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Chapter 2: The Eigg Interlude (1756 to 1817)

Noel Banks locates Eigg (pronounced “egg”) as follows: “Eigg, a kidney shaped island measuring five miles by three, is seven miles from Rhu Point Arisaig, and 15 from Mallaig.” (Banks p. ) It is south-east of Rum and due south of Sleat in Skye, where Mary Macdonald (wife of great grandfather John MacCaskill) was born. She and John are buried in Kilmore Churchyard. We visited their grave site, and admired the glorious view John had chosen, down the Sound of Sleat towards Rum and Eigg further south..

Almost certainly, the story of the MacAskills in Eigg begins with the Rev. Malcolm (1723-87) who was a scion of the MacAskills of Runan Dunan. He was called to the Small Isles Parish in 1756 and took up residence in 1757 – the first Church of Scotland Minister resident on Eigg. I say ‘almost certainly’ because at the time of the ’45, and especially in 1746 when Government forces arrived on Eigg seeking out Bonnie Prince Charlie and any remnants of his supporters, the occupants were well documented – and there were no Mcaskills. These forces took away some thirty-five men. Most died in prison or were transported but a lucky few were released when the French captured the ship that was transporting them to Jamaica. Some subsequently made their way home. The crackdown was triggered by the desire of the Civil and Church authorities, after the failed ’45 rebellion, to break the traditional Stuart and Roman Catholic hold on the people. To this end the Church of Scotland decided to locate a minister on Eigg. The man chosen was the Rev. Malcolm MacAskill.

The Clanranald papers document how the Rev. Malcolm ended up with a fine manse and glebe – the largest in all Scotland – at Kildonan. Camille Dressler also records that “Not only was the minister farming that part of Kildonan appointed to him as a glebe, but with the farm at Galmisdale leased to him after the (1770) departure of its occupants to the New World for the time of his incumbency, and the eight pennylands of Sandaveg, and the five penny lands of Sandavore, for which he was given a thirty-year lease, he could now be considered one of the most important tenants on the island.” (Dressler p. 41)

Map Courtesy Camille Dressler

The Rev. Malcolm ‘invited’ some families from Minginish (his home base) to come to Eigg and run his glebe farm. Among them were two families of MacCaskills who are recorded on the 1764/5 Eigg Roll. Eigg Oral tradition also has our family distantly related to that of the Rev. Malcolm. Fortunately we do not have to guess which if either, of these two families on the Eigg Roll is our branch because we can trace our Lachlan MacCaskill back to the one at the glebe consisting of John 37, wife Marion 36, mother Marion Cameron 76, Kenneth 9, Catherine 7, Ann 4 and John (Iain Og as he is known is Eigg oral tradition), our ancestor, aged 1. Whatever the final size of this family we know of descendants from Kenneth, John and Ann. Others may well turn up.

The Rev. Malcolm was also raising a family, in fact two families. His first wife Ann, daughter of the Rev. Murdoch Macleod (or Macdonald) at Glenelg, died in 1760 leaving several children. He promptly married Mary, a natural daughter of Maclean of Coll, and had a large second family which is recorded in their family bible. Most likely his children and our John’s children would know one another quite well on such a small island with its close-knit community of 400 to 500 people. In any event two of his sons, Dr. Donald (1763-1817) and Allan (1765-1828), figure in our story (see below and ch. 3).

Following the death of the Rev. Malcolm in 1787, his widow and family held on to the Kildonan farm. The glebe, now surrounded by Mcaskill land, was no longer conveniently located for the incoming minister, Donald Maclean. Arrangements were required for a new manse, and glebe. We catch a glimpse of our family’s involvement in this process. Iain Og, now tenant at Kildonan acted as one of two comprisers for Clanranald while his elder brother Kenneth “a discreet honest parishioner” acted as compriser for the Presbytery, to create a new glebe at Sandaveg . (Minutes of the Presbytery of Skye for May 12, 1789.)

In the 1798 rent roll, Dr. Donald is tacksman for Kildonan with his mother. Kildonan rents for sixty five pounds, one part of Howlin goes for 40 pounds , the other for twenty five. Laig leases for forty one pounds eight and ninepence, Galmisdale for forty two pounds ten shillings, Cleadale for eighty five pounds and Donald Maclean the minister pays eight pounds for Sandaveg. [ Fraser-Macintosh pp 261/2] Dr Donald continued to extend the Kildonan farm into the 1800s, while a sister Christina married Angus Macdonald, tacksman of Laig. Between them these two families controlled the island.

We get another glimpse of Iain Og in 1807. In a letter to the Clanranald Trustees dated November 25, he, in his capacity as the miller at Sandaveg, complains that “For the last five years only 5 bolls meal in multures and as no croft is annexed to the mill, therefore no rent [five pounds per annum] can be paid.” Low volumes and no other income source were killing his business. By 1809 he was a ground officer receiving one pound annually and was still twenty-four pounds in arrears. (See Clanranald Papers)

In 1810, Dr. Donald was being criticized for showing favouritism towards his people in allocating crofts at Cleadale (Urquhart p. 65, Dressler p. 65)

Our family, too, was growing up, marrying, and having children of their own. The “discreet honest parishioner” Kenneth is probably the father of the Margaret (1786-1855) who married Neil Macquarrie at Cleadale. The full details of her Death Record, informant Neil, her husband, have helped clarify some of the confusing folklore that has been handed down. Ann married a Macleod and is a widow with her son, Lachlan, and his family at Cleadale in 1841, and Iain Og had also married (see ch. 3).

Dr. Donald died suddenly in 1817. Like his father, Dr. Donald left a widow and a large family recorded in his family bible. But this time there was no Mcaskill connection to take over the tack. Kenneth was still in North America, and Dr. Donald’s younger brother Allan, who had gone to sea and become rich, was fully engaged with the Morinish estate on Mull. So the Clanranald connection reasserted itself: a new tacksman took over – John Macdonald of Balranald from South Uist – and brought in his own people. This was the last such Clanranald assertion, for they sold Eigg in 1827. Our family faced a common problem – what happens when a poor but protected world comes crashing down.

The Eigg Roll of 1764/5, and the 1841-81 censuses, as well as Births, Marriages and Deaths, and a rich tradition of family folklore captured by Camille Dressler, Jane Urquhart, Hugh Mackinnon and Duncan Ferguson amongst many, are a useful beginning to research on Eigg families. Recently a number of descendants living in North America have engaged in a lively email correspondence, as we sorted out how and when the families related to each other down through time – see Eigg families at the main menu.

Chapter 3: The Mull interlude (1817 to 1874)

We left the family on Eigg in 1817, but find one member, John (Iain Og) aged 75, at the Haun farm of the Morinish estate in Mull, in 1841. With him is a son Allan (1795-1874), and several of Allan’s nephews. So what happened in between?

The 1841 Mull census record states that John was 75 and from Eigg, as was his son Allan. Mull Old Parish Records has a short burst of Mcaskill entries beginning in 1819. There was a family of Alexander Macpherson married to Mary Mcaskill with daughter Mary born 3 August 1820 and son John born 16 June 1824. Then again there is a son Hugh born 15 February 1819 to Catherine Mcaskill and Allan Campbell.This family emigrated to the Lake Simcoe area of Ontario.[Lucinda Campbell] Lastly there is a marriage between a Catherine Mcaskill and Angus Macinnes on 28 February 1820. This event was followed by children – Donald in 1821, Christy in 1823, Allan in 1826, and Alexander in 1829.

These parochial records all follow the purchase of Morinish in 1817 by Captain Allan MacAskill (1765-1828), son of the Rev. Malcolm). He is notable for several reasons, one being that he had a fine new house built for himself at Calgary, Morinish. It is listed as item 351 in the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll, Volume 3, pp. 229-30, and was formed by adding a new building of the same proportions behind the existing tackman’s house and connected to it by passageways, and forming an H on its side facing the Calgary beach below. It featured a grand spiral staircase, fashionable at this period (1780-1830), and has a third level below ground. While the construction was proceeding, retired sea captain Allan remained in Edinburgh at Dean Street, Stockbridge, within walking distance of his close friend Donald Maclean, Writer to the Seal, in Albany Street. There is a series of financial dealings marking his stay in Edinburgh and his relations with this Donald Maclean WS. (I followed his steps from Dean Street to Albany Street with author, Jo Currie, quite recently and am sure that Captain Allan had to be in good physical condition to walk that journey every day.)

Another reason for the notability of Captain Allan is given by Jo Currie in her book Mull the Island and Its People. She reminds us that Allan MacAskill “was the son of the minister of the Small Isles, Malcolm MacAskill , but was infinitely qualified for membership of Mull’s best families through his mother, Mary Maclean of Coll, sister of ‘young Coll’, the guide of Johnson and Boswell. Allan’s mother Mary, was a respected poetess, who had written a lament for her brother when he was tragically drowned off Ulva in 1774. Her next brother Alexander, who had succeeded Young Coll as heir, was Captain Allan Mcaskill’s uncle, and laird of Quinish in 1817, when Captain Allan bought Morinish from the 6^th Duke of Argyle’s trustees.” (pp. 21-2)

It is perhaps too much to believe this short burst of Mcaskilling activities on Mull is all coincidence. More tempting perhaps, to conclude that c.1817, Captain Allan decided to summon our great great great grandfather, Iain Og, and his family from Eigg in much the same way as his father, the Rev. Malcolm, had summoned Iain Og’s father John from Minginish some fifty years before. But it leaves open what happened to the “discreet honest parishioner”, brother Kenneth. While I have nothing yet to support the idea, emigration – perhaps even as a member of the 1811 wave to the Carolinas – could easily have occurred.He may even have gone to Mull as well as his younger brother Iain Og, and been the father of one of the Mull Catherines.

Prior to Captain Allan’s death in 1828, his sister Mary was housekeeper at Calgary, and nephew Hugh ran one of the estate farms before setting up Talisker Distillery in 1830, along with two brothers. Captain Allan’s will provided cash for all his siblings and their children, as well as his own (natural) children, Donald and Christina – with one exception: nephew Hugh, (1799-1863). He got the Morinish estate itself. He was also responsible for the mausoleum to Captain Allan in the woods below Calgary House. Other clauses in the will granted 30 pounds to the poor of the parish in Mull and on Eigg, while another provided for a wall around the Rev. Malcolm gravesite at Kildonan, Eigg.

We presume that Iain Og died 1841-51, and that all his family had married and left Mull before 1841, leaving only his son, Allan, and some nephews behind. We have two glimpses into the life of Allan on Mull in the 1840s when famine was rife.

Allan the ground officer. In 1848 Allan is ground officer on the Morinish estate and receives an instruction from Hugh’s presumed factor the WS Nisbet of Tobermory to the effect that “I desire the tenants to come here on … to pay the rent by 12 o’clock at the latest.” This and another similar letter is recorded in Nisbet’s letterbooks at the Mull Museum.

Allan the ‘theftious’. Another glimpse is found in the Petitions Records of 1847 SC59/3/1. It is a summons by the Marquis of Breadalbane who was the Receiver of Wrecks against Allan MacAskill of Haun and others. Apparently in October 1847 a ship’s topsail or foreyard with all fittings or tackle washed ashore on the coast of Treshnish contiguous to Haun. It was worth 11 pounds, 9 shillings and 8 pence. “Allan MacAskill, Allan MacAskill, residing at Haun and Donald Campbell and Lachlan MacCallum most surreptitiously and theftiously took possession of yard and dismantled it.”

Hugh sold Morinish to the Mackays, who in turn sold it to the Munro Mackenzie family. (Tolmie) Their youngest child, Nora (b. 1895) became Lady Fairfax-Lucy. She wrote in Hebridean Childhood: “My family home, Calgary House, was known locally rather grandly, as ‘The Castle’. It looks out to sea on the north-west corner of the island of Mull, with nothing but the Island of Tiree between it and America. The view varies from an opalistic mill-pond, through greys ,blues and greens, to a raging storm – the bay white with spin drift and breakers surging against the machair…. It was at Calgary House that a certain Colonel Macleod spent his last night in Scotland before emigrating to Canada. He settled where now stands the great city of Calgary, named after our house.” (p. 9) Meg Douglas and I visited Calgary House recently, courtesy of the owners. It was easy to admire the house, and the view that retired sea captain Allan Macaskill set up for himself. It was also easy to appreciate his mausoleum in the woods below. We also visited the local parish church at Kilninian, and stopped off at some township sites in Morinish, now deserted, but active in the MacAskills’ tenure.

This Munro Mackenzie family itself had a MacAskill connection. Nora’s father was John Munro Mackenzie, son of John Mackenzie and Christina Munro, daughter of the Rev. Hugh Munro who married Janet Mcaskill, sister of Kenneth the consolidater. Frances Tolmie has a story in her reminiscences that, out of respect for Janet, the Munro Mackenzies often came to the aid of indigent Mcaskills. Our Allan could easily have been a recipient of such largesse. He is still at Haun in 1851, but missing in 1861. I cannot trace him in the 1871 census so far, but presume that he is the Allan who died in 1874 at the Tobermory Poorhouse. So where was he in 1861? For the answer we need to backtrack to Eigg where, in 1861, Allan (1795-1874) is visiting his brother Donald (1809-70).

Chapter 4: Eigg Revisited (1841 to 1950)

When Iain Og left Eigg for Mull (c.1817) we know that some members of the family remained behind – his sister Ann, and his niece Margaret, married to Neil Macquarrie. As noted above, the new tacksman after 1817 was John Macdonald of Balranald, a member of the Clanranald Macdonalds (more accurately it was his aunt Ann who relinquished in his favour later).

We do know that our Donald, Iain Og’s son, was born on Eigg, and had been residing there since at least 1841 when he is registered at Grulin with his bride, Janet Macdonald (1818-96) of Uist. Her parents had come to Eigg with the new tacksman John Macdonald. Donald is probably the Grulin Shoemaker referred to by Dressler: “A more widespread occupation was that of shoemaker. There were two in Cleadale, and another in Grulin. Visiting the island in 1845, Hugh Miller remarked how the shoes he saw being made on Eigg were shaped like little boats. They consisted of a sole of single leather stitched to the upper part with a thong of the same leather or, even better, of sealskin…. Enquiring about their deep madder colour, Miller was told that this was the result of tanning the leather with a brew of tormentil roots, which had to be changed three times. The same tanning recipe was applied to fishing nets to prevent them from rotting. The whole process was very time- consuming, as a whole day was needed to collect enough roots for one brew. Fortunately, the plant grew everywhere - as it still does today – and the work was done as a communal activity. The hides, from Martinmas cattle killed for the winter, were supplied in turn by each household. Two pairs of shoes would last the year, since people walked barefoot a great deal of the time.” (Dressler p. 72)

Demand for shoes must have been brisk in 1841 as there were some 546 folk on the census. This number was to be the peak. In normal times, the islanders were barely self-sufficient – harvests from land and sea took care of the food requirements and the cash from the sale of stirks (cattle) would cover shelter costs. Over the long haul, the crofters fell into arrears, and the population declined. In the 1840s, the island experienced hard times on account of this over-population, despite excellent harvests. When crops failed in the later 1840s, more serious hardship occurred. One outcome was the wholesale removal of the Macdonalds of Laig to North America, together with tenant families. How our Donald and Janet fared on his eight acres with a growing family is not known. Their family peaked at six children in 1856: Kate, Marion, John, James, Lachlan and Hugh.

Factors looked on the visits of cattle dealers as an opportunity to collect rent, and were often on hand to collect as much of the sale proceeds for the owner as was due. And so on one occasion, Donald received his proceeds and the factor claimed what was due. Hugh MacAskill (1799-1863), visiting the island in his cattle dealing role, intervened and ensured that Donald got to keep enough to survive. I suspect that this incident occurred in the middle 1850s and accounts for the naming of a son Hugh in 1856.Be that as it may, Donald died of consumption at a much younger age than either Iain Og, his father, or his own sons John (1849-1929) and Lachlan (1855-1941). We know nothing about Donald and Janet’s eldest child, Kate. The second eldest, Marion, married John Macdonald the Mullach (man from Mull), and had a large family on Eigg. James died as a youth, Lachlan (Lachie) remained single and on Eigg, and Hugh married Flora Campbell daughter of the miller, another Mullach, and left the island. Hugh and Flora had a daughter Janet(1893- ?) who married a Martin Sturrock. She immigrated in 1920 on the SS Waterford from Liverpool, with d Florence aged 3 and s Peter aged 1. By 1940 the family was in East Boston where Martin signed his Draft registration.
John, the eldest son (and our ancestor), was the first to leave. He married Mary Macdonald from Sleat, late in 1871, and turns up with a large family on Rum in 1881. His widowed mother, Janet, lived on in Eigg with Lachlan and died in 1896. Shortly afterwards the owner of Eigg removed the Galmisdale crofters to fancy new houses with stone floors and roofs of Ballahulish slate at Cuagach, a substantial improvement over their traditional blackhouse homes. The census records 1891/1901 show that Lachlan had a housekeeper, Mary Ann, his niece and eldest child of our great grandfather John at Rum.

There was one other Mcaskill family on Eigg 1841-71. Our Donald acted as informant for most of them and is denoted as stepson to its head, another John Mcaskill (1785-1857) who married Mary Stewart.

The Eigg interlude closes with the death of Lachlan in 1941. In his last years his niece, Mary Ann (Mcaskill), the widow of Neil Campbell, again kept house for him at Cuagach , and died there in 1950. In his time Lachlan was widely respected on the island as a hardworking, able crofter, with a good head even though he had had no schooling, and adept at playing draughts. There is a picture of Lachlan in the Edgeworth collection with his cas chrom in hand. This footplow is a holdover from the Norsemen. “[U]sing the cas chrom was very labour-intensive but it meant that every awkward corner of land could be cultivated” and the return gained was superior to that of using horse plows. (Dressler p. 29) Both Galmisdale and Cuagach have such corners of land.

On our visit to Eigg in the summer of 1998, we walked over to Cleadale and met Camille Dressler on the way to meet with Dugald Mckinnon, a second cousin once removed – descended from Marion who married John Macdonald. Both told stories of Lachlan. We also visited Lachlan’s Cuagach croft cottage, built in 1898, where the Campbell sisters now live. Close by is the croft of the Macquarries who left Eigg in 1924. They were descended from Neil Macquarrie and Margaret MacAskill – and today, a descendant, our fifth cousin, Margaret (McLeod) Inkster, lives in Powell River, BC. We also met Angus Mackinnon whose family goes back twelve generations. Not surprisingly, he, and Duncan Ferguson also have Mcaskills of our family in their ancestry. Another descendant is Fiona Glover who as best we know it, rounds out the descendants here in BC.

Chapter 5: Rum Interlude (1871 to 1913)

(To be continued…)