Important Caithness charter from 1476 is recovered – tells a story of how Scotland was founded
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An important land charter dating from 1476 was recently recovered and given over to the Caithness Archives after it had been mislaid for a number of years.
Roy Mackenzie has been working with the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council (RBWCC) over the last two years to uncover lost parts of our heritage and came across the ancient document.
"It all comes from my hunt for museum artefacts from the old Carnegie library," explained Mr Mackenzie.
"I was particularly looking for the Donald Horne collection but I found a lot more and this was one of them. I saw it was of national importance."
The document is a land record written on to vellum which comes from the skin of a calf. Calfskin and split sheepskin were commonly used materials for making parchment in this era. Other skins such as those from large animals such as horse and smaller animals such as squirrel and rabbit were also used.
Mr Mackenzie says that it is the second oldest document pertaining to Caithness with a feu charter relating to land tenure predating it by seven years. "The earlier document from 1469 is about the transfer of land from Alexander Sutherland of Doufous to David Brisbane of Wick. The 1476 charter transfers the lands of Noss, Kyrklatherin, Landhallow and Dale from Oliver Sinclair to his father, William Sinclair Earl of Caithness."
The 15th century document had been held by Alexander Mackay of Helmsdale until 1981 when it was donated to Wick Society for its up-and-coming heritage museum. It is not known why such a historically significant charter ended up in the possession of Alexander Mackay but Mr Mackenzie believes it may be connected to the castle that existed at Helmsdale which was demolished in 1970 to make way for the new road and bridge.
Mr Mackenzie says that the document, nearly 550 years old, was written in Latin when Roman Catholicism was the dominant religion in the country. Its true importance may be in the wider picture it tells about James III, the Scottish king at the time, who was consolidating lands to create a sovereign country with defined boundaries. James III's reign saw Scotland reach its greatest territorial extent with the acquisition of Orkney and Shetland through his marriage to Margaret of Denmark.
"When you consider what was happening in Scottish history in the 14th/15th centuries you can see some key events in this era that indicate Scotland's monarchs were moving towards making sure the country was capable of being a sovereign nation and an independent political unit that we see today."
The then Earl of Caithness played a leading role in bringing together areas of land in the far north after several centuries of strong Norse influence in the region and turned the balance of influence in favour of the Scottish crown. The 1476 charter and the earlier one from 1469 were part of this "political and national jigsaw" that created Scotland as we now know it.
Mr Mackenzie says that the new Earl of Caithness appeared to have had a lot on his plate in this period. "He was a Sinclair of Roslin and had taken over responsibility for finishing the construction of the Rosslyn Chapel a few miles from Edinburgh.
"He was also looking for a new home in our locality and appears to have chosen to build it on the lands of Noss that he had just taken ownership of. This home was Girnigoe Castle, a formidable fortress built on the east side of Sinclair Bay." Mr Mackenzie pointed out the strong connections between Rosslyn Chapel, completed in 1488, and Freemasonry along with the Knights Templar. Rosslyn Chapel featured in Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code which was later made into a Hollywood film featuring Tom Hanks.
Mr Mackenzie said the document is in "very good condition given its age" and is delighted that it is now registered with the National Records of Scotland to reflect its categorisation as "a document of National Importance". The charter is now in the safekeeping of the Caithness Archives in Wick along with the 1469 document.
Jamie McCaffrey, trainee archivist at Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archives, allowed the Caithness Courier to take photographs of the charter and showed an English translation of it.
"This charter is the second oldest we hold within the Caithness Archive collections," he said.
"It is always a privilege to accession such important and historic records into the archive. The charter represents one item in a series of very substantial deposits made by Wick Society in the past few years. Our team are currently busy cataloguing over 150 boxes of archives spanning from the fifteenth century to the twenty first.
"On completion, all these archives will be available within our public searchroom at Nucleus."
One curious footnote is the drawing that appears on the left-hand side of the document that looks like some form of bizarre machine. One member of the public, when shown the image, joked that it looked like Thunderbird 4 from the 1960s children's TV show and another thought it looked like a vessel powered by a wind turbine, whilst someone else speculated it was "proof of alien visitors". The truth is less fanciful, however, and medieval art historian Dr Bryony Coombs explained its significance after being shown a photograph of the detail. "It's a notarial signature - I've been looking at lots of these recently.
"The iconography is really interesting. But it is basically a visual signature for the notary. This is a lovely one."
Dr Coombs said there are many examples of these notarial signatures on similar documents and often include "the same basic forms – a plinth or pedestal, a cross, sometimes knotwork, interlaced cords or keys [or even] a Crown of Thorns". The notary's name appears within the plinth and could be "Alexander Knoydart", she added.
The document is not currently available for the public to access as the Caithness Archives is sorting through the many boxes deposited by Wick Society. It is hoped that it will be available to view with a year, however.
