I am very happy to be included as a new member of this forum. I am excited and intrigued by the possibilities for building knowledge of my family history and of the island that was home to my father, my paternal grandmother and her forebears. Personally, I was born and raised in Possilpark, Glasgow and after a working life in which I’ve lived overseas for many years, I’m now based in Dunfermline, Fife. As I child, I holidayed several times in Bowmore with my father, in the years before my grandmother died. I became familiar with the town (from a child/teenager’s point of view), but never got to know my many cousins on the island. My father indicated that this was because my grandmother had a knack for disagreements with her family, and every time I visited we were forbidden from visiting a wide range of aunts, uncles and cousins. My father would sneak off and visit them anyway, but I was left home, to avoid the word getting back to his mother! I was last on the island over 30 years ago, but will be making a long-overdue visit, early in the New Year. I hope that I may be able to contact one or two of my Islay-based relatives through this forum - I would like to meet some of those that I was barred from visiting, way back when!! I have an extensive record (on Ancestry.com) of my family, past and present, through research using 'Scotland’s People’ and visits to the the National Library in Edinburgh, but there are a number of gaps which someone out there may be able to help me fill. And as I mentioned, I hope to make contact with cousins who are living on the island. Here are are some of my family details, and let’s see if the names are familiar to anyone out there My father - John (Iain) McNair Brown (still haven’t worked out where the McNair comes from!) - born in Bowmore in 1935 My grandmother - Catherine McDougall Gray - born in Port Dundas, Glasgow in 1913. She married Alexander Brown in 1932 and had two sons - my father and his brother, Colin Maxwell Brown. She divorced my grandfather and returned to Bowmore, where she married Archie Caldwell and lived on Main Street until she died in 1977. Archie lived on in Bowmore until he died in 1984. My great grandparents on my gramdmother’s side were John Gray (from Glasgow) and Flora McEachern from Ardbeg and it is this McEachern line and its offshoots that I’ve managed to trace back into the early 1700s. My current relatives on the island (as far as I’ve managed to trace them so far) are the offspring on my grandmother’s sister, Rachel Gray, who returned to Bowmore from Glasgow and married John McInnes McKerrell. I believe that the most recent generations are a collection of McKerrells, Rountrees and Johnstons. Apologies for such a long-winded introduction, but maybe someone out there will recognise some of these names and help fill in some details. And I’d be very happy to share any of my family history research with folks on the forum. Best regards, Iain

Welcome My line is McEachern on Islay Starting with Donald and Catherine (Leitch) McEachern Would luv to share notes with you and see if we connect somewhere Micki Neufield Sent from my iPhone > On Oct 23, 2015, at 9:04 AM, Iain Brown via <sct-islay@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > I am very happy to be included as a new member of this forum. I am excited and intrigued by the possibilities for building knowledge of my family history and of the island that was home to my father, my paternal grandmother and her forebears. Personally, I was born and raised in Possilpark, Glasgow and after a working life in which I’ve lived overseas for many years, I’m now based in Dunfermline, Fife. > > As I child, I holidayed several times in Bowmore with my father, in the years before my grandmother died. I became familiar with the town (from a child/teenager’s point of view), but never got to know my many cousins on the island. My father indicated that this was because my grandmother had a knack for disagreements with her family, and every time I visited we were forbidden from visiting a wide range of aunts, uncles and cousins. My father would sneak off and visit them anyway, but I was left home, to avoid the word getting back to his mother! > > I was last on the island over 30 years ago, but will be making a long-overdue visit, early in the New Year. I hope that I may be able to contact one or two of my Islay-based relatives through this forum - I would like to meet some of those that I was barred from visiting, way back when!! > > I have an extensive record (on Ancestry.com) of my family, past and present, through research using 'Scotland’s People’ and visits to the the National Library in Edinburgh, but there are a number of gaps which someone out there may be able to help me fill. And as I mentioned, I hope to make contact with cousins who are living on the island. > > Here are are some of my family details, and let’s see if the names are familiar to anyone out there > > My father - John (Iain) McNair Brown (still haven’t worked out where the McNair comes from!) - born in Bowmore in 1935 > > My grandmother - Catherine McDougall Gray - born in Port Dundas, Glasgow in 1913. She married Alexander Brown in 1932 and had two sons - my father and his brother, Colin Maxwell Brown. She divorced my grandfather and returned to Bowmore, where she married Archie Caldwell and lived on Main Street until she died in 1977. Archie lived on in Bowmore until he died in 1984. > > My great grandparents on my gramdmother’s side were John Gray (from Glasgow) and Flora McEachern from Ardbeg and it is this McEachern line and its offshoots that I’ve managed to trace back into the early 1700s. > > My current relatives on the island (as far as I’ve managed to trace them so far) are the offspring on my grandmother’s sister, Rachel Gray, who returned to Bowmore from Glasgow and married John McInnes McKerrell. I believe that the most recent generations are a collection of McKerrells, Rountrees and Johnstons. > > Apologies for such a long-winded introduction, but maybe someone out there will recognise some of these names and help fill in some details. And I’d be very happy to share any of my family history research with folks on the forum. > > Best regards, > > Iain > > ------------------------------- > > Quoting the entire text of a previous message in a reply is poor netiquette. Please don't do it. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCT-ISLAY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hello, I am Jim Thoma from Kingsport, East Tennessee, USA. I live in an area that you would feel right at home in. Just the other side of the Continental Divide they still hold the Highland Games every single year. Having been to Scotland and floated by Islay I will attest I live in your second homeland. But, alas, I am not Scots. Well if you count that Douglas lineage there might be Scots blood in me. I do confess to liking the malt in all beverages, so that may make me an honorary Scots. But now, my wife, she is a McQuigg. And all her Aunties and even her Grandpa Pop told her lies. You see they said that she was Irish. I mean after all James Malcolm McQuigg and his wife Jane Brown immigrated to Wincester, Canada from Culcrow Townland, Aghadowey Civil Parish, County Londonderry in 1847. So who was she to believe her kin or husband? I knew better because I knew that James Malcolm's father was Henry McQuigg and Henry's father was Malcolm McQuigg. And well even the Aunties knew that Malcolm McQuigg (1760 - 1817) and his wife Jane Stewart had been born in Scotland. And they would tell the tales about how three brothers left the Hebrides or Western Isles during the late Plantation of Ulster and settled in Northern Ireland. They would clutch their breast and moan about persecuted Presbyterians. Which I always thought was strange since they were all devout Methodists. But now I find out that Henry McQuigg (1780? - 1847?) was also a Scotsman. I have discovered a letter by a woman who married into the family and converted them all to Methodism. In between her prayer vigils she wrote how Henry came to Knockaduff Townland, Aghadowey Civil Parish, County Londonderry as a young man. She claimed that Henry's father, Malcolm, was a wealthy man; even to the extent of importing horses from Scotland into Ireland. Me I would rather he had imported Tomintoul "the gentle dram" and aged 14 years. But my mother, a nice German lady, always told me to stay away from politics, religion, and strong drink. So now I know that Malcolm brought his family from the Hebrides sometime between 1785 and 1790 to Knockaduff Townland. His grandchildren (James Malcolm and his brother William Henry) were all in Canada farming just north of the St. Lawrence river by 1847. Holding back the invading Americans for the British. Oops gone political again. So 57 to 62 years in Northern Ireland does not make one Irish, I claim, just slowly migrating Scotsmen. Furthermore, my wife should trust me not her Aunties and Grandpa Pop. But there were those three brothers that I mentioned. Family lore from the Aunties deceased sister claim that one went to live in Aghadowey, one to Bushmills, and one jumped ship to Australia. I found that the family lore actually started with Malcolm Moon McQuigg of Coleraine, Northern Ireland back in 1964. But I discovered that Malcolm knew his stuff. I suspect that the three brothers were Malcolm of Knockaduff, Samuel of Ballyclough, and John of Islandcarragh; and their father is William McQuigg (1730 - 1797) and their mother is Janet Steen and all of them were from Scotland. But where in Scotland could they have come from. So as we were leaving Belfast aboard the Norwegian Star I leaned over the cabin balcony rail, waved my hand towards Scotland, and asked my wife where she believed she came from in Scotland. She thrust her right index finger out over the water and said "THERE". But I said honey that is the Isle of Islay and so many people left there for Ireland, Canada, and America that I would never be able to find them. She told me that "THAT" was my problem and to lay off the Glenlivet. So here I am trying to find a combination of Henry, Malcolm, John, Samuel and William McQuigg that will fit the dates and times for living on the Isle of Islay. I know that McQuigg, McQuaig, and McCuaig (also Mac) are all the same surname. But I have searched all of the parish records of Islay and have not found them. I swear I could hear John and Charles Wesley snickering at me. So I am at my wits end. I need help! If anyone can help me I would be most grateful. And if anyone has the email of a professional genealogist, I am not above paying for help. That really hurt, it must the Douglas heritage! Sincerely, James Frederick Thoma (see I am German) jfthoma@chartertn.net

A brief sketch of the McFadyen family serves to trace their ancestral footsteps from Islay to the Sandhills of North Carolina. http://www.ileach.co.uk/glasgow-islay/connections/carolina.html

http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/owns-scotland-feudal-pretty-weird/10001

For those of you in UK or who can access BBC FOUR TV programs THREE MEN GO TO SCOTLAND http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x92dm Only two episodes this time (think they were 1st shown 4 years ago) They are West Coast Scotland and Islands including MULL in episode 2. Episode 2 I believe is to be replayed on BBC FOUR . on 16 Oct 2015 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p6n4v/broadcasts/2015/10 2011 YouTube -- ok just found episode Two https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c3WRLsKuDk 58 mins. Episode seems to be there split into parts approx. 15 mins but with no sound on first part. Tricia (West Coast direct lines :MacDougall McPhail from MULL.. Johnston from DUNOON)

Read the article here: http://www.kare11.com/story/news/2015/09/23/queens-whisky-brings-50k-for-regions-hospital/72687346/ -- http://maggiefuller.com/

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/freeweekend includes some newspapers. from Friday - Monday FREE. Think findmypast.ie the irish site also doing this. Apologies if you already know this.

My apologies if this message comes through twice to the list. I have tried sending it via my Gmail address but it hasn't come through to the list as yet on my side. This is not the first time this has happened so I'm not sure what is going on, as I am receiving mail from this list at the Gmail address. I unsubscribed this email addy from the list some time ago, but it appears that it is still active. Odd, to say the least. There is a very interesting document that is available at archive.org that details the proceedings of a meeting held by The Islay Association in Glasgow in 1867. It relates to a very unfavourable report made by the Rev Cameron in 1845 regarding the people of the parish of Kilchoman. John Murdoch, recently mentioned in another thread, makes a small contribution to this report (page 17 of the actual document) in defence of the people of Kilchoman. My g-g-great uncle, Duncan Campbell (then of Ellister, previously of Rockside) also comes out in defence of the parishioners on page 15, just before the quote from Murdoch's letter to the one of the members. I recall having read the Rev. Cameron's account somewhere but cannot find it on the internet at present. Perhaps someone else knows of its exact whereabouts. A full copy of the proceedings can be found at the following URL: https://archive.org/details/kilchomanpeoplev00isla One of the saddest thing one reads about in this document is the loss of the Islay bards and of the decline of the Gaelic language. One of things that the recent reference to John Murdoch brings to mind is that that there always seems to be a lot of ire directed at Shawfield but, to my mind, the main culprit appears to be Ramsay who bought the island after him. He and his factors clearly didn't have a clue as to how things should be run on the island. It should be noted too that it was not just the crofters who suffered. The so-called "tacksmen" fared no better after the island was sold. Their fortunes also took a dramatic turn for the worse. It was, in fact, because they were dispossessed that the crofters were dispossessed. I often wonder how many people are aware of this because it seems to me that the tacksmen are constantly lumped together with the 'evil' Lairds. The tacksmen may well have held a certain stature on the island, but their fate was just as much in the hands of the Laird as the crofters was. Regards, Fiona

There is a very interesting document that is available at archive.org that details the proceedings of a meeting held by The Islay Association in Glasgow in 1867. It relates to a very unfavourable report made by the Rev Cameron in 1845 regarding the people of the parish of Kilchoman. John Murdoch, recently mentioned in another thread, makes a small contribution to this report (page 17 of the actual document) in defence of the people of Kilchoman. My g-g-great uncle, Duncan Campbell (then of Ellister, previously of Rockside) also comes out in defence of the parishioners on page 15, just before the quote from Murdoch's letter to the one of the members. I recall having read the Rev. Cameron's account somewhere but cannot find it on the internet at present. Perhaps someone else knows of its exact whereabouts. A full copy of the proceedings can be found at the following URL: https://archive.org/details/kilchomanpeoplev00isla One of the saddest thing one reads about in this document is the loss of the Islay bards and of the decline of the Gaelic language. One of things that the recent reference to John Murdoch brings to mind is that that there always seems to be a lot of ire directed at Shawfield but, to my mind, the main culprit appears to be Ramsay who bought the island after him. He and his factors clearly didn't have a clue as to how things should be run on the island. It should be noted too that was not just the crofters who suffered. The so-called "tacksmen" fared no better after the island was sold. Their fortunes also took a dramatic turn for the worse. It was, in fact, because they were dispossessed that the crofters were dispossessed. I often wonder how many people are aware of this because it seems to me that the tacksmen are constantly lumped together with the 'evil' Lairds. They tacksmen may well have held a certain stature on the island, but their fate was just as much in the hands of the Laird as the crofters was. Fiona MacAlister

Got a bit excited when I read the name John Murdoch, but soon realised it was not mine, the Rev John Murdoch of Bowmore and the Round Church. Candy -----Original Message----- From: sct-islay-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:sct-islay-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Sue Visser via Sent: Monday, 14 September 2015 10:57 PM To: SCT-ISLAY-L Subject: [SCT-ISLAY] John Murdoch and his connection with Islay Shared with permission from the author Ileach 42/23 5 September 2015 John Murdoch – journalist, patriot and land-reform radical Les Wilson writes about a remarkable man. The ‘Our Land’ festival, held the length and breadth of Scotland throughout August, was widely celebrated on Islay where several lively events were staged that attracted wide public interest. A brain drain from the island of young people, and a housing shortage, mean that the issue of land ownership is of interest to Islay people - but Islay also has an important land reform heritage in the person of radical journalist and agitator for crofters’ rights, John Murdoch. Murdoch was not a man to mince his words: The people are kept poor, the land waste; and from the community generally is withheld the wealth which this land and their labour are capable of yielding. John Murdoch was born in 1818 near Nairn – but came to Islay in 1827 ‘to the little farm which had been selected and conferred on my father.’ I feel myself as if I were an Islay man, he would tell the Napier Commission – the inquiry set up to examine the grievances of crofters following riots on Skye in 1882. Murdoch’s father came to Islay as gamekeeper to Walter Frederick Campbell who, at 18 had inherited the entire island. The Murdochs lived a mile or so from Islay House at Claggan Farm, and John’s boyhood there shaped his cultural and political opinions. He absorbed Gaelic culture, and was a friend to the laird’s son, John Francis Campbell, who became a world renowned folklorist. But while Murdoch personally liked the Campbells, he witnessed first-hand on Islay the poverty and powerlessness of landless cottars and poor tenant farmers. In 1829, Campbell evicted six farmers and 19 cottar families from Kilchiaran to make way for a Fife farmer who introduced Lowland techniques completely unsuited to Islay’s climate. Years later Murdoch returned to once thriving Kilchiaran. In some places we found the ruins of the humble husbandman’s cottage; in others there remained nothing to tell where a human habitation had been but the nettle ... we find the land in a state of wild unproductiveness while the people who ought to be cultivating it are wanderers in strange lands. Young Murdoch became an Excise man and, while serving in Lancashire, began writing about land issues in the Bolton Free Press. In 1845 Murdoch’s father died, and shortly afterwards his mother was evicted from Claggan by William Webster, the factor. Murdoch returned to Islay, taking up a local post with the Excise. We got back to Islay in the Autumn of 1845 and after knocking about, took up our abode in Bowmore. John MacLachlan was settled in Claggan and we could not get back there. Had we done so it is not improbable that I should have stuck to the farm and left the excise. During this time Murdoch witnessed the sequestration of Walter Frederick Campbell’s bankrupt estate, and the estate fall into the hands of absentee trustees. The laird was now away. The trustees were in Edinburgh. And Webster was more master in the island than ever. He drove things pretty well as he chose. The case as between himself and the laird was remarkable in that the master went bankrupt – while the servant had nearly all the best lands in the island in his hands. He had got himself planted in the best house in the island when he came at first. And now that things were getting into a state of dissolution he was taking farms in every di! rection – until I remember old Sandy Campbell and myself making up one day that he had farms which had been held by 37 substantial farmers in former times. Murdoch proposed that Islay estate be broken up into 3000 properties to be sold to Islay’s inhabitants. As proprietors they would be in a position far superior to that which they occupied as tenants, even supposing the land to be no more productive than before, when they had to support a costly aristocratic establishment, wasting their strength, employing their skill and pinching themselves to enrich factors, to polish his flunkies, to trim his ornamental attendants, so supply many of them with the means of besotting themselves and become nuisances and burdens to society; and what went to feed the dogs, game, horses and a thousand other expensive trifles, can be applied to their own comfort, refinement and gratification, and to bringing up and educating of their own families. Murdoch’s radical plan was ignored. Islay was sold off to the highest bidder. Murdoch remained convinced that there would never be prosperity in the Highlands until landlordism was overthrown in favour of more equitable distribution of land and security of tenure. The landlord if born at all among his people, is carefully removed from the reach of their Celtic influences and educated so as to have a language and a mode of thinking quite foreign to the sphere in which he is destined to act the most important parts in the serious drama of life. One consequence is that not one landlord in a hundred is capable of communicating directly with the great bulk of his people. There is thus an impenetrable barrier raised between him and them. After serving in Dublin and throughout Scotland, Murdoch retired from the Excise and, in 1873, launched his radical newspaper, The Highlander. It's mission was to promote Gaelic and fight for the rights of Highlanders to their native soil. The Highlander campaigned for a Royal Commission to examine the plight of the impoverished Highlands. When the Napier Commission was finally set up in 1883 Murdoch testified before it. Murdoch was a tireless speaker and agitator. In 1884 he chaired the meeting that founded the Highland Land Restoration League. In 1885 he stood as a ‘Land and Labour’ candidate in Glasgow’s Partick, and in 1888 campaigned for Keir Hardie. Months later, when Hardie and Robert Cunninghame Graham launched the Scottish Labour Party, the seventy-year-old Murdoch was there. Murdoch’s zeal for reforming the Highlands applied to the industrial lowlands as well. All true men, then, to the front! Just remember that the system of iniquity and lies which I have traced in the isles is rampant all over the country, and the duty of being up and at it is irresistible. In 1889, Murdoch began penning his autobiography – which, sadly, lay unpublished until 1983. That year, to commemorate the Centenary of the Crofters’ Act, Dr. Jim Hunter published For the People’s Cause – an anthology of Murdoch’s writing. It was a publication all the more welcome for being long overdue. Murdoch remained active and astute into old age, although failing eyesight put an end to his writing. He and his wife had moved to Saltcoats, where he died at the age of 85 in 1903. John Murdoch was a brilliant, passionate and caring man. Ileachs should be proud that he considered himself an Islay man. ------------------------------- Quoting the entire text of a previous message in a reply is poor netiquette. Please don't do it. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCT-ISLAY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Information about ministers in the various Islay parishes can be found online. https://archive.org/stream/fastiecclesiaesc04scot#page/70/mode/2up Happy hunting, Sue Visser

Hi Sue.....Murdoch wrote extensively about his visit to Canada posted some time ago by Toni Sinclair who researched Murdochs personal at the M itchell .library in Glasgow. Helen On 2015-09-14 8:56 AM, "Sue Visser via" <sct-islay@rootsweb.com> wrote: > Shared with permission from the author > > Ileach 42/23 5 September 2015 > > John Murdoch – journalist, patriot and land-reform radical > Les Wilson writes about a remarkable man. > > The ‘Our Land’ festival, held the length and breadth of Scotland throughout > August, was widely celebrated on Islay where several lively events were > staged that attracted wide public interest. A brain drain from the island > of young people, and a housing shortage, mean that the issue of land > ownership is of interest to Islay people - but Islay also has an important > land reform heritage in the person of radical journalist and agitator for > crofters’ rights, John Murdoch. > > Murdoch was not a man to mince his words: The people are kept poor, the > land > waste; and from the community generally is withheld the wealth which this > land and their labour are capable of yielding. John Murdoch was born in > 1818 near Nairn – but came to Islay in 1827 ‘to the little farm which had > been selected and conferred on my father.’ I feel myself as if I were an > Islay man, he would tell the Napier Commission – the inquiry set up to > examine the grievances of crofters following riots on Skye in 1882. > > Murdoch’s father came to Islay as gamekeeper to Walter Frederick Campbell > who, at 18 had inherited the entire island. The Murdochs lived a mile or so > from Islay House at Claggan Farm, and John’s boyhood there shaped his > cultural and political opinions. He absorbed Gaelic culture, and was a > friend to the laird’s son, John Francis Campbell, who became a world > renowned folklorist. But while Murdoch personally liked the Campbells, he > witnessed first-hand on Islay the poverty and powerlessness of landless > cottars and poor tenant farmers. > > In 1829, Campbell evicted six farmers and 19 cottar families from > Kilchiaran > to make way for a Fife farmer who introduced Lowland techniques completely > unsuited to Islay’s climate. Years later Murdoch returned to once thriving > Kilchiaran. In some places we found the ruins of the humble husbandman’s > cottage; in others there remained nothing to tell where a human habitation > had been but the nettle ... we find the land > in a state of wild unproductiveness while the people who ought to be > cultivating it are wanderers in strange lands. Young Murdoch became an > Excise man and, while serving in Lancashire, began writing about land > issues > in the Bolton Free Press. In 1845 Murdoch’s father died, and shortly > afterwards his mother was evicted from Claggan by William Webster, the > factor. > > Murdoch returned to Islay, taking up a local post with the Excise. We got > back to Islay in the Autumn of 1845 and after knocking about, took up our > abode in Bowmore. John MacLachlan was settled in Claggan and we could not > get back there. Had we done so it is not improbable that I should have > stuck > to the farm and left the excise. During this time Murdoch witnessed the > sequestration of Walter Frederick Campbell’s bankrupt estate, and the > estate > fall into the hands of absentee trustees. The laird was now away. The > trustees were in Edinburgh. And Webster was more master in the island than > ever. He drove things pretty well as he chose. The case as between himself > and the laird was remarkable in that the master went bankrupt – while the > servant had nearly all the best lands in the island in his hands. He had > got > himself planted in the best house in the island when he came at first. And > now that things were getting into a state of dissolution he was taking > farms > in every direction – until I remember old Sandy Campbell and myself making > up one day that he had farms which had been held by 37 substantial farmers > in former times. Murdoch proposed that Islay estate be broken up into 3000 > properties to be sold to Islay’s inhabitants. As proprietors they would be > in a position far superior to that which they occupied as tenants, even > supposing the land to be no more productive than before, when they had to > support a costly aristocratic establishment, wasting their strength, > employing their skill and pinching themselves to enrich factors, to polish > his flunkies, to trim his ornamental attendants, so supply many of them > with > the means of besotting themselves and become nuisances and burdens to > society; and what went to feed the dogs, game, horses and a thousand other > expensive trifles, can be applied to their own comfort, refinement and > gratification, and to bringing up and educating of their own families. > > Murdoch’s radical plan was ignored. Islay was sold off to the highest > bidder. Murdoch remained convinced that there would never be prosperity in > the Highlands until landlordism was overthrown in favour of more equitable > distribution of land and security of tenure. The landlord if born at all > among his people, is carefully removed from the reach of their Celtic > influences and educated so as to have a language and a mode of thinking > quite foreign to the sphere in which he is destined to act the most > important parts in the serious drama of life. One consequence is that not > one landlord in a hundred is capable of communicating directly with the > great bulk of his people. There is thus an impenetrable barrier raised > between him and them. > > After serving in Dublin and throughout Scotland, Murdoch retired from the > Excise and, in 1873, launched his radical newspaper, The Highlander. It's > mission was to promote Gaelic and fight for the rights of Highlanders to > their native soil. The Highlander campaigned for a Royal Commission to > examine the plight of the impoverished Highlands. When the Napier > Commission > was finally set up in 1883 Murdoch testified before it. Murdoch was a > tireless speaker and agitator. In 1884 he chaired the meeting that founded > the Highland Land Restoration League. In 1885 he stood as a ‘Land and > Labour’ > candidate in Glasgow’s Partick, and in 1888 campaigned for Keir Hardie. > Months later, when Hardie and Robert Cunninghame Graham launched the > Scottish Labour Party, the seventy-year-old Murdoch was there. Murdoch’s > zeal for reforming the Highlands applied to the industrial lowlands as > well. > All true men, then, to the front! Just remember that the system of iniquity > and lies which I have traced in the isles is rampant all over the country, > and the duty of being up and at it is irresistible. > > In 1889, Murdoch began penning his autobiography – which, sadly, lay > unpublished until 1983. That year, to commemorate the Centenary of the > Crofters’ Act, Dr. Jim Hunter published For the People’s Cause – an > anthology of Murdoch’s writing. It was a publication all the more welcome > for being long overdue. Murdoch remained active and astute into old age, > although failing eyesight put an end to his writing. He and his wife had > moved to Saltcoats, where he died at the age of 85 in 1903. John Murdoch > was a brilliant, passionate and caring man. Ileachs should be proud that he > considered himself an Islay man. > > > > ------------------------------- > > Quoting the entire text of a previous message in a reply is poor > netiquette. Please don't do it. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > SCT-ISLAY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Shared with permission from the author Ileach 42/23 5 September 2015 John Murdoch – journalist, patriot and land-reform radical Les Wilson writes about a remarkable man. The ‘Our Land’ festival, held the length and breadth of Scotland throughout August, was widely celebrated on Islay where several lively events were staged that attracted wide public interest. A brain drain from the island of young people, and a housing shortage, mean that the issue of land ownership is of interest to Islay people - but Islay also has an important land reform heritage in the person of radical journalist and agitator for crofters’ rights, John Murdoch. Murdoch was not a man to mince his words: The people are kept poor, the land waste; and from the community generally is withheld the wealth which this land and their labour are capable of yielding. John Murdoch was born in 1818 near Nairn – but came to Islay in 1827 ‘to the little farm which had been selected and conferred on my father.’ I feel myself as if I were an Islay man, he would tell the Napier Commission – the inquiry set up to examine the grievances of crofters following riots on Skye in 1882. Murdoch’s father came to Islay as gamekeeper to Walter Frederick Campbell who, at 18 had inherited the entire island. The Murdochs lived a mile or so from Islay House at Claggan Farm, and John’s boyhood there shaped his cultural and political opinions. He absorbed Gaelic culture, and was a friend to the laird’s son, John Francis Campbell, who became a world renowned folklorist. But while Murdoch personally liked the Campbells, he witnessed first-hand on Islay the poverty and powerlessness of landless cottars and poor tenant farmers. In 1829, Campbell evicted six farmers and 19 cottar families from Kilchiaran to make way for a Fife farmer who introduced Lowland techniques completely unsuited to Islay’s climate. Years later Murdoch returned to once thriving Kilchiaran. In some places we found the ruins of the humble husbandman’s cottage; in others there remained nothing to tell where a human habitation had been but the nettle ... we find the land in a state of wild unproductiveness while the people who ought to be cultivating it are wanderers in strange lands. Young Murdoch became an Excise man and, while serving in Lancashire, began writing about land issues in the Bolton Free Press. In 1845 Murdoch’s father died, and shortly afterwards his mother was evicted from Claggan by William Webster, the factor. Murdoch returned to Islay, taking up a local post with the Excise. We got back to Islay in the Autumn of 1845 and after knocking about, took up our abode in Bowmore. John MacLachlan was settled in Claggan and we could not get back there. Had we done so it is not improbable that I should have stuck to the farm and left the excise. During this time Murdoch witnessed the sequestration of Walter Frederick Campbell’s bankrupt estate, and the estate fall into the hands of absentee trustees. The laird was now away. The trustees were in Edinburgh. And Webster was more master in the island than ever. He drove things pretty well as he chose. The case as between himself and the laird was remarkable in that the master went bankrupt – while the servant had nearly all the best lands in the island in his hands. He had got himself planted in the best house in the island when he came at first. And now that things were getting into a state of dissolution he was taking farms in every direction – until I remember old Sandy Campbell and myself making up one day that he had farms which had been held by 37 substantial farmers in former times. Murdoch proposed that Islay estate be broken up into 3000 properties to be sold to Islay’s inhabitants. As proprietors they would be in a position far superior to that which they occupied as tenants, even supposing the land to be no more productive than before, when they had to support a costly aristocratic establishment, wasting their strength, employing their skill and pinching themselves to enrich factors, to polish his flunkies, to trim his ornamental attendants, so supply many of them with the means of besotting themselves and become nuisances and burdens to society; and what went to feed the dogs, game, horses and a thousand other expensive trifles, can be applied to their own comfort, refinement and gratification, and to bringing up and educating of their own families. Murdoch’s radical plan was ignored. Islay was sold off to the highest bidder. Murdoch remained convinced that there would never be prosperity in the Highlands until landlordism was overthrown in favour of more equitable distribution of land and security of tenure. The landlord if born at all among his people, is carefully removed from the reach of their Celtic influences and educated so as to have a language and a mode of thinking quite foreign to the sphere in which he is destined to act the most important parts in the serious drama of life. One consequence is that not one landlord in a hundred is capable of communicating directly with the great bulk of his people. There is thus an impenetrable barrier raised between him and them. After serving in Dublin and throughout Scotland, Murdoch retired from the Excise and, in 1873, launched his radical newspaper, The Highlander. It's mission was to promote Gaelic and fight for the rights of Highlanders to their native soil. The Highlander campaigned for a Royal Commission to examine the plight of the impoverished Highlands. When the Napier Commission was finally set up in 1883 Murdoch testified before it. Murdoch was a tireless speaker and agitator. In 1884 he chaired the meeting that founded the Highland Land Restoration League. In 1885 he stood as a ‘Land and Labour’ candidate in Glasgow’s Partick, and in 1888 campaigned for Keir Hardie. Months later, when Hardie and Robert Cunninghame Graham launched the Scottish Labour Party, the seventy-year-old Murdoch was there. Murdoch’s zeal for reforming the Highlands applied to the industrial lowlands as well. All true men, then, to the front! Just remember that the system of iniquity and lies which I have traced in the isles is rampant all over the country, and the duty of being up and at it is irresistible. In 1889, Murdoch began penning his autobiography – which, sadly, lay unpublished until 1983. That year, to commemorate the Centenary of the Crofters’ Act, Dr. Jim Hunter published For the People’s Cause – an anthology of Murdoch’s writing. It was a publication all the more welcome for being long overdue. Murdoch remained active and astute into old age, although failing eyesight put an end to his writing. He and his wife had moved to Saltcoats, where he died at the age of 85 in 1903. John Murdoch was a brilliant, passionate and caring man. Ileachs should be proud that he considered himself an Islay man.

Hi Jeanette Like you I have James (son of Finlay Whyte & Jane Heyman, and married to Mary McDermid, daur of Duncan McGilvray and Flora McLean, Ballygrant) noted as the possible father of John, along with John's sister Catherine who married Donald McIntyre 17 Apr 1834 at Balamoney. The above John's first son was named James ( James lawful son to John White and Anne MacGillvray Wemyss Haven (New Village) was born 6th Nov 1834 and Baptised) presumably named after his father? However I have the 'other' John Whyte 'in Skibba' (Port Charlotte) married to Ann McQuarrie. Was this the same John with a first wife, 4 years earlier? Regards Iain MacIntosh OPR Marriages in the Parish of Kilchoman in the County of Argyle - 1830 RD540 1830 May 3 John Whyte in Skibba and Ann McQuarrie in Leckgruinart have both been legally proclaimed and married 1855 Deaths RD547 entry 22 Catherine McIntyre 50 yrs Resided Kilchoman 30 yrs James Whyte Fisherman (deceased) Mary McDermid (deceased) Sp Donald McIntyre Farm labourer Chdn Flora 23 yrs Margaret 19 yrs Archibald 17 yrs Neil 13 yrs Mary 10 yrs Anne at 4 mes? 1849 Died 1855 Nov 30th 2hrs am Ballimeanach Chronic Gastritis six weeks As certify by Robert Sinclair Surgeon Port Charlotte, who saw the deceased 29th November Churchyard of Kilchoman Donald McIntyre Donald McIntyre, husband his 'x' mark Nicol McKinnon Witness Donald McDonald witness 1855 December 3rd at Portnahaven Wm McDonald registrar ------------------------------- Quoting the entire text of a previous message in a reply is poor netiquette. Please don't do it. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCT-ISLAY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi everyone,I am starting back on some research on my Islay ancestors and thought I'd reach out to the group to see if anyone has information on the Whyte (White) family that's mine from the Portnahaven area.  I saw a couple of old posts from 2003 that leads me to think that there may be a few of you with some information to share.  The family I have documented is: John White (Whyte) m. Anne MacGillivray on May 3, 1830 in Kilchoman Parish, Islay.kids Mary                     b. March 20, 1831 KilchomanJames                  b. November 6, 1834 PortnahavenNeil                      b. July 18, 1838 Portnahaven (my ancestor)Duncan                b. October 10, 1839 PortnahavenElizabeth "Betty" b. December 22, 1841 Portnahaven They are listed in the 1841 Scottish Census (though by the 1851 census they are living in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada).  Either living next to them, or maybe with them (as one index states), is James White, age 70.  He and the rest of the family were all supposedly born in the county.   I figure he is likely John's father, but this is where I'd love some help. I found a James White in the 1851 census in Port Weemyss, where he's 92, living in an Inn, and listed as a pauper (fisher).  (This was from the index on ancestry.com so I've not seen the original yet.)  I didn't find any other James Whites that might be the same as the one in 1841.  I found what is likely his death record in the ScotlandsPeople's web site for the civil registers: James White, Fisherman, Widower, d. July 3, 1856 Balmenach (though looks like Bulmenach), 105 years old. Burial ground Nerabus (Nerebolls). Certified by son-in-law Donald McIntyre.   I would like to know how this James is related to my John White.  I've been trying all sorts of searches on ancestry.com and familysearch.org, etc. and not finding any leads.  I am hoping someone on this list might have some information to share.   Thank you!! Jeanette Kennedyin California

I am seeking the death of my grandfather, Hugh Stewart, born 1846 Easdale, Islay; parents John Stewart (Tinsmith) & Mary McCaig Stewart; siblings Robert b. 1844; John b. 1848; Mary b. 1850; Susan b. 1855, all on Islay. Hugh works as Masons Labourer in Campbeltown area; marries Catherine McEwing on Dec. 3, 1885 in Campbeltown. My father, Robert McEwing Stewart born July 25, 1886; Catherine registers the birth and there is no further information on Hugh.no census record, no death record. Can anyone assist? Lola Cook (nee McEwing) lola.cook@shaw.ca 208 Mill Road, #2 Qualicum Beach, B.C. Canada

Family History A reminder that the records of the former Islay History Society are now held in ICCI (Gaelic College in Bowmore) and are available for viewing by the general public on Wednesday to Friday from 9am – 1 pm. Please note that it is necessary to make an appointment during these times. For more information on any of the above activities contact us on01496 810 818 / info@islay-gaelic.ne

Hello all, Those of you who use the Facebook Old Islay group may already know about this, but for those who don't, Steve Gilchrist has kindly added a new link on his Rootsweb Islay home page http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~steve/islay/data.htm In the Maps section, there is now a link to an Islay Parish Map. This takes the parish information in Bob McQueen's list of placenames and merges it with the map of farms which has been available on Steve's pages for some time to give a colour-coded version showing which farms are in which parishes. The resulting map looks fairly logical, though Killinallan looks rather lonely as an outpost of Killarow tenuously connected to the rest of the parish by a few yards of its boundary with Scarrabus. The map reflects the situation before Kilmeny was merged with Killarow, but after Portnahaven was merged with Kilchoman and Oa was merged with Kildalton. If anyone comes across a reliable source of information that would allow these parishes to be split into their earlier components, I would be happy to use it to revise the map. Best wishes John --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

In my (Ellen Sager) research of my Porter family on my father's side I came across this excerpt from the book, History of Toronto and County of York, 1885 published by C. Blackett Robinson -https://archive.org/stream/historyyork02unknuoft#page/53/mode/1up/search/gamble This book is on the internet and is free and you can read it and search it. The excerpt is about the Gamble family from Islay. I thought perhaps someone might be interested in the family who went to York County, Ontario, Canada where I was born. I was just in Islay where my mother's family, the McEachern's of Conisby are from and met some family members still living there. THE GAMBLE FAMILY – Nathaniel Allan Gamble, retired, 554 Church Street, Toronto, is of Scotch extraction, and was born on lot 90, Yonge Street and is a grandson of Nathaniel Gamble, sen’r, who came from near the Town of Bowmore, in the Island of Isla, Argyleshire, Scotland. He settled in Canada in 1798, on lot 89, on the east side of Yonge Street; he was married to a daughter of Samuel Chambers, by whom he had three sons and two daughters, all of whom came with him. He was a Presbyterian, and for a long time was trustee of glebe land belonging to that Church, near Markham. He died in 1833, leaving a large quantity of land in the Counties of York and Simcoe. Nathaniel Gamble, jun’r, youngest son of the above, was born in 1764. Settled on lot 90, on Yonge Street which he cleared and farmed until his death in 1836. Like his father, he was an extensive landowner. He was identified with the municipality in which he lived, and belonged to the Militia, in which he held the rank of Captain. In 1803 he married Susannah, daughter of Thomas Mercer, of York Mills. He belonged to the Church of England, and was a Conservative in politics. He left the following children: Anne, James, Susannah, Mary, Thomas, Nathaniel Allan, George and Sarah, all of whom married and settled in the County of York, except Thomas. The eldest son, James Gamble, inherited his grandfather’s farm, lot 89, and lived on it until his death in 1854. He was a commissioner in the Court of Request, before Division Courts were established; a magistrate, and also held a commission in the Militia. Thomas Gamble, the second son of Nathaniel Gamble, jun’r, settled in the Township of Tecumseth, County of Simcoe, in 1838, where he cleared a large farm. He was a magistrate and held a commission in the Militia as Captain. Nathaniel Allan Gamble, the third son of Nathaniel Gamble, jun’r, was born in 1817. He inherited his father’s farm, lot 90, on Yonge Street, where he lived until 1859. In 1856 he was commissioned a Justice of the Peace; he also served as quartermaster in the 12th Battalion of Volunteers. When he left his farm, he lived in Newmarket for some years, where he owned and managed a brewery. In 1872 he moved to Toronto, and married a daughter of John Sproule (who kept a store, near the market, on King Street, Toronto, for many years before his death in 1849. George Gamble, the youngest son of Nathaniel Gamble, jun’r, was also an extensive farmer for many years in the Township of King, near Lloydtown. He also married a daughter of John Sproule, of Toronto. He is now retired and living in Toronto.