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Life in Glen Nochty

Whisky

The Ladder track from Glenlivet into Glen Nochty provided a difficult but secluded whisky route from Speyside into Donside en route to the South  

Extract from 'Noughty Glens'  by John Milne of Glenlivet (1826)     .......  So may their cattle sell and country thrive,  To be as happy men as as now alive,  And may they brew their whisky, two to five,      Among Noughty glens in the morning.    And if good hearted men do but pass by,  They are the lads will not deny  To give them a drink, if they be dry,      Among the Noughty glens in the morning.    But none need be dry, there are good springs,  The lark and linnet in it sings,  There's no Preventive in it reigns,      They fled from it in the morning.   ......    (reprinted in 1871 in  'Songs and Poems of John Milne of Glenlivet')
	Head of Glen Nochty from Ladder track in Ladder Hills
	Aldachuie behind trees mid-left, Tolduquhill mid-right

John Watson of Auchernach outlawed for deforcement

Men of Corgarf were more often apprehended for the crime of deforcement (forcefully preventing excise officials from discharging their duties) than the men of Glen Nochty.  But it seems from the following case that the men of Glen Nochty could be even more difficult to apprehend (extracted from the National Archives of Scotland High Court record JC 11/68 with their kind permission):

In Aberdeen on 22 April 1824, before Hon David Monypenny of Pitmilly, in what was then called the Itinerant Judiciary of the Northern Circuit [of the High Court], those present included the Sheriff Substitute of Aberdeenshire, the Sheriff Depute of Banffshire and the Sheriff Depute of Kincardineshire.  The record reads ‘John Watson now or lately residing at Haugh of Auchernach on Noughtyside in the parish of Strathdon & County of Aberdeen for the crime of assaulting obstructing and deforcing officers of the revenue [etc] and the same John Watson having failed to appear Lord Pitmilly decrees and adjudges the said John Watson to be an outlaw and fugitive from his majesty’s laws and ordains him to be put to the horn and his moveable goods and gear to be escheat and inbrought to his Majesty’s use for his contempt and disobedience in not appearing this day and place in the hour of cause [etc] as he was lawfully cited [etc] and failed to appear.’

As it happens we have a pen picture of this judge in Lord Cockburn’s memorials published in 1856, who described David Monypenny as being ‘of good sense, but of moderate ability with no legal learning beyond what an ordinary hand to mouth lawyer needs, and no power either of speaking or writing beyond that of clear statement, his judicial powers were very considerable, far beyond his powers as a counsel.’

 Lord Cockburn also lends colour to the proceedings in his description of circuit journeys:
‘The temptation of the inn frequently produced a total slippage of business, during which all concerned – judges and counsel, clerks, jurymen and provosts had a jolly dinner, after which they returned to the transportations and hangings.  I have seen this done often.  It was a common remark that the step of the evening procession was far less true to the music than that of the morning.’

Education

A 'Memoriall with Regaird to the Growth of popery in the parochin of Invernochty commonly called Strathdon' (National Archives of Scotland GD 124/9/95), apparently written in the 1750s, said that 24 years previously there were 'not above one or two persons Popish' within the parish but since the 'Late Unaturall Rebellion' and a few years before that there were no less than 25 families infected, of which 19 were in one Davoch of land called Corgarf.   This was attributed to the liberty popish priests had to travel, to the marriage of protestants with papists, to 'The Gross Ignorance that Generallie Prevailes among the Vulgar in those pairts, and Great Distance from their Pastors' and to popish schools, particularly one kept by Grigor Farquharson from Kirkmichael, who was much celebrated for his 'pretended skill' in teaching.

Suggested remedies were that the laws against papists be enforced (particularly against Grigor Farquharson), that a law be obtained against unequal marriages, and that the SPCK be advised to plant one of their schools 'in the said remote infected corner'.

Records of the SSPCK (the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge) include a Journal of Visits made in 1824 (National Archives of Scotland GD 95/9/3) which refers to schools at Tillyduke in Strathdon (20 present in May, in winter 58, Gaelic not taught, few Roman Catholics), at Clashmore (also in Strathdon, 10 miles up the Don, 3 scholars in May, 27 in winter, two other schools in winter - one ten and the other two miles distant) and at Ardler (also in Strathdon, 17 miles from Clashmore, 30 scholars in May, 36 in winter).

The Poor Law Commission in 1844 (in their Appendix 6) published evidence from the Minister of Strathdon, Robert Meiklejohn.  He reported that age at marriage in Strathdon averaged 33 for men and 27 for women.  In most cases of fornication the parties married, there were about four bastard children a year, and their desertion was almost unknown. Early marriage was less frequent than previously and parents generally could pay for their children's schooling.  25 children were taught gratis at the parochial school and 6 at other schools at a cost to the poor fund of 17s 10d.  In addition to the parish school there were 3 SPCK schools and 3 adventure schools during the winter.  Pupils were taught reading, writing, arithmetic and scripture and none were destitute of religious education.

Savings

As it was more usual for the tenants of Strathdon to owe arrears of rent to the lairds, it is interesting to see from the following letters that at least in 1789 two tenants in Glen Nochty had savings which they in effect banked with their landlord, the Earl of Fife.  But they felt obliged to express their unhappiness at the reduction from five per cent to four and a half in the interest the Earl intended to pay (letters transcribed from Duff House Papers MS 3175/1669 by kind permission of Lady Saltoun and Aberdeen University Historic Collections).

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