2176: Peter Smith

"Padruig" was the father of the Earshader Bard John Smith (Shonnaidh Phadruig).

Peter was a witness for the defender in the Lewis-Harris Boundary Dispute :

At Stornoway, the 16th day of August 1850

Compeared Peter Smith, a witness for the defender, being sworn, depones, That he is forty-eight years of age and is tenant of Earshaddar in Uist: That his father, Farquhar Smith, died last December, at the age of eighty-five: That his grandfather died about thirty years ago, at the age of eighty-eight: That he has heard his father mention the line of march as it had been described to him by his father: That his father said that the march was at a burn that ran down to Airigh-mhoir from Braidh-an-fhia-clachan; that when he was a boy he heard his father say this: That, also, when he was a boy, he has heard his father say that he saw a stone at Eeuntom, and that if there was any writing on that stone he could not make it out; and he said that any marks that were on the stone were things he understood were scrarched upon it by a man with a nail: That his father said that he understood that the stone had been put up by a Mr John Campbell at Scalpa, who had also made the scratchings on it with the nail: That his father farther said that he understood the stone had been so put up by Scalpa, in consequence of a quarrel he had with one Macleod, a Lewis tenant at Ken-Resort and Forrester: That the quarrel was in consequence of Campbell having taken a gun from Macleod, who was an old man, and Macleod’s son having taken it back by force from Campbell; and that the next time Campbell went to the hill, he placed the stone at Eeuntom: That the place where the gun had been taken by Campbell from Macleod, was between Eeuntom and the march, and Campbell’s object in placing the stone was to reclaim the ground as far as Eeuntom.