History of the Mackenzies Part 41

Hector was succeeded by his only son, by his first wife,

V. RODERICK MACKENZIE, fifth of Fairburn, who first married a daughter of Patrick Grant of Glenmoriston, with issue - Mary, who married as his second wife, Alexander Mackenzie, II. of Ballone, with issue. He married, secondly, in 1663, Margaret, daughter of Donald Mackenzie, III. of Loggie, with issue -

1. Murdoch, his heir and successor.

2. John, of Bishop-Kinkell, who was married twice, with issue - three sons and two daughters.

3. Colin, who died without issue.

4. Donald, married, with issue - a son Murdoch.

He was succeeded by his eldest son,

VI. MURDOCH MACKENZIE, sixth of Fairburn, who in 1673 married Isobel, daughter of the Hon. Simon Mackenzie of Lochslinn, with issue -

1. Roderick, his heir and successor.

2. Kenneth, who died unmarried in 1731.

3. George; and 4. James, both unmarried.

He was succeeded by his eldest son,

VII. RODERICK MACKENZIE, seventh of Fairburn, who in 1712 married Winniewood, daughter of William Mackintosh, Younger of Borlum, with issue -

1. Alexander, his heir and successor.

2. Kenneth, who married Ann MacRae, with issue.

3. Colin, of whom nothing is known.

4. Helen, who married John, eldest son of Colin, IX. of Hilton, who died before his father in 1751, without issue.

Roderick was succeeded by his eldest son,

VIII. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, eighth of Fairburn, to whom the estates, which had been forfeited in 1715, were restored in 1731.

He married Jean, eldest daughter of Alexander Mackenzie, VIII.

of Davochmaluag, with issue -

1. Roderick, his heir and successor.

2. Kenneth, Lieutenant 21st Regiment, who was killed under General Burgoyne at Saratoga, unmarried, in September 1777.

Alexander was succeeded by his eldest son,

IX. RODERICK MACKENZIE, ninth of Fairburn, who in 1768 married Catharine, daughter of William Baillie of Rosehall, with issue -

1. Alexander, his heir and successor.

2. William, who died without issue.

3. Mary, who married James Ma.s.sey, without issue. She married secondly, Colonel Robert Murray Macgrigor, with issue - Janetta Catharine, who married, first, Robert Sutherland, and secondly, Lieutenant Hull and Barbara, who married Richard Hort, Royal Horse Guards Blue, with issue.

4. Barbara, who married, first, Kenneth Murchison of Tarradale, with issue - the late Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, President of the Royal Geographical Society, who married a daughter of General Hugonin, without issue; and the Hon. Kenneth Murchison.

Roderick was succeeded by his eldest son,

X. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, tenth of Fairburn, Major-General in the Army. He was created a Baronet. He died unmarried, the last direct heir male of the family, and was buried in the St. Clement's aisle of the old Church of Dingwall.

THE MACKENZIES OF KERNSARY.

THIS family is descended from the Mackenzies of Fair-burn, the last of the male line of the original Kernsary Mackenzies having, as already shown, been killed at the battle of Auldearn in 1645, when his sister carried the lineal representation of that family to the Mackenzies of Sand.

The descent of the second family is as follows - Murdoch Mackenzie, I. of Fairburn, married as his second wife Mary, daughter of Roderick MacFarquhar Maclean, with issue along with two other sons and daughters -

RODERICK MACKENZIE of Knockbaxter, in the vicinity of Dingwall.

He married Aegidia, daughter of Bayne of Tulloch (sasine 1636), with issue - (1) the Rev. Murdoch Mackenzie, who married a daughter of MacCulloch of Park; (2) Kenneth, who married a daughter of the Rev. John Mackenzie, Cromarty; and (3)-

I. THE REV. RODERICK MACKENZIE, who was minister of Gairloch from 1649 to 1710. Sir James Dixon Mackenzie of Findon says distinctly that Roderick was "ancestor of Kernsary," ["Genealogical Tables of the Mackenzies," Sheet 5.] and there appears to be no doubt about it. But it is not at all clear whether he or his brother Kenneth bought the estate from the Mackenzies of Coul, who then owned it. Mr John H. Dixon, in his interesting book on Gairloch, says that Roderick had a son Kenneth, born about 1703, by a sister of the Laird of Knockbain, but if there was such a son, which is highly improbable, he could not have been the purchaser of any property during his father's lifetime, who died seven years after Kenneth's alleged birth, when the father must have been very advanced in years - close upon eighty. The probability therefore is that Roderick's brother Kenneth - who, like himself, during a portion of his ministry was an Episcopalian clergyman - was the purchaser and that he died, without issue, before his brother, and left the estate to Roderick, who died in 1710, or perhaps to his eldest son Murdoch, who, in his marriage contract, dated 1708, two years before his father's death, is designated "of Kernsary." Mr Dixon has several references to these men, but being traditional they are more or less unreliable; and as yet no papers have been discovered which throw any light on the original purchase by this family.

Writing about their immediate progenitor Mr Dixon says - "In 1649 the Rev. Roderick Mackenzie, third son of Roderick Mackenzie of Knockbackster, was admitted minister of Gairloch and continued so until his death in March 1710, after an inc.u.mbency of sixty-one years. He seems to have been a man of quiet easy-going temperament.

When he came to Gairloch, Presbyterianism ruled; when Episcopacy was established in 1660, he conformed; and when the Revolution put an end to Episcopacy, he became a Presbyterian again." But that he never was a very enthusiastic one is clear from the Presbytery records during his inc.u.mbency, for they show that he seldom attended its meetings, though often specially cited by his brethren to do so. His brother Kenneth, who appears to have continued an Episcopalian all his life, was of a very different stamp. He seems to have spent a considerable portion of his early life in the Island of Bute, to which apparently he became very much attached, for when he left it and went to reside with his brother at Kernsary, probably as purchaser and proprietor of the estate, he took a smack load of Bute soil along with him in order that he might be buried in it when he died. A portion of this imported earth "was put into the Inverewe Church, so that when Kenneth was buried there he might lie beneath Bute soil the overplus was deposited in the garden of Kirkton house, where the heap is still preserved."

[Dixon's "Gairloch."] The same writer states distinctly that Kenneth came from Bute, that he was the actual purchaser of the estate, that he resided in the proprietor's house at Kirkton, that he officiated in the old church there, some remains of which are still to be seen, and, he adds - "a loose stone may be seen in the part of the ruined church which was used as the burial place of the Kernsary family; it is inscribed 'K M K 1678' and is believed to have recorded the date when the Rev. Kenneth built or restored the little church." But is it not much more likely to record the date of Kenneth's own death? Mr Dixon may be correct in the a.s.sumption that Kenneth, who was a sincere Episcopalian, had to leave Bute during the troubles of the Covenanting period, and seek a safe refuge in his brother's parish, who very probably had no objection to preaching in his church according to the Episcopal form to which he had himself openly conformed not many years before.

Indeed, after the Revolution, in 1680, the Rev. Roderick, who had for twenty years been the Episcopalian minister of the parish, was allowed to remain in his charge until his death thirty years after without submitting himself to the Presbytery, and most amusing accounts are given of the manner in which his Presbyterian successor was opposed on his induction and afterwards persecuted by the Gairloch Episcopalians.

There appears to be no doubt that the Rev. Kenneth died before his brother Roderick, minister of Gairloch, and left the estate of Kernsary either to him or his eldest son, Murdoch, who, as already stated, is described in 1708, two years before his father's death, as then of Kernsary." It has been shown that the estate was purchased by this family from the Mackenzies of Coul, and there is a sasine, dated the 27th of July, 1762, on a precept of "clare constat," granted by Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Coul in favour of Roderick Mackenzie, IV. of Kernsary, as nearest heir male to his grandfather.

The Rev. Roderick Mackenzie, minister of Gairloch married a daughter of Bayne of Knockbain, his father's neighbour, with issue, among several other sons, -

II. MURDOCH MACKENZIE, second of Kernsary, who married, first, his cousin, a daughter of Alexander Mackenzie, II. of Fairburn, without male issue.

He married, secondly, Anna, eldest daughter of Charles Mackenzie, I. of Letterewe (marriage contract 1708), with issue -

III. RODERICK MACKENZIE, third of Kernsary, who as her second husband married Margaret, youngest daughter of Alexander Mackenzie, III. of Ballone (sasine to her in 1742), by his wife Barbara, daughter of Kenneth Mor Mackenzie, I. of Dundonnel, and niece of Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, with issue -

1. Roderick, his heir and successor.

2. Hector, who died without issue.

3. Ann, who married George Mackenzie of Kildonan, third son of James, brother of George Mackenzie, II. of Ardloch, with issue - a son James.

4. Mary, who married John Ross, Inverness.

Roderick was succeeded by his eldest son,

IV. RODERICK MACKENZIE, fourth of Kernsary, who married his cousin Mary, eldest daughter of Alexander Mackenzie, IV. of Ballone, by his wife, Catherine, daughter of George Mackenzie, II. of Gruinard.

She was celebrated for her great beauty, and was immortalised as "Mali chruinn donn" in one of the best songs in the Gaelic language, composed by William Mackenzie, a native of Gairloch, better known as "An Ceistear Crubach," or the Lame Catechist. By her Roderick had issue -