Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

Let us get to know the life and eventual deaths of the children of Roderick and Morag’s.

The Children (10) of Roderick and Sarah Campbell

The naming of their children

I do not possess in-depth knowledge of historical naming customs, but will nevertheless attempt to draw some conclusions. The first-born is often called after the father/mother or grandfather/grandmother. Why were none of Roderick’s children called Roderick? However, Roderick’s father was called Donald, which explains the name of the first son and third child.

Two of the children were called Hugh, which is the name of the ‘illegitimate’ mother’s father, Hugh McKinnon. When one child dies it seems to be tradition to give the name to a child born later. Thus, there are two Hughs and two Marions. Mary was perhaps also called after the mother’s mother, Mary McKay, who was born around 1831. Unfortunately, Mary only lived until she was five. The two Marions (Gaelic: Morag) have probably been called after the mother.

Confusingly, as mentioned above, the mother was also called Christina on her birth certificate, and ‘Peggie’ on another document, which may account for the name of another child, Margaret / Peggie. Margaret/Peggie was also the name of the father’s sister who lived with them.

Flora may have been named after the sister of the father who also lived with them. John is the name of Roderick’s grandfather. Ann is the name of another of Roderick’s sisters. The conclusion seems to indicate that the father’s family dominated the ‘name calling’ (but the mother did not have a ‘family’ formally speaking because she was illegitimate). Most of these names were also very common in all the families in the region. In other words, they had Gaelic names, which appeared in the Anglicized form on the various certificates.

The naming of my mother’s children

My mother was proud of being a Scot – without a doubt! She was an intelligent and knowledgeable woman in her own way. However, her intelligence and knowledge didn’t seem to extend to a deep understanding of Scottish and Gaelic culture. Thus, she may have given her sons ‘Scottish’ names, but in their anglicized form; so, I was named Ian, which is the anglicized version of the Gaelic Iain. On the other hand, my cousin, is called Iain MacGillivray.

My brother Alistair was given a middle name of ‘Roderick’ instead of the Gaelic, ‘Ruaridh’; however, my knowledge of Gaelic culture is also a bit hazy here, as the anglicized version of ‘Ruaridh’ seems to be Rory, although it also seems that ‘Rory’ is often used as a short form of Roderick, although the two names are not necessarily related. In other words, me and my brothers were given anglicized Gaelic names, more or less. In this context, one can refer to George Orwell, who expressed that if you control language, you control people. 

The early deaths of five of Morag and Ruaridh’s children

Five of the children had died by 1901 (1901 census): Ann, Marion, Mary, Hugh and John; three died from sickness (Ann, Marion and John), one from an accident (Hugh), and the fifth (Mary) perhaps also from an accident. Flora (18 years old) was not registered on Eigg in 1901 (1901 census), but must have moved away temporarily and returned to Eigg later where she settled down marrying John McKinnon. 

Marion Campbell born January 11th, 1880, Galmisdale, Eigg. She only lived 7 days. The cause of death given is, “Not known – 3 days – no medical attendant.” 

Anne Campbell b. 1877 d. 1894, 16 years old. Cause of death: “Supposed to have been a bad cold – no medical attendant”. 

John Campbell (born 1895) only lived until he was 2 years old, June 13th 1897. His death certificate states: “Supposed to have had a bad cold. No medical attendant.” This seems to be another non-medical cause of death, which can be viewed as being ‘uninformative’.

Mary Campbell – eating poisonous berries

Mary Campbell died in 1894 when she was five years old; the cause of death is given as ‘unknown’. No medical attendant present. My mother told me that one of her mother’s sisters died from poisoning, so this could have been Mary. Mary was picking berries down in the fields with a friend who lived close by. They picked what they thought were blackcurrants, and made a fire, boiling the berries with sugar. However, they were not blackcurrants, but extremely poisonous belladonna berries, also known as deadly nightshade, which have a similar appearance. The friend vomited and survived, whereas, Mary died from eating the berries. However, the date of death November 11^th seems to cast some doubt on this story, as this seems late in the year for berries to be ripe, although they do ripen until October.

On the basis of the oral account, Rory McJoy has written the semi-fictional story, “Mary and the Berries,” which is included in Part Two of this book.

The Death of Hugh Campbell (1890)

Hugh Campbell – Description

The death certificate shows that Hugh Campbell was born 1884 and died in 1890, aged 6. In a conversation with my mother about Hugh, she told me the following:  “Hugh was looking for eggs said my mother (Morag). He saw this egg further down the cliff and slipped trying to get at it.”  This is a story which my grandmother Morag must have heard second hand. She was born in 1892 two years after the death of her brother.

There are often many ‘old stories’ which you think are just ‘stories’; but this story was proved to be true when I acquired Hugh Campbell’s death certificate from ScotlandsPeople. Hugh Campbell was born the fifth of ten children at Galmisdale. He was born on March 1^st 1884 to Roderick Campbell and Sarah McKinnon. He died July 28^th 1890 at Craignafeulac from “an accidental fall from cliff”.

Apart from the death certificate there is also a so-called RCE (Register of Corrected Entry). An RCE records additional authorised information about the registration.” The Corrected Entry is dated 10^th August, 1891. It is difficult to see what additional information or correction has been made.

One piece of additional information is that it is noted that Hugh is buried at the “Kildonnan Burying Ground.” This type of information (burial place) is not usually given on death certificates as far as I can see. 

I visited Kildonnan church and burial ground in summer 2007, but it was quite overgrown. Hugh was probably not given a substantial headstone, so now his grave is ‘lost amongst the grass’. Most of the gravestones at Kildonnan seem to be those of ‘important’ historical people, or fairly recent gravestones. In fact, I have seen very few old gravestones on Eigg for the so-called ‘common people’. 

Rory McJoy has written the semi-fictional story, “The Cliffhanger”, freely based on oral and written sources, which I have provided her with. In other words, this is a story about the death of young Hugh, when he fell from the cliffs at Craignafeulac. Moreover, I have edited her story, so, in reality, the story represents a collaboration between us, although she is credited with being the author.

Usual Causes of Death

I haven’t focused in any great detail on the ‘causes of death’ of the various people in this family history, although this is a subject of considerable importance for those people interested in medical history. To the modern reader, the causes of death on the old death certificates are often vague in most cases. However, the cause of death of Roderick’s son Hugh is very specific, which I will discuss below. Some websites that specialize in this field can provide ‘humorous’ aspects regarding causes of death such as, ‘Stoppage in the stomick’, ‘Extreme filthiness’, ‘Eating his own hair’ and ‘Killed by standing too near a cow and a bull!’. 

However, I will only focus here on the causes of death when the causes given are of specific interest or opaque to the modern reader. 

In this context, it might be of interest to consider the ‘causes of death’ of those certificates we have already looked at, such as the death of Sarah Campbell in 1895. The death certificate states “supposed paralysis eight years – not certified”. In other words, no medical attendant has approved this cause of death. The only official present is the registrar, James Campbell.

The “supposed” paralysis seems almost comical. You are either paralysed or not paralysed – you cannot be “supposed” paralysed. “Supposed” here must mean that the cause of death is given by a non-medical person. The other question that arises concerning the “supposed paralysis” is the fact that her sickness was never perhaps properly diagnosed by a medical specialist during her eight years of sickness. In other words, the people of Eigg at this time were not given basic medical care by the government.

Camille Dressler’s book, Eigg – The Story of an Island (2007), is particularly useful providing a detailed description of health, housing and employment conditions in Eigg in the 19th and 20th centuries. Her description relies to a great extent on the oral sources of the islanders themselves (see the chapter, “The Age of the Magnates”). She notes that:

“In cases of emergency, the islanders now benefitted from the presence of a resident doctor on Eigg whereas before they had needed to fetch one from Arisaig or Tobermory. The Small Isles Parish Council for the Poor Law had finally appointed a Medical Officer in 1897, who was paid a yearly salary out of the rates collected in the four islands.” 

She notes further that “In the early 1920s, Dr MacDonald (Parish Medical Officer) had managed an emergency trepanation on a kitchen table in Rum, saving the girl’s life” (p. 127). This is probably the same Dr MacDonald who is the medical attendant certifying the cause of death of Roderick Campbell in 1921, as “Influenza – old age”. 

It is also general knowledge that the overall health conditions and standard of living in Britain improved enormously between 1800-2000. I found one useful website, ‘Healthcare in Nineteenth Century Scotland’, which clearly documents the worse health condition of the general population in nineteenth century as compared to today. 

Regarding the term ‘paralysis’ on Sarah Campbell’s death certificate (1895), this term should not be interpreted to mean actual ‘paralysis’ in the modern sense of the word, that is,  ‘the loss of muscle function in part of your body’. In the article, “ ‘A confession of ignorance’: deaths from old age and deciphering cause-of-death statistics in Scotland, 1855–1949” (Alice Reid, et al., 2015), it is explained that in a historical context, ‘paralysis’ is an “uninformative term” used as a broad medical term that can denote “diseases of the nervous system”. Other such ‘uninformative’ causes of death given on the certificates are ‘old age’ – see Roderick Campbell’s death certificate above.