Bearing the People Away by June Skinner Sawyers

Bearing the People Away by June Skinner Sawyers

Author:June Skinner Sawyers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cape Breton University Press
Published: 2013-03-07T16:00:00+00:00


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Nairne, Lady Carolina (née Oliphant) (1766-1845). Songwriter; born in Gask, Perthshire; the daughter of a Jacobite laird. She wrote songs under the pseudonym Mrs. Bogan of Bogan, which were published in The Scottish Minstrel (1821-1824) and posthumously as Lays from Strathearn. Her most famous songs include the lament for Bonnie Prince Charlie, “Will ye no’ come back again,” “The Land o’ the Leal,” “Caller Herrin” and “The Auld Hoose,” many of which became standard fare for the mid-20th-century folk revival.

Napier, Lord (Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier and 1st Baron Ettrick) (1819-1898). Diplomat and colonial administrator, born at Thirlestane Castle in Selkirkshire. Napier served as the British Minister to the United States (1857-1859), Netherlands (1859-1860), Russia (1861-1864) and Prussia 1864-1866), and as the Governor of Madras from 1866 to 1872. From a Highland perspective, he is best known for being the chairman of the historic Napier Commission.

Napier Commission. Officially the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands. It was appointed in 1883 with Francis Napier (10th Lord Napier) acting as chairman under the Liberal government of William Gladstone and was assembled to inquire into the conditions of the crofters in seven counties: Argyll, Inverness-shire, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney and Shetland. Members of the Commission travelled throughout the Highlands and Islands interrogating witnesses. Altogether it held meetings in 61 places; 775 people gave evidence. Most of the crofters spoke only Gaelic. A. D. Cameron in his invaluable history of the commission notes that “every word they said” was translated and, “if necessary, written down in shorthand” and given to Neill and Co. on Old Fishmarket, in the High Street along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile “to be printed for presentation to Parliament and sale to the public on 28th April, 1884.” In addition to the actual Report and an additional 500 pages of written evidence, the Commission printed 3,375 pages of oral answers to 46,750 questions. All meetings were open to the public and were meant to be as transparent as 19th-century society allowed. All in all, it was a remarkable social document of a place and time.

Each community selected a spokesperson and was encouraged to speak freely without fear of reprisals. Angus Stewart of Braes, Skye, specifically asked for assurance that he would not be evicted by the landlord or the factor for being frank. Witnesses included factors but also merchants, fish curers, headmasters, physicians, ministers and priests. Although the Commission’s namesake, Lord Napier, served as the head, other prominent members included some of the wealthiest landowners in Britain. The five members were Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, MP for Inverness; Donald Cameron of Lochiel, Conservative MP for Inverness-shire; Sir Kenneth Mackenzie of Gairloch; Alexander Nicolson from Skye, who was sheriff of Kirkcudbright; and Donald MacKinnon, professor of Celtic at the University of Edinburgh.

The meetings took place in the following times and locations:

1883

Skye

8 May, Ollach Schoolhouse, Braes

9 May, Snizort Free Church, Skeabost

10 May, Schoolhouse, Uig

11 May, Schoolhouse, Stenscholl

14 May, Schoolhouse, Stein, Waternish

15 May, Church, Dunvegan

16



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