Ossian Collection > Life and letters of James Macpherson

32 yAMES MACPHERSON.
high. Of his father, Andrew Macpherson, all
that is known is that he was a poor farmer
in Ruthven, a village a little to the south of
Kingussie, on the other side of the river Spey.
It was there that young Macpherson was born
and brought up, " a barefit laddie ". His mother,
by name Ellen, was also a Macpherson, of an-
other and obscurer branch of the family ; and her
father, a tacksman, that is, holder of a tack or
lease, seems to have been in much the same
position as her husband. We learn that Mac-
pherson had sisters ; ^ but if he had any brothers,
nothing is known of them.
The conflict of evidence which almost every-
where marks our knowledge of Macpherson's
career makes an early and appropriate beginning
over the date of his birth. Until recently, in all
encyclopaedias, dictionaries of biography, and wher-
ever else a sketch of his life is attempted, his birth
has been assigned to the latter end of the year
1738, and that is the date given in the account
^ Janet and Margaret. One of them married a Mr. Clark
of Invernahaven, and to their son the late Sir John Mac-
donald, Premier of Canada, was related by marriage. See
Glimpses of Church and Social Life in the Highlands, an
interesting volmne by Mr. Alex. Macpherson, to which I am
indebted for one or two facts mentioned in this chapter.