Newspaper cutting about Mr and Mrs Hugh MacLean of Salum.
Photograph of Mr and Mrs Hugh MacLean of Salum with their four sons before emigrating to Australia.
1997.96.1
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Tag Archives: emigration
1999.11.3
Payments to emigrants from Tiree to Canada in August 1849
Transcription of a list of payments made to emigrants to Canada in August 1849.
Courtesy of His Grace the Duke of Argyll
In 1847, the second year of the potato famine, the Central Relief Board assumed overall control of the relief efforts of the Free Church and the Destitution Committees of Glasgow and Edinburgh. The following year inspectors were appointed to ensure that all recipients passed the ‘destitution test’.
No-one was eligible for relief until all their means were exhausted. Able-bodied labourers were excluded as were those who had a legal claim to subsistence from the Parish. Those considered fit enough were expected to labour outdoors on public works, the rest to spin, knit or make nets.
To ensure that only the truly destitute would accept relief, the meal ration was cut to one pound a day and paid for by the whole labour of the recipient. Such harsh conditions and the promise of assisted passages from the Estate persuaded a further 364 to emigrate from Tiree in 1849.
1999.11.5
List of emigrants from Tiree in 1851
Transcription of the list of emigrants from Tiree in 1851.
Courtesy of His Grace the Duke of Argyll
As a result of the potato famine of 1846, the 8th Duke of Argyll devised a strategy to deal with the endemic poverty and overcrowding on Tiree: assisted emigration of cottars and the smallest tenants, prohibition of the subdivision of crofts, consolidation of small tenancies and the creation of small farms.
This led to a reduction in the numbers of small tenants, increased numbers of larger tenants and an increase in rental income. However, these policies also contributed to the continuing fall in the island’s population. An estimated 3670 people left Tiree between 1841 and 1881.
A second wave of emigration in 1880s confirmed the decline which was sustained throughout the 20th century with many islanders leaving to find work elsewhere.
1999.11.6
Photocopied list of names and ages of passengers on board ‘SS Barlow’ bound for Montreal in June 1849.
Click here to view transcript
1999.11.1
Passenger list for the ‘Conrad’ in 1850
Transcription of the passenger list for the ‘Conrad’ in 1850.
Courtesy of His Grace the Duke of Argyll
In 1850 a hundred and sixty-seven men, women and children from Tiree left for Canada on board the ‘Conrad’. Between 1847 and 1853, 1354 islanders were given assistance by the 8th Duke to emigrate. This was equivalent to 27% of the island’s population in 1841.
The majority of those who emigrated were small tenants and landless cottars. Argyll Estate papers recording Tiree rentals show that between 1847 and 1861 tenants paying under £5 rent were reduced by 78% while those paying over £10 were increased by 120%.
The total number of tenancies was reduced by a third while the income in rentals increased from £2,618 to £3,394. It is undoubtedly true that the island was left more prosperous but it was at the cost of considerable social suffering.
1999.11.2
Passenger list for the ‘Charlotte’ in 1849
Transcription of the passenger list for the ‘Charlotte’ bound for Montreal in 1849.
Courtesy of His Grace the Duke of Argyll
In 1849, 364 men, women and children left Tiree to emigrate to Canada, 339 of them on board the ‘Charlotte’, the remainder on the ‘Barlow’. Nearly three-quarters of them were landless cottar families. Over half were aged under eighteen.
After three years of blighted potato crops, conditions on the island were appalling. The implementation of the ‘destitution test’ in the previous year meant that no-one was eligible for relief unless all their means were exhausted. All able-bodied persons were excluded.
Argyll Estate papers show a fall of 1795 in the population of Tiree between 1841 and 1849, of which some 950 can be accounted for through emigration. The rest presumably left to find employment on the mainland.
2002.28.1
Photograph of Mary Flora MacKinnon, Archibald Campbell and John Kennedy, c. 1915.
Taken outside the thatched house in Balephuil where Mary Flora and her husband Donald MacKinnon lived with Mary Flora`s father Archibald Campbell, c. 1915. L-R: John Kennedy (known as `Clever`), a neighbour, Mary Flora MacKinnon, the mother of the two children and Archibald Campbell. Both men were blind. `Clever` travelled around the world in sailing ships and had the second sight. Donald and Mary Flora emigrated to New Zealand in 1927.
2002.28.3
En route to Kilkenneth in 1925
Photograph of the MacKinnon family and friends on their way to Kilkenneth by horse and cart in 1925.
Courtesy of Mrs Annie MacPhee
Donald and Mary Flora MacKinnon of Balephuil are pictured here with their five children and friends Mr and Mrs Graham on their way to Kilkenneth on a visit in 1925. The MacKinnon family emigrated to New Zealand in 1927.
Donald was employed as a blacksmith at Maraekakaho Station near Hawkes Bay. The station had been established by another Tiree man, Sir Donald MacLean, Minister for Native Affairs from 1869 to 1876, who, with his son Douglas, transformed over 50, 000 acres, much of it rough ground and swamp, into a model farm.
In the 1880s the woolshed at Maraekakaho was the largest in New Zealand and could house 5,000 sheep under cover. Over 100, 000 sheep were sheared there each year. After the death of Sir Donald’s son in 1929, the station was broken up into individual stock and dairy farms.
Photograph of the MacKinnon family en route to Kilkenneth from Hynish in 1925.
L-R: Donald MacKinnon, Balephuil (at head of horse); Norman Graham; Donald`s wife Mary Flora, (see L88); Mrs Graham holding baby Mary; children Sarah (barely visible), Annie (MacPhee), Dolly and Hugh. Taken in 1925 en route from Hynish to Kilkenneth. Donald and Mary Flora emigrated to New Zealand in 1927.
2002.28.4
Photograph of Sarah MacDonald, Annie Kennedy, Maggie MacDonald and Mary Flora MacKinnon in 1960.
L-R: Sarah MacDonald, Annie Kennedy, Maggie MacDonald and Mary Flora MacKinnon, who emigrated to New Zealand in 1927. Taken in June 1960 on a visit to Tiree.
2002.28.6
Photograph of Ann MacPhee and her mother Mary Flora MacKinnon taken in Balinoe in 1960.
Taken outside donor`s aunt Christina Kennedy`s house in Balephuil in 1960 during a visit from New Zealand. Christina was a sister of the donor`s father, Donald MacKinnon of Balephuil. L-R: (back) John Kennedy and Mary Wood (son and daughter of Christina and John Kennedy), Anne Kennedy, Ann MacPhee (donor), Mary Flora MacKinnon (donor`s mother), John Kennedy; (front) Charlie Wood, husband of Mary, and their son Gordon.
