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Sheila Herd

The Campbells from the Isle of Skye

Updated: 2 hours ago

Anyone who ever heard my mother in law Betty Herd talk about her childhood will have heard how much she disliked her grandmother, Christina Campbell Douglas, and at the same time there was a great pride in having the most Scottish name, Campbell, in the family. So, what was the story with Christina Campbell? Why was she so horrible? I wish I’d been able to do this research while my mother-in-law Betty was still around, I think she would have been interested.


Elizabeth Moore Leggate 1933 - 2014


Betty was born in November 1933 in Warwickshire, she also said that she was supposed to have been born in Scotland, in Lanarkshire, outside Glasgow, where her family were from, but she arrived unexpectedly two months early and ended up being born in England, her family were working on farms in England. Betty was the third child of six children and was named Elizabeth Moore Leggate, the “Moore” bit was the maiden name of her grandmother on her father’s side, who was English herself. In Scotland there is much more of a tradition of keeping maiden names going in the family, and in fact in Scotland, when births, marriages and deaths are registered, where known, a person’s parents’ names are always recorded including the mother’s maiden name.


The two brothers who came after Betty were born in Lanarkshire, but her youngest baby brother was born in Essex when Betty was 11 years old, Betty’s family moved to Essex when she was between 6 and 11 years of age. Many families migrated south from Scotland for farm work at this time, including to Suffolk and Essex. Betty’s father had come from a long line of Lanarkshire farmers, but his family had moved closer to Glasgow. When Betty’s family moved south to England for work, they moved around a lot, and some of Betty’s childhood was in Yorkshire where her grandmother, Christina Campbell Douglas farmed.


Betty married Frederick Herd in August 1950 and they settled in Ipswich, Suffolk where they raised their family.


Four generations of Campbells, Betty with her grandmother Christina holding baby David and her mother Mary in 1951.

Betty’s mother, Mary Campbell Douglas 1907 - 1990


Betty’s mother was called Mary Campbell Douglas, she was born in Dalziel, Lanarkshire in Oct 1907. Mary was the third of eight children born to Daniel Douglas and Christina Campbell Douglas. When Mary was born, her father was working for a colliery as a joiner.


Mary married Andrew Horace Leggate in June 1928 in the Salvation Army Church in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. Their six children were:


1.     Hugh Leggate born 23rd April 1929 in Lanarkshire

2.     Christina Campbell Leggate born 3rd Jan 1931 in Lanarkshire

3.     Elizabeth Moore Leggate born 21st Nov 1933 in Warwickshire married Frederick Herd

4.     Daniel Douglas Leggate born 26th Nov 1937 in Lanarkshire

5.     Andrew Leggate born 2nd April 1939 in Lanarkshire

6.     George Douglas Leggate born 10th March 1944 in Essex (died at the age of 7 in 1951)


Another relative wrote on Ancestry that the family moved permanently to England in 1943, and between 1948 and 1952 they lived in Aveley, Essex where Mary milked 18 cows every morning and evening until 1952. After Mary and Andrew’s youngest son died of a rare heart complaint at the age of 7, Mary took a job as a paint sprayer traveling to Dagenham every day.


Mary’s husband, Andrew Horace Leggate died in 1962, and Mary’s mother, Christina, died in 1964, in 1964 Mary emigrated to Australia with her son Daniel, where she died in 1990 at the age of 82.

 

Betty’s grandmother Christina Campbell 1886 - 1964


Christina Campbell, the grandmother who Betty loathed, was born on 22nd Nov 1886 at 33 Ann Street, Motherwell, Lanarkshire, her birth was registered by her mother, Mary Campbell, a domestic servant, single, no father recorded. So Christina was Mary’s first baby and was illegitimate.


In the 1891 census, when Christina was 4 years old, she was recorded as Christina “Valentine”, living with her mother Mary who had married a James Valentine. We know there was a lot of stigma around being illegitimate in those times, and this is probably why Christina's mother tried to give her the name Valentine.


No trace of Christina in the 1901 census, she was not living with her mother and stepfather. In fact her mother and step father went on to have 15 baby Valentine’s, some of whom died in infancy, so Christina probably felt well and truly put out.


In July 1905 she was 18 and living at 83 Almada Street, Hamilton, when she married Daniel Forest Douglas at the age of 18. Daniel Forest Douglas' father was from Belfast, Ireland and had probably come to Glasgow for work. On Christina Campbell's marriage record there was no name recorded for her father, but her mother was recorded as “Mary Campbell”, a domestic servant, subsequently married to a James Ballantyne, a railway plate layer. Three years ago, I went looking for a Mary Campbell marrying a James Ballantyne, everywhere in Scotland, and drew a blank and gave up, but when I looked at it again recently, I realised a witness was Maggie Valentine, who turned out to be Christina’s step sister, and a Campbell witness had turned up to Betty’s mother’s wedding in 1928, someone called “Mary Campbell Donnelly”. This had to be a clue. Long story short, Mary Campbell Donnelly was a half cousin, and through her I discovered that Mary Campbell had married James Valentine and not Ballantyne!


Christina, for whatever reason, didn’t want to take her stepfather’s name, Valentine, and stuck with Campbell.


Christina Campbell and Daniel Forest Douglas had 8 children together, as follows:


1.     George William Douglas born 23rd July 1905 Hamilton, Lanarkshire

2.     John Douglas born 3rd March 1906 Hamilton, Lanarkshire died 1927 aged 21.

3.     Mary Campbell Douglas born 24th Oct 1907 Dalziel, Lanarkshire (Betty’s mother who married Andrew Horace Leggate)

4.     Daniel Forest Douglas born 23rd March 1909 Dalziel, Lanarkshire

5.     Donald Douglas born 1910 Bothwell, Lanarkshire

6.     George Douglas born 8th April 1912 Motherwell, Lanarkshire

7.     Christina Campbell Douglas born 14th Oct 1914 Lanarkshire (this was Betty’s beloved aunt who she used to visit in Tiptree, Essex)

8.     Alice Douglas born 1929 Hamilton, Lanarkshire died in 1927 at the age of 7.


Christina’s husband, Daniel, appears to have worked as a colliery joiner in Lanarkshire. Collieries and steel making were huge industries in Glasgow and Lanarkshire, and Betty’s parents and grandparents would have had permanent employment, and in fact Betty’s father was employed for a period with Clydesdale Iron and Steel, ship building was huge, but between the two world wars there was a global depression and Lanarkshire’s heavy industries were hit hard, half of the old industrial jobs disappeared and unemployment and poverty were rife, which is probably why Betty’s family ended up migrating to England for work.


In 1923, when Christina was 36, her mother, Mary Campbell Valentine died. Then in 1927 when Christina was 40, real tragedy struck, in May, Christina and Daniel’s son John Douglas died at the age of 21 and in October their daughter Alice died at the age of 7. The grief must have been unbearable.

John and Alice Douglas' gravestone in Hamilton West Cemetery

In 1954, when Christina was 67, her husband Daniel Forest Douglas died in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. I believe after this, Christina may have been living with her son George, who was farming in Yorkshire, and I seem to remember Betty talking about living in Yorkshire at times in her childhood. Christina died on 7th March 1964 at the age of 77, in Halifax, Yorkshire.


Betty's mother Mary and grandmother Christina Campbell, date and location unknown.


Betty’s great grandmother, Mary Campbell, 1869 ~ 1923


Mary Campbell was born in July 1869 in Kilmore & Kilbride, near Oban, Argyllshire, she was the fifth of seven children. Her parents were Neil and Christina Campbell who were originally from Snizort on the Isle of Skye.


In the 1871 census, Mary was 4 years old and living with her parents and older siblings in Kilmore & Kilbride, her maternal grandmother Christina Thomson who was 76 was also living with them. Her father was a road surface man, so had left the Isle of Skye for work.


Sometime between this census and the next one in 1881, the family had moved south to Dalziel, in Lanarkshire, and on this census, Mary was 11, she had 5 siblings, and her father Neil was working as a railway platelayer. Platelayers inspected and maintained railway tracks, the sleepers, fishplates, bolts, greasing points, looking for wear and tear.


In 1886, when she was 17, Mary Campbell gave birth at 33 Ann Street, Motherwell to her illegitimate daughter, Christina Campbell, Mary was a domestic servant.


Four years later at the age of 20, she married James Hogarth Valentine, in Glasgow, James Hogarth Valentine was an oil worker from Aberdeen and Mary Campbell was a domestic servant, after the marriage babies kept arriving with monotonous regularity, I found fourteen in all, some dying in infancy:


1.     Christina Campbell 22nd Nov 1886 Motherwell, Lanarkshire (illegitimate)

2.     James Hogarth Valentine 21st April 1889 Motherwell, Lanarkshire died May 1891 Motherwell, Lanarkshire

3.     Margaret Innes Valentine 4th Sep 1891 Motherwell, Lanarkshire (turned up as a witness at her older step sister's wedding)

4.     Catherine Valentine circa 1893 Motherwell, Lanarkshire

5.     Neil Campbell Valentine circa 1894 Motherwell, Lanarkshire

6.     Duncan Thomson Valentine 1896 died 1897 Motherwell, Lanarkshire

7.     James Valentine 1899 Dalziel, Lanarkshire died 1900 Dalziel, Lanarkshire

8.     Mary Campbell Valentine 17th Dec 1900 Motherwell, Lanarkshire

9.     Ann Campbell Valentine 30th June 1902  Motherwell, Lanarkshire

10.  Helen Valentine 14th Dec 1903 Motherwell, Lanarkshire died 1904 Dalziel, Lanarkshire

11.  Robert Innes Valentine 9th Dec 1904 Motherwell, Lanarkshire

12.  Albert John Valentine 6 April1906 Motherwell, Lanarkshire    

  1. James Valentine 4th May 1908 Motherwell, Lanarkshire

  2.  Jessie McIntosh Valentine 26th April 1911 Motherwell, Lanarkshire

15.  Williamina Donnelly Valentine 4 Sep 1913 Motherwell, Lanarkshire died 2 Sep 1986 New Zealand

 

 In January 1901, Mary was 31 and had 4 children, James Valentine was a colliery labourer, and the family made an application for relief from poverty, James had pneumonia, and they had a 5-week-old baby. The Valentine's were living at 160 Watsonville, Motherwell:


Watsonville, Motherwell (John Watson, Limited)

These rows are known as Watsonville, and are situated in the centre of Motherwell Burgh. They are a very poor type of house, and were built over forty years ago. Water is supplied by means of stand-pipes in the street, with an open channel to carry off the dirty water. There is a meagre supply of washhouse accommodation, and grave complaints were made on this score. The streets and back courts are in a very bad condition. [Evidence presented to Royal Commission, 25th March 1914] (taken from www.scottishmining.co.uk).


I cannot imagine having 15 babies with the constant nappy washing in these conditions.


The family are missing from the 1911 census, but they are in the 1921 census. James Valentine was recorded as a colliery plate layer. They were living in Caledonian Street, Motherwell, they had 6 children at home, Neil, 26, Robert, 16 and Albert, 15, all miners, James, 13, Jessie, 10 and Williamina, 8. Mary was 51 at this time.


Mary died two years later on 7th November 1853 at the age of 54, she died of heart failure in a convalescent home, I suspect she died of exhaustion, her daughter Ann Campbell Valentine aged 21 registered her death.


Betty’s great great grandfather, Neil Campbell 1838 ~ 1903


Neil was born in 1836 at Bracadale, Skye, and baptised on 18th Jan 1838.  His parents names were John Campbell and Catherine Campbell (was Nicholson). They were Highland crofters.


Crofters were people who lived, farmed and worked a small area of land known as a croft, they might keep cows and sheep and plant crops and the area of land was usually less than 5 acres, they didn’t own the land, they rented it from large landowners, and crofters and scratched out a living, they lived in scattered settlements in small townships called “bailtean”.


The Campbell’s may have been victims of the Highland Clearances, where large landlords wanted to build large estates to breed sheep or turn land into sporting estates, crofters were forcibly and often violently evicted from their homes, they would be forced to the coastlines, where they suffered poverty and hunger because the land wasn’t productive. Many crofters moved to cities or other areas of Scotland, or England and some migrated to America, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. On Skye, 30,000 people were forced from their homes between 1840 and 1880.


The Clearances brought hardship, loss, and resentment that still resonates today. The ruined villages and abandoned crofts visible on Skye are poignant reminders of this dark chapter in its history.


The forced removal of families, and oppressive rent practices, led to a decline in traditional Gaelic culture and language. However, this also gave rise to a diaspora that would carry the stories and traditions of Skye worldwide.


 

I have been unable to definitively track Neil down in the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census because there were a lot of Neil Campbells and a lot of John Campbells and a lot of Campbells full stop!


However, on 20th May 1862, when Neil was 24, he married Christina Thomson in Muckairn near Oban, Argyllshire, which was on the mainland, and he was working as a road marker. Seven children came along:


1.     Christina Campbell 1858 Muckairn, Argyll

2.     Catherine Campbell 12th Nov 1862 Muckairn, Argyll

3.     Duncan Campbell 16th Nov 1864 Kilmore & Kilbride, Argyll

4.     John Campbell 1st Oct 1866 Kilmore & Kilbride, Argyll

5.     Mary Campbell 28th July 1869 Kilmore & Kilbride, Argyll (mother of Christina

Campbell and later married James Valentine)

6.     Ann Campbell 12th Feb 1871 Kilmore & Kilbride, Argyll.

7.     Thomas Campbell 1877 Motherwell, Lanarkshire.


In the 1871 census Neil would have been 33, but he must have been away working, as he isn’t on the return, wife Christina was at home at 23 High Street, Kilmore & Kilbride with six children, Christina, 13, Catherine, 8, Duncan, 6, John, 4, Mary, 2 and Anne, 2 months. Christina’s mother, Catherine Thomson, 76 was living with the family.


In April 1875, Neil’s mother Catherine died of old age on the Isle of Skye. Two years later Neil and Christina’s last child, Thomas was born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, so the family had moved south.


In the 1881 census, Neil was 43 and living at 31 St Vincent Place, Dalziel, Lanarkshire, he was working as a railway plate layer, Neil and Christina had 6 children at home.


In the 1891 census, Neil was 53 and Neil and Christina were living at 17 New Camp, Motherwell, Lanarkshire, they had their youngest son Thomas, 15 at home. There was also a Duncan Campbell, 65 living with them who must have been a relative of Neil’s from Skye. Neil and Duncan were both working as railway surface men.


In the April 1901 census, when Neil was 63, himself and Christina were living with their daughter Mary Valentine and her husband and their four children at 160 Watsonville, Motherwell, Lanarkshire. Mary and her husband James had made an application for poor relief at this time as James Valentine was very unwell.


In May 1901 there was a newspaper snippet in “The Herald” stating that Neil and Christina’s daughter Annie, aged 30 was charged with a breach of the peace and assaulting a labourer with a violent blow, she was fined 7s 6d or could do 5 days in prison.


In September 1901 Neil made an application for poor relief for himself, his wife Christina and daughter Annie and Annie’s husband Robert Gracie, and Annie and Robert’s 3 children. Neil’s application stated he was living at 46 Overjohnston Place and suffering from bronchitis. Daughter Annie may have started with TB as she died two years later a few months before her father Neil.


Neil died two years later on 14th September 1903 at the age of 65, he was recorded as having been a railway platelayer who died of acute bronchitis which he’d had for many years. His wife Christina died 5 years later, also of acute bronchitis. 


Betty’s great great great grandfather, John Campbell circa 1791 – 1883


The history starts getting a bit patchy now, church records of baptism, marriage and burial didn’t start until 1800 on Skye, but I found a marriage record of John Campbell’s marriage to Catherine Nicholson on 31st December 1821 at Bracadale, Isle of Skye.


I found five children baptised for John Campbell and Catherine Nicholson and one child who registered his mother’s death:


1.     Christina Campbell baptised 8th Feb 1824 Snizort, Isle of Skye

2.     Ann Campbell baptised 1 November 1826 Portree, Isle of Skye

3.     John Campbell baptised 30th June 1828 Snizort, Isle of Skye

4.     Isabella Campbell baptised 4 Dec 1855 Duirinish, Isle of Skye

5.     Neil Campbell born 1836 baptised 18th Jan 1838 Bracadale, Isle of Skye

6.     Angus Campbell (details unknown but registered his mother’s death)


There may well have been other children, but if the name Nicholson is not on the record, it’s hard to know as the name Campbell on the Isle of Skye is like Smith in England or Jones in Wales.


There may well have been other children, but if the name Nicholson is not on the record, it’s hard to know.


All we know about John and Catherine is that they were crofters, as this was mentioned in Neil’s death record and his sister Isabella who married and stayed on Skye states her father John was a crofter on her marriage and death record.


I was unable to narrow down John and Catherine Campbell in the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census because there were so many Campbells, but, I found a record of Catherine Campbell’s death in Feb 1873 (maiden name Nicholson) at Shulishader, Portree, Isle of Skye, she was recorded as being 84, from this I then found John and Catherine Campbell in the 1871 census living at Shulishader, they were elderly paupers living alone, and both had been born in Bracadale, Skye.


John Campbell died a year after is wife, he was recorded as a pauper resident in the Poor House in Shulishader near Portree, who died of general debility (old age), because his death was registered by the governor of the poor house, no names were recorded for John’s parents on his death certificate.



The Poor House in Shulishader, Skye in the 1920’s.

 

Map showing locations of Campbell family.

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