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THE CLAN OF MACQUARRIE.
War Cry:-" An t-Arm Breac Dearg" ("The army of the checkered red" [tartan]).
Badge: Qiuthas (Pine Tree).
iHE MacQuarries, though a clan of very great antiquity, have ever been too few in
number to figure much in war
"
or history. They claim," says Robertson, following
I
' the papers of the lona Club, " to be descended from one of the Dalriadic princes,"
and the ancient Gaelic genealogy assigns it to them also, thus " Cellach, son of Paul,
son of Cellach of the Islands, son of Torquil, son of Cellach, son of Guaire, son of
Cormac, son of Oirbertig, son of Murdoch, son of Ferchar, son of Bethach, son of
Finlay, son of Fercbarfada, son of Feredoch, son of Fergus."
In 1314 the chief of the MacQuarries fought under Bruce at Bannockburn.
Twenty-one Highland chiefs joined Bruce in that victory, and three the Mae-
Dougals, Cummings, and MacNaba were in the ranks of the enemy.
The first of the name prominently known is John MacQuarrie of Ulva, who died
in 1473. The clan were followers of the Lords of the Isles, and after a time had some
possessions in the Island of Mull. A few are to be found in Argyleshire still.
When, in the end of July 1609, the Bishop of the Isles, Andrew Knc (previously parson of
Paisley, and first Protestant Bishop of this See), went to lona as Commissioner for King James VI.
among the chief men of the Isles who submitted themselves to him as the Royal representative were
MacQuarrie of Ulva, MacKinnon of that Ilk, and ten others. The last of this line, Lachlan Mac-
Quarrie of that Ilk and MacQuarrie, was compelled, by debts, to dispose of his property and become
a soldier in his sixty-second year.
When the old 74th Regiment, or Ar^yle Highlanders, were raised in 1777 by Colonel Campbell of
Barbreck, Lachlan MacQuarrie obtained a commission in it, and his name, under date 23rd December
1777, appears among the captains in the Army List for that year. Twenty-three Campbells were
officers of this regiment, which was disbanded in 1783 ; and after a long life, too probably of penury,
the last of the MacQuarries of Ulva died in 1817, without male issue, so his line is extinct.
The name has found its way into France. There in 1865 Laurent. Victor. Ed. Macquaire was
Colonel of the 12th Battalion of Chaueurx it Pied in Algiers.
MacQuarrie Island, in the Southern Pacific, discovered in 1811, together with a harbour, river,
and port in Van Diemen's Land, are all named from a member of this clan, who was highly popular
its a Governor of New South Wales.