Open [36.8 MB]

57
THE CLAN OF MACKAY.
War Crj/:-"Bratach bhan Chlann Aoidh" ("The White Banner of MacKay").
Clan Pipe Music: March "Piobaireachd Chlann Aoidh" ("MacKay's March").
Lament "Cumha Dhomhuill Mhic Aoidh" ("Lament for
Donald MacKay").
Badge: Luachair-bhog (Bulrush); or Bealaidh (Broom).
HE S'u>l Mhorgain, or Clan Morgan, was the ancient patronymic of the MacKays, the
1
descendants of a pare Celtic stock, who retired into the interior mountain fastnesses
before the Norse invaders. Several of this ancient race were called Y, or I (Hugh)
' '
MacKay, and were designated of Strathnaver. In Robertson's Index to the missing
Charters of Robert III." there is one to " Gilchreist Macymor M'Cay, of the lands of
Kintyre," in the shire of Bute.
In 1427 Angus Dhu MacKay led 4000 men in the feud between the Keith and the
people of Caithness. The two armies met at a place called Blair Tannie, and the
latter were defeated by the valour of Angus in 1438. In the end of 1442 Angus was
burned to death in the church of Tarbetby the men of Ross, whom he had frequently
harried. His son, John MacKay of Farre, invaded them in revenge, but was defeated
and elain in 1479.
The MacKays had no charters for their lands before 1499, when lye Roy MacKay of Farre obtained
one from James IV. He died in 1512, and was succeeded by his son Donald of Farre and Strathnaver,
by charter 1539. In pursuance of a feud with the Sutherlands, he marched to the village of Knock -
artall, burned it, and afterwards fought his enemies at a place called Aldine-beh, where he was routed,
but not before he had slain, with his own sword, William Sutherland, for which, by command of the
Queen Regent, he was imprisoned in the Castle of Foulis. In 1556 Mary of Guise went north as far
as Inverness, and made the chief of each clan answerable for its good conduct.
"The Laird of Grant," says Balfour, " bringes in the heades of some of his kindred, quhome he
could not bringe in alive, and presents them to justice. She fynnes the Earl of Cathnes . . . and
cendes the Earl of Sutherland with an armey against MacKay of Strathnauerne by land, and Ihone
Kennedy, with a navey by sea, qho brought him prisoner to Edinbrughe Castle, quher he lay for a
long tyme thereafter."
In 1626 Sir Donald MacKay of Strathnaver levied a regiment of 2000 men for service in Bohemia
and Sweden.
He was made a Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1627, and in 1628 a Peer of Scotland by the title of Lord
Reay. He joined Charles I., and was taken prisoner when Newcastle was stormed by the Scottish
army and sent to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, after which he went to Sweden, where he was made
Governor of Bergen in 1649, and died soon after. In the year named, the Abrach MacKays invaded
Caithness, and a bloody conflict ensued near Thurso. Lord Reay's country now belongs to another
race and name, and, until recently, the family for more than one generation resided in Holland, but
have returned permanently to Scotland. The MacKays of Scourie, and Auchness, are considered the
next oldest branch.
Hugh MacKay of Scourie, from being an ensign in the Scots Royals in 1660, in 1674 found himself
Major-General at the head of the Scots- Dutch Brigade in succession to Claverhouse, by whom he was
defeated at Killiecrankie. His long career of service was a most brilliant one, and the soldiers were
wont to say that " Hugh feared nought but God !" He fell at the battle of Steinkirke in 1692. He
left a descendant, Baron ^neas MacKay, Chamberlain of Holland, who became heir to the Peerage
of Reay.
John MacKay of this clan, the eminent botanist, was the founder of the Botanical Garden at
Edinburgh, where he died in April 1802.
When the last Sutherland Fencibles, a
corps disbanded in 1798, was embodied in 1793, there were
many MacKays in its ranks over 104 being William MacKays, of whom there were seventeen in the
company of Captain Sackville Sutherland.
Baron .Eneas MacKay, tenth Lord Reay, died in 1876 and was succeeded by his son, Donald,
eleTenth and present Lord Reay (born 1839).