| Administrative History | Robert Dundas (1771 - 1851), 2nd Viscount Melville, statesman, was the eldest son of Henry, 1st Viscount Melville (1742-1811), and followed him in much of his career. He was educated in Edinburgh and entered politics, and was appointed Keeper of the Signet and President of the Board of Control for India. He was also Lord of the Admiralty, though rather more successfully than his father, holding the post from 1812 to 1827. Generally admired and successful, he could not avoid being compared with his famous father. He retired from public life in 1830 and died in 1851.
Hon. Mary E. F. Mackenzie of Seaforth (1783-1862) was the eldest surviving child of Francis Humberston-Mackenzie (1754-1815), created Lord Seaforth and Baron Mackenzie of Kintail, Ross in 1797, the title becoming extinct on his death in 1815. She married firstly in 1804 Vice Admiral Sir Samuel Hood (1762-1814) and secondly in 1817 James Alexander Stewart of Glasserton, who assumed the additional surname of Mackenzie.
Claud Russell was the legal agent of Ranald George Macdonald of Clanranald. |
| Custodial History | The papers appear from internal evidence to have been acquired together from different lots in the same catalogue issued by a second-hand bookseller. They were catalogued in Aberdeen University Library in September 1939 and may have been part of the collection of books and manuscripts bequeathed by J. M. Bulloch. |
| Source | They may have formed part of the collection bequeathed by J. M. Bulloch, (1867-1938), literary critic, in 1938. John Malcolm Bulloch was born in Aberdeen in 1867, the son of John Bulloch who edited 'Scottish Notes and Queries'. He contributed to 'Scottish Notes and Queries' from an early age, and graduated MA from Aberdeen in 1888. Active in student affairs, he was one of the originators of the Students’ Song Book in 1891 and worked on student magazines, thus paving the way for a career in journalism. Though he edited several illustrated papers, he eventually found his niche as a literary and theatrical critic in London, donating most of the books he reviewed to Aberdeen University Library. He also maintained his interest in the history of the North-East and produced scholarly works on the family of Gordon and the Territorial Army. He died in 1938, and his funeral took place in King’s College Chapel, Aberdeen. |
| Description | Papers relating to conditions in and administration of Invernessshire and the Western Islands of Scotland. These manuscripts appear to have been sent to Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville, when he was First Lord of the Admiralty, to enlist his support as a member of the Government and a Scottish family which had played such a prominent part in Scottish affairs.
MS 2023/1
Letter, dated 26 March 1817, from Claud Russell, Edinburgh to Rt. Hon. Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville. He encloses MS 2023/2, a copy of which was to be presented to the Lords of the Treasury by the Duke of Atholl, requesting Dundas' support for the measure proposed. As an agent for Clanronald, Russell also describes the conditions of tenants. Encloses MS 2015 in confirmation of facts given in memorial.
MS 2023/2
Copy of memorial, dated 1817, by Hon. Mary Lady Hood Mackenzie of Seaforth, Alexander Wentworth (Lord Macdonald), Ronald George Macdonald of Clanronald (M.P.), Alexander Norman Macleod of Harris, Colonel Alexander Macdonald of Boisdale, Roderick Macneill of Barra and Ronald Macdonald of Bornish: all proprietors of Hebrides or Long Island in counties of Inverness and Ross, to the Rt. Hon. Lords Commissioners of H.M. Treasury. Describes in detail conditions in Long Island in Inverness and Ross including islands of Lewis, Harris, North and South Uist, Benbecula and Barra. |