MACKAY,
the name of a numerous and powerful clan in the north-west of the
county of Sutherland, styled in Gaelic the Siol Mhorgan, or
race of Morgan; badge, the bulrush. The accounts of its origin are
various. In the Celtic MS of 1450, there is no reference to it,
although mention is made of the Mackays of Kintyre, who were called
of Ugadale. These, however, were vassals of the Isles, and had no
connexion with the Mackays of Strathnaver. Pennant assigns to them a
Celto-Irish descent, in the twelfth century, after King William the
Lion had defeated Harald, earl of Orkney and Caithness, and taken
possession of these districts. Mr. Skene Highlands of Scotland,
p. 288) supposes that they were descended from the aboriginal
Gaelic inhabitants of Caithness. The Norse Sagas state that about
the beginning of the 12th century, “there lived in the Dölum
of Katanesi (or Strathnaver) a man named Moddan, a noble and rich
man,” and that his sons were Magnus Orfi and Ottar, the Iarl in
Thurso. The title of iarl was the same as the Gaelic maormor, and
Mr. Skene is of opinion that Moddan and his son Ottar were the
Gaelic maormors of Caithness.
Sir Robert Gordon, in his voluminous History of Sutherland (p.
302), from a similarity of badge and armorial bearings, accounts the
clan Mackay a branch of the Forbeses, but this is by no means
probable. Alexander, the first of the family, aided in driving the
Danes from the north. His son Walter, chamberlain to Adam, bishop of
Caithness, married that prelate’s daughter, and had a son, Martin,
who received from his maternal grandfather certain church lands in
Strathnaver, being the first of the family who obtained possessions
there. Martin had a son, Magnus or Manus, who fought at Bannockburn
under Bruce, and had two sons, Morgan and Farquhar. From Morgan the
clan derived their Gaelic name of Clan-wic-Worgan, or Morgan, and
from Farquhar were descended the Clan-wic-Farquhar in Strathnaver.
Donald, Morgan’s son, married a daughter of Macneill of Gigha,
who was named Iye, and had a son of the same name, in Gaelic Aodh,
pronounced like Y. The common translation of Aodh is Hugh, but amid
all the fanciful conjectures that have been thrown out as to the
derivation of the name, it seems to have been forgotten that the Iye
was borne primarily by an insular chief, and seems not unlikely to
have originated in the Gaelic word I, an island. Aodh had a son,
another Donald, called Donald Macaodh, or Mackaoi, and it is from
this son that the clan has acquired the patronymic of Mackay. He and
his son were killed in the castle of Dingwall, by William, earl of
Sutherland, in 1395. It appears from Sir Robert Gordon’s History (p.
60), that the earl had a feud with him and his son, Donald Mackay,
in which many lives were lost, and great depredations committed on
both sides. To put an end to it, the earl proposed a meeting with
them at Dingwall, in presence of the lord of the Isles, his
father-in-law, and some of the neighbouring barons, the friends of
both parties. This was acceded to, and in the castle of Dingwall a
discussion took place between the earl and Mackay, regarding the
points in dispute, when mutual reproaches passing between them, the
earl became so incensed as to kill Mackay and his son with his own
hands. With some difficulty he effected his escape, and, hastening
home, prepared for his defence. The Mackays, however, were too weak
to take revenge, and a reconciliation took place between Robert, the
next earl, and Angus Mackay, the eldest of Donald’s surviving sons,
of whom there were other two, viz. Houcheon Dubh, and Neill.
Angus the eldest son, married a sister of Malcolm Macleod of
the Lewis, and had by her two sons, Angus Dubh, that is, dark
complexioned, and Roderick Gald, that is, Lowland. On their father’s
death, their uncle, Houcheon Dubh, became their tutor, and entered
upon the management of their lands. Understanding that his sister,
the widow of Angus, was ill-treated by the uncle, Malcolm Macleod,
with a large following, went to visit her, and on his return
homewards, he laid waste Strathnaver and a great part of the
Breachat in Sutherland, carrying off a large booty along with him.
As soon as Houcheon Dubh and his brother Neill were informed of
this, they acquainted Robert, earl of Sutherland, who immediately
despatched a large party to assist the Mackays. Overtaking Macleod
upon the marches between Ross and Sutherland, at a place called
Tuttim-Tarwach, a desperate conflict ensued. It “was long, furious,
cruel, and doubtful,” says Sir Robert Gordon, and “rather desperate
than resolute.” Malcolm Macleod was slain with all his party, save
one, and the goods and cattle were recovered.
In 1411, when Donald, lord of the Isles, in prosecution of his
claim to the earldom of Ross, burst into Sutherland, he was attacked
at Dingwall, by Angus Dubh, or Black Angus Mackay. The latter,
however, was defeated and taken prisoner, and his brother,
Roriegald, and many of his men were slain. After a short
confinement, Angus was released by the lord of the Isles, who,
desirous of cultivating the alliance of so powerful a chief, gave
him his daughter, Elizabeth, in marriage, and with her bestowed upon
him many lands by charter in 1415. He was called
Enneas-en-Imprissi, or “Angus the Absolute,” from his great
power. At this time, we are told, Angus Dubh could bring into the
field 4,000 fighting men.
In 1426, Angus invaded Caithness, with all the forces he could
collect, and spoiled and laid waste that district. The inhabitants
met him at Harpisdell, where a battle was fought, in which both
sides suffered severely, but the result was not decisive, and Mackay
continued his depredations. To put a stop to the disturbances in the
Highlands, James I., early in the following year, summoned the
principal chiefs to meet him and his parliament at Inverness, and
among the number arrested by the king on this occasion, about forty
in all, was Angus Dubh, with his four sons. After a short
confinement, Angus was pardoned and released with three of them, the
eldest, Neill Mackay, being kept as a hostage for his good behaviour.
Being confined in the Bass at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, he
was ever after called Neill Wasse (or Bass) Mackay. During his
imprisonment, his son, Thomas Macheill, proprietor of the lands of
Creigh, Spanziedaill, and Pulrossie in Sutherland, had a quarrel
with Mowat of Freshwick. To avoid his vengeance, Mowat took refuge,
with his followers, in the chapel of St. Duffus near Tain, but they
were followed thither by Thomas, who slew him and his people, and
burnt the chapel to the ground. In consequence of this outrage the
king issued a proclamation against Thomas Macneill, promising his
lands as a reward to any one who would kill or apprehend him. Angus
Murray, son of Alexander Murray of Cubin, with a view to his
apprehension, offered his brothers, Morgan and Neill Macneill, for
their assistance, his two daughters in marriage, besides promising
to aid them in getting possession of the lands of Angus Dubh in
Strathnaver. They accordingly apprehended their brother, Thomas, who
was delivered up to the king, and executed at Inverness. Murray gave
his daughters in marriage to Neill and Morgan Macneill, as he had
promised, and thereafter made an incursion into Strathnaver, to
seize the lands of Angus Dubh Mackay. The latter, being too old to
lead his clan in person, gave the command of it to John Aberigh, his
natural son, but to save the effusion of blood, he sent a message to
his cousins, Neill and Morgan, offering to surrender to them all his
lands in Strathnaver, if they would allow him to retain Kintail.
This offer was rejected, and a desperate battle took place at
Drumnacoub, near Tongue. Among the slain were the beginners of the
strife, Angus Murray and his two sons-in-aw, Neill and Morgan
Macneill. John Aberigh, the victor, lost an arm in the conflict.
After the battle, Angus Dubh, the chief, caused himself to be
carried to the field, to search for the bodies of his slain cousins,
when he was killed by an arrow from a Sutherland man, who lay
concealed near the spot.
In 1437, Neill Wasse Mackay was released from confinement in
the Bass, and on assuming the chiefship, he bestowed on John
Aberigh, for his attention to his father, the lands of Lochnaver in
fee simple, which were long possessed by his posterity, that
particular branch of the Mackays, called the Sliochd-ean-Aberigh, or
an-Abrach. Neill Wasse, soon after his accession, ravaged Caithness,
but died the same year, leaving two sons, Angus, and John Roy
Mackay, the latter founder of another branch, called the
Sliochd-ean-Roy.
Angus Mackay, the elder son, assisted the Keiths in invading
Caithness in 1464, when they defeated the inhabitants of that
district in an engagement at Blaretannie. He was burnt to death in
the church of Tarbet in 1475, by the men of Ross, whom he had often
molested. With a daughter, married to Sutherland of Dilred, he had
three sons, viz., John Reawigh, meaning yellowish red, the colour of
his hair; Y-Roy Mackay; and Neill Naverigh Mackay.
To revenge his father’s death, John Reawigh Mackay, the eldest
son, raised a large force, and assisted by Robert Sutherland, uncle
to the earl of Sutherland, invaded Strathoikell, and laid waste the
lands of the Rosses in that district. A battle took place, 11th
July 1487, at Aldy-Charrish, when the Rosses were defeated, and
their chief, Alexander Ross of Balnagowan, and 17 other principal
men of that clan were slain. The victims returned home with a large
booty.
It was by forays such as these that the great Highland chiefs,
and even some of the lowland nobles, contrived, in former times, to
increase their stores and add to their possessions, and the Mackays
soon obtained a large accession to their lands by the following
circumstance, which strongly marks the manners of the age. The
nephew of the Mackay chief, Alexander Sutherland of Dilred, having
failed to repay a sum of money he had borrowed from Sir James Dunbar
of Cumnock, the latter took legal measures to secure his debt by
appraising part of his lands. The affront was the more galling as
the Dunbars had but recently settled in Sutherland, and the laird of
Dilred “grudged, as it were,” (says Sir Robert Gordon) “that a
stranger should brawe (brave) him at his owne doors.” Whilst in this
humour he happened to meet Sir James Dunbar’s brother, Alexander,
the husband of the countess dowager of Sutherland, and after some
altercation, a combat ensued, when Alexander Dunbar was killed. Sir
James immediately went to Edinburgh, and laid the matter before the
king, who caused Alexander Sutherland to be proclaimed a rebel, and
promised his lands to any one who should apprehend him. After some
search, he was taken, with ten of his followers, by his uncle, Y-Roy
Mackay, who had succeeded his brother, John Reawigh Mackay, as chief
of the Mackays. Sutherland was executed, and his lands bestowed on
Y-Roy Mackay. These were Armidall, Strathy, Golspietour, Kinnald,
Kilcolmkill, and Dilred, the charter of which was dated at
Inverness, 4th November 1449. “Avarice,” says Sir R.
Gordon, “is a strange vyce, which respects neither blood nor
friendship. This is the first infeftment that any of the familie of
Macky had from the king, so far as I can perceave by the records of
this kingdom; and they wer untill this tym possessors onlie of their
lands in Strathnaver, not careing much for any charters or
infeftments, as most pairts of the Highlanders have alwise done.” (Hist.
p. 80). In February 1512, Sir James Dunbar obtained a decree
before the court of session, setting aside the right of Y-Roy Mackay
to that part of the lands of Alexander Sutherland, over which his
security extended, and ordaining the earl of Sutherland, as superior
of the lands, to receive Sir James as his vassal. In 1516, Y-Roy
Mackay gave his bond of service to Adam Gordon of Aboyne, brother of
the earl of Huntly, who had become earl of Sutherland, by marriage
with Elizabeth, sister and heiress of the ninth earl, but died soon
after. Donald, his youngest son, slain at Morinsh, was ancestor of a
branch of the Mackays called the Sliochd-Donald-Mackay.
John, the eldest son, had no sooner taken possession of his
father’s lands, than his uncle, Neill Naverigh Mackay and his two
sons, assisted by a force furnished them by the earl of Caithness,
entered Strathnaver, and dispossessed him of his inheritance. John
hastened to the clan Chattan and the clan Kenzie, to crave their
aid, and, in his absence, his brother, Donald, with a small force,
surprised at night Neill Naverigh’s party at Dalnaivigh in
Strathnaver, and slew both his cousins and the greater part of their
men. Their father, Neill Naverigh, threw himself upon the generosity
of his nephews, but they ruthlessly ordered him to be beheaded by
the hands of his own foster-brother.
In 1517, in the absence of the earl of Sutherland, who had
wrested from John Mackay a portion of his lands, he and his brother
Donald invaded Sutherland with a large force. They were met at a
place called Torran-Dubh, near Rogart in Strathfleet, by the
Sutherland men, under Alexander Sutherland, natural brother of the
countess, and, after a furious battle, defeated, with great
slaughter. Sir Robert Gordon says that this “was the greatest
conflict that hitherto hes been foughtin between the inhabitants of
these countreyes, or within the diocy of Catteyness, to our
knowledge.” (Page 92).
After several reverses, John Mackay submitted to the earl in
1518, and granted him his bond of service. But such was his restless
and turbulent disposition that he afterwards prevailed upon
Alexander Sutherland, the bastard, who had married his sister and
pretended a claim to the earldom, to raise the standard of
insurrection against the earl. Alexander Sutherland was taken
prisoner and beheaded on the spot, but John Mackay continued his
hostile inroads into the earl’s country. On his way home from one of
these excursions, with a large quantity of cattle, he was attacked
and defeated by the master of Sutherland, and made his escape with
great difficulty. After this he again submitted to the earl, and a
second time gave him his bond of service and ‘manrent’ in 1522. He
died in 1529, and was succeeded by his brother, Donald.
In 1539, Donald Mackay obtained restitution of the greater
part of the family estates, which had been seized by the Sutherland
Gordons, and in 1542 he was present in the engagement at Solway
Moss. Soon after, he committed various ravages in Sutherland. He
began by burning the village of Knockartol and plundering
Strathbrora, but although obliged to retreat by a body of the
Sutherland men, under Sir Hugh Kennedy, he soon returned with a
larger force. He was again, however, compelled to retreat, after a
skirmish at Lochbuy, where he lost several of his men. Shortly
thereafter he was apprehended, and committed a close prisoner to the
castle of Foulis. After a considerable time he became reconciled to
the earl of Sutherland, to whom he gave his bond of service and
‘manrent’ on 8th April 1549.
In the absence of the bishop of Caithness in England, the earl
of Caithness and Donald Mackay took possession of his lands, and
levied the rents, as they pretended, for his behoof. When he
returned, however, they refused to deliver up any part of his
property, or to account for the rents which they had received in his
name. The earls of Huntly and Sutherland summoned them, in
consequence, to appear before them at Helmsdale, to answer for their
intromissions with the bishop’s rents. The earl at once complied
with the summons, and made a satisfactory arrangement. Mackay, on
his part, was forced to appear with great reluctance, when he was
once more committed a prisoner to the castle of Foulis, whence,
however, he escaped. He died in 1550.
In 1551, in the earl of Sutherland’s absence, the Mackays
again proceeded to plunder and lay waste the country Y-Mackay, the
son of Donald, with the Strathnaver men, entered Sutherland, but was
forced back by the earl’s brother, Alexander Gordon, who, pushing
into the district of the Mackays, wasted it, and carried off a large
booty in goods and cattle. Y-Mackay, in his turn, retaliated, and
this system of mutual aggression and spoliation continued for
several years. In 1555, Y-Mackay was summoned to appear before the
queen regent at Inverness, to answer for his depredations, but,
disobeying the citation, a commission was granted to the earl of
Sutherland, to bring him to justice. The earl accordingly entered
Strathnaver with a great force, but Mackay contrived to elude him,
and the earl laid siege to the castle of Borwe, the principal
strength in Strathnaver, which he took and completely demolished.
Mackay, on his part, entered Sutherland secretly, and burnt the
church of Loth. He was, however, twice defeated by Mackenzie and his
countrymen in Strathbrora, and seeing no chance of escape, he at
last, in 1556, surrendered himself to the queen-regent, and was
committed prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh.
During his imprisonment, his kinsman, John Mor Mackay, who
took charge of his estates, entered Sutherland, in the earl’s
absence, with a large body of his clan, and spoiled and wasted that
province, burning the chapel of St. Ninian. At the foot of the hill
of Benmore in Berriedale, they were surprised by a Sutherland force,
and, after an obstinate resistance, defeated with great slaughter.
On his release from his confinement in Edinburgh castle, Y-Mackay
fought for awhile, with great bravery, against the English on the
borders, and on his return to Strathnaver, he submitted himself to
the earl of Sutherland.
In 1562, he joined queen Mary at Inverness, and received a
remission of the crime of having, in 1548, conducted an English army
to Haddington. On 21st December, 1566, the queen gifted
his lands to Huntly at Stirling. On the deaths, by poison, in 1567,
of the earl and countess of Sutherland, Y-Mackay, instigated by the
earl of Caithness, taking advantage of the minority of the young
earl, their son, then only 15 years of age, invaded the county of
Sutherland, wasted the barony of Skibo, entered the town of Dornoch,
and under pretence of a quarrel with the Murrays, by whom it was
chiefly inhabited, set fire to it. so great was his power, and so
extensive his spoliations at this time, that in the first parliament
of James VI., 15th December 1567, the lords of the
articles were required to report, “By what means might Mackay be
dantoned?” In 1570, he was prevailed upon by Hugh Murray of
Aberscors to accompany him to Strathbogie, where the young earl of
Sutherland resided with his kinfolk the Gordons, when he entered
into an engagement with the earls of Huntly and Sutherland, to
assist the latter against the earl of Caithness, in consideration of
which, and on payment of £3,000 Scots, he obtained from the earl of
Huntly, the heritable right and title of the lands of Strathnaver.
Influenced, however, by Barbara Sinclair, the sister of the earl of
Caithness and wife of the young earl of Sutherland, with whom he
publicly cohabited, he broke his engagement, and continued to
oppress the tenants and dependents of the latter. He died in 1571,
full of remorse, it is said, for the wickedness of his life.
His son, Houcheon, or Hugh, succeeded him when only eleven
years old. In 1587, he joined the earl of Caithness, when attacked
by the earl of Sutherland, although the latter was his superior. He
was excluded from the temporary truce agreed to by the two earls in
March of that year, and in the following year they came to a
resolution to attack him together. Having received secret notice of
their intention from the earl of Caithness, he made his submission
to the earl of Sutherland, and ever after remained faithful to him.
Mr. Robert Mackay of Thurso, in his ‘History of the Mackays,’ (p.
157) says on this: “If Hugh Mackay was faulty in deserting and
otherwise acting against Lord Caithness, who had never done him any
injury, he made no profit by it, or by connecting himself with
Sutherland. The Sinclairs, no doubt, had their faults, but the
Gordons had theirs in no less degree. The policy and displeasure of
the former were more easily discovered, and consequently more
readily avoided; while those of the Gordons were more deep and
abiding. Each had their wide grasp; but that of the Gordons was
excessive and gigantic; to which it must be added, that the
principal cause of the downfall of the Caithness family was their
being forsaken by Mackay; and that he was the chief instrument in
serving and exalting the sinking family of Sutherland, to the great
detriment of his own, after his time.”
In 1589, Sinclair of Murkie, brother of the earl of Caithness,
marched into Strathully, with an army of 3,000 men, and having
eluded the Sutherland sentinels, he passed forward to a place called
Crissalligh, on the height of Strathbrora. Mackay, who was then at
Dunrobin, was sent against him by the earl of Sutherland, with five
or six hundred men. Finding, on coming up to them, that they were in
great disorder, and that a party of them were skirmishing with some
of the Sutherland retainers, he resolved, even with his inferior
force, to attack them at once. Crossing, therefore, the water which
was between them, he rushed, with his men, upon Sinclair’s army, and
after a long and hotly contested battle, defeated them. In October
1590 archers, under the command of Donald Mackay of Scourie, who
had, some time before, fled from Sutherland for having despoiled
Assynt, and had placed himself under the protection of the earl of
Caithness. A furious conflict ensued, which lasted for a
considerable time, but on the approach of night the Caithness men
were forced to retire from the field. Donald Mackay of Scourie being
afterwards apprehended and imprisoned in Dunrobin castle, was, at
the request of his brother, Hugh Mackay, released by the earl of
Sutherland, to whom he ever afterwards remained faithful. While the
Caithness men were engaged in their late excursion into Sutherland,
Hugh Mackay entered into Caithness, and laid waste everything in his
course, even to the gates of Thurso. He carried off a large quantity
of booty without opposition, which he divided among his countrymen,
according to custom.
Of the army raised by the earl of Sutherland in 1601, to
oppose the threatened invasion of his territories by the earl of
Caithness, the advanced guard was commanded by Patrick Gordon of
Gartay and Donald Mackay of Scourie, and the right wing by Hugh
Mackay. On its approach, however, the Caithness men took to flight.
In August 1602, Hugh Mackay accompanied the earl of Sutherland, and
his brother, Sir Robert Gordon, on a visit to Patrick Stuart, earl
of Orkney. In 1610 he and his son, Donald Mackay, afterwards Lord
Reay, were summoned before the privy council at Edinburgh, by the
earl of Caithness, for giving succour and protection to John
Sutherland, an outlaw, the son of Hugh Mackay’s sister. He had lived
in Berriedale, under the earl of Caithness, whose oppressions had
driven him to acts of vengeance and spoliation, and having
disregarded a citation to appear at Edinburgh, to answer certain
charges against him, he had been proclaimed a rebel. In obedience to
the summons Mackay hastened to the capital, where he met Sir Robert
Gordon, who had arrived from England for the purpose of assisting
him on the occasion. Lord Caithness, however, was easily induced to
settle the matter, and, on his invitation subsequently, the Mackay
chief and his brother William spent the following Christmas with him
at Girnigo castle. His design in asking them was to separate the
Mackays from the Sutherland interests, but in this he was
unsuccessful. Hugh Mackay died at Tongue, 11th September
1614, in his 55th year. He was connected with both the
rival houses by marriage; his first wife being Lady Elizabeth
Sinclair, second daughter of George, fourth earl of Caithness, and
relict of Alexander Sutherland of Duffus; and his second, Lady Jean
Gordon, eldest daughter of Alexander, eleventh earl of Sutherland.
The former lady was drowned, and left a daughter. By the latter he
had two sons, Sir Donald Mackay of Far, first Lord Reay, and John,
who married in 1619, a daughter of James Sinclair of Murkle, by whom
he had Hugh Mackay and other children.
Sir Donald Mackay of Far, the elder son, was, by Charles I.,
created a peer of Scotland, by the title of Lord Reay, by patent,
dated 20th June, 1628, to him and his heirs male
whatever. See REAY, Lord. From him the land of the Mackays in
Sutherland acquired the name of “Lord Reay’s Country,” which it has
ever since retained. It now belongs to the duke of Sutherland.
The Mackays became very numerous in the northern counties, and
the descent of their chiefs, in the male line, has continued
unbroken from their first appearance in the north down to the
present time. In the county of Sutherland, they multiplie greatly
also, under other names, such as M’Phail, Polson, Bain, Nielson, &c.
The names of Mackie and M’Ghie are also said to be derived from
Mackay. The old family of M’Ghie of Balmaghie, which for about 600
years possessed estates in Galloway, used the same arms as the chief
of the Mackays. They continued in possession of their lands till
1786. Balnaghie means Mackay town. The name M’Crie is supposed to be
a corruption of M’GHIE.
At the time of the rebellion of 1745, the Mackays were one of
the clans that continued faithful to the government, at which time
its effective force was estimated at 800 men by President Forbes. It
is said that in the last Sutherland fencibles, raised in 1793 and
disbanded in 1797, there were 33 John Mackays in one company alone.
In 1794 the Reay fencibles, 800 strong, were raised in a few weeks,
in “Lord Reay’s country,” the residence of the clan Mackay. The
names of no fewer than 700 of them had the prefix of Mac. From 1795
to 1802, when it was disbanded, the regiment was employed in
Ireland, where it soon acquired the confidence of Generals Lake and
Nugent. The former was particularly attached to the Reay fencibles,
and after the defeat of Castlebar, he frequently exclaimed, “If I
had had my brave and honest Reays there, this would not have
happened.” At Tara Hall, 26th May, 1798, three companies
of the Reays distinguished themselves in an attack upon a large body
of rebels, whom they drove from a strong position, with the loss of
about 400 killed and wounded, they themselves having only 26 men
killed and wounded.
With regard to the term Siol Mhorgan applied to the
clan Mackay, Mr. Robert Mackay of Thurso, the family historian,
denies that as a clan they were ever known by that designation,
which rests, he says, only on the affirmation of Sir Robert Gordon,
without any authority. He adds: “There are, indeed, to this day,
persons of the surname Morgan and Morganach, who are understood to
be of the Mackays, but that the whole clan, at any period, went
under that designation, is incorrect; and those of them who did so,
were always few and of but small account. The name seems to be of
Welsh origin; but how it obtained among the Mackays it is impossible
now to say.”
_____
Of the branches of the clan Mackay, the family of Scourie is
the most celebrated. They were descended from Donald Mackay of
Scourie and Eriboll, elder son of Iye Mackay III., chief of the clan
from 1550 to 1571, by his first wife, a daughter of Hugh Macleod of
Assynt. With regard to the manner in which they became possessed of
Scourie, and indeed of the whole parish of Edderachillis, an account
is given by the Rev. Mr. Falconer in the Old Statistical Account of
Scotland, which can only be reconciled with the family history by
considering Iye Mackay and the “Sir Hugh Mackay” of his narrative as
identical, and by rejecting the story about his son Donald’s mother.
Donald and his full brother, John Beg Mackay, were considered
illegitimate, because their patents were cousins. The chief of the
clan, styled “Sir Hugh Mackay,” having occasion, in 1550, to remit
some money to Edinburgh, was surprised to find his messenger return
the following day without it, as he had been robbed on the way by a
party of armed men, with blackened faces. The general suspicion of
the country fell upon James Macleod of Edderachillis, who was of a
turbulent and factious disposition, as the person who had employed
them to commit the robbery. With the Morisons of Durness he had
frequent quarrels, and Morison of Ashir, the principal man amongst
them, having, at that time, in his house, Donald Mackay, a natural
son of the Mackay chief, he proposed, both to the Mackays and his
own friends, that he should be laird of Edderachillis, if Macleod
could be made away with. A cousin of James Macleod, named Donald
Macleod, undertook to put him to death, on being promised the half
of Edderachilles and Donald Mackay’s mother for his wife. A party of
the Morisons, with Donald Mackay at their head, marched, in a dark
morning, towards the residence of James Macleod, and slew several of
his kinsmen, he himself being killed by a bullet from the musket of
his cousin, Donald Macleod. The latter, not receiving the reward
promised him, raised his friends in Assynt, and with them returned
to Edderachillis, where he found the Morisons prepared to meet and
fight him, at a place called Maldy. An engagement, however, was
prevented by “Sir Hugh Mackay” presenting himself on the top of a
neighbouring hill, with 300 men, and proposing to Donald Macleod, to
resign his pretensions to Edderachillis in favour of his son Donald,
and he himself, on his doing so, would grant him other lands on his
own estate, called the davoch of Hope. This proposal he acceded to.
It was, however, from his brother Hugh, who gave him a charter of
the lands, that Donald Mackay obtained Edderachillis, which
afterwards formed part of the estate of the Reay family, and that
branch of the Mackays which sprung from him adopted the designation
of Scourie.
Donald Mackay above mentioned, the son of Iye III., by his
wife, Euphemia, daughter of Hugh Munro of Assynt in Ross, brother of
the laird of Foulis, had three sons and four daughters. The sons
were Hugh, Donald, and William. Hugh, the eldest, succeeded his
father, and by the Scots Estates was appointed colonel of the Reay
countrymen. He married a daughter of James Corbet of Rheims, by whom
he had five sons, William, Hector, Hugh, the celebrated General
Mackay, commander of the government forces at the battle of
Killiecrankie, a memoir of whom is given below, James and Roderick.
He had also three daughters, Barbara, married to John, Lord Reay;
Elizabeth, to Hugh Munro of Eriboll, and Ann, to the Hon. Capt.
William Mackay of Kinloch. William and Hector, the two eldest sons,
both unmarried, met with untimely deaths. In February 1688, the earl
of Caithness, whose wife was younger than himself, having conceived
some jealousy against William, caused him to be seized at Dunnet,
while on his way to Orkney, with a party of 30 persons. He was
conveyed to Thurso, where he was immured in a dungeon, and after
long confinement was sent home in an open boat, and died the day
after. In August of the same year, his brother Hector, accompanied
by a servant, having gone to Aberdeenshire, on his way to Edinburgh,
was waylaid and murdered by William Sinclair of Dunbeath and John
Sinclair of Murkle, and their two servants. A complaint was
immediately raised before the justiciary, at the instance of John
earl of Sutherland and the relatives of the deceased against the
earl of Caithness and the two Sinclairs for these crimes. A counter
complaint was brought by Caithness against the parties pursuers, for
several alleged crimes from 1649 downwards, but it was fallen from,
and a compromise took place between the parties.
General Mackay’s only son, Hugh, major of his father’s
regiment, died at Cambray, in 1708, aged about 28. He left two sons,
Hugh and Gabriel, and a daughter. Hugh died at Breda, a
lieutenant-general in the Dutch service, and colonel of the Mackay
Dutch regiment, which took its name from his father. He had an only
daughter, the wife of Lieutenant-general Provost, of the British
service, who, on the death of his father-in-law, without male issue,
obtained the king’s license to bear the name and arms of Mackay of
Scourie in addition to his own, which his descendants in Holland
still bear. Gabriel, the younger son, lieutenant-colonel of the
Mackay regiment, died without issue. James, the next brother of
General Mackay, a lieutenant-colonel in his regiment, was killed at
Killiecrankie, and Roderick, the youngest, died in the East Indies,
both unmarried.
After General Hugh Mackay’s death, the Mackay regiment in the
Dutch service was commanded by his nephew, Brigadier-general Æneas
Mackay, who was wounded at Killiecrankie, and after him by his son,
Colonel Donald Mackay, who was killed at the battle of Fontenoy, May
11, 1745.
The representative of the family of Scourie, John Mackay, Esq.
of Rockville, at one period one of the clerks to the commissioners
for the affairs of India, which institution he resigned from loss of
sight, had two brothers, Hugh and William. Their father was the Rev.
Thomas Mackay, minister of the parish of Lairg in Sutherlandshire,
son of the Rev. John Mackay, minister there from 1714 to 1753,
having previously been minister of his native parish of Durness on
the west coast of the same county. Hugh, the second son, entered the
service of the East India Company in 1784, and served in the 4th
Madras native cavalry, He held the lucrative staff appointment of
agent for draught and carriage cattle to the army, under General
Wellesley, afterwards duke of Wellington, but though exempt from
regimental duty as a staff officer, he solicited permission to lead
his company in the battle of Assaye, 23d September, 1803, and was
refused. Rather, however, than remain idly with the baggage in the
rear, when his brother officers were engaged with the enemy, he
resolved to disobey, thereby risking his commission, and was killed
at the muzzle of the enemy’s guns, in that desperate charge of the
cavalry which decided the fate of the day. On the spot where he fell
his brother officers erected a monument to his memory.
William, the youngest son, after being educated at the parish
school of Lairg, went to sea at the age of 16. He made several
voyages to the East and West Indies, and was esteemed one of the
most skilful navigators in the Indian seas. In 1795, the ship Juno
of Calcutta, of which he was second officer, was sent on a voyage to
the coast of Pegu for a cargo of teakwood, and on its return was
wrecked on the coast of Arracan. The ship sprang a leak, and filled
so fast with water that but for the nature of her cargo, she must
inevitably have gone to the bottom. When her hull was under water,
she settled down, with her masts standing erect. To lighten her, the
main mast was cut away, and the unfortunate crew, 72 in number, took
refuge in the rigging of the two remaining masts. In this situation,
without food or water to drink, save what the rain supplied,
fourteen individuals, including the captain’s wife and her servant
maid, lived 23 days, and, when at length the wreck took the ground,
were saved. The rest perished. The principal survivor was William
Mackay, who published a narrative of his sufferings and the escape
of himself and his companions. From this narrative, Lord Byron
borrowed some of the most graphic incidents and most touching
passages in the description of a shipwreck in his poem of Don Juan.
In reference to these passages, Mr. Moore, his biographer, says: “It
will be felt, I think, by every reader, that this is one of the
instances in which poetry must be content to yield the palm to
prose. There is a pathos in the last sentence of the seaman’s
recital (See Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Juno, page 26) which
the artifices of metre and rhyme were sure to disturb, and which,
indeed, no verses, however beautiful, could half so naturally and
powerfully express.”
In 1801, William Mackay, who had resumed his mariner’s life
immediately after his wonderful preservation, was sent up the Red
Sea in command of a brig, with stores and provisions for General
Baird’s army, destined to co-operate with that of Sir Ralph
Abercromby in Egypt. On the voyage he had another marvellous escape
from shipwreck, and by superior seamanship not only saved his own
but many other ships of the fleet, particularly, the Real
Fidellissimo, with Colonel Ford and a detachment of the 86th
regiment, an account of which is given in an appendix to a
subsequent edition of his Narrative of the Loss of the Juno. He died
at Calcutta in 1804, from an affection of the liver, contracted
during the twenty-three dreadful days he passed on the wreck of the
Juno. In the churchyard of Calcutta there is a monument to his
memory, and in that of their native parish of Lairg in Sutherland a
square monument, with a separate tablet for each, commemorates the
characters of the Rev. John Mackay, and his son, and two grandsons.
General Mackay’s cousin-german, Captain William Mackay of
Borley, eldest son of Donald Mackay of Borley, second son of Donald,
first of Scourie, led a company of the Mackays at the battle of
Worcester in 1651, on the side of Charles II. He had three sons:
Captain Hugh Mackay of Scourie; Donald; and the Rev. John Mackay,
minister first of Durness, and afterwards of Lairg, above mentioned.
Donald, the second son, was a member of the council of the Darien
company in 1698, and was sent to Britain from the colony with an
address to the king, and a pressing request to the directors to send
out, with all expedition, supplies of provisions, ammunition, and
men. On his return to the colony, he found it abandoned. His fate
was a melancholy one. Being at sea in 1702, he harpooned a shark,
and having got entangled with the rope, was dragged overboard and
drowned.
_____
The eldest branch of the Mackays was that of the Clan-Abrach,
descended from John Aberigh Mackay, second son of Angus Dubh, who
received the lands of Achness, Breachat, and others, from his
brother, Neill Wasse. Of this family was Robert Mackay, writer,
Thurso, the historian of the clan Mackay. According to this
gentleman, John Aberigh, the first of this branch, gave his name to
the district of Strathnaver. In the Gaelic language, he says, the
inhabitants of Strathnaver are called Naverigh, and that tribe the
Sliochd-nan-Aberigh. John, their founder, some say, took his
appellation of Aberigh from Lochaber, where he resided in his youth
with some relatives, and from Strath-na-Aberich the transition is
natural to Strath-n’-Averich. Neill Naverich, above mentioned, was
so called from his having belonged to the Reay Country, that is,
Strathnaver. The Clan-Abrach were the most numerous and powerful
branch of the Mackays. They acted as wardens of their country, and
never betrayed their trust.
The Bighouse branch were descendants of William Mackay of Far,
younger half brother of Donald Mackay of Scourie, by his second
wife, Christian Sinclair, daughter of the laird of Dun.
The Strathy branch sprung from John Mackay of Dilred and
Strathy, brother of the first Lord Reay, and son of Hugh Mackay of
Far, by his wife, Lady Jane Gordon, eldest daughter of Alexander,
earl of Sutherland.
The Melness branch came from the Hon. Colonel Æneas Mackay,
second son of the first Lord Reay, by his first wife, the Hon.
Barbara Mackenzie, daughter of Lord Kintail.
The Kinloch branch descended from the Hon. Captain William
Mackay, and the Sandwood branch from the Hon. Charles Mackay, sons
of the first Lord Reay by his last wife, Marjory Sinclair, daughter
of Francis Sinclair of Stircoke.
The founder of the Holland branch of the Mackays, General Hugh
Mackay, prior to 1680, when a colonel in the Dutch service, and
having no prospect of leaving Holland, wrote for some of his near
relatives to go over and settle in that country. Amongst those were
his brother, James, and his nephews, Æneas and Robert, sons of the
first Lord Reay. The former he took into his own regiment, in which,
in a few years, he became lieutenant-colonel. The latter he sent to
school at Utrecht for a short time, and afterwards obtained
commissions for them in his own regiment. In the beginning of 1687,
several British officers in the Dutch service were recalled to
England by King James, and amongst others was Æneas Mackay, then a
captain. On his arrival in London, the King made him some favourable
propositions to enter his service, which he declined, and, in
consequence, when he reached Scotland, he was ordered to be
apprehended as a spy. He had been imprisoned nearly seven months in
Edinburgh castle, when the prince of Orange landed at Torbay, and he
was liberated upon granting his personal bond to appear before the
privy council when called upon, under a penalty of £500 sterling.
The Dutch Mackays married among the nobility of Holland, and one of
the families of that branch held the title of baron.
MACKAY, HUGH,
a distinguished military commander, the third son of Colonel Hugh
Mackay of Scourie, was born about 1640. His two elder brothers
having been murdered in the manner above shown, he early succeeded
to the family estate. Soon after the Restoration in 1660, he
obtained an ensign’s commission in the Royal Scots, then, from its
commanding officer, termed Douglas’ or Dumbarton’s regiment, and
accompanied it to France, on that corps being lent by Charles II. to
the French king. It is now the first foot of the British line. Among
his brother subalterns was a young Churchill, afterwards the great
duke of Marlborough, with whom he kept up a friendly correspondence
till his death. In 1669, with several other officers, he volunteered
into the service of Venice, and so greatly distinguished himself in
several engagements with the Turks in the island of Candia, that he
received from the Republic a medal of great value, in acknowledgment
of his services.
In 1672 he had the rank conferred on him of captain in
Dumbarton’s regiment, and was employed with it in the unprincipled
expedition of Louis against the United Provinces. His regiment
formed part of the division of the army which, under Marshal Turenne,
overran the province of Gueldres, and captured most of the Dutch
fortresses on the Meuse and Waal. At the small town of Bommel, in
Guelderland, he was quartered in the house of a Dutch lady, the
widow of the Chevalier Arnold de Bie, whose eldest daughter, Clara,
he married in 1673.
Previous to this event, not approving of the cause in which he
was engaged, he had resigned his commission in the Royal Scots, and
entered the service of the States General, being appointed captain
in the Scottish Dutch brigade. In 1674 he was present at the battle
of Seneff, when the army under the prince of Orange was defeated by
the prince of Conde. He was afterwards promoted to the rank of
major-commandant in the same service; and on the
lieutenant-colonelcy of one of the regiments forming the Scots
brigade becoming vacant, the prince bestowed it on Mackay, in
preference to Graham of Claverhouse, who, in consequence, quitted
the Dutch service in disgust.
About 1680 Mackay was promoted to the command of the whole
brigade, which, in 1685, was called over to England to assist in
suppressing Monmouth’s rebellion; on which occasion, King James, on
4th June of that year, conferred on him the rank of
major-general, and appointed him a member of his privy council in
Scotland. He proceeded, in consequence, to Edinburgh, where he took
the oaths, but his public duties did not admit of his visiting his
estate and relations in Sutherland. In the following year,
disapproving of the arbitrary proceedings of James’ government, and
preferring the service of his son-in-law, the prince of Orange, he
resigned his commission, and returned to Holland; and in 1688,
having, along with most of the officers of the Scots brigade,
refused to obey the order of James II. to return to England, he and
five other persons were declared rebels, and specially exempted from
pardon.
With the command of the English and Scots division of the
invading army, General Mackay accompanied the prince of Orange to
England at the Revolution. Soon after his landing he was seized with
a severe illness, from which he had scarcely recovered when by a
warrant, signed by William and Mary, dated from Kensington, 4th
January, 1689, he was appointed major-general of all forces
whatever, “within our ancient kingdom of Scotland,” and on the 25th
March he arrived at Leith, with part of the Scots brigade, which had
served in Holland. The assumption of the sovereign authority in the
above warrant, as regarded Scotland, without waiting for the
determination of the convention, was guarded against by the
following entry in the records of that body: “Edinburgh, 28th
March, 1689. The estates of this kingdom considering that the king
of England, in pursuance of his acceptation of the administration of
the public affairs of this kingdom, till the meeting of the estates,
had sent down Major-general Mackay, with some Scots regiments under
his command, for the security of the estates, and general peace of
the kingdom; they do acknowledge the great kindness and care of the
king of England; and do hereby warrant and authorise the said
Major-general Mackay to command any forces, either standing or to be
raised, with the militia within this kingdom,” &c.
On Viscount Dundee proceeding to the north, to raise the clans
for King James, Mackay was despatched from Edinburgh with a
considerable body of troops in pursuit. He had previously attempted
to open a correspondence with Cameron of Lochiel, with the view of
inducing him to submit to King William’s government, but could
obtain no answer, and Macdonnell of Glengary, to whom he also made a
communication, advised him, in return, to imitate the conduct of
General Monk, by restoring James. Appointing the town of Dundee as
the rendezvous for his troops, with about 500 men, consisting of
nearly an equal number of horse and foot, Mackay hastened north in
quest of the viscount, and after in vain attempting to meet him, he
marched first to Elgin, and afterwards to Inverness, where he was
joined by 500 of the Mackays, Grants, and Rosses. Dundee having
entered Badenoch with a large force, Mackay, not being joined by a
detachment of Dutch troops under Colonel Ramsay, which he expected,
retreated from Inverness through Strathspey. Here he at one time
intended to give Dundee battle, but the latter showed no disposition
to engage.
In all probability there would have been a battle if
Lieutenant-colonel Livingstone and several of his officers had not
stationed two dragoons near the mansion-house of Edinglassie to give
Dundee warning. The dragoons were found concealed in the woods, and
their information led to discoveries which completely implicated
Livingstone and others. General Mackay arrested them and sent them
to Edinburgh. They confessed their guilt, but it is not ascertained
in what manner they were disposed of. Having thus reason to distrust
the fidelity of a portion of his force, Mackay continued his retreat
till he was joined by some reinforcements upon whom he could rely,
when he turned upon Dundee, and pursued him into Badenoch. He
subsequently marched to Inverness, whence he wrote to the duke of
Hamilton, president of the convention, urging the necessity of
establishing “a formidable garrison” at Inverlochy, and small ones
in other places in the north, without which he considered that it
would be utterly impossible to subdue the Highlanders. He himself
soon after repaired to Edinburgh, to hasten the preparations for
carrying such a project into effect; but the plan he proposed, as he
himself confesses, “considering the inability, ignorance, and little
forwardness of the government to furnish the necessary ingredients
for the advance of their service, was built upon a sandy foundation,
and much like the building of castles in the air.” (Mackay’s
Memoirs, p. 46.)
After completing his arrangements at Edinburgh, Mackay went to
Stirling, to inspect the castle. From that place he proceeded to
Perth, and on the 26th July 1689, he began his march into
Athol, at the head of an army, as generally stated, of 4,500 men,
but he tells us himself, in his ‘Memoirs,’ that he had with him only
“six battalions of foot, making at the most 3,000 men, with four
troops of horse and as many dragoons.” Among the foot were two
Scottish regiments, which, as stated in Mr. Mackay of Rockfield’s
Life of General Mackay, “as well as the house, were not only new
levies, but were also commanded by noblemen and gentlemen wholly
destitute of military experience, and selected for their respective
commands solely on account of their power of raising men; little
more, therefore, than one half of the whole number could be said to
be disciplined.” At night the general encamped opposite to Dunkeld.
Here, at midnight, he received an express from the marquis of
Tullibardine, (often styled Lord Murray,) announcing that Viscount
Dundee had entered Athol, and in consequence he had retreated from
before the castle of Blair, which he had for some time blockaded,
and informing him that at the upper end of the pass of
Killiecrankie, which lay between him and Lord Dundee, he had posted
a guard to secure a free passage through it to his troops.
On receipt of this alarming intelligence, Mackay despatched
orders to Perth, to hasten the arrival of six troops of cavalry
which he had left there, and at daybreak next day, proceeded in
direction of the pass. At ten o’clock in the morning he reached its
lower extremity, when he halted his troops, and allowed them two
hours to rest and refresh themselves. Receiving notice that the pass
was clear, he again put his men in motion, and they effected their
passage through this terrific defile, with the loss only of a single
horseman. In that singularly wild and stupendous locality, a handful
of men, with no other ammunition than stones, stationed at intervals
on the summit of the precipices, could easily impede the progress of
any troops. If even at the present time, with the advantages of the
excellent road, formed nearly sixty years afterwards, its passage is
difficult to the traveller, it must have been much more so in
General Mackay’s time, when it was in a state of the most savage
desolation. “When the pass of Killiecrankie,” says one authority,
“is traversed, the country beyond is found to open suddenly up into
a plain, which is expressively called the Blair or field of Athol.
Immediately beyond the pass this plain is not very spacious, but is
confined to that description of territory which in Scotland is
called a haugh, or a strips of level alluvial soil by the brink of a
river. The road debouches upon this narrow plain; the river runs
along under the hills on the left; on the right rise other hills,
but no of so bold a character. Mackay no sooner arrived at a space
sufficiently wide for drawing up his army than he halted and began
to intrench himself. He left his baggage at a blacksmith’s house
near the termination of the pass, so as to have the protection of
the army in front.”
As it was Viscount Dundee’s object to prevent Mackay from
establishing himself in Athol, he did not hesitate to meet him with
an inferior force, amounting to little more than the half of that
under Mackay. In making his dispositions, the latter divided every
battalion into two parts, and, as he meant to fight three deep, he
left a small distance between each of these sub-battalions. In the
centre of his line, however, he left a greater interval of space,
behind which he placed the two troops of horse. Hasting’s regiment,
which arrived after he had taken up his ground, was stationed on the
right, and, for greater security, a detachment of fire-locks from
each battalion was added. On the extreme left, on a hillock covered
with trees, Lieutenant-Colonel Lauder was posted, with 200 picked
men. After his line had been fully formed, Mackay rode along the
front, from the left wing, which he committed to the charge of
Brigadier Balfour, to the right, and having ascertained that
everything was in readiness to receive the enemy, he addressed the
battalions nearest him in a short speech.
Whilst he was occupied on the lower platform, his gallant
rival was equally busy on the eminence above, ranging his men in
battle array, in one line, and neither he nor Mackay placed any body
of reserve behind their lines. As the evening advanced without any
appearance on the part of Dundee of a desire to commence the action,
the uneasiness of Mackay increased, as he supposed that the design
of the Highlanders was to wait till nightfall, when, by descending
suddenly, and setting up their customary loud shout, they expected
to frighten his men, and throw them into disorder. He resolved
however to remain in his position, whatever were the consequences,
“although with impatience,” as he says in his Memoirs, till Dundee
should either attack him or retire, which he had a better
opportunity of doing. to provoke the Highlanders to engage, he
ordered three small leather field-pieces to be discharged, but they
proved of little use. Towards the close of the evening, some of
Dundee’s sharpshooters took possession of some houses upon the
ascent which lay between the two armies, to obtain a more certain
aim. This induced the general to order his brother, colonel Mackay,
to detach a captain with some musqueteers to dislodge them. The
general’s nephew, the Hon. Robert Mackay, performed the duty with
great gallantry, killing and wounding some, and chasing the rest
back to their main body.
It was nearly sunset when the Highlanders all at once began to
move slowly down the hill, barefooted and stripped to their shirts
and doublets. They advanced, according to their usual practice, with
their bodies bent forward, so as to present as small a surface as
possible to the fire of the enemy, the upper part of tyheir bodies
being covered by their targets. They soon rushed forward with
tremendous fury, uttering a terrific yell. They commenced the attack
by a discharge of their firearms and pistols, which made little
impression on Mackay’s men, who reserved their fire until within a
few paces of the Highlanders, when they poured it into them.
Discharging in platoons, they were enabled to take a steady aim, and
their fire told with dreadful effect on the Highlander. At that time
the present plan of fixing the bayonet was now known, and before the
troops had time to screw their side-arms on to the end of their
muskets, the Highlanders rushed in upon them sword-in-hand. It is
said that General Mackay invented the present plan of firing with
the bayonet fixed, from the complete defeat which he was not
destined so briefly to experience, for the whole affair lasted only
a few minutes. The shock of the Highlanders was too impetuous to be
long resisted by soldiers, who, according to their own general,
“behaved, with the exception of Hastings’ and Leven’s regiments,
like the vilest cowards in nature.”
While the work of death was thus going on towards the right,
Dundee, at the head of the horse, made a furious charge on Mackay’s
own battalion, and broke through it, on which the English horse,
which were stationed behind, fled, without firing a single shot.
When Mackay perceived that Dundee’s chief point of attack was near
the centre of his line, he resolved to charge the Highlanders in
flank with two troops of horse which he had placed in his rear; and
he ordered Lord Belhaven to proceed round the left wing with his own
troop, ant attack them on their right flank, ordering the other
troop to proceed in the contrary direction, and assail their left.
The general led Belhaven’s troop in person; but scarcely had he got
in front of the line when it was thrown into disorder. This disorder
was soon communicated to the right wing of Lord Kenmure’s battalion,
which at once gave way.
At this moment the general was surrounded by a crowd of
Highlanders, and he called to his cavalry to follow him, that he
might get them again formed, but only one person made the attempt, a
servant, whose horse was shot under him. Putting spurs to his horse,
he galloped through the Highlanders, and when he had got
sufficiently out of immediate danger, he turned round to observe the
appearance of the field. To his astonishment he saw none of his
troops, but the dead, the wounded, and the dying. His army had
disappeared. “In the twinkling of an eye, in a manner,” he says,
“our men were out of sight, being got pell mell down to the
river-side, where our baggage stood.” The flight of his men must
have been truly rapid, for although his left wing, which had never
been attacked, had taken to flight before he rode off, his right
wing and centre had still kept their ground. But now the whole of
his line had fled from the field, pursued by the Highlanders, till
the latter were stopped by the baggage, and it was to their desire
for plunder that those who escaped owed their safety, for had the
Highlanders continued their pursuit, it is very probably that not an
individual of Mackay’s army would have been left to relate the sad
disaster of their discomfiture and death.
When the general had recovered from his surprise, and the
smoke had cleared away, he discovered on the right a small number of
his troops. He subsequently came upon another portion of them. With
these, he retired across the Garry, without molestation, and
contrary to the opinion of several of his officers, who advised him
to march through the pass of Killiecrankie to Perth, he proceeded
several miles up Athol, with the intention of crossing over the
hills to Stirling. About two miles from the field of battle, he came
up with a party of about 150 fugitives, almost without arms, under
the command of Colonel Ramsay, who was quite at a loss what
direction to take. Continuing his march along the edge of a rivulet
which falls into the Garry, he came to a little village, where he
procured from the inhabitants such information as enabled him, with
the assistance of his map, to decide upon his route. Early in the
morning he reached Weem castle, the seat of his friend, the chief of
the clan Menzies, whose son had been in the action at the head of a
company of Highlanders, and here he obtained some sleep and
refreshment after his fatigues and harassing march. On Sunday, the
28th July, the general continued his march with very
little halting, and on Monday he arrived at Stirling with about 400
men. The viscount of Dundee fell in the battle, and thus rendered
his victory a fruitless one to King James. On the side of Mackay no
fewer than 2,000 men fell, and 500 were made prisoners. The loss on
the side of Dundee could never be accurately ascertained. It is
stated to have been considerable, and General Mackay says that “the
enemy lost on the field six for our one.”
Among the persons of rank and distinction slain were his
brother Colonel Mackay and Brigadier Balfour. His nephew, the Hon.
Captain Mackay, had been left for dead of the field of battle, and
was found by Glengary and his men, who, perceiving him still alive,
carried him on a barn door to the nearest hut, where he remained
some days till he could be removed in safety to Dunkeld. He never
completely recovered the effect of his wounds at Killiecrankie, and
after serving, and being repeatedly wounded, in several of King
William’s battles in Flanders, he died at Tongue, the seat of his
family, in December 1696, in the 30th year of his age.
After concentrating the troops at Stirling, General Mackay,
within a few days after his arrival at that place, found himself
again at the head of a considerable force. He then resolved to march
direct to Perth, and place a garrison there. On coming within
half-a-mile of the town, he observed a party of the enemy,
consisting of about 300 Athol men, approaching from it. The latter,
seeing from the dispositions made by General Mackay, that their
retreat would be intercepted, threw themselves into the Tay, whither
they were followed by Mackay’s cavalry, who cut them down in the
water without mercy. He subsequently followed Colonel Cannan, who,
on the death of Dundee, had assumed the command of James’ army, to
the north, and stayed a night at Aberdeen. His arrival there gave
great joy, he says, (Memoirs, p. 66,) to most of the
inhabitants, as they were in dread of a visit from the Highlanders
that very night.
From Aberdeen Mackay proceeded up Deeside, having received
intelligence that Cannan had taken up a position on the Braes of
Mar; but learning, on his march, that the Highlanders had gone north
to the duke of Gordon’s territory, he drew off his men towards
Strathbogie. He reached Strathbogie castle before Cannan arrived at
the castle of Auchindoun, where he intended to fix his
head-quarters. Here the distance between the two armies was only
about six miles, and both commanders made preparations for a battle,
but the divisions and strifes among the officers and Highland chiefs
in Cannan’s army prevented one from taking place; and that leader
resolved to return to Athol. Mackay followed him in the direction of
Cromar, and having ascertained that he had crossed the hills and
entered the Mearns, he made a rapid movement down the Dee to
Aberdeen. After the battle of Dunkeld he returned to Perth, and
spent ten days at the castle of Blair, during which time many of the
Athol people took advantage of an indemnity which he offered them,
and delivered up their arms.
From the jealousies and dissensions, and personal and selfish
motives, which actuated all parties, and the indifference and
neglect with which his plans for the subjugation of the Highlands
had been treated by the government, General Mackay had, by this
time, become heartily tired of his command. He was himself of a
moderate and conciliatory disposition, and the different spirit that
seemed to influence the conduct of mostly all others in power, made
him, as he says himself, “look upon Scotsmen of those times in
general, as void of zeal for their religion and natural affection,
seeing all men hunt after their particular advantages, and none
minding sincerely and self-deniedly the common good, which gave him
a real distaste of the country and service; resolving from that time
forward to disengage himself out of it as soon as possible he could
get it done, and that the service would allow of.” (Memoirs,
p. 77.) He failed, however, in obtaining even a temporary leave of
absence, by the intrigues of Lord Melville and Viscount Tarbet, who,
as he says, suspecting an interview with King William, who was then
in Holland, to be the object of his proposed visit thither, were
afraid that he would induce his majesty to adopt a system different
from that which had been followed in the management of Scottish
affairs.
He now applied himself, with great perseverance, to accomplish
his long cherished project of erecting a fort at Inverlochy, capable
of containing ten or twelve hundred men, to keep the western
Highlanders in check. As no notice was taken of a communication
which he made to King William in reference thereto, notwithstanding
its importance was urged in repeated letters from him, he grew quite
impatient, and threatened to throw up his commission. At length the
privy council having, at his request, written a letter to the king
on the subject, his majesty ordered three frigates, which Mackay had
written for, to be sent down, with some arms and ammunition and
implements for commencing the work, but no money was forthcoming,
without which nothing could be undertaken. In this emergency he
applied to the city of Glasgow, the magistrates of which agreed to
hire vessels for transporting a detachment of 600 men, which Mackay
offered to take with him, and to furnish him with the necessary
provisions, and such articles as he might require for completing the
fort, in addition to those sent down from England.
After the skirmish of Cromdale, Mackay proceeded into Lochaber,
and thence to Inverlochy, and lost no time in commencing the fort at
that place. The original fort built by General Monk, during the time
of Cromwell, was chiefly of earth, and of a temporary character.
Mackay erected the present one with stone and lime, on a smaller
scale, and gave it the name of Fort William in honour of the king.
It withstood a siege of three weeks in 1745. Leaving a thousand men
in garrison there, he returned to the south, but shortly afterwards
marched north, in all haste, in order to disperse the forces under
Major-general Buchan, before any rising should take place in the
northern counties. The earl of Seaforth having surrendered himself
to him, was committed prisoner to the castle of Inverness, and
afterwards sent to Edinburgh. Having at length succeeded, by the
most energetic operations, in pacifying the northern counties, and
fully establishing the authority of William and Mary in Scotland, in
November 1690, he resigned the chief command of the army and retired
to his family in Holland, his adopted country. Of his services in
Scotland, he left an interesting account in his “Memoirs,” printed
for the first time for the Bannatyne Club in 1833.
In 1691, he was appointed second in command of King William’s
forces, serving against the adherents of King James in Ireland. He
arrived in that country in the beginning of May of that year, and
signalised himself by his skill and gallantry at the capture of
Athlone, having led his men on foot through a deep and rapid ford on
the river Shannon, amid a continued shower of balls, bullets, and
grenades. Smollett says, “Never was a more desperate service, nor
was ever exploit performed with more valour and intrepidity.” At the
battle of Aughrim, which followed, he commanded the right wing of
King William’s army, and the victory, it was acknowledged, was
gained chiefly by his foresight, good conduct, and courage.
After the capitulation of Limerick, in the 3d of the ensuing
October, he returned to Holland, and in the succeeding year, when
King William took the field against Louis XIV. of France, Mackay,
with the rank of lieutenant-general, was nominated to the command of
the British division of the confederate army in Flanders. He was
killed at the disastrous battle of Steinkirk, July 24, 1692. He had
been ordered to a post which, he saw, could not be maintained, and
sent back his opinion about it, but the former orders were
confirmed, so he advanced to his death, saying only, “The will of
the Lord be done.” It is stated that in the course of that evening,
King William frequently mentioned with regret the death of one of
his generals, but said nothing of General Mackay. One of the
officers present took the liberty of expressing his surprise that
his majesty had made no allusion to his old and faithful servant,
Mackay. “No,” replied the king, “Mackay served a higher Master, but
the other served me with his soul.” The king attended Mackay’s
funeral, and when the body was laid in the grave, he said, “There he
lies, and an honester man the world cannot produce.” He is still
termed in his native country, “Shenlar mor,” the great general. He
was to have been rewarded by King William, for his services, with
the title of earl of Scourie, but the intrigues of his rival,
Mackenzie of Coigach or Cromarty, prevented it.
The eldest of his three daughters, Margaret, became the wife
of George, third Lord Reay. The two others married Dutchmen, the one
a minister of Nimeguen, the other, the burgomaster of that town.
Bishop Burnet describes General Mackay as one of the most
pious soldiers whom he had ever known, and highly commends him for
the care which he took to enforce the observance of strict
discipline, and attention to religious exercises, among both the
officers and men under his command. It was commonly said of him by
the Dutch soldiers, that he knew no fear but the fear of God. One of
his ruling principles was never to aid what he considered a bad
cause. His Life, by John Mackay, Esq. of Rockfield, the
representative in the male line of the family of Scourie, was
published in 1836, in one vol. 4to.
MACKAY, ROBERT,
an eminent Gaelic bard, commonly called Rob Donn, that is, Brown
Robert, the son of a herdsman, was born in 1714, at Durness, in
Sutherlandshire. He says himself:
“I was born in the winter,
‘Mongst the wild frowning mountains;
My first sight of the world
Was the snow-drift around me.”
His mother, a woman of vigorous understanding, was well versed in
Highland poetry and music, with which she stored his mind in his
childhood. He never learnt to read. Till he was seven years old he
tended calves, but at that age he was taken into the service of Mr.
John Mackay, of the family of Skerray, a gentleman who carried on an
extensive business as a cattle-dealer. As he grew to years he was
employed as a drover, and sometimes went with herds as far as to the
English markets. He was afterwards engaged by Donald Lord Reay, the
chief of his clan, as his cattle-steward or cow-keeper, called in
some parts of the country a boman. He now married, and in
course of time became the father of thirteen children.
Unfortunately his fondness for deer-hunting, for which he was,
on one occasion, summoned before the sheriff-substitute of the
county, when he narrowly escaped transportation, according to the
statute, and a satirical ballad which he composed on some
transaction in his noble master’s household, caused his dismissal
from Lord Reay’s service. One account, but it seems most unlikely,
says that the reason of his leaving was his refusal to use the flail
himself in thrashing out corn for fodder to the cattle, employing
servants to perform this laborious duty. He was then taken into the
employment of Colonel Mackay, son of the gentleman who had
patronised him in his boyhood, when he removed, with his family, to
the place of Achmore, in that part of the parish of Durness which
borders upon Cape Wrath.
[woodcut of Cape Wrath]
When the firs regiment of Sutherland fencibles was raised in
1759, he was prevailed upon by the country gentlemen holding
commissions in it to accompany them. He enlisted as a private
soldier, but was never called on to take any part in troublesome
duty. On the reduction of the corps in May 1763, he returned to his
home, when he was recalled to his former situation in the employment
of Lord Reay. Although dreaded as a satirist, such was the
excellence of his private character that he was elected a ruler
elder of his native parish. His witty sayings and convivial
qualities made him a welcome guest every where. In the sketch of his
life inserted in ‘Mackenzie’s Beauties of Gaelic Poetry,’ (page
186,) we are told that his society was courted not only by his
equals, but still more by his superiors; no social party almost was
esteemed a party without him; no public meeting of the better and
the best of the land was felt to be a full one without Rob Donn
being there. The reason of his being thus in such universal
requisition was, perhaps, that, as subsequently stated in the same
sketch, if he was not invited to a feast or wedding, next day he
composed a satire full of mirth and humour, on the offending party.
He was proud, says his biographer, of his own powers of satire, and
seemed to enjoy the dread of those who feared the exercise of his
wit. He died 5th August, 1778, aged 64. A vast concourse
of his clansmen attended his funeral, and a granite monument was
erected in 1829, by public subscription, over his grave, in the
parish buying ground of Durness, with inscriptions in Gaelic, in
English, in Greek, and Latin. His poems consist of humorous,
satirical, and descriptive pieces, with elegies and love songs. Many
of them are of a local nature. A collection of them was published at
Inverness in 1830, by the Rev. Dr. Mackay, then of Dunoon, author of
‘The Gaelic Dictionary,’ with a memoir. In the Quarterly Review for
July 1831, translations are given of some of them. The memoir which
accompanies them was written by Sir Walter Scott.
MACKAY, JOHN,
an eminent botanist, was born at Kirkaldy, December 25, 1772. He
early discovered a strong predilection for botanical pursuits, and
even at the age of 14, he had formed a very considerable collection
of the rarer kinds of garden and hothouse plants. In the beginning
of 1791 he was placed in Dickson and Company’s nurseries at
Edinburgh; of which, in 1793, he received the principal charge.
Every summer he made a botanical excursion to the Highlands; he
likewise traversed the Western Isles, and in most of these journeys
he was successful in adding some new species to the British Flora.
To the elegant work entitled ‘English Botany,’ then in course of
publication, under the care of Dr. Smith and Mr. Sowerby of London,
he contributed various valuable articles and figures of indigenous
plants, and in February 1796, he was elected an associate of the
Linnaean Society of London. In 1800, on the death of Mr. Menzies, he
succeeded him as superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden of
Edinburgh, where he died April 14, 1802.
