Author: Max Fletcher

To tell the story of Triblo and the folk who lived there we first have to pay a visit to Quandale, and a house named Stour-meadow. A Rousay Birth Record of 1822 has it spelled Staurameirie, but in the census of 1841, the house was called Stourmary and it was where 25-year-old shoemaker George Leonard lived with his wife Margaret Clouston. The annual rent on the property at this time was £1. George was the son of John Leonard and Isabella Inkster of nearby Grain and he was born in January 1816. Wife Margaret was the daughter of Magnus Clouston and Ann Flaws of Tou, and she was born on January 24th 1822 at Windbreck, close to the Parish School that served Quandale and the Westside. They married in September 1848, and initially they had three children whilst living in Quandale: Margaret was born in October 1849; Mary, in June 1851; and Ann, who was born in February 1854.

To tell the story of Triblo and the folk who lived there we first have to pay a visit to Quandale, and a house named Stour-meadow. A Rousay Birth Record of 1822 has it spelled Staurameirie, but in the census of 1841, the house was called Stourmary and it was where 25-year-old shoemaker George Leonard lived with his wife Margaret Clouston. The annual rent on the property at this time was £1.0.0. George was the son of John Leonard and Isabella Inkster of nearby Grain and he was born in January 1816. Wife Margaret was the daughter of Magnus Clouston and Ann Flaws of Tou, and she was born on January 24th 1822 at Windbreck, close to the Parish School that served Quandale and the Westside. They married in September 1848, and initially they had three children whilst living in Quandale: Margaret was born in October 1849; Mary, in June 1851; and Ann, who was born in February 1854.

George earned his living as a fisherman, but later found the produce of the land more profitable as he farmed the land around Triblo. George and Margaret had three more children whilst living there: Betsy, who was born in November 1857; George, in September 1862; and Isabella, who was born in December 1865. In 1855 George was paying a rent of £2 2s 0d. Between 1879 and 1887 this had risen to £6, but in 1888 George paid the lesser sum of £4 rent – ‘So reduced by the Crofters Commission!!!’ as the laird had written in his rent book. George had been brought forward to relate the story of the Quandale clearances to Lord Napier and his Royal Commission at Kirkwall in July 1883. Click > here < to read what he said.

EASTAQUOY

The name of the croft of Eastaquoy in Sourin, midway between Quoys and Triblo, is a ‘transferred’ name. The original Eastaquoy, or Istaquoy, lay on the Westside between Ha’gate and Cott, high above Skaill. It was occupied in the 1840s and early 50s by farmer James Marwick, his wife Janet Craigie, and their children. A leased farm, Istaquoy was cleared in 1855 on the termination of its lease.

James Marwick was one of ten sons born to Hugh Marwick, Scockness, and Betsy Sinclair – collectively, and no doubt affectionately, known as her “Ten devils!” James, the third oldest of them, was born in 1798. He married his first wife Jean Marwick on December 19th 1826, and they had five children, born between 1827 and 1836 when they were living at Pow, Sourin. William was born in October 1827; James, in November 1829; Robina, in January 1832; Ann, in June 1834, but died in infancy; and a second Ann, who was born in April 1836. Jean’s death is on record as happening in 1836, so complications as a result of the birth of daughter Ann could have been the reason for her demise.

On August 5th the same year James married his second wife, Janet Craigie, daughter of James Craigie and Janet Grieve of Guidal, later Grips, Sourin, who was born in October 1810. They had five children: John, born in March 1838; Eleanor Traill, in August 1839; Hugh, in January 1842; Craigie, in July 1845; and David, who was born in July 1853. Having been cleared from the Westside James and his family moved to Sourin – and named their new dwelling Eastaquoy.

James Marwick died in March 1867. Come the time of the 1871 census James’s 39-year-old unmarried daughter Robina from his first marriage was living at Eastaquoy and working as an agricultural labourer. James’s widow Janet had other company too, for son Craigie Marwick, a fisherman, had married 23-year-old Ann Mowat from Evie on February 6th 1869, and they lived with her at Eastaquoy.

By 1881 Craigie and Ann Marwick had moved to Breck, farming its 36 acres of land. Janet still had company though, for youngest son David and his family had moved in. David was a fisherman, and married 29-year-old Anne Hercus of Eday in 1877. They already had two children: David Logie, born in November 1878; and Jessie Craigie, born in Jun 1880. Another five children would follow in due course.

David gave up fishing and he and his family moved up to Essaquoy, below Broland. That left the ageing Janet at Eastaquoy with Robina, who was earning a living as a wool spinner. Janet passed away on March 28th 1894, and Robina was joined at Eastaquoy by 61-year-old Mary Work, widow of crofter William Work who used to live at Breval. Both ladies made a little money by woolspinning and knitting.

[All black and white photos are courtesy of the Tommy Gibson Collection unless otherwise stated]

Now we come to the houses of old in the Sourin valley, a vast swathe of land between Kierfea Hill to the North, the peat banks of Brown Hill to the West, Blotchniefiold, the Hass of Goustie, and Knitchen Hill to the south, and following the Suso Burn from the Muckle Water to where it flows into the sea by the old meal mill and Lopness in the East. At the time of the first census, carried out on June 7th 1841, there were 307 folk living in 55 dwellings in Sourin.

The first of these we visit are the small hill crofts of Clumpy and Lower Clumpy, located to the west of Quoys and Braes. In 1851, 68-year-old pauper and widower Hugh Marwick, a retired miller, and his 64-year-old widowed sister Margaret Mowat, both born in Westray, lived at Clumpy, where they tended to the needs of nephew William Mowat who was a 30-year-old invalid. The rent at this time was 12s.

In the census of 1861 the croft was spelt Clumpie, and its occupants were 65-year-old widow Christie Yorston and her 23-year-old daughter Lydia Downie, who was employed as a domestic servant. Lydia was born on April 25th 1839, her parents on her birth certificate being George Downie and Christie Yorstane. Christie reverted to her maiden surname on the death of husband, as was common in those days. That same year Upper Clumpie was occupied by the Grieve family. Farmer and fisherman James Grieve was the son of James Grieve and Elizabeth Davie, and he was born in Egilsay on March 24th 1816. In 1845, when he was living at Nethermill, he married Margaret Craigie, the eldest daughter of James Craigie and his first wife Betty Marwick of Claybank, Wasbister, who was born on November 1st 1815. They had four children; twins Jane and Margaret, who were born on December 31st 1845; Mary, in 1849; and James, who was born in 1852.

Duncan, Jane and son John moved to Breval, or Bravehill as it was called in the census of 1901. Jane’s twin sister Margaret was fifty-two years old when she married ploughman William Sabiston, Brigsend, Westness, who was also born in 1845, the son of William Sabiston and Jane Louttit. The wedding ceremony, held at Clumpy on March 24th 1899, was performed by the Rev Alexander Spark and witnessed by William Grieve and Maggie Ann McLean.

The Harcus family were the final residents of Clumpy. Born in 1894 John Harcus was the son of Angus and Jessie Harcus of New Glen, Westray. A gunner in the Siege Artillery based at Catterick, Yorkshire, he was 23 years of age when he married 21-year-old housemaid Helen Craigie at Balfour Cottage, Shapinsay, on March 22nd 1918. Helen was the daughter of James Craigie and Helen Louttit, and was living at Breck, Rousay, at the time. The ceremony was performed by the Reverend Granville Cuthbert Hepburn Ramage, the United  Free Church minister in Shapinsay, and witnessed by James Craigie and Mary Harcus. John and Helen had four children: Helen Craigie (known as Nellie) was born in Westray in 1920. The family then moved across the firth to Rousay, where three sons were born – Angus, in 1922, John, in 1924, and James, who was born in 1930.

OLDMAN

According to Volume 16 of the Orkney Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1879/80 Oldman ‘applies to a small farm situate 13 chains S.E. from Pretty. The whole of the above houses are one storey, built of stone, thatched and in fair repair. Proprietor Colonel Burroughs, C.B. Rousay.’

Oldman was the name of a hill croft in Sourin on the south bank of a burn of that name, close to the crofts of Clumpy and Pretty. This is a transferred house name, for the original Oldman was on the Westside, between the present third and fourth fields out from Westness Farm. The tenants there were cleared out from the Westside, and their lands laid down as a sheep-walk. Some of the evicted folk settled on new sites in Sourin – as in this case – and the old house name was applied to the new buildings on this site. Unfortunately the reason for original name is unknown.

In 1813 Peter Yorston, who was born in 1788 at Corse, married Rebecca Craigie, daughter of Mitchell Craigie and Ann Mainland of Hullion, who was born in 1783. They had three children: Peter, born in May 1814; Mary, in July 1816; and Ann, who was born in January 1823.

Peter, the oldest of the three children, was a 24-year-old fisherman when he married 22-year-old Lydia Turnbull of Evie on December 20th 1838. They had five children: May, who was born in 1841; John, born in August 1843; Peter, in May 1848; Harriet, in August 1851; and Robert, who was born in December 1854.

As the years went by Peter farmed the land at Oldman and in 1871 the annual rent for the 18-acre site stood at £8. He had the assistance of wife Lydia and 31-year-old daughter Mary, while 17-year-old son Robert was employed as a small grocer.

By 1881, another of their sons, also named Peter, was the new tenant of Oldman, now 33 acres in size. In 1870 he married Mary Kirkness, daughter of John Kirkness and Mary Alexander of Quoyostray, who was born in 1849. They had five children; Peter, born in 1871; Jemima Mary, in 1874; Elizabeth (Lilla), in 1878; James Kirkness, in 1880; and John Alexander, who was born in 1883. Tragedy struck the Yorston family in 1879 – when eight-year-old Peter and five-year-old Jemima both died of diphtheria, Peter at 2.30am on July 13th and Jemima five days later at half-past midnight on Friday the 18th.

Peter was paying £10 rent in 1885, but by this time he was also tenant of Eastaquoy. This was reduced by the Crofter’s Commission in 1888 and he paid an annual rent for both properties of £7 10s 0d.

Peter Yorston died on October 15th 1913 at the age of 65. His wife Mary Kirkness passed away on June 9th 1925, in her 79th year. They were interred in the Wasbister kirkyard in the same grave as their children, Peter and Jemima.

HILLSIDE

This was a pauper’s residence, situated 14 chains [just over 300 yards] S.W. from ‘Triblo’ & 16 chains [350 yards] S.W. from Pretty. There is only one record of its occupancy, in 1871, the pauper in question being 61-year-old widow Cecilia Leonard. The highest rate of pay for paupers at that time was about £4 a year – but at least they had a roof over their heads.

Cecilia was the daughter of Hugh Inkster, Tou, and Isabel Craigie, Corse, and was born on October 24th 1810. She married James Leonard, Grain, later Quoygray, the son of John and Isabella Leonard, who was born on May 8th 1811. They had seven children: Mary, who was born in July 1839, but died young; John Inkster, born in June 1841; Anna Hercus, in August 1843; Mary, in May 1845; Sarah Inkster, born in October 1847; Margaret, in 1849; and James Inkster, who was born in December 1854. Husband James passed away in 1864 at the age of 53. Cecilia died in February 1895, in her 84th year.

STANDCROWN

Widow Pearson was the occupant of Standcrown for many years, costing her 9s. 6d. a year to rent between 1833 and 1873. She was the daughter of farmer Robert Pearson and Margaret Downie. On May 5th 1829 she married farmer John Rendall. He was 27 years old when he died on May 15th 1833, and Mary therefore assumed her maiden name on his demise.

Mary always had company at Standcrown. At the time of the 1841 census her older sister Barbary, and 14-year-old Christie Costie were under the same roof. Barbary passed on, but Christie made a living from various means over the years, making herring nets, working as a farm servant, and knitting various items. Mary Pearson died in 1873 at the age of 89.

William Craigie and his wife Margaret were later occupants of Standcrown. William was the son of coach driver William Flett Craigie and Isabella Leonard of Geo, Westside, and he was born in October 1874. His wife Margaret Grieve Leonard was the daughter of Malcolm Leonard and Mary Craigie of Upper Grips, later Quoys, Sourin, and she was born in November 1868. Margaret had a son by John Yorston Grieve, son of Alexander Grieve and Margaret Alexander, Nethermill. Born in 1884 he was christened, John. His father John died in 1889 at the age of 30.

On July 12th 1894 Margaret Grieve Leonard and William Craigie were married in the Sourin Free Kirk by the Rev. Robert Bonellie. At the time William was a 19-year-old farm servant working on the farm of Braebuster, Deerness, while Maggie was a 24-year-old domestic servant. At some point they moved south, to Leith, where William was employed as a marine engineer. They had five children: Isabella Leonard Craigie was born in September 1895. On August 26th 1915 she married ship plater John Maule Ferguson. Mary Jane Craigie was born in September 1897. On February 19th 1917 she married seaman David Tod Addison. James William was born in September 1898, but died when he was just six years old. Annie (Nan) Craigie was born in June 1900. She married David Flanagan on October 23rd 1918, and their daughter Williamina (known as Billie) was born the following year. Malcolm was born in June 1905, but died when he was 12 years of age.

William and Maggie returned to Standcrown, but Maggie died in 1948 and William passed away at Nethermill in 1965 at the age of 91.

PRETTY

Pretty was the name of a croft between those of Standcrown and Triblo in Sourin, the official name being Standpretty, but that was not used locally.

39-year-old farmer and fisherman James Cooper lived here in 1841. He was the son of Hugh Cooper and Jean Craigie, and was born on July 10th 1802. On July 15th 1831 he married Betty Craigie, daughter of William Craigie and Betty Leonard of Cruar, born on June 17th 1805. They had three children: William, born in February 1832; James, in March 1835; and Betsy, who was just five months old when the census was carried out on June 7th that year. In 1845 James paid an annual rent of £2 5s 0d, which by 1865 had exactly doubled.

In 1871 James was in his 68th year, wife, called Betsy in the census, was 66, and their unmarried 30-year-old daughter Betsy was employed on the farm. Their 34-year-old fisherman son James and his family also lived at Pretty. His wife was 29-year-old Harriet Smeaton Craigie, daughter of James and Barbara Craigie and they had ten children between 1863 and 1883. James Craigie was born in September 1863; twins Betsy and Harriet were born in October 1864; William Craigie was born in August 1866; Mary, in November 1868; Susannah, in April 1872; Margaret Ann, in 1873; John, in 1877; Frederick, in 1881; and George Stevenson, who was born in 1883.

In 1874 the rent at Pretty had risen to £5. James Cooper died in 1875 at the age of 73, and his son James took over the tenancy. The 1881 census reveals the fact that thirteen folk were then living at Pretty. Widowed Betsy was 73 years of age at this time. Living with her were two other Betsys – her 40-year-old unmarried daughter, and 11-year-old granddaughter. Son James, his wife Harriet and five of their children were in residence – as was another Cooper – the widowed wife of James’s brother William. At the time of his marriage William was a 39-year-old seaman in the merchant service, his home address given as Helzie-Githa, Wyre. On January 23rd 1871 he married 21-year-old Mary Ann [known as May] Linklater, daughter of Magnus and Catherine Linklater, of Lubbadale, Hillside, Birsay. They had a daughter, Margaret Ann, born in 1872, but she died just three years later, on the afternoon of November 23rd having suffered from bronchitis for three weeks. Her father William died at 9.30 on the morning of February 3rd 1881, “supposed to have been suffering from consumption for one year,” according to his death certificate. The 1881 census was carried out on April 4th, and his widow May was living at Pretty with her two daughters, five-year-old Mary Elizabeth, and four-year-old Mary Ann.

Mr Fraser-MacIntosh asked – “What is your authority for making that statement: was it the poor woman herself?” Leonard replied – “More than that; there are witnesses beside me who can speak to it.”

Later, in reply to questions from the commissioners, the laird, Lt. General Frederick William Traill-Burroughs, said he could say nothing about the story concerning Mrs Cooper on her deathbed, and he didn’t remember any such thing.

As the Rousay Crofters’ Movement centred around the Sourin Free Kirk community it was inevitable that the minister, the Reverend Archibald MacCallum, should be drawn into the conflict. He told the commissioners he – “heard it from the lips of the woman herself and also from her daughter.”

The laird replied that that was possible, but he didn’t remember it.

Mr Fraser Mackintosh: “Would you not express an opinion now, that if you said it you regret it? The laird replied: “If I did say it, I am exceedingly sorry for it; but both I and my wife were very kind to the old woman and did everything we could for her. I wanted to give her land to her son and to let her remain. But she and her son quarrelled, and she would not hear of the proposal; and I believe she died on bad terms with him. If it is true that I said any such thing I am sorry for it; but I don’t believe I said it. They may have twisted something I said to mean that, but I did not certainly mean that…..”

In 1883 James Cooper paid five guineas rent, but in 1888 this was reduced by the Crofters Commission to £4. At this time Pretty consisted of 10 acres arable and 10 acres pasture land.

At the time of the 1891 census the late Betsy Cooper’s daughter Betsy, then fifty years of age, was living at Pretty with her three-year-old nephew Allan Cooper. Harriet Cooper died in 1889. Her husband James was away from Pretty when the census was carried out, his 16-year-old daughter Maggie Ann being described as head of the household and looking after her younger brothers, John, Frederick, and George. May Cooper, then earning a living as a charwoman, had moved to ‘The Hill’ with daughters Mary Elizabeth, then a 15-year-old sewing maid, and fourteen-year-old Mary Ann, who was at school. ‘The Hill’ was in fact a second house named Hillside in the district, this one being a small dwelling between Curquoy and Brittany. May was still living there in 1901, earning a living as a woolspinner and knitter.

Pretty was now occupied by 46-year-old crofter John Mowat and his wife Jane. John was the son of crofter George Mowat and Mary Yorston, Evie, and he was born in 1855. He was a 42-year-old widower when he married 46-year-old Jane Johnston at Kirkha’, Brinian, on February 19th 1897. The officiating minister was the Rev. Alexander Irvine Pirie and the witnesses were Rousay postman Danny MacKay and Jane’s older sister Jemima. Christened Jane Walker Johnston, she was the sixth of nine children of John Johnston and Elizabeth Reid, and she was born on January 6th 1851. Jane had two children before her marriage, John Harrold in 1870, and Elizabeth Reid, who was born on June 26th 1877.

All black & white photos are courtesy of the Tommy Gibson Collection.

The map section is ‘Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland’
– though it has been altered somewhat to improve its legibility.

If you were in Sourin in 1734, you would know Thomas Reid, for he was the man who worked the land of Banks – a large farm that still thrives to this day.

The census of 1841 records brothers Thomas and John Marwick farming the surrounding land at Banks. They were the sons of Hugh Marwick [1766-1820] and Betsy Sinclair of Scockness – two of her ‘Ten Devils’! Thomas was born in 1796, and married Ann Gibson in January 1820. She was the daughter of John Gibson, Broland, and Giles [Julia] Grieve, Hurtiso. Thomas and Ann had ten children of their own. All but two of them emigrated to New Zealand, but after Ann’s death in 1861 the others and their father joined them.

Thomas’s brother John Marwick was born in January 1803. He married Betsy Mainland, daughter of James Mainland and Christian Louttit, Cotafea, who was born in June 1806. They had no children, but adopted their nephew, James Marwick, son of John’s brother Robert.

In 1845 Chalmers Mainland was tenant and he was paying an annual rent of £50 6s. 6d. Two years later his brother William was tenant and he was paying £30 rent. William was the son of Leslie and Jean Mainland of Avelshay and was born on March 9th 1811. In 1835 he married Betsy Reid, the daughter of Peter Reid and Betsy Marwick of Cruar, and on November 1st of that year Betsy gave birth to twins, who themselves were christened William and Betsy. Between 1837 and 1850 she bore another six children; Jane, Anne, John, James, Peter, and David who was born blind.

In 1862 William was paying £52 10s 0d. rent for Banks and its 50 acres of land. Three of his sons were working with him at that time; William was an agricultural labourer, John was a ploughman, and Peter was a cowherd. In 1876 the rent stood at £73 and the area of land at Banks had risen to 100 acres. When the census of 1881 was carried out son William, then 45 years of age, ran a shop at Banks, situated in the east end of the dwelling house, his occupation being described as a grocer and general merchant. His father William died in 1892 at the age of 81 and his widow Betsy went to live at Redlums, Banks having been taken over by Robert Seatter from Westray in 1894, at which time he was paying £50 rent.

Robert Seatter was the son of John Seatter and Merron [Marion] Drever, and he was born at Newark, Westray, c.1854. On November 30th 1883 he married 25-year-old Sibella King [or Sibla as it was spelled on her birth and wedding certificates]. She was the daughter of Edward King and Hellen Scott of Grimbust, Westray. [Entries in census returns have her name variously spelled Sibella, Sibbla, Sybella, and even Sibbley. The house had alternative spellings too, i.e. Grindmust and Gronhast]. There were six children: John, born c.1885; Ellen, 1888; Robert, 1890; Marion, 1892; Bella,1896; and Edward, born c.1898.

The photos above show Edward Seatter, Banks, to the left with John Hourston Marwick [standing], and his brother Robert, Essaquoy later Quoys, Wasbister, and wearing his army uniform. Edward and John were both killed in WW1

Private Edward King Seatter served with the 8th/10th Gordon Highlanders during the First World War. He was killed in action near Guémappe, part of the Arras Offensive, on 21st April 1917, aged 19. He is commemorated in Bay 9, Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

Arras Offensive, April 1917: The 8th and 10th Battalions had amalgamated in 1915 and in January 1917 carried out a successful raid dressed in white to blend in with the snow. This was at the Butte de Warlencourt. In April they were part of the Arras offensive and were pinned down by heavy fire at Railway Triangle just east of the city of Arras. Eventually they battled their way through and defeated the enemy. The 4th and 5th Battalions fought alongside each other to help capture Vimy Ridge, 5 miles north of Arras, after a determined attack by the Canadians and themselves, the 4th suffering particularly badly. The 6th Battalion also suffered heavy casualties but achieved their objective at Rolincourt.

The 9th Pioneer Battalion prepared tracks and constructed great underground networks in this battle. The 1st Battalion went forward, in the lead, very rapidly on the first day and reached their target within 20 minutes. Soon after they were again the lead battalion but by the evening were prevented from reaching the enemy trenches by enfilade fire. Two days later they were in action at Guémappe where they sustained heavy casualties.

Private John Hourston Marwick, 58th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps, formerly 13092 Seaforths, was killed in action near Epéhy on 7th September 1918, aged 21.

He is commemorated on Panel 10, Vis-en-Artois Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

Born at Essaquoy, Sourin, Rousay on 30th April 1897, son of David Marwick and Ann Marwick (née Leonard).

Robbie Corsie Seatter [previously mentioned, being born in 1890] was the tenant of Banks from 1922 to well into the 1960s. The roof of Banks blew off in the hurricane of 1952, which resulted in Robbie building a new house. In 1917 he married 19-year-old Lizzie Robertson Corsie, daughter of John Corsie, Brendale, and Margaret Jane Skethaway, Knarston. Robbie and Lizzie had three sons, Robert Seatter, born in 1917; John Corsie Seatter, born 1922; and Edward King Seatter, who was born in 1931.

Above left is Lizzie Seatter with her son Robbie, born in 1917. Bella, or Sibella, Seatter born in 1896, was 34 years old when she married Andrew Moodie, a 33-year-old farmer from Muddisdale, Kirkwall, the son of James Moodie and Rachel Work. The minister at the marriage, held in the King Street Manse, was the Rev. W. G. Murray, and the witnesses were William Wood, Quarrybank, St. Ola, and Sibella’s sister Marion, who was living at Watergate, Kirkwall, at the time. Sibella and Andrew had a son, John, who was born in December 1930 – and he is pictured, above right, with his grandfather Robert, who would have been nearly 80 years of age when the photo was taken. – The photos below show young Robbie on the farm.

On January 23rd 1942 Robbie Seatter married 22-year-old Chrissie Davina Russell, Brendale, and they later moved to Elsness, Sanday. In 1950 his brother John Corsie Seatter married 18-year-old Gertrude Anna Jean Moar, daughter of David Moar and Clara Clouston, Saviskaill. They left Rousay and rented the farm of Sandside, Graemsay, in 1952.

Youngest brother Edward King Seatter [born in 1931] is pictured about to set off on a motorcycle ride with with Marjory Scott, Livaness, Shapinsay. c.1954.

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Banks, and its environs, as it is today:-

Finnio

In Rousay Birth Registers of 1738 and 1745, the name of this dwelling, situated on the farm of Banks, was spelled Housefinzie; in 1821 Housefinian; and in 1823 and 1830 Housefinzean. At the shore below Finyo is the Noust of Finyo – one of the best landing places along that shore, ‘naust’ in Old Norse meaning a shed or stance for boats when drawn up.

Magnus Craigie, born in 1786, lived at Finyo. He was married to Christian Craigie, daughter of Mitchell Craigie of Hullion and Rebekah Marwick, who was born in 1787. They had ten children: William, who was born in November 1811; Katherine, in March 1814; Janet, in June 1816; Barbara, in January 1819; Mary, in June 1821; Christian, in April, 1823; James, in November 1824; Margaret, in August 1827; Isabel, in November 1829; and Betty, who was born in May 1832. Their father Magnus died in 1840, at the age of 54.

The following year, the census records the fact that Christy Craigie was earning a living as a wool spinner and living at Cruar with three of her daughters, Janet, Barbara, and Betsy. Cruar was a small croft on the south side of the Burn of Cruar, between Knarston and Avelshay.

Other spinners and weavers in Sourin included Christy Leonard, a 70-year-old hemp spinner at ‘Nether Kingly’. At Whitehall 50-year-old James Pearson worked as a hand-loom weaver, while neighbours Robert Harrold of Cruannie and Peter Leonard of Digro were wool weavers. 25-year-old Julia Mainland of Nethermill was a bonnet maker, and in unrecorded houses at Sourin were a number of straw plaiters, including Margaret and Jane Craigie, Robina and Isabella Marwick, Mary and Janet Flett, Mary Harcus, and Mary Flaws. 40-year-old Margaret Grieve was also employed as a straw plaiter at Barebraes.

In 1841 Finyo was occupied by James Grieve, a 65-year-old navy pensioner, from Egilsay. He was married to Elizabeth Davie and they had six children, all born in Egilsay. James was born in March 1916; Eleanor Bews in March 1819; Margaret in December 1821; Mary, in June 1825; Alexander, in March 1828; and William, who was born in July 1831.

Fisherman William Inkster held the tenancy of Finyo in 1851 after moving from Ervadale. The son of William Inkster and Robina Rendall, he was born in 1795, and was married to Margaret Gibson. They had seven children: Bethynia, born in April 1823; Christian, in August 1825; Ann, in August 1827; William, in October 1829; Margaret, in April 1833; James, in March 1836; and Hugh, who was born in February 1839. Living with them at the time of the census were their daughters Robina, a 28-year-old straw plaiter and Christie, then described as a pauper. Margaret died in 1855 at the age of 60, and William passed away in 1869 in his 74 year. [Hugh Inkster born in 1839 married Isabella Kirkness, Quoyostray, moved to Shetland, and raised a family. Isabella died, Hugh returned to Rousay, married his late wife’s cousin Mary Kirkness, and took over Westness Farm.]

My thanks to Sarah and Stuart Sailor for allowing me access with my camera on their land to show Banks and Finnio as they are today.

[All black & white photos are courtesy of the Tommy Gibson Collection.]

The information below was forwarded by Bob and Bryan Inkster.

The Cop is local for The Northern Co-operative Society, or Co-op. It was a movement which built stores throughout Scotland by self help. It started in News [Newhouse], above Hullion, run by merchant/grocer John Sinclair [1824-1897]. The shop later moved to Clumpy in the hill behind the school in Sourin and eventually the shop, stable, sheepy hoose, and slaughter house were built on the bend of the road between the school and Old School. Hughie o’ Saviskaill told Bob that the men of Rousay all got together and quarried the stone to build the Co-op and Robbie Seatter of Banks gifted the land for it.

Craigern, pictured above, was built for the Craigie sisters who acquired the Cop because there was originally no house with it. The sisters were Annie and Bella Craigie, daughters of John Craigie, Shalter, later Triblo, and Betsy Leonard, Triblo. They bought the shop from the locally run Co-op and ran it successfully before they retired to Kirkwall. Documents regarding the transfer of ownership to the Inksters referred to the ladies as “the sisters Craigie”.

Jock and Dorothy Inkster moved to the Cop in the mid-1950s, Jock eventually taking over driving the post van from Roy Russell. When the family moved in the house was not joined on to the Cop and had an outside toilet and no running water for a family of four boys [the “boys o’ the cop”] and a grannie. Much later, Jock built the connecting part which thankfully included a bathroom!

John Inkster and Dorothy Mainland are pictured on the day of their wedding – Friday July 16th, 1948. Best man Robert Learmonth, and bridesmaid/maid of honour, Cathleen Craigie, Furse, with flower girls Mary Craigie, Hurtiso, and Linda Grieve, Saviskaill. John’s mother was Violet Inkster, daughter of David Inkster and Isabella Sinclair, Cavit. He was born in 1922, before Violet’s marriage to Robert Learmonth. That marriage produced two offspring: Anna and Robert. Dorothy was the daughter of Hugh Mainland, Gairsay, later Hurtiso, and Alice Craigie, Falquoy. John and Dorothy had four sons: John, Robert, Bryan, and Steven.

The Cop hoose had gas lighting when we first went there which was considered sophisticated compared to the Tilley. The shop had a J.A.P. lighting plant which sat in the “Sheepie Hoose”, the small concrete shed to the North of the shop, used for starving sheep prior to slaughter. The slaughterhouse is the lean-to on the North end of the Cop. It had a sloping floor with a drain to a large cess pit. The North end of the main building was called the “Mealy End”, where sacks of meal, flour, Cosetas etc were stored. Cosetas was an animal feed which came in large sacks and consisted of flakes of yellow vegetable matter. Bryan thinks it might have been made from maize, for he remembers eating it and found it was quite palatable!

The Inksters got the Old School too, after Sandy Logie moved to the toon. Jock’s stepfather, Bertie Learmonth lived there for a spell but mostly it stood empty until Jock fixed it up for his retirement.

Sandy’s brother, John Gibson Logie, was a private in the Gordon Highlanders regiment. He was 37 years of age when he died of wounds received during the capture of Beaumont-Hamel, a tactical incident that took place during the Battle of the Somme on November 22nd 1916.

Bob and Bryan, when in their very early teens or perhaps younger, were helping to rip out an old fire place in the Old School when they found the ‘death penny.’ The boys used the building as a motorbike workshop and spent a lot of their time trimming up the old pre-war bikes which abounded in Rousay at the time. Sandy Logie had previously told them to watch out for the Death Penny if they ever renovated the building. They excitedly took their treasure to show to their parents. Jock got in touch with Sandy Logie and he could remember it falling down behind the fire place and being unable to get it out and over time he had forgotten about it. Much to the boy’s disappointment their ‘treasure’ was reunited with Sandy but he was happy to have it back!

As a boy Bob used to go on the delivery run with his father and the highlight was the stop at Trumland Farm with Robert Johnston because they got in to watch TV (first in the island) – The Lone Ranger and Whirly Birds being favourite programmes.

Bob’s wife Sally was working in the Post Office in the early ‘70s and there was some fuel crisis and petrol was going to be rationed to only those with valid road tax. They had a sudden influx in road tax applications. Sally was paid £12 a week for running the post office then.

The boys got sixpence worth of sweeties every Monday and they would go to Dot Munro at the shop for it, but they would always go again later in the day claiming they hadn’t gone before. Needless to say Dot never fell for it. Bob and Bruce Mainland decided they could maybe distract Dot and pinch some sweeties. Bruce got the distracting job and Bob grabbed the first packet he could reach. They opened up the package only to find what they thought were something like surgical masks, which they hooked round their lugs and ran around with only to discover later they were in fact sanitary towels!

Below I have selected just three from a large collection of Rousay, Egilshay, & Veira Co-operative Society share certificates in the possession of Bob Inkster.

On the left is that of farmer John Gibson, Faraclett. He had four five-shilling shares, which were later transferred to sons Hugh and John, and daughter Maggie.

In the centre is the certificate belonging to farmer James Inkster, Woo. Purchased in October 1910, his four shares were cancelled in November 1922.

Robina Marwick’s certificate to the right shows she bought just one share in December 1911. She was born in January 1832, the daughter of James Marwick, Eastaquoy, and his first wife Jean Marwick. After her death Robina’s single five-shilling share was transferred to her half-brother Craigie Marwick on the 20th day of December 1918.

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Adele Marie Park has memories of the Cop – she stayed with Tommy and Adeline Inkster at nearby Woo.

“I mind the shop weel. Granny o the Co-op – I have her recipe for Clootie Dumpling, still mak it. I remember Dorothy and the boys of course, Stevie, and John. They had petrol pumps, Esso, and I fell in love with the plastic tiger head on top of the pumps. When they changed the head or something, Dorothy gave me the plastic tiger head; there is a photo of me in the garden at Woo with it, looking pleased as punch. I remember one poppy day we had gone up on Saturday and I had bought a green toy soldier with a parachute, the kind you throw up in the air and they float down with the parachute. I played with him on the Sunday then when the poppies came down on the television. I threw him in the air to come floating down. It was a big thing to a kid. I thought I was taking part in the ceremonies and remembering the soldiers who died. Dorothy was always smiling and Granny lived in the cottage across from the shop. Sweeties, smiles, and magical things – it was a fantastic shop and the people were magical.”

Phyllis Muir, daughter of Archer and Doll Clouston, Upper Knarston, later Glebe, writes:-

“The Co-op, or ‘Cop’ as we would pronounce it, was the shop that my folks mainly used as it was the nearest and as most journeys were made by bike, the road there and back was fairly flat, apart from the brae of Quoys.   There were no freezers until the Hydro came to the island so a trip to the Cop for fresh food was necessary on certain days of the week.  Thursday in particular sticks in my mind as it was Orcadian day and the paper had to be got that day.  Fresh meat and bread also came that day so by the time the supplies got there, about lunchtime, there would often be a queue but the aim always was to get there before the Egilsay men.  I don’t think there was a shop in Egilsay so a small boat, with 2 or 3 men, used to cross Egilsay soond and land below Banks. They would do shopping for a number of households, load it into sacks which got slung over their shoulders and off they would set back across the fields.  I remember it being a total pain if you had to wait until they had been served! Although, if the weather was bad nobody minded if they jumped the queue so that they could get home before it got dark. It was also recommended not to be in a hurry shopping when the mail came in as it had to be sorted. Dorothy Munro helped in the shop and she also delivered the mail to the Sourin houses.

“The shop was always well stocked with the basics and at one end there was the post office.  My mother relied on ‘the Family Allowance’ for cash so her book would be cashed at one end then spent at the other!  Although at that time it was common for people to have a ‘book’, where everything was written in as it was bought and then paid for at the end of an agreed period, maybe a month, 3 months or longer.  My father would pay by cheque having checked what had been bought.  He would sometimes moan about ‘unnecessary’ purchases, in his mind, but he smoked at the time so he never got far with that argument!

“The Cop was in a way a social meeting place.  If my sister Marlene and I had cycled there we were always asked who had been at the shop and whether there was any news on our return.  Marlene was always better at getting the gossip than me!”

Tommy Gibson tells of Sourin shops and shopping in the past:

The shops in the district were at Guidal, Isaac Marwick was a general merchant also a joiner shop and cobbler. Many other things took part as well. The registrar was at Guidal for many years. The odd tooth was extracted, hair was sometimes cut. Another shop was at Banks; this was situated in the east end of the dwelling house. This shop closed in 1896 when the Mainland family left Banks and the Seatter family came from Ness in Westray. The Seatters lived and farmed in Banks till the mid 1960’s. In 1870, James Yorston started up a small grocery store at the Old Man. I would have thought that this was not a very good site, but he carried on and was taken over by a Co-op about 1890. A new building to house the Co-op was built near the school. The Co-op was moved to its new premises about 1906. A house was then built for the manager. The Co-op used to employ 3 to 5 workers. They were managers, van men and assistants. The van went out most days with deliveries and for collections. A horse van was used for delivery and collections. The Co-op kept a horse for the van, but when the van was due for Wasbister, the horse of Woo was traced into the van. This horse helped pull the van to the top of the Sourin Brae. A two-ton Commer lorry was then purchased in the mid 1930’s. The Co-op stable was converted as a garage to house the lorry. For deliveries and collections the platform was used; old lorries were high and the platform was about 5ft. 6ins above the ground. Top speed was about 30 mph. For selling groceries, the old horse van was converted to fit the lorry, with an arrangement at the rear for the elderly and infirm to get into the van. There was a remarkable amount of groceries in the shelves for sale. The van usually stayed on the public road, but if a farm road was good the van went to the house. When the van was not used, an endless chain fixed to the garage roof lifted the van off the platform.

Some van men I remember were John Seatter of Banks, then John Grieve, Digro, Fred Craigie of the Bu in Wyre. This shop, like the Hullion one, was remarkable. The shops carried all the groceries and animal and poultry feeds, oils, tools, and hardware needed by all the families in their respective districts.

The first manager was a Mr. Work from the Mainland; next was Sandy Grieve of Nethermill, then Harry Gibson, whose parentage came from Upper Knarston, married Hannah Grieve, Fa’doon. By the 2nd World War a Mr. Walls from Rendall took over as manager. Mr. Wall’s son Thomas lost his life in the war in Burma building an infamous railway. The next manager was Magnus Flaws from Wyre, then two brothers from Kirkwall John and Gib Taylor was manager and store man respectively.

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Reproduced, with permission, from his book In Dreams We Moor, Robert Craigie Marwick tells us about his experience of ‘The Cop’.

Next door to the school is the former Co-op shop and store. All through my childhood the Co-op van was a familiar sight on the road as it did its twice a week circuit of the island. At first it was pulled by two horses but in the 1930s a lorry was acquired and the van body was carried on that. The van carried not only groceries and a selection of small household goods but also numerous two-gallon cans of paraffin stacked in racks on the outside. Everyone needed paraffin for oil lamps in those days when no one entertained thoughts of mains electricity ever reaching the island. At that time the old wick lamp with its flame protected by a glass funnel was beginning to give way to the much brighter Tilley lamp which burned vaporised oil within a delicate, gauze mantle. One minute the vanman might be measuring out a gallon of paraffin for a customer and the next handing her an unwrapped loaf of bread. Hygiene was not something that was of great concern to the vanman. He probably had never heard of the word but it is likely that neither had some of his customers. When I recall the lack of hygiene in the handling of food in those days it makes me wonder how any of us survived.

Sammy [pictured above] had a mile or two to travel to work [he lived at Kirkha’] so he acquired a motorbike. One day when it came time for him to go home for dinner he started the machine, let the clutch in and tried without success to move off. He revved the engine a bit more but still the machine would not move. This was because, unknown to Sammy, two of the bigger boys from the school had sneaked up behind him and had lifted the rear wheel just clear of the ground. Then, as Sammy revved the engine even harder, they let go and the machine, with Sammy holding on for dear life, shot off like a bullet from a gun. As with many of the practical jokes perpetrated in those days, it is unlikely that the possibly dire consequences of this one had been given much thought.

[All black & white photos, unless otherwise stated, are from the Tommy Gibson Collection]

By 1861 Quoys was occupied by farmer William Inkster who was a widower. He was married to Margaret Gibson, but she died in 1855 aged 60. William, the son of William Inkster and Robina Rendall was born in 1795. He and Margaret had seven children: Bethynia, who was born in April 1823; Christian, in August 1825; Ann, in August 1827; William, in October 1829; Margaret, in April 1832; James, in March 1836; and Hugh, who was born in February 1839. At the time of the census in 1861 the three eldest daughters, all unmarried, lived with William at Quoys. Bethynia, though called Robina in the census return, was a 39-year-old agricultural labourer; Christie, 37, was a seamstress; and 35-year-old Ann was a domestic servant. William died in 1869, at the age of 74.

Come the time of the 1911 census, carried out on April 5th, Quoys was occupied by 71-year-old Malcolm Leonard. He was the youngest of the four sons of Alexander Leonard and Margaret Grieve of Upper Grips, Sourin. Born in April 1840 he married Mary Craigie in 1862, daughter of James and Barbara Craigie, who was born in January 1839 at Quoyfaro. They had eight children: James, who was born in 1862; Alexander, born in 1864; Mary Jean, in 1866; Margaret, in 1868; Malcolm, in 1870; Annie, in 1874; Bella, in 1878; and John, who was born in 1884.

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Braes, close to the school in Sourin, and also known as Barebraes in the past, housed three families in 1851. Christie Craigie, a widowed 62-year-old pauper, lived at Barebraes 1 with three of her unmarried children; Janet, a 34-year-old seamstress; 31-year-old Barbara who was a knitter; and 26-year-old James, who earned a living as a farmer/fisherman. Christie’s husband was Magnus Craigie of House-finzie [Finyo], Sourin, who died in 1840 at the age of 54. Christie and he raised a family of ten children between 1811 and 1832

Barebraes 2 was occupied by James Grieve, a 90-year-old pauper from Egilsay, his wife Barbara, who was 70 years old, and their 53-year-old unmarried daughter Barbara, who, like her mother, was a hemp spinner.

Rebecca Yorston, another pauper, lived at Barebraes 3. She was the 70-year-old widow of Peter Yorston of Oldman, Sourin, and was supported by her 27-year-old daughter Ann, who earned money by plaiting straw. Rebecca, born in 1783, was the daughter of Mitchell Craigie of Holland, Frotoft, later Hullion, and Ann Mainland

In 1861s Braes 1 was occupied by Barbara Work, a 77-year-old widow and pauper. Living with her was Margaret Grieve, her unmarried step-daughter, 64, also a pauper, and Nanny Work, Barbara’s unmarried sister, 69, who earned a living as an agricultural labourer.

Christy Craigie was still living at Braes with her seamstress daughter Janet – together with son James and his new wife Betsy Mowat. She was the daughter of John Mowat, Scowan, and Isobel Yorston, Trumland, and she was born in April 1827. [Scowan was a small croft below Midgar].

Rebekah [Craigie] Yorston and Christie Craigie both died at Braes in 1872. The death certificates of both ladies record their parent’s names as Mitchell Craigie and Rebekah Marwick. Robert C. Marwick in his book Rousay Roots wonders if Mitchell was married twice, with Rebecca and Christian being children of the earlier marriage.

James and Betsy Craigie continued to live at and work the land at Braes into the early 1900s. James died in 1910 at the age of 85, and Betsy passed away two years later in her 82nd year.

Thomas Meil Shearer was the son of James Shearer [1836-1897] and Margaret Meil [1835-1896], and he was born at Freehall, Stronsay on June 4th 1873. He was employed as a ploughman, living at Housebay, when he married 25-year-old Margaret Jane Miller on February 24th 1898. She was the daughter of Robert Miller and Elizabeth Shearer, and lived at Hunton on the island,. They had four children: Tomima, Anna, Ruby, and Ronald – all born in Shetland, where Tom was employed as a carter, living at South Houlland, Tingwall. Eventually the family moved back to Orkney, Tom farming the land at Lochend, just east of The Ouse and Leira Water, Shapinsay. His wife Margaret passed away at 6pm on October 21st 1940 – after which Tom and his unmarried daughter Anna moved to Rousay, living at Braes.

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OLD SCHOOL

In 1721 a petition was sent to the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge from the Presbytery of the North Isles pleading Rousay’s case for a school. ‘The case of the island of Rousay is very lamentable, having no School-master, and the people for the most part both Ignorant and Barbarous, and the Presbytery entreats that a Charity school be settled there.’

Two years later a school was promised to the island which in turn promised that accommodation and a stack of peats would be provided for the schoolmaster. It was, however, to be another two years before the school was established on a small area of ground at Banks in Sourin and it opened for the first time in 1725.

The North Isles Presbytery was asked to find a suitable person to take charge of the school in Sourin, and in due course the Rousay minister, the Reverend Andrew Graham, reported that a David Marwick who had been doing some private teaching on the island was such a person. The Presbytery examined Marwick and found that he had ‘sufficient knowledge of the principles of our holy Religion for that station and could read and write very well and had also competent knowledge in Arithmetick.’ Having been tried and tested and found fit for his duties David Marwick became Rousay’s first official schoolmaster. He was to remain in that post for the next 49 years.

By 1827 an Assembly school had been established in the premises which had been provided for the SSPCK school a century earlier. The curriculum in Assembly schools was fairly basic, consisting of reading, writing and arithmetic, and of course, religious instruction. Girls were given instruction in sewing and knitting.

The school’s teacher, when the census was carried out in 1841, was forty-year-old William Smeaton and he lived at the schoolhouse with his wife Harriet, also 40 years  of  age, and their seven children: Harriet, 14, William, 12, Mary, 10, Thomas, 8, John, 6, Elizabeth, 4, and one-year-old James. Smeaton remained in the post till 1843. It was in that year that a great many ministers and members of their congregations left the Church of Scotland and formed the Free Church. This breakaway was known as the Disruption and was brought about mainly through dissatisfaction with the practice of patronage, whereby the patron in a parish, usually the largest landowner, had the right to select the parish minister. Smeaton ‘came out’ at the Disruption and joined the Free Kirk, as did a lot of other Assembly and Society teachers. Consequently many of them, including Mr Smeaton, were dismissed from their posts.

He was replaced by Thomas Balfour Reid, the son of George C. Reid and Elizabeth Yorston of Shoreside [the original name of what we know today as Balfour village], Shapinsay, and he was born on January 5th 1824. At the time of the 1851 census he was 27 years of age, and living in the schoolhouse with his wife Betsy Thomson, 32, from South Ronaldsay, and children Thomas, 5, and William, who was two years old. Living with them was Betsy’s unmarried sister Helen, who was a 30-year-old seamstress. Things were not all plain sailing for Thomas though, for he was not without his critics in Sourin. In September 1851 the Assembly’s Education Committee decided to dismiss him after receiving an unfavourable report from the parish minister. Later, the committee had a change of mind and decided to retain him until the Secretary could visit Rousay and judge the situation for himself. Reid escaped dismissal at that time and continued to serve in Sourin until the School Board took over more than twenty years later.

Important changes in Scottish education were brought about by the Education (Scotland) Act of 1873, which decreed that responsibility for providing and administering schools would lie with publicly elected School Boards. Another of its main provisions was that attendance at school would be compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 and 13 years of age.

At this time a petition signed by the heads of 42 families and ten others in Sourin was presented to the new Rousay School Board asking for a new school building and a ‘thoroughly qualified teacher.’ The widespread dissatisfaction with Mr Reid was reflected in the poor attendance with only one child in four attending school. The Board agreed to the points raised in the petition, and within a few months permission was obtained from the Education Department in Edinburgh to build a new school on the opposite side of the road from the old one. Two years elapsed before building began, but eventually the new school, pictured above, was officially opened by General Burroughs in January 1876. Mr James Inkster was now the schoolmaster, a position he held until 1881.

The following story involving Thomas Reid was printed in the Orkney Herald on May 25th 1880:-

SINGULAR LOSS AND RECOVERY OF £83. – On Wednesday last, when the steamer Lizzie Burroughs was leaving the moorings at Sourin, Rousay, Capt. Reid had occasion to lean over the bulwarks, when an envelope containing £83 and some silver coin dropped out of his pocket into the sea. It is customary for the captain of this and other packets to convey large sums of money to town. In the present case the money had been handed to Capt. Reid by Mr. Thomas B. Reid, Clerk to the Rousay School Board, for the purpose of being lodged in one of the banks in town. On falling into the water the envelope floated for a few moments, but sank just as a boat approached. Capt. Reid sent the steamer to town in charge of the mate, and proceeded himself to the Clerk of the School Board, and informed him of the loss, when it was decided to proceed to Kirkwall by a boat and endeavour to secure the services of a diver. Mr Calder, one of the divers who has been engaged at the pier, at once proceeded to Rousay, and descended at the place where the money was lost, the depth of water being about four fathoms. He had only been down a minute or two when he discovered the envelope lying on the bottom. Short as the time was that the money had been in the water, a large shell-fish known as a “buckie” had taken up its abode on the top of the envelope, thus effectually anchoring it to the spot. It is fortunate that there is not any strength of tide at this place. Had the loss occurred where the current is swift the cash would probably never have been seen again.

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In the 1880’s Thomas Reid was still head of the household at the Old School, but he had retired from teaching. In 1881 he was 56 years of age and he was an Inspector of the Poor, the island’s Registrar, and Clerk to the Rousay School Board. His wife Betsy was then in her 62nd year. They had a boarder at that time, Duncan McFadyen, a 34-year-old schoolteacher, who was born in Islay.

Ten years later the Sourin schoolhouse was occupied by a new teacher, 29-year-old William Simpson from Banff, his wife Maggie, and baby son William. The Old School had new occupants too – the Munro family who had moved from Trumland Lodge. Head of the household was Alexander Munro, a 49-year-old merchant from Bower, Caithness. He was the son of Angus Munro and Janet McDonald, and was born in April 1841. On July 14th 1876 he married 26-year-old Christina Steven, daughter of Alexander Steven and Janet Calder. They had eight children: Malcomina Calder, who was born in 1878; Agnes MacDonald, born in 1880; George Morrison, in 1883; Alexander James, born in 1885; Hugh, in 1887; David William, in 1888; Mary Ann McKay, in 1890; and Albert Edward, who was born in 1893.

Over the years Sourin school had a succession of teachers: John Moyes in 1881; Alexander Oswald in 1886; William Wilson in 1887; William Simpson in 1890; Alexander McPherson in 1894; David Clouston in 1895; John Carrill in 1896; Louis McLeod in 1900; and Jessie Marwick, daughter of Hugh and Lydia Marwick of Guidall, who was head teacher from 1903 to 1911 at which time Lydia Gibson Baikie took over. She was the daughter of Kirkwall baker James Baikie and Lydia Gibson Craigie of Myres.

Old School in 1911 housed the Sourin post office, with Alexander Munro being employed as Sub Post Master. When the census was carried out on April 5th that year Alexander and his wife Christina had been married for 34 years, 8 months, and 8 days. With them that night were four of their offspring: Agnes, 30, employed as a cook, but home on a visit; sons Hugh, 24, and Albert, 18, both employed as farm horsemen; and Mary Ann, who was a 21-year-old general domestic servant.

Reference, with permission to reproduce, was made to Robert Craigie Marwick’s book From My Rousay Schoolbag for the detailed information regarding schooling, teaching, and the building of the new Sourin school earlier in the text.

[All photographs, unless otherwise stated, are from the Tommy Gibson Collection.]

Redlums – Midgarth – Windbreck – Kingarly – Gorehouse

REDLUMS

Redlums is the name of a deserted cottage above the road north of Knarston – so named from the colour of its chimney tops in the past.

In 1845 it was occupied by Margaret Craigie, housekeeper to the Rev Patterson, and she paid £1. 2s. 0d. rent. In 1849 this had dropped to 2s. but by 1853 it had risen to 7 shillings. In the census of 1841 the house went by the name of Newhouse, with Redlums in brackets. The 1851 census described Margaret is being a 66-year-old unmarried ‘gentlewoman.’

By 1871, John Louttit and his family moved into Redlums, having spent the last twenty years at Scar, on the hill above Westness. John, a fisherman, was born on December 21st 1818. He married Jane Wilson of Orphir, and between 1845 and 1866 they had thirteen children – seven boys and six girls. First-born was John Robertson, in May 1845; then Catherine Alison, in 1846; William, in November 1848; James, in February 1851; Alexander Lyall, in April 1853; Scarth Robert, in March 1855; Henry, in 1857; Jane Mary in June 1859; Margaret in 1860; David, in 1861; twins Anne and Christie, born in November 1863; and finally Elizabeth Reid, who was born in January 1866.

John was paying an annual rent of £3 between 1878/87, but in 1888 this dropped to £2 having been adjusted by the Crofters Commission. At this time Redlums consisted of 1 acre arable and 10 acres of pasture land.

In the early 1900s Redlums was occupied by bachelor James Mainland. He was the son of Chambers Mainland and Isabella Gibson, and was born in Onziebust, Egilsay, on November 10th 1846. According to his birth certificate he was ‘baptised shortly thereafter before witnesses.’

By the time the next census was carried out William Sabiston was in residence. He was the son of agricultural labourer William Sabiston and Jane Louttit of Munzie, Quandale, and was born in 1846. He married housemaid Margaret Grieve on March 24th 1899. She was the daughter of crofter/fisherman James Grieve and Margaret Craigie, of Clumpy in Sourin. The bride and groom were both 52 years of age when the wedding ceremony took place at Clumpy, officiated by the Reverend Alexander Spark, the witnesses being William Grieve and Maggie Ann McLean. Registrar Hugh Marwick’s impeccable handwriting made this particular marriage certificate very easy to read – unlike some!

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MIDGARTH

Midgarth was a house and croft in Sourin above the public road on a slope of the hill between Banks and Knarston.

Farmer/fisherman James Inkster and his family lived here in the 1850’s. James was the son of John Inkster and Jean Craigie of Gorn, near Innister, and Meeran, below Falquoy, and he was born on June 12th 1804. He married Margaret Inkster, the daughter of Hugh Inkster and Isabel Craigie of Tou, who was born on August 10th 1805, and between 1829 and 1845 they had seven children: James was born in May 1829; Jean, in July 1834; John, in July 1836; Margaret, in June 1838; another Margaret, in July 1840; Mary, in December 1842; and Hugh, who was born in February 1845. The family moved from Gorn to Midgarth, but when his father died James returned to Gorn in Wasbister to farm the 18½ acres of land there.

So there was a change of tenancy at Midgarth, farmer James Marwick and his family living there by the time the 1861 census was carried out. Between 1858 and 1866 the rent was £2.10.0. a year. James was born in Westray in 1794 and he married Christian Groundwater in 1824. She was the daughter of John Groundwater and Ann Harrold and was born on the island of Eynhallow in 1791. They had three children, James, John, and Mary Wood.

In 1861 son John was employed as a house carpenter and sister Mary was a seamstress. Their brother James, then a 35-year-old agricultural labourer, was married to Elizabeth Allan from Eday and they too lived at Midgarth with their two-year-old daughter Mary. Christy Groundwater’s younger sister Mary, described in the census as an unmarried 70-year-old pauper, also lived there.

The census of 1891 reveals Midgarth not only had John, Mary, Annabina and Alexander under its roof – they had a quartet of lodgers too. James McLaughlan was described as a 60-year-old widower, a tramp, born in Kirkwall, and three pedlars; William Gordon (28) from Glasgow; Donald McFee (23) from Wick, and Henry Klein, a 26-year-old from Germany.

Alexander Allardice Marwick left Rousay as a young man, and according to Robert Craigie Marwick in his book Rousay Roots…..”he was a shadowy sort of figure, spending most of his life in Glasgow. The house at Midgar, which was a small thatched cottage, came into his hands after his sister May died.

In 1921, “The Duke,” as he was nicknamed because of the airs and graces he adopted, had the old house demolished, and a large two-storey one erected in its place. He ran out of funds before all his plans were completed, and the house was never occupied, except for short holiday periods. No one in Rousay seems to have known the source of Alexander’s apparent wealth – nor how he lost it. At one time he owned several farms in Sourin, including Gorehouse, Banks, Hurtiso, and Scockness. A subsequent owner removed the roof of Midgar to be used elsewhere, and parts of the walls were demolished at about the same time.”

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WINDBRECK

Windbreck was a small cottage in Sourin, north of Midgarth. In the 1841 census it was spelt Windbraik. 60-year-old pauper Robert Wurke and his 65-year-old wife Maida lived there, supported by their son Robert, who was a 20-year-old fisherman. The annual rent at this time was 5 shillings.

In the Rousay census for 1851 the house was spelt Windbrake. Despite being only ten years hence, Robert Work was recorded as a 74-year-old pauper and his wife Marjory was 72 years old. From Windbrake they had a good view of the island of their birth – Egilsay.

Their daughter Isabella, born in 1816, occupied the croft and worked the land for many years. She was single, and 79 years of age when she died at Windbreck at 7pm on May 23rd 1895. Her death certificate confirms her father as being Robert Work, and her mother’s maiden name – Marjory Grieve.

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KINGARLY

Kingarly, or Barebreck, or even Barebrakes, were the various names of the same croft between Windbreck and Quoys in Sourin. In Volume 16 of the Orkney Ordnance Survey Name Books, 1879-80, the spelling of Kingarly is authenticated by Mr Thomas Reid, Inspector of Poor, Sourin, Mr Robert Grieve, Whitehall, and the Rev. William Gardener, Manse. In the 1841 census it was called Nether Kingly, and occupied by 70-year-old hemp spinner Christie Leonard.

In 1872 David Costie was the tenant, paying rent of £1.0.0. He lived there with his wife Christie, step-daughter Margaret Craigie, who was an invalid, and daughter Fanny, who at that time was a 21-year-old domestic servant. Their son Alexander was the next tenant. In 1881 he was 45 years of age and married to Betsy Gibbon, who was one year older. They had ten children; Hugh was born in 1859; Alexander, in 1861; John, in 1863; William, in 1866; then came two girls – Betsy, who was born in 1867, and Mary, in 1870. James was born in1873; Margaret, in 1877; Robert, in 1880; and finally Jane, who was born in 1882.

In 1888 the Kingarly rent was adjusted to £2.0.0. by the Crofter’s Commission, though Alexander resigned being a crofter soon afterwards. At this time Kingarly consisted of 4 acres arable, but no pasture. The census of 1891, carried out on April 5th, reveals Betsy was a widow – Alexander having died just three months earlier on January 9th. Their son William, born in 1866, was a widower – his young bride Mary Jane Leonard having died of peritonitis on August 21st 1885, just 18 years of age. She was the daughter of Malcolm Leonard and Mary Craigie of Grips, later Quoys, Sourin.

On December 31st 1908 William married 33-year-old Annie Robina Marwick, the daughter of John Marwick and May Yorston of Midgarth. The Reverend Alexander Irvine Pirie was the officiating minister, and the witnesses were James T. R. Marwick and Hugh Costie. In 1914 William was paying annual rent on two properties – 10 shillings for the house and land at Kingarly, and £1 10s. for the land but unoccupied nearby house of Windbreck.

Journeyman stonemason Alexander Costie, born at Kingarly in 1862, was 24 years of age when he married 19-year-old Isabella Kent, daughter of farmer Thomas Kent and Robina Inkster of Musland, Westray, on April 30th 1886. They raised a family of twelve children. First-born was Janet Kent, born in September 1886. Alexander/Ali, was born in 1888; Betsy/Bessie, in 1891; Robina, in 1892; Isabella, in 1894; Joan Mary, in 1897; Thomas, in 1899; David, in 1901; Christina/Teenie, in 1903; James William, in 1905; Reta, in 1907; and lastly Hugh, who was born in 1910.

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GOREHOUSE

What we know today as Gorehouse was in the past called Goarhouse, a croft in Sourin adjacent to The Goard of Banks, from which the name arises. Goard was a name applied to several Rousay fields or stretches of pasture, from the Old Norse word gjorde. Earliest tenants are known to have been William Inkster in 1798 and James Craigie in 1799.

The census of 1841 has it spelled Gorhouse, and the 1851 census reveals another spelling – that of Upper Georhouse, occupied by 30-year-old farmer and plasterer James Mainland of Egilsay, his wife Jane Gibson, and 9-month-old daughter Martha. Immediately below that census entry is ‘Shorehouse’, where 84-year-old widowed farmer William Craigie, also from Egilsay, lived. He is on record as paying an annual rent of £2 7s 0d at ‘Gorehouse’. Immediately below that entry is another – Upper Shorehouse, occupied by another Egilsay man, James Grieve, then a 35-year-old farmer/fisherman. With him was his wife Margaret Craigie, and three daughters, twins Jane and Margaret, and Mary. Between 1862 and 1878 James paid £10 rent, which rose to £12 in 1879.

In 1888 farmer and mason James Mainland was paying £7 6s 0d for Gorehouse’s 17 acres arable and 10 acres pasture, this having been fixed by the Crofter’s Commission. James was the son of Leslie and Jean Mainland of Avalshay, and was born on April 1st 1820. He married Jane Gibson and they had three children; Martha, born on June 16th 1850, James, on June 16th 1854, and Isabella Anne, who was born on September 4th 1859.

Martha married John Mainland who lived a few hundred yards away at Banks. James married Mary Louttit of Digro, and Isabella married twice – firstly stonemason John Kirkness of Grain. He built a new house at Grain, but died shortly afterwards. Isabella’s second marriage was to Hugh Marwick of Whitemeadows, later Grain.

James Mainland senior was 89 years of age when he passed away in December 1909. According to the 1911 census his widow Jane was in her 84th year and still living at Gorehouse with her son James, his wife Mary, and their niece Ellen Craigie, who was 14 years old and assisting in work on the croft.

Jane Mainland was 87 years old when she died at Gorehouse in the early hours of September 10th 1914. Her death certificate reveals she was the daughter of Thomas Gibson and Isabella Harcus – the only record of them being so.

[All black & white photographs on this page are courtesy of the Tommy Gibson Collection.]

by

Phyllis Muir – daughter of Archer and Doll Clouston.

In the Land Valuation records, up until the 1920s, the small croft of Upper Knarston, in the Sourin district of Rousay, was part of the Trumland Estate with various tenants named over the years and latterly William Grieve.  However by 1925 the records show him as proprietor.  William Grieve appears in the 1871 census, the son of Alexander Grieve and Margaret Harrold living at Nethermill, aged 15 and described as a servant at Skokness (sic).  At some stage Willie went to New Zealand but unlike many who emigrated in the late 1800s, he returned.  After his return he married Mary Ann Clouston in 1903 and so begins the connection of Cloustons to Upper Knarston.  Mary Ann, or Dolly as she was known, was my father Archer Clouston’s great aunt.

Willie and Dolly are pictured below on their wedding day.

The photos above show Willie and Dolly Grieve with Jean and Archer in the early 1930s.

Archer snr was unable to care for the two young children with the result that they came to Rousay to be looked after by Dolly Grieve, who was Jane Maria’s sister. My Dad told stories of how poor his life was as a youngster but he was cared for. I imagine a lot of his memories must have been emotionally scarred by the loss of his mother at such a young age.  In 1945 he married Doll (Annabina) Flaws from Wyre. They first lived at ‘The Stables’ at Trumland House, then, on Dolly Grieve’s death in 1946, he inherited the croft and they moved to Upper Knarston.

Back row: Willie Ferguson, Stand Pretty, Bing Munro, Bravel, Alfred Gibson, Avelshay, Robert Seatter, Banks, Jeanny Donaldson, Broch, Daisy Munro, Bravel, Jean Clouston, Upper Knarston, Annabella Gibson, Pow, Roy Russell, Old School, Bill Mainland, Hurtiso.

Middle row: John Seatter, Banks, James Lyon, Ervadale, Annie Craigie, Essaquoy, Kathleen Munro, Bravel, Kathleen Grieve, Cruannie, Mabel Grieve, Cruannie, Nelly Harcus, Clumpy, Chrissie Russell, Brendale, Kathleen Gibson, Avelshay, Annie Craigie, Scockness, Isabella Lyon, Ervadale, George Craigie, Scockness.

Front row: John Grieve, Digro, Robert Grieve, Cruannie, Archer Clouston, Upper Knarston, Edith Gibson, Avelshay, Maggie Anne Munro, Bravel, Dorothy Mainland, Hurtiso, Netta Russell, Brendale, Anne Lyon, Ervadale, John Harcus, Clumpy, Andy Munro, Bravel, Angus Harcus, Clumpy, and Isobel Grieve, teacher, Fa’doon.

I was born, in 1949, in Upper Knarston, the second-born, being three years younger than my sister, Marlene. In 1955 my brother James was born so there was five of us living in a ‘but and ben’ with a small, sheet iron roofed porch at the front. The sheet iron roof sticks in my mind as I remember in the 1953 hurricane it was in danger of blowing away. Dad tied a rope around parts of it and was clinging on for dear life. The roof was saved!

‘But’, the living end, had the usual black stove, fuelled by peat, which provided all heating and cooking. The first job of the day would be to light the fire and put the kettle on to boil. The kettle would then be set to the side of the stove, but never far from the boil, so always ready to produce a cup of tea, especially for visitors.  Bere bannocks were a staple and baked on top of the stove.  Getting the right heat was a knack my mother perfected. There were a couple of comfy chairs, a dining table and chairs and a bed in one corner that Marlene and I shared.  It was great when we had visitors in the evening as when we went to bed we would pretend to be asleep but often would be listening in to the ‘adult’ conversations that we weren’t supposed to hear! Our parents slept in the ‘ben end’ which I seem to remember had two presses either side of the fire which stored dishes, vases, ornaments and jewellery that had been left by Willie and Dolly Grieve. It seemed a bit of a treasure trove at the time and some pieces still survive to this day.  I still wear his gold ring that was made from a nugget that he brought back from New Zealand. The ‘ben end’ in a lot of houses was often the posh room, kept for visitors and Sundays, but we had no space for a room to be unused most of the time and no money to be posh!

When I was growing up, Upper Knarston, as was the norm at the time, had no toilet.  There was a byre that could be used but more often, during the day, relief would be round the corner out of sight of the road!  At night there was a bucket in the porch or a po under the bed.  Water had to be carried in pails, up the brae, to the house from a well by the roadside.  There was no proper road, just a well trodden path across the field. Washing clothes was not a lot of fun, water had to be heated on the fire and poured into an old wash tub with a manual wringer. The only transport we had was a motor bike for Dad and push bikes for Marlene and me.  There were a few acres of land around the house but not enough to make a living from so Dad worked at Trumland Farm.  We did have a milking cow and a few sheep and hens etc. When the cow came into season Dad had to put a halter on her and lead her along to road to visit the bull at a neighbouring farm. Lambing was also a bit of a chore as the sheep somehow liked to lamb at the top of Knitchen near enough!  One of my earliest memories, when I was about 3, is John Mainland of Nearhouse arriving with a sheepdog puppy that we called Ricky – rounding up the sheep became easier after that  –  he was a lovely dog that lived until I was 18.

Back row, left to right: John Will, Schoolhouse, George Gillespie, Pow, Billy Grieve, Fa’doon, Denis Grieve, Cruannie, Ronald Mainland, Hurtiso, Mr Will, Teacher.

Middle row: Wilma Mainland, Essaquoy, John Inkster, Craigearn, Sinclair Taylor, Avelshay, Tommy Gibson, Broland, Marlene Clouston, Glebe, Kenneth Gillespie, Pow, David Will, Schoolhouse, Sheena Grieve, Digro, Muriel Mainland, Essaquoy, Leslie Gillespie, Pow, Lilian Craigie, Breck.

Front row: Ian Grieve, Digro, Bob Inkster, Craigearn, Bruce Mainland, Hurtiso, Phyllis Clouston, Glebe.

School: When I started school, which meant a mile’s walk there and back, Mr Will was the teacher at the Sourin school.  At that time pupils attended from 5 to 15 years old and very few, in my memory, went on to school in Kirkwall from Sourin. Every summer we had a school picnic and every Christmas there was a Christmas concert. I was never very keen on either event as I never won any of the races at the picnic and was too shy to be comfortable on stage! Picnic day attracted a big crowd of parents and visitors and I remember cream cookies and ice-cream as the treats out from the ‘toon’. Santa always came to the Christmas concerts which caused great excitement. There were 3 schools in Rousay at the time but very little communication between the 3. I remember at one stage Sourin pupils were decanted to the Frotoft school where Isabel Grieve of Fa’doon was the teacher. I can’t remember the reason but do remember the rivalry. Frotoft school had 2 well behaved boys at the time and lots of girls.

Back row, left to right: Leslie Gillespie, Pow, John Inkster, Craigearn, Robert Dickey, Langskaill, Kenneth Gillespie, Pow, Sinclair Taylor, Avelshay, Alistair Marwick, Innister, Jimmy Marwick, Cogar, Robert Inkster, Craigearn, Bruce Mainland, Hurtiso, Sandy Nelson, Teacher.

Front row: Doreen Donaldson, Wasdale, Lilian Craigie, Breck, Marcia Marwick, Cogar, Phyllis Clouston, Glebe, Olive Petrie, Tratland, Judy Miller, Wasbister schoolhouse, Doreen Grieve, Saviskaill, Muriel Mainland, Essaquoy.

Sourin had a few rough and tumble boys so I think the calm normally experienced in Frotoft was shattered for the time we were there!  When Mr Will left he was replaced by Mr Nelson who was a bit of a character.  He owned a landrover and on a nice day, rather than being cooped up in school, he loaded us all in and we went on ‘field trips’. Not sure we learned very much about nature that we did not know already! In 1960 the 3 schools joined so my last year at primary was a different experience.  Emphasis was placed on passing the 11+ exams, which I did and gained a place at Kirkwall Grammar.  I was not too keen but my father explained that if I did not go my life would be spent cleaning the byres, singling neeps etc – that threat did the trick! At 12 I started school in Kirkwall and spent 6 years in the School Hostel, another experience which I believe is totally different from what school bairns experience today.  We did not get home every weekend never mind every night like they do now.

Entertainment: I remember having a radio in the house but any other entertainment was ‘home-made’.  On a Sunday we always had to go to the Kirk.  Unfortunately we lived in that part of Rousay which was equidistant from the Brinian and Sourin kirks, so we had to go to both! Sunday was a day of rest at that time, reading was allowed but not much else. If it was a fine afternoon it would be a walk to the top of Knitchen or down along the ‘hammers’ below Knarston.   Very often, in the summer, Sunday would be the day when we would get visitors, aunties, uncles and cousins from Wyre or Shapinsay.  We did not have a phone at Upper Knarston so how all this got arranged I have no idea but there must have been communication as there was always a fine spread of food ready. Visiting friends and relatives at any time of year often meant staying for supper which could be sandwiches (usually tinned salmon!), scones and jam, bannocks and cheese, cakes etc, all along with a cup of tea.  Very seldom would alcohol be involved unless there was a home brew on the go around Xmas and New Year. Occasionally whisky would be offered and my father would pour a dram for a visitor but not have anything himself.

In addition to the concerts and picnics, mentioned above, other highlights of the year was the Show, which at that time was agricultural as well as horticultural / industrial and the Harvest Home.  Children would attend these dances as well as adults and when they became too tired would be wrapped in coats and allowed to sleep across a couple of chairs.  Most of the men would have ordered a ‘half-bottle’ for the event and in between dances small groups of men would disappear outside, returning each time a bit merrier as the evening went on.  The women would be seated along one side of the hall, men at the other. It was only when bars were introduced in the 1970s that it become acceptable for women to be seen enjoying a dram as well!

Move to the Glebe: Around 1958, my father decided to branch out on his own and took over the tenancy of the Glebe from Willie Corsie.  The Glebe belonged to the Church of Scotland and was situated beside the ministers Manse and was just down the road from Upper Knarston.  The house was bigger in that it had a ‘but and ben’ but an additional room at the back and a big wooden extension out the front, painted green so was referred to as the ‘green room’.  We also had the ‘luxury’ of an small outside  ‘loo’ a hut which had a wooden toilet seat over a pail which  had to be emptied on to the midden on a regular basis.  It seemed like we had moved up in the world – memories for another day.

[All black and white photos courtesy of the Tommy Gibson collection]

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A ‘taster’ to this page was added to the Orkney Past & Present Facebook page.
It prompted the comments below…..

Morag Russell: I did enjoy reading Phyllis’s memories – and my own memories came flooding back! I really don’t know how Auntie Doll did it but I used to bide at Upper Knarston for me holidays – we must have managed 3 lasses in the bed, I suppose! It was a highlight of my year and the food was always fantastic – the grandest of tattles and baking, all cooked on/in the black Enchantress stove, fired by their own peats. And how I used to marvel at the bonny things in the ben end. There were the most beautiful exotic shells, the likes of which I had never seen before. And the smells were different – coming from Shapinsay, where we had no peats, I thought I could smell the Rousay fires before I ever got off the boat. And Doll and Archer always had summer roses with the sweetest scent – they must have been Rosa Rugosa I suppose. I remember Marlene and myself collecting old tins and jars and playing shops by the peat stack. We must have looked like a right pair of urchins! None of us had much and I suppose, by some standards, we were poor but those days were some of the happiest of my childhood and have a very special place in my heart.

Jonathan Paul May: 1st car I owned was a 1959 Austin Cambridge A55 Mk2 bought off Archer for a bottle of whisky in 1981..!

Jimmy Clouston: Well done Phyllis. I was 3 when the folks left Upper Knarston so I don’t have any memories of staying there. I do mind me and Harold Trimble trying to catch pigeons up there and putting holes in the ‘Asbestos’ sheet ceiling in the process. I remember getting a ‘skelped erse’ for that.

Ron Spence: Lovely that was. Enjoyed the read. Not much different to Hammerfield. And I used to enjoy cream cookies as well, artificial cream and all. I haven’t seen one for many years.

Morag Russell: We thought there was nothing better! We’d probably hate them now!

Marjorie Pettigrew: Enjoyed the visit to the past. Brought back memories of Rousay and smell of the peat.

Bertie Gillespie: That was great reading & looking at the photos o the Sourin school. I know all the bairns in the photo. I never seem tae be in any school photos. I think I spent a lot o school days working at Faraclett wae me auntie Maggie Anne and Jock !!

According to Hugh Marwick’s 1947 publication ‘The Place-Names of Rousay,’ our knowledge of the tunship settlements in Orkney is largely derived from the old Rentals. The farm of Knarston is first mentioned in the 1503 Rental, primarily a tax-roll showing the various skats or taxes due to the Earls or Bishops of Orkney from each farm or tunship, and in addition, in the case of property lands belonging to the earldom or bishopric, the annual rents due from the tenants in occupation.

The land was valued in terms of early Norse money as ouncelands and pennylands. The old Norse silver mark was sub-divided into 8 ounces and in Orkney the ounce was divided again into 18 pennies – the land being valued as urislands (ouncelands) and pennylands – 1 urisland consisting of 18 pennylands.

The 1503 Rental mentions Knarston, which included Avelshay, and formed a 9-pennyland, or half-urisland. At a later date the lands of the two farms were separated, the Burn of Cruar forming a kind of natural division between them.

Knarston was occupied by William Irvine in 1653. Joint tenants in 1733 were Mitchell Balfour and John Yorston, in 1734 William Wishart and John Innes, and in 1739 William Reid and William Yorston. William Craigie was sole tenant in 1800.

In the 1840’s, Knarstane, as it was called in the census, was a busy farm with three families living within its boundaries. Firstly there was 60-year-old farmer James Craigie and his family. In 1808, he married Janet Craigie, daughter of Hugh Craigie and Janet Marwick, who was born in 1789. They raised a family of five children: James was born on September 30th 1809; Janet, on January 16th 1811; William, on February 1st 1814; Jean, on April 13th 1816; and Margaret, who was born on April 29th 1829.

James, born in 1809, was a fisherman, and he lived at Knarstane with his wife Elizabeth Mainland, daughter of Leslie and Jean Mainland of Avelshay, who was born on April 8th 1813. They had four children: William, born in March 1841; Martha, in January 1846; Margaret, in November 1850; and Jane, who was born in May 1856.

The other tenant at Knarstane at this time was 35-year-old farmer John Gibson. He was the son of John Gibson and Giles (Julia) Grieve of Broland, and he was born on October 17th 1802, at Hurtiso. On February 9th 1830, he married Isabel Craigie, daughter of William Craigie and Sicilia Banks of Knarston, and she was born on June 22nd 1804. They had two children; Sicilia, born on January 28th 1832; and John, born on March 28th 1833.

On March 20th 1835, John married Janet Craigie, daughter of James and Janet Craigie, born in 1811 and mentioned three paragraphs above. Between 1836 and 1853 they raised a family of eight children, six boys and two girls.

By 1851 James Craigie and his family had moved to nearby Cruar. His parents, James and Janet Craigie, were living at Upper Knarston with their 22-year-old daughter Margaret who was employed at home, and John Gibson and his family lived at Knarston itself.

On April 20th 1855, John remarried. His third wife was 43-year-old Mary Mainland, daughter of William Mainland and Alison Rendall of Testaquoy, Wyre. John died the following year aged 54, and Mary returned to Testaquoy on the island of Wyre, where she later died in 1889.

James Gibson was the next tenant of Upper Knarston. He was the son of John Gibson and Janet Craigie of Broland and later Knarston, and was born on May 29th 1836. In 1858 he married Margaret Sinclair of Scalloway in Shetland and they had three children; James, born on October 14th 1859; John, who was born on October 14th 1861 but died in infancy; and Mary Janet Craigie, born on August 12th 1865. James Gibson was 34 years of age when he died in 1870. In the census of 1881 his widow Margaret was described as a 49-year-old agricultural labourer, and son James was a 21-year-old stonecutter – daughter Mary having died in 1879 at the age of 14.

In 1861, Knarston was occupied by two of John Gibson’s sons, John and James, and also by Margaret, the daughter of James and Janet Craigie, and her husband Simpson Skethaway. John Gibson junior was a farmer and he married Jane Mainland in 1859. She was the daughter of William Mainland and Betsy Reid of Banks in Sourin, who was born on July 5th 1837, and between 1860 and 1872 they had seven daughters.

Margaret Craigie, daughter of the previously mentioned James and Janet Craigie, was born on April 29th 1829, and she married Stronsay man Simpson Skethaway on December 1st 1853. Born on September 23rd 1823, Simpson was the son of school teacher Scollay Skethaway and Cecilia Scott, who lived at St. Salvator, Stronsay, and he came to Rousay as a farm servant at the Glebe, which was farmed by James Gardner, the Minister at that time. Simpson and Margaret had twin daughters; Janet (Jessie) and Lydia, born on December 26th 1853, and another daughter christened Margaret Jane, born on October 20th 1868.

Simpson Skethaway and John Gibson were joint tenants of Knarston. Each tenant had his own stock but the labour and everything else invested in the farm were shared equally as were all the crops at the end of the harvest.  At first sight, such an arrangement would seem to be fraught with difficulties and bound to give rise to frequent disputes. There must have been a large measure of goodwill and friendship that overcame any difficulties encountered for the arrangement outlived both Skethaway and Gibson and continued under their heirs well into the 20th century.

A Royal Commission, headed by Lord Napier, was set up by the government in 1883 to look at the conditions of crofting and crofters in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. When the Commission sat at Kirkwall a great many complaints came from crofters in Rousay where the laird, General Burroughs, had been operating a harsh policy of steadily increasing rents.

Among the complainants were Skethaway and Gibson. Burroughs argued that their farm, Knarston, nearly 80 acres in size, was too large to qualify for consideration as a croft. The tenants maintained that it should not be looked at as one farm but as two crofts. They were asked if they paid the rent jointly or separately. They replied that they paid separately and that they had receipts to prove it. However, the receipts were in Rousay and it became clear to them that a decision in their favour would depend on production of these documents.

That night Simpson Skethaway, who was then 60 years of age, rowed out to Rousay, collected the receipts, and rowed back to Kirkwall, a round trip of 28 miles. When the Commission met in the morning for its final sitting the co-tenants produced the documents and won a decision in their favour. That decision later earned them a welcome reduction in rent. A Valuation Roll of 1875-76 revealed the annual Skethaway/Gibson Knarston rents standing at £28.15s.0d. each. A subsequent valuation after the Commission’s meeting showed them paying the lesser sum of £17.16s.0d. each per annum.

Simpson, born in Stronsay in 1823, was 87 years of age when he passed away at Knarston – at 11 pm on February 4th 1911. His death certificate revealed the cause of death: ‘senile decay – been weakening for years’.

Simpson’s youngest daughter Maggie Jane, born on October 20th 1868, married John Corsie, Brendale, in 1885, and they lived and worked at Knarston. They had thirteen children: Margaret Jane (known as Maggie Jean) who was born in 1886; Agnes, in 1887; John, in 1889; Janet, in 1890; William, in 1892, but died six months later; Ann, who was born in 1894; a second William, born in 1896; Thomas, in 1897; Malcomina (known as Minnie), born in 1901; Peter, in 1902; Lizzie, in 1902; Cecilia (known as Cilla), in 1904; and George, who was born at noon on July 1st 1906. Complications during the birth led to the death of Maggie Jean, dying of ‘cardiac collapse’, at the age of just 37.

At the time of the 1911 census John Gibson was 78 years of age. His wife Jane was 73, and they had been married for 51 years, seven months and three days. Daughters Mary-Jane (41) and Jessie (38) ‘assisted in work on the croft’, grandson John Marwick (25) was employed as a horseman on the croft, and with him was his wife Ann and their six-month-old son John. Widower John Corsie was 44 years of age by then, and helping him on the croft were daughter Janet and son William, aged 20 and 15 respectively.

Jane Gibson was 85 years of age when she died in 1922. Husband John was in his 91st year when he passed away two years later. Knarston was then occupied by Harry Sinclair and his family. Christened Harry Hourston Sinclair, he was the son of James Hugh Sinclair, Newhouse, and Margaret McKinlay, Sound, Egilsay, and he was born in October 1889. He married John Corsie’s daughter Janet in 1911, and they had two sons, Gordon and Harry. Parents and children are pictured below.

[All black and white photos courtesy of the Tommy Gibson collection]

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Wallhouse is a vanished house in Sourin. On December 1st 1817, Archibald Sinclair in Swandale “66 years of age come the 1st of May next,” and ancestor of most of the Rousay Sinclairs of today, when giving evidence in a lawsuit, declared he was born at Wallhouse “in the neighbourhood of the Manse that is in Sowric.” The site is now unknown, but it was probably near the Well of Oro on the farm of Knarston.

The Hammers of Knarston is the name given to a short stretch of coastline below Knarston consisting of rocks projecting into deepish water, and providing, in the old days, excellent opportunities for sillock fishing by the use of ‘pock-nets.’ Here vast quantities of these fish used to be caught in late autumn, and their livers, when ‘braithed’ or melted down, provided oil for use in old-time ‘cruisies’ or ‘koly-lamps’ before the introduction of paraffin.

There was an area of land in Knarston known as Vicarage land, of which, in 1503, the skats, or taxes, were drawn by the (Catholic) Vicar of Rousay. This land, represented by the later Rousay Glebe, came on record again over a century later.

At the time of the Reformation, Church lands which had not already been alienated otherwise, were annexed to the Crown, and many years were to pass before all Protestant ministers received adequate provision of manses and glebes. After a time, Acts of Parliament did make provision of a sort, but that was slow in being put into effect.

On May 1st 1626, it is recorded that George Grahame, Bishop of Orkney and Zetland, “compeared upon the ground aftermentioned,” and “with advice of Magnus Craigie in Skaill, Rolland Ingisger in Brugh, and Hew Craigie there, three honest and godlie men of yle and parochine of Rousay, market, designit  and  appointed  to Mr. David Watsone, presently minister actually serving the cure at the Kirkis of the yles of Rousay, Egilsay, Wyre and Inhallow – All and haill the Threepenny land of auld callit Viccaris Land in the toune of Knarston with the house biggit thairupon, sumtyme pertaining to the viccar of the sd yle of Rousay, presently possesst and occupyit be Edward Alschunder…..to be ane mans and gleib for the  said Mr. David Watsone.”

And there a manse and glebe were situated for many years afterwards.

The Established Church Manse was situated close to Knarston, and when the census was carried out in 1841, it was occupied by Mrs. Isabella Ritchie, who was 25 years of age. She had three female servants, 45-year-old Mary Rendall, Jane Johnston who was 40, and Betsy Mowat, who was just 12 years of age.

In the census of 1851, the building was called the Manse of Rousay. Head of the household was 46-year-old minister James Gardner, a bachelor who was born in Linlithgow. Living under the same roof were five servants, all of whom were unmarried. The oldest of these was 29-year-old Janet Flaws. Janet Craigie was a 21-year-old house servant, and Simpson Skethaway (27), Alexander Logie (23) and James Louttit (13), were all farm servants.

The minister was away from home when the census was taken in 1861. By that time he was married, and his 33-year-old wife Harriet Corsie, daughter of William Corsie and Janet Louttit, lived at the Manse with her four-year-old daughter, also christened Harriet. Allan, one of Harriet’s brothers, a 23-year-old ploughman, also lived there – as did domestic servants Barbara Simpson, a 23-year-old from Stromness, and 18-year-old Ann Thompson, from Walls, Hoy.

In 1871, parish minister James Gardner was in his 67th year, wife Harriet was 43, and their daughter Harriet Helen was 14 years of age. They employed two general servants; Jessie Phillips, a 23-year-old from Harray, and 15-year-old John Corsie; and one farm servant, 19-year-old James Robertson.

The minister’s wife died prior to 1881, but widower James Gardner had the company of his daughter Harriet, who by now was known as Harriet Stevenson, having married a farmer of that name. By this time they had a daughter, who continued the family tradition of being christened Harriet.

By 1891, the Established Church Manse was occupied by a new minister of the parish, 46-year-old Alexander Spark, who was born in Montrose. He lived there with his 35-year-old wife Jane Oatt and their seven children, Anita, Hilda, Alexander, James, Veira, Archibald, and Edith. The Reverend gentleman and his lady wife are pictured below.

Apparently the accommodation provided at the manse was sub-standard according to the new incumbent. Here is a newspaper report from the Peterhead Sentinel, published on August 17th 1888:

The Reverend Alexander Spark, erstwhile minister of Boddam, has been little heard of since he immured himself in the lonely solitude of Rousay; but it may interest his many friends and acquaintances this quarter to hear that he is conducting a lively and interesting litigation with his heritors in regard the condition of his manse. It was at one time in the Court of Session; but latterly it has been under the cognizance of the Sheriff-Substitute of Orkney, who has just issued a most elaborate and lengthy decision. His lordship sustains the claim of Mr Spark that his water-main should have a gun-metal stop-cock, but he refuses a whole lot of other claims by Mr Spark, who has apparently been demanding bed-room accommodation for two more people and byre accommodation for two more cattle, and sundry other luxuries. Still, Mr Spark, I gather from the interlocutor, has made good his title to “zinc sash chains” for his windows (the heritors wanted to put him off with ropes) and white marble chimney-pieces in his dining and drawing room; and he has triumphantly vindicated the claim of a parish minister be provided with a boiler in his scullery at the expense of the heritors. Altogether Mr Spark is to have his manse repaired and altered to an extent involving a cost of £600, which is nearly a sixth of the gross rental of his parish. And I suppose after all a minister perhaps preaches none the worse because he has been fighting with the heritors over gun-metal stop-cocks and zinc sash chains.

Tommy Gibson writes about a new manse, built about 1908-9. ‘In 1906 the membership for the Old Kirk was 71, and the minister, the Rev. Alexander Spark received a stipend of £184. This money had a purchasing power of £9542.24p (1996 figures). The average farm worker earned about £16 per year. Purchasing power was £830. The Rev. Spark took a dislike to the old Manse, and about 1900 tried to get his congregation to build a new one for him. He took up a building surveyor from Edinburgh to examine the manse, claiming that the walls were damp. The Rev. took buckets of water to dampen the walls, just to make sure. He also wrote to General Burroughs, the laird who owned the parish, demanding the use of a house “worthy of my status, such as Westness House” while the manse was being built. He went to live in Kirkwall while the new manse was being built. The contract was awarded to Samuel Firth, building contractor, Harray, Orkney. The manse was completed in 1909 at a cost of approximately £900. The old manse was probably built about 1747-50: this would have made the building about 160 years old. It is a pity that a date stone from the old manse was not preserved. The old and new manse did not enjoy a good water supply. On the 17th of January 1908 a Vulcan water pump was bought by the Kirk at a cost of £6 19s 1d plus £18 5s 0d for piping and fittings. This was used to pump the water from Oro to the manse. Oro is the name of one of the strongest springs in Rousay, situated on the land of Knarston, below the house. The pump, known as a Ram, works by water pressure, broke down. This supply or the locality did not please the Rev. Spark. On the 4th of August 1909, the Rev. Spark was seen walking down to Oro, and hammering sounds were heard coming from that direction. William Sabiston, Redlums, and Malcolm Corse, Faroe, were working at the Glebe and witnessed this happening. A lock was broken and another one was lying at the other side of the pump. Two air cocks had been tampered with and the pump was not working properly. Later he lost the use of this pump. The pump was installed 94 years ago at Oro and it is still working perfectly, having had two major services in its lifetime. It is still pumping water up to Knarston.’

Archibald’s older brother Alexander followed in their father’s ecclesiastical footsteps, and recalls an athletic feat in his younger days whilst holidaying back in Rousay. The following account is taken from the Aberdeen Evening Express, dated May 11th 1954:-

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The Glebe

The first mention of occupancy of what we know today as The Glebe was made evident by the census of 1891. Head of the household was John Marwick, son of Thomas Marwick of Woo and his wife Ann Gibson, Broland. Born on July 5th 1826, John was 34 years of age when he married Margaret Gibson, daughter of Robert Gibson and Christian Hourston of Bigland. They went on to have eight children: Robert, born in 1861; Thomas William in 1863; Ann Margaret in 1865; John, in 1867; Mary Gibson, in 1870; Samuel Gibson, in 1873; Isabella, in 1876; and Elizabeth, who was born in 1879.

The Marwicks moved to farm Quoys, Evie, and come the census of 1901 the Glebe was occupied by James Craigie, a 30-year-old fisherman/farmer, and his wife Helen Louttit. James was the son of William Craigie and Ann Mainland, Cruar. Helen was the daughter of William Louttit and Helen Leonard, Digro. James and Helen were married by the minister Alexander Spark at Digro on April 1st 1892. They went on to have four children: James, born in 1892; John in 1894; Helen in 1896; and William, who was born in 1898.

The census of 1911 was carried out on the 5th of April. The Glebe at that time was occupied by John Craigie and his wife Ann. John, born on March 30th 1875, was the son of James Craigie and Janet Sinclair of Falquoy. His wife Ann was the daughter of John Russell, Evie, later Brendale, and Margaret Ann Moar Harper of Lylie, Birsay. They had eight children: John Russell was born in 1902; Jessie Alexina, known as Cissie, who was born in 1903; Annie Alice followed in 1904; Sarah, known as Sally in 1906; James, in 1909; Clara, in 1913; James William, in 1915; and Cathleen, who was born in 1918. This family later moved to Furse.

William Simpson Corsie, pictured above, was the son of John Corsie, Brendale, and Margaret Jane Skethaway, Knarston. Born in 1895, he married Lydia Gibson Baikie of Kirkwall in 1925. They lived at the Glebe had one child, Margaret Gibson Corsie, known to one and all as Peggy, who was born in 1931. She is pictured above right with her grandmother, Lydia Craigie Gibson, originally from Myres. She married Kirkwall baker James Baikie in 1888.

The opening three paragraphs at the top of the page were exacted from
The Place Names of Rousay, by Hugh Marwick

[All photos courtesy of the Tommy Gibson Collection]

Cruar is a small croft on the south side of the Burn of Cruar, just north of Avelshay. According to an early account book its earliest known occupant was Patrick Pearson in 1769. Then the old parochial register mentions Thomas Mainland being there in 1823, and Nicol Mainland in 1826.

In 1841, the first official census records widow Christie Craigie, a 50-year-old wool spinner, living there with three of her daughters. Christie was the daughter of Mitchell Craigie and Rebekah Marwick of Hulzean [Holland/Hullion], and she was born in 1787. She married Magnus Craigie of House-finzie, later known as Finyo, Sourin, but he died in 1840 at the age of 54. They had ten children between 1811 and 1832, eight daughters and two sons.

By 1851 Christy had moved to Braes near Outerdykes, and Cruar was occupied by 42-year-old fisherman James Craigie and his family. He was the son of James and Janet Craigie of Knarston, born on September 30th 1809. He married Betsy Mainland, daughter of Leslie and Jean Mainland of Avelshay, who was born on April 8th 1813, and they had four children. The first-born was William, on March 20th 1841. Martha was born on January 30th 1846 but she died at the age of 18; Margaret, who was born on November 14th 1850, died when she was 13 years old; and Jane, who was born on May 9th 1856 but died when she was just ten years of age.

James Craigie died in 1870 and his son William became head of the household at Cruar. At that time he was 40 years of age and earning a living as a fisherman. That year he married Anne Mainland, the daughter of William Mainland and Betsy Reid of Avelshay, who was born on April 12th 1839, and between 1870 and 1878 they had five sons; James was born on October 18th 1870; William, on February 11th 1872; William Mainland, on March 23rd 1874; John Mainland, on January 6th 1877; and David Mainland, who was born on October 9th 1878.

John Mainland Craigie married Jessie Alexina Craigie, daughter of James Craigie and Janet Sinclair of Falquoy, who was born on April 25th 1879 at the Old School, Wasbister. Before her marriage Alexina worked as a maid in Trumland House, the home of the laird General Burroughs who owned most of the island at that time. The General was a harsh and vindictive landlord and latterly very few people in Rousay had a good word to say of him. Despite this, Alexina remained strongly loyal to her former employer till the end of her days, refusing to listen to anyone speaking ill of him. One day, towards the end of her life, she and a neighbour were discussing the General. The neighbour, who was aware of Alexina’s tenacious loyalty, mischievously remarked that the General had died in a public toilet in London. Alexina was horrified. Pulling herself up to her full height, she declared, “General Burroughs was never in a public toilet in his life!”

On another occasion Alexina and a friend were discussing Craigie families in Rousay. Alexina was doubly proud of her Craigie name having borne it before her marriage as well as after. “Some people complain,” she said, “that we Craigies consider ourselves better than other folk.” Then, looking her friend straight in the eye, she added, “But we are!” [This, and the paragraph above, have been extracted from Robert Craigie Marwick’s book ‘In Dreams We Moor’].

John died in 1957 at the age of 80 and Alexina was 102 years of age when she passed away in 1980.

[All photos courtesy of the Tommy Gibson Collection]

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Some folk have kindly sent me their memories of Alexina:

Reading about Alexina reminded me about an amusing incident just before she had to leave Cruar to go into hospital.  She was quite poorly and having no phone to call for help if she needed it, people took turns to stay with her during the day and night. I had gone one night with my mother-in-law to sit with Alexina.  She knew my grandmother who was also a Craigie and probably a relative. When she realised who I was she said “You always remind me of your grandmother – not so good looking of course but very like her”. She then went on to talk about my grandmother who had died before I was born. The next time I went with my mother-in-law to sit with her she remembered our conversation and said “It’s a wonder you’ve come back to see me after me saying you weren’t as good looking as your grandmother, but, ah weel, we canno’ a’ be bonnie”.  We have had many a laugh over the years about her remarks and it still makes me smile more than 40 years later when I think about them. – Margaret Mainland

Very well told. I remember my father telling me about one of the Craigies saying exactly what you wrote about them being better. Brought a smile to my face. – Anne Paterson

I was told that too! It was true of course. – Claire E Rowlands

Alexina was 70 when I was born so to me she was always an old woman, dressed in black but such an interesting person. We delivered milk to her and always had to stay for cup of tea and loved her stories of life when she was young. The burn o Cruar, all the way up to the main road was an extension of their garden. – Phyllis Muir

Auntie Alexina was a very interesting budy! Her time with the Burroughs (who she wouldn’t hear a word against) at Trumland House and travelling with them to their London townhouse. She spent the last of her life in the Balfour where my mother visited her daily! Once when her cousin, another centenarian, was in the opposite bed they reminisced at length and detail about the 1800s like it was yesterday! – Athol Grieve

My mother visited Alexina regularly and one story she recounted was when her husband came home with a grand bull and soon afterwards the bull took ill. To lose the bull of course would have been a great disaster so they took out the vet. Anyway, the vet gave them a bottle of medicine for dosing the bull. They had a servant girl working for them at that time who was a bit gushely and unfortunately she ‘caa’d ower’ (Alexina’s words) the bottle of medicine. Alexina, being the kind hearted person she was, said to her, don’t worry we’ll just fill up the bottle with water and say nothing to anyone. Needless to say the bull got better! – Jimmy Clouston