Scottish Islands Explorer 41: Jan / Feb 2017

Apostle of Land Reform
Apostle of Land Reform
Andrew Wiseman assesses John Murdoch of Islay
Like many an exile from the island of his
upbringing, John Murdoch only periodically
returned to Islay. Of those many men and women
who appear in the annals of the Highlands and
Islands, Murdoch deserves to be counted as one of
the most revered and respected.
Born in the farmhouse of Lynemore in the
Nairnshire parish of Ardclach, on 15 January 1818,
he was the second child and eldest son of the
family of nine children to John Murdoch and Mary
MacPherson. Three years later, the family moved
to Atholl, Perthshire, and then on to Islay in 1827,
where they settled. Having spent his formative
years there, John Murdoch considered the island
to be his home.
Recollecting the journey between Perthshire and
Islay, Murdoch notes: ‘And well do I remember the
voyage on a small sloop to Port Askaig on the Sound
of Islay. e steamer Maid of Islay was off the station;
and, there being no wind, we were at the mercy of
tides for I do not know how long. It was summer
when we reached the ‘Queen of the Hebrides’ … No
doubt the island was elevated to the status of ‘Queen’
on account of its superior fertility - not on account
of its beauty.’
Beyond the Island
In order to get on, as with so many other places, ‘it
was accepted as a matter of course,’ as Murdoch
himself was later to admit, ‘that any lad of intelligence
and proper ambition should look beyond the
island for his sphere.’ In 1838, at the age of 20,
Murdoch moved to the mainland and, somewhat
reluctantly, became a Civil Servant in the Excise
Department of the Inland Revenue, a career where
he served for 35 years.
Posted to Armagh in 1839 and subsequently to
Lancashire, Murdoch witnessed at first hand the
plight of those Catholics in Ireland who, with their
demand for Home Rule against the British, were
forced into poverty and famine. In Lancashire he
came under the pervasive influence of Chartism with
its range of political, social and economic demands
for parliamentary reform.
Such injustice and suppression clearly pricked
Murdoch’s conscience and so he took his campaign
for social justice into newsprint and through the
writing of pamphlets. Murdoch had a personal
knowledge of tyranny for, in 1845, his father was
tragically killed in a shooting accident. To make
matters worse, a factor then took advantage of the
situation in order to evict his grieving mother and
her children from Claggan Farm.
Like-minded
Far from being embittered by these turn of events,
it would seem that Murdoch became even more
radicalised than before. A short time aerwards he
returned to ‘a Ride’ in Islay, and was soon involved
with a group of like-minded fellow-radicals in
discussing such issues as science, history, poetry,
theology and politics.
Before long, however, he was destined for service
in Kintyre, Dublin, Shetland and Inverness. While
engaged in Dublin as an Excise Officer in 1856, he
was active in an agitation for improvements in the
pay and conditions of his fellow-officers. Such
experiences were bound to inform his political
philosophy. Murdoch observed the range of landlord
oppressions and social, economic and agricultural
crises along with the Clearances there.
In Dublin, too, he contributed articles to such
newspapers as e Nation on a wide variety of
agricultural topics. ere he met and married Eliza
Jane Tickell, 14 years his junior, with whom he had
six offspring. He was a practical land improver as well
as a political agitator and knew well the effect of
putting pen to paper as a powerful propaganda tool.
40 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017