NOTES of Cases visited in the Island of Tiree, 26^th June 1843.

1.   Neill M‘Phail, lame and fatuous, aged fifty-five. Gets 4s. in the year. Lives in a poor hut. His sister and a nephew live with him. The sister is almost as needful as himself. He has no land. He gets a rigg from others to plant potatoes. Pays no rent. He lives upon what people give him. His neighbours give him old clothes. His nephew has a family, and nothing to support them.

2.   Malcolm M‘Guinnes, was left an orphan, and has a sister, a little girl, still on the roll. She is eight or nine years of age. There were five of them left orphans by their father’s death six years ago. The eldest was then fourteen. He and his sister now live by getting a rigg of land from a neighbour to plant potatoes, and he goes to the low country to shear. The little girl is in rags. The house is very poor. There is only one wretched bed, very little bed-clothes, and a little straw for a bed. A dish like a trough, an old wheel, a few potatoes in a corner, no window, and a small hole in the corner of the house for a chimney. The neighbours supply the support which is necessary above what M‘Guinnes, who is now twenty, can do for himself.

3.   Betty Spence. Not on the roll. Aged eighty-five. She was three times married. “All her husbands were in the army, and she is here a poor woman today.” Lives with her daughter, who is a widow with one child. They have a little spot of ground. She had at one time a good croft, and kept a public-house. Her house is divided into three by very imperfect wooden partitions. In the part used for a bed-room, there was one wretched bed and a few potatoes. She is dependent upon her neighbours for peats. She has no other way to get them. She has nothing to get anything with. Her house is clean, and she has enough of crockery, and some stools to sit upon.

4. Janet M‘Lean. Not on roll. Aged forty. Two children (boys) illegitimate. Lives on charity of neighbours. Has nothing but what the eldest boy gets by herding. He gets some potatoes for his wages. Her house is very clean.

5. Mary M‘Kinnon, aged sixty. Very infirm. Not able to do anything. Has 4s. from the parish. Lives with her brother, who has got a large family. He gets a rigg from their neighbours to plant potatoes. Two windows in the house, one half of one of them is used for a chimney.

6.   Kate Macdonald. Not on roll. Aged sixty. Bedstead, no bedding, no bed-clothes. One window, with four panes of glass, two broken. Furniture, dresser, table trunk, chair and two stools. No crockery.

7.   Ann Macdonald, widow. Has 4s. Lives with her daughter, who has three children, eldest about ten. Nothing to support them. Depends upon her neighbours, and what she may make in a harvest. Bed comparatively good. Crockery, good dresser, table chair, two stools. She has a small bit of ground.

8.   Mary M‘Kinnon, aged fifty, sick and very infirm. Has no house. Lives with a friend. Has 4s. in the year from the parish.

9.   Angus M‘Neill, aged forty-five. Fell under a vessel and got bruised. Has 4s. a year. Works a little and fishes a little. Can’t do much. Has a wife and one daughter. Bed very poor. Window with four panes. One broken hole in the end of the house for a chimney. Daughter weaves for family. Crockery, dresser, and two or three stools.

10.   William Muir, cottar. Not on roll. House about eight or nine by twelve or thirteen feet. Very poor bed. Good fire, pot on it. Chest and some stools. His wife is ill. Has three children. Has no ground. Gets a rigg from his neighbours for planting potatoes.

Cottars all fish flounders for their own use. Several families have a small boat amongst them.

11.   Donald M‘Kinnon, fifty. In good health. Gets 6s. in the year. Very poor. Bed very bad. Table, chest, stools, pot. The house is partly divided into two apartments by upright planks, not at all close. No attempt made on putting them together. Five children,– eldest eighteen, youngest, eleven. His wife is dead. Plants potatoes upon a rigg which he gets from the farmer on whose farm his house is. Pays no house rent. His house not so comfortable as the last mentioned, though three times the size. The eldest daughter is sixteen.

12.   Flora M‘Kinnon, widow. Not on the roll. Past eighty. House large and clean. No window, no chimney. No light when door is shut. Lives with her daughter. She is supported by farmers. She is very poor.

13.   Margaret M‘Kinnon, above sixty. Does not know how old she is. She has 3s. she lives with her nephew and niece, who have one-half of a croft. Her nephew helps her a little. She has no other assistance. There are two rooms in the house.

14.   Christian Macdonald, not on the roll, aged seventy, and lame. Lives with her niece. Has no support but what she gets from her.

15.   Margaret Macdonald. Met begging, with two children. Said she came from Kilfinichen in Mull, from that part which is still under Mr Campbell’s charge.

16. Catherine M‘Phail. A wretched hut made with pieces of wood, and the spaces between them filled up with turf. It is full of holes. No window and no chimney. She has two natural children, and begs about the country to support them.

17.   Donald M‘Lean. Blind. 5s. to 6s. in the year. Four children. His house pretty comfortable. Two rooms, one with potatoes in it.

18.   Mary Macdonald, widow. Has 6s. She has four children, three of them with her. Wretched bed, merely a little straw. Scarcely any bedclothes. No means of living but by what her neighbours give her. None of her family are fit to work potatoe ground. She has one girl twelve years old, but she can’t leave her mother. Goes about to different people, and gets a little milk. Sometimes from one, sometimes from another. They are wretchedly poor.

19.   Flora M‘Neill, a widow with three children, the eldest eleven years of age. Nothing but what she gets from her neighbours. Gets a little meal from the masons working at the houses erected by the Commissioners of Northern Lights, or the persons connected with the Skirrivore lighthouse.

20.   Donald Kennedy. Not on the roll. Has a daughter an idiot. He has a wretched bed, with a single blanket. He can’t afford fuel, except to cook his food; and when the potatoes are boiled, the fire is removed and put in a hole in the floor, and covered over with a turf, to exclude the air and prevent it from burning. There was a collection of dry cow dung on one corner of the room, which had been collected from the fields for burning. Furniture, a little crockery.

21.   Neill Lamont, an idiot. Lives with his mother and her sister, who is a widow. Most wretched bed,– only a little bent in the bedstead. No covering. Potatoes and small crab fish in a pot, prepared to be boiled together.

22.   Hugh M‘Fayden. Gone to Glasgow with a boat and fish. Not on the roll. Has a wife and nine children. Bed very poor. Very little crockery. A hole in the floor for saving fuel, the same as mentioned in former case. A window frame, but no glass. A hole in the corner to let out the smoke. Furniture, a table, tub, two stools, a plank supported by a stone at each end. His children, six boys and three girls, were healthy.

23.   Ann M‘Leay. Widow of Duncan Campbell. Not on the roll. The Duke of Argyll allows her son two crofts, rent free, for taking care of her. She is deranged, and at times very troublesome.

24.   John M‘Kennon. Not on the roll. Has a croft from the Duke of Argyll, rent free, for supporting his brother, who is deranged.

25.   Nelly Cameron. A dwarf. Near thirty years old. Unfit to do anything. Has 4s. She lives with her father.

26.   Margaret Macdonald, a widow. Has 4s. She has a grandchild who lives with her, and she has one wretched bed, and some potatoes in the same room. House is very bad. She has a little crockery. Her fuel not peat, but part of the surface of the soil cut of for burning.

27.   David Kay, aged eighty. Has 6s. He has a croft which his son works. He, the son, got his leg burned, and is now confined to bed. “He has a great family, eight children alive, and four dead. It was a good family to him, if they had been all spared.” House very bad. Two very bad beds. Very little crockery.

28.   Kenneth Cameron, an orphan. Has 6s. He is twelve years old, and lives with his grandfather.

29.   Neill Macdonald, an infant belonging to a widow. Has 6s. Is taken care of by his mother and grandfather.

30.   Catherine Kennedy, aged eighty. Has been nearly bed-ridden for four years. Has 6s. Has done nothing for eight years. Her daughter stays with her to take care of her. She has no way of doing anything, and is supported by her neighbours. Bed seems comfortable.

Extract from Poor Law Inquiry (Scotland), Appendix, Part II published in Edinburgh by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office in 1844.