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‘The Sword of Avenging Justice’: Politics in Sutherland after the Third Reform Act1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

ANNIE TINDLEY
ANNIE TINDLEY*
Affiliation:
School of Law and Social Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, G4 0BA
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Abstract

There has been much historical debate over the role of aristocratic landed families in local and national politics throughout the nineteenth century, and the impact of the First, Second and Third Reform Acts on that role. Additionally, the period from 1881 in the Scottish Highlands was one of acute political and ideological crisis, as the debate over the reform of the Land Laws took a violent turn, and Highland landowners were forced to address the demands of their small tenants. This article addresses these debates, taking as its case-study the ducal house of Sutherland. The Leveson-Gower family owned almost the whole county of Sutherland and until 1884 dominated political life in the region. This article examines the gradual breakdown of that political power, in line with a more general decline in financial and territorial influence, both in terms of the personal role of the Fourth and Fifth Dukes of Sutherland, and the broader impact of the estate management on the mechanics and expectations of politics in the county.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , October 2008 , pp. 179 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

Notes

2. Craig, F. W. S., British Parliamentary Election Results, 1832–1885 (London, 1977), p. 606CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. Many seats were still controlled by peers after the 1st and 2nd Reform Acts: see Hutchinson, I. G. C., ‘The Nobility and Politics in Scotland c.1880–1939,’ in Devine, T. M. (ed.), Scottish Elites (Edinburgh, 1994), p. 131Google Scholar; MacPhail, I. M. M., ‘The Highland Elections of 1884–1886,’ Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, 50 (1976–78), 368–69Google Scholar; Hunter, J., ‘The Politics of Highland Land Reform, 1873–1895,’ Scottish Historical Review, 53 (1974), 53Google Scholar.

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13. Scotsman, 16th April 1885.

14. The Third Reform Act affected many aristocratic families in the same way: MacPhail, ‘Highland Elections,’ 370; Craig, F. W. S., British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885–1918 (London, 1974), p. 527CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Cannadine, Decline and Fall, pp. 35, 38, 140; Hunter, ‘Politics of Highland Land Reform,’ 54.

15. MacPhail, ‘Highland Elections,’ 370; Hunter, ‘Politics of Highland Land Reform,’ 54.

16. National Library of Scotland [hereafter NLS], Sutherland Estates Papers, Dep. 313/1179, James Loch to Second Duke of Sutherland, 13th August 1850; NLS, Sutherland Estates Papers, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, 178, John Crawford to Sir Arnold Kemball, 26th November 1883.

17. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, p. 167; Hunter, ‘Politics of Highland Land Reform,’ 46–47.

18. Kemp, Sutherland Democracy, p. 39.

19. PP 1884 XXXII-XXXVI Evidence given to the Commissioners of Inquiry into the condition of the crofters and cottars in the Highlands and Islands, 2431–2449.

20. One of these, Dr Roderick Macdonald, was busy in Ross-shire, to the consternation of the staff of the Cromartie estate, also administered by the Third Duke of Sutherland through his wife, Anne Hay Mackenzie. See National Archives of Scotland [hereafter NAS], Cromartie Estate Papers, GD 305, Estate Correspondence, 1883, William Gunn to Duchess, 1st March 1884; Alex Ross, G. O., to Gunn, 1st September 1884; MacPhail, ‘Highland Elections,’ 383 and Dunbabin, J. P. D., ‘Electoral Reforms and their Outcome in the UK, 1865–1900,’ in Gourvish, T. R. and O'Day, A. (eds), Later Victorian Britain, 1867–1900 (London, 1988), pp. 113, 122–24Google Scholar.

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22. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, p. 49. Only one of his fellow ‘Crofter’ MPs, Dr G. B. Clark, who stood for and won the Caithness seat in 1885, matched Sutherland in radicalism.

23. MacPhail, ‘Highland Elections’, 387 and E. A. Cameron, Life and Times, p. 155.

24. This recognition of the demands of newly enfranchised voters was recognised by Liberals across rural Britain slowly: Sutherland seems to have been an exception, perhaps due to the high political temperature created by the Crofters War from 1882; see Lynch, P., The Liberal Party in Rural England, 1885–1910: Radicalism and Community (Oxford, 2003), pp. 32–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, 197, Argyll to McIver, 5th October 1885.

26. Argyll, Eighth Duke of, ‘A Corrected Picture of the Highlands’, Nineteenth Century, 16 (1884); Argyll, Eighth Duke of, ‘On the Economic Condition of the Highlands of Scotland’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society of London, 26 (1883); Argyll, Eighth Duke of, ‘The Prophet of San Francisco’, Nineteenth Century, 15 (1884); Hunter, ‘Politics of Highland Land Reform,’ 53–54; Green, E. H., The Crisis of Conservatism: The Politics, Economics and Ideology of the British Conservative Party, 1880–1914 (London, 1995), pp. 80–82Google Scholar.

27. Staffordshire County Record Office, [hereafter SCRO], Sutherland Estates Papers, D593/P/24/7/10, Scrapbook, cutting from Northern Ensign, 25th March 1885, letter to the Editor from ‘A Scorner of Flunkyism.’

28. Scotsman, 16th April 1885, report of a crofter's meeting at Lairg. See also, Scottish Highlander, 31st July 1885 and 7th August 1885.

29. Scotsman, 6th October 1885. See also 12th August 1885.

30. Scotsman, 27th November 1885; John O Groat Journal, 24th June 1885; A. G. Newby, ‘Shoulder to Shoulder? Scottish and Irish Land Reformers in the Highlands of Scotland,’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2001), p. 178; Cragoe, Anglican Aristocracy, p. 163; Dunbabin, ‘Electoral Reform,’ p. 124.

31. Scotsman, 14th October 1885.

32. Scottish Highlander, 4th September 1885.

33. Cragoe, Anglican Aristocracy, p. 129.

34. A similar conclusion can be drawn from the actions of the Cromartie estate staff; NAS, GD 305, 1886, Estate Correspondence, Alex Ross to J. Rae, Inverpolly, 30th November 1885. See also Cannadine, Decline and Fall, pp. 142–6.

35. This type of electioneering was seen on other landed estates after 1884; see Cragoe, Anglican Aristocracy, pp. 150, 155, 158, 161–62.

36. NLS, Acc. 10225, Crofters, G/b, Donald MacKay to Lord Stafford, 29th November 1885; NLS, Acc. 10225, Crofters, G/a, Hugh Frazer to Box, 5th November 1885.

37. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, Kemball to Crawford, 5th January 1885.

38. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, 215, McIver to Kemball, 13th October 1885.

39. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, 215, McIver to Kemball 26th June 1885.

40. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, 215, McIver to Kemball, 7th April 1885; Factor's Correspondence, 350, Peacock to Kemball, 4th January 1885.

41. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885–1918, p. 562.

42. Scotsman, 1st December 1885.

43. Scottish Highlander, 2nd December 1885; see also 4th December 1885, 11th December 1885, 25th December 1885 and 18th December 1885; Cameron, Life and Times, p. 157.

44. Translation from Meek, D. E. (ed.), Tuath is Tighearna: Tenants and Landlords, (Scottish Gaelic Texts Society, 1995), pp. 248–9Google Scholar. MacDonald, MacFarlane and Fraser Mackintosh were three of the five successful ‘Crofter’ candidates in the 1885 election.

45. The Cromartie estate staff were extremely disappointed with the Ross-shire result and commented, ‘It is certainly wrong that the intelligence and wealth of the county . . . should be so much in the power of the poorer class of voters.’ NAS, GD 305, Estate Correspondence, 1886, Alex Ross to Wm. Gunn, 7th December 1885; also 1888, Gunn to Duchess, 3rd December 1885.

46. Scottish Highlander, 4th December 1885 and Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, pp. 71–4.

47. Scottish Highlander, 18th December 1885 Letter to the Editor from J. MacKay, Portree.

48. There are earlier Welsh parallels in the political influence of local nonconformist church ministers, see Cragoe, M., ‘Conscience or Coercion? Clerical Influence at the General Election of 1868 in Wales,’ Past and Present, 149:1 (1995), 140, 151, 153–4, 167CrossRefGoogle Scholar; MacPhail, ‘Highland Elections’, 388; John O Groat Journal, 2nd December 1885; Scottish Highlander, 7th August 1885, 4th September 1885 and 18th September 1885.

49. MacColl, A., Land, Faith and the Crofting Community: Christianity and Social Criticism in the Scottish Highlands, 1843–1893 (Edinburgh, 2006), pp. 163–9Google Scholar.

50. NLS, Papers of J.S. Blackie, MS 2636, ff.315, John MacKay to J.S. Blackie, 20th November 1886; Scottish Highlander, 15th July 1885, Highland News, 12th April 1886 and Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, p. 127.

51. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, pp. 126, 131–3; Hunter, ‘Politics of Highland land reform,’ 46, 48–9; Crofter, 2, 1st April 1885.

52. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, pp. 127, 134.

53. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, 146, Kemball to Box, 30th November 1885 and Factor's Correspondence, 361, MacLean to James Alexander, Ground Officer, 2nd December 1885.

54. The debate over the role of landlord coercion in elections has been examined in Cragoe, Anglican Aristocracy, pp. 171–8, and essentially matches the situation found in Sutherland.

55. NLS, Papers of J.S. Blackie, MS 2636, ff.227, Lord Stafford to J. S. Blackie, 5th June 1885; Lubenow, W. C., Parliamentary Politics and the Home Rule Crisis: The British House of Commons in 1886 (Oxford, 1988), pp. 257, 260–63Google Scholar; Green, Crisis of Conservatism, pp. 85, 87.

56. MacPhail, ‘Highland Elections,’ 388; Cannadine, Decline and Fall, pp. 191–2.

57. Scottish Highlander, 24th June 1886.

58. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918, p. 562; Dr Macdonald retained his seat in Ross-shire, a result one of the Cromartie estate staff described as ‘crushing.’ NAS, GD 305, Estate Correspondence, 1886, Alex Ross to Gunn, 17th July 1886; see also 13th July 1886; Hunter, ‘Politics of Highland Land Reform,’ 57.

59. Craig, Election Results 1885–1918, p. 562; Scottish Highlander, 1st July 1886: James Loch and Patrick Sellar were infamous agents of widespread clearances on the Sutherland estate in the early nineteenth century.

60. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, 217, McIver to Wright, 26th December 1889.

61. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, p. 140.

62. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, pp. 2–3.

63. Mackenzie, A., A History of the Highland Clearances (Inverness, 1883)Google Scholar.

64. Hunter, ‘Politics of Highland Land Reform,’ 59.

65. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, pp. 149–53; Scottish Highlander, 12th May 1887.

66. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, 200, Wright to McIver, 9th January 1888 and 14th January 1888.

67. Stenton, M. and Lees, S., Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, vol. II, 1886–1918 (Sussex, 1978), p. 235Google Scholar.

68. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, pp. 165–6.

69. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, p. 168; Hunter, ‘Politics of Highland Land Reform,’ 61.

70. Hunter, ‘Politics of Highland Land Reform,’ 49.

71. NLS, Papers of J. S. Blackie, MS 2639, ff.13, Third Duke of Sutherland to J. S. Blackie, 14th February 1892.

72. NLS, Acc. 10225, Factor's Correspondence, 1964, McIver to Morrison, Kinlochbervie ground officer, 20th June 1892.

73. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, 217, McIver to Wright, 2nd March 1892 and 7th June 1892: Factor's Correspondence, 1964, McIver to Gordon, 26th February 1892: 1974, Gordon to McIver, 13th June 1892.

74. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, pp. 135, 140, 172.

75. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918, p. 562.

76. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, pp. 154–55; Cameron, E. A., ‘The Political Influence of Highland Landowners: A Re-assessment,’ Northern Scotland, 14 (1994), 35Google Scholar.

77. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, 217, McIver to Wright, 21st January 1890.

78. Newby, ‘Shoulder to Shoulder?’ pp. 325–8.

79. Highland News, 5th May 1906.

80. This was in contrast to Liberal fortunes generally in Britain between 1886 and 1906; see Lawrence, J., Speaking for the People: Party, Language and Popular Politics in England, 1867–1914 (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 195, 197, 200CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81. Highland News, 23rd August 1902. See also 22nd September 1900.

82. Newby, Ireland, Radicalism and the Scottish Highlands, pp. 110, 130.

83. Northern Times, 18th October 1900.

84. Highland News, 18th August 1900. See also 29th September 1900.

85. Highland News, 29th September 1900.

86. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918, p. 562.

87. Highland News, Letter to the Editor from ‘Kinlochbervie,’ 20th October 1900.

88. Hutchison, I. G. C., Scottish Politics in the Twentieth Century (Basingstoke, 2001), pp. 4–6Google Scholar; Blewett, N., The Peers, the Parties and the People: The General Elections of 1910 (London, 1972), p. 19CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

89. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, 107, MacLean to Duke, 5th January 1900; McIver, E., Memoirs of a Highland Gentleman: Being the Reminiscences of Evander McIver of Scourie, (ed.) Henderson, Rev. G., (Edinburgh, 1905), pp. 156–158Google Scholar; Blewett, Elections of 1910, pp. 19–20.

90. Brown, S. J., ‘“Echoes of Midlothian:” Scottish Liberalism and the South African War, 1899–1902,’ Scottish Historical Review, 71 (1992), 163Google Scholar.

91. Blewett, Elections of 1910, pp. 22–23; Auld, J., ‘The Liberal Pro-Boers,’ Journal of British Studies, 14 (1975), 89, 91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

92. It is clear that after 1886, elections in Sutherland were increasingly decided on national issues and national party agendas; see Cragoe, Anglican Aristocracy, pp. 129, 144; Auld, ‘Liberal Pro-Boers,’ 89, 91; Readman, P., ‘The Conservative Party, Patriotism and British Politics: The Case of the General Election of 1900,’ Journal of British Studies, 40 (2001), 109–11, 131, 139CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

93. MacLeod attended and spoke in Parliamentary debates frequently from 1895-mid-1897, but appeared only four times in 1898, twice in 1899 and once in 1900: Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 4th Series, volumes 31–78, 1895–1900.

94. Northern Times, 22nd June 1899, 7th September 1899, 26th October 1899, 15th March 1900, 12th April 1900; Northern Ensign, 2nd October and 16th October 1900.

95. Northern Times, 26th October 1899, 2nd December 1899, 30th August 1900, 27th September 1900; Readman, ‘Conservative Party,’ 139; Auld, ‘Pro-Boers,’ 91.

96. NLS, Acc. 10225, Crofters, ZB/a, MacLean to Macaulay, 29th March 1901.

97. Highland News, letter to the Editor from ‘Beinn-Armuinn,’ 6th September 1902.

98. NLS, Acc. 10853, Policy Papers, 51, Duke to MacLean, 4th January 1906.

99. Cannadine, Decline and Fall, p. 149.

100. Stenton, and Lees, Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, p. 258; Blewett, Elections of 1910, pp. 36, 42; Adonis, Making Aristocracy Work, pp. 263–4; Packer, I., ‘The Land Issue and the Future of Scottish Liberalism in 1914,’ Scottish Historical Review, 75 (1996), 53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

101. Fifth Duke of Sutherland, Looking Back: The Autobiography of the 5th Duke of Sutherland (London, 1957), p. 65Google Scholar.

102. Times, 17th February 1906.

103. Highland News, 17th March 1906. See also 27th January 1906; Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 4th Series, 5, 663–664.

104. NAS, AF42/3192, Morton to CDB, 6th April 1906 and AF42/4499, Morton to CDB, 17th January 1908; NLS, Acc. 10853, Policy Papers, 51, Alex Simpson to MacLean, 27th June 1906; Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 5th Series, 53, 1411; 54, 1291, 1350.

105. Highland News, 4th April 1908; Cannadine, Decline and Fall, p. 50. The Fourth Duke had taken a Liberal Unionist stance in 1886, and over the years, had turned to the Conservative party as the Liberals, as he saw it, attacked landowners' interests. The Fourth Duke made this conversion at some point between 1901–1906 in common with many aristocratic families from a Whig background; see Adonis, Making Aristocracy Work, pp. 9, 11. Cameron of Lochiel (26th Chief) was born in 1876, inheriting the family estates in Inverness-shire in 1905. He had a distinguished military career, seeing action in the Boer War and World War I: he would never hold a seat in the Commons.

106. NLS, Acc. 10225, Factor's Correspondence, 1930, Taylor to Duke, 10th January 1910.

107. NLS, Acc. 10225, Factor's Correspondence, 1541, Morrison to Duke, 17th January 1910.

108. Highland News, 10th October 1908. See also, 9th May 1908.

109. Murray, B. K., The People's Budget 1909/10: Lloyd George and Liberal politics (Oxford, 1980), 1, 250Google Scholar; Fifth Duke, Looking Back, 44; Sykes, A., Tariff Reform in British Politics, 1903–13 (Oxford, 1979), pp. 3–6Google Scholar; Readman, P., ‘Jesse Collings and Land Reform, 1886–1914,’ Historical Research, (2007), 11Google Scholar; Green, E. H., ‘Radical Conservatism: The Electoral Genesis of Tariff Reform,’ Historical Journal, 28 (1985), 688–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fforde, M., Conservatism and Collectivism, 1886–1914 (Edinburgh, 1990), pp. 88–90, 93Google Scholar.

110. Copy in Highland News, 1st January 1910; Murray, People's Budget, pp. 179–180.

111. NLS, Acc. 10225, Factor's Correspondence, 1541, Morrison to Duke, 5th January 1910. See also 1540, Morrison to Duke, 19th December 1909; 1930, Alex Taylor to Duke, 10th January 1910; Murray, People's Budget, p. 9.

112. Highland News, 1st January 1910.

113. Blewett, Elections of 1910, pp. 74–76; Cannadine, Decline and Fall, pp. 48–50, 53; Adonis, Making Aristocracy Work, pp. 266–7; John O Groat Journal, 31st December 1909.

114. Blewett, Elections of 1910, p. 74; Johnston, T., Our Scots Noble Families (Glasgow, 1909), pp. 61–71Google Scholar; Green, Crisis of Conservatism, pp. 94–5.

115. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885–1918, p. 562. This result reflected the overall picture of results in Britain: the Liberals suffered losses elsewhere, but their vote held up in Scotland. See Blewett, Elections of 1910, pp. 36–42.

116. Highland News, 29th January 1910. See also, 19th February 1910.

117. NLS, Acc. 10225, Factor's Correspondence, 458, MacLean to Alex Taylor, 29th January 1910.

118. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, MacLean to Duke, 29th January 1910.

119. Blewett, Elections of 1910, pp. 155–68.

120. Highland News, 26th March 1910.

121. Highland News, 26th March 1910.

122. Highland News, 10th December 1910; Cannadine, Decline and Fall, p. 564.

123. NLS, Acc. 10225, Crofters, C/b, A. Henderson to Macaulay, 10th December 1911. See also C/c, Morrison to Macaulay, 29th November 1910

124. NLS, Acc. 10853, Sutherland Estates Papers, Policy Papers, 55, Prowse to Morrison, 9th February 1911; Acc. 10225, Crofters, C/b, MacLean to Macaulay, 1st December 1910; Factor's Correspondence, 1544, Morrison to Macaulay, 16th January 1911.

125. NLS, Acc. 10225, Crofters, O/b, ‘list of grants gratis, 1865–1900.’

126. NLS, Acc. 10225, Crofters, C/b, James Duff to Macaulay, 20th November 1910; D. McIver to Macaulay, 23rd November 1910; Wm. Macaulay, Inspector, Rogart to Macaulay, 23rd November 1910; James Brown, Inverness Courier Office to Macaulay, 8th December 1910; Andrew Anderson, merchant, Bonar Bridge to Macaulay, 12th December 1910; A. Gunn. overseer, Durness to Macaulay, 13th December 1910; J. S. MacKay, Brora to Macaulay, 3rd December 1910; Peter Keith, factor on Ulbster estates to MacLean, 9th December 1910.

127. Fifth Duke, Looking Back, p. 65.

128. Highland News, 1st September 1906. See also 10th December 1910.

129. Highland News, 26th November 1910.

130. Blewett, Elections of 1910, pp. 169, 171.

131. John O Groat Journal, 2nd December 1910.

132. Craig, Election Results, p. 562.

133. Highland News, 17th December 1910.

134. NLS, Acc. 10225, Policy Papers, p. 117, MacLean to Duke, 17th December 1910. See also 170, Prowse to Morrison, 30th December 1910; John O Groat Journal, 23rd December 1910.

135. NLS, Acc. 10225, Lawyer's Correspondence, p. 235, Duchess to Macaulay, 29th December 1910; for the Fifth Duke's version of these elections see Fifth Duke, Looking Back, p. 65.

136. Hutchison, Scottish Politics, pp. 4–6; Green, Crisis of Conservatism, p. 215; Green, ‘Radical Conservatism’, pp. 670, 674, 683.

137. This was in common with many landed estates; Green, Crisis of Conservatism, p. 92.

138. Packer, Land Issue, p. 58.

139. Scottish Highlander, 18th December 1885; Cragoe, M., ‘The Anatomy of an Eviction Campaign: The General Election of 1868 in Wales and its Aftermath,’ Rural History, 9 (1998), 178–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

140. Auld, ‘Liberal Pro-Boers,’ 89, 91; Readman, ‘The Conservative Party, Patriotism and British Politics’, 109–11, 131, 139.