"On the 10th of March, Mr. R. Mackenlar, Chairman of the School Board of Harris, wrote to Mr. James Nicol—
If Dr. Cameron's Seeds Bill does not pass I look with great alarm to the future. Next year, and in all probability many more years, must be equally trying to the great majority of our people;
£30 a-week would only give 2½ stones of meal (5s. worth) to each of 120 families. I am confident this is under what the last few days' experience warrants me to give.
The Rev. Donald Maclean, Established Church Manse, Harris, wrote—
I beg to bring to your notice the case of
about 20 families in my parish and neighbourhood who are actually in a state of great starvation.
He had also a letter which he had received from Rev. A. Davidson, Free Manse, Harris, on the 9th of March, who wrote—
I have had occasion lately to be extensively among my people, which afforded me an opportunity of knowing their state.
Some said the destitution was not greater in 1846, the year of the potato famine, than in this year. All parties agree that potato seed would be the best help that could be sent to the people. At present,
there are 200 or 220 families in my district that would require help. I understand that the grain crop, oats and barley, was as much a failure with many of them as the potatoes were. What could be done for grain seeds I do not know, and I am painfully informed that there are some families quite destitute and without food.
The Earl of Dunmore has given some work at the Home Farm to those who were in arrear of rent, very useful in itself, but confined to a certain class, and far from meeting a want that I may say extended to all parties." This, then, was the desperate situation in Harris in the Spring of 1883.
Examining each piece of correspondence in turn:
Mr. R. Mackenlar, Chairman of the School Board of Harris:2½ stones, at 14lbs (pounds) to a stone, is 35lbs of meal per family per week.
Thus each family would get a daily allowance of 5lbs of meal.
At this time the average household in Harris had five or six mouths to feed so each person would be subsisting on 1lb of meal per day. That is 450g. If the families were larger, and ten to twelve was far from uncommon, then the mass of meal drops to 250g per mouth.
Rev. Donald Maclean, Established Church Manse, Harris:To highlight that 20 families are in a state of great starvation, within the context that the other letters provide, suggests that these families, who could total perhaps as many as 200 people or more, were in peril.
Rev. A. Davidson, Free Manse, Harris:The comparison with 1846 provides further proof of the dreadful situation in 1883 and it should be remembered that the potato famines in the islands continued only ended in 1851 but their effect was less severe in the islands, especially when compared to what was allowed to happen in Ireland.
Alexander Davidson was in
Manish. and it is safe to suggest that his district would include a large part, possibly all, of the Bays and along the southern coast of Harris perhaps as far west as An-t-Ob. It may well have included the whole of South Harris ie everywhere south of the isthmus at Tarbert.
The 200-220 families he refers to would probably contain between 1000 and 2500 people.Together they formed from at least one-quarter up to to more than half of the recorded population of Harris at the time.
Incidentally, there were only 673 separate families living in the Harris ‘mainland’ in 1881, with another 98 in Scalpay, 42 in Scarp, and a total of only 34 more families in all of St Kilda, Taransay, Ensay, Killigray, and Pabbay. Berneray had 85 families but is unlikely to have been included in the district under discussion.
For reference, I have a couple of brief pieces on the populations of North Harris and South Harris:
I am not completely confident as to the location of the ‘Home Farm’ in 1883 but if it was Rodel then my relative Angus Kerr, age 48, was the Farm Manager but I think by then Borve had become the centre of operations. Thomas Brydone had been appointed as the Factor of South Harris in November/December 1882 and his predecessor, Kenneth MacDonald, Farmer and Factor, had resided in Borve which points to that perhaps being the location? That the jobs created by the Earl of Dunmore were
“...confined to a certain class, and far from meeting a want that I may say extended to all parties.” is a pretty damning indictment as to the relevance of them to tackling destitution.
They were merely working in lieu of paying rent.
There is also this report from March 1883 which I examined that helps to amplify the situation:
