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3 Celts & Company • "CLANS OF SCOTLAND"

DEFINITION OF THE WORD "CLAN"

"Clan" was the name applied to a group of Kinsmen united under a chief and claiming a common ancestry. They lived as one great family on the lands they possessed. The clansmen or septs supported their chief with remarkable loyalty.
In the 13th Century, the clans rose to prominence. Records of their separate history have been kept enabling all Highlanders to trace their ancestors to that period and in some cases, to a much earlier date.

"CLAN ALPIN."

Clan Siol Alpin: the race of Alpin mac Eochaid.

Maormorship of Ross:: Anderson/Anrias/Siol Andreas, Kenneth/MacKenzie, Matthew/Mathieson, Siol Alpin.

Tradition claims MACALPIN or MACALPINE as the oldest and most purely Celtic of the Highland clans, of royal descent from the dynasty of Kenneth MacAlpin who united Picts and Scots into one kingdom from the year 850, and transferred his capital to Perthshire, from Dun Add in Dalriada (beside Loch Crinan). However, no clan of the name survived into the heyday of the clan system, though individual MacAlpins are recorded from the 13th century, mostly then in Perthshire. Clan Macgregor claims origin from that royal MacAlpin stock: as also do Grant, MacAulay, MacDuff, MacFie/Macphie, MacKinnon, MacNab, and MacQuarrie.

"CLANS OF SCOTLAND." Scots Kith and Kin and Illustrated Map Revised Second Edition. Edinburgh, SCOT: Clan House, c.1970. p.49. Print.

"Ancient North Scotland." The Highland Monthly - Volume 2. Edinburgh: JOHN MENZIES & CO. c.1890-91. p.546. Print.

keywords[x] tartan, wool, kilts, clan, septs

3 Celts & Company • "CLAN CHATTAN"

This long-powerful group of clans [arguably cast during the reign of Kenneth MacAlpin] comprised two main divisions, respectively under Macintosh and MacPherson leadership, with some subsidiary septs and family groups joining for protection under a general banner. Dissension arose among the sections from various causes, not least from their encroaching neighbours the Gordons enticing them into opposing camps, as at Harlaw 1411.
Accounts of the Clan Chattan's origin vary. The Macintoshes, holding to their own Macduff origin, regard it as a confederacy, with the MacPhersons just a branch from Macintosh stock. MacPhersons, putting reliance on a written geneology of 1450, favor the Chattan sections as having branched from an ancestor Gillechattan Mor, a Moray chief of the early 11th century: his elder son Nechtan founding the MacPhersons, and the younger Neil the Macintoshes, which surname only appears two centuries later. Either way of it, the Clunie MacPhersons retained the old Chattan chiefship although in 1291 the Macintoshes, through marriage of their chief Angus to Eva the MacPherson heiress, achieved the greater share of land and followers, also their chief's right to be styled 'Captain of the Clan Chattan,' leaving their claim to full chiefship a good-going dispute scarcely yet settled.

MacPherson Group: MACPHERSON, DAVIDSON, GILLESPIE, KEITH, SMITH

Macintosh Group: MACINTOSH, FARQUHARSON, MACBEAN, MACGILLIVRAY, MACGLASHAN, MACHARDIE, MACQUEEN, NOBLE, MACTAVISH, SHAW

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Also: CAMERON, CHATTANACH, CLARK, MACPHAIL

"CLAN CHATTAN." Scots Kith and Kin and Illustrated Map Revised Second Edition. Edinburgh, SCOT: Clan House, c.1970. p.52,53. Print.

keywords[x] tartan, wool, kilts, MacPherson, MacIntosh, clan, septs

3 Celts & Company • "DAVIDSON"

The clan MacDhai or Davidson, earliest settled Invernahaven in Strathspey, are believed to take name from an ancestor David Dhu, fourth son of Murriach the 12th-century founder of the MacPhersons. Members of the Clan Chattan, they were deeply involved in the quarrles of precedency that beset that confederacy. These were publicly culminated in 1396 in the famous thirty-a-side combat MacPherson v. Davidson, before King Robert III and his court on the North Inch of Perth. Whether because 29 leading MacDhais were killed, or because one escaped alive, the clan there-after fell from prominence. They are now chiefly represented by the Davidsons of Tulloch in Cromarty. A small border clan Davidson arose in Roxburghshire around the 16th century, perhaps of quite independent origin, like the Davis name in Orkney, and others. The Inverness-shire MacKays are really MacDhais.

Septs: DAVEY, DAVIE, DAVIS, DAVISOIN, DAWSON, DAY, DEA, DEAN, DEANE, DEAS, DEASON, DEY, DOW, DYE, KAY, KEAY, KEY, KEYS, MACDADE, MACDAID, MACDAVID, MACKAY, SLORA, SLORACH

"DAVIDSON." Scots Kith and Kin and Illustrated Map Revised Second Edition. Edinburgh, SCOT: Clan House, c.1970. p.53,54. Print.

keywords[x] tartan, wool, kilts, Davidson, clan, Chattan, septs