Kenneth, Sixth Earl of Seaforth

Viscount Fortrose, and Baron Ardelve, in the Peerage of Ireland. From his small stature, he was generally known among the Highlanders as the "Little Lord." He was born in Edinburgh on the 15th of January, 1744, and at an early age entered the army. As a return for his father's loyalty to the House of Hanovar in 1745, and his own steady support of the reigning family, George III., in 1764, raised him to the peerage by the title of Baron Ardelve. He was created Viscount Fortrose in 1766, and in 1771, Earl of Seaforth, all in the peerage of Ireland. To evince his gratitude for this magnanimous act, he, in 1778, offered to raise a regiment for general service. The offer was accepted by his Majesty, and a fine body of 1130 men were in a very short time raised by his Lordship, principally on his own estates in the north and by gentlemen of his own name. Of these, five hundred were enlisted among his immediate vassals, and about four hundred from the estates of the Mackenzies of Scatwell, Kilcoy, Redcastle, and Applecross. The officers from the south to whom he gave commissions in the regiment brought about two hundred men, of whom forty-three were English and Irish. The Macraes of Kintail, always such faithful followers and able supporters of the House of Seaforth, were so numerous in the new regiment that it was known more by their name than by that of Seaforth's own kinsmen, and so much was this the case that the well-known mutiny which took place in Edinburgh, on the arrival of the regiment there, is still known as "the affair of the Macraes." [The Seaforth Highlanders were marched to Leith, where they were quartered for a short interval, though long enough to produce complaints about the infringement of their engagements, and some pay and bounty which they said were due them. Their disaffection was greatly increased by the activity of emissaries from Edinburgh, like those just mentioned as having gone down front London to Portsmouth. The regiment refused to embark, and marching out of Leith, with pipes playing and two plaids fixed on poles instead of colours, took a position on Arthur's Seat, of which they kept possession for several days, during which time the inhabitants of Edinburgh amply supplied them with provisions and ammunition. After much negotiation, a proper understanding respecting the cause of their complaint was brought about, and they marched down the hill in the same manner in which they had gone up, with pipes playing; and "with the Earls of Seaforth and Dunmore, and General Skene, at their head, they entered Leith, and went on board the transports with the greatest readiness, and cheerfulness." In this case, as in that of the Athole Highlanders, none of he men were brought to trial, or even put into confinement for these acts of open resistance.--Stewart's Sketches--Appendix p. lxvviv.] The regiment was embodied at Elgin in May, 1778, and inspected there by General Skene, when it was so effective that not a single man was rejected. Seaforth, appointed Colonel on the 29th of December, 1777, was now promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel-Commandant, and the regiment was called the 78th (afterwards the 72nd), or Ross-shire Regiment of Highlanders.

The grievances complained of at Leith being removed, the regiment embarked at that port, accompanied by their Colonel, and the intention of sending them to India having been abandoned, one half of the corps was sent to Guernsey and the other half to Jersey. Towards the end of April, 1781, the two divisions assembled at Portsmouth, whence they embarked for India on the 12th of June following, being then 973 strong, rank and file. Though in excellent health, the men suffered so much from scurvy, in consequence of the change of food, that before their arrival at Madras, on the 2d of April, 1782, no fewer than 247 of them died. and out of those who landed alive only 369 were fit for service. Their Chief and Colonel died in August, 1781, before they arrived at St Helena, to the great grief and dismay of his faithful followers, who looked up to him as their principal source of encouragement and support. His loss was naturally associated in their minds with recollections of home, with melancholy remembrances of their absent kindred, and with forebodings of their own future destiny and so strong was this feeling impressed upon them that it materially contributed to that prostration of mind which made them all the more readily become the victims of disease. They well knew that it was on their account alone that he had determined to forego the comforts of a splendid fortune and high rank to encounter the privations and inconveniences of a long voyage and the dangers and other fatigues of military service in a tropical climate. [Stewart's Sketches, and Fullarton's History of the Highland Clans and Highland Regiments.]

His Lordship married on the 7th of October, 1765, Lady Caroline Stanhope, eldest daughter of William, second Earl of Harrington, and by her--who died in London from consumption, from which she suffered for nearly two years, on the 9th of February, 1767, at the early age of twenty, [Scots' Magazine for 1767, p. 533.] and was buried at Kensington--he had issue, an only daughter, Lady Caroline, who was born in London on the 7th of July, 1766. She formed an irregular union with Lewis Malcolm Drummond, Count Melfort, a nobleman of the Kingdom of France, originally of Scottish extraction, and died in 1547. She is buried under a flat stone inscribed with her name in the St Pancras (Old) Burial Ground, London.

Thus the line of George, second Earl of Seaforth, who died in 1633, became extinct; and the reader must therefore now accompany us back to Kenneth Mor, the third Earl, to pick up the chain of legitimate succession. It has been already shown that the lineal descent of the original line of Kintail was diverted from heirs male in the person of Anna, Countess of Balcarres, daughter of Colin, first Earl of Seaforth. Kenneth Mor, the third Earl, had four sons--(1) Kenneth Og, his heir and successor, whose line terminated in Lady Caroline, as above; (2) John of Assynt, whose only son, Alexander, had an only son Kenneth, who died in 1723 without issue; (3) Hugh, who died young; and (4) Colonel Alexander, afterwards designated of Assynt and Conansbay, who, as his second wife, married Elizabeth, daughter of John Paterson, Bishop of Ross, and sister of John Paterson, Archbishop of Glasgow. Colonel Alexander had no issue by his first wife, but by the second he had an only son and six daughters. The daughters were (1) Isabella, who married Basil Hamilton of Baldoon, became the mother of Dunbar, fourth Earl of Selkirk, and died in 1725; (2) Frances, who married her cousin, Kenneth Mackenzie of Assynt, without issue; (3) Jane, who married Dr Mackenzie, a cadet of Coul, and died at New Tarbat, on the 18th of September, 1776; (4) Mary, who married Captain Dougall Stuart of Blairhall, a Lord of Session and Justiciary, and brother of the first Earl of Bute, with issue; (5) Elizabeth, who died unmarried at Kirkcudbright, on the 12th of March, 1796, aged 81; and (6) Maria, who married Nicholas Price of Saintfield, County Down, Ireland, with issue. She was maid of honour to Queen Caroline, and died in 1732. Colonel Alexander's only son was Major William Mackenzie, who died on the 12th of March, 1770.

He married Mary, daughter and co-heir of Matthew Humberston, Lincoln, with issue, two sons--(1) Thomas Frederick Mackenzie, Colonel of the 100th Regiment of foot, who assumed the name of Humberston in addition to his own on succeeding to his mother's property; and (2) Francis Humberston Mackenzie. Both of Major William's sons ultimately succeeded to the Seaforth estates. He had also four daughters--(1) Frances Cerjat, who married Sir Vicary Gibbs, M.P., his Majesty's Attorney-General, with issue; (2) Maria Rebecca, who married Alexander Mackenzie of Breda, younger son of James Mackenzie, III. of Highfield, with issue, six sons--William, a Lieutenant in the 78th Highlanders, who died at Breda, in Holland, from a wound which he received on the previous day at the taking of Merxein, in 1814 Thomas, a Midshipman, R.N., drowned at sea; Frederick, R.N., murdered at Calcutta in 1820; Francis, R.N., drowned at sea in 1828; and Colin, all without issue; also Captain Alexander, of the 25th Regiment, subsequently Adjutant of the Ross-shire Militia, who married Lilias Dunbar, daughter of James Fowler of Raddery, with issue--James Evan Fowler, who died unmarried; Alexander, now residing at Fortrose, and three daughters who died unmarried; (3) Elizabeth, who died without issue; and (4) Helen, who married Major-General Alexander Mackenzie-Fraser of Inverallochy, fourth son of Colin Mackenzie, VI. of Kilcoy, Colonel of the 78th Regiment, and M.P. for the County of Ross, with issue.

Major William died on the 12th of March, 1770, at Stafford, Lincolnshire. His wife died on the 19th of February, 1813, at Hartley, Herts. His eldest son, Colonel Thomas Frederick Mackenzie-Humberston, it will be seen, thus became male heir to his cousin, Earl Kenneth, who died, without male issue, in 1781. The Earl, finding his property heavily encumbered with debts from which he could not extricate himself, conveyed the estates to his cousin and heir male, Colonel Thomas, in 1779, on payment of o100,000. Earl Kenneth died, as already stated, in 1781, and was succeeded by his cousin, Thomas Frederick Mackenzie-Humberston.

Return To Mackenzie History Index