Folks at Forse - Esther Sutherland

Esther Sutherland was the second daughter born to Katherine and William Sutherland at Badbea. She was baptised on September 30, 1803.

Esther’s early life story is probably very similar to that of her siblings - living at home with her family until the death of both her parents about 1810. Esther would have been about seven years old when she was orphaned. She was taken in and brought up by either her half-brother David or her cousin John Badbea Sutherland. 

The next record located of Esther is her 1831 marriage to James Gunn in Edinburgh.

 Marriage 4th July 1831. James Gunn, Spirit Dealer residing in Mahan Court, Tolbooth Church Parish and Esther Sutherland in same place, proclaimed 3 times and no objections.

James Gunn was a Latheron local, christened on 14 July in 1807 at Achastle, a village north of Badbea, on the Forse Estate.

Map shows Achnacraig (near Badbea) on bottom to Forse near top. 

 Source: John Thomson's Atlas of Scotland 1832

Whether James and Esther went off to Edinburgh together before they married or met up there is not known. 

The record does not say which church they were married in but it was not the now famous Tolbooth Church in Edinburgh as that was not built until after 1831. The Tolbooth Parish was not much better than an overcrowded slum with a labyrinth of old Closes and houses. Conditions were horrendous with no sewage system and poor water supply for the inhabitants although apparently the many distilleries located good water. The countless coal fires and smoky atmosphere earned it the name “auld reekie.”

Edinburgh-1830
Source: www.smithsonianmag.com

At the time of their marriage, James was a Spirit Dealer. The wine and spirits trade had long flourished in Edinburgh. Alcohol of various types was imported at the Edinburgh port and also distilled locally. Spirit Dealers generally dealt in wines, spirits and ales. They were sometimes also publicans.

James and Esther’s first son Donald (birth record not located) was probably born in Edinburgh about 1832 even though the 1841 Caithness census shows his birth as being Caithness. Their second son’s birth record shows William Gunn born in Edinburgh City, Midlothian on 1 December 1834 (this William is also shown in the 1841 census as being born in Caithness).

Daughter Jane was born in 26 March 1838 in Nottingham, Latheron, Caithness. Jane does not appear again in the family census records so she may have died before the 1841 census. But we can figure out that somewhere between 1834 and 1838 the family left Edinburgh and came back home to Latheron where they settled for the rest of their lives on the Forse Estate.

Detail of Forse.
Source: John Thomson's Atlas of Scotland 1832.

The fact that James Gunn was born in Achastle on the Forse Estate would likely have made a significant impact on the lives of his family. The Sutherlands of Forse were a ‘minor’ Scottish noble family and branch of the Clan Sutherland. On the Estate of Forse, while there were some evictions, they were not as severe as at the neighbouring Langwell Estate. So, going back home, James and Esther were able to get stable work and shelter in Forse at the very time when others were being cleared from nearby Langwell.

Forse Castle is apparently of Norse origin and around 800 years old dating from approximately 1150-1250. The Castle came into the possession of the Sutherlands through marriage and was abandoned in the 18th century.
 © Copyright Peter Gamble and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence www.geograph.org.uk

Shoreline near Forse Castle 
© Copyright sylvia duckworth and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence www.geograph.org.uk.

The 1841 census shows the Gunn family living at Remiggy, Latheron Parish, Forse Estate. James is an Agricultural Labourer. They have sons Donald aged 9, William aged 6 and a baby boy named Francis who was born on 12 Feb 1841. On the baptism records the family abode is shown as the Hill of Forse. Remiggy and Forse are so close together the names were possibly interchangeable. These days Remiggy is a farm but it may have been a hamlet then with small plots available for rental.

Remiggy Farm near Swiney shown on Google Earth

The 1851 census shows the family still at Remiggy. There is another son David who was born in on 23 May 1843. Again the baptism record says the family abode was the Hill of Forse.

The 1861 census shows the family still at Remiggy. James is shown as a farmer of six acres. William aged 22 is still living at home with the occupation of cooper (so making and repairing barrels for the herring industry).

Ruin, Newlands of Latheron

Ruin on the slopes of Ben-a-chielt with Scaraben in the distance.

© Copyright Richard Webb and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

www.geograph.org.uk.

The 1871 census shows James and Esther living in the same Latheron district but now shown as Newlands. They have Christina Ross living with them as a domestic servant. Christina was the granddaughter of Esther’s sister Christina McLeod. Her parents Mary and Donald Ross were living in Shetland at the time. Christina Ross had long stayed with her grandparents and moved to Rangag with them. Rangag, also on the Forse Estate was not far from where Esther lived so the sisters obviously kept in touch. Their other sister Margaret also lived at Forse so the three sisters probably saw each other from time to time. 

Loch Forse. 

© Copyright Richard Webb and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
www.geograph.org.uk

The 1881 census shows the Gunn family still in Latheron at a place called Ashbig which was close to Newlands. James is shown as a crofter. They have a grandchild Williamina Gunn aged 15 living in as a domestic servant. They are shown to be Gaelic speakers. 

Esther died on 10 September 1881 aged 77. She died at home, at the Hill of Forse, of old age. She had no doctor but James was present with her till the end. James has added ‘His mark’ rather than his signature to her death record indicating perhaps that he could not write.

This long-house at the Laidhay Museum near Forse is an example of a byre dwelling that was once a common feature of the Caithness landscape. It is likely that houses the Gunn family lived in were similar to this house.

James remarried to a Catherine Ross in 1882.

James died 19 Dec 1887 still living in Latheron at Forse. 

Wild flowers at the shore-line near Forse

Washday at Loch Stemster - Tragedy

The new family of William and Katherine Sutherland continued to grow. 

The next birth record located after Christina's birth is John Sutherland born in Badbea in 1802.

No further records or information about this John have been located except that he is named on a panel on the Badbea monument.

A second brother named Malcom is talked about in the family narratives but no OPR records of him have been located. It is a possibility that this second Malcolm was born about 1800. My reasoning is that the next son born after the first Malcom drowned in the Moray Firth (see previous blog The Storm) would probably have been named after his dead brother, as was the custom.

Malcom (the second) probably spent his childhood days at Badbea with his family until his parents died about 1810 leaving the children orphaned.

Katherine Sutherland, Malcom’s mother, had been born in Golsary near Loch Stemster and had kin still living in the area.  In 1813 a newly-wed young couple David Sutherland and Marjory Bruce of Stemster took in Malcom Sutherland. He would have been about 13 years old and perhaps to be put to work as a herd boy. Stemster with its flat land, calm lake and ancient ring of stones would be a great new environment for an orphaned boy brought up on the brink of a cliff and wild seas below.

Loch Stemster

Near Loch Stemster is an ancient horse-shoe shaped arrangement of stones. This area is also known as Achavanich and Achkinloch

McIan depiction of Highland Washing

One summer’s day at Loch Stemster, it was time to wash the blankets. In Scotland at that time, the blanket washing process was generally undertaken by a group of women near a lake or a burn. A fire would be lit to warm some water which was then put in a wash tub with the blankets. Two women would tred or trample the blankets with bare feet while other women would prepare the next lot of washing and mind the fire. The process was usually accompanied by much singing and laughter

Washing Blankets Skye by George Washington Wilson

As with many tasks in old Caithness, washing clothes was associated with an ancient and widespread superstition about a fairy washerwoman known as 'bean nighe' (Scottish Gaelic for washer-woman) who was said to be an omen of death and a messenger from the other world. Perchance she was lurking in Loch Stemster in the summer of 1813.

Malcom was at home with Marjory this wash day - maybe he had been helping with the fire. After a hard morning’s work, Marjory and the other women who were helping her went inside their house to have a meal. 

Old postcard - A Highland Washing

Malcom hung round outside for a while. He then decided to have a play with the wooden tub. He dragged it to the edge of the water and got in. Hmm that was fun and the water looked so calm and sparkling in the sun. 

A sudden breeze got up and blew the tub and Malcom out on to the loch.

When Marjory and the other women came outside and saw the tub with Malcom in it floating away they were very alarmed and upset. They joined hands and tried to reach Malcom in the tub but he was too far out. The frightened boy panicked, leapt up and jumped out of the tub. Malcom was just too far from the edge of the loch to be reached. He was doubtless fully clothed and probably could not swim. Malcom sunk into the water of Loch Stemster and was drowned before Marjory’s eyes.

Poor Marjory had a narrow escape from drowning herself as, of the women holding hands, she was the farthest out into the loch. The washing hilarity had turned to tragedy. There is no record of the body of Malcom ever being found and if she was there the fairy washer woman never let it be known where he was.

The six orphaned Sutherland children now numbered five, plus their grown up half brother David.

The sad story of Malcom’s drowning was not forgotten. It was retold by Marjory’s nephew John Sutherland over one hundred years later when he was an old man. Alex Sutherland the grandson of Alexander Robertson Sutherland, a full brother to Malcom, published the account in his book Sutherlands of Ngaipu in 1947.

Christina (aka Christian) Sutherland 1798-1872

Christina was the first child born to Katherine Sutherland and William Sutherland who married in 1797 and lived at Badbea. Christina was very probably born in Badbea in 1798. Although the birth record of Christina has not been located, many other records of her life are available. Some records refer to her as Christian and others as Christina.

The site of Christina's Badbea home

Alex Gunn describes the Badbea houses: The one entrance served for man and beast. On entering, the cattle sheded to the right and the rest of the inhabitants to the left, having a wooden partition separating the cattle and the family. There was the fire in the middle of the floor, and the peat neuk close at hand. The furniture was all home-made, and ranged on each side of the fireplace: but, need I say, there was no soft-bottomed chairs - just the hard board, with a rung an inch thick in front and back. … there was a "but" and a "ben” [meaning it had a sleeping area and a living area].

At Newtonmore Outdoor Museum

How large families managed in a small house that was shared with their cow and other animals, plus had a hot peat fire that never went out on the floor in the centre of the room, I cannot comprehend.

Christina would have helped her mother mind the babies, taken her turn with the quern, fetched water from the Badbea burn, helped in the Kale garden, learned to card wool for her mother to spin, gathered shell fish and snail bait from the nearby shore and many other jobs.

Quern at Newtonmore

Sea snails on the shore

Mussels in the cleft of the rock

A Highland Burn by Foster Myles Birket

When she was about 10 years old both Christina’s parents died. There is no record of the cause of William and Katherine’s deaths but several family sources make note of the tragic circumstances of the orphaned children. One story suggests the children were found destitute wandering near Golsary (the home of their mother’s parents). 

Ruins at Golsary

The young Sutherland children were taken in by their cousin John Badbea Sutherland and their adult half-brother David Badbea Sutherland. I have no doubt that Christina had to work very hard helping in these households that now had two less adults to provide for the children.

On 5 May, 1822, in Kildonan, Christina married John McLeod a young shepherd working in Ouagbeg who had previously lived in Ousdale next door to Badbea

For the first year of their married life Christina and John lived in an old longhouse at Ousdale. Kitty was born in Ousdale in 1822.

Here is the Ousdale farm in 2011. The house in the foreground is built on the foundations of the old longhouse where Christina and John lived in 1822

In 1823, at a time of extreme hardship for many families in Scotland, with clearances and emigration high, John was chosen to be shepherd on the Rumsdale estate managed by Donald Horne. John McLeod’s shepherding skills must have impressed Donald Horne as he won the job over southern shepherds who were entering Caithness looking for work. John held his job for 40 years.

An old glass plate photo of Rumsdale

The remains of the lintel at Rumsdale 2011

Thus Christina and John left coastal Badbea and went inland to Rumsdale. For the first few years while getting the sheep farm established at Rumsdale they seem to have lived in the nearby settlement of Altnabreck. Eventually a substantial house was built for the Mcleod family at Rumsdale.

John and Christina's family was as follows:

• 1822 Kitty (aka Catherine) was born in Ousdale.
• 1824 Donald was born at Altnabreck.
• 1826 Elizabeth was born probably at Altnabreck (birth record not located).
• 1828 Mary was born at Altnabreck.
• 1830 William was born in Rumsdale.
• 1833 Esther was born at Rumsdale (Note: the birth record for Esther names her Sarah but all subsequent records including census records name her Esther)
• 1835 James was born in Rumsdale.
• 1838 Janet was born probably in Rumsdale (birth record not located).
• 1839 Farquhar was born in Rumsdale.
• 1842 Alexander was born in Rumsdale.
• 1846 Catherine (aka Kitty) was born probably in Rumsdale (birth record not located).

The huge sheep enclosure at Rumsdale on Google Earth

Christina and John worked hard on Rumsdale for 40 years. Some of the challenges of shepherding at that time and in that locality will be covered in a later blog. Donald Horne had a reputation of being a very hard taskmaster. According to Alexander Gunn (1855), Horne was given to evicting people on his estates for no good reason so it is very impressive that John & Christina survived 40 years under his command.

1863 Donald Horne sold Rumsdale to Sir Tollemarche Sinclair. John and Christina retired to a cottage at Rangag.

The remains of the house at Rangag where John and Christina lived.
The three windows at the rear are where Alexander had his shoemaker's workroom.

The animal enclosure at Rangag looking toward Rumsdale

From the shoemaker's workroom

Christina soon established a small grocery business in the front of the Rangag house. For a few years, son Alexander had a small boot making workshop at the back of the house. Catherine helped her mother in the grocery business.

My collage of Christina in the Rangag house.

Plaque at the Halsary church where Christina

 and John worshiped when they lived at Rangag

McLeod gravestone at Dalnawillan

Upper Thurso River from Dalnawillan

1872 Christina died in Rangag and was buried in Dalnawillan.

1869 John died in Rangag and was buried in Dalnawillan cemetery.

For Peat's Sake

It was normally expected that pupils bring a peat to school each day to keep the classroom warm in the often bitterly cold weather. Badbea was no exception as Alexander Gunn explains:

The school was built by members of the two communities and was situated just on the Auchincraig side of the border with Badbea. The building measured approximately 20 feet by 12 feet and the walls were built of drystone with no mortar in it. The roof was of thatch with a skylight in it for providing light. A fire was situated in the middle of the room and the smoke made its exit through a hole in the roof. Fuel was provided for the fire by each pupil taking a peat with them to the school every day. There was a guard placed on the peat neuk every morning to see that every pupil brought a peat and woe betide any person who failed to take a peat as they were immediately rewarded with several strokes of the strap. One delinquent felt the punishment dealt out to him as being very unfair and vowed that he would never take another peat with him to school. When reading the lesson he expressed his feelings very strongly in Gaelic, but it is doubtful if the teacher understood.

The Scottish artist R R McIan produced this illustration for the book 'Gaelic gatherings, or the Highlanders at home on heather, river and loch', published 1847-49, with accompanying text by James Logan. McIan called this illustration 'Highland children going to school, Lochaber'. The barefoot child leading the way is the 'horn boy', generally one of the cleverest pupils, who was paid to blow a horn to summon the other pupils to school. The boys are carrying a piece of peat for the school fire. Commentary from www.ambaile.com

Peat at Badbea

This little guy crawled across the Badbea track as I was taking the photo of the peat. Not that fond of black slugs myself but I daresay the boys at school found them diverting. Note: In the early years at Badbea only boys went to school. 

Peat

The main source of fuel for people living in Badbea, and in fact all of Caithness, was readily available peat. Peat is decomposed vegetation often derived from sphagnum moss, growing in water logged land or peat banks formed several thousand years ago. Dry peat burns long and hot giving out really good heat and some light.

Peat at Badbea

Even today a peat bank is a familiar sight in many parts of Caithness.

Freshly cut peat at Dunnet in Caithness in 2011

Peat cutting was back breaking hard work and involved most members of the community in the summer months of May and June.  If the men were away fishing then the job of cutting and bringing home the peats fell to the women. 

Peat cutting in Orkney. Source Am Baile Facebook

The cutter, using a special tool with a long handle and an angled blade, first stripped the top layer of moor away, then cut neat slices of peat from the face of the bog.

Long handled peat spade at Mary Ann's cottage, Dunnet.

The block of peat was thrown to another person (often a woman) who laid it on the moor or stacked it on end to dry where it was left for a few weeks. 

 Carrying Home the Peat: McIan

There was not even a cart in Badbea according to John Badbea, so when sufficiently dry, the peats would have been taken home on the backs of the women in creels (baskets).  Creels were fastened across the shoulders and chests with a strap leaving the hands free to do other tasks such as knitting while they walked.

At the croft the peats were built into a stack – the design sometimes following local custom. The peat still needed to be left longer to dry before it burned hot and bright.

The one exception to the peats being carried home in creels was for John Badbea, the much loved leader of the Badbea community, who suffered severe health problems as a result of him having had Rheumatic Fever as a child. 

Alexander Gunn describes the occasion:

Another great day with us was the day ‘John Badbea’ got his peats carried home. On such occasions there came horses from Braemore and Houstry to lead worthy John's peats to the stance where the peat stack stood, a little above the house. There was not a road or track by which carts could be used, and the peats were therefore carried in a sort of hamper called "crubags" on each side. It was a sort of four- square thing, about 2 feet 6 inches long, perhaps 2 feet deep, and about 18 inches wide. It was open at both ends, and was slung by a piece of rope fixed to a sort of rude saddletree set on the back of the horse which carried one of these "crubags" on each side. It is surprising what quantity of peats could be packed into a couple of these. There might be 30 or 40 horses engaged in leading the peats on these occasions. Three or four, even six horses were tied to each other's tails, and one person leading them. To us it was a real post of honour to be leading these horses between the stacks and the hill, when those who brought the horses were employed in building the peat stack, or loading the horses at the hill. In this way all the good man's peats were carried to the stance and built up ready for the winter in one day, and all was done gratuitously both the labour of men and horses being given free of charge.

Fetching peats. Source Fraser Darling

Peat fire in the centre of the
 room at Newtonmore

A glowing peat fire at Mary Ann's Cottage, Dunnet.