His prospects were certainly not
enviable, he and his sister Anne having had for a time, for actual
want of means, to be "settled in tenants' houses." The rental
of Gairloch and Glasletter at his father's death only amounted to
5954 merks, and his other estates in the Low Country were settled
on his mother, Sir Kenneth's widow, for life while he was left
with debts due amounting to 66,674 merks, equal to eleven years
rental of the whole estates. During his minority, however, the
large sum of 51,200 merks was paid off, in addition to 27,635
in name of interest on the original debt; and consequently very
little was left for his education. In 1708 he, along with
his brother and sisters, were taken to the factor's house - Colin
Mackenzie of Findon - where they remained for four years, and
received the rudiments of their education from a young man, Simon
Urquhart. In 1712 they were all sent to school at Chanonry,
under Urquhart's charge, where Sir Alexander remained for six
years, after which, having arrived at 18 years of age, he went to
complete his education in Edinburgh. He afterwards made a tour
of travel, and returning home in 1730 married his cousin, Janet
Mackenzie of Scatwell, on which occasion a fine Gaelic poem was
composed in her praise by John Mackay, the famous blind piper
and poet of Gairloch, whose daughter became the mother of William
Ross, a Gaelic bard even more celebrated than the blind piper
himself.
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