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A LAIRDSHIP LOST: The Mowats of Balquholly,

~Diane Baptie

This is an account of how a family in the North East of Scotland, dogged by misfortune, lost their lands at the beginning of the eighteenth century. They were not unique. But what makes the Mowats of Balquholly stand out was their pride in their Norman ancestry, their family unity and their endurance. Based almost entirely on original sources, this is very much a family history, with a wealth of detail about travel, family interactions and money matters in relation to land and buildings, and to debt. A corollary to this is the prominence of the legal porofession, the incidence of 'good' Mowat marriages in attempts to repair family fortunes, and the frequency of their business ventures - as merchants, keepers of hostelries, etc. - at home and abroad. Nobody can say the Mowats didn't try.

 

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