History of the Mackenzies Part 33

William died in June, 1813, at Lyne of Carron, was buried at Aberlour, and succeeded as representative of the family by his eldest son,

V. JOHN MACKENZIE, who died without issue in 1838, when he was succeeded as representative of the family by his eldest surviving brother,

VI. THOMAS MACKENZIE, who was born on the 12th of April, 1776, and married on the 26th of July, 1821, Ann Grant, great-grand-daughter of Ludovick Grant, grandson of Sir John Grant of Freuchy, with issue -

1. William, his heir and successor.

2. John, born on the 18th of November, 1823. He is unmarried.

3. Grace, married John Shand, Rinnachat, without issue.

4. Penuel, who married Patrick Shaw, Benstaak, with issue - several sons and daughters.

5. Margaret, unmarried.

Thomas died at Lyne of Carron, on the 5th of February, 1861, aged 85, when he was succeeded as representative of the family by his eldest son,

VII. WILLIAM MACKENZIE, who was born on the 3rd of May, 1822.

He founded the Distillery of Dailuaine in 1851, one of the most extensive malt distilleries in Scotland. He married on the 5th of October, 1844, Jean, daughter of William Thomson, Knockando, with issue -

1. John, born on the 28th of July, 1845. He was drowned at sea, without issue.

2. William, born on the 9th of October, 1846. He went to the West Indies and died there unmarried, on the 10th of December, 1893, at Paramaribo, Surinam.

3. Thomas, who succeeded his father in Dailuaine.

4. Alexander, who was born on the 11th of July, 1851. He is in South Africa, and still unmarried.

5. William Grant, born on the 21st of June, 1859, and still unmarried.

6. Lewis Grant, born on the 10th of January, 1862. He went to California, and is still unmarried.

7. Ann.

8. Jane.

9. Margaret.

10. Grace Penuel, who married Dr Robert Cochrane Buist, Dundee, with issue - a son and daughter.

11. Mary Forbes.

William died at Dailuaine, on the 17th of May, 1865, and was succeeded there by his son,

VIII. THOMAS MACKENZIE, now of Dailuaine, and since the death of his elder brother William in December, 1893, heir-male of the family. Born on the 18th of March, 1848, he on the 30th of October, 1877, married Emily, daughter of Edwin Holt of Rosehill, Worcesters.h.i.+re.

SLIOCHD ALASTAIR CHAIM.

THE progenitor of this family, not one of whom so far as known ever owned an acre of land until now, was

I. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, fourth son of Alexander Mackenzie, V. of Gairloch, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Roderick Mor Mackenzie, I. of Redcastle, by his wife Florence, daughter of Robert Munro, XVth Baron of Fowlis. Alexander, like his brother Hector, was a Cornet in Sir George Munro's Regiment, and according to one of the Gairloch ma.n.u.script Histories was "an officer under Cromwell, whom he afterwards left, and was wounded on the King's side at the battle of Worcester, leaving a succession in Gairloch by his wife Janet, daughter of Mackenzie of Ord." He lost an eye at Worcester, and was consequently ever after known Alastair Cam.

His descendants are still numerous in Gairloch, where, having had no land to be designated of, they were always known as "Sliochd Alastair Chaim" or "The descendants of Alexander the One-Eyed."

He married, in 1652, Janet, third daughter of John Mackenzie, I.

of Ord, [The marriage contract is dated "at Chanonrie, the 21st of July and 26th of August, 1652," the year after the Battle of Worcester, and is in the Ord charter chest.] by his wife Isobel, daughter of Alexander Cuthbert of Drakies, Inverness, with issue -

1. Roderick, his heir.

2. Alexander, commonly called "Alastair Mor Mac Alastair Chaim,"

from whom are descended, among several others in Gairloch, the late John Mackenzie of the "Beauties of Gaelic Poetry," and Alexander Mackenzie, the author of this History. ALEXANDER married his cousin, Mary, daughter of Hector Mackenzie, "Portioner of Mellan,"

with issue - John Mackenzie, locally known as "Ian Mor Mac Alastair Mhic Alastair Chaim." JOHN MOR married Barbara, daughter of John Roy Mackenzie, of Sand. He had a tack from Sir Alexander Mackenzie, second Baronet and IX. of Gairloch, of the half of North Erradale, in 1760, for twenty years, to begin at Whit-sunday, 1765, and he is described in the lease as then in possession (see pp. 483-84). By his wife he had issue - seven sons, known as "Clann Ian Mhoir," said to have been the biggest and most powerful men in Gairloch in their day - (1) JOHN, "Ian Mor Aireach," who succeeded his father in a portion of North Erradale, and married Marsali, or Marjory, daughter of John Ban Mackenzie, Isle of Ewe, by his wife, Annabella, natural daughter of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, second Baronet and IX. of Gairloch. By Marsali Mackenzie, "Ian Mor Aireach" had issue - four sons, Duncan, Murdoch, John Mor Og, and William, and two daughters - Annabella, who married her cousin four times removed, Alexander Mackenzie, Melvaig, the male representative of Alastair Cam, with issue; and Margaret, who married John Mackenzie, also in Melvaig, with issue - several sons and daughters. The sons were also married and left numerous descendants in Gairloch. Ian Mor Mac Alastair's other sons were (2) Alexander, who died unmarried; (3) Roderick, who married, with issue; (4) Colin, married, with issue; (5) Roderick Ban, unmarried; (6) John Og; and (7) Kenneth, married, with issue. JOHN OG, who was tacksman of Loch-a-Druing, married Jessie, daughter of Miles Macrae, with issue, among others - Alastair Og Mackenzie, tacksman of Mellan Charles, who married Margaret, daughter of Alexander Mackenzie, of Badachro, with issue - James Mackenzie, who died unmarried a few years ago, at Poolewe; John Mackenzie, of the "Beauties of Gaelic Poetry" and several other works, who died, unmarried in his father's house at Kirkton, in 1848, and to whose memory a monument was erected in 1878, by a few of his Celtic admirers on a projecting rock overlooking his grave in the "Sliochd Alastair Chaim burying ground, within the ancient Chapel in the Gairloch Churchyard. Alastair Og had also several daughters, married and unmarried, of whom three are still alive.

We shall now revert to Alastair Cam's eldest son, by Janet Mackenzie of Ord -

I. RODERICK MACKENZIE, who married Isabella, daughter of William Mackenzie of Sand, with issue, among others, -

II. HECTOR MACKENZIE, Melvaig, who married Mary, daughter of William Mackenzie, of the same place, with issue, along with a younger son Murdoch, -

III. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, also in Melvaig, who married Mary, daughter of Hugh Morrison, Sand, with issue -

IV. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, designated, Highland fas.h.i.+on, as "Alastair Mac Alastair, Mhic Eachainn, 'ic Alastair, 'ic Ruairidh, Mhic Alastair Chaim Mac an Tighearna." He married his third cousin, Annabella, eldest daughter of John Mor Mackenzie, "Ian Mor Aireach," great grandson of "Alastair Cam Mac an Tighearna,"

with issue, an only son -

V. HECTOR MACKENZIE, born in April, 1810. His father died before Hector was a year old, and the widow soon after married, as her second husband, Alexander, son of Alexander Grant, "Bard mor an t-Slagain," with issue - three sons, Roderick, John, Duncan, and Margaret, who subsequently emigrated with their father and mother to Cape Breton, where they settled, married, and have large families, and another daughter, Janet, who married and remained in Gairloch. His father left Hector what was considered a substantial sum of money for those day's, in the hands of Murdo Mackenzie, tacksman of Melvaig, one of the original Sand family, and a near relative of Gairloch, but he never received a penny of it. He was thus left a penniless orphan and was obliged to fight his way in the world as best he could as an honest, industrious, and respected crofter and fisherman. He married on the 17th of February, 1838, Catherine, daughter of Roderick, eldest son of Alexander Campbell, "Alastair Buidhe Mac Iomhair," the well-known Gairloch Gaelic Bard, by his wife Catherine, daughter of Roderick, son of William Mackenzie of s.h.i.+eldaig, a cadet of the Gairloch family. By his wife Catherine Campbell (who died at Inverness on the 20th of January, 1882, and was buried at Gairloch), or more correctly MacIver (the family having only discarded the older and better name and adopted the new within living memory), Hector Mackenzie, who is still alive in his 84th year, had issue -

1. Alexander, of Park House, Inverness, who was born on Christmas Day, 1838. He was for seventeen years an active member of the Town Council and a Police Commissioner of Inverness four years Dean of Guild and a Magistrate of the Burgh, as well as a Commissioner of Supply and Justice of Peace for the County. He was also a member of the first Inverness County Council, and took a prominent part in its proceedings. In 1875 he founded the "Celtic Magazine," which he owned and conducted for thirteen years until it was incorporated with the "Scottish Highlander" newspaper in 1888. In 1885 he started the "Scottish Highlander," which he has managed and edited since, and which now, though still nominally carried on as a Limited Liability Company, is practically his own property. He is the author of several Clan histories - that of the Mackenzies, the first edition of which appeared in 1879; of the Macdonalds, in 1881; of the Mathesons, in 1882; of the Camerons, in 1884; of the Macleods, in 1889; and of the Chisholms, in 1891.

He is also the author of The History of the Highland Clearances,"

which created quite a sensation when it appeared; of the "Social State of the Isle of Skye;" the "Prophecies of the Brahan Seer;" and of several other minor works. He married, on the 3rd of August, 1865, Emma Sarah Rose (author of Tales of the Heather) only surviving daughter of Thomas Whittaker Rose, Henrietta Park Villas, Bath (still living in his eighty-sixth year), by his first wife Sarah Cole, with issue - Hector Rose Mackenzie, solicitor, Inverness, who was born in Ipswich, on the 25th of February, 1867, and married on the 19th of July, 1892, Barbara Sutherland, elder surviving daughter of John Anderson, late of the 71st Regiment of Foot (The Highland Light Infantry); Thomas William, born in Inverness on the 4th of August, 1875; Alastair Ian, born on the 30th of December, 1880; Kenneth John, born on the 17th of October, 1885; Catharine Anne, born on the 24th of February, 1868, died on the 1st of August in the same year, and buried in Ipswich Cemetery; Annie Emma; Catharine, who died in infancy in 1873; Mary Rose; and Emma Barabel.

2. Roderick, born on the 13th of July, 1844, a member of the firm of William c.u.mming & Co., wholesale woollen warehous.e.m.e.n, Huddersfield, but residing in London. He married, first, on the 18th of January, 1871, Julia Catherine, eldest daughter of Thomas Lewis s.h.i.+powner, Sunderland, with issue - William Frank, who was born on the 6th of October, 1874; Hector Dundas, born on the 22nd of July, 1876; Catherine Louisa, who died in her thirteenth year, on the 11th of July, 1884, while on a holiday visit, at Inverness; Ellen Maria; and Mary Josephine. His first wife having died on the 14th of June, 1881, Roderick married, secondly, on the 18th of December, 1889, Mary Lang, daughter of John Sandford, Cambuslang.

3. William, clothier, Inverness, born on the 12th of November, 1846, and married on the 16th of July, 1873, Annabella Bertrude, daughter of Alexander Grant, tacks-man of Easter Gallovie, Strathspey, with issue - Alexander Roderick, C.E., born on the 17th of May, 1874; Hector Donald Grant, born on the 20th of June, 1875; William John Macintyre, born on the 18th of January, 1877; James Grant, born on the 20th of June, 1878, died on the 23rd of September, 1889; Arthur Henderson, born on the 9th of February, 1880; Allan Campbell, born on the 19th of April, 1881; Eneas Kenneth, born on the 9th of March, 1883; Andrew Duncan, born on the 7th of January, 1885, died on the 2nd of May, 1888; Harry Macpherson, born on the 28th of October, 1887; Douglas Mitch.e.l.l, born on the 19th of February, 1890; and Ella May, born on the 21st of June, 1886, and died on the 24th, three days after.

4. Another Alexander, who served for twelve years in the 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys) in which he was Troop Sergeant-Major, and subsequently went abroad.

5. Catherine, who married John Fraser, s.h.i.+powner, Inverness, without issue.

6. Mary, who married Alexander Fraser, and resides in Cheltenham, with issue - Hector Alexander John, born on the 4th of May, 1883; Catherine Campbell; and Lily Mary.

7. Annabella, who married George Mackenzie, draper, Ipswich, afterwards at Nairn and Inverness with issue - William Hector, born on the 9th of January, 1877 Alastair, born on the 5th of March, 1878; George John, born on the 14th of April, 1884; Marion; and Catherine Campbell, who died in infancy. Annabella died at Edinburgh on the 9th of May, 1888, and is buried there.

This is the lease, with its miscellaneous rent, curious and antiquated conditions, referred to at page 479 -

I, Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Gairloch, Baronet, heritable proprietor of the lands and others under-written with the pertinents, do hereby set and in tack and a.s.sedation for the full s.p.a.ce of twenty years, lets to John Mackenzie, tacksman of the equal half of the quarter lands of Erradale-a-phris, or North Erradale, all and whole the said possession as presently occupied by him, with all the s.h.i.+elings, mosses, moors, biggings and universal pertinents thereof, all lying within the parish of Gairloch and Sheriffdom of Ross. To him and his lawful heirs whatsoever, to he occupied and "brooked" by them during the foresaid s.p.a.ce of twenty years, without any hindrance or breach of tack whatever; and it is hereby provided, nothwithstanding the date hereof, that this tack commences directly at the term of Whitsunday in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and sixty-five years, and to continue thereafter, aye and until the number of twenty years complete be expired, and I, the above-named Sir Alexander, do hereby bind and oblige me, my heirs, and successors, to make this tack good, valid, and sufficient to the effect foresaid at all hands and against all deadly, as law will, - For the which cause, and on the other part, the said John Mackenzie by his acceptance hereof binds himself, his heirs, and successors, to pay to me, the above Sir Alexander, and my successors, or our factors having proper powers thereanent, as a yearly rent furth of the said equal half of the quarter lands of Erradale foresaid all and whole the sum of one hundred and thirty-one marks and a half Scots money two marks three s.h.i.+llings and fourpence money foresaid, crown rent; ten marks ten s.h.i.+llings and eight pence in lieu of peats, or as the same shall reasonably be from time to time regulated by the proprietor a mark of cruive money, twenty marks money foresaid of stipend, or as the same shall happen to be settled 'twixt the landlord and minister; two long carriages, two custom wedders, a fed kid, a stone of cheese, and half a stone weight of b.u.t.ter; eight hens, or as usual eight men yearly at their own expense to shear corn or cut hay a davoch of ploughing, and four horses for mucking. The above John also obliges himself and his foresaids to attend road duty yearly four days, with all his servants and sub-tenants, or pay a yearly capitation optional to the landlord during this lease under breach of tack, and to sell all the cod and ling that shall be caught by him and his foresaids at the current prices to our order and to dispose of all his marketable cattle to our drover at reasonable rates, also under breach of tack and further the above John and his successors are, by their acceptance hereof, become bound to pay to me, the above Sir Alexander Mackenzie and my foresaids, in the way of a gra.s.sum at the term of Whitsunday, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-five years foresaid, all and whole the sum of two hundred and fifty marks Scots money, and the like sum at the end of every five years of this tack, making in all the sum of one thousand marks Scots money; and both parties become hereby bound to fulfil the premises to one another "hinc inde" under the failure or penalty of ten pounds sterling to be paid by the party failing to the party performing, or willing to perform, his or their part and for the more security I consent that these presents be registered for conservation in the Books of Council and Session, that letters of horning and all needful executions may pa.s.s hereon in form as effeirs and thereto const.i.tute our procurators. In testimony of which these presents, consisting of this and the former two pages of stamped paper are written and duly signed by me, Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Gairloch, at Flowerdale, this fifth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and sixty years.

ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.