THE CHIEFS OF CLAN MACPHERSON BY MACPHERSON OF DALCHULLY W. CHEYNE-MACPHERSON F .S.A. SCOT. CAPTAIN OF CLAN MACPHERSON AUTHOR OF '-' THE CHEYNES OF INVERUGm " 1947 OLIVER AND BOYD EDINBURGH: TWEEDDALE COURT LONDON: 98 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, W.C. FIRST PUBLISHED • 1947 PRINTED AND PUBLISHKD IN GREAT BRITAIN BY OJ.IVER AND BOYD LTD.i EDINBURGH THE BRATACH DAINE OR GREEN BANNER OF CLUNY MACPHERSON TO MY SONS Pride of birth and ancestry is a good thing onry if the lives of our ancestors have been such as their descendants •can use as an example for their own lives. There is no reason for pride otherwise. Equally there is no reason for us to point with pride to the lives of such ancestors unless we do use their virtues as our aim in life. A great ancestry imposes on us in its highest sense the dictum of O noblesse oblige." "Lean gu Dluth ri cliu do shlnmir 'S na dibir bhi mar iadsan." " Cleave thou fast to thy fathers' fame And keep unsullied their honoured name." EXTRACTS FROM THE MANUSCRIPT OF THIS BOOK APPEARED SOME YEARS AGO IN '' THE BADENOCH RECORD," UNDER THE TITLE OF " SKETCHES OF THE CHIEFS OF CLANN MHUIRICH " DEDICATION THESE " Sketches " are dedicated to the memory of the late WILLIAM CHARLEs MACPHERSON, C.S.I., of Blairgowrie, whose labours on a far more complete history of his clan than is shown in these few pages were unhappily cut short by the hand of death, and to the late IAN MACPHERSON, ISt Baron Strathcarron of Banchor, P.C., etc., whose unfailing sympathy and generous help in all matters pertaining to the clan, when called upon by the compiler in his endeavour to save the clan relics and to secure a piece of Macpherson land for the clan after the death of the last Laird of Cluny, Albert Cameron Macpherson, in 1932, was a great incentive; also to Major IAN FYFE MACPHERSON, M.C.,. of Double Bay, N.S.W.; Wm. McPherson of McPherson's Proptry. Ltd., Melbourne, Victoria, and Hugh and Gordon Munro of Keera, N.S.W., Australia; Chas. Ogilvie and Chas. S. Thomas of Christchurch, N-.z.; H. Mackenzie Douglas of Masterton, N~Z.; Jas. Begg of Dunedin, N.Z. ; the late Dr Kenneth Mackenzie and Mrs Mackenzie of Auckland, N .z., and to all those patriotic Scotsmen in New Zealand who gave their time and their money unstintingly to the i:ecent appeal to save Cluny Castle and the clan relics, and to the. late Brigadier-General ALEXANDER DuNCAN MACPHERSO:N, of the House ofBanchor, Deputy Lord-Lieutenant of the County of Inverness, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., Legion d'Honneur, etc., the apotheosis of a gcntl~an, a very distinguished and gallant soldier, and the beau-ideal o( Clan Macpherson. FOREWORD BY SIR FRANCIS J. GRANT, K.C.V.O., w.s., ~TC. ALB,f\NY HERALD, LATE LORD LYON KING-OF-ARMS THIS history of the Macpherson Clan will form . an important addition to the series of similar works. which have within recent years appeared in reference to Highland families. Such works relating to the· Highlands before the last century hardly· existed, and the absence of records, national and parochial,. regarding the northern parts of Scotland has to a­ large extent unfortunately prevented the publication· of reliable and accurate accounts and pedigrees of these families. It i~ true that some of the ·most important families·. have still been able to preserve their charter ~hests and are therefore able to produce well vouched:· pedigrees, but many of the ·cadets and branches are· dependent largely on tradition regarding their origin, and much has been printed about them which is nonsense and even grotesque. The records of the court of the Lord Lyon regarding the Highlands in the early days are very meagre and few of the chiefs and others recorded their arms or genealogies in the Public Register of aH Arms and Bearings in Scotland before 1500 in terms of the act of 1672. It is therefore fortunate that Macpherson of Dalchully has gathered together from such records as now exist this history of his family and clan. The much debated chiefship of the Clan Chattan is discussed in detail and the arguments on both sides examined with care. The loss of many papers from the Cluny Charter Chest which might have thrown some light on the question is to be regretted. vi .. FOREWORD Vll The fact that the. Cluny family were for sometime after 1290 landless, has deprived them of much ·evidence in the dispute. I do not intend, however, to enter here into the merits of the case but leave the reader to form his own conclusions from the facts presented by the author. The pedigrees of the various families of the clan _will be welcomed by. all genealogists, as well as by members of the clan, as an important contribution to the history of the Highlands. FRANCIS J. GRANT FOREWORD Bv B. W. MACPHERSON Of Gray's Inn, Barrister-at-Law and Advocate of the Manx Bar, late Resident, Nigerian Administrative Service IT will be a great satisfaction to members of the Clan Macpherson that this book has been published, thereby recording, for the first time in one work, so much of interest in the history of our Clan. No better historian than Macpherson of Dalchully could have undertaken this work, for it is born out of love for his Clan and is the result of meticulous research and verification. It is fortunate that this self-imposed task has been undertaken by one who is a direct descendant of Lachlan Macpherson, brother of Ewan Macpherson of Cluny, Chief of the Clan and the loyal companion of Prince Charles Edward in the dark and perilous days of 1746. After the battle of Culloden, when Ewan was in hiding from the Hanoverian troops, many of the valuable papers from Cluny Castle were placed with Macpherson of Dalchully's ancestor, Lachlan, for safe custody. ... Vlll FOREWORD Macpherson of Dalchully has therefore an intimate knowledge of the Clan history and traditions, members of his family having played so important a part in its affairs. He has never failed to keep in touch with the present day representatives of the various branches of the Clan and has, on his visit to Australia and New Zealand some years ago, aroused amongst Macphersons living there the greatest interest in Clan affairs. PREFACE IT has been objected to by several clansmen that this book is really only an account of the Chiefs of Clan Macpherson. This I admit ; but it must be remembered that every clan history· is bound up in the lives of the Chiefs. The most important point, however, is this-up to date we are the only clan which has no published continuous record, .and with the death of Albert Cameron in 1932, records which were available are being scattered gradually. Indeed the process had unfortunately commenced before his death, as in the latter years of his life Albert Cameron had been giving away, selling and even destroying papers which were invaluable for the compilation of a clan history. In 1933 the late Lady Cluny asked me to write a history of the clan, offering to lend me for this purpose all papers she had. I had just then commenced what ·I hoped would be a permanent record of our clan; the world-wide appeal to save the clan relics, papers and, if possible, Cluny Castle, though this latter was contingent on the amount of subscriptions I could raise. Under the circumstances I was unable myself to devote the necessary time for the compiling of a clan history. I suggested that the late Mr Wm. Chas. Macpherson of Blairgowrie be asked, as he was a keen genealogist and better versed in the history of our clan than I. He willingly agreed: all the papers were sent to him and from then to his death in 1936, Blairgowrie was engaged in the task. Unfortunately death intervened, some _MSS. of his were lost and so there was no history completed. ~ . · Realising that something must be done to. have a ~ . h X PREFACE completed record, however poor, I wrote up these " Sketches," largely from memory, and also from family papers in my own possession. I claim no literary merit-in numbers of cases I have quoted in extenso from authorities. But at least there is now a foundation for some patriotic clansman to build up a better and more complete record of the clan. I have also endeavoured to stick to facts, even when not always palatable, sifting out legendary matters as much as possible. Finally, there is one other excuse I may make f9r bringing forward into prominence the Cluny family, and that is that it was nothing but the stubborn determination of Cluny, century after century, (with the occasional lapses as recounted in these pages) not to allow himself to be a mere follower of Macintosh­ and this even in the face of the abject submission of his two chief cadets, Pitmean and Invereshie-that the clan was saved from being merely a sept of Macintosh, instead of an independent clan as it is to-day. I have endeavoured in these pages to include all those Macphersons who belong to the cadet branches. There may be some who have · inadvertently been omitted : to these I can only offer my apologies, a:nd hope that the publication of this book may be the means of bringing them forward for any future edition. In addition to the various authorities quoted by me, I wish to thank Sir John Murray for permission to use the block of the portrait of " Old Cluny " ; to the Editor of the S.M.