Fàilte! (Welcome!)

Fàilte! (Welcome!)
This blog is the result of my ongoing research into the people, places and events that have shaped the Western Isles of Scotland and, in particular, the 'Siamese-twins' of Harris and Lewis.
My interest stems from the fact that my Grandfather was a Stornowegian and, until about four years ago, that was the sum total of my knowledge, both of him and of the land of his birth.
I cannot guarantee the accuracy of everything that I have written (not least because parts are, perhaps, pioneering) but I have done my best to check for any errors.
My family mainly lived along the shore of the Sound of Harris, from An-t-Ob and Srannda to Roghadal, but one family 'moved' to Direcleit in the Baighs...

©Copyright 2011 Peter Kerr All rights reserved

Thursday 17 February 2011

Appeal from the Court of Session 2nd July 1830

Maclellan took from Macleod a lease of the farm of Ensay, in the island of Harris, from Whitsunday 1813, for a term of twenty-one years, at a yearly rent of 250L...
...Macleod agreed to allow a reduction, and both parties agreed that the amount of deduction should be referred to Robert Brown of Hamilton, who had been factor for Macleod...
...In the meantime, Maclellan held on...without paying any rent, its falling in arrear being held immaterial, as Macleod was indebted to Maclellan in 1,000L. on bond.

The intricacies of this case are not what interests me (although  Macleod being in debt to Maclellan to the sum of 1000L in 1813, which could be perhaps be the equivalent of £100,000 or more today, is somewhat alarming!) but  because of the fact that it tells us who was farming Ensay at this time and that the Factor was a Robert Brown of Hamilton.

Macleod was Alexander Norman Macleod, son of Alexander Hume Macleod and grandson of Captain Macleod of Harris. He had inherited the island only a couple of years before this letting of Ensay and it must have been around this time that he made the disastrous appointment of Donald Stewart, who had moved to Luskintyre from Lewis in 1809, as his new Factor.

Within 4 years of this court case, Harris had been sold to the Earl of Dunmore and soon afterwards this profligate Macleod was dead and yet another new Factor, Duncan Shaw, had been appointed.

Ref: Reports of Cases upon Appealsand Writs of Error in the House of Lords, and decided during the Sessions of 1831-1832. London 1832

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