A Silly Lamb Caged In With A Tigress
We know that neither history nor historians have been kind to women, but I needed proof.
The bulk of my research has been to work my way through the many letters, documents and court rolls that are held by the fantastic Orkney Library and Archive in Kirkwall. They have boxes of letters that were sent between the Traills of Elsness and these were edited and transcribed in Hugh Marwick's book, Merchant Lairds of Long Ago.
I mentioned in my last post about Barbara Fea that I'd seen Marwick compare Patrick Traill to her as if he were a silly lamb caged in with a tigress. That was the sentence that made me immediately want to know more about this lass who had caused them such expense and distress.
Since then, I've found court records and witness accounts painting a different picture and letters from the Traills that prove (as far as I can tell) that Barbara Fea was right and should have won her case from the start. I wondered how it was that Marwick in 1936 and C. E. S. Walls before him (who summarised the long litigation in The Orkney Antiquarian Society volume X in 1932) could have seen the same evidence and come to such a different conclusion.
We know that neither history nor historians have been kind to women, but I needed proof. I know my perspective is biased, too, so it would be wrong of me to just assume that they were driven by sexism when it could have been that they hadn't seen some of the letters I have.
So, like a fool, I've set about transcribing every letter I can find that relates to Barbara Fea and, I regret to report, I suspect I was right that both Walls and Marwick protected the reputation of the Traill family by attempting to destroy the name of young Barbara Fea.
The next few posts, then, share some of this work. I'm going to hold a few back for a little while because their contents are, to say the least, controversial. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and so much of the horror and chaos around the Epstein files reflects the need to take care when describing what appears to be brutal exploitation and abuse.
As ever, if you're able to support my research, please consider lending your support. Your money will cover travel expenses, research time and the cost of this page.
