...from Whitsunday 1834 to Whitsunday 1838; as factor of North Uist for several years, having the chief management of it from Whitsunday 1835 to Whitsunday 1838; and as factor of the greater part of South Uist for many years. I was factor of Barra from Martinmas 1836 to Whitsunday 1838, and I have been sheriff-substitute of the whole district since November 1841.
This was the opening sentence of the answer given by Charles Shaw, Sheriff-Substitute, to a question put to him by Sir John McNeill in Lochmaddy, North Uist, on the 7th of April 1851.
His father, Duncan Shaw, was the first Factor of Harris appointed when the 6th Earl Dunmore purchased the island in 1834 and his wife Anne Margaret Macdonald's connection to the islands is to be found in this piece from the Carmichael Watson Project.
The couple resided at Sponish House, Lochmaddy, North Uist and in 1851 they and their three children were joined there by Charles' 60 year-old mother, Anne Shaw, who hailed from Duirinish in Skye. The Shaws are seen in each of the successive three censuses but it appears that the first Anne Shaw, wife of the Factor Duncan Shaw, died between 1871 & 1881.
What led me to take this brief excursion across the Sound of Harris was the information regarding Charles assisting his father as Factor from 1834 until 1838 but the document in which it appears, the 'Report to the Board of Supervision for the Relief of the Poor in Scotland by Sir John M'Neill...' which is described here is one that I intend to explore in detail.
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