I sent a long posting to the Caithness List today but I am taking the liberty of sending part of it it to Sutherland as well, partly because it contains memories of Highland life which I would think would apply to Sutherland as well, and partly because it mentions surnames like SUTHERLAND and GUNN which I have seen a lot of on this list. It mainly concerns the HENDRY family - but the 'Aunt Christina' mentioned is my great grandmother's younger sister. I Sue Mackay A cousin was up in Caithness and was given a copy of a letter which was written in 1975 by a 92 year old woman who was born Williamina GUNN in March 1884. With crystal clear clarity she remembers her own childhood and recounts her mother's and grandmother's stories of life in Caithness in the second half of the 19th century. She remembers visiting 'Aunt Christina' (nee SINCLAIR, mentioned above) I quote a few extracts below as I think it will be of interest to most subscribers. It also gives a wealth of genealogical information, which I will not quote in full, but if anyone wants more info on the list at the start, let me know. The letter begins: William HENDRY married Margaret SUTHERLAND and they had 11 of a family; Alexander, Donald, William, John, George, Adam, Kirsty, Catherine, Margaret, Jean and Robertina. Alexander married Barbara SINCLAIR and had 6 of a family (listed) Donald married Christina SINCLAIR (no relation) and had 7 of a family (listed) William married Georgina McLEOD and had 8 of a family (listed) John was twice married, first to Elizabeth SUTHERLAND and they had a family of 7 daughters (listed) and by his second wife Margaret GUNN there were two daughters (named) George died in Latheron in his teens Adam married Elizabeth SINCLAIR (no relation to Barbara or Christina) and they had a family of 3 sons and 6 daughters (listed) Kirsty married Alexander COOPER and they had a family of 5 (listed) Catherine (my grandmother) was twice married, first to Murdo McKENZIE and they had a family of three, John, Angus and William. (William died in infancy). When they married they went to South Africa where her husband died and she returned to her parents in Latheron. For her second husband she married Robert GUNN (my grandfather) and they had 4 of a family, John Donald, Margaret (my mother) and Williamina, who died in infancy. Margaret married John OAG and they had 6 of a family (listed) Jean died a young woman at Bardnaclavan Robertina never married Now a little of their history and how they lived and worked in Caithness in the days of long ago which I was told by my grandmother when I was a young girl. I have always been interested in people and especially my relations so I listened to all her stories with great interest, some of them very sad, some very funny, and so on. To begin with she told me her grandfather came from Forfarshire (now Angus) where I live. He moved to Caithness and married a Caithness woman. I have found there are a great many HENDRYs round about here who spell the name the same. There had been a fairly large family of them too as grandmother used to speak about her uncles and aunts. On her mother's side she had no aunts and only one uncle. Their father William HENDRY had a small farm or croft in Latheron and was also a butcher. He had no shop; he just went round the countryside selling his meat. I don't know what transport he had or if there were vans in those days but he was bound to have a cover of some sort, although the word hygiene wasn't spoken of then. I doubt if anyone died of food poisoning although some do now. Caithness had very few industries - farming and fishing were the main ones. There were the flagstone quarries at Achscrabster in the parish of Thurso. Caithness at that time was famed for paving stones and blue slate (before concrete). When I went to Edinburgh in 1900 the only remaining street of Caithness pavement was in George Square. The HENDRY family were mostly employed in farming and fishing. In the herring season the men went to sea and the women went to gut and pack the herring into barrels. When the harvest came round they went to work there. There were no reapers, not to mention a binder. The men may have had scythes but the women had hooks, or hukes as granny called them, and she said it was very hard work. At the end of six weeks (the time they were engaged for) they were paid the sum if one pound each. No wonder Britain is suffering from inflation now. The food then was very different to what we get now. Granny said their family was a well nourished one brought up on wholesome food, as she termed it "porridge and brose, oatbreid, bere and barley-breid and fish, and there was of course the traditional dinner of tatties and herring" and I don't think they lacked for butcher meat in one form or another. The lassies and their mother had tea once a week, on the Sabbath day, and loaf which had no doubt been their cake in those days. I don't think I ever heard what the males got. In later years Donald, William and John had a boat of their own. I don't know if Adam was in with them as he was the baby of the family, but I know Sandy (Alexander) wasn't as he was already married and had a butcher's business in Wick, and also farmed Barnyards. After some years at sea they decided they would like to be back on dry land. Donald and William took the lease of a farm at Bardnaclavan (in the parish of Thurso) for their mother (who was a widow) and two sisters and Adam and my step uncles, the McKenzies, who had made their home with their grandparents. John emigrated to America. Donald and William also had a butcher's business in Thurso - sorry I can't give dates - the only clue I have was reading about 1961 or 1962 in the John o'Groats Journal old files of 100 years ago of a bad storm at sea when their boat was long overdue, but had been brought in safely by her skipper Donald HENDRY. From this I would think they had gone to Bardnaclavan in the early 1860s or not later than the mid 60s. My grandparents and their family came to live at Janetstown, Thurso early in 1870 and they had been at Bardnaclavan some time before that. [Several more pages of family history] We used to look forward to going to Achliepater for the peat cutting, but it wasn't really the peats we were interested in, it was the picnic, making a fire and boiling the kettle for the tea and getting out all the good things packed in the basket by Aunt Christina. Uncle Donald worked very hard all day keeping three or four of us going spreading out the peats to dry. On the ten mile journey back home at night in the cart we had a sing-song and some games such as 'The Minister's Cat'. Some of us would fall asleep on the way. When we got home there would be a roaring peat fire and a lovely supper of home cured ham and egg prepared by Aunt Christina.Then the Good Book was read and a prayer was said before going to bed, which was the custom in most homes in those days. Like the peats we young ones were not just so interested in the prayers, our thoughts being elsewhere, but we still would call it 'The End of a Perfect Day'. If anyone can link in to this family and would like the rest of the family information (7 pages of A4) please let me know privately. Meanwhile just to add some dates for you, below is the extract from the 1881 census with Donald and Christina (my great grandmother's younger sister), Margaret Hendry (nee SUTHERLAND) and two others mentioned in the letter. Sorry for the long posting! Sue Mackay Dwelling: Barncaclavan Census Place: Thurso, Caithness, Scotland Source: FHL Film 0203402 GRO Ref Volume 041 EnumDist 9 Page 9 Marr Age Sex Birthplace Donald HENRY M 44 M Latheron, Caithness, Scotland Rel: Head Occ: Farmer Christina HENRY M 30 F Thurso, Caithness, Scotland Rel: Wife Margret HENRY W 72 F Latheron, Caithness, Scotland Rel: Moth Robertina HENRY U 41 F Latheron, Caithness, Scotland Rel: Sis Occ: Serv Dom Donald SWANSON 14 M Wick, Caithness, Scotland Rel: Neph Occ: Scholar