The Murrays of Lewis

The history of the Lewis Murrays dates back to at least the early 1600’s, when watchers on the Ness coast spotted an unfamiliar boat rounding the Butt and making for the beach at Cunndal.  There were two men on board and, as custom dictated when strangers landed, they were taken to the ‘Big House’ at Habost to be entertained (and scrutinised) by Morison - the clan chief appointed by the Lords of the Isles as Judge, or Magistrate, over Lewis.  It  eventually transpired that the men were fugitives from justice and sought permission to remain in Lewis.  Morison granted their request.

One of the visitors had a distinguishing bluish birthmark on his cheek and neck.  Later, he set up as a blacksmith in Swainbost and came to be known in Lewis as An Gobha Gorm.  From him are largely descended the Murrays of Lewis.

Records suggest that An Gobha Gorm was probably a William Murray (1575-1645), a citizen of Dornoch who was allegedly involved in a fight which took place there in 1607.  The encounter apparently ended fatally for a Charles Paip, who was at the time the Sheriff-Clerk of Sutherland.  His brothers, William (a minister in Dornoch) and Thomas (a minister in Rogart), were seriously wounded.  During the fracas, Paip was killed by a sword wound - with his brothers, the ministers, also being armed with some form of weapon during the engagement.  As a result of the affray, five individuals (including Murray) were ‘put to the horn’ on 1st October 1608. However, the men were never apprehended by the authorities.  Around 1639, rumour persisted that two of the men being sought had died in Holland, but that William Murray was still at large.

An Gobha Gorm was, apparently, a highly skilled worker in iron.  Reputedly, while the other blacksmiths in Lewis had to insert rivets in order to fasten metal, he was able to actually weld the metal together.  For that purpose, instead of relying exclusively on local peat charcoal, he would sometimes burn coal.  This he could have imported from eastern Sutherland, where coal mining had commenced in 1598.

There is very little evidence to accurately identify the other individual who landed at Cunndal with Murray.  It has been suggested that he may have been a warrior who would later serve the Morisons.  His name was Iain Ruadh MàcPhail or Iain Mòr MacAoidh.  The two names are significant in that they identify  the individual in question as one of the Sìol Phàil of eastern Sutherland.  Though Mackays, they preferred to take their surname from one of their recent MacPhail ancestors.  The first MacPhail on record in Lewis is a Donald MacPhail, named in a rent roll of 1726.  He appears also in the patronymics of his sons as ‘Donald Roy’ and ‘Donald MacHormoid,’ and was presumably a descendant of the above Iain Ruadh MacPhàil.  It is also interesting to note that Donald MacPhail’s home was near Tràigh Chunndail, in Eoropie, where An Gobha Gorm and his companion first set foot on Lewis soil. Further evidence to suggest that MacPhail was indeed William Murray’s companion is that Murray’s chief accomplice in the fracas at Dornoch was a John MacPhail. 

William Murray (An Gobha Gorm) settled in Swainbost as a blacksmith in about 1608.  His sons - whose names are not known - lived between 1610-1680 and 1640-1710, respectively.  One of these had a son, Neil (1670-1740), who was known as Niall Gobha, and is on record as being tenant in Swainbost in 1726 and 1728 when he gave evidence before the Forfeited Commissioners.  By this time, the Murrays had spread to different parts of Lewis, such as: John Murray, in Nether Bayble; Angus Murray, in Stornoway; John Murray and Patrick Murray in Lower Barvas; and Kenneth Gow (probably a Murray) in Shawbost.  Neil Murray himself had at least two sons, William (An Gobha Gorm’s great-grandson) and Donald, who is on record as a tenant in Eoropie in 1726, where he was followed by Dòmhnall Bàn Gobha  - probably his son.  The Murrays, formerly of 1 Eoropie, were descended from Dòmhnall Bàn Gobha.  William (son of Neil) Murray’s name first appears in Swainbost as a tenant in 1726.  This began a long association of the Ness Murrays with the island of Rona, which he received as a tack in 1740.  By 1754 he had also become tacksman of Swainbost.  He married an Elizabeth Mackenzie and had two sons, Roderick and John.

John shared the Swainbost tack with his brother.  In 1787, the tack is registered to Roderick and John Murray, "whereof the former two-thirds and the latter one-third, with the whole Island of Rhona to Rodk".

Roderick Murray (Ruairidh Gobha) succeeded his father, William, as tacksman and blacksmith at Swainbost.  In addition to being a blacksmith, Roderick found time for other activities such as whisky distilling and sheep rearing.  In an inventory dated 9 May 1780, one of the items listed is a still  - at that time, many of the tacksmen of Lewis were allowed to distil whisky under licence from the Chamberlain.

As mentioned, Roderick Murray kept sheep on Rona where he had one tenant on the island who paid his rent ‘in kind.’  This took the form of oil manufactured from the fat of sea-birds, and a special cheese that fetched good prices in the southern markets.  On one occasion, when out in Rona for the shearing, Murray believed his flock of sheep to be smaller than expected, and accused the tenant of helping himself to the mutton - despite his protestations that the missing sheep had fallen down a deep chasm called Geo Meadhar.  The tenant gave expression to his feelings in a song:

Saoil sibh fèin nach mòr an nàire
Dh'fhear a leughas Beurla 's Gàidhlig
Dhol a dh'èigheach ormsa "Mhearlaich"
Airson na bhàth Geo Meadhar

As the above verse suggests, Roderick Murray was an educated man, as was his brother John.  They probably received their education from a James Thomson  who came to Lewis as a teacher.  Thomson had been in Barvas for about nineteen years before opening a school in Swainbost in 1756.

The original house on the site where Swainbost  farmhouse now stands was built in 1767 by Roderick Murray.  Over the years it was altered and improved by Sir James Matheson and others.  Close to the farmhouse was part of a field in which, for many years, peat ash was turned up by the plough.  This indicated the location of the dwelling which had been there before Roderick Murray's time.   Apparently, it had not been demolished when Roderick built his new home there.  It was a thatched house, but with gables and white-washed walls.  The blacksmith shop used by Murray and his predecessors was situated some distance to the west of the house where a knoll on the machair was known as Cnoc na Ceàrdaich.

It is not clear who Roderick Murray's wife was although she was said to have been related to one of the Morisons who lived in Fivepenny at the time.  They had three of a family, Alexander, Donald and Elizabeth.

Roderick’s son, Donald, was for some years a cooper in Stornoway, and afterwards a tenant in North Dell.  He married Catherine (Ceit nighean Fhearchair), daughter of Farquhar Smith, tacksman of Earshader and an aunt of the poet, Seonaidh Phàdraig,.  Donald’s son, Farquhar Murray (1828-1912) married Catherine Campbell (nighean Aonghais Mhic Iain MhicFhionnlaigh), of Cross.  Roderick Murray’s daughter, Elizabeth, married William Campbell, a Stornoway blacksmith.

Roderick’s other son, Alexander Murray was the last of the family to be tacksmen in Swainbost.  When he left there, he took the farm at North Dell, where he remained until his death in November 1857, aged 86.  He was buried on the south side of St. Peter's Church, Swainbost, close to his ancestor An Gobha Gorm - “whose grave is marked by an undressed headstone of the native Lewis rock next to the wall of the church”.  Alexander Murray married Margaret, one of twenty children fathered by Kenneth MacIver, a tacksman of North Tolsta.  Alexander and Margaret had several children including two daughters, one of whom, Margaret, married John Nicolson (Iain mac Mhurchaidh mhic Iain), South Dell (John and Margaret Nicolson’s daughter, Annabella, later married Charles Orrock, Chamberlain of Lewis).  Alexander Murray's sons left Lewis.  Three of them, Colin, Kenneth and Donald (Danny) went to India and prospered as tea planters there.  Donald (Danny) Murray’s sons were Sir Norman Murray; Alasdair, who lived and worked in the Punjab; and Donald, who was a banker in Ceylon.

Colin Murray worked in India for the firm of Bourne & Shepherd - as well as having an interest in a tea plantation.  He also became a well known artist there.  He married the youngest daughter of the Rev. Malcolm MacRitchie of Lewis.  They had three sons and one daughter.  The daughter, Margaret Elizabeth, married Dr. A.R. Normand, a Professor of Chemistry in the Wilson College, Bombay.  Colin’s sons were Malcolm and Colin (who died as young men) and Ronald Roderick - who became a doctor after studying in Edinburgh and later qualifying M.D., F.R.C.S. (Ed.).  He spent twenty-six years in Northern Rhodesia.