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The MacIntosh Family

TOUCH NOT THE CAT WITHOUT A GLOVE


The MacIntosh or Mackintosh clan come from Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The Gaelic name for the clan is Mhic an Tòisich - the word "toisiche" translates as "leader" or "chief", and the clan name can therefore be taken to mean "Son of the Chief".

A branch of the MacIntosh clan, the Mackintoshes of Mackintosh-Torcastle, are the chiefs of the Chattan Confederation, an ancient community of clans.

The MacIntosh clan motto is "Touch Not The Cat Bot A Glove (Touch not the cat without a glove) and the clan crest is a wildcat.

Scottish History

of Clan MacKintosh


Into battle

The motto of the clan alludes to its ancient position as leader of the confederacy of the Clan Chattan and is a fitting summary of the quarrelsome history of the chiefs, the MacIntoshes, and the clan of squabbling cats over which they ruled for so long.

Truly, those who meddled with the MacIntoshes did well to arm themselves first. The clan name derives from the Gaelic ‘Macintosa’ or son of the chief.

The founder was Shaw MacDuff, second son of a 12th century thane of Fife who received lands from King Malcolm the Fourth as his reward for helping to suppress a rebellion in Moray.

Shaw moved north to occupy his new possessions which lay just outside of Inverness in 1163 and was soon keeper of Inverness castle and moved the loyal Gaels by the name he bequeathed to his clan.

For several generations his successors consolidated their rule in the valleys of the Nairn and the Findhorn, acquiring Gaelic followers who adopted their name and served various Kings as captains of Inverness.

Then Angus MacIntosh, sixth in line from Shaw MacDuff, took the fateful step of marrying Eva, the only child of Clan Chattan, a mysterious confederacy of clans which had occupied lands in Lochaber and Badenoch since time immemorial. There are many accounts of the origin of the clan of cats. One says that they descend from the Catti, a Frankish tribe mentioned by Julius Caesar and supposed to have come to Scotland in the 1st century A.D.

Two other accounts say they derived their name from the ‘catty’ or spears which were distinctive weapons in primitive times and from catave or Sutherland, another alleged place of origin, but the two most likely explanations are that the name comes from the wildcats which infested their territories in the Middle Ages or that they are descended from the 12th century chieftain Gillie Chattan Mor, protector of the Abbey of St Cattan. Certainly the wildcat has been their emblem from the earliest times and whatever their origin they form the most remarkable example of a Highland confederacy with the old Clan Chattan stock like the MacPhersons and Cattanachs related by marriage to the MacIntoshes and their septs the Shaws and Farquharsons and unrelated allies like the McGillivrays, Davidsons and McBeans making up a surprisingly cohesive group which owned lands all over the north and were related through one branch or another to virtually every clan in Scotland.

But this was a curse as much as a blessing. Each clan in the confederacy could call on innumerable allies at a moment’s notice but each was also liable to become embroiled in whatever quarrel the other might happen to engage in.

The marriage of Angus MacIntosh and Eva of Clan Chattan, which took place in 1291, was fateful in two ways. It established the MacIntoshes as chiefs of the confederacy and it brought into their personal possession extensive lands east and west of the Great Glen. Both caused little but trouble for the next 400 years.

The leadership of Clan Chattan was disputed by the MacPhersons whose chiefs were descended from one of Eva’s male cousins and the lands inherited in Lochaber were the cause of two of the longest and fiercest feuds in Highland history with the Locheil Camerons and the Keppoch MacDonalds who alleged right of possession against the MacIntoshes claim in law.

The feud with the Camerons came to a head first, though the MacIntoshes received charters confirming their rights from both the Lord of the Isles and King David Bruce in 1359.

But the Camerons resisted all attempts to occupy this territory and eventually crossed into Badenoch in 1370, killing many of the Clan Chattan. As they were returning to Lochaber, however, they were overtaken by a body of Clan Chattan led by the MacIntosh himself. Unfortunately, the internal dispute as to the leadership of the confederacy led to disunity in the Clan Chattan ranks and the MacPhersons at first refused to obey the MacIntosh order to attack. As a result the MacIntoshes and the Davidsons were almost wiped out before the MacPhersons, seeing that the future of the confederacy was at stake, finally joined the battle and turned defeat into victory, driving the Camerons in full flight down the Pass of Drumochter.

But this battle was not even the end of the first round, for the Camerons so pestered the Clan Chattan after this defeat that, in a desperate attempt to settle the quarrel, the MacIntoshes were forced to agree to one of the most famous contests in Scottish history – the fight to the death between 30 champions of each clan which took place before King Robert the Third on the North Inch of Perth in 1396.

The King, fed up with their feuding, had threatened the clans concerned with a royal expedition to suppress them or alternately a chivalric contest before the whole court to decide who owned the disputed lands. The chiefs had little choice but to agree to the second.

The MacIntosh chief of the Clan Chattan was too old to lead his champions and so appointed in his stead Shaw Farquharson, leader of the main sept of the clan MacIntosh and the greatest warrior in the whole Clan Chattan confederacy. The conditions of the contest were that 30 men were to fight on each side. They were to be surrounded by metal barriers on three sides with the River Tay on the fourth and the Battle was to be fought with claymores and shields to the death.

On the morning of the contest, one of the MacIntoshes, dutified for the Clan Chattan, was taken ill and it looked like his side would have to fight at a disadvantage until a Perth man named Henry the Smith, described as “not great in stature but fierce in nature”, volunteered to make up the numbers on the condition that he would be given a pension if he survived. Shaw Farquharson agreed and the battle commenced forthwith. It is vividly described in Sir Walter Scott’s novel ‘The Fair Maid of Perth’ in which Henry is one of the heroes.

As usual, broadsword and naked flesh produced fearful butchering. Limbs were hacked off, heads cloven to the shoulders and mud and gore mixed until the warriors were almost indistinguishable and all the while the ladies and gentlemen of the court and the Perth mob looked on and cheered loudly as each head was lobbed off and each stomach ripped open.

Eventually, the Clan Chattan triumphed. Eleven of their side, including Henry the Smith, and only one of the Camerons was left standing.

The Cameron survivor not surprisingly threw down his sword and dived into the Tay and the jeers and threats of his opponents rang in his ears.

The MacIntoshes were confirmed in their Lochaber possessions though the Camerons continued to dispute with them for another three centuries.

And Henry the Smith was taken into the Clan Chattan and rechristened Gow, the Gaelic for Smith, and helped by a daughter of Shaw Farquharson, founded the race of the crooked Smiths, so called because of their bandy legs.

Feuds and conspiracy

With the problem of the Camerons temporarily resolved, the MacIntoshes immediately turned to another quarrel, this time with the Comyns, concerning their original lands in Strathearn.

Here the MacIntoshes had made their home on an island in Loch Moy which was perilously close to the Comyn strongholds on the lower regions of the Nairn at the end of the 13th century. The Comyns had won Royal favour and with it the captaincy of Inverness castle, held by the MacIntoshes since the time of Shaw MacDuff: but the Comyns fell from grace during the Wars of Independence when they became the principal opponents of Robert the Bruce and throughout the 14th century their power declined as the MacIntoshes consolidated the royal support they had won by fighting at Bannockburn.

Matters came to a head in 1424 once the Cameron quarrel was out of the way. First the MacIntoshes raided Nairn and killed several Comyns in their castle, carrying off substantial booty to Loch Moy.

The Comyns followed in force and surrounded the loch, trapping the entire MacIntosh host on its fortress island with little food and water and no way of contacting the rest of Clan Chattan. There are various accounts of what followed. History says only that the MacIntoshes made their escape under cover of darkness and surprised the Comyns in their camp. But the MacIntosh clan legend has it that the Comyns decided to dam the river which flows into Loch Moy and raise the water level until all the occupants of the castle were drowned. This plan was foiled by a resourceful MacIntosh clansman who swam out of the fortress at night, drilled small holes in the Comyn dam and attached a system of plugs to a master rope and then pulled the whole lot out, sweeping the entire Comyn camp and, unfortunately also himself, to perdition.

The final round of the feud now followed. The Comyns allowed some time to pass and then invited the MacIntoshes to their stronghold at Rait to discuss terms of peace. Their plan was to massacre their guests during a feast, the sign for the onset being the entry of a boar’s head. Luckily one of the Comyns was in love with a MacIntosh girl and revealed the plan to her the night before the murders were due to take place and so, when the boar’s head appeared, the MacIntoshes forestalled their opponents and slew them without mercy, except of course for the man who had given the game away. He was killed by his surviving relatives when they found out.

The next of the MacIntosh feuds was with the Gordon Earls of Huntly and lasted from the late 15th to the early 17th century. This time the trouble was largely political. The Gordons were court favourites and tried to use their royal backing to obtain sovereignty over the whole north. This was bound to lead to conflict with the MacIntoshes who headed the largest independent grouping in the region. Admittedly the MacIntoshes made matters worse by backing the MacDonald Lord of the Isles in their attempt to re-establish a Gaelic kingdom. It was Farquhar MacIntosh, the eldest son of the chief at the time, who precipitated the forfeiture of the Lordship by storming Inverness in 1493. Huntly seized his chance to break the Clan Chattan power and had Farquhar imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle until 1514, depriving the clan of its chief for more than 15 years. Farquhar the Unfortunate as he became known was only released after the battle of Flodden and died a year later.

His two successors, William and Lachlan MacIntosh, were both murdered within a few years by disgruntled clansmen, allegedly with Gordon connivance, and in 1529 Huntly obtained a Royal warrant of extermination against the Clan Chattan who were accused of arson and murder.

The Gordons were ordered to invade Chattan lands and to enforce their “utter destruction by slaughter, burning, drowning and other ways and leave nae cratur living of that clan except priests, women and bairns”.

Not surprisingly, the MacIntoshes quickly sued for peace, promising to subdue the trouble-makers within the Clan Chattan themselves. But the Gordons were set on reducing them completely and in 1550 the Earl of Huntly had MacIntosh abducted and tried at Aberdeen on the trumped up charge of conspiracy. When the Provost refused to allow sentence of death to be carried out, Huntly took his prisoner to his castle at Bogierait and had him executed there. The MacIntosh legend about this affair tells that the chief escaped on the road out of Aberdeen but surrendered three months later when he saw that his clan was in danger of extermination. On his arrival at Bogierait he was confronted, not with the Earl himself, but by his equally implacable wife who warned MacIntosh that he could only be forgiven if he submitted unconditionally. This meeting took place in the castle kitchen and, as a symbol of his absolute resignation, MacIntosh put his head on the chopping block used to dismember the huge carcasses of meat consumed in those days. At this, Lady Huntly gave a sign to her cook who swung a meat cleaver from behind his back and sliced MacIntosh’s head onto the table.

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