SCT-ISLAY-L Archives

From: "Tony Coxon" <>
Subject: [SCT-ISLAY] RE: Tigh Cargaman
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2002 10:10:35 -0000
In-Reply-To: <200211251414.gAPEELgK023580@lists2.rootsweb.com>

TIGH CARGAMAN / TAYCARGAMAN

A number of List members recognise the Tigh Cargaman or Taycargaman from
their genealogical researches, and have had relatives coming from
Tighcargaman (or one its its 18 variants!). In time I shall put this
information on the web-site (www.tighcargaman.com), together with
conjectures about its meaning, for it is surely a corruption of an original
Gaelic name) but here's some information to be going on with! (A list of
the variants follows; I'd like to know of others , and their source. There
is also a picture of the present Tigh Cargaman building on the website, and
more will go on it).

In my understanding, the main point is that Islay naming of "farms" were
actually more than mere "farms". So there's a difference between the actual
house "Tigh Cargaman" (or any of its variant spellings!) and the
"township"/area. The present house is dated 1840 and was the house built
for the Factor=Manager of the Port Ellen Distillery. We know the owners
since then (which include recently Lord Belhaven, the brewer, and Clement
Freud, relation of Sigmund, MP and Cookery writer!). In the grounds are 3
cottages, one "Rosalind"=Old Cottage is probably an original property (
about 250 years) and Stables Cottage is , as the name suggests, an adjunct
to the original dwelling. There are also a number of ruined crofts in the
vicinity which also probably also counted as being in Tigh Cargaman.


The system of land ownership in the late medieval period in Islay was
complicated, but by the 18th century the legal tenure tended to be the
tack -- a term complicated by the fact that it referred to BOTH the older
Clan system and those owing allegiance to the Chief, but also something much
more akin to the modern tenant-farmer. Professor Smout expresses it well:
A tack was a piece of a land (of which the tacksman was the tenant) in the
Highland clan society of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries...

‘Frequently they were close relatives (often brothers, cousins or younger
sons) of the chief, leasing a large block of land for several years or for
the duration of one or two lives, and acting as viceroy over this portion of
the estate, if necessary training and organising the clan peasants for war
and appearing with armed followers at his bidding. The tacksmen also paid
rent in money or kind to the chief and obtained a larger rent in money or
kind from the peasants, living on the difference between the two. Sometimes,
however, they farmed on their own account. It is not always clear how often
this was the case, since in some parts of the country (such as Kintyre) the
situation is confused by the fact that the expression ‘tacksman’ was also
used to denote any farming tenant who had been given a lease (a ‘tack’) for
a term of years, rather than to describe a viceroy or kinsman who had a
purely passive role as middleman between the landlord and the man who
cultivated the ground. Normally there was no justification for the middleman
type of tenure except in a para-military society. It was destined to perish
in the later eighteenth century when law and order finally made it archaic.’
(T.C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830, London, 1969, 138)

... and not only nearby Kintyre, but Islay, too. So the "farms" of many
Islay records are just this, and this was what Tigh Cargaman (or any of its
18 variants!!) was. The main farm often had other crofts or properties close
to it -- the original Tigh Cargaman (somewhat higher up than the present
house) did also, and indeed Old Cottage was probably exactly that. There is
a Bruce Macmillan on the SCT-Islay list whose family also were associated
with Tigh Cargaman, and he knew his family occupied some property in the
Tigh Cargaman "farm". Hence the set of houses would be known as a
"township".

The present house is of later age. It was built on the same "farm" of Tigh
Cargaman (indeed a number of Port Ellen natives refer to our house still as
"Tigh Cargaman House") as a suitable dwelling for the Factor (manager) of
the Port Ellen Distillery!
Tìoraidh
Tony

VARIANT SPELLINGS:
TIGH CARGAMAN: variants & derivation

Derivation:
--Tigh corag am Fhionn: house of strife @ time of Fionn
(cited by Peggy Earl, Tales of Islay (nd)

On the outskirts of Port Ellen is TighCargaman, the very attractive
residence
occupied at present [sic] by Lord and Lady Belhaven. Long ago it was called
Rosalind Cottage.
TighCargaman was supposed to be a corruption of Tigh Corag (or comhrag) am
Fhionn
Of course {sic} the original TighCargaman was a site further upthe hill,
well behind the present house"
(p14)

OS MAP 1878
records the house as 'Tigh Cargaman' & the hill (cf Crois info.) as'Crois
Tigh Chargamain'
& the rocky outcrop SE of the house as Creag an Fhionn.
[Kildalton Parish Records 1790]
[22 variants]
Tacargaman 1794 Campbell
Taicaragaman
Taicarmagan
(Taicarmagan Merch)
Taicarmagin
Taicarmican
Taicarmigan
Taighcaragaman
(Tapcargan Wright)
Tarmigan
Taycargman
Taycarmagan
Taycarmagna
Taycarmigan
*Taycarmigain
Taycormagan 1749/51 map
Taycoruagan? 1848 map
TighCargaman1878 OS map
TighCarmogan
TighcarmoganeThe Day Book of Daniel Campbell and the missives and tacks
Tricarmican
Tycargaman
Tycarmagan
====================
__________________________________________________
Prof Tony Macmillan Coxon
Tigh Cargaman,
Port Ellen
Isle of Islay, Argyll PA42 7BX, Scotland
Tel: 01496 302345
email:
Mobile: 07801 443426
Home Site: http://www.tighcargaman.com






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• [SCT-ISLAY] RE: Tigh Cargaman by "Tony Coxon" <>