Book Review - Letters by the Packet
Edited with an introduction and notes by Marion Campbell of Kilberry.
Published by Argyll & Bute Library Service 2004
Reviewed by Diarmid Campbell
Sugar cane, cut and processed by the enslaved folk from Africa who laboured amid the snakes, the insects and the tropical heat, paid for much of the 18th century infrastructure of Argyll. Dykes, drains, roads, bridges, piers, more productive fields and better housing were all made more possible in some areas by both enslaved people and young men from Argyll who risked life on the high seas and among alien diseases to create and supervise the sugar trade. Their hard work helped also to create the prosperity of Greenock and Glasgow. But it was the cash they sent home to their families in Argyll, or brought home upon retirement, that financed much of the ‘improvement’ of lands in the County during the 18th and into the 19th century. Where funds invested in the land did not come from the West Indies, they came from India, often as not. The slave trade was made illegal in British possessions in 1807 and slave owning in 1833.
In Mid Argyll and Knapdale the impact of the West Indies trade was notable. The houses and lands of Auchendarroch (Oakfield), Inverneil and Ormsary all benefited. The most obvious impact of the sugar money is still visible on the Poltalloch estate lands. But the extended Campbells of Auchenbreac (latterly at Minard) and their younger branch of Kilberry also sent generations to the Caribbean. Many of the letters home to Knockbuy (Minard) and Kilberry were found to have survived in old trunks, deed boxes and a desk. The subtitle of this book ‘Family Correspondence 1728-1861’ gives the range of dates. The first letters are about the West Indies trade, and then towards the end of the book there are also letters about India. For the descendants of Achnabreac who went to the West Indies, some could afford to send money home while others struggled. At times breeding oxen and cattle proved more lucrative than growing sugar.
When Defoe, who wrote Gulliver’s Travels, first rode over the Lammermuirs into Lothian he was depressed by dark heather and crying of whaups. But the sight of the pastoral landscape about Edinburgh had him crowing about ‘improvements’. In the Highlands, rents had increasingly turned from ‘kind’ to cash through the cattle trade. But while you could survive on oats, cheese and chickens, silver would pay for skilled men to make ‘improvements’ such as dykes and drains, roads and piers. The idea was that if you improved the productivity of the land and transport, all would benefit. Old rents seldom paid for more than upkeep and the survival of the family who had been granted the land, so extra cash was needed for improvements. The unforeseen result of improvements was that with better food, more children survived and ate up the expected profits of tenants and owners. In the second half of the 18th century the Highland population grew significantly. Many of the old farmer-owners had borrowed against their lands to make improvements. By the 1760s one after another of the old paternal MacNeil and Campbell farmer-owners of Knapdale went under. Many had borrowed from Campbell of Auchinbreck who had turned Jacobite and so went bankrupt in 1762. The ‘smaller proprietors’ of Danna, Castle Sween, Ashfield, Arichonan, Knap, Taynish, Dunardry and Duntroon all were all obliged to sell out. Most were bought up by the Campbells of Inverneil or the MacCallum Malcolms of Poltalloch. Those with West Indies or India money survived and expanded.
The Scots sugar trade with the West Indies was made legal by the Union of 1707.
In the earlier Highland system of landholding, tenants had planned their own work along traditional lines (the word ‘croft’ came in later in places were tenants were moved to the coast.) But with ‘improvements’, the steward or owner granted the responsibility for the people and lands by their overlord or the crown, became directly involved in doing what was needed to increase productivity and amenity. This shifted the tenant’s position into having less independence. But if productivity improved, all benefited. This shift, where owners ‘managed’ the land rather than only ‘leading’ the community, gave rise to calling the lands ‘estates’.
These events give some general background in Argyll to the letters in this book. In a Foreword, Murdo MacDonald, who has striven so valiantly with limited resources with the Argyll & Bute Archives, details the sources of this book. In her Introduction Marion Kilberry brings up the further movements of peoples and her own family’s involvement in the West Indies in more detail. This is followed by a List of Letters, giving writer, recipient, date and book page. There is then what amounts to an appendix publishing a list of the names of people who were slaves on the Orange Bay place in Jamaica in 1786. There are then four pages of family ‘trees’ detailing the connections between Achnabreac, Knockbuy/Minard and Kilberry and the relationship of the writers. Simplified maps of Argyll and Jamaica follow, giving those locations mentioned in the letters. Marion then provided a maternal source for the descendants who wrote most of the letters in a paper titled ‘Mistress Jean’. This is a brilliant biographical evocation of the life of Jean MacIver Campbell, wife of the Reverend Patrick Campbell of Torbhlaran in Glassary, great-great grandson of Archibald Campbell of Achnabreac (Achinbreck) who died in 1563.
We then come to the Letters. Part I is titled ‘The Jamaicans, 1728-1826’. The text of the letters has understandably been given in Italic type, which some find less easy to read, but the point size chosen is large enough that this should not prove a hindrance. Marion Kilberry’s notes of explanation are full and enjoyable following each letter. After the earliest letter the text becomes much easier to read and the language flows freely, showing well the fine education obtainable in a Highland childhood. This is followed by the portrait of the recipient, Archie Campbell of Knockbuy (1693-1790) whose life spanned the greater part of the period of these letters. The reference to the ‘planting’ or planning of Lochgilphead in the letter of 1732 must have been one of the first surviving comments on how the town came to have such fortunate formality. Such insights into local history and the way of life are frequent, such as ‘mushroom catchup’ or the tropical demise of soft cheese. Provided one can keep from being downcast by frequent complaints about lack of funds and losses, or the wet weather and images of slavery, the letters offer a lucid and original insight into life in both Argyll and Jamaica of those times.
Part II is subtitled ‘Canada, Australia, India and the High Seas, 1831-1865’. The portraits of those mentioned and illustrations of documents are continued, interspersed among the letters. In a remarkable way, this scatter of correspondence echoes the enlargement of British involvement in the world through the same period. Increasingly, with the colonial and Napoleonic wars, we find members of the family involved in a military life, yet the exiles affection for their extended families and homeland of Argyll continues. Happily, there is an index.
The book offers vivid glimpses of life both in the West Indies and Argyll through much of the 18th century and into the 19th. The family trees are most helpful, although if there are faults to the book it is that not all the correspondents or members of the kindred mentioned are easily identified on the trees, although the main characters are. Also instead of heading letters from the same writer as a previous one as ‘The Same to the Same’ it would have helped if full names were given each time so that if one picked up the book again one didn’t have to look back each time. But other than these small quibbles, these are a most valuable addition to the literature of Argyll and the West Indies.