'...and as many more in the adjacent Isles...'

The stimulus for this piece came from the 'Parliamentary Abstracts; Containing The Substance Of All Important Papers Laid Before The Two Houses Of Parliament During The Session of 1825'.

In a table introduced by the sentence; 'The following list shews the places at which churches have been directed to be built; most of them absolutely, a few provisionally:' , I noticed that in the Parish of Harris on 'Berneray Isle' a church was to be built for the population of 500:

'And as many more in the adjacent Isles of Pabbay and Killigray.'

Reading that, in 1825, the population of these three islands in the Sound of Harris was estimated to be 1000 souls I wanted to investigate further. Although a decennial census had been introduced in 1801, the first four of these only provide a figure for the population of the whole Parish.

For Harris, these figures were:

1801 2996

1811 3569

1821 3909

1831 3900

Our year, 1825, lies neatly between two censuses in which the population, despite all the displacements that were occurring, remained remarkably stable at circa 3900 people.

Thus the 1000 estimated to be living on our three islands were about one-quarter of the parish's people reminding us that 'Prior to the nineteenth century, the majority of the population of Harris lived on the machair of the west coast and on Pabaigh and its neighbouring islands (Berneray/Beàrnaraigh, Ensay/Easaigh and Killegray/Ceileagraigh)' http://www.paparproject.org.uk/hebrides2.html

As an aside, we have this communication from the 18th of July 1832 which I think is illuminating.

The later censuses do provide figures for each island in the Parish of Harris and those for the years 1841-1871 are given below. I have shown the number of males and females and computed the average 'people per hearth' for each island with the trio of isles that are our focus shown in bold:

1841 - 7^th June

Anabich 18 males and 23 females in 7 houses (41/7 = 5.9 people per hearth)

Bernera 335 males and 378 females in 130 houses (713/130 = 5.5pph)

Ensay 7 males and 9 females in 2 houses (16/2 = 8pph)

Hermitray 5 males and 3 females in 1 house (8/1 = 8pph)

Killigray 3 males and 2 females in 2 houses (5/2 = 2.5pph)

Pabbay 179 males and 159 females in 61 houses (338/61 = 5.5pph)

Scalpay 14 males and 17 females in 4 houses (31/4 = 7.8pph)

Scarp 60 males and 69 females in 23 houses (129/23 = 5.6pph)

Tarrinsay 38 males and 50 females in 16 houses (88/16 = 5.5pph)

There were 1056 living on our three islands which was almost 23% of the total of 4646 people in the Parish of Harris.

Five years later the first of the Potato Famines occurred and the response of the Factor can be seen in his letter of the 21st August 1846 to the Countess of Dunmore.

1851 - 31^st March

Anabich 63 people in 12 houses (63/12 = 5.3pph)

Bernera 452 people in 89 houses (452/89 = 5.1pph)

Ensay 14 people in 3 houses (14/3 = 4.7pph)

Hermitray Uninhabited

Killigray 7 people in 1 house (7/1 = 7pph)

Pabbay 29 people in 6 houses (29/6 = 4.8pph)

Scalpay 282 people in 48 houses (282/48 = 5.9pph)

Scarp 145 people in 29 houses (145/29 = )

Tarrinsay 55 people in 11 houses (55/11 = 5pph)

Only 488 living on our three islands which was less than 12% of the Parish total of 4254.

Nine out of every ten people from Pabbay and one-in-three of the population of 'Bernera' had gone.

Just four days after the census, on the 4^th of April 1851, the Factor John Robertson Macdonald in 'Rodil' was being 'interrogated' by Sir John McNeill and an earlier piece analyses his account.

We should also note the dramatic increase in the population of Scalpay that had occurred, the reasons for which are to be seen in this investigation.

1861 - 8^th April

Anabich Not listed

Bernera 130 males and 185 females in 64 houses (315/64 = 4.9pph)

Ensay 10 males and 5 females in 2 houses (15/2 = 7.5pph)

Hermitray Not listed

Killigray 2 males and 3 females in 1 house (5/1 = 5.0pph)

Pabbay 10 males and 11 females in 4 houses (21/4 = 5.3pph)

Scalpay 199 males and 189 females in 71 houses (338/71 = 4.8pph)

Scarp 72 males and 79 females in 27 houses ( 151/27 = 5.6pph)

Tarrinsay 25 males and 30 females in 12 houses (55/12 = 4.6pph)

There were just 341 living on our three islands or about 8% of the 4174 people of Harris.

Once again, almost one third of the remaining people of Bernera had gone leaving just under half the hearths from the 130 of two decades earlier.

1871 - 3^rd April

Anabich Not listed

Bernera 169 males and 204 females in 75 houses (373/75 = 5.0pph)

Ensay 4 males and 2 females in 1 house (6/1 = 6pph)

Hermitray Not listed

Killigray 3 males and 6 females in 1 house (9/1 = 9pph)

Pabbay 3 males and 5 females in 2 houses (8/2 = 4pph)

Scalpay 222 males and 199 females in 82 houses (421/82 = 5.1pph

Scarp 78 males and 78 females in 33 houses (156/33 = 4.7pph)

Tarrinsay 35 males and 33 females in 12 houses (68/12 = 5.7pph)

A small increase to 390 living on our three islands but still only just reaching double-figures again at 10% of the the people of the Parish.

Bernera's population had risen by 18% but the island trio would have needed nearly three times as many residents to regain the proportion of the population that had led to the church being built there only four-and-a-half decades earlier...

Note: I have left all spellings as they appear in the original sources, except that those for the census lists are 'standardised' from the 1841 census rather than reflecting the variations that appear in some of the subsequent decades.

Sources:

http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/