The latest release of
Valuation Rolls online provides an excellent window into Harris at a time
when people on the estate were still suffering from the after-effects of famines, forced emigrations and the fear of further clearances.
It was being
administered by the Factor John Robertson MacDonald on behalf of the
Tutors of the 14 year-old 7th Earl of Dunmore and a
cursory glance at the Harris Timeline
may help provide the context within which this particular roll sits.
In this account I have used the spellings as they appear on the
original document.
The record begins in
Berneray where the whole of Borve, the cleared township occupying the
fertile machair on the west of the island, was a Sheep Farm rented to
William MacNeil for £120. The township of Rushgarry, on the other
hand, wa divided into 21 separate crofts paying rents ranging from £4
to £20 and totalling £161 12s 6d.
The islands near North
Uist in the Sound of Harris, owned by Harris following a fifty-year
long legal wrangle, we being rented for £7 7s by 'K MacDonald',
presumably the farmer Kenneth MacDonald who, in 1847, was the
Assistant Factor responsible for the debacle of the attempted
resettlement of Borve in Harris. He would later appear before the Napier Commission
to give his view of how Harris had been faring during his long period
of residence.
We then reach the
island of Harris itself and here there are listed seven Sheep Farms
and their tenants, plus the one on the island of Taransay:
Hushinish – Sheep
Grazing (Alexander McRae £884 6s 11 1/2d)
Luskintyre (Finlay
McRae £320)
Taransay (John McDonald
£177 10s)
Rodil (John Robertson
McDonald £160)
Scarista Vore (Kenneth
McDonald £120)
Marig (Widow C Morrison
£83)
Ardvourlie (Donald
Stewart - Shepherd £80)
Borves (Kenneth McRae
£76)
Little Scarista (Robert
Clarke £67 4s 6d)
Bunavin Edder
(Alexander Grant - Shepherd £47)
It is, I think, worth
noting that four of these men, John Robertson MacDonald ( Factor,
born Snizort, Inverness-shire) John MacDonald, Tacksman, born
Harris), Alexander McRae (Tacksman born Glenshiel, Ross-shire ) and
Robert Clark (Surgeon, from Argyll) were on the dozen-strong Parochial Board of Harris in 1851
.
One thing I am
currently unclear about is whether Luskintyre was held by Finlay
MacRae, the Minister in North Uist who happened to also be the factor John
Robertson MacDonald's brother-in- law, so if anyone can assist in
clarifying that then I would be most grateful.
Finally, we have the
Deer Forest of Harris rented by Lord Hill for £300 and Scalpay Light
House Grounds for which the Commissioners of Northern Lights were
paying £24 5s 5d annually.
Next time: Crofters &
Cottars.
