Chapter VII (1)

Clan Aurias or Ross--Rose--Rose of Kilravock--Kenneth or
Mackenzie--Mackenzie of Gerloch or Gairloch--Mackenzies of Tarbet
and Royston--of Coul--Scatwell--Allangrange--Applecross--Ord
--Gruinard--Hilton--Mathieson or Clan Mhathain--Siol Alpine
--Macgregor--Dugald Ciar Mhor--Rob Roy--Grant--Grants of
Pluscardine--Ballindalloch--Glenmoriston--Lynachoarn--Aviemore
--Croskie--Dalvey--Monymusk--Kilgraston--Mackinnon--Macnab
--Duffie Macfie--Macquarrie--MacAulay.

Under the head of the Maormordom of Ross, Mr Skene, following the genealogists, includes a considerable number of clans viz., the clan Anrias or Ross, clan Kenneth or Mackenzie, clan Mathan or Mathieson; and under the subordinate head of Siol Alpine, the clans Macgregor, Grant, Mackinnon, Macnab, Macphie, Macquarrie, and Macaulay. We shall speak of them in their order.

ROSS.

The clan ANRIAS or Ross--called in Gaelic _clan Roisch na Gille Andras_, or the offspring of the follower of St Andrew--by which can be meant only the chiefs or gentry of the clan, are descended from the Earls of Ross, and through them from the ancient Maormors of Ross. According to Mr Smibert, the mass of the clan Ross was swallowed up by and adopted the name of the more powerful Mackenzies. “The generality,” he says, “had never at any time borne the name of Ross, the gentry of the sept only were so distinguished. Thus, the common people, who must naturally have intermingled freely with the real Mackenzies, would ere long retain only vague traditions of their own descent; and when the days of regular registration, and also of military enlistment, required and introduced the use of stated names, the great body of the true Ross tribe would, without doubt, be enrolled under the name of Mackenzie, the prevailing one of the district. In all likelihood, therefore, the old Rosses are yet numerous in Ross-shire.”

The first known Earl of Ross was Malcolm, who lived in the reign of Malcolm the Maiden (1153-1165).

Ferquhard, the second earl, called _Fearchar Mac an t-Sagairt_, or son of the priest, at the head of the tribes of Moray, repulsed Donald MacWilliam, the son of Donald Bane, when, soon after the accession of Alexander II. in 1214, that restless chief made an inroad from Ireland into that province.

William, third Earl of Ross, was one of the Scots nobles who entered into an agreement, 8th March 1258, with Lewellyn, Prince of Wales, that the Scots and Welsh should only make peace with England by mutual consent.

William, fourth earl, was one of the witnesses to the treaty of Bruce with Haco, King of Norway, 28th October 1312. With his clan he was at the battle of Bannockburn, and he signed the memorable letter to the Pope in 1320, asserting the independence of Scotland. He had two sons, Hugh, his successor, and John, who with his wife, Margaret, second daughter of Alexander Comyn, fourth Earl of Buchan, got the half of her father’s lands in Scotland. He had also a daughter, Isabel, who became the wife of Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick and King of Ireland, brother of Robert the Bruce, 1st June 1317.

Hugh, the next Earl of Ross, fell, in 1333, at Halidonhill.

Hugh’s successor, William, left no male heir. His eldest daughter, Euphemia, married Sir Walter Lesley of Lesley, Aberdeenshire, and had a son, Alexander, Earl of Ross, and a daughter, Margaret. Earl Alexander married a daughter of the Regent Albany, and his only child, Euphemia, Countess of Ross, becoming a nun, she resigned the earldom to her uncle John, Earl of Buchan, Albany’s second son. Her aunt Margaret had married Donald, second Lord of the Isles, and that potent chief assumed in her right the title of Earl of Ross, and took possession of the earldom. This led to the battle of Harlaw in 1411.

On the death of the Earl of Buchan and Ross, at the battle of Verneuil in France in 1424, the earldom of Ross reverted to the crown. James I., on his return from his long captivity in England, restored it to the heiress of line, the mother of Alexander, Lord of the Isles, who, in 1420, had succeeded his father, Donald, above mentioned. In 1429 he summoned together his vassals, both of Ross and the Isles, and at the head of 10,000 men wasted the crown lands in the vicinity of Inverness, and burned the town itself to the ground. At the head of some troops, which he had promptly collected, the king hastened, by forced marches, to Lochaber, and surprised the earl. The mere display of the royal banner won over the clan Chattan and the clan Cameron from his support, and he himself, suddenly attacked and hotly pursued, was compelled to sue, but in vain, for peace. Driven to despair, he resolved to cast himself on the royal mercy, and on Easter Sunday, did so in the extraordinary manner narrated at p. 140 of this volume.

Alexander’s son, John, the next Earl of Ross and Lord of the Isles, having joined the Earl of Douglas in his rebellion against James II., sent, in 1455, to the western coast of Scotland an expedition of 5000 men, under the command of his near kinsman, Donald Balloch, Lord of Islay. With this force he desolated the whole coast from Innerkip to Bute, the Cumbrays, and the island of Arran; but from the prudent precautions taken by the king to repel the invaders, the loss was not very considerable. The Earl of Ross afterwards made his submission, and was received into the royal favour. On the accession of James III., however, his rebellious disposition again showed itself. Edward IV. of England having entered into a negotiation with him to detach him from his allegiance, on the 19th October 1461, the Earl of Ross, Donald Balloch, and his son, John of Islay, held a council of their vassals and dependants at Astornish, at which it was agreed to send ambassadors to England to treat with Edward, for assistance to effect the entire conquest of Scotland. On the forfeiture of the Lord of the Isles in 1476, the earldom of Ross became vested in the crown.

Hugh Ross of Rarichies, brother of the last Earl of Ross, obtained a charter of the lands of Balnagowan in 1374, and on him by clan law the chiefship devolved. In the beginning of the 18th century, Donald Ross of Balnagowan, the last of his race, sold that estate to the Hon. General Ross, the brother of the twelfth Lord Ross of Hawkhead, who, although bearing the same surname, was not in any way related to him.

In February 1778, Munro Ross of Pitcalnie presented a petition to the king, claiming the earldom of Ross, as male descendant of the above-named Hugh Ross of Rarichies. This petition was sent to the House of Lords, but no decision appears to have followed upon it.

According to Mr Skene, Ross of Pitcalnie is the representative of the ancient earls; but as this claim has been disputed, and as other authorities think the Balnagowan family has a stronger claim to the chiefship, we shall take the liberty of quoting what Mr Smibert says on behalf of the latter:--“Mr Skene labours, with a pertinacity to us almost incomprehensible, to destroy the pretensions of the house, to represent the old Earls of Ross. He attempts to make out, firstly, that Paul Mactyre (or Mactire), who headed for a time the clan Ross, was the true heir-male of the fifth Earl of Ross, the last of the first house; and that the Balnagowan family, therefore, had no claims at that early time. He quotes ‘an ancient historian of Highland families’ to prove the great power and possessions of Paul Mactyre, the passage, as cited, running thus:--‘Paul Mactyre was a valiant man, and caused Caithness to pay him black-mail. It is reported that he got nyn score of cowes yearly out of Caithness for black-mail so long as he was able to travel.’

“Now, there are a few words omitted in this citation. The original document, now before us, begins thus: ‘Paull M’Tyre, aforesaid, _grandchild to Leandris_;’ that is, grandchild to Gilleanrias, the founder of the clan, and its name-giver. If he was the grandson of the founder of the sept, Paul Mactyre could certainly never have been the heir of the fifth Earl of Ross, unless he had lived to a most unconscionable age. It would seem as if Mr Skene here erred from the old cause--that is, from his not unnatural anxiety to enhance the value and authenticity of the MS. of 1450, which was his own discovery, and certainly was a document of great interest. That MS. speaks of Paul Mactyre as heading the clan at a comparatively late period. We greatly prefer the view of the case already given by us, which is, that Paul Mactyre was either kinsman or _quasi_ tutor to one of the first Ross earls, or successfully usurped their place for a time.

“Besides, the ancient document quoted by Mr Skene to show the greatness of Paul Mactyre, mentions also the marriage of ‘his doughter and heire’ to Walter, laird of Balnagowne. If the document be good for one thing, it must be held good also for others. Such a marriage seems quite natural, supposing Mactyre to have been a near kinsman of the Rosses.

“Perhaps too much has been already said on this subject to please general readers; but one of our main objects is to give to clansmen all the rational information procurable on their several family histories.”

“Among another class of Rosses or Roses,” says the same authority, “noticed by Nisbet as bearing distinct arms, the principal family appears to be that of Rose of KILRAVOCK,” to which a number of landed houses trace their origin. According to a tradition at one period prevalent among the clan Donald, the first of the Kilravock family came from Ireland, with one of the Macdonalds, Lords of the Isles. There does not seem, however, to be any foundation for this, except, perhaps, that as vassals of the Earls of Ross, the clan Rose were connected for about half a century with the lordship of the Isles. Mr Hugh Rose, the genealogist of the Kilravock family, is of opinion that they were originally from England, and from their having three water bougets in their coat armour, like the English family of Roos, it has been conjectured that they were of the same stock. But these figures were carried by other families than those of the name of Rose or Roos. Four water bougets with a cross in the middle were the arms of the Counts D’Eu in Normandy, and of the ancient Earls of Essex in England of the surname of Bourchier. They were indicative of an ancestor of the respective families who bore them having been engaged in the crusades, and forced, in the deserts of Palestine, to fight for and carry water in the leathern vessels called bougets, budgets, or buckets, which were usually slung across the horse or camel’s back. The badge of the Roses is Wild Rosemary.

The family of Rose of Kilravock appear to have been settled in the county of Nairn since the reign of David I.

MACKENZIE.

The clan Kenneth or Mackenzie has long cherished a traditionary belief in its descent from the Norman family of Fitzgerald settled in Ireland. Its pretensions to such an origin are founded upon a fragment of the records of Icolmkill, and a charter of the lands of Kintail in Wester Ross, said to have been granted by Alexander III. to Colin Fitzgerald, their supposed progenitor. According to the Icolmkill fragment, a personage described as “Peregrinus et Hibernus nobilis ex familia Geraldinorum,” that is, “a noble stranger and Hibernian, of the family of the Geraldines,” being driven from Ireland, with a considerable number of followers, about 1261, was received graciously by the king, and remained thenceforward at the court. Having given powerful aid to the Scots at the battle of Largs two years afterwards, he was rewarded by a grant of Kintail, erected into a free barony by charter dated 9th January, 1266. No such document, however, as this pretended fragment of Icolmkill is known to be in existence, at least, as Mr Skene says, nobody has ever seen it, and as for King Alexander’s charter, he declares[216] that “it bears the most palpable marks of having been a forgery of later date, and one by no means happy in the execution.” Besides, the words “Colino Hiberno,” contained in it, do not prove the said Colin to have been an Irishman, as Hiberni was at that period a common appellation of the Gael of Scotland.

The ancestor of the clan Kenzie was Gilleon-og, or Colin the younger, a son of Gilleon na hair’de, that is, Colin of the Aird, progenitor of the Earls of Ross, and from the MS. of 1450 their Gaelic descent may be considered established. Colin of Kintail is said to have married a daughter of Walter, lord high steward of Scotland. He died in 1278, and his son, Kenneth, being, in 1304, succeeded by his son, also called Kenneth, with the addition of Mackenneth, the latter, softened into Mackenny or Mackenzie, became the name of the whole clan. Murdoch, or Murcha, the son of Kenneth, received from David II. a charter of the lands of Kintail as early as 1362. At the beginning of the 15th century, the clan Kenzie appears to have been both numerous and powerful, for its chief, Kenneth More, when arrested, in 1427, with his son-in-law, Angus of Moray, and Macmathan, by James I. in his parliament at Inverness, was said to be able to muster 2,000 men.

In 1463, Alexander Mackenzie of Kintail received Strathgarve and many other lands from John, Earl of Ross, the same who was forfeited in 1476. The Mackenzie chiefs were originally vassals of the Earls of Ross, but after their forfeiture, they became independent of any superior but the crown. They strenuously opposed the Macdonalds in every attempt which they made to regain possession of the earldom. Alexander was succeeded by his son, Kenneth, who had taken for his first wife Lady Margaret Macdonald, daughter of the forfeited earl, John, Lord of the Isles, and having, about 1480, divorced his wife, he brought upon himself the resentment of her family.

Kenneth Oig, his son by the divorced wife, was chief in 1493. Two years afterwards, he and Farquhar Mackintosh were imprisoned by James V. in the castle of Edinburgh. In 1497, Ross and Mackintosh made their escape, but on their way to the Highlands they were treacherously seized at the Torwood, by the laird of Buchanan. Kenneth Oig resisted and was slain, and his head presented to the king by Buchanan.

Kenneth Oig having no issue, was succeeded by his brother, John, whose mother, Agnes Fraser, was a daughter of Lord Lovat. She had other sons, from whom sprung numerous branches of this wide-spread family. As he was very young, his kinsman, Hector Roy Mackenzie, progenitor of the house of Gairloch, assumed the command of the clan, as guardian of the young chief. “Under his rule,” says Mr Gregory,[217] “the clan Kenzie became involved in feuds with the Munroes and other clans; and Hector Roy himself became obnoxious to government, as a disturber of the public peace. His intentions towards the young Lord of Kintail were considered very dubious; and the apprehensions of the latter and his friends having been roused, Hector was compelled by law to yield up the estate and the command of the tribe to the proper heir.” John, at the call of James IV., marched with his clan to the fatal field of Flodden, where he was taken prisoner by the English.

On King James the Fifth’s expedition to the Isles in 1540, he was joined at Kintail by John, chief of the Mackenzies, who accompanied him throughout his voyage. He fought at the battle of Pinkie at the head of his clan in 1547. On his death in 1556, he was succeeded by his son, Kenneth, who, by a daughter of the Earl of Athole, had Colin and Roderick, the latter ancestor of the Mackenzies of Redcastle, Kincraig, Rosend, and other branches.

Colin, eleventh chief, son of Kenneth, fought on the side of Queen Mary at the battle of Langside. He was twice married. By his first wife, Barbara, a daughter of Grant of Grant, he had, with three daughters, four sons, namely, Kenneth, his successor; Sir Roderick Mackenzie of Tarbat, ancestor of the Earls of Cromarty; Colin, ancestor of the Mackenzies of Kennock and Pitlundie; and Alexander, of the Mackenzies of Kilcoy, and other families of the name. By a second wife, Mary, eldest daughter of Roderick Mackenzie of Davoch-maluak, he had a son, Alexander, from whom the Mackenzies of Applecross, Coul, Delvin, Assint, and other families are sprung.

Kenneth, the eldest son, twelfth chief of the Mackenzies, soon after succeeding his father, was engaged in supporting the claims of Torquil Macleod, surnamed Connanach, the disinherited son of Macleod of Lewis, whose mother was the sister of John Mackenzie of Kintail, and whose daughter had married Roderick Mackenzie, Kenneth’s brother. The barony of Lewis he conveyed by writings to the Mackenzie chief, who caused the usurper thereof and some of his followers to be beheaded in July 1597. In the following year he joined Macleod of Harris and Macdonald of Sleat in opposing the project of James VI. for the colonization of the Lewis, by some Lowland gentlemen, chiefly belonging to Fife.

In 1601, Neill Macleod deserted the cause of the colonists, and Mackenzie, who had detained in captivity for several years Tormod, the only surviving legitimate son of Ruari Macleod of the Lewis, set him at liberty, and sent him into that island to assist Neill in opposing the settlers. In 1602, the feud between the Mackenzies and the Glengarry Macdonalds, regarding their lands in Wester Ross, was renewed with great violence. Ultimately, after much bloodshed on both sides, an agreement was entered into, by which Glengarry renounced in favour of Mackenzie the castle of Strone, with the lands of Lochalsh, Lochcarron, and others, so long the subject of dispute between them. A crown charter of these lands was granted to Kenneth Mackenzie in 1607. The territories of the clan Kenzie at this time were very extensive. “All the Highlands and Isles, from Ardnamurchan to Strathnaver, were either the Mackenzies’ property, or under their vassalage, some few excepted,” and all about them were bound to them “by very strict bonds of friendship.” The same year, Kenneth Mackenzie obtained, through the influence of the lord-chancellor, a gift, under the great seal, of the Lewis to himself, in virtue of the resignation formerly made in his favour by Torquil Macleod; but on the complaint to the king of those of the colonists who survived, he was forced to resign it. He was created a peer, by the title of Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, by patent, dated 19th November 1609. On the abandonment of the scheme for colonising the Lewis, the remaining adventurers, Sir George Hay and Sir James Spens, were easily prevailed upon to sell their title to Lord Kintail, who likewise succeeded in obtaining from the king a grant of the share in the island forfeited by Lord Balmerino, another of the grantees. Having thus at length acquired a legal right to the Lewis, he procured from the government a commission of fire and sword against the Islanders, and landing there with a large force, he speedily reduced them to obedience, with the exception of Neil Macleod and a few others, his kinsmen and followers. The struggle for the Lewis between the Mackenzies and the Macleods continued some time longer; an account of it has been already given. The Mackenzies ultimately succeeded in obtaining possession of the island.

Lord Kintail died in March 1611. He had married, first, Anne, daughter of George Ross of Balnagowan, and had, with two daughters, two sons, Colin, second Lord Kintail, and first Earl of Seaforth, and the Hon. John Mackenzie of Lochslin. His second wife was Isabel, daughter of Sir Alexander Ogilvie of Powrie, by whom, with a daughter, Sybilla, Mrs Macleod of Macleod, he had four sons, viz., Alexander; George, second Earl of Seaforth; Thomas of Pluscardine; and Simon of Lochslin, whose eldest son was the celebrated Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, lord advocate in the reigns of Charles II. and James VII.

Colin, second Lord Kintail, was created Earl of Seaforth, by patent dated at Theobald’s, 3d December 1623, to him and his heirs male.

The great-grandson of the third Earl of Seaforth, and male heir of the family, was Colonel Thomas Frederick Humberston Mackenzie, who fell at Gheriah in India in 1783. His brother, Francis Humberston Mackenzie, obtained the Seaforth estates, and was created Baron Seaforth in the peerage of the United Kingdom in 1796. Dying without surviving male issue, his title became extinct, and his eldest daughter, the Hon. Mary Frederica Elizabeth, having taken for her second husband J. A. Stewart of Glaserton, a cadet of the house of Galloway, that gentleman assumed the name of Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth.

The clan Kenzie from small beginnings had increased in territory and influence till they became, next to the Campbells, the greatest clan in the West Highlands. They remained loyal to the Stuarts, but the forfeiture of the Earl of Seaforth in 1715, and of the Earl of Cromarty in 1745, weakened their power greatly. They are still, however, one of the most numerous tribes in the Highlands. In 1745 their effective strength was calculated at 2500. No fewer than seven families of the name possess baronetcies.

The armorial bearings of the Mackenzies are a stag’s head and horns. It is said that they were assumed in consequence of Kenneth, the ancestor of the family, having rescued the king of Scotland from an infuriated stag, which he had wounded. “In gratitude for his assistance,” says Stewart of Garth, “the king gave him a grant of the castle and lands of Castle Donnan, and thus laid the foundation of the family and clan Mackenneth or Mackenzie.” From the stag’s head in their arms the term “Caberfae” was applied to the chiefs.

The progenitor of the GERLOCH or GAIRLOCH branch of the Mackenzies was, as above shown, Hector, the elder of the two sons of Alexander, seventh chief, by his second wife, Margaret Macdowall, daughter of John, Lord of Lorn. He lived in the reigns of Kings James III. and IV., and was by the Highlanders called “Eachin Roy,” or Red Hector, from the colour of his hair. To the assistance of the former of these monarchs, when the confederated nobles collected in arms against him, he raised a considerable body of the clan Kenzie, and fought at their head at the battle of Sauchieburn. After the defeat of his party, he retreated to the north, and, taking possession of Redcastle, put a garrison in it. Thereafter he joined the Earl of Huntly, and from James IV. he obtained in 1494 a grant of the lands and barony of Gerloch, or Gairloch, in Ross-shire. These lands originally belonged to the Siol-Vic-Gilliechallum, or Macleods of Rasay, a branch of the family of Lewis; but Hector, by means of a mortgage or wadset, had acquired a small portion of them, and in 1508 he got Brachan, the lands of Moy, the royal forest of Glassiter, and other lands, united to them. In process of time, his successors came to possess the whole district, but not till after a long and bloody feud with the Siol-Vic-Gilliechallum, which lasted till 1611, when it was brought to a sudden close by a skirmish, in which Gilliechallum Oig, laird of Rasay, and Murdoch Mackenzie, a younger son of the laird of Gairloch, were slain. From that time the Mackenzies possessed Gairloch without interruption from the Macleods.

Kenneth Mackenzie, eighth Baron of Gairloch, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1700. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir Roderick Mackenzie of Findon, and was succeeded, in 1704, by his son, Sir Alexander, second baronet. His eldest son, Sir Alexander, third baronet, married--first, Margaret, eldest daughter of Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, issue one son, Hector; second, Jean, only daughter of John Gorrie, Esq., commissary of Ross, issue two sons, John, a general officer, and Kenneth, an officer in India, and three daughters. He died 13th April 1770.

Sir Hector Mackenzie, his eldest son, fourth baronet of the Gairloch branch, died in April 1826. His son, Sir Francis Alexander, fifth baronet, born in 1798, died June 2, 1843. The eldest son of Sir Francis, Sir Kenneth Smith Mackenzie, sixth baronet, born 1832, married in 1860 the second daughter of Walter Frederick Campbell of Islay.

The first of the Mackenzies of TARBET and ROYSTON, in the county of Cromarty, was Sir Roderick Mackenzie, second son of Colin Mackenzie of Kintail, brother of the first Lord Mackenzie of Kintail. Having married Margaret, daughter and heiress of Torquil Macleod of the Lewes, he added the armorial bearings of the Macleods to his own. His son, John Mackenzie of Tarbet, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, 21st May 1628. He had four sons.

The eldest son, Sir George Mackenzie, second baronet, was the first Earl of Cromarty. His eldest son becoming a bankrupt, his estate of Cromarty was sold in 1741 to William Urquhart of Meldrum. He was succeeded by his brother, Sir Kenneth, fourth baronet, at whose death, without issue, in 1763, the baronetcy lay dormant until revived in favour of Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Tarbet, elder son of Robert Mackenzie, lieutenant-colonel in the East India Company’s service, great-great-grandson of the first baronet. Colonel Mackenzie’s father was Alexander Mackenzie of Ardlock, and his mother the daughter of Robert Sutherland, Esq. of Langwell, Caithness, twelfth in descent from William de Sutherland, fifth Earl of Sutherland, and the Princess Margaret Bruce, sister and heiress of David II. Sir Alexander, fifth baronet, was in the military service of the East India Company. On his death, April 28, 1843, his brother, Sir James Wemyss Mackenzie, became sixth baronet of Tarbet and Royston. He died November 24, 1858, and was succeeded by his son, Sir James John Randoll Mackenzie.

The first of the family of COUL, Ross-shire, was Alexander Mackenzie, brother of Kenneth, first Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, who, before his death, made him a present of his own sword, as a testimony of his particular esteem and affection. His son, Kenneth Mackenzie of Coul, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, October 16, 1673. His eldest son, Sir Alexander, second baronet, died in 1702. His son, Sir John Mackenzie, third baronet, for being concerned in the rebellion of 1715, was forfeited. He died without male issue, and the attainder not extending to collateral branches of the family, the title and estates devolved upon his brother, Sir Colin, fourth baronet, clerk to the pipe in the exchequer. He died in 1740.

The Mackenzies of SCATWELL, Ross-shire, who also possess a baronetcy, are descended from Sir Roderick Mackenzie, knight, of Tarbet and Cogeach, second son of Colin, eleventh feudal baron of Kintail, father of Sir John Mackenzie, ancestor of the Earls of Cromarty, and Kenneth Mackenzie of Scatwell, whose son, Kenneth, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, February 22, 1703. By his marriage with Lilias, daughter and heiress of Sir Roderick Mackenzie of Findon, that branch of the Mackenzie family merged in that of Scatwell.

Other principal families of the name are Mackenzie of ALLANGRANGE, heir male of the Earls of Seaforth; of APPLECROSS, also a branch of the house of Seaforth; of ORD, of GRUINARD, and of HILTON, all in Ross-shire.

MATHIESON.

The name MATHIESON, or Clan _Mhathain_, is said to come from the Gaelic _Mathaineach_, heroes, or rather, from Mathan, pronounced Mahan, a bear. The MacMathans were settled in Lochalsh, a district of Wester Ross, from an early period. They are derived by ancient genealogies from the same stock as the Earls of Ross and are represented by the MS. of 1450 as a branch of the Mackenzies. Kenneth MacMathan, who was constable of the castle of Ellandonan, is mentioned both in the Norse account of the expedition of the king of Norway against Scotland in 1263, and in the Chamberlain’s Rolls for that year, in connection with that expedition. He is said to have married a sister of the Earl of Ross. The chief of the clan was engaged in the rebellion of Donald, Lord of the Isles, in 1411, and was one of the chiefs arrested at Inverness by James I., in 1427, when he is said to have been able to muster 2000 men. The possessions of the Mathiesons, at one time very extensive, were greatly reduced, in the course of the 16th century, by feuds with their turbulent neighbours, the Macdonalds of Glengarry.

Of this clan Mr Skene says,--“Of the history of this clan we know nothing whatever. Although they are now extinct, they must at one time have been one of the most powerful clans in the north, for among the Highland chiefs seized by James I. at the parliament held at Inverness in 1427, Bower mentions Macmaken leader of two thousand men, and this circumstance affords a most striking instance of the rise and fall of different families; for, while the Mathison appears at that early period as the leader of two thousand men, the Mackenzie has the same number only, and we now see the clan of Mackenzie extending their numberless branches over a great part of the North, and possessing an extent of territory of which few families can exhibit a parallel, while the one powerful clan of the Mathisons has disappeared, and their name become nearly forgotten.”

SIOL ALPINE.

Under the general denomination of Siol Alpine are included several clans situated at considerable distances from one another, but all of them supposed to have been descended from Kenneth Macalpine, the founder of the Scottish monarchy, and the ancestor of a long line of Scottish kings. The validity of this lofty pretension has, however, been disputed; and, in point of fact, it appears that the clans, composing the Siol Alpine, were never united under the authority of a common chief, but, on the contrary, were, from the earliest period, at variance amongst themselves; in consequence of which they sunk into insignificance, and became of little account or importance in a general estimate of the Highland tribes. The principal clan appears to have been that of the Macgregors, a race famous for their misfortunes as well as the unbroken spirit with which they maintained themselves linked and banded together in spite of the most severe laws executed with the greatest rigour against all who bore this proscribed name.

MACGREGOR.

THE MACGREGORS are generally esteemed one of the purest of all the Celtic tribes, and there seems to be no doubt of their unmixed and direct descent from the ancient Celtic inhabitants of Scotland. They were once numerous in Balquhidder and Menteith, and also in Glenorchy, which appears to have been their original seat. An air of romance has been thrown around this particular clan from the exploits and adventures of the celebrated Rob Roy, and the cruel sufferings and proscriptions to which they were, at different times, subjected by the government.

MACGREGOR.

Claiming a regal origin, their motto anciently was, “My race is royal.” Griogar, said to have been the third son of Alpin, king of Scotland, who commenced his reign in 833, is mentioned as their remote ancestor, but it is impossible to trace their descent from any such personage, or from his eldest brother, Kenneth Macalpine, from whom they also claim to be sprung.

According to Buchanan of Auchmar, the clan Gregor were located in Glenorchy as early as the reign of Malcolm Canmore (1057-1093). As, however, they were in the reign of Alexander II. (1214-1249) vassals of the Earl of Ross, Skene thinks it probable that Glenorchy was given to them, when that monarch conferred a large extent of territory on that potent noble. Hugh of Glenorchy appears to have been the first of their chiefs who was so styled. Malcolm, the chief of the clan in the days of Bruce, fought bravely on the national side at the battle of Bannockburn. He accompanied Edward Bruce to Ireland, and being severely wounded at Dundalk, he was ever afterwards known as “the lame lord.”

In the reign of David II., the Campbells managed to procure a legal title to the lands of Glenorchy; nevertheless, the Macgregors maintained, for a long time, the actual possession of them by the strong hand. They knew no other right than that of the sword, but, ultimately, that was found unavailing, and, at last, expelled from their own territory, they became an outlawed, lawless, and landless clan.

John Macgregor of Glenorchy, who died in 1390, is said to have had three sons: Patrick, his successor; John Dow, ancestor of the family of Glenstrae, who became the chief of the clan; and Gregor, ancestor of the Macgregors of Roro. Patrick’s son, Malcolm, was compelled by the Campbells to sell the lands of Auchinrevach in Strathfillan, to Campbell of Glenorchy, who thus obtained the first footing in Breadalbane, which afterwards gave the title of earl to his family.

The principal families of the Macgregors, in process of time, except that of Glenstrae, who held that estate as vassals of the Earl of Argyll, found themselves reduced to the position of tenants on the lands of Campbell of Glenorchy and other powerful barons. It being the policy of the latter to get rid of them altogether, the unfortunate clan were driven, by a continuous system of oppression and annoyance, to acts of rapine and violence, which brought upon them the vengeance of the government. The clan had no other means of subsistence than the plunder of their neighbours’ property, and as they naturally directed their attacks chiefly against those who had wrested from them their own lands, it became still more the interest of their oppressors to represent to the king that nothing could put a stop to their lawless conduct, “save the cutting off the tribe of Macgregor root and branch.” In 1488, soon after the youthful James IV. had ascended the throne which the murder of his father had rendered vacant, an act was passed “for staunching of thiftreif and other enormities throw all the realme;” evidently designed against the Macgregors, for among the barons to whom power was given for enforcing it, were Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, Neil Stewart of Fortingall, and Ewin Campbell of Strachur. At this time the Macgregors were still a numerous clan. Besides those in Glenorchy, they were settled in great numbers in the districts of Breadalbane and Athol, and they all acknowledged Macgregor of Glenstrae, who bore the title of captain of the clan, as their chief.

With the view of reducing these branches, Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy obtained, in 1492, the office of bailiary of the crown lands of Disher and Toyer, Glenlyon, and Glendochart, and in 1502 he procured a charter of the lands of Glenlyon. “From this period,” says Mr Skene, “the history of the Macgregors consists of a mere list of acts of privy council, by which commissions are granted to pursue the clan with fire and sword, and of various atrocities which a state of desperation, the natural result of these measures, as well as a deep spirit of vengeance, against both the framers and executors of them, frequently led the clan to committ. These actions led to the enactment of still severer laws, and at length to the complete proscription of the clan.”

But still the Macgregors were not subdued. Taking refuge in their mountain fastnesses, they set at defiance all the efforts made by their enemies for their entire extermination, and inflicted upon some of them a terrible vengeance. In 1589 they seized and murdered John Drummond of Drummond Ernoch, a forester of the royal forest of Glenartney, an act which forms the foundation of the incident detailed in Sir Walter Scott’s “Legend of Montrose.” The clan swore upon the head of the victim that they would avow and defend the deed in common. An outrage like this led at once to the most rigorous proceedings on the part of the crown. Fresh letters of fire and sword for three years were issued against the whole clan, and all persons were interdicted from harbouring or having any communication with them. Then followed the conflict at Glenfruin in 1603, when the Macgregors, under Alexander Macgregor of Glenstrae, their chief, defeated the Colquhouns, under the laird of Luss, and 140 of the latter were killed. Details of this celebrated clan battle have been already given in the former part of this work, and more will be found under the Colquhouns. Dugald Ciar Mohr, ancestor of Rob Roy, is said on this occasion to have exhibited extraordinary ferocity and courage.

In relation to the betrayal and melancholy end of the unfortunate chief, Alexander, Macgregor of Glenstrae, there is the following entry in the MS. diary of Robert Birrell: “The 2 of October (1603,) Allester M’Gregour Glainstretane be the laird of Arkynles, bot escapit againe; bot efter, taken be the Earle of Argyill the 4 of Januar; and brocht to Edinburghe the 9 of Januar 1604, with mae of 18 his friendis, M’Gregouris. He wes convoyit to Berwick be the gaird, conforme to the earlis promese; for he promesit to put him out of Scottis grund. Swa he keipit ane Hieland-manis promes; in respect he sent the gaird to convoy him out of Scottis grund: Bot thai wer not directit to pairt with him back agane! The 18 of Januar, at evine, he come agane to Edinburghe; and vpone the 20 day, he was hangit at the croce, and ij (eleven) of his freindis and name, upone ane gallous: Himselff, being chieff, he was hangit his awin hicht above the rest of his friendis.” That Argyll had an interest in his death appears from a declaration, printed in Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_,[218] which the chief made before his execution, wherein he says that the earl had enticed him to commit several slaughters and disorders, and had endeavoured to prevail upon him to commit “sundrie mair.”

Among other severe measures passed against this doomed clan was one which deprived them of their very name. By an act of the privy council, dated 3d April 1603, all of the name of Macgregor were compelled, on pain of death, to adopt another surname, and all who had been engaged at the battle of Glenfruin, and other marauding expeditions detailed in the act, were prohibited, also under the pain of death, from carrying any weapon but a knife without a point to cut their victuals. They were also forbidden, under the same penalty of death, to meet in greater numbers than four at a time. The Earls of Argyll and Athole were charged with the execution of these enactments, and it has been shown how the former carried out the task assigned to him. With regard to the ill-fated chief so treacherously “done to death” by him, the following interesting tradition is related:--His son, while out hunting one day, met the young laird of Lamond travelling with a servant from Cowal towards Inverlochy. They dined together at a house on the Blackmount, between Tyndrum and King’s House; but having unfortunately quarrelled during the evening, dirks were drawn, and the young Macgregor was killed. Lamond instantly fled, and was closely pursued by some of the clan Gregor. Outstripping his foes, he reached the house of the chief of Glenstrae, whom he besought earnestly, without stating his crime, to afford him protection. “You are safe with me,” said the chief, “whatever you may have done.” On the pursuers arriving, they informed the unfortunate father of what had occurred, and demanded the murderer; but Macgregor refused to deliver him up, as he had passed his word to protect him. “Let none of you dare to injure the man,” he exclaimed; “Macgregor has promised him safety, and, as I live, he shall be safe while with me.” He afterwards, with a party of his clan, escorted the youth home; and, on bidding him farewell, said, “Lamond, you are now safe on your own land. I cannot, and I will not protect you farther! Keep away from my people; and may God forgive you for what you have done!” Shortly afterwards the name of Macgregor was proscribed, and the chief of Glenstrae became a wanderer without a name or a home. But the laird of Lamond, remembering that he owed his life to him, hastened to protect the old chief and his family, and not only received the fugitives into his house, but shielded them for a time from their enemies.

Logan states, that on the death of Alexander, the executed chief, without surviving lawful issue, the clan, then in a state of disorder, elected a chief, but the head of the collateral branch, deeming Gregor, the natural son of the late chief, better entitled to the honour, without ceremony dragged the chief-elect from his inaugural chair in the kirk of Strathfillan, and placed Gregor therein, in his stead.

The favourite names assumed by the clan while compelled to relinquish their own, were Campbell, Graham, Stewart, and Drummond. Their unity as a clan remained unbroken, and they even seemed to increase in numbers, notwithstanding all the oppressive proceedings directed against them. These did not cease with the reign of James VI., for under Charles I. all the enactments against them were renewed, and yet in 1644, when the Marquis of Montrose set up the king’s standard in the Highlands, the clan Gregor, to the number of 1000 fighting men, joined him, under the command of Patrick Macgregor of Glenstrae, their chief. In reward for their loyalty, at the Restoration the various statutes against them were annulled, when the clan men were enabled to resume their own name. In the reign of William III., however, the penal enactments against them were renewed in their full force. The clan were again proscribed, and compelled once more to take other names.

According to Buchanan of Auchmar, the direct male line of the chiefs became extinct in the reign of the latter monarch, and the representation fell, by “a formal renunciation of the chiefship,” into the branch of Glengyle. Of this branch was the celebrated ROB ROY, that is, Red Rob, who assumed the name of Campbell under the proscriptive act.

As we promised in the former part of the work, we shall here give some account of this celebrated robber-chief. Born about 1660, he was the younger son of Donald Macgregor of Glengyle, a lieutenant-colonel in the service of King James VII., by his wife, the daughter of William Campbell of Glenfalloch, the third son of Sir Robert Campbell of Glenorchy. Rob Roy himself married Helen-Mary, the daughter of Macgregor of Cromar. His own designation was that of Inversnaid, but he seems to have acquired a right to the property of Craig Royston, a domain of rock and forest lying on the east side of Loch Lomond. He became tutor to his nephew, the head of the Glengyle branch, then in his minority, who claimed the chiefship of the clan.

Like many other Highland gentlemen, Rob Roy was a trader in cattle or master drover, and in this capacity he had borrowed several sums of money from the Duke of Montrose, but becoming insolvent, he absconded. In June 1712 an advertisement appeared for his apprehension, and he was involved in prosecutions which nearly ruined him. Some messengers of the law who visited his house in his absence are said to have abused his wife in a most shameful manner, and she, being a high-spirited woman, incited her husband to acts of vengeance. At the same time, she gave vent to her feelings in a fine piece of pipe music, still well known by the name of “Rob Roy’s Lament.” As the duke had contrived to get possession of Rob’s lands of Craig Royston, he was driven to become the “bold outlaw” which he is represented in song and story.

“Determined,” says General Stewart of Garth, “that his grace should not enjoy his lands with impunity, he collected a band of about twenty followers, declared open war against him, and gave up his old course of regular droving, declaring that the estate of Montrose should in future supply him with cattle, and that he would make the duke rue the day he quarrelled with him. He kept his word; and for nearly thirty years--that is, till the day of his death--regularly levied contributions on the duke and his tenants, not by nightly depredations, but in broad day, and in a systematic manner; on an appointed time making a complete sweep of all the cattle of a district--always passing over those not belonging to the duke’s estates, or the estates of his friends and adherents; and having previously given notice where he was to be on a certain day with his cattle, he was met there by people from all parts of the country, to whom he sold them publicly. These meetings, or trysts, as they were called, were held in different parts of the country; sometimes the cattle were driven south, but oftener to the north and west, where the influence of his friend the Duke of Argyll protected him. When the cattle were in this manner driven away, the tenants paid no rent, so that the duke was the ultimate sufferer. But he was made to suffer in every way. The rents of the lower farms were partly paid in grain and meal, which was generally lodged in a store-house or granary, called a _girnal_, near the Loch of Monteath. When Macgregor wanted a supply of meal, he sent notice to a certain number of the duke’s tenants to meet him at the girnal on a certain day, with their horses to carry home his meal. They met accordingly, when he ordered the horses to be loaded, and, giving a regular receipt to his grace’s storekeeper for the quantity taken, he marched away, always entertaining the people very handsomely, and careful never to take the meal till it had been lodged in the duke’s store-house in payment of rent. When the money rents were paid, Macgregor frequently attended. On one occasion, when Mr Graham of Killearn, the factor, had collected the tenants to pay their rents, all Rob Roy’s men happened to be absent, except Alexander Stewart, called ‘the bailie.’ With this single attendant he descended to Chapel Errock, where the factor and the tenants were assembled. He reached the house after it was dark, and, looking in at a window, saw Killearn, surrounded by a number of the tenants, with a bag full of money which he had received, and was in the act of depositing it in a press or cupboard, at the same time saying that he would cheerfully give all that he had in the bag for Rob Roy’s head. This notification was not lost on the outside visitor, who instantly gave orders in a loud voice to place two men at each window, two at each corner, and four at each of two doors, thus appearing to have twenty men. Immediately the door opened, and he walked in with his attendant close behind, each armed with a sword in his right hand and a pistol in his left hand, and with dirks and pistols slung in their belts. The company started up, but he desired them to sit down, as his business was only with Killearn, whom he ordered to hand down the bag and put it on the table. When this was done, he desired the money to be counted, and proper receipts to be drawn out, certifying that he received the money from the Duke of Montrose’s agent, as the duke’s property, the tenants having paid their rents, so that no after demand could be made on them on account of this transaction; and finding that some of the people had not obtained receipts, he desired the factor to grant them immediately, ‘to show his grace,’ said he, ‘that it is from him I take the money, and not from these honest men who have paid him.’ After the whole was concluded, he ordered supper, saying that, as he had got the purse, it was proper he should pay the bill; and after they had drunk heartily together for several hours, he called his bailie to produce his dirk, and lay it naked on the table. Killearn was then sworn that he would not move, nor direct any one else to move, from that spot for an hour after the departure of Macgregor, who thus cautioned him--‘If you break your oath, you know what you are to expect in the next world, and in this,’ pointing to his dirk. He then walked away, and was beyond pursuit before the hour expired.”

At the breaking out of the rebellion of 1715, in spite of the obligations which he owed to the indirect protection of the Duke of Argyll, Rob Roy’s Jacobite partialities induced him to join the rebel forces under the Earl of Mar.

On this occasion none of the Clan Gregor, except the sept of Ciar Mohr, to which Rob Roy belonged, took up arms for the Chevalier, though they were joined by connexions of the family, and among others by Leckie of Croy-Leckie, a large landed proprietor in Dumbartonshire, who had married a daughter of Donald M’Gregor, by his wife the daughter of Campbell of Glenfalloch, and who was thus the brother-in-law of Rob Roy. “They were not,” says Sir Walter Scott, “commanded by Rob Roy, but by his nephew already mentioned, Gregor Macgregor, otherwise called James Grahame of Glengyle, and still better remembered by the Gaelic epithet of _Ghlune Dhu_, _i.e._ Black Knee, from a black spot on one of his knees, which his Highland garb rendered visible. There can be no question, however, that being then very young, Glengyle must have acted on most occasions by the advice and direction of so experienced a leader as his uncle. The Macgregors assembled in numbers at that period, and began even to threaten the lowlands towards the lower extremity of Loch Lomond. They suddenly seized all the boats which were upon the lake, and, probably with a view to some enterprise of their own, drew them overland to Inversnaid, in order to intercept the progress of a large body of west country whigs who were in arms for the government, and moving in that direction. The whigs made an excursion for the recovery of the boats. Their forces consisted of volunteers from Paisley, Kilpatrick, and elsewhere, who, with the assistance of a body of seamen, were towed up the river Leven in long boats belonging to the ships of war then lying in the Clyde. At Luss, they were joined by the forces of Sir Humphrey Colquhoun, and James Grant, his son-in-law, with their followers, attired in the Highland dress of the period, which is picturesquely described. The whole party crossed to Craig Royston, but the Macgregors did not offer combat. If we were to believe the account of the expedition given by the historian Rae, they leaped on shore at Craig Royston with the utmost intrepidity, no enemy appearing to oppose them, and by the noise of their drums, which they beat incessantly, and the discharge of their artillery and small arms, terrified the Macgregors, whom they appear never to have seen, out of their fastnesses, and caused them to fly in a panic to the general camp of the Highlanders at Strathfillan. The low-countrymen succeeded in getting possession of the boats, at a great expenditure of noise and courage, and little risk of danger.

“After this temporary removal from his old haunts, Rob Roy was sent by the Earl of Mar to Aberdeen, to raise, it is believed, a part of the clan Gregor, which is settled in that country. These men were of his own family (the race of the Ciar Mohr). They were the descendants of about three hundred Macgregors whom the Earl of Moray, about the year 1624, transported from his estates in Monteith to oppose against his enemies the Mackintoshes, a race as hardy and restless as they were themselves. We have already stated that Rob Roy’s conduct during the insurrection of 1715 was very equivocal. His person and followers were in the Highland army, but his heart seems to have been with the Duke of Argyll’s. Yet the insurgents were constrained to trust to him as their only guide, when they marched from Perth towards Dunblane, with the view of crossing the Forth at what are called the Fords of Frew, and when they themselves said he could not be relied upon.