Mairi Riobach/Mary MacCrain (1737-1855?) - an 'Eccentric Centenarian' on Jura

A newspaper report from 1853 tells of an 'Eccentric Centenarian': 'There is living on the estate of Ardlussa, Jura, a woman named Mary MacCraig alias Mairi Riobach, who is now in her one hundredth and sixteenth year. She was born in the Island of Islay, and has been weakly in mind from her youth. She has led a wandering life, and has not a relation alive. She stands about four feet three inches in height, sings Jacobite songs, and dances a few steps of a hornpipe' (Elgin Courant, and Morayshire Advertiser, 11 November 1853).

There seems to be a little bit of uncertainty about her age and indeed name. Marc Calhoun, author of Beehive Dwellings of the Hebrides, has posted a picture of what is presumably her grave in the Kilchianaig burial ground at Inverlussa on Jura. The inscription reads 'Mary MacCrain died in 1856 aged 128. Descendant of Gillour MacCrain who kept 180 Christmases in his own house and died in the reign of Charles I'. 

image from Marc Calhoun blog

At Scotland's People there is a death register entry for a Mary MacCraine on Jura, giving date of death as December 22 1855 at Lussagiven and stating her age as 118 years - unsuprizingly the cause of death is stated to be 'old age'. Her birth place is actually given as Brosdale -  the name of a small island off the south of Jura, as well as a nearby area on Jura itself near to Jura House. Her father is listed as Donald McCraine, tenant farmer, and mother Mary McNeven.  So while there is some doubt about her date of birth she does seem to have lived to a ripe old age. I think we can be fairly confident that Mary MacCraine (in death certificate), Mary MacCrain (on gravestone) and Mary MacCraig (in 1853 press report) are all the same person.

1885 Ordnance Survey Map showing Brosdale on Jura

But what of her supposedly even more venerable ancestor Gillour MacCrain? There's a plaque in Jura's Kilearnadail cemetery (see photograph by Armin Grewe at his Islay Pictures blog) that repeats the 'kept 180 Christmases' claim and dates his death as 'about 1645' - plainly the plaque is more recent. This tale goes back to Martin Martin who in his 'A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland' (1703) recorded after a visit to Jura that 'Several of the Natives have liv'd to a great age. Gillouir Mack-Crain liv'd to have kept 180 Christmasses in his own house . He died about fifty years ago, and there are several of his acquaintances living to this day, from who I had this account'. 

Various explanations have been given for this, other than him being the longest living human. It has been suggested that locals were pulling Martin's leg, or that MacCrain may have been a Roman Catholic in a time when Catholics and Protestants couldn't agree on the calendar so you could theoretically have celebrated Christmas twice a year.   Old Weird Scotland  suggests that around this time 'Gaels celebrated “Big Christmas” (An Nollaig Mhòr) and New Year, “Little Christmas” (An Nollaig Bheag)' so again you could get in two Christmases a year - or 180 in a 90 year lifetime.

As for Mary MacCrain's  Islay connection mentioned in the 1853 article, who knows? Though in the course of at least 118 years I expect she must have crossed the Sound of Islay a few times!

A discussion of the MacCrain name which mentions Mary's grave, from The Highland News, 4 August 1900:

Islay Regatta 1870: sea sports and land sports

From Glasgow Herald, 5 September 1870:

'On Wednesday last, the 30th [August 1870] the annual regatta came off in Lochindaal Bay,  at the village of Bowmore. The committee displayed much activity, taste and energy in all their arrangements previous to the commencement of the proceedings of the day. At an early hour flags were hosted at the most conspicuous places nearby more and at some of the principal shops in the village. The wind was about SW by Southf and a strong breeze blew during the whole day. The weather was also very beautiful so that parties in great numbers, from all parts of the island, made their appearance on the ground at an early hour, avaling themselves of the most suitable stations to have a full view of the bay. 

The boat races started with one 'confined to skiffs 25 feet keel' which was won by Mr Fraser of Port Ellen's boat 'Annie'. Following this there was a yacht race won by Captain Graham of Port Ellen's 'Fion'. The third race 'confined to boats 16 feet keel' was won by Mr M'Affer [McAffer] of Bowmore's 'Spunkie'.   There was then an open race won by Mr M'Aulay [McAulay] of Portnahaven's 'Elizabeth'.

Finally there was a rowing match for 'four oared skiffs' - 'This was a very exciting race, as the men seemed equally matched for the natives of Portnahaven are a hardy, muscular and strong race and accustomed to the oar. The race started as fair as could be, the boats playing right in the wind's eye'. It was won by Mr Connolly of Portnahaven's boat 'Margaret'.

'This concluded the sea sports and thereafter commenced the land sports, the prizes for which were given by gentleman residing at present at Mr Campbell's hotel, Bridgend'. The races included a 300 yards boys race won by A.M'Gregor [McGregor] and a 400 yards race for men won by D. Ferguson. There was also a long jump (won by John Kirk) and a 'high leap', while Mr Samuel McIntyre from Bridgend won the 'putting the stone competition' involving an 18 lb weight.

Islay fishermen 1890s: strike, riot and tragedy

Life for fishermen on Islay in the 1890s, as at many other times, was precarious and dangerous. These reports highlight several incidents from the period, including two court cases and a drowning.

The first report is of a strike by fishermen from Port Wemyss, which led to three people being jailed. They seem to have been convicted under Combinations of Workmen Act 1825, a law passed to restrict trade unions and picketing.

ISLAY FISHERMEN CONVICTED OF ILLEGAL COMBINATION 

(Aberdeen Journal, Saturday 22 November 1890)

'A case of illegal combination among fishermen has just been tried at Inveraray before Sheriff Campbell Shairp. Three fishermen, Duncan Anderson, George Anderson, and Malcolm M’Neil, residing at Port Wemyss Islay, were charged with having on the 27th August last, at Loch Grinnard, Islay, formed part of a disorderly crowd for the purpose of preventing the lawful landing and disposal of herrings from fishing boats, and the lawful conveyance of the same from Loch Grinnard to Bruichladdich, and with having committed a breach of the peace. The men pleaded not guilty.

Mr MacLullich, Procurator-Fiscal, prosecuted, and Mr George Crawford, writer, appeared for the defence. A number of witnesses were examined, including several fish buyers and fishermen. From the evidence it appeared that the fishermen in the district had held a meeting and resolved to strike. The motive for this was the low price they were getting for their fish. On the night of the 26th August five boats went out, and this action on the part of their owners was resented by the other fishermen, who gathered in a body next morning to prevent the landing of the fish. There were from forty to a hundred persons in the crowd according to different witnesses. A successful attempt was made to prevent the men in the boats from putting the fish ashore, and some carts which had been sent to convey the herrings from Loch Grinnnard to Bruichladdich were forcibly turned back. Threats were made by some members of the crowd, although no actual violence was committed.

Mr MacLullich asked the Sheriff to deal severely with what was an act of illegal combination. Mr Crawford, for the defence, submitted that the men did nothing but what they were legally entitled to do. They simply said, in a civil way, 'You are not to land your fish.'

The Sheriff —They said 'You are not to do it': that is distinctly illegal. Mr Crawford held it was not proved that anything any of the prisoners did was really in the nature an an illegal act. His lordship found the charge against the three men proven. The charge, he said, was a very serious one. It was a very distressing thing to see decent men like the accused, who wore not men of the criminal class at all, charged with such an offence. The offence was one of a very important character. It was a breach of the peace of the worst description. The law in regard to such affairs as they had been engaged in was perfectly clear. It was that they might strike among themselves as much as they liked, and they might refuse to work to any employer; but the moment they tried to prevent other people from working, from taking any contract, the law would at once visit that offence in a way that would show what a grievous offence it was. It had been said there was no violence used on this occasion. The only reason no violence was used was that none was needed. The crowd came in such force that no man there could cope with it. They prevented the fishermen in the five boats from landing their herrings, and they turned the carts. They were thus interfering with people who were perfectly free to enter into any arrangements if they chose. They had done that in an out-of-way part of the country, where it was not easy to protect the people who were molested. Duncan Anderson and Malcolm M'Neil, who had been previously convicted, were each sentenced to 60 days imprisonment with hard labour; George Anderson was sentenced to 60 days’ imprisonment'.

The following year there was another dispute at Gruinart, this time a clash between Islay fishermen and their counterparts from Campbeltown. The latter in were fishing off Islay using trawl nets, whereas the Islay fishermen only used drift nets. This was seen as a threat to the livelihood to the Ileachs and the Campbeltown fisherman, on the beach at Gruinart, 'were surrounded by 500 fishermen, who pelted them with stones and other missiles' (Dundee Courier, 25 September 1891).

A court case relating to 'The Islay Fishermen's Riot' took place at Inverary, again before Sheriff Shairp, in December 1891, with eight people charged with contravening 'the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875 and also with mobbing and rioting'

The dangers facing fishermen were highlighted in 1893 when two fishermen were reported drowned on a skiff  'manned by Donald Anderson, aged 20, son of the owner, and Alexander Graham, aged 34'. They failed to return to Port Ellen, and later 'the mast and sail of the boat were found washed up on the beach... The bodies had not been recovered' (Edinburgh Evening News, 31 January 1893).

Rescued from the Sea 1853

From The Welshman 30 December 1853 (reprinting item from Glasgow Herald):

'PRAISEWORTHY CONDUCT AT SEA.—On Friday last, while the Islay steamer was crossing from the island of Islay to the Mull of Kintyre, on her voyage from Stornoway to Glasgow, a young female lunatic, who was on her way from Skye to an asylum in Greenock, under the charge of her brother, suddenly cast herself into the sea... The willing sailors...finally succeeded in picking up the poor woman in an insensible state. When returned to the steamer, Captain Urie used the most judicious means to restore animation, and persevering almost against hope, he at length completely succeeded. It is needless to say that the conduct of the captain and crew is beyond all praise'

.

By Islay's Shores: a Victorian ballad

'By Islay's Shores' is a ballad, with words by William Black (1841-1898) and music by Alfred 

Stella. A review  in The Lute magazine (November 1 1891) says: 'A pathetic story is here 

related in verses so appropriate in diction and good in construction as to be worthy of being 

placed in the category of poetry. The melody attached by the composer lends itself admirably to the task of arousing the sympathies of the listener'.

The song seems to have started out a poem by Black in his 1885 novel 'White Heather', which

features a number of 'Rhymes by a Deerstalker' including this one. It is also included in Modern Scottish Poets, edited by D.H.Edwards in 1887:

By Islay's shores she sate and sang : 

" winds come blowing o'er the sea, 

And bring me back my love again 

That went to fight in Germanie " 

And all the live-long day she sang, 

And nursed the bairn upon her knee ; 

"Balou, balou, my bonnie bairn, 

Thy father's far in Germanie, 

" But ere the summer days are gane, 

And winter blackens bush and tree, 

Thy father will we welcome hame 

Frae the red wars in Germanie." 

Dark the night fell, dark and mirk ; 

A wraith stood by her icily : 

"Dear wife, I'll never more win hame, 

For I am slain in Germanie. 

" On Minden's field I'm lying stark, 

And Heaven is now my far countrie ; 

Farewell, dear wife, farewell, farewell, 

I'll ne'er win hame frae Germanie." 

And all the year she came and went, 

And wandered wild frae sea to sea : 

" neighbours, is he ne'er come back, 

My love that went to Germanie ? " 

Port Ellen saw her many a time; 

Round by Port Askaig wandered she : 

"Where is the ship that's sailing in 

With my dear love frae Germanie ? ' 

But when the darkened winter fell : 

"It's cold for baith my bairn and me ; 

Let me lie down and rest awhile : 

My love's away frae Germanie. 

"far away and away he dwells ; 

High Heaven is now his fair countrie; 

And there he stands with arms outstretched- 

To welcome hame my bairn and me" 

See also these songs:

An Islay Song from 1850

Ceann Traigh Ghruinneart

Death and Disease on Islay, 1891

Scotland's Places includes a copy of the 1891 Medical Officer of Health report for Argyll: 'From 1890 onwards a full-time Medical Officer of Health was appointed in each county in Scotland with a remit to report on the state of health of the county and its various parishes and towns. The annual reports of the Medical Officers give an objective view of the living conditions, diseases and major health issues in different parts of Scotland'.

The Medical Officer of Health for Argyll in this time was Roger McNeil (M'Neill)l, who was based in Oban. His report identifies some of the causes of ill health, as well as providing data on the prevalence of particular diseases. McNeill records that nine houses on Islay were 'Reported or Certified as Injurious to Health, under the Housing of the Working Classes Act'. Houses so reported were typically 'old, thatched houses, dilapidated and out of repair, with leaky roofs, unplastered damp walls, damp mud floors, and in want of proper draingage and ventilation. In many cases cattle and fowls were kept in the dwelling houses; in a few cases pigs'.

He calls for better health facilities on Islay, recommending that 'the Poorhouses in Tobermory, Lochgilphead, and Islay' be 'converted into isolation hospitals' (eventually this came to pass, the current hospital on Islay is on the site of the old Poorhouse in Bowmore).  The hospital facilities in 1891 were very basic:  'Near Bowmore, in Islay, there is another cottage, consisting of a kitchen, nurses room and two rooms for patients... The wards here also are not sufficiently far apart for the isolation of two infectious diseases at the same time. It is not well situated, being closed to the public road; it has no water supply; there is no disinfecting chamber; nor an ambulance for the conveyance of patients to it'.

The 1891 Census recorded that the population of Islay was 8514. In that year there were 162 registered births, and 148 deaths. 19 of the deaths were in children under the age of one year - an infant mortality rate of more than one in nine. There was a severe outbreak of Whooping Cough in April 1891, with 100 cases in Islay in that month, though this doesn't appear to have causes any deaths. 8 deaths were attributed to 'drowning' or 'violence' - Islay was clearly something of a dangerous place...

Tales and Travels of a School Inspector

The 1872 Education Act created a system of state-funded schools in Scotland overseen by local School Boards. Long before Ofsted, school inspectors were sent around the country to check that schools were doing their job properly and that therefore that they were entitled to continue to receive funding . John Wilson, who was born in Dufftown in Banffshire and had been a headteacher in Morayshire, joined the inspectorate in 1882 and continued as an inspector until the 1920s, with his patch covering parts of the Highlands and many of the Islands - including Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Lewis and Orkney, among others. Shortly after his retirement he wrote 'Tales and Travels of a School Inspector' looking back on his long career (republished by Acair in 1998).

His account provides lots of interesting details of the social history of that period. He describes the poverty, including a visit to Lewis where 'children were vomiting water' during an examination as a result of being desperately hungry and gorging on water to try and fill themselves up. He mentions religious controversies, including Free Church ministers in some areas attempting to ban the teaching of singing in schools. And he remarks sadly on the decline of Gaelic - a fact partly explained by the fact that most teaching was in English.

Some children lived too far away to attend school, and the inspector was also required to check that they were being taught properly at home. He describes an occasion on Jura where 'A girl twelve years of age, daughter of a gamekeeper, who lived fully twelve miles from the nearest school' was late to meet him for examination as a result of stormy weather. So as not to miss the boat back to Islay, the inspector put the girl through her maths and other tests in a farmer's cart on the way to the ferry

Travelling around the islands in all seasons was not without its risks and he describes a hair raising journey in a storm from Colonsay to Port Askaig, where on finally getting off his boat at 2:30 am he was harangued by a parent complaining about his child's school!

In a chapter on hospitality he mentiond 'staying for a few nights in Bridgend Hotel in Islay' one winter, where 'The wife of the proprietor of Dunlossit in the north end of the island was entertaining a number of the leading natives'.  Seeing that Wilson was all alone, the inspector was invited to join the party as a result of which he 'spent a most enjoyable evening'.

Also in relation to Islay he talks of the 'exquisite crosses at Kildalton in Islay' and says that  'I never visited the small school of Kintour in this neighbourhood without having another look at it and other crosses within two hundred yards of the public road'.

Wilson was in Islay during the First World War, and recalls one of its great tragedies: 'When I think of Islay I see Port Ellen, where I had occasion to be during the Great War when the Tuscania, with thousands of American soldiers, had just been torpedoed by a German submarine off the south coast with terrible consequences. Two rafts of curious construction lay stranded on the sandy beach in front of the hotel. A series of loops of rope with small globular wooden floats was attached to each side. A soldier clutching one of these could keep himself afloat till rescued/ The bodies washed ashore were collected and buried in a fenced piece of grassy sward about a mile to the west of the village' (this burial ground was at Kilnaughton - see previous post on Tuscania burials).



Portnahaven School in 1915 with teacher Jean Currie on left -
Wilson would almost certainly have visited this school during this period
(photo from Betsy West's Photo Gallery)



John Murdoch - 'Land and Labour Pioneer'

Sad to hear of the recent death (June 23rd) of Scottish radical historian, James D. Young at the age of 81. Young, who taught history for many years at Stirling University, was the author of books including The Rousing of the Scottish Working Class and a biography of Clydeside socialist John MacLean. It was Young who rediscovered the unpublished manuscript of the autobiography of John Murdoch, the Islay-raised campaigner on behalf of crofters. Here are some excerpts from an article Young wrote in 1969 in the Society for the Study of Labour History Bulletin (Vol.xix):

John Murdoch: A Land and Labour Pioneer

'In 1925 the unpublished manuscript Autobiography of John Murdoch was deposited in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, by Professor Magnus MacLean. This Autobiography was not entered in the manuscript catalogue, and Scottish historians have been hitherto unaware of its existence. I located it in the Mitchell Library after I had found a scrap of paper in the in the manuscript catalogue referring to a pamphlet by John Murdoch in the small safe.

John Murdoch, who was to play a key role in the Highland land agitations in the 1870s and 1880s, was born on 15 January 1818 at Lynemore, Ardchloch, Nairnshire. He lived to be 86, and his life was filled with many-sided activity, whose significance has not received the attention it deserves...

His father was John Murdoch, and his mother was Mary Macpherson, the daughter of a sea captain: and both families had roots which stretched far back into Scottish history. In 1827 the family moved to the Island of Islay, and John Murdoch lived there until 1838. His ‘agricultural education’ was inaugurated on ‘the little farm which had been selected and conferred on my father’. Moreover, he imbibed the rich folklore, customs and culture of the Highlanders among whom he lived and grew to manhood. In later life he was to become an associate of Michael Davitt, Henry George, Joseph Ashby, Patrick Ford, the editor of the New York Irish World, J. Shaw Maxwell, Keir Hardie, and other land and labour agitators.

Islay in the 1820s and 1830s was geographically remote and culturally alien from industrial society, with its rigid social stratification and class conflict, which had emerged in the Scottish Lowlands and the north of England. Murdoch’s life in Islay was happy, exciting and satisfying: and the social structure and the wholeness of a common culture, shared by all ‘classes’ from the Highland aristocrats down to the small farmers, had a profound influence on his subsequent social and political thought. His experiences there were in the fullness of time, to turn him into a left-wing radical rather than a class-conscious socialist; and his hatred of the squalor and ugliness of industrial society inhibited him from making common cause with the industrial workers before the early 1880s.

In 1838 he went to ‘serve in the shop of Mr William Boyd, a grocer in the High Street, Paisley’. Mr Boyd was ‘an earnest and prominent Radical’. But within six weeks of his arrival in Paisley ‘there was a letter from my father stating that he had been favoured with an appointment for me in the Excise’. He reluctantly decided to accept a job in the Excise service; and he began and completed his training in Edinburgh under ‘an English gentleman who had strong Highland sentiments from his serving some time when a young man in Islay’. Then he worked in Kilsyth, where coal-mining was in its infancy, and in Middletown, Ireland, as an Excise officer. He was already very critical of the drink trade (his only real criticism of Islay was that the island’s prosperity depended on whisky); but he was not above taking the occasional glas of whisky...

In 1845 John Murdoch’s father was killed in a shooting accident, and ‘the factor’ took advantage of the situation to evict his mother and her children from their farm. He was not embittered by this experience. A short time later he returned to ‘a Ride’ in Islay, and he was soon involved with a group of fellow radicals in discussing ‘science, history, poetry, theology and politics’. Before long, however, he was destined for service in Dublin, Shetland and Inverness. While engaged in Dublin as an Excise officer, he was active in an agitation for improvements in the pay and conditions of his fellow officers. In Dublin, too, he contributed articles to such newspapers as the Nation on a wide variety of agricultural topics. He was a practical land improver as well as a political agitator. While working in Inverness in 1873 as an Excise officer, he announced his retirement. Then he became founder and editor of The Highlander.

The Highlander was published in Inverness between 1873 and 1882. It was a very radical paper in which Murdoch ‘advocated the cause of the people, and particularly the right of the Gaelic people to their native soil’. (Glasgow Weekly) Through The Highlander and Murdoch’s personal intervention in disputes between crofters and landlords the way was prepared for the successful speaking tours – and the rise of the Crofters Party – of Henry George and Michael Davitt in the 1880s.

In the 1870s John Murdoch agitated through the columns of the The Highlander for the setting up of a royal commission on the Highlands. In 1883 he gave valuable evidence before the commission, of which Lord Napier was chairman. In 1884 Michael Davitt toured the Scottish coalfields advocating the nationalisation of the land and minerals. John Murdoch simultaneously made his first efforts to win support among the industrial workers for land reform. By this time he was living in the Scottish Lowlands; and there is evidence to suggest that he was still evolving towards the left. When the miners of Lanarkshire founded a Scottish Anti-Royalty and labour League, he tried to get them to affiliate to the Scottish Land Restoration League. In the general election of 1885 he was a parliamentary nominee of the Scottish Land Restoration League; and he stood as a Land and Labour candidate in the Patrick constituency of Glasgow.

During the by-election in Mid-Lanark in April 1888, John Murdoch, who was now seventy years old, campaigned on behalf of Keir Hardie. A few weeks later he took the lead, together with Hardie, in helping to initiate the Scottish Labour Party. This was probably the last major act of his political career, but he toured the southern counties of England with Joseph Ashby in 1891 on behalf of the English Land League. Then he settled down to complete the autobiography he had begun in 1889 and to observe in the Scottish Labour Party the alliance of Scottish land and labour reformers he had striven to create in 1884.

John Murdoch’s political evolution was unusual: in his sixty-sixth year, he moved left, not right. He was an active temperance reformer, a land reformer, a journalist, a champion of the Gaelic language, a collector of Highland folklore, and a foundation member of the Scottish Labour Party'.  

  

John Murdoch (1818–1903)

Some year's after Young's article, John Murdoch’s autobiography was edited by the historian Dr James Hunter and published in For the People’s Cause, HMSO, Edinburgh, 1986. 

The farm where the Murdoch family lived in the 1830s was Claggan Farm, near Bridgend. We will return to Murdoch and Islay  later at this blog.

Deaths in the wild, 1840s

Many have perished in the seas around Islay, but the land has its own dangers, particularly in winter. These two tragedies both occurred in the 1840s:

'On Thursday, the 7th current, when Donald Mathieson, John M'Queen [modern spelling John McQueen], Alexander Currie and John Keith, were crossing the trackless waste which lies between Airdthallay and Kinagary, they lost their way and perished. Their friends and neighbours went out in search of them, but up to the 10th no tarce could be found. On Sabbath, the 10th, the Proaig shepherd discovered the horse, which they had along with them, buried below the snow in a wild and romantic valley called Gleann du'Phroaig, and the remains of the unfortunate men were found on the 12th in the same glen. Alexander Currie and John Keith were found together; but Donald Mathieson and John M'Queen were about a mile from each other. Currie. Keith and M'Queen were unmarried, but Donald Mathieson has left a widow and three young children, and also his aged parents, to lament his loss' (Times 21 January 1841)

[Airdthallay is presumably an alternate spelling of Ardtalla; likewise Kinagary=Kynagarry]

Towards Kynagarry in WInter- recent photo by Mary & Angus Hogg at Geograph

'On Thursday, the 24th [October 1844], being the "fast-day" in the parish of Kilchoman, Mr R. M'Laurin [modern spelling McLaurin, teacher, near Port Charlotte, at the request of Mr M'Nabb [modern spelling McNabb], minister, left the latter place early on that day, for the purpose of leading the music in the parish church in Kilchoman. He arrived at Kilchoman in due time, and precented at both the English and Gaelic services, and left there for a home a little after dark. He had to cross a muir of four or five miles, which lies between the above places, but before he got more than half-way on, he was either seized by a sudden illness or fainted from fatigue, and the place being very lonely he perished before any assistance came. He left a widow and an only child to lament his loss. Mr M'Laurin was for several years precentor in the Gaelic church, Duke Street, Glasgow' (Times 8 November 1844).

An Islay Song from 1850

'Poems and songs, satirical and descriptive, bearing on the political, moral, and religious character of man in this country, at the present day' was written by Alexander M'Gilvray (or McGilvray as it would be spelt now) and published in 1850. The title page describes the author as 'Alexander M'Gilvray, Paisley', with the book printed by William Gilchrist of Glasgow 'for the author' (i.e. the collection appears to have been self-published).

M'Gilvray (1800-1871) was born in Paisley and made his adult living there as a baker. One of the poems in his collection though is described as 'written while the author was residing in Islay in 1822' - indeed within he mentions being 'located on the Rinns of Islay'. That poem, 'Epistle to W.C.', includes the lines 'Die when I will, I'll ne'er repent, the days in Islay I have spent'.

Maybe it was around this time that he wrote his song 'Islay' (tune 'Haughs of Cromdale'). Where are the 'fields of Elistore' he mentions? I assume this is Ellister farm, near Portnahaven.

Islay

Now I must leave the peaceful shore,
The pleasant fields of Elistore,
Nor dare to hope I'll ever more
Behold the hills of Islay.

No more I'll climb thy mountains high,
To view the meeting sea and sky —
The stately vessels gliding by.
On every side of Islay.

On sunny shores, beyond the wave,
Let merchants seek the gold they crave;
Give me a walk, at dusky eve.
Along the shores of Islay.

How sweet to rove o'er hill and plain,
When low the sun hangs o'er the main;
O when he wakes, and spreads again,
His golden beams o'er Islay!

By simple Nature's power impress'd.
Here friendship glows in every breast;
The houseless, wandering, stranger-guest,
Has bless'd the Isle of Islay

From strife of noisy towns secure,
Here mortals spend their days obscure;
And long may harmony endure
Throughout the Isle of Islay.

Unknown to crime, unknown to shame,
May ne'er ambition blast thy name.
Nor cursed lust for wealth and fame,
Corrupt the sons of Islay.

Here all the bliss of life they share,
In innocence, and free from care;
With hearts as light and pure as air,
Upon the hills of Islay.

Here Liberty her throne maintains:
O'er thy delightful hills and plains
No domineering tyrant reigns
—A heaven on earth is Islay!

Though ne'er to tread thy shores again,
My heart with thee shall still remain;
Where'er I wander, I'll retain
My dearest wish for Islay.

Anybody want to have a go at singing it?!

Wreck of the Witton, 1879

Islay is sadly associated historically with many shipwrecks, some of them very well documented. Here's one I haven't come across before:

'Intelligence has been received in Glasgow that during the storm  on the night on the 7th, the German schooner Witton was wrecked off the Mull of Oa, in the island of Islay. The master, Captain Bottleman, his wife, and the cook were drowned. The remainder of the the crew, four in number, succeeded in reaching the land' (Times, 13 January 1879).