Forbes Family of Millers - Little Lochbroom

[eversg]

I'm researching the Forbes who were millers near Ardessie near Little Loch Broom and later near Gairloch by Poolewe. I noticed on a google map of the Little Loch Broom area a place identified as "Forbes P M". It is located east of Eilean Darach Lodge. Would someone be able to explain the origin of the naming of this place and explain what the "P" amd the "M" represent?

[ev]

Hi ,

If you Google Forbes P M , Garve it seems to be a name(of a person or company) rather than a map feature.
Can't see anything on earlier maps.



ev

[eversg]

Thanks, for the suggestion. Adding Garve to my search yields more useful info.

[Skoosh]

eversg,  there was a John Forbes a government factor on the forfeited Lovat estates who complained in a letter that there were no mills on his charge and that the people all resorted to hand-querns. Probably this was also the case on the forfeited Mackenzie estates in Wester Ross and that this Forbes the miller, an unusual name there, was new to the area, as was the mill.
 Milling ran in families, where did they originally come from? who was the government factor there? if it was the same John Forbes you can be sure that this is likely to be a relation.

Skoosh.

[eversg]

Thanks, Skoosh. Your response has introduced me to government factors (an unfamilliar occupational term to this Canadian), hand-querns and the history of the forfeited estates - interesting reading ahead. The Forbes millers that I'm investigating lived in the 1800s, about a century after the events to which you refer. However, perhaps previous generations of Forbes were millers too. A George Forbes, born around 1808 in Kilmorack or Beauly - places that are near the Lovat Estates (so I have learned) - was my gg-grandfather. By the time of the 1841 census he had relocated to run a mill at Ardessie, near Little Loch Broom. Milling was indeed a family business, since his brother, Robert ran a mill at Second Coast in the parish of Gairloch. Looking forward to learning more.

Grant

[Skoosh]

Grant, an estate mill was a source of revenue for the laird, the tenants were "thirled" to that mill and nowhere else and a portion of the meal ground went to the miller. He sold this meal and thus paid his rent. He also had the power to destroy querns where he found them and the tenants were also required to provide so many days free labour a year towards the upkeep of the mill & lades, much resented apparently. Interesting that your folk were from the Beauly area, Forbes of Culloden who organised the resistance of the Hanoverian clans in the '45 had a wee estate called Bunchrew just west of Inverness and was Lovat's neighbour. Lovat played a double game and turned his coat so many times he couldn't tell out from in. He ended up on the block and possibly this Captain John Forbes who factored the estates was one of the Culloden family. Culloden's losses in the Rebellion, (Culloden House was looted of its fine furniture by redcoat officers who shipped it to London),  were compensated in part by a license to distill whisky.
 Gairloch's estates were not forfeit as Mackenzie of Gairloch kept clear of the rebellion unlike Cromarty, Scatwell & Fairburn for example. The Mackenzie's originate on the west coast but most lairds also had estates in the east, where they lived in the Winter. If one of those families died in the west their coffin was shouldered by relays of hundreds of their tenants  over the hills, to Beauly for burial, much lubricated by whisky it must be said! When Forbes of Culloden's mother died the grief-stricken funeral party arrived at the kirkyard minus the coffin, the Forbes's were renowned for their fondness for a hauf.
 By 1800 the old feudal milling exactions had been abolished but they probably never existed in Wester Ross anyhow. My own ancestors were also millers and a good book on the subject is "The Scottish Country Miller, 1700-1900," by Enid Gauldie, pub' John Donald.
 The only Forbes mentioned in the book is Captain John Forbes, it's just strange that at the time he's writing to the Government for permission to build mills in 1755, millers of that name appear in Wester Ross shortly afterwards.

Bests,

Skoosh.

Found a reference to a meal mill at Bunchrew

http://bunchrewhousehotel.com/history/the-forbes-clan/

Also a reference in the Inverness records of an Alexander Forbes, the miller at Castlehill Mill, June 3, 1603.
 

[eversg]

Very interesting history. I'll try to locate a copy of the book by Enid Gauldie. Another book with links to Captain Forbes is "Scotland Farewell: The Story of the Hector" by Donald McKay. My direct Forbes connection essentially ends in 1873 with the passing of George Forbes. I am descended from a daughter of George who married a crofter, Roderick Macleod, of Inverasdale on Lock Ewe. On a trip to Scotland in 2012, we saw the site of George Forbes' old mill at Boor which is located just south of Poolewe. While visiting the local Gairloch museum, we spoke at the time with a volunteer who was compiling info on the history of milling in the area. I am now very curious about what led George Forbes to become a miller and then move to Ross-shire from Kilmorack.

Cheers,

Grant

[Maryburgh]

Yes, the P Forbes is the name of people that farm at Eilean Darrach. There is no trace of the mill at Ardessie but you can still see the mill at second coast.

[eversg]

Yes, the P Forbes is the name of people that farm at Eilean Darrach. There is no trace of the mill at Ardessie but you can still see the mill at second coast.

Thanks for the info. Upon receiving your post, through googling I found a photo of the ruins of the mill at Second Coast and others of this beautiful remote hamlet.