THE BORLEY MACKAYS

The following family tree amalgamates data from Angus Mackay, Wikipedia, and other versions of this genealogy listed under Resources below.

The Mackays of Borley were a minor noble Scottish family and a branch of the ancient Clan Mackay, a Highland Scottish clan. Their territorial designation of Borley is a small village within the parish of Durness, in the modern-day county of Sutherland, Scotland

b3 Donald Mackay, 1st of Borley, Durness, (->1649) was the third son of Donald Balloch Mackay, 1st of the Mackay of Scoury branch of the clan, who in turn was the second eldest natural son of Iye Du Mackay, 12th of Strathnaver, chief of the Clan Mackay. He resided for some time at Iddenmore in the same parish, and had “wadset” of the lands of Borley which was a historic form of tenure, now obsolete but once frequently used to make provisions for younger sons. He was a prominent Royalist and was, along with his chief Donald Mackay, 1st Lord Reay, captured at Balvenie Castle in 1649 during the Scottish Civil War. He m. Christiana, dau. of the Rev. Robert Munro, Creich, Sutherland, and had known issue four sons : — William, Angus, Iye and Donald.

• b3c1. Captain William Mackay, 2nd of Borley ( - >1691), a zealous Royalist, led a company of Mackays at the battle of Worcester, was appointed a commissioner of supply for the shire of Sutherland by the Parliament of 1685, and also by that of 1691. He m. Elizabeth, dau. of Alexander Corbet of Arkboll, Ross, with issue, three sons and five daus. : — Hugh, Donald, John, Elizabeth, Barbara, Christina, Jane.
  

• b3c1d1. Captain Hugh Mackay 3rd of Borley (->June 1719), commanded a company of Mackays raised in 1689 to assist General Hugh Mackay of Scoury, and was afterwards appointed constable of Ruthven Castle. He was retoured heir to his father, Captain William, 13th April, 1704, when his mother " Elizabeth Corbet being solemnly sworn, as said is, gave her great solemne oath, by the name of the Great God Almighty with uplifted hands and eyes to Heaven " (Reay Papers). He m., first, Anne, dau. of the 2nd Lord Reay, but had no issue by her. He m., secondly, Jane, dau. of Patrick Dunbar of Sidera. They had sasine to themselves in life-rent and to their eldest son in fee of the lands of Sidera, 18th June, 1719, and there the captain continued to reside until his death. His children were : — Hugh, Patrick, John, Barbara, William, George, Donald, Robert, Angus, Elizabeth
  

• b3c1d1e1. Hugh, who d. unmarried before 1719.
  
• b3c1d1e2. Captain Patrick Mackay 4th of Borley (->1763), commanded a company of Mackays during the Mar rebellion of 1715, and after disponing his rights over Edderachilis to Lord Reay and selling Sidera to the Earl of Sutherland, joined General Oglethorpe in the expedition to the new settlement at Georgia in 1732, accompanied by a large body of people from Edderachilis,. For how it fared with these Mackay settlers see 'Joseph's Town and its Plantations in Colonial Georgia' by Heath Barrow. He m. in 1716 Helen, dau. of the Rev. lye Mackay, Clyne, and by her had one dau. Jane Mackay, m. Alexander Gordon, from Fife, and had the following issue: Major Alexander Gordon of the 2nd Foot, Major George Gordon of the 8th West India Regiment, and Major Hugh Gordon of the 16th Foot and who was afterwards Lieutenant-General and Governor of Jersey.
  
• b3c1d1e3. John of Tordarroch, Dornoch, m. Jane, dau. of George Gray of Skibo by his second wife, Betty, a dau. of Sir James Dalrymple. He sold the lands of Tordarroch to the Earl of Sutherland, 25th May, 1758. See 'Joseph's Town and its Plantations in Colonial Georgia' by Heath Barrow. They had two sons and two daus.: George, Hugh, Jane & Elizabeth
  

• b3c1d1e3f1. George, an ensign in the Earl of Sutherland's regiment, obtained a company in the 60th Royal American regiment, 1778. He m. Mary, dau. of Colonel Houston of the Scots Brigade in Holland, who bore him Lieut. Robert of the 78th Highlanders, d. unmarried; and Hugh, d. unmarried.
  
• b3c1d1e3f2. Hugh, entered the army of the H.E.I.C. in 1766, and d. in 1768.
  
• b3c1d1e3f3. Jane
  
• b3c1d1e3f4. Elizabeth, both d. unmarried.
  

• b3c1d1e4 Barbara, first wife of George Gray of Skibo, had sasine in virtue of her contract of marriage, 31st July, 1716, of the lands of Cuthel, Hiltoun, Achlach, and the Mains of Skibo.
  
• b3c1d1e5 William, emigrated to Georgia
  
• b3c1d1e6 George, a writer at Edinburgh, 1731
  
• b3c1d1e7 Donald, a merchant in London
  
• b3c1d1e8 Robert, a merchant in Rotterdam
  
• b3c1d1e9 Angus
  
• b3c1d1e10 Elizabeth
  

• b3c1d2. Capt. Donald, who d 1700 as a young man when he drowned, trying to harpoon a shark off the ship the Rising Sun in the Caribbean. See the Darien expedition.
  
• b3c1d3. Rev. John Mackay, of Lairg, third son of Captain William of Borley, finished his theological course at Utrecht, Holland, in 1704, and in 1706 became minister of Durness. In 1714 he was translated to the parish of Lairg, where he laboured till his death in 1753. The moral and spiritual condition of Lairg at his settlement was lamentably low, but under his fostering care a great change came over the people. He was known as Am Ministear Laidir, the Strong Minister, a powerful athlete who often found his strength useful in chastising obstreperous members of his flock, and taught them to respect his arm as well as his piety. In those wild times, when ministers had sometimes to go to the pulpit with a brace of pistols in their belts, he was just the man needed. He m. (contract 29th August, 1709) Catherine, eldest dau. of John Mackay of Kirtomy, and had issue the four children mentioned below, besides others who d. young.
  

• b3c1d3e1. Rev. Thomas Mackay, minister of Lairg, appointed colleague and successor to his father at Lairg in 1748, and laboured in that parish with much acceptance till his death in 1803. He was a great contrast to his father. He was slenderly built and of a delicate constitution. He shrank from the world's rough ways, and enjoyed solitary, mystical contemplation of Divine things. If he lacked the picturesqueness of his father he had more than his spirituality of mind, and was well suited to follow up the good work in Lairg operating in new channels. He m. Margaret, dau. of John Montgomery of Ferndonald, and had issue three sons and two daus. : —
  

• b3c1d3e1f1. John Mackay of Rockfield, clerk to the Hon. Commissioners for Indian Affairs. He had to retire from the Indian Service on a handsome pension owing to the loss of eyesight, and employed his leisure in the congenial task of writing the Life of General Hugh Mackay of Scoury, which was so well received that a second edition was almost immediately called for. He bought the estate of Little Tarrel, near Tain, and called it Rockfield. He m. Isabella, dau. Of John Gordon of Carrol, but had no issue. His estate passed to his nephew, Sir James Mathieson of the Lews ; and his widow left his invested money as a Fund, called the Rockfield Bequest, for supplementing the salaries of the Free, now U.F., Church ministers of Sutherland and Strathnaver.
  
• b3c1d3e1f2. Capt Hugh Mackay (-23rd September, 1803) who entered the army of the H.EJ.C. and became captain a of the 4th Native Cavalry. When the Mahratha War broke out he took the field under General Wellesly, afterwards Duke of Wellington, and was temporarily appointed chief of the Commissariat, a post which he held on the eve of the battle of Assaye. At this juncture, when the small British force numbered only 4600, and had opposed to it 50,000, of whom 10,000 were disciplined and led by French officers, Captain Mackay could not brook the idea of remaining in the rear at commissariat work. On the evening before the battle of Assaye, Wellington's first great victory, he wrote the adjutant-general asking permission to join his old regiment in the impending fight, but was told that he could not be spared from his other duties Captain Mackay realised that to disobey was to forfeit his commission at the very least, but when next day he saw his old regiment lining up with the 19th Dragoons to deliver what appeared to be a forlorn charge, he galloped to the head of his troop and led them straight for the enemy's guns. This wild charge sealed the fate of the clay, but Mackay fell in the hour of victory. In Colonel Welch's Beminiscences it is recorded : — " By a noble act of disobedience, Mackay joined his corps ; and, leading the charge of his own regiment in a line with the leading squadron of the noble veterans of the 19th Dragoons, Mackay rode up to the enemy's guns and fell, man and horse, at their very muzzles When in the heat of the pursuit news was brought to Wellington that Captain Hugh Mackay was killed, his countenance changed, and the tears which fell from his eyes were nature's involuntary tribute to a kindred spirit. Shortly afterwards, Wellington in a dispatch did ample justice to Mackay's character." This battle was fought on 23rd September, 1803, but twelve years later, and a few days after Waterloo, Wellington wrote John, Captain Mackay"s brother, offering a commission to his nephew as a tribute of respect to the memory of one of the heroes of Assaye. On the field where he fell there stands a monument to his memory — the only one there, we understand — erected by his admiring comrades-in-arms.
  
• b3c1d3e1f3. Capt William Mackay (- 27th March, 1804), who went to sea, wrote The Wreck of the Juno already referred to. This narrative greatly interested Lord Byron, and some of his finest passages in Don Juan descriptive of a shipwreck is based upon Mackay's account. Thomas Moore, Byron's biographer, thus writes of Mackay's production: — "It will be felt, I think, by every reader, that this is one of the instances in which poetry must be content to yield the palm to prose. There is a pathos in the last sentences of the seaman's recital which the artifices of metre and rhyme were sure to disturb, and which, indeed, no verses, however beautiful, could half so beautifully and powerfully express." He became captain of the Perseverance, and afterwards of the Daniel. In 1801 he made a voyage up the Red Sea with stores for General Baird's army in Egypt, during which he made a splendid display of seamanship, saving the Real Fidelissimo, which had on board a detachment of the 86th Foot. He d. at Calcutta, unmarried, 27th March, 1804.
  
• b3c1d3e1f4. Catherine Mackay, m. Captain Donald Mathieson of Shiness,Lairg, and had issue : —1. Sheriff Duncan Mathieson, 2. Sir James Mathieson (17 November 1796 – 31 December 1878) who purchased the Lews.,3. Captain Thomas Mathieson of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Also some daus
  
• b3c1d3e1f5 Harriet x Rev George Gordon
  

• b3c1d3e2. Elizabeth, m. the Rev. Angus Sage, Locharron, and had issue : —
  
• b3c1d3e3 Janet Mackay, m. John Poison, Navidale, and had issue : —
  
• b3c1d3e4. Barbara Mackay, m. Eev. George Munro, minister of Farr 1754-80, and had issue Mary, who d. unmarried at Dornoch.
  

• b3c1d4. Elizabeth, m., first, the Hon. Charles Mackay of Sandwood (See Sandwood Mackays), secondly, Robert Neilson Aberach Mackay (See Abeeach Mackays), and thirdly, John Grey of Rhine, Rogart, who gave her sasine in life-rent of the lands of Rhine in virtue of their contract of marriage, 2nd December, 1707.
  
• b3c1d5. Barbara, m. Hector Mackay of Skerray (See Strathy Mackays).
  
• b3c1d6. Christina, m. Hugh Munro of Achany, and had sasine of Achany, etc., in life-rent, 3rd February, 1691.
  
• b3c1d7. Isobell, m. John Mackay of Melness (See Melness Mackays).
  
• b3c1d8. Jane, m. Murdo, eldest son of Robert, son of Murdo Neilson, the Aberach chieftain (See Aberach Mackays).
  

• b3c2. Angus, second son of Donald Mackay Ha. of Borley. He commanded a company at Killicrankie, where he fell.
  
• Angus m., first, Christina, dau. of Angus Mackay of Kinnisid, by whom he had:
  

• b3c2d1 Hugh, d. unmarried
  
• b3c2d2 John
  
• b3c2d3 Lieut. William, third son of Angus Mackay by his first wife. In The House and Clan of Mackay he is said to have been m. twice, and to have had two sons :
  

• b3c2d3e1.John Mackay, a surgeon at Armadale, Farr, witnessed a document among the Reay Papers, dated 13th June, 1/69. He afterwards settled at Falsaid, Tongue, and m. Margaret, dau. of John Poison of Rogart, with issue one son and two daus. : —
  

• b3c2d3e1f1. William, m. 4th March, 1784, Jane, dau. of Kenneth Scobie, Achimore, by his wife, a dau. of the tutor of Farr. He emigrated to Prince Edward's Island in 1806, and d. there in 1826. Some time after his arrival in Prince Edward's Island, and while Britain was at war with France, he raised a company of Colonial Highlanders of which he became captain. He had issue ten sons and two daus., but the only child who survived to have issue was
  

• b3c2d3e1f1g1 John Mackay, was born in Scotland, 13th February, 1800, m. in Prince Edward's Island Sibla, dau. of Lieut. John Mackenzie. He emigrated in 1838 to New South Wales, and d. at Newcastle there, 11th November, 1851, leaving issue four sons and four daus. : —
  

• b3c2d3e1f1g1h1. George Mackay, grazier, Dungog, born in 1821, and d. about 1900. He m. Jane Scott Macdonald-Cooper, widow of Dr. John Cooper, and left issue one son and three daus. : — George Alexander Mackay, grazier, Melbec, Dungog, one of the leading men in that part of N.S. Wales, and foremost in works that tend to the religious and social welfare of his countrymen, Sybla J. Mackay, m. Frederick A. Hooke, Dingadee, N.S. Wales, 18th November, 1874, Mary Anne.
  
• b3c2d3e1f1g1h2. John Kenneth, grazier, Dungog, N.S. Wales, b. 1828, m. Isabella Hooke, issue two sons :— John Kenneth ; and William H., grazier, Anambah, West Maitland, N.S. Wales, m. his cousin Adelaide, dau. of Augustus Hooke by Louisa Barbara Mackay, with issue (William ; John ; Emily ; and Violet).
  
• b3c2d3e1f1g1h3. Duncan Forbes Mackay, who d. at Dulcalmah, N.S.W., 1887, m. Lenora Hooke, issue seven children: — Duncan; Louis; Ada 'Mrs. George Peele) ; Mary Anne ; Agnes ; Alma ; and Ethel.
  
• b3c2d3e1f1g1h4. Charles Boyce Mackay, b. 5th January, 1837, a stockman, Dungog, m. Alice Cutler, and has two sons and five daus. : — Charles ; Kenneth ; Anne ; Amelia ; Alice Margaret ; Louisa ; and Eva Augusta.
  
• b3c2d3e1f1g1h5. Jane Mackay, m. Vincent T. W. Dowling, Cannigalla., N.S. Wales
  
• b3c2d3e1f1g1h6. Jessie Johanna Mackay, m. George James Cobb, Anambah
  
• b3c2d3e1f1g1h7. Amelia Caroline Mackay, m. Edward Sparke, Hcxam, N.S. Wales, of the firm of '-Sparke & Clift." She d. in 1888
  
• b3c2d3e1f1g1h8. Louisa Barbara Mackay, m. Augustus Hooke
  

• b3c2d3e2 George, an exciseman in Greenock, about 1818, who afterwards lived at Stewart-Hall, Bute, but had no issue.
  

• Angus m., secondly, Anna Sinclair, who bore him four sons : —
  

• b3c2d4. Hugh, who disponed his wadset of Skinit to his brother, Donald, 1699.
  
• b3c2d5 Donald of Skinit, afterwards in Ribigill, m. Esther Gunn, and had an elder son Angus, who had a son William in Ribigill in 1769. Donald of Skinit is also believed to have been the father of Hugh of Kirkiboll.
  
• b3c2d6 George
  
• b3c2d7. John
  

• b3c3. Major lye of Keoldale, m., first, Eupham Mackay, who bore him: — John in Balmulich, Durness, 1723; Hugh; Anna, m. Hector Munro ; and Christina. He also m. a second time.
  
• b3c4. Donald.
  

Resources

• Full text of "The book of Mackay" by Angus Mackay
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackay_of_Borley
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackay_of_Scoury
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scourie
• https://electricscotland.com/history/nation/mackay.htm
• https://alchetron.com/Mackay-of-Borley
• Life of Lieut. General Hugh Mackay of Scoury, commander in chief of the forces in Scotland, 1689 and 1690, colonel commandant of the Scottish brigade, in the service of the States general, and a privy-counsellor in Scotland by Mackay, John, of Rockfield (1836)
• Michael Titlestad (2013) Preservation by Shipwreck: The Memory of William Mackay, The Mariner's Mirror, 99:1, 39-51, DOI: 10.1080/00253359.2013.766997
• 'Joseph's Town and its Plantations in Colonial Georgia' by Heath Barrow

Related Projects

• The Darien Scheme

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