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