[Family tree: image courtesy of Gairloch Museum]

For this second post for Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month we’re following Catherine “Kate” Williamson, the sister of Isaac who we met last week. We want to extend our thanks to Nathalie Stevenson, Brian Wilson and Dorothy Malone for their time and research in creating these posts.

Kate is born in Brora in 1845 to parents Issac Williamson and Margaret Norrie, just one year before her brother Isaac. Alongside her family she spends the first 20 years of her life travelling the west coast between Sutherland, Lochbroom, Gairloch and Lochcarron.

In May 1865, at the age of 20, she marries travelling hawker Thomas Millar in Poolewe Manse, her groom is the son of Travellers William Miller and Martha Wilson. Thomas’s usual residence is recorded as Jeantown, an old name for Lochcarron, and Kate’s usual residence is Lairg, Sutherland.

It appears that Kate and her new husband travel around for a while with Thomas’ father and sister, as the whole family are registered in the 1871 census in a tent in Talladale, on Loch Maree side. For the 1881 and 1891 census the couple and their children are in a tent in Kerrysdale, which is where Kate dies in 1897. After her death Thomas travels slightly further afield including for the 1901 census in Snizort, Isle of Skye, before returning to Gairloch for the 1911 census where he is documented in Achdistle, near the Gairloch Hotel and 1921 in North Erradale. The last we see of Thomas is in Lonmore, Gairloch where at the age of 82 he dies of infirmity of old age.

Kate and Thomas’ oldest son, William, is born in Contin in 1867, and marries in 1887 at the age of 19. The venue is Achtercairn School, which today is still part of Gairloch Primary School. We’ll be following him, and his new bride Margaret “Maggie” Wilson, next week.

Daughter Margaret is born in Contin in 1870, and she marries fellow Traveller William Wilson in 1887 in Kinlochluichart. The next Gairloch area birth is Martha Miller, born in Cromasaig, Kinlochewe in 1873, and Mary Miller, who was born in Kerrysdale, Gairloch in April 1876. We only have two historical photographs of Travellers from the Gairloch area and one is a group within a tent beside the River Kerrysdale with Sithean Mor in the background, which is dated to May 1913. We can’t say for certain this is the Miller family, but the scene is certainly similar to how it would have looked at Mary’s birth.

Daughter Martha Miller, hawker, aged 23 married 25-year-old hawker John Reid at the Gairloch manse in August 1898. Daughter Mary Miller was married at the age of 30 to general dealer George Williamson in Poolewe in August 1905, and his father was a horse dealer, a very common job for Travellers both then and now. Then comes daughter Jane Miller, born in Mellon Charles in 1881, who marries James Williamson, another horse dealer, in South Gairloch in June 1904. We can see that Kate and Thomas’s offspring continue visiting Gairloch in their adult lives.

[Traveller family at Kerrysdale, 1913, from Christopher J Uncle’s book ‘Old Ways Through Wester Ross’]

It is Kate and Thomas’s youngest son, George, who we are following next. Born on the roadside in Glen Docherty in 1884, he marries Traveller Mary Stewart in Strath, Gairloch in 1904. The newlyweds quickly settle into the familiar family pattern of travelling routes with children born in westerly locations including the Isles of Lewis and Harris, as well as Kinlochewe.

From 1912 onwards the family appear to settle in the area, with their last four children born in North Erradale, Poolewe and Lonmore, Gairloch. By 1919 George becomes the tenant of Croft 29 North Erradale which appears to have been vacant since the MacPherson family left before 1911. The 1921 census shows that 10 people were living within the two bedroom property, as George, Mary and their 7 children were joined by George’s father, and the now widowed Thomas. It’s interesting to note that the 1921 census was taken on the 19th of June, when a Traveller family would have traditionally been on the road. We think the family are settled to allow their children to gain an education, as we know they were enrolled at Sand School.

[Sand School, from the late 1920s. Tommy Miller is second left on the top row, Mary Miller second left on the bottom row, and Jean Miller fourth left on the bottom row. From the Collection of Gairloch Museum, GARHM IMG1331]

George and Mary’s son John, born in North Erradale, seems to take on the croft along with his wife Bella Wilson, and we’re uncertain of when the family left North Erradale, although by the 1950s they’re living in Dingwall. The two last generations of the Miller family, George and Mary, and John and Isabella, are buried within Gairloch’s Old Cemetery.

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[Gravestones within Gairloch’s Old Cemetrey. Image courtesy of Gairloch Museum]

[Known stopping locations during the life of Catherine “Kate” Williamson (1845-1897) and husband Thomas Miller (1843-1922)]