Mac Tavish 

Some curious patronymic forms like Mc Caus and Mc Cawis in early records hide the identity of the "sons of Thomas" who since about the mid 18th century became fixed in the surname Mac Tavish.
Those in Argyll are probably of the same race as the Campbells, although unlike other septs none of them ever seems to have used that name; but a considerable group of Mac Tavishes in Stratherrick, on the Lovat estate in Inverness-shire, are regarded as a sept of the Frasers.
Ten generations from father to son owned the estate of Dunardary, near the western end of the Crinan canal in Argyll, for just over 250 years. In 1533 John Mc Allister Vc Ewin Vc Caus and his son Dugall McAne had a feu charter from the Earl of Argyll of the lands of Tonardare, Dunnavis, Bardarroch, Barinloskin and Barindaif. Dugall's son Patrick is on record between 1547 and 1580 (perhaps even longer) under the designations Patrick Mc Doule VcAne VcAllexander or more simply as Patrick Makcause of Tonardary.
By the time of Argyll's rebellion (in association with Monmouth) in 1685, the name Mac Tavish was spread throughout Knapdale, Kilmichael Glassary and Kilberry, with a few scattered individuals in neighbouring parishes; in the three parishes alone twenty-five Mac Tavish rebels and forty fencible men of the name were listed. One of the Dunardary family (some say the chief him self or his heir) was hanged by the besiegers of Camasserie castle, which was held for Argyll by Campbell of Auchinbreck. Archibald of Dunardary, who succeeded as a minor, was thought to be sympathetic to the Jacobites in 1715, and in 1745 some "treasonable" correspondence by his son Dugald with Sir James of Auchinbreck led to their arrest (the duke hoped this would "put an end to plotting" in Argyll), and it was not until a general amnesty in 1747 that young Dunardary was released; but he seems to have won the duke's confidence, for by 1757 he was made one of his factors and chamberlains, with the office of baron bailie. At the judicial sale of Auchinbreck in 1767 Dugald bought the estate of Inverlussa, to the south of his own; but his successor Lachlan had to put his affairs into the hands of trustees, and Dunardary was sold in 1785.
Relief came to the distressed chief from an unexpected quarter. "A kinsman of mine who has lately made his appearance in England with an immense fortune, acquired in the wilds of North America, has put upon me to take out arms", he wrote. Simon Mc Tavish, known in Montreal as "the marquis", was the most powerful man in the fur trade; he persuaded his chief to have himself "traced to the roots", and following the record of his arms in Lyon Register in 1793 are those of his clansman "of Gartheg", suitably differenced according to the law of arms in Scotland. The chief died in 1796, and Simon, learning of the "embarrassed situation of his affairs and family", gave his widow generous financial help, took his second son (John George) into his firm as a clerk and in 1800 bought Dunardary so as to keep it "in the family". The new laird was one of the Stratherrick Mac Tavishes (he himself used the form "Mc"), who are known to have been settled on the Lovat estates as far back as the 16th century.
In the hills above Loch Ness, round the smaller lochs which are now joined to form a storage reservoir for hydro-electricity, lived the Frasers, Mac Tavishes and Mac Gillivrays whose homes became a nursery for the Canadian fur trade. There was an Alester Mc Taves in Little Garth whose testament was recorded in 1632, and a Taus oig Mc Eane Vc Connochie of Garth in 1639, and a century later their descendants were still there. Emigration began after the Forty-Five (when of forty-four Stratherrick men in Lovat's regiment there had been thirteen Mac Tavishes from Aberchalder); Simon, who was born in 1750 and sailed for the New World at thirteen, was son of John Mac Tavish of Fraser's Highlanders, but as little is known of his further ancestry as of any relationship that existed between Inverness-shire and Argyll. He died in 1804, leaving Dunardary to his son William and his heirs bearing the name Mc Tavish; but after William's death in 1816 it had to be sold again, and the last of Simon's four children died in 1828. Meantime the chief's eldest son had a good start in life as a lawyer, and his son (another William) ended a career in the Hudson's Bay Company as governor of Assiniboia and Rupert's Land.
The current Chief is Stephen Mac Tavish.