The Dunbars of Ackergill and Hempriggs: The story of a Caithness family based on the Dunbar family papers

The Dunbars of Ackergill and Hempriggs were one of the largest landowners in Caithness in the late 1600s, playing a major part in the history of the county. The family papers include personal letters and legal missives, revealing their involvement in selling Caithness grain, coping with the effects of the last Jacobite rising, handling disputes with their neighbors, arranging elections, dealing with debt, and recruiting a fencible regiment called the Caithness Legion during the Napoleonic wars.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 06 May 2022
Publisher: Whittles Publishing

The Dunbars of Ackergill and Hempriggs, who rose to prominence in the late 1600s as one of the largest landowners in Caithness, played a significant role in the county's history. Their extensive family papers, encompassing personal letters and legal missives, shed light on their various endeavors. Readers will delve into the Dunbars' involvement in selling Caithness grain in the Lowlands, their resilience in coping with the aftermath of the last Jacobite rising, their management of disputes with their neighbors, their orchestration of elections, their handling of debt, and much more, all within the 18th century alone.

During the Napoleonic wars, the Dunbars formed a fencible regiment known as the Caithness Legion, which saw action in Ireland. Simultaneously, the British Fisheries Society acquired land from the family and initiated the development of Pulteneytown as a prominent herring fishing port. This period witnessed an agricultural revolution that led to the enclosing of fields, disputes over common land, evictions, and the refurbishment of farms.

In the mid-19th century, when the family home at Ackergill Tower underwent a transformation by architect David Bryce, the Dunbars embraced the lifestyle of the Victorian country gentry while also pursuing careers in the Empire. The book presents an engaging, intriguing, and occasionally amusing account of the Dunbars' social and economic life over more than three hundred years, utilizing unique messages from the past that have never been made public before. It offers a fascinating insight into the lives of people in northern Scotland during centuries of change.

Weight: 626g
Dimension: 155 x 233 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781849954891