15712: Roderick Mackenzie

Ruaraidh Thormoid Thormoid

Roderick  (1849-1913) was a son of Norman Mackenzie and Matilda Ross Macleod 4 Calbost.

In Lochs, in 1874, he married Christina Mackenzie, 13 Marvig. Roderick and Christina were Cottars on 4 Calbost and they had eight children.

Roderick shared the croft with two other families, his brother, Malcolm and his sister,  Ann who was married to John Macarthur from 2 Cromore. He testified before the Royal Commission Highlands and Islands 1892 otherwise known as the "Deer Forest Brand Commission" at their meeting in Stornoway on 9th July 1894, questions 44, 128-44, 153.

Calbost consisted of 14 crofts, which are said to extend to about an average of 5 acres per croft of inbye land or a total of 70 acres of inbye land for the whole village, which had a population of 197 people at the census of 1891. That gives each person an average share of about 1/3 of an acre.

That explains why a number of Calbost people joined with other landless families from the surrounding villages in the 1891 land raiding in Southern Park in the hope of acquiring some of the land that was grossly under used there.