page_title: Clan MacIntyre
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Clan MacIntyre / History
caption_attribution_description: "Mac Intire". A plate illustrated by R. R. McIan, from James Logan's The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, published in 1845.
context_page_description: Clan MacIntyre is a Highland Scottish clan. The name MacIntyre, means "son of the carpenter" Although no documented history of the clan exists, it is most commonly said to descend from Maurice Mac Neil a nephew of Somerled, the great 12th century leader of the Scottish Gaels. Through an ingenious strategy, Maurice secured the marriage of Somerled to the daughter of the King of Mann and the Isles, thus greatly increasing Somerled's territories. At an unknown date the clan journeyed from the Hebrides to the Scottish mainland where the chiefs established their home at Glen Noe, in Ardchattan Parish, on the east side of Loch Etive.
  The earliest recorded clan chiefs do not emerge until the 17th century. According to tradition, they had held the land at Glen Noe for centuries, although subject to a feudal tenure converted to money rent in later years. In 1806, however, the chief was forced to relinquish the tenancy of Glen Noe due to inability to meet the payments. He and his family subsequently emigrated to the United States.
context_section_description: Many accounts relate that at some point in the 13th century the MacIntyres became foresters to the Lords of Lorne, a hereditary post in which they continued as the territory subsequently passed from the MacDougalls to the control of the Stewarts and finally to the Campbells.
  After settling at Glen Noe, the chiefs are said to have held the land for centuries. While presumably owning the property outright originally, it is generally agreed that at some, uncertain date, they acquired a feudal obligation to the Campbells of Breadalbane. Initially, this entailed only a symbolic payment. Tradition identifies this as a snowball supplied at midsummer and a white calf surrendered but then killed and shared by landlord and tenant as a token of mutual esteem.
  The earliest recorded clan chiefs do not emerge until the 17th century. The earliest chief is Duncan, who married Mary, daughter of Patrick Campbell of Barcaldine. He died in 1695 and is buried at Ardchattan Priory.
  From this era comes a traditional account that the home of the MacIntyre chief was saved by the clan's ties to the MacDonalds. At the time of the civil war in Scotland the forces of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, had sacked Inveraray and marched north to the area of Glen Noe. As a tenant of the Campbells, the chief was deemed an opponent of the Royalist faction, which Montrose served. The chief, expecting no mercy, fled. As part of their campaign, the Royalist troops were under orders to destroy all houses in the neighbourhood and began to set fire to the chief's house.  The commander of Montrose's men, Sir Alexander MacDonald,extinguished the blaze before it became widespread and sent word to the chief that his property had been spared in recognition of the services the clan's founder had performed in contriving the marriage of Somerled, ancestor of the MacDonalds to Ragnhilda half a millennium earlier.
  Many MacIntyres subsequently joined MacDonald's army including the chief's piper. The chief, however, was with Campbell of Argyll at the battle of Inverlochy in February 1645 when the Campbells were surprised by Montrose's forces and routed.
  It is said that the MacIntyre chief at the time of the Jacobite rising of 1745, James (born c. 1727), would have joined the clans rallying to Prince Charles Edward Stuart but was dissuaded from doing so by his wife, who was a Campbell, and his neighbors. His loyalties to the Campbells were further deepened by the fact that his legal studies had been sponsored by the Campbell Earl of Breadalbane. Nonetheless, many MacIntyres were in the clan regiment of Stewart of Appin in the campaign of 1745–46, but they did not serve as an independent body.
  At some unknown date the symbolic snowball and calf tokens owed to the Campbells were commuted to payment of money rent which increased over the years. In 1806, the chief was forced to relinquish the tenancy of Glen Noe due to inability to meet the payments. The chief and his family emigrated to the United States, where the family continues to reside. Although the identities of the chiefs were always known to interested clan members, the chiefship of the clan was not officially recognized by Scottish authorities until 1991, when the coat of arms of James Wallace MacIntyre of Glenoe was confirmed by the Lord Lyon, King of Arms. The current chief of the clan is Donald Russell MacIntyre of Glenoe. The MacIntyre chiefs hold membership in the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs.
caption: A romantic depiction of a MacIntyre clansman illustrated by R. R. McIan, from James Logan's The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, 1845.[Note 3]
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