Burials

Alexander William Chisholm XXVth Clan Chief (1810-1838)

He was just seven years old when his father, William, died suddenly.   As a minor, several guardians, including his mother, looked after his affairs.  He was educated at Eton and Cambridge.  His father had cleared large parts of the Chisholm estate for the introduction of sheep in the first two decades of the 19^th century.  In 1831,  having attained his majority, Alexander William called a meeting of the remaining tenants at ‘The Inn of Cannich.’ However, he failed to appear and instead sent his factor to break the news that their leases had been turned over to strangers.

“I was present and heard the curt message delivered, and I leave the reader to imagine the bitter grief and disappointment of men who attended that meeting- with glowing- hopes in the morning, but had to tell their families and dependents in the evening that there was no alternative before them but the emigrant ship, and to choose between the scorching prairies of Australia and the icy regions of North America.”_[1]

 Colin Chisholm 1878

In 1835 he was returned as Member of Parliament for the County of Inverness.  Like his father he had suffered from ill health throughout his life resulting in him having to resign the seat in May 1838.  In August of that year, he took ill in the Caledonian Hotel in Inverness where he subsequently died from an aneurism of the aorta on the 8^{th of} September.

As he had died unmarried and without an heir, he was succeeded by his brother Duncan Macdonell Chisholm XXVIth Clan Chief (1811-1858).  He too died without an heir and as a result, due to the entail from 1777, the estates and title passed to the Muchrachd branch of the family.

[1]  ‘The Clearance of the Glens’ Colin Chisholm, in the Celtic Magazine for 1878, Vol. III., pp. 378-388.

James Sutherland Chisholm XXVIIth Clan Chief (1806-1885)

James Sutherland was born and raised in Canada to where his family had emigrated in the early 1800s.  Three years after he succeeded to the estates, in 1861, he married Annie Cecilia MacDonell with whom he had three sons and three daughters.  The family are all buried within the graveyard. When his eldest son, Roderick Donald Matheson Chisholm, came of age in 1883 his father immediately took steps to disentail the estates thus ensuring future inheritance would remain within his family.  James Sutherland died at Erchless in May 1885.

Roderick Donald Matheson Chisholm XXVIIIth Clan Chief (1862-1887)

Roderick Donald Matheson Chisholm XXVIII^th Clan Chief (1862-1887).  Like so many of his predecessors he suffered from ill health and took little part in public life.  However, he obtained a commission in the Seaforth Highlanders in 1884. He died from diabetes only two years after succeeding to the estates.

Other burials

Annie Cecilia (MacDonell) Chisholm (1843-1905) Wife of James Sutherland Chisholm.

Children of James Sutherland and Annie Cecilia Chisholm:

Mary Isabella Chisholm (1863-1927)

Loisa Jane Chisholm (1865-1874)

Augustus James Chisholm (1866-1867)

Annie Margaret Chisholm (1868-1935)

MacDonell Chisholm (1869-1871)