107500: Gobha na Hearadh

The name, the qualities and the works of John Morison (Gobha na Hearadh), the famous blacksmith, catechist and hymn-writer, who was born in Rodel in 1790, are very well known throughout Harris and Lewis.

John Morison was born with perhaps even more than a double-portion of an islander’s natural intelligence and intellect. Largely self-taught, he is said to have attended school only for a month, yet he was fluent in all aspects of Gaelic and English and is said to have been at least conversant with Latin. He is also known to have spent some time studying veterinary surgery in Edinburgh and quickly absorbed the subject to such a degree that his tutors confessed they could teach him no more.

While there are many impressive accounts of aspects of his life as catechist, preacher and ingenious blacksmith, it is as a hymn-writer that he is best known, his hymns having been published not only in Scotland but also in Nova Scotia and Toronto.

The spiritual aspects of the Gobha’s life story are preserved in publications of his hymns, first collated and edited about 1897 in two volumes by George Henderson M.A., PhD., who was also an Honorary Scholar of Jesus College, Oxford. The work was later reprinted in a single volume. Both versions contain a lengthy and impressive memoir of his life, the content of which touches on the classical.

As a blacksmith John Morison is known to have had smithies in Strond and possibly in Leverburgh, and one of his anvils is still visible as a decorative artefact in the garden of a relative’s house in Lochmaddy.

One of his great achievements, of which a lasting memorial is the Church at Manish, whose building he supervised, was his tour on the Free Church ship Breadalbane to the Clyde in 1851, when he toured the central belt of Scotland for funds to ensure that the church would be completed without outstanding debt. The warmth and generosity with which he was received throughout his tour are the subjects of one of his better-known hymns, Cuairt Cuain (Ocean Journey).

By 1852 John Morison was living in Leacklee, Harris. Manish church was completed, free of debt, in 1853, but unfortunately he did not live to see its dedication. Reverend Alexander Davidson had been appointed as the first minister of the new church at Manish and was a great personal friend of the Gobha. It is known that Mr Davidson visited the Gobha on his deathbed on 6^th December 1852. During the visit, John Morison asked the minister to sing the last verse of the fourth psalm, and by the end of the verse the Gobha had passed away.

I will both lay me down in peace,
And quiet sleep will take;
Because thou only me to dwell
in safety, Lord, dost make.

Gobha na Hearadh lies interred in the churchyard of St. Clements in Rodel (referred to by the writer of his memoriam as ‘The Westminster of the Isles’).