NOTICEBOARD
AGM - SAVE THE DATE:
Clan Matheson (UK & Europe branch) Annual General Meeting is to be held at 11am on 3 June 2023 in Brightwalton, Berkshire.
In person and virtual attendance available. Please email andrew.matheson@clanmatheson.org or
david.mathieson@clanmatheson.org for further details
____________________________________
Slaves and Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean
Dr David Alston recovers the voices of enslaved Africans and sheds light on their Highland Scottish enslavers in a series of case histories from the era of colonial slavery in the Caribbean and South America.
HISTORY SCOTLAND ONLINE LECTURE
15 March 2023, 6.30pm UK Time
Based on David Alston's book Slaves and Highlanders (EUP, 2021), the ‘micro-histories’ presented in this talk link plantations in Jamaica with the Scottish island of Raasay, resistance and uprisings in Guyana with the coastal estates of Easter Ross and Inverness-shire, and a woman born in slavery in Barbados with the schools in Paisley, Glasgow and Liverpool where her children were educated.
Dr Alston outlines the methods available to recover these and other life stories from the silences of history. And he suggests that – on ‘the other side of silence’ – there is a better approach to our difficult and shared past.
(Graphic images show Memorial to Quamina, remembered for his role in the uprising of enslaved people in 1823, with a detail from the plinth. Copyright Dr David Alson.)
Got a question? E-mail Rachel Bellerby
FIND OUT MORE Wednesday 15 March 2023, 6.30 pm UK time
BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW - Tickets £10 each
____________________________________
The lost choir, royal tombs and liturgy of Dunfermline Abbey
Dr Michael Penman presents findings from a pioneering research project at Dunfermline Abbey
HISTORY SCOTLAND ONLINE LECTURE
29 March, 6.30pm UK Time
This 45-minute presentation will outline new perspectives on the lost choir of the Benedictine Abbey of Dunfermline in Fife, by combining the results of ground-penetrating radar surveys conducted 2016-22 with archival and liturgical research.
It offers a fuller understanding of the development of this abbey’s choir chapels, saintly shrines and royal mausoleum c.1150-c.1560, as the Scottish kingdom’s equivalent to Westminster or St Denis, as well as of its fate since the destructive Reformation.
Although this research will raise questions about the ‘Bruce grave’ and remains discovered in the choir ruins in 1818, it will also present evidence that in many other ways this great church was significantly venerated and shaped by Robert the Bruce and his generation.
Dr Michael Penman is a senior lecturer in history at the University of Stirling, and a member of the Dunfermline Heritage Partnership
Got a question about booking? E-mail Rachel Bellerby
FIND OUT MORE Wednesday 29 March 2023, 6.30 pm UK time
BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW - Tickets £10 each
UPCOMING HISTORY SCOTLAND ONLINE LECTURES
How to stage a riot in 17th-century Scotland, 18 April (Dr Laura Doak) BOOK NOW £10
Each 45-minute talk starts at 6.30pm and is followed by a 30 minute Q&A with the speaker
Each event is recorded and the recording is made available to ticket holders for 7 days afterwards
____________________________________
The Annual National Trust for Scotland / 1745 Association Culloden Lecture
At the Culloden Visitor Centre
Friday 14 April, 1.00 pm
This year's National Trust for Scotland /1745 Association Annual Culloden Lecture will be a particularly poignant occasion as it will be the first time the lecture will be held without the presence of the man who initiated it, former Chair of The 1745 Association, Dr Christopher Duffy, who passed away last November.
Christopher's research considerably enhanced our understanding of the Battle of Culloden. His own lectures set out his findings regarding the dynamics and scale of the battle, which extended over a far greater area than previously thought, emphasising the need for careful conservation and opposition to inappropriate developments that continue to threaten the battlefield.
Christopher was undoubtedly the leading Jacobite scholar of his generation, and his book Fight for a Throne (2015), developing his earlier work, The '45: Bonnie Prince Charlie and the untold story of the Jacobite Rising (2003), is likely to remain the authoritative work on the military history of the Rising of 1745. These works fundamentally changed our understanding of the genesis and evolution of the campaign, and comprehensively disproved the conventional wisdom prevailing prior to the publication of The '45 that the Rising was doomed to failure from the outset. Christopher's conclusion was that the Rising could very well have succeeded had different decisions been taken at key points during the campaign.
This year's lecture seeks to build on Christopher's research by analysing seven key decisions which led to Culloden, assessing why they were taken, what alternatives might have been considered, and how we can avoid falling into similar psychological traps today. The lecture will draw on the seminal research of Nobel Laureates Herbert Simon, Maurice Allais, Daniel Kahneman, Richard Thaler and others to address these issues.
It will last approximately 40 minutes followed by the opportunity for questions and answers.
The speaker is Michael Nevin, Chair, The 1745 Association.
Michael is the author of 'Reminiscences of a Jacobite - An impression - see the 'Malcolm's Corner' page.
FIND OUT MORE Friday 14 April 2023, 1:00 - 2:00 pm Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre, Culloden Moor, Inverness IV2 5EU
BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW - Tickets £7 each
____________________________________
Kahneman, Tversky and Prince Charlie. Cognitive Biases that caused Culloden
How cognitive biases affected seven decisions that led to Culloden - and how we can avoid making the same mistakes today.
Annual subscription for UK and Europe Branch
At the 2021 AGM, it was agreed to further reduce the membership subscription. The Treasurer has stated it will be £8 (or its equivalent in Euros) starting in 2022. The Family Membership is no longer, as are legacy Life Memberships, so it will be just £8 per household. Older children of member families earning a reasonable wage are encouraged to join the Clan Society in their own right. Please use the CONTACT page to get in touch. Some of you are still paying previous fees, be assured rebates will be issued by cheque. We have also changed banks from RBS to the METRO. The bank details of the new Clan Matheson account are available on request, please email david.mathieson@clanmatheson.org
We prefer that subscription payments are paid by 'annual' Standing Order using online banking. If not a posted cheque works for us. When you are updating your Standing Order, please tick the annual payment box.
Please use your Clan reference, which are your initials and the last 3 of your postcode: For example, AAM-2HX.
It is essential to identify which Matheson or Mathieson you are, so that we can identify you correctly as the payee.
Clan Matheson Society UK & Europe Branch Committee Posts
If you look at the bottom of the CONTACT page, you will see posts held by members of the UK & Europe Branch. If you feel you may be able to help, please email david.mathieson@clanmatheson.org to find out what is involved before having to commit. Any post can be re-organised to suit you.
Secretary: We have managed without a Secretary for a while, the post is effectively mothballed, unless any feel it might be for you.
Membership Secretary and Treasurer: These are best run together, looking after the accounts and the membership list.
UK & Europe Branch Genealogist: Working along side John Faid, our Clan Matheson Genealogist.
Clan Matheson Society information and media
The old MEMBERS page on this website, which had a library of downloadable information, has been removed because its log-in was unstable and difficult to administer. Those members, who had previously applied for access to this page, are invited to email david,matheson@clanmatheson.org to request any Clan documentation and media. We will arrange by post or by internet download the files / folders you require. This service is free and it is only available to paid-up members of the Clan Matheson Society.
** Clan Matheson Society Newsletters **
The Newsletter is published annually. We do not have a dedicated UK & Europe Branch news reporter (for want of a better description) and nor should we. It is published for its Members, and it is a forum for you to tell us your news. If you have anything at all that might be of interest including just a photograph or just a short article, please let us know. In the first instance, please contact david.mathieson@clanmatheson.org who will forward your article to the editor.
UK Legislation: General Data Protection Regulations
The Clan Matheson Society (CMS) use your personal details (i.e. names, email and postal addresses, telephone numbers and any preferences) solely for the administration of Society matters, and these are not passed to anyone without your permission. For the CMS to have your personal details on record, you would have given the CMS UK Branch your consent to keep a record of your details. Occasionally the CMS will ask you to confirm your consent. If we do not hear from you, your record will be struck off. Your personal details are only made available to those tasked with running the UK & Europe Branch of the CMS in the course of their duty.
You are responsible for notifying the Membership Secretary of any changes.
The Membership Secretary is responsible for ensuring the records are safeguarded as best as possible within the resources available to the CMS.
You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting the CMS, and if this may be the case, you will no longer be a member. The CMS will delete in toto your personal details as soon as the accounts of that financial year have been audited.
You are entitled to ask for a record of your details, or for further information, email david.mathieson@clanmatheson.org
ASSOCIATION of HIGHLAND CLANS and SOCIETIES (AHCS)
Click here to go to the AHCS website.
Note for the diary: the Inverness Highland Games and Gala are usually held mid-July at which the Clan Matheson is welcome. For more information please get in touch through our CONTACT page or the HIGHLAND COUNCIL page.