Memorials of the Clan Shaw

14
mer dwelling. Shaw (afterwards called Shaw Coriaclich) was a child in
the house of his grandfather by the mother's side (viz., a daughter o£
Baron Fergusson in Athole), when his father and friends were killed by
Altyre ; and when he came of age, gathering a company of Shaws and
Fergussons, he led them into Rothiemurchus, resolving to revenge the
death of his father and friends. They lurked in a thicket wood near to
Auchnahaitnich for some nights, until they understood that Altyre was
on his way coming up, and that thicket is to this day called Preas net
Mearlach, " the Robber's Thicket," at the foot of a little hill called Cal-
lox*t ; and being informed by a watch placed on that hill, that Altyre
took the road, on the north side of the Loch of Pitteulish, they removed
to a hollow full of wood by the roadside (still called Lag-na-Cuimenach)
and surprised Altyre and his company and cut them all off, upon which,
they repossessed themselves of Rothiemurchus.
"This tradition, supported by such standing Memorials," says the
writer of the Manuscript, " is very strong."
On concluding the history of the Mackintoshes, the writer of the
MS. resumes the subject of the incorporated Clans, who " were
called Clan Chattan, for several generations," and of whom Mac-
kintosh was designed Captain. " These are," says the writer,
" The Macphersons, Clan Dabhi, MacBains, Macphails, MacGrilliv-
rays, MacQueens, Smiths, Clarkes, Maclntyres, and Shaws."
•j Under section " The Shaws," he thus writes : —
I. "Those of this name reside in the South West, in the North, and in
the Western Isles of Scotland, besides several gentlemen of fortune in
England and the North West of Ireland."
After alluding to what he had already said as to the opinion of
learned antiquarians as to their orgin, he goes on : —
j "At what precise time, or from what particular Thane of Fife they
descended, I pretend not to determine, if we can rely, on the testimony
of Boece and Abercrombie, their descent from MacDuff must have been
■fiery early. I question not but the Shaws of the South were the stock
of the name, for MacDuff, their ancestor having his seat of residence in
$he South, probably his son Shiach or Shaw would have settled near to
Jjj^ paternal family."
ItoHere follows the Genealogy of the Shaws of Sauchie. In the
opinion of the present writer, the Shaws of the South are a distinct
atfd independent race. They never acknowledged Mackintosh as