The “Trochy” Grants

first printed in Standfast 2016

Patrick Grant, the new Chieftain of the Grants of Tullochgorm, has been trawling through the trunks of archives left by his famous forebears Field Marshall Sir Patrick Grant and the historian Dr Isabel Frances Grant. And what a trove it has already proved to be. Among the documents brought to light is his family’s own version of the Monymusk Text (MT) - dating very specifically to 1770, referred to hereafter as the Tullochgorm Text (TT). This text can now be accessed in full via the “History” page on the Clan Society website. Among the many items upon which it sheds more light is one of the more curious tales in the canon of Grant lore featuring James Grant “nan creach” 3rd of Freuchie: that of the “Grants of the Trough”.

Stimulated by the fresh insights provided and with the benefit of modern technology allowing access to so much more material, many details of the story can now be made clear, but perhaps we should start with best summary of the story in the MT - which is in a footnote of Fraser’s “Chiefs of Grant” (vol I p113).

“He resented the murder of his brother in-law, Gordon of Brachally, on Deeside, by the country people there, and prompted the Earl of Huntly, as the Gordon chief, to join him in slaying all the men in the country in retaliation and revenge. Many orphans were made by the slaughter of their parents. Huntly took the most lively of the orphans, between three and four scores, to his castle of Strathbogie. He made a long wood trough for feeding them, on both sides of which the orphans sat in rows and ate the provisions. James na Creach, being on a visit to Huntly, was invited by the Earl to see the orphans feeding, and "lobbing at their troch." The Laird of Grant was so affected at the scene, that he said to Huntly that as he had assisted at the destruction of the parents, it was reasonable that he should share with him in the preservation of their children. He swept away the sitters on one side of the trough, and ordered them to be carried to Strathspey and maintained there. These were called Grants, and those on the other side who remained on Huntly's lands were called Gordons. - (Print of 1876, p. 31.)”

Gordon family archives assert that Thomas Gordon, whom they call 1st of Kennerty (near Peterculter in Aberdeenshire) was married to a daughter of Sir Duncan Grant of Freuchie. This turns out to be correct and I offer the indicative date range 1455x9 for this marriage. No name is given for her, but we may guess at Maud/“Bigla” [Explanation: Sir Duncan’s mother was Bigla/Maud the heiress of Glenchernick. Sir Duncan was married to Muriel Mackintosh and so his eldest daughter was also called Muriel. This Muriel, who died c1472 (still well under 40 years old), was married to Patrick Leslie 6th of Balquhain.] Although designed “of Kennerty” this Gordon family had been in the Ballater area since about 1380 and in Glenmuick for quite some time. [The ruins of ‘Brachally’, more correctly Braiklie, castle stand in the grounds of Glenmuick House - but it was probably not ‘in hand’ at that time. The first Gordon designed ‘of Braiklie’ was only from c1592.]

Braiklie Line

Thomas Gordon died in 1495 at about the age of c60, but ‘Maud’ lived on with her son Alexander Gordon, the new laird. In 1495 James nan creach was only about 10 years of age - quite incapable of leading a revenge party - so it is clear that Thomas Gordon was not the murder victim. Alexander’s son Thomas died in 1563 - well after the death of James nan creach - so he too can be ruled out, leaving only Alexander as the victim. The Gordon archives say little about Alexander’s death beyond the fact that it was before 1526.

TT tells us that the first appeal for vengeance went to Huntly, but he showed little enthusiasm, giving rise to the saying “‘If ever I kill a man he shall be a Gordon’ for its observed that they are not busy in avenging their kinsmen’s quarrel.” We should be fair to the Gordons, however, for Alexander the 3rd Earl had been a member of the Council of Regency the King’s Lieutenant (1517-18); he died in January 1524 (our calendar). So one can see how his eye would have been off the less-than-immediate-family ball. And the fact that he hoovered up so many orphans is indicative of his generosity of character at the time. It is this death which allows us to be so precise with the date of the event - for it is clear that he was still alive when the ‘Trochie Grant’ orphans (otherwise Slich n’amar) were taken back to Strathspey from Huntly and the tale could not relate to his successor George (his grandson) who was only 10 years old when he became Earl. Thus we may be confident that the murder victim was Alexander and that this probably occurred in the period 1520x3 - when ‘Maud’ was a relatively elderly woman nearly 80 years of age.

And so it was that ‘Maud’ turned in desperation to her own family for redress - specifically to her nephew John Grant 2nd of Freuchie, the “Bard Roy”, who was still alive at this time (aged about 60). The young and vigorous James (still in his 30s) was dispatched to regain the family’s honour and only with this in train did Huntly join in. So James wrought vengenance on behalf of his great aunt, not his sister.

It is instructive that the story tells that Alexander Gordon was killed by “the countrymen there” - NOT calling them Farquharsons (as our late Chief, too, referred to them). My understanding is as follows: Farquhar son of Shaw of Rothiemurchus took a job as Chamberlain of Mar around 1435. It was only his grandson Finlay mor who married Isabel Stewart (great granddaughter of the Wolf of Badenoch) of Invercauld shortly after 1500. The Farquharsons are otherwise known as the “Siol Fhinlay” from this Finlay. So the Farquharson clan was really only at its beginnings at the time in question. Indeed had this murder been the deed of a “Clan Farquharson” at that time, one would surely have expected the Farquharson chief to have taken responsibility for his own orphans, rather than there being so many (some 50 or so) creamed off by Huntly (he was selective).

So far as I can see, due to the way the Earldom of Mar had been given and then removed from several Stewarts over that period (only in 1565 were the Erskines given (back?) the Earldom of Mar), essentially the “countrymen” of upper Deeside were quite a law unto themselves - whence the need to bring in Farquhar as chamberlain (rather parallel with what had happened with the Grants in Urquhart and Glenmoriston). This resistance to feudal control (or, more particularly, to the enforcement of the payment of feudal taxes) led to the murder of three Gordons in the one family - not only this 1522 event, but also others in 1595 and 1666, these latter two later melded in the memory and commemorated in the song “The Baron o’ Brackley”.

As with so many others throughout the highlands, later Farquharson chiefs had really had to ‘go native’ to a large extent in order to exercise any effective control at all. [Let this foregoing not be allowed to imply that I side necessarily with the lairds whose taxes and other imposts were often extremely - excessively - burdensome.]

So we can say that the orphans were not Farquharsons; but MT says that some of those who stayed at Huntley took the name Sangster and from this we may suppose that they were not already Gordons.

Which all having been said we have no information about the precise trigger for the 1522 murder.

As can be seen this analysis contradicts what has been the understanding of the details of the family relationships between these three generations of the Chiefs of Grant. This will be examined in a separate essay.

So here is a list of corrections:

1. James did not resent the event, it was his great aunt who sought revenge
2. It was not James’ brother in law but his great uncle in law who was killed
3. The murdered man was not “of” or “at” Brachally
4. “Brachally” is really Brackly or better Braiklie
5. James shamed the Gordon chief into action rather than “prompting” him.