History of the Mackenzies Part 49

Her only sister, the Hon. Isabella Murray, died unmarried in 1849.

The Hon. Maria Murray was succeeded by her only son,

VIII. JOHN HAY-MACKENZIE, who on the 23rd of April, 1828, married Anne, daughter of Sir Gibson-Craig, Baronet, with issue -

1. Anne his heir and successor.

He died at Cliefden on the 9th of July, 1849, and was succeeded by his only child,

IX. ANNE HAY-MACKENZIE of Cromarty, who, on the 27th of June, 1849, married His Grace the third Duke of Sutherland. On the 21st of October, 1861, her Grace was, by a new creation, made Countess of Cromarty, Viscountess Tarbat of Tarbat, Baroness Macleod of Castle Leod, and Baroness Castlehaven of Castlehaven, with remainder to her second son, Viscount Tarbat. Thus, should the old t.i.tle ever be restored, there would be two Earls, with all the t.i.tles exactly similar, excepting that the holder of the original earldom would also inherit the Nova Scotia Baronetcy, as well as that of 1704.

On the death of the late d.u.c.h.ess of Sutherland, Countess of Cromartie, in 1888, she was succeeded by her second surviving son,

X. FRANCIS SUTHLRLAND LEVESON GOWER, as Earl of Cromartie, in all her other t.i.tles, and estates. He was born on the 3rd of August, 1852, and on the 2nd of August, 1876, married the Hon. Lilian Janet, second surviving daughter of G.o.dfrey William Wentworth, 4th Lord Macdonald of Sleat, with issue -

1. Sibell Lilian, born on the 14th of August, 1878.

2. Constance, born in 1882.

The Earl died on the 24th of November, 1893. The limitation of this earldom being to his heirs male, and on the failure of such to his heirs, with other remainders over, a question arises as to whether or not the dignity is now in abeyance between his Lordship's two daughters and co-heirs.

As it is possible the old honours may yet be claimed, it may be interesting to note in a more concise manner the facts concerning them. The original patent of the Nova Scotia Baronetcy to Sir John Mackenzie of Tarbat, by Charles I., dated 21st May, 1628, was to him "suosque haredes masculos quoscunque de tempore in tempus in posterum per perpetuo," and the re-grant of 29th April, 1704, to his grandson, Kenneth, second son of George, first Earl of Cromarty, being confessedly to restore the old Baronetcy - now absorbed in the Earldom - intact, "as the samen was given to the umquhile Sir John Mackenzie of Tarbat," was to Kenneth and his heirs male "in perpetuum," and was therefore granted with the same succession, presumably to heirs male whomsoever.

Sir Kenneth Mackenzie of Grandvale and Cromarty, first Baronet of this re-grant, having died in 1729, the dignity was enjoyed by his eldest son, Sir George, second Baronet, who died without issue in 1748, and afterwards by his youngest son, Sir Kenneth, third Baronet, who died at Tam in 1763, also without issue. At this Sir Kenneth's death, it is clear that the succession would, under the patent of 1704, then devolve upon his heir male, George, the attainted third Earl of Cromarty, who survived all the male descendants of the patentee, but whose honours, having been attainted in 1746, had been restored by the pardon granted to him under the Great Seal on the 20th of October, 1749. Thus was this Baronetcy absorbed a second time in the Earldom of Cromarty. Nor does it appear that it was ever a.s.sumed by George, the third Earl (who died in Poland Street, London, on the 29th of September, 1766), nor by his son Lord Macleod, who obtained a pardon dated the 26th of January, 1748, and with whom, who died without issue, on the 2nd of April, 1789, ended the direct line both of the Earldom and of the Baronetcy.

The succession then opened to his cousin, Captain Mackenzie of Cromarty, who obtained the estates; but he also died without issue in 1796, without having a.s.sumed either t.i.tle.

Taking the term "haredibus masculis," according to the opinion of John Riddell, the well-known Advocate and author "in the sense of our law, as an equivalent to heirs male whatsoever," the representation of the Tarbat Baronetcy would then revert to the brothers of George, first Earl of Cromarty, the next of whom was Roderick, Lord Prestonhall. But here again the fatality to heirs male which has dogged the steps of the Cromarty t.i.tles in so extraordinary a manner, ended the succession in the children of his son, Alexander of Fraserdale. Riddell, in his opinion upon the revival of 1826, says, "I certainly saw proof of the male extinction of the Prestonhall branch several years ago." That is, in one of the Lovat actions of Fraserdale, or Macleod of Macleod; and, after that family, the succession of the descendants of Alexander of Ardloch, fourth son of Sir John Mackenzie of Tarbat, was proved, in the Service at Tam, on the 30th of October, 1826, in the person of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Mackenzie, eldest son of Colonel Robert Mackenzie of Milnmount, who a.s.sumed the dormant Baronetcies of Tarbat and Royston, and who, dying without issue on the 28th of April, 1841, was succeeded by his only brother, Sir James Sutherland Mackenzie, who also died unmarried on the 24th of November, 1858. Since his death these Baronetcies have remained dormant, no effort to a.s.sume them having been made by the next heir male, although no doubt it was quite in his power to do so.

It is obvious from what has already been said that the representation of the Earldom of Cromarty, granted to George, Viscount Tarbat, on the 18th of September, 1703, the succession of which is "haredibus masculis et tallia" devolves upon the same head as the above-named Baronetcies. It is not, however, clear whether the pardon obtained by George, third Earl, is sufficient to remove the attainder, or whether an Act of Parliament would not be necessary for that purpose, although the attainted male-blood is long ago at an end.

Since this question was debated, the restoration of the Airlie and other forfeited peerages have, in a great measure, cleared the ground, and in the new creation of 1861 the older t.i.tle and honours according to the decisions in these cases could be in no way affected or disturbed.

THE MACKENZIES OF ARDLOCH.

THE first of this family, on which devolved the representation of the original Earldom of Cromarty and the Baronetcies of Tarbat and Royston in the male line, was

I. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, fourth son of Sir John Mackenzie of Tarbat, created a Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1628, by his wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir George Erskine of Innerteil, a Lord of Session and Justiciary. Alexander, who has a sasine as fourth son, dated June, 1654, married Barbara, daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie, VI. of Gairloch, and relict of Fraser of Kinneries, with issue -

1. Roderick, who died young.

2. John, his heir and successor.

3. James, of Keppoch, who married Isabella, daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie, I. of Dundonnel, with issue - (1) Alexander, who married Henrietta Mackenzie of Fisherfield (sasine 1773); (2) Simon of Keppoch, who married with issue - Alexander of Kildonan, on record in 1755; (3) George of Kildonan, who married, first, Ann, daughter of Roderick Mackenzie of Kernsary, with issue - James. George died in 1809, aged 109 years; (4) Colin, of Jamaica, who married Janet, daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie, III. of Dundonnel, without issue; (5) Mary, who married Donald, grandson of John Mackenzie, I. of Gruinard, with issue; (6) Isabella, who married Allan Mackenzie, of the family of Hilton. James sold Keppoch in 1730.

5. Barbara, who married Roderick, son of George Mackenzie, II.

of Gruinard, with issue.

6. Ann, who married William, sixth son of George Mackenzie, II.

of Gruinard, with issue.

7. Margaret, who died unmarried; and three others who married respectively, Sinclair of Dunbeath; Gordon of Auchintoul, a cadet of the Gordons of Embo; and Colin Mackenzie of Kildun.

He died in 1736, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,

II. JOHN MACKENZIE, second of Ardloch, who married Sibella, daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie, I. of Dundonnel, with issue -

1. Alexander, his heir and successor.

2. Kenneth. 3. John. Nothing is known of either.

4. Annabella, and others; issue, if any, unknown.

John was succeeded by his eldest son,

III. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, third of Ardloch, who married Margaret, daughter of Robert Sutherland of Langwell, Caithness, twelfth in descent from William de Sutherland, fifth Earl of Sutherland, by his wife, the Princess Margaret Bruce, sister and heir of David II., King of Scotland, with issue -

1. James, a Major in the army, who married a daughter of Mackenzie of Fairburn, with issue - one son, who died before his father.

2. Robert, of Milnmount, Colonel H.E.I.C.S., married first, a daughter of Mackenzie of Bayfield, without male issue; and secondly, Katharine, daughter of Colonel Sutherland of Uppat, with issue - Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Lieutenant-Colonel H.E.I.C.S., who, on the 30th of October, 1826, a.s.sumed the dormant Baronetcies of Tarbat and Royston, as heir male collateral of Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, brother of John, second Earl of Cromarty. On the 17th of August at Tam, in the same year, he was served nearest and lawful heir male to George, first Earl of Cromarty. He died, unmarried, in 1841 (his father, Colonel Robert, having died in 1809), and was succeeded in the Baronetcies by his next brother, Sir James Sutherland Mackenzie, who in 1858 also died without issue. Sir James' sister, Elizabeth, married Lieutenant Sutherland, Royal Navy, with issue; and his sister, Margaret, married the Rev.

James H. Hughes, Chaplain H.E.I.C.S., Bombay, with issue. On the death of Sir James the Baronetcies and other dignities of the Cromarty family reverted to his cousin, the late John Mackenzie, Lochinver, son of Kenneth Mackenzie, Ledbeg, a.s.synt, who, however, never a.s.sumed the t.i.tles.

3. George, minister in Caithness, who died at sea, unmarried, in 1825.

4. Kenneth, of Ledbeg, who married, first, a daughter of Mackenzie of Elphin, with issue - (1) the late John of Lochinver, heir male to the Tarbat and Cromarty honours, twice married, without issue; (2) Robert; (3) James; (4) Charles; and (5) Royston, all of whom died without surviving issue; (6) Jane; (7) Georgina; (8) Jessie, who married the Rev. John Kennedy, minister of Redcastle, who died in 1841, with issue, one of whom was the Rev. John Kennedy, D.D., late Free Church minister of Dingwall.

5. Charles Stuart, who died unmarried.

6. Roderick, who also died unmarried.

7. John, who died unmarried, abroad.

8. Murdoch, who married Janet, daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie of Dundonnel, without issue.

9. Alexander, who married a daughter of Mackenzie of Stronchrubie, with issue - James, who died in a.s.synt, unmarried, and two daughters - Margaret, who married Kenneth Macleod and Anne, who died unmarried.

Failing the male succession of this family, which has become extremely difficult if not impossible to trace now that the representatives of Kenneth Mackenzie of Ledbeg have failed in the male line, the dormant honours of Tarbat and Cromarty reverts to the family of Scatwell.

THE MACKENZIES OF SCATWELL.

I. KENNETH MACKENZIE, first of this family, was the second son of Sir Roderick Mackenzie of Coigeach, Tutor of Kintail, by Margaret, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Torquil Macleod of the Lewis.

He married, in 1634, Margaret, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Robert Munro the Black Baron, XX of Fowlis (tocher 15,000 merks), with issue -

1. John, his heir and successor.