Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacCodrum, John

1446530Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 35 — MacCodrum, John1893James Ramsay MacDonald

MACCODRUM, JOHN (fl. 1750), Gaelic poet, the son of a peasant, was born in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, in North Uist,and is known as the North Uist bard. His youth was spent on his father's farm, and he received no sort of education. When a youth a fancied insult at a wedding led him to compose his first verses. The song gave much offence, and the author did not declare himself, but his father, happening to have overheard MacCodrum recite the verses before they became known, exacted a promise from the boy to do nothing of the kind again. The promise appears to have been faithfully kept until the father's death, when he again began to compose satirical verses. One of his lampoons so irritated the tailors of the district that they refused to make clothes for him. Sir James MacDonald, the proprietor of the island, happening to meet the poet in rags, inquired the reason of his poverty, and having heard the objectionable verses recited, forthwith appointed MacCodrum his bard, with a grant of free land and an annual gratuity of meal and cheese. MacCodrum enjoyed this patronage under successive lairds until his death, about the close of the century. He is buried at Houghary, a hamlet in North Uist.

MacCodrum was the last bard of the MacDonalds. His verses are mostly satirical and political, and his work has never been collected. Two of his best poems ('Old Age' and 'Whisky') appear among the poems of his contemporary Alexander MacDonald [q. v.] He has been frequently referred to in connection with the Ossianic controrenty. Sir James MacDonald, in a letter to Dr. Blair in 1783, mentioned the great number of legendary poems similar to those published by Macpherson which MacCodrum could recite, and in one of the declarations (Ewan Macpherson's) published in the Highland Society's' Report on the Poems of Ossian' it is said that when Macpherson was travelling in North Uist he met MncCodrum and asked him if he knew any Fingalian poems. The request was couched in such bad Gaelic that the poet made fun of hisqueetioner, who left him in a passion.

[The Celtic Magazine vol. iii, vii contains critical papers on MacCodrum and specimens of his verse in Gaelic, See also McKenzie's Beauties of Gaelic Poetry; Report of the Highland Society on Ossian's Poems.]

J. R. M.