Craigie is one of the most common names in Orkney.  The name is also common in the Perth and Fife areas of central Scotland and it is thought that the first Craigies to come to Orkney were brought north to work for one of the Earls that ruled Orkney seven or eight hundred years ago.

Craigies of Claybank

In the 1861 census there were 26 Craigie households in Rousay, half of them unrelated to any of the others as far as can be traced. The largest group consisted of those descended from James Craigie of Claybank 1789-1864. It is known that his father was called William. There are many descendants in Orkney, including Neil Craigie, Alan Craigie, Kathy Stockan, Tom Gibson, Anita Thomson, and Ronald Stevenson

Craigies of Hullion and Whome

There were two Craigie brothers Mitchell born c1768 and Drummond born c1773.  Mitchell had a general merchant's business at Hullion and Drummond was a farmer at Whome. Three of Drummond's sons, Magnus, Charles, and John are thought to have emigrated to America.  Descendants of both Mitchell and Drummond are widely dispersed across Britain. One of Drummond's sons, Alexander, became the tenant of Falquoy and the family remained there for several generations. Orkney descendants include Paula Rendall, Freda Murray, Linda Donaldson, Dennis Bichan, Cathleen Craigie, and Maureen Crawford.

John Craigie of Hullion born 1853 and his wife Mary Sinclair

James Craigie of Falquoy and his wife Janet Sinclair, and their children.  Standing: l to r John, Annabella, Clare, Alice, and James. Seated left - Sarah. Right - Alexina
 (Photo - T. Gibson)

Members of successive generations of the Craigies of Brough held the position of lawrightman. A lawrightman was appointed by either the sheriff or the laird but he also had to have the approval of the community in which he operated. He had to be a person of good standing  as he sometimes had to settle minor disputes between neighbours over land boundaries or grazing rights. It was also his duty to oversee such communal tasks as the upkeep of dykes separating the shared common land from the cultivated fields and to see that everyone took his fair share of the work involved. Another one of his duties was to investigate minor wrong-doing and to track down the culprit.

The earliest traceable person in this family is Hugh Craigie born c1750 who married Janet Marwick. Their son Hugh, born 1778, had a large family, the eldest of whom, also called Hugh, emigrated to New Zealand where there are now a great many descendants. James, a grandson of Hugh (1778), married Mary Craigie from Mount Pleasant and emigrated to Canada. See the Craigies of Graystane below.  

Orkney descendants include Steven Inkster, Neil Craigie, and Alison Mainland.

Richard Craigie 1828-1917, son of Hugh Craigie who emigrated to NZ in the 1840s. Seen here with his father-in-law Thomas Marwick

There was a family of Craigies headed by William Craigie, born c1775, who can be first traced to the farm of Nears. Two later generations lived on the small croft of Laro, the last of them being John Craigie and his family. For many years John was captain of the Orcadia, a steamship, which served the North Isles of Orkney.

Capt. John Craigie, b. 1865, and his wife Elizabeth Reid. John was a son of William Craigie of Laro, Rousay 1821-1915.
 (Photo -T. Gibson)

There were other Craigie families in Rousay apart from those mentioned above. For example there were Craigies in Breck, in Myres, in Swandale, in Shalter, in Greystane, in Mount Pleasant, in Brough Westside, in Braes, in Hammer, in Cruar, and in Turbital.

John Craigie of Grips, b. 1826 and his wife Mary Wood Marwick.
Not their son John and his wife Helen Craigie as previously stated.

(Photo - T. Gibson)

The earliest traceable Craigie in Myres is John Craigie who was born probably in the 1790s. He married Marian (Mary Ann) Louttit from the nearby farm of Faraclett and they had a son John b. 1826 who married Margaret Inkster and went to Shetland. A photo of John and Margaret's grandson James appears below. The photo alongside James's is that of his daughter Isabel Craigie who came to Rousay as a teacher. She married James Grieve of Fa'doon in the mid-1930s.

James Craigie, born in Shetland, grandson of John Craigie, b. 1826, and Margaret Inkster.

Isabel Craigie, daur. of James (left). Isabel married James Grieve of Fa'doon.

(Photos by courtesy of Alan Grieve)

Craigies of  Graystane and Mount Pleasant

Back in the 1870s  James Craigie from Greystane, who was descended from the Craigies of Brough above, married  Mary Craigie from Mount Pleasant and emigrated to Canada. They settled at Goderich in Ontario and are seen with their six children in the photograph below. In the summer of 2004 thirteen Canadian and American descendants from that marriage are planning to travel to Orkney to visit the places associated with their ancestors.

Back row: James Henry, John William , Mary.
Middle row: Jane Jessie, James (father) , Mary (mother)
Front row: Frederich Thomas and  Alexina

L to R. Liz Harmer, Peter White, Diane Donn, Maryann Evans, James Craigie, Marilyn Nicholson, John Craigie, and Linda Harbison, who are great grand-children of James Craigie and Mary Craigie (above) who emigrated to Canda from Rousay in 1870. This group visited Orkney in 2004 and are seen here in the ruins of Greystane, the formrer home of their great grandfsther James Craigie.

Photo by courtesy of Max Fletcher