Dùn Èistean, the Morrisons and the Historical Background

Dùn Èistean and the “Morrisons” of Ness in the Lordship of Lewis. The historical background, c. 1493 – c.1700[1]

Introduction

Dùn Èistean and Habost in Ness in the north end of the Island of Lewis are areas traditionally associated with the ‘Clan Morrison.’ Families of the same name appear in Harris, Sutherland and other areas of the Highlands and Islands who either may or may not be related, but the focus here is on the Ness/Lewis kindred known as the brieves or britheamhan.[2]

The Morrisons of Ness are said to have been a family of hereditary britheamhan or judges associated with the Macleods of Lewis as part of the wider Lordship of the Isles (c.1336-1493).[3] While there were several families in Ireland who are known to have practiced the old Gaelic style of law over several generations in the late medieval and early modern periods, almost nothing is known of such families in Scotland with the sole exception of the Morrisons of Ness.[4] While firm documentary fixes explicitly linking the Morrisons to the structure of Dùn Èistean may never be found, there is no doubt that the Morrison or ‘brieve’ kindred were well established in the area during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and probably well before this under the overall lordship of the Macleods of Lewis. It is within the framework of the wider Macleod of Lewis lordship that this clan and this structure, Dùn Èistean, should be considered during the later sixteenth century when this kindred first appear on the historical record.It is hoped to provide a historical context here for the archaeological report on Dùn Èistean by examining the ‘Morrisons’ of Ness within the context not only of the lordship of Lewis, but also with an eye to the connections of the people of Lewis (and Ness) with other island groups and the wider world in the late medieval and early modern period.

I. Dùn Èistean, Hereditary Judges and historical sources

The late Rev. William Matheson has written on the Morrisons of Ness prior to 1600 augmenting the sketchy contemporary source material with later tradition and with linguistic evidence: the latter forming the basis for much of his investigation.[5] While the reader is referred to Rev Matheson’s discussion, ‘The Morrisons of Ness’ (TGSI 50, 1979), and that of Captain Thomas (1876-78), the emphasis in this present piece is somewhat different: privileging contemporaneously generated primary source material wherever this is possible. The most useful types of contemporary source-materials available to us are family or clan histories, produced by powerful neighbouring mainland dynasties such as the Mackenzies of Kintail and Seaforth and the Gordons of Sutherland on the one hand, estate papers, and paperwork generated by or for the authorities in Edinburgh such as the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland.[6] None of these sources were generated by people from Ness or Lewis, and they must be read with an awareness that the writers all had their own agenda which probably differed considerably from those of the inhabitants of the Ness (or Lewis) area. Although these documents are often fragmentary and hostile witnesses they do give us a contemporary voice albeit often an unsympathetic one.[7]

Tradition and later ‘Morrison’ histories on the other hand from the nineteenth century and later, while they do give a valuable ‘local’ view, and may contain a kernel of truth, should be treated with great caution due to the distortions inherent in tradition and oral history.[8]Both the Rev. William Matheson in his study on the Morrison family, An Clàrsair Dall, and Dr Dòmhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart have shown what can be done in this respect in their studies related to north Lewis in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth century by tying tradition to a solid and credible contemporaneous documentary base (Matheson, 1970. Stiùbhart, 2006).

Prior to the mid seventeenth century, however, such contemporaneous sources are less plentiful and tradition, where it can be compared against surviving fragmentary contemporary material is often unreliable. What follows is an attempt to build a picture of the ‘Morrisons’ or ‘brieves’ in the Dùn Èistean area between 1493 and c. 1700 from contemporaneous sources inasmuch as these sources will allow. The dearth of detailed documentary materials, however, relating to the people and the place means that such a discussion must of necessity be less narrowly focused on the Dùn Èistean and Ness area, but concentrate instead on the ‘Morisons’ or ‘britheamhan’ within the wider framework of the Lewis estate possessed by the Macleods of Lewis between the fourteenth century and 1598, the Fife Adventurers between 1598 and 1609, and the Mackenzies of Kintail and Seaforth between 1609 and 1844.[9]

II. Names: Morrison, McBref or MacGillevorie ?

The name ‘Morrison’ or ‘Morison’ (one ‘r’ seems to have been preferred from the mid seventeenth to nineteenth century although spellings were not consistent) was known and used widely in Ness certainly from the mid seventeenth century up until the present day and historical narrative and tradition tie these Morrisons back in time to the earlier period of the Lordship of the Isles.[10] The ‘Morisons’ however, were not known as such by contemporaries during the sixteenth century. In fact the earliest usage of this name form in this family in Lewis dates only to 1640-1643 when a Mr Donald Morison turns up in the record as minister in Ness, Lewis.[11]The name given to members of this family in contemporary Scots and Latin documents prior to 1640 x 1643 was ‘MacGilleVorie’ and ‘McBreif’and variants thereof rather than ‘Morrison.’These names are clearly attempts at rendering the Gaelic forms ‘MacGilleMhoire’ and Mac a’ Bhritheimh, (britheamh meaning something like ‘judge’) into Scots and Latin forms.[12]Sir Robert Gordon writing around 1630 referring to an incident around 1600 involving the family talked of ‘Gilcalme moir mac Iain (chieff of the clan wic Gill woir efter the death of the breiwe)...’[13]Another record relating to members of this family from 1598 wrote their names as ‘Angus m’Keane Bref, Jhone Dow McBreif, Angus Mc Breif’.[14]

The Morrison ‘clan’, or the briefs or McBreifsas they are referred to here, occupied Ness as tenants and followers of the MacLeods of Lewis, and it was the Macleods who had outright title to the whole island including Ness. Indeed the Macleods may well have had a physical presence in Ness itself too, in Eòrapaidh, according to the tradition of ‘Taigh MhicLeòid’ somewhere close by Teampall Mholuaidh (just over a mile from Dùn Èistean), rather than a more detached overlordship.[15] However the ‘McBreifs’ were more than tenants as we would understand the meaning of the word today. They were, or had been, a family of hereditary judges and as such they would have had dùthchas or a ‘kindly’ or hereditary right to the lands of Ness: something less than being landlords but much more than a simple tenancy as we would understand it, having a clearly understood ‘right’ to occupy the land from their length of possession over several generations.[16]

The britheamhan,then,occupied a part of the Macleod of Lewis Lordship and this is the wider context in which they should be seen rather than solely in the Ness area. Probably this family of britheamhan or brieves appeared in other parts of the trans-Minch MacLeod lordship too as the MacLeods of Lewis not only controlled Lewis but also had title to or occupied Vaternish in Skye, Raasay, Gairloch, Coigeach and Assynt in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.[17]Hugh the ‘Breif’ and his successor Allan ‘the breif’, appear prominently as witnesses or associates in documents relating to Ruairidh MacLeod of Lewis in the later sixteenth century, an indication of their status as leading men within the Macleod regime.[18]

Dùn Èistean and the Lordship of the Macleods of Lewis in 1572.

The Britheamhan, despite their appearance in other parts of the Macleod of Lewis lordship,are undoubtedly most strongly associated with Ness. Tradition has it that they lived in a taigh mòr, or big house, on Habost machair and were hereditary judges and tenants of the MacLeods, probably from the fourteenth century onwards.[19]The family can be placed there with certainty in the sixteenth century from surviving corroborating contemporary documentary evidence. Allan ‘the Breif’ described himself as being of ‘Abost Nyss’ (Tàbost, Nis/Habost, Ness) in Ruairidh Macleod’s sasine of April 1572, when the leading men from districts throughout the lordship: Point, Uig, Rasay, Gairloch, Coigeach and Assynt all turned out to witness a legal transfer of land relating to Ruairidh Macleod of Lewis and his son.[20]

The MacLeods themselves had answered to the Macdonald Lords of the Isles prior to the forfeiture of the Macdonalds in 1493, and directly to the sovereignafter that date as the Scottish monarchs increasingly, although not always effectively, sought more direct control of the region. The period between 1493 and 1610,known in Gaelic as ‘Linn nan Creach’ (age of raids), saw considerable unrest across the whole region due to this collapse of the Macdonald Lordship and spasmodic, often ineffective, Royal attempts to control the western seaboard. The Macleods of Lewis in particular were frequently in rebellion against the crown at this time, 1504-6, 1530 and 1540-1555, often supporting Macdonald focused insurrections, for reasons that are not clearly understood.[21]

While the impact of rebellions such as these on the Ness / Dùn Èistean area are unknown, the royal expedition to subdue the lordship of Lewis in 1505 was unlikely to have completely ignored strongholds on other parts of the island. Torcal MacLeod of Lewis held out in Stornoway castle in 1505-6, supporting Dòmhnall Dubh the Macdonald claimant to the Lordship of the Isles in defiance of James IV. The treasurers’ accounts reveal some interesting details about the logistics of the royal expedition to crush Torcal’s rising and the gunners, armourers, wrights and masons deployed by Royal forces against him. The expedition led by the Earl of Huntly besieged and captured Stornoway castle using cannon, emphasising Steve Boardman’s point that the advent of gunpowder and advances in artillery meant that stone castles were no longer impregnable even in the more ‘remote’ parts of the kingdom by the end of the fifteenth century.[22] Clearly this insurrection and the royal reaction to it was one context which may have impacted on Dùn Èistean although there is no documentary evidence one way or another.

III. Royal reform of legal systems

The Stewart effort to extend their control over the isles in the wake of Torcail Macleod’s rebellion was not confined to military campaigning. The forfeited estates of the Macleods of Lewis were administered initially by Andrew Stewart the Bishop of Caithness, Alasdair ‘Crotach’ Macleod of Harris, Mackay of Strathnaver and Clanranald on behalf of the crown (1507-12) and attempts were made to harmonise the legal system in the isles with practice elsewhere in Scotland.[23] We are told by a contemporary writer, Donald Monro, in 1549, less than five years after the last serious attempt to reinstate the Lordship of the Isles (which had also involved Lewismen) that the ‘lawis of Renald McSomharkle,’ presumably dating from the twelfth century, had been practiced in the lordship.[24] These laws of the lordship of the Isles are long lost, presumably they may have been Gaelic or Norse or even Norman influenced, but they were seemingly still veryattractive to west coast clans in 1545 (including the Macleods of Lewis and the ‘brief’ kindred) who raised a major rising in an attempt at reinstating the Lordship of the Isles in preference to the rule of ‘law’ being imposed by Edinburgh.

It was noted by Donald Monro (1549), rector of Y or Braigh na h-Aoidhe near Stornoway, who had, on the face of it, no reason to praise the overthrown Macdonalds, that in the time of the Lords of the Isles ‘thair was great peace and welth in the Iles throw the ministration of justice.’[25]Such a reference may hint at the continuing appeal of the old systems within the isles in contrast with the increasingly acquisitive Stewart monarchy. A late source (c.1680) tells us that under the Lordship of the Isles the hereditary judges or britheamhan had been entitled to a cut or fee of one eleventh of the value of the cases they considered.[26]The implementation of these laws and the role of britheamhan in this was suggested by William Matheson (following Cameron) to be quite different from our understanding of a judge’s role:

‘not to pronounce judgement and sentence, but to state what the law was in its bearing on any particular case – not so much a judge, more of a juriconsult and arbiter.’[27]

One document survives which may give us a glimpse of the way in which Scottish kings tried to influence the practice of law in the area from 1493 onwards: a grant by James IV to a Highland student of law, Coinneach mac Uilleim (Kanoch Wilyameson). Coinneach mac Uilleim in Tròndarnais was granted the income from the lands of ‘Baramosmor’ and ‘Kilmartine’ in Trotternish by the king in 1508 to support his education:

‘…at the skolis, and for to lern the kingis lawis of Scotland and to exercyse the samin within the boundis of the ilis…’[28]

Tròndarnais (Trotternish), in north Skye, was a contested land for much of the sixteenth century between the Macleods of Harris, the Macleods of Lewis and the Macdonalds of Sleat, the latter dominating it for much of the period. The Macdonalds of Sleat had close ties of kinship and affinity with the lordship of the Macleods of Lewis during much of the sixteenth century and certainly kept company with the tenants of the lordship of Lewis on occasion, such as the britheamhan.[29] The britheamh kindred as followers of the Macleods of Lewis, thushad a clear, if little understood, connection with the lands of Trotternish at this time, and several of the britheamh kindred were specifically associated with the area at this time.[30]

The location of ‘Baramosmor’ in Trotternish is something of a conundrum but Kilmartin in Trotternish, within the sphere of influence of the Macdonalds of Sleat in this period, is readily identifiable. It is possible that the king, keen to win supporters in the region following the suppression of a serious rising designed to reinstate the Lordship of the Isles, wanted to train the next generation of hereditary lawmen in the isles along the lines followed elsewhere in his kingdom, and the ‘skolis’ that James had in mind were almost certainly in the lowlands. This Coinneach, of whom we otherwise have no record may well have been the son of William ‘lawman’ in Trotternish. William ‘Lowman’ (lawman / britheamh?), possibly one and the same as William archiudex in 1485, is himself on record as a tenant of Trotternish in 1507.[31] William, significantly, was one of those tenants in the area granted a protection necessary, perhaps, due to his cooperation with Royal forces during Torcail Macleod’s rebellion, and if Kanoch Wilyameson (or Coinneach mac Uilleim, the student mentionedabove), was his son, the two events, William’s protection and the schooling, may not be unconnected.[32]

James IV may thus have been attempting to reform native institutions along mainstream lowland Scottish lines, by stipulating that the law student was to study ‘at the skolis’ or schools – doubtless in the south (anticipating the better known Statutes of Iona by 100 years).[33]This coincided with a major re-shuffling in landholding patterns by James, 1493-1509, who placed a series of magnates such as the Mackenzies, Macleans and others within former Macdonald lands, thus giving them a vested interest in preventing a Macdonald return.[34] William Matheson also spotted a ‘Eugenius Mackbrehin’ as a student matriculating at St Andrews in 1525.[35] If this person was one and the same as the person known to historians as Uisdean mac a’ Bhritheimh, or Hugh the brieve who died in 1566, then a pattern may have been established of the education of ‘learned families’ in lowland universities from the more ‘remote’ parts of Gaelic Scotland somewhat earlier than is usually assumed.[36] The implication of this, as noted by William Matheson, was that while this family of ‘brieves’ seem to have retained their reputation and standing well into the seventeenth century, the old Gaelic (?) legal mores of ‘Renald mc Sorle’ were likely to have declined following the collapse of the Lordship of the Isles.[37]

The abrupt death of James IV at Flodden in 1514 followed by a succession of short personal reigns and royal minorities (until James VI’s initiatives of 1587) robbed these plans of momentum.[38]Although there is little we know about their activities, there is no doubt that ‘lawmen’(whatever the nature of the law) survived and flourished during the sixteenth century in Lewis: both from the evidence of personal names and by-names such as ‘breif’ and from the evidence of a well-informed key witness, Sir Robert Gordon of Sutherland, who sheltered some of the few surviving members of thefamily of the Macleods of Lewis following the Mackenzie conquest and plantation, 1609-13, and was thus informed by people who were in a position to know.[39] According to Sir Robert, writing around 1630, the role of the brieve in Lewis was as follows:

“The Breive is a kind of judge amongst the islanders, who hath ane absolute judicatorie, unto whose authoritie and censure they willinglie submitt themselves, when he determineth any debatable question betuin partie and partie.”

By 1630, however, when Sir Robert wrote his manuscript, it was clear that any such native institutions had disappeared, as was the case in Shetland, where growing royal authority abolished the similar office of ‘foud’ at much the same time.[40] Records of a witchcraft case in Stornoway in 1631 makes this clear. Here, the justiciars were not namedMcBreif, MacGille Mhoire or even Morrisons, but Mackenzies, members of the new elite in charge of Lewis.[41]

IV. The Brieves in historical Sources