MACKENZIE,
the surname of a clan, (badge, deer grass,) which has long cherished
a traditionary belief in its descent from the Norman family of
Fitzgerald settled in Ireland. Its pretensions to such an origin are
founded upon a fragment of the records of Icolmkill, and a charter
of the lands of Kintail in Wester Ross, said to have been granted by
Alexander III., to Colin Fitzgerald, their supposed progenitor.
According to the Icolmkill fragment, a personage described as
“Peregrinus et Hibernus nobilis ex familia Geraldinorum,” that is,
“a noble stranger and Hibernian, of the family of the Geraldines,”
being driven from Ireland, with a considerable number of followers,
about 1261, was received graciously by the king, and remained
thenceforward at the court. Having given powerful aid to the Scots
at the battle of Largs two years afterwards, he was rewarded by a
grant of Kintail, erected into a free barony by charter dated 9th
January, 1266. No such document, however, as this pretended fragment
of Icolmkill is known to be in existence, at least, as Mr. Skene
says, nobody has ever seen it, and as for King Alexander’s charter,
he declares (Highlanders, vol. ii. p. 235) that “it bears the
most palpable marks of having been a forgery of later date, and one
by no means happy in the execution.” Besides, the words “Colino
Hiberno,” contained in it, do not prove the said Colin to have been
an Irishman, as Hiberni was at that period a common appellation of
the Gael of Scotland.
The ancestor of the clan Kenzie was Gilleon-og, or Colin the
younger, a son of Gilleon na hair’de, that is, Colin of the Aird,
progenitor of the earls of Ross, and from the MS. of 1450 their
Gaelic descent may be considered established. Colin of Kintail is
said to have married a daughter of Walter, lord high steward of
Scotland. He died in 1278, and his son, Kenneth, being, in 1304,
succeeded by his son, also called Kenneth, with the addition of
Mackenneth, the latter, softened into Mackenny or Mackenzie, became
the name of the whole clan. Murdoch, or Murcha, the son of Kenneth,
received from David II. a charter of the lands of Kintail as early
as 1362. At the beginning of the 15th century, the clan
Kenzie appears to have been both numerous and powerful, for its
chief, Kenneth More, when arrested, in 1427, with his son-in-law,
Angus of Moray, and Macnathan, by James I. in his parliament at
Inverness, was said to be able to muster 2,000 men.
In 1463, Alexander Mackenzie of Kintail received Strathgarve
and many other lands from John, earl of Ross, the same who was
forfeited in 1476. The Mackenzie chiefs were originally vassals of
the earls of Ross, but after their forfeiture, they became
independent of any superior but the crown. They strenuously opposed
the Macdonalds in every attempt which they made to regain possession
of the earldom. Alexander was succeeded by his son, Kenneth, who had
taken for his first wife Lady Margaret Macdonald, daughter of the
forfeited earl, John lord of the Isles, and having, about 1480,
divorced his wife, he brought upon himself the resentment of her
family. Her brother, Angus, invaded Ross, with a body of his island
vassals, and encountering the Mackenzies at a place called Lagebread,
defeated them with considerable loss. In 1491, Alexander of Lochalsh,
called Alaster Macgillespoc, nephew of the lord of the Isles, made
his appearance, at the head of a large body of the Islanders, in
Wester Ross, and proceeded to Strathconnan, for the purpose of
ravaging the lands of the Mackenzies. The latter, however, under the
above-named Kenneth, assembled in great force, and after a fierce
and obstinate battle, the Macdonalds were defeated with much
slaughter, and expelled from Ross. This engagement was called the
battle of Blair-na-Park. The Mackenzies then proceeded to ravage the
lands of Ardmanach and Foulis, and committed so many excesses that
the earl of Huntly, lieutenant of the north, was compelled to act
against them as rebels and oppressors of the lieges. Kenneth died
soon after. Kenneth Oig, his son by the divorced wife, was chief in
1493. Two years afterwards, he and Farquhar Macintosh were
imprisoned by James V. in the castle of Edinburgh. In 1497, the
Macdonalds again invaded Ross, but were encountered by the
Mackenzies and Munroes, at a place called Drumchatt, and after a
sharp skirmish, were routed and driven out of Ross. The same year he
and Macintosh made their escape from the castle of Edinburgh, but on
their way to the Highlands, they were treacherously seized at the
Torwood, by the laird of Buchanan. Kenneth Oig resisted and was
slain, and his head presented to the king by Buchanan. His death was
avenged by his foster-brother at Flodden. This was a man of the
district of Kenlochar, named Donald dubh Mac Gillechrist Vic
Gillereoch. In the retreat of the Scots army he heard some one near
him say, “Alas! Laird, thou hast fallen.” On inquiry he was told
that it was the laird of Buchanan, who had sunk from wounds or
exhaustion. Rushing forward, he shouted out. “If he hath not fallen,
he shall fall,” and slew Buchanan on the spot.
Kenneth Oig, having no issue, was succeeded by his brother,
John, whose mother, Agnes Fraser, was a daughter of Lord Lovat. She
had other sons, from whom sprung numerous branches of this
wide-spread family. As he was very young, his kinsman, Hector Roy
Mackenzie, progenitor of the house of Gerloch, assumed the command
of the clan, as guardian of the young chief. “Under his rule,” says
Mr. Gregory, (Highlands and Isles of Scotland, p. 111,) “the
clan Kenzie because involved in feuds with the Munroes and other
clans; and Hector Roy himself became obnoxious to government, as a
disturber of the public peace. His intentions towards the young lord
of Kintail were considered very dubious; and the apprehensions of
the latter and his friends having been roused, Hector was compelled
by law to yield up the estate and the command of the tribe to the
proper heir.” John, at the call of James IV., marched with his clan
to the fatal field of Flodden, where he was taken prisoner by the
English.
Among the measures adopted by government for the suppression
of the rebellion of Sir Donald Macdonald of Lochalsh, who had got
himself proclaimed lord of the Isles, was the appointment, by an act
of council, of certain individuals of local influences as temporary
lieutenants of particular divisions of the northern shires. Among
others, the chief of the Mackenzies and Munro of Foulis were
constituted guardians of Wester Ross. The following year (1515)
Mackenzie, without legal warrant, seized the royal castle of
Dingwall, but professed his readiness to deliver it up to any one
appointed by the regent, John, Duke of Albany. It was in attempting,
in the Mackenzie chief’s absence, to take his castle of Elandonan,
in 1539, that Donald Gorme, the claimant of the lordship of the
Isles, lost his life, having been wounded in the foot by a barbed
arrow.
On King James the Fifth’s expedition to the Isles in 1540, he
was joined at Kintail by John, chief of the Mackenzies, who
accompanied him throughout his voyage. He fought at the battle of
Pinkie at the head of his clan in 1547. On his death in 1556, he was
succeeded by his son, Kenneth, who, by a daughter of the earl of
Athol, had Colin and Roderick, the latter ancestor of the Mackenzies
of Redcastle, Kincraig, Rosend, and other branches.
Kenneth Mackenzie of Kintail, had, by accident, obtained the
custody of Mary Macleod, the heiress of Harris and Dunvegan, and
refusing to give her up to her lawful guardian, James Macdonald of
Dunyveg and the Glens, was compelled to resign her into the hands of
Queen Mary, with whom she remained for some years as a maid of
honour. In the Collectanea de rebus Albanicis, (p. 143) is
the act of privy council which bears that he had delivered up the
said heiress to the queen. It is dated “at Edinburgh, the 21st
May 1562.” He died in 1568.
Colin, eleventh chief, son of Kenneth, fought on the side of
Queen Mary at the battle of Langside, for which he obtained a
remission. In August 1569 he and Donald Gormeson Macdonald of Skye
were forced, in presence of the Regent Moray and privy council at
Perth, to settle the feuds in which they had been for some time
involved. On this occasion Moray acted as mediator between them.
Colin Mackenzie, chief of the clan Kenzie, was a privy councillor to
James VI., and died 14th June 1594. He was twice married.
By his first wife, Barbara, a daughter of Grant of Grant, he had,
with three daughters, four sons, namely, Kenneth, his successor; sir
Roderick Mackenzie of Tarbat, ancestor of the earls of Cromarty;
Colin, ancestor of the Mackenzies of Kennock and Pitlundie; and
Alexander, of the Mackenzies of Kilcoy, and other families of the
name. by a second wife, Mary, eldest daughter of Roderick Mackenzie
of Davochmalunk, he had a son, Alexander, from whom the Mackenzies
of Applecross, Coul, Delvin, Assint, and other families are sprung.
Kenneth, the eldest son, twelfth chief of the Mackenzies, was
also a member of the privy council of James Vi. Soon after
succeeding his father, he was engaged in supporting the claims of
Torquil Macleod, surnamed Connanach, the disinherited son of Macleod
of Lewis, whose mother was the sister of John Mackenzie of Kintail,
and whose daughter had married Roderick Mackenzie, Kenneth’s
brother. The barony of Lewis he conveyed by writings to the
Mackenzie chief, who caused the usurper thereof and some of his
followers to be beheaded in July 1597 (See MACLEOD). In the
following year he joined Macleod of Harris and Macdonald of Sleat in
opposing the project of James VI. for the colonization of the Lewis,
by some Lowland gentlemen, chiefly belonging to Fife. As he claimed
a property in that island, though, so far as he was concerned, it
was but nominal, it is not surprising that he did all he could to
frustrate the expedition. He incited against the colonists Neill and
Murdoch, two bastard sons of Ruari Macleod, the last undisputed lord
of Lewis. After some successes the two brothers quarrelled. For a
reward from government Neill delivered up Murdoch, in 1600, to the
colonists, and he was hanged at St. Andrews. In consequence of some
confessions by him and of complaints by the colonists, Mackenzie was
apprehended and committed prisoner to Edinburgh castle. Through the
assistance, however, of his friend, the lord-chancellor, he escaped
without a trial.
In 1601, Neill Macleod deserted the cause of the colonists,
and Mackenzie, who had detained in captivity for several years
Tormod, the only surviving legitimate son of Ruari Macleod of the
Lewis, set him at liberty, and sent him into that island to assist
Neill in opposing the settlers. In 1602, the feud between the
Mackenzies and the Glengarry Macdonalds, regarding their lands in
Wester Ross, was renewed with great violence (See MACDONNELL of
Glengarry). Ultimately, after much bloodshed on both sides, an
agreement was entered into, by which Glengarry renounced in favour
of Mackenzie the castle of Strone, with the lands of Lochalsh,
Lochcarron, and others, so long the subject of dispute between them.
A crown charter of these lands was granted to Kenneth Mackenzie in
1607. The territories of the clan Kenzie at this time were very
extensive. “All the Highlands and Isles, from Ardnamurchan to
Strathnaver, were either the Mackenzies’ property, or under their
vassalage, some few excepted,” and all about them were bound to them
“by very strict bonds of friendship.” The same year, Kenneth
Mackenzie obtained, through the influence of the lord-chancellor, a
gift, under the great seal, of the Lewis to himself, in virtue of
the resignation formerly made in his favour by Torquil Macleod, but
on the complaint to the king of those of the colonists who survived,
he was forced to resign it. He was created a peer, by the title of
Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, by patent, dated 19th November
1609. On the abandonment of the scheme for colonizing the Lewis, the
remaining adventurers, Sir George Hay and Sir James Spens, were
easily prevailed upon to sell their title to Lord Kintail, who
likewise succeeded in obtaining from the king a grant of the share
in the island forfeited by Lord Balmerino, another of the grantees.
Having thus at length acquired a legal right to the Lewis, he
procured from the government a commission of fire and sword against
the Islanders, and landing there with a large force, he speedily
reduced them to obedience, with the exception of Neil Macleod and a
few others, his kinsmen and followers. The struggle for the Lewis
between the Mackenzies and the Macleods, continued some time longer,
but for an account of it the reader is referred to the article
MACLEOD. The Mackenzies ultimately succeeded in obtaining possession
of the island.
Lord Kintail died in March 1611. He had married, first, Anne,
daughter of George Ross of Balnagowan, and had, with two daughters,
two sons, Colin, second Lord Kintail, and first earl of Seaforth,
and the Hon. John Mackenzie of Lochslin. His second wife was Isabel,
daughter of Sir Alexander Ogilvie of Powrie, by whom, with a
daughter, Sybilla, Mrs. Macleod of Macleod, he had four sons, viz.,
Alexander; George, second earl of Seaforth; Thomas, of Pluscardine;
and Simon of Lochslin, whose eldest son was the celebrated Sir
George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, lord advocate in the reigns of
Charles II. and James VII., of whom a memoir is subsequently given
below.
Colin, second Lord Kintail, was created earl of Seaforth, by
patent dated at Theobald’s, 3d December 1623, to him and his heirs
male. (See SEAFORTH, earl of).
The great-grandson of the third earl of Seaforth, and male
heir of the family, was Colonel Thomas Frederick Humberston
Mackenzie, who fell at Gherish in India in 1783, and of whom a
memoir is given under the head of SEAFORTH, earl of. His brother,
Francis Humberston Mackenzie, obtained the Seaforth estates, and was
created Baron Seaforth in the peerage of the United Kingdom in 1796.
Dying without surviving male issue his title became extinct, and his
eldest daughter, the Hon. Mary Frederica Elizabeth, having taken for
her second husband J. A. Stewart of Glasserton, a cadet of the house
of Galloway, that gentleman assumed the name of Stewart Mackenzie of
Seaforth.
The clan Kenzie from small beginnings had increased in
territory and influence till they became, next to the Campbells, the
greatest clan in the West Highlands. They remained loyal to the
Stuarts, but the forfeiture of the earl of Seaforth in 1715, and of
the earl of Cromarty in 1745, weakened their power greatly. They are
still, however, one of the most numerous tribes in the Highlands. In
1745 their effective strength was calculated at 2,500. No fewer than
seven families of the name possess baronetcies.
The armorial bearings of the Mackenzies are a stag’s head and
horns. It is said that they were assumed in consequence of Kenneth,
the ancestor of the family, having rescued the king of Scotland from
an infuriated stag, which he had wounded. “In gratitude for his
assistance,” says Stewart of Garth, “the king gave him a grant of
the castle and lands of Castle Donnan, and thus laid the foundation
of the family and clan Mackenneth or Mackenzie.” From the stag’s
head in their arms the term Caberfae was applied to the chiefs.
_____
The progenitor of the Gerloch or Gairloch branch of the
Mackenzies was, as above shown, Hector, the elder of the two sons of
Alexander, 7th chief, by his 2d wife, Margaret Macdowall,
daughter of John, lord of lorn. He lived in the reigns of Kings
James III. and IV., and was by the Highlanders called “Eachin Roy,”
or Red Hector, from the colour of his hair. To the assistance of the
former of these monarchs, when the confederated nobles collected in
arms against him, he raised a considerable body of the clan Kenzie,
and fought at their head at the battle of Sauchieburn. After the
defeat of his party, he retreated to the north, and, taking
possession of Redcastle, put a garrison in it. Thereafter he joined
the earl of Huntly, and from James IV. he obtained in 1494 a grant
of the lands and barony of Gerloch, or Gairloch, in Ross-shire.
These lands originally belonged to the Siol-Vic-Gilliechallum, or
Macleods of Rasay, a branch of the family of Lewis, but Hector, by
means of a mortgage or wadset, had acquired a small portion of them,
and in 1508 he got Brachan, the lands of Moy, the royal forest of
Glassiter, and other lands, united to them. In process of time, his
successors came to possess the whole district, but not till after a
long and bloody feud with the Siol-Vic-Gilliechallum, which lasted
till 1611, when it was brought to a sudden close by a skirmish, in
which Gillechallum Oig, laird of Rasay, and Murdoch Mackenzie, a
younger son of the laird of Gerloch, were slain. From that time the
Mackenzies possessed Gerloch without interruption from the Macleods.
Hector, the first of the house of Gerloch, was with the clan
at Flodden, where most of them were killed; and he and his nephew,
John, the chief, to whom he was tutor, narrowly escaped. By a
daughter of the laird of Grant, to whom he was betrothed, but who
died before the marriage was celebrated, he had a son, Hector, who
got the name of Came, or one-eyed. He afterwards married a daughter
of Ranald Macdonald of Moydart, and, with two daughters, he had four
sons.
John, the eldest of these, called by the Highlanders, John
Glesich, married Agnes, only daughter of James Fraser of Foinich,
brother of Hugh, Lord Lovat, and died in 1556. He had three sons;
Hector, his heir; John, who succeeded Hector, and carried on the
line of the family; and Alexander, from whom descended Murdoch
Mackenzie, bishop of Moray and afterwards of Caithness, in the
reigns of Charles I. and II. Of this branch, also, was Dr. James
Mackenzie, as eminent physician, author of the ‘History of Health.’
Kenneth Mackenzie, eighth baron of Gerloch, was created a
baronet of Nova Scotia in 1700. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir
Roderick Mackenzie of Findon, and was succeeded, in 1704, by his
son, Sir Alexander, second baronet, who married Janet, daughter of
Sir Roy Mackenzie of Scatwell, and with three daughters had six
sons, must of whom died young. He himself died in 1766. His eldest
son, Sir Alexander, 3d baronet, married, 1st, Margaret,
eldest daughter of Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, issue one son,
Hector; 2dly, Jean, only daughter of John Gorrie, Esq., commissary
of Ross, issue 2 sons, John, a general officer, and Kenneth, an
officer in India, and 3 daughters. He died 13th April
1770.
Sir Hector Mackenzie, his eldest son, 4th baronet
of the Gerloch branch, died in April 1826. His son, Sir Francis
Alexander, 5th baronet, born in 1798, died June 2, 1843.
The eldest son of Sir Francis, Sir Kenneth Smith Mackenzie, 6th
baronet, born 1832, married in 1860 the 2d daughter of Walter
Frederick Campbell of Islay.
_____
The Mackenzies of Portmore, county Peebles, are a branch of
the Gerloch family. Colin Mackenzie of Portmore, great-grandson of
Sir Alexander Mackenzie, baronet of Gerloch, married in 1803,
Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, and died in
September 1830. He had three brothers, William Mackenzie of Muirtown,
Ross-shire; Sutherland Mackenzie of Edinburgh, and John, banker in
Inverness. His son, William Forbes Mackenzie, M.P. for
Peebles-shire, born in April 1807, and appointed in 1831 deputy
lieutenant for that county, was the introducer of the act of
parliament passed in 1854, for the regulation of public houses in
Scotland, commonly called “Forbes Mackenzie’s Act.”
_____
The first of the Mackenzies of Tarbet and Royston, in the
county of Cromarty, was Sir Roderick Mackenzie, second son of Colin
Mackenzie of Kintail, brother of the first Lord Mackenzie of Kintail.
Having married Margaret, daughter and heiress of Torquil Macleod of
the Lewis, he added the armorial bearings of the Macleods to his
own. His son, John Mackenzie of Tarbet, was created a baronet of
Nova Scotia, 21st May 1628. He had four sons. The third
son, Roderick Mackenzie, was on 1st December 1762,
appointed justice clerk, and an ordinary lord of session 12th
January 1703, when he took his seat as Lord Prestonhall. He was
superseded as justice clerk in October 1704, and resigned his seat
as one of the judges, in favour of his nephew, Sir James Mackenzie
of Royston, in June 1710. In September of the same year he was
appointed sheriff of Ross-shire. He died Feb. 4. 1712. His son, Sir
Alexander, married Amelia, daughter and heiress of Hugh, 10th
Lord Lovat, and changing his name to Fraser, was designated of
Fraserdale. Engaging in the rebellion of 1715 he was attainted as
Lord Prestonhall.
The eldest son, Sir George Mackenzie, second baronet, was the
first earl of Cromarty.
The Hon. Kenneth Mackenzie, the second son of the first Lord
Cromarty, obtained from his father the extensive estate of Cromarty,
and was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, 29th April
1704, with the precedency of his father’s patent of baronetcy, 21st
May, 1628. He was commissioner to the Scottish estates for the
county of Cromarty, in the reigns of King William and Queen Anne,
and sat in the first British parliament. He died in 1729. His eldest
son, Sir George, third baronet, was M.P. for the county of Cromarty.
Becoming a bankrupt, his estate of Cromarty was sold in 1741 to
William Urquhart of Meldrum. He was succeeded by his brother, Sir
Kenneth, fourth baronet, at whose death, without issue, in 1763, the
baronetcy lay dormant until revived in favour of Sir Alexander
Mackenzie of Tarbet, elder son of Robert Mackenzie,
lieutenant-colonel in the East India Company’s service,
great-great-grandson of the first baronet. colonel Mackenzie’s
father was Alexander Mackenzie of Ardlock, and his mother the
daughter of Robert Sutherland, Esq. of Langwell, Caithness, 12th
in descent from William de Sutherland, 5th earl of
Sutherland, and the princess Margaret Bruce, sister and heiress of
David II. Sir Alexander, 5th baronet, was in the military
service of the East India Company. On his death, April 28, 1841, he
was succeeded by his brother, Sir James Sutherland Mackenzie, 6th
baronet, of Tarbet and Royston. The latter died Nov. 24, 1858.
_____
The first of the family of Coul, Ross-shire, was Alexander
Mackenzie, brother of Kenneth, first Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, who,
before his death, made him a present of his own sword, as a
testimony of his particular esteem and affection. His son, Kenneth
Mackenzie of Coul, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, Oct. 16,
1673. His eldest son, Sir Alexander, 2d baronet, died in 1702. His
son, Sir John Mackenzie, 3rd baronet, for being concerned
in the rebellion of 1715, was forfeited. He died without male issue,
and the attainder not extending to collateral branches of the
family, the title and estates devolved upon his brother, Sir Colin,
4th baronet, clerk to the pipe in the exchequer. He died
in 1740. His eldest son, Sir Alexander, 5th baronet, died
in 1792. His son, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, 6th baronet, a
major-general in the Bengal army, and provincial commander-in-chief
in Bengal, 1790-1792, died in 1796. His son, Sir George Steuart
Mackenzie, 7th baronet, F.R.S., vice-president of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh, born 22d June 1790, was the author of An
Agricultural and Political Survey of Ross and Cromarty shires, of a
Treatise on the Diseases of Sheep, and of several scientific papers
on useful branches of domestic economy. He was general in the Royal
Scottish archers, the queen’s body-guard in Scotland, and a
deputy-lieutenant of Ross-shire. He was twice married; first, to
Mary, fifth daughter of Donald Macleod, Esq. of Geanies, sheriff of
Ross-shire, by whom he had 7 sons and 3 daughters. The Rev. John
Mackenzie, his 5th son, married Eliza, daughter of the
celebrated Dr. Chalmers. Sir George died Oct. 26, 1648. His eldest
son, Sir Alexander, 8th baronet, served for 26 years in
the Bengal army. He was present at the siege and capture of
Bhurtpore, 1825-6, for which he received a medal. He was deputy
judge advocate general with the army of Gwalior, and had a horse
killed under him at the battle of Maharajpore, Dec. 29, 1843. He was
engaged also in the first campaign on the Sutlej, 1845. He died Jan.
3, 1856, and was succeeded by his brother, Sir William Mackenzie, 9th
baronet, born in 1806, married in 1858, Agnes, 2d daughter of R. T.
Smyth, Esq. of Ardmore, Ireland.
_____
The Mackenzies of Scatwell, Ross-shire, who also possess a
baronetcy, are descended from Sir Roderick Mackenzie, knight, of
Tarbet and Cogeach, second son of Colin, 11th feudal
baron of Kintail, father of Sir John Mackenzie, ancestor of the
earls of Cromarty, and Kenneth Mackenzie of Scatwell, whose son,
Kenneth, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, Feb. 22, 1703. By his
marriage with Lilias, daughter and heiress of Sir Roderick Mackenzie
of Findon, that branch of the Mackenzie family merged in that of
Scatwell. He married a 2d time, Christian, eldest daughter of
Roderick Mackenzie, Esq. of Avoch, and 3dly, Abigail, daughter of
John Urquhart, Esq. of Newhall. Of the first marriage there were 3
sons and 3 daughters, and of the last, one son, Kenneth, captain
East India Company’s service. Sir James Wemyss Mackenzie, 5th
baronet, lord-lieutenant, and some time M.P. for Ross-shire, married
Henrietta, only surviving daughter of William Mackenzie of Suddy,
and sister and sole heiress of Major-general John Randoll Mackenzie
of Suddy, who fell at the battle of Talavera, in August 1809. His
only son, Sir James John Randoll, 6th baronet, born in
1814, succeeded his father in 1843. He married a daughter of 5th
Earl Fitzwilliam.
_____
The Mackenzies of Kilcoy, Ross-shire, are descended from
Alexander, 4th son of Colin, 11th baron of
Kintail, who in 1618 acquired the lands of Kilcoy. A baronetcy of
the United Kingdom was conferred in 1836 on Sir Colin Mackenzie of
Kilcoy, who died in 1845. He was succeeded by his 2d son, Sir Evan
Mackenzie, born in 1816; married, with issue.
_____
The family of Mackenzie of Delvine in Perthshire, whose name
originally was Muir, also possess a baronetcy, conferred in 1805 on
Alexander Muir of Delvine, who assumed the name of Mackenzie, on
succeeding to the estates of his great uncle, John Mackenzie, Esq.
of Delvine. On his death in 1835, he was succeeded by his son, Sir
John William Pitt Muir Mackenzie, advocate (admitted 1830), born in
1806, married in 1832, 6th daughter of the late James
Raymond Johnstone, Esq. of Alva, Clackmannanshire, issue 6 sons and
3 daughters. He died Feb. 1, 1855. His eldest son, Sir Alexander
Muir Mackenzie, born in 1840, became 3d baronet.
_____
A baronetcy was also held by Mackenzie of Fairburn, also in
Ross-shire, conferred in 1819, on Sir Ewen Baillie, some time
provisional commander-in-chief of the forces in Bengal, with
remainder to the issue of his half sister, who married Roderick
Mackenzie, Esq. Their eldest son, General Sir Alexander Mackenzie,
G.D.H., succeeded as 2d baronet, on the death of his maternal uncle,
in 1820. Entering young into the army, he served at the relief of
Ostend in 1793, and was 2d in command at the capture of the Cape of
Good Hope in 1795. He also commanded the army in Calabria. Sir
Alexander died without issue, Oct. 17, 1853, when the title became
extinct.
_____
The other principal families of the name are Mackenzie of
Allangrange, heir male of the earls of Seaforth, of Applecross, also
a branch of the house of Seaforth, of Ord, of Gruinard and of
Hilton, all in Ross-shire.
MACKENZIE, GEORGE,
first earl of Cromarty, an eminent statesman (See CROMARTY).
MACKENZIE, SIR GEORGE,
of Rosehaugh, a celebrated lawyer, was born at Dundee in 1636. He
was the eldest of five sons of Simon Mackenzie of Lochslin, brother
of the earl of Seaforth, by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Peter
Bruce, D.D., principal of St. Leonard’s College, St. Andrews. He
studied Greek and philosophy in the university of St. Andrews and
Aberdeen, and civil law in that of Bourges in France, where he
remained three years. On his return to Scotland he was admitted, in
January 1659, an advocate before the supreme courts. In 1660 he
published his ‘Aretina, or Serious Romance,’ in which, according to
Ruddiman, he gives “a very bright specimen of his gay and exuberant
genius.” Having soon gained a high reputation as a pleader, he was
in 1661 selected as one of the counsel of the marquis of Argyle at
his trial for treason before a commission of the Estates. Soon after
he was appointed a justice-depute, or judge of the criminal court.
In 1669 he represented in the estates the county of Ross, and during
the same year he opposed the proposition contained in a letter from
the king for an incorporating union of England and Scotland. At this
period he signalized himself by the support which he gave to popular
measures. In 1674 he was knighted, for services rendered to the
court, and August 23, 1677, on the dismissal of Sir John Nisbet, he
was appointed king’s advocate, when, to force submission to the
government, he put the laws in execution with the utmost strictness
and severity. On the trial of the earl of Argyle in December 1681,
he exerted all his energies to obtain a conviction; and in June
1685, when that nobleman was apprehended after his unfortunate
expedition to the Highlands, Mackenzie objected to a new trial, and
he was put to death on his former iniquitous sentence. The state
prosecutions, conducted by Sir George Mackenzie, in some of which he
notoriously stretched the laws to answer the purposes of the
government, were so numerous, that he obtained the unenviable title
of “The blood-thirsty advocate,” and “Bloody Mackenzie.” After the
Revolution, in justification of his acts, he published ‘A
Vindication of the Government of Charles II.’ (1691), which, to
those who know anything of the scenes of persecution and oppression
which were enacted in Scotland at that period, appears the very
reverse of satisfactory. His portrait, taken by Sir Godfrey Kneller,
was engraved by Beugo, and is subjoined;
[portrait of Sir George Mackenzie]
Notwithstanding his severity, however, Sir George was the
means of introducing various practical improvements into the
criminal jurisprudence of his country; and in 1686, upon the
abrogation of the penal laws against the Papists by James VII., he
deemed it incumbent on him to retire from his post of lord advocate.
In 1688, however, he was restored to that office, which he held till
the Revolution, when he relinquished all his employments. In 1689 he
founded the Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh, and the Latin inaugural
oration pronounced on the occasion is recorded in his works. In
September of that year he retired to England, resolving to spend the
remainder of his days in study at Oxford. In June 1690 he was
admitted a student of that university, and subsequently published an
Essay on Reason in 1690, and ‘The Moral History of Frugality, and
its Opposite Vices,’ in 1691. He died at London, May 2, 1692, and
was burned in the Greyfriars’ Churchyard, Edinburgh, where his
monument remains to this day.
His works are:
Aretina; or, the serious Romance. London, 1661, 8vo.
Religio Stoica; the virtuoso, or Stoick. Edinburgh, 1663, 8vo.
A Moral Essay, preferring solitude to public Employment. Edin.,
1665, 8vo. London, 1685, 8vo. 1693, 12mo. Answered by Evelyn, in a
Panegyric on Active Life.
Moral Gallantry; a Discourse, proving that the Point of Honour
obliges man to be virtuous. Edin., 1667, 8vo.
A Moral Paradox, maintaining that it is much easier to be
virtuous than vicious, and a consolation against Calumnies.
Edinburgh, 1667, 1669, 8vo. London, 1685, 8vo. Edinburgh, 1669, fol.
Pleadings on some Remarkable Cases before the Supreme Courts
of Scotland, since the year 1661. To which the Decisions are
subjoined. Edin., 1672, 4to.
A Discourse upon the Laws and Customs of Scotland in Matters
Criminal. Edin., 1674, 1678, 4to. 1699, fol.
Observations upon the xxviii. Act 23d Parl. King James VI.
against Bankrupts, &c. Edin., 1675, 8vo.
Observations upon the Laws and Customs of Nations as to
Precedency. With the Science of Heraldry, treated as a part of the
Civil Law of Nations. Edin., 1680, fol.
Idea Eloquentia forensis Hodierna, una cum Actione Forensi ex
unaquaque Juris parte. Edin., 1681, 12mo. In English. 1701, 1704,
12mo. The same; translated into English by R. Hepburn. Edin., 1711,
8vo.
Institutions of the Laws of Scotland. Edin., 1684, 12mo.
London, 1694, 8vo. Edin. 1706, 12mo. With Notes, explaining
different places, and showing in what points the Law has been
altered; by John Spottiswood. Edin., 1723, 8vo. The same, revised
and corrected by Alexander Bayne. 1730, 8vo. 1758, 12mo.
Jus Reginum; or, the first and solid foundation of Monarchy in
general, and more particularly of the Monarchy of Scotland; against
Buchanan, Naphtali, Doleman, Milton, &c. London, 1684, 8vo. 1685,
12mo.
Discovery of the Fanatic Plot. Edin., 1684, fol.
A Defence of the Antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland, in
Answer to William Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph; with a true Account
when the Scots were governed by the Kings in the Isle of Britain.
London, 1686, 4to.
Observations on the Acts of Parliament made by King James I.
and his successors, to the end of the reign of Charles II. Edin.,
1686, fol.
The antiquity of the Royal Line of Scotland further cleared
and Defended, against the Exceptions lately offered by Dr.
Stillingfleet, in his Vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph.
London, 1686, 8vo. In Lat. entitled, Defensio Antiquitatis Regium
Scotorum prosapiae, contra Episcopum Asaphenseum et Stillingfletum,
Lat. versa, à P. Sinclaro, Trajecti, ad Rhenum. 1689, 12mo.
Oratio Inauguralis habita Edinburgi de Structura Bibliothecae,
Juridicae, &c. London, 1689, 8vo.
De Humanae Rationis Imbecillitate, ea unde proveniat et illi
quomodo possimus mederi, liber singularis editus á Jo. Geo. Graevio,
Traj. ad Rh. 1690, 8vo.
Reason, an Essay. London, 1690, 8vo. 1695, 12mo.
Caelia’s Country-house and closet; a Poem. Imitated by Pope,
in his “Essay on Criticism.”
The Moral History of Frugality, and its opposite Vices.
London, 1691, 8vo.
A Vindication of the Government in Scotland, during the reign
of King Charles II.; with several other Treatises relating to the
Affairs of Scotland. London, 1691, 4to.
Method of Proceeding against Criminals and Fanatical
Covenanters. 1691, 4to.
Vindication of the Presbyterians of Scotland, from the
malicious Aspersions cast upon them. 1692, 4to.
On a Storm, and some Lakes in Scotland. Phil. Trans. Abr. ii.
210, 1679.
Some Observations made in Scotland. Ib. 226.
Essays upon several Moral subjects. London, 1713, 8vo.
Works, with his Life. Edin., 1716-22, 2 vols, fol.
MACKENZIE, GEORGE,
author of ‘The Lives and characters of the most Eminent Writers of
the Scots nation,’ son of the Hon Colin Mackenzie, second son of the
second earl of Seaforth, was born 10th December 1669, and
practised as a physician in Edinburgh at the beginning of the 18th
century. His well-known work, which is one of great research, is in
3 vols. folio. The first volume, dedicated to the earl of Seaforth,
appeared in 1708; the second, inscribed to the earl of Mar, in 1711;
and the third, dedicated to the celebrated financier, John Law of
Lauriston, in 1722.
MACKENZIE, HENRY,
author of ‘The Man of Feeling,’ son of Dr. Joshua Mackenzie, an
eminent physician in Edinburgh, by his wife Margaret, eldest
daughter of Mr. Rose of Kilravock, in Nairnshire, was born in that
city, in August 1745. He was educated at the High School and
university of Edinburgh, and was afterwards articled to Mr. Inglis
of Redhall, in order to acquire a knowledge of the business of the
Exchequer. In 1765 he went to London, to study the modes of English
Exchequer practice, which, as well as the constitution of the
courts, are similar in both countries. While residing there, he was
advised by a friend to qualify himself for the English bar; but he
preferred returning to Edinburgh, where he became, first the
partner, and afterwards the successor, of Mr. Inglis, in the office
of attorney for the crown.
He very early displayed a strong attachment to literary
pursuits, and during his stay in London, he sketched part of his
first work, ‘The Man of Feeling,’ which was published in 1771,
without his name, and at once became a favourite with the public. A
few years afterwards the great popularity of the work induced a Mr.
Eccles of Bath to claim the authorship. He was at pains to
transcribe the whole in his own hand, with a plentiful introduction
of blottings, interlineations, and corrections, and he maintained
his pretensions with so much plausibility and pertinacity, that
Messrs, Cadell and Strahan, the publishers, at last found it
necessary to undeceive the public by a formal contradiction. In 1773
Mr. Mackenzie published his ‘Man of the World,’ which displayed the
same tone of exquisite moral delicacy and elegance of style as his
former work. In 1777 he produced ‘Julia de Roubigné,’ a beautiful
and tragic tale, in a series of letters, exhibiting the refined
sensibility and the delicate perception of human character and
manners which distinguished all his writings.
Mr. Mackenzie was one of the principal members of the “Mirror
Club,” and edited the well-known periodical of that name. Most of
the other gentlemen connected with it were afterwards judges in the
Court of Session – namely, Lord Cullen, Lord Abercromby, Lord Craig,
and Lord Bannatyne. ‘The Mirror’ was commenced January 23, 1779, and
ended May 27, 1780, having latterly been issued twice a-week. Of the
110 papers to which it extended, forty-two were contributed by Mr.
Mackenzie, including La Roche. The sale never at any time exceeded
four hundred copies, but when afterwards republished in duodecimo
volumes, with the names of the authors, a considerable sum was
obtained for the copyright, out of which the proprietors presented
£100 to the Orphan Hospital, and purchased a hogshead of claret for
the use of the club. ‘The Lounger,’ a publication of a similar
character, also conducted by Mr. Mackenzie, was commenced by the
same parties, February 6, 1785, and was continued weekly till
January 6, 1787. Of the 101 papers which it includes, fifty-seven
were written by Mr. Mackenzie, who, in one of the latter numbers,
reviewed for the first time the Poems of Burns, which were just then
published.
On the institution of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Mr.
Mackenzie became one of its members; and among the papers with which
he enriched its Transactions are an elegant tribute to the memory of
his friend Lord Abercromby, and a Memoir on German Tragedy, in the
latter of which he bestows high praise on the ‘Emilia Galotti’ of
Lessing, and ‘The Robbers’ of Schiller. He took lessons in German
from a Dr. Okely, at that time studying medicine in Edinburgh; and
in 1791 he published a small volume, containing translations of ‘The
Set of Horses,’ by Lessing, and of two or three other German
dramatic pieces. He was also an original member of the Highland
Society, and by him were published the volumes of their
Transactions, to which he prefixed an account of the institution,
and the principal proceedings of the Society. In these Transactions
is also to be found his view of the controversy respecting Ossian’s
Poems, containing an interesting account of Gaelic poetry.
At the time of the French revolution he published various
political pamphlets, with the view of counteracting the progress of
democratic principles in this country. One of these, entitled ‘An
Account of the Proceedings of the Parliament of 1784,’ introduced
him to the notice of Mr. Pitt; and in 1804, on the recommendation of
Lord Melville and Mr. George Rose, he was appointed to the lucrative
office of comptroller of taxes for Scotland, which he held till his
death.
In 1793 he wrote the Life of Dr. Blacklock, prefixed to a
quarto edition of the blind poet’s works, published for the benefit
of his widow. In 1808 he brought out a complete edition of his own
works, in eight volumes 8vo. In 1812 he read to the Royal Society
his ‘Life of John Home;’ and as a sort of supplement to it, he then
added some Critical Essays, chiefly on dramatic poetry, which have
not been published, but the Life itself appeared in 1822. Mr.
Mackenzie himself attempted dramatic writing, but without success. A
tragedy, composed in his early youth, entitled ‘The Spanish Father,’
was rejected by Garrick, and never represented. In 1773 another
tragedy of his, styled ‘The Prince of Tunis,’ was performed with
applause for six nights at the Edinburgh theatre. A third tragedy,
founded on Lilly’s ‘Fatal Curiosity,’ called ‘The Shipwreck,’ and
two comedies, ‘The Force of Fashion,’ and ‘The White Hypocrite,’
were produced at Covent Garden successively, but they proved
complete failures. His portrait, from a painting by Sir Henry
Raeburn, will be found below;
[portrait of Henry Mackenzie]
Mr. Mackenzie was the last of those eminent men who shed such
a lustre upon the literature of their country in the latter part of
the eighteenth century. In his youth he enjoyed the intimacy of
Robertson and Hume, and Fergusson and Adam Smith, all of whom he
long survived. He died January 14, 1831, after having been confined
to his room for a considerable period by the general decay attending
old age. In 1776 he married Penuel, daughter of Sir Ludovick Grant
of Grant, baronet, and Lady Margaret Ogilvy, by whom he had eleven
children.
His eldest son, Joshua Henry Mackenzie, an eminent judge under
the title of Lord Mackenzie, was born in 1777; admitted advocate in
1799; appointed sheriff of Linlithgowshire in 1811, and a lord of
session in 1822. In 1824 he was constituted a judge in the high
court of justiciary, and in 1825 a commissioner of the jury court.
He married in 1821, the fifth daughter of the first Lord Seaforth, a
title now extinct, and died 17th November 1851, aged 74
years. He was interred in the Greyfriars burying-ground, Edinburgh,
where a monument is erected to his memory.
The youngest son of ‘The Man of Feeling,’ the Right Hon. Holt
Mackenzie, fellow of the Asiatic society, was for twenty-four years
in the civil service of the East India company. He left India in
1831, and retired on the annuity fund in October 1833. In 1832 he
became one of the commissioners of the board of control, on his
appointment to which office he was sworn a privy councillor.
MACKENZIE, SIR ALEXANDER,
an enterprising traveller, was a native of Inverness, and when a
young man, emigrated to Canada. About 1781 he obtained a situation
in the counting-house of the North-West Fur Company, at Fort
chippewyan, at the head of the Athabasca Lake, in the country to the
west of Hudson’s Bay. On June 3, 1789, he was sent by his employers
on an exploring expedition through the regions lying to the
north-west of that station, conjectured to be bounded by the Arctic
Ocean. Embarking on the Slave River, on the 9th he
reached the Slave Lake, with which it communicates by a course of
170 miles, where the party rested for six days. On the 15th
they again launched their canoes, and, skirting the margin of the
lake, reached the entrance of the river, which flows from its
western extremity, and is now called the Mackenzie River, on the 29th.
Pursuing the north-westward course, they arrived, July 15, at the
great Northern Ocean; and returning by the same route, regained Fort
Chippewyan, Sept. 12. On Oct. 12, 1792, Mackenzie undertook another
adventurous journey, the object of which was to penetrate to the
North Pacific. In this attempt, the first made in North America, he
was also successful. On his return to England, he published in 1801
his ‘Voyages from Montreal on the river St. Lawrence, through the
Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, in 1792
and 1793,’ preceded by a General History of the Fur Trade, and
embellished with a portrait of the author. In 1802, he received the
honour of knighthood. The year of his death has not been
ascertained. He was alive in 1816.
MACKENZIE, DONALD
an enterprising merchant. See SUPPLEMENT.
Ancient Deeds and Other Writs in the MacKenzie-Wharncliffe Charter
Chest
With Short Notices of Sir George MacKenzie of Rosehaugh; The First
Earls of Cromarty; The Right Honourable James Stewart MacKenzie,
Lord Privy Seal of Scotland; and Others prepared on the Imdtuctions
of te Right Hon. Francis John, Earl of Wharncliffe by J. W. Barty,
LL.D. (1906)
