Document of the Month May 2008
Letter from David Menzies to the Magistrates of Aberdeen regarding Quarries at Nigg, 10th August 1770
This month's featured document is from a collection known as Parcel 230 which contains various letters to the Council written in the 18th Century. This image shows the second of the recommendations made by Mr Menzies to the Council concerning John Adam's use of his quarries on the Lands of Torry.
The “John Adam” referred to in the letter is John Adam, Architect, of Edinburgh. John Adam was one of the Adam Brothers responsible for the building of Dumfries House as well as the Adelphi Buildings in London. The firm was also a contractor for Fort George in Inverness. John Adam, though a competent architect, worked primarily as the firm’s business manager, overseeing contracts, legal business, and money and resource building activities such as the quarrying business at Torry.
The lands of Torry in question were mortified to Aberdeen by the influential Menzies family of Pitfodels, who retained a say in the use of their mortification. David Menzies, as part-heritor, was able to relate a number of concerns to the Council and Magistrates over the use and abuse of the lands under the tenancy of Mr. Adam.
The quarries referred to were situated in Nigg and Cove, and came under the jurisdiction of Aberdeen’s Master of Mortifications as heritor of half of Torry. Aberdeen let the land to John Adam by means of an Act of Council dated 27th March, 1766, as well as a subsequent act of 1st July, 1767. These can be found in volume 63 of the City’s Council Registers. The original Tack of 1766 granted him a twenty-one year lease of the quarries lying to the south of the town’s quarries at Cove for an annual rent of ten pounds Sterling.
The 1767 notation in the Council Register claims the annual rent stands at five pounds Sterling, as well as granting him quarrying rights to the lands of Torry and Cove as far as the southernmost extent of the Barony for an additional fifteen pounds Sterling.
The letter itself is found in the same file of the Council’s correspondence as the renewal and extension of John Adam’s Tack on the 14th of March, 1771. Whilst not explicitly following the recommendations of part-proprietor of the lands David Menzies, substantial alterations are made to the terms of the Tack. The lease is changed to seven years and, without alteration of the lands in question, the annual rent is fixed at thirty pounds Sterling. Aberdeen itself retains the right to quarry stone for the use of the town, and Mr. Adam is obliged to make and pay for a carriage-road leading to the shipping places at Torry, as well as repair of the land upon quitting his Tack, including filling quarry pits (though this last clause was removed by the Council in 1773). Further, new pits or ground could not be opened without the prior consent of the Master of Mortifications and the Menzies family.
A full transcription of the letter can be found here and definitions of what tacks and mortifications are can be found here.
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