Clan MacNeacail
Clan MacNeacail Clann MhicNeacail | |||
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Seat Ballina, New South Wales | | ||
Historic seat | Scorrybreac Castle[1] and Castle MacNicol (Stornoway Castle).[1] | ||
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Clan MacNeacail, sometimes known as Clan MacNicol, is a Scottish clan long associated with the Isle of Skye. Tradition states that, early in its history, the clan held the Isle of Lewis, as well as extensive territory on the north-western mainland. The earliest member of the clan on record is one 14th century John "mak Nakyl", who is recorded amongst Edward I of England's powerful West Highland supporters during the Wars of Scottish Independence. John Barbour's 1375 epic, The Brus, suggests that by 1316, the clan had switched allegiance to Robert I, and made a decisive intervention in the new theatre of Anglo-Scottish conflict in Ireland. The marriage of an heiress to the MacLeods of Lewis brought a severe loss of lands and power in the following generation, forcing the clan chiefs to relocate to the surviving estates on Skye. However, the MacNeacails retained local significant influence: serving, according to tradition, as members of the Council of the Lords of the Isles and as custodians of the cathedral church of the Western Isles at Snizort. In the 17th century, members of the clan began to Anglicise their surname from the Scottish Gaelic MacNeacail to various forms, such as Nicolson. Today the English variants of the Gaelic surname are borne by members of the clan as well as members of unrelated Scottish families, including the Lowland Clan Nicolson.
Early history
Origins
The heartland of the clan has been for centuries in
Earliest MacNeacail
The first MacNeacail on record is likely a 14th-century John "mak Nakyl" or "Macnakild". This man may well be the 'John son of Nicol' who appears in the MS 1467. John is recorded in three English documents which associate him with the leading West Highland supporters of
Tradition
By the early sixteenth century, the MacNeacails are on documentary record as a small, though locally-influential clan, concentrated in Trotternish on Skye. However, long-standing Gaelic tradition, backed up by the evidence of place names and the MS. 1467, suggests that their power had once been much greater - extending through the thirteenth century over a great part of the northern Hebrides and the north-western mainland. William Matheson has posited the MacNicols as ‘the leading family in the Outer Hebrides towards the end of the Norse period’.
The History of the MacDonalds may well refer to a member of the clan, when it states that a "MacNicoll" was killed on
Put together, these stray accounts and traditions bolster the impression of the MacNicols as a significant political and territorial force in the Medieval north-west, who experienced a traumatic loss of status in the fourteenth century that disrupted the balance of power across the region. This interpretation is supported, as David Sellar has shown, by two details in the early history of the MacLeods of Lewis. A MacLeod pedigree, now in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy, appropriates the MacNicol family tree of 1467, running without a break into the familiar rollcall of early Medieval names. Secondly, the royal grant of Assynt to the MacLeods of Lewis in 1343 included the pointed stipulation that inheritance would pass down the line of heirs male. As Sellar puts it, 'the MacLeods had no intention of seeing their newly gained lands leave the clan through an heiress!'[11] The MS. 1467 can credibly be considered in the light of these events, in view of the surprising omission of the MacLeods from a document conceived to demonstrate the power of the Lords of the Isles and their allied families. With the MacNicols serving as councillors under the lordship, Ronald Black has suggested that the MS. 1467 aimed to assert their continuing claims over lost territories: placing John, the chief of the family, in lineal descent from the royal Norse line and the earlier possessors of Lewis.[12] If this interpretation is followed, John's father, Ewen MacNicol, could speculatively be positioned as a brother of the heiress - either illegitimate or too young to prevent the forcible transfer of his ancestral territories into other hands.
History of the clan
16th to 19th centuries
By the sixteenth century, the MacNicol chiefs were based at Scorrybreac House on Skye, reputed to have been gifted by the Scottish crown originally in 1263, in recognition of service at the Battle of Largs. In 1540, the household hosted James V, on his venture to assert authority over the Hebridean chiefs. The event is proudly memorialised in old MacNicol songs. Elsewhere on Skye, the MacNicols were principal patrons of the cathedral church of St Columba on the River Snizort. Twenty-eight chiefs of the clan are believed to lie buried within its grounds, and a small chapel bears the name MacNicol's Aisle in honour of their generosity as benefactors. After the dissolution of the Lordship of the Isles, the clan followed the MacDonalds of Sleat. Malcolmuill MacNicol and his brother Nicoll took part in the feud between the MacDonalds and Macleans: both being pardoned for acts of 'fire-raising and homicide' on Mull in 1563. During the Scottish Civil War of the 17th century the MacNeacails again fought alongside the house of Sleat.[13] Sorley MacNicol was listed as one of the 'friends and followers' who had supported Sir James MacDonald in raising his clan for the service of Charles I and the Marquis of Montrose.
The Reverend Donald Nicolson of Scorrybreac, head of the clan at the end of the 17th century, is reputed to have had 23 children, through whom he is a common ancestor of many Skye families.[14] Donald's attachment to the Episcopalian faith, and refusal to swear allegiance to William III after 1689 seems to have resulted in his being driven from his parish as a Non-juror - the religious position strongly aligned with Jacobitism - some time after 1696. The MacDonalds of Sleat fought in the Jacobite risings of 1689 and 1715, and it is probable that Nicolsons served within their ranks: an intelligence report gathered for the government in 1745 identified John Nicolson of Scorrybreck as one of Skye's likely rebels, should the MacDonalds again take to the field. In the event, the Sleat MacDonalds avoided action in the 1745 rebellion, but tradition maintains that a band of Nicolsons fought at Culloden in Jacobite service.[15]
A number of Nicolsons were involved in the covert activity that surrounded the sheltering of the fugitive Prince Charles Edward in the Hebrides after Culloden. As a cousin of the intensely Jacobite MacLeods of Rassay, the chief, John Nicolson, appears to have assisted in the concealment of the prince in a cow byre on his estates: John's descendants preserved a lock of the prince's hair, and the cup out of which he drank on his night on Scorrybreac lands. Margaret Nicolson, granddaughter of Reverend Donald, and wife to John MacDonald of Kirkibost, North Uist, crossed the Minch to Skye to inform the prince's supporters of his imminent arrival in the company of Flora MacDonald. Another man of the clan, Donald Nicolson from Raasay, also helped to protect the Young Pretender during his flight, and was recorded by Bishop Robert Forbes in The Lyon in Mourning as suffering torture for his refusal to reveal the whereabouts of the prince after arrest by government troops. Donald Nicolson's descendants emigrated to Australia, and recorded the memory of his service as one of the prince's guides in their family Bible.[16] Alexander Mackenzie, in his history of Clan Mackenzie, claims that Angus Nicolson of Stornoway raised 300 men from the Isle of Lewis for Jacobite service, only to be ordered back by a furious Earl of Seaforth when they landed on the mainland.
During the 19th century the clan was badly affected by the Highland Clearances in which many of the clansfolk were forced to emigrate from Scotland. In 1826, the sons of chief left Skye and settled in Tasmania.[17]
20th century
In 1934, Norman Alexander Nicolson, heir to the chiefship of the clan, was granted a coat of arms by the
Traditions concerning the clan
On Lewis the ravine separating Dùn Othail from the mainland is called "Leum Mhac Nicol", which translates from Scottish Gaelic as "Nicolson's Leap". Legend was that a MacNeacail, for a certain crime, was sentenced by the chief of Lewis to be
A tradition from Skye is that a chief of the MacNicol clan, MacNicol Mor, was engaged in a heated discussion with Macleod of Raasay. As the two argued in English a servant, who could speak only Gaelic, imagined that the two leaders were quarrelling. The servant, thinking his master in danger, then drew his sword and slew MacNicol Mor. To prevent a feud between the two septs, the clan elders and chiefs of the two septs then held council to decide how to appease the MacNicols. The decision agreed upon was that the "meanest" of Clan Nicol would behead Macleod of Raasay. Lomach, a lowly maker of pannier baskets, was chosen and accordingly cut off the head of the Laird of Raasay.[21]
Clan Castles
- Castle MacNicol which is also known as Stornoway Castle is under the pier in Viking named Leod seizing the castle from the MacNicols.[1] The castle had an eventful history until it was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell's forces in the middle of the seventeenth century.[1]
- Scorrybreac Castle on the Isle of Skye was for centuries the seat of the MacNicols and may have been given to them for fighting at the Battle of Largs in 1263.[1] James V of Scotland is believed to have spent a night at Scorrybreac in 1540.[1] The chief sold these lands to the MacDonalds in the nineteenth century.[1]
Clan profile
Symbols
Today members of Clan MacNeacail may show allegiance to their clan and chief by wearing a
Tartan
The MacNicol/Nicolson tartan that appears in the 1845 work The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, by James Logan and illustrated by R. R. McIan, represents a woman wearing a tartan shawl.[25] Logan even admitted they had never encountered a tartan for the MacNicols/Nicolsons, and that "it is probable they adopted that of their superiors" - the MacLeods.[25]
Origin of the name
Today many members of Clan MacNeacail bear the surname
Like-named families and clans
Many families who bear same surname as the clan do not have any historical connection to the clan. For example, according to tradition the MacNicols from Argyll are thought to descend from a 16th-century Macfie. The MacNicols from Angus cannot be connected to any other like-named family, but it is possible they are related to Nicolls of Kinclune, in Angus. Some of the MacNicols on Lewis may well be related to Clan MacNeacail, but others were originally MacRitchies. A Nicolson family has been recorded in Caithness since the 17th century. The Nicols of Ballogie claimed in the early 20th century to descend from Clan MacNeacail; the family claimed to have been pushed south by the Mackintoshes. Although there is no record of any such conflict, clan histories of the Mackintoshes record a certain "Clan Nicol vic Olan" as one of their followers (this clan, however, is not heard of after the late 15th century). One Nicolson family of the name in Shetland derive their surname from a 17th-century man, while another family is related to the Nicolsons from Aberdeen and Edinburgh. The Nicolsons of Cluny, Kemnay, and Glenbervie are also descended from the Nicolsons from Aberdeen and Edinburgh. The latter family, also known as Clan Nicolson, is the main Lowland family of the name. This family can be traced to the mid 15th century in Aberdeen, and has been represented in recent years by Nicolson of that Ilk. The family has no known connection to Clan MacNeacail.[29]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-899874-36-1.
- ^ Sellar; Maclean 1999: pp. 3–4.
- ^ Sellar; Maclean 1999: p. 12.
- ^ Sellar; Maclean 1999: pp. 4–6.
- ^ Irish Pedigrees (5th ed., 2 vols., Dublin, 1892; reprinted Baltimore, 1976); criticised by Sellar & Maclean as obviously unreliable.
- ^ Sellar; Maclean 1999: pp. 6–8.
- ^ William Matheson, ‘Notes on North Uist Families’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness [TGSI], vol. 52 (1980–82).
- ^ a b c d Sellar; Maclean 1999: pp. 8–11.
- ^ Ronald Black, “1467 MS: The Nicolsons”, West Highland Notes & Queries,ser. 4, no. 7 (July. 2018), pp. 3–18
- ^ Scottish History Society 1907: 214-215.
- ^ Sellar, Highland Clan MacNeacail, p. 9
- ^ Black, 'The Nicolsons'.
- ^ Way, George and Squire, Romily. Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia. (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs). Published in 1994. Pages 252 - 253.
- ^ Sellar; Maclean 1999: pp. 15–16.
- ^ Sellar, p. 18
- ^ Norma MacLeod, Raasay: The Island and its People, p. 56
- ^ Sellar; Maclean 1999: pp. 19–21.
- ^ a b Sellar; Maclean 1999: pp. 23–23.
- ^ a b "The Clan MacNicol". www.clanmacnicol.com. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
- ^ Thomas 1890: 371.
- ^ Maclauchlan; Wilson 1875: 272.
- ^ Way of Plean; Squire 2000: 226.
- Campbell of Airds, Alastair. "A Closer Look at West Highland Heraldry". Heraldry Society of Scotland. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
- ^ Bain 1983: 138-139.
- ^ a b Stewart 1974: 86.
- ^ "Clan History of the Nicolsons of Skye". www.clanmacnicol.org. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
- ^ Black 1946: pp. 628-629.
- ^ Reaney; Wilson 2005: 2260.
- ^ Sellar; Maclean 1999: pp. 25–31.
Bibliography
- Bain, Robert (1983). MacDougall, Margaret O (ed.). The Clans and Tartans of Scotland. Heraldic advisor Stewart-Blacker, P. E. Glasgow: Collins. ISBN 0-00-411117-6.
- Black, George Fraser (1946). The Surnames of Scotland : Their Origin, Meaning and History. New York: New York Public Library. ISBN 0-87104-172-3.
- Maclauchlan, Thomas; Wilson, John (1875). Keltie, John Scott (ed.). A History of the Scottish Highlands, Highland Clans and Highland Regiments. Vol. 2. Edinburgh: A. Fullarton & Co.
- Reaney, Percy Hilde; Wilson, Richard Middlewood (2006). A Dictionary of English Surnames (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 0-203-99355-1.
- ISBN 0-7803-4233-X.
- ISBN 1-899272-02-X.
- Stewart, Donald Calder (1974). The Setts of the Scottish Tartans, with descriptive and historical notes (2nd revised ed.). London: Shepheard-Walwyn. ISBN 0-85683-011-9.
- Thomas, F.W.L. (1890). "On the Duns of the Outer Hebrides" (PDF). Archaeologia Scotica: Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 5. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
- ISBN 0-00-472501-8.