115053: Mealista Farm

The Macrae brothers came from Kintail, but like many of the other Wester Ross families to come to Lewis, they had been for some time shepherds in Harris, possibly for Alexander Macrae of Hushinish and Northton. John Macrae came to Mealista when the Crofters there were cleared in 1837. His brother Christopher was living in Morvich in Glenshiel when he married Marjory Macdonald, daughter of the innkeeper at Leverburgh, then moved to Mealista with his brother. After the death of Christopher Macrae his widow and family returned to Harris, where she kept the Post Office in Manish.

George Mitchell came originally from the Parish of Bellie in Banff-shire. He married his first wife Catherine Macleod, in Stornoway in 1825, but his eldest son claimed to have been born in Gairloch, perhaps his mother’s home. There is a note in the Seaforth Papers for 1826 that “part of the Farm at Hamnaway could be let to Mitchell or another fish-curer” and his other two children of the first marriage were born Ian Ceann Chuisil. In 1833, George Mitchell married his second wife – Rachel Matheson of Erista- and removed to Timsgarry. His son John Mitchell lived there until his second marriage, when he moved to his wife’s home in Scaliscro for a few years, before taking over the farm at Mealasta from the Macraes.