A Chisholm Miscellany
What follows here is a miscellany of stories by and about these
Chisholms over the years. They are shown in chronological order of the
times and the events that they described.
- The Chisholm Origins
- A Land Dispute in Chisholm Country
- The Chisholms and the Macraes
- Culloden Laments
- John Chisholm and The Spanish Plot
- The Strassglass Clearances
- A Chisholm Exodus
- The Acquittal of the Factor Sellar
- Gledswood
- Robert Chisolm at Home in the Sea Islands
- The Travails of Henry Chisholm
- Caroline Chisholm - The Emigrant's Friend
- Judge Chisolm and the Klu Klux Clan in Mississippi
- A Crofter in Chisholm Country
- The Life of Brock Chisholm
- Chisholme Border Talk
- Aunt Sylie Remembers
- The Early Recordings of Angus Chisholm
- Chisholm Kiltmakers of Inverness
1200-1300's. The Chisholm Origins
The name is formed
from the
Norman “chese” which meant “to choose,” and “holm” which is a Saxon
word that
meant “meadow.”
According to one
account, the
kingdom of Gododdin was taken by the Northumbrian English in the 7th
century
and was then taken in turn by the Normans three hundred years later. The early Chisholms came across the North
Sea and the lands they claimed in Roxburghshire became a feudal barony. The name of Alexander de Cheschelme appears
on a charter from 1249, and the Ragman Roll of 1296, listing the
supporters of
England’s Edward I mentions Richard de Cheschelme and John de Cheshome. The seal used by the family shows a boar’s
head which represented the traditional story of two Chisholm brothers
who saved
a king from a wild boar.
1600’s. A Land Dispute in
Chisholm Country
According to
folklore legend, the
Chisholm tenants and those of Seaforth in Kintail had disagreed as to
the
proper boundary between the estates of their respective chiefs. The chiefs tended to look with disfavor upon
these disputes. But in the end they
agreed to be the arbiters.
Their decision was as
unique as
the result was tragic. A Kintail
dairymaid was to be sent from Caisteal Donnan and a Strathglass maid
from
Beinnvean. Where they met would
determine the boundary line.
Each set forth at the
appointed
time. In due course they confronted
each other west of Glen Affric, on a hillock between Loch-a-bheallaich
and
Altbeatha.
“You have come too far
towards
Kintail and I will go still farther towards Strathglass,”’ declared the
dairymaid from Seaforth.
The Chisholm maid
retorted that
if she dared to pass a step further it would be the worse for her. Heedless of the
warning, the
other advanced. Her adversary then
dealt her a fatal blow with her staff.
Thrusting the staff in the ground near the lifeless body, the
maid from
Strathglass marched back in triumph to Comar.
Where the staff was
found was
called Cnoc-a-Chuaille, or the “hillock of the bludgeon.” It was in this extraordinary way that the
boundary was settled.
1600's.
The
Chisholms and The Macraes
The Macraes had
for a
considerable period a stranglehold on the Chisholm lands.
Maurice Macrae was said to have loaned
substantial sums of money to the Chisholm and received in return
grazing land
in Glen Affric.
Maurice was said to
have met his
death through his own generosity.
Having met up with some Chisholms on the way home from a
business trip
to Inverness, Maurice took a drink with them at The Struy Inn. He never returned to Kintail and was later
found drowned in the River Glass.
The
Chisholms were strongly suspected of the
disposal of Maurice, but nothing could be proved. Soon
afterwards, a party of Macraes arrived in Strathglass to
take back Maurice's body. While passing
Clachan Comer with his body, they noticed the burial taking place of
one of the
prominent Chisholms. The Macraes
stepped into the sacred burial ground amidst the Chisholm funeral party
and
seized the gravestone that was about to be laid. It
was said that they did this in order to try to provoke a fight
so that they might then have the opportunity to avenge Maurice's murder.
Legend has it that the
challenge
was not accepted. The Macraes carried
the stone block away all the way back to Kintail and placed it on
Maurice's
grave.
1746.
Culloden
Laments
Hugh Chisholm
One of the followers
entrusted with the life of Bonnie Prince Charlie after Culloden was
Hugh (Macphail) Chisholm. He was said to have spurned a reward of
£30,000 for betraying his prince. The story goes that he would
never shake the hands of anyone after having bade goodbye to the
prince. His sword was, much later, presented ceremoniously to the
Chisholm.
A Widow's Lament
Most of the songs
of the 45 are
about men. But what about the women and children who suffered? William Chisholm fell at Culloden and his
distraught wife wrote a bitter song “Young Charles Stuart, it was your
cause
that destroyed me, you took away from me all that I had.”
The
song Cumha Do
dh'Uilleam Siosal (Lament for William Chisholm) is also known as Mo
Run
Geal Og (My fair young love) and is the most famous piece of
Chisholm music.
1797. John
Chisholm and The Spanish Plot
The Chisholms were
said to have
come to South Carolina from Drum in Scotland.
Ann Cutbirth, who had arrived there in 1738, remembered her two
young
nephews, John and Thomas Chisholm, in her will of 1762.
John
Chisholm ran a
tavern in
Knoxville, Tennessee and was employed by William Blount, the state
senator, for
Indian liaison work. In 1796, he sent the
following message to Blount:
“Dog
Warrior, the great chief of the whole Creek Nation, has decided to make
peace
with the Chickasaws and also for the first time to make peace with the
United
States. I intend to go to Washington to
see the Congress in session and to ‘confirm a peace that shall put a
final end
to the blood-shedding and stealing.’”
He showed up in
Philadelphia
(where Congress was in session) with Cherokee chiefs and warriors in
1797. But his real intent was different. He laid out plans there to Liston, the
British minister, for an invasion of Spain's Louisiana and Florida
possessions.
Uncertain what to do,
Liston
dispatched Chisholm secretly to London on a chartered brig to meet with
his
superior, Lord Grenville. When Chisholm
showed up there, he was told to drop the matter. But
he was given a large sum of money, treated courteously, and
advised to return to America. “This is
the last we know of Chisholm and no trace of him thereafter has been
found.”
John Chisholm was
between fifty-five
and sixty years of age when he had sailed for England.
He was described as a large man with red
hair, pugnacious by nature, and someone who cared little for who was
ruling as
long as he was in the action, preferably in a fight.
He could come to blows with friend and foe alike, as court
records showed.
In his
deposition at
the
impeachment proceedings for Blount (who had been implicated in the
plot), the
ship captain described Chisholm as follows:
"He
was a hardy, lusty, brawny, weather-beaten man. While
drinking some porter, he appeared sociable; said that he
was a back country man; that he had long lived among the Indians, and
was with
them during the last war; that he was well known to the Spaniards; that
his
name was Captain Chisholm; that he had been an interpreter to the
Indians last
winter in this city; that the 'Spaniards had frequently imprisoned him
and
treated him cruelly in Pensacola; that they dreaded him, and he hated
them, and
was now determined to take his full revenge on them.”
His son John married a
half-breed woman and removed himself to the West with the Cherokees
early in
his life.
1801-1809. The Strassglass
Clearances
In
1801, William, the 24th Chisholm, began the
clearances in Strathglass. In the
period of one year, half of the clan were evicted.
Many left for Canada and Nova Scotia.
After William's death,
his son
was still a minor; but his wife Elizabeth continued with the evictions
for one
sole purpose - to pay for her son's (the future 25th Chisholm)
education at
Cambridge.
Bishop Chisholm had
pleaded with
her to end the evictions:
"Oh! Madam, you would
really feel if you only heard the pangs and saw the
oozing tears by which I am surrounded in this once happy but now
devastated
valley of Strathglass, looking out all anxiously for a home without
forsaking
their dear valley; but it will not do, they must emigrate!"
She promised the
tenants, who
had gone to her for help, to come up with a solution.
But she never did. Two
sheep farmers, Thomas Gillespie and William MacKenzie, had convinced
her that
she should continue with the “improvements” to her land.
The evictions continued
with the
Cambridge educated son, Alexander. He
followed in his parents’ footsteps and totally depopulated Strathglass. It was said that only one Chisholm
remained. Bard and poet in the old Gael
tradition, Donald Chisholm, wrote these words:
"Our
chief is losing his kin! He prefers sheep in the glens, and his young
men away
in the camp of the army!"
A man of the time
described Alexander
as wanting nothing so much as to replace all his people, "his family
from
the beginning of time," with sheep. And, unfortunately, it was true.
1801-1803.
A
Chisholm Exodus
1801. In
1801, there emigrated from Strathglass to
America the North River family of Chisholms and MacIntoshes, together
with a
number of other families from the region.
They sailed from Fort William to Pictou in Nova Scotia on the Sarah. During the passage, some fifty persons died
of smallpox, the disease having been spread by a family called
Robertson.
The first Chisholm
families at
Long Point, Judique would appear to have been those of Colin, William,
Alexander, John and Alexander Ban. They too came to Pictou from
Strathglass in
1801. They crossed over to Long Point a
year later where they built grist and saw mills and, as soon as
possible,
established a school. Soon after,
Alexander Chisholm was killed by a falling tree. He
was the first person to be buried in the Long Point
graveyard. Over his remains was
mournfully sprinkled consecrated earth brought by the emigrants from
Strathglass.
1803.
In
June 1803, there emigrated from Strathglass Donald (Og)
and Donald (Mog) Chisholm and their families.
They set out from a point near Fort William on the Aurora
for Pictou. During the voyage, Margaret,
the eldest
daughter of Donald (Og), fell sick and died.
Her remains were kept until land had been reached and she was
then
buried in the old cemetery at Arisaig on the Gulf shore.
She was only nineteen years of age and had
been married for just five months.
Roderick,
a son of Donald (Og), was drowned in the breakers off the southern
shore in
1809. But another son, Donald (Og), who
lived until 1869, died at the ripe old age of eighty-four.
He compiled a record of all the Chisholms
who had emigrated to Nova Scotia during his time. His
book also included a collection of Gaelic songs, as well as
notes from sermons which had impressed him.
1816. The Acquittal of the
Factor Sellar
One
house belonging to a man called William
Chisholm was especially singled out.
Chisholm was a tinker, and probably a squatter, but this does
not
condone the act. In the house was the
mother of Chisholm's wife, a bed-ridden woman of over ninety. When Sellar was told that she was too ill to
be removed, he replied: “Damn her, the old witch; she has lived too
long. Let her burn!”'
The house
was set on fire and by the time she was
pulled out, the blankets she was covered with were also burning. She was set down in an adjoining shed, which
only with great trouble they were prevented from burning also. The old woman died within the week.
The news of this, and
other acts, began to ripple through the country. Sellar
was taken into custody and a trial
began on 23 April 1816. The jury consisted
of 15 men; eight were local landed proprietors, two merchants, two
tacksmen,
and one a lawyer. Most were magistrates
and Justices of the Peace. Sellar was
charged with culpable homicide.
When Lord Pitmilly came
to sum
up, he instructed the jury to bear in mind the character of the tinker,
Chisholm, versus the character of the accused.
The jury were quite clear what he meant and returned a verdict
of not
guilty in fifteen minutes.
Sellar's work as a
factor for Stafford would be remembered as Bliadhna an
Losgaidh, the year of the burnings.
1829. Gledswood
The Scots can be nostalgic, The name Gledswood is said to have come from a Scottish property on the Tweed river, just below Sir Walter Scott's favorite view of the river, to which James Chisholm was also partial.
James
Chisholm, an early settler in Australia, had
accumulated vast sheep-rearing lands in the Goulburn district, 200
kilometers
south of Sydney. He acquired the
Gledswood property in 1816. Convict
labor was used to build the Coach House, which was completed in 1829.
Gledswood
has historical significance for its
association with the early development of Australia’s wine industry.
James
Chisholm junior had planted a vineyard in 1830 and in 1847 vinedressers
from
Germany were imported to work it. The
convict-built cellar under the homestead was capable of holding 20,000
bottles
of wine.
The house
still stands as a prime example of early
colonial architecture. It is said to be
haunted by the ghost of Polly Chisholm who was found dead in a dam on
the
property in the 1890’s. She is still
“seen” in the dining room of Caves House.
1830's-1860's. Robert Chisolm
at Home in
the Sea Islands
Robert cultivated on Chisolm's Island. This island, at the head of St. Helena Sound, is bounded on one side by the Coosaw river and lies near the outfall of another river, the Combabee. In 1830 he set out an olive orchard on 1.3 acres. The trees survived the freeze of 1835 (although the orange trees were killed to the roots). Robert Chisolm made a success of the venture and shipped out olives up to the time of the Civil War. The trees were then cut down by Federal soldiers for fuel.
1830's-1860's.
The
Travails of Henry Chisholm
In 1730, according
to the family
story, a Chisholm walked all the way from Scotland to London and being
a great
fellow in size, all six foot four of him, was given a place in the
Royal
Household.
A grandson of his,
Henry
Chisholm, after working as a secretary in a country estate, became a
private
secretary to Lord Grenville. Lord
Grenville also used his 14 year old son to write out letters,
ministerial
documents, and verse in various languages.
After he retired, the two Chisholms, father and son, were made
senior
and junior clerks at the Exchequer.
Unfortunately
in 1829,
Henry
Chisholm allowed himself to be duped .by one of the most barefaced
Stock
Exchange swindles of the time. He fled
to Paris where he died in 1832 in the cholera epidemic.
In the grim years that followed, his son
Henry had to support his mother and three sisters on his junior clerk’s
salary.
Slowly,
very slowly, things improved. By the
1860’s, he received official
commendation, culminating in his being thanked by Parliament in 1868
for three
large volumes (affectionately known at the Board of Trade as "the
Chisholms") on a subject nearest to his heart -- after his heroic fight
against private penury and debt -- the National Debt.
Some years before his
retirement, he and his wife moved to Church Lane House in Haslemere and
he
commuted to his London office. The
house was a large one near the station, with six acres of garden and a
farm. Two of his children went on to
have notable careers; Hugh as editor of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica;
and Grace, with her husband William Young, as writers in mathematics.
1840's-1860's.
Caroline Chisholm: The Emigrant's Friend
Caroline Chisholm
died in
poverty and obscurity in England in 1877.
The inscription on her grave simply read: "The emigrant's
friend."
On her arrival in
Australia with
her husband in 1838, she had observed single girls being dumped on the
Sydney
wharves with nowhere to go. So Caroline
set up a Female Immigrants Home with the support of the clergy. She soon became concerned for those families
who, having migrated in the hope of better things, found themselves
destitute.
Caroline then returned
to
England and became a publicist for Australia.
She formed a society to send out groups of families to Australia
and
agitated for better conditions on the vessels carrying these immigrants. When she first chartered the ship Slains
Castle, she supervised the embarkation and appointed a reliable
surgeon to
control the rations. Two more ships
followed.
However, Caroline's
plans for
the new families did alarm the established farmers and squatters in
Australia
who felt threatened by her Catholic faith and the possibility of her
bringing
Irish Catholics to Australia.
1877.
Judge
Chisolm and the Klu Klux Clan in Mississippi
William Wallace
Chisolm had
testified against the Klu Klux Clan before a US District Court grand
jury in his
capacity as magistrate for Kemper County, Mississippi.
This had so enraged the clan that they were determined
to kill him as soon as a pretext could be found. Several
raids were made against him. Matters came
to a head when a clan leader was shot while riding back
to his home in DeKalb.
This newspaper account
in the Birmingham
Iron Age described what happened:
“On the
evening of April 26, John W. Gully was assassinated on a road near his
home. He had been in town and was
returning home about twilight, when, within half a mile of his house,
he was
shot by an assassin on the roadside.
On the Sunday morning,
a warrant was issued for the arrest of several parties
suspected of complicity, including Judge Chisolm. These
prisoners were conveyed to the jail for their safety.
Chisolm’s family went with him despite the
remonstrances of the officers.
A report
was circulating that an armed body of men were nearby to rescue Chisolm. So the crowd which had circulated outside
made a rush on the jail and forced an entrance. A
number of shots were fired.
Chisolm’s son Johnnie, a boy of 14 years of age, was killed and
his
daughter Cornelia received a severe wound in the wrist.
Then Mr. Chisolm himself was shot a number
of times. His body was taken to his home
where he died.
The
excited and infuriated people had seemed determined to avenge the
murder of
John Gully, a prominent figure in the county.”
A latter
view was that “this was one of those deeds
in which the perpetrators really overshot their mark. Even
those in political sympathy with them
could not but repudiate such brutality.”
1880's. A Crofter in
Chisholm Country
“Alexander
Chisholm who occupied the Culour
farm, did not, as a rule associate with his neighbors.
His apparent aloofness may have been due to
the fact that he was older than they.
But he could express himself fluently and eloquently in his
native
Gaelic, the only language that he knew.
At his own fireside, he was always at his best and never failed
to
entertain his visitors in song, story and romance.
He was a sober and industrious man, and no one could accuse him
of spending his means in foolish ways.”
At the time William
Macdonald was writing, Alexander was a
man in his late sixties, his wife, Margaret barely fifty, and their
three
teenage children were living with them.
His brother was about to emigrate to New Zealand to join his two
sons
there.
1896-1971. The Life of Brock Chisholm
Brock Chisholm
-- Doctor to the
World
traces the life of this Canadian over a full career of
medical and social, military and pacific, national and international
achievements.
It describes his growth
and
maturation, his bravery in World War I, his medical studies, general
practice
and interest in psychiatry until World War II, his distinguished
administrative
career and military ascension to the rank of Major General, and thence
to
higher civil service as Deputy Minister of Health.
These national
contributions
would have been remarkable for any man, yet Chisholm enriched and
expanded them
with his international service. It is
these overseas distinctions, initially at the United Nations and
subsequently
at the World Health Organization, that have constituted his undoubted
fame
worldwide.
However, he is perhaps
wrongly
remembered in Canada as "the man who killed Santa Claus."
This came from his comments in the 1940’s
that children should not be encouraged to believe in Santa Claus. The Canadian public was not amused.
1930's.
Chisholme
Border Talk
It
may seem a foreign language to the ear or eye, but with
some perseverance you can make a little headway. Matt Rodger recalled this border
way of talking from his childhood memories in the Borthwick valley
during the
1930’s.
“Tom
Scott o Mulsintoun’s wife wis Nannie Kirkpatrick o Chaipel Hill Ferm,
wheech
mairches wi the Chisholm Estate, on the waiter-shed atween it an
Branxholm
Hoose i the Ti’iot valley. Ay, Mr an
Mrs Scott hed twae bairns, Kathleen an Charles, whae ma sister an mei
gaed tae
the schuil wi.
Whan A
wur ae laddie up Borth’ick, oral tradition hed eet at ae day whan Watt
an his
men wur abreid, herrien ither focks cattle, thay kam upo ae stack o hey
an Watt
wis reputit tae hae sayed til the stack, ‘gin yow hed fowre legs, A
wuid dreive
yow awa an aa, alang wi thaim bease.’”
The English translation
would run
as follows:
“Tom Scott of
Mulsintown’s wife
was Nannie Kirkpatrick of Chapel Hill Farm, which borders the Chisholm
estate,
on the watershed between it and Branksome House in the Teviot valley. Yes, Mr. & Mrs. Scott had two children
Kathleen and Charles, with whom my sister and I went to the school."
When I was a lad up Borthwick, folklore had it that one day, when Wat and his men were abroad harrying other folks’ cattle, they came upon a stack of hay. Wat was reputed to have said to the stack: ‘when you had four legs, I would drive you away and all, along with them beasts.’”
1936.
Aunt Sylvie
Remembers
Sylvie
Chisolm, a
former slave on the Drayton Hall plantation in Charleston, was eighty
eight
years of age in 1936 when she was interviewed by the writers of the
Works
Progress Administration
Sitting
out in
the sunshine in the yard of a small cabin on a warm day in January, she
seemed
very old and feeble. Her answers to
questions were rather short and she appeared to be preoccupied.
"I'se
88 year old now an' can't remember
so much. An' I'se blind!
Blind in both eye!
I
been fifteen year old when de Yankee come -
fifteen de sixth of June. I saw 'em
burn down me Massa's home, an' everythin'.
I 'members dat. Ole man Joe Bostick was me Massa. . An' I knows
de
Missus an' de Massa used to work us.
Had de overseer to drive us!
Work us till de Yankees come!
When Yankee come dey had to run!
Dat how de buildin.'
I
was mindin' de overseer's chillun. Mr..
Beestinger was his name! An' his wife,
Miss Carrie! I been eight year old when
dey took me. Took me from me mother an'
father here on de
Pipe Creek place down to Black Swamp.
Went down forty-two mile to de overseer! I
never see my mother or my father anymore. Not
'til atter freedom! An' when I come back
den I been
married. But when I move back here, I
stay right on dis Pipe Creek place from den on. I
been right here all de time.
Atter
I work for Mr. Beestinger, I wait on Mr.
Blunt. You know Mr. Blunt, ain't you?
His place out dere now.
Mr.
Bostick was a good ole man. He been deaf. His chillun tend to his business - his sons. He was a preacher. His
father was ole man Ben Bostick. De Pipe
Creek Church was ole Missus Bostick's Mammy's
church. When de big church burn down by
de Yankees, dey give de place to de colored folks.
Stephen
Drayton was de first pastor de colored
folks had. Dey named de church, Canaan
Baptist Church. Start from a bush
arbor. De white folks church was paint
white, inside an' out. It was ceiled
inside. Dis church didn't have no
gallery for de colored folks. Didn't
make no graveyard at Pipe Creek! Bury
at Black Swamp! An' at
Lawtonville! De people leave dat church
an' go to Lawtonville to worship. Dey
been worshipping at Lawtonville ever since before I could wake up to
know. De Pipe Creek Church jos' stood
dere, wid no
service in it, 'til de Yankee burn it.
De church at Lawtonville been a fine church.
Didn't burn it! Use it
for a hospital durin' de war!”
Sylvie was
the daughter of Simon and Dione Drayton
and the sister of Stephen Drayton. She
had married Daniel Chisolm and they had ten children.
1978. The Early Recordings of
Angus Chisholm
This
album consists of all of the commercial
recordings made by Angus Chisholm, the finest exponent of traditional
Scottish
fiddling ever to record.
His playing is defined
by the
exciting perfection of his brisk, articulate phrasing, each note shaped
with
total control and exquisite tone, the product of bowing almost too good
to be
believed. And too, the feeling, the
rare eloquence of his music is without peer.
Angus Chisholm's playing is the standard by which all Cape
Breton
fiddling is measured.
Cape
Breton fiddle music was brought to Canada by Scottish immigants after
the
clearances. Although fiddling has
changed considerably since that time in Scotland, Cape Breton fiddle
still
preserves the traditional form.
2000. Chisholm's Kiltmakers of Inverness
The wearing of tartan had been forbidden by Government decree for four decades after the battle of Culloden in 1746, and it was only the romantic novels of Sir Walter Scott and their royal appropriation by both George IV and Victoria that saw it re-established in the 19th century.
Chisholms offers a
complete
service - both for purchase and hiring - not only to ensure you get the
right
tartan but also the full range of traditional accoutrements, the kilt
pin, the
sporran, belts, buckles, shirts and jackets as well as the ornamental,
but
still deadly, dirk (long dagger) and smaller, more exoctically named sgian
dubhs - pronounced "skeen doo" (a knife secured in its scabbard
in one's sock).