Transcription of an extract from the Tyree Kirk Session Book of 1827.
In this extract from the Tiree Kirk Session Book, a widow in Kilmoluaig complained that a neighbour was alleging to have had sexual relations with her. After interrogating both parties, the Session decided not to take the oath of either of them, one of whom was lying and would be condemned to damnation.
Instead the Session fined the neighbour the standard amount of £1 13s 4d for lapsing twice in fornication. However, it would seem that they believed the widow’s account of events as they did not fine her but referred her to the civil courts for damages.
Not all cases of fornication brought before the Session were disputed. Some freely confessed their guilt and ‘promised to yield obedience to the Laws of the Church’.
Family tree of the descendants of John Stewart of Cornaigbeg.
Family tree of the descendants of John Stewart of Cornaigbeg, b. 1776, some of whose descendants emigrated to Canada in the early 1900s and setlled in Prince Edward Island.
Paperback book `Argyll 1730-1850` by Robert A. A. McGeachy.
A systematic account of what happened in Argyll between 1730 and 1850 when the county`s old social and agricultural order was overturned by its landowners.
Transcription of the population statistics for Tiree 1747-2001.
The population of Tiree during the Iron Age (600 BC – 400 AD) has been estimated to have been around a thousand. During the Middle Ages the number of islanders probably remained fairly constant.
At the end of the 18th century the population soared due to smallpox vaccination, the introduction of potatoes and the sudden wealth produced by the kelp industry. It continued to increase by around five hundred per decade until the potato blight hit the island in1846. There was enormous distress and a surge in emigration.
The sustained decline in numbers continued throughout the 20th century as islanders left for Glasgow and other mainland destinations. The 2001 census, however, shows a modest increase in population.
Paperback book `The Soay of our Forefathers` by Laurance Reed.
Account of the island of Soay between the Starthaird peninsula and the Cuillins of Skye from the 13th century, when it came into the posession of chiefs of the clan MacLeod, to the evacuation of 1953 when the remaining inhabitants were re-housed in Mull.
