THE BARONY OF STRATHERRICK IN INVERNESS:
THE ORIGINAL COUNTRY OF THE GRANTS.
[xxiii]The earliest known territorial designation
which was hereditary in the family of Grant was that of Lord of Stratherrick.
At a somewhat earlier date than the first appearance of the Grants as Lords
of Stratherrick, Robert le Grant, who, if not a brother, was at least a contemporary
of Sir Laurence le Grant, obtained from John Prat He was probably
the knight whose sister Marjory married Gilbert of Glenkerny, younger. [Vol.iii.
of this work, p. 6.] a charter of the lands of Clonmanache, Supposed
to be Coulmony, now part of the estate of Lethen, in the county of Nairn. concerning
which there had been some dispute between the granter's father and Robert le
Grant. The writ bears that the land shall be held of the granter and his heirs
for a silver merk instead of the usual services, and the gift may have been
the result of a compromise. Vol. iii. of this work, p. 5.
The charter is undated, but was probably made about the year 1258, when Robert
le Grant, Sir Laurence, and two of the witnesses, Sir John Byset and Sir William,
son of Augustine, all appear in an agreement with the Bishop of Moray in that
year. Registrum Moraviense, pp. 133-135. Clonmanache, or
Coulmony, is thus the first territory of which we have certain and authentic
information as the possession of a member of the Grant family. But from it Robert
le Grant appears to have assumed no territorial designation, and no succession
has been traced from him.Stratherrick, on the other hand, supplied to the Grant family their earliest territorial designation, and one which, for a short time at least, was hereditary. Patrick le Grant, the grandson of Sir Laurence, Sheriff of Inverness, was the first of the family whose name is associated with the district of Stratherrick, and in a charter granted by him about the year 1357 he is designed "dominus de Stratharthoc," or Lord of Stratherrick. Vol iii. of this work, p. 10. Whether Sir Laurence le Grant or his son, the father of Patrick, held these lands can .only be matter of conjecture, although, [xxiv] from the high position of the former as Sheriff of Inveness, it is very probable that he did. The son of Patrick, whose Christian name has not been positively ascertained, may also, like his father, have taken the style of Lord of Stratherrick, and the grand-daughter of Patrick, Elizabeth le Grant, who inherited the lands, was known and designed as Lady of Stratherrick. Vol. iii. of this work, p. 16.
Stratherrick, also called Strathfarigag, from the river which drains the more northerly portion of the valley, is a wide elevated district in the parish of Boleskine and Abertarff, and county of Inverness. It stretches along the south-eastern shore of Loch Ness, parallel with, but separated from it by a narrow ridge of hilly country which screens the valley from the loch. The Strath is watered towards the south by another stream called the Fechlin, which, issuing from Loch Killin, unites in Stratherrick with some other considerable waters, and then changes its name to the River Foyers: It is upon this river that the far-famed and often described Fall of Foyers is situated, just where the water turns to pierce the rocky ridge and seek rest in the bosom of Loch Ness.
The lands and barony of Stratherrick, so far as can be traced, have been inherited by three families successively, the Bysets, the Grants, and their present possessors the Frasers. The Bysets are known to have held the territory from about the year 1242; 2 Rymer's Foedera, vol. i. p. 617. a century later it was in the possession of the Grants, and appears to have passed from them before 1420 to the family of Fraser of Lovat. At this time these lands pertained to the earldom of Moray, and continued to do so probably until about the year 1539, when with other baronies and lands they were incorporated by King James the Fifth into the barony of Lovat, in favour of Hugh Lord Fraser of Lovat. Charter of Erection of Barony of Lovat, dated 26th March 1539. Registrum Magni Sigilli, Lib. xxvi. No. 244. The paucity of information regarding the history of Stratherrick during the period of its possession by the Bysets and the Grants, and its acquisition by the Frasers, is fully accounted for by the fact that the documents which could have instructed its history, perished in the flames of war. On 20th September 1430, King James the First confirmed to [xxv] Hugh Fraser of Lovat and his heirs, certain lands mentioned in a retour in which he is served heir to his deceased brother, Alexander Fraser of Lovat. The lands were the third part of the barony of the Aird, and the barony of Abertarff, with its pertinents, viz., Stratherrick, the third part of the lands of Glenelg and other lands in the barony of Abertarff and regality of Moray, all held of the Earl of Moray for ward and relief, and at this time in the hands of the Crown on account of the recent death of James Earl of Moray. The charter concludes with the following clause :- And because it hath been fully and sufficiently established by the said Hugh Fraser that his charters, made upon the said lands, were burned, consumed, and destroyed during the wars of the Islesmen while in rebel lion against the King, therefore the King ratifies to the said Hugh and his heirs the said lands with their pertinents, in the same form in which the said Hugh or his predecessors held them from the Earl of Moray, saving our service, etc. Registrurn Magni Sigilli, vol. ii. No. 179.
Although here and in other charters described as a pertinent of the barony of Abertarff, there is evidence that Stratherrick was itself a barony. It is so styled in the charter of erection of the barony of Lovat already referred to, and in other writs. In the middle of the sixteenth century, when untimely bereavements had thrown upon the estate the support of two dowagers, Janet Gray, the widow of Thomas, third Lord Fraser of Lovat, and Janet Ross, the widow of Hugh, fourth Lord, the two ladies, unable to agree about their respective terces, had recourse to the Sheriff Court of Inverness, and the Sheriff decreed (1st July 1552) that their claims should be apportioned on 'the baronies of Abertarff, Stratherrick, Dalcors, the "auld heritage of the Aird," Strathglas, and the conquest lands of Halyburton. Sheriff-Court Book of Inverness, 1543-1594, H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh.
So long and so closely have the Lovat family been identified with Stratherrick, that the district became known as the Country of the Frasers. The Grants are said to have left traces of their occupation of the valley in the names of several of the places, such as Gartrnore, Gartbeg, Dellachaple, and Ballindalloch, but it is more probable that such names are rather local [xxvi] than tribal, and the fact that places in Strathspey bear similar designations only suggests that places having common or similar geographical features received similar names, and not that the Grants transferred the names of their holdings' in Stratherrick to those of Strathspey. A manuscript history of the family of Lovat asserts that in the fifteenth century there were many Grants, some of them belonging to the Clanchiaran, living in Stratherrick, but, if this were so, they must soon afterwards have given place to the followers of Lovat. It is recorded that in 1544 the race of Lovat was nearly annihilated in the sanguinary battle of Blar-na-leine, fought at the east end of Loch Lochy between the Clan. Macdonald and the Frasers of Lovat, who were returning from an expedition to the Hebrides, whither they had gone to restore the heir of the Clanranald family to his estates. Both sides stripped to their shirts (whence the name of the battle), and the Frasers, who were inferior in numbers to their opponents, were all slain with the exception of one man, who escaped wounded. Gregory's Highlands and Isles, p. 162. Fortunately for the clan the bereaved wives of the Frasers, to the number of eighty, it is alleged, gave birth to posthumous sons, who, in due time, grew up and re-established the name. So far as Stratherrick was concerned, the retainers of Lovat are said to have suffered severely, and the valley is reported to have been peopled principally by the descendants of two cadets of Fraser of Lovat, one of whom set tied at Foyers and the other at Loch Farraline, giving rise to two tribes, the Mac-mhic-ulliams or Foyer's tribe, and the Slioch-ion mhic-Alisters, or Farraline's tribe.Old Statistical Account, vol. xx. pp. 21, 22.
As illustrative of social life in Stratherrick till about the close of the seventeenth century, it may be said that the houses of the wadsetters were composed of cupple trees, the walls and thatch made up of sod and divot, hut each containing a spacious apartment containing a large table, where the family and dependants daily ate their two meals, the family occupying one end of the table, and the dependants the other. The sons of these wadsetters were trained in agriculture and arms, and any other pursuit was reckoned a disgrace. The land was divided into davochs or half davochs, one or more of which was held by the wadsetter, and he in turn subset his holding in quarter or plough lands, or more frequently in [xxvii] auchten parts, and sometimes even in smaller portions, to cottars. Pertaining to Stratherrick there were extensive shealings or grazings on the hills towards Badenoch, and to these the inhabitants were wont to migrate in summer with their whole families and cattle, returning again to their farms when the winter began to set in. Old Statistical Account, vol. xx. pp. 23, 24.
The lands of Stratherrick, after being in possession of the Frasers of J4ovat for more than three hundred years, were in 1746 forfeited, along with the other Lovat estates, on the attainder of Simon Lord Lovat for his participation in the rebellion of 1745; and retained by the Crown for nearly thirty years. They were then restored to General Simon Fraser, eldest son of the forfeited Lord, and Margaret Grant, daughter of Ludovick Grant of Grant, the "Highland King." General Fraser died in 1782, and was succeeded by his brother, Archibald Fraser of Lovat, who, in the year 1803, endowed seven Sunday charity schools, one of which was
to be erected in Stratherrick.
In the printed letter in which he intimates this endowment to the neighbouring gentlemen, he says:
"I wish for moral principle, and stipulate the New Testament shall be a school book; and the Old Testament, fit only for enlarged minds and more advanced experience and periods of life, shall not be used in the Sunday school until a proper excerpt, containing the history of the Creation, the faith of Abraham, the piety of Job, and the enlightened reflections of the Ecclesiastes, applicable to Christianity, shall, with the Psalms of David selected, form the compilation."
A copy of the letter was sent by Archibald Fraser of Lovat to Lady Grant of C rant, with an accompanying epistle, which shows that the writer had evidently inherited much of the racy humour of his father. Archibald Fraser's letter is as follows:
"Inverness, 2d October 1803.
Lady Grant will, I am persuaded, receive the enclosed paper with that complacencye which, tho' it is the prerogative of her sex in general, is with her so peculiar an ornament.
The weather breaks; for the next six months a good castle, a large[xxviii] room, a large family, clean hearts, chearfull minds, and roaring peat fires wou'd be my choice. My preparations are for a winter campaign, meal, leather bags, and boys to carry them, for lack of' provender for garrons. And a little more than I want, when Sir James orders me to march, to give away, and gett the blessings of the people instead of their curses for plundering them for our money: moreover, a store of onions, salt, tobacco, Scots snuff, whiskey, and bagpipes for our people, and for the first Consal (Bonaparte) a single figg.
I hope your Ladyship's forgivnes for coming of before breakfast, and begging my respects to the Miss Grants and all the family, have the honor to be
Your most obedient humble servant,
A. FRASER, LOVAT."
Although the Grants parted with Stratherrick in 1419, and thus for a time severed their connection with Loch Ness, they reappeared a century later on its opposite shore as the owners of the large district of Urquhart and Glenmoriston. Meanwhile the family had fixed their abode in Strathspey, whither we hasten to trace their possessions.
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Volume I Introduction (ii) |
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