I've been fortunate to find online, through the research and information posted by others, the details of many of our forebears. This has been gathered over time, so I may not have saved the links to all sites I used, and I may not be able to credit everyone whose information I have used or checked against my own details. Several sites have obviously re-used the same information, and in many cases, I have no verification of its accuracy. Regardless, it's all interesting stuff, and most of my information here just adds context to the names, dates and places others have already discovered. As always, if you are able to add any verification or further information to anything here, it will be greatly appreciated.
I am detouring back in time from our 1842 New Zealand McKenzie founding family of James Mann McKenzie and Anne McKenzie (born McLean) to their ancestors' times. Check out the chart below for some clarification. Our New Zealand founding ancestors, James and Anne are in yellow. As you can see, there is the most information on James's mother's side of the family. (Click on the image below to enlarge it.)
Note the two Macarthur connections on James's side of the family: his father's mother and his mother's grandmother were both Macarthurs. I wonder if they were related. Anne Macarthur was James McKenzie's grandmother on his father's side and Elspeth (aka Elspat) Macarthur was Elizabeth McKenzie's (born Mann)great-grandmother on his mother's side.
There seems to be a very strong Ardclach parish connection on several branches of the family. See below - arrow points to Ardclach - and I've included some historic information I've discovered about this area so we can get an idea of what life was like for our rellies. Other place names include Cawdor (see previous blogs), Andrain, Clunas and Drum of Clunas - all within about a three hour walk of each other and all within the parishes of Ardchlach and Cawdor.
The "Old Military Road" passes through or near many of the places our ancestors lived, and must have had an impact on their lives in some way - especially as bridges were built as part of the road-building process. General George Wade was responsible for the road and bridge building to help move troops north to quell the Jacobite uprisings. Interestingly, the areas (further south) where Hadrian's Wall has the most gaps pretty well matches the area where the military road builders had the easiest job locating rocks . . .
I wonder if our rellies lived in the actual village/town of Cawdor, or were they in the outlying farm communities and Cawdor has been referenced as the nearest main centre or area, or the church where baptisms took place? Further research may clarify.
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| Arrow shows location of Ardclach in Scotland. |
Donald and Jannet McKenzie were James McKenzie's great-grand parents.
In 1768, August 10, Donald and Jannet McKenzie's son Duncan McKenzie (henceforth known as Duncan the first - Duncan I), labourer, married Anne Macarthur at Cawdor Parish Church. Anne was born at Ardclach, Nairnshire. Duncan I was born about 1742 - incidentally, about the same year that the last-known wolf in Scotland was shot. . .
Duncan I and Anne McKenzie (born Macarthur) are James McKenzie's grandparents.
Duncan and Anne had 5 known children between 1769 and 1787. Known details (from the baptismal records of their children) suggest that Duncan I, Anne and family lived in Andrain, Cawdor, for at least 20 years. Their known children were: Duncan II, baptised April 1769; Peter, baptised 1773; Jean, baptised 1775; James, baptised 1780; and John, baptised 1787.
Andrain was a one-storey thatched dwelling house with outhouses attached. It is also recorded as "a commodious farmsteading and dwelling house and also a number of cot houses, the property of the Earl of Cawdor." Records from 1869 - well after Duncan and Anne's time - indicate that the buildings were in a middling state of repair. Andrain had formerly been a separate farm, but by 1869, it was included in that of Clunas. Clunas, also known as Mains of Clunas, was - in 1869 - (after our ancestors' time) a large, slate-roofed farm house, two storeys high, with numerous thatched offices attached. It was still in good repair and was formerly the seat of one of the Cawdor family. The Earl of Cawdor was the proprietor. By the time of the next survey (1871-1876), Mains of Clunas is recorded as being a farmstead comprising two unroofed buildings, one of which is a long building, two roofed buildings and an enclosure, but these were gone by 1878. The 1871-76 map showed a lime kiln, but in a 1990s survery, there was no sign of any lime kiln left. It was assumed that the lime kiln was associated with the Andrain farmsteading. Our McKenzies were definitely at the Andrain homesteading from 1769 until the late 1780s and possibly even longer, so they could well have been associated with working at the lime kiln. Although there is no record of McKenzies living at Mains of Clunas, James and Anne (born McLean) McKenzie were definitely at the very nearby Drum of Clunas farmstead of which nothing remains today. Drum/druim means ridge, and Mains means the main farm (but not the manor) and is derived from the French demesne.
Duncan McKenzie II married Elizabeth Mann at Cawdor 17 February 1801 and had 3 known surviving children:
- Duncan McKenzie III, born 27 November 1801 at Achindown, Cawdor
- James Mann McKenzie, born 14 December 1803 at Cawdor, baptised 7 January 1804 at Cawdor.
- Hugh Rose McKenzie, born 10 November 1808 at Andrain
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| The bridge at Achindown Des Colhoun via Wikimedia Commons |
Duncan II and Elizabeth McKenzie (born Mann) are the parents of James McKenzie.
See the map below for an idea of the locations of some of the places mentioned above or in future.
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| The road to Mains of Clunas by Des Colhoun |
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Parish church at Ardclach 
Ardclarch Church from a different angle.
The church was remodelled after the time of our ancestors, and the building has not been used as a church since 1958. It is classified as being in poor condition with a moderate risk level.
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| Ardclach |
Ardclach Church on Google Earth Check out its street view.
Information from the Statistical Accounts of Scotland 1791-99 and from "A Survey of the Province of Moray" in 1798.
Ardclarch means stony high ground. It was a parish south east of the town of Nairn and divided by the Findhorn River - impassable except at the Dulsie bridge. There were about three boats which ferried people across the river, but this was a highly dangerous manoeuvre and numerous people lost their lives. The area was hilly and mountainous, covered with heath and woods.
The area produced grain, and there were poor yields in 1882-83, but "none perished from want". Other crops were black and white oats, Scotch bear, rye and potatoes. The soil was stoney and shallow and crops were exposed to frost. It was thought that lime could improve the quality of the soil, but the tenants were generally too poor to afford it. Farming methods had remained unchanged for centuries, and farmers used small Scotch ploughs drawn by horses and "black cattle". The tenants were dependant on black cattle and and a little land was considered improvable for corn. Having no leases, the tenants "feel no permanent nor steady interest in the soil." Rents had been increased in several parts of the parish.
Other industries were plaid making - supposed to be the best in the country - and a coarse tartan. Growing flax had been unsuccessfully attempted.
There were five licensed distilleries, supplied with barley and malt from the low country. It seems that the abundance of distilleries had no significant negative impact on the morals of the locals; in fact, it seems that they actually helped keep "smuggling" in check and the people had become more noticeably sober than usual. The nearest inn was at Dulcey (Dulsie) Bridge (and, one wonders, did its proximity to the river contribute to the number of drownings?)
The wages of domestic menservants was 5-6 pounds a year, and for women servants, 1pound 16 shillings - 2 pounds a year. Day labourers received 8 pence a day plus victuals, which was a recent rise from 6 pence a day.
The air was healthy and many lived past 70 years; some lived past 80 and 100 was not unknown. The population was about 1186, and many had emigrated from the parish to the American colonies shortly before the American War of independence.) there were no uninhabited houses.
Saint Anthony's Fire (erysipelas) was a disease peculiar to the area, with small pox frequently proving fatal. Inoculation was expensive and it was thought that the people would be more willing to accept it if it were paid for them.
The church was believed to have been built in 1626 and rebuilt in the mid-1700s. All the parishioners (1186 souls) were members of the national Church.
With 35 on the poor roll - and more who could be considered - there was no funding for them except weekly collections which totalled 3-4 pounds annually.
The "Society for Christian Knowledge" supported one school of about 40 students and a parochial school also had about 40 scholars - both schools seemed to be open only in winter, or that was when attendance was at its greatest. The Society also contributed towards a spinning school under the patronage of Miss Brodie of Lethan.
Most Highland families lived in small townships, in a collective or joint tenancy farm - with maybe up to one hundred people or more who were often family or related. Buildings were often substantial and were made of clay and wattle, or thickly-cut turf - with or without rough sones - and wth roofs thatched with heath, broom, bracken, straw or rushes.
In April 1842, the Rev. Hugh MacBean, minister of the Parish of Ardclach, wrote this about his parish:
“The state of the parish as it at present exists, as compared with what it was, very much within the remembrance of persons living, is striking in the extreme. Till a period comparatively recent, the peasantry and small farmers, forming the body of the population of the district, were in a most miserable condition. They lived in hovels, the entrance to which was used promiscuously by themselves and their cattle, one end of the dwelling being possessed by the latter, and the other by themselves. The dung of the animals was cleaned out at long intervals, - the work being performed by means of a hand-barrow, such as is used by masons, and requiring two able-bodied men to accomplish it. The midden or dunghill was invariably in a large hollow, made for the purpose, at the very door. The dung was carried to the fields not in “coup-carts”, but in “kellachs” of basket or wicker work.
The horses were left unshod; and scarcely any use made of iron in their implements of husbandry, except for coulter and sock, and harrowtines, which last were not unfrequently made of wood, and for the iron sockets which pointed their dung-forks. To draw their ploughs they used four oxen or cows, and two horses; or sometimes, six or eight black cattle, without horses. In the long winter evenings, their only light was moss fir, split into small slips, -lamps being unknown, and a tallow candle so rare, as to be known only as “a - 240 - white candle”, in contradistinction to the “fir candle”, which they ordinarily used.
This state of things no longer exists. The people, though many of them in poor circumstances, are, generally speaking, moderately comfortable, and many of them thriving, and rapidly acquiring both increase of knowledge, and the means of independence. They are becoming intelligent in their mode of farming, rearing better crops, doing more justice to the land, and very many of them inhabiting substantial and comfortable dwellings.
The causes which have contributed to this amelioration are various. The country has been opened up of late by the formation of roads; encouragement has been given to the tenantry, and even to the cottars; they have been taught, and have experienced, the benefits of liming their land, and maintaining a proper rotation of cropping, and the evils of the wretched system which they formerly pursued; farming societies are establish in the neighbouring town and villages, at whose competitions they are encouraged to attend; and premiums are given, partly by societies and partly by the landlords, to the tenants and farm-servants, for good ploughing, and to cottagers for the neatest and cleanest cottages.
With all this, a great deal remains to be done; but, improvement having been once commenced, and the people being fairly alive to several of the main causes of their improved conditions, the prospect for the future is sufficiently encouraging.”
Here's a link to a very interesting book about Ardclach called "The Natural History of a Highland Parish" by Robert Thomson and published in 1900. It gives the history of the area, many legends and other historical stories, details of locations, and much natural history of the area.
This is a link to the Ordnance Survey of Ardclach in 1870 - after the time of our emigrating ancestors, but still interesting information.
Where to find out more:- Auckland Library has The Parishes of Nairnshire pre-1855 burial records from old parish registers.
Research on historic sites
Information about sit of Andrain Bridge 2005
Information on Mains of Clunas 2005
Information on lime kiln at Mains of Clunas
Scotland's Places
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