Annotation:General Wemyss
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GENERAL WEMYSS. AKA - "General Wemyss of Wemyss." Scottish, Strathspey. C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Surenne): AAB (Gow, Stewart-Robertson). Composed by the famous Perthshire fiddler-composer Niel Gow (1727-1807). Major-General William Wemyss of Wemyss (1760-1822), a career soldier, was the cousin of Elizabeth, then Countess of Sutherland, and grandson of William, the 17th Earl of Sutherland, in the remote and mountainous north of Scotland. It was to him she (when he was a Captain, at the age of 16) delegated the task of raising a Sutherland Regiment for the English wars. A core of 259 men was assembled from the recently disbanded Sutherland Fencibles, while most of the remainder were enticed from among the Countess's tenants in the following manner. General Wemyss would travel from parish to parish, assembling the able-bodied young men of the area and forming them in a line. He would then walk down the line with a large, silver-bound, horn snuff-mill in hand, followed by an attendant with a bottle of whiskey. Those who chose to take snuff with the general and to drink his dram were considered to have enlisted, with no further formalities. The Countess was able to mollify any outraged parents with the granting of more advantageous leases, and the General ended up with 419 Highlanders. In the years that followed, the regiment, a battalion of which was known as the 91st Argyllshire Highlanders, saw extensive service in the Cape of Good Hope and in the Peninsular Campaign, South Africa and the Zulu Wars (1879).
A companion battalion was the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, also raised in 1799 by Wemyss, and he was the first colonel of the regiment between 1800 and 1822. The 93rd Sutherland Highlanders were present at the Cape of Good Hope, the Battle of New Orleans (1814) and the Canadian Rebellion of 1838. They played a distinguished part in both the Crimean War (1853-56) and the Indian Mutiny (1857-58). Their finest hour, however, was at Balaclava long after William Wemyss' time, where they were renowned as "The Thin Red Line," painted by Victorian artist Robert Gibb in 1856.
Wemyss had a reputation for supporting a good military band-the 93rd appears to have had a band since its formation-and furnished his units with brass instruments. His accounts from the year 1800 show that the paid Broderick and Williamson £6.0.2d for musical instruments, and Kolak £12.4.7d for French horns. These instruments presumably were with the 93rd at Capetown, where an 1809 inspection reported that the band was merely "tolerable," while the instruments were noted to be in good condition. A year late the musicians were said to be 'improving'. A "Jingling Johnny" survives in the possession of the 93rd Regiment, dating from Wemyss's Sutherland Fencibles. It is engraved with the initials "W.W." [A 'jingling Johnny' is an instrument consisting of a pole ornamented with a canopy, crescent, and other shapes hung with bells and metal jingling objects, often surmounted by horsetails. It may have derived from the staff of a Central Asian shaman, though its use in European armies stemmed from imitation of the Turkish military Janissary band].
In 1788 Wemyss married Frances (born before 1773, died 1798, for whom is possibly "Miss Erskine of Torry (1)"), the eldest daughter of General Sir William Erskine, Bart., or Torrie (Torry), who eventually brought the Erskine estates into the family. They descended on their son, (naval) Captain James Erskine Wemyss, who was M.P. for Fife. William died at Wemyss Castle, on the 5th February, 1822.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 62. Gow (The First Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 1784 (revised 1801); p. 24. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884 (appears as "General Wemyss of Wemyss"). Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland), 1852; pp. 94-95.
Recorded sources: