The Factor Evander Maciver
Factor in Mackay Country from 1845 to 1895
Sutherland Estates Factorship at Scourie.
Roads and Communications.
When the Duke of Sutherland bought the Reay Estates there were no roads in Mackay Country. Access to Durness was from Tongue and to Scourie from Skiag.
When the potato famine struck, committees of relief were formed in England and Scotland and a lot of money was subscribed to help the agricultural workers and crofters. The Duke of Sutherland would not accept any money from the committee but decided to create relief on his own.
Maciver said that he had a large amount of money given to him and had sole administration of the funds for the relief of the poor. The Destitution Committee of London had appointed a committee in Edinburgh to administer the relief in Scotland but sent a representative over all of Scotland to be better informed.
The Duke and Maciver met this representative and it was decided to build a road from Durness to Laxford to Lairg using local labour. In Maciver’s view it was very important local people work and not ‘fritter away their fund’. In Maciver’s view ‘it was good for the local people to learn how to work’. This road gave access from Durness, Kinlochbervie and Scourie to Lairg so the mail cart started running to these villages too.
In 1847 a steamer started to call at Ullapool and Loch Inver. Gradually the service was extended to include Badcall for Scourie, and Loch Inchard. The new road opened up the estate too and led to the shooting lodges at Lochmore and Stack being built. The one at Stack was for Lord Grosvenor the nephew and son-in-law of the Duke of Sutherland. Maciver was to become his factor too. Other roads were constructed and upwards of fifty miles of paths.
Maciver wrote:
‘all in consequence of the stimulus to improvements of communication created by the potato disease visitation, which though at first looked upon as a dire calamity, which brought in its train benefits which are now productive of profit and advantage not then foreseen’.
Evander Maciver’s Impact
He thought that crofting was not a sensible way of life. He wrote :
‘there is no duty I performed during my services as factor in Sutherland on which I look back with more satisfaction than the time, trouble, and care I expended in carrying out the transportation of so many families from the poor position of crofters in a wet climate and a poor soil for cultivation to the more fertile lands of Canada, Nova Scotia, and Australia.’
When he arrived in Mackay Country there was still a large population but few roads or communication with the outside world. It must have seemed very backward to him. He was given a free hand to run the estate and he undoubtedly thought he had done a good job of improving the area and the lives of the residents.
Unfortunately this took the form of recommending them for jobs elsewhere. One example is when the authorities in Shanghai asked him to send out young men to China to act as policemen. Several went but most could not stand the climate and went on to Australia. George Matheson from Scourie did remain. He had been a fisherman at home and rose to a high position in the police.
Many people called their sons Evander as a complement to The Factor - or was it to curry favour - who can tell? He could and did evict people and award houses and crofts to others. His ghost is said to haunt Scourie House. He disapproved of the Crofters Acts of 1886 and when the Royal Commission (Highlands and Islands) sat in 1893 Maciver gave evidence.
It is usually the victors who write the histories and certainly in Evander Maciver’s 'Memoirs of a Highland Gentleman' from which all this information has been obtained the proprietors and their servants version has been explained. The reports given to the Napier Commission by local representatives enable us to hear the voice of the crofter echoing through the years.