Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 3

132 THE CELTIC MAGAZINE.
kindnesses to Mackenzie, whom he appointed as his deputy in the manage-
ment of the Earklom of Ross. On one occasion, the Earl of Sutherland
being in the south at Court, the Strathnaver men and the men of the
Braes of Caithness took the opportunity to invade Sutherland. Their
intention soon spread abroad, and reached the ears of the Chief of KintaU,
who at once, with a party of six hundred men, passed into Sutherland,
and the Earl's followers joining him, he defeated the invaders, killed
many of them, forced the remainder to sue for peace, and compelled them
to give substantial security for their peaceful conduct in future. " At
this time he begat, on a gentlewoman in Sutherland, a son who was called
Dougall ; and the Earl of Sutherland, in kindness to his father, caused
him to be carefully educated, and he profited so in letters that he was
made Prior of Beauly by the Pope, and is yet memoraT)le for prudence
and piety in the records of that Priory. He repaired the Church of
Beauly, enlarging it with a south aisle .... in which Priory
Dougall lies buried in a tomb built by his own directions.*
Kintail was now a very old man. His prudence aud sagacity well
repaid the judicious patronage of the First King James, confirmed aud
extended by his successors on the throne, and, as has been well said of
him Ijy his biographer, secured to huu " the love and respect of three
Princes in whose reign he flourished, and as his prudent management in
the allairs of the Earldom of Eoss, showed him to be a man of good
natural parts, so it very much contributed to the advancement of the
interest of his family by the acquisition of the lands he thereby made ;
nor Avas he less commendable for the quiet and peace he kept among his
Highlanders, putting the laws punctually in execution against all delin-
quents." Such a character as this, justly called Alastair lonraic, or the
Just, was certainly weU fitted to govern, and deserved to flourish, in the
age in which he lived. Various important events occurred in his latter
years, bat as Kenneth, his son aud successor, was the actual leader of the
Clan for many years before his father's death, aud especially at the cele-
brated Battle of Park, we shall record them under the next heading.
Alexander died at Kinellan, in 1488, about ninety years of age, and
was buried in Beauly Priory. He was twice married — first to Anne,
daughter of Macdougall of Dunolly, and secondly to Margaret, daughter
of Macdougall of Morar, a relative of Dunolly. He had also, as already
mentioned, a natural son, who was superior of, and repaired, the Priory of
Beauly, about 1478, where he is buried.t By his first wife he had a son,
Kenneth, who succeeded him, and Duncan, from whom descended the
families of Hdton and Loggie. By the second marriage he had a son,
Hector, known among the Highlanders as Hector Eoy, or Eachainn Ruadh,
from whom is descended the House of Gairloch, and of whom more here-
after. Alexander was succeeded by his eldest son by the first marriage.
(To he Continued.)
A Portrait of William Allan, with a Biographical Sketch by the Rev.
George Giliillan, will appear in our next.
* Earl of Croniai tie's MS. History of the Mackenzies.
t Auderson's Historical Account of the Family of Fraaer, p. 66, and MS, History
of the Mackeuzies,