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97-575: In addition to religion, the economy was also a motivator in the association's foundation and operations. The Highland Clearances , crop failures , and population pressures in industrialised urban centres all created conditions that, by the mid-nineteenth century, made emigration seem attractive to many poorer Scots. John McGlashan was the association's secretary in Edinburgh , Scotland, from 1847. He would himself emigrate in 1853. The first two settler ships, John Wickliffe and Philip Laing , under

194-524: A "reformed Celt", having a Cornish Celtic heritage.) There is little doubt that racism against the Gael formed some part of the story. Roman Catholics had experienced a sequence of discriminatory laws in the period up to 1708. Whilst English versions of these laws were repealed in 1778, in Scotland this did not happen until 1793. However, religious discrimination is not considered, by some historians, to be

291-582: A climax during the Highland Potato Famine of 1846–55. In general terms, the transformation of the Highlands resulted in two different types of rural economy. In the southern and eastern part of the region, as land was enclosed , it was let to fewer tenants, with larger individual holdings. These larger units employed farm servants and labourers and also provided work for cottars and crofters. This workforce included former tenants from

388-643: A commercial economy; rather they rejected the loss of status that the changes of improvement gave them. The first phase of the Clearances occurred mostly over the period 1760 to 1815. However, it started before the Jacobite Rising of 1745, with its roots in the decision of the Dukes of Argyll to put tacks (or leases) of farms and townships up for auction. This began with Campbell property in Kintyre in

485-404: A financial trap for their owners. In other cases, spending on famine relief depleted the financial resources of landowners—so even the prudent and responsible could ultimately be forced to increase the income from their estates. Lastly, investments in an estate, whether on roads, drainage, enclosure or other improvements might not realise the anticipated returns. The major financial pressure, though,

582-464: A longer processes, with change beginning in the late 17th century and continuing into the mid-19th century. The expansion of the period covered has led some to question the concept of a revolution. Before the 17th century, with difficult terrain, poor roads and methods of transport there was little trade between different areas of the country and most settlements depended on what was produced locally, often with little in reserve in bad years. Most farming

679-444: A potential level of protection for tenants. Finally, the landlord might enter bankruptcy, with the estate passing into the hands of administrators whose legal obligation was to protect the financial interests of the creditors. This last case was often the worst outcome for tenants, with any considerations of them having no relevance whatsoever under the law. The 18th century was a time of population growth, almost continuous from

776-520: A reason for evicting tenants as part of any clearance, and is seen more as a source of voluntary emigration by writers such as Eric Richards. There is one clear (and possibly solitary) case of harassment of Catholics which resulted in eviction by Colin MacDonald of Boisdale (a recent convert to Presbyterianism). This temporarily stalled when the risk of empty farms (and therefore loss of rent) became apparent when voluntary emigration to escape persecution

873-458: A source of finance. The downside to this was a greater readiness of the lender to foreclose—and an increased willingness to lend in the first place, perhaps unwisely. Debt had three possible consequences, all of which were likely to involve the eviction of tenants. The landlord could try to avoid bankruptcy by introducing immediate improvements, putting up rents, clearing tenants to allow higher-paying sheep farmers to be installed. Alternatively,

970-684: A source of recruitment for the army and navy was, in the words of T. M. Devine, "quite remarkable". Starting in the Seven Years' War (1756–63) and increasing during the American War of Independence , by the time of the Napoleonic Wars, one estimate put the Highland contribution to regiments of the line, militia, Fencibles and Volunteers at 74,000. This was out of a population of about 300,000. Even allowing for this estimate overstating

1067-543: Is destined to give way ... before the higher capabilities of the Anglo-Saxon.' These views were held by people like Patrick Sellar , the factor employed by the Countess of Sutherland to put her plans into effect, who often wrote of his support for these ideas, and Sir Charles Trevelyan , the senior government representative in organising famine relief during the Highland Potato Famine . (Trevelyan regarded himself as

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1164-482: Is that the shepherds employed to manage these flocks were from outside the Highlands. This is an oversimplification, as Gaelic-speaking tacksmen and drovers were to be found in the sheep trade from the 1780s. When sheep were introduced in the Sutherland Clearances, over half the leases were taken up by Sutherlanders. Since their origin in the early Middle Ages, clans were the major social unit of

1261-487: The Industrial Revolution presented an increased demand for food; land came to be seen as an asset to meet this need, and as a source of profit, rather than a means of support for its resident population. Before improvement, Highland agriculture was based on run rig arable areas and common land for grazing. Those working in this system lived in townships or bailtean . Under the run rig system,

1358-487: The Poor Laws (that would have had the effect of formalising the obligation to feed all the destitute in each parish) was the final impetus to the various assisted emigration measures. In the decades following 1815, the ideological and political consensus changed. Surplus population slowly became thought of as a liability; their need to be fed could not be ignored in a philanthropic age. Therefore, large-scale expatriation

1455-477: The cottars , who often shared rights to common pasture, occupied small portions of land and participated in joint farming as hired labour. Farms also might have grassmen, who had rights only to grazing. Three acts of parliament passed in 1695 allowed the consolidation of runrigs and the division of common land. After the union with England in 1707, there was a conscious attempt among the gentry and nobility to improve agriculture in Scotland. The Society of Improvers

1552-460: The enclosure of the open fields managed on the run rig system and shared grazing. These were usually replaced with large-scale pastoral farms on which much higher rents were paid. The displaced tenants were expected to be employed in industries such as fishing, quarrying or the kelp industry . Their reduction in status from farmer to crofter was one of the causes of resentment. The second phase involved overcrowded crofting communities from

1649-415: The open fields were divided into equivalent parts and these were allocated, once a year, to each of the occupiers, who then worked their land individually. With no individual leases or ownership of plots of land, there was little incentive to improve it (for instance by drainage or crop rotation systems). Nor, with common grazing, could an individual owner improve the quality of his stock. Enclosure of

1746-534: The "eviction of the Gaels ") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands , mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulted from agricultural improvement , driven by the need for landlords to increase their income – many had substantial debts, with actual or potential bankruptcy being a large part of the story of the clearances. This involved

1843-470: The 1710s and spread after 1737 to all their holdings. First phase clearances involved break-up of the traditional townships ( bailtean ), the essential element of land management in Scottish Gaeldom. These multiple tenant farms were most often managed by tacksmen. To replace this system, individual arable smallholdings or crofts were created, with shared access to common grazing. This process

1940-494: The 1770s onwards. This was not initially seen as a problem by landlords as people were considered to be an asset—both to provide a pool for military recruitment and as an economic resource. Landowners and the government sought to discourage emigration, an attitude that resulted in the Passenger Vessels Act 1803 , which was intended to limit the ability of people to emigrate. The role of the Highlands in providing

2037-461: The 1850s. It followed the collapse or stagnation of the wartime industries and the continuing rise in population. These economic effects are illustrated by the contemporary commodity prices. Kelp had been falling since 1810; in 1823 the market price in Liverpool was £9 a ton , but it fell to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828, 41% of the 1823 price. Wool prices also shrank over a similar period to a quarter of

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2134-607: The 19th century. Particularly in the West Highlands and the Isles, the residents of these small agricultural plots were reliant on potatoes for at least three quarters of their diet. Until 1750, potatoes had been relatively uncommon in the Highlands. With a crop yield four times higher than oats, they became an integral part of crofting. After partial crop failures in 1836 and 1837, a severe outbreak of potato blight arrived in Scotland in 1846. Blight continued to seriously affect

2231-482: The Highland Clearances) is debatable. The term was not in common use during much of the clearances; landowners, their factors and other estate staff tended, until the 1840s, to use the word "removal" to refer to the eviction of tenants. However, by 1843, "clearance" had become a general (and derogatory) word to describe the activities of Highland landlords. Its use was ambiguous, as for some it meant only

2328-718: The Highland Clearances. A handful of powerful families, typified by the dukes of Argyll , Atholl , Buccleuch , and Sutherland , owned enormous sections of Scotland and had extensive influence on political affairs (certainly up to 1885). As late as 1878, 68 families owned nearly half the land in Scotland. Particularly after the end of the boom created by the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815), these landlords needed cash to maintain their position in London society. They turned to money rents and downplayed

2425-462: The Highland potato crop until about 1856. This was famine of a much greater scale and duration than anything previously experienced. By the end of 1846, the north-west Highlands and the Hebrides had serious food shortages, with an estimated three quarters of the population with nothing to eat. The Highland Potato Famine started a year after potato blight had first struck Ireland. The knowledge of

2522-523: The Highlands. Large amounts of capital were used to start industrial and commercial enterprises or build infrastructure like roads, bridges and harbours, but the return on this capital was very low by contemporary standards. This wasted investment is described by Eric Richards as "a loss to the national economy to be set beside any gains to be tallied." Some of this expenditure was used to build new towns, such as Bettyhill, which received tenants cleared from Strathnaver. This displacement has been compared to

2619-400: The Highlands. They were headed by a clan chief, with members of his family taking positions of authority under him. The mechanisms of clanship gave protection and agricultural land to the clansmen, who in return paid with service and rent which was paid, especially in earlier periods, mostly in kind (as opposed to money). Service included military service when required. The Highlands was one of

2716-662: The Irish catastrophe helped mobilise a response to the Highland crisis, with government action, the establishment of a large charitable fund (the Central Board for Highland Destitution) and much more responsible landlord behaviour than seen in Ireland. The richer landlords, such as the Duke of Sutherland, were able to fund their own famine relief for their tenants. Some, already overstretched by large debts, were bankrupted by providing

2813-457: The Statutes of Iona reined in the steady transition to landlordism because the ability to raise a band of fighting men at short notice became important again. The civil war that started in 1638 reinvigorated the military aspects. The restoration of Charles II in 1660 brought peace, but also increased taxes, restarting the financial pressure. The succession of Jacobite rebellions emphasised again

2910-440: The alternative of simple eviction. The potato famine followed shortly after the collapse of the kelp industry. Faced with a severe famine, the government made clear to any reluctant landlords that they had the primary responsibility of feeding their destitute tenants, whether through employment in public works or estate improvement, or simply by the provision of famine relief. The threat of full application, and possible reform, of

3007-661: The associated farm incomes which allowed higher rents to be charged. The origin of some of this debt went back to the Statutes of Iona, when some lairds were forced to live part of the year in Edinburgh – much more expensive than living on their own lands. Profligate spending was a significant cause. The costs of involvement in political activity was a factor for some. The landed classes of the Highlands socialised with southern landowners, who had more diverse sources of income, such as mineral royalties and windfall income from urban expansion. The low productivity of Highland lands made this

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3104-645: The benefits to those forced to make a new start after eviction. The provision of new accommodation for cleared tenants was often part of a planned piece of social engineering; a large example of this was the Sutherland Clearances, in which farming tenants in the interior were moved to crofts in coastal regions. The intent was that the land allotted to them would not be enough to provide all of their needs, and they would need to seek employment in industries like fishing or as seasonal itinerant farm labourers. The loss of status from tenant farmer to crofter

3201-399: The better climate of the southern and eastern Highlands, the more diverse agricultural system gave a reasonable level of prosperity to the area. Agricultural change in the Hebrides and the western coastal areas north of Fort William produced a different economic and social structure. This area is termed the "crofting region"; crofting communities became the dominant social system here, as land

3298-422: The case, in time of war, the Highlands was seen as a significant recruiting resource. The attitude towards increasing population was altered in the first half of the 19th century. First, the kelp trade collapsed in the years immediately following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Those working in the kelp trade were crofters, with not enough land to make a living, or cottars, the very poorest in society with

3395-592: The command of William Cargill , sailed from Britain in late 1847 and arrived at what is now Port Chalmers on 23 March and 15 April 1848, respectively. About 12,000 immigrants arrived in Dunedin within a decade. This article about an organisation in New Zealand is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Highland Clearances The Highland Clearances ( Scottish Gaelic : Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal [ˈfuət̪ɪçən nəŋ ˈɡɛː.əl̪ˠ] ,

3492-458: The common defining detail was the sharing out by lot on a regular (probably annual) basis of individual parts ("rigs") of the arable land so that families had intermixed plots in different parts of the field. The term Scottish Agricultural Revolution was used in the early 20th century primarily to refer to the period of most dramatic change in the second half of the 18th century and early 19th century. More recently historians have become aware of

3589-401: The common lands and the run rig fields was a method of improvement. More commonly, there was a greater change in land use: the replacement of mixed farming (in which cattle provided a cash crop) with large-scale sheep farming. This involved displacement of the population to crofts on the same estate, other land in the Highlands, the industrial cities of Scotland or other countries. The common view

3686-608: The context of revolution in France, and caused alarm. As Sheriff Depute, Donald Macleod reported events to the Lord Advocate, Robert Dundas, in Edinburgh, asking for military help. The request was forwarded to London, where Henry Dundas (Robert's uncle) gave orders for the Black Watch to be sent north to assist. Until they arrived, Macleod avoided the risk of any action against the protestors that might not be successful. In

3783-400: The crofting region (as per T. M. Devine's definition of the term), whilst the "farming" south and east Highlands contained 121,224 people. Agriculture in the Highlands had always been marginal, with famine a recurrent risk for pre-clearance communities. Nevertheless, population levels increased steadily through the 18th and early 19th centuries. This increase continued through nearly all of

3880-496: The displacement of large numbers of people from a single place at one time. For others, the eviction of a single tenant at the end of a lease could be termed "clearance". Eric Richards suggests that current usage is broad, meaning "any displacement of occupiers (even of sheep) by Highland landlords". He adds that it can apply to both large and small evictions, and includes voluntary or forced removal and instances involving either emigration or resettlement nearby. T. M. Devine also takes

3977-435: The early hours of 5 August, Macleod, a large party of the gentry from the region, and three companies of soldiers moved to where the sheep had been gathered. Most of the protestors fled, but eight were captured in the vicinity and a further four were taken in their homes. The protest rapidly faded away. Eight of the captives were tried on charges of assaulting the sheep farmers who had impounded their cattle, but were acquitted on

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4074-423: The end of the 1850s. Eric Richards describes this as a "financial suicide" by an entire class of people. Debt was not a new problem for Highland landowners in the 19th century—it had been equally prevalent in the 17th and 18th. The change was in the lender. The further development of the banking system at the beginning of the 19th century meant that landowners did not need to look to family members or neighbours as

4171-498: The estate could be sold to wipe out the debts. A new owner was highly likely to have plans for improvement which would include clearance. They also had the money to fund assisted passages for cleared tenants to emigrate, so putting into practice ideas suggested in the 1820s and 1830s. As most purchasers were from outside the Highlands or from England, they neither understood nor followed the Gaelic principle of dùthchas , so removing

4268-427: The estate. In some areas, land remained in arable use after clearance but was farmed with more intensive modern methods. Some of the earliest clearances had been to introduce large-scale cattle production. Some later clearances replaced agriculture with sporting estates stocked with deer. There were instances of an estate being first cleared for sheep and later being cleared again for deer. The major transition, however,

4365-523: The farms and small holdings their families had occupied for hundreds of years, or adapting them to the Scottish Agricultural Revolution. Improvement continued in the 19th century. Innovations included the first working reaping machine , developed by Patrick Bell in 1828. His rival James Smith turned to improving sub-soil drainage and developed a method of ploughing that could break up the subsoil barrier without disturbing

4462-427: The first phase that had lost the means to support themselves, through famine and/or collapse of industries that they had relied on. This is when "assisted passages" were common, when landowners paid the fares for their tenants to emigrate . Tenants who were selected for this had, in practical terms, little choice but to emigrate. The Highland Potato Famine struck towards the end of this period, giving greater urgency to

4559-520: The good behaviour of the clan. Overall, this reduced the need for the protection provided by a clan whilst increasing the costs for the clan leaders. The clan chiefs who fully subscribed to this new system of regulation were rewarded with charters that formalised their ownership of clan lands. The combination of these initiated the demise of clanship. The process continued as clan chiefs began to think of themselves as landlords, rather than as patriarchs of their people. The various intervals of warfare since

4656-460: The government planned to introduce an 'able-bodied Poor Law', so formally putting the potentially crippling burden of famine relief on each parish (and hence on the landlord); the Central Board made clear that they would wind up their relief effort in 1850. The new Highland landowner class (who had bought financially failing estates) and the remaining wealthier hereditary landlords had the funds to support emigration of their destitute tenants. The result

4753-461: The government would recover the cost of famine relief from those who could provide it, but chose not to. Clearance and emigration were an integral part of the Highland potato famine; the length and severity of the crisis seemed to leave little alternative. The choice faced by the government was between indefinitely continuing with charitable efforts and public works, or removing the excess population permanently. Rumours circulated, from 1849, that

4850-478: The grounds that the violence was self defence. Seven of the prisoners were tried on charges of insurrection and found guilty. The penalties, at a time when the death penalty was frequently used, were mild. The most severe was seven years transportation to Australia for two of the protestors. This was not carried out, because they escaped from the prison cells in the Inverness Tolbooth . No serious attempt

4947-584: The heirs of the wealthier Highlanders to be educated in the Lowlands and required clan chiefs to appear annually in front of the Privy Council in Edinburgh. This exposed the top layer of Highland society to the costs of living in Edinburgh in a manner fitting to their status. Unlike their Lowland counterparts, their lands were less productive and were not well integrated into the money economy. Large financial sureties were taken from clan leaders to guarantee

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5044-399: The higher-rent-paying sheep farms. Over time, crofts were subdivided, allowing more tenants to live on them (but with less land per person). Crofting communities had a high proportion of cottars—those with the least access to land and without any formal lease to document what they did hold. Population growth was rapid, due to both subdivision and the lower rate of migration to the Lowlands. When

5141-421: The improvements that required clearance at different times and for different reasons. The common drivers of clearance are as follows: Replacement of the old-style peasant farming with a small number of well-capitalised sheep farmers allowed land to be let at much higher rents. It also had the advantage, for the landowner, that there were fewer tenants to collect rent from, thus reducing the administrative burden of

5238-582: The kelp market collapsed a few years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars , the deficiency of the crofting model was exposed: overcrowded communities with limited or no ability to grow enough food for subsistence and now without the industry on which their community relied. This is the area that was most reliant on the potato, and therefore severely hit by the Highland Potato Famine. The census of 1841 recorded 167,283 people living in

5335-429: The lack of legal protection for year-by-year tenants under Scots law , and the abruptness of the change from the traditional clan system. The result was a continuous exodus from the land—to the cities, or further afield to England, Canada, America or Australia. The Lowland and Highland Clearances meant that many small settlements were dismantled, their occupants forced either to the new purpose-built villages built by

5432-439: The landowner, even if only distantly. They acted as the middle stratum of pre-clearance society, with a significant role in managing the Highland economy. They were the first sector of Gaelic society to feel the effect of the social and economic changes that included the Clearances, when landlords restricted their power to sub-let, so increasing the rental income directly to the laird; simple rent increases were also applied. This

5529-495: The larger farmers who departed at the same time, represented not only a flight of capital from Gaeldom but also a loss of entrepreneurial energy. In the opinion of T. M. Devine, tacksmen and the middle-ranked tenant farmers represented the economic backbone of the peasant communities of the Western Highlands. Devine repeats the views of Marianne McLean, that those of them who emigrated were not refusing to participate in

5626-455: The least access to land on which to grow food. Without alternative employment, which was not available, destitution was inevitable. The landlords (or in some cases the trustees of their bankrupt estates) no longer tried to retain their tenants on their land, either encouraging or assisting emigration, or, in the more desperate circumstances, virtually compelling those in substantial rent arrears to accept an assisted passage (i.e., to emigrate), with

5723-405: The likely consequences. The kelp trade was badly affected by the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and had collapsed totally by 1820. Kelp (or seaweed) was harvested from the seashore at low tide, dried and burnt to yield an alkali extract used in the manufacture of soap and glass. It was a very labour-intensive industry. Production had steadily grown from the 1730s to a peak level in 1810, and

5820-491: The martial aspects of clanship, but the defeat at Culloden brought an end to any willingness to go to war again. The loss of heritable jurisdictions across Scotland highlighted the changed role of clan chiefs. A tacksman (a member of the daoine uaisle , sometimes described as "gentry" in English) was the holder of a lease or "tack" from the landowner, subletting the land to lesser tenants. They were often related to

5917-424: The movement of Glaswegians to Castlemilk in the 1950s—with a similar distance from the original settlement and a comparable level of overall failure of the project to produce the anticipated social benefits. In the second phase of the clearances, when population reduction was the primary intention, the actions of landlords can be viewed as the crudest type of social engineering with a very limited understanding of

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6014-542: The necessary relief. The landlord of most of Islay, Walter Frederick Campbell , was a spectacular example. Another whose benevolence during the crisis brought bankruptcy was Norman Macleod of Macleod , owner of one of the two major estates in Skye. Conversely, some landlords were criticised for using the voluntarily raised relief funds to avoid supporting their tenants through the crisis. A few were recipients of strongly critical letters from senior civil servants, with threats that

6111-483: The old system. Whilst there were large pastoral farms, there were also mixed and arable farms—both of which needed labour. The population of the south and east Highlands only grew slightly from 1755 to 1841. This is explained by migration to the accessible Lowlands to find work and the relative unavailability of small tenancies. This gave this part of the Highlands some similarities to the Lowland clearances . Together with

6208-612: The only possibility was fishing, which was also in decline at the same time. The overall population of the Western Isles had grown by 80 per cent between 1755 and 1821. The economic collapse of an industry that was a major employer in a greatly over-populated region had an inevitable result. Not only did the level of poverty increase in the general population, but many landlords, failing to make prompt adjustments to their catastrophic fall in income, descended into debt and bankruptcy. The Highlands, as an agriculturally marginal area,

6305-440: The parts of Scotland where law and order were not maintained by central government, hence the need for protection from a powerful leader. Clan leaders controlled the agricultural land, with its distribution generally being achieved through leases to tacksmen, who sublet to the peasant farmers. The basic farming unit was the baile or township, consisting of a few (anything from 4 to 20 or more) families working arable land on

6402-449: The price obtained in 1818, and black cattle nearly halved in price between 1810 and the 1830s. In the second phase, landlords moved to the more draconian policy of expelling people from their estates. This was increasingly associated with 'assisted emigration', in which landlords cancelled rent arrears and paid the passage of the 'redundant' families in their estates to North America and, in later years, also to Australia. The process reached

6499-622: The process. The eviction of tenants went against dùthchas , the principle that clan members had an inalienable right to rent land in the clan territory. This was never recognised in Scottish law. It was gradually abandoned by clan chiefs as they began to think of themselves simply as commercial landlords, rather than as patriarchs of their people—a process that arguably started with the Statutes of Iona of 1609. The clan members continued to rely on dùthchas . This difference in viewpoints

6596-405: The run rig management system, and grazing livestock on common land. Clans provided an effective business model for running the trade in black cattle: the clan gentry managed the collection of those beasts ready for sale and negotiated a price with lowland drovers for all the stock produced on the clan lands. The sale proceeds were offset against the rentals of the individual producers. The growth in

6693-464: The severity of famines in the pre-clearance Highlands: in 1845, the Sutherland estate management argued among themselves over the level of famine relief that had been needed in the past, including this opinion: "The cattle on Sutherland were that Spring dying from scarcity of provender... and this is the condition to which your morbid Philanthropists of the present day refer as the days of comfort for

6790-553: The sheep and drive them south over the River Beauly . It was put into effect in a highly organised manner, gathering all the sheep in the area (except that of Donald Macleod of Geanies, the Sheriff Depute of Ross - perhaps out of either fear or respect for him). The first flocks were gathered on the 31 July and by 4 August many thousand sheep had been collected. The protest was seen by local landowners and law officers in

6887-399: The time of the clearances, peaking in 1851, at around 300,000. Emigration was part of Highland history before and during the clearances, and reached its highest level after them. During the first phase of the clearances, emigration could be considered a form of resistance to the loss of status being imposed by a landlord's social engineering . Different landowners decided to introduce

6984-406: The topsoil. Previously unworkable low-lying carselands could now be brought into arable production and the result was the even Lowland landscape that still predominates. While the Lowlands had seen widespread agricultural improvement, the financially broken Highland lairds took to replacing Highland agricultural practice with its own system of labour with Lowland agricultural practice plus labour in

7081-410: The trade in cattle demonstrates the ability of pre-clearance Highland society to adapt to and exploit market opportunities—making clear that this was not an immutable social system. James VI was one of the kings who sought to impose control on the Highlands. On becoming James I of England in 1603, he gained the military force to do this. The Statutes of Iona controlled some key aspects; this forced

7178-611: The traditional patriarchal relationship that had historically sustained the clans . One result of these changes were the Highland Clearances , in which many tenants in the Highlands were evicted as lands were enclosed, principally so that they could be used for sheep farming. The clearances followed patterns of agricultural change throughout the UK, though were notorious as a result of the introduction of Lowland farmhands or practice into Highland agricultural land or practice, plus

7275-667: The view that "clearance" has a broader meaning now than when it was used in the 19th century. The first phase of the Highland Clearances was part of the Scottish Agricultural Revolution but happened later than the same process in the Scottish Lowlands . Scottish agriculture in general modernised much more rapidly than in England and, to a large extent, elsewhere in Europe. The growing cities of

7372-460: The wretched Highlanders." (11 June 1845 letter to James Loch). Even accepting the level of debate on the subject among historians and the incomplete body of evidence, there is a clear case that, for example, pre-clearance Strathnaver (in Sutherland) experienced recurrent famine in a society operating at the margin of subsistence. Crofting communities became more common in the early part of

7469-448: Was an inevitable source of grievance. The actions of landlords varied. Some did try to delay or limit evictions, often to their financial cost. The Countess of Sutherland genuinely believed her plans were advantageous for those resettled in crofting communities and could not understand why tenants complained. However, a few landlords displayed complete lack of concern for evicted tenants. The definition of "clearance" (as it relates to

7566-542: Was based on the lowland fermtoun or highland baile , settlements of a handful of families that jointly farmed an area notionally suitable for two or three plough teams, allocated in run rigs , of "runs" (furrows) and "rigs" (ridges), to tenant farmers . Most ploughing was done with a heavy wooden plough with an iron coulter , pulled by oxen, which were more effective in the heavy Scottish soil, and cheaper to feed than horses. Those with property rights included husbandmen , lesser landholders and free tenants. Below them were

7663-462: Was considered as a solution to the social crisis in the Highlands. The ideas of Malthus were adopted by many in a position to influence policy. The Passenger Vessels Act was repealed in 1827 and in 1841 a select committee of the House of Commons concluded that the crofting parishes had a surplus population of 45,000 to 60,000. The primary motivation for clearance was economic. Associated with this

7760-521: Was enclosed and the run rig management of the multi-tenant baile replaced. The major part of the land was given over to large-scale pastoral sheep farming. This provided few jobs, compared to the arable and mixed farms in the south and east Highlands. The main industries intended for those displaced to crofting communities were fishing and kelp. Initially, this seemed, to the landlords and their advisors, an ideal way of providing profitable employment for those made redundant by competition for farm leases by

7857-593: Was for the benefit of those affected. Patrick Sellar , the factor (agent) of the Countess of Sutherland , was descended from a paternal grandfather who had been a cottar in Banffshire and had been cleared by an improving landlord. For the Sellars, this initiated a process of upward mobility (Patrick Sellar was a lawyer and a graduate of Edinburgh University), which Sellar took to be a moral tale that demonstrated

7954-482: Was founded in 1723, including in its 300 members dukes, earls, lairds and landlords. In the first half of the century these changes were limited to tenanted farms in East Lothian and the estates of a few enthusiasts, such as John Cockburn and Archibald Grant . Not all were successful, with Cockburn driving himself into bankruptcy, but the ethos of improvement spread among the landed classes. The English plough

8051-642: Was increasing specialisation, with the Lothians became a major centre of grain, Ayrshire of cattle breeding and The Borders of sheep. Although some estate holders improved the quality of life of their displaced workers, the Agricultural Revolution led directly to what is increasingly becoming known as the Lowland Clearances , with hundreds of thousands of cottars and tenant farmers from central and southern Scotland emigrating from

8148-427: Was introduced along with foreign grasses, the sowing of rye grass and clover. Turnips and cabbages were introduced, lands enclosed and marshes drained, lime was put down, roads built and woods planted. Drilling and sowing and crop rotation were introduced. The introduction of the potato to Scotland in 1739 greatly improved the diet of the peasantry. Enclosures began to displace the runrig system and free pasture. There

8245-401: Was let to sheep farmers who repeatedly impounded the cattle of neighbouring tenants, alleging that they had strayed onto the sheep grazing. Eventually the owners of the cattle obtained the help from tenants of a nearby estate, and went and recovered their stock after an angry confrontation. Emboldened by this success, a few days later, at a wedding celebration, a plan was developed to round up all

8342-419: Was made to track the escapees down. Scottish Agricultural Revolution The Agricultural Revolution in Scotland was a series of changes in agricultural practice that began in the 17th century and continued in the 19th century. They began with the improvement of Scottish Lowlands farmland and the beginning of a transformation of Scottish agriculture from one of the least modernised systems to what

8439-400: Was mostly located in the Hebrides. The end of war reintroduced competition from Spanish barilla , a cheaper and richer product. This, combined with the reduction of duty on the foreign import, and the discovery that cheaper alkali could be extracted from common salt, destroyed the seasonal employment of an estimated 25 to 40 thousand crofters. There was little prospect of alternative employment;

8536-444: Was often accompanied by moving the people from the interior straths and glens to the coast, where they were expected to find employment in, for example, the kelp or fishing industries. The properties they had formerly occupied were then converted into large sheep holdings. Essentially, therefore, this phase was characterised by relocation rather than outright expulsion. The second phase of clearance started in 1815–20, continuing to

8633-536: Was one of the reasons for the resentment of the Clearances. The planned acts of social engineering needed investment. This money often originated from fortunes earned outside Scotland, whether from the great wealth of Sir James Matheson (the second son of a Sutherland tacksman, who returned from the Far East with a spectacular fortune), the more ordinary profits from Empire of other returning Scots, or Lowland or English industrialists attracted by lower land values in

8730-430: Was part of a slow phasing out of this role; it accelerated from the 1770s, and by the next century, tacksmen were a minor component of society. T. M. Devine describes "the displacement of this class as one of the clearest demonstrations of the death of the old Gaelic society." Many emigrated to America, in the words of Eric Richards: "often cocking a snook at the landlords as they departed". Emigrating tacksmen, and

8827-500: Was possible. However, in 1771, thirty-six families did not have their leases renewed (out of some 300 families who were tenants of Boisdale); 11 of these emigrated the next year with financial assistance from the Roman Catholic church. In 1792 tenant farmers from Strathrusdale led a protest by driving more than 6,000 sheep off the land surrounding Ardross . It was the first large protest over clearances. It started when land

8924-634: Was that almost 11,000 people were provided with "assisted passages" by their landlords between 1846 and 1856, with the greatest number travelling in 1851. A further 5,000 emigrated to Australia, through the Highland and Island Emigration Society . To this should be added an unknown, but significant number, who paid their own fares to emigrate, and a further unknown number assisted by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commission . Many Highland landlords were in debt, despite rising commodity prices and

9021-400: Was the end of the Napoleonic Wars, which had supported high prices for the small range of commodities produced in the Highlands. The extent of indebtedness among Highland landowners was enormous. The evidence of this is the very high number of hereditary lands that were sold, especially in the first half of the 19th century. Over two-thirds of Highland estates had changed hands in this way by

9118-476: Was the last part of mainland Britain to remain at risk of famine, with notable instances before the 19th century in 1680, 1688, the 1690s, 1740–1, 1756 and 1782–3. The history of the trade in meal suggests that the region balanced this import with exporting cattle, leading to a substantial reliance on trade for survival that was greater than anywhere else in Britain. There was near-contemporaneous dispute as to

9215-479: Was the suggestion by some theorists that the Celtic population were less hardworking than those of Anglo-Saxon stock (i.e., Lowlanders and, in some instances, English), so giving an economic element to a racial theory. James Hunter quotes a contemporary Lowland newspaper: 'Ethnologically the Celtic race is an inferior one and, attempt to disguise it as we may, there is ... no getting rid of the great cosmical fact that it

9312-650: Was to become the most modern and productive system in Europe. The traditional system of agriculture in Scotland generally used the runrig system of management, which had possibly originated in the Late Middle Ages . The basic pre-improvement farming unit was the baile (in the Highlands) and the fermetoun (in the Lowlands). In each, a small number of families worked open-field arable and shared grazing. Whilst run rig varied in its detail from place to place,

9409-569: Was to pastoral agriculture based on sheep. The most productive sheep were the Cheviot , allowing their owners to pay twice as much rent as if they had stocked with Blackfaces . The Cheviot's disadvantage was that it was less hardy and needed low-level land on which to overwinter. This was usually the old arable land of the evicted population, so the choice of sheep breed dictated the totality of clearance in any particular Highland location. Some of those carrying out clearances believed that this

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