Memorials of the Clan Shaw

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Tes always wore a tuft of heath or heather, and added the fir-tree
to the Clan Chattan's and Mackintosh' his arms, only as a mark of
Cadency, and in commemoration of Rothiemurchus from whence
they came, and where grow so many firs."
Thus writes Sir iEneas, of whose spirited and lengthy Essay on this
subject, I have given a ve*ry imperfect idea from the extracts above
quoted.
I may mention, that his statement as to the origin of the Far-
quharsons is confirmed by the Brouchdearg MS. quoted in Part I.
of these Memorials. This Manuscript traces them back no farther
than the grandfather of Findla Mor, who fought at the Battle of
Pinkie, thus leaving a gap of several generations between the time
of their first progenitor and Shaw Mor Coriaclich.
The writer of the Mackintosh MS. as might be expected from
the nature of his subject, undertaking as he does to give accounts,
so far as he is able, of all the various branches of the Clan Chat-
tan, is much more voluminous. His own MS. was written probably
about 1758. The Mackintosh MS. on which he founds, and which
lie embodies in his own, correcting it by the evidence of charters
and other documents as he proceeds, brings down the history of
the Mackintoshes to 1665.
With reference to the matter last above noticed, he quotes Mr
INisbet in his "Marks of Cadency," as saying, that Invercauld
bears the Lion of Macduff, being descended of Shaw of Rothie-
murchus before the year 1500 ; for Finlay More, the 3rd in descent,
was killed at the Battle of Pinkie, a.d. 1547.
His account of the origin of the Shaws is as follows : —
" Rothiemurchus was very early Church land, for King Alexander II.
gave it to Andrew, Bishop of Moray, in exchange for other lands, An-
no Regni XII. a.d. 1226, (Chart. Mor.), and the Shaws had possession
of it so early, that they joined in King David Bruce's reign in cutting off
the Cumyns, (and on that account Invercauld bears a dexter hand
grasping a dagger, as Mr Nisbet quotes from the Lyon's Register) ; but
having only a lease from the Bishop, when the lease expired, Cumming
of Altyre took a lease of it, and obtained possession of it by cutting off
Shaw of Rothiemurchus and his family ; and he built the Castle of
Rothiemurchus in Loch-an-Eilan, and for several years made it his sum-
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