As background for the next blog some information on the conditions at Ausdale in the mid eighteenth century. and the resident Campbell family, is useful.
Ousdale 1934 going north. John O Groat Journal
The Bishop takes breakfast at Ausdale
Bishop Pococke accompanied by the Rev. George Innes visited Caithness during 1761 and wrote a general view of life and conditions then prevailing at Ausdale.
Ousdale in 2008
‘…when we came to the top of the Ord, how much were we surprised to see it all flat country before us, there being not one mountain or hill in all Caithness…We came to Ausdale, an Inn, and the first house you came to in Caithness.
‘Good Morning Landlady’, said Mr Innes, ‘We have a good mind to take breakfast here if you can give us tea?’
She answered, very briskly, ‘Pray Sir, what kind of tea do you desire?’ Looking about to me he winked, and said ‘That’s so far good and promises well.’ Turning again to the Landlady, ‘Well good woman, what kind of tea can you give us?’ ‘Why Sir,’ she replied, ‘I can give you green tea, Bohea tea or coffee.’ ’Upon my word that is good sense truly,’ said Mr Innes, ‘Come, let us alight and get a good breakfast even in the wilds of Caithness.’
We then called for a sight of both kinds of tea and the green looked so well we made a choice of it, and very good it proved. We could not have had better in all the city of Edinburgh. We asked if we could have good milk…
‘You shall have plenty of that, Gentlemen,’ said the Landlady. Accordingly she had the servant fetch us a large cog of milk, and set it upon the table with a large spoon, and then said, ‘Here is the milk, Gentlemen, and skim off ye cream for yourselves.’
And indeed, it was the very best of milk, fresh and cool, clean and in good order; and never was there better fresh and powdered butter than she regaled us with, which spread upon good oatcakes made a noble repast.
Till the tea kettle got ready I stepped out the door to look about me and see what I could spy, when, behold, I saw two women moving towards the house in a most leisurely way, step by step, each having a large vessel or broad cog of milk between her hands taken instantly from the cows. This induced me to return immediately to the house and ask if they had any farm here?
‘Yes Sir,’ said the Landlady, ‘We have a farm for which we pay six hundred merks Scots a year.’ (About £35 sterling). This makes a very large farm in Caithness of wide extended bounds….’
Source: Roydhouse, A. 1977. ‘Background to Badbea’, John O’ Groat Journal
William Campbell Senior, Tacksman of Ausdale
William Campbell Snr of Ausdale was a man to be respected. In 1896 Alexander Gunn described him as “A Caithness Patriarch of the Last century”.
“William Campbell Snr, Tacksman of Ausdale, had the reputation of being an exceedingly hard man in his dealings, at the same time honourable and just. From a small beginning in his small farm of Smerrary near Dirlot Castle, he became rich as a tenant farmer, and became one of the most noted of his class in the county of Caithness in his day”.
Ousdale burn showing the remains of the old stone workings
in the bank
“At the time of his occupation there was a thriving meal mill worked by the burn at Ausdale, a distillery owned by Campbell, and seven or eight small holdings with both sheep and cattle, all paying rent and the usual services to Campbell. When William Campbell Snr completed his 28 years of his holding of the tack of the farm of Ausdale, he removed from Ausdale to Dunbeath”. His second son William Campbell Jnr went with him.
“William Campbell Snr was twice married. He had a family of 17 children, both sons and daughters. His first wife was Janet Campbell, who was the mother of his four eldest children, and she died on the 9th June 1744, aged 31 years. His second wife was Margaret Sutherland, who was the mother of his other 13 children. She died on the 2nd April, 1785 aged 57 years and was interred in the same grave as that of William’s first wife. And last of all William Snr himself died in the year 1794, aged 84 years, and was interred in the same grave as that of his two wives in the churchyard of Halkirk, on which grave rests a massive stone bearing the names of William Campbell, tacksman, Ausdale, and those of his two wives”.
“William Campbell Snr’s first son Alexander married Ann Gunn in 1765. The issue of this marriage was Sir William Campbell, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Upper Canada”.
William Campbell of Canada. Grandson of William Campbell of
Ausdale.
William Campbell Junior
“The second son of William Campbell Snr was William Campbell Jnr, tacksman, born in 1743. He was only 15 months old at the time Katherine Campbell his mother died on June 19th 1744. On 30th June 1765 William married his second cousin, Ann Gunn, daughter of Marcus Gunn, tacksman of Dalmore, parish of Halkirk”.
Having accompanied his father to Dunbeath, William Campbell Jnr later renewed his tack of the farm of Todholes but before he left Ausdale he caused some serious trouble and distress to his servant girl Katherine Sutherland.
Source: A Further Contribution to Caithness Family History. A.G. [Alexander Gunn] To the Editor of the Northern Ensign. No Date. Also see Blog 10 Sep 2013, Ancient Ausdale
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