Harris-North Uist Sub-Sea Telegraph Cable

I have previously discussed this final link  in the chain of cables that were established to connect the isles 'from Barra to the Butt' (and hence, via Stornoway, to the mainland) and have now found the site of its landfall in North Uist.

The Ordnance Survey 1st Edition 1-inch map (1885), Sheet 89 - Sollas, clearly shows the point where the cable lands ashore on the Àrd nam Madah peninsular. This is a slightly unexpected location for there are still several miles of difficult roadless land to traverse before reaching the Post Office in Lochmaddy, and it would be interesting to know why the undersea cable wasn't taken the final couple of Nautical miles direct?

As always, as one question is answered another one is raised, so if anyone can supply any information that may shed light on why this route was chosen I would be delighted to hear from you!

There still also remains the mystery of the telegraph message from Lochmaddy to Harris in September 1879, informing Lord Dunmore of the wreck of the yacht 'Astarte' several years before this cable was apparently laid , suggesting perhaps that the date shown here may be incorrect?

RCAHMS Lunchtime Lecture 5 Dec 2012

Today three members of the Carmichael Watson Project gave a trio of talks on:

'An antiquarian friendship: Alexander Carmichael, Captain Frederick Thomas, and the archaeology of the Outer Hebrides'

Dr Donald William Stewart very kindly referred to some of my work, published in this blog, with regard to Fred & Fanny Thomas. A recording of the talks may be heard here:


http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/rcahms_media/files/podcasts/rcahms_carmichael_watson_5dec12.mp3

Berneray Mill

There are no written records regarding a mill on Berneray, Harris that I know of; no millers are recorded in the censuses from 1841 onwards, there is no place name indicating the site of a mill, no identified archaeological evidence.

On Bald’s 1805 Map of Harris, however, is labelled a 'Mill' sited in Rushgarry.

An aerial photograph of the area may be seen online where, if one follows the river near the middle of the image upstream from the sea, the ‘Mill’ on the map appears to be located on the left bank just above the ruins to be seen on its right bank and with which it may have been associated.

This raises several intriguing questions:

When was the mill built? Is it ancient or, perhaps, part of the developments introduced by Captain Macleod after he bought the whole of Harris in 1779?

Why did the mill apparently cease to be used during the first half of the 19thC? Had it been milling grain from Pabbay and thus become redundant when that island, which had at one time been ‘the granary of Harris’, was Cleared for a sheep farm in the 1840s?

Was it a grain mill or, perhaps, another ‘fulling’ mill like that built by Captain Maleod in South Harris?

How is it that this significant place never gained the honour of being named nor of otherwise being mentioned in writing? This might indicate that it was both relatively ‘modern’ and short-lived, thus supporting the idea of a link to Captain Macleod whose efforts ceased with his death in 1790 and whose son,  Alexander Hume Macleod, apparently commissioned Bald’s map.

The only way that the answers to these questions may be found is by a proper archaeological survey of the site but meanwhile my conjecture is that it was a grain mill and that the same boats that would later bring the people of Pabbay to pray in Berneray, following the building of the Parliamentary Church in 1829, would have been bringing grain to be milled in this now long-forgotten mill.

Update: Whilst conducting research into place names in Berneray for the historical society I was informed that the place marked on Bald's map was where women gathered to mill grain using hand querns.

An Ribheid Chiuil - Reed Music

I have been patiently waiting to obtain a copy of the late Alick Morrison's (1911-2005) 1961 book:

An Ribheid Chiuil

being the Poems of

Iain Archie MacAskill, 1898-1933

Bard of Berneray, Harris

When a signed copy appeared for sale the temptation proved irresistible!

What has proved a most intriguing surprise, however, is the handwritten inscription:

To Fred Macaulay

With Kindest Regards

Alick Morrison

24/3/61

What intrigues me is whether the recipient was perhaps the late Fred MacAulay (1925-2003) who was originally  from Sollas, North Uist and then went on to become the Senior Gaelic Producer at BBC Scotland in 1964, following Finlay J Macdonald (1926-1987)  in that role?

I shall have to do a little more checking but the name Fred MacAulay is extremely rare in Scotland and it seems entirely plausible that Alick Morrison would sign a copy of his new book for the fellow Gaelic scholar from just across the Sound of Berneray?

Incidentally, Fred MacAualy was named, via a relative Frederick Thomas Gillies, after Captain FWL Thomas.

Update:
I did get the handwriting verified, and a correspondent kindly confirmed that my copy had indeed once been sitting on Fred MacAulay's bookshelf at the BBC.

It is now sitting on my own bookshelf in Alick Morrison's home island of Berneray...

Charles Shaw (1812-1885) & the Napier Commission in Inverness in 1883

My friend and fellow researcher  whose prolific output I listed a while ago has brought to my attention a statement given by 72 year-old  Charles Shaw, W.S., late Sheriff-Substitute of Inverness-shire, at Lochmaddy to the Napier Commission in Inverness.

The testimony (‘a simple narrative’) exceeds 10,500 words so I have chosen to divide it into several entries. In each of  these I shall scrutinise some selected extracts (in italics) following each extract with my observations regarding the content of Charles Shaw’s carefully constructed piece. (Phrases of particular significance have been emboldened)

A full analysis of Shaw’s essay (it is worthy of the name!) could easily form the basis of a thesis!

 It has...occurred to me that a simple narrative of a few facts within my knowledge may be useful to the Commissioners, and without any desire to challenge the veracity of any man, and in bringing to light the actual facts as they presented themselves at the time to one who was equally interested in all.

Whether he manages to avoid making any such challenges we shall soon see!

I began business in 1835, by receiving from Lord Macdonald a joint commission with my father as factor of North Uist. I also to some extent assisted him in the management of Lord Dunmore's estate of Harris, and of Clanranald's estate of South Uist.

This linkage of the traditionally MacDonald land of North Uist with that of the  traditionally MacLeod land of Harris is significant and, I contend, one that was maintained for half-a-century.

I was also factor during part of 1836 and 1837 for the trustee on the sequestrated estate of General MacNeill of Barra.

For two years then father & son were exerting their power & influence over all of the Western Isles with the exception of Lewis. I suggest this included a degree of power and influence over the absentee landlords at this time, a time that saw the first failure of the potato crop in the isles.

At Whitsunday 1838 I was appointed factor on Lord Macdonald's estate in Skye, which then included the large property now possessed by Major Fraser of Kilmuir.

For the next here years, the pair held sway in Skye, Harris, North & South Uist.

 I held this last office till I was appointed Sheriff-Substitute of the Long Island in November 1841, and I remained there till 1881, when I left the Long Island.

He was the Sheriff-Substitute for the Inverness-shire islands from Harris in the north to Barra in the south with only the Ross-shire Isle of Lewis outside his jurisdiction and he held office for 40 years.

My earliest recollection goes back to 1817, and the great famine of that year. This famine was not owing to a failure of the potato crop in particular, but to a generally very bad and late harvest in 1816 over all Scotland. The spring of 1817 was also bad and backward, and of both these the Highlands had more than their proportion.

He was 5 years-old and, whilst it is entirely plausible that he was aware that his neighbours were suffering from that famine, his subsequent analysis is obviously the result of research rather than recollection. It’s a rhetorical trick, and one that I think we must applaud the retired lawyer for employing!

The proprietors of the Long Island imported meal largely for the crofters, and Government supplied a considerable quantity of oat seed, which gave the year the name of the " the year of the big seed," and it is, I have no doubt, still known by that name to a few old people. The seed was of no use in the outer islands for the purpose for which it was sent, being unsuitable for the soil. The people got it ground into meal, and in this way it was of service. The crofters were due to the proprietors a considerable portion of the price of that seed, when I ceased to have anything to do with Long Island estates in 1838.

Apart from being in charge of the law for 40 of the next 43 years...

When in Edinburgh learning my profession in 1828-35, I made the acquaintance of Mr Robert Brown, at that time factor for the Duke of Hamilton at Hamilton. Mr Brown had gone to Uist as Sheriff-Substitute of the Long Island District, and factor for Clanranald, I think in 1796, and remained there till he went to Hamilton in 1811. My father succeeded him at Nunton in Benbecula in both offices.

Not only is it extremely questionable that one single person should hold these two particular offices simultaneously, but this is the first time that I have seen it revealed that Charles Shaw’s father, Duncan Shaw, was also a legal practitioner. This invites further investigation.

In the next few passages Shaw describes Robert Brown’s view that Clanranald treated his tenants well, that ‘My connection with North Uist began in 1829, when my father got the management of it from Lord Macdonald in succession to Mr Cameron.’ and that rents were reduced slightly after a valuation in 1830 and were held stable for the next 50 years. This last point being made to rebut the allegation that throughout the Hebrides rents were raised to more than double on account of the peoples increased income from kelp. It is impossible to know for sure what period is being compared here but it is quite possible for both descriptions to be true IF there had been an increase in the number of households paying rent due to the demand for kelp workers. The rental of the estate could thus have increased whilst the rent from each householder was frozen. I shall have to see if further corroboration for either side of the argument can be found.

When in 1842 it became evident that the kelp manufacture must be abandoned, and that the potatoes were beginning to fail, Godfrey Lord Macdonald brought to North Uist from Perthshire a man to superintend the making of drains on the crofts.

It is good to have a definitive date for the decision to cease kelp making in North Uist but equally, unless his memory was playing tricks, the suggestion that the potato crop was already suffering in 1842 is in itself interesting. Was there a weakening of the plants already taking place that may have allowed the blight an easy place to gain a hold in 1846, perhaps?

During the famine of 1836, George Earl of Dunmore sent about 700 bolls of meal to the crofters in Harris, and in 1837, his son Alexander Edward Earl of Dunmore sent 1000 bolls all at prime cost and on credit, and larger quantities in subsequent years, as to which I am not able to speak, having ceased to have official connection with Harris

The traditional responsibility for the territorial chief to provide for his people was still being undertaken by the landlords who usurped them and this, even before it became enshrined in law, clearly caused concern amongst the landowners and their factors. It must, however, be remembered that such emergency relief was provided on the understanding that, eventually, its recipients would pay it back thus adding to the woes to many already impoverished and hungry people.

There was a medical man on the estate, paid much in the same way as in North Uist, and there were three or four schools besides the parish school, all contributed to by Lord Dunmore, and a sewing school kept up by the Countess.

Harris had some medical provision, then, but the thought of just one ‘medical man’ having responsibility for the several thousand scattered souls of Harris and the accompanying isles can have been of little comfort. I have discussed education in Harris elsewhere but would remind readers that the ‘sewing school’ referred to was the embroidery school at An-t-Ob established by the Dowager Countess and Fanny Thomas in 1857. Some say it was essentially a sweat-shop.

During the minority of the present Earl, the Countess, who was his guardian, was unremitting in her attention to the wants of the crofters, and in the trying times that began with the famine of 1846, expended large sums out of her own private means in improving their condition. At an early stage of her connection with the estate, she expended large sums in the purchase of wool and in the employment of the females on the estate in various kinds of manufactures, and exerted herself to an extraordinary extent in the sale of these manufactures.

The implication being that these activities ceased once the 7^th Earl took control on his 21^st birthday.

Charles Shaw, as I think we can easily see, chose each of his thousands of words most carefully and thus his phrases ‘During the minority’ and ‘At an early stage’ surely point at these having been relatively short-lived rather than ongoing endeavours? My research generally supports this view.

I regret that, owing to the distance of my residence at Lochmaddy and the indifferent communication then between these parts of my jurisdiction, I am unable to give such full particulars as I should wish of a work so deserving of being better known.

Clearly wanting to distance himself from Harris, he rather overstates the situation for Lochmaddy and Rodel are less than 15 maritime miles apart, and each of them had regular postal services, the Harris mail boat itself being sited in Strond in 1851  . Certainly Mrs Charles Shaw can be expected to have been in contact with her uncle in Rodel, John Robertson MacDonald the Factor of Harris...

We next get a lengthy description of the circumstances leading to the evictions at Sollas, North Uist, the subsequent sailing of the ‘Hercules’ for Australia and an amazingly self-serving account of correspondence received from grateful emigrants in later years, but these are too large subjects in themselves for inclusion in this piece.

He then turns his attention to communication within the islands and contrasts the relatively infrequent services of past years with the current provision which is described here:

When I left Lochmaddy, a little more than two years ago, there were three steamers in the week trading along the whole of my old jurisdiction, and doing a fair amount of business. The advantages which the visits of these steamers have conferred on these far-away islands it is not easy to overrate. They have given an easy and rapid means of sending all their produce, cattle, sheep, eggs, lobsters, whelks, &c, to all the markets in the kingdom. The men can now get with ease, and at little expense, to the east coast fishing, where they seldom went before, and also to the training ships.  Men and women can, and do continually, go to the south for service, on the other hand, meal and flour, which they now stand so much in need of, they can get rapidly imported, and in fact a new world has been created in these distant islands.

This image of hustle & bustle is not lost on the Commissioners but he has also fed the myth of the supposed remoteness of ‘these far-way islands’, ignoring the fact that a flotilla of sailing vessels plied the coastal waters of Scotland’s West coast throughout the period making for much more effective communications than Shaw would have us believe.

Another source for making money which, within recent years, young men from these islands have largely availed themselves of, is the militia service. There are rather more than 1000 men in the militia regiment, embodied from the counties of Banff, Elgin, Nairn, and Inverness. Of that number sometimes as many as 700 are said to be natives of the three parishes of North and South Uist and Harris, and the number from these islands is, I am told, seldom less than 600.

About two-thirds of the manpower recruited from four Counties came from just three Parishes within Inverness-shire. This is a far from unfamiliar kind of statistic regarding the huge contribution made by islanders to the fighting-forces but Shaw paints it merely as being ‘Another source of making money’ rather than as a reminder of a long and honourable tradition.

Another long passage argues against some of the evidence that the Commission had heard in both North and South Uist, even pointing out that one man was born four years after the evictions and suggesting that his testimony was mere ‘hearsay’ which neatly ignores the fact that those appearing at the Commission were selected by local people and given time to prepare their evidence. It is therefore entirely plausible that someone would be chosen for their confidence in reading and speaking English rather than because they were able to give an eyewitness account. The term 'hearsay' is revealingly patronising to a preominantly oral culture.

Of another witness Shaw says:

Then the delegate mentions that Mr Cooper states in a pamphlet that Mr Macdonald telegraphed to Earl Grey for a regiment of soldiers. What Mr Cooper says in his pamphlet I really do not know, but what the delegate says is not correct Sir George Grey and not Earl Grey was Home Secretary. Mr Macdonald neither telegraphed nor did anything else about soldiers or evictions. There was no telegraph in North Uist for more than twenty years after these evictions. There was no emigrant ship brought to Lochmaddy to take families to Australia.

The first two points, namely the confusion between the two Greys and the anachronism regarding the alleged use of a telegraph two decades before the undersea cable link had been established, are, perhaps, mildly amusing in themselves but hardly strong evidence for doubting the general circumstances that the witness had described.

The final point is interesting in confirming that those emigrating to Australia, at least prior to 1883, would have had to have met their ocean-going vessel elsewhere (most likely in Glasgow or Liverpool).

We are someway past the halfway mark of Charles Shaw’s statement and I think a pause is required before looking at what he has to say about the kelp industry and also of the land issue in the islands.

These links to previous entries that are about, or mention, the roles of Charles Shaw and his father may be of interest. The timeline is useful for observing the sequence of events in Harris during the period.

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2010/11/i-assisted-my-father-as-factor-of.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2011/03/factors-linking-factors.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2011/03/clearance-of-borve-harris-1839.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2010/05/duncan-shaw.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2011/02/duncan-shaw-charles-shaw-of-north-uist.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2010/05/obe-harris-thursday-may-311883.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2010/04/harris-timeline.html

Schooling in Lochs 1797-1881

As a result of a recent enquiry I thought I’d have a look at educational provision in the Parish of Lochs, Lewis. The first reference is to be found in The Statistical Account of Scotland where we learn from the Rev Mr Alexander  Simson that a Parochial Schoolhouse had been built during the previous year and a ‘Society’ (presumably SSPCK) schoolhouse constructed some two years prior to that. Two spinning schools (the majority of spinning in the islands at the time was performed using the distaff and spindle rather than with a spinning wheel) were operating, paid for jointly by the wife of the proprietor, Colonel Francis Humberston Mackenzie of Seaforth,  and the SSPCK. This, in sum, was the situation of schooling in Lochs in 1797.

The Rev Robert Finlayson composed his entry for Lochs in The New Statistical Account of Scotland in 1833 and the book itself was published in 1845, As an aside we may note that, according to Finlayson, no Parish Register had been kept for Lochs before his arrival in 1831 and in this regard his parish was suffering from a similar lack of records as the neighbouring Parish of Harris. There were four schools provided by the Gaelic School Society but no parish school as there was no accommodation until the recent erection of a schoolhouse. I wonder what had become of the Parochial Schoolhouse that Simson had mentioned?

By the time of the eventual publication in 1845 many changes had occurred since Finlayson penned his account but we can get a snapshot of educational provision from the census taken in 1841.

The 1841 Census records five Schoolmasters in Lochs:

Peter MacEwen, 35, Lemreway

Donald MacFarlane, 40, Laxay

Malcolm MacCritchie, 35, North Shawbost

Allan Ross, 35, Keose

John Shaw, 50, Borroston(?)

The sole Gaelic Teacher was:

John MacLean,  25, Keose, b. Ross & Cromarty

An eventful decade later, one in which the Clearances, the Disruption and the ongoing Famines were perhaps the most significant of several factors, sees a different set of six Schoolmasters:

William Denon, 50, Keose, b. Cromarty

William MacKay, 28, Balallan, b. Durness, Sutherland

We may also note the presence of an unemployed schoolmaster;

Donald MacKey, 28, Loval, b. Durness, Sutherland

Donald was one of seven members of the MacKay household at Loval Cottage, headed by his widowed 64 year-old mother, and he was quite possibly the (twin?) brother of William MacKay in Balallan.

The  Gaelic (School) Teachers were:

 John MacLean, 43, Laxay, b. Ross & Cormarty

Norman MacLennan, 51, Leurbost, b. Uig, Ross-shire

Murdo MacDonald, 48, North Shawbost, b. Uig, Ross-shire

Malcolm Morrison, 36, Calbost, b. Uig, Ross-shire

The presence of four teachers in different locations certainly appears to match with the provision of education by the Gaelic School society mentioned 18 years earlier but the presence of North Shawbost in the census for Lochs is confusing me as I thought it lay in the Parish of Barvas?

There is no sign of much changing by 1861 when the only two schoolmasters are Angus Murray, 60, Schoolhouse, b. Dornoch, Sutherlandshire and locally-born John Smith, 28 and three teachers are to be seen:

Kenneth MacKenzie, 40, Gaelic Teacher, Day School, b. Lochbroom

Malcolm Morrison, 48, Gaelic Teacher, Day School, b. Uig, Ross-shire

Angus Morrison, 18, Teacher, Day School, b. Uig, Ross-shire (Son of Malcolm)

Similarly, in  1871:

Alexander Crawford, 33, Keose, b. Stralachlan, Argyllshire

Donald MacIver, 19, Laxay, b. Lochs

Alexander MacIver (no further details)

John MacLeod, 50, Marvig, b. Harris

Malcolm Morrison, 56, Laxay, b. Uig, Ross-shire

Alexander Morrison, 22, Laxay, b. Uig, Ross-shire (Son of Malcolm, above)

Donald Smith, 18, Lemreway, b. Lochs

There is also Roderick MacLeod, 28, Cromore, b. Lochs who may have been the Gaelic School’s teacher at this time whilst two families of fishermen were apparently the sole occupants of a pair of school houses.

The 1872 Education (Scotland)Act  introduced compulsory English education, outlawing Gaelic from the school grounds with a rigour that surpassed the vigour of previous centuries with which the banning of the wearing of Highland dress and the carrying of arms had been accomplished.

Thus by 1881 schooling in Lochs had expanded but only one Gaelic School appears to have survived:

J C Clarke, Leurbost, b. Kilmuir

Alexander Crawford, 43, b. Stralachlan, Argyllshire

John Cumming, 36, Ranish, b. Knockando, Elgin

Roderick MacKenzie, Marvig, b. Lochs

Murdo MacLeod, 37, Kershader, b. Lochs

Alexander Morison, 28, Cromore, b. Lochs

We must also note the presence of two Sewing Mistresses:

Anne MacLeod, 46, Kershader, b. Lochs (Sister of Murdo, above)

Chirsty  Morison, 19, Cromore, b. Lochs (Sister of Alexander Morison, above)

In addition we have another ten Teachers, Assistant Teachers & Pupil Teachers recorded:

Duncan Fraser, 21, Crossbost, b. Daviot, Inverness-shire

Donald MacLeod, 16, Laxay, b. Lochs

Murdo Martin, 19, Arivruaich, b. Uig, Ross-shire

Kenneth MacKenzie, 26, Gravir, b. Gravir

Donald MacKenzie, 19, Grimshader, b. Lochs

Donald MacKinnon, 25, Balallan, b. Lochs

John MacLeod, 60, Cromore, b. Harris (Gaelic  School)

Murdo MacLeod, 37, Kershader, b. Lochs

Alexander Morrison, 28, Cromore, b. Lochs

Alex Ross, 54, Balallan, b. Perth, Blair

In summary, from the scant evidence that such records as these provide, it appears that the people of Lochs managed against all adversity to maintain Gaelic education for their children right up until the implementation of the 1872 Act. This is testament to the thirst for knowledge and respect for education that both of the Ministers who wrote for the Statistical Accounts had taken the time to remark upon in their respective reports and yet another rebuttal of the prevailing establishment view of the Gael...

I shall return to look at provision post the 1883 Napier Report in a later piece, but meanwhile an excellent article on the history of education in Lewis, and specifically in the neighbouring Parish of Uig, may be found here: http://www.ceuig.com/history/church-and-school/early-schools

References:

Statistical Account Pages -

http://stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/link/1791-99/Ross%20and%20Cromarty/Lochs/19/277/

http://stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/link/1834-45/Ross%20and%20Cromarty/Lochs/14/168/

Highland Folk Ways

I mentioned in this earlier piece about Isabel Frances Grant that I wished to share my thoughts on her book ‘Highland Folk Ways’ and that time has finally arrived.

I like everything about this almost encyclopaedic volume that covers virtually all aspects of Gaelic culture and places them within a broadly sweeping background description of the history of the Highlands & Islands.

I happen to prefer books that are written with a passion for their subject but combined with a scholarly approach and deep knowledge of the material that is being covered. ‘Highland Folk Ways’  is all these things and in fact the only downside is the appearance of the word ‘folk’ in its title for that word is somewhat demeaning in the all-encompassing world of Gaelic culture. It is a failing that Isabel Grant herself was well aware of but perhaps there is no better small, single word with which to convey the content of her work?

The book constantly reminds us that the people more than compensated for their lack of material resources by an immense resourcefulness that continues to this day despite the descent into the ‘disposable culture’ of more modern times.  It also demonstrates the appropriateness of the tools used, for example, in cultivating the land and the damage wrought by so-called ‘improvement’, both to the people and the land, is hinted-at too.

I do not mean to imply that there was some ‘Golden Age’ when the Highlands & Islands flowed with milk & honey and we must always remember that such supposedly  ‘traditional’ aspects of life as tea, tobacco and the potato were each relatively recent imports to the culture!

Thus the book presents a dynamic picture rather than a static one and helps fill the gap between a sloppy ‘guide-book’ style of history (with its ‘traditional crofting’ type of approach*) and that of the academic thesis which, for all its scholarship, lie unloved in a library awaiting awakening.

Isabel Grant wrote her ‘popular’, accessible and thought-provoking history just over 50 years ago, and it has been followed by several equally excellent books by more recent authors that convey complex issues in an equally engaging and well-written manner, but if one is looking for a single-volume introduction to the history of Gaelic culture than hers has yet to be beaten.

*Crofting is a little over 200 years old which, in the context of the millennia of occupation of the Highlands & Islands, is but a fleeting moment ago...

Where to buy the book:

In addition to online retailers (including those dealing in secondhand books which are especially attractive if you prefer your books to be affordable hardbacks!) it can be obtained direct from the Highland Folk Museum’s shop - http://www.highlandfolk.com/shop.php

Another Photo Of 'Jessie'?

In this earlier piece I discussed the 'Jessie' of Stornoway which my ancestors owned & sailed whilst plying the coastal trade around the islands & mainland of Western Scotland.

I have discovered another image of a two-masted cargo vessel in Stornoway that appeared in a catalogue of images published in 1893. It is to be found in the George Washington Wilson collection at Aberdeen University Library and is an extremely rare stereoscopic close-up showing the stern and deck of a cargo sailing ship working in Scotland towards the end of the 19th Century.

I cannot be sure that she is indeed the 'Jessie' but the photo provides the best image that I have seen of this type of vessel and allows one's imagination to explore what it would have been like to sail such a ship, taking all kinds of cargo around these coasts and providing a vital service to island trade and communications.

This link will take you to the full details and clicking on the image will open a new page with a view that may be zoomed & explored revealing many fascinating details.

I wonder who the gentleman (usefully providing us with a scale to estimate the size of the ship, etc) is?

Borve Mission House, Isle of Harris

In the course of a piece of research, I came upon a wedding in 1904 that took place at the Borve Mission House, Harris.

The certificate records that the ceremony was performed ‘According to the Forms of the United Free Church of Scotland.’ The Minister was one Farquhar Kennedy from Lochalsh who in 1901 was boarding at Manish Cottage with the Davidson family of the late Free Church Minister, Alexander Davidson.

Not having previously heard of Borve Mission House, I endeavoured to learn more about it. A search on RCAHMS  produced the Mission House in the old school building on Scarp and a Mission Hall in Seilibost Seilibost . A more general search returned the Finsbay Mission House which is now an art studio but certainly was performing its earlier function according to the records of the 1901 Census when the family of the 44 year-old Missionary Ronald MacSween were living there.

That same Census also provides us with a United Free Church Missionary at Little Borve. He was 56 year-old Donald MacDonald with his wife and two daughters, the younger of whom having been born in North Uist some 18 years earlier unlike her sister and parents who were all born in Harris. Their home is not referred to as 'Borve Mission House' but whether that is significant or not I cannot tell.

(Incidentally, in the previous Census of 1891 there was a Missionary along the coast at Big Borve, Lachlan Munro, but this was prior to the formation of the United Free Church)

Turning to the United Free Church for possible assistance, I found this interesting and useful brief history but the only archives I can locate do not appear to include those of missionaries working in Scotland?

Finally, I have been unable to find Borve Mission House on any maps so if anyone can provide some more details about this building I would be delighted to hear from you!

Isabel Frances Grant (1887-1983) in 1891

I am intending writing a short piece on ‘Highland Folk Ways’, the book published in 1961 which remains perhaps the best single-volume introduction to the history of Scottish Gaelic culture in all its guises.

However, whilst I was undertaking some background research regarding the book’s author, Dr I F Grant, I discovered that at the time of the 1891 Census she was living in a particularly interesting household:

The three year-old is found with her paternal grandparents, Sir Patrick Grant and Frances Maria Grant, in the 'Chelsea Hospital' in London. Sir Patrick was a Field Marshall and Governor of the Royal Hospital Chelsea until his death in 1895.

Dr Grant was to found the Highland Folk Museum , and in 2008 her account of that work was published.

A more detailed biography may be read on Am Baile but I thought it worth noting the little girl’s presence at an institution which included many Highlanders & Islanders amongst its in-patients and out-patients as demonstrated in this brief entry regarding Chelsea Pensioners found in Harris.

A slight diversion from my original intention, but one that I thought worth sharing!

Untangling the Web (Makers)

A couple of years ago I wrote about the unusual occurrence of the term 'Web Maker' as an occupation amongst the good ladies of Harris in 1891 & 1901, ending with the promise to investigate further when the 1911 Census had become searchable.

I am revisiting the topic because in fact the term disappeared almost as quickly as it had popped-up in 1891! It is an occupation wholly unique to Harris and, with the sole exception recorded from 1901 in my earlier piece, exclusively in the 1891 Census.

However, its usage in that year was far more commonplace than I first indicated for, because I was still at an early stage in teaching myself how to interrogate the database, I had overlooked those ladies who rather than being recorded as a ‘Web Maker’ were listed as being a ‘Webmaker’.

A small but highly significant difference!

Thus in 1891 we find no less than 136 women on Harris who were Web Makers/Webmakers and of these no less than 121 specify that what they producing was ‘Tweed’.

This is significant for two important reasons:

Firstly, it reinforces my finding that the term ‘Harris Tweed’ made a very late appearance on the stage and only once those ladies promoting the ‘Home Industries’ via a variety of organisations had begun their endeavours.

Secondly, as I have been unable to discover any distinguishing features separating ‘web making’ from ‘weaving’ as being terms for the production of woven cloth from spun yarn, it means that we can add to the number of weaveresses these webmakers and hence review the economic importance of the production of Harris Tweed to Harris in 1891.

In 1891 Harris Tweed appears to have been being made by at least 247 Weaveresses and 136 Webmakers so that a total of 383 women were creating Harris Tweed at this time.

As there were some 2,662 women & girls living in Harris in 1891, that figure represents over 14% of the female population of the island!

This all fits rather well with an account from 1888 , which incidentally also demonstrates the longevity of the involvement of  'Mrs Captain Thomas' with the work of regenerating the island following the famines & failure of the Kelp-industry earlier in the Century.

Another Maritime Casualty

I mentioned in this earlier piece that John Macleod (1879-1911), who became John Kerr when his mother Margaret Maclennan married his stepfather Roderick Kerr, had been a sailor and that he died at sea.

The somewhat scant details are that sometime on Saturday 13^th of May 1911, when the vessel Castlefield was in ‘Genoa Harbour’, John was drowned. The circumstances leading to the 31 year-old Able Seaman’s drowning are not recorded.

The 2255 ton (1483 Net Tonnage) Castlefield had been built in Stockton in 1890 and a record of the life of this ‘iron cargo steamship’ from then until her eventual demise in 1958 can be seen here. We can see that from 1906 she was the property of W. S. Miller & Co. of Glasgow whose flag may be seen here. 

John’s last place of abode is given on his certificate as 204 Kelvinhaugh Street, Glasgow but this is followed by the word ‘Ship’ in brackets which is a slightly enigmatic addition? What is certain is that he was British and born in Harris for each of these is stated unambiguously.

I can barely begin to imagine the loss felt by his family back in ‘Obbe’, Harris when they received the news of the loss of their son, a term I use because I am sure that Roderick was a loving stepfather (he allowed John to take his name, for example) and, as the wee lad was only in his second year of life when the couple married at Scarista on Tuesday 22^nd of February 1881, Roderick would have been the only father that John would have known.

RIP John (Macleod) Kerr 1879-1911