Notes |
- Ranald.
He passed Advocate in 1798, and afterwards became Sheriff of Stirlingshire. He succeeded his father in Ulva, and other lauds, in Mull, in 1800. In 1812 the rental of his estate from kelp and other sources amounted to £3600. He was a model landlord, and highly popular among Highlanders. He was a member of several Highland societies. He took great interest in the poetry and lore of the Highlands, and collected Ossianic jjoems and tales in 1801-3, which are preserved in the Advocate's Library.
He represented the Presbytery of Mull for many years in the General Assembly, and was Colonel of the Long Island Regiment of Militia, which assembled at Benbecula.
His intimacy with Sir Walter Scott, who visited him at Ulva in 1810, is well known. Referring to that visit, Scott says : — " The proprietor of the isle, Macdonald of Statfa, a fine, high-spirited young chieftain, was our pilot and guide through the Hebrides. He is much loved by his people, whose prosperity he studies much. ... In the Isle of Ulva, where he has his house, we were treated with something like feudal splendour. His people received us under arms, and with a discharge of musketry and artillery. His piper was a constant attendant on our parties, and wakened us in the morning with his music." Scott pays a warm tribute to Staffa's character as a landlord in his article on Sir John Carr's Caledonian Sketches, and in the spirited verses written at his house in Ulva during his visit to the "king of all kind fellows."
Ranald married, in 1812, Isabella, only child and heiress of Henry Stewart of Allanton, afterwards created a baronet.
|