When Shewglie mounted his mare to start for Inverness she turned three times tuaitheal -that is, against the sun.  His old henwife marked the evil omen and entreated him not to go. He went and never returned. He must have been a man of striking character. He was still much spoken of among old people when I was a boy.  His "evil eye" was so powerful, and so little under his control, that, if he looked at a beast belonging to himself and admired it, the beast died.

All the men of Urquhart and Glenmoriston who sur-rendered - 16 from Urquhart and 68 from Glenmoriston -- were kept prisoners in the Gaelic Church, Inverness, until they were transferred to a Government ship, which sailed with them on 22nd May for Tilbury Fort on the Thames. Old Shewglie died in the Fort.  The belief in Glen-Urquhart was that he was burned to death in a barrel of tar, but it appears by papers at Castle Grant that he died a natural death.  His son and the minister were, in response to peti-tions to the Government, allowed to return home.

Donald Mackay and the other prisoners were, without trial or enquiry, shipped off to Barbados in the West Indies, virtually as slaves.  Many of them succumbed to their evil treatment in the Thames and during the voyage.  Of the rest only 18 were alive in 1749, and of these six or seven only saw their own country again.  Donald Mackay, who in 1746 was 19 or 20 years of age, and had been educated in Inverness, was only a short time in the island when he escaped as a stowaway to Jamaica, where, assuming the name of Mac-donald, he adopted a planter's life.  Many years afterwards he returned to Glen-Urquhart (where he was sometimes called Donald Mackay Macdonald), and became tenant of Kerrow-gair (now the farm of Drumbuie), and married Mary, daughter of Alexander Macphie, the old tenant of that farm. Her father and a brother of his also fought for Prince Charles, the brother being killed at Culloden.

Donald Mackay, who built Drumbuie House, retained his interest in the Jamaica plantation, and was remembered by old people whom I knew as a boy.  They always called him Domhnull-an-Or (Donald of the Gold).  A very old woman who remembered him told me that he always wore knee-breeches and silk stockings.  Donald died in August, 1791, survived by his wife, Mary Macphie, three sons (John, William, and Duncan), and a daughter, Mary.

John Mackay Macdonald when he grew up was sent by his father to Jamaica to take charge of the plantation.  John was there when his father died.  He, after years had passed, re-turned to Glen-Urquhart and resided in Lakefield House (now Kilmartin), with his wife, Catherine Maria, and several children. His second son, John, was baptised there on 10th November, 1808.  Old men from the Lakefield district told me 70 years ago that he paid for their education in the Braefield school.  Catherine Maria having in 1816 died at sea on her passage from Berbice, John married a second time and bought the estate of Carrigeenaveagh, near Cork where he died, leaving by his first wife four sons, the eldest being William, Colonel of the 25th Regiment (King's Own Borderers).

John Mackay Macdonald’s brother William went to Demerara, where he died young and unmarried.   His youngest brother, Duncan (my grandfather) who was born at Kerrowgair House (now Drumbuie) on 18th June, 1773 (when his father's name is written Donald McCay"), joined in 1793 the Grant Fencibles raised in that year. After some service in the Fencibles he joined the 71st Highland Light Infantry.  His mother was alive at the time and resided at Lewistown.  The expectation was that a commis-sion would be purchased for Duncan by his brother, John Mackay Macdonald, who had possession of his father's estate, and paid his mother's household and other expenses.   The commission, however, was never bought, the reason given by John being that Duncan was too careless and indifferent to profit by a commission.  Duncan early rose to be Colour-Sergeant, and fought throughout the Peninsular War, taking part in the famous retreat to Corunna, in the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos, and, among others, in the battles of Salamanca, Pyrenees, and Toulouse.  He was also in the Expedition to South America, and was taken prisoner at Buenos Aires in 1807, and kept for a period in charge of a priest who was very good to him.  He was at Quatre Bras, where he was temporarily blinded by an explosion of gunpowder.  He consequently was in hospital on the day of Waterloo.  After his discharge he returned to Glen-Urquhart and lived at Lewistown until his death in August, 1849. His mother died in June, 1822.  His wife was Mary Gibson, a native of Lanarkshire. by whom he had two children, William (my father), born at Cork on 30th October, 1803, and Mary (Mrs Kennedy).  These children, losing their mother during their father's captivity in Buenos Aires, were sent home from Lanarkshire and were brought up by their grandmother - their uncle, John Mackay Macdonald, making an allowance for their maintenance and education out of their father's share of Domhnull-an-Or's estate.  Their father, when he returned, called upon John to account for that share.  John answered that it had been exhausted in the maintenance and education of the two children, and that he had nothing to account for. The result was that the brothers quarrelled and ceased correspondence.

When my father reached the age of seventeen or thereby he decided to join the army; and, as he had no prospect of a commission being purchased for him, he started for Inverness to join as a private.  At Temple House he was met by John Macdonald, a carpenter (whom I remember well as an old man), who enquired where he was going.   My father explained, and Macdonald told him that he was very foolish to join the army, and urged him to learn a trade.  The result was that my father returned home, and became an apprentice to Alexander Grant, carpenter, Milton.  In a few years he started on his own account, and built up a considerable business as a contractor.  He had fairly large building contracts and wire fencing contracts with, among others, the proprietors of Glen-Urquhart, Glenmoriston, The Mackintosh Estates in Badenoch and Lochaber, and the Estates of Foyers, Gorthleck, Guisachan, and Glenfeshie.  He married on 17th June, 1825, Christian Fraser (born 4th June, 1805), daughter of Charles Fraser, tacksman of Ruiskich.  Her mother was Elizabeth Macdougall, sister of John Macdougall, the author of " Oran Bhraigh Rusgaich," which has been a favourite song in the Loch Ness district since his time.   Elizabeth's mother again was Christian Grant, of the family of Glenbeg in Strathspey, who was married to Dugald Macdougall, tenant of Tighnaherick, Glen-Urquhart, who was a son of Donald Macdougall, tenant of Borlummore in and before the year 1746.  Charles Fraser was a native of Dochgarroch, and, as I have said, a cousin of Alexander Fraser, father of the late Charles Fraser, later Charles Fraser-Mackintosh, M.P., author of  Antiquarian Notes, Invernessiana, Letters of Two Centuries, The last Macdonalds of Isla, and other works.  My parents had five sons - Duncan, Charles, John, Donald, and myself -- and six daughters - Mary (Mrs Smith), Eliza-beth (Mrs Forbes), Janet (Mrs Fraser Campbell), Catherine (Mrs Macdonald), Ann (died unmarried), and Caroline (Mrs Davidson).  Duncan died in Buenos Aires, and John and Donald both in the United States.  I am the last surviving member of the family.

My father died at Blairbeg on 8th May, 1887, and my mother on 15th October in the same year.   They had a married life together of 62 years.  In 1886 my father and I were together on the Moor of Culloden, where his grandfather fought one hundred and forty years before.

In the Appendix to "Urquhart and Glenmoriston" about the Mackays of Achmonie, I mention that John Mackay Macdonald's male line became extinct on the death of his grandson, Donald Mackay Macdonald, in or about the year 1860.  I was so informed in 1892 by Mr O'Callaghan, Cork, a near relative of Mr Robert O'Callaghan, the husband of John Mackay Macdonald's only daughter by his second marriage.  I have now ascertained that the information was incorrect.  There are still male and female descendants of John Mackay Macdonald.  His eldest son, William McCay Macdonald (first cousin of William Mackay, my father), rose to be Colonel of the King's Own Borderers, and retired with the rank of Lieutenant-General.  He left a family of ten, one of whom, Duncan, of Lincolns Inn Fields, is living. in South Africa.  John Mackay Macdonald's second son, John, was in the 33rd Regiment of Foot.  His third son, Angus, joined the Royal Navy, and was lost at sea as a midshipman. His fourth son, Duncan, was Surgeon Major.  Duncan's eldest son, Duncan Donald Charles McCay Macdonald, was Major in the 76th West Riding Regiment (The Duke of Wellington’s).  His second son, Alistair, joined the Royal Navy and was lost at sea in 1885.  His third son, Kenneth, still lives.  Major Duncan left two children, Malcolm Grant McCay Macdonald, and Miss Beryl McCay Macdonald, both surviving.  It was from Miss Beryl McCay Macdonald that I got the corrected information which I now give.   John Mackay Macdonald married as his second wife Ellen Hilliard Fuller, of Cork.  They had one child, Frances Fuller Macdonald, who married Robert O'Callaghan of Blackrock, Cork, and left a son, the late Major George Henry Kenneth Mac-donald O'Callaghan, whose son, Aubrey E. O'Callaghan, resides at Blackrock.

When I was a boy my father was looked up to as the only representative in Glen-Urquhart of the old Achmonie Family according to  tradition, the oldest Family in the Glen. When he came to live with his grandmother at the age of five or six he had no Gaelic.  He became an excellent Gaelic scholar, and two Gaelic songs by him are given among the selections from the bards (Appendix 0 in "Urquhart and Glenmoriston").  He and my mother were full of old Gaelic lore, and much of the legendary matter contained in that book I got from them.  An ancient Ossianic poem was taken down by me from him in or about the year 1868, and was printed by the late Mr J.  F. Campbell of Islay in his “Leabhar na Feinne" (Heroic Gaelic Ballads), published in 1872.

Your affectionate Grandfather,