Something in the air (or, perhaps, underwater!)?

It is strange how events, without planning or deliberate intervention, sometimes coincide:

I posted an entry on this blog on Thu 28 Nov, musing upon the recent publication of results regarding sea levels around the British Isles. .

Today, by chance, I happened upon a news entry that had been posted on the Wessex Archaeology site on Fri 29 Nov - Palaeogeographical Reconstructions - regarding a wonderful poster that they have produced detailing sea level changes around the coasts of the Sound of Harris!

The poster may be viewed online or downloaded as a pdf.
It looks fascinating, as well as very attractive, and I hope you find it so, too.

Neil Morrison – The Pabbay Bard

I thought it would be interesting to have a look at what the census information has to tell us about the life of Neil Morrison, the 'Pabbay Bard':

1841

Kenneth Morrison, 70, Ag Lab, Scarista, b. Inverness

Marion Morrison, 70, b. Inverness

Neil Morrison, 25, Shepherd, b. Inverness

We find the bard living with his parents in Scarista at the time of the 1841 census. According to George Henderson, in his book  'Leabhar nan Gleann', Neil Morrison spent the middle segment of his working life, “...at Scarista, with Mr Macdonald...” so whether he was in fact already working for 'Mr Macdonald' at this time or not isn't clear to me.

1851

Neil Morrison, 34, Shepherd, Luskintire, b. Harris

Rachel Morrison, 29, Wife, b. Kilmuir, Inverness-shire

Janet Morrison, 3, Daughter, b. Harris

Donald Morrison, 1, Son, b. Harris

Donald Morrison, 15, Servant, b. Harris

Kenneth Morrison, 96, Pauper Formerly Farmer and Merchant, b. Harris

Marion Morrison, 90, Mother, Pauper's Wife, b. Harris

Mary McLennan, 30, Daughter(?), Occasional House Servant, b. Harris

A decade later he was in Luskentire and, presumably, shepherding on the farm of Luskentire. His Skye-born wife, Rachel, had borne him two children and he appeared to be supporting his very elderly parents at this time, too.

1861

Neil Morrison, 46, Shepherd, Cleit na Duthcha, b. Harris

Rachel Morrison, 37, Shepherd's Wife, b. Kilmuir

Janet Morrison, 12, Daughter, b. Harris

Donald Morrison, 11, Son, b. Harris

Marion Morrison, 7, Daughter, b. Harris

Christina Morrison, 5, Daughter, b. Kilmuir, Invernessshire

Catherine MacPherson, 19, General Servant, b. Kilmuir, Invernessshire

Catherine McDermid, 17, General Servant, b. Harris

Neil morrison's family has doubled to four, the last child having been born in his wife's own birthplace of Kilmuir in Skye.

According to George Henderson this time spent in Cleit na Duthca “...with Mr MacRae, a son of Maigstir Fionnladh, a former minister of North Uist...” came at the start of Neil Morrison's career but as Finlay MacRae died on 15 May 1858 then this may indeed be the correct episode?

What is perhaps worth remarking upon, is that this 'Mr MacRae' had an aunt living in Harris, for the Rev Finlay MacRae's sister, Isabella, was married to James Robertson Macdonald, the Factor of Harris who was responsible for overseeing several Clearances during the Dunmore family's ownership of the estate.

1871

Neil Morrison, 56, Shepherd, Pabbay, b. Harris

Rachel Morrison, 48, Wife, b. Skye, Invernessshire

Marion Morrison, 16, Daughter, b. Harris

Christy Morrison, 14, Daughter, b. Harris

John MacDonald, 30, Visitor, Ag Lab, b. Boreray

This is the only time that we have the 'Pabbay Bard' recorded living in Pabbay and Bill Lawson suggests that he probably was working in the island between 1863 and 1873.

George Henderson remarks that Neil Morrison spent the final phase of his career “...in the Isle of Pabbay, with Stewart of Ensay...”. This was John Stewart, son of Donald Stewart, Factor, farmer and the main figure behind the Clearances in Harris http://direcleit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/stewarts-of-pairc-luskentyre-ensay.html

1881

Donald Morrison, 32, Shepherd, South Harris ED1, b. Harris

Mary Morrison, 30, Shepherd's Wife, b. Loch Broom, Ross-shire

Murdo Morrison, 3, Son, b. Loch Broom

Neil Morrison, 1, Son, b. Harris

Neil Morrison, 64, Father, Shepherd, b. Harris

Our final glimpse of the bard finds him somewhere within Enumeration District 1 of South Harris and I do not, at present, know where the boundaries of that district were. The bard was living with his son Donald, who was a shepherd, and his wife Mary. She had made Neil a grandfather twice over, the first boy, Murdo, having been born in her birthplace, Loch Broom, and the second, named Neil after his grandfather, had been born in Harris.

I think it is interesting to note that this township bard was shepherding for at least two families intimately connected with the clearances that occurred in the nineteenth century in both Harris and in North Uist and I hope that these five small snapshots, and my brief comments, add something to our knowledge of his life.

Sources:
'Leabhar nan Gleann' by George Henderson http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections/pageturner.cfm?id=76888492&mode=transcription

GAELIC TOWNSHIP BARDS:  AN INTRODUCTION TO THEIR SONGS AND FUNCTIONS'' by Donald E. Meek  http://meekwrite.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/gaelic-verse-and-song-gaelic-township.html

'Harris in History and Legend' by Bill Lawson (2002)

Coastline

One of the questions which interests me is that of how the coastline of the isles has changed during the time since humans settled here following the end of the last ice age.

It is a complex topic and I was delighted to stumble upon a very recent article,New models of North West European Holocene palaeogeography and inundation, in the Journal of Archaeological Science (Volume 40, Issue 11, 11 Nov 2013) which addresses that question for the whole of the British Isles. Each 500 year snapshot is presented as a map and each of these is downloadable for more detailed, local-level study.*

The key points for the Western Isles are:

11,000 – 8,000 BP

“The Outer Hebrides are considerably larger than they are now, with a low lying coastal plain extending out to the West of the Uists.”

The authors note that:

“...there is clear evidence for Mesolithic seafaring, with Ireland being occupied along with the Isle of Man, Rhum, the Hebridean Archipelago...”

8,000 – 6,000 BP

Although the Western Isles are not specifically mentioned, the point is made that when sea levels rise:

“...our understanding of terrestrial space also needs to be carefully considered; with reworking of estuarine areas and the expansion of former wetlands into open areas of sea, all serving to shape modes of transport and connectivity...”

6,000 – 4,000 BP

“The extended coastal plain which surrounded the Outer Hebrides is significantly diminished in size and the islands are approaching their present configuration.”

4000 – 500 BP

At this point we really need to examine the individual maps in greater detail, but when I attempted this I was informed that the data is not yet available so, unfortunately, investigating what this model might tell us regarding the Western Isles will have to wait just a little while longer...

Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440313001982

Castle Connection

I was looking at my Montgomery ancestry in Leurbost, Lochs, and discovered I had a 1st cousin, 3x removed, called Ann Nicolson from 7 Gravir who married John Morrison from 4 Airidhbhruaich.

John Morrison was, according to this information on the excellent Hebridean Connections site, a joiner employed by Sir Samuel Scott at Amhuinnsuidhe Castle before retiring to East Tarbert to the house he built there which is called “Burnbrae”

The couple appear to have begun their married life living with John's father, a 66 year old tailor from Harris who was also called John, at 4 Airidhbhruaich. 

The 1881 census return includes another son, Donald (24) who was also a joiner, and two daughters, Chirsty (24) and Marion (16). The household was completed by two grandsons, William McDonald (7) and Roderick McLennan (3). John Morrison was 26 and his wife Ann was 24.

By 1891 the couple were living in North Harris with their three children, Katie Ann (7), Kenneth (5) and Ellen (2). 

1901 finds them still there but  now with a family of five: Katie Ann (17), Kenneth (15) and Helen (12), having been joined by Johann (8) and Chirsty Bella (6).

As an aside, a couple of years earlier Sir Samuel Scott's wife had caused a 'Society Sensation' in the upper echelons of English 'society', but I prefer to remember Sir Samuel as the person had the Carding Mill built at Lon na Feille, the old market stance, in Direcleit in 1900 – I wonder which joiner did the carpentry work there!?

Some more detail of the history of the castle can be read on Celtic Castles, and on my Harris Timeline.

Great Fight?

This piece began to form when I found a story, 'Great fight' in the records of the Carmichael Watson Project. The gist of the story is that, during the reign of King Charles II (1630-1685), there was a 'Great fight' between men aboard competing herring fishing boats from Leith and Campbeltown. The ensuing battle, which the Campbeltown men won, apparently took place following the delivery of some 'drink' from Uist.

Many men from all over Britain (and Ireland) were killed and their bodies then buried (some secretly at night) in several islands in the Sound of Harris, as well as in Cheesebay in North Uist. These islands included Hermetray/Thermatraigh on which Martin Martin, in 1695, had seen:

“the foundation of a house built by the English in the reign of King Charles the First's time, for one of their magazines to lay up the cask, salt etc, for carrying on the fishery, which was then begun in the Western Islands; but this design miscarried because of the civil wars which then broke out.”

I wrote of John Lanne Buchanan's opinion of this, and other fishing developments, when discussing his  'General View...' and it is clear that the building that Martin Martin saw is believed to have been built in 1633 by Charles I as an element in his attempt to foster the fishing industry in Scotland.

What intrigues me, however, is that when one looks at the image of the entry in Alexander Carmichael notebook, it appears that he may have originally ascribed the 'Great fight' as having occurred during the reign of Charles I (1600-1649) ,for the second 'I' looks very much to be an afterthought.

I wonder if Carmichael, who would have been familiar with Martin's account of having seen the building on Hermetray, had assumed that his informant (John Morrison, a Ground Officer from Lingerbay, Harris) was talking about an event that had occurred during the time when the fishing station was in use, and that John Morrison had then clarified that it was in fact during the reign of Charles II?

It is unfortunate that we have no date for the event, but the islands where the casualties were buried are Nàrstaigh, Sàrstaigh, Suarsaigh, Bhòtarsaigh, Hermetray and Taghaigh.

And it is said that the herring never came back to these waters after the 'Great fight'...

Geology

I happened upon this excellent feature on the British Geological Survey site which allows you to examine local geology at a scale of either 1:625 000 or 1:50 000, which is excellent! The bedrock or surface geology, or both, can be examined and explored at leisure...

Enjoy!

Norman MacCaig (14 November 1910 – 23 January 1996)

Norman MacCaig, poet, was the son of Robert MacCaig and 'Joan' MacLeod who were wed in Edinburgh in 1906, his mother having been born and raised in the island of Scalpaigh na Hearadh, a few hundred metres off the coast of Harris.

'Joan', (whose name was given as Johanna when her birth on 28 December 1877 in Scalpay was registered) was the daughter of William MacLeod and Effie Martin, themselves married in Tarbert on 15 March 1864.

William, 29, was a fisherman, his parents being a crofter John MacLeod and his wife Christina MacLeod.

Effie, 20, was a domestic servant and the daughter of another crofter, Roderick Martin, and his wife Flora MacLeod.

Johanna MacLeod had a sister, Julia, who was 74 when she died on 25 September 1939 at Boat Point, Scalpay. She is better known to us as 'Aunt Julia' in Norman MacCaig's poem of that name: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00c4kkj

Incidentally, Norman MacCaig's great grandfather, Roderick Martin was born in Drinishader, Harris but whether there is any connection with my own Martin ancestry from nearby Direcleit remains unknown, but it is a possibility!

Three Casualties of WWI

I was looking at the excellent online site Harris War Memorial and noticed that two of the men died in Bedford, and hence are also recorded in this online Roll of Honour here.

The two Hearachs were:

Norman Macleod of 8 Urgha, Harris (Father, Kenneth Macleod) who died on 31 December 1914 aged 19.

Donald McKinnon of Tarbert (son of Malcolm and Mary Morrison Mackinnon) who died on 24 December 1914 aged 31.

In addition to these, there is also the grave of Donald MacLean from Lochmaddy, North Uist who died on 6 January 1915. his age is not given, but a search of the records shows him recorded as having been just 19 years old. He appears in this list on the Berneray to Vatersay Tribute site .There are no next-of-kin recorded for Donald, and I cannot locate his signing-on papers, but I hope to be able to discover who he belonged to.

I was intrigued by these three deaths of Privates in the 4^th Cameron Highlanders occurring within a fortnight and discovered this excellent site that explains why they were in Bedford, and the reason why so many deaths occurred there at the time: The Bedford Highlanders

Here are photographs of the WWI section of the cemetery.

 Private Donald MacLean's gravestone is on the front-right:

Harris-North Uist Sub-Sea Telegraph Cable

I have previously discussed this final link  in the chain of cables that were established to connect the isles 'from Barra to the Butt' (and hence, via Stornoway, to the mainland) and have now found the site of its landfall in North Uist.

The Ordnance Survey 1st Edition 1-inch map (1885), Sheet 89 - Sollas, clearly shows the point where the cable lands ashore on the Àrd nam Madah peninsular. This is a slightly unexpected location for there are still several miles of difficult roadless land to traverse before reaching the Post Office in Lochmaddy, and it would be interesting to know why the undersea cable wasn't taken the final couple of Nautical miles direct?

As always, as one question is answered another one is raised, so if anyone can supply any information that may shed light on why this route was chosen I would be delighted to hear from you!

There still also remains the mystery of the telegraph message from Lochmaddy to Harris in September 1879, informing Lord Dunmore of the wreck of the yacht 'Astarte' several years before this cable was apparently laid , suggesting perhaps that the date shown here may be incorrect?

RCAHMS Lunchtime Lecture 5 Dec 2012

Today three members of the Carmichael Watson Project gave a trio of talks on:

'An antiquarian friendship: Alexander Carmichael, Captain Frederick Thomas, and the archaeology of the Outer Hebrides'

Dr Donald William Stewart very kindly referred to some of my work, published in this blog, with regard to Fred & Fanny Thomas. A recording of the talks may be heard here:


http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/rcahms_media/files/podcasts/rcahms_carmichael_watson_5dec12.mp3

Berneray Mill

There are no written records regarding a mill on Berneray, Harris that I know of; no millers are recorded in the censuses from 1841 onwards, there is no place name indicating the site of a mill, no identified archaeological evidence.

On Bald’s 1805 Map of Harris, however, is labelled a 'Mill' sited in Rushgarry.

An aerial photograph of the area may be seen online where, if one follows the river near the middle of the image upstream from the sea, the ‘Mill’ on the map appears to be located on the left bank just above the ruins to be seen on its right bank and with which it may have been associated.

This raises several intriguing questions:

When was the mill built? Is it ancient or, perhaps, part of the developments introduced by Captain Macleod after he bought the whole of Harris in 1779?

Why did the mill apparently cease to be used during the first half of the 19thC? Had it been milling grain from Pabbay and thus become redundant when that island, which had at one time been ‘the granary of Harris’, was Cleared for a sheep farm in the 1840s?

Was it a grain mill or, perhaps, another ‘fulling’ mill like that built by Captain Maleod in South Harris?

How is it that this significant place never gained the honour of being named nor of otherwise being mentioned in writing? This might indicate that it was both relatively ‘modern’ and short-lived, thus supporting the idea of a link to Captain Macleod whose efforts ceased with his death in 1790 and whose son,  Alexander Hume Macleod, apparently commissioned Bald’s map.

The only way that the answers to these questions may be found is by a proper archaeological survey of the site but meanwhile my conjecture is that it was a grain mill and that the same boats that would later bring the people of Pabbay to pray in Berneray, following the building of the Parliamentary Church in 1829, would have been bringing grain to be milled in this now long-forgotten mill.

Update: Whilst conducting research into place names in Berneray for the historical society I was informed that the place marked on Bald's map was where women gathered to mill grain using hand querns.

An Ribheid Chiuil - Reed Music

I have been patiently waiting to obtain a copy of the late Alick Morrison's (1911-2005) 1961 book:

An Ribheid Chiuil

being the Poems of

Iain Archie MacAskill, 1898-1933

Bard of Berneray, Harris

When a signed copy appeared for sale the temptation proved irresistible!

What has proved a most intriguing surprise, however, is the handwritten inscription:

To Fred Macaulay

With Kindest Regards

Alick Morrison

24/3/61

What intrigues me is whether the recipient was perhaps the late Fred MacAulay (1925-2003) who was originally  from Sollas, North Uist and then went on to become the Senior Gaelic Producer at BBC Scotland in 1964, following Finlay J Macdonald (1926-1987)  in that role?

I shall have to do a little more checking but the name Fred MacAulay is extremely rare in Scotland and it seems entirely plausible that Alick Morrison would sign a copy of his new book for the fellow Gaelic scholar from just across the Sound of Berneray?

Incidentally, Fred MacAualy was named, via a relative Frederick Thomas Gillies, after Captain FWL Thomas.

Update:
I did get the handwriting verified, and a correspondent kindly confirmed that my copy had indeed once been sitting on Fred MacAulay's bookshelf at the BBC.

It is now sitting on my own bookshelf in Alick Morrison's home island of Berneray...

Charles Shaw (1812-1885) & the Napier Commission in Inverness in 1883

My friend and fellow researcher  whose prolific output I listed a while ago has brought to my attention a statement given by 72 year-old  Charles Shaw, W.S., late Sheriff-Substitute of Inverness-shire, at Lochmaddy to the Napier Commission in Inverness.

The testimony (‘a simple narrative’) exceeds 10,500 words so I have chosen to divide it into several entries. In each of  these I shall scrutinise some selected extracts (in italics) following each extract with my observations regarding the content of Charles Shaw’s carefully constructed piece. (Phrases of particular significance have been emboldened)

A full analysis of Shaw’s essay (it is worthy of the name!) could easily form the basis of a thesis!

 It has...occurred to me that a simple narrative of a few facts within my knowledge may be useful to the Commissioners, and without any desire to challenge the veracity of any man, and in bringing to light the actual facts as they presented themselves at the time to one who was equally interested in all.

Whether he manages to avoid making any such challenges we shall soon see!

I began business in 1835, by receiving from Lord Macdonald a joint commission with my father as factor of North Uist. I also to some extent assisted him in the management of Lord Dunmore's estate of Harris, and of Clanranald's estate of South Uist.

This linkage of the traditionally MacDonald land of North Uist with that of the  traditionally MacLeod land of Harris is significant and, I contend, one that was maintained for half-a-century.

I was also factor during part of 1836 and 1837 for the trustee on the sequestrated estate of General MacNeill of Barra.

For two years then father & son were exerting their power & influence over all of the Western Isles with the exception of Lewis. I suggest this included a degree of power and influence over the absentee landlords at this time, a time that saw the first failure of the potato crop in the isles.

At Whitsunday 1838 I was appointed factor on Lord Macdonald's estate in Skye, which then included the large property now possessed by Major Fraser of Kilmuir.

For the next here years, the pair held sway in Skye, Harris, North & South Uist.

 I held this last office till I was appointed Sheriff-Substitute of the Long Island in November 1841, and I remained there till 1881, when I left the Long Island.

He was the Sheriff-Substitute for the Inverness-shire islands from Harris in the north to Barra in the south with only the Ross-shire Isle of Lewis outside his jurisdiction and he held office for 40 years.

My earliest recollection goes back to 1817, and the great famine of that year. This famine was not owing to a failure of the potato crop in particular, but to a generally very bad and late harvest in 1816 over all Scotland. The spring of 1817 was also bad and backward, and of both these the Highlands had more than their proportion.

He was 5 years-old and, whilst it is entirely plausible that he was aware that his neighbours were suffering from that famine, his subsequent analysis is obviously the result of research rather than recollection. It’s a rhetorical trick, and one that I think we must applaud the retired lawyer for employing!

The proprietors of the Long Island imported meal largely for the crofters, and Government supplied a considerable quantity of oat seed, which gave the year the name of the " the year of the big seed," and it is, I have no doubt, still known by that name to a few old people. The seed was of no use in the outer islands for the purpose for which it was sent, being unsuitable for the soil. The people got it ground into meal, and in this way it was of service. The crofters were due to the proprietors a considerable portion of the price of that seed, when I ceased to have anything to do with Long Island estates in 1838.

Apart from being in charge of the law for 40 of the next 43 years...

When in Edinburgh learning my profession in 1828-35, I made the acquaintance of Mr Robert Brown, at that time factor for the Duke of Hamilton at Hamilton. Mr Brown had gone to Uist as Sheriff-Substitute of the Long Island District, and factor for Clanranald, I think in 1796, and remained there till he went to Hamilton in 1811. My father succeeded him at Nunton in Benbecula in both offices.

Not only is it extremely questionable that one single person should hold these two particular offices simultaneously, but this is the first time that I have seen it revealed that Charles Shaw’s father, Duncan Shaw, was also a legal practitioner. This invites further investigation.

In the next few passages Shaw describes Robert Brown’s view that Clanranald treated his tenants well, that ‘My connection with North Uist began in 1829, when my father got the management of it from Lord Macdonald in succession to Mr Cameron.’ and that rents were reduced slightly after a valuation in 1830 and were held stable for the next 50 years. This last point being made to rebut the allegation that throughout the Hebrides rents were raised to more than double on account of the peoples increased income from kelp. It is impossible to know for sure what period is being compared here but it is quite possible for both descriptions to be true IF there had been an increase in the number of households paying rent due to the demand for kelp workers. The rental of the estate could thus have increased whilst the rent from each householder was frozen. I shall have to see if further corroboration for either side of the argument can be found.

When in 1842 it became evident that the kelp manufacture must be abandoned, and that the potatoes were beginning to fail, Godfrey Lord Macdonald brought to North Uist from Perthshire a man to superintend the making of drains on the crofts.

It is good to have a definitive date for the decision to cease kelp making in North Uist but equally, unless his memory was playing tricks, the suggestion that the potato crop was already suffering in 1842 is in itself interesting. Was there a weakening of the plants already taking place that may have allowed the blight an easy place to gain a hold in 1846, perhaps?

During the famine of 1836, George Earl of Dunmore sent about 700 bolls of meal to the crofters in Harris, and in 1837, his son Alexander Edward Earl of Dunmore sent 1000 bolls all at prime cost and on credit, and larger quantities in subsequent years, as to which I am not able to speak, having ceased to have official connection with Harris

The traditional responsibility for the territorial chief to provide for his people was still being undertaken by the landlords who usurped them and this, even before it became enshrined in law, clearly caused concern amongst the landowners and their factors. It must, however, be remembered that such emergency relief was provided on the understanding that, eventually, its recipients would pay it back thus adding to the woes to many already impoverished and hungry people.

There was a medical man on the estate, paid much in the same way as in North Uist, and there were three or four schools besides the parish school, all contributed to by Lord Dunmore, and a sewing school kept up by the Countess.

Harris had some medical provision, then, but the thought of just one ‘medical man’ having responsibility for the several thousand scattered souls of Harris and the accompanying isles can have been of little comfort. I have discussed education in Harris elsewhere but would remind readers that the ‘sewing school’ referred to was the embroidery school at An-t-Ob established by the Dowager Countess and Fanny Thomas in 1857. Some say it was essentially a sweat-shop.

During the minority of the present Earl, the Countess, who was his guardian, was unremitting in her attention to the wants of the crofters, and in the trying times that began with the famine of 1846, expended large sums out of her own private means in improving their condition. At an early stage of her connection with the estate, she expended large sums in the purchase of wool and in the employment of the females on the estate in various kinds of manufactures, and exerted herself to an extraordinary extent in the sale of these manufactures.

The implication being that these activities ceased once the 7^th Earl took control on his 21^st birthday.

Charles Shaw, as I think we can easily see, chose each of his thousands of words most carefully and thus his phrases ‘During the minority’ and ‘At an early stage’ surely point at these having been relatively short-lived rather than ongoing endeavours? My research generally supports this view.

I regret that, owing to the distance of my residence at Lochmaddy and the indifferent communication then between these parts of my jurisdiction, I am unable to give such full particulars as I should wish of a work so deserving of being better known.

Clearly wanting to distance himself from Harris, he rather overstates the situation for Lochmaddy and Rodel are less than 15 maritime miles apart, and each of them had regular postal services, the Harris mail boat itself being sited in Strond in 1851  . Certainly Mrs Charles Shaw can be expected to have been in contact with her uncle in Rodel, John Robertson MacDonald the Factor of Harris...

We next get a lengthy description of the circumstances leading to the evictions at Sollas, North Uist, the subsequent sailing of the ‘Hercules’ for Australia and an amazingly self-serving account of correspondence received from grateful emigrants in later years, but these are too large subjects in themselves for inclusion in this piece.

He then turns his attention to communication within the islands and contrasts the relatively infrequent services of past years with the current provision which is described here:

When I left Lochmaddy, a little more than two years ago, there were three steamers in the week trading along the whole of my old jurisdiction, and doing a fair amount of business. The advantages which the visits of these steamers have conferred on these far-away islands it is not easy to overrate. They have given an easy and rapid means of sending all their produce, cattle, sheep, eggs, lobsters, whelks, &c, to all the markets in the kingdom. The men can now get with ease, and at little expense, to the east coast fishing, where they seldom went before, and also to the training ships.  Men and women can, and do continually, go to the south for service, on the other hand, meal and flour, which they now stand so much in need of, they can get rapidly imported, and in fact a new world has been created in these distant islands.

This image of hustle & bustle is not lost on the Commissioners but he has also fed the myth of the supposed remoteness of ‘these far-way islands’, ignoring the fact that a flotilla of sailing vessels plied the coastal waters of Scotland’s West coast throughout the period making for much more effective communications than Shaw would have us believe.

Another source for making money which, within recent years, young men from these islands have largely availed themselves of, is the militia service. There are rather more than 1000 men in the militia regiment, embodied from the counties of Banff, Elgin, Nairn, and Inverness. Of that number sometimes as many as 700 are said to be natives of the three parishes of North and South Uist and Harris, and the number from these islands is, I am told, seldom less than 600.

About two-thirds of the manpower recruited from four Counties came from just three Parishes within Inverness-shire. This is a far from unfamiliar kind of statistic regarding the huge contribution made by islanders to the fighting-forces but Shaw paints it merely as being ‘Another source of making money’ rather than as a reminder of a long and honourable tradition.

Another long passage argues against some of the evidence that the Commission had heard in both North and South Uist, even pointing out that one man was born four years after the evictions and suggesting that his testimony was mere ‘hearsay’ which neatly ignores the fact that those appearing at the Commission were selected by local people and given time to prepare their evidence. It is therefore entirely plausible that someone would be chosen for their confidence in reading and speaking English rather than because they were able to give an eyewitness account. The term 'hearsay' is revealingly patronising to a preominantly oral culture.

Of another witness Shaw says:

Then the delegate mentions that Mr Cooper states in a pamphlet that Mr Macdonald telegraphed to Earl Grey for a regiment of soldiers. What Mr Cooper says in his pamphlet I really do not know, but what the delegate says is not correct Sir George Grey and not Earl Grey was Home Secretary. Mr Macdonald neither telegraphed nor did anything else about soldiers or evictions. There was no telegraph in North Uist for more than twenty years after these evictions. There was no emigrant ship brought to Lochmaddy to take families to Australia.

The first two points, namely the confusion between the two Greys and the anachronism regarding the alleged use of a telegraph two decades before the undersea cable link had been established, are, perhaps, mildly amusing in themselves but hardly strong evidence for doubting the general circumstances that the witness had described.

The final point is interesting in confirming that those emigrating to Australia, at least prior to 1883, would have had to have met their ocean-going vessel elsewhere (most likely in Glasgow or Liverpool).

We are someway past the halfway mark of Charles Shaw’s statement and I think a pause is required before looking at what he has to say about the kelp industry and also of the land issue in the islands.

These links to previous entries that are about, or mention, the roles of Charles Shaw and his father may be of interest. The timeline is useful for observing the sequence of events in Harris during the period.

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2010/11/i-assisted-my-father-as-factor-of.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2011/03/factors-linking-factors.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2011/03/clearance-of-borve-harris-1839.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2010/05/duncan-shaw.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2011/02/duncan-shaw-charles-shaw-of-north-uist.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2010/05/obe-harris-thursday-may-311883.html

http://direcleit.blogspot.com/2010/04/harris-timeline.html