Marriage of Christina and John

Neighbours for Years

Living in the neighbouring settlements of Badbea and Ausdale most of their early lives, Christina and John would have known each other well enough. 

Ouagbeg

As a young man John McLeod had been sent by James Horne to work as a shepherd at Ouagbeg. Ouagbeg lies at the top of the Langwell Strath below the hill of Morven on the Langwell estate. Langwell flocks were being grazed there – possibly established by Sir John Sinclair and taken over by James Horne when he became the owner of the Langwell Estate in 1816. 

The remains of Ouagbeg, now known as The Wag beneath Morven

His thoughts turned to Christina Sutherland at Badbea.

‘Och aye, it was bonnie. John McLeod rode his horse across country a long way tae court Christina. He was very keen. Those stories are not forgotten in the district an' within the McLeod family so many years later,’ Elizabeth, the curator of the nearby Laidhay Museum said to me one day. 

Marriage record of Christina and John

Marriage at Kildonan

1822 May 5th John McLeod Shepherd of Ouagbeg and Christian Sutherland of Badbea at Kildonan. 

• Note: Some documents use the name Christian while others use Christina. Such variations of names are common in old Scottish records. I will use Christina for simplicity.

A church marriage in Scotland, required marriage banns to be read in church in advance. John and Christina must have visited the Kildonan parish clergyman Alexander Sage to arrange for their marriage. They probably paid him about 3 pence. The proclamations of banns of marriage for John McLeod Shepherd of Uagbeg and Christian Sutherland of Badbea were made for the third time at the Kildonan church on Sunday May 5^th 1822. 

Strath of Kildonan with the kirk

Wedding Day

To get to his bride from Ouagbeg, John probably rode a horse, eight miles along the edge of the Langwell Water to Langwell House then south to Berriedale, passed the Grey Hen’s Well, before turning left on the Badbea track. Badbea is about fifteen miles from the Kildonan church.

Uagbeg, Ousdale, Achnacraig and Kildonan Kirk. John Thomson's Atlas of Scotland 1832

On the morning of the wedding John and Christina would have crossed the new Ousdale bridge, then walked five miles to the fishing village of Helmsdale and ten miles up the Kildonan Strath, to the Kildonan church. They needed two witnesses to the marriage to come with them. People from Badbea may have formed a procession leading the happy couple to the church.

The Ousdale bridge now disused.

The Kildonan Strath in 1822 was a sad and empty place. Kildonan was heavily populated before 1813 when violent mass evictions took place. A second major clearance occurred in 1819. The wedding party would have passed through the remains of many small villages, hamlets and passed sheep pens made from the ruins of recently cleared houses. 

At the church, two wedding services were traditionally held. The first service usually held just outside the doors of the church, where Rev Alexander Sage would have married the couple in Gaelic. Once the Scottish ceremony was finished, the minister would lead a procession into the church where the ceremony would be performed once more, only this time in Latin.

The pulpit and memorial stone of Alexander Sage at Kildonan

At the end of the ceremony was the exchanging of rings. In her photo, Christina is wearing a plain wedding band on her left hand. I do not know if they had any celebrations after the wedding but it was common practice to do so.

David Wilkie, The Penny Wedding, 1818

Ousdale

After they were married John and Christina went back to Ousdale for a year, living in an old longhouse near the route from Sutherland into Caithness. Their first daughter Kitty was born in Ousdale late in 1822. 

Christina Sutherland and John McLeod taken many years later.

 

The early years and backgrounds to the lives of Christina Sutherland and John McLeod can be read on my blog The Grey Hen’s Well. It was a time of severe hardship, evictions of tenants, emigration from Scotland and struggle for survival for those who stayed behind.

http://greyhenswell.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/christina-aka-christian-sutherland-1798.html

http://greyhenswell.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/mcleods.html