transport

[amcampbe]

My great grandfather James McKenzie was born in Liverpool in 1863. Both his parents were born in Latheron. I have some evidence that his parents joined his Uncle in Liverpool. My question is how would they have travelled there? would it have been train or boat? Any suggestions?

[Christina Baldwin]

If you look on the Caithness.org website you will find a useful article by George Watson called Roads and Tracks Through Local History. According to George, a mail coach started in 1819 to run between Inverness and Thurso via Wick. Later a Stage Coach ran regularly between Thurso and Inverness. Near the Well in Thurso the Thurso Heritage Society has a very nice picture of the loaded stage coach leaving Thurso with the comment that the service continued until the arrival of the railway in 1874 after which the days of the stage coach were numbered. In 1872 my great-grandfather took himself, wife and two young daughters from Thurso all the way to Bristol to live and went all the way by coach - almost certainly changing coach on the way. So stage coach is a suggestion but who knows how your ancestors travelled.
Regards Christina

[Bill Fernie]

Are you sure they went to Liverpool. In those days ships from Liverpool often travelled all the way north to Orkney picking up passengers before heading out over the Atlantic. It was faster and they could pick up supplies and water etc. It might be you are assuming that like steam ships they just left Liverpool and sailed across but sailing ships went the quickest way and under sail that was to the north first then across. So maybe they picked up a ship that left from Liverpool but joined it in Scotland. Hope you get more information. Do you know the name of the ship?

[sgmcgregor]

Hello,

I haven't yet checked the Statistical Account for Caithness (circa 1845), but have read a book by Captain John Henderson published in 1812. The book was titled "General View of the Agriculture of the County of Caithness...".

According to this book, transport from the rest of the UK to Thurso and Wick took place via the sea. Specific mentions are made for 1780 to 1800, and imports were received from Leith, Montrose, and Aberdeen (one of the products being flax). Once the flax was spun into yarn the refined product was transported back to the ports of origin. Caithness also harvested seaweed and exported to Leith and Newcastle.

Sloops of 40 to 70 tons used Thurso and Wick as ports and travelled to Leith, Newcastle, and London. They would export fish, kelp, oats, and most often passengers - therefore a lot of people travelled out of the county via the sea - presumably for employment opportunities elsewhere.

Imports from Leeds were cloth; Glasgow - cotton and linen; London and Leith - teas, sugars, snuff, and tobacco; Sheffield and Birmingham - various hardware.

I can look at the Caithness Statistical Account in the 1840s for other details if you would like - this at least would be more close to the time in history in which you are interested for your family.

I should say that a lot of "non-copyright" books (those I have used for the above information) can be downloaded for free from http://archive.org/index.php and this is where I have found a lot of historical books to help fill out some background story on older family members.

If I can be of any further help, please let me know.

Kind Regards,
Steven (Thurso)

[amcampbe]

I know they went to Liverpool because because my great grandfather was born there. I have a copy of his birth certificate showing this.

[susan.leith]

I also have relatives who left Caithness mid 1850's for Liverpool - a brother and sister James and Catherine Robertson, from Mid Clyth, Latheron. James died in Liverpool in 1858 (as reported in John O'Groat Journal) and Catherine married a local man and remained in Liverpool for the rest of her life. I had the bright idea that Catherine must have married a sailor, but it seems her husband was a painter, so much for that theory! Anyway, just to let OP know that there were other families making the same journey - and some journey it must have been