port henderson : past & present - Royal Commission on the Ancient ...

of age. It is possible that his father was a Duncan MacPherson who might have been living on crofts 14
or 20. Duncan was 70 years old on the 1851 census).
The next tenant to be called before the court was a Duncan MacKenzie who had two crofts and a
boat with a 40 feet keel which he shared with his son. Sir Kenneth had given him most of the money
needed to buy the boat and Duncan was in arrears by one rent.
‘Sheriff Brand said that, under these circumstances, he should pay up his arrears, to which he replied that
he was quite willing, and would do so as soon as he made anything at the fishing. He could get nothing
to ... them out of the croft.’
He was asked by Alexander Mackenzie how far away he was from the nearest harbour and was told
that the distance was two and a half miles to Badachro because only boats less than 16 or 17 in keel
could be hauled up at Port Henderson. Sheriff Brand remarked that it was not often that crofters and
sons with boats as large as Duncan’s came before the court and he asked where the fish went after it
had been caught. When the reply was to Stornoway Sir Kenneth asked why there rather than the two
fishing stations at Badachro. It appeared that more money, ten to twenty shillings per cran, could be
found in Stornoway whilst only six or seven shillings per cran was given at Badachro. Duncan
MacKenzie said that he would pay his arrears as soon as he could ‘get it from the sea.’ (This Duncan
MacKenzie was most probably the tenant of crofts 3 and 4. He was shown as a fisherman on the 1871
census and his son, James, was also a fisherman. In 1888 Duncan would have been 73 years of age).
The next tenant was John Mackenzie.
‘John Mackenzie was a shoemaker as well as a crofter. Cross-examined by Sir Kenneth as to having
fallen into arrears, he explained that he could not, in recent years, get from the crofters as much as he
would pay for the leather he was using. He was suffering, like the landlord, by the tenants inability to pay.'
His re<strong>present</strong>ative explained that the tenants in the township kept more cattle and sheep than they
needed because they couldn’t get a price for them so they were only able to pay off small sums of any
arrears they had accrued. The shoemaker received nothing for his labour. John Mackenzie also
explained that he had built a house eight years previously which had cost about £60. Although the
wood was free from the estate he ‘complained that he had to cart it a long
distance’ and this had cost him £3 - ‘as much as he would have had to pay
if he bought it in Glasgow.’ He was still partly in debt over the house. (The
A shoe pattern
shoemaker’s house was on croft 8 and, although John was shown as a 63
year old crofter on the 1881 census his son, Murdo, was a shoemaker).
‘Several other cases followed, displaying no special feature of interest. Most of the parties were in arrears,
and very poor - widows, and men who fished as hired men during the fishing season.’
One more Port Henderson case was heard.
‘John Mackenzie, who appeared for his mother, Widow Alexander Mackenzie, gave interesting evidence
regarding the fishing industry. The extent of the croft was four acres of reclaimed moss, for which they
paid a reduced rent of £4.15s, and during the last two years they had fallen into arrears, in
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