John Murdoch (editor)

John Murdoch (Gaelic ;Iain MacMhuirich) (15 January 1818 – 29 January 1903) was a Scottish newspaper owner and editor and land reform campaigner who played a significant part in the campaign for crofters rights in the late 19th century

Murdoch was born in Ardclach, Nairn and brought up on Islay. He served as an exciseman in Ireland and Lancashire. He retired to Inverness and from 1873 until 1881 ran the campaigning newspaper, The Highlander.

In his youth in Islay he associated with the family of the laird, Walter Frederick Campbell, including the folklorist and Gaelic scholar, John Francis Campbell (Iain Òg Ile)(1822–85). His commitment to the Gaelic language and his hostility to landlordism appears to date from his Islay days. In the 1840s Murdoch spent time in Armagh in Ulster and in Lancashire where he came into contact with Chartism and the views of Feargus O'Connor. The Chartists believed that a healthy rural population needed to own their own land and be free of the influence of landowners and employers. In the 1850s and 60's Murdoch spent a number of years in Dublin where he encountered Irish Nationalism and radical Irish ideas on land reform. At this time he wrote articles for the Nationalist newspaper The Nation. While working in Dublin in the 1850s he is said to have had an influence on Alexander Carmichael, a fellow Argyllshire Gael who, likewise, was employed as an exciseman.

On retiring to Inverness Murdoch quickly became a figure of prominence. He championed Mary MacPherson, Mairi Mhòr nan Oran, when she was put on trial. He is said to have arranged for her legal representation and may have introduced her to Charles Fraser-Mackintosh. Shortly after this he started his weekly publication,The Highlander, which ran until it succumbed to endemic financial difficulties in 1881. Professor Meek writes that the songs of Mairi Mhòr show the influence that The Highlander had on the opinions of ordinary Highland people, even thought the paper was mainly in English.

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