[181] Highlanders, vol. ii. p. 277.
[182] Gregory’s Highlands and Isles of Scotland, p. 211.
[CHAPTER V.]
Clan Chattan—Chiefship—Mackintoshes—Battle of North Inch—Macphersons—MacGillivrays—Shaws—Farquharsons—Macbeans—Macphails—Gows—MacQueens—Cattanachs.
THE CLAN CHATTAN.[183]
Of the clan Chattan little or nothing authentic is known previous to the last six hundred years. Their original home in Scotland, their parentage, even their name, have been disputed. One party brings them from Germany, and settles them in the district of Moray; another brings them from Ireland, and settles them in Lochaber; and a third makes them the original inhabitants of Sutherland and Caithness. With regard to their name there is still greater variety of opinion: the Catti, a Teutonic tribe; Catav, “the high side of the Ord of Caithness;” Gillicattan Mor, their alleged founder, said to have lived in the reign of Malcolm II., 1003–1033; cat, a weapon,—all have been advanced as the root name. We cannot pretend to decide on such a matter, which, in the entire absence of any record of the original clan, will no doubt ever remain one open to dispute; and therefore we refrain from entering at length into the reasons for and against these various derivations. Except the simple fact that such a clan existed, and occupied Lochaber for some time (how long cannot be said) before the 14th century, nothing further of it is known, although two elaborate genealogies of it are extant—one in the MS. of 1450 discovered by Mr Skene; the other (which, whatever its faults, is no doubt much more worthy of credence) compiled by Sir Æneas Macpherson in the 17th century.
Mr Skene, on the authority of the MS. of 1450, makes out that the clan was the most important of the tribes owning the sway of the native Earls or Maormors of Moray, and represents it as occupying the whole of Badenoch, the greater part of Lochaber, and the districts of Strathnairn and Strathdearn, holding their lands in chief of the crown. But it seems tolerably evident that the MS. of 1450 is by no means to be relied upon; Mr Skene himself says it is not trustworthy before A.D. 1000, and there is no good ground for supposing it to be entirely trustworthy 100 or even 200 years later. The two principal septs of this clan in later times, the Macphersons and the Mackintoshes, Mr Skene, on the authority of the MS., deduces from two brothers, Neachtan and Neill, sons of Gillicattan Mor, and on the assumption that this is correct, he proceeds to pronounce judgment on the rival claims of Macpherson of Cluny and Mackintosh of Mackintosh to the headship of clan Chattan.
Mr Skene, from “the investigations which he has made into the history of the tribes of Moray, as well as into the history and nature of Highland traditions,” conceives it to be established by “historic authority,” that the Macphersons are the lineal and feudal representatives of the ancient chiefs of the clan Chattan, and “that they possess that right by blood to the chiefship, of which no charters from the crown, and no usurpation, however successful and continued, can deprive them.” It is not very easy to understand, however, by what particular process of reasoning Mr Skene has arrived at this conclusion. For supposing it were established “beyond all doubt,” as he assumes it to be, by the manuscript of 1450, that the Macphersons and the Mackintoshes are descended from Neachtan and Neill, the two sons of Gillichattan-more, the founder of the race, it does not therefore follow that “the Mackintoshes were an usurping branch of the clan,” and that “the Macphersons alone possessed the right of blood to that hereditary dignity.” This is indeed taking for granted the very point to be proved, in fact the whole matter in dispute. Mr Skene affirms that the descent of the Macphersons from the ancient chiefs “is not denied,” which is in reality saying nothing to the purpose; because the question is, not whether this pretended descent has or has not been denied, but whether it can now be established by satisfactory evidence. To make out a case in favour of the Macphersons, it is necessary to show—first, that the descendants of Neachtan formed the eldest branch, and consequently were the chiefs of the clan; secondly, that the Macphersons are the lineal descendants and the feudal representatives of this same Neachtan, whom they claim as their ancestor; and, lastly, that the Mackintoshes are really descended from Neill, the second son of the founder of the race, and not from Macduff, Earl of Fife, as they themselves have always maintained. But we do not observe that any of these points has been formally proved by evidence, or that Mr Skene has deemed it necessary to fortify his assertions by arguments, and deductions from historical facts. His statement, indeed, amounts just to this—That the family of Macheth, the descendants of Head or Heth, the son of Neachtan, were “identical with the chiefs of clan Chattan;” and that the clan Vurich, or Macphersons, were descended from these chiefs. But, in the first place, the “identity” which is here contended for, and upon which the whole question hinges, is imagined rather than proved; it is a conjectural assumption rather than an inference deduced from a series of probabilities: and, secondly, the descent of the clan Vurich from the Macheths rests solely upon the authority of a Celtic genealogy (the manuscript of 1450) which, whatever weight may be given to it when supported by collateral evidence, is not alone sufficient authority to warrant anything beyond a mere conjectural inference. Hence, so far from granting to Mr Skene that the hereditary title of the Macphersons of Cluny to the chiefship of clan Chattan has been clearly established by him, we humbly conceive that he has left the question precisely where he found it. The title of that family may be the preferable one, but it yet remains to be shown that such is the case.