Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

1911 Census report for John MacKinnon

The census report shows him living with his first wife Mary MacKinnon, nee MacKay, at Kildonnan Farm. This census is of some interest as it shows the various occupations. John MacKinnon is a ploughman, while James Campbell is an inspector of the poor and registrar. The censuses are of course of great interest, as they provide formal evidence of occupations and living conditions.

Kildonnan was a large farm. At a rough count, it seems there were 27 people living at Kildonnan. Eight of them lived at Kildonnan House, the others in bothys or cottages at Kildonnan. Ten of those registered seem to have work directly connected to the farm.

What is surprising is the variety of professions, trades and occupations, which include: estate factor, solicitor (clerk), housemaid, kitchen maid, shepherd, cattleman, ploughman (John McKinnon), farm servant, inspector of the poor, registrar, and estate joiner (Angus Campbell).

Angus Campbell worked as ‘joiner’ for at least thirty years (see censuses for Eigg from 1891-1921). He was perhaps involved in building the Cuagach cottages (mentioned elsewhere here) around the end of the nineteenth century. Another interesting point is that several of the workers were ‘imported’, that is, not born on Eigg. This seems to suggest a certain ‘affluence’ on Eigg. In other words, people were not only leaving Eigg, but also coming to Eigg in 1911. 

1921 Census for John McKinnon at Kildonnan

According to this census, John McKinnon is now the grieve of Kildonnan Farm. Duncan Ferguson is a cattleman, only sixteen years old; Dugald McKinnon tells a story about the kind of work they had to do when John McKinnon was grieve (mentioned below). Interestingly, an Ina McGilvray is working at Kildonnan House as a domestic servant; she is 18 years old. This is the first McGilvray I have seen living on Eigg in the records. Although, a quick search on ScotlandsPeople showed that there were several more, but I haven’t investigated this further.

Ina comes from Spean Bridge in Inverness, so Eigg was still importing labour in 1921. James Campbell, the registrar, mentioned elsewhere here, is also still living at Kildonnan, but it is doubtful that he was related to my great grandfather, Roderick Campbell, although I haven’t investigated this. Living with John McKinnon in the ‘grieve’s house’ is his wife, Flora, my grandmother, Morag’s sister. Katie McKinnon is 3 years old; Morag is one year old, and Lachlan is only four months old. Angus Campbell the joiner is still living at Kildonnan, as mentioned before in the 1911 census, which suggests that Eigg had a relatively stable economy at this time. 

John McKinnon, grieve of Kildonnan Farm, perhaps a hard, but fair boss!

When John was running the farm, Duncan MacKay (Dressler, 2007: 125) talking about when John took over says: 

“I mind Katie’s mother (Flora), she used to bang with a stick on the floor to wake us up in the bothy below, Duncan Ferguson and me. He was the cattleman and I was the ploughman-shepherd. My first job when I got up at 5 ‘o’ clock was to feed the horses, then it was up to the hills to feed the cows, and my last job at night was to take the horses down to the shore to put their feet in the tide. That’s what I had to do, seven days a week!”  

The farms as ‘dating agencies’

The farms perhaps also served as ‘dating agencies’, as most probably, relationships were formed at the farms. In other words, not everyone married ‘the girl-next-door’ like my great grandfather Roderick Campbell did. He married Sarah (Morag) McKinnon, who lived ‘next door’ at Galmisdale, together with her grandparents, the MacKays.

That is to say, there was a considerable mixing of the sexes at the farms, as the jobs would be divided by gender. Thus, John MacKinnon was a ploughman at Kildonnan, which is reported by the 1911 census. In 1915, Flora Campbell was working as a domestic servant at Kildonnan (in the 1911 census, she had been living at Cuagach). Two years after the marriage in 1917, Flora gave birth to Katie Ann. However, John was still working as a ploughman at the time of Katie Ann’s birth. 

John was born in 1868. His father was Lachlan, fisherman, his mother, Flora McLeod. His parents were married in Tobermory in 1867. John was born on Muck – which confirms my mother’s conversation above. 

However, of special interest on the 1867 marriage certificate is the fact that Flora MacLeod’s mother was Margaret Livingstone! (see marriage certificate below) When I visited Eigg in 2007, by chance I met my cousin Dawn Driscoll (m.s. MacGillivray); she told me that her brother, Iain MacGillivray, had discovered that John MacKinnon was a nephew of David Livingstone, the explorer. The story goes that Livingstone left 10 shillings to all his relatives. Katie MacKinnon is said to have a record of the money that was left. Of course, I was a little sceptical to this ‘story’ originally – but my discovery that John MacKinnon’s grandmother on his mother’s side of the family was Margaret Livingstone has dispelled my scepticism. 

I have done some brief research to find out the connections between Margaret Livingstone and David Livingstone – without much success – so this is something one can research at a later point.

Dr Livingstone I presume?

Of course, the younger reader might not even know who Doctor Livingstone was. But my generation grew up with the Hollywood film, “Stanley and Livingstone”, a 

1939 American adventure film based on the true story of Welsh reporter Sir Henry M. Stanley’s quest to find Dr. David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary presumed lost in Africa, whom he finally met on November 10, 1871. Spencer Tracy plays Stanley, while Cedric Hardwicke portrays Livingstone (see Filmography).