Francis Suther's Reaction to The Clearances in the Media

Description:The policy of removing tenants in the Highlands from their homes and ensuing accusations of persecution and violence caused a strong public reaction against the policy implemented by the Marquis of Stafford on the Sutherland estates. Articles appeared in the national press condemning the policy, reporting that the clearances had caused suffering and destitution amongst the Sutherlandshire tenants. The newspaper clipping featured above is a response written by Francis Suther, factor on the Sutherland Estate to what he calls the ‘malicious misrepresentations’ in the English and Scottish press regarding the Clearances.

Suther’s response states that tenants who had been removed had been given written notice of the intention to relocate them on new coastal lots to live on at Helmsdale or on the Dornoch Moors. Suther denies that people were burned in their houses if they refused to move, and states that provisions in the form of materials and money had been given to tenants to support their removal.

Suther concludes his response by recommending that people opposed to the policy ‘examine with his own eyes the superior comfort and industry of those who have been already settled upon the coast’. Reflecting James Loch’s doctrines of industry, Suther compares the new lives of the removed tenants with the ‘idle and irregular habits’ of tenants who remained among the mountains.