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Tain & District Museum and Clan Ross CentreVol 3 Issue 3November 2016

Editor’s Letter

I am delighted that we have managed to produce three newsletters this year thanks to some great articles from our readers, including Chief David Ross of Ross and Balnagowan. This month we have contributions from two ladies from opposite ends of the world but linked by their love of their homeland.

Virginia Ross is a Ross of Little Tarrell, the fifth cadet line of the Balnagown Rosses. After learning that Euphemia de Ross was her 'aunt' by nineteen generations, she was inspired to research and write about her remarkable life. The Little Tarrell Rosses live mostly in New Zealand but Virginia is an architect living in Melbourne, Australia. The house of Little Tarrell still stands near Portmahomack.

Vivianne Reid is a local lady whose maternal grandfather, Murdo Ross and her uncle, John Ross, were the last millers at Aldie Mill, just outside Tain. She tells us what the Museum project “Valiant Hearts” means to her.

This is the last newsletter for 2016 but I hope the contributions this year have inspired you to think about interesting articles to share with our readership at home and across the world.

All of us here at Tain & District Museum and Clan Ross Centre would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a Good New Year.

Morag Ross Bremner

As the wife of one of the Tain Museum trustees, I should like to thank the team from the museum who researched and staged the Valiant Hearts exhibition in the summer, based on the names on the 1914 - 18 war memorial plaque

Dear Morag

in the Collegiate Church. Among the names is my great uncle, L/Cpl John Munro of the 7th Battalion C a m e r o n H i g h l a n d e r s , w h owas killed in action on the Somme, aged 22, on 17th August 1916. The exhibition gave me a focal point to honour his memory on the centenary of his death, whilst thinking of my cousin, Ronald Munro and his 17 year old son, Finlay, who live in Basildon and who travelled to the Somme to "plant" a poppy on the battlefield, where they know his remains probably still lie, in the shadow of the Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the S o m m e , w h i c h b e a r s h i s n a m e .

Vivianne Reid

Kind regards

L/Cpl John Munro Somme, Albert17th August 19187th Ba�alion Cameron Highlanders

Age: Final Regiment:

Number:Born:

Enlisted:Residence:

Medals:Medal Loca�on:

Memorial Burial:Reason of Death:

227th Cameron Highlanderss/18967TainGlasgowGlasgow1915 Star, BMW, VictoryUnknownThiepval memorialKilled in Ac�on

Lance Corporal John Munro was born in Tain to Finlay and Williamina Munro of Shandwick Street. John went to Glasgow to train as a butcher before he was called up.

John, and his brother Robert, joined the 7th Cameron Highlanders. Robert trained with the regiment in Tain in 1915, John had been on leave only 2 weeks before he was killed in ac�on.

He was 22 years old

The engagement that resulted in John’s death took a heavy toll on the Camerons: 5 officers killed, 9 wounded; 44 rank and file killed, 6 missing believed dead and 67 wounded.

The picture to the right shows the area thought to be the final resting place of L/Cpl John Munro.Theipval can be seen in the distance.

The picture to the le� shows Theipval Monument

Tain Through TimeTain & District Museum and Clan Ross CentreTower Street,Tain,IV19 1DYwww.tainmuseum.org.uk

E: info@tainmuseum.org.ukP: 01862894089

1370–71: The Best and Worst Years of Ross?Vol 3 Issue 3November 2016

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But where are the Rosses?’

Another book finished, and always the same question. Growing up in the south of New Zealand, I learnt my history through historical novels, gathering a good smattering of the British Raj, the kings and queens of England and the great Scottish stories.

Otago was a Scots-settled province — pipe bands, kilts and swirling batons were second nature — so it was exciting as a teen to learn that our family was related to Clan Ross. There were stories in the family of clan chiefs, earls, castles and mystery. But the greatest mystery was — where were the Rosses in those seminal stories of Scots history?

In fifth form English I got the brief part of 'Ross' in Shakespeare's Macbeth, but he was little more than a glorified messenger. It wasn't until I read Nigel Tranter's 'The Bruce' that I found us playing any sort of major role in Scottish political life — next to a giant of Scots history. At last. Hugh fourth earl of Ross (or the Gaelic Aodh as he was more likely known) was one of Robert the Bruce's close party.

It took another thirty-five years to work out that Robert the Bruce (probably Brus) was Aodh's brother-in-law, and uncle to Aodh's son William, the fifth and final Ross earl.King Robert the Bruce was family!But before that, he was our enemy.

You want your family to be heroic, or at least admirable. Most histories put a gallant glow on clan Ross. But as I dug deeper the full story became far more interesting, if less virtuous.

Robert the Bruce is a giant of Scots history but when he murdered Lord John Comyn 'the Red' before the altar of a Dumfries church in 1306 and then had himself crowned king, to many of his contemporaries he was a sacrilegious murderer and usurper. This is probably how William (Uilliam) third earl of Ross (Ros) saw him. William's mother was a Comyn, one of the most powerful magnate families in Scotland. The Comyns and Rosses were related to the Balliols. William of Ross was one of the 'auditors' for John Balliol in the Great Competition against the Bruces out of which Balliol won the Scots throne. Had the Bruce not murdered the Red Comyn there was as good a chance of a Comyn as Bruce on the throne after John Balliol failed as king.

Family and alliances were everything — survival depended on loyalty. We were Balliol and Comyn men. And that made Robert the Bruce our enemy.

Worse, at the time William 3rd earl of Ross was an officer of Edward I of England: his Warden of Scotia beyond the Spey. When the Bruce seized the throne Edward was so outraged at what he considered betrayal that he declared him traitor. What followed was barbarous.

As the Bruce fled from a string of defeats, he sent the women of his fledgling Court north for safety. But as they crossed Easter Ross William captured the Queen and sent the party to his lord, Edward of England. This act of — treason? loyalty? — arguably changed the course of Scots history. Bruce's Queen was held prisoner for eight years, depriving them of a son and heir until he was fifty. Edward treated the women with astonishing cruelty and executed the men viciously: but that's another story.

William opposed the Bruce, perhaps as Edward's Warden, but more probably because of his Balliol-Comyn allegiance. He raised an army of three thousand from Ross, Sutherland and Caithness. Bruce defeated his Scots opponents in a brilliant series of battles. After he dealt with

Virginia Ross

1370–71: The Best and Worst Years of Ross?Vol 3 Issue 3November 2016

the implacable Comyns he turned north and forced William of Ross to yield, near Dingwall in late 1308.

William pleaded to Edward for help. '… we heard of the coming of Sir Robert Bruce towards … Ross with a great power, so that we had no power against him. … May help come from you, our lord, if it please you, for in you, Sir is all our hope and trust.' (i)

Robert the Bruce had good reason to hate William earl of Ross. Yet he not only forgave William he married his sister Maud to William's son, Aodh. Having a wedding is so much less bloody than battles to secure allegiance. The Bruce showered Aodh with lands, titles and royal offices, making him the most important and wealthiest magnate in northern Scotland. Wealthy enough for Aodh to start building Balnagown Castle as the new seat for his earldom.

Aodh and Maud's son William became earl of Ross in 1333 when Aodh was cut down at the disastrous batt le of Halidon Hil l . Since Bannockburn the Bruce had forced the English to a reluctant peace but his death in 1329 unleashed the second half of the Scottish Wars of Independence. David was five when Robert died. Edward III took every advantage of the child king, determined to make Scotland his.

What we seldom hear about William 5th earl of Ross is that he inherited his title while banished from Scotland for reasons unknown. He sat out his exile in Norway and that's probably why he missed the most honourable combat in Ross warfare: Halidon Hill. Clan Ross fought a heroic rear-guard action, saving the retreating Scots. Aodh and his fighters died to a man, standing firm against English arrows falling so thick they were described as sleet. Aodh was killed by five arrows.

One of the nobles saved by Clan Ross that day was Robert Stewart, grandson of Robert the Bruce and heir to the throne. William's nephew.

We also seldom hear much of William' younger

sister, Euphemia. His half-sister, she and William were cousins of King David II. She married John Randolph, earl of Moray and David's closest confidant, and must have lived at the heart of Scottish life in David's Court as it travelled with him, perpetually criss-crossing central Scotland.

William's early exile was a sign of his form. His many battles against the English established his warrior reputation, but he repeatedly undermined the young king. He seized royal offices without permission, diverted royal revenues and church funds, favoured clansmen in his rulings, and murdered his rivals, including Chief Kenneth MacKenzie, his vassal. Throughout David's reign, repeated royal decrees tried to protect royal revenues, churches and abbeys from William's depredations.

In 1346 the young king raised an army to invade England. He owed mil i tary support his longstanding patron, Phillip of France. William was to command the third wing. But as the army assembled near Perth William murdered another vassal Chief, Ranald MacRuadridh of Gamoran, in the Elcho nunnery. Ross and his men fled royal fury, and the leaderless western clansmen headed home. Such an evil omen prompted the renowned war leader William Douglas to urge the king to abandon the attack. David pressed on and the army was crushed at Neville's Cross — the worst defeat in Scottish history (ii) . John Randolph and a long list of Scots leaders were killed. David and many others were captured.

Weak again, Scotland was warred upon by England until David's eventual release. William resumed his ruthless lordship during the long years of negotiation to free the king. After nearly ten years an eye-watering ransom was agreed. Again, William balked his king, refusing to pay his share. At the same time Euphemia married Robert Stewart, still heir to the childless King. Even her marr iage was another Ross pacification.

'Mandate to dispense Robert Stewart, steward of Scotland, and Euphemia, relict [widow] of John, earl of Moray, to intermarry, in order to put an end to the strife between Robert and William, earl of Ross, Euphemia's brother…' (iii)

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Tain & District Museum and Clan Ross CentreVol 3 Issue 3November 2016

David II died suddenly in 1371 and Robert Stewart and Euphemia de Ross unexpectedly became king and queen-designate. Euphemia became the highest-ever ranking member of the clan. Her coronation in 1371 was the last time a woman was individually crowned Queen-Consort of Scotland.

Which must make 1371 one of the best years ever for Clan Ross. Unfortunately, it was preceded by possibly the worst.

David must have despaired of his self-serving cousin, made powerful by his father but giving little sign of gratitude or loyalty. In 1370, just before his untimely death, David took his revenge on William by forcing him to entail his earldom and lordship of Skye to his daughter Euphemia instead of his brother Hugh of Rarichies (head of the Balnagown Rosses) inheriting. William died at Delny in 1372, his inheritance and the earldom effectively lost. The earldom passed via Euphemia to the Stewart family, then to the Lord of the Isles and was forfeited to the Crown just over a hundred years later for other bad behaviour.

Euphemia is credited with bonding the Scottish nobility into a web of marriages that made her husband Robert II (the first Stuart king) 'father of the Scottish aristocracy'. It is tempting to think that, traumatised by death, war and murder, she had every reason to encourage her husband to wield marriage as a tool of state.

In Euphemia clan Ross rose to its apogee, while her brother William took it from crest to nadir. Clan Ross is in the stories — if you look back far enough. In 1371 we peaked — spectacularly, but early — in the tumultuous forging of the Scottish nation.

(i) Calendar of Documents Rela�ng to Scotland, Vol iv, no. 1837, from Robert Bruce, G.W.S. Barrow, Edinburgh University Press, 1965.(ii) David II, M Penman, Tuckwell Press Ltd, 2004, p137.(iii) Papal Dispensa�on, 6 May, 1355 Avignon, Calendar of Papal Registers, Vol III, p574.

Tain & District Museum and Clan Ross Centre is a charity recognised in Scotland SC 017848

This tongue twister reminds me of a special piece in the Collection; a small pocket nutmeg grater made by Hugh Ross II or III ( 1740-1780), heart shaped with hinged lids top and bottom and fitted with a grater made of steel. It was designed to be carried in a gentleman's pocket as nutmeg was routinely used to flavour alcohol. The owner was displaying his wealth; the silver of the nutmeg grater and indeed the nutmeg itself.

The Dutch East India company had a monopoly on the import of nutmeg into Europe, and consequently it was a very expensive spice. In 1769, Pierre Poivre, an 18th century French horticulturalist smuggled some cloves and nutmeg out of the Banda islands, and soon after nutmeg trees were growing in Mauritius , Reunion and elsewhere.This allowed the British East India Trading Company to break the Dutch monopoly .

Nutmeg graters were produced from the late 17th century but become more common in the late 18th century as spices became more affordable. A mid 18th century grater was a real status symbol.

And Pierre Poivre? ...Peter Piper of course! The man who “picked a peck of pickled peppers” - the

S h e i l a M u n r o , Manager of Tain and District Museum and Clan Ross Centre, shares one of her favourite pieces in t h e T a i n S i l v e r Collection with us.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,Where's the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked

peppers having been “pickled” by the Dutch with quicklime to stop them germinating.

Check our website to see other artefacts from the collection. http://www.tainmuseum.org.uk/objects.asp

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