Mackay, or Siol Mhorgan--Mackays of Clan-Abrach--Bighouse--Strathy
--Melness--Kinloch--Mackays of Holland--Macnicol--Sutherland--Gunn
--Maclaurin or Maclaren--Macrae--Buchanan--“The King of Kippen”
--Buchanan of Auchmar--Colquhoun--Macgregors and Macfarlanes in
Dumbartonshire--Forbes--Forbes of Tolquhoun--Craigievar--Pitsligo
and Fettercairn--Culloden--Urquhart.
The most northern mainland county of Scotland is that of Caithness,
and the principal clan inhabiting this district is the important
one of Mackay, or the siol Mhorgan. With regard to Caithness, Mr
Skene says--“The district of Caithness was originally of much
greater extent than the modern county of that name, as it included
the whole of the extensive and mountainous district of Strathnaver.
Towards the middle of the tenth century the Norwegian Jarl of Orkney
obtained possession of this province, and with the exception of a
few short intervals, it continued to form a part of his extensive
territories for a period of nearly two hundred years. The district
of Strathnaver, which formed the western portion of the ancient
district of Caithness, differed very much in appearance from the
rest of it, exhibiting indeed the most complete contrast which
could well be conceived, for while the eastern division was in
general low, destitute of mountains, and altogether of a Lowland
character, Strathnaver possessed the characteristics of the rudest
and most inaccessible of Highland countries; the consequence of
this was, that while the population of Caithness proper became
speedily and permanently Norse, that of Strathnaver must, from the
nature of the country, have remained in a great measure Gaelic;
and this distinction between the two districts is very strongly
marked throughout the Norse Sagas, the eastern part being termed
simply _Katenesi_, while Strathnaver, on the other hand, is always
designated ‘Dölum a Katenesi,’ or the Glens of Caithness. That the
population of Strathnaver remained Gaelic we have the distinct
authority of the Sagas, for they inform us that the Dölum, or glens,
were inhabited by the ‘Gaddgedli,’ a word plainly signifying some
tribe of the Gael, as in the latter syllable we recognise the word
Gaedil or Gael, which at all events shews that the population of that
portion was not Norse.”
MACKAY.
“The oldest Gaelic clan which we find in possession of this part of
the ancient district of Caithness is the clan Morgan or Mackay.”
The accounts of the origin of the Mackays are various. In the MS. of
1450, there is no reference to it, although mention is made of the
Mackays of Kintyre, who were called of Ugadale. These, however, were
vassals of the Isles, and had no connection with the Mackays of
Strathnaver. Pennant assigns to them a Celto-Irish descent, in the
12th century, after King William the Lion had defeated Harald, Earl
of Orkney and Caithness, and taken possession of these districts. Mr
Skene[228] supposes that they were descended from what he calls the
aboriginal Gaelic inhabitants of Caithness. The Norse Sagas state
that about the beginning of the twelfth century, “there lived in the
Dölum of Katanesi (or Strathnaver) a man named Moddan, a noble and
rich man,” and that his sons were Magnus Orfi and Ottar, the Jarl in
Thurso. The title of jarl was the same as the Gaelic maormor, and Mr
Skene is of opinion that Moddan and his son Ottar were the Gaelic
maormors of Caithness.
MACKAY.
[Illustration: BADGE.--Bulrush.]
Sir Robert Gordon, in his History of Sutherland (p. 302), from a
similarity of badge and armorial bearings, accounts the clan Mackay a
branch of the Forbeses, but this is by no means probable.
Mr Smibert is of opinion that the Mackays took their name from the
old _Catti_ of Caithness, and that the chiefs were of the Celto-Irish
stock. This, however, is a very improbable supposition. Whatever
may have been the origin of the chiefs, there is every reason to
believe that the great body of the clan Mackay originally belonged
to the early Celtic population of Scotland, although, from their
proximity to the Norse immigrants, it is not at all improbable that
latterly the two races became largely blended.
As we have already, in the first part of the work, had occasion to
enter somewhat minutely into the early history of this important
clan, it will be unnecessary to enter into lengthened detail in this
place, although it will be scarcely possible to avoid some slight
repetition. We must refer the reader for details to the earlier
chapters of the general history.
[Illustration: MACKAY. (Tartan)]
Alexander, who is said to have been the first of the family, aided
in driving the Danes from the north. His son, Walter, chamberlain
to Adam, bishop of Caithness, married that prelate’s daughter,
and had a son, Martin, who received from his maternal grandfather
certain church lands in Strathnaver, being the first of the family
who obtained possessions there. Martin had a son, Magnus or Manus,
who fought at Bannockburn under Bruce, and had two sons, Morgan
and Farquhar. From Morgan the clan derived their Gaelic name of
Clan-wic-Worgan, or Morgan, and from Farquhar were descended the
Clan-wic-Farquhar in Strathnaver.
Donald, Morgan’s son, married a daughter of Macneill of Gigha, who
was named Iye, and had a son of the same name, in Gaelic Aodh,
pronounced like Y or I.
Aodh had a son, another Donald, called Donald Macaodh, or Mackaoi,
and it is from this son that the clan has acquired the patronymic
of Mackay. He and his son were killed in the castle of Dingwall, by
William, Earl of Sutherland, in 1395. The Mackays, however, were
too weak to take revenge, and a reconciliation took place between
Robert, the next earl, and Angus Mackay, the eldest of Donald’s
surviving sons, of whom there were other two, viz., Houcheon Dubh,
and Neill. Angus, the eldest son, married a sister of Malcolm
Macleod of the Lewis, and had by her two sons, Angus Dubh, that is,
dark-complexioned, and Roderick Gald, that is, Lowland. On their
father’s death, their uncle, Houcheon Dubh, became their tutor, and
entered upon the management of their lands.
In 1411, when Donald, Lord of the Isles, in prosecution of his claim
to the earldom of Ross, burst into Sutherland, he was attacked at
Dingwall, by Angus Dubh, or Black Angus Mackay. The latter, however,
was defeated and taken prisoner, and his brother, Roriegald, and
many of his men were slain. After a short confinement, Angus was
released by the Lord of the Isles, who, desirous of cultivating the
alliance of so powerful a chief, gave him his daughter, Elizabeth,
in marriage, and with her bestowed upon him many lands by charter in
1415. He was called _Enneas-en-Imprissi_, or “Angus the Absolute,”
from his great power. At this time, we are told, Angus Dubh could
bring into the field 4000 fighting men.
Angus Dubh, with his four sons, was arrested at Inverness by James I.
After a short confinement, Angus was pardoned and released with three
of them, the eldest, Neill Mackay, being kept as a hostage for his
good behaviour. Being confined in the Bass at the mouth of the Firth
of Forth, he was ever after called Neill Wasse (or Bass) Mackay.
In 1437, Neill Wasse Mackay was released from confinement in the
Bass, and on assuming the chiefship, he bestowed on John Aberigh, for
his attention to his father, the lands of Lochnaver, in fee simple,
which were long possessed by his posterity, that particular branch
of the Mackays, called the Sliochd-ean-Aberigh, or an-Abrach. Neill
Wasse, soon after his accession, ravaged Caithness, but died the
same year, leaving two sons, Angus, and John Roy Mackay, the latter
founder of another branch, called the Sliochd-ean-Roy.
Angus Mackay, the elder son, assisted the Keiths in invading
Caithness in 1464, when they defeated the inhabitants of that
district in an engagement at Blaretannie. He was burnt to death in
the church of Tarbet in 1475, by the men of Ross, whom he had often
molested. With a daughter, married to Sutherland of Dilred, he had
three sons, viz., John Reawigh, meaning yellowish red, the colour of
his hair; Y-Roy Mackay; and Neill Naverigh Mackay.
To revenge his father’s death, John Reawigh Mackay, the eldest son,
raised a large force, and assisted by Robert Sutherland, uncle to the
Earl of Sutherland, invaded Strathoikell, and laid waste the lands of
the Rosses in that district. A battle took place, 11th July 1487,
at Aldy-Charrish, when the Rosses were defeated, and their chief,
Alexander Ross of Balnagowan, and seventeen other principal men of
that clan were slain. The victors returned home with a large booty.
It was by forays such as these that the great Highland chiefs, and
even some of the Lowland nobles, contrived, in former times, to
increase their stores and add to their possessions, and the Mackays
about this time obtained a large accession to their lands by a
circumstance narrated in the former part of this history, connected
with Alexander Sutherland of Dilred, nephew of Y-Roy Mackay, the then
chief.
In 1516, Y-Roy Mackay gave his bond of service to Adam Gordon of
Aboyne, brother of the Earl of Huntly, who had become Earl of
Sutherland, by marriage with Elizabeth, sister and heiress of the
ninth earl, but died soon after. Donald, his youngest son, slain
at Morinsh, was ancestor of a branch of the Mackays called the
Sliochd-Donald-Mackay. John, the eldest son, had no sooner taken
possession of his father’s lands, than his uncle, Neill Naverigh
Mackay and his two sons, assisted by a force furnished them by
the Earl of Caithness, entered Strathnaver, and endeavoured
unsuccessfully to dispossess him of his inheritance.
In 1517, in the absence of the Earl of Sutherland, who had wrested
from John Mackay a portion of his lands, he and his brother Donald
invaded Sutherland with a large force. But after several reverses,
John Mackay submitted to the Earl of Sutherland in 1518, and granted
him his bond of service. But such was his restless and turbulent
disposition that he afterwards prevailed upon Alexander Sutherland,
the bastard, who had married his sister and pretended a claim to the
earldom, to raise the standard of insurrection against the earl.
After this he again submitted to the earl, and a second time gave him
his bond of service and manrent in 1522. He died in 1529, and was
succeeded by his brother, Donald.
In 1539, Donald Mackay obtained restitution of the greater part of
the family estates, which had been seized by the Sutherland Gordons,
and in 1542 he was present in the engagement at Solway Moss. Soon
after, he committed various ravages in Sutherland, but after a
considerable time, became reconciled to the earl, to whom he again
gave his bond of service and manrent on 8th April 1549. He died in
1550.
He was succeeded by his son, Y-Mackay, who, with the Earl of
Caithness, was perpetually at strife with the powerful house of
Sutherland, and so great was his power, and so extensive his
spoliations, that in the first parliament of James VI. (Dec. 1567),
the lords of the articles were required to report, “By what means
might Mackay be dantoned.” He died in 1571, full of remorse, it is
said, for the wickedness of his life.
His son, Houcheon, or Hugh, succeeded him when only eleven years
old. In 1587, he joined the Earl of Caithness, when attacked by the
Earl of Sutherland, although the latter was his superior. He was
excluded from the temporary truce agreed to by the two earls in March
of that year, and in the following year they came to a resolution to
attack him together. Having received secret notice of their intention
from the Earl of Caithness, he made his submission to the Earl of
Sutherland, and ever after remained faithful to him.
Of the army raised by the Earl of Sutherland in 1601, to oppose the
threatened invasion of his territories by the Earl of Caithness,
the advance guard was commanded by Patrick Gordon of Gartay and
Donald Mackay of Scourie, and the right wing by Hugh Mackay. Hugh
Mackay died at Tongue, 11th September 1614, in his 55th year. He was
connected with both the rival houses by marriage; his first wife
being Lady Elizabeth Sinclair, second daughter of George, fourth
Earl of Caithness, and relict of Alexander Sutherland of Duffus; and
his second, Lady Jane Gordon, eldest daughter of Alexander, eleventh
Earl of Sutherland. The former lady was drowned, and left a daughter.
By the latter he had two sons, Sir Donald Mackay of Far, first Lord
Reay, and John, who married in 1619, a daughter of James Sinclair of
Murkle, by whom he had Hugh Mackay and other children. Sir Donald
Mackay of Far, the elder son, was, by Charles I., created a peer of
Scotland, by the title of Lord Reay, by patent, dated 20th June 1628,
to him and his heirs male whatever. From him the land of the Mackays
in Sutherland acquired the name of “Lord Reay’s Country,” which it
has ever since retained.
On the breaking out of the civil wars, Lord Reay, with the Earl of
Sutherland and others, joined the Covenanters on the north of the
river Spey. He afterwards took arms in defence of Charles I., and
in 1643 arrived from Denmark, with ships and arms, and a large sum
of money, for the service of the king. He was in Newcastle in 1644,
when that town was stormed by the Scots, and being made prisoner,
was conveyed to Edinburgh tolbooth. He obtained his release after
the battle of Kilsyth in August 1645, and embarked at Thurso in July
1648 for Denmark, where he died in February 1649. He married, first,
in 1610, Barbara, eldest daughter of Kenneth, Lord Kintail, and
had by her Y-Mackay, who died in 1617; John, second Lord Reay, two
other sons and two daughters. By a second wife, Rachel Winterfield
or Harrison, he had two sons, the Hon. Robert Mackay Forbes and
the Hon. Hugh Forbes. Of this marriage he procured a sentence of
nullity, and then took to wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Thomson
of Greenwich, but in 1637 was ordained to pay his second wife £2,000
sterling for part maintenance, and £3,000 sterling yearly during his
non-adherence. By Elizabeth Thomson he had one daughter.
John, second Lord Reay, joined the royalists under the Earl of
Glencairn in 1654, and was taken at Balveny and imprisoned. By his
wife, a daughter of Donald Mackay of Scourie, he had three sons; 1.
Donald, master of Reay, who predeceased his father, leaving by his
wife Ann, daughter of Sir George Munro of Culcairn, a son, George,
third Lord Reay; 2. The Hon. Brigadier-General Æneas Mackay, who
married Margaretta, Countess of Puchlor; and 3. The Hon. Colin
Mackay. Æneas, the second son, was colonel of the Mackay Dutch
regiment. His family settled at the Hague, where they obtained
considerable possessions, and formed alliances with several noble
families. Their representative, Berthold Baron Mackay, died 26th
December 1854, at his chateau of Ophemert, in Guelderland, aged
eighty-one. He married the Baroness Van Renasse Van Wilp, and his
eldest son, the Baron Æneas Mackay, at one time chamberlain to the
king of Holland, became next heir to the peerage of Reay, after the
present family.
George, third Lord Reay, F.R.S., took the oaths and his seat in
parliament, 29th October 1700. In the rebellion of 1715, he raised
his clan in support of the government. In 1719, when the Earls
Marischal and Seaforth, and the Marquis of Tullibardine, with 300
Spaniards, landed in the Western Highlands, he did the same, and also
in 1745. He died at Tongue, 21st March 1748. He was thrice married,
and had by his first wife, one son, Donald, fourth Lord Reay.
Donald, fourth Lord Reay, succeeded his father in 1748, and died
at Durness, 18th August 1761. He was twice married, and, with one
daughter, the Hon. Mrs Edgar, had two sons, George, fifth Lord Reay,
who died at Rosebank, near Edinburgh, 27th February 1768, and Hugh,
sixth lord. The fifth Lord Reay was also twice married, but had issue
only by his second wife, a son, who died young, and three daughters.
Hugh, his half-brother, who succeeded him, was for some years in a
state of mental imbecility. He died at Skerray, 26th January 1797,
unmarried, when the title devolved on Eric Mackay, son of the Hon.
George Mackay of Skibo, third son of the third Lord Reay. He died at
Tongue, June 25, 1782. By his wife, Anne, third daughter of Hon. Eric
Sutherland, only son of the attainted Lord Duffus, he had five sons
and four daughters. His eldest son, George, died in 1790. Eric, the
second son, became seventh Lord Reay. Alexander, the next, an officer
in the army, succeeded as eighth Lord Reay. Donald Hugh, the fourth
son, a vice-admiral, died March 26, 1850. Patrick, the youngest, died
an infant.
Eric, seventh Lord Reay, was, in 1806, elected one of the
representative Scots peers. He died, unmarried, July 8, 1847, and
was succeeded, as eighth Lord Reay, by his brother, Alexander,
barrack-master at Malta, born in 1775. He married in 1809, Marion,
daughter of Colonel Goll, military secretary to Warren Hastings, and
relict of David Ross, Esq. of Calcutta, eldest son of the Scottish
judge, Lord Ankerville; he had two sons and six daughters. He died
in 1863, and was succeeded by his second son, Eric, who was born in
1813, George, the eldest son, having died in 1811.
The Mackays became very numerous in the northern counties, and the
descent of their chiefs, in the male line, has continued unbroken
from their first appearance in the north down to the present time. In
the county of Sutherland, they multiplied greatly also, under other
names, such as MacPhail, Polson, Bain, Nielson, &c. The names of
Mackie and MacGhie are also said to be derived from Mackay. The old
family of MacGhie of Balmaghie, which for about 600 years possessed
estates in Galloway, used the same arms as the chief of the Mackays.
They continued in possession of their lands till 1786. Balmaghie
means Mackay town. The name MacCrie is supposed to be a corruption of
MacGhie.
At the time of the rebellion of 1745, the effective force of the
Mackays was estimated at 800 men by President Forbes. It is said
that in the last Sutherland fencibles, raised in 1793 and disbanded
in 1797, there were 33 John Mackays in one company alone. In 1794
the Reay fencibles, 800 strong, were raised in a few weeks, in “Lord
Reay’s country,” the residence of the clan Mackay. The names of no
fewer than 700 of them had the prefix _Mac_.
With regard to the term _Siol Mhorgan_ applied to the clan Mackay,
it is right to state that Mr Robert Mackay of Thurso, the family
historian, denies that as a clan they were ever known by that
designation, which rests, he says, only on the affirmation of Sir
Robert Gordon, without any authority. He adds: “There are, indeed,
to this day, persons of the surname Morgan and Morganach, who are
understood to be of the Mackays, but that the whole clan, at any
period, went under that designation, is incorrect; and those of them
who did so, were always few and of but small account. The name seems
to be of Welsh origin; but how it obtained among the Mackays it is
impossible now to say.”
Of the branches of the clan Mackay, the family of Scourie is the most
celebrated. They were descended from Donald Mackay of Scourie and
Eriboll, elder son of Y Mackay III., chief of the clan from 1550 to
1571, by his first wife, a daughter of Hugh Macleod of Assynt.
Donald Mackay, by his wife, Euphemia, daughter of Hugh Munro of
Assynt in Ross, brother of the laird of Foulis, had three sons and
four daughters. The sons were Hugh, Donald, and William. Hugh, the
eldest, succeeded his father, and by the Scots Estates was appointed
colonel of the Reay countrymen. He married a daughter of James Corbet
of Rheims, by whom he had five sons, William, Hector, Hugh, the
celebrated General Mackay,[229] commander of the government forces
at the battle of Killiecrankie, James and Roderick. He had also
three daughters, Barbara, married to John, Lord Reay; Elizabeth, to
Hugh Munro of Eriboll, and Ann, to the Hon. Capt. William Mackay of
Kinloch. William and Hector, the two eldest sons, both unmarried,
met with untimely deaths. In February 1688, the Earl of Caithness,
whose wife was younger than himself, having conceived some jealousy
against William, caused him to be seized at Dunnet, while on his way
to Orkney, with a party of 30 persons. He was conveyed to Thurso,
where he was immured in a dungeon, and after long confinement was
sent home in an open boat, and died the day after. In August of the
same year, his brother, Hector, accompanied by a servant, having gone
to Aberdeenshire, on his way to Edinburgh, was waylaid and murdered
by William Sinclair of Dunbeath and John Sinclair of Murkle, and
their two servants. A complaint was immediately raised before the
justiciary, at the instance of John, Earl of Sutherland, and the
relatives of the deceased, against the Earl of Caithness and the
two Sinclairs for these crimes. A counter complaint was brought by
Caithness against the pursuers, for several alleged crimes from 1649
downwards, but a compromise took place between the parties.
General Mackay’s only son, Hugh, major of his father’s regiment,
died at Cambray, in 1708, aged about 28. He left two sons, Hugh and
Gabriel, and a daughter. Hugh died at Breda, a lieutenant-general
in the Dutch service, and colonel of the Mackay Dutch regiment,
which took its name from his father. He had an only daughter, the
wife of lieutenant-general Prevost, of the British service, who, on
the death of his father-in-law, without male issue, obtained the
king’s license to bear the name and arms of Mackay of Scourie in
addition to his own, which his descendants in Holland still bear.
Gabriel, the younger son, lieutenant-colonel of the Mackay regiment,
died without issue. James, the next brother of General Mackay, a
lieutenant-colonel in his regiment, was killed at Killiecrankie, and
Roderick, the youngest, died in the East Indies, both unmarried.
The eldest branch of the Mackays was that of the Clan-Abrach,
descended from John Aberigh Mackay, second son of Angus Dubh, who
received the lands of Auchness, Breachat, and others, from his
brother, Neill Wasse. Of this family was Robert Mackay, writer,
Thurso, historian of the clan Mackay. According to this gentleman,
John Aberigh, the first of this branch, gave his name to the
district of Strathnaver. In the Gaelic language, he says, the
inhabitants of Strathnaver are called Naverigh, and that tribe
the Sliochd-nan-Aberigh. John, their founder, some say, took his
appellation of Aberigh from Lochaber, where he resided in his youth
with some relatives, and from Strath-na-Aberich the transition is
natural to Strath-n’-Averich. Neill Naverich, above mentioned, was
so called from his having belonged to the Reay Country, that is,
Strathnaver. The Clan-Abrach were the most numerous and powerful
branch of the Mackays. They acted as wardens of their country, and
never betrayed their trust.
The BIGHOUSE branch were descendants of William Mackay of Far,
younger half-brother of Donald Mackay of Scourie, by his second wife,
Christian Sinclair, daughter of the laird of Dun.
The STRATHY branch sprung from John Mackay of Dilred and Strathy,
brother of the first Lord Reay, and son of Hugh Mackay of Far, by
his wife, Lady Jane Gordon, eldest daughter of Alexander, Earl of
Sutherland.
The MELNESS branch came from the Hon. Colonel Æneas Mackay, second
son of the first Lord Reay, by his first wife, the Hon. Barbara
Mackenzie, daughter of Lord Kintail.
The KINLOCH branch descended from the Hon. Captain William Mackay,
and the SANDWOOD branch from the Hon. Charles Mackay, sons of the
first Lord Reay by his last wife, Marjory Sinclair, daughter of
Francis Sinclair of Stircoke.
The founder of the HOLLAND branch of the Mackays, General Hugh
Mackay, prior to 1680, when a colonel in the Dutch service, and
having no prospect of leaving Holland, wrote for some of his near
relatives to go over and settle in that country. Amongst those were
his brother, James, and his nephews, Æneas and Robert, sons of
the first Lord Reay. The former he took into his own regiment, in
which, in a few years, he became lieutenant-colonel. The latter he
sent to school at Utrecht for a short time, and afterwards obtained
commissions for them in his own regiment. In the beginning of
1687, several British officers in the Dutch service were recalled
to England by King James, and amongst others was Æneas Mackay,
then a captain. On his arrival in London, the King made him some
favourable propositions to enter his service, which he declined,
and, in consequence, when he reached Scotland, he was ordered to be
apprehended as a spy. He had been imprisoned nearly seven months in
Edinburgh Castle, when the Prince of Orange landed at Torbay, and he
was liberated upon granting his personal bond to appear before the
privy council when called upon, under a penalty of £500 sterling. The
Dutch Mackays married among the nobility of Holland, and one of the
families of that branch held the title of baron.
MACNICOL.
In a district mostly in Ross-shire, anciently known by the name of
Ness, there was originally located a small and broken clan, known
as the MACNICOLS. The only districts, according to Skene, which
at all answers to the description of Ness, are those of Assynt,
Edderachylis, and Duirness.
The Macnicols were descended from one Mackrycul (the letter r in
the Gaelic being invariably pronounced like n), who, tradition
says, as a reward for having rescued from some Scandinavians a great
quantity of cattle carried off from Sutherland, received from one of
the ancient thanes of that province, the district of Assynt, then a
forest belonging to them. This Mackrycul held that part of the coast
of Cogeach, which is called Ullapool. In the MS. of 1450, the descent
of the clan Nicail is traced in a direct line from a certain Gregall,
plainly the Krycul here mentioned, who is supposed to have lived in
the twelfth century. He is said to have been the ancestor, besides
the Macnicols, of the Nicols and the Nicholsons. When Gregall lived,
Sutherland was occupied by Gaelic tribes, and the Macnicols may
therefore be considered of Gaelic origin.
About the beginning of the 14th century, the family of the chief
ended in an heiress, who married Torquil Macleod, a younger son of
Macleod of Lewis. Macleod obtained a crown charter of the district of
Assynt and other lands in Wester Ross, which had been the property of
the Macnicols. That sept subsequently removed to the Isle of Skye,
and the residence of their head or chief was at Scoirebreac, on the
margin of the loch near Portree.
Even after their removal to Skye the Macnicols seem to have retained
their independence, for tradition relates that on one occasion when
the head of this clan, called Macnicol Mor, was engaged in a warm
discussion with Macleod of Rasay, carried on in the English language,
the servant of the latter coming into the room, imagined they were
quarrelling, and drawing his sword mortally wounded Macnicol. To
prevent a feud between the two septs, a council of chieftains and
elders was held to determine in what manner the Macnicols could be
appeased, when, upon some old precedent, it was agreed that the
meanest person in the clan Nicol should behead the laird of Rasay.
The individual of least note among them was one Lomach, a maker of
pannier baskets, and he accordingly cut off the head of the laird of
Rasay.
In Argyleshire there were many Macnicols, but the clan may be said to
have long been extinct.
SUTHERLAND.
[Illustration: BADGE--Broom (butcher’s broom).]
The clan SUTHERLAND, which gets its name from being located in the
district of that name, is regarded by Skene and others as almost
purely Gaelic. The district of Sutherland, which was originally
considerably smaller than the modern county of that name, got its
name from the Orcadian Norsemen, because it lay south from Caithness,
which, for a long time, was their only possession in the mainland of
Scotland.
According to Skene, the ancient Gaelic population of the district
now known by the name of Sutherland were driven out or destroyed
by the Norwegians when they took possession of the country, after
its conquest by Thorfinn, the Norse Jarl of Orkney, in 1034, and
were replaced by settlers from Moray and Ross. He says, “There are
consequently no clans whatever descended from the Gaelic tribe which
anciently inhabited the district of Sutherland, and the modern Gaelic
population of part of that region is derived from two sources. In
the first place, several of the tribes of the neighbouring district
of Ross, at an early period, gradually spread themselves into the
nearest and most mountainous parts of the country, and they consisted
chiefly of the clan Anrias. Secondly, Hugh Freskin, a descendant of
Freskin de Moravia, and whose family was a branch of the ancient
Gaelic tribe of Moray, obtained from King William the territory of
Sutherland, although it is impossible to discover the circumstances
which occasioned the grant. He was of course accompanied in this
expedition by numbers of his followers, who increased in Sutherland
to an extensive tribe; and Freskin became the founder of the noble
family of Sutherland, who, under the title of Earls of Sutherland,
have continued to enjoy possession of this district for so many
generations.”[230] We do not altogether agree with this intelligent
author that the district in question was at any time entirely
colonised by the Norsemen. There can be no doubt that a remnant of
the old inhabitants remained, after the Norwegian conquest, and
it is certain that the Gaelic population, reinforced as they were
undoubtedly by incomers from the neighbouring districts and from
Moray, ultimately regained the superiority in Sutherland. Many of
them were unquestionably from the province of Moray, and these, like
the rest of the inhabitants, adopted the name of Sutherland, from the
appellation given by the Norwegians to the district.
The chief of the clan was called “the Great Cat,” and the head of the
house of Sutherland has long carried a black cat in his coat-of-arms.
According to Sir George Mackenzie, the name of Cattu was formerly
given to Sutherland and Caithness (originally Cattu-ness), on account
of the great number of wild cats with which it was, at one period,
infested.
The Earl of Sutherland was the chief of the clan, but on the
accession to the earldom in 1766, of Countess Elizabeth, the
infant daughter of the eighteenth earl, and afterwards Duchess of
Sutherland, as the chiefship could not descend to a female, William
Sutherland of Killipheder, who died in 1832, and enjoyed a small
annuity from her grace, was accounted the eldest male descendant of
the old earls. John Campbell Sutherland, Esq. of Fors, was afterwards
considered the real chief.
The clan Sutherland could bring into the field 2,000 fighting men.
In 1715 and 1745 they were among the loyal clans, and zealously
supported the succession of the house of Hanover. Further details
concerning this clan will be given in the History of the Highland
Regiments.
The Earldom of Sutherland, the oldest extant in Britain, is said to
have been granted by Alexander II., to William, Lord of Sutherland,
about 1228, for assisting to quell a powerful northern savage of
the name of Gillespie.[231] William was the son of Hugh Freskin,
who acquired the district of Sutherland by the forfeiture of the
Earl of Caithness for rebellion in 1197. Hugh was the grandson of
Freskin the Fleming, who came into Scotland in the reign of David
I., and obtained from that prince the lands of Strathbrock in
Linlithgowshire, also, the lands of Duffus and others in Moray.[232]
His son, William, was a constant attendant on King William the Lion,
during his frequent expeditions into Moray, and assumed the name of
William de Moravia. He died towards the end of the 12th century. His
son, Hugh, got the district of Sutherland, as already mentioned.
Hugh’s son, “Willielmus dominus de Sutherlandia filius et hæres
quondam Hugonis Freskin,” is usually reckoned the first Earl of
Sutherland, although Sir Robert Gordon, the family historian, puts it
three generations farther back.
The date of the creation of the title is not known; but from an
indenture executed in 1275, in which Gilbert, bishop of Caithness,
makes a solemn composition of an affair that had been long in debate
betwixt his predecessors in the see and the noble men, William of
famous memory, and William, his son, Earls of Sutherland, it is clear
that there existed an Earl of Sutherland betwixt 1222, the year of
Gilbert’s consecration as bishop, and 1245, the year of his death,
and it is on the strength of this deed that the representative of the
house claims the rank of premier earl of Scotland, with the date 1228.
Earl William died at Dunrobin[233] in 1248. His son, William, second
earl, succeeded to the title in his infancy. He was one of the Scots
nobles who attended the parliament of Alexander III. at Scone, 5th
February 1284, when the succession to the crown of Scotland was
settled, and he sat in the great convention at Bingham, 12th March
1290. He was one of the eighteen Highland chiefs who fought at
the battle of Bannockburn, in 1314, on the side of Bruce, and he
subscribed the famous letter of the Scots nobles to the Pope, 6th
April 1320. He died in 1325, having enjoyed the title for the long
period of 77 years.
His son, Kenneth, the third earl, fell at the battle of Halidon-hill
in 1333, valiantly supporting the cause of David II. With a daughter,
Eustach, he had two sons, William, fourth earl, and Nicholas,
ancestor of the Lords Duffus.
William, fourth earl, married the Princess Margaret, eldest daughter
of Robert I., by his second wife, Elizabeth de Burgo, and he made
grants of land in the counties of Inverness and Aberdeen to powerful
and influential persons, to win their support of his eldest son,
John’s claim to the succession to the crown. John was selected by
his uncle, David II., as heir to the throne, in preference to the
high-steward, who had married the Princess Marjory, but he died at
Lincoln in England in 1361, while a hostage there for the payment
of the king’s ransom. His father, Earl William, was one of the
commissioners to treat for the release of King David in 1351, also
on 13th June 1354, and again in 1357. He was for some years detained
in England as a hostage for David’s observance of the treaty on his
release from his long captivity. The earl did not obtain his full
liberty till 20th March 1367. He died at Dunrobin in Sutherland in
1370. His son, William, fifth earl, was present at the surprise of
Berwick by the Scots in November 1384.
With their neighbours, the Mackays, the clan Sutherland were often
at feud, and in all their contests with them they generally came off
victorious.[234]
John, seventh earl, resigned the earldom in favour of John, his son
and heir, 22d February 1456, reserving to himself the liferent of it,
and died in 1460. He had married Margaret, daughter of Sir William
Baillie of Lamington, Lanarkshire, and by her had four sons and two
daughters. The sons were--1. Alexander, who predeceased his father;
2. John, eighth Earl of Sutherland; 3. Nicholas; 4. Thomas Beg. The
elder daughter, Lady Jane, married Sir James Dunbar of Cumnock, and
was the mother of Gawin Dunbar, bishop of Aberdeen.
John, eighth earl, died in 1508. He had married Lady Margaret
Macdonald, eldest daughter of Alexander, Earl of Ross, Lord of the
Isles, and by her, who was drowned crossing the ferry of Uness, he
had two sons--John ninth earl, and Alexander, who died young, and a
daughter, Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland.
The ninth earl died, without issue, in 1514, when the succession
devolved upon his sister Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland in her
own right. This lady had married Adam Gordon of Aboyne, second son
of George, second Earl of Huntly, high-chancellor of Scotland, and
in his wife’s right, according to the custom of the age, he was
styled Earl of Sutherland. The Earl of Sutherland, when far advanced
in life, retired for the most part to Strathbogie and Aboyne, in
Aberdeenshire, to spend the remainder of his days among his friends,
and intrusted the charge of the country to his eldest son, Alexander
Gordon, master of Sutherland, a young man of great intrepidity and
talent; and on the countess’ resignation, a charter of the earldom
was granted to him by King James V., on 1st December 1527. She died
in 1535, and her husband in 1537. Their issue were--1. Alexander,
master of Sutherland, who was infeft in the earldom in 1527, under
the charter above mentioned, and died in 1529, leaving, by his wife,
Lady Jane Stewart, eldest daughter of the second Earl of Athole,
three sons--John, Alexander, and William, and two daughters; 2.
John Gordon; 3. Adam Gordon, killed at the battle of Pinkie, 10th
September 1547; 4. Gilbert Gordon of Gartay, who married Isobel
Sinclair, daughter of the laird of Dunbeath.
Alexander’s eldest son, John, born about 1525, succeeded his
grandfather as eleventh earl. He was lieutenant of Moray in 1547 and
1548, and with George, Earl of Huntly, was selected to accompany the
queen regent to France in September 1550.
On the charge of having engaged in the rebellion of the Earl of
Huntly in 1562, the Earl of Sutherland was forfeited, 28th May 1563,
when he retired to Flanders. He returned to Scotland in 1565, and
his forfeiture was rescinded by act of parliament, 19th April 1567.
He and his countess, who was then in a state of pregnancy, were
poisoned at Helmsdale Castle by Isobel Sinclair, the wife of the
earl’s uncle, Gilbert Gordon of Gartay, and the cousin of the Earl
of Caithness, and died five days afterwards at Dunrobin Castle. This
happened in July 1567, when the earl was in his 42d year.[235] Their
only son, Alexander, master of Sutherland, then in his fifteenth
year, fortunately escaped the same fate.
The eleventh earl, styled the good Earl John, was thrice
married--1st, to Lady Elizabeth Campbell, only daughter of the third
Earl of Argyll, relict of James, Earl of Moray, natural son of
James IV.; 2dly, to Lady Helen Stewart, daughter of the third Earl
of Lennox, relict of the fifth Earl of Errol; and 3dly, to Marion,
eldest daughter of the fourth Lord Seton, relict of the fourth Earl
of Menteith. This was the lady who was poisoned with him. He had
issue by his second wife only--two sons and three daughters. John,
the elder son, died an infant. Alexander, the younger, was the
twelfth Earl of Sutherland.
Being under age when he succeeded to the earldom, the ward of this
young nobleman was granted to his eldest sister, Lady Margaret
Gordon, who committed it to the care of John, Earl of Athole. The
latter sold the wardship to George, Earl of Caithness, the enemy of
his house. Having by treachery got possession of the castle of Skibo,
in which the young earl resided, he seized his person and carried him
off to Caithness, where he forced him to marry his daughter, Lady
Barbara Sinclair, a profligate woman of double his own age. When he
attained his majority he divorced her. In 1569, he escaped from the
Earl of Caithness, who had taken up his residence at Dunrobin Castle
and formed a design upon his life.
In 1583 he obtained from the Earl of Huntly, the king’s lieutenant
in the north, a grant of the superiority of Strathnaver, and of the
heritable sheriffship of Sutherland and Strathnaver, which last was
granted in lieu of the lordship of Aboyne. This grant was confirmed
by his majesty in a charter under the great seal, by which Sutherland
and Strathnaver were disjoined and dismembered from the sheriffdom
of Inverness. The earl died at Dunrobin, 6th December 1594, in his
43d year. Having divorced Lady Barbara Sinclair in 1573, he married,
secondly, Lady Jean Gordon, third daughter of the fourth Earl of
Huntly, high-chancellor of Scotland, who had been previously married
to the Earl of Bothwell, but repudiated to enable that ambitious
and profligate nobleman to marry Queen Mary. She subsequently
married Alexander Ogilvy of Boyne, whom she also survived. To the
Earl of Sutherland she had, with two daughters, four sons--1. John,
thirteenth earl; 2. Hon. Sir Alexander Gordon; 3. Hon. Adam Gordon;
4. Hon. Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, the historian of the family
of Sutherland, created a baronet of Nova Scotia, being the first of
that order, 28th May 1625.
John, thirteenth Earl of Sutherland, was born 20th July 1576. Many
details concerning him will be found in the former part of this
work. He died at Dornoch, 11th September 1615, aged 40. By his
countess, Lady Anna Elphinston, he had, with two daughters, four
sons, namely--1. Patrick, master of Sutherland, who died young; 2.
John, fourteenth earl; 3. Hon. Adam Gordon, who entered the Swedish
service, and was killed at the battle of Nordlingen, 27th August
1634, aged 22; 4. Hon. George Posthumus Gordon, born after his
father’s death, 9th February 1616, a lieutenant-colonel in the army.
John, fourteenth Earl of Sutherland, born 4th March 1609, was only
six years old when he succeeded his father, and during his minority
his uncle, Sir Robert Gordon, was tutor of Sutherland. In this
capacity the latter was much engaged in securing the peace of the
country, so often broken by the lawless proceedings of the Earl of
Caithness. By Sir Robert’s judicious management of the affairs of
the house of Sutherland, his nephew, the earl, on attaining his
majority, found the hostility of the enemy of his house, the Earl of
Caithness, either neutralised, or rendered no longer dangerous. In
1637, the earl joined the supplicants against the service book, and
on the breaking out of the civil war in the following year, espoused
the liberal cause. In 1641 he was appointed by parliament a privy
councillor for life, and in 1644 he was sent north with a commission
for disarming malignants, as the royalists were called. In 1645 he
was one of the committee of estates. The same year he joined General
Hurry, with his retainers at Inverness, just immediately before the
battle of Auldearn. In 1650 he accompanied General David Leslie when
he was sent by the parliament against the royalists in the north.
On the Marquis of Montrose’s arrival in Caithness, the earl assembled
all his countrymen to oppose his advance into Sutherland. Montrose,
however, had secured the important pass of the Ord, and on his
entering Sutherland, the earl, not conceiving himself strong enough
to resist him, retired with about 300 men into Ross. In August of the
same year, the earl set off to Edinburgh, with 1,000 men, to join
the forces under General Leslie, collected to oppose Cromwell, but
was too late for the battle of Dunbar, which was fought before his
arrival. During the Protectorate of Cromwell the earl lived retired.
He is commonly said to have died in 1663, but the portrait of John,
who must be this earl, prefixed to Gordon’s history of the family
(Ed. 1813) has upon it “_Aetatis Suae_ 60: 1669.” This would seem to
prove that he was then alive.
His son, George, fifteenth earl, died 4th March 1703, aged 70, and
was buried at Holyrood-house, where a monument was erected to his
memory. The son of this nobleman, John, sixteenth earl, married,
when Lord Strathnaver, Helen, second daughter of William, Lord
Cochrane, sister of the Viscountess Dundee. He was one of the sixteen
representatives of the Scots peerage chosen in the last Scots
parliament in 1707, and subsequently three times re-elected. His
services in quelling the rebellion were acknowledged by George I.,
who, in June 1716, invested him with the order of the Thistle, and in
the following September settled a pension of £1,200 per annum upon
him. He figured conspicuously both as a statesman and a soldier, and
obtained leave to add to his armorial bearings the double “tressure
circum-fleur-de-lire,” to indicate his descent from the royal family
of Bruce. His lordship died at London, 27th June 1733.
His son, William, Lord Strathnaver, predeceased his father 19th July
1720. He had five sons and two daughters. His two eldest sons died
young. William, the third son, became seventeenth Earl of Sutherland.
The elder daughter, the Hon. Helen Sutherland, was the wife of Sir
James Colquhoun of Luss. The younger, the Hon. Janet Sutherland,
married George Sinclair, Esq. of Ulbster, and was the mother of the
celebrated Sir John Sinclair, baronet.
William, seventeenth Earl of Sutherland, contributed greatly to
the suppression of the rebellion in the north. Under the heritable
jurisdictions’ abolition act of 1747, he had £1,000 allowed him for
the redeemable sheriffship of Sutherland. He died in France, December
7, 1750, aged 50. By his countess, Lady Elizabeth Wemyss, eldest
daughter of the third Earl of Wemyss, he had, with a daughter, Lady
Elizabeth, wife of her cousin, Hon. James Wemyss of Wemyss, a son,
William.
The son, William, eighteenth Earl of Sutherland, born May 29,
1735, was an officer in the army, and in 1759, when an invasion
was expected, he raised a battalion of infantry, of which he was
constituted lieutenant-colonel. He was appointed aide-de-camp to the
king, with the rank of colonel in the army, 20th April 1763. He was
one of the sixteen representative Scots peers, and died at Bath,
16th June 1766, aged 31. He had married at Edinburgh, 14th April
1761, Mary, eldest daughter and coheiress of William Maxwell, Esq.
of Preston, stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and had two daughters, Lady
Catherine and Lady Elizabeth. The former, born 24th May 1764, died
at Dunrobin Castle, 3d January 1766. The loss of their daughter so
deeply affected the earl and countess that they went to Bath, in the
hope that the amusements of that place would dispel their grief.
There, however, the earl was seized with a fever, and the countess
devoted herself so entirely to the care of her husband, sitting up
with him for twenty-one days and nights without retiring to bed, that
her health was affected, and she died 1st June the same year, sixteen
days before his lordship. Their bodies were brought to Scotland, and
interred in Holyrood-house.
[Illustration: Dunrobin Castle, from a photograph by Collier and
Park, Inverness.]
Their only surviving daughter, Elizabeth, born at Leven Lodge, near
Edinburgh, 24th May 1765, succeeded as Countess of Sutherland, when
little more than a year old. She was placed under the guardianship
of John, Duke of Athole, Charles, Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, Sir
Adam Fergusson of Kilkerran, and Sir David Dalrymple of Hailes,
baronets, and John Mackenzie, Esq. of Delvin. A sharp contest arose
for the title, her right to the earldom being disputed on the ground
that it could not legally descend to a female heir. Her opponents
were Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun and Letterfourie, baronet, and
George Sutherland, Esq. of Fors. Lord Hailes drew up a paper for her
ladyship, entitled “Additional Case for Elizabeth, claiming the title
and dignity of Countess of Sutherland,” which evinced great ability,
accuracy, and depth of research. The House of Lords decided in her
favour, 21st March. 1771. The countess, the nineteenth in succession
to the earldom, married 4th September 1785, George Granville Leveson
Gower, Viscount of Trentham, eldest son of Earl Gower, afterwards
Marquis of Stafford, by his second wife, Lady Louisa Egerton,
daughter of the first Duke of Bridgewater. His lordship succeeded to
his father’s titles, and became the second Marquis of Stafford. On
14th January 1833 he was created Duke of Sutherland, and died 19th
July, the same year. The Duchess of Sutherland, countess in her own
right, thenceforth styled Duchess-Countess of Sutherland, held the
earldom during the long period of 72 years and seven months, and died
in January 1839.
Her eldest son, George Granville, born in 1786, succeeded his
father as second Duke of Sutherland, in 1833, and his mother in the
Scottish titles, in 1839. He married in 1823, Lady Harriet Elizabeth
Georgiana, third daughter of the sixth Earl of Carlisle; issue--four
sons and seven daughters. His grace died Feb. 28, 1861, and was
succeeded by his eldest son, George Granville William. The second
duke’s eldest daughter married in 1844, the Duke of Argyll; the
second daughter married in 1843, Lord Blantyre; the third daughter
married in 1847, the Marquis of Kildare, eldest son of the Duke of
Leinster.
George Granville William, third Duke of Sutherland, previously
styled Marquis of Stafford and Lord Strathnaver, born Dec. 19, 1828,
married in 1849, Anne, only child of John Hay Mackenzie, Esq. of
Cromartie and Newhall, and niece of Sir William Gibson Craig, Bart.;
issue--three sons and two daughters. Sons--1. George Granville, Earl
Gower, born July 25, 1850, died July 5, 1858; 2. Cromartie, Marquis
of Stafford, born 20th July 1851; 3. Lord Francis, Viscount Tarbet,
born August 3, 1852. Daughters, Lady Florence and Lady Alexandra; for
the latter the Princess of Wales was sponsor.
There are a number of clans not dignified by Mr Skene with separate
notice, probably because he considers them subordinate branches of
other clans. The principal of these, however, we shall shortly notice
here, before giving an account of four important clans located in the
Highlands, which are generally admitted to be of foreign origin, at
least so far as their names and chiefs are concerned.
GUNN.
[Illustration: BADGE--Juniper.]
As we have given in minute detail the history of the somewhat
turbulent clan Gunn in the first part of the work, our notice of it
here will be brief.
The clan, a martial and hardy, though not a numerous race, originally
belonged to Caithness, but in the sixteenth century they settled
in Sutherland. Mr Smibert thinks they are perhaps among the very
purest remnants of the Gael to be found about Sutherlandshire and
the adjoining parts. “It is probable,” he says, “that they belong
to the same stock which produced the great body of the Sutherland
population. But tradition gives the chieftains at least a Norse
origin. They are said to have been descended from _Gun_, or _Gunn_,
or _Guin_, second son of Olaus, or Olav, the Black, one of the
Norwegian kings of Man and the Isles, who died 18th June 1237. One
tradition gives them a settlement in Caithness more than a century
earlier, deducing their descent from Gun, the second of three sons of
Olaf, described as a man of great bravery, who, in 1100, dwelt in the
Orcadian isle of Græmsay. The above-mentioned _Gun_ or _Guin_ is said
to have received from his grandfather on the mother’s side, Farquhar,
Earl of Ross, the possessions in Caithness which long formed the
patrimony of his descendants: the earliest stronghold of the chief
in that county being Halbury castle, or Easter Clythe, situated on a
precipitous rock, overhanging the sea. From a subsequent chief who
held the office of coroner, it was called _Crowner Gun’s Castle_. It
may be mentioned here that the name _Gun_ is the same as the Welsh
_Gwynn_, and the Manx _Gawne_. It was originally Gun, but is now
spelled Gunn.”
[Illustration: GUNN. (Tartan)]
The clan Gunn continued to extend their possessions in Caithness
till about the middle of the fifteenth century, when, in consequence
of their deadly feuds with the Keiths, and other neighbouring
clans, they found it necessary to remove into Sutherland, where
they settled on the lands of Kildonan, under the protection of
the Earls of Sutherland, from whom they had obtained them. Mixed
up as they were with the clan feuds of Caithness and Sutherland,
and at war with the Mackays as well as the Keiths, the history of
the clan up to this time is full of incidents which have more the
character of romance than reality. In one place Sir Robert Gordon,
alluding to “the inveterat deidlie feud betuein the clan Gun and the
Slaightean-Aberigh,”--a branch of the Mackays,--he says: “The long,
the many, the horrible encounters which happened between these two
trybes, with the bloodshed and infinit spoils committed in every
part of the diocy of Catteynes by them and their associats, are of so
disordered and troublesome memorie,” that he declines to give details.
Previous to their removal into Sutherland, George Gun, commonly
called the _Chruner_, or Coroner, and by the Highlanders, _Fear N’m
Braisteach-more_, from the great brooch which he wore as the badge
of his office of coroner, was killed by the Keiths of Caithness, as
formerly narrated.
The Crowner’s eldest son, James, succeeded as chief, and he it was
who, with his family and the greater portion of his clan, removed
into Sutherland. The principal dwelling-house of the chiefs was,
thereafter, Killernan, in the parish of Kildonan, until the house
was accidentally destroyed by fire about 1690. From this chief, the
patronymic of Mac-Sheumais, or MacKeamish, (that is, the son of
James,) which then became the Gaelic sept-name of the chiefs, is
derived. From one of the sons of the Crowner, named William, are
descended the Wilsons of Caithness, (as from a subsequent chief
of the same name, the Williamsons,) and from another, Henry, the
Hendersons. Another son, Robert, who was killed with his father, was
the progenitor of the Gun Robsons; and another son, John, also slain
by the Keiths, of the Gun MacEans, or MacIans, that is Johnsons,
of Caithness. The Gallies are also of this clan, a party of whom
settling in Ross-shire being designated as coming from _Gall’-aobh_,
the stranger’s side.
William Gunn, the eighth MacKeamish, an officer in the army, was
killed in battle in India, without leaving issue, when the chiefship
devolved on Hector, great-grandson of George, second son of
Alexander, the fifth MacKeamish, to whom he was served nearest male
heir, on the 31st May 1803, and George Gunn, Esq. of Rhives, county
of Sutherland, his only son, became, on his death, chief of the clan
Gunn, and the tenth MacKeamish.
MACLAURIN.
MACLAURIN, more commonly spelled Maclaren, is the name of a small
clan belonging to Perthshire, and called in Gaelic the _clann_
Labhrin. The name is said to have been derived from the district of
Lorn, in Argyleshire, the Gaelic orthography of which is Lubhrin.
The Maclaurins bear the word _Dalriada_, as a motto above their coat
of arms.
MACLAURIN OR MACLAREN.
[Illustration: BADGE--Laurel.]
From Argyleshire the tribe of Laurin moved into Perthshire, having,
it is said, acquired from Kenneth Macalpin, after his conquest of
the Picts in the 9th century, the districts of Balquhidder and
Strathearn, and three brothers are mentioned as having got assigned
to them in that territory the lands of Bruach, Auchleskin, and Stank.
In the churchyard of Balquhidder, celebrated as containing the grave
of Rob Roy, the burial places of their different families are marked
off separately, so as to correspond with the situation which these
estates bear to each other, a circumstance which so far favours the
tradition regarding them.
When the earldom of Strathearn became vested in the crown in 1370,
the Maclaurins were reduced from the condition of proprietors to that
of “kyndly” or perpetual tenants, which they continued to be till
1508, when it was deemed expedient that this Celtic holding should
be changed, and the lands set in feu, “for increase of policie and
augmentation of the king’s rental.”
About 1497, some of the clan Laurin having carried off the cattle
from the Braes of Lochaber, the Macdonalds followed the spoilers,
and, overtaking them in Glenurchy, after a sharp fight, recovered the
“lifting.” The Maclaurins straightway sought the assistance of their
kinsman, Dugal Stewart of Appin, who at once joined them with his
followers, and a conflict took place, when both Dugal and Macdonald
of Keppoch, the chiefs of their respective clans, were among the
slain. This Dugal was the first of the Stewarts of Appin. He was an
illegitimate son of John Stewart, third Lord of Lorn, by a lady of
the clan Laurin, and in 1469 when he attempted, by force of arms,
to obtain possession of his father’s lands, he was assisted by the
Maclaurins, 130 of whom fell in a battle that took place at the foot
of Bendoran, a mountain in Glenurchy.
The clan Laurin were the strongest sept in Balquhidder, which was
called “the country of the Maclaurins.” Although there are few
families of the name there now, so numerous were they at one period
that none dared enter the church until the Maclaurins had taken their
seats. This invidious right claimed by them often led to unseemly
brawls and fights at the church door, and lives were sometimes lost
in consequence. In 1532, Sir John Maclaurin, vicar of Balquhidder,
was killed in one of these quarrels, and several of his kinsmen,
implicated in the deed, were outlawed.
A deadly feud existed between the Maclaurins and their neighbours,
the Macgregors of Rob Roy’s tribe. In the 16th century, the latter
slaughtered no fewer than eighteen householders of the Maclaurin
name, with the whole of their families, and took possession of the
farms which had belonged to them. The deed was not investigated till
1604, forty-six years afterwards, when it was thus described in their
trial for the slaughter of the Colquhouns: “And siclyk, John M’Coull
cheire, ffor airt and pairt of the crewall murthour and burning of
auchtene houshalders of the clan Lawren, thair wyves and bairns,
committit fourtie sax zeir syne, or thairby.” The verdict was that he
was “clene, innocent, and acquit of the said crymes.”[236] The hill
farm of Invernenty, on “The Braes of Balquhidder,” was one of the
farms thus forcibly occupied by the Macgregors, although the property
of a Maclaurin family, and in the days of Rob Roy, two centuries
afterwards, the aid of Stewart of Appin was called in to replace the
Maclaurins in their own, which he did at the head of 200 of his men.
All these farms, however, are now the property of the chief of clan
Gregor, having been purchased about 1798 from the commissioners of
the forfeited estates.
The Maclaurins were out in the rebellion of 1745. According to
President Forbes, they were followers of the Murrays of Athole, but
although some of them might have been so, the majority of the clan
fought for the Pretender with the Stewarts of Appin under Stewart of
Ardsheil.
The chiefship was claimed by the family to which belonged Colin
Maclaurin, the eminent mathematician and philosopher, and his son,
John Maclaurin, Lord Dreghorn. In the application given in for the
latter to the Lyon Court, he proved his descent from a family which
had long been in possession of the island of Tiree, one of the
Argyleshire Hebrides.
MACRAE.
[Illustration: BADGE--Club-moss.]
MACRAE (MACRA or MACRATH)[237] is the name of a Ross-shire clan at
one time very numerous on the shores of Kintail, but now widely
scattered through Scotland and the colonies, more especially Canada.
The oldest form of the name “M’Rath” signifies “son-of-good-luck.”
The clan is generally considered to be of pure Gaelic stock, although
its earliest traditions point to an Irish origin. They are said
to have come over with Colin Fitzgerald, the founder of the clan
Mackenzie, of whose family they continued through their whole history
the warm friends and adherents, so much so that they were jocularly
called “Seaforth’s shirt,” and under his leadership they fought at
the battle of Largs, in 1263. They settled first in the Aird of
Lovat, but subsequently emigrated into Glenshiel, in the district
of Kintail. At the battle of Auldearn, in May 1645, the Macraes
fought under the “Caber-Fey,” on the side of Montrose, where they
lost a great number of men. The chief of the Macraes is Macrae of
Inverinate, in Kintail, whose family since about the year 1520 held
the honourable post of constables of Islandonan. A MS. genealogical
account of the clans, written by the Rev. John Macrae, minister of
Dingwall, who died in 1704, was formerly in possession of Lieut.-Col.
Sir John Macrae of Ardintoul, and is now possessed by the present
head of the Inverinate family, Colin Macrae, Esq., W.S., who has also
a copy of a treaty of friendship between the Campbells of Craignish
and the Macraes of Kintail, dated 1702. This history contains many
interesting stories, descriptive of the great size, strength, and
courage for which the clan was remarkable. One Duncan Mòr, a man of
immense strength, contributed largely to the defeat of the Macdonalds
at the battle of Park, in 1464, and it was said of him that, though
engaged in many conflicts and always victorious, he never came off
without a wound; and another Duncan, who lived in the beginning of
the 18th century, was possessed of so great strength that he is said
to have carried for some distance a stone of huge size, and laid it
down on the farm of Auchnangart, where it is still to be seen. He
was the author of several poetical pieces, and was killed with many
of his clan at Sheriffmuir, in 1715, his two brothers falling at his
side. His sword, long preserved in the Tower of London, was shown as
“the great Highlander’s sword.”
Both males and females of the Macraes are said to have evinced a
strong taste, not only for severe literary studies, but for the
gentler arts of poetry and music. From the beginning of the 15th
century, one of the Inverinate family always held the office of
vicar of Kintail; and John, the first vicar, was much revered for
his learning, which he acquired with the monks of Beauly. Farquhar
Macrae, born 1580, who entered the church, is said to have been a
great Latin scholar. It is told of this Farquhar, that on his first
visit to the island of Lewes, he had to baptize the whole population
under forty years of age, no minister being resident on the island.
* * * * *
We shall here give a short account of the Buchanans and Colquhouns,
because, as Smibert says of the latter, they have ever been placed
among the clans practically, although the neighbouring Lowlanders
gave to them early Saxon names. It is probable that primitively they
were both of Gaelic origin.
BUCHANAN.
[Illustration: BADGE--Bilberry or Oak.]