Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

 John and Flora MacKinnon’s (m.s. Campbell) children

Dugald MacKinnon and Katie MacKinnon were married in November, 1944. The children were called Katie, Sarah (Victory), and Lachlan.

• Katie MacKinnon b. 1917
• Sarah (Morag) Victory Mackinnon b. 1919
• Lachlan MacKinnon b. 1921; d. 1972.

Katie Ann MacKinnon

Katie MacKinnon was born in 1917, the daughter of John MacKinnon and Flora Campbell. She married Dugald MacKinnon in 1944. To confuse matters, both their fathers were called John MacKinnon. To confuse matters further, Katie MacKinnon’s grandmother was Sarah MacKinnon (born illegitimate) to one Hugh MacKinnon. I haven’t been able to conclusively track down Hugh yet. I think my mother said something about the fact that he was from Muck, like Katie’s father, John McKinnon. In other words, the Campbells and MacKinnons are probably related, but I’m unsure exactly how. 

Dressler’s book (2007) incorrectly states that Dugald MacKinnon and Katie MacKinnon were married in November, 1945. At least the marriage certificate from ScotlandsPeople shows they were married in November 1944. Not least, this is obvious, as Dressler’s book says: “towards the end of the war”. By November 1945, the war had ended. Some people would like to forget the war altogether. However, various warmongers. belligerents, and jingoists are continually reminding us of this date, May 9, 1945, the date when it is celebrated by some nations that two million German women were raped.

However, although Dressler’s book may have got the year of marriage wrong, it certainly provides a colourful description of the wedding, as narrated by Katie. I will include the whole description and narration here:

“Wedding Bells are ringing in Cleadale“

I have to admit that I’m a little confused here. I know little of the process whereby the Eigg people became Protestants rather than Catholics. As of today, there is a Catholic church on the island as well as a church of Scotland; however, as far as I know there are few Catholics on the island. Dressler’s account clears up some confusion, but also adds to the confusion. She points out that Protestants didn’t marry Catholics until a decade later.

This is also a little amusing – because my mother, Rhoda Campbell, pointed out that she had several young men courting her in the 1930s; one of these was the Catholic Duncan Ferguson (at least, this is her story); and she told me she couldn’t contemplate being together with a Catholic!

I met Duncan Ferguson, and his son, also called Duncan Ferguson, in 2007, when I visited Eigg in the summer. We met at the Galmisdale café. I bought Duncan’s father a pint of beer, which he seemed to enjoy despite his getting on in years. I can’t remember if I asked him about his liaison with my mother some sixty or seventy years before. But I was not really ‘prepared’ for the trip, in the sense to ask pertinent questions about the family. Besides, this is not amongst the set of my social skills either. As in reality, this is quite a special skill, which few people have, which Camille Dressler seems to have. 

But as mentioned, the confusion is that there is both a minister (Protestant) and a priest (Catholic) at the wedding. The wedding certificate states that they were married at the “Parish Church” – but yet again, I’m not sure if this is the Protestant or Catholic church. But it seems most likely that ‘Parish Church’ here refers to the Church of Scotland. Dressler does not seem to clarify these points. 

However, interestingly, the marriage certificate states that Duncan MacKay and Flora MacGillivray are witnesses. Duncan MacKay worked at Kildonnan together with Duncan Ferguson while John MacKinnon (Katie’s father) was running the farm. This tells us that this was an ‘integrated’ community: work, marriages, births, deaths, and kin, were something that involved everybody – which is not that unnatural considering the ‘small’ population of the island. 

Another thing, I noticed on the marriage certificate of Dugald and Katie that my mother’s sister, Flora MacGillivray (living at 29 Scotia Street, Glasgow), is the witness! So I assume that my Aunty Flora kept more contact with the McKinnons on Eigg than my mother. This also seems to be confirmed by the fact that Morag Mackinnon was probably present at Auntie Flora’s wedding in 1951. 

Morag MacKinnon (Sarah Victory MacKinnon)

Morag was born in 1919 to John MacKinnon and Flora Campbell, and is the younger sister of Katie MacKinnon. As is usual with the confusion of the Anglicization of names, Morag is called Sarah Victory MacKinnon on her birth certificate! Perhaps she was called ‘Victory’ because of the British victory in World War One, one year before in 1918? I’m not sure if this was a fashion at the time. In fact, the Isle of Eigg has mostly been isolated from the mainstream of historical currents, but Dressler (2007) reports on the war efforts of Eigg people during the Second World War, and mentions Catriona and Roddy Campbell, and Morag McKinnon, amongst others, as mentioned later on in this book. 

The photo below shows Morag MacKinnon and my brothers Alistair and Sandy; it is probably taken at the time of my Auntie Flora’s marriage to Robert Ralston in Glasgow 1951. As mentioned above, Flora had been the witness at Katie’s marriage in 1944 (Katie is Morag’s sister). In other words, after my mother got married in 1940, she probably lost some contact with the Eigg people, whereas Flora was still single, so she kept more contact. 

1867: Marriage of Lachlan Mackinnon and Flora MacLeod