About the Hebrides No VIII

'Tarbert in Harris, to which the Clansman conveyed us from Loch Maddy in North Uist, was described to us by a residenter of the place, though not a native, as consisting of 26 dwelling-houses and 13 shops – he begged pardon, business premises of “merchants”. This is possibly a rather rough-and-ready summing-up, but it is correct enough in so far as indicating that the number of the latter is distinctly out of proportion to the number and requirements of the former.

The village stands at the head of East Loch Tarbert, that indentation of the sea that cuts into the land from the Minch to about a quarter of a mile from the head of West Loch Tarbert, similarly indenting it from the Atlantic, the so close approach of the two all but constituting the southern portion of Harris an island. As it is, the march between the two districts is here, the proprietor of North Harris being Sir Edward H Scott, Bart., and of South Harris the Earl of Dunmore.

The houses are all on the north or right hand side as you enter by the steamer, ust where the loch or bay becomes a creek of 300 or 400 yards in length, and narrowing to less than 50 yards at the top. The first structure to catch the eye is the Free Church, a plain enough building, erected on the summit of an eminence jutting into the sea immediately eastward of the pier. Close at hand, but standing a little lower, is the manse, a comfortable-looking, white-washed house, with a neatly-kept kitchen garden in front and sheltered so far from the wind and spray by some trees – the latter not of any dimensions, truly, but still forming a show of “wood” surpassing what we had seen as yet in working up the Long Island. Then comes the wooden pier, up from which, by a path that winds round to westward, you pass the schoolhouse (the of teacher which is also the registrar for the district, &c.), and get onto the main road or street, on the right of which stand the houses and stores of which, as above mentioned, the village consists. To right and left respectively of the pierhead is a row of eight or ten of these, some slated and others roofed with zinc, and all of one storey only.

Beyond these, going on to the head of the loch, there is a hiatus, to which succeeds a row of about a dozen newer-looking houses, two or or three of which are of two storeys and “semi-detached” from their neighbours. At the very head of the bay is the old Tarbert Inn , now disused as such; and across the road from this, almost down on the shore, the modern post and telegraph office. Following the road westwards two minutes' walk brings you to the new Tarbert Hotel, in the very centre of the isthmus, and 30 or 40 yards further on is the house of the medical man of the district, Dr Stewart, which commands the view away down West Loch Tarbert.'

This is a gem of a description of Tarbert from 130 years ago and I only wish that I could name the author! However, we can identify '...Dr Stewart...' as James Stewart for this young 'Physician and Surgeon' from Perthshire is found living in Kintulavig in 1881 and at 15 West Tarbert a decade later

Similary, we can be sure that the teacher who was '...also the registrar for the district, &c.' was the Glaswegian Donald Bethune, he being the Schoolteacher in Tarbert in 1881 & 1891 , and that the Minister in the Manse was Roderick Mackenzie from Assynt in Sutherland who a few months after the publication of this article was giving his evidence to the Napier Commission where he makes particular reference to the work of Fanny Thomas .

We are especially fortunate in having the 1882 6-inch Ordnance Survey map (surveyed in 1878) on which to follow in the footsteps of our unknown author and then we should perhaps refresh ourselves at the '...new Tarbert Hotel ...' before returning later to examine the remainder of his piece...

Source: Glasgow Herald 16^th September 1882 p3

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wWZEAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H7IMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1082%2C5453754

Glasgow International Exhibition 1888

'The Glasgow Exhibition was yesterday visited by upwards of 66,000 persons.'

The total number of visitors to the Exhibition exceeded five-and-a-half million (slightly more than visited the London Exhibition) and amongst the exhibits available to them, in the Women's Industries Section, was a section from the Home Arts and Industries Association:

'An interesting and important part of the society's work at present is the developing and improving of the wool-spinning and weaving industries in the Western Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Nearly 2000 women are employed under one class holder, Mrs Thomas, in spinning, dyeing and weaving; and in this exhibit is shown how the heavy woollen fabrics woven by them may be used for curtains, portieres, etc. Specimens of cloth and also of knitted socks, etc, are shown in a wall case outside the stand.'

This is tantalising for I have only come across one 'Mrs Thomas' involved with 'heavy woollen fabrics' and 'knitted socks' in the region. We know that in 1883 Fanny Thomas had still been taking boat trips to Taransay in connection with her work on the islands , that in 1897 she had endowed the Manish Victoria Cottage Hospital and that she appears to have maintained her interest until her death in Edinburgh in 1902 . The figure of 'nearly 2000 women' is astounding but, if this obituary is accurate, then at one time she had 400 stocking knitters on Harris alone!

'Mrs Muir, of Lerwick, has brought with her three workers, who may be seen carding, spinning and knitting Shetland wool at her stand. This lady shows also a quantity of work knitted in the Fair Isles which is entirely different to the ordinary Shetland work, being bright and gay in colouring, and some of it very intricate in pattern. This kind of work is said to have been introduced into the islands by some of the Spaniards who were wrecked there at the time of the Spanish Armada. Not far from Mrs Muir's stand is that of the Harris weaver, who, upon a very primitive loom, occasionally illustrates the weaving of the now famous and fashionable Harris tweeds. This loom was sent by Lady Scott, who takes great interest in the “homespun” industry of the Hebrides; and to the exertions of this lady and several others these textile industries owe their revival and recent development.'

I have included the Fair Isle section because, whilst straying outside my usual territory, it includes the story of wrecked sailors from the Armada and other similar tales are heard on the Western Isles.

The 'Lady Scott' referred to in regard to the loom upon which the (sadly un-named) Harris weaveress was working was Emilie, widow of Sir Edward Henry Scott and who, coincidently, had become a widow in 1883 which was the same year that Fanny Thomas's husband Captain FWL Thomas had also died. This is the first direct reference I have found to the work of Lady Scott and it is entirely in keeping with the high regard with which the Scott family are held as proprietors of the North Harris Estate.

Finally, the use of the phrase 'their revival and recent development' with reference to the 'homespun' textile industries of the Hebrides fits the pattern seen in the census data on Harris Weavers. .

Source: Glasgow Herald 10^th November 1888 page 4

http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=mFlEAAAAIBAJ&sjid=87EMAAAAIBAJ&dq=glasgow%20international%20exhibition&pg=1430%2C3526645

Note: The Home Arts & Industries Association, founded in 1884 by Eglantyne Louisa Jebb, was yet another organisation associated with the burgeoning arts & crafts movement in Britain and was functioning alongside others such as the Scottish Home Industries Association.

Contribution From India For The People Of Harris

'The Scotsman notices that the last number of the Friends of India contains an interesting statement regarding that “most desolate and poverty-stricken of the Western Isles,” Harris, with a population of 4400, the majority of whom “live in sight of starvation the whole year.” “They are always hungry: ...many of them never know what it is to feel satisfied after a meal. Poor as the other islands are, nowhere are the people in so wretched a condition as in Harris.”

The article from which we quote (and we guess it to be from the pen of Mrs Colin Mackenzie) goes on to describe the noble exertions which an English lady, Mrs Captain Thomas, the wife of the naval officer surveying the coast of Harris, has made for the last two or three years, “striving, as she has done, with all her might, and almost unassisted, to raise a population from the extremity of misery.” She has established schools, got the church finished, has collected subscriptions by which she has supported a catechist in the island for almost three years, has set on foot a bazaar by which she has raised funds for building a manse, has induced numbers of the fishermen to join the Coast-Guard service, and has brought up in Edinburgh several relays of boys and girls, who have all turned out most docile and excellent servants, and strives, but hitherto striven in vain, to raise means for enabling some of the poor and starving families of the isle to emigrate.

“Shall we not (writes the Friend of India) - “Shall we not help her?”

The appeal ends with a series of subscriptions from Hindoos and others, as H. H. the Nawab Naziur, 500 rupees; Rajab Prosuno Narain Dab Buhadur, 100 rupees, etc.

Is this not a great and deserved censure upon the apathy with which we look upon the miseries of poverty when they chance to be to near our own door?'

Inverness Advertiser Friday 22 Feb 1861

This article, obtained from the Inverness Reference Library via Am Baile's online search and order service, is, quite simply, the pinnacle of the primary sources that I have perused in relation to this magnificent lady (and also of the situation on Harris fully a decade after the final potato famine).

Everything that I have researched regarding Mrs Frances Sarah Thomas Bousfield Thomas (yes, that was her full name following her two baptisms and her first marriage!) leads up to this newspaper piece. This may come as a surprise for where is the Clo Mor, or the Stocking Knitters, or whatever? The answer is that I do not believe that either 'Harris Tweed' or 'Strond Stockings' were truly significant economic activities at this early date and it was the less glamorous work amongst the people that is described above that the exhaustingly energetic Fanny was devoting herself to at this time.

Of the publication, 'The Friend of India', I have learnt that it was created by the missionary John Clark Marshman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clark_Marshman but, although the title contains the word 'Friend', I have not discovered whether it was associated with the Society of Friends. I raise this because, although I have no proof that the Thomas's were 'Quakers', an article on Mrs Thomas appeared in 'The British Friend' of 1888.

Mrs Captain Thomas, my 'Heroine of Harris', was certainly a friend to the people of the isle...

Bushey & the Congested Districts Board

This is one of those 'tying-up-a-loose-end' posts - although in this case there remain several 'tails' still to be told.

In my piece on 'Lululaund' I referred to the Tapestry Weavers of Bushey and then later discovered The British and Irish Spinning and Weaving School that had been located there. I mentioned the presence of Miss Clive Bayley and conjectured that she was the ladies teacher. Hence I was delighted to find in the National Archives of Scotland a reference from 1901 to 'Miss Clive Bayley. Home Industry. Expenses incurred at Bushey' that is filled under the Congested Districts Board (Ref:AF42/890)

Unfortunately there are no further details and the file, which is held off-site, has to be pre-requested but it nicely corroborates the foregoing guesswork and links the CDB to this particular endeavour. As it appears in Bushey, and Mrs Captain Thomas was now living in East Sussex as Mrs Frances Beckett, I wonder if once again she had a hand in yet another textile offshoot from Harris, this time one that was training some seven young ladies from 'Obbe, Harris'?

Whilst on the topic of connections twixt Bushey & Harris, here's the piece on 'A Somewhat Strange Affair' ...

"I think it is quite capable of bearing all the people in comfort."

Thus ended the evidence to the Napier Commission given by the Reverend Alexander Davidson of Manish Free Church, Harris.

The full exchange went like this:

13113. Mr Fraser-Mackintosh

—I forgot to follow out a question which I put about the lands. Taking South Harris as a whole, is there not enough land to support in comfort even more than the present population ?

—I should think it would give land to the present population, if the land were distributed among the people. I think it is quite capable of bearing all the people in comfort.

This, from a man who had lived, worked and raised a family amongst the people of South Harris for at least the past twenty-eight years (including officiating at the wedding of one of my female cousins in Strond in 1867) stands in stark contrast with the prevailing view of the Proprietor, the past Factors and the present Farmers of the day for whom Emigration was the only 'answer' to the 'problem'.


I was inspired to take a closer look at Alexander Davidson having been contacted by one of his descendants, as can be seen at the end of this piece on Harris Free Churchmen .


The church is described in these pages from Canmore and British Listed Buildings and this is its location as seen on the OS 1:25000 Map .

The accompanying Manse, which was the Davidson family's home for many years, is similarly described on these pages from Canmore and British Listed Buildings and its precise location can be seen here .


In previous pieces I mentioned that Captain FWL Thomas and his wife, Mrs 'Captain Thomas', had at times taken-in the children of islanders including one of Alexander Davidson's daughters and also of the widowed Fanny Thomas's later endowment of the Manish Victoria Cottage Hospital .

I would like to end with a longer extract from the Reverend's evidence to the Napier Commission, to which I have added notes & observation within the text:


13081. Do many of the young women go south?
—Not many.

The context here is that of the 'Herring Girls' of the islands who followed the fishing fleet in their progress around the coast of Scotland and England during the season.

13082. Have they never been in the habit of going much from Harris?
—No, they never went.

This is telling us that as far as Davidson was aware, the women of Harris did not participate in this work.

13083. A good many of the women in this island get employment in knitting and in spinning cloth ?
—Yes, kilt making. That is their principal employment, and of late years it has been very useful to them.

Knitting, Spinning and Weaving were clearly well-established by 1883 but whether 'kilt making' referred to an actual Tailoring activity or was Davidson's shorthand for weaving a web of cloth is not clear. As far as I know, such tailoring was not performed in creating a product for export and my researches into tailoring certainly don't indicate that it was ever a large-scale female activity on Harris.

13084. Who set that agoing?
—Well, the Countess of Dunmore takes some interest in it, as well as other parties. I see they get very much into the way of dealing with the local merchants in order to get meal.

The internal arrangements pertaining at the time between the producers and the local merchants are beyond the scope of this piece, but I am interested in Davidson's phrase 'takes some interest in it'  for that is hardly a ringing endorsement for the Countess's commitment to the cause. It is just a pity that none of the 'other parties' were named!

13085. Are most of the women in the parish employed in that way?
—Well, generally.


A reminder that, unlike on neighbouring Lewis, Weaving on Harris was traditionally dominated by the women.

13086. I mean every family?
—Perhaps not every family, but very generally they are.


The extent to which these textile industries pervaded the population and were pivotal to their survival is clear.

13087. They knit a great many stockings and hose?
—Yes.

The size and importance of the knitting industry must have been very significant at this time so quite why it slipped into relative obscurity, especially in comparison with the international fame of Harris Tweed, is an interesting question that I have discussed in previous pieces.

13088. What price do they get for socks?
—Not very much—perhaps about 1s., but I can hardly say whether that is the fixed price.

That is only £2-£3 in today's money

13089. And they manufacture a peculiarly coloured native cloth?
—Almost every kind of cloth.

13090. Native dyes?
—Yes, they use native dyes.


Ignoring the slightly pejorative-sounding 'peculiarly coloured', we learn that the women were producing a variety of different cloths using 'native dyes'. It is worth noting, however, that the word 'Tweed', let-alone the two words, 'Harris Tweed', are conspicuous by their absence. It wasn't until the later marketing of the brand that they assumed common usage.




Ref: The full transcript of this evidence may be read here .

Note:
Anyone wishing to learn more about the Free Church Ministers at this time should consult the  Annals of the Free Church of Scotland 1843-1900 (which may be available as in inter-library loan).

The British and Irish Spinning and Weaving School

It appears that this institution was the likely link between Harris and Herts. and I have uncovered a reference in 'Womanhood 6', the publication edited by Ada S Ballin, which states:


'At the British and Irish Spinning and Weaving School, in New Bond Street, with its branch school at Bushey...'


In 1902 Volume 8 of this publication would refer to:


'The stall for Harris goods, superintended by Mrs. Thomas...'


which I think was in regard to an Exhibition of Home Industries that had been held in Scotland and which links Fanny Thomas to the island and to Home Industries/Arts & Crafts almost up to the time of her death and certainly during the period when the School in Bushey was opening & operating.

Although she is not specifically mentioned, the lady 'on the ground' in Harris at this time was Mrs S Macdonald, (born in Grantown-on-Spey as Sarah Grant) of Kyles House near 'Obbe' and of the Scottish Home Industries Association.

In 1895 this wife of the Farmer and Merchant Roderick had written her piece that appeared in a Scottish Home Industries booklet and was then referred to in the Scott Report of 1914.

(It is this account by Sarah Macdonald's on the origins of Harris Tweed that has informed most subsequent accounts.)

I am hoping to learn more about the School in Bushey from the Local Studies Centre in the museum there but meanwhile the presence of the Tapestry Weavers in Bushey appears to provide additional evidence regarding the wide range of activities undertaken by the ladies associated with the Home Industries movement and Harris.

Lululaund?

In the previous piece on Tapestry Weavers I posed the question as to what had led the ladies from Harris to Bushey? A little further examination of that little village in Hertfordshire produced a possibility which, although highly conjectural, I thought I would describe:

In 1886 a remarkable house was conceived and by 1894 people were living in it. It was known as Lululaund and was built for the artist  Hubert von Herkomer who was linked with the Arts & Crafts movement. Lululaund has been described as an 'Arts and Crafts fairytale home' .

In 1899, The Land Magazine had published the Duchess of Sutherland's account of The Revival of Home Industries and the newly-founded Scottish Home Industries Association, inspired by Ruskin's Arts & Crafts movement,  had 'Mrs S Macdonald' as its champion in An-t-Ob or 'Obbe'. FWL Thomas had died in 1885 and in 1890 the widowed Fanny Thomas married James Flowers Beckett and moved from Leith to Sussex but remained linked to Harris at this time via her Tweed depot in London.

The pieces were in place, therefore, for seven skilled young ladies from Harris to find themselves working in Hertfordshire producing items for the extraordinary residence of an artist named Herkomer. I have no proof, and have contacted the museum in Bushey for assistance, but at least I now have a possible explanation where before there was none.

Update: The weavers at 39 Park Road were living within half-a-mile of Lululaund as can be seen on this Google Map ...

Update2: There was 'The British and Irish Spinning and Weaving and Lace School' in Bushey as can be seen on  p241 of 'Hertfordshire in History'. The 1901 census shows No 7, High Street, Bushey as 'Weaving School' and the 'Tapestry and Other Weaving Mistress' was the maiden 49 year-old Clive Bayley who had been born in the 'Indies'. I think this probably solves the mystery!

Education in Harris in 1794

"There is a parochial school at Rowdill, now attended by 30 poor children, the whole emoluments of which to the schoolmaster may be about 20L per annum.
There is a new school soon to be set up in another district, on the establishment of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge. 
The same benevolent and patriotic society have already erected at Rowdilll a seminary of female industry."
Rev Mr John Macleod, The Statistical Account of Scotland 1794, p380


Three short sentences that are rich with information. We have the location of the Parish school in 'Rowdill', serving a mere 30 children from a population of over two-and-a-half thousand people, and in which nearly 50 years later we find Donald Murray teaching. The Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge's intention to start a new school 'in another district' the precise location of which I believe had yet to be decided upon. Finally, half a century before the discovery of the 'Paisley Sisters', a 'seminary of female industry' had already been established by the Society at 'Rowdill', - a precursor to the Embroidery School, the development of the Stocking Knitting industry, and the 'Industrial School', all found in or around An-t-Ob from the 1850s by virtue of the vision of the Countess of Dunmore & Mrs Frances Thomas.


Ref: The Statistical Account of Scotland 1791-99 - Harris (Please click on 'Browse scanned pages')

Schooling along the Sound of Harris

For the third of this series looking at education and educators during the 19thC I am grouping considering what we can glean about the then populous South coast.

From the 1^st Edition OS 1-inch map (1885) of the area, we see two locations for schools:

An-t-Ob NG025863 (Details & Photo ) and Strond NG032841. The 6-inch map also informs us that in each case the school was for 'Boys & Girls'. I think a double-fronted bungalow at this location may be the school.

1841

Donald Murray, 40, P Schoolmaster, Rodil, b. Scotland

1851

Isabella Mackinnon, 31, School Mistress, Wife, Obe, ED3, b. Harris

(Donald Mackinnon, 39, Catechist & Farmer, b. Harris plus 5 children ages 1 to 10 and a female 'House Servant')

1861

James Stewart, 40, ParishSchoolmaster, Oab, ED6, b. South Uist

(Margaret Stewart, 34, Wife, b. Harris plus 7 children ages 5 months to 12 years and a female 'General Servant')

1871

Mary Mcaulay, 21, School Mistress, Industrial School, ED6 b. Stornoway

Anne Mcaualy, 23, Sister, b. Stornoway

Christina Mcaulay, 13, Scholar, Sister, b. Stornoway

1872 – Education Act

1881

Kenneth J Mackenzie, 27, Teacher, Strond, b. Ullapool

Christina Macleod, 29, housekeeper, b. Harris

1891 – None Listed

1901

John Whiteford, 46, Certificated Teacher Elementary, Obbe, ED2, b. Kilbirnie, Ayrshire

Mary Whiteford, 43, Wife, b. Kilbirnie, Ayrshire

Agnes Mary Laird Whiteford, 14, Monitor (Teacher), Obbe, ED2, b. Glasgow

Margaret Whiteford, Scholar, 12, Daughter, b. New Cumnock, Ayrshire

(Peter McCaul, 66, Retired Teacher, Obbe, ED2, b. Killin, Perthshire)

The presence in 1841 of Schoolmaster Donald Murray in 'Rodil' reminds us that it was the Church, and other Societies, that provided education at this time. Although Rodel does not feature on the list of schools provided by the 'Society for the Support of Gaelic Schools' in 1821 this does not mean that 20 years later it was not they who were responsible. However thinking about the 6^th Earl of Dunmore's recent acquisition of the island and his rebuilding of St Clement's Church at Rodel tends to point in favour of Donald Murray having been a Parish Schoolmaster at this time.

The situation in 1851 is much clearer for now we have the household of Catechist & Farmer, John Mackinnon, living in 'Obe' and including his teaching Wife. If the school on 'Obbe Road' had been built by this date then I am confident that the family with their servant were its residents.

Their place appears to have been taken by 1861 by James Stewart and his family. Stewart was the teacher in Borve in 1851 and would no longer have been required there following the second Clearance which took place in 1853 to benefit the Sheep Farmer Kenneth Macdonald. In 1871 James Stewart was an Inspector of Poor in Strond and by1881 had become a School Board Clerk still living in Strond.

The only teacher in the area in 1871 is Mary Mcaulay and the only reason that I can place her here is because my relative Roderick Kerr was one of those living at 'Obe Shop' which was within Enumeration District 6. Mary's address is intriguing for it is the only reference to an 'Industrial School' in the area that I know of. However, we do know that first an Embroidery School and then some form for educating Stocking Knitters had been introduced by the Countess of Dunmore & Mrs Thomas and it seems likley that Mary, coming from Stornoway where she may have been educated at the Female Industrial School , merely imported this slightly grandiose term to add weight to her role in Harris. She was, after all, only 21 and apparently solely supporting her two sisters at the time.

In 1881 the schools at An-t-Ob, whether industrial, parochial or Public, do not feature but we do see our one and only record of a teacher in Strond in the shape of Kenneth J Mackenzie. It seems likely that the school at Strond originated as a result of the 1872 Education Act but I cannot be certain. The situation in 1891 is even worse for there are no teachers recorded that I can place with confidence in the area, although it may be that the Retired Teacher, Peter McCaul who we find in Obbe in 1901 had previously served that school. In the same year it is John Whiteford, assisted in her 'Monitor (Teacher)' role by his 14 year-old daughter Agnes Mary Laird Whiteford, who is found teaching in Obbe.

In conclusion, I am confident that the school on 'Obbe Road' provided education for the second-half of the 19thC and that, at times, it was accompanied by a Public School in Strond and by some degree of 'Industrial' education. Let us not forget Captain Alexander Macleod's 18thC educational provision in the upper reaches of his 'Mill' in Rodel that John Knox remarked upon, either!

Chart of George Bousfield Thomas's Ancestors

I hope this is readable! It shows little George, who died a few weeks before his sixth birthday, together with his parents, his aunts and uncles and his grandparents. His widowed paternal grandfather and widowed maternal grandmother had married in 1827 and some 14 years later his parents, now step-brother & sister, had been married. George was the only child, not only of this particular union but of all of the children of George Thomas and Priscella Frembly. I have been unable to confirm what became of George Howard Thomas and Ellen Dinah Thomas but, as I can find no trace of either of them following their births, I am reasonably certain that each of them died either prior to 1837 (when registration was introduced in England) or prior to the 1841 Census at the very latest.  George was born into a family that was no stranger to sorrow, his father had lost his own mother when he was 10, his mother had lost her own father when she was 2, and only two years after his birth his paternal grandfather died returning from charting the Northern Isles of Scotland; whilst within another two years his only remaining uncle was dead. George must have been a particular source of joy, not only to his parents but to his remaining aunts and grandmother, so his own death must have been all the more traumatic for the family, all the remaining members having moved to live quite closely together in Scotland. I am convinced that these circumstances help explain how it was that Fred & Fanny Thomas came to devote themselves with such passion and humanity to the people of Harris & Lewis...

Addressing History Project

This project http://addressinghistory.blogs.edina.ac.uk/ looks extremely interesting and, although I haven't properly explored the project yet, thought I would give it a mention.

I have no doubt that it will prove very useful in following islanders who moved to the mainland as well as in researching those from the mainland who played a part in the history of the isles - I would love to be able to identify whereabouts in Edinburgh Mrs Frances Thomas had her Harris Tweed depot, for example!

Film?

I am thinking about what a great film could be made taking the maritime charting of the Western Isles in the middle of the 19thC as the core around which it would be based. As well as the potential for recreating life aboard survey vessels of that time in spectacular scenery, it would also bring us ashore (they surveyed for up to 3 miles inland!) where we would witness the changes taking place, particularly those on Harris under the 6^th Earl's ownership, and Captain Thomas's work on the archaeology etc of Lewis.

He was a pioneer of photography, was accompanied by his wife on the surveys and she played an important (vital, perhaps?) role in the development of textile industries on Harris. They even had a wooden house erected on Harris such was the depth of their commitment to their roles. We also have the interesting, at times tragic, story of their private lives (not least Frances's second Baptism and subsequent marriage to her step-brother Fred) ending with the widowed Frances marrying the son of a veteran from the Battle of Trafalgar whose ship's ensign is the only remaining one from that event.

Captain Otter's part in the laying of the first Transatlantic Telegraph Cable, Fred's father's pioneering work in the Shetlands and Orkneys (apparently including the 10 year-old Fred!) could be woven into a piece centred on, say, the period from 1857-1867 and ending with the sale of the North Harris Estate to the Scott family.

Oh well, one can but dream...

Harris Tweed Origins from the Angus Macleod Archive

In his piece on The Origins of Harris Tweed.pdf , Angus Macleod gives a list of 'philanthropic persons and agencies' that had been instrumental in the development of the Harris Tweed industry:

1. Lord and Lady Dunmore of Harris

2. Mrs Thomas, an Edinburgh woman who had a small depot for the sale of Harris and

knitted goods in Edinburgh, at least as early as 1888. She moved to London at the end

of the century and continued her activities there.

3. Lady Gordon Cathcart Proprietress of Uist.

4. Mrs Mary Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth

5. Millicent – Duchess of Sutherland

6. Mrs Jessie Platt of Eishken

7. Scottish Home Industries Association

8. Highland Home Industries

9. The Crofters’ Agency

I have already gone into some detail regarding the parts played by 1,2, 5, 7 & 8 in this regard, but have not yet examined 3, 4, 6 & 9.

3 Lady Gordon Cathcart :

This page from Undiscovered Scotland does not paint a particularly philanthropic picture of the Lady and I can find no other references to her as having played any role regarding Harris Tweed. her inclusion in Macleod's list remains something of a mystery.

4 Mary Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth:

This is the lady of Brahan Castle, Conon Bridge, Ross-shire and she it was who established 9) The Crofter's Agency, in what may, according to Janet Hunter in 'The Islanders and the Orb', have been a split between her and 5) Millicent -Duchess of Sutherland's Scottish Home Industries Association. By the late 1920s, Mary was Chairman of the Harris Tweed Association and it wasn't until 60 years after her death in 1933 that a single other woman would have a place in that Association! The Crofter's Agency and the role played within it by Mary is fully described in 'The Islanders and the Orb'.

6 Mrs Jessie Platt of Eishken:

Elsewhere in his archives Angus Macleod gives us this:

Jessie Platt of Eishken was among a number of people and philanthropic agencies that encourage the Harris Tweed Industry. Mrs Platt provided an outlet for a substantial quantity of the Crofter Tweed that was produced in Lochs and we have seen an old note book in Eishken Lodge giving details of purchased of local crofter cloth for which she paid 3/6 a yd (17½) in 1889. That was a very high price at that time. In the late 1920s crofter tweed was selling so low as 2/6 or 12½ p and on occasion for much less.

Evidence of the esteem in which the people of Lochs held the Platt’s of Eishken is to be found in the

illuminated address that was formulated by Mr Kerr the Head teacher of Planasker School Marvig on behalf of the people on the occasion of the Platt’s Silver Wedding Anniversary on 15/8/01, part of which reads:-

‘Nor can we allow this occasion to pass without acknowledging our deep indebtedness to you for the great interest you shave shown in our local tweed industry’.

The people of Park and district always referred to Jessie Platt as ‘Lady Platt’ or the ‘Lady’ thus paying her the compliment of conferring on her an unofficial title, which many thought was hers by right.

9 The Crofter's Agency: See 4) above

Concentrating upon the seven individuals that are mentioned (rather than the three institutions that some of them were involved with) it strikes me that it was unquestionably 'Mrs Thomas' who links the first stirrings of the industry to its much later development into a global phenomenom. Which is why I believe that this Solicitor's daughter from Deptford has a special place amongst those who, to quote from the extensive extract below from another of Angus Macleod's writings on the subject, 'deserve better than to be forgotten'...

The following are some of the people who left their mark on the Hebrides and who deserve better than to be forgotten. In fact every Hebridean should be well versed in the history of the Harris Tweed industry, as it is very clear that to a very great extent, the continued existence of these Islands depend on the prosperity of the Harris Tweed industry.

The Dunmore family who were the proprietors of Harris about the time of the 1846 famine (failure of the potato crop) were among the leading people who were largely instrumental in encouraging the establishment of a tweed industry in the Hebrides when they induced the crofters to produce a cloth suitable for a fashionable market. This cloth, of a rough home spun type, proved to be the foundation of our great Harris Tweed industry as we know it today, and we all owe a deep debt of gratitude to Lord and Lady Dunmore who took such an interest in the welfare of the crofters. It is also said that Lady Dunmore arranged for some girls from Harris to go to Alloa to learn to weave more intricate patterns, paying all their training expenses.

Mrs Thomas, wife of Captain Thomas of the Ordinance Survey Department, who appeared to be

resident in Harris for a time towards the end of the last century, was another lady who took a great

interest in popularising Harris Tweed in those early days.

We find the Duchess of Sutherland very active in Lewis and Harris during the last years of the 19th

century, and we are given to understand this lady had connections with ‘The Highland Home Industries’ who had a shop in Stornoway about that time.

The Platt’s of Eishken who came to Lewis about the year 1878 took a great interest in the affairs of the crofters of Park and surrounding district, and began to purchase the products of the crofters in order to help them at a time when it must have been very difficult for the crofters to earn a living. Chief among these crofter products was the local hand made tweed, and it is said much of it found its way to bazaars and institutions in the south. A notebook still in existence in Eishken lodge shows that the price paid for such tweed in 1889 was 3s/6d per yard, which must be considered a very high reward in those days, and one for which we may be sure the crofters were grateful for.

Evidence of the esteem the people of Park held the Platt’s in is to be found in the illuminated address presented by the people of Park to Mr and Mrs Platt on the occasion of their silver wedding anniversary on 15th August 1901. This address can still be seen at Eishken lodge, and part of it reads: - ‘Nor can we allow this occasion to pass without acknowledging our deep indebtedness to you for the great interest you have shown in our local tweed industry.’

Evidence of the warm affection the people of Park held Mrs Platt in is the fact that locally the people conferred on her the title ‘Lady Platt’ and for very many years we always assumed the title was hers by right.

It is generally acknowledged that so far as Lewis is concerned Park was the first district to take up the industry seriously, and from there it spread to Uig and so forth. The writer can trace the industry in Park back to the 1880s, and my own mother made Harris Tweed at Calbost on her own loom about 1890 with the small loom (beart bheag), which was the only loom then in existence. It was operated by means of throwing the shuttle (which was a sheep’s shin bone) with the one hand and catching it with the other, and firing it back through the ‘alt’.

Note: Angus Macleod's archive is one of the treasure-troves of Hebridean history and all the better for its somewhat higgledy-piggledy organisation. There are at least three pieces that I can find in which he returns to the subject of the origins and history of Harris Tweed, clearly adding new information as it became available but never, sadly, producing the wonderful book that his notes would no doubt have led to.

It is with great trepidation that I offer any form of correction to his work, but I am certain that Mrs Thomas was the wife of Captain Thomas the maritime surveyor who was not employed by the Ordnance Survey although the two branches of surveying worked closely together, as alluded to in an earlier piece of mine on Captain Otter that includes his whereabouts in 1851.

The Bousfield/Thomas Family of London & Leith

This is a summary of the 12 members of these two families that came together in 1827 when the widower George Thomas and the widow Elizabeth Dingley were married. The wedding of only-child Frances Sarah Thomas Bousfield to eldest-child Frederick William Leopold Thomas in 1841 further strengthened the bond. Where a range of dates is given, or a '?' shown, I have been unable to establish the event with certainty but I am reasonably confident that the two Thomas children for whom I can only find their Birth recorded died, probably in infancy, not least as their names were each used for a second time.

GEORGE THOMAS (b. 1780s?- d.1846?)
PRISCELLA FRIMBLY (b.? - d. 1825-27

GEORGE WILLIAM BOUSFIELD (b. 1798 - buried. 9 Mar 1823 St Peter, Frimley, Surrey)
ELIZABETH DINGLEY (b. 1798 - d. poss1852)

The Thomas's had six children, the Bousfield's just one, and only one grandchild.
All twelve people are listed here by the year of their Death:

George Howard Thomas b. 12 Jan 1814 d. ?
Ellen Dinah Thomas b. 1819 d. ?
GEORGE WILLIAM BOUSFIELD b. ? d 1823
PRISCELLA FRIMBLY b. ? d 1825-27
GEORGE THOMAS b 1780s d. 1846?
George Hurd Thomas b. 1820 d. 1848 Single
George Bousfield Thomas b1844 d 1850 Rose Cottage, Trinity, Leith
ELIZABETH DINGLEY b. 1798 d. 1852?
Ellen Sarah McBain (MS Thomas) b. 1825 d. 1877 North Leith
(James McBain b 1808 Kirriemuir d. 1879 North Leith) No children
Frederick William Leopold Thomas b. 2 May 1816 d. 1885 Rose Park, Trinity North Leith
Frances Sarah Thomas Beckett (MS Bousfield) b. 1821 d. 1902 Craighouse, Edinburgh
(m. 1st FWL Thomas m. 2nd James Flowers Beckett 1902, who had no children)
Georgiana Martha Thomas b. 1823 d. 1904 Newington, Edinburgh Single
(1901 28 Sciennes Road, Newington, Edinburgh)

It does seem remarkable to me that in less than 90 years both of these family lines had ended but as only three of the children married (and only one of these outside of the two the families) perhaps it is not altogether surprising. James McBain had been George Thomas's Surgeon on HMS Mastiff and very likely with him when he died but, despite marrying into the family, he left no issue. Frances Sarah, when she remarried, chose a man she had known since early on in her many years living in Edinburgh but he too died childless. There are a couple of nieces that might prove a link to the present but otherwise Georgiana's death in 1904 marked the end.

However, the work they left behind them in the form of pioneering hydrographic surveying, archaeological investigations and supporting the development of Harris Tweed, Stocking Knitting, the building of the Free Church at Tarbert and the Manish Victoria Cottage Hospital should ensure that their memories will live on...

Note: Summary of the seven children in order of their Birth:
George Howard Thomas1814-? No further record
Frederick W L Thomas 1816-1885 Married Frances
Ellen Dinah Thomas 1819-? No further record
George Hurd Thomas 1820-1848 Single
Frances Sarah Bousfield 1821-1902 Married Frederick
Georgiana Martha Thomas 1823-1904 Single
Ellen Sarah 1825-1877 Married James McBain – No children

Fishing in Fife

My previous entry left us with Frances Bousfield and Georgiana Martha Thomas in Deptford.

By 1851, Frances had become Mrs FWL Thomas and the recently bereaved couple, although normally living at Rose cottage in Trinity, Leith were lodging in Culross. I felt it only fair to see what had become of Georgiana and was pleasantly surprised to find the following household:

Jas Mcbain, 43, Surgeon RN Half Pay, Park Place, Elie, Fife, b. Kirriemuir, Forfar
Helen Mcbain, 26, Wife, b. England
Elizabeth Thomas, 53, Widow of Commander RN, Mother-in-Law, b. England
Georgina Thomas, Daughter of Commander RN, Sister-in-Law, b. England
Ann Smith, 14, Scholar, Niece, b. Pitlochry, Strathtay, Perthshire
Elizabeth Campbell, 26, House Servant, b. Pittenweem, Fife

'Jas' is James McBain, 'Helen' is Ellen Sarah (Thomas), Elizabeth is FWL's mother and Georgina is his other sister. What is slightly confusing is why Priscilla Thomas has changed her name to Elizabeth?

As far as I can tell, this places all the known surviving members of FWL's family in Scotland in 1851 and only about 40 miles apart from each other.

I think that's a fair day's catch from the East Coast!

But I have left the biggest fish until last:

Back in 1827, on the 30th of January in the church of St Mary at Lambeth, a widower called George Thomas of St Paul, Deptford, married a widow called Elizabeth Bousfield. You may recall that I was bemused by Frances Sarah Bousfield being baptised for a second time on the 30th of March 1827 at the church of St Mary at Lambeth? Now, at last, all is clear!

Her mother remarried and Frances added the surname of her stepfather, Thomas, to her own. The Elizabeth Thomas of 1851 was the same Elizabeth Bousfield who gave birth to Frances and who became the step-mother to George Thomas's children. Fred and Fanny were not introduced by his sister, because for 14 years prior to their marriage they had been step-brother and sister!

Confirmation that I am correct is provided by the entry on Fred's Death Certificate where the informant, clearly confused by the connection, states that his widow was born Frances Sarah Frimbly, ascribing to Fanny neither the surname of her father (Bousfield) nor her mother (Dingley) but that of Fred's mother (Frimbly).

I have come across some tangled webs before in my researches, but never one that fallen into place quite so completely, or with quite such complexity, as this one has just done.

To reiterate:

George Thomas m Priscella Frimbly and had several children including FWL Thomas
George Bousfield m Elizabeth Dingley and had one child, Frances Sarah Bousfield

George Thomas m Elizabeth Bousfield (MS Dingley)
Frances baptised for a second time as Frances Sarah Thomas Bousfield.

FWL Thomas m Frances S T Bousfield

I hope that's clear – I need a lie-down!

How Fred Met Fanny

I have been exploring a bit more into the backgrounds of Captain FWL Thomas and Frances Sarah Bousfield and a rather romantic penny has just dropped.

Frederick, unlike only-child Frances, had several siblings:

Children of George Thomas and Priscella Frimbly (m. 20Nov 1810 St George the Martyr, Southwark)

Frederick William Leopold b. 2 May 1816 bap. 2 Jun 1816 St George the Martyr, Southwark
d.25 Oct 1885 Rose Park, Trinity, Leith

George Howard b.12 Jan 1814 bap. 2 Jun 1816 St George the Martyr (cannot find his death)

Ellen Dinah bap. 10 Feb 1819 St Paul, Deptford, Lewisham (cannot find marriage or death)

George Hurd bap. 13 Mar 1820 St Paul, Deptford – Buried 30 Jul 1848 Kensington, London

Georgiana Martha Thomas 12 Feb 1823 St Paul, Deptford

Ellen Sarah bap. 13 Apr 1825 St Paul, Deptford ( m. James McBain, Surgeon RN, 13 Jan 1846 at St Paul, Deptford)

Firstly, of course, we notice the fact that FWL had an older brother who was baptised alongside him. This reminds us that the boys father was a naval surveyor. As is the case with the first sister called Ellen, I have been unable to find this older sibling again in the records but the repetition of the names George and Ellen is perhaps indicative that George Howard and Ellen Dinah did not survive for very long? The second brother, George Hurd, died at the age of 28 in 1848 but I have not found a record of him marrying.

However, it is Fred's sister Georgiana who provides the link with Frances for, in the 1841 census I had previously identified as living at Broomfield Place, St Paul, Deptford, Kent:

Sarah Bousfield, 30, Governess, b. elsewhere

Frances Bousfield, 20, Independent b. elsewhere (ie Surrey)

But I hadn't paid any particular attention to the next person on the census return:

Georgiana Thomas, 15, Independent b. In this county

Fred's sister was living with Frances, whom he would wed on the 2nd of December of that same year at St Paul, Deptford. I am allowing myself to imagine that it was on a visit to his sister, living away from her family (quite possibly at the Benevolent Home for Girls, the 1841 census is not clear on such matters!), that the uniformed young Royal Navy officer met the orphaned young lady who would soon become his companion for life...

Manish Victoria Cottage Hospital

In 1901, 29 year-old District Nurse Sally Macleod from Assynt in Sutherland was the only resident of this establishment. It had been built and endowed by Mrs Frances Sarah Thomas to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

I must thank a kind correspondent who brought an obituary of Mrs Thomas that was written in 1902 to my attention, for it contains the only reference to this institution that I am aware of. It is not labelled on the 1903 OS 1:10,560 map which was the first to be published after the hospital had been built. However, there is a building shown on that map that is not evident on the 1-inch map of 1896, and an examination of it on Google Streetview leads me to consider it to be a prime candidate for the Cottage Hospital. It lies up a short track from the road that was completed in 1897, at Grid Reference NG101895.

If anyone has any information on Manish Victoria Cottage Hospital, a building that is surely of historical significance on Harris, I would be most grateful to learn of it.

Lieutenant Flowers Beckett RN (c1776-1862)

On the 16th of June 1804, 26 year-old London-born Flowers Beckett was appointed as Master's Mate on HMS Spartiate. The Navy List shows him as being a Lieutenant on Christmas Eve of the same year. HMS Spartiate participated in the Battle of Trafalgar and hers is the only flag to have survived. It was sold for £384000 in Oct 2009.

Flowers survived the conflict and in 1817 his son, James Flowers Beckett, was born in Hythe, Hampshire. James followed his father into the Royal Navy and became a Master on the 9th of November 1846. The following year his father, Flowers Beckett, is listed as being an Outpatient of Greenwich Hospital.

On the 31st October 1848 James Flowers Beckett married Edinburgh-born Margaret Laurie in the Parish of St Cuthbert's Edinburgh and the census of 1851 shows James F Beckett, 34, Master Royal Navy On Halfpay, living at Joy Cottage, Laverock Bank, Trinity, North Leith, with Margaret and a couple of House Servants. His 76 year-old father meanwhile was in Ditton Marsh, Thames Ditton, England. Also living in Leith at this period were Lieutenant FWL Thomas and his wife Frances.

By 1861 the Becketts are at 15 Buckland Crescent in Hampstead, just off the Finchley Road at Swiss Cottage for those familiar with North London. With them are their nieces Laura MacNeil, 13, and Donna MacNeil, 11, from Scotland and three servants.

Flowers Beckett, now 86 and a Retired Lieut. Royal Navy is at 20 Anglesea Villas, Hammersmith and in June 1862 his death is registered at Kensington.

In 1871 we find James F Beckett, 54, Staff Commander RN Reserve List at 23 Stafford Terrace, Kensington, with Margaret, niece Laura Macenil, 23, a visitor Adele Bruce, 30, who had been born in France together with a Cook, a Housemaid and a Page. A decade later they had moved half-a-mile North to 3 St John's Gardens, Kensington, remaining close to Holland Park. Laura Macneil is still with them at the age of 33 and living On Dividends and the staff now comprise a Cook, a Parlourmaid and a Housemaid.

The Becketts then move to East Susses and in June 1888 Margaret Beckett's death at the age of 69 is registered at Battle. On the 2nd July 1890 widower James Flowers Beckett and widow Fanny Thomas are married at All Saints, Paddington. His address is given as Hollington Park, which is near St Leonards/Hastings in East Sussex and hers as 19 Talbot Sq, Hyde Park in London.

Fanny Thomas is, of course, the widow of Captain FWL Thomas and 40 years ago the couples had been Naval neighbours in Trinity, North Leith.

The Beckett residence is 'Arondel', a house in the Hollington Park area of the somewhat confusing triangle of Hollington, Hastings and St Leonards. Laura Macneil the 43 year-old niece from Campbelltown, remains with them in 1891 along with four Domestic Maids. In 1901 James Flowers and Frances remain with a Ladies Companion, a Cook, a Housemaid and a Parlourmaid but no Laura.

Finally, in 1902 Frances Sarah Beckett died in Edinburgh but I have been unable to discover with certainty when the twice-widowed James Flowers Beckett was reunited with his two wives.

And my reason for telling this tale? Well, we know that Frances had been trading tweeds in London whilst living in Leith and I wonder whether it was her ex-Edinburgh neighbours and fellow Royal Navy (and apparently childless) couple James Flowers Beckett and his Scottish wife Margaret who acted as her agents during their years in London? Laura Macneil may have played a part, too...

Note: Flowers Beckett's participation at the Battle of Trafalgar can be seen here:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/details.asp?id=14207

Update: Flowers Beckett was Baptised on the 5th of February 1775 at St George, Bloomsbury in Camden, Middlesex. His parents were Peter Beckett and his wife, Frances. Peter Beckett had married Frances Flowers  on the 13th of February 1774 at St Marylebone, Middlesex and this gives us the origin of their son's unusual Christian name. On the 31st of March 1776 the couple baptised their daughter, Ann, at St George's, Bloomsbury. Unfortunately I have not been able to discover what became of Ann.

George Bousfield Thomas 1844-1850

On the 31st of July 1844 George Bousfield Thomas was Baptised at St Paul, Deptford, England. 6 year-old George Bosfield Thomas died on the 1st of July 1850 at the family home, Rose Cottage, Trinity in the Parish of St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh. The cause of death is given as 'Water in Head' which I presume to describe Hydrocephalus or 'Water on the Brain'.

The lack of any further children in the records suggests that his mother may have been unable to bear any more following the birth of George. I believe the loss of their son to have been pivotal in the relationship that his parents, Lieutenant FWL Thomas RN and his wife Frances, were to develop with the Western Isles of Scotland. In particular, I do not think that Mrs Thomas would have devoted her life to the development of textile industries on the Isle of Harris had she also had a family. Little George's death marks, for me, the birth of Harris Tweed.

It also allows us to say that the Thomas's were already living in Leith by 1850 whilst the earliest census record of them there is that of 1861. The 1851 census saw them lodging in Culross, Perthshire, but that was not because they were making their way to Edinburgh (as I once thought), but for some reason found themselves away from their usual home in Leith.

In 1861 that home was 8 Trinity Crescent, Leith and the 44 year-old Commander RN and Marine Surveyor and his wife were joined by five others. They were Ann Morrison, their 19 year-old Domestic Servant from Uig, Lewis, her 15 year-old colleague Marion Macleod from Harris and three Sailors from the Orkneys. An interesting and unusual household.

The household of 1871, by which time Frederick has retired, is less noteworthy but that of 1881 contains a surprise. The couple were joined by Fanny Macdonald, their Cook from Harris, and Housemaid Dolina Macleod from Uig, Lewis but the surprise is provided by Jessie Davidson, 15, their 'Adopted Daughter' from Harris.

The only match for her is Janet Davidson, daughter of Alexander Davidson, Minister of the Manish Free Church in Harris. She apparently returned to Harris by 1891 when she was living at Duncan Macrae's home in Hamlets Little Borve. He was the Farmer there and her relationship appears to be that of '?ailor' yet the 25 year-old Jessie is described as Unemployed.

However, that is not what interests me. It is the use of the phrase 'Adopted Daughter' that I find intriguing. Jessie was taken under the Thomas's wing by 1881 yet her father remained the Minister at Manish until at least 1891 and her widowed mother was still living in Manish in 1901. The answer is partially supplied in 1892 when, on the 6th of July, the Manish Free Church Minister's daughter Jessie marries Donald Tulloch Mackay from Tiree, where he is a Free Church Minister! They return to Tiree where, by 1901, she has born Donald two sons.

Quite why the Thomas's took Jessie to Edinburgh is unclear but that they thought of her as their Adopted Daughter is, I think, very moving and provides another insight into this remarkable couple, who lost their one child, George Bousfield Thomas, 160 years ago next month.

Women’s Work in Harris (Hebrides)

The British Friend: A Monthly Journal, Volume 46, Issue 9, page 228-29. (Glasgow). 1888.

As far as I can tell, this article has not been addressed in previous considerations of the history of Harris Tweed. I have included my observation within the original text:

In the year 1857 the Hydrographic Survey reached the Long Island (Lewis), the largest of the Hebrides or Western Islands.The survey was being conducted by the late Captain F.W.L. Thomas, of the Royal Navy, and other officers, whom we need not name, for it is not of the scientific work, important as that was, that we mean to say a few words, but of a philanthropic undertaking begun in a very humble way indeed, but grown to very large proportions, and having its origins in the wide human sympathies of the commander of the Woodlark. 

The Navy List shows that on the 9^th May 1845 Lieut. Commdr. FWL Thomas took command of the Woodlark, a Tender to Mastiff, the 1813 vessel whose Mate he had first become on 6^th May 1840. His father, George Thomas, was Master of the Mastiff and they had been surveying around the Orkeney Isles together in 1838 and the 1850 Chart bears both their names. In 1845 George Thomas died and the following year the Mastiff was retired from service. The author points to 'the wide human sympathies' of the Captain as key to this story about his wife's work with the women of Harris.

He was accompanied by his wife, and, to make living in Harris, which is the southern and most barren part of The Long Island, possible, they had a wooden home erected on shore.
This is of great interest. It tells us that the pair maintained a presence on the isle that was of some duration and independent of the Dunmore family and their Factors.

They had recently met with a very severe domestic bereavement; but far from wrapping themselves up in their own sorrows, they were on the watch to relieve those who were suffering in other ways.
On the 31st of July 1844 George Bousfield Thomas was Baptised at St Paul, Deptford. I can find no further record of him. It is to be presumed, therefore, that he died in Scotland prior to the census of 1851 as Statutory Registration had not yet begun there (It was introduced in England in 1837). I have now located the death of George Bosfield Thomas on the 1st of July 1850 in the Parish of St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh. The lack of any further children in the censuses suggests that Frances may have been unable to bear any following the birth of George. That, at a time when infant deaths were far from uncommon, would explain why it was 'a very severe domestic bereavement' and, I venture to suggest, a turning point not only in the lives of the couple but of those whose lives they were to touch.

Captain Thomas called the attention of his wife to the extreme poverty of the Islanders, and suggested that she might do something to help them. Thereupon, this delicate young English lady made a tour of investigation, and, as she understood no Gaelic, there was no danger of being imposed upon by tales of hardship. But her own quick powers of observation furnished abundant material to stir to it’s depths her warm heart, and to set her active brain to work.
At this point, we need to remind ourselves that this account was composed some thirty years after the events that it purports to describe and for an audience raised on Romanticism.

For the men of this district there was no employment except scratching the poor soil which barely covers the rock of which the south-eastern and most wretched part of Harris is composed. Sometimes, they can go away to the fishing, but fish caught about their coast, though affording a precarious supply of food, cannot find a market owing to the cost of transit to the mainland.
The men would have happily worked the rich, fertile soils of the West coast (which the author significantly overlooks) as Crofters rather than being employees, regardless of the occupation on offer!

The woman’s work however, suggested possibilities to their philanthropic visitor who had a pair of stockings knitted by a poor widow. They looked as if meant for a pony, they were so queerly shaped, or rather misshapen; and the worsted, which claimed to be white, had taken into it’s embrace every stray fibre of heather, wool, or hair, while variety of shade as well as texture united to produce a most repulsive looking garment for the human foot. Nothing daunted, the brave little Englishwoman resolved to teach the women of Harris to knit well and to shape well.
I don't think one needs to have a PhD in Anthropology to know that in 'traditional' human societies people take great pride in their work so, whilst it is likely that 'the brave little Englishwoman' played her part in selecting styles and sizes for the stockings, I do not believe that there was a hosiery hiatus on Harris prior to her arrival. Oh, and having 'bits' woven into ones textiles as described was years before its time, anyway!

When she returned to Edinburgh for the winter, she told every person she met of their work and their privations; and all this she has continued to do unremittingly for about thirty years, with such good effect that the Harris stockings got the FIRST PRIZE at the Edinburgh Exhibition of 1886; and from Ceylon to Labrador, and in all the wide stretch between, Harris stockings and sox have added comfort and health to many a household; while to solitary bachelors they have been a special blessing by reducing darning to a minimum!
Ignoring the FIRST PRIZE (the capitals are there in the original) what we do have here is evidence that the Stocking Industry was still thriving in 1888 and that these products were widely available.

By this industry Mrs Thomas is able to keep four hundred women in constant work.
This is an astonishing claim that, if true, meant that somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of the female population who were above school age were knitters!

But she has also been the principal means of developing another department of women’s work -- the making of homespun. It struck her on first visiting the people as an excellent wear for our fitful climate, and about the same time, the late Dowager Countess of Dunmore, to whose young son the island belonged, conceived the same idea. To these two ladies is due the introduction of tweed as a dress material for gentlemen, and even for ladies. There are endless imitations of the real Harris homespun, but they can easily be recognized by any one acquainted with the genuine product. It is made from fleeces sent down by Mrs. Thomas, and the women card, dye, and spin the wool; and then weave the thread into cloth on old-fashioned hand looms, one of which may be seen going at the Glasgow Exhibition. The wool is dyed from products of the islands such as peat soot and lichen from the rocks. The tints are the true art colours, now so fashionable, and always favoured by Friends. They are hygienic, too, which many chemical dyes are not. At the Edinburgh Exhibition, the Tweed gained the medal for excellence of make.
The key phrase here is 'the principal means of developing' for, whilst the author gives equal credit to the two ladies for creating the industry, it is the business organisation skills of Mrs Thomas that are seen as key to its expansion. There is no mention of the earlier development; no uniforms for the Estate workers, no training of weavers - that doesn't mean that they didn't occur but it does cast further doubt on the significance of those events occurring at a time when Clearances were commonplace and starvation stalked the land.

For stockings, Paton’s best worsted of every variety is sent down; and last year the tweed and stockings sold amounted to more than 2,000 pounds. The kind foster-mother of the poor Harris people devotes life and living to their interests, and goes through an amount of head work and bodily toil that would do credit to twenty persons of more than average capacity.
John Paton of Alloa had begun his business in the 1770s and some say that it was there that the Paisley Sisters were trained. Clearly Mrs Thomas was accessing Paton's best worsted (the yarn, not the cloth!) to fuel her four-hundred knitters but whether that points to earlier collaboration between Alloa and Harris is a moot, and sadly mute, point.

Perhaps the greatest benefit she has conferred on the people has been helping between 700 and 800 of them to emigrate to Canada, where they have got on remarkably well.
We are not told in what way she delivered this 'help' and at this point the author is toeing the Establishment line, a toe that peeks out from all those stockings as we recall that Assisted Emigration to Canada was established in the same year that this account was published.

She has also brought to Edinburgh many girls who have credibly acquitted themselves in digestive service; she has also brought up boys to be taught trades. Mrs Thomas has also provided some food for the children at various schools, and the Inspectors remarked with good results! During the past winter no riots or law-breaking occurred in Harris though the people are much worse off than those in Lewis.
There were a mere four women from Harris in Domestic Service in Edinburgh in 1881, and only two a decade later, but it is entirely possible that Mrs Thomas encouraged her friends to give some of the girls employment. The phrase 'brought up boys' is intriguing but too ambiguous to be expanded upon and I have yet to find the School Inspectors' reports! The 'riots or law-breaking' is a direct reference to the Pairc Deer Raid of 1887, an event that certainly took place in Lochs, Lewis but equally certainly in which several Hearachs participated! The author is clearly displaying the prevailing wisdom of the age, a wisdom that totally misunderstood the demands of the raiders in Lewis as surely as it 'observed' the apparent acquiescence in Harris.

Mrs. Thomas has now opened a depot in London, and a smaller depot is established at 41 Gray Street, Newington, Edinburgh. And travellers will find it greatly to their advantage to secure garments of those imperishable manufactures for Highland or Norwegian excursions, and thus benefiting themselves and the industrious women of Harris.
Having invited the reader to buy-into the concept, the author proceeds to inform them of where they can buy the produce, whether in London or Edinburgh. This address in Edinburgh is worthy of further investigation.

J. N. Sinclair
Edinburgh
I have not been able to identify J N Sinclair, although the lack of a title suggests to me a man, and one well-known to his readership. Overall, and if we ignore the more purple of his passages, J N Sinclair paints a picture of a couple who despite (perhaps as a result of) some private trauma devoted their active adult years to the islands. They lived, for a while, on Harris and amongst his many photographs there is one of the Captain's yacht (I haven't seen it) which suggests that he used his leisure time to further his (rather better documented) explorations. But the Captain's contributions are altogether a subject in their own right and it is Mrs Thomas in whom my current interest lies. This English Solicitor's daughter evidently took an active and enduring role in developing Harris Tweed and Stocking-Knitting as viable industries. It is a shame that, having spent so much time and energy in doing so, she didn't find the time to record her work for posterity. Unless, of course, languishing somewhere and waiting to be explored are the archives of her businesses in Edinburgh and London, plus whatever personal papers that may have been passed-on  to her second husband's family following his death?

A tantalising thought, and one that only came to me as I was composing this conclusion...

.