Michael T Tracy

Niel Ballingall (1804-1888) Michael T Tracy

His nephew, the Reverend James Ballingall (1846-1926) described his uncle, Niel Ballingall as an "old bachelor with a stiff knee that obliged him to walk with a staff, and there was an air of comic dignity about him, as of a person of great importance and he loved nothing better than giving orders to anyone who was obliged to take them." He was the last son of Niel Ballingall (1750-1843) the Factor of Balbirnie and like his siblings grew up at Sweetbank in Markinch Parish. In the later years of his father's life, he was his clerk. When his sister, Elizabeth Pratt (1795-1863) inherited her late husband's lands at Seggie and Dochrie in Orwell Parish, Kinrossshire in 1842, she asked him to occupy these lands as a tenant farmer at Seggie which he did for over the next twenty years. He eventually retired from farming and resided in Leslie Parish, Fife and in his later years relocated back to Markinch. This then is the narrative of the life and times of Niel Ballingall, the tenant farmer of Seggie.