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North Highland Archive Index  

North Highland Archive NEWSLETTER No 13
January - March 2002

THRUMSTER ESTATE EXHIBITION
An exhibition of material on the estate of Thrumster, including Sarclet, was held 1 - 8 December in the archive. Thanks to Islay McLeod for the loan of farm accounts, personal letters, legal documents and her transcriptions of many of the records we did not have space to display. School records, valuation rolls and council records are always here for anyone that missed it. We are getting copies of the Crofters Commission maps which give the names of the tenants and show the boundaries.

EXHIBITION ON WATTEN PARISH
AND OLD HALL ESTATE

Following the interest shown in the Thrumster estate material, we are planning an exhibition on Watten parish and the farm of Old Hall (see new accessions for more details), Also on display will be items from collections such as that of local historian John Mowat who focussed particularly on Watten) school records, maps, local authority archives, parish registers and census returns. If anyone has any old photographs of land, people or buildings from this parish, we would be extremely grateful for any loans. It wil run 14 - 20 March inclusive.

SCOTTISH ARCHIVE NETWORK (SCAN)
The Scottish Archive Network is going to be putting a number of document photographs on their website. They hold iformation on all the archives in Scotland and will be posting more detail on us shortly, possibly even helping to produce a ‘micro-site’. Their address is www.scan.org

We wish all our customers a happy New Year. Recent visitors will be pleased to hear that Gail Inglis will now be stayinguntil the end of February, working every day Wednesday.

New Accessions
Davidson collection
We have recently received the first deposit of some accounts from Buckies, Thurso, and Old Hall, ‘ deposited by Hugh Davidson of Bermuda and Keiss. More material is expected next summer which is likely to include personal letters from family members. The Davidsons were major traders in skins, and large bills for hides were regularly received from Liverpool and London as well as numerous Scottish ports.

The documents deposited in October are already proving their worth for those with connections in this area, include lists of servants and bills from local traders or other local farmers selling or renting their stock .

Also included are yearly printed reports from the Trustees of the Caithness and Sutherland Railway.

John Horne and family
Ronald Thomson of Edinburgh has recently deposited a letter to him from one of John Horne’s daughter and a postcard written by Horne himself. 

Henry Henderson ‘Bard of Reay’
We expect to have the diaries of Henry Henderson some time next year, on deposit with permission by the family, who now live in Canada. These are extensive in themselves and also include a number of newspaper cuttings and original letters from friends, relatives and numerous well-known individuals. For the time being, John Humpbries (who has them in his safekeeping at his home in Thurso) has deposited a lively article of his own on the Bard, which sits well with the small amount of letters and other material we ~‘ hold on this famous local poet.