'...and as many more in the adjacent Isles...'

The stimulus for this piece came from the 'Parliamentary Abstracts; Containing The Substance Of All Important Papers Laid Before The Two Houses Of Parliament During The Session of 1825'.

In a table introduced by the sentence; 'The following list shews the places at which churches have been directed to be built; most of them absolutely, a few provisionally:' , I noticed that in the Parish of Harris on 'Berneray Isle' a church was to be built for the population of 500:

'And as many more in the adjacent Isles of Pabbay and Killigray.'

Reading that, in 1825, the population of these three islands in the Sound of Harris was estimated to be 1000 souls I wanted to investigate further. Although a decennial census had been introduced in 1801, the first four of these only provide a figure for the population of the whole Parish.

For Harris, these figures were:

1801 2996

1811 3569

1821 3909

1831 3900

Our year, 1825, lies neatly between two censuses in which the population, despite all the displacements that were occurring, remained remarkably stable at circa 3900 people.

Thus the 1000 estimated to be living on our three islands were about one-quarter of the parish's people reminding us that 'Prior to the nineteenth century, the majority of the population of Harris lived on the machair of the west coast and on Pabaigh and its neighbouring islands (Berneray/Beàrnaraigh, Ensay/Easaigh and Killegray/Ceileagraigh)' http://www.paparproject.org.uk/hebrides2.html

As an aside, we have this communication from the 18th of July 1832 which I think is illuminating.

The later censuses do provide figures for each island in the Parish of Harris and those for the years 1841-1871 are given below. I have shown the number of males and females and computed the average 'people per hearth' for each island with the trio of isles that are our focus shown in bold:

1841 - 7^th June

Anabich 18 males and 23 females in 7 houses (41/7 = 5.9 people per hearth)

Bernera 335 males and 378 females in 130 houses (713/130 = 5.5pph)

Ensay 7 males and 9 females in 2 houses (16/2 = 8pph)

Hermitray 5 males and 3 females in 1 house (8/1 = 8pph)

Killigray 3 males and 2 females in 2 houses (5/2 = 2.5pph)

Pabbay 179 males and 159 females in 61 houses (338/61 = 5.5pph)

Scalpay 14 males and 17 females in 4 houses (31/4 = 7.8pph)

Scarp 60 males and 69 females in 23 houses (129/23 = 5.6pph)

Tarrinsay 38 males and 50 females in 16 houses (88/16 = 5.5pph)

There were 1056 living on our three islands which was almost 23% of the total of 4646 people in the Parish of Harris.

Five years later the first of the Potato Famines occurred and the response of the Factor can be seen in his letter of the 21st August 1846 to the Countess of Dunmore.

1851 - 31^st March

Anabich 63 people in 12 houses (63/12 = 5.3pph)

Bernera 452 people in 89 houses (452/89 = 5.1pph)

Ensay 14 people in 3 houses (14/3 = 4.7pph)

Hermitray Uninhabited

Killigray 7 people in 1 house (7/1 = 7pph)

Pabbay 29 people in 6 houses (29/6 = 4.8pph)

Scalpay 282 people in 48 houses (282/48 = 5.9pph)

Scarp 145 people in 29 houses (145/29 = )

Tarrinsay 55 people in 11 houses (55/11 = 5pph)

Only 488 living on our three islands which was less than 12% of the Parish total of 4254.

Nine out of every ten people from Pabbay and one-in-three of the population of 'Bernera' had gone.

Just four days after the census, on the 4^th of April 1851, the Factor John Robertson Macdonald in 'Rodil' was being 'interrogated' by Sir John McNeill and an earlier piece analyses his account.

We should also note the dramatic increase in the population of Scalpay that had occurred, the reasons for which are to be seen in this investigation.

1861 - 8^th April

Anabich Not listed

Bernera 130 males and 185 females in 64 houses (315/64 = 4.9pph)

Ensay 10 males and 5 females in 2 houses (15/2 = 7.5pph)

Hermitray Not listed

Killigray 2 males and 3 females in 1 house (5/1 = 5.0pph)

Pabbay 10 males and 11 females in 4 houses (21/4 = 5.3pph)

Scalpay 199 males and 189 females in 71 houses (338/71 = 4.8pph)

Scarp 72 males and 79 females in 27 houses ( 151/27 = 5.6pph)

Tarrinsay 25 males and 30 females in 12 houses (55/12 = 4.6pph)

There were just 341 living on our three islands or about 8% of the 4174 people of Harris.

Once again, almost one third of the remaining people of Bernera had gone leaving just under half the hearths from the 130 of two decades earlier.

1871 - 3^rd April

Anabich Not listed

Bernera 169 males and 204 females in 75 houses (373/75 = 5.0pph)

Ensay 4 males and 2 females in 1 house (6/1 = 6pph)

Hermitray Not listed

Killigray 3 males and 6 females in 1 house (9/1 = 9pph)

Pabbay 3 males and 5 females in 2 houses (8/2 = 4pph)

Scalpay 222 males and 199 females in 82 houses (421/82 = 5.1pph

Scarp 78 males and 78 females in 33 houses (156/33 = 4.7pph)

Tarrinsay 35 males and 33 females in 12 houses (68/12 = 5.7pph)

A small increase to 390 living on our three islands but still only just reaching double-figures again at 10% of the the people of the Parish.

Bernera's population had risen by 18% but the island trio would have needed nearly three times as many residents to regain the proportion of the population that had led to the church being built there only four-and-a-half decades earlier...

Note: I have left all spellings as they appear in the original sources, except that those for the census lists are 'standardised' from the 1841 census rather than reflecting the variations that appear in some of the subsequent decades.

Sources:

http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/

Friday, 4th April 1851 - Sir John McNeill

In the previous piece, I gave a brief indication of Sir John McNeill's progress through the islands beginning with his overnight stay with the Mathesons at Lews Castle on Sunday the 30^th of March. He was in Carloway, Lochs on the Monday, had reached Uig by Tuesday and Harris by Thursday. The next day he was:

At Rodil, Harris, 4th April 1851

Meaning that he'd covered half of the four Parishes of Lewis in just three days!

John Robertson Macdonald, Esq., being interrogated, replied :

I am factor on the Harris estate of Lord Dunmore, and I have been so for nearly eight years-since 1844.

This was the last year of the 6^th Earl's life & ended Duncan Shaw's decade as Factor of Harris.

Sixty-four crofters have been removed from the lands they had previously occupied, with a view to improve their own condition and that of the crofters remaining in the farms from which they were removed. At Whitsunday 1848 forty crofters were removed from the island of Bernera, then occupied by eighty-one, and the lands thus vacated divided amongst the forty-one who remained. Those who were removed, with two or three exceptions, were placed in crofts upon lands previously occupied by tacksmen. Six of the number who, with one exception, had occupied crofts of about five acres in Bernera, were settled in the Borves, on crofts of ten acres of arable, and hill-grazing for four milk cows, and followers till two years old, with forty sheep and a horse—about double the amount of stock which, with one exception, they had in Bernera. The exceptional case referred to, was that of a man who had a ten-acre croft in Bernera, with an amount of black cattle stock equal to that for which he got grazing in the Borves, but who had no sheep. They are all in arrear of rent, and, on an average, for upwards of two years. These six tenants were selected as the best in Bernera in respect to their circumstances. I attribute their want of success to the depreciation in the price of black cattle, and to their not having had sufficient capital to put upon their lands a full stock when they entered. Their stipulated rent in the Borves is on an average L.12.

This resettlement of Borve on Harris had been at the behest of a commissioner for the 'Tutor' of the 6th Earl (charged with looking after the boy's Estate until he was old enough to manage his own affairs), one Captain Sitwell. Macdonald was against the idea from the start but it is significant that he cites the state of the market and the crofter's lack of finance as the reason for the failure. The fall in price of the cattle is an unfortunate fact of life in market economies but the lack of capitalisation meant that the experiment was pretty well doomed from the start. Hardly the displaced crofters' fault, either of these factors, Factor!

Of the forty-one who remained with enlarged crofts in Bernera, the whole are now largely in arrears, and have increased their arrears since their holdings were enlarged. I attribute their want of success to the same causes as that of the people removed to the Borves.

And I repeat the comment made previously, too.

The result of this attempt to improve the condition of these crofters, by enlarging their crofts, while it has failed to accomplish that object, has at the same time entailed a considerable pecuniary loss on the proprietor.

Here we are getting a little closer to the cause of the 'problem' – namely the conflict of interest between the (frequently absent) landed gentry owning the land and those who live upon the land & call it home.

I am quite satisfied, from experience, that it is impossible to improve the condition of crofters generally by enlarging their holdings, unless they have capital enough to put the full stock upon their lands when they enter on their occupancy.

This, again, seems to be a perfectly reasonable (or blindingly obvious) conclusion to draw but, sadly, I can find no further mention of it as something worth exploring.

About thirty of the persons removed from Bernera had fallen so much into arrear as to be unable to continue in the occupation of their crofts there. These were settled upon fishing crofts of about two acres of arable, and grazing for one or two cows, and a few from four to six sheep, and charged with rents of from L.l to L.2. A considerable number of them had boats, and some had fishing-gear. Some were supplied with gear by the relief committee; but I am not prepared to say that they were all adequately provided with the means of prosecuting the cod and ling fishing, though many of them were; all of them are now in arrear with their rents for the fishing crofts. Not one of them, since entering on the fishing croft, has paid an amount equal to his rent.

So, these poor people were 'moved' for a second time and this time told to go fishing, but not necessarily given the means (presumably, boats, nets, etc) to do so. A bit like not making sufficient cattle available to them following their first removal?

The attempt to improve the condition of these men, who had previously been unsuccessful as agricultural crofters, by placing them in a position favourable for fishing, has also failed, and this experiment also has entailed a considerable pecuniary loss upon the proprietor, who is not now receiving from these fishermen one-fourth of the rent he formerly received from tacksmen for the same lands.

Here we are back to the real issue – it's the rent that the landlord receives that's important, not the feeding of the people. The reason the tacksmen were able to provide such a large rental was simply because they had converted the places that were populated into sheep farms in the process called the Clearances. I should also point out that these 'two acres of arable' were usually two acres of feannagan which required a herculean effort to maintain as efficient ground for crops.

I therefore state confidently, that in Harris, the proprietor cannot convert lands held by a tacksman into small holdings, either for the purposes of agriculture or fishing, without a great pecuniary sacrifice, and that this will continue to be the case unless potatoes should again be successfully cultivated.

A reminder that 1851 was preceded by several years of Potato famine due to blight and that, because the feannagan were better suited to that crop than to any other, it had become the staple food of most people. As before, a factor wholly outside the control of the crofter was being used by this Factor as a weapon against them.

I cannot estimate the loss that would be entailed on the proprietor by such a change at less than two-thirds of the rental paid by the tacksmen. The results of the experiments that have been made on this property would in every case fully bear out this estimate.

This is interesting because, although it suggests a vast reduction in the rents received by the Proprietor, it implies that reduced rents could be paid and thus people able to remain on the land.

It is my conscientious belief, and firm conviction, that if this property were all divided into small holdings amongst the present occupants of land, the result would be, that in a few years the rent recoverable would not be sufficient to pay the public burthens on the property, if the potatoes continue to fail, and the price of black cattle does not materially improve.

Which is not the same as saying that it couldn't be done, merely that there would be a risk attached to doing so.

Besides the occupants of land, there are on the property about 250 families of cottars, who hold no land from the proprietor. This is the portion of the population that I consider worst off. Many of them are persons who formerly occupied crofts, and who, from being unable to pay their rents, were obliged to relinquish their lands.

Actually, trumped-up charges of the non-payment of rent was a tactic that the Farmers & Factors used to justify many a Clearance despite, in many cases a total lack of evidence in support. Many cottars were providing essential goods & services, perhaps as Tailors or Boatmen for example, without which the local economy would grind to a semi-naked halt.

Some of these go to the Caithness fishing; but neither they nor any other class of the inhabitants of Harris leave the country to seek for any other employment. A few, however, have gone as far as Stornoway to get work.

This is the purest manifestation of what later led to the Land Riots – a total ignorance of what the people wanted & why. As late as the time of Lord Leverhulme, islanders made it clear that they did not embrace becoming 'wage-slaves' but merely wanted to be left in peace to live their lives as their forebears had – in self-sufficient, close-knit island communities where the sea was the highway, the land wasn't any-ones to 'own', and where a rich a vibrant Gaelic culture prevailed.

Those from the mainland, such as the man who signed this document, had other ideas...

(Signed) J. R. MACDONALD.

Sir John, having apparently learned all that he needed to know from two days in Harris, was the very next day at Lochmaddy in North Uist, collecting more information from 'the great and the good', whether they be Proprietors, Factors, Parish Ministers or the Parochial Boards and, apparently, not troubling himself to speak to a single representative of 'the Poor' who were the very reason for his Report...

It would be more than thirty years before another group, the Napier Commission, got to the bottom the nature of the islanders grievances  but by that time many had been forced to 'leave the country to seek for any other employment' as many still have to do today...

Oh, and I have a list of the residents of Rodel House where this evidence was given and you will see that in 1851 my cousin Angus Kerr was a Farm Servant there. He remained in Rodel for the remainder of his life, becoming the Farm Grieve (or Manager) of the 'Home Farm' at Rodel and then Coachman to, I presume, the 7th Earl of Dunmore. Whether he was there in 1850 on the night of the famous elopement or not I cannot say, but he married a daughter of the Schoolmaster at Kyles Scalpay (she being the Housemaid Lexy Morrison who we see on the above list in 1861) so, although I am appalled at the injustices that were perpetrated upon the people, I have a sneaking suspicion that at least some of my relatives were amongst the more fortunate few...

Ref: Report to the Board of Supervision by Sir John M'Neill, GCB, on the Western Highlands & Islands, 1851, P109/110

Donald Stewart, Factor of Harris, and the Church on Berneray

Donald Stewart has been described as 'the worst thing to happen to Harris' (I apologise for not currently being able to locate the source of that comment) and this little letter from 1832 suggests that his arrogant attitude extended well beyond merely those who suffered the most at his 'improving' shenanigans:

COPY of a LETTER from Mr. Joseph Mitchell, Inspector of Highland Churches, describing the present State of the New Churches and Manses in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, 18th July 1832


The Minister in the Island of Berneray mentions, that many slates are off the Church, and that the Factor of Harris refused to be at the expense of replacing them.


I shall be glad to know in such cases how I am to act, where there are no seat-rents, and where the individual becoming bound for the maintenance of the Buildings (as in this instance) refuses to attend to the necessary repairs. The Act provides that they shall be compellable in such manner as Heritors are compellable for Parish Churches by the Law of Scotland.


I wrote to Mr. Stewart, the Factor for Harris, some six weeks ago, but have had no answer. I shall write again, however, urging him more strongly.


I do not know the outcome of this particular case, but a couple of years later the Court in Inverness found against Stewart for trying to withhold payment for improvements made by one Alexander Macrae, a tenant of the Estate, despite the tenancy agreement's clear stipulation that they should be made so I doubt that 'urging him more strongly' would have seen the slates replaced in any great hurry.


Ref: Accounts and Papers of The Church 1831-32

Colours of Berneraigh

Berneraigh, Sound of Harris, Western Isles, Scotland

22 May 2009 - A Berneray Day

Arriving at the Berneray Hostel, another Gatliff Trust property, I was astounded to find just how precisely 'on the beach' it is – the bunkroom I chose was a narrow path away from the boulder-strewn little cliff that was washed twice-daily by the Sound of Harris sea.

Even at 10 in the morning, you could tell that it was going to be a beautiful day so I set-off immediately to explore the jewel that is perched at the very tip of the southern archipelago. I walked the three sides of the almost square Loch a Shaigh, pausing only twice: once, to read the information plaque about Grey and Common Seals and the second time to pop into the Post Office to see if the elusive bus timetables had appeared but, alas, they were still anxiously awaited.



Continuing along the rectangular way, I noticed a series of rock-lined inlets which are the clear remains of moorings and possibly, boat houses.

A little further on is a larger such inlet, more of a mini-marina, and as I was taking a few snaps three people hove into view, into my field of view, the image I was attempting to capture. The male was carrying the largest-lensed camera imaginable whilst the two females each lugged a three-legged monstrosity. The impression was of a hunter and his two Sherpas. I later met them in the cafe and it transpired that they were on a landscape photography course based in Harris and had been sent to Berneray with a list of locations to shoot.

There is an Historical Centre and Internet Access Building here but unfortunately it doesn't open until June ,although given the number of visitors already this season I expect that may be extended?

'The Lobster Pot' cafe and shop gave me the chance to have a coffee and garner my thoughts for the rest of the day. It also provided me with my first 1:50,000 OS map of my travels, a sheet which very usefully covers North Uist, Berneray and the most southerly part of Harris. I decided to retrace my steps a little and walk to the long beach on the west coast.

Turning left towards Borve, the road rises a little before sweeping down to the broad swathe of machair starting at the Community Centre. In front of this large, modern facility, is a lovely walled commemorative space with three plaques naming past Borveans in English as well as Gaelic. From this roll, I learnt that the Gaelic for Peter is Padruig, not Padraig as I had previously thought.

Passing through the gate and proceeding on the road that winds itself across the fertile fields to the dunes, I was frequently under fire from the lapwings defending their nests. They would do so with a display of aerobatic agility that was as impressive aurally as it was visually. The calls and cries accompanying each manoeuvre and ,in particular, the sound of the air whooshing past their wingtips when, having made a hight speed run straight towards me they would peel-off at the the last moment with a final warning cry , was a dramatic delight.

The ewe's, with their 'bonny' bouncing babes, were similarly wary of my presence but strangely unconcerned by the far greater danger posed by the occasional car the passed on it's way to or from the dune-side car park. The lambs looked extremely healthy, fed on the lush machair grass in this peaceful (lapwings notwithstanding) plain. Upon reaching the car park with it's line of picnic benches, I rested awhile before setting off through the path through the dunes towards the beach.



The sun was high in the blue and suddenly a deeper blue came into sight as the Atlantic arose before me. I stopped, breathless, not from the walk but from the serene beauty of the beach, the sea and the islands beyond. Shell-shard sand glistened at my feet, the fragmented facets of the crushed crustacean carapaces reflecting the rays of light into a myriad sparkling flashes.

Pockets of seaweed sat glistening on the sand, razor-shells punctuating the spaces between, and the water bubbled benignly as it slowly retreated back towards Canadian shores.

Heaven on Earth.