Francie 'Markis' Jamieson is one of the best documented of the historical Lowland pipers and one of the last of an unbroken tradition. This article from the June 2022 issue of Common Stock gives us a detailed picture of his life and times.
William Jamieson married Ann Urquhart in 1820 when they were both recorded as living at Middlehill, on the Balthangie estate in the parish of Monquhitter, east of Turriff. They both seem to have come there from further north in Moray; William certainly did. Henry Duffus, in his History of Monquhitter, describes howWilliam’s sister, then living at nearby New Byth, proudly boasted to her neighbours, comparing her brother to the Marquis of Huntly. From then on he wasknown as ‘Markis’, a name which was duly inherited by William and Ann’s second son, Francis, born at Middlehill in 1823, less than a year after their first son,William, and two years before his brother Joseph. Two girls were born some years later, Ann in 1831 and Jean (sometimes Jane) in 1833.
By the time of the 1841 census the family had moved from Middlehill slightlynorth to a croft on the Hill of Cook, just to the west of the grounds of the old Byth House. In his early years as a teenager, Francis was working as a farmlabourer at a farm in Kirkside (now in Banffshire, but at that time still part of Aberdeenshire) but was back at Cook by 1851. During this time the two Williams,father and son and Francis’ younger brother Joseph would have been working toimprove the state of the land. Rural Aberdeenshire was undergoing a process of‘engrossment’, the claiming of new farming land from the whins and mosses that surrounded the small crofts and farms. Adam Sanderson tells me that his great-great grandfather ‘Samuel Gill (1796-1882, born in Banff), lived in a sod house on land he cleared himself. Even the name of the place he farmed gives clues to the terrain - Boghead of Hythie’. In fact, it seems that the Jamieson family themselves lived in a sod house, according to a recorded interview with Willie Mathieson.‘Well, he lived in a house that you wouldn’t have lived in, and neither would I, no, I would not. A sod house, out by Byth, built of sods and clay.’The following is from Jock Duncan’s 1995 article in Common Stock:
“At that time mosses and whins were being trenched and drained to form viable farm land and sometimes the Lairds of the time gave them the land rent free to do such a task for so many years and then they charged a rental. At this work Francie Markis excelled. He hired his services far and wide - whether he took his own squad or was part of another I do not know. I thin he was probably a loner and took on the job on piece per acre. That implied turning the soil two feet deep, putting the top turf at the bottom. Removing the stones in puddocks with a horse to later build the stone dykes that finally enclosed the fields. Of course the drains had to be dug and they were stone lined as well. At those tasks Francie was adept, especially at the spade and pick work - those specially made implements were smiddy made twice normal size to cater for his excesses.
At the scythe however, which was the tool used to cut corn, he was again in a league of his own. At that time hairst squads were hired to cut the grain. Some were for a six weeks harvest duration. Others were hired on piece-work per acre cut, This was the method Francie preferred as it gave him scope for his
ability. An acre a day was a big day for most people, but he usually did twice that, and on one prodigious occasion cut three. He was supposed to have remarked that three acre a day ‘was nae child’s play’.”
As if this work was not enough, Francis was also an outstanding athlete, competing, and taking away prizes, at all the local games and fairs. He was also well-known for his prodigious appetite, but curiously, for such an energetic and vigorous man, he developed a love for and skill in music. He could both read and write music and is said to have had an understanding of it. He played the fiddle, on which he performed tolerably, but excelled at the ‘bass-fiddle’, the cello.
It’s not clear how or when he acquired the pipes that he is holding in the photograph, but he certainly was known to play them, especially at the Porter Fair, the feeing-fair at Turriff (locally known as ‘Turra’). These fairs were often riotous events with singing and dancing and general merriment, and, of course, a good deal of ‘anti-social behaviour’. So much so, indeed, that the minutes of the Fintry Ploughman’s Mutual Improvement Association record a debate that was held to decide whether the feeing-fairs should be abolished, due to the ‘evils’ that regularly marred them – (the proposal was eventually rejected). For the next seven ensuses Francis remained at Cook. His father died in 1863 but his mother survived into her 80’s, still living with Frances. In fact there does not seem to have been a time when there was not at least one female member ofthe Jamieson family living at the croft, his mother or his sister Jean, ‘a big strong
woman’; Francis was said to have thought that if he could get the famous hammer-thrower, Donald Dunnie ‘to her’, they would have a hammer-thrower nobody could beat.
In his last years Francie was joined by his niece, Ann Duncan. I haven’t been able to trace whose child she was, but in 1861 she had been there, aged 5, along with (young) Joseph, described as Francis’ nephew. This was the ‘illegitimate’ son of Francis’ sister Ann and David Sim, a corporal in the 93rd Regiment. He was born at ‘Cooke’ 3rd November 1855. This information comes from his birth record, and suggests that his mother could not have been Ann Duncan’s mother. This is the Joseph Sim to whom Frances bequeathed the name ‘The Wonderful Boy’ when proudly asking people at a concert Joseph gave aged 12, ‘isn’t he a wonderful boy?’. Joseph went on living at the croft at Cook until some time between 1881 and 1891 when he moved into New Byth where, in the 1901 census his occupation is given as ‘Player on the Violin’. He died there in 1918. Francis himself died in 1903, aged 80. In the last 20 years of his life his powers began to wane, so that he had resort to ‘oxter’ (armpit) crutches, one of which can be seen in the photograph. He is said to have been able to move as fast as a horse using this support. Ultimately, for visits to Turra Fair, Joseph and others would hurl him on a three-wheeled cart. According to Willie Mathieson, both Francis and Joseph were bellows pipers and played at feeing markets and horse markets.
A number of interviews were conducted in the 1950’s, many by Hamish Henderson, with folk who knew Francis in the 1870s and 80s. The summary of one of
these, with George Hay, describes how:
“George 'Lordie' Hay used to dance the Highland Fling and the Schottische, often to Francie Markiss on his pipes. [In this interview he] remembers some of “George 'Lordie' Hay used to dance the Highland Fling and the Schottische, often to Francie Markiss on his pipes. [In this interview he] remembers some of47
the people named along with himself in the bothy ballad 'Wester Badentyre', including foreman George Bremner, John Cowie, second horseman, and Andrew
Chiverie the stooker [harvester]. Francie was an old, stout man on oxter [arm pit] crutches in Lordie's time. At one time, he ran to all the games and picnics, and climbed and jumped. Lordie thought he was "rough" on the fiddle, but good on the bellows pipes and bass. His companion, known as 'the Wonderful Boy', was Joseph Sim from Byth. They both had a huge capacity for food. He went into a restaurant asking for food, was given soup and ate a whole turkey. When Lordie was at Inverichnie they played at Banff Market. While Lordie and his workmate were having breakfast, Francie and the Boy arrived; they were given huge bowls of food and ate the lot.”
To conclude his 1994 presentation about Francis Markis, Jock Duncan introduced the closing verses of this 'Wester Badentyre': “This is from a collection of
sangs recorded by Hamish Henderson from Willie Mathieson in Turra in 1952. Willie, in his seventies then, had attended and in fact hairsted at the toon of
Wester Badentyre in the 1890s, so knew the famous Francie Markis first hand:”
Wester Badentyre
An when the crap is aa secured fae winter’s frost an sna’
We'll get a ball when Francie comes wi’ his fiddle bra’.
And lads and lasses roon aboot will fill the barn fleer
Oh mony’s the happy nichts been spent at Wester Badentyre.
We hae nae fancy programmes nor yet a dandy Hall
But we hae mirth and music at Francie Markis’ Ball.
Upon the feeding bench at the mill the fiddlers they are seated,
And noo and then throughoot ethe nicht wi auld Kirk they are treated.
Aboot the middle o’ the night tay is handed roon’
Nae fancy tables jist a joug and biscuits white and broon.
Syne Lordie wi the ald Scots sangs nae heard in Music Hall,
And Francie Markis gars us lach wi’ Billy Johnston’s Ball.
Syne up an tae the Dancing for twa three oors an mair,
And morning’s nae far awa’ when we gang doon the stairs.
Lang may old Francie play and sing, lang may he fill the fleer,
Lang may the farmer hae the hairst at Wester Badentyre.