Here are some examples of documents from all across the Highlands. Clicking on the images will allow you to see them in more detail. The images supplied are for educational purposes so please don’t use them for other reasons or share them online – thank you!
Letterbooks
Letters can pop up in lots of different places, not just in their original format. Here we have a copy of a letter found in the Police Constable’s Letterbook. Letterbooks are, well, books of letters! They are copies of letters in kept in bound volumes and were used to keep a record of letters sent by people – in this case, the Police. They can be a bit hard to read because the pages are so thin, and when people write on the back and front of a page you can see it quite clearly through the paper!
In this letter, the Inspector in Fort William writes to the Chief Constable in Inverness to give him some news. Someone has driven a car to the top of Ben Nevis and back down again – thankfully without any accidents! The event drew crowds and lots of businesses were closed while a celebration welcomed the car back into Fort William. This was in 1911, and the same very dangerous feat would not be recommended today!
To read a transcript of the letter, click here.
Business Letters
Today we can contact businesses in many ways – email, phone, websites and even social media. In the past, however, the only way to contact a business was by visiting them or writing to them. If you couldn’t visit or wanted things delivered, requesting goods or services by letter was quite common and we find lots of these letters in business collections.
Here we’ve got some letters written to the West Highland Salmon Fisheries Co. requesting salmon be delivered to Dunvegan Castle. The other letters are to Kyle Pharmacy, asking for medicine (for a dog!) and to develop some photos.
To read a transcript of these letters, click here.
Family Letters
Family collections are a very common place to find letters. In the past it was was normal for families to send lots of letters between each other when they were apart. They usually give general news and are much like texts and phonecalls between families today. As you can see from some of the letters below though, some family letters can also be a bit unusual!
Here we have examples of letters from the Davidson family of West Watten Farm in Caithness, the Fraser Tytler family of Aldourie outside Inverness and the MacBean family of Tomatin.
John Henry Davidson was the son of George Davidson, the dispossessed minister of Latheron Parish church. In June 1849 Henry travelled to the Isle of Man for a new post as a customs official, where very shortly afterwards he received this peculiar letter. Henry did not accept ‘Adolescence’s’ offer and he remained on the Isle of Man until 1855. In the 1860’s He returned home to Caithness and worked the Family Farm in Buckies until his death.
To read a transcript of this letter, click here.
The second letter is written by John Henry Davidson’s son Colonel James John Cristian Davidson. James led the 1/5th Seaforth from the 7th of September 1914 to the 22nd of January 1916. During that time he wrote daily, sometimes more frequently to his wife Margret Davidson (nee Miller).
To read a transcript of this letter, click here.
Years after the war was over, the Davidson Family James, Margret and their daughters left Caithness for their new home in Cally, Perth. At Cally the family had many, cats and dogs which they adored. As the third letter shows, however, one of their pets seems to have been a bit more of a handful!
This letter is from William Fraser Tytler, to his wife, Hester in 1832. William and Hester lived at Aldourie Castle in Dores, but William wrote this letter while holding a court in Alvie Church. We love the description of the scene!
Read a transcript here.
Lastly, this letter is from Lachlan MacBean, who was from the Highlands but lived in Demerara in the West Indies at the time. Lachlan was writing to his brother, but obviously ran out of paper and layered the second page of his writing over the first! This is cross-hatching, and we have a few of these letters! You can read them if you concentrate hard enough, but it takes a long time!
Postcards
Postcards are another way people send news to each other. They are usually less formal than letters and also shorter. They also usually have nice pictures on the front! The first set of postcards show some family photos and outings. The second set are from World War One and are made out of silk. They are all very colourful and have lots of different designs.
