" ... the most northerly island of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. It is sometimes called the Long Island and is 24 mi. from the nearest point on the mainland from which it is separated by the strait called The Minch. It is 60 mi. long and has an extreme breadth of 30 mi., its average breadth being 15 mi. It is divided into two portions by a line roughly drawn between Loch Resort on the west and Loch Seaforth on the east, of which the larger or more northerly portion, known as Lewis ..., belongs to the county of Ross and Cromarty and the lesser, known as Harris, to Inverness-shire." - Extracted from Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed. Vol. 16. Cambridge, 1911

The Eastern Townships of Quebec (MAP)

The following is borrowed from an essay by Peter MacDonald on his excellent site about the Hebridean Scots in Quebec
http://www.oocities.org/~hebridscots/hisqueb1.htm#british

The first Hebridean Scots to inhabit the Eastern Townships came in 1838 from the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. They were probably unaware of the extreme hardships ahead of them. Their deplorable situation in Lewis, however, drove them to emigration--not the lure of Canada as "the Promised land." This first group of settlers from the Isle of Lewis came from the village of Mealista on the west side of Uig and were settled by the BALC (British American Land Company) in the township of Lingwick which was in the region known as the Upper St. Francis District. They arrived only "with the clothes they wore, sometimes a piece of furniture, the tools of their trade, and their beloved Bible" (McLeod, 1977:1)
Unfortunately, the BALC could not pay for the passage of these Hebridean immigrants. They had to pay for their tickets themselves, but the BALC sold the land to them cheaply and on very favorable terms of interest. They did not have to start paying the Company back until a year after their arrival. In return the settlers agreed to clear one-tenth of the land within four years and to clear a road 20 feet wide in front of their lots.
This arrangement attracted an increasing number of immigrants from the Isle of Lewis and Harris, with a sprinkling from other Hebridean islands like Skye and the two Uists.

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In 1841 a second group of Lewis Scots immigrated, 27 families in all. These 78 people arrived on the ship "Lady Hood" and 45 on the "Charles" (Little 1992, p. 37). They profited from the experience of the first settlers, but they had to endure basically the same hardships of pioneer life as did the original group.
Despite the many difficulties in Canada, the Scots were happy to be free of the tyrannical landlords of their homeland. The land they lived on and worked was now their own and they were bound and determined to transform it into a community.
By 18??, there were 126 families (552 people) all of which except 19 families were immigrants from the Isle of Lewis. (According to a petition for financial assistance for the inhabitants of the Salmon River region (Little, 1992, p.38)).
J.I. Little relates that "within the first three years each family had cleared ten to fifteen acres and acquired one to three cows." Their hard work was starting to pay off with successful crops and sale of lumber (Little, 1992, p. 35).

The Hebridean settlement expands to surrounding townships.

Until 1850 most Lewis Scots settled in Lingwick and Bury townships in areas called the Old Settlement, Red Mountain and North Hill (in Lingwick Township), Spring Hill (in Whitton Township, now Nantes), and Ness Hill (near Lake Megantic).
At first there were no roads connecting any of the settlements. In the 1850's the provincial government of Lower Canada started offering 50 acres of land free to anyone who would settle in areas such as Winslow and Whitton, where the land was more suitable for agriculture than in Lingwick and Bury where the Scots had so far been concentrated. To take advantage of the offer some Scots moved into these adjacent townships. In 1855 another group of Lewis Scots arrived and many of them settled in Whitton.
The provincial government hired local men to clear areas for roads. More towns sprang up along these roads such as Gould and Stornoway.
When the the railroad tracks were laid through the region between 1850 and 1880, cities such as Bury, Scotstown, Milan, and Spring Hill sprung up along its path.
At its height in the 1890's, the area settled by the Lewis Scots covered an area of only about 50 square miles between the St. Francis River on the west and Lake Megantic on the east.
By the late 19th century, Hebridean immigrants made up about one third of the population of the entire Eastern Townships. Most of the rest were English, Irish, or French. But because the Hebridean immigrants clustered together, they made up a much larger percent of the population of the few townships in which they chose to live. By 1896 there were around 450 Scottish families living in the relatively small area between the St. Francis River and Lake Megantic.

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As immigration picked up, the Scots cleared more land of its trees and rocks and built more dwellings. Clusters of farms were given names that were borrowed from towns back on Lewis like Galson, Tolsta, Gisla, Balallan, and others.
Little money circulated in those days. People lived by bartering services and having "bees" to raise homes and barns, to cut and haul wood, thresh hay, etc. Among the first buildings to go up in a new settlement were a school and a church, which often were shared by several settlements.
The Scots tended to be isolated from the surrounding community at first because most of the Scots spoke only Gaelic and transportation to the next community was limited, but even after roads were in place, the Hebridean Scots did not intermarry with either the English speakers or the French speakers until about the turn of the century.
Along with their Gaelic language, the Lewis Scots brought their religion with them from their homeland. They were staunch Presbyterians. Their Bible were in Gaelic and their music was the Psalms sung in Gaelic. However, no musical instruments or hymnals were ever allowed in the churches. Their loyalty to Presbyterianism contributed to their isolation from both the surrounding Anglican/Episcopal (English) and Catholic (French) communities for many decades after their arrival in Canada.

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The elders of the Hebridean community were unbending in their insistence on observing the traditions of their culture and religion. Even innovation in the naming of children was discouraged. While non-Gaelic first names were tolerated for girls, it was far more common for them to have one of the names familiar to them back on Lewis such as Catherine, Ann, Mary, Christina (Christy/Kirsty), or Margaret. Boys were almost always named with one of the traditional names like Donald, Angus, Kenneth, Murdo, John, Malcolm, Norman, or Alexander. The range of surnames of the region is equally limited. Most people had one of these surnames: Buchanan, Campbell, McLeod, McDonald, McIver, McKay, McKenzie, Morrison, Murray, or Matheson. On Lewis these "Mc" names were more commonty spelled "Mac" with the patronymic part written in lower case letters as in "Macdonald" (thanks to Angus Macdonald for pointing this out to me). [Much more on the culture of these Scots can be found in three research articles collected by Doucette (1980) and a forthcoming book by Margaret Bennett with the pre-publication title of "Oatmeal and the Catechism."

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