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Jacobite Trees

Normally descent or pedigree trees are used in genealogy to illustrate descendancy or ancestry of a key person, occasionally in an "hourglass" manner to show both at the same time. The chart that follows has been made for a different purpose.

George Mackenzie, Third Earl of Cromarty, raised a Regiment to fight for Bonny Prince Charlie in the 1745 Rebellion. Most of his soldiers were subtenants from his lands. Officers were mostly Mackenzie "Tacksmen", principal tenants who rented directly from him, and sublet to the subtenants, accepting their rent mostly in services such as building dyke walls in the fields, or several days labour in the harvest.

Wealth of the country was in the fighting men the Tacksmen could bring forward for their Chief or landowner in time of Clan conflict, or more immediately, in the number of black cattle that could be produced. Some of the Tacksmen became substantial cattle farmers and drovers. Though there was much intermarriage between the Mackenzie Tacksman families in Lochbroom and Coigach, it was not unusual that business relationships through droving over long distances in Scotland led to intermarriages with distant families, the following chart notes some connections between Lochbroom Mackenzies and MacDonells from areas further south.

The chart is probably far from complete, as focus of this website is Coigach in Lochbroom other parts need work. Relationships are noted in only about a four generation span, though it should be noted Isobel, wife of Kenneth Mackenzie of Langwell, was noted as "a near relative of the Earl of Cromarty", and the Earl does not appear in the chart; he was her second cousin. For display purposes the chart is not in birth order, omits some siblings, and only includes spouses where needed for the illustration.



Donald MacDonald-Ross, at:

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