Colin Mackenzie, 6th of Kilcoy

Biographical Summary

"VI. Colin Mackenzie, sixth of Kilcoy, who was infeft in the lands of Kilcoy on the 16th of December, 1742. In 1747 (marriage contract 28th March) he married Martha, eldest daughter of Charles Fraser of Inverallochy, by Anne, daughter of Udney of Udney. . Her eldest brother, Charles, on whom the Lovat Estates were entailed, fell in command of the Clan Fraser at Culloden, and her second brother, William, who had also succeeded to the property of Udney, dying in 1792, the representation of the family of Inverallochy and Castle Fraser devolved upon Martha and her sister Eliza Fraser (who died without issue in 1814). Through this marriage, the family of Kilcoy claim to be heirs to the old Earldom of Buchan, conferred in 1469 upon James Stuart, half-brother of James II., by the second marriage of his mother, Queen Jane, to Sir James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn. In 1617 a Crown charter of Novodamus is granted to the then Countess Mary of Buchan, who married James Erskine (eldest son of John Earl of Mar) with the precedence of the former charter to herself and her husband in life rent and the heirs male of their marriage, whom failing to his nearest heirs male whatsoever. In 1625 the Earl and Countess had another charter of the Earldom with the same limitation. In 1633 the charter of 1625, and a decree of 1628 giving the Earldom of Buchan precedence over those of Eglintoun, Montrose, Cassilis, Caithness, and Glencairn, were ratified by Act of Parliament. These charters make the Kilcoy claim quite hopeless, not because they are not the rightful heirs, but because the Earldom was given in 1617 by charter to the heirs male of James Erskine, though he had no more right to it than he had to the throne itself, beyond having married the Countess Mary of Buchan, now represented by the Mackenzies of Kilcoy. Nothing can annul a charter but another Crown charter, and as a matter of fact and justice, the Cardross Erskines have no more right to represent and sit as the Earls of Buchan of 1469 than they have to be Kings of Great Britain. By this lady Kilcoy had issue —

• Donald, who died young.
• Charles, his heir and successor.
• Colin, Lieutenant 71st Regiment, killed in the American War, without issue.
• Alexander, who on succeeding to his mother's property of Inverallochy, assumed the additional name of Fraser by Royal license dated the 22nd of July, 1803, and became the well-known Lieutenant-General Alexander Mackenzie-Fraser of Inverallochy and Castle Fraser, Colonel of the 78th Regiment, and M.P. for the county of Cromarty, 1802-6, Ross-shire, 1806- 1807, and 1807 until his death at Walcheren, on the 13th of September, 1809. He married Helen, sister of Francis Humberston-Mackenzie, last Lord Seaforth, with issue, two sons — (i) Charles Mackenzie-Fraser, II. of Castle Fraser, his heir, Captain Coldstream Guards, Colonel Ross-shire Militia. He served in the Peninsular War with the 52nd Regiment in 1808-9, and was M.P. for Ross-shire 1814-1818. He was born on the 9th of June, 1792, and died on the 7th of March, 1871, having married on the 25th of April, 1817, Jane, daughter of Sir John Hay, Baronet of Smithfield and Haystoune, with issue — (a) Alexander, who died in 1843; (b) John Wingfield, who died in 1846; (c) Charles Murray, who died in 1846; (d) Francis Mackenzie, who died in 1849; and (e) Kenneth, who died young in 1836 — all without issue. (f) Frederick Mackenzie-Fraser, now of Castle Fraser, Aberdeen-shire, late of the Ross-shire Militia, Lieutenant-Colonel H.M. Reserve Forces. He was born on the 4th of April, 1831, and married first, on the 24th of April, 1871, Lady Marie Augusta Gabrielle Berengcre Blanche Drummond, elder daughter of George, fourteenth Earl of Perth and Melfort. She died in 1874 without issue. He married, secondly, in 1879, Theodora Lovett, daughter of William Henry Darby of Leap Castle, King's County, Ireland. (g) Catherine, who died unmarried in 1856; (h) Mary, who died unmarried in 1847; (i) Eleanor Jane, who died on the 22nd of October, 1858, having on the 6th of January, 1855, married, as his second wife, the Right Reverend George Tomlinson, D.D., first Bishop of Gibraltar, who died on the 6th of February, 1863, and had a son and two daughters — George Charles James Tomlinson, born on the 16th of April, 1857; Eleanor Fraser ; and Mary Elizabeth ; (j) Grace Harriet, who died without issue ; and (k) Augusta Charlotte, who on the 25th of April, 1854, married Robert Drummond, with issue — Charles and Sybil. (2) Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Alexander Mackenzie-Fraser, who died in December, 1848, married first, Emma Sophia, daughter of Hume Macleod of Harris, with issue (a) Frederick Charles, who died in 1875, leaving issue; (b) Colin; and (c) Isabella, who died unmarried. He married, secondly, Georgina Augusta, daughter of Sir Charles Bagot, Governor-General of Canada. Lieutenant-General Alexander had also two daughters — (3) Marrianne ; and (4) Helen, both of whom died unmarried.
• Anne, who married Alexander Mackenzie, W.S., I. of Portmore, with issue.
• Elizabeth, who died young.
• Jean, who in 1766 married Alexander Elphinstone of Glack, Aberdeenshire, Sheriff-Depute of that county in 1777, with issue — a son, John, and two daughters — Jane, who in 1787 married John Mackenzie, VII. of Applecross, and Mary, who died in Edinburgh unmarried in 1796.
• Janet, who died unmarried in 1789.
• Martha; and
• Janet, both of whom died young.

Colin of Kilcoy died in 1758, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son."

SOURCE: History of the Mackenzies, with genealogies of the principal families of the name; Alexander Mackenzie; 1894; page 586