The Burgar/Burgess families in Shetland

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Origin of the people of Shetland

Early peoples of Shetland

Shetland has been inhabited for at least 5000 years, probably longer. The first Shetlanders seem pretty clearly to have been farmers rather than hunter-gatherers and were likely to have been of Celtic stock.  During the Bronze age stone built houses were constructed.

Celts in the late iron age built Massive forts called brochs (as at Mousa below), often on the coast, presumably to deter attack by enemies further south.  These were built between 200BC to 200 AD.

After the the first few centuries AD, a new form of housing came about.  These were wheel house. circular buildings, with spoke like internal walls.

Prior to the Viking invasions Shetland is thought to have been inhabited by the Picts.  This was the name given by the Romans to the inhabitants of Scotland.  It is likely that they were Celts along with the rest of the population of the British Isles and Ireland.

In the 8th century the Vikings started raiding the British Isles and soon Orkney and Shetland and other northern islands were under Norwegian rule.  Eventually Norway was conquered by Denmark and the Islands passed to Denmark.  The Orkneys and Shetlands remained Danish unto 1468, when they were mortgaged to Scotland as part of a marriage dowry between the future James III and Princess Margrethe of Denmark.  However, for several hundred years prior to this the major landowners in the islands were Scottish aristocrats who paid tithes to the Norwegian/Danish crown.  Scots had migrated into Orkney from about 1300, and at a later date Scots from Orkney and Scotland migrated into Shetland.

Scots in Shetland

In 1600, it was estimated  one third of the Shetland population of 10,000 were Scotsmen.  In Dunrossness it is thought that half the population were Scots. 

This estimate comes partly from the names of the inhabitants of Dunrossness at this time. Whereas Scots had fixed surnames at this time, Viking descendants tended to have surnames ending in 'son'. This was because of the patronymic method of naming used in Norse times.

See Patronymic method of naming children.

In 1694 the Baillie Court rolls listed about 134 male heads of house living in the parish of Dunrossness.  Of these only about 19 had surnames ending in 'son' , i.e. about 15 %.  This suggests that the Scots proportion of the population in Dunrossness had increased considerable during the 17th Century.

See Residents in Dunrossness in 1694.

The 1749 Communicants List 6  has about 908 persons listed.  Of these there were 67 females with surnames ending in 'dochter' and 126 males with surnames ending in 'son', making a total of nearly 200 person.  The assumption is that the population is made up of about 20% Norse population..

In contrast, using this criteria, the inhabitants of Unst, Yell and Fetlar, were of approximately 60% Norse origin in 1716.  This has been deduced by a rough count of people in the Thomas Gifford rentals.5

However, it is possible that some of the Norse inhabitants of Shetland may have adopted fixed surnames during the hundreds of years that the Shetlands were ruled by the Scottish aristocracy. 

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