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ANNE FARQUHARSON, LADY MACKINTOSH -
1745-6.
Historical Memoirs
OF THE
HOUSE AND CLAN OF MACKINTOSH
AND OF THE
CLAN CHATTAN
BY
Mackintech.
ALEXANDER MACKINTOSH ( SHAW

MOY HALL, INVERNESS-SHIRE. WEST FRONT.
Printed for the Author by
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, LONDON
1880
[All Rights Reserved]

cs
4.79
.M331
046 782 630

790229-190
TO
MISS EVA HERMIONE MACKINTOSH
OF MACKINTOSH
THIS BOOK IS (BY PERMISSION) INSCRIBED
WITH THE BEST WISHES OF
THE AUTHOR.
1
Only 300 copies of this work have been printed,
50 of these being on large paper.
F
PREFACE.
THE germ from which this book has grown was a
genealogy of my own family, written in a large
Bible which had belonged to a great-grandaunt (see
note on p. 111), and showing the steps of our descent
from the early chiefs of Mackintosh through Shaw
Mor, whose successful leading of the Clan Chattan
champions at Perth in 1396 it duly recorded. This
genealogy I copied more than twenty years ago,
while still in my adolescence. Here and there I
gleaned further particulars of the clan's history from
such published books as fell in my way, and carefully
made notes, for use as opportunity should offer, of
other books and records which I judged would afford
additional information. After taking up my abode
in London fifteen years ago, I spent much of my
spare time in the Reading Room of the British
Museum, and my "Collections" increased rapidly.
Becoming warmer in my pursuit of information as
my store grew, I extended my researches to the
Public Record Office in London and the Register
House and Advocates' Library in Edinburgh; I
-
7
viii
PREFACE.
commenced the formation of a Highland library;
and in 1869, by the kindness of the late Mackintosh,
I made the acquaintance of the Kinrara MS. History
of the clan. I had already arranged my notes and ex-
tracts in chronological order, and had written short
connected histories of the Mackintoshes and Shaws,
but this valuable MS. became the real groundwork
of the book as it now appears, and in fact led me
to the decision of writing it.
The greater part of the book was written and
ready for the press seven years ago, but circumstances
for a time delayed its completion. Experience sub-
sequently led me to doubt whether in the present
busy age such a book would have a chance of seeing
the light-whether the Clan Chattan of to-day, for
whom and for whose posterity my task was under-
taken, possessed sufficient interest in the history
of their forefathers to induce them to bear a share
of the cost of production; and I gave up all thought
of printing the book until I should be able to do
so at my own charges. Lately, however, two or
three zealous clansmen have urged me to make a
trial of their brethren, and I must admit that the
result, though perhaps scarcely so conspicuous as it
should be, has surpassed my expectations.
To the members of the clan and of the general
public who have responded to my appeal for
assistance I desire now to express my thanks.
Among those who have kindly seconded my appeal,
to whom my warmest acknowledgments are due
PREFACE.
ix
and given, is one who I feel ought to have special
and honourable mention here. But for the un-
sparing exertions of Mr. Alexander Mackintosh,
Forfar-personally a stranger to me and the con-
stant encouragement he has given me, the book
would not now be in the hands of subscribers. Mr.
Mackintosh has proved himself a true Highlander
and loyal clansman, and worthy his ancestor who
at Culloden, with both legs carried away by a
cannon shot, like Widdrington "fought upon his
stumps" to his last gasp for the honour of his
name and race.
A few words are needful in regard to the matter
and arrangement of the book. In the first place,
I have endeavoured as far as possible to give a
history of the clan as a whole, not merely of in-
dividuals, although the actions of some of the
chiefs and leading men are necessarily brought into
prominence. Secondly, to avoid making the book
cumbrous, and perhaps tedious to the general reader, I
have as a rule contented myself with mere references
to the numerous bands and other documents con-
nected with my subject, or with brief extracts from
them where such seemed to contain matter of interest
or importance. Thirdly, it will be observed that
particulars of the descent of only the leading families
in the clan are given the object of the book being
history, not genealogy; to have given in a full and
correct form all the genealogies which might he
2
Χ
PREFACE.
י
obtained would have required years of research, and
would have been of small interest to the clan at
large.
The references to and extracts from State Papers,
Privy Council Registers, and other records have as a
rule been made from the originals in their various
repositories. Since they were made, and even while
this book has been in the press, some of these records
-notably the Registers of the Scottish Privy Council
in the 16th century-have been given to the public
in a printed form, and I find that in my examination
of the original documents, unaided as I was by
indexes, I overlooked much interesting matter re-
lating to the clan. This knowledge comes too late
to be turned to account at present, but I may observe
that the matter thus overlooked is not adverse to
the correctness of the clan history given in these
pages, or necessary to its continuity. Many other
particulars of interest, being of comparatively trivial
importance, have been omitted with the view of
keeping the book within reasonable limits as to
size.
I have to acknowledge with gratitude the assist-
ance which has been freely and kindly rendered me
from time to time by owners of documents relating
to clan affairs and by gentlemen versed in Highland
history. Among the latter I will only mention
Mr. Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, M.P., to whose
invaluable Antiquarian Notes and Invernessiana
PREFACE.
xi
I have been frequently indebted, and than whom
I know no one more competent to write properly
-as it is to be hoped he some day will-the
history of Clan Chattan.
·
If the reading of my attempt at a History of
this great clan prove as pleasant to others as the
task of preparation has been to myself, I shall be
amply rewarded for my labour. As concerns those
readers who belong to the clan I have a deeper and
closer interest. They will read of ancestors, loyal
and true to their chief, their prince, and themselves,
who stood manfully by each other in time of adver-
sity as well as shoulder to shoulder in the battle-
field, and who nobly did what they believed to be
their duty. The knowledge that we are come of
such ancestors should be an incentive to imitation
of their virtues; and if my book have any effect
in fostering loyalty and fidelity, self-respect and
brotherly love, among the members of the now
widely scattered clan, my chief object in writing
it will be gained.
A. M. S.
CHIPPING BARNET, HERTS,
28 October, 1880.
•
3
[POSTSCRIPT.]
THE long-expected third volume of Mr. Skene's
Celtic Scotland has just made its appearance; and
in view of the nature of my remarks in chapters I.,
II., and IV. on that author's work of 1837, I have
judged it only fair to him that I should see his new
volume before issuing my own, in order that any
change of view on his part in regard to the points
on which I have ventured to join issue with him
might be duly acknowledged.
""
I find that Mr. Skene's views on some of these
points are considerably modified, as I expected they
would be. For example, he appears to have
abandoned his theories as to the "eldest cadetship
of the Mackintoshes and as to their acquisition of
the headship of Clan Chattan in consequence of
the fight at Perth in 1396, as well as his idea that
the cause of this fight was a dispute for precedence
between the Mackintoshes and Macphersons (see pp.
7, 121 of this work); in fact he now makes the
Camerons, and not the Macphersons, the defeated
party. But in other respects his views as set
POSTSCRIPT.
xiii
forth in the new work are as open to objection as
those in the old, notably in regard to the commu-
nity of stock of Clans Chattan and Cameron. This
community of stock he more than once affirms,
apparently on no stronger evidence than that of
the last sentence in the passage from Major given
on p. 123, which sentence he quotes, but without
reference to the context as in the original edition
of Major. I have no wish to deny the possibility
that the two clans were connected in their remote
origin all I say is, that no sufficient evidence of
such connection has yet appeared, and therefore
that no writer is justified in affirming the connection
as a fact.
:
Mr. Skene's faith in the far-reaching MS. Gene-
alogies of the clans by Irish and other seannachies
seems scarcely less strong now than it was forty-three
years ago, and he seems to have as great dislike to
the genealogies or traditions of any particular clan
when these and the MSS. are not in accord. By
the aid of these Irish MSS., of the passage which I
quote on p. 30 (note), and of a few references to
individuals of the name of Mackintosh, he has
compiled an account of the Mackintoshes and Clan
Chattan which will-to say the least-be new to
most of his readers (Celtic Scotland, iii. 357).
For a writer who takes a general view of the
history of a country or people, it is of course difficult
to examine carefully and in detail all the materials
which are available, and there is a strong temptation
POSTSCRIPT.
to generalise on solitary facts or insufficient data;
while, if such a writer happen to be prepossessed
with "theories" in connection with his subject, he
is apt to make all else subordinate to them, and to
overlook or reject anything which may not fit in
with them. Although grateful for Mr. Skene's new
contribution to the national history, as all students
of that history must be, I cannot but feel that, so
far as concerns the part of his work in which
I have most interest, the difficulty just indicated
not been
been surmounted, and theories
theories and
prepossessions have been allowed too much sway.
has
19 November, 1880.
2:
1
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.
(Large Paper copies marked with an asterisk.)
Berry, Walton Graham, Broomfield, Huddersfield.
Bishop, Miss A. Shaw, 3, Ettrick Road, Edinburgh.
Buccleuch, His Grace the Duke of, Dalkeith House.
Burgess, Peter, Glen Urquhart.
Campbell, Alex. D., Lenzie, Glasgow.
Campbell, Donald, Newport, Dundee.
Carlyle, Hildred Edward, Priory Grove, London, S.W.
Carmichael, Mrs., Springhill House, Dundee.
Cattanach, William, 24, Nicolson Street, Edinburgh.
Chambers, William, LL.D., Edinburgh.
Clark, Captain William, Shirley, Southampton.
Cokayne, George E. (Lancaster Herald), College of Arms, London.
Crerar, Duncan Macgregor, New York.
*Cunninghame, George G., Advocate, Manor Place, Edinburgh.
Davidson, Alex., Desswood, Aberdeenshire.
*Davidson, Duncan, of Tulloch, Tulloch Castle, Dingwall.
Davidson, George G., Albany, New York, U.S.
*Davidson, John, 6, Albemarle Street, London, W.
Davidson, Lachlan, Caledonian Bank, Kingussie.
Davidson, Samuel, jun., Sinclairstown, Kirkcaldy.
Davidson, William, High Shore, Banff.
Farquharson, James, of Glenfarquhar, Auchinblae.
Farquharson, Lieut.-Col. James Ross, of Invercauld.
Fingland, William, Wavertree, Liverpool.
Flower, The Rev. Herbert H., Stonehaven.
Fraser, Alex. Stewart, 60, Hamilton Road, Highbury, London.
Fraser, Hugh C., Monavie Cottage, Ballifeary, Inverness.
Gillespie, Charles Gordon, Tulloch by Kingussie.
Grant, The Rev. Alex. Thomson, Rosslyn.
·
Grant-Peterkin, James, of Grange, Grange Hall, Forres.
*Gray, George, Clerk of the Peace, Glasgow (2 copies).
Hutchinson, M. L., Melbourne, Australia (2 copies).
xvi
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.
Keltie, John Scott, 52, Hargrave Park Road, London, N.
Kemball, General Sir Arnold B., K.C.B., K.C.S.I.
Kemball, Major-General John Shaw, Fairseat, Sevenoaks.
Kemball, Miss, 1, Blandford Square, London.
*Knox, James W., West Regent Street, Glasgow.
Macandrew, Henry Cockburn, Inverness.
McBain, Farquhar, Meadowside, Kincraig, Kingussie.
McBain, J. M., Arbroath.
McBean, Charles Alex., The Elms, Acre Lane, Brixton (2 copies).
McBean, Lachlan, 101, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow.
Macdonald, Allan, 16, Union Street, Inverness.
*Macdonald, John M., 95, Harley Street, London.
Macdonald, The Right Hon. Sir John Alex., K.C.B., Ottawa, Canada.
*Macdonald, Kenneth, Inverness.
*Macdonald, W. R., Windmill House, Arbroath.
Macdougall, Donald, Grantown.
McDougall, The Rev. Robert, Manse of Resolis, Invergordon.
Macgillivray, Alex., 52, Arlington Road, London, N.W.
*Macgillivray, Lieut.-Col. Simon F., Bombay Staff Corps (2 copies).
Macintyre, Mrs., Biarritz.
Mackay, John, Meadowbank, Fortrose.
*Mackay, W., 69, Church Street, Inverness.
Mackenzie, Alex., " Celtic Magazine," Inverness.
*Mackenzie, Major Colin Lyon-, of St. Martin's.
Mackenzie, Sir Kenneth S., Bart., of Gairloch.
Macglashan, The Hon. John C., Jamaica.
Macintosh, Alex., Carillon, Quebec, Canada.
Macintosh, Archibald, Rothesay, Bute.
Macintosh, D., Town House, Forfar.
Macintosh, William, Caperston Place, Aberdeen.
*Mackintosh, Alex., 50, East High Street, Forfar.
Mackintosh, Alex., M.D., 26, Woodside Place, Glasgow.
Mackintosh, Alex., Inglis Street, Inverness.
Mackintosh, Alex., 7, Westminster Chambers, London, S.W.
Mackintosh, The Rev. Alex., Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands.
Mackintosh, The Rev. Alex., Free Gaelic Manse, Paisley.
*Mackintosh, Alfred Donald, of Mackintosh (4 copies).
Mackintosh, Angus, M.D., Chesterfield.
Mackintosh, Charles Fraser-, of Drummond, M.P. (3 copies).
*Mackintosh, Charles Hills, of Dalmunzie.
Mackintosh, The Rev. D. A., 7, Stanley Place, Glasgow.
Mackintosh, Duncan, Bank of Scotland, Inverness.
*Mackintosh, Æneas William, of Raigmore.
Mackintosh, Miss E. M., 37, Heriot Row, Edinburgh (2 copies).
Mackintosh, Hugh, M.D., 84, Brompton Road, London, S.W.
Mackintosh, Hugh, 49, Charles Street, Inverness.
Mackintosh, Hugh (Mactavish and Mackintosh), Inverness.
Mackintosh, James, Bank of Scotland, Lamlash.
Mackintosh, James, 3, High Street, Inverness.
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.
xvii
Mackintosh, James, 27, Hope Street, Glasgow.
Mackintosh, John, Ardchattan, Fairfield Road, Inverness.
*Mackintosh, John, Broxholm Road, Fulham, London.
Mackintosh, John, Post Office Buildings, Inverness.
*Mackintosh, The Rev. John, Uddingston, Glasgow.
Mackintosh, Mrs., of Mackintosh, Dunachton, Inverness.
Mackintosh, Mrs., of Daviot, Inverness.
Mackintosh, Mrs. R. J., 7, Queen's Gate Place, London, S.W. (2 copies).
Mackintosh, Patrick, Baileymawr, Pen-y-bont, Radnor.
Mackintosh, William, 15, Heriot Row, Edinburgh.
Mackintosh, William, 28, Market Street, Aberdeen.
Mackintosh, The Rev. William, Buchanan Manse, Drymen.
Mackintosh, The Rev. William Teesdale, Bath.
McIntosh, Alex., Linlithgow.
McIntosh, Daniel, Craiginches, Nigg, Aberdeen.
McIntosh, David, Drumpark Mains, Irongray, Dumfries.
McIntosh, Hugh, 208, Clapham Road, London, S.W.
*McIntosh, Hugh
do.
do.
McIntosh, John, 129, Stockwell Street, Glasgow.
McIntosh, Miss Margaret, Post Office, Kirkintilloch, Glasgow.
McIntosh, Peter, 36, Cotton Road, Dundee.
McIntosh, Robert, 129, Stockwell Street, Glasgow.
McIntosh, W. F., Town House, Arbroath.
McIntosh, W. J., London, Ontario, Canada.
MacLaren, Thomas Shaw, 23, India Street, Edinburgh.
Maclachlan and Stewart, 64, South Bridge, Edinburgh (2 copies).
Maclauchlan, The Rev. Thomas, LL.D., Edinburgh.
Macmillan, Alex., 29, Bedford Street, London, W.C.
Macphail, The Rev. E. St. Maur, Balking Vicarage, Faringdon.
Macpherson, A., Solicitor, Kingussie.
Macpherson, The Rev. Alexander Cluny, Clifton, Bristol,
Macpherson, Allan, of Blairgowrie.
Macpherson, Berkeley A. M., Winsor, Totton, Hants.
Macpherson, Cluny, 135, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow.
Macpherson, The Hon. D. L., Toronto, Canada.
*Macpherson, Col. Ewen, of Cluny Macpherson.
Macpherson, Mrs. George Gordon, 5, Craven Hill Gardens, London, W.
*Macpherson-Grant, Sir George, Bart, M.P., of Invereshie and Ballindalloch.
Macqueen, Captain Donald Robert, 75th Regiment.
*
Macqueen, John Fraser, Q.C., Upper Westbourne Terrace, London, W.
Macqueen, Lieut.-Col. Lachlan, United Service Club, London.
Miln, Mrs. Hay, Woodhill House, Carnoustie.
Mitchell, James William, (Rothesay Herald), Audley, Sidmouth.
Mitford, John, 21, Palace Gardens Terrace, Kensington.
Mowat, William, jun., Maida Vale, Stonehaven.
Noble, John, bookseller, Inverness (5 copies).
Do. do.
do.
do (3 copies).
Part, Charles Thomas, The Pré, St. Alban's.
Pink, William Duncombe, Leigh, Lancashire.
b
xviii
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS.
Ross, Lieut.-Col. G. W. H., of Cromarty.
Shaw, David, w.s., 1, Thistle Court, Edinburgh.
Shaw, Doyle Money, Fleet Surgeon, Royal Navy.
Shaw, Duncan, Cordova, Spain.
* Do.
do.
do. do.
Shaw, Duncan, w.s., 25, India Street, Edinburgh.
Shaw, George James, M.D., Bonchurch, Isle of Wight.
Shaw, Lieut.-Col. George Alex., Toronto, Canada.
Shaw, Gilbert, Linn Bank Cottage, Kirkcudbright.
Shaw, Henry Bridgwater, Jamaica.
Shaw, John, Procurator Fiscal for Ross and Cromarty.
Shaw, John M., Advocate, Aberdeen.
Shaw, The Rev. John, Rutherglen, Glasgow.
Shaw-Mackenzie, J. A., of Newhall, by Invergordon (4 copies).
Shaw, Robert, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Shaw, Thomas L., Regent Quay, Aberdeen.
Shaw, Vero, Sunbury.
Shaw, William Mackenzie, Chateau de Méréville, Seine et Oise, France.
Shortrede, Mrs. S., Park House, Winstanley, Wigan.
Smith, The Rev. R. C., Pollokshields, Glasgow.
Steuart, J. A., jun., Dalkeith House, Dalkeith.
Stodart, R. R., Lyon Office, Edinburgh.
*Tomlinson, George C. J., 3, Hans Place, London, S.W.
Troughton, Arthur Ellis, Hough Green, Chester.
Yeaman, Robert, The Lee, Corstorphine, Edinburgh.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAP. I. Introductory Remarks-Tradition and Speculation-
Early History of the Highland Clans; Mr. Skene and the
MS. of 1450-The Mackintoshes' account of their origin-
The name Mackintosh "—Shaw "MacDuff "-2nd, 3rd,
and 4th chiefs-New Possessions; Rothimurcus-Ferquhard,
5th chief-Troubles from the Comyns
p. 1
CHAP. II.—The old Clan Chattan; Origin and name; Settlement
in Lochaber; Succession of Chiefs-Marriage of Angus, 6th
chief of Mackintosh, with Eva, heiress of Clan Chattan-
Mackintosh's claims to the lands and headship of the
clan
p. 34
CHAP. III.—Angus, 6th chief-Bannockburn-Expedition into
England - Grant of lands in Badenoch; Benchar, &c.—
Downfall of the Comyns-William, 7th chief—Commence-
ment of the Feud with the Camerons; battle at Drumlui—
Acquisition of Moy-Second War of Independence—Clan
Chattan at Neville's Cross-Lachlan, 8th chief—Prosecution
of the Feud with the Camerons; battle at Inverna-
havon
p. 72
CHAP. IV. The Clan Battle at Perth in 1396; its Causes, and
an Identification of the Clans engaged in it-Alleged
community of stock of Clans Chattan and Cameron. p. 89
CHAP. V. Ferquhard, 9th chief Malcolm, 10th chief-
-
Battle of Harlaw-Feud with the Comyns-Custody of In-
verness Castle-Malcolm's desertion of the Lord of the
Isles-Conflict with the Camerons in 1430-Donald Balloch's
Inroad-Glenroy and Glenspean-Prosecution of the Feud
with the Camerons; conflict at Craigcailloch-Battle with
62
XX
CONTENTS.
"
the Munroes at Clachnaharry-Duncan, 11th chief-Ferqu-
hard, his heir-apparent-Lochalsh's Rebellion; Blair-na-
Park-Dougal Mor Macgillichallum-Ferquhard's Imprison-
ment, and succession to chiefship-Hostilities with the
Camerons and their allies-Donald Dubh's Insurrection-
Ferquhard's Release from Prison, and Death
M
p. 131
John
CHAP. VI. New Troubles William, 13th chief
"Ruaidh" Mackintosh-Acquisition of Gellovie and Dun-
achton Lachlan, 14th chief-Gordons of Lochinvar
Dougal Mor Macgillichallum; his Death-John Malcolmson
Lachlan's Bands of Amity, &c.-William, 15th chief-
Hector, temporary captain of Clan Chattan; hostilities with
the Earl of Moray-William's dealings with the Earl of
Huntly Expedition against John Moydertach-Rupture
with Huntly; William's Trial and Execution .
p. 170
CHAP. VII.-Lachlan "Mor," 16th chief-The Earl of Huntly
and Queen Mary-Lachlan's loyalty-Rothimurcus; changes
of ownership-The Regent Moray-Feuds between Mackin-
toshes, Munroes, and others-Campbell of Calder and the
lands of Ardersier-Clan Gregor-Rivalry of the Earls of
Moray and Huntly; attitude of Clan Chattan-Defection of
the Macphersons-Hostilities with Huntly-Battle of
Glenlivet-Reconciliation of Huntly and Mackintosh. p. 220
CHAP. VIII.-Band by Farquharsons and others-Lachlan's
undertaking to provide for ministers on his estates-His
character-Act for production of Titles-More trouble with
the Campbells of Calder-Lachlan's Death-His Bands and
Alliances - His Family-Sir Lachlan, 17th chief; King
James VI.'s interest in him-Band of Union among Clan
Chattan, 1609-Troubles with the Gordons and the Earl of
Moray Proceedings against the Camerons and the Mac-
donalds of Keppoch-" Raid of Culloden "-Sir Lachlan's
Death and Family .
p. 265
CHAP. IX.-William, 18th chief-Moray's eviction of the
Mackintoshes from Petty-James Grant of Carron-Mack-
intosh's Tutor-Wars of the Covenant; attitude of Mackin-
tosh and his clan-Letters from Charles I.-Montrose-
Actions of the Macphersons, Farquharsons, &c.-Capture
and Execution of Montrose-Charles II. — Mackintosh's
CONTENTS.
xxi
loyalty thwarted by Argyle-Glencairn's attempt-Glenlui
and Locharkaig-William's Death, Family, and Character
p. 311
CHAP. X.-Lachlan, 19th chief-The Feud with the Camerons ;
Recapitulation - Commission to Mackintosh against the
Camerons-Difficulties with the Macphersons and others of
Clan Chattan-Mackintosh versus Locheil before the Privy
Council-Expedition into Lochaber, and Close of the Feud
p. 348
CHAP. XI.--Farquharson of Inverey and the Gordons - The
dispute with the Macdonalds of Keppoch; Fight at
Mulroy-Keppoch at Inverness-Dundee's campaign after
the Revolution-Harrying of Mackintosh's lands by Keppoch
-Renewed Commission of Fire and Sword against Keppoch
-Lachlan's Family and Death
•
p. 386
CHAP. XII.-Lachlan, 20th chief-Rising of 1715-John, Earl
of Mar—Mackintosh's seizure of Inverness, and Proclama-
tion of James VIII.--Brigadier Mackintosh of Borlum—
Clan Chattan in Mar's army-Expedition into England;
Preston-Imprisonment of the captured Jacobites Escape
of the Brigadier-Release of the Chief-Subsequent career
of the Brigadier-Mackintosh's Patent of Nobility. p. 412
CHAP. XIII.-Glenroy-Dispute with Cluny as to headship of
Clan Chattan-Lachlan's Character-His Death and Burial-
William, 21st chief-Angus, 22nd chief-Jacobitism in the
Highlands Black Watch Deserters, 1743-Rising of 1745
-Anne Farquharson, Lady Mackintosh; her conduct in
connection with the Rising-Battle of Falkirk—Prince
Charles Edward at Moy; the "Rout of Moy”—The Prince
at Inverness-Battle of Culloden
P. 441
CHAP. XIV.—Battle of Culloden continued; Actions and
Losses of the Mackintosh regiment Atrocities after the
Battle-Captivity of Lady Mackintosh-" Wae's me for
Prince Charlie"-Downfall of the Clan System
p. 481
CHAP. XV.-Sir Æneas, 23rd chief-Entail of the Mackintosh
estates—Alexander, 24th chief-Angus, 25th chief-Alex-
ander, 26th chief-The Curse of Moy (note)----Alexander
Æneas, 27th chief—Alfred Donald, 28th chief.
•
•
p.
498
xxii
CONTENTS.
PRINCIPAL BRANCHES OF CLAN MACKINTOSH.
PAGE
KILLACHIE BRANCH, including families of Holm, Farr, &c.
BORLUM BRANCH, including family of Raigmore
ABERARDER, CORRIBROUGH, and STRONE Branches
508
514
517
TRIBES AND FAMILIES OF CLAN CHATTAN OTHER THAN
THE MACKINTOSHES OF INVERNESS-SHIRE.
General Remarks
518
MACPHERSONS, or CLAN MHUIRICH, including families of
Cluny, Pitmean, and Invereshie, with their offshoots
DAVIDSONS, or CLAN DHAIBHIDH
521
535
CATTANACHS
537
MACBEANS, or CLAN VEAN, including families of Kinchyle,
Faillie, and Tomatin
538
•
MACPHAILS
542
•
SHAWS, including families of Rothimurcus, Tordarroch,
Dell, Dalnivert, &c.
544
FARQUHARSONS of Braemar and Deeside, including families
of Finzean, Allanquoich, Inverey, Invercauld, &c.
561
MACKINTOSHES OF DALMUNZIE
574
MACGILLIVRAYS
576
MACLEANS OF DOCHGARROCH, or CLAN THEARLICH
582
CLAN TARRIL
585
SMITHS, or Gows
586
MACQUEENS, or CLAN REVAN
586
CLAN ANDRISH
591
CLARKS, or CLAN CHLERICH
592
INDEX OF NAMES OF PERSONS, PLACES, &C.
595
LIST OF AUTHORS, BOOKS, RECORDS, ETC.,
REFERRED TO OR QUOTED.
Aberdeen, Extracts from Burgh Council Register (Spalding
Club). Aberd. 1844-8, 40.
Fasti Aberdonenses (Spald. Club). Aberd. 1854, 4o.
Anderson, Geo. and P.--Guide to the Highlands. Lond. 1834, 80.
John, Historical Account of the Family of Fraser.
Edin. 1825, 40.
Prize Essay on the State of Society in the High-
lands in 1745. Edin. 1827, 80.
Balfour, Sir James-Annales of Scotland. 4 vols. Lond.
1825, 80.
Boece or Boethius-Hector, Buik of Croniclis of Scotland,
transl. by Bellenden. Edin. 1536, fol.
Bowar, Walter-see Fordun.
Browne, James-History of the Highlands. 4 vols. Edin.
1848, 40.
Buchanan, George-Rerum Scoticarum Historia. Edin. 1582.
Burton, John Hill-History of Scotland from
2 vols. Lond. 1853, 80.
1689 to 1748.
History of Scotland. 8 vols. Edin. 1873, 80.
The Scot Abroad. 2 vols. Edin. 1864, 80.
Cameron History-Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron of Locheil·
(Abbotsford Club). 1842, 40.
Carruthers, Robert-Highland Note Book. Edin. 1843, 80.
Chambers, Robert-Domestic Annals of Scotland. 3 vols.
Edin. 1859, 80.
History of the Rebellion 1745-6. Edin.
1860, 80.
xxiv
LIST OF AUTHORS, BOOKS, ETC.
Charles, George-Transactions in Scotland 1715-6 and 1745-6.
2 vols. Stirling, &c., 1816-8.
Collectanea de Rebus Albanacis (Iona Club). Edin. 1839, 80.
Crichton, Capt. John-Memoirs of (in Swift's Works).
Culloden Papers-Lond. 1815, 40.
Dalyell, Sir J. G.-Brief Analysis of the Ancient Records of
the Bishopric of Moray. Edin. 1826, 80.
Doran, John-London in Jacobite Times. 2 vols. Lond. 1877, 80.
Douglas, Sir Robert-Baronage of Scotland. 2 vols. Edin.
1798, fol.
Dundee, Viscount, Memoirs of, by an Officer of the Army.
Lond. 1711, 80.
Farquharson, Alex. of Brouchdearg-Genealogy of the Farqu-
harsons. MS.
Forbes, Bishop Robert-Jacobite Memoirs of the Rebellion of
1745. Edin. 1834, 80.
Fordun, Joannes de-Scoticronicon, with continuation by Bowar
cur. Hearne. Oxon. 1722, 80.
cur. Goodall. Edin. 1759, fol.
Fountainhall, Lord (Sir John Lauder of F.)-Decisions of the
Lords of Council and Session from 1678 to 1712. 2 vols.
Edin. 1759-61, fol.
Gordon, Rev. James of Rothiemay-History of Scots Affairs,
1637-41. 3 vols. Aberd. 1840-2, 4o.
Sir Robert-History of the Earldom of Sutherland.
Edin. 1813, fol.
William of Gordonston-History of the Illustrious
Family of Gordon. 2 vols. Edin. 1726-7, 80.
Gordons, History of the, by W. R.-MS. in Advocates' Library,
Edin.
Gregory, Donald-History of the Western Highlands and Isles.
Edin. 1836, 80.
Henderson, Andrew-History of the Rebellion 1745-6. Lond.
1753, 120.
Hogg, James-Jacobite Relics. 2 vols. Edin. 1819-21, 8o.
Home, John-History of the Rebellion in Scotland in 1745.
Edin. 1822, 120.
Innes, Cosmo-Book of the Thanes of Cawdor (Spald. Club).
Edin. 1859, 40.
1861, 80.
Sketches of Early Scotch History. Edin.
LIST OF AUTHORS, BOOKS, ETC.
XXV
Inverness, History and Description of. Inverness, 1847, 80.
Johnstone, Chevalier de-Memoirs of the Rebellion 1745-6.
Lond. 1820, 40.
Keith, Robert Historical Catalogue of Bishops in Scotland to
1688. Edin. 1755, 40.
Kirkton, James-History of the Church of Scotland. Edin.
1817, 40.
Lesley, John (Bishop of Ross)-De Origine, Moribus, et Gestis
Scotorum. Rome, 1578, 40.
Lindsay, Lord-Lives of the Lindsays. 3 vols. Lond.
1858, 80.
of Pitscottie-History of Scotland. Edin. 1728, fol.
Lockhart, George-Lockhart Papers. 2 vols. Lond. 1817, 40.
McBane, Donald-The Expert Swordsman's Companion, with an
Account of the Author's Life. Glasgow, 1728, 80.
Mackay, General Hugh, Memoirs of the War 1689-91. Edin.
1833, 40.
Mackay, R. History of the House and Clan of Mackay.
Edin. 1829, 40.
Mackenzie, John (Applecross)—Genealogy of the Mackenzies to
1661. Dingwall, 1843, 80.
Mackintosh, Charles Fraser - Antiquarian Notes regarding
Families and Places in the Highlands. Inverness, 1865.
Dunachton, Past and Present (private print.
1866).
Invernessiana. Inverness, 1875.
Rev. Donald, Collection of Gaelic Proverbs.
Edin. 1785, 120.
Lachlan of Kinrara-History of the Mackin-
toshes. MS. penes The Mackintosh.
Robert James-Life of the Right Hon. Sir
James Mackintosh. Lond. 1835, 80.
William of Borlum-Essay on Ways and Means
for Planting and Fallowing Scotland. Edin. 1729, 80.
Macpherson, Sir Æneas-Genealogy of the Macphersons. MS.
penes Cluny Macpherson.
harson Genealogy).
Grant, Bart.
Vanitie Exposed (Remarks on Farqu
MS. penes Sir George Macpherson-
Major, Joannes-Historia Majoris Brittaniæ. Paris, 1521, 40,
and Edin. 1740, 40.
xxvi
LIST OF AUTHORS, BOOKS, ETC.
Melvill, Rev. James-Autobiography and Diary (Wodrow Soc.).
1842, 40.
Monipennie, J.-Summarie of Scots Chronicles. Edin. 1612, 80.
Moray Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis (Cartulary of
Moray).
Moysie, David-Memoirs of Affairs in Scotland (Bannatyne
Club). 1830, 40.
Napier, Mark-Life and Times of Montrose.
Edin. 1840, 80.
Memoirs of Montrose. 2 vols. Edin. 1856, 80.
Nisbet, Alex.-System of Heraldry. 2 vols. Edin. 1722, fol.
Oliphant, Mrs.-Historical Sketches of the Reign of George II.
2 vols. Edin. 1869, 80.
Patten, Rev. Robert-History of the late Rebellion. Lond.
1717, 80.
Rae, Peter-History of the late Rebellion. Dumfries, 1718, 40.
Ray, James-History of the Rebellion 1745-6. Whitehaven,
1754, 80.
Robertson, E. W.-Scotland under her Early Kings. 2 vols.
Edin. 1862, 80.
Col. J. A.-Concise Historical Proofs respecting the
Gael of Albyn. Edin. 1866, 80.
Rose, Rev. Hew-Genealogical Deduction of the Family of Rose
of Kilravock, with Notes and continuation by Cosmo Innes.
Edin. 1848, 40.
Scotland-Acts of the Lords of Council 1478-95. Edin. 1839,
fol.
Acts of the Lords Auditors 1466-1494 (Acta Dom.
ad Causas et Querelas audiendas electorum). Record Comm.
1839, fol.
Acts of the Parliament of.
Record Comm. 1844, fol.
New Statistical Account of. 15 vols. Edin. 1845, 80.
Records of Privy Council (Registrum Secreti Concilii).
Orig. in Register House, Edinburgh.
Register of the Great Seal (Registrum Magni Sigilli
Regum Scotorum). Orig. in Register House, Edinburgh.
Scots Magazine for 1743-5-6.
Scott, Sir Walter-Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. 3 vols.
Edin. 1821, 80.
Tales of a Grandfather (History of Scotland).
3 vols. Edin. 1854, 80.
LIST OF AUTHORS, BOOKS, ETC.
xxvii
Shaw, Rev. Lachlan-History of the Province of Moray.
Edin. 1775, 40.
The Mackintosh.
Account of the Mackintoshes. MS. penes
Rev. William George-Memorials of Clan Shaw (private
print. 1866-9 and 1871).
Sinclair, John, Master of-Memoirs of the Insurrection in 1715
(Abbotsford Club). 1858, 40.
Skene, W. F.-The Highlanders of Scotland. 2 vols. Lond.
1837, 120.
Spalding Club, Miscellany of the-5 vols. Aberdeen, 1841-52, 40.
Spalding, John-History of the Troubles and Memorable
Transactions in Scotland from 1624 to 1645. Aberdeen,
1830, 40.
Stewart, Major-Gen. David-Sketches of the Highlanders of
Scotland. 2 vols. Edin. 1825, 8o.
William Grant-Lectures on the Mountains; or,
Highlands and Highlanders. 2 vols. Lond. 1860, 80.
Taylor, Elizabeth-The Braemar Highlands. Edin. 1869, 80.
Tytler, Patrick Fraser-History of Scotland. 4 vols. Edin.
1864, 80.
Wishart, Bishop George-Memoirs of Montrose. Edin. 1819, 80.
Wyntoun, Andrew of-Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, cur.
Macpherson. 2 vols. 1795, 80.
NOTE. The engraving of Moy Hall, the residence of The
Mackintosh, is from a photograph taken in 1880; that of Anne
Farquharson, Lady Mackintosh, is from an original painting by
Allan Ramsay preserved at Moy.
THE MACKINTOSHES AND CLAN CHATTAN.
CHAPTER I.
Introductory Remarks-Tradition and Speculation-Early His-
tory of the Highland Clans; Mr. Skene's Speculations and
the MS. of 1450 - The Mackintoshes' account of their
origin―The name "Mackintosh "-Shaw "MacDuff,” founder
of the family-Shaw, second chief-Ferquhard, third chief
---Shaw, fourth chief-New Possessions; Rothimurcus-
Ferquhard, fifth chief-Troubles from the Comyns.
"THE first ages of Scottish history are dark and
fabulous. Nations, as well as men, arrive at maturity
by degrees, and the events which happened during
their infancy or early youth cannot be recollected
and deserve not to be remembered." The judgment
contained in these words, with which Principal
Robertson commences his History of Scotland, is
on the whole both sensible and just. Any one who
endeavours to gain an insight into the history of his
country in the ages antecedent to civilization must
feel, after a short time, the almost utter futility of
his researches. His view seems bounded, perhaps
B..
2
THE MACKINTOSHES
less than half way on the course he wishes to trace,
by dense clouds of obscurity and doubt; and these,
intensified by the course of time and augmented by
the fables and wild speculations exhaled from the
successive centuries, seem to defy any attempt to
dispel or pierce through them. Here and there a rent
in the cloud reveals to him the fact that the original
inhabitants waged war or followed the chase armed
with implements of stone or bronze, that they
defended their country against Roman legions and
Norse rovers, or that the doctrines of Christianity
were from time to time preached among them; but
little more than these and similar generalities does the
most careful scrutiny succeed in bringing to light.
The student of Highland history finds compara-
tively the same obscurity and uncertainty enshrouding
the origin and early existence of many of the clans,
increased no doubt by the speculations and romantic
fables which in the course of time, and with the
sanction of tradition, have passed into the form of
semi-historic dogmas. Tradition is admittedly liable
to error, and speculation implies uncertainty; the
dicta of neither therefore can be accepted as history,
which is a record of ascertained facts. Their proper
place is that of auxiliaries to history, and when
restricted to this they are often of great value. But
with regard to the origin and genealogy of the
Highland clans it cannot be denied that much of
the speculation bestowed upon the subject has suc-
ceeded only in making "confusion worse confounded,"
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
3
and in drawing closer that veil of cloud which it
has been its professed purpose to remove. Nor is
the evidence of tradition on the same subject more
worthy in general to be relied upon. The accuracy of
the accounts given by seannachies of the origin and
descent of the clans is too frequently more than
doubtful. A fondness for the distinction implied by
ancient or noble lineage has always been a principle
of human nature; and so, to flatter the pride of
their patrons, and at the same time not unmindful
of the due meed of their song-for "when the hand
of the chief ceases to bestow, the breath of the bard
is frozen "the seannachies were wont to give their
chiefs long descents from "great and glorious, but
forgotten kings," or from remote heroes who never
existed save in fable or in their own imagination;
and these fictitious genealogies in time assumed the
shape of tradition. The historians of later years,
again, have in some cases altogether rejected tradi-
tionary evidence as being without an atom of truth,
or have used it to prop up some theory of their
own perhaps as unfounded and unreasonable as the
most absurd fable ever invented. Those who have
largely used tradition in support of their own ideas
have as a rule taken an overstrained view of it
while those who have refused to acknowledge it at
all have been monstrously unjust, for genuine tradi-
tion, however much it may alter and confuse the
details of ancient events, is usually found to be
accurate in its record of main facts.
The only
;
B 2
4
THE MACKINTOSHES
course by which we can hope for plain sailing is
that which, while not altogether independent of the
aid of tradition and reasonable speculation, is in-
dicated, in its main points at least, by written
remains of contemporary or nearly contemporary
date; and the writer of early Highland or Scottish
history must either be content to direct his re-
searches according to the indications thus afforded,
or grope half-blindly in the dark.
It is not until about the 12th century that the
history of Scotland emerges from its state of dark
chaos, and really begins to assume some degree of
consistency and shape. Nearly all before that time
is either a blank page or so obscure that but little
can be deciphered. With the reigns of the immediate
successors of Malcolm Cean-mor come light and
civilization; the art of writing begins to be more
extensively known and employed, and lands are first
held by written tenure. Religion, which since its
first planting in the land has existed only as a tender
herb in a dark place, now experiences a mighty
revival; churches and monasteries are built, particu-
larly under the saint-king David, that "sore saint
for the crown ;" and the monks, the only scribes and
lawyers, become the historians of the period. The
history written by these has come down to us in the
deeds and other writings preserved in their abbeys
and monasteries, and it is to them we owe most of
our knowledge of early family history and genealogy,
as well as of the manners and customs of their time.
AND CLAN CHATTAN,
5
+
Thus much for the dawn of civilization in the
southern parts of Scotland; but new ideas of any
kind have always required some time to pierce
through the mountain barriers which separate the
Highlands from the Lowlands, and we may pass on
at least to the next century before we can arrive at
any certain facts in the history of the Highland
tribes and clans; even then our information is far
from being full or precise. It is, however, at that
period that we begin to gather knowledge as to the
localities inhabited by the various clans, the names
and succession of some of their heads, and, though
only in a slight degree, their connection one with
another. The race of the Gael, which had previously
occupied nearly the whole of the country now called
Scotland, had by the 13th century been finally
hemmed within those mountain regions from whose
recesses they defied their Saxon foes, and of which
they have continued ever since in almost undivided
possession. They had also been brought into con-
nection with the throne, and even into some degree
of subjection to it, by the establishment among
them of sheriffdoms in the reign of Alexander II.;
and many of the arts which had been brought into
the country by the great Saxon tide of two centuries
before, and had helped to raise the Lowlands from
their original rude condition, had passed through the
mountain defiles into the Highlands and begun their
work there. The ecclesiastics, always the pioneers of
civilization, had of course borne the chief share in
6
THE MACKINTOSHES
introducing these ameliorating influences among the
half-savage tribes, and it is to their labours in the
13th century that we are indebted for the greater
part of what little we know of the Highlands in and
before their time.
Indeed, to the 12th and 13th centuries may be
ascribed the beginning, not only of our knowledge
of the Highlanders, but of most of the clans them-
selves as they were known in succeeding periods of
history. By the middle of the 13th century the
Gaelic race had settled down, so to speak, after the
great shaking they had undergone in the devastating
wars waged against them for nearly two hundred years
by the Scottish monarchs from Edgar to Alexander II.
The few great tribes into which they appear to have
been previously divided had then become broken up
into smaller divisions or clans, each of which had
acquired a local habitation and a name, and dwelt
in its own valleys under the rule of its chief. The
history of the clans, therefore, in the majority of
cases, properly commences at about this period,
before which we know little or nothing of them
individually.
The parentage and early settlements of the various
clans have been treated seriatim by Mr. W. F. Skene
in his work published in 1837, and entitled The
Highlanders of Scotland; and whatever may be the
opinion as to some of the deductions and theories
of that gentleman, it cannot be denied either that
his work, juvenile production though it be, testifies
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
7
I
to a vast amount of research, or that it contains
matter of the greatest value and interest. The
manner in which the subject is treated is original
and ingenious; but it can scarcely be held that the
author's positions are all satisfactorily proved. This
is not the place, however, to enter into any criticism
of The Highlanders of Scotland further than our
immediate subject requires. It is no more than a
just tribute to Mr. Skene's well-earned reputation
and prolonged labour as a Celtic scholar to state that
his work has been the means of correcting many
wrong impressions with regard to Highland history;
but at the same time, unfortunately, it has been
the means also of introducing others, which the
learned author himself, were he now to publish a
second edition, would no doubt do his utmost to
remove.
Among the erroneous impressions to which the
speculations of Mr. Skene have given rise is one
affecting closely the subject of these pages, concerning
the parentage of the Clan Mackintosh. Backed by
the doubtful authority of a MS. genealogy of the
15th century, supposed to have been compiled by
one Mac Lachlan, Mr. Skene lays it down that the
Mackintoshes are radically a branch of the great Clan
Chattan, and that the proper position of their heads
in relation to the rest of that clan is that of oldest
cadets, as being sprung from Neill, second son of
Gillicattan Mor, the alleged founder of the race of
Clan Chattan; the elder brother of Neill, by name
8
THE MACKINTOSHES
Neachtan, having been the progenitor of the Mac-
phersons. On the assumption that all this is correct,
Mr. Skene enters on the vexed question of the right
to the headship of Clan Chattan, and proceeds to
pronounce judgment on the rival claims of Mackintosh
and Macpherson of Cluny to that distinction, by the
statement that "the fact of the Macphersons being the
lineal and feudal representatives of the ancient chiefs
of Clan Chattan rests upon historic authority, and
that they possess that right by blood to the chiefship
of which no charters from the Crown, and no usur-
pation, however successful and continued, can deprive
them.' He further considers as established "the
hereditary title of the Macphersons of Cluny to the
chiefship, and that of the Mackintoshes to their origi-
nal position of oldest cadets of the clan." 1 He brings
forward, as strong presumptive evidence in favour
of his theory that the Mackintoshes were originally
oldest cadets of Clan Chattan, the circumstances of
their using the title "Captain," and of their asserting
a foreign origin and a marriage with the heiress of
the old chiefs-these circumstances being analogous
to those of the Camerons of Locheil, who he has little
doubt were oldest cadets of the Clan Cameron, and
had usurped the station of head of the clan on the
decadence of the Macmartins of Letterfinlay, the old
chiefs. 2
1
Highl. Scot. ii. 172-174.
2 Highl. Scot. ii. 172, 195; also 22 and i. 177. With regard
to the title of Captain see chap. ii. of this work.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
9
+
This theory is certainly plausible, and many
persons, having no particular interest in sifting the
matter, or believing that whatever bears the name of
so distinguished a Celtic scholar as Mr. Skene must
necessarily be correct, have been led astray by it.
But in the first place-without dwelling upon the
entire absence of any satisfactory evidence as to the
identity of the Macphersons and Mackintoshes with
the persons named in the MS., or as to the identity
of these persons with the early chiefs of Clan Chattan
-there can be very little doubt that the MS. of
1450, however valuable it may be as a specimen of
early caligraphy, is of small value as a record of
genealogy. The very fact of its professing to give
genealogies of most of the clans, and of its carrying
back some of these genealogies to periods consider-
ably anterior to the year 1000, almost amount to
proof of its untrustworthiness. Mr. Skene indeed
admits that the genealogy is not to be relied upon
before A.D. 1000, but there is no good reason for
believing it to be entirely correct a hundred or even
two hundred years later. The genealogies of the
clan seannachies are fully as much entitled to belief
as those of this unknown scribe-perhaps more so,
for the reason that they are generally confined to a
single clan—and if their testimony be rejected, it is
not easy to see why that of the supposed Mac
Lachlan should be unreservedly admitted. Again,
the genealogies which the MS. gives of the various
clans often differ very considerably or altogether from
10
THE MACKINTOSHES
those held by the clans themselves, some of which
are of as great antiquity, and are therefore entitled
to as great regard, as the MS. itself. On the whole,
then, it seems evident that too much value is at-
tributed by Mr. Skene to this MS. of 1450; as Dr.
Browne remarks, "whatever weight may be given to
it when supported by collateral evidence, it is not
alone sufficient authority to warrant anything beyond
a mere conjectural inference."1
In the second place, the argument derived by
Mr. Skene from the analogous case of the Clan
Cameron-analogous in respect of the use by its
heads of the title "Captain," and the assertion of
a foreign origin and a marriage with the heiress
of the last chief-proves nothing, and Mr. Skene
does not even speak with any degree of certainty as
to the identity of the family of Locheil with the
oldest cadets of their race; he is only "led to
suspect" that such was the case. To say the least,
it is difficult to understand how he arrives at the
conclusion (for his words intimate that it is nothing
less than a conclusion) 3 that the Mackintoshes were
a "usurping branch" and the Macphersons possessed
the sole right by blood to the headship of Clan
Chattan, from the mere fact of the use of the title
Captain," and the assertions as to foreign origin and
marriage already mentioned, by the Mackintoshes.
66
1
Much more might be advanced against the con-
¹ History of the Highlands, by James Browne, LL.D. iv. 472.
2 Highl. Scot. ii. 194.
3 Ibid. 172.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
11
clusions and speculations of Mr. Skene on this
subject, but enough has perhaps been said to show
that that author fails not only to prove the Mackin-
toshes to be cadets of the old Clan Chattan, but also
to shake in the least the account they themselves
hold of their descent from the Thanes of Fife.
This account, although rejected by Mr. Skene and
ignored by the compiler of the MS. of 1450, can
yet boast a respectable antiquity, having existed in
a written form since the latter part of the 15th
century-about fifty years after the supposed date
of the MS. Independently of any weight or esti-
mation to which its antiquity may entitle it, the
account is in perfect keeping with the history of
the times to which it refers, while the very simplicity
of the facts which it states seems to convey an air
of extreme likelihood, not to say of truth.
From the death of King Edgar in 1106 to the
time of Alexander II., the Gaelic population of
Scotland-by that time restricted to very nearly the
districts which they now occupy-and especially that
portion inhabiting the districts of Moray and Ross,
were in almost constant rebellion, partly on account
of their adherence to the Gaelic principle of suc-
cession to the throne, partly on account of their
inveterate antipathy to the Saxon race and jurisdic-
tion. Again and again did the various monarchs
march against the rebellious tribes, each time de-
vastating their country, and to all appearance
12
THE MACKINTOSHES
crushing them completely and finally; yet no sooner
had they recovered from each successive shock, and
obtained some claimant of the crown for whom to
fight, than they were again in a blaze of insurrection
which vented itself in destructive flashes upon the
neighbouring Saxon districts, and threatened the
stability of the throne itself. In times such as these,
when on the one hand expulsion and forfeiture were
frequent among the conquered tribes, and on the
other common prudence demanded that the dis-
affected districts should be kept in awe and subjec-
tion by the constant presence in them of royal
garrisons when also means were thus afforded by
which the monarch could reward his followers by
grants of land-it is natural to look for the founda-
tion of new families. Accordingly we find that to
this period many families which have made a name
in the history of their country trace their settlement
in the north. "The influx of Southerns," says
Professor Cosmo Innes, "which was so remarkable
a feature of Scotch civilization from the reign of
Malcolm Canmore downwards, set most strongly over
the wheat growing plain of Moray; and before the
end of the 13th century Celtic tenures and customs
had disappeared; all the great lords of the soil, all
the crown vassals, all the recorded benefactors of the
Church, were unmistakably Normans or Saxons,
holding their lands for military service.' Among
›› 1
¹ Preface to Book of the Thanes of Calder (Spalding Club);
Sketches of Early Scotch History, 395.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
13
others, the Bysets were placed by Malcolm IV. about
the Beauly Firth and the head of Loch Ness; the
family of Innes was planted in what is now the
shire of Elgin; and the Mackintoshes have always
held that the original settlement of their family in
the north took place on the grant to their founder of
the lands of Petty and Breachly by Malcolm IV.,
and upon his being entrusted with the keeping of
the Castle of Inverness.
Shortly after the accession of the youthful Malcolm
IV., the Highlanders, having found a pretext for
insurrection in the claim of William the "Boy of
Egremont," great-grandson of Malcolm Cean-mor, to
the crown, rose in arms, and besieged the king at
Perth. No fewer than seven of the earls of the
kingdom took part in this rising; among them were
the powerful Earls of Strathearn and Ross. This
was but the beginning of a series of rebellions and
disturbances which continued for nearly the whole of
Malcolm's short reign. In 1161-3 a rebellion broke
out among the Moray tribes, who appear to have
recovered from the effects of their overthrow by
Alexander "the Fierce" forty years previously; this
became so serious that the king, after the defeat
of Gilchrist, Earl of Angus, went in person against
the insurgents, whom he met near the Spey, and,
according to some old historians, defeated and almost
totally cut off in a great battle on Urquhart Moor.
Other early authorities have it, however, that the
king negotiated with them, promising them their
14
THE MACKINTOSH ES
lives if they would submit; and that his offer being
accepted, he kept his word, but required all engaged
in the rebellion to remove to other parts of the
kingdom. Neither of these accounts may be wholly
incorrect; it is not improbable that a sanguinary
battle was followed by negotiations, in the terms
related, with the survivors of the vanquished tribes
and others of their countrymen who had been absent
from the field.
King Malcolm was attended on this expedition by
SHAW, or SEACH, second son of Duncan Macduff, fifth
Earl of Fife, who is said to have rendered such
assistance as conduced in a great measure to the
restoration of tranquillity. For his services Shaw
was rewarded by a grant of some of the lands
occupied by the rebels, and was appointed Constable
or Governor of the Castle at Inverness. On account
of his high descent, his father being at the time one
of the principal persons in the kingdom, he is said
to have been called Mac-an-Toiseach, "son of the
foremost or chief man," which designation continued
to be applied to his descendants as their patronymic,
and remains to this day in the well-known name
which stands prominent throughout these pages.
Shaw Mac-an-Toiseach, as custodian of Inverness
Castle and lord of Petty and Breachly and of the
forestry of Stratherne,¹ remained in the north, where
1
Petty is on the southern shore of the Moray Firth, about six
miles from Inverness. Breachly is in the neighbouring parish
of Cawdor. Stratherne, or Strathdearn, is the valley of the
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
15
his family took root, flourished, and soon became
firmly established.
The Rev. Lachlan Shaw, in his History of the
Province of Moray (p. 44), says, "No one questions
that this (family of Mackintosh) is a branch of the
Macduffs, Thanes and Earls of Fife;" and quoting
from the Chronicle of Melrose he states, as con-
firming the probability of the account just given,
that "when Prince Henry, only son of King David
I., died anno 1152, and the king declared Malcolm,
the son of Henry, successor to the Crown, he com-
mitted him to Duncan, Earl of Fife, to bring him
through all the countries, and to have him proclaimed
in all the Burroughs Heir of the Crown," and that
in this tour"Shaw Macduff accompanied his father,
and got into the favour of the young Prince, who
afterwards preferred him as said is."
The fact that the inhabitants of Moray-Murrayes
or Moravienses were in frequent insurrection during
the reign of Malcolm IV., and that their power was
completely crushed by that monarch, is undoubted;
and there is every reason to believe that in the array
of chivalry which followed the king in his expedition
against the insurgents would be found, in a situation
of some eminence, at least one of the powerful and
important family of Macduff. It is also generally
Findhorn, but the name was probably applied at first to the lower
part only. Petty, Brauchy, Stratherne, and the Moy (near
Forres), are mentioned as in the occupation of the Ogilvies,
being part of the lordship of Moray, in 1516.
¹ The importance of the family was at this time somewhat
16
THE MACKINTOSHES
admitted that, as a means of effectually curbing these
troublesome men of Moray-" homines inquieto sem-
per ingenio," as Buchanan speaks of them-the chief
among them were compelled to remove to other parts
of the country; and in assigning some of their lands
to his follower Shaw Macduff, the king would be
only acting in accordance with the course almost
invariably pursued in similar cases, whether in
Scotland or elsewhere. It appears therefore, on these
grounds alone, that the account which has obtained
for so many centuries among the Mackintoshes of
the origin of their family, and which has been ac-
cepted by numerous heralds and genealogists both
early and recent, contains a considerable amount of
probability, and no sufficient reason has ever been
given for doubting it.
The name "Mackintosh" is considered by some to
mean "son of the Thane," by Mr. Skene to imply
that its founder was son of the oldest cadet of the
clan. The fact that some of the Macduffs bore the
title of Thane has doubtless given rise to the former
opinion, which is not altogether erroneous, inasmuch
as a person possessing the power and dignity of a
Thane would be the principal person in the district
comprising his Thanedom. With regard to Mr.
Skene's opinion I may remark that, although some of
augmented by its connection by marriage with the throne;
Duncan, the sixth earl (Shaw's brother) having married Ada,
daughter of King William, as appears from a charter of the
lands of Strathmiglo, Falkland, &c. in 1159.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
17
+
the functions of the oldest cadet of a clan may have
given him a title to the designation "Toseach,"
there is no reason for supposing that the designation
was peculiar to persons holding such a position; and
as there must have been an oldest cadet in every clan
it seems strange, if Mr. Skene's derivation be correct,
that the name Mackintosh should be altogether con-
fined to the clan now before us. The simple meaning
of the word "tus," "tos," or "tosich," is the "begin-
ning or first part of anything, and sometimes the
front of an army or battle," whence foremost or
principal. Another opinion is that the name
Mackintosh was first given to the son and successor
of Shaw Macduff, the said Shaw, as the principal
man in Inverness and the districts near, being the
Toseach. This also is not devoid of likelihood,
although it is perhaps not so likely to be correct
as the opinion that the name originated in the
exalted parentage of the founder of the clan.
The administrator of the Crown lands, the collector
of rents, the magistrate and head man of a little
district," says Professor Innes,' was "known among
his Celtic neighbours as the Toshach; taking a
(C
charter of the whole district from the sovereign he
became, under the Saxon name of Thane, hereditary
tenant." These were no doubt the conditions under
which Shaw Macduff occupied the lands assigned to
him, for there is abundant evidence to show that the
feudal tenure existed and that all real estate in the
1 Sketches of Early Scotch History, 396.
C
18
THE MACKINTOSHES
""
more civilised part of the kingdom had its source in
the Crown, even at the early period of Malcolm IV.;
and it may be remarked that the Mackintosh lands
of Petty were for a long time afterwards known as
"Crown lands." Shaw would thus be the "Toshach
of his district. But there were others who would
have the same title and functions, also among the
Gaelic speaking population; and it is scarcely likely
that a designation which must have been applied
in several cases would become restricted to an in-
dividual or to a single family; besides, the dignity
being hereditary, there would be no necessity for the
prefix "Mac." Clearly, then, there is something
unsatisfactory in each of these opinions as to the
origin and meaning of the name Mackintosh, and
I feel justified in coming to the conclusion that it
must have been obtained originally under some
special circumstances. Such special circumstances
are found in the settlement in the north of a son
of the great and royally-connected Earl of Fife.'
1 Sir Æneas Macpherson says, "Mackintosh is in English
son of a Thane,' and every other Thane's son was as truely
M'Intoshe or Mackintosich as M'Duff's son, ffor which it was
that the Lairds of Mackintosh were alwise in use to be called
M'Intosich vich Dui." ["Vanitie Exposed, or a Plain and Short
Answer to a late peaper, Intituled the Genealogie of the
ffarqharsons-In a letter to a friend." MS. in possession of
Sir George Macpherson-Grant of Invereshie and Ballindalloch.]
If there had been any real ground for supposing Mackintosh to
be originally oldest cadet of Clan Chattan, we may infer, I
think, that it would have been eagerly seized upon by Sir
Æneas. But he does not even hint at the possibility.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
19
It is worthy of note in connection with the fore-
going remarks that the functions which, according
to Professor Innes, pertained to the office of Toshach
were actually performed by Shaw Macduff's son and
successor, also named Shaw. The Mackintosh MS.
History states that his father's grants were confirmed
to him by William the Lion, and that he was made
chamberlain of all the King's revenues in those parts
for life.
The connection of the Mackintoshes with the
Macduffs is shown heraldically by the lion rampant,
gu. on a field or in the first quarter of their shield.
This lion appears also in the arms of other families
claiming descent from the old Earls of Fife, as
Wemyss, Duff, &c., as well as in the arms of families
descended from the Mackintoshes, as the Shaws and
Farquharsons. Nisbet says,
"The arms of M'Duff
Thane and Earl of Fife most probably are originally
in imitation of the sovereign bearing. . . the double
tressure being only omitted to distinguish them from
the Royal arms, to which they might have gone as
near as any family in the kingdom."
1
The original seat of the Mackintoshes was, as we
¹ Heraldry, i. 281. If the Mackintosh MS. History is to be
believed, the old Earls of Fife are represented in the male line
not by the Earl of Wemyss, but by the chief of Mackintosh.
It gives Duncan, Earl of Fife (speaking of him as third earl),
four sons:-1. Malcolm, the representation of whom devolved on
a female in the reign of Robert II. 2. Shaw, ancestor of the
Mackintoshes, Shaws, and Farquharsons. 3. John, ancestor of
the Earls of Wemyss. 4. Duncan. Old genealogists, however,
}
C 2
20
THE MACKINTOSHES
have seen, the district of Petty, in the north-east
corner of Inverness-shire. This, with the neighbour-
ing lands of Breachly and the forestry of Strathdearn,
was at first their only possession in that part of the
country. As their founder was Constable of the
Castle, the connection of the family with the town
of Inverness, which has continued close through all
the vicissitudes of both down to the present day, is
coeval with their residence in the north, and indeed
with their existence as a clan. This was noticed at
the banquet given in Inverness on the attainment of
his majority by the late Mackintosh in 1868, when
the chairman, Eneas W. Mackintosh, Esq., of Raig-
more, remarked that "the modern history of the
town and the clan began about the same time, and
that Mackintosh's ancestor was that young soldier
who was sent to take care of the Pictish capital,
and who brought thither the civilization and arts
of the more advanced districts of the south." The
relations of the clan and the ancient burgh have
always been of the most friendly nature; no record
occasion on which the two were
appears of
at variance, and it will be seen in these pages
any
are not always particular in giving the proper sequence of
children, and our "far away cousins " of the noble family of
Wemyss have worn the honour so long without dispute that
they need now fear no attempt to deprive them of it.
Patten, in his History of the Rebellion of 1715 (p. 58), says,
speaking of Mackintosh's descent, "The Earl of Weems is
descended from this same Thane of Fife, and it is disputed
whether he or Macintosh are (sic) elder.”
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
21
The
that they frequently acted in close concert.
early chiefs appear to have made their residence
in the Castle, and it was no doubt their defence
of the town against the frequent assaults made
upon it by the marauding bands from the west
which laid the foundation of the esteem and respect
ever since entertained by the burghers towards their
descendants.¹
The settlement of the family at such a distance
from their kinsmen and friends, and from the Court,
did not at once sever the ties which connected them
with the south. The three successors of Shaw Mac-
duff took to themselves southern wives, and several
of his immediate descendants are said by the old
family chroniclers to have been engaged in the
Scottish wars with England, and even to have
returned to reside in the Lowlands.
Little more than what has been stated has come
down to us respecting the founder of the family,
and the accounts of his immediate successors are
but meagre. The wife of Shaw Macduff was Giles,
daughter of Hugh of Montgomery, one of his brother
captains in the expedition against the Moraymen.
Their sons were Shaw, Malcolm, and Duncan. Of
¹ It has been the custom for the town to celebrate important
events in the family of Mackintosh of Mackintosh, such as the
birth of an heir or the marriage of a chief; and during the
revision of these pages a public banquet took place in honour
of the marriage of the present chief, 14th April, 1880. On the
day of his predecessor's funeral, business was suspended in the
town, and all the shops were closed.
22
THE MACKINTOSHES
these Shaw succeeded his father; the second,
Malcolm, was in the army of King William the
Lion in the expedition undertaken by that monarch
in 1174 for the recovery of part of Northumberland
which had formerly belonged to the Scottish crown;
he was taken prisoner near Alnwick with his royal
master, but was released after a brief detention-
probably at the same time as the King, on the con-
clusion of the unfortunate treaty of Dec. 1174-
and died soon after his return home. Duncan, the
third son, was killed in 1190, while leading a party
from the Castle of Inverness against a body of
Islesmen under Donald Baan, who had ravaged the
country almost up to the castle walls; an encounter
took place at Torbhean, in which the invaders were
completely routed and the leaders on both sides slain.
Shaw Macduff, or "Mac-an-Toiseach," died in 1179,
and was succeeded in the possession of the lands of
Petty and Breachly, and in the governorship of the
Castle of Inverness, by his eldest son.
(2) SHAW flourished in the reign of King William,
and for his fidelity and bravery in the defence of
Inverness Castle against the attacks of the Islesmen
he received a confirmation of his father's grants, and
was made chamberlain or steward of the crown
revenues in his part of the north. By his wife
Mary, daughter of the lord of Sandilands, he had
four sons-Malcolm, who died before his father.
unmarried; Ferquhard, who became heir; William,
t
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
23
who is said by the MS. History to have accompanied
Alexander II. to France in 1216; and Edward, who
died in his ancestral Fife, leaving no issue.¹
Shaw died in 1210, and was succeeded by his eldest
surviving son.
(3) FERQUHARD was brought up and spent a con-
siderable part of his life under his kinsman Malcolm,
Earl of Fife; he accompanied that noble in the
expedition in 1211 against Guthred Mac William,2
who with a large force collected in Ireland, the Isles,
and Lochaber, had made an inroad into Ross and
committed great devastation there.
Guthred was
betrayed and executed in 1212.
Ferquhard's name appears twice (at least) in deeds
of the period, both bearing date 1234. In one-an
agreement between Andrew, Bishop of Moray, and
the Earl of Menteith-he is styled Fercard, son of
Seth; and in the other-an agreement between
the Chapter of Moray and Alexander de Stryveline*
-"Fercard, Seneschalle de Badenach." This is the
first mention of any connection of the family with
the district of Badenoch.
1 Some accounts make Edward the progenitor of the family
of Toshach of Monievard, but that family declare that they
struck out from the Macduffs before these became earls.
2 Although really the son of Donald Mac William, his patro-
nymic is commonly taken from his grandfather.
3 Spald. Club Misc. iv. Pref. xxvii. Seth is the Gaelic form
of Shaw, being pronounced Shā.
4 Cartul. Morav. 99.
24
THE MACKINTOSHES
ī
The wife of this chief was a daughter of his patron
Malcolm, Earl of Fife. His children by her all dying
in infancy, he was on his death about the year 1240
succeeded by
(4) SHAW, son of his brother William by Beatrix
Learmont. Two other sons of William are mentioned
-Fergus and Alexander.
The family now began to extend their possessions.
Shaw acquired the lands of Meikle Geddes and the
lands and castle of Rait, on the Nairn-the latter
famous in legendary history as the scene of a terrible
tragedy. Before his accession to the chiefship he had
obtained, in 1236, from Andrew, Bishop of Moray
(the founder of Elgin Cathedral), a lease of Rothi-
murcus in Badenoch, "a great plain of firs "¹
(Rathad-mor-guibhais), watered by the rapid Spey
and overlooked by the huge mass of Cairngorm.
Rothimurcus, which will require frequent mention
in succeeding pages, appears to have been held in
feu from the Bishops of Moray for the occasional
supply of wood for the repairing of Elgin Cathedral.
It was afterwards held for nearly two hundred years
1 Or perhaps the name may mean "the great fort of the firs"
-Rath, Rait, or Roth, according to Robertson's Historical Proofs
respecting the Gael of Alban, being "a round earthen fort or
stronghold." A mound which has every appearance of having
been used in ancient times for purposes of defence stands at the
Doune of Rothimurcus, and is properly the Doune, or Dun; and
it
may
be from this earthen fort among the firs that the name
of the district is derived.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
25
by the Shaws, and finally passed into the hands of
the Grants, who still possess it.
1
While on the subject of Rothimurcus, it may not
be out of place to endeavour to correct a wrong
impression which may be conveyed by a statement
of the Rev. Lachlan Shaw as to the occupants of the
district in the 13th and 14th centuries. This
writer states, on the authority of "unvaried tra-
dition," that Rothimurcus was possessed by the
Shaws "long before" the year 1396, and was held
by that family in lease from the Bishops of Moray
"during 100 years (circa 1250 to 1350) without
disturbance." The late Rev. W. G. Shaw, in his
Memorials of Clan Shaw, also establishes the Shaws
in the district during the same period, founding on
the statement in the History of Moray and on the
occurrence of the name Seth (i.e. Sha) in the deed of
1234 already referred to, and of the name Scayth in
a charter of 1338.2 But there can be no doubt
whatever that the district was held by the Mackin-
toshes from 1236: the records of the family clearly
show that Shaw, 4th of Mackintosh, obtained a
right to it in that year; that the offspring of his
second son, Duncan, tutor during the childhood of
Angus, 6th of Mackintosh, "lived in Rothimurcus
1 History of Moray, 42.
.
2 A charter by Alexander, Earl of Ross, confirming a grant
of Delnafert and Kinrara to Malmore of Glencarny, in which is
reserved an acre of ground near the Stychan of Delnafert "in
qua situm fuit manerium quondam Scayth filii Ferchardi.”
26
THE MACKINTOSHES
"" 1
successively until the fight at the North Inch (of Perth,
in 1396), when Malcolm, alias Callum Mor, who then
only remained of Duncan's posterity, was slain;
and that William, 7th of Mackintosh, took a new
lease on 19 March 1347 from John Pilmore, Bishop
of Moray. Apart from this, it is impossible that
the Shaws could have possessed Rothimurcus, or
have had the feuds with the Comyns of which the
Historian of Moray speaks as happening before 1396,
as they then had no existence, not having branched
off from the Mackintosh stem. The "unvaried
tradition" of this historian as to a James Shaw said
to have been killed in a conflict with the Comyns
about the year 1350 no doubt really refers to James,
son of Shaw Mor, who was killed at Harlaw. How-
ever "unvaried it may be, tradition cannot with
safety be relied upon for an accurate account of
events happening at such a remote period, and we
can scarcely wonder that after so long a descent it
has placed the deeds of James Shaw of 1411 some
""
1 MS. History of the Mackintoshes, by Lachlan Mackintosh of
Kinrara. This will be referred to on subsequent pages as the
Kinrara MS. It was written in Latin about the year 1670, and
was partly founded on three earlier MSS., the matter of which
it embodied. These were, 1st, a history of the family from the
Earl of Fife to Duncan, 11th chief, who died in 1496, written by
Ferquhard, 12th chief, during his imprisonment at Dunbar; 2nd,
a similar history, by Andrew MacPhail, Parson of Croy, from
the Earl of Fife to William, 15th chief, murdered in 1550;
and 3rd, a history, by George Munro of Davochgartie, of Fer-
quhard, 12th chief, and his three successors. The compiler of
the Kinrara MS. was brother of the 18th chief.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
27
fifty years earlier than they ought to be. Then with
regard to the mention of names equivalent to Shaw
in deeds of 1234 and 1338, it surely does not follow
from the existence of the name at these dates, either
that Shaws then held Rothimurcus, or that a family
of Shaws was then in existence. The names Seth
and Scayth are simply what we should now call
Christian names, and there is no more reason for
receiving the name of Shaw, on account of its oc-
currence in these deeds, among the roll of sur-
names of the 13th and 14th centuries, than there
is for receiving that of Farquhar, which occurs in
the same deeds, but appears to be regarded by the
Rev. Mr. Shaw as a mere Christian name. Sir
Æneas Macpherson in his Vanitie Exposed" is
very positive that there never was a Shaw in
Rothimurcus till Robert III's time."
CC
Shaw, the 4th chief of Mackintosh, was the first of
his line who married into a northern family. His wife
was Helena, daughter of William, Thane of Calder,
and by her he had five sons, Ferquhard, Duncan,
Alexander, Shaw "Og," and Malcolm. On his death
in 1265 he was succeeded by the eldest of these.
(5) FERQUHARD, according to Douglas in his
Baronage, was "a man of great parts and remarkable
fortitude." Before he
Before he became chief he lived in
Rothimurcus, doubtless to watch over the interests
of his family in Badenoch, and probably at the same
time, by a wise piece of foresight on the part of his
28
THE MACKINTOSHES
father, to learn practically the arts and to acquire
the confidence necessary for his future position in
life. Here, with all the power and authority of a
chief, at a considerable distance from home, and in
a manner left to his own devices, the heir apparent
to the Mackintosh honours received the only educa-
tion which in those turbulent times could fit him to
take his father's place. It was no doubt a rough
school; in close vicinity to the proud and overbearing
Comyns, the abode of untamed mountaineers, and
the frequent highway of lawless caterans going to
or returning from some foray in the rich Saxon
districts, but a school well fitted to develop and
bring into play the energy and military genius
required by one who might have to live a life of
constant warfare. At any rate, our young chief
seems to have profited by his schooling. When the
country was threatened by the Norwegians under
Haco in the reign of Alexander III., he raised a
band of men in Badenoch, marched with them to
the south country, and joined the forces which the
King had summoned to repel the invaders. He per-
formed "a valiant part" in the famous battle of
Largs, fought in October 1263, when the Norwegians,
having against them the rage of the elements as
well as the desperate fury of a people struggling to
preserve their freedom, suffered a signal defeat, and
departed from the Scottish shores to return no more.
In the following year he accompanied Comyn, Earl
of Athole, in his expedition against the Northern and
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
29
Western Isles, which were at length, in 1265, ceded
by the successor of Haco to the Scottish monarch.
In this last named year, when only about 25
years old, Ferquhard succeeded to the chiefship of
his name, and brought to that station a character
for military prowess and success which bade fair to
equal, if not to eclipse, that of any other chief of
his time and country. Such was the glory of his
name among his clan that his descendants for several
generations were proud to call themselves sons of
Ferquhard; and this may account for the name
"Scha Ferqwharis son" given in the Prior of Loch-
leven's chronicle to Shaw Mor mac Gilchrist, leader
of the thirty champions of Clan Chattan in the
notable fight on the North Inch of Perth in 1396.
Perhaps it was the brilliancy of the reputation
won by the youthful chief which prompted Angus
Mor of Isla to look on him with favour, and to
select him for the honour of being his son-in-law.
The circumstances attending his courtship and
marriage are somewhat romantic, as given in the
MS. History of the clan. It appears that Ferquhard's
intercourse with the fair Mora of Isla was at first
of an unauthorised character, and that, this being
discovered, the lover fled to avoid the wrath of the
powerful father. He took refuge in Ireland, but
before he had been there long he was recalled, and
on his return made Mora his wife. The circumstance
is said to have been the means of establishing a
colony of Mackintoshes in Ireland. On the flight
30
THE MACKINTOSHES
of Ferquhard, his uncle Fergus followed in search
of him, and missing him, continued his unavailing
inquiries for some time. On hearing the news of
his nephew's death he vowed never to return to his
native country, and accordingly he married and
settled in Ireland, and was the founder of a family
of Mackintoshes in that kingdom.¹
During Ferquhard's chiefship the clan received the
first recorded accession to its strength from without
in the person of Gabrai, Gillebride, or Gillebreac, the
progenitor of the Clan Macgillivray, who put him-
self and his posterity under the protection of the
Mackintoshes. The Macgillivrays have ever shown
themselves zealous for the honour of the clan to which
they joined themselves, never more so than in the
last, fatal attempt of the Stuarts for the recovery of
their throne, and on the disastrous field of Culloden.
Any hopes and expectations which his people may
have nourished of the future renown of their young
1 In the "Fragment of a MS. History of the Macdonalds,"
written in the reign of Charles II. (printed in the Collectanea de
Rebus Albanacis), a garrulous incorrect narrative, the traditionary
records respecting this circumstance and the origin of the
Mackintoshes are jumbled up together in the following fashion :
"Angus of the Isles had by the daughter of John Mackay
(Gruamach) the mother of the first laird of Mackintosh, for a
son of Macduff Thane of Fife coming after manslaughter to
shelter in Macdonald's house got his daughter with child, went
to Ireland with Edward Bruce where he was killed, by which
means Mackintosh is of a natural descent. Mackintosh in the
ancient language signifies Thane's son. The boy was brought up
by Macdonald, who in process of time procured a competent estate
for him in the Braes of Lochaber and in the Braes of Moray."
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
31
P
chief were doomed to be blighted. In the ninth
year of his chiefship (1274), when in the flower of
his manhood and fame, and but a short time after
his marriage, Ferquhard lost his life in a duel arising
out of a dispute while playing at "tables" with one
of the Islanders; his opponent being also killed. He
left behind him two infant children, a son and a
daughter, who remained with their uncle Alexander,
eldest son of the lord of Isla.
The death of the warlike Ferquhard, the youth
and absence of his heir, together with the commotions
which towards the end of the 13th century rent
the country, afforded to the enemies of the Mackin-
toshes an opportunity of evincing their antagonism
too favourable not to be seized. Accordingly we find
that a few years after Ferquhard's death the clan,
which had hitherto, like a young tree, been gradually
acquiring strength and striking its roots further into
the land, underwent its first experience of the storm-
shock. The experience was far from agreeable, and
but for the sudden cessation of the storm might have
been its last as well as first of the kind. In all
probability the clan, having so many adverse cir-
cumstances to contend with, would have been borne
down completely had it not been for the part which
their most formidable foes took against the great
Bruce. These foes were the Comyns, then in the
zenith of their power and pride. Besides their
considerable Lowland possessions, they held sway
over the greater part of Badenoch and Moray, the
32
THE MACKINTOSHES
!
?
great lordship of Badenoch having been granted in
1230 to Walter Comyn, son of the Justiciar of
the kingdom. "Pride goeth before destruction, and
a haughty spirit before a fall;" never anticipating
that the proverb was soon to be realised in their
own case, their pride and arrogance were supreme.
Confident in the power of their arms and numbers,
and in the strength of their numerous fortresses,
they kept down their vassals with an iron hand, and
bade defiance to all around them. Among their
neighbours both in Badenoch and Moray were the
Mackintoshes, with whom they were at feud for a
long period; but whether this feud had existed prior
to the death of Ferquhard is not certain, though
it is extremely probable that it is to be dated from
soon after 1236, when the Mackintoshes acquired
Rothimurcus, and the Comyns themselves had been
only a few years in the district. It is certain,
however, that during the minority of Ferquhard's
successor they seized upon his lands of Geddes and
Rait, and followed up this act by surprising and
taking possession of the Castle of Inverness, which
had continued in the custody of the chiefs of Mackin-
tosh, its hereditary constables. In the short space of
about thirty years the castle changed hands three
times; first it was taken by the Comyns, from whom
in turn it was taken in 1303 by the forces of Edward
I. of England, who again lost it to the adherents
of King Robert Bruce a few years later. The
Mackintoshes did not regain either their position
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
33
as Constables of the Castle, or their lands of Geddes
and Rait, until about a hundred years afterwards,
when in consequence of their increased strength
and the diminished power of the Comyns, they
were able to cope successfully with their once
powerful foes.
n
}
.34
THE MACKINTOSHES
:
CHAPTER II.
The old Clan Chattan; Origin and name; Settlement in Loch-
aber; Succession of Chiefs-Marriage of Angus, 6th chief
of Mackintosh, with Eva, daughter of the Chief of Clan
Chattan-Mackintosh's claims to the lands and headship of
the clan.
THE tide of our narrative now carries us into what
has been not inaptly called "a whirlpool of opposing
currents." There are perhaps few questions of
Highland history upon which greater variety of
opinion has been expressed than that concerning
the origin and early history of the Clan Chattan;
and in the absence of any early notices of the clan
the question will in all probability ever remain open
to dispute. Who the original Clan Chattan were,
whether of the native Celtic race, or part of a Gothic
or Teutonic migration from the continent of Europe-
even the locality of their original seat in Scotland--
is wrapt in uncertainty, notwithstanding the labours
of antiquaries to give even thus much of fixity to
their history. It can therefore be scarcely expected
that I shall have the temerity to launch a new theory
on the subject; all I can do is to lay some of the
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
35
conflicting opinions before my readers as impar-
tially as may be, and leave each to draw his own
conclusion.
As to the origin of the clan, one theory is that
they were of the Scoto-Irish immigration, and that
they settled in Badenoch and Moray from the western
coasts and islands; another brings them from
Germany soon after the commencement of the
Christian era, and assigns them to the race of Gauls
driven from their native land by the Romans. With
regard to their name there is greater diversity of
opinion. One says the name Chattan comes from
the Catti, a tribe of the Gauls just referred to;
another says it was obtained from Gillicattan
Mor, founder and leader of the clan, and that he was
“servant of St. Katan"; a third derives it from
cat or catai, the name of a weapon; a fourth, bring-
ing the clan from Caithness, says that that district
obtained its name from the cats which infested it,
and that the clan obtained their name either from
these animals or from the district; while a fifth,
also bringing them from Caithness, makes the
name of a natural feature of the country the
root from which are derived both "Caithness" and
"Chattan."
The most deserving of consideration and most
widely received among these several opinions are
no doubt the two first-mentioned and the last; and
these three have perhaps an equal amount of proba-
bility, so far as we are now able to judge. Although
1
4
D 2
36
THE MACKINTOSHES
•
it is impossible to determine whether any one
correct, it may be well to devote a few word
to all.
Firstly-Although the Historian of Moray and
other writers ridicule the idea of a German parentage
for the clan, the idea does not seem so utterly devoid
of likelihood as they would have it. It may have
the appearance of fable, but its general features are
far from improbable. Whether true or not, it is
not more opposed to reason or probability than the
generally received belief that the Saxons and Danes
at an early period settled a portion of South Britain,
and even rounded the Pillars of Hercules, or than
that remarkable attempted exodus of the whole
nation of the Helvetii which was frustrated and
described by the great Cæsar. Both Tacitus and
Pliny speak of the Catti in Germany-dwelling in
and about Hesse-and the former mentions their
expulsion from their country by Tiberius Cæsar.
After this expulsion we hear no more of them from
contemporary sources, but we learn from our early
Scottish chroniclers that certain people from Germany
arrived in Scotland during the Roman occupation
of Britain, and settled there. "A people called
Murreyes out of Almaine, put forth and expelled
out of their native land, arrived in Forth between
Louthean and Fiffe"; being "sworn enemies to the
Romans," they aided King Corbredus against those
invaders, and received from him "all the lands be-
tweene Spey and Innerness, which lands were called
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
37
་
112
after them Murray-land.' The Murreyes were then
married unto Scottish virgins, and remained under
one blood and friendship." Mr. Skene seems to
show that the Clan Chattan of the 10th and 11th
centuries were a branch of the Moravian tribes,
whose subsequent overthrow and dispersion in the
12th century have been detailed in the preceding
chapter; and thus the advocates for the German
descent of the clan have a continuous chain of
evidence for the likelihood of their theory, although
its completeness and stability depend upon
somewhat doubtful authority of the chroniclers.
may add that this view is favoured by Sir Robert
Gordon and alluded to by Sir Walter Scott,³ and that
the galley or lymphad in the arms of Mackintosh,
the
I
1 A more probable derivation of the name Moray is from
Mor-thaobh (Mor-av), "the sea-side."
2 Summarie of Scots Chronicles, by J. Monipennie, 39, 41.
See also an interesting account of the early settlements of the
Northmen in Scotland in chap. x. of Burton's History of Scotland
(1873 edit.).
3 Sir R. Gordon (History of the Earldom of Sutherland, 14)
brings the Catti and Usipii from Germany in the year 811, and
"rather inclines to their opinion who think that as Morayland
was so called from the Morrayes, even so was this cuntrey
(Catteynes) first named Cattey from this people called Catti."
Sir W. Scott (Fair Maid of Perth, chap. xxvii. note) says "The
country of Caithness is supposed to have its name from Teutonic
settlers of the race of the Catti, and heraldry has not neglected
so fair an occasion for that species of painted punning in which
she used to delight," &c. (alluding to the crest and motto of the
Mackintoshes and other septs of Clan Chattan—the mountain
cat, with the motto "Touch not the cat bot a glove").
38
THE MACKINTOSHES
Macpherson, and other families of the clan, is
supposed by some to have reference to the passage
across the ocean.
Secondly-The idea that the Clan Chattan was
an indigenous Celtic tribe is perhaps as well sup-
ported and as well entitled to belief as that just
stated. Mr. Skene¹ makes them the most impor-
tant of the tribes descended from and owning the
sway of the native Earls or Maormors of Moray,
whose power extended from the eastern to the
western sea, and from Inverness in the north to
Cowall and Kintyre in the south. Mr. Donald
Gregory² says their original possessions seem to have
been in Lochaber; while the Rev. Lachlan Shaw 3
says that they inhabited Caithness and Sutherland ª
prior to their settlement in Lochaber, and that it
is probable they came originally from Ireland. With
regard to their name, the last-mentioned writer
thinks that they either took it from or gave it to
Catav, now Sutherland, their ancient residence-
catav (from cad, "high," and taobh "a side") being
the high side of the Ord of Caithness, in contra-
distinction to Gualav (from guael "low, plain," and
taobh) the low side. He also states, though only
on the authority of tradition, that the great
1
¹ Highl. Scot., ii. chap. vi.
2 Western Highlands and Isles, 7.
3 Hist. Moray, 50.
4 A tribe called Catini is placed in these districts by Ptolemy
and the pretended Richard of Cirencester.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
39.
Gillicattan was commonly called "Gillicattan Mor
O'Gualav," implying that he came or was driven
from Caithness; and mentioning the supposed
derivation of the name from St. Katan, says that,
if it be correct, the clan probably gave their name
to the country.
Thirdly-Mr. Skene says that Gillicattan Mor was
the founder both of the clan and of the name, and
on this some writers have assigned to the clan an
ecclesiastical origin, believing that Gillicattan, as
his name seems to imply, was in the service of
the Church. Mr. E. W. Robertson is of opinion
that he was a coarb, or kind. of hereditary abbot,
of St. Katan.¹ But although it is possible that the
name does mean "servant of Katan," it by no means
follows that its bearer was actually a minister of
religion, however secular his functions. The prefix
"Gille" was
was originally used when a person was
honoured by being named after some saint, and was
simply an addition made to the name with the
intention of denoting reverence and humility. All
this, however, does not affect the alleged deriva-
tion of the name from Gillicattan Mor, and it is
quite an open question whether this individual
gave the name to his followers and descendants, or
whether, they already possessing it as their tribal
That persons
1 Scotland under her Early Kings, i. 241.
holding the hereditary position of abbots and lords of the abbey
property existed under the Culdee foundation is tolerably evident
from various early documents.
40
THE MACKINTOSHES
designation, he adopted the name Gillicattan as
having at once the odour
the odour of sanctity and a
resemblance to the designation of his tribe.
Each of these theories has supporters who, from
their learning and their intimate acquaintance with
such matters, are undoubtedly entitled to have their
opinions received with the greatest attention and
consideration. For my own part I am inclined to
look upon that theory which derives the name of
the clan from Catav (Sutherland) as the most
reasonable and probable. It is, I think, greatly
strengthened by the fact that in the northern High-
lands there are other clan-names evidently derived
from local circumstances; thus the Clan Mörgan
(Mackays) dwellers by the sea: Clan Ross, from
ros," a promontory; and in all probability Moray
(from Mor-thaobh), land by "the sea side."
66
It may not be amiss before proceeding further to
give the following extract from a MS. "Memoir
of the Family of Mackintosh," written in 1758,¹
containing the (so-called) traditionary account of the
settlement of Clan Chattan in Lochaber. In the
Introduction, "Of the Original and Rise of Clan
Chattan," it is said:" About the year 1010 King
Malcolm II. called all the clans to attend his royal
¹ This MS. is in the possession of The Mackintosh. It is in
the handwriting of the Rev. Lachlan Shaw, the Historian of
Moray, and several expressions and views contained in it point
to him as the author. It bears the same motto, “Antiquam
exquirite matrem," as the History of Moray, and at p. 51 of that
work reference is made to the account quoted in the text.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
41
standard and to fight the Danes, who had taken
possession of Moray, fortified a small promontory
in Duffus called the Burry, and wasted the country
around. Gillicattan Mor, at that time chief of the
clan, excused his personal attendance, but his son
Robert, being a younger son and inclined to arms,
raised a battalion of young men of the clan, marched
south, arrived at Burry, or Panbryde, the field of battle,
where the Scots were hard pressed by the enemy.
This reinforcement of fresh and brave men, and
Robert killing Camus, the Danish general, obtained
a complete victory to the Scots. King Malcolm
justly rewarded the deserving son, but resented the
disobedience of the father by dispossessing him of
Sutherland and Caithness; yet the regard the king
had for Robert the son moved him to assign lands
in Lochaber to his aged father. What renders this
highly probable is that the family of Keith gives
this account of their original, and our Historians
and Heralds agree in the substance of it. Besides,
Gillicattan Mor being famous for his personal valour,
the king might have raised high expectations on
the courage of such a man, and would proportionately
resent the disappointment at such a critical time.
The feudal law was not at that time well established
in Scotland, and gentlemen had no written rights
and charters; yet this king is said to have shared
all his lands among his subjects. And it is not im-
probable that in this distribution of lands he gave
Sutherland to a son of the family of Moray, and
42
THE MACKINTOSHES
gave the lands mentioned in Lochaber to Gilli-
cattan Mor. This is fortified by the name which
unvaried tradition gives to Gillicattan, viz. Gilli-
cattan Mor O'Gualav, which insinuates that he was
the first representer or chief of the family that left
Sutherland and Caithness, and came into Lochaber."
In spite of all the conflict of opinion as to the
origin of the old Clan Chattan, it is clear that,
whether, they were originally foreign adventurers
or native Celts, whether their cradle was on the banks
of the Rhine or in the wilds of Caithness, the clan
had by the close of the 13th century found a home
in Lochaber. This is the only certain fact we know
of them. Mr. Skene, as already mentioned, speaks
of them as the most important of all the Moray
tribes, and he shows from the MS. of 1450 that
their chiefs at one time possessed, by their own
descent, a right to the Earldom or Maormordom of
Moray.' This, however, is by no means certain,
and the same writer's further statement that at the
time of the extinction of the native Earls of Moray
by Alexander II. the clan occupied the whole of
Badenoch, Strathnairn, and Strathdearn, with the
greater part of Lochaber, is at once extremely im-
probable and wholly destitute of foundation.
¹ If Mr. Skene's deductions are correct, we have the curious
fact that in the issue of the marriage of Eva, heiress of Clan
Chattan, with Angus, chief of Mackintosh, the blood which
flowed in the veins of the great Macbeth must have mingled
with the blood of his great enemy Macduff.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
43
Two different versions of the descent of the early
chiefs of the tribe are extant; one given and upheld
by Mr. Skene on the authority of the MS. of 1450,
the other given by Sir Æneas Macpherson, who wrote
an account of his race in the 17th century. The
first is as follows, going back from the end of the
13th century;-Shaw, son of Ferchar, son of Gil-
christ, son of Malcolm, son of Donald called "of
Cowall," son of Muirich, son of Swen, son of Heth,
son of Nachtan, son of Gillicattan (A.D. 1004)—and
back for several generations more. The following is
the descent given by Sir Æneas Macpherson :-¹
GILLICATTAN MOR
(temp. MALCOLM CEAN-MOR).
DIARMED
(s. about 1090).
GILLICATTAN
(temp. DAVID I.).
1

DIARMED
(d.s.p. 1153).
GILLICATTAN.
DOUGAL "DALL.”
ANGUS
chief of
Mackintosh.
EVA.
MUIRICH
(Parson of Kingussie).
EWEN
"BAAN."
KENNETH
(ancestor of
NEIL
CROM."
IAN
(ancestor of
DAVID
FERQUHARD
"GILLERUITHE.' "DUBH."
"
GILLIES
(ancestor of
Cluny branch). Pitmean branch). Invereshie branch).
¹ The two descents, it will be seen, are totally different. I have
already expressed my humble opinion as to the amount of
reliance which should be placed upon the genealogies in the MS.
of 1450; and whatever may be the amount of estimation to
which Sir Æneas Macpherson's genealogy is entitled, it seems to
be at least as worthy of belief as the other. It is, I am aware,
held by some that the early part of the genealogy given by Sir
Æneas is fictitious, but I can scarcely think that it is entirely
fictitious when I find mention in the sixteenth century of three
44
THE MACKINTOSHES
Dougal "Dall" was at the head of the clan at
the period to which we have arrived in the history of
the Mackintoshes. To this history we now return.
We have seen that the young chief of the Mack-
intoshes, Angus Mac Ferquhard, remained during
his youth in charge of his uncle Alexander, who
became on his father's death, about 1286, lord of
Isla and South Kintyre. Alexander had married a
daughter of Ewen de Ergadia (or Argyle), otherwise
Macdugall of Lorn, and probably on account of this
connection he unfortunately for himself espoused
with Macdugall the side of the Comyns in the great
struggle between their faction and that of Bruce.
He shared in the ruin which overtook the house of
Lorn, and his whole possessions were transferred to
his brother Angus Og, who had from the first pursued
a contrary policy.' But it was before these troubles
came upon him, and while he was in the full enjoy-
ment of his power, that Alexander had the charge of
his nephew, who, so far from following in the steps
of his tutor, afterwards proved a staunch supporter
of Bruce.
principal branches of the Macphersons called Sliochd Kynigh,
Sliochd Ian, and Sliochd Gillies, after the three sons of the
alleged Ewen Baan; although I am quite ready to admit the
possibility that Sir Æneas has placed Kenneth, Ian, and Gillies
at a period earlier than that at which they really lived. Tradi-
tion, which furnished him with their names, is very apt to make
such mistakes.
¹ This Angus was the "Lord of the Isles" of Sir Walter
Scott, who, however, euphonia gratiâ, changes his name to
Ronald.
}
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
45
In 1291, when about twenty-three years of age,
Angus Mackintosh was sent to herald an approaching
visit of the island chief to Dougal Dall, chief of the
Clan Chattan-perhaps on some matter relating to
the great national question of the day. This circum-
stance was productive of important results in the
fortunes of the young man and his clan. The
Chattan chief was old and frail; his only child a
daughter; and the cloud of troubles overshadowing
other parts of the country was fast nearing his
own district. It was therefore expedient that he
should make provision for the future safety and
welfare of his daughter, and that he should use
every effort also to ensure the continued prosperity of
his people by strengthening the ties between them
and their powerful neighbour the lord of Isla. The
arrival of Mackintosh, nephew and ward of the
island chief, seemed to offer a favourable opportunity
for effecting both objects; in those days not much
time was lost in wooing, a marriage was soon arranged,
and Eva, the Chattan chief's daughter, became the
wife of the chief of Mackintosh.
This event carries us among more matters of
dispute. According to the generally received account,
Dougal Dall gave to Mackintosh along with his
daughter his lands in Lochaber, and the station of
head of the Clan Chattan. Possibly the fondness of
an aged parent for his only child, and an idea of the
paramount necessity for a close alliance of the clan
with the chief of Isla, might have induced Dougal to
46
THE MACKINTOSHES
make this grant, but by the rules of Highland
succession-as we now understand them-his clans-
men might have refused to ratify or accept it, or to
receive a stranger as their leader so long as a male
descendant of their former chiefs remained. Whether
such a male descendant existed or not, the majority
of the clan, if not the whole, appear to have acqui-
esced in the arrangement, and Angus Mackintosh
accordingly became lord of the Clan Chattan territory
in Lochaber, and was acknowledged by its occupiers
as their leader.
According to Sir Æneas Macpherson's genealogy,
Muirich, grandfather of Dougal Dall, had five sons,
the second of whom was Ewen "Baan" (the fair).
Ewen, said to have been designated Mac-in-Phairson
from the original vocation of his father, is stated to
have had a son Kenneth, who on his cousin Dougal's
death without male issue became the eldest male
representative of the chiefs of Clan Chattan, and was
adhered to by a portion of the clan as the proper
chief. So the Macpherson traditions; but these seem
to be somewhat at variance with a Macpherson
genealogy of 1680, in which Kenneth is made to
take part in the battle at Invernahavon in 1370; if
both tradition and genealogy are correct, Kenneth
must have reached a very advanced age indeed.
That such a person actually existed there can be
little doubt; but it seems very probable either that
Sir Æneas has given him too early a place in his
genealogy, or that the tradition is subsequent to the
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
47
genealogy. If he had lived at the time of the
marriage of Mackintosh with the heiress of Clan
Chattan, and had been supported as the tradition
says, we should scarcely find him and his supporters
side by side with the Mackintoshes in arms soon
afterwards. The first occasion on which there is
mention of dissension between the Macphersons of
Cluny the descendants of this Kenneth-and the
Mackintoshes, was in 1591, when the former, prompted
by the Earl of Huntly, declared themselves indepen-
dent of Mackintosh, whom up to this date they had
steadily followed; and there is no real ground for
supposing that their action at this time had any
connection with their subsequently alleged right to
the headship of Clan Chattan. The tradition, there-
fore, which is the sole authority for the alleged
adherence of part of the old Clan Chattan to a
Kenneth Mac Ewen as male heir at the time of the
heiress's marriage, seems to be defective and com-
paratively modern.
The account just given of the accession which the
chief of Mackintosh received to his estate and power
by his marriage with the daughter of the Clan
Chattan chief, involves two questions, which it is
necessary here to encounter. They are: First,
As to the original right of Mackintosh to the lands in
Lochaber said to have been given him by his father-
in-law; Second, As to whether Mackintosh or Mac-
pherson of Cluny is properly head of the Clan
Chattan.
48
THE MACKINTOSHES
I. With regard to the first, the fact that the
Lochaber lands actually passed into the hands of the
Mackintoshes, and were held by them without oppo-
sition from the members of Clan Chattan-though
nominally only, in respect of the Camerons' occupa-
tion of them—for centuries after the time of Angus
and Eva, admits of no dispute. This being so, the
question arises, Had Angus any right to them in the
first place? By those who uphold the fixedness of
the institutions respecting succession to property
among the Highlanders, even in the days when the
feudal system was making rapid strides over Scotland,
it is objected that Dougal Dall had no power to
demise any of his lands either to his daughter or to
her husband. By the Highland law or system, says
Mr. Skene, contrasting it with the feudal law,
"females were altogether excluded from succession
either to chiefship or to property." 1 So far then the
objection holds good. It is, however, a great mistake
to suppose either that this Highland system was
exclusively followed among the Highland clans, or
that the feudal system obtained only in the Lowlands
of Scotland at the period in question. The feudal
law had a decided existence in the Highlands, al-
though but the thin end of the wedge had as yet
been inserted; and there are cases, not only of the
1 Highl. Scot. i. 163.
2
2 "The royal prerogative, and the Norman feudal tenure of
land," says Burton, speaking particularly of the tribes of the
Western Highlands and Isles, "extended over their districts
fleetingly and sometimes nominally only." Hist. Scot. ii. 361.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
49
granting of feudal titles to Highland chiefs, but of
the succession of females to property on the death of
their father without male issue, and the transmission
of their rights thereto to their husbands. Mr. Skene
himself bears witness to this. He tells us that
Allan mac Roderic of the Isles was succeeded in
his lordship of Garmoran by his daughter Christina;
to the prejudice of his son Roderic, who seems to
have been considered illegitimate by the feudal law.¹
Alexander mac Angus Mor of Isla, already men-
tioned, “acquired a considerable addition to his ter-
ritories by marriage with one of the daughters and
co-heiresses of Ewen de Ergadia," 2 about 1280; and
it was only on acquiring the North Isles by his
marriage with Amie, daughter and heiress of Ranald
mac Ruari,3 little more than fifty years after the
marriage of Angus Mackintosh, that the first Lord
of the Isles was enabled to assume his proud title.
Another notable instance, though occurring con-
siderably later than any of the foregoing, is
afforded by the circumstances which led to the
battle of Harlaw :-Donald, eldest son by the
second marriage of John, first Lord of the Isles,
married Mary, sister of the Earl of Ross, and on his
1 Highl. Scot. ii. 56. See also Gregory, Western Highlands and
Isles, 24. "Roderick or Ruari mac Alan, the bastard brother
and leader of the vassals of Christina, the daughter and heiress
of Alan Mac Ruari of the North Isles."
2 Skene, Highl. Scot. ii. 59.
3 Gregory, West. Highl. and Isles, 27. See also Skene, Highl.
Scot. ii. 56, 57.
E
جي
50
THE MACKINTOSHES
brother-in-law's death with female issue only, he
laid claim to the Earldom on the ground that the
heiress, being a nun, was dead in law, and that he
was entitled in right of his wife to succeed her.
Other similar cases might be adduced, as well as
numerous instances in which property was held by
a feudal title in the Highlands so early as in
the 13th and 14th centuries; but those already
given are sufficient for our purpose so far, and
serve to show that the acquisition of the Clan
Chattan lands by Angus Mackintosh is not a solitary
case of the kind. Advancing a step further in the
matter as it more particularly concerns us in these
pages, we find, if we are to believe Mr. Skene, that
some gleams of the feudal system had penetrated
even into Lochaber, and into the Clan Chattan itself;
for, that writer tells us, the chiefs of the clan held
Lochaber, Badenoch, &c., direct from the Crown.
Although so positively stated, however, this is by no
means certain, and I mention it only for the purpose
of showing that the position here taken up on the
feudal law as regards Mackintosh's right both to
lands and headship is so far supported by Mr. Skene,
who so energetically denies that right.
1
While, then, it is certain that some of the main
features of feudal tenure existed in the Highlands
prior to the 14th century, there appears nothing
unreasonable in the account which has so long
obtained of the acquisition of the old Clan Chattan
1 Highl. Scot. ii. 170.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
51
lands by the Mackintoshes. From the fact that the
members of the clan who occupied the lands made
no opposition on their transfer to Mackintosh we
may infer that they did not hold such a trans-
fer to be wrong; and the subsequent charters
and confirmations both from the Lord of the
Isles and from the Crown serve to show that in
these high quarters also the lands were regarded
as the rightful inheritance of the
of the chiefs
chiefs of
Mackintosh.
II. The second question, affecting as it does the
pride and consequence of two great families, as well
as involving the consideration of laws, or rather
customs, pertaining to an unsettled and only half-
civilised state of society, is of greater delicacy and
less easy of solution than the first. But if the
foregoing answer to the first question be granted as
satisfactory, the difficulty is lessened. Much has
been said and written on both sides, but without
advancing the controversy far from the point
whence it first started. In the ensuing remarks I
propose to show that the right of the chiefs of
Mackintosh to be regarded as heads of the Clan
Chattan, like their right to the clan property, is
supported by the existence of parallel cases in High-
land history, as well as by the circumstances gener-
ally advanced of unchallenged usage for a considerable
period, and of charter evidence. And I may take
this opportunity of observing that what I here
say on the matter is dictated by no mere spirit of
E 2
52
THE MACKINTOSHES
partisanship, but is the expression of my views after
a very careful study of the question, in which I have
endeavoured to lay aside all clan feeling and to
arrive at a conclusion solely on the merits of the
case. Indeed I think it will be admitted that the
evidences and proofs which I bring forward in support
of the line I take are such as on thorough investiga-
tion might occur to any impartial judge, or even to
those who from early clan prepossession might be
inclined to the contrary view.
For the last two hundred years¹ the station of head
of the Clan Chattan has been warmly disputed
between various heads of the families of Mackintosh
of Mackintosh and Macpherson of Cluny. The former
have maintained that their ancestor, on his marriage
with the only child of the last chief of the original
clan, obtained the superiority over the clansmen as well
as over the lands, and have brought forward deeds and
royal charters, dating from the 14th century down-
wards, in which they have been styled captains and
chiefs of Clan Chattan. On the other hand the
Macphersons have maintained that they, being the
lineal male descendants of the ancient chiefs, were by
right entitled to the headship of the clan, and that
Mackintosh could acquire no title to that station
through a female.
1 The claim of the Macphersons to the headship of the whole
clan was first made in the time of Duncan of Cluny, to whom
the Lord Lyon's letter which will be given presently was
addressed in 1672.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
53
Mr. Skene' has warmly, though unsatisfactorily,
advocated the cause of the Macphersons, and on the
testimony of tradition and the results of his investi-
gations into the history of the tribes of Moray, he
declares that "the fact of their being the lineal and
feudal (1) representatives of the ancient chiefs of
Clan Chattan rests upon historic authority, and that
they possess that right by blood to the chiefship of
which no charters from the Crown, and no usurpation,
however successful and continued, can deprive them."
I pass by Mr. Skene's investigations into the history
of the Moray tribes, merely observing that my
estimate of the worth of their main results as affect-
ing our subject may be inferred from my remarks in
the preceding chapter on the MS. of 1450, the lamp
by whose light the investigations were made. The
traditionary testimony for the descent of the Mac-
phersons is, I conceive, much more important, and
although it is entirely unsupported by any collateral
evidence, I see no reason for totally rejecting it.
The tradition of the Macphersons is positive that,
so far as descent is concerned, the Macphersons of
Cluny are the direct male representatives of the old
chiefs; and this being the case, if the Highland
system of succession-under which females are said
1 Highl. Scot. ii. 170, &c. I forbear to enter into a full
criticism of Mr. Skene's remarks on this subject, but the careful
reader of chap. vi. part ii. of his work cannot fail to see the
weakness of his arguments and the frequent occurrence of the
non sequitur."
54
THE MACKINTOSHES
to have had no right whatever to chiefship—had been
uniformly adhered to, their claim would doubtless
carry all before it, and the accession of the Mackin-
toshes to the chiefship would be evidently an un-
warrantable usurpation. But-like almost every
other rule or principle-the principle of Highland
succession, whatever its fixity in theory, was some-
times departed from in practice, even among clans
most eminently "Highland ;" and, supposing that
the circumstances narrated on p. 45 are correct even
in their general features, it is evident, if the Macpher-
son tradition as to descent is also correct, that it must
have been departed from in the case under considera-
tion, and that with the concurrence of a large
portion, if not the whole, of the clan. We have
seen in several instances that in the 13th and 14th
centuries this principle or law was broken through in
regard to succession to property; there are also in-
stances of its being set aside in regard to succession
to chiefship. A notable one occurs in the history of
the Island chiefs :-John, first Lord of the Isles,
married twice and left three sons by each marriage;
but although some of his possessions were distributed
by the law of gavel among the sons of his first
marriage, the hereditary dignity, with the superiority
over the rest of the brothers, was given by the father
to the eldest son of the second marriage-in other
words, to his fourth son—and this disposition was
not resisted by the clansmen. The instance of
Christina, daughter of Alan Mac Ruari of the North
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
55
66
Isles, who appears to have been head of her tribe
towards the close of the 13th century, has been
already mentioned. Another example is found in the
complicated train of events which succeeded the
death of Alan Mac Ruari, chief of the Clanranald of
Moydart, in 1509. In this we find both feudal and
Highland laws set aside :-Alister, second son of
Alan, about the year 1515, was chosen by the clan as
their chief, to the exclusion of the grandsons of his
deceased elder brother Ranald Baan, in accordance
with the Highland law; but on his death the clan
chose his bastard son John Moydertach" as his
successor, again ignoring the feudal claim of the
grandsons of Ranald Baan, and also excluding Ranald
Galda, son of the old chief Alan by his second
marriage, and therefore by the Highland law the
And although on the imprison-
proper successor.
ment of John Moydertach in 1540, Ranald Galda, by
the aid of his kinsmen the Frasers, was placed in
possession of the lands and chiefship, he only retained
them until John's return from prison, when he was
ignominiously expelled. This led to the famous
battle of Cean-Loch-Lochy, or Blar-nan-leine, of which
Gregory remarks that by it "the Clanranald main-
tained in possession of the chiefship and estates of
their tribe an individual of their own choice, in
opposition to one supported by all the influence of
the feudal law." He adds,
He adds, "It is not unworthy of
notice that John Moydertach, himself an elected
chief, afterwards transmitted to his descendants,
.

56
THE MACKINTOSHES
without difficulty, the possessions that had been so
hardly won." 1
It thus appears, not only that the ancient law of
Highland succession had already begun to give way,
but also that the members of a clan occasionally
exercised the power of electing their chief, even to the
prejudice of those entitled to the station by either
Highland or feudal law; we see also, in the case last
quoted, one of these elected chiefs in whom the
Highland system of succession was abrogated hand-
ing down his acquired honours and estates to his
descendants. Is it, therefore, unreasonable to con-
jecture that Angus Mackintosh setting aside his
feudal claim through his wife-was at his father-in-
law's desire elected by the clansmen to the post of
head of Clan Chattan? Their peaceable acquiescence
in his assumption of the position certainly seems to
warrant the inference either that they forsook the
Highland principle of succession and looked upon him
as their proper head in right of his wife, or that he
became their head by election. The traditions on the
subject, however much they vary in detail, generally
speak of Mackintosh as being "received" by the clan
as their chief on his marriage with Eva.
There is another consideration affecting this branch
of the question, which seems in some degree still
further to weaken the objections which have been
¹ Gregory, West. Highl. &c. 163. Query, In the first quota-
tion, when Mr. Gregory speaks of the feudal law, does he not
mean Highland law?
AND CLAN CHATTAN,
57
66
raised against the claim of Mackintosh. When a
clan, through losses in war or by gradual decay, be-
came unable to maintain itself in a state of indepen-
dence, its members generally joined themselves to
some other clan able to afford them protection, whose
chief they acknowledged as their chief. This fact is
so well known that to quote examples seems almost a
superfluous task, but it may be well to instance two.
The first, taken from Skene's Highlanders of Scotland,¹
refers to the Macgillivrays and Macinneses, who on
the disruption of their respective clans acknowledged
and followed the Macdugall Campbells of Craignish as
their chiefs. The second I give in the words of Pro-
fessor Cosmo Innes 2 :-" Among these papers (Breadal-
bane Papers at Taymouth), there are none indicating
that the native tribes, in making their submission,
took the name of the dominant family either indi-
vidually or by clans-a practice that greatly swelled
the ranks of some names not more numerous nor
more widely spread than the Campbells. Here, on
the contrary, we find families and small tribes choos-
ing Glenurchy for their chief, sometimes renouncing
their natural head, and selecting him as leader and
protector, yet retaining their own patronymical desig-
nations. These new subjects bound themselves not
only to pay the allegiance of clansmen, but to give
the caulp of Kenkynie,'" &c. &c.
C
We have now seen (1) that the Highland law of
1 II. 115, 119.
2 Sketches of Early Scotch History, 373.
58
THE MACKINTOSHES
גי
succession was not inviolably and uniformly observed,
even so early as the 13th century; (2) that the
members of a clan, in at least one notable instance,
exercised the power of electing their chief to the
exclusion of the heir under the Highland system ;
and (3) that the allegiance of clansmen was sometimes
transferred to one not of the stock of their chiefs, and
even entirely alien to their race. Applying the
principles of these facts to the question before us, the
inference that the right of the chiefs of Mackintosh to
the headship of Clan Chattan must originally have
been founded upon them is at once perfectly reason-
able and warrantable. We know that the Mackintosh
chiefs were at the head of Clan Chattan in the 14th
and succeeding centuries, and it is not likely that the
members of that clan would have followed them or
held their lands under them without dispute if they
had not either wilfully set aside the Highland
principle of succession, and allowed Angus Mackin-
tosh and his successors to be their superiors in right
of Eva, or else wilfully transferred their allegiance.
And, let it be observed, there is not a single trace of
any difficulty between the chiefs of Mackintosh and
the tribes of the original Clan Chattan, not excepting
even the Macphersons, until the close of the 16th
century. The idea of usurpation, by which Mr.
Skene says the Mackintoshes came to the head of the
clan, is quite out of the question. It rests therefore
with those who deny the original right of Mackintosh
to the headship of Clan Chattan to prove not only
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
59
that the Highland system of succession was never
departed from, but also that a clan had not the power
either of choosing its chief or of transferring its
allegiance to the chief of another clan.
If, then, the tradition on which the opponents of
Mackintosh's claim found their opposition be true, it
seems evident that for some reason the chiefship of
Clan Chattan was actually withheld from those who
according to Highland law had the right to it. What
the reason was we can now only conjecture; special
circumstances there no doubt were,¹ but neither by
tradition nor writing has the record of them come
down to us-unless we accept the simple record of
tradition that Dougal Dall willed that his daughter's
husband should be leader of the clan, and that he was
received as such by the clansmen. It is not im-
possible that Kenneth mac Ewen Baan (if, as is doubt-
ful, he lived at the time), with some of his immediate
kinsmen, may have demurred to the arrangement by
which he was deprived of the succession; but whether
this was so or not, his adherents must have been too
few to do more than protest, and it is even probable
that his own brothers gave their assent to the arrange-
ment, as in after years-when the breach had been
made between the
the Macphersons of Cluny and
1 I am inclined to think it extremely probable that the Clan
Chattan was by no means in a flourishing condition at this time.
It is not difficult to believe that the settlement of the Comyns
in Lochaber and the Norwegian wars combined had had an
adverse effect on both their power and numbers.
60
THE MACKINTOSHES
Mackintosh-we find their descendants frequently at
variance with his, and generally friends to the
Mackintoshes.
We have thus far confined our attention to the
simple question of the original right of the chiefs of
Mackintosh to the headship of Clan Chattan, compar-
ing it in its various bearings with cases of a similar
nature, and stripping it of the minor externals of un-
challenged usage, charter evidence, &c., which are
usually brought forward as the chief or only sup-
ports of Mackintosh's title.¹ Although perhaps the
""
1 Thus Mr. Skene-"The Mackintoshes have triumphantly
brought forward charters and documents of every description in
support of their alleged title"; "they (the Macphersons) possess
that right by blood to the chiefship of which no charters from
the Crown and no usurpation, however successful and continued,
can deprive them (Highl. Scot. ii. 172). And Dr. Browne—
"It is not very easy to see how so great a mass of written
evidence can be overcome by merely calling into court tradition."
"The original assumption of the title of captain implies that no
chief was in existence at the period when it was assumed: and
its continuance unchallenged and undisputed affords strong pre-
sumptive proof in support of the account given by the Mackin-
toshes as to the original constitution of their title" (Hist. of
Highlands, iv. 471). Mr. Donald Gregory also lays stress on
the continued usage of the title by the Mackintoshes.
well known and easily proved that the title of captain and
chief of Clan Chattan has been enjoyed by the family of
Mackintosh for at least four hundred years" (Western Highlands
and Isles, 422).
"It is
In a long letter to the father of the present Mackintosh on
the subject, dated 14 June 1836, Mr. Gregory, whose opinion
must be admitted to carry great weight, says "I can imagine no
case stronger or better supported by an incontrovertible array of
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
1 61
foregoing remarks may suffice to show that no such
supports or props are absolutely necessary for the
stability of this title, they are still useful and im-
portant in their way, and it may be worth while to
bestow a brief glance upon them before we quit the
subject.
As to unchallenged usage, it is only necessary to
say that no attempt appears to have been made to re-
sist the first assumption of the leadership of Clan
Chattan by the chief of Mackintosh, and that for
three centuries afterwards the Macphersons, with the
other septs of the clan, acknowledged the Mackintosh
chiefs as their superiors, and followed them in war.
It was only by the intriguing of the Earl of Huntly
in 1591-4 that a division at length took place, and
the Macphersons of Cluny declared, not their right to
the chiefship of Clan Chattan, but simply their
independence of Mackintosh.
Numerous are the charters and deeds of almost
every description in which, from the 14th century
downwards, the heads of Clan Mackintosh are spoken
of as Captains, Principals, and Chiefs of Clan
Chattan; and numerous also are the references to
them in contemporary history and correspondence at
various periods as being leaders of the clan. The
facts (not theories or opinions, which in a question of this kind
are totally inapplicable) than yours. Nor on the other hand
can I imagine one weaker, worse supported by facts, and resting
more exclusively on vague assertion, than that of my friend
Cluny."
62
THE MACKINTOSHES
first occurrence of the designation "Captain of Clan
Chattan" is in a charter of Glenlui and Locharkaig,
given in 1337 by John of Isla-afterwards first Lord
of the Isles—to William, Angus Mackintosh's son and
successor. It next appears in the confirmation of this
same charter by King David Bruce, dated at Scone
the last day of February, 1359.¹ In the next two
centuries it occurs frequently in charters and confir-
mations. In 1543 some of the principal men of the
clan give a band, dated at Inverness the 2nd May, in
which they affirm that they will withdraw their alle-
giance from "Wilzeam M'Intosche (15th chief) gywe
it hapins the said Wilzeam M'Intosche to failze and
break" a band which he at the same time gives to the
Earl of Huntly, "for hymself and ws his kyn of Clan
Chattan." Among the twenty-two names in the
Band are those of three Macfarsones, Bean and two
Donalds. This shows that the Macphersons in 1543
regarded Mackintosh as their superior, and although
1 It must be stated, however, that neither the charter nor its
confirmation is known to be now in existence, and the editor
of the Memoirs of Lochiel (pp. 173, 355) states that their
authenticity is considered dubious. They are mentioned by the
author of the Kinrara MS., however, and he would scarcely
speak of them as he does unless he had actually seen them and
had been satisfied as to their genuineness. Some important
papers were destroyed at Moy in 1746, and among these may
have been the two in question.
2 I should remark that the Band was made with no unfriendly
feeling to William Mackintosh, but merely with the object of
adding solemnity to his own engagement with Huntly. Several
of William's own immediate kinsmen are among the grantors.
1
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
63
the territorial designations are not given, I have little
doubt, on a comparison of the Macpherson genealogies,
that one of the two Donalds was the then chieftain of
Clan Mhuirich.1
Lesley says that the Clan Chattan was also called
Mackintoshes, from Mackintosh its head; "tribus
Clanchattana vulgo nuncupata M'Intoshiana prin-
cipe M'Intoshio dicebatur;" he also speaks of
William, 15th of Mackintosh, as "Clanchattania
tribus ducem.” Buchanan calls the same chief
1 It will be observed that this Band of 1543, in which we
find three Macphersons-not to mention others who from their
names appear to have been of the original Clan Chattan stock
-owning allegiance to the chief of Mackintosh, was given before
the Earl of Huntly had instigated the Macphersons to declare
themselves independent. Mr. Skene, the zealous advocate of the
Macphersons, admits that they began to assert their right to the
chiefship in consequence of the countenance and support which
Huntly afforded them in 1591, and accounts for their previous
silence in the matter by the circumstance that they wanted the
power, not the will, to assert their right with any chance of
success. "Finding themselves in point of strength altogether
unable to offer any opposition to the Mackintoshes, they had
yielded an unwilling submission to the head of that family, and
had followed him as leader of the clan; but even during this
period they endeavoured to give to that submission as much as
might be of the character of a league, and as if their adherence
was in the capacity of an ally, and not as a dependent branch
of the clan" (Highl. Scot. ii. 184). Mr. Skene, however, does
not inform us on what grounds he thus speaks of unwilling sub-
mission, &c., and he is not correct either in stating that Cluny
asserted his right to the chiefship during Mackintosh's feud with
Huntly in 1591-1594, or in speaking of a final separation at
that time.
2 De Origine, Moribus, et Gestis Scotorum, lib. 9, 10.
}
64
THE MACKINTOSHES
T
"Cattanæ familiæ princeps." Both these authors
wrote in the 16th century.
In 1609 Andrew Macpherson of Cluny, deserted
by Huntly when that noble became reconciled to
Mackintosh in 1597, joined with other principals of
the kin of Clan Chattan in subscribing a heritable
band of manrent and service to Lachlan 17th of
Mackintosh, and to his tutor for the time being.
The band is signed and agreed to by several other
Macphersons, but it should be stated that Cluny
was the only one among the heads of the principal
families of the Macphersons who had gone against
Mackintosh in his quarrel with Huntly. In this
band the subscribers engage to maintain and defend
the chief of Mackintosh, and to be found loyal and
true to him "likeas they to that effect has united,
incorporated, annexed, copulate, and insinuated them-
selves in one band and perpetual amity to stand
amongst them, as it was of old according to the King
of Scotland his gift of chieftainrie of the said Clan
Chattan granted thereupon, in the which they are
and is astricted to serve Mackintosh as their captain
and chief." The royal gift of chieftainry here
acknowledged by the clan in 1609 was granted
in 1380-1 by Robert II. to Lachlan, 8th chief of
Mackintosh, grandson of Angus and Eva.
In 1672 Duncan Macpherson of Cluny boldly
declared himself independent of Mackintosh, and
applied for and obtained from the Lord Lyon's office
the matriculation of his arms as "the Laird of Cluny
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
65
""
""
Macpherson, and the only and true representer of
the ancient and honourable family of Clan Chattan.
In the same year, on the occasion of an order of
the Privy Council, he had himself bound for the
good behaviour of his clan as "Lord of Cluny and
chief of the Macphersons. Lachlan Mackintosh
(19th chief) immediately made a counter-application
to the Lord Lyon and the Privy Council, and the
result in each case was a decision favourable to
his claim, and adverse to that of Cluny, to the
headship of the Clan Chattan. The judgment of
the Privy Council ordained Mackintosh to give bond
for "those of his clan, his vassals, those descendit
of his family, his men, tenents, and servants, and
dwelling upon his ground;" and ordained Cluny
"to give bond for those of his name of Macpherson
descendit of his family, and his men, tenents, and
servants, but (i.e. without) prejudice always to the
Laird of Mackintosh." Cluny was ordered by the
Lords of the Privy Council to return the letters
of relief which he had obtained, together with such
bands as had been given him by his friends in which
he had been called chief, that they might be de-
stroyed, and to procure new letters bearing only his
name, surname, and place of designation in common
form.
The Lords of Privy Council appear also on this
occasion actually to have had a discussion on the
question of the headship of Clan Chattan, though
they came to no determination upon it. Mackintosh,
F
66
THE MACKINTOSHES
in addition to various bands of manrent and other
documents confirmatory of his title, caused to be
laid before the Council a band dated 19th November
1664, subscribed by Andrew, Lachlan, and John
Macpherson, respectively of Cluny, Pitmean, and
Invereshie, in which he was styled "Lauchlan
Mackintosh of Torcastle our chief."
The Declaration of the Lord Lyon is more explicit
than the Privy Council decision, and is sufficiently
important to demand insertion in full. A letter from
the Lord Lyon to Andrew of Cluny himself on the
same subject and at the same time is also given.
DECLARATION BY THE LORD LYON.
I, Sir Charles Areskine of Cambo, Knight Baronet, Lord Lion
King at Arms, having perused and seen sufficient Evidents and
Testimonies from our Histories, my own Register and Bonds of
Manrent, do hereby declare, That I find the Laird of Mackin-
tosh to be the only undoubted Chief of the name of Mackintosh
and of the Clan Chattan, comprehending the M'Phersons,
M'Gilvrays, Farquharsons, M'Queens, M'Beans, and others; and
that I have given and will give none of these families any arms
but as cadets of M'Intosh's family, whose predecessor married
the Heretrix of Clan Chattan in anno 1291; and in particular
I declare, That I have given Duncan M'Pherson of Cluny a coat
of arms as cadets of the said family.
And that this may
remain to posterity and may be known to all concerned, whether
of the said name or others, I have subscribed thir presents at
Edinburgh the tenth day of November 1672."
LETTER FROM THE LORD LYON TO DUNCAN MACPHERSON OF CLUNY.
"Sir, I have given you a coat of arms as a cadet of M'Intosh
his family, and yet you have (upon pretext of that) given your-
self out for a chief of the M'Phersons, as we are informed, and
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
67
have used supporters without any warrant, and given yourself
the designation of Chief of the old Clan Chattan; this is
neither fair nor just, and therefore you will be pleased not to
abuse any favour I gave you beyond my intention, who is, Sir,
your humble Servant (Sd) Charles Erskine.
"P.S. I have ordered M'Intosh to keep this letter after you
have seen it."
Coming down to more recent times we find the
chieftain of Clan Mhuirich subscribing an agreement
in which, on consideration of his receiving the davoch
and lands of Gellovy &c., he renounces for himself
and successors, in favour of Lachlan Mackintosh and
his successors, "all and whatsoever pretension he
had, has, or any way may have, to the chieftainry
of Clan Chattan for now and for ever;" and "binds
and obliges himself, his heirs and successors, friends.
and followers, to follow and own the said Lauchlan
Mackintosh, his heirs and successors, as chief of the
Clan Chattan." This document-which will be more
fully quoted afterwards-is dated at Moy Hall on
the 15th Sept. 1724.
In spite of all these acknowledgments, declarations,
and renunciations, the dispute again arose in the
present century, and was only saved from being
dragged through a lawsuit by the refusal of the
Lords of Session to entertain it, on the ground that
the rank disputed was but nominal. It was, how-
ever, the opinion of the lawyers who investigated
the matter (two of whom were afterwards Lords
of Session) that Mackintosh, in right of his ances
tress Eva, was entitled to use the title of Captain
F 2
68
THE MACKINTOSHES
of Clan Chattan, and to bear the arms and supporters
pertaining to that dignity.
There is one argument more in favour of the
claim of the chiefs of Mackintosh to the headship
of Clan Chattan. It is this,--The body known as
Clan Chattan in the 14th and succeeding centuries
was not of the same composition as that which had
previously borne the name. It was a confederacy
consisting of members of the original Clan Chattan,
of Mackintoshes and their offshoots, and of other
tribes and families not connected by ties of blood
with either Macphersons or Mackintoshes. The
latter of course became connected with the old Clan
Chattan by the marriage of their chief with Eva
;
the other tribes alluded to-the Macgillivrays and
Macqueens, for example-united themselves under
Mackintosh for purposes of mutual defence and
protection, and while retaining individually their
own tribal names, they with the rest became known
collectively as the Clan Chattan, the chief of Mackin-
tosh, as their leader and head, having a designation
-that of Captain of Clan Chattan-which com-
prehended all of them. The title of Captain was
applied to the head of the Clan Cameron for a
similar reason, that clan being also a confederacy
of several tribes, as Camerons proper, Macmartins,
Macgilonies &c., most of whom in course of time
adopted the name Cameron. Such, then, being
the composition of the modern Clan Chattan—the
Clan Chattan of History-it can scarcely be held
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
69
that the chieftains of Clan Mhuirich have or have
ever had any right to be regarded as its heads.
Those who have carefully and impartially perused
the foregoing remarks must, I venture to think,
admit that although the Macphersons of Cluny may
be the lineal male representatives of the chiefs of
the old Clan Chattan, the right to the headship of
the clan belongs solely to the chiefs of Mackintosh,
who possess it by inheritance from Eva, by the
consent of the majority of the clan of the whole
previously to the last three hundred years, and by
continued usage for a period of nearly six hundred
years, not to speak of the authority of King and
Government at various periods. But the headship
of the clan exists now only in name; the law of
the land recognises no such rank as that of chief
or leader of a clan; the very status of a clan
itself is abrogated, and "no definition sufficient for
judicial purposes of what a clan is" can be found.¹
The statutes of the early Hanoverian reigns gave
forth the death warrant to the system of clanship,
the obligations and services of which were considered
to be inconsistent with the allegiance of the subject
1 In an Interlocutor given 22 Dec. 1860 in the case of the
claim of Neil John Macgillivray of Dunmaglass to the lands of
Faillie, founded on the limitation of the succession, in the
original disposition, to "members of the Clan Chattan allenarly,"
the Lord Ordinary (Ardmillan) laid down that "the purposes
for which clans once existed as tolerated, but not as sanctioned,
societies, are not now lawful. To all practical purposes they do
not legally exist. The law knows them not."
70
THE MACKINTOSHES
A
to the Crown; and the authority and power of the
chiefs, derived either from their ancient patriarchal
relations to their clans or from feudal inheritance,
were for ever destroyed. But no legislation could
at once undo the tie, "the filial band," which knit
the heart of the clansman to his chief as closely as
to his native mountains and glens; it might indeed
declare that he was absolved from all dependence
on the head of his race, and that the latter had no
right to demand his attendance in hunting or hosting;
but it could not suddenly eradicate from his mind
the feeling that of all men his chief had the first
claim upon his love and obedience. And although
during the past century there has been such a
wondrous change in almost everything changeable,
there are to be found, even in these days, hundreds
of men and women who cling to the ancient simple
faith in reverencing and honouring the head of their
race, for whose fathers their fathers fought and
bled and died, and in whose long descended honours
they can glory, being of the same blood and
kindred.
Who then shall ridicule the spirit which may still
glory in the possession of a title such as that of
head of Clan Chattan, or which may still prompt
those who believe it to be theirs to lay claim to
it-mere name though it be, devoid of all intrinsic
weight or authority? A title, frequently a new
one specially created, has been and often is the prize
aimed at and struggled for through half a lifetime
7
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
71
with such constancy and persistence as would, if
rightly directed, suffice to gain heaven. But here
is a title, than which few in Scotland or England are
more ancient, surrounded by the associations of
centuries, and demanding the esteem and veneration
of thousands of clansmen-a title which
which was
historical long before the periods whence half our
present noble families can count their ancestors.
No wonder that, although its value is sentimental
only, the contest for it has for two hundred years
been kept up with so much warmth, and all honour
to the spirit which has actuated those who have
fought for and those who have defended it!

72
THE MACKINTOSHES
CHAPTER III.
Angus, 6th chief-Bannockburn-Expedition into England
-Grant of lands in Badenoch; Benchar, &c.-Downfall of
the Comyns-William, 7th chief-Commencement of the
Feud with the Camerons; Battle at Drumlui-Acquisition
of Moy-Second War of Independence-Clan Chattan at
Neville's Cross-Lachlan, 8th chief-Prosecution of the
Feud with the Camerons; Battle at Invernahavon.
RESUMING our narrative after the long but necessary
digression of the preceding chapter, we now follow
the fortunes of Angus, 6th chief of Mackintosh.
We have seen that at the time of his union with
the heiress of Clan Chattan, and for some years after
that event, Angus was an exile from his ancestral
home in the Castle of Inverness, as well as from
some of his lands, but that his marriage had brought
him new possessions. The chief of these were the
"forty merk lands" of Glenlui and Locharkaig in
Lochaber, in after years the subject of a long and
fierce contention with the Camerons. These lands,
the head-quarters of the Clan Chattan at that time,
were at first the home of the young couple; from
their marriage until 1308, according to the Croy
MS., they resided in Lochaber-perhaps in Tor Castle,
AND CLAN CHATTAN,
73
whose ruined walls still overlook the Lochy, and from
which some of the chiefs of Mackintosh were after-
wards designated "of Torcastle." The cause of their
leaving Lochaber is said by tradition to have been a
dread of the displeasure of the lord of Isla, who
had intended to wed Eva to one of his own family.
At all events, at or shortly after the death of the
old chief of Clan Chattan, Angus and Eva placed
themselves at a distance from their kinsman of Isla
by removing to Badenoch. The Kinrara MS. con-
nects this removal with the expedition of Bruce
against the Comyns; "the power of the Comyns
increasing, Angus saw himself unable to oppose them,
and remained in Lochaber till 1308, when King
Robert Bruce surprised and overthrew the garrison
of Inverness."
Their abode in Badenoch was Rothimurcus, the
only one of Mackintosh's holdings which appears to
have been at first available. A more pleasant home
they could scarcely have chosen. The whole district
of Rothimurcus abounds in grandeur and loveliness,
but nowhere are these found in such profusion as
about the Doune, where the Spey rolls rapidly along
through pine-clad glades and verdant sward, and
Loch-an-Eilan sleeps in wild beauty under the shadow
of the giant Cairngorm. "The great magician him-
self, in his most imaginative mood," says one,
“could
not have conjured up a lovelier spot. Hemmed in
by mountain, rock, and wood-the former towering
to a great height, the latter dipping into the water-

74
THE MACKINTOSHES
Loch-an-Eilan truly realises the poetical image of a
mirror set in a deep and gorgeous frame." 1
Here, one would think, was a home which might
almost have tempted the chief to accept with
patience the adversities of his lot. But his mind
seems to have been of that stirring warlike character
indispensable in a chieftain of those days, and he
could not long rest in slothful ease even among
pleasant scenes and calm retreats such as those of
Rothimurcus. His duty to himself, his children, and
his clan, demanded that he should take steps towards
recovering those portions of his patrimony which
had been wrested from him; and his fealty to his
king and country made it his bounden duty to assist
in setting the one on a firm throne, and defending
and preserving the other against foreign domination.
He accordingly soon renounced his quiet life for one
of active warfare, and joined the patriotic forces of
the gallant King Robert Bruce, who were now re-
covering one by one the fortresses in the hands of
the English, and driving those invaders out of the
country.
Bruce's great enemy, Edward I. of England, when
on his way to inflict a blow which he intended should
crush to pieces the power of Bruce, and rivet the
already half-made links which should bind Scotland
to England, had been himself stricken down by the
last enemy of all. In July 1307 he lay within sight
of the country he had come to devastate, with the
1 Carruthers, Highland Note Book, 209.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
75
hand of death cold upon him. Yet even in his last
moments his vindictive hatred of the Scots was so
little mitigated that he gave to his son and successor
strict injunctions not to rest till he had subjugated
the hated race, and to carry his dead bones in front
of the army as often as the Scots attempted to
regain their freedom. How the son carried out his
dying father's commands we know; instead of the
horrible service he had been enjoined to perform to
his parent's corpse, he had it decently buried, thereby
performing one of the most sensible actions of his
life. Whether or not he inherited his father's hatred
for Scotland, the new monarch of England was
decidedly lacking in the qualities which had brought
his predecessor success and renown. What bravery
he possessed was more than counterbalanced by want
of energy and love of pleasure; and so, preferring a
life of luxury and dissipation with his worthless
favourites in England to the hardships of a campaign
in Scotland, he gave up for a time any attempts
to secure his father's conquests.
In the meanwhile Bruce and his companions in
arms were steadily prosecuting their efforts for re-
lieving their country from the yoke of the oppressor,
strengthening their hands every day by the acquisi-
tion of friends and the conquest of English troops
and garrisons. At last only one place of any con-
sequence, Stirling, remained in the hands of the
English, and this was to be surrendered if not re-
lieved within a certain period. Edward was now
}
76
THE MACKINTOSHES
roused by the complaints of his nobles from his life
of sluggish pleasure, and he determined to march in
person to the north with an army which he fondly
hoped would crush all opposition, and render the
subjugation of the Scots a certain and easy matter.
With a greater array of chivalry and yeomen than
had followed any of his predecessors, he met the
comparatively small army of Bruce near Stirling
on the 24th June 1314, and the result was the
crowning mercy" of Bannockburn, which secured
the independence of Scotland, and inflicted such a
blow upon her enemies as they never before or after
sustained.
66
The chief of Mackintosh had the honour of par-
ticipating in this great victory, and in the list of
Highland chiefs who were present, given by General
Stewart of Garth, he is placed second. The MS.
History speaks of him as one of Randolph's chief
commanders in the battle. He also accompanied
Randolph in the campaign of 1318-9 in England,
when the English were defeated in several encounters,
the most memorable being that fought near the Swale
in Yorkshire on the 20th September 1319, which,
from the number of ecclesiastics who fell in it, was
called the "Chapter of Mitton."
For his services Mackintosh was rewarded in 1319
with a grant of the lands of Benchar in Badenoch,
and of the country stretching about six miles between
Benchar and the water of Goynach-the Comyns
having been expelled from that district by Bruce

AND CLAN CHATTAN.
77
before the battle of Bannockburn. It was in all
probability about this time, as Gregory thinks,¹ that
the first large settlement of the Clan Chattan took
place in Badenoch. Some members had no doubt
settled there long before, but the attendant circum-
stances the expulsion of the Comyns, the changes
in the clan itself consequent on the marriage of the
heiress to Mackintosh, and the fact that it is not
until after this time that we find mention of any of
its members as holding lands there-all seem to point
to the inference that the early part of the 14th
century was the period at which the clan obtained
that hold in the district which they have since
maintained.
Besides their possessions in Badenoch, the Comyns
had also been deprived of the greater part of their
estate in Moray, over which district Randolph was
made lord, with the title of Earl of Moray. As his
lordship included the Crown lands occupied by the
Mackintoshes, he was in this respect their feudal
superior, which may account for his being accom-
panied by the chief in 1318-9. Although the district
had been assigned to him, Randolph had still to win
it before he could call himself its sole lord, for the
Comyns in Moray were able to hold their own against
him and their other assailants for some time after
the rest of their name had sunk, some indeed holding
out until they made terms for remaining in their
possessions. Thus the Mackintosh lands of Rait and
1 West. Highl, &c. 78.

78
THE MACKINTOSHES
Geddes, which the Comyns had usurped, did not at
once return to their rightful owners.
After a long chiefship, marked by important
events in the history both of the clan and the
country at large, Angus died in 1345, in the 77th
year of his age. Besides his successor William, he
had, with two daughters, six other sons,-John ;
Angus "Og" (ancestor of the Mackintoshes of
Glentilt, afterwards of Dalmunzie); Malcolm (killed
at Durham in 1346, and whose grandson William,
having fled into Mar on account of a murderous
outrage in which he was concerned, became the
progenitor of some families of Mackintoshes in that
district, as well as, it is supposed, of the Aberdeen-
shire Toshes); Ferquhard, also killed at Durham ;
Duncan, whose son Iver was killed at Drumlui; and
Shaw.
(7) WILLIAM'S chiefship was signalised by the com-
mencement of a long and bloody feud with the
Camerons. The removal of his parents from their
lands in Lochaber, and the reason for it, as detailed
by local tradition, have already been noticed. The
same authority adds that the lands thus vacated were
taken possession of by the Camerons, who for some
years occupied them without disturbance; that
William, on attaining manhood, demanded the re-
storation of his inheritance, but that his claim was
denied and his demand refused by the Camerons,
on the ground that the lands had been deserted, and
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
79
now of right belonged to themselves, who had been
the first to seize and occupy them. William is said
to have then endeavoured to substantiate his claim
by force of arms; the Kinrara MS. mentions a great
battle at Drumlui in which William was victorious
over Donald Alin vic Ewin vic Ian; and thus com-
menced the feud between the two clans which was
not finally extinguished till near the close of the
17th century.
However much or little of truth is contained in
this record of tradition, it seems certain that in 1337,
during his father's lifetime, William Mackintosh
obtained from John of Isla, afterwards Lord of the
Isles, a right to the old Clan Chattan lands of Glenlui
and Loch Arkaig¹-John having received the lordship
of Lochaber, with other territories, from Edward
Balio in 1335. On the fall of Baliol from his brief
elevation, and on his resigning the kingdom and
crown to the King of England in 1356-7, Mackintosh,
judging probably that a title so acquired would be
insufficient under the new order of things, obtained
from David II. a confirmation, dated at Scone the last
""
1 This was probably one of the first charters given by the
island lords to one of their followers. Mr. Burton seems to
think that the feudal tenure began to obtain in the dominions of
these lords about this time; after mentioning the "parchment
submission of the Lord of Isla to David II. he adds, “He
bethought him of exercising the prerogatives of a sovereign in
the Norman form, and executed charters to subordinate heads
of clans, Mackintoshes, Mackenzies, and Macleans, who were
to hold lands of him as their lord paramount." Hist. Scot.
iii. 95.
80
THE MACKINTOSHES
+
•
day of February, 1359,' of the grant made by the
lord of Isla. Whether the fact of his father's having
deserted the lands in dispute was sufficient to annul
the right of his family to them or not, William had
thus a legal right to Glenlui and Locharkaig; but in
the days when lands were acquired and held by
the good old rule, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can,
legal right was often of only secondary importance.
Therefore, not possessing with his right sufficient
might to dislodge the Camerons, and it being abso-
lutely useless to invoke the law, which was powerless
¹ It has been already remarked that in the charters of 1337
and 1359 occurs the first mention of Mackintosh by the style of
Captain of Clan Chattan. The fact that the earlier of these
charters was given to William in his father's lifetime seems
rather important. I am indebted to Mr. Fraser-Mackintosh for
the suggestion that probably Eva, William's mother, was dead
in 1337, and that the lands were granted by the superior to
William as falling to him by right through his mother. The
value of this suggestion is enhanced when we recollect that
Robert Bruce was in possession of the Earldom of Carrick, his
mother's inheritance, during the lifetime of his father the Earl of
Annandale. "It is said that during his lifetime he " (the elder
Bruce) "transferred his estate and title of Carrick to his son ;
but this was his wife's inheritance, and may have gone to her
son by the nature of the investiture. The father is thus, in the
narrative of the time, called Lord of Annandale, and the son
Earl of Carrick until the father's death." Burton, Hist. Scot.
ii. 286-8, 345. As already mentioned in chap. ii. the charters
referred to in the text are not known to be in existence at the
present time, but there seems no reason for doubting that they
once existed.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
81
in these remote districts, Mackintosh was compelled,
however unwillingly, to behold this portion of his
inheritance in the hands of strangers.
Such was the origin of one of the most remarkable
of the many feuds which for centuries raged among
the inhabitants of the northern parts of Scotland, and
which, while useful in giving some relief to the
industrious Lowlanders from the depredations of
their wilder neighbours, were not only a constant
bar to the progress of the Highland race, but a
source of weakness to the country at large.
The MS. History relates that, in fulfilment of a
vow, William spent Christmas for several consecutive
years on the top of Tirchionan in Loch Arkaig, and
also desired that the island might be his place of
burial. The reason for this curious proceeding is
not given, but we may infer that it had some con-
nection with the feud with the Camerons; and with
regard to his wish to be buried in Loch Arkaig,
perhaps the chief, with a kind of grim humour, was
determined, as he could not enjoy his own land
in his life, to have some of it for himself in death.
In 1337 William obtained the barony of Moy, now
and for centuries past the principal seat of the chiefs
of Mackintosh. He also, after his accession to the
chiefship, obtained a new lease of Rothimurcus from
the Bishop of Moray, John Pilmore, dated 19th
March 1347-8.
Although apparently somewhat of a man of business,
as is shown by the additions he made to his family
G
82
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
ence.
property and his carefulness to secure what he had by
confirmation or renewal, this chief was not behind his
predecessors in warlike exploits. While yet a young
man, and during his father's lifetime, he had engaged
on the side of David II. in the second war of independ-
This, though perhaps inferior in lustre and
interest to the first war, as lacking the exploits of
Robert Bruce and his distinguished compatriots,
partook much of the same character, and was as
warmly prosecuted and contributed quite as much
to the preservation of the liberties of the kingdom.
The condition of the royal faction after the battle
of Halidon Hill seemed as hopeless as that of Robert
Bruce after the battle of Methven, twenty years before.
The only places which held out for King David
were the strong castles of Dumbarton, Lochleven,
Lochmaben, Urquhart, and Kildrummie. The last-
named stronghold, near the head of the Don in
Braemar, was closely beleaguered by the Earl of
Athole, a partisan of Baliol and the English, and was
bravely defended by Christian Bruce, aunt of the
young king and wife of the Regent Sir Andrew
Moray. With all the force he could muster—not
a large one-the Regent hastened to raise the
siege, and among his hastily collected army were
some of the Clan Chattan, under the command of the
chief's eldest son. On St. Andrew's Day 1335, the
Regent encountered his foes, and in the conflict which
ensued, known as the battle of Kilblene, Athole's
was completely routed and himself slain.
army
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
83
Ten years later, the Clan Chattan took part in the
disastrous battle of Durham, or Neville's Cross.
Taking advantage of the absence of the English king
in France, the Scots, although the kingdoms were
at truce, marched into England, harrying the country
through which they passed with great severity. They
were brought to a check near Durham, and in the
battle of Neville's Cross, 17th Oct. 1346, suffered
a signal defeat, the king being taken prisoner.
William Mackintosh, urged perhaps by zealous loyalty
or by an eager appetite for warfare, had joined in this
campaign with the clan, of whom he was now chief,
and he appears to have been comparatively as un-
fortunate in the engagement as any other leader in
the army. Besides considerable loss among the
inferior members of the clan, no fewer than three of
his own brothers were killed, and he himself was
wounded.
His residence was at Connage in Petty, the original
seat of his family in the north, which from 1314, when
the crown lands in that part were assigned to the
Earldom of Moray, was held as a fief under the
Earldom, instead of as formerly direct from the
Crown. He was twice married; by his first wife,
Florence, daughter of the Thane of Calder, he had
one son, who succeeded him, and a daughter, married
to Ruari mac Alan mhic Ranald of Moydart; by his
second wife, Margaret, daughter of Ruari Mor Macleod
of the Lewis, he had, with four daughters, a son
Malcolm, who eventually acquired the chiefship. He
G 2
84
THE MACKINTOSHES
had also a natural son, Adam, from whom sprang the
Mackintoshes of Glenisla and Glenshee.
William died at Connage in 1368, and in accordance
with his wish was buried in the island in Loch Arkaig.
He was succeeded by his eldest son.
(8) LACHLAN was at the head of the clan for the long
period of nearly forty years, and his chiefship is
remarkable for the vigorous prosecution of the feud
with the Clan Cameron, and for the occurrence of the
notable fight at Perth in 1396 which has so greatly
exercised modern antiquaries.
Tradition abounds in notices of the hostilities which
raged between Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron in re-
gard to the disputed lands of Glenlui and Loch Arkaig,
and especially of the fight at Invernahavon, which
some authorities think was the immediate cause of the
combat at Perth. Each side occasionally carried the
war into the other's country, harrying lands and
lifting property after the usual fashion. In 1370,
according to the Mackintosh MSS.-or, as other
authorities have it, sixteen years later-the Camerons,
to the number of about four hundred, made a raid into
Badenoch, and were returning home with the booty
they had acquired when they were overtaken at
Invernahavon by a body of the Clan Chattan led by
Mackintosh in person. Although outnumbering their
opponents, the Clan Chattan wellnigh experienced a
signal defeat in the engagement which took place,
owing to a dispute such as that which in after years
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
85
contributed largely to the disaster of Culloden—a
dispute as to precedence. Mackintosh was ac-
companied by Macpherson, head of the clan Mhuirich,
and Mac Dhaibhidh or Davidson of Invernahavon,
with their respective septs; and between these two
chieftains a difference arose as to which of them
should have the command of the right wing, the post
of honour. It is said that Macpherson claimed it as
being the male representative of the old chiefs of the
clan, while Davidson contended that by the custom
of the clans the honour should be his, as being the
oldest cadet, the representative of the oldest surviving
branch. Taking the literal application of the custom,
Davidson's claim was perhaps justifiable; but the case
was peculiar, inasmuch as Macpherson, his senior in
the clan, did not hold the actual position of chief. As
neither party would give way, the dispute was referred
to Mackintosh, who decided in favour of Davidson,
thus unfortunately offending the Clan Mhuirich, who
withdrew in disgust. By awarding the command of
the right to either chieftain, Mackintosh would doubt-
less have given offence to the other; but his decision
against the claim of Macpherson, besides being some-
what unjust, was highly imprudent, as the Macphersons
were more numerous than the Mackintoshes and
Davidsons together, and without them, Mackintosh's
force was inferior to that of the Camerons.
The battle resulted in the total defeat of the
Mackintoshes and Davidsons, the latter being almost
entirely cut off. But the honour of Clan Chattan
+
· 86
THE MACKINTOSHES
was redeemed by the Macphersons, who, generously
forgetting for the time the slight that had been put
upon them, and remembering only that those who had
offended them were their brother clansmen and in
distress, attacked the Camerons with such vigour that
they soon changed their victory into defeat and put
them to flight. The fugitives are said to have taken
their flight towards Drummouchter, skirting the end
of Loch Ericht, and then turning westwards in the
direction of the River Treig. According to the Rev.
L. Shaw,¹ the leader of the Camerons was Charles Mac
Gilony, who was killed; but this is contrary to the
tradition of the locality, which states that "Mac
Dhomhnuil Duibhe," the chief, commanded in person.
Charles Mac Gilony, however, figures prominently
in this tradition as an important man among the
Camerons, and a famous archer.2
¹ Hist. Moray, 216.
2 The account given of this matter by Bishop Donald Mac-
kintosh, embodying the local traditions, is somewhat at variance
with that in the text, inasmuch as it attributes the interference
of the Macphersons to a less lofty motive. The Bishop says
that the chief of Mackintosh sent a minstrel to the encampment
of Clan Mhuirich, who, feigning that he came from the
Camerons, sang some lines reflecting on the cowardice of those
who hung back in the hour of danger; and that this trick had
the desired effect, for Macpherson, enraged at the Camerons for
the supposed affront, attacked their camp the same night and put
them to flight. But the account given in the text is obviously
much more probable, as it can scarcely be supposed that the
Camerons, considerably weakened as they must have been in the
engagement during the day, would have lingered in a hostile
country, or that the Macphersons would not have retired to
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
87
It is the opinion of the Rev. Lachlan Shaw and
of some writers who follow him, that the dispute at
Invernahavon between the chieftains of Clan Mhuirich
and Clan Dhaibhidh led to the celebrated judicial
conflict which took place in 1396 on the North Inch
of Perth, in the presence of King Robert III. and his
court. Dr. Browne¹ states that "the parties to this
combat were the Macphersons, properly the Clan
Chattan, and the Davidsons of Invernahavon, called
in the Gaelic Clan Dhaibidh, commonly pronounced
Clan Chai"; and that "these rival tribes had for a
long period kept up a deadly enmity at one another,
which was difficult to be restrained; but, after the
award by Mackintosh against the Macphersons, that
enmity broke out into open strife, and for ten years
the Macphersons and the Davidsons carried on a war
of extermination and kept the country in an uproar.
For the first portion of this latter statement there is
no foundation whatever; and with regard to the
remainder it is only necessary to say that had any
open strife or exterminating war been waged between
the two septs, its limits would have been too confined,
and its importance too small, to admit of its causing
any material inconvenience to the country. Dr.
Browne seems to have drawn largely on his imagina-
tion for this description, and to have applied to the
their homes. No doubt the second action followed immediately
after the first. The traditionary story is given, in Gaelic, in the
Cuairtear nan Gleann, iii. 331.
1 Hist. of Highlands, i. 153.

88
THE MACKINTOSHES
MACKINTOS
Macphersons and Davidsons the circumstances related
by the chroniclers who notice the combat at Perth,
without fully considering whether these would suit
their case.
It is indeed highly probable that the combat at
Perth had some connection with that at Invernahavon,
but such a connection seems from the circumstances
much more likely to have had reference to the long
standing feud with the Camerons than to an
important dispute between two septs of Clan Chattan.
This point, however, will be examined in treating of
the combat at Perth, which is of sufficient interest
and importance to be entitled to a separate chapter
for its narration and consideration.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
89
CHAPTER IV.
The Clan Battle at Perth in 1396; its Causes, and an Identifi-
cation of the Clans engaged in it-Alleged community of
stock of Clans Chattan and Cameron.
THE fact that in the year 1396 a combat was
fought at Perth, in the presence of the Scottish
Court, between champions from two Highland clans,
is so amply and clearly vouched for by History as to
leave no room for doubt that such an event actually
took place. It is mentioned, and the circumstances
are detailed with apparent attention to exactness, by
contemporary writers; and although known to the
world at large only in the guise of a historical
romance, it is as certainly matter of history as the
Battle of Bannockburn. Actual proof of this is
found in the Chamberlain Rolls (Rotuli Camerariorum
Scotia) preserved in the Edinburgh Register House,
where, in the Computum Custumariorum burgi
de Perth, 26th April 1396 to 1st June 1397, credit
is taken for a sum equal to about £14 "pro meremio
ferro et factura clausure sexaginta personarum
pugnancium in insula "-for timber, iron, and the

90
THE MACKINTOSHES
:
I
erection of the lists for the sixty persons fighting
on the Inch (or island).
Whether we regard it as evidencing the powerless-
ness of the arm of the law in the regions beyond the
Grampians, or as illustrating the customs of the time
and the ferocity of the feuds which raged among the
Highland clans, the incident is one of the most re-
markable in the annals of the age in which it fell.
Thus it has been employed by Scott as a fitting scene
for the grand tableau in "The Fair Maid of Perth,”
the centre round which turn the principal events and
the fortunes of the principal personages described in
that thrilling and tragical story. "The well-authen-
ticated fact of two powerful clans having deputed
each thirty champions to fight out a quarrel of old
standing in presence of King Robert III. and the
whole court of Scotland at Perth in the year of
grace 1396, seemed to mark with equal distinctness
the rancour of these mountain feuds, and the de-
graded condition of the general government of the
country; and it was fixed upon accordingly as the
point on which the main incidents of a romantic
narrative might be made to hinge.'
The proofs that the combat actually took place at
the time and place alleged being so full and clear as
to forbid any doubt of their genuineness and suf-
ficiency, it only remains for us here to consider the
circumstances of this hostile meeting, and to en-
deavour to ascertain the causes which led to it and to
1 Preface to Fair Maid of Perth.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
91
identify the actors in it. It will be well in the first
place to see what are the main facts of the case, as
given in the original authorities.
The account in the metrical "Cronikil" of Andrew
Wyntoun (Book ix. 17) is as follows:-
A thousand and thre hunder yere,
Nynty and sex to mak al clere—
Of thre score wyld Scottis men,
Thretty agane thretty then,
In felny bolnit of auld fede,
As thare fore-elders ware slane to dede.
Tha thre score ware clannys twā,
Clahynnhe Qwhewyl and Clachiny-hā.¹
Of thir twa kynnis ware tha men
Thretty agane thretty then:
And thar thai had thair chiftanys twā;
Scha Ferqwharis son wes ane of thā,
The tother Cristy Johnseone.
A selcouth thing by tha wes done
At Sanct Johnstoun beside the Freris,
Al thai enterit in barreris
Wyth bow and ax, knyf and swerd,
To deil amang thaim thair last werd.
Thare thai laid on that time sa fast,
Quha had the ware thare at the last
I will nocht say; but quha best had,
He was but dout bathe muth and mad.
Fifty or má ware slane that day,
Sua few wyth lif than past away.
1 The "
a "at the end of this word should, I hold, have the
flat sound, thus, hay, not the open sound, as if hah. It rhymes
with "twa," which in the south of Scotland is commonly pro-
nounced and even written "twae," as in the well known Border
rhyme on the drowning powers of Tweed and Till.
92
THE MACKINTOSHES
The next mention of the occurrence is in Bowar's
Continuation of Fordun's Scoti-cronicon,¹ as follows:-
Anno Dom. millesimo trecentesimo nonagesimo sexto, magna pars
borealis Scotia, trans Alpes, inquietata fuit per duos pestiferos
Cateranos et eorum sequaces-viz. Scheabeg et suos consanguinarios
qui Clankay; et Cristi-Jonson, ac suos, qui Clanquhele dicebantur,
&c."
John Major or Mair, a doctor of the Sorbonne in
Paris in the beginning of the 16th century, also has
a notice of the battle in his History.2 This agrees in
the main with that of Bowar, and probably was taken
from it.
A brief notice is also found in the Register or
Cartulary of Moray, to the effect that the fight took
place because a firm peace could not be re-established
between the two parentela of Clan Hay and Clan
Quhewyle. This, however, is apparently not entitled
to be received as a contemporary notice. Sir J. G.
Dalyell, an authority on such matters, states that,
together with accounts of other events which
happened about the same time-" differing in some
respects from all the memorials preserved relative to
the same transactions"-it was interpolated in the
Register at a later date.³
3
¹ Oxford Edition, p. 1116. Walter Bowar was Abbot of
Inchcolm down to the middle of the 15th century.
2 Historia Majoris Brittania (Paris 1521—4to) lib. vi. cap. 6,
fol. cxxii.
3 Brief Analysis of the Ancient Records of the Bishopric of
Moray, by Sir J. Graham Dalyell, 26-28.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
93
Hector Boece, born in 1470, and John Lesly,
Bishop of Ross, born in 1527, also mention the
battle. The former gives the name of the victorious
clan as Clan Quhete, the latter as Clan Quhattanis;
but as these writers flourished so long after the event
which they describe their testimony is of slight
importance. In Bellenden's translation of Boece
published in 1530, the name Quhete is rendered
Chattan.
Bearing in an important degree on the question of
the names of the clans engaged, especially from its
close connection in point of time with the battle at
Perth, is the mention in an Act of Parliament 1 of a
name which is evidently one and the same with
Wyntoun's Qwhewyl. Among the persons put to the
horn for taking part in the Raid of Angus in 1391—
when a body of Highlanders under Duncan, natural
son of the Wolf of Badenoch, defeated the forces
led by the Sheriff of Angus and Sir David Lindsay
of Glenesk-we find "Slurach and the haill Clan
Qwhevil." There can be little doubt that Slurach is
a mistranscription of Scheach, i.e. Scha or Sha;
while there can be no doubt whatever that the
Qwhevil" of the Act is the same as the "Qwhewyl "
of Wyntoun. But more of this hereafter.
It is a curious illustration of the uncertainty which
invariably attends the history of a country in its
stage of unformed society and imperfect civilization,
¹ Scots Acts of Parliament, i. 217. See also Wyntoun, bk. ix.
c. 14.
94
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
that an event such as this combat, attracting as it
did great attention at the time, and taking place in
one of the chief cities of the kingdom, during the
lifetime of two historians, and but a few years before
the time of others, should be wrapped in such ob-
scurity that both the causes which led to it and the
names of the combatants are open to dispute. The
reasons are not difficult to be found. The two
chroniclers of the period, Wyntoun and Bowar, are
not in the habit of stating the causes of events;
they simply describe occurrences as they took place
or as they were communicated to them. Both were
ecclesiastics and Lowlanders; to them, as to the gener-
ality of the Saxon population of Scotland, the region
beyond the Grampians was a wilderness peopled by
savage barbarians, of whose feuds and battles, so long
as these did not disturb the Lowland districts, they
knew little and heeded less, and whose names were,
"on account of their barbarism, too tedious to any
one ignorant of them "1 for them to take any pains
about spelling or assigning correctly. In addition to
this ignorance and carelessness in regard to Gaelic
names, there was the liability of the chroniclers or
their amanuenses to errors in transcription; they
would have to convert a Gaelic word according to its
sound into its nearest written Saxon equivalent, and
2
¹ Note in Cupar MS. of Fordun's Scoti-cronicon (bk. xvi.
c. 15) containing mention of some Highland clans.
2 For example the name Stratberge which Boece applies to one
of the leaders; also Clan Quhete by the same writer.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
95
even this might be materially altered in transcription;
as one of them remarks, Brittannorum nomina
Galli non optime pronunciant et syllabicant, postea,
scriptorum vitio literas frangunt; aliquorum tamen
nomina, quia facilis est syllabicatio vel quia principes
sunt viri, recte ponunt."
"" 1
Besides all this, there is little doubt that both
Wyntoun and Bowar obtained their information, both
as to facts and names, from hearsay, and that neither
saw the battle. Wyntoun certainly in 1395 held the
office of Prior of the monastery of St. Serf in Loch
Leven a dependency of St. Andrew's Priory-less
than twenty miles from Perth; but it is not so
certain that he was there at the time of the fight, or
indeed at any other time. Besides being Prior of
St. Serf, he was a canon regular of St. Andrew's
Priory, and in the Cartulary of this Priory are several
deeds to which he was a party between the years
1395 and 1413; a great part of his chronicle, more-
over, is actually compiled from the St. Andrew's
Priory Records.
Thus there seems large room for doubting whether
Wyntoun (on whose record the subsequent accounts
were in all probability founded) has given the names
correctly. It is probable that the story of the fight
1
¹ Major. lib. vi. p. cxviii. "Strangers do not pronounce or
syllabicate well the names of the Britons, and, besides this, they
confuse and spoil the letters (in the names) by the mistakes of
writers; nevertheless the names of a few are given correctly,
either because the pronunciation is easy or because they are
principal men.”
96
THE MACKINTOSHES
in its course to St. Andrew's may have omitted the
appellation of the vanquished leader altogether, and
have divided that of the victor so as to make it do
duty for both, as, according to the Mackintosh genea-
logy, the name of Sha's father was Gilchrist mac
Ewen, which is equivalent to "Cristy Jonseone
(John's son). Wyntoun also appears to be in such a
state of confusion that he is not even certain which
side had the victory; for
(C
Quha had the ware thare at the last
(He) will nocht say " ;
""
and he seems to be somewhat diffident about assigning
the leaders to the respective clans, although he may
have named them in the way he has merely with an
eye to his rhyme.
The obscurity in which the names are involved
may also doubtless be ascribed to the unsettled nature
of family and clan nomenclature at the period under
consideration. Then, as a few centuries later, a clan
was by no means limited to one distinguishing appel-
lation; according to the variety in the names of
chiefs who had won renown for themselves or their
kindred did the names of the clan vary, the members
of it being proud thus to keep in mind the greatness
of their race. Thus a name by which a clan was
known in Wyntoun's time might be out of use, or
even entirely forgotten, by the beginning of the 16th
century, and it may safely be concluded that this was
the case with the names Ha or Ay and Quhele. No
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
97
clan-names resembling either of those used by
Wyntoun are found at the present time-except of
course that of Mackay, which in appearance, though
not in sound, somewhat resembles the first; and it
is tolerably evident that to endeavour to identify
Wyntoun's names with the existing names of any
clans would be lost labour.
No writer on the subject has as yet denied that
the Clan Chattan was concerned in this famous fight,
as having a quarrel either among some of its own
septs or with another clan. The clan would almost
seem to have been predestined to a career of which
every important phase should become a matter of
dispute. We have seen what diversities of opinion
exist concerning its origin and race, its early history,
and even its name; we have also seen what centuries
of dispute were occasioned by the marriage of its
chief's only child to Angus Mackintosh; and now we
have another occurrence connected with it which has
given rise to even greater variety of opinion than
any of the others, or than almost any question in
the whole range of Highland history. Nearly all
writers on the Highlands have produced theories as
to the cause of the fight and the clans engaged in
it, but scarcely any two of these theories agree. The
causes assigned vary according as such and such a
clan is said to have been engaged as a principal; but
the variety in the clans named is unnecessarily great,
as a very little consideration ought to show that
some-even the most obvious-of the circumstances
H

98
THE MACKINTOSHES
narrated by the authorities could not possibly apply
to most of these clans. The fight has been variously
said to have been fought by Clan Chattan against
Clan Cameron; by Mackintoshes against Macphersons
or Camerons; by Macphersons against Davidsons
or Camerons; by Davidsons against Camerons ;
and lately, even by Shaws against Farquharsons,
although neither of these two septs existed at the
time.¹
The weight of evidence and opinion is perhaps in
favour of the view that the contending parties
belonged respectively to the Clan Chattan (compris-
ing Mackintoshes, Macphersons, and others) and to
the Clan Cameron. It will be my endeavour here to
support this view, and if possible, in some measure
to prove it correct.
We learn from Mr. Skene 2 that "there are but
three clans in which any tradition of this conflict
is to be found the Camerons, the Macphersons, and
the Mackintoshes." We have already seen that the
claim made by William Mackintosh upon the Clan
Chattan lands in Lochaber was the spark which
kindled a fierce and prolonged feud between his clan
and the Camerons, and that some few years before
this battle at Perth the Camerons had suffered a
signal defeat at Invernahavon at the hands of certain
of the Clan Chattan, chiefly the Macphersons. We
have thus one important circumstance, on which
1 Notes and Queries, 4th Series, vols. iii. iv. passim.
2 Highl. Scot. ii. 175.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
99
Wyntoun seems to lay stress, towards the identification
of the contending clans; Wyntoun's champions
"In felny bolnit of auld fede,
As thare fore elders ware slane to dede,"
and an "auld fede," or old feud, existed between the
Mackintoshes, with the Macphersons and the rest of
Clan Chattan, on the one side, and the Camerons on
the other; while there is no trace of such old feud
between any of the other clans variously named as
the combatants. It is natural to suppose that the
encounter at Invernahavon, in which both sides
suffered severely, would be succeeded by increased
activity and ferocity in the prosecution of the quarrel
between the two clans, whose mutual hostilities would
keep the greater part of Badenoch and Lochaber,
with a portion of Moray, in a constant state of dis-
quiet and alarm. Thus we see a reason for the
interference of the Government; and it may be
observed that this interference would scarcely have
been thought necessary had the feud been limited to
any other of the clans mentioned than the Clans
Chattan and Cameron, both being considerable tribes,
and both, especially the former, occupying large
tracts of country.
The interference of the Government was ap-
parently at first prompted by a desire to bring about
a peaceable termination to the feud, by compromise
or other means; and the task of inquiry and settle-
ment was assigned to Dunbar, Earl of Moray, and
H 2
100
THE MACKINTOSHES
David, Lord Lindsay of Glenesk,¹-probably for the
reason that these nobles were supposed to be better
acquainted with the "wyld Scottis" than others of
the Court, as both held lordships in the Highlands,
and had had frequent transactions, warlike and peace-
able, with the inhabitants of those regions. But, as
might have been expected, it soon became apparent
that the benevolent intentions of the Government
could not be carried out, and that there was no hope
of inducing the clans to settle their differences by
peaceable means. Their vindictive hatred of each
other, fed by years of mutual aggression and blood-
shed, had become too fierce to be so easily and
suddenly extinguished, and Moray and Lindsay at
last found it necessary to propose that the opponents
should decide their quarrel by an appeal to what was
in those days thought a special intervention of Pro-
vidence for showing the right-the ordeal of the
combat, or wager of battle; and that the party
vanquished should accept the issue as final.
We may readily imagine with what eagerness both
sides would acquiesce in such a proposition, each no
doubt anticipating the satisfaction of a glorious and
final triumph over their enemies. And although they
may not have been actually imbued with the feelings
1 Moray was son of the famous "Black Agnes" of Dunbar,
Countess of March, and through her a grandson of the renowned
Randolph. David, Lord Lindsay of Glenesk, afterwards 1st
Earl of Crawford, was son of Alexander, who married the
heiress of Glenesk..
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
101
which led the chivalry of those times to risk their
lives for the sake of the mere glory and of the smiles.
and applause of fair ladies, the clans were perhaps
not altogether insensible to the honour and éclat of
exhibiting their prowess before the sovereign and his
court. It was arranged that thirty of each clan-
thirty being the maximum number of " compurga-
tors" required by the law to clear an accused person
-should fight at Perth, where Robert III. held his
court, and should there bring their quarrel to an issue,
On the North Inch of Perth, a field excellently
adapted for the purpose, the rival champions faced
each other one Monday morning about the end of
September,¹ 1396-the Monday next before the feast
of St. Michael-prepared to conquer or die. They
were hemmed in on three sides by barriers, outside
which were the crowds of spectators eager to see the
day's bloody work, while on the fourth side flowed
the noble swelling Tay. The good, weak old king
was there, with his queen and his clever, crafty
brother, Robert, Duke of Albany. Perhaps, too, the
unhappy heir-apparent, David, Duke of Rothesay,
was present, for although Scott, in the Fair Maid of
Perth, represents his death as being communicated
¹ Not Palm Sunday, as is generally said. Bowar expressly
says "die Lunæ proximo ante festum St Michaëlis." This fight
is frequently confounded with another in 1430, which according
to Major was fought on Palm Sunday. Sir Walter Scott is no
doubt chiefly responsible for the error. See Fair Maid of Perth,
chap. xxxiv.
102
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
to his father immediately after the battle, that event
did not occur until six years afterwards. Some
visitors from France also attended; and besides
the crowd of nobles, knights, and churchmen at-
tached to the court, there was an "innumerable
multitude" of the ranks below them, decent burghers
of the Fair City, followers and servants of the barons,
craftsmen and apprentices who had made holiday,
and churls from the country round who had left their
herds and husbandry to witness the day's sport.
During the inspection of the champions, it was
discovered that the Clan Chattan lacked one of their
number. Bowar and Lesley say that this one, having
become faint-hearted, had plunged into the Tay and
escaped to the other side; but they have probably
confounded him with the sole survivor of the de-
feated party, who, as the combat was to the death, no
doubt did escape in this manner. The Kinrara MS.
represents the absentee as being seized with sickness
shortly before the fight,—a not unlikely occurrence,
considering the temptations which a capital would
offer to a semi-barbarous Gael. Whatever the cause,
only twenty-nine instead of thirty Clan Chattan
champions appeared in the lists, and as it seems that
1 M. Michel, author of Les Ecossais en France-les Français
en Ecosse, mentions the combat, and the presence of his country-
men, suggesting to Mr. J. H. Burton the possibility that the
affair was
a showy pageant got up to enliven the hours of idle
mirth—an act of royal hospitality, in short-a show cunningly
adapted to the tastes of the day, yet having withal the freshness
of originality." (The Scot Abroad, i. 132.)
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
103
""
none of their kinsmen were present, and their oppo-
nents would not consent to reduce their own number,
the assembled crowds must have been disappointed of
their spectacle had not a volunteer issued from their
own ranks. This man, by trade a harness maker, or
armourer smith, "not great in stature, but fierce
(staturá modicus, sed efferus), agreed for a sum of
money and on the understanding, according to Bowar,
that he should be maintained for life in case of his
surviving, to take the place of the absentee. The
number of Clan Chattan champions being now com-
plete, the battle commenced. Its details must of
course be left to the reader's imagination, or if that
be unequal to the task of portraying the scene, I
refer him to the vivid description in chap. xxxiv.
of the Fair Maid of Perth, in which we almost see
the rising and falling of the claymores and axes, and
hear the groans of the dying and the shouts of the
spectators. When at the close the only survivor of
the vanquished clan leaped into the Tay, the victors
were found to be reduced to eleven men, among them
being the valiant harness maker, who had borne him-*
self as manfully as the best, although he is said to
have been unable to tell which side he had adopted,
only that he had "fought for his own hand."
Tradition has a pleasing record that this man
accompanied the remnant of the Clan Chattan cham-
pions to their country, was adopted into their clan,
and became the progenitor of a family afterwards
known as Sliochd an Gobh Cruim-the race of

104
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
the crooked smith. This record is not incredible,
especially as Bowar represents the smith of Perth
as stipulating for his subsequent maintenance if he
should leave the field alive,2 The Gows or Smiths
generally appear among the septs of which the Clan
1 The epithet "Crom" is said to have been applied to him
from his being bandy legged.
2 “Cùm totum illud opus cessare putaretur, ecce in medio pro-
rupit unus stipulosus vernaculus, staturâ modicus, sed efferus,
dicens ; Ecce ego! quis me conducet intrare cum operariis istis ad
hunc ludum theatralem? Pro dimidia enim marca ludum ex-
periar, ultra hoc petens, ut si vivus de palæstra evasero, victum
à
quocumque vestrûm recipiam dum vixero." ["For half a mark
I will try the game, asking this besides, that if I quit the lists
alive I shall receive the means of subsistence from some of you
as long as I live."] The conclusion of Bowar's account of the
matter, as given in the Edinburgh,edition of Fordun by Goodall,
is as follows,-"Iste tyro superveniens finaliter illæsus exivit; et
dehinc multo tempore Boreas quievit, nec ibidem fuit, ut suprà,
Cateranorum excursus. The usual reading of this is that the
volunteer finally left unhurt, the north was quiet for a long
time afterwards, and the Caterans made no excursions thence as
formerly. But by a slight alteration a different sense altogether
may be seen, which it is not unlikely the writer intended to
convey. By reading Boreas in the ablative case (it is "borea"
in the Oxford edition) and construing excursus as a participle,
we have this, "The volunteer in the end left unhurt, and thence-
forth lived quietly a long time in the north, nor was he there
forgotten (excursus-overlooked, passed over) of the Caterans,
as above mentioned (— or, as he had stipulated before)."
""
As a commentary on the tradition referred to in the text I
may quote the following from Mr. E. W. Robertson's Scotland
under her Early Kings (i. 272). On occasion of wager of battle
"by Welsh law, if an Alltud [i.e. stranger] joined in the combat
to make up the necessary number of combatants, and escaped
with life, he ranked as a full born member of the kindred for
whom he had entered the lists."
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
105
Chattan of more modern times was composed, and
which acknowledged the chief of Mackintosh as their
captain. Many families of the name of Smith have
the motto "Marte et ingenio," which is peculiarly
appropriate if any of those bearing it are descendants
of the renowned Smith of Perth.
The victory falling to the champions of Clan
Chattan, the clan over whom they triumphed ought,
according to the terms previously arranged, to have
forborne any further acts of hostility, and the feud
ought to have come to an end. But it is scarcely
probable that the rage and hatred of the defeated
clan could be so readily controlled, even though a
solemn engagement had been entered into for the
purpose of effecting such a result. On the contrary,
it would be but natural to expect that these passions
would rise in them with greater vigour than ever
after their signal defeat, which they would regard as
a disgrace to be wiped out by blood. And even
although the heads of the clan, mindful of their
agreement, might have felt themselves bound in
honour to restrain their passions, their children might
not unreasonably have refused to give up the feud,
on the simple pretext that they were bound by no
agreement, and that they had no voice or hand in
what their fathers had done, More, when we con-
sider that among these Highland tribes revenge was
accounted a sacred duty, and was often solemnly
bequeathed by a dying father to his successor, we
find it almost impossible to believe that the clan

106
THE MACKINTOSHES
whose champions were defeated would be able to keep
within their breasts the rage and hate which rankled
there, or to still their craving for vengeance on those,
their ancient foes, who had been crowned with
laurels at their cost, and by whose hands their best
and bravest had been taken from them. Therefore,
although a temporary cessation of the feud may have
ensued, the idea that it never broke out afresh can-
not be entertained; and this is another circumstance
which seems to point to the Camerons as the defeated
clan, for although shortly after 1396 we find them
apparently at peace with Clan Chattan, and even in
1429-30 pursuing the same policy as that clan in
deserting the Lord of the Isles, yet in the last named
year an outbreak took place in which many of them
were slain by Clan Chattan, and the feud thence-
forward raged as fiercely as ever.
Some writers insist that the defeated clan gradually
diminished after the battle in 1396, until either it
became extinct or its members became so few that
it was not again heard of, even as a "broken clan.”
Such a decadence or extinction is not mentioned
either by tradition or old history, and is not at
all likely. It is tolerably evident that each of the
contending clans was of considerable size and im-
portance; and surely a clan which had been able
to hold its own during a bloody and protracted
quarrel could not have been so seriously affected by
the issue of this limited battle as these writers would
. have us to believe.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
107
I have so far spoken of the victorious clan in the
combat by the name of Clan Chattan, as if there
were no doubt on the subject; while I have abstained
from giving any name to the defeated clan, only
throwing out occasional suggestions that it was the
Clan Cameron. My reason for this is that I have
no doubt in my own mind, and hope to be able to
prove, that the victors actually belonged to Clan
Chattan; while I conceive that there are very strong
reasons for the belief that the other party was of
Clan Cameron. These proofs and reasons are as
follows:-
It
I. “There are but three clans," says Mr. Skene,¹
"in which any tradition of the conflict is found-
the Camerons, Macphersons, and Mackintoshes.”
is therefore to be inferred that these three clans took
some part in the conflict. As we know that the
Camerons, shortly before and after 1396, were at
feud with the two other clans-which formed the
two principal branches of Clan Chattan-it is not
likely that they assisted one of these against the
other, and so it follows that they formed one party
themselves. Mr. Gregory says,
Mr. Gregory says, "Tradition mentions
Allan Mac Ochtry as the chief of the Camerons in
the reign of Robert II., at which time a deadly feud
subsisted between them and the Clan Chattan, re-
garding the lands of Glenluy and Locharkaig. From
the same authority we learn that the Clan Chameron
and Clan Chattan were the tribes between whom was
¹ Highl. Scot. ii. 175.
108
THE MACKINTOSHES
fought the celebrated combat of thirty against thirty,
in presence of King Robert III., at Perth."1
II. Wyntoun makes express mention of an ancient
feud between the clans from which the champions
were taken, an "auld fede," in which "thare fore-
taken,—an
elders ware slane to dede." A feud, attended with
great loss on both sides, had subsisted between the
Clan Chattan and the Clan Cameron since the
beginning of the century. There is no record,
traditionary or otherwise, of the existence of a
quarrel between any others of the clans who are
said to have furnished the champions at Perth-
except only in the case of the Macphersons and
Davidsons, who had the dispute at Invernahavon
1 West. Highl. &c. 75. Mr. Gregory refers here to the MS.
History of the Camerons, printed as an Introduction to the
Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron of Locheil. In a note on p. 344
the Editor of the Memoirs writes as follows:- "The late Mr.
Gregory has followed the author (of the MS.) in making the
Camerons the unsuccessful party in this celebrated conflict; but
Mr. Skene contends that it must have been fought between
Mackintoshes and Macphersons. The Editor cannot pretend to
throw any new light upon this subject, but it may be observed
that the author wrote at a time when tradition was still universal
in the Highlands; and the side allotted to the Camerons affords
the strongest internal evidence of its correctness in the present
instance. Had the Camerons been described as victors it would
have been very different."
I must not omit to mention that in the Scoticronicon the
Clan Kay are described as following the Comyns. This with
the chronicler may mean very little, but from Douglas's Baronage
I find that Ferquhard Cumyng of Altyr (circa 1380) married
a daughter of John, head of the Camerons- a connection which
may indicate some ground for the expression in the chronicle.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
109
already mentioned. Not only, however, was this
dispute not an old feud, but the Davidsons appear
to have been almost exterminated on that occasion
by the Camerons, so that it is scarcely likely that
in the short interval between the fights at Inverna-
havon and Perth they would so far recover them-
selves as to be able to throw the country side into
confusion, or even to furnish thirty champions.
To the belief that Clan Dhaibhidh or Davidson
was one of the two contending clans the testimony
of the Kinrara MS. History of the Mackintoshes
seems clearly opposed. The writer of this, in his
account of the Invernahavon fight, speaks of "Clan
dai, a family of the Catani;" but in his account
of the Perth fight immediately following, he speaks
of the vanquished as "Clan cai or Clan Cauilli,"
thus evidently regarding clans Dai and Cai as distinct
tribes.
III. A belief that the clans at feud were both
large and powerful seems almost indispensable, seeing
that their quarrel was of such magnitude as to
demand the special interference of the Government.
The Clan Chattan and the Clan Cameron were un-
doubtedly clans of considerable size and importance,
which the Mackintoshes, Macphersons, and Davidsons
individually were not.
IV. Considering the moral characteristics of the
Highlanders of that time-and even of later times ¹
it seems almost impossible to believe that the defeated
1 See p. 105.
110
THE MACKINTOSHES
clan would accept the defeat of their champions as
final and give up the quarrel. Early in the 15th
century we find the Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron,
who appear to have remained quiet for about thirty
years, again engaged in hostilities, harrying and
slaying as fiercely as in the century before.¹
V. It is reasonable to infer that, in his selection
of the commissioners for settling the feud, the king
was guided by his knowledge of some connection
between them and the clans with which they would
have to deal.2 Such a circumstance is closely ap-
plicable to the Clans Chattan and Cameron. The
Mackintosh section of the former held some of their
lands in the north, Petty and others, under the
feudal superiority of the Earl of Moray; while
Lochaber, the seat of the Camerons, was one of the
lordships belonging to the Lindsays of Crawford, and
afterwards inherited by David Lindsay himself.
Lindsay held, at this time, in right of his wife, a
daughter of Robert II., the barony of Strathnairn,
forming a portion of the Clan Chattan country.3
1 Major, 302; Buchanan, vit. Jac. I.; Bowar, 1285; Kinr.
MS.
2 Mr. Skene makes a similar suggestion, using it to support
his theory that the Mackintoshes and Macphersons were the
contending clans. He states (on what authority I know not)
that the Macphersons held Strathnairn under Lindsay. Highl.
Scot. ii. 176. I am unable to trace any connection between the
Macphersons and Strathnairn at this period.
³ Lindsay of Pitscottie's History of Scotland, Dedication, p.
vi. Lord Lindsay's Lives of the Lindsays, i. 98.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
111
The foregoing considerations have reference to both
clans; the following refer only to Clan Chattan :-
VI. Besides the testimony of the Mackintosh MS.
History that the thirty victorious champions repre-
sented the Clan Chattan (not, let it be observed, the
Clan Mackintosh alone), the various branches of the
sept of Shaw of Rothimurcus-even those whose
migrations carried them furthest from the cradle of
their race—have a distinct tradition that their pro-
genitor was the leader of the victorious party, and
that this party belonged to Clan Chattan. The
tradition held by my own branch,¹ that of Tordarroch,
which is corroborated in its main points by the
traditions of the Shaws in Strathspey and Forfarshire,
is that Lachlan, chief of Mackintosh, being too old
and infirm to take the field in person, deputed his
kinsman Shaw "Mor," a warrior of tried valour and
established renown, to fill his place; and that, as a
reward for the victory which he obtained, Shaw was
presented by the chief with the lands of Rothimurcus.
Here then we have clear traditionary evidence that
the Mackintosh section of Clan Chattan participated
in the fight, and this evidence is confirmed by the
testimony of the MS. Histories. As the first of
1 This tradition has come to me only at second hand from my
great-grand-aunt, Margaret Shaw, wife of Farquhar Macgillivray
of Dalcrombie, an old lady who I understand was regarded in
her time as a living cyclopædia of Highland legend and tradition.
Her husband was one of the three officers of the Mackintosh
battalion who escaped alive from Culloden.
112
THE MACKINTOSHES
these Histories was compiled within a hundred years
after the battle, the writer in all probability had seen
and spoken with persons who had been alive in 1396,
possibly even with some who had actually fought in
the battle.
The name "Scha Ferqwharis-son" which Wyntoun,
or the St. Andrew's Records, gives to one of the
leaders, seems still further to strengthen this tra-
ditionary evidence. Shaw is a name almost peculiar
to certain branches of Clan Chattan during the 16th
and 17th centuries, and was, there is little doubt,
entirely confined to the Mackintoshes in the 14th
and 15th centuries. Then with regard to the “Far-
qwharis-son," nothing is more likely than that the
name of the great chief of the early Mackintoshes,
Ferquhard, descended as a patronymic even as far
down as to his grandson's grandson Shaw Mor,' who
had an especial claim to it as having shown himself
a worthy descendant of the distinguished chief.
VII. The possession of the feadhan dubh, the
famous black chanter, by the Macphersons, and their
traditions concerning it-traditions however wild and
1 See above, p. 29. Mr. Skene (Highlanders, ii. 177) men-
tions the probability of this, although he assigns to the
Macphersons names properly belonging to the Mackintoshes.
"According to the MS. of 1450," he says, "the chief of the
Macphersons was Shaw, and his great-grandfather's name is
Ferchar, from whom he probably took the patronymic of Fer-
charson." I need scarcely remind the reader that it was a
common thing in those days for a man to be designated as son
of a remote ancestor.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
113
improbable-testify that their section of the Clan
Chattan confederacy was also represented in the
battle and thus we have evidence that both the
great sections of the clan were engaged.
VIII. The mention in the Act of Parliament
already referred to of Slurach (evidently a mistake
for Sheach) and the whole clan Qwhevil among those
put to the horn in 1392 for taking part in the Raid
of Angus, is important, as furnishing additional
though indirect evidence that the Clan Chattan was
one of the clans represented at Perth. The Sheach
and the Clan Qwhevil of the Act can be no other
than the Scha Ferqwharis-son and the Clannyhe
Quhewyl of Wyntoun. Although the Act referred
to, and the chronicles of Wyntoun, Bowar, and
Major-the only authorities for the name Quhele
give no further indication by which the particular
clan meant may be identified, we may perhaps be
able to effect this identification by an examination of
the word itself, and by the mention of a word very
like it some two hundred years afterwards. Quhele
or Quheuel,¹ as written by a Lowland scribe, can only
be pronounced in one way, that is, as if it were
written whale or wha-il. In 1869 I conceived the
idea-which I at once made public in the form of a
suggestion in Notes and Queries for 29th May of
1 For the sake of the uninitiated in such matters, I may
mention that v, and sometimes w, was used in olden time for u
-thus Qwhevil is Quheuil. Quh was equivalent to wh-as
quhat
what, quho who.
=
I
114
THE MACKINTOSHES
that year-that the word might be the Lowland
spelling of the Gaelic "uaill" (proud, illustrious, &c.),
and that this appellation might have been sometimes
applied to or used by the Mackintoshes in allusion to
their proud descent from the Thanes of Fife; further
that, being a name of the chief sept of Clan Chattan,
it had been given by the early writers to the whole of
that clan, in the same way as in Holy Writ Ephraim
is put for the ten tribes of Israel. Since that time
I have become inclined to attach greater weight to
this idea, especially as I think it is supported by the
subsequent mention of the similar name to which
allusion has just been made. "Uaill," let it be ob-
served, is equivalent to "toiseach" in some of its
significations, and the name Mackintosh is of course
Mac-an-toiseach, son of the foremost or principal.
If such is its meaning, the name Quhele, as a clan
name, is certainly of an exceptional class; but it
may perhaps be accounted for by the somewhat
exceptional circumstances attending the origin of
the Mackintosh clan.1
Coming now to the mention of Clan Chewill (the
1 Since this was written I have discovered what I take to be
a corroboration of my view in the Mackintosh MS. History. On
a reperusal of the MS.—or rather of a translation from the
Latin MS., bearing date 1795—I was attracted by the following
passage: "As this family is of noble descent, it is often in the
Gaelic language called Fuill Vighkintoshick' to distinguish it
from some vulgar families of the Clan Chattan." The similarity
of Fuill to Quhele or uaill is apparent at once when we recollect
that "wh" at the beginning of a word is frequently sounded as
"f" by both Scots and Irish Celts.
"
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
115
name referred to as being like Quhele) in a Roll of
Broken Clans given in an Act of Parliament of 1594,1
it is scarcely likely that this name can be other than
the same as that written Quhewyl by the early chroni-
clers. Its pronunciation as a Gaelic word is as
nearly as possible identical with that of Quhewyl as
written by a Lowlander. Chewill is pronounced
hw-il or whu-il,2 Quhewyl wha-il. The clans in the
Roll are for the most part named in a kind of order,
according either to their connection one with another
or to their relative local situation. Thus the clans
Gregor, Farlane, and Lawren, heading the Roll, were
close neighbours about the head of Loch Lomond.
The mention of Clan Ranald of Lochaber immediately
after Clan Cameron, and of Clan Gun and Siol Phaill
immediately after Clan Morgan, may be accidental,
but I think there is a reason for it. In the first case
the Clan Ranald of Lochaber, from about 1550, had
been closely connected with the Camerons, who had
acquired nearly all their lands; the two clans acted
together on several occasions, were both followers
of Huntly and enemies of the Mackintoshes, and
in two Acts of 1602 the names of M'Conillduy
and M'Rannald are conjoined.* In the second
case, the Clan Gun had for a few years before
¹ Scots Acts, iv. 71," Act for punishment of thift, reiff, oppres-
sioun and soirning."
2 Ch in Gaelic is sounded as h guttural-e.g. clachan, loch.
3 Skene, Highl. Scot. ii. 194-9.
41. An Act ordering a levy of Highlanders to assist the
I 2
116
THE MACKINTOSHES
the date of the Roll been under the protection of
the Mackays (Clan Mörgan),¹ while the Siol Phaill
were actually Mackays. What I would suggest
is that the position of Clan Chewill immediately
after Clan Chattan on the Roll may in like manner
be taken as implying that it was dependent upon
Clan Chattan.
But the "Quhewyl" of the chroniclers and the
"Chewill" of 1594 being identical, why, it may be
asked, if the clan bearing the name in 1396 was the
Clan Chattan, are Clan Chattan and Clan Chewill
mentioned separately in 1594? The only explana-
tion I can suggest is that the Mackintoshes had in
the meantime ceased to be known by the name, and
that it had been retained by one of their offshoots.
A late eminent writer on the Highlands 2 expressed the
opinion that the Shaws of Rothimurcus are meant by
the Clan Chewill of the Act; if he is correct-
and the opinion is extremely probable-my idea is
fortified, as the Shaws were an offshoot of the
Mackintoshes and in 1594 were a broken clan.
The first mention in printed history of Clan
Chattan as one of the contending clans is in Bellen-
den's translation of Boece, published in 1530. It
Queen of England in her Irish wars.
schawings.
2. An Act anent Wappin-
1 ¹ Sir R. Gordon's Earldom of Sutherland, 170-190 passim.
2 Col. J. A. Robertson, author of Historical Proofs on the
Highlanders; Gaelic Topography, &c. See Memorials of Clan
Shaw, by Rev. W. G. Shaw, 1st Edit. App. I.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
117
has been said that this introduction of the name into
the lists at Perth was owing to the accident that in
Boece's original the "1" in Quhele being crossed
appeared as "t," Bellenden on that account rendering
it Glenquhattaneis or Clan Chattan. But I am
inclined to think that Bellenden rendered the word
thus advisedly, knowing that it signified the same
people as Clan Quhele-this name having shortly
before his time passed into partial oblivion, and that
of Chattan having come into general use. Few of
his readers would know who were meant by Clan
Quhele, but most would recognise Clan Chattan.
IX. The last suggestion-I will not call it a reason
—which I shall offer on this subject refers to the
Camerons. After some hesitation I have decided to
insert it here, in the hope that it may be of value,
if not in indicating the presence of the Camerons
at the Perth fight, at least in affording some
clue to the hitherto obscure names Clan Ha and
Clan Kay.
In the Band of Union entered into in 1609 by the
various branches of Clan Chattan are the words " Ay
vic Bean vic Robert of Tordarroch for himself and
taking the full burden upon him of his race of CLAN
Av." During a discussion some years ago concerning
the fight at Perth, it struck me as possible that this
Clan Ay might have some connection with Wyntoun's
Clachiny-ha; but failing to find any other trace of
the name, I gave up the idea. On its recurring to
my mind afterwards, I set myself to follow it up,
118
THE MACKINTOSHES
and succeeded in obtaining what I considered a clue,
though a very different one to that which I had
expected. The Ay Mac Bean of Tordarroch I knew
to be my own ancestor, Angus Shaw son of Bean,
whose name appears in several other documents of
the period; but it did not at first occur to me that
his sept might have been called after himself, its head
at the time, as we not unfrequently find other families
and clans similarly called after their actual leaders.
I therefore had to give up all thought of this Clan
Ay as one of the clans at Perth, and to direct my
inquiries solely by the synonymy of Ay and
Angus.
Mr. Skene's MS. of 1450 now came to my aid.
Speaking of an Angus who held the district of
Moray soon after 1089, Mr. Skene says, "by the
assistance of the invaluable MS. we are enabled to
discover" who Angus was, "for when Wimund, who
claimed the Earldom of Moray in the reign of David
II., asserted that he was the son of this Angus, he
assumed in consequence the name of Malcolm Mac-
heth." 1
Now let it be observed that the Gaelic names
in this MS. of 1450 are not written by a Sassenach,
but by a native Gael, and therefore we may assume
that they are to be pronounced in the Gaelic fashion.
Thus Heth is pronounced Ha—the e being sounded as
1
Highl. Scot. ii. 162-3. Mr. Skene goes on to speak of this
name Macheth as Angus's "family name"; but this is not called
for nor does it follow, and "family name" is a strong term to
apply to any name of the 11th century.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
119
ā, the th silent-and is, there can be no doubt, the
same word as Wyntoun's "ha."1
We have now two names (Ay and Heth) similar to
the "Ha" of Wyntoun-I say similar, because the
slight difference in respect of aspiration will be ad-
mitted by all competent judges in such matters to be
immaterial; and we see that both signify Angus.2
But Bowar, the other original authority, writes Clan
Kay instead of Clan Ha or Ay, thus apparently giving
quite a different name. The difficulty at once van-
ishes, however, if we regard the initial letter of Kay
as representing to a Sassenach ear the genitive of
"mac".
mac "—mhic or vic, or as it is frequently sounded and
written-ic. This gives us Clan-'ic-Ay (Clan of the
son of Ay), which Bowar not unnaturally transforms
into Clan Kay.
Having thus shown to my own satisfaction that
Clan Ha or Ay means Clan Angus, my next object
was to identify the Camerons as Clan Angus or
Ay, and I forthwith sought for some distinguished
1 For remarks respecting the sound of Wyntoun's "clachiny-
ha" see note on p. 91.
2 The name Ay occurs also in the Act of 1392 already referred
to in connection with the Raid of Angus. Among the Dun-
cansons, Rolsons, &c. there put to the horn we find Joannem
AYSON juvenem (“iuuenē”), probably a son of Angus Og, the
third son of Angus and Eva and great-uncle of Shaw Mor, the
"Slurach" of the same Act and the leader at Perth. An Aye
son of Ian son of Thomas is mentioned in Clan Chattan's Band
in 1543. This completes the list of Ays or Has which have
come under my observation, but no doubt there are more to be
found.
120
THE MACKINTOSHES
progenitor of Locheil prior to 1396 bearing the name
Angus. My eagerness was at once rewarded. In the
first page of the History of the Camerons prefixed to
the Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron I found this,-
"A learned antiquary informs us that Angus their
(the Cameron's) ancestour marryed Marion, one of
the daughters of Kenneth III." I need hardly repeat
that it was no uncommon thing for a man or a clan
to be designated after a remote ancestor, and whether
the Angus just mentioned really lived in the time of
Kenneth III. and married his daughter, or not, it
seems clear, from the preservation of his name in his
clan, that he actually existed at some early period;
and this being so, there is no reason to doubt that his
descendants at some time bore his name.
Whether these remarks are sufficient to show satis-
factorily that the Camerons were Clan Ha or Kay of
course remains to be seen. But although I am quite
prepared to have both my philological deductions (as
to Clan Quhele and Clan Kay) challenged, I think I
have some ground for believing that my attempted
explanation of the two obscure names given by the
early chroniclers to the contending clans is neither
improbable nor too far strained.
The foregoing reasons and facts, if properly and
fairly considered, prove conclusively that one of
the parties at the Perth combat was composed of
members of the Clan Chattan; and if they do not
prove that the other party belonged to the clan after-
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
121
It
wards known as Clan Cameron, they at least show a
very strong probability that such was the case.
may be that there exists no actual proof of the iden-
tity of this other clan sufficient to convince all parties,
and if so, it is to be expected that there will always
be difference of opinion on the point. Where cer-
tainty in any matter is not to be attained to, the next
best thing to lay hold of is the greatest probability;
and I make bold to believe that the amount of pro-
bability which I have endeavoured to show belongs to
the theory that Clan Cameron were the opponents of
Clan Chattan is, to say the least, not smaller than is
contained in any other theory which has been broached
on the same matter.
Both Skene and Browne seem to imagine that the
subject of the dispute which led to the battle was the
headship of Clan Chattan. Thus Skene," Soon
after this period (1396) the chief of the Mackin-
toshes assumes the title of Captain of Clan Chattan,
but the Macphersons have always resisted that claim
of precedence." "They (Clan Chattan) became
divided into two distinct factions; on the one side
were ranged the Macphersons and their dependents,
together with the Camerons; on the other side were
the Mackintoshes with the numerous families who had
sprung from that branch of Clan Chattan; and they
were about to settle their difference by open war when
the interference of Sir David Lindsay and the Earl of
Moray produced the extraordinary conflict which

122
THE MACKINTOSHES
resulted in the defeat of the faction adhering to the
family of the ancient chiefs, and the establishment of
the Mackintoshes as Captains of Clan Chattan. In
this manner the Mackintoshes became de facto chiefs
of the clan, and consequently acquired the title of
Captain."1 Thus also Browne, following Skene,—
"The point in dispute was settled in their favour,
the Mackintoshes were acknowledged as the chiefs of
the clan, though under a different denomination (that
of Captain), and from the date of the conflict at
Perth they continued to be regarded as its heads." 2
On these statements I need say but little. It has
been shown that there was no dispute concerning the
right of the Mackintosh chiefs to the headship of
Clan Chattan until some two hundred years after this
event, but that the different branches acted together.
As to the statements that the acquisition by Mackin-
tosh of the title of Captain of the clan was consequent
upon the result of the combat, I need only remind
the reader that this title is given to Mackintosh so
early as in 1337. Besides, when Mr. Skene says that
the two factions were about to settle their difference
by open war when the government interposed, he
seems to be strangely forgetful of the testimony of
all the authorities in regard to the existence of an old
feud; was it not, rather, because the clans had already
been engaged in open war for some time that Lindsay
and Moray were sent to effect some arrangement for
1 Highl. Scot. ii. 177-8. The italics are mine.—A. M. S.
2 Hist. Highl. iv. 474.
·
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
123
the purpose of restoring tranquillity to the country?
And further, this author has certainly no grounds for
stating as a positive fact that the Macphersons and
Camerons were arrayed together against the Mackin-
toshes before the fight at Perth.
Mr. Skene, who has been blindly followed by most
succeeding writers, also says, founding on a passage
in Major's History, that the Clan Cameron were of the
same stock as Clan Chattan, and that they formed
part of that clan until the conflict in 1396, after
which they separated themselves and declared their
independence.¹ The passage in the Edinburgh edition
of Major (pub. 1740), which was probably the one
consulted by Mr. Skene, no doubt conveys this im-
pression. It is as follows,-" Duæ tribus sylvestrium,
scilicet Clankatan et Clancameron, Alexandrum in-
sularum relinquerunt, et partes regis et probe sequenti
sunt. In festo palmarum sequenti usque adeo debac-
chatum est, ut totam progeniem Clancameron tribus
Clankatan extinxerit. Tribus hæ sunt consanguineæ,
parum in dominiis habentes, sed unum caput progenei
tanquam principem sequentes, cum suis affinibus et
subditis." 2
1 Highl. Scot. ii. 174, 193-4.
2 Major (Edin. 1740) p. 302. The following is an almost literal
translation of this extract, which relates to events in 1429-30.
These events will be treated in the next chapter. "Two tribes
of the forest people (or Highlanders), Clan Chattan and Clan
Cameron, left Alexander of the Isles and followed the side of
the king, not without effect. At the following feast of palms,
124
THE MACKINTOSHES
+
While I admit that Mr. Skene's deduction from
these words as to the community of stock of the two
clans is perfectly warrantable, and indeed obvious,
I must say that it by no means follows that, even if
the Clan Cameron were of the same stock as Clan
Chattan, they had not separated long before 1396.¹
In fact, not only is there nothing whatever about
separation in the passage, but the latter portion of it
seems to imply that the two septs followed one chief
at the time Major wrote. If any such separation
had taken place, we might expect to find some trace
of the circumstances attending it preserved in tra-
dition; whereas there is no tradition-except in
the case of the section originally known as Mac-
gilonies 2-of the Clan Cameron's having ever
belonged to or been connected with Clan Chattan.
On the other hand, there is ample tradition of their
there was such fury (between them) that the Clan Chattan
destroyed a whole race (or sept) of Clan Cameron. These tribes
are of one blood, holding little in lordships, but following one head
of their race as chief, with their friends and dependents."
1 Gregory, more cautiously, says "there is reason to believe"
that the two clans had a common origin, but he adds that they
"have been separate ever since the middle of the 14th century,
if not earlier." West. Highl. 75.
2 According to tradition the Macgilonies of Lochaber, whose
name-like the names of other families incorporated into the
Clan Cameron confederacy-has long been exchanged for that
Cameron, were brethren of the Macbeans of Kinchyle, &c., and
originally members of the old Clan Chattan. As they are said
to have become one of the principal septs of Clan Cameron, the
Camerons may perhaps be allowed in this restricted sense to
have been of the same stock as Clan Chattan.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
125
early feuds with that clan. But, to cut the
matter short, I have no hesitation in expressing my
conviction that Major had not the slightest intention
of speaking of the two clans in question as being of
the same stock and following one head of their race,
and that those writers who have alleged such a con-
nection could not have been aware of what he really
said. In the original edition of his History printed at
Paris in 1521, the tribes deserting Alexander of the
Isles in 1429 are said to be Clan Katan and Clan
Kauel (the latter of which names has unfortunately
been altered to Cameron in the Edinburgh edition of
1740), while the tribe with which Clan Katan had
the affray on the following Palm Sunday is said to be
Clan Brameron-an evident misprint for Cameron.
The name in the almost unknown original edition
of Major opens up an entirely new view of this
question, a view which I shall proceed to lay
before the reader. That the name Kauel is
correct, and not Cameron as in the 1740 edition,
is obvious, inasmuch as Major himself, who super-
intended the printing of his book in 1521, must
have known what he wished to say much better than
his editor two centuries later.
As has been already mentioned, the Clan Cameron
was originally a confederacy of several distinct clans.
The family which obtained the leadership of the
confederacy, and to which pertains the line of
Locheil, has long been known as "Clan Dhomhnuill'
or "Conuil," its heads bearing the title "Mac Conuil
66
""
126
THE MACKINTOSHES
duibh," from Domhnuil Dubh, head of the clan in
1429.¹ One of the most frequent forms of this title
of the heads of the clan, in old writings and histories,
is "Mac COIL duibh,"" and although I must confess
I am ignorant of any old writing in which the
clan is similarly called "Clan Coil," yet the inference
seems plain that if "Dhomhnuil" was abbreviated
into "Coil" in the chief's name, it must likewise
have been occasionally so abbreviated in the name
of the clan, both patronymic and clan-name being
derived from one and the same person.3 The Clan
Kauel of Major, then, I take to be Clan Coil or
Conuil, by which name-originally belonging only
to the immediate family of Donald Dubh-the whole
confederacy of Clan Cameron was beginning to be
known at the time Major wrote; thus Clan Kauel
would be equivalent to Clan Cameron. That this
4
1 In more recent times the whole Clan Cameron is spoken of
as Clan Conuil, but at first this name belonged exclusively to the
immediate family of Donald Dubh.
2 This form is of frequent occurrence in the MS. History of
the Camerons. In the "Rentaill of the Lordschippe of
Huntlye" made in 1600 (given in Spald. Club. Misc. iv. 292)
we read of "Allane Camrone M'Ouildowy," and in Moysie's
Memoirs (98) of “ Allane M’Kildowie."
3 Compare the name given in the Latin MS. History of the
Mackintoshes to the defeated Clan at Perth-Clan Cai or Clan
Cavelli. See above, p. 109. Lest the reader should feel inclined
to think Kauel another form of the disputed Quhewyl, I may
observe that there is no connection between the two, one being
pronounced Kawel, the other wha-il.
4 It is, however, not impossible that the Clan Kauel deserting
Alexander was the Clan Coil proper alone, i.e. the branch having
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
127
is so appears evident from the fact that Bowar, who
wrote nearly a century before Major, and was alive
in 1429, styles the clan which with Clan Chattan
deserted Alexander of the Isles, Clan Cameron.¹
Nothing is more likely than that Major consulted
Bowar's account before writing his own, and he
would scarcely differ in such an important particular
from one who had lived at the very time of the
event which he describes. Besides this, although
it would appear prima facie from the passage quoted
that the phrase "tribus hæ sunt consanguinea" refers
to Clan Katan and Clan Cameron, I think it really
refers to Clan Kauel and Clan Cameron, two branches
of the Clan Cameron confederacy-the former name
either being applied generally to the whole con-
federacy, or else particularly to the branch to which
the chief belonged; the latter to one of the families
of Cameron proper. To make my meaning more
clear-Bowar's Cameron first mentioned and Major's
Kauel signify either the whole confederacy or the
leading branch; while Bowar's second Cameron and
Major's Brameron signify only a sept or family of
Donald Dubh at its head; as it appears from Gregory (p. 77)
that some of the Clan Cameron, the Macgilonies, were opposed
to the rest of the clan at this time. I merely suggest this, and
acknowledge that it will scarcely bear comparison with Skene's
statement that Donald Dubh belonged to the Macgilony branch;
but the fact that this statement depends on the MS. of 1450
may perhaps afford some ground for doubting its correctness,
and I would rather believe that Donald and the line of Locheil
are the real Camerons.
¹ Scoti-cronicon, Bowar's Continuation, 1285.
128
THE MACKINTOSHES
Camerons proper.¹
One reason against the Clan
Chattan's being one of the "tribus hæ" is that it
certainly could not be said of that clan, when Major
wrote (about 1520), that it "had little in lordships,"
or that it followed the same chief as the Camerons.
The evident antithesis in the first two sentences
of the passage in the original edition of Major
seems to afford a presumption that "Kauel
Kauel" and
"Cameron," and not "Katan" and " Cameron," are
referred to as the "tribus hæ,"-thus at one time
Clan Coil (or Cameron) is to all appearance in perfect
harmony with Clan Chattan, but soon after things
rage so furiously between them that Clan Chattan
cuts off a whole branch of Clan Cameron.
To sum up, the most likely solution of the
apparent difficulty in this passage of Major's History
seems to be this;-The chronicler follows Bowar's
account of the desertion from the Lord of the
Isles in 1429 and of the slaughter of a branch of
Clan Cameron in the following year; but in the
mention of the first event he uses a name, Kauel,
properly belonging only to the chief branch of
¹ Mr. Skene (ii. 195) says there is reason to think that the
Macmartins of Letterfinlay were originally the principal sept of
Clan Cameron, and that they were superseded by the family
afterwards of Locheil, the oldest cadets, about the period from
1396 to 1430. This being so, may not the Macmartins have
been the branch cut off by Clan Chattan on Palm Sunday 1430?
I may observe, however, that the Cameron MS. History is silent
regarding such a position for the Macmartins, and there is no
doubt that Donald Dubh headed the clan in 1429.
་
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
129
Clan Cameron-whether to indicate that branch
only or the whole confederacy is immaterial here.
In the mention of the second event he employs
the name Cameron, but remembering that he is
writing for readers who would have little or no
knowledge of the intricacies of Highland family
and clan names, and perhaps apprehensive that by
using the name Kauel he may seem to differ from
Bowar, he adds in explanation the few words "Tribus
hæ sunt consanguinea, &c." to show that the two
names Kauel and Cameron belong to the same body
of people. These words would never have led to
so much misconception had the editor of Major in
1740 been acquainted with a little of the history
of the Camerons, and allowed the name Kauel to
stand as Major himself wrote it.
On all this I submit, with due deference to the
opinion of those better able than myself to decide the
point, that the original reading of Major and the con-
siderations suggested by it which I have just laid
before the reader, afford very strong evidence that
the statements of Mr. Skene as to the community
of stock of Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron, and
as to a separation of the latter from the former
in consequence of the result of the combat at Perth,
are in reality unfounded. The facts that they were
ever made and that they have been taken for granted
by almost every succeeding writer on the Highlands
who has treated of the Camerons, thus vitiating
the correctness of the history of that clan, show
K
130
THE MACKINTOSHES
!
i
¡
i
¡
how desirable and even necessary it is for anyone
who makes statements or founds theories on the
testimony of ancient authorities to be sure that he
has the actual words of such authorities; not to
be content with modern editions, quotations by
other writers, or translations, but to go straight
to the fountain head.¹
1 This chapter, somewhat amplified, was printed separately in
1874, under the title The Clan Battle at Perth in 1396.
.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
131
CHAPTER V.
Ferquhard, 9th chief-Malcolm, 10th chief-Battle of Harlaw
-Feud with the Comyns-Custody of Inverness Castle-
Malcolm's desertion of the Lord of the Isles-Conflict with
the Camerons in 1430-Donald Balloch's Inroad-Glenroy
and Glenspean-Prosecution of the Feud with the Camerons;
Conflict at Craigcailloch-Battle with the Munroes at Clach-
naharry-Duncan, 11th chief-Ferquhard, his heir-apparent
-Lochalsh's Rebellion; Blair-na-Park-Dougal Mor Mac-
gillichallum-Ferquhard's Imprisonment, and succession to
the chiefship-Hostilities with the Camerons and their allies
-Donald Dubh's Insurrection-Ferquhard's Release from
Prison, and Death.
AFTER a chiefship of nearly forty years, Lachlan
mac William died at a ripe old age in 1407, leaving
by his wife Agnes, daughter of Hugh Fraser of
Lovat, one son Ferquhard, who succeeded him, and
a daughter, married to Chisholm of Strathglass.
(9) The chiefship of FERQUHARD was a brief one.
Whether unfitted by infirmity of body or by dis-
position of mind for the active and often harassing
duties incident to his position is not certain; but
at all events, to quote the Kinrara MS.-which
describes him as "of a sullen disposition "-" his
K 2
132
THE MACKINTOSHES
friends of the name of Clan Chattan, an active and
stirring people at the time, were altogether dis-
satisfied with his way of managing affairs; therefore
he willingly renounced his inheritance and birth-
right in favour of his uncle Malcolm, and took
himself to a private life." From the expressions
here used it may be gathered that his tastes inclined
more to the side of peace and quietness than was
acceptable to his turbulent and warlike clansmen ;
and it is probable that his incapacity, from whatever
cause it proceeded, furnishes a reason for his cousin
Shaw Mor's being employed to lead the Clan Chattan
champions at Perth in 1396, as Ferquhard himself
was undoubtedly the person who should have taken
his aged father's place on that occasion.
Ferquhard accordingly gave up a position which
he had neither the ability to fill nor the wish to
retain; his three sons-by Giles, daughter of
Alexander Innes of Innes-at the same time being
cut off from the succession. He gave up all title
to the patrimony of the family, reserving only
Killachie and Corrivory, to which he retired and
where he died in 1417 at the age of fifty-six. His
sons all had issue, and were the progenitors of
several families bearing various names besides that
of Mackintosh. His daughter was the wife of
Duncan mac Kenneth vic Ewen, ancestor of the
Macphersons of Cluny.
(10) MALCOLM, his successor, was the son of
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
133
William, 7th chief, by his second marriage late
in life with Margaret Macleod. Malcolm's character
was in every way the opposite to that given of
Ferquhard. He was, says the Kinrara MS., "of
a high and towering spirit, but of a middle stature,
thick and square, able to endure all extremities
of weather and scarcity or want of rest, fortunate
in war and in every way accomplished, only by
the fault of the times in which he lived he was
not polished with letters." From his shortness of
stature he received the cognomen "Beg."
His warlike qualities were not long suffered to
lie dormant. Donald, second Lord of the Isles,
having a quarrel with the Duke of Albany, Regent
of the kingdom,' concerning the right to the Earldom
of Ross, in the year 1411 invaded and took posses-
sion of the districts pertaining to the earldom.
Accompanied by the Islesmen and most of the
clans of the Western Highlands he proceeded to
invade the Lowlands; and on his way from Ross
through Moray he was joined by Mackintosh with
the Clan Chattan. There can be little doubt that,
just as was the claim of Donald upon the Earldom
¹ This was the Duke Robert, brother of Robert III., whose
character is perhaps best known as drawn by Sir Walter Scott
in the Fair Maid of Perth. Though ambitious and unscrupulous,
he was doubtless one of the ablest governors Scotland has ever
possessed. In the quarrel with Donald of the Isles he was clearly
in the wrong, whether his object was one of personal aggrandise-
ment or of political expediency. The grounds of Donald's claim
have been briefly stated on p. 49, ante.
134
THE MACKINTOSHES
of Ross, his further action in raising the standard
of rebellion against the governing powers of the
country was carried out in fulfilment of an under-
standing with the English king. If his object
had been simply to secure his earldom he might
have held it against Albany without carrying the
war into the Lowlands. He was on his
He was on his way south-
ward through Aberdeenshire when he was met by
the Earl of Mar, at the head of an army inferior
to his own in numbers, but superior in equipment
and discipline. On the 24th July 1411 was fought
the battle of Harlaw, indecisive at the moment,
but so far to the advantage of the royal army that
Donald was obliged to return to the Isles and
leave the Earldom of Ross to be occupied by his
adversary.
Of the chiefs assisting Donald at Harlaw, Malcolm
Mackintosh and Hector Maclean were the most
important, and both these are said to have lost
their lives in the battle. Thus an old ballad, The
Battle of Harlaw,—
"Malcomtosh, o' the clan head chief,
Maclean, wi' his great haughty head,
Wi' a' their succour and relief
Were dulefully dung to the dead."
Boece also says that Mackintosh was killed, but two
of the original MS. Genealogies of the Mackintoshes,
says the Kinrara MS., "bear that Malcolm, who
was chief and leader of the Clan Chattan at the
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
135
battle of Harlaw, died not till the year 1457,
being forty-five years after the battle, and in
this also the chronicle (i.e. Boece's) is faulty:
first, because Mackintosh has charters as yet extant
granted to the said Malcolm in the years 1443, 1447,
and 1456; second, Major (lib. vi. cap. 10) says
that campi ductorem Mac Gillean occiderunt,' but
makes no mention of Mackintosh in that place.
And moreover the testimony of the MSS. is more
to be regarded in deciding of controversies of that
nature than that of the chronicles, as being more
ancient and nearer the times wherein these things
fell out. And further yet, suppose the Laird of
Mackintosh was not killed at the battle of Harlaw,
yet James Mackintosh, Laird of Rothimurchus, son
to the prementioned Shaw that fought on the
North Inch of St. Johnstoun, was slain there, who
doubtless has been taken by Boetius his informer
for the Laird of Mackintosh, so as the mistake
doth plainly appear.'
""
The MS. History of the Macdonalds already referred
to, of which a fragment is given in the Collectanea
de Rebus Albanacis, affords additional testimony
(such as it is) that Malcolm survived the battle. The
writer says positively that he was not killed, and
as a proof that the victory was with the forces of
the island chief he records the following :-"It hap-
pened that this same Callum Beg Mackintosh was
with James I. after his releasment from captivity in
England in the same place where the battle was
136
THE MACKINTOSHES
fought. The king asked him how far they followed
the chase. Mackintosh replied that they followed
it further than his majesty thought. The king
riding on a pretty pace, asked Mackintosh if they
came that length. He answering said, that in his
opinion there was a heap of stones before them,
and that he left there a mark to show that he
followed the chase that length; and with that he
brought a man's arm with its gauntlet out of the
heap." The story goes on to say that the king
ordered Malcolm to attend him to Aberdeen, but
that on their
their arrival there Malcolm, suspecting
treachery, took the earliest opportunity of making
his escape. The same writer
The same writer says that Donald
of the Isles at Harlaw
"Callum Beg
gave to
Mackintosh, who commanded the left wing, a right
of the lands of Glengarry, by way of pleasing him
for yielding the right wing to Maclean." But except
this there is no record extant of the possession
by Mackintosh of a right to Glengarry until 1467.
In the time of this chief, the feud with the
Comyns, which had smouldered during the last
century, only occasionally breaking out in fitful
hostilities on either side, was finally quenched at
least we hear no more of it. It appears that soon
after Harlaw, Alexander Comyn, who held possession
of the lands of Rait and Geddes of right belong-
ing to Mackintosh, caused several of Mackintosh's
clansmen to be apprehended while passing through
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
137
his lands, and had them hung.' According to the
Kinrara MS., Malcolm revenged this insult by sur-
prising some of the chief men of the Comyns in the
castle of Nairn, and putting them to the sword. On
this the Comyns invaded his country, advancing to
Loch Moy, where they were caught in an ambush and
completely routed. We are told on the authority
of tradition that the Comyns now made advances
towards a reconciliation, all the while meditating a
scheme of revenge. The circumstances under which
this scheme is said to have been frustrated are so
interesting and curious that I need offer no
apology for inserting the narrative given in the
Statistical Account of Scotland :—2
"The Comyns, conceiving they had received some
offence from the Mackintoshes, were determined to
be revenged, and concealing their bloody purpose,
invited the Mackintoshes to the Castle of Raits,
where all animosities should be buried in oblivion
at the festive board. One of the Comyns, from
compunction of conscience or regard for one of the
intended victims, sent private notice to one of the
Mackintoshes to meet him at the Grey Stone, to
“Knock-na-
¹ This incident is commemorated by the name
Gillan " (the young men's hillock) given to an eminence below
the site of the Castle of Raits said to have been the scene of the
execution.
2 Vol. xiv.-Account of the United Parishes of Croy and
Dalcross, p. 449.
3 This stone is still pointed out, and is known as Clach-na-
seanais, or the "listening-stone."
138
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
which, addressing himself in the audience of his
friend, he disclosed the bloody and treacherous in-
tentions of his clan. The Mackintoshes being thus
made aware of the design of the rendezvous, nothing
daunted, repaired to the castle at the appointed hour,
and before the Comyns could give the signal for
attack each Mackintosh plunged a dagger into the
bosom of a Comyn, and only saved the life of the man
who communicated the treachery to the Grey Stone."¹
With regard to the ambush in which the Comyns
were taken at Loch Moy, it may not be amiss here
to quote another passage from the Statistical Account,²
relating to an alleged stratagem by which the Comyns
were compelled to raise the siege of the island in
the loch. With the usual looseness of traditionary
record, neither the date nor a clue to it is given;
but if the occurrence ever happened at all, it is
likely it happened about this period:-"The tradi-
tionary history (of Moy) is principally taken up with
the feuds of the Mackintoshes and Cummings, and
many tumuli are pointed out as the graves of the
slain. Some of these have been opened and bones
found; stone arrow-heads and dirks have also been
discovered.
During a long war between the
1 Tradition also states that the invitation to the Mackintoshes
was on the occasion of a marriage; and that the signal for the
attack of the Comyns upon their guests was to be the appearance
of a bull's head. See also the Account of the Parish of Aul-
dearn, p. 9; and the Account of the Parish of Nairn, pp. 1, 2.
2 xiv., 104.—Account of the United Parishes of Moy and
Dalarossie.
ד
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
139
two hostile clans, the Cummings had at length
driven the Mackintoshes for refuge into the island
of Loch Moy. Here they formed the resolution of
damming the loch, where the Funtack issues from
it, and thus by raising the water to cover the island
and drown them (the Mackintoshes). They pro-
ceeded with their plan till the Mackintoshes were
on the eve of destruction, when one of the latter
offered, if allowed, to liberate themselves and destroy
the Cummings. He accordingly got a raft made,
and supplying himself with corks or wooden plugs,
and twine, he descended in the dead of the night to
the dam. This was lined towards the water with
boards, through which the adventurer bored a number
of holes with an auger, and in each hole he put a
plug with a string attached. All these strings were
attached to one general rope, which when all was
ready he pulled. When the plugs were extracted
the water rushed out with fearful force, carrying away
the turf bank and the whole army of the Cummings
who were encamped behind it. It is said that the
daring adventurer perished with his enemies. ***
That this event took place at Loch Moy is evident
from uniform tradition, from the nature of the place
where the dam was erected, it being a narrow gorge
easily admitting of such a construction, and also
from the fact that, in cleaning the mouth of the lake
some years ago, a number of stakes and beams were
discovered fixed about six feet under the surface of
the ground, which were evidently fitted for cross
140
THE MACKINTOSHES
boards, and which from their appearance must have
lain there from time immemorial."
Whether this feud was really carried on as thus
particularised by tradition, or not, the result of it
was to give the last blow to the power and insolence
of the Comyns, and to transfer to Mackintosh the
lands of Rait and Geddes which had been withheld
from his family for more than a century. Malcolm
lost no time in establishing his title to these lands,
obtaining the heritable right of them, from Alexander
Lord Gordon, on the 5th October 1442.
The custody of the Castle of Inverness was also
about this time restored to the family of Mackintosh.
King James I., in 1427-8 visiting Inverness for the
purpose of holding a Justice Court, and knowing
the power and bravery of Malcolm, made him Con-
stable of the castle. It was on this visit that the
king induced a number of the Highland chiefs,
among them the third Lord of the Isles, to meet
him, under pretence of requiring their aid in de-
liberating as to the best means of preserving the
peace of the north. His object, which he effected,
was to make the chiefs themselves securities for the
good behaviour of their clans; and on their arrival
he had some executed and others imprisoned.
Alexander, Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross, who
was one of the latter, no sooner found himself at
liberty again than he proceeded to take revenge
for the indignity he had been made to suffer, and in
1429 he attacked and burnt Inverness, but was
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
141
unable to wrest the castle from Mackintosh. On
receiving intelligence that a large army was on the
march against him, Alexander left the neighbourhood,
and shortly afterwards was signally defeated by the
king in Lochaber, being driven to such extremity that
he was compelled to appear at Holyrood in the most
abject manner and beg his life. This was granted him,
but he was kept for some years in close confinement.
It was in the royal campaign into Lochaber against
the Lord of the Isles that the Clan Chattan and Clan
Cameron are said to have gone over to the king.
From the commonly received account of the transac-
tion, as in Gregory and Skene, it appears as though
the Clan Chattan, with Clan Cameron, were actually in
the ranks of the island chief at the commencement
of the campaign against him; and that they then
and there deserted him. We have, however, just seen
that the Captain of Clan Chattan was not only in
favour with the king two years before, but in this
same year had defended Inverness Castle in the
king's interest against the Islesmen. There is thus,
so far as the Clan Chattan is concerned, a contradic-
tion between the account given by the early historians
followed by Gregory and Skene, and that which makes
Mackintosh to be on the side of the king in the
early part of 1429; but the contradiction is perhaps
more apparent than real, as in all probability the
passage in Major (already quoted) simply means that
the Clan Chattan, which had hitherto followed the
Lord of the Isles, left his party about this time or
142
THE MACKINTOSHES
on the breaking out of his rebellion-not actually on
the field of battle. If this is not the meaning of the
passage, the only alternative supposition is that
Mackintosh, up to the campaign in Lochaber, was
trying to play a double game.
We have seen in the preceding chapter how the
Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron, though apparently
pursuing the same line of conduct in 1429 in espous-
ing the cause of the king against the Lord of the
Isles, were yet so far from being friends that within
a year they had a fight which terminated in the
almost total extirpation of a sept of the latter-named
clan. This fight is alleged to have taken place in a
church on Palm Sunday, and is mentioned by Bowar,
Major, and Buchanan.¹ The Kinrara MS., which
also notices it, states that the Camerons had just
before taken a spreagh of cattle from Strathdearn.
In 1431 the Earls of Mar and Caithness, being
stationed with an army in Lochaber for the purpose of
acting as a check on the Islesmen, who were by no
means daunted by the captivity of their chief and lord,
were defeated at Inverlochy by Donald Balloch, a
cousin of Alexander of the Isles. The army being in
want of provisions, various parties had been sent to a
distance to bring in cattle, and the consequent weaken-
ing of the Earls' forces afforded Donald a favourable
opportunity for a surprise. Mackintosh, whose clan
formed a portion of the royal army, had been
1 Scoticron. Bowar's Contin. 1285; Major (Edin. 1740) 302;
Buchanani Vita Jacob. I.
.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
143
sent to Ardnamurchan, so that he was not in the
battle. His lands suffered, however; for Donald
Balloch, after his victory at Inverlochy, punished
both Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron for their de-
sertion of his cousin by invading and harrying their
lands in and about Lochaber. After committing great
devastation he was finally compelled, on the approach
of King James in person, to flee to Ireland, and the
vigorous measures taken by the monarch soon put
down his followers. Mackintosh was compensated
for the losses he and his clan had sustained on account
of their loyalty to the king, by a grant of Glen Roy
and Glen Spean, part of the lands of Alexander
Carrach of Lochaber, uncle to the Lord of the Isles,
who was deprived of his possessions for his share
in Donald Balloch's rebellion. The island lord, as
superior of these lands, was compelled by the king
to bestow them on Mackintosh, who was so fortunate
as to retain them after James's death, and even
to obtain from his superior a confirmation of the
grant (dated 21 Feb. 1443).
The Lord of the Isles, after his liberation and his
elevation to the office of Justiciar of the kingdom
north of the Forth, seems to have become thoroughly
reconciled to Mackintosh, as is shown by his con-
firmation of the grant of Glen Roy &c. just mentioned,
and by his grant to Malcolm in 1447 (23 Nov.) of
the heritable right to the Stewartry and Bailliary of
the whole lordship of Lochaber. This reconciliation
is the more strange as he appears never to have
144
THE MACKINTOSHES
forgiven the Camerons for the part they had taken
against him in 1429. The unvaried loyalty exhibited
by the chiefs of Mackintosh to his family previously
to 1429, and the good service done his father at
Harlaw by Malcolm Mackintosh himself, no doubt
went a great way in inclining him to show favour
to the Clan Chattan; yet so far as former loyalty
was concerned the Camerons were equally entitled
to consideration. There must therefore have been
some reason for the difference of conduct which
Alexander pursued towards the two clans, for the
munificence with which he treated the one, and for
the rigour with which he persecuted the other. This
reason may possibly lie in the fact that while Mackin-
tosh had been openly on the side of the king for
some time before Alexander's defeat in Lochaber,
the chief of the Camerons had contributed in no
small degree to that defeat by his desertion on the
eve or after the commencement of the campaign.
Another reason may be that Alexander hoped, by
making the Clan Chattan his instruments in hunting
down the Camerons, to obtain revenge on both clans
at the same time by giving them a pretext for
slaughtering each other. However this may be, one
of his first proceedings on being made Justiciar of
the North was to take measures against the Camerons."
He had an excuse for pursuing them ready to his
hand in their resistance to Mackintosh's claims on the
lands of Glen Lui and Locharkaig; and it was with
1 Gregory, 39.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
145
his connivance, if not with his authority, that the
Clan Chattan began in 1441 to invade and harry the
Cameron lands. In this year a sanguinary conflict
took place at Craig Cailloch between the two clans, in
which Mackintosh's second son, Lachlan "Badenoch,"
was wounded¹ and Gillichallum his brother killed.
This was followed by a raid under Duncan, Malcolm's
eldest son, in which the Cameron lands were harried.
In the end Donald Dubh, then chief of the Camerons,
was forced by the inveterate animosity of the Justiciar
to flee to Ireland, his lands of Locheil being declared
forfeited, and bestowed on John Garbh Maclean.2
When we see such instances as this of the way in
which the power placed by the Scottish Government
in the hands of its deputies was exercised, we can
scarcely wonder that the great efforts made by the
various kings to bring the Highlands into submission
to the laws so long proved abortive. It could scarcely
be expected that the clans would have much reverence
for the law, or for the Government which pressed it
upon them, when they saw that its administrators
used it as a cover to their own designs, and perverted
the authority given them for purposes of justice to
the satisfaction of their own private animosities. To
maintain tranquillity in the Highlands and to reclaim
¹ The account of the Camerons prefatory to Memoirs of Locheil,
p. 21, says that Lachlan was mortally wounded. This is in-
correct, as we find him alive and giving band to Huntly in 1475,
as well as figuring at various other times subsequent to this
fight.
2 Memoirs of Locheil; Author's Introd. 19.
L
1
146
THE MACKINTOSHES
the inhabitants from their lawless and turbulent state
was no doubt a task of supreme difficulty, and it was
perhaps only the monarch himself-for whom alone
the Highlanders seem to have entertained any degree
of awe-who by his frequent presence and his
energetic and impartial control could have completed
this task. But as such a direct administration by the
monarch was out of the question, the governor of the
North must necessarily be either a Highland chief or
one having no previous connection with the scene of
his duties. If the former, there was the danger,
almost the certainty, that family and clan prejudices
would render him incapable of exercising his power
impartially, or that he would use every means,
whether lawful or not, to aggrandise his own clan.
On the other hand, the Highland chiefs would have
been almost unanimous in refusing to receive and
obey a Lowland noble. This difficulty, arising prin-
cipally from the peculiar character of the Highland
tribes, was the great bar to the success of effort
after effort made for introducing law and order into
the North and had it not been that while years
rolled on civilization was advancing, carrying with
it the arts of peace and the desire to enjoy them,
the legislative acts of successive governments for
pacifying the Highlands would to this day have been
made in vain.
If the statement of the Kinrara MS. that the Malcolm
Mackintosh who fought at Harlaw was the Malcolm
who died in 1457 be correct, as no doubt it is, this
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
147
chief must have lived to an age considerably beyond
the allotted span; he must have been almost, if not
quite, a centenarian.¹ That he lived to a great age—
perhaps of "second childishness and mere oblivion "
-is apparent from various circumstances mentioned
incidentally in the MS. history. In 1452, five years
before his death, we are told that Malcolm being
"old and unable for public employment," and withal
being allied to the Earl of Ross, James II. on report
of the confederacy between the Earls of Douglas and
Ross (the latter John, Alexander's successor) gave
charge of the Castle of Inverness to one Crichton.³
The new governor does not appear to have been so
successful a custodian as the chiefs of Mackintosh,
for three years afterwards the castle was taken from
him by the Earl of Ross.
2
Another circumstance which seems to indicate
the powerless condition of the chief in his old age
appears in connection with the feud with the Munroes
or Clan Roich in 1454. It is thus narrated in
Anderson's Account of the Family of Fraser (p.
54):-"The Monroes, a distinguished tribe of Ross,
returning from an inroad they had made in the south
of Scotland, passed by Moyhall, the seat of Mackin-
tosh, leader of the Clan Chattan: a share of the
1 His father died in 1368, but the MS. says that his marriage
to Malcolm's mother took place late in life.
2 Alexander, 2nd Earl of Ross and 3rd Lord of the Isles, died
in 1449.
3 James, Lord Crichton, husband of Janet Dunbar, heiress of
James, Earl of Moray.
L 2
148
THE MACKINTOSHES
;
1
booty or road collop, payable to a chief for crossing
his dominions, was demanded and acceded to; but
Mackintosh's avaricious spirit coveting the whole,
his proposal met with contempt, and Mackintosh
summoned his vassals to extort compliance. The
Monroes, pursuing their journey, forded the river
Ness a little above the island, and despatched the
cattle they had plundered across the hill of Kinmylies
to Lovat's province. Their enemy came up to them
at the point of Clachnahayre, and immediately
joined battle; the conflict was such as might have
been expected from men excited to revenge by a
long and inveterate enmity. Quarter was neither
sought nor granted; after an obstinate struggle
Mackintosh was killed. The survivors of his band
retraced their steps to their own country. John
Munro tutor of Fowlis was left for dead upon the
field; his kinsmen were not long of retaliating.
Having collected a sufficient force, they marched
in the dead of the night for the Isle of Moy, where
the chief of the Mackintoshes resided. By the aid
of some planks which they had carried with them,
and now put together, they crossed to the isle, and
glutted their thirst for revenge by the murder or
captivity of all the inmates."
The account given in the Kinrara MS. is far from
being in harmony with this. It makes appear that
the unreasonable demand and the pursuit of the
Munroes were not the acts of the chief of Mackintosh,
but of his "oy" or grandson, also named Malcolm.
AND CLAN CHATTAN,
149
+
66
By
This Malcolm was son of the chief's youngest son
Gillichallum (killed at Craig Cailloch in 1441), and
elder brother of the renowned Dougal Mor.
the instigation of some evil-disposed people about
him at the time-being young and ill-advised-he
craves a part of the spreagh. John (Munro) offers
twenty-four cows and a bull. Malcolm refuses the
offer and will have no less than half the booty;
which John refusing goes on his journey, with a
resolution to give none at all." From the expression
"ill-advised," it seems likely that the youth had be-
come connected with a lawless set of companions, and
a subsequent expression, unadvised," used by the
MS. in respect of the enterprise, seems to imply that
the measures taken were altogether without the chief's
concurrence. However this may be, the chief himself
was certainly not killed, nor present in the battle at
Clachnaharry. The MS. goes on to say that on the
refusal of his demand, young Malcolm at once sent
fiery crosses to Petty, Strathnairn, and the neigh-
bourhood to raise the clansmen there to oppose the
progress of the Munroes until he should arrive with
the Strathdearn men, but that the fight took place
before he could come up. "Malcolm who occasioned
this bloody fight came not at them till all was over,
and went away sorrowful for what had come to pass
through his hastiness." A few years afterwards, in
order to effect a reconciliation between the clans,
the youth Malcolm married a sister of the tutor of
Foulis," and so that unhappy engagement for the
150
THE MACKINTOSHES
hership of Strathardle,' being but a rash and un-
advised act, proceeding from passion and youthhood,
and the loss being equal on both sides, was never
looked upon thereafter as any cause of lasting feud."
The alleged retaliation by the Munroes, involving as
it does a passage through the town of Inverness,
always favourable to the Mackintoshes, as well as
through the most thickly populated part of Mac-
kintosh's country, is scarcely credible.²
The ability with which Malcolm during his long
chiefship had watched over the interests of his family
and clan is thus testified to by the MS.,-" he had
so composed and ordered his affairs in Lochaber and
dauntoned his enemies there and elsewhere, that his
son was not much troubled or disquieted on that
account." Before he fell into the weakness of extreme
old age, he was certainly a vigorous and successful
chief, respected by both friends and enemies. It is
evident from the favour shown him by James I. that
he had considerable influence in the country,³ and
1 A colony of Mackintoshes, descended from Adam, natural
son of the 7th chief, was settled here and in Glenshee, and it is
possible that some of these may have been sufferers by the inroad
of the Munroes and have made the fact known to their kinsmen
at Moy.
2 In commemoration of the incident, Major H. R. Duff of
Muirtown in 1821 erected a granite column on one of the rocks
of Clachnaharry, bearing on the side facing the shore of Ross
the word MONRO, and on the side towards the south the words
CLAN CHATTAN, with the legend HAS INTER RUPES OSSA CONDUNTUR.
3 In a deed of resignation by John, 6th of Kilravock, in 1440,
Malcolm is mentioned as "ballivus de Badenach."
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
151
from his conduct, or rather the results of his conduct,
in the quarrel between the monarch and the Earl of
Ross, that he was gifted with the prudence to see and
choose the course most advantageous for him to pursue,
and that he pursued it with tact and ability. On the
whole, he seems to have been one of the greatest
chiefs in every respect that have guided the fortunes
of Clan Chattan.
In his time the Clan received further accessions
from without. "Terlach mac Eachin vic Wolan, of
whom Clan Tearlich [better known as the Macleans
of Dochgarroch] are sprung," says the Kinrara MS.,
gave his bond of manrent for his family and pos-
terity to Malcolm. Also Revan mac Milmoir vic
Swen, of whom Clan Revan [Macqueens], and
Donald mac Gillandrish, of whom Clan Andrish,
came out of Moidart with Mora nian Ranald, Lady
Mackintosh. Sic-like also Gillemichael vic Chlerich,
of whom the Clan Chlerich, lived in Malcolm's time
and was his domestic servant."
He obtained, as already stated, the heritable right
to Rait and Geddes dated 5 Oct. 1442; and in
1437 he obtained a new lease of the barony of Moy,
dated 6 Feb., from John, Bishop of Moray.
Malcolm died in 1457. By his wife Mora, daughter
of Macdonald first of Moydart, he had four sons,
1. Duncan, his heir.
2. Lachlan, surnamed "Badenoch," from his
residence in that district. He died in
1493, and the chief line was afterwards
152
THE MACKINTOSHES
*
carried on in his family. He was
married (1) to a daughter of the chieftain
of the "sept Gillies," i.e. Macpherson
of Invereshie; (2) to Elizabeth, daughter
of Hugh Calder, Parson of Kingussie,
by whom he had a son, Malcolm, who
died unmarried before his uncle the 11th
chief; (3) to Catherine, daughter of Sir
Duncan Grant of Freuchie, by whom he
had William and Lachlan.
3. Alan, who lived at Balliherranach in Strath-
errick. He was progenitor of the Killachie
branch, and died in 1476. By his first
wife, Janet, daughter of Hugh, 3rd Lord
Lovat, he had Lachlan, whose only son
John Roy afterwards acquired an in-
famous notoriety; William Mor, father
of Donald, Tutor from 1550 to 1562;
John, married to a daughter of William,
Thane of Calder ¹-contract dated 12th
May, 1483; Alexander; Hucheon,
married to Marion, another daughter
of Calder¹-contract dated 20th August,
¹ It seems to have been necessary in these cases to procure a
dispensation to set aside the barriers of consanguinity between
the contracting parties. Marion, one of the four sisters of
Malcolm Beg, grandfather of John and Hucheon, had married
Hucheon Rose of Kilravock, grandfather of the brides. The
dowry given with the bride of Hucheon Alanson Mackintosh is
"40 punds of the usuall mone off Scotlande," and her father is
to pay half the cost of the dispensation. The parties to the
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
153
1490. By his second wife, a daughter
of Forbes of Pitsligo, he had William
Og, and Alan Reoch."
4. Malcolm, or Gillichallum, killed in the
conflict with the Camerons at Craig-
cailloch in 1441. He had two sons,
Malcolm Og, the cause of the fight at
Clachnaharry, and Dougal Mor "Mac
Gillichallum."
Malcolm Beg had also five daughters :-
Muriel, m. John Mor Grant of Freuchie; Mora,
m. Hucheon Rose of Kilravock; Janet, m. Patrick
Mac Ian Roy, brother of Sir Duncan Grant; Mar-
garet, m. Hector Mac Tearlich, chieftain of Clan
Tearlich (Macleans of Dochgarroch); and Moniach,
m. Alexander Fraser.
(11) DUNCAN, 11th chief, is said to have been "of
a meek and gentle disposition," which however did
not prevent him from exercising the functions
devolving upon him with prudence and vigour, at
contract, which is preserved at Cawdor, are the Thane himself,
Duncan Mackintosh Captain of Clan Chattan, Farquhar his son
and apparent heir, and the bridegroom Hucheon Alanson. The
learned editor of the Cawdor Papers appears to have been
ignorant of the cousinship between the contracting parties. See
Book of Thanes of Cawdor, 73.
¹ A comparison of the two Williams among Alan's sons with
"William Allansone elder," in an Act of the Lords of Council
of 5 Feb. 1492-3, affords an example of the minute way in
which I have constantly found the MS. History corroborated by
documents.
.
た
​154
THE MACKINTOSHES
least during the earlier part of his chiefship. As we
have seen, he had headed the expedition against the
Camerons in 1441; and, also before he became chief, he
had fought a successful battle at Culloden with Gil-
lespie Macdonald, natural brother of the Earl of Ross,
who had driven a spreagh of cattle out of Petty.
Throughout his chiefship he had almost undis-
turbed quiet, and was in favour both with the
king and with the Lord of the Isles. He was one
with whom James IV., with a view to the estab-
lishment of order in the Highlands by attaching
the principal chiefs to his interest, kept up an in-
tercourse. With the Captain of Clan Chattan,
Duncan Mackintosh, with Ewen, Captain of Clan
Cameron, with Campbell of Glenurquhy, and the
Earl of Huntly, &c., he (James) appears to have
been in habits of constant and regular communica-
tion," says Tytler. On the first forfeiture of the
Lord of the Isles and the annexation of his Earldom
of Ross to the Crown in 1475-6, James granted a
charter of confirmation, dated 4 July, 1476, "dilecto
nostro Duncano Mackintosh, Capitano de Clan Chattan,
terrarum de Moymore, Fern, Clumglassen, Stroneroy,
Auchenroy," and others in Lochaber. In 1466 Duncan
obtained from John, Lord of the Isles, a charter² to
the lands of Keppoch and all the Brae Lochaber
1 Hist. Scot. iv. 367.
1
2 In this he is styled "Duncanus M., consanguineus noster,
capitanus de Clan Chattan." John, 4th Lord of the Isles, and
Duncan Mackintosh were second cousins.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
155
1
lands; and in 1493 this was confirmed by the king
in a charter “terrarum de Keppoch, Innerorgan, &c.,
cum officio Ballivatus earundem." This was on the
final forfeiture of the Lord of the Isles, when Duncan
and others who had been vassals of the island chief
met the king and formally made their submission
to him. From the island Lord Duncan also obtained
in 1467 a right-which does not appear to have been
acted upon-to the lands of Glengarry.
Duncan also seems to have been on excellent terms
with his neighbours. He passed an indenture of
friendship (9th Aug. 1467, at Forres) which the
MS. gives in extenso, with William, Lord Forbes,
Rose of Kilravock being included. This bore early
fruit, for when in 1479 a dispute arose between
Mackintosh and Hucheon Rose of Kilravock respecting
1 Reg. Great Seal, xiii. 96, 114-6.
2
2 This contract is also given in Coll. de Reb. Alb., p. 80. It is
between "William Lord Forbes, Alexander Forbes of Pitsligo,
Alexander Forbes of Tolquhoun, Arthur off Forbes, and Johne
off Forbes off Brux, on a pairt, and rycht honourable men Duncan
M'inToshe Cheiff and Captane of Clan Chattane, Huchon Ross,
Barron of Kilrack, Allan M'intoshe and Lauchlane M'intoshe,
brether to said Duncan, on the tother pairt." Mackintosh and
Kilravock "keep their allegiance to the Aarle of Ross." The
penalties denounced for breach of contract-which is to be
"leallie and trewlie keipit, and till endure for evermair" -are
curious :-"Quhasoevir brakis in onie of thir conditiones sall be
halden infamous, mansuorne, and renunce the faith of Chryst,
and nevir to be hard in pruiff no witness, na ly in kirk nor
Cristin berrial.” See also 2nd Report of Historical MSS.
Commission-Papers at Castle Forbes, p. 194.
156
THE MACKINTOSHES
the duchus of Urquhart and Glenmoriston,' the two
lairds, instead of flying to arms or invoking the law,
agreed to settle the matter peaceably by submitting
it to arbitration; and Kilravock being adjudged
in the right the dispute was happily ended. Two
years later, on 25th July, a band of amity was
executed by Duncan Mackintosh and Kilravock,
referring all debates to George, Earl of Huntly; a
similar band being given on 23rd Sept. follow-
ing by Ferquhard, Duncan's son and heir-apparent.
In 1490 (17th Sept.) a more stringent band was
entered into by Duncan and Ferquhard with Kilra-
vock, an
an engagement for a marriage between
Ferquhard's daughter (should one be born to him
in marriage) and Kilravock's son Hucheon being
added "for the mair inressing of kyndnes and
renewyng of thair blud to be amaingst them in
tyme to cum.” 2
1 Mr. Cosmo Innes, editor of The Family of Rose of Kilravock,
in his note on the instrument relating to the settlement of this
dispute (p. 139), says that Urquhart and Glenmoriston were
apparently held as part of the lordship of Badenoch, to which
Huntly had recently acquired a right, and suggests that the
Mackintoshes may have been its old kindly tenants, whom
Huntly wished to displace in favour of the Roses. There is,
however, no mention in the Mackintosh records of any such
occupation; but it is likely that Mackintosh had taken some
action on behalf of the Clan Tearlich (Macleans of Dochgarroch),
who had been admitted into the Clan Chattan confederacy in his
father's time, and who had occupied part (at least) of Glen
Urquhart for two generations.
2 All these bands are given in The Roses of Kilravock, 139-
153.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
157
This friendship on the part of the chief of Mac-
kintosh towards the Roses does not appear to have
been participated in by some of his family, for on
15th May 1482, at Inverness, an agreement was
made between Lachlan "Badenoch" ("Lauchlan
M'Intosche of Galowy," i.e. Gellovie), brother of the
chief and of Hucheon Rose's wife, and "Donald
M'Intosche Angusson," to the effect that, it being
presumed and in some part known by the eldest
of the land that Hucheon the Rose, baron of Kil-
ravock, had no title of right to the Castle of Kilravock
or to the ground on which it stood, Donald should
take the said castle or tower and hold it as constable
under Lachlan, and that Donald should have as a
reward some of the lands to himself, with Lachlan's
daughter Margaret for his wife and 40 merks of
tocher. Donald accordingly surprised the Castle of
Kilravock, killing the constable and watchman, and
doing considerable damage. Neither the exact date
nor the moving cause of this act appears, nor can
the Rev. Hew Rose, who mentions it in his Genea-
logical Deduction of the Family of Kilravock
(written in 1683-4), say how the Mackintoshes were
ejected; but he refers to a royal summons against
Donald and his accomplices obtained by the next
Kilravock in 1498. The Donald Angusson was
probably a grandson of Angus Og, third son
of the 6th Mackintosh, and it may be that the
affair was the cause of the removal of Angus's
158
THE MACKINTOSHES
descendants into Athole. [See MACKINTOSHES OF
DALMUNZIE.]¹
1
Though at peace with his neighbours and in favour
with the king, Duncan was not wholly free from
trouble, and that of a serious nature. His son and
heir-apparent, Ferquhard, was of a bold stirring dis-
position, restive under the restraints which the
peaceable and friend-acquiring policy of his father
imposed upon him, and eager to seize any opportunity
of displaying his talent and fondness for war. He
seems indeed to have been the very beau idéal of
a Highland chieftain of those days: having plenty
of stomach for fighting, fertile in expedients and
daring in their execution, yet withal amiable and
generous, and polished- even "with letters." A
character such as his was more in accordance with
the inclinations of the clan than that of Duncan;
so that when in 1491 Alexander of Lochalsh, nephew
of the aged John of the Isles, made an attempt to
regain possession of the Earldom of Ross for his
¹ Roses of Kilr. 10, 52, 146, 166. It is possible that Lachlan
Badenoch's action was taken on account of some dissatisfaction
with the arrangement come to respecting the duchus of Urquhart.
He and his brother Alan had both joined with their brother the
chief in referring the dispute with Kilravock to arbitration, as
appears from the instrument, dated 26th March, 1479, in which
Huntly approves the decision of the arbitrators. The agreement
between Lachlan and Donald Angusson is given in full at
p. 146 of The Roses of Kilravock. Donald, "having no seyll
propir of his awn," procures the seal of William, Thane of
Calder.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
159
family, Ferquhard had no difficulty in persuading a
considerable body of the Clan Chattan, contrary to
the will of his father, to follow him to the aid of
the insurgents. These at first comprised the Clan
Ranald of Garmoran and of Lochaber and the Clan
Cameron; in Badenoch they were joined by the Clan
Chattan men, and marched northward, Ferquhard
Mackintosh storming and taking possession of the
Castle of Inverness on the way. The castle had
been taken by the Earl of Ross in 1462; but on
the defeat of his insurrection in 1475, it had been
re-occupied by Crichton, the governor appointed by
James I. to supersede Malcolm Beg Mackintosh. The
Kinrara MS. relates that Ferquhard obtained posses-
sion of it by means of an "engine called a sow,"
and by undermining so as to throw down part of
the wall.
The forces of Lochalsh first ravaged the fertile
lands in the Black Isle of Ross belonging to Urquhart,
Sheriff of Cromarty, and proceeded thence to the
Mackenzies' country about Strathconan. Here they
were surprised by Kenneth Mackenzie, with his clan,
at a place called Park; and in the battle of Blair-na-
Park were utterly routed. The matter did not end
here. Lochalsh's insurrection was certainly quelled,
but a train of events proceeded from it which brought
disaster on both the victorious Mackenzies and those
whom they had defeated. Rose of Kilravock was
keeper of the Castle of Ardmanach in Ross for the
Earl of Huntly, and his son Hugh had joined the
160
THE MACKINTOSHES
insurgents with his friend Ferquhard Mackintosh.
The Mackenzies followed up their victory at Park
by ravaging the lands of Ardmanach, as well as those
of Munro of Foulis. This was alone sufficient to
bring down Huntly upon them, but they appear to
have gone to such undue lengths—either in their
zeal for the royal authority or in their desire to
make the most of a troublous time for their own
benefit-that Huntly, as Lieutenant in the North,
had to proceed against them as rebels and oppressors
of the lieges. He gave a commission in 1492 to
Duncan Mackintosh, John Grant of Freuchie, and
Kilravock, to proceed against the Clan Mackenzie,
"the king's rebels and at his horn for the slaughter
of Harrald of Schesheme (Chisholm) dwelling in
Strathglass, and for diverse other herships, slaughters,
and spulzies committed on the king's poor lieges
and tenants in the lordship of Ardmanach." Mac-
kintosh and Kilravock made a similar error to that
of the Mackenzies; they wasted the lands of Urquhart
of Cromarty, which were not included in their com-
mission, and on Urquhart's appealing to the law they
were sentenced to give compensation in the sum of
800 merks.
It is in connection with these events that we first
have record of Duncan's nephew, Dougal Mac
Malcolm, a renowned character in his time. He
was distinguished by the epithet "Mor," and is
commonly styled Dougal Mor MacGillichallum. On
5th February 1492-3 the Lords of Council decree
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
161
that Hucheon the Ross, baron of Kilravock, and
Hucheon the Ross his son, shall restore, content,
and pay to Master Alexander Urquhart, Sheriff of
Cromarty, and his tenants 600 ky, 100 horses,
1000 sheep, 400 goats, 200 swine, and 400 bolls
of victual, and for certain goods and insight of
household 200l., and 100l. for the mails of the said
sheriff's lands held waste by the said Hucheon
younger and his complices, these goods having been
spulzied by the said Hucheon and his complices,
and his father having become surety. The Lords
go on to decree that Hucheon Alanson, William
Alanson elder, his brother (both sons of Alan
Mackintosh), Dowll Malcomson (Dougal Mor) and
Eachin Roryson, shall release and keep scathless
Hucheon the Ross, borgh (i.e. surety) for his said
son, at the hands of Urquhart and his tenants, of
the payment of the goods and sums recovered on
the said Hucheon the Ross by the said Urquhart,
the said Hucheon and William Alanson, Dowle and
Eachin being at the said spulzie and principal doers
thereof, as was sufficiently presented before the said
Lords.¹
On 26th June 1493, the Lords Auditors decern
Ferquhard, Duncan's son, and his cousin "Dowll
Makgillicallum," to desist from occupying the lands
of Torcherokane and withholding the mails thereof
from Lord Fresale (Fraser of Lovat). Ferquhard
is also to pay and content Lord Fresale for occupying
¹ Acts of Lords of Council, 1478-95, p. 273.
M
162
THE MACKINTOSHES
the third lands of Strathnairn which the said Lord
holds in tack of the Countess of Crawford.¹ On
16th December 1494, the Lords Auditors decree
that Doule McGillicallum shall restore, content, and
pay to Hew, Lord Fresale of the Lovait, 400 ky
at 20s. each, 36 horses at 26s. 8d. each, 900 sheep
and goats at 2s. each, and for certain goods and
insight of household 15 pounds, all which were
spulzied from Hew and his tenants of the Ard and
Easter Fernua by the said Doule and his complices ;
and because the said Doule was "oftymes callid to
this action and not comperit," he, his lands and
goods, are to be “distrenzed.” 2
The rebellion of Alexander of Lochalsh, and the
supineness or complicity of his uncle in regard to it,
resulted in the final forfeiture of the Lord of the
Isles. As has been stated, the king in 1493-5 received
the submission of the chiefs who had been vassals of
the island princes, giving them charters direct from
himself of the lands they had held from the Lord
of the Isles. His object appears to have been to
strengthen his own power in the hitherto troublesome
Western Highlands by destroying that of the house
of Macdonald, and by taking away any ground of
excuse the Macleans, Camerons, Mackintoshes, and
others might have had for joining in any future
rebellion of the Islesmen. In 1495 he apprehended
Ferquhard Mackintosh and Kenneth Og Mackenzie
(heirs to the chiefship of their respective clans), and
1 Acts of Lords Auditors, p. 184.
2 Ibid. p. 206.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
163
had them committed to the castle of Edinburgh.
"This may have been partly owing," says Gregory
(p. 91) "to their lawless conduct in 1491; but was
more probably caused by a dread of their influence
among
the Islanders, for the mothers of these power-
ful chiefs were each the daughter of an Earl of Ross,
Lord of the Isles."
Ferquhard's subsequent career may be mentioned
here. After an imprisonment of two years, he and
Mackenzie made their escape together from Edinburgh
Castle, the latter laming himself in descending the
wall. Being overtaken in the Torwood by the Laird
of Buchanan, Mackenzie was killed and Mackintosh
recaptured. The Applecross MS. History of the
Mackenzies says that Buchanan was at the time an
outlaw, but that his activity in this matter was
the means of procuring his reconciliation with the
Government. Ferquhard Mackintosh was now con-
fined in the castle of Dunbar, where according to the
Kinrara MS. he remained sixteen years, until the
battle of Flodden in 1513. The Rev. Lachlan Shaw,
in his MS. History of the Mackintoshes, doubts that
his imprisonment was so long, and says he must have
been at liberty in 1499, as there is a contract between
him and Sir James Dunbar of Cumnock dated 20th
June of that year. It is, however, more likely that
the original MS. is correct; as, if he had been at
liberty at the time of Donald Dubh's insurrection in
1503, something would no doubt have been heard of
him in connection with it, especially as his lands
M 2
164
THE MACKINTOSHES
suffered considerably from the insurgent forces. From
circumstances which it is unnecessary to detail here,
it seems probable that his confinement was not a
severe one, and that he was under no greater restraint
than sufficed to keep him from doing harm; the king's
object being not so much to punish him as to secure
him and his clan from taking part in any unlawful
proceedings of the Islanders. There seems to be no
reason why he may not have concluded the contract
referred to while still at Dunbar.
That the chief of Mackintosh had no part in the
lawless proceedings of his son in Lochalsh's in-
surrection is tolerably apparent from the fact of
his remaining in the good graces of the king in 1493:
but the Kinrara MS. makes the curious statement
that, as Crichton's second occupation of the castle
of Inverness was without the royal authority, Duncan
repaired it and established himself in it on its capture
by Ferquhard in 1491, remaining undisturbed till
1495, when the governorship was bestowed by the
king on Alexander Lord Gordon, with the Sheriffship
of Inverness.
In 1496, the year following his son's first im-
prisonment, Duncan died at the age of eighty-four
years in Inverness, and was buried in the Grey
Friars Church there. Of several children by his
wife Flora or Florence, second daughter of Alexander
3rd Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross,¹ his son
¹ The elder sister of Florenc was wife of John, 12th Earl of
Sutherland.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
165
Ferquhard, who now succeeded him, was the only
survivor.
""
(12) FERQUHARD. During the years of his chief-
ship which Ferquhard spent in confinement, the
affairs of the clan were ably administered by his
cousin William, eldest son of Lachlan "Badenoch.
Ewen mac Alan, Captain of Clan Cameron, had in
1492 given a strict band of manrent to Ferquhard,
then only "apparent heir" to his father, in which
he engaged to assist and defend Ferquhard against
all men, not excepting even his lord and master
Alexander of the Isles, in case the latter having
ground of dispute with Ferquhard should refuse to
come to terms. But in 1497, two years after the
imprisonment of Ferquhard, and immediately after
the death of his father, the Camerons, first refusing
all acknowledgment to the chief of Mackintosh for
his lands which they occupied, broke through this
band, invading the braes of Badenoch and Strath-
nairn, and harrying the Clan Chattan lands in those
districts. They were aided by some of the Macgregors
and by the Clan Ian (Macdonalds of Glencoe), upon
which clans William Mackintosh first proceeded to
take revenge. After an expedition to Rannoch and
Appin' against the Macgregors, and to Glencoe
against the Clan Ian, he turned his attention to
¹ In this expedition William is said by the Kinrara MS. to
have taken under his protection a bard of the name of Macintyre,
from whom the Macintyres of Badenoch are descended.
166
THE MACKINTOSHES
the Camerons in Lochaber. His cousin Dougal Mor
Mac Gillichallum offered to "daunton the Camerons
for some time" if he were allowed thirty fighting
men and the use of the lands of Borlum for a
year. His offer being accepted, he set about carrying
out his plan, which was to sail up Loch Ness in the
night-time and surprise and lay waste some part of
the Cameron lands, returning to his head-quarters
before the invaded country could be raised against
him. He was completely successful, making several
of these inroads at unexpected times to the no
small disquiet of the Lochabrians.
In the insurrection of Donald Dubh in 1503 the
Clan Chattan adhered to the royal side, and assisted
the Earl of Huntly in his endeavours to reduce
Lochaber. In the winter of this year, the rebels
under Donald wasted Badenoch, which was under
the feudal superiority of Huntly and was occupied
chiefly by the Clan Chattan, with fire and sword.
The Clan Chattan, as Gregory (p. 103) says, were
peculiarly obnoxious to the large section of the rebels
composed of Lochaber Macdonalds and Camerons,
as having, in order to save the life of their captive
chief, shaken off all connection with the other vassals
of the Isles, and as still claiming extensive possessions
in the heart of Lochaber. It is not wonderful then
that they, whose lands of Glenlui and Locharkaig in
Lochaber had been for some years forcibly occupied by
the Camerons without acknowledgment, should have
suffered severely from the plunder and devastation
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
167
of the lands of Badenoch by the rebels." The
insurrection originated by Donald Dubh was so ex-
tensive and well arranged that three campaigns had
to be made in as many years before it could be
quelled; but in 1506 the energetic measures taken
by the king were crowned with success; Donald
Dubh became a prisoner, his principal supporters
were convicted of high treason, and a decree of
forfeiture was issued against them. The Camerons,
their constancy to the race of the island chiefs in
no way weakened by the severity with which the
third Lord of the Isles had treated them some years
before, had espoused the cause of Donald Dubh from
the first, and their Captain had been forfeited
in 1504.¹
Soon after the breaking out of the rebellion, the
king, James IV., had begun to take steps, as part of
a general measure for the improvement of the condi-
tion of the kingdom, towards securing the peace of the
Highlands by making better provision for the admin-
istration of justice. He had rearranged the sheriffdoms,
which were too extensive to be easily managed, and
he now proceeded to subdivide these into districts,
to be administered by deputies appointed by the
various sheriffs. Two of the chiefs of Mackintosh
had held under the island lords the office of Steward
of Lochaber; we shall see how they afterwards held
the more important position of deputy to the sheriff,
with considerably extended powers. James IV.
¹ Gregory, 99.
1

168
THE MACKINTOSHES
certainly laboured hard to put an end to the disorders
which rent the country beyond the Grampian line, and
to bring the clans more fully under the power of
the law; but his endeavours had not the success they
deserved, the country during the troublous reigns of
his three successors being allowed in a great measure
to lapse into its former turbulent and lawless
condition.
After the death of the king at Flodden, Ferquhard
Mackintosh was released from his long imprisonment
-during which he had compiled a history of his
family from the time of his ancestor's arrival in the
north-and was allowed to return to his clan. We
learn from the Kinrara MS. that on his arrival at
Inverness he was received on the haugh by 1800 of the
Clan Chattan, mustered there by his cousin William.
This affords some idea of the great extent of his
following, as the 1800 were probably drawn only from
the northern part of his country. We may imagine
how Ferquhard, unless he had been greatly softened
during his long confinement, must at the sight of this
body of men have cursed the ill-fortune which had
kept him from their head in the many encounters they
had been engaged in, and how he would long for some
opportunity to arise which should enable him to lead
them again to the field. But such felicity, if he
desired it, was denied him. On the 8th October of
the following year (1514) he died at Inverness, having
been only a few months in the actual and free enjoy-
ment of his position at the head of the clan; his life
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
169
altogether wasted, unless his adversity had worked
a change in his nature, and taught him to seek
happiness in higher and nobler things than the
slaughter of his fellow-men.
Ferquhard's wife was Giles, daughter of Fraser of
Lovat.' By her he had a son, who died in infancy,
and four daughters, married respectively to Guthrie of
that Ilk, Strachan of Glenkindy, Alaster mac Alan,
Captain of Clan-Ranald, and Alan mac Ian Shaw of
Rothimurcus. He had also two natural sons by a
lady of Dunbar,-Hector, who afterwards rose to
eminence in the clan, and William, afterwards
executed at Forres.
¹ Kinr. MS. In the Hist. Account of the Family of Fraser, by
John Anderson, p. 63, she is called Alison, and is stated to have
died young. The author, however, in a note, mentions the fact
that in a MS. Hist. of the Frasers in the Advocates' Library she is
called Giles, wife of Ferquhard Mackintosh, Captain of Clan
Chattan. Her father was Hugh, 2nd Lord Lovat.
3
170
THE MACKINTOSHES
CHAPTER VI.
New Troubles-William, 13th chief—John “Ruaidh” Mackin-
tosh-Acquisition of Gellovie and Dunachton-Lachlan,
14th chief-Gordons of Lochinvar-Dougal Mor Macgil-
lichallum; his Death-John Malcolmson-Lachlan's Bands
of Amity, &c.-William, 15th chief-Hector, temporary
Captain of Clan Chattan; Hostilities with the Earl of Moray
-William's dealings with Huntly-Expedition against John
Moydertach-Rupture with Huntly; William's Trial and
Execution.
FROM the accession of the energetic and fortunate
Malcolm Beg to the death of Ferquhard the Unfortu-
nate the progress of the Mackintoshes in power and
estimation had been great and rapid. Their most
troublesome enemies of former years, the Comyns and
the Camerons, had been either entirely quelled or
rendered incapable for a time of any great mischief;
while the proceedings taken by successive monarchs
against the Macdonalds had relieved them from all
dependence on the chiefs of the Isles, with whom their
relations were now those of friendship and alliance
rather than of vassalage. They had also, by the
prudent conduct of Malcolm and his son Duncan,
secured the favour of the several kings who occupied
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
171
the Scottish throne during the century,—a favour
which was not withdrawn even when they were brought
into collision with the royal authority by the rashness
of their young chief Ferquhard. Both kings and island
lords had contributed to the enlargement and con-
firmation of their possessions, and had sought their
friendship and co-operation; while with the principal
families and clans around them, as well as with some of
the great nobles of the kingdom, they were on terms
of goodwill and amity. Altogether they appear to
have been in a fair way towards obtaining the fore-
most place among the northern clans; and in all
probability such a pre-eminence would in time have
been theirs but for the adverse circumstances which
now began to close around their fortunes.
The difficulties by which the Mackintoshes were
attended during the whole of the next century arose
from two principal causes; one being the jealousy
and dissension prevailing among some of their leading
men, by which two worthy and able chiefs were in the
space of a few years violently cut off, and a long and
troublesome minority was occasioned; the other being
the antipathy entertained towards them by the
ambitious and unscrupulous family of the Gordons,
Earls of Huntly, who since the marriage of the
second earl to a daughter of James I. had been gradu-
ally increasing in consequence and power, the death
of James, Earl of Moray, in the middle of the century,
leaving them in the undisputed position of "Cocks of
the North." The internal troubles of the clan occupied
172
THE MACKINTOSHES
the earlier portion of the century, while the troubles
proceeding from the enmity of the Huntly family
immediately succeeded them, commencing about
1548-50.
(13) WILLIAM. The dissensions in the clan com-
menced with the death of. Ferquhard in 1514.
William (eldest surviving son of Lachlan Badenoch,
by Catherine, daughter of Sir Duncan Grant), on
whom the succession to the chiefship fell, assumed
on his own account the duties which he had so long
and well performed on behalf of his cousin. The
new chief had been married for some years, but was
without issue; his brother Lachlan was as yet un
married. These circumstances seem to have raised
in the mind of their near kinsman, John "Ruaidh,'
grandson of Alan mac Malcolm Beg, the hope of
becoming in his turn head of the clan, a position
to which, failing issue of William and Lachlan, he
would in due course be entitled to succeed. Desire
and longing took the place of hope, and these soon
produced in John a resolution to take measures for
their gratification. The probabilities were great that,
could he have waited, he would in time ascend
honourably and peaceably to the coveted place; but
he could not wait. To secure "that which he
esteemed the ornament of life," he was not one
"to live a coward in his own esteem" by shrinking
from any means which would serve to remove from
his path the obstacles between him and his desire.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
173
.
It is not often, however, that such designs are per-
mitted entirely to succeed; "vaulting ambition "
generally, sooner or later, "o'erleaps itself, and falls
on t'other side." John Ruaidh offers a striking
illustration of this truth. Beginning by hoping for,
then coveting, the position of his kinsman, he col-
lected a faction, the principal members of which
were some of his cousins the Frasers, and endeavoured
to pick a quarrel by disputing William's right to the
whole of the clan lands, and by demanding for him-
self the lands of Meikle Geddes. This demand
being refused, he was preparing to take forcible
possession or to lay the lands waste when he learned
that the chief was lying sick and but slightly
attended at a house in Inverness. Gaining entrance
into this house, he removed one obstacle to the
advancement he desired by murdering his cousin and
chief in bed on the 22nd May 1515; but being
discovered as the assassin he had to seek safety in
flight with his companions. They were followed by
a party under Dougal Mor Mac Gillichallum and his
son Ferquhard into Caithness, thence through Strath-
naver, Assint, Lochalsh, Abertarff, Strathspey, and
Strathdee to Glenesk, where, after a pursuit of some
months, they were overtaken and cut to pieces.
The possessions of the family received two important
additions in William's time. He had succeeded in
1502 to the heritable right of Gellovie in Badenoch,
which his father had obtained from George, 2nd Earl
of Huntly in 1481 (1st Oct.). In December of the
174
THE MACKINTOSHES
same year he had acquired the barony of Dunachton,
which had fallen to two sisters as co-heiresses—one
of these being Isabel Macnevan or Macniven, whom
William had married in 1497. From this barony
the chiefs of Mackintosh have been frequently styled
"of Dunachton."
The circumstances of William's marriage and ac-
quisition of Dunachton are somewhat curious. By
an "Indenture" made 23rd Sept. 1475, and preserved
among the papers at Gordon Castle, George, Earl of
Huntly, as superior lord of the barony of Dunachton,
makes over to "Lauchlane McKintoche of Banaquhar"
the gift of marriage of both the heiresses ("airis")
together with all the lands which fell to himself in
ward on the baron's death, on condition that Lachlan
gives him a band of manrent for himself and all
his heirs who should possess the lands. Lachlan is
to marry the heiresses to sons of his own; "the
said Lauchlane promytis will God to mary the said
airis on his sonis procurit of his body be the aviss
and consell of the said lorde; and gif the said
Lauchlane can be ony just wayis bryng al the said
landis to ane of the said airis, and spouss her with
his eldest sone, procurit betuix him and his spouss
umquhile Elisabeth of Caldor, it sall be lefull to
him and the forsaid lorde to ressave thame as
tennandis, and failzeand the said sone procurit
betuix the said Lauchlane and Elisabeth of Caldor
forsaid, to his secunde, threde and ferde sone, or
any ane of thame, ay and quhil the mariage with
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
175
the said aire be complet as said is." On William's
marriage to Isabel Macnevan in 1497, he accordingly
renewed in his own person the band given by his
father; in this renewed band, dated 3rd April and
given to Alexander, Lord Gordon, afterwards 3rd
Earl of Huntly, William is styled "son of umquhile
Lachlane Mc anetosche of Galowyė."¹
The lands did not, however, come finally into
William's hands without trouble. After his wife's
death, according to the Kinrara MS., he retained
possession of them by "the law of courtesy," but
his sister-in-law, perhaps in some irritation at not
having been provided like her sister with a husband,
opposed him and endeavoured to procure his ejection,
The matter ended by her transferring her right over
the lands to Huntly, who sold it to Mackintosh,
reserving to himself the superiority. William's first
appearance as "of Dunachton" is as witness to a
band given on 10th March 1510 by Macdonald of
Eilantyrum to Huntly, where he is styled "Wilyem
Lauchlansone of Dunnathane." 2
1 Spald. Club Misc. iv. 189.
2 Connected with the Macnevans and Dunachton is the men-
tion, in an Act of the Lords of Council dated 21 Oct. 1495, of
two Mackintoshes whom I am unable to identify. On this date
appears before the Lords, John, Lauchlan Mackintosh's son, and
presents a bill of complaint upon Donald, Angus Mackintosh's
son, and Alexander Lord Gordon, that they vex him "wrang
wisly" in certain lands called “Dallynwart and Dunauchtanebeg
and the fourth part of Pitwery pertaining to umquhile Issobell
Macknevin his spous heritably." John claims the lands "in
liferent by the courtesy of Scotland, and . . . plainly confesses.
I
176
THE MACKINTOSHES
The only occurrence of importance which marked
William's short chiefship, besides that which brought
about his untimely end, was the first of the two
insurrections which had for their object the re-
establishment of the dignity of Lord of the Isles
in the person of Sir Donald of Lochalsh. This
broke out soon after Flodden, and under the
Act of Council appointing certain influential chiefs
guardians or deputy-lieutenants of particular dis-
tricts, he was made co-guardian with Ewen Allanson,
Captain of Clan Cameron, of Lochaber. The in-
surrection was almost entirely confined within the
Isles. In the commission of lieutenancy over the
Isles and adjacent mainland granted to the Earl
of Argyle after the suppression of Sir Donald's
second insurrection in 1517, the part of Lochaber
belonging to Mackintosh is excepted, together with
the parts belonging to Huntly and the Captain of
Clan Cameron.¹
1
William appears to have been vigorous and suc-
cessful in war, as well as politic and able in matters
in judgment that the said Isobell his spouse was deceased but
(i.e. without) any bairnes gotten of her body betwixt her and
him." It is possible that this Isabel was the widow of the
deceased baron of Dunachton, and mother of the two heiresses;
but neither John nor Angus Mackintosh appears at this time
in the family genealogy. Malcolm, son of Lachlan Badenoch by
his wife Elizabeth Calder, was never married, but he had a
natural son John, who may have made use of his grandfather's
name and have been the claimant in this case. (Acts of Lords
of Council, p. 397.)
1
¹ Gregory, 115-120.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
177
pertaining to peace. "Even his failings leaned to
virtue's side," for if the Kinrara MS. is to be be-
lieved, "his greatest human frailty was that he
was too liberal, but his liberality and sweetness of
nature endeared him to all." He seems to have
been a special foe to oppression and injustice. On
two occasions he employed his power to secure the
estates of neighbouring chiefs from the intromission
of traitors. One of these chiefs was the young
Grant, his foster-son, and grandson of Duncan Grant
of Freuchie and Muriel, daughter of Malcolm Beg
Mackintosh. Grant's uncle of Ballindalloch having
possession of his estate asserted a right to it and
his intention of retaining it, on which William—
then only tutor during his cousin's imprisonment—
sent Dougal Mor with two hundred chosen men to
put young Grant in possession. Dougal found the
majority of the Grants glad to receive their chief,
and Ballindalloch, having no other course left, gave
up his claims. With the aid of Dougal Mor, William
afterwards did a similar service to John Mackenzie
of Kintail, whose uncle, Hector Roy, had seized
his estate. Hector was captured by Dougal Mor
in Killin castle, Strathpeffer.'
William had no legitimate issue, but had two
natural sons, from one of whom, Donald Glas,
descended the Mackintoshes of Strone.
(14) LACHLAN. The chiefship now devolved upon
1 Kinr. MS.
N
178
THE MACKINTOSHES
William's brother, Lachlan Beg, "a verrie honest and
wyse gentleman," says Bishop Lesley,1 "an barroun
of gude rent, quha keepit hes hole ken, friendes,
and tennentis, in honest and guid rewll"; and
according to Sir Robert Gordon,2 "a man of great
possessions and of such excellencies of witt and
judgement that with great commendation he did
conteyn all his followers within the limits of ther
dueties."
In 1517 Lachlan sent one hundred men to assist
John and Donald Mackay, sons of Y (Aoidh or
Hugh) Mackay of Strathnaver, who were engaged
in disputing with their uncle Neill the succession to
the chiefship of their clan. The feud was a brief
one, and was nearly over when the Clan Chattan
men arrived, as during the time John Mackay was
away treating for the assistance of the Mackintoshes,
Mackenzies, and others, his brother Donald had
surprised the two sons of Neill and slain them
with most of their men. The right to the chiefship
of Clan Mörgan certainly seems to have belonged
to John Mackay rather than to his uncle, who was
prompted by the Earl of Caithness and Adam Gordon,
Earl of Aboyne (afterwards Earl of Sutherland), to
dispute it on the ground of his nephew's illegitimacy.
The historian of the Mackays, however, says that
although John and Donald were born out of wedlock,
their father had married their mother "in order to
legitimate them," and had afterwards (in 1511)
2 Earldom of Sutherland, 99.
¹ Hist. Scot. 137.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
179
obtained from the King a precept of legitimation
in their favour. Neill Mackay fell into his nephew's
hands-given up, some say, by the Earl of Caithness
-and in spite of his near relationship was beheaded
by their orders.¹
In 1520 Lachlan married Jean Gordon, daughter
of Sir Alexander Gordon of Lochinvar. The writer
of the Kinrara MS. states that this marriage was
brought about by the Earl of Moray, Jean Gordon's.
half-brother, for the purpose of attaching Mackintosh
to his faction and thereby of strengthening his own
power in the north. The Earl, James Stuart (called
the Little Earl), was son of Lady Jean Kennedy,
daughter of Lord Kennedy and sister to the 1st Earl
of Cassilis, his father being James IV.
He was
created Earl of Moray, and had the estates of the
Earldom conferred upon him, in 1501. Lady Jean
Kennedy about the same time married the knight,
of Lochinvar, and the only issue of this marriage
was a daughter, who became the wife of the chief
of Mackintosh. The connection which the Mac-
kintoshes thus formed with the Kennedys explains
the warm interest which the 3rd Earl of Cassilis
afterwards took in regard to the murder of Lachlan's
successor by Huntly in 1550. On the death of
Sir Alexander Gordon of Lochinvar at Flodden, his
estate had been claimed for his daughter, but her
claim had been set aside by the Lords of Council
1 Kinrara MS.; House and Clan of Mackay, by R. Mackay of
Thurso, 99-101; Sir R. Gordon's Earldom of Sutherland, 90.
N 2
180
THE MACKINTOSHES
!
in 1516 in favour of her uncle Sir Robert Gordon,
ง
from whom descended the Earls of Kenmure. Thus irrots
the only advantages accruing to the Mackintosh
family from the marriage were those derived from
their becoming so nearly connected with the powerful
Earl of Moray' in the north and the powerful family
of Cassilis in the south, and the addition to their
armorial bearings of a "boar's head, coupéd, or, on
a field azure," which the son of Lachlan Mackintosh
and Jean Gordon quartered as heir of line of the
family of Gordon of Lochinvar, a family known by
name all the world over in connection with the
(C
'Young Lochinvar who came out of the west.” 2
The peace-loving, law-abiding character of Lachlan,
as described by Lesley and Sir Robert Gordon, could
scarcely be expected to harmonise with that of many
of his followers. The clansmen in his time seem
in nowise to have been of less "active and stirring
1 Holding a great part of their property under the superiority
of the Earl of Moray, the Mackintoshes were of course already
attached to that noble independently of their connection by
marriage, and in some of Lachlan's bands of manrent, he ex-
cludes "the King's grais and the Erle of Moray" from those
against whom he promises to assist and defend the grantee of
the band.
2 See "Lady Heron's Song" in Scott's Marmion, Canto V.
xii. It is perhaps a question whether this famous song was
founded on fact, but it is curious that in the present century the
descendant and heir of line of the Gordons of Lochinvar took a
wife from Netherby Hall. The late Mackintosh married, on the
5th May, 1875, Margaret Frances, daughter of Sir Frederick
Graham, Bart. of Netherby.
AND CLAN CHATTAN,
181
disposition" than their forefathers who a century before
had deposed their chief simply because he was unable
or unwilling to be continually engaged in broils and
feuds. Accordingly the restraints imposed upon them
by Lachlan produced in some a restiveness and spirit
of mutiny which could not long be prevented from
breaking out. They objected to being kept "in
honest and guid rewll," had no regard for "vertuous
living," and longed for the free exercise of their
talent and courage in making raids and herships,
as they had been accustomed. But in Lachlan they
had not the same order of man to deal with as
their fathers had in Ferquhard; his energy in sup-
pressing disorders and punishing evil-doers showed
that he was not one who could with impunity be
called upon to resign his authority. Thus, while his
efforts to maintain order, and his virtues generally,
were fully and properly appreciated by the great
body of his clansmen, there were not wanting those
who looked upon them with repugnance, and were
not unwilling to take means for putting an end
to them.
One of these malcontents was the renowned Dougal
Mor Mac Gillichallum, Lachlan's first cousin, some of
whose exploits have been already noticed. On the
release of the 12th chief from prison in 1513, and
during the confusion of the kingdom consequent on
the disaster at Flodden, he had taken the opportunity
of recovering for the Mackintoshes their original
possession of Petty, which, since the annexation of
182
THE MACKINTOSHES
the Earldom of Moray to the Crown about the year
1455, had been held from 1495 by the Gordons, and
afterwards by Sir William Ogilvie of Banff. The
latter had only held it for two years when, in 1513,
the castle of Dalziel in Petty, or Hall Hill,-which
he had just before erected-was besieged and burnt
by a force under Dougal, who established himself in
the neighbourhood and chased the Ogilvies away.
A decree of Council was issued against him and
his companions for "the masterful destruction and
downcasting of the house of Petty, called Hall
Hill," but he appears to have escaped punishment
for some years, though Petty was afterwards restored
to the Ogilvies.
Dougal's zeal for the interests of his family appears
next to have impelled him to take the castle of
Inverness, which he and his sons occupied for a
short time. This was during the chiefship of
Lachlan, and it is likely that the chief disapproved
of this proceeding, which brought Dougal and all
who countenanced him into direct antagonism with
the royal authority; for Dougal now (1520) broke
out in open mutiny, and aimed at nothing less than
the chiefship itself. Calling to mind the former
¹ A copy of the charge is preserved in the Kilravock Charter
Room. The persons named in it are Lauchlane Mc Kintoshe of
Dunachtone, Doule More M'Gillecallum, Ferquhard his sone,
Robert Stewart of Clavalge, Hucheon Ross of Kilravok, Henry
Dolace of Cantray, Walter Ross of Kinstary, and Donald Glasche
M'Kintosche. The occurrence is mentioned in a MS. History of
the Roses of Kilravock, as well as in the Kinrara MS.
i
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
183
services he had done," says the Kinrara MS., "he
became so insolently arrogant and presumptuous
that he was heard to vaunt and brag that he was
grandchild to the Laird of Mackintosh as well as
Lachlan Og himself, that he had acted more for
the credit of the family than Lachlan Badenoch and
both his sons, and deserved to have the Lairdship
more than any man living, and therefore that he
would endeavour to have it time about." But he
was unable to carry out this design, for in the
succeeding year he and his sons Ferquhard and
Donald were killed in Inverness Castle, on its being
retaken by the forces of the Earl of Moray, the
governor.
Thus perished Dougal Mor Mac Gillichallum, whose
many and great deeds for the honour of his family
entitle him to a distinguished place in its annals,
even though his character is tarnished by the mean
jealousy and arrogant self-estimation which he latterly
displayed. He was emphatically of the warrior order;
and in the warrior capacity had sufficient grounds for
his boast as to his actions. Indeed his great fault
was that he was too anxious to find occasion for
vindicating the credit and upholding the name of
the family, and that in his blind zeal he took such
courses for asserting what he considered its honour
as brought discredit rather than credit upon it. Had
he obtained the chiefship it is more than probable
that the clan would have been dragged into pro-
ceedings which would have exposed it to the hatred
184
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
of its neighbours, and at the same time have crippled
it for many years. As a leader in time of war he
was invaluable, but he would probably have been
unable to pilot the clan in safety among the many
troublous political events through which it had to
pass in his time. He appears to have been a perfect
type of the class which includes such men as John
Macdonald of Moydart in his own time, and Sir
Ewen Cameron of Locheil in later years,-an enthu-
siastic lover of fighting, and a Highlander to the
backbone.
Another malcontent, more dangerous, because of a
less brave and generous spirit, was John¹ Malcolmson,
a natural son of the chief's deceased elder half-
brother. The chief appears to have acted towards
this man in an exceptionally kind and considerate
manner, little imagining the extent of the ingratitude
of which he was capable. In 1522 he gave him
the occupation of Connage in Petty, "that thereby
John might get the marriage of Effie Dunbar, relict
of Andrew Munro of Muiltown, thinking thereby to
reclaim the said John from his loose and wicked
courses, for he was much given to robbery and
oppression; but this favour did not tame him but
rather made him the more insolent."2 From the
¹ He is incorrectly called James by Sir James Balfour in his
Annales of Scotland, (i. 259):-"This ziere lykways James
Malcolmsone kills the Laird of Malcomtoche, and thereafter he
and his associatts fleis to the Ile of the Loche of Rothemurchus."
2 Kinr. MS.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
185
1
MS. it appears that he was strengthened in his
animosity against the chief by the latter's foster-
brother and attendant, one Milmoir Mac Dhaibhidh
(Davidson), who, imagining that Lachlan had assisted
in frustrating a scheme he had for wedding “a rich
widow at Brin," prevailed on John Malcolmson to
aid him in taking revenge. On the 25th March
1524, the two, with a few accomplices, treacherously
murdered the chief while hunting at Ravoch in
Badenoch. The grief and rage of the clan at this
event testify sufficiently to the estimation in which
the murdered Lachlan was held, and show that the
conduct which he had pursued was disliked only
by the bad characters amongst them. The murderers
immediately sought refuge in the fort in Loch-an-
Eilan (Rothimurcus), and here they were captured
three months later by Donald Glas, natural son of
Lachlan's predecessor, and Donald mac William,
grandson of Alan, aided by the chief of Macgregor,
who had married a sister of the deceased. John
Malcolmson and his two principal associates in the
crime, Milmoir and William Mac Dhaibhidh, were
kept in chains in the fort until 1531, when they
were formally tried by the Earl of Moray, and
being found guilty, Malcolmson was beheaded and
1 The rich widow had been carried off by Dougal Macqueen.
Davidson easily roused John Malcolmson's resentment against
the chief by declaring that the latter had sneered at John's
birth and called him "Mac Kynich Grogach." John's mother
was the wife of a peasant of Nuid Mor called Kenneth Grogach,
and had been taken from her husband by John's father.
186
THE MACKINTOSHES
quartered, and the two Davidsons, after being
tortured, were hanged and their heads fixed on
poles at the scene of their crime.¹ Some accounts,
however, make no mention of the imprisonment in
Loch-an-Eilan and of the trial by the Earl of Moray,
but make it appear that the murderers were cut to
pieces immediately on their capture."
3
During his chiefship Lachlan entered into bands
of amity and manrent with Campbell of Calder,
Kilravock, Foulis, Macdonald of Sleat, Colin Earl of
Argyle, and others. Besides being connected by his
own marriage with the Earls of Moray, Cassilis, and
Argyle, he was also connected with several important
families of the Highlands through his sisters, who
were married as follows:-Mora, to John Macgregor
of Glenstrae, afterwards to Stuart of Kincardine ;
Marjory, to Ewen Cameron of Locheil (Ewen Allan-
son); Catherine, to Alan Mac Ranald of Knoydert ;
Jean, to one of the Calder family, afterwards to
Donald Maclean of Kingairloch.
By Jean Gordon his wife, Lachlan had one son,
William, who at his father's death was but three
years old. He had also, with three natural daughters,
1 Kinrara and Rev. L. Shaw's MSS.
2 Tytler, ii. 34; Browne, i. 184; Sir James Balfour's Annales,
i. 259; Gordon's History of Gordons, i. 137.
3 Aug. 10th 1521. This band was entered into in consequence
of some debates and controversies betwixt them concerning the
right to Raits and Meikle Geddes. It was decided by mutual
friends that Calder had the better right to the lands, but that
Mackintosh should hold them during his life.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
187
two natural sons, John, ancestor of the Mackin-
toshes in Dunachton, and William, ancestor of the
Mackintoshes in Kinrara and Pittourie.
(15) WILLIAM. The minority of the infant suc-
cessor to the honours and estates of Mackintosh
brings another famous character on the scene, in the
person of Hector, natural son of Ferquhard, 12th
chief. After the murder of Lachlan Beg, Hector,
"for his actions, courage, and strength of body,"
says the Kinrara MS., was chosen by the clan as
their captain,-probably only as locum tenens of
Lachlan's infant son during his minority, although it
is not unlikely that, as in the case of John Moyder-
tach and the Clan Ranald, he was chosen head of the
clan without regard to William. In the various
documents in which he is mentioned he is designated
Captain of Clan Chattan, without any qualification
to indicate that he was merely the acting or temporary
holder of the title. "Some say," remarks the author
of the Kinrara MS., writing about 150 years after-
wards, "that Hector was declared legitimate by James
V. and disputed the chiefship of the Clan Chattan."
But be this as it may, he was placed at the head of
the affairs of the clan, and held his authority for
several years, using it on the whole with moderation
and prudence.
It would appear that at first his authority was not
universally acknowledged by the clan, some members
of which might have considered their own claim to
188
THE MACKINTOSHES
the tutorship much superior to that of Hector.
There were among them not a few turbulent spirits,
who had indeed during the life of their late chief
succeeded in forcing themselves to concur in his
peaceful policy, yet whose warlike and predatory
instincts it had required all the weight of his author-
ity to keep within bounds. Now that Lachlan's firm
hand was removed, they seem to have been unable to
resist the temptation to indulge their passion for
warring on and spoiling their neighbours. It was
perhaps on this account, coupled with apprehension
of foul play on the part of the tutor, that the Earl
of Moray, as one of the nearest of kin to the infant
chief, judged it expedient that he should be with-
drawn from his father's relations and placed more
immediately under his own influence. He accordingly,
having obtained the gift of William's ward and
marriage, had him and his mother removed to his
own house. In 1527 he caused the latter to marry
James Ogilvie of Cardell,' in conjunction with whom
he undertook the education of his nephew. In this
proceeding, although a perfectly natural one, the
leading men of the clan, the newly elected captain
with the rest, saw an insult to themselves and a
¹ James Ogilvie of Cardell was son of Alexander Ogilvie
of Deskford and Findlater, by Jean daughter of Lord Saltoun,
and is sometimes called Laird of Findlater, though he did not
enjoy that title until many years later. His father was per-
suaded by his second wife, Elizabeth Gordon, of the Huntly
family, to disinherit him in favour of her own daughter's
husband, a son of the 4th Earl of Huntly.
T
*
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
189
design on the part of the earl to mould their young
chief according to his own desires and on the
obnoxious Sassenach model; while no doubt some
among them had been friends or adherents of Dougal
Mor, and had not forgotten that it was by the earl's
means he had lost his life. The removal of the chief
was therefore resented by them; and while the more
politic Hector at first endeavoured by expostulation and
other peaceable means to obtain the restoration of the
child to his charge, they invaded Moray's lands in
and about Brae Moray-Donald Glas and others of
the Mackintoshes from the one side, the Farquharsons
and Mackintoshes of Braemar and the upper districts
of the Mearns from the other. During the year
1527, the tenants of the earl in the fertile and pros-
perous Braes of Moray were in a perpetual state of
alarm; they constantly beheld their homesteads and
crops in flames, their goods and cattle "lifted," and
their own numbers diminished by the sword. In the
words of the royal mandate of extermination issued
against them, the invading Clan Chattan committed
'daly raising of fire, slauchtir, murther, heirschippis,
and waisting of the cuntre, sa that owre trew leigis in
thair pairtis about thaim may nocht leif in peace and
mak ws seruice.”
"(
This mandate of extermination was issued on the
9th November 1528, the sixteenth year of the reign of
James V., and addressed to the "Shirrefis of Kin-
cardin, Abirdene, Banf, Elgen, Fores, Narne, and
Invernyss, and to our dearest bruthir James Erle
190
THE MACKINTOSHES
of Murray, our lieutenant general in the north partis
of our realme, and to our louittis cousingis [ ] Erle
of Suthirland, Alexander Maister of Suthirland, Johne
Erle of Cathnes, Johne Lord Forbes, Hew Lord
Fraser of Lovat, Johne Grant of Freuchy, Ewin
Alansone capitane of the Clan Cammeroun, Johne
McKainzie of Kintaill," and to all the barons and
chiefs within the several sheriffdoms mentioned.
These persons are commanded "to pass all at anys
upon the clanquhattane and invaid thame to thair
uter destructioun be slauchtir, byrning, drowning
and uther wayis, and leif na creatur levand of that
clann except priestis, wemen, and barnis." They
are to take to themselves "all thair gudis that
may be apprehendit and hauld the samyn to thair
awin use." The lives of the "wemen and barnis
are mercifully to be spared, because it were in-
humanity to put hands in their blood; but they
are to be shipped out of the country to Jesland,
Zesland, or Norway.¹
""
Had this mandate been acted upon by all the
persons to whom it was addressed, the history of
the Clan Chattan would most probably have ended
here. But whether owing to the friendly efforts
of the chiefs and barons in the north, or to the
natural unwillingness of Moray to proceed to ex-
tremities against a clan hitherto friendly to him,
and in the continuance of whose existence he had
¹ See Spalding Club Misc. ii. 24, where, however, the wrong
date is given, as will be seen by the preface to the volume.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
191
a deep interest, it was used only to be held in
terrorem over the unruly clan. It had perhaps
been granted only with this object, but at all
events its publication seems to have had the effect
of inducing the invaders of Brae Moray to desist
from their depredations and to continue quiet for
some time.
It is to be observed that these letters of exter-
mination contain no mention of Hector Mackintosh,
although there is no doubt that he was in 1527-8 at
the head of the clan. This circumstance seems to
show that he took no part in the disturbances, and
goes
far to corroborate the statement in the Kinrara
MS. that at first he employed peaceable means to
gain his object. The only persons mentioned by
name are John, Thomas, and Ferquhar McKinla
(Farquharsons from the Mearns), Donald Glas (a
natural son of the chief's uncle, and already men-
tioned as one of the principal avengers of the late
chief's murder), and Angus Williamsone, apparently
a nephew of Donald Glas. I infer therefore that
there was at this time a split in the clan consequent
on the elevation of Hector to the tutorship, and
that Donald Glas was at the head of a faction and
had stirred up the distant members of the clan
in Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire to assist him.
Finding argument and expostulation unavailing,
Hector at length resolved to take other means for
gaining his end. He accordingly, in 1530-1, rushed
into active hostilities against the Earl of Moray and
192
THE MACKINTOSHES
the Ogilvies. With his brother William and at the
head of a large force, he invaded the county of
Elgin, where Moray's lands were for the most part
situated, and after overthrowing the fort of Dyke
proceeded to lay siege to Tarnaway Castle, and to
harry the surrounding country. After a brief and
unsuccessful siege he withdrew from Tarnaway and
turned into the district of Petty. Here he besieged
Hall Hill, which soon fell into his hands-twenty-
four of the name of Ogilvie being put to the sword."
He returned to his own country with immense booty,
but without the youthful cause of all this work, who
had been sent south to the care of the Earl of
Cassilis.
In the meantime the Earl of Moray was not idle.
Acting on the commission given two years previously,
he marched with a considerable force into the Mac-
kintosh country, surprised the following of Hector,
and took upwards of 300 prisoners, among them
William the brother of their leader. Many of these
prisoners were at once executed.
2
William was
hanged at Forres, probably by way of giving the
people in the neighbourhood of Dyke and Tarnaway
some satisfaction for the injury he had done them;
his head was fixed on a pole at the kirk of Dyke,
¹ This assault and capture of Hall Hill in 1531 is sometimes
confounded with that in 1513 under Dougal Mor.
2 Sir Robert Gordon says 200, but 300 is the number given
by Bishop Lesley, who lived about a century earlier than Sir
Robert.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
193
and his body was quartered and distributed among
the towns of Elgin, Forres, Aberdeen, and Inverness.
It appears from the Kinrara MS. that he had been
betrayed to the earl by a Dougal Bain mac Farquhar
vic Coil, who had married the widow of John Mal-
colmson, and who was rewarded for his treachery
with a five years' lease of Connage. Hector Mac-
kintosh effected his escape and remained for some
time in concealment.
66
He
The earl now took up his quarters in Inverness,
sending out parties to bring in all the participators
in the late disturbances who could be found.
appointed a meeting of the clan at Tordarroch in
Strathnairn, avowedly for the purpose of consulting
as to the interests of their young chief, but with
the real object of obtaining some clue to Hector's
place of concealment. Here eighteen of those con-
cerned in the raid into Elgin, commonly called the
"hership of Dyke," were hanged over the balks
of the house where the court was holden"; and
although tempted by a promise of pardon if they
would disclose the secret of their leader's hiding-
place, all stoutly refused to accept their lives at
the price of their fidelity and honour. "Ther faith
wes sua true to ther captane that they culd not
be persuaded, either by fair meanes or by any
terrour of death, to break the same or to betray
ther master."1
1 Sir Robert Gordon's Hist. of Earldom of Sutherland, 100.
See also Gordon of Gordonstown's Hist. of Gordons, i. 138-9.
•
194
THE MACKINTOSHES
Numerous instances of heroic fidelity such as this
-which surely deserves our highest admiration and
praise—are related of the Highlanders. They them-
selves, in their noble simplicity, did not consider
that they were doing more than their duty in
sacrificing their lives in such a cause. Fidelity to
his chief was regarded as one of the first duties
of a clansman, and he who lacked the fortitude
to be faithful unto death would have been scouted
from the society of his kinsmen as a coward and
disgraced man. Still it was not altogether fear of
the contumely of their brethren that produced the
acts of self-sacrificing heroism so common among
the race; these were the effects of the higher
principles of reverence for the chief as for a father,
devoted attachment to his person, and strict regard
for his honour-principles which prompted the
clansman to receive in his own breast the arrow
aimed at his chief, or to suffer a painful linger-
ing death rather than that his chief should come
to harm.¹
¹ The Earl of Moray's court at Tordarroch was held ostensibly
in the name and interests of the young chief of Mackintosh, and
the circumstance that such a large number of executions took
place during its session is said to have given rise to the common
saying, "Cha'n e na h-uile la' bhios moid aig Mac-an-toisich,"
"It is not every day that Mackintosh holds a court." The Rev.
Donald Mackintosh, however, who includes the proverb in his
collection, assigns to it a different but perhaps less probable
origin: he says that one of the Mackintosh chiefs who held a
court of regality, with powers of pit and gallows, was in the
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
195
Hector was successful in eluding the search of
the Earl of Moray, but by the advice of Dunbar,
Dean of Moray, he surrendered himself to the king,
who forgave him his past offences, and received
him into favour. This clemency on the king's part
was no doubt in some measure owing to his dis-
satisfaction at the time with Moray, who had shortly
before been associated with Colin, Earl of Argyle,
in certain proceedings not the most creditable which
the latter had thought fit to take in discharge of
his office of Lieutenant of the Isles. On inquiry
into the nature and manner of these proceedings,
Argyle was committed to prison and Moray for a
time lost his royal brother's favour. A letter in
the State Paper Office, dated 27th Dec. 1531, from
the Earl of Northumberland to King Henry VIII.
of England, refers to "the sore imprisonment of
the Earl of Argyle and the little estimation of the
Earl of Moray." The Kinrara MS. relates that on
habit of condemning a victim to be hanged on each court day
by way of affording a salutary example.
The foundation walls of the barn in which, according to local
tradition, the Earl of Moray held his court and executed so
many of the Mackintoshes, are still to be seen at Tordarroch, on
a hillock close to the Mains farmhouse. They show that the
building was a long narrow one, well adapted to the earl's plan
of seizing and hanging the victims as they came in separately.
But by a curious perversion of the name of the principal actor,
the tradition of the district (as heard by the writer on the spot)
makes Queen Mary (!) the holder of the court. Would that it
were possible to explain all other crimes charged against the
unhappy queen as easily as this!
0 2
196
THE MACKINTOSHES
Hector's making his humble submission the king
received him into favour, and "did with all his
heart lovingly embrace him, because he was valiant
and wise in war and council, and of extraordinary
strength of body and other abilities, and did admit
him to be one of his principal servants at court,
where he remained constantly." James V. was at
this time of an age (about twenty years) at which
a generous and high-spirited nature is particularly
liable to be attracted by either the valiant deeds
or the misfortunes of others. He had besides only
recently escaped from the captivity in which he
had long been held by the Douglases, a circumstance
which we may readily imagine would incline him
to sympathise with his new protégé. Hector is said
to have been assassinated soon after these events
by a monk named Spens at St. Andrews.
There is no reason to suppose that in endeavouring
to acquire the charge of his young kinsman Hector
had any sinister end in view, or that he was in-
fluenced by any other motives than those of jealousy
and resentment at the summary step taken by Moray
in removing the youth from among his clansmen.
And although his unfortunate and perhaps not al-
together well-judged opposition to the earl ended
in temporary disaster to himself and his followers,
we are not on that account to regard him as a
wanton disturber of the peace, or as lacking the
desire to maintain the honour and interests of the
clan.
Indeed his action in the matter was no doubt
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
197
1
taken for the purpose of vindicating their honour
and interests, and of protesting against what seemed
to be an insulting reflection on their good faith;
and he appears to have resorted to the sword for
the recovery of the young chief only when all other
means had failed. From his marriage to a daughter
of James Grant of Freuchie, and from the numerous
contracts and bands in which his name appears,
we may judge that he was a man highly respected
and of considerable abilities. On 30th April 1527,
shortly after acquiring the captainship of the clan,
he engaged in mutual bands of amity and league
with Sir John Campbell of Calder, Munro of Foulis,
Rose of Kilravock, and Macdonald "Ylis" of Sleat.¹
He also gave bands of manrent to the Earls of
Argyle (in 1527) and Huntly (in 1532). It was
probably in connection with his bands to Calder
and Argyle who had combined in asserting rights
which they had obtained to Locheil and Duror and
in obtaining bands of manrent from the Camerons
and the Stewarts of Duror-that he gave in 1527
an assurance to Ewen Allanson of Locheil. This
document is given in full, but it does not appear
whether it was an assurance that Hector himself
would take no steps against the Camerons, or that
he would assist them against other enemies; probably,
however, it was of the former nature.
2
1 Kinrara MS.; Mackintosh and Calder Charter Chests.
2 This "Suerans" is given in the Spalding Club Miscellany,
iv. 198.
198
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
"ANE SUERANS TO EWN ALLANSON BE MCKYNTOSCHE.
Be it maid kend to all men be this present vrycht me Hector
M'Kintosce, Captaine of Clan-catane, to have assouerit, and be
thenor of this present lettre assoueris lelely and truelly be the
faytht and treuth in my body, ane virschepful man Euine
Alansone, Captane of Clan-camrone, hymeself, his kyne, party,
purcheis and enyrdance, his and thare landis, gudis, purcheis
and enyrdance, and for all at may lat, bayth in the law and by
the law, induring this myn assouerance, be the fayth and trouth
in my body, and this myn assouerance till indure bot fraud and
gyle to ye fest of Sant Androw nixt to come that day the sonne
beying gane to rest. In vitness of the quhilk to this my letteris
of asseuerance I have procurit the seil of ane virschipful man
Huchone Ros of Kilravok at Kilravok the xxij day of October
the yeir of God ane thouosand fif hundryt xxvij yeiris befor
thir witness Johne Alansone, Donald Alansone, Villiam Roy
Alansone vyth vder diuerse.”
The misfortunes which Hector's quarrel with Moray
brought upon the clan were of a temporary and limited
nature only, and during the remaining years of the
pupilage of the young chief the clan appear to have
been generally quiet. William entered upon the
duties and responsibilities of his position about 1540,
being then nineteen years of age. He is compli-
mented by Buchanan, and by the author of the
account of the Camerons prefixed to the Memoirs
of Locheil, the latter (p. 31) describing him "as a
gentleman of very fine qualitys and much distin-
guished for his spirit and politeness." Bishop Lesley
gives us the following picture of him,-"Hic Mac-
kintoshii filius, morum ac vitæ probitate in ipsis
teneris aetatis unguiculis ita conformabatur, ut cùm
ad Remp. se contulisset omnes duces eorum, quibus
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
199
1
in ultima Scotia Hibernus sermo erat vernaculus,
illum tanquam virtutis solidam quandam effigiem,
ac Reip. probè constituendæ egregium artificem
suspexerint." Besides the advantages of his edu-
cation, his position was greatly strengthened by the
circumstance that during the early years of his chief-
ship his uncle and firm friend, the Earl of Moray,
was at the head of affairs in the north. But in
1543 he lost this patron, and was thus brought into
close contact with George, 4th Earl of Huntly, who
succeeded to Moray's influence and position in the
Highlands, and who on 30th March 1544 was made
Lieutenant of the North. At first his relations with
this nobleman seem to have been in every way
satisfactory. In 1543 (12th May) he obtained from
him a liferent tack of Benchar, Clunie, Schiphin, and
Essich, and in the following year (30th Oct.) he
received from him the office of deputy-lieutenant
of the shire of Inverness, and subscribed a band
given by most of the nobles and barons in the
north engaging to assist and uphold Huntly, as the
queen's lieutenant, in suppressing disorders.2
In
1 "This son of Mackintosh was so brought up in his youth in
goodness of manners and life, that when he entered upon the
government of his people, all the chiefs of the Highlands honoured
him as a perfect pattern of virtue, and an excellent manager of
the well-being of his clan's affairs."
2 Spald. Club Misc. iv. 213. All the principal chiefs in the
north subscribed this band. The first names are John Earl of
Sutherland, John Earl of Atholl, Alexander Fraser Lord Lovat,
William Mackintosh of Dunnachton, James Grant of Freuchie,
J. Mackenzie of Kintail.
200
THE MACKINTOSH ES
.
return for the tack of Benchar, &c., he gave Huntly
a band of manrent, dated at Huntly 12th May 1543,
in which he is designated "William McIntoschecht,
son and apperand air to umquhile Lawchlan Mc-
Intoschecht of Dunnachten," and in which he signs
himself "Wilzem Makinthose." Ten days previously
some of the principal men of Clan Chattan bound
themselves, at Inverness, "under the pane of cursing"
to renounce their dependence on William "gywe it
hapins the said Wilzeam McIntosche to failze and
break his band of manrent" (which it appears he had
previously become bound to give) "in his service
to the said Erle. This band, known as "Clan
Chattan's Band," is given in full in the Spalding
Club Miscellany, vol. iv. p. 260. The persons en-
gaging in it are Jhone Wilzem Allansone and Donald
Wilzem Allansone 1 (grandsons of Alan, son of Mal-
colm Beg), Dowll Bayne,2 Hucheon Roy, Swyne
McConquhie, Allaster and William McQueyn, Donald
McAnedoy, dwelland in Pettin, Willzeam Reoch
McAychin, Donald Mor McWlmoir,5 Aye McAne
1
4
3
""
2
¹ There is a band in the Cawdor Charter Chest, dated 28 Aug.
1534, given by these two to Sir John Campbell of Calder.
2 The Kinrara MS. says that Ferquhar, eldest son of Dougal
Mor MacGillicallum, "had three sons, Dugall Bayn, Hugh Roy,
and John Du."
3 Mac Ian Dubh. Ian was 3rd son of Alan, progenitor of the
Killachie branch, and married a daughter of Calder.
4 Query, a son of Hector, the late Captain of the clan.
5 M'Wlmoir, i.e. MacCoil or MacDonald Mor. It is likely
that this Donald Mor M'Wlmoir was Donald of Cluny, son of
Donald Mor of Cluny, and that one of the Donald Macfarsones
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
201
McThomas, Donald McAne McConquhie, Wilzeam
McAne McConquhie dwelland in Strathnern, Bean
Macfarsone,¹ Donald Macfarsone, Wilzeam McGillies,²
McFaill, Angus Angus Wilzeamsone, Donald Mac-
farsone, Thomas Macallister, Jhone Angussone,*
Angus McRobert.5
In 1544 the Clan Chattan became involved in the
proceedings which had for their object the establish-
ment of Ranald Macdonald in the chiefship of the
Clan Ranald of Moydart. This dignity had about
1530 been conferred by the clan on their late chief's
bastard son, John "Moydertach," a man whose rest-
less disposition, aided by considerable talent and
daring, for a long time caused great trouble to the
ruling powers of the kingdom. Allan mac Ruari,
chief of Clan Ranald from 1481 to 1509, had been
twice married, and two of his great-grandsons spring-
ing from the first marriage were at this time alive,
the elder of course being actual heir of line to the
chiefship. Being very young, no opposition was to
be expected from him; but John Moydertach found
his elevation to the head of the clan challenged by
afterwards mentioned was his son, who married a daughter of
Gordon of Ardbrylach.
1 Probably a younger son of Cluny.
2 Probably William Macpherson of Invereshie, head of the
sept Gillies.
3 Probably the head of the Pitmean branch of the Mac-
phersons.
4 The MS. mentions a John, son of Æneas (Angus) one of the
natural sons of William, 13th chief.
5 Shaw of Tordarroch,
202
THE MACKINTOSHES
This
Ranald, only son of Alan mac Ruari by his second
marriage with a daughter of Lord Lovat.
person, having been brought up by his relations the
Frasers at a distance from Moydart, was called by
his own clansmen Galda, or the foreigner. At
first he appears to have made no effort to dislodge
John Moydertach, who succeeded in procuring a title
to the clan estate. But in 1540, John being im-
prisoned by James V., the Frasers contrived to place
Ranald Galda in possession of Moydart, and to obtain
a revocation in his favour of the charters previously
granted to his rival. Though thus apparently secured
in the possession of his father's station and lands,
Ranald was unable to obtain the goodwill of the
clansmen, who remained obstinately faithful to the
chief they themselves had chosen. Scarcely had he
settled himself in Moydart when John, who had
been released in the early part of 1544, returned
and was received with open arms by the clan.
Ranald was compelled to seek refuge and assistance
from his kinsman of Lovat; while his rival, assisted
by the Macdonalds of Keppoch and the Camerons
under Ewen Allanson, with great vigour and prompt-
ness carried fire and sword into the Frasers' country,
part of which he occupied, overrunning also Glen-
urquhart and Glenmoriston, belonging to the Grants.
Huntly, as Lieutenant of the North, soon found it
incumbent upon him to take steps for restoring order.
He accordingly marched against the insurgents, ac-
companied by the Frasers, the Grants, and the Clan
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
203
.*
Chattan, whose captain, as we have seen, was under
an obligation of manrent to Huntly. Mackintosh
was on this occasion followed by 1500 men.
The insurgents retired before the lieutenant, who,
having without a battle replaced Ranald Galda in
apparent possession of Moydart, set out on his return,
as though he had done all that was necessary.
In
Glen Spean his forces separated. Lovat, contrary to
the advice of his friends,¹ returned homewards with
400 men by the shores of Loch Lochy, the Mac-
kintoshes and Grants attending him as far as the
water of Gloy; he was accompanied further by
Ranald Galda. John Moydertach and his allies,
however, had kept a watch on the movements of
Huntly's army, and finding that Lovat detached his
forces with the evident intention of returning alone,
resolved to intercept him at the head of Loch Lochy.
Here Lovat found his way barred by a superior force
of his adversaries, and having no doubt of their
intention, he despatched a portion of his followers
to secure a neighbouring pass by which he might
retreat in case of his getting the worse.
The fight
was a most sanguinary one: the pass was seized by
the enemy, and the devoted Frasers, being entirely
hemmed in, were almost to a man cut off, though
¹ The Kinrara MS. says that Mackintosh, "being informed
of an ambush laid for Lord Lovat, offered to accompany him
with his people till he were out of hazard; but the Lord Lovat
refused the offer, saying he was strong enough himself for the
Clan Ranald; Huntly, being privy to the Clan Ranald's design,
applauds Lovat's resolution."
204
THE MACKINTOSHES
3
not without a desperate struggle. Lovat, his eldest
son, and the unlucky Ranald Galda, were among the
slain; and tradition declares the slaughter to have
been so great that the survivors of the victorious
side were only eight in number, those of the
vanquished only four. But this is no doubt an
exaggeration.
By this battle of Kin-Loch-Lochy-better known
as Blair nan Leine'-John Moydertach established
himself as chief of the Clan Ranald of Moydart,
Ranald Galda being slain, the heirs of line resigning
their claim, and Huntly being shortly afterwards too
much engaged in other matters to take any efficient
measures against him. Indeed, it would appear from
Shaw that the earl had little inclination for such
measures. "Buchanan and the MS. account of
Lovat's family blame the Earl of Huntly for this
barbarious conflict, that he had privately stirred up
the Clan Ranald to intercept Lovat. The character
of that Earl and the resentment of his treachery long
entertained by the Frasers found a suspicion that he
was guilty." 2
Some of the Clan Chattan belonging to Petty and
the neighbourhood having, after their separation from
Huntly in Glen Spean, taken the way of Loch Ness
1
"The Field of Shirts," so called from the circumstance that
the Frasers stripped to their shirts in the battle, the day (15th
July) being very hot.
2 Hist. of Moray, 221. The note on p. [203] shows that the
Mackintosh MS. History corroborates this charge.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
205
as the nearest to their homes, had been waylaid by
some of the Clan Ranald and almost totally cut off at
Abertarff. In revenge of this, the chief took an early
opportunity of making an expedition into Glengarry,
part of which he harried.
The supineness or partiality exhibited by Huntly
in his expedition against the Clan Ranald and their
friends, and his absence from the North for some time
afterwards, had the effect of increasing and prolonging
the disturbances in the Western Highlands. John
Moydertach was emboldened to pursue his own
courses, and to set at defiance both the lieutenant
and the royal authority itself; nor were his allies
slow in following his example. The Earl of Lennox,
in his expedition to the Western Isles on behalf of
the King of England, found ready assistance from the
Islesmen and their neighbours on the mainland, and
easily obtained from them a promise to transfer their
allegiance from the Scottish to the English crown.
One of the Council of the Isles which in 1545 em-
powered two commissioners to treat with the English
king, was John Moydertach, while his ally Ewen
Allanson of Locheil in the same year made a written
promise of his services to the same monarch, and
stated as a recommendation that he had taken a prey
from both Huntly and Argyle.¹ A proclamation by
the Government to Donald of the Isles and his fol-
lowers, warning them to desist from their treasonable
¹ Letter to Lord Deputy of Ireland in State Paper Office.
206
THE MACKINTOSHES
practices, being unheeded, processes of treason
were issued against the principal delinquents. Mack-
intosh, as deputy lieutenant, in 1546 succeeded in
apprehending two of these, the Captain of Clan
Cameron and Ranald mac Donald Glas of Keppoch,
both of whom had taken part in the slaughter of the
Frasers two years before. Mackintosh gave up his
prisoners to Huntly, who procured their trial and
condemnation for high treason, and both were
beheaded. John Moydertach obtained a pardon
in 1548.
On the 15th February 1547-8 the Earldom of
Moray was conferred upon Huntly, with the lordships
of Abernethy, Petty, Breachly, and Strathern, by the
Earl of Arran, Regent of the kingdom. Of the three
last-named districts William Mackintosh had obtained
in 1543 a liferent tack from the queen dowager, by
means of his uncle the Earl of Moray. Hitherto
totally independent of Huntly, except in the matter
of the limited service to which he was liable for the
lands of Benchar, he was now placed in the position
of vassal to that noble for a large portion of his lands.
This closer connection was short and not agreeable.
Mackintosh's relationship and attachment to the late
Earl of Moray, who during his lifetime had been
regarded with jealousy by Huntly, could not but
have inspired the latter with some feeling of coolness
and dislike towards him; while his great power and
influence no doubt made him an object of jealousy on
his own account. There are also grounds for supposing
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
207
that Mackintosh was inclined to the doctrines of
the Reformation, of which the earl was a consistent
and virulent opponent. The two great parties in the
kingdom, the Protestant English party and the
Catholic anti-English party, were both numerous and
powerful, and it was by no means certain that the
side to which Huntly adhered, though no doubt the
more patriotic, would be able long to hold their own.
Of an ambitious jealous temper, and anxious to main-
tain his position as Cock of the North-a position
which made him one of the most powerful barons in
the kingdom-Huntly would look with no favourable
eye on any one near him whose power and standing
nearly approached his own. Mackintosh, commanding
a following more numerous than any the earl could
raise from his own estates, and being connected with
the great families of Cassilis and Argyle—the former a
sturdy partisan of the English faction-as well as with
most of the leading Highland families, was one whom
it was desirable either to attach to himself or to keep
down as much as possible. He seems to have at
length conceived a violent animosity against Mackin-
tosh, and the good estimation in which the latter was
held by all who knew him added fuel to the flame-
the earl himself being particularly obnoxious in the
north. The Kinrara MS. says that Huntly, in 1549
'perceiving William Mackintosh to be highly esteemed
and honoured by all his neighbours, began to envy his
power and the brightness of his virtue, and therefore
resolves to assure him to himself by bonds, or to crush
208
THE MACKINTOSHES
J
•
him so as he shall not be able by his power to wrong
him or his faction, and for that effect endeavours to
get his bond of manrent whereby to make him side
with himself in all his attempts good or bad." But
while willing to perform all due service which his
position as vassal to the earl entailed upon him,
William resolutely refused to go further or to bind
himself closer.
Having failed in this, the earl now commenced a
series of harsh measures by depriving William of his
office of deputy lieutenant. It is evident that for
some time previously he had been intriguing among
the Clan Chattan; in all probability it was by his
means that in 1548 Lachlan Mackintosh, son of the
murderer of William's father, and himself no well-
wisher to William, had been placed in possession of
Connage in Petty; and "Clan Chattan's Band in
1543, already mentioned, bears tokens of his handi-
work. It is also likely that for some years he had
been sowing the seeds of discontent and mutiny
among the Macphersons, though these did not bear
fruit until some thirty years later.
""
William appears to have quietly acquiesced in
Huntly's withdrawal of his office from him; but the
event afforded to Lachlan, tenant of Connage, a
favourable opportunity of evincing his malice against
him and his family. This man had for some years
been a creature of Huntly's, and the bad spirit which
he seems to have inherited from his father was
perhaps strengthened by the desire of revenging that
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
209
parent.' He now accused William of threatening to
take the life of Huntly, and of conspiracy to carry
out his threat. The lieutenant eagerly seized the
excuse, and caused his enemy to be apprehended and
confined at Bog-an-Gight. On the 2nd August
1550 he held a court at Aberdeen for the purpose of
trying Mackintosh for the heinous crime charged
against him of practising against the life of the
queen's lieutenant; but the trial was little more
than a mockery. Huntly himself was the judge;
the assize or jury was "packed," being composed of
Huntly's own friends and dependents; while the
witnesses were the mortal and unscrupulous enemies
of the accused, and the charge was of a nature
difficult to be disproved, even though it was wholly
false. On these grounds-Mackintosh's just exception
to the witnesses and jury being repelled-the Provost
of Aberdeen, Thomas Menzies, conscious of the inno-
cence of the accused and indignant at the unfair
2
¹ Lachlan in 1548 had given a strict bond of manrent and
service to the chief, and had obtained the names of George Munro
of Davochgartie, James Dunbar of Tarbat, and Robert Dunbar
of Durris (Dores), as securities for his fidelity.
2 The witnesses were Lachlan of Connage himself and Donald
mac William vic Conchie, a servant of Lachlan's father.
The following is a list of the jury. Huntly was of course
careful to keep men of his own name out of it :-Wm. Seaton of
Meldrum ; Wm. Udny of that Ilk; Alexr. Crawford of Tedderit ;
John Forbes of Towie; Alexr. Leslie of that Ilk; Wm. Cheyne
of Straloch; Gilbert Gray of Shivas; Thos. Chalmers of Coats;
Thos. Meldrum of Ednam; Alexr. Chalmers of Balnacraig;
Patrick Cheyne of Essemont, Knight; Alexr. Cowie of Ancrum;
and John Seaton of Disblair.
P
210
THE MACKINTOSHES
advantages taken of him, protested against the trial,
and his protest being unheeded, publicly appealed
to Parliament and left the court. Huntly proceeded
in his design, and it was finally pronounced for doom,
That forasmuch as the said William Mackintosh was
convict by an assize of art and part of the treason-
able undertaking of the slaughter of George, Earl
of Huntlie, Chancellor and Lieutenant, representing
the Queen's person, therefore he had tint and for-
faulted all and haill his goods, moveable and im-
moveable, with his lands and heritages, and also his
head to be strucken off from his body.
The latter part of this sentence would probably
have been carried out then and there but for the
vigorous and courageous action taken by the provost,
who convened the town in arms to prevent the execu-
tion.¹ The attitude adopted by this functionary may
perhaps be in some measure explained by referring
it to the religious contention raging at that time
between the Roman Catholic portion of the com-
munity and the Reformation party. The citizens of
Aberdeen had received the reformed doctrines at an
early period of the contest,-although for long after
the establishment of these doctrines the Romish
¹ Had the trial taken place a week or two later, Mackintosh
would probably have been without the provost's help. The
Council Register of the Burgh has an entry to the effect that
on the 8th August Thomas Menzies, Provost, and Baillie Gilbert
Menzies, elder, were elected to proceed to Edinburgh as com-
missioners from Aberdeen for the purpose of meeting there other
commissioners of burghs on the 14th of the month.
AND CLAN CHATTAN,
211
party was strong in the town-and it is likely that
their opposition to Huntly proceeded as much from
a feeling of religious antagonism to that noble as
from a desire to prevent injustice and to defend the
innocent Mackintosh. As already observed, it is
probable that Mackintosh was inclined to the new
doctrines, if he had not actually embraced them. At
all events, whatever the cause, the feeling exhibited
by the provost and citizens of Aberdeen, and the
protestation and appeal of the former, seem to have
had the effect of rendering Huntly apprehensive of
the consequences of imbruing his hands in his
victim's blood, and of staying for the time the
execution of the sentence.
Although thus prevented from carrying out his
revenge to the full extent, the earl was not prepared
to release his prisoner, who was conveyed to Strath-
bogie and confined in the castle there. The trial at
Aberdeen had taken place on the eve of Huntly's
departure for France with the queen dowager, and
had been instituted for the simple reason that he
was averse to leaving Mackintosh alive. The fact
of the latter's apprehension and imprisonment was
of course a matter of notoriety, and he could scarcely
have been got rid of while in the house of the earl
without suspicion of foul play and a general cry of
indignation. Huntly's only resource, therefore, was
to bring about his death in such a manner as would
keep himself within the law and make it appear
that he acted fairly and openly. We have seen how
P 2
212
THE MACKINTOSHES
he proceeded to do this; taking his prisoner off his
own lands to Aberdeen, and having him tried by
a regular assize-though at the same time taking
good care to secure him and to make sure of a
verdict against him. We have also seen how the
cup of revenge was unexpectedly dashed from his
lips; yet he was resolved not to be baulked. The
necessity of attending the queen dowager prevented
his longer stay in the north, but he left an injunction
with his countess to put Mackintosh to death after
his departure. He "left him to his lady to deal
with," says the Kinrara MS., "thinking it would
be reputed to be her own
act." Mackintosh
accordingly suffered death by the axe
August 1550.
This seems to be the most
accounts given of the murder.
on 23rd
trustworthy of all the
However widely they
disagree as to the details, all concur in establishing
the fact, and in indicating the Earl of Huntly as the
moving agent. Sir James Balfour ¹
says, "This same
ziere (1550) the Earle of Huntley, befor his going to
France, causses stricke the head from William Mal-
comtoche at Strathbolgie for practizing against the
said Earles lyffe, he then being the Quein's lieutenent
in the north." Sir Walter Scott 2 gives an account of
the occurrence, to which he imparts a high tone of
¹ Annales, i. 297.
2 Tales of a Grandfather-Scotland, ii. 7. See also Sir Walter's
Article on the Highland Clans contributed to the Quarterly
Review for January 1816.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
213
1
romance :-"This haughty race (the Mackintoshes)
having fallen at variance with the Gordons, William
Mackintosh, their chief, carried his enmity to so
great a pitch as to surprise and burn the castle of
Auchindoun, belonging to the Gordon family. The
Marquis of Huntly vowed the severest revenge.
He moved against the Mackintoshes with his own
followers, and he let loose upon this devoted tribe
all such neighbouring clans as would do anything
for his love or for his fear. Mackintosh after a short
struggle found himself unequal to sustain the conflict,
and saw that he must either behold his clan totally
exterminated, or contrive some mode of pacifying
Huntly's resentment. The idea of the first alter-
native was not to be endured, and of the last he
saw no chance save by surrendering himself into the
power of the marquis, and thus personally atoning
for the offence he had committed. To perform this
act of generous devotion with as much chance of
safety as possible, he chose a time when the marquis
himself was absent, and asking for the lady, whom
he judged likely to prove less inexorable than her
husband, he presented himself as the unhappy Laird
of Mackintosh, who came to deliver himself up to
the Gordon to answer for his burning of Auchindoun,
and only desired that Huntly would spare his clan.
The marchioness, a stern and haughty woman, had
shared deeply in her husband's resentment. She
1 Sir Walter is in error here. The Marquisate of Huntly was
not created until some fifty years later.
み
​214
THE MACKINTOSHES
;
regarded Mackintosh with a keen eye, as the hawk
or eagle contemplates the prey within its clutch,
and having spoken a word aside to her attendants,
replied to the suppliant chief in this manner :
(
Mackintosh, you have offended the Gordon so
deeply that Huntly has sworn by his father's soul
that he will never pardon you till he has brought
your neck to the block.' 'I will stoop even to that
humiliation to secure the safety of my father's house,'
said Mackintosh. And as this interview passed in
the kitchen of the castle of Bog-of-gight, he undid
the collar of his doublet, and kneeling down before
the huge block on which the slain bullocks and
sheep were broken up for use, he laid his neck
upon it, expecting, doubtless, that the lady would
be satisfied with this token of unreserved submission.
But the inexorable marchioness made a sign to the
cook, who stepped forward with his hatchet raised,
and struck Mackintosh's head from his body."
Mr. Skene gives in general terms the same account,
speaking also of a feud in which Mackintosh com-
menced hostilities by burning the castle of Auchin-
doun.¹ If these accounts were true, if Mackintosh
had provoked him by wantonly carrying fire and
sword into his country, we should have no difficulty
in absolving Huntly from blame in the matter. But
it is a pity, for the sake of his memory-although
one crime more or less would but slightly affect
our estimation of his character-that they cannot
1 Highl. Scot. ii. 182.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
215
be admitted as true; and this huge blot must remain
on the earl's memory, almost the foulest there. The
feud and the burning of Auchindoun by William are
entirely fictitious. Those who relate them have
apparently confounded the events of two distant
periods. There was no feud prior to William's death
in 1550, and the surprise of Auchindoun took place
forty-three years later under William's grandson of
the same name. The conspiracy mentioned by
Gordon of Gordonston¹ is similarly without founda-
tion; Mackintosh was charged with conspiracy,
because he had been accused of it by his unworthy
kinsman, not because he had actually either headed
or participated in a conspiracy against the queen's
lieutenant.
The scheme which the Kinrara MS. implies was
adopted by Huntly for the purpose of making him-
self appear blameless of Mackintosh's death proved
abortive, as might have been expected. The facts
that the deceased chief had been his prisoner, had
been notoriously the object of his enmity, and had
been slain in his house, soon after the successful
issue of his efforts to obtain sentence of death and
forfeiture against him, all pointed to the earl as
the instigator and moving agent of the crime, and
the person mainly responsible for it. His evident
culpability was eagerly seized by his enemies as a
formidable weapon against him, though owing to
his influence with the queen dowager they were
1 History of the Gordons, i. 174.
*
216
THE MACKINTOSHES
at first unable to use it to his disadvantage. The
murder of their chief was of course resented by
the clan. They do not appear to have taken any
active steps so far as the earl was concerned, but
the traitor Lachlan was not so fortunate as his more
exalted accomplice. Huntly had rewarded him for
his infamous service by making him Sheriff-depute
of Inverness jointly with Munro of Foulis, and
chamberlain of the lands of Petty, also by con-
verting his tenancy of Connage into a life-rent tack
on 21st August 1550, two days before his victim
suffered. He had enjoyed these rewards of dis-
honour little more than a year when on the 30th
Sept. 1551 his house was taken by some of the
indignant clansmen, himself slain, and his adherents
banished from the country of the clan.'
1
Nor did Huntly altogether escape retribution, al-
though his influence at court was sufficient to secure
him from any punishment at all adequate to his
crime, and indeed to render futile any charge against
him resting solely on that crime. For some few
years the murdered chief's friends were unable to
obtain either satisfaction for his death or the restora-
tion of his lands to his family; but they at last
found their opportunity. In 1554 Huntly was sent
by the queen dowager, who had been made Regent,
against John Moydertach and the Clan Ranald. His
'The well-known beautiful pibroch called "Mackintosh's
Lament" is sometimes said to have been composed on the
occasion of William's murder.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
217
army consisted of Lowland gentlemen and his High-
land vassals, among them the Clan Chattan. The
former, not liking the prospects of danger and in-
convenience which an expedition into the wilds of
Lochaber presented to them, demurred to their leader's
proposal that they should pursue those whom they
sought among their own fastnesses, and finally re-
fused to proceed. Knowing the antipathy entertained
towards him by the Clan Chattan, Huntly judged it
prudent not to entrust himself alone with them and
the other Highlanders, and accordingly he was com-
pelled to abandon his enterprise.¹ The queen regent,
who seems to have been bent on suppressing the
restless and audacious John Moydertach, was greatly
displeased at the failure of the expedition. Balfour
says, “the Earle returnes without effecting anything
for repressing the rebells, this expeditione of his
making them rather more bold and presumptuous;
quherat the Queeine is above meassure inraged and
imediatly she causses citte the Earle to compeir and
anssuer to that libellit against him." Attributing
his failure to negligence in her service, she committed
him to Edinburgh Castle to abide further inquiry.
No sooner did it become evident that the beams of
¹ Lesley, 251-2; Tytler, iii. 75. Sir R. Gordon says that the
failure of the expedition was owing to a tumult raised in the
camp by the Clan Chattan, who returned home.
2 Annales, i. 302. Sir James's accounts of transactions and
events in the Highlands are generally more or less inaccurate in
details. For instance, he speaks of "that audacious rebell
Jhone Mudyard" as one of the Clan Chattan!
218
THE MACKINTOSHES
66
court favour had been withdrawn from the earl than
his character and actions were assailed both by his
enemies in the council and by those who were set
against him by sympathy for the murdered Mac-
kintosh. "His enemies taking occasione one his
restraint," says Balfour, aggravats all his actions
and accusis him as the pryme author of all thesse
troubles in the northe, and that for his beheading
of the Laird of Mackintoche." The inquiry into
his conduct resulted in his being deprived of the
Earldom of Moray and lordship of Abernethy, with
other of his lands, and in his being condemned to
a banishment of five years.
It is not likely that the regent would have pro-
ceeded to such extremities with one of her most
faithful and powerful adherents had not great pressure
been exerted by the Presbyterian party, although at
the time she was no doubt favourably inclined to-
wards this party, to whom mainly she owed her
success in obtaining the regency. It is therefore
not to be wondered at that, while inflicting this
punishment upon Huntly by way of a sop to his
enemies, she took care to recoup him in some
measure and to retain him in her interest by re-
storing him to the office of Chancellor, of which
he had some time previously been deprived. The
sentence of banishment was remitted for a fine
of £5000.
The result of the measures against Huntly, so
far as they concerned the family of Mackintosh,
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
219
was equally satisfactory to the friends of the mur-
dered chief, among whom his cousin Gilbert, 3rd
Earl of Cassilis, had been conspicuously active. In
1557, this noble summoned Huntly, his son Lord
Gordon, with the assizers and others concerned in
the conviction of William Mackintosh, to appear
before Parliament at Edinburgh on the 14th December
to hear and see the pretended sentence of forfeiture pro-
nounced at Aberdeen in 1550, "reduced, rescinded, and
annulled." The Parliament also declared the sentence
of death illegal. Huntly was compelled to give as
compensation to the family the barony of Essich
near Inverness, the lands of Coignascalen, Coigna-
fearn, Coignafinternach, and Coignashee, in the heights
of Strathdearn, and South Kinrara and Dalnivert
in the parish of Alvie, the latter called from the
circumstances "Davachs of the Head."
William Mackintosh's wife was Margaret Ogilvie,
daughter of Alexander, 1st baron of Findlater, and
sister to James Ogilvie of Cardell, who had married
William's mother. By this lady he had, with a
daughter Margaret (married successively to the Lairds
of Grant, Abergeldie, Pitsligo, and Duffus), two sons
William, who died young, and Lachlan, who
became chief.
220
THE MACKINTOSHES
CHAPTER VII.
Lachlan "Mor," 16th chief-The Earl of Huntly and Queen
Mary Lachlan's Loyalty to the Queen-Rothimurcus ;
changes of ownership-The Regent Moray-Feuds between
Mackintoshes, Munroes, and others-Campbell of Calder
and the lands of Ardersier-The Clan Gregor-Rivalry of
the Earls of Moray and Huntly; attitude of Clan Chattan-
Defection of the Macphersons-Hostilities with Huntly-
Battle of Glenlivet-Reconciliation of Huntly and Mackin-
tosh.
(16) LACHLAN MOR. On the death of William,
the leading men of the clan chose Donald, grandson
of Alan mac Malcolm Beg, to act as tutor to his
successor, who was only seven years of age. Ap-
prehensive of further trouble from Huntly, they took
steps to secure the young chief from his influence
and practices by despatching him to Strathnaver to
the care of Mackay. But on his way northwards the
boy was intercepted by Mackenzie of Kintail, taken
to Eilandonan, and kept there until he was old
enough to enter into a marriage contract with Agnes,
Kintail's daughter.' This unceremonious proceeding
does not appear to have been resented by the friends
1 Kinr. MS.; Applecross Hist. of Mackenzies.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
221
of the young Mackintosh, and on the whole it was
perhaps well that he fell into such hands. In 1558
he went to Edinburgh for purposes of education, and
from 1560 to 1562 was attached to the court. In
the latter year, at the age of nineteen, he returned
home, and at once found opportunity of proving his
ability and taking some revenge for his father's
murder.
It will here be necessary to glance at the history
of the kingdom about this time. In 1561 the
youthful Queen Mary had returned from France to
assume the government of her native land, then torn
by contending factions and convulsed in the throes
of the Reformation. Under the guidance of her
illegitimate brother James, afterwards the famous
Regent Moray, she appears to have at first done all
in her power, short of acting in direct hostility to
her own faith, to conciliate the Protestants. She
proclaimed her determination to maintain their form
of worship in the kingdom, although she was resolved
herself to continue the exercise of her own. Her
brother, one of the leaders of the Protestant party,
she created Earl of Mar, and signified her intention
of further honouring him by bestowing upon him the
vacant rich Earldom of Moray.
To the Roman Catholics, and to none more than
to the Earl of Huntly, the course adopted by the
queen was highly unsatisfactory. Huntly had long
been looked upon as the leading man among the
votaries of the ancient faith, and it is said that on
222
THE MACKINTOSHES
Mary's arrival he had made her an offer, which she
had declined, to re-establish their common religion
by force of arms. He had perhaps expected that on
the queen's arrival the triumph of his religious and
political enemies would come to an end, and that,
Mary being young and easily guided, no small power
would fall into his own hands. But now, instead
of witnessing and assisting in the downfall of his
enemies, he saw them favoured and their religion
patronised, while he himself was an object not only
of the royal neglect but of positive distrust. The
effect of this was to create within him a train of
jealousy and resentment which required but a small
spark to cause an explosion; and such a spark was
not long wanting. No sooner did he learn the
queen's intention respecting the Earldom of Moray
than he resolved on resistance, and prepared to raise
the standard of revolt.
It is not difficult to fathom the cause of this
apparently uncalled-for action. The favour shewn
to his enemies had not hitherto disturbed either his
power or his possessions in the north. But Mar was
his personal and virulent enemy, and not only was it
likely that the establishment of this enemy so near
himself would bring about a collision, in which Mar
would be supported by the queen and government, but
there was also ground for apprehension of an attack
on his immense power, which had already been
spoken of by one of the French emissaries during
the Regency as too great for a subject.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
223
There was probably another reason why the dis-
posal of the Earldom of Moray in the manner
contemplated should have had such an effect upon
him. As already stated, this dignity, with the
estates pertaining to it, had been conferred on Huntly
himself during Mary's minority. By the old Scottish
law, such a grant so made required confirmation by
the sovereign on coming of age to render it valid;
and for his services done and to be done Huntly had
received from the queen dowager, on his visit to
France with her in 1550-1, a promise, ratified by the
French king, that on Mary's coming of age the grant
should be confirmed accordingly. Although deprived
of the earldom in 1554, it is likely that, trusting to
this promise, he looked for its restoration; and thus,
in addition to the mortification of seeing his rival
advanced to the earldom, he would feel that the
transaction was in fact a robbery of himself.
For her treatment of Huntly, one of her own
religion, and a principal supporter of her mother,
Mary cannot be held excused on the mere ground
alone of her desire to conciliate the Protestants.
There is no doubt another reason. In 1560 Huntly
had made secret overtures to the Lords of the
Congregation, craftily delaying an open declaration
of his views until events should indicate the safest
course for him to pursue ; 2 and it is highly probable
¹ Letter in State Paper Office-Sir John Mason, English
Ambassador at the French Court in 1550-1, to the Privy
Council.
Tytler, iii. 119, 396.
2
*
€
224
THE MACKINTOSHES
that Mary's distrust of him was due to her knowledge
of his double dealing. How she could have obtained
this knowledge is not difficult to trace her brother
would be well aware of Huntly's "Requests to the
Lords" as well as of the reply to them; and although
Tytler apparently disproves the assertion that he
contributed directly to his rival's downfall by en-
trapping him into treason, the Earl of Mar exhibited
sufficient unscrupulousness during his
his career to
warrant a belief in the possibility of his using any
means open to him of injuring or destroying so
dangerous an enemy to himself and his party.
Although as it were driven to bay, and almost
compelled by the calls of his position and the
promptings of his proud and irritable nature to
draw the sword of rebellion, Huntly threw away
any chance of success he had by his dilatoriness
and over-caution. Excessive craftiness and caution
formed as conspicuous and evil a part of his nature
as ambition, and in almost every act of his life
served to counteract and nullify the measures which
his ambition led him to take. We have already
seen instances of this in his proceedings against
the late Mackintosh, and in his trafficking with the
Lords of the Congregation; and now, with anxious
hesitation such as that of the gamester before risking
his last stake, he menacingly grasped the sword,
but left it in the scabbard. Had he at first taken
a decisive step and made a sudden advance with
the large forces at his command, he might have
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
225
succeeded partly, if not entirely, in overthrowing
the power of the party opposed to him; and even
if he failed in the end, he would have brought more
bloodshed and calamity upon the country than
happily took place. But his indecision, proceeding
from over-caution, though in reality attended by
great want of caution, proved the means of his own
destruction and the country's benefit.
The combination of want of judgment with ex-
cessive caution was conspicuously shown in his
permitting a levy of his vassals under his son John
Gordon, Laird of Findlater; he apparently thinking,
like Lord Lovat in later times, thus to hoodwink
the Government. Findlater had escaped from con-
finement in which he had been placed for an affray
with Lord Ogilvy; the pertinacious efforts of the
queen-another mark of her disfavour to Huntly—
had procured his return to custody, but he escaped
a second time and was allowed by his father to
summon a number of the vassals of the earldom
in arms, and to fortify his castles. Such conduct
could not but be regarded as a defiance to the
governing powers, and accordingly in September
1562 the young queen, with the Earl of Mar, made
a progress to the north for the purpose of asserting
her authority. Yet even now Huntly veiled his
intention of rebellion, and went so far as to invite
Mary to partake of his hospitality at Strathbogie.
On her refusal to accept an invitation from the
father of a rebel he hesitated no longer, but placed
Q
!
.
226
THE MACKINTOSHES
himself at the head of his vassals and marched
against the royal forces.
The queen in the meantime had arrived on the
11th September at Inverness, where she was refused
admittance into the castle by Alexander Gordon, who
held it for Huntly. On this, and learning that Find-
later was approaching to attack her, she issued a
proclamation, which soon brought assistance. Lachlan
Mackintosh, being in the town in attendance upon
her, "sent to Donald MacWilliam, late his tutor, to
acquaint him of the queen's condition, and next
morning the haill name of Clan Chattan in Petty,
Strathern, and Strathnairn came to the town in good
order, and undertook the queen's protection till the
rest of the neighbours should come.
99 1 Soon after-
wards came the Munroes, Frasers, and others, and
before long Mary found herself at the head of a force
sufficient at least to secure her immediate safety and
to obtain possession of the castle. This fell on the
20th September, when its captain was hung over
the wall.
Meanwhile Mackintosh had hurried to the Clan
Chattan of Badenoch, who were on their way to join
the standard of Huntly; he showed them that they
were about to be led against the queen, and charged
them to follow him instead to her aid and defence.
This they at once did, and Findlater, finding his
army without them too weak to carry out his plan
of seizing the queen at Inverness, was compelled to
1 Kinrara MS.
•
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
227
2
retire before the royal forces, which proceeded to
occupy Aberdeen.' Here Mar received the honour
on account of which all these events had taken
place the Earldom of Moray; while Huntly and
his son were charged to appear before the queen,
and on their refusal were outlawed. From Aberdeen
the Earl of Moray, by his sister's direction, wrote
to Hugh Rose of Kilravock on the 21st October
desiring him to meet the royal forces at Strathbogie
with his followers, and to bring his neighbour Donald
Mackintosh with him; from which it would appear
that it was Mary's intention to attack Huntly in his
own castle, and that the tutor of Mackintosh was
acting for his young chief as leader of his clan in
these commotions. Advancing with a strong force
towards Aberdeen, Huntly and Findlater were met
on the 28th October at Corrichie by the royal army,
under the command of Moray, and suffered a signal
defeat. Huntly himself closed his career by a miser-
able death; he was unhorsed in the fight, and being
unable, through corpulence, to remove himself from
the field, was either suffocated in his armour or
trodden to death in the confusion. Findlater was
taken prisoner and beheaded a few days after the
battle.
The torrent of misfortune which had for some time
threatened to overwhelm the family of Mackintosh
1 Kinrara MS.; Hist. of Gordons, i. 216; Skene, ii. 183.
2 Letter at Kilravock. Donald Mackintosh was brother-in-
law to Kilravock, having married his sister Catherine.
Q 2
228
THE MACKINTOSHES
now received a check, and was succeeded by a brief
lease of quiet and prosperity. The new Earl of
Huntly, in whose favour the sentence of forfeiture
passed at Aberdeen against his father was reversed
in 1566, had the wisdom to adopt a policy in direct
opposition to that of the late earl with regard to
his powerful vassal the captain of Clan Chattan. An
ardent partisan of the unhappy queen, he was cordially
supported in his efforts on her behalf by Mackintosh.
In the early part of the year 1568, Lachlan, with
other barons of the north, subscribed a band for the
queen's service, promising to "concurre, assist, ryse,
and take plaine parte with the Earle of Huntly when-
ever his charges comes in her Grace's name and
authoritie." In all probability he fought at Langside,
for on the 8th May, five days before the battle, he
subscribed a band for the queen's defence at the town
of Hamilton. It is worthy of note that out of the
136 barons and others subscribing, the only Highland
chief, except the Earls of Huntly and Sutherland,
is the chief of Mackintosh.¹
On the 27th June 1568, we find Lachlan obtaining
from Huntly, as superior, the heritable right of
Benchar, Clune, Kincraig, Schiphin, Essich, Boch-
rubin, Dundelchat, and Tordarroch-some of these
"castle lands" of Inverness, together with a fresh
Inverness,―together
grant (charter de novo damus) of the barony of
Dunachton. At the same time he and the earl
1 See Band with subscribers' names in Robert Keith's His-
torical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops, 475.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
229
exchanged bands of friendship. And on the 22nd
March 1568-9 the earl gives a band of infeftment,
dated at Huntly, to "Lachlane M'Ynthosche, his aris
and assignis, of all and hale the landis of Ratha-
murchus, with the pendicles or pertinentis lyant
within the regalite of Spyne, to be holden heredi-
tablie in few ferme of the bischop of Moray, for the
gude service done to us in our soverane lades cause
by the said Lachlane M'Ynthosche." 2
Rothimurcus, acquired in 1236 by Shaw, the 4th
chief, had been placed, as will be remembered, in the
hands of Shaw Mor as a reward for his victory at
Perth in 1396. In 1463-4, Duncan, 11th chief,
disponed his right of possession and tack to Alasdair
Ciar Mackintosh or Shaw, grandson of Shaw Mor, who
was formally received as tenant by David Stewart,
Bishop of Moray, on the 4th September 1464.³
Alasdair's grandson, Alan Shaw, on 26th Nov. 1539
disponed the right to George Gordon, governor of
Ruthven Castle-afterwards fifth Earl of Huntly.*
By this act the possession of Rothimurcus, after
remaining in the hands of the Mackintoshes and
Shaws for more than 300 years, passed into the
hands of the Gordons. [See under SHAWS.] On
14th July 1567, the 5th Earl of Huntly gives a
1
Kinrara MS.; Spald. Club Misc. iv. 225.
2 Spald. Club Misc. iv. 226.
3 Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, nº. 448.
4 Ibid. n°. 449. The confirmation by the Bishop of Moray is
dated at Elgin 3 Jan. 1539-40.
230
THE MACKINTOSHES
deed of sale of the lands, confirmed by the Bishop
of Moray on the 17th, to John Grant of Freuchie;
and it is strange to find him in the following March
binding himself to infeft Lachlan Mackintosh in them,
as already mentioned. There is no record that the
band to Mackintosh was acted upon, but from the
mention in it of a "reversion," for which Mackintosh
was to pay 2600 merks, it is likely that the feu had
been transferred to Grant in the previous year some-
what after the manner of a wadset, redeemable at
the disponer's pleasure.
The few years immediately succeeding that in
which the unfortunate Queen Mary became a fugitive
from the throne and country of her fathers saw many
events of importance to the family of Mackintosh
as well as to the country at large. Within two years
of his success at Langside, and when everything
seemed to favour his policy and designs, the Regent
Moray fell by the hand of the assassin. His death
was the signal for an outbreak of disorder through-
out the country, and the feuds which he had to all
appearance effectually healed, or which through his
vigorous policy had been kept from breaking out,
now raged with a fury all the greater from their
temporary suppression. Whatever may be our esti-
mate of his conduct in regard to his sister, there can
be no question of his ability to govern; and during
his regency evildoers had been brought to punish-
ment and disorders had been repressed with such
vigour and success as had never been known before.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
231
One of the measures he took in hand was the
settlement of a long-standing feud between the
Mackintoshes and the Macdonalds of Keppoch.
Glenroy and Glenspean in Brae Lochaber, which had
been granted to the Mackintoshes after Donald
Balloch's rebellion in 1431, were occupied by the
Macdonalds, who for long refused either to quit or
to make acknowledgment for their occupation. The
result was frequent disturbance of the peace of the
district, and to put an end to this the regent
in 1569 obtained from Lachlan Mackintosh
Mackintosh an
"Obligation to give Keppoch a title to the
lands on such conditions as he (the regent) should
deem equitable.' But his sudden death prevented
the completion of this arrangement, and the feud
recommenced, to be continued for more than a
century.
""
¹ The Obligation appears in the Privy Council Register, 1575-
1577, fol. 8, as follows: “At Inverness, 20th June 1569. The
quhilk day in presens of My Lord Regentis Grace and Lordis of
Secreit Counsall compeirit Lauchlan M'Yntosche of Dunnachtane
and gaif in this obligatioun following, subscriuit with his hand,
to be insertit in the buikis of Secreit Counsale ad perpetuam rei
memoriam; of the quhilk the tenour followis; I Lauchlane
Mackyntosche of Dunnachtane be the tenour heirof bindis and
obliseis me and my airis that I sall mak securitie to Rannald
M'Rannald of Keppach of sic landis and rowmes as he hes of
me at the sicht of My Lord Regentis Grace, according as his
Grace sall think ressonabill and equitabill; and quhatevir his
Grace willis me to do in that behalf I sall fulfill the samyn
without contradictioun. In witness heirof I haif subscriuit this
my obligatioun with my hand at Inverness the xx day of June
the yeir of God 1569."
232
THE MACKINTOSHES
Such was the distracted state of the country about
Inverness at this time that in 1573 we find the young
Earl of Sutherland petitioning that the steps for
getting himself served heir to the earldom might
be carried through at Aberdeen, and not at Inverness,
on the ground that no jury could sit at the latter
place because the barons, such as Colin Mackenzie
of Kintail, Hugh Lord Lovat, Lachlan Mackintosh
of Dunachton, and Robert Munro of Foulis, were
at deadly feud among themselves. There were in
fact two separate feuds at the time among the parties
named. In one the principals were the Mackenzies
and Munroes, the bone of contention being the castle
and lands of the Chanonry of Ross. These had been
disponed in 1569 by John Lesley, Bishop of Ross-
Queen Mary's faithful servant-to his relative Lesley
of Balquhan, but had been placed by the regent
in the hands of Andrew Munro of Milntown. Colin
Mackenzie purchased Balquhan's right, and on the
refusal by Munro of his demand for possession he
commenced hostilities. He was aided by John Grant
of Freuchie, his father-in-law, and by Mackintosh,
his brother-in-law; while Munro was supported by
his own clan and the Frasers. In a letter of 28th
June 1573, Colin, Lord Lorn-husband of Annas
Keith, Countess of Moray, liferenter of the barony
of Strathnairn-tells Hugh Rose of Kilravock that
Mackintosh has charged all his tenants "bewest the
watter of Nayrne to pas fordwart wyth hym to Ros,
to enter in this trublous actioun wyth Myckenye
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
233
aganis the lard off Fowlis," and desires Kilravock to
make known his wish that none should go.¹ After
much bloodshed the feud was terminated by agree-
ment in 1573, the right to Chanonry being decided
by four arbiters, of whom Mackintosh was one, to
belong to Mackenzie.2
The other and smaller feud was between Mac-
kintosh and some of the Munroes concerning Connage
in Petty, which had long been occupied by the
Mackintoshes, but coming under Huntly as governor
of Inverness Castle had been bestowed by him on
George Munro of Davochgartie and his son John
in 1551. The Munroes were removed forcibly by
the tutor of Mackintosh in 1560, and the dispute
continued until 1573, when it was submitted to
arbitration and decided in favour of Mackintosh.
Before Mackintosh was quite free of these troubles
with the Munroes he became involved in others with
John Campbell of Calder-the second in descent from
¹ Roses of Kilr. 78, 262.
2 From a Royal Warrant (preserved among the Earl of
Moray's papers) for Rendering The House in Chanonrie, dated
19th Feb. 1568-9 and signed by the regent, it appears that
the castle had been for a time occupied by Mackintosh. The
Warrant charges the messengers to " pas and in our name and
auctoritie command and charge Archibald brown, capitane of
the said castell, Schir Alex. Pedder, [and others] cautionaris for
delivering of the said castell to Makintosche, Lauchlane M'in-
tosche of Dunnachane haiffin thairin his househauld servandis
That thai render and deliver the samen to our lovit Andro
Monro of Newmoir, our chalmerlane and baillie of the said
bischoprik, with all maner of munition, powlder, and uther
gunnis, &c."
234
THE MACKINTOSHES
the John Campbell, son of Argyle, who had acquired
Calder by marriage with the heiress. The lands of
Ardersier, lying contiguous to Petty, had been occa-
sionally occupied by the Mackintoshes as tenants,
and Lachlan seems to have had a great desire to
purchase them. Originally church lands belonging
to the Bishopric of Ross, they had been granted by
a late bishop (in 1556) to Robert Lesley, who, residing
in the Lowlands, let them to various tenants. The
circumstances seemed to favour Lachlan's desire of
purchasing the lands, but, unfortunately for himself,
he adopted an underhand mode of proceeding, either
with the object of reducing their apparent value, or
because his relations with Lesley were such as to
preclude personal negotiation. It was arranged be-
tween him and Calder that the latter should negotiate
with Lesley for the purchase, and that at the same
time, with the view of facilitating the negotiation
by making the owner anxious to get rid of the
lands, Lachlan should make frequent raids on the
tenants. On this understanding the two proceeded
to perform their respective parts.
Ardersier is at no great distance from Cawdor
Castle, and its rich fishing and excellent situation
would be not less useful to the Campbells than to
the Mackintoshes. Thus Calder had as great in-
terest as his neighbour in acquiring possession of it,
and where his interest could be advanced he was
not a man to shrink from breaking his word or act-
ing a deceitful part. The result has no doubt been
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
235
anticipated. Instead of performing the neighbourly
act he had promised, he negotiated for the sale of
the lands to himself, the duped Mackintosh all the
time actually doing his best to ensure his more
cunning neighbour a cheap and easy bargain.
Campbell's deceit was resented, as soon as it was
discovered, by a raid of the Mackintoshes into his
new possession, which was completely harried. He
retaliated—not in the manner usual in those days,
but by appealing to the law. He obtained criminal
letters against the aggressors, and had them put
to the horn. For several years the deluded and
exasperated Mackintosh continued to harass him in
various ways, both by making forays into his lands,
and by appealing in his turn to the law. But it
was never the custom of the Campbells to relax
their grasp of a possession, by whatever means
acquired; and in the end Mackintosh had to yield.
On 17th June 1581, a mutual "acquittance" was
granted, "for remuving deleting and away putting
of all pleis and debattis that has been betuix thaim
in tymis bypast, and for luiff friendship ametie and
hartle kyndnes to be and reman betuix thaim and
thair posteriteis." On the one hand Mackintosh
renounces all jure richt tytill of richt and claim
kyndnes and possessioun quhilkis athir his pre-
decessoris hisself his airis successoris had in tym
bypast or tym herafter to all and sindry the townist
and landis of Ovir and Neddir Ardrosseris and the
Estir and Westir Delnyis," and undertakes to "entir
CC
236
THE MACKINTOSHES
instantlie the said John peceabillie therintill." On
the other hand, Calder freely and purely " exoners
and discharges" Mackintosh and his successors "of
all maner of wrangis intrusion and intrometting
with the forsaidis landis, and renunceis all decreitts
past therupon aganis the said Lauchlan befoir the
Lordis of the sessioun, and forder exoneris quyt
clamis and simpliciter dischargis the said Lauchlan
his airis executors his haill kin frendis and servandis
of all maner of slauchteris of quhatsumevir personis
commitit and slan be tham upon the said John
Campbell his kine frendis allyis seruandis and de-
pendaris in all tymis bypast renuncing all malice
and rancowre of hart as yif the said Lauchlan nor
his forsaidis had nevir commitit ony maner of
slauchtir, and the said John frelie consentis that
the said Lauchlan M'intosche of Dunnachten, James
M'intosche M'Connaillglas, Angus M'intosche, Alex-
ander Dolles of Budyett, &c., and sa mony as the
said John causit to be putt to the horn be simpliciter
relaxit therfra." 1
1
¹ Calder Charter Chest. Deed printed in Book of Thanes of
Cawdor. Another deed printed in the same book, the deed of sale
of the lands in 1574, shows that the scheme adopted by Calder and
Mackintosh for driving an easy bargain for the lands had the
desired effect. It sets forth that the seller "haveing considera-
tioun of the great and intollerable damages injuries and skaythis
done to thame be Lachlane Mackintosche and utheris of the
Clanquhattan in herreing distroying and making herschippis
upon the saidis haill landis of Arthurscheir and fischeingis
therof, in depaupering of the tenentis and occupearis therof and
debarring of the saidis personis ther selfis ther factoris and
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
237
The Kinrara MS. tells how this result was brought
about. The feud appears to have raged with much
bitterness on both sides for some years, and on one
occasion, in February 1581, when Mackintosh was
at Lethen at the wedding of one of the Dallases
of Budzeat, with only eight or ten men in his
train, Calder assembled about 20 horse and 40 foot
to waylay him on his return home, and either
capture or kill him. When Mackintosh's party
appeared, Calder, mounted and clad in armour,
rode forward in front of his own men; but his
horse being shot in the breast with an arrow he
was thrown, and falling heavily struck his head
against a block of ice. As he lay, stunned by the
fall, some of the Mackintoshes ran to kill him, but
their chief interposed and gave his enemy his life.
Such unexpected and unmerited generosity appears
to have had the effect of rousing Calder's better
nature from the depths in which it had been buried
by his cupidity and deceit; "a sudden agreement
and great love between the parties" followed, and
continued while they lived.
In 1572 we have the last record of the trouble-
seruandis fra ony maner of fischeing of that pairt callit the stell
of the nes of Arthurscheir be braking of ther coubillis and
cutting of ther nettis, sua that the samyn has bein waist and
unoccupeit thir divers yeiris without any proffeit therof to the
personis forsaidis quha alsua as yit ar secludit therfra without
ony appeirand houp of reparatioun &c. in respect of the accustomat
enormiteis of the saidis Clanquhattane," doth, &c. &c.
238
THE MACKINTOSHES
some race of John Malcolmson, the murderer of the
14th chief. It will be remembered that Lachlan
of Connage, son of this John, and Huntly's creature
and accomplice in 1550, had been put to death by
some of the clansmen, and his family and adherents
banished from the clan country. His son Hector
had taken up the profession of robbery and murder,
apparently with a view to obtaining revenge upon
the Clan Chattan, against whom the depredations
of his band were chiefly directed. In September
1571 he attacked and murdered Dougal Macpherson
of Essich, one of the party who had killed his
father. On this the chief obtained a commission
for Hector's apprehension, and succeeding in cap-
turing him and some of his band, he had them
all beheaded, and their heads fixed on the Tolbooth
of Inverness.
In the struggle between the Earls of Sutherland
and Caithness which from 1587 to 1591 kept the
northern Highlands in a state of commotion, Mac-
kintosh gave his assistance to Sutherland, who was
also aided by the Mackenzies, Munroes, and Assynt
men. When the two earls with their forces met
at Helmsdale, Mackintosh was employed to induce
Mackay of Strathnaver, a vassal of Sutherland but
fighting against him, to come over to his rightful
lord. Mackay refusing was excluded in the truce
made between the earls in March 1587; the un-
scrupulous Caithness not only assenting to this, but
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
239
actually agreeing to assist in reducing him to obedience.
Caithness, breaking a solemn oath of secrecy, divulged
to Mackay the intention of Sutherland and himself to
march against him; but Mackay, having by this time
learned that nobleman's true character, determined to
leave his party. Mackintosh, supported by Munro of
Foulis, renewing his entreaties that Mackay would
submit to his superior lord, was now successful, and a
reconciliation took place between lord and vassal.
Mackintosh remained with Sutherland until the end
of 1588, when another truce was entered into with.
a view to the settlement of the differences between
the earls by arbitration.
In the winter of 1588-9 took place the tragical
event alluded to in Sir Walter Scott's Legend
of Montrose-the murder of the king's forester
Drummond Eirinich by some of the Clan Gregor.
The whole clan of the Macgregors, already inured
to misfortune, and the constant object of royal
warrants of extirpation as well as the not less
injurious attacks of their powerful and acquisitive
neighbours the Campbells, bound themselves by a
terrible oath to unite in answering for the murder,
66
to avow and to defend the authors therof quoever
wald persew for revenge of the same." On the
4th February 1589 the Privy Council issued letters
of fire and sword against them, directed to the
Earls of Huntly, Argyle, Athole, and Montrose,
Patrick Lord Drummond, the Commendator of
240
THE MACKINTOSHES
Inchaffray, Campbell of Lochnell, Campbell of
Ardkinglas, Lachlan Mackintosh of Dunachton, Sir
John Murray of Tullibardine, Buchanan of that Ilk,
and Macfarlane of Arrochar. According to the Mac-
kintosh MS. history of 1758, it was by the express
desire of Argyle that Mackintosh was included in
the commission, in order that the Macgregors might
be attacked from south and north at the same time.
Under this commission the Clan Chattan made
several raids upon the devoted Macgregors, one of
which elicited a letter from King James; another
is narrated in the Kinrara MS., and is given here
as showing the ability of William, the chief's second
son, at this time not more than twenty-five years
of age :-" William was sent by his father, who was
joined in the commission against the Macgregors, to
1
¹ This letter, preserved in Mackintosh's Charter Chest, is as
follows:-"Right traist Freynd, We greet you hairtlie well.
Having heard be report of the laite preeife given be you of y'
willing disposition to our service, in prosequiting of that wicked
race of M'Gregor, we haife thought meit hereby to signifie unto
you
that we accompt the same as maist acceptable pleasure and
service done unto us and will not omitt to regard the same as it
deserves, and because we ar to give you out of our aein mouthe
sum furder directionn thairanent it is our will that upon the
sight hereof ye repaire hither in all haist and at y' arriving we
sall impairt or full mynde, and heirw'all we haif thought ex-
pedient that ye befor yor arriving hither sall caus execut to the
death Duncane M'Can Caim latelie tane be you in y' last agains
the Clan Gregor and caus his heid to be transportit hither to the
effect the same may be affixt in sum public place to the terror of
other malefactors, and so comitt you to God. From Halyrud
in the year 1596."
hous the penult day of
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
241
Rannoch after the Macgregors. The Clan Gregor,
fearing an onfall, had dispersed their cattle among
some of the Atholl people for safety, but William
hearing of it, and finding no one at Rannoch, went
on to Atholl and drove off all the cattle that came
in his way.
The Atholl people demanded their
restitution, but William showed them that he was
entitled to drive away the Gregors' cattle by the
king's commission, and that they, having harboured
and assisted the Macgregors, were themselves come
under the laws, by which all their goods were
escheated. Not satisfied they prepared for fight,
but were easily routed, and two of their chief men
named Robertson and Stewart, with two Macgregors,
were taken prisoners."
During the several years in which the unfortunate
"wicked Clan Gregor" were being hunted down by
enemies on all sides, yet struggling manfully for
their existence, the northern and eastern parts of
Inverness-shire with the adjoining districts were again
the scene of raids and bloody frays. On the death
of the Regent Moray in 1570 his earldom had
passed to his son-in-law James Stewart, Lord Doune
(from whom the present family of Moray is descended).
Between this nobleman and George, 6th Earl of
Huntly, who had succeeded his father in 1576, was
maintained a jealous rivalry similar to that which
had influenced their predecessors in Mary's time;
and the north was again divided into factions on
R
242
THE MACKINTOSHES
behalf of these two powerful earls. Huntly seems
to have inherited his grandfather's rancour against
the Protestant religion and the possessor of the
Earldom of Moray, as well as his ambition and
unscrupulousness; nor was he more successful than
his ancestor in gaining the esteem of the barons
and others around him. The good understanding
between Mackintosh and his feudal superior, which
had remained unbroken all through the late earl's
life, had not long survived him; and in consequence
of the attitude adopted by the new earl towards
him, Mackintosh, instead of remaining neutral, had
been driven to join the faction of Moray, in whom
indeed he was interested both as holding lands under
him and as professing the same religion.
Early in 1590, the storm which had long been
brewing burst forth, and for four years raged furiously
in the north. The occasion of the commencement of
the disturbances was this:-Some of the Gordons
having interfered in matters concerning the tutorship
of Ballindalloch, a feud arose between them and the
Grants, in which an insignificant follower of one of
the Gordons lost his life. Such an everyday matter
as this rarely produced anything further than an
attempt at reprisal on the part of the slain person's
friends, or a gift from his slayers by way of solatium
to his family. Considerable indignation, therefore,
was excited among the Grants and their friends when
Huntly obtained a commission empowering him to
apprehend the murderers and bring them to justice,
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
243
and when, by virtue of this commission, he declared
the tutor of Ballindalloch and such of the Grants
as supported him rebels and outlaws, and endeavoured
to apprehend the tutor in his own house.
These harsh measures were at once resented by
the Grants. The Earl of Moray and Sir John
Campbell of Calder, both enemies to Huntly, espoused
their cause, and persuaded the Earl of Athole, Lord
Lovat, Stewart of Grandtully, and Sutherland of
Duffus, to join them. On the 1st Nov. 1590, these
nobles and barons, with the Grants, entered into an
alliance, offensive and defensive, without any specific
object, but evidently for the purpose of
of offering
resistance to any acts of hostility on the part of
Huntly. Eleven days later Mackintosh and Grant
gave a mutual band, in which the allusion to Huntly
is too pointed to be mistaken. By this document,
which is a lengthy one, Lachlan Mackintosh and
Angus his son and apparent heir are bound "with
all their power, &c., to fortify and defend John
Grant of Freuchie, in case any Earl within this
Realm wrongously by order of law, by themselves
or by their assisters, by force or violence, invades,
troubles, molests, or pursues the said John Grant.”
Similarly Grant binds himself to assist and defend
Mackintosh in case of his being invaded or troubled
by "any Earl or Earls." On the other hand, in
the following March Huntly made an indenture with
Allan Cameron of Locheil, under which that chief
became bound to aid him against his enemies
R 2
244
THE MACKINTOSHES
generally, and the Clan Chattan and the Grants
in particular. He had apparently been engaged for
some time in intriguing with the Macphersons for
the purpose of drawing them from Mackintosh; and
in May 1591 his endeavours were successful in ob-
taining a band from the youthful Andrew Macpherson
of Cluny and his immediate following.
It appears from Gregory that, with the object of
depriving his principal enemy, the Earl of Moray,
of the powerful support of the Laird of Calder,
Huntly entered into communication with the Camp-
bells of Glenurchy and Lochnell, who were rivals
with their kinsman Calder for the control of the
Earldom of Argyle during the minority of its heir;
and that he joined with them in a conspiracy against
the lives of Moray and Calder, as well as of the
young Argyle and his brother. With the view of
providing for their safety after the execution of the
plot, they induced the Chancellor of the kingdom,
Sir John Maitland of Thirlstane, to assist them;
while in order to provide adequate fighting power,
should such be required, they admitted Maclean of
Dowart, Stewart of Appin, and other chiefs of less
note, into their confederation. This hideous plot
proved so far successful that both Moray and Calder,
the two persons of the doomed four in whose death
Huntly was most interested, ultimately fell victims
to it, and that in such a manner as to avert from
the conspirators for some time all appearance of
directly contributing to bring about the murders.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
245
Argyle was fortunate enough to escape, although an
attempt seems to have been made to poison him
in 1594.
But before the plot had arrived at this issue,
Huntly had come into collision with the nobles.
and chiefs allied against him. Immediately on learn-
ing that Mackintosh and Grant, his own vassals,
had put themselves under the Earl of Moray, he
marched into Badenoch, and summoned them to
appear before him, and to deliver up the tutor of
Ballindalloch, under pain of being put to the horn
as rebels. This summons being disregarded, he
procured a commission authorising him to invade
and apprehend the recusants. The two chiefs with
their allies met at Forres to concert measures for
defending themselves, but on the unexpected approach
of Huntly with a large force they all, except Moray,
withdrew to Tarnaway and threw themselves into the
castle. Ignorant that Moray had remained in Forres,
Huntly followed the others and prepared to lay siege
to Tarnaway Castle, but finding that its capture
would be a work of time, and that the persons
against whom he was commissioned had withdrawn
from it, he disbanded his forces on the 24th June,
and shortly afterwards proceeded to Edinburgh.
He had not been in the capital long before his
malice against Moray was gratified by an opportunity
of settling scores with that noble. After the dis-
persion of the allied party in the north Moray had
taken up his residence in his mother's house of
246
THE MACKINTOSHES
Donibristle, on the northern shore of the Forth,
and here, as was alleged, he had harboured Francis
Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, while the latter was being
sought after to answer for one of his numerous
treasonable exploits. The Chancellor, seeing in this
alleged action of Moray's a possible means of attain-
ing one object of the plot in which he was concerned,
in February 1591-2 procured from the king
mission to bring Moray to Edinburgh for trial, and
employed Huntly to execute it-a choice which seems
to show that he, if not the king also, had a sinister
intention towards the accused. Arriving before
Donibristle, Huntly sent a summons to Moray to
surrender himself prisoner, but the messenger being
fired at and wounded, he proceeded to set fire to
the house. His measures were too successful; Moray
lost his life, in spite of the generous self-devotion of
his friend Dunbar, Sheriff of Moray, who headed a
sortie in order that the earl might escape in the
confusion. Rushing from the burning house towards
the rocks on the shore, the unfortunate Moray was
observed by some of the assailants, who followed
and mortally wounded him. Tradition relates that
Huntly himself was compelled by the murderers to
strike his expiring foe, "that he might be as deep
in as they ;" and that, stabbing him in the face with
his dagger, his victim, remembering even in death
his own comely looks, said to him, "You have split a
better face than your own.
""
Such was the end of the "Bonnie Earl of Moray.'
""
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
247
According to the popular belief of the time, his
beauty had impressed the heart of the queen, Anne
of Denmark, and roused the "green-eyed monster
in her husband.
"He was a braw gallant, and rade at the gluve ;
""
And the Bonnie Earl of Moray, O! he was the Queen's luve."
The conduct of the king in assigning the execution
of the commission to Moray's known and determined
enemy, in only proceeding against Huntly when he
was literally compelled by the outcries of the Pro-
testant ministers and party, and in then liberating
him on bail after about a week's imprisonment, seems
to leave no doubt that he was influenced by personal
enmity against the unfortunate earl. Whether or
not this arose from jealousy is not our province
here to inquire; but the belief that it did was
prevalent at the time, and the mode adopted for
removing a rival, real or supposed, is quite worthy
of the despicable character of the "British Solomon."
After being confined in Blackness Castle from the
12th to the 20th March 1591-2, Huntly was liberated
on giving security for his appearance to stand his
trial on receiving fifteen days' notice-which he never
received. Dreading the fury of the Protestant popu-
lace of Edinburgh, he returned to the north, where
he found matters much worse than he had left them
nine months previously. The Clan Chattan, aided
by the Grants, had taken advantage of his absence
to rise against his authority and make hostile inroads
248
THE MACKINTOSHES
into his country. They seem to have commenced
these acts immediately after his departure south in
the preceding summer. Robert Bowes, in a letter
to Lord Burleigh dated 23rd Sept. 1591, mentioning
the king's stay at Perth, says that he had there done
little more than place some ministers and endeavour
"to appease the quarrells and staye the daylye slaugh-
ters betuix Erle of Huntleye and the Larde of Grant
and Mackontoysh with other, wherin of late the
Larde of Loughaber and the Larde of Camroun
appertayning to Huntleye haue killed xli of Mac-
kentoyshes men and xxiii tennents of Grant and
hurt the Larde of Balendalough." The letter adds
that in revenge of this, Grant and Mackintosh, with
Athole, Moray, and their other friends, are gathering
to invade Huntly's bounds."
1
The districts of Strathspey and Strathdearn were
first overrun by the Macdonalds of Keppoch and the
Camerons, whose old enmity against the Clan Chattan
Huntly had at once utilised for his own purposes.
This inroad is no doubt the one alluded to by Bowes.
The Clan Chattan retaliated by wasting Strathavon,
Glenlivet, and Strathdon, with the lands of Glen-
bucket and Abergeldie, all belonging to Huntly. The
fury of the Lochabrians was next directed against
Mackintosh's lands in Badenoch, and here a sharp
skirmish was fought in which the Clan Chattan were
defeated with a loss of fifty men.
Huntly now proceeded to repair and fortify the
1 State Papers (Scotland), xlvii. 100.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
249
castle of Ruthven in Badenoch-a previous attempt
to do this having failed in consequence of the re-
sistance offered by the Clan Chattan-and to pursue
vigorously the intrigues which he had been carry-
ing on among the Macphersons. But it appears that
his efforts met with no further success than that
which he had already achieved in bringing over to
his views Andrew Macpherson of Cluny and his
following, from whom he had obtained a band, dated
at Huntly 16th May 1591; and these, as will be
seen, he deserted after a few years. "All the Clan
Vourigh," says the Kinrara MS., "Sliochd Gillies vic
Ewan, Sliochd Ean vic Ewan, and those of Sliochd
Kynich vic Ewan as lived in Strathern, Strathnairn,
and Lochardell, adhered to Mackintosh in these
troubles, except Andrew Macpherson of Cluny and
those of his race who lived in Badenoch."1
Huntly was now in some danger of an invasion
by the friends of the slain Earl of Moray, who,
backed by the Presbyterian ministers and nobles,
had obtained a commission against him. In the
autumn of 1592 "the erle of Atholl had past to
Tarnoway, accumpanied with sundrie of his freindis
¹ This statement is supported to some extent by the names of
the grantors of the band. These are "Androw Makfersone in
Cluny, John Makfersone in Brakaucht [ancestor of the Cruben-
more family], James and Paul Makfersone [uncles to Andrew in
Cluny], Donald Makallester Roy [son of a younger brother of
Cluny's grandfather], William Makane wic William [grandson
of another younger brother of the same], Kynache Makconald
wic Nele, Alester Mor M'Farquhar M'Thomas, Alester and
Thomas Makfarquhar."
يه
250
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
viz. the Lord Vchiltrie, Louit (Lovat), M'Kuntosche,
and quhat they with many vtheris could mak, of
intentioun to be reuendgit of the erle of Huntlie
for the murthour of the erle of Murrey." But they
were prevented from carrying out their intention by
the arrival of the Earl of Angus on the 12th Novem-
ber 1592 with powers from the king "for pacefeing
this purpois." According to the kingis directioun
he (Angus) causit bathe the parteis subscryve ane
assurance (or truce-till the 15th February following)
bot of theare awin forme. They were baith com-
mandit away—the one pairtie to Dunkeld the vther
to Aberdein to sunder the pairteis." But "im-
mediatlie eftir” the assurance, Moysie adds, "thare
wes slauchter maid be Allane M'Kildowie (Cameron
of Locheil) vpone M'Intosche his men and frendis,
and great hearschip." It would not be a wonder
if this was at the instance of Huntly, in spite of
the assurance he had just given; but whether so
or not, the Clan Chattan held him responsible, and
at once directed measures of retaliation against him.
Previously to the assurance, Angus Mackintosh, an
ancestor of the Killachie family, commonly called
2
1 Moysie's Memoirs, 93.
2
Moysie, 93. The Earl of Athole's assurance, for himself and
Mackintosh, with their kin, friends, assisters, &c., is dated
4th Dec. 1592, and is preserved in vol. xlix. of the State Papers
relating to Scotland in the Public Record Office, London. It
extends to the Camerons and Macdonalds, but excepts such
persons as were actually with Huntly at the Earl of Moray's
murder; it also, by implication, excepts Huntly personally.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
251
Angus MacWilliam,' had on the 1st November in-
vaded Huntly's country by way of Strathdee and
Glenmuick, and had slain several of the principal
persons of the name of Gordon there, taking a large
prey.2 After this the clan "lifted" the rents of
the castle lands of Inverness belonging to Huntly
as constable of the castle, appropriated the earl's
rents in Badenoch, and repaid the Camerons for
their late raids by laying waste their lands in
Lochaber. In a letter to Lord Burleigh dated 4th
Dec. 1592 Bowes mentions the gathering of "seven
clans" by Mackintosh, and more slaughter by him
of Huntly's followers.³
On the 3rd January 1592-3 Huntly wrote to
the king complaining of these proceedings, and in-
veighing bitterly against Mackintosh, of whom he
expressed the opinion that "he hes merit bettir
to follou his fathir futstaps nor that yr Maiestie
suld put him ut of his forbears rank." He com-
plained that, in spite of the mutual assurance entered
into, the Mackintoshes had not ceased their proceed-
ings against him, and that while he had shown his
obedience to the king "with los and schaites and
1
Angus was really son of Donald mac William, William's
father being third son of the 10th chief.
2 State Papers (Scot.), xlix. 43. Letter of 11th Nov. 1592,
from Bowes to Lord Burleigh. The Kinrara MS. gives the
names of some of the slain,-Harry Gordon of Knock, Alex.
Gordon of Tolder, Thomas Gordon of Blarearish, and the old
baron of Breachly, with about 120 "of the baser sort."
3 State Papers (Scot.), xlix. 49.
1
{
252
THE MACKINTOSHES
scham," they had broken their word "in ten dayis
baith in murther and herchip," and had " contempt-
euslie misregardit" his majesty and his power, pro-
ceeding against his "maiesties puir pepill uith sik
ane extraordinar crualtie that the lyk hes not bein
hard this lang tyme in ane ciuil contrey." He
therefore asked for the discharge of the "alledgit
commission grantit aganis me and sindrie of my
naim;" and adds, "as for the commissioners yr
Matie and the Consell hes to judg gif thay be lauchfull
and uerray qualifiit, I mein the Erll of Atholl and
Makintoshe, quhomto yr Matie hes done that honour
that nevir wes don to nain of his forbears." 1
Apparently in answer to this letter the king, on
the 22nd August 1593, at Stirling, granted a dis-
pensation of the Act of Intercommuning made against
Huntly for the death of the Earl of Moray, "in
consideration of great incursions, fireraising, murders
of women and bairns, and heirship of gear and goods,
upon the said Earl of Huntly and others the king's
subjects by the Clan Chattan and the other broken
men their adherents." " Emboldened by the removal
under this dispensation of all apprehension from
Athole, Ochiltree, and the other avengers of Moray,
Huntly proceeded to take dire revenge on Mackintosh.
Immediately on obtaining the dispensation he entered
Petty with a large force, and after laying waste Mac-
kintosh's lands there and killing some two hundred
2
¹ Letter among Straloch Papers, Spald. Club Misc. i. 5.
2 State Papers (Scot.), li. 14.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
253
of the inhabitants, he departed with immense booty.'
On his return home, after disbanding the greater part
of his forces, he learned that the Clan Chattan in
considerable numbers under William, Mackintosh's
second son, had just before entered Strathbogie, and
harried the lands of Auchindoun and Cabrach, com-
mitting much slaughter. "M'Kuntosche vpone Stra-
boggie land slew a great number."2 He at once
started in pursuit with a body of horse, and soon
overtook William Mackintosh's party on their way
home laden with spoil. After a severe fight he
succeeded in completely routing them, wounding their
leader and killing about sixty men.
In connection with this engagement we have
mention of Angus, eldest son of the chief of Mac-
kintosh, the absence of whose name in the foregoing
account of the transactions of 1590-3 has no doubt
been remarked. "It is reputed by some," says Sir
¹ Kinrara MS.; State Papers (Scot.), li. 17,-Letter, Bowes to
Burleigh, 30 Aug. 1593. This letter mentions the staying of a
force about to be sent to Mackintosh by Argyle-the staying
thought by many to be by means of the Earl of Mar—and that
Mackintosh had no great relief at this time from Athole. The
writer adds, "it is told me for truth that Mackintosh, by his
letter delivered yesterday to my Argonautes [above this word is
written 'Bothwell,' apparently by Burleigh himself], hath
opened the causes constraining him to take the assurance with
Huntly, and offering frankly to adventure and [ expend] his
life against Huntly in case he may be [ ] in the enter-
prize." This part of the letter is somewhat vague, but probably
refers to one of Bothwell's treasonable attempts.
2 Moysie, 98.
•
254
THE MACKINTOSHES
Robert Gordon,' "that Angus Mackintoshie (the
heyre of that familie and this William his elder
brother) wes ther slaine, being then returned secretlie
from Italie. But the Clan Chattan affirme that he
died in his travells abroad." Another account-in
a MS. History of the Gordons 2-kills him a year
or two before this. Angus, the son of Lauchlan
Mackintosh, chiefe of the Clan Chattan, with a great
party attempts to surprize the castle of Ruthven in
Badenoch belonging to Huntly, in which there was
but a small garrison; but finding this attempt could
neither by force nor fraude have successe, he retires
a little to consult how to compass his intent. In the
meantime one creeps out and levels with his piece
at one of the Clan Chattan, cloathed in a yellow
warrcoat (which among them is the badge of the
chieftanes or heads of clans), and piercing his body
with a bullet strikes him to the ground, and retires.
with gladness into the castle. The man killed was
Angus himself, whom his people carry away, and
conceills his death for many yeirs, pretending he
was gone beyond seas."
¹ Earldom of Sutherland, 218.
2 By "W. R.", in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. The
anecdote is quoted in Skene's Highlanders of Scotland, i. 228.
From a letter (No. 15, vol. liii. State Papers) it appears that this
siege of Ruthven by the Clan Chattan did not take place till
February 1593-4. The letter, from Alex. Duff, a servant of
Huntly, to Bowes, says "there is twa hundreth men of the
Clanquhattane lying about the castle of Ruthven in Badenoch,"
the Macphersons being the defenders.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
255
!
Both these accounts are incorrect. Angus really
died in 1593 at Padua. The Kinrara MS.-which
""
describes him as of a "despotic and austere temper
-states that he went abroad in displeasure that his
father would not allow him to punish the Macphersons
for their desertion, and would not act according to his
counsel in the prosecution of the war with Huntly.
At the commencement of the feud he had been the
principal leader in the various expeditions, and in
1589, before the feud broke out, he had had the
command of a force of 600 men which his father,
at the request of Huntly, had sent to harry the Earl
Marischal's lands in the Mearns.
Shortly before the Clan Chattan raid into Strath-
bogie, Mackintosh had succeeded in compelling
Alister Macdonald of Keppoch to evacuate the castle
of Inverness, which that chieftain had been holding
for Huntly. Keppoch had got away privately "with
some of the specials of his friends to meet Huntly to
consult anent affairs." Judging that the passes by
land would be guarded, he went by sea; but his
movements were watched by a party under the two
sons of Angus mac William, who attacked his boats
and brought away several prisoners, the most import-
ant of whom was Rory mac Rory of Inch. Had
Keppoch been taken, he would no doubt have been
severely dealt with, as only four years before he had
given Mackintosh a band of manrent. Mac Rory,
affecting a desire to act against Huntly, joined
Mackintosh with those of his men who had been
256
THE MACKINTOSHES
captured with him, and was allowed to accompany
the force which immediately afterwards started to
harry Strathbogie. But the Kinrara MS.-which
gives the foregoing particulars-charges him with
being all the time in private correspondence with
Huntly, and with causing the defeat at the Cabrach
by running away at the beginning of the action.
On 28th Dec. 1593 R. Bowes informs Lord Burleigh
that "Mackintosh and Maclean have knit themselves
together in band, and thereon have spoiled all the
tenants and people of the Earl of Huntly in Lochaber,
in which place were kept all the cattle which Huntly
had before reft from Murray, Mackintosh, and other
of his adversaries. All which goods are now
[. . . . . .] or taken with many other cattle, horses,
mares, &c., and the whole number now taken is
esteemed to exceed 40000. Makoildowye (Cameron
of Locheil) and the rest of Huntly's dependers did
behold the matter and durst not encounter."¹
Having gained possession of the castle of Inver-
ness, Mackintosh, as one of the commissioners against
Huntly (he had probably not yet been made acquainted
¹ State Papers (Scot.), li. 78. Lord Burleigh, Queen Elizabeth's
famous minister, was at this time in constant communication
with Bowes and other agents concerning affairs in Scotland. In
reply to his request for information as to "the cause of the
quarrel betwixt Mackentoysh and Huntly, and in what part of
the Highlands Mackentoysh hath his dwellinge and power; and
whether he dependeth on the arle of Argyle or Atholl," Bowes,
on the 31st Aug. 1593, gives him an account, not altogether
correct, of the relations between Mackintosh and the Huntly
and Moray families, with particulars of Mackintosh's estates.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
257
with the dispensation of the 22nd August), on 10th
September obtained from the Provost and Council
of the town a band in which the grantors engage
to "keep the steeple¹ from Huntly for the king's
service," under pain of lying under the deadly feud
of Mackintosh, his kin and friends. The subscribers
are Alex. Paterson, baillie, Gilbert Paterson, baillie,
John Cuthbert of Old Castlehill, John Ross, Jasper
Dempster, William Cuthbert, William Cumming.
Mackintosh's hands were further strengthened by
his entering, on the 20th November at Inverary, into
a strict band of friendship with the Earl of Argyle,
and by Huntly's shortly afterwards falling under the
penalties of treason on account of a conspiracy into
which he and the Earls of Angus and Errol were
accused of entering with the King of Spain, for the
-restoration of the Roman Catholic religion in Scotland.
This conspiracy had in all probability no real existence,
but some colour was given to the charge so far as
Huntly was concerned by his forcible liberation of some
of his Roman Catholic friends from prison at Aberdeen.
The king, although satisfied of the falseness of the
charge and personally friendly to Huntly, was too
much in the power of the Protestant ministers to turn
a deaf ear to their vehement outcries that the country
and religion were in danger. He accordingly called a
parliament, in which, the ministers having all their
own way, sentence of forfeiture was pronounced
1 By the "house and fortalice called the steeple of Inverness"
is probably meant the Castle. The band is printed in Inver-
nessiana, 264.
S
258
THE MACKINTOSHES
against the earls on the 4th June 1594. Huntly and
his associates had no resource but to take up arms for
the defence of themselves and their property. They
therefore proceeded to levy their vassals and friends,
and to make preparations for resisting any attempt to
execute the sentence of the parliament. Huntly's
standard was joined by the Camerons and the Clan
Ranald of Lochaber, and by those of the Macphersons
whom his arts had detached from the rest of Clan
Chattan.
The ministers now procured from the king a commis-
sion, in the names of the Earls of Argyle and Athole
and the Lord Forbes,' to reduce the rebel earls; and
in September a force of some four or five thousand
men marched into Badenoch under Argyle, who,
though not yet twenty years of age, had been selected
by the king or the parliament for the responsible post
of commander-in-chief. In Badenoch this force was
augmented by the Clan Chattan and the Grants,
with other local clans at feud with the Gordons.
Finding Ruthven Castle held in Huntly's interest by
the Macphersons, Argyle besieged it, but was so
gallantly opposed by its defenders that he was com-
pelled to desist. He pursued his march towards
1 The Forbeses had for some time past been at deadly feud
with the Gordons. The Chronicle of Fortingall speaks in 1571
of "
great weirs in the north land betuix the Gordons and
Forbeses, and the Forbeses put till the warst." It was Huntly's
uncle, Adam Gordon, who was the perpetrator of the cruel act,
commemorated in a well-known ballad, of burning the house of
Towie belonging to Alexander Forbes.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
259
Strathbogie, which he intended should be given up to
fire and sword; but near Benrinnes, on the confines of
Glenlivet, he found his progress barred by Huntly
and Errol, at the head of a small but well appointed
force of about 1500 men. The folly of entrusting the
conduct of the expedition to so inexperienced a chief
as Argyle was now apparent. Confident in the nu-
merical superiority of his army, notwithstanding the
advantage possessed by the enemy in their cavalry, he
disdained the advice of his leaders that he should
wait for the arrival of Lord Forbes and other chiefs
who were on their way to join him, and resolved to
fight. He took up a position on the declivity of
Benrinnes, near the burn of Altchonlachan, and in
choosing this, as well as in deciding to act on the
defensive for a while, he seems to have shown some
judgment. But his position, in spite of its strength,
was soon forced by the rebels. First spreading a
panic among Argyle's followers by the fire of some
fieldpieces a novel experience to many of the
Highlanders-Huntly, at the head of his small body of
well-mounted cavalry, all gentlemen, charged up the
hill and fell upon Argyle's centre, which after a hard
struggle he forced to retire. The resistance offered
by the left, consisting of the Grants, Macneils, and
Macgregors, was but feeble, in consequence of the
treachery of Grant of Gartenbeg, who, in fulfilment
of a previous understanding with Huntly, withdrew
his men at the commencement of the action. The
small remnant fought well, but at great disadvantage,
8 2
260
THE MACKINTOSHES
and they were soon put to the rout with the loss
of the chief of the Macneils. The right, consisting
of the Macleans and the Cian Chattan, under their
respective chiefs, was more successful; and had
their example been followed by the whole of the
army, or had they been properly supported, Argyle
would probably have carried to the king news of a
victory instead of a defeat. They repulsed the rebel
attack on them with loss, and Maclean almost suc-
ceeded in cutting off Errol and his men. The Clan
Chattan were opposed to their old enemies the
Camerons, and are said to have come off only second
best in the encounter.¹ Their division, under Mac-
lean's brave and skilful direction, performed the
principal part in the battle, and was the last to
leave the field, retiring in good order with the proud
consciousness of having done all in their power to
merit and secure victory.
There can be little doubt that, despite Huntly's
advantage in cavalry and Argyle's want of experience,
the issue of the day would have been different but
for the treachery of Grant of Gartenbeg and Campbell
of Lochnell, both of whom had arranged with Huntly
to desert their side in the battle. Lochnell, it will
be remembered, had been engaged four years pre-
viously in the plot with Huntly to procure the death
of the Earls of Moray and Argyle, and it would
appear that his intentions and machinations on that
occasion were as yet unknown to the chief of his
¹ Introd. to Memoirs of Locheil, 13.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
261
.
house. In addition to promising his aid to Huntly,
he had desired that noble to direct the fire of his
fieldpieces against the yellow standard of Argyle.
His suggestion was adopted, but by a curious fatality
he himself fell at the first discharge, while his in-
tended victim escaped unhurt.
After vainly endeavouring to rally his army,
Argyle appointed Mackintosh to watch Huntly and
Errol with 600 chosen men, at the same time
directing Lovat, Mackenzie, Balnagowan, and the
Rossmen to join with Mackintosh in stopping the
passage of the earls in the event of their fleeing
northward.' He then hastened to Dundee to carry
the tidings of his defeat to the king, who it is said
was rather pleased than otherwise with them. But
not so the ministers and leaders of the Presbyterians;
they were exasperated almost to madness at the
failure of their plans, and breathed out threatenings
and slaughters against the successful earls and all
who supported them. The sapient monarch was of
course careful to conceal from them his satisfaction
at the downfall of their expectations, and was un-
willingly compelled to carry his dissimulation so far
as to proceed in person to the north for the purpose
of reducing the rebels. His progress was attended
by all the marks of an invading army in a conquered
country; the houses of the insurgent earls and their
friends, being regarded with loathing by his attendant
1 State Papers (Scot.), liv. 64; Letter, 12th Oct. 1594,-R.
Bowes to Sir R. Cecil.
262
THE MACKINTOSHES
བཙུ
ministers as dens of Popery and harbourages for
Jesuits, were demolished-in particular the castle
of Slaines, belonging to Errol, and Huntly's castle
of Strathbogie, said to have been the finest house
in Scotland; while the various forfeited estates were
divided among the followers of the king. The earls
making no appearance, James returned south, leaving
the Duke of Lennox, Huntly's brother-in-law, as
Lieutenant and Justice-General to complete the task
of quieting the country. From this noble Mac-
kintosh received an ample commission as Justice
Depute, dated 1st January 1594-5, and "found
special caution either to deliver the broken men
within his bounds or else to punish them himself,
and failing thereof to be answerable for all the evil
they shall do."1
After
The sequel of these events is soon told.
the king's return to the capital, Huntly and Errol,
who had taken refuge in Sutherland, had a meeting
with Lennox at Aberdeen, and agreed to leave the
country during the king's pleasure-in other words,
until the earliest moment at which he should consider
it safe to recall them. Huntly spent his banishment
in making a tour in France and Germany. In little
more than a year he was recalled, and was restored
to his title and estates, as were also Errol and Angus,
1
¹ State Papers (Scot.), lv.7,-" Journal of Proceedings of Duke
of Lennox," Kinrara MS. From Lennox's Journal it appears
that Mackintosh had again, by his direction, besieged Ruthven
Castle, which had capitulated.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
263
་
in the Parliament of November 1597. Two years
later the king, by way perhaps of making him some
reparation for the losses and inconvenience to which
he had been subjected, bestowed on him the title
of Marquis, creating him also Baron of Badenoch,
Lochaber, Strathaven, Auchindoun, Balmore, Gartlie,
and Kincardine, Viscount Inverness, and Earl of
Enzie.
1
The last scene of the "strange eventful history"
of the alleged Popish plot took place at Aberdeen
on the 26th June 1597, when Huntly and Errol
went through the farce of being released from the
pains of excommunication under which they had
been laid by the Kirk. Both nobles, in the presence
of "sic a confluence of noblemen, barons, gentlemen,
and common people, as that the like was never seen
in that kirk [the Old Kirk at Aberdeen] made ane
open confession of their defection and apostacy,
affirms the religion presently confessed to be the
only true religion, renounces all papistry, and of
new swears never to decline again, but to defend the
samen to their life's end." Huntly further confessed
"his offence to God, the King, the Kirk and the
country, for the slaughter of the Earl of Moray.""
1
¹ The Marquis of Huntly is premier Marquis of Scotland. On
the death without issue of George 5th Duke of Gordon and 8th
Marquis of Huntly, the Marquisate passed to his distant kins-
man George 5th Earl of Aboyne, whose grandson is the present
(11th) Marquis of Huntly.
2 Letter of Thomas Mollison, Aberdeen, 28th June 1597, in
Spald. Club Misc. ii. Preface, p. 60. The whole city of Aberdeen
;
264
THE MACKINTOSHES
At the same time he was reconciled to his long-stand-
ing enemies, Lord Forbes and Irvine of Drum, and on
the 26th of the following month, at Elgin, to the
chief of Mackintosh.¹
gave itself up to rejoicings on this occasion, and honoured the
earls and the ministers who had assisted in receiving them into
the Church by making them burgesses of the town. Mollison, an
eyewitness of the proceedings, quaintly adds, "at even, nathing
bot wauchting" (drinking). The people of the good town seem
to have been so overjoyed at the conformity of their powerful
and dangerous neighbour Huntly that they never thought of the
possibility of his acting the hypocrite; nor does this seem to
have occurred to the blind, bigoted clergy. But both the earls
were as much Roman Catholics at the close of the performance
as at its commencement.
1
¹ A remission is given by Huntly a few years later to another
prominent member of the clan in the late struggles. On 18th
Sept. 1600 Angus mac William Mackintosh and his sons give a
band to Huntly, who "remits and discharges them of all ran-
coure, malice, envye, or uther quhatsumevir doine aganis us be
the said Angus, &c., and speciallie of all quhatsumevir deid doine
be him or onny of his in the leit trubill betuix us and Lachlan
Makintoiss of Dunnachtane, his cheiff."-(Gordon Papers;
Spald. Club Misc. iv. 253.)
CHAPTER VIII.
Band by the Farquharsons and others-Lachlan's undertaking
to provide for ministers on his estates-His character-Act
for production of Titles-More troubles with the Campbells
of Calder-Lachlan's Death-His Bands and Alliances-
His Family-Lachlan, 17th chief-King James's interest in
him-Band of Union among Clan Chattan, 1609-Troubles
with the Gordons and the Earl of Moray-Proceedings
against the Camerons and the Macdonalds of Keppoch-
"Raid of Culloden "-Lachlan's Death and Family.
AFTER the battle of Glenlivet the history of the
family and clan of Mackintosh contains few events
worthy of special notice during the remainder of
Lachlan's chiefship; but though few, these are of
considerable interest. One was the granting of a
heritable band of manrent to the chief in March
1595, at Invercauld-by the distant colonies of the
clan in Aberdeenshire and Perthshire. In this band
James Mackintosh of Gask (the only one of the
parties belonging to what may be termed the
"home" country of Clan Chattan), Donald Farquhar-
son of Tulligermont, John Farquharson of Inver-
cauld, George, Lauchlan, and Finlay Farquharson,
brothers to the said Donald,¹ Duncan Mackintosh
¹ These four were sons, and John of Invercauld a grandson, of
the renowned Finla Mor.
S *
.
266
THE MACKINTOSHES
of Dalmunzie, and Robert M'Homie in the burn
of Glenshee, promise to maintain, fortify, and defend
Lachlan and his heirs "as our naturall cheiff."
more
Another matter is interesting as evidencing Lachlan's
attachment to the Reformed religion, and his anxiety
to promote the spiritual welfare of his clansmen and
tenants. Seldom has such anxiety had a
laudable object. After the establishment of the
Reformation, attended as it was for many years
by constant violence and disorder, the religious con-
dition of the Highlands appears to have sunk very
low. Shaw, in his History of Moray (pp. 304-7),
draws a mournful picture of the spiritual desolation
which prevailed after the downfall of Popery, grieving
for the lack of ministers to remove the ignorance and
superstition which the old religion had left behind.
Mackintosh seems to have done all in his power to
supply this want among his own people. The scarcity
of ministers was owing in some measure to the want
of schools, but the principal cause was the want of
adequate livings. "Those who had any education,"
says Shaw, "would not dedicate themselves to the
ministry when the livings were so poor as not to
afford bread." In 1596, the Kinrara MS. tells us,
"the Captain of Clan Chattan subscribed obligations
for the payment of stipends to religious instructors
in the different parishes on his estate." This no
doubt refers to an occurrence which is placed by
James Melvill in the summer of the following year.
A deputation of ministers, in the course of a visitation
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
267
of Aberdeen, Moray, and Ross, were met at In-
verness by Mackintosh, who, exhibiting and sign-
ing a plan for planting his country with religious
teachers, made them the following speech,-" Now
it may be thought I am liberall because na minister
will venture to come amangs us, therfor get me
men and sey (try) me, and I will find sufficient
cautioun for saifftie of ther persones, obedience to
ther doctrine and discipline, and guid payment of
ther stipend and interteinment, in St. Johnstoun,
Dondie, or Aberdein." Such was his earnestness
and zeal in the cause that Melvill tells us "Makin
Toshie warred [i.e. excelled] all the rest" of the
gentlemen of the north.¹
A late writer,2 noticing this act and speech, repre-
sents the deputation as being surprised at the zeal
and cordiality shown by the chief to their object,
and would apparently convey the impression that
these were not altogether sincere.
He also quotes
the description of Lachlan in the Historie of King
James the Sext-"a man unconstant, false, and
doubleminded by the report of, all men." This view
seems scarcely a just one. In the first place Lach-
lan's offer, if correctly reported, is far too frank and
decided in its terms to have been made by one
who either had no wish that it should be accepted or
had no intention of fulfilling it if it were accepted.
And in the second place, there was not the slightest
1
¹ Autobiography and Diary of Rev. J. Melvill, 434.
2 Chambers' Domestic Annals of Scotland, i. 289.
268
THE MACKINTOSHES
""
necessity or inducement-other than that of bene-
fiting his people-for him to go out of his way to
make the proposal, which he must have known would
be eagerly seized. Again, Lachlan was warmly
attached to the Protestant religion-or at any rate
to the Protestant party; and he had certainly great
cause personally for choosing that in preference to
the opposite party. With regard to the character
which the Historian of "King James the Sext
gives of him, it is well to remember that by this
and other similar chroniclers of the period a good
or bad trait of the most trivial nature is generally
either hugely exaggerated or reduced to its smallest
proportions, according as the person exhibiting it
is either with or against the writer in religion or
politics. There was no man who played a part of
any prominence in the Reformation in Scotland of
whom it could be said that he had never either
swerved from the path of rectitude or wavered in
his consistency. We do not know to what extent
Lachlan may have diverged from the path of honour
and rectitude in his private dealings; but throughout
his career, as it is recorded in the annals of the
family and here and there in the annals of the king-
dom, we find no trace of inconstancy to his party.
Certainly it may be charged against him that he
had warmly engaged in his youth on the side of
Queen Mary; but even here the appearance of
1
1
It may be mentioned that, although he fought for the Queen
in 1568, he sat in Morton's Parliament of 1572-3.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
269
inconsistency at once vanishes when we recollect his
position as a Highland chief, and the strange nature
of the struggle in which he had then taken part. With
his superior lord he had been a Queensman during
the queen's life—so had Maitland of Lethington and
Kirkcaldy of Grange, both Presbyterians, and the
latter one of the best and most honest men of his
time; but his adherence to the king's party, really
the Presbyterian party, after the queen's death,
cannot be said to involve either change of political
sentiments or departure from religious convictions.
We have seen in what trouble and loss he was in-
volved by his steadfast opposition, in common with
Moray and other Protestants, to the Roman Catholic
Earl of Huntly, and whether the governing principle
in the latter part of his life was one of loyalty to
king and religion, or only of feudal animosity against
Huntly, its results as shown by his actions exhibit
no trace of falseness to the side he espoused.
On 19th Dec. 1597 the Parliament at Edinburgh
passed an Act of great importance to the chiefs
and proprietors of the north, and of some concern
for Mackintosh specially. This Act required all
landlords, chieftains, leaders of clans, heritors, and
all persons possessing or claiming to possess property
in the Highlands and Isles, to produce the infeftment
and rights of such property before the Lords of
Exchequer on the 15th May following, and to find
security for the regular payment of their rents to
270
THE MACKINTOSHES
the Crown and for the orderly behaviour of them-
selves and their vassals and dependents, under pain
of forfeiting their lands.¹ The reason which the
Act sets forth for this requisition is that many of
the inhabitants had neglected to pay the rents and
to perform the services due to the Crown, and had
also by their "barbarous inhumanity" made the
Highlands and Isles altogether unprofitable. The
king himself appears to have been the originator,
not however with the laudable and kingly object of
ameliorating the condition of the part of his domi-
nions concerned, but with the view of recruiting
his exhausted finances by the lands which he well
knew would thus fall into his grasp. The grounds
of the proceeding, as stated, were no doubt true;
we can well imagine that considerable laxity pre-
vailed in regard to the payment of the Crown dues,
and we know that the Highlanders and Islesmen were
too much occupied with their feuds and intrigues
to turn to account what fertility and natural re-
sources their country possessed, and too exclusive to
permit strangers to do so. But the Act was in all
probability mainly prompted by the knowledge that
a great part of the old Earldom of Ross, which had
been annexed to the Crown more than a century
previously, was occupied without legal title.
The Act was rigorously carried into effect, but in
the absence of any record of the proceedings, the
number and names of those who failed to appear
¹ Scots Acts, iv. 138, &c.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
271
""
at the appointed time before the Court of Exchequer
are not known. We do know, however, that the
Macleods of Harris and Lewis lost the greater part
of their property, which was assigned by the king
to the unlucky" company of Fife Adventurers
that Macdonald of Sleat and Cameron of Locheil
were among the sufferers; and that Mackintosh,
failing to produce his titles to the Lochaber lands,
also came under the penalties of the Act, so far as
those lands were concerned. During the recent
unsettled state of the country, the MS. relates, he
had placed these titles in the hands of friends for
safety, and was unable to recover them in time to
make use of them. But the lands were not lost to
his family, for Sir Alexander Hay, Clerk Register, so
arranged matters as to obtain for himself the gift of
the forfeiture, and in 1614 renounced his right in
favour of Lachlan's successor. No reason is assigned
for this generous behaviour on the part of the Clerk
Register, but as he and Mackintosh were of about the
same age, it is possible that they had been early
friends when the latter was residing in Edinburgh.
Sir Alexander was one of the curators or guardians
to Lachlan's grandson during his minority.
Shortly before Lachlan's death the ill-feeling of his
family and friends towards the Campbells broke out
afresh, and caused him some trouble. Although he
himself had been reconciled to Calder after their
disagreements in 1575 and the succeeding years, his
272
THE MACKINTOSHES
clan seem to have kept up the animosity, and—
especially after the marriage of his eldest son's
widow to Donald Campbell, Calder's son-to have
looked upon the Campbells with distrust. In June
1599 we find the son of Malcolm Mackintosh in
Urlust (Lachlan's third son) entering some of Calder's
lands with a body of thirty "brokin hielandmen all
bodin with arrowes, swords, and haberschonis," and
there reiving and oppressing Calder's tenants and
violently cutting down three score young growing
trees of the wood of Easter Banchrie called Torgarve
and carrying the same away. By this act the chief,
with Sir R. Innes and Hector Munro of Foulis, who
in May 1595 had become cautioners for the peaceable
behaviour of Lachlan and his clan, incurred a
penalty of 10,000 merks.¹
In the same year a more flagrant breach of the
peace was committed against the Campbells, this
time involving bloodshed. The circumstances are
detailed in the summons against the offenders
granted at the instance of Colin Campbell of Clunes,
a younger son of Calder. William Mackintosh of
Essich (the chief's second son), Martin mac Evir vic
Evir (Macgillivray) in Aberchallader, Lachlan mac
Thomas vic Lachlan in Benchar, and about twenty
others, are named as ringleaders, and it is charged
against them that on the 1st Sept. 1599 they, "with
convocatioun of ane great number of Clan Chattane
and brokin heillandmen thereabuit, to the number of
1 Thanes of Cawdor, 218.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
273
tua hundreth, all boidin in feir of weir with bowis,
dorloches, tua-handit suordis, durkes, hagbuttis, dagis,
pistollatis, and other forbiddin waponis, haveing con-
ceavit ane deadlie feud agaynis the complener his kin
and frendis, did com airlie in the morning about sex
houris to the lands of Dunnauchtane and to ane
barne quhair the said complener wes with certayne
of his frendis, lying in ther beddis for the tyme
lippening for na harme, and beseidgit the said com-
plener within the said barne for fyve houris, togidder
with divers schottes of hagbuttis and pistollatis in at
tham togidder with ther arrowis, and compellit the
said complener and his cumpanie to render thamselfis
with thair wapponis in ther mercieles handis." The
summons goes on to relate how, although the captors
promised to do no harm to their prisoners further
than depriving them of their weapons, they never-
theless cruelly "durkit and slew" all the complainer's
company, including a servant of Mr. Donald Camp-
bell of Barbreck; and that after taking from the
complainer himself "his suord, quhinger, pleat slewis,
with his purs and ane hundreth pundis of gold
therein, ane stand of clathis worth 40 pundis, his
hors with saddill and brydill and remanent furnitor
worth 100 pundis," they kept him captive for fifteen
days, carrying him about the country to Killachie,
Borlum, and various other houses, "everie hour
threattining him with present death unto the tyme
for feir of his lyfe he was compellit to subscrive to
thame sic unreasonabill bandis and conditiones as
T
1
274
THE MACKINTOSHES
Ł.
they presentit to him, tending to his great hurt." 1
On 7th December royal letters are issued denouncing
the persons named as rebels in default of their find-
ing surety to appear and answer for the murders of
Campbell's company.
The Kinrara MS. gives particulars of an attack
on the Campbells by the Mackintoshes, which, from
its situation in the history-no date being given-
apparently refers to about the year 1603. Donald
Campbell, Calder's son, had married Lady Jean
Campbell, the widow of Mackintosh's eldest son
Angus, and "it fell out that there was some little
debate and controversy between Mackintosh and
Mr. Donald concerning Dame Jean's conjunct fee
and liferent lands. In time of this debate Mr.
Donald and his brother Colin Campbell and other
gentlemen of that name, accompanied with a number
of their followers, come to Dunachton in Badenoch
(whilk was the land controverted) and resolve to
take free quarters of the tenants till they should
pay the rent of the land alleged resting for preceding
years. This act of oppression being come to the
hearing of William and Duncan Mackintosh, who
then chanced to be at Benchar, they forthwith came
to Dunachton with a resolution to apprehend Calder's
sons and their followers as open sorners and oppres-
¹ Thanes of Cawdor, 218. The occurrence is referred to in a
letter of 17th Sept. from George Nicolson to Sir Robert Cecil
as being likely, on Argyle's return, to quicken the troubles
between that noble and Huntly, "this being done, as is thought,
to assure Huntly of him."-State Papers (Scot.) lxv. 43.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
275
sors; but they met with opposition, for Mr. Donald
being a resolute gentleman, he and his party made
all the resistance they could, but in the end, after
the killing some gentlemen and others who accom-
panied the Campbells, Calder's sons were forced to
surrender themselves, and so were brought prisoners
to Culloden, where the laird of Mackintosh chanced
for to be at the time, who took the fact so grievously
and passionately that his sons durst not come
in his presence for a long time thereafter. This
unhappy accident vexed Mackintosh very much
before he could get the matter settled, for as the
thing was odious in itself, so it gave occasion to
Mackintosh to have to do with a great party, con-
sidering that Argyle, who owned his kinsmen and
near consins, Calder's sons, was Chancellor of Scot-
land; but in end the business was composed by
warding William Mackintosh forsaid for some few
months and giving an assythment for the blood."
This account and that given in Colin Campbell's
summons in 1599 differ so widely in detail that it is
a question whether they do not relate to distinct
occurrences. It is, however, not unlikely that the
MS.-which gives no date-refers to the events of
1599. The writer obtained his information many
years after that date, and his informant may have
misstated some of the circumstances, such as the
presence of Donald Campbell; while on the other
hand, in procuring the summons in 1599 Colin
Campbell may have omitted for some
reason to
T 2
276
THE MACKINTOSHES
+
mention his being taken to Culloden; and he would
of course say as little as possible of the purpose with
which he and his party had occupied Dunachton.
If the account in the MS. really refers to 1599, we
find in the statement that William and Duncan durst
not enter their father's presence for some time a
reason for Duncan's being found in the Lewis
in 1600.¹
The eventful chiefship of Lachlan Mor terminated
in October 1606.2 Extending over nearly half a
century, it had witnessed many great events and
changes in the country,—the dethronement of Queen
Mary; the persevering endeavours made by her
brother to blast her name and fame; the sad results
of his endeavours in her imprisonment and murder by
her sister queen; the triumph of the Reformation ;
and, not the least in importance, the union of the
two kingdoms of England and Scotland under one
sovereign. Perhaps during no similar period of her
history does Scotland present a more lamentable
picture; and not the least sad portion of the picture,
regarding it in some of its aspects, is that occupied
by the Reformation, which indeed casts a shade,
deeper or fainter, over the whole. Great and glorious
as were its social and political results, the establish-
ment of the Reformed faith in Scotland was attended
¹ See p. 281, note.
2 He was the first of the Mackintosh chiefs buried at Petty,
which became the burying place of the family.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
277
with such self-seeking hypocrisy, such blatant and
intolerant bigotry, such unnatural hatred and blood-
shed, that one cannot but grieve that a structure so
noble should have been so ignobly founded. It exempli-
fied some of the worst features of religious persecution;
and much of the severity afterwards used against the
Covenanters may fairly be ascribed to the revengeful
memory entertained by their persecutors of the bitter
cup dealt by the Presbyterians in their day of power
to all who differed from them. At no time, even
under the old religion, was priestcraft higher in the
ascendant; the expounders of the newly established
doctrines not only called in the terrors of excommunica-
tion to enforce their tenets, but used their influence
over king and parliament for the purpose of employing
the secular weapons of fire and sword to bring in
proselytes. They even went so far as to adopt the
old position of the Church of Rome in claiming total
independence of the civil power. At the same time,
there is much to admire in the fathers of the Presby-
terian Church,—in their valorous stand for what they
felt to be right, and in the dogged persistence with
which they went through with all they took in hand.
Perhaps, too, the rudeness of the age and the natural
reaction of feeling consequent on the change of religion
may afford some excuse for the otherwise unjustifi-
able means they adopted for making their own beliefs
and disbeliefs those of the whole nation. Vast changes
such as that in which they took part are seldom
effected without violence; extremes are generally

278
THE MACKINTOSHES
4
supplanted by extremes; and, as though by a
fixed law, the new generally act in the same direc-
tion or manner as the old, both aspiring to a sole
and undivided sway.
The bands and indentures entered into by Lachlan
during his chiefship are numerous and interesting.
One of the earliest is a notable one. Taking ad-
vantage of dissensions among the Camerons, he
invaded their country in 1569, and compelled Donald
mac Ewen of Erracht and Ian Dubh of Kinlocheil,
tutors during the minority of Allan Cameron, to
accept a limited tack of Glenlui and Locharkaig
for the yearly payment of 80 merks and their
service and manrent. This arrangement was dis-
tasteful to the rest of the Camerons, and the tutors
were forced to repudiate it. Fully expecting that
this conduct would involve them in a fresh feud
with Mackintosh, they resolved to take the initiative
by invading his country; and to strengthen them-
selves as much as possible they sought to heal the
differences in their clan. But at a meeting held
for this purpose one of them was treacherously killed,
and the other had to save his life by flight.' The
projected attack on the Clan Chattan seems to have
been relinquished, and Mackintosh soon became too
much occupied with other feuds to take measures
for enforcing the arrangement he had made.
The bands and indentures between Lachlan and
1 Kinrara MS.; Introd. to Memoirs of Locheil, 37.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
279
the 5th Earl of Huntly have been already noticed.
There is also one given by him to the 6th Earl
on 13th Nov. 1589, in confirmation of that given
in 1568 to the earl's father. He entered into bands
of amity with the Earl of Athole (27 Jan. 1579
and 30 June 1597), the Earl of Argyle (20 Nov.
1593), the chief of Grant (12 Nov. 1590), Macleod
of Dunvegan (15 Jan. 1588), and Sir Alexander
Menzies of that Ilk (8 Dec. 1604). In 1587 (30
May) he entered into an alliance offensive and
defensive with Angus mac James of Kintyre (Mac-
donald of the Isles) and Donald Gorm Mor of Sleat;
and in 1597 (19 Nov.) he and Kenneth Mackenzie
of Kintail gave a mutual and heritable band of
friendship.
Lachlan's family was a large one, and some of
its members were the founders of families afterwards
of importance in the clan. By his wife Agnes,
daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie of Kintail, he had
seven sons and five daughters :-
1. Angus, who in 1582, when only sixteen
years old, m. Lady Jean Campbell,¹
daughter of Archibald, Earl of Argyle.
He died at Padua in Italy, Nov. 1593,
¹ After her husband's death Lady Jean married her kinsman
Donald Campbell, a son of the laird of Calder whose scurvy trick
on Mackintosh in 1575 has been related. Her jointure with
Angus was the castle and lands of Dunachton, and here she and
her second husband resided until her death. The disputes which
arose out of this marriage have been noticed in the text. Donald
Campbell had in the end to leave Dunachton, and "turning his
280
THE MACKINTOSHES
T
in his 26th year, leaving one son Lachlan,
who succeeded his grandfather as chief,
and a daughter m. to Ross of Balna-
gowan.
2. William, who m. Beatrix, daughter of
Innes of Invermarkie, and was founder
of the BORLUM branch. He acted as
tutor during his nephew's minority.
3. Malcolm, who m. (1) Janet, dau. of
Glengarry, by whom he had John; and
(2) Christian, dau. of John Munro of
Fearn. He acquired a feu of the lands
of Brin, and died in 1634.
4. John of Dalziel, who m. Christian Mackay,
a sister of Donald 1st Lord Reay and
grand-daughter of George 4th Earl of
Caithness. He died in 1645. He was
"a man of courtly breeding, having
lived in his youth in France, and of
a religious disposition," says the Kinrara
MS.
5. Duncan, who m. (1) Beatrix, dau. of
Angus Mackintosh of Termit, by whom
he had one son William, father of
Lachlan; (2) a a dau. of Dunbar of
Grangehill, by whom he had six sons.
back on the north married secondly an illegitimate daughter of
the Earl of Argyle, and by the latter's influence became Dean of
Lismore, and afterwards a Baronet with the title of Ardnamur-
chan."-Antiquarian Notes, 129.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
281
He died in 1651.¹ He founded the
ABERARDER family, having obtained from
his father possession of the lands, the
heritable right of which was purchased
by his grandson Lachlan from Campbell
of Calder.
6. Alan, who m. (1) Elizabeth, dau. of
David Rose of Holm, by whom he had
Lachlan and Alexander; (2) Lilias, dau.
of Patrick Falconer of Newtown (brother
to the laird of Halkerton), by whom he
had Angus; and (3) Euphemia, dau.
1 The notice of his burial in the MS. is interesting as making
reference to the northern expedition of Oliver Cromwell. Owing
to the presence of the English troops in the neighbourhood of
Petty, it was found impossible to take his remains to the family
burying place there, and they were interred at Dunlichity.
Under date 14th Sept. 1651 the Record of the Petty Kirk
Session contains the entry,-"No session, for many elders were
absent through the report of the approach of the English army."
There is a curious notice concerning Duncan in the Privy
Council Records. In 1600 "Thomas Inglis and Robert Sinckler,"
owners of the ship Jonas of Leith, complain to the Council that
"in the month of April last their ship being lying at the fishing
in the loch called Loch Sheil in the Lewis was taken possession
of and taken away by Hucheoun M'Gillespick and Duncan
Both
M'Intosh, son to Lachlan M'Intosh of Dunnachton."
offenders were in consequence ordered to be denounced as rebels
and put to the horn. Their exploit was evidently one of the
numerous attempts made by the Macleods and their friends to
impede and damage the unlucky Company of Fife Adventurers.
The presence of Duncan in the Lewis at the time may perhaps
be accounted for by the circumstances mentioned on pp. [275-6]
ante.
282
THE MACKINTOSHES
of Campbell of Calder. He died in
1646.
7. Lachlan, who m. Jean, dau. of Andrew
Macpherson of Grange and Cluny, by
whom he had Angus (died s.p.) and
William. He was the founder of the
CORRIBROUGH family.
The five daughters were,-Janet, m. to William
Macleod of Macleod; Katherine, m. to Macdonald
of Glengarry; Margaret, m. to Glengarry younger ;
Marjory, m. to Munro of Foulis; and Isabel, m.
to Robert Campbell of Glenfalloch, who in 1640
succeeded his brother Sir Colin in the baronetcy
and estates of Glenurchy. Isabel Mackintosh was
the mother of five sons and nine daughters, ac-
cording to Douglas.1 Her eldest son was Sir John
Campbell of Glenurchy, father of the 1st Earl of
Breadalbane. One of her daughters, Margaret, m.
John Cameron younger of Locheil, and was mother
of the renowned Sir Ewen Cameron.
(17) LACHLAN, the new chief, was only thirteen
years of age at his grandfather's death. His two
predecessors had had the advantage of able and
trustworthy deputies until their own hands had
become sufficiently strong to hold the reins of
1
¹ Peerage of Scotland, Art. "Breadalbane." Sir Robert makes
Isabel the daughter of Sir Lauchlan Mackintosh of Torcastle,
but a comparison of dates will show that this must be wrong,
and moreover the testimony of the Kinrara MS. is against it.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
283
authority, and in this respect young Lachlan was
not less fortunate. His uncle, William of Raits
and Benchar, performed the duties of tutor with
ability and prudence, and with strict regard to the
interests of both chief and clan. But if the in-
formation which led to the characteristic demand
of the pedantic "British Solomon" in the letter
following was correct, William's care for the interests
of his ward does not seem to have gone so far
as to provide for the storing of his mind with
that knowledge of the liberal arts which "emollit
mores nec sinit esse feros." Himself a man of the
sword and not of books, the education which he
gave his nephew was probably one fitted only to
make him a man after his own fashion, and a
Highland chief. King James's idea of a gentleman's
education was very different; and accordingly he
sent William the following letter, in which we have
the first mention of the young chief after his accession
to the dignity
"Trusty and well beloved, We greet you well. Understanding
that the Laird of Mackintosh is presently in your hands, no way
brought up in virtue and civility for enable of him to our service,
and he being now of these years that with the new vessel he will
retain the taste of that which he now drinks in, We are therefore
to desire you (being one of his curators there) to take some
present course that of his rents there may be allowed ane certain
reasonable proportion for his entertainment at one of the
Universities here, where he shall be well placed by the care of
Sir Alexander Hay [another of his curators] unto whom we
would wish you should send him with the first good occasion,
wherein as you shall discharge a most dutiful part to the boy
284
THE MACKINTOSHES
whom hope of your care has made special choice of you for one
of his curators, so shall you thereby do us acceptable pleasure
and service. We bid you farewell. From our Court at Thetford
the 6th December 1608.
(Sd.) JAMES R.”
We are reminded by this letter, together with
Lachlan's subsequent court career, of Scott's de-
scription of King James's interest in regard to the
acquirements of Nigel, Lord Glenvarloch.¹ But the
young Mackintosh was not a creditor of his Majesty,
like the Lord Glenvarloch, and therefore James does
not advise him to "turn his neb northwards and
settle at St. Andrews," but sends for him to one
of the English Universities, in spite of the fashion
of pronouncing Latin there which was so abhorrent
to the royal ear. There is nothing to show how
far the young chief profited by his university course,
or indeed whether he was at a university at all.
But as, after a short time in England, he was sent
for to court and made a Gentleman of the Bed-
chamber to "Baby Charles," we may perhaps assume
that he acquired sufficient store of knowledge to
pass muster with the pedantic monarch.
While he was in England his affairs in the north
were progressing favourably. On obtaining the
management of these affairs, the tutor had directed
his attention to the dissensions among the various
clans composing the confederacy; and "to take away
and compose" these, the Kinrara MS. says, he
used all fair and lawful means. The healing of
""
1 Fortunes of Nigel, chap. v.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
285
the breach made by the machinations of Huntly,
some years previously, between the Mackintoshes
and the Macphersons of Cluny, was his principal
aim. He had the sagacity to estimate the professions
and character of Huntly at their real worth, and
to foresee that the hatchet could not for ever remain
buried between his own clan and their proud en-
croaching neighbours the Gordons-that it might,
in fact, be dug up at any moment; and the experi-
ence of the late struggle showed him that the Clan
Chattan were at a disadvantage when their brothers
of Clan Mhuirich were arrayed on the side of their
enemies. He therefore sought to reunite this im-
portant branch to the rest of the clan, and circum-
stances enabled him to effect this desirable object
without much difficulty. So long as Huntly had
been at feud with Mackintosh, he had found the
assistance of the Macphersons most useful, and it
had been his interest, both as strengthening his
own power and weakening that of his adversary, to
attach them to himself. He had therefore assiduously
flattered their clan prejudices, and encouraged and
supported Cluny's desire to be independent of Mac-
kintosh. But once reconciled to Mackintosh, he was
short-sighted enough to fancy that the Macphersons
were unlikely to be of further use to him, or even
that their claim on his gratitude might become
troublesome. Accordingly he scrupled not to throw
them over altogether; his former professions were
forgotten, and his warm patronage turned into cold
286
THE MACKINTOSHES
neglect. Actuated possibly by resentment of this
treatment, and seeing that of the three great branches
of Clan Mhuirich his was the only one which had
stood out against Mackintosh, Andrew Macpherson
of Cluny lent a ready ear to the tutor, and was
easily induced by him to cast in his lot once more
with the rest of Clan Chattan.
The method adopted by William for putting an end
to the differences in the clan was the usual one of
procuring the concurrence of all parties in a Band of
Union and Manrent—a solemn quasi-legal instru-
ment in which those subscribing bound themselves,
often under severe penalties, to live in friendship and
stand by each other on all necessary occasions, and
at the same time to maintain and obey him in whose
favour they gave the band.
In the early days of April 1609, a great gathering
of the whole Clan Chattan-except the distant off-
shoots in Aberdeenshire and Perthshire-was held at
Termit in Petty, one of the holdings of Angus mac
William. Cluny, attended by Invereshie, Pitmean,
and other principals of Clan Mhuirich, came from
distant Badenoch-Strathdearn sent Macqueens, Mac-
beans, and Mackintoshes-the children of Gillebreac
marched from the wild skirts of Stratherrick-to
meet their brother clansmen of Strathnairn, Petty,
and Inverness, for the purpose of peaceably ending all
their quarrels, and of swearing a firm friendship
and union for the future under Mackintosh as
their "Captain and Chief." In addition to the
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
287
"followings" of the various chieftains, we may assume
that so important a meeting would be attended by
hundreds of persons from the country round, especi-
ally from the town of Inverness, where the weal or
woe of at least one section of Clan Chattan was a
matter of no small interest. Among the witnesses
to the band were the Provost of the burgh-John
Cuthbert of Old Castlehill,—the Common Clerk, and
one of the burgesses. Another witness was the
minister of Petty. The band, drawn up and
written by the Common Clerk of Inverness, was as
follows:-
At Termett, the 4th day of April, the year of God 1609, it is
appointed, bonded, contracted, concorded, finally ended, and
agreed betwixt the honourable persons and parties as follows—
viz :
William Mackintosh of Benchar, as principal Captain of the
haill kin of Clan Chattan, as having the full place thereof for
the present during the minority of Lachlan Mackintosh of
Dunnachton, his brother's son, for himself and taking the full
burden in and upon him of Malcolm Mackintosh of Urlust and
remanent his brethren, with their own consent under subscribing
-Angus Mackintosh of Termett, for himself and taking the
burden in and upon him of Lachlan Mackintosh his son, apparent
thereof, with his own consent, and assent of his remanent sons
under subscribing-Lachlan Mackintosh of Gask, for himself and
taking the burden. . . . of William Mackintosh of Rait and
remanent of that surname descended of that house
-An-
drew Macpherson of Cluny for himself and taking the full burden
of Evan Macpherson in Brin, John Macpherson in Break-
and remanent of that name descended of that
achy
•
•
•
•
taking
house-Thomas mac Alister vic Homas in Pitmean
full burden of his kin and friends descended of that house-
Donald mac Alister Roy in Phoines taking full burden
288
THE MACKINTOSHES
.. of William vic Ian vic William in Invereshie. . . . and
remanent his kin of that race and house-Donald Macqueen of
Corrybrough taking full burden . . . of John Mac-
queen in Little Corrybrough, Sween Macqueen in Raigbeg
·
•
and remanent his kin of that race-Angus macPhaill in Kin-
chyle ... taking the full burden
of his kin and race
•
•
•
•
of Clan Vean-Alexander mac Coil vic Farquhar of Davoch-
garroch . . taking the full burden
of his kin and race
of Clan Tearlach with their own consents-Malcolm mac Bean in
Dalcrombie, Ewen mac Ewen in Aberchalder, and Duncan mac
Farquhar in Dunmaglass taking the full burden
•
of their haill kin and race of Clan Macgillivray with their own
consents-and Ay mac Bean vic Robert of Tordarroch .
taking the full burden . . . . of his race of Clan Ay with their
own consents-in manner, form, and effect as after follows, that
is to say that
Forasmeikle as anent the controversies, questions, debates, and
hosts, that has fallen furth betwixt the said haill kin of Clan
Chattan these times byegone, thereupon there followed great
inconveniencies committed by them one against other, without
respect to their own weals coming thereof; and for avoiding of
these accidents, and that perpetual friendship, amity, and kind-
ness may remain and abide betwixt them and their chief in
times coming, and amongst the said haill kin of Clan Chattan;
Therefore, and for sundry other motives and occasions moving
them, tending to the weals and quietness of them and their
country, are hereby bound and obliged, and by the tenour hereof
the said haill kin of Clan Chattan above-mentioned by their
names in special, and taking full burden in and upon them of
their kin and friends, heirs and partakers pro rata, faithfully
promise and bind and oblige them by the faith and truth in
their bodies, for themselves with consent foresaid, their heirs
male and successors, to the said William Mackintosh, their
present Captain and Chief, ay and until the said Lachlan Mack-
intosh of Dunachton comes to manhood and perfect age, and
then to him, to concur, assist, maintain and defend against all
and whatsoever persons that shall happen to invade him, and to
be found loyal, upright, and true to him in all his honest and
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
289
leisome affairs whatsoever, likeas they to that effect has united,
incorporated, annexed, copulate, and insinuated themselves, in
one bond and perpetual amity to stand amongst them, as it was
of old according to the King of Scotland's gift of chieftainrie of
the said Clan Chattan, granted thereupon-in the which they are
and is astricted to serve Mackintosh as their Captain and Chief.
Therefore the said haill persons of Chief and kin of Clan
Chattan are bound and obliged, them, ilk ane of them to others,
the said William, and the said kin of Clan Chattan, to concur,
assist, maintain, and defend either others, or to take plain act
and part with others against all and whatsoever persons, in all
actions of arms, deeds, and occasions whatsoever that shall
happen to be done in their contrair, or that shall happen to
fall furth thereafter, the King's Grace, the Lord Marquis
of Huntly, and the Earl of Moray, their masters, being
excepted-providing that it be in their lords' and masters'
default in case any deed or host fall out by these occasions ;
and also the haill kin of Clan Chattan has discharged and quit-
claimed, and by the tenour hereof quitclaims and exoners, and
simpliciter discharges either others, and ilk one of them, of all
actions of slaughter, burning, hership, raid, and oppression,
committed by them or any of them against others, preceding the
day and date hereof, discharging the same and all action that
may result thereupon. And that all rancour and malice of heart
may cease for ever, and also in case of any of the saids kin shall
happen to offend any other in time coming, either by violence or
avenge of gear, in that case the Chief shall nominate twelve
persons of the saids principals to decide with him therein, and
shall cause the party offender to satisfy the party offended and
wronged, sic as they will decern and modify; and to the haill
premises the said Chief and remanent kin of Clan Chattan are
sworn to stand at and perform the points above mentioned, and
never to revoke or come in the contrair therafter, but shall
maintain and pass ilk one of them with others in all hostings
and other leisome and necessary affairs as when occasions will
serve (excepting as excepted); and for the more security the saids
William Mackintosh and remanent his kin of Clan Chattan are
content and consent that these presents be insert in the books of
で
​th
290
THE MACKINTOSHES
Council and Session, Sheriff or Commissary or Burgh Court
Books of Inverness, there to remain ad futuram rei memoriam,
and to that effect constitutes and ordains procurators conjunctly
and severally, and consents to the registration hereof promitten
de rato.
In witness whereof these presents, written by Alexander Duff,
notary public and Common Clerk of Inverness, are subscribed
by the said chief and kin, day, year, and place foresaid, before
these witnesses-John Cuthbert of the Auld Castlehill, Provost
of Inverness; Mr. John Ross, burgess there; Donald Macqueen,
minister of Petty; Malcolm Ego, servitor to Agnes Mackenzie,
Lady Dunachton, and Alexander Duff, writer thereof.
The signature of those who could write are as
follows:-William M'Kintoshee of Bandachir, captaine
of Clan Chattan; Malcum Makintosh (3rd son of the
late chief); Malcom M'Intosh of Gask; Lachlan
M'Intosh appeirand of Termit; Andrew M'Pherson
of Clunie; Ivine M'farline (Macpherson) of [Brin];
Iven McPherson in Breachachy; Donald M'Queen of
Coreburgh; Ay M'bean
Ay M'bean (Shaw) of Tordarroch ;
William M'intosh in Rait; John Mackintosh of
Dalziel; Duncan M'intosh (these last two 4th and
5th sons of the late chief).
The rest sign the band "with (their) hands at the
pen led be the nottar underwritten at (their) com-
mands because (they) cannot write (themselves)," as
follows:-John and William Mackintosh in Morile;
Angus Mackintosh of Termit; Thomas M'Alaster vic
Comus in Pitmeyn; Angus M'Phaill in Kandkell
(Kinchyle); Alexander M'intosh of the Holm;
Alexander M'intosh hectorsone in Wester Larges;
Donald M'Alaster Roy in Fonness (Phoyness);
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
291
Alexander M'Coil vic Farquhar of Davochgarroch ;
Malcolm Macbean in Dalcrombie; Sween M'Queen
in Ravochbeg; and many others.
While this important matter was in progress and
execution, the chief was at King James's court in
England. His career there was a brief one; pro-
bably the king judged it unwise to suffer the clan
to remain without its now responsible head, and we
may perhaps also surmise that the chief's inclinations
would lead him to prefer wielding his hitherto untried
power, and acting the petty sovereign in his own
country, to remaining in a subordinate position at a
court where king's favourites reigned as much as
king, and where every man jealously strove to cross his
fellow's path in the race for favour and advancement.
He accordingly left the court, unfortunately so deeply
in debt as to burden his estate, considerably, and to
render it necessary for his successor to part with some
of his lands, those of Culloden with others."
In 1610 he arrived among his clansmen. If a
commanding appearance had any attraction for them,
his must have won their full approval; he was a Saul
in stature, exceeding ordinary men in height by head
1 The lands of Culloden had been held for some generations by
a family of Strachan-or as it was written in those days, Strath-
auchin-until 1570, when, having fallen to three daughters of
George Strachan as heiresses-portioners, they were purchased by
Lachlan 16th of Mackintosh. This chief seems to have had
the intention of making Culloden the principal residence of his
family. In 1630 the lands were sold to Duncan Forbes, Provost
of Inverness, ancestor of the present family of Culloden.
U 2
292
THE MACKINTOSHES
.:
lent temper.
and shoulders-and withal of a "sweet and benevo-
His uncle rendered a satisfactory
account of his tutorship, and in consequence of his
energetic and judicious conduct Lachlan entered on
the management of his own affairs with every appear-
ance of their being in a prosperous and settled
condition.
But they soon became somewhat complicated. As
the tutor had foreseen, the jealousy between the
Gordons and the Mackintoshes was not long to be
permitted to slumber, and soon after the chief's return
it broke out. This appears to have been owing not
so much to any personal feeling on Lachlan's part as
to the vindictive animosity of the Earl of Enzie,
eldest son of the Marquis of Huntly, and latterly to
the arts and influence of John, Laird of Grant,
Lachlan's father-in-law. The commencement of a
series of troubles, which brought the chief to an early
grave and his family to the verge of ruin, took place
in 1613, on Lachlan's refusal to act with Enzie against
Allan Cameron of Locheil. It may seem strange,
considering the relations between Huntly and the
Camerons in 1590-5, that there should be so grave
a quarrel between them as to necessitate a hostile
expedition on Huntly's part against his late firm
adherents; yet so it was. In the History of the
Camerons prefixed to the Memoirs of Locheil, Huntly
is charged with having been so ungrateful, after the
reversal of his own forfeiture in 1597, as to aid in
keeping up the sentences against Allan Cameron,
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
293
and to claim and obtain part of his estate. But this
charge is either loosely expressed or ill founded,
although, as we have seen, the marquis was quite
capable of turning his back on his friends when it
suited his purpose to do so. The real cause of his
present displeasure was simply that Cameron, in
consequence of certain legal proceedings, had made
an agreement by which he became vassal to the
Earl of Argyle-now Huntly's greatest rival, and
therefore his greatest enemy-for his lands of Locheil,
to which that noble had a title dating from the reign
of James V.; and that by thus affording to Argyle
a footing in Lochaber, he had, in Huntly's view,
damaged the Gordon interests there-Huntly being
superior of a great part of the district, though not
of Locheil. To the request of the marquis that he
would break through his agreement with Argyle,
Locheil returned a steady refusal, but at the same
time asseverated that his holding a part of his lands
under the earl should in no way affect his obedience
and loyalty to Huntly and his family. This was not
what the marquis required; and he resolved to
chastise his former faithful adherent.
It is not likely that Huntly would have acted as
he did had Locheil's agreement been with any other
person than Argyle, and he had clearly no right to
interfere in the tenure of lands with which he had
no concern. His subsequent proceedings, therefore,
were a wanton and arbitrary exercise of power. A
just and right-thinking man would have shown some
294
THE MACKINTOSHES
consideration for Locheil, whose only alternative to
holding his paternal property under Argyle was in
reality that of relinquishing it altogether; but Huntly
had neither consideration nor sense of justice when he
thought his own interests at stake. If he could not
succeed in keeping Argyle out of Lochaber, he was
determined to revenge himself on the person who,
however unwillingly, had been the cause of his failure.
He persuaded some malcontent members of Clan
Cameron to take a tack from him of the lands under
his superiority which were held by their chief, and
despatched his son, Lord Enzie, with a strong force
to put down any opposition to this proceeding that
might be made on Locheil's part. Enzie peaceably
installed the new tenants, but after his return home,
Locheil entered into negotiations with his hostile
clansmen for the restoration of his property. With
consummate deceit they pretended to be favourably
inclined towards him and desirous of reconciling him
with the marquis, all the while studying how they
should most easily bring about his death in order to
secure their newly acquired possessions. Having be-
come aware of their perfidious intention, he took such
measures to frustrate it as resulted not only in the
slaughter of his treacherous kinsmen, but in the
restoration to himself of the lands they had obtained.
The slaughter of the traitors, though actually in self-
defence, was so represented to the Privy Council by
the enraged Huntly that Locheil and his friends were
denounced as rebels, and the marquis obtained a
AND CLAN CHATTAN,
295
commission of fire and sword against them, the exe-
cution of which was entrusted to Lord Enzie.
It was now that Enzie requested Mackintosh's
co-operation, judging that the old dispute between
Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron would ensure its
being readily afforded. He also "offered him (Mack-
intosh) good conditions if he would follow him in
that journey, even that he would never give over
the pursuit of the Camerons till he had put Mackintosh
in as peaceable possession of his lands in Lochaber as
Huntly possessed his." But to the earl's surprise
Lachlan declined to take part with him in the
matter, tempted neither by the opportunity of obtain-
ing further revenge for the hostility of the Camerons
in his grandfather's time, nor by the prospect held
out to him in regard to the disputed Lochaber lands.
1
66
This conduct is attributed by both the Author and
the Editor of the Memoirs of Locheil to the exercise
by Mackintosh of the great principle in fair fight,
never to strike a fallen enemy. Mackintosh," the
latter says,
"with one of those traits of high-minded
generosity which occasionally illumine that dark
period, refused to press his claims against Locheil in
the midst of his misfortunes." 2 But while it is not
unlikely that Lachlan, being of a "sweet and bene-
volent temper," may have been influenced by this
generous feeling, it should be stated that there was
a more obvious cause for his forbearance. Among
¹ Hist. of Gordons, ii. 113.
2 Memoirs of Locheil, Editor's Introd. 15, and Author's Introd., 58.
296
THE MACKINTOSHES
4
the forfeitures in 1598 under the Act of the previous
year was that of the lands of Glenlui and Locharkaig
by Locheil, who, to escape the consequences of their
being claimed by Mackintosh, had entered into an
agreement, to continue for nineteen years under severe
penalties in the case of breach by either party, by
which he was to take half the disputed lands from
Mackintosh in mortgage for 6,000 merks, and to hold
the other half under that chief for his own service
and that of the tenants on the lands.¹
Enzie proceeded to execute his commission in
Lochaber, and was successful in reducing Locheil.
But Mackintosh's contumacy was neither forgotten
nor forgiven by him and his father, as soon became
apparent. "The earl indeed showed more favour
to Allan (Cameron) than he would otherwise have
done, to be at evens with Mackintosh for his refusal.
As a small spark will kindle a great fire, so this small
affair brought such trouble on Mackintosh that it
almost ruined him, and it was with much trouble
and charge that he at last got himself extricated out
of these difficulties." 2
Unfortunately, too, a serious disagreement occurred
about this time between Mackintosh and James, Earl
of Moray, whose wife was a sister of Huntly. This
connection of the two nobles was no doubt the real
cause of the breach with Mackintosh, but the apparent
cause was the latter's resenting some insulting speech
¹ Kinrara MS.; Memoirs of Locheil, 44. See also Gregory, 398.
2 Hist. of Gordons, ii. 114.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
297
5
t
made by one of Moray's followers at a horse-race at
Nairn, which Mackintosh had won. A coldness ensued,
and on Mackintosh's refusal to accompany Enzie into
Lochaber shortly afterwards, Moray ordered the Clan
Chattan living on his lands to act with Enzie in
spite of their chief, and sent a messenger to acquaint
Mackintosh of his wish in the matter. Mackin-
tosh in a fit of exasperation gave the messenger a
sound beating, an act of "contempt of court"-Moray
being at the time Lieutenant in the north-which
procured him a "warding" in Edinburgh Castle. His
favour at court was sufficient to obtain his release
after a short confinement, and he returned to the
north with the unpleasant consciousness that his two
most powerful neighbours, under both of whom he
held lands, were now his most deadly enemies.
Moray restricted the demonstration of his enmity
for the present to such underhand measures as using
his authority, both as head of affairs in the north
and as superior of some of the Clan Chattan lands,
to cripple Mackintosh's proceedings. But with the
Gordons it was different, and within a few years
Lord Enzie found ample opportunity of evincing his
ill-feeling. As we have seen, he had dealt mildly
with Locheil "to be at evens with Mackintosh,” and
he instigated this reconciled opponent to give Mac-
kintosh as much trouble as lay in his power. No
doubt Locheil was perfectly willing to do this, con-
sidering the mortification he must have felt at being
under the obligation of service to his hereditary foe,
298
THE MACKINTOSHES
but he seems to have made an ill choice of occasion.
In July 1616 Mackintosh, proceeding to Inverlochy
to hold courts as heritable Steward of Lochaber,
found the fords of the Lochy in the possession of
Locheil and about two hundred of his clan, and on
attempting to cross was attacked by them. The
Register of the Privy Council (Decreta), under date
10th June 1617, gives a detailed account of the
affair, relating how "in the mounth of July last
Lachlane M'Intoschie of Dunnauchtane, heritable
baillie and stewart of the lordship and stewartrie of
Lochaber (pertaining the said office to him heritablie
quhairof he and his predecessors haif been in peaceable
possioun thir mony yeiris bigaun past memorie of man)
haveing proclaimed courtis to be halden within the
boundis of the said countrey upon the [-] day of
the said mounth of July last for administratioun of
justice to the inhabitants of the saidis boundis, he for
thir effect upoun the [-] day of the said mounth
repairit and went to his awan [? haugh] of Keppacho
upoun the watter of Spean quhair haveing stayit and
remainit until the day foirsaid appointit for halding
of the saidis courtis expecting nothing less than that
ony persoun or persounis durst haif presoomed to
have interruptit or stayit the halding of the saidis
courtis, Then it is that Allan Camroun of Lochzell
accumpanied and assistit be Duncann Camroun alias
M'Martain, Dowgaill Camroun, Dowgall Camroun
alias M'Allaster M'Coull, Donald Camroun alias
M'Martain, Ewine Camroun alias M'Martain
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
299
M'Condochie M'Ewine, &c., &c., with convocatioun of
his maiesties leigeis to the nomber of twa hundreth
men all bodin in feir of weir with bowis, dorlochais,
durkis, Lochaber axis," &c., bars his passage, “re-
solving by oppin violence to withstand the halding
of the saidis courtis." Lachlan endeavouring to cross
the Lochy at the ordinary ford was fired upon by the
Camerons, who "thairby violentlie stayit the said
Lauchlane M'Intoschie fra passing throw the said
watter and fra halding of the saidis courtis."
This violent opposition to his authority Mackintosh
at once represented to the Privy Council, who ordered
Locheil and his party to appear before them and
answer the charge. Of course the order was un-
heeded, and accordingly on 10th June 1617 "the
Lordis of Secreit Counsall ffindis and declares that
the saidis Allan Camroun of Lochzell, &c., &c.,
convocat and assemblit togedder at the day and
place libellit the number of 200 men bodin in feir
of weir with unlauchfull wapponis to stop and impede
the said Lauchlane M'Intoschie of Dunnauchtane fra
halding of courtis within the said Lordschippe of
Lochquhaber, and that they schott ane number of
musketis and hagbuttis at the said Lauchlane and
his cumpany and stayit him fra halding the saidis
courtis
That the saidis defendairis has
comited a verrie grete insolence and contempt to
the brok of his maties pouar and has violat his maties
lawis and actis of parliament maid aganis the con-
vocatioun of his maties leigeis and the bairing and
300-
THE MACKINTOSHES
wairing of hagbuttis and pistolletis,' and therefore
the saidis Lordis ordainis letters to be direct charging
the said Allan, &c., To peir and entir thair personis
in ward within the tolbooth of Edinburgh, therin to
remain upoun thair awin expensis ay and quhill
ordour be taine with thame for the said insolence,
within ffyfteen dayis after the charge under the pane
of rebellioun.”
By this act of violence Locheil had also become
liable to the penalty attaching to a breach of the
agreement between him and Mackintosh's grand-
father in 1598, which was at the time of the
violence within a year of expiry. Mackintosh—
now Sir Lachlan, having received the honour of
knighthood in the month of June—had represented
this matter also to the Council, and had obtained
from them a decreet summoning the Camerons to
remove from the lands of Glenlui and Locharkaig.
His summons was received with the contempt that
might have been expected, and as the orders of
the Council just quoted had been similarly disre-
garded, Sir Lachlan in July 1618 obtained letters
of intercommuning and a commission of fire and
sword against the Camerons, but after several
attempts he succeeded only in procuring the im-
prisonment of Locheil's eldest son John in the
1
Alluding to Acts made in the preceding year, in which
the carrying of “hagbuttis and pistolletis "—to which the king
seems to have had a particular aversion-was specially forbidden
except when on his majesty's service.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
301
tolbooth of Edinburgh, where he remained until
after Sir Lachlan's death.¹
At the same time Mackintosh was commissioned
"to persew to the deid with fire and sword" Alaster
Mac Ranald of Keppoch and his sons, who, besides.
having recently wasted his lands in Brae Lochaber,
had for some time been under the ban of the
Government, with a price set on their heads, for
their share in the rebellious proceedings of Sir James
Macdonald of Isla in attempting to wrest his in-
heritance from the grasp of the Campbells. The
Privy Council, after outlawing them and others con-
cerned in the late insurrections, and offering a reward
of 5000 merks for their apprehension or death, had
summoned the Marquis of Huntly and the chief of
Mackintosh in 1616 to give their advice as to the
best means of capturing the outlaws, and the result
was a commission to Lord Enzie against the Keppochs.2
The execution of this commission was signalised by
such a lack of energy as to make it tolerably clear
that there was also a lack of intention to proceed
1 Kinr. MS.; Memoirs of Locheil, 58, 174. The Privy Council
Records (Acta penes Marchiarum et Insularum ordinem, ii. 257)
under date 19 July 1621, contain an entry to the effect that this
John Cameron complains to the Council that his health is affected
by his confinement, and craves to be set at liberty; and that Sir
Lachlan Mackintosh being summoned to show whether there
was any just cause for granting the request, and showing no
such cause, order is given for the continuance of John's confine-
ment "as a pledge for his father's obedience."
2 Privy Council Record, 14 & 16 Jan. 1616.
302
THE MACKINTOSHES
to extremities against the outlaws-for which, per-
haps, the fact that they were in opposition to Argyle
may account. A second commission was given to
Enzie in conjunction with his father, but Keppoch
and his son remained at large. The opportunity of
a complaint by Sir Lachlan Mackintosh against
Keppoch for harrying his lands was now taken to
give him a commission (July 1618), but although
he invaded Lochaber with a large force, he proved
as unsuccessful as Enzie had been in satisfying the
desires of the Council. On his return he resolved
to make another and a stronger attempt, and sent
orders to all his clansmen to join him, those dwell-
ing on Huntly's lands among the number. This
call was at once resented by Enzie, who, not for-
getting his former grudge against Mackintosh, and
perhaps desirous of placing any obstacle in the way
of his effecting that in which he himself had failed,
charged him before the Council with having exceeded
the limits of his commission, of which at the same
time he procured the recall. In the meantime
Keppoch and his second son Donald Glas left the
country, and the earl was empowered to capture
Ranald younger of Keppoch,
of Keppoch, who remained in
Lochaber.
Enzie's animosity did not rest here. Immediately
afterwards he took proceedings for the eviction of
Mackintosh's clansmen occupying the lands of the
barony of Benchar, on the ground that Mackintosh,
in refusing to assist him in 1613, had not fulfilled
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
303
1
·
the conditions on which he held the lands under
Huntly as superior. Failing in this process, he
forbade Sir Lachlan to dispose of the tithes of
Culloden, to which he himself had a right-though
hitherto unexercised—and obtained a decreet author-
ising him to demand the value of the tithes not
claimed in preceding years. This mode of notifying
his intention to claim his dues is significant, as
showing that his object was not so much to obtain
them as to pick a quarrel in which he would be
sure of the support of the law. The insolent terms
of his notice he well knew would excite the hasty
temper of Mackintosh, and urge that chief to some
action which would afford a pretext for enforcing
the law. He was not mistaken. Mackintosh, in
his passion losing sight of the prudence which should
have guided him in dealing with so cunning and
unscrupulous an adversary, eagerly took the bait.
Backed by his father-in-law Grant and his cousin
Mackenzie of Kintail, he announced his intention of
opposing the earl in any attempt he might make
to obtain the tithes, and, if necessary, of abiding the
issue of an action at law.
.
At the tithing time Enzie sent messengers to
poind the corn on the Culloden estate, and when
they were opposed and driven away he appealed to
the Privy Council, and had Sir Lachlan and his
men put to the horn. The politic Sir Robert Gordon
endeavoured to befriend Mackintosh, and to avert
the storm which he foresaw, by advising him to
304
THE MACKINTOSHES
agree to a compromise with Enzie. He "took God
to witness"-to use his own words-" that he gave
him this advyse out of his love towards him and in
regaird of the auncient familiaritie and friendship
which had been of old betuein the houses of Souther-
land and Mackintosh. But all wes in vain; being
a heidstrong young gentleman he [Mackintosh] wold
not hearken to his counsall, but followed the advyse
of the Laird of Grant, which tended at last to his
hurt and prejudice. Leaving Culloden House,
which he had prepared for defence and in which
he had stored all the grain on the lands, in charge
of his uncles Duncan and Lachlan, Sir Lachlan set
out for England to represent at court his condition
and the persecution he was suffering.
"" 1
Enzie, accompanied by Sir Robert Gordon and
Lord Lovat, made his appearance before Culloden
House on the 6th November with 1100 horsemen
and 600 Highlanders on foot. He sent Sir Robert
with a message to Duncan Mackintosh to the effect
that in consequence of his nephew's boasting he had
come to enforce the laws and to obtain his dues.
To this Duncan returned answer that he had no
wish to prevent the earl's taking what belonged
to him, but that it was his intention to defend
the house. Sir Robert, still desirous of preventing
bloodshed, on this begged the earl to allow Lovat,
who was supposed to have some influence with
Duncan, to endeavour to arrange terms. Accordingly
¹ Earldom of Sutherland, 307-8.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
305
Sir Robert, Lord Lovat, and George Munro of
Milntown, conveyed another message that Lord
Enzie had a commission against the Macgregors, one
of whom he believed to be sheltered in the house
of Culloden, and he was therefore desirous of making
a search. Duncan answered that no Macgregor was
sheltered there, and that he would by no means
consent to a search of the house, especially with
so large a force near it. Lovat privately admitted
to him that Enzie's statement as to the Mac-
gregor was made only for the purpose of gaining
entrance into the house, and persuaded him to
allow himself (Lovat) and his two companions to
enter, so that the earl might thereby be satisfied.
With this satisfaction, says the Kinrara MS., Enzie
was obliged to depart, and so ended the "Raid
of Culloden.'
The Mackintosh account of this affair agrees tolerably
closely with Sir Robert Gordon's as far as the result
of Lovat's parley with Duncan Mackintosh. There
the agreement ceases, as Sir Robert makes Duncan
pacify Lord Enzie by giving up the keys of the house.
One account must be incorrect, but which that one
is it is difficult to decide. Sir Robert Gordon was
actually on the spot the whole time, but according to
the character given of him in the preface to his book
he would doubtless be eager to make the most of the
affair for Enzie. Lachlan Mackintosh of Kinrara, the
writer of the Mackintosh account, was Sir Lachlan's
second son; he would no doubt have the particulars
X
M
306
THE MACKINTOSHES
.i
from some one present, and doubtless also would be
eager to make his own side come out best.'
Sir Lachlan was next cited before the Lords of
Council by Enzie, and not appearing was outlawed.
The earl likewise made a journey to London, where
he stated his grievances and Sir Lachlan's contumacy
with such success as to procure for his opponent, in
spite of his court favour, a second " warding" in
Edinburgh Castle. In the following year (1619) a
reconciliation was brought about, Mackintosh becoming
bound to pay a considerable sum of money to the
earl.
In a commission obtained by Enzie on 19th July
1621 against the Camerons, Sir Lachlan Mackintosh
was specially excepted from those in Lochaber and
Badenoch who were directed to concur with the earl.2
This was probably owing mainly to Enzie's unwilling-
1 As a curious appendix to this episode I quote the following
from a band given less than a month later to the Earl of Enzie
by Lachlan, the coadjutor of Duncan Mackintosh in the charge
of Culloden House. The band is preserved among the Gordon
Papers, and is printed in the Spald. Club Misc. iv. 257. On 3rd
Dec. 1618 Lachlan M'Intosh in Ruthven, "father-brother to Sir
Lauchlane M'Intoshe of Dwynnauchtaine, for diverss gude re-
spectis, caussis, and consideratiounis" is moved to be "bund and
oblist that [he] sall at na tyme heirefter directlie or indirectlie
assist concur nor fortefie the said Sir Lawchlane nor na utheris
his kyn and frendis againis the richt noble lord George Lord
Gordoun." This is one example out of many in which the
Gordons practised towards their enemies the useful maxim
“Divide et impera.”
2 Reg. Secr. Concil.-Acta penes March. et Insul. ordinem, ii.
258.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
307
ness, as Gregory thinks,' to proceed to extremities
against Locheil, or to employ any who would be
inclined to do so. The editor of the Memoirs of
Locheil² remarks that "Huntly, as a singular atone-
ment for his ungrateful conduct (a few years pre-
viously), accepted a commission of fire and sword
against Locheil, which as he did not execute prevented
this fearful weapon of legal oppression from falling
into hostile hands." But in the following year
Mackintosh, being at court, obtained a letter from
the king, dated at Whitehall on the 6th May, order-
ing the Scots Privy Council to ratify the acts already
made against “Allan M'Coiliduy," who "in contempt
of us and our Government standeth out in his rebellion,
oppressing his neighbours and behaving as if there
were neither king nor law in that our kingdom;'
and ordering the Council further to "expede" a
commission in due form to Sir Lachlan Mackintosh,
Lord Kintail, the Laird of Grant, and such others as
Sir Lachlan should nominate, to prosecute the said.
Allan with fire and sword till they shall have appre-
hended him or made him answerable to the laws.
The Clan Chattan are to be strictly charged to follow
Sir Lachlan in the service; Huntly and his son Lord
Gordon, as Sheriffs of Inverness, are to be charged to
aid and assist the commissioners; and Argyle and
other friends of Locheil are to be charged that they
in no way assist the said Allan.
""
Armed with this letter, Sir Lachlan obtained the
¹ West. Highl. 403.
2 Introd. 14.
x 2
308
THE MACKINTOSHES
required commission from the Privy Council, addressed
to himself and twenty-two other chiefs and gentle-
men.¹ But it was never acted upon. Speeding north-
wards immediately after obtaining it, Sir Lachlan
probably over-exerted himself, and four days after the
commission was given, on the 22nd June 1622, he
died at Gartenbeg in Strathspey.²
He was in the full vigour of manhood, only in his
twenty-ninth year, and in all probability his career,
had it not been thus prematurely stopped, would
have eclipsed that of any of his predecessors in
splendour and activity. "At his last visit to court
at London," says the Kinrara MS., " he had a promise
of the king that he should be preferred to the right
1 Kinr. MS.; Memoirs of Locheil, 60; Gregory, 403; Reg.
Secr. Concil.-Acta penes March. et Insul. ii. 264.
2 It appears to have been a current belief for some time after-
wards that his death was caused by poison. The story is that
in consequence of his favour with the Prince of Wales, and his
fine presence and numerous accomplishments, Sir Lachlan was
regarded with much jealousy by his fellow-courtiers. The
court, it seems, was in the habit of wiling away some of its
spare time in athletic exercises, and on one occasion of a grand
display of the kind Sir Lachlan was the only competitor who
succeeded in throwing a bar of iron over a high rope, for which
performance and for his handsome figure he was honoured by
the special applause and favour of the assembled ladies. This
so exasperated some of the competitors that they caused a slow
poison to be administered to him, of which he died after several
days. It is likely, however, that he started for the north
immediately on receiving the king's letter of the 6th May, and
he did not die until six weeks later; so that either the poison-
if poison there were—was a very slow one, or the poisoner was
with him in the north.
•
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
309
and title of the Earldom of Orkney, but the Lord
Almighty, who bringeth low and lifteth up according
to the good pleasure of His will, was pleased to
remove him out of this transitory life on his journey
homeward at that time." A great favourite of the
Prince of Wales, afterwards the unhappy Charles I.,
there is every reason to suppose that had he lived a
few years longer he would have received some dis-
tinguishing mark of honour; and we may be sure
that, if his days had been suffered to run out the
allotted span, he would not have been slow to testify
his attachment and gratitude to his royal master, and
to prove himself deserving of such honours as might
have been conferred upon him, by his loyalty and
hearty service in the Civil Wars.1
By his wife Agnes, daughter of the Laird of Grant,
Sir Lachlan left three sons and a daughter. The sons
were:
1. William, his heir.
2. Lachlan of Kinrara, the writer of the
Latin MS. History of the family, who
by Isabel, daughter of Graham of Clay-
pots, had a son who died young, and
two daughters, Margaret and Isabel,
m. respectively to Hector Mackenzie of
¹ It is probable that Sir Lachlan's death was the occasion on
which was composed the popular and beautiful piece of pipe
music known as "Cumh Mhicintosich" or "Mackintosh's
Lament," though some place its composition seventy years
earlier, on the murder of William the 15th chief in 1550.
310
THE MACKINTOSHES
Assint and William Macpherson of
Nuid.
3. Angus of Daviot, who m. 1st. Jean,
dau. of Gordon of Tillifroskie, and 2nd.
Marjory, dau. of John Robertson of
Inshes. By the latter he had issue,
Lachlan and Alexander, descendants of
both of whom afterwards became chiefs
of the clan.
Sir Lachlan's daughter, Isabel, married Alexander
Rose, of the family of Kilravock.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
311
CHAPTER IX.
William, 18th chief-The Earl of Moray and the Mackintoshes
in Petty-James Grant of Carron-Mackintosh's Tutor-
Wars of the Covenant; Attitude of Mackintosh and his clan
-Letters from King Charles I.-Montrose-Actions of the
Macphersons, Farquharsons, &c.-Capture and Execution of
Montrose Charles II.-Mackintosh's loyalty thwarted by
Argyle Glencairn's attempt-Glenlui and Locharkaig-
William's Death, Family, and Character.
--
(18) WILLIAM. Again, for the fourth successive
time, the clan and estates of Mackintosh became
subject to the disadvantages attendant on a long
minority of their chief and lord, William being only
nine years old at his father's sudden death. To the
ordinary disadvantages of a minority were in this
case added those arising from the exercise of the
tutorship by a stranger, and one who, as events
proved, had little regard to the interests of his ward.
As we have seen, the connection of the Mackintosh
family with the Grants of Freuchie had lately been
unfortunate, involving them in considerable trouble
and loss. The late John Grant-who had died in
the same year as Sir Lachlan Mackintosh-had been
mainly instrumental in drawing the Clan Chattan
312
THE MACKINTOSHES
into the four years' quarrel with Huntly (1591-5);
more recently he had assisted in leading his son-in-
law Sir Lachlan into the embarrassments from which
the latter escaped only by an early death, and the
consequences of which his family felt for many years
afterwards; and now the baleful influence which the
connection seemed to spread over the Mackintoshes
continued under his successor. This was Sir John
Grant, called " Sir John Sell-the-land," maternal uncle
to young Mackintosh, during whose minority he acted
as tutor, but not, as appears, in a faithful manner.
Among other breaches of his trust, the writer of the
Kinrara MS., brother to the young chief, charges him
with having in 1632 wilfully kept a large sum of
money from his ward's estate, by refusing to sell some
of the timber on Mackintosh's Lochaber lands, which
the Marquis of Tullibardine was desirous of pur-
chasing, in order that he might "draw a bargain his
own way" by inducing the marquis to take his own
woods in Abernethy. But we may be sure that the
tutor's proceedings would be carefully watched by his
pupil's kinsmen, and we shall shortly see him called
to account for them.
In the meanwhile the clan was undergoing a trying
ordeal in sustaining the feud of the Earl of Moray.
We have already seen how this noble, having be-
come allied with the house of Huntly, had espoused
their side against his own family's best and truest
friends, the Mackintoshes, forgetting both his natural
antipathy to the former on account of his father's
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
313
slaughter, and his gratitude to the latter for their
assistance in revenging that act. We can acquit him
of blame in forbearing to seek further revenge for his
father's death, and even laud him for making friends
with his feudal enemies; but his ingratitude to those
who had always been the friends and allies of his
house is unpardonable.
The district of Petty, which was under the
superiority of the Earls of Moray, had been occupied
by the Mackintoshes for some four centuries and
a half. They were found there by Randolph, when
in Bruce's time he went to take up the earldom, and
under him and his successors had proved staunch and
sturdy vassals. But they held their lands in Petty
only as duchus, and in 1622 Moray-whose family
reckoned their hold on the district for the short
period of forty years-took advantage of their want
of a written title to call upon the ancient occupiers
to remove. We can imagine the surprise and indig-
nation with which the mandate was received by the
tenants, but there was no alternative to obedience.
They vacated their lands and dispersed themselves
among their fellow clansmen, to whom we may be
sure they would impart some of their own indignation.
At no time was Clan Chattan wanting in men ready
and anxious to vindicate the honour or to preserve
the ancient holdings of their race, and in 1624 a
movement similar to that of Dougal Mor a century
previously was set on foot by some of the principal
men. These, believing that their chief as a minor
314
THE MACKINTOSHES
could not be held responsible for any acts of theirs,
determined to risk the chances of a feud with the
powerful earl, and if they could not reoccupy the
lands to lay them waste.
A gathering of some five hundred men of the clan
took place, and the command was assumed by Lachlan
Mackintosh of Corribrough, uncle to the deceased
chief, and Lachlan, eldest son of Angus "William-
son," who was personally interested inasmuch as his
family had occupied Termit in Petty. The first acts
of this force were to attack Castle Stuart and to
1
harry the surrounding district. "This yeir" (1624)
says Sir Robert Gordon, "they goe to ane hous
which he (Moray) hath now of late built in Pettie,
called Castell Stuart; they dryve away his servants
from thence and doe possess themselves of all the
Earl of Moray his rents in Pettie. Thus they intend
to stand out against him." From Spalding's account 2
it appears that their depredations were not confined
to Moray's lands, but extended as far north as
Sutherland. "They keeped the feilds in their High-
land weid upon foot with swords, bowes, arrowes,
targets, hagbuttis, pistollis, and other Highland
armour; and first began to rob and spoulzie the
earl's tennents, who laboured their possessions, of
their haill goods, geir, insight plenishing, horse,
nolt, sheep, corns, and cattle, and left them nothing
that they could gett within their boundes; syne fell
¹ Earldom of Sutherland, 391.
2 Hist. of the Troubles, &c. 1, 2.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
315
in sorning throwout Murray, Stratherrick, Urquhart,
Ross, Sutherland, Brae of Mar, and diverse other
parts, taking their meat and food perforce wher they
could not gett it willingly, frae frendis alseweill as
frae their faes; yet still keeped themselves from
shedeing of innocent blood. Thus they lived as
outlawes, oppressing the countrie (besydes the cast-
ing the earl's lands waist), and openly avowed they
had tane this course to gett their own possession
again, or then hold the country walking."
The earl raised a force, chiefly Macgregors, from
his Menteith property, and making Inverness his head-
quarters sent out parties in search of the disturbers
of the peace. But whether the Macgregors looked
upon the Mackintoshes as brothers in adversity, and
were unwilling to be employed on a service which
reminded them of the persecutions they themselves
had suffered, or whether the Mackintoshes carefully
kept out of the way, the only result of this search
was the expense which it brought on the earl. A
second attempt proving equally futile, and the
insurgents becoming in consequence more bold
and active, Moray posted to London and obtained
from the king authority, as lieutenant in the High-
lands, to employ the extreme terrors of the law
against the offenders. Thus armed he proceeded
to issue letters of intercommuning against the
Mackintoshes, forbidding all persons under severe
penalties to give them shelter or assistance. This
had the effect of depriving the outlaws of many
316
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
of their friends and supporters, without whose aid
they could scarcely hope for a continuance of suc-
cess; and although they held out for nearly six
years longer they must have felt that prolonged
resistance would only make matters worse for them
in the end.
Fortunately the end was nearer and less fatal than
they may have anticipated. Moray's acquisition of
the office of Lieutenant gave great offence to his
father-in-law Huntly, who had been the means of
raising all the storm; a breach ensued between the
two nobles, and Moray, now seeing his error and the
ingratitude of which he had been guilty, entered into
negotiations with the intercommuned clansmen which
resulted in a reconciliation. The Mackintoshes were
restored to their holdings in Petty and relieved from
the letters of intercommuning on certain conditions,
one of which was that they should effect the appre-
hension of a notorious outlaw, James Grant of
Carron.
Looking to the events of the preceding forty years,
and to the well-known character of Huntly, the issue
of the sudden union between him and Moray might
have been safely predicted. The earl must have been
indeed obtuse to fail in seeing the object which the
inveterate enemy of his house and friends had in
instigating him against the Mackintoshes. This object
had been plainly shown to him, and the result of his
proceedings foretold, at the outset of the troubles :
and when the prediction was afterwards verified to the
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
317
letter he must have thought of his conversation with
old Angus Mackintosh.' This was the Angus Mac
William (properly Mac Donald mhic William) already
several times mentioned, and an ancestor of the
Killachie branch, who in his time had been a leading
spirit in the clan.2 Mounted" upon a little Highland
nagg, and in a very homely dress without any
attendants," the old man-he died a few months
afterwards—met Moray proceeding on his second
expedition against the Mackintoshes. In their
conversation, as reported by Lachlan Shaw in his
MS. History, the earl's tone was proud and over-
bearing, while Angus spoke more in sorrow than in
anger. In the most emphatic manner, and on the
ground both of his long experience and of his life-
1
Angus possessed Alturlies, near Petty (for which reason
probably Spalding calls him "Auld Tirlie"), and in 1609, as
appears from the Band of Union in that year, had held Termit
in Petty under the Earl of Moray.
2 The following curious story of his boldness and cleverness is
preserved by tradition, and is given in the Rev. L. Shaw's MS.
account :—A friend having been imprisoned at Edinburgh on
some charge involving capital punishment, Angus entered Holy-
rood Palace in disguise, and managed to obtain a private
audience of the king, James VI. Presenting a pistol at James's
breast, he obtained from the terrified monarch a token by which
he procured his friend's liberation. He then immediately em-
barked in a boat waiting for him at Leith, and next morning
was at Kirkwall in Orkney. He was thus able to prove an
alibi on being charged with the crime of threatening the king's
life, but confessed privately to James, who good-humouredly
pardoned him and gave him the nickname of Angus with the
Brazen Face.
1
318
THE MACKINTOSHES
=
long attachment to the Moray family,' Angus pointed
out to the earl that he was acting against his own
interests, that his present friends would soon forsake
him and only wished that he and the Clan Chattan
should destroy each other; and besought him to
desist from his persecution of those who had done
nothing to merit his wrath but had always faithfully
stood by his family.
Moray appears to have greatly enriched himself by
the fines which he exacted from those who had
disregarded his letters of intercommuning. In fact
he had found the exercise of his powers so profitable
that he had procured an enlargement of them, and
used every means to swell the number of his victims.
Grievous were the complaints against him; Grant of
Glenmoriston went to London to make his complaint
at court, and in the Culloden Papers is a petition to
the king from Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Provost of
Inverness, in the name of the inhabitants of that
town-from whom the intercommuned Mackintoshes
had received friendly help setting forth that although
the insurrection of the Clan Chattan was fully re-
pressed, the Earl of Moray "doth seek utterlie to
¹ He had been particularly active in the feud with Huntly
thirty years before, one of the objects of which was to revenge
the death of Moray's father. In a band to George, Marquis of
Huntly, on the 18 Sept. 1600, by this Angus Williamson and
his sons John and Alexander, it is expressly stipulated that
Angus himself shall be at liberty to " accumpanye and resort
with the Earle of Murrey." [Gordon Papers, Spald. Club Misc.
iv. 253.]
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
319
subvert that auncient Brugh by exacting the escheate
of some and fines from others in value far above their
estates." These complaints, however, would perhaps
have had little effect but for the envy of Huntly,
whose efforts succeeded in procuring the recall of
his son-in-law's commission and in stopping his
career of robbery according to law.
It has been remarked that one of the conditions
on which Moray released the Mackintoshes from
outlawry was that they should effect the capture
or death of James Grant of Carron. This person,
best known as Seumas-na-Duim, having been at
feud with Grant of Ballindalloch, was in 1615 out-
lawed for the murder of one of Ballindalloch's
kinsmen. He collected a band of followers, with
whom for some years he proved a terrible scourge
to Elgin and the neighbouring districts, taking every
means to secure his own safety and inflict injury
on Ballindalloch and his supporters. The Earl of
Moray, at the command of the Privy Council, made
several attempts during a series of years to bring
him to justice, but these were all ineffectual.
It was supposed that James na Duim's prolonged
defiance of the lieutenant's power was owing in a
great measure to the underhand support of Huntly
and the chief of Grant. At length his proceedings
became so outrageous that Moray as a last resource
"resolved to gar one devil ding another" (as Spalding
quaintly puts it) by employing the outlawed members
320
THE MACKINTOSHES
1.
of Clan Chattan against him, in the hope that by
making their success a condition of their own release
from outlawry he would secure the death or capture
of the troublesome Seumas.
Lachlan Mackintosh of Corribrough, William Mac-
kintosh of Killachie (grandson of Angus "William-
son"), and George Dallas of Cantray were the leaders.
of a force of picked men which set out in December
1630 against the outlaw. Arriving at Strathavon,
Grant's principal haunt, they divided their force into
three, entering the district at different points. Corri-
brough's party were successful in discovering the
object of their search; they found him in a house
in Achnahyle with about a dozen of his men. For
some time he held out bravely, but the other parties
of his pursuers coming up he was compelled to ac-
knowledge their superiority in numbers, and rushed
from the house with the intention of cutting his way
to the hills. After several of his men had fallen,
and he himself had received nearly a dozen wounds,
he was secured with his surviving companions and
taken to Tarnaway Castle, where he was kept for
more than a year. In February 1632 he was taken,
still in the custody of the Mackintoshes, to Edin-
burgh, and confined in the castle till the king should
decide upon his fate.
his fate. His majesty, however, seems
to have delayed his decision too long, for in the
following October James made his escape and got
safely over to Ireland. After another year he re-
turned to Strathspey and resumed his lawless courses
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
321
with greater audacity and cruelty than ever, actually
capturing Ballindalloch and keeping him prisoner for
three weeks, and beheading several other persons
who fell into his hands. Renewed attempts were
made to apprehend him, but all failed; the Mac-
kintoshes refused to engage again in the undertaking,
as they had now no object to gain by so doing; and
James na Duim continued an outlaw at large until
1639, when he obtained a remission through the
influence of Lord Aboyne, and accompanied that
nobleman in his expedition against the Covenanters.¹
William Mackintosh was served heir to his father
shortly after his clansmen made up their quarrel
with Moray, and one of his earliest proceedings was
to take energetic action concerning the administration
of his property by his late tutor. An inquiry into
the minority accounts proved so unsatisfactory that
legal proceedings were instituted, and would have
been followed up by Mackintosh had not mutual
friends of the two chiefs brought about an arbitra-
tion. The arbiters-Robert Farquharson of Inver-
cauld, Alexander Hay, Clerk of Session, and two
others-ordained Grant to pay to Mackintosh 10,000
pounds Scots (about £830), a considerable sum in
those days, but, according to the Kinrara MS., less
than a quarter of that justly due. Even this
Mackintosh did not obtain without trouble, Grant
1
¹ Spalding's Troubles, &c., 8-10, 114; Stewart's Highlands and
Highlanders, ii. 68-80.
Y
322
THE MACKINTOSHES
delaying the payment "by law tricks" for a whole
year.
Further trouble was caused by Grant's having
disponed a wadset right which he had obtained to
Glenlui and Locharkaig to John Cameron younger
of Locheil, thus giving the Camerons a legal right
to the lands which they had hitherto occupied only
by force. In 1637 Mackintosh redeemed the wadset,
lodging the redemption money with James Cuthbert,
Provost of Inverness; but the Camerons refusing to
give up possession of the lands, he obtained a decreet
against Ewen Cameron of Locheil, then a child, from
the Lords of Session in March 1639.¹
The remainder of William's chiefship was marked
by that lamentable civil war which, breaking out in
Scotland and England at about the same time and
to a great extent from the same causes, convulsed
both countries for some twenty years, brought the
unhappy Charles I. to the block, and for a time
threatened the extinction of royalty in Britain.
At Charles's accession both Scotland and England,
thanks chiefly to the late king, were ripe for
rebellion. In Scotland the Presbyterian leaders
and ministers, children and pupils of those who
had founded the Reformation in the country, and
who had seen everything give way to them, were
not indisposed to follow in their fathers' footsteps.
The weak and temporising conduct of James had
1
Kinr. MS.; Memoirs of Locheil, 174; Scots Acts, vii. 295, &c.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
323
encouraged them in their disregard for the kingly
authority; and by the time his son came to the
throne, having so long had their own way, they
were naturally prepared to resent any attempt at
interference, and to seize with avidity any occasion
for asserting themselves, even at the cost of a
contest with the Crown. Besides this antagonistic
feeling of independence among the Scots Presby-
terians, Charles had succeeded to a vast amount of
discontent and disaffection in England, of which
likewise his father had sown the seeds. Too timid
himself openly to assert his ideas on divine right
and Church matters, James had taken pains to instil
these into his son, who, being of less pliant stuff,
was doomed to be broken by them.
This is not the place to enter into any detailed
inquiry as to the immediate cause of the wars of
the Covenant in Scotland, or to expatiate on the
general proceedings of the king and his rebellious
subjects throughout the struggle. Suffice it to
say that Charles's ill-advised attempt to force the
episcopal model of Church government and ceremony
upon the Scots nation- a favourite idea of his
father's-roused into energy all the religious en-
thusiasm among the earnest Presbyterians, and all
the latent ambition and desire for distinction among
many of the leaders, ministerial and lay, of the
Presbyterian party. It naturally had the effect
also of making men apprehensive of the lengths
to which a monarch who disregarded the liberties
1
Y 2
324
THE MACKINTOSHES
and feelings of a section of his subjects in religious
matters might go in opposition to their liberties in
other matters; while the disaffected and self-seeking
nobles had an additional motive for action in the
attempted resumption by the Crown of the old Church
property distributed among them at the Reformation.
These causes combined brought the majority of the
people to the determination of uniting to oppose
the designs of the king. The National Covenant
was signed in 1638, and within a few months an
army of 25,000 men, under experienced leaders, was
ready for the field.
Owing to the incapacity of William Mackintosh,
through feebleness of constitution, to undertake
personal active service, the part of his clan in
the struggle was not so decided as it might have
been had their late captain lived to see it. Possibly
also the fact that the Marquis of Huntly was the
king's principal supporter in the north in the early
part of the troubles may in some measure account
for the attitude of the chief. William himself, how-
ever, was a staunch loyalist, and although the Clan
Chattan were not engaged as a body, large numbers
of them, especially the Macphersons in Badenoch
and the Farquharsons in Braemar, joined with both
Huntly and Montrose for the king. In an account
of the clans laid before Louis XIV. of France, after a
recital of the loyal doings of the Farquharsons,¹ occurs
¹ In a Commission of Fire and Sword granted to Argyle at the
close of the Parliament of 1639, the Farquharsons of Braemar
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
325
the following:-"The M'Intoshes and M'Phersons,
although they did not rise to arms all of them, yet
they still sent men to the field both for the services
of Kings Charles I. and II. and for King James VII."
It would appear that at the outset Mackintosh
was regarded as inimical to the king's wishes, an
impression probably induced by the recent close con-
nection with the Grants. According to Sir James
Balfour, Maxwell, Bishop of Ross, in 1638, "suggests
it to be a shame for his maiestie to receid from quhat
he formerly had determined anent the service booke,
&c., showing by many arguments that his Matie
may get them established by force if so his Matie
wold effectually deall with the Earles of Seafort and
Finlater, Lord Rae, Lairds of Grant and Mackin-
toche."1 But whatever may have been Mackintosh's
views concerning episcopal ordinances, he was from
the first opposed to any measures of hostility towards
the king. This was acknowledged by the king him-
self in the following letter, written a few weeks before
his defeat at Dunse Law:
are particularised, with the Earl of Athole and Lord Ogilvie,
among the "enemies to the religion and liberties of their country
unnaturally arrayed against kirk and kingdom" who were to be
"to their
subdued and rooted out if they refused to come
bounden duty."
¹ Annales, ii. 263. The Bishop of Ross had taken flight into
England in March 1638, on the first symptom of repugnance to
the service-book, so that he probably included Mackintosh in
the list he gives without any actual knowledge of his views and
intentions.
326
THE MACKINTOSH ES
"CHARLES REX—
"Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Being
informed that you have always been against the course of the
Covenanters, we give you hearty thanks for the same, desiring
you to go on as you have begun, and be assured that we will by
our princely power protect you and all those that shall continue
in that dutiful obedience: and whereas some years ago we did
confer the honourable office of Justice-General upon the Earl of
Argyle within the Isles and other parts within our grants
wherein your lands are comprehended, We out of our princely
respect to your affection at this time to our service, being
willing to free you hereafter from depending upon any but our-
selves, do hereby require you not to adhere nor anyways follow
the said Earl, but to be ready by yourself and all the friends and
followers you can make to assist our lieutenant for the time ¹
having special power from us, or such forces as shall be sent
from Ireland for our service, there or otherways as you shall
find occasion for the good thereof, and be confident that upon
the effects of your forwardness we will take a speedy course for
freeing of you from depending upon the said Earl or any other
in that kind. We bid you farewell from our Court at Durham,
2 May 1639." 2
1
Argyle had from the beginning of the troubles been
the acknowledged head of the Covenant party, but the
calls of his position do not seem to have been any
¹ This was the Marquis of Huntly, who had received from the
king a commission as his lieutenant in the preceding March.
2 Among the Mackintosh Papers are several letters from
King Charles and others bearing on the great struggle then
going on in the kingdom. It is scarcely necessary to give these
in full, some being of considerable length; but I mention and
quote from them with the view of showing that Mackintosh was
not (as stated in Browne's History of the Highlands) on the side
of the Covenanters against the king, his father's benefactor and
his own.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
327
1
bar to his pursuing his family's usual policy of ac-
quisition. Gordon of Rothiemay imputes his conduct
in espousing the Covenanting cause principally to his
clan antipathies and to his desire of enlarging his
borders. "The cheefe cause, though least mentioned,
was Argylle his spleene that he carryed upon the
accompt of former disobleedgments betwixt his family
and some of the Highland clans; therefore he was
glade now to gett so faire a colour of revenge upon
the publick score. Another reasone he had besyde;
it was his designe to swallow upp Badzenach and
Lochaber, and some lands belonging to the Mack-
donalds, a numerous trybe, but haters of, and aequally
hated by, Argylle." He had recently been desirous
of purchasing the Brae Lochaber lands belonging to
Mackintosh. These had for many years been a source
of trouble to the chiefs of Mackintosh, as the Mac-
donalds, who occupied them, had always refused to
quit them, and had generally declined to render any
acknowledgment for their occupation of them.
although he derived little or no benefit from the
lands, William Mackintosh had refused to part with
his right, even to Argyle; and being now of the
opposite party to that noble, he became a fair mark
for his resentment. Accordingly in 1639—soon after
the breaking out of the troubles-Argyle harried and
burnt the lands, "not only because the special posses-
sor, Ranald Macdonald of Keppoch, was strongly
attached to the royal interest, but also because
1 Scots Affairs, iii. 163.
But
328
THE MACKINTOSH ES
Mackintosh did not join the Covenanters against the
king, nor could he be prevailed upon to sell his lands
to the marquis [sic], who desired warmly to add them
to his possessions."1 This act was at once taken up
by the persons most interested, the Macdonalds of
Keppoch. Within a few months they made a sudden
descent into the Breadalbane country and seized a
large spreagh of cattle, defeating a superior force of
Campbells which was despatched in pursuit of them.
As Argyle, in the circumstances of the time, could
not expect to be able always to chastise these
energetic and troublesome neighbours when they
should invade his bounds, he judged it expedient
to propitiate them. He therefore compensated
them for the injuries he had done them, without
taking into account those which he had received
from them.
In 1641 the disputes between the king and his
Scottish subjects were adjusted, and peace was
declared, Charles being compelled, in consequence
of the partiality of the English Parliament for the
Scots, to promise compliance with all that was asked
of him. In August he visited Edinburgh, where he
held a Parliament and made good his promises. The
principal result of this visit was to show him that
he could not depend on the loyalty of the majority
1 Kinr. MS. The writer of the MS. is incorrect in speaking
of Argyle as marquis at this time; the title was not conferred
upon him till 1641. The MS. was written more than twenty
years later.
·
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
329
of the Scots in the event of his coming, as he
expected, to an open rupture with the Parliament
of England; but he was fortunate enough to attach
to himself one trusty and valuable adherent in James
Graham, Earl of Montrose. This noble, indeed, had
already proved too honest for Argyle and his faction,
his comrades until he discovered that their designs
were less on behalf of liberty than in opposition to
the king personally and the kingly power; and by
this faction he had been confined in Edinburgh Castle
previous to and during Charles's visit.
Whatever his private feeling, Charles left Edinburgh
with every appearance of having smoothed all
difficulties with his northern subjects, and of having
regained their affection and good will. But this was
appearance only. In 1642 the dissensions between
him and the English Parliament came to a head, and
both parties flew to arms. Each sought the aid of
the Scots, at first without success; and for a time
there seemed a probability that the civil war would
be confined to the English nation. But the desire of
the Kirk to uproot Episcopacy in England and to
plant the Presbyterian model in its place overcame
every other consideration; and the commissioners
from England, holding out a bait accordingly, suc-
ceeded in drawing to them the Scottish Convention
of Estates. The Solemn League and Covenant was
signed in both countries, and in 1643 a Scottish army
of 20,000 men marched into England-to defend “ the
good cause, the true reformed religion, rights of
330
THE MACKINTOSHES
Parliament, and to defend the king against all prelates,
papists, and malignant persons.
""
It was now that the heroic deeds of the gallant and
great Montrose commenced. Traduced by his enemies
as the most abandoned and unnatural of villains,
"a viperous brood of Satan," "hating to speak truth,"
a monster of inhumanity; on the other hand held by
his friends and admirers in the highest esteem and
veneration as a pattern of all that was truly grand
and noble, a paragon of truth and honour, and a good
Christian, it is no wonder that so little is known
of his real character. The world's ear is generally
inclined to the winning side in disputes such as that
between Montrose and his enemies; while the claims.
of the losers, however just, are as often overlooked.
Thus it is that Argyle, self-seeking, dark, and crafty,
is regarded as a model Christian and patriot; while
his opponent, with a character in every respect the
opposite, is looked upon with horror as a perjured and
bloodthirsty traitor. To the wild charges against him
his whole life gives the lie; none but a truly great
and noble man could have done all that he did, or
(may I add ?) could have been subject to the denun-
ciations and indignities that were heaped on him
by such enemies.
Without money, friends, or other means of support
than his own energetic spirit and high sense of duty,
he entered Scotland in 1644, resolved to do his
utmost towards reducing the power of the king's
enemies there, and restoring the king to his throne.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
331
The
Acting on his advice, Charles had directed the Earl of
Antrim (of the family of Macdonald) to enter Scotland
with a force from Ireland for the purpose of co-
operating with Montrose, whom he made Lieutenant-
General of his forces in that kingdom.'
following letter to Mackintosh from the king, written
about the time of the entry of the Covenanters' army
into England and the departure of Montrose to the
north, refers to this, and is valuable as showing that
the famous expedition of the great leader in the
winter of 1644-5 into the heart of Argyle's country,
through hardships and obstacles which would have
deterred any less bold and resolute spirit, was under-
taken in fulfilment of the king's wishes, and not, as is
generally said, from the mere motive of gratifying a
feudal or personal hatred-although no doubt such
a motive would lend vigour to the obedience.
The Earl of Seaforth, mentioned in the letter
as being included with Antrim in the commission
of Justiciary, was a man of fickle and undecided
character; shortly after the Argyle expedition he
was for a time at the head of a force opposed to
Montrose.
1 Montrose's commission as Lieutenant-General under Prince
Maurice as Captain-General was dated 1st Feb. 1644; but some
days before a commission to Montrose himself as Captain-General
had been made out, and was superseded by the new one on
Montrose's pointing out that if the higher rank were conferred
on him the king's cause might be injured by the jealousy of
the other loyal Scots peers. [See Napier's Memoirs of Montrose,
ii. 388.]
332
THE MACKINTOSHES
"CHARLES REX-
Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Whereas
all the gracious expressions of our care for the welfare and
happiness of that our kingdom of Scotland, not only by grant-
ing unto our people there all such things as could with any
kind of right or prudence be demanded, both toward the settle-
ment of the Church and of the civil government, but also by
according unto them even in matters of main grace and favour all
their own hearts' desires, have, by the malicious endeavours of a
powerful malignant party there to poison and stir up against us
the affection of our good people, been so far from obtaining any
return of gratitude unto us, or from procuring that peace and
quiet to that our ancient and native kingdom, which we had
reason to promise ourselves thereby, that a great part of our
subjects are not only there in arms against us, but have even
declared that they intend to invade the kingdom and to unite
and join with the rebels here to subvert the established govern-
ment thereof, We, being constrained for our necessary defence to
apply ourselves to the best way of preventing or withstanding
that imminent mischief to have recourse to those our good
subjects there whom the malice and treason of the others had
no power to infect or seduce from their loyalty, among which
you have ever been of principal consideration with us, and We
having for this purpose granted our commission to our Lieu-
tenant-General of our forces raised in the Islands and Highlands
of Scotland, unto our right trusty and right well-beloved cousin
Randil Earl of Antrim, and our right trusty and right well-
beloved cousin the Earl of Seaforth, jointly with the said Earl of
Antrim, our commission of Justiciary of the same, with power
to invade the country and bounds of Archibald Marquis of
Argyle, a principal and most ingrateful promoter of these odious
practices against us, to suppress the said rebellion, We, out of
our great confidence in your fidelity and good affection to us and
the justice of our cause, have thought [fit] to direct these
presents unto you to continue you by these good affections, and
require you by your duty and allegiance to be assistant with all
your power unto the said Earls of Seaforth and Antrim in all
such things wherein they or either of them shall desire your aid
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
333
in the said just and most necessary service, and would have you
to be confident that we shall ever preserve a lively memory of
your forwardness and faithfulness therein, to reward it fully
whenever God shall enable us so to do; and so we bid you
heartily farewell. Given at our Court at Oxford, 20th January,
in the 19th year of our reign, 1643-4."
In the next letter received from the king, bearing
date 5th Feb. 1644, Mackintosh is appointed lieu-
tenant in the county of Moray, as one "in whom we
repose a special trust." He is enjoined to support
the Governor-General of the kingdom in suppressing
all commotions and insurrections, to pursue any in
arms against the king, to resist the execution within
his district of any decree of the rebel Convention,
and to be entirely governed by the king's lieutenant,
or in his absence by the Marquis of Huntly. And
he is confidently to expect to receive, whenever the
troubles shall come to an end, what the kindest of
princes can bestow on a faithful, well-deserving subject.
Montrose, on his arrival in Athole, was joined by
large numbers of the Clan Chattan, as well as by the
Macdonalds of Keppoch. Though the Mackintoshes
as a body remained at home, many individuals of the
name, as well as of the minor septs of Clan Chattan
in Strathnairn and Strathdearn, eagerly took up arms
for the king. The command of these was held by the
chief's brother, Lachlan, afterwards of Kinrara, who
informs us in his MS. History that he gave up his
own private enjoyment in the pursuit of literature to
relieve his brother of the burden his infirmities made
him unable to bear.
334
THE MACKINTOSHES
The Macphersons acted separately under Ewen
younger of Cluny, who held the rank of colonel in
Montrose's army. They joined the Irish contingent
under Alaster Macdonald, son of Colkitto, or Coll
Keitoch,-who was at mortal feud with the house
of Argyle-in its passage through Badenoch, and
took part in all Montrose's subsequent battles and
expeditions.'
¹ The following extracts from the Register of the Provincial
Synod of Moray give the names of the principal men of Clan
Chattan (not including the Farquharsons) engaged on the side of
the king, or "in the rebellion" as the reverend gentlemen of the
synod phrase it.
"At Forres, 12 Jan. 1648. After reading a roll of those of
Badenoch who were engaged in the rebellion given in be Dougal
MacPherson, captain of the castle of Ruthven, who were cited
to this dyet, compeared Evan Macpherson of Clunie and confessed
he did join with Alister Macdonald, James Graham, and the late
Marquis of Huntly in rebellion, That he was at the fights of
Typermuir and Aberdeen, in which he did command the hail of
the men of Badenoch, As also had the same command under the
late Marquis of Huntly. At the direction of the Lord Gordon
he raised fire at Dacus, and was in service at the siege of Lethen.
Donald Macpherson, son to the guidman of Noid, confessed
in rebellion foresaid, at Alford, with Huntly in Moray, at Lethen
and Aberdeen. Lachlan McIntosh of Kincraig confessed .
•
in rebellion, at St. Johnstown and with Huntly in Moray.
Lachlan MacPherson of Dellifour confessed
at St. Johns-
town, Auldern, Alford, and siege of Lethen. William Mac-
Pherson in Pitchyren confessed
at St. Johnstown, Aber-
•
deen, and Kilsythe, and a night at Lethen. Donald MacQueen of
Dunnachtin confessed
at Alford and siege of Lethen.
James Mackintosh of Strone confessed he was brought against
his will to the siege of Lethen. Angus Mackintosh, portioner of
Banachar, confessed he, in absence of the gudeman of Strone,
was captain over the Mackintoshes at the retreat at Inverness,
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
335
The Farquharsons of Braemar also acted apart from
the rest of Clan Chattan. In consequence mainly of
•
•
at Lethen, and at Alford and St. Johnstown. Hutcheon Mac-
pherson in Breacachie confessed
at intaking of Aberdeen,
at Lethen, and in the late rebellion at Craigall. Malcolm Mac-
pherson of Phoines confessed he did meet with the enemies, but
never at a fight with them. Donald MacPherson apperand of
Phoines confessed . . . at Aldern, intaking of Aberdeen, at
Lethen, and with the Marquis since the pacification. Thomas
MacPherson of Etteris confessed. . . . at Alford, intaking of
Aberdeen and at Lethen, and did subscribe papers at the
Marquis' desire. John MacPherson of Invernahavon confessed
•
•
at
at St. Johnstown, Aberdeen, Alford, and in Murray at
Lethen. Thomas MacPherson of Invertrome confessed
St. Johnstown, Aberdeen, Alford, Lethen, and at Craigall in the
last rebellion. James Mackintosh in Kinrara confessed
at St. Johnstown, Auldern, and intaking of Aberdeen, and had
the office of Commissary at Lethen, and was captain sometime
under the gudeman of Strone."
·
In an entry of the following day the penances inflicted on the
various offenders are set forth. These we may easily imagine
were nothing more than a farce, and it seems scarcely credible
that sensible men, as we may suppose the members of the synods
were, could have expected any good result from them, or have
believed the confessions to be sincere. These confessions and
penances were not confined to the Highlanders; we find the
great nobles of the realm, such as Lord Chancellor Loudon and
the Earls of Lindsay and Dunfermline, making their public re-
pentance on the stool or otherwise. [See Burton's History of
Scotland, vi. 422; Sir James Balfour's Annales, iii. 395.]
"At Forres, 13 Jan. 1648. Collonel Evan Macpherson,
James Mackintosh, Commissary, Captain Thomas of Invertrome,
Captain Donald fiar of Phoines, Angus Mackintosh, captain in
Strone's absence, for part of their censure were ordained to take
on sackcloth, which they did, acknowledging their hearty sorrow
upon their knees, willingly subscribed the confession emited by
the General Assembly at Aberdeen as they were ordained, and
336
THE MACKINTOSHES
their connection with the house of Huntly, they had
by this time risen to a distingushed position among
solemnly promised in time coming to amend their former mis-
carriage." Lachlan of Dellafure, William of Pitchyren, William
in Pitmean, William in Benchar, John in Bealidmore, Alexander
in Crubenbeg, John of Invernahavon, Malcolm in Balnespick,
Donald in Presmuckerach (all Macphersons), Donald Macqueen
of Dunachten, James Shaw in Dunachtinbeg, and Donald Mac
James Mackintosh, not being leaders, are "in their own habit
on their knees to acknowledge their deep sorrow &c." Donald
Macpherson of Noid, 'Lachlan Mackintosh of Kincraig, Sorle
Macpherson in Nessintulich, Alexander in Ruthven and Donald
in Presmuckerach, "being found less malicious than the former,
acknowledged their faults ut supra, subscribed the confession,
and were ordained to make public confession in their own parish
kirk." James Mackintosh of Strone and Malcolm Macpherson
of Phoines, "being found of all others in Badenoch least guilty,
were gravely admonished and ordered to make repentance in
their parish kirk.”
James Macpherson, fiar of Ardbrylach, and Alexander Mac-
kintosh of Kinrara, both being in Edinburgh-Angus Mackin-
tosh of Geargask and Bean Macpherson of Strathmaisie, being
detained at Ruthven as pledges-Andrew Macpherson of Cluny
(Colonel Ewen's father), Angus of Invereshie, John in Drum-
mond, John of Noid, and Alexander Mackintosh in Pittowrie,
being old and unable to travel-were excused from appearing
before the synod. But others, such as Lachlan Mackintosh in
Pittowrie, John in Crathiemore, John Macpherson of Crathie,
Evan of Tirfadun, and William Shaw of Delnafert, "being
absent without excuse, were referred to the Presbytery of
Aberlour to process and censure them.'
Those who took part in the battle of Auldern were "ordained
further to make their repentance in sackcloth in the kirk of
Aldern."
Some, such as Donald Macqueen in Dunachton, the Mac-
phersons in Pitmean, Bealidmore, and Crubenbeg, and James
Shaw in Dunachton, "being found to have joined in bloody
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
337
•
the Highland clans, and were in occupation of con-
siderable territory in and about Braemar. Donald
Farquharson of Tulligermont, called the "Pride of
Braemar,” baillie to Huntly in Strathdee, Strathaven,
and Badenoch, was among the first to rise with Huntly
against the Covenanters. He and his clan had taken
part in the affair called the "Trot of Turriff" in 1639,
when the first blood was spilt in the struggle, and
were active in harassing the neighbouring Coven-
anting barons. [See under FARQUHARSONS.]
In 1646, after the dispersal of the royalist forces
at Philiphaugh, we find the various branches of Clan
Chattan ready again to join with Montrose, who never
wearied nor desponded in his master's cause.
This was
in connection with the "Engagement" contemplated
by the marquis before going abroad, and only
rendered abortive by the want of encouragement
given to it by the queen. Athole and Badenoch
(including, of course, the Macphersons) were to furnish
3000 men, Clan Gregor and Farquharsons 1200, and
Clan Chattan and Strathern men 1000.¹
fights, were ordained Sunday next to make their repentance in
sackcloth in the kirk of Calder. Thereafter these, with the
rest of the bloody enemies, shall compeare before the Presbytery
of Aberlaure and acknowledge their guiltiness. And upon the
6th day of February next they are ordained to make their re-
pentance in the kirk of Kingussie, and Mr. Lachlan Grant and
William Fraser are appointed to preach there and receive them ;
and after their repentance they are ordained to subscribe the
Covenant and League at Kingussie."
1 Napier's Memoirs of Montrose, ii. 653-4.
Ꮓ
Z
338
THE MACKINTOSHES
No history of any of the supporters of Montrose
would be complete without some mention of that
hero's later career and untimely end. After a rapid
and brilliant series of victories, broken at its close by
the disaster at Philiphaugh, Montrose was in Septem-
ber 1646 commanded by the king-who had shortly
before thrown himself on the protection of the
Scottish army arrayed against him-to lay down his
sword and secure his own safety abroad. He obeyed,
and soon heard in his home of exile strange and
terrible tidings. He heard first how the Covenanting
leaders had for ever dishonoured their country and his
by selling their king for gold.' Then arrived other
tidings not less alarming-of his master's captivity,
of the seizure of power by the army under Cromwell,
of the failure of the attempt made by the Scottish
Engagers" on the king's behalf, and finally, of the
close of the tragedy, the hurried trial at Westminster,
and the death-scene at Whitehall.
66
Resolved to "dedicate the remainder of his life to
the avenging the death of the royal martyr and
re-establishing the son upon his father's throne," "
1 "No man of candour," says Sir Walter Scott, "will pretend
to believe that the Parliament of England would ever have paid
this considerable sum (£200,000, half the amount due as arrears
of pay to the Scots army) unless to facilitate their obtaining
possession of the king's person; and this sordid and base
transaction, though the work exclusively of a mercenary army,
stamped the whole nation of Scotland with infamy."-Tales of a
Grandfather, ii. 70.
2 Wishart's Memoirs of Montrose, 337.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
339
Montrose in 1650 landed in the Northern Highlands
with a commission from Charles II. But fortune had
deserted him. With only the nucleus of an army,
and before he had advanced far into the country,
he was encountered and completely routed. Falling
into the hands of his mortal enemies, he could expect
neither mercy nor honourable treatment. Every indig-
nity that base and vindictive malice could devise was
heaped upon him; yet he bore all without a murmur,
and throughout the last scene of his life, when exposed
to the taunts and insults of exulting malevolence, he
bore himself with such dignity and courage as moved
even the rabble, many of whom had been assembled
to jeer at and maltreat him."
1
In 1648, during the brief tenure of power by the
moderate party in the Scots Parliament-the party
under whose auspices, in spite of Argyle's opposition,
the unfortunate "Engagement" for the king's release
was set on foot-Mackintosh was appointed governor
of Inverlochy Castle.2 But he did not long retain
this post, for in the following year Argyle resumed
1 From the accounts, printed in the Appendix to Wishart's
Memoirs, of the public funeral accorded to Montrose's remains
in 1661, we learn that the chief of Mackintosh was one of the
barons appointed "for relieving of those who carried the coffin
under the pale." The chief thus honoured was William Mackin-
tosh's son and successor.
2 Scots Acts, vi. 327—Act of 8th June 1648. "The Estates
do hereby commit the trust of the place of Innerloquhie to the
Laird of Mackintosh."
z 2
340
THE MACKINTOSHES
the reins of power and undid most of the work of his
predecessors, Mackintosh's appointment with the rest.¹
"In 1649 the course of things altered," says the
Kinrara MS., "that Act of Parliament was rescinded,
and Mackintosh's old enemies the Camerons again
supported and cherished." The Camerons, it may be
observed, though afterwards warm loyalists, had been
drawn by Argyle to his own side ten years previously;
and at this time their young chief, afterwards the
famous Sir Ewen, was his ward.
In 1650 the troubles of Scotland entered on a
new phase. The reception of Charles II. by all
parties in that country had the effect of rousing
the deadly wrath of Cromwell, who lost no time
in advancing to the north. After the battle of
Dunbar (Sept. 1650), which gave the English leader
command of the southern portion of Scotland,
Charles's situation became critical, and he made an
urgent appeal to those of his subjects who had not
as yet joined him. In a letter to Mackintosh and
his clan, dated from Perth on the 24th Dec. 1650,
"the second year of our reign," sending a copy of
an Act of Parliament passed on the preceding day
relative to the raising of men, he speaks of the
calamitous state of the country, and of the surrender
¹ Scots Acts, vi. 345-Act of 16th Jan. 1649, "repealing all
Acts of Parliament or Committee made for the late unlawful
Engagement and ratifying the Protestation and Opposition
against the same." Among other matters annulled is the
"commission to Mackintosch for ane garison to the house of
Innerlochie."
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
341
by treachery of Edinburgh Castle-the news of which
had probably just arrived when the letter was written,
—and declares his resolution either "to remedy and
recover these evils and losses, revenge what these
insolent enemys have cruelly and wickedly done,
vindicate the nation from the ignominy and reproach
it lies under," or to lay down his life in the under-
taking. He implores those to whom the letter is
addressed to rise at once to his and their country's
defence, adding that he is about to march to Stirling,
and will "make good that place till (they) come, or
die upon the place."
"; 1
On receiving this letter Mackintosh consulted with
the principal men of Clan Chattan, says the Kinrara
MS., and "determined now or never to exert his
whole influence for the king and country." But,
according to the MS. History, the enmity of Argyle
again met him and thwarted his endeavours. This
noble, as head of the great "Whig," or rigid Pres-
byterian party, had of course a leading voice in the
councils of the king, and a principal share in the
executive. The MS., speaking of the chiefs of the
two factions about Charles-the Duke of Hamilton
and the Marquis of Argyle-says that both professed
kindness and zeal for the king, but "the former was
most sincere ;" and that Argyle made every attempt
¹ This letter was one of several addressed in similar terms to
the chiefs and gentlemen who had been appointed by Act of
Parliament on the preceding day to the command of the various
regiments and clans to be raised.
342
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
to obtain for his own party the principal commands
in the army that was to be called out.
The complaint of the author of the MS. against
Argyle is grounded on the fact that his brother
was debarred the leadership of the whole of his
clan; and this is attributed to the crafty wish of
Argyle that the well-known attachment of the chief
of Mackintosh to the royal cause might be rendered
useless, as it could not be expected that the clan,
divided and placed under strangers, would serve with
such willingness and enthusiasm as if acting under their
natural leaders. Thus we find some of Mackintosh's
followers in Badenoch placed under Colonel James
Menzies, and others in Moray placed under the
Laird of Grant and the Sheriff of Moray. Mac-
kintosh himself is named in the Act only in con-
junction with two others as leaders for Badenoch-
"the Laird of Lochyell, Dougal M'Phersone, and
Laird of M'Intoshe or Lauchlane M'Intoshe his
brother for Badenoch."1
Mackintosh, hurt at the slight put upon him, and
anxious that his clan should be in a position to do
good service, addressed letters to the king and the
Convention of Estates, representing that of all the
Highland chiefs he alone was denied the government
of his clan, and entreating that he might be placed
1 Scots Acts, vi. 559-60. The Dougal Macpherson here men-
tioned, and already referred to in the note on p. 334, was
Macpherson of Powrie, a creature of Argyle's. He will require
further mention in the text.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
343
in the same position as his equals. These letters
received no attention; according to the MS. they
never reached their destination, being kept back
by Argyle, into whose hands they fell on their
arrival. But in March 1651 William had an oppor-
tunity of stating his case to General Middleton, then
at Inverness hastening the levies; and from this
officer he obtained a declaration to the effect that
although he, the hereditary chief of Clan Chattan,
had given the clearest testimony that he was willing
to obey the king's behests, he was yet unable, with-
out violating a recent statute, to comply with the
strong inclinations of his mind; and that therefore
he could not be held culpable in not furnishing such
supplies as would be expected if he had the same
authority as the other chiefs had over their own
people.
The consequence of the policy attributed in the
MS. to Argyle was that the object of that noble,
the rendering the clan useless to the king, was
gained. The strangers appointed to levy the men
in the various districts took money from those who
were unwilling to serve, and exacted military service
only from the mean and insignificant.¹
On the 3rd Sept. 1651 Charles sustained his
decisive defeat at Worcester, and after a few weeks
of romantic adventure and hairbreadth escapes found
refuge abroad. Taking advantage of the confusion
they expected to arise on Cromwell's assumption of
1 Kinr. MS.
?
THE MACKINTOSHES
344
supreme power, his enthusiastic adherents in Scotland
determined, in 1652, on again raising the royal
standard. A rising on the
A rising on the plan formerly followed
with so much success by Montrose was decided on,
and the command was entrusted to the Earl of
Glencairn, but was afterwards transferred to General
Middleton. The attempt met with but small success.
Glencairn, though a brave and devoted loyalist, was
deficient in military capacity, and dissensions arising
after the arrival of his successor, the force gradually
dwindled down until at last the small remnant
suffered a signal defeat at Loch Garry. Three
parties of Clan Chattan were engaged in this
rising. William Farquharson of Inverey, the leader
of one, attended the meeting at which the measure
was projected, and raised a strong troop from among
his own name. Another party consisted of the men
of Strathdearn and Strathnairn, under James Mac-
kintosh of Strone; and the third, of Badenoch men,
was under Lachlan Mackintosh of Kinrara.
((
During the whole period of the usurpation
Mackintosh, notwithstanding the defection of many,
continued so firmly attached to the king as to give
some of the English officers a pretext for taking
part with his enemies in Lochaber, the Clan Cameron."
This statement in the MS. History refers to circum-
stances which appear at greater length in the Memoirs
of Locheil. The 11th article of a treaty made in
May 1655 between Locheil and General Monk sets
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
345
1
forth "that the said General Monk shall keep the
Laird of Locheill free from any bygone duties to
William Mackintosh of Torcastle out of the lands
pertaining to him in Lochaber (not exceeding the
sum of five hundred pound sterling), the said Laird
of Locheill submitting to the determination of General
Monk, the Marquis of Argyle, and Colonel William
Bryan, or any two of them, what satisfaction he
shall give to Mackintosh for the aforesaid lands in
time coming." It will be seen that in this is a
plain acknowledgment of Mackintosh's right to the
lands in dispute; and it appears that Monk, in his
first attempts shortly before to induce Locheil to
submit, had by way of bribe offered to buy these
lands, Glenlui and Locharkaig, and to give them
to Locheil.² Agreeably with the terms of the treaty,
Monk satisfied Mackintosh's claims against Locheil
for the rents of preceding years, but difficulties
ensued with regard to the future. "The arbiters
had frequent meetings about it, as appears from
many of the general's letters, but Macintosh insisting
obstinately for the absolute property, and Locheill
being no less resolute to retain the possession, but
still willing to pay him a sum of money in con-
sideratione of his clame, the matter brock up, and
Macintosh applyed for a legall remedy. Locheill
was strongly supported by many of the great ones;
but as his antagonist had plainly the advantage of
him in point of law, so he was justly apprehensive
1 Memoirs of Locheil, 148.
2 Ibid. 110.
•
346
THE MACKINTOSHES
of being casten in the end, and judged it adviseable
to protract the time by taking another course.” 1
This course appears to have
of General Monk's good offices.
been the invocation
But although Monk
was willing to serve Locheil in everything that was
honourable, and had taken all the methods he could
think on to prevaill with Macintosh to accept of the
sume offered, yet he would not derogatt from his
integrity by influencing the judges in a matter which
the law ought to determine." He made an attempt,
however, to bring about a settlement by writing to
the judges on the 20th May 1659 concerning the
"business between the Laird of Locheil and the
Laird of Mackintosh, which has continued these
three hundred years in dispute," suggesting that
for the ending of the business and the peace of
the country the parties should be called upon to
name two persons to whose decision, and that of
another to be nominated by the judges, the question
should be referred; or that if the parties refused
to do this, the judges themselves should appoint
persons to settle the matter. But the national events
of the next year and the death of Mackintosh pre-
vented any immediate steps towards a settlement,
and nothing further appears to have been done
until 1661.
William died at Faillie on the 22nd Nov. 1660,
having lived long enough to see the restoration of
1 Memoirs of Locheil, 160-1.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
347
monarchy in Britain in the person of Charles II. He
was buried in the family burying-place at Petty.
His wife was Margaret, daughter of Graham of
Fintry-the house of which the famous Viscount
Dundee was a cadet-and left issue Lachlan, his
heir; William; Elizabeth, m. to Alexander Far-
quharson of Wardis or Wardhouse, afterwards, on
his brother's death, of Invercauld; and Jean, m.
to Andrew Spalding of Essintillie.
The character given of William by his brother in
the MS. History is that of a man distinguished for
piety, just and equitable in his conduct, faithful to
his word, of dignified behaviour and good manners.
He cultivated friendship with constancy and care,
and though his body was weak and sickly, his mind
was truly great."
348
THE MACKINTOSH ES
CHAPTER X.
Lachlan, 19th chief-The dispute with the Camerons; Recapitu-
lation of its origin and progress-Commission to Mackintosh
against the Camerons-Difficulties of Mackintosh with his
clan-Mackintosh and Locheil before the Privy Council—
Expedition into Lochaber, and Close of the Feud.
(19) LACHLAN. The new chief had just attained
the age of twenty-one years when his father died.
He had received the usual classical and philosophical
education of the period, first at the schools of Inver-
ness and Elgin, and afterwards at the universities of
Aberdeen and St. Andrew's. On account of his youth
and inexperience his uncle continued his management
of the clan and family affairs for a few years longer,
and this was all the more necessary as the dispute
with the Camerons seemed now to have arrived at
a crisis.
Before entering on a recital of the closing events
of this dispute it may be well to give a brief
recapitulation of its grounds and progress.
The lands of Glenlui and Locharkaig in Lochaber,
which had come to the Mackintoshes by the marriage
of the sixth chief with the heiress of Clan Chattan in
1291, had been occupied by the Camerons early in
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
349
the 14th century during Angus's absence. His son
William had demanded their restitution, and had
obtained a charter of them from the Lord of the Isles
in 1337, confirmed by King David Bruce in 1359.
The Camerons refusing to give up the lands, William
had endeavoured to eject them by force, and thus
commenced the feud which was waged for more than
three centuries with the utmost bitterness on both
sides.
An abortive arrangement had been made regarding
the lands during the minority of Allan Cameron of
Locheil in 1569;¹ and as we have seen in the pre-
ceding chapter, an agreement for nineteen years had
been entered into in 1598 by which Mackintosh
mortgaged half the lands to Locheil and his heirs for
6000 merks, and gave him occupation of the remain-
der for the service of the tenants. On the 27th Nov.
1616 the Lords of Council and Session decerned
and ordained Allan Cameron to "flit and remove"
from the lands and to give peaceable possession to
Mackintosh and his tenants.2 In 1622 Sir Lachlan
Mackintosh obtained a commission against Allan
Cameron, but his sudden death prevented its exe-
cution, and by the mediation of friends a treaty was
made and the dispute submitted to arbitration. The
arbitrators among whom were the Earl of Argyle
and Sir John Grants-decided that the lands belonged
1 See before, p. 278.
2 Scots Acts, vii. 295.
3 Grant, as tutor to Sir Lachlan's son, had expressed his
intention-though it is perhaps doubtful whether he really meant
350
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
to Mackintosh, but that he should pay to Locheil a
sum of money as compensation. Locheil however
cunningly shifted [i.e. evaded] the ratification, and
continued in possession until his title became once
more legal." The next step was the granting of a
wadset of the lands by Sir John Grant, William
Mackintosh's tutor, to John, eldest son of Allan of
Locheil. This was redeemed in 1637 by Mackintosh,
who in 1639 (5th March) obtained from the Lords of
Council and Session a decreet of removing against
Ewen Cameron, then a minor, and Donald his tutor,
decerning and ordaining the town and lands of
Glenluy, Locharkage, and others which was wadset
to the Laird of Freuchie to be dewlie, orderlie, and
lawfullie lowsed outquyte and redeemed fra Ewin
(c
to fulfil it-of carrying out the commission given to his brother-
in-law against the Camerons. In a petition to the Privy Council
dated 19 Dec. 1622 he mentions that Lord Gordon, in prosecu-
tion of a commission against the Earl of Caithness, was about to
demand the service of his tenants of the Clan Chattan on his
expedition, and to "begin his service about that same very tyme
that I intend to go fordwart agains Allane; " and adds that if
the Clan Chattan were compelled to go with Gordon, the com-
mission against Locheil would prove void, "because the Clan
Chattane are the specile personis upon whose assistance I rely,
seeing the actioun is in a maner ther awne, quhairunto I am
onlie accessorie in favour of my young sister sone thair chief.”
[Memoirs of Locheil, Appx. iv.] On the 30th July and 17 Dec.
1622 the Privy Council authorise Grant and others to confer
with Locheil anent his difference with Mackintosh and sub-
mission to the king. [Records, Acta penes Marchiarum &c. ii.
272, 274.]
1 Memoirs of Locheil, Author's Introd. p. 61.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
351
Cameron, and that it should be leisome to William
Mcintosh, his aries and assignayes, to have full and
free regress, accesse, and ingresse agane to the same
lands, and he (Ewin Cameron) to renunce and over-
give the same with all right, tytle, interesse, clame,
kyndnes, propertie, and possession he hes or may
pretend therto in favours of William Mcintosh, and
that in respect of William Mcintosh his consignation
of the sume of 18000 merks in the hands of James
Cuthbert of Drakies, then Provost of Invernes, con-
forme to ane contract of wodset past betwixt the
deceist John Grant of Freuchie and Sir Lachlane
Mcintosh, dated 12 January 1621."1 But this decreet
was as ineffectual as had been previous decreets and
agreements.
The state of matters at the death of William Mack-
intosh in 1660 has been described. In January
1661 a petition was presented to the Scots Parlia-
ment in the name of William's young successor, set-
ting forth "the heavy calamities he suffered by the
unjust and violent possession of the lands of Glenluy
and Locharkaig by the Camerons"; how that specially
"his deceased father during the space of twenty-four
years now bypast has lyen out of the proffeit of his
money and possession of his lands, and thereby his
said father in his own tyme and now the said suppli-
cant and remanent children are redacted to ane verie
hard condition, haveing little or nothing to live upon,
the rest of his lands being lyverented by his mother."
1 Scots Acts, vii. 297.
352
THE MACKINTOSHES
It was therefore petitioned that a warrant might be
granted for the appearance of Ewen Cameron of
Locheil before Parliament in order that he might be
decerned to put Mackintosh in peaceable, actual, and
corporal possession of the lands, to denude himself
omni habili modo, and to find sufficient caution that
Mackintosh's tenants and servants should be harmless
and skaithless in the peaceable possession of the said
lands in time coming under such pains as our
Sovereign Lord's Commissioner's Grace and Estates
of Parliament should ordain.¹
According to the Memoirs of Locheil,2 Mackintosh
¹ Scots Acts, vii. 295-7.
2 p. 174. In the Appendix to the Memoirs is given a memo-
randum supposed to have been written by Lauderdale, entitled,
"The True Information of the respective Deportments of the
Laird of Makintoshe and of Evan Cameron of Lochzeild in
reference to the late Unnatural Warrs." The 1st item relates
that "Makintoshe, in the intestine warrs, although hee was unable
for the fields, yet he assisted the king's cause by his kinsmen and
followers according to his power, for 300 or thereabouts of the
specialliste of his kinsmen, vassals, and tenants were constantly
with Montrose and were the first family in Scotland that joyned
with him in that service, and stayed constantly with him till hee
departed the kingdome." The 2nd item mentions Mackintosh's
"sufferings for the king's cause "-the burning and harrying of
his lands in Brae Lochaber by Argyle in 1639 and 1645, the
harrying of his tenants in Badenoch by the Frasers in 1646 for
their adherence to Montrose, and the retention of his lands of
Glenluy and Locharkaig by the Camerons, encouraged by those
then in authority. The 3rd and last item refers to Mackintosh's
deportment and sufferings during the usurpation, and men-
tions his refusal to take the tender, to be a Justice of the Peace
under the usurpers, or to rise against the king in 1655-though
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
353
(6
was encouraged on this occasion by the Earl of Lau-
derdale and his party, and supported by the Earl of
Wemyss, "from whose family the Mackintoshes say
they are descended." The case was referred to the
Commissioners appointed for Bills," but the petition,
being opposed vigorously by the Earl of Middleton,
then Lord High Commissioner, and his party, seemed
to have small chance of success. After a delay of
some months, the opportunity of that noble's absence
in England, with Glencairn the Chancellor, another
of Locheil's friends, was taken by Mackintosh's sup-
porters principally the Earls of Rothes and Crawford
-to press matters; and on the 5th July 1661 an
Act was passed ordaining Ewen Cameron of Locheil
"to repossess Lauchlan M'intosh in the lands of
Glenluy and Locharkage and the pertinents thereof,
and for that effect to put him in the peaceable,
actuall, and corporall possession of the same, and
to denude himself thereof omni habili modo in
favours of the said Lauchlan M'intosh, and als
the said Ewen Cameron to find presentlie suffi-
cient caution to the Clerk of Register or his
deputs that he shall noways trouble nor molest the
said Lauchlan or his tennents in the possession
tempted by a promise of the restoration of his estate in Locha-
ber, also his being crossed by the English in his lawsuits
because he refused to hold any communication with them. After
each of the three articles follows one contrasting Locheil's be-
haviour in assisting Argyle, receiving rewards and honours from
the usurpers, &c,
A A
4
354
THE MACKINTOSHES
of the lands, and that under the paine of 20,000
merks." 1
Mackintosh, desirous of leaving no stone unturned
in the prosecution of his claims, seems to have insti-
tuted proceedings before the Lords of Session in
addition to those before the Parliament. This course
was taken no doubt in consequence of a claim by the
Court of Session to have the case before themselves,²
the settlement of it by Parliament, except on an
appeal from their decision, being out of course and
amounting to an encroachment on their privileges
and jurisdiction. Their decision was still pending
when Lauderdale's party, taking advantage of the
absence of the Commissioner and Chancellor, obtained
the passing of the Act just mentioned; and now a
further delay ensued on the receipt by their Lord-
ships of a letter from the Chancellor forbidding them
to give any decision until the king's pleasure should
1 Scots Acts, vii. 295-9; Privy Council Register-Acta, 1661-7,
287; Kinr. MS.; Memoirs of Locheil, 175. This "Act and
Decreit in favours of Lauchlan M'intosh of Torecastle against
Ewin Cameron of Lochyeld "-which occupies eight columns of
the Record Commission's folio edition of the Scots Acts-after
reciting at length the petition given in by Mackintosh, goes on
to refer to the various acts and decrees of the Privy Council and
other tribunals in connection with the dispute since 1616, and
to state the various pleadings which had been delivered on each
side before the Parliament. Mackintosh had "compeared per-
sonally with Mr. George Mackenzie advocat, his procurator "—
afterwards the distinguished king's advocate.
2 "This Court [of Session] claimed the cognisance of Locheil's
affair, and were seconded by the Commissioner and Chancellor."
Memoirs of Locheil, 175.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
355
1
be signified to them, his majesty having "proposed a
way for composing the difference between Mackintosh
and Locheil." This was communicated to the Privy
Council and the Parliament, and proceedings were
stayed for about a year.
The king's proposition was to settle the dispute
by compromise, a method which had been tried be-
fore without success. According to the Memoirs of
Locheil, his majesty in a private audience assured the
Cameron chief that, while he would not interfere with
the law and private right, neither his (Locheil's) life
nor estate should be in danger while he could save
them. He wrote to the Privy Council authorising
them to endeavour to effect a compromise, and also
to the Lord High Commissioner. The letter to Mid-
dleton, dated at Hampton Court on the 30th May
1662, speaks of the point of law or right, in which
the king will not meddle, as already determined; and
enjoins the Commissioner to "endeavour so to settle
and agree the parties as the peace of those parts be
not disturbed."
2
In July 1662 Mackintosh obtained from the Privy
Council a decreet against Locheil and his clan requir-
ing them to remove from the disputed lands, and
petitioned the Council for a commission of fire and
sword to enable him to enforce it. But he was foiled
for a time by the continued opposition of Middleton
and Glencairn. These nobles represented that the
1 Memoirs of Locheil, 176.
2
Privy Council Register-Acta, 1661-7, 287.
A A 2
356
THE MACKINTOSHES
His ill-judged severities
granting of such a Commission would not only prevent
the carrying out of the king's views, but, as the clans
were old and deadly enemies of no small power and
interest with their neighbours, would probably set the
whole of the Highlands in a flame.¹ Middleton's star,
however, was on the wane.
in many instances, and his unseemly and scandalous
behaviour even in the exercise of his high duties,² had
excited the disgust of Clarendon and the king's other
principal advisers, who communicated their feeling
to Charles himself. Lauderdale's influence was also
exerted against him, and the end was that he was
sent as governor to Tangiers, his more able and crafty
opponent succeeding to his place in the royal favour.
The Earl of Rothes, one of Lauderdale's party, was
appointed Commissioner in the Session of Parliament
commencing on the 18th June 1663, and Mackintosh
took advantage of his friends' accession to power to
renew his petition for a Commission against Locheil-
this time with success. On the 25th August a Royal
Commission was issued to James, Marquis of Montrose,
the Earls of Caithness, Moray, Athole, Errol, Marischal,
Mar, Dundee, Airlie, and Aboyne, the Lairds of Plus-
cardine, Kilcoy, Struan Robertson, Inchbreakie, Mac-
lean of Lochbuy, Mackintosh, and others, "to pursue
1 Kinr. MS.; Memoirs of Locheil, 182.
2 According to contemporary writers he was an inveterate
drunkard, and Kirkton (Hist. of the Church of Scotland, 159) says
that his death was caused by his falling down stairs on two
different occasions when in a state of intoxication.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
357
with fire and sword, besiege, apprehend as rebels and
traitors, Evan Cameron of Locheil, Donald Cameron,
tutor of Locheil, Evan Cameron alias McEan Vodich,
Dougal Oig McCoull vic Allaster, and others, tenants
of the said Evan of Locheil, because the said Evan
had not obeyed the terms of a decreet by the Lords of
Privy Council at the instance of Lauchlan M'Intosh
of Torcastle, ordaining the said Evan Cameron to re-
possess the said Lauchlan M'Intosh in the lands of
Glenlowy and Locharkag, and to find security in
20000 merks that he would not molest the said
Lauchlan or his tenants in the said lands, which
decreet was dated 5th July 1661, on which the said
Lauchlan raised letters of horning against the said
Evan, executed on 23rd September of the same year;
neither did he obey a decreet of removing by the said
Lords, at the instance of the said Lauchlan, dated
July 1662; nor did he compear before the Lords in
answer to their summons first on 31 July 1662, and
then on 13 August 1663, then on the date of this
commission, 25 August 1663." At the same time
Letters of Concurrence and Intercommuning, proceed-
ing on the narrative of the Commission, were issued
against Locheil and his clan, charging the lieges in
the shires of Inverness, Ross, Nairn, and Perth, and
especially "the Laird of Mackintosh his kin and friends
of the name of Clan Chattan," that they "all boddin
in feir of weir" assist the said Commissioners in the
pursuit and apprehension of Evan Cameron and his
¹ Privy Council Register-Acta, 1661-7, 287.
1
¹
·
358
THE MACKINTOSHES
tenants, &c., who are convocated in arms against his
majesty's authority.'
1
To all appearance Mackintosh had now the game
in his own hands. "One would now think," says
the author of Locheil's Memoirs, "that when near
one half of the kingdome was armed against a
private gentleman and his family, it was scarcely in
the power of fortune to save them from utter ruine,
especially when that power was to be conducted by
ane enemy who was become implacable on account
of the losses, affronts, and disappointments that he
and his ancestours had received att the hands of the
persons whom he was to attack. But we shall see
that Providence had ordered matters otherways."
Immediately after obtaining the Commission, Mac-
kintosh left Edinburgh for the north, calling on such
of the Commissioners associated with him as lived on
his route. From Dunachton he wrote to others, and
made long journeys for the purpose of employing per-
sonal persuasion. But his labour had small reward.
To most of the persons named as Commissioners the
question whether Mackintoshes or Camerons should
possess certain lands in remote Lochaber was of no
interest whatever; while others were disposed, from
party feeling or jealousy of Mackintosh, to favour
Locheil. One phase of the opposition encountered
by Mackintosh seems to show that the requirements of
clanship were beginning to be regarded as contrary to
¹ Privy Council Register--Acta, 1661-7, 292; Kinr. MS.;
Memoirs of Locheil, 183.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
359
the social circumstances of an improving civilization.
Many of the men who as clansmen were bound to
follow him happened to be tenants of neighbouring
barons, such as Athole, Calder, and Kilravock. These
clansmen, wishing to attend their chief, were pre-
vented by their landlords, who, as the writer of the
MS. History puts it, "showed the greatest insolence
and cruelty to the Clan Chattan living under them
that wished to accompany Mackintosh to Lochaber."
1
In fine, of all the nobles and gentlemen of the four
shires from which Mackintosh was to obtain aid, only
four gentlemen, and those connections of his family,
came to him in person. They were John Grant of
Rothimurcus, William Forbes of Skellater, David
Ross of Urchany, and John Campbell of Auchindoun.'
Among neighbouring chiefs, Seaforth and Grant were
distinctly opposed to Mackintosh, but several of their
principal clansmen, as Pluscardine, Lochslin, Red-
castle, and Kilcoy, among the Mackenzies, and Elchies
and Gartinbeg among the Grants, were inclined to
favour him, and only restrained their inclination to
assist him actively in deference to their chiefs.
In the long list given in the Kinrara MS. of those
who did not concur with the chief we see the names
of some whose families, in days not very far bygone,
had profited by the friendship and aid of the Mackin-
toshes, and in more than one case had received such
¹ Grant and Forbes had married daughters of William Mac-
kintosh of Killachie, and Ross and Campbell were related to
Mackintosh himself on his mother's side.
•
:
THE MACKINTOSHES
360
useful service as could scarcely ever be repaid. It is
pleasant, however, to find one instance of gratitude,
and that apparently of a purely spontaneous charac-
ter. Between the Earls of Sutherland and the chiefs
of Mackintosh a close friendship had for some
time subsisted. As we have seen, Lachlan Mor
Mackintosh had taken part on the Sutherland side
in the quarrel with the Earl of Caithness; and
the MS. mentions "certain services" performed by
Sir Lachlan to the father of George the 18th Earl.
This nobleman, although not mentioned in the Com-
mission, "in memory of these services" sent Mackin-
tosh 180 armed men and supplies of necessaries for
the campaign.
Though baffled by his neighbours, Mackintosh was
still bent on carrying his designs into effect. He had
no reason to doubt the loyalty of his own clan; and
he accordingly resolved to prosecute his commission
with their aid alone and that of the few friends and
neighbours who had promised to act with him. "He
believed," says the Kinrara MS., " that his own clan
in a short time would either reduce the Clan Cameron
to due obedience or wholly extirpate them."
But here he met with additional and more grievous
disappointment. There can be little doubt that if
the whole body of Clan Chattan had followed their
captain into Lochaber, the position of Locheil would
have been at least embarrassing. But the Macphersons
of Cluny, with their large following, were becoming
almost a clan apart from Clan Chattan, and in spite
·AND CLAN CHATTAN.
361
of the strict band of 1609, were chary of doing
anything which might seem to imply an acknow-
ledgment of Mackintosh as their head; while "Lo-
cheil, who neglected nothing that he deemed proper
for his interest, had so artfully managed matters with
the leading men of the Mackintoshes by secret agents
that their chief was surprised and confounded to find
them so divided in their opinions and refractory to
his commands that two-thirds of them refused to
follow him."1 So the account of the Camerons, but
the Kinrara MS. says nothing of Locheil's intrigues;
in fact, being secretly conducted, the writer could
scarcely be expected to know of them. Only once
does he suggest that there was any understanding
between Locheil and some of the leading men of
Clan Chattan. Speaking of the arrangement in 1664,
he says that his nephew, apprehending some collusion
between Locheil and these men, by whose influence
alone he had agreed to the disadvantageous terms of
the arrangement, determined to try their fidelity by
asking them separately if they would accompany him
in the autumn.
Intrigue with the Mackintoshes was not the only
method which Locheil adopted to avert the threatened
invasion. In April 1664, while his opponent was
waiting only for the arrival of Sutherland's force to
march into Lochaber, he sent to the Earl and the
Bishop of Moray and others, soliciting their mediation
and professing his readiness to come to terms so as to
1 Memoirs of Locheil, 184.
362
THE MACKINTOSHES
avoid the shedding of blood. His desire was simply
to gain time. The Earl of Moray, a friend of both
Argyle and Locheil, and the others whose mediation
had been invoked, succeeded in bringing the con-
tending chiefs to a verbal agreement. On the 7th
May, Mackintosh, supported by Moray, Mackenzie of
Pluscardine, Alexander Cuthbert, Provost of Inver-
ness, and 500 men, took up his station on the Haugh
at Inverness, on the east side of the river. Opposite
them, between the river and Tomnahurich, were
Locheil and his supporters, Lord Lovat, Alexander,
tutor of Lovat, Hugh Cameron of Strone, and a force
of 300 men. The Bishop of Moray and the Laird of
Altyre acted as mediators, crossing and recrossing
the river to consult with the respective principals.
At last an arrangement was decided upon, to which
Mackintosh was compelled by the attitude of some of
his principal clansmen to yield a reluctant assent.
Under this arrangement he was to pass from all his
former losses and damages, and to sell and dispone the
hereditary right and freehold of Glenluy and Loch-
arkaig to the Earl of Argyle.¹ He declined absolutely,
and it must be admitted somewhat vexatiously, to
make the sale to Locheil.2
1 This was the son of the Marquis of the preceding chapter;
and in 1663 had been restored to the titles and estates of his
grandfather; his father's titles, including that of Marquis,
having been forfeited on his conviction and execution for high
treason in 1661.
2 The particulars of this arrangement are taken mainly from
the Rev. Lachlan Shaw's MS. History of the Mackintoshes.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
363
For the fulfilment of his part-that he would give
peaceable possession, &c.-Locheil was to find security
within a month. This he failed to do; and having
gained his object in warding off the impending in-
vasion, "whether from a deliberate intention to
violate his faith, or, as was generally reported, from
the persuasion of the Earl of Argyle and the Laird
of Glenurchy, he retracted his promises." On this,
Mackintosh determined to act on his commission as
soon as possible, and called on the refractory members
of his clan to accompany him.
1
Autumn had now arrived, and prompt action was
necessary if anything was to be done that year.
The chief's negotiations with his clansmen, however,
occupied him till the middle of winter, when a march
into Lochaber was out of the question. His prime
difficulty was with Andrew Macpherson of Cluny,
who at length offered to accompany him on three
conditions-that the heads of the Macphersons should
always hold the next place in the clan to the chiefs of
Mackintosh; that all lands then in possession of the
Mackintoshes which had at any time been held by
the Macphersons should be restored to them; and
that Mackintosh should give a written acknowledg-
ment that the assistance he received from Cluny was
not of the nature of service which he had a right to
The Kinrara MS. mentions it, with the mode in which it was
brought about, but no reference is made to it in the Memoirs of
Locheil.
1 Kinr. MS.
364
THE MACKINTOSHES
demand, but simply of goodwill, and what one
neighbour might render to another.
The answers to these articles were easily given.
To the first it was answered that the bestowal of
honours and places of dignity is not to be assumed
by any subject, and that no subject below the rank
of a baronet could demand as a right any pre-
eminence over others, although such might be
allowed out of civility on account of personal
worth, extraction, hereditary rank, or power.¹ To
the second the reply was that none of the Mac-
phersons had ever been violently deprived of their
possessions, and that therefore none of the Mac-
kintoshes could hold these unjustly; but that they
would be willing to give up such possessions for
the money expended in acquiring them, and on the
return under similar conditions of the lands they
had ever possessed which were in the hands of
Macphersons. The third article, which implied that
Mackintosh should resign his right as Captain of the
whole Clan Chattan, the writer of the MS. History
says his nephew at one time thought of " treating
with the neglect and contempt it merited." But
"that persons who were strangers to the mutual
obligations between Mackintosh and
Mackintosh and the Clan
Chattan might not be led to think the demand
supported by reason, and especially as the present
¹ Sir Æneas Macpherson in his MS. adds that Mackintosh
stated that to Cluny already belonged the command of the
right in battle and of the vanguard of the clan on the march.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
365
state of his affairs required the calm proceedings
of reason rather than the dictates of heated passion,
Mackintosh judged proper to give a strong and
striking reply to which no argument could be
opposed." This reply was founded on the fact-
apparent from public records, charters, and deeds,
and from various written and printed histories of
Scotland-that the chiefs of Mackintosh had been
publicly esteemed and designated chiefs of the Clan
Chattan; on the circumstance, too, that in 1609
all the leading men of the clan, including Andrew,
grandfather of him who made the demand under
answer, had bound themselves to follow the chief
of Mackintosh as their
their chief; consequently, for
Mackintosh to declare himself no longer chief of
the Macphersons would be to declare himself no
longer chief of the rest, a proceeding not only
disgraceful to himself and his family, but detrimental
to the whole Clan Chattan.'
None of the principals of the Macphersons but
two, says the Kinrara MS., went with Cluny in
these demands. "Several chose rather to keep aloof
until some agreement should be arrived at than bring
disgrace on him, as they thought, by testifying their
strong disapprobation of the articles he proposed;
and John Macpherson of Invereshie went so far as
to require their withdrawal, and to declare that in
any case his own branch and that of Pitmean should
continue to own to and follow Mackintosh.
¹ Kinr. MS.; Macpherson MS.
But
366
THE MACKINTOSHES
conditions" were now so much the rule that even
Invereshie's outspoken profession of adherence to
Mackintosh was modified by one-that William
Mackintosh of Borlum¹ should give up his lands
of Raits for a sum equivalent to that paid for them
by his grandfather.
Mackintosh next set himself to procure a solemn
renewal by the clan of the band of 1609. His request
was met on all sides, even among his own name, by
attempts at evasion or demands of exorbitant con-
ditions. The Macphersons of Badenoch testified their
willingness to subscribe the band if the principal men
of the Mackintoshes would do so first. Alexander
Mackintosh of Connage refused to do anything unless
the chief would persuade his uncle, Angus of Daviot,
to give up to him the lands of Daviot, he having
obtained the reversion of the mortgage held by
Angus. William of Killachie would only subscribe
if Connage did so; and Donald Macqueen of Corri-
brough refused to sign unless Killachie were induced
to give up his right to Ravochbeg, which had beer
wadsetted by Donald's grandfather.
After the lapse of a few months Mackintosh
overcame these difficulties. At a meeting near the
kirk of Kincardine in Strathspey, on the 19th Nov.
¹ Grandson of the William who had signalised himself as
tutor to his nephew Sir Lachlan about fifty years previously.
The lands of Raits-on which stood Raits Castle, a ruined
stronghold of the Comyns, and where now stands the mansion of
Belleville, occupied by James Macpherson of Ossianic celebrity—
had been acquired by this William by purchase from the Gordons.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
367
1664, all the leading men of Clan Chattan, including
Cluny, signed a renewal of the band. Cluny and
Connage, however, still refused to do anything more;
they signed the band with the reservation that
they should not accompany Mackintosh against the
Camerons unless he agreed to the stipulations they
had previously propounded; and thus, so far as they
were concerned, the chief found his object in renewing
the band defeated.
During the progress of the negotiations between
Mackintosh and his clansmen, several successful raids
were made by the Camerons into the Clan Chattan
country. Mackintosh retaliated by despatching a small
but select force, "twenty vigorous youths," to Lochaber
for the purpose of capturing some of the principal
persons against whom his Commission was issued,
in order that he might force Locheil into compliance
with his demands by detaining these persons prisoners
and threatening their lives. His small force lay for
some time in the Lochabrian wilds, but their only
success consisted in the slaughter of "two of the
enemy," as the Kinrara MS. styles them; or as
the Cameron account has it, they "returned home
with the poor satisfaction of killing two cowherds
whom they met by accident." The failure of this
project is stated in the Memoirs of Locheil to have
brought about Mackintosh's resolve to reconcile him-
self with his clan at any price, even by complying
with their most exorbitant demands.¹
1
¹ Memoirs of Locheil, 184; Kinr. MS.
368
THE MACKINTOSHES
The majority of Clan Chattan having at last agreed
to support their captain, it behoved Locheil to adopt
further measures for averting the execution of the
commission against him. "He had so far insinuated
himself into the favour of many of the leading lords of
the Parliament and Privy Council, that he in January
1665 procured an order, subscribed by the Duke of
Rothes, Commissioner to the Parliament, commanding
Mackintosh to attend them at Edinburgh, and discharg-
ing him to put his commission of fire and sword in
execution till the pleasure of the Councill was further
made known.” 1 Mackintosh obeyed, though not
without complaint.
He was desired to remain in
Edinburgh until the arrival of Locheil, and thus the
months of January and February passed.
On Locheil's arrival the case was considered by the
Privy Council, both parties being present. The
king's letter, already noticed, having been read, the
Chancellor made a speech to the effect that his
majesty's royal zeal for the welfare and happiness
of his people, and his particular commands to his
Parliament and Council to endeavour to end the
dispute so that the public peace might not be
disturbed, could not fail to have due influence
on persons so well affected to their sovereign as
Mackintosh and Locheil, or to dispose them to agree
to such measures as should seem agreeable to jus-
tice and the wisdom of the Council. He therefore
put the question whether they would submit their
1
¹ Memoirs of Locheil, 185.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
369
controversy to the Council's arbitration, and received
from each an affirmative answer.
Two days afterwards another conference was held,
and another speech was made by the Chancellor.
The Council, he said, having informed themselves of
the value of the estate and the particulars of the dis-
pute, after due deliberation were of opinion that it was
desirable that the lands should be sold by Mackintosh,
and that an equitable price should be agreed upon-
in deciding which regard should be had not only to
the yearly rental, but to the considerations that the
lands had been long occupied by the Camerons and
that they lay contiguous to the rest of Locheil's
property, but distant from that of Mackintosh ;—that
although Mackintosh had the better in point of law,
this proceeded rather from advantages arising out of
the misfortunes of Locheil's family or the public
confusion of the state than from any preference of
natural right or title yet heard of; that Locheil's
continued possession seemed to have given him
priority of claim on that score; and finally, that as
it was believed the Clan Cameron, whatever their
chief might do, would never allow any but them-
selves to inhabit these lands in peace, it was for the
public good that the adjustment he had proposed
should be carried out.
Mackintosh, we are not surprised to learn," heard
this speech with great indignation." To have spent
nearly five years-first in obtaining a declaration
of his rights, and powers to enforce them, then in
B B
370
THE MACKINTOSHES
working hard to obtain the support of his neighbours
and of his own refractory clansmen,—to have in the
end overcome nearly all difficulties, and then to find
all his labour thrown away, was certainly enough to
try severely the patience of a far more meek and
long-suffering man. But, bad as matters were to
him, "he could not make a better of the case, as
it then stood "¹; and accordingly, seeing the Council
unanimous, he consented to take the question of price
into consideration.
1
Frequent meetings, with "great number of friends
and lawers on both sides," were held, but with little
prospect of an agreement. A third time the two
principals were called before the Council, when the
Chancellor, backed by the rest of the members,
proposed 72,000 merks, which he considered a just
medium between the demand of the one and the offer
of the other, should be paid to Mackintosh for his
claim. "A naughty inconsiderate rate," the Kinrara
MS. calls the sum, and the author of Locheil's
Memoirs says that "Mackintosh was so far from
consenting that he could not even hear what was
said with patience."
Giving up all hope now of getting the matter settled
to his satisfaction, the fiery young man resolved to
return home and do himself justice. He prepared for
an immediate and secret removal from Edinburgh, but
was not successful in eluding the vigilance of his ad-
versaries. He was setting out when he was arrested
1 Memoirs of Locheil, 186.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
371
and detained under an order from the Privy Council
until he should give security for the peaceable
behaviour of himself and his clan. Recent dealings
with his clan, however, had shown him that he
would scarcely be warranted in finding caution for
all, and he seems to have conceived also that it was
possible to evade the order. He therefore arranged
that he should be bound only for his own tenants,
and that in consideration of this limitation he would
refrain from any breach of the peace and from raising
troops for a time-a whole year according to Locheil's
Memoirs, but according to the Kinrara MS., and
more probably, only until the end of the summer
of 1665.
The months of May, June, and July were spent by
him in improving the good understanding he had
come to with some of his refractory clansmen, and
in endeavouring to secure the aid of those who still
held out, especially of Cluny. He had decided to
make a sudden descent on Lochaber in August; but
although, to prevent obstruction, he communicated
his intention only to a select few, it was by some
means divulged. The MS. charges Killachie and
Connage, who had already given their chief much
trouble and were suspected of having dealt with
Locheil, with disclosing the intention to the Earl
of Moray, and suggesting to that noble the means of
frustrating it; but according to Locheil's Memoirs
this was done by Locheil himself, who "being not
ignorant of what past, in order to perplex his
BB 2
372
THE MACKINTOSHES
antagonist wrote to his friend the Earl of Murray,
sheriff principall of Inverness-shyre, to hold his
circuit courts in Badenoch and other places where
the Macintoishes, Macphersons, and their followers
lived, and to order such of them as were his vassalls
to attend." Moray entered into the scheme, and
refusing a request by Mackintosh that he would
postpone his circuit, both he and the chief set out
on the same day, the 10th August, for Strathspey.
Notwithstanding the numbers who attended Moray,
Mackintosh's summons was promptly and well re-
sponded to by his clan. His first muster at the Kirk
of Insh comprised 400 men, chiefly from Strathdearn
and Strathnairn, and including 25 Farquharsons
under William of Inverey. He was soon joined by
others, by Grant of Rothimurcus and Forbes of
Skellater (both already mentioned in connection with
the proceedings in 1663), John Mackintosh of Forter
in Glenisla, and George Farquharson of Brouch-
dearg in Glenshee-these raising his force to about
500 men.
Killachie and Connage, with others of the clan who
had attended Moray,2 seeing that their chief was bent
on invading Lochaber, and being desirous of main-
taining his honour, yet at the same time apprehensive
of trouble in case he might be acting illegally, thought
¹ Memoirs of Locheil, 188; Kinr. MS.
2 It is not to be inferred that all of the Clan Chattan who
attended Moray were opposed to their chief, many of them being
compelled by the conditions under which they held their estates
to accompany the earl in certain progresses and courts.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
373
it desirable to bring about a meeting between him
and the earl. A meeting accordingly took place on
the 17th August at Ruthven, and proved so satis-
factory that on the following day Moray announced
his intention of returning home, having finished his
courts in Badenoch, and of allowing such of his
vassals as belonged to Clan Chattan to accompany their
captain. These, after seeing him home, were to
return to Mackintosh by the 24th.
Before leaving Badenoch Mackintosh was induced
by some of his advisers to consent to an arrangement
with Cluny, under which Cluny was to go with him
into Lochaber in consideration of a hundred pounds
sterling-Mackintosh at the same time agreeing to
accept the aid of the Macphersons as that of friends
and neighbours. This was on the 21st August. A
previous proposal of Cluny's, that Mackintosh should
prevail on Killachie to sell him the lands of Farr
at the price originally paid for them by Killachie's
uncle, was found to be impracticable, Killachie
refusing to entertain it.
To avoid breaking the thread of the narrative
further on, it may be well to state here the result of
the negotiations with Cluny on this occasion. Pay-
ment of the £100 was deferred until Mackintosh's force
was within a day's march of Lochaber. It was made
at Kiltyre on the 12th Sept., when, the Kinrara MS.
says, many unbecoming and preposterous requests
were made by Andrew Macpherson of Cluny, some
of them complied with, others not." The Macpherson
66
374
THE MACKINTOSHES
MS. History, mentioning the granting of the bond
for £100, for which Aldourie was cautioner, is more
specific. It states that Mackintosh had agreed in
August to the third of the original proposals of Cluny,
and that at Kiltyre he gave a declaration accordingly,
as follows:
"I Lachlan McIntoshe of Torcastle doe declair that Andrew
McPherson of Cluny, Lachlan McPherson of Pitmean, and John
McPherson of Invereshie, and their friends and followers, have
out of their meer good will and pleasure joined with me at this
tyme for recovering of my lands of Glenluy and Locharkaig from
the Clan Cameron and other violent possessors thereof (according
to the king's commissione granted for that effect), and therefore
I Bind and Oblige me and my friends and followers to assist,
fortifie, and join with the saids Andrew, Lachlan, and John
McPhersones in all their lawfull and necessar adoes, being
thereto required by these Subsct. at Kyltire the twelft day of
September 1665 years by me befor thir witnesses, Alexr.
McIntoshe of Connadge, Alexr. McIntoshe, notar publick in
Inverness, and William McIntoshe of Corribroch.”
That Mackintosh should have given such a declara-
tion, after having so emphatically refused the con-
cession in the previous year, only shows how strongly
he was bent on carrying his quarrel with Locheil to a
favourable issue, and how severe his mortification
must have been when after all he was forced to come
to terms.
On the 24th August the clansmen who were to
have been sent by Moray did not arrive, nor did
Killachie and Connage, both of whom had promised
"by their great oath" to return on that day. Re-
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
375
moving on the 25th to Laggan in Badenoch, Mackin-
tosh was joined by the Macphersons, and by Charles
Farquharson of Monaltrie with twelve men. At
Kyllarchile on the 27th he received letters from
Moray, Killachie, and Connage, accounting for the
non-fulfilment of their engagements. It appears that
after quitting Badenoch the earl had received notice
of a threatened attack on Inverness by a force under
Macdonald of Keppoch, and had hastened to the town
to prevent mischief. In the letters from his two kins-
men Mackintosh was urged to go at once to Strath-
errick, leaving his men and baggage that he might
travel expeditiously, to speak with the earl on weighty
business. Though impatient at the protracted delay,
he was induced by the alleged importance of the
business to comply; but he determined to take part
of his force and to proceed into Lochaber direct from
Stratherrick. He accordingly appointed a rendezvous
at Abertarff for those whom he left in Badenoch, and
set out to meet Moray. On the 30th August he
arrived at Dalchaple with banner displayed, and on
the next day received a visit from his kinsmen of
Killachie, Connage, Aberarder, and Corribrough, who,
after setting forth the hazards and disadvantages of
the step he was taking, and the desirableness of
getting rid of the Lochaber lands on good terms,
made an offer of 100,000 merks for the lands on
Moray's behalf. On finding that he had been brought
to Stratherrick only to hear this, Mackintosh
flew into a violent passion, declaring that he had no
376
THE MACKINTOSH ES
औ
intention whatever of alienating his inheritance, and
that even were such an act necessary he would
never accept so despicable a consideration.
It soon appeared that, whatever the issue of his
offer which the author of the Kinrara MS., who
was present, believes was made on behalf of Argyle¹—
Moray was desirous of procuring a truce for a few
days, Locheil having written to him with that object.
He had also a letter from the High Commissioner,
Rothes, desiring that Mackintosh would keep the
peace till they could talk together. The chief's choler
was too great for any letter to affect his resolution,
yet for other reasons, arising out of the delays which
had taken place-delay being at any time disastrous to
a Highland force-he found it necessary to consent to
a suspension of hostilities till the 11th September. He
took steps, however, to be ready for action at the
end of the truce. Parties were despatched to bring
in such of the clan as either had not before taken
the field or had returned home; also to provide
necessaries for the campaign. Mackintosh himself,
with his principal supporters and a body of 200
men, moved to Glendo, near the south-western end
of Loch Ness, and within easy distance
Lochaber.
of
On the 11th September, having been joined by the
whole of his force, he found himself in command of
more than 1500 men, among whom were some of the
1 Argyle was proposed as security for the payment of the
price, and one of his clan was in company with the deputies.
AND CLAN CHATTAN,
377
Macdonalds of Brae Lochaber; and at last he entered
the enemy's country.
After the
Meanwhile Locheil had not been idle.
ill-success of Moray's proposals in Stratherrick he
saw that the issue now lay between himself and
Mackintosh alone, and he took steps accordingly.
Appointing a muster of his clan near Achnacarry,
he soon found himself at the head of about 1200
men, including besides his own clan a small party
of the Clan Ian of Glencoe soon to acquire a
lamentable notoriety-and a few Macgregors. The
greater part of this force was armed with guns, but
about 300 men had only those weapons for which
Major Dalgetty expressed his contempt-bows and
arrows. These "quivered Numidians," we learn
from Locheil's Memoirs, were the last considerable
body of bowmen seen in the Highlands.
On the 12th Sept. Mackintosh was met by John
Campbell younger of Glenurchy, afterwards the well-
known first Earl of Breadalbane.¹ He had been
sent by his chief Argyle, who, as it was only by
peaceable means that he could hope to acquire the
lands, was desirous of preventing a decision of the
matter in dispute by the sword. Campbell-whose
selection for the mission was probably due to his
¹ He is spoken of in the Memoirs of Locheil and other works
as actually Earl of Breadalbane at this time (1665), although
the Earldom was not created until 1681. In Mackay's Memoirs
(p. 199) he is described as being, later in life, "of fair com-
plexion, having the gravity of a Spaniard, and being as cunning
as a fox, wise as a serpent, and slippery as an eel.”
378
THE MACKINTOSHES
relationship to both the disputant chiefs,' as well as to
his sagacity-proposed a conference. To this Mackin-
tosh assented, and chose three of the principal men
with him, Borlum, Connage, and Dugald Macpherson
of Powrie, to confer with Campbell and Hugh Fraser
of Foyers. Considering his own declared sentiments
in regard to the dispute, his choice of two out of
the three seems somewhat strange. Borlum was
entirely devoted to him, but Connage had already
evinced a leaning to Locheil and to a peaceable
adjustment, while Powrie must have been known
to him as a friend and supporter of Argyle. The
only explanation seems to be either that Mackintosh
was deceived in Connage and Powrie, or that he
had now come to the conclusion that he must dispose
2
¹ The relationship will be seen by the following table :
LACHLAN MOR MACKINTOSH
ANGUS, 1st child.
12th child |
ISABEL SIR ROBERT CAMPBELL
OF GLENURCHY
SIR LACHLAN
WILLIAM
SIR JOHN OF GLENURCHY
1
LACHLAN (in 1665)
JOHN (in 1665)
JOHN CAMERON = MARGARET, 6th child.
EWEN OF LOCHEIL (in 1665).
2 The Kinrara MS. remarks that it was believed at the time
that Powrie had joined Mackintosh only for the purpose either
of drawing off the Macphersons or of making a bargain for his
patron Argyle. It will be remembered that he was captain of
Ruthven Castle for the Covenanters in 1648, and in the Act of
Levy of Dec. 1650-in framing which Argyle had no small
share was appointed one of the leaders for Badenoch, a position
to which his sole title was that he was probably the only Mac-
pherson of any note who had acted against the king. It is very
likely that he was the moving spirit in the recent dissensions
between his chieftain of Cluny and Mackintosh.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
379
of the lands, and chose for his representatives at
the conference Connage, as one who having always
been for peace would have a strong interest in
the case, probably also as a man of strict honour
and integrity,-Powrie, as one anxious to get
the lands for Argyle,—and Borlum, as
one who
would look well to the interests of Mackintosh
himself.
The only result of the first day's conference was
a short truce, during which the Clan Chattan men
took up their position at Clunes, on the north side
and near the mouth of Arkaig Water. The Camerons
were on the opposite side, and had secured the ford.
After a second conference Borlum left his colleagues,
despairing of seeing any result attained compatible
with what he understood to be the wishes of his
chief. His two colleagues had little difficulty in
agreeing between themselves and with the other
party, and on the 16th Sept.-the day on which,
at an hour after noon, the truce expired-they made
their report, in a council of the principal men, to
Mackintosh, who had now removed a few miles
westward to the passes about Achnasaull. Connage
was spokesman; he stated that the sale of the lands
of Glenlui and Locharkaig appeared to be the only
method of producing concord; that, although without
special orders, he and his colleague Powrie had pro-
posed terms of sale and insisted on a price of £50,000,
but that Lochiel could be brought to offer no more
than 72,500 merks (about £48,300), swearing by
380
THE MACKINTOSHES
his great oath that rather than give more he would
risk all on the chances of war.
Mackintosh's indignant rejection of these terms,
and a declaration that, like Locheil, he would rather
hazard his whole fortune than consent to them, was
the signal for a commotion in the council. The
members, who up to this point had listened in
expectant silence, no sooner heard the chief's decision
than each began to speak his mind. Cluny, Donald
Mackintosh of Aldourie, and Macqueen of Corribrough
vowed that if the terms were not accepted they
would never draw sword in the quarrel. Powrie
said that he and others present would not hazard
their lives, seeing there was no necessity for fighting.
Connage pointed out that although they had the
advantage of Locheil in numbers, their provisions
were running short, and the enemy had the power,
by avoiding an encounter, to starve them into a
disgraceful retreat. Mackintosh, backed by only
a small minority, and even they conscious of the
truth of Connage's remarks, could not disguise his
disappointment and wrath. In a violent rage he
declared he would carry the matter through without
the help of those who thus forgot their duties as
clansmen, and breaking up the council gave some
vent to his feelings by advancing his force a short
distance to the banks of the loch.
But "with the morning cool reflection came," and
on visiting him at daybreak his friends found him
more willing to listen to reason. They urged the
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
381
great hazard of entering on what might prove a
lengthy campaign in an enemy's country without
proper store of provisions, and promised that if
he accepted Locheil's offer of 72,500 merks, they
would themselves make up the sum of £50,000.
In addition to the chances of a wild-goose chase
through Lochaber with starving followers, he had to
contemplate the possibility of his being deserted at
the last moment by some of the most powerful
leaders of the clan. The policy, in a pecuniary point
of view, of agreeing to Locheil's terms was also made
apparent; the price of the lands would afford at in-
terest an annual income much larger and surer than
he could ever hope to get from the lands themselves.
In fine, he did what he ought to have done five
years before he brought himself to consent to the
disposal of the lands on the terms offered.
While Mackintosh was undergoing the persuasive
attempts of his friends, young Glenurchy had
arrived at the Clan Chattan camp, and had shown
additional reasons why those attempts ought to suc-
ceed in a force of 300 men which accompanied him,
and in a written order from the Earl of Argyle to
employ all the power of the latter, if necessary, to
bring the dispute to an end. Campbell's arrival and
Mackintosh's assent seem to have taken place at an
opportune moment, as Locheil had concocted one of
the surprises for which he was famed and in which
he was generally successful. On the preceding night
he had despatched Cameron of Erracht with a body
382
THE MACKINTOSHES
of picked men by boats to the northern side of Loch
Arkaig, there to remain concealed until an oppor-
tunity should present itself of taking the enemy by
surprise. He himself in the meantime was to make
his way with the main body by the head of the loch
to the same place, a distance of some eighteen
English miles. He had not advanced far on his
march when he was met by young Glenurchy, bring-
ing back with him Erracht and his party. It was
only by advancing the same cogent reasons he had
already shown to Mackintosh that Glenurchy could
prevail on Locheil to give up his intention of fight-
ing, and to consent to the agreement into which his
opponent was now willing to enter."
1
On the following day (Monday, 18th Sept.) a
formal contract was drawn up and signed, on the
one hand binding Mackintosh to sell Glenlui and
Locharkaig to Locheil or any person whom he might
nominate, and on the other binding Locheil and six
others to pay to Mackintosh 12,500 merks of the
price in the town of Perth on the 12th January
1666, and at the same time to give sufficient security
for the payment of the remainder of the price at the
Martinmas terms of 1666 and 1667.
On the 20th, Locheil crossed Arkaig Water and met
his late enemy at the house of Clunes. Both were
attended by their principal friends and clansmen.
They "saluted each other," says the Kinrara MS.,
"drank together in token of perfect reconciliation,
¹ Memoirs of Locheil, 191.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
383
and exchanged swords, rejoicing at the extinction
of the ancient feud." The feud had raged for three
centuries and a half, during which time, says tradition
with its usual looseness of expression, a Mackintosh
and a Cameron had never even spoken together."
1
After some delays in the payment of the first
1 The MS. Account of the Macphersons already mentioned-
an account which depends too much on vague tradition, and
which displays too strong and evident a partiality in matters of
dispute to be accepted implicitly—makes it appear that Locheil
was induced to seek for terms by discovering the presence of
Cluny and the Macphersons in Mackintosh's army.
(To seek
for terms with his enemy before him would surely be one of the
last things to be expected from Sir Ewen Cameron of Locheil.)
"On 14th Sept. they came in view of the enemy
Locheil
went to the top of ane hill to view Mackintosh's armey, who
asked at the skilfullest of his company each collour in M.'s
armey, one by one. 'But,' said Locheil, when he heard that
Clunie's collours were with the rest, 'what the meekle sorrow
brot Clunie against me who never prejudged him in a ffarding?
Is it (said he) to gain his own birthright to ane other that he is
come? I would (said he) that Clunie had ten merks of the forty
merks of Glenly and Locharkag and he in Clunie this day.'
Immedeatelie Locheil seeks for a new cessation and a free
comoning betwix both parties."
6
At the meeting after the agreement, this account continues,
“Locheall asked at ane gentleman of the name of McPherson
what reward Clunie got for his pains at that tyme, who being
ashamed to tell that he got but such a trifle, answered that to
his opinion he got 10,000 merks or upwards. Then,' said
Locheall, if he did give M'Intosh the thrid of the pryce of the
lands it was very fair, for (said he) I assure you that if Clunie
would not joine with M'Intosh there would be no agreement
that year. But besides that (said he) this land was Clunie's
undoubted birthright which now he has forced me to buy from
ane other.'"'
384
THE MACKINTOSHES
instalment of the price, a conveyance was executed
on the 24th March 1666, at Edinburgh, by Lachlan
Mackintosh of Torcastle in favour of Archibald,
Earl of Argyle. This nobleman advanced the pur-
chase money, Locheil-who, according to the Kin-
rara MS., acted all along for the earl-being
unable to do so; and it was arranged that the lands
should thenceforth be held by Locheil and his
successors in feu of the Argyle family.
The money which he acquired by the sale enabled
Mackintosh to clear his estate of considerable bur-
dens, and to obtain the discharge of all servitudes
due to the Gordons.
The question whether the alienation by Lachlan
Mackintosh of the right to the lands was an advan-
tage or a disadvantage to the Mackintosh family is
one of no moment now. The possession of the lands
in dispute by the Mackintoshes during the three
hundred and fifty years of the feud had never been
more than nominal; it had been the cause of vast
loss, both of life and goods, to the whole of Clan
Chattan; the long hold of the Camerons on the
lands had given them a prescriptive if not a legal
right against which the mere statement of original
possession, and even the apparent advantage of
ancient charters, could scarcely weigh; and, above
all, the governing powers had evidently determined
to put an end to the long dispute, and would doubt-
less have used more stringent means for doing so if
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
385
.
.
Mackintosh had continued to oppose their wishes.
It is clear, therefore, that Lachlan was at least no
loser by his disposal of the lands. The only matter
for regret is that the transaction was so long delayed;
but before we blame the chief for his injudicious and
rash proceedings, let us remember that he was a hot-
headed, sanguine youth, who at the outset had been
assured of his right, and countenanced in his
resolution to maintain it, by Act of Parliament.
с с
386
THE MACKINTOSHES
CHAPTER XI.
Farquharson of Inverey and the Gordons-Mackintosh and the
Macdonalds of Keppoch; Fight at Mulroy-Dundee's Cam-
paign in 1689; Keppoch at Inverness; his harrying of
Mackintosh's lands-Renewed Commission against the
Macdonalds of Keppoch-Lachlan's Family and Death.
SHORTLY after the events just narrated, the chief
had an opportunity of displaying his gratitude to
one who had stood by him in his troubles. This
was William Farquharson of Inverey, who with
others of his name had warmly taken their captain's
part throughout the struggle with Locheil. It
appears that John Gordon of Breachly, in Sept.
1666, proceeded against some
some of the Braemar
Farquharsons for killing fish in a certain part of
the Dee. Meeting several of Inverey's people re-
turning from a fair at Kilmuir in Angus on the
15th of that month, he assaulted them with a body
of his retainers, and took from them by way of
a poind a number of horses. Two days afterwards,
John, younger of Inverey, went to guard a fair
at Tullich, and on his way sent a message to
Breachly showing that the poinding of the horses
was contrary to law, and demanding their restoration
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
387
-engaging at the same time that such of his men
as were charged with killing the fish should stand
their trial before quitting Tullich. On Breachly's
refusal to give up the horses, Farquharson proposed
that their dispute should be referred to arbitra-
tion. Instead of replying, Breachly, reinforced
by Gordon of Abergeldie, entered the village of
Tullich and at once changed the scene there by a
fierce assault on the Farquharsons
the Farquharsons "with guns
and pistols and drawn swords." Two of Inverey's
men were killed at the first onslaught; the rest
stood to their arms manfully, and after a sharp
conflict found themselves masters of the field,
Breachly himself, his brother, and James Gordon
of Cutts being killed.¹ Inverey was now prose-
cuted by the relatives of the slain Gordons, and
sought the assistance of Mackintosh, who readily
undertook the task of extricating him from his
difficulties. After three journeys to Edinburgh on
his behalf, Mackintosh succeeded in making up the
quarrel; "and so," says the Kinrara MS., "in
a short time a deserving kinsman had occasion
to meet with a thankful requital from a loving
chief."
1 An account in The Braemar Highlands, p. 198, places the
event after the battle of Killecrankie in 1689, and contains
several other discrepancies in detail which are easily accounted
for by the fact that they belong to mere tradition. The account
of the Kinrara MS., embodied in the text, is doubtless more
trustworthy, having been written at the time by one who would
be well acquainted with the circumstances.
c c 2
388
THE MACKINTOSHES
The following year (1667) witnessed the "begin-
ning of the end" of another long-standing dispute
that with the Macdonalds of Keppoch concerning
the lands of Glenroy and Glenspean. A charter
right to these lands, as has been seen, had been
acquired by the Mackintoshes in the 15th century,
but the Macdonalds had always refused to give
up possession, and had generally declined to re-
cognise the "parchment title " of Mackintosh.¹ In
spite of several attempts made with and without
the authority of law to eject them, they had
managed hitherto to retain their hold on the Braes
of Lochaber, and occasionally to resent what they
deemed the interference of the Mackintosh chiefs.
In Sept. 1667 a marauding party of them entered
Glenesk and took a spreagh of cattle from the
lands of Lindsay of Edzell, whose daughter Mac-
kintosh had just before married. On hearing of
this, the chief convened a meeting of his principal
clansmen at Inverness, represented to them that the
Macdonalds had not only for years withheld pay-
ment of his rents and the public dues, but had
now in manifest contempt of himself robbed his
1 "We have already hinted that Macdonald of Keppoch had
possessed ane estate belonging to the Laird of Macintoish, in
property, as his kindly tenant, for many centurys of years; but
there was so much of force and violence in this possession that
Macintoish could look upon himself no further as master than
that he sometimes received such small sums in name of yearly
rents as Keppoch was pleased to give."-Memoirs of Locheil, 229.
See also Skene, Highl. Scot. ii. 187.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
389
father-in-law, and declared his intention of going
in person to Brae Lochaber and holding his courts
there as hereditary steward.
2
His assembled clansmen all concurred in the pro-
priety of his design, and although some-Borlum,
Connage, Aldourie, Cluny, and Paul Macbean of
Kinchyle-held back when the time arrived for
setting out, he went to Lochaber with a large fol-
lowing, among whom were the Mackintoshes of
Aberarder, Corrybrough, Balnespic, and Dalmunzie,'
the Farquharsons of Invercauld and Inverey, Wil-
liam Macpherson younger of Nuid, and Donald
Macgillivray, Tutor of Dunmaglass. In spite of some
opposition from the Marquis of Huntly, whose lands
in Lochaber came under Mackintosh's jurisdiction
as steward of the whole district, the chief held
the courts he desired-one at Keppoch, in which
he caused the cattle plundered from Edzell to be
restored, and three on Huntly's lands. At one of
these, held at Tirlundie, he came near a collision
with Locheil, who had been persuaded by Huntly's
baillie to appear with some of his clan for the
purpose of intimidating Mackintosh. The Captain
of Clan Cameron, however, had no mind to be
found in arms against lawful authority when such
authority did not affect himself, and he wisely
¹ This is one of the few occasions on which we find this dis-
tant branch of the Mackintoshes in close connection with their
chief and the main body of the clan.
2 William Macpherson married in this year (1667) the chief's
cousin Isobel, daughter of Lachlan Mackintosh of Kinrara.
390
THE MACKINTOSHES
refrained from hostilities. We shall shortly see fur-
ther evidence of the vitality of the ancient jealousy
between the Gordons and the Mackintoshes.1
In 1672 Mackintosh sued for a commission to
eject Keppoch and his people from the Brae Lochaber
lands, but no attention was given to his suit for
some years, in consequence mainly of the repre-
sentations of the Earl of Moray. Resolving at
length not to wait for legal authority, he made pre-
parations in 1678-9 for marching into Brae Lochaber
to take the law into his own hands. Both Moray
and Huntly endeavoured to obstruct him, the
former ordering his baillie, Donald Mackintosh of
Killachie, to forbid such of the Clan Chattan as
occupied lands under him to join their chief, the
latter taking measures to ensure Mackintosh a warm
reception in case of his entering the district. But
the design was frustrated for the time in another
manner-by the famous rising of the western whigs.
1 A specimen of the not always straightforward way in which
these opponents acted towards each other is seen in a letter
(printed in the Thanes of Cawdor) from Lord Aboyne, Huntly's
uncle, to Sir Hew Campbell of Calder, dated 1st April 1674, in
which the writer says, "I must intreat you for a favour which
I hope you will not deny me: which is that the laird of
McIntosh having bought my lord Huntlie's teithes of Badenoch
against himself contrar to the duetie of ane wassell to his
superior, and to pay for the samen with the money he expects
from you: My earnest desyr is that you pay him noe money at
all till a terme, and I oblige myself to free you of all expence
and damage you shall incur thereby." Whether Sir Hew
complied with this request does not appear.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
391
After the defeat of Claverhouse at Drumclog this
rising had swelled into alarming proportions, and
at one time threatened to overflow the Lowlands.
Levies of men were sent for by the Privy Council
from all parts of the kingdom, and Mackintosh
amongst others was summoned to march with his
clan to Stirling. His men being already in marching
and fighting order, he set out at once, but at Perth
he received the news of the utter rout of the in-
surgents at Bothwell Brig (22 June 1679), and
his further advance being thus rendered unnecessary
he returned to the north.
In Sept. 1681 the chief received a commission
against the Macdonalds, but this had no satisfactory
result. In December 1682 Archibald Macdonald
of Keppoch died, and was succeeded by his son,
the famous "Coll of the Cowes," at this time a
youth pursuing his studies at the university of St.
Andrews. Being in the north at his father's funeral,
young Coll went to Inverness, whence-according
to his own account in a petition to the Privy Council
-he "did send some of his friends to the Laird of
Mackintosh and offered an accommodation and his
full resolution to submit himself and his interests
to a legal decision or amicable determination." But
Mackintosh," in return to this message and humble
desire, by his own clandestine warrant, caused
summarily apprehend the petitioner and commit him
prisoner within the Tolbooth of Inverness, with-
out the least probation of his guilt or breach of
392
THE MACKINTOSHES
the peace," refusing also either to take bail for the
prisoner's appearance when required or to put him
on his trial. The result of Keppoch's petition was
an order from the Council, dated 1st Feb. 1683, to
the magistrates of Inverness "to set the petitioner
at liberty on finding sufficient caution as stated in
the books of Council to present himself at the
Council bar the 15th day of March next for giving
such security as the Council shall think fit to ap-
point, and that under the penalty of one thousand
pounds."
The conduct ascribed to Mackintosh in this matter
can only be stigmatised as ungenerous and unfeel-
ing in the extreme. To take advantage of an
hereditary foe, and that foe a mere boy, on such
an occasion and in such a manner, might have
passed without censure a few centuries earlier, but
was scarcely worthy the enlightenment and polite-
ness of a more civilised time. And although there
is reason for doubting whether the petition to the
Council sets forth the real state of the case, or
whether Mackintosh did not issue the warrant merely
in his public capacity as a magistrate-at the request
of and for causes shown by certain third persons-
it would have been more to his credit, considering
his relations with the young man's family, had he
kept aloof from the transaction, or even shown
such grace to the prisoner as the law permitted.
1
¹ It is right to mention that possibly Mackintosh was in a
manner compelled to exercise his magisterial powers on this
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
393
66
The reason for doubting whether Coll's petition
to the Council states the case correctly appears in
an "Obligation" by Lachlan Mackintosh of Kinrara
(the chief's uncle) to relieve the magistrates of
Inverness of all cost, skaith, and damage in con-
sequence of their releasing Keppoch, in virtue of
the order of Council, from their Tolbooth, where
he had been incarcerated at the instance of certain
of the Commissioners of the assessment of the shire
of Inverness until he, as son and successor to
umquhile Archibald McDonald of Keppoch should
pay the cess and other public dues resting by his
said umquhile father for the lands of Keppoch
and others since his majesty's restoration &c." The
simple fact of Keppoch's being required by the
Council to find caution for his appearance at their
bar shows that there was some legal ground for his
apprehension, although, as he stated in his petition,
he had committed no breach of the peace.
1
The order of the Privy Council for Coll's en-
largement was no doubt owing in some measure
occasion. Keppoch's clan had already more than once made
their way to Inverness and threatened the burghers with a view
to plunder; and it is not unlikely that the magistrates of the
burgh may have been fearful now of embroiling themselves and
their town in an actual feud with this predatory race by issuing
a warrant against their chieftain. As the text will show, it
was necessary on public grounds to bring Keppoch to law, and
so the magistrates of Inverness may have applied to Mackintosh
as having already a feud with Keppoch, with power to stand
it-to extricate them from their dilemma.
1
¹ Antiquarian Notes, no. iv.
394
THE MACKINTOSHES
7
to the efforts of Huntly, whose jealousy of Mackin-
tosh's legal hold over Lochaber has already been
seen. In a letter¹ from the marquis to Sir John
Gordon, his agent in Edinburgh, dated 23 Jan.
1683, considerable light is thrown on the trans-
action and on the relative positions of Huntly and
the two chiefs. The marquis writes,—
"You have heard of Keppoch's imprisonment by Mackintosh,
who being my vassal I must endeavour to see him get justice.
You may cause present a petition to the Council in my behalf
showing that K. went to wait on M. by my advice, and how
he was afterwards used. The supplication must carry that
M. may be suspended from meddling in the Commission of
Justiciary until his illegalities be tried; especially that my
servants may be exempted from his judgment, since to most of
them he is party on their own accounts, and to all of them he
is an enemy on my account, his differences and mine being
sufficiently known. Let the whole matter be well considered
by my lawyers. Several circumstances of the affair I refer to
the bearer's information. Let M.'s whole affairs be considered
by my lawyers, and summons of non-entry and ward of marriage
raised, which I expect shortly north. Amongst other hindrances
K.'s imprisonment cost the payment of the public burdens.
Therefore let this be mentioned in my petition to the Council
that I desire to be reimbursed of what I have advanced on that
account, especially as all Brae Lochaber is outlawed by M.'s
malice."
For a few years the parties seem to have re-
mained quiet, the Macdonalds continuing in occu-
pation of the lands. But in 1688 matters came
to a crisis, which resulted in the last clan battle
¹ Printed in Dunachton, Past and Present, by C. Fraser-
Mackintosh.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
395
fought in Scotland. On 1st March of this year
the Privy Council renewed against Coll Macdonald
the commission given to Mackintosh in 1681 against
his father. Besides as usual ordering the concur-
rence of the men of Inverness and the neighbouring
shires, the Council gave Mackintosh the aid of a
company of regular soldiers under the command
of Captain Kenneth Mackenzie of Suddie. Armed
with the commission, and strengthened by Suddie's
company, the chief arrived at Keppoch in the end
of July. The Macphersons and Grants, and most
of the others whose concurrence had been ordered
had failed him; but his force numbered about a
thousand men. The following letter, preserved in
the Register Office, shows what took place during
the first few days after his arrival. It is dated
Keppoch, August 3rd 1688," and is addressed to
the Earl of Perth, Lord High Chancellor :-
<<
(6
My lord, I came to this place six days agoe, and the first
two nights these rebells in this countrey lay darned (hid, secret)
and did not appear, but since, they with ther wicked accomplices
and ther broken relations from all the countreyes about have
convocate themselves to a great number and doe behave them-
selves most contemptuously, insomuch that this same day they
have seased on some of the King's souldiers and his messenger
at arms, disarmed, threatened, and ffettered them. My friends
and I are here making up a little fort, in which we are to leave
some men for secureing me in my possessione, this being the
only most probable means for reduceing the rebells, and had it
not been for this we had been at them ere now; besides that
the spates here are impassible; but how sone as the waters fall
we hope to make accompt of them. All my concurrence from
the severall shyres allowed by the Councell did faill me, except
396
THE MACKINTOSHES
!
such of my own relations as are with me, and Captain Mackenzie
of Siddy and his company. The M'Phersones in Badinach, after
two citations, disobeyed most contemptuously. I thought it
my duty to acquaint you heirof, quhairby yr Lordship may tak
any course yr Lordship pleases, by makeing it known to the
Councill; and I am, my lord, &c. &c., L. Macintoshe of
Torcastell."
Keppoch and his men, lying "darned" for a few
days, were soon reinforced by their kinsmen of
Glengarry and Glencoe, as well as by some of
the Clan Cameron-apparently, however, without
Locheil's permission-and determined to encounter
their enemy. They took up a position among the
hills to the east of the Roy, and not far from their
antagonists' position at Keppoch, with the inten-
tion of attacking on the following morning at day-
break. Mackintosh, on being made aware of their
proximity, had decided on a similar course with
regard to them. The dawn of the 4th August
found him setting out with his small army towards
the eminence of Mulroy, somewhere behind which
he expected to find the Macdonalds. These, how-
ever, had been stirring before him; and as the
light increased he discovered them drawn up on
the ridge, the possession of which gave them
a decided advantage over his own force down
below.
The Mackintoshes and their allies rushed forward
to dislodge the enemy, and a sanguinary hand to
hand conflict ensued. This cannot be better de-
scribed than in the modest though graphic words
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
397
of one of the actual combatants :-" Both parties
(Mackintosh's and Suddie's) ordered their men to
march up
the hill. A company being in front,
we drew up in a line of battle as we could, our
company being on the right. We were no sooner
in order but there appears double our number of
the Macdonalds, which made us then to fear the
worst; at least, for my part, I repeated my former
wish [that he had been spinning tobacco in In-
verness]. The Macdonalds came down the hill upon
us, without either shoe, stocking, or bonnet on their
head; they gave a shout, and then the fight began
on both sides and continued a hot dispute for an
hour. Then they broke in upon us with their sword
and target and Lochaber axes, which obliged us
to give way. Seeing my captain sore wounded, and
a great many more with their heads lying cloven
on every side, I was sadly affrighted, never having
seen the like before. A Highlandman attacked me
with sword and targe, and cut my wooden handled
bayonet out of the muzzle of my gun; I then
clubbed my gun and gave him a stroke with it
which made the butt end to fly off. Seeing the
Highlandmen to come fast upon me, I took my
¹ Donald McBane, who having been badly treated in the
house of a tobacco spinner in Inverness to whom he was ap-
prentice, had run away and enlisted in Suddie's company. He
afterwards fought at Killecrankie and in the Duke of Marl-
borough's wars, and, when in his old age gunner at Fort William,
wrote an account of his life, with treatises on sword play and
the art of gunnery.
398
THE MACKINTOSHES
heels and ran thirty miles before I looked behind
me. Every person I saw or met I took him for
my enemy.
""
The Macdonalds, having the advantages of superior
numbers and position, gained a decided victory, and
inflicted severe loss on the forces of Mackintosh,
taking that chief himself prisoner, and, contrary
to Keppoch's wish, killing the commander of the
Government soldiers. Lachlan Mackintosh of Aber-
arder and his brothers John and William, Macpherson
in Benchar and Macqueen in Stranine, were among
the principal persons killed. Many were taken
prisoners, and it was by threatening their lives that
Keppoch obtained the custody of the chief, whom,
according to the Memoirs of Locheil, he compelled
to renounce his title to the disputed lands. The
banner of the clan is said to have been only saved
from falling into the hands of the Macdonalds by
its bearer's leaping a chasm over which none durst
follow him.1
The victory of the Macdonalds was commemorated
in a spirited Gaelic poem by a bard of their clan.
The bard indulges in sarcastic reflections on Mac-
kintosh's temerity in coming to blows with such
opponents as the bold Coll and his men, whose
keen broadswords uncovered the marrow," and who,
1 The authorities for this account of the battle of Mulroy
are-Shaw's MS. Account of the Mackintoshes; Memoirs of Locheil,
229-30, 361; Gregory, 415; Skene, ii. 188-9; Scott's Tales of a
Grandfather (Scotland), ii. 230-3; Privy Council Register-Acta,
26 Feb. 1698; and several others.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
399
like brave dogs, held at the mountain cats and
"regardless of their sharp claws took the mewing
out of their nose." In one stanza he seems to
corroborate the statement in Locheil's Memoirs that
Mackintosh was compelled to renounce his right to
the lands; he speaks of Keppoch's getting his will
at the close of the fight, "secured by the paper."
Mackintosh was a prisoner for a short time only.¹
The Macphersons, who had refused to follow him into
Brae Lochaber, had nevertheless mustered in strength
and set out for the scene of operations. They arrived
too late to take part in the battle, but in time to
rescue the captive Mackintosh, who, as Skene says,
had thus "the double humiliation of having been
captured by the Macdonalds, whom he despised as
mere refractory tenants, and rescued by the Mac-
phersons, whom he had treated with so little
forbearance or consideration."
On Mackintosh's complaint of Keppoch's resistance
to the law and his slaughter of Government troops,
the Privy Council forthwith gave orders for laying
waste the lands occupied by the Macdonalds with
fire and sword, at the same time issuing letters of
1 "When the captive heard the Macdonalds greet their chief-
tain with shouts of 'Lord of Keppoch!' he addressed him boldly,
saying, 'You are as far from being Loid of Keppoch at this
moment as you have been all your life.' 'Never mind,' answered
the victorious chieftain, 'we'll enjoy the good weather while it
lasts.' Accordingly the victory of his tribe is still recorded in
the pipe tune called 'Macdonald took the brae on them.'"-Scott's
Tales, ii, 232.
400
THE MACKINTOSHES
!
intercommuning against them.' Two hundred of the
Foot Guards (now the Scots Guards) under Captain
Straiton, and a troop of Dragoons under Captain John
Crichton, were sent about the end of August "to destroy
man, woman, and child pertaining to the laird of Cap-
pagh, and to burn his houses and corn." On the
approach of this party Keppoch took refuge among the
mountains, the orders of the Council, so far as concerned
the destruction of houses and crops, being executed
with merciless severity. The detachment occupied the
Braes until about the middle of September, when it
was recalled preparatory to the general march of the
Scottish troops into England.
In spite of the severity with which he had been
treated under James VII., Keppoch was one of the
first to rise on behalf of that monarch after the
Revolution of 1688. He was despatched with eight
hundred men by the western chiefs to escort Viscount
Dundee into Lochaber: but instead of performing
this service, he laid siege to Inverness, the inhabitants
of which place, it is said, had assisted Mackintosh
against him; here also, it will be remembered, he had
been confined in the Tolbooth several years before.
At Inverness Dundee found him, in April 1689, with
¹ The Privy Council Record is blank from 1685 to 1689, but
these letters are referred to in the Act and Commission of
22 Feb. 1698 to be afterwards noticed.
2 Memoirs of Captain John Crichton (in Swift's Works).
Crichton prefaces his account of the expedition with a short
narrative of the events which led to it.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
401
some of the leading citizens in his custody, whom he
was keeping as security for the payment of a large
sum of money which he had demanded. The town
was in the greatest excitement, hourly expecting an
irruption of the Macdonalds.¹ Dundee, anxious to
make friends for his cause, acted the part of peace-
maker, persuading both parties to compose their
differences by a payment from the town to Keppoch of
2000 dollars, for which he gave the latter his own bond.
He endeavoured to reconcile Mackintosh and Keppoch
--both of whom, says Crichton, "were well affected
to the king"-but Mackintosh declined to have
anything to do with his enemy, and therefore refused
to attend a friendly interview with the viscount,
although they were relations." 2 To punish him,
Dundee gave Keppoch the welcome task of driving
off his cattle. Thus, although "well affected" to the
cause of King James, Mackintosh did nothing for it,
but refused to do anything against it.³
66
1
"28th April, 1689, Sabbath. That day sermon was preached
by Mr. Gilbert Marshall in the forenoon at the cross, and that
by reason Coll Macdonald was about the town, boasting to come
in with his whole force, consisting of 800 or 900 men, to plunder
the town. Afternoon Mr. Mackenzie preached as aforesaid, all
the citizens being necessitated to stand in a posture of defence.
No collection. Tuesday no sermon, and that by reason of our
confusions."-Inverness Kirk Session Records.
2 Memoirs of Dundee, by an Officer of the Army. Mackin-
tosh's mother was a Graham of Fintry.
3 "The Laird of Mackintosh declared for neither side.".
Memoirs of Locheil, 240. Burton, speaking of the Commission of
Fire and Sword given by the Government to Mackintosh against
D D
A
402
THE MACKINTOSHES
*
Shortly afterwards, during the marching and
counter-marching which preceded the battle of
Killecrankie, Keppoch had another and a larger piece
of revenge.
Dundee's army being in Badenoch, he
and his followers went, of their own accord, to
Mackintosh's house of Dunachton, burnt it to the
ground, and harried the lands in the neighbourhood,
returning laden with booty. For this exploit he
received a severe rebuke from his leader.
In the battle of Killecrankie, fought on the 27th
July 1689, when the cause of the exiled king received
its deathblow by the fall of Dundee, no considerable
body of the Clan Chattan took part. The reason for
the absence of the Mackintoshes and other septs who
followed Mackintosh has been seen. The Macpher-
sons had been found "very keen and hearty in their
inclinations for the service" of King James, but could
not move without an order from their superior the
Duke of Gordon.' The Farquharsons of Braemar,
as a body, were prevented from joining Dundee by a
Keppoch in 1698, erroneously states-in order apparently to
show some reason for the granting of such a commission-that
Mackintosh had aided General Mackay against Dundee.-Hist.
Scot. 1689 to 1748, i. 176. The same historian commits another
error in making Moy in Strathdearn, "the seat of government
of the Mackintoshes," the place of rendezvous for Dundee's
forces.—Ib. i. 122. The place was Moy in Lochaber, as suffi-
ciently appears from Dundee's letters and other contemporary
sources. On the writer's representation, the first error has been
modified in the 2nd edition of the History.
•
¹ Memoirs of Locheil, 238. The Dukedom of Gordon had been
conferred on George, 4th Marquis of Huntly, on 1st Nov. 1684.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
403
$
strong force left in their country by General Mackay
to keep them in check; a few of them, however,
were in the battle. Braemar was occupied by
troops for more than a year after Killecrankie, but
in May 1690, on the arrival in the neighbourhood of
General Buchan, who had been sent by King James to
head the Jacobites, John Farquharson of Inverey
joined him with about 600 men, and remained with
him until he gave up his efforts in despair.
In 1690 the devastations committed by Keppoch
on the property of the Mackintoshes were brought by
the chief before the Scots Parliament, of which he
was a member. On the 18th July two Acts were
passed on the subject.' The first is "Anent the
petition given in by Lauchlan Mackintosh of Torcastle
and his tenants showing that Coll Macdonald with his
associates not only illegallie possesses the petitioner's
interest in the Brae of Lochaber, but also with the
concurse of the other rebells in arms because of the
said pet's not joyneing the late Lord Dundie upon his
comeing to the countrey did most barbarously in
contempt of the present government burn his
house of Dunnachton, haill furniture and office
houses belonging thereto, and did harrie and
robb his haille lands in Badzenoch, Strathnairn,
and Stratherne, thereby exposing the pet to
a vast loss and his tennents to beggarie, whereby
his haill lands are laid waste and will so continue
until the pet' be in a condition to replenish them."
1 Scots Acts, ix. 190.
#
DD 2
404
THE MACKINTOSHES
""
The second Act is "In favour of the Laird of Mackin-
tosh anent his cess. It sets forth how the
"petitioner and his predecessors stand infeft under
the Great Seal in the lands of Keppoch, Glenroy, and
Glenspean, and obtained severall decreits of removing
and maills and duties against the inhabitants and
possessors thereof, and in prosecution of the same
being deforced the said pet' upon application to the
Lords of Privy Council,¹ and upon not compearance
they were declared fugitives, and not only letters of
intercommuning but alsoe a commission of fire and
sword obtained against them, in executing of which
commission the pet' had several of his kinsmen and
followers killed." It then goes on to Keppoch's
proceedings at Dunachton and elsewhere, and specifies
the lands harried-" Dunachton, Kinrara, Pitourie,
Kincraig, Dalnavert, the davoch lands of Moy and
Sipline [Schiphin], and the lands of Lairgs"—, relating
how Coll had carried away "all the portable goods
thereupon worth at least 40000 merks, so that the
whole tenants and possessors thereof were forced to
flee, and are now with their wives and children begging
their bread and living upon charity, not daring for
fear of their lives to return to the ground." Exemption
is accordingly granted to Mackintosh from the pay-
ment of cess on his lands in Brae Lochaber until he
obtain peaceable possession of them, and on his lands
of Dunachton &c. so long as they remain waste.
A similiar privilege is given in an Act of the 22nd
1 So in the printed Act, but apparently some omission.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
405
July on account of "losses caused by Coll Mackdonald
and other Rebells in arms on dayes of July
1689 and April last to William Mackintosh of
Aberarder, Ferquhar M'Ilvrae of Dunmaglass, William
Mackintosh of Borlum, and Lachlan of Daviot, by
burning, pillaging, and destroying the petitioners'
dwelling houses and those of their tenants, carrying
off all portable goods &c." 1
Although Parliament in these Acts recognised
Mackintosh's right to the Brae Lochaber lands, they
did nothing to advance it. At last, in 1697-8,
Lachlan determined on making one more attempt to
dislodge the tenacious Macdonalds. He complained
to the Privy Council that all previous attempts had
been ineffectual, and at the same time he was fortu-
nate enough to draw the attention of King William
III. himself to his case. His Majesty, in a letter to
the Council, declares "that it is below the justice of
his Government that any of his loyall subjects should
be disappointed of the benefite of his laws," and
therefore requires their lordships to fall on methods
for reducing the saids rebells and repossessing ther
pet' in his saids lands and estates. Lachlan had
gone through the preliminary process of putting the
19 2
¹ On the same day an Act was passed "In favours of the
Laird of Mackintosh for holding of fairs and markets on his
lands of Obsdale in Ross, Dunachton in Badenoch, and Kep-
poch in Lochaber." The heritable right of the lands of Obsdale,
in the parish of Rosskeen, had been acquired by Lachlan in
1665.
2 Quoted in Act of Privy Council of 22 Feb. 1698.
406
THE MACKINTOSHES
""
Macdonalds to the horn in June 1697, and in the
following month
month the Lords Commissioners of
Justiciary had issued "letters of criminal caption
(warrants for apprehension) against Keppoch and one
hundred and thirty of his clansmen and supporters.
As these had proved unavailing, Mackintosh, on
the strength of the king's declaration, and on
the ground that it was his "lenity in not
executing" the commission of fire and sword
originally given in Sept. 1681 and renewed in
March 1688-" in hopes of the said Coll M'Donald
and his accomplices ther being reclaimed accord-
ing to the
the professions and promises made".
that had so long prevented the restoration of his
lands, demanded a renewal of the commission,
"not against any indefinitely that were the
accomplices of said Coll and his father in tyme
past, but such of them as are nominatim and per
expressum denunced outlaws and fugitives, and
duly registrat and under caption. . . . . and against
the said Coll and such persons as shall associat
themselves to him in opposition to the execution of
the said commission, or shall offer to resist the repos-
sessing of the pet' in his saids lands &c." He also
asked that the governor of Fort William might be
associated with him in the commission.
On the 22nd Feb. 1698¹ the Council passed an
¹ See Register of Privy Council (Acta) of this date for the Act,
Commission, and Letters of Concurrence and Intercommuning.
The Commission itself is very lengthy, and gives the full name
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
407
"Act renewing M'Kintoshes Commission for raising
Fire and Sword against Coll M'Donald and others "
on account of the continued resistance made by these
to previous commissions, and of their "murthering of
Captain M'Kenzie and some of the standing forces
with diverse gentlemen of the petitioner's nearest
relations and followers;" also because, though lying
and abiding under letters of intercommuning and out-
lawry, "taking no regard therof nor of our authority
and laws, they in manifest contempt therof dayly
and continually frequents and repairs to kirk, mercat,
and other public places within this realm as if they
were our free liedges."
The persons appointed to execute the Commission
are "Lachlan M'Intosh of that Ilk, the Governor or
Commanding Officer at our garrison of Fort William
for the tyme being, Ludovick Grant of that Ilk, John
Grant Sheriff Depute of Inverness, Duncan M'pherson
of Clunie, Charles Farquarsone of Monaltrie, Patrick
Grant of Rothimurcus, Angus M'Intosh yr. of Kil-
lochie, Mr. William M'intosh of Aberardour, John
Farquarson of Inercauld, Shaw of Dell, Farquhart
Makilvrae of Dunmaglash, Alexander Shaw of Guis-
lich, Donald M'queen of Corribroch, Alexr. Shaw yr.
of
Tordarroch, William M'intosh yr. of Borlum, Francis
Farquarson of Fingon, Malcolm Fraser of Culduthell,
John M'intosh yr. of Holme, John M'Klean of Doch-
of each of the denounced persons, among whom it is interesting
to find "Angus M'Donald alias M'Alister roye vic Ean, some-
tyme in Glenco, son to the deceast M'Donald of Glenco.”
408
THE MACKINTOSHES
garroch, George Monro of Culraine, Lachlan M'intosh,
tutor of Dalmunzie, and Lauchlan M'Intosh of Stron."
These persons are to "convocate our lieges in arms
and to pass and search, seek, hunt, follow, take, appre-
hend, imprison or present to justice, and in caice of
resistance, hostility, or opposition, to pursue to the
death" Coll Macdonald and the other persons out-
lawed or found resisting. In case the outlaws flee to
houses or strengths, full power is given to the com-
missioners to " pass, pursue, and assiege the said
houses or strengths, raise fire and use all force and
warlike engynes that can be hade for winning thereof
and apprehending the said Coll M'Donald and other
outlaweds aforsaid."
At the same time Letters of Concurrence and Inter-
communing were directed to the Sheriffs of Inverness,
Ross, Nairn, Perth, and Aberdeen, charging all men
between sixty and sixteen years of age to assist Mack-
intosh, and forbidding them to assist the Macdonalds
in any way, under pain of being esteemed and punished
as having art and part in their rebellious deeds.
At the next meeting of the Council, on the 24th
February, the Earl of Leven presented a letter written
by Keppoch to Lord Tarbat, but was not allowed to
read it, the Council deciding that Keppoch must
apply in the ordinary way by a petition if he had
anything to say. Orders were also given to Colonel
show a copy of the commission to
Sir John Hill to
Brigadier Maitland, governor of Fort William, that its
terms might be carried out by him.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
409
In spite of all this array of authority for their
extermination, the Macdonalds were not extermi-
nated, nor were they even removed from the lands
they had so long held. After all the trouble ex-
pended in setting the machinery of the law in motion,
it might be expected that an expedition would have
been organised and despatched into Brae Lochaber;
but nothing of the kind appears to have been done.
History preserves a profound silence as to the affair
after the proceedings in the Privy Council last men-
tioned; there is no record
there is no record even of Mackintosh's
having made any attempt to use the authority
granted to him. It is probable, however, that he did
make some effort in this direction, but found, as in
the case of his feud with Locheil nearly forty years
before, that the Letters of Concurrence were of no
avail, and that if he wished to execute his commission
he must execute it by means of his own clansmen
alone. This alternative, judging by his experience
in 1688, was scarcely advisable. A campaign in
wild Lochaber against a warlike race of outlaws
fighting for hearth and home was not to be lightly
undertaken, except with a fair prospect of success ;
and on this occasion such a prospect was by no means
apparent. Mackintosh himself was no longer a young
man, and in all the circumstances might withdraw
from the prosecution of the affair without imputation
on either his courage or the justice of his cause.
Whether he did so withdraw does not appear; but in
the absence of record we may fairly assume that he
410
THE MACKINTOSHES
made no campaign. Another probability is that, as
some time must necessarily elapse before he could
mature measures for proceeding against the outlaws,
his preparations were cut short by the operation in
Keppoch's favour of the ministerial changes conse-
quent on the death of William III. in 1701.
Lachlan was twice married. By his first wife,
Magdalene, only daughter of Lindsay of Edzell, he
had a son, who succeeded him; and by his second,
Anne, dau. of Sir George Munro of Culrain, and
widow of Donald, Master of Reay, he had a daughter,
Christian, who m. David Dunbar of Dunphail.
He died on the 9th Dec. 1704 at Dalcross Castle,'
and was buried in the family burying-place at Petty,
after lying in state till the middle of January.
'The barony and castle of Dalcross, in the parish of Croy,
had been purchased by Lachlan Mackintosh younger two years
previously, on his marriage. Sir James Fraser of Brea, of the
Lovat family, having become possessed of them, had assigned
them to his son-in-law, Major Beatman. Mackintosh had ac-
quired a wadset right to them in 1668, and in 1702 his son
purchased them outright.
It appears that after the destruction of the house at Dunachton
Mackintosh had the intention of making Dalcross his residence
instead of the castle in Loch Moy, which he found inconvenient.
But Dalcross Castle proved equally inconvenient, and he ac-
cordingly built a new house (the one in which Prince Charles
Edward was harboured) at the north end of Loch Moy.
The walls of Dalcross Castle and several of the rooms are
still entire, although the building has long been uninhabited.
It is said to have been built by Lord Lovat in 1620, and is
therefore of about the same age as its neighbour, Castle Stuart.
1
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
411
According to Sir Eneas Mackintosh's MS., 2,000 armed
men of the clan, not including the Macphersons and
Farquharsons, attended his funeral. "The funeral
feasts and entertainments were kept up for an entire
month. Cooks and confectioners were brought from
Edinburgh at great expense, and on the day of inter-
ment the procession extended from Dalcross Castle to
the churchyard of Petty, a distance of four miles.
It has been said that the expense incurred on this
occasion proved the source of pecuniary embarrass-
ments to the Mackintosh family to a recent period.
"" 1
1 Anderson's State of Society in the Highlands in 1745. The
impoverishment of the estate was more particularly due to the
expense of the funeral of this chief's son and successor of the
same name in 1731.
412
THE MACKINTOSHES
CHAPTER XII.
Lachlan, 20th chief-Rising of 1715-John, Earl of Mar-
Mackintosh's seizure of Inverness and Proclamation of James
VIII.-Brigadier Mackintosh-Clan Chattan in Mar's army
-Expedition into England; Preston-Imprisonment of the
captured Jacobites; Escape of the Brigadier; Release of the
Chief-Subsequent career of the Brigadier-Mackintosh's
Patent of Nobility.
(20) LACHLAN.
The chiefship of Lachlan brings
us once more among events of national interest, in
which Clan Chattan performed a not undistinguished
part. Passing over the ten years succeeding the
death of the last chief, in which nothing worthy of
special note occurred in the history of the clan, we
come to the first of the two great attempts made in
the 18th century on behalf of the Stuart dynasty—
the Rising of 1715.
On the death of Queen Anne (1 Aug. 1714), the
hopes which had been nursed by the Jacobites of a
restoration of the exiled family were rudely dissi-
pated. Owing to the irresolution or insincerity of
those on whom they had depended, and to the
activity of the Whig leaders, the Elector of Hanover
was proclaimed king without opposition; and seeing
no prospect of aid from France, besides, it may be,
AND CLAN CHATTAN,
413
being somewhat awed by the determined appearance
and unanimous strength of their political opponents,
the Jacobites of both England and Scotland were
obliged to acquiesce.
But for the ambition of one man, even the Scots
Jacobites might have remained quiet, at least for
some years.
This man was John Erskine, Earl of
Mar. A Whig at the Union, he had changed sides
during Bolingbroke's tenure of power, and had been
made Secretary of State. Having the general
management of Scottish affairs under the Tory
Government, he was entrusted with the distribution
among the clans of money voted by that Govern-
ment, in imitation of the policy of William III.,
for the purpose of keeping them quiet. This giving
him some influence over the chiefs, he had little
difficulty on the accession of George I. in using
them for his own purposes. His first aim was to
obtain power, irrespective of party; and he appears
to have been desirous of retaining his political in-
fluence under the new order of things. With this
object, and by way of showing that so far as influence
went his adherence was worth securing, he procured
from the Highland chiefs a letter addressed to himself,
asking him to assure the new king of their loyalty,
and to protect them against the misrepresentations
of their enemies; stating also that they would be
as ready to concur with him in serving King
George as they had been in serving Queen Anne.
He also drew up an address to the new king in
414
THE MACKINTOSHES
similar terms, to which he procured the signatures of
about a hundred of the heads of clans and other
Highlands.
principal persons in the Highlands. Among the
subscribers of both letter and address were Glen-
garry, Mackintosh, Locheil, Cluny, and many others
who subsequently took arms against the monarch.
George's refusal to receive the address, or to accept
the services of the noble who tendered it, accelerated
the breaking out of the troubles. Mar, full of bitter
disappointment, determined to revenge himself by
exerting all the influence and talent which had been
thus despised against those who had repulsed him, and
the most obvious way of doing this was to take up the
cause of the Chevalier de St. George. At the memorable
hunting of Braemar in September 1715 he proclaimed
the Chevalier as James VIII.; the fiery cross was sent
round to raise the Highlanders in arms, and within a
few weeks the earl found himself at the head of a
considerable force.
Among the first of the clans to rise were the
Farquharsons. On his arrival in Braemar the earl
had taken up his residence with John of Invercauld,
but had been unable to induce that chieftain to join
in the proposed undertaking. Invercauld was perhaps
too well acquainted with the earl to run the risk of
joining him in so momentous an adventure, and he at
first refused to engage himself until the Chevalier de
St. George should land in the country, although he
soon afterwards yielded. The great body of his
name, however, were at once raised by Inverey, son
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
415
of John the Black Colonel, and suffered severely in
the course of the Rising.
The Mackintoshes and Macphersons, with the rest
of Clan Chattan, were likewise not slow to respond
to Mar's call. On the 13th September, four days
after the raising of the standard, the chief of
Mackintosh, supported and encouraged by his
kinsman William Mackintosh younger of Borlum,
marched into Inverness, where he proclaimed King
James, and seized upon the public money and such
arms as he could find.¹ Although a decided Jaco-
bite, he, like Invercauld, had been at first unwilling
to engage in what seemed a hazardous and insuffi-
ciently backed undertaking. But "having once
engaged," says Lachlan Shaw, "no man could behave
with greater honour and bravery." His loyalty to
the Stuarts had been signified early in the previous
year. In a letter preserved among the papers of
the Duke of Montrose, dated 24 Sept. 1714, it is
stated that "Mr. William Mackintosh yr. of Borlum,
who had come in March from Bar-le-Duc, was
traversing the country from west to east, and had
¹ Shaw's MS. Lord Lovat's account of the taking of Inver-
ness-printed at the end of the 1717 edit. of Patten commences
thus :-"On the 15th (? 13th) Sept. the Laird of M'Intosh con-
veened his men at Farr, as was given out to review them; but
in the evening he marched streight to Inverness, where he came
by sunrising with colours displayed; and after he had made
himself master of what arms and ammunition he could find, and
some little money that belonged to the publick, proceeded to
proclaim the Pretender King."
416
THE MACKINTOSHES
prevailed on the Laird of Mackintosh to join the
Pretender's cause"; also that "the Laird of Mack-
intosh had held a meeting of his kinsmen at the
head of Strathnairn on the 11th April, after which
arms had been diligently provided by the tenantry."
In another letter, dated 1 Oct. 1714, Mackintosh is
stated to have had an interview three weeks before
with Glengarry, Chisholm of Comar, and others,
within twelve miles of Inverness.
1
The proclamation at Inverness is generally, though
erroneously, attributed to Borlum younger. Burton ¹
states that he was deputed to perform the act; but,
although this may have been so, he wisely allowed
his chief, whose influence was more extended and
attractive than his own, to take the lead in matters
where such influence might be of use, while he
himself undertook the not less honourable task of
doing the greater part of the actual work required.
He was in fact the real leader of the Mackintoshes
and their allies on the occasion, a position to which
he was entitled by his experience in warfare. He
made a temporarily important move by taking
possession of the castle of Inverness, thus to some
extent cutting off the Munroes, Rosses, and other
northern clans favourable to the Government. He
also intercepted the post by which a commission as
commandant of Inverness was forwarded to Munro of
Foulis, 2
Hist. Scot. viii. 263.
2 Charles's Transactions in Scotland, i. 341.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
417
It is unfortunate that but little is known of
Borlum's life and actions previous to this Rising:
indeed all the records concerning him, except those
in connection with the Rising, are fragmentary and
occasionally obscure. In 1715 he was about fifty-
two years of age; his father being still alive, he
was properly" Mackintosh younger of Borlum.' He
had attained some distinction in the French service,
but how long he had been abroad is not known.
There is, however, reason to believe that up to 1715
he had lived for some years in his native country and
in England, where he had married an English lady,
Mary Reade, of the family of Reade of Ipsden,
Oxfordshire. He had been engaged as a Jacobite
agent for some time before the commencement of the
Rising, and in 1713-4 had been on a mission to
Bar-le-Duc in Lorraine, the residence of the Chevalier
de St. George. After his return in March 1714 he
had been employed in consulting with the Jacobite
chiefs and gentlemen in the Highlands.
He is usually held to have been of a rude, unscrupu-
lous, and savage nature;2 and the Rev. Robert Patten,
the historian of the Rising-who after Preston turned
king's evidence against his late friends-charges him
¹ He is so styled in the Summons issued to him under the Act
of 30th August 1715 "for encouraging loyalty in Scotland," as
well as in several other documents and letters in the same
year.
2 Thus Burton calls him "a rough-handed, unscrupulous
soldier, who had gained experience in all descriptions of
warfare."-Hist. Scot. viii. 285.
EE
418
THE MACKINTOSHES
with avarice and covetousness.' Of his bravery and
constancy to the cause he had espoused, as well as of
his military ability, his actions can be left to speak.2
The Master of Sinclair sneers most unmercifully at
his pretensions to military skill, and does not spare
his poverty; but the Master's pen was urged by
disappointment and spleen, and no doubt jealousy
of the brigadier himself. It is likely, also, that the
charges of Patten were prompted by personal malice,
and coming from such a man they can scarcely be re-
ceived with implicit confidence. The rudeness ascribed
¹ Patten, 18.
2 "The Brigadier had served abroad, and maintained the
character of an intrepid and experienced officer; his followers
were the most resolute and best armed of any that composed the
army.”—Charles, i. 283. Patten (p. 6) speaks also of the good
order and equipment of the Mackintoshes; and Rae (p. 237)
says that the regiment "was reckoned the best the Earl of Mar
had."
3 Memoirs of the Insurrection in 1715. The Brigadier was,
says the Master, "one who had no pretensions to know anything
of service, who the world had no better opinion of at that time
than they have at present, and who had nothing to recommend
him but that his chief, the Laird of Mackintosh, who all lookt
on to be a very weak man, imagin'd him wiser than himself, and
delivered himself and his clan up to his disposal, all which, if
considered, and that this Brigadier had not credite for 30 pounds
in the countrie (witness the straites he was put to when Drum-
mond sent him Plenipo to France) it will look odd how so many
lords and gentlemen trusted themselves to him, or that Mar had
the face to choose him for such a command."—p. 156.
"Mack-
intosh was yet less qualified for the command, for he had neither
rank nor any distinguishing thing about him except ignorant
presumption and ane affected Inverness English accent not
common amongst Highlandmen."-p. 255.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
419
to the brigadier is altogether imaginary. A Highland
gentleman of that day was by no means a savage or a
boor; he had generally some learning, frequently a
university education, and was accustomed to polite
society. The brigadier's position as heir to a con-
siderable estate, and therefore a person of some note
in the north, of itself argues his having received some
amount of education; while it is reasonable to sup-
pose that a lengthened sojourn in France must have
imparted some degree of polish to his manners. But
apart from these inferences we have actual proof of
his having been a man of at least the ordinary genteel
education. The records of King's College, Aberdeen,
show that he and his brother Lachlan, together with
Angus, son of Mackintosh of Killachie, were entered on
the books of the college in 1672;¹ and on the 7th July
1677 we find young William heading the list of those
who had earned the degree of Master of Arts-" Lau-
ream magisterialem adepti sunt juvenes quorum se-
quuntur nomina, Mr. Gulielmus M'Intosh de Borlum,
&c." The Rev. Lachlan Shaw describes him as "a
gentleman of polite education and good knowledge."
We have further evidence in a book which he printed
at Edinburgh in 1729, entitled "An Essay on Ways
and Means for Inclosing, Fallowing, Planting &c.,
Scotland." In this work he displays considerable
classical and general knowledge, and mentions the
fact of his having been acquainted with and often in
the society of the great and good Sir Robert Boyle.
2
1 Fasti Aberdon. 491.
2 Ibid. 528.
EE 2
420
THE MACKINTOSHES
The sentiments expressed are those of a religious,
humane man, while some of the ideas enunciated are
far in advance of his age, and worthy a lover of his
country, the name under which he publishes the
work.' In a word, the evil characteristics ascribed to
him seem to be either greatly exaggerated, or else
entirely to proceed from the malice of his unfriends.
After his seizure of Inverness, the chief, with the
aid of Borlum younger, at once set about preparations
for marching southward. A supply of arms had been
obtained at Inverness; but acting probably on infor-
mation derived from some of the letters which had
been intercepted, Mackintosh led a force to Culloden
House and demanded the arms and ammunition in it.²
1 For example, at p. xxvi of his Dedication to the Lords and
Gentlemen of the Scots Nation in the British Parliament he
says, "Do, my Lords and Gentlemen, give up your services you
have of your farmers, give them long leases, that now at last they
may believe they can, without fear of another turning them out,
enjoy their improvements and the fruit of their own labours.
It is just, it is human, and what Religion requires of us."
2 The following letter, in which Mackintosh demands as a
right the concurrence of such of his clansmen as resided on the
Culloden estate, affords one of the latest illustrations of the old
principles of clanship. It is dated the day after the seizure of
Inverness:
"To the Honble My Ladie Cullodin yo" att Cullodin.
Madam, You can'nt be a stranger to the circumstances I have
put myself in at the tyme, and the great need I have of my own
men and followers wherever they may be found. Wherefor I
thought fitt, seeing Cullodin is not att home, by this line to
entreat you to put no stopp in the way of these men that are
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
421
ľ
Mrs. Forbes, in her husband's absence, courageously
refused the demand, and put the house in a state of
defence. Mackintosh remaining in the vicinity, she
communicated her situation to Munro of Fowlis, who
set out with 200 men to her relief, but was stopped
at Conon Water by a message from Seaforth.' Giving
up his attempt on Culloden at Seaforth's request, the
chief joined Mar at Perth on the 5th October with a
battalion of about 700 well armed men. Of this
battalion he received the command as colonel,² Farqu-
harson of Invercauld, who came with him accompanied
by 200 men, being made lieutenant colonel. Mar,
remembering Invercauld's hesitation when first asked
to join the Rising, wished him on his arrival to put
and have been my followers upon your ground. Madam, your
compliance in this will very much oblige your most humble
servant, L. Mackintoshe. 14 Sept. 1715. P.S. Madam, if
what I demand will not be granted I hope I'll be excused to be
in my duty."-Culloden Papers, No. 49.
1 Charles, i. 341. Rae, 328-9.
2 We not uncommonly find mention of the "battalion of
Brigadier Mackintosh" in histories of this Rising. This is in-
correct; the battalion was under the command of the chief of
Mackintosh, and the Brigadier had nothing to do with it except
as having command of the whole force of which it formed a
part. This is clear from Patten (p. 57)—" The sixth Regiment
was called Macintosh's Battalion, a relation of the Brigadier's
who is chief of that clan. He is of an ancient family, descended
from the old Thanes of Fife
He is a gentleman that few
people expected in the Rebellion, having always appeared on
the other side, but the persuasions of the Brigadier prevailed
with him. He is a handsome, brave young gentleman." Patten
(p. 107) also speaks of Brigadier Mackintosh and Colonel
Mackintosh in the same sentence.
•
422
THE MACKINTOSHES
himself under the command of his kinsman of In-
verey; but he refused, and " Indercale and his men
continued with the Mackintoshes." " Of the thirty-
two officers of the battalion, twenty-eight bore names
belonging to Clan Chattan. The list, as given by
Patten, is as follows:-
M'intosh's Battalion consisted of 13 Companies, fifty men in
each Company before the desertion at Langholm.
[John] Ferguson [i.e. Farquharson] Lieutenant Colonel of In-
vercall, Pardoned by the Prince.
John M'intosh, Major, brother to the Brigadier, escaped.
Laughlan M'intosh Senior, Captain.2
Farquhar M'gilroy
3
Angus M'bean [of Kinchyle]
""
Robert Shaw [younger of Tordarroch] Captain.
4
Duncomb M'intosh, Captain.
William M'intosh
""
Angus M'cintosh [of Killachie] Captain.
Laughlan M'intosh Junior 5
""
Francis Farquharson of Whithouse, acquitted.
Laughlan M'clean, Captain.
6
William M'gilroy, Lieut.
John Farquharson of Kirktown, Lieut., acquitted.
John M'intosh, Lieut.
Farquhar M'gilroy [of Dalcrombie] Lieut.
John M'bean, Lieut.
¹ Sinclair's Memoirs, 104.
2 Lachlan was of Knocknagael, and was second son of Borlum,
John the Major being third son, and the Brigadier eldest son.
3 Macgillivray of Dunmaglass.
4 Another brother of the Brigadier.
5 Eldest son of the Brigadier.
6 Brother to Dunmaglass, and called afterwards the "Captain
Baan,"
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
423
Angus Shaw,¹ Lieut.
Benj. M'intosh 2
James M'intosh
""
""
William Maquin [Macqueen] Lieut.
John M'intosh, Lieut.
Doncan M'intosh
John Abercromby, Lieut. and Aid de Camp.
Skeen
David Stuart
Will. Mackintosh
""
99
Jo. M'intosh, Aid de Cong.
Daniel Grant, Adjutant.
Dav. M'quean, Paymaster.
Will. Shaw, Quartermaster.
""
The Macphersons formed a separate battalion under
the orders of the Marquis of Huntly, son of their
superior lord; but owing to that noble's jealousy
and distrust of Mar they had not much opportunity
of exhibiting their prowess. At the indecisive battle
of Sheriffmuir they were compelled to remain inactive,
either in obedience to Huntly's order or by the enemy's
strategy.
The most important event of this unfortunate Rising
was the campaign in the south of Scotland and in
England; and in this the Mackintosh battalion took
a prominent part. Desirous of encouraging the Jaco-
bites in England and on the Borders, Mar conceived
the idea of despatching a force across the Firth of
Forth to their assistance, he himself remaining at
1 Second son of Alexander Shaw of Tordarroch.
2 A natural son of the Brigadier.
424
THE MACKINTOSHES
Perth with his main body until the clans which still
held aloof should yield to his persuasions and join him.
A more politic and soldier-like course would no doubt
have been to move his whole force against the Duke
of Argyle, who occupied Stirling.. Argyle must then
have retired before him or have been beaten; and
either result would have opened a way into the south,
and at the same time have brought the undecided
chiefs flocking to the Jacobite standard. But it was
not without reason that an aged chieftain made the
pathetic exclamation at Sheriffmuir, "O for one hour
of Dundee!" Mar was no leader of men, and with
such an army as his, under similar circumstances, the
great viscount would in all human probability have
placed his master on the throne of Britain.
The force sent across the Firth of Forth comprised
six regiments,-Lord Strathmore's, Lord Mar's (com-
posed of his own vassals, among them some of the
Farquharsons under Inverey), Logie Drummond's,
Lord Nairn's, Lord Charles Murray's, and Mackin-
tosh's about 2500 men altogether, and, except
Strathmore's regiment, all Highlanders. The chief
command was given to Brigadier Mackintosh, younger
of Borlum, but whether he had any precise orders or
any detailed plan of operations assigned to him is not
certain. The nights of the 11th and 12th Oct. were
chosen for the passage of the Firth. All the boats
that could be found along the coast had been pressed
into the service and kept in readiness at Pittenweem,
Crail, and other villages near. From these places
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
425
the 2500 men set out at the appointed times on their
perilous voyage of some eighteen or twenty miles, in
crowded open boats, and with the knowledge that
several hostile men-of-war were cruising in their
vicinity. Only about 1500 men, including the whole
Mackintosh regiment, achieved the passage.
1
Collecting his scattered forces at Haddington
and Tranent, the brigadier marched on Edinburgh.
In a letter dated 21st Oct. to Lord Kenmure, Mar
terms this march "an unlucky mistake." Certainly
no advantage came from it, though at the same time it
occasioned no loss. It is probable that the brigadier
had heard from friends in Edinburgh that he had a
chance of seizing the capital, an acquisition which
would have given vast éclat to his army and the cause
and at the same time have supplied him with arms
and money. But Lockhart of Carnwath and other
leading Jacobites in the city were apparently ignorant
of the expedition; and the authorities, on hearing of
the landing of Borlum's force, had at once lodged
Lockhart himself in the castle, thus awing the rest,'
and had sent to Stirling for aid from the Duke of
Argyle. Borlum, therefore, on seeing the position of
affairs, turned his back on the capital and took posses-
sion of Leith, where he entrenched himself in a fort
originally built by Cromwell. On the 14th, Argyle
appeared before the fort, but only to receive a resolute
defiance from its occupants, and to see that an assault
would be useless without cannon. The brigadier,
2 Lockhart Papers, i. 495.
¹ Patten, 75.
2
426
THE MACKINTOSH ES
having now no object in remaining near Edinburgh,
moved his force the same night to Seton House, the
residence of Lord Wintoun. Here on the 18th he
received orders from Mar to march towards England
and form a junction with the forces of Lord Kenmure
and Mr. Forster. He joined these at Kelso on the
22nd Oct.¹
It is not necessary to follow the Jacobite forces step
by step in their fatal march into England. The
responsibility of this disastrous movement rests with
Forster and the English Jacobites; it was from
the first strongly opposed by the Scots leaders, and
only finally assented to on the assurance of Forster
and his friends that a general rising would take place
in Lancashire on their arrival there.2 No one was at
first more opposed to the movement than Brigadier
Mackintosh, who was desirous of joining the western
clans under General Gordon-a step which if taken
would doubtless have secured Scotland to the Jacobites.
But when the march into England was decided upon,
he went into it heart and soul, and used all his
influence to prevail on the rest of the Highlanders to
follow his example. After crossing the border Mr.
3
"The Highlanders came into the town with their bagpipes
playing, led by old Mackintosh; but they made a very in-
different figure, for the rain and their long marches had ex-
tremely fatigued them, tho' their old Brigadier, who march'd at
the head of them, appeared very well."-Patten, 38.
2 Patten, 71.
3 When orders were given to cross the Border "the High-
landers refused obedience. Their leader Mackintosh, who had
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
427
Forster became commander-in-chief of the whole
force, by virtue of a commission from the Earl of
Mar.
On the 10th Nov. 1715 the army entered the town
of Preston in Lancashire. On the second day after
their arrival, Forster gave directions for a march
towards Manchester, but before these could be carried
out the approach of the Hanoverian General Wills
was announced. In some consternation, Forster first
ordered that the bridge across the Ribble should be
defended-Mackintosh's battalion having the honour
of being chosen for this service ¹-but soon afterwards,
1
no prejudice against active service wherever it could be obtained,
endeavoured with all his eloquence and authority to prevent
their desertion, and by one who was sent from the army to know
their final determination he was found standing in the middle of
the Esk, endeavouring to stop them in their attempts to march
northward, and heard emphatically cursing their obstinacy and
exclaiming, 'Why the devil not go into England, where there is
both meat, men, and money! Those who are deserting us are
- Burton's Hist. Scot. viii. 301,
but the rascality of my men.
quoting Journal of a Merse Officer.
Burton gives another characteristic anecdote of the Brigadier
from the Merse Officer's Journal. During the debates which
took place previous to the march into England, "Mackintosh,
who was a practical man, and had seen abundance of savage
fighting, became disgusted with all these councils and cross-
marches. He heard that there was an enemy (General Carpen-
ter) near,
and called on them to stop their consultations and
fight him off-hand a proposal which only made his more de-
liberate allies say that he saw nothing before him but starving
or hanging."-Ib. viii. 300.
1 "The foot that were advanced to the Bridge were about
100, but they were choice, stout, and well-armed men, and
428
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
and without waiting for the enemy's attack, he drew
all his men into the town. Here he resolved to hold
out against Wills. The entrances to the town were
speedily barricaded and manned. The four main
barriers were" one a little below the church, com-
manded by Brigadier Macintosh," and supported by
the gentlemen volunteers; another at the end of a
lane leading to the fields, under Lord Charles Murray;
"the third was called the Windmill, and was com-
manded by Colonel Mackintosh; and the fourth
was in the street which leads towards Liverpool,
commanded by Major Miller and Mr. Douglas." 2
The first three barriers were attacked with great
fury, but without success. The attack on the
brigadier's barrier was repulsed with considerable
commanded by Lieut.-Colonel John Farquharson of Invercall
belonging to Macintosh's Battalion. He was a good officer and
a very bold man, and would have defended that important pass
to the last drop."-Patten, 104.
1 Forster, elated by the number of recruits he had received at
Preston, appears at first to have thought it possible that Wills
would not dare to face him, but Brigadier Mackintosh advised
him not to be too confident. “Forster treated this advice very
lightly, but Mackintosh added, 'I tell you, man, he (Wills) will
attack and beat us all if we do not look about us.' Thereupon,
observing from a window a party of the new recruits passing
by, the veteran warrior thus contemptuously addressed the in-
experienced chief, 'Look you there, Forster, are yon fellows the
men ye intend to fight Wills with? Good faith, Sir, an ye had
ten thousand of them I'd fight them all with a thousand of his
dragoons.'"-Browne, ii. 307, quoting Annals of 2nd Year of
George I., 136.
2 Patten, 107.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
429
loss to the assailants, and with the loss of at least
one brave man, Captain Peter Farquharson of
Rochalzie, of Mar's regiment, to the defenders."
That on the Windmill barrier, held by the chief of
Mackintosh in person with about 300 men, was
equally unsuccessful. "Mackintosh with his men
behaved very boldly, and made a dreadful fire upon
the king's forces, killing many on the spot, and
obliging them to make a retreat." 2
On the following day (Sunday 13th Nov.)³ the
Government force was strengthened by the arrival of
General Carpenter's army, which had followed the
Jacobites from the north of England. The town was
now regularly invested, and it soon became obvious to
the besieged that surrender or death was inevitable.
Of the first alternative the Highlanders never dreamed;
they "were for sallying out, and dying, as they called
it, like men of honour, with swords in their hands,"
says Patten. Forster and the English were of
another mind. They decided on a capitulation, in
1 "A gentleman of an invincible spirit and almost inimitable
bravery. Being shot through the bone of the leg, he endured a
great deal of torture in the operation of the surgeon. When
he was first brought into the Inn called the White Bull, he took
a glass of brandy, and said, 'Come lads, here is our Master's
health; though I can do no more, I wish you good success.' His
leg was cut off by an unskilful Butcher rather than a Surgeon,
and he presently died."-Patten, 110.
2 Patten, 113.
3 On the same day the battle of Sheriffmuir was fought, and
the town of Inverness was retaken by Lord Lovat for the
Government.
430
THE MACKINTOSHES
the hope of obtaining good terms; but they carefully
kept their intention a secret from their northern allies.
The despatch of a messenger to Wills was therefore
accounted for by the pretext that he had sent to offer
honourable terms.
To the message of Forster, as well as to the inquiry
of Captain Dalziel as to the terms which would be
granted to the Scots, Wills returned answer that he
would not treat with rebels, and that they might
expect no other terms than to lay down their arms
and surrender at discretion. Sending later in the day
for an immediate decision, he was asked to grant a truce
till next morning in order that differences between the
English and Scots officers might be settled and the
best means of surrendering decided upon. This
request was granted under certain conditions, one of
which was that the chiefs of the English and Scots
should be given up as hostages; and accordingly the
Earl of Derwentwater and Brigadier Mackintosh were
sent to Wills's headquarters.
The Highlanders, on perceiving that surrender was
resolved upon, were "terribly enraged, and declared
they would die fighting." All night the streets were
in a state of the wildest confusion; men marching to
and fro, exclaiming against those who had betrayed
them, and threatening-even killing-any who talked
of surrender. Had Forster appeared in the streets,
says Patten, he would certainly have been cut to
pieces; and even in his own chamber he only escaped
death by the promptness of his chaplain-Patten
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
431
himself-in striking up a pistol which was fired at
him.
At the appointed time next morning Wills received
a message from Forster to say that the besieged were
willing to surrender at discretion. Brigadier Mackin-
tosh, according to the deposition of Wills at Lord
Wintoun's trial in the House of Lords, "being by
when the message was brought, said he could not
answer that the Scotch would surrender in that
manner, for that the Scots were people of desperate
fortunes, and that he had been a soldier himself and
knew what it was to be a prisoner at discretion.
Upon this the deponent said, 'Go back to your
people, and I will attack the town and not spare one
man of you.' Mackintosh went back, but came
running out immediately again, and said that the
Lord Kenmure and the rest of the noblemen, with
his brother, would surrender in like manner with
the English."
The Government forces now took possession of the
town and disarmed its defenders, whom they kept
under guard until orders should be received for their
disposal. The prisoners numbered nearly 1500, two-
thirds of them being Scots. Those of most note were
sent to London; some were kept at Lancaster, Liver-
pool, Carlisle, and other towns, while many of inferior
rank were shipped off to slavery in the American
plantations.
The prisoners sent to London for trial were con-
ducted into the metropolis in a kind of mock triumphal
432
THE MACKINTOSHES
procession—a less dishonour to them than to those
who stooped to authorise and enjoy such a spectacle.
At Barnet they were pinioned as if they were the
vilest criminals, the noblemen even not being exempted
from this indignity. From Highgate they were
escorted by horse grenadiers and foot guards, and
attended by the jeers and revilings of a large mob,
to their respective prisons,—the Tower for the noble-
men, Newgate, the Marshalsea, and other prisons for
the remainder. Among them were Brigadier Mackin-
tosh and the gallant young chief, with several other
members of Clan Chattan who were deemed of
sufficient note to be tried in the capital. "Brigadier
Mackintosh," says Burton,¹ "remarkable for the grim
ferocity of his scarred face, attracted in the captive
procession glances which, through the influence of
his formidable presence, had in them more respect
than ridicule, even from the exulting crowd. Ere he
had been long among them he performed a feat which
made him still more the object of admiring awe
(alluding to his escape). Forster and the brigadier,
with some of the Clan Chattan officers, were among
those confined in Newgate. The chief appears at first
to have been lodged in the Fleet, but he was subse-
quently removed to Newgate. He writes from the
Fleet to the Duke of Montrose, on the 20th Feb. 1716,
showing the desirableness of banishing the prisoners
for the sake of saving the Government so many trials,
""
1 Hist. Scot. viii. 333. Mr. Burton gives no authority for his
description of the Brigadier's personal appearance.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
433
and for the sake of the prisoners' families; and mentions
that those in the Fleet were about to petition accord-
ingly. It is probable that the condition of the Fleet
Prison at this time was no better than in the days of
the Star Chamber, when its misery and loathsomeness
were proverbial.
On the 14th April Forster, Brigadier Mackintosh,
and other principal commoners engaged in the Rising
were attainted of high treason, and examined before a
Commission. They pleaded Not Guilty, and on a
motion for time had three weeks allowed them to
prepare for their trial, which was fixed for the 5th
May. But several found a means of evading trial.
Forster effected his escape from prison by stratagem;
and at about 11 o'clock on the night of the 4th May
the brigadier and fifteen of his fellow prisoners,
apparently having arranged to act in concert, knocked
down and disarmed the turnkeys and sentinels of
Newgate, and rushed out. Owing probably to their
ignorance of the mazes of London, seven were retaken ;
but the rest, including the brigadier, completed their
escape. Government offered rewards for their re-
capture, £1000 for the brigadier, and £500 for any
of the rest, but these were all ineffectual, at least
for some years. 1
1
Rae, 383. A letter dated "London, 5th May 1716," from
Mr. John Forbes to Duncan Forbes of Culloden, states that
Brigadier Mackintosh and six more made their escape out of
Newgate last night."-Culloden Papers, No. 69. The following
description of the brigadier was placarded in and about London
by the chief turnkey of Newgate, with offer of a reward of £200
FF
434
THE MACKINTOSHES
"The Londoners," remarks Burton, " amazingly
enjoyed the pomp of justice assembled next day to
hear that the bold mountaineer had superseded its
functions. Mackintosh was decidedly popular among
the Hanoverian mob, who celebrated his heroism in
ballads not flattering to their own countrymen." One
of these ballads, entitled "An Excellent New Song on
the Rebellion," is given in Hogg's Jacobite Relics.
It is described as "the best model of a street ballad
extant," and in the matters of rhyme, measure, and
sentiment it fully justifies this description. The last
of the following extracts shows that the London mob
of that day had the same relish as their descendants
of to-day for a little flouting at the ruling powers.
The ballad commences thus,-
"Mackintosh is a soldier brave,
And did most gallantly behave
When into Northumberland he came
With gallant men of his own name."
Referring to the events preliminary to the surrender at
Preston, it gives a broad paraphrase of the brigadier's
speech to Wills, but was no doubt founded on that
general's evidence at Lord Wintoun's trial:-
“Then Mackintosh unto Wills he came,
Saying, 'I have been a soldier in my time,
And ere a Scot of mine shall yield
We'll all lie dead upon the field.'
for his recapture:-" A tall, raw-boned man, about sixty years
of age, fair complexioned, beetle-browed, gray-eyed, speaks broad
Scotch."-London in Jacobite Times, by Dr. Doran, i. 205-8.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
435
In a subsequent stanza the writer seizes on the
apparent jealousy between his hero and the English
leader.¹ It may be necessary to state, in explanation of
the last line of the stanza, that it was supposed at the
time-though no doubt without any just grounds—
that Forster had betrayed the forces under his
command, and that his escape from Newgate was in
consequence connived at by the Government :-
"Mackintosh is a gallant soldier,
With his musket over his shoulder;
'Every true man point his rapier,
But damn you, Forster, you are a traitor.'”
1 Much enmity seems to have existed between Forster and the
brigadier, and this is probably the reason for the denunciation
of the latter so frequently indulged in by Patten, Forster's
friend and chaplain. "Mr. Forster showed several times for-
wardness enough for action, and particularly that he was far
from being a coward, by his riding up to Macintosh's barrier
twice in the very face of the King's troops; where I heard him
command the brigadier to advance without the barricade and
make a sally, which he positively refused. What reason he
gave, I know not; Mr. Forster, however, warmly told him he
would have him tried by a Court Martial if he outlived the
service of the day and if ever his King came. This occasioned
the grudge which still continued betwixt them even in Newgate.
The brigadier has got the character of brave and bold; he has
given signal instances thereof beyond seas; but we all must say.
we saw very little of it at Preston."-Patten, 126.
Forster was certainly no soldier; and it is likely on the one
hand that the brigadier did not conceal his impatience at his
superior's ignorance of military matters, and on the other that
Forster resented the interference and plain-speaking of his
subordinate but more experienced ally. The brigadier's refusal
to obey Forster's order for a sally seems justified by the fact
FF 2
436
THE MACKINTOSHES
The concluding lines are by far the best :-
"Brave Derwentwater he is dead,
From his fair body they took the head;
But Mackintosh and his friends are fled,
And they'll set the hat on another head.
"And whether they're gone beyond the sea,
Or if they abide in this countree,
Tho' our king would give ten thousand pound,
Old Mackintosh will scorn to be found."
:
The chief of Mackintosh remained in prison until
August, when he was set at liberty. The Diary of a
gentleman in Newgate at the time mentions that "the
Laird of Mackintosh, chief of his clan, was discharged
upon the intercession of his lady, who made it plain
that he was trepanned into the rebellion by the craft
of the brigadier "-rather a tame and commonplace
sequel to his spirited conduct during the few months
of the Rising. From a letter sent by Simon Lord
Lovat, after his capture in 1746, to the Duke of
Cumberland, dated 12th June 1746, it appears
that intercession had also been made on behalf of
the chief by Lovat himself, then professedly a
staunch Hanoverian.
Several of the inferior members of Clan Chattan
suffered death. Among those tried and condemned
that Wills had with him, besides the yeomanry of Lord Lumley
and others, three regiments of regular Dragoons, a force against
which the Highlanders would have had little or no chance; and
this fact was pleaded by the brigadier in a subsequent conversa-
tion with Lord Widdrington.-Patten, 134.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
437
at Liverpool from 20th Jan. to 9th Feb. 1716 were
Thomas Shaw, James and George Mackintosh, John
Macgillivray, and William "Ferguson" (Farquharson).¹
The officers of the clan regiments appear to have
been taken to London for trial, and most of them
were ultimately pardoned.2
As the greater part of the subsequent career of
Brigadier Mackintosh passed without event, it may
not be out of place to complete his story here. After
his escape from Newgate he went abroad, and his
father dying in the same year he became "of
Borlum." From a contemporary MS. account of the
Jacobite expedition in Scotland in 1719 (discovered a
few years ago among the papers of a distinguished
Jacobite family) it appears that Borlum was one of the
small force of Scots and Spaniards who in that year
landed in Lewis under the command of the Marquis of
Tullibardine and the Earls Marischal and Seaforth.8
This force was a portion of an army of some 6000
men which had set out from Spain, but which had
1 Rae, 378.
2 Among the Cawdor Papers is an interesting letter (dated
Calder, 6 Jan. 1716) from Sir Hew Campbell of Cawdor to his
grandson John in London, concerning one of the captains in
Mackintosh's regiment, Angus Mackintosh of Killachie, then a
prisoner in London.-See Thanes of Cawdor, 415.
3 It is probable that Borlum had been in Scotland in the pre-
ceding year. In a pamphlet printed in 1718, entitled "The
Necessity of a Plot; or, Reasons for a Standing Army," it is
stated that peril was already looming from Scotland, Brigadier
Mackintosh's ghost having been seen in the Highlands.
438
THE MACKINTOSHES
been dispersed by storms off Cape Finisterre. On
landing in Scotland it was augmented by some of the
Mackenzies, but was too inconsiderable to cope with
the regular forces of the Government, aided by the
Munroes, Rosses, and other Whig clans. After a
skirmish in Glenshiel it was disbanded, and its
leaders returned abroad. Borlum lingered for some
time in Scotland without detection, but he was at
length apprehended, and confined in Edinburgh
Castle. It was during his captivity, which endured
for the rest of his long life, that he wrote and
published the treatise on agriculture already noticed,
as well as, only a year before his death, a scheme for
curbing depredation in the Highlands-" which
scheme," says the Rev. Lachlan Shaw, writing some
thirty years later, "is now executed with success.
He was thus, from the time of his return from foreign
service at the beginning of the century-when he
set the example of planting on his own lands at Raits
in Badenoch-to the time of his death, occupied in
doing good, or what he conceived to be good, to his
country. After a captivity of nearly a quarter of a
century, and after a rough earthly pilgrimage of eighty
years, the gallant old warrior passed to his rest on the
7th Jan. 1743, true to the last to his Jacobite principles.¹
1 His death is thus noticed in the Gentleman's Magazine for
Jan. 1743 :-" Jan. 7. Wm Mackintosh of Borlum, Esq., aged 80.
He had been confined 15 years in the Castle of Edinburgh for
being concerned in the late Rebellion." The notice in the
Caledonian Mercury speaks of him as "a complete gentleman,
friendly, agreeable, and courteous."
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
439
The chief of Mackintosh was rewarded for his
services to the Stuart cause by a patent of nobility
from James VIII. The royal warrant for this, pre-
served in the Mackintosh charter chest, is dated at
Avignon, 21st Jan. 1717, "the sixteenth year of Our
Reigne," and is countersigned by the Earl (titular
Duke) of Mar. It sets forth that "James, by the
Grace of God King of Scotland, England, France,
and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. being satisfied
with the duty, loyalty, and affection of Our trusty and
well-beloved Lachline M'intosh of M'intosh, and the
good service performed by him to us, particularly in
the late attempt in Brittain.... as appeared by his
Receiving the necessary Orders from the then Earl,
now Duke of Mar, to whom We had committed the
direction of that affair, and Joining Our Royal Standard
with his men; and by his afterwards passing the
Forth by Our said General's orders under the command
of his cousin Brigadier M'intosh to encourage and
promote the Riseing in England for Our service, When
at the affair of Preston his family suffer'd consider-
ably; and being resolved. . . . to attach the said
Lachlin and his family the more to the interests of
the Crown and of Us and Our Lawful Successors,
and to make them further usefull to their Countrey,
and as a mark of Our Royal favour, to confer on the
said Lachlin M'intosh and his lawfull heirs male the
Tittle and Dignity after-mentioned . . . ordains
Letters Patent to be past under Our Great Seal of
Our ancient Kingdom of Scotland making and
440
THE MACKINTOSHES
creating, as We hereby make and creat, the said
Lachlin M'intosh a Lord and Peer of Parliament
of Our said ancient Kingdom by the Name and Tittle
of Lord M'intosh."
It only remains to notice briefly the result of the
Rising, of which the expedition into England was but
a part. As might have been anticipated, the irresolu-
tion and military incapacity of Mar soon proved the
ruin of an undertaking which in more able hands
might have succeeded. The question whether Mar
or Argyle should hold Scotland ought to have been
settled long before Sheriffmuir was fought; and even
as things fell out, Sheriffmuir ought to have been a
Jacobite victory. After this battle, Mar's army was
reduced by about half, many persons of consequence
retiring with their followers, some disgusted with
their leader's incapacity, and despairing of success
while he remained at their head; others, in addition
to these motives, driven away by his insolence.
The army lingered on until February 1716, when
it was disbanded by order of James himself, whom
Mar had invited over. Mar accompanied his prince
back to the Continent, and for a few years acted as
his prime minister.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
441
CHAPTER XIII.
Glenroy-Arrangement with Cluny as to headship of Clan
Chattan—Lachlan's Character and Death-William, 21st
chief-Angus, 22nd chief-Jacobitism in the Highlands-
The Black Watch Deserters, 1743—The Rising of 1745—
Anne Farquharson, Lady Mackintosh-Battle of Falkirk-
Prince Charles Edward at Moy; the "Rout of Moy "-The
Prince at Inverness-Battle of Culloden.
1
AFTER his release in 1716, the chief gave up the
trade of king-making, and returned to the north
to spend the remainder of his life among his clansmen.
"He zealously devoted himself to the improvement
and consolidation of his estates, and had several long-
outstanding disputes with the Duke of Gordon, Cluny,
Rothimurcus, and others settled, besides establishing
the family's claims on Keppoch." In the settlement
of the dispute with the Duke of Gordon we hear the
last of the old debates concerning the Brae Lochaber
lands, Glenspean becoming the property of the
Gordons, who had previously obtained a right to it,
and Glenroy passing into actual possession of the
Mackintoshes. Glenspean has since changed hands,
but the Mackintoshes still hold their share of the
Antiquarian Notes, no. ix.
1
442
THE MACKINTOSHES
old debateable land, and, as Mr. Fraser-Mackintosh
remarks, "have with undiminished possessions seen
the Gordons, their inveterate foes and oppressors,
virtually extinguished in Inverness-shire."
Another dispute of some importance which was
settled in this chief's time was with Cluny. We have
seen that the Macphersons had for some time been
following the house of Huntly, and that Huntly-or
more properly the first Duke of Gordon-had been
using every means to trouble Mackintosh. In imita-
tion of the policy of his great-grandfather the first
marquis, the duke had stirred up the chieftain of Clan
Mhuirich to assert his independence of Mackintosh,
and to claim the headship of Clan Chattan. This had
been done, as we have seen in Chap. II., by Duncan of
Cluny, who, by the way, with strange inconsistency—
considering that he founded his claim on his male
descent, and repudiated Mackintosh's claim through
female descent, from the old Clan Chattan chiefs
-had endeavoured to make a settlement of his
estates and command on his son-in-law, Archibald,
second son of Campbell of Cawdor.¹
On the
1 Fortunately he was unable to effect his object, or the ancient
family of Cluny would have sunk before the Campbells as did
the not less ancient family of Calder. The Macphersons met,
and signed a contract dated at Benchar the 14th March 1689.
In this they say, "Considering that our chief is of full purpose
and resolution to talyie not only his whole estate but also the
representatione of us and all others our kinsmen
with
his daughter to a stranger, and that our ruine is thereby
threatned, if God Almightie by ane entire unione among our-
selves doe not prevent the same, [We] declare and swear upon
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
443
death of Duncan in 1722 he was succeeded by
his kinsman Lachlan Macpherson
Macpherson of Nuid, son
of William of Nuid, as heir male. This chief
refused to continue the proceedings of his pre-
decessor, and consented to a proposal made by
Mackintosh that the matter in dispute should be
finally settled. A meeting of the Clan Chattan
accordingly took place at Moy in September 1724,
and on the 15th an agreement was signed by Mackin-
tosh and Cluny, proceeding on the narrative of the
"differs betwixt those parties and their immediate
our great oath that we shall not own nor countenance any person
as the said Duncan M'phersone his representative (failing heirs.
male of his own body) excepting William M'phersone of Noid,
who is his true lineal successor, and the heirs male of his body,
quhilkis failing the heirs male quhatsumevir and safurth suc-
cessibly; and that wee shall to the utmost of our power assist
and maintain the said William and his forsaids in attaining and
possessing the said estate by all just means imaginable." This
is signed by sixteen Macphersons, William of Noid and Alex-
ander of Pitmean heading the list.-Thanes of Cawdor, 37.
1 Nearly all the names of the tribes of Clan Chattan are found
in the list of those present, most of whom signed the agreement
as witnesses. The friends of Mackintosh were William Mackin-
tosh of Daviot, John Farquharson of Invercauld, Peter Far-
quharson of Inverey, Farquhar Macgillivray of Dunmaglass,
James Shaw of Dell, Angus Shaw of Tordarroch, William Mac-
bean of Kinchyle, Donald Macbean of Faillie, Robert Macphail
of Inverernie, James Macqueen of Corrybrough, Lachlan
Mackintosh of Killachie, Lachlan of Strone, Shaw of Borlum,
William of Aberarder, John of Holm, Alexander of Blairvie,
William of Corrybrough, and others. Cluny was supported by
John Macpherson of Invereshie, Angus of Killiehuntly, James
of Pitchern, John of Strathmashie, John of Cruben, John of
Benchar, and others of his own name.
444
THE MACKINTOSHES
""
predecessors anent the chieftainry of Clan Chattan,
whereupon there happened a great deal of animosity
and inconveniency to both parties; and now seeing
the said Lachlan Mackintosh and the said Lachlan
Macpherson and their friends find that these disputes
were introduced and carried on merely by the private
designs of seditious persons and bad instruments, and
being conscious that the said Lachlan Mackintosh of
that Ilk is the only undoubted Chief of Clan Chattan
by virtue of his predecessor marrying the heiress of
that clan anno twelve hundred and ninety-one years,
and is still willing to represent them as such;
therefore, and in consideration of a grant of lands by
Mackintosh, Cluny binds "himself and his successors
to pass from and renounce to and in favour of Lachlan
Mackintosh of that Ilk and his successors all and
whatsoever pretensions he had, has, or any ways may
have to the said chieftainry for now and for ever, and
to make, subscribe, and deliver to him all such writts
as shall be found conducing to that end. . . . for the
said Lachlan M. of M. his further security of the said
L. M. of C. and friends, their dependence, owning, and
following him, the said L. Mackintosh, as their princi-
pal Captain and Chief be virtue of the said marriage."
Mackintosh on his part binds himself to assign and
dispone "to Cluny, his heirs and successors, heritably
and irredeemably, the davoch and land of Gelovy,
comprehending Kinloch, Muckull, Inverviddan, Ard-
verikie, with the two easter ploughs of Gelovy now
wadset, &c.”—Cluny, however, not being allowed to .
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
445
:
66
sell or dispone the lands or any portion of them
except to Mackintosh, and being required with his
tenants on
on the lands to answer to the said
Lachlan Mackintosh his courts twice a year if cited
thereto," as well as to pay certain feu duties to
Mackintosh for the lands. The agreement was
formally carried into effect on 24th Oct. 1726.
The wife of Lachlan Mackintosh was Anne, daughter
of Alexander Duff of Drummuir. By this lady, who
survived him nineteen years, he had no issue. His
character, both as a chief and as a gentleman, appears
to have been worthy of imitation. The Rev. L. Shaw
in his MS. says, “He was of a middle stature, ruddy
complexion, straight and lively, and having had a
liberal education, was courteous and polite in his
address. His easy and ready wit, his free and facetious
conversation, rendered him a most agreeable com-
panion. His strict and untainted honour and
integrity endeared him to all ranks. He was a most
affectionate husband, firm friend, kind master, and
indulgent chief, and though he had no children of his
own he acted as a parent to the younger gentlemen of
his clan, and particularly to his near relations." Shaw
was no doubt well acquainted with him, but perhaps
fully as good an estimate may be formed of his
character from a deed of mortification the provisions
of which are still in force. The mortification is of
2000 merks for the maintenance of a student at
King's College, Aberdeen. The deed commences—
446
THE MACKINTOSHES
""
.
"Wee Lachlan Macintosh of that Ilk, chieff and
principall of the Clan Chatton, and Mrs. Ann Duff
my spouse do for promoting the glory of God and in
thankful acknowledgment of His mercies bestowed
on us, and for the advancement of religion learning
and virtue, give grant and dispone. to the
King's College in Old Aberdeen .. the sum of
2000 merks of principall . . . . the yearly annual
rents of which is to be applyed . . . . for subsisting
a student in philosophy and such parts of learning for
the space of four
of four years.
Such student, not under the
age of twelve years, is to be nominated "by the
lairds of Mackintosh successively in all time coming;"
a youth of the name of Mackintosh or of Clan
Chattan is to have the preference, though the right
of nominating "a well qualified youth of any other
clan or name" is reserved to the patron in case no
youth of Clan Chattan offers; and the youth selected
is to be as exempt from all servitude and restriction,
and possessed of as ample immunities and privileges,
as are allowed by the laws or practice of the Univer-
sity to any other thereat.¹ At the same time Lachlan
and his wife mortified 3000 merks for the support of
two or three boys at Raining's School in Inverness.
Lachlan died at Moy on the 20th October 1731,
aged about sixty years. In consequence of the
absence of his successor his funeral was delayed
for two months, not taking place until the 22nd
of December. In Antiquarian Notes (no. ix.) are
1 Fasti Aberdon. 205.
1
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
447
quoted several documents relating to the circumstances.
The first of these, dated "Moyhall, 22nd Oct. 1731,"
shows the exact date of the chief's death. It is a
"Petition of Mrs. Anna Duff, Lady Dowager of
Mackintosh," to the commissary of Inverness, setting
forth" that Lachlan Mackintosh of that Ilk, Captain
of Clan Chattan, the petitioner's husband, having
deceased on the 20th instant, and William Mackin-
tosh of Daviot, the heir male, being out of the
country, such of the repositories of the writings of
the family as were lodged in this house (Moyhall)
were immediately on Mackintosh his decease sealed;
and praying that the official would cause them and
the repositories of papers at Dalcross Castle to be
sealed in the regular legal manner for the behoof of
the said heir male.¹
""
Another paper quoted is a criminal information and
complaint to the Sheriff of Inverness-shire, made
24th January 1732, by Shaw Mackintosh of Borlum
against three Macphersons. This sets forth that
¹ The next two papers are the declarations of the Commissary,
Alexander Monro, that the repositories at Moy and Dalcross had
been sealed as requested. Among the witnesses to the sealing
at Moy are Shaw Mackintosh of Borlum (second son of the
brigadier), William of Aberarder, and Lachlan of Killachie,
Farquhar Macgillivray of Dunmaglass, and James Macqueen of
Corrybrough. Killachie and Aberarder were also present at
Dalcross. At the "unsealing" at Dalcross in January following
were present the widow and the half-sister of the deceased chief
Christian, widow of David Dunbar of Dunphail), William, the
new chief, Macqueen of Corrybrough, and James Mackintosh of
Strone.
448
THE MACKINTOSHES
66
upon Thursday the 23rd day of December last
past, as your informer was riding in a quiet and
peaceable manner from Petty to the house of Dal-
cross, without any arms or weapons or so much as a
servant in company with me, in my return of waiting
of several gentlemen that had the day before been at
the late Laird of Mackintosh's funeral, the said Ewan,
Andrew, and James Macphersons, who without any
just cause had been lurking and lying in wait to
execute their wicked designs against me, did all
three, armed with swords and pistolls, attack and
assault, &c."
The funeral took place from Dalcross Castle,
whither the body had been transported from Moy.
As was customary, open house was kept during the
whole period of lying in state and at the funeral;
and so great was the expense of this hospitality that
the estate was burdened for many years afterwards.
Some idea of the consumption of food and drink may
be formed from the fact that the chief's body was
followed to the burying-place at Petty by several
thousand persons.
(21) WILLIAM, the next chief, was grandson of
Angus of Daviot, third son of Sir Lachlan; and was
thus the deceased chief's second cousin. He had
been a cornet of Dragoons, but had abandoned the
military profession in consequence of ill-health. His
chiefship was spent in relieving the family estate from
the burdens which previous extravagance had laid
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
449
..
upon it, and the Rev. L. Shaw states that "in the
short time he enjoyed the fortune of the family he
extinguished near to £2,000 of the debts of it."
Shaw adds, "He did not affect the clannish grandeur,
the numerous attendants and servants, common
among Highland chieftains. He chused rather to
live genteelly, but not great; and in order to this
he abridged the number of servants and cut off much
of the superfluous expenses of his family."
He appears to have been engaged in his time in
several duels—a fact which seems at first sight some-
what to militate against a statement by Shaw that
"his life was a pattern of virtue and goodness;"
but which, when we consider the state of society at
the period, is not incompatible with that statement."
The circumstances, as related in Sir Æneas Mack-
intosh's MS., under which one such affair had well-
nigh happened, are sufficiently curious to warrant
their narration here. The sword worn by Viscount
Dundee at Killecrankie-a large horseman's sword,
silver-hilted, with the Graham arms on the hilt-had
been presented to the late Mackintosh, when a young
man, by the viscount's family. It was worn by
Lachlan during the '15, and at Preston was given
1
A silver-hilted sword is still kept at Moy which was worn
by this chief, and with which, according to Sir Æneas Mackin-
tosh, "he had been successful in several affairs of honour."
This sword, and another presented to Sir Lachlan Mackintosh
by Charles I. "out of the great regard he had for him," are
placed across the coffins of the Mackintosh chiefs when lying
in state.
G G
450
THE MACKINTOSHES
up by him to an officer of the name of Græme in
General Wills's force, with the understanding that it
should be returned to him if he escaped the law.
Though he survived his pardon fifteen years, Lachlan
never again saw the sword; but he did not forget it,
for he made a special request on his death-bed that
his successor should be asked to procure, if possible,
its restoration to the family. Captain Græme being
with his regiment at Fort Augustus some time after-
wards, received a message from the chief of Mack-
intosh desiring him either to deliver up the weapon
or name his own." He chose to comply with the
first alternative, and the sword, with its romantic
history, is still preserved among the curiosities at
Moy Hall.
66
William's short chiefship was almost wholly with-
out event. He married Christian, daughter of Sir
Alexander Menzies of that Ilk, but had no issue.
This lady was greatly and deservedly beloved, and
her early death-which took place at Chanonry
(Fortrose)—appears to have been a severe blow to
her husband, who survived her only a few years.
Her beauty and virtues are pathetically described in
a Gaelic elegy by the famous warrior-bard John Roy
Stewart.
The chief's delicacy of constitution, and a tendency
to consumption which he had manifested, were so
worked on by grief for the loss of his wife, that his
physicians found it necessary to order him to the
south of France. He accordingly spent some time
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
451
at the invalid station of Montpellier, but as his
malady still gained ground he resolved to return
home and end his days in his native country. At
Edinburgh his little remaining strength gave way,
and he died there on the 24th September 1741, being
buried in the Abbey Church of Holyrood. "No
gentleman," says Lachlan Shaw, "could be more
valued and esteemed than Mackintosh was by all his
acquaintance. His sedate and decent air, his polite
and affable conversation, his strict honour and virtue,
and his universal goodness and benevolence, made
his life agreeable to, and his death much lamented by,
all who had the honour of his acquaintance. Far
from indulging in the levity, extravagance, luxury,
and infidelity of a corrupt age, his life was a pattern
of virtue and goodness."
(22) ANGUS. William was succeeded by his brother
Angus, or Æneas, in whose time was made the last
great attempt to replace the Stuarts on the throne
of Britain. In this, as in the Rising of 1715, the
Clan Chattan evinced their loyalty to the fallen
house, and won new laurels.
The attachment of the Highlanders to the Stuarts,
and their antipathy to the successors of that dynasty,
were perhaps at no period since 1688 more intense
than during the few years preceding "the '45." The
generation which had fought at Sheriffmuir and
Preston, which had seen Scottish blood flow like
water on the scaffold, and loyalty to the old race of
G G2
452
THE MACKINTOSHES
kings punished with banishment and slavery far
away beyond the ocean, was largely represented and
anxious for an opportunity of wiping out the stain
of previous defeat. There were even patriarchs who
could tell of glorious "Ian Dubh nan Cath" and
Killecrankie, of William "the Cruel" and Glencoe,
and whose fond yearning for the return of the
banished royal race, for whom they and their fathers
had been fighting for a whole century, would not fail
to communicate itself to the sons and grandsons to
whom they told their stories. Brought up with the
loyal deeds of their ancestors engraven on their
minds, the new generation felt that to preserve the
honour of their name-ever a first consideration
with Highlanders - they must follow in the same
path; and this was the more easy to them as they
had imbibed with their mothers' milk a genuine love
and reverence for the dethroned family, and a fervent
hatred for the dethroners. So much was this the case
that during the Rising there were several instances,
occurring even among the clans known generally as
Hanoverian," in which the very mainstay of a
Highland chief's power, the principle of unlimited
obedience by the clansmen, proved insufficient to cope
with the principle of loyalty to the Stuarts.
Among the chiefs professing hereditary Jacobite
principles the same feelings existed, though tempered
by larger knowledge and the consciousness of having
much to lose. Many no doubt were entirely sincere
and disinterested in their professions; others, perhaps
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
453
equally sincere, were not so disinterested, hoping to
attain rank and distinction on the return of the
Stuarts, of which scarcely any doubted.
To prevent the Jacobite sympathies of the High-
landers from again breaking out, the Government,
after the Risings of 1715 and 1719, had adopted
measures which, however judicious from a military
point of view, could only succeed in rousing increased
dislike and opposition from the proud, high-spirited
mountaineers. These measures had for their object
not the conversion of the Highlanders from foes to
friends, but the repression and overawing of them
by force. Forts were built and occupied by English
garrisons; General Wade's famous roads and bridges
were made for the purpose of facilitating the move-
ments of troops; and orders were given for depriving
all Highlanders of their arms. These three courses
were almost equally obnoxious. The first served
only to rouse the natural pride and spirit of the
Gael, and to determine him not to be overawed. The
second was resented by all classes from a dislike
of innovation, and by the chiefs particularly because
such an opening up of the country would diminish
the strength of their fastnesses in time of war, and
expose their clansmen to the tampering of strangers
in time of peace.¹ The third course, that of a general
1 “As late as 1727," says Sir Æneas Mackintosh, "General
Wade was so sensible of the danger the workmen ran that he
wrote Lachlan Mackintosh desiring to know in what direction he
wished to have the road carried through his estate, and that
he would desire his people not to molest his workmen."
f
454
THE MACKINTOSHES
disarming, pressed very hard on the warlike clansman,
who seldom stirred abroad without his weapons,
which he might at any moment find occasion to
use, and which not unfrequently were treasured as
having been handed down from his ancestors.¹
Thus the danger of a disturbance of the peace was
increased rather than diminished by the action of the
Government, which also to some extent failed in its
operation and actually did injury to its authors. For
example, the Disarming Act operated more in favour
of the Jacobite cause than otherwise, inasmuch as the
Hanoverian clans, anxious to show their obedience,
carefully complied with the Act, while the Jacobites
generally contrived to retain most of their weapons,
giving up only such as were old and unserviceable. As
a consequence, when the war broke out the clans in
the Hanoverian interest were almost totally unarmed,
while the Jacobites had only to take their weapons
from their hiding-places to be ready for the field.
Mr. Fraser-Mackintosh mentions his reading a list of
¹ The Disarming Order to the Clan Chattan by General Wade,
dated 6th Sept. 1725, is given in full in Mr. Fraser-Mackintosh's
Antiquarian Notes, no. xiv. It strictly requires and commands
“all of the name of Mackintosh, and their tribes and followers,
in the parishes of Dunleckity, Doors, Moy, Dallaricie, Croy, and
Petty, and all others of them inhabiting the four parishes of
Badenoch, viz. Inch, Alvy, Kinghuizie, and Laggan, and those
in the parish of Calder in the shire of Nairn," on or before
Saturday the 18th Sept. "to bring or send to Inverness all
broadswords, targets, poynards, whinzars or durks, side-pistol
or side-pistols, guns, or any other warlike weapons," to be de-
livered up for the use of His Majesty, his heirs and successors.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
455
arms given up by the Mackintoshes, "a most beggarly
return;" and he adds, "Twenty-six years later, at
Culloden, when the Clan Chattan appeared as a clan
for the last time, they showed that they were as ac-
customed to the use of arms as at any period from
Bannockburn downwards—that they had arms, and
knew how to use them."
Devotion to the Stuarts and detestation of the
Hanoverian kings having flowed into and filled the
hearts of the great majority of Highlanders, little was
required to congeal and fix them there. That little
was not long wanting. The treatment of the Black
Watch in 1743, the execution of three of its members
and the banishment of others, raised throughout the
Highlands, among Whigs as well as Jacobites, a
general cry of indignation. It seemed to many as if
Government was bent on gradually exterminating the
Highlanders, its own servants and adherents with the
rest, and that no trust was to be placed in any of its
oaths or protestations. If the Hanoverian rulers
betrayed, shot, and banished those Highlanders who
were in their own service, what mercy could they be
expected to show to those who owned a Stuart king?
Thus many Jacobites felt that their feud with the
Government was to the death.
The episode in Highland history of the Black
Watch deserters, the treatment of whom is generally
believed to have been a means of accelerating the
Rising of 1745, has a special interest for Clan
456
THE MACKINTOSHES
Chattan inasmuch as the three men punished with
death were members of the clan. It has therefore
a right to be particularly noticed here.
The independent companies raised in 1730 for
the purpose of preserving order in the Highlands
were in 1740 formed into the 43rd regiment of the
line-since changed to the 42nd, and best known
by the original name of the "Black Watch." It
being understood at the time that they were to be
employed only in their own country, no difficulty
was experienced in finding recruits, many of them
gentlemen of good family and estate. Early in
1743 it was decided to send the regiment to
Flanders, and orders were given accordingly. Strong
remonstrances were made against this step by some
even of the warmest partisans of the Government,
Lord President Duncan Forbes among others, but
without effect. It is evident that difficulty was
anticipated from the regiment, for the men were
informed that their destination was Edinburgh, where
they were to be reviewed. But at Edinburgh the
place of the alleged review was shifted to Berwick,
and from this place they were induced to go on to
London in the belief that the king himself was
anxious to inspect them.
On arriving at London they were encamped near
Highgate. On the 14th May they were reviewed-
not, as they had been led to expect, by King George,
but by General Wade. The king had left for
Hanover on the day of their arrival. Soon the
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
457
vague suspicions which had haunted them during
their march were deepened into a feeling of certainty.
Whispers were circulated among them that Govern-
ment, doubting their loyalty, designed to get rid of
them altogether by sending them to the American
plantations—a fate which they had learned from the
edicts and occurrences of thirty years before to regard
as worse even than death. Considering the apparent
eagerness of the Government to get them to London,
and the manner in which they had been decoyed
thither, we can scarcely wonder at their giving
credence to these whispers, however baseless they
really may have been. A secret meeting was held,
and a number of the men resolved to escape the
trap they believed to be laid for them by returning
to their own country. On the night of the 17th
May about a hundred of them set forth in a body
for the north, avoiding as much as possible the public
roads and the towns. Nothing was heard of them by
the authorities until late on the 19th, by which time
they had reached Northampton. They were dis-
covered in a wood a few miles from Oundle, and after
some parleying were induced to surrender.
Being taken back to the metropolis they were tried
for desertion, found guilty, and sentenced to death.
Only three, however, suffered this punishment,—
Samuel and Malcolm Macpherson, corporals, and
Farquhar Shaw, a private. In an interesting pamphlet
published immediately afterwards by the minister
who attended them in their preparations for death,
458
THE MACKINTOSH ES
1.
the following particulars are given of their parentage
and character :—¹ 1
"Samuel Macpherson, aged about 29, unmarried, was born in
the Parish of Laggan in Badenoch; his father, still living, is
brother to M'Pherson of Breachie [Breachachie], a gentleman of
considerable estate in that country, and is himself a man of un-
blemished reputation and a plentiful fortune. Samuel was the
only son of a first marriage, and received a genteel education,
having made some progress in the languages and studied for
some time at Edinburgh with a writer, until about six years ago
he enlisted as a volunteer in Major Grant's company, where he
was much respected both by the officers and private men, and
was in a short time made a corporal.2
"Malcolm M'Pherson, aged about 30 years and unmarried,
was born in the same Parish of Laggan, was son of Angus
M'Pherson of Driminard, a gentleman of credit and repute, who
bestowed upon Malcolm such education as that part of the
country would afford. He enlisted about seven years ago in my
Lord Lovat's company, where his behaviour recommended him
to the esteem of his officers, and he was soon made a corporal.
Farquhar Shaw, aged about 35, unmarried, was born in the
Parish of Rothimurcus in Strathspey. His father Alexander
Shaw was an honest farmer, but gave his son no education, as
living at a distance from schools and not in a condition to main-
tain him elsewhere. Farquhar lived for some time by droving,
but meeting with misfortunes in that business was reduced and
obliged for subsistence to enlist in the regiment, where he has
lived till now without any reproach."
:
1 “The Behaviour and Character of the Three Highland Deserters
who were shot at the Tower on the 18th July 1743 by the Clergy-
man of the Church of Scotland who conversed with them in
their own language from the time of their Sentence till their
Execution." London 1743,
2 A brother of Samuel's, General Kenneth Macpherson of the
East India Company's Service, died in 1815.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
459
These three men were shot on the 18th July within
the precincts of the Tower of London. The minister
who attended them says that "they walked to the
place [of execution], close up to the chapel in the
Tower, without expressing the least horror or des-
pondency in their gait or countenance, but with a
Christian composure and resignation of mind." He
then details the scene and events of the execution.¹
The rest of the offenders were sent abroad, being
distributed among the garrisons in the Mediterranean,
the West Indies, and America.
The severity of the Government, though justified
by the necessity for preserving discipline, had the
effect of impressing the clansmen in the north with
the belief that the sufferers had had good reason for
their attempt at escape. It was of course a powerful
weapon in the hands of the Jacobite chiefs and agents,
for most of the clans had representatives among the
sufferers, and their revengeful feelings would re-
quire little prompting. "The Clan Chattan," says
Henderson," "observing that three of their name, to
¹ The Scots Magazine for July 1743 gives the following ac-
count :-" On Monday the 18th July at 6 o'clock in the morning,
Samuel and Malcolm Macpherson, corporals, and Farquhar Shaw,
a private man, three of the Highland deserters, were shot upon
the parade within the Tower, pursuant to the sentence of the
Court Martial. The rest of the Highland prisoners were drawn
out to see the execution, and joined with them in their prayers.
They behaved with great decency and resolution. Their bodies
were put into three coffins by three of the prisoners their name-
sakes, and buried in one grave near the place of execution."
2 History of the Rebellion, 131.
460
THE MACKINTOSHES
""
whom most of them-as the other Highlanders-were
related, had fallen a sacrifice for the crime of which
several Grants and Monroes were equally guilty,
breathed nothing but revenge; however, their re-
sentment was smothered for a while, till it began to
burn with the greater violence.' Altogether, the
tragic fate of the three men, and the transportation
of their comrades to distant and unknown lands, sent
through the hearts of the Highlanders at home such
a thrill of dismay and distrust of the Hanoverian
Government as did not soon lose its effect.
There could be little doubt in the minds of the
Jacobite agents that, independently of their natural
leaning to the house of Stuart, the Highlanders of
Scotland would, as a body, readily concur in any
attempt to overthrow the Hanoverian dynasty. Their
country was therefore deemed by Prince Charles
Edward, elder son of the Chevalier de St. George, or
James VIII., the most suitable for his brave but
desperate attempt in 1745. This attempt was of the
prince's own designing. After the miscarriage in 1744
of a project for invading Britain in which he was to
be aided by a French force, and on the subsequent
unwillingness of the French king to take any fresh
steps in the matter, he had declared his intention of
going to Scotland, where he had been repeatedly
assured he would find an army ready to rise at
his call. The crushing defeat of the British troops at
Fontenoy seemed to afford a good opportunity for
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
461
striking a blow, and, the French government still
holding aloof, he set sail with only two ships-one of
which had to quit him on the way,-landing in
the Western Highlands with seven followers on the
25th July 1745.
Within a month of the raising of the standard in
Glenfinnan on the 19th August, the prince entered
the Scottish capital and proclaimed his father king.
On the 20th September he met and routed General
Cope at Prestonpans, and after wasting some weeks
in Edinburgh, set out on his ill-judged and ill-fated
march into England. At Derby, 130 miles from
London near enough to create a panic in the
metropolis, it was decided in a council of war to
return to Scotland; and this step, full of bitter
disappointment to Charles and the majority of his
army, was taken just at the time when, humanly
speaking, the chances of success for the Rising were
at their greatest height.
1
The chief of Mackintosh was personally on the side
of the Government, although it is said he was at
heart a Jacobite. Early in 1745 he had raised and
had been appointed to command one of three new
companies of the Black Watch; and according to
Stewart of Garth it was owing to his sense of duty
on this account that he kept back his clan from
joining the Jacobite army.
But this is scarcely
correct, for he did nothing to prevent the raising of
his clan by his wife, and at one time subsequent to
1 Scots Magazine for Feb. 1745; Stewart's Sketches, i. 114.
462
THE MACKINTOSHES
his appointment he appears even to have entertained
the idea of leading it himself to the aid of Prince
Charles.¹ He was probably of somewhat weak, vacil-
lating character, although it is not unlikely that he
imitated the policy of his friend Lord Lovat. If he
did this, he succeeded admirably, as events proved;
for while his wife and the clan covered themselves
with honour on behalf of the losing cause, and would
have merited the highest reward had that cause not
been the losing one, he himself, by his adherence to
the other, preserved his estates.2
1 Ewen Macpherson of Cluny, who also held a commission
under King George, had been taken prisoner near Ruthven by
Prince Charles's forces on their march southward in August.
He was taken to Perth, and after some natural hesitation, con-
sidering his position, was induced to cast in his lot with his
captors. The prince nominated him to the command of the Clan
Chattan in the Rising, a circumstance which seems to have
aroused Mackintosh's jealousy, for on the 1st Oct. he sent Cluny
the following letter:-"Dear Sir, As I am now fully determined
to command my own people and run the same fate with them,
having yesterday reced a letter from the Prince and another from
the Duke of Atholl, I hope, notwithstanding of the order you
obtained from the Prince, you will not offer to middle with any
of my men, as wee are booth designed on the same errand. I
am resolved to maintain the rank due to my family, and if you
think proper to accept the nixt rank to me youl be very well-
come. If you judge otherwise act as you have a mind. But do
not put me to the necessity of requiring my men of you in a
more publick maner, the consequence of which may be dis-
agreeable to booth. My kind compliments to Lady Cluny and
Miss Fraser, and I am, Dear Sir, your most humble Servt and
affectionate cousine, Æneas MacIntosh.-Inverness 1st October."
2 He is referred to in the Jacobite song, "Cam' ye by Athol
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
463
The Clan Chattan as a body were intensely Jacobite
in their sympathies, as they had been thirty years
before; and, as we have seen, they had now in
addition to these sympathies a desire for vengeance
to gratify. All sections of the clan were clamorous to
be led to the Jacobite standard. Ewen Macpherson of
Cluny―son of the Lachlan who had succeeded in 1724
-was prevailed upon, chiefly by his own clan, to
break his oath to the Government, and joined Charles
at Edinburgh with 600 of his name after the battle
of Prestonpans. He accompanied the prince into
England, and with his clan distinguished himself in
the skirmish at Clifton during the retreat. The
Mackintosh and Farquharson sections did not rise
until later, both being in difficulties as regarded their
leaders-Mackintosh being on the opposite side, and
the headship of the Jacobite portion of the Farquhar-
sons having just devolved on an imbecile son of the
Colonel Peter Farquharson of Inverey who had fought
in the '15. But on the prince's return from England
in January 1746, he found awaiting him some 700
or 800 Mackintoshes, Farquharsons, and others
of Clan Chattan besides the Macphersons.
The romantic circumstances attending the raising
of the Mackintoshes are well known; but the part
played by the heroic lady of the chief is usually
braes;" and in the well-known lines placed by the author of
Waverley" in the mouth of Flora MacIvor,-
"MacNeil of the Islands, and Moy of the Lake,
For honour, for freedom, for vengeance, awake!
"}
464
THE MACKINTOSHES
(C
misrepresented. This lady was Anne, daughter of
John Farquharson of Invercauld. She had married
Angus on the 14th of January 1741, and in 1745
was only twenty years of age. Though her father was
a friend of Government, most of his name in and
about Braemar were devoted Jacobites, and it was
probably through them that she became imbued with
the notions which she so conscientiously and nobly
followed out. Sir Æneas Mackintosh's MS., already
referred to, throws considerable light on the events in
which she was concerned, and may no doubt be taken as
perfectly trustworthy, the writer, who was her nephew,
being much with her in after years. Pitying the
prince for misfortunes which he had not brought upon
himself," she resolved to exert all her influence in his
behalf. She therefore took steps, soon after the
commencement of the Rising, for embodying her
husband's clan-whether with or without his con-
nivance does not appear. Her summons was quickly
answered by the willing clansmen; a strong well-
armed battalion was formed and placed under the
command of Alexander Macgillivray of Dunmaglass,
who had seen service abroad, and whom the lady had
called to her aid. Dunmaglass led the men to Perth,
the rendezvous during the absence of the main body
of the Jacobites in England; and on joining the
prince at Stirling in January 1746 he received the
rank of lieutenant-colonel of the battalion, which was
raised to a strength of about 800 by the addition of
some 300 Farquharsons.
*
465
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
.
2
"Of all the ladies who testified their Jacobite
tendencies," says General Stewart,' "few were more
accomplished, more beautiful, or more enthusiastic
than the Lady Mackintosh." Sir Walter Scott says,
"She gave vent to her own Jacobite feelings and
those of the Clan Mackintosh by levying the fighting
men of that ancient tribe to the amount of 300 men,
at whose head she rode, with a man's bonnet on her
head, a tartan riding-habit richly laced, and pistols
at her saddle-bow." Further on Sir Walter speaks
of her as a
gallant Amazon." Another writer
speaks of her
66
66
as figuring largely in the battle
of Falkirk," and describes her as riding at the
head of her men there in the costume mentioned
by Scott.3
It is only just to the memory of one of the noblest
and gentlest of her sex to state that she was guilty
of none of the unladylike proceedings ascribed to
her by these writers. She saw
She saw the Mackintosh
regiment but once after it was raised, and was at
¹ Sketches, i. 114.
2 Tales of a Grandfather-Scotland, iii. 270.
3 Taylor's Braemar Highlands, 277. The coarse, lying His-
tory of the late Rebellion by James Ray, a volunteer in Cumber-
land's army, is perhaps the authority for these statements.
After speaking of the lady as joining the rebels at Inverness,
and being "reckoned the beauty there," it describes her as march-
ing at the head of her clan, "with a white cockade, &c.," and
presenting them "to the mock prince." It continues in a
strain unfit for publication now, and for which even then
the writer would have been mildly dealt with had he been
punished with a sound horsewhipping.
H H
466
THE MACKINTOSHES
Moy the whole time from its departure to the south
till after the battle of Culloden. The ideas of her
Amazonian propensities were those held by the
English soldiery and others who had never seen
her. Her spirited conduct in raising the clan was
widely reported both in England and Scotland, and
rumour, fond of anything extraordinary, magnified
it until she was actually said and believed to have
taken part in the battle of Culloden.¹
2
At the battle of Falkirk, on the 17th Jan. 1746,
the Mackintosh and Macpherson regiments fought
side by side in the centre of the front line-the
Farquharsons under James of Balmoral being next
but one on the right. Another body of Farqu-
harsons, under Francis of Monaltrie, had charge
of the guns. Although this battle was a decided
success for the Jacobites, it was judged expedient
to retire towards the north. The chiefs represented
that the army, now somewhat reduced, could be
usefully employed in taking the northern forts until
(C
1 "The people of England and the soldiers," says Sir Æneas,
were prepossessed with a notion that Lady Mackintosh was a
woman of a monstrous size, had always rode at the head of her
regiment, and that she charged with it in the battle of Culloden,
fully accoutred and mounted upon a white horse; but this was
far from truth, for she was a very thin girl, never saw the
men but once, and was at her own house the time of the action."
Her portrait by Allan Ramsay, taken a few years after this
period, and still in excellent condition, shows her to have been
a pretty and somewhat delicate-looking girl, with a retiring,
modest look, handsome figure, and rather high forehead.
2 Home's History of the Rebellion, 121; Lockhart Papers, ii. 501.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
467
spring, when there would be no difficulty in raising it
to 10,000 men, exclusive of reinforcements expected
from abroad. The prince was at first eager to follow
up his advantage at Falkirk, but finally yielded
to his council, and the retreat was commenced.
1
On the 16th February (Sunday) the prince ar-
rived at Moy Hall, and with a few attendants was
hospitably received by the lady there.' The ad-
vanced guard accompanying him, about 500 of the
Camerons under Locheil, encamped at Moybeg.
As the sequel showed, Charles ran some risk in
¹ The following extract from a paper read before the Inverness
Field Club in April 1879, founded on the business books of John
Mackintosh, merchant and bailie of Inverness in the last cen-
tury, is of curious interest:-"On Sunday, 16th Feb. 1746,
Prince Charles reached Moy Hall, The laird was absent in the
service of the Government, but the lady was there and welcomed
the prince-Chambers says with great hospitality. The entries
in Mackintosh's account justify this, for they increased rapidly,
but it does not appear whether the goods were sent to Moy Hall
or to the residence in Inverness. Every day brought orders for
claret and sherry, sugar, biscuits, coffee, sweet wine, &c., but
chiefly claret and sherry, all in small quantities, not more than
half-a-dozen at a time. Two interesting items appear in the
account a few days before the battle of Culloden, namely, on the
8th April six quarters, and on the 11th five quarters, of 'white
Riban,' both no doubt bought by Lady Mackintosh for the purpose
of making white cockades for her guest, Prince Charlie, and his
followers!" [In the prince's Household Book it is stated that
the supper which Lady Mackintosh gave to Charles and all his
retinue on the night of their arrival "was exceedingly genteel
and plentiful." As a rule the prince paid his own expenses.]
The bed in which the prince slept while at Moy, and a High-
land bonnet left there by him, are still treasured as heirlooms in
the family.
•
HH 2
463
THE MACKINTOSHES
taking up his quarters here, for at Inverness, only
twelve miles away, Lord Loudon was posted with
about 1700 Hanoverian troops, chiefly the indepen-
dent companies and Whig clans. On learning the
prince's vicinity, Loudon at once determined to take
advantage of his comparatively unprotected state.
He placed a cordon of sentinels round the town
of Inverness to prevent any of the Jacobites there
from giving the alarm at Moy, and set out for that
place in the evening of Sunday with about 1500 men.
Of the manner in which this carefully planned
scheme was frustrated there are various accounts.
The following appears to be the best :-Lady Mac-
kintosh, on the arrival of the prince and his retinue
at Moy Hall, had sent out five or six armed men
under Donald Fraser, the smith of Moy, to watch
the road from Inverness-the old road which crosses
the Nairn at Faillie Bridge. About midnight the
scouts became aware of the approach of troops;
these were Loudon's advanced guard under the chief
of Macleod, who had been for some time "lying in
a hollow not knowing what to do by reason of the
flashes of lightning from the heavens that was con-
founding all their designs. With great presence of
mind, considering that he did not know the attempt
was to be made, the smith drew back his companions
to the pass near Craig-an-Oin, and giving them in-
structions how to act he posted them on each side
of the road and awaited the enemy. A number of
"; 1
¹ Jacobite Memoirs, 102.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
469
peat stacks standing about, which in the darkness
and the excitement of a contemplated surprise might
be taken for bodies of men, no doubt contributed
to the success of his design. When the head of
Loudon's force came into view, Fraser fired his piece
among them. His companions followed his example,
and ran noisily in different directions, the smith
ordering imaginary Macdonalds and Camerons to
advance on the right and left, and to give no quarter
to the villains who wished to murder their prince.
The advanced guard, already dazed by the lightning,
fell into a panic and rushed back on the main body,
throwing that also into confusion. None doubted
that the whole Jacobite force was upon them; and
the entire army, inspired by an indescribable terror,
turned their faces towards Inverness and made their
way to that place of safety with all the speed of
which they were capable. "The panic, fear, and
flight," says Home, "continued till they got near
Inverness, without having been in any danger but
that of being trampled to death, which many of
them, when they were lying upon the ground and
trod upon by such numbers, thought they could
not possibly escape." The Master of Ross, from
whom Home obtained his account, said "he had
been in many perils, but had never found himself
in a condition so grievous as that in which he was
at the Rout of Moy."
1
1 Home's Hist. Rebell., 143. Sir Æneas Mackintosh says very
little of this occurrence, and does not mention Fraser the smith.
470
THE MACKINTOSHES
While this was going on, intelligence was received
at Moy Hall of Loudon's design. Accounts differ as
to the manner in which the news was conveyed, but
it is clear that the smith had been sent out before its
arrival. An account in the Jacobite Memoirs says
that some of the prince's female friends in Inverness
despatched a messenger to inform him of his danger,
and at the same time his landlady, without knowing
anything of the design, had ordered one Fraser, a
blacksmith, a trusty stout fellow who lived hard by
and knew all the road, to keep a sharp look-out the
whole night, as there were but a very few of the
prince's people with him at her house." Alexander
Stewart, Charles's footman, says that a boy of about
12 or 14 years of age gave the alarm at Moy.'
Sir Æneas Mackintosh says that a lady (in Inverness)
who was disaffected, bribed a dragoon to take up a
small boy behind him under his cloak, and drop
him on the outside of the sentries, which being
effected the boy arrived at Moy about the time
Lord Loudon had got half way." From the ac-
count in the prince's Household Book, given in the
Jacobite Memoirs,' we learn that the lady in Inver-
ness was no other than "old Lady Mackintosh "—
Anna Duff, widow of the 20th chief-and that her
He says that " a party of the militia who formed the advance
fell in with a parcel of peat stacks, which mistaking for men they
fired about thirty shots. This alarmed the country, and threw
the main body into such confusion that many ran away, and a
piper with a few men were killed by their own people."
¹ Jacobite Memoirs, 102.
2 Ibid., 167.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
471
་
messenger was one of the clan :-" Old Lady Mac-
kintosh sent a youth, Lachlan Mackintosh, who
waited and hid till the soldiers had left, and then
took another road to Moy." The Household Book
adds that the gallant and resolute behaviour of
the five (i.e. the smith and his comrades) happened
much about the same time when the boy arrived
at Moy to give the alarm."
These accounts seem conclusive as to the manner in
which Lady Mackintosh was made acquainted with
her royal guest's danger. Home says that her own
mother, who, though a Whig, was unwilling that
Charles should be killed or taken in her daughter's
house, was said to have been the sender of this
message; but his informant in all probability
thought that " old Lady Mackintosh " must be mother
of the chief, and called her Lady Mackintosh's
mother-in-law, which Home has inadvertently written
mother.' The same author mentions Fraser of
Gortuleg as having been said to have despatched the
information. The Chevalier Johnstone says that a
girl, while waiting upon some of Loudon's officers in
a tavern, learned the design from their conversation,
and escaping from the town hurried to Moy.
2
·
1 Chambers says that "the Dowager Lady Mackintosh
put her daughter-in-law and the prince on their guard.-Hist. of
Rebellion, 224. But the husband of the dowager and the chief
in 1746 were no nearer relations than second cousins.
2 Memoirs, 145. Johnstone may be partly correct, for the
girl may have heard the conversation, as related, and have com-
municated it to "old Lady Mackintosh.”
472
THE MACKINTOSHES
On being roused from sleep by the startling news
at an early hour in the morning of Monday the 17th,
Charles quickly dressed and descended to the court-
yard of the house. His hostess met him here,
and used every exertion to secure his safety. He
was conducted to Locheil's encampment at Moybeg,
where he resolved to make a stand in case of an
attack. But within a short time a messenger came
to acquaint him of the smith's gallant exploit, and
he returned to Moy Hall.
The panic of Loudon's force did not cease with
their arrival at Inverness. Believing that the
prince's whole army was encamped on Moy Moor,
and that they themselves had only been saved from
annihilation by the darkness of the night and their
own fleetness of foot, they did not feel safe even in
the town. Loudon accordingly on the 17th and 18th
crossed Kessock Ferry, and on the latter day Charles's
force, now greatly augmented, entered the town in
time to see the last of the independent companies
land on the Ross-shire shore. A few days afterwards,
the prince established his head-quarters in Inverness.
He was entertained during his stay, from the end of
February till the middle of April, by the Dowager
Lady Mackintosh in her house in Church Street,
opposite St. John's Chapel.'
1 ¹ Prince's Household Book in Jacobite Memoirs, 173. The
house of the dowager is said to have been the only one in the
town which had a room in it without a bed. In Anderson's
Guide to the Highlands (p. 69) it is stated that "for a long time
the houses of the burgh seem to have been crowded near the
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
473
While at Inverness, Charles took the Government
fort there, and despatched one detachment to take
Fort Augustus, and another early in March into Ross
against Lord Loudon. In the latter, commanded by
the Earl of Cromarty, were the Mackenzie, Mackintosh,
and Mackinnon regiments, with some Macgregors and
Macdonalds. Under the Duke of Perth, who super-
seded Cromarty, the attempt resulted in the dispersal
of Loudon's force, and the capture of about 200
prisoners, among whom was Captain the chief of
Mackintosh. It is said that on his being brought to
Inverness the prince sent him to his own wife, saying
that he could not be in better security or more
honourably treated."
66
On the 14th April, news having reached Inverness
of the passage of the Spey by the Duke of Cumber-
land's army, the prince moved to Culloden, from
which place he advanced, with his first troop of Life-
guards and the Mackintosh regiment, as far as the
Loch of the Clans, within four miles of Nairn, to
support the Duke of Perth. His army bivouacked
that night in the woods of Culloden, he himself and
Castle and along the Church Street, which was commanded by
it. They were erected in the old Flemish style, with large
courts and arched gateways, and gables turned towards the
street."
The house in which Prince Charlie-and after Culloden
his successful rival Cumberland-was entertained, was standing
in 1843, and it is stated in a History and Description of Inverness,
published four years later, that in taking it down in that year
two ancient-looking muskets were found concealed in a wall,
and a jewelled ring under a large stone.
474
THE MACKINTOSHES
his principal officers occupying Culloden House. On
the following day, the 15th, the army was drawn
up on Drummossie or Culloden Muir, in expectation
of the enemy's advance; but no enemy appeared.
This was in some sense satisfactory, as the army was
only about 6000 strong, and a day's delay would
enable many absentees, among whom were the Frasers,
Macphersons, Mackenzies, and other clans, to come
up. The Macphersons had been left in Badenoch
after Lord George Murray's raid into Athole in March
on the understanding that they should join whenever
called upon; and they were actually on their way to
the field when they were met by their fugitive
friends after the battle. This day being Cumberland's
birthday, it was proposed by the prince and Lord
George Murray to take advantage of the festivity
that might be expected to take place in the English
camp, by making a night attack. This was acceded
to, as being in all the circumstances the best thing
that could be done, for not only would the enemy's
superiority in cannon and cavalry be neutralised by
the darkness, but it was necessary that the Highlanders
should have every possible advantage, being at the
time on the verge of starvation. In fact it was
found, on parading the men, that after being
dismissed in the morning many had gone away to
Inverness and other places to procure food. At
8 p.m. the army, considerably smaller than in the
morning, began its march. Two officers and about
thirty men of the Mackintosh regiment, who lived in
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
475
the neighbourhood and knew the country, acted as
guides, others being distributed along the line. The
distance to the enemy's camp at Nairn was only nine
miles, but owing to the darkness and to the necessity
for avoiding roads and public places, as well as to the
condition of the men from want of food, the van had
only arrived within three miles of Nairn at 2 o'clock
in the morning. At this rate of progress, a night
surprise was out of the question; the order to return
was given, and between 5 and 6 o'clock the army
arrived once more at Culloden-not a few going on to
Inverness in the hope of satisfying the cravings of
hunger.
Within two or three hours intelligence was brought
of the enemy's advance, and the army was at once
placed in position. It numbered only about 5000
men, and these exhausted by hunger and the fatigue of
the previous night. Cumberland's army was more
than 8000 strong, in fresh condition, and with good
artillery. There could be little question as to the
issue of an encounter between two bodies so unequal
in every respect, and it appears to have been only
the prince's faith in his Highlanders that induced
him to run the risk.
The battle was begun at about 1 p.m. by a fire
from the Jacobite artillery, neither leader being
willing to leave his position for the purpose of
attacking the other. The firing was kept up by both
sides for nearly half an hour, the few badly-served
guns of the Jacobites doing little or no execution,
476
THE MACKINTOSHES
those of the English making terrible havoc in the
close ranks of the clansmen. At last Charles made up
his mind to charge the enemy, but too late for his
broken and diminished lines to do so with much
prospect of success. He sent an order to Lord
George Murray, but its bearer was killed on the
way by a shot. Lord George had just come to the
determination of ordering a general advance on his
own responsibility when his order was anticipated,
first by the Mackintosh regiment, and then by the
rest of the front line. When it is remembered that
the starving Highlanders had been standing on the
bleak muir for some hours, with latterly a storm of
sleet from the north-east beating furiously in their
faces, and the shot from the English guns making
gaps in their ranks-also that such tactics as those at
Culloden were totally opposed to their system of
fighting their steadiness and discipline during the
first terrible half hour of the battle must be allowed
to have been beyond all praise. But there are limits
to human endurance; and the devoted clansmen,
having so long stood firm, mere targets for the
English gunners, and seeing their brethren and
friends slaughtered by their sides, can hardly be
blamed for their impatience.¹
1 "Galled beyond endurance by the fire of the English,
the Highlanders . . . . called aloud to be led forward without
further delay. Lord George had just resolved upon an advance,
but before he had time to issue the order
the Mackin-
toshes, with a heroism worthy of that brave clan, rushed for-
ward enveloped in the smoke of the enemy's fire.”— Browne, iii.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
477
This brave, desperate charge cannot be better
described than in the words of Chambers: "The
action and event of the onset were throughout quite
as dreadful as the mental emotion which urged it.
Notwithstanding that the three files [? ranks] of the
front line of English poured forth their incessant fire
of musketry-notwithstanding that the cannon, now
loaded with grapeshot, swept the field as with a hail-
storm-notwithstanding the flank fire of Wolfe's
regiment-onward, onward went the headlong High-
landers, flinging themselves into, rather than rushing
upon, the lines of the enemy, which indeed they did
not see for smoke till involved among their weapons.
All that courage, all that despair could do, was done.
It was a moment of dreadful and agonising suspense,
but only a moment-for the whirlwind does not reap
the forest with greater rapidity than the Highlanders
cleared the line. Nevertheless almost every man in
their front rank, chief and gentleman, fell before the
deadly weapons which they had braved; and although
the enemy gave way, it was not until every bayonet
was bent and bloody with the strife.
(C
When the first line [of the English] had been
246. "Lord George had scarcely determined on ordering a
general movement when the Mackintoshes—a brave and devoted
clan, though not before engaged in action—unable to brook the
unavenged slaughter by the cannon, broke from the centre of the
line and rushed forward through smoke and snow to mingle with
the enemy."-Chambers, 251. This author is wrong, however,
in saying that the Mackintoshes were here engaged for the first
time. They had been in the centre of the front line at Falkirk.
478
THE MACKINTOSHES
thus swept aside, the assailants continued their
impetuous advance till they came near the second,
when being almost annihilated by a profuse and well
directed fire, the shattered remains of what had been
but an hour before a numerous and confident force
began to give way. Still a few rushed on, resolved
rather to die than forfeit their well-acquired and
dearly-estimated honour, They rushed on, but not
a man ever came in contact with the enemy. The
last survivor perished as he reached the points of the
bayonets.
"The persevering and desperate valour displayed
by the Highlanders is proved by the circumstance
that at one part of the plain. . . . their bodies were
afterwards found in layers three and four deep, so
many, it would appear, having in succession mounted
over a prostrate friend to share in the same certain
fate. The slaughter was particularly great among the
brave Mackintoshes; insomuch that the heroic lady
who sent them to the field afterwards told the party
by whom she was taken prisoner that only three of
her officers had escaped."
"" 1
The feelings of the unfortunate prince on witnessing
this scene can only be imagined. The rush had
taken place in such short time as to render it almost
impossible for him to take part in it or to support it ;
but he at once sought to avenge those who had so
nobly fallen for him. He attempted to rally the
fugitives and to move forward his second line; but
1 Chambers, 252.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
479
these, seeing the slaughter of their comrades, and
confused by the survivors from the first line re-
treating upon them -"their hearts broken with
despair rather than terror "—gave way on seeing the
English advancing, and fled in confusion. Unwilling
to believe that all was lost, and in his despair
ready to sacrifice his own life, Charles lingered ;
and it was only by adding personal exertion to
entreaty that his attendants withdrew him from the
field.
'The battle of Culloden," says Chambers,¹“is said
to have lasted little more than forty minutes, most
of which was spent in distant firing, and very little
in the active struggle. It was as complete a victory
as possible on the part of the royal army, and
any other result would surely have been very
discreditable to the English army. Their numbers
and condition for fighting were so superior, their
artillery did so much for them, and the plan of
the battle was so much in their favour, that to
have lost the day would have argued a degree of
misbehaviour for which even Preston and Falkirk
had not prepared us. Great praise was awarded
afterwards to Barrel's, Munro's, and some other
regiments, for their fortitude in bearing the attack
of the Highlanders, and for their killing so many;
but these battalions were in reality completely beaten
aside, and the whole front line shaken so much that
had the Macdonald regiments made a simultaneous
1 P. 256.
480
THE MACKINTOSHES
charge along with the other clans, the day might
have had a different issue." 1
¹ In a note on p. 255 Chambers quotes the following from a
letter written by Bishop Donald Mackintosh in 1810:-" John
Miln, an old bellman in Edinburgh, is still alive; he is one of
the fifteen men whom our Clan Chattan left of Barrel's regiment
at Culloden."
I have quoted thus largely from Chambers' account of the
battle because I consider that no other words could convey so
clear and true an impression of the circumstances in the same
space.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
481
i
CHAPTER XIV.
Battle of Culloden, continued; Actions and Losses of the Mack-
intosh regiment - After the Battle; Captivity of Lady
Mackintosh-"Wae's me for Prince Charlie "-Downfall of
the Clan System.
"THE brunt of the battle fell on Clan Chattan."
So wrote the ex-Provost of Inverness, John Hossack,
a few days afterwards, and the most elaborate
description could scarcely convey a more faithful
picture of the clan's devotedness and loss than these
few words. The first to attack, the Mackintosh
regiment had received the fire of the English centre
fieldpieces, and a withering volley from the Scots
Fusiliers, before the English soldiers had had their
nerve disturbed by the general advance of the
Highlanders and their coming to close quarters. Still
the survivors from this fire had rushed on, broken the
first line of their opponents, and gone on to attack
the second, as we have seen. Their major, John
Mor Macgillivray, was seen "a gunshot past the
enemy's cannon, surrounded by the reinforcements
sent against the Mackintoshes; he killed a dozen
men with his broadsword, while some of the halberts
·
I I
482
THE MACKINTOSHES
were run through his body."1 Every man who had
gone up to the second line perished. Seven hundred
of the regiment had taken their places in the ranks in
the morning; not more than three hundred left the
field and of the twenty-one officers at the com-
mencement of the action only three were alive at its
close.2 Two of these were Donald Dallas, lieutenant
of the company commanded by James Dallas of
Cantray, and Farquhar Macgillivray, a youth of nine
teen, who in the battle was "younger of Dalcrombie,"
but immediately after became "of Dalcrombie " by the
murder of his father." Dallas " with difficulty crawled
1 Letter from Bishop Mackintosh, quoted in Chambers, 252.
The Bishop's informant was Macdonald of Glenaladale, an eye-
witness of what he related.
2 "Notwithstanding this severe loss," says Sir Æneas Mack-
intosh, “Æneas (the chief) recruited 500 men for the 42nd
regiment almost in the same country." The loss of Clan Chattan
is thus alluded to in John Roy Stewart's poem, “The Day of
Culloden,"
"And now I say woe for the sad overthrow
Of the clan that is honoured with Fraser's command;
And the Farquharsons bold, on the Mar braes enroll'd,
So ready to rise and so trusty to stand.
But redoubled are shed my tears for the dead,
As I think of Clan Chattan, the foremost in fight;
O woe for the time that has shrivell'd their prime,
And woe that the left had not stood at the right."
3 Donald Macgillivray of Dalcrombie, who was not in the
battle at all, was seen by some English dragoons during their
pursuit of the fugitives, about two miles from the field, wholly
unarmed. They attacked him, robbed him of his clothes, and
then shot him dead. "If they had had but swords and he one,'
says the Rev. James Hay, who relates the occurrence," he would
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
483
off the field with the loss of an ear, a large slash on
his forehead, and a piece of his elbow cut off."
3
99 1
Alexander Macgillivray of Dunmaglass, lieutenant
colonel of the Mackintosh regiment, fell in the centre
of Barrel's regiment, shot through the heart."
2 "He
was colonel of the (Clan Chattan) Mackintoshes in
this country," says the Rev. James Hay, "I may
add, many have not produced a finer youth. Had all
acted the part that these two gallant young gentlemen
[Dunmaglass and Cantray] did, with Golice MacBain,
Major Angus Mackintosh of Farr, Alexander Mac-
gillivray and Robert Macgillivray, all three captains
who fell upon the field, and the rest of that clan
with some others, that day would have brought forth
other things than it did." James Dallas of Cantray
is further specially referred to by Mr Hay as “a
loyal, kind, brave young man, who raised his company
at a great expense to serve his royal master."
have given two or three of them enough of it."-Jacobite
Memoirs, 256.
1 Sir Eneas Mackintosh's MS. See also Jacobite Memoirs, 314,
where it is stated by Mr. Hay that Dallas crawled to the house
of Cantray, some three miles off, and recovered from his wounds.
2 Sir Eneas Mackintosh's MS. His remains lie under the
threshold of Petty Kirk, whither they were removed six weeks
after his death. A few days after the battle his body had been
thrown with others into a large trench, near the well still known
by his name and by the name of the Dead Men's Well. Here it
lay until the departure of the English enabled his friends to
move it. On being taken up, Sir Æneas says, it was found per-
fectly fresh, and the wound bled anew-the mossy ground in
which it had lain having probably contributed to its preservation
for so long.
3 Letter in Jacobite Memoirs, 315.
II 2
484
THE MACKINTOSHES
Numerous are the stories of the individual prowess
of the men of the Mackintosh regiment. One clans-
man, Robert Mor Macgillivray, living in Dalziel of
Petty, killed seven of the English with the tram
of a peat cart before he himself was overpowered
and killed.¹ Another, Gillies or Golice Macbean,
won world-wide fame. He was six feet four inches
and a quarter in height, and of corresponding bodily
strength. Too badly wounded to join his flying
comrades on the advance of the English line, he
placed his back to a turf wall and prepared to sell
his life dearly. He was assailed by a large party
of dragoons, and for some time held his own
against them with claymore and target. "Save that
brave fellow!" cried some officers with a touch of
generosity, but the dragoons, maddened by Macbean's
gallant resistance and the slaughter he had made
among them, pressed on him and finally succeeded
in cutting him down. Thirteen of his assailants
had fallen under his terrible weapon and strong
arm.
The standard of Clan Chattan was the only one
in the prince's army that did not fall into the
enemy's hands. All the rest were burned by the
common hangman in Edinburgh. The manner in
which the Mackintosh colours were saved from this
fate is curious. Sir Æneas relates that, the standard-
bearer being shot, a private man tore the colours
from the pole and wrapping them round his middle
1 Antiquarian Notes, no. xxix.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
485
got clear off.
To the praiseworthy efforts of Mr.
Fraser-Mackintosh the clan is indebted for further
particulars of this interesting episode in its history.
The hero of the colours was Donald Mackintosh,
born on the estate of Flemington, and personally
known to Mr. Fraser-Mackintosh's informant, an
aged resident in Petty some years ago. Donald
seized the colours on seeing the ensign's fall, carried
them while the line stood, and then, wrapping them
round his body, escaped. He obtained from his
exploit the sobriquet of "Donuil na Braiteach
(Donald of the Colours).¹
The wanton atrocities which followed the victory
of the English army are matters of history, and
have left a stain on the memory of Cumberland
which no amount of praise or flattery by his own
party can ever gloss over. It was perhaps well, for
the sake of human life and the honour of British
arms, that this campaign was the only one in which
he was successful; had he been in a position to
exercise his callous barbarity in his continental
wars, Britain might have won a transient glory in
victory, but would in all probability have been
covered with infamy for generations. There is no
worse enemy than a successful coward, and no doubt
the English dragoons, who had fled as if panic-
stricken before the Highlanders at Prestonpans and
Falkirk, were ready to go to any lengths of brutality
now that circumstances had given them the upper
1 Antiquarian Notes, no. xcvi.
486
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
hand; still their leader's crime cannot be palliated
on this account. It was by his orders that on the
day after the battle about seventy wounded Jacobites
were despatched in cold blood by volleys of musketry.
He likewise sent parties on the ensuing day to search
out and kill such others as had found shelter in
neighbouring houses, and one of his own followers
afterwards stated that on this day he saw seventy-
two persons killed in cold blood. The sickening
details of some of the wholesale executions, as well
as of individual murders, may be read in any im-
partial account of the battle, and even in accounts.
by the duke's own followers. In nothing did the
Hanoverian prince show to such disadvantage be-
side the defeated Stuart prince than in his ignorance
of the duty of a victor towards his beaten foes.
At Prestonpans and Falkirk Charles had treated the
wounded and captive of his adversaries with marked
humanity and kindness; Cumberland followed up
his first victory with the most marked inhumanity
and brutality. He received from Parliament a vote
of thanks and a yearly sum of £25,000 for his
services but his barbarities earned for him the title
of the Butcher, and the undying detestation of the
Highland people.
1
Taking possession of Inverness immediately after
¹ See Chambers' Hist. of the Rebellion, chap. xxiv.; Scott's
Tales of a Grandfather; also the accounts in Jacobite Memoirs.
An officer in Cumberland's army speaks of the men after the
battle as splashing in the blood of their fallen enemies and
looking "like so many butchers."-Scots Mag. for April 1746.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
487
the battle, Cumberland, not content with murdering
the men of the Jacobites, proceeded against the
women. Several ladies attached to the lost cause
"were made prisoners and confined in the common
guard; amongst them was the dowager Lady Mac-
kintosh, who was confined for the space of fourteen
days." Parties were sent out to ravage the country;
houses were burnt, unoffending men and women were
killed, and cattle were carried away; in short, the
disaffected districts, as they were called, were sub-
jected to the strictest martial law. One of these
parties a detachment from Col. Cockayne's regi-
ment-went on the 17th to Moy and drove off all
the cattle they could find there, while another de-
tachment was sent on the same day to convey Lady
Mackintosh to Inverness.2 Mr. Hay says that Col.
1 Jac. Mem. 236. The duke took up his quarters in the
dowager Lady Mackintosh's house, using the room and bed which
the more welcome Prince Charles had had shortly before. The
old lady, in speaking afterwards of these stirring events in her
domestic annals, was wont to remark, "I've had two king's
bairns living with me in my time, and to tell you the truth, I
wish I may never have another."
2 The Diary of the Rev. John Bisset (Spald. Club Misc. i. 395)
speaks of her as being taken at Castle Dounie. "Lord Lovat's
house at Castle Douny is burnt, and there the Amazonian Lady
Mackintosh was taken." But this is wrong, as will be seen by
the text. The Rev. James Hay's account in Jacobite Memoirs
(233) expressly mentions the lady's being taken "from her
house at Moy." Sir Æneas Mackintosh says that "
on 17th
April Sir Everet Falconer was sent from Inverness to apprehend
Lady Mackintosh, then at Moy, where they expected opposition,
but without reason, as most of the men of the country were
488
THE MACKINTOSHES
+
Cockayne's men behaved" very brutally," and his
statement is corroborated by Sir Æneas Mackintosh.
Lady Mackintosh was first accosted by a party of
stragglers, who, not thinking that such a slight
girl could be the warlike Amazon of their fancy,
enquired of her for "that
rebel Lady Mac-
kintosh." The minister of Moy, Mr. Lesly, had made
the best of his way to the house, thinking by his
presence to check irregularity; "but he might as
well have remained at his house," says Sir Æneas,
"for men after a victory are not easily kept within
bounds." Taking out his watch, it was snatched
from him by one of the soldiers, who, when Lady
Mackintosh offered him a guinea to return it, turned
upon her and took her purse containing all her stock
of money, fifty guineas. Another soldier insisted that
she had more, and struck her with his bayonet.
There is no knowing to what insults and injuries.
she might have been subjected had not one of the
party now interfered on her behalf. This man, it
appears, had some years previously been saved from
a flogging at Perth by the intercession of the lady,
then Miss Farquharson, and recognising her now he
showed that her kindness was not forgotten by seizing
her cowardly assailant, and threatening his life if
he did not desist from his insults. The troop sent
killed on the field." It has already been remarked that Sir
Æneas's account of the proceedings in which Lady Mackintosh
was concerned is no doubt founded on information supplied to
him by the lady herself.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
489
to take Lady Mackintosh coming up immediately
afterwards, the stragglers dispersed. Here another
recognition took place. The commander of the troop,
Sir Everard Falconer, Cumberland's secretary, had
been an admirer of Miss Anne Farquharson, and
apparently did not know until they now met that
she was the object of his expedition. On learning the
cause of her agitation he gave orders for the pursuit
and apprehension of the soldiers who had behaved
so badly; but she begged that no further inquiry
might be made.
Lady Mackintosh was then mounted on the only
horse left at Moy, and accompanied Sir Everard and
his troop to Inverness. "It happened to be at
retreat beating when they arrived at the duke's
camp close upon the town," says Sir Æneas, "when
the horse pricking up his ears carried her to where
the drummers were.
cried the soldiers,
'this is surely the horse she charged upon at the
battle.'"
She was placed in custody by order of
the duke, and was kept under guard in her own
room for six weeks, at the end of which time she
was set at liberty.¹ On one occasion during this
1 "A day or two after the battle large detachments were
sent out, who killed some, and brought in several prisoners,
among whom was the Lady Mackintosh, a woman of a masculine
spirit, who raised the clan of that name, notwithstanding her
husband was in Lord Loudon's army. She behaved quite un-
daunted and with great unconcern. She said we had made a
sad slaughter of her regiment, for that all her officers were
killed except three."-Letter from "A Gentleman in the King's
490
THE MACKINTOSHES
period, while her fate was still undecided, the brutal
braggart Hawley publicly at the duke's table ex-
pressed his wishes concerning her in the words,
that rebel Lady Mackintosh; I shall honour
her with a mahogany gallows and silk cord,"
sentiments to be expected from the individual who
uttered them, but scarcely befitting a lieutenant-
general in the British Army.'
1
Although by his adherence to the Government side
the chief of Mackintosh preserved his estates intact,
he was not free from trouble and inconvenience in
minor matters. On the 18th April, a party from a
Army," in Scots Mag. for May 1746. "Four of the principal
ladies are in custody, viz. Lady Ogilvie, Lady Kinloch, Lady
Gordon, and the Laird of Mackintosh's wife."-Papers from the
Duke of Cumberland dated 18th April, and published by Authority
in London on 27th April 1746.
66
In a letter of Bishop Mackintosh quoted by Chambers (260,
note) it is said that Lady Mackintosh being present at a ball
given by the Duke of Cumberland in London, the first tune
played was Up and waur them a', Willie," to which the duke
requested her to dance. She complied, and then asked her
partner whether, as she had danced to his tune, he would dance
to hers. A great gallant, he could not refuse; and accordingly
danced to “The auld Stuarts back again,” the tune for which his
singular partner asked.
The Bishop states in this letter that Lady Mackintosh, after
being taken prisoner, was conveyed to London and liberated
there. He is mistaken in this, however, as the whole of her
captivity was spent in Inverness; but she visited London in
1748, when, Sir Æneas says, "she was caressed by ladys of
quality of the same way of thinking, was very intimate in the
Prince of Wales's family, and so favourably received by the
publick that she never met with any insult on account of her
principles."
AND CLAN CHATTAN,
491
..
Whig clan-whom Sir Æneas carefully abstains from
naming, for a sufficient reason, but who, he says,
"had no great affection for the Mackintosh family
was sent to collect all the arms in Strathdearn, and
with others took those which had long been handed
down in the family at Moy as heirlooms. Mackintosh
on hearing of this at once got Lord Loudon to ask
the duke for their restoration, which was granted.
Some important family papers were also destroyed by
the party of the clan referred to, who indeed might
have left the family without any writs or title deeds
whatever had it not been that their proceedings
reached Mackintosh's ears in time for him to take
steps for checking them. At the breaking out of
the troubles the charters and other documents had
been placed in the castle on the island in Loch Moy
for security. The "unfriendly clan" reported to
Cumberland that there were men on the island, and
that the boats had been sunk to prevent a search.
On being questioned by the duke's secretary, Lady
Mackintosh stated that she knew nothing of the
occupation of the island, and had given no orders
for the sinking of the boats. The boats being
raised, the island was found to be uninhabited, but
the papers were seized and taken to Moy Hall,
where several of importance were burnt. Lady
Mackintosh, however, had made her husband
aware of the danger to his property and interests,
and obtaining a party of 200 men to protect his
house, he arrived there just in time to see some of
492
THE MACKINTOSHES
his papers burning and others scattered about his
dining room. The "inimical clan" were at once
sent about their business.
The perilous and romantic adventures of Prince
Charles Edward during his wanderings after Culloden
are known to all. After his brief interview with
Lord Lovat at Gortuleg on the day of the battle,
he seems to have despaired of any satisfactory result
from a further prosecution of his enterprise. He
accordingly sent word to the clansmen who, in
obedience to orders given during the flight, might
assemble at Ruthven, that they should disperse and
provide for their own safety. He made for the west
coast, where he expected to find a French vessel in
which to return to the continent; but circumstances
postponed his departure for five months. During
this period he underwent the most severe hardships
with heroic fortitude-all the while with a price of
£30,000 on his head. But the vastness of this
reward proved smaller than the good faith and
nobility of the numerous Highlanders with whom he
came in contact; and not even in the heyday of his
triumphs in the preceding year had he found more
sincere affection or more pure loyalty than during
these five months of adversity and precarious exist-
The noble and spirited self-devotion exhibited
by Miss Flora Macdonald, the generous presence of
mind and loyalty evinced by Roderick Mackenzie in
his dying agonies, the good faith of the many in
ence.
1
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
493
whose hands he placed his life, will not be forgotten
until virtue and generosity shall be condemned by
the human mind. And in these perilous wanderings
Charles proved himself worthy of the devotion
lavished upon him, behaving all the time with the
greatest consideration and regard for others, and
bearing his own sad lot with patience and even
cheerfulness. His conduct throughout was that of
a valiant and great-hearted man, and one could
almost wish, with one of his biographers, that on
reaching this stage of sublimity his life had sud-
denly been cut short, before it sank to the degrada-
tion of after years. For at last, worn out by his
unavailing struggles against fate-sickened of life by
constant deferrings of hope-condemned after a youth
of vigorous action and passionate existence to a state
of stagnation and nothingness in middle age-the
unhappy prince succumbed to the temptations which
assail and too often overcome those who go through
similar experiences. "A merciful tear springs to the
eye, obscuring the fatal outlines of that last sad
picture. There sank a man in wreck and ruin who
was a noble Prince when the days were. If he fell
into degradation at the last, he was once as gallant,
as tender, as spotless a gentleman as ever breathed
English air or trod Scottish heather. And when the
spectator stands by Canova's marble in the great
Basilica, it is not the silver trumpets in the choir,
nor the matchless voices in their Agnus Dei that
haunt the ear in the silence; but some rude long
94
THE MACKINTOSH ES
drawn pibroch note, wailing over land and sea-
wailing to earth and heaven-for a lost cause, a
perished house, and most of all for the darkening
and shipwreck and ruin of a gracious and princely
soul." 1
The measures taken by the Government to prevent
a recurrence of the calamities brought on the country
by the devotion of the Highlanders to the Stuarts
scarcely come within the province of this work. They
are, however, worthy of some reference as marking
a revolution in the condition and institutions of the
Highlands. The statutes abolishing the hereditary
jurisdictions so long enjoyed by many chiefs,
discharging tenants from the fulfilment of the
services which they had given in exchange for their
lands, and prohibiting under severe penalties the
carrying of arms and the wearing of the Highland
dress, while they completely effected the immediate
object for which they were framed-though involving
a few years' impotent discontent and local disorder-
resulted also in the downfall of the system of clanship.
The first two measures were specially directed
against the power of the chiefs; and looking to the
advanced stage of civilization at the time, no one
can find fault with them. The hereditary jurisdic-
tions-to some extent a necessity in the rude earlier
times, inasmuch as they afforded then the only means
1 Historical Sketches of the Reign of George II., by Mrs.
Oliphant, i. 387.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
495
of providing for the maintenance of any degree of
law and order-had now become opposed to the
spirit of the age. Government accordingly very
properly abolished them, offering their possessors
compensation in money. The compensation claims
sent in amounted to £490,000, but only £150,000
was actually allowed. Thus Mackintosh claimed
£5,000 for the hereditary Stewardship of Lochaber,
which had been held by his family for exactly three
hundred years; but on the ground that the right
of holding courts had been unexercised for more
than forty years previously, his claim was set aside
altogether.
The second measure-that of abolishing the ward-
holdings—struck still more deeply into the power of
the chiefs by taking from them all hold over their
clansmen and vassals other than that supplied by
affection. The occupation of lands for the per-
formance of military service was declared unlawful,
all tenures on such condition being converted into
feu or blanch. Like the heritable jurisdictions, this
form of tenure-which, by the way, partook more of
the character of the feudal than of the clan system-
though originally perhaps necessary and beneficial,
had become repugnant to the circumstances of an
improved state of society. Its destruction involved
great changes throughout Scotland, to the whole
of which country the measure applied, but in the
Highlands gave a deathblow to the power of the
chiefs and to the system of clanship.
7
496
THE MACKINTOSHES
→
The measure prohibiting the wearing of the High-
land dress seems harsh and arbitrary in the extreme.'
Yet this and the measure prohibiting the wearing of
arms were perhaps the only means by which Govern-
ment could hope to gain its ends, so far as the
Highlanders were concerned-the crushing of their
warlike spirit, and the assimilation of their ideas
and customs to those of the orderly and peaceable
Lowlanders. Together with the abolition of ward-
holding, these measures provided excellent security
for the immediate preservation of the country from
another Highland rising; and after the lapse of a
few years, the enforced change of habits and conduct
among the Highlanders, and the necessity for their
adopting some peaceful mode of livelihood, combined
with the absence or poverty of many chiefs, and the
departure of thousands of martial clansmen at the
call of Pitt to fight Britain's battles abroad, to effect
a total change in their ideas and sentiments. The
spirit of Jacobitism gradually decayed; and in the
next generation Government was enabled, without
apprehension, not only to repeal the obnoxious
statute regarding dress, but also to restore to their
1 The Act (20 Geo. II. cap. 51) ordained that if any person,
man or boy, were found after the 1st Aug. 1747 wearing the
clothes commonly called the Highland clothes, that is, the plaid,
philabeg, trews, shoulder belts, or any part whatsoever of the
Highland garb, or if any person were found wearing a dress
composed of tartan or parti-coloured cloth, he should be im-
prisoned six months without option of bail for the first offence,
and on its repetition be transported for seven years.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
497
ancient owners such of the estates as had been
forfeited—that of Cluny with others-in conse-
quence of the Rising of 1745. As a motive power,
Jacobitism in the Highlands was by this time to all
intents and purposes dead; it did not and scarcely
could long survive clanship.
The clan system itself, before the '45, had been
undergoing a series of innovations tending to its
subversion, and doubtless would have yielded, before
the century closed, to the influence of advanced
civilization and an improved state of society generally.
It virtually received its deathstroke on the red field
of Culloden, expiring as it were in a halo of glory
and after exhibiting for a brief space some of its
noblest and most brilliant features-a more desirable
and fitting death for so ancient and stately an
institution than that which would have completed
the process of a lingering decay.
K K
498
THE MACKINTOSHES
CHAPTER XV.
Sir Æneas, 23rd chief; his Entail of the Mackintosh estates-
Alexander, 24th chief-Angus, 25th chief—Alexander,
26th chief-The Curse of Moy (note)-Alexander Æneas,
27th chief-Alfred Donald, 28th chief.
THE twenty-second chief survived the Rising
for a quarter of a century, dying in 1770.
His lady
lived until 1784, and died in Edinburgh on the 2nd
March of that year, regretted by all who knew her.
The last notice which we have of this noble lady's life is
contained in the following letter written on the 5th
March by her nephew, who had succeeded her husband,
to his future father-in-law, Sir Ludovic Grant of
Dalvey;-"Dear Sir, It is with pain I am to acquaint
you that Lady Mackintosh died on Tuesday, the 2nd
inst., after suffering much by five months' illness, which
she bore with becoming fortitude, retaining her reason
to the last, and leaving the world without a sigh.
When I consider the friendship that subsisted betwixt
our familys, before and during her time, I thought it
of this event. Make my
proper to acquaint you of this event.
best
respects acceptable to Miss Grant. I have the honour
to be, Dear Sir, your most obedient and very humble
servant, Æneas Mackintosh."
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
499
ኄ
(23) ÆNEAS. The 22nd chief, dying without issue,
was succeeded by his nephew Eneas, only son of
Alexander, the third son of Lachlan of Daviot, son
of Angus, third son of Sir Lachlan the 17th chief. In
1775, during the American War of Independence,
Æneas raised a company for the second battalion of
Fraser's Highlanders, a regiment which was then
revived as the 71st and placed under the command
of the Hon. Simon Fraser, son of the famous Lord
Lovat. The senior captain in the same battalion
was Angus Mackintosh of Killachie, uncle of Sir
James Mackintosh. The chief, appointed to the
command of the company he had raised, sailed with
the regiment for America in 1776, and saw some
fighting on his voyage, the transport in which he
sailed being attacked by an American privateer.
He and his company took part with the rest of
Fraser's in the battle of Brooklyn, and in the
campaigns from 1777 to 1781. In the latter year
the capitulation of Lord Cornwallis put an end to
their military exploits, and they remained in America
as prisoners of war till the conclusion of hostilities.
On returning home in 1783 the regiment was
disbanded.
In 1785 Æneas married Margaret, youngest
daughter of Sir Ludovic Grant of Dalvey, and set
himself to the improvement of his estate, on which
he now almost constantly resided. He set the
example of planting, and in his MS. account of the
family and neighbourhood he gives various particulars
KK 2
500
THE MACKINTOSHES
1
of what he had done or intended to do in this way.
He also built a new residence, at the north end of
Loch Moy; but his great work-executed in his
later years—was that of re-entailing the whole of the
family estates. With this object he redeemed numerous
wadsets, some of very old standing, and made the
necessary provisions for the settlement of the entire
landed property of the family on those who would in
natural course succeed to the headship of the clan.²
2
His position in the north entitled him, in the eyes
of King George III. and his advisers, to some mark
of distinction; and accordingly the dignity
of a
Baronet was conferred upon him in 1812; but as
he left no issue the title died with him. His death
took place in January 1821.3
Sir Æneas was a man generally respected and
beloved, and so far as can be gathered from his MS.,
he was of a kindly, amiable disposition, and possessed
1
¹ The previous house, in which Prince Charles Edward had
been entertained in 1746, was at the north-west end of the loch.
The house built by Sir Æneas was greatly enlarged and beautified
by Alexander Æneas, 27th chief, and is now one of the finest
mansions in the Highlands.
2 After the names of the two immediate successors of Sir
Æneas came those of fifteen other Mackintoshes, the first being
Sir James Mackintosh, head of the Killachie branch, the last
Lachlan Robert Mackintosh of Dalmunzie.
She
3 Lady Mackintosh survived him and his two successors.
resided till her death in Moy Hall, the new family residence
built by her husband. As a mark of her affection and regard
for his memory she erected in 1824, at a cost of nearly £1,000,
the monument which adorns the island in the loch-an elegant
obelisk of granite, seventy feet in height.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
501
+
፡
considerable powers of observation, the value of which
was enhanced by education and refinement of mind.
His accounts of certain Highland customs and super-
stitions, of Inverness life, and other local matters, are
graphic and entertaining; but he seems to write as if
he were on a first visit to the country. I quote part
of his description of Moy as affording a good specimen
at once of the kindliness and seriousness of his dis-
position and the refined quaintness of his style of
writing, and at the same time as giving a picture of
the lovely and romantic spot of which he wrote.
66
To finish the subject, Heaven has been very
attentive to this place, for in advancing to and going
from it on all sides the country is rough and barren,
which serves as a back ground and setts off the
whole to advantage; health resides in the peacefull
vale, and the cool lympid stream gushes from every
rock; the heath-cover'd mountains feed the bleating
sheep and playfull kid, which furnish healthy meals
to the swains; the honest ox and lowing sweet
breathing cow give flesh and milch to the sturdy
plowman; the air and water furnish wholesome
food easily good att; cool shady groves are not
wanting to indulge meditation; and every object
round us makes the gratefull heart praise the Great
Giver of Good for granting them."
24) ALEXANDER, who succeeded Sir Æneas, was
eldest son of Duncan of Castle Leathers by Agnes,
dau. of Dallas of Cantray; his father being son (by
502
THE MACKINTOSHES
Ann, dau. of Fraser of Culduthel) of Alexander,
brother of Lachlan mac Angus of Daviot and grand-
son of Sir Lachlan, 17th chief. He was thus second
cousin of Sir Æneas. He built Daviot House, on
the left bank of the Nairn, where he resided; and
dying without issue in 1827, was succeeded by his
brother.
(25) ANGUS, the next chief, had settled in Upper
Canada, at a place which he named Moy. He was
a member of the Legislative Council of that Province,
and during the war of the Niagara Frontier with the
United States in 1813 he afforded the Government
valuable assistance at considerable loss to himself.
He married in 1783 Archange St. Martin, daughter of
an officer in the French army under Montcalm, and
had a large family. His sons were Duncan, who died
unm. in 1824; Alexander, his successor; Æneas, of
Daviot (who m. 1st Mary, dau. of Alexander Macleod of
Dalvey; and 2nd, Louisa Fanny Sybella, dau. of Major
Alexander Macleod; he died 26th April 1880, leaving
issue Alexander, Duncan Houstoun, Mary Marion,
Charlotte Eva, and Alexandra Graham); and James
St. Martin, m. with issue. Angus died on 25th Jan.
1833, and was the first of the Mackintosh chiefs
since 1704 who was succeeded by a son.¹
¹ In all probability the well-known story of the "Curse of
Moy" had its origin some time during the half century preced-
ing the death of Angus. Like most traditionary stories, this
may have had some foundation in fact, but the family MSS.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
503
(26) ALEXANDER was a Deputy-Lieutenant for
Inverness-shire. He was twice married, first to
·
contain no allusion to it, nor is there any evidence of its existence
before the present century. It was first brought into general
notice through a poem, entitled "The Curse of Moy," by Mr.
Morritt of Rokeby, printed in Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish
Border in 1802. Mr. Morritt states that his tale is "founded
on an ancient Highland tradition that originated in a feud
between the clans of Chattan and Grant;" but he has no doubt
assumed a poet's license in dealing with his subject, and it is
likely that the tradition, whatever it may have been previously,
has been to a great extent modified and augmented by his
poem. The story, as given by Mr. Morritt, and recently in a
work called Mysteries of all Nations, by James Grant, is briefly
as follows:-
A chief of Mackintosh had been rejected as a suitor by
Margaret, daughter of Grant of Urquhart or Glenmoriston, and
in an encounter captured her, her father, and her accepted
lover, Grant of Alva, carrying them prisoners to the castle in
Loch Moy. By her tears and entreaties Margaret obtained a
promise from her captor that only one of his two male prisoners
should die, she being allowed to choose which should be liberated.
Her father prevailed upon her to secure her lover's freedom, but
Mackintosh, enraged at her choice and at the failure of his own
designs for obtaining her hand, had both his prisoners killed
and their bodies brought to the maiden. According to Mr.
Morritt's poem she became insane, and for years haunted the
mountains of Badenoch, where, over the cairn of her father and
lover, she called down a curse on the murderer's family, praying
that he might die childless, and
That never the son of a chief of Moy
Might live to protect his father's age,
Or close in peace his dying eye,
Or gather his gloomy heritage.
The other account mentioned limits the influence of the curse to
the individual Mackintosh concerned, who was to "die a bloody
+
504
THE MACKINTOSHES
Mary, dau. of John Glass; secondly to Charlotte,
dau. of Alexander Macleod of Dalvey, by whom
he had issue Alexander Æneas, his successor; Alfred
death, leaving neither wife nor child behind." It goes on to
state that immediately after uttering the malediction, Margaret
leaped from the castle ramparts into the waters of Loch Moy;
further that, in the summer of 1378, a short time after the
events narrated, a conflict took place between the Mackintoshes
and the Munroes in which the wicked chief was slain; and that
the Munroes then hastened to Moy Castle and put all its
inmates to the sword. "Thus perished a relentless tyrant," says
the writer, "leaving no fond wife to mourn his fate nor any
offspring to carry down his name to posterity; and thereby was
fulfilled the prediction of Lady Margaret."
As will be seen by a reference to the account of the 10th
chief in Chap. V., this writer has not been altogether successful
in his attempt to assign the events described by vague tradition
to a particular time. The story applies neither to Lachlan, who
was chief in 1378, nor to Malcolm, in whose time the conflict
with the Munroes really took place; and at neither time had the
Grants any connection with Urquhart or Glenmoriston. The fact
that from the time of Lachlan, 20th chief, who died in 1731, to
that of Angus, 25th chief, who died in 1833, no chief of Mackin-
tosh had a son, may, however, furnish a clue to the origin of the
alleged tradition. The remarkable circumstance of the deaths
without male issue of four or five chiefs in succession would
naturally excite surprise and conversation among the country
people, and the superstitious would scarcely fail to see in it a
'judgment" for some ancestor's sin. It was a common thing
to attribute such "judgments" to deeds of violence and murder,
as well as to specify their nature by means of the curse of a witch
or an insane person. Thus it is easy to see how a story would
gradually shape itself, and float loosely about the country as a
tradition, until it became fixed in the lines of Mr. Morritt.
There can be little doubt that the story of the Curse of Moy, as
that of William Tell and the apple, may now safely be relegated
to the region of romance.
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
505
Donald, successor to his brother; Æneas Norman,
b. 18th May 1854; and three daughters, Marion
Charlotte, deceased; Mary Archange; and Isabella
Ann, m. in 1873 to Charles Thomas Part, Barrister-
at-Law.
Alexander died on 26th May 1861, at Dunachton,
his Inverness residence. A local newspaper in noticing
his death spoke of him as "an excellent landlord,
a good countryman, estimable in family and social
relations, and a Mackintosh to the backbone."
(27) ALEXANDER ENEAS, his eldest son, born in
1847, succeeded him. On leaving Harrow School,
he was entered of Trinity College, Cambridge, where
he took the degree of Master of Arts.
While at
Cambridge he commanded one of the University
Companies of Rifle Volunteers, and afterwards raised
and for a time commanded a strong company (No. 10)
of the Inverness-shire Volunteers, composed of men
on his Brae Lochaber property, and known as the
Mackintosh Company. He subsequently received a
commission as captain in the Royal Highland Light
Infantry Militia. After visiting North America and
India, he settled down to the life of a country gentle-
man, making great improvements on his estates, and
commencing the enlargement of Moy Hall. On 5th
May 1875 he married Margaret Frances, eldest
daughter of Sir Frederick Ulric Graham of Netherby,
and grand-daughter of the 12th Duke of Somerset,
but died, after a brief illness, on the 17th of the
506
THE MACKINTOSHES
following December, to the great grief of his family
and friends and his numerous clansmen and tenants.
"In this case," said the leading county newspaper
in noticing the sad event, "there are peculiar causes
for regret and lamentation. The youth of the
deceased chief, his recent happy marriage, the pride
he took in his clan, and the hope he entertained of
associating with them and dispensing a liberal
hospitality in the hall of his ancestors, all these
render this mournful dispensation one of the most
striking and melancholy that has happened for many
years.
Never was there a more sincere or heart-
felt sorrow than that which pervades all classes in
the North on the occasion of this sad bereavement.'
Another of the local prints said, referring to the
period of his youth and coming of age, "He was
warmly and affectionately regarded by all classes on
his extensive property, and the most earnest hopes
and expectations were formed of his being a kind
and considerate landlord and the worthy representative
and head of an ancient house and clan. These
expectations were not disappointed." The chief him-
self, at a dinner given by the tenantry to Mr. Fraser-
" 1
1 The same paper, in its record of the usual festivities through-
out the county at the following Christmas, has the following
entry under the head Braes of Lochaber :-— “The premature death
of Mackintosh of Mackintosh has cast a great gloom over his
tenantry in this county. No festivities of any kind took
place, either indoors or outside, and this has been the quietest
and most lamentable Christmas spent in the Braes of Lochaber
for many generations."
*
AND CLAN CHATTAN.
507
Mackintosh, in 1873, on his retiring from the post
of Commissioner on the estates, gave an assurance
that it would always be his wish "to retain the
old names, the old tenants, the old clan, upon the
estates;" and the manner in which this assurance
was carried out doubtless went far to strengthen the
already existing ties between him and his clansmen
and tenants.
The issue of his marriage was a posthumous daughter,
Eva Hermione, born 30th June 1876. The succession
to the chiefship and estates consequently devolved
upon his next brother,
(28) ALFRED DONALD, born 24th June 1851.
Educated for the army, he joined the 71st Regiment
as ensign, and rose to the rank of lieutenant, but
retired in 1877. On quitting the army he obtained
a commission as captain in the Royal Highland Light
Infantry Militia. He visited India in 1878-9, and
on the 14th April 1880 married Harriet Diana
Arabella Mary, only child and heiress of Edward
Philip Richards, of Plas Newydd, Glamorganshire.
508
PRINCIPAL BRANCHES
PRINCIPAL BRANCHES OF CLAN MACKINTOSH.
KILLACHIE BRANCH, WITH OFFSHOOTS OF HOLM AND FARR.
THIS was the oldest and most important of the
branches of the Mackintoshes which, having a known
succession of heads and remaining in Inverness-
shire, retained the name of Mackintosh. Its pro-
genitor was
Alan, 3rd son of Malcolm Beg, the names of
whose sons are given at p. 152. Of three daughters,
one m. John mac Alasdair Ciar Shaw of Rothimurcus,
another Robertson of Lude.
William Mor, Alan's eldest surviving son, had
two sons, John and Donald, both of whom appear
in a band to Sir John Campbell of Calder dated
28 Aug. 1534, and in Clan Chattan's band in 1543.
John is mentioned in The Roses of Kilravock (p. 75)
as having been concerned on the part of the
Earl of Lennox against the Regent Arran, and as
having been in arms with him on Glasgow Muir
He probably died before his father. His
in 1544.
brother
Donald was tutor during the minority of the
OF CLAN MACKINTOSH.
509
16th chief. By Catharine, dau. of Hugh Rose 9th
of Kilravock and widow of John Fraser of Farraline,
he had one son, Angus.
Angus, commonly called Angus MacWilliam or
Williamson, is fairly entitled to rank as one of the
notables of Clan Chattan [See Index]. He feued
Aldourie, on Loch Ness, in the Parish of Dores, and
occupied Termit in Petty. As "Angus M'Kintoshe
of Termit," he witnesses the agreement between
Calder and Mackintosh in 1581, and is the only
witness unable to write; as Angus Williamsone
of Termit" he is named an arbiter in a dispute in
1585 between Calder and Kilravock concerning the
boundaries of their estates; he is a witness to a
band given in 1586 by Donald Gorme of Sleat to
George Earl of Huntly; and his name appears in
the Band of Union in 1609, coming next after
that of the Tutor of Mackintosh. His education
appears to have made no progress in the years
from 1581 to 1609, for being unable to write
he subscribes the band "by a nottar." He died
in 1624. His sons were Lachlan, John, and
Alexander. Alexander feued the lands of Holm,
near Inverness, 1614, and was progenitor of the
family of MACKINTOSH OF HOLM.
Lachlan in 1614 obtained a feu of the lands of
Dalmigavie from Calder. He appears in the Band
of 1609, and was one of the leaders in the feud
with the Earl of Moray in 1624 and succeeding
years. In 1630 he is spoken of as umquhile
((
510
PRINCIPAL BRANCHES
Lachlan Angus-son." By his wife, a dau. of Barclay
of Gartlie, he had a son,
William, who was one of the three to whom
Lord Moray committed the task of capturing Grant
of Carron in 1630. William acquired from Moray
a feu of Killachie, or Kyllochy, in Strathdearn. He
m. Isabel, dau. of John Farquharson of Invercauld,
and had issue Donald; John, to whom he assigned
Dalmigavie; Alexander of Farr, progenitor of the
present family of MACKINTOSH OF FARR; Kenneth ;
and James; and five daughters, one of whom m.
Grant of Rothimurcus. His name occurs frequently
in documents and in the Kinrara MS. between 1630
and 1669. He was succeeded by his eldest son,
Donald, who in an Act of Parliament of 10 July
1678 is named a Commissioner of Supply for Inver-
ness-shire, and whose name appears in a list of
"Heads and Branches of Families that are to give
band to the Commissioners of Council" at Inverlochy
in the same year.' He and his son appear in the
Valuation Roll of 1691 for lands in Daviot, Dala-
rossie, and Dores Parishes. He sold the right to
Aldourie to his son in law, John Barbour, bailie of
Inverness, whose dau. afterwards married Donald's
grandson, and so brought back Aldourie to the
Mackintoshes. Donald d. in 1703, leaving by a dau.
of Dunbar of Grange one son, Angus; and three
daughters, Jean, m. — Paterson, Commissary of Ross;
1 This will be referred to on subsequent pages as the "Pro-
clamation of 1678."
OF CLAN MACKINTOSH.
511
Anne, m. Alexander Shaw of Tordarroch; and
Catherine, m. John Barbour of Aldourie, who as
such is named Commissioner of Supply in an Act
of 1704.
Angus was a captain in Mackintosh's battalion
in the '15, and was taken at Preston. He lived
mostly at Ardersier, and d. in 1727.
Lachlan, his eldest son, dying unm., was succeeded
by his next brother,
Alexander, a merchant in London, who m. his
cousin Elizabeth Barbour, and had two sons, Angus
and John.
Angus was a lieutenant in Keith's Highlanders,
with which regiment he served in Germany in the
Seven Years War, returning home with the rank
of captain, but badly wounded. Major Mercer of
Aldie, writing in 1804 to Lord Glenbervie, speaks
of having known him in Germany, and of his being
"a most intelligent man and a most accomplished
gentleman." ¹ On the revival of Fraser's High-
landers in 1776 for service in America, he became
senior captain in the 2nd battalion. He died in
South Carolina in 1779, unm.
John, his brother, succeeded him. He was also
a lieutenant in Keith's Highlanders in the Seven
Years War, and was severely wounded at Felling-
hausen in 1761. He entered the 68th Regiment in
1765, and remained in it for about twenty years,
going through the siege of Gibraltar. Major Mercer,
1 Life of Sir James Mackintosh, i. 1.
512
PRINCIPAL BRANCHES
(6
whose tent he shared for two years in Germany, in
the letter just quoted describes him as one of the
most lively, good-humoured, gallant lads I ever
knew." He m. Marjory, dau. of Alexander Mac-
gillivray by Anne Fraser, sister of Brigadier-General
Fraser and aunt to Mrs Fraser-Tytler, wife of Lord
Woodhouselee. On his death in 1788, John was
succeeded by his only son,
James, born 24th Oct. 1765 at Aldourie, who
became a distinguished lawyer and writer. He re-
ceived his early education at the Academy at Fortrose,
whence he was sent to Aberdeen University. In
1784 he went to Edinburgh to study medicine, and
obtained a physician's diploma; but his tastes in-
clined to the law, and his spare time was occupied
in qualifying for the bar and in writing for the press.
In 1788 he moved to London, in 1791 published
his Vindicia Gallica-a defence against Edmund
Burke of the principles of the French Revolution,
which made him acquainted with Fox and the leaders
of the Whig party,-and in 1795 was called to the
bar. In 1799 he published an Introductory Dis-
course on the law of Nature and Nations; this met
with brilliant success, and attracted to him the
notice of the leading men of all parties. A course
of lectures on the same subject followed, and fixed
his reputation. His defence of M. Peltier, a French
emigrant-royalist prosecuted for a libel on Buona-
parte, in 1803, excited the highest admiration both
here and on the continent, and was described by Lord
OF CLAN MACKINTOSH.
513
1
Erskine at the time as "one of the most splendid
monuments of genius, learning, and eloquence." In
1804 he was appointed Recorder of Bombay, and
received the honour of knighthood. He remained
in India, where he earned golden opinions by his
wisdom and humanity as a judge, until 1811. On
his return to England he was offered by Mr. Percival,
then First Minister, a seat in Parliament, with a
prospect of office; but this offer he declined, on
the ground that he could not enter Parliament on
the implied condition of resisting the repeal of the
law relating to Catholic disabilities. He was elected
for the county of Nairn as an independent Whig,
and made important speeches on Roman Catholic
emancipation, slavery, the amelioration of the crimi-
nal code, and other subjects. From 1818 to 1824
he was Professor of Law and Politics at the East
India College, Haileybury. In 1827 he was made
a Privy Councillor, and on the return of the Whigs
to power in 1830 he received the office of Com-
missioner for Indian affairs. He died on the 31st
May 1832 at his house in Langham Place, London,
and was buried at the parish church of Hampstead.
Besides the works mentioned above, Sir James
wrote a History of the Revolution in England in 1688,
and various essays and articles for the Encyclopædia
Britannica, the Edinburgh Review, and other serials,
all his productions being distinguished by fine under-
standing and sound judgment, as well as by immense
learning.
L L
514
PRINCIPAL BRANCHES
He had parted with his paternal estate of Killachie
in 1801. He was twice married, 1st in 1789, to
Catharine Stuart, who d. in 1797, leaving three
daughters; and 2nd in 1798 to Catharine, dau. of
John Allen of Cresselly, Pembrokeshire, by whom he
had a son, Robert James, Fellow of New College,
Oxford, who edited his father's Memoirs.
BORLUM BRANCH, WITH OFFSHOOT OF RAIGMORE.
The founder of this branch was William, 2nd son of
the 16th chief, and tutor during the minority of his
nephew Sir Lachlan (see chap. viii.). He had
a right from his father to the lands of Benchar and
Raits in Badenoch, and acquired a right to Borlum,
in the parish of Dores. He m. Beatrix, dau. of Innes
of Innermarkie, by whom he had four sons, Lachlan,
Robert, Angus, and William. He d. in 1630 aged 63
years.
Lachlan, his successor, appears in the Valuation
Roll of 1644 as of Borlum, his lands there being
assessed at £666 13s. 4d. Scots, and Benchar and
Raits at £500 Scots, both considerable sums in those
days. He was a loyalist in the wars of Montrose,
and in 1646 was fined as such by the "Committee of
Process and Moneys" in the sum of £666 13s. 4d.
His name also appears under date 19th Feb. 1669 in
the Particular Register of Inhibitions &c. for Inverness-
shire, vol. vi. His wife was Helen Gordon, as appears
OF CLAN MACKINTOSH.
515
from a Minute of Agreement, dated 28th Aug. 1637
at Ruthven, whereby the Marquis of Huntly under-
takes to give sasine to "Lauchlane M'kintosche of
Borlum and Heleine Gordoune his spouse" of "the
town and lands of Ballidmoir with that pendicle
callit Corranach, with houssis, bigingis, &c."
&c." on
payment by Lachlan of 6000 merks." He had
four sons,-William; John of Lynvuilg (who m. a
dau. of Macpherson of Nuid and had issue Donald;
Lachlan; John, who went to Georgia about 1726;
Harie, who also settled in North America; and
William and Angus," twins, who became bailies of
Inverness and m. two sisters, Marjory and Janet,
daughters of Mackintosh of Culclachie); Harie, who
settled in New England; and Alexander, father of
William and John.
William, eldest son of Lachlan, is frequently
mentioned from 1662 to 1704. He purchased the
feu right of the barony of Borlum from Sir Hew
Campbell of Calder, and wadsetted Benchar to Cluny
Macpherson. By his wife Mary, dau. of Duncan
Baillie of Dunean, he had five sons and two daughters,
-William; Lachlan (m. 1st to-Lockhart, by whom
he had Alexander and John; 2nd to Anne, dau. of
Alexander Shaw of Tordarroch); John, major of
Mackintosh's regiment in 1715; Duncan, captain in
1
Spald. Club Misc. iv. 162.
2 Angus was ancestor of Charles Fraser-Mackintosh of
Drummond, now M.P. for the Inverness Burghs, author of
Antiquarian Notes and Invernessiana.
LL 2
516
PRINCIPAL BRANCHES
the same regiment (m. a dau. of Mac Thomie of
Crathinard, by whom he had, with other issue,
William, who m. Janet, dau. of John Maclean of Doch-
garroch); Joseph, who acquired Raigmore, and by a
dau. of Mackintosh of Aberarder was ancestor of the
family of MACKINTOSH OF RAIGMORE, now represented
by Æneas William Mackintosh, late M.P. for the
Inverness Burghs; Lydia, wife of Sir Patrick Grant
of Dalvey; and Janet, wife of Ludovic Gordon,
brother of Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonston.
William died in 1716, and was succeeded by his
eldest son,
William, the Brigadier Mackintosh of the '15, of
whom an account is given in chap. xii of this work.
By his wife, Mary Reade, he had two sons, Lachlan
and Shaw; and three daughters, Winwood, m.
Roderick Mackenzie of Fairburn;¹ Helen, m. Jona-
than Thomson, merchant in Inverness; and Forbesia
Maria.
Lachlan, the brigadier's eldest son, went to New
England, where he m. a dau. of his great-uncle Harie,
and died, being succeeded by his brother,
Shaw, who sold Borlum to his cousin William, son
of John of Lynvuilg and bailie of Inverness. By
Jean, dau. of Menzies of Woodend, he left a son,
Edward, and two daughters. The son took to
¹ Barbara, 2nd dau. of Roderick, 9th of Fairburn, and great-
granddaughter of Winwood, m. Kenneth Murchison of Tarra-
dale, and was mother of Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, the
distinguished geologist.
OF CLAN MACKINTOSH.
517
lawless courses, and became captain of a band of
robbers which infested the great Highland road
through Inverness-shire. A warrant being issued for
his apprehension on the charges of robbery and
murder, he left the country and took service in the
French army, where history loses sight of him. His
property of Raits passed into the hands of James
Macpherson, the translator of Ossian, who changed its
name to Belleville, and by whose descendants it is
still held.
The Branches of ABERARDER and CORRIBROUGH,
springing respectively from Duncan and Lachlan,
fifth and seventh sons of the 16th chief, were also of
some importance in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The STRONE Branch, with its
its offshoot of
BALNESPIC, sprang from Donald Glas, natural son
of William, 13th chief.
518
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
TRIBES AND FAMILIES OF CLAN CHATTAN OTHER
THAN THE MACKINTOSHES.
The number of tribes or septs composing the Clan
Chattan confederacy is usually given as sixteen. It
varied, however, at different periods, although, taking
each surname as representing a distinct sept, it has
not at any time during the last four centuries been
below sixteen. Of these, a few were merely offshoots,
with a change of name, from some of the principal
tribes; others were families which had settled in the
clan country and had become bound to military service
by the tenure of their lands. Sir Æneas Mackintosh
gives a list of twenty-five tribes and families belong-
ing to Clan Chattan-nine claiming cadency from the
Mackintoshes, and sixteen springing from other
sources. In some cases-as for example Clan Tarril
-a tribe at one time numerous faded almost out of
existence, from losses in war or otherwise; while at
particular periods a sept or family might be spoken
of by the name of its head at the time, or by some
other name different from that by which it is usually
known. Thus in the Band of 1609 we look in vain for
the name of Shaw, that clan (or rather the Tordarroch
section of it) appearing as Clan Ay, represented by
its chieftain Ay mac Bean; while the head of the
In some cases
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
519
Macbeans proper appears as Angus mac Phaill-the
head of the sept in each of these cases having applied
to him as a surname the name of his father.
The fifteen septs of which notices follow are all,
with the exception of the Cattanachs, mentioned in
the Kinrara MS. as belonging to Clan Chattan, and
their heads or founders as having at various times
placed themselves and their posterity under the
command of the chiefs of Mackintosh. Some were of
small numbers and importance, probably becoming
scattered and having no recognised head; and after
the notice of their reception into the clan they are not
again mentioned in its history.
Various other families, having their origin in one or
other of the ways already indicated, and represented
at the present time, were attached to the clan.
Among these may be mentioned families of Noble
and Gillespie, in the Mackintosh country, and Mac-
intyre in Badenoch. The Crerars¹ in the Breadalbane
country, and the Mac Thomies, now M'Combies," in
1 The ancestor of the Crerars is said by tradition to have been
a Mackintosh who, to elude the pursuit of mortal enemies, took
refuge in a mill near Kenmore. The friendly miller sprinkled
him from head to foot with flour out of a sieve, and set him to
work with that article. While he was busily sifting his pursuers
came up, but did not recognise him; and in token of his escape
he took the name of Criathrar (Crerar), or the sifter.
2 Descended probably from William, great-grandson of the
6th chief (see p. 78). The name appears in 16th and 17th
century documents variously as M'Homie, M'Comie, M'Chomay
&c. A family of them for some generations occupied Finegand
in Glenshee.
520
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Perthshire and Aberdeenshire, were originally Mac-
intoshes; while some of
some of the offshoots of the
Macphersons of Invereshie (Sliochd Gillies) assumed
the name of Gillies. The Kinrara MS. says that
some of the descendants of Ferquhard, 9th of
Mackintosh, acquired the surname of Angus, and
founded families of that name in Inverness and
Fife. Without the aid of detailed pedigrees, family
names such as Maconochie, Maclachlan, and Mackinlay
cannot be assigned absolutely to any particular clan;
but it is likely that some of the persons bearing these
names are sprung from one or other of the numerous
Duncans and Lachlans of Clan Chattan, or from the
great Finla of the Farquharsons.
It should be mentioned that the good old family of
Dallas, long settled at Cantray and Budzeat, were
always friends of the Mackintosh chiefs and generally
followed them in war. There is no record, however,
of their ever becoming incorporated in the Clan
Chattan, or of their following the chiefs otherwise
than as allies.
The Clan Chattan septs may be divided under three
heads:-
I. Those of the blood of the original Clan
Chattan, viz. the Macphersons, Davidsons, Cattanachs,
Macbeans (?), and Macphails (?);
II. Those springing from the Mackintoshes, viz.
the Shaws, Farquharsons, and Mackintoshes of
Dalmunzie;
III. Those not originally connected by blood with
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
521
either the old Clan Chattan or the Mackintoshes, viz.
the Macgillivrays, Macleans of Dochgarroch, Tarrils,
Smiths or Gows, Macqueens, Clan Andrish, and
Clarks.
In this order they will now be treated.
I. CLANS SPRINGING FROM THE ORIGINAL CLAN
CHATTAN.
1. MACPHERSONS, or CLAN MHUIRICH.
The claim of the principal family of the Mac-
phersons to represent in the male line the chiefs of
old Clan Chattan is allowed by most Highlanders,
and, although entirely dependent on tradition, it
can hardly be disputed. The early descent of the
Macphersons, as given by Sir Eneas Macpherson,
has been stated in chap. ii., as well as the circum-
stances under which the headship of Clan Chattan
was alienated from their line.
On Dougal Dall's death (see p. 46), the represen-
tation of the Clan Chattan chiefs in the male line
would devolve on the family of Ewen, 2nd son of
Muirich the Parson. Ewen, said to have been called
Mac-in-Phairson, was the immediate founder of the
Clan Macpherson, also called from his father Clan
Mhuirich. From his three sons, Kenneth, Ian or
Ewen, and Gillies, descended respectively the main
branches of Cluny, Pitmean, and Invereshie, from one
or other of which sprang all the numerous families of
the name in subsequent centuries.
522
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Although it is tolerably evident that much of the
early history of the old Clan Chattan as given by
Sir Æneas Macpherson is pure romance-whether
created by himself or by seannachies who lived before
him is of no consequence here-there can be little or
no doubt as to the general correctness of his account
of the founders of Clan Mhuirich. For example, there
can be no question that Muirich was a progenitor of
the clan, inasmuch as it was called by his name. Nor
can it be doubted that three of his descendants were
named respectively Kenneth, Ian, and Gillies, for
we find the three main branches of the clan designated
in after years Sliochd Kynich, Sliochd Ian, and
Sliochd Gillies (race of Kenneth &c.). We have
thus proof of the existence of these several ancestors
of the clan, and the strength and consistency of
traditionary testimony leave small room for a doubt
of their belonging also to the chief family of the old
Clan Chattan.
If we may judge from the absence of record to
the contrary, the family of Ewen mac Mhuirich
quietly acquiesced in the transfer of the lands and
headship of Clan Chattan to the husband of their
chief's daughter; and this is the more probable as
we find their descendants soon afterwards acting with
the Mackintoshes and marrying into the Mackintosh
family. It is likely, indeed, that Ewen's three sons
were children at Dougal Dall's death, for according
to the Macpherson genealogy the eldest was alive in
This likelihood is strengthened by the fact
1370.
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
523
that the Camerons' occupation of the Lochaber lands
after Eva and her husband had left them was un-
opposed at the outset. It is further likely that this
seizure of the lands led to the settlement of their
previous occupants in Badenoch, for we have evidence
that the district was held by the Comyns until 1314,
while fifty years later we find the Clan Mhuirich
there, apparently settled down into the position of
permanent occupiers.
Until about the 16th century notices of the
Macphersons in history and in writings are rare.
This may to some extent be accounted for by their
situation in the heart of the Highlands, remote from
the sway and influence of the great chiefs and Lords.
of the Isles, around whom circles most of the High-
land history of the 14th and 15th centuries; but
the main reason is perhaps to be found in the fact
that they were as yet but a small, though growing
and warlike clan, following the chiefs of Mackintosh.
Their separate appellation would thus be merged,
with that of each of the other tribes of the con-
federacy, in the common name of Clan Chattan; and
we may assume that as part of Clan Chattan they
distinguished themselves both in the private feuds
of the clan and in the national wars in which
Bannockburn and Harlaw were fought. Shaw,' re-
ferring to the Band of 1609 in which the Macphersons
speak of Mackintosh as "our chief, as it was of old,"
says, "It cannot be doubted that the Mackintoshes,
1 Hist. Moray, 48.
3
524
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Macphersons, Macbeans &c., as one incorporated body,
did own Mackintosh for their captain and leader for
about 300 years." That the Clan Mhuirich followed
Mackintosh as Captain of Clan Chattan in the 14th
century is apparent from the tradition, noticed in
chap. iii., concerning the fight at Invernahavon in
1370 and the dissensions between the parties of Clan
Chattan there assembled.
MACPHERSONS OF CLUNY.-The principal branch
has always been that of Cluny, descended from
Kenneth, eldest son of Ewen Baan, and from him
known as Sliochd Kynich. Kenneth's son Duncan
m. Isobel, daughter of Ferquhard 9th of Mackintosh,'
and had two sons, Donald Mor and Bean, the latter
ancestor of the Brin family. Donald Mor's eldest
son Donald Dall had nine sons, from two of whom,
Malcolm and John, descended respectively the families
of Blaragie Beg and Crathy Croy. The eldest,
Donald Og, m. a dau. of Gordon of Ardbrylach, and
had four sons,—Ewen his successor, and James, Paul,
and William, founders respectively of the Pittourie,
Dalrady, and Kingussie-beg (Laggan) families. Ewen
m. a dau. of Donald Mackintosh of Strone, by whom
he had Andrew; William, whose only son left no
issue; and John, founder of the family of Nuid,
afterwards of Cluny.
1
Andrew, Ewen's successor, had a long chiefship.
Macp. Geneal. According to the same authority a niece of
Duncan's m. Duncan, eldest son of the same Ferquhard.
t
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
525
We find him, as "Androw Makfersone in Cluny,"
on 16th May 1591 engaging in a band of manrent
to Huntly, and in 1648, fifty-seven years afterwards,
he is excused, on account of his age and inability to
travel, from appearing before the Synod of Moray
to answer for his loyalty to Charles I. As has been
seen, he and his immediate following took part with
1
¹ The genealogy here given is from Sir Æneas Macpherson's
MS. in the possession of Cluny Macpherson. This contains,
besides a history of the clan, a genealogy of each family of the
Macphersons down to nearly the end of the 17th century. So
far as can be gathered from bands of manrent and other con-
temporary documents, the descents of this genealogy in the 16th
and 17th centuries seem to be correct. By its help the genealogy
of the Cluny family given in Douglas's Baronage and Burke's
Landed Gentry is proved to be full of grave inaccuracies. Thus
in the Baronage we have the Andrew here mentioned succeeded
by his brother John, who dying in 1600 is succeeded by his son
John, who gets a charter of Tullich in 1613 and is succeeded by
his son Ewen; Ewen dies about 1640 and is succeeded by his
son Donald, a staunch friend of Charles I. During the period
occupied, according to the Baronage, by Andrew and these four
successors, the MS. has Andrew only at the head of the clan,
with his son Ewen leading it under Montrose. That the MS.
is correct and the Baronage wrong is evident from the facts
(1st) that Andrew's name appears in the Band of 1591 to Huntly,
in the Band of Union in 1609, in his son's contract of marriage
in 1642, and in the Record of the Moray Synod in 1648, where
his age is mentioned as a reason for his non-appearance; and
(2nd) that his son Ewen is known to have been the leader of the
Macphersons under Montrose and a "staunch friend of Charles
I.," and in 1648, several years after the Baronage speaks of his
death, is mentioned in the Moray Synod Record as being under
the ban of the kirk.
It is true that in the Valuation Roll of 1644 Ewen Mac-
pherson of Cluny appears; but either this is a clerical error, or
526
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Huntly against Mackintosh in 1591-4, the other
principal branches of Clan Mhuirich remaining faith-
ful to Mackintosh. He must at this time have only
recently succeeded to the headship of his clan. After
the cessation of the feud, when Huntly ungratefully
cast him off, his assertion of independence of Mackin-
tosh was withdrawn, and we find him in 1609
subscribing the Band of Union among Clan Chattan.
Andrew had one son only, Ewen, whom he survived.
In 1642 this son m. a dau. of Duncan Forbes of
Culloden; and in 1647 he was one of the first to
attach himself to Alaster Macdonald when on his
way through Badenoch to join Montrose. With a
body of his clan he took part in nearly all Montrose's
battles, and was placed under the ban of the kirk
in consequence. Andrew, according to the Rev. L.
Shaw, lived until 1660, his chiefship thus extending
over about seventy years. He was succeeded by his
grandson of the same name,
Andrew, elder son of Ewen, who it will be re-
membered refused to accompany Mackintosh against
the Camerons in 1664-5 except on certain conditions
(see chap. x.). Dying unm. he was succeeded by
his brother,
Duncan, who like his grandfather had a long
Ewen is entered because he had the management of his
father's affairs at the time.
Again the Baronage speaks of a Donald, son of Ewen, in
1643; but the MS., which is supported by the Mackintosh MS.
History and other records, makes Ewen the father of Andrew,
who died unm., and Duncan, who succeeded his brother.
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
527
chiefship, succeeding about 1671 and dying in 1722.
In 1672 he set on foot measures for declaring himself
independent of Mackintosh, and the "only and true
representer of the ancient and honourable family
of Clan Chattan" (see p. 64). He is named in the
Proclamation of 1678, and in the Valuation Roll of
1691 for lands in the parishes of Kingussie and Laggan.
He was twice married, 1st to Isobel, dau. of Provost
Ross of Inverness; 2nd to Elizabeth, dau. of Gordon
of Arradoull, by whom he had a son who d. young.
A daughter by his first marriage became the wife of
Archibald, second son of Campbell of Calder, and in
1689 Duncan attempted to nominate his son-in-law as
his successor both in his estates and in the headship of
the clan. His attempt was frustrated by the energetic
action of his indignant clansmen, who subscribed a
band declaring the rightful successor to be the heir-
male, William Macpherson of Nuid (see p. 442).
On Duncan's death in 1722, the representation
devolved on the family of Nuid, descended from
John, 3rd son of Ewen mac Donald Og,-John's
great-grandson, Lachlan, son of the William named
in the band just referred to, becoming "of Cluny."
John, founder of the Nuid family, m. in 1613 Ann,
dau. of Donald Farquharson of Monaltrie, and had
four sons, the eldest of whom, Donald, by his first
wife Isabel, dau. of Alexander Rose of Clova, had also
four sons.
William, the second of these, m. in 1667
Isobel, dau. of Lachlan Mackintosh of Kinrara,
brother of the 18th chief of Mackintosh. This
暑
​528
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
connection may partly account for the willingness of
William's eldest son, Lachlan, on succeeding to
Cluny, to drop the vexatious proceedings of some of
his predecessors in regard to Mackintosh's right to
the headship of Clan Chattan, and to acknowledge
that right, as he did in 1724 (see p. 444).
Lachlan, who became "of Cluny" on his kinsman's
death in 1722, had m. in 1704 Jean, dau. of Sir
Ewen Cameron of Locheil, by whom he had a
numerous family. He was succeeded by his eldest
son,
He
Ewen, who distinguished himself by his attachment
to the Stuart cause in 1745-6. At the commence-
ment of the Rising he was in the service of the
Government, but circumstances compelled him to take
up arms on the opposite side. In August 1745 he
was captured by a detachment of the Jacobite army,
and as his own sentiments were in favour of the
Stuarts, his family and clan had no great difficulty
in persuading him to transfer his allegiance.
joined the prince with about 120 of his name, and
took part in the march into England, he and his men,
on the retreat from Derby, bearing the brunt of the
skirmish at Clifton, near Penrith. Here the enemy's
horse came up with the Jacobite rear-guard, and Cluny
was ordered to post his men at Clifton bridge for the
purpose of covering the passage of the baggage and
artillery. An account of the action written by Cluny
himself about ten years afterwards is given as a note
to chap xxx. of
of " Waverley." The enemy were
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
529
driven back with the loss of only twelve men to the
brave Clan Mhuirich; many arms were captured,
among them Col. Honeywood's sword, which is still
preserved at Cluny Castle.
During the winter of 1745-6 the Macphersons
remained at home, by permission; and the last meet-
ing of the hostile forces at Culloden was so sudden
and unexpected that they had not time fully to
answer the summons sent to them. They were on
the march, and had reached Moy, when they were
met by news of the disaster.
After Culloden, the house of Cluny was burned to
the ground, many papers and deeds being destroyed
in the fire. The estates also were forfeited. Cluny
remained in hiding in Badenoch, chiefly near his
ruined home, for nine years. For a few months after
Culloden he lived with his cousin, the younger
Locheil, on Benalder, and here they were joined by
the prince after his romantic adventures in Skye and
Glenmoriston. One of Cluny's first cares after
Charles's arrival was the rather unromantic one of
providing him with a change of linen, for which
purpose he set his three sisters to work.¹ On Charles's
departure from Scotland in September, Cluny and
Breakachie younger accompanied him on his way to
the coast as far as Locheil's country, where they took
leave of him, Cluny preferring a home, though a
¹ These sisters were Isabel, widow of William Mackintosh of
Aberarder; Christian, wife of Macpherson younger of Breakachie;
and Anne, afterwards wife of Macpherson of Dalrady.
M M
530
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
precarious one, among his own people and fastnesses
to one in a foreign land. Before parting, the prince
gave him a letter acknowledging his services and
promising reward.¹
1
In compliance with a request from Prince Charles,
Ewen of Cluny went in 1755 to France, where he
died in the following year, leaving by his wife Janet,
dau. of Simon Lord Lovat, a son,
Duncan, born in 1750. The estates, which had
been forfeited after the '45, were restored to the family
in his person. He was lieutenant colonel of the 3rd
Foot Guards, and m. Catherine, dau. of Sir Ewen
Cameron of Fassifern, by whom he had Ewen, his
heir; Ewen Cameron, 48th Bengal N.I., d. 1832;
Archibald Fraser, colonel Bengal Army, d. 1877;
John Cameron, lieut. colonel 42nd Regiment, d. 1873,
leaving issue; and four daughters. Duncan d. in
1817, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
Ewen, born in 1804, formerly captain 42nd
Regiment, and now lieut. colonel Inverness-shire
Rifle Volunteers-one of the best known and most
¹ This letter was presented by Sir Walter Scott to the present
Macpherson of Cluny, who has favoured the author with a copy.
It is as follows;-
"M'Pherson of Clunie, As we are sensible of your and clan's
fidelity to us dureing our adventures in Scotland and England
in the years 1745 and 1746, in recovering our just rights from
the Elector of Hanover, by which you have sustained very great
losses both in your interest and person, I therefore promise when
it shall please God to put it in my power to make a gratefull
return suitable to your suferings, Charles P. R.—Dirielugich in
Glencongeir of Locharkay, 18 Sept. 1746."
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
531
respected of Highland chiefs. He m. in 1832 Sarah
Justina, dau. of Henry Davidson of Tulloch, by
whom he has Duncan, C.B., lieut. colonel 42nd
Regiment, born in 1833, m. Emily Ellen, dau. of Major
General Philip Harris; Ewen Henry Davidson, lieut.
colonel 93rd Regiment; George Gordon, formerly
captain Coldstream Guards; Albert Cameron; and
three daughters.
From the Cluny branch sprang at various periods
the families of Macphersons at BRIN, ESSICH,
BREAKACHIE (latterly CRUBENMORE), CRATHIE CROY,
PITTOURIE, BALLACHROAN, and NUID. The last named
family, as already stated, became " of Cluny " in 1722.
The family of GLENTRUIM, now represented by Lieut.
Col. Lachlan Macpherson, is descended from John,
youngest son of Donald of Nuid and Isobel Rose.
MACPHERSONS OF PITMEAN. This branch, known
also as Sliochd Ian, sprang from Alexander, 2nd
son of John, brother of Kenneth mac Ewen, ancestor
of the Cluny family. Donald, Alexander's younger
brother, was ancestor of the GARVA MORE family,
and from a natural brother descended the BEALID
family. Alexander had two sons, John and Paul,
the latter ancestor of the family of STRATHMASHIE.
John was father of Thomas, who had four sons,
Alexander, Farquhar (ancestor of the INVERTROMIE
family), Lachlan, and Donald Dubh (ancestor of the
PITCHERN family). Alexander, the eldest, was father
M M 2
532
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
of Thomas, who signed the Band of 1609 as "Thomas
"
vic Alister vic Homas in Pitmean.
His son
Alexander m. a dau. of Lachlan Mackintosh of
Killachie, and was father of Lachlan, who by Isobel,
dau. of Donald Macpherson of Ballachroan, had
three sons.
The eldest of these, Alexander, m. 1st
a dau. of Macqueen of Corrybrough, and 2nd Isobel,
dau. of John Macpherson of Dalrady; by the latter
he had a son, Lachlan, who in 1745 m. Jean, dau.
of the Rev. John Mackenzie, Laggan, and had one
son and three daughters. The son, Charles, was a
major in the army, and m. Margaret, dau. of John
Macpherson, Muchall, by whom he had John;
Duncan, colonel in the army, d. without male issue;
George Gordon M.D., deceased (who by his 2nd
wife, Charlotte A. F., dau. of William Leycester,
Bengal Civil Service, left two sons, Charles Gordon
and George Gordon); Eliza, m. Major D'Arcy Went-
worth; and Ann. John, eldest son of Charles, was
an officer in the 21st Regiment, and was wounded at
Waterloo. He m. Marianne, dau. of Robert Addison.
The present representative of the family is his only
surviving son, Berkeley Augustus Macdonald,
captain South Devon Militia, who m. Charlotte, dau.
of Sir George Stracey, Bart. of Thorpe, Norfolk, but
has no surviving issue. The heir-presumptive to
the representation of the Macphersons of Pitmean
is his cousin, Charles Gordon above mentioned.
MACPHERSONS OF INVERESHIE. This branch, also
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
533
called Sliochd Gillies, is descended from Gillies, 3rd
son of Ewen mac Mhuirich. Some of its members
adopted the surname of Gillies. The genealogy 1
compiled by Sir Eneas Macpherson, who belonged
to the branch, states that Gillies lived in Letterfinlay
in Lochaber, and that his daughter married the
ancestor of the Camerons of Letterfinlay. His son
Donald "Brounich" had seven sons, and the family
was carried on by John, the youngest, the rest having
been killed at Inverlochy in the battle between the
Earl of Mar and Donald Balloch in 1431. John
gave up Letterfinlay to his aunt's husband, and
moved to Rimore. His sons were William and
Alexander, the latter ancestor of a family at Phoyness.
William's son John was father of William and
Thomas. The elder of these, by his first marriage
to a dau. of [gy. Alexander] Shaw of Dalnivert,
had Angus and two daughters; and by his second
marriage a son, John Og, who m. a dau. of Mac-
kintosh of Kinrara. William was killed at the battle
of Auldearn in 1645.
Angus, his eldest son, is set down as of Invereshie
in the Valuation Roll of 1644, the year before his
father's death. He m. Elspet, dau. of Lachlan Far-
quharson of Brouchdearg, and had three sons,—
William, his successor; John, who feued Dalrady ;
and Thomas, who acquired Killihuntly. William,
1 This probably omits some steps of the descent, as it makes
William, killed in 1645, only of the seventh generation from
Ewen son of Muirich the Parson.
534
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
:
the eldest, m. Margaret, dau. of Robert Farquharson
of Invercauld, and was father of John; Æneas, a
learned advocate and antiquary of the reign of
Charles II., who received the honour of knighthood;
and William Dubh. The eldest, John, m. Marjory,
dau. of Ewen younger of Cluny, leader of the Mac-
phersons under Montrose, and left one son, Elias
or Gillies, during whose minority his uncle Sir Æneas
was tutor. Elias sold Invereshie to his cousin John
of Dalrady, whose successors have ever since held it.
Sir Æneas, by a dau. of Colonel Scrimgeour, had
two sons, Duncan and James, whose male descen-
dants, if such exist, of course represent the senior
line of the branch.
John Macpherson, who bought Invereshie from his
cousin, was the eldest son of John, 2nd son of Angus
of Invereshie and Elspet Farquharson. He m. Isobel
dau. of
Cuthbert, Provost of Inverness.
His son George m. Grace, dau. of Col. William Grant
of Ballindalloch, and was father of William, his
successor, and John, captain 17th Regiment. The
elder of these dying unm. was succeeded by George,
his nephew, who, having inherited the estate of
Ballindalloch as heir of provision to his father's
maternal uncle, had assumed the name of Grant.
He was made a Baronet in 1838, and from 1830
to 1846 was M.P. for Sutherland. His wife was
Mary, dau. of Thomas Carnegy of Craigo, Forfar,
by whom he had John, James (captain 93rd Regt.),
Thomas, and three daughters. Sir John, his suc-
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
535
cessor, b. 1804, m. Marion Helen, dau. of M. N.
Campbell of Ballimore, Argyle; he d. in 1850,
leaving George, Campbell, John, and three daughters.
Sir George, the present baronet, b. 1839, m. Frances
Elizabeth, dau. of the Rev. Roger Pocklington,
Walesby, Notts, with issue John, b. 1863, George
Bertram, Alastair, and four daughters. Sir George
Macpherson-Grant was in 1880 elected M.P. for the
counties of Elgin and Nairn.
2. DAVIDSONS, or CLAN DHAIBHIDH.
According to Sir Eneas Macpherson, the David-
sons are of the same blood as the Macphersons, being
descended from David Dubh, youngest son of Muirich,
Parson of Kingussie. This account of their founder
scarcely tallies in point of time with a statement in
the Kinrara MS. that David Dubh married Slane,
daughter of the 6th chief of Mackintosh; but, as
already observed, the correctness of Sir Æneas's
genealogy, which thus makes David of the same
generation as Slane's great-grandfather, is somewhat
doubtful. The Clan Dhaibhidh were settled at
Invernahavon, about the mouth of the Truim, but
when they acquired this holding or how they held it
does not appear. Sir Æneas Mackintosh in his MS.
gives 1350 as the date at which
the date at which they placed
themselves under the chief of Mackintosh. Tradition
says that they were almost entirely cut off by the
536
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Camerons in the battle at Invernahavon which has
been described in chap. iii.
According to Shaw's
MS. account of Clan Chattan, the name Davidson was
exchanged by the family of Invernahavon for that of
Macpherson early in the 17th century, in the time of
"James of Invernahavon, commonly called Seumas
Laghach, great-grandfather of John of Invernahavon
[living in 1758].
""
From a branch of this clan settled in Cromarty-
shire is descended the present family of Davidson of
Tulloch, Ross-shire. On the sale of the Tulloch
estate for behoof of the creditors of the Baynes, its
ancient possessors, in 1763, it was bought by Henry
Davidson,' elder son of Alexander Davidson and Eliza-
beth Bayne of Tulloch. Henry was succeeded by his
brother Duncan, M.P. for Cromartyshire. He d. in
1800, leaving Henry his successor, whose son, Duncan,
formerly of the Grenadier Guards, M.P. for Cromarty-
shire from 1826 to 1830 and from 1832 to 1834, and
now Lord Lieutenant of the county of Ross, is the
present representative of the family. By his first
wife, Elizabeth Diana, dau. of the 3rd Lord Mac-
donald, he had two sons, Duncan Henry Caithness
Reay, his heir apparent, and Godfrey Wentworth, d.
unm.; and five daughters, one of whom m. Lieut.
Col. George W. H. Ross of Cromarty. Mr. Davidson
1
In a private letter of 19 Nov. 1763 it is stated that Henry
"being a relation of the family (of Bayne), Highland ideas made
him stretch a point to buy this estate, and heavily has he paid,
and dealt generously by the old possessor."
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
537
by subsequent marriages has three sons and six
daughters.
Another family of the name is represented by
Hugh Grogan Davidson of Cantray (the old property
of the Dallases), late 78th Regiment, grandson of Sir
David Davidson of Cantray and Margaret Rose.
(C
3. CATTANACHS.
It is unfortunate that no account can be given of
this sept, bearing as it does the most distinctive of
all the Clan Chattan names. The ancestor of the
Macphails is said to have been Paul Cattanach, or
the Chattan man," who came into Mackintosh's
country about the end of the 13th century. He was
so called, probably, by those among whom he came as
a stranger, to denote his extraction from the Clan
Chattan, just as Fleming became the name of some
who had settled in Scotland and England from
Flanders. In the same way it is likely that some of
the early settlers in Badenoch from the Clan Chattan
of Lochaber received the name of Cattanach from
those already inhabiting that district. The members
of the sept have probably always been few; some
may have assumed other names, as that of Macpher-
son, the clan among whom they lived; but Cattanachs
are still frequently met with in Badenoch.
538
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
4. MACBEANS, or CLAN VEAN.
Although there is no direct evidence that the
Macbeans sprang from the old Clan Chattan, the
circumstances under which they first appear on
record seem to afford a presumption that, if not of
the blood of that clan, they were in some way
connected with it; and tradition has embodied
this presumption. Shaw, in his History of Moray,
speaks of them as a branch of the old clan; and in
his MS. account of Clan Chattan he says that they
are generally allowed to be a branch of the clan,
and the same with the Macgilonies in Lochaber, of
whom Strone is the principal family."
In the time of Angus 6th of Mackintosh,
"Bean mac Dhomhnuil Mor,' says the Kinrara MS.,
"lived in Lochaber and was a faithful servant to
Mackintosh against the Red Comyn that possessed
Inverlochie." Shaw makes Domhnuil Mor the son of
Gilonie. The next mention of the family is in the
time of the seventh Mackintosh, when William Mor
mac Bean vic Dhomhnuil Mor and his four sons, Paul,
Gillies, William, and Farquhar, after slaying the Red
Comyn's captain of Inverlochy, came to Connage and
placed themselves and their posterity under the protec-
tion of Mackintosh and his successors. Their chief seat
was at Kinchyle, in the parish of Dores. This they long
occupied as duchus until in 1685 William Macbean ac-
quired the feu right from Sir Hugh Campbell of Calder.
For about a century after the migration of the sept
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
539
from Lochaber history is silent concerning them.
The next mention of them in the Mackintosh MSS.
is a mournful one, to the effect that no tribe of Clan
Chattan suffered so severely at Harlaw as the Clan
Vean. Another long break now occurs in their
history—from 1411 to 1609. In the latter year we
find Angus mac Phaill in Kandkell (Kinchyle) subscrib-
ing "by a nottar" the great Band of Union "for
himself and taking the full burden of his kin and
race of Clan Vean." After this we frequently find the
chieftain of the sept "dating" from Kinchyle. The
same Angus, son of Paul, appears as of Kinchyle in
the Valuation Roll of 1644. His son John is the first
who appears with the present patronymic. On 20
July 1655 "John Macbean of Kinkell" gives to his
eldest lawful son Paul and his wife sasine of the town
and lands of Durris and Chapeltoune, of old called the
Kirklands of Durris (Dores).¹ Paul, who succeeded
his father, was one who held back from accompanying
Mackintosh into Lochaber in 1667. There is a bond
of Black Mail extant, dated 1 Nov. 1675, in which
he undertakes, in conjunction with John Mackintosh
of Dalmigavie and Donald, Tutor of Dunmaglass,
to guard Strathdearn, Strathnairn &c. He is men-
tioned in the Proclamation of 1678, in the Valuation
Roll of 1691, and with his son in a horning of 22
March 1697.2 This son was the purchaser of the feu
right to Kinchyle, and in speaking of him and
1
¹ Part. Reg. Sasines &c. for Inverness and Cromarty, vol. vii.
2 Gen. Reg. of Hornings, &c. vol. cxiv.
510
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
his father the horning referred to appears to regard
him as the more important person of the two,—
"William M'Bayne of Kinchylde and Paul M'Bayne
his father." William m. Jean, dau. of William
Mackintosh of Killachie (contract dated 23 Dec.
1688). On 18 Nov. 1708, William Mackintosh of
Borlum takes sasine of the town and lands of Dores,
Chapelton, Achnashangach, Kinchyll &c., following
on a heritable band for 8000 merks granted by
William Macbean of Kinchyle;¹ and on 26 June 1718
Angus Mackintosh of Culclachie takes sasine of the
lands of Dores and Chapelton following on a wadset
for 5000 merks by William and Æneas Macbean,
elder and younger of Kinchyle. Eneas, or
Angus, was a captain in Mackintosh's regiment in 1715;
a John Macbean was a lieutenant. On 16 Oct. 1759,
Lieutenant Donald Macbean was served heir male to
his uncle, Æneas, in Kinchyle, and on the 26 March
following, the conveyance of the lands to Fraser of Ness
Castle was signed by Donald's commissioners, he being
abroad. Kinchyle is now part of the Dochfour estate.
Gillies Macbean, who distinguished himself and
died bravely at Culloden, and whose fame has been
sung by Byron, is generally stated to have been of
the Kinchyle family. So far as the writer has been
able to gather, he was younger brother of Æneas son
of William above mentioned, and probably father of
Donald. Shaw, in his History of Moray (p. 132),
speaks of the son of Gillies as representing the
1 Reg. Sasines for Inverness, under date 4 Jan. 1709.
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
541
Macbeans in 1775. Gillies occupied a farm at
Dalmagerry in 1745.
Other families of the clan were at Faillie (Strath-
nairn), Tomatin (near Moy), and Drummond (Dores).
The first of the Macbeans of Faillie was Donald mac
Gilliphadrick, who on 10 Feb. 1632 received from
James Earl of Moray a feu tack of the lands-the
succession being strictly limited to Donald's "heirs
male and assigns of the clan of Clan Chattan
allenarly." His son John is mentioned as of Faillie
in hornings of 1698 and 1699. Donald, son of John,
received from Charles Earl of Moray on 15 July
1707 a charter of confirmation in the lands, in which
the limitation regarding members of Clan Chattan
is again set forth. Donald is frequently mentioned
between the years 1711 and 1748. He was suc-
ceeded by his brother William, who was confirmed
in the lands by James Earl of Moray on 16 Jan. 1749,
the restriction of the succession being a third time
made. Again does it appear in the charter (dated
15 Feb. 1771) confirming Donald, son of William's
brother Alexander, in the lands. This curious
restriction—which, judging from the date of its first
appearance in the deeds referred to, was probably
connected with the Earl of Moray's reconciliation
with the Clan Chattan in 1630-gave rise to con-
siderable litigation in late years, and was the means
of eliciting the well-known decision in the Court
of Session in 1860 respecting the legal status of
clanship (see p. 69).
5.12
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Donald on 6 Aug. 1771 assigned his right to
Faillie to Captain William Macgillivray of Dunmaglass.
By his wife Grizel Stuart he had three sons, James;
Donald (who served as an officer in the royal army in
the American War of Independence, afterwards in the
West and East Indies, in Gen. Whitehouse's expedition
in South America, at the Cape of Good Hope and in
Ceylon, and in the Niagara Frontier War, in which
he commanded the 2nd Battalion 89th Regiment;
he d. in Ceylon in 1819, in command of the 19th
Regiment, leaving no issue); and Charles, captain
79th Regiment, who d. in 1838, leaving two sons
-George Grey, present representative of the family
(m. and has one son, Donald), and Charles Alexander,
also m., with issue a son, Charles Edward, and two
daughters.
5. MACPHAILS.
According to the Rev. L. Shaw, the Macphails
were generally reputed a tribe of the old Clan
Chattan, and were descended from Paul Cattanach,
who came from the west with or soon after Eva, the
wife of the 6th chief of Mackintosh. If the tradition
on which he founds is correct, it seems likely that
the Macphails who followed Mackintosh were brothers
of the sept of the same name who formed part of the
Clan Cameron confederacy, and who had remained
in Lochaber when Paul Cattanach left it. The name
appears in 1414 in a Retour of Inquest on Donald
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
543
Thane of Calder's succession to the lands of Dun-
maglass, "Gillemore M'Phale" being one of the
inquest. The earliest notice in the Kinrara MS.
of the sept, which was always a small one, is to the
effect that Paul Gow MacPhail, "goodsir" or grand-
father to Sir Andrew Macphail, Parson of Croy,
lived in the time of Duncan 11th of Mackintosh. A
Donald Makfaill is witness to a band of amity and
manrent, dated 23 Sept. 1481 at Croy, by Ferquhard,
son of Duncan Mackintosh, to Hugh Rose of Kil-
ravock; and to a similar band between the same
parties in 1490. The parson of Croy-called "Sir"
in accordance with a custom which obtained a few
centuries
ago in
in regard to all clergymen-wrote the
history of the Mackintoshes down to the murder of
the 15th chief in 1550. His account is known as the
Croy MS., and is one of the three from which the
Kinrara MS. was compiled in the 17th century.
Andrew M'Phaill minister at the Kirk of Croy and
Findla Makphaill ane of the beillis off Invernes
appear in a contract between the magistrates of
Inverness and Robert Waus in June 1595.
<<
""
The holding of the head of the sept was Inverarnie,
at the mouth of the small Glen Arnie in Strath-
nairn, and close to Tordarroch. Paul Macphail "of
Inverarnie" appears in the Valuation Roll of 1644,
where he is rated at £113 6s. 8d. Scots. The name
of Duncan M'Phaill of Inverernie occurs in a horning
of 7 Nov. 1662, and that of his son Paul in several
hornings from 1669 to 1699, twice in conjunction
544
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
with his neighbour Alexander Shaw of Tordarroch.¹
This Paul is also mentioned in the Kinrara MS. in
connection with the events of 1667. In the Valuation
Roll of 1691 he is rated at £100 Scots. A Paul
Macphail, who signs "P. M'Pheale," is described in a
Band and Tack of 1711 (in the writer's possession) to
which he is a witness, as "Chamberland," i.e. factor, to
Mackintosh. The name, like that of Shaw, is still
to be met with in Strathnairn. The Macphails of
Inverarnie and the Shaws of Tordarroch for generations
buried their dead in an enclosure adjoining the east
wall of Dunlichity Kirk, and close to the burying
place of the Macgillivrays of Dunmaglass.
II. CLANS SPRINGING FROM THE MACKINTOSHES.
6. SHAWS.
Of the three clans in this division the Clan Shaw
is the most ancient. As shown in chap. iv., its
founder was Shaw, son of Gilchrist, son of John,
2nd son of the sixth Mackintosh and his wife Eva;
and through Eva it is of the blood of the old Clan
Chattan. The origin of the Shaws, and consequently
of the Farquharsons, who sprang from them, has
been placed much earlier by some writers, owing
at first to
to the anxiety of one of the latter
family to glorify his stock. Not content to bring
the
¹ Gen. Reg. of Hornings, &c. vol. cxiv., and Part. Reg. for
Inverness-shire, vol. vi.
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
545
his clan from the old Earls of Fife through the
Mackintosh chiefs, this bold Farquharson, writing
a "Genealogie of the Farquharsons" in the 17th
century, drew his own clan and the Shaws direct
from Shaw, who he says was 3rd son of Macduff,
and took his proper name for his surname, came
north, and possessed himself of Rothimurcus, which
was a part of his father's inheritance."
(C
In a lengthy paper¹ Sir Æneas Macpherson, the
well known antiquary of the last two Stuart reigns,
ably criticises and refutes in detail the statements
of this vain and venturesome genealogist. In his
opening remarks he says, "I shall briefly, and it may
be more fully than such a rapsidie deserves, plainly
make appear that this scribbler has left the beaten
road, that is the constant and uncontraverted tradi-
tion of the Shaws themselves and their neighbour
families. In place of which he has endeavoured to
corrupt the very springs, and persuade the Shaws
-as some of them have told me to embrace a
new tradition and genealogie of his making, which
has neither truth, connection, nor authoritie.
""
1 "Vanitie Exposed, or A Plain and Short Answer to a late
Peaper Intituled the Genealogie of the Farquharsons, wherein
the Authour's Ignorance and Self-contradictioun are sett in their
true light, and the Right Genealogie of that Modern Family
briefly hinted at from the concurring Testimonies of the Shaws,
the Farquharsons themselves, and all their Neighbour Families.
In a Letter to a Friend by No Enemy of theirs but a Friend to
Truth, Sir Æneas Macpherson of Invereshie, Knight." The MS.
is in the possession of Sir George Macpherson-Grant of Invereshie
and Ballindalloch.
#
N N
546
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
It is scarcely necessary to enter here into any
refutation of the statement as to the direct descent
of the Shaws from the Macduffs. Suffice it to give
one or two of Sir Æneas Macpherson's remarks ;—
"The Shaws and Farquharsons were and are still
believed to be come of the laird of Mackintosh, a
long time after his predecessor married the heiress of
Clan Chattan . . . for which they may be allowed
to be come of Macduff as come of Mackintosh, but
no otherwise." "I am very positive there never
was a Shaw in Rothimurcus till Robert the Third
his time, that Shaw Coriacklach, Mackintosh's 3rd
or 4th son, took possession on't by consent of the
Clan Chattan of Badenoch."
The statements of the Rev. Lachlan Shaw, in
his History of Moray, and of the Rev. W. G. Shaw,
in his Memorials of Clan Shaw, as to the existence
of a race of Shaws in Rothimurcus for more than
a century before the time of Shaw Mor (in 1396)
have been shown in chap. i. to be unfounded. In
fact the modern origin of the name as a family name
is so apparent from documents, as will be shown, and
the descent of the family from the Mackintoshes
is so clearly vouched for by old MS. Histories and
by the traditions of the Shaws themselves, that
no one with a knowledge of this evidence could even
attempt to disprove either; and after all, the re-
cognised genealogy and the fictitious one presented
by the Farquharson genealogist and the Historian
of Moray actually lead back to the same person. In
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
547
concluding these preliminary remarks, I may observe
that the account which I give of the origin of the
Shaws is that held for some generations by my own-
the Tordarroch-branch of the clan, which struck out
in the 15th century; it is that held by Shaws and
Farquharsons themselves in Sir Æneas Macpherson's
time; and it is that given by the MS. Histories
of the Mackintoshes, the earliest of which was
written in the end of the 15th century.
1
Shaw Mor, founder of the family, was great-
grandson of Angus, 6th of Mackintosh. During
the chiefships of the three successors of Angus,
the family of John, his second son, would naturally
occupy an important position in the clan; and thus
we find Shaw, John's grandson, actually leading the
clan during the old age and incapacity of his
kinsman the eighth chief. He took part with the
"haill clan Qwhevil" in the Raid of Angus in 1391,
1 Sir Æneas mentions as his authorities the following persons,
"the oldest and wisest not only of my own but of all our
neighbour families":—Grants, John of Ballindalloch, John of
Gartinmore, Gregor of Achachiernach, and Suzine of Gartinbeg;
Mackintoshes-William of Kyllachie, Hector of Connage, and
John of Forter, commonly called M'Comie; John M'Donald
alias "Lom" (the poet Ian Lom); Macphersons-of Breakachie,
Gillicallum of Phoynes, Thomas of Crerish, and James, grand-
uncle to deceased John of Invereshie; John Robertson of Inver-
chroskie, alias Baron Reid; Shaws-Donald of Delnafert, John
of Guislich, and Robert the drover; Farquharsons-Robert of
Invercauld and Wardes, William of Inverey, and James of
Camdel—“ all men of sense and reputation, and most of them so
very old that if they were not acquainted with Finla Mor himself
they were at least personally known to his children."
1
NN 2
548
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
and with them was put to the horn in 1392 (see
chap. iv). On account of his near kinship to the chief
of Clan Chattan and his valour and warlike skill
he was placed at the head of the thirty champions
of the clan in the combat on the North Inch of
Perth in 1396, and for his success on this occasion
he was rewarded by Mackintosh with the lands of
Rothimurcus. "Lauchlan gave to Shaw the posses-
sion of the lands of Rothimurcus for the valour
he showed that day against his enemies," says the
Kinrara MS. The Comyns were still sufficiently
numerous in the neighbourhood and sufficiently
antagonistic to the Clan Chattan who had supplanted
them there to give the new occupiers of Rothimurcus
some trouble after Shaw's death, and traditions of
the fights and surprises which took place are still
to be met with in the district.
(6
Shaw's martial reputation earned for him the
cognomen Mor," although, being small in stature,
he was also known as "Beg;" another appellation
commonly given to him is "Sgorfhiachlach," or
66
Coriachlich," from his projecting or buck teeth.
He is spoken of as Shaw Mor Coriachlich in the
Kinr. MS. and by Sir Æneas Macpherson, and as
Shaw Beg by Bowar and Major.
According to the Historian of Moray he married
a daughter of Macpherson of Cluny, but the Mac-
kintosh MSS. say that his wife was daughter of a
Robert mac Alister vic Aonas. He died in 1405,
and his grave-long marked by four round stones
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
549
indicating the extent of the "narrow house "is
still pointed out in the churchyard of Rothimurcus.
James, son of Shaw Mor, was killed at Harlaw.
As mentioned at p. 135, he appears to have been
mistaken by Boece for the chief of Mackintosh, a
mistake which shows not only that he was of some
mark, but that he was not known by the name
of Shaw. In fact his descendants for two genera-
tions retained the surname of Mackintosh, and it
was not until the 16th century that the name of
their founder was substituted for it. James m. "the
dau. of Gregor Grant," and had two sons-Alasdair
or Alexander "Ciar" (brown), and Adam, ancestor
of the Tordarroch branch.
Alexander" Ciar" succeeded his father. It appears
from tradition that the Comyns had taken advantage
of Shaw Mor's death to endeavour to regain their
ascendancy in Rothimurcus. Their efforts were
favoured by the death of James at Harlaw and the
infancy of his sons, and for some years they managed
to hold their own in the district. On attaining
manhood Alasdair set about the task of recovering
his family possession, and with the aid of friends
he surprised and cut off a large party of the Comyns
and soon drove the rest of his enemies away.' It is
¹ The Rev. L. Shaw incorrectly places these events some eighty
years earlier, making Shaw Mor the infant dispossessed and the
hero of the subsequent slaughter of the Comyns. The local
traditionary account of the circumstances is given in the New
Stat. Account of Scot.-Elginshire, p. 139.
?
550
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
not unlikely that this feud between the Mackintoshes
and Comyns in Rothimurcus was the cause of the
larger feud between the main bodies of these clans
in the time of Malcolm Beg Mackintosh.
Alasdair was the first of his line who obtained a
right to Rothimurcus, his two predecessors having
held it as duchus. Thus the Kinrara MS. says,
"Lachlan (8th chief) gave to Shaw (i.e. Shaw Mor)
the possession of the lands," implying that he allowed
him to occupy them; but further on it states that
"Duncan (11th chief) disponed his right of possession
and tack of Rothimurcus to his cousin Alister Keir
Mackintosh alias Shaw, the third from Shaw alias
Gilchrist vic Ian." The Bishop of Moray, superior
of the lands, whose sanction to the transfer was
necessary, gives "Alexander Keyr Makyntosy" a
charter of the lands in feu ferme on 4th Sept. 1464.¹
Alasdair is frequently mentioned in deeds of the
period, always by the name of Mackintosh. He so
figures in the carta feodi-firma of 1464 above men-
tioned; as giving a band of manrent to William, Earl of
Errol, in 1472; in an instrument by the Earl of Huntly
in 1479 relating to Urquhart and Glenmoriston, and
preserved at Kilravock Castle; in the bands between
Duncan, 11th chief of Mackintosh, his son Ferquhard,
and Rose of Kilravock in 1481 and 1490; and in
a band of 1482 between William, Thane of Calder,
and Hucheon Rose of Kilravock, in which he is
named an arbiter in case of future dispute. From a
Registr. Episcop. Morav., no. 448; Kinr. MS.
1
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
551
"Testimonial" given by Huntly on 20th Dec. 1499
it appears that he was one of the principal persons
who proceeded against the Mackenzies in 1492
for their spulzie of Ardmanach in the preceding
year.
The Kinrara MS. does not give the name of his
wife, but Mr. W. G. Shaw, in his Memorials, says that
she was a dau. of Stewart of Kincardine. His sons,
however, are given in the MS. as follows, John ;
Alasdair Og, ancestor of the Shaws of Dell; James,
ancestor of the Shaws of Dalnivert; Farquhar, an-
cestor of the Farquharsons of Braemar; and Iver,
whose posterity settled in Harris and the Western
Islands.¹
Of John, the eldest son, the only record is that he
m. Euffin, dau. of Alan, 3rd son of Malcolm Beg, chief
of Mackintosh, by whom he had Alan.
Alan m. the youngest dau. of Ferquhard, 12th
of Mackintosh. He parted with Rothimurcus. The
Kinrara MS. says, "Alan Mackintosh alias Shaw, oye
(grandson) to Alister Keir, disponed the right to
"
¹ Kinr. MS. The posterity of Iver are still to be met with in
Harris, where they are known as "Clann Dhom'l 'ic Iomhair
or Iver; and among the papers at Invercauld House is a Band
of Maintenance, dated at the Kirk of Kindrochit 8 Aug. 1625,
between "John Farquharson of Cloak and Tillygarment for the
whole kin and surname of Farquharson on the one part, and
Donald Shaw of Harlois and John Schaw of Trumpan in
Watterneis for themselves and all their kin and surname of
Schaw within the bounds of Inchegaull (i.e. the Hebrides) on the
other," in which "the saidis pairteis acknowledge themselffes to
be of one blood and to be cum of one stock and race."
552
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Edom Gordon governor of Ruthven Castle in the
year 1539, reserving only his son James his life-rent,
and so the right of the lands of Rothimurcus fell
away from the Mackintoshes and Shaws after they
had enjoyed the same the space of 303 years." This
statement is correct as to the main fact, but it appears
from the Register of the Bishopric of Moray that
the Gordon to whom the feu was sold was George,
not Edom, and that Alan's own life-rent only was
reserved. George Gordon was second son and suc-
cessor of the 4th Earl of Huntly. From the entry
in the Register concerning the sale we find that Shaw
Mor's descendants were still known as Mackintoshes,
Alan being styled Alanus Keyr McKyntosy. The
"carta venditionis " or deed of sale is dated at
Inverness 26 Nov. 1539, the "Confirmatio" by the
Bishop of Moray at Elgin 3 Jan. 1539, about five
weeks afterwards (the year ending on 24th March).
James, Alan's successor, possessed no interest in
the lands of Rothimurcus, as we have just seen,
although he seems to have remained there. The
Historian of Moray erroneously calls him John, but
the Kinrara MS. in three places gives his name as
James "James that was last laird of Rothimurcus
of the surname of Shaw."
Alan, eldest son of James, was outlawed for the
slaughter of his step-father, one of the Dallases of
the house of Cantray, and being apprehended was
taken to Castle Grant, where, according to tradition,
he was found dead on the morning after his arrival.
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
553
The two reverend gentlemen whose accounts of the
Shaws have been noticed seem not to have been aware
that Alan had no legal right to Rothimurcus, but
make it appear that his outlawry was the cause of his
losing the lands, which they say passed at once to the
Grants by the purchase of his forfeiture. The deeds
already quoted show that they are in error, and further
deeds recorded in the Episcopal Register (nos. 451-2)
show that the lands passed to the Grants from the
Gordons in 1567.
The Shaws were now a "broken clan," and are
probably denoted by the name "Clan Chewill" in
the Roll of Broken Clans in 1594 (see p. 116). For
this reason they are not represented in the Band of
Union among Clan Chattan in 1609.
Shaw in his MS. says that Alan's "brother and
associats exiled into the Western Isles and Ireland,"
and that "thus the direct line of the Shaws of Rothi-
murcus became extinct in the country," the nearest
collateral branch being Shaw of Dell. But tradition
delights to tell of the opposition of an Alasdair
Ruaidh Shaw to all attempts made by the Grants,
on their acquiring the district, to remove him from
his holding of Achnachaitnich; how he laughed at
all legal processes of ejectment, and resisted with
guns and claymores all efforts to remove him by
force; and how he lived and died (about the middle
of the 17th century) on the spot he had so well de-
fended. As shown by the Rev. W. G. Shaw in his
Memorials, there can be little doubt that this Alasdair
551
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
was brother of the outlawed Alan, and progenitor of
the Shaws sometime of Crathinard in Mar and Cran-
dard &c. in Glenisla. Assuming this to be the case,
the main line of the Shaws is still largely represented.
James, living at Tullochgrue in Rothimurcus, whom
Mr. Shaw considers to have been Alasdair Ruaidh's
son, m. a dau. of Robert Farquharson, first of Inver-
cauld. His son James settled at Crathinard on Dee-
side, m. the heiress of John Machardy of Crathie,
and was father of Duncan of Crathinard, who was
chamberlain or factor to the Earl of Mar, and who
sold Crathinard to Invercauld about 1710 under
circumstances which speak highly for his generosity
and sense of honour. Duncan seems to have corre-
sponded with Lachlan, 20th of Mackintosh, and in a
Band and Tack (in the writer's possession) dated at
Culloden 19th May 1711, he signs, with Alexander
Shaw of Tordarroch and John Shaw of Guislich in
Rothimurcus, as witness to the signatures of their
common chief, Mackintosh, and their kinsman James
Shaw of Dell. He d. in 1726 at Crandard, leaving
seven sons, all well settled in life, and five of whom
were "out" in 1745. The Rev. William George Shaw,
writer of Memorials of Clan Shaw, was descended
from the third son, Duncan; and nearly all the seven
are still largely represented.
James, eldest of the seven sons of Duncan of
Crathinard, left three sons, the eldest of whom,
Duncan, factor to Lord Airlie at Cortachy, is at
present represented by three great-grandsons, George
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
555
James, M.D., Deputy Inspector General of Hospitals,
Bombay Army; David, Lieutenant-Colonel Madras
Staff Corps, who is married and has issue; and Doyle
Money, Fleet Surgeon Royal Navy.
The most important branches of the Shaws were
those of Tordarroch, Dell, and Dalnivert, and from
these sprang various families of the name which
are still represented in other parts of the country.
The Shaws of TORDARROCH, in Strathnairn, are
"eldest cadets" of the Clan Shaw, being descended
from Adam, brother of Alasdair Ciar. Although
only a branch of the Shaws, they ranked as a distinct
clan for nearly three centuries, and appear, as Clan
Ay, in the Band of Union of 1609.
Adam, on his father's death at Harlaw, was taken
under the protection of his kinsman the 10th chief of
Mackintosh. His son Robert was father of Angus
and Bean. Angus appears as one of the signatories
of "Clan Chattan's Band" on 2nd May 1543 (see p.
200). As in the case of the main stem, the name
Shaw was not assumed by the Tordarroch family
for some generations after Shaw Mor's time. Thus
in Clan Chattan's Band Angus signs as "Angus mac
Robert"; his nephew also uses his own father's
name as a surname. Angus was the first of the
Shaws of Tordarroch. In 1568 the lands came into
possession of the Mackintoshes, and were assigned
to him and his successors in wadset. Dying without
issue, he was succeeded by his brother Bean, who in
556
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
1
turn was succeeded by his son Angus. Angus appears
in the Band of 1609 as "Ay mac Bean vic Robert
of Tordarroch
taking the full burden of his
race of Clan Ay." As observed in chap iv., Ay
is no doubt equivalent to Angus, and it is likely that
the Angus-whether he of 1609 or his uncle-who
thus gave his name to his clan was a person of some
note in his time. Angus mac Bean's name appears in
other documents of the period. Besides Tordarroch,
he possessed Wester Leys in the Parish of Inverness,
and he appears for both properties in the Valuation
Roll of 1644.
Robert, son of Angus, is the first of his line
mentioned by the name of Shaw - the earliest
mention of him being as witness, with Lachlan
Mackintosh of Kinrara, writer of the MS. History,
to a Deed of Renunciation by Lachlan Mackintosh
of Aberarder, dated 30 Nov. 1669. As Robert
Schaw of Tordarroch he appears under date 19 June
1 Since the earlier portion of this book has been in print, I
have ascertained that a colony of Shaws has been settled in the
parishes of Urray and Killearnan, Black Isle of Ross, since the
17th century; and that they have long been known as Mackays
or Mac-Hays, the distinction between them and the Mackays
(MacAoidhs) of Sutherland being thus preserved in the Gaelic.
This to some extent bears out the theory advanced in pp. 117-
120 as to the “Clan Ha" and "Clan Kay" of the chroniclers of
the fight at Perth, and is interesting in connection with the
mention of the Shaws of Tordarroch as Clan Ay in the Band of
1609. The tombstone of Duncan Mackay of Teanadallich, who
died in 1707, is in the churchyard of Killiechrist, and bears the
lion rampant, lymphad, and boar's head of the Mackintoshes,
and the hand and dagger of the Shaws.
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
557
1677 in vol. iii. of the Inverness Commissary Records;
as portioner of Leys he is named a Commissioner of
Supply for Inverness in an Act of 7th June 1690;
and also as Robert Shaw, he appears in the Valuation
Roll of 1691 and in other documents. He d. in
1691, leaving Alexander; Donald, who m. Jean,
dau. of Donald Macpherson of Nuid; and William,
quartermaster of Mackintosh's regiment in the '15;
also a daughter, m. to Donald, grandson of Angus
Macpherson of Invereshie.
66
(6
Alexander is frequently mentioned as of Tordarroch
and Wester Leys from 1692 to 1699. In the Act
of 1698 against the Macdonalds of Keppoch he is
incorrectly described as younger" of Tordarroch,
As younger of Tordarroch" he had accompanied
Mackintosh against the Macdonalds in 1679. He
m. Anne, second dau. of Donald Mackintosh of
Killachie, and had three sons, Robert, Angus, and
John. The two elder sons took part in the '15,
and were respectively captain and lieutenant in the
Mackintosh regiment, both being taken at Preston
and confined in Newgate, where the elder died.
Angus, second son of Alexander, became head of
the family on his father's death. He had been set
at liberty on giving security for his future allegiance
to the reigning family, and in consequence he took
no part in the Rising of 1745, although he seems
to have been sorely tempted to rise and "fight for
Charlie." He had fled from the temptations to
which he was exposed by his residence among the
558
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Mackintoshes and Macgillivrays of Strathnairn, and
was at his farm house of Wester Leys at the time
of Culloden-a circumstance which accounts for the
prince's finding the house of Tordarroch deserted and
shut up when he called there in his flight.' He m.
Anne, dau. of Dallas of Cantray, and had three sons
and two daughters,-Alexander; Æneas, who entered
the army as ensign in the 39th Regiment in 1784,
and after distinguishing himself in Canada rose to
the rank of major-general in 1811, was Adjutant
General of Militia, and a member of the Legislative
Council of Upper Canada; 2 John, Major, 68th Regt;
Anne; and Margaret, m. Farquhar Macgillivray of
Dalcrombie.
Alexander, eldest son and successor of Angus,
was a lieutenant in the 60th or Royal Americans, and
was severely wounded at the capture of Quebec in
1759. After the close of the American War of
Independence he returned home, and was lieutenant
governor of the Isle of Man from 1790 until 1804.
He was the last Shaw actually "of Tordarroch," as
on the entail of the Mackintosh estates by Sir Æneas
¹ See Chambers' Hist. Rebellion, 267.
2 Major-General Æneas Shaw received grants of various tracts
of land in Upper Canada, on one of which, now within the town
of Toronto, he settled, calling it Oakhill (i.e. Tordarroch). He
died of fatigue in the war of 1813, leaving five sons, all officers
in the army, and five daughters. His descendants are now
numerous in the Dominion; his representative being George
Alexander, Lieutenant-Colonel 10th or Royal Regiment of
Volunteer Militia, Toronto.
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
559
the wadset under which the family had held the
lands for two centuries and a half was redeemed.
He sold Wester Leys to Fraser of Culduthel. He
was twice married; 1st to Charlotte, dau. of the
Rev. John Stewart, Episcopal Minister of Inverness,
by whom he had Æneas, captain 39th Regt, d.v.p ;
and John, who d. in 1835, a major-general in the
army; 2nd to Anne Elizabeth, dau. of Major Henry
Staniforth Blanckley, with issue four sons-all officers
in the army-and four daughters. One of the sons,
Claudius, lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, with which
he served in the Peninsular War, afterwards colonel
in command of the British Legion Artillery in Spain
in 1835-7, m. Archange, dau. of the 25th chief
of Mackintosh, and was grandfather of the writer.
The head of the Tordarroch family is now John
Andrew Shaw-Mackenzie of Newhall, eldest son of
Major General John Shaw above mentioned. On
succeeding as heir of entail (in right of his paternal
grandmother) to the estate of Newhall in the counties
of Ross and Cromarty, he assumed the name and
arms of Mackenzie. His heir presumptive is his
nephew, Charles Forbes Hodson, eldest son of the
late Alexander Nesbitt Shaw, 2nd son of Major
General John Shaw.
The Shaws of DELL, or the Daill of Rothimurcus,
seem to have been regarded as heads of the name in
the district after the migration of the elder branches.
Thus Sir Robert Sibbald, in a MS. account of Strath-
560
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
•
spey written about 1680 and preserved in the
Advocates' Library, speaks of Rothimurcus as having
formerly "belonged to the Schaws, who yet possess
(i.e. occupy) the parish, Alexander Schaw of Dell
being head of the tribe. The Schaws are able
fighting men, and acknowledge Mackintosh to be
their chieftain, and go under his banner."
According to the Kinrara MS. the ancestor of this
branch was Alister Og, 2nd son of Alister Ciar.
Little is known of his successors besides their names,
which, descending from father to son, were-James
"Beg," Alexander, Alexander "Og," John (men-
tioned in 1594), John "Og," whose name occurs in
the Valuation Roll of 1644, and Alexander, men-
tioned by Sibbald and in the Valuation Roll of 1691.
James, Alexander's son, mentioned on pp. 443 and
554, is the last of his family whom the writer has
been able to trace.
A family of Shaws for some generations settled at
GUISLICH in Rothimurcus, and mentioned in the
Macpherson genealogy and elsewhere, sprang from
the Dell Branch, to which also the Reverend Lachlan
Shaw, author of the History of the Province of Moray,
is said to have belonged.
The Shaws of DALNIVERT, in the Parish of Alvie,
sprang from James, 3rd son of Alasdair Ciar. One
of them, William, was out with Montrose, and being
summoned by the Provincial Synod of Moray in
1648 to answer for his malignancy, neither appeared
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
561
nor sent an excuse. His son Donald accompanied
Mackintosh in 1679 against the Macdonalds of
Keppoch. John, Donald's successor, m. Jean, dau. of
John Macpherson, Ettrish, by a dau. of Ewen Mac-
pherson, younger of Cluny in Montrose's time.
William, grandson of John, was twice married, but
had only female issue. His eldest daughter, Margaret,
m. Captain Alexander Clark [see "CLARKS"], and
a daughter, Ellen, by the second marriage, m. Hugh
Macdonald, and by him was mother of the Right
Hon. Sir John Macdonald, K.C.B., Prime Minister
of Canada.
Various other families of Shaws appear from time to
time during the last two centuries, and are mostly still
represented. Among these may be mentioned the
Shaws of KINRARA in Rothimurcus, probably an
offshoot from the Dalnivert branch, and the Shaws of
INCHRORY, probably descended from John, brother of
Duncan of Crathinard. The genealogy of the family
of Shaw of Terenure, County Dublin, bears that that
family originally came from Scotland, and that it
belonged to the Clan Chattan. It is now represented
by Sir Robert Shaw, 4th Baronet, eldest son of the
Right Hon. Sir Frederick Shaw.
7. FARQUHARSONS.
From the 15th century to the present time the
name of this distinguished clan has been closely
associated with Deeside and Braemar. Next to the
00
562
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Mackintoshes and Macphersons, it was the largest
and most important of the Clan Chattan septs, and
indeed its acts and power entitle it to rank as one of
the principal clans of the later days of the clan system.
The real. founder of the Farquharsons or Clan
Fhearchar was Finla Mor, who lived in the first
half of the 16th century. His father Donald was
son of Farquhar "Beg," fourth son of Alasdair Ciar
Mackintosh, alias Shaw, of Rothimurcus [see under
"SHAWS"]. This Farquhar, from whom the clan
derived its name, is stated to have passed over from
Rothimurcus and settled near the Linn of Dee, where
he died. His son Donald had two sons, Farquhar
and Finla, but the posterity of the former quitting
the neighbourhood for Athole-where, according to
the Brouchdearg MS.,' they were known by the
names of Mac-earchar (or Mac Farquhar) and Shaw-
the representation of the name in Strathdee devolved
on the line of his brother Finla.
Such was the origin of the Farquharsons, as stated
by their own genealogies and those of their parent stem
the Mackintoshes. Although it shows them to be a
comparatively modern clan, it at the same time proves
that their blood is as good as any in the kingdom,
leading back through a succession of Mackintosh
chiefs to the ancient Earls of Fife, and through Eva,
wife of the 6th Mackintosh, to the ancient but shadowy
stem of the chiefs of old Clan Chattan. Short as
1 A genealogy of the Farquharsons, compiled by Alexander
Farquharson of Brouchdearg about the year 1730.
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
563
was their time as a distinct clan, they have the proud
consciousness that it was well spent. Within two or
three generations after Finla Mor they had struck firm
root in Aberdeenshire, had several important land-
holders and chieftains among their kin; and had
become a formidable and recognised power in the
country-so formidable as to render it necessary for
Government to take special military measures in
regard to them after the Revolution of 1688.
Scarcely a chieftain of this period of their history but
won for himself a name in song or tradition, or in the
annals of the country. The names of Donald of
Castleton, the "pride of Braemar " and the friend of
Montrose, of William of Inverey and his son the
"Black Colonel," are inseparable from the history of
the Highlands during the last three Stuart reigns ;
and coming to a later time, the story of Prince Charlie
can never be told without mention of another of the
clan, the gentle heroine of Moy in the '45.
Finla, from his size and warlike skill called "Mor,"
was born on the lands of Invercauld, part of which
his father occupied. Of his birth "strange tales
were told,” and are still told in Braemar, all tending
to show that he was preordained to a prosperous and
great career. But he seems to have been indebted
for his prosperity more to his own prowess and
prudence than to any spells muttered over him in
infancy. Personal strength, combined with skill in
the use of arms, contributed in no small degree
in those days to success in life; and Finla, according
002
564
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
"
to all accounts, was cast in herculean mould. His
strength and skill were chiefly employed in relieving
his neighbourhood from the visits of western marau-
ders, who, on their way to and from the low country
of Aberdeen and the Mearns, frequently took free
quarters in the district, and robbed its inhabitants.
By his success, and by his prudence in keeping on
friendly terms with his neighbours, he was able to
secure to his family that immunity from feuds which
was necessary to the growth of the infant clan. His
history is almost entirely confined to his own district,
and is mainly dependent on tradition. His last
appearance was at the battle of Pinkie in 1547, where
it is said he bore the royal standard. The Farquhar-
son genealogist whose "vanitie" is exposed by Sir
Æneas Macpherson states that the Earl of Huntly,
whom he followed, procured for him this honour, but
it is questionable whether he had any express
authority for acting as standard-bearer, this being
an hereditary office held by one of the noblest houses
in the kingdom. It is not unlikely, as Sir Æneas is
willing to grant, that he may have seized and held up
the standard on its being dropped by its proper
bearer; but however this may be, the fact that he did
carry it is said to be commemorated in the "banner
of Scotland in bend displayed" in the Farquharson
arms. Finla fell in the battle, and was buried in
Inveresk churchyard.
He was twice married; 1st to a dau. of Stuart
of Kincardine, by whom he had William, James,
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
565
Alexander, and John. The first two left no sons,
and the only son of the third died without issue;
but the fourth acquired a wadset of Craigniety
in Glenisla, which was held by his descendants till
the beginning of last century. These descendants
were, of course, the lineal representatives of Finla
Mor, but having left the home of their clan the
actual representation in Strathdee fell to Finla's
family by his second wife. This was Beatrix, dau.
of Gairden or Gardyne of Banchory, who bore to
Finla five sons,-Donald; Robert, who occupied
Invercauld; Lachlan, who acquired Brouchdearg by
marriage; Finla, of Achreachan in Glenlivet; and
George of Deskry.
Donald, the eldest, became possessor of the
Castleton of Braemar on the death of his half-
brother James, who had bought it; and being
thrice married was the father of a large family.
The important families of Finzean, Allanquoich,
Inverey, and Tullycairn sprang from his 2nd, 3rd,
4th, and 5th sons respectively, and a dau., Anne,
m. in 1613 John Macpherson of Nuid, 3rd son of
Ewen of Cluny. In 1641 Donald was appointed
baillie to Huntly for Strathdee, and appears to
have acted in this capacity with much energy.
The connection thus formed with the Gordons
continued for some generations, and contributed
largely to the prosperity of the clan. It was the
means of involving them, however, in several
feuds, the most important of which was with the
566
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Forbeses. Donald's third wife was a niece of Lord
Forbes, but so attached was he to Huntly's in-
terest that on the death of the 4th Earl at Corrichie
in 1562, by the hand as was supposed of Lord
Forbes' followers, he put her away.
This was a
good ground for his being declared personally at
feud with the Forbeses, and several encounters
took place during a series of years with various
success on both sides. Donald, who as has been
stated entered with two of his brothers and his
nephew John of Invercauld and others into a
band of manrent to Mackintosh in 1599, died
about 1600. Donald, his son, exchanged Castleton
for Monaltrie, and was father of
Donald Og, a well-known character in his time.
Like his grandfather, Donald Og was in high
favour with Huntly, by whom he was made baillie
in Strathaven. He was concerned in the feuds
between the Gordons and the Crichtons of Fren-
draught, and was particularly energetic on behalf
of his party after the mysterious catastrophe at
the house of Frendraught in 1630, when Lord
Aboyne and his kinsman of Rothiemay, after being
hospitably entertained by the laird in the evening,
perished miserably, not without grave suspicion of
treachery, by fire in the night. In consequence
of Frendraught's proceedings before the Council
against those who had persecuted him for his
supposed treachery, Donald Farquharson was sum-
moned in 1638 with Huntly and others to appear
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
567
at Edinburgh and answer for the injuries done
to the complainer. "Donald Farquharson being
charged with the rest, and having set caution
under the pain of one thousand pounds, fled; but
his brother, who was cautioner, was warded, and
paid his fine before he won his liberty."
His flight
was no doubt connived at by Huntly, who compen-
sated his brother James, a writer in Edinburgh-for
the inconvenience he had incurred by giving him a
wadset of Whitehouse in Cromar.
"" 1
Donald is best known in connection with the
struggle between Charles I. and the Covenanters.
Donald
Spalding 2 relates that in April 1639
Farquharson and some highlandmen of Brae of
Mar came down to the Mearns and plundered the
Earl Marischall's bounds of Strathauchen, whereat
the earl was highly offended." Immediately after
the "Trot of Turriff" in the following month we find
Donald at Aberdeen; "the barons with their men in
Aberdeen were about the number of 500 horsemen
and 700 footmen, besides Lodowick the Marquis
of Huntly's fourth son, who came down Deeside with
some highlandmen out of Brae of Mar under Donald
Farquharson and the laird of Abergeldie and divers
others." 3
From Aberdeen Donald made a raid
on the lands of Glenkindy, by way of reprisal for
the action of the laird, Alexander Strachan, in
"masterfully taking some muskets, pikes, and other
armour" on their way to Donald from Huntly in
1 Spalding, 35.
2 Ibid. 109.
3 Ibid. 114.
568
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
April. In June we find Donald and his men again in
Aberdeen, apparently to the great discomfort and loss
of the citizens and the adjacent country.
On 16th Sept. 1644, "Gordon of Abergeldie,
Donald Farquharson of Tulliegarmount, with other
friends and followers, all gentlemen distressed for
favouring and following the house of Huntly," joined
Montrose at Aberdeen.¹ Both Donald and Abergeldie
appear to have returned home after the skirmish at
Fyvie, but they rejoined Montrose in time to assist
in the defeat of Argyle's forces at Inverlochy in
January 1645. In February Donald and his men
were employed by Montrose to plunder Cullen,
belonging to the covenanting Earl of Findlater,
"which they did pitifully," says Spalding. This was
one of Donald's last exploits. In the end of March
he was sent to Aberdeen, with Major Nathaniel
Gordon, to watch the motions of the enemy. Seeing
no signs of their adversaries in the neighbourhood,
the royalists neglected to take even the ordinary
precautions against surprise. Major Hurry, lying
at a short distance with a body of the covenanting
forces, and being apprised of their carelessness, took
steps for cutting them off. On the 25th March, with
a force superior to that of the doomed royalists, he
"came down the gate of Aberdeen, about eight hours
at even, and set watches to the ports that none should
escape. The other party, dispersed through the town,
drinking carelessly in their lodgings, and hearing the
¹ Spalding, 451.
1
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
569
horse feet and great noise, were astonished, never
dreaming of their enemy. This Donald Farquharson
happened to come to the causey, where he was cruelly
slain anent the Court de Guard; a brave gentleman,
and one of the noblest captains among all the high-
landers of Scotland. Great lamentation was made
for this gallant, being still (always) the king's man
for life and death. . . . . Montrose was highly
offended for the loss of Donald Farquharson more
than the rest.
He gave orders to general
major M'Donald to come to Aberdeen with 1,000
Irishes, horse and foot, and see his corps buried.
Donald was buried in the laird of Drum's aisle, with
many woe hearts and doleful shots." 1
Donald's wife was Margaret, dau. of Gordon of
Abergeldie, and by her he had two sons. Donald,
the elder, died unm. ; the younger, Charles, succeeded
his father, but was obliged to part with Monaltrie,
which he sold to Alexander, youngest son of Alexander
of Invercauld. He left no male issue.
Of the four brothers of Donald Og three had issue.
James acquired Whitehouse in Cromar, and was
founder of the WHITEHOUSE family. He appears to
have been on the same side as his brother in the
troubles, and to have been marked out for special
persecution by the covenanting Parliament. On 9th
Aug. 1644 proclamation was made at Aberdeen that
the castles and houses of Abergeldie, Aboyne, Drum,
1 Spalding, 479-80.
".
570
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
""
""
Whitehouse of Cromar, and others were ordained by
the Parliament "to be casten down to the ground
unless some security should be given on behalf of
their owners" that none of the country's enemys
should be receipt within them in all time coming;
but although no securities were proffered, "it pleased
God," says Spalding, "that the houses were not casten
down, but yet stand." Several members of this
family, which was an extensive one, were engaged in
the '15, and were taken prisoners at Preston.
The FINZEAN family sprang from Robert, 2nd son
of Donald of Castleton, 5th son of Finla Mor. It
is now represented by Robert Farquharson of
Finzean, M.P. for West Aberdeenshire.
The ALLANQUOICH family descended from Donald
of Castleton's 3rd son Alexander, by his marriage
with a daughter of Rattray of Dalrunzion. It is
believed to be now extinct. Its members mustered
strongly under Dundee in 1689, and John of Allan-
quoich, grandson of its founder, was captured by
Colonel Cunningham's dragoons and kept a prisoner
for nine months. The Allanquoich Farquharsons
also took part in the '15, forming part of Mar's
regiment. Some were taken at Preston and trans-
ported to Virginia and the West Indies.
'The best known of the families springing from
Donald of Castleton was that of INVEREY, founded
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
571
by James, Donald's 4th son. Its heads seem to have
taken the lead in the clan for some generations after
the death of Donald Og of Monaltrie in 1645. By
his first wife, Catherine, dau. of Gordon of Abergeldie,
James left two sons, William and John; and by his
second, a dau. of Ferguson, minister of Crathie, three
sons, Lewis of Auchindryne, a captain under Dundee,
James of Tullochcoy, and Donald.
William, the eldest son, succeeded his cousin
Donald Og as leader of the Strathdee men under
Montrose. By his first wife, Isabel, dau. of John
of Invercauld, he had a son, John, and by his second,
Ann, dau. of Abergeldie, he had Charles of Balmoral,
who was engaged under Dundee as major of the
Mar regiment, and died at St. Germains.
John of Inverey, known in tradition as the "Black
Colonel," succeeded his father, and defeated Gordon
of Breachly at Tullich as related on p. 387. He
commanded the Mar men under Dundee, and was
at Killecrankie. A body of troops was stationed in
Braemar for some time after the battle, and John
had several narrow escapes of being captured by
them, his house on one occasion being surrounded
by dragoons in the dead of night only a few minutes
after he had left it. From an eminence near he saw
it burned to the ground. He had by his first wife
two sons,-Peter, and Charles of Achlossan; and by
his second four sons, the youngest of whom, James,
succeeded his uncle Charles in Balmoral. Dying
about 1700, he was succeeded by his eldest son,
572
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Peter, who commanded the Mar men in the '15.
He escaped forfeiture by being attainted under a
wrong name, but had to flee to France. He died
before 1733, and was succeeded by his son Finlay,
on whose death Inverey fell to the Auchindryne
family, descended from the second marriage of the
first Inverey, and also now extinct.
The INVERCAULD family is descended from Robert,
2nd son of Finla Mor by his 2nd marriage. He had
four sons,-Finla, of whom the Riverney family; John
of Invercauld; Alexander of Loymor, who had issue ;
and William, who had issue. John, the 2nd son,
succeeded his father in Invercauld, and m. Margaret,
niece of Barclay of Gartly, and widow of Harry
Gordon of Knock, by whom he had a son and four
daughters. He had wadsets of Aberarder and Cloak,
and in 1625, as John Farquharson of Cloak and Tilli-
garment, he enters into a mutual band of manrent
with Donald and John Shaw of the Western Isles,
his son Robert being a witness (see p. 551). In
1635 he was appointed Commissioner jointly with
Thomas Erskine of Pittodrie and Robert Farquharson
of Aberarder (probably his son) to the Earl of Mar
in Braemar, Strathdee &c.
Robert, his son, purchased the estate of Wardes,
and as of Invercauld and Wardes appears frequently
in documents from 1643 to 1651. By his first wife,
Margaret, dau. of Erskine of Pittodrie, he had two
sons, Robert and Alexander, and five daughters.
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
573
.
Robert, the elder, leaving no son, was succeeded by
his brother Alexander, who m. Elizabeth, dau. of
William, 18th of Mackintosh, and was father of
William, who d. unm.; John; and Alexander, who
became of Monaltrie and had issue. John, the
second son, succeeded his father. He is named in
the Act of 1698 against Keppoch, and was alive in
1. 1733. He was four times married, and by his third
30. wife, Margaret, dau. of Lord James Murray, son of
the 1st Marquis of Athole, was father of James, his
successor, and Anne, who m. Angus Mackintosh,
22nd chief. James m. Amelia, dau. of Lord
George Murray, lieutenant-general of Prince Charles
Edward's army. At his death in 1806, his estates
were inherited by his only surviving child, Catherine,
m. in 1798 to Captain James Ross, R.N., 2nd son
of Sir John Lockhart Ross of Balnagowan, who
assumed the name of Farquharson. The issue of
this marriage were a son and two daughters. The
son, James of Invercauld, m. in 1833 Janet Hamilton,
dau. of General Francis Dundas, and had issue James
Ross; Francis Dundas, Lieut. Col. late 60th Rifles
George Murray; John Atholl; Robert Dundas;
Henry; and three daughters, one of whom was
wife of Sir Francis Grant, President of the Royal
Academy of Arts. The eldest son, James Ross, is
the present representative of the family, having
succeeded his father in 1862. He was a lieutenant
colonel in the Scots Fusilier Guards, and m. Elizabeth
Louisa, dau. of Alex. Oswald of Auchincruive.
574
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
}
·
8. MACKINTOSHES OF DALMUNZIE.
The Mackintosh MS. Histories bring this branch
from Angus Og, 3rd son of Angus, 6th of Mackin-
tosh, and his wife Eva. Like the children of his
brothers John and Malcolm-who settled respectively
in Rothimurcus and in Mar-his posterity moved
southwards, settling in Glen Tilt in Athole. It is
likely that this removal did not take place until two
or three generations after Angus Og (see p. 157), for
the family seem to have carried with them to Glen
Tilt the story of the feuds with the Comyns in the
beginning of the 15th century. This story, with
that of the regaining of Rothimurcus by Alasdair
Ciar Mackintosh or Shaw (see "SHAWS "), eventually
became appropriated by the tradition of the glen
to the glen itself and the Mackintoshes in it, and
a cairn near Loch Loch is still pointed out as the
place where a chief of the Comyns was slain. If
tradition is to be believed, the Mackintoshes of Glen
Tilt were people of considerable property there, but
this they did not long enjoy. In 1502 they moved
eastwards and settled at Dalmunzie, a property still
held by the family, though considerably reduced in
size.
During their residence in Glen Tilt nothing is
heard of them from the Mackintosh MSS., which con-
tinue silent concerning them until 1595. In this year
we find Duncan Mackintosh of Dalmunzie, with
"Robert M'Homie" (son of Thomas Mackintosh) in
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
575
the burn of Glenshee" and some of the Farquharsons,
giving a heritable band of manrent to Lachlan 16th
of Mackintosh, and promising in it to maintain,
fortify, and defend him and his heirs as their
"naturall cheiff."
Patrick, grandson of Duncan, was father of John,
who in 1667 accompanied Mackintosh against the
Macdonalds of Brae Lochaber. In the Commission
against Keppoch in 1698 we find "Lauchlan M'intosh
Tutor of Dalmunzie "-probably a brother of John
-named as one of the commissioners. John's son
and successor, Lachlan, was ordained minister of
Dunning in 1716, and was transferred to Errol in
1725. In 1734 he was commissioned by the General
Assembly to proceed to London for the purpose of
laying before Parliament an Address "praying relief
from the grievous evil of patronage," and two years
afterwards was chosen Moderator of the Assembly.
He m. Margaret Murray, a granddaughter of David
Freebairn, Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of
Scotland, and dying in 1744 was succeeded by his
eldest son, John, born in 1726, who m. Elizabeth,
heiress of the family of Galloway, Viscounts Dun-
keld, and d. in 1790. Lachlan Robert, his eldest
son, born 1761, m. Elizabeth, dau. of Captain Newell,
and dying in 1821 was succeeded by his eldest son,
Lachlan John, born 1794, a knight of the Royal
Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword, and of
the Royal Spanish Order of Isabella the Catholic.
He d. in 1867, and was succeeded by his cousin,
576
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Charles Hills (son of Richard Duncan, younger
brother of Lachlan Robert), who m. Henrietta, dau.
of John Vallack of Kingsand, Cornwall, with issue
three daughters. His heir presumptive is Hugh
Richard Duncan, his nephew.
III. CLANS NOT CONNECTED BY BLOOD WITH EITHER
THE OLD CLAN CHATTAN OR THE MACKINTOSHES.
9. MACGILLIVRAYS.
Of the septs in this division the most ancient is
the Clan Macgillivray, whose connection with the
Mackintoshes is of date anterior to the formation of
the historic Clan Chattan confederacy. About 1268,
in the time of Ferquhard, the early warrior chief of
Clan Mackintosh, Gabrai, Gillebreac, or Gillebride-
for the name of the founder of the sept is thus
variously given in ancient authorities-put himself
and his posterity under the protection of that chief
and his family, and the Macgillivrays ever afterwards
faithfully and bravely followed the "yellow brattach "
of Mackintosh down to its last appearance in the
field, or during a period of nearly five centuries.
The construction and meaning of the founder's
name are disputed, some authorities giving it as
Gillebride servant of St. Bride, others as Gillebreac
-the spotted or freckled youth; but the Gaelic
construction of the clan name seems to put St.
Bride out of the question, and to leave no doubt
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
577
that Mac Ghillebhraigh, son of the freckled youth,
is the proper patronymic of this warlike and
distinguished race.
The first of Gillebreac's race mentioned in the
Mackintosh MSS. is Duncan son of Alin, who
married an illegitimate daughter of Angus 6th of
Mackintosh, and whose son Iver was killed at
Drumlui in 1330. Although there is no record to
show, we can scarcely doubt that this fighting sept
would be represented in the various battles and feuds
participated in by the Mackintoshes and the rest of
Clan Chattan in after years. It is also likely that
their head-quarters were all along about the upper part
of Strathnairn and the confines of Stratherrick, long
a wild inaccessible district suited to their hardy nature
and fearless character. Thus on the 22nd May 1539
"Duncanus M'behan (son of Bean) in Dunmakglas"
and Alexander Doles of Cantray are enjoined in a
precept of James Earl of Moray to give possession of
Stratherne-doubtless the remote upper part-to Sir
John Campbell of Calder, baillie.' And in the band
of 1609 we find Malcolm mac Bean in Dalcrombie,
Ewen mac Ewen in Aberchalder, and Duncan
mac Farquhar in
in Dunmaglass, taking
the
burden of their "haill kin and race of Clan
Macgillivray." Being accustomed to more deadly
weapons than pens, they subscribe the band "by
nottars." Shaw, referring to the Calder charter chest,
says that Dunmaglass was purchased in 1414 by
1 Thanes of Calder, 163.
2 Hist. Moray, 123.
2
P P
578
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Donald Thane of Calder, but that the Macgillivrays had
immemorial duchus or possession of it prior to 1626,
when Farquhar mac Alister obtained the feu right.
No detailed account of their genealogy and acts can
be given, however, until after the commencement of
the 17th century.
Farquhar mac Alister in 1626 took a feu of the
lands of Dunmaglass from Campbell of Calder. The
contract, dated 4th April, bears that John Campbell,
fiar of Calder, and Sir John Campbell, liferenter of
Calder, his father, sell and dispone heritably and
irredeemably to Farquhar mac Allister the town and
lands of Dunmaglass, to be held in feu ferme for the
yearly payment of sixteen pounds Scots, and for
attendance on Calder in certain progresses and at
the holding of certain courts.' Farquhar was the
father of five sons,-Alexander, who d. in his father's
lifetime; Donald, who was tutor to his nephew, and
in 1668 acquired the right to part of Dalcrombie and
Letterchallen from Alexander Mackintosh of Connage ;
William of Largs, who appears for Largs in the
Valuation Roll of 1691, and was ancestor of the
Macgillivrays sometime of Daviot; Bean; and
2
¹ Inventory of Rights, Writtes, and Evidents of and concerning
the Lands and Estate of John Campbell of Calder lying in the shires
of Nairn and Inverness. MS. vol. penes Earl of Cawdor.
2 The three brothers, "William of Largs, Donald tutor of
Dunmaglass, and Bean son to Farquhar M'Allester in Dunma-
glass," on 24th July 1671 are denounced rebels by the Court of
Justiciary in Edinburgh for non-compearance to answer a charge
of "roaming
in the forest and woods
belonging to
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
579
Lachlan. A daughter, Catherine, in 1653 m.
William Mackintosh of Aberarder. Farquhar mac
Alister died between 1654 and 1662. His eldest son
by a marriage in 1643 with Agnes, dau. of William
Mackintosh of Killachie, left a son,
Farquhar, mentioned frequently in the Registers of
Sasines and other records between the years 1662 and
1692. His minority apparently extended to 1678, for
in a horning of 1676 and in the Proclamation of
1678 his uncle Donald is mentioned as tutor.
Farquhar himself was named in the commission of
1698 against Keppoch. He m. Emilia Stewart in
1681, and had three sons and three daughters,-
Farquhar, his heir; William, lieutenant in Mackintosh's
regiment in the '15; David; Janet, m. Donald
Macgillivray of Dalcrombie, who was brutally
murdered after Culloden; Magdalene, m. Mackintosh
of Holm; and Anne, m. Fraser of Farraline.
Farquhar, his successor, whose name appears
frequently between 1718 and 1740, m. Elizabeth
Mackintosh in 1717, and died in 1740, leaving five
sons,-Alexander; William; John, called Colonel
John; Farquhar; and Donald or Daniel. He was
captain in the Mackintosh regiment in the '15.
His eldest son,
Alexander, was the gallant leader of the Mackin-
tosh regiment in the '45. His death is noticed in the
dry Commissary Records of Inverness (vol. v.) in the
vol. xiii.
Laughlan M'Intosh of Torecastle." Books of Adjournal,
PP 2
580
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
confirmation on 11 Jan. 1759 of his brother's succes-
sion as his heir,-"Testament dative of umq"
Alexander Mac-Gillivray of Dunmaglass who died
on 16th April 1746 at Culloden given up by William
Macgillivray now of Dunmaglass his brother german.'
""
William in 1759 received a captain's commission
in the old 89th Regiment, raised by the Duchess
Dowager of Gordon, and served with the regiment,
for some time in India, until its disembodiment in
1765. In 1771 (6th Aug.) he acquired from Donald
Macbean the lands of Faillie (see "MACBEANS"). His
only son,
John Lachlan, d. on 6th Feb. 1852, when the
representation of the family devolved on the line of
Dalcrombie, descended from Donald, 2nd son of
Farquhar mac Alister. Donald's eldest surviving son,
Farquhar, had acquired the whole of Dalcrombie in
1719; his son Donald, murdered after Culloden, was
father of Farquhar, one of the three officers of the
Mackintosh regiment who survived the battle.
Farquhar's son was
John, who resided in Canada, where he was a
member of the Legislative Council, and became “of
Dunmaglass" on his kinsman's death in 1852.
d. 15th Oct. 1855, and was succeeded by his son,
He
Neil John, now of Dunmaglass, who resides in
Canada. The property of Dunmaglass is at present
advertised for sale.
In a lengthy and spirited Gaelic song addressed
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
581
to the Macgillivrays' by Iain Donn Mac Sheumais 'ic
Dhaibhidh about the time of the raising of the clans by
the Earl of Mar in 1715, the warlike character of the
race is specially eulogised, and reference is made to
some of the branches. Translated somewhat freely
the second and succeeding stanzas run thus,-
Your race was not begotten
Of weeds or of grass that is worthless,
Nor did it grow by the field paths,
But all from the finest of seed-wheat.
Ye are the excellent plants,
Healthy and straight, pure and soft,
Who would boldly hold up the banner
Around the much-beloved Lachlan.2
When the banner was raised
Ye would march to the war-pipe's music,
Keen cold blades in your grasp,
Steel shields in the hands of the heroes;
Gentlemen reckless of loss
And driving large spreaghs before them.
Handsome, excellent gentlemen,
Always in duty the foremost,
Marching o'er moss, hill, or wood,
In rough places, hollows, or mountains,
Freely expending their wealth,
Freely their high blood and precious,
That William 3 might not be in straits.
1 "Oran do Mhac Ghillebhraigh an Duin." It consists of
thirteen eight-line stanzas.
2 Lachlan, chief of Mackintosh, who commanded in person the
regiment of his clan in the '15.
3 Probably Brigadier Mackintosh, William of Borlum, who
was the chief instrument in raising the clan.
582
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
10. MACLEANS OF DOCHGARROCH, or CLAN THEARLICH.
"Tearlich mac Eachin vic Wolan," progenitor of
Clan Thearlich, is stated in the Kinrara MS. to have
subscribed himself and his successors followers for
ever of the Clan Chattan chiefs in the time of
Malcolm Beg, 10th of Mackintosh. Tearlich, or
Charles, had settled in Glen Urquhart about the
end of the 14th century as a follower of the second
Lord of the Isles, whose acquisition of the earldom of
Ross through his wife gave him some hold on the
northern parts of Inverness-shire. He was keeper
of the castle of Urquhart, and according to tradition
built Castle Spioradan of Bona, near the lower end
of Loch Ness. He and his son Hector-" Carlich
Makachyn" and "Aychyn Carlichsoun"—are witnesses
to an obligation given 24th Oct. 1439 by the 3rd
Lord of the Isles to Alexander Sutherland for the
defence of the castle and lands of Dunbeth and the
lands of Ra. Hector m. Margaret, daughter of
Malcolm Beg, chief of Mackintosh, and was killed
at Bona with several of his sons about the year
1480. With Hector the hold of the Macleans on
Urquhart ceased, and the district passing from the
Lord of the Isles on his forfeiture in 1476 became
annexed to the Crown, the lordship being granted
to the Earl of Huntly. This noble gave Hucheon
Rose of Kilravock a right to the lands, and it was
probably in consequence of opposition to this measure
that Hector lost his life. Duncan 11th of Mackin-
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
583
tosh appears to have interfered on behalf of his
follower and brother-in-law, for in 1479 there is
a confirmation by Huntly of a decreet arbitral on
certain debates (super pluribus et diversis querelis,
debatis, controversiis &c.) between him and Kilravock
concerning Urquhart and Glenmoriston; and from a
band by Ferquhard, Duncan's son, in 1481, endorsed
by his father, these debates seem to have been con-
nected with Ewyne Makachtane-no doubt Ewen,
son of Eachin or Hector.¹
Farquhar Maclean, son or grandson of Hector,
is believed to have been the first of his family
who possessed Davochgarioch (or as it is commonly
written, Dochgarroch), and his son Donald is found
there in 1557.2 Dochgarroch is about six miles
from Inverness, on the west side of the river.
Alexander vic Coil (or Donald) vic Farquhar of
Dochgarroch signs "by a nottar" the Band of 1609
"for himself and his kin and race of Clan Tearlich
with their own consents," and in 1630 is served heir
to his father in the lands of Raasay and others,
to which his family had a title though an empty
one, the Macleods having possession-from the
Bishops of the Isles. In his time, Mr. Fraser-Mac-
kintosh says,
3
"the family was at its strongest. He
1 Roses of Kilr., 145. At p. 155 of Invernessiana Ewen is
spoken of as son of Hector, but at p. 101 Hector is stated to
have left but one son, Farquhar.
these transactions see p. 156 ante.
2 Invernessiana, 101.
For further particulars of
$ Ibid.
584
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
was thrice married,-1st to a dau. of Kilravock, 2nd
to a dau. of Glenmoriston, through whom the family
was carried on, and 3rd to a dau. of Munro of Daan
in Ross. Alexander acquired the easter half of Doch-
garroch in feu from the Gordons, the wester half from
William Baillie of Dunean, and from his time the
Macleans of Dochgarroch have in peace and war
had an honourable position."
John, Alexander's successor, appears in the Valua-
tion Roll of 1644 as of Dochgarroch, and is assessed
at £131 138 4d Scots. He died in 1674, and was
buried with his wife and eldest son in the Greyfriars
in Inverness. The inscription on his tomb is as
follows," Here lyes ane honest gentleman called
John Maclean of Dochgarroch, who departed the 8th
of October 1674, and his spouse Agnes Fraser,
as also Alexander Maclean his eldest son." Agnes
Fraser was of the family of Struy.
“John Maclean, head of the family, was out with
Dundee in 1689 and fought at Killecrankie. His
son, Lachlan, was an officer [Captain] in Borlum's
[should be "Mackintosh's "] battalion in 1715. John,
eldest son of the proprietor at the time, was killed
at Culloden. Every generation since that time has
sent out as soldiers some members of the family, who
have always acquitted themselves with credit."1
The lands of Dochgarroch passed from William
Maclean in 1831-2, and are now part of the Doch-
four estate. William d. in 1841, leaving three sons,
1 Invernessiana, 102.
!
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
585
Allan, unm.; Charles Maxwell, Lieut. Col. 72nd
Regiment, who wrote a history of Clan Thearlich and
d. 1864; and William, father of William Henderson,
78th Regiment, deceased, and Allan, the present
representative of the family.
11. CLAN TARRIL.
This was a small sept, the name of which is now
extinct, its remaining members in Strathnairn having
within the last century taken that of Mackintosh.
The Kinrara MS. says, "In the time of Lachlan
(8th of Mackintosh, who died in 1407) were the
Clan Tarril, a family that lived in Petty, were
constant followers of the laird of Mackintosh, and
in a most flourishing condition." Within two genera-
tions their flourishing condition experienced a sudden
blight, for in the last years of Malcolm Beg, 10th
of Mackintosh, Gillespie, natural brother of the
Earl of Ross, entered Petty with a horde of reivers
from the west, and drove off the cattle of its in-
habitants. He was surprised at Culloden by Duncan
and two other sons of Malcolm, and the spreagh was
recovered, but too late to be of use to Clan Tarril,
nearly all of whom were slain. "The whole branch
of Clan Chattan called Clan Tarril was almost
extirpated," says the Kinrara MS.
586
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
12. SMITHS, or GOWS.
The name Smith has been proved by Parliamentary
census to be the most common name in Scotland,
as perhaps it is in nearly every other country. But
the Smiths descended from Henry, the Smith who
so boldly volunteered his services on behalf of Clan
Chattan in the fight at Perth in 1396, have never
been either numerous or influential in the clan, and
indeed their existence as members of the clan is
dependent on somewhat vague tradition. As stated
in chap. iii., tradition has it that the valiant armourer
accompanied the remnant of the Clan Chattan
champions to the north, and was adopted into their
clan, his progeny being known as Sliochd an Gobh
Chruim the race of the crooked smith; and this
record seems to be corroborated in some measure
by the testimony of Bowar (see p. 104).
13. MACQUEENS, or CLAN REVAN.
Of the origin of this clan several accounts are
extant, but most of these go to show that its founder
was of the kindred of the Macdonalds. The account
in the Kinrara MS. is that Revan alias Roderic mac
Milmoir vic Swen came out of Moidart with Mora
nian Ranald, wife of Malcolm Beg Mackintosh, and
that his following and posterity, called after him
Clan Revan, put themselves under the chiefs of Clan
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
587
Chattan. The name Swen or Sweyn seems to in-
dicate some connection originally with the Norse
occupiers of the Western Isles in the 13th century,
and as it was afterwards adopted by the sept as their
patronymic we may infer that their ancestor who
bore it was of some note. The Mac Sweyns, as
having formed part of the escort of Mora from
Moidart, were placed by her husband near the new
home of their charge, in lands lying along the banks
of the Findhorn and about the burn of Bruch, within
a few miles of Loch Moy. Malcolm Beg's marriage
and the arrival of Revan mac Swen had taken place
soon after the former's elevation to the chiefship in
1409-10, and the Mac Sweyn family were thus in
time to accompany their new leader to the battle
of Harlaw in 1411. Two centuries later we find
the family arrived at the dignity of a clan, and its
chieftain signing the Band of 1609 "for himself
and taking the full burden in and upon him of John
Macqueen in Little Corrybrough, Sween Macqueen
in Raigbeg, and remanent his kin of that race."
also find a change in the name, the initial S in the
patronymic Sweyn having dropped out, probably by
ordinary inflection. The first appearance of the
family in writing as occupying Corrybrough is in
1563, and after that time it is frequently mentioned
in Land Registers and other documents.
We
Of the heads of the sept during the 15th and 16th
centuries there is no record, but the name occurs
occasionally in the latter century. In documents
588
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
concerning the hership of Petty by the Dunbars,
dated at Inverness 26 April 1502, we find the
names Mylmore Makquean and Soyne Makrevan.'
A Dougal Macqueen is mentioned in the Kinrara
MS. as having carried off a rich widow at Brin
about 1524-a circumstance which led to the murder
of the 14th chief of Mackintosh; and in 1543 we
find the names Allaster and Wilzem M'Queyn in
Clan Chattan's Band. William Macqueen "of Corre-
broche" is witness to the agreement in 1593 between
Mackintosh and the magistrates of Inverness for
keeping the "house and fortalice called the Steeple
of Inverness" from the Earl of Huntly.
2
Donald of Corrybrough, who d. in 1594, was
succeeded by his son Donald, who as of Corrybrough
signed the Band of 1609. One of the witnesses to
the band is Mr. Donald Macqueen, minister of Petty,
and as already stated two other Macqueens are named
in it. Donald was succeeded in 1622-3 by Angus,
son of his brother Angus, whose name appears in the
Valuation Roll of 1644 for his lands of Corrybrough
in Moy parish. In the Roll of the same parish are
mentioned several others of the name,-Dugald,
Thomas, Sweyn of Murcloyn, and Alexander of
Raigbeg. The names of two others occur under
Petty parish, Angus in Culdoich and John in Coull.
1 Roses of Kilr. 177.
2 The steps of the genealogy down to 1762 I first obtained
from a paper which came into my possession some years ago
written by a member of the clan. After careful investigation I
believe them to be correct.
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
589
Dying in 1655, Angus was succeeded by his son
Donald, who m. Mary, dau. of Cuthbert of Castlehill.
He is frequently mentioned in connection with the
proceedings in 1663-5 on the settlement of the
Mackintosh and Locheil feud, and was one who in
these proceedings gave Mackintosh some trouble (see
p. 380). He d. in 1676.
Donald, his successor, is named a commissioner of
supply for Inverness-shire in an Act of Parliament of
13 May 1685. Two years previously, on 8 Nov.
1683, he with others had been heavily fined by the
Privy Council for the "spulzie " of a horse.'
" of a horse.' In the
Valuation Roll of 1691 he is assessed for Corrybrough,
with his mother's interest in that estate and Glenkirk,
at £228 Scots. The names of Donald of Mort-
clune, Duncan of Raigmore, John of Polocheik, and
William of Easter Strathnoon, also appear under Moy
parish, and Donald Macqueen for Clune in Dalarassie.
Donald of Corribrough is included in the Commission
of Fire and Sword against Keppoch in 1698. His
wife was Jean, dau. of Dallas of Cantray. On his
death in 1714 his son
James became " of Corrybrough." His name does
not occur in the list of officers in Mackintosh's
regiment in the '15, but a William Macqueen is there
entered as lieutenant and a David Macqueen as pay-
master. He appears as a witness to some of the
documents drawn up on the death of Lachlan Mackin-
tosh in 1731. In 1711 he m. Katherine, dau. of
1 Fountainhall's Decisions, i. 198, 242.
590
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
Malcolm Fraser of Culduthel, by whom he had a
son, Donald, and a dau., Elizabeth, m. to Lachlan
Mackintosh of Raigmore. He d. in 1762.
Donald, his son, is mentioned as of Corrybrough in
1775.¹ In the possession of the present head of the
family is a letter to this Donald from Lord Macdonald,
dated 26 Jan. 1778, conferring on his son, also
Donald, a lieutenancy in the Macdonald Highlanders,
or 76th Regiment, which his lordship that year
raised for service in America. Lord Macdonald
writes, "It does me great honour to have the sons of
chieftains in the regiment, and as the Macqueens have
been invariably attached to our family, to whom we
believe we owe our existence, I am proud of the
nomination." (It is not quite clear what his lord-
ship means by the words italicised.) Donald m. in
1742 Peggy Mary Shaw, of the family of Shaw of
Dell, and d. in 1789.
Donald, his eldest son, J.P. for Inverness, m. in
1792 Elizabeth, dau. of Hugh Fraser of Brightmony,
and died in 1813 leaving nine sons, six of whom were
officers in the army, and one a cadet at Woolwich,
where he died. The only survivors are John Fraser,
and Lachlan, late Lieutenant Colonel 3rd Madras
Cavalry, Judge Advocate General of Madras, and
Judicial Commissioner of Mysore, who has issue
Donald Robert, Captain 75th Regiment.
John Fraser, present head of the family, is a
Queen's Counsel and a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, also
1 Hist. Moray, 97.
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
591
Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for
Inverness-shire. He m. Georgiana, dau. of the Rev.
George Dealtry, Rector of Outwell, Norfolk, but has
no family.
14. CLAN ANDRISH.
According to the Kinrara MS., Donald Macgillandris,
founder of this sept, came from Moydart with Mora,
the bride of the 10th chief of Mackintosh, at the same
time as the ancestor of the Macqueens, and his descen-
dants enrolled themselves among the Clan Chattan
under Mackintosh. They were settled at Connage in
Petty; but occupying as sub-tenants only, and being
always a small sept, they are seldom mentioned.
Donald Makandro appears from an Obligation for
Recovery of Goods by Alexander Earl of Huntly, dated
at Inverness 26 April 1502, to have been one of the
sufferers in the "Hership of Petty" by Sir James
Dunbar of Cumnock.' A John Makgillendris Mak-
gillecarryth is named in the same deed.
In a
summons under the royal seal, dated 23 March 1515-6,
we find William M'Gillanderis mentioned as one who
under Dougal Mor Mackintosh had taken part in the
"maisterfull spoliatioun" of Hall Hill in 1513. The
name is found in 1700 in a " Rentall of Connadge as
it was given up to Grant," William M'Gillandrish,
smith there, being set down as paying "yearly 4 bolls
ferme bear." 2
1 Roses of Kilr. 177.
2 Antiq. 'Notes, 138.
592
TRIBES AND FAMILIES
It is probable that some of the families of Macan-
drew and Gillanders at the present day are descended
of this sept.
15. CLARKS, or CLAN CHLERICH.
"Gillemichael vic Chlerich, of whom the clan
Chlerich," says the Kinrara MS., "lived in the time
of Malcolm (10th of Mackintosh) and was his
domestic servant." The office of Gillemichael is not
stated, but the term "domestic servant" was of wide
signification, including all who served in and about a
house, such as warders, armourers &c. The name
Clark implies that its original bearer was a man of
some learning. Gillemichael is stated to have sworn
allegiance to Mackintosh for himself and his successors.
The sept was always a small one, and as its heads
do not appear to have had any particular holding or
lands, the traces of it in documents of old date are few.
The name does not occur again in the MS., but it is
found elsewhere at various times afterwards in such
connection as to leave little doubt of the identity of
those mentioned by it with the Clan Chlerich. Thus
in a Remission given in 1497 by James IV. for the
slaughter of Alexander and John Noble and others
at Fortrose (probably in the return from the hership
of Cromarty), Dugal Clerk is mentioned as having
been concerned with certain Roses and Mackintoshes.¹
In a royal letter of 26 Oct. 1500 Dougal is appointed
1 Roses of Kilr. 164.
1
OF CLAN CHATTAN.
593
Ї
with Dougal Mor Mackintosh and others to distrain
the lands and goods of certain Munroes who had
assisted at the hership of Ardmanach in 1491.¹ In
the summons for the hership of Petty in 1513,
Robert and Thomas Clerk and Murich Clerk's brother
are named as accomplices of Dougal Mor Mackintosh.
Hugh Clerk, burgess of Inverness, appears frequently
in deeds from 1440 to 1467. A Donald Jonson
Makinelerych, burgess, is mentioned in 1462.2
After 1500 the name appears no more in connection
with the doings of the Mackintoshes, but a family
claiming descent from the sept is still represented.
A John Clark m. Margaret, youngest sister of James
Macpherson of Belleville, the translator of Ossian.
His son, Alexander, captain in one of the Fencible
Corps in the last century, m. Margaret, eldest
daughter of William Shaw of Dalnivert, and by her
had three sons,-James, Lieutenant 42nd Regiment,
who occupied Dalnivert for a time; John, who m.
a dau. of Sir John Dalrymple, and d. a Major-General
in the army and Colonel of the 59th Regiment; and
William, formerly of the Royal Navy, afterwards of
the East India Company's service. Alexander Clark
by a second marriage had a daughter, Isabella, first
wife of Sir John Macdonald, now prime minister of
Canada.
1 Roses of Kilr. 169.
2 Invernessiana, 142.
Q Q
Aberarder, 281.
A.
Abercromby, John, 422.
INDEX.
(Particular as far as p. 507 only.)
Aberdeen, 209-11, 227, 263; university,
348, 446.
Abergeldie, 248; laird of, 219.
Abernethy, 206.
Abertarff, 205.
Aboyne, Lord, 321, 356, 390.
Achnacarry, 377.
Airlie, Earl of, 356.
Albany, Robert, Duke of, 101, 133.
Alexander II., 42.
Alturlies, 317.
Altyre, laird of, 362.
Alvie, 454.
Andrish, Clan, 151.
Angus Ay, 117–120.
*
Angus, Earls of, 13, 250, 257, 262; raid
of, 93.
Annandale, Earl of, 80.
Anne of Denmark (queen), 247.
Anne, Queen, 412.
Antrim, Randal, Earl of, 331-2.
Ardersier, 234–7.
Ardmanach, hership of, 159.
Ardmillan, Lord, 69.
Ardverikie, 444.
Argyle, Earls of :-Archibald 7th, 240,
244-5, 257-60, 275, 279, 293, 307;
Archibald 8th (creat. Marquis 1641),
326-8, 330-2-4-9, 341-3; Archibald
9th, 362-3, 376-384; Colin 3rd, 176,
186, 195–7.
John, 2nd Duke of, 424-5, 440.
Arran, Earl of, Regent, 206.
Athole, district, 337; Earls of:-Comyn,
28; David, 82; James (1597), 279;
John Stewart, 243-8-9, 252, 258, 279;
John Murray, 356.
Auchenroy, 154.
Auchindoun, castle, 213-5; lands, 253.
Ay, see Heth.
B.
Badenoch, 23, 32, 42, 50, 77, 99, 165, 337;
Wolf of, 93.
Baliol, Edward, 79.
Bannockburn, battle, 76.
Bar-le-Duc, 417.
Beauly Firth, 13.
Benchar, 76, 199, 228, 302.
Benrinnes, 259.
Black Watch, 455–460.
Blair-nan-Leine, battle, 55, 203–4.
Blair-na-Park, battle, 159.
Bochrubin (or Bunchrubin), 228.
Borlum, 166, 273.
Bothwell Brig, battle, 391.
Bothwell, Francis Stewart, Earl of, 246.
Bowes, Robert, 248–256.
Brae Lochaber, 143, 155, 231, 301, 327,
388-400, 403-10, 441.
Braemar, 315, 403, 414.
Breachley, 13, 14, 20, 206.
Breadalbane, 328; Earl of, 282, 377.
Brin, 280.
Bruce, Christian, 82; Robert, see Rob. I.
Buchan, General, 403.
Buchanan, laird of, 163.
Burleigh, Lord, 248, 251, 256.
Burry, 41.
Byset family, 13.
Cabrach, 253.
Cai, Clan, 109.
Cairngorm, 73.
C.
Caithness, 35, 37, 41; Earls of, 142, 178,
190, 238, 280, 356.
Calder family, 442; Florence, 83; Helena,
27; Hugh, 151; William, Thane of,
152, 158.
Cameron, C'an, 68, 73, 78-81, 84-8, 99,
106-110, 115, 117-30, 141-5, 159,
596
INDEX.
165-7, 202, 248, 251, 258, 260, 278,
294-5, 298, 306, 340, 344-6, 348-385,
396.
Cameron, Allan mac Ochtry, 107; Allan of
Locheil, 243-8, 250, 256, 271, 278, 292-
301, 307; Angus, 120; Donald Alin,
79; Donald Dubh of L., 126, 145;
Donald of L. (1745), 467; Donald of
Erracht, 278; Donald, Tutor of L.,
357; Donald, Dougal, Duncan, and
Ewen, 298; Ewen mac Alan of L., 154,
165, 176, 186, 190, 197, 205-6; Sir Ewen
of L., 282, 322, 340-2-4, 348-385-9;
Hugh of Strone, 362; Ian Dubh of
Kinlocheil, 278; John younger of
Locheil, 282, 300-1, 322, 350; of
Erracht, 381.
Campbell, Archibald, son-in-law of Cluny,
442; Colin of Clunes, 272-5; Donald
son of Calder, 272–5, 279; Lady Jean,
274, 279; John of Auchindoun, 359;
John younger of Glenurchy, 377-381;
Robert of Glenfalloch, 282; of Glen-
urchy, 57, 154, 244, 282, 363-see
Breadalbane; of Lochnell, 244, 260-1.
Campbell of Calder, 186, 271, 281, 359;
Sir Hew, 437; John, 233-7; Sir John
(1527), 197; Sir John (1590), 243-4.
Campbells, 239, 301, 443.
Camus, 41.
Carpenter, General, 429.
Carrick, Earldom of, 80.
Cassilis, Earls of, 179, 186, 219.
Castle Stuart, 314, 410.
Catav, 40.
Catini, 38; Catti, 35, 37.
Cattanachs, 537.
Cauilli Clan, 109, 126-see Kauel.
Chanonry (Fortrose), 232, 450.
Charles I., 284, 309, 322-5-8, 338, 449.
II., 339–344, 347, 355.
Chewill Clan-sèe Quhele.
Chisholm, Harold of, 160; of Comar,
416; of Strathglass, 131.
Clachnaharry, 148.
Clan Ranald of Garmoran, 159; of
Lochaber (see also Macdonalds of Kep-
poch), 115, 159, 258; of Moydart, 55,
201-4, 216—see also Macdonalds.
Clarks, or Clan Chlerich, 151.
Clifton, skirmish at, 463.
Clumglassen, 154.
Clunes, 379, 382.
Cluny, 199, 228, 497.
Cockayne, Col., 487.
Coignafearn, Coignascalen, &c., 219.
Coil, or Conuil, Clan, 125.
Comyn, Alex., 136; Ferquhard of Altyr,
108.
Comyns or Cummings, 26, 28, 31, 44, 73-
6-7, 108, 136, 140.
Connage, 83-4, 184, 193, 208, 233.
Cope, Gen. Sir John, 461.
Corbredus, King, 36.
Corrichie, battle, 227.
Corrivory, 132.
Covenant, Wars of the, 322.
Craig Cailloch, battle, 145.
Crawford, Countess of, 162.
John, Earl of, 353.
Crerar family, 519.
Crichton, Captain John, 400
James Lord, 147, 159, 164.
Cromwell, Oliver, 281, 339-40-2.
Croy, 454.
Culloden, 275, 291, 303-5, 473; 'battle,
85, 111, 455, 466, 475-486; House,
420.
Cumberland, Duke of, 436, 473-5, 485-
491.
Cumming, William, 257.
Cuthbert, Alex., Provost of Inverness,
362; James, Provost of Inv., 322, 351;
John of Old Castlehill, 257, 287;
William, 257.
Dalarossie, 454.
D.
Dalcross Castle, 410, 447-8.
Dallas, Alex., of Budzeat, 236; Donald,
482; George of Cantray, 320; Henry
of Cantray, 182; James of Cantray,
482-3.
Dalnivert, 25, 219, 404.
Dalziel, Captain, 430.
David II., 62, 79, 82.
Davidson Clan, 109, 535
85-8.
Milmoir, 185; of Invernahavon,
Daviot House, 502.
Dee River, 386.
Dempster, Jasper, 257.
Derwentwater, Earl of, 430, 436.
Dhaibhidh or Dai, Clan-see Davidson.
Diarmed, 43.
Dores, 454.
Donald Baan, 22.
Donibristle, 246.
Dougal Dall, 43-8, 59.
Drumclog, battle, 391.
Drumlui, battle, 78.
Drummond Eirinich, 239.
Duff, Alex., of Drummuir, 445; family,
19.
Duffus, laird of, 219.
Dunachton, 174, 228, 273-5, 279, 358,
402-5, 410.
Dunbar, David of Dunphail, 410; Sir
James of Cumnock, 163; Dean of
Moray, 195; Sheriff of Moray, 246;
of Grangehill, 280.
Dunbar, battle, 340.
INDEX.
597
!
Dundee, Earl of, 356; John Graham,
Viscount, 391, 400-2, 449.
Dundelchat (Duntelchaig), 228.
Dunlichity, 454.
Durham, battle, 83.
Duror, 197.
Dyke, 192-3.
Edinburgh, 425.
E.
Edward I. of England, 32, 74; II., 75.
Elgin Cathedral, 24.
Enzie, Earl of, 292-7, 301-7.
Ergadia, Ewen de, 44, 49.
Errol, Earls of, 257-263, 356.
Erskine, Sir Charles, Lord Lyon, 66.
Essich, 199, 219, 228.
Eva, heiress of Clan Chattan, 42, 45, 56,
67, 73, 80, 348.
F.
Falconer, Sir Everard, 487-9, 491;
Patrick of Newtown, 281.
Falkirk, battle, 465-7, 485-6.
Falkland, 16.
Farquharson Clan, 19, 189, 324, 335-7,
402, 414, 463–4, 466. See also 561.
Alex. of Invercauld, 347;
Charles of Monaltrie, 375, 407; Don-
ald of Tulligermont, 265, 337; Finlay,
265; Francis of Finzean, 407; Francis
of Monaltrie, 466; Francis of White-
house, 422; George, 265; George
of Brouchdearg, 372; James of Bal-
moral, 466; John of Invercauld (1595),
265; (1698-1724), 407, 414, 421–2–8,
443, 464; John of Kirkton, 422; John
younger of Inverey, 386-7, of Inverey,
403; Lachlan, 265; Peter of Inverey,
414, 422, 443, 463; Peter of Rochalzie,
429; Robert of Invercauld, 321;
William, 437; William of Inverey,
344, 372, 386–7–9.
Farr, 373, 415.
Fern, 154.
Fife, Earls of, 14, 16, 23.
Findlater, Earl of, 325.
Fontenoy, battle, 460.
Forbes, Duncan 1st of Culloden, 291, 318;
Duncan, Lord President, 456; John
Lord (1528), 190; (1597), 258, 264;
William Lord, 155; William of Skel-
later, 359, 372; Mrs. of Culloden
(1715), 421; of Pitsligo, Tolquhoun,
and Brux, 155.
Forster, General, 426-433-5.
Fort Augustus, 473.
Fort William, 406-7-8.
Forth, Firth of, 423–5.
Fraser, Alex., 153; Alex., Tutor of Lovat,
362; Donald, smith of Moy, 468–472;
Hugh of Foyers, 378; Hugh of Lovat,
131; Sir James of Brea, 410; Malcolm
of Culduthel, 407; of Gortuleg, 471;
or Fresale, see also Lovat.
Frasers, 202-4, 226, 232, 474.
G.
Garmoran, lordship of, 49.
Garry, Loch, 344.
Geddes, lands of, 24, 32, 78, 140, 173.
Gellovie, 67, 173, 444.
George I., 412–4; II., 456.
Gille, prefix, 39.
Gillespie family, 519.
Gillicattan Mor, 7, 35, 39, 41, 43.
Glenbucket, 248.
Glencairn, Earl of, 344, 353-6.
Glengarry, 136, 155, 205.
Glenlivet, 248, 259.
Glenlui and Locharkaig, 62, 72, 79, 80, 84,
166, 278, 296, 322, 345, 348–385.
Glenmoriston, 156, 202, 503-4.
Glenroy, see Brae Lochaber.
Glenshee, 150.
Glenshiel, 438.
Glenspean, see Brae Lochaber.
Glenurquhart, 156, 202, 315, 503-4.
Gordon, Adam, E. of Aboyne, 178; Alex.,
226; Alex. Lord (afterw. 1st E. of
Huntly), 140; Alex. Lord (afterw.
3rd E. of Huntly), 164; James of
Cutts, 387; Jean, 179; John
Breachly, 386; John of Findlater,
225-7; Sir John, 394; Sir Robert of
Gordonston, 303-5; of Abergeldie,
387-see also Huntly and Enzie.
Duke of, 402, 441-2.
of
Gordons, 384, see also Huntly; of Loch-
invar, 179-80.
Gow or Smith family, 103.
Goynach Water, 76.
Græme, Captain, 450.
Graham of Claverhouse-see Dundee,
Visc.; of Claypots, 309; of Fintry, 347;
of Netherby, 180, 505.
Grant of Freuchie and of Grant,-Sir
Duncan, 152; James, 197; James, 325,
342; John Mor, 153, 160; John, 177,
190; John, 230, 232; John, 243-4-8,
292, 303-7-9-11, 351; Sir John, 312,
319, 321-2, 349-50-9; Ludovic, 407.
Daniel, 423; James of Carron,
316, 319-21; John of Rothimurcus,
359, 372; John Sheriff Depute, 407;
Sir Ludovic of Dalvey, 498–9; Patrick,
153; Pat. of Rothimurcus, 407; of
Ballindalloch, 177, 242, 249, 319, 321;
598
INDEX.
1
of Elchies, 359; of Gartenbeg, 259,
359; of Glenmoriston, 318; of Rothi-
murcus, 441.
Grants, 202, 243, 247, 258-9, 325, 395.
Gregor, Clan-see Macgregors.
Gualav, 38.
Gun Clan, 115.
Guthrie of Guthrie, 169.
H.
Haco, King of Norway, 28.
Halidon Hill, battle, 82.
Hall Hill, 182, 192.
Hamilton, Duke of, 341.
Harlaw, battle, 26, 49, 134.
Hawley, General, 490.
Hay, Alex., 321; Sir Alex., 271, 283.
Heth (Ha or Ay), 118–120.
Holyrood, 451.
Huntly, Earls and Marq. of,-Alex. 3rd,
175; George 2nd, 156, 160, 166, 173–4;
George 4th, 62, 197, 199, 202-227;
George 5th, 228, 279; George 6th and
1st Marq., 47, 61-3-4, 241, 264, 279,
285, 292-6, 301-7, 316, 319; George
2nd Marq., 324, 333, 337; George 4th
Marq., 389-90-4 (see also Gordon,
Duke); Marq. of (1715), 423.
I.
Ian Dubh nan Cath-see Dundee, Visc.
Inchbreakie, laird of, 356.
Innes, Alex., 132; Sir R., 272; of Inver-
markie, 280; family of, 13.
Insh, 372, 454.
Invercauld, 265.
Inverlochy, 258; battle (1431), 142; castle,
339.
Invernahavon, battle, 46, 84-8.
Inverness, 20, 21, 73, 141, 150, 287, 315,
318, 375, 393, 400, 415, 429, 468, 472,
486; Castle, 13, 14, 20, 22, 32, 140, 147,
159, 164, 182, 226, 255-7.
Inverviddan, 444.
Irvine of Drum, 264.
Isles, Lord of the see Macdonald.
J.
James I. of Scot., 135, 140-3; II., 147;
IV., 154, 167, 179; V., 187, 196; VI.
and I. of Eng., 240, 246–7, 257–8, 261–
2,283, 317, 322; VII. of Scot. and II.
of Eng., 400; VIII., 414-7, 439.
K
Katan, Saint, 35, 39.
Kauel or Coil, Clan, 125 et seq.
Kay or Ha, Clan, 92, 117-9.
Keith family, 41.
Kenmure, Earls of, 180, 426, 431.
Kennedy family-see Cassilis.
Kenneth III., 120.
Keppoch, lands of, 154, 298, 389, 395-6,
404-5, 441.
Kilblene, battle, 82.
Kildrummie, 82.
Killachie, 132, 273.
Killecrankie, battle, 402.
Killin Castle, 177.
Kincraig, 228, 404.
Kingussie, 454.
Kinrara, 25, 404; South, 219.
King's College, Aberdeen, 419, 445-6.
Kinloch, 444.
Kinlochlochy, 204.
Kintail, Lord, 307.
L.
Laggan, 454.
Lairgs, 404.
Langside, battle, 228.
Largs, battle, 28.
Lauderdale, Earl of, 353-6.
Lawren or Laren, Clan, 115.
Learmont of Dairsie, 24.
Leith, 425.
Lennox, Duke of, 262; Earl of, 205.
Lesley of Balquhan, 232; John, Bishop
of Ross, 232; Rev. James, minister of
Moy, 488.
Leven, Earl of, 408.
Lindsay of Crawford, 110; of Edzell,
388-9, 410; Sir David of Glenesk, 93
100, 110.
Lochaber, 38, 41, 42, 50, 99, 217; lordship
of, 79; stewardship of, 298, 495.
Loch-an-Eilan, 73, 185.
Locharkaig-see Glenlui.
Locheil, 197, 293.
Lochinvar-see Gordons of.
Loch Ness, 13.
Lochy R., 73, 298.
Lockhart of Carnwath, 425.
Lorn, Colin Lord, 232; Macdugalls of, 44
Loudon, Lord, 468–473, 491.
Lovat, Lords--Hugh 2nd, 169; Hugh
3rd, 152, 161-2; Hugh 5th, 190, 202-4;
Hugh 7th, 232; Hugh 10th, 362;
Simon 8th, 243, 250, 261, 304; Simon
12th, 436, 462, 492.
M.
Macallister, Thomas, 201.
Mac Aychin (son of Hector), 200.
INDEX.
599
Macbane, Douald, 397.
Macbean, Angus mac Phail, 288, 290;
Angus of Kinchyle (1715), 422;
Donald of Faillie, 443; Gillies Mor,
483-4; John, 422; Paul of Kinchyle,
389; William of Kinchyle, 443.
Macbeans of Kinchyle, &c., 124, 288. See
also 538.
McCombie family, 519.
MacConquhie (son of Duncan), 200-1.
Macdonald, Alan mac Ruari, 55, 201;
Alan of Knoydert, 186; Alaster mac
Coll Keitoch, 334; Alex. Carrach, 143;
Alex. of Lochalsh, 158, 162; Angus
mac James, 279; Angus, son of Glencoe
(1698), 407; Donald Balloch, 142-3;
Donald Dubh, 166-7; Sir Donald of
Lochalsh, 176; Flora, 492; Gillespie,
154; Mora, 29, 30; Rory mac Rory,
255-6; of Glengarry, 280, 282, 414,
416; of Sleat, 186, 197, 271, 279.
of Isla, and Lord of the Isles,
-Alex. of Isla, 31, 44, 49, 73; Alex.
3rd Lord 123, 140-7; Angus Mor of I.,
29; Angus Og of I., 44; Donald 2nd
Lord, 49, 133; Sir James of Isla, 301;
John 1st Lord, 49, 54, 62, 79; John 4th
Lord, 147, 154.
of Keppoch Alaster, 255,
301-2; Archibald, 391-3; Coll, 391-402;
Donald Glas, son of K. 302; Ranald,
206; Ranald younger of K., 302, of
K., 327.
—
of
of Moydert, Alaster, 169;
John "Moydertach," 55, 201-6, 216;
Ranald Baan, 55; Ranald Galda, 55,
201-4; Ruari mac Alan, 83.
Macdonalds-see also Clan Ranald
Glencoe (Clan Ian), 165, 377, 396; of
Glengarry, 396; of Keppoch, 202, 231,
248, 327-8, 333, 375-7, 388.
Macduffs, Earls of Fife, 11-16, 19, 42.
Macdugall of Lorn, 44.
Macfarlanes or Clan Farlane, 115.
Macgillivray, Clan, 30, 57, 288. See also
576.
Alex. of Dunmaglass, 464,
483; Donald of Dalcrombie, 482;
Donald Tutor of Dunm., 389; Duncan,
288; Ewen, 288; Farquhar of Dal-
crombie (1715), 422; Farq. of Dalcr.
(1746), 111, 482; Farq. of Dunm., 405,
407, 422; Farq. of Dunm. (1724), 443,
447; John, 437; John Mor, 481;
Malcolm in Dalcr., 288, 290; Martin
mac Evir, 272; Neil John of Dunm.,
69; Robert, 483-4; William, 422.
Macgilonies, 68, 124, 127.
Macgilony, 86.
Macgregor, John of Glenstrae, 185-6.
Macgregors, 115, 165, 239-41, 259, 305,
315, 337, 377.
M'Homie, Robert, 266-see McCombie.
Macinnes, Clan, 57.
Macintyres of Badenoch, 165, 519.
Mackay, Clan, 40, 115-6; Donald, 178;
Donald Master of Reay, 410; Gen.
Hugh of Scourie, 402-3; John, 178;
Neill, 178; of Strathnaver, 178, 220,
238.
Mackenzie, Agnes, 220; Colin of Kintail,
232-3; Colin Roy of Kint., 303, 307;
(Sir) George, 354; Hector of Assint,
309; Hector Roy, 177; John of Kintail,
177, 190, 220; Kenneth of Kint. (1491),
159; Kenneth of Kint. (1550), 279;
Kenneth of Kint. (1595), 261; Kenneth
Og of Kint., 162–3; Capt. Kenneth of
Suddie, 395-8, 407; Roderick, 492; of
Kilcoy, 356, 359; of Lochslin, 359; of
Pluscardin, 356, 359, 362; of Redcastle,
359.
Mackenzies, 232, 238, 438, 474.
Mackintosh, the name, 16, 114; Lament,
309.
Chiefs of-1. Shaw, 14-22;
2. Shaw, 22; 3. Ferquhard, 23; 4.
Shaw, 24-7, 229; 5. Ferquhard, 27-31;
6. Angus, 31, 44, 72–8; 7. William, 62,
78-84, 349; 8. Lachlan, 64, 84-131; 9.
Ferquhard, 131; 10. Malcolm, 132–153,
170; 11. Duncan, 145, 153-165, 170,
224; 12. Ferquhard, 26, 158, 161–9; 13.
William, 165, 172-7; 14. Lachlan, 172,
177-187; 15. William, 62, 187-219, 309;
16. Lachlan Mor, 220-282; 17. Sir
Lachlan, 64, 282-309, 349, 449; 18.
William, 311-347; 19. Lachlan, 65,
348-411; 20. Lachlan, 412-448-9, 453;
21. William, 448-451; 22. Angus, 451-
498; 23. Sir Æneas, 464, 498-501; 24.
Alexander, 501-2; 25. Angus, 502; 26.
Alexander, 502-5; 27. Alex. Eneas,
500, 505-7; 28. Alfred Donald, 507.
Adam, 84; Æneas N., 505;
Æneas W. of Raigmore, 20; Alan mac
Alan, 153; Alan son of 10th chief, 152,
155; Alan son of 16th chief, 281 ; Alex.
of Blairvie, 443; Alex. of Kinrara, 336;
Alex. in Pittourie, 336; Alex. son of 4th
chief, 27; Alex. mac Alan, 152; Alex.
mac Hector, 290; Alex. mac Angus of
Daviot, 310; Alex. notary public, 374;
Angus, 236; Angus Og, 78, 119; Angus
of Geargask, 336; Angus son of 16th
chief, 253-5, 279; Angus portr. of
Benchar, 334-5; Anna Duff Lady
(1746), 470-2, 487; Anne Farquharson
Lady (1745-6), 464-472, 487-491, 498.
Benjamin, 423.
Donald Angusson, 157-8; D. Glas,
177, 182-5-9, 191; D. mac Ian, 200; D.
mac William vic Alan, 200, 220, 226-7;
na Braiteach," 485; Dougal Baan,
D. "
600
INDEX,
200; Dougal Mor Macgillichallum, 153,
160–2–6, 173, 177, 181-4; Duncan son
of 4th chief, 24, 27; D. son of 6th
chief, 78; D. son of 16th chief, 274–6,
280, 290, 304; D. son of Borlum (1715),
422; D. of Castle Leathers, 501.
Edward, 23.
Fergus, 24, 30; Ferquhard, 78; Ferq.
mac Dougal Mor, 173, 182–3.
George, 437.
Hector, 169, 187-198; H. son of
Lachlan of Connage, 238; Hucheon,
152, 161; H. Roy, 200.
James, 423, 437; (or Shaw) James,
135; J. mac Donald Glas, 236; J. St.
M., 502; in Kinrara, 335; Janet, 153;
Lady Jean, 274. 279; John, 422–3; J.
Angusson, 201; J. Malcolmson, 184;
J. Ruaidh, 172; J. mac Alan, 152; J.
mac Angus Williamson, 318; J.mac
William, 200; J. of Forter, 372; J. in
Crathiemore, 336; J. in Morile, 290;
J. son of Borlum, 422; J. son of 6th
chief, 78; J. son of 16th chief, 280,
290.
Lachlan "Badenoch," 145, 151-5-7-
8, 174; L. jun., 422; L. in Connage,
208, 216, 238; L. in Pittourie, 336;
L. mac Alan, 152; L. mac Angus
Williamson, 287, 290, 314; L. mac
Angus of Daviot, 310; L. of Kincraig,
334-6; L. of Kinrara, 26, 305, 309, 333,
342-4, 393; L. son of 16th chief, 282,
304-6, 314, 320; L. son of Borlum, 419,
422.
Malcolm son of 1st chief, 21; M. son
of 2nd chief, 22; M. son of 4th chief,
27; M. son of 6th chief, 78; M. (or
Gillichallum), 145, 153; M. Og, 148,
153; M. son of 16th chief, 272, 280, 287,
290; M. son of Lachlan Badenoch, 151.
Shaw, son of 4th chief, 27; Shaw
son of 6th chief, 78; Shaw Mor, 93, 96,
111-2, 132, 229.
William, 169, 192; W., 422; W. son
of 2nd chief, 22; W. son of 16th chief,
240, 272-5, 280, 283–7, 290; W. son of
18th chief, 347; W. Mor mac Alan,
152, 161; W. Og mac Alan, 153; W. in
Morile, 290; W. in Rait, 287, 290.
Mackintoshes in Braemar, 189; in
Dunachton and Pittourie, 187.
of Aberarder, 389; Lachlan,
281; 398; William, 405, 407, 422, 443,
447. See also 517.
of Balnespic, 389, 517.
of Borlum, 280; Shaw, 443,
447-8; William, 366, 378-9, 389, 405-7;
William the Brigadier, 415-439. See
also 514.
371-380.
of Connage,-Alex., 366-7,
Mackintoshes, of Corribrough, 282, 389
William, 374-5; 443. See also 517.
of Daviot,-Eneas, 502;
Angus, 310, 366, 448; Lachlan, 405;
William (see also 21st chief), 443, 447.
of Dalmunzie, 78, 389;
Duncan, 265; Lachlan, Tutor, 407;
Lachlan R., 500. See also 574.
also 510.
of Farr,-Angus, 483. See
of Gask, James, 265;
of Glenisla and Glenshee,
of Holm,-Alex., 290; John
younger, 407, 443. See also 509.
Lachlan, 287; Malcolm, 290.
84, 150.
of Killachie, 317; Angus
"Williamson," 250-1, 264, 280-6-7,
290, 317; Angus, 407, 419, 422, 437;
Angus (1776), 499; Donald (and of
Aldourie), 374, 380, 389, 390; Sir James,
499, 500; Lachlan, 443, 447; William,
320, 359, 366, 371-5. See also 508.
of Strone, 177; James, 334-
6, 344, 447; Lachlan, 407, 443. See
also 517.
Mac Lachlan's MS. of 1450, 7, 11, 43.
Maclarens or Clan Lawren, 115.
Maclean, Donald of Kingairloch, 186;
Hector, 134; John Garbh, 145; of
Dowart, 244; of Lochbuy, 356.
Macleans, 260; of Dochgarroch, 151, 156,
288; Hector of D., 153; John of D.,
407; Lachlan of D., 422. See also 582.
Macleod, Alex. of Dalvey, 502, 504;
Major Alex., 502; Ruari Mor of Lewis,
83; of Dunvegan, 279; of Macleod,
282; 468.
Macleods of Assynt, 238; of Harris, 271
of Lewis, 271.
Macmartins, 8, 68, 128.
Macneils, 259.
Macnevans or Macnivens of Dunachton
174-5.
Macphail or Mac Faill, 201; Andrew, 26
Robert of Inverarnie, 443. See also
542.
Macpherson, Sir Æneas, 18, 42, 46; Alex.
in Crubenbeg, 336; Alex. in Ruthven,
336; Angus of Driminard, 458; Angus
of Killihuntly, 443; Bean, 62, 201;
Bean of Strathmashie, 336; Donald, 62,
200; in Phoyness, 287, 290; younger of
Phoyness, 335; D. in Presmuckerach,
336; Dougal of Essich, 238; Dougal of
Powrie, 334, 342, 378-80; Duncan mac
Kenneth, 132; Ewen of Tirfadun, 336;
E. in Brin, 287, 290; Ewen Baan, 44,
46; Hucheon in Breakachie, 335;
James fiar of Ardbrylach, 336; James
of Pitchern, 443; John in Breakachie,
287, 290; John in Bealidmore, 336;
INDEX.
601
John in Drummond, 336; John of
Benchar, 443; John of Crathie, 336;
John of Cruben, 443; John of
Invernahavon, 335-6; John of Strath-
mashie, 443; Kenneth (General), 458;
Lachlan of Dellifour, 334-6; Malcolm
in Balnespic, 336; M. (in Black Watch),
457-9; M. of Phoyness, 335-6; Samuel,
457-9; Sorle in Nessintulich, 336;
Thomas of Etterish, 335; T. of
Invertromie, 335; William in Benchar,
336; W. in Pitchern, 334-6; in
Benchar, 398.
Macpherson Clan, 85–8, 107, 208, 249,
258, 324, 334, 395–9, 402, 415, 423, 442,
466, 474. See also 521.
Macphersons of Cluny, 43, 46, 52–71, 112,
244, 285, 360; Andrew, 64, 245, 249,
282–6–7, 290, 336; Andrew (grandson
of foregoing), 66, 363–7, 371–383, 389;
Duncan, 64, 407, 414, 442-3; Ewen,
462-3; Ewen younger of C., 334-5;
Lachlan, 443-5. See also 524.
of Invereshie, 43, 365; An-
gus, 336; John (1665), 66, 365, 374;
John (1724), 443; William, 201; Wil-
liam mac Ian, 288. See also 532.
of Nuid, Donald younger,
334-6; John, 336; William, 310, 443;
William, younger, 389. See also 527.
of Pitmean, 43, 365; Alex.,
443; Lachlan, 66, 374; Thomas mac
Alister, 287, 290; William in P., 336.
See also 531.
Macqueen, Allaster, 200; David, 423;
Donald in Dunachton, 334-6; Donald
of Corrybrough (1609), 288, 290; Don-
ald of C. (1665), 366, 380; Donald of
C. (1698), 407; James of C., 443, 447 ;
John, 288; Sweyn, 288, 290; William,
200, 423;
in Stranine, 398.
Macqueens, 151. See also 586.
Montrose, James Earl and Marq. of, 329–
334-7-9; James 2nd Marq., 356.
Moray, Bishops of-Andrew, 23-4; David
Stewart, 229; John Pilmore, 26, 81,
151; Murdoch Mackenzie, 361.
Countess of (Annas Keith), 232.
Earls of-Alex., 356, 362, 371,
390; Dunbar, 99; James Stuart, 179,
183, 186, 188-196, 199, 206; James the
Regent, 227, 230-1; James the "Bon-
nie Earl," 241-7-8-9, 263; James, 296,
312-321; Randolph, 76, 313.
district, 11, 37, 40, 99, 118, 315,
333; Earldom of, 83, 206, 221, 227;
lordship of, 15, 17; maormors of, 38,
42; tribes of, 13-16, 36-7, 42, 53.
Sir Andrew, 82; Sheriff of, 342.
Mörgan, Clan,—see Mackay.
Moy (Canada), 502; Curse of, 502-4;
near Forres), 15; (Lochaber), 402;
(Strathdearn), 81, 134-140, 151, 402,
404, 443, 454, 487, 501.
Moy Hall, 410, 447-9, 467, 491, 500, 505.
Moymore, 154.
Muckull, 444.
Muirich, ancestor of Macphersons, 43, 46.
Mulroy, 396.
Munro of Foulis, 186, 197, 216, 282, 416,
421; Hector of F., 272; John Tutor
of F., 148; Robert of F., 232.
Munro, Andrew of Miltown, 184, 232 ;
George of Culrain, 407; Sir Geo. of
Culrain, 410; Geo. of Davochgartie,
26, 233; Geo. of Miltown, 305; John
of Fearn, 280.
Munroes, 147-150, 226, 232–3-8, 416, 438.
Murray, Lord Charles, 424-8; Lord
George, 474-7.
N.
Nairn, 297; castle, 137.
MacThomas, Aye, 200-1.
MacWilliam, Guthred, 23.
Maitland, Sir John, 244-6.
Malcolm II., 40; IV., 13–15; mac Heth,
118.
Malmore or Malmoran, 25.
Mar, Earls of-Alex., 134, 142; Charles,
356; James, 221-4-5-7 (see also Moray,
Regent); John, 413-5, 421-5, 439, 440.
Marischal, Earl, 356, 437.
Mary Queen of Scots, 221-9.
Menteith, Earl of, 23.
Menzies, Sir Alex., 279, 450; Col. James,
342; Thomas Provost of Aberdeen,
209-10.
Methven, battle, 82.
Mhuirich, Clan-see Macpherson.
Middleton, General, and Earl of, 343-4,
353-6.
Monk, General, 344-6.
Neachtan son of Gillicattan Mor, 7.
Neill, do.
do.
Neville's Cross, battle,83.
8.
O.
Noble family, 519.
Obsdale, 405.
Ochiltree, Lord, 250-2.
Ogilvie, family, 15, 188, 192; James of
Cardell, 188, 219; Margaret, 219; Sir
William, 182.
Orkney, Earldom of, 309.
Panbryde, 41.
P.
Paterson, Alex. and Gilbert, 257.
Patten, Rev. Robert, 417-8.
Perth, Earl of, 395.
R R
602
INDEX.
7.
Perth, combat on North Inch, 87, 89–123.
Petty, 13, 14, 18, 20, 110, 154, 181, 206,
252, 276, 281, 313-8, 448, 454.
Philiphaugh, battle, 337–8.
Pitsligo, laird of, 219.
Pittourie, 404.
Preston in Lancashire, 427.
Prestonpans, battle, 461, 485.
Q.
Quhele (Quheuil) Clan, 91-6, 113–7.
R.
Raining's School, Inverness, 446.
Rait, 24, 32, 77, 140.
?
Raits in Badenoch, 366, 438.
Raits Castle, 137.
Ravochbeg (Raigbeg), 366.
Reade family, of Ipsden, 417.
Reay, Donald 1st Lord, 280, 325.
Robert son of Gillicattan, 41.
Robert I., 73-6; II., 64, 110; III., 87,
101.
Robertson, John of Inshes, 310; of
Struan, 356.
Rose, Alex., 310; David of Holme, 281;
Hucheon 7th of Kilravock, 153–5–6–7–
9, 160; Hucheon 8th of Kilr., 182,
197; Hugh 10th of Kilr., 227; Hugh
14th of Kilr., 359; John 6th of Kilr.,
150.
Ross, Clan, 40, 416, 437; district, 11,
315; Earldom of, 133, 154-8, 270;
Alex. Earl of, 25; Alex. Lesley Earl
of, 49; David of Urchany, 359; John,
257; Maxwell, Bishop of, 325; Walter
of Kinstary, 182; of Balnagowan,
261, 280.
Rothes, Earl and Duke of, 353, 356, 368,
376.
Rothesay, David Duke of, 101.
Rothimurcus, 24-8, 32, 73, 81, 111, 229.
Ruthven Castle, 249, 254, 258.
Seaforth, Earl of, 325, 331-2, 359, 421,
437.
Shaw (Scayth or Seth), the name, 112;
clan, 19, 25-7, 111, 116, 544; Alex.
Ciar, 229; Alex. of Dell, 407; Alex.
of Guislich, 407; Alex. of Tordarroch,
407; Alan mac Ian, 169, 209; Angus,
423; Angus of Tordarroch, 443; Angus
mac Robert of T., 201; Ay or Angus of
T., 117, 288; Farquhar, 457-9; James,
26; James in Dunachtonbeg, 336;
James of Dell, 443; Margaret, 111;
Robert, 422; Shaw Mor-see Mackin-
tosh; Thomas, 437; William, 423;
W. of Dalnivert, 336. See also 544.
Sheriffmuir, 423, 429, 440.
Sinclair, John Master of, 418.
Skeen
423.
Skene, W. F., his theories, 6-11, 37-9,
42, 52, 60, 121-130.
Slaines Castle, 262.
Slurach (or Shaw), 93, 113.
Smith families, 104; Henry the, 103.
Spalding, Andrew of Essintillie, 347.
Spean R., 298.
Spey R., 73.
Stewart, Duncan, 93; John Roy, 450;
Robert of Clava, 182; of Appin, 244;
of Grandtully, 243; of Kincardine,
186. See also Stuart.
Stirling, 75, 424.
Strachan of Culloden, 291; of Glen-
kindie, 169.
Straiton, Captain, 400.
Strathardle, 150.
Strathavon, 248, 320.
Strathbogie, 253, 259; castle, 211, 225-7,
262.
Strathdearn or Stratherne, 14, 20, 42,
206, 248, 491.
Strathdon, 248.
Strathearn, Earl of, 13.
Stratherrick, 315.
Strathmiglo, 16.
Strathnairn, 42, 110, 162, 165, 232.
Strathspey, 248.
Stroneroy, 154.
Stuart, Prince Charles Edward, 460–480,
486-7, 492-4; David, 423.
Stryveline (Stirling), Alex. de, 23.
Sutherland, district, 38, 41, 315; Alex.
Earl of, 190; George E. of, 360; John
E. of, 164; 228, 232, 238; of Duffus,
243.
S.
St. Andrews, 95; University, 348, 391.
St. George, Chevalier de-see James VIII.
St. Serf, monastery, 95.
Sandilands, Mary of, 22.
Schiphin, 199, 228, 404.
Tarbat, Lord, 408.
T.
Tarnaway Castle, 192, 245, 320.
INDEX.
603
Tarril, Clan, 585.
Tearlich, Clan-see Maclean of Doch-
garroch.
Termit, 286-7, 314, 317.
Tirchionan,
81.
Tirlundie, 389.
Torbhean, 22.
Tor Castle, 72.
Tordarroch, 111, 193-5, 228.
Toseach or Toshach, 17-19.
Toshach family, 23.
Tullibardine, Marq. of, 312, 437.
Tullich (Aberdeensh.), 386-7.
Turriff, 337.
U.
Urquhart, Castle, 82; Moor, 13; Sheriff
of Cromarty, 159–161.
W.
Wade, General, 453–6.
Wemyss, Earl of, 353; family, 19.
William the Lion, 16, 19, 22; III., 405,
410.
Wills, General, 427-31-4.
Wimund, 118.
Wintoun, Earl of, 426, 431.
THE END.
LONDON: R. CLAY, Sons, and TAYLOR, BREAD STREET HILL, E.C.
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