Lachlan's connections
Lauchlan MacquarrieLachlan was a cousin of some sort of the Macquarie clan chieftain, allegedly the 16th such, a bloke called Lauchlan Macquarrie (see here for a discussion on spelling Macquarie).
Mind you, on a small island like this, one on which families had been living continuously for many centuries, and where what Samuel Johnson called (and we more commonly call le droit de seigneur) may have been taken seriously, and at least the 16th chieftain appears to have been what we Ozzies might call a "root rat" (at least we Ozzies of my generation [!]), almost everyone was a cousin of almost evryone else. A bit like Tassie? Well, that's you asking that, and not me! But yes. Or, I hasten to write, not really, but what the "jokes" reckon about Tassie. (Sorry Tassians, I know it's all bollocks, but everyone's got to have someone to look down on. At least every bigot does. I must admit, I don't get it. What's actually funny about bigoted bollocks? The worst is around racism and sexism, but all the rest, as well. Sorry, I have a black widow in my akubra over this stuff, I'll get back to what I'm meant to be writing about now. Although, I can't deny that great Irish comedian Dave Allen's jokes about the catholic church, now they were funny! There, see, I've got it too. But then, I've got a swag of proddie forebears from Ulster, I'm almost ashamed to admit. Anyway, back to our Lachlan's connection to old Lauchlan. Some sources say this connection was via his mother. One source says she was a granddaughter of a previous Macquarie clan chieftain, that chieftain's daughter having married a Maclain of Lochbuie, our Lachlan's grandfather, making his mother the then current chieftain's cousin. Others say it was his father, Lachlan (yep, believe it or not - sorry if you've read my previous effort at this joke, I was brought up with that old humbug about Robert de Brus, more commonly known by his Scots cognomen as "Robert the Bruce", the spider, and "if at first you don't succeed try, try, and try again") who was related to Lauchlan. Lachlan's dad Lachlan was, at least, a Macquarie. However, if Lachlan's father was from the Ulva town of Ormaig he was probably a member of a cadet family, one which owned one third of the island, the clan chieftain the other two-thirds. If Lachlan (Lachlan's dad!) was from Cùl a' Gheata, it's more likely he may have been a more direct relative of the clan chieftain. If he was from the near "mainland" of Mull then goodness only knows. However, whatever the reality of the situation, and it may have been all of the above, and in light of the probability it seems likely Macquarie himself couldn't be absolutely certain of their relationship, Lachlan (our Lachlan, that is, was completely committed to the clan and the clan chieftain, doing his best to keep the old rogue going. It's worth bearing in mind that clans were like tribes, and when family names began to be required all the clan members took the clan chieftain's name whether or not they were blood-relatives. So it's far from unusual for Maclaines to marry Maclaines (or MacLeans, McLeans, and Macleans!). It's a little more unusual for Macquaries to marry Macquaries, as it's a much less numerous clan. However, it wasn't at all unusual for Macquaries mothered by a Maclaine to marry a Maclaine themselves, with the latter either unrelated to the former, or quite distantly related. Mind you, it was, and still is, allowed for first cousins to marry, and such was far from outstandingly uncommon. But, having written all that, other sources say no connection between Macquarie and Macquarrie can be traced in any of the available documents. And I have to say, the various online family trees can be quite unhelpful, providing either clearly false information, arguable information, guesses presented as facts, and sometimes apparently quite contradictory information! So, let's leave it there, although I will come back to it at a later stage when discussing Lachlan's second marriage (sorry, you'll have to wait for it, or figure out which future page covers this and skip ahead!). Murdoch MaclaineWhile Lachlan's relationship to Lauchlan may be unclear, albeit likely, particularly via his mum, we're quite certain about another extremely important (at least, for Lachlan) family connection. This was also via his mum, Margaret Maclaine.
Margaret's brother was a bloke called Murdoch Maclaine. Their family was not particularly well off, although apparently more financially and socially established than Lachlan's family. It's a little unclear to me how she married a bloke who appears to have been far from either, but such, sometimes, is life, and there are several possible reasons, none of which have any supportive evidence whatsoever. Although better off than Lachlan's dad's family appear to have been, Murdoch and Margaret's father was not particularly well off, and by the time of our story, in fact, he was probably particularly badly off, being dead. He was, however, a younger son of a Maclaine of Lochbuy. And the Maclaine's of Lochbuie, while not being anywhere near the top rung of Scotland's wealthy, were, by Mull standards, wealthy. In the greater scheme of things, this wasn't of much benefit to Murdoch. Being a well off laird's younger son is a better kickstart to gaining chances in life than being a crofter's son, but brings little in actual material benefit. And if the kickstart is not taken much advantage of, being the younger son's son leads to one being apprenticed to an Edinburgh merchant. Such an outcome has more potential than shovelling poo on the croft, but in the greater scheme of things, not much. And, frankly, cow and sheep poo smells a whole lot nicer than anything in Edinburgh did in those days! I read somewhere Samuel Johnson thought the people of Edinburgh were surprisingly tall until told that was so because they wore platform shoes to avoid standing in all the rotting refuse and all-too-human poo in the city's odoriferous streets. However, I can't find the quote in my copies of the books by and about him, but the following will do: Mr. Johnson and I walk arm-in-arm, up the High Street [Edinburgh], to my house in James's Court : it was a dusky night : I could not prevent his being assailed by the evening effluvia of Edinburgh. I heard a late baronet, of some distinction in the political world in the beginning of the present reign, observe, that " walking the streets of Edinburgh at night was pretty perilous, and a good deal odoriferous." The peril is much abated, by the care which the magistrates have taken to enforce the city laws against throwing foul water from the windows; but, from the structure of the houses in the old town, which consists of many stories, in each of which a different family lives, and there being no covered sewers, the odour still continues. A zealous Scotsman would have wished Mr. Johnson to be without one of his five senses on this occasion. As we marched slowly along, he grumbled in my ear, " I smell you in the dark". But he acknowledged that the breadth of the street, and the loftiness of the buildings on each side, made a noble appearance. But suddenly, the only direct male heir to the 18th Maclaine of Lochbuie was a stupidly and uncontrollably angry man who was killed in a duel. Consequently, when the 18th of Lochbuie died, his cousin (I believe, of some sort), none other than the lucky Murdoch, suddenly found himself the 19th Laird of Lochbuie. The term "laird" means "landowner", and in some cases, like Lochbuie, it means "hereditary owner of land by permission of the king". It does not mean "lord", although it's sometimes also used for that. Lairds are "below" barons, who have the right to call themselves "lord". Murdoch, sadly for his successors, was not capable of good financial management. By the time he died in 1804, the estate was deeply in debt. On his way to this state, however, he managed to spend at least some of his money on his nephew Lachlan. Mind you, by the time Murdoch died, Lachlan had apparently repaid his uncle while on his way to building his own fortune. |
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