The Tiree Ancestry of Donald Duart Maclean (1913-1983) - Infamous Member of the ‘Cambridge Five’ Spies

The Tiree ancestry of Donald Duart MacLean (1913-1983) - infamous member of the ‘Cambridge Five’ spies The spy Donald Duart MacLean had Tiree roots. His grandfather, John McLean, was born at Kilmoluaig on 27 May 1833. He left Tiree and ended up being a successful bootmaker in England, employing several men. Donald Duart’s father, also Donald MacLean, was born 1864 in Farnworth, Lancashire. He became a prominent Liberal Party Politician, becoming Sir Donald MacLean for his services. Donald Duart MacLean ‘Spy’ was born 25 May 1913 Marylebone, London, and died 6 Mar 1983. John McLean, shoemaker, Kilmoluaig (b. 1833) John McLean is thought to have been born at "Taigh or Tobhta Eòghainn ’ic Eòghainn" (the house of Hugh son of Hugh), map reference Kilmoluaig 'u' in the Tiree place names website http://www.tireeplacenames.org/kilmoluaig/tobhta_eoghainn_ic_eoghainn/. The house is now a ruin. Google Earth coordinates: 56°30'12.63"N 6°55'9.43"W John McLean was born 27 May 1833 at Kilmoluaig, son of Hugh McLean (1794 Kenovay - 2 May 1867 Kilmoluaig) and Catherine McDonald (1799 Hough - 24 Apr 1886 Kilmoluaig). John’s father, Hugh, was a crofter. His parents were Hugh McLean Crofter b1749 Cornaigmore and Margaret McLean born c1757 Cornaigbeg. Margaret McLean was the daughter of Alexander McLean born c1732 of Cornaigbeg and Mary McNaughton (Reid) b1736 Kirkapol. John was the 3rd of 8 children born to Crofter Hugh McLean 1794-1867 & his wife Catherine MacDonald 1799-1886 who were married 4 Feb 1829 in Tyree. John was the eldest son. He had a younger brother named Hugh born 1837 who died in infancy. Another brother named Hugh was born 11 Jun 1841. John had 5 sisters. Hugh & Catherine may have adopted the Baptist Faith, their last child Catherine was born about 1844. Unlike her siblings, her birth & baptism do not appear in the Tyree Old Parish Register (the Old Parish Register was only used for Church of Scotland baptisms). 1851 Census Kilmoluaig shows Catherine aged 7 with her parents & siblings. John is aged 17. As the elder son, John would have inherited his father's small croft but he chose to leave Tyree for the mainland. John married Agnes MacMillan in Blythswood Glasgow on 1 Jun 1860. Agnes was born at Easdale on the Isle of Seil, to Donald MacMillan & Margaret Brown. Donald was a slater. So what was life in Tiree like for John McLean before he left the island? Tyree had enjoyed the kelp industry boom in the early 19th century, during which there was a large influx of people to the island for the work. After Waterloo in 1815, the kelp industry began to decline. The Duke of Argyll decreed that as the peat beds on Tyree were exhausted, his Tenants were given permission to travel to other parts of Argyll Estate, such as the Ross of Mull, for the purpose of cutting peats to bring back to Tyree. By 1831, the population of Tyree had exploded. The 1792 List of Inhabitants shows the population at nearly 2500, a huge number for a small island. John's father Hugh was born at Kenovay at that time (in 1794). At the 1792 census, Kenovay was the most populated township, with 199 persons. Kilmoluaig was somewhat smaller with 51 inhabitants. The cover page of the 1792 List records that the population had increased by 583 since 1779, when the population was 1881. When the Minister of Tyree, Rev Archibald McColl, compiled a Catechists List in 1787, he estimated the population at around 2306. The population explosion continued and, like other parts of the Highlands, emigration began on a large scale. Some interesting conclusions on island life in the early 19th century can be drawn from The Emigration Committee hearings of 1827, published in the London newspaper The Morning Chronicle on Wed 10 Oct 1827. Alex Hunter, Esq. W.S. of Edinburgh, was giving evidence on the 1826 emigration of some 300 persons from the Isle of Rum. He had been employed to supervise & manage the emigration. Hunter states that the island's Proprietor - MacLean, Laird of Coll, had many tenants who were in arrears, and no means to pay for their passage. MacLean therefore paid for the emigration of these 300 people, by giving them their arrears in cash and a little more. (This practice backfired on the Laird of Coll. In the 1840's he bemoaned that the Coll emigrants included the 'class' of people he wished to keep on the island - Carpenters, Blacksmiths, those with a trade. Instead, many of the Cottars did not emigrate, and of course Cottars did/could not pay rent.) Hunter states that had the Rum emigration not taken place "The Population would have gone on increasing, and of course....the rents would diminish" The inference is that overcrowding would inevitably lead to destitution and starvation. Although Rum differs from Tyree, in that Rum was mainly sheep farming, with little or no land for arable crops, the huge population on Tyree could not be sustained on such a small island, just 12 miles long by 3 miles wide. Hunter is asked: "State to the Committee your views with regard to the excess of the population in some parts of Scotland?" He answers: "To give the Committee an idea of the population in some of the islands, I shall mention the island of Tiree, belonging to the Duke of Argyle. The island contains about 15,000 English acres, including lakes, rocks, &c. The population is about six thousand**. There are 431 tenants or crofters, whose rents are from £1.1d. to £40, averaging £7.5s.6d.; and there are four large tenants, whose rents are from £102 to £150, averaging £123; and under these large tenants are a great number of small crofters. In this island there is a good deal of kelp made; about 350 tons. The Duke is bound by the leases to take the kelp from the tenants at £7 per ton, by giving credit for which sum the rental of the small tenants is discharged; in fact it is paid in full; what they promise to pay as rent, he receives in kelp, and they pay no rent. This year, I believe, he got about £4 per ton for the kelp, so I understood. If you take the average of each family, they average very high in the Highlands; but if you take them at seven, it will give 3,045 souls living on crofts, and paying rent, that is, including children; but then one half of the people have no crofts at all, they are living upon the bounty of their friends." Question "Do they fish?" Answer "Very Little, there are about ten boats, five men to each" Question "Then one half of the population is a burden on the other half?" Answer "Yes, or upon the Proprietor ultimately" Hunter then points out that the system in the Highlands "is very much like the Irish: the son or daughter of a Crofter marries, and the father allows the newly weds to build a hut at the end of his land, and gives them a cow &c.:he is not a Tenant or Crofter at all, he is living on the bounty of others" Question " Do you think that money might be well expended in removing this population?" Answer "I think it might very well indeed; I don't know that it would put much money into the landlord's pocket to be at the expence because the farms would then become much larger, and any person who had money to stock a large farm, would expect to live a little better; he would eat up the spare produce, and indulge in a few luxuries. Question "Don't you think the increased rent that would be derived from the land, would more than pay the interest of the money required?" Answer "I mentioned that the rent would not increase much, because there would be introduced a different class of tenants, who would have a little capital, and who would live on luxuries compared with the present crofters, who live on potatoes and a little oatmeal. Question "Is there any other estate you can mention?" Answer "There is Macdonald, of Clanronald, the Islands of South Uist and Benbicula. This is a large island; I do not know the extent of it. The population is about 6,000. There are 489 small tenants or crofters, who pay rents from £1 to £21, averaging £6.17s.4d.; fourteen large tenants, who pay rents from £32 to £400; there is one man pays £400; these average £86.15s. Under these 14 large tenants there are 207 sub-tenants. There are annually manufactured about 1,200 tons of kelp on Clanronald's estate at Uist." Question "In this island?" Answer "Yes, of Uist, which belongs principally to Clanronald; the kelp does not belong to the tenants, as in the Duke of Argyle's case, for the manufacturing of which they receive from 50s. to 60s. per ton, which as nearly as possible discharges their rent. On this estate about one-third of the population possess no lands." Later, Hunter is asked "Do the same circumstances of difficulty attend the population of Coll as the islands of Tiree and Uist?" Answer "Certainly not, because the proprietor of Coll, having lived very much upon the island, has kept down the population. I believe, at one time, about forty years ago, that the population of Coll and Tiree was very nearly the same." Question "Why has the population of Coll not increased in proportion to other islands?" Answer "The proprietor has lived upon the island, and saw the difficulties from an increasing population, and therefore used every means in his power to keep the population down.

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