Community Stories

Community Clearances and Evictions

  In this mournful chapter of our history, countless individuals were forcibly displaced by the new landowner and his Mackenzie of Seaforth predecessor, who wielded starvation as a weapon. The overarching aim was to populate the Dominion of Canada. Sir James Matheson, who bought the Island of Lewis in 1844, also served as the Chairman of Quebec Ports and Upper Canada, which was overseen from London.