For the most part, Earltown was overwhelmingly settled by families from the Parishes of Rogart and Clyne in Eastern Sutherlandshire with some from townships lying across their borders in Lairg and Dornoch.  There were some exceptions.   A notable one would be the Parish of Reay families who settled at West Earltown between 1832 and 1845.

Reay is a parish on the northern coast of Scotland.   It straddles the boundary between the old shires of Sutherland and Caithness.  The parish church is in the village of Reay within Caithness and therefore most families identified themselves in documents, obituaries and on monuments as “Native of Caithness-shire” regardless of which side of the county border they came from.   All of those arriving in Earltown were residents of Strath Halladale within the bounds of Sutherlandshire.

Strath Halladale is a strath, or broad river valley,  commencing on the heights near the border with Kildonan and runs northward for 22 miles to Melvich Bay on the north coast.  The surrounding hills  are of a height similar to the Cobequid Hills around Earltown and are interspersed by huge areas of blanket bog.¹ Arable land is found along the course of the Halladale River which is backed by grazing lands on the surrounding hills.

Unlike Kildonan and Strathbrora to the south, Strath Halladale, as a whole, was not subject to the widescale clearances of the early 19^th century.   Parts of  Upper Strath Halladale were cleared in the early 19^th century with further minor clearances in the 1830’s. Over time it was subject to the normal regression of small holdings or crofts with families migrating to urban settings or overseas. 

This was an area of Scotland with a strong Norse presence prior to the 13^th century.  During the 12^th century, a tribe known as MacEth or MacIye migrated north from Moray and spread across the north coast with Reay being the eastern reaches of the clan’s influence.  Without going into the politics, feuding and strategic marriages of medieval times, suffice it to say that the MacKays eventually gained legitimate but fragile superiority.  The chieftain was known as Lord Reay and the northwest of Sutherlandshire became unofficially known as Lord Reay’s Country. 

Strath Halladale was under the leadership of a cadet family of MacKays who styled themselves as the MacKays of Bighouse.  Bighouse is the name of a community at the mouth of the Halladale, the name of an estate and predictably the name of the mansion that once housed the gentry.  Despite the obvious, its origin is the Norse bygdh-hus meaning village house.

The MacKays of Bighouse retained their lands and estate, (albeit with some genealogical diversions), until 1830.  At that time the estate was sold to the Marquis of Stafford, (later the Duke of Sutherland), who was married to the Countess of Sutherland.

A fascinating aspect of migration into Earltown, or any Scottish settlement in Nova Scotia, is how incoming families would seek out and find ways to settle near former neighbours or relatives.  In some cases, a generation would have passed. 

The root of the Reay migration goes back to approximately 1816 when a newly wed couple,  Alexander MacKay ² and Elspie Murray, arrived in Scotsburn from the Parish of Reay.  While Alex, a tailor, had ancient ties to Reay, Elspie, was a native of  Sciberscross in the Parish of Rogart.   Her father and uncle,  William and Alex Murray respectively,  moved their families to Autanduin in Kildonan prior to 1810.  In 1814, they were cleared from Altanduin and fled north to Strath Halladale.  They found temporary shelter on Sletill Hill but were eventually warned off.  They found a permanent home in the community of Craigton. 

Shortly thereafter, in 1819, one of Elspie’s cousins, daughter of Alex, arrived at Scotsburn with her husband’s family and “great with child”.  Nancy Murray and her Rogart husband Alexander “Ballem” Sutherland settled at the foot of Gunn’s Hill.   In 1822, her sister Eliza and her Rogart husband,  Peter Murray “Bonesetter”, arrived in Earltown and settled next to Nancy on what is now the Alex Macdonald Road.

 We often discount transatlantic correspondence.  While the evidence is scant,  messages and letters did cross the Atlantic both ways.  Before the days of formal postal service,  the immigration agents, such as Donald Logan and Hugh Denoon, were back and forth to the Highlands and were likely happy to report that earlier migrants were succeeding in their new homes.  In 1831/1832, a significant number from Sutherlandshire arrived in Pictou and many proceeded to Earltown to join relations and former neighbours.  Among them was Jane Murray,  sister of  Nancy and Eliza Murray, and her husband, Robert MacDonald “MacClaharn”.

Robert was the son of Donald MacDonald, alias MacClaharn, and his wife Ann Sutherland. Donald and Ann lived in Achoultivillin in Strath Halladale. (The location seems to be an earlier rendition of the present-day Allt a’ Mhullin, which translates into Nova Scotian English as Millbrook.)

Robert and Jane cleared a farm at West Earltown to the east of Ferguson Brook and south of the Waugh River.  The land in this area had been granted to individuals from the North River area who never attempted settlement.  The MacDonalds did not get title until later but they most certainly settled there shortly after their arrival.   This was common among the families arriving in the 1830’s leading us to believe that the Onslow farmers accepted unregistered promissory notes and retained title until the debt was extinguished.

They had a family of ten.   Betsy was married to William Morrison³ and they first lived on Cnoc Na Gaoidthe before moving to Ardoch, North Dakota; Donald married Mary Elizabeth MacDonald “Macadie” of The Falls and lived at Balmoral; Alexander, possibly died in infancy in Scotland; Peter married Christena Munro “Captain” and lived at Tatamagouche Mountain;  William died young; Alexander emigrated to Massachusetts where he enlisted in the 18^th Regiment in 1861 and was discharged due to wounds received in the Civil War in 1862; Christy was the second wife of Robert Aikenhead, East New Annan;  William who studied for the ministry but had to return to the farm for health reasons;  Robert, unmarried, remained on the home farm and Rev. Angus who married Flora MacLeod of Wallace and served as an Anglican minister in New York state.

The MacDonalds were accompanied by Robert’s sister,  Elizabeth, (aka Betty), and her husband John MacKay “Strathy”.   They lived in the Strath Halladale hamlet of Nahar near Croick. This family had two descriptors.  The name “Strathy” appears in early Earltown records and would seem to indicate that John’s people had their origins in the Strathy area to the west of Strath Halladale.   Later this family was known as the “Gouda” MacKays.

John and Betty settled a farm to the East of Robert and Jane MacDonald.  This is on an old road that would once have been an extension of the current Campbell Road and connected up with the Alex MacDonald Road. 

Their family included  Christy,  wife of Hugh MacDonald “Paulie”;  William who married Janet Ferguson and lived on Ferguson Brook Road;  Donald, NFI; Catherine wife of Donald MacKay “Uhr”, West Earltown;  Nancy, unmarried; Hugh married  1. Margaret Mackay and 2. Annie Ferguson and lived at Tatamagouche Mountain; and Angus born in 1830, NFI.

The aforementioned  William “Gouda” who lived on the late Harold Ferguson’s farm,  left Earltown after the death of his wife and settled at Grand Forks, North Dakota.  Most of the sons went west leaving only his son Joseph at West Earltown.  Both of his daughters remained in the area.  Elizabeth married  Sandy Ferguson and took over the home farm.  Mary married Albert Drysdale of Tatamagouche Mountain.

Another family coming from Strath Halladale in the early 1830’s was that of William and Dorothy Gunn. William was from the community of Achintoul located in the upper reaches of the Parish of Kildonan. In 1800 William married Dorothy MacKay of Dalhalvaig, Strath Halladale. The family moved about and eventually put down roots in Achiemore.

William and Dorothy are believed to have lived briefly in Pictou County before arriving in Earltown.  In 1838 they are listed in the Kemptown census as living on or near Boodle Hill⁴ although he had already purchased what is now Sweet Earth Farm⁵ on the South Spiddle Hill Road in 1837. This would suggest he was clearing the West Earltown property while living at Boodle Hill.  

Their family:  Donald, the eldest, married and remained in Strath Halladale;  Jane married Hugh Campbell in Strath Halladale⁶; Catherine, NFI; Hugh married Janet MacKay prior to emigrating to Pictou around 1831.  They lived for a few years at Middle River before moving to Clydesdale in 1841.  William married Catherine MacKenzie and lived in Stellarton;  John married Barbara MacKay at MacLellan’s Mountain and moved to Red Oak, Illinois;  Barbara married Donald MacLeod of The Falls shortly after arriving in Earltown; and Alexander took over the property near Boodle Hill.  Alexander married Eleanor Sutherland of Middle River.  In the 1870’s, he moved his large family to a farm known to many as the Geordie Fraser farm on Brule Point.

William died at West Earltown in 1850 after which the farm was placed with the Sheriff and later sold to a MacKenzie from Stellarton⁷.

In 1837 Earltown received the Joseph MacKenzie family.   Joseph was born to Alexander MacKe⁸nzie and Ann MacKay in Coul,  Parish of Reay.  In 1833 he married Esther Bruce of the Parish of Latheron⁹, Caithness.  The couple settled at Croick where their eldest two children were born.   Joseph’s brother Hector came to Nova  Scotia at the same time and settled near Stellarton where he was a schoolmaster.  Another brother, Angus, remained at Croick on the original holding and his grandchildren were still in the area in the 1950’s. Kenneth MacKenzie, grandson of Joseph, in his personal memoir, Sabots and Slippers, claims that most of the MacKenzies in the northeast sector of MacKay Country descended from Joseph’s great grandfather, Hector MacKenzie of Gairloch. The move to Strath Halladale, and Croick in particular, was around 1730 at the behest of a MacKay chieftain, likely the local laird at Bighouse.

After a brief sojourn in Pictou County,  Joseph and Esther acquired a property at Central Earltown which was roughly across from the end of the Matheson Corner Road¹⁰.   Joseph was one of the early Catechists in the area as reported in this blog post.    Joseph died of pneumonia on July 1^st, 1848, a short time before his youngest daughter was born.

Their family were:   Alexander, died unmarried in 1871; Elizabeth unmarried;  Janet, unmarried; Hector Munro, a schoolmaster and unmarried; Annie, unmarried; William, married to 1) Christy Sutherland, Croucher and 2) Barbara MacKenzie;  Hugh, a lawyer in Truro and Josephine Margaret, unmarried.  Many of this family, including Widow Esther, died of TB.

The son William eventually took over the farm that was the home base for his door to door general merchandise business.  He later acquired what is the current general store in Earltown which he operated in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

1845 marked the last of the migrations from Strath Halladale to Earltown and involved two family groups.

We return to Alexander Murray. The twice-removed miller of Altanduin, finally made the move to rejoin his three daughters who were well-established and matriarchs of large families.  One can imagine the novelty of meeting approximately 30 grandchildren for the first time within the span of a couple of days!

The journey was not without drama.  Alex,was up on the ship’s deck for fresh air.  A gust of wind blew his cap into the ocean.  The cap had been handmade by his mother and prized as a remembrance of her.  He pled the captain to turn the ship around to retrieve his beloved ‘corrigan’ but to no avail and he wept as his cap bobbed out of sight.  The family has since been known by the descriptor “Corrigan”. 

Alex was about 84 years old at this point.  His wife, Christy Sutherland, was about 76.  However Alex was still in his middle age as he lived to be 102. 

Along with Alex and Christy came their sons Donald and Robert as well as their unmarried daughters, Ellen, Catherine and Isabel.  They settled atop Spiddle Hill.   Shortly thereafter Robert acquired the MacLeod farm on the South Spiddle Hill Road.

The family has extensive tentacles throughout the genealogies of North Colchester.  In summary, the family were:

1. Eliza, wife of Peter Murray, Bonesetter.  She lived to be 103 years old.
2. Christy, died in Scotland
3. Jane, wife of Robert MacDonald, West Earltown
4. Nancy, wife of Alex Sutherland  “Ballem”  Gunn’s Hill
5. Angus married Janet MacKay and remained in Craigton.  Angus was willing to emigrate but not Janet.
6. Donald married Nancy Murray, Inchure of Clydesdale.  They lived on Alex’s farm on Spiddle Hill.
7. Ellen, unmarried
8. Catherine, unmarried
9. Isabel married John Graham shortly after arrival
10. William, nfi
11. Robert married Ellen Murray, Valley.  In the 1880’s they and five of their children moved to Maple Plain, Minnesota. After they were first married, they lived on a farm on the South Spiddle Hill Road, originally granted to Hugh MacLeod. After they left for Minnesota, the property was acquired by Joe MacKay “Gouda”. He retired in the 1920’s to Balfron after which the farm went vacant.

“Uhr”  is Gaelic for late.  It is the descriptor put on this last family of MacKays to arrive from the old country. 

Widow Anne MacKay “Uhr” was the daughter of  Donald MacDonald “MacClarharn” and Ann Sutherland, Achoultivillin, Strath Halladale.  She was married to Robert Coupar MacKay of Bighouse.   He died around 1835.  

The family’s home base before dispersing was the farm behind the Brown School at West Earltown¹¹. This became the permanent home of Donald Coupar MacKay, the second eldest son.

The family:

1. James 1815-1873 did not stay long in Earltown if he even came to Earltown.  He settled in Halifax where he was a trader and also spent time in Boston.  He was married to Sarah Anderson.   An unmarried daughter, Bell, lived in Dartmouth and a son, Rupert Coupar MacKay, was an engineer on steamers between Halifax and Boston.
2. Isabel  was the second wife of Robert Baillie, West Earltown and they were married shortly after her arrival.  Her last years were spent with her son Robert in Malagash.
3. Donald Couper was married to Catherine MacKay  “Gouda”.  They had two daughters: Annabell married to Dan MacDonald and Libbie, unmarried.
4. Jane – NFI
5. Hugh, known as Hugh Uhr, married Margaret Baillie, his sister Isabel’s stepdaughter.  They lived near the Earl McNutt farm on Tatamagouche Mountain when first married but later settled atop MacKay Hill on the Corktown Road. They had nine children.
6. Anne Coupar MacKay married Hiram Downing Jr. of Tatamagouche Mountain. They had seven children.   They emigrated to Oregon around 1872 and acquired a farm near Portland, Oregon. 

Widow Anne was living with her son Hugh at Tatamagouche Mountain when she died in 1863.

This family was closely connected to another MacKay clan who arrived in Earltown in this same period in the 1840’s.  Three siblings,  Angus, William and Jane, settled next to the  Gunn property and off the Kemptown Road.  This group were known as the “Boodles”.  (Boodle was a liquid or monetary incentive given out by candidates in an election).   William and Jane never married, but Angus married Jane MacKay in Strath Halladale.  Angus and Jane had three known children all born in Corkall in Strath Halladale:

1. Margaret, unmarried
2. Angus married to Annie Lynch of Nuttby
3. Jane married to Charles Lynch of Gunn’s Hill

Angus and Annie lived on his parent’s farm along with his single sister and father’s siblings.  Their daughter, Bella, was married to Hughie “Kemptown” Sutherland, Jane married Woodbury Moore and lived in Washington State,  Dannie and Angus remained on the home place unmarried.

This is a very broad exploration of the origins and early family ties and a topic that could use some additional study.

Map of properties mentioned https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1KhIphCm-6aEyFf6oKMX7izjLa0RNomw&usp=sharing

Sources:

Baldwin, John (Ed) The Province of Strathnaver, The Scottish Society for Northern Studies, 2000 – In particular the chapter From Clanship to Crofting: Landownership, Economy and the Church in the Province of Strathnaver by Malcolm Bangor-Jones

Baldwin, John (Ed) The Province of Strathnaver, The Scottish Society for Northern Studies, 2000 – In particular the chapter Bighouse and Strath Halladale, Sutherland by Elizabeth Beaton

MacKenzie, Kenneth, Sabots and Slippers, Ross & Main Press Limited, 1954

Sage, Donald Memorabilia Domestica W. Rae, Wick 1899

Old Parish Register, Reay, Caithness (online via Scotland’s People)

Beeler, Donald The Descendants of John and Elizabeth MacKay unpublished

Whiston, Norris The History of Nuttby and Nuttby Summit unpublished

Bighouse Estate Population List from Sutherland Papers, (Courtesy of M. Bangor-Jones)

Alice Manchester – Correspondence on Gunn family 1979

James R. MacKay, late of New Annan – Various interviews on the Uhr MacKays

Mary Douglas Murray, late of Earltown – Various discussions on the MacClarharn MacDonalds

Mary MacDonald MacArthur, late of Woburn, Ma. – Correspondence on the MacClarharn MacDonalds 1980

Colchester County Land Deeds, microfilm, Provincial Archives of Nova Scotia

1838, 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 Census of Earltown

Free Church Records, Congregation of Earltown

Malcolm Bangor-Jones, direct correspondence and helpful suggestions on the lay of the land.

 

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1. This is now part of a World Heritage site and the first peatland world heritage site. ↩︎
2. Alex, a tailor, always referred to his native homeland as “Lord Reay’s Country”, which is what his family put on his death certificate. This family lived in Millsville near Scotsburn. ↩︎
3. William Morrison, born in 1820 in Scotland, has been a genealogical brick wall. He came to Earltown as a single man. There are Morrisons on the north coast of Scotland so one wonders if there was a connection with MacDonald family back in Scotland. William died in Ardoch, ND, in 1886. Betsy died in Lordsbury, California in 1915. The Morrison sons were heavily involved in citrus farming. ↩︎
4. Boodle Hill is the area between the John Sutherland and Kemptown Roads located within the old boundaries of the Kemptown district. The name came from a nickname applied to a MacKay family featured later in this post. ↩︎
5. Otherwise known locally as the Charles McGill farm. ↩︎
6. Hugh and Jane Campbell had at least two daughters born in Strath Halladale. They are gone from the area by 1841. A Hugh Campbell settled on the first farm near the bridge on Campbell Road, Central Earltown. He appears with family in the 1838 census and the 1861 census but gone by 1871. The late Gladys Sutherland MacDonald, who grew up near the Campbell farm, heard as a child that the family mysteriously disappeared without telling anyone. To add to the mystery, a peddler working the area abruptly disappeared the same day and he was seen heading to the Campbell home. ↩︎
7. The property became the home of Angus Baillie of Spiddle Hill. Angus left it to his daughter Maggie, wife of Jimmie Stewart. The Stewarts had no children. It later became the home of the McGill family. ↩︎
8. Latheron borders on Reay in the back country. Rev. Donald Sage in Memorabilia Domestica notes that there was a mission in the back country that served those in remote parts of Latheron and Reay. ↩︎
9. Latheron is southeast of Reay in Caithness. While is it a considerable distance from Strath Halladale by today’s roads, in times past it was not far as the crow flies. The church had a mission in the back country that served people living in the remoter parts of Reay, Latheron and Kildonan. ↩︎
10. An old house was still standing on this property in the 1960’s which people referred to as the Nicky Baillie place. Nicky was the grandson of Nicholas Sutherland who annexed the MacKenzie property to his own to the east. ↩︎
11. This property was granted to a John Murray. Donald Uhr purchased the property in 1846 from John Murray and wife. To date, I have not been able to identify John Murray but it is believed he never attempted to settle the property. ↩︎