Raised to the peerage of the United Kingdom as Lord Seaforth and Baron Mackenzie of Kintail, in 1797. This nobleman was in many respects an able and remarkable man, was born in 1754, in full possession of all his faculties but a severe attack of scarlet fever, from which he suffered when about twelve years of age, deprived him of hearing and almost of speech. As he advanced in years he again nearly recovered the use of his tongue, but during the last two years of his life, grieving over the loss of his four promising sons, all of whom predeceased him, he became unable, or rather never made the attempt to articulate. In his youth he was intended to follow the naval profession, but his physical misfortunes made such a career impossible.
Little or nothing is known of the history of his early life. In 1784, and again in 1790, he was elected M.P. for the County of Ross. In 1787, in the thirty-third year of his age, he offered to raise a regiment on his own estates for the King's service, to be commanded by himself. In the same year the 74th, 75th, 76th, and 77th Regiments were raised, and the Government declined his patriotic offer, but agreed to accept his services in procuring recruits for the 74th and 75th. This did not satisify him, and he did not then come prominently to the front. On the 19th of May 1790, he renewed his offer, but the Government informed him that the strength of the army had been finally fixed at 77 Regiments, and his services were again declined. He was still anxious to be of service to his country, and when the war broke out in 1793, he for the third time renewed his offer, and placed his great influence at the service of the Crown. On this occasion a letter of service is granted in his favour, dated the 7th of March, 1793, empowering him, as Lieutenant-Colonel-Commandant, to raise a Highland battalion, which, being the first embodied during the war, was to be numbered the 78th, the original Mackenzie regiment having had its number previously reduced to the 72d. The battalion was to consist of one company of grenadiers, one of light infantry, and eight battalion companies. The Mackenzie chief at once appointed as his Major his own brother-in-law, Alexander Mackenzie, at that time of Belmaduthy but afterwards of Inverallochy and Castle Fraser, fourth and younger son of Colin Mackenzie, VI. of Kilcoy, then a captain in the 73d Regiment, and a man who proved himself on all future occasions well fitted for the post. The following notice, headed by the Royal arms, was immediately posted throughout the counties of Ross and Cromarty, on the mainland, and in the Island of Lewis:
"SEAFORTH'S HIGHLANDERS to be forthwith raised for the defence of his Glorious Majesty, King George the Third, and the preservation of our happy constitution in Church and State.
"All lads of true Highland blood willing to show their loyalty and spirit, may repair to Seaforth, or the Major, Alexander Mackenzie of Belmaduthy or the other commanding officers at headquarters at , where they will receive high bounties and soldier-like entertainment.
"The lads of this regiment will live and die together, as they cannot be draughted into other regiments, and must be reduced in a body, in their own country.
"Now for a stroke at the Monsieurs, my boys! King George for ever!
Huzza!"
The machinery once set agoing, applications poured in upon Seaforth for commissions in the corps from among his more immediate relatives, and from others who were but slightly acquainted with him. [Besides Seaforth himself, and his Major mentioned in the text, the following, of the name of Mackenzie, appear among the first list of officers:
Major. - Alexander Mackenzie of Fairburn, General in 1809.
Captains. - John Mackenzie of Gairloch, "Fighting Jack," Major in 1794. Lieutenant-Colonel the same year and Lieutenant-General in 1814; died the father of the British Army in 1860; and John Randoll Mackenzie of Suddie, Major-General in 1804, killed at Talavera in 1809.
Lieutenant. - Colin Mackenzie, Lieutenant-Colonel 91st Regiment.
Ensigns. - Charles Mackenzie, Kilcoy; and J. Mackenzie Scott, Captain 57th Regiment; killed at Albuera.]
The martial spirit of the people soon became thoroughly roused, and recruits came in so rapidly that on the 10th of July, 1793, only four months after the letter of service to Seaforth, the Regiment was marched to Fort-George, inspected and passed by Lieutenant-General Sir Hector Munro, when five companies were immediately embarked for Guernsey and the other five companies were landed in Jersey in September, 1793, and afterwards sent to Holland.
On the 13th of October, the same year, Mackenzie offered to raise a second battalion for the 78th, and on the 30th of the same month the King gave him permission to raise five hundred additional men on the original letters of service. But this was not what he wanted, and on the 28th of December following he submitted to the Government three alternative proposals for raising a second battalion. On the 7th of February, 1794, one of these was agreed to. The battalion was to be formed of eight battalion and two flank companies, each to consist of 100 men, with the usual number of officers and noncommissioned officers. He was, however, disappointed by the Government; for while he intended to have raised a second battalion for his own regiment, an order was issued signed by Lord Amherst, that it was to be considered a separate corps, whereupon the Lieutenant-Colonel-Commandant addressed the following protest to Mr Dundas, one of the Secretaries of State:
St Alban Street, 8th February, 1794.
Sir, - I had sincerely hoped I should not be obliged to trouble you again; but on my going to-day to the War Office about my letter of service (having yesterday, as I thought, finally agreed with Lord Amherst), I was, to my amazement, told that Lord Amherst had ordered that the 1000 men I am to raise were not to be a second battalion of the 78th, but a separate corps. It will, I am sure, occur to you that should I undertake such a thing, it would destroy my influence among the people of my country entirely and instead of appearing as a loyal honest chieftain calling out his friends to support their King and country, I should be gibbeted as a jobber of the attachment my neighbours bear to me. Recollecting what passed between you and me, I barely state the circumstance; and I am, with great respect and attachment, sir, your most obliged and obedient servant,
F. H. MACKENZIE.
This had the desired effect the order for a separate corps was rescinded, and a letter of service was issued in his favour on the 10th of February, 1794, authorising him, as Lieutenant-Colonel- Commandant, to add the new battalion, the strength of which was to be one company of grenadiers, one of light infantry, and eight battalion companies, to his own regiment. The regiment was soon raised, inspected and passed at Fort-George in June of the same year by Lieutenant-General Sir Hector Munro; and in July following the King gave permission to have it named, as a distinctive title, "The Ross-shire Buffs." The two battalions were amalgamated in June, 1796. Another battalion was raised in 1804 - letter of service, dated 17th April. These were again amalgamated in July, 1817.
Although the regiment was not accompanied abrby its Lieutenant-Colonel-Commandant, he continued most solicitous for its reputation and welfare, as we find from the various communications addressed to him regarding it and the conduct of the men by Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Mackenzie of Fairburn, appointed its Lieutenant-Colonel from the first battalion, [John Randoll Mackenzie, also from the first battalion, was appointed senior Major.] and then in actual command; but as the history of the 78th Highlanders is not our present object, we must here part company with it and follow the future career of Francis Humberston Mackenzie.
As a reward for his eminent services to the Government he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of the County of Ross, and, on the 26th of October, 1797, raised to the dignity of a peer of the United Kingdom, by the titles of Lord Seaforth and Baron Mackenzie of Kintail, the ancient dignities of his house, with limitation to the heirs male of his body. His Lordship, having resigned the command of the 78th, was, in 1798, appointed Colonel of the Ross-shire Regiment of Militia. In 1800 he was appointed Governor of Barbadoes, an office which he retained for six years, after which he held high office in Demerara and Berbice. While Governor of Barbadoes he was for a time extremely popular, and was distinguished for his firmness and even-handed justice. He succeeded in putting an end to slavery, and to the practice of slave-killing in the island, which at that time was of very common occurrence, and deemed by the planters a venal offence punishable only by a small fine of 15. In consequence of his humane proceedings in this matter he became obnoxious to many of the colonists, and, in 1806, he finally left the island. In 1808 he was made a Lieutenant-General.
These were singular incidents in the life of a man who may be said to have been deaf and dumb from his youth but who, in spite of these physical defects - sufficient to crush any ordinary man - had been able, by the force of his natural abilities and the favour of fortune, to overcome them sufficiently to raise himself to such a high and important position in the world. He took a lively interest in all questions of art and science, especially in natural history, and displayed at once his liberality and his love of art by his munificence to Sir Thomas Lawrence, in the youth and struggles of that great artist and famous painter, and by his patronage of others. On this point a recent writer says - "The last baron of Kintail, Francis. Lord Seaforth, was, as Sir Walter Scott has said, 'a nobleman of extraordinary talents, who must have made for himself a lasting reputation had not his political exertions been checked by painful natural infirmities.' Though deaf from his sixteenth year and though labouring under a partial impediment of speech, he held high and important appointments, and was distinguished for his intellectual activities and attainments … His case seems to contradict the opinion held by Kitto and others, that in all that relates to the culture of the mind, and the cheerful exercise of the mental faculties, the blind have the advantage of the deaf. The loss of the ear, that 'vestibule of the soul,' was to him compensated by gifts and endowments rarely united in the same individual. One instance of the chief's liberality and love of art may be mentioned. In 1796 he advanced a sum of L1000 to Sir Thomas Lawrence to relieve him from pecuniary difficulties. Lawrence was then a young man of twenty-seven. His career from a boy upwards was one of brilliant success, but he was careless and generous as to money matters, and some speculations by his father embarassed and distressed the young artist. In his trouble he applied to the Chief of Kintail. 'Will you,' he said in that theatrical style common to Lawrence, 'will you be the Antonio to a Bassanio?' He promised to pay the L1000 in four years, but the money was given on terms the most agreeable to the feelings and complimentary to the talents of the artist. He was to repay it with his pencil, and the chief sat to him for his portrait. Lord Seaforth also commissioned from West one of those immense sheets of canvas on which the old Academician delighted to work in his latter years. The subject of the picture was the traditionary story of the Royal hunt, in which Alexander the Third was saved from the assault of a fierce stag by Colin Fitzgerald, a wandering knight unknown to authentic history. West considered it one of his best productions, charged L800 for it, and was willing some years afterwards, with a view to the exhibition of his works, to purchase back the picture at its original cost. In one instance Lord Seaforth did not evince artistic taste. He dismantled Brahan Castle removing its castellated features and completely modernising its general appearance. The house, with its large modern additions, is a tall, massive pile of building, the older portion covered to the roof with ivy. It occupies a commanding site on a bank midway between the river Conon and a range of picturesque rocks. This bank extends for miles, sloping in successive terraces, all richly wooded or cultivated, and commanding a magnificent view that terminates with the Moray Firth." ["The Seaforth Papers," in the "North British Review," 1863, by Robert Carruthers, LL.D.]
The remarkable prediction of the extinction of this highly distinguished and ancient family is so well known that it need not be recapitulated here, and its literal fulfilment is one of the most curious instances of the kind on record. There is no doubt that the "prophecy" was widely known throughout the Highlands generations before it was fulfilled. Lockhart, in his "Life of Sir Walter Scott," says that "it connected the fall of the house of Seaforth not only with the appearance of a deaf 'Cabarfeidh,' but with the contemporaneous appearance of various different physical misfortunes in several of the other Highland chiefs, all of which are said to have actually occurred within the memory of the generation that has not yet passed away. Mr Morrit can testify thus far, that he heard the prophecy quoted in the Highlands at a time when Lord Seaforth had two sons alive, and in good health, and that it certainly was not made after the event," and then he proceeds to say that Scott and Sir Humphrey Davy were most certainly convinced of its truth, as also many others who had watched the latter days of Seaforth in the light of those wonderful predictions. [Every Highland family has its store of traditionary and romantic beliefs. Centuries ago a seer of the Clan Mackenzie, known as Kenneth Oag (Odhar), predicted that when there should be a deaf Caberfae the gift land of the estate would be sold, and the male line become extinct. The prophecy was well known in the North, and it was not, like many similar vaticinations, made after the event. At least three unimpeachable Sassenach writers, Sir Humphrey Davy, Sir Walter Scott, and Mr Morritt of Rokeby, had all heard the prediction when Lord Seaforth had two sons alive, both in good health. The tenantry were, of course, strongly impressed with the truth of the prophecy, and when their Chief proposed to sell part of Kintail, they offered to buy in the land for him, that it might not pass from the family. One son was then living, and there was no immediate prospect of the succession expiring; but, in deference to their clannish prejudice or affection, the sale of any portion of the estate was deferred for about two years. The blow came at last. Lord Seaforth was involved in West India plantations, which were mismanaged, and he was forced to dispose of part of the "gift land." About the same time the last of his four sons, a young man of talent and eloquence, and then representing his native county in Parliament, died suddenly, and thus the prophecy of Kenneth Oag was fulfilled. -
"Of the name of Fitzgerald remained not a male
To bear the proud name of the Chief of Kintail."
—Robert Carruthers, LL.D., in the "North British Review."]
His Lordship outlived all his four sons, as predicted by the Brahan Seer. His name became extinct, and his vast possessions were inherited by a stranger, James Alexander Stewart, who married his eldest daughter, Lady Hood. The sign by which it would be known that the prediction was about to be fulfilled was also foretold in the same remarkable manner, namely, that in the day's of the last Seaforth there should be four great contemporary lairds, distinguished by certain physical defects described by the Seer. Sir Hector Mackenzie, Bart. of Gairloch, was buck-toothed, and is to this day spoken of among the Gairloch tenantry as "An Tighearna storach," or the buck-toothed laird. Chisholm of Chisholm was hair-lipped, Grant of Grant half-witted, and Macleod of Raasay a stammerer. [For full details of this remarkable instance of family fate, see "The Prophecies of the Brahan Seer." - A. W. Mackenzie, Inverness.]
To the testimony of those whose names have been already given we shall add the evidence of a living witness when the first edition of this work was in preparation. Duncan Davidson of Tulloch, Lord-Lieutenant of the county of Ross, in a letter addressed to the author, dated May 21, 1878, says - "Many of these prophecies I heard of upwards of 70 years ago, and when many of them were not fulfilled, such as the late Lord Seaforth surviving his sons, and Mrs Stewart Mackenzie's accident, near Brahan, by which Miss Caroline Mackenzie was killed."
It is impossible not to sympathise with the magnificent old Chief as he mourned over the premature death of his four promising sons, and saw the honours of his house for ever extinguished in his own person.
Many instances are related of his magnificent extravagance at home, while sailing round the West Coast, visiting the great principality of the Lewis, and calling on his way hither and thither on the other great chiefs of the West and Western Islands. Sir Walter Scott, in his "Lament for the Last of the Seaforths," adds his tribute -
In vain the bright course of thy talents to wrong.
Fate deadened thine ear and imprisoned thy tongue,
For brighter o'er all her obstructions arose
The glow of thy genius they could not oppose;
And who, in the land of the Saxon or Gael
Could match with Mackenzie, High Chief of Kintail?
Thy sons rose around thee in light and in love,
All a father could hope, all a friend cou'd approve;
What `vails it the tale of thy sorrows to tell?
In the spring time of youth and of promise they fell!
Of the line of MacKenneth remains not a male,
To bear the proud name of the Chief of Kintail.
This sketch of the great chief cannot better be closed than in the words of one already repeatedly quoted: "It was said of him by an acute observer and a leading wit of the age, the late Honourable Henry Erskine, the Scotch Dean of Faculty, that 'Lord Seaforth's deafness was a merciful interposition to lower him to the ordinary rate of capacity in society,' insinuating that otherwise his perception and intelligence would have been oppressive. And the aptness of the remark was duly appreciated by all those who had the good fortune to be able to form an estimate from personal observation, while, as a man of the world, none was more capable of generalizing. Yet, as a countryman, he never affected to disregard those local predilections which identified him with the County of Ross, as the genuine representative of Kintail, possessing an influence which, being freely ceded and supported, became paramount and permanent in the county which he represented in the Commons House of Parliament, till he was called to the peerage on the 26th October, 1797, by the title of Lord Seaforth and Baron of Kintail, with limitation to heirs male of his body, and which he presided over as his Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant. He was commissioned, in 1793, to reorganise the 78th or Ross-shire Regiment of Highlanders, which, for so many years, continued to be almost exclusively composed of his countrymen. Nor did his extraordinary qualifications and varied exertions escape the wide ranging eye of the master genius of the age, who has also contributed, by a tributary effusion, to transmit the unqualified veneration of our age to many that are to follow. He has been duly recognised by Sir Walter Scott, nor was he passed over in the earlier buddings of Mr Colin Mackenzie; but while the annalist is indebted to their just encomiums, he may be allowed to respond to praise worthy of enthusiasm by a splendid fact which at once exhibits a specimen of reckless imprudence joined to those qualities which, by their popularity, attest their genuineness. Lord Seaforth for a time became emulous of the society of the most accomplished Prince of his age. The recreation of the Court was play; the springs of this indulgence then were not of the most delicate texture; his faculties, penetrating as they were, had not the facility of detection which qualified him for cautious circumspection; he heedlessly ventured and lost. It was then to cover his delinquencies elsewhere, he exposed to sale the estate of Lochalsh; and it was then he was bitterly taught to feel, when his people, without an exception, addressed his Lordship this pithy remonstrance - 'Reside amongst us and we shall pay your debts.' A variety of feelings and facts, unconnected with a difference, might have interposed to counteract this display of devotedness besides ingratitude, but these habits, or his Lordship's reluctance, rendered this expedient so hopeless that certain of the descendants of the original proprietors of that valuable locality were combining their respective finances to buy it in, when a sudden announcement that it was sold under value, smothered their amiable endeavours. Kintail followed, with the fairest portion of Glenshiel, and the Barony of Callan Fitzgerald ceased to exist, to the mortification, though not to the unpopularity of this still patriarchal nobleman among his faithful tenantry and the old friends of his family." [Bennetsfield MS.]
He married on the 22d of April, 1782, Mary, daughter of the Rev.
Baptist Proby, D.D., Dean of Lichfield, and brother of John, first
Lord Carysfort, by whom he had issue -
I. William Frederick, who died young, at Killearnan.
II. George Leveson Boucherat, who died young at Urquhart.
III. William Frederick, who represented the County of Ross in Parliament, in 1812, and died unmarried at Warriston, near Edinburgh, in 1814.
IV. Francis John, a midshipman in the Royal Navy, who died unmarried at Brahan, in 1813.
V. Mary Frederica Elizabeth, who succeeded her father and of whom presently.
VI. Frances Catherine, who died without issue.
VII. Caroline, who was accidentally killed at Brahan, unmarried.
VIII. Charlotte Elizabeth, who died unmarried.
IX. Augusta Anne, who died unmarried.
X. Helen Ann, who married the Right Hon. Joshua Henry Mackenzie
of the Inverlael family, anciently descended from the Barons of
Kintail, a Lord of Session and Justiciary by the title of Lord
Mackenzie, with issue - two daughters, Frances Mary and Penuel
Augusta.
Lord Seaforth, having survived all his male issue, died on the 11th of January, 1815, at Warriston, near Edinburgh, the last male representative of his race. His lady outlived him, and died at Edinburgh on the 27th of February, 1829. The estates, in virtue of an entail executed by Lord Seaforth, with all their honours, duties, and embarrassments, devolved upon his eldest daughter, then a young widowed lady,
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