420 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



of the Countess, which were inimical to those of the creditors, 

 but he offered an allowance to his mother, which she declined. 

 It is abundantly clear that he himself was in straitened 

 circumstances. In 1730, he was compelled to solicit a 

 Crown pension for his support, which the King, through 

 Sir Robert Walpole, declined to sanction. Duncan Forbes, 

 the Lord Advocate, used his good offices on his behalf, and 

 urged Walpole to give the Earl a grant of the arrears of 

 the Lewis feu-duty ; the latter, as is elsewhere explained, 

 not having been collected, owing to the difficulty of setting 

 legal machinery in motion "in those remote parts." In 

 1731, the arrears amounted to 3,916 135. 4d. sterling,* 

 from which it appears that the duty had not been paid for 

 twenty-three and a half years. We find that the Countess 

 Frances received from her agent a sum of four thousand 

 pounds Scots (333 6s. 8d. sterling), as feu-duty of Lewis 

 for two years from July, 1706, to July, 1708, and that seems 

 to have been the last payment made to the Crown. In 

 May, 1731, Seaforth presented a memorial to the Lords of 

 Treasury, praying for a grant of the 3,916 135. 4d., "that 

 he may have something to live on," his estates having been 

 sold for the use of the public. On 2oth June, 1732, by a 

 warrant to the Barons of the Exchequer, under Royal sign 

 manual by the Queen, the Earl's request was granted.f 

 An Act of Parliament, passed in the following year, removed 

 the disability which, under his attainder, precluded him from 

 taking or inheriting any real or personal property that might 

 descend to him. 



The complete history of the Seaforth forfeited estates 

 will not be known until the papers in the Register House, 

 Edinburgh, are published. 



Shortly before the commission of the Trustees expired, 

 a Bill was before Parliament for facilitating the collection 

 of rents on the Seaforth estates, and making it an act of 

 felony to oppose the proprietors. It was stated that no 

 one had then appeared to bid for the property, except the 



* Treasury Board Papers (275), No. 20 (Feb. 16, 1730-1). 

 t Idem (North Britain), Book X., p. 266. 



