|
| |
[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Duries in History ] [ Durie Timeline ] [ "Lord" Robert Durie ] [ George Durie ] [ Rossend Castle ] [ Andrew Durie ] [ Two Jesuits ] [ John Durie I ] [ Robert Durie ] [ The Fife Adventurers ] [ John Durie II ] [ Henry Kemp Durie ] [ Gibson Lord Durie ] [ Scoonie ] [ Captain George Durie ] [ Rutherford & Teviot ] [ Dutch Duries ] [ Durie of Durie ] [ Craigluscar ] [ Dr Bruce Durie ] [ Sir David Durie ]
|
In October 1598 Robert Durie, minister of Anstruther, accompanied the Fife Adventurers to Lewis, in the
Outer Hebrides.
Prior to Union of 1603, James VI was chronically short of money
and, as ruler of a small, peripheral European state next door to powerful
England, had little real power. The turn of the 17th century was a time of great
turmoil - the authority of the crown was more or less respected although the
King or Queen could be hated, slandered, assaulted, kidnapped and controlled
during their minority. The doctrine of Divine Right to rule was being
questioned, along with the primacy of Catholic teaching as against the
Protestants’ view that the Bible was the word of God and all the teachings anyone
needed without the intercession of priests and bishops.
The Reformation had taken away not only power from the Catholic
church but also land and revenues, and had given it to the nobles and (to a
lesser degree) to the Protestant Church. The King's rule meant even less in the
feudal and largely Catholic Highlands and Islands, where the local Lords of
Estate and clan chiefs had absolute power of life and death over their chiels
and tacksmen and commanded fierce loyalty. The King's Law meant very little in
real terms.
This period has been called the time when Scotland moved from
Lordship to Patronage - from a position where the King could command to one
where power devolution and the grant of warrants in the hope that some profit
might come from it. The King sought to acquire feudal incomes by selling
indulgencies - titles, tribute in kind or as military service, letters patent
and Royal Charters to trade and colonise. But all for a cut of the take going to
the Crown.
The reasoning was straightforward enough - to subjugate and
extract taxes from, say, the Outer Hebrides, the king would have to send an
expensive army of occupation and also subjugate the local Lord or Chief. Where
was the profit in that? Better to let others do it and take a percentage. And so
it was that, equipped with no more than a Charter from the King and a handful of
soldiers, a group calling themselves the Association of Fife Adventurers had
three attempts at colonising Lewis and other islands. And all because of greed
over the potential profits from fish and barley. Displaying precisely the same
hang-it-all attitude that caused their descendants to trample all over America,
India, Africa and elsewhere, this ill-matched cluster of profit-seekers headed
north on the first of three ruinously expensive forays. Of course, the native
Lewismen took a different view.
The succession of events went something like this:
|
 |
December 1597 James VI decreed that all who owned land and
fisheries in the Highlands & Islands must present their titles to these to the
Lords of Exchequer in Edinburgh and to provide security for their future good
behaviour. Otherwise, they would face possible confiscation.
|
|
May1598 Deadline for the above. Among those who did were
Torquil Conanach of the Lewis MacLeods, who had wrested the deeds from the late
Macleod chief, Torquil Dubh (already declared a rebel) and given them, for safe
keeping, to Mackenzie of Kintail. They were not available. The crown immediately
moved to possess.
|
|
28th June 1598 James signed a contract with the "Fife
Adventurers" to "plant policy and civilisation in the hitherto most barbarous
Isle of Lewis" and to develop the same, with six parish churches plus burghs of
barony. Oh yes - and to do so at their own cost but also to provide James with
rent in the form of bere barley. Notice that this was seen partly as
colonisation, partly as commerce and partly as re-christianisation of the
uncontrollable Isles.
|
|
November 1598 The Adventurers set sail, with tradesmen,
500 or so mercenaries and Robert Durie as their minister, all under the command
of the Duke of Lennox, named Lieutenant of Lewis.
|
|
December 1598 On their arrival, the Adventurers found that
the recent clan warfare over succession between Murdoch and Neil MacLeod
(bastard son of Ruari) and others, had all but devastated the island. There was
some resistance, but Stornoway Castle fell. Murdoch left, but Neil stayed on to
harry and fight the settlers.
|
|
Winter 1598-99 The cold and damp even rusted the swords.
Dysentery was rife. There was no time to build shelters. Food was low. The Lewis
islanders dis not cooperate. The result was demoralisation. Learmonth of
Balcomie sailed home for more supplies, but was attacked and captured by Murdoch
and held for ransom. He was freed on the Summer Isles, but died soon after.
Knowing this, Colonel Stewart and Spens of Wormiston tried to complete the
provisioning mission, and in their absence Neil attacked the settlers with much
killing and burning, to the King's fury.
|
|
July 1599 Lennox and the Marquis of Huntly (one of the
powerful Gordons) were appointed as Lieutenants and Justices in the Highlands
and Islands. King James VI authorised stringent measures to bring the islanders
to heel. By this time, Neil and Murdoch had fallen out. Neil allied himself with
the settlers and was offered a pardon and policies if he delivered up Murdoch.
As a token of his good intentions, Neil sent the heads of twelve men to
Edinburgh for display on the city gates. Murdoch was imprisoned at Balcomie,
tried at St Andrews and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered, with his head
spiked at the Netherbow. Neil got his free pardon and headed home to his uneasy
peace with the settlers.
|
|
1600 Parliament ratified the rights of the Adventurers to
settle Lewis and other islands and James empowered them to build harbours and
collect customs on fish etc in his name. Mackenzie of Kintail, however, was
biding his time.
|
|
October 1600 The Adventurers met at St Andrews and pledged
to build a town - which would become Stornoway - and to divvy up the rest of the
island. James suggested building inns for travellers, the hospitality on Lewis
not being well-regarded, (typical Fifers - first job: open a pub) more churches
and a school. Robert Durie was a second time appointed by the presbytery of St
Andrews 2 April 1601 to Lewis “to plant ane kirk” there.
|
|
December 1601 Neil just could not get along with anybody
and in the absence of his half-brother, fell out with Spens, who set out to
bring Neil to heel. But Spens himself was captured and 60 men killed. Mackenzie
of Kintail then played his knight, in the shape of Tormod MacLeod, brother of
the late Torquil Dubh (and Neil's uncle) and, as he calculated, Neil and the
islanders rallied round this new chief. They burned the newly-built Stornoway
and many settlers surrendered or were killed. They were told they could receive
mercy if they turned over their titles, possession and chattels to Tormod and
organised him a Royal Pardon. Spens and his son-in-law, Thomas Moneypenny, were
held as hostages.
|
|
Here endeth the first chapter - the Fife Adventurers were routed,
Tormod was Chief of Lewis with Neil as his captain. Robert Durie escaped
the slaughter, and leaves the story at this point.
One-Nil to the Lewis men.
|
|
|
June 1602 James still had a bee in his bonnet and asked
Parliament for money to send an army.
|
|
March 1603 The Fife Adventurers, who really ought to have
known better and certainly couldn't afford it, agreed to each provide 30
soldiers, arms and supplies, and to sail again for Lewis by July 1604 and stay a
year, under the penalty of £1000. They were also to build a defensible stone
dwelling each and pay rent in fish and silver to James. The King, for his part,
agreed to possess Lewis by his own forces by the next summer. In the meantime,
the Union of the Crowns necessitated James's departure for London.
|
|
August 1605 The Adventurers set sail again, albeit a year
late, but along with the King's army raised in the North and West, to deal with
"an infamous bike of lawless limmers". Tormod was offered surrender with a
pardon and an audience with the King in London and took it. Neil was more
sceptical, but Tormod was daft enough to travel to Edinburgh where he was
imprisoned for his pains. Ten years later he was released on the condition that
he enter military service with Orange and never return to Scotland. He never
did.
|
|
Spring 1606 Fresh supplies and seed crops arrived at
Lewis, but lack of money led to unpaid tradesmen and soldiers deserting. Neil
and 300 men attacked and fired Stornoway. Ruari MacLeod of Harris took the
castle (giving it up when he is threatened with declaration as a rebel).
However, the settlers left again, cash-strapped and demoralised.
Two-Nil to Lewis
|
|
|
1607 Mackenzie of Kintail played his bishop and had James
grant him Lewis. Spens and George Hay (Master of Balmerino in Fife) complained
and got the decision revoked, by virtue of Hay's helping the King over the
mysterious Gowrie conspiracy.
|
|
Summer 1609 Whatever possessed the Fife Adventurers to try
again? And this time without the King's support? Neil had ruled Lewis ever
since. Balmerino (now a Lord and Secretary of State for Scotland) had been
charged with treason, leaving Spens and Hay to go it alone. They had shares in
the Company of Adventurers, of course, and may have sought to recover their
losses. They and an army landed at Stornoway, as usual, and, equally typically,
came under-provisioned. Mackenzie of Kintail offered a cargo of food and
weapons, which they accepted. But Mackenzie had also told Neil, who attacked and
carries off the ship, doubtless returning it to Mackenzie. In order to save
supplies, Hay and Spens dismiss the soldiers defending the settlers and sail for
Fife to restock. Neil, predictably, attacked and devastated the settlement. He
did allow the settlers to go home, though.
Three-Nil
|
|
|
1610 Spens and Hay, sick to death of it all, decided to cut their
losses and sold their rights for 10,000 merks to - three guesses? - Mackenzie of
Kintail. The man had barely moved but had taken control of Lewis twice! Neil and
his gang were dispatched to Bearasay when they captured the well-known pirate
ship Priam with a vast precious cargo. But there was not much to spend
gold on in Bearasay (even now!) so Neil offered the prize to the Privy Council,
possibly in a hoped-for exchange for Tormod, still in jail. The PC offered Neil
safe conduct to Edinburgh to discuss a pardon, but he did not go. That's how
Tormod got caught, after all.
|
|
1611 Neil landed on Lewis and tried to get the natives to
rise against Kintail. They refused. Neil surrendered to Rory Macleod of Harris
and ended up in an Edinburgh jail anyway.
|
|
1613 Neil was found guilty of fire-raising, murder and
theft and his head was spiked where Murdoch's had been 13 years previously.
Later Mackenzie got his10,000 merks back by selling Spens and Hay the rights to
woods in Letterewe for iron smelting. Hay ran it and Spens stayed in James VI's
service, becoming General of the British mercenaries for the Swedish King Gustav
Adolphus. Later, he was ennobled by a grateful James as Earl of Kinnoul (1633)
having been High Chancellor of Scotland (1622).
|
|
|
Summary The whole episode can be seen as a tussle
between the honourable, distinguished and well-meaning Spens; the hooligan with
dynastic aspirations, Neil MacLeod; and the only person who really profited, the
wily Mackenzie of Kintail!
Game, set and match to Kintail
|
|
| | |
visitors