One cause for eviction in the 19th century would be that the tenant was in arrears with his rent. During the Napier Commission's hearings at Letterfearn, Kintail, in August 1883, the following was said on the subject by witness Farquhar Macrae of Bundaloch. Sir Kenneth Mackenzie is asking the questions:
31276. What have you to say on behalf of these people?
—I have not much to say, but I have been left destitute as well as my father, who was paying rent before my day. I was the head of the family after my father died. My sheep were taken from me for a trifle, and the whole of the people were treated in the same way. We have been robbed. The proprietor did not wait to see what we might be able to do. We are told that the proprietor declares we were largely in arrears of rent; but the arrears were not so large as represented. Many of these arrears were two hundred years old, lying always in the book, handed over from one proprietor to another. Another thing is, they wished to get hold of our receipts, and when they did they were burned and rent books given instead. Then they renewed the arrears against us for which they had receipts, after the receipts had been destroyed.
31277. I hope you will be cautious to say nothing you are not sure about ?
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