02/06/2026
For Gypsy Roma Traveller History month in 2021 we traced the long history of Travellers within the Gairloch area. If you missed it, you can find the posts on our website at https://www.gairlochmuseum.org/travellers
This year we’re tracing two of the families we met then in more detail. We want to extend our thanks to Nathalie Stevenson, Brian Wilson and Dorothy Malone for their time and research in creating
these posts, as well as thank Rachael Thomas (long term supporter of and volunteer at Gairloch Museum) who has coordinated the work and brought these posts to fruition.
The first person we are meeting is Isaac Williamson known as “Red Isaac” because of the colour of his hair, born around 1796 in Galloway. He’s from a family of Travellers and appears to work as both a tinsmith, mending or making metal household items, and as a hawker, selling or swapping goods from door to door. First married to Ann Reid, a Traveller from Ireland, it’s the family of Isaac and his second wife Margaret Norrie who have connections to the Gairloch Parish.
The marriage of widowed Isaac and Margaret takes place around 1845 and their first daughter Catherine “Kate” Williamson is born in Brora in that year. We’ll be following her and her family in next week’s post, but today we’re focussing on Isaac and Margaret’s first son young Isaac, born in 1846 in Rosehall, Sutherland.
Parents Isaac and Margaret head to the west coast, travelling from Sutherland to Lochcarron for the birth of Isaac’s brother Thomas in 1849. They either stay, or return, as the family is recorded in the 1851 census as being in Jeanstown, which was an old name for Lochcarron. More siblings are born within the next 10 years in Contin, Gairloch, Lochbroom and Ullapool, before the family are documented in the 1861 census in Stoer, just north of Lochinver.
Young Isaac stays in Sutherland, marrying at the age of 25 in Lairg, Sutherland to Mary “Molly” MacNeil from a Sutherland Traveller family. Ready to begin a new family of their own, the newly married couple return to the west coast and are documented in the 1871 census in Kinlochbervie, living in a shed and hawking wares within the community. The family appear to follow very similar routes to Isaac’s parents, moving between Lairg, Gairloch, Lochbroom and Shieldaig.
By 1877, Isaac and Molly have separated. Isaac and new spouse Charlotte Wilson continue to visit Gairloch regularly, as 5 of their 7 known children were born in Gairloch and nearby Applecross. Daughter Jane Williamson was born in Kerrysdale, Gairloch in 1877; Catherine/Kate Williamson was born in 1884 in Kinlochewe; Mary aka Molly was born in 1886 in Milton, Applecross; Ann Williamson was born Shieldaig, Applecross in 1891; and son John born in Achtercairn, Gairloch in 1888. Two other children were born in Contin and the Isle of Skye.
Unfortunately, the most information we get about Isaac is due to his untimely death which is fully documented within the Ross-Shire Journal in March 1893. On January 19th of that year Isaac attends a market at Muir of Ord, where near the drinking tent and horse paddock he gets into a fight with another Traveller named John Stewart. It seems that Isaac and John were not on good terms, as Isaac had refused John’s request for his daughter Jane’s hand in marriage as Isaac was worried that John would take Jane to America.
The fight results in Isaac falling backwards and hitting his head on a stone wall. Despite bleeding from the mouth and nose, Isaac’s family don’t take the advice to take him to hospital, and instead return to their camp at Faebait just outside of the Muir. From there the family try and move towards the west, but Isaac is reportedly unable to sit upon horseback and instead is transported by a family cart to Achnasheen. He is unable to travel further, and about a fortnight after the head trauma suffered in Muir of Ord, Isaac dies in Achnasheen and is almost immediately buried at Achanalt.
But that wasn’t the end – two days after burial, Isaac’s body was exhumed and examined by two doctors from Dingwall, who pronounced his death ‘suspicious’ as it was caused by an “effusion of blood on the right hemisphere of the brain”.
The police begin to search for Stewart, who threw Isaac against the stone wall at Muir of Ord, and find him in Strathglass. Brought to Dingwall and tried before Sheriff Hill on Tuesday 14th March 1893 Stewart pleaded not guilty. There were over 30 witnesses called throughout the trial, including Isaac’s spouse Charlotte Wilson and several of their daughters. The jury returned from deliberation after just 7 minutes, finding Stewart not guilty of culpable homicide. Isaac’s death certificate states that he was still married to Molly McNeil, but Charlotte Wilson is recorded as the informant of death and listed as Isaac’s ‘paramour’.
Isaac was reburied within Achanalt between Achnasheen and Garve, where there are two cemeteries, one above and one below the road. We’ve been unable to find a gravestone dedicated to Isaac, although there are numerous plain or weathered stone markers which may mark his final resting place.
Check in with us again next Monday as we continue to celebrate and share stories for Gypsy Roma Traveller History month 2026.
