History of the Mackenzies Part 27

He married, secondly, Janet, daughter of William Mackenzie, I.

of Belmaduthy (marriage contract 30th of January 1679), on which occasion Davochcairn and Ardnagrask were settled upon her in life-rent, and on her eldest son at her death, as appears from a precept of date clare constat, by Colin Mackenzie of Davochpollo, in favour of William, his eldest surviving son. By her he had issue -

3. Alexander, who died unmarried.

4. William, who acquired the lands of Davochcairn, and married, in 1712, Jean, daughter of Roderick Mackenzie, V. of Redcastle, with issue - a son, Alexander, of the Stamp Office, London, and several daughters. Alexander has a "clare constat" as only son in 1732.

He died in 1772, leaving a son, Alexander Kenneth, who emigrated to New South Wales, where several of his descendants now reside; the representative of the family, in 1878, being Alexander Kenneth Mac-kenzie, Boonara, Bondi, Sydney.

5. John, who purchased the lands of Lochend (now Inverewe), with issue - Alexander Mackenzie, afterwards of Lochend and George, an officer in Colonel Murray Keith's Highland Regiment also two daughters, Lilias, who married William Mackenzie, IV. of Gruinard, and Christy, who married William Maciver of Tournaig, both with issue - See MACKENZIES OF LOCHEND.

6. Ann, who, in 1703, married Kenneth Mackenzie, II. of Torridon, with issue. She married, secondly, Kenneth Mackenzie, a solicitor in London.

He died in December 1694, at the age of 42, which appears from his general retour of sasine, dated 25th February, 1673, in which he is said to be then of lawful age. He was buried in Gairloch, and was succeeded by his only son by his first marriage,

VIII. SIR KENNETH MACKENZIE, created a Baronet of Nova Scotia, by Queen Anne, on the 2nd of February, 1703. He was educated at Oxford, and afterwards represented his native county of Ross in the Scottish Parliament. He strongly opposed the Union, considering that if it should take place, it would be "the funeral of his country." After the succession of Queen Anne he received from her, in December 1702, a gift of the taxed ward, feu-duties, non-entry, and marriage dues, and other casualties payable to the Crown, from the date of his father's death, which, up to 1702, do not appear to have been paid. Early in the same year he seems to have been taken seriously ill, whereupon he executed a holograph will and testament at Stankhouse, dated the 23rd of May, 1702, which was witnessed by his uncle, Colin Mackenzie of Findon, and by his brother-in-law, Simon Mackenzie, I. of Allangrange. He appoints as trustees his "dear friends "John, Master of Tarbat, Kenneth Mackenzie of Cromarty, Kenneth Mackenzie of Scatwell, Hector Mackenzie, and Colin Mackenzie, his uncles, and George Mackenzie, II. of Allangrange. He appointed Colin Mackenzie, then of Findon, and afterwards of Davochpollo and Mountgerald, as his tutor and factor at a salary of 200 merks Scots. In May, 1703, having apparently to some extent recovered his health, he appears in his place in Parliament. In September of the same year he returned to Stankhouse, Gairloch, where he executed two bonds of provision, one for his second son George, and the other for his younger daughters.

He married, in 1696, Margaret, youngest daughter, and, as is commonly said, co-heiress of Sir Roderick Mackenzie of Findon, but the Barony of Findon went wholly to Lilias, the eldest daughter, who married Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, 1st Baronet and IV. of Scatwell another of the daughters, Isobel, married Simon Mackenzie, I. of Allangrange. There was a fourth daughter, unmarried at the date of Margaret's contract of marriage and the four took a fourth part each of Sir Roderick's moveables and of certain lands not included in the Barony. At the date of his marriage Kenneth had not made up t.i.tles to his estates; but by his marriage contract he is taken bound to do so as soon as he can. His retour of service was taken out in the following year.

By Margaret Mackenzie of Findon Kenneth had issue -

1. Alexander, his heir and successor.

2. George, who became a merchant in Glasgow, and died unmarried in 1739.

3. Barbara, who, in 1729, married George Beattie, a merchant in Montrose, without issue.

4. Margaret, who died young in 1704.

5. Anne, who, in 1728, married, during his father's life-time, Murdo Mackenzie, VII. of Achilty, without issue.

6. Katharine, who died young.

Sir Kenneth had also a natural daughter, Margaret, who married, in 1723, Donald Macdonald, younger of Cuidreach. Sir Kenneth's widow, about a year after his decease, married Bayne of Tulloch.

Notwithstanding the money that Sir Kenneth received with her, he died deeply in debt, and left his children insufficiently provided for. George and Barbara were at first maintained by their mother, and afterwards by Colin of Findon who had married their grandmother, widow of Sir Roderick Mackenzie of Findon, while Alexander and Anne were in even a worse plight.

He died in December 1703, at the early age of 32; was buried in Gairloch, and succeeded by his eldest son,

IX. SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, the second Baronet, a child only three and a half years old. His prospects were certainly not enviable, he and his sister Anne having had for a time, for actual want of means, to be "settled in tenants' houses." The rental of Gairloch and Glasletter at his father's death only amounted to 5954 merks, and his other estates in the Low Country were settled on his mother, Sir Kenneth's widow, for life while he was left with debts due amounting to 66,674 merks, equal to eleven years rental of the whole estates. During his minority, however, the large sum of 51,200 merks was paid off, in addition to 27,635 in name of interest on the original debt; and consequently very little was left for his education. In 1708 he, along with his brother and sisters, were taken to the factor's house - Colin Mackenzie of Findon - where they remained for four years, and received the rudiments of their education from a young man, Simon Urquhart. In 1712 they were all sent to school at Chanonry, under Urquhart's charge, where Sir Alexander remained for six years, after which, having arrived at 18 years of age, he went to complete his education in Edinburgh. He afterwards made a tour of travel, and returning home in 1730 married his cousin, Janet Mackenzie of Scatwell, on which occasion a fine Gaelic poem was composed in her praise by John Mackay, the famous blind piper and poet of Gairloch, whose daughter became the mother of William Ross, a Gaelic bard even more celebrated than the blind piper himself. If we believe her eulogist the lady possessed all the virtues of mind and body but in spite of all these graces the marriage did not turn out a happy one; for, in 1758, she separated from her husband on the grounds of incompatibility of temper, after which she lived alone at Kinkell.

When, in 1721, Sir Alexander came of age, he was obliged to find means to pay the provision payable to his brother George and to his sisters, amounting altogether to 16,000 merks, while about the same amount of his father's debts was still unpaid. In 1729 he purchased Cruive House and the Ferry of Skudale. In 1735 he bought Bishop-Kinkell; in 1742 Loggie-Riach and, in 1743, Kenlochewe, which latter property was considered equal in value to Glasletter of Kintail, sold about the same time. About 1730 he redeemed Davochcairn and Ardnagrask from the widow of his uncle William, and Davochpollo from the widow and son James of his grand-uncle, Colin, I. of Mountgerald. In 1752 he executed an entail of all his estates; but leaving debts at his death, amounting to L2679 13s 10d more than his personal estate could meet, Davochcairn, Davochpollo, and Ardnagrask, had eventually to be sold to make up the deficiency.

In 1738 he pulled down the old family residence of Stankhouse, or "Tigh Dige," at Gairloch, which stood in a low, marshy, damp situation, surrounded by the moat from which it derived its name, and built the present house on an elevated plateau, surrounded by magnificent woods and towering hills, with a southern front elevation - altogether one of the most beautiful and best sheltered situations in the Highlands; and he very appropriately called it Flowerdale. He greatly improved his property, and was in all respects a careful and good man of business. He kept out of the Rising of 1745, and afterwards when John Mackenzie of Meddat applied to him for aid in favour of Lord Macleod, son of the Earl of Cromarty, who took so prominent a part in it, and was afterwards in very tightened circ.u.mstances, Sir Alexander replied in a letter dated at Gairloch, 17th May, 1749, in the following somewhat unsympathetic terms:

Sir,--I am favoured with your letter, and am extreamly sory Lord Cromartie's circ.u.mstances should obliege him to sollicit the aide of small gentlemen. I much raither he hade dyed sword in hand even where he was ingag'd then be necessitate to act such a pairt I have the honour to be nearly related to him, and to have been his companion, but will not supply him at this time, for which I believe I can give you the best reason in the world, and the only one possible for me to give, and that is that I cannot. [Fraser's "Earls of Cromartie," vol. ii., p. 230.]

The reason stated in this letter may possibly be the true one; but it is more likely that Sir Alexander had no sympathy whatever with the cause which brought his kinsman into such an unfortunate position, and that he would not, on that account, lend him any a.s.sistance.

Some of his leases, preserved in the Gairloch charter chest, contain some very curious clauses, many of which would now be described as tyrannical and cruel, but the Laird and his tenants understood each other, and they got on remarkably well. The tenants were bound to sell him all their marketable cattle "at reasonable rates," and to deliver to him at current prices all the cod and ling caught by them; and, in some cases, were bound to keep one or more boats, with a sufficient number of men as sub-tenants, for the prosecution of the cod and ling fis.h.i.+ngs. He kept his own curer, cured the fish, and sold it at 12s 6d per cwt. delivered in June at Gairloch, with credit until the following Martinmas, to Mr Dunbar, merchant, with whom he made a contract binding himself, for several years, to deliver, at the price named, all the cod caught in Gairloch. [See copy of lease granted by him, in 1760, of the half of North Erradale, to one of the author's ancestors, printed at length under the family of "Alastair Cam."]

Sir Alexander married, in 1730, Janet, daughter of Sir Roderick Mackenzie, second Baronet and V. of Scatwell, with issue -

1. Alexander, his heir and successor.

2. Kenneth, who died in infancy.

3. Roderick, a captain in the army, who was killed at Quebec before he attained majority.

4. William, a writer, who died unmarried.

5. James, who died in infancy.

6. Kenneth of Millbank, factor and Tutor to Sir Hector, the fourth Baronet of Gairloch, during the last few years of his minority.

He married Anne, daughter of Alexander Mackenzie of Tolly, with issue - (1) Alexander, County Clerk of Ross-s.h.i.+re, who married, and had issue - Alexander, in New Zealand; Kenneth, who married twice, in India, and died in 1877; and Catherine, who married Murdo Cameron, Leanaig, with surviving issue - one son, Alexander; (2) Janet, who married the Rev. Dr John Macdonald, of Ferintosh, the famous "Apostle of the North," with issue; (3) Catherine, who married Alexander Mackenzie, a merchant in London, and grandson of Alexander Mackenzie of Tolly, with issue - an only daughter, Catherine, who married Major Roderick Mackenzie, VII. of Kincraig, with issue; (4) Jane, who, in 1808, married the Rev. Hector Bethune, minister of Dingwall, with issue - Colonel Bethune, who died without issue; the Rev. Angus Bethune, Rector of Seaham; Alexander Mackenzie Bethune, Secretary of the Peninsular and Oriental Navigation Company, married, without issue; and a daughter, Jane, who married the late Francis Harper, Torgorm. Mrs Bethune died in 1878, aged 91 years.

7 and 8. Margaret and Janet, both of whom died young.

9. Janet, who married Colin, eldest son of David, brother of Murdo Mackenzie, VII. of Achilty. Murdo leaving no issue, Colin ultimately succeeded to Achilty, but he seems afterwards to have parted with it, for in 1784, he has a tack of Kinkell, and dies there, in 1813, with his affairs seriously involved, leaving a son John, who died without issue.

Sir Alexander had also a natural son, Charles Mackenzie, ancestor of the later Mackenzies of Sand, and two natural daughters, one of whom, Annabella, by a daughter of Maolmuire, or Miles Macrae, of the family of Inverinate, married John Ban Mackenzie, by whom she had a daughter, Marsali or Marjory, who married John Mor Og Mackenzie (Ian Mor Aireach), son of John Mor Mackenzie, grandson of Alexander Cam Mac-kenzie, fourth son of Alexander, V. of Gairloch, in whose favour Sir Alexander granted the lease of North Erradale, already referred to. The other daughter, known as "Kate Gairloch,"

who lived to a very old age, unmarried, was provided for in comfortable lodgings and with a suitable allowance by the heads of the family.

He died in 1766, in the 66th year of his age, was buried with his ancestors in Gairloch, [The old chapel and the burying place of the Lairds of Gairloch appear to have been roofed almost up to this date; for in the Tutorial accounts of 1704 there is an item of 30 merks for "harling, pinning, and thatching Gairloch's burial place."] and succeeded by his eldest son,

X. SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, third Baronet, designated "An Tighearna Ruadh," or the Red-haired Laird. He built Conon House between 1758 and 1760, during his father's lifetime. Lady Mackenzie, who continued to reside at Kinkell, where she lived separated from her husband, on Sir Alexander's decease claimed the new mansion at Conon built by her son eight years before on the ground that it was situated on her jointure lands; but Sir Alexander resisted her pretensions, and ultimately the matter was arranged by the award of John Forbes of New, Government factor on the forfeited estates of Lovat, who then resided at Beaufort, and to whom the question in dispute was submitted as arbitrator. Forbes compromised it by requiring Sir Alexander to expend L300 in making Kinkell Castle more comfortable, by taking off the top storey, re-rooting it, rebuilding an addition at the side, and re-flooring, plastering, and papering all the rooms.

Sir Alexander, in addition to the debts of the entailed estates, contracted other liabilities on his own account, and finding himself much hampered in consequence, he tried, but failed, to break the entail, although a flaw has been discovered in it since, and Sir Kenneth, the present Baronet, having called the attention of the Court to it, the entail was judicially declared invalid. Sir Alexander had entered into an agreement to sell the Strathpeffer and Ardnagrask lands, in antic.i.p.ation of which Henry Davidson of Tulloch bought the greater part of the debts of the entailed estates, with the view of securing the consent of the Court to the sale of Davochcairn and Davochpollo afterwards to himself. But on the 15th of April, 1770, before the transaction could be completed, Sir Alexander died suddenly from the effects of a fall from his horse. His financial affairs were seriously involved, but having been placed in the hands of an Edinburgh accountant, his creditors ultimately received nineteen s.h.i.+llings in the pound.

He married, first, on the 29th of November, 1755, Margaret, eldest daughter of Roderick Mackenzie, VII. of Redcastle, with issue -

1. Hector, his heir and successor.

She died on the 1st of December, 1759.

He married, secondly, in 1760, Jean, daughter of John Gorry of Balblair, and Commissary of Ross, with issue -

2. John, who raised a company, almost wholly in Gairloch, for the 78th Regiment of Ross-s.h.i.+re Highlanders when first embodied, of which he himself obtained the Captaincy. He rose rapidly in rank.

On the 3rd of May, 1794, he attained to his majority; in the following year he is Lieutenant-Colonel of the Regiment Major-General in the army in 1813; and full General in 1837. He served with distinction and without cessation from 1779 to 1814. So marked was his daring and personal valour that he was popularly known among his companions in arms as "Fighting Jack." He was at the Walcheren expedition; at the Cape; in India; in Sicily; Malta; and the Peninsula and though constantly exhibiting numberless instances of personal daring, he was only once wounded, when on a certain occasion he was struck with a spent ball on the knee, which made any walking somewhat troublesome to him in after life.

At Tarragona he was so mortified with Sir John Murray's conduct, that he almost forgot that he himself was only second in command, and charged Sir John with incapacity and cowardice, for which the latter was tried by Court Martial - General Mackenzie being one of the princ.i.p.al witnesses against him. Full of vigour of mind and body, he took a lively interest in everything in which he engaged, from fis.h.i.+ng and shooting to farming, gardening, politics, and fighting. He never forgot his Gaelic, which he spoke with fluency and read with ease. Though a severe disciplinarian, his men adored him. He was in the habit of saying that it gave him more pleasure to meet a dog from Gairloch than a gentleman from any other place. When the 78th returned from the Indian Mutiny the officers and men were feted to a grand banquet by the town of Inverness, and as the regiment marched through Academy Street, where the General resided, they halted opposite his residence, next door above the Station Hotel; and though so frail that he had to be carried, he was taken out and his chair placed on the steps at the door, where the regiment saluted and warmly cheered their old and distinguished veteran commander, who had so often led their predecessors to victory; and at the time the oldest officer in and "father" of the British army. He was much affected, and wept with joy at again meeting his beloved 78th - the only tears he was known to have shed since the days of his childhood. He married Lilias, youngest daughter of Alexander Chisholm, XXII. of Chisholm, with issue - (1) Alastair, an officer in the 90th Light Infantry, who afterwards settled down and became a magistrate in the Bahamas, where, in 1839, he married an American lady, Wade Ellen, daughter of George Huyler, Consul General of the United States, and French Consul in the Bahama Islands, with issue - a son, the Rev. George William Russel Mackenzie, an Episcopalian minister, who on the 2nd of August, 1876, married Annie Constance, second daughter of Richard, son of William Congreve of Congreve and Burton, with issue - Dorothy Lilias; (2) a daughter, Lilias Mary Chisholm, unmarried. Alastair subsequently left the Bahamas, went to Melbourne, and became Treasurer for the Government of Victoria, where he died in 1852.

General Mackenzie died on the 14th of June, 1860, aged 96 years, and was buried in the Gairloch aisle in Beauly Priory.

3. Kenneth, who was born on the 14th of February, 1765, was a Captain in the army, and served in India, where he was at the siege of Seringapatam. He soon after retired from the service, and settled down as a gentleman farmer at Kerrisdale, Gairloch.

He married Flora, daughter of Farquhar Macrae of Inverinate, with issue, three sons and four daughters - (1) Alexander, a Captain in the 58th Regiment, who married a daughter of William Beibly, M.D., Edinburgh, with issue; (2) Hector, a merchant in Java, where he died, unmarried; (3) Farquhar, a settler in Victoria, where he married and left issue - Hector, John, Violet, Mary, and Flora; (4) Jean, who married William H. Garrett, of the Indian Civil Service, with issue - two sons, Edward and William, and four daughters, Eleanor (now Mrs Gourlay, The Gows, Dundee); Flora, Emily, and Elizabeth; (5) Mary, who married, first, Dr Macleod, Dingwall, without issue and, secondly, Murdo Mackenzie, a Calcutta merchant, also without issue; (6) Christian Henderson, who married John Mackenzie, solicitor, Tam, a son of George Mackenzie, III.

of Pitlundie, with issue--two sons, both dead, one of whom left a son, Charles; (7) Jessie, who married Dr Kenneth Mackinnon, of the Corry family, H.E.I.C.S., Calcutta.

4. Jean, who died young.

5. Margaret, who married Roderick Mackenzie, II. of Glack, with issue.

6. Janet, who married Captain John Mackenzie Woodlands, son of George Mackenzie, II. of Gruinard, without issue.