Emigration from Fair Isle to Orkney 
Preface to the Article 
by George Stout 
I am delighted to write a paragraph or two about Jerry Eunson who was one of
life's characters. A veritable "magpie" when it came to collecting Fair Isle and
Shetland lore. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge about the northern isles and
family histories. He and I were related, as all people with Fair Isle ancestry tend to
be, and, of an evening with a dram or two in his hand, he had the most fascinating
and hilarious tales to tell. 
A native of Fair Isle, Jerry left the island to spend a career with the Royal Bank of
Scotland and, for a time, he was in Orkney where he worked on the floating bank
which went around the islands in the 1930's. He then moved to Glasgow and spend
the rest of his life there. He wrote a number of books, the best known of which is
probably his "Words, Phrases and Recollections of Fair Isle". He also did some
broadcasting. 
He joined the Glasgow Orkney and Shetland Association in 1938 and served at
various times as Secretary and Treasurer and as President from 1957 to 1959. He
also gave generously of his time to the Orkney and Shetland Benevolent Society. 
In his later years, he produced a manuscript for a major book on Fair Isle to be
entitled "Eight Acres and a Boat", based, quite strongly on regular correspondence
with his father, whose knowledge of Fair Isle and its people went well back to the
19th century. When Jerry died in 1987 his family passed this manuscript and other
papers to me that I might be able to bring his work to fruition. Until now I have
felt inadequate to edit the book, having had neither the time to sort out the
numerous strands to the story and put them in readable order nor the knowledge of
Fair Isle to do so. However, on both counts I am now in a position to begin to put
that to rights and I owe it to a marvellous companion to do so. 
Emigration from Fair Isle in the 19th Century and the Orkney connection. 
The last half of the l8th. Century and the first half of the following one witnessed a
catastrophic breakdown in the social and political order of the Highlands and
Western Islands of Scotland. Clan chiefs abandoned their responsibilities to their
tenants; the economic order was transformed as cattle farming was replaced by the
ubiquitous sheep; and the sheep displaced the local population through systematic
clearances carried out with much hardship to the dispossessed and often with great
and unnecessary cruelty. Most of those who were displaced found their way to the
urban areas of Scotland, to the Colonies or to the United States of America. 
Fair Isle did not escape the emigration experience. In many ways it was as extreme
as on the mainland of Scotland. However, the forces at work were quite different.
In this instance there was little effort by the landlord to evict his tenants or to
change the economic structure of the island. Instead, there was a rapidly rising
population, unable to achieve a tolerable existence on an island only three miles
long by a mile and a half broad, where the pastoral and arable land was limited and
already fully utilised. The principal occupation, fishing, depended upon the harvest
from a sea that was forever treacherous and dangerous to men in small open boats
and, like the harvest on land, was fickle and uncertain in its return.
In the 1750's Fair Isle formed part of the estate of Robert Sinclair of Quendale,
Shetland whose bankruptcy led to the estate being managed on behalf of creditors.
Documentary evidence at the Scottish Record office shows that at this time the
Fair Isle tenants were chronically behind in their rent payments and in debt to their
landlord. It is no surprise therefore that, when the Quendale estate was finally
broken up, this part of the estate proved the most difficult to sell. Fair Isle was
ultimately disposed of in 1758 and was purchased by Archibald Stewart of the
Brough, Westray for some £850, a sum well below the upset price. An account of
the tortuous negotiations is also in the Scottish Record office. 
1758 is a convenient point at which to begin a population survey in Fair Isle. Not
only does a new owner assume control - and the Stewarts would continue to own
Fair Isle for the next one hundred years - but there is a reliable estimate of the Fair
Isle population at 200 people, given in the diaries of the Rev. John Mill, the
minister at Dunrossness for over forty years. Fair Isle formed part of the
Dunrossness parish and Mill was supposed to make annual pastoral visits to the
island. Thirty miles of open sea were not journeys that he ever contemplated with
equanimity and, particularly in his later years, he did not meet his obligations. 
The Old Statistical Account of Scotland in June 1798 produced the first authentic
population record for Fair Isle with 221 people living there in 37 households;
thereafter it became much easier to follow the trends in the population. Living
conditions are outlined by the comments of Dr Kemp, Secretary of the Society for
the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, in his Report to the directors of the
Society in 1799. "The men are all fishers and, under Mr. Stewart's management,
since he became their landlord a few years ago, have got into easy circumstances,
as the Secretary was informed, and their appearance in church vindicated the
information. On his arrival on the island, the elders came soliciting him to baptise a
number of children, some of whom were considerably advanced in years, no
minister having been there for several years before".
It requires some imagination to believe of "easy circumstances" ever existing in
Fair Isle and one has a certain sympathy for the Rev. Mill, backsliding over his
baptismal duties. Although 1799 may have coincided with a year, or several years
of relative prosperity, there is evidence that in the 1780's conditions had been much
more difficult. In 1783, for example, following a bad harvest, there was a
distribution of meal from Shetland to the worst off on the isle. The heads of the
families affected included Henry Stout and Laurence Stout, John Williamson and
Laurence Williamson, James Irvine and two John Irvines, William Leslie, John
Mader (or Mather), Ann Kelday, George Brown and John Yonson (or Eunson). 
The 1798 list does not give the crofts of the families so it impossible to do other
than make an educated guess as to where everyone resided at that time. However,
subsequent population counts on the Isle from 1831 onwards proceeded up the
West Road and down the East Road and, as families seldom moved outwith their
"townships", it is possible in the main to link up the 1798 list to that of 1831. 
It may seem an exaggeration to refer to "townships" on an island which measures
only three miles by one and a half but, where strip cultivation was still the norm,
(consolidation of holdings did not take place until 1846), the families lived in
groups of dwellings sharing the agricultural chores of farming the strips. As a
family expanded, a new house would be built alongside an existing one. The
outlines of the strip cultivation are still visible today. 
These "townships" were originally designated Leogh, Shirva, Busta and Gaila.
Shirva included more distant settlements at Setter, Field and Taing. Of the 96
Merks of land in Fair Isle (1 Merk 2 Acres approx..), there were 24 merks at
Leogh, 48 at Shirva, 9 at Busta and 15 at Gaila. However, this gives a false
impression of their relative importance as much of the Shirva lands were on the
higher ground, were much less fertile, and were more remote from the south
harbour which was the point of contact with the outside world. Consequently lands
to the north of the island were valued less highly. 
Little is now known about the families in Fair Isle prior to the 1700's though they
would have been primarily Norse in origin. By the 1750's, however, six family
groups had become established. The Stouts were most closely associated with
Leogh, the Irvines, Leslies and Williamsons with Shirva, the Eunsons with Busta
and the Wilsons with Gaila. In 1800 there were several smaller family groups in
Fair Isle with the surname Brown, Smith and Mather, but the Smiths were gone by
1831 and the Browns and Mathers by 1862. 
There is, of course, much speculation as to where these inhabitants came from. As
Fair Isle is roughly equidistant from Shetland and Orkney, they are as likely to
have come from the one as the other. It is said, for example, that the first Stout on
Fair Isle in the 1730's was one of the early teachers provided by the S.P.C.K - but
there were Stout families in both Shetland and Orkney before then. The Irvines,
Wilsons and Leslies may have had Covenanter connections with Central Scotland;
while the Eunsons (or Younsons) and Williamsons were more likely to have been
Norse in origin. All these names can be found in Orkney and Shetland prior to
1700. 
Nowhere is the adage "a Shetlander is a fisherman with a croft" more appropriate
than to Fair Isle. This is manifest from how the island was valued for rental
purposes. A report on Fair Isle in 1804 by Patrick Fotheringham, the Town Clerk
of Kirkwall, to George Traill, the Factor to the Stewarts of Westray disclosed the
basis of valuation as follows:- "The islanders are expected to produce for the
owner 600 ling @3/6 per doz.; 2000 cod @ 1/- per doz.; 2000 saithe @ 1/- per
doz.; oil from the fish amounting to 20 barrels @ £1 per bbl. (The owner is to
provide salt for curing and casks for the oil). There is also 6 stone of feathers @
3/- per stone; and the women are to be paid 6 pence per spindle from 600 spindles
of linen lint provided. By these means is the rent of £64 met". 
"The proprietor has also considerable profit from the supply of produce.
Domestically produced grain lasts less than six months." 
In broad terms, ling, cod and saithe were of equal total value (although
fishmongers today might be surprised at the relative prices) and almost half the
total value of the fish catch was in the oil. The women folk would contribute
between a fifth and a quarter of the rent. The landlord was not inclined to
generosity. All the sea catches had to be sold to the Factor at the landlord's price;
all purchases of household articles and equipment had to be made at the island
shop at prices set by the Factor; and when the year's harvest was exhausted, as it
would be by the early Spring, the inhabitants had to buy their grain and other
supplies at The Shop. 
Fishing was of prime economic importance to the islanders and the landlord
expected sons to take the place of grandfathers and fathers in the yoals. This was
vital to perpetuating the system. Farming the land was women's work as was the
knitting. Although the latter activities were subsidiary to fishing, every penny was
invaluable. 
Fish was never far away from the plates and the minds of the islanders. The main
diet was fish and home grown tatties. The tatties would be served on one large
truncher (plate) and the fish on another. Knives and forks were an unnecessary
luxury when hands could do the job equally well and the meal would generally be
preceded by a Grace:- "Oh Thou who blest the loaves and fishes, Look down
upon our two poor dishes, And tho' our tatties be but sma', Lord grant that they
may fill us a'". After which there would be a pause; then someone would say
"And that will be a miracle". 
The crofts varied in size but averaged about three merks or six acres. The problem
for rapidly growing families was how to subdivide the land among numerous sons.
Six acres was little enough and subdivision could mean the difference between
survival and destitution. It is unclear how this problem was tackled in the period of
strip cultivation, but as soon as the "Planking" or consolidation of holdings took
place in 1846 the Census returns drew attention to whose families who had houses
but no land. 
By 1831, thirty three years after the previous survey, it was clear that significant
population shifts were underway. The population in Fair Isle had risen to 269 from
221 in 1798 i.e. by over 20% but, in the interim, some emigration had taken place.
As the Stewart family were also substantial land proprietors in Westray and
Stronsay, they were therefore in a position to provide a safety valve for the
exploding population in Fair Isle. It was a time when the fishing industry was
beginning to expand in Orkney and who better to bring that fishing expertise to
Orkney than the Fair Isle men. So began a policy of encouragement or obligatory
resettlement of Fair Isle families in Stronsay and Westray. 
Among the early arrivals in Stronsay, pre-1831, were Laurence and Mary Irvine,
and Robert and Barbara Leslie, both with families. They were from Shirva in Fair
Isle. There may also have been resettlement in Westray. By the time the 1841
Census came round, the population in Fair Isle had exploded and the transfer of
families to Stronsay and Westray was in full flow, particularly to the former. 
The population of Fair Isle was now 332, having expanded by almost a quarter
since the previous count, but this did not reflect a wave of emigration now taking
place to Orkney. Families of Eunsons, Irvines, Leslies, Stouts and Williamsons had
all been transferred to Lower Whitehall in Stronsay, amounting in total to about
60. Significantly, no Wilson families had been relocated (one of the Wilsons -
Thomas Wilson - was now Factor in Fair Isle and perhaps they were better able to
look after their own!).
Simultaneously, there was a smaller influx of Fair Islanders to Westray with the
newcomers being Eunsons, Leslies and Stouts. This group amounted to some 20
people. Without this safety valve the population of Fair Isle would have been over
400. 
The emigration was to continue throughout the next decade. The 1851 Census
revealed that another 18 Fair Islanders had been resettled in Westray and another 5
in Stronsay. Many of the immigrants of 1841 had gone on to fresh pastures,
however, and the Fair Isle contingent in Stronsay had actually declined to 50 while,
in Westray, the total was now 35. There were also a few families who had gone to
Shetland. 
The pattern of resettlement differed between Stronsay and Westray and this was to
have major economic consequences for the future. In Stronsay, the immigrants
were almost all confined to Lower Whitehall - the Station - in almost ghetto-like
conditions. There the men continued to ply their trade as fishermen but now
without the backup of a few acres of land that had been the norm in Fair Isle. So
long as the fishing industry continued buoyant, they could survive. With increasing
competition from the steam trawlers, however, their livelihood again became
threatened and it was not long before destitute families were on the trail once more
- some, temporarily, to Kirkwall, but mostly to the mainland of Scotland, to
Aberdeen and Leith. 
In Westray, conditions were quite different. The islanders may have arrived as
fishermen, and were so described in the 1841 Census, but they had been given land
to work and it was not long before they were assimilated as Orcadians - "farmers
with a boat". Most of them were settled close to Stewart's farm at Cleat and some
were employed there. For example the brothers George and John Stout and their
families were at Cloudy in 1841 and described in the Census as "fishermen". By
1851, however, they had become "fishermen and farmers" and had renamed their
crofts East and West Taing after their former home at Taing in Fair Isle. 
Today, the fishing industry is extinct in Stronsay and the Eunsons, Irvines, Leslies,
and Stronsay "Stoots" have gone. Only the Williamson name survives. In Westray,
by contrast, the Fair Islanders have prospered as farmers; to such an extent indeed
that some of them have now overflowed into the island vacated by their Fair Isle
relatives. 
The emigration of the 1840's achieved its purpose in Fair Isle and the 1851 Census
showed a reduction in population to 281 with several men, not counted, at the
whaling in Greenland and the Davis Straits. It was only a lull. By 1861 it had
soared to 380, excluding 5 men at the fishing, and many families had no land and
were in a poor state. However fertile the chemistry of intermarriage of Eunsons,
Irvines, Leslies, Stouts, Williamsons and Wilsons, the economic results were
disastrous! Desperate measures were called for as light crops and bad fishings in
the early 1860's precipitated a crisis 
Public attention to the plight of the Fair Islanders was drawn by an evangelising
deputation of Free Church ministers headed by the Rev. George Brown of St.
Paul's, Edinburgh and, through their exhortation and assistance, arrangements
were made to resettle 22 families, amounting to 137 people, in New Brunswick,
Canada. Public subscriptions to assist the emigrants were opened at the Union
Bank of Scotland in Lerwick and Kirkwall. The Orkney Herald of l3th May 1862
reported on the emigration party which passed through Kirkwall. 
"Several families from the Fair Isle, numbering in all 137 persons of all ages and
both sexes, arrived in Kirkwall yesterday, by the sloop the 'No Joke' en route for
New Brunswick. They will go south today by the 'Prince Consort' and the vessel in
which they are to cross the Atlantic is expected to leave the Clyde on the 17th of
the month. The expenses of the emigrants on the passage are to be defrayed by the
Government and it is expected that, on landing in New Brunswick, 10/- will be
given to each adult and 5/- to each child".
The Orkney Herald further reported on 3rd June: 
"The Fair Isle emigrants, who recently landed at Kirkwall on their way south, have
taken their departure in the 'Olympia', from the Tail of the Bank, for St. John, New
Brunswick. The Fair Islanders were mustered on deck, after their inspection by the
Government Medical Officer, and addressed in touching and impressive terms by
the Rev. Mr. Philip of the Union Free Church. Councillor George Clark added a
few words of encouragement and intimated to them that he had been entrusted
with the sum of £24 which he had transmitted to St. John and, on their arrival
there, one of the cabin passengers would draw the money and distribute it among
them."
So happened one of the saddest episodes in the history of Fair Isle which touched
only briefly upon Kirkwall in its unfolding, but would be mourned in Stronsay and
Westray where there were many close relatives of those who departed. All family
names, apart from Wilson, were in the emigrating party. 
It is said in Fair Isle that the hearths in the cottages, deserted by their occupants,
never lost their warmth as they were immediately reoccupied by those homeless
islanders who chose not to emigrate. 
In 1866 ownership of Fair Isle passed from the Stewarts of Westray to John Bruce
of Sandwick in Shetland for the sum of £3360. If life had been hard on Fair Isle
during the previous regime, it was to get no better under Bruce. The occasional
floating shop which had come from Orkney to undercut the Factor's prices for
everyday products was now warned off and the islanders faced penalties for
dealing with outsiders. Much of this malpractice was exposed in "An Inquiry into
the Truck System (Shetland)" in 1872, the flavour of which may emerge in the
following extracts.
Witness Henry Gilbertson: 
Question: Did you meet with any of the people (on Fair Isle) while you were there
and talk with them about the way in which their shop was supplied? 
Answer: Yes, I met almost all of them and I got some information about how they
deal at the shop, because they enquired at what prices the articles were sold in
Shetland. 
Question: Do you know anything about the prices of goods at the shop on Fair
Isle? 
Answer: There was a general complaint that the prices were above the currency
charged in Shetland. 
Question: Did the people seem to think that there was a better way in which they
could be supplied? 
Answer: Yes, they seemed to think that if they had liberty to sell their fish to the
best advantage, they could supply themselves from Orkney at a cheaper rate than
they could gel them for in Mr. Bruce's store in Fair Isle. 
Question? Do you think anybody would be willing to go to Fair Isle to buy fish and
sell goods? 
Answer: There were plenty who would do so if they had the chance. Mr. James
Smith of Hill Cottage, Sandwick used to go there, but he was stopped from doing
so by Mr. Bruce when he bought the island. 
Other damning evidence to the Tribunal was given by Tom Wilson, formerly of
Fair Isle, who had left for Kirkwall in 1869. Excerpts from his statement are as
follows:- 
"The farms on Fair Isle are from four to six acres with a right to the scattald
(common land). I believe, since I left, they are not allowed to pasture their cattle
on the scattald without paying for it.... 
We have to sell the fish to Mr. John Bruce. Jnr. and to him only, since Mr.
Stewart sold the island The price of fish has been fixed by the man who comes to
settle, which is in June or July. That settlement is for the previous year, up to the
First of May immediately preceding, I have seen him miss a year.....
Six families left Fair Isle in 1869 and came to Kirkwall. We all left because meal
was so dear and wages so low. I am sure they all left of their own accord and
were not warned away by the landlord."
The six families that Tom Wilson referred to included three Wilson families, two
Eunson families and a family of Stouts. They totalled thirty one people. This loss
of population is almost exactly reflected in the l871 Census with the number of
people in Fair Isle now reduced to 226. However, the resilience of the islanders
was beginning to weaken, broken by the restrictions on trading and by the first
evictions which took place in 1875. The Shetland Times of 29th. May reported as
follows:-
"Three families arrived in Kirkwall this week numbering 24 persons, poverty on
the island not enabling them to make sufficient to pay their rent and they were
compelled to quit their holdings". 
These were Leslie families from the crofts of Pund and Barkland, related to Leslies
on Stronsay. A few of them were to remain in Kirkwall while the others went
South. 
Three years later four Eunson families called at Kirkwall on their way South, the
first step on their eventual passage to New Zealand. 
Between 1881 and 1891, the Fair Isle population remained fairly stable at around
220. However, the 1890's became another decade of misfortune, of poor crops,
low fish prices and disasters at sea. Early in 1899, the islanders lost two of their
yoals, which were smashed to pieces when trying to come ashore in storm
conditions. The crews just managed to escape. A third boat was severely damaged.
As a result of these accidents, the poor conditions and the meagre rewards, life on
the Isle was becoming intolerable and, in early summer, it was decided to prepare
another mini-emigration to Orkney, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Forty four people
left Fair Isle including, Eunsons, Wilsons, Stouts and Williamsons and, by the
autumn, several were working in the fish trade in Kirkwall and Aberdeen. 
Of those who found their way to Edinburgh, some found employment with Robert
McVitie of the well-known biscuit manufacturers. The latter's solicitous comments
about the Fair Islanders are worth repeating:-
"..... the price of cured saithe having fallen to 1/- per 1121b., the Islanders have
been in a chronic state of destitution and a number have emigrated to the
Mainland. Two, at least, of the drowned fishermen had crofts of about seven acres,
on which they reared a scanty crop of potatoes, turnips, bere and oats. One of the
men, who was in my employment until today, has returned to gather in the crops of
these two crofts and assume the responsibility of caring for the two widows and
seventeen dependants of his brother and brother-in-law, but however good his
intentions, he will be unable to maintain them and there are other widows and
children to be provided for." 
The drownings referred to occurred in the September of that momentous year of
l897. Mr. McVitie's employee was a John Eunson whose brother William and
nephew Alex had been lost, together with his brother in law George Stout.
Altogether, eight fishermen lost their lives, four of them under 23 years of age, in
what became known as the Fair Isle Disaster of 1897. It was a blow from which
the island never really recovered. 
Following upon the emigration earlier that year, there were now only twenty men
capable of carrying out the fishing at Fair Isle that summer (apart from a few
youths) i.e. a crew for only four to five boats. Although the fish catches had been
good, prices for saithe were terrible. 
It was also another disappointing summer for the crops and, with forty people
fewer to work the land, the harvest was late. A quotation from Haa Maggie
(Maggie Wilson of Haa cottage) who lived through that year sums up the misery
of the time:- "After they had cutted just five sheaves, the men laid down their huiks
(corn hooks), they were so exhausted. One minute you could be cutting your corn
and the next you were running down to the beach to make up a crew for a passing
sailing ship, often scantily clad and without having had a real meal for many
hours". 
On the morning of the 2nd September four yoals set out to barter goods with
passing vessels seen coming over the horizon. Ships returning from the whaling
were eager to exchange salt beef, spirits and tobacco for fresh vegetables and
chickens. During the day the weather worsened considerably and, by nightfall, with
the boats still not back, it was blowing a gale. Two of the yoals eventually returned
that night. Another boat was sighted next morning and was brought to the shore
by a rescue party. All five of the crew, including a fifteen year old, Alex Eunson, at
the tiller, were dead. The other boat with its crew of four was never recovered.
The men had left twenty six dependants. 
Resistance was crushed. The active fishing force had been decimated. Was it worth
while carrying on? Competition from the trawlers around Fair Isle was increasing
and fish prices were ludicrously low. The price for saithe, now the principal catch,
had collapsed to only 1/- per cwt. It had been 9d. a dozen a hundred years
previously. The islanders continued to have no influence over the marketing of
their products. Those who had left, however, poor their circumstances, were better
off than those who remained. 
In the years that followed, while there was no further mass exodus from Fair Isle
to Orkney, there was a steady attrition, particularly of the younger families.
Moreover, there was no influx of new blood. The population fell to 147 in 1901
and continued a dramatic decline to 108 in 1931 and to 46 in l961, by which time
ownership had passed, first of all to George Waterston in 1948 and thereafter, in
1954, to the present owners, the National Trust for Scotland. The population of
Fair Isle has now stabilised at around 70 but descendants of only two of the
nineteenth century names remain - those are the Stouts and the Wilsons. 
Editor's Note: 
Readers may be interested to know that another Stout, the late Thomas Stout of
Thurso, has researched the Stouts who came from Westray. A copy has been
deposited in the Westray Heritage Centre and I believe also in the Kirkwall
Archives. 
W M Gibson has published several books related to Stronsay. One of these, Tales
of an Orkney Island contains many stories, poems, songs, maps and lists of
people involved with various activities. The book contains the names of 49 Fair
Island people who settled in Stronsay. Most lived in the village of Whitehall and
were valuable families for the new herring industry which was established there.