Barra, Inverness-shire, Scotland Genealogy

Barra # 108

History
The name Barray, or Barra, was originally derived from its particular situation or bearing, namely from Ay or I, an island, and Bar, a point or top; Barray forming the point or top island of the Hebrides. The parish is formed of that cluster of islands lying at the south-west end of Lewis Islands, or the Western Hebrides. The principal headland is Berneray or Barry-head, from whence many ships steer their course for America. The names of the larger islands of which the parish of Barray is formed, and which are mostly inhabited, are as follows: Watersay, Sanderay, Pabbay, Mingalay, and Berneray to the south; Floday, Hellisay, Gighay, Uidhay, and several others of a smaller description not inhabited, to the east and north-east.

The family of the Macneils held possession of Barray for time immemorial [but had to sell it for payment of debts, about 1840, to Colonel Gordon of Cluny]. The Macneils of old were a great terror to their neighbors as, being expert seamen, they carried their depredations to every creek in the Western Islands.

Gaelic is the language universally spoken, and it is very pure and still unmixed with many English words. The English language has made little or no progress, because schools have been wanting. Dancing with music of the bagpipes is a favorite pastime. They are extremely addicted to the use of both spirits and tobacco-smoking. There are more spirits consumed in Barray than in any other place of its extent in the Western Islands.

The parish is better adapted for grazing than agriculture. By simplifying their agriculture, the people are now enabled to raise a sufficiency of corn and potatoes for their own consumption. They have crops of potatoes, barley and oats. Their ordinary food consists of barley-meal, potatoes, and milk, and at times fish. At present (1840), there are 278 families who possess lands, and 93 families who hold no lands whatever.

This account was written January 1840.

Source: T'he New Statistical Account of Scotland, FHL book 941 B4sa, series 2, vol. 14.)

Condition of Original Registers—
Index: For an index to these records, see the Scottish Church Records Index available on computers at the Family History Library and family history centers. The records may be indexed in the International Genealogical Index. Note: There are no records prior to 1836. The New Statistical Account of Scotland for Barra for 1840 states: “There is no parochial register kept in this parish, nor can we learn that any was ever kept”. This may be accounted for by the parishioners having been, until of late, almost all Roman Catholics, over whom the minister could exercise no control.

Established Church—Kirk Session Records
None

Barra Catholic Church
History— A Catholic church has existed at Barra since long before the Reformation. There was a Catholic school here as early as 1675. The population of the island was nearly all Catholic at the time of the Bishop's visitation of 1700. The people were then generally poor and uneducated, as were those in most of rural Scotland of the time and many of them professed to have second sight. The Old Statistical Account pub. 1790's, (FHL British Book 941 B4sa vol. 20), states that the number of Protestants has always been so small that it was thought unnecessary to put the heritor to the expense of building a church. That work also gives the population of Barra then as 1604, of which only 80 were Protestants. It also states that upward of 200, being all Roman Catholics left this country within the last 2 years; some immigrated to the island of St. Johns, Nova Scotia, in North America. In 1987 the Catholic population of Barra numbered about 1000. Sources: Developments in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, 1789–1829, by Christine Johnson, FHL British Book 941 K2jc.

Records— Baptisms 1805–1919 Marriages 1812–1944 Deaths 1812–1826 Note: Available at the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, record RH21/50.