James Fea VI was the eldest son of James Fea V of Clestrain and
Barbara Traill of Elsness, although not their eldest child. He is the
most well known of the Feas as a result of the capture of the pirate, John
Gow , on the Calf of Eday in 1725.
His date of birth is not known but it was around 1693. He studied in
Edinburgh for several years as well as in Paris and Holland, returning to
Orkney in the Spring of 1717. It may have been in Paris that he picked
up his Jacobite
sympathies , which were to lead to so much trouble.
He married Janet
Buchanan , almost certainly on 24th August 1720. She appears to
have been no more than eleven years of age. This added the Buchanan
property, including Sound in Shapinsay and Carrick in Eday to the Fea
estates. Sound was burned to the ground in reprisal following the defeat
of the Jacobite uprising of 1745.
He took at prominent position in the dispute with the Earl of Morton over
the standard weights, which is known as the Pundlar
Process . There was much loss of the family estate through
litigation on this matter and also due to actions arising out of the reward
from the capture of John Gow.
Much of his time was spent in either Edinburgh or London. He
delegated much of the management of his estate. He was certainly clever and an
ambitious personality and appears to have had an some measure of charity from
efforts made to provide schooling
in Eday .
He died
in London on 7th May 1756. Janet Buchanan died later that
year. They had no children and the estate passed to James’s brother,
John Fea VII of Clestrain.
