Annotation:Lord Seaforth
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LORD SEAFORTH. AKA and see "Highland Plaid." Scottish, Canadian; Strathspey. Canada; Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton. G Major (most versions): A Major (Surenne). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Surenne): AAB (Gow, Kerr, MacDonald, Stewart-Robertson): AABB (Perlman). "Very old" (Skye, Gow). John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of this tune in print in Angus Cumming's 1780 collection (p. 8). "Highland Plaid" is a reel version of the melody, printed in one of the McGlashan collections also published in the 1780's. The MacKenzies of Seaforth were an old Jacobite family whose lands were forfeited after the uprising of 1715, the then 5th Earl, William "Dubh", escaping to the Western Isles, thence to France. William's son Kenneth wisely stayed out of Bonnie Prince Charlies 1745 rebellion, in token of which Seaforth honors and holdings were partially restored. However, the tune is probably dedicated (going by its date of first publication) to Kenneth's son, also Kenneth MacKenzie, who entered the army, was raised to the peerage in 1766, and was created Earl of Seaforth over lands in Ireland in 1771. Seaforth raised a Regiment in that year from among his own clan, and was appointed their colonel. They carried the name of the 78th or Ross-shire Regiment of Highlanders, but when time came for the unit to debark for India a mutiny arose over grievances of pay and promises (not the least of which was that they should not serve in the dangerous tropical climate), and they encamped on Arthur's Seat, refusing to budge. A settlement was finally negotiated, and the Regiment descended from their encampment on the height with Seaforth at their head. They did not go to India, at least at first, but rather to the channel islands of Guernsey and Jersey, where they stayed for some time. However, in 1781 the 78th, along with the Earl, boarded ships for India and embarked on an ill-fated voyage to that country. On the journey to the East a quarter of them died from scurvy; the Earl himself succumbed on the voyage and did not even reach the mid-Atlantic station of St. Helena.
The reel is very popular among Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island fiddlers and has been recorded numerous times.
Source for notated version: Sterling Baker (b. 1940, Montague, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]; Hector MacAndrew [Martin].
Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 381. G.H. Davidson (Davidson's Gems of Scottish Melody), n.d. (c. 1830's); p. 28. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 3, 1806; p. 15. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 1; Set 11, No. 3, p. 8. Lowe, 1844. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 78. Martin (Traditional Scottish Fiddling), 2002; p. 134. Perlman (Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 61. Pringle (A Second Collection of Strathspeys, Reels & Jiggs &c.), c. 1805; p. 20. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 162. Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland), 1852; pp. 80-81.
Recorded sources: Rounder RO 7012, Winnie Chafe - "Highland Melodies of Cape Breton" (1979).
See also listings at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [3]