Pentland Road - 2

Enumeration district 1 in Registration district 89 appears to encompass some very remote areas of Lewis, on and offshore. In 1901, we find the following houses: 1. Mealista House, a mile south of Brenish has a family of Mitchells in residence. 2. Hamnaway, about 8 miles south of Carnish, houses a family of Mathisons. 3. Beyond Hamnaway, a mile or two round the bay, we find the hamlet of Ardbeg. At no 1, we see Donald (72) and May (78) Mcleanan, with three of their children (aged in their 30s). At 2 Ardbeg, there are a family of Mcdonalds. 4. At Crolaw [Crola] house, near the eastern extremity of Loch Resort a family of Macdonalds is in residence. 5. Kenreasort House, a few miles east of Crola shows Kenneth Mcdonald (51, gamekeeper), married to Catherine (28), and with Catherine Mciver (28) as a general servant there. John Mciver is registered as a sailor, aged 60.  6. Thirty miles out at sea, the Flannan Isles Lighthouse is also in the census returns. Wm Begg...

In the 1851 census, we see 825 people in Scotland whose occupation is marked as Vagrant. In later censuses, the numbers of vagrants across Scotland hovered between 200 and 300. In law, vagrancy is described as the state or action of one who has no established home and drifts from place to place without visible or lawful means of support.  In the 19th century, a vagrant was thought to be one who was able to work for his maintenance but preferred instead to live idly, often as a beggar.  In 1851, the potato famine was barely over. Thousands of people had been driven to extreme poverty and starvation in Ireland and mainland Britain, often losing their livelihood and home in the process. To describe these unfortunates as Vagrants is harsh, although not strictly speaking inaccurate. We also see vagrants as inmates of the Glasgow Poor House (numbering about 100) - and it is quite noticeable, again upon glancing up and down the list - how many of those people described as V...

Mingulay is the largest of the Bishops Isles, and had the largest population, until it was abandoned in 1912. When visiting the island today, landing on the beach will give an indication of the difficulties encountered by the islanders as they launched and beached their boats for the fishing. The storm that claimed the men of Pabbay in 1897 was survived by the Mingulay boat, but the difficulties eventually led to the dereliction of the island. When looking at the population statistics, the large number of under-18s is conspicuous: around 70; over 60s number on average around 10. 1851: 115 people, 23 households, 1861: 139 people, 25 households 1871: 141 people, 26 households 1881: 150 people, 34 households 1891: 142 people, 32 households 1901: 135 people, 30 households

There are several islands called Pabbay around the Hebrides. Pabbay Mor lies off Reef Beach in Uig, Lewis; there is a Pabbay off Broadford in Skye, a Pabbay in the Sound of Harris - and there is the Pabbay south of Barra, which is the subject of this post. This island had a population varying from 10 to 24 between 1851 and 1901. All the able-bodied men were lost in a violent storm on 1 May 1897, leading to the island's abandonment in the early 20th century. In 1851, there was a Macneil family in Pabbay, consisting of Niel (50) and his three sons (Donald (22), Donald jr (16), Alexander (14) and daughter Mary (12), together with a niece (Mary, 24). A second family, headed by Flora Maclean (27) and her young daughters Mary and Ann. Mary Macmillan is a house servant. A decade later, three families can be found in the island, two of whom are called Morison (with one R). These both originate from South Uist. Alexander (41) and Mary (29) have two young children, Margaret and Ronal...

Sandray is the northernmost of the Bishops Isles, a mile or so south of Vatersay. Between 1851 and 1901, its population did not rise above 10. In 1851, there was a family marked as 'Camron', presumably Cameron, consisting of cow herd Murdoch (48) and wife Janet (45), both originating from Bracadale in Skye. They had four daughters, all born in Skye; and two young sons, born in the parish of Barra. Alexander Macmillan (67) is marked as a visitor - occupation: vagrant. In 1861, the resident family on Sandray is now 'Mckennon' (Mackinnon), with shepherd Hector (50) and wife Mary (45), together with their five daughters and one son. Hector's sister Elizabeth Macneil is also present. Ten years later, the same family remains in Sandray. In 1881, the shepherd family is Donald (56) and Mary (52) Mcmillan, with their four daughters (aged 14 to 24) and four visitors. In 1891, Donald Macmillan remains as shepherd (now aged 69), with three of his children in his ho...

The island of Berneray (referred to as Bernera) is the southernmost of the four islands. It has the Barra Head Lighthouse sitting on top of a 600 ft high cliff on the west of the island. It is worth bearing in mind that there are two other islands called Berneray (or Bernera) in the Outer Hebrides. Great Bernera lies off the west coast of Lewis. The third Berneray is just north of North Uist, and is now linked to the latter island by causeway. During the 19th century (and well into the 20th), it was linked to Harris in an administrative sense. Berneray (Barra) had the following numbers of population from 1851 until 1901 1851 - 44 1861 - 33 1871 - 38 1881 - 57 1891 - 30 1901 - 17 These included the lighthouse keepers, their families and attendants. We find the following names across the decades: 1851 James Oswald (47), born at St Manonie, Fife, occasional lightkeeper Joseph Thomson (34), born at New Hills, Aberdeen, with his wife Ann and 4 young children, light keep...

I am continuing my little series about vessels in port around the Isle of Lewis at the time of the 1901 census. I was quite surprised to find 68 names in the census return for men on board vessels at Carloway. This village on the west coast of Lewis, has a pier and is a fishing port. Nowadays, there is not much going on around the pier there. 110 years ago, it was a veritable hive of activity. Or appeared to be. The census enumerators, who wrote up the returns, made a breathtaking mess of the east coast fishermen at Carloway. The total number of names is actually 35, meaning that with one exception, they are all written up twice. I shall endeavour to disentangle the web of confusion. On that night of March 31st / April 1st, 1901, there are four fishing vessels at Carloway. These are: White Queen, Consolation, Johanna Petrie Glenalva The confusion starts when the men are counted more than once in any of the following locations 1. On board their vessel 2. At the quay in Carl...

This vessel is proving enigmatic for me. She was in Stornoway harbour at the time of the 1901 census, during the night of 31st March / 1st April. Only three men are quoted on board, namely: John Bain, master, aged 34, Stornoway Allan Mcleod, mate, aged 32, Stornoway D Mcdonald, ordinary seaman, aged 20, Stornoway Although there was a Royal Navy ship, HMS Rambler , in service around 1901, it was in port in Malta on the night of the census. HMS Rambler was built in 1879, and saw service in China, the Boer War and the Mediterranean, finally to be sold in 1907. The nature of the Rambler in Stornoway is presently a mystery. Any further info of course welcome.

A vessel of that name was in Stornoway harbour at the time of the 1901 Census, on the night of 31st March / 1st April. She was probably the Macbrayne ferry plying between Kyle of Lochalsh and Stornoway. An image of the vessel docked at Kyle can be viewed on this page on the Am Baile website. There is also an extensive history of the ship on the same page, to which I refer. On that night in 1901, there were 27 members of crew on board. When going back through the previous censes, it is noticeable that several crewmembers had shorebound occupations before going to sea. One was a carpenter, another was a tailor. As they originated outside the Outer Hebrides, further perusal of this subject lies outwith the remit of this blog. John Allan 58, fireman, Glasgow John Mackinlay 27, 2nd officer, Glasgow Theodore Sobenson 49, chief engineer, Norwegian Neil MacCaig 21, 2nd engineer, Glasgow Archd Macculloch 43, AB seaman, South Knapdale, Argyll Robert Urquhart 50, AB seaman, Gairlo...

Fellow researcher Direcleit has looked extensively into the census forms for Lewis and Harris, and I am quite happy to refer you to his blog for some of his work with the census returns. I have done a little bit for my research into WW1 and its impact on the Lewis contingent. This evening I came across the census record for Stornoway, under the heading of Vessels. The address is given as Stornoway Outer Harbour. There are several vessels in port, with their name used for an enumeration district. One of them was the John Coverdale . I shall highlight others in days to come. The SS John Coverdale was operated by Coverdale & Co of West Hartlepool (Sunderland) from 1899 until 1911. In that year, the steamer was sold to Maclay & Mcintyre of Glasgow for £14,500. They operated the vessel as SS Kassanga. She was torpedoed in the Irish Sea on 20 March 1918 by U-103, at position 52.27N, 05.26W, between Wexford in Ireland and Aberystwyth in Wales. The Kassanga had been en-route f...