What connects Banff Bridge and a possible French Invasion?(Banff and the Turnpike Roads part 3)

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Francois Thurot

From 1702 until 1815, the French and British were involved in six wars. In the wars, merchant ships suffered heavy losses off of the North East coast. The merchant ships were attacked by privateers of mainly French origin, although privateers of American and Dutch origin were active too.

Privateers were privately owned ships, commissioned by governments to attack the merchant shipping of enemy countries and disrupt their trade. The fate of ships captured by privateers varied – their cargoes and the ships themselves could be sold, refitted or burnt. Often their crews were allowed to return home. The Moray Firth was a busy shipping route at this time as ships would sail around the top of Britain to avoid trouble in the English Channel.

The most noted incident was in 1757. On the 5th of October, Francois Thurot, in command of the frigate Marischal de Belleisle and several other ships, appeared in Banff Bay, much to the distress of the people of Banff. The plan seemed to be to invade Banff, plunder and destroy it with a force of 1100 men. The people of Banff were saved though, by a storm, a gale which forced the ships to cut their cables and flee.

In 1777 the Tartar of Boston, an American privateer, captured Lord Fife’s ship – the Anne of Banff – (amongst others). Lord Fife feared he would not be safe living at Duff House “We shall be burnt and plundered”

By 1781, in response to the threat, a very fine battery of 9 eighteen pounders were erected at Banff above the high ground above Banff harbour. This is where the name Battery Green comes from. As well as this soldiers were stationed along the Moray Firth coast.

Ultimately, the focus of transport shifted from the sea to overland routes and led to the building of the first bridge at Banff.

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Banff and the Turnpike roads, Part 2

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Turnpike Trusts were established in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a way of creating and maintaining a decent road network. The individual Trusts were established by Acts of Parliament. Turnpikes or Toll bars were points on the roads where people had to pay to use the road. The first Scottish Turnpike Act was in 1713 but it was the end of the century before turnpikes were built in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire.

There was a case for more roads. In the late 1700s, cargo ships from the Moray Firth were often attacked and captured by French privateers. For example in 1781 the “Anne” of Banff was taken by a Dunkirk privateer and Lord Fife lost many possessions. As the seas were so dangerous there was a great need for an alternative and safer travel route.

Also agriculture and industry saw considerable developments during this period so roads were needed to transport goods being produced.

In 1796, the road from Aberdeen was surveyed and planned, allowing an estimate to be drawn up. In 1800 a general meeting was held in Banff because the road from Turriff to Banff was so bad that no one would carry the mail on the road without extra payments being made to them. The great Provost George Robinson obtained the necessary permissions to have the road built and in 1801, Thomas Shier was appointed as the road overseer as he had surveyed the route.

It all took time. In 1802 the first eleven miles of turnpike road between Banff and Turriff was complete. In 1804 the Head Court of Banff “authorize[d] the Magistrates to subscribe £500 to the construction of a turnpike road from the Harbour of Banff southward to Huntly by Inverkeithny and Marnoch.”

In 1804 “the Provost is authorized to subscribe a sum not exceeding £300 towards making a direct communication to Keith by a turnpike road from Cott-town of Ordens to the place where it will join the Portsoy turnpike, near the Kirk of Ordiquhill.”

Four turnpike roads led out from Banff – to Boyndie, Turriff, Buchan and Marnoch. Many of the toll houses can still be seen around the area, normally altered to suit the needs of today. The nearest example to Banff is the Toll house just South of the Gellymill. The first toll house was built in 1802 “where the Turriff turnpike intersects the Macduff road below Myrehouse”. It was made of turf and the keeper, John Morrison, was paid 1/- for each day. This was replaced by the permanent house “immediately below the Gellymill”.

By 1808 the system of toll roads inland from Banff was complete. Everyone was to pay the tolls except for soldiers and their carriages ‘on the King’s business’ who would be exempt.

By 1809 the demand by the military for a decent road through Banff to Fort George from Aberdeen reduced as other, shorter routes from Fort George south had opened up and the route along the Moray Firth coast was no longer so well used.

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George Smith, Banff and Hong Kong (part 1)

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Photo of colour painting showing one large sailing ship, junks and all sorts of small craft in front of warehouses with international flags flying

    George was born in 1737 just along the coast from Banff in Fordyce.  The family seems to have had Jacobite connections so after the failed uprising in 1745 spread out across the world.  As George grew up he travelled from Holland overland via Syria to Bombay arriving in 1768.  That must have been some trip!  There he established himself as a private trader, both in India and China, trading a lot in tea which at that time came mostly from China.  At times he acted as “Supercargo” on ships, ie the person representing the owner of the cargo – often himself.  The network of Supercargoes in India and China were the people that controlled all trade in the area, although of course trading in China – Canton (now Guangzhou) being the only allowed port for foreigners – was subject to various Chinese rules.  There was no British Embassy in China at the time.

    In late 1784 George was the Supercargo on board a ship called the “Lady Hughes”, berthed alongside in Canton.  It was the practice to honour other foreign ships leaving harbour by firing a gun salute – all cargo ships at that time were armed merchantmen.  So the Lady Hughes gunner fired his customary salute as a Danish ship was leaving port – most unfortunately he hit a Chinese boat and killed two crewmen!  George was arrested as the most senior person on board, but the other Supercargoes did not take kindly to one of their own being detained and all the foreign ships – armed – lined up to blockade the harbour.  The Chinese responded with their own warships and there was a standoff.  Fortunately it seems the local Chinese governor (Sun Shiyi) was reasonable and a compromise was negotiated, the alleged gunner in question being summarily strangled as was the Chinese custom.

    The painting is of Canton Harbour in the late eighteenth century, showing an armed merchantman as well as a multitude of local boats, in front of the international warehouses of the time; painted by Daniell (it is thought both father and son).

    When word of this serious incident reached the UK, the existing government policy of wanting a trading outpost in China outwith the laws of China was re-inforced.  An embassy and outpost was created, but it was decades later, after China’s financial crisis and inability to re-pay debts, plus Britain militarily defeating China in the first Opium War, that Hong Kong island was formally ceded to the British in 1842.

    George may have only played a tiny un-intended part in the creation of Hong Kong, but part of his legacy still stands in the centre of Banff today – and the Story of how that came to be, will be told in Part 2.

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    Banff and the Turnpike roads, Part 1

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    1783-milestone-on-the-road-south-from-the-first-Banff-bridge-in-Montcoffer-WoodsBPHSMOB

    Part of a map from Taylor and Skinner’s Atlas – 1776

    Aberdeenshire council fills 31.000 potholes in three years. On reading Dr James McIntosh’s thesis “Roads in the Vale of Deveron from 1750 to 1850” I realised that the state of the roads has always been an issue.

    As early as 1555, the need for road maintenance was recognised – highways connecting market towns and ports should be “observit and keepit”. In 1718 early Road Acts identified seaports, market towns, parish kirks, noblemen’s houses and bridges as important points to keep well connected. In this area Banff and Portsoy were the main ports for general cargoes and Down (later Macduff) and Gardenstown were well established fishing villages.

    In Banffshire, in common with other areas, prior to the 1700s the roads were narrow tracks, along which most people walked and only the well-to-do rode on horseback. The Inverness to Aberdeen road which came through Banff was referred to as a currach road, one suitable for horses laden with creels or currachs.

    In the mid-1700s, the roads were in a terrible state, most of them turning to mud when it rained. Cumberland’s troops had difficulties on the way to Culloden, “getting cannon and heavier accoutrements across the Howe of Castleton”. One of the common complaints was that tenants with arable land on both sides of a road would plough right across the road.

    Road repairs were undertaken by parishioners who in Banffshire were required to work on the roads for six days per year from 6am to 6pm, with two hours recess in the middle of the day. In 1769, all men aged from 15 to 70 had to take part. Notices telling people when they were needed were issued by the Sheriff and Justices who met in May and decided on the repairs and improvements needed and a District Convener organised the work – in the Banff District this role was carried out, from 1774 to 1795, by William Rose, factor to Lord Fife. The announcements of where and when people were required were read out at the Kirk on a Sunday. If people refused they were ordered to pay 18d a day and if they didn’t pay, a Constable with a warrant would go to their homes and remove objects up to the value of the money they owed.

    After Culloden, the need for decent roads grew, for ease of the military moving around the country and also for the growing trade taking place, for example the linen manufacture around Banff.

    In 1776, G. Taylor and A. Skinner created Scotland’s first road atlas. This was designed for the growing number of travellers and could be folded to make it easy to carry. These show the main roads around Scotland in narrow strips, three to a page. The road we are interested in is the one from Edinburgh to Inverness via Banff. https://maps.nls.uk/view/74400384

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