Lawers and Loch Tay
(The Biography of Peter Crerar)

By David Crerar

FOREWORD: This article is only part of a much larger undertaking. The text was reduced to the section concerning Peter Crerar. If there is lack of continuity, I take full responsibility and apologize to the author. (Robert Chant)

Peter Crerar left Lawers in 1817, and I’ve been chasing him ever since. It is unknown how long he actually stayed in Lawers. At the time of the birth of his son John, he was resident on the farm called Cuiltrannich, located on the Ben Lawers side of the road running along the north side of Loch Tay. In Gaelic, Cuiltrannich means "Nook of Bracken." On it were located the meal mill of Lawers, as well as the smithy. In the neighbouring field of Lawernacroy there is an ancient stone circle, and across the road and by the Loch one finds the burying ground of the district, in which generations of Crerars sleep. This field, Machuim - the burial place of the plain - take its name from this graveyard. The centuries of use have raised the graveyard considerably above the fields around it, and the stones within are circled with heather. Apparently a famed witch of Lawers is buried under the gateway. Across Lawers Burn to the west is the site of Lawers town, once bustling with commerce and activity and now completely ruined. The church, built in 1669, is the most preserved structure, but it is now overgrown, with several trees growing up from the congregation.

In Marquis of Breadalbane’s 1769 Survey, Cuiltrannich was possessed by Duncan McMartin, Malcolm McMartin and Duncan Clerk. The surveyors made the observation that "…the bank on both sides of the burn is so steep and dangerous especially near the head of the farms as frequently to occasion the death of some of their cattle. On this account both sides of the burn, where danger is, ought to be enclosed and planted with firs or oaks." At the end of the century, several members of the Breadalbane Fencibles were settled on holdings in the township of Cuiltrannich, which was further developed at this time [In Famed Breadalbane, 204]. It is now quite deserted, except for bleating black-faced sheep, who graze in the ruins of cottages.

Two centuries ago there were over 3500 people on the north shore of Loch Tay, stretching from Killin in the south to Kenmore in the north. By the time of the Education Act of 1872, the Parish had produced 1 member of Parliament, a professor, nine ministers, eleven teachers and seven doctors. What caused the drain of Breadalbane’s youth, among them Peter Crerar? In the early eighteenth century the Highlanders lived a marginal existence, farming the poor soil inefficiently. Fallow was unheard of. They ate oatmeal, and for protein would bleed the cattle, and mix it in their oats. As potatoes grew to be the staple diet, their health improved and there was a population boom in the late eighteenth century. In Crieff, for example, there was a 33% population increase between 1776 and 1791, and in Comrie there was a 15% population increase between 1755 and 1791. In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, this population reached a saturation point, as veterans returned with an attendant jump in births. This was exacerbated by a post-war deflation in agricultural prices. At this point, the British Government began encouraging emigration from the Highlands to the colonies.

While there were clearances in Breadalbane, these did not occur until the 1830’s, under the command of the Second Marquis of Breadalbane. The infamous Highland Clearances of 1755-1801 were not reproduced in so dramatic and violent a fashion in Breadalbane, but they did strike a mortal blow to the population around Loch Tay. Economic expediency was given as the reason for replacing men with sheep; as John Campbell of Lochend wrote, "the sides of Loch Tay in general were never intended by nature for the plough, and if the fertile, level lands in the better climate of England were thought to be more profitable under grass than under the plough, what could be expected from cultivation of the steep, broken patches of land on Lochtayside, however good the quality might be, so far north, so high above the sea and so frequently deluged with rain?"

In 1834, on the advice of his factor, James Wyllie, the Marquis cleared families off the farms at Rhynachluig, Edramuckie, Kiltyrie, Cloichran, and from Acharn, the birthplace of the Crerar name. The next year the entire population of Glenquaich was cleared, thus populating the Huron settlement in Western Ontario. After a decade, the land was striking in its desertion. Of the 3500 inhabitants once living at Loch Tayside, only one hundred were left by 1850. That year the Second Marquis tried to raise a Fencible Regiment, as had his father so successfully in the eighteenth century. He found no recruits. An old man of Loch Tayside growled at him to "Put your red coats on the backs of the sheep that have replaced the men!"

Today Lawers is beautiful in its desolation. Downhill lies Loch Tay, fourteen miles long and averaging one mile wide. It is famous for its salmon. Uphill one finds the former shielings of the Loch Tay farmers, where families would spend their springs and summers. Above the rolling hills towers Ben Lawers, the highest mountain in southern Scotland. It height was estimated by early cartographer to exceed 4,000 feet, but in 1852 it was discovered to be a mere 3,982 feet. In response, one outraged local mountaineer erected on the summit a 20 foot cairn making up the difference. It is now popular with hikers, and boasts a unique flora habitat with many rare species of plants.

Family of Peter Crerar
of Lawers and Pictou

I. PETER CRERAR I (b. 1784 or 1785 Breadalbane - d. 5 November 1856 Pictou) = Anne Clarke of Nessintully, Invernesshire (b.c. 1791 Nessintully, Badenoch, Invernesshire- d. 15 April 1865 Pictou)

The origins of my original ancestor are frustratingly obscure. His newspaper obituaries place his birth around 1785 in Breadalbane, Scotland, but no Peters are recorded in the parish records as being born at that time. Two theories could account for this. The first is that because of a stamp tax imposed in 1783, levying a tax of 3d on every entry of a birth or baptism, marriage or burial, many births went unrecorded by thrifty Scots seeking to save money. A second theory is that as the name Peter represented an anglicised version of the more traditional and Gaelic Patrick, he could have been christened with this name, changing it later to suit the fashion, and his own rising fortunes. If this were the case, two candidates spring to mind: (a) Patrick Crerar, son of John Crerar and Jean Deor of Carwhin, Killin Parish, Perthshire christened there 1 Jan 1785; (b) Patrick Crerar, son of John Crerar and Katherine McGrigor, christened 20 Jun 1785 in Carwhin, Killin. As Scottish name pattern dictates that the first son be named after the father’s father, and as Peter Crerar’s first son was named John, both of these births are plausible candidates. On the other hand, Peter is described as a native of Cuiltrannich, whose lands are situated in Killin’s northerly neighbouring parish of Kenmore. John was also unfortunately by far the most common name perpetrated by unoriginal and ancestor-fearing Crerars in Perthshire. Following traditional Scots naming patterns for females, the name of Peter’s first daughter, May, should also be that of his mother. Unfortunately, there is no record of nuptials between a John and May before the nineteenth century. Fog and mist.

It is easier to conjecture about Peter’s early career as a civil engineer. It is said that he gained his skills working under the celebrated father of civil engineering, Peter’s fellow Scot Thomas Telford [The Pictou Book, p.247]. This theory meshes well with known history: between 1802 and 1820, Telford was responsible for planning, designing and building 1,200 bridges and 920 miles of new road in the Highlands. He also refurbished 280 miles of military roads. Telford wrote:

About 3,200 men have been annually employed. At first, they could scarcely work at all: they were totally unacquainted with labour; they could not use tools. They have since become excellent labourers, and of the above number we consider about one-fourth left us annually, taught to work. These undertakings may, indeed, be regarded in the light of a working academy, from which eight hundred men have annually gone forth improved workmen.

Peter Crerar was one such Highland workman-cum-engineer who went forth from Telford’s "working academy."

Romance and civil engineering are an unlikely pair but one can also hypothesize that the Highland road project brought Peter to his Inverness bride, Ann Clark of "Nessintully, Speyside, Invernesshire," far away from his native Breadalbane [Family Bible]. The Register of Laggan Parish (in which Nessintully is located) notes that "Peter Criarer from the Parish of Kenmore and Ann Clark of Nessintully were married 15 November 1814 [104/1 Laggan Parish Register; but note that the family Bible lists the marriage as on 29th October 1814 [Family Bible]. It is interesting to note here the misspelling of the Crerar name, unfamiliar in Invernesshire. Records show that between 1809 and 1818 Telford built the Laggan Road, Inverness-shire, reinforcing the scenario. An account of the road’s construction also mentions that a firm of contractors called "Messrs Clarke’s" were employed to work on this road - whether or not this was a relative of Ann’s (and this is a precarious conjecture, given the abundance of Clarkes in Speyside) is not known [John Rickman, Life of Thomas Telford, 381].

The next known record of Peter Crerar has him back in Kenmore, situated on the farm of Cuiltrannich, in Lawers, on the north shore of Loch Tay. There Ann Clark gave birth to John Crerar, their first child, on September 13, 1815 [Family Bible; mentioned in Kenmore Parish Register as 18 August 1815]. They departed for Canada in July 1817, probably aboard the Brig Hope, which sailed from Greenock to Pictou in 1817. The Hope landed passengers at Sydney, Cape Breton Island on 23 July and then proceeded onto Pictou. Another possible ship is the William Tell, which also sailed from Greenock, and which landed passengers at Sydney on 25 July 1817 before proceeding onto Pictou; most of the Wiliam Tell emigrés were from the Isle of Barra [T.M. Punch, "Scots to Nova Scotia in 1817 -- Perhaps on the William Tell", Nova Scotia Genealogist, vol.3, 1985, number 2, p.91-92]. In any case, on the voyage Ann was very pregnant with their first daughter May, who came into the world "on a passage to America upon the Banks of Newfoundland Friday the 19th July about 6 o’clock A.M. 1817" [Family Bible]. On 31 July 1817 a petition in which 94 newly-arrived Scots sought assistance and relief from the Nova Scotia government included Peter Crerar, his wife and two children [RG5, Series GP, vol.7, no.7].

It is not known exactly why they left their native land for rough and wild Nova Scotia. Certainly Peter was not a victim of the infamous clearances, which did not affect Perthshire until fifteen years later (driving, for example, the Glenquaich Crerars to Ontario. Crerars seem possessed with a knack to move on before impending collapse. With a slump in grain prices following the Napoleonic wars, perhaps Peter saw the writing on the wall and decided to raise his family in the new world. There his engineering skills would be much sought after, and he could leave the agrarian ways of his forefathers, an era whose twilight was approaching in the Highlands.

The family landed in the summer of 1817 and settled in Fisher’s Grant, to the east of Pictou. The settlement’s name referred to the 1765 grant of land to John Fisher. In 1785 members of the 82nd Regiment, out of action since the end of the American Revolution, laid out plans for a proposed town on the site, called "Walmsley." This village remained, however, trapped on paper. Fisher’s Grant is now a cottage retreat known as Pictou Landing. The 1817 Census records Peter and family living at Fisher’s Grant, where May died on 8 June 1818 and Ewan Clarke Crerar, their second son, was born on 18 July 1819.

It is possible that before going across the harbour to Fisher’s Grant, Peter resided for a few months in Pictou Town. This would be consistent with Peter’s first brush with Pictou history, in the founding of the Pictou Academy, by the famous Dr. McCulloch. Set up as an Presbyterian academy to rival the Episcopal King’s College of Windsor: "That the Pictou Academy originated among men of the most liberal sentiments, and whose strongest opinion was that knowledge should be as free as the light of Heaven. The unjust and monopolizing spirits of King’s College had first produced the idea that a seminary for all denominations of Nova Scotians might be established with honour to the enlightened virtue and judicious conduct of the government…" [Pictou Academy Papers]. George Patterson, historian of Pictou and scion of its leading family, recounts the founding: "Dr.McCulloch was chosen its first president, and before the building was erected, teaching began. The first classes were opened, as near as we can ascertain, in the fall of 1817. A room was fitted up in one end of the house, in which the late Peter Crerar, Esq. resided, the other being occupied by the Rev. John McKinlay. Here plain pine desks were erected, so shaky, that on one occasion a Highland student, intent on taking notes, found it so difficult under the movements of his fellow students, when, his patience exhausted, he exclaimed, "Please, master, they’re shaking the dask on me." In this fashion, thus began the first attempt at a free liberal education in these Provinces…" [George Patterson, A History of the County of Pictou, p. 329]. Peter Crerar was for a time a schoolmaster at the academy and was listed on 15 May 1854 as one of its trustees [Pictou Academy Papers: 15th May 1854]. His commitment to Presbyterianism was also manifest in his service, from his early days in Pictou, as an elder of St.Andrew’s Church [Presbyterian Witness, 5 Nov.1856 obituary].

Peter’s main contribution to Pictou County was in his engineering projects. The earliest recorded work was ironically in drawing up plans for St. James’ Anglican Church, Pictou in 1824. The main figure behind this church’s construction was Henry Hatton, later to be Peter’s son’s father-in-law [A Lion in Thistle, 9]. The next year he wrote to the Lieutenant-Governor regarding alterations to the road between Mount Tom and Pictou, and project he would work on for the next few years [PANS, RG7 vol.3, #104]. He also reported on the Fisher’s Grant Road [1827 Roads and Bridges], the French River, Huggins, and Sutherland Bridges [August 9, 1830: "…I think it proper to mention that Sutherland Bridge is in a very dilapidated condition and likely will be down before next season. . ." [PANS RG7, vol.6, #27], the pier at Arisaig [1832, Roads and Bridges] and the Wallace Bridge [Roads and Bridges 1832].

Peter Crerar’s greatest engineering feat was the design and construction of one of the first railroads in North America, at Stellarton, near Pictou. The centennial report of the railroad recounts: ‘The General Mining Association of London, England, owners of the Albion Mines, now Stellarton, N.S., were quick to see the possibilities of a railroad as a means of quicker marketing of coal and decided to build a railway from the Albion Mines to the Loading Grounds. At that time there were few construction engineers and not one was available to build the proposed line. A government land surveyor who was also a school teacher, was prevailed upon to undertake the task. His name was Peter Crerar and he made a complete success of surveying the line and making the plans. When the latter were completed, they were sent to the head office of the Mining Association in London, with the request that an engineer be sent out to execute them. When the plans were submitted to George Stephenson, builder of the locomotive who had engineered the construction of the Stockston and Darlington, England’s first railroad, he reported to the Mining Association that, in his opinion, the person who prepared the drawings was quite capable of executing them. So the railway was built under the supervision of Peter Crerar."

The building of the Albion Railway began in 1836 and the road was opened for traffic in 1839. When completed it was in every way equal to England’s first steam railway; a remarkable feat, in view of the fact that Peter Crerar had never seen a railroad. The line, 6 miles in length, was so nearly straight that the least radius of its curves was 1" -- 300 feet. The estimated quantity of excavations was 400,000 cubic yards. At the water terminus there was a wharf 1500 feet long by 24 feet wide, commanding a fall of 17 feet above high water level at the shoots. The masonry, bridges, culverts, etc., were of cut freestone, from a nearby quarry. The total cost of construction was $160,000.

Map of the Albion Mines Railway, one of
the first railroads built in North America.

While the railroad was being constructed, three locomotives were being built in England by Timothy Hackworth. They were landed at Pictou and brought up the East River in lighters, towed by the Company steamship. The three locomotives were The Samson, The Hercules, and the John Biddle. The three locomotives were accompanied by Davidson, a first machinist, who superintended their setting up and for a great many years was the driver of "The Samson", which was the engine made ready first. The Albion, a locomotive built later, was of neater design, and faster, but was perhaps not as powerful as The Samson [C.W.Lunn, McLeans’s Magazine, October 1936; quoted in The Pictou Book, p.245-47].

As Patterson reports, the feat was celebrated province-wide:

The opening of the railroad was made the occasion of general rejoicing. The two steamers, Pocahontas and Albion, with lighters attached, each carried from Pictou about 1,000 persons to New Glasgow, whence they were taken by train to the mines. Crowds of people on horseback and on foot were there assembled from all parts of the country. Here a procession was formed of the various trades, the Masonic lodges, the Pictou Volunteer Artillery Company, as visitors mounted, with bands of music and pipers at intervals, and various banners, marched to New Glasgow and back again, when the Artillery Company fired a salute. A train of waggons, fitted up to receive passengers, had been attached to each engine, and, being filled with the crowd, now made the first trip to New Glasgow and back again, giving a new sensation to multitudes.

On their return, a feast was given to the employees of the Company, for which 1,100 lbs. of beef and mutton, with corresponding quantities of other articles, were provided; a dinner was given to invited guests, and the night was spent in general festivity…

[Patterson, 407]

The Samson, the first locomotive to run on the
railway designed by Peter Crerar.

Following this success, Peter continued to report on engineering projects, at the same time serving as Deputy Registrar General of Pictou County. In writing to the powers of the province he displays strict courtesy, and a genteel upbringing (or a fast study):

Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 2nd instant. You will greatly oblige me conveying to His Excellency, how deeply I feel the marks of his confidence conveyed in your letter and that I shall endeavour to prove to him that it has not been misplaced. I shall readily undertake the execution of the work which his Excellency has been pleased to assign to me, and with to myself the honour of waiting upon him some day of the next week. I shall then attempt to shew that my eyes were not quite closed during my journey to town, and to lay upon his Excellency such a statement of the road to which you referred as may perhaps open even the Governor’s watchful eyes. As I shall so soon pay you my personal aspects I add no more. I have the honour to be Sir Your most obliged Humble servant, Peter Crerar.

[1835 Letter to Sir Rupert I. George, Bart., Halifax: PANS, No.50, RG7 vol.8].

His diplomacy paid off, and he was made commissioner for improvements to the Pictou section of the Main Post Road of Pictou. This last major project of his life brought into conflict with some Pictou County property owners, including George Patterson, as he reports in an 1847 letter to the Lieutenant-Governor:

His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, having been pleased to appoint me as a Commissioner for the expenditure of several sums of money appropriated in the last session of the Legislature for the purpose of making alterations and improvements on several sections of the main post road in this county, to effect which it will be necessary to procure from the several proprietors through whose premises an alteration may be required, the Land necessary to be made, Immediately applied to the various proprietors in the hope of effecting an arrangement under the act of 5th Victoria Chapter 30th but am sorry to say that having tried every means in my power, I find it will be impossible to do anything with them for while some of them are willing to agree on most reasonable terms, there are others who are not only stubborn, but who claim damages, utterly inconsistent with what I conceive to be right and fair, under the circumstances, for them to ask; and which I feel satisfied no disinterested persons will award them. I have therefore no alternative but to proceed under the directions of the Laws of 1826 27 and for that purpose have prepared the required plans and measurements and estimates which I have the honour to enclose herewith, to be submitted to the consideration of His Excellency and the Honourable the Executive Council for approval.. . .As it was late in the season before the Commissioner reached one, and as I have spent too much time perhaps in endeavouring to effect an amicable arrangement with the proprietor I would with all due respect, beg leave to urge the necessity of speedy action in these matters, more particularly as it will be necessary to have the appraisement of the completed in time to be laid before the Supreme Court, which sits here on the third Tuesday of October next.

[1847 16 Sept: to Sir Rupert D. George, Bart., PANS RG7 vol.16, #264].

In his final letter on the subject, written to Joseph Howe, then Provincial Secretary, he seems to have reported victory, managing to buy off all of the stubborn landowners, with he exception of George Patterson, around whose property the road took an awkward jog [1851 Peter Crerar and John McCaul, Letter To Joseph Howe, Provincial Secretary: RG7 vol.26, #14].

In 1847 Peter Crerar obtained for the sum of £150 "the land situated in Pictou beginning on the west side of Academy Road Street at its angle of intersection in the north side of Spring Street…" from John Duffus, a Haligonian banker and barrister, and dear Crerar friend. This property later passed into the hands of John Crerar, who devised it to the children of David Stewart Crerar.

My original Canadian ancestor departed his busy life on 5 November 1856. His Pictou obituary read as follows: "Died…At Pictou, on Wednesday, 5th inst., Peter Crerar, Esq., a native of Breadalbane, Perthshire, Scotland, First Deputy Surveyor and Registrar of Deeds for the County of Pictou, aged 71. But few men have passed from our midst whose loss will be more generally or so extensively regretted. He has left a widow and seven sons to mourn their loss. His catholic spirit, his clear judgment, and his honest disposition, made him one of the most respected members of the community, as was evinced by one of the largest funeral processions ever witnessed at that place. He was connected with the Church of Scotland from his youth, and clung to her standards through all her trials and difficulties, and was Chairman of St.Andrew’s Church [Pictou] for many years previous to his death, in which capacity he made entire satisfaction. Among his last expressions were these words, "I have unwavering confidence in Christ Jesus my Saviour." [Presbyterian Witness, 22 Nov.1856, 187; also reported in the Pictou E.Chronicle, 13 Nov. 1856]. In Scotland, the Perth Courier [22 January 1857, p.2, col.5], and the Dumfries and Galloway Herald also reported his death. He is buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery, Pictou with his family.

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©1998, David Crerar, all rights reserved.