Durness Parish Register - Part 2

[djct59]

"Iye" is an Anglicisation of Aiodh - a very common name in Clan MacKay, which means "Sons of Aiodh". It was the forename of a number of clan chieftains.

Angus the miller could indeed be the major's grandson, but the name's not uncommon,  so it's by no means certain.

[meanno]

"Iye" is an Anglicisation of Aiodh - a very common name in Clan MacKay, which means "Sons of Aiodh". It was the forename of a number of clan chieftains.

Angus the miller could indeed be the major's grandson, but the name's not uncommon,  so it's by no means certain.

Thankyou. As I said it's really just something to speculate on and I've also no idea how much the lineage given in the Book of Mackay can be relied upon. Perhaps the fact that he had the slightly elevated status of a miller adds a bit of credence to the possibility.

[meanno]

I've come across some documents in the NRS catalogue which probably disprove my own theory regarding Angus Mackay's parentage so I think I should record it here for future reference.
In 1665 Major Iye Mackay made an assignation to his eldest son John and three siblings. This would indicate that John was born probably pre 1660 at least which would make him 90 or more when Angus Mackay was born in c.1749(assuming Angus's headstone has been correctly transcribed).
The reference to 1723 in the Book of Mackay that I referred to in my earlier post was probably to the "PRECEPT of CLARE CONSTAT by George, Lord Reay, in favour of John Mackay [McKay] in Ballimullich, son of deceased Major Iye Mackay" which only proves that John was alive in 1723.
With John being in Bailamhuic, very near to Craigiemhulin where Angus was firstly a miller, he does seem to be a strong candidate as Angus's father but for the age problem. Not impossible, but?

This link brings up the documents referred to:
http://catalogue.nrscotland.gov.uk/nrsonlinecatalogue/overview.aspx?st=2&tc=y&tl=n&tn=n&tp=n&k=&ko=a&r=GD84%2f1%2f21&ro=s&df=&dt=&di=y&dc=&dco=s&t=&to=o&

[wilros]

Building out the family group of Roderick Sutherland of Sangomore who married Mary Mackay in Farr Parish on 31 January 1834. Angi Lamb's Durness birth and baptism index shows six children in their family, starting with Angus Sutherland on 2 December 1834 in Sangomore. The remaining 5 children were born in Leathad.

This family connects to my tree via their second child, Margaret Sutherland, b. 12 August 1839 in Leathad. Margaret married Angus Mackay on 3 August 1875 at Clibrig in Farr Parish, and died at Inverness on 28 March 1922. Informant on her death registration was her son-in-law William George Sutherland.

Where in Sutherland is Leathad?

[djct59]

Leathad is Laid, on the west side of Loch Eriboll.

It was constructed as a clearance village. The crofters evicted from the townships in Strathmore and Strathbeg were given plots of land at Laid to farm. There are no entries in the parish register for Leathad until the 1820/30ss as the land was considered uninhabitable.

To be frank, the crofter were right; it was difficult to eke out a living from the rough peaty soil there. It was perhaps the last place on the UK mainland to obtain mains electricity - if memory serves it was linked to the National Grid in 1978. When I was a boy the crofts depended on wind generators to obtain any power and the crofters were all deeply impoverished.

It's now quite a thriving arty community. Lotte Glob has her sculpture croft there -

and there are the Croft 103 Eco homes available for rent nearby - https://www.croft103.com/

[wilros]

Leathad is Laid, on the west side of Loch Eriboll.

djct59, Thanks very much. I didn't realise Leathad was Laid. UK Geograph has excellent photos of Laid.

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/596819

Those Eco accomodations look fabulous, though out of my price range.

Here's the five other children born at Leathad to Roderick Sutherland and Mary Mackay. As with other records from this era the dates are baptism, not birth.

Margaret Sutherland, b. 13 August 1839 at Leathad
Mary Sutherland, b. 13 August 1842 at Leathad
William Sutherland, b. 21 December 1844 at Leathad
Robert Sutherland, b. 26 February 1847 at Leathad
Kenneth Thomson Sutherland, b. 1 November 1853 at Leathad

[wr]

[wilros]

I'm stumped by the thin evidence here.

From ScotlandsPeople Old Parish Registers, Marriages 048/ 20/ 24 (page 24 of 37).

"1822 March 15 - At Saingobeg James Campbell Serv't Borley and Christian Dingwall dau. of Alex. Dingwall"

This page is not in Rev. Findlater's handwriting, and is signed at the bottom by "James Campbell, Sheriff substitute of Sutherland"

There's no corresponding baptism in the Durness Register for a Christian Dingwall of the right age to be the bride in this wedding, while the Durness Register follows the wedding with 4 sons baptised by James Campbell and Christian Dingwall from 1823 to 1834.

Perhaps Christian Dingwall daughter of Alexander Dingwall was not baptized? There was a three year gap between Alexander Dingwall's marriage to Christian Mackay of Uaibeg in 1797 and their first baptism of Neil Dingwall in 1800, so the Christian that married James Campbell could have been born before Neil but not baptized.

In the 1841 Census there is a James and Kitty Campbell household, with James identified as "Sheriff Officer" which is good confirmation for the James Campbell who transcribed the Durness Register pages. The James and Kitty Campbell household has four sons ages 10 to 20, all born in Sutherland. The youngest son Eric is 10 years, but ages in the 1841 census are unreliable due to the age rounding instructions given to census enumerators.

There is an Eric Campbell baptised on 18th May 1830 to parents James Campbell and Catherine McIntosh of Portcamill. Is this the James and Kitty Campbell household in the census? Throwing the search open to any Campbell born in Sutherland between 1815 and 1835 does not discover a second infant baptised to James Campbell and Catherine Mackenzie beyond Eric in any parish.

But my main pursuit here is Christian Dingwall daughter of Alexander Dingwall. I suspect that James Campbell servant at Borley and James Campbell Sheriff are not the same person, and that James Campbell servant at Borley and his family were gone before the 1841 census, and that his wife Christian Dingwall was the right age to be a daughter of Alexander Dingwall and his wife Christian Mackay.

[wr]

[djct59]

Wilros: You're getting confused by terminology.

A sheriff- substitute at that time was a legally qualified judge, of lower rank than a sheriff, but usually a post given to an advocate with substantial landholdings in the area, after he had spent some yerars practising law. The term "sheriff-substitute" was a misnomer, as they were the judge for the locality, subject to the direction of a sheriff who sat at a head court many miles away. The terms were replaced by the more accurate "sheriff" and "Sheriff principal" by the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1971.

A sheriff officer is the man who cites witnesses, serves writs and enforces court orders for debt, similar to an English bailiff. It is not a job requiring a legal qualification beyond a basic exam on the practice of the trade. It's a job commonly done nowadays by ex-cops, but in the 19th century might be done by a former soldier.

Therefore sheriff-substitute James Campbell and sheriff officer James Campbell are not the same man.

The James Campbell servant in Borley in 1822 could conceivably be a sheriff officer in 1841, although "Kitty" is more likely to be "Katherine", and he would need to have moved up in the world to jump from being a servant to a server of court documents. It's far from likely and the name is a common one.

The 1822 marriage appears to be a common law Scots irregular marriage being formalised by warrant of a court. This type of order has been discussed on Rootschat before.

Moving on to Christian Dingwall, I agree that the most plausible explanation is that her baptism record is missing. There is a rather surprising gap in the records for the second half of 1798, with eighteen baptisms from 5th January to 18th July, and only three for the rest of the year. This might imply that a page of paper records has been missed from Hew Morrison, and perhaps been lost completely. While a drop in births could be the result of catastrophe, I'm not wawre of any record that would explain it and the date fits your hypothesis.

Finally, migration to the west and south was becoming common by the early 19th century, so a departure to Canada or elsewhere is certainly feasible. Records by name are not readily accessible online.

[wilros]

Finally, migration to the west and south was becoming common by the early 19th century, so a departure to Canada or elsewhere is certainly feasible. Records by name are not readily accessible online.

i found their grave - they emigrated to the same place where my 3x great-grandparents from sutherland emigrated - boularderie island, a small part of the cape breton archipelago.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194324276/christina-campbell
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194324275/james-campbell
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194299787/john-ross
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194299767/robina-ross

too funny...

[wr]