The 7th Duke of Argyll had become convinced that 'improvement' with the population at existing levels was not possible. In 1841 the Census recorded a population for the parish, of 4113 (compared with 1676 in 1760), of whom 2988 were on the Ross and Iona (Table 1 & Devine). The control of smallpox, the advent of potatoes and the profitability of kelp with the subdivision of holdings which the Dukes had encouraged were probably the main factors responsible for the more than doubling of the population in 80 years. But profits from kelp had gone, and rents were tiny, often in arrears. The Duke told the Select Committee on Emigration:
"No doubt my object is to get the farms divided into large proportions and have proper tenants on them, and the rest of the tenants to be provided for by emigration or induced to go to the low country" (MacArthur~ p. 73). Devine remarks: "Over the space of less than two to three generations, estate policy in the Hebrides swung from one extreme to the other." (P. 182)
The Potato Famine.
It was the potato blight of 1846, continuing well into the 1 850s, and its resultant famine that brought these words to action. The potato harvest failed disastrously all over the west Highlands. On the Ross, at almost the same time, in September, 1846, the new and soon much hated factor, John Campbell set up home at Ardfenaig. In 1847 the Marquis of Lorne became 8th Duke, and decided to continue more forcefully the policy adopted by his predecessor. There were two ways of tackling the looming famine resulting from the potato blight. One was poor relief; the other was emigration. Both were employed. But rent policy also changed. Instead of accepting rent arrears, the Factor was instructed to evict or to forcibly remove cattle in payment, this at a time when, from 1847 on, prices for highland cattle dropped disastrously (Devine, app. 3). The effects of the policy were dramatic. Campbell wrote to the Duke on April 14th, 1850: "The small crofters are generally in debt, otherwise than rents, to a larger amount than the value of their effects, even could they get a market for them." (IA ,B1804). Firm, some might say brutal, rent collection in cash or kind mitigated the effects of the famine on the Dukes' income from the estate. The Rent Balance Sheet Abstract, 1843 - 1849 shows a deficit for only 2 years, both accounted for by expenditure on emigration, as Table 2 shows:
Table 2 (From IA, B1522) "Balance of Incomings against Outgoings." (Ross of Mull)
| Year | 1843 | 1844 | 1845 | 1846 | 1847 | 1848 | 1849 |
| In favour of proprietor | £1421 | £1598 | £1785 | £1346 | £245 | ||
| Against Proprietor | £1464 | £380 | |||||
|
£1264 | £288 | £1083 |
Poor Relief.
The 7th Duke's factor was not at first very willing to contribute to relieve the effects of the famine on their tenants. A resolution of the Parochial Board for Relief of the Parish, 1st Sept., 1846, reads:
"The Board, having called before them Mr. Alex MacDonald, Ground officer to His Grace the Duke, and having represented to him the famishing condition of a large body of the small tenants upon His Grace's lands of Ross and having proposed to him the absolute necessity of procuring immediately 5 or 6 bolls of Meal to be distributed in small portions among these famishing people,... he declined doing anything in the matter, although this Board undertook to guarantee the repayment thereof..." (The Board told their inspector to register the poor themselves and to requisition grain as required.) (JA,B152)
It was universally agreed among the better off classes of the time, that relief without work would merely encourage a 'natural' tendency to indolence and dependence, and no one received any poor relief unless they worked. The Relief Board was largely made up of local tacksmen, and shared this view. However, at first it was impossible to enforce, and there was criticism of the Ross of Mull committee from Glasgow where administration of relief for the area was centred. It is the reports of the various Boards which provide much of the contemporary evidence of what went on.
Conditions on the Ross of Mull during the famine years (1846 - 56, most especially in the early years) were dreadful. The 8th Duke himself wrote, in evidence to the Napier Commission
"In 1846 and the following years the aspect of the population and the numerous wretched hovels erected by squatting cottars along the roadsides, was most painful. It resembled nothing so much as the descriptions given of the poorest part of the West of Ireland. The condition of most of the crofters was almost indigent. No less than 102 of them had subdivisions rented below 5 pounds and of these a large number were under 3 and 2 (!A,B898). He does not mention that, both in 1846 and 1850, rents were raised.
Alex McLean of Pennycross, mentioned in the first section, was on the local board. Through the records, there are occasional references to people from Tireragan, for example:
The last reference to Tireragan is in 1856:
Incidentally, Nicol Maclntyre, tacksman of Tireragan from about 1853 on, joined this local board in 1848. In 1847, the Inspector from the Glasgow secton of the Central Relief Board for the Highlands met the new 8th Duke of Argyll: "The latter talked of the absolute necessity of removing a considerable number of them to some other locality or abroad. It would be attempted next spring."
In 1848, the ministers of Iona and the Ross wrote to the Rev. Dr. M'Leod in Glasgow, who was collecting evidence,
"The poor here are in a state of great destitution, not only of food but also clothing... Most of the cottars have sold and consumed their only cow; many of the small tenants are at present living from their stock of cattle, which they are consuming for food. A short time will reduce many of this class to the level of the poorest cottars." (p. 42). In 1849, the Glasgow Relief Board Report states that since the famine, the smallest number of recipients of assistance was 853 and the largest 1401.
"243 persons, 125 adults and 118 children, have just emigrated, which helped locally, but many got cholera on the way. Not a few have fallen victim to it and the survivors had suffered great privation."
Although, "During this year the Duke of Argyll, through his factor, Mr. Campbell of Ardfenaig, employed a considerable number of men at trenching, draining etc., and a good many women and young persons in planting, weeding and other light work... We fear that the Committee must resume operations in this district." One of the Napier Commission informants said that most of these improvements had taken place around the farm of Ardfenaig (where the factor lived). Devine' s table of applications made under the drainage act shows that the Duke of Argyll, one of the largest landlords, applied for improvement for only 540 acres, whereas some other landlords claimed for over 100,000 acres. Of course, the Duke may have undertaken drainage from his own pocket without applying for assistance.
Incidentally, the Relief board reporters state: "We were...informed that a good deal of work had been done at Tirerregan, but did not visit."
Interest payments for money put forward for drainage work was still being paid by local tenants 30 years later, one of their great grievances, but, "There was no use complaining - we were threatened everywhere." (see below). (P 17)
Local women were employed at knitting to pay for their relief. A list for 1850-51 names 108 women from the Ross (excluding Iona). The writing is difficult to read, but the names from 'Tiergan' seem to have been: Margaret MacDonald, Catherine MacArthur, Mary McNeil, Betsy McLean and Maeve MacFarlane. Margaret MacDonald knitted 3 dozen and 10 pairs hose, receiving 10/lid, and 4 dozen and 3 pairs socks for 7/lid (IA ,B1805).
John Campbell's reports to the Duke continue to speak of 'heavy distress' among small tenants during 1850 and 1851 and 94 destitute (males?) were employed on the Ross in 1851.
There were wholesale clearances, of Shiaba in 1847, for instance, but the usual policy was individual eviction for rent arrears or squatting. John Campbell wrote:
"I ordered John Stort to be removed because he had a piece of land for which he paid no rent and because he married a woman in the south last year and brought her back to Creich. I make a point in all such cases of having such ejected rather than that they should become burdens on the property. I have no doubt the rest of the cottars will give in their names for emigration." (April 26th, 1851) (IA ,B1805). On Whitsunday 1852, he writes: "All the cottars on the farm of Tirergan to be removed as soon as possible."
Emigration.
Emigration became a favoured way of getting rid of 'surplus' tenants. Given the conditions, many of the population were willing to go. But at first the Duke was interested in those who could pay something towards their cost. There is a petition from 1847 with 963 names of those from the Ross of Mull estate wishing to go to Canada. The details about those from Tireragan are revealing.
|
|
No. Adults |
|
Children 7- | Total | State |
| Malcolm McArthur & wife | Crofter | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | Can Pay |
| Alec Beaton & wife | Crofter | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | Destitute |
| Donald Mac Donald & Wife | Cottar | 5 | 1 | 2 | 8 | Can Pay |
|
Crofter | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 | Destitute |
| Alec Beaton & wife | Cottar | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | Destitute |
| Widow Peggy McArthur & son | Cottar | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Can Pay |
John Campbell, the new factor, suggests that the Duke sends those who can pay, together with those who can pay a little (at 1/2 price) and to ignore the others. On this basis 224 of the 963 could go. However, he also urged the Duke to support cottars to emigrate (letter cited earlier). A list from March 19th, 1847 lists '848 souls' from the Ross and Iona who would emigrate. Many of this second wave of enforced emigrants went to Canada and eventually arrived, after appalling hardship and many deaths, in Glenelg County, Ontario, where a town called Bunessan exists to this day.
Devine states that 1778 people from Tiree and the Ross of Mull emigrated during the potato famine. From the Ross of Mull, in 1847, 761 people were put on emigrant ships, in 1849, 263, in 1850, 74, and in 1851, 48. Between 1846 and 1852, 196 families were evicted from the Ross.The population of Mull as a whole dropped 28% in the twenty years from 1841 to 1861, though the population of Tobermory went up. In September 1852, Iampbell wrote that "not much more emigration" was needed from the Ross (IA ,B1806).
Assisted emigration seems to have ended finally on the Ross in the 1860s. A report of John Campbell's from June 1863 refers to: "3 crofter families on the south side to whom I offered assistance to pay their passages - to each family ten pounds... Any families that go to the new country, their houses will be pulled down, or others removed to them and the vacant ones pulled down." (IA,B1763)
Evidence to the Napier Commission.
The only evidence as to what Ross people themselves felt about all this comes 30 years later, in statements to the Napier Commission from its sitting at Bunessan (evidence p. 2183 - 2234). A. Mclnnes, from Creich said that in the 1850s there was a 100% increase in rent where pasture was improved (as it had to be, since tenants who remained were forced to develop areas like Creich on the north side of the Ross - the more fertile south side was evacuated). There was no compensation for houses vacated, and when permission was given for new houses to be built, only "a kailyard' of land was given. It was ruled that if a man died, and his widow had a son less than 21 years old, she must vacate, a rule "sometimes enforced, sometimes not."
"In the year 1850, the old townships were reduced to large farms," said J. M'Cormick from Catchean croft, and continued, "The harsh and cruel law of evictions formerly used has now given way to the more modern and refined mode of grinding away our subject by diminishing our means, which will eventually serve the purpose of bringing us into abject poverty."
Duncan M'Lean came from Shiaba (on the SE end of the Ross, cleared in 1847) in 1838, and went to Ardalanish, where he lived for 16 years: "The crofters left Shiaba and it was put into the hands of a tacksman, turned to sheep. There were 12 families on Ardalanish. They were put off the land, which was made into a sheep farm."
Duncan Campbell, from Oban, reported that in 1846, he, his father and grandfather were at Knocknafeannaig. They were put out in 1854 with five other families, although they had no rent
arrears.
Under questioning from the Commissioners, the Duke's current factor, James Wyllie, affirmed that children of crofters -who married did not settle on the land: "No, they go out of the country." MacArthur's study of Iona gives further evidence of the feelings involved.
Tireragan from the 1850s Onward.
As for Tireragan, if John Campbell was right, the cottars were gone in 1852. Probably in 1853, Nicol Maclntyre took over the tenancy, merging the holding with Ardalanish and Knockvologan. There are fewer and fewer references to anyone living there. Alexander Campbell was in arrears for his road tax in 1852 (everyone was liable to pay a 'road tax', even if there were no roads!), and in 1858, Norman McLeod, a blacksmith, late of Tireragan, gave evidence to the police about a brawl after the Aros cattle fair. (County Archives). It is the last reference I have discovered. No one is listed as living there on Valuation rolls, and all references to small tenants cease.
By 1883, there were five large farms in the Ross of Mull (Devine, p279). Those who had not emigrated had moved from the south to the north side of the Ross, where, on the whole, the land was much poorer. Ardtun and Creich were populated with small crOfters. Alexander M'Intyre commented to the Napier Commission that the remaining crofters: "suffer under high rent. Conditions are as bad as they ever were."
In short, by the 1880s the larger part of the Ross had been turned over to sheep farming. For 25 years, Tireragan was part of the large farm of Nicol M'Intyre. In 1879, he died, leaving his land to his sons Alex and Donald. Alex had Ardalanish and Donald, Knockvologan, so Tireragan was probably divided between theni. In 1886, Alex himself died, with many debts and rent owing. The Duke tried to make Donald responsible for them, and a long legal battle ensued, during which the tenancy was disputed. Donald left in 1888, the stock being sold to pay off the debts. (IA,B2 735)
Knockvologan and Tireragan lay without a main tenant for 10 years, and the Duke even wrote to his factor suggesting the possibility of dividing the area into 6 medium tenancies but there is no indication whether this proposal was made public and, in any event, it did not happen. The valuation rolls for the area show that in 1885, a cottar, John Campbell (not the factor of the same name, by then long dead) moved to 'Tiergan' and stayed there till 1902, when Donald M'Donald, ploughman, is recorded as an occupant. In 1906, he moved to Knockvologan — Tireragan was empty again.
In 1919, the Agricultural board bought the South West corner of the Ross of Mull from the Duke of Argyll and divided it into 3 crofts, one of which includes most of Tireragan. At some point it was decrofted. The Duke of Argyll still retains the deer hunting and mineral rights. In 1992, the area was bought for 'Highland Renewal'.
Over a period of some 20 years (1845 - 1865), the population of the southern part of the Ross of Mull had been displaced by emigration, either to Canada or Australia, to other parts of Great Britain, or to northern corners of the Ross where the land was poorer. A community, including the township of Tireragan, was completely removed.
Many historians have argued as to whether this was a 'good' thing or not. But by what criteria can such judgements be made? The Dukes of Argyll were patriarchal grandees. Though they made some moves to alleviate immediate hardship, the expense of their lifestyle demanded they obtain the highest possible rental income from the communities they owned and, after the potato famine, measures which effected clearance were harshly enforced. The 8th Duke justified them strongly in his book, while regretting the hardships they caused.
The people who were themselves removed had very little say in the matter. They had merely annual tenancy agreements, with no written conditions. At times when they seemed to be needed, multiplication and sub-division of tenancies was encouraged; when they were not, the people were squeezed and evicted.
Although there were no 'land wars' on Mull - Prebble comments that the clearances here had been too effective for that - the Napier Commission evidence from Bunessan makes it clear that the villagers did not 'accept their lot', except under harsh duress, and further evidence from the 1893 Royal Commission on the Highlands and Islands (p.52 et seq.) shows that crofters were requesting land back on the south side of the Ross to replace sheep farms with crofts once more, (for instance, references to Ardalanish land at 'Iochdar' - now called 'Sean Bhaile' on the Ordnance Survey map) As shown above, in the event the Duke preferred to leave land untenanted rather than divide it once more at rents the crofters could afford.
Such a depopulation of small tenants happened all across the Highlands and has left a legacy of bitterness, perhaps more deeply felt because sheep were valued higher than people. Now, 100 years later, once the facts have been absorbed, the task is to see what positive alternatives for the emptied Highlands can be developed. That is the purpose of the 'Highland Renewal' project.