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3 Celts & Company • BLACK WATCH "Independent Highland Companies"

The first Independent Companies (then known as the 'Kings Guard') are generally regarded to have been formed after the Union of the Crowns in 1603 when James VI of Scotland became James I of England. Following events of 1688, King James II of England (VII of Scotland) made a decision to secure peace throughout both the Scottish Highlands and Scottish Lowlands. The main chiefs were asked to supply a certain number of men each. By 1738 the Independent Highland Companies were known officially as 'Am Freiceadan Dubh' or Black Watch. The Independent Highland Companies took a very active part in the Jacobite rising of 1745. One of their first actions was when 600 men of the Grant, two Sutherland, Munro and Mackay companies fought in the Siege of Fort Augustus (December 1745). The fort was liberated from the Clan Fraser of Lovat, largely Jacobites.
During the Seven Years’ War a number of unidentified Independent Highland Companies were raised but were almost immediately sent south to the Scottish Lowlands or to England as new recruits and could scarcely be regarded as true Independent Companies but were more like a recruitment agency for the British Army. There were no more Independent Highland Companies formed after 1763 but from those that had been before emerged the world-famous Highland regiments during the remainder of the 18th century.

Clans: MURRAY, MENZIES, STUART, CAMPBELL, ROBERTSON, MACFARLANE, GRAHAM, GORDON, MONRO, SUTHERLAND (under GUNN), GRANT, MACKAY, MACLEOD, MACINTOSH (town of INVERNESS), MACKENZIE, MACDONALD of SLEAT, ROSS

"Independent Highland Companies." Wikipedia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Highland_Companies]. 3 November 2013. web.

keywords[x] tartan, wool, kilts, Black Watch, clan, regiments

3 Celts & Company • "MACKAY"

Maormorship Caithness:: clan Morgan/MacKay.

Like their MacKenzie neighbours, the MacKays of the Cape Wrath district, sometimes termed Clan Morgan after a 14th-century chief, may have been one of the tribes of Moray expelled from there for revolts in the 12th century. This powerful clan came often into dispute with others, not excluding the great Lords of the Isles. A strong section of the clan became established under these lords in Argyllshire and Galloway, and the name MacKay derives from Morgan's grandson Aodh, whose mother was a MacNeil of Gigha. MacKays or MacAys of Clan Chatten, from Inverness-shire eastward, are really of Clan MacDhai, i.e., Davidsons.
Clan MacKay devoted much zeal to the Protestant Reformation. Two thousand of them crossed the North Sea to serve that cause in the Thirty-Years' War and Charles I raised their Chief to Lord Dreay, yet their grandsons' religious mistrust of the Stewarts made them one of the anti-Jacobite clans.

• "MORRISON GREEN" a.k.a Morrison Society

After the "MORRISON" red tartan was adopted this green and blue became known as the Society Morrison but is also called Green or Hunting. The Morrison website adds to the story: 'The green sett was developed by the Clan Society in 1909. Due to the loss of the Morrison original tartan around the 1700's, the Society selected a MacKay sett and added a red stripe.


Septs: ALLAN, BAIN, BAYNE, KAY, KEY, MACALLAN, MACBAIN, MACCAA, MACCAW, MACCAY, MACGAA, MACGAW, MACGEE, MACGHEE, MACGHIE, MACKEE, MACKIE, MACPHAIL, MACQUE, MACQUEY, MACQUOID, MACVAIL, MACVAIN, MACVANE, MORGAN, NEILSON, NELSON, PAUL, POLE, POLESON, POLSON, REAY, SCOBIE, WILLIAMSON

"MACKAY." Scots Kith and Kin and Illustrated Map Revised Second Edition. Edinburgh, SCOT: Clan House, c.1970. p.70. Print.

"Tartan Details - Morrison Society." Scottish Register of Tartans. [http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails.aspx?ref=3021]. January 2014. web.

keywords[x] tartan, wool, kilts, MacKay, Independent Companies, clan, septs