Cromarty History Society spotlight on Lovat Estates digital mapping project
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Dr Roland Spencer-Jones, formerly a Cromarty GP, returned to the Cromarty History Society to give a talk entitled “Map Making in the Scottish 18th century".
The talk was divided into three sections, the Lovat Estate maps, map-makers and the changes to maps over time and the practicalities of map-making.
The Lovat Estate gave Dr Jones access to the 395 maps that were in their possession. These had been produced over a considerable period of time and provided examples of the changes in the content and styles of map-making over time. The Cromarty estate had been part of the Lovat estate but the maps of that estate were not among the 365. Dr Jones and other NOSAS members volunteered to digitise these maps and spent the whole of a summer doing it. The Lovat Estate kindly financed the project. These maps are now available on the National Library of Scotland website.
The second part of the talk covered the reasons why maps became more detailed, more accurate and became an essential tool in the running of estates.
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The politics and pressures of the Scottish Enlightenment converted some clan chiefs, previously benefactors, into absent landlords needing finance to support their lifestyles. Agriculture adopted methods that necessitated more complex buildings and farming systems. The confiscated estates of the losers at Culloden were governed by the 28 Commissioners of the Forfeited Estates 1755-84.
They needed information on the nature and dimensions of the land they looked after and eventually sold on to new owners. The military needed accurate information on the landscape, the roads, the passes and the populations in the highlands.
Two of the commissioners were surveyors, Peter May (1724-1795), who in Coigach mapped the estate, from a tent that he had to request from his employers, and William Roy (1725-1780). These early surveyors developed and passed on their skills to a newer generation as maps became essential documents for planning the future.
Dr Jones brought along several surveying tools, showed how they worked, and using a volunteer from the audience, demonstrated the use of a metal surveying chain.
A number of questions and discussions followed and a member of the audience revealed the location of Peter May’s Cromarty estate maps.
This was a very interesting and enjoyable talk that gave the audience an insight into the work that in the 18th century was required to produce accurate informative maps of our lands.
Next month, 19th Dec, 7.30 Victoria Hall Cromarty, Ross Couper is giving a talk entitled “A tale of Two Shopkeepers” that follows the lives of two related men, one a chemist who as a young man went sealing off Greenland, and his son in law. Both were keen sportsmen, both members of the Cromarty artillery volunteers and both served as provosts of Cromarty in a time of considerable changes.
