Re: Bews/Sinclair Orcadian link

[Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>]

At 07:13 14/07/99 -0400, you wrote:
>This is just a casual enquiry.Here in Melbourne the Bews and Sinclair
>families fellowship together.Since they're both old Orcadian names ,
I was 
>curious if the two families have past historical links that are known
to this 
>chat group.
>Thanks
>Ross Sinclair
>natrossinc@aol.com
>[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, 
sinclair@mids.org
>[ To get off or on the list, see
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> 
The name of Bews does not appear in any of the papers in front of me,
namely:


        Peterkin's Rentals
        J Storer Clouston's Records of Orkneys
        The St Clairs of the Isles
        
but I have found references to Bews in another book called "The
Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland"
by  Alexander Fenton from which I quote:

      "In Orkney the change from the one-stilted plough to the
two-stilted plough
        (at first the Highland type but increasingly the lowland
Scottish type)
        progressed through the last decade of the 18th Century and
had become 
        almost complete by the end of the first quarter of the 19th
Century.
        Traditions have been recorded about the introduction of the
two-stilted
        mould-board ploughs with reins.  When the first came to
the West Mainland
        of Orkney: "The late Hugh Bews, the grandfather of the
present Mr James Bews
        of Yesnaby was hired to show the West Mainland people how to
drive horses
        in a plough with reins and also the way to work a cupper or
plough with a
        mould-board.  This man's plough had a wooden board
because the wood was
        thought to be warmer for the ground.

        I have often heard the late William Allan of Eastbigging
tell of the vast crowd
        of people that gathered on the farm of Skaill the first day
that Hugh Bews
        yoked his wooden board plough and to drive the horses from
behind with reins"

I have also been in touch with the Orkney archivist who tells me that it
is very difficult to find out anything about the
Bews.  However, he is going to send me the information he has. 
He believes the name stems from beu which is
old Flemish for beau which simply means good-looking,
stylish - a bit of a dandy.  I can't imagine Hugh Bews being
much of a dandy behind a team of horses but,  at the end of the 18th
Century, he must have been at the cutting edge
(no pun intended) of new technology.

The mould-board plough went on to tame the great wheat belts of middle
America.  It is still in universal use but I doubt
 if Hugh Bews would recognise today's steel monsters as being the
'descendant' of his simple wooden mould-board
when men preferred wood because it was 'warmer' for the soil.  I
wish we were at thoughtful about poor Mother Earth today.
Alas, we have soiled and spoiled and sullied the World we live in.

Niven Sinclair

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