William MURRAY & Isabella MACKAY

William MURRAY
[26/8/1746-29/1/1827]
married
Isabella MACKAY
[c1753-24/5/1821]

William was born in 1746 at Sallach, (Sallachton) Golspie, son of a Donald Murray. Isabella is reputed to be the daughter of an Alexander Mackay.

Sallach or Sallachton, known as the muddy town, was in the area of Culmaily, Golspie. Around 1809 the Countess of Sutherland began the re-organisation of her estates. Kirkton, Culmaily and Drummuie were destined to become large modern farms. Prior to this the area had had numerous groups of small tenants who farmed such suitable parts of earth as they could find but the greater part of the area, including and in particular, Sallach, was marshy and badly in need of proper drainage. Young and Sellar, who the Countess had employed to action the modernisation, put forward plans for this area. To make their plans work they required to rid themselves of the many tenants, sub-tenants and cottars on the land. Colonel Sutherland held the wadset on part of Culmailie including the meal mill which was home to our Murray family. He did object but lost his land to the improvers. A census taken on the Culmaily area in 1810, at the beginning of the developments, showed a total of 253 persons had been cleared in 52 separate families. The 1810 Sutherland Militia List shows not one Murray at Sallach. Road contractors had moved in. Eventually the marsh land was drained and an embankment made at Loch Lundie to control the water. By 1813 families employed on the farm lived in stone-built cottages; the old black houses, one of which was the place of birth of William Murray, had been pulled down and the sooty turf used as manure.

What happened to all those families? We do know that William Murray, the miller at Sallach, together with brothers, sisters, and their families moved along Strathfleet to Kinnauld and Rhemusaig, on the edge of Rogart. They appear to have been fortunate to take over the milling there. They may also have been granted a free rent period for seven years. The wadset at Rhemsaig and Kinnauld was held for a time by Colonel Sutherland, the same man who had held the land at Culmaillie and Sallach. The mill at Rhemusaig was positioned between Kinnauld and Rhemusaig - a short distance of half a mile between the different croft houses. At that time both places came under Rogart parish but later were part of Dornoch parish before finally reverting to Rogart parish around 1891.

We do not yet know exactly when the Murrays and the Mackays moved to Kinnauld - some of the family, including William, seem to have gone down late in the eighteenth century before the improvements began. It is possible that one member of the family married into a family settled at Rhemusaig or Kinnauld and the others followed through the years. Rhemusaig and Kinnauld remained the home of this family for many, many years.

In 1841 and 1851 Catherine Murray, daughter of William's brother Robert, was shown living alone at Kinnauld and recorded as a pauper. The old Parish Register of Dornoch shows a death for Isable Mackay, an old woman, who died at Kinauld, on 24 May 1821. William died in 1827 at Rhemusaig.

William and Isabella had at least the following children:
DONALD MURRAY, born circa 1770 Golspie [married Margaret Mackay]
JAMES MURRAY, born 1786 [died 10 December 1869 Rhemusaig] [married Elspet Mackay]

William and Isabella are my four times great grandparents