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Clan MacDonell of Glengarry is a branch of Clan Macdonald, taking its name from Glen Garry where the river Garry runs eastwards through Loch Garry to join the Great Glen about 16 miles (25 km) north of Fort William. The principal families descended from the house of Glengarry were the McDonnells of Barrisdale, in Knoydart, Greenfield, and Lundie.
The clan crest is A raven Proper perching on a rock Azure, and the clan motto is Cragan an Fhithich (The rock of the raven).
The name Glengarry is, in the traditional manner, used for the chieftain of the time, the chief known to Sir Walter Scott being Alasdair Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry.
A Glengarry is a type of cap which he invented and wears in the portrait below, a boat-shaped cap without a peak made of thick-milled woollen material with a toorie or bobble on top and ribbons hanging down behind, capable of being folded flat. It became part of the uniform of a number of Scottish regiments, with differences in whether or not the cap had a diced band around above the brim and in the colours. For a period in the late 19th century it was worn by all British soldiers. A cap described in a 1937 amendment to the Dress Regulations for the Army as "Similar in shape to the Glengarry" became The Universal Pattern Field Service Cap of the British Army in World War II. The Glengarry is now worn by all of the Scottish infantry regiments as an alternative to the tam o'shanter, particularly in parade dress (when it is always worn) and by pipers.
History of the Glengarry Branch of Clan MacDonald The Glengarry clan claims descent from Donald, one of the five sons of Ranald who himself was the son of a 14th century Lord of the Isles. Glengarry first played an independent part in the politics of Clan Donald when in 1539 the Macdonald chief received a feudal charter from the Scottish crown. Glengarry chose to follow Donald Gorm of Sleat in an attempt to reclaim Lordship of the Isles which collapsed with a failed assault on Eilean Donan Castle in which Donald died. Along with other chiefs, Glengarry was tricked into attending on King James V of Scotland at Portree where they were captured and imprisoned in Edinburgh until the King died in 1542.
In 1545 Alexander MacRanald of Glengarry and North Morar was one of the lords and barons of the Isles who pledged allegiance to the king of England. By 1581 they controlled extensive territory and became involved in feuding and battles with Clan Mackenzie which led to them burning a church and the trapped congregation while the Glengarry piper marched round the building playing a tune still called Kilchrist after the name of the place. Donald, 8th of Glengarry, reportedly lived for more than a hundred years and was clan chief for over seventy years. In 1649 he failed to appear before the Privy Council in Edinburgh to answer charges of harbouring fugitives from the Isles, and was denounced as a rebel, but in 1627 succeeded in obtaining a charter under the Great Seal to make his lands a free barony.
In the Wars of the Three Kingdoms Glengarry supported the Royalist side. Aeneas the 9th Chief was out with Montrose in 1645 and followed King Charles II to his final defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. For his pains he had his new house of Invergarry burned by General Monk and his lands forfeited by Oliver Cromwell, but had them returned at the Restoration, gaining the title of Lord MacDonell and Aross and chiefship of Clanranald and the whole Clandonald. As he died without issue his peerage became extinct.
Jacobite Risings The clans under Glengarry took the Jacobite side in the Jacobite Risings. In 1689 Alastair Dubh MacRanald commanded the clan at the Battle of Killiecrankie. In the 1715 rising Glengarry attended the pretended grand hunting match at Braemar arranged by the Earl of Mar and followed him to fight at the Battle of Sheriffmuir.
The 13th chief was on his way from France to join the 1745 rebellion when he was captured by an English frigate and imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1747. However, six hundred of the McDonells of Glengarry joined Prince Charles under the command of MacDonell of Lochgarry and were at the battles of Prestonpans, Falkirk, and Culloden.
Colonel Alasdair Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry Alasdair Ranaldson MacDonell was the Glengarry, well known to Walter Scott, a haughty and flamboyant man whose character and behaviour gave Scott the model for the wild Highland chieftain Fergus Mac-Ivor in the pioneering historical novel Waverley of 1810. He was born in 1771 and became the 15th chief in 1788, shortly afterwards raising troops for a regiment of Fencibles. He bitterly feuded with Thomas Telford and the Commissioners of the Caledonian Canal as it was being constructed through his land, though he collected useful dues from them.
Glengarry considered himself the last genuine specimen of a Highland chief, always wore the Highland dress (kilt or trews) and in the style of his ancestors seldom travelled without being followed by his "tail", servants in full Highland dress with weaponry who had traditional duties like carrying his sword and shield, standing sentinel, acting as bard and carrying him dry across streams. Typically, he revived family claims to be chief of the Macdonalds and of Clanranald, though without success.
He was a member of the Highland Society of Scotland and the Celtic Society of Edinburgh, and in June 1815 he formed his own Society of True Highlanders, subsequently leaving the Celtic Society and complaining that "their general appearance is assumed and fictitious, and they have no right to burlesque the national character or dress of Highlands". His mortification at the acceptance of Lowlanders became bitter complaint about the prominent role the Celtic Society had in the visit of King George IV to Scotland, and he made several unauthorised and flamboyant appearances during the visit, to the annoyance of Walter Scott and the other organisers but causing only mild amusement to the King.
Although Scott wrote in his praise "He is a kind of Quixote in our age, having retained, in their full extent, the whole feelings of clanship and chieftainship, elsewhere so long abandoned", under his authority timber was felled for sale, the cleared land was leased to sheep farmers and many of his clansmen were forced from the land by increasing rents and evictions, with a great number emigrating to Canada in part of what was later known as the Highland Clearances.
In January 1828 he perished trying to escape from a steamer which had gone aground. As his estate was very much mortgaged and encumbered his son was forced to sell it and emigrate to Australia with his family and clan. The estate was purchased by the Marquis of Huntly, and in 1840 it was sold to Lord Ward, Earl of Dudley, then in 1860 his lordship sold it to Edward Ellice,Esq. of Glenquoich.
Bishop Alexander Macdonell Alexander Macdonell studied for the Roman Catholic priesthood at the Scotch college at Valladolid, Spain, then in 1787 returned to Scotland and did missionary duty in Lochaber.
At a time when Highland chiefs were substituting large sheep-farms for smallholdings he tried to get displaced clansmen employment in the Lowlands, but this attempt was undermined by the effects of the French revolution. Then in 1794 he organised formation of the 1st Glengarry fencible regiment under their chieftain, MacDonell of Glengarry (see above) with himself appointed chaplain, which served with other Highland regiments in the Irish rebellion of 1798. When the regiment was disbanded Father Macdonell appealed to the government to grant its members a tract of land in Canada, and in 1804 160,000 acres were provided in what is now Glengarry county, Canada. Father Macdonell accompanied his clan, founded churches and schools and organised the settlement. In 1812 he raised another regiment of Glengarry fencibles which went to the defence of Saint Lawrence River, then in 1820 he became Bishop of Upper Canada.
He founded the Highland Society of Canada and in 1837 began to establish a Roman Catholic seminary for Upper Canada. To raise funds for this and to stimulate emigration among the Highlanders he returned to Britain in 1839, but fell ill while visiting Ireland and died in Dumfries, Scotland, in January of the following year.
External links - The Glengarry Branch of the Macdonalds (http://www.macdonald.com/glengry.html)
- Clan MacDonnell of Glengarry (http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/m/macdonn2.html)
- Alexander Macdonell (http://www.famousamericans.net/alexandermacdonell/)
References - Clans and Tartans - Collins Pocket Reference, George Way of Plean and Romilly Squire, Harper Collins, Glasgow 1995 ISBN 0-00-470810-5
- The King's Jaunt, John Prebble, Birlinn Limited, Edinburgh 2000, ISBN 1-84158-068-6
- British Army Uniforms and Equipment of World War Two. Brian L.Davis, Arms and Armour Press, London 1983 ISBN 0-85368-609-2
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