Mac Intosh History
Toiseich is Gaelic for a Chief
or Headman. A Mac an Toiseich might therefore be
the son of any such functionary, and in fact
there are Mackintoshes who claim diverse origins.
But the Mac Intosh who became Chief of the Cat
Confederation, Clan Chattan, claimed descent from
the royal house of Duff. Shaw, second son of the
3rd Earl of Fife, was appointed Constable of
Inverness Castle in 1163, with a grant of land in
the valley of the Findhorn river. He became know
as Mac an Toiseich, and his son Shaw Mac Intosh
was appointed crown chamberlain in the north with
a charter of confirmation for his lands from
William the Lion.
The skill with which the Mac
Intosh chiefs steered themselves through the
hazards of history was displayed early, in the
wars of independence. Although Edward I of
England himself came in strength as far north as
Moray, and the Bruce's most powerful opponents,
the Comyns, dominated the territories of Clan
Chattan, the 6th Mac Intosh supported the Bruce
cause against them. The 7th was able to acquire
the barony of Moy where his successor lives to
this day. The 10th Mac Intosh made as astute a
choice as the 6th had done when the Lord of the
Isles brought his army to Harlaw in 1411: he
brought his clan to fight with the forces of the
crown. In 1428 he was appointed Constable of
Inverness by James I. But despite their record,
the Mackintoshes fell victim to Stewart policies
towards the Highlands. In 1496 the 11th Mac
Intosh was ordered by James IV to hand Inverness
Castle to a Gordon. The 12th was seized in one of
the royal kidnapping operations and imprisoned in
the castles of Edinburgh, Stirling and Dunbar
from 1497 until 1513. As in the Lordship of the
Isles, the removal of the apex of local authority
merely led to anarchy and violence, such as the
Campbells and Gordons made such an art of
fomenting and exploiting. The 14th Mac Intosh
succeeded in obtaining a charter to his lands
from James V in 1523 but his successor was
murdered in the kitchens of Gordon of Huntley in
1544, and his property forfeited on a trumped-up
charge, when the King was dead and a Hamilton
held the Regency. Such were the vicissitudes of
central government politics at this time,
however, that the 16th Mac Intosh was able to
secure an Act of Parliament reversing the
forfeiture in 1550, and ten 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 Huntley at
Corrichie, where the Earl died on the field while
his most evil relative was taken to Aberdeen to
be executed.
Sir Lachlan Mac Intosh
succeeded his grandfather as 17th Chief in 1606.
James VI ordered that he should be sent to Oxford
or Cambridge - in pursuance of his policy of
anglicising Highland chiefs and destroying the
Gaelic culture rather than fostering it.
Thereafter the clan supported Charles I in the
Civil War and rose for the house of Steward in
the 1715 rebellion. But by the time of the
Forty-Five the 22nd Chief was a Captain in the
Black Watch, and remained loyal to his
commission. It was left to his young wife,
described in admiration as Colonel Anne, to raise
four hundred of his clansmen for Prince Charles
Edward.
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Mac
Intosh
