Murdo or Murdoch Mackenzie, also known as Murdo McRorie (died 1590) was a Scottish courtier and the builder of Fairburn Tower near Inverness.
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Murdo or Murdoch Mackenzie, also known as Murdo McRorie (died 1590) was a Scottish courtier and the builder of Fairburn Tower near Inverness.
He was a son of Roderick (Rory) Mackenzie of Achilty, [1] and probably a nephew of John Mackenzie of Kintail. [2] His mother is said to have been a daughter of Duncan McWilliam Dow vic Leod. [3]
Murdo Mackenzie became a courtier, a groom or valet of the bedchamber for James V of Scotland from 1538. [4] It is said that Murdo was sent to join the royal household after his father, who had been a prisoner on the Bass, impressed the king in a wrestling match with an Italian fighter. Murdo was declared legitimate for legal purposes, inheritance and property ownership, in July 1539. [5]
Murdo Mackenzie is mentioned several times in the records of the Scottish Exchequer. He was a companion of the king in 1540 at Stirling Castle, Falkland Palace, and Dudhope Castle. On 30 April 1540 the king's pursemaster John Tennent gave MacKenzie 22 shillings to buy gunpowder in Dundee for the king's handguns. [6] Mackenzie, and three other grooms of the chamber, Alexander Kemp, Sandy Whitelaw, and Andrew Drummond, were given money for livery clothes in 1540, and their clothing allowance was increased. [7] In June 1542 Mackenzie was given a gift of a "composition" of the lands of Overwood worth £113. [8]
Clothes given to Murdo MacKenzie to wear on duty with the king included a doublet of "tanny" (orange brown) velvet. [9] It is said that Mackenzie was not at court when James V died at Falkland Palace in December 1542, and if he had been, he would have received a good legacy intended for him. [10]
Murdo Mackenzie was granted the lands of Fairburn near Inverness and other farms on 1 April 1542. [11] For the hearths of each homestead on the estate he was to pay the feudal duty of a hen, called a "reik hen." He was instructed to build a new house, Fairburn, with orchards and a garden. [12] After he married Mariobelle or Margaret Urquhart, in 1549 Mary, Queen of Scots gave him more land in the parish. [13] A translation of Mackenzie's charter is given in the Origines Parochiales. [14] Murdo Mackenzie died on 20 December 1590 and wished to be buried with his forebears in Beauly Priory.
His first wife, Margaret Urquhart, was a daughter of the Sheriff of Cromarty. Their children included: [15]
His second wife was a daughter of Rorie McFarquhar. Their children included: [17]
Clan Mackenzie is a Scottish clan, traditionally associated with Kintail and lands in Ross-shire in the Scottish Highlands. Traditional genealogies trace the ancestors of the Mackenzie chiefs to the 12th century. However, the earliest Mackenzie chief recorded by contemporary evidence is Alexander Mackenzie of Kintail who died some time after 1471. Traditionally, during the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Mackenzies supported Robert the Bruce, but feuded with the Earls of Ross in the latter part of the 14th century. During the 15th and 16th-centuries the Mackenzies feuded with the neighboring clans of Munro and MacDonald. In the 17th century the Mackenzie chief was made Earl of Seaforth in the peerage of Scotland. During the Scottish Civil War of the 17th century the Mackenzies largely supported the Royalists. During the Jacobite rising of 1715 the chief and clan of Mackenzie supported the Jacobite cause. However, during the Jacobite rising of 1745 the clan was divided with the chief, Kenneth Mackenzie, Lord Fortrose, supporting the British-Hanoverian Government and his relative, George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie, supporting the Jacobites.
The Clan Macrae is a Highland Scottish clan. The clan has no chief; it is therefore considered an armigerous clan.
Dingwall or Dingwell is a Scottish surname but is of Viking origin. One of the most prominent families by the name of Dingwall in Scotland were the Dingwalls of Kildun who were vassals of the Earl of Ross and also septs of the Clan Munro, a Scottish clan of the Scottish Highlands.
Castle Chanonry of Ross, also known as Seaforth Castle, was located in the town of Fortrose, to the north-east of Inverness, on the peninsula known as the Black Isle, Highland, Scotland. Nothing now remains of the castle. The castle was also known as Canonry or Chanonrie of Ross, the former county.
The Battle of Bealach nam Broig was a battle fought between Scottish clans from the lands of north-west Ross, against north-eastern clans of Ross who supported the Earl of Ross. The actual date of the battle is debated, it probably occurred in 1452 but the Conflicts of the Clans suggests a date as early as 1299.
The Battle of Logiebride or Logie-Riach, also known as a Tumult in Ross was more of a small skirmish rather than an actual battle. The disturbance is said to have taken place on 4 February 1597 at the Logie Candlemas market near Conan House between men of the Clan Mackenzie against men of the Clan Munro and the Bain family of Tulloch Castle.
The Macaulay family of Uig in Lewis, known in Scottish Gaelic as Clann mhic Amhlaigh, were a small family located around Uig on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. There is no connection between the Macaulays of Lewis and Clan MacAulay which was centred in the Loch Lomond area, bordering the Scottish Highlands and Scottish Lowlands. The Macaulays of Lewis are generally said to be of Norse origin because of the etymology of their surname and also because of the islands' Viking Age past. However, a recent analysis of the Y-DNA of men with Scottish surnames has shown that a large number of Hebridean Macaulays are of Irish origin. In the 17th century, however, tradition gave the Macaulays an Irish origin. By the end of the 16th century the dominant clan on Lewis was Clan Macleod of The Lewes. Other notable Lewis clans were the somewhat smaller Morrisons of Ness and the even less numerous Macaulays of Uig. The Macaulays were centred in the area surrounding Uig on the western coast of Lewis, and had a deadly, long-standing feud with the Morrisons, whose lands were located on the northern coast around Ness. Today the Lewis surname Macaulay is considered to be a sept name of the Macleods of Lewis. There are two other nearby clans of Macaulays who may, or may not, be connected to the Lewis clan—the Wester Ross Macaulays, and the Uist MacAulays.
Alexander Mackenzie, known as "Ionraic", traditionally counted as 6th of Kintail, was the first chief of the Clan Mackenzie of whom indisputable contemporary documentary evidence survives. During his long life, he greatly expanded his clan's territories and influence.
Hector Roy Mackenzie of Gairloch was a Scottish clan chieftain of the Clan Mackenzie, who acquired vast estates in and around Gairloch, Wester Ross as a result of his services to the Scottish crown and challenged his nephew for the chiefship of the clan.
Colin Mackenzie of Kintail, nicknamed "Cam", was a Highland chief of the Scottish clan Mackenzie who greatly increased his ancestral estates through royal favour and a career of vigorous self-aggrandisement.
Alexander Mackenzie, was a Scottish historian, author, magazine editor and politician. He was born on a croft, in Gairloch. He had little opportunity for education and initially earned his living as a labourer and ploughman. In 1861 he became apprenticed in the clothes trade selling Scottish cloth in Colchester. In 1869 he settled in Inverness, where he and his brother set up a clothes shop in Clach na Cudainn House. From his business premises he derived his nickname 'Clach na Cudainn' or simply 'Clach'. He later became an editor and publisher of the Celtic Magazine, and the Scottish Highlander. Mackenzie wrote numerous clan histories. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. A founder member of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, Mackenzie was elected an 'Honorary Chieftain' in 1894.
Kenneth Mackenzie, was the 10th laird of Kintail and he was nicknamed Coinneach na Cuirc in Scottish Gaelic, was a Highland chief, head of the Clan Mackenzie, who flourished in the turbulent Scottish politics of the mid-16th century.
Kenneth Mackenzie, traditionally reckoned 7th of Kintail and nicknamed Coinneach a'bhlair, was a Highland chief, being head of the Clan Mackenzie.
John Mackenzie, or "John of Killin", traditionally reckoned 9th of Kintail, was a Highland chief and head of the Clan Mackenzie.
Fionnla Dubh mac Gillechriosd is purported to have been a 15th-century Scotsman, who lived in the north-west of Scotland. The Gaelic Fionnla Dubh mac Gillechriosd translates into English as "Fionnla the black, son of Gillechriosd". Fionnla Dubh is known from a late 17th-century traditional account of Clan Macrae; within that account he presented as a prominent ancestor of the clan. The tradition relates that for a time the chief of Clan Mackenzie was absent, and during that time his bastard uncles were causing trouble in the Mackenzies' territories of Kintail and Kinlochewe. Fionnla Dubh was then ordered to retrieve the chief and was successful in his task. From that time onward, says the tradition, the Macraes from the Kintail area rose in prominence amongst their Mackenzie lords. Tradition also states that Fionnla Dubh is an ancestor of the leading lines of the Macraes from Kintail.
The Bain, Bane or Bayne family of Tulloch were a minor Scottish noble family.
The Battle of Drumchatt, or Druim-a-Chait, was a Scottish clan battle claimed by non-contemporary historians to have taken place in the year 1501 near Strathpeffer, in the Scottish Highlands. It was allegedly fought between the Clan Mackenzie and the Clan Munro. Mackenzie chronicles have claimed a signal victory.
Sir William Hamilton of Sanquhar was pursemaster for James V and the Captain of Edinburgh Castle during the Regency of Regent Arran.
Fairburn Tower is a recently restored Scottish castle near Inverness and Muir of Ord in the parish of Urray.
The Mackenzies of Gairloch were a minor noble Scottish family and one of the senior cadet branches of the Clan Mackenzie, a Scottish clan of the Scottish Highlands.