CHAPTER II. TRADITIONS OF THE MORRISONS (CLAN MAC GHILLEMHUIRE), HEREDITARY JUDGES OF LEWIS, BY CAPT. F. W. L. THOMAS, R. N., VICEPRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND;* AND A HISTORY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF THE LAST "HEREDITARY JUDGE," TO 1880, REWRITTEN, FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES, BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK. TRADITIONS OF THE MORRISONS. A LETTER Communicated to the "Athenæum," in March, 1866, contained some account of the Lewis Clans founded on oral tradition. Since then I have collected much additional information concerning them, either from printed books and MSS., or from notices supplied to me by residents on the island. In the letter to the "Athenæum" it was stated, on the authority of those around me, that time out of mind Lewis had been inhabited by three confederated clans, the Macleods, the Morrisons, and the Macaulays. This statement is confirmed in a "Description of the Lewis, by John Morisone,‡ indweller there," which is inferred to have been written between 1678 and 1688. The "Indweller" states: "The first and most ancient inhabitants of this countrie were three men of three several races, viz. Mores, the sone of Kennanus, whom the Irish historians call Makurich, whom they make to be son to one of the kings of Norovay, some of whose posteritie remains in the land to this day. All the Mor In this chapter I have copied nearly the whole of Captain Thomas's pamphlet, omitting such portions as were not essential to the narrative. R. Chambers has, under the heading of "Family Characteristics," in his Popular Rhymes of Scotland,"-"The Manly Morrisons. This is, or was, especially applicable to a family which had been settled for a long period at Woodend, in the parish of Kirkmichael, in Dumfriesshire, and become remarkable for the handsomeness of its cadets" (Collected Works, vol. vii, p. 97). It is still applicable to the Morrisons of the Outer Hebrides. From internal evidence it can be proved that the "Description" was written after 1678, and probably before 1688. He speaks of the destruction of Stornoway Castle, which took place in 1654, as having "lately" occurred. The writer was intimately acquainted with Lewis; when young, there were only three people in Lewis who knew the alphabet, but when he wrote, the head of the family at least was usually able to read and write. The author was probably the Rev. John Morrison, sometime minister of Urray, son of John Morrison of Bragar, and father of the Rev. John Morrison, minister of Petty. § This means the Gaelic, or Highland Scotch, historians. -ED. risons in Scotland may challenge their descent from this man. The second was Iskair Mac Aulay, an Irishman,* whose posteritie remain likewise to this day in the Lews. The third was Macnaicle, whose only daughter, Torquile, the first of that name (and sone to Claudius the son of Olipheus, who likewise is said to be the King of Norvay his sone), did violently espouse, and cut off immediately the whole race of Maknaicle, and possessed himself of the whole Lews, and continueth in his posteritie (Macleod Lews), during thirteen or fourteen generations, and so extinct before, or at least about 1600.”† Such was the tradition of the origin of the ruling families in the seventeenth century, and it is first to be noted that the writer uses "Irish" and "Irishman," where we should now write "Gaelic" and "Gaël." With regard to the Macleods, the tradition is general that that family got dominion in Lewis by marriage with the heiress of Mac Nicol; but while willing to believe that Torquil increased his superiority by such marriage, I have shown in the Memoir on Lewis Place-names that Thormod Thorkelson was in Lewis, with wife, men, and goods, in 1231; and that the clan-name, Leod, is in all probability derived from Liotulfr, who was a chief in Lewis in the middle of the twelfth century. ‡ Of the Morrisons, it is strange that the "Indweller," himself a Morrison, should have ignored what he would have called the "Irish "§ name of his clan, which is from Gille-Mhuire, i. e. servant of Mary; from Gille, i. e. a servant, etc., and More, i. e. Mary. A Morrison in Gaelic is Mac Ghillemhuire, sometimes shortened to Gillmore, Gilmour; or translated Morrison, Maryson; or reduced to Milmore, Miles, Myles. The Morrisons are a numerous clan in Lewis, where, in 1861, they numbered 1402, or one fifteenth of the whole population; in Harris there were 530, equal to one seventh of the inhabitants. These numbers indicate a domination in the island of many centuries. There is no real tradition of their original settlement in Lewis, except that the founder was the inevitable son of the King of Lochlann; but one remarkable genealogy of Macleod makes Gillemuire to have been the father of Leod; and before Raice (Rooke), and Olbair (Ulf?) the Hewer, we have another Gillemuire. It is added that Ealga fholt-alainn, i. e. Ealga of the Beautiful Hair, daughter of Arailt Mac Semmair, King of Lochlainn, was the mother of Gillemuire." || I learn from Mr. Skene that the serfs or tenants on lands belonging to a church or monastery dedicated to the Virgin would be called the Gillies of Mary; hence the origin of the name; but in process of time it is evident that such names as Gillemuire were used as proper names, and without any reference to office or employment. Although Petrie says that no Irish churches were * A Gaël. + Spot. Mis., vol. ii, p. 341. § Gaelic. *there are dedicated to the Virgin before the twelfth century, notices of Maelmaire, son of Ainbith, at A. D. 919, † and of Maelmuire, son of Eochaidh, abbot-bishop of Armagh, at A. D. 1020.‡ Nor, although the name is Gaelic, is it to be inferred that the possessor was of pure Gaelic descent, but rather that he was one of the Gall-Gaël, or mixed race of Northmen and Gaël who peopled the towns and shores of Ireland and the western islands and coasts of Scotland. For Maelmaire, sister of Sitric, King of Dublin, is on record circa 1066;§ and, before the conquest of Ireland, in 1130, Mac Gille Maire, son of Allgoirt of Port Lairge (Waterford), the best foreigner (Gall) that was in Eirinn, was slain. In Ireland there was a Clan Mac Ghillemuire settled in Lecale (Leth-Cathal), County Down. On July 7, 1244, Henry III requests, among others, that Mac Gillemuri himself, and with his forces, will join the Justiciary of Ireland about to depart for Scotland: The King to [Mac Gillemuri]. Thanks him for the good service he is prepared to render. As Alexander, King of Scotland, has made peace, [Mac Gillemuri] may return to his own country, but the king prays he may be ready for service ¶ the ensuing summer. (For further notices of the Clan Mac Ghillemhuire, see Reeves' "Ecc. Antiquities," p. 339.) The chief of the Clan Morrison, whose dwelling was at Habost, Ness, was hereditary judge or brieve (Breitheamh) of Lewis, and continued to hold the office till the beginning of the seventeenth century. The only record of his judgeship is that given by Sir R. Gordon, who, under the rubric of "What the office of a Breive is among the ilanders," ** states that "The Breive is a kind of judge amongst the islanders, who hath an absolute judicatorie, vnto whose authoritie and censure they willinglie submitt themselves, when he determineth any debatable question betuein partie and partie." In former times there was a brieve in every island, and he had one eleventh of every subject that was in dispute, but from whom there was an appeal to the chief judge in Islay.tt Very exaggerated notions remain of the extent of the jurisdiction of the Brieve of Lewis. One writer asserts that it was a venerable institution that had stood for many ages, * Round Towers, p. 173. "The dedications to St. Mary in Scotland came in long before the twelfth century, as early as the sixth."-W. F. Skene + Todd's "Wars of the Gaedhil with the Gaill," p. xci. Ib., p. clxxxix. § Ib., p. cxlix. "Chron. Scot.," p. 334. And I have seen in a history of Waterford a mandate of protection from Henry II or III to Mac Gillvore and the other Danes there, but have lost the reference. Cal. Doc. Ireland, p. 405. ** Sir R. Gordon, "Earl of Suth.," p. 268, The Supp. to the Conflict of the Clans, has, after "themselfs," "and never doe appeal from his sentence quhen he determineth," etc., p. 12. ++ Coll. De Reb. Alb., p. 297. TRADITIONS OF THE MORRISONS. and that the jurisdiction extended over the Hebrides from Islay to the Butt of Lewis, and on the opposite coast to the Ord of Caithness; another, that he was invested by His Majesty as judge arbiter from Cape Wrath to the Mull of Kintyre, and was absolute in his jurisdiction. * It is probable that the Brieve in Lewis represented the log-maor of Norse domination, and that in the progress of time the office changed from that of law-man or speaker-of-the-law at the ping, or popular assembly, to that of Dómandi, or administrator of justice. In the Isle of Man the Deemster held an office of great antiquity. He was judge in cases of life and death, as well as in the most trifling contentions. His presence, whether in house or field, on horseback or on foot, constituted a court; his decisions were guided either by what he could remember of like cases, or by his sense of justice, and this lex non scripta was called "breastlaw." On assuming office he swore that he would administer justice between man and man as evenly as the back-bone of the herring lies between the two sides of the fish. deemster was present, the aggrieved party could lug his opponent Wherever the before him. The plaintiff placed his foot upon that of the defendant, and held it there till judgment was pronounced. Both in Lewis and in Man the decision seems to have been accepted without reserve. On the 29th May, 1527, King James addressed a letter to "Oure Breff of Inuerness," where "breff" is synonymous with "sheriff"; from whence it may be inferred that the vice-comes of Skye, named in the Chronicle of Man, was the brieve of that island. How the office of law-man was abused under Scottish tyranny in Shetland may be seen in Balfour's "Oppressions"; but in Lewis, owing to its remote situation, the brieve appears to have exercised his ancient jurisdiction without interference. It is very doubtful if ever a brieve of Lewis could have spoken a word of English, and as the Scots Acts of Parliament have not been translated into Gaelic, the decisions of the judge can never have had any relation to them. Before the utter confusion into which the country fell towards the close of the sixteenth century, the brieve of Lewis, like the bard of Clanranald, may have received some education in Gaelic; but in any case we have ample proof that he exercised his office most unsparingly, for there are few islands or districts in which the Cnoc na Chroiche, or Gallows Hill, is not a conspicuous feature. Mac Ivor, perished the different records of the Lewis, and of the With the judge, says Dr. countries over which he had jurisdiction, except a few memo *See also O. S. A., vol. vi, p. 292. There is a Gallows Hill at Kneep, Uig; at Shawbost, Barvas; another near Stornoway; a Cnoc na Chroiche at Scalpay, Harris; and the place where a gallows stood is pointed out at Rodil, Harris. A boat's mast seems to have often been used to hoist up a man instead of a sail, or the mast upon which the victim was suspended was laid across a rift between rocks. Gallows Hill is a common name in the Orkneys and in the Shetland islands. * randa, or rather scraps, retained by some of the judge's descendants who escaped the fury of the Macleods. The "Indweller " is only partially correct in stating that Kennanus Makurich, i. e. Cain Macvurich (Cathan Mac Mhurich), was the first Morrison in Lewis; for the current tradition throughout the island is that the heiress of the Morrisons, having determined she would only marry with a Morrison, Cain, who was a Macdonald from Ardnamurchan, passed himself off for a Morrison, became husband of the lady, and consequently brieve also. The Harris Morrisons claim to be of the original stock. The North Uist historian of the Sleat Macdonalds (Hugh Macdonald) states that "Reginald married a brother's son of his grandfather's to an heiress of the name of the Morrisons in the Lewis"; and that Reginald was killed by the Earl of Ross in 1346.† It is further stated that Angus Oig, of Islay, married a daughter of Guy O'Kaine in Ireland; ‡ and this is confirmed by Mac Firbis, who writes that the mother of John Mac Angus of Islay was Aine, daughter of Cumhaighe O' Cathain. § In this way the name of Cain has been introduced-if it was not there beforeinto the Clan Macdonald, and through them it has been continued as a family name among the Morrisons to the present day. The conclusion to be drawn is that Kennanus Makurich, i. e. Cain Macvurich, who was adopted into, and from whom descended the leading family of the Morrisons of Ness, was the son of Murdo, son, or rather grandson, of John the Bold, founder of the family of Ardnamurchan; and that the marriage took place not long before 1346. I am told that the badge of the Morrisons is "drift-wood," of which a great quantity is driven upon the west coast of Lewis. The Lewis word for drift-wood is sgoid; hence, in derision, a Morrison will be told that he has a "skate" (sgait, Gae.) for a baby. Besides the district of Ness, the Morrisons were dominant in the district of Diurness, in Lord Reay's country. The tradition of their settlement there is that Ay Mac Hormaid (Aodh Mac Thormoid), a Morrison from Lewis, who was a handsome and good-looking fellow, went for a cargo of meal to Thurso, and there married the daughter (or the sister) of the Bishop of Caithness, who bestowed upon the young couple the whole of Diurness, with Ashir. Ay Morrison "brought over with him from Lewis a col *These scraps were part of a MS. History of the Mackenzies, called by Donald Gregory the Letterfearn MS. Morrison's "Traditions of Lewis" contains what is probably a copy of those scraps. † Coll. De Reb. Alb., p. 292. Ib., p. 294. § Hill's "Macdonnells of Antrim," p. 375. 1376, Cumoighe O'Kane, Lord of Oireacht O'Kane (Derry), was taken prisoner by the English at the port of Coleraine, and sent prisoner in fetters to Carrickfergus. Connellan's "Four Masters." | Or, for a wife. Sgoid is undoubtedly a survival of the Norse Skid, a log of timber. Sgoid-chladaich," Gael., a shore [i. e. drift] log. 66 Now foolishly corrupted to "Old Shores." |