John Campbell - Iain Og
John Campbell - Iain Og is as far back as we have written the Campbell family tree as he is the first of the Campbells that we can find mentioned often in various texts. In our history section you will find a couple of interesting stories of Iain Og of Scalpay.
In early Harris Estate papers John
is described as "John oig mc ean vc innish":
John son of John son of Angus. A probable line of descent
would continue: son of John, son of John, son of Kenneth
of Argyll, but the records are too few to say with certainty.
The rental of 1680 shows Iain Og leasing the farm of
"Marwage" (Maruuig). By 1684 he is tenant
of the whole farm of "Marrige and Scalpa".
and he and his descendants keep the farm until c1818.
John seems to have been a strong character, a shrewd
and resourceful master of his territory.
Martin Martin meets John Campbell during his tour of
the Western Isles in the 1690s and describes his singular
remedy for a cold:
"John Campbell, forester of Harris, makes use of
this singular remedy for a could: He walk into the sea
up to the middle with his clothes on , and immediately
after goes to bed in his wet clothes, and then, laying
the bedclothes over him procures a sweat, which removes
the distemper". This, he told Martin, was his only
remedy for all manner of colds.
On the next page Martin gives another account of Campbell's
resourcefulness:
