Family History
Extract from Bain, G: A History of Nairnshire, Nairn Telegraph, 1893.
In 1893 George Bain, the editor of the Nairn "Telegraph" newspaper, published his A History of Nairnshire. Republished in 1923, both editions are now rare and expensive. As far as I could discover, there is only one copy in Australia, in the State Library of Western Australia. Daunted at the prospect of reading 600 pages in 10 days (the period of the inter-library loan) while confined to the National Library here in Canberra, I paid a laird's ransom and bought my own copy.
Although tatty and in need of re-binding, A History of Nairnshire has proved worth the cost: it is well written and packed with detailed information including inter alia, prehistoric finds in the district, the early Celtic (Pictish?) past, the Bishops and great monasteries of the Roman Catholic period, the turbulent times of the Norse and other raiders, the Reformation, Covenanters, Jacobite rebellions and more. However, from my personal point of view, the most interesting was the history of the (mostly) Anglo-Norman and residual Celtic noble families who commanded the region from the 13th Century or so onwards.
That is not to say that family historians seeking information about individuals of a certain surname will find their own ancestors mentioned here: this is a book about the Norman knights and other nobles who established themselves in the region in the Middle Ages and whose descendents multiplied to such a degree that by the time George Bain wrote his book, they made up a very large part of the local population. Of course, only eldest sons generally inherited the titles and lands of their noble ancestors: younger sons often inherited nothing but their surname and so their descendents became the ordinary people of the district ¾ the merchants of the town, fishermen, and the farmers and agricultural labourers.
In short, while I did not expect to find mention of any of my humble ancestors by name, I was able to read about the times in which they lived and to discover how my surname was brought to Nairnshire by the Norman knights known as the Lairds of Lochloy and Park, a cadet branch of the powerful Hays of Errol. Other, more important families given much space in this History are those of the Thanes of Cawdor, the Roses of Kilravock and the Brodies of Brodie, as well as lots of Grants, Macintoshes, Ross and others.
For my own use, I have been scanning and OCR-ing parts of Bain's History. As far as I know, there is no copyright restriction now, so I am also making some of the text available on my web-site so other may use it. The usually disclaimers apply: such are the vagaries of OCR and proof-reading that I cannot guarantee this is totally accurate rendition of Bain's work. Note that my copy is the 1893 edition - I do not know if there were alterations to the 1923 version.
BH 13/01/2008
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