John "Shok" Urquhart was a son of Murdo Urquhart and Ann McLeod of Reiff, he was christened 21 January 1827, and died unmarried 24 March 1913. He first appears in the Reiff censuses as a 13 year old at Reiff 41-10, and last in 1891 at Reiff 91-22 as a 60 year old.
Donald MacLeod in New Zealand (CONTACT INFO), and his cousin Roddy MacLeod in Scotland (CONTACT INFO), are descended from Mary Urquhart who married Kenneth MacLennan of Reiff in 1853, see Reiff 61-17. Donald and Roddy have sent me details from a family history written by a son of Kenneth and Mary, Neil MacLennan in 1939. Neil's history focuses on the Reiff MacLennans, and related families, touching on the Urquharts, including his uncle John.
Neil's history includes a story he heard from his uncle John Urquhart. Neil wrote of John;
"He had been at the herring fishing in Wick and was on his way home, walking of course." and later " 'I had made a good fishing', John said, 'and had over twenty pounds (a goodly sum in those days) in my pocket book, and I meant to reach home with it'"
Donald MacLeod sends the following regarding John Urquhart from Neil MacLennan's history as well;
"I was interested to read John Urquhart (Shok as he was familiarly known) had been a runner in the American Civil War. He was a tall, tough, wiry man as I recall him in his old age."
Neither Donald or I have followed this lead, and we wonder whether given the emphasis on his physical condition it referred to running messages on battlefields, or given his nautical background he was a blockade runner, smuggling european goods into the south, and returning with loads of cotton. I think it most likely he was a blockade runner.
An excellent website dealing with the Civil War blockade runners is Ironclads and Blockade Runners. That source says;
"more than three hundred steamers made over 1,300 attempts to run the blockade during the Civil War. Many of these were normal merchant vessels, but an ever-increasing number were purpose-built, with low silhouettes, light draft, and high speed."
Given his experience in the North Sea fisheries, and his pride at having returned by foot all the way from Wick to Reiff with twenty pounds safe in his pocketbook, Shok strikes me as a colourful character, equally capable of running messages on battlefields, or cotton through blockades. The few details available for his life sketch a colourful character!