Colour photograph of Glenda McPhadden Franklin at Caoles in 2002.
Glenda McPhadden Franklin, great-great-granddaughter of Alexander MacPhaiden (1790-1878), son of Charles MacPhaiden and his wife Christy MacPhail, at the site of their croft in Caoles in 2002.
Photocopied letter from the Kirk Session of Tiree dated 13th June 1821.
Letter dated 13th June 1821, signed by the minister Neil MacLean, the Session Clerk Alexander Mathewson and three others, attesting to the `unimpeached moral character` of Donald MacPhaiden, his wife Catherine MacNaughton and their family and recommending them to `any Christian Society or Congregation` in North America.
Scanned image of a newspaper cutting about a forgotten pioneers` cemetery near Regina, Canada.
Article in a Canadian newspaper about an abandoned pioneer settlement which contained emigrants from Tiree. (See also 2007.90.1)
Neil Brown and his wife Sarah Henderson in 1889
Photograph of Neil Brown and his wife Sarah Henderson in 1889.
Courtesy of Mrs Isabelle Carter
Neil Brown, who was born in Heylipol in 1819, emigrated to Canada with his twin brother Donald and five sisters in the late 1840s. Donald became ill, probably with ‘ship fever’ (typhus transmitted by body lice), and died on their arrival in Port Whitby, Ontario.
In 1858 Neil married Sarah Henderson from Nova Scotia. The couple had twelve children over the next nineteen years, including one set of twins: Mary (1859), Janet (1861), Katherine (1863), Margaret (1864), Donald (1866), Flora (1868), Sarah Ann (1870), Isabelle (1874,) Angus (1875) Christena and Phemma (1876), and John (1877). Donald, Phemma and John died before the age of four.
In common with many Scottish emigrants in the 19th century, the couple were deeply religious. Worship was held every day in their home. Sarah read the scripture then Neil led in prayer using the Gaelic tongue.
Black and white photograph of Neil Brown and his wife Sarah Henderson in 1889.
Neil Brown (1819-1905) and his wife Sarah Henderson (1835-1922) of Egmondville, Ontario in May 1889. Neil, who was born in Heylipol in 1819, was the son of Angus Brown and Mary MacArthur. He, his twin brother and five sisters emigrated to Canada with his twin brother Donald and five sisters in the late 1840s. Donald became ill, probably with `ship fever` (typhus transmitted by body lice), and died on their arrival in Port Whitby, Ontario. In 1858 Neil married Sarah Henderson from Nova Scotia. The couple had twelve children over the next nineteen years, including one set of twins. They were deeply religious and worship was held every day in their home. Sarah read the scripture then Neil led prayers in Gaelic.
John MacLean of Balephuil and Manitoba
Photograph of John MacLean of Balephuil in Manitoba around 1900.
Courtesy of Mr Wallace Robertson
This photograph, taken around 1900, shows John MacLean of Balephuil outside his homestead in Manitoba. John, the son of Donald MacLean and his wife Ann MacLean, emigrated to Canada in 1878 with his brother Charles and nephew Hector.
They arrived in Tiverton, Ontario where John met and soon married a Tiree woman, Flora MacKinnon née MacLean, a widow with a daughter Kate. They all moved to the Brandon Hills area of Manitoba and homesteaded at Dewart Farm in Little Souris. They were among the first settlers in the area.
John, it was said, was a good bard, but his childhood friend John MacLean of Balemartine was the better of the two. He wrote a famous song ‘Manitoba’ describing their leaving from Balephuil, and the rage he felt that the Highlands, which had provided so many soldiers for the British Empire, were being stripped of its people.
Sepia photograph of John MacLean, the Balephuil bard, in Manitoba around 1900.
John MacLean (1825-1912), the son of Donald McLean of Sandaig and Anne McLean of Balemeannach. He emigrated from Balephuil in 1878 with his brother Charles and nephew Hector, eventually settling in Manitoba.
Black and white photograph of the farm at Little Souris, Manitoba owned by John MacLean, the Balephuil bard.
Dewart Farm owned by John MacLean, the Balephuil bard, and his wife Flora, located in Little Souris, Manitoba in the Brandon Hills area, aound 1900.
Black and white photograph of Flora MacLean, the wife of John MacLean, the Balephuil bard, taken around 1931.
Flora MacLean, the wife of John MacLean, the Balephuil bard, photographed around 1931.
Flora MacLean in the 1890s
Photograph of Flora MacLean of Manitoba in the 1890s.
Courtesy of Mrs Betty MacKinnon
In this photograph taken in the 1890s Flora MacLean is pictured in the Brandon area of Manitoba with her feet on a bearskin rug. A remarkable woman, Flora pioneered three times during her long life; she lived to be ninety-eight.
Her parents, Donald and Ann MacLean, emigrated from Middleton with their nine children in 1847, though Flora’s mother and a brother did not survive the voyage. When Bruce County opened up in 1852, the family pioneered in Kincardine. It was here that Flora met and married the bard John MacLean, newly arrived from Balephuil.
The couple went west along with two other MacLean families and were the first permanent settlers in the Brandon area of Manitoba. After the death of her husband, Flora at the age of eighty moved with her daughter and son-in-law to The Pas then Flin Flon, frontier towns about 500 miles north of Winnipeg.
Sepia photograph of Flora MacLean, the wife of John MacLean, the Balephuil bard, taken in the 1890s.
Flora emigrated in 1847 to Canada. She pioneered in Brock and Kincardine Twps, and was among the first settlers in Manitoba. She met John MacLean, the Balephuil bard, in Tiverton and they married in 1879. Flora was a widow at the time with a daughter Kate. She died in 1836, the oldest person in North Manitoba.
Black and white photograph of Sarah Lamont nee MacDonald in the 1910s.
Sarah MacDonald (1838-1916), daughter of Archibald MacDonald and Isabella MacFadyen. In the late 1840s she emigrated to Canada with her widowed mother who died on the voyage. Fostered by a family of MacKinnons she settled in Kinccardine Township where she met and married Donald Lamont, the son of Peter Lamont and Ann MacLean, crofters with a large family who emigrated from Cornaigbeg in 1851. Sarah and Donald had nine children, although Sarah became paralysed from the waist down during the birth of her sixth child.
Donald Lamont with his children
Photograph of Donald Lamont (1829-1909) with his children.
Courtesy of Mr Gene Lamont
Sarah MacDonald was nine years old when she and her widowed mother left Salum to emigrate to Canada in the late 1840s. Her mother died during the voyage but she was fostered by a family of MacKinnons and settled with them in Kincardine Township in Ontario.
She married a native of Tiree, Donald Lamont, the son of Peter Lamont and Ann MacLean, crofters with a large family who emigrated from Cornaigbeg in 1851. Sarah, with her love of books and learning and ability to read and write in Gaelic and English, became a school teacher.
The couple had nine children although Sarah became paralysed from the waist down after her sixth pregnancy. Confined to her home, she concentrated on the education of her children. In later years an acquaintance of the family observed ‘that all a Lamont needs to make him or her happy is a book.’
Black and white photograph of Donald Lamont and his children in the 1870s.
Donald Lamont (1829-1909), husband of Sarah MacDonald, with their children in the 1870s.
