Photocopied petition dated 27/7/1893 to the Chairman of Argyll County Council from a group of Tiree cottars.
Petition dated 27/7/1893 to the Chairman of Argyll County Council from a group of cottars from Scarinish, Heanish and Baugh, all wanting to rent land under the Small Holdings Scotland Act of 1892.
Photocopied petition dated 3/3/1893 to the County Clerk from a group of Balephuil cottars.
Petition dated 3/3/1893 to the County Clerk from a group of cottars from Balephuil who want to rent land under the Small Holdings Scotland Act of 1892..
Photocopied newspaper cutting of a letter by the Duke of Argyll and a reply from a cottar.
Letter from the Duke of Argyll about the non-viability of allotments and a reply from a Tiree cottar.
Printout from computer disk giving the roll of emigrants from Tiree in 1847.
Roll of emigrants from Tiree in 1847 giving name of head of family, number in family, township, status and means.
Payments to emigrants from Tiree to Canada in June 1846
Transcription of a list of payments made to emigrants from Tiree to Canada in June 1846.
Courtesy of His Grace the Duke of Argyll
In the fifty years before the potato famine, the population of Tiree doubled to over five thousand, making it one of the most congested areas in the Highlands and Islands. Continued sub-division of the island’s crofts had left most of them too small to support a family.
Poverty was endemic. Landless cottars, many of whom were ‘dependent of the charity of others for food’, comprised more than a third of the island’s population. A Free Church investigation into diet in 1846 found that potatoes formed over half of all food consumed.
In previous years, the smaller tenants and cottars had shown themselves reluctant to emigrate. However, when the potato crop failed in 1846 and the Marquis of Lorne promised assisted passages to Canada for the poorest, over a thousand from Tiree indicated their willingness to leave.
Photocopied handwritten list of cottars on Tiree in 1846.
List of cottars on Tiree in 1846 giving township, name of head of family, marital status and number in family.
Photocopied letter from Edinburgh solicitors Lindsay Howe & Co dated 20/3/1893 to the Duke of Argyll`s chamberlain.
Advice about the selling of a cottar`s house in Balephuil by relatives of the deceased and a family of cottars setting up residence in a byre in Balevullin.
Photocopied letter from Edinburgh solicitors Lindsay Howe & Co dated 12/4/1893 to the Duke of Argyll`s chamberlain.
Advice re the demolition of the house of deceased cottar Flora Lamont in Balephuil.
Photocopied handwritten letter from Hugh MacDiamid dated 11/9/1899.
Letter from the factor Hugh MacDiarmid dated 11/9/1899 to the Duke`s chamberlain about a hay shed in Heylipol, the water supply to the Lodge, Donald Cameron – a squatter in Hough, cottars not paying rent and the croft of the late Neil MacLean, Caoles.
Photocopied letter from the factor Hugh MacDiarmid dated 16/9/1898.
Letter from the factor Hugh MacDiarmid dated 16/9/1898 to the Duke`s chamberlain about the demolition of a deceased cottar`s cottage in Gott and the eviction of Donald MacNeill from Mary and Flora MacLean`s croft in Cornaigmore.
