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| Notes for Donald McPHERSON | ||||||||||||||||||||
| What is a Tacksman? In the early records of Inverness, Donald McPherson is referred to as a "tacksman": A tack was a piece of a land (of which the tacksman was the tenant) in the Highland clan society of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 'In English, just then beginning to be heard more often in the Highlands, they were usually called tacksmen - a tack being one of the names given to the piece of land which a man generally expected to occupy in return for such services, military or otherwise, as his chief might from time to time exact.' [From Tacks and Tacksmen, http://www.petestack.com/tacksman.html, extracted from A Dance Called America, Edinburgh, 1994.] 'Frequently [tacksmen] were close relatives (often brothers, cousins or younger sons) of the chief, leasing a large block of land for several years or for the duration of one or two lives, and acting as viceroy over this portion of the estate, if necessary training and organising the clan peasants for war and appearing with armed followers at his bidding. The tacksmen also paid rent in money or kind to the chief and obtained a larger rent in money or kind from the peasants, living on the difference between the two. Sometimes, however, they farmed on their own account. It is not always clear how often this was the case, since in some parts of the country (such as Kintyre) the situation is confused by the fact that the expression 'tacksman' was also used to denote any farming tenant who had been given a lease (a 'tack') for a term of years, rather than to describe a viceroy or kinsman who had a purely passive role as middleman between the landlord and the man who cultivated the ground. Normally there was no justification for the middleman type of tenure except in a para-military society. It was destined to perish in the later eighteenth century when law and order finally made it archaic.' [T.C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People 15601830, London, 1969, 138] | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| The traditional history and genealogy of the Clan traces it's origins to one Gilliecatton Mor, a grandson Muirich (or Murdoch), who became the Parson of Kingussie. From him came a family name of Mac-a-Phersain, the son of the parson which developed into MacPherson later on. At the same time, it was held that the original name of the MacPhersons was Cattanach. Whatever the real facts, it appears to be fairly evident that the MacPherson family was, if not the most ancient family of Clan Chattan, then one of the earliest. The Clan MacPherson territory of Upper Speyside came to this family at the time of Robert the Bruce, for whom they had fought at Bannockburn, in return for helping to drive the Comyns from all of Badenoch. The task was undertaken and completed, and the Sons of the Parson moved in forthwith, becoming neighbours of the Mackintoches of Moy. In time, a MacPherson girl, Eva, married into the Moy family, and this union was the instance upon which the Mackintosh claim for the chieftainship of Clan Chattan was based. The homelands of the Clan are along the upper Speyside in Badenoch. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Research | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Clan Macpherson: History www.geocities.com/area51/cavern/7081/macpherson.html MacPherson is "Mac a Phearsoin", 'Son of the Parson'. Clerical celibacy was very late in being enforced by the Roman Catholic Church in the Highlands, where it was often popularly ignored despite canon law, for the old Celtic Church had had married clergy and the innovation was especially unpopular among the ancient families who were accustomed to filling particular sacred offices in their own districts. Of course many people called MacPherson may take their surname from completely different parsons who lived in widely separated parts of Scotland. Thus perhaps the first to appear on record, Donald M'Inpersuyn in 1335, belonged to a family of MacPhersons connected with the Argyllshire Church of St. Columba in Glassary, where a later Donald Macpherson was rector in 1420, in the territory inherited from its old Celtic dynasts by the scrymgeours, Constables of Dundee. But the principal kindred name of MacPherson are the famous Clan Mhuirich in Strathnairn, Strachdearn and Badenoch. Their cheif was called MacPherson of Cluny -- or Cluny MacPherson, to distinguish his designation from other places called cluny held by other families. These MacPhersons belong to the great Clan Chattan, a strong confederation of some sixteen clans descended in the male or female line from a cheif called Gillechattan, whom the old Gaelic genealogists trace from 'Ferchar the Long, King of Lorne' (died 697), ancestor also of the last Kings of Moray, of which local kingdom Badenoch, Strathdearn and Strathnairn were part. Gillechattan was probably the Kelehathonin who appears on the record in the thirteenth century and was maternally a first cousin of the Lord of Badenoch (1230-1258). The Mackintosh, 'Son of the Chief' was the chief of the whole kindred and therefore styled the Captain of Clan Chattan. The Mackintoshes claim to descend from Gillechattan through an heiress, and there are reasons to support this, though it is not impossible that in fact they descended from him in the male line. The Macphersons claim to descend from him in the male line, though again it is not impossible that they are a branch of the Mackintoshes. Further research may one day resolve these questions. Professor Skene wrote of the religious office of lector in Celtic abbeys, where the offices were usually held by members of the Gaelic dynastic families, and added: 'Diarmada, the grandfather of Gillechattan, the eponymus of the Clan Chattan, is said in the old Irish genealogy to have been called Ferleighinn, or lector. Tradition ascribes to Gillechattan the epithet of Clerech or Cleric, and he and his descendents the Clan Vuireach are said to have been hereditary lay parsons of Kingussie, one of whom, Duncan the son of Kenneth, appears in 1438 as Duncan parson. From him the chief of the Clan Vuireach takes his name Macpherson. 'The Macphersons themselves believe their name-father to have been this Duncan's great-grandfather Muredach, from whom they certainly derive their other name of Clan Mhuirich: 'the children of Muredach'. Duncan the parson must have been a person of importance for we are told that he was imprisoned with the Lord of the Isles himself. A generation or so later, the Macphersons first appear on record, holding lands in Strathdearn (the Mackintosh centre) and at Brin in Strathnairn. 'Bean Makinpersone', who appears from 1481 to 1508, witnessed a bond of 'Duncan Makintosche, captain of Clancattane' in 1490. In the Mackintosh's charter chest there is also a deed signed in 1534/5 by Bean's son 'Donald Makferson, Wt my hand on the pen' (the usual formula when a signatory could not write himself, as was common among the Scottish gentlemen of those days). His seal bears a fine lyon rampant and the legend of S. DONALD MACFERSONE. This looks like a Mackintosh or Macduff coat-of-arms: later Mac[pherson coats-of-arms have the galley normally used by Clan Chattan (probably from some heiress in Lochaber of the royal house of the Isles). So it is interesting that a tradition existed among the two oldest branches of the Macphersons (Pitmean and Invereshie) that the parson himself was a Mackintosh: in 1672 their own chieftans complained to the Privy Council that Cluny 'nayther is nor ever was Cheiffe nor did any of his predicessors claim right theirto; but upon the contrair it is notter and manifest without the least doubt that the complainers are descendit of Macintosh'. Be that as it may, the Chieftans of the Cluny branch came to be recognised, both by the Crown and the Clan, as the Chiefs of Clan MacPherson. They first appear in Badenoch in the sixteenth century, and came to hold the great mountainous district from Kingussie to Ben Alder and Loch Laggan: with a long stretch of the Spay. They lived for some generations at Cluny before they managed to get a charter for their lands. The overlord of badenoch was Huntley, to whom a number of the clan, headed by 'Andrew Makfersone in Cluny' gave a bond of manrent in 1591. Huntley formed a wiley scheme for setting up Cluny Macpherson against Mackintosh, who as captain of the whole Clan Chattan, was to powerful to please Huntley. The policy was to be 'divide and rule' -as so often, the division remained long after the rule had waned and perished. It was suggested that Macphersons in Cluny claimed descent in the male line from Gillechattan, whereas the Mackintoshes claimed to have inherited the chieftanship of Clan Chattan through an heiress, Cluny Macpherson ought to be regarded as rightful chief of 'the Old Clan Chattan' (a new invented body). This was a farily cynical trick, as Huntley himself had only inherited the Gordon chieftship through an heiress. But the row that ensued lasted for centuries, and on several occasions disunited the Macphersons and others of Cattanach from supporting the Mackintosh chiefs fo Clan Chattan in war-although in 1688 after the last clan battle ever fought, when Mackintosh had been defeated and captured by the Macdonells of Keppoch, Cluny Macpherson brought his own clansmen up and ironically rescued Mackintosh. As late as 1744 the row was fanned anew in a bond between Cluny and Lord Lovat (whose own dicey position depended on his having overturned the heiress of his own clan), together with Lochiel, whose lands had mostly been taken by the sword form Mackintoshes and Clan Chattan during centuries of feud. However, on a number of occasions from 1609 onwards the Cluny of the time acknowledged Mackintosh as his 'Captain and Chief', and the matter was officially settled in Mackintoshes favour in 1672 by the Privy Council and the Lord Lyon King of Arms. The exploits of Cluny Macpherson and his clansmen in the '45 Rising are well known, and how they loyally hid him for nine long years in a specially designed cave in his own country. His cousin William MacPherson 'the purser' of the clan, was killed fighting for the Jacobite Cause at Falkirk in 1746, and was ancestor of the present chief whose home is Newton Castle at Blairgowrie and who became Cluny Macpherson in November 1966. 'The purser's nephew, James Macpherson of Balavil, gave to the world the controversial but marvellously beautiful 'translation' of ossian, which even moved Napoleon. Balavil became a member of Parliament, and in 1784 the Government offered him the forfeited Cluny estates, 'but he refused them in favour of the rightful heir'. The Macphersons have continued to the fore, and number three peers -Lord Strathcarron, Lord Drumalbyn and Lord Macpherson of Drumochter- among their distinguished clansmen. And although tody the Macphersons are scattered far afield from Badenoch, the active Clan Macpherson Association, under the guiding drive of William Cheyne-Macpherson of Dalchully (a chieftan who is the clan historian), has aquired part of the old Cluny lands and some of the treasured clan relics. These relics may be seen at the Clan Macpherson Museum, at Newtonmore, Scotland. The current chieftan is Sir William Alan Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes for Janet (Spouse 1) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Cuthberts had no formal Clan ties Web post by Thomas W. Cuthbert November 24, 1999 http://genforum.genealogy.com/cuthbert/messages/156.html "My research reveals...The surname Cuthbert is not indigenous to the British Isles nor Normandy (France). Instead its origins are Saxon. If you examine the early historical records, including the Anglo Saxon Chronicles you will find numerous references to the name, including many diminuative forms, such as Cutha, et al. There are references to individual Cuthberts that assumed new surnames after the Norman invasion. I suppose it was safer in those days to be identified as a 'Norman' than as a 'Saxon.'... I agree, there is no Cuthbert Clan per se; but perhaps septs that belonged to other more prominent clans. The closest clan association would probably be for those Cuthberts that lived in the 'borders' area. There they joined a number of other families and became known as the 'Border Reivers' (sp.)." | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Modified 13 Aug 2002 | Created 8 Feb 2007 Laura K. Henderson |
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