The Shaws were one of the principal branches of the Clan Mackintosh, a branch in turn of the Earls of Fife, and ultimately of the old royal family of Dalriada. The name Mackintosh derives from Mac-an-toiseach (son of the commander).
Shaw of Tordarroch Tartan
The first chief was Shaw Macduff, second son of Duncan Macduff, Earl of Fife. He accompanied Malcolm IV on an expedition in 1160 to suppress a rebellion in Morayshire, and was made constable of Inverness Castle about 1163. He was succeeded by his son Shaw, 2nd of Mackintosh, in 1179. Farquhar, 5th of Mackintosh, led his clan against the army of King Haakon of Norway at the Battle of Largs in 1263. He was killed in a duel in 1265, leaving his infant son Angus as heir.
Angus, 6th of Mackintosh, was brought up at the court of his uncle, Alexander of Islay, the Lord of the Isles. He supported Robert Bruce during the War of Independence, which led to a feud with the Comyns that outlasted the war. In 1291 Angus married Eva, daughter and heiress of Dougal Dall, Chief of Clan Chattan in Lochaber. Thereafter the history of the Mackintoshes was bound up with Clan Chattan.
Clan Chattan takes its name from St. Cattan. The clan descends from Gillichattan Mor, the co-arb (baillie) of the Abbey of Ardchattan. The clan, like many others, rose to prominence after the downfall of the MacDonalds. Under the leadership of the Mackintosh chiefs, Clan Chattan evolved into a confederation — the original Chattan clans Macpherson, Cattanach, Macbean and Macphail, with the Mackintosh clans Shaw, Farquharson, Ritchie, McCombie and MacThomas, and other clans not originally related by blood to the others, MacGillivray, Davidson, Maclean of Dochgarroch, MacQueen of Pollochaig, Macintyre of Badenoch, and Macandrew — each under the leadership of its own chief.
Shaw Mor, a great-grandson of Angus, 6th of Macintosh and Eva of Clan Chattan was, by tradition, the leader of Clan Chattan at the battle on the North Inch, Perth in 1396. He received Rothiemurchus as a reward but the lands were sold in the 16th century. His son, James, was killed at Harlaw in 1411 but his heir Alasdair “Ciar” succeeeded him. Alasdair’s brother, Adam (Ay) of Tordarroch was founder of Clan Ay. Tordarroch acted for Clan Shaw and at Inverness in 1543 and Termit in 1609 signed the Clan Chattan Bands. They supported Montrose and raised the Shaw contingent in the Jacobite rising of 1715. Alasdair’s second son, Alexander, was ancestor of the Shaws of Dell; his third, James, of the Shaws of Dalnavert; his 4th, Farquhar, was progenitor of Clan Farquharson; and the fifth, Iver, was ancestor of the Shaws of Harris and the Isles.
The present chief of Clan Chattan, Duncan Alexander Mackintosh of Torcastle, lives in Zimbabwe. The present chief of Mackintosh is John Mackintosh of Mackintosh, who lives in Scotland. In 1970 Lord Lyon recognized Major Iain Shaw of Tordarroch as chief of Shaw. His son is the present chief.
Lineal Genealogy
1. William Shaw (1720-?), brought to America as a prisoner after the Battle of Culloden. He was a farmer in Augusta County, Virginia. He married Agnes Carswal (c1727-?).
2. Dorcas Shaw (abt 1754-1814). She married John Hildreth (c1747-1814), a farmer and slave owner in Bourbon County, Kentucky.
3. William Hildreth (abt 1776-1816). He married Mary (Polly) Kenney (1779-aft 1850), daughter of Capt. James and Mary “Polly” (Frame) Kenney.
4. Angeline Hildreth (1806-1860). She married John Mallory (abt 1793-bef 1880), a farmer in Champaign County, Illinois.
Coat of Arms
Shaw of Tordarroch: Quarterly, 1st, Or a lion rampant Gules armed and langued Azure; 2nd, Argent a fir-tree growing out of a mound in base seeded Proper, in the dexter canton a dexter hand couped at the wrist holding a dagger point downwards Gules; 3rd, chequy Argent and Azure, and on a chief of the Second three mullets of the First; 4th, Or a galley sails furled Azure flagged Gules oars in saltire of the Last. Crest: A dexter cubit arm couped and holding a dagger erect all Proper. Motto: Fide et Fortitudine (By Faith and Fortitude).
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“The thing which is the most outstanding and the most desirable to all healthy and good and well-off persons, is a peaceful life with honor.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BCE-43 BCE), Pro Sestio, xlv, 98
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” — Anatole France (1844-1924), French author
“Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910), American humorist
“Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.” — J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973), The Lord Of the Rings
“People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.” — Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Danish theologian
“I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.” — Diogenes (412-323 BCE)
The Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem was one of the three great military orders of knighthood in the Middle Ages.
Legendary History
According to legendary sources, the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus pre-dates the Crusades. Tradition says that Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Cæsarea, founded a leper hospital near Cæsarea in 369 CE. In the following century, the hospitaller monks there established another hospital at Ptolemaïs, gradually extending their mission to include caring for pilgrims to the Holy Land. In 530 CE, they moved their headquarters to Jerusalem, where they established themselves outside the walls of the city at the Gate of Saint Ladre, on the site of an earlier leper hospital that had been founded in the time of the Jewish High Priest, John Hyrcanus, who reigned 135 to 105 BCE.
The Crusades
The Order began to acquire a military character during the crusades, when it began to admit members of the military Orders of Saint John, of the Temple, and of the Holy Sepulcher who had become leprous. Because many knights of the Order were lepers who considered themselves the “living dead,” the Order acquired a reputation for bravery — death in the defense of their faith held no terrors for them.
The hospital is claimed to have been officially established as a military and hospitaller order in 1098, when the Christians captured Jerusalem. The Order was entrusted with the defense of the castles of Kharbet el-Zeitha and Madjel el-Djemeriah. It began to acquire properties throughout Palestine and Europe by gift from wealthy patrons. Baldwin IV, the Leper King of Jerusalem, was especially generous. However, claims of an early date as a military order might be exaggerated. When Louis VII of France granted the hospital the Barony of Boigny in 1154, there was no mention of its military role.
When the Muslims re-captured Jerusalem in 1187, Saladin took the Saint Lazarus hospital under his personal protection. He permitted the poor of the city who could not pay ransom to leave Jerusalem by Saint Ladre’s Gate and take refuge in the hospital of the Order.
In 1191, the Order moved its headquarters to the coastal city of Saint Jean d’Acre, formerly Ptolemaïs, where it built a fortress-hospice and the Church of Saint Lazarus des Chevaliers. The Order acquired sovereign rights over a portion of the city outside the walls and was recognized as a sovereign power by the Pope and other temporal rulers. It was also granted Saint Lazarus’ Tower and the Church of Saint Lazarus near Caesarea.
Defeat
The Order shared the gradual defeat of Europe’s crusading project over the next hundred years. Most of the leper knights of the Order were slain in the Battle of Gaza in 1244. Those who were not present at Gaza accompanied St. Louis IX of France on his Egyptian Crusade and took part in his expeditions against Syria during the years 1250 to 1254. The first evidence of the hospital as a chivalric order was the 1254 Bull “Cum a nobis petitur,” which confirmed the brothers of Saint Lazarus as a military and hospitaller order under the rule of Saint Augustine. When Saint Jean d’Acre fell to the Moslems in 1291, the European orders retreated to Europe and lost their crusading function.
Amalgamation in Italy
The Vatican attempted to amalgamate the Order of Saint Lazarus with the Order of Saint John in 1489. The effort was unsuccessful. Both the Priory of Capua in Italy and the Priory of Boigny in France resisted amalgamation. In 1517, the Pope recognized the Prior of Capua as Grand Master of the order. In 1572, the Italian order was amalgamated with the Order of St. Maurice, under the protection of the House of Savoy. The amalgamated order is now one of the royal orders of Italy.
Resistance in France
The French Priory of Boigny resisted both amalgamation with the Order of Saint John in 1489 and the appointment in 1517 of the Italian Prior of Capua as Grand Master. In 1557, the French king assumed control of the Boigny Priory and continued the order in France as a separate, royal French order. All royal French orders were abolished by the revolutionary assembly in 1791. Some of the French orders were later restored, but the Order of Saint Lazarus was not.
Indpendent Survival?
Although the details are controversial, a modern Order of St. Lazarus claims continuity from the original order through a survival of the royal French order. Operating under the patronage of the Duke of Seville, the order has become quite popular among middle-class Americans.
Critics of the independent order assert that the last knight of the royal French order was admitted about 1788 and that the last surviving member died in 1857. They contend that the independent order was established in 1910 as a revival of the extinct order.
Personal Connection
Conrad Hauri (”Chunradus dictus Hornus miles”), a knight of the Order of Saint Lazarus, was living at the order’s Commandery of Gfenn, near Dübendorf, Zürich. He was named in a charter dated 13 April 1272, when the order sold the church at Meiringen to Kloster Interlaken. This is the first mention of anyone with the surname Hauri and led to my particular interest in the order.
Ulrich Howry, a Mennonite, was granted 150 acres at Conestoga, Pennsylvania in 1717 and enjoined to be naturalized. He died in 1723, dividing his estate between his “brethren” and his widow Barbara.
Barbara Howry’s Bond as Administrator of Wolrick Howry’s Estate transcribed by Pat Sorenson
Know all men by these presents that wee Barbara Howry John Lampher and Edmund Carlisle ? of the County of Chester and province of Pennsylvania are held and firmly bound unto Peter Evan Register General for the probate of wills and granting letters of Administration in and for the Province of Pennsylvania in the sum of one Hundred pounds Currant mony of the province aforesaid to be paid to the Register General his certain Attorney Executor Administrator or Assigns to which payment well and truly to be made toe bind ourselves jointly and severaly for and in the whole our heirs Exe. Of Adm firmly by these presents Sealed with our Seals Dated the Second day of June Anno Dom 1724.
The condition of this obligation is such that if the above bounders Barbara Howry Adminstrator of all and Singular ye goods rights and credits of Wolrick Howry Deceased do make or cause to be made a true and perfect inventory of all the singular ye goods rights and credits of tye said Deceased which have or shall come to hands possesion or knowledge of the Said Barbara Howry or into the hands and possession of any other person or persons [hole in document] the same so made exhibit or cause to be exhibited into the Reg. off of Co. of Chester [looks like due to hole] on or before the Forth Day of Jun necessary and value given such at the time of his Death were of the said Deceased or which at all [hole] Shall come to the hands possession of knowledge of persons.
Barbara Howry or into the hands and possession of any other person or persons the same do we are truly administer according to laws and further doe make or cause to be made a true and just account of their said administration at or before the first day of June which will be in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twenty six and all of rest and residue of said goods rights and credits which shall be found remaining upon the Adm. Account of the same being first examined and allowed of by the Orphans Court of the County of Chester shall deliver and pay unto such person and persons respectively as the said Court by its decree and sentence as the said Court by its Decree and Sentence and persuant to Law shall limitt and appoint ??? that shall hereafter appear that any Last will and Testament was made b y the Deceased by the Exe. of Executors therein named to exhibitt the same unto the Registers Office at Chester making request to have it allowed and approved of Accordingly of the Said Barbara Howry’85 .being thereunto requested do render and deliver up the s aid letter of Administration Approbation of such certain being first had ye made at the said office that then this obligation to be void or else to be and remain in full force and virtue with effect.
Sealed and Delivered in the Presence of
Fran: Worley (his mark)
Barbara Howry (her mark)
David ??? (his mark)
???
Edm d Cartlisle
[three wax seals]
Inventory of Wolrick Howry’s Estate transcribed by Pat Sorenson
Inventory of the Lands and Tennements Goods and Chattles of Wolrick Howry late of Conestoga Deceased. Taken and applied by us the subscribers as they was shewed us by his widdow Barbara Howry the Twentyeth day of March Anno domini 1723/4
Item
To 75 acres of land with all of the buildings and improvements thereon £ 20
To 1 mare and 2 colts £ 6 10
To 2 Cows and 2 Calves 4 10
To 2 young steers 2 5
To 5 piggs 15 0
To 5 yd farmming 7 6
To Sundry household goods 17 4
[Total] £ 35 5s.
The Grants are a Scottish clan, traditionally said to be descended from Gregor Mor MacGregor, who lived in the 12th century. On that basis the Grants are one of the principal branches of the Siol Alpin, of which Clan MacGregor is the chief. However, the name father of the clan is sometimes said to have been Haakon Magnus, a Norse king. The two traditions are not compatible. The first recorded ancestor of the chiefs was Sir Lawrence Grant, Sheriff of Inverness in 1263. The first ancestor from whom it is possible to trace the inheritance of the chiefship was Sir Ian Ruadh Grant, Sheriff of Inverness in 1434.
The present chief is Sir James Patrick Trevor Grant of Grant, Baronet and 33rd Chief. The clan is divided into five branch clans: Grant of Freuchie (the chiefs), Grant of Auchernack (Clan Allan), Grant of Tullochgorm (Clan Phadraig), Grant of Gartenbeg (Clan Donnachie, Baronets of Dalvey), Grant of Dellachapple (Clan Chiaran). The Grants of Corrimony and Grants of Ballindalloch are feudal Barons. Glenmoriston is also a possession of a branch of the family.
Battle of Dunbar
Peter Grant was taken prisoner at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650 and deported to America.
During the English Civil War, the Parliamentary Army executed King Charles I. His son Charles attempted to regain his father’s throne through various invasions originating in Scotland. The Scots, although by religion in sympathy with the Parliamentarians, were loyal to the Stuart dynasty. During one of these invasions Oliver Cromwell, Protector of England, marched on the Scots. The Scots surrounded the English army at Dunbar, but General David Leslie, commander of the Scottish army, believed that the English were still in the best position. The Covenanters (leaders of the Scottish Presbyterian Church) claimed that victory had been revealed to them in a vision and ordered Gen. Leslie to attack the English, which he did on 3 September 1650. The battle lasted all day and the Scots were defeated. Ten thousand of Leslie’s forces, including the whole of the Scottish foot, surrendered. Three thousand were killed. Cromwell wrote, “I do not believe that we have lost twenty men.”
One hundred forty members of Clan Grant, including Peter Grant, fought for Prince Charles under the command of the Chief’s brother at the Battle of Dunbar. The English pursued many remnants of the Scottish army as far as eight miles before capturing them. The English took 5,000 prisoners and marched them 100 miles from Dunbar to Durham and Newcastle in England. The Cathedral at Durham was converted into a prison for the prisoners. Banks wrote, “Their food consisted of Pottage made with Oatmeal, Beef and Cabbage, a full Quart at every Meal for every Prisoner. They had also Coals daily brought them, as many as made about 100 Fires both Night and Day and Straw to lie upon.” Yet, 1,600 of them died in 58 days from disease and lack of medical attention to their wounds. Of the surviving prisoners, 900 were sent to Virginia and 150 to New England. Peter Grant was among those deported to New England. They sailed on the ‘Unity’ captained by Augustine Walker. The ‘Unity’ sailed in the winter instead of waiting for spring, so the trip was rough and the prisoners had scurvy, but all arrived safely in Boston near the end of December. The prisoners were sold as indentured servants for £20-30 each, and were expected to work off the price of their voyage for 6-8 years, then be given their freedom. The typical cost for passage across the sea was £5, so Capt. Walker made quite a profit. Peter Grant was sold to work at the Lynn Iron Works in Massachusetts and like his fellow prisoners probably received his first medical attention after the battle from his purchasers.
Battle of Worcester
In 1651 another battle for Prince Charles, the Battle of Worcester, resulted in the deportation to New England of Peter’s brother, James Grant, and a kinsman of theirs, another James Grant.
Origin of the Grant Family of Berwick, Maine
A tradition in one branch of this Grant family claims that the surname was originally MacGregor and that an ancestor adopted the surname Grant, as did many of the MacGregors when that surname was outlawed in 1604 after the Battle of Glenfruin in 1603. Some American sources say our Grant family is probably from the Glenmoriston area of Scotland because only the Grants of Glenmoriston are said to have participated in the Battle of Dunbar at which Peter Grant was captured. However, Prof. Gordon Donaldson of the Scots Ancestry Research Society states that there is no authority for a particular part played by the Grants of Glenmoriston in that battle. In fact, James of Freuchie, the 16th chief of Grant, raised the entire clan for Bonnie Prince Charlie.
The confusion probably arose from events 100 years later. After the Revolution of 1688, the Grants of Freuchie supported the new regime, while the Grants of Glenmoriston supported the exiled Stuarts. During the Jacobite Rising of 1745, the Duke of Cumberland’s men ravaged the lands and burned the house of Grant of Glenmoriston. After the Battle of Culloden ended the Stuart hopes, Grant of Freuchie persuaded 70 of the Glenmoriston Grants to return to Inverness and surrender their arms, promising them their freedom. Instead, the government captured them, convicted them, and sold them as indentured servants in the colonies. In 1746, when the Young Pretender was in hiding in the Highlands, he took refuge in a cave with a band of robbers who have gone down in legend as “The Seven Men of Glenmoriston.” One of those men was a “Black” Peter Grant.
Instead of Glenmoriston, it is more likely that this family of Grants came from Strathspey. In 1650, 140 Grants fought at the Battle of Dunbar under the command of the chief’s brother. A year later, 150 Grants from Strathspey, the area ruled by the chiefs, Grant of Freuchie, fought under the chief at the Battle of Worcester. Because three different Grants in this family were captured and deported after these two battles, it seems likely that all three came from Strathspey.
Peter Grant was probably not among the gentry of the clan. After the Battles of Dunbar and Worcester those who held the rank of Captain and above (that is, the gentlemen) were imprisoned, while those below the rank of Captain were transported. Further, neither Peter nor the two James are recorded as having been officers at Dunbar or Worcester.
In 1997 I suggested James Grant the Drummer might have been James Grant of Auchterblair, an illegitimate son of James Grant of Ardneidlie and Logie. In 1629 James of Auchterblair married his cousin Agnes, daughter of Robert Grant of Lurg. They had a son Peter, born about 1630. They are also said, on unknown authority, to have been the parents of Deborah Grant, wife of John Knowlton, of Ipswich, Massachusetts. This family of Grants came to an unknown end. They were replaced at Auchterblair by a different family of Grants sometime before 1673.
It was a nice theory but it didn’t bear up to yDNA analysis. The yDNA signature of the descendants of Peter Grant (R-CTS3655) does not match the yDNA signature of the chief’s family (R-DF88).
Grant Tartan
Lineal Genealogy
Gregory le Grant, said to have been a cadet of the MacGregors.
Sir Laurence le Grant (about 1230-?), Sheriff of Inverness; married a daughter of Gilbert de Comyn.
John le Grant of Inverallan (about 1296-?).
Sir John Grant (about 1333-about 1370), married Elizabeth.
Sir John Grant (about 1380-?), married Matilda, daughter of Gilbert Comyn of Glencairnie.
Sir Duncan Grant of Freuchie (before 1413-about 1472).
John Grant, younger of Freuchie (about 1448-1482), married Muriel, daughter of Malcolm Macintosh of that Ilk.
John Grant of Freuchie (about 1462-1528), married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Ogilvy of Findlater.
James Grant of Freuchie (about 1485-1553), married Elizabeth, daughter of John, Lord Forbes.
John Grant of Freuchie (1507-1585), married Margaret Stewart, daughter of John, Earl of Atholl.
Duncan Grant, younger of Freuchie (1527-1582), married Margaret, daughter of William Macintosh of that Ilk.
James Grant of Logie & Ardneidlie (abt 1568-?), had by an unknown mistress:
James Grant of Auchterblair (abt 1605-?), married Agnes Grant of Lurg.
Peter Grant of Auchterblair (abt 1630).
***
James Grant “the Drummer” (abt 1605-1683), captured at the Battle of Worcester (1651) and deported to America. He left property to Peter Grant, to Peter Grant’s son James, and to his own foster daughter Elizabeth Grant, the daughter of Peter’s brother James, but without naming his relationship to any of them. Historians are divided on the question, but he might have been the father of Peter Grant.
***
Peter Grant (abt 1634-abt 1712), of Berwick, Maine; married 1664 Joanna (Ingersoll?), the widow of his brother James Grant “the Scotchman” and perhaps daughter of Lt. George Ingersoll, of Salem, Massachusetts. Peter Grant was captured at the Battle of Dunbar (1650) and deported to America.
Capt. James Grant (1672-1735), of Kittery, Maine; married Mary Nason, daughter of Jonathan Nason, of Berwick, Maine. James Grant served as a Captain in the local militia during King Philip’s War.
Capt. James Grant (1703-1765), of Kittery, Maine; married Sarah Joy, daughter of Ephraim Joy, of Kittery, Maine. James Grant was a member of the Louisburg Expedition against the French in 1745, and in 1757 Captain of the Montsweag Militia.
Capt. Andrew Grant (1730-1809), of Woolwich, Maine; married Elizabeth Dunton, daughter of Timothy Dunton, of Westport, Maine. Andrew Grant served as a Captain in the Penobscot Regiment during the American Revolution. In 1777 his company marched to the Relief of Machias, Maine, and engaged the British at the Battle of Machias.
Ruth Grant (1775-1860); married Malatiah Luce (1772-1849), of Vinalhaven, Maine. She was born the year before the American Revolution, went west with the Mormons to Nauvoo in 1838, and went from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City in 1850 at the age of 75. She died at Ogden, Utah in 1860 at the age of 85.
Coat of Arms
Grant of Freuchie: Gules three antique crowns Or. Crest: A burning hill proper. Supporters: Two savages proper. Motto: Stand fast.
The hill depicted in the crest is Craigeleachie (opposite Rothemurchus), where a fire was lighted to call the whole clan together in Strathspey, the seat of the Grants in Morayshire.
