Morrison History

Morrison represents three quite different names that have all come to be spelt in the same way. The Morrisons of the central Highlands are originally Sons of Maurice, and have no connection with the Hebridean clan. Even in the islands there are two distinct derivations. One branch of the Morrisons descends from the O' Muircheasain bards who come from northern Ireland to Harris in the outer Hebrides, while the true clan patronymic is Mac Ghille Mhuire - Son of the Virgin Mary's Servant. It belongs to the north of the island of Lewis, that area of intensive settlement by the Norsemen a thousand years ago. Subsequently its people reverted entirely to the Gaelic language and culture.
The Morrisons were heirs to this double heritage. A legend tells that they were first shipwrecked on these coasts; so that their clan badge is driftwood. Clan genealogies trace their descent from Somerled, the King of the Isles who died in 1164 and probably descended himself from the Celto-Norse kings of Ireland. According to this tradition, Ceadhain Mac Mhuirich of the tree of Somerled changed his name when he married the Morrison heiress in Lewis in the 14th century. Tradition and legend may err in their details, but there can be no doubt that historical fact is embedded in them.
The Morrison chiefs once held the hereditary Celtic office of judge in Lewis. It's Gaelic name was Britheamh, which became anglicised to Brieve; though both terms derive from the Latin of the Christian Church. Probably the arbitration' s of the Morrison brieves were based partly on the Celtic Brehon laws, of which many ancient codes survive, partly on the rules of the Norse deemsters. This alternative title is based on the Germanic word Doom, meaning Judgment. Because the Scandinavians remained illiterate for so many centuries longer than the Celtic peoples, it is natural that the Gaelic title should suggest and adjudication in writing, the Norse one a spoken judgment.
The first historical reference to a brieve using the surname of Morrison and described as holding the hereditary office of deemster occurs in the 16th century, when the assault upon the whole structure of Gaelic society in Scotland by the central government was entering a critical phase. His name was Uisdean, generally barbarised to Hucheon. In 1601, when the brieve Iain Dubh Morrison was killed, the jurisdiction of his family had probably come to an end. In 1605 the head of the Gordons accepted the invitation of James VI, now resident in London, to embark on a campaign of conquest and extermination in the Hebrides. "His Lordship offers to take in hand the service of settling the North Isles....and to put an end to that service by extirpation of the barbarous people of the Isles within a year."Such was the time of troubles in which the Morrisons ceased to act as brieves in Lewis. It was said that their authority had once extended from the Butt of Lewis as far east as Caithness. Certainly large numbers of the clan settled on the mainland beyond the north Minch, where their neighbours were the Mac Kays. it is perhaps on account of this that the Morrison tartan is that of the Mac Kays, with a red line added to it. But this is not in itself evidence of long association. The Mac Kay sett is of unknown antiquity, while the Morrison one is comparatively recent in its present form.