History of the Mackenzies, with genealogies of the principal families of the nameMackenzie, Alexander
History
History of the Mackenzies, with genealogies of the principal families of the name
Mackenzie, Alexander
Mackenzie family; Scotland -- Genealogy; Seaforth, Earls of
There has been much difference of opinion among the genealogists and
family historians regarding Alexander's two wives. Both Edmonston in
his Baronagium Genealogicum, and Douglas in his Peerage say that
Alexander's first wife was Agnes, sixth daughter of Colin, first Earl
of Argyll. This we shall prove to be absolutely impossible within
the ordinary course of the laws of nature. Colin, first Earl of
Argyll, succeeded as a minor in 1453, his uncle, Sir Colin Campbell
of Glenurchy, having been appointed his tutor. Colin of Argyll was
created Earl in 1457, probably on his coming of age. He married
Isabel Stewart of Lorn, had two sons, and, according to Crawford,
five daughters. If he had a daughter Agnes she must have been his
sixth daughter and eighth child. Assuming that Argyll married when
he became of age, about 1457, Agnes, as his eighth surviving child,
could not have been born before 1470. Her reputed husband, Alexander
of Kintail, was then close upon 70 years of age, having died in
1488, bordering upon 90, when his alleged wife would barely have
reached a marriageable age, and when her reputed son, Kenneth
a Bhlair, pretty well advanced in years, had already fought the
famous battle of Park. John of Killin, her alleged grandson,
was born about 1480, when at most the lady said to have been his
grandmother could only have been 10 to 15 years of age, and, in
1513, at the age of 33, he distinguished himself at the battle
of Flodden, where Archibald second Earl of Argyll, the lady's
brother, at least ten years older than Agnes, was slain. All this
is of course impossible.
A similar difficulty has arisen, from what appears to be a very
simple cause, about Alexander's second marriage. The authors of
all the family MS. histories are unanimous in stating that his first
wife was Anna, daughter of John Macdougall of Lorn, or Dunollich,
known as John Mac Alan Mac Cowle, fourth in descent from Alexander
de Ergedia and Lord of Lorn (1284), and eighth from Somerled,
Thane of Argyle, who died in 1164. Though the direct line of the
house of Lorn ended in two heiresses who, in 1388, carried away the
property to their husbands, the Macdougalls of Dunollich became
the male representatives of the ancient and illustrious house of
Lorn; and this fully accounts for the difference and confusion
which has been introduced about the families of Lorn and Dunollich
in some of the Mackenzie family manuscripts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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