In all this tract of ground, viz., from Lord Reay’s country on the north to Glenelg on the south, the people are but late converts to Presbytery. The old Episcopal Incumbents having lived long, some of them till the year 29, I could not find that any of them took the oaths to the Government. The gentlemen are most Episcopal and they or their predecessors were at Shirefmoor and Glen Sheil with the late Seaforth.[265] But by the good disposition of the present Seaforth to our happy establishment, they did not think fit to join in the late Rebellion, excepting a few younger brothers who had nothing to lose and are now prisoners in London. The first Presbyterian Minister was planted in Assint in the year 1727 at Loch-Broom. He landed much sooner, but though married to a native he was so miserable that he could not live in the country.
After him Mr. James Smith, now Minister at Creich in Sutherland, was ordained for the place by the Presbytery of Dingwall. The first night he came to his Parish both the eyes were plucked out his horse as his welcome to the country. Applecross, Kintail and Muick were not planted till the year 1730; Loch Carran in the year 1725. Mr. John McKilikin was ordained at Dingwall for the parish of Loch Ailsh a good time ago and though he lived for several years, he never durst enter his parish, and after his death, the Presbytery who went there to command the people about filling the parish in the year 1721 or 1722, were made prisoners in the house where they met, by men in women’s clothes, and their faces blackened. A pledge was demanded of them that they should never come to that country, which they refusing, they sent a Guard of this black crew with each of them towards their respective homes. But in the year 1727 a minister was planted there who got peaceable possession. In all or most of these parishes the Sacrament of the Supper has been lately administered and the Commons are already much recovered from their blindness and bigotry, and some of the gentlemen.
[The Long Island][266]
In all this tract of ground there are no Papists but what I have named. I know the country minutely, and ministers are tolerably well accommodated in Stipend, Manse, and Glebe. I will speak of the number of men Seaforth can raise when I come to the east side of the country where his seat stands.
Opposite to the coast I have been describing is the Long Island. That part of it to the North, called Lewis, belongs to the Seaforth Family. It was formerly the property of McLeod of Lewis, now extinct.[267] The People here are Protestants and do not dislike the present Clergy; there were two new erections made here, Anno 1726, before the estate of Seaforth was sold by the Government; so that this country is in a tolerable state of reformation.
The next district of the Long Island is called Harris. The people Protestants: it belongs to the Laird of McLeod. The next portion southward is called North Uist. The people Protestants; Sir Alexander [Macdonald] of Slate, Proprietor, South Uist belongs to McDonald of Moidart, or the Captain of Clanranald, as they call him. The present Clanranald lived here: he and his People are Papists, as is McNeil of Barra,[268] and his People. In the Uists and Barra are one or two new erections of late; but by the influence of the Gentry, the diligence and insolence of the Priests, and the bigotry of the people, the ministers had little success till now. Old Clanranald was not in arms in the late Rebellion nor could many of his people in Uist get over to the Continent, for the ships of war that cruised upon the coast.
[The Macdonalds]
As I have mentioned two families of the McDonalds, I will say something of them in general. They would be a great Clan and next to the Campbells in strength and number, if united under one head: but the several families of them, viz.: Clanranald, the Slate family, the Glengarry family, the Keppoch family, and even the Glencoe family, all pretend to be the lineal heir of McDonald of the Isles, Earl of Ross, who was forfeited in the time of James the Second, for joining with the Duglases and others in the Great Rebellion that then happened; and this division makes them less potent and formidable than otherwise they would be.[269] I once made an abstract of the several Rebellions and Insurrections of the McDonalds against the Kings of Scotland, and especially against the Stuart Family; by which it was very evident this people was seldom loyal to any King on the throne. If they could find no Pretender, they would find some pretence or other for war and plunder. But this paper I have lost.
[Skye]
The next Island to the South and East is Skye, the property of McDonald of Slate, McLeod and McInnin,[270] The people Protestants, the Commons and most of the Gentry better disposed than those in Seaforth’s country, on the opposite continent. Here is a new erection or two made Anno 1726. Egg, Rum, Muick and Canney, etc., are little Isles adjacent to Sky; the inhabitants Popish. But about 30 years ago, McLean of Coll is said to have converted a pragmatical, forward fellow, who misled the rest, by insulting him in their presence, and on this the inhabitants of that Island became Protestants.[271] These Isles were erected into a Parish in Anno 1726.[272]