Gleanings from Congregational History - 28

By Rev William Young, former minister of Urquhart and Resolis Church of Scotland.

(An explanation of the background to the "Gleanings" can be found in this document. ) 

Below is a transcript of the original foolscap, duplicated document produced c1984.

GLEANINGS FROM CONGREGATIONAL HISTORY - 28. By the Minister, Dr. Young.

THE HERITORS - THE MACKENZIES OF SCATWELL

I am grateful to Mrs Margery Macintyre of Findon for letting me see and take notes from the typescript of "TIMES DECEASED, A Chronicle of the MacKenzies of Scatwell and Suddie, from the 17th to the 19th Century" by Evelyn MacKenzie. From it most of the information given here is drawn. MacKenzie of Scatwell was one of the three Heritors of Urquhart and Logie Wester from about 1696 till 1886.

At the end of the 16th Century Colin Cam MacKenzie of Kintail owned most of Ross-shire, from Kintail to the Black Isle. His sons were Kenneth, whose son Colin became the Earl of Seaforth; and Roderick, whose grandson by his eldest son became Earl of Cromartie in 1705 (his son John presented Alexander Fraser to Urquhart and Logie Wester in 1714). Roderick's second son Kenneth inherited the estate of Scatwell from a cousin.

Sir Kenneth MacKenzie, First Baronet. Kenneth's son, another Kenneth inherited Scatwell, and bought Rosehaugh from his cousin Sir George ("Bluidy") MacKenzie in 1689. Shortly after he acquired Findon by marrying its heiress Lillian MacKenzie. They built their residence at Findon in 1696. In 1699 he was created a “baronet of Nova Scotia'' (Scotland). Although they did not have their main residence there, he and his descendents kept the title of Scatwell. His first wife died in 1705. He was Whig in sympathies, and in 1715 he buried his papers underground near the Findon Burn. In 1709 he is described in the "Mortification" document as one of the "present elders of the said united paroches'' of Urquhart and Logie Wester. He had the reputation of charging high rents from his tenants. Kenneth remarried twice, and when he died in 1729, his widow stayed on at Findon.

Sir Roderick MacKenzie, Second Baronet. He was Sir Kenneth's second son, and resided at Rosehaugh. He had Jacobite sympathies, but kept clear of the '45 rebellion. We have seen from the Kirk Session Minutes that he was difficult to get hold of when repairs to the Church were required, and more than once Rev. Alexander Falconar was instructed to "deal with Scatwal". Roderick's daughter married MacKenzie of Gairloch, another of the Heritors. He himself died in 1750.

Sir Lewis MacKenzie, Third Baronet. His son, Lewis, was Baronet for only 6 years. He built the existing Findon Mains, inscribed with his initials and those of his wife, Isobel MacKenzie of Mountgerald. Living locally Sir Lewis seems to have been more co-operative with the Kirk Session than either his father or his son. He was present "for his own interset" at the Session Meeting in May 1750 when the "New Kirk" was divided. He had his own "Isle", and his tenants were allotted an area to the east of it, as far as the East Gable - all on the north side of the Church. In June 1751 he and the Chamberlain of Ferintosh were asked 'to find forms for the Common Loft". He had four sons, and when he died in 1756, his widow, a stern mother, lived on at Findon till her death in 1786.

[Note in the margin; “Third son George MacKenzie whose descendants now hold the title of Baronet”]

Sir Roderick MacKenzie, Fourth Baronet. The eldest son, Sir Roderick succeeded to the estate, and lived with his brothers at Findon till 1764, when he married Katherine, the daughter of Sir James Colquhoun of Luss. After his marriage he built a new Rosehaugh (finished in 1775) and resided there. Letters written by husband and wife are extant - his in a cramped and angular hand, hers in a smooth and flowing one. Sir Roderick was interested in farming and estate management; he was hard on his tenants, and quarrelled with his neighbours over land and boundaries. He was noted for his greed and stinginess. His son James Wemyss wrote of him to his sweethearts "Money of Bank Notes you know was declared, before you was born, his Psalm Book, indeed I might say his God. For all I have seen of him I could never contradict this opinion in the slightest degree." We have seen the trouble Rev. Charles Calder had before he could get Scatwell to pay over his share of the expenses of the Manse when they were 2 years overdue,. When the new Urquhart Church had been built in 1795 Sir Roderick built a great square mausoleum jutting out from the north wall of the old Church, and inscribed it with his and his wife's initials - "RMK KC MDCCXCV". Katherine died in 1804, and the Baronet himself in 1811, and are buried there. Sir Roderick's elder son, Lewis, went into the army. His father went to much expense in buying him commissions and paying up his debts. He married in 1794 but died without heirs in 1810.

Sir James Wemyss MacKenzie, Fifth Baronet. Born in 1770, James was not sent to school till he was 14, and his father had difficulty in setting him up in a career. After a futile attempt to get James employed in the cloth industry, Sir Roderick in 1788 sent him to the West Indies. He sent him £700 to start him off in business, and later had to send him a further £700 to buy "11 healthy, seasoned Negroes", Sir Roderick grudged any expense on his younger son, with whom he was on bad terms, and in 1807, when he came home on holiday, he made him sign a "discharge", stating that he had received £1877 from his father, and now renounced all claims on the estate. James increased his father's anger by falling in love with a pretty widow - Henrietta, daughter of MacKenzie of Suddie, with whom Sir Roderick had a boundary dispute. James already had a Jamaican "wife", but wrote love letters to Henrietta from Jamaica. Appointed Paymaster to a regiment, he came home in 1810, and married Henrietta. His father ignored him, and refused to answer his letters. But when Lewis died in September "old Sir Roderick ordered out his great yellow chariot and drove over to call on the newly married pair at Suddie House, to the great admiration of the whole countryside, for all knew that he had not been on speaking terms with either of his sons."

After his father's death Sir James, heir both to Sir Roderick's estates and the Suddie ones, settled at Rosehaugh. In 1824 he became M.P. for Ross and Cromarty, and in 1827 bought a Town House in London. In addition to Rosehaugh and Findon, the family had residences at Muirton and Kinlochluichart on the Scatwell estates - these were used for hunting and shooting expeditions. A relative described life at Rosehaugh when Sir James was in residence: "We breakfast at 9, dine at 5, tea at 7, and Sir James retires at 8.30. Sir James is a great farmer and is busy with that all day." The young people, however, enjoyed themselves, going on expeditions and to balls at Inverness, Henrietta died in 1840 and Sir James in 1843.

Sir James John Randall MacKenzie, Sixth Baronet. When James John Randall (Evelyn MacKenzie calls him J.J.R. for short, and we will do this) was born in 1814 his delighted father paid the doctor an astounding 120 guineas for the delivery! He was later taken by his parents to London, and went to Westminster School there, and later to Trinity College, Cambridge. After failing to secure a seat in Parliament, J.J.R. married Lady Anne Wentworth in 1858. The couple were childless and J.J.R had no thought of saving. When he succeeded to the estates he had debts of £ 42,000. The difficulty was that the estates were entailed. In 1849 Sir J.J.R. agreed with his cousin Lewis, the next heir, to sell him Findon Estate for £6000, on condition that he made no objection to the rest of the estates being disentailed by Act of Parliament. At first the estates were considered as surety for his debts, but in 1864 he was so badly in debt that he was forced to sell Rosehaugh and all that remained of his properties. The next year he and Lady Anne fled to France - she died there in 1879 and he at Versailles in 1884.

Meanwhile Lewis Mark MacKenzie the son of Lewis MacKenzie, had inherited the Findon Estate, but he did not reside there; his mother built a house for him at Mountgerald, on the other side of the Cromarty Firth. He became a Roman Catholic. He died of poisoning in 1856 by eating monkshood by mistake for radish. His brother Augustus, who succeeded him to Findon, died in Rome in 1865.

Sir James Dixon, Seventh Baronet. Brother of Lewis Mark and Augustus, James took over the Findon Estates, which were already heavily encumbered with mortgages, borrowed for "improvements" by his brothers. In 1884 he succeeded to the Baronetcy, but in 1886 the holders of the mortgages foreclosed, and he was left landless and penniless. "The last acre of the MacKenzies of Scatwell was gone.” He died in 1900.

Postscript. The Sederunt of the Heritors in 1891 includes "James A. Jamieson, W.S. and George Dalziel, W.S., Proprietors of Findon". In 1925 only 20% of the Findon Estates were with the owners; the rest were sold.

The story of the poisoning of Lewis Mark Mackenzie can be found on the "Folklore and Myths" page.