Family Group Sheet

Notes: Crofter; Fisherman, aged 26 yrs, living in father John’s household in 1861; Farmer’s son, 1871, age 37 yrs, living in parents’ household at Heanish with wife Isabella 27 yrs, dau Mary 3 yrs and son John 6 months; in 1881, CHECK 1881 CENSUS; in 1891, farmer (employer) living at Cornaigveg, Tyree, in house with 3 rooms with windows, 6 children aged between 6 and 20 yrs, and brother Donald aged 51 yrs (agric labourer, employed).  “From Vaul; after Hianish, moved to Sliabh, Cornaigbeg” personal knowledge of Catriona Watt, April 2009.

Notes: Farmer’s wife (employed) in 1891, housekeeper (own account) in 1901 when household includes dau Isabella, 16, brother-in-law Donald, 62 yrs, grandson John McPhail, age 1 yr, Donald Kennedy, farm servant, age 14 years, born Tyree and Mungo Anderson, boarder, scholar, aged 11, born Glasgow

Updated by Peter Symon, 20 January 2010 & 16 January 2015 & 14 Dec 2016.

Extract of Ordnance Survey 25 inch to the mile, 1st edition, Argyllshire & Buteshire LXV.13 (Tiree) sheet, surveyed 1878, published 1880 (image from National Library of Scotland online map collection).

The MacDougall croft was (from memory, to be checked) the one shown in red below the letter 'a' in 'Hianish' (Heanish is the alternative spelling).

Within a couple of years of the death of his mother, Malcolm had moved, with wife Isabella,  their seven children, and his younger brother, Donald, to take over a tenancy of a larger croft at Cornaigbeg.  They were living there at the time of the 1881 census and their last child, Bella, was born there on 17^th May, 1884.  The croft was called Sliabh, meaning a hill, one of the earliest Gaelic placenames, common in Ireland and in Scotland concentrated in the former Dalriada heartlands (Graham Ritchie and Mary Harman (1985) Argyll and the Western Isles, Exploring Scotland’s Heritage series. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.  Edinburgh: HMSO, p.13.).

The basic form of the croft building was L-shaped, with the shorter section aligned south west – north east in line with the prevailing wind; which parts contained the living accommodation for the human inhabitants, and which contained the barn, byre, store and cartshed?  A map of Cornaigbeg in 1899, the year of Callum’s death, shows the same layout, with the hill Cnoc Mòr-mhill located within the parcel boundary of the croft, being rough grazing land.

In preparation for a visit to the island by the Napier Commission who, in one of the island’s churches on 7 August 1883, heard evidence from inhabitants at a public meeting on Tiree

http://www.isleoftiree.com/history.html, retrieved 6 January 2010). On 16^th June 1883, Mr. J. Wylie, the duke of Argyll’s factor at Inveraray, submitted a return to the Napier Commission “respecting Crofters and Cottars on the Estate of Tiree the Property of His Grace The Duke of Argyll as at the 1^st day of January 1883” (NAS AF50/7/1). In the township of Cornaigbeg, the factor noted ten tenants, each with one family on the craft and one separate dwelling house on the croft: so no cottars.  Malcolm McDougall had the greatest extent of arable land (25.305 Imperial acres), the greatest extent of pasture land individually held (18.836 acres), the greatest number of cattle “actually kept” (ten, of which five were above one year old), the greatest number of sheep (six, only one other tenant keeping any sheep – Lachlan McDonald, with three) and shared with John McCallum the greatest number of horses kept (three each – the other eight tenants had only one horse each).  His prosperity was reflected in the fact that he paid the highest rent (£18:-/-) of all the ten crofters in the township.  The rent was lowered after the Crofter’s Act came into force, when rents on the island generally were reduced (1887). 

There were in total some 196 tenants of crofts on Tiree reported to the Napier Commission, and Malcolm McDougall’s was the 30^th largest in terms of extent of arable land. 

Although dating from before the implementation of the Crofters’ Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886, the croft became subject to the provisions of the Act and so the family’s occupation of the land was henceforth protected. 

In the 1890s two of the daughters married; Lizzie to Hugh McPhail, in 1892 in Partick; and Katie to Willie Swanney, in 1895 in Oban.  Photographs of Malcolm and Isabella taken in Glasgow may have been taken around the time of Lizzie’s marriage in 1892. 

On Malcolm’s death in 1899, his widow Ishbel continued to farm the croft with the help of her youngest son Donald and her youngest daughter Bella (or Ishbel).  By the time the Inland Revenue carried out a field valuation of the estate around 1911, the area of Donald McDougall’s holding (croft and house) was recorded as 44.645 acres, with a further share with six others of the Cornaigbeg common grazing, which amounted to 98.252 acres in total and included parts of eight crofts including Donald’s croft.  The annual rent for this holding, covered by the Crofter’s Act, was £15:5/- with a further amount in charges.  Donald’s holding covered a reverse L-shaped area, the larger part being to the east of the road and the smaller part lying to the west. 

After Callum died, Isabella continued living in the croft house, Sliabh, at Cornaigbeg, along with Donald, Callum's younger brother (single, aged 73 in 1911, and still helping with the crofting), and her two single children, Donald (31), who had taken over the running of the croft, and Isabella (26), assisting with housework and agriculture on the croft.  The older Donald did not speak English, whereas all the others living in the house did.  The croft house at Cornaigbeg was large, having seven rooms with windows.  In 1911, the house was also home to three schoolchildren boarders, all born in Glasgow: Annie Anderson (11), her sister Katie (9) and her brother, Alexander (7).  The children, who did not speak Gaelic, were presumably attending Cornaig school, one of five schools on Tiree.  Also staying at the Cornaig croft house were two Gaelic-speaking Tiree men, both called Callum: Malcolm Campbell, 16, who was employed in crofting work by young Donald and was described as a boarder; and Malcolm McDonald, 28, described as a "lodger" and with no occupation given.  In total nine people were recorded as living in the Cornaigbeg croft house in 1911.

Old Donald died at Sliabh the next year, on 30th November 1912, after suffering a cerebral haemorhage the day before.  He was 74.

The Tiree and Coll Gaelic Partnership have produced an interesting history of Tiree schools, entitled Ministers and Sea Captains: The Schools of Tiree, (2011), which has been published on the An Iodhlann website here. 

According to Elma McArthur, Isobel McDougall was a herbalist, who knew the doses to give people as cures.  She even knew how to give digitalis (foxglove), a deadly poison if administered in the wrong dose!  Resort to such herbal cures were quite common on Tiree, before the National Health Service or even before the presence of a medical doctor on the island whose services could be afforded by people. 

In her old age Isobel appears to have withdrawn from all social contact.  A story about her was told be Catriona Watt.  For the last 20 years of her life, Isobel McDougall lived upstairs in her room at Cornaigbeg.  She never came downstairs.  People in the room below could hear her moving about above. 

Isabella McLean McDougall died on 24^th March, 1939, at Cornaigbeg, of ‘old age’, in her 93^rd year.  She was buried in the churchyard at Kirkapol, with her late husband and children. 

Isabella’s son Donald may, well before her death, have taken over the tenancy of the croft, which he had been running for more than a quarter of a century since his uncle Donald died in 1912.  Probably during the war, Ishbel took in three children as evacuees.  According to Elma McArthur, these children were orphaned; in any event, they were brought up in Cornaigbeg by Ishbel, who accepted no rent. 

Donald was apparently a clever man and a very good at mental arithmetic or mathematics, once solving a problem on the spot, that the schoolteacher could not solve.  He regularly won stock breeding awards at the Tiree agricultural show.  He died in April 1958.

According to Catriona Watt, Donald had wanted the croft to go to his (great-) nephew Neil Brown, who was a medical doctor on Islay.  Neil was the grandson of Donald’s older sister Lizzie, who had married Hugh McPhail, and whose daughter Ann had married Neil Brown.  But in 1958, Donald died when he was on the point of arranging the transfer.  Donald’s sister Bella, who survived him for three years, transferred the croft to Sidney Harrison, one of her adopted sons. Bella won knitting prizes at the Tiree show. When Bella died in April 1961, Callum Swanney came to clear out the house at Cornaigbeg.  A photograph of Isobel Swanney at Cornaigbeg may date from that visit, or from the 1950s.

Either before or on Bella’s death, the croft passed to Sidney Harrison, one of the children she had taken in as boarders, and it continued in 2009 to be occupied by him and his wife. (Note: the details of the transfers of the croft require further research, with apologies for any corrections that may be required.)

By 1976, an extension to the north west of the older croft building had been added.

A photo of the croft in 2009 shows a new farmhouse built to the north west of the older croft buildings, and separated by a track.   

Below are some images of the visit I made in May 2009 to the Harrisons' croft Sliabh at Cornaigbeg, accompanied by my mother and by Catriona Watt and Elma McArthur.

In May 2009 I made a trip to Tiree with my mother Eleanor Swanney or Symon (granddaughter of Callum and Ishbel Macdougall's daughter Kate Macdougall or Swanney) as guests of Catriona Watt and Elma McArthur (granddaughters of Callum and Ishbel's granddaughter Lizzie Macdougall, Kate's older sister).   During the time we were staying in Catriona's and her husband Bobby's comfortable house (Airighbeg, in Crossapol township, which they let out as self-catering holding accommodation) we also celebrated my mother's birthday, with a cake specially baked by Catriona.  We had an enjoyable and rewarding time exploring the places where our ancestors had lived.  We saw their old croft house, Sliabh, at Cornaigbeg.  Angus Munn, from Baugh, the township neighbouring Heanish, took us to see the ruins of the croft the Macdougalls lived in on the coast at Heanish for many years before they moved to Cornaigbeg.  We saw the memorial stone erected by Donald Macdougall in Kirkapol church yard to the memory of his father and mother Callum and Ishbel as well as his brother John (accidentally drowned off New Zealand), his sister Isabella and himself, the last of that generation of Macdougalls to live on Tiree.  We saw the croft house at Vaul where earlier the Macdougalls had lived and we had a most hospitable visit to the home of Flora, sister-in-law of Catriona, and widow of Hector McPhail, at Skipinish, before returning to Oban on the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry from Scarinish pier.

I made another visit to Tiree in May 2010, staying again with Catriona and Bobby Watt, who took me around the island for a memorable stay.  Pictures of my trip are here.

A page (6) about the history of the township of Cornaigbeg, written by Hector McPhail from stories told by his father, Hugh McPhail, who married Elizabeth McDougall (1872-1955). According to his daughter, Catriona McPhail (Watt), her father used to talk about "Iain Strength" (John McDougall, 1870-1896), reputedly one of the strongest men on Tiree, and one of four from Cornaigbeg who made up the eight-man tug-o'-war team who defeated the team of soldiers sent to the island to quell Land League unrest in 1886. Barely 16 years of age at the time of that feat, Ian Strength would be accidentally drowned off Hawera, New Zealand ten years later, aged 25 or 26. (Image courtesy of Catriona Watt.)