On the right hand extremity of the 1804 Map in line with 'Loch Flodavagh' appears another annotation:
Bays Pop 350
There is an undecipherable 'squiggle' to the right of the figures, crossing the original double border of the map.
When I first noticed this entry, I thought that the first figure was '3500' but, as the final '0' is smudged and because the three digits in each number are aligned, I think they are as shown above.
Two numbers suggests, perhaps, males and females, but when was the population of the Bays 550?
Maybe the 'smudge' was indeed a '0' and the population 3500? so what does the 200 refer to?
Why write them on the map? I cannot be sure. They could be figures for proposed, or completed, emigration. They could be figures for 'spaces' to accomodate those the writer was planning to be 'cleared' from elsewhere. They might be a head count of weavers or some other occupational group. I cannot be sure.
The hand could be one of those that I have already described but it is beyond my skills to tell.
The many additions to this map add much to its intrigue, and I can feel myself being pulled ever-deeper into the world that it describes...
Fàilte! (Welcome!)This blog is the result of my ongoing research into the people, places and events that have shaped the Western Isles of Scotland and, in particular, the 'Siamese-twins' of Harris and Lewis.
My interest stems from the fact that my Grandfather was a Stornowegian and, until about four years ago, that was the sum total of my knowledge, both of him and of the land of his birth.
I cannot guarantee the accuracy of everything that I have written (not least because parts are, perhaps, pioneering) but I have done my best to check for any errors.
My family mainly lived along the shore of the Sound of Harris, from An-t-Ob and Srannda to Roghadal, but one family 'moved' to Direcleit in the Baighs...
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