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Th ere
were at one time no fewer than seven baronets of the stock of
Caberfae, but the Tarbat, or Cromartie family, was the most
powerful and famous branch of this great house. In little more
than a century it raised itself, by
mere dint of talent, from a state of comparative
obscurity into affluence and eminence. Its founder was SIR
RODERICK, or RORIE, MACKENZIE,
second son of Colin Mackenzie, and next brother of Kenneth, first
Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, to whose son he acted as tutor during
his minority. Sir Rorie appears to have been a person of great
ability and energy, and his position as an extensive landed
proprietor in Ross-shire, and as tutor of Kintail, gave him vast
influence, which was greatly increased by his marriage with
Margaret Macleod, heiress of Lewis. Through this lady Sir Rorie
also obtained the barony of Toryeach, in Lochbroom, from which he
obtained his usual territorial designation. At this period the
Kintail estates were burdened with debts, and the clan were
involved in a sanguinary feud of long standing with the Macdonalds
of Glengarry. But by the prudent and vigorous management of the
tutor, the family estates were handed over to his nephew on
attaining his majority in a most prosperous condition; the
inveterate feud with Glengarry was terminated, and the turbulent
islanders of the Lewis were subdued. By a dexterous stratagem Sir
Rorie succeeded in capturing Macneil of Barra, whose piracies on
the Irish coast had been loudly complained of by Queen Elizabeth,
and had been a source of great annoyance to the Scottish
Government. In addition to the honour of knighthood, Sir Rorie was
rewarded by King James VI. for his services, in civilising the
northern parts of the kingdom, with extensive grants of estates in
the Western Isles; and he made numerous purchases of lands in
Western Ross. He was the builder of the mansion of Castle
Leod, which to this day forms a
prominent feature in the beautiful valley of Strathpeffer. This
sagacious and resolute chief died in 1626, in the forty-eighth
year of his age, leaving six sons and one daughter, who became the
wife of Sir James Macdonald, of Sleat, ancestor of Lord Macdonald.
Sir Rorie was
succeeded in his estates by his eldest son, JOHN, who was created
a Baronet of Nova Scotia by Charles I. in 1628, and received at
the same time a grant of sixteen hundred acres, situated to the
north of the Gulf of Canada, to be called the Barony of Tarbat.
Sir John Mackenzie was a staunch supporter of the Presbyterian
system. He took an active part in resisting the innovations of
Laud, and fought on the side of the Covenanters in the Great Civil
War; though, after the King had fallen into the hands of the army,
he, in common with a large body of the Scottish nobility and
people, took up arms in his sovereign’s behalf, and was one of the
Resolutioners, or Engagers, who sent an expedition to England
under the Duke of Hamilton, which came to a disastrous end at
Preston. It appears that Sir John afterwards suffered imprisonment
during the Protectorate for his adherence to the royal cause. He
died on the 10th of September, 1654, leaving six sons and four
daughters. His wife, who was a member of the Erskine family,
survived till near the close of the century, and when she must
have been nearly ninety years of age the indomitable old lady
carried on single handed a contest with the Court of Session, and
was successful in an appeal to the Parliament against the decision
of the judges.
Sir John Mackenzie
was succeeded in his title and estates by his eldest son, SIR
GEORGE, afterwards VISCOUNT TARBAT, and first EARL OF CROMARTIE,
the most celebrated person that the family has produced. He was
born in the year 1630, and was educated first at the University of
St. Andrews, and then at King’s College, Aberdeen (a favourite
seminary with the Mackenzies), where he became an excellent
classical scholar, and acquired a taste for natural philosophy.
Even in his youth Sir George was a zealous Royalist, and, in 1653,
he took part in the Earl of Glencairn’s expedition in the West
Highlands: on its defeat, he and Lord Balcarres and Sir Robert
Moray made their escape to Castle Donan, the stronghold of the
Seaforth Mackenzies. It is curious to know that at this time of
danger and depression Sir George Mackenzie and Sir Robert Moray,
the founders of the Royal Society of London, travelled through
many of the Western Isles, examining their natural productions,
and watching the flowing of the tides, for the purpose of
advancing the study of natural philosophy. At the Restoration, Sir
George Mackenzie was rewarded for his loyalty with a seat on the
Bench, and he assumed the judicial title of Lord Tarbat. He
attached himself to the Earl of Middleton, the Royal Commissioner,
a rough and ignorant soldier, whose confidential adviser he
became, and chief agent in the management of public affairs. He
carried matters with a high hand, and was mainly responsible for
the infamous ‘Recissory Act,’ as it was called, which repealed the
whole of the Acts passed by the Scottish Estates since the year
1641, including even those which had been passed in the presence
of Charles I., and with his sanction. In the contest for supremacy
between Middleton and Lauderdale, Lord Tarbat zealously espoused
the cause of his patron, and was the most active supporter, if not
indeed the author, of the proposal to exclude from public office
twelve persons who had taken the Covenant—the victims to be
selected by the votes of Members of Parliament given in secret.
The blow was chiefly aimed at Lauderdale, who had been a zealous
Covenanter, but it recoiled on the heads of his assailants.
Middleton’s commission was cancelled, and Lord Tarbat, whose
conduct in the affair was by no means straightforward and
honourable, was removed from his seat on the Bench. He was
excluded from office for the long period of fourteen years, but at
length, on the 16th of October, 1678, he was appointed Lord
Justice-General of Scotland, and, on the following day, he
received from King Charles a grant of a pension of two hundred
pounds. Shortly after he was admitted a member of the Scottish
Privy Council. In October, 1681, he exchanged the office of Lord
Justice General for that of Lord Clerk Register, and in November
following he was restored to a seat in the Court of Session.
On the accession of
King James, Sir George Mackenzie was elevated to the peerage by
the titles of VISCOUNT TARBAT and LORD MACLEOD OF CASTLEHAVEN. He
was a member of the Secret Committee of Council to whom the
government of the country was chiefly committed. He must,
therefore, have had his share in the odium of the public measures
which ultimately drove the arbitrary and bigoted monarch from the
throne of his ancestors. When the Revolution took place, Lord
Tarbat showed much greater anxiety to protect himself than to
defend his sovereign’s rights. He was, indeed,’ as Hugh Miller
remarks, ‘one of those many politicians who, according to Dryden,
neither love nor hate, but are honest, as far as honesty is
expedient, and never glaringly vicious, because it is impolitic to
be vicious overmuch. And never was there a man more thoroughly
conversant with the intrigues of a court, or more skilful in
availing himself of every chance combination of circumstances.’
Though the feeling of aversion towards Lord Tarbat was so strong
and general that King William was earnestly entreated to
incapacitate him and two or three of his brother councillors from
all public office, he contrived to ingratiate himself with that
prince, and to make himself so useful that he was restored to his
old place of Clerk Register (1692), and preserved the favour of
the King till the end of his reign. The plan which this able and
wily statesman proposed to the ministers of the new sovereign for
the pacification of the Highlands was most sagacious, and if it
had been prudently carried into effect there is every reason to
believe that only a very small body of the clans would have
rallied to the banner of Dundee. But though not expressly rejected
by the Government, it was rendered abortive by the foolish mode in
which it was attempted to be carried out.
The state of
affairs in the Highlands at this juncture, and the cause of the
failure of Tarbat’s plan for their pacific settlement, are clearly
pointed out by Lord Macaulay. ‘There is strong reason to believe,’
he says, ‘that the chiefs who came [to Dundee] would have remained
quietly at home if the Government had understood the politics of
the Highlanders. Those politics were thoroughly understood by one
able and experienced statesman, sprung from the great Highland
family of Mackenzie, the Viscount Tarbat. He at this juncture
pointed out to Melville by letter, and to Mackay in conversation,
both the cause and the remedy of the distempers which seemed
likely to bring on Scotland the calamity of civil war. There was,
Tarbat said, no general disposition to insurrection among the
Gael. Little was to be apprehended even from those Popish clans
which were under no apprehension of being subjected to the yoke of
the Campbells. It was notorious that the ablest and most active of
the discontented chiefs troubled themselves not at all about the
questions which were in dispute between the Whigs and the Tories.
Lochiel, in particular, whose eminent personal qualities made him
the most important man among the mountaineers, cared no more for
James than for William. If the Camerons, the Macdonalds, and the
Macleans could be convinced that under the new Government their
estates and their dignities would be safe, if MacCallummore would
make some concessions, if their Majesties would take on themselves
the payment of some arrears of rent, Dundee might call the clans
to arms, but he would call to little purpose. Five thousand
pounds, Tarbat thought, would be sufficient to quiet all the
Celtic magnates; and in truth, though that sum might seem
ludicrously small to the politicians of Westminster, though it was
not larger than the annual gains of the Groom of the Stole or of
the Paymaster of the Forces, it might well be thought immense by a
barbarous potentate who, while he ruled hundreds of square miles
and could bring hundreds of warriors into the field, had, perhaps,
never had fifty guineas at once in his coffers. Though Tarbat was
considered by the Scottish ministers of the new sovereigns as a
very doubtful friend, his advice was not altogether neglected. It
was resolved that overtures such as he recommended should be made
to the malcontents. Much depended on the choice of an agent, and,
unfortunately, the choice showed how little the prejudices of the
wild tribes of the hills were understood at Edinburgh. A Campbell
was selected for the office of gaining over to the cause of King
William men whose only quarrel with King William was that he
countenanced the Campbells. Offers made through such a channel
were naturally regarded as at once snares and insults. After this
it was to no purpose that Tarbat wrote to Lochiel, and Mackay to
Glengarry. Lochiel returned no answer to Tarbat, and Glengarry
returned to Mackay a coldly civil answer, in which the general was
advised to imitate the example of Monk.’
Lord Tarbat retired
from the office of Clerk Register in 1696, with a pension of £400
a year. The death of King William and the accession of Queen Anne
brought Lord Tarbat again into official life, and although now in
the seventy-second year of his age, he was appointed Secretary of
State for Scotland in November, 1702. He was soon afterwards
created EARL OF CROMARTIE, having some time previously purchased
the estate of the ancient family of Urquhart of Cromartie. When he
attained his seventy-fifth year, feeling the duties of Secretary
of State too arduous for his advanced age, he resigned that
office, and was reinstated in his former situation as Lord
Justice-General, receiving at the same time a pension of £600 a
year. He took an active part in promoting the union between
Scotland and England, and published several essays in support of
that measure. After serving the public in various important
situations under six crowned heads for the long period of sixty
years, Lord Cromartie finally resigned the office of Lord
Justice-General in 1710, when he was in. his eightieth year, and
retired into private life. He survived, however, till 1714, when
he was gathered to his fathers, full of years and honours.
Lord Cromartie’s
first wife, a daughter of Sir James Sinclair of Mey, died in 1699,
and six months after, when he was in his seventieth year, the Earl
married Margaret, Countess of Wemyss in her own right, and widow
of Sir James Wemyss. She also predeceased Lord Cromartie, and so
anxious was he that on his own death his body should rest beside
hers at Wemyss that he took a formal bond from her son David, Earl
of Wemyss, that he would allow this arrangement to be carried into
effect. But notwithstanding this precaution, his wish was not
gratified. Excavations made in 1875 in the burying-ground at
Dingwall brought to light the fact that Lord Cromartie was buried
beside his own ancestors, near the pyramid known as Lord
Cromartie’s monument. The Earl found leisure in the course of his
very busy life to write a number of historical, theological, and
political dissertations of great ability and research. Two of the
most valuable of these—now very rare—are a vindication of Robert
II. from the charge of bastardy, and a historical account of the
Gowrie conspiracy. He wrote besides a Synopsis Apocalytica,
and recorded several interesting facts regarding the formation of
peat-moss. Lord Cromartie was one of the original members of the
Royal Society, and contributed some valuable articles to the
earlier volumes of the ‘Philosophical Transactions.’ Mr. Fraser
mentions an interesting fact which, as he says, is not generally
known, that it was the Earl who advised Monk to attempt the
restoration of the Stewarts to the throne, and that he advanced
him a thousand pounds to assist him in the enterprise.
Lord Cromartie’s
second son, Kenneth, inherited the large estate from which his
father’s title was taken, and was the ancestor of the MACKENZIES,
BARONETS OF TARBAT. The third son, James, who was a distinguished
advocate, was for thirty-four years a member of the College of
Justice, under the title of LORD ROYSTON, taken from an estate
near Granton, bequeathed to him by his father. The eldest son,
JOHN, succeeded to the ancestral estates and his father’s titles,
and became second Earl of Cromartie. His career was comparatively
short and undistinguished. He died in 1731, and was succeeded by
his eldest son, GEORGE, third Earl, who, unfortunately for himself
and his family, took part in the rebellion of 1745.
Having been dispatched into Sutherland for the purpose
of dispersing the Government forces in that county, he was
surprised, on the 15th of April, the day before the battle of
Culloden, and made prisoner at Dunrobin by a party of the Earl of
Sutherland’s militia. His eldest son, Lord Macleod, who had fought
gallantly along with his father at the head of their clan at the
battle of Falkirk, was shortly after apprehended also, and the two
were sent prisoners to London. The Earl was brought to trial for
high treason on the 28th of July, 1746, along with the Earl of
Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerino, and pleaded guilty, throwing
himself on the mercy of the sovereign. He was condemned to be
executed, and his honours and estates were forfeited. But though
his two brother nobles suffered the extreme penalty of the law,
Lord Cromartie’s life was spared, mainly, it is believed, through
the heroic efforts of his devoted wife, combined with pity for his
numerous family. He survived his forfeiture twenty years, and
appears to have suffered no small privations and hardships in
providing for the support of his family, which consisted of three
sons and seven daughters. His eldest son, LORD MACLEOD, who was
not brought to trial, nobly disdaining to be a burden to his
parents, went to the Continent as a soldier of fortune, and joined
the Swedish army, in which he remained for twenty-seven years. He
attained high rank in the service, and was created a Count of
Sweden. On the breaking out of the Seven Years’ War he joined the
Prussian army as a volunteer, and served in it through the first
campaign in the year 1757. Lord
Macleod returned to his native country in 1777, and obtained from
King George a commission to raise a new Highland regiment. So
successful was he in his efforts in the district where his family
were held in high respect, that in a short time he enrolled 840
Highlanders, who, along with 270 Lowlanders, were embodied under
the name of the 73rd Regiment, or Macleod’s Highlanders,
celebrated for their gallant exploits in India against Hyder Ali.
Lord Macleod, now restored to the British service, distinguished
himself by his energy and courage, and in 1782 was promoted to the
rank of major-general. He had been previously elected member for
the county of Ross amid unusual rejoicings, and in 1784 the
forfeited estates of his family were restored to him on payment of
the debt of £19,000 with which they were burdened. He greatly
improved his property, planted many thousands of trees, and
erected a new mansion at Tarbat. His lordship died in Edinburgh in
1789, in the sixty-second year of his age, without issue, and his
estates were inherited by his cousin, KENNETH MACKENZIE OF
CROMARTIE, great-grandson of George, first Earl of Cromartie. At
his decease the patrimonial inheritance passed to LADY ISABELLA
MACKENZIE, Dowager Lady Elibank, eldest sister of Lord Macleod.
They next, in default of male issue, descended to her eldest
daughter, MARIA. She married EDWARD HAY OF NEWHALL, uncle of the
seventh Marquess of Tweeddale, who, in terms of the entail
executed by Lord Macleod, assumed the additional name of
Mackenzie. JOHN HAY MACKENZIE, the only son of this couple,
married a daughter of Sir James Gibson-Craig, and left an only
child, ANNE HAY MACKENZIE, present Duchess of Sutherland, who
was created, in 1861, COUNTESS
OF CROMARTIE, VI5COUNTESS TARBAT OF TARBAT, BARONESS MACLEOD OF
CASTLE LEOD, and BARONESS CASTLEHAVEN, &c.,
with remainder to her second son,
FRANCIS, the heir to the estates, as well as to the Cromartie
titles. See
also a pdf article about the 2 volume book on the
Earls of Cromartie
And should that interest you then
download the 2 volumes here..
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