A Tint of Normanism

A Tint of Normanism —

Reverend Norman MacLeod in Scotland

Two hundred years ago, in September, there was born a man who emigrated from the North West of Scotland to form outstanding communities at St. Ann’s, Cape Breton, and Waipu, New Zealand. This, the first of three articles, describes Assynt and the early life of Norman MacLeod.

Ruairidh H. MacLeod

Norman MacLeod was born at Clachtoll in Assynt on 29th September 1780. Nothing now remains of the house where he was born or the village where he lived, except the shattered stump of the prehistoric fort perched in decaying piles on the sea shore. The village was situated on green grassland between the golden white sand beaches of clachtoll and Stoer. Now only the dilapidated drystone walls and rickles of purple stone amongst the grass and clover define the old boundaries.

Beyond the sweetening effect of the sand, the ground rises in irregular lumps of grey rock, sparsely crowned with sour grass and heather. Ten miles inland to the east loom the snouts of Quinag, Canisp, Suilven and Cul Mor, riding like galleys against the gales.

The MacLeods of Assynt

According to MacLeod historians, at least, Assynt passed peacefully to the MacLeods of Lewis about 1340, when Torcall, 4th Chief, married the Assynt heiress, Margaret MacNicol. A few years later ‘Torkile MacLode’ certainly received from King David II a charter for ‘Asseynkie’. About a century later Assynt was given to Norman, second son of Roderick, 6th of Lewis. In an age of violence and uncertainty, the MacLeods of Assynt were as violent as their neighbors. By the end of the century, when old Roderick, 11th and last of Lewis, was leaving his disputed possessions to his fractious heirs, and Rory Mor, 15th of Harris, was succeeding his nephew at Dunvegan, Donald Ban MacLeod seized Assynt from his cousins. Though he brought stability to the area he also brought the seeds of the MacLeod’s destruction. In 1596 Donald Ban received a charter for Assynt from the increasingly powerful MacKenzies, who in 1610 seized Lewis. They were soon looking covetously at Assynt and mounting debts and legal intrigue spun a tightening web. The MacKenzies raided Assynt and in 1547 Donald Ban died.

He was succeeded by his young grandson Neil, 10th and last of Assynt. Stigmatised unjustly for the capture of Montrose in 1650, Neil became engaged in a legal battle over Assynt. He had first his charters, and then his lands stolen by the MacKenzies and by 1672 they were in full control, adding Assynt to their wide possessions in Ross–shire.

Support of the Stuart cause had stripped the MacKenzies of much of their wealth and influence and by the end of the 18th century, Assynt had been purchased by the Marquies of Stafford to add to his wife’s huge Sutherland Estates. To this day Assynt still forms part of Sutherland District.

Norman’s Early Life

Little enough is known of Norman MacLeod’s parents. His father was probably the tacksman at Clachtoll, trying to keep up the appearances of a gentleman on the fringes of the MacKenzie lands. Norman received an eduation probably at Lochinver, the principal village on the Assynt shore, tucked snugly into the protective depths of the sea loch, and five miles south of Clachtoll. Norman remained in Assynt, where he was probably a farmer or cattle drover, for he later referred to a man who bought three cows from him and never paid for them, and received encouragement from a MacDonald who was tacksman of Lochinver. He married the tacksman’s relative, Mary MacLeod. He may also have been a fisherman.

It was an unsettling time for intelligent young men. Everywhere in the Highlands the landlords were talking of ‘Improvements’ and brave soldiers for the war with France. The people were emigrating when they could. The ministers of the church were living comfortably in their spacious manses while the people went hungry. In 1800 the first clearances in Sutherland took place in Strath Oykell, not far from Assynt. In 1807 ninety families were removed from the Sutherland parishes of Farr and Lairg.

University

In the autumn of 1808 Norman began to study for a Master of Arts degree at Aberdeen University. Norman came late to his studies, for he was twenty–eight. Perhaps his ability to communicate to others had decided him to become a schoolmaster or minister of the church. Four years later in 1812 he graduated, winning the gold medal for moral philosophy. Norman then moved south to Edinburgh where he began to study theology. He remained in Edinburgh for two years, and though one story claims that he was thrown out for criticizing the morals of his professors, it seems more likely, from his later conduct, that he gave up all thoughts of the ministry because of the corrupt state into which, he considered, the Church of Scotland had sunk.

Norman returned to Assynt with a degree but no license to preach. The parish had been transformed. In 1809 Patrick Sellar took employment with the Marquis of Stafford and there were widespread clearances in the Sutherland parishes of Dornoch, Rogart, Loth, Clyne and Golspie. In 1812 he cleard Assynt.

The people were leaderless. Their chiefs had become money hungry landlords living in London. The tacksmen had been replaced by lowland sheep farmers. The ministers preached that the people should accept their misery as God’s just reward for their wickedness.

In 1813 clearances began in Kildonan and the following year is still remembered as the ‘Year of the burnings’ when Patrick Sellar stripped Strathnaver of its people and burnt their mean houses to the ground. For this work Patrick Sellar was brought to trial for manslaughter and acquitted by a jury of fellow improvers.

During these troubled times Norman had begun preaching. He conducted services in Assynt, which attracted many people. This brought him into direct conflict with the minister, Rev. William MacKenzie, whom Norman considered to be unworthy of his office. Thus began Norman’s life–long opposition to the ministers of the Established Church of Scotland.

Rev. John Kennedy, son of the assistant minister in the parish, later wrote of Norman: ‘His power as a speaker was such that he could not fail to make an impression, and he succeeded in Assynt and elsewhere, drawing many people after him. His influence upon those whom he detached from a stated ministry was paramount, and he could carry them after him to almost any extent. Some of the people of Assynt were drawn into permanent dissent. Some, even of the pious people, were decoyed by him for a season, but eventually escaped from his influence.’

Ullapool

It is said that Norman then moved thirty miles south to the fishing village of Ullapool which had been established in 1788, and started a school. There had been a school, however, funded by the Society for the Propagation fo Christian Knowledge, since 1800. From 1st May 1814 to 1st May 1815 the school teacher was Donald Cameron, who received a salary of £20 and was attested by the minister of the parish of Lochbroom. In April 1816 Donald Cameron was described as ‘late Society Schoolmaster at Ullapool’, but no salary was paid to any schoolmaster from 1st May 1815 to 1st May 1821.

Norman is nowhere mentioned in the Minutes of the Society, but he may have become schoolmaster on 1st May 1815. He is said to have had one hundred pupils and was to have received his salary partly from his pupils’ fees, and partly from the Society, through the parish minister.

Rev. Thomas Ross, though engaged in translating and publishing the first Gaelic Bible, was thought of no more highly by Norman, than had been William MacKenzie. Norman refused to attend Rev. Ross’s services, which were held in the parish church some miles away, and he conducted services of his own, which were well attended, in the school house. For a year Norman was in open defiance, for it was illegal for an unlicensed man to preach. Norman was called before the Kirk Session and there followed an heated debate.

Rev. Ross offered a compromise, stating that he would be satisfied if Norman attended church ‘now and then, even rarely, say once in a quarter, and show otherwise by your conversation and conduct your approbation of my ministry’, and allowed him twenty days in which to consider the offer.

Norman refused to compromise and was forced to surrender the school, though no–one was to fill the vacancy for six years. Norman remained in Ullapool for a while, preaching on the Sabbath day without payment. Rev. Ross brought charges against him, but the charges were dismissed. Norman was later to write, ‘probably I should never have come to’ Nova Scotia ‘but for the prosecution if not the persecution of that man.’

When the fishing fleet moved round the north coast of Scotland, Norman followed and ‘served for a season in the troublsome and dangerous Caithness fishings.’

Emigration

Norman MacLeod at thirty–seven, unable to farm; well educated, but unable to teach and forbidden from preaching, had reached an age when he should have been settled into his life’s work. He had no alternative but to emigrate.

Alexander Mackay, Waipu, son of Duncan Ban, and married to Norman MacLeod’s granddaughter Maria Ross, later wrote that the emigrants from Scotland ‘were all what is understood by the term “well to do” people and could have made a comfortable living in their native land. But they, as a rule, had families, they had rent to pay for their farms, they did not own them and they had no chance of ever doing so. They were enterprising and knew that by going to North America they could become owners of land by settling on it and cultivating it. Besides, there was plenty of room for themselves and their families, clear of the exactions of the landlords.’

Norman left Lochbroom on 14th July 1817 in the barque Frances Ann, with more than 400 men, women and children on board. Even his voyage was eventful for in mid passage the ship ran into a storm, and when the captain and crew decided to return to Scotland Norman informed them ‘that if they put back, some way or other he would be saved, but no other one on board the ship would ever see land.’ Fortunately for everyone concerned the storm abated and the ship sailed on to Pictou Harbour, Nova Scotia.

‘Shortly afterwards, Mr. MacLeod settled in the vicinity of West River, Pictou County.’

Sources: Alumni of Aberdeen University: Dr. I. F. Grant, The MacLeods, 1959; Rev. John Kennedy, The Fathers of Ross–shire; Gordon MacDonald, The Highlanders of Waipu, Dunedin 1928 contains many bizarre anecdotes and pious hopes; N. R. McKenzie, The Gael Fares Forth, Auckland, 1935 contains much original material and lists of settlers; Kenneth I. E. MacLeod, Ohio, Clan MacLeod Magazine, 1965; Norman McLeod, The Present Church of Scotland and a Tint of Normanism, 1843; Alick Morrison, MacLeod Genealogy, Section Five; Records of S.P.C.K., Register House, Edinburgh.

This article appeared in the Clan MacLeod Magazine Vol. 8, No. 51, Autumn 1980 on pages 219-222.

Go to Rev. Norman MacLeod page
Go to Rev. Norman MacLeod in Nova Scotia
Go to Rev. Norman MacLeod in New Zealand

Ullapool was created in 1788 as a fishing village on a spit of land sticking out into Loch Broom. Norman MacLeod taught in the S.P.C.K. School here in 1815-16, and emigrated from here in 1817. The village is still a busy fishing centre. The car ferry to Stornoway, Suilven, is named after the mountain in Assynt. Photo: RHM.

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