Donated by Angus Mackay of Rearquhar. In memory of Aunt Elizabeth

Researched by

Jocelyn Joyce and Elizabeth R. Mackay

Written by Elizabeth R. Mackay

“In the May 1745 he crossed the Meikle Ferry…”

  The Rearquhar Papers ( written by Col. George Sutherland, 1720-1815) were deposited by Mr A. E. MacEwen, on indefinite loan, in the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh, where they are available for examination by researchers.  Mr. MacEwen himself is a direct descendent of William Taylor, who figures largely in the papers.

Rearquhar (or Riarchar as George Sutherland invariably spelt the name) is part of a strath in the south of the county of Sutherland.  It stretches from Proncy in the east to Achosnich in the west and includes the river Evelix, Birichen, Fleuchary, Astle and Rearquhar.

As a child, the writer of these articles was always shown The Laird’s House in the trees up the hill-but never found out who the laird was, until she read the Sutherland of Rearquhar Papers.  The laird was Colonel George Sutherland, whose letters and memoranda form the Rearquhar Papers.  He was tacksman of Rearquhar from 1788 until his death in 1815.  The writers great-grandfather was one of his sub-tenants. The house in which he lived, among the trees which he planted, is now her home.

“In the May, 1745 (to use his own words) he crossed the Meikle Ferry in a tartan coat and kilt with only £10 in his pocket and went in a volunteer into Major George Sutherland Midgarty’s company of General Stuart’s regiment of the Scots Brigade in the Dutch Service and marched with his recruits to Edinburgh.”

He was George Sutherland (generally styled of Riarchar and Elphin), 25 years of age, on his way south, he hoped, to fame and fortune.  He himself would probably have said that he found neither.  He served in Holland with the Scots Brigade until 1757, when he transferred to the British Regular Army, first to the 34^th Regiment of Foot and then to the 14^th Regiment of Foot.  Dogged by illness, he finally sold out in 1763 and “settled here in Riarchar with only £1000 to begin the world, mortified at being cut out from his prospect in the Army.”

In 1761, while still serving as a regular soldier, he had been granted a wadset of Elphin in the parish of Assynt which gave him the right to vote in Parliamentary elections.  It is interesting to note “that William Earl of Sutherland created seven superiorities in Assynt, so designed as to enfranchise the holders under the Provisions of the Statute of 1742… which stipulated that every claimant of a vote in elections in the county of Sutherland should be infeft-i.e., possessed of-£200 Scots (£16 13s 4d) at least of valued rent… The feu duties in the accounts represented 3/4 yearly” (quoted from Home’s Survey of Assynt edited by Robin Adam).  As far as can be discovered, his designation “of Elphin” was due entirely to his being given a vote in the county elections and was purely nominal.