also fluent in English.

One of the particular difficulties of the region was in obtaining fuel. At this time bridges to the mainland did not exist, so travel to the mainland either required a very long trek around the end of the peninsula, or hazarding the use of ferries, that were not reliably safe. The land did not provide much fuel, so most inhabitants had to harvest peat or moss "at a great expense of time and labour". Those who worked with the distillery could acquire coal, but many relied on buying peat from the mainland at high prices, and went without heat and cook fires as much as possible.

The absence of reliable transportation to the mainland also severely inhibited correspondence. The parish did not have a post office and access to news and communication from outside the Black Isle was nearly non-existent. This may be why our own family history was so difficult to piece together, and why some family members fate is still unknown.

Finally, Rev. Calder described the people of Urquhart and Logie Wester parish as very charitable, hospitable, and religiously devout. Amusingly, he relates that there were no "...dissenters in the parish of any denomination, except some Episcopalians, who live in the western district, and attend a place of worship in a neighbouring parish". The Camerons did live in the west of the parish and were Episcopalian. Crime was almost non-existent. Attendance at school was very high, and two schools run by religious institutions served the community. Rev. Calder bragged about the high number of students that went on to divinity school from the local area, and was probably including two Cameron students in that number (John and William).

It seems likely that a combination of decades of warfare and the sudden decline of the Ferintosh distillery is what prompted so many of the Cameron children in this generation to immigrate to America. Their religion may have also placed an uncomfortable target on them. To read more about the children that decided to seek a better life in America, check out the next blog: Camerons in Virginia.

Pictures:

a. Images of Mulchaich Farm with distillery foundations still visible. The Lost Distilleries of Scotland: Ryefield by Sadaaki(Teimei) Horiuchi.

b. The Battle of Culloden, oil on canvas, David Morier, 1746.

c. Map of the Black Isle

d. Duncan Forbes of Culloden

e. Ferintosh distillery bottle with the seal of Culloden (for Duncan Forbes of Culloden)

f. Ryefield

1. The Statistical Account of Scotland drawn up from the communications of the ministers of the different parishes by Sir John Sinclair, Bart. Edinburgh, 1791 – 1799. V. 5. United Parishes of Urquhart and Loggy Wester (County of Ross) by the Rev. Mr. Charles Calder. p. 203-217

2. Several place names apply to the area of the Black Isle in which the Cameron family lived: Ferintosh: the name of a large parcel of land in the Black Isle owned by Lord Duncan Forbes, and managed by various taxmen (some of them Camerons), within the parish of...

Urquhart & Logie Wester: a parish which lies partly in the County of Ross and Cromarty, and partly in the County of Nairn (depending on the date). Contains the villages of Conanbridge and Newton and the hamlet of Culbokie. The town of Dingwall is 2 miles to the northwest, across the Cromarty Firth.The Camerons of Ferintosh were rather dedicated to these locations, and finding any of these place names while researching the family is a good indication that you are on the right track!

3. Ordnance Survey Name Books, Ross and Cromarty Mainland, 1848-1852, volume 31, OS1/28/31/74