More Peaceful Times

Cas Chrom, or 'foot plough' 'With this instrument, a man will take 16 days to turn up one acre.' (Report by J. Blackadder to Lord MacDonald, in 1800) Courtesy of Royal Scottish Museum.

At about this time it became the practice for all farms to be let at a given date for a fixed period of years. When the estate was 'set' in this way in 1754 the farms at the Rhu and Leasol were merged together to form one large unit., the whole being designated 'Rhundunan'. And thus began a series of mergers which were to culminate 75 years later in south Minginish being organised as a single sheep farm.

Assynt, recently acquired from the MacKenzies of Seaforth, was 'set' about this time by a Captain Sutherland, tutor to the Duchess of Sutherland who was still a minor. His approach was the opposite to MacLeod of Dunvegan. He thought the Tacksmen's farms were too large and that they were too powerful. In particular, he correctly suspected that they were arranging, leading and encouraging emigration. In an attempt to reduce their power he introduced con-joint or shared tacks.

MacKenzie of Ardloch, along with others, was active in arranging passages for Assynt men at the time. Some five years later he received word from the Carolinas from several young Assynt men who wished to take over farms in Assynt. They offered a guaranteed 20% annual rent increase for the first five years and would arrange management by relatives still in Assynt. The offer was conveyed to the Sutherland tutors who ignored it.

Considering the fact that these young men would have been, at the very best, sons of sub-tenants or even costars, it gives some indication of their progress in America.

The man who oversaw these changes at 'Rhundunan' was Kenneth MacAskill, eldest son of John MacAskill of Rhundunan. According to a contemporary account he was ' a rich man and ambitious with it'. He became a Justice of the Peace before he was thirty and then got embroiled in county politics over the franchise (right to vote.) In 1795 he joined the The Royal Fencible Highland Regiment and served with them for five years in Ireland.

As Kenneth was John MacAskill's eldest son and would have automatically inherited Rhudunan it seems highly probable that the old man would have been able to fund the acquisition of 'Tacks' for other members of the family. We know for instance that, in 1746 and 1748 respectively, Choinnich MacAskill and Thaisgaill MacAskill moved from Minginish in Skye to become tacksmen of the Island of Berneray in North Uist.

The Choinnic or Kenneth MacAskill (Steelbow) mentioned here fathered Angus who was Captain of the *Old Trojan's birlinn. The remainder of the family tree can be traced on down to the 1950's. Taskill MacAskill, fathered James etc. and his tree can also be traced downwards to 1914.

(*Note: Donald MacLeod of Berneray was the 'Old Trojan' (whose birlinn Angus MacAskill captained) and was a grandson of Sir Norman MacLeod, an old Jacobite. Donald shared all his grandfather's royalist sympathies. When asked by his Chief, MacLeod of Dunvegan, to come to fight for the Hanoverian Government with 20 men, he sent the men with the message, "In any other quarrel I would be at their head, but in the present juncture, I must go where a more imperious duty calls me."

Although past the prime of life he set off on his own and joined Prince Charles on his retreat from Derby and narrowly escaped death at Culloden. For a time he hid from the Hanoverian troops in a cave at Ulladale in the forest of North Harris and latterly in a cave on Toe Head at Northton, South Harris.

In this latter place he was attended by a young boy, John Martin. In the Inverness Courier of 25th March 1846 is a note, "The death is recorded from Harris of a patriarch, John Martin, who was said to be 112 years old. As a boy he attended MacLeod of Berneray when in hiding after Culloden."

Donald MacLeod was eventually restored to his estate in Berneray and the 'Old Trojan' became one of the wealthiest landholders in the west of Scotland. In his 75th year he married his third wife by whom he had nine children and died in his 90th year on 9th October 1781. In all he had 29 children, several pre-deceasing him. (Sorry for this irrelevant digression but it was too interesting to leave out!))

Waulking the Cloth, Talisker Shrinking the tweed was a woman's task, as depicted here by Pennant's illustrator, Moses Griffiths, in 1772. Nearby, two women are grinding corn at a hand-mill. (from Thomas Pennant's Voyage to the Hebrides, 1772)

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