08/08/2025
🥔'POTATO-GATE', INVERNESS 🏴
Sometimes I come across things in my research that really make me smile. Yesterday, looking for information on behalf of a client, I found a report in the Highland News in the 1880s involving a cottar, two carpenters and a shoemaker ; featuring accusations of slander, a court trial and - crucially - a quantity of missing potatoes! The cottar, William MacDonald, known as "Willie Bread" (_I wish I knew why_) accused the local shoemaker of slander. The shoemaker was purported to have said the following to one James Fraser, known as "Red Jamie" (_now where have I heard that name before_)....
'"Thusa Sheamais Ruaidh tha thu gle dheigheil, air storaidhean beag grinn. Theirig, agus innis do Bhil Bread gur es'ghoid am buntata bho's achadh aig Morile, agus faodaidh thus dhol agus innseadh dha gun d'thuirt mise sin ruit,"
- which being translated into the English is, and means -
"You red James you are very fond of nice little stories. Go and tell William Bread that he it is who stole the potatoes from the field of Morile, and you may go and tell him that I said that to you,"'
From what I can gather, Red Jamie was a key witness in the case against the Shoemaker. While Willie Bread, the pursuer. reportedly had "suffered much in his feelings, and loss and damage to his character to the extent sued for [£12]".
In his summing up, Sheriff Blair, concluded that "No person believed [the slander] and he thought that the damages might be small. He would find the defender liable to the pursuer in the sum of £1, with £1 5s of expenses.
Why did this make me smile? Reading this wee article, reading what the shoemaker is purported to have said provides a window to that scene 150 years ago at the Sheriff Court proceedings, held in Inverness Castle. I can almost hear those words being quoted back to the shoemaker, the colloquialism, the aliases/bynames, and that fact the newspaper provided the quote in Gaelic, while you get a wee insight into the characters of these men and their priorities.
The common sources of family research like baptism records and marriage certificates (_and so on_) are obviously fundamental. They provide the basic black and white of the family tree, but records like these really provide the colour. 🌈
