121460: Napier Commission report of Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Inquiry

Full title: Napier Commission report of Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Inquiry into the condition of the crofters and cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland : with appendices
Edinburgh : HMSO 1884

Five volumes [including maps]; includes Evidence taken by Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Inquiry into the condition of the crofters and cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

The Napier Commission (officially the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands) of 1883 was set up by the Liberal Government (under Gladstone) to look into the condition of the crofters and cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Gladstone appointed a Scottish professional diplomat and colonial administrator to chair the commission. He was Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier.

The evidence gathered by the Napier Commission captured in English (in many cases, in translation from Gaelic) testimonies of witnesses and their grievances. It provides firsthand accounts of the issues affecting ordinary people at the end of the nineteenth century. The report marked the start of a century of land reform legislation and is a resource of near-unique importance.

The five volumes of the report are available in PDF format via the website of the University of the Highlands and Islands. Also available is an index to the reports, created by Guido Blokland.

The Napier Commission witness blogspot provides biographies, arranged geographically, for Outer Hebridean witnesses who provided evidence included in the report.