Fàilte! (Welcome!)

Fàilte! (Welcome!)
This blog is the result of my ongoing research into the people, places and events that have shaped the Western Isles of Scotland and, in particular, the 'Siamese-twins' of Harris and Lewis.
My interest stems from the fact that my Grandfather was a Stornowegian and, until about four years ago, that was the sum total of my knowledge, both of him and of the land of his birth.
I cannot guarantee the accuracy of everything that I have written (not least because parts are, perhaps, pioneering) but I have done my best to check for any errors.
My family mainly lived along the shore of the Sound of Harris, from An-t-Ob and Srannda to Roghadal, but one family 'moved' to Direcleit in the Baighs...

©Copyright 2011 Peter Kerr All rights reserved

Monday 29 November 2010

Wakefield House of Correction

On the evening of the 30th of March 1851 there were 863 men and 74 women locked-up in the newly expanded Wakefield House of Correction in Yorkshire, England.

With them were another 40 males & 31 females, these being the prison staff and their families, and all were under the watchful eye of the Governor, Edward Shephard.

One of the 937 inmates was a widowed Printer named William Macpherson who, some 44 years earlier, had been born on the Isle of Harris.

I have not investigated the nature of William's crime, nor the circumstances that led him from the Western Isles to Wakefield, but as there are only 26 occurrences of Harris-born Macphersons in the 1851-1901 censuses and his is the only one that records a Hearach in incarceration in England I thought it worth remarking upon.

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