Tag Archives: The Falls

CONCEALMENT SHOES AND WITCHES’ BOTTLES

by Joyce Ferguson

In 1980, my father Jack Ferguson moved to the John Will MacLeod farm on the McLeod Road. The large white house is perched on the rise of a steep hill and the barn (built in the early 1900s) is still in use. In 2011, my husband (Rémi Lemoine) and I purchased the Don & Joyce MacLeod house in The Falls, located on Highway 311 just south of the McLeod Road and in 2017, we took possession of my father’s  property.  John Will and Don both descended from Donald MacLeod & Barbara Gunn: John Will would have been a grandson and Don a great-grandson.  (See a detailed history of the land ownership in posts on the MacLeod Road Farms (September 2014) and the MacLeod Family series in the past few weeks).

John Will MacLeod Property, MacLeod Road

My father came to the John Will farm in 1980 with a “rent to buy” agreement and the formal sale was finalized within a few years. My siblings and I were always sure that Dad would eventually purchase the farm as the “out kitchen” contained a huge wood stove with a raised thistle design on the firebox door. Dad was very proud of the Ferguson crest with its thistle and a bee on the blossom. Alice Sutherland MacKay (the daughter of John Sutherland & Mary Henderson and was the mother of Dan MacKay) remembers that when she was a small child all the neighbours came to see the MacLeod’s wondrous new stove.  Alice would have been a very young child. The stove was built in Windsor, Nova Scotia in 1906. It had a metal receptacle attached to the left of the firebox to create and hold heated water for washing. Imagine the magic of having warm water at the ready without the hassle of large pots on the stove!

As previously posted, a portion of the farm to the south was given to Donald & Barbara’s son William and his wife Georgena (gravestone spelling) Sutherland and then passed to their son George (Geordie) and his wife Anna Ferguson.  Anna was a daughter from the Big Sandy Ferguson & Elizabeth MacKay family of the Ferguson Brook Road.  Elisabeth MacKay’s mother was Janet Ferguson, a sister to my great-great-great-grandfather Alexander Ferguson (wife Mary Gordon) of Spiddle Hill who also had immigrated to Nova Scotia from the Parish of Clyne in Sutherlandshire around 1821. This means I have a “cousin connection” to the property.

Not only the MacLeods, but the women they married (Gunns, MacKays, Sutherlands and Fergusons) were from Sutherlandshire and were Highland Scots.  These people were not very far removed from the ways and traditions of the old country as they established themselves on their land.  Highland Scots of this time period were known to be strict church adherents but there was also a strong streak of the old superstitions, a love of ghost stories and tales of those who possessed the second sight (such as my great- grandmother, Christena Gunn Ferguson).  The renovation of the two houses revealed a piece of this tradition.

 The first house I will talk about is the one we currently live in. We believe this house may be the second home built on the property by William & Georgena. Most couples starting out built a small house and as fortunes improved would build a larger structure for their growing family. In the 1871 census, they are living in a separate dwelling from William’s parents and have two children plus a Margaret MacLeod living with them.  I am making a guess that this was William’s unmarried Aunt Margaret (the 1871 census has her age at 69 and born in Scotland).  The early residents of The Falls were no strangers to tragedy. Sadly, Georgena died less than three weeks after giving birth to Geordie in 1886. It is probable that Geordie was born in this house

During renovations of the house we found two newspaper sheets in the walls that dated from 1885. It is possible that the newspaper could have been added at a later date to the house but how it was placed in the wall would make this seem unlikely. There were also some pieces of newsprint recording the prime ministers of England ending with Mr. Gladstone who served until June 1885.  On the back of this paper are some written notes listing the duties of a school trustee and a partial sentence about the “…attempt to establish a school”.  I wonder if this was the foundation for establishing the school at The Falls. An inquiry to Glen revealed that a school was in two former nearby locations before the present site. The final location also resulted in a new building constructed around 1896.  There were also some math calculations on a ragged piece of paper with Jessie Hayman written on the back.   

We were gutting the house to install new wiring and insulation when my husband, Rémi, called for my help. He was tearing out the inside wall boards of the house (neither of the MacLeod houses had lathe and plaster but instead had wide horizontal planks for walls).  He had found a small bottle, similar to a vanilla bottle in size, in the wall above the window.  The bottle was very dirty and had some dried “gunk” coating the inside.  I took the bottle and rinsed it out.  The drained water was stained a reddish yellow colour.  I put more water in the bottle and gave it another swish and out came more discoloured water and a feather.  I surmised that this must have a meaning.  I walked up the hill to get some service for my cell phone and Googled “bottle with a feather in it found inside an old house”.  Straight away up popped “witches’ bottle”.

In Scotland, Ireland and the rest of the British Isles, there is a tradition of putting witches’ bottles in a hidden spot in the house to, of course, keep witches away.  A bottle would usually be filled with personal items such as hair, nail clippings, thread, buttons, iron nails, or as in our case, a feather.  The vessel would then be topped up with either urine or blood and closed up inside the house.

My next call from Rémi was to come and help him remove a vast quantity of broken glass and chards of crockery above two other windows.  There were two intact glass bottles but the rest was just a mess of broken bits.  Pieces of the crockery showed that someone liked pretty dishes with lots of blue and white and some of the red and white transferware that I am partial to.  The glass and pottery were certainly deliberately placed above the windows top sill. Mixed in with the glass were items of clothing and some papers.  The clothing seemed to be small such as children’s clothing would be.  The cloth was in complete tatters as mice and squirrels had used them for nesting materials so we burned them.

Next came the footwear.  There were three complete pairs of shoes and parts of one or two others.  The three pairs we could identify were of a man’s, a lady’s, and one small child’s copper- toed shoes. These are called concealment shoes. The shoes are supposed to protect you.  Sometimes it might only be one shoe that you find.  One theory is that the sole of a shoe is basically the symbol of your soul.  The imprint your foot makes in a well-worn pair of shoes is very personal and considered powerful.  No other piece of clothing moulds to your body the way footwear does.  Concealment shoes are usually found near openings to the house such as windows, doors, and fireplaces.  They can be found under the hearth or in old wall bread-ovens. Ours, as I said, were all found above windows. 

The shoes can also be a fertility charm.  Remember the very old tradition of throwing slippers at newlyweds? That tradition morphed into stringing shoes to the bumper of the honeymoon car in later generations.  In Lancashire County, England, there is a tradition that women who want to get pregnant try on the shoe of someone who has just given birth.  However, it seems most historians adhere to the theory that the main reason for concealment shoes was for protection.  In Scotland and England, brownies and hobs were domestic fairies and could be gotten rid of by the gift of clothing.  Perhaps that is why there was clothing in the wall.

The earliest known concealment shoe comes from 1308, and was found in Winchester Cathedral behind choir stalls that records show were installed during that year.  The shoes have been found in many types of buildings-from humble homes to grand country houses, inns, factories and two Oxford colleges.  The tradition is mostly British but the shoes can be found in Australia, the New England States, Germany, and, of course, here in Canada.  There is a museum in Northampton, England, that maintains an index of concealment shoes which stands at over 2,000 reports.  The practice of concealment shoes seems to have died out around the late 1800s and early 1900s.

We also found a metal button, a metal fork with a wooden handle, a small iron shoe-last (the form used to make shoes), and a piece of ornate iron that looks like it came off an old woodstove.  Iron is thought to ward off or provide protection from devils, fairies, spirits and witches.  I remember this from Helen Creighton’s book Bluenose Ghosts and other publications on folklore that I have read. Iron horseshoes were particularly powerful and still today are hung over the entry way to a house or barn (always hung like a U to keep your luck from running out!). Folklore suggests witches and spirits do not like to pass through iron.  That is why iron fences were put around graveyards to (hopefully!) keep spirits in.

There were also some wooden items: a stave from a wooden bucket, a piece of moulding like that of a chair rail, a wooden spoon, a piece of tree root (that might have been used as a binding for a bucket or small cask), a long twig (which my Uncle Ralph wonders might have been used for water divining), and a small wooden child’s shoe last. We found pieces of harness, leather and nails. 

The oddest item we found was a wooden bedpost placed upright between the studs in the wall near a window.  The carving of the bedpost had not been completed. The question is why wasn’t it finished? There seems to be something about unfinished items put in the walls although I could not find anything in a Google search about this practice. We have friends in New Brunswick who found a concealment shoe and with it was a piece of unfinished embroidery sampler with the needle and thread still in place waiting for the woman to come back to complete it.

In all, we had one heaping laundry hamper plus the bed post found in the walls.

Our story continues.  A few years later, I was cleaning up the shards of glass and bottles for a presentation and I came across one of the intact bottles.  It was dirty but I could tell no strange liquid had been left in it although there was some dust and debris in the bottom. When I washed out the bottle out dropped a lump.  It seemed to have a backbone.  On closer inspection it was a small bat. I believe this was also a witches’ bottle as there was no evidence of bats having ever been in the house.

We started the renovation of my father’s house (the house of Donald MacLeod & Barbara Gunn) in 2017.  We believe this house was built around the mid-1800s.  The windows were made with wooden pegs and the window glass was very wavy.  The boards used for the walls were much wider than those in our house of circa 1885.   The timber beams in the basement are hand hewn.

Above a bookshelf on an outside wall beside a window we found some more items: a horseshoe, wooden lady’s shoe last, broken glass and crockery, part of a horse bit, wooden thread spools (which were invented in Paisley, Scotland, in 1820), pieces of wood, bones, wooden tool bits, a hammer, a clasp for suspenders, and metal hooks.  We have not torn out the walls over the windows so who knows what else lies hidden behind the walls!

I have talked to some other people in the area who have also found items in the walls.  I knew someone who owns the Gavin Bell farm in West New Annan who was going to do some renovations to the house. I suggested he keep a lookout for items hidden in the walls.  Over one of the doors to the outside he found a large iron key.  Again the key was completely sealed into the cavity so it was not likely it was a key someone was expecting to use. This would indicate that those who settled from the Dumfriesshire area of southern Scotland also partook in these traditions.

To finish off our story, in William & Georgena’s house put some items back into the walls.  They will stay on the property and I have some objects displayed in a cabinet such as the witches’ bottle and some crockery.  When we built the addition on our house we placed a pair of our daughter’s ballet slippers and sneakers belonging to our boys underneath the west windows.  We did this to honour the tradition of the house and, since to date we haven’t seen any witches or nasty spirits “out and about” in The Falls, it must work!

Hugh MacLeod – Patriarch of The Falls

On June 25th, 1821 Hugh MacLeod and his four children caught their last glimpse of their native hills of Eastern Sutherland from the deck of the Ossian bound for Pictou in far off Nova Scotia.  Until May 30th of that year, the family had lived for generations in the declivity they could see on the horizon, the river valley known as Strathbrora. 

They were not alone on this adventure. They were one of twenty-one households all from the same parish of Clyne in Sutherlandshire and some would become their neighbours in the new land.

On the morning of May 30th of that year, and not without warning, an eviction crew under the direction of the Sutherland Estate began the removal of the final inhabitants of the Strathbrora.  There had been previous evictions in Clyne and several folks left voluntarily the previous year for either Caithness to the north or the colonies in North America.  Most of those families had the financial means to acquire farms elsewhere or pay passage across the ocean.  The last remaining group first delayed the action by claiming an exemption brokered by their minister[1] when eviction became a possibility.   Although small lots had been offered near Brora, the remaining inhabitants waived the offer and were prepared to mount a resistance. [2]

While the actual work of eviction was carried out by some thuggish characters in the employ of the estate, a small regiment was dispatched to the area as a violent resistance was expected. In most cases, the families gathered their belongings and left while the more militant fled through the back country to Caithness.  As was the pattern, the homes and crops left behind were burned to discourage people from returning.

Assurances from their minister aside, the evictees of 1821 were mostly of limited means otherwise they would have emigrated to Pictou during the previous two years.  By 1821, a son of their former laird, Joseph Gordon, an Edinburgh lawyer, had raised funds to subsidize passage to Nova Scotia.  The funds were primarily raised by his brother George Gordon, a merchant in Bombay, India. 

Between May 31st and June 25th, Hugh MacLeod and his family made the journey south to Cromarty in Easter Ross.   No legends were handed down as to how they lived during this three week time period but other accounts would suggest they lived in the open or sought shelter in byres of people along the way.  

The manifest of the Ossian’s voyage lists Hugh MacLeod, age 50,  as head of a party of six adults which would most likely include his wife, Mairead Sutherland, and four known children:  Marion, Margaret, Donald and John.  The fare was four Guinies and half for each adult which equates to $102 Canadian dollars in 2024. [3] 

The departure of an emigrant vessel from the port would draw spectators both acquainted and just curious.   As the sails snatched a breeze and proceeded to glide from the bay, many on shore would be greatly affected and brought to tears.

Pre emigration

The MacLeods, as a clan, were primarily based in the Northwest Highlands and Islands.  It is not known how they came to be in Clyne in the 18th century or if they even had ties to the main clan.  Hugh and Mairead (Margaret) first appear in the Old Parish Register in 1799 presenting their daughter Marion for baptism.   They are listed as living at Kilbraur.   This residence was also listed for the baptism of Margaret and Donald.   By the time John came along, the residence was noted as Dalvait and Hugh is noted as being a tailor.

Hugh is not listed on the various rent rolls as a direct tenant of the Estate. Most likely he was a subtenant.  Pre-clearance Strathbrora was arranged in a manner that tenants or sub-tenants would have a strip of arable land along the river and grazing privileges in the back country.  For a subtenant, this would not be a substantial farm hence the need for Hugh to ply another vocation as he did tailoring.

Hugh’s likely marriage around 1798 at age 31 would suggest that he likely served in the military like many of his neighbours and fellow emigrants.  

Arrival in Pictou – Now what?

It is not known how long it took the Ossian to cross the ocean to Pictou but the time would be measured in weeks.  Whatever the exact date, summer was well along and there would be no crop that year.   The scene that greeted the passengers would be much different than their countryfolk would have seen back in 1773 or even in 1803.   Pictou was now a well-established town accustomed to a stream of emigrants landing on the wharves and looking for directions to a possible new home.

Hugh Denoon, a former emigration agent in the Highlands, was now employed as the land agent in Pictou doling out acreages of unsettled land along the Northumberland watershed.  The land agent would assist with preparing a petition to the colonial government for a grant of land.   In the meantime, he would direct migrants to the main settlements receiving settlers.  By 1821 this could be the upper settlements of Barney’s River, the upper settlements of the Middle and West Rivers of Pictou or the headwaters of rivers ending at River John and Tatamagouche.

A contingent of Clyne immigrants arrived in Pictou in 1820 with a noticeable proportion taking up land in the Earltown area including The Falls.  Consequently, it made sense for the MacLeods to head in that direction where there would be some familiar faces with experience in pioneering.  Hugh was a given a ticket of location on the Tatamagouche River.[4]  A petition dated February 5th, 2022 describes Hugh MacLeod, about 50 years of age, wife and 4 children emigrated from Scotland in 1821.  MacLeod asks for land at Earltown. He was approved for 200 acres.[5]  This eventual grant was located on what is now known on the Spiddle Hill South Road approximately a half mile north of Highway 311 at  West Earltown  The grant straddled the river, included some potential meadowland on the east side of the river and extended up the slope of Spiddle Hill.

Across the river on the hill, three generations of the “Black” Robert MacKay family put down roots.  They were fellow passengers on the Ossian and hailed from Aschoilbeg near Dalvait.  To the east was land granted to Robert and John Baillie of Clyne who chose not to settle in Earltown and likely settled in Pictou County.

While most settlers were very content with the land they were granted, ownership being something neither they nor their ancestors had ever experienced, Hugh later petitioned the government to exchange his grant for another location.   The land, he explained, was wet in places and was situated in a valley that was very susceptible to early frosts.   His request was denied and the family remained at West Earltown for the time being.   In 1830 John and Susannah Moore[6] started selling off their substantial reserved land grant at The Falls.  In that year individual deeds were granted to each of Donald MacLeod and John MacLeod.   Donald, his wife and one child were settled on their land at the time of the 1838 census but John was still living on the original farm at West Earltown with his bride, infant son, mother and sister.

The John MacLeod homestead with Donald MacLeod’s homestead on the hill across the river. Note an earlier dwelling in the foreground between the current house and the barn.

The elder son Donald settled on the west side of the river and a homestead was established on MacLeod Road where it exists almost 200 years later.  Many will identify this as the John Will MacLeod property.   The younger son, John, acquired 150 acres on the east side of the river.  The homestead was on site of the current house and barn which is still owned by descendants.

Homestead of Donald MacLeod as seen today from the local community hall. It looks much the same today as it did 100 years ago.

Immediately to the south of Donald lies the homestead of Hugh’s eldest daughter Marion and her husband William Sutherland “Ban”.   The barn still exists on the shoulder of Highway 311 at the junction with the Gil Sutherland Road. This lot was also acquired from the Moore family in 1830.

Hugh died on April 13, 1830 at his home at West Earltown.   He transformed his family from being lotters or sub-tenants to collective owners of a picturesque 350 acre chunk of The Falls. It is interesting to note that the neighbours on either side of this lot were former residents of Kilbraur, Hugh and Mairead’s original home. William Sutherland “Ruaidh” lived to the north and Gilbert Sutherland “Square” to the south.

   Over the following four generations, the tentacles of this family wove its way through the majority of the local inhabitants of The Falls. Almost nothing is known about Mairead Sutherland.  She would appear to be living in 1838 and the head count of Donald’s family in the 1861 census would indicate she was still on this earth at that point.   Hugh’s stone in Murray Cemetery makes no mention of his wife.   It is worth noting that Hugh is the first recorded adult burial at that location.

[1] The minister was Rev. Walter Ross.  Ross was not well liked by the common folk having been appointed by the Countess, as was the case in those days, and was more attentive of his four legged flock than the two legged variety.  He was often absent from duty which led to the catechists being the true spiritual leaders in the community.

[2] Hunter, J. (2015). Set Adrift Upon the World. Casemate Publishers; and direct correspondence with Dr. Hunter is the primary source for the events surrounding the evictions from Strathbrora

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[3] Campey, L. H. (2002). Fast Sailing and Copper-Bottomed. Dundurn. Appendix B

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[4] Tatamagouche River was the description in early documents in The Falls and West Earltown.  The name did not survive and the river is Waugh River and named after an early settler of Tatamagouche.

[5] Whiston, Norris  (2009) Northern Colchester Land Grants

[6] Susannah was the daughter of Dr. John Harris, Truro, one time shareholder in the old Philadelphia Company that owned most of West Pictou and the hilly sections of North Colchester.   Their prior stature enabled the descendants of Dr. Harris to acquire some strategic land grants throughout the regions.   John Moore was a miller and had grants on steams suitable for constructing mills.  The Moore’s settled near the junction of the West and East branches of River John.

I

The MacAdie MacDonalds

In August of 1822, a young and single 24-year-old Alexander MacDonald arrived in the port of Pictou on a ship the identity of which had never been found. He was not alone as a few settlers around Earltown and West Branch appeared that same year. Several of his fellow passengers likely went east to join relatives in the Upper Barneys River area.

In his native Clyne, he would have been known as Alex MacAdie, (son of Adam), part of the Cadaich MacDonald clan that were small tenants at Aschoilmore in mid Strath Brora and with ties to other holdings further back along the Blackwater River. He was the son of Adam MacDonald and Mary MacKay.

This MacDonald family was very much in the center of events surrounding the near total removal of inhabitants from the upper two-thirds of the Parish of Clyne. Adam MacDonald was one of the negotiators on behalf of a number of tenants seeking to find an alternative to removal.  Adam, his brother-in-law Mad Donald MacKay, and others approached the Sutherland Estate through their minister, Rev. Walter Ross, and secured what they thought to be an extension on their leases. A year later they learned that they were destined to be removed. Rev. Ross, who drew his stipend from the Countess, denied witnessing such an extension. MacDonald, MacKay et al then offered to match, pro rata, whatever rent the large sheep farmers, would be paying. The offer was rejected. The estate was adamant that Strath Brora would be totally cleared in 1821.  Many of the subtenants had already booked subsidized passage to Pictou and were glad to be done with the Estate factors and the less than scrupulous Rev. Ross.

View looking down Strath Brora from Ascoile near home of Alex MacDonald. Photo by Valenta, Geograph.org.uk

A few families chose to stand their ground including the MacAdie MacDonalds and Mad Donald MacKay.

Mad Donald, whose descendants in Barneys River share DNA with MacAdie descendants in Earltown, appears to have been a brother to Mrs. MacDonald. Mad Donald earned his name while working as a trapper/trader with the Hudson Bay Company in Manitoba, the Dakotas and elsewhere on the prairies. He retired back to Clyne with sons born to his indigenous wife[1]. His legal wife, Mary MacKenzie,  had remained in Clyne those years and might have had something to say about this unexpected expansion of the family. Hardened from years of adventure and independence in the wilds of the prairies, he was not going to walk away from his lease in Aschoilmore without a fight.  Yet despite the resolve of  Donald MacKay and Adam MacDonald, among other tenants, to stay put, they had already secured small farms in Caithness to which they could retreat if they were unsuccessful.

When the authorities first arrived to enforce removal, they were met by a mob armed with sticks and stones. A request for help was sent to London and a very reluctant government sent troops to enforce a peaceful removal. Resistance was attempted once more but was unsuccessful. Several of the ringleaders fled to Caithness.  The township of Aschoilmore and others were burned and destroyed.[2]

Having missed the voyages of the summer of 1821. The MacDonalds, MacKays and likely others of that group spent the winter in Caithness[3]. The following spring many sailed for Nova Scotia. Alexander’s parents are believed to have stayed in Caithness but he and his MacKay kin chose to leave Scotland.

Alexander was given a location ticket for a 200 acre grant on the Tatamagouche River[4]. Compared to his fellow Clyne emigrants, he lucked out. His grant, surrounding the intersection of the Balmoral Road and Highway 311[5] at The Falls, is a gentle sloping strip gradually ascending the front slope of the Cobequids. This would be his home for the next 60 years.

New Beginnings

Alex MacAdie constructed his homestead on the bank of the river near the house known locally today as that of the late Sterling and Odessa Matheson. His clearing extended down to the crossroads by the church and westward to the treeline you see today. (A map showing the homesteads for the family can be found here:https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1EINnzQcAQWh_ThMIVdQwrAVJUsIcW0k&usp=sharing )

One might envision a lonely existence for a single man in the wilds of Nova Scotia carving a clearing out of a dense forest while learning to use a not too familiar axe.  But this was not the case as former neighbours were near at hand.   Immediately across the river was the expanding homestead of William and Mary Sutherland “Ruidh” and William’s elderly parents, James and Catherine (Ferguson) Sutherland.  They had arrived two years before.   Donald Baillie of Dalfolly was looking down on Alex from his cabin on the summit of Spiddle Hill.   Alexander Sutherland “Sawyer” and Elizabeth Baillie were established a mile upstream.  Another single man,  William Sutherland,  aka Billy Ban, was settling a short distance away as was Laughing Sandy Sutherland and his brothers.   To north was Fred Hayman.  Although not a Sutherlandshire native, Hayman’s father was a Gael from Argyle and said to have been fluent in Gaelic.

Even more notable in this not-so-lonely quarter was a family of Baillies.  A short distance downstream was a homestead occupied by Widow Elizabeth Baillie and three of her children,  Donald, Janet and Christiana.  One can only speculate whether Alex’s settlement at The Falls was a coincidence or planned as the following year Alex and Christiana were a newly married couple.

Despite Alex and his family being betrayed by their parish minister, Rev. Ross, and the Church of Scotland in general which encouraged parishioners to submit to the evictions,  he remained a firm and unwavering adherent of the Church of Scotland in Nova Scotia. When the Church of Scotland formerly organized a congregation in Earltown,  Alex MacDonald and George Baillie were elected to serve The Falls section as elders.  This was considered the height of influence and power in a Highland protestant community and elders performed their function with zeal.  These two men were instrumental in developing a preaching point at The Falls under the roof of St. Andrew’s Kirk which stands to this day.

In 1843, Christiana died at the young age of 46.   She was laid to rest in the MacKenzie Cemetery at Earltown  where several of the Clyne settlers are buried.

Alex married again, this time to Annie MacDonald.  Her origins are a bit of a mystery.  She was a native of Clyne but doesn’t appear to have any connection with other MacDonalds families living in the Earltown region.  It is a possibility that she may have been part of the contingent that settled Upper Barney’s River in the early 1820’s.    This was a later in life marriage to which there was no issue.[6]  She died on December 28th, 1884.

Less than three months later Alex died on March 2, 1885 after leading a full life that witnessed one of the most turbulent and violent chapters in the clearances after which he was one of several to form a cohesive and distinctly Clyne community in the new world.  He carved out a pleasing and prosperous farm and wide spread network of descendants.

To be continued with the next generations

[1] The country wife was Hannah Sutherland, a Metis woman from the Red River area. His legal wife was Mary MacKenzie.

[2] The complicated events surrounding the destruction of Strath Brora cannot adequately be explained in a couple of paragraphs.  Intrigued readers are encouraged to read James Hunter’s detailed description of events in “Set Adrift Upon the World – The Sutherland Clearances”

[3] While the evictees were encouraged and expected to relocate to small coastal properties to staff the fishing and mining activities on the Estate, it is likely the ringleaders would not be welcome. Various researchers claim the extended Cadaich family settled in Caithness permanently.

[4] Today it is known as the Waugh River.

[5] This intersection didn’t exist before the 1980’s. The Balmoral Road turned north immediately off the bridge and followed the riverbank to the edge of the MacDonald grant before turning west to join the highway.

[6] An Ann MacDonald was one of four people arrested and jailed after the final skirmish in Strath Brora in 1821. She was later released without sentence. In that era there were advantages of not being an equal with men.  Magistrates were reluctant to prosecute women, (witchcraft aside), as they were not held to the same degree of accountability.   It has been suggested that this was the reason women were often found in the front lines of domestic riots or resistance.   There is no evidence to suggest this is the same Ann MacDonald, second consort of our Alex, but given that this Ann and our Alex would have been “shoulder to shoulder” in the final resistance, it leads one to wonder.