FROM THE ARCHIVES: Missing Clan Chisholm papers were found in the chimney breast of a house in Perthshire

One of our main tasks at the Highland Archive Centre is to catalogue collections that we receive. This can be a painstaking process, depending on the nature of the collection, writes archivist David Highet.

Cataloguing was recently completed of the re-discovered Clan Chisholm Writs and it is now finally possible to come and view them in our search room. This collection is actually an accrual to an existing one, and it has an intriguing backstory.

There was originally a large collection of these papers, an inventory of which was made by Clan Chisholm historian Jean Munro in 1992. After her inventory was compiled, a large number of the papers went missing, and were presumed destroyed. By chance in 2015 they were found tucked away behind the chimney breast of a house in Perthshire, and were acquired by the Highland Archive Centre.

The papers are of the Chiefs of Clan Chisholm who held land in Strathglass, Glen Affric and Glen Cannich, their main seat being at Comar.

The collection in its entirety consists of sasines, charters and other legal documents detailing the Chisholms’ many and varied transactions of land, inheritance etc. It dates from the 15th century onwards and largely consists of vellum and parchment manuscripts.

A number of wax seals can also be found attached to some documents including some with very distinctive teeth marks! One of the wax seals shows two sets of teeth marks. It is thought that two signatories would bite into the wax at the same time, to ‘seal the deal’, as it were.

A refresher in palaeography skills and a small measure of Scots and Latin was required to read the dates and put the documents into chronological order.

Many of the parchments are beautiful to look at, albeit practically illegible to the untrained eye. The script shown in the image on this page is unusually clear and the letters are well-formed for the time (1555). It is an excerpt from a ‘Dispensation’ by John, Archbishop of St Andrews to Alexander Chisholm and Agnes Fraser.

Now that the lost documents have finally been catalogued, readers can come and look at them in person. A handful have been deemed in need of conservation work due to their fragile condition, and as such, cannot yet be retrieved for the public to look at, but these make up but a fraction of the collection as a whole.

We also have two wax seals, one showing two sets of teeth marks. It is thought that two signatories would bite into the wax at the same time, to ‘seal the deal’, as it were. Now that the lost documents have finally been catalogued, our readers will have the chance to come and look at them in person.

Two of the images here show sections of manuscripts. The script in one is unusually clear and the letters are exceptionally well-formed for the time (1555), and it is a delight to look at. For readers unfamiliar with Latin, it is an excerpt of a ‘Dispensation by John, Archbishop of St Andrews to Alexander Chisholm and Agnes Fraser, his wife related in third and fourth degrees of consanguinity and fourth of affinity, with evidence that they already had children’.

The second example, although dated nearly 120 years later, (1673) and written in English, is not quite so easy to read, and indeed it is necessary to have some knowledge of palaeography to decipher it. It is an Instrument of Sasine in favour of Mr Roderick McKenzie of Kilmuir.

The third image is of two wax seals, one showing two sets of teeth marks. It is thought that two signatories would bite into the wax at the same time, to ‘seal the deal’, as it were. Now that the lost documents have finally been catalogued, our readers will have the chance to come and look at them in person.

There are a handful which have been deemed in need of conservation work due to their fragile condition, and as such, cannot yet be retrieved for the public to look at, but these make up but a fraction of the collection as a whole.

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