SCT-ISLEOFMULL-L Archives

From: Kate Price <>
Subject: Letter to James Hunter
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 07:35:07 -0800 (PST)

I recently sent author James Hunter a letter,following
my second read of his book, A DANCE CALLED AMERICA.

For those that haven't read it, it's a wonderful
account of our Highland ancestors, the clearances and
what happened on the other side of the ocean once they
arrived.

I wanted to convey to him the impact his story had
on me and my new-found interest in history, and I also
took the opportunity to share with him my own
research endeavours.

And just in case his own research might offer me a
contact or two, I did ask him a couple of questions.

I'm posting his email response below to the List as
there may be information contained therein for your
interest.

For those that aren't aware, I'm researching the
McIntyre family of Mull and in particular, a McIntyre
sailor who lived out his life on a plantation
somewhere in the West Indies:


Thanks for your letter of 15 November which has been
forwarded to me by Mainstream. Thanks, too, for your
very kind words about A Dance Called America. It's
great for a writer to be told that his words have
actually connected with someone!

I can't, I'm afraid, help very directly with your
queries. But one of them is, in principle, capable of
resolution, I think.

The buying of the estate on Mull to which you refer
must have left some trace in the records. All property
transactions in Scotland are - and have long been -
entered in what's known as the Register of Sasines.
This is a compendious register in Edinburgh. It's
still used regularly here to check title on property.
And any sale of a Mull estate in the early nineteenth
century would have been recorded there. This, it
sticks in my mind, is the period when the Dukes of
Argyll were disposing of lands in Mull - and this sale
may have been one of those. In which case, there may
also be something about the sale in the Argyll estate
archives in Inveraray.

How you check this out from Canada, I'm not sure.
There are professional genealogical researchers in
Edinburgh, as I'm sure you know. But I've
no line on one, and I don't know how complicated a job
this would be. I suspect, however, to someone who knew
their way around the Register of Sasines, it wouldn't
be that big a task.

I've nothing to offer on the West Indies or on
McIntyres generally. However, I do know someone who's
a bit of an authority on the part of Mull your
McIntyre ancestors appear to have been linked with.
Her name is Mairi MacArthur. She's written a couple of
books aboutIona and she knows a good deal about the
Ross of Mull - the area your people came from.

I've spoken to Mairi on the phone tonight and, in
fact, she recognised the McIntyre family with whom
you're connected - this family being, in Mairi's
words, 'very well known'.

Mairi tells me that there is a very active historical
society in that part of Mull which has accumulated a
lot of information. She'll be happy to put you in
touch with this society. She offers to do this if you
contact her directly.

You might want to raise the estate purchase issue with
Mairi and with the history society in the Ross of
Mull. They may know which estate it was.

It would also be good if you copied to Mairi the
information contained in your letter to me.

As a follow-up to A Dance Called America, I tracked
the genealogy of a Native American family called
McDonald who are mentioned in A Dance. The story's
told in another book, Glencoe and the Indians (or, in
the US, Scottish Highlanders, Indian Peoples). So I
know something of the joys and frustrations of family
history.

All the best with your researches.

> Jim Hunter
>

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• Letter to James Hunter by Kate Price <>