The People of Moray, Banff, and Nairn, 1700-1799

This book by David Dobson identifies roughly 1,200 Moray inhabitants, giving the name, occupation, a date and the source, and sometimes the names of family members, vessels, and other details. Moray lies between the Moray Firth and the Grampian mountains, and is composed of a fertile coastal plain with river valleys, such as the Spey. The district of Moray now includes the former adjacent counties of Banff and Nairn. The major families or clans in the district included Gordons, Grants, Innes, Dunbar, Rose, Leslie, Fordyce, Brodie, Geddes, and Ogilvie. Vessels traded from the ports of Moray to Scandinavia, the Baltic, the Netherlands, England, and on occasion to the Americas. These trading links facilitated emigration. The Moray inhabitants identified here may be the antecedents of persons living in those countries today.