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MALCOLM NICOLSON,
SCORRYBRECK.
THE former precarious
position of the great body of cottars and dependents in the rural
parts of the Highlands and Islands does not admit of doubt. In all
parts of the country I have fallen in with deporable cases, and
perhaps the greatest oppressions and hardships occurred in the
Islands, far away from the protection of the law and the assistance
of agents, and entirely under large tacksmen who, however litigious
and quarrelsome among themselves, could be relied on to assist, or
keep aloof, if the oppressed were below their class and set. Unless
the circumstances were exceptional, a poor man sought in vain for
protection from the superior or chief tacksman. I am of course
referring to the period when men were not of their once value, and
all that was looked to was increased rental. The landlord insisted
on or was offered a great rise of rent, the incomer only insisting
on a free hand and full possession of the land. No wonder that the
naturally proud and independent spirit of the people ended in the
emigration of the flower of the old tenants and occupants. Among the
larger tenants in Skye at the end of the last century one
particularly prominent, and in the eye of the world held in great
respect, with a flattering notice at his death, was Mr Malcolm
Nicolson of Scorrybreck. I willingly admit and record with pleasure
the kindness of many of the large farmers and of their families who
nourished and protected the people on their extensive possessions.
The kindly actions of such people unfortunately was too often
interred with their bones, while evil acts, by getting into the law
courts and otherwise, have come down in all their vileness and
oppression.
I select one case as
a specimen, begun in the harvest of 1790, and lasting until the
autumn of 1792, of the mischief even a man of good reputation could
do to a poor cottar, illustrating a cottar's fate who fell under his
master's displeasure. Mr Nicolson stated that he had sub-let to
Angus Nicolson, sub-tenant of Pennifilar, at Whitsunday, 1789, at a
rent of £3 but under condition of only keeping a certain limited
stock; whereas Angus insisted on keeping over stock, including a
vicious mare so unmanageable that it ate the pursuer's hained grass.
Further, that Angus allowed part of his buildings to fall into
disrepair, particularly a byre, of which he destroyed or used up the
timbers, and concluding for substantial damages. Dilatory defences
were given in, chiefly that the defender was summoned to Inverness
during autumn recess, and to his great loss from compulsory absence
in an unusually late harvest, and denying the libel generally.
Decree was promptly pronounced by the Sheriff-Subtitute against the
defender, on the 25th of November, 1790. An appeal was sustained,
and after some further procedure, a proof of his averments was given
to the pursuer, to be taken on commission by the Sheriff-Substitute
of Skye. An objection by the defender that he could not get any
agent in Skye to appear for him, also that he did not understand
English and was only able to speak in Gaelic, was overruled, and the
proof renewed and taken in the defender's absence. The evidence of
the four witnesses for the pursuer was meagre, and was so severely
exposed by the defender's agent at Inverness that ultimately the
Sheriff absolved the defender from the charge connected with the
timber of the byre, and while finding that the vicious mare had
eaten some hained grass, in respect that this occurred during the
winter and spring seasons, and that no evidence had been adduced to
instruct the amount of the damage done, restricted the same to five
shillings sterling. So, after two years of keen and expensive
litigation, Scorrybreck succeeded in his claim to the extent of five
shillings. It may be presumed, as Scorrybreck had to pay his own and
part of his subtenant's legal expenses, that he, from prudential
motives alone, acted thereafter in a kindly spirit to those under
him, and to some extent gained his laudatory obituary notice. |
