Border shepherds in North of Scotland

[belfordian]

Can anyone direct me to sources of information about the Border shepherds who left their homes in Northumberland, Roxburghshire  etc to work in Sutherland and Caithness after the Highland Clearances in late 18 and early 19c? How were they recruited? How did they travel up there? Did many return to their native counties?

I would appreciate help with this.

[djct59]

There's very little written about the shepherds themselves.

What is known is that the Duchess of Sutherland formed the view that the rents of the highland estates she had acquired from the impecunious Lords Reay were insufficient. She and her factors therefore cleared the tenants in the early 19th century to give the land over to sheep.

Malcolm Bangor-Jones wrote an article called "Sheep farming in Sutherland in the eighteenth
century" in the Agricultural History Review - you can access it online. That tells the story of how Cheviot sheep were selected as best suited to the conditions in Sutherland. As the best sheep for the area were from the Cheviots, so it came to pass that shepherds from the same hills came north with the sheep.

The main names in the early days were the Reed family - a number of shepherds named sons Ellerington Reed after the name of the man who had secured them employment.

Shepherds were hardy souls who were happy to walk forty miles a day, so they came up on foot; probably took little more than a week.

By the early 19th century most of the shepherds in the parish of Durness were from the south - either specified as such or by having non-highland names. Between 1795 and 1814 we find the following in the parish records:

Donald MacIntyre from Argyll
Francis Frenc
George Orr from the Lothians
William Orr
Donald Henderson
Robert Gordon
John Cleugh
Thomas Mather from Northumberland
James Black from Northumberland
William Campbell from Cumnock, Ayrshire
John MacDermid from Perthshire
Adam Johnston

[belfordian]

Thank you djct59 for your information. I have found some info re Gabriel Reed in the past. I have been surprised by the numbers who went up there judging from census returns and OPR records. I am especially pleased to learn more names of shepherds. All these clues may help me!  I will look up the article you mention.

I am particularly interested in the family of William Turnbull and Eleanor Robson and have traced some of their children born up there (1807-1825) although there is some confused info on the internet which includes a few red herrings I think. If anyone has any information on this line (other than baptisms of children) I would love to have it. Some of the children remained up there (after the parents returned to Northumberland with the other children) and eventually emigrated to USA.

Thanks again for your help.
Val

[Skoosh]

The bottom fell out of sheep production in the Highlands after Bell & Co, Glasgow invented the refrigerated ship around 1870? after which the first cargo of lamb & beef arrived from Oz/NZ & hills previously under sheep were soon let for sporting purposes. A rash of sporting lodges sprang up & the glory days of shepherding were over. People were cleared for sheep & shepherds were cleared for deer.

Skoosh.

[Rena]

I can't direct you to a specific source unfortunately but can give a general outline of the European recruitment system before the 20th century.   

You'll find each locality held a regular market where sheep, cattle, geese, etc., were bought and sold.  From the 12th century, Royal Charters giving permission for these ancient markets were granted by the King and it stipulated when they could be held, e.g. monthly or bi-annually.  I should imagine that's where your ancestors linked up with the Duchess's Agent who would have set up his stall to sign up suitable men. 

As there weren't many roads in those days, these animals were taken too and from the markets by drovers on drovers trails which went over mountains and down dales.  I've seen a couple of TV programmes, one of which travelled the length of Britain with a gaggle of geese being taken to the London market, staying overnight at various taverns along the way, and another which showed cattle using a Scottish drovers' trail.   

Unfortunately I can't find any online maps showing the trails, although I know some do exist. It may interest you to know that Northumberland advertises parts of the old droving trails for walking holidays.     

Also, all over Europe, some markets were held specificaly for job hunters to find employment. Glasgow had a "Feeing Market" held in May and November for example: http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSE00659

http://www.oldroadsofscotland.com/roads%20by%20county%20cambridge.htm

[Skoosh]

@Rena, Haldane's "The Drove Roads of Scotland" covers that stuff, you might get it online. The coming of the railways put an end to the droving. Shepherds who faced redundancy around the 1880's either became keepers or emigrated. Ironically, the guys down-under who produced the cheap lamb which undercut Highland producers were descendants of the people who were cleared from the glens to make way for sheep in the first place. 

Skoosh.

[Rena]

@Rena, Haldane's "The Drove Roads of Scotland" covers that stuff, you might get it online. The coming of the railways put an end to the droving. Shepherds who faced redundancy around the 1880's either became keepers or emigrated. Ironically, the guys down-under who produced the cheap lamb which undercut Highland producers were descendants of the people who were cleared from the glens to make way for sheep in the first place. 

Skoosh.

You're a fount of knowledge Skoosh!

All I found was that there's ample online information about Welsh Drove Roads from east Anglia, through Herefordshire, etc., that supplied the men working in the iron and steel industry in Wales but not much else.   

[djct59]

The drove road from Lairg to the north-western tip of Sutherland is now the A838; there is still a massive sheep sale in Lairg - the report from the auctioneers this year is that "United Auctions (Tuesday 4th October 2016) sold 8397 North Country Cheviot gimmers and ewes at their annual sale. With buyers from Cornwall in the South to Orkney in the North also Ireland the centre saw a large attendance of buyers including many purchasing North Country Cheviots for the first time."

Mind you, as Skoosh says, numbers of sheep have declined over the years. as recently as 1923 the number of adult sheep in the parish of Durness when economic pressures forced the creation of a sheepstock club, exceeded 5,000. I suspect the present figure is barely half that.

[Rena]

That's interesting to know djdc.   

Bedfordian;  genuki.co.uk is very informative for background information and I thought you might be interested in seeing a list of fairs/markets in Northumberland.

http://www.genuki.bpears.org.uk/NBL/Topics/Markets.html