Since its foundation in 1709, the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, the evangelical charitable incorporation known as the SSPCK, had been paying the salaries of schoolteachers scattered throughout the Gàidhealtachd. However, it was not until the late 1720s that the scheme really took off, with a massive increase in the number of schools financed by that body. This expansion was to a great degree enabled by the new Committee for the Reformation of the Highlands which, under the auspices of the Church of Scotland, distributed an annual grant from the civil list of one thousand pounds known as the Royal Bounty, money which would pay for itinerant ministers and catechists in the many parishes, above all in Roman Catholic areas of the Gàidhealtachd, which were too large and scattered to be supervised effectively by a single clergyman. Although the two bodies operated largely separately from one another for the first few years following the initial grant of the Royal Bounty in 1725, it was not long before they began an informal partnership by which many SSPCK schoolteachers also worked as Royal Bounty catechists. As we shall see later, this rather uneasy arrangement could lead to some potentially awkward situations.

This new religious and educational initiative was, of course, an "incorporative drive" designed to encourage Gaels to be loyal to the presbyterian church, to the government, and to the Hanoverian succession, by weaning them away from the ever-present dangers of Catholicism and jacobitism. Although primarily aimed at the younger generation, it was hoped that the lessons learnt would percolate upwards to parents, older siblings and neighbours. The project was also intended to enable a systematic exploitation of the commercial opportunities of the land they lived in. Gaels would thus become a useful and obedient subjects of the British state. The SSPCK, whose leading members had thought hard and lobbied long on this issue, had a clear, confident and, most importantly, politically enticing end in view:

As we shall see, the original Royal Bounty grant was more to do with preventing renewed jacobite activity and curbing resurgent Catholicism in the Gàidhealtachd. It was soon recognized, however, that the project would be most effective if it paid for community schoolteachers as well as for itinerant preachers and catechists. Once this step was taken, it was inevitable that the SSPCK, with its strong motivation, its zealously held beliefs, and some twenty years’ experience in the field, would become involved. The Society had definite teaching methods, and a specific vision behind them, a vision worked out through numerous memorials and petitions, in which Gaelic language and culture would be completely extirpated from the Gàidhealtachd. Instead of having to rely upon the donations of well-wishers and its own stock, the SSPCK could now employ state resources as well, and so its influence was extended much more widely than beforehand.

The Royal Bounty project could only be effective if preachers, catechists and teachers were closely supervised by local presbyteries. This was only possible because of the extraordinary transformation of the structure of the Church of Scotland in the Gàidhealtachd in the mid-1720s. This alteration, and indeed the lobbying which led to the granting of the Royal Bounty, were set in motion because both ministers and, no doubt, the politicians and gentry who as church elders accompanied so many of them to the General Assembly and served on church committees, had begun to take a much closer interest in Highland affairs. Far-reaching changes were taking place in government policy towards Scotland, and indeed in the way Scotland was governed. Recent jacobite scares had made the political establishment nervous about the apparently increasing numbers of Catholics in the Gàidhealtachd. I would like here to take a look at these momentous events.

Within three years, between 1724 and 1727, the framework of church government on the west coast of the Gàidhealtachd was altered out of all recognition. In the far north, a new presbytery of Tongue was carved out of the presbyteries of Caithness and Dornoch. Further to the south another new presbytery, Gairloch, was detached from that of Dingwall, while across the Minch to the west the Outer Hebrides, now separated from the Presbytery of Skye, was erected into the Presbytery of Long Island. In the heart of the Gàidhealtachd yet another two new presbyteries were created, disjoined from the sprawling Presbytery of Lorn: around Lochaber, the Presbytery of Abertarff; while, as well as the island itself, the new Presbytery of Mull took in the Rough Bounds, Coll and Tiree. With the exception of that of Mull, all these new presbyteries were placed under the pastoral care of the newly-created Synod of Glenelg. It was the biggest shakeup in church government for three generations.

The impulse for such changes appears to come primarily through the efforts of the Presbytery of Skye. Following the failures of the jacobite risings of 1715 and 1719, the exile of Uilleam Dubh Mackenzie, Lord Seaforth, the major jacobite landowner in the area, and the death of Sir Domhnall MacDonald of Sleat, the jacobite estates in their area were eventually forfeited and placed under official administration. The presbytery was thus presented with a great opportunity. Their greatest enemies had at last been worsted. Now that their estates were under government control, the chance offered itself for the presbytery to reclaim the teinds and stipends due to them, revenues which had usually been withheld by the previous episcopalian or Catholic landlords. These ecclesiastical dues could be used to set up new parishes, finance new ministers and build new churches. The very real possibility that the estates might soon be auctioned off to jacobite sympathisers, proxies for their erstwhile owners, added fresh impetus to the struggle to recover these dues. To accomplish such a task required energy, patience, skill, skilful lobbying of the central authorities, and sheer dogged perseverance.

The achievements of the Presbytery of Skye are as follows. On 19 December 1722 two new parishes were created on the Island of Lewis. In a meeting of the General Assembly on 19 May 1724 the new presbyteries of Long Island, Abertarff and Gairloch were created; these, with the original Presbytery of Skye, were to be overseen by the new Synod of Glenelg. Nearly two years later, on 16 February 1726, the plan was further refined when three new parishes were disjoined in Skye and the Small Isles.[2]

The ministers of the Presbytery of Skye were, however, not the only evangelical reformers in the Gàidhealtachd at this time. In north-west Sutherland Lord Reay had taken it upon himself to lobby on behalf of the minister of Durness and the impossible burden he had to bear in administering the huge parish. What was originally an appeal for collections from throughout the country turned into a more ambitious plan, eventually resulting in a general reorganisation of the church in the far north. Most of this scheme, with the new Presbytery of Tongue as its centrepiece, was authorized at a General Assembly meeting of 11 May 1726.[3] We should also note that other parts of the Gàidhealtachd and indeed the Northern Isles shared in such reorganisation: in 1725 new synods of Caithness and Orkney were created, while, in the eastern Gàidhealtachd, the Presbytery of Abernethy was refounded six years after its original dissolution. Meanwhile, on 12 May 1726, the Synod of Mull had taken unilateral action in creating a new Presbytery of Mull out of the western parishes of the Presbytery of Lorn, a step taken without the permission of the General Assembly, and only discovered, much to their disapproval, when the synod record book was examined two years later.[4]

The long-term effect of this transformation cannot be underestimated. From the fledgeling presbyteries, and the new Synod of Glenelg, the church could receive a constant flow of information about the state of religion on the west coast. It could thus direct and intensify its missionary efforts where they were most needed, and supervise the evangelization of the west coast and the islands much more closely. Local ministers, and indeed their congregations, could no longer expect to get away without regular inspection of their life and work. Above all, it was hoped that this new structure would allow the church to combat a seemingly resurgent and , successful Roman Catholic missionary effort, both through vigorous sermonizing and keeping a watchful eye on the priests and their helpers. But these changes did not take place in a vacuum; rather, they should be related to the far-reaching political changes then reshaping the government of Scotland and state policies towards the Gàidhealtachd.[5]

In the aftermath of the union of parliaments in 1707, power and patronage in Scottish politics were bitterly fought over by two groupings of whig politicians: on the one hand, the so-called Argathelians under the leadership of John Campbell, second duke of Argyll, and his brother Archibald, earl of Ilay; and on the other, the set of politicians nicknamed the Squadrone, under John Ker, first duke of Roxburgh. The Argathelians were in the ascendancy at the time of the 1715 jacobite rising, but the leniency Argyll, as commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland, showed towards the defeated jacobites, his reluctance to wreak vengeance upon them, proved to be the downfall of his interest. Such policies may have been popular in Scotland, but they allowed his political enemies in London to accuse him of cowardice and even of covertly favouring the Stuart cause. Although these charges were of course quite unjust, they had the desired effect: Argyll, after falling out with the king himself, was disgraced and, together with his brother, stripped of official posts. The Squadrone, meanwhile, had backed the punitive measures taken against the rebels by the English ministry, and so Roxburgh, with the favour of George I, became Secretary of State for Scotland.[6]

It was not long, however, before the tide began to turn against the Squadrone, primarily because of a contest for power between English whig ministers. At the same time as Argyll and Ilay had fallen, the earls of Stanhope and Sunderland had succeeded in winning the king’s favour and so ousting from power their rivals Robert Walpole and viscount Townshend. Their ascendancy, however, was to be but short-lived. The collapse of the South Sea Bubble, an ill-advised scheme to finance the National Debt, devastated public and private finances alike. With his government beset by accusations of corruption and mismanagement, Stanhope was under such strain that in February 1721 he died. He was replaced as Secretary of State by his rival Townshend. Two months later his colleague Sunderland was forced to resign from the Treasury, making way for Robert Walpole. Perhaps inevitably, in the wake of these major changes of government in London the structure, administration, personnel and policies of the Scottish political world would be transformed as well.[7]

English politicians had, of course, two main expectations of the Scots who managed the country for them. First of all, the people had to be tranquil and obedient. As they were well aware, there were still large sections of the population, especially north of the River Tay, who remained disaffected to the government, indeed to the very idea of Hanoverian rule from London. Indeed, it was not only the politicians in London who tended to overreact to the slightest rumour of jacobite activity in the north; many isolated clergymen and government employees in the north were still extremely nervous about continuing support for the Stuart monarchy, and indeed an apparent ongoing revival of Roman Catholicism, in certain areas of the Gàidhealtachd.

Secondly, all English politicians were agreed on one thing: that Scotland had to pay its way. Smuggling and corruption should to be stamped out, new taxes should be introduced, and government revenue collection should be made more efficient. Measures should be introduced to encourage the development of trades and the fishing industry. Scotland would thus no longer be a dead weight on the United Kingdom, a drain on resources, but rather a commercial partner, albeit a junior one, of her richer English neighbour. The best way of fulfilling this aim, it appeared, was to try to bring Scottish administration and patronage into a closer union with those of England.[8]

In order to govern Scotland more efficiently and to stimulate her economy, the long-term policy of Walpole and Townshend was to take the distribution of official Scottish patronage into their own hands and, indeed, to impose direct rule as far as possible, in effect to integrate the country’s government with that of England. The first fruits of this policy was the amalgamation, following the report of a specially-constituted commission, of the Scottish and English Customs Boards in 1723.[9] However, such measures depended, of course, upon the support of Scottish politicians. As we have seen, the most popular grouping in Scotland was not Roxburgh’s Squadrone, but rather Argyll’s Argathelians, who were widely perceived as being the patriotic party prepared to defend Scotland’s interests. The duke’s personal support among Scottish MP’s - those men bound to him by ties of blood, friendship and patronage - was an impressive one.[10] It thus made political sense for Walpole and Townshend to court the Argathelians rather than rely upon the Squadrone who had of course benefitted from the patronage of their rivals. This change of power, however, did not happen overnight.

As long as he had the favour of the king, Roxburgh remained a formidable figure, who did his best to resist the leaching away of patronage and administrative posts to his rivals. Towards the end of 1723, though, with George I absent in Hanover, Walpole and Townshend took their chance. A struggle ensued, but by the end of the following year Roxburgh was effectively sidelined from Scottish politics. His most important Squadrone allies were stripped of their positions at the end of May 1725, while he himself was dismissed from his post in August 1725. In their place were introduced Argathelian supporters. However, Walpole and Townshend had no intention of setting up Argyll as new master of Scotland in place of Roxburgh. Rather, through patronage, adoption of Argathelian policies, especially towards the Gàidhealtachd, and adroit outmanoeuvring of the duke of Argyll, they made themselves effective leaders of the grouping. The introduction of a highly unpopular tax on malt in 1725 proved to be the undoing of both Roxburgh and Argyll. Argyll, boxed in, felt unable to support the tax and thus compromise his personal popularity in Scotland, while Roxburgh and his allies, by encouraging resistance to the measure, ensured their own political destruction.[11] "By 1725 the Scottish parties and the issues which sustained them were virtually eliminated, the English ministers completely victorious, and the prospect of a new political order opened for Scotland.[12]" Henceforth, Scotland would be managed, if not necessarily run, by Archibald Campbell, earl of Ilay, with the help of his protege Andrew Fletcher, Lord Milton.

In the aftermath of the 1715 rising Roxburgh and the Squadrone had supported heavy-handed reprisals by the government against the jacobite clans. Highlanders were to be disarmed, and the Independent Highland Companies, effectively a police force for the region, were disbanded in 1717. This measure may have deprived Argyll of opportunities for patronage among his Highland allies, but also led to further disorder in the region, disorder already exacerbated by the "monumental blunder" of the scrapping of the principal Scottish executive body, the Privy Council, the in 1708. The troops from England brought in as replacements proved themselves quite inadequate in the mountains, and were regarded as nothing more than an occupying force. Following another jacobite rising in 1719, violent resistance to government troops on the forfeited Seaforth estate in Wester Ross, and a series of depredations culminating in the murder of fourteen soldiers in Lochaber in November 1720, it appears that Roxburgh attempted to resurrect the Highland Companies, but the government in London, embroiled in financial chaos in the wake of the South Sea Bubble, would have nothing to do with the proposal.[13]

Indeed, with the exception of John, earl of Sutherland, very few of the major adherents of the Squadrone came from the Gàidhealtachd. This might be most clearly to be seen in the fact that during the early 1720s the earl held the post of lord-lieutenant of five counties in the north: Cromartyshire, Nairnshire, Inverness-shire, Ross-shire and Orkney and Shetland.[14] Instead, the region was dominated by the duke of Argyll and his interest, especially after the failure of the jacobite risings of 1715 and 1719. Roxburgh’s continuing aggressive, if ineffective, stance towards jacobites in the region was thus also a challenge to the Argathelians who, as we have seen, pursued a relatively lenient policy towards erstwhile rebels. It is clear that Walpole and Townshend soon came to be convinced that the best way to ensure long-term security in the Gàidhealtachd was to follow a proactive policy, to engage with its people - with a firm hand, of course - through launching and supporting a range of political, military, commercial, ecclesiastical and educational initiatives in order to integrate the region with the rest of the country. Such an approach, of course, appealed to Argathelian politicians, especially to those with estates in the Gàidhealtachd who stood to profit from such projects, and the prolonged peace and patronage which would surely follow in their wake. It was, indeed, partly due to their advocacy of very such policies that the duke and his supporters had fallen from grace in 1716.[15]