Joanna McCaig (MS
McLeod) died in Edinburgh on 2 December 1959 of Cardiovascular
degeneration. Her son, Norman, registered the death.. His widowed
mother would have been 82 just a few weeks later.
In an earlier piece I mentioned that Johanna had been born in Scalpay on 28
December 1877 to William MacLeod and his wife Effie Martin. She was
the seventh of eight children and we first glimpse the young family,
six years before her birth, in the census of 1871 when they were in
Scalpay Village:
William MacLeod, 35,
Fisherman, Head, b. Isle of Pabbay
Effie MacLeod, 26,
Wife, b. Scalpay
Julia MacLeod, 6, b.
Scalpay
John MacLeod, 5,b.
Scalpay
Flora MacLeod, 1, b.
Scalpay
Chirsty MacLeod,
2months, b. Scalpay
This is the only
reference we have to William being from Pabbay but the 1841 Census,
the last before that island was Cleared to replace people with
profit, shows the 8 year-old William together with his siblings Flora
(6) and Donald (2) . Their father was an agricultural labourer, John
MacLeod (50) and his mother Catherine MacLeod (30). However, there
was also a woman in the household called Julia MacLeod (40) and it is
interesting to see her name given to William and Effie's firstborn.
William and Effie's
neighbours in 1871 were Donald MacLeod and family, including Donald's
mother, Chirsty. Both Chirsty and Donald were born in Pabbay and I
think therefore were William's brother and mother, the whole family
having been driven from their home in Pabbay during the 1840s.
At the time of the 1881
Census William and Euphemia's household comprised:
William MacLeod, 46,
Fisherman, Head, b. Harris
Euphemia MacLeod, 37,
Wife, b. Lochs, Ross & cromarty
John MacLeod, 15,
Fisherman, Son, b. Harris
Flora MacLeod, 11,
Daughter, Scholar, b. Harris
Norman MacLeod, 8, Son,
Scholar, b. Harris
Roderick MacLeod, 6,
Son, Scholar, b. Harris
Johanna MacLeod, 3,
Daughter, b. Harris
James MacLeod, 1, Son,
b. Harris
I am slightly confused
by the reference to Effie (Euphemia MacLeod) having been born in Lochs, but it may well
be that her mother, Flora Martin (MS MacLeod), was a Lochie for there
are many connections between Harris families and those in Lochs,
Lewis.
Julia MacLeod, 17, was
visiting another family in Scalpay at the time of the census, and
Chirsty MacLeod appears as Christina MacLeod who, at the tender age
of 10, was already working as a 'General Servant' for a family of
MacSwains in the island.
At 8 o'clock on the
morning of Saturday 28 January 1882 Effy MacLeod died of influenza,
having been ill for some eight days. Her son, John, registered her
death giving her age as 39.
At 9 o'clock on the
morning of Sunday 12 February 1882 William MacLeod died of severe
cold, having been ill for some fourteen days. His son, John,
registered his death giving his age as 48.
William had survived
his wife by just fifteen days and their eight children aged from 2 to
15 had been orphaned in just a couple of weeks. It is almost
impossible to comprehend their situation.
Nine years later the
1891 Census finds John MacLeod, a 25 year-old fisherman, heading the
household that contains his two wool-spinning sisters, Julia (26) and
Christina (16), and their brother James (12) who is still at school.
Half of the family have stayed together under one roof in Scalpay.
Flora (21), Norman (18) and Roderick (16) appear to be absent from
Scalpay but may have been elsewhere in Harris.
I cannot locate Johanna
MacLeod (13) in the 1891 Census, but she is definitely not in Scalpay
nor in Harris, however by 1901 Joan MacLeod is working in Leith as a
Laundry Maid, the only person with Gaelic in the family she serves.
There is also a visitor called William A Peterkin whose occupation is
given as 'Artist (Vocalist)' which is somewhat unusual.
So, when Norman MacCaig
visited his mother's family in Scalpay it was her siblings that he
remembers and celebrates in his poems. Aunt Julia is perhaps the best
known, but Uncle Roderick clearly returned to Scalpay for we have
this wonderful poem about him which contains the lines:
Round Rhu
nan Cuideagan
he steered
for home, a boy's god
in
seaboots. He found his anchorage
as a bird
its nest.
