494 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



hands of the illustrious family, whose connexion with Lewis 

 had lasted for a period of two hundred and thirty-four years. 

 During that period, they had exercised unquestioned influ- 

 ence in the island, and their sway, if despotic, was on the 

 whole, beneficent. Their great mistake was the delega- 

 tion of unlimited power to factors whose despotism was 

 frequently unrelieved by benevolence. The name of Sea- 

 forth was for over two centuries synonymous in Lewis 

 with the name of sovereignty. As a newspaper during 

 the Commonwealth put it, they " played Rex " in the 

 island, and the deference paid to them was certainly equal 

 to that paid elsewhere to Royalty.* 



In 1844, Lewis was sold to Mr. (afterwards Sir) James 

 Sutherland Matheson, of the family of Achany and Shiness 

 in Sutherlandshire, for the sum of ; 190,000. The trustees 

 in Edinburgh exercised a large supervision over the adminis- 

 tration of its affairs, and it may be readily believed that 

 they were none too ready in sanctioning grants for im- 

 provements in the island, although there are instances to the 

 contrary. Sir James Matheson had therefore a wide field 

 for philanthropy. In May, 1844, Mrs. Stewart-Mackenzie 

 brought a Bill before Parliament for " investing in trustees 

 certain parts of the entailed estates of Seaforth to be sold, 

 and the price applied in payment of entailer's debts, and 

 the surplus laid out in the purchase of other lands ; for 

 enabling the heiress in possession to borrow a sum of 

 money on the credit of the said entailed estates ; and for 

 other purposes connected therewith." The Bill passed 

 both Houses, and on 2Qth July, the Act received the Royal 

 assent. And thus the Island of Lewis passed out of 

 the hands of the Seaforths into those of the Mathesons, 

 with whom it remains to the present day. Sir James 

 Matheson, who for a number of years represented Ross 



* About ten years ago a Lewis crofter, on being questioned as to the owner- 

 ship of the island before it was acquired by the present proprietors, replied : 

 " We called the old proprietor Seaforth, but I understand the Prince of Welsh 

 was his right name ! " (Crofters Commission Report, p. XIV.) In the first 

 quarter of the nineteenth century, the Lewis estate had its own paper 

 currency, and a specimen of a pound note, signed by Mr. Stewart-Mackenzie, 

 is in the possession of the present proprietor. 



