Stewart, James A.

2013-06-26T12:42:22Z

2013-06-26T12:42:22Z

1982

The purpose of this thesis is to define Highland kin-based society as it existed towards the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century and to examine the pressures working to change that society in the period down to the clearances of the mid 19th century. This goal is approached through the method of an in-depth study of the Clan Ranald. This kindred was selected because it is well covered in documentation: both the more traditional official, family, estate, political and ecclesiastical Scottish sources and Gaelic material, including bardic poetry, historical chronicles and vernacular poetry. The Clan Ranald was also selected because it occupied a position of geographical and political importance throughout the period under consideration. The area encompassed by this work is basically limited to the old Clan Ranald territories: Moidart, Arisaig and Morar on the mainland; the islands of Eigg and Canna in the Inner Isles, and South Uist and Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides. In one sense, however, this scope is expanded in the pre-1760 period because a loosely structured community of conservative west Highland kindreds had a special importance to the general focus of this study. This group included the Clan Ranald and is shown to have been distinctive and culturally defensive in political and religious issues from the Lordship of the Isles, through the seven risings that attempted to restore the Lordship, through the Montrose period, down to the Jacobite era. The common history of these clans is central to this inquiry into the decline of the kin-based culture of the Gael and to the development of the Clan Ranald. All segments of the Clan Ranald's internal structure are examined: the ceann cinnidh, "head of the kindred", the daoin-uaisle, "nobles of the kindred", the professionals, such as bards, pipers and physicians, and the majority of the clan, the commoners. Their situation and interrelationships are examined and their interdependence is illustrated. However, over a long period, various forces combined to undermine this society. Political, religious, economic and cultural pressures were heavy and the introduction of new political and economic systems in the mid to late 18th century had the effect of disrupting the old social order and dividing the classes of Highland society. In some cases, such as the Jacobite Risings, these pressures for change fell on the whole kindred, but, increasingly, members of the various ranks in the clan began to feel more specialised forces working on them in particular and not the entire kindred. The origins of these pressures for change and the distinctive consequences they had on the several levels of the old clan are examined down to the sale of the estate and the clearances in South Uist and Benbecula. The historical interdependence between Highland ranks will be shown to have been replaced by the seeds of class antagonism.

290217

http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6847

eng

University of Edinburgh

History

Clan Ranald: history of a highland kindred

The Clan Ranald: history of a highland kindred

PhD Doctor of Philosophy