On the AIB Stewart Page this
month:
Campbeltown Sheriff
Court
Feu or
Lease
Now that Carnpbeltown is without a resident
Sheriff for the first time in more than 200 years, it may be an appropriate
time to recount a short history of the office.
It was John Balliol who in 1293 endeavoured to bring
Royal Justice to these parts. Most of what is now Argyll, except Kintyre,
was created the Sheriffdom of Lorne to be administered by Alexander MacDougall
of Dunstaffnage. James the Stewart, Lord of Bute, was created Sheriff of
another new Sheriffdom consisting of Bute, the Cumbraes, Arran and Kintyre.
These aspirations were probably never realised and between
1315 and 1325 Robert Bruce created a new Sheriffdorm of Argyll which, up
till then, had been included in the Sheriffdom of Perth.
In 1481 following the grant of extensive lands in Knapdale
to Colin Campbell, Earle of Argyll, Knapdale and Kintyre - frormthe Mull
to Loch Crinan together with the Islands from Gigha to Mull - were formed
into the Sheriffdom of Tarbert.
In 1503 the Scots Parliament ordained that because there
had been "great abuse of justice with the effect that the people are almost
gone wild" there should be a Justice and Sheriff for the South Isles with
his seat at either Tarbert or Loch Kilkerran.
An Act of 1633 united the Sheriffdom of Tarbert with
the Sheriffdom of Argyll and Argyll remained a separate Sheriffdom up till
1948 when it was united with Renfrew.
In the massive reorganisation of 1975 it became part
of the Sheriffdom of North Strathclyde with a full time Sheriff Principal.
The local Sheriff, heretofore being technically Sheriff Substitute became
entitled to the title of Sheriff.
At an early date and not later than the reign of Queen
Mary, the family of Argyll became entitled to the hereditary office of Lord
Justice General of Scotland. In 1628 Lord Lorne resigned this office in the
hands of Charles I but reserved the right for an area which included not
only the Sheriffdom of Argyll and Tarbert but also parts of Inverness and
Perth and all the Islands of Scotland with the exception of Orkney and
Shetland.
As well as being hereditary Justice General for
Argyll and the Isles, Argyll was also hereditary Sheriff up till 1748 when,
following the '45, heritable jurisdictions were abolished. During most of
this period Campbell of Stonefield was both Justiciar Depute and Sheriff
Depute.
The Justiciary Court sat in Canpbeltown on at least 5
occasions......1680, 1710, 1711, 1712 and 1729. Because of the wide jurisdiction
of the Baron courts, the burgh courts and the courts held by Argyll's bailies
and because of the identification of the judges in the justiciary and Sheriff
Courts it is possible that it was not till after the abolition of Argyll's
Justiciary Court in 1748 that a Court was set up in Campbeltown. There was
a living tradition in Tarbert 100 years ago that the Sheriff Court used to
sit in Back Street there. Possibly the Court sat mainly in Inveraray. Certainly
in the mid- 17th century representations were made to the Marquis by the
Synod of Argyll that the holding of the Sheriff Court at Inveraray on friday
caused the citizens to be travelling home on the Sabbath.
The earliest reference to the appointment of a Sheriff
Substitute in Campbeltown which I can find is in 1754 when Campbell of Stonefield
gave a Commission to Ronald Campbell, Writer in Campbeltown to be his Substitute
in Kintyre.
The Court records, however, are complete from 1776 and
the names of the incumbent Sheriffs since that date are as follows:-
1776 Dugald Campbell Writer in Campbeltown
1778 Duncan Ballatine (Bailie)
1779 James Maxwell Writer in Campbeltown
1787 Lachlan Mactavish Writer in Campbeltown
1790 Duncan Campbell Writer in Campbeltown
1822 Dugald McTavish of Dunardry
1834 John Fleming of Muasdale (in Sheriff Mactavish's absence from time to
time.)
1845 James Gardiner
1880 George Smythe Dundas
1886 Russell Bell
1897 Hay MacWatt
1904 William Wallace Advocate
1910 John Macmaster Campbell Solicitor, Oban
1938 William Jardine Dobie Solicitor Edinburgh
1942 Kenneth Borland Solicitor Glasgow
1948 James Aikman Smith Advocate
1952 James Frame Advocate
1956 Robert Miller Advocate
1963 Donald J. McDiarmid Solicitor Dunoon
1975 Norman Milne, Procurator Fiscal, Edinburgh
1981 Terence Francis Russell Solicitor Glasgow.
Sheriff MacTavish was the last man in Campbeltown to wera his hair in a pigtail. He was Chief of the Mactavishes of Dunardy, a sept of the Campbells of Auchinbreck.
Both Sheriff Wallace and Sheriff Dobie were distinguished authors of inter alia the standard text books of Sheriff Court Practice and Sheriff Court Styles.
John Macmaster Campbell took a leading part in the
political agitation which led to the first Crofters' Act of 1886 and in his
Oban days, was affectionately known as "Crofter John". He took a leading
part not only in the foundation of the Kintyre Antiquarian Society, to the
deliberations of which he was a frequent contributor,butalso of An Comunn
Gaidhealach.
No 11 Spring 1982
Back to Top
FEU 0R LEASE?
A. I. B. Stewart, C.B.E.,
D.L.
A story has persisted for nearly three hundred years that the Duke of Argyll had, in the early years of the 18th Century done his Campbeltown feuars out of their feus by trickery or otherwise. In 1705 John, Second Duke of Argyll, although only 25 years of age, was already a man of great importance in the State. He was Queen Anne's Commissioner at the Scottish Parliament which met on 3rd July 1705 to consider the Queen's recommendation that the Scots Parliament should treat with England, with a view to effecting a Union of the two kingdoms.
Meantime, his Kintyre estates were managed by his formidable mother, Elizabeth Tollemache, Dowager Duchess, who resided at Limecraigs House. There appears to be no foundation for the story that by a subterfuge she obtained the Feu Writs from the Campbeltown feuars and destroyed them. There would have been little purpose in so doing, because the writs were recorded in the Register of Sasines and could be proved by the production of Extracts from the Register.
However, there does exist in the Argyll Archives, a document which indicates the intention of the Superiors to substitute leases for the perpetual feus given to certain Campbeltown citizens. This document dated "the Sixt day of Apryll, Seventeen hundred and six yeirs" narrates that "Alexander Rowat, Donald Clerk, John Montgomerie, late baillies of Campbeltown, John Cunisone, John Wyllie, Andrew Dickie, Smiths, John McKinley, Taylor, John Patersons Younger and Elder, merchants, all feuars within the Burgh of Campbeltown Forasmuch as it is thought fitt be his Grace the Duke of Argyll and hir Grace the Dutchess Dowager of Argyll as conjunct fiar of the Brugh of Campbeltown To alter our rights of fewes and to turn the same into herell (heritable) tacks....Whereinto ilk ane of us for our parts considering our own weill utility and Profeit in changing our former ryts unto herell tacks be advyse foresaid we hold us weill content and satisfied therewith...."
Whatever was the intention it does not seem to have been carried out, at least in respect of all the subscribing feuars. Amongst others, all are still shown as feuars in a list of properties dated 1710, and some at least of the feus still exist at the present day.
John Cunison (whose brother James Cunison was Provost of the Burgh from 1712 to 1717) was granted a few of the property 37-39 Main Street in 1694 and the present owners hold under that Feu Charter.
I have seen a number of other late Seventeenth Century titles for properties particularly in Main Street. The 1710 list mentioned above gives 58 properties in Fore Street (Main Street), Church Lane (Kirk Street), Bridge Street (later Back Street, now Union Street), Balcom (Bolgam) Street and Milne Street (Cross Street). Of these 24 are shown as feued, one about to be feued, 25 are held under tacks (or leases, of which 11 are said to be expired), one belongs to the Duke himself, while no note of the type of holding is given for 6 tenements. As well as the promised feu to John McEachran, it is remarked that in the case of the tenement possessed by Donald McNeill and John Blair the tack expired and it has been feued to Provost Campbell. There seems therefore to have been no policy against feuing at that time and no evidence that the proposals in the 1706 agreement were ever carried out. But the correspondence of the Dowager Duchess still awaits study and publication. It must hold a great deal of interest for Campbeltown and Kintyre.
No11 Spring 1982
Page 2: Mink - A Disaster
Page 3: Maceacherns Cross, Kilkerran Cemetery, Campbeltown
Page 4: Sheriff Court, Tarbert, 1683
Page 5: A Song for St. Clair on His Departure
Page 6: Rathlin // The Tory Hunters
Page 7: A Wedding at Kilchousland
Page 8: By Hill and Shore - from Mr. Angus Martin
Page 9: Daniel Kelly // Aedanus Scotorum Rex // The Auchenhoan Axe Hoard