Lee to Swandale

Lee, Blossom, Swartifield, & Swandale

LEE

Lee was the name of a cottage high up on the eastern slope of Kierfea Hill above Digro. Its first recorded occupants were John Pearson and his wife Janet McKinlay, both born c.1786. They were married on December 19th 1806, and had four children: James was born in May 1808; twins, John and Mary, were born in August 1810; and Robert, who was born in August 1813. On February 19th 1833 James Pearson married Mary Leonard, daughter of John Leonard and Isabella Inkster, who was born in August 1809, and they lived at Kirkgate, Wasbister.

In 1854 agricultural labourer William Logie paid 15s. rent for the property and it stayed at this sum all the time he lived there until the croft became vacant in 1871. On January 23rd 1829, William, who was born c.1793, married Janet Marwick, daughter of Magnus Marwick and Christy Craigie, and she was born c. 1790. They lived at Geramont, an old house above Nears in Frotoft, alternatively known as Cathole.

By 1861 William and Janet’s son William, a shoemaker, was also living at Lee, but was a widower by then. Born on July 24th 1831, he married Elizabeth Harrold on February 17th 1859. She was the daughter of Robert Harrold and Ann Banks, Cruannie, and she was born on March 13th 1827. They had a son, John, who was born in 1859, but tragically Elizabeth died within a year of his birth. At the time of the 1861 census Elizabeth’s unmarried 36-year-old sister, Mary, was nursing young John.

Circa 1890, Barbara Sabiston paid rent of 1 shilling for Lee and its 1.003 acres arable and 6.411 acres of pasture land. According to notes made by the Laird in his rent book, “the Widow Sabiston applied to become a crofter but was declared a cotter. Her children on Parochial Board relief in 1888.” [A cottar was a farm labourer occupying a cottage and land, supposedly rent-free].

‘The Widow Sabiston’ was born Barbara Harrold on November 7th 1824. She was the daughter of William Harrold and Elizabeth Grieve who lived at Hammermugly. On July 30th 1852, Barbara married 23-year-old George Sabiston of Whitemeadows, and they had seven children; Margaret was born in September 1854; Mary, in February 1855; James, in September 1856; John, in March 1858; William Harrold, in November 1859; David, in July 1861; and Alexander, who was born in April 1863. George Sabiston died in 1864 at the age of 34, and his young sons William and Alexander, at the ages of seven and four respectively, died of diphtheria in 1867, just 12 days apart. Barbara and her son James were the last occupants of Lee – both of whom passed away in 1905.

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BLOSSOM

Blossom is today’s name of a house high on the ridge or shoulder of the hill on the eastern slope of Kierfea, just above the summit of the public road between Sourin and Wasbister. Years previously the croft was alternatively known as Hammermugly, Upper Quoys, and – The Blossan.

Later occupants of Blossom were the Linklater family. John Linklater was the son of John Linklater, Firth, and Catherine (Kitty) Grieve, Howe, Egilsay, and he was born in 1901. In 1921 he married Sarah Ann Mainland, daughter of John Corsie Mainland and Sarah Ann Rendall, Weyland, Egilsay, and she was born in January 1895. They had four children: Sarah Ann (Sally), who was born in 1923; Kathleen, in 1924; Thomas Mainland in 1925; and James Archibald, who was born in 1933.

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SWARTIFIELD

Swartifield is the name of a small croft on the east slope of Kierfea Hill, north of Fa’doon.  In the early 1800s it was occupied by farmer William Inkster and his wife Margaret Gibson. William originally lived at Eastafea, later incorporated into Faraclett, and he and Margaret were married on February 27th 1801. She was the daughter of John Gibson and Christy Mainland and was born  in 1776. They had seven children: Hugh, who was born in December 1801; Christian (Christina), in January 1805; Margaret, in September 1807; William, in November 1810; Robert, in January 1813; Janet, in March 1816; and Thomas, who was born in November 1819. All the children were born at Eastafea, with the exception of Thomas, who was born at nearby Pow.

Come the census of 1851 William and Margaret were living at Nether Swartifield, she being in the 77th year by the on record as being 81 years of age and described as being ‘helpless.’ Their son Robert, born in 1813, was a fisherman and he lived in the main house at Swartifield with his wife Mary Leonard and 9-month-old daughter Anne. Married on January 11th 1849, Mary was one of the ten children of Peter Leonard and Isobel McKinlay of Digro, and she was born there on October 7th 1826.

In a hand-written land valuation roll dated 1865 Swartifield was spelled Swartaville, and its occupant, paying an annual rent of £1 5s 0d was – Robert ‘Inksetter’. Over the years the fishing became less profitable, and by 1871 Robert concentrated on farming the 30 acres of land at Swartifield, paying rent of £5 a year. By that time he and Mary had a family of eight children: Anne was born in 1850; Samuel, in 1852; James, in 1856; Mary, in 1858; Robert, in 1861; John, in 1864; Jessie, in 1868; and Margaret, in 1871. Their third oldest son Robert drowned in 1868 when he was just seven years old. His body was found off Warness, Eday, after falling from the cliffs close to home. Their oldest daughter Anne died in 1873 at the age of 23. Youngest daughter Margaret died in 1892, aged 21, the same year that her father Robert died at the age of 79. The second youngest daughter Jessie died in 1894 at the age of 26, and her mother, Mary, died in 1909, when in her 82nd year.

Click > here < to read of the problems Robert Inkster had with the laird when re-roofing and repairing the house at Swartifield in 1890.

By the turn of the century Robert and Mary’s son John and his family occupied Swartifield. John Inkster earned his living, not only as a crofter but also as a rural postman. His wife was Shetland lass Jane Irvine, and they married in 1894. After raising a family of eight children they moved down to Essaquoy and later to nearby Woo.

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SWANDALE

Spelled Swindale in a Rental of 1595, Swandale was a farm in Sourin at the head of the valley between Kierfea and the Head of Faraclett. Hugh Marwick suggests the spelling most probably refers to the Old Norse word svin, swine – hence svin-dalr, swine-valley, and what better evidence of the existence of pigs in that locality is the superbly-built pigsty adjacent to the farm buildings, erected by stonemason William Harrold of The Blossan.

Swandale was jointly tenanted by Peter and John Allan in 1734. Archibald Sinclair was tenant in the early 1800’s. He was the son of George Sinclair of Brendale and later Faraclett and he was born at Wasthouse, Knarston, on May 1st 1752. He married Bell Louttit from Mouncey, Quandale, and they lived at Pow in Sourin, where their children, Robert, James, and John, were born, but they later moved to Swandale.

In the Sheriff Court Record Room in Kirkwall is preserved the record of a litigation (Spence v. Baikies) in 1817, regarding grazing rights in Rousay. From the evidence it appears that Archibald Sinclair ‘had acted as one of the Lawrightmen of Rousay the time of that order of these people in Orkney’. Lawrightmen were responsible, under the baillie, for law and order in their bounds.

The following story concerning Archibald Sinclair is from Robert C. Marwick’s book In Dreams We Moor. In it he appears to be on the other side of  the  law! A great deal of illicit brewing went on in Orkney in Archie’s time and  Excise men were constantly on the prowl trying to  track  down  those  engaged  in  it. A quantity of malt ready for brewing was all the evidence they needed. One day Archie saw an Excise man coming down over the braes towards Swandale farmhouse. He immediately ran to the barn, heaved a sack onto his back and made for the nearby shore as quickly as he could. The Excise man seeing this as a blatant attempt to get rid of the evidence, gave chase. He soon gained ground on his quarry, who seemed to be making very slow progress even allowing for his load and the strong head wind blowing in from the shore. When the gap had closed to a few yards Archie turned and emptied out the contents of his sack, relying on the wind to do the rest. The irate Excise man realised he had been duped when he found himself covered in a thick layer of corn chaff with aans (bristles) that cling to clothing with an infuriating persistence and which are equally irritating to the skin. What added to the Excise man’s anger and, no doubt, to Archie’s enjoyment of the situation, was the knowledge that the ploy had been a mere diversion to give those back at the farmhouse time to find a secure hiding place for the malt.

Archie and Bell’s son James, born in 1783, married Marjory (Maidie) Hourston in February 1808. She was the daughter of James Hourston and Marian Craigie, and was born at Sound, Egilsay in 1780. They had six children: Mary, who was born at Guidal in July 1809; Margaret, at Brendale in April 1813; – and four more children who were born after the family had moved to Newhouse, Frotoft: Janet, in December 1815; James, in August 1818; Hugh, in March 1821; and John, who was born in March 1825. Their father James drowned off Scabra Head whilst fishing in 1825. His son James also drowned, when the Rousay postboat was lost in Eynhallow Sound in 1893.

James’ brother John was born in 1785. On January 4th 1816 he married Magdalene Craigie, daughter of Mitchell Craigie and Ann Mainland, who was born at Hullion in 1791. They raised a family of eight children, and settled at Tratland. John was at Hudson Bay between 1806 and 1813. He returned to Rousay and lived at Breck for a year before going to Tratland.

Archie Sinclair’s son Robert, born in about 1795, was tenant of Swandale in the 1840’s. On November 1st 1819 he married Betty Mowat, daughter of Thomas Mowat and Helen Peace of Scowan, who was born on July 9th 1798. They had three children; Margaret, who was born in August 1820; Robert, in May 1822; and Barbara, who was born in February 1824. Their mother Betty passed away soon after this last date, though no record of her death exists.

Robert C. Marwick tells us the Sinclairs of Swandale had the reputation of being very careful with money, even to the point of being thought tight-fisted. At the time of his death, in 1884, Robert Sinclair had savings amounting to £900, an amazing achievement considering that Swandale was not a good farm and that Robert had raised such a large family on it, and word had it that every penny he made ‘became a prisoner.’ It is said that his father Archie would go about in rags rather than spend money to make himself look more respectable. A story is told of a visitor to Swandale finding Archie dressed in his drawers, busily working away as usual. He had removed his trousers to avoid unnecessary wear and tear on them while he carried out some work in the farmyard midden.

In 1915 Hugh and Mary’s son Hugh, born in 1886, married Margaret Johan Marwick, daughter of Robert Marwick, Scockness, and Ann Blalick Hourston, Tankerness, who was born in August 1876. They had three children: Hugh Harold, born in 1917; Annie Mary, in 1920; and George Mainland, who was born in 1922. On March 17th 1916, Hugh’s sister Maggie Jane, born in 1893, married James Robert Lyon, son of Robert Watson Lyon and Catherine Lyon, Graemsay, later Ervadale, who was born in 1896. They had a family of seven children: Margaret Mary, who was born in 1916; Catherine Isabella, in 1919; James, in 1920; Ann, in 1923; Hugh, in 1925; Robert Watson, in 1929; and Elizabeth Craigie (Elsie), who was born in 1932.

From Hugh Harold Craigie’s second marriage to Elizabeth Craigie, daughter Elizabeth, born in 1898, was unmarried and passed away in South Ronaldsay at the age of 36. In 1938 her younger sister Mary Ann married George William Morrison, Kirkwall, and they had a daughter, Hazel Wilhelmina, who was born in 1940.

Hugh and Elizabeth are pictured below in their latter years – and on the right with their daughters Elizabeth and Mary Ann.

[All b/w photos, unless otherwise stated, are courtesy of the Tommy Gibson Collection.]