Hector Roy Mackenzie

Hector Roy Mackenzie of Gairloch (died 1528) was aprominent member of the Mackenzie clan, who acquiredvast estates in and around Gairloch as a result of his ser-vices to the Scottish crown and challenged his nephew forthe chiefship of the clan.

1 OriginsHector was the son of Alexander Mackenzie, chief ofthe clan, by his second wife Margaret Macdonald, thedaughter of Roderick Macdonald of Clanranald, 3rd ofMoidart.

2 Tutor of KintailFollowing Alexander Mackenzies death in 1488, Hec-tors half-brother Kenneth succeeded to the chiefship.Kenneth died in 1491 and was succeeded by his son, Ken-neth Og, to whom Hector was appointed to act as Tutor.Kenneth Og is thought to have died in 1497 and, on hisdeath, the succession to the chiefship became uncertain.The elder Kenneth had had another son, John, by AgnesFraser, the daughter of Lord Lovat, but their union hadbeen irregular and John was widely regarded as illegiti-mate. Hector was appointed to act as Johns Tutor, buthad higher ambitions.

3 Acquisition of Gairloch andother estates

It is clear that Hector had by then already acquired atleast a paper title to a large estate. When the Lords ofthe Association, a factious party of the nobility, took uparms against James III, Alexander of Kintail despatchedhis sons, Kenneth and Hector, with a retinue of 500, tojoin the Royal standard; but Kenneth, hearing of the deathof his father on his arrival at Perth,returned home at therequest of the Earl of Huntly; and the clan was led byHector Roy to the battle of Sauchieburn, near Stirling.After the defeat of the Royal forces, and the death therein 1488 of the King himself, Hector, who narrowly es-caped, returned to Ross-shire and took the stronghold ofRedcastle, then held for the rebels by Rose of Kilravock,and placed a garrison in it. He then joined the Earl ofHuntly and the clans in the north who were rising to

avenge the death of His Majesty but meanwhile orderscame from the youthful King James IV, who had been atthe head of the conspirators, ordering the Northern chiefsto lay down their arms, and to submit to the powers thatbe.Upon Hectors submission to James IV, according to amanuscript history of the Gairloch family, he was:

not only received with favour, but to rewardhis previous delity and also to engage him forthe future the young King, who at last saw hiserror, and wanted to reconcile to him thosewho had been the friends of his father, madehim a present of the Barony of Gairloch inthe western circuit of Ross-shire by knight-service after the manner of that age. He like-wise gave him Brahan in the Low Country,now a seat of the family of Seaforth, the landsof Moy in that neighbourhood, Glassletter (ofKintail), a Royal forest which was made a partof the Barony of Gairloch. In the pleasant val-ley of Strathpeer, Castle Leod, part of Hec-tors paternal estate, afterwards a seat of theEarl of Cromarty; Achterneed near adjacent,also Kinellan, were likewise his, and so wasthe Barony of Allan, now Allangrange, a fewmiles southwards. In the Chops of the High-lands he had Fairburn the Wester, and both theScatwells, the great and the lesser. Westward inthe height of that country he had Kinlochewe,a district adjoining Gairloch on the east, andsouthward on the same track he had the halfof Kintail, of which he was [sc. had been] leftjoint heir with his brother Kenneth, chief of thefamily.

James I had granted Gairloch on 1430 to Neil Macleodand, although Hector was in possession of Crown char-ters to at least two-thirds of the lands of Gairloch, hefound it very dicult to secure possession of them fromthe Macleods and their chieftain, Allan MacRory. Allanhad married, as his rst wife, a daughter of AlexanderMackenzie of Kintail and sister of Hector Roy, with is-sue - three sons. He married, secondly, a daughter ofRoderick Macleod of Lewis, with issue - one son, alsoRoderick.Two brothers of Macleod of Lewis are said, traditionally,to have resolved that no Mackenzie blood should ow inthe veins of the future head of theGairlochMacleods, and

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2 5 LATER YEARS

decided to put Allans children by Hector Roys sister todeath, so that his son by their own niece should succeed toGairloch. Crossing over the mainland, they killed Allanand two of his three sons by Hector Roys sister. Hec-tor Roy started immediately, carrying the bloodstainedshirts of his nephews along with him as evidence, to re-port the murder to the King at Edinburgh. The king, onhearing of the crime, granted Hector a commission of reand sword against the murderers of his nephews, and gavehim a Crown charter to the lands of Gairloch in his ownfavour dated 1494. The assassins were soon afterwardsslain at a hollow between Port Henderson and South Er-radale, nearly opposite the northern end of the Island ofRaasay.Hectors legal ownership of Gairloch is conrmed by adeed made by John De Vaux, Sheri of Inverness, dated10 December 1494, and his ownership of Brahan andMoy by a precept issued by the King on 5 March 1508.

4 Dispute with the chiefA dispute arose between Hector and his nephew, the pu-tative new clan chief, John Mackenzie of Killin. The dis-pute probably related, at least in part, to Hectors rights tothe half of Kintail, which his father is said to have left himjointly with his eldest brother, Kenneth (Johns father).Hector declared John illegitimate, and held possession ofthe estates for himself; and the whole clan submitted tohis rule.In 1499, George, Earl of Huntly, then the Kings Lieu-tenant, granted warrant to Duncan Mackintosh of Mack-intosh, John Grant of Freuchie, and other leaders, withthree thousand men, to pass against the Clan Macken-zie, the Kings rebels, for the slaughter of Harold ofChisholm, dwelling in Strathglass, and for divers otherheirschips, slaughters, spuilzies, committed on the Kingspoor lieges and tenants in the Lordship of Ardmeanoch,but the warrant appears not to have been eectively exe-cuted.Hector and his nephew eventually came to terms (accord-ing to the traditional account, after John had surroundedand set re to Hectors house in Fairburn).The story of Hectors dispute with his nephew is re-counted both by the Earl of Cromartie and (in theArdintoul manuscript) by the Reverend John Macrae(died 1704). It is also supported by Gregorys History ofthe Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland, which statesthat:

Hector Roy Mackenzie, progenitor of theHouse of Gairloch, had, since the death ofKenneth Og Mackenzie of Kintail, in 1497,and during the minority of John, the brotherand heir of Kenneth, exercised the commandof that clan, nominally as guardian to the young

chief. Under his rule the Clan Mackenzie be-came involved in feuds with the Munroes andother clans, and Hector Roy himself becameobnoxious to Government as a disturber of thepublic peace. His intentions towards the youngLaird of Kintail were considered very dubious;and the apprehensions of the latter having beenroused, Hector was compelled by law to yieldup the estate and the command of the tribe tothe proper heir.

Hector kept possession of Eilean Donan Castle until com-pelled by an order from the Privy Council to give it upin 1511 to John, and it appears from the records of thePrivy Council that from 1501 to 1508 Hector continuedto collect the rents of Kintail without giving any accountof them; that he again in 1509 accounted for them fortwelve months, and for the two succeeding years for thesecond time retained them, while he seems to have hadundisturbed possession of the stronghold of Eilean Do-nan throughout. No record can be found of his answerto the summons commanding him to appear before thePrivy Council, if he ever did put in an appearance, but inall probability he merely kept his hold of that Castle inorder to compel his nephew to come to terms with himregarding his joint rights to Kintail, without any intentionof ultimately keeping him out of possession.This view is strengthened by the fact that John obtaineda charter under the Great Seal granting him Kintail anewon 25 February 1508-9 the same year in which Hectorreceived a grant of Brahan and Moy probably followingon an arrangement of their respective rights in those dis-tricts; also from the fact that Hector does not appear tohave fallen into any disfavour with the Crown on accountof his conduct towards John: only two years after Killinraised the action against Hector before the Privy Coun-cil, the latter receives a new charter, dated the 8th April,1513, under the Great Seal, of Gairloch, Glasletter, andCoirre-nan-Cuilean in feu and heritage for ever, and heand his nephew appear ever after to have lived on friendlyterms.

5 Later years

In acknowledgment of the Kings favour, Hector gath-ered his followers in the west, joined his nephew, Johnof Killin, with his vassals, and fought, in command of theclan, at the disastrous Battle of Flodden, from which bothnarrowly escaped, but most of their followers were killed.Hector Roy died in 1528. On 8 September in that year, agrant is recorded to Sir JohnDingwall, Provost of TrinityCollege, beside Edinburgh, of the ward of the landsof Gairloch, which pertained to the umquhile Achinroy[Hector] Mackenzie.

36 Family and posterityHector Roy was betrothed to a daughter of the Laird ofGrant - probably Sir Duncan, who ourished from 1434to 1485 - but she died before the marriage was solem-nised. He, however, had a son by her called Hector Cam,he being blind of an eye, to whom he gave Achterneedand Castle Leod, as his patrimony. Hector Cam marrieda daughter of Mackay of Farr, ancestor of Lord Reay, bywhom he had two sons Alexander Roy and Murdo.Hector Roy, after the death of Grant of Grants daughter,married his cousin Anne, daughter of RanaldMacRanald,generally known as Ranald Ban Macdonald of Moidartand Clanranald. Anne had previously been married toMacLeod chief William Dubh MacLeod of Harris andDunvegan. Hector Roy and Anne had four sons JohnGlassich Mackenzie (his heir), Kenneth, John Tu-ach and Dougal Roy and three daughters who marriedrespectively, Bayne of Tulloch, John Aberach Mackay,and Hugh Bayne Fraser of Bunchrew, a natural son ofThomas, Lord Lovat, killed at Blar-na-Leine and ances-tor of the Frasers of Reelick.The lands of Gairloch are still owned by Hector Roysdescendants, over 500 years after they were acquired.

7 ReferencesThis article includes text from Alexander Mackenzie'sHistory of the Mackenzies (Inverness, 1894), which is nolonger in copyright.

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OriginsTutor of KintailAcquisition of Gairloch and other estatesDispute with the chiefLater yearsFamily and posterityReferencesText and image sources, contributors, and licensesTextImagesContent license