44282: John Macleod

John, son of Angus and Mary nee Macdonald, Crowlista, married Christina nee Munro from Erista. They emigrated to Quebec in the early 1850s.

The following is from feedback to this website;

The reason for Iain Beag’s departure to Canada was related in the family as follows:

In the early 1850’s Crowlista was heavily overpopulated following the clearances of most of the neighbouring villages with many of those cleared now staying there. This put huge pressure on the land and other resources.The village had only recently been lotted and Iain Beg was then living with his wife and family in a house apart from his parents who had the family croft. One day he cut some peat banks but was challenged by the village "constables" who maintained that as he did not have a croft he had no right to cut peat. A furious row ensued after which he returned home and sat through out the evening staring at the fire, silently thinking, saying nothing, at last he announced that if this was going to be the state of affairs in Crowlista then he and his family would emigrate to Canada. Within the month they were gone.