Donald Gillies 1816-1877

2nd son of 6

Most of this info from an Applecross historian-many thanks

Donald McGillis was born to Donald McGillis & Jean Camron on 4/9/1816 Applecross - SP not purchased, His father was known as ‘Biby’, a huge man

Donald and his brothers would have attended the school at Callakille, set up by the Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools just a few years before he was born. As adults, Donald and his brothers could read and write well.

https://applecrosshistory.wordpress.com/2020/04/02/captain-donald-gillies-merchant-cattle-dealer-poet/

gives a wondrous account of his life, just a little of which I have narrated below

Donald seems to have been an adventurous boy and one poaching escapade was to leave him with a permanent reminder of his youthful recklessness.

“At a very early stage of his life,” according to his obituary, “when poachers were not quite so rigorously looked after as at present, he had a great ambition to handle the gun. On one occasion he overloaded his musket to such an extent that on firing, it bursted with a tremendous explosion, and poor Donald was frightened almost out of his wits; but worse than that he lost one of his eyes, and was ever afterwards better known as Do’l Cam [one-eyed Donald].”

The pain and distress the young Donald experienced can only be imagined, at a period when there were no painkillers or antibiotics, and medical care in the area varied from extremely rudimentary to non-existent.

The family’s life would have revolved round the agricultural seasons. Donald’s father was a tenant, which means he rented land directly from the Mackenzie laird of Applecross, and he seems to have been relatively prosperous.

In 1845, we get a picture of the Biby and his five sons at work on their fields, through the rather condescending lens of a visitor to Callakille, who had his story published in the newspaper. It’s worth giving the whole piece:

“In the seed time of last Spring [1844], I happened to enter the farming town of Callekelle, where I had seen six men on a large field of good arable land, one of whom, I had been informed by a rustic was the father of the remaining five. His stature almost exceeded our mountain pines. His five sons, all as tall as himself would be taken for the express image of the father in mind and body. It was now 4 o’clock PM; all of them, almost dressed in their skin garments, were ready to grasp the crooked instrument they termed the caschroum, or Abel’s plough, to uncover the field of its verdure. They now, headed by the father, jumped and pranced at the instrument, until I thought the depths of the earth were turned upsides down. But what astonished me most was, seeing the poor fools tearing away their lives while two horses and a plough stood still by their side. I inquired what must be the reason of the horses being idle? The reply was, ‘Poh! Poh! You fool, we are not to be detained by horses; the season is greatly advanced, and consequently demands our speed; do not bother me, go about your business.’ I then left the gigantic ploughmen, and asked of a neighbouring friend the cause of these men being in such a backward state. He replied, ‘Niggardliness; they have four hundred pounds sterling in the proprietor’s hand.’ The father’s name is Bebbie More!”

It’s not clear when Donald first went to sea but like many Applecross men in the nineteenth century, he eventually travelled across to the east coast to join the commercial fishing fleets. The first record we have is in 1847, when he was 31. At that time, the government kept records of seamen (fishermen and merchant navy) in order to monitor a potential reserve of sailors for the Royal Navy. Donald appears in these records on 21 July 1847 in Aberdeen. They record that he first went to sea that year, 1847, as a fisherman. He was 6’ 1 ½“ tall with brown hair, blue eyes, a fair complexion and was blind in the right eye (presumably he was right-handed and had used his right eye to aim the over-charged weapon that caused its loss).

Not long after this, “by his industry and frugality, according to his obituary, he “became owner of a large fishing-smack which he called the ‘Ann and Hellen’.”  The Ann and Helen (sometimes recorded as Ann and Ellen) was a ‘sloop’, a small one-masted vessel that could be handled by a small crew or even single-handed.

“Many a trip Donald and his Ann and Hellen took to Portrush, Coleraine, Derry, Belfast &c, and brought home large cargoes of oatmeal, flour, cheese, butter, shoes and all sort of clothing, &c, which he vended in exchange for fish and potatoes among his numerous friends in the Western Isles and round the coast of Arisaig, Applecross, Gairloch, &c for many years.”

“Through hardships and ill-usage in prosecuting his calling, his health declined” when he was in his fifties, and he died at Milton on 17 Jan 1877, aged 60. According to his death certificate, his death was due to a stomach ulcer, after suffering with it for about four years.

“His death will be very much regretted not only by his own relations but by all who knew him”, said his obituary.

 

Died, (aged 60) in 1877