Lachlan and Mary McNeill (m.s. McLean) up to 1851 on Tiree, Scotland

LACHLAN and MARY McNEILL (m.s. McLEAN) - Part 2 - up to 1851

It's highly possible Lachlan and Mary, with 5 children in tow, left Mull due to clearances caused by a chief or landlord switching to sheep-grazing on the  land as it brought in a higher amount of remuneration.

Once on Tiree, circa 1835, in Moss/Hough, Lachlan and Mary had five (5) more children, to add to the 5 born on Mull:

Alexander - January 5, 1836
Donald & Julia (twins) - May 28, 1838
Marion - November 12, 1841
and
Ann - January 11, 1844

In the space of 21 years, Mary gave birth to 10 children.

At the time of the 1841 census, Lachlan, Mary and the family of 8 children were living at Hough, where Lachlan is listed as an agricultural labourer.

source of map:  https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=map+of+tiree&view=detailv2&&id=50E2066FAA7FDB51E244990D34F06A051AC73A12&selectedIndex=0&ccid=EYxOO2fc&simid=608001820594605598&thid=OIP.M118c4e3b67dcad9212aeda65e8d97479H0&ajaxhist=0


source of map:  https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=map+of+tiree&view=detailv2&&id=50E2066FAA7FDB51E244990D34F06A051AC73A12&selectedIndex=0&ccid=EYxOO2fc&simid=608001820594605598&thid=OIP.M118c4e3b67dcad9212aeda65e8d97479H0&ajaxhist=0

Moss is on the western side of Tiree, at an inland location east of Sandaig, north of Barrapol, and south of Cornaigbeg.

By 1846, the Highland Potato Famine had started, which greatly impacted a resource the people had come to rely on heavily.  This may explain why the children are listed as paupers in the 1851 census, now that the father, Lachlan, has passed away.

1851 Census:

Mary was a widow by the time of the census, with 7 of her children living with her.

As the 1851 census was done on March 30th, we can at this point only narrow Lachlan's death to somewhere between mid-1843 and March 1851.  Did he die as a direct or indirect result of the potato famine?  We may possibly never know, although it appears that all of Lachlan's children survived to adulthood.  So perhaps there was another cause.

Oldest son, Neil, is living at home with his widowed mother, Mary, and is listed as an "agricultural labourer."  It's not clear what is the nature of Neil's work so perhaps future research will show me what crops were being grown around Moss/Hough, Tiree, at this time.

Also living with Mary are Catherine and Alexander, 14 and 12 respectively, while Donald, 10, is listed as a pauper scholar.  His twin, Julia, as well as the younger two sisters, Marion and Ann, are listed as "paupers."

First child, daughter Janet, is not listed with the family in the census, nor are daughters Flora and Mary.

Flora married Archibald McArthur on Tyree, in Sandaig, on June 19, 1850 and are living there at the time of the census.  Living with them at that time is Flora's sister, Mary.

Janet married a Neil Campbell McNeil on March 13, 1853 in Govan.  I have been unable to find Janet in the 1851 census.

It's interesting to note there were a total of 689 households at the time of the 1851 census, with an average of 5.4 persons per household. (source:http://www.keithdash.net/History/Billy/AppendixG.pdf
There was a total of 28 households and 148 persons living in Moss at the time.  (source:  http://www.keithdash.net/History/Billy/AppendixJ.pdf)

What happened to Lachlan?

A search in ScotlandsPeople comes up with only one old Parish Register death of a Lachlan McNeill (searched for by forename and surname variants) between January 1, 1841 and December 31, 1851. That Lachlan McNeill died on Gigha on April 4, 1841.  Since the census of 1841 was done on June 6, 1841, this is not our Lachlan McNeill as he would have still been alive at least until at least prior to daughter Ann's birth in January 1844.

It is therefore not known at this time when Lachlan McNeill died but I imagine he died on Tyree between late 1843 and March 1851.