History of the Mackenzies Part 60

VI. WILLIAM MACKENZIE, Captain 72nd Regiment, said to have been the handsomest man in his day in the Highlands. In 1829 he unsuccessfully claimed the Chiefs.h.i.+p of the clan. (See pp. 351-355).

He married Margaret, daughter of Wilson of Wilsonton, with issue -

1. John, who died young; and three daughters, two of whom, both named Mary, died young. The third, Margaret Innes, married Lachlan Maclachlan, Killinochannich, Argyles.h.i.+re, without issue.

Captain William having died without male issue, was succeeded as representative of the family by his cousin,

VII. MAJOR-GENERAL ALEXANDER MACKAY MACKENZIE, eldest surviving son of the distinguished Colonel Alexander Mackenzie, fourth son of William Mackenzie, IV., and brother of Captain John, V. of Gruinard.

He married Marion, daughter of the Rev. William Colville of Newton, Cambridges.h.i.+re, with issue -

1. John.

2. Stuart.

3. Lilias.

4. Sybil.

He died in London on the 21st of May, 1879, when a sketch of his career by the present writer, appeared in "Celtic Magazine," vol.

IV., pp. 321-327.

THE MACKENZIES OF FAWLEY COURT AND FARR.

I. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, the first of this remarkable family prominently known in the engineering world, was born at Wester Fairburn, in the county of Ross, on the 5th of June, 1769, and educated at the Grammar School, Inverness. He joined an old school-fellow, David Mackintosh, a native of Cawdor, Nairns.h.i.+re, as a firm of contractors and engineers. They constructed several ca.n.a.ls in England, and were very successful. He married Mary, daughter of William Austin, from her great beauty known as one of the "Lancas.h.i.+re Witches,"

with issue -

1. William, of whom presently.

2. Alexander, C.E., who was born at Hollinwood, Lancas.h.i.+re, in 1796. He married, with issue - (1) William Seager, who married, first, a daughter of Thomas Woodhouse, C.E., with issue; and secondly, a daughter of George Woodhouse, C.E. William was for many years a civil engineer in the employment of the Russian Government, and lived for some time at Nyksa in that country. He afterwards went to Canada, and died in London on the 26th of February, 1887; (2) Kenneth, C.E., killed in a railway accident near Bordeaux, in France, unmarried; (3) Richard, C.E., who married his cousin, Eliza, daughter of John Griffith, and died at Montreal on the 16th of February, 1887; (4) Alexander, CE., who was killed in a railway accident in Canada, without issue; (5) Mary, who married Mr Scott, in Canada.

3. Daniel, who was born in 1799, and died in 1802.

4. John, who was born on the 1st of November, 1804 went to Virginia as a planter, and died there, unmarried.

5. David, born in 1807, and died in 1811.

6. Thomas, who was born in 1808, and died in 1811, the same day as his brother, both being buried in the same grave.

7. Edward, from whom the Mackenzies of Fawley Court, Farr, etc.

8. Sarah, born in 1797, and died unmarried.

9. Margaret, who married John Griffith, with issue - (1) Edward Mackenzie, who settled in the United States, and married a daughter of Colonel Campbell; (2) William Alexander, who settled in Canada and married a daughter of Mr Baldwin, Baldwin House, Boston, United States, without issue. He lives in Quebec. (3) Mary, who married Slack Davis, MA., of Oxford, barrister-at-law, a well-known writer and poet in America, where he died on the 31st of March, 1889; (4) Alice, who married Thomas Musgrave, with issue; (5) Emily Mackenzie, who married Joseph William Painter, barrister, deceased, with issue - several sons, ranching near Denver, Colorado; (6) Harriet, who married William Johnson Shaw, of Buenos Ayres, with issue; and (7) Eliza Ann, who married her cousin, Richard Mackenzie, C.E., Montreal, above mentioned.

10. Mary, born in 1814, and married James Barnard, s.h.i.+powner, Greenock, without issue. She died in 1875.

11. Eliza, who married Alexander Duckworth, with issue.

Alexander died on the 23rd of February, 1836, aged 66 years, his wife having predeceased him on the 8th of June, 1828. They were both buried at Blackburn, Lancas.h.i.+re. He was succeeded as representative of the family by his eldest son,

II. WILLIAM MACKENZIE, afterwards of Newbie, Dumfries-s.h.i.+re, and of Auchenskeoch, County of Kirkcud-bright, who was born at Marsden Chapel on the 20th of March, 1794. He was a celebrated engineer, first beginning his career under David Mackintosh, his father's partner. He subsequently practised his profession under Telford. He made his way very rapidly, taking part in most of the great engineering works - railways, ca.n.a.ls, and bridges - of his time; and in the Shannon improvements, in connection with which the Secretary for Ireland complimented him in the highest terms in the House of Commons. After the introduction of railways he constructed the great Lime Street tunnel under Liverpool. He afterwards contracted for and engineered many railways - in some of which be was partner with John Stephenson and others - in Scotland and England, including the Glasgow and Greenock line, the London and Birmingham, the Trent Valley, the Lancaster and Carlisle, the North Union, the Ormskirk, and the Caledonian railway. He and Bra.s.sey finding they were tendering against one another, in 1841 joined forces for French railways, and constructed under the firm name of Mackenzie & Bra.s.sey (which consisted of himself, his brother Edward, and Bra.s.sey) the Paris and Rouen and Paris and Boulogne and Amiens, and several other railways in France, Belgium, and Spain, notably the Barcelona and Seville, and the Paris and Bourdeaux lines. Both King Louis Philippe and his successor Prince Louis Napoleon, then President of the French Republic and afterwards Emperor, showed him many marks of friends.h.i.+p and esteem, the latter having decided to make him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour just before he died. In 1851, at Tours, at the opening of the Paris and Orleans Railway, Napoleon, grasping him by the band, thus addressed him - "I am happy to see you again so well. I am still happier to have the opportunity of thanking you, as President, for the great and useful works you have executed in France. I shall be glad to confer on you the decoration of the Legion of Honour, and I trust your Government will permit you to wear a distinction so well-merited." On the same occasion Napoleon exchanged portraits with him. Mackenzie, however, died very soon after, before the honour offered him by the President of the French Republic could be formally conferred upon him. In 1844 he was a claimant to the Muirton of Fairburn estate, but he does not seem to have followed it up.

He married, first, on the 9th of November, 1819, Mary, daughter of James Dalziel, Glasgow, a native of Rothesay, county of Bute, without issue. She died on the 19th of December, 1838, aged 49 years. He married secondly, on the 31st of December, 1839, Sarah, daughter of William Dewhurst of Chorley, Lancas.h.i.+re (she died in 1866), also without issue. He died on the 20th of October, 1851, when he was succeeded in his estates, and as representative of the family in this country, by his youngest brother,

III. EDWARD MACKENZIE, who was born at Witton, Lancas.h.i.+re, on the 1st of May, 1811, and who, as has been already seen, was one of the partners of Mackenzie & Bra.s.sey. Shortly after the death of his brother William, from whom he inherited Newbie and other estates in the county of Dumfries, and Auchenskeoch in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, Edward retired, and in 1853 purchased the Manor and estate of Fawley, in the counties of Buckingham and Oxford, the n.o.ble mansion-house of which was rebuilt by Christopher Wren in 1684. He was a J.P., D.L., and in 1862, High Sheriff of Oxfords.h.i.+re and J.P. for the counties of Buckingham, Dumfries, and Kirkcudbright.

He married first, on the 29th of January, 1839, Mary, daughter of William Dalziel of the Craigs, Dumfries-s.h.i.+re, a descendant of the first Earl of Carnwarth, with issue -

1. William Dalziel, his heir and successor.

2. Edward Philippe of Auchenskeoch, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright; the Craigs, Dumfries-s.h.i.+re, and Downham Hall, Suffolk, educated at Harrow and Oxford. He was formerly a Lieutenant in the 9th Lancers, and Colonel of the Loyal Suffolk Yeomanry Hussars. In 1882 he was High Sheriff of Suffolk, of which county he is a J.P.

and D.L., as also J.P. for Norfolk and Dumfries. He was born on the 14th of March, 1849, and married, in October, 1865, Helen Jane, third daughter of Henry Baskerville, J.P. and D.L., of Crowsley Park, Oxfords.h.i.+re, with issue - a daughter, Beryl Marie Baskerville, who on the 30th of August, 1890, married Colonel Geoffry Barton, C.B., of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, with issue - Philip Geoffry, born in 1891.

3. Austin, educated at Eton, late of Warmanbie, Dumfries-s.h.i.+re, formerly Lieutenant 3rd Battalion Scots Fusiliers, present Master of the Woodland Pytchley Hounds, and J.P for Dumfries-s.h.i.+re and North Hants. He was born on the 10th of October, 1856, and on the 31st of January, 1878, married Lucy, daughter of Major Gustavus Tuite Dalton of Kell, County Meath, half brother of the third Marquis of Headfort, without issue.

4. Keith Ronald, of Gillott's Oxon, who was born on the 17th of May, 1861, educated at Clifton, and is still unmarried.

5. Marie Ada, who in 1869 married John William Rhodes of Hennerton, Berks, formerly Lieutenant 60th Rifles, with issue--John Edward, Lieutenant 60th Rifles; Breda; Victor; Wilfrid; and Violet.

6. Claire Evelyn, who in 1866 married Francis Henry of Elmestree, late 9th Lancers, and now Lieutenant-Colonel Gloucesters.h.i.+re Yeomanry Hussars, with issue - Gilbert Francis, Lieutenant 9th Lancers Vivian, Lieutenant Royal Fusiliers; Edward; Mary; Maud; and Olive.

7. Sarah Rosa, who married John Edward Cooke, with issue--Bertram Hunter; Montague Edward; aud Mignon.

8. Alice Edith, who in 1881 married Major Walter Partridge, late of the 61st Regiment, with issue - two daughters, Edith St. Ives and Maud.

9. Aimee Gertrude, who on the 22nd of October, 1872, married Sir William Robert Clayton, sixth Baronet of Marden Park, without issue.

10. Mary Maude Janetta, unmarried.

Edward Mackenzie married, secondly, in 1864, Ellen daughter of James Mullett, of Tours, France, who survives him, without issue.

He died on the 27th of September, 1880, and was succeeded by his eldest son,

IV. WILLIAM DALZIEL MACKENZIE, M.A., Oxford, educated at Harrow, now of Fawley Court, Bucks; Thetford, Norfolk; Farr, Inverness; and Newbie, Dumfries-s.h.i.+re. He was born on the 31st of March, 1840, at Eastbank, Renfrews.h.i.+re, and is a barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple, and Hon. Major of the Queen's Own Oxfords.h.i.+re Hussars. He was High Sheriff of that county in 1873, is a D.L. of Inverness-s.h.i.+re, and a J.P. of the counties of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Bucks, and Oxford, and was for some time a director of the London and North Western Railway Company. He married on the 1st of December, 1863, Mary Anna, eldest daughter of the late Henry Baskerville, J.P., D.L., of Crowsley Park, Oxfords.h.i.+re, by Mary Anna, daughter of John Standfast Burton, father of Lieutenant-Colonel John Edward Burton-Mackenzie, late 91st Highlanders, now of Kilcoy, with issue -

1. William Roderick Dalziel, who was born on the 2nd of September, 1864. He is Captain in the 2nd Battalion (Inverness Militia) Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, and on the 21st of November, 1888, married Maud Evelyn, eldest daughter of General Sir George Wentworth Higginson, K.C.B., by Florence Virginia Fox, daughter of the first Baron Castletown, with issue - Douglas William Alexander Dalzell, born on the 2nd of October, 1889; Kenneth Fitzpatrick, born on the 13th of June, 1891; and Archibald Edward, who was born in July 1892 and died in March, 1893.

2. Edward Baskerville, Second Lieutenant 2nd Battalion Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders (Inverness Militia), who was born on the 11th of December, 1874.

3. Mary Gwendoline, who, on the 15th of November, 1887, married Duncan Davidson of Tulloch, eldest son of the late Duncan Caithness Reay Davidson, by his wife Georgina Elizabeth, daughter of the late Dr John Mackenzie of Eileanach, fourth son of Sir Hector Mackenzie, fourth Baronet and XI. of Gairloch.

4. Isla Jessie, who on the 23rd of February, 1892, married Harry Officer Blackwood, Captain 4th Battalion Lincolns.h.i.+re Regiment, and son of the late Richard Blackwood of Hartwood, New South Wales, by a daughter of Sir Robert Officer, K.C.M.G.

5. Aimee Dorothea.

6. Kathleen Helen.