Extract from a Letter from Sir John Macpherson to Sub-Principal Macleod, King's College

Letters by Sir JOHN MACPHERSON.

Extract from a letter from Sir John Macpherson to Sub-Principal Macleod, King's College, Aberdeen.

“Brompton, 15 March 1798.”

My dear Sir – I could not but smile on finding you and my good friend John Paton anxious about the line of my ancestry. The writer of the Baronetage had written to me: but I did not answer him as I was told he was an endless correspondent.

The history of my predecessors is shortly this:- They followed the Macdonalds of Sleat and their fortunes when that line of Princes of the Isles came to Sky. Our caste were the hereditary Standard bearers (the Ensign a bush of Heath) of the family: and we had free lands in Sleat for that service. The last who exercised his office was Ian Bane MacVorstin who commanded the Macdonalds at Blor i Chullin, the last fight fought between the Macleods and the Macdonalds. Ferinlea's predecessor commanded the Macleods, and Ian Bane was victorious. His son Martin was brought up to letters and was a clergyman in South Uist, from which he was expelled by a religious faction. He opened a prosecution at law for the outrage before the Parliament at Edinburgh, recovered great damages, and part of the Clanronald Estate was forfeited to him. He took refuge at Dunvegan Castle where the laird of Macleod received him with hospitality, and he became the clergyman and instructor of that family. He was buried in the churchyard of Durinish where his son, and successor as a clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Dugald Macpherson erected a tomb-stone for him which is still extant. Mr Dugald like his father was a man of Letters, a poet and remarkable for the benevolent simplicity of his manners. He would not avail himself of the claim against the Clanronald estate, the papers about which are still extant. He was brought up at Glasgow: was a great favourite with the Earl of Isla, and he wrote the classic inscription on the Tour more of Dunvegan Castle. His eldest son Martin was minister of Sleat and died before him, leaving my father, whom you so well knew, a child of five years of age: he was born in the year 10 and died in 65. The predecessor of Ian Bane MacVorstin who made most noise in the story of our family was the Pearson ruagh. He introduced Letters into the Isle of Sky, and the religion of the day was called after him. It is probable as I understood from my father that he lived in Ostaig: and some of the fields there are called after him as Larigh tigh i phearsen or the spot of his habitation......

Tradition stated that the predecessor who followed Hugh of Sleat to Sky, had 30 warriors: and our little clan could muster in Sleat, when I was a boy, the same number. The fact of the Standard-bearership is of some importance in the contentions about the Macdonald chieftanship, - and that our predecessor was, as the Standard-bearer, the follower of the true chief. For the Macvurichs or Macphersons of Badenoch state that their tribe and Chief had that trust from the Lord of the Isles. This circumstance formed an early bond of civility without rivalry between the Macphersons of Badenoch and the little branch in Sky: for there could not be a question but that the real chief of the Macphersons followed and was followed by the majority of the tribe, who resided in Badenoch and who are originally descended of the Clan Chatten or Catti of Germany. Of that tribe Tacitus said “Catti ad bellum, alii ad proelium.” The late Earl Marshall was chief of Clan Chatten by his account: but I suspect the Sutherland family are the chiefs: their title is morer chatt......

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In an undated letter to Dr Hugh Macpherson, Sir John refers him to the above letter of March 15, 1798 – adding that Ian Bane “was the son of Martin etc up to “the Pearson Ruagh”. And he says he remembers being told by “Nichai” an old woman of 90 (whose daughter was still alive) that the Pearson Ruagh had a house in some part of Ostaig. “The place is still called Larich taigh i Pharson ruagh near Dunile which I believe was the original fortification of the 30 warriors that came with the Macdonalds of Sleat from the South Western Islands where the family were sovereigns. All this is tradition. The place was called Dun no fer Ilach (as Nichai said) contracted Dunile, which you remember.”