In 1836 famine swept the Highlands and Islands and the people were forced to claim Poor Relief. Only those with a certificate of destitution obtained from their parish minister were eligible for relief. The next year, when the crofters went to pay their rents, they were told they now had to pay for the food they had been given the previous year.

Despite these cruel tricks and deceptions by those who were supposed to be looking after them, the crofters never resorted to theft in order to maintain themselves. This was partly because of their unshakable Celtic sense of honour and right but also because they knew that being charged with theft was exactly the sort of excuse the landlords were looking for in order to justify evicting them. During a period of over 200 years there had only ever been three convictions on the Sutherland estate - and all of those were for excise offences.

During the years 1846-47 famine struck again when the potato crop was devastated by the potato blight (the cause of the infamous "Famine" in Ireland) and this brought even further hardship to the poor crofters. A meeting was held in Edinburgh with Sir Charles Trevelyan, the government minister in charge of famine relief in Ireland, to see what could be done for the Highlanders and Islanders who were also on the brink of starvation.

Present at the meeting were most of the large landlords of the day and representatives of the Church. The Rev Norman MacLeod suggested that nothing should be done by way of relief as the famine was "God's pleasure" and had been placed on the Highlanders "because of their sin." Fortunately his remarks were ignored and the landlords surprisingly pledged the huge sum of 300,000 pounds Sterling which was to be given to Trevelyan for famine relief.

He decreed that no relief should be given to anyone who was capable of manual labour and that one pound of meal should be given for every ten hours labour. Trevelyan then said that the landlords should disperse the money themselves, as they knew best who was in genuine need of help and who was not.

The statistics which then followed beggar belief- Lord MacDonald , for example, had pledged a mere 1,000 pounds Sterling but was paid back in excess of 3,000 ponds Sterling by the Treasury. The duke of Sutherland had pledged 2,000 pounds Sterling and the Treasury gave him back 6,000 pounds Sterling. He used this windfall to build himself a new hunting lodge in the North West of his estate. Not one penny went to his starving tenants. He did buy a large quantity of meal but all of it was used to feed his own dogs, pigs, poultry and cattle. When what was left became unfit for the animals to eat it was dumped in the sea while the people starved.

Eventually the public demanded an account of exactly how the pledged 300,000 pounds Sterling had been spent and it was discovered that 7,000 pounds Sterling was totally unaccounted for. It was also discovered that the captain and crew of the Royal Navy ship under Trevelyan's command had been paying themselves one pound ten shillings per day - huge sum of money at that time. NO records were found to show that any of the money had ever been used for direct relief to the starving.

In Ireland during the Famine the situation was exactly the same. When the Bishop of Cahel died, his personal estate was worth 400,000 pounds Sterling. Eleven other Catholic bishops left a total of 1,875,000 pounds sterling. Yet they insisted the starving people would have to leave Ireland on the coffin ships bound for America, as there was no money available for Poor Relief.

A charity called the Highland and Island Emigration Society was set up in Scotland which raised enough money to pay for more than 10,000 people to emigrate to Canada and 4,000 to Australia.

Written and published by the Highland Clearances Memorial Fund

Back to Highland Clearances Memorial Fund Series Main Page

Part One: Background
Part Two: Highland Portrait
Part Three: Bonnie Prince Charlie
Part Four: The Clearances
Part Five: The Improvements
Part Six: The Sutherland Estate
Part Seven: The People and the Church
Part Eight: US Slave-Owners
Part Nine: Queen Victoria and Red Deer
Part Ten: 1840-1880 Eyewitness Accounts
Part Eleven: Famine!
Part Twelve: Famine Immigration
Part Thirteen: Forced Eviction to the Cities
Part Fourteen: Changing Ways
Part Fifteen: Things Change Yet Remain The Same
Appendix A: Highland Clearances, Dates & Places
Appendix B: Bibliography