The Quilietti Family

OUR LINE FROM TONGUE

The Morrison family.

Our branch of the Morrison clan come from the north of Scotland in a little village in North West Scotland called Milness, Midtown in Tongue.     The North coast was always their home and they moved between Durness and Tongue for many years.  Then moving to Aberdeen and  some branches eventually down to Edinburgh.  So whether our branch derives from the Western Isles or the Aberdeenshire Clan is still to be discovered

Melness (Gaelic: Taobh Mhealanais) is a locality, comprising a group of small remote crofting townships, lying to the west of Tongue Bay opposite Coldbackie, in the north coast of Sutherland, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland.[1][2] The individual hamlets are:

Achnahuaigh (Gaelic: Achadh na h-Uamha)
Achininver (Gaelic: Achadh an Inbhir)
Lubinvullin (Gaelic: Lùb a’ Mhuilinn)
Midtown (Gaelic: Baile Meadhanach)
Portvasgo (Gaelic: Port Faisgeach)
Skinnet (Gaelic: Sgianaid)
Strathan (Gaelic: Srathan)
Talmine (Gaelic: Tealamainn)
West Strathan (Gaelic: Srathan Shuas)

.

William Morrison, my 5th great grandad, was born in Durness.  He married…….and had a son  John,,  who  was born in the year 1770 in Durness in Sutherland on 23rd April 1770.

John Morrison, my 4th great grandad  married Catherine Mackenzie on 27th January 1797, which is just along the coast from Durness, and it is here that their son Angus, and our direct line,  was born in 1805.   Other children were John 1797, Jean 1799, Catherine 1807.  If anyone has information about these branches please feel free to contact Helen.  I am sure there would have been many more offspring still undiscovered.

Angus Morrison, my 3rd great grandad, was born Durness is not far from Tongue and the Kyle of Tongue is where Angus Morrison settled.  He married Marion or Marrion McKay on 2nd DECEMBER  1825 He is described as a Herring Fisherman in the 1851 census and also worked the land on his small holding of 3 acres in Melness.  With the information contained in the many censuses from 1841 onwards the family were both speakers of Gaelic and Scots.

• They had many children
• JOHN  BORN 1826
• James BORN 1828
• George BORN 1831 – my direct line
• Thomas born 1833
• Angus born 1835
• Donald born 1835 – twins
• Charles born 1838
• Mary born 1840
• Marrion born 1842
• Angus born 1843
• Thomas born 1844
• Catherine 1849
•  

The 1861 Census tells us that George has left Tongue and we know that he joined the Army.  1871 Census tells us that there are only two remaining children Angus and Hugh living on the smallholding and working with their father.

SECOND GREAT GRANDFATHER GEORGE MORRISON

George Morrison in 1851 was a farmhand working the land with his father and brothers.  By the time of his marriage in 1863 he was already serving in the Army.  He was part of the Crimean War 1854-55.  His Company were drafted to India and he won a Military Medal.  We know from this that he was part of the 84-97th Footsoldiers and 2nd and 3rd Rifle Brigade.  Between the years of 1863 and 1871 he served  in India.   His daughter Mary was born at Sea in 1864, then his son Alex in Jance, East Indes  in the year 1868. By 1871 his Company had returned to Leith and his son Angus was born in Edinburgh Castle in 1871.  Edinburgh Castle was, and still is, a Military Base.  From Edinburgh to Perth Military Barracks. Then to Dundee where son James was born in 1875.   Then up to Aberdeen where the family settled for a while .  Daughter Margaret was born in Aberdeen in 1880.   In 1881 they lived at an address 15 Canal Road, Aberdeen.  By now George was out of the Army and working as a Labourer.

By 1891 George and his wife Elizabeth had moved down to Edinburgh and were living next to the Castle in a street called Lawnmarket, No. 517.  Angus, their son who was born in 1871 was now in the Navy.

GREAT GRANDFATHER ANGUS MORRISON

It was 1894 that Angus married Margaret Kathleen Brady, of Irish descent.  They married in Edinburgh on 1st December 1894.  It is great to see that all the names of the family are carried on through the generations.

• Daughter Marion was born in 1895.  She married Robert G. Hay.  Have no further information on this line to date
• Son Angus Morrison was born in 1897 in the Cowgate, Edinburgh.  He married Isabella Walker who was an Aberdonian. They in turn gave birth to Angus Roland Morrison who was born in Aberdeen.   Most of Gus’s family still live in and around Edinburgh today
• George Morrison was born in 1900 at 1 Fountain’s Close, High Street, Edinburgh.   Have no further information on this line to date
• Alexander Morrison – my own direct line – was born in Blackfriar’s Street in Edinburgh on 10th April 1902.  He married Helen Denholm Crawford and they had 13 children
• Annie Morrison was also born in Blackfriar’s Street on 1st January 1905.  No further information on this line
• John Morrison was born on 6th September 1908 in the Canongate area, address 4 Haddington’s Entry.  No further information on this line
• Margaret Morrison was born in 1913.  She married unknown Gilfeather.  No further information on this line .

THE HIGHLAND CLEARANCES

The brutal legacy of the mid- late 18th and early 19th centuries are still etched in the minds of the people of the Highlands today. Man’s inhumanity was brought sharply into focus, when entire communities were swept away so that the land could be sold off to southern sheep farmers.

Orders given were an attempt to eradicate the Clan and Highland way of life as well as capturing the Prince who was in hiding. This is quite an accurate assumption, but after researching the subject I found that it was only the tip of the ice-berg and only the beginning to what is known as the “Highland Clearances”. I hope the web pages covering the subject can be enlightening and give a more in depth understanding and feeling, as well as being eye opening to the truths, the atrocities, of events and true accounts of what actually happened, which made the Highland Clearances so notorious.uring what became known as the ”Highland Clearances”, it was not just a hundred or so victims who suffered eviction, but tens of thousands of men, women and children alike  often violently, from their homes to make way for large scale sheep farming. It is fair to say that, had it not been for the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden and the actions that were carried out by the Duke of Cumberland on behalf of the English/British crown that the Highland Clearances may never have come to the same fruition or grown to the same extent in which they had. Although the aftermath of Culloden was a major factor, emigration had actually begun after the 1715 Rising, it is also fair to say that some Clan Chief’s and Landowners had been dealing with foreign landowners some years earlier although these were on a very small scale compared to what would happen in years to come.http://www.cranntara.org.uk/clear.htm

Angus Morrison marries  Mary or Marion McKay.   By the time of their marriage the Highland Clearances were in full force and our great grandfathers moved to the coast.   Our family settled in Tongue and in the village of Midtown.   Angus became a fisherman of the Herring.

Angus and Mary have several children but our direct line was George Morrison who marries  Elizabeth Cowie in Aberdeen on 13th October 1863.    George was a soldier in the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders and much of the time he was away from home. We know he was in India in the year 1869 and that their daughter Marion was born at Sea.  On his return to Scotland  he was based in Perth and later at Edinburgh Castle where his son Angus was born in 1871.

This census also tells us that Marion was born at sea in the year 1864 and her younger brother Alex. was born at sea whilst the army made its way to India.

http://www.scottishmilitaryarticles.org.uk/PrintGallery18541881_10.htm

By 1891 he was living in the Lawnmarket and out of the army but this census shows son Angus in the Navy.  The census also tells us that Angus was born in Sunderlandshire and that he spoke the Gaelic.   His wife and our great granny was born in Portsoy which is a wee fishing village not far from the Elgin area

The 93rd Sutherland Highland  were deployed in India for many years and as the following shows they returned to Leith in 1870.

MARGARET  WALKER  MORRISON  married JOSEPH QUILIETTI.

The year was 1945 and Joe had returned from war.   They both had met near their homes in Niddrie and it was said that Peggy would wait to catch a glimpse of Joe who was so very handsome.  The families were known to each other and lived in the same street.

Peggy worked as a Manageress in a tobacconist near Greyfriar’s Bobby in the centre of town.

Peggy was born on 17th May 1926 in Chessell’s Court, Canongate, Edinburgh.  She was one of a large family whose parents were Alexander Morrison and Helen Denholm Crawford.

Peggy’s father Alex. Morrison was born on 10th April 1902 at 2 Blackfriar’s Street, Edinburgh.    Blackfriar’s Street is off the High Street and No. 2 is the  first tenement when you turn from the High Street into Blackfriar’s Street.  The street then  descends into the Cowgate.  Alex. married Helen Denholm Crawford on 28th January 1921 at Lady Glenorchy Church in Edinburgh.  Alex. was in the Gordon Highlanders at the time, age 18, and stationed at Maryhill Barracks in Glasgow.

They lived for a while in Chessel’s Court, Canongate where their eldest children were born.

In 1936 a new housing project was underway at Niddrie in Edinburgh.  The cramped old town houses with shared sanitation and no hot water was soon to be swapped over for these new council homes.  The houses were designed with space in mind.    The layout of the scheme was to give maximum sunlight to the homes.  The houses were to be built in blocks of houses in a square of oblong configuration allowing the sunshine to be always present in some part of the large back areas.  There were large drying greens for people to dry their clothes.  The fronts of the houses would have gardens and the streets would be wide enough to allow sunshine to make its way around at some time of the day. The houses were built mainly with a livingroom, kitchen, two or three bedrooms and a bathroom with indoor sanitation and hot running water which was heated through coal fired back boilers.  These houses were luxurious indeed and with smaller ceilings were easier to heat than the high ceilings in the old town.  There was also schools for both denominations to be built.

So they moved to 50 Niddrie Mains Terrace and this is where the Morrison family lived and remained until the death of Ma Morrison in 1980.

Helen and Alex had thirteen children and too many to count grandchildren, at least 47, and many more great grandchildren and beyond.

ALEXANDER MORRISON line

Alex’s dad was Angus Morrison who was born on 28th August 1871 in Edinburgh Castle

.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Castle

Alex’s father, George Morrison, was living in the barracks at the time after their return from serving abroad, but none the less it is a prestigious address for anyone.   Alex’s mother was Margaret Brady, Irish by descent, and she was born in 1876.  Angus was a Private in the Cameron Highlanders.  The 1891 cencus tells us that Angus was born in Tarbet, Inverness-shire.  He is listed with all his regiment.

Angus Morrison’s dad was George Morrison and he was born in the year 1835 in Sutherlandshire, Scotland.   George married Elizabeth Cowie on 13th October 1863 in King Street, Aberdeen in Scotland.  George was also an army man and served in the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders.  At the time of their marriage George was stationed at the Military Barracks in Aberdeen in Scotland.  His wife Elizabeth Cowie was also from Aberdeen and lived at 3 Park Street in the City.

George Morrison’s dad was Angus Morrison who was born in 1815 in Aberdeen in Scotland.   He married Mary McKay. Angus was a Farmer as described on the marriage certificate of George in 1863.  Angus Morrison is the 3rd great grandfather of Helen Rose Quilietti.

THE BRADY LINE

Margaret Brady married Angus Morrison.  Her father was John Brady and he was in the Merchant Navy.  He married Annie Murray.     Margaret died in 1927 in Longmore Hospital, Edinburgh.   Her usual residence was 13 North St. James’ Street, Edinburgh.

A BIT ABOUT THE MORRISON CLAN

The Morrison Tartans are numerous and because there were two different clan Morrisons, one from Aberdeen and Inverness, and one from the Isles, then we must assume that each had their own.

http://www.tartansauthority.com/research/tartan-spotlight/morrison-tartans

The CLAN MEMBERS’ BADGE consists of the Chief’s Crest within a strap and buckle bearing the Chief’s Motto. By wearing it, the clan member acknowledges himself to be a follower of the owner of the crest. The crest is a part of Dr. Iain Morrison’s personal heraldic achievement. Technically speaking, it is not the clan crest and one should not claim it as my crest.

The Chief’s Arms include a motto above the crest (TEAGHLACH PHABBAY) and a slogan (DUN EISTEIN) in a compartment below the shield. This was done to encompass both the Harris and Lewis branches of the family. Dr. Iain Morrison traces his lineage to Phabbay, and TEAGHLACH PHABBAY (the family of Phabbay) is his personal motto.

The Morrison family have indeed a long lineage and their family go back for hundreds of years.  There are two main strains of the Morrison clan in Scotland.  Our family come from the Aberdeenshire Clan.   They were known as the Morrisons of Bognie. This sept of the clan originated from the Norsemen and in particular one called Maurice, which means dark skinned    He was an early Christian Saint.  The name became common in the 14th century in the Aberdeenshire area of Scotland.  This clan has apparently no connection with the septs in the southern Hebridies

The Origins Of Clan Morrison

There is little in the way of historical information on the origins of Clan Morrison. It is generally accepted that the hereditary judges, or brieves, of the Isle of Lewis were chiefs of the clan until that office disappeared in the early 1600’s. The seat of the brieves was at Habost in Ness, near the Butt of Lewis. One tradition is that this line of brieves were descended from a Morrison heiress of the original line and a Macdonald of Ardnamurchan who married her in the 1300’s. The Morrisons of Harris claim to be of the original line.

The Gaelic name of the Morrisons is Mac Ghille Mhoire, which means “son of the servant of the Virgin Mary.” Gille Mhoire was once a common name in Gaelic-speaking areas since it was the practice to name children after Christian saints in this fashion. The choice of the saint’s name may have been connected with the name of the local church, and there were more churches named after the Virgin Mary than any other saint. Other examples of names that developed this way include Gilbride, for St. Bridgit, and Malcolm, for St. Columba.

The one-time popularity of the name Gille Mhoire probably accounts for the origin of a number of independent Morrison families along the western coast of Scotland. Depending on regional patterns, the name was also modernized in other ways, including Gilmour, McIlmorrow and McIlvory, and is found in Ireland and the Isle of Man as well.

The name Morrison probably originally developed to denote a “son of Maurice [pronounced Morris].” Maurice was a name brought to Scotland by the Normans about 1000 years ago. A number of different Morrison families in Scotland likely obtained their name in this way. The popularity of this name in the Lowland areas resulted in it sometimes being used to anglicize a Gaelic name such as Mac Ghille Mhoire.

The seat of the Morrisons of Harris was at Pabbay (Gaelic:Pabaigh), a small island off the coast. One branch of this family were hereditary armorers to the MacLeods, who were the dominant clan of the Isle of Harris. It is from the Morrisons of Pabbay that our current chief descends. It is interesting to note that one of the two churches on Pabbay was namedTeampull Mhoire, or “Mary’s Church.”

Some genealogies of the MacLeods claim that their progenitor, Leod, was a son of Olaf the Black, King of Man. The Kilbride Manuscript, dated about 1550, gives a genealogy of the MacLeods that includes the name Oilmoir in the family. Later versions render this name as Gillemuire, and that is the basis of various stories of a connection between the Morrisons of Lewis and Harris and Olaf the Black.

There are various accounts of the origins of the Morrisons of the Outer Hebrides, or Clan Mac Ghille Mhoire, but we have no definitive proof of any of them. The following is a somewhat romanticized version of one of these accounts.

One of the Popular Tales:

Eight centuries ago, a Norse ship struggled in heavy seas off the Scottish island of Lewis. A proud Kintyre noblewoman named Lauon stood on the deck cradling her new-born infant son, Gillemorrie, in her arms while her husband, Olaf the Black, shouted orders to the crew. Despite his Herculean efforts the ship foundered. Olaf, Lauon and their son plunged into the frigid waters and clung to a piece of driftwood floating near their sinking vessel. Fortune smiled upon the shipwrecked trio, and they were deposited safe but wet upon the stony Lewis shore.

Lauon married Olaf in 1214 and bore him one child (Gillemorrie). The fact that she was a cousin german to Olaf’s first wife was unacceptable to the church. Bishop Reginald of the Isles declared their relationship incestuous and nullified the marriage, thereby rendering her son illegitimate.

Gillemorrie, upon achieving manhood, married the last heiress of the Clan Igaa (also known as the Clan Gow). She held the stronghold of Pabbay Castle near Harris as her birthright. It was from this union that the Clan Morrison sprang.

Two distinct branches evolved; the Morrisons of Harris and the Morrisons of Lewis. The Morrisons of Lewis established a fortress named Dun Eistein on the northern tip of the island. They gave rise to ten generations of hereditary brieves (experts in law) which held sway over the outer Hebridean islands until 1613. This branch of the family vanished from the pages of history following the issuance of “Letters of Fire and Sword” on August 28, 1616.

Clan Tartans

Clan Morrison Society (Scotland):

GREEN
(1909).

The green Clan Morrison Society Tartan (Scotland) is a variant of the MacKay sett with a red stripe. In the absence of an identifiable Morrison Tartan, the Society selected a MacKay sett and added a red stripe.

The selection was based on the Morrison ties with the MacKays. Ay Mac Hormaid (Morrison) fell in love with, and married, the daughter of the Bishop of Caithness. Her dowry was the whole of Durness on the mainland, and 60 Morrison families relocated there in the 1600’s.

Clan:

RED
(Lyon Court Book #21, 03 Jan. 1968).

It was reported that in the 1930’s, workers demolishing a “Black House” on the island of Lewis, discovered an old bible wrapped in a scarlet tartan. An enclosed note, dated 1745, identified the tartan as belonging to the Morrisons. It was officially recognized as the Morrison Tartan by the Lord Lyon on January 3, 1968. It was first worn again at the 1964 Clan Gathering.

Members of the Clan Morrison are entitled to wear either tartan. Both are available in modern (bright aniline dyes, ancient (lighter vegetable dyes) or weathered (muted tones similar to those used in Brave Heart) variants.

http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/18269627/family?fpid=635637293

http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/morrison/page2.phtml

http://www.rampantscotland.com/clans/blclanmorrison.htm

.http://www.scotsconnection.com/clan_crests/Morrison.htm

http://cmsna.x10hosting.com/public_html/chief.htm

 

The other branches of the Morrison Clan came from the Island of Lewis in the Hebridies off the West Coast of Scotland.

The Morrison family always remained very close and each one’s home was the others.

There are many descendents of Alex. Morrison and ‘Ma’ Morrison as she was affectionately called.   They had a large family and their families are spread out like branches of a tree also.  Their youngest daughter Sheila is the only remaining daughter and I would like to dedicate this page to her husband Raymond Miller  who died this year 2010. Aunty Sheila died in 2018.