Alexander 'Millbank' Mackenzie brought to book by Scottish author fascinated by his life and times in Ross-shire
AN Edinburgh-based author's researches led him to write a biography of a fascinating Ross-shire character.
John Ballantyne had been looking into the Laidlaw family from Blackhouse in Selkirkshire – amongst them two sheep farmer brothers who moved to Ross-shire and another, William, a factor for Sir Walter Scott before moving up to the Seaforth estate – when he came across Alexander Mackenzie "and got interested in him".
This has led to a self-published a biography of Mackenzie, who lived between 1792 and 1865.
A descendant of the Mackenzies of Gairloch, he was in his younger days tenant of Millbank on the outskirts of Dingwall, a property that had previously been owned by the family. Consequently he was known for the rest of his life as 'Millbank'.
He trained as a lawyer in Edinburgh and became a friend of John Wilson, the “Christopher North” of Blackwood’s Magazine fame, and in 1816 accompanied him on a fishing trip to Wester Ross.
Millbank became involved in both sheep and arable farming in various parts of Ross-shire, and for a time acted as factor to Thomas Fraser of Lovat. He was also a champion of bagpipe music. By 1830 he had overstretched himself due to his various financial commitments and was declared bankrupt. Due to the complexity of his affairs it was many years before he obtained a discharge.
A change in career took place in 1846 when he was appointed County Clerk of Ross-shire following which he moved to Dingwall, and three years later he was elected a bailie on Dingwall Town Council. After being declared bankrupt for a second time he withdrew from public life and moved to Conon Bridge. In his final years he contributed a number of articles in the form of letters to the Invergordon Times, in which he reminisced about the old Highland way of life, and in particular against the evictions of the tenants on several west coast estates.
Millbank died in March 1865 and his obituary states: "He had, in rare measure, the spirit and sympathies of a genuine Highlander, and never did he scruple, by tongue or by pen, in high society or low, whether it was to incur favour or hatred, to express his mind or avoid his honest sentiments."
To find out more email johnballantyne2011@hotmail.co.uk
