THE progenitor of this family, not one of whom so far as known ever owned an acre of land until now, was
I. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, fourth son of Alexander Mackenzie, V. of Gairloch, by his wife Margaret, daughter of Roderick Mor Mackenzie, I. of Redcastle, by his wife Florence, daughter of Robert Munro, XVth Baron of Fowlis. Alexander, like his brother Hector, was a Cornet in Sir George Munro's Regiment, and according to one of the Gairloch manuscript Histories was "an officer under Cromwell, whom he afterwards left, and was wounded on the King's side at the battle of Worcester, leaving a succession in Gairloch by his wife Janet, daughter of Mackenzie of Ord." He lost an eye at Worcester, and was consequently ever after known Alastair Cam. His descendants are still numerous in Gairloch, where, having had no land to be designated of, they were always known as "Sliochd Alastair Chaim" or "The descendants of Alexander the One-Eyed." He married, in 1652, Janet, third daughter of John Mackenzie, I. of Ord, [The marriage contract is dated "at Chanonrie, the 21st of July and 26th of August, 1652," the year after the Battle of Worcester, and is in the Ord charter chest.] by his wife Isobel, daughter of Alexander Cuthbert of Drakies, Inverness, with issue -
1. Roderick, his heir.
2. Alexander, commonly called "Alastair Mor Mac Alastair Chaim," from whom are descended, among several others in Gairloch, the late John Mackenzie of the "Beauties of Gaelic Poetry," and Alexander Mackenzie, the author of this History. ALEXANDER married his cousin, Mary, daughter of Hector Mackenzie, "Portioner of Mellan," with issue - John Mackenzie, locally known as "Ian Mor Mac Alastair Mhic Alastair Chaim." JOHN MOR married Barbara, daughter of John Roy Mackenzie, of Sand. He had a tack from Sir Alexander Mackenzie, second Baronet and IX. of Gairloch, of the half of North Erradale, in 1760, for twenty years, to begin at Whit-sunday, 1765, and he is described in the lease as then in possession (see pp. 483-84). By his wife he had issue - seven sons, known as "Clann Ian Mhoir," said to have been the biggest and most powerful men in Gairloch in their day - (1) JOHN, "Ian Mor Aireach," who succeeded his father in a portion of North Erradale, and married Marsali, or Marjory, daughter of John Ban Mackenzie, Isle of Ewe, by his wife, Annabella, natural daughter of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, second Baronet and IX. of Gairloch. By Marsali Mackenzie, "Ian Mor Aireach" had issue - four sons, Duncan, Murdoch, John Mor Og, and William, and two daughters - Annabella, who married her cousin four times removed, Alexander Mackenzie, Melvaig, the male representative of Alastair Cam, with issue; and Margaret, who married John Mackenzie, also in Melvaig, with issue - several sons and daughters. The sons were also married and left numerous descendants in Gairloch. Ian Mor Mac Alastair's other sons were (2) Alexander, who died unmarried; (3) Roderick, who married, with issue; (4) Colin, married, with issue; (5) Roderick Ban, unmarried; (6) John Og; and (7) Kenneth, married, with issue. JOHN OG, who was tacksman of Loch-a-Druing, married Jessie, daughter of Miles Macrae, with issue, among others - Alastair Og Mackenzie, tacksman of Mellan Charles, who married Margaret, daughter of Alexander Mackenzie, of Badachro, with issue - James Mackenzie, who died unmarried a few years ago, at Poolewe; John Mackenzie, of the "Beauties of Gaelic Poetry" and several other works, who died, unmarried in his father's house at Kirkton, in 1848, and to whose memory a monument was erected in 1878, by a few of his Celtic admirers on a projecting rock overlooking his grave in the "Sliochd Alastair Chaim burying ground, within the ancient Chapel in the Gairloch Churchyard. Alastair Og had also several daughters, married and unmarried, of whom three are still alive.
We shall now revert to Alastair Cam's eldest son, by Janet Mackenzie of Ord -
I. RODERICK MACKENZIE, who married Isabella, daughter of William
Mackenzie of Sand, with issue, among others, -
II. HECTOR MACKENZIE, Melvaig, who married Mary, daughter of William Mackenzie, of the same place, with issue, along with a younger son Murdoch, -
III. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, also in Melvaig, who married Mary, daughter of Hugh Morrison, Sand, with issue -
IV. ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, designated, Highland fashion, as "Alastair Mac Alastair, Mhic Eachainn, 'ic Alastair, 'ic Ruairidh, Mhic Alastair Chaim Mac an Tighearna." He married his third cousin, Annabella, eldest daughter of John Mor Mackenzie, "Ian Mor Aireach," great grandson of "Alastair Cam Mac an Tighearna," with issue, an only son -
V. HECTOR MACKENZIE, born in April, 1810. His father died before Hector was a year old, and the widow soon after married, as her second husband, Alexander, son of Alexander Grant, "Bard mor an t-Slagain," with issue - three sons, Roderick, John, Duncan, and Margaret, who subsequently emigrated with their father and mother to Cape Breton, where they settled, married, and have large families, and another daughter, Janet, who married and remained in Gairloch. His father left Hector what was considered a substantial sum of money for those day's, in the hands of Murdo Mackenzie, tacksman of Melvaig, one of the original Sand family, and a near relative of Gairloch, but he never received a penny of it. He was thus left a penniless orphan and was obliged to fight his way in the world as best he could as an honest, industrious, and respected crofter and fisherman. He married on the 17th of February, 1838, Catherine, daughter of Roderick, eldest son of Alexander Campbell, "Alastair Buidhe Mac Iomhair," the well-known Gairloch Gaelic Bard, by his wife Catherine, daughter of Roderick, son of William Mackenzie of Shieldaig, a cadet of the Gairloch family. By his wife Catherine Campbell (who died at Inverness on the 20th of January, 1882, and was buried at Gairloch), or more correctly MacIver (the family having only discarded the older and better name and adopted the new within living memory), Hector Mackenzie, who is still alive in his 84th year, had issue -