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Donald Macleod of Canna

Name
Donald Macleod
First name
Donald
Last name
Macleod
Gender
0
Biography

Sometime tacksman of Canna, the westernmost of the Small Isles archiepelago south of Skye. Son of Alexander Macleod (d. ca. 1758), a Skyeman educated at King’s College, Aberdeen.

The last descendant of William Macleod of the Macleods of Meidle and Glendale, who was killed at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.5 According to a footnote in the To the Hebrides edition of Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, Ronald Macdonald of Clanranald gave a lease of Keill and other lands of Canna to a certain Donald MacLeod for three nineteen-year terms, dating from Whitsuntide 1760, on June 22, 1761.

Life with Boswell

Boswell and Dr Johnson met Macleod at Armadale, where they were hosted by Sir Alexander Macdonald, on September 2, 1773. Boswell, in his journal, initially described him as "a very genteel man", but deleted the compliment shortly after writing it. On September 6, MacLeod set out with them acting as their guide on their continuing journey north towards the Isle of Raasay

On September 10, Boswell went out to explore the island of Raasay in the company of Macleod (Canna), John Macqueen, Malcolm MacLeod, and Boswell's servant Joseph

Roderick Macdonald of Sandaig

Name
Roderick Macdonald
First name
Roderick
Last name
Macdonald
Born 1705
Died 1788
Gender
0
Alias
Rorie Macdonald
Biography

Tacksman of Sandaig during the second part of the 18th century. Son of John Macdonald of Totamurich & Knock and his wife Margaret. He was married to a sister of the Laird of Raasay, and had at least two sons, James and Donald, and a daughter, Katie.

Life with Boswell

Boswell and Dr Johnson met Rorie, as he was known, his wife and his son Donald at dinner on September 2, 1773, during their visit to Sir Alexander Macdonald in Armadale. Boswell described him as "an old brisk Highlander of 68, a near relation of Alexander's". Two days later, Rorie and his wife dined with them again, and Boswell wrote in his journal that "Rorie was to be dispossessed of his farm in Glenelg at Whitsunday, and was trying to get one from Sir Alexander." They were later joined by his sons James, who was Sir Alexanders factor for Sleat, and Donald, a Lieutenant in the Grenadiers.

On September 5th, Boswell walked with Sir Alexander and Rorie to the parish church of Sleat, where they saw the monument to Sir Alexander's older brother James (d. 1766). After dinner they went to the house of Rorie's son James, where they were joined by his other son Douglas and daugher Katie. In his journal, Boswell acknowledged that he "drank freely of punch by way of being social, and after supper I drank freely of port by way of keeping off a taedium vitae. Altogether, I had too much."

 

 

John Jeans - Mineralogist

Name
John Jeans
First name
John
Last name
Jeans
Born 1724
Date of birth (prefix)
abt.

Died 1804
Gender
0
Biography

Mineralogist and dealer in mineral specimens and fossils.1.

Life with Boswell

When Boswell and Dr Johnson were guests at Sir Alexander Macdonald at Armadale on Skye on September 2, 1773, they were joined at dinner by "a little Aberdeenshire man, a naturalist, with his son, a dwarf with crooked legs. Jeans said that he had been at Mr Johnson's in London with Ferguson the astronomer. Mr Johnson thought it strange how he found somebody in such distant places who knew him; that he should have thought he might hide himself in Skye."2

Alexander Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald of Slate

Name
Alexander Macdonald
First name
Alexander
Last name
Macdonald
Born 1745
Date of birth (prefix)
abt.

Died September 12, 1795
Gender
0
Alias
1st Baron Macdonald
Biography

Son of Alexander Macdonald, 7th Baronet of Slate, and Margaret Montgomerie. Married (1768) to Elizabeth Diana Bosville, with whom he had seven sons and three daughters. Lady Macdonald died in 1789. Lord Macdonald survived her by six years and died in September 1795. He was succeeded in his titles by his son Alexander Macdonald, 2nd Baron Macdonald.

Macdonald was educated at Eton and served with the Grenadier Guards. Macdonald was also a deputy lieutenant of Inverness-shire and a brigadier-general in the Royal Company of Archers. He succeeded his elder brother, James, in the baronetcy in 1766 and in 1776 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Macdonald, of Slate in the County of Antrim.

 

Life with Boswell

Boswell and Dr Johnson were met by Sir Alexander and his wife at Armadale on September 2, 1773, as they arrived by boat from Glenelg on their tour of Scotland. The Lord and his Lady had come there on their way from their seat at Mugstot (Monkstadt) on the north part of Skye, to Edinburgh, and therefore had to host Boswell and Johnson at a tenant's house for the ensuing days. Their visit and Boswell's relationship with Sir Alexander were not without friction, and some of Boswell's remarks in his Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, published twelve years later, resulted in further conflict between the two. For further about the visit to Armadale, see the To the Hebrides edition of Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, September 2-6, 1773.

Boswell and Macdonald were 13th cousins, sharing a common ancestor in Robert Stewart, 1st Lord Lorne (1382-1449).

Alexander MacLeod of Drynoch

Name
Alexander MacLeod
First name
Alexander
Last name
MacLeod
Gender
0
Biography

Son of Norman MacLeod of Drynoch (d. 1748), also known as Tormod Mor, and his wife, a Miss Rose. Married Penelope MacKinnon, with whom he had two children, Norman, who died young, and Penelope, who married the Rev. Kenneth Macaulay, Minister of Cawdor.

Life with Boswell

On September 2, 1773, at Glenelg Boswell and Dr Johnson breakfasted with a "Mr Macleod of Drynoch", to whom they had a letter from Kenneth Macaulay. It is uncertain if this Mr Macleod is Macaulay's father-in-law, Alexander, or a son or other relation of his.

Captain Macleod of Balmeanach

Name
Captain MacLeod
Last name
Macleod
Gender
0
Biography

Captain MacLeod of Balmeanach has variously been identified as either a John or a Roderick MacLeod, with the possibility that the two are in fact the same person referred to by two different names.

In all probability, the Captain MacLeod encountered by Boswell and Johnson at the top of Rattachan was the son of Donald MacLeod of Balmeanac (ca. 1688-1756).

According to The Brave Sons of Skye, Roderick MacLeod was born in 1728, and, on February 6, 1757, joined the Scots Brigade in Holland as ensign. On January 3, 1763, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. On March 9, 1774, he became a captain, and in February 1783 his name appears in the Dutch War Office Records with the rank of Major. He retired from the Scots Brigade in 1787. About 1780, Major MacLeod married Miss Campbell, Ardnamurchan , with issue, several sons (all of whom were doctors, and died young) and a daughter, Margaret, who married MacLean of Ostal, in Skye, whose son was the Reverend Roderick MacLean, minister of South Uist.3

According to another source, Roderick returned to Skye to become tacksman of Balmeanach in 1788. When the tack of Balmeanach expired in 1811, Major Roderick MacLeod, who was then eighty-three years of age, took up residence at Vatten, in the parish of Duirinish, where he died, according to the SCOTS MAGAZINE, on October 31, 1814, aged eighty-six years. He was the last of the family to occupy Balmeanach.4

Life with Boswell

On September 1, 1773, Boswell and Dr Johnson encountered Capt. MacDonald, as he then was, at the top of Rattachan mountain near Glenelg. 

Lachlan Macqueen

Name
Lachlan Macqueen
First name
Lachlan
Last name
Macqueen
Gender
0
Biography

Gaelic poet, who was also Innkeeper at Anoch near Glenmoriston at least during the 1770s and 1780s.5

According to a footnote in an edition of Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides published in 1860, "Macqueen was a gentleman of the old Highland stamp, who considered himself a public benefactor by condescending to keep a change-house. He was married to a laird's daughter, and could both read Latin and write Celtic poetry. He was famous in the glen for his ready wit and his talent at telling a story or rehearsing a legend. Still he kept a sharp eye on the main chance; and he grumbled because his farm was too dear. He paid twenty pounds of rent; and he told Johnson that he kept one hundred sheep, as many goats, twelve milch cows, and twenty-eight beeves, ready for the drover. He had also a coonsiderable range of hill-ground, capable of grazing from fifty to sixty cattle in summer; and it was generally let to the low-country farmes about Inverness and Nainshire. In addition to the land he had the advantage of the inn - not great, perhaps, yet the road through Glenmoriston was the main artery of communication with the West Highlands and islands, and the inn at Anoch was a drovestance oor resting-place for the cattle going south from Skye. [...] He lived at Anoch fifteen years after his entertainment of the olla Sassenach, or jolly Englishman, as he used to call Johnson. He then removed to Dalcataig, another farm in the neighbourhood, and survived till past ninety. His pretty daughter, who made tea for the travellers, became Mrs. Mackintosh, wife of a watchmaker in Morayshire, and died without issue."6

Life with Boswell

Boswell and Dr Johnson arrived at Macqueen's inn at Glenmoriston in the afternoon of August 31, 1773, having left Fort Augustus around noon the same day. 

Boswell wrote of Macqueen that he was "a sensible fellow [...] who had learnt his grammar" and that "his pride seemed to be much picqued that we were surprised at his having books." They also talked with him about the rent of the lands, and about emigrating to America. On the next day, Boswell "awaked very early. I began to imagine that the landlord, being about to emigrate, might murder us to get our money and lay it upon the soldiers in the barn."7 As they continued their journey, Macqueen walked with them for a few miles, telling them about how he "had joined Prince Charles at Fort Augustus, and continued in the Highland army till after the battle of Culloden", the tale of which made Boswell burst into tears. In Boswell's own words, "There is a certain association of ideas in my mind upon that subject, by which I am strongly affected. The very Highland names, or the sound of a bagpipe, will stir my blood and fill me with a mixture of melancholy, and respect for courage; and pity for an unfortunate [probably a coded reference to Prince Charles, ed.], and superstitious regard for antiquity; and inclination for war without thought; and, in short, with a crowd of sensations."

 

 

Lt. Henry Letch

Name
Henry Letch
First name
Henry
Last name
Letch
Gender
0
Biography

Military officer. Son of a Physician in London of the same name.

According to a 19th century volume of correspondence between Mrs. Grant of Laggan and her friends, Leitch "was sent very early into the army, full of romantic prejudices, which led him into boundless profusion and endless errors. With great purity of heart, and uprightness of intention, he very early dissipated his patrimonty, and soon after was so much in debt as to be obliged to sell his commission, about the period when this letter was written [1775, ed.]."7

Life with Boswell

Boswell and Dr Johnson had breakfast with Lt. Letch, Deputy Governor Trapaud and a few officers, including Lewis Ourry, on August 31, 1773, at Fort Augustus while on their tour of Scotland.

Lewis Ourry - Captain in the Royal American Regiment of Foot

Name
Lewis Ourry
First name
Lewis
Last name
Ourry
Born February 1717, 21
Died 1779
Gender
0
Biography

British military officer, the son of Louis Ourry (1682-1771), a Huguenot refugee from Blois, and his wife Anne Louise Beauvais. He was married and had at least one child, Anne (ca. 1750-aft. 1819), who married James Furzer of the Royal Marines (d. 1799) in 1794. One of Ourry's brothers was Paul Henry Ourry (1719-1783), who served as Member of Parliament for Plympton Earle from 1763 to 1775.

As a Captain in the British Army, Ourry spent several years in America, serving in the 60th Regiment of Foot ("The Royal American") from 1756 to 1765. From 1760 to 1764 he was even commander of Fort Bedford, an important logistic link between Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Fort Pitt (located in present day Pittsburgh), where Ourry was charged with the duty of paying the troops on the frontier, contracting for provisions and supplies, hiring or impressing wagons, teams packhorses and their drivers, and keeping accounts of the King's money spent in all these transactions.

After some years in London, in 1772 he Ourry purchased a company in the 15th Regiment of Foot, and he became stationed at Fort Augustus in Scotland until 1774. In the fall of 1774, Ourry went with the regiment to Ireland and stayed with it until 1777, when it was ordered to America. Ourry sold his commission, purchasing instead the Majority at the Fort at Kinsale. He died there in 1779, having also become Commissary for Prisoners of War.

The primary biographical source for information about Ourry is Donald Cornu's 1952 article "Captain Lewis Ourry, Royal American Regiment of Foot", published in Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol 19 no. 3.

Life with Boswell

Boswell and Dr Johnson had breakfast with Ourry and a couple of other officers during their visit to Fort Augustus on August 31, 1773. Boswell wrote of Ourry that he and fellow officer Captain Isaac d'Aripe had "been in the American war, and entertained Mr Johnson much with accounts of the Indians. He said he could make a very pretty book out of them were he to stay there."

Timothy Newmarsh

Name
Timothy Newmarsh
First name
Timothy
Last name
Newmarsh

Died 1802
Gender
0
Biography

Captain in the 7th Regiment of Foot in the American War and promoted to Major while there ca. 1776. Newmarsh was married to Mary Trapaud (d. 1791), with whom he had at least two children. One, Alexander Newmarsh, was a Captain in the 17th Regiment of Foot who died at Santo Domingo in 1796. The other, John Ludovez Newmarsh, lived until at least 1825 and was party to a prolonged series of court disputes concerning the property of his late father-in-law (d. 1796) and his second wife (d. 1798).

Life with Boswell

Boswell and Dr Johnson met Captain Newmarsh, as he then was, together with his wife and father-in-law at Fort Augustus on August 30, 1773. Boswell did not write anything specifically about Newmarsh, but remarked in his journal that they "were all most obliging and polite."

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