Memorials of the Clan Shaw

18
He would then naturally prefer the appellation Mackintosh to that
of Shaw, as being the more aristocratic. * But when his son Ian
succeeded, the old name had been resumed, probably for the sake
of distinguishing the families at Rothiemurchus from the chief
branch of the Mackintoshes.!
There is, however, another theory which may be the true solu-
tion of the difficulty : — That there was a race consanguineous to
the Mackintoshes, descended equally with them from the great
Thane, called sometimes by the patronymic Mackintosh, and some-
times also at first, Clan Quhele, £ that this Clan fought in the Raid
of Angus under Sheach, and again in the Clan Battle at Perth ;§
that subsequent to this time, the members of this Clan, though
often designating themselves by the patronymic Mackintosh, began
to be called Shaws ; that this name became fixed as their surname
in the fourth generation from Coriaclich ; and that in the tradition
of the Clans, deeds of valour which had previously been spoken of
as done by the Clan Quhele, came to be spoken of as having been
done by the Shaws ; t'h*at on the utter break up of the Clan Quhele
about 1580, the Chroniclers began to attribute the share taken by
* "We find an Ian McAllan Mclan Keyr, subscribing a Bond to Sir John Campbell,
in 1519. He may have been the grandson of Ian above mentioned, the genealogy,
after Alister Kiar, running thus — Alister Kiar, father of Ian, father of Allan,
father of Ian. (Thanes of Cawdor, p, 130.)
f Mr A, Mackintosh Shaw writes tome as to the above extract from the " Family
of Eose of Kilravock," thus: — "I have always looked upon it, as one of the most
confused bits of writing extant. The man who wrote it, knew little or nothing of
the matter. He speaks of the Clan Chattan under Mackintosh' s predecessor, which
is wrong. He had some dim idea that the victorious leader was a grandson of, or
3rd in succession from somebody, and so he puts him down 3rd in succession, by
which he no doubt means 3d Chief of Mackintosh. Then again he knew that the
leader was named Shaw, and that he was a Mackintosh, and so he gives him a double
surname, which is quite a modern invention ; and as he called him Mackintosh 's
predecessor, and knows that he dropped one name, he is obliged to make him drop
that of Shaw to be consistent. I do not think that what the writer says, is worth
anything whatever, or that anything can be got from it, except an illustration of
the ease with which tradition gets twisted and altered, especially when it gets into
the hands of those who have no interest in it."
% Scots Act of Parliament.
§ Wyntoun.