Clann MACKINTOSH

The name, Mac an Toiseich,  literally means "son of the Chief".  This clan originated from Shaw MacDuff, a younger son of the Macduff Earl of Fife.  He was made Constable of Inverness Castle in 1163, gaining the nearby lands of Petty in the valley of the Findhorn River.

The 4th Mackintosh of this line obtained a lease of Rothiemurchus, where his son, Farquhar, Mackintosh was living when he raised the men of Badenoch for Alexander III to repel the invasion of King Haakon of Norway.  In 1291, a marriage between Angus, 6th Chief, and Eva, the heiress of Clan Chattan, and the Mackintoshes became leaders of this confederation.  It was during this period that the MacGillivrays put themselves under his protection, and became members of Clan Chattan.

In 1528, James V issued a royal directive to wipe out the Mackintoshes, leaving 'no creature living of that clan except priests, women and bairns'.  The prescribed methods of execution were 'slaughter, burning, drowning, and other ways'.  The Gordons were to be the 'Royal' executioners.

In later years, there were damaging feuds with the Gordons and the Camerons, but the clan gained renown for the Rout of May, 1746, when Lady Mackintosh, nicknamed 'Colonel' Anne, tricked a force of 1,500 government troops into fleeing from a handful of her retainers.  He supported Robert Bruce against Edward I even though the powerful Comyns, who dominated the territories of Clan Chattan, supported Edward.

The 7th Chief was able to acquire the barony of Moy where his successor lives to this day.  The 10th chief made an astute choice when the Lord of the Isles brought his army to Harlow in 1411.  The Mackintoshes fought for the crown, and their Chief was appointed Constable of Inverness by James I.

Despite their loyalty to the crown, the Mackintoshes fell victim to Stewart policies towards the Highlands.  In 1496, the 9th Mackintosh was ordered to hand Inverness Castle to the Gordons.  The 12th Chief was seized in one of the many royal kidnapping operations and imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh.

With the resulting power vacuum, the Gordons and the Campbells fomented anarchy and chaos throughout the former Mackintosh territories.  The 14th Chief succeeded in obtaining a charter to his lands from James V in 1523.  However, his successor was murdered by the Gordons in 1544, and his property was forfeited on a trumped up charge..

In 1550, the 16th Chief was able to secure an Act of Parliament reversing the forfeiture, and 10 years later, he was invested with the stewardship of Lochaber.  In 1562, he had the satisfaction of fighting  in the army of Queen Mary against Gordon of Huntly at Corrichie, where he died on the field but his mortal enemy was taken to Aberdeen to be executed.

Sir Lachlan Mackintosh succeeded his grandfather as 17th Chief in 1606.  James VI ordered that he be sent to Oxford or Cambridge - in his policy of Anglicizing the Highland Chiefs.  Therefore the clan supported Charles I in the Civil War and rose for the Stewarts in 1715.  By the time of the '45, the 22nd Chief was a Captain in the Black Watch, and remained loyal to his commission.

The 23rd Chief fought for King George III in the battle of Brooklyn, and was taken prisoner.  He left no heir.  Today, the Chief is descended from a Canadian ship-owner.  The late Vice-Admiral Lachlan Mackintosh of Mackintosh (1896 - 1957), 29th Chief, was succeeded by his son, Lieut. Commander Lachlan Mackintosh (born 1928) who lives in the ancestral land of Moy in Inverness-shire.  A relatively happy ending for a feisty Highland clan where so many others ended in ignominy.