the 21st of June, 1614, and proclamation is ordered at Inverness and other places, charging all the inhabitants of the North Isles, and within the bounds of the lands, heritages, possessions, offices and bailliaries pertaining to Colin, Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, except persons of the name of Fraser, Ross, and Munro, and their tenants and servants, to assist the commissioners in apprehending those named in the former commission.
On the 30th of July, 1613, in a long list of 121 persons before the Council from the County of Inverness, which then included Ross, and fined for the reset of the Clan Macgregor, Sir Roderick Mackenzie of Coigeach, as Tutor of Kintail, has L4000 against his name, by far the largest sum in the list, the next to him being his own uncle, Roderick Mor Mackenzie I. of Redcastle, with 4000 merks. There seems to have been some difficulty as to the settlement of these heavy fines, for on the 27th of October following, there is a missive before the Council from the King “anent the continuation granted to the Tutor of Kintail, Mr John and Rory Mackenzies, for payment of their fines,” and directions are given accordingly that no new continuation be granted.
In 1614, while the Tutor was busily engaged in the island of Lewis, discussions broke out between different branches of the Camerons, instigated by the rival claims of the Marquis of Huntly and the Earl of Argyll. The latter had won over the aid of Allan MacDhomhnuill Dubh, chief of the clan, while Huntly secured the support of Erracht, Kinlochiel, and Glen Nevis, and, by force, placed them in possession of all the lands belonging to the chief’s adherents who supported Argyll. Allan, however, managed to deal out severe retribution to his enemies, who were commanded by Lord Enzie, and, as is quaintly said, “teaching ane lesson to the rest of kin that are alqui in what form they shall carry themselves to their chief hereafter.” The Marquis obtained a commission from the King to suppress these violent proceedings, in virtue of which he called out all his Majesty’s loyal vassals to join him. Kintail and the Tutor demurred, and submitted the great difficulties and trials they had experienced in reducing the Lewis to good and peaceable government as their excuse, and they were exempted from joining Huntly’s forces by a special commission from the King. Closely connected as it is with the final possession of the island by the House of Kintail, it is here given –
“James Rex, – James, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, to all and sundry our lieges, and subjects whom it effeirs to whose knowledge this our letters shall come greeting. For as much as we have taken great pains and travails, and bestown great charge and expense for reducing the Isles of our kingdom to our obedience: And the same Isles being now settled in a reasonable way of quietness, and the chieftains thereof having come in and rendered their obedience to us there rests none of the Isles rebellious, but only the Lewis, which being inhabitated by a number of godless and lawless people, trained up from their youth in all kinds of ungodliness: They can hardly be reclaimed from their impurities and barbarities, and induced to embrace a quiet and peaceable form of living so that we have been constrained from time to time to employ our cousin, the Lord Kintail, who rests with God, and since his decease the Tutor of Kintail his brother, and other friends of that House in our service against the rebels of the Lewis, with ample commission and authority to suppress their insolence and to reduce that island to our obedience, which service has been prosecuted and followed these divers years by the power, friendship and proper services of the House of Kintail, without any kind of trouble and charge or expense to us, or any support or relief from their neighbours and in the prosecution of that service, they have had such good and happy success, as divers of the rebels have been apprehended and executed by justice: But seeing our said service is not yet fully accomplished, nor the Isle of the Lewis settled in a solid and perfect obedience, we have of late renewed our former commission to our cousin Colin, now Lord of Kintail, and to his Tutor and some other friends of his house, and they are to employ their whole power, and service in the execution of the said commission, which being a service importing highly our honour, and being so necessary and expedient for the peace and quiet of the whole islands, and for the good of our subjects, haunting the trade of fishing in the isles, the same ought not to be interrupted upon any other intervening occasion, and our commissioners and their friends ought not to be distracted therefrom for giving of their concurrence in our services: Therefore, we, with advice of the Lords of our Privy Council, have given and granted our licence to our said cousin Colin. Lord of Kintail, and to his friends, men, tenants and servants, to remain and bide at home from all osts, raids, wars, assemblings, and gatherings to be made by George, Marquis of Huntly, the Earl of Enzie, his son, or any other our Lieutenants, Justices, or Commissioners, by sea or land either for the pursuit of Allan Cameron of Lochiel and his rebellious complices, or for any other cause or occasion whatsoever, during or within the time of our commission foresaid granted against the Lewis, without pain or danger to be incurred by our said cousin the Lord of Kintail and his friends in their persons, lands or goods; notwithstanding whatsoever our proclamation made or to be made in the contrary whatever, and all pains contained in it, we dispense by these presents, discharging hereby our Justices, Justice Clerk, and all our Judges and Ministers of law, of all calling, accusing, or any way proceeding against them, for the cause aforesaid, and of their officers in that part. Given under our signet at Edinburgh, the 14th day of September, 1614, and of our reign the 12th, and 48 years. Read, passed, and allowed in Council. Alexander, Chancellor. Hamilton, Glasgow, Lothian, Binning.”
Having procured this commission, the Mackenzies were in a position to devote their undivided attention to the Lewis and their other affairs at home; and from this date that island principality remained in the continuous possession of the family of Kintail and Seaforth, until in 1844, it was sold to the late Sir James Matheson. The people ever after adhered most loyally to the illustrious house to whom they owed peace and prosperity such as was never before experienced in the history of the island.
The commission proved otherwise of incalculable benefit to Kintail; for it not only placed him in a position to pacify and establish good order in the Lewis with greater ease, but at the same time provided his Lordship with undisturbed security in his extensive possessions on the mainland at a time when the most violent disorders prevailed over every other district of the West Highlands and Isles.
On the 2nd of February, 1615, a commission is signetted in favour of Sir Roderick, Mr Colin Mackenzie of Strathgarve, Mr Alexander Mackenzie of Kinnock, and Alexander Mackenzie of Coul, to receive Malcolm Caogach Mac Jan Mhic-an-t-Sagairt, Callum Dubh Mac Allaster, Donald Mac Angus Mac Gillechallum, Gillecallum Mac Ian Riabhaich, and James Mac Ian Duibh, from the Magistrates of Edinburgh, to carry them north, and to keep them in ward until everything is ready for trying them for murder, mutilation, theft, reset, and other crimes.
At a meeting of the Council held at Edinburgh on the 9th of February, 1615, Neil Macleod’s two sons, Norman and Roderick, are set at liberty on condition that they transport themselves out of the King’s dominions and never return. They appeared personally “and acted and obliged them that within the space of forty days after their relief furth of their ward, where they remain within the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, they shall depart and pass furth of his Majesty’s dominions and never return again within the same during their lifetimes, under the pain of death; and in the meantime, till their passing furth of his Majesty’s dominions, that they shall not go benorth the water of Tay, under the said pain, to be executed upon them without favour if they fail in the premises. And they gave their great oath to perform the conditions of this present act; and further, the said Norman declared that he would renounce, like as by the tenour of this present act he does renounce, his Majesty’s remission and pardon granted unto him, and all favour and benefit that he could acclaim by the said remission, in case he failed in the premises. In respect whereof the said Lords ordained the said Norman and Rory to be put to liberty and fredom furth of the Tolbooth”; and a warrant was issued to the Provost and Bailies of Edinburgh to give effect to their Lordships’ decision. The Tutor appeared personally, and in name of Lord Kintail consented to the liberation of the prisoners. He at the same time protested that neither he nor his chief should be held any longer responsible for the expenses of maintaining Norman, now that lie was at liberty, and he was accordingly relieved from further charge on that account.
On the 26th of April following the Tutor receives a commission for the pursuit and apprehension of Coll MacGillespic Macdonald, Malcolm Mac Rory Macleod, and other fugitives, described as “the Islay rebels,” who had fled from justice, should they land in the Lewis or in any other of the territories belonging to Lord Mackenzie of Kintail. In order that he may the better attend to this duty, along with several other heads of clans named in the same commission for their respective districts, and as “it is necessary that the commissioners foresaid remain at home and on nowise come to this burgh (Edinburgh) to pursue or defend in any actions or causes concerning them,” their Lordships continued all actions against them until the 1st of November next, ordaining the said actions “to rest and sleep” till that date.
On the same day, a second dispensation under the signet is addressed to the Sheriff of Inverness and his deputes in favour of Lord Colin, requesting that despite his minority he be served heir to his father, the late Kenneth, Lord Mackenzie of Kintail. On the 25th of June following he is ordered to provide twenty-five men as part of an expedition for the pursuit of Sir James Macdonald and Coll MacGillespick. In June, 1616, he is appointed a Commissioner of the Peace for the Sheriffdom of Elgin and Forres.
On the outbreak of a new rebellion in the Lewis another commission, dated the 28th of August, 1616, to last for twelve months, was issued by the Privy Council, in favour of the Tutor and other leading men of the clan, couched in the following terms:
Forasmuch as the King’s Majesty having taken great pains and troubles and bestowed great charges and expenses for reducing of the Islands of this Kingdom and continent next adjacent to his Majesty’s obedience, and for establishing of religion, peace, justice, order, and government, within the same, in the which his Majesty by the force and power of his royal authority has had such a happy and good success as almost the whole chieftains of clans and headsmen of the Isles are come in and in all dutiful submission doth acknowledge his Majesty’s obedience, so that now there is no part of the Isles rebellious but the Lewis – the chieftains whereof, as from time to time they raise up in credit, power, and friendship among the barbarous inhabitants thereof, have been apprehended and by course of justice have suffered their deserved punishment, and at last the traitor Neil, who was last ringleader of that rebellious society, being apprehended and executed to the death, whereby it was presumed that in him all further trouble, misery, and unquietness in the Lewis should have ceased and rested; notwithstanding it is of truth that Malcolm Macleod, son to Rory Macleod, sometime of the Lewis, has embraced that rebellious and treasonable course wherein his treacherous predecessors miserably perished, and having associated himself with the persons following – Rory and Donald Macleod, sons to the said umquhile Neil, and William and Rory Macleod, brothers to the said Malcolm, Donald Mac Ian Duibh-the Brieve, Murdo Mac Angus Mhic-an-t-Sagairt, Donald Mac Angus Mhic-an-t-Sagairt his brother, Gillecallum Caogach Mac-an-t-Sagairt, John Dubh Mac Angus Mac Gillemichell, Murdo Mac Torquil Blair, Norman Mac Torquil Blair, John Roy Mac Torquil Blair, Donald Mac Neil Mac Finlay, Gillecallum Mac Allan Mac Finlay, and Donald Mac Dhomhuill Mac Gillechallum – who were all actors in the first rebellion moved and raised in the Lewis against the gentlemen venturers who were directed by his Majesty there, and did prosecute that rebellion against them with fire and sword and all kinds of hostility, for the which and for other thievish and treasonable crimes committed by them they and every one of them were upon the second day of February, 1612, orderly denounced rebels and put to the horn – they have now combined and banded themselves in a most treacherous, disloyal, and pernicious course and resolution to maintain a public rebellion in the Lewis, and to oppose themselves with their whole power and strength against all and whatsoever courses shall be further taken by his Majesy’s direction for repressing of their insolence; whereby is not only all intercourse and trade which by his Majesty’s good subjects in the Lowlands would be entertained amongst them, made frustrate and void, but the preparative of this rebellion in consequence and example is most dangerous, and if the same be not substantially repressed, may give further boldness to others who are not yet well settled in a perfect obedience, to break loose. Accordingly, as it is “a discredit to the country that such a parcel of ground possessed by a number of miserable caitiffs shall be suffered to continue rebellious, whereas the whole remanent Isles are become peaceable and obedient; and whereas the said Lords, for repressing of the insolence of the whole of the rebellious thieves and limmers of the Lewis and reducing them to his Majesty’s obedience, passed and expede a commission – to Roderick Mackenzie of Coigeach, Tutor of Kintail, Mr Colin Mackenzie of Killin, Murdo Mackenzie, their brother, Alexander Mackenzie of Coul, and Kenneth Mackenzie of Davochmaluag, for reducing of the limmers of the Lewis to obedience,” which commission “is now expired, and the said thieves, taking new courage and breath thereupon, are become more insolent than formerly they were, and have lately made a very open insurrection and committed slaughter and bloodshed within the said bounds, in contempt of God and disregard of his Majesty’s laws”; therefore his Majesty and the Lords of Council, understanding of the “good affection” of the said persons, now reconstitute them commissioners for the reduction of the said rebels, with full power and authority, etc. (as in previous commissions granted them) and, “for the better execution of this commission, to take the lymphads, galleys, birlinns, and boats in the Lewis and in the next adjacent Isles for the furtherance of his Majesty’s service, – the said justices being always answerable to the owners of the said lymphads, galleys, birlinns, and boats for delivery of the same at the finishing of his Majesty’s said service.” Proclamation was to be made at Inverness and other places charging the lieges within the bounds of the North Isles and within the lands of Colin, Lord of Kintail (except those of the name of Fraser, Ross, and Munro, their tenants and servants), to assist the said commissioners in the execution of their duty.
By a commission dated the same day, Sir Roderick, along with Simon Lord Lovat, and Urquhart of Cromarty, is appointed, for the trial in the Burgh of Inverness of all resetters within thc Sheriffdom of the county of any traitors in the Isles, the commission to last for one year.
In 1618, along with Grant of Grant, he assisted the Mackintosh against the Marquis of Huntly. On the 18th of June, 1622, he is one of the chiefs named in a commission against the Camerons, among the others being Mackintosh of Mackintosh, Sir Roderick Macleod, XIII. of Harris, Grant of Grant, Sir John Campbell of Calder, John Grant of Glenmoriston, Patrick Grant of Ballindalloch, and John Macdonald, Captain of Clanranald. [See Mackenzie’s “History of the Camerons,” p. 86.]
At the death of Kenneth, Lord Kintail, the estates were very heavily burdened in consequence of the wars with Glengarry and various family difficulties and debts. His lordship, in these circumstances, acted very prudently, as we have seen, in appointing his brother, Sir Roderick Mackenzie I. of Coigeach – in whose judgment he placed the utmost confidence – Tutor to his son and successor, Lord Colin. Knowing the state of affairs – the financial and numberless other difficulties which stared him in the face, at the same time that the family were still much involved with the affairs of the Lewis, and other broils on the mainland – Sir Roderick hesitated to accept the great responsibilities of the position, but, to quote one of the family manuscripts, “all others refusing to take the charge he set resolutely to the work. The first thing he did was to assault the rebels in the Lewis, which he did so suddenly, after his brother’s death, and so unexpectedly to them, that what the Fife Adventurers had spent many years and much treasure in without success, he, in a few months, accomplished; for having by his youngest brother Alexander, chased Neil, the chief commander of all the rest, from the Isle, pursued him to Glasgow, where, apprehending him, he delivered him to the Council, who executed him immediately. He returned to the Lewis, banished those whose deportment he most doubted, and settled the rest as peaceable tenants to his nephew; which success he had, with the more facility, because he had the only title of succession to it by his wife, and they looked on him as their just master. From thence he invaded Glengarry, who was again re-collecting his forces; but at his coming they dissipated and fled. He pursued Glengarry to Blairy in Moray, where he took him; but willing to have his nephew’s estate settled with conventional right rather than legal, he took Low-countrymen as sureties for Glengarry’s peaceable deportment, and then contracted with him for the reversion of the former wadsets which Colin of Kintail had acquired of him, and for a ratification and new disposition of all his lands, formerly sold to Colin, and paid him thirty thousand merks in money for this, and gave him a title to Lagganachindrom, which, till then, he possessed by force, so that Glengarry did ever acknowledge it as a favour to be overcome by such enemies, who over disobligements did deal both justly and generously. Rory employed himself therefore in settling his pupil’s estate, which he did to that advantage that ere his minority passed he freed his estate, leaving him master of an opulent fortune and of great superiorities, for be acquired the superiority of Troternish with the heritable Stewartry of the Isle of Skye, to his pupil, the superiority of Raasay and some other Isles. At this time, Macleod, partly by law and partly by force, had possessed himself of Sleat and Troternish, a great part of Macdonald’s estate. Rory, now knighted by King James, owned Macdonald’s cause as an injured neighbour, and by the same method that Macleod possessed himself of Sleat and Troternish he recovered both from him, marrying the heir thereof Sir Donald Macdonald, to his niece, sister to Lord Colin, and caused him to take the lands of Troternish holden of his pupil. Shortly after that he took the management of Maclean’s estate, and recovered it from the Earl of Argyll, who had fixed a number of debts and pretences on it, so by his means all the Isles were composed and accorded in their debates and settled in their estates, whence a full peace amongst them, Macneill of Barra excepted, who had been an hereditary outlaw. Him, by commission, Sir Rory reduced, took him in his fort of Kisemull, and carried him prisoner to Edinburgh, where he procured his remission. The King gifted his estate to Sir Rory, who restored it to Macneill for a sum not exceeding his expenses, and holding it of himself in feu. This Sir Rory, as he was beneficial to all his relations, establishing them in free and secure fortunes, purchased considerable lands to himself in Ross and Moray, besides the patrimony left him by his father, the lands of Coigeach and others, which, in lieu of the Lewis, were given him by his brother. His death was regretted as a public calamity, which was in September, 1626, in the 48th year of his age. To Sir Rory succeeded Sir John Mackenzie of Tarbat; and to him Sir George Mackenzie, of whom to write might be more honour to him than of safety to the writer as matters now stand.” [The Applecross Mackenzie MS.]
We shall now draw to some extent on the family manuscripts. The narrative in this form will add considerable interest to the information already given under this head from official sources. Sir Roderick was a most determined man, and extremely fertile in such schemes as might enable him to gain any object he had in view. One of his plans, connected with Mackenzie’s possession of the Lewis, in its barbarous and cruel details, almost equalled the Raid of Cillechriost. Neil Macleod, accompanied by his nephews, Malcolm, William, and Roderick, the three sons of Roderick Og; the four sons of Torquil Blair; and thirty of their more determined and desperate followers, retired, when Kintail obtained possession of the whole of the Lewis, to the impregnable rock of Berrissay, at the back of the island, to which Neil, as a precautionary measure, had been for years previously sending food and other necessaries as a provision for future necessity. Here they held out for three years, where they were a source of great annoyance to the Tutor and his followers. On a little rock opposite Berrissay, Neil, by a well-directed shot killed one of the Tutor’s followers named Donald MacDhonnchaidh Mhic Ian Ghlais, and wounded another called Tearlach MacDhomh’uill Roy Mhic Fhionnlaidh Ghlais. This exasperated their leader so much that, all other means having failed to oust Neil from his impregnable position, the Tutor conceived the inhuman scheme of gathering together all the wives and children of the men who were on Berrissay, and all those in the island who were in any way related to them by blood or marriage, and, having placed them on a rock exposed only during low water, so near Berrissay that Neil and his companions could see and hear them, Sir Roderick and his men avowed that they would leave them – innocent, helpless women and children – on the rock to be overwhelmed and drowned on the return of the tide, if Neil and his companions did not at once surrender the rock. Macleod knew, by stern experience, that even to the carrying out such a fiendish crime, the promise of the Tutor, once given, was as good as his bond. It is due to the greater humanity of Neil that the terrible position of the helpless women and children and their companions appalled him so much that he decided immediately upon yielding up the rock on condition that he and his followers should be allowed to leave the Lewis with their lives. It cannot be doubted that but for Macleod’s more merciful conduct the ferocious act would have been committed by Sir Roderick and his followers; and we have to thank the less barbarous instincts of their opponents for saving the clan Mackenzie from the commission of a crime which would have secured to its perpetrators the execration of posterity.
After Neil had left the rock he proceeded privately, during the night, to his cousin Sir Roderick Mor Macleod, XIII. of Harris. The Tutor learning this caused Macleod to be charged, under pain of treason and forfeiture, to deliver him up to the Council. Realising the danger of his position, Macleod prevailed upon Neil and his son Donald to accompany him to Edinburgh, and to seek forgiveness from the King; and under pretence of this he delivered them both up on arriving in the city, where Neil, in April, 1613, was at once executed and his son afterwards banished out of the kingdom. This treacherous conduct on the part of Macleod of Harris cannot be excused, but it was a fair return for a similar act of treachery of which Neil had been guilty against another some little time before.
When on Berrissay, he met with the captain of a pirate, with whom he entered into a mutual bond by which they were to help each other, both being outlaws. The captain agreed to defend the rock from the seaward side while Neil made his incursions on shore. They promised faithfully to live and die together, and to make the agreement more secure, it was arranged that the stranger should marry Neil’s aunt, a daughter of Torquil Blair. The day fixed for the marriage having arrived, and Neil and his adherents having discovered that the captain had several articles of value aboard his vessel, he, when the master of the pirate was naturally off his guard, treacherously seized the ship, and sent the captain and crew prisoners to Edinburgh, expecting that in this way he might secure pardon for himself in addition to possession of all the stores on board. By order of the Council the sailors were all hanged at Leith. Much of the silver and gold taken from the vessel Neil carried to Harris, where probably it helped to tempt Macleod, as it previously tempted himself to break faith with Neil. The official account of these incidents has been already given at pages 194-95.
Sir Robert Gordon writing about this period but referring to 1477, says – “From the ruins of the family of Clandonald, and some of the neighbouring Highlanders, and also by their own virtue, the surname of the Clankenzie, from small beginnings, began to flourish in these bounds; and by the friendship and favour of the house of Sutherland, chiefly of Earl John, fifth of that name, Earl of Sutherland (whose Chamberlains they were, in receiving the rents of the Earldom of Ross to his use) their estate afterwards came to great height, yea above divers of their more ancient neighbours. The chief and head of the family at this day is Colin Mackenzie, Lord of Kintail, now created Earl of Seaforth.” [Gordon’s “Earldom of Sutherland,” p. 77.] If the family was so powerful in 1477, what must its position have been under Lord Colin? The Earl of Cromarty says that “This Colin was a noble person of virtuous endowments, beloved of all good men, especially his Prince. He acquired and settled the right of the superiority of Moidart and Arisaig, the Captain of Clandonald’s lands, which his father, Lord Kenneth, formerly claimed right to but lived not to accomplish it. Thus, all the Highlands and Islands from Ardnamurchan to Strathnaver were either Mackenzie’s property, or under his vassalage, some few excepted, and all about him were tied to his family by very strict bonds of friendship or vassalage, which, as it did beget respect from many it be got envy in others, especially his equals.”
It is difficult to discover any substantial aid which the Mackenzies ever received from the Earls of Sutherland of the kind stated by Sir Robert Gordon. We have carefully perused the whole of the work from which the above quotation is made, and are unable to discover a single instance prior to 1477, where the Sutherlands were of any service whatever to the family of Kintail; and the assumption is only another instance of that quality of partiality to his own family,” so characteristic of Sir Robert, and for which even the publishers of his work deemed it necessary to apologise in the Advertisement prefaced to his “History of the Earldom of Sutherland.” They “regret the hostile feelings which he expresses concerning others who were equally entitled to complain of aggression on the part of those whom he defends,” but “strict fidelity to the letter of the manuscript” would not allow them to omit “the instances in which this disposition appears.” After Mackenzie’s signal victory over the Macdonalds at Blar-na-Pairc, and Hector Roy’s prowess at Drumchait, the Earl of Sutherland began to think that the family of Mackenzie, rapidly growing in power and influence, might be of some service in the prosecution of his own plans and in extending his power, and he accordingly entered into the bond of manrent with him already noticed. It has been seen that, for a long time after, the advantages of this arrangement were entirely on the side of the Sutherlands, as at the battle of Brora and other places previously mentioned. The appointment of Kintail as Deputy- Chamberlain of the Earldom of Ross was due to and in acknowledgment of these signal and repeated services, and the obligations and advantages of the office were found to be reciprocal. The first and only instance in which the Earl’s connection with Mackenzie is likely to have been of service in the field is on the occasion when, in 1605, he sent “six score” men to support him against Glengarry, and these, it has been seen, had fled before they saw the enemy. So much for the favour and friendship of the House of Sutherland and its results before and after 1477.
Lord Colin became involved in legal questions with the Earl of Argyll about the superiority of Moidart and Arisaig, and thus spent most of the great fortune accumulated for him by his uncle the Tutor; but he was ultimately successful against Argyll. He was frequently at the Court of James VI., with whom he was a great favourite, and in 1623 he was raised to the peerage by the title of Earl of Seaforth, and Viscount Fortrose. From his influence at Court he was of great service to his followers and friends; while he exerted himself powerfully and steadily against those who became his enemies from jealousy of his good fortune and high position.
He imposed high entries and rents upon his Kintail and West Coast tenants, which they considered a most “grievous imposition.” In Lord Kenneth’s time and that of his predecessors, the people had their lands at very low rates. After the wars with Glengarry the inhabitants of the West Coast properties devoted themselves more steadily to the improvement of their stock and lands, and accumulated considerable means. The Tutor, discovering this, took advantage of their prosperity and imposed a heavy entry or grassum on their tacks payable every five years. “I shall give you one instance thereof. The tack of land called Muchd in Letterfearn, as I was told by Farquhar Mac Ian Oig, who paid the first entry out of it to the Tutor, paid of yearly duty before but 40 merks Scots, a cow and some meal, which cow and meal was usually converted to 20 merks but the Tutor imposed 1000 merks of entry upon it for a five years’ tack. This made the rent very little for four years of the tack, but very great and considerable for the first year. The same method proportionately was taken with the rest of the lands, and continued so during the Tutor’s and Colin’s time, but Earl George, being involved in great troubles, contracted so much debt that he could not pay his annual rents yearly and support his own state, but was forced to delay his annual rents to the year of their entry, and he divided the entry upon the five years with the people’s consent and approbation, so that the said land of Muchd fell to pay 280 merks yearly and no entry.” From this account, taken from the contemporary Ardintoul Manuscript, it appears that the system of charging rent on the tenant’s own improvements is an injustice of considerable antiquity.
Colin “lived most of his time at Chanonry in great state and very magnificently. He annually imported his wines from the Continent, and kept a store for his wines, beers, and other liquors, from which he replenished his fleet on his voyages round the West Coast and the Lewis, when he made a circular voyage every year or at least every two years round his own estates. I have heard John Beggrie, who then served Earl Colin, give an account of his voyages after the bere seed was sown at Allan (where his father and grandfather had a great mains, which was called Mackenzie’s girnel or granary), took a Journey to the Highlands, taking with him not only his domestic servants but several young gentlemen of his kin, and stayed several days at Killin, whither he called all his people of Strathconan, Strathbran, Strathgarve, and Brae Ross, and did keep courts upon them and saw all things rectified. From thence he went to Inverewe, where all his Lochbroom tenants and others waited upon him, and got all their complaints heard and rectified. It is scarcely credible what allowance was made for his table of Scotch and French wines during these trips amongst his people. From Inverewe he sailed to the Lewis, with what might be called a small navy, having as many boats, if not more loaded with liquors, especially wines and English beer, as he had under men. He remained in the Lewis for several days, until he settled all the controversies arising among the people in his absence, and setting his land. From thence he went to Sleat in the Isle of Skye, to Sir Donald Macdonald, who was married to his sister Janet, and from that he was invited to Harris, to Macleod’s house, who was married to his sister Sybilla. While he tarried in these places the lairds, the gentlemen of the Isles, and the inhabitants came to pay their respects to him, including Maclean, Clanranald, Raasay, Mackinnon, and other great chiefs. They then convoyed him to Islandonain. I have heard my grandfather, Mr Farquhar MacRa (then Constable of the Castle), say that the Earl never came to his house with less than 300 and sometimes 500 men. The Constable was bound to furnish them victuals for the first two meals, till my Lord’s officers were acquainted to bring in his own customs. There they consumed the remains of the wine and other liquors. When all these lairds and gentlemen took their leave of him, he called the principal men of Kintail, Lochalsh, and Lochcarron together, who accompanied him to his forest of Monar, where they had a great and most solemn hunting day, and from Monar he would return to Chanonry about the latter end of July.” [Ardintoul MS.]
He built the Castle of Brahan, which he thought of erecting where the old castle of Dingwall stood, or on the hill to the west of Dingwall, either of which would have been very suitable situations; but the Tutor who had in view to erect a castle where he afterwards erected Castle Leod, induced the Lord High Chancellor, Seaforth’s father-in-law, to prevail upon him to build his castle upon his own ancient inheritance, which he subsequently did, and which was then one of the most stately houses in Scotland. He also added greatly to the Castle of Chanonry, and “as be was diligent in secular affairs, so be and his lady were very pious and religious.” They went yearly to take the Sacraments from the Rev. Thomas Campbell, minister of Carmichael, a good and religious man, and staid eight days with him; nor did their religion consist in form and outward show. They proved its reality by their good works. He had usually more than one chaplain in his house. He provided the kirks of the Lewis without being obliged to do so, as also the five kirks of Kintail, Lochalsh, Lochcarron, Lochbroom, and Gairloch, all of which he was patron, with valuable books from London, the works of the latest and best authors, “whereof many are yet extant” He also laid the foundation for a church in Strathconan and Strathbran, of which the walls are “yet to be seen in Main in Strathconan, the walls being built above the height of a man above the foundation, and he had a mind to endow it had he lived longer.” He mortified 4000 merks for the Grammar School of Chanonry, and had several works of piety in his view to perform if his death had not prevented it. The last time he went to Court some malicious person, envying his greatness and favour, laboured to give the King a bad impression of him, as if he were not thoroughly loyal; but the King himself was the first who told him what was said about him, which did not a little surprise and trouble the Earl, but it made no impression on the King, who was conscious and sufficiently convinced of his loyalty and fidelity. After his return from Court his only son, Lord Alexander, died of smallpox at Chanonry, on the 3d of June, 1629, to the great grief of all who knew him, but especially his father and mother. His demise hastened her death at Edinburgh, on the 20th February, 1631. She was buried with her father at Fife on the 4th of March; after which the Earl contracted a lingering sickness, which, for some time before his death, confined him to his chamber, during which “he behaved most Christianly, putting his house in order, giving donations to his servants, etc.” He died at Chanonry on the 15th of April, 1633, in the 36th year of his age, and was buried there with his father on the 18th of May following, much lamented and regretted by all who knew him. The King sent a gentleman all the way to Chanonry to testify his respect and concern for him, and to attend his funeral, which took place, on the date already stated, with great pomp and solemnity. “Before his death he called his successor, George of Kildene, to his bedside, and charged him with the protection of his family; but above all to be kind to his men and followers, for that he valued himself while he lived upon their account more than upon his great estate and fortune.” [Ardintoul, Letterfearn, and other Family MSS.] On the occasion of his last visit to London the King complimented him on being the best archer in Britain.
Colin married, first, Lady Margaret Seton, daughter of Alexander, Earl of Dunfermline, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, with issue –
I. Alexander Lord Kintail, who died young.
II. Anna, who married Alexander, second Lord Lindsay, who was created Earl of Balcarres by Charles II. in 1651. By him Lady Anna had two sons, Charles and Colin. Charles succeeded his father, and died unmarried. Colin then became third Earl, and married Jane, daughter of David, Earl of Northesk, by whom he had issue an only daughter, who married Alexander Erikine, third Earl of Kellie. Secondly, the Earl of Balcarres married Jane, daughter of William, second Earl of Roxburgh, by whom he had an only daughter, who married John Fleming, sixth Earl of Wigton. This Earl of Balcarres married a third time Margaret, daughter of James Campbell, Earl of Loudon, by whom he had two sons, Alexander and James. Alexander succeeded his father, but died without issue, and was succeeded by James, fifth Earl of Balcarres, from whom the present line descends uninterruptedly, carrying along with it, in right of the said Anna Mackenzie, daughter of Colin, first Earl of Seaforth, first Countess of Balcarres, the lineal representation of the ancient House of Kintail. Anna married, secondly, Archibald, ninth Earl of Argyll, beheaded in 1685, and died in 1706.
III. Jean, who married John, Master of Berriedale, with issue, George, sixth Earl of Caithness, who died without issue in 1676. She afterwards married Lord Duffus, with issue, and died in 1648. His lordship died, as already stated, at Chanonry on the 15th of April, 1633, and was buried in the Cathedral Church of Fortrose in a spot chosen by himself. His son, Lord Alexander, having died before his father, on the 3d of June, 1629, and Colin having had no other issue male, he was succeeded by his brother,
XIV. GEORGE, SECOND EARL OF SEAFORTH,
THIRD LORD MACKENZIE OF KINTAIL, eldest son of Kenneth, the first Lord, by his second marriage. During the life of his father and brother he was known as George Mackenzie of Kildun. In 1633 he was “served heir male to his brother Colin, Earl of Seaforth, Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, in the lands and barony of Ellandonnan, including the barony of Lochalsh, in which was included the barony of the lands and towns of Lochcarron, namely, the towns and lands of Auchnaschelloch, Coullin, Edderacharron, Attadill, Ruychichan, Brecklach, Achachoull, Delmartyne, with fishings in salt water and fresh, Dalcharlarie, Arrinachteg, Achintie, Slumba, Doune, Stromcarronach, in the Earldom of Ross, of the old extent of L13 6s 8d, and also the towns of Kisserin, and lands of Strome, with fishings in salt and fresh water, and the towns and lands of Torridan with the pertinents of the Castle of Strome; Lochalsh, Lochcarron, and Kisserin, including the davach of Achvanie, the davach of Achnatrait, the davach of Stromcastell, Ardnagald, Ardneskan, and Blaad, and the half davach of Sannachan, Rassoll, Meikle Strome, and Rerag, in the Earldom of Ross, together of the old extent of L8 13s 4d.” [“Origines Parochiales Scotiae”, p. 401.] He was served heir male to his father Kenneth, Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, in the lands and barony of Pluscardine, on the 14th of January, 1620; and had charters of Balmungie and Avoch, on the 18th of July, 1635; of Raasay, on the 18th of February, 1637 and of Lochalsh, on the 4th of July, 1642.
His high position in the North, and his intimate friendship at this period with the powerful House of Sutherland, is proved by the fact that he and Sir John Mackenzie of Tarbat, on the 2d of November, 1633, stood godfathers to George Gordon, second son of John, Earl of Sutherland; and there cannot be any doubt that to the influence of the latter must mainly be attributed Seaforth’s vacillating conduct during the earlier years of the great civil wars which became the curse of Scotland for so many years after. In 1635 the Privy Council, with the view of putting down the irregularities then prevalent in the Highlands, demanded securities from the chiefs of clans, heads of families, and governors of counties, in conformity with a general bond, previously agreed to, that they should be responsible for their clans and surnames, men-tenants, and servants. The first called upon to give this security was the Earl of Huntly; then followed the Earls of Sutherland and Seaforth, and afterwards Lord Lorn and all the chiefs in the western and northern parts of the Kingdom.
In the following year the slumbering embers of religious differences broke out into a general blaze all over the country. Then began those contentions about ecclesiastical questions, church discipline and liturgies, at all times fraught with the seeds of discontent and danger to the common weal, and which in this case ultimately led to such sad and momentous consequences as only religious feuds can. Charles I. was playing the despot with his subjects, not only in Scotland, but in England. He was governing without a Parliament, defying and trying to crush the desires and aspirations of a people born to govern themselves and to be free. His infatuated attempt to introduce the Liturgy of the Church of England into the Calvinistic and Presbyterian pulpits of Scotland was as insane as it was unavailing. But his English as well as Scottish subjects were at the same time almost in open rebellion for their liberties. He tried to put down the rising in Scotland by the sword, but his means and military skill were unequal to the task. He failed to impose the English Liturgy on his Scottish subjects, but his attempt to do so proved the deliverance of his English subjects from high-handed tyranny. It is only natural that in these circumstances Seaforth, though personally attached to the King, should be found on the side of the Covenant, and that he should have joined the Assembly, the clergy, and the nobles in the Protest, and in favour of the renewal of the Confession of Faith previously accepted and confirmed by James VI. in 1580, 1581, and 1590, at the same time that these several bodies entered into a covenant or bond of mutual defence among themselves against all opposition from whatever source.
The principal among the Northern nobles who entered into this engagement were the Earls of Seaforth and Sutherland, Lord Lovat, the Rosses, Munroes, Grant of Grant, Mackintosh of Mackintosh, Innes, the Sheriff of Moray, Kilravock, Cumming of Altyre, and the Tutor of Duffus. These, with their followers under command of the Earl of Seaforth, who was appointed General of the Covenanters north of the Spey, marched to Morayshire, where they met the Royalists on the northern banks of the river ready to oppose their advance. [On May 14, 1639, 4000 men met at Elgin under the command of the Earl of Seaforth, and the gentlemen following, viz.: The Master of Lovat, the Master of Ray, George, brother to the Earl of Sutherland, Sir James Sinclare of Murkle, Laird of Grant, Young Kilravock, Sheriff of Murray, Laird of Innes, Tutor of Duffus, Hugh Rose of Achnacloich, John Munro of Lemlare, etc. They encamped at Speyside, to keep the Gordons and their friends from entering Murray; and they remained encamped till the pacification, which was signed June 18, was proclaimed, and intimated to them about June 22. – “Shaw’s MS. History of Kilravock.”] An arrangement was here come to between Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscardine, Seaforth’s brother, on behalf of the Covenanters, and a representative from the Gordons for their opponents, that the latter should recross to the south side of the Spey, and that the Highlanders should return home. About the same time Seaforth received a despatch from Montrose, then at Aberdeen and fighting for the Covenant, intimating the pacification entered into on the 20th of June between the King and his subjects at Berwick, and requesting Seaforth to disband his army – an order which was at once obeyed. Shortly after, however, Montrose dissociated himself from the Covenanters, joined the King’s side and raised the Royal standard. The Earl of Seaforth soon after this was suspected of lukewarmness for the Covenant. In 1640 the King arrived at York on his way north to reduce the Covenanting Scots, after they had resolved to invade England, and, as a precautionary measure, to imprison or expel all suspected Royalists from the army. Among the suspects are found the Earl of Seaforth, Lord Reay, and several others, who were taken before the Assembly, kept in ward at Edinburgh for two months; and in 1641, on the King’s arrival in Scotland, the Earl of Traquair, who had been summoned before Parliament as an opponent to the Lords of the Covenant succeeded in persuading the Earls of Montrose, Wigton, Athole, Hume, and Seaforth (who had meanwhile escaped), and several other influential chiefs, to join in a bond against the Covenanters.
Soon after this Montrose leaves Elgin with the main body of his army, and marches towards the Bog of Gight, accompanied by the Earl of Seaforth, Sir Robert Gordon, Grant of Grant, Mackenzie of Pluscardine, and several other gentlemen who came to him at Elgin, to support the King. After this, however, fearing that depredations might be committed upon his followers by a garrison of two regiments then stationed at Inverness, and the other Covenanters of that district, he permitted Seaforth, Grant of Grant, and other Morayshire gentlemen, to return home in order to defend their estates, but before permitting them to depart he made them swear allegiance to the King and promise that they should never again under any circumstances take up arms against his Majesty or any of his loyal subjects, and to rejoin him with all their available forces as soon as they were able to do so. Seaforth, however, with unaccountable want of decision, disregarded his oath, again joined the Covenanters, and excused himself in a letter to the Committee of Estates, saying that he had joined the Royalists through fear of Montrose, at the same time avowing that he would abide by “the good cause to his death” – a promise not much to be trusted.
He is soon again in the field, this time against Montrose. Wishart says that “the Earl of Seaforth, a very powerful man in those parts (and one of whom he entertained a better opinion) with the garrison of Inver-ness, which were old soldiers, and the whole strength of Moray, Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness, and the sept of the Frasers, were ready to meet him with a desperate army of 5000 horse and foot.” Montrose had only 1500 – the Macdonalds of Glengarry and the Highlanders of Athol having previously gone home, against the earnest solicitude of Montrose that they should complete the campaign, according to their usual custom, to deposit the booty obtained in their repeated victories under their great chief, but on the plea of repairing their houses and other property which had been so much injured by their enemies in their absence. The great commander, however, although he knew many of the garrison to be old soldiers, decided to attack the superior numbers against him, correctly surmising that a great many of his opponents were newly raised recruits “from among husband-men, cowherds, tavern-boys and kitchen-boys,” and would be raw and unserviceable. Fortunately for Seaforth and his forces, matters turned out otherwise. The gallant Marquis, on his way to Inverness, was informed of Argyll’s descent on Lochaber, and, instantly changing his route, he fell down upon him at Inverlochy so unexpectedly, that when Argyll, by an ignominious flight in one of his boats, made himself secure, he had the well-merited reward of personal cowardice and pusillanimity of witnessing fifteen hundred of his devoted adherents cut down, among whom were a great number of the leading gentlemen of the clan, who deserved to fight under a better and less cowardly commander. Among those who fell were Campbell of Auchinbreck, Campbell of Lochnell, his eldest son, and his brother Colin; Macdougall of Rara, and his eldest son, Major Menzies, brother to the Chief of Achattens Parbreck, and the Provost of the Church of Kilmuir. The power of the Campbells was thus broken, and so probably would that of Seaforth had Montrose attacked him first.
After this brilliant victory at Inverlochy, on the 2d February, 1645, Montrose returned to Moray, by Badenoch, where on his march to Elgin, he was met by Thomas Mackenzie of Piuscardine and others, sent by Seaforth and the Covenanters as commissioners to treat with him. They received an indignant answer. The Marquis declined any negotiation, but offered to accept the services of such as would join and obey him as the King’s Lieutenant-General. The Earl of Seaforth was then sent by the Committee of Ross and Sutherland, in person, and meeting the Marquis between Elgin and Forres, he was arrested and for several days detained prisoner. He was subsequently released, but all the authorities plead ignorance of the terms.
When the Royalists marched south, the Laird of Lawers, who was then Governor of the Castle of Inverness, cited all those who had communications with Montrose in Moray, and compelled them to give bonds for their appearance, to answer for their conduct, before Parliament, if required to do so. Among them were Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscardine; and, after the affair at Fettercairn, and the retreat of Montrose from Dundee, the Earls of Seaforth and Sutherland, with the whole of the Clan Fraser, and most of the men of Caithness and Moray, are found assembled at Inverness, where General Hurry, who had retreated before Montrose, joined them with a force of Gordons – 1000 foot and 200 horse – the whole amounting to about 3500 of the former and 400 of the latter, which included Sutherlands, Mackenzies, Frasers, Roses, and Brodies, while the followers of Montrose consisted of Gordons, Macdonalds, Macphersons, Mackintoshes, and Irish, to the number of about 3000 foot and 300 horse. [Shaw’s MS. History.] Montrose halted at the village of Auldearn, and General Hurry finding such a large force waiting for him at Inverness, decided to retrace his steps the next morning, and give battle to the Marquis at that village.
The author of the Ardintoul MS. tells how Seaforth came to take part in the battle of Auldearn, and gives the following interesting account of his reasons and of the engagement: “General Hurry sent for Seaforth to Inverness, and during a long conference informed him that although he was serving the States himself he privately favoured the King’s cause. He advised Seaforth to dismiss his men and make a pretence that he had only sent for them to give them new leases of their lands, and in case it was necessary to make an appearance to fight Montrose, he could bring, when commanded to do so, two or three companies from Chanonry and Ardmeanach, which the Marquis would accept. It was, however, late before they parted, and Lady Seaforth, who was waiting for her lord at Kessock, prepared a sumptuous supper for her husband and his friends. The Earl and his guests kept up the festivities so long and so well that he ‘forgot or delayed to advertise his men to dismiss till to-morrow,’ and going to bed very late, before he could stir in the morning all the lairds and gentlemen of Moray came to him, most earnestly entreating him by all the laws of friendship and good neighbourhood, and for the kindness they had for him while he lived among them, and which they manifested to his brother yet living amongst them, that his lordship would not see them ruined and destroyed by Montrose and the Irish, when he might easily prevent it without the least loss to himself or his men, assuring him that if he should join General Hurry with what forces he had then under his command, Montrose would go away with his Irish and decline to fight them. Seaforth, believing his visitors, and thinking, as they said, that Montrose with so small a number would not venture to fight, his opponents being twice the number, and many of them trained soldiers. Hurry told him that he was to march immediately against Montrose and being of an easy and compassionate nature, Seaforth yielded to their request, and sent immediately in all haste for his Highlanders, crossed the ferry of Kessock, and marched straight with the rest of his forces to Auldearn, where Montrose had his camp; but the Moray men found themselves mistaken in thinking the Marquis would make off, for he was not only resolved but glad of the opportunity to fight them before Baillie, whom he knew was on his march north with considerable forces, could join General Hurry, and so drawing up his men with great advantage of ground he placed Alexander Macdonald, with the Irish, on the right wing beneath the village of Auldearn, and Lord Gordon with the horse on the left. On the south side of Auldearn, he himself (Montrose) biding in town, and making a show of a main battle with a few men, which Hurry understanding and making it his business that Montrose should carry the victory, and that Seaforth would come off without great loss, he set his men, who were more than double the number of their adversaries, to Montrose’s advantage, for he placed Sutherland, Lovat’s men, and some others, with the horse under Drummond’s command, on the right wing, opposite to my Lord Gordon, and Loudon and Laurie’s Regiments, with some others on the left wing, opposite Alexander Macdonald and the Irish, and placed Seaforth’s men for the most in the midst, opposite Montrose, where he knew they could not get hurt till the wings were engaged. Seaforth’s men were commanded to retire and make off before they had occasion or command to fight; but the men hovering, and not understanding the mystery, were commanded again to make off and follow Drummond with the horse, who gave only one charge to the enemy and then fled, which they did by leaving both the wings and some of their own men to the brunt of the enemy, because they stood at a distance from them, the right wing being sore put to by my Lord Gordon, and seeing Drummond with the horse and their neighbours fly, they began to follow. Sutherland and Lovat suffered great loss, while on the left wing, Loudon’s Regiment and Lawrie with his Regiment were both totally cut off betwixt the Irish and the Gordons, who came to assist them after Sutherland’s and Lovat’s men were defeated. Seaforth’s men got no hurt in the pursuit, nor did they lose many men in the fight, the most considerable being John Mackenzie of Kernsary, cousin-german to the Earl, and Donald Bain, brother to Tulloch and Chamberlain to Seaforth in the Lewis, both being heavy and corpulent men not fit to fly, and being partly deceived by Seaforth’s principal ensign or standard-bearer in the field, who stood to it with some others of the Lochbroom and Lewis men, till they were killed, and likewise Captain Bernard Mackenzie, with the rest of his company, which consisted of Chanonry men and some others thereabout, being somewhat of a distance from the rest of Seaforth’s men, were killed on the spot. There were only four Kintail men who might make their escape with the rest if they had looked rightly to themselves, namely, the Bannerman of Kintail, called Rory Mac Ian Dhomh’uill Bhain, alias Maclennan, who, out of foolhardiness and indignation, to see that banner, which was wont to be victorious, fly in his hands, fastens the staff of it in the ground, and stands to it with his two-handed sword drawn, and would not accept of quarter, though tendered to him by my Lord Gordon in person; nor would he suffer any to approach him to take him alive, as the gentlemen beholders wished, so that they were forced to shoot him. The other three were Donald the bannerman’s brother, Malcolm Macrae, and Duncan Mac Ian Oig. Seaforth and his men, with Colonel Hurry and the rest, came back that night to Inverness, all the men laying the blame of the loss of the day upon Drummond, who commanded the horse, and fled away with them, for which, by a Council of War, he was sentenced to die; but Hurry assured him that he would get him absolved, though at the very time of his execution he made him keep silence, but when Drummond was about to speak, he caused him to be shot suddenly, fearing, as was thought, that he would reveal that what was acted was by Hurry’s own directions. This account of the Battle of Auldearn I had from an honourable gentleman and experienced soldier, as we were riding by Auldearn, who was present from first to last at this action, and who asked Hurry, ‘Who set the battle with such advantage to Montrose and to the inevitable loss and overthrow of his own side?’ to whom Hurry, being confident of the gentlemen, said, ‘I know what I am doing, we shall have by-and-bye excellent sport between the Irish and the States Regiments, and I shall carry off Seaforth’s men without loss;’ and that Hurry was more for Montrose than for the States that day is very probable, because, shortly thereafter when he found opportunity, he quitted the States service, and is reckoned as first of Montrose’s friends, who, in August next year, embarked with Montrose to get off the nation, and returned with him again in his second expedition to Scotland, and was taken prisoner at Craigchonachan, and sent south and publicly executed with Montrose as guilty of the same fault.”
Montrose gained another engagement at Alford on the 2nd of July, after which he was joined by a powerful levy of West Highlanders under Colla Ciotach Macdonald, Clanranald, and Glengarry, the Macnabs, Macgregors, and the Stewarts of Appin. In addition to these some of the Farquharsons of Braemar and small parties of lesser septs from Badenoch rallied round the standard of Montrose. Thus, as a contemporary writer says, “he went like a current speat (spate) through this kingdom.” Seeing all this – the great successes of Montrose and so many Highlanders joining – Seaforth, who had never been a hearty Covenanter, began to waver. The Estates sent a commission to the Earl of Sutherland appointing him as their Lieutenant north of the Spey, but he refused to accept it. It was then offered to Seaforth, who likewise declined it, but instead “contrived and framed ane band, under the name of an humble remonstrance, which he perswaded manie and threatened others to subscryve. This remonstrance gave so great a distast to both the Church and State, that the Earl of Seaforth was therefore excommunicate by the General Assemblie; and all such as did not disclaim the raid remonstrance within some days thereafter, were, by the Committee of Estates, declared inimies to the publick. Hereupon the Earl of Seaforth joined publicly with Montrose in April, 1646, at the siege of Inverness, though before that time be had only joined in private councils with him.” [Gordon’s “Earldom of Sutherland,” p. 529.]
At Inverness, through the action of the Marquis of Huntly and the treachery of his son, Lord Lewis Gordon, Montrose was surprised by General Middleton, but he promptly crossed the river Ness in face of a regiment of cavalry, under Major Bromley, who crossed the river by a ford above the town, while another detachment crossed lower down towards the sea with a view to cut off his retreat. These he succeeded in beating back with a trifling loss on either side, whereupon he marched unmolested to Kinmylies, and the following morning he went round by Beauly and halted at Fairley, where slight marks of field works are still to be seen; and now, for the first time, he found himself in the territories of the Mackenzies, accompanied by Seaforth in person. Montrose, here finding himself in a level country, with an army mainly composed of raw levies newly raised by Seaforth among his own people, and taught by their chief’s vacillating conduct and example to have little interest or enthusiasm in either cause, did not consider it prudent to engage Middleton, who pursued him with a disciplined force, including a considerable following of cavalry, ready to fight with every advantage on his side in a level country. He therefore moved rapidly up through the valley of Strathglass, crossed to Loch-Ness, and passed through Stratherrick in the direction of the river Spey. Meanwhile Middleton advanced to Fortrose and laid siege to the castle, which was at the time under the charge of Lady Seaforth. She surrendered after a siege of four days; and having removed a considerable quantity of stores and ammunition, sent by Queen Henrietta for the use of Montrose on his arrival there, Middleton gave the Countess, whom he treated with the greatest civility and respect, possession of the stronghold.
The Committee on Public Affairs, which, throughout the contest, acted in opposition to the Royal authority, and held sederunts at Aberdeen and Dundee as well as at Edinburgh, gratified their malignity, after Montrose gave up the fight in 1646, by fining the loyalists in enormous amounts of money, and decerning them to “lend” to the committee such sums – in many cases exorbitant – as they thought proper. Sir Robert Farquhar, formerly a Bailie of Aberdeen, was treasurer, and in the sederunt held in that city, the committee threw a comprehensive net over the clan Mackenzie. Sixteen of the name were decerned to lend the large sum of L28,666 13s 4d Scots; but from the other side of the balance sheet it is found that they declined to lend a penny; and Sir Robert credits himself as treasurer thus: “Item of the loan moneys above set down there is yet resting unpaid, and wherefore no payment can be gotten, as follows – viz. – Be the name of Mackenzie, sixteen persons, the sum of L28,666 13s 4d Scots.” The following are the names and sums decerned against each of them: Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscardine, L2000; Alexander Mackenzie of Kilcoy, L2000; Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, L2000; Alexander Mackenzie of Coul, L6000; Kenneth Mackenzie of Gairloch, L3333 6s 8d; Hector Mackenzie of Scotsburn, L2000; Roderick Mackenzie of Davochmaluag, L1333 6s 8d; John Mackenzie of Dawach-Cairn, L1333 6s 8d; William Mackenzie of Multavie, L1000; Kenneth Mackenzie of Scatwell, L2000; Thomas Mackenzie of Inverlael, L1333 6s 8d; Colin Mackenzie of Mullochie, L666 13s 4d; Donald Mackenzie of Logie, L666 13s 4d; Kenneth Mackenzie of Assint, L1000; Colin Mackenzie of Kincraig, L1000; Alexander Mackenzie of Suddie, L1000. Among the other sums decerned is one of L6666 13s 4d against “William Robertson in Kindeace, and his son Gilbert Robertson,” and in Inverness and Ross the loan amounted to the respectable sum of L44,783 6s 8d, of which the treasurer was allowed to retain L15,000 in his own hands. The sum, with large amounts of disbursements by the committee, show that they were more fortunate with others than with the Clan Mackenzie. [“Antiquarian Notes,” pp. 307-308-309.]
The Earl of Seaforth taking advantage of being on opposite sides to the Earl of Sutherland, now asserted some old claims against Donald Ban Mor Macleod, IX. of Assynt, a follower of the house of Sutherland, who afterwards became notorious as the captor of the great Montrose himself. In May, 1646, Mackenzie laid siege to his castle, on the Isle of Assynt.
A document written by a friend of the family of Assynt, in 1738, for Norman Macleod, XIX. of Macleod, who, in that year, in virtue of a disposition of all his estates made by Neil Macleod of Assynt to John Breac Macleod, XVI. of Macleod, dated the 24th of November, 1681, commenced a process against Mackenzie, gives a most interesting account of the proceedings, from the Macleod point of view, by which Seaforth obtained possession of the lands of Assynt. This document or “Information” came into the possession of Simon Lord Lovat, with whose papers it found its way to the Rev. Donald Fraser, minister of Killearnan, and is now the property of that gentleman’s grandson, the Rev. Hector Fraser, Halkirk. It was read by Mr William Mackay, solicitor, Inverness, before the Gaelic Society there on the 19th of March, 1890, and is published at length in their Transactions for that year, vol. XVI. pp. 197-207. According to the writer of this paper, Neil Macleod was in possession of Assynt from 1650 to 1672, when in the latter year “he was violently dispossessed by Seaforth,” and was from 1672 to 1692, when be obtained a “Decree of Spulzie” against Seaforth, endeavouring to recover his right, but without avail. He says that from the time Seaforth got a right, “such as it was,” to the Island of Lewis for a payment of ten thousand merks, “and afterwards, in lieu of that, for a mile of the wood of Letterew,” he and his family had it in view to make themselves masters of the estate of Macleod of Assynt, who, he erroneously states, “was lineal heir to the estates of Lewis.” In order to give effect to this intention Seaforth purchased several old claims, “some of them very unjust,” against Assynt, which were made over to Thomas Mackenzie of Plus-cardine, Seaforth’s brother. In 1637 the two Mackenzies, in virtue of these claims and the titles founded upon them, gave a wadset of the lands of Assynt to Kenneth Mackenzie of Scatwell in security for forty thousand merks. In 1640 “the Legal of those claims and apprisings being expired, Seaforth did, with his friends and clan, to the number of 1000 men, invade Assynt, and did there commit great outrages. He being for this pursued at law, was decerned in 40,000 pounds Scots of damages,” which paid a great part of his claim upon the estate, and it is maintained that the remainder was afterwards paid by the means, which are set forth in the same document, along with somewhat intricate statements, which would occupy too much space here. The “Information” proceeds with the following interesting details, which we give, with very slight alteration, in his own words.
He says that in 1646 Seaforth having joined Montrose at Inverness, where were likewise 100 men of Assynt under his Superior’s (Seaforth) command, and Neil of Assynt himself, then a minor, being a friend, in Seaforth’s house at Brahan, Seaforth ordered his men in the Highlands to fall upon Assynt’s estate, where they made fearful havoc, carried away, as Neil represents, 3000 cows, 2000 horses, 7000 sheep and goats, and burnt the habitations of 180 families. When complaint was made of this in the South, Seaforth was bought off by the interest of General Middleton, and by virtue of a capitulation which he had with Seaforth when in the North.
In the year 1654 Seaforth led a body of his own men, with a part of the broken army under the command of Middleton, to Assynt and made great depredations, destroyed a very great quantity of wine and brandy, which the Laird of Assynt had bought, besides other commodities, in all to the value of 50,000 merks, out of a ship then on that coast, carrying off 2400 cows, 1500 horses, about 6000 sheep and goats, besides burning and destroying many families. Assynt was not liable in law to any such usage from them, having receipts from Seaforth and Lord Reay for his proportion of the levy appointed at that time for the King’s service. When Middleton came to that country he declared that he had given no warrant for what Seaforth had done, and that in presence of Lord Macdonald and Sir George Munro, etc. When Assynt pursued Seaforth before the English judges of the time, Seaforth defeated his process by proving that Neil had been in arms against the English, and did then allege no cause for the injuries done by him to Assynt, except a private quarrel. But when Macleod afterwards, at the Restoration, pursued Seaforth, he alleged in defence that he had acted by a warrant from Middleton, who was then commissioner for the Parliament. But Neil says, if there was any such warrant it was certainly given after the injuries had been done to him. However, things stood then in such a way that Neil was not likely to procure any justice.
There was another claim which seems to have brought matters to a crisis. Macleod had become a party to a bond of caution granted by Ross of Little Tarrel in the sum of L150 sterling, for which, in 1656, an apprising was laid upon the estate of Assynt, at the instance of Sinclair of Mey, in Caithness, who subsequently assigned his claim to Sir George Mackenzie of Tarbat and John Mackenzie, second son of Kenneth Mor, third Earl of Seaforth, afterwards known as the Hon. John Mackenzie of Assynt. The matter was contested for a time, but “in the year 1668 or 1669 or 1670, the legal apprising being expired, decree of mails and duties was obtained upon the claim against the estate of Assynt and ejection against himself. Upon pursuing this ejection in 1671, several illegal steps were alleged against Assynt, particularly holding out the Castle of Ard-Bhreac against the King, and his otherwise violently opposing the ejection; whereupon Neil of Assynt, who it seems had been negligent in defending himself against the foresaid accusations, was denounced rebel, and a commission of fire and sword was obtained in July, 1672, against him and his people,” granted to Lord Strathnaver, Lord Lovat, Munro of Fowlis, and others, who at once invaded his territories with a force of 2300 men “and committed the most horrid barbarities,” until all the country of Assynt was destroyed.
After this raid Neil, “under the benefit of a protection,” went to consult Seaforth, who gave him a certificate of having obeyed the King’s laws, and fifteen days to consider a proposition which his lordship made to him to dispose of his estates to himself on certain conditions, and so settle the dispute between them for ever. But Macleod, considering that it was not safe for him to return to his own country, resolved to proceed to Edinburgh by sea, and to carry his charter chest along with him. “Seaforth being apprehensive, it seems, of the con-sequences of Assynt’s going to Edinburgh, immediately entered into correspondence and concert about the matter with the Laird of Mey, in Caithness. The consequence was: Assynt being driven by unfavourable winds to the Orkneys the Laird of Mey, with a body of men, seized him there, to be sure under the notion of an outlaw, and, by commission from Seaforth, stripped him to his shirt, robbed him of everything, particularly of his charter chest, and of all the writs and evidents belonging to his family and estates, carried them to the castle of Mey; where he was kept prisoner in a vault. From thence he was carried prisoner, under a strong guard, to Tam, and at last to Brahan, Seaforth’s house. In Brahan (to which place the charter chest was brought, as was afterwards proved in the Process of Spoilzie) Neil was many months detained prisoner in a vault, in most miserable circumstances, still threatened with worse usage if he would not agree to subscribe a blank paper, probably designed for a disposition of his estates, which was, it seems, the great thing designed to be procured from him by all this bad usage. At last Neil was brought south to Edinburgh, where he arrived after being in thirteen or fourteen prisons, and in the end he obtained the remission formerly mentioned,” for the offence of defending the Castle of Assynt, and all the other crimes that were alleged against him.
His apologist makes out a strong case for him, if half his allegations are true. In any case it is but fair to state them. Neil was in prison, according to the “Information,” when the ejection proceedings were carried out against him. He was ignorant of the legal steps taken against him until it was too late, and, in consequence of his great distance from Edinburgh, he was unable to correspond with his legal advisers there in time for his defence. His messengers, carrying his correspondence, were more than once seized, on their way south, and imprisoned at Chanonry. When in the south, the contributions of his friends towards his support and the expenses of his defence were intercepted, and his people at home were put to great hardships by their new master, the Hon. John Mackenzie, “for any inclination to succour him in his distress.” “By all these means, the unfortunate gentleman was reduced to great poverty and misery, and was disabled from procuring the interest or affording the expense needful in order to obtain justice against such potent adversaries.” And “it was easy for them (the Mackenzies), being now possessed of his estate, to get in old unjust patched claims from such as had them, and being possessed of his charter chest and the retired vouchers of debts therein contained, by all these means, to make additional titles to the estate of Assynt, while he, poor gentleman, besides his other misfortunes, was deprived of his writs and of all his evidences needful to be produced in his defence against the claims of his adversaries.” If a tithe of all this is true poor Neil deserves to be pitied indeed. But after giving such a long catalogue of charges, involving the most cruel and deceitful acts against the Mackenzies, the author of them is himself doubtful about their accuracy, for he says that, although the Mackenzies, after possessing the estates, had all the advantages and means for doing the unjust things which he alleges against them of inventing new claims and additional titles, “it is not pretended to be now told what additional titles they made” – an admission which largely discounts and disposes of the other charges made by Macleod’s apologist. And, notwithstanding all his disadvantages and difficulties, Neil made another effort “towards obtaining justice to himself and his family”; and to that end, in 1679 and 1680, he commenced a new process against Seaforth and all others “whom he knew to have or pretended to have” claims against him or his estate. It was, however, objected (1) that he had no title in his own person to the lands of Assynt, and (2) that he was at the horn and had no personam standi in judices. Neil made “very pertinent” answers to these objections in 1682, but he was wisely advised to stop the proceedings of reduction, and to commence a Process of Spulzie against the Earl Sinclair, of Mey, the Laird of Dunbeath, and others. Seaforth having died while these proceedings were pending, there appears in process an Oath by his successor, “who swears that he not then nor formerly had the charter chest, nor knew what was become of it; and as he was not charged with having a hand in the Spulzie he was freed thereof and of the consequences of it, by their Lordships. Neil having given in an inventory of the writs contained in his chest, his oath in litem was taken thereanent, and he referred his expenses and damages to the judgment of the Lords,” with the result that, in 1692, they decerned in his favour for the sum of two thousand pounds Scots, in name of damages and expenses, to be paid to him by the defenders, and at the same time superseding his further claim until he should give in more particulars regarding it. He assigned this decree to his nephew, Captain Donald Macleod of Geanies, and it remained as the basis of the process which was raised by Norman Macleod, XIX. of Macleod, in 1738, already referred to “for what thereof is unpaid.” But Neil, “being unable by unparalleled bad usage, trouble, and poverty, and at length by old age, it does not appear that lie went any further towards obtaining of justice for himself than what is above narrated in relation to the process of reduction and Spulzie”; and that his friends failed in their subsequent efforts to punish Mackenzie or re-possess themselves of the Assynt estates is sufficiently well-known. [For Neil’s connection with the Betrayal of Montrose see Mackenzie’s “History of the Macleods,” pp. 410-419.]
In 1648 Seaforth again raised a body of 4000 men in the Western Islands and Ross-shire, whom he led south, to aid the King’s cause, but after joining in a few skirmishes under Lanark, they returned home to “cut their corn which was now ready for their sickles.” During the whole of this period Seaforth’s fidelity to the Royal cause was open to considerable suspicion, and when Charles I. threw himself into the hands of the Scots at Newark, and ordered Montrose to disband his forces, Earl George, always trying to be on the winning side, came in to Middleton, and made terms with the Committee of Estates; but the Church, by whom he had previously been excommunicated, continued implacable, and would only agree to be satisfied by a public penance in sackcloth within the High Church of Edinburgh. The proud Earl consented, underwent this ignominious and degrading ceremonial, and his sentence of excommunication was then removed. Notwithstanding this public humiliation, after the death of the ill-fated and despotic Charles I., Seaforth, in 1649, went over to Holland, and joined Charles II., by whom he was made Principal Secretary of State for Scotland, the duties of which, however, he never had the opportunity of performing.
Charles was proclaimed King on the 5th of February, 1649, in Edinburgh, and it was decided by him and his friends in exile that Montrose should make a second attempt to recover Scotland; for, on the advice of his friends, Charles declined the humiliating terms offered him by the Scottish faction, and, in connection with the plans of Montrose, a rising took place in the North, under Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscardine, brother to the Earl of Seaforth, Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, Colonel John Munro of Lemlair, and Colonel Hugh Fraser. On the 22d February they entered Inverness, expelled the troops from the garrison, and afterwards demolished the walls and fortifications. On the 26th of February a Council of War was held, present – Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscardine, Preses, Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, H. Fraser of Belladrum, Jo. Cuthbert of Castlehill, R. Mackenzie, of Davochmaluak; Kenneth Mackenzie of Gairloch, R. Mackenzie of Redcastle, John Munro of Lumlair, Simon Fraser of Craighouse, and Alex. Mackenzie of Suddie.
This Committee made certain enactments, by which they took the customs and excise of the six northern counties entirely into their own hands. The Provost of Inverness was made accountable “for all the money which, under the name of excise, has been taken up in any of the foresaid shires since his intromissions with the office of excise taking.” Another item is that Duncan Forbes be pleased to advance money “upon the security which the Committee will grant to him,” to be repaid out of the readiest of the “maintaince and excise.” Cromarty House was ordered to be put in a position of defence, for which it was “requisite that some faill be cast and led,” and all Sir James Fraser’s tenants within the parishes of Cromarty and Cullicudden, together with those of the laird of Findrassie, within the parish of Rosemarkie, were ordered “to afford from six hours in the morning to six hours at night, and one horse out of every oxengait daily for the space of four days, to lead the same faill to the House of Cromarty.” By the tenth enactment the Committee find it expedient for their safety that the works and forts of Inverness be demolished and levelled to the ground, and they ordain that each person appointed to this work shall complete his proportion thereof before the 4th day of March following “under pain of being quartered upon, aud until the said task be performed.” They further enact that a garrison be placed in Culloden House, “which the Committee is not desirous of for any intention of harm towards the disturbance of the owner, but merely because of the security of the garrison of Calder, which, if not kept in good order, is like to infest all the well-affected of the country circumjacent.” [For these minutes see “Antiquarian Notes,” pp. 157-8.] General Leslie having been sent against them, they retired to the mountains of Ross, when Leslie advanced to Fortrose and placed a garrison in the castle. He made terms with all the other leaders except Pluscardine, who would not listen to any accommodation, and who, immediately on Leslie’s return south, descended from his mountain fastnesses, attacked and re-took the Castle of Chanonry.
Pluscardine was then joined by his nephew, Lord Reay, at the head of three hundred men, which increased his force to eight or nine hundred. General Middleton and Lord Ogilvie, having brought up their forces, Mackenzie advanced into Badenoch, with the view of raising the people in that and the neighbouring districts, where he was joined by the Marquis of Huntly, formerly Lord Lewis Gordon, and they at once attacked and took the Castle of Ruthven. After this they were pressed closely by Leslie, and fell down from Badenoch to Balvenny Castle, whence they sent General Middleton and Mackenzie to treat with Leslie, but before they reached their destination, Carr, Halket, and Strachan, who had been in the North, made a rapid march from Fortrose, and on the 8th of May surprised Lord Reay with his nine hundred followers at Balvenny, with considerable loss on both sides. Eighty Royalists fell in the defence of the castle. Carr at once dismissed the Highlanders to their homes on giving their oath never again to take up arms against the Parliament, but he detained Lord Reay and some of his kinsmen, Mackenzie of Redcastle, and a few leaders of that name, and sent them prisoners to Edinburgh. Having there given security to keep the peace in future, Lord Reay, Ogilvy, Huntly, and Middleton were forgiven, and allowed to return home, Roderick Mackenzie of Redcastle, being the only one kept in prison, until he was some time after released, through the influence of Argyll, on payment of a fine of seven thousand merks Scots.
Carr now returned to Ross and laid siege to Redcastle, the only stronghold in the North which still held out for the Royal cause. The officer in charge recklessly exposed himself on the ramparts, and was pulled down by a well-directed shot from the enemy. The castle was set on fire by the exasperated soldiers. Leslie then placed a garrison in Brahan and Chanonry Castles, and returned south. The garrisons were then expelled, some of the men hanged, the walls demolished, and the fortifications razed to the ground. Thus ended an insurrection which probably would have had a very different result had it been delayed until the arrival of Montrose. The same year General Leslie himself came to Fortrose with nine troops of horse, and forwarded detachments to Cromarty and “Seaforth’s strongest hold” of Ellandonnan Castle.
The following account of this period by a contemporary writer is very interesting: “Immediately after the battle of Auldearn Seaforth met and communed with Montrose, the result of which was that Seaforth should join Montrose, for the King against the Parliament and States, whom they now discovered not to be for the King as they professed; but in the meantime that Seaforth should not appear, till he had called upon and prevailed with his neighbours about him, namely, My Lord Reay, Balnagown, Lovat, Sir James Macdonald of Sleat, Macleod of Dunvegan, and others, to join him and follow him as their leader. Accordingly, Seaforth having called them together, pointed out to them the condition the King was in, and how it was their interest to rise and join together immediately for his Majesty’s service and relief. All of them consented and approved of the motion, only some of them desired that the Parliament who professed to be for the King as well as they, and desired to be rid of Montrose and his bloody Irish, should first be made acquainted with their resolution. Seaforth, being unwilling to lose any of them, condescended, and drew up a declaration, which was known as Seaforth’s Remonstrance, as separate from Montrose, whereof a double was sent them; but the Parliament was so far from being pleased therewith that they threatened to proclaim Seaforth and all who should join him as rebels. Now, after the battle of Alford and Kilsyth, wherein Montrose was victorious, and all in the south professing to submit to him as the King’s Lieutenant, he was by the treachery of Traquair and others of the Covenanters, surprised and defeated at Philiphaugh. In the beginning of the next year, 1646, he came north to recruit his army. Seaforth raised his men and advertised his foresaid neighbours to come, but none came except Sir James Macdonald, who, with Seaforth, joined Montrose at Inverness, which they besieged, but Middleton, who then served in the Scots armies in England, being sent with nearly 1000 horse and 800 foot, coming suddenly the length of Inverness, stopped Montrose’s progress. Montrose was forced to raise the siege and quit the campaign, and retired with Seaforth and Sir James Macdonald to the hills of Strathglass, to await the arrival of the rest of their confederates, Lord Reay, Glengarry, Maclean, and several others, who, with such as were ready to join him south, were likely to make a formidable army for the King but, in the meantime, the King having come to the Scots army, the first thing they extorted from him was to send a herald to Montrose, commanding him to disband his forces, and to pass over to France till his Majesty’s further pleasure. The herald came to him in the last of May, 1646, while he was at Strathglass waiting the rest of the King’s faithful friends who were to join him. For this Montrose was vexed, not only for the King’s condition, but for those of his faithful subjects who declared themselves for him and before he would disband he wrote several times to the King, but received no answer, except some articles from the Parliament and Covenanters, which after much reluctance, he was forced to accept, by which he was to depart the Kingdom against the first of September following, and the Covenanters were obliged to provide a ship for his transportation, but finding that they neglected to do so, meeting with a Murray ship in the harbour of Montrose, he went aboard of her with several of his friends, namely, Sir John Hurry, who served the States the year before, John Drummond, Henry Brechin, George Wishart, and several others, leaving Seaforth and the rest of his friends to the mercy of these implacable enemies; for the States and Parliament threatened to forfeit him for acting contrary to their orders, and the Kirk excommunicated him for joining with the excommunicated traitor, as they called him, James Graham; for now the Kirk began to rule with a high hand, becoming more guilty than the bishops, of that of which they charged him with as great a fault for meddling with civil and secular affairs; for they not only looked upon them to form the army and to purge it of such as whom, in their idiom, they called Malignants, but really such as were loyal to the King; and also would have no Acts of Parliament to pass without their consent and approbation. Their proselytes in the laity were also heavy upon and uneasy to such as they found or conceived to have found with a tincture of Malignancy, whereof many instances might be given.” But to return to Seaforth. “After he was excommunicated by the Kirk he was obliged to go to Edinburgh, where he was made prisoner and detained two years, till in the end he was, with much ado, released from the sentence of excommunication, and the process of forfeiture against him discharged; for that time he returned home in the end of the year, 1648, but King Charles I. being before that time murdered, and King Charles II. being in France, finding that he would not be for any time on fair terms with the States and Kirk, he proposed to remove his family to the Island of Lewis, and dwell there remote from public affairs, and to allocate his rents on the mainland to pay his most pressing debts, in order to which, having sent his lady in December to Lochcarron, where boats were attending to transport himself and children to the Lewis by way of Lochbroom, wherein his affairs called him, he, without acquainting his kinsmen and friends, went aboard a ship which he had provided for that purpose, and sailed to France, where the King was, who received him most graciously and made him one of his secretaries. This did incense the States against him, so that they placed a garrison in his principal house at Brahan, under the command of Captain Scott, who (afterwards) broke his neck from a fall from his horse in the Craigwood of Chanonry, as also another garrison in the Castle of Ellandonnan, under the command of one William Johnston, which remained to the great hurt and oppression of the people till, in the year 1650, some of the Kintail men, not bearing the insolence of the garrison soldiers, discorded with them, and in harvest that year killed John Campbell, a leading person among them, with others, for having wounded several at little Inverinate, without one drop of blood drawn out of the Kintail men, who were only 10 in number, while the soldiers numbered 30. After this the garrison was very uneasy and greatly afraid of the Kintail men, who threatened them so, that shortly thereafter they removed to Ross, being commanded then by one James Chambers; but Argyll, to keep up the face of a garrison there, sent ten men under the command of John Muir, who lived there civilly without molesting the people, the States were so incensed against the Kintail men for this brush and their usage of the garrison, that they resolved to send a strong party next spring to destroy Kintail and the inhabitants thereof. But King Charles II., after the defeat of Dunbar, being at Stirling recruiting his army against Cromwell, to which Seaforth’s men were called, it proved an act of oblivion and indemnity to them, so that the Kintail men were never challenged for their usage of the garrison soldiers. Though the Earl of Seaforth was out of the kingdom, he gave orders to his brother Pluscardine to raise men for the King’s service whenever he saw the King’s affairs required it; and so, in the year 1649, Pluscardine did raise Seaforth’s men and my Lord Reay joining him with his men, marched through Inverness, went through Moray, and crossed the Spey, being resolved to join the Gordons, Atholes, and several others who were ready to rise, and appeared for the King. Lesley, who was sent from the Parliament to stop their progress, called Pluscardine to treat with him, while Seaforth’s and my Lord Reay’s men encamped at Balveny, promising a cessation of hostilities. For some days Colonel Carr and Strachan, with a strong body of horse, surprised them in their camp, when they lay secure, and taking my Lord Reay, Rory Mackenzie of Redcastle, Rory Mackenzie of Fairburn, John Mackenzie of Ord, and others, prisoners, threatening to kill them unless the men surrendered and disbanded; and the under officers fearing they would kill them whom they had taken prisoners, did their utmost to hinder the Highlanders from fighting, cutting their bowstrings, etc., so they were forced to disband and dissipate. Pluscardine, in the meantime, being absent from them, and fearing to fall into their hands, turned back to Spey with Kenneth of Coul, William Mackenzie of Multavie, and Captain Alexander Bain, and swam the river, being then high by reason of the rainy weather, and so escaped from their implacable enemies. My Lord Reay, Red-castle, and others were sent to Edinburgh as prisoners, as it were to make a triumph, where a solemn day of thanksgiving was kept for that glorious victory. My Lord Reay and the rest were set at liberty, but Redcastle was still kept prisoner, because when he came from home he garrisoned his house of Redcastle, giving strict commands to those he placed in his house not to render or give it until they had seen an order under his hand, whereupon Colonel Carr and Strachan coming to Ross, after the defeat of Balvenny, summoned the garrison to come forth, but all in vain; for they obstinately defended the house against the besiegers until, on a certain day, a cousin of Carr’s advancing in the ruff of his pride, with his cocked carbine in his hand, to the very gates of the castle, bantering and threatening those within to give up the castle under all highest pain and danger, he was shot from within and killed outright. This did so grieve and incense Colonel Carr, that he began fairly to capitulate with them within, and made use of Redcastle’s own friends to mediate and persuade them, till in the end, upon promise and assurance of fair terms, and an indemnity of what passed, they came out, and then Carr and his party kept not touches with them, but, apprehending several of them, and finding who it was that killed his cousin, caused him to be killed, and thereafter, contrary to the promise and articles of capitulation, rifled the house, taking away what he found useful, and then burnt the house and all that was within it. In the meantime Redcastle was kept prisoner at Edinburgh, none of his friends being in a condition to plead for him, till Ross of Bridly, his uncle by his mother, went south, and being in great favour with Argyll, obtained Redcastle’s liberation upon payment of 7000 merks fine.” [Ardintoul MS.]
While these proceedings were taking place in the Highlands, Seaforth was in Holland at the exiled Court of Charles II., and when Montrose arrived there Seaforth earnestly supported him in urging on the King the bold and desperate policy of throwing himself on the loyalty of his Scottish subjects, and in strongly protesting against the acceptance by his Majesty and his friends of the arrogant and humiliating demand made by the commissioners sent over to treat with him by the Scottish faction. It is difficult to say whether Seaforth’s zeal for his Royal master or the safety of his own person influenced him most during the remainder of his life, but whatever the cause, he adhered steadfastly to the exiled monarch to the end of a life which, in whatever light it may be viewed, cannot be commended as a good example to others. Such vacillating and time-serving conduct ended in the only manner which it deserved. He might have been admired for taking a consistent part on either side, but with Earl George self-preservation and interest appear to have been the only governing principles throughout the whole of this trying period of his country’s history. The Earl of Cromarty thought differently, and says that “this George, being a nobleman of excellent qualifications, shared the fortune of his Prince, King Charles I., for whom he suffered all the calamities in his estate that envious or malicious enemies could inflict. He was made secretary to King Charles II. in Holland, but died in that banishment before he saw an end of his King and his country’s calamities or of his own injuries.” We have seen that his conduct was by no means steadfast in support of Charles, and it may now be safely asserted that his calamities were due more to his own indecision and accommodating character than to any other cause.
Earl George married early in life, Barbara, daughter of Arthur Lord Forbes (sasine to her in 1637) with issue –
I. Kenneth Mor, his heir and successor.
II. Colin, who has a sasine in 1648, but died young and unmarried.
III. George of Kildun, who married, first, Mary daughter of Skene of Skene, with issue – (1) Kenneth, who went abroad and was no more heard of; (2) Isobel; and several others who died young. He married, secondly, Margaret, daughter of Urquhart of Craighouse, with issue – Colin of Kildun and several other children of whom no trace can be found. All his descendants are said to be extinct.
IV. Colin, who has a sasine of Kinachulladrum in 1721, as “only child now in life, and heir of his brother Roderick.” He married Jean, daughter of Robert Laurie, Dean of Edinburgh, with issue – (1) Captain Robert Mackenzie, killed in Flanders, without issue, Colin married, secondly, Lady Herbertshire, with issue, (2) Dr George Mackenzie, who, in 1708, wrote a manuscript “History of the Fitzgeralds and Mackenzies,” frequently quoted in this work, and “Lives of Eminent Scotsmen.” He, with his father sold the estate of Kinachulladrum to Roderick Mackenzie, IV. of Applecross, in 1721, and died without issue. (3) Barbara, who married Patrick Oliphant.
V. Roderick, I. of Kinachulladrum, who married, first, Anna, daughter of Ogilvie of Glencairn, in 1668 (sasine 1670), with issue – (1) Alexander, II. of Kinachulladrum, who married Anne, daughter of Alexander Mackenzie, III. of Applecross (marriage contract 1707), with issue – Anne, his only child alive in 1766; (2) Kenneth, who died without issue; and two daughters. Roderick married, secondly, Catherine Scougall, daughter of the Bishop of Aberdeen, with issue, all of whom died young.
VI. Jean, who married, first, John Earl of Mar, with issue; and, secondly, Lord Fraser.
VII. Margaret, who married Sir William Sinclair of Mey, with issue.
VIII. Barbara, who married Sir John Urquhart of Cromarty.
IX. John, first of Gruinard, a natural son whose illegitimacy is fully established in the chapter dealing with the Chiefship of the clan. When his Lordship received the news of the disastrous defeat of the King’s forces at Worcester he fell into a profound melancholy and died in 1651, at Schiedam in Holland – where he had lived in exile since the beginning of January, 1649 – in the forty-third year of his age. He was succeeded by his eldest son,
XV. KENNETH MOR, THIRD EARL OF SEAFORTH,
Kenneth was born at Brahan Castle in 1635, and when he was five or six years old his father placed him under the care of the Rev. Farquhar Macrae, minister of Kintail, and constable of Ellandonnan Castle, who had a seminary in his house which was attended by the sons of the neighbouring gentry, who kept young Kintail company. One of the manuscript historians of the family, referring to this practical early training of his Lordship, says – “This might be thought a preposterous and wrong way to educate a nobleman, but they who would consider where the most of his interest lay, and how he was among his people, followers, and dependants, on which the family was still valued, perhaps will not think so, for by this the young lord had several advantages; first, by the wholesome, though not delicate or too palatable diet he prescribed to him and used him with, he began to have a wholesome complexion, so nimble and strong, that he was able to endure Stress and fatigue, labour and travel, which proved very useful to him in his after life; secondly, he did not only learn the language but became thoroughly acquainted with and learned the genius of his several tribes or clans of his Highlanders, so that afterwards he was reputed to be the fittest chief or chieftain of all superiors in the Highlands and Isles of Scotland; and thirdly, the early impressions of being among them, and acquaint with the bounds, made him delight and take pleasure to be often among them and to know their circumstances, which indeed was his interest and part of their happiness, so that it was better to give him that first step of education than that which would make him a stranger at home, both as to his people, estate, and condition but when he was taken from Mr Farquhar to a public school, he gave great evidence of his abilities and inclination for learning, and being sent in the year 1651 to the King’s College at Aberdeen, under the discipline of Mr Patrick Sandylands, before he was well settled or made any progress in his studies King Charles II., after his army had been defeated at Dunbar the year before, being then at Stirling recruiting and making up his army, with which he was resolved to march into England, the young laird was called home in his father’s absence, who was left in Holland (as already described), to raise his men for the King’s service, and so went straight to Kintail with the particular persons of his name, viz., the Lairds of Pluscardine and Lochslinn, his uncles; young Tarbat, Rory of Davochmaluag, Kenneth of Coul, Hector of Fairburn, and several others, but the Kintail men, when called upon, made a demur and declined to rise with him, because he was but a child, and that his father, their master, was in life, without whom they would not move, since the King, if he had use for him and for his followers, might easily bring him home.” [Ardintoul MS.]
Kenneth, like his father in later years, became identified with the fate of Charles II., and devoted himself unremittingly to the services of that monarch during his exile. From his great stature he was known among the Highlanders as “Coinneach Mor.” On the arrival of the King at Garmouth, in June, 1650, his reception throughout all Scotland was of a most cheering character, but the Highlanders, who always favoured the Stuarts, were specially joyous on the return of their exiled king. After the defeat by Oliver Cromwell of the Scottish army at Dunbar – a defeat brought about by the interference of the Committee of Estates and the Kirk with the duties of those in charge of the forces, and whose plans, were they allowed to carry them out, would have saved Scotland from the first great defeat it had ever received at the hands of an enemy – the King resolved to come north and throw himself upon the patriotism and loyalty or his Highland subjects. He was, however, captured and taken back to Perth, and afterwards to Edinburgh, by the Committee of Estates, on whom, it is said, his attempted escape to the Highlands “produced a salutary effect;” and they began to treat him with some respect, going the length even of admitting him to their deliberations. A large number of the Highlanders were already in arms to support him; but the Committee, having the King in their power, induced him to write to the Highland chiefs requesting them to lay down their arms. This they refused, and to enforce the King’s orders a regiment, under Sir John Drown, was despatched to the North, but it was surprised and defeated on the night of the 21st of October by Sir David Ogilvy of Airley. On receiving this intelligence, General Leslie hastened north with a force of 3000 cavalry. General Middleton, who supported the King’s friends in the Highlands, and who was then at Forfar, hearing of Leslie’s advance, forwarded him a letter containing a copy of a bond and oath of engagement which had been entered into by Huntly, Athole, the Earl of Seaforth, and other leading Highland chiefs, by which they had pledged themselves on oath to join firmly and faithfully together, and “neither for fear, threatening, allurement, nor advantage, to relinquish the cause of religion, of the king, and of the kingdom, nor to lay down their arms without a general consent; and as the best undertakings did not escape censure and malice, they promised and swore, for the satisfaction of all reasonable persons, that they would maintain the true religion, as then established in Scotland, the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant, and defend the person of the King, his prerogative, greatness, and authority, and the privileges of parliament, and the freedom of the subject.” Middleton pointed out that the only object of himself and friends was to unite the Scots in the defence of their common rights, and that, as would be seen from this bond, the grounds on which they entered into association were exactly the same as those professed by Leslie himself. Considering this, and seeing that the independence of Scotland was at stake, he urged that all Scotsmen should join for the preservation of their common liberties. Middleton proposed to join Leslie, to place himself under his command, and expressed a hope that he would not shed the blood of his countrymen nor force them to shed the blood of their bethren in self-defence. These communications ended in a treaty between Leslie and the leading Royalists at Strathbogie, dated 4th November, by which Middleton and his followers received an indemnity, and laid down their arms. [“Balfour,” vol, iv., p. 129. “Highland Clans,” p. 285]
Immediately after the battle of Worcester, at which Charles was defeated by Cromwell in 1651 – where we find among those present Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscardine as one of the Colonels of foot for Inverness and Ross, and Alexander Cam Mackenzie, fourth son of Alexander, fifth of Gairloch – Charles fled to the Continent, and, after many severe hardships and narrow escapes, he found refuge in Flanders, where he continued to reside, often in great want and distress, until the Restoration, when in May, 1660, he returned to England “indolent, selfish, unfeeling, faithless, ungrateful, and insensible to shame or reproach.” The Earl of Cromarty says that subsequent to the treaty agreed upon between Middleton and Leslie at Strathbogie, “Seaforth joined the King at Stirling. After the fatal battle of Worcester he continued a close prisoner until the Restoration of Charles.” He was excepted from Oliver Cromwell’s Act of Grace and Pardon in 1654, and his estates were forfeited, without any provision being allowed out of it for his wife and family. He supported the King’s cause as long as there was an opportunity of fighting for it in the field, and when forced to submit to the opposing forces of Cromwell and the Commonwealth, he was committed to prison, where, with “much firmness of mind and nobility of soul,” he endured a tedious captivity for many years, until Charles II. was recalled, when he ordered his old and faithful friend Seaforth to be released, after which he became a great favourite at his licentious and profligate Court.
During the remainder of his life little or nothing of any importance is known of him, except that he lived in the favour and merited smiles of his sovereign, in the undisputed possession and enjoyment of the extensive estates and honours of his noble ancestors, which, through his faithful adherence to the House of Stuart, had been nearly lost during the exile of the second Charles and his own captivity. Referring to the position of affairs at this period, the Laird of Applecross says that the “rebels, possessing the authority, oppressed all the loyal subjects, and him with the first; his estate was over-burthened to its destruction, but nothing could deter him so as to bring him to forsake his King or his duty. Whenever any was in the field for him, he was one, seconding that falling cause with all his power, and when he was not in the field against the enemy, he was in the prison by him until the restoration of the King.” Restored to liberty, he, on the 23d of April, 1662, received a Commission of the Sheriffship of Ross, which was afterwards renewed to him and to his eldest son Kenneth, jointly, on 31st of July, 1675; and when he had set his affairs in order at Brahan, he re-visited Paris, leaving his Countess Isobel, daughter of Sir John Mackenzie of Tarbat, and sister to the first Earl of Cromarty, in charge of his interests in the North.
Kenneth married early in life Isobel, daughter of Sir John Mackenzie of Tarbat, father of George, first Earl of Cromarty, with issue –
I. Kenneth Og, his heir and successor.
II. John Mackenzie of Assynt, who married Sibella, daughter of Alexander Mackenzie, III. of Applecross (marriage contract 1697). He has a sasine in 1695 and 1696. They had issue, an only son, Kenneth, who married his cousin Frances, daughter of Alexander Mackenzie of Assynt and Conansbay, and died in 1723, without issue.
III. Hugh, who died young and unmarried. There is a sasine to him as third son in 1667.
IV. Colonel Alexander, also designated of Assynt and Conansbay. He has a sasine as “third lawful son now in life” of the lands of Kildin, dated October, 1694. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Paterson, Bishop of Ross (marriage contract 1700), with issue – Major William Mackenzie, who married Mary, daughter and co-heiress of Mathew Humberston, county Lincoln, whose two sons – Colonel Thomas Francis Mackenzie, and Francis Humberston Mackenzie, created Lord Seaforth in 1797, and who died without surviving male issue, the last of his line in 1815 – succeeded to the family estates.
V. Margaret, who married James, second Lord Duffus, with issue.
VI. Anne, who died unmarried.
VII. Isabel, who married, first, in February, 1694, Roderick Macleod, XVI I. of Macleod, without issue; and, secondly, Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochnell, with issue.
VIII. Mary, who, as his second wife, married Alexander Macdonald, XI. of Glengarry, with issue – John, who carried on the succession, and others. She has a life-rent sasine in 1696. Kenneth Mor died in December, 1678, when he was succeeded by his eldest son,
XVI. KENNETH OG, FOURTH EARL OF SEAFORTH,
So described by the Highlanders to distinguish him from his father. At an early age he began to reap the benefits of his predecessor’s faithful adherence to the fortunes of Charles II. In 1678, before his father died, his name is found among the chiefs, who, by a proclamation dated 10th of October in that year, were called upon to give their bond and caution for the security of the peace and quiet of the Highlands, which the leaders were to give, not only for themselves but for all the members of their respective Clans. In spite of all the enactments and orders hitherto passed, the inhabitants and broken men in the Highlands were “inured and accustomed to liberty and licentiousness” during the late troubles, and “still presumed to sorn, steal, oppress, and commit other violences and disorders.” The great chiefs were commanded to appear in Edinburgh on the last Tuesday of February, 1679, and yearly thereafter on the second Thursday of July, to give security and receive instructions as to the peace of the Highlands. To prevent any excuse for non-attendance, they were declared free from caption for debt or otherwise while journeying to and from Edinburgh, and other means were to be taken, which might be thought necessary or expedient until the Highlands were finally quieted, and “all these wicked, broken, and disorderly men utterly rooted out and extirpated.” A second proclamation was issued, in which the lesser barons – heads of the branches of clans – whose names are given, were to go to Inverlochy by the 20th of November following, as they were “by reason of their mean condition,” not able to come in to Edinburgh and find caution, and there to give in bonds and securities for themselves, their men, tenants, servants, and indwellers upon their lands, and all of their name descended of their families, to the Earl of Caithness, Sir James Campbell of Lawers, James Menzies of Culdarers, or any two of them. These lists are interesting, showing, as they do, those who were considered the greater and lesser barons at the time. We find four Mackenzies in the former but not one in the latter. [For the full lists see “Antiquarian Notes,” pp. 184 and 187.]
On the 1st of March, 1681, Kenneth was served heir male to his great-grandfather, Lord Mackenzie of Kintail, in his lands in the Lordship of Ardmeanach and in the Earldom of Ross; was made a member of the Privy Council by James II. on his accession to the throne in 1685, and chosen a Knight Companion of the Thistle, on the revival of that ancient Order in 1687. The year after the Revolution Seaforth accompanied his Royal master to France, but when that Prince returned to Ireland in the following year to make a final effort for the recovery of his kingdom, he was accompanied thither by the Earl. There he took part in the siege of Londonderry and in other engagements, and as an expression of gratitude James created him Marquis of Seaforth, under which title he repeatedly appears in various legal documents. This well-meant and deserved honour, however, came too late in the falling fortunes and declining powers of the ex-King, and does little more than mark his Royal confirmation of the steady adherence of the chiefs of Kintail to the cause of the unfortunate Stuarts.
Viscount Dundee in a letter to the “Laird of Macleod,” dated “Moy, June 23, 1689” [About this time Viscount Tarbat boasted to General Mackay of his great influence with his countrymen, especially the Clan Mackenzie, and assured him “that though Seaforth should come to his own country and among his friends, he (Tarbat) would overturn in eight days more than the Earl could advance in six weeks yet be proved as backward as Seaforth or any other of the Clan. And though Redcastle, Coul, and others of the name of Mackenzie came, they fell not on final methods, but protested a great deal of affection for the cause.” – “Mackay’s Memoirs.”] in which he details his own and the King’s prospects, gives a list of those who are to join him. “My Lord Seaforth,” he says, “will be in a few days from Ireland to raise his men for the King’s service;” but the fatal shot which closed the career of that brilliant star and champion of the Stuart dynasty at Killiecrankie, arrested the progress of the family of Seaforth in the fair course to all the honours which a grateful dynasty could bestow; nor was the family of Kintail singular in this respect – seeing its flattering prospects withered at, perhaps, a fortunate moment for the prosperity of the Empire. Jealousies have now passed away on that subject, and it is not our business to discuss or in any way confound the principles of contending loyalties.
To check the proceedings of the Mackenzies, Mackay placed a garrison of a hundred Mackays in Brahan Castle, the principal seat of the Earl, and an equal number of Rosses in Castle Leod, the mansion of Viscount Tarbat, both places of strength, and advantageously situated for watching the movements of the Jacobite Mackenzies. [“Life of General Mackay,” by John Mackay of Rockfield, pp. 36-37.]
Seaforth seems to have left Ireland immediately after the battle of the Boyne, and to have returned to the Highlands. The greater part of the North was at the time hostile to the Government, and General Mackay was obliged to march north, with all haste, before a general rising could take place under Buchan, who now commanded the Highlanders who stood out for King James. Mackay was within four hours march of Inverness before Buchan, who was then at that place “waiting for the Earl of Seaforth’s and the other Highlanders whom he expected to join him in attacking the town,” knew of his approach. Hearing of the proximity of the enemy, Buchan at once retreated, crossed the River Ness, and retired along the north side of the Beauly Firth, eastward through the Black Isle. In this emergency, Seaforth, fearing the personal consequences of the part be had acted throughout, sent two of his friends to General Mackay, offering terms of submission and whatever securities might be required for his future good behaviour, informing him at the same time that, although he had been forced to appear on the side of James, he never entertained any design of molesting the Government forces or of joining Buchan in his attack on the town of Inverness. Mackay replied that he could accept no security other than the surrender of his Lordship’s person, at the same time conjuring him to comply, as he valued his own safety and the preservation of his family and people, and assuring him that in the case of surrender he should be detained in civil custody in Inverness, and treated with the respect due to his rank, until the will of the Government should become known. Next day the Earl’s mother, the Countess Dowager of Seaforth, and Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Coul proceeded to Inverness, to plead with Mackay for a mitigation of the terms proposed, but finding him inflexible, they told him that Seaforth would accede to any conditions agreed to by them in his behalf. It was thereupon stipulated that he should deliver himself up at once and be kept a prisoner in Inverness until the Privy Council decided as to his ultimate disposal. With the view of concealing his voluntary submission from his own clan and his other Jacobite friends, it was agreed that the Earl should allow himself to be siezed at one of his seats by a party of horse under Major Mackay, as if he were taken by surprise. He, however, disappointed those sent to take him, in excuse of which, his mother and he, in letters to General Mackay, pleaded the delicate state of his health, which, it was urged, would suffer from imprisonment; and indeed few can blame him for any unwillingness to place himself absolutely at the disposal of such a body as the Privy Council of Scotland then was – many of whom would not hesitate in the slightest to sacrifice him, if by so doing they could only see any chance of obtaining a share, however small, of his extensive estates.
General Mackay became so irritated at the deception thus practised upon him that he resolved to treat Seaforth’s vassals “with all the rigour of military execution,” and he sent his Lordship a message that if he did not surrender forthwith according to his promise, he should at once carry out his instructions from the Privy Council by entering his country with fire and sword, and seizing all the property belonging to himself or to his clan as lawful prize; and, lest the Earl should have any doubt as to his intention of executing this terrible treat, he immediately ordered three Dutch regiments from Aberdeen to Inverness, and decided on leading a competent body of horse and foot in person from the garrison at the latter place, to take possession of Brahan Castle. The General, at the same time wrote instructing the Earl of Sutherland, Lord Reay, and Ross of Balnagown, to send a thousand of their men, under Major Wishart an experienced officer acquainted with the country, to take up their quarters in the more remote districts of the Seaforth estates, should that extreme step, as he much feared, become necessary. Having, however, a friendly disposition towards the followers of Seaforth, on account of their being “all Protestants and none of the most dangerous enemies,” and being more anxious to get hold of his Lordship’s person than to ruin his friends, he caused information of his intentions to be sent to Seaforth’s camp by some of his own party, as if from a feeling of friendship for him the result being that, contrary to Mackay’s expectations, Seaforth surrendered – thus relieving him from a most disagreeable duty, [Though the General “was not immediately connected with the Seaforth family himself, some of his near relatives were, both by the ties of kindred and of ancient friendship. For these, and other reasons it may be conceived what joy and thankfulness to Providence he felt for the result of ibis affair, which at once relieved him from a distressing dilemma, and promised to put a speedy period to his labours in Scotland.” – Mackay’s “Life of General Mackay.”] – and he was at once committed a prisoner to the Castle of Inverness.
Writing to the Privy Council about the disaffected chiefs at the time, General Mackay says – “I believe it shall fare so with the Earl of Seaforth, that is, that he shall haply submit when his country is ruined and spoyled, which is the character of a true Scotsman, wyse behinde the hand.” [Letters to the Privy Council, dated 1st September, 1690.] By warrant, dated 7th October, 1690, the Privy Council directs Mackay “to transport the person of Kenneth, Earl of Seaforth, with safety from Inverness to Edinburgh, in such way and manner as he should think fit.” This done, he was on the 6th November following confined within the Castle of Edinburgh, but, little more than a year afterwards, he was liberated, on the 7th January, 1692, having found caution to appear when called upon, and on condition that he should not go ten miles beyond the walls of Edinburgh. He appears not to have implemented these conditions for any length of time, for shortly after he is again in prison almost immediately makes his escape is apprehended on the 7th of May, the same year, at Pencaitland and again kept confined in the Castle of Inverness, from which he is ultimately and finally liberated on giving sufficient security for his peaceable behaviour, [“Records of the Privy Council,” and “Mackay’s Memoirs.”] the following being the order for his release:
“William R., Right trusty and right-well-beloved Councillors, &c., we greet you well. Whereas we are informed that Kenneth, Earl of Seaforth, did surrender himself prisoner to the commander of our garrison at Inverness, and has thrown himself on our Royal mercy; it is our will and pleasure, and we hereby authorise and require you to set the said Earl of Seaforth at liberty, upon his finding bail and security to live peaceably under our Government and to compear before you when called. And that you order our Advocate not to insist in the process of treason waged against him until