Introduction / Houses

Cott

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service.   Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey   and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

Cott lies in the north end of Pharay, between Quoy (the most northerly house) and Doggerboat. There have been quite a number of different families there over the years although the Burgars were there as long as any.

The rental of 1810 indicates a Thomas Drever at Cott. This may be Thomas Drever who married Ann Hourston and an ancestor of most of the Drevers on Pharay.

By the first census in 1841, Cott was occupied by Stewart Drummond and his wife, Jean Drever. They moved to Holland, down towards the south end of the island, between 1851 and 1861.

There were in fact two households at Cott in 1851, the other being that of Thomas Burgar and Elizabeth Seatter. They came from Westray around 1850. It is not known if there was any connection between the Burgars and the Drummonds who were already at Cott. There were to be Burgars at Cott for the next sixty five years with the subsequent generations:

• Robert Burgar (son) who married Elizabeth Harcus

• William Burgar (grandson) who married Mary Stewart Groat. They moved to Fersness in Eday in 1915.

During the time that the Burgars were at Cott, there was also a Harcus household. Elizabeth Harcus’s brother, William Harcus was there at the time of the 1861 census with his wife, Elizabeth Allan. He died at the age of forty three but his widow remained at Cott until after the 1881 census with members of their family.

Following the Burgars leaving in 1915, there were subsequently a number of tenants of relatively short duration until the last left the island in 1947:

• David Harcus for six years from 1916

• Peter and James Seatter from Westray for three years until 1925

• William Groat from Papay Westray who stayed nine years. During the last three years the lands of Quoy to the north were included with Cott.

• Angus Harcus from Westray for five or six years from 1934

• John Leslie from around 1939/40 until 1947. John was from Westray but had been tenant at Hammar for a year or two before it was taken over by his brother Robert Leslie. As with the previous tenant, Angus Harcus, John Leslie also farmed the land of Quoy.