had to comply with certain conditions. They had to pay quitrents to the Crown of 2, 4, or 6 shillings per acre (according to the quality of the land — Lot 34 was rated at 6 shillings); the quitrents were to defray the cost of administering the colony. The owners also had to settle their land with one person per 200 acres within 10 years, the settlers to be Protestants, and not from any of His Majesty’s Dominions except America. 100 acres were to be reserved for a church and glebe, 30 acres for a schoolmaster, and shore land for fisheries. If one-third of a town- ship was not settled within 4 years, the whole township would be forfeited. Most of the absentee landlords paid very little attention to their new possessions, but Sir James Montgomery was one who did accept his responsibilities, and who did not merit the bad name acquired

by many of the other proprietors, who have been depicted as the villains of the piece in the drama of Island settlement and development.

Sir James Montgomery

Sir James was the most active of the Island’s proprietors in the period before Lord Selkirk. Born in 1721 in Tweeddale, Scotland, the second son of an advocate who was factor to Lord March, the chief landowner in the county, James went to the West Linton parish school, then studied law at Edinburgh, and was called to the bar in 1743. After the “Forty-five” he was the first Sheriff of Peeblesshire appointed by the Crown. He was made Solicitor-General in 1763, and entered Parliament in 1776. He served as Lord Advocate for Scotland from 1766 to 1775, and was made Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer of Scotland in 17 7 6. He was possessed of a self-made fortune, based on legal and politiCal activities, a profitable marriage, and progressive and good manage- ment of his estates: N ewlands in Tweeddale; and Killearn in Stirling- shire (from his wife’s family); in Peeblesshire his properties were Stobo, Nether Falla, Stanhope — 6000 acres — and the Whim (for which Whim Road in Lot 59 is named). Stobo Castle, the family seat is now Britain .’s most luxurious and exclusive Health and Beauty Spa, where one can be completely made over with diet, exercise, and every sort of body and facial treatment. Is the Chief Baron turning in his grave? Sir James was renowned throughout Scotland for his business acumen and for his policies of agricultural improvement: he introduced turnip cultivation, whereby stock could be over-wintered; horsehoeing; and the two-horse plough; and was involved in promoting flax growing and linen manufacturing, and in improving animal breeding; altogether a progressive and successful farmer and landowner.

By 1770 Sir James possessed Lots 7, 30, 34, 36. and 51 on the Island, later adding half of Lot 12 and two-thirds of Lot 59. As his major settlement venture, he planned a thousand-acre flax farm in Lot

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