A Wedding at Halsary

A Wedding at Halsary

A wedding was announced to be held on December 28,1877. Banns were proclaimed according to the Forms of the Free Church of Scotland.

Young James Taylor, farm hand, of Stemster, was going to marry Catherine McLeod of the Rangag teashop. She had been on her own for a few years since her parents both died, but had stayed living in the Rangag house where her mother had run a grocery business. Tea became fashionable and popular so Catherine became a tea merchant. But James was young and handsome and she said “Aye” – actually, they both spoke Gaelic so maybe she said ‘tha’.

The wedding was to be held in the Halsary meeting house just up the Causewaymire road from Rangag, at Tacher. It was a big building with room for a crowd. Highland hospitality allowed that after a marriage the doors were to be opened to all, be they strangers or not.

The Halsary meeting house in 2011

Welcome Rev David Ferguson

David Ferguson the Free Church minister would have arrived on his horse and put it in the horse yards. David knew the McLeod family well enough as he was the minister for Achreny, Westerdale and Halsary – all places the McLeod family had attended church. David had conducted the marriages of Betsy McLeod and Willie Williamson in 1859, Jessie McLeod and William Burnett in 1863, Alexander McLeod and Jessie Ross in 1868. He was said to be “a man of genial disposition, upright and straight forward in word and deed. He had a strong and well-built frame, indispensable for his work, which extended over an area of many miles of hill and moor” Source: The Achreny Mission – Part 3 – After the Disruption.

The Horse Enclosure at Halsary

Witness William Tait worked for his uncle Benjamin Tait on one of the big Stemster farms

James Taylor was a herd boy in 1871 working for William Waters on a big farm at Stemster next door to where William Tait was working. They were probably boyhood mates.

All went well. The marriage was conducted. A crowd arrived (including a few strangers), and the party began. As was customary, whisky was provided for the guests.

The Taylor family, like many in the district were poor – so poor, in fact, that father William couldn’t even pay the rent for his small house. It was paid by the Parochial Board of Latheron (who granted small amounts of ‘Poor relief’ for paupers).

They might have been poor but William and Janet Taylor wanted a good party for their son and his bride. The only way to do that was to provide ‘home-made’ stuff.

Whisky was an important feature of social life and used as a welcome for guests. Like most Scots, Stemster locals had long had their own stills hidden in the glens and hollows. Problem was, home distilled whisky was illegal. And just who were those strangers at the party?

To be continued 

Note: Re Whisky see also the blog “Smuggling” posted November 30, 2014