Schooling in Lochs 1797-1881

As a result of a recent enquiry I thought I’d have a look at educational provision in the Parish of Lochs, Lewis. The first reference is to be found in The Statistical Account of Scotland where we learn from the Rev Mr Alexander  Simson that a Parochial Schoolhouse had been built during the previous year and a ‘Society’ (presumably SSPCK) schoolhouse constructed some two years prior to that. Two spinning schools (the majority of spinning in the islands at the time was performed using the distaff and spindle rather than with a spinning wheel) were operating, paid for jointly by the wife of the proprietor, Colonel Francis Humberston Mackenzie of Seaforth,  and the SSPCK. This, in sum, was the situation of schooling in Lochs in 1797.

The Rev Robert Finlayson composed his entry for Lochs in The New Statistical Account of Scotland in 1833 and the book itself was published in 1845, As an aside we may note that, according to Finlayson, no Parish Register had been kept for Lochs before his arrival in 1831 and in this regard his parish was suffering from a similar lack of records as the neighbouring Parish of Harris. There were four schools provided by the Gaelic School Society but no parish school as there was no accommodation until the recent erection of a schoolhouse. I wonder what had become of the Parochial Schoolhouse that Simson had mentioned?

By the time of the eventual publication in 1845 many changes had occurred since Finlayson penned his account but we can get a snapshot of educational provision from the census taken in 1841.

The 1841 Census records five Schoolmasters in Lochs:

Peter MacEwen, 35, Lemreway

Donald MacFarlane, 40, Laxay

Malcolm MacCritchie, 35, North Shawbost

Allan Ross, 35, Keose

John Shaw, 50, Borroston(?)

The sole Gaelic Teacher was:

John MacLean,  25, Keose, b. Ross & Cromarty

An eventful decade later, one in which the Clearances, the Disruption and the ongoing Famines were perhaps the most significant of several factors, sees a different set of six Schoolmasters:

William Denon, 50, Keose, b. Cromarty

William MacKay, 28, Balallan, b. Durness, Sutherland

We may also note the presence of an unemployed schoolmaster;

Donald MacKey, 28, Loval, b. Durness, Sutherland

Donald was one of seven members of the MacKay household at Loval Cottage, headed by his widowed 64 year-old mother, and he was quite possibly the (twin?) brother of William MacKay in Balallan.

The  Gaelic (School) Teachers were:

 John MacLean, 43, Laxay, b. Ross & Cormarty

Norman MacLennan, 51, Leurbost, b. Uig, Ross-shire

Murdo MacDonald, 48, North Shawbost, b. Uig, Ross-shire

Malcolm Morrison, 36, Calbost, b. Uig, Ross-shire

The presence of four teachers in different locations certainly appears to match with the provision of education by the Gaelic School society mentioned 18 years earlier but the presence of North Shawbost in the census for Lochs is confusing me as I thought it lay in the Parish of Barvas?

There is no sign of much changing by 1861 when the only two schoolmasters are Angus Murray, 60, Schoolhouse, b. Dornoch, Sutherlandshire and locally-born John Smith, 28 and three teachers are to be seen:

Kenneth MacKenzie, 40, Gaelic Teacher, Day School, b. Lochbroom

Malcolm Morrison, 48, Gaelic Teacher, Day School, b. Uig, Ross-shire

Angus Morrison, 18, Teacher, Day School, b. Uig, Ross-shire (Son of Malcolm)

Similarly, in  1871:

Alexander Crawford, 33, Keose, b. Stralachlan, Argyllshire

Donald MacIver, 19, Laxay, b. Lochs

Alexander MacIver (no further details)

John MacLeod, 50, Marvig, b. Harris

Malcolm Morrison, 56, Laxay, b. Uig, Ross-shire

Alexander Morrison, 22, Laxay, b. Uig, Ross-shire (Son of Malcolm, above)

Donald Smith, 18, Lemreway, b. Lochs

There is also Roderick MacLeod, 28, Cromore, b. Lochs who may have been the Gaelic School’s teacher at this time whilst two families of fishermen were apparently the sole occupants of a pair of school houses.

The 1872 Education (Scotland)Act  introduced compulsory English education, outlawing Gaelic from the school grounds with a rigour that surpassed the vigour of previous centuries with which the banning of the wearing of Highland dress and the carrying of arms had been accomplished.

Thus by 1881 schooling in Lochs had expanded but only one Gaelic School appears to have survived:

J C Clarke, Leurbost, b. Kilmuir

Alexander Crawford, 43, b. Stralachlan, Argyllshire

John Cumming, 36, Ranish, b. Knockando, Elgin

Roderick MacKenzie, Marvig, b. Lochs

Murdo MacLeod, 37, Kershader, b. Lochs

Alexander Morison, 28, Cromore, b. Lochs

We must also note the presence of two Sewing Mistresses:

Anne MacLeod, 46, Kershader, b. Lochs (Sister of Murdo, above)

Chirsty  Morison, 19, Cromore, b. Lochs (Sister of Alexander Morison, above)

In addition we have another ten Teachers, Assistant Teachers & Pupil Teachers recorded:

Duncan Fraser, 21, Crossbost, b. Daviot, Inverness-shire

Donald MacLeod, 16, Laxay, b. Lochs

Murdo Martin, 19, Arivruaich, b. Uig, Ross-shire

Kenneth MacKenzie, 26, Gravir, b. Gravir

Donald MacKenzie, 19, Grimshader, b. Lochs

Donald MacKinnon, 25, Balallan, b. Lochs

John MacLeod, 60, Cromore, b. Harris (Gaelic  School)

Murdo MacLeod, 37, Kershader, b. Lochs

Alexander Morrison, 28, Cromore, b. Lochs

Alex Ross, 54, Balallan, b. Perth, Blair

In summary, from the scant evidence that such records as these provide, it appears that the people of Lochs managed against all adversity to maintain Gaelic education for their children right up until the implementation of the 1872 Act. This is testament to the thirst for knowledge and respect for education that both of the Ministers who wrote for the Statistical Accounts had taken the time to remark upon in their respective reports and yet another rebuttal of the prevailing establishment view of the Gael...

I shall return to look at provision post the 1883 Napier Report in a later piece, but meanwhile an excellent article on the history of education in Lewis, and specifically in the neighbouring Parish of Uig, may be found here: http://www.ceuig.com/history/church-and-school/early-schools

References:

Statistical Account Pages -

http://stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/link/1791-99/Ross%20and%20Cromarty/Lochs/19/277/

http://stat-acc-scot.edina.ac.uk/link/1834-45/Ross%20and%20Cromarty/Lochs/14/168/

Highland Folk Ways

I mentioned in this earlier piece about Isabel Frances Grant that I wished to share my thoughts on her book ‘Highland Folk Ways’ and that time has finally arrived.

I like everything about this almost encyclopaedic volume that covers virtually all aspects of Gaelic culture and places them within a broadly sweeping background description of the history of the Highlands & Islands.

I happen to prefer books that are written with a passion for their subject but combined with a scholarly approach and deep knowledge of the material that is being covered. ‘Highland Folk Ways’  is all these things and in fact the only downside is the appearance of the word ‘folk’ in its title for that word is somewhat demeaning in the all-encompassing world of Gaelic culture. It is a failing that Isabel Grant herself was well aware of but perhaps there is no better small, single word with which to convey the content of her work?

The book constantly reminds us that the people more than compensated for their lack of material resources by an immense resourcefulness that continues to this day despite the descent into the ‘disposable culture’ of more modern times.  It also demonstrates the appropriateness of the tools used, for example, in cultivating the land and the damage wrought by so-called ‘improvement’, both to the people and the land, is hinted-at too.

I do not mean to imply that there was some ‘Golden Age’ when the Highlands & Islands flowed with milk & honey and we must always remember that such supposedly  ‘traditional’ aspects of life as tea, tobacco and the potato were each relatively recent imports to the culture!

Thus the book presents a dynamic picture rather than a static one and helps fill the gap between a sloppy ‘guide-book’ style of history (with its ‘traditional crofting’ type of approach*) and that of the academic thesis which, for all its scholarship, lie unloved in a library awaiting awakening.

Isabel Grant wrote her ‘popular’, accessible and thought-provoking history just over 50 years ago, and it has been followed by several equally excellent books by more recent authors that convey complex issues in an equally engaging and well-written manner, but if one is looking for a single-volume introduction to the history of Gaelic culture than hers has yet to be beaten.

*Crofting is a little over 200 years old which, in the context of the millennia of occupation of the Highlands & Islands, is but a fleeting moment ago...

Where to buy the book:

In addition to online retailers (including those dealing in secondhand books which are especially attractive if you prefer your books to be affordable hardbacks!) it can be obtained direct from the Highland Folk Museum’s shop - http://www.highlandfolk.com/shop.php

Another Photo Of 'Jessie'?

In this earlier piece I discussed the 'Jessie' of Stornoway which my ancestors owned & sailed whilst plying the coastal trade around the islands & mainland of Western Scotland.

I have discovered another image of a two-masted cargo vessel in Stornoway that appeared in a catalogue of images published in 1893. It is to be found in the George Washington Wilson collection at Aberdeen University Library and is an extremely rare stereoscopic close-up showing the stern and deck of a cargo sailing ship working in Scotland towards the end of the 19th Century.

I cannot be sure that she is indeed the 'Jessie' but the photo provides the best image that I have seen of this type of vessel and allows one's imagination to explore what it would have been like to sail such a ship, taking all kinds of cargo around these coasts and providing a vital service to island trade and communications.

This link will take you to the full details and clicking on the image will open a new page with a view that may be zoomed & explored revealing many fascinating details.

I wonder who the gentleman (usefully providing us with a scale to estimate the size of the ship, etc) is?

Borve Mission House, Isle of Harris

In the course of a piece of research, I came upon a wedding in 1904 that took place at the Borve Mission House, Harris.

The certificate records that the ceremony was performed ‘According to the Forms of the United Free Church of Scotland.’ The Minister was one Farquhar Kennedy from Lochalsh who in 1901 was boarding at Manish Cottage with the Davidson family of the late Free Church Minister, Alexander Davidson.

Not having previously heard of Borve Mission House, I endeavoured to learn more about it. A search on RCAHMS  produced the Mission House in the old school building on Scarp and a Mission Hall in Seilibost Seilibost . A more general search returned the Finsbay Mission House which is now an art studio but certainly was performing its earlier function according to the records of the 1901 Census when the family of the 44 year-old Missionary Ronald MacSween were living there.

That same Census also provides us with a United Free Church Missionary at Little Borve. He was 56 year-old Donald MacDonald with his wife and two daughters, the younger of whom having been born in North Uist some 18 years earlier unlike her sister and parents who were all born in Harris. Their home is not referred to as 'Borve Mission House' but whether that is significant or not I cannot tell.

(Incidentally, in the previous Census of 1891 there was a Missionary along the coast at Big Borve, Lachlan Munro, but this was prior to the formation of the United Free Church)

Turning to the United Free Church for possible assistance, I found this interesting and useful brief history but the only archives I can locate do not appear to include those of missionaries working in Scotland?

Finally, I have been unable to find Borve Mission House on any maps so if anyone can provide some more details about this building I would be delighted to hear from you!

Isabel Frances Grant (1887-1983) in 1891

I am intending writing a short piece on ‘Highland Folk Ways’, the book published in 1961 which remains perhaps the best single-volume introduction to the history of Scottish Gaelic culture in all its guises.

However, whilst I was undertaking some background research regarding the book’s author, Dr I F Grant, I discovered that at the time of the 1891 Census she was living in a particularly interesting household:

The three year-old is found with her paternal grandparents, Sir Patrick Grant and Frances Maria Grant, in the 'Chelsea Hospital' in London. Sir Patrick was a Field Marshall and Governor of the Royal Hospital Chelsea until his death in 1895.

Dr Grant was to found the Highland Folk Museum , and in 2008 her account of that work was published.

A more detailed biography may be read on Am Baile but I thought it worth noting the little girl’s presence at an institution which included many Highlanders & Islanders amongst its in-patients and out-patients as demonstrated in this brief entry regarding Chelsea Pensioners found in Harris.

A slight diversion from my original intention, but one that I thought worth sharing!

Untangling the Web (Makers)

A couple of years ago I wrote about the unusual occurrence of the term 'Web Maker' as an occupation amongst the good ladies of Harris in 1891 & 1901, ending with the promise to investigate further when the 1911 Census had become searchable.

I am revisiting the topic because in fact the term disappeared almost as quickly as it had popped-up in 1891! It is an occupation wholly unique to Harris and, with the sole exception recorded from 1901 in my earlier piece, exclusively in the 1891 Census.

However, its usage in that year was far more commonplace than I first indicated for, because I was still at an early stage in teaching myself how to interrogate the database, I had overlooked those ladies who rather than being recorded as a ‘Web Maker’ were listed as being a ‘Webmaker’.

A small but highly significant difference!

Thus in 1891 we find no less than 136 women on Harris who were Web Makers/Webmakers and of these no less than 121 specify that what they producing was ‘Tweed’.

This is significant for two important reasons:

Firstly, it reinforces my finding that the term ‘Harris Tweed’ made a very late appearance on the stage and only once those ladies promoting the ‘Home Industries’ via a variety of organisations had begun their endeavours.

Secondly, as I have been unable to discover any distinguishing features separating ‘web making’ from ‘weaving’ as being terms for the production of woven cloth from spun yarn, it means that we can add to the number of weaveresses these webmakers and hence review the economic importance of the production of Harris Tweed to Harris in 1891.

In 1891 Harris Tweed appears to have been being made by at least 247 Weaveresses and 136 Webmakers so that a total of 383 women were creating Harris Tweed at this time.

As there were some 2,662 women & girls living in Harris in 1891, that figure represents over 14% of the female population of the island!

This all fits rather well with an account from 1888 , which incidentally also demonstrates the longevity of the involvement of  'Mrs Captain Thomas' with the work of regenerating the island following the famines & failure of the Kelp-industry earlier in the Century.

Another Maritime Casualty

I mentioned in this earlier piece that John Macleod (1879-1911), who became John Kerr when his mother Margaret Maclennan married his stepfather Roderick Kerr, had been a sailor and that he died at sea.

The somewhat scant details are that sometime on Saturday 13^th of May 1911, when the vessel Castlefield was in ‘Genoa Harbour’, John was drowned. The circumstances leading to the 31 year-old Able Seaman’s drowning are not recorded.

The 2255 ton (1483 Net Tonnage) Castlefield had been built in Stockton in 1890 and a record of the life of this ‘iron cargo steamship’ from then until her eventual demise in 1958 can be seen here. We can see that from 1906 she was the property of W. S. Miller & Co. of Glasgow whose flag may be seen here. 

John’s last place of abode is given on his certificate as 204 Kelvinhaugh Street, Glasgow but this is followed by the word ‘Ship’ in brackets which is a slightly enigmatic addition? What is certain is that he was British and born in Harris for each of these is stated unambiguously.

I can barely begin to imagine the loss felt by his family back in ‘Obbe’, Harris when they received the news of the loss of their son, a term I use because I am sure that Roderick was a loving stepfather (he allowed John to take his name, for example) and, as the wee lad was only in his second year of life when the couple married at Scarista on Tuesday 22^nd of February 1881, Roderick would have been the only father that John would have known.

RIP John (Macleod) Kerr 1879-1911 

1748 & All That

In a paper from Volume 45 of the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness the late Alick Morrison provides us with a glimpse into the ‘Harris Estate Papers 1724-1754’.

There is plenty of fertile ground here for anyone with an interest in the history of Harris and it is certainly worth noting in passing the significant role played by many members of the Campbell families in serving the island over many, many years.

However, what took my eye from within the transcribed accounts was a single payment of £60 made in 1748. That sum would be comparable to perhaps £100,000 in today’s salaries and should be considered in relation to the Factor’s £150 (£250,000), the Ground Officer’s £33 (£55,000) and the Deputy Forester’s £20 (£33,000).

The recipient of this payment was one Roderick Kerr but why he was being given such a sum is sadly unrecorded. Nevertheless, I am pleased to have found written evidence placing a Kerr in Harris at such an early date. What Roderick’s role was is open to conjecture, as is whether he was a direct ancestor of mine, but this single entry pushes back ‘our’ recorded presence by some 50 years.

It is also a very early record of the family name within the Highlands & Islands & we may note that nearly a century later, when the 1841 Census was taken, there were less than a dozen people named Roderick Kerr in the whole of Scotland and three of these were in Harris.

Our origins as a Gaelic family in the North-West, unconnected with the more-familiar Ayrshire clan, is open to conjecture (I am leaning towards possible descent from Alexander ‘Kier’ Shaw of Rothiemurcus!) but I’m delighted that Roderick’s £60 continues to be of value to us!

Ref: Morrison, Alick, 'Harris Estate Papers, 1752-1754' TGSI 45 (1967-68) 33-97

A Note In The Margin

A recent exchange on a friend's blog occasioned me to revisit my post on the Hamlet of Limera where I had written that:

“Secondly, we have the 8 men, each a ‘Fisher’, and ranging in age from 14 to 48. Whether this was their ‘permanent’ abode or they were merely making-use of the facilities whilst fishing the local waters I do not know. I do know that a group of, largely, such young men cannot have chosen to be living together in such circumstances if there were a more companionable alternative available.”

Deciding to look at the original census return on scotlandspeople.gov.uk, I saw a note in the margin referring to these two groups of fishers:

‘The contents of schedules 22 & 23 are two fishing boats’ crews; they belong to other parts of this parish but have also houses here (Limera) as being an eligible fishing station: they were both at sea when their schedules were taken up. Their relation to one another or the  ‘Head of Family’ could not in every case be ascertained by R M Esq.’

‘R M Esq’ appears to have been Roderick MacKay, the Enumerator who also describes the location specifically as the ‘Station of Limera’.

The interesting pieces of additional information are that, whilst the two crews were indeed ‘making-use of the facilities...’ which I had suggested might be the case, the houses they inhabited were in fact occupied by them in what appears to have been a regular manner at this ‘eligible fishing station’.

A Death in Stornoway Town Hall

It is 1:45 in the afternoon of Tuesday, the 19^th of May 1904 and building work on Stornoway Town Hall has been brought to a halt. William J Macdonald, a 21 year-old House Carpenter originally from Avoch, a few miles North of Inverness, but currently living at 27 South Beach Street, has just died of a fracture of the skull.

His death was registered on Saturday, the 14^th of June (the figure is a little unclear), the delay being occasioned because it was registered ‘on the information of the Procurator Fiscal’, the cause being derived ‘...per verdict of jury.’

I have not discovered any online references to this tragic event but no doubt some of the newspapers of the time will have reported upon it. Meanwhile we may catch a glimpse of William three years before his death when, at the time of the 1901 Census, he was an 18 year-old  ‘Carpenter Apprentice’, the eldest of the remaining six children of William Macdonald, a 50 year-old Baker, and his wife Catherine who was aged 44.

The family resided at 3 George Street, Avoch, Ross-shire and were affluent enough to employ a Cook.  A decade earlier they had been living at 20 & 21 Margaret Street and, as well as two fellow Bakers and an Apprentice Baker, the Macdonald household also included a General Servant (Domestic). The oldest child, 9 year-old Jessie Ann Macdonald, had been born in Avoch as would be the case with all of her siblings.

I stumbled upon this unusual death by chance when I saw the photograph of William Macdonald’s memorial here: http://gravestones.rosscromartyroots.co.uk/picture/number14047.asp . The phrase ‘accidentally killed at Stornoway Town Hall’ immediately grabbed my attention but what held it was the fact that this impressive memorial had been ‘Erected by his employer’.

Sadly, when William’s death was recorded in Stornoway, he was said to be 25 years old rather than his true age of just 21, for William James Macdonald had indeed been born in 1883.

His memorial also shows that a mere two years after his death the family suffered a second untimely death with the loss of Jessie Ann at the age of just 25...

Lexy Morrison (1834-1921) & Lexy Campbell (1908-1994)

I don’t know why I’d not looked at Lexy Kerr’s Death Certificate before now, but I hadn’t...

She was born in South Uist to Donald Morrison (who would later become the schoolmaster at Kyles Scalpay,) and his wife Christina MacKinnon.

By 1861, Lexy Morrison had joined the household of the Factor, John Robertson Macdonald, at Rodil House where she was the House Maid. It was there that she met the then Ploughman, Angus Kerr, whom she married on the 5^th of April 1870 and the census of the following year records the couple living in Rodel where Angus was now the Farm Grieve, or manager.

Their daughter Marion, an only child, was born in Rodel in 1873 and the family remained there with Marion marrying a farmer called John Campbell.  John’s  father, Roderick Campbell, had been farming Borve in the island of Berneray prior to it being re-crofted but the pair were also successful Fish Curers in South Harris.

John then became the farmer on Taransay and Marion was to give birth to two daughter and three sons the eldest of whom, Roderick Campbell, continued to farm on the island after his father’s death in 1945, some 11 years after Marion herself had died.

Marion’s mother, Lexy, had been widowed in 1910 and I had assumed that she remained in Rodel (where she is recorded living alone in 1911) until her own death 11 years later.

However, her death certificate informs us that, on the 29^th of October 1921 at 7:30 in the morning, she passed away at ‘Tarinsay Island’.

I presume that at some time during the second decade of the twentieth century, Marion had invited her elderly mother to join the Campbell family on Taransay and hence that was where Lexy died.

The informant, incidentally, was Malcolm Campbell, described as a ‘neighbour’ in Borve, Harris but he is also very likely to have been one of her son-in-law’s relatives.

Half-a-century after Lexy’s death her grand-daughter Lexy Campbell, (who had married but remained at Taransay) had some visitors and in his book ‘The Isle of Taransay’, Bill Lawson refers to how hospitable she and her husband Ewen MacRae were as hosts.

Lexy had been born at Taransay on the 4^th of September 1908 and died on the Harris ‘mainland’ in 1994. She would have been only 17 months old when her grandfather, Angus Kerr, died at Rodel on the 27^th of February 1910 but I’d like to think that at least a little of her hospitality had been inherited from him and, of course, from her grandmother Lexy after whom she was, presumably, named.

It seems that my two cousins, Lexy Campbell and her son Ewen MacRae, were the last permanent residents of Taransay but what is unclear to me is whether another cousin (one of Lexy's brothers) had owned the island at some earlier time?

Peter Kerr (1802-1862)

When I first came upon Peter, whilst compiling my comprehensive & detailed family  tree of the ‘Kerrs of Harris’ some four years ago, it was inevitable that a small frisson of excitement occurred: Were we related, by any chance?

Let us look at what the three censuses have to tell us about Peter & his family:

1841

Peter Kerr, 45, Tenant, Kentulavig, b. Inverness

Margaret, 40, b. Inverness

Mary, 15, b. Inverness

Kenneth, 12, b. Inverness

John, 10, b. Inverness

Effy, 8, b. Inverness

Catherine, 5, b.Inverness

Donald, 8 months, b. Inverness

1851

Peter Kerr, 55, Dry Mason, Kintulavick, Harris, b. Harris

Margaret, 50, Wife, b. Harris

Rachel, 16, Daughter, b. Harris

William, 11, Son, b. Harris

1861

Peter Kerr, 67, Stone Mason, Soroba Lower, Craignish, Argyll, b. Harris

Margaret, 62, Wife, b. Harris

Rachel  Stables, 25, Daughter, A Painter’s Wife, b. Harris

Margaret Stables, 2, Granddaughter, b. Craignish

Phemie Stables, 8 months, Granddaughter, b. Craignish

Roderick Kerr, 6, Grandson, b. Harris

We can see that Peter & Margaret had at least 6 or 8 children born between circa 1825 and 1840 in Harris and that he was a mason. Incidentally, he would have been in the right place at the right time to have been involved in the construction of the Telford Church on Berneray, but equally likely was ‘merely’ responsible for domestic buildings and/or dykes on the island?

Peter died at 2 o’clock in the afternoon of the 22^nd of February 1862, aged 60, at Soroba, Craignish.  He had been suffering from diseased kidneys and an ulcerated bladder for several years. His parents, both deceased, were a Farmer, Donald Kerr, and his wife Sarah Ferguson, and Peter’s widow had been born Margaret MacAskill. The death was registered by Peter’s son, William.

That was pretty much all that I had established about him (although I had followed his descendants a little further) until quite recently when I learnt that a Patrick Keir had been a tenant in Rushgarry on the Island of Berneray in 1830 and that he was believed to be the mason who appears a decade later on mainland Harris.

Revisiting my research in the light of this new knowledge I realised that we have corroboration in the form of Peter’s wife’s, his mother’s & his own name for MacAskill & Ferguson are family names particularly well associated with Berneray whilst the Gaelic Padruig (which we see as ‘Patrick in 1830) was usually anglicised on the island in later years into Peter rather than Patrick.

The use of ‘Keir’ in 1830 suggests to me an Anglicisation of ‘Cearr’ which also fuels another little fire of mine:

Alexander ‘Keir’ (for ‘brown or, perhaps, swarthy) Shaw was one of the possible progenitors of the Shaw families of Harris. Did some of his descendants in the area choose to adopt his ‘moniker’ as a way of distinguishing themselves from their other Shaw neighbours in the region? If so, were my own earliest island ancestors, Malcolm Kerr & Effie Shaw, perhaps distantly related by very early roots in Rothiemurchus?

I really don’t know, but I’m reasonably satisfied that my namesake was a son of Berneray although the pattern of his son’s names appears quite different to the predominantly Malcolm/Angus/John repetition that occurs in my own family.

I should also point out this family which appears in the ‘Register of Emigrants from the Western Isles of Scotland 1750-1900, Volume 1 Isle of Harris’: 

Peter Kerr, Margaret Kerr, (Wife), John, Rachel, Donald, William, Catherine, Kenneth, Effie &  Mary

They are stated as having left Harris between 1850 & 1859 for ‘Port Uncertain’.

I think it is clear that this is the same family and thus that their destination (or, rather, the place where at least some of the family, including both the parents, emigrated to) was Craignish in Argyll.

Finally, and taking a real flight of fancy, if Peter’s father Donald Kerr was an (otherwise unrecorded) farmerof that name on Berneray, then perhaps he & ‘my’ Malcolm were in some way related, perhaps even brothers? They were certainly contemporaries ( & neighbours across the Sound) so maybe my flight of fancy as to one possible origin of my family name in these parts isn’t quite as wild as I first thought...

Campbell Family Gravestone at Scarista

Contributor JM very kindly sent me a picture taken earlier this year in the cemetery at Scarista, Harris.
I am extremely grateful to him and wondering particularly about the story of what appears to be the monogram 'CK' at the head of the stone?