-
"Survey return from John McLeod"
Laggan, Inverness.
1850.
RCP/COL/4/8/134
John McLeod was a church minister in Laggan.
Laggan was a parish in the historic County of Inverness. In 1831, the population was 1512. The main industries were agriculture and sheep breeding.
[[Addressee]]
The Revd
The Minister of the Parish
of Laggan
by Inverness
[[Survey]]
QUERIES
1. How many Medical Men practice within the Parish of Laggan?
One medical man practises within the Parish, but does not reside in this Parish. His residence is in Kingussie upwards of 10 miles from the centre of the parish.
2. The Names and Addresses of these.
Dr John Murray, Kingussie
3. Has the number increased or diminished of late years?
Dr Murray has practised for many years
4. Have any left the Parish since you became connected with it? If so, for what reasons?
None
5. Is there any complaint among the people of inadequacy in the supply of Medical aid?
They have to send either to Kingussie or Fort William – the former a distance of from 7 to 20 miles – the latter from 30 to 40 miles.
6. Do you know of any cases of protracted suffering, or of injury by Accident, such as might have been alleviated had proper advice been at hand?
I cannot condescend upon any particular instances, but when a medical man has a district of 20 to 30 miles to attend to cases of protracted suffering must necessarly1 occur.
7. To what extent is the deficiency of qualified Practitioners made up by the efforts of other parties?
No efforts are made to make up the deficiency
8. Does your experience enable you to suggest any measure – of general applicability – such as would be likely to relieve to some extent the evils (if they exist) of deficiency in the supply of Medical aid?
This parish is peculiarly situated – the western portion is thinly peopled, so that the eastern end must depend upon Kingussie and perhaps a population of 11002 could scarcely support a medical man themselves.
9. What Heritors3 are resident, either generally or occasionally, in your Parish?
Cluny Macpherson occasionally the rest are non-resident proprietors
[[Additional Text]]
The parish was vacant for some months which may account for the former circular not being filled up
John McLeod
Explanatory notes:
1. Misspelling of “Necessarily”.
2. This possibly says 1100 but the second digit is unclear.
3. A heritor was a landowner, under Scots Law, whose holdings were sizeable enough for them to be liable for the payment of public burdens such as Poor Law rates, road and bridge assessments and the church minister’s stipend.
Remote & Rural Remedies
