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Clan Macnab
Highland Scottish clan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Clan Macnab is a Highland Scottish clan.
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History
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Origins of the clan
Traditional origins
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The name Macnab is derived from the Scottish Gaelic Mac An Aba, which means child of the abbot.[3] According to tradition the progenitor of the clan was Abraruadh who was the Abbot of Glen Dochart and Strathearn.[3] Abraruadh was allegedly a younger son of Kenneth MacAlpin, the first king of Scots.[3] (See: Siol Alpin). Abraruadh was also descended from Fergus, king of Dál Riata and a nephew of Saint Fillan, who was the founder of the monastery in Glen Dochart in the seventh century.[3]
Recorded origins
One of the earliest records of the Macnab family is on a charter of 1124.[3] Malcolm de Glendochart appears in the Ragman Rolls of 1296 and submitted to Edward I of England.[3]
14th century and Robert the Bruce
Angus Macnab was brother-in-law of John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch who was murdered by Robert the Bruce in 1306.[3] Macnab then joined forces with the Clan MacDougall in their campaign against the Bruce when Bruce was nearly captured at the Battle of Dalrigh.[3] When the Bruce's power consolidated after his victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the Macnab lands were forfeited and their charters were destroyed.[3]
The fortunes of the Clan Macnab were restored to some extent when Angus's grandson, Gilbert, received a charter from David II of Scotland in 1336.[3] Gilbert was succeeded by his son, Sir Alexander Macnab, who died in about 1407.[3]
16th century and clan conflicts
Many battles were fought between the Clan Macnab and the Clan Neish. The last battle between them was the Battle of Glenboultachan where the Macnabs were victorious.[4] The Neishes were killed almost to a man. However, some Neishes survived and continued to live on what they called Neish Island. The Neishes continued to plunder the neighbourhood and feuds continued.[5]
17th century and civil war
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Chief Finlay Macnab was a man of peace but protected his lands against the foraging royalist forces of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose in the mid-1640s.[3] However Finlay's son, who was known as Smooth John, did not follow his father's peaceful ways and actually joined forces with Montrose, contributing to the royal victory at the Battle of Kilsyth in 1645.[3] Smooth John Macnab was appointed to garrison Montrose's own Kincardine Castle.[3] General David Leslie, Lord Newark subsequently laid siege to the castle.[3] The castle's whole garrison however, managed break through the Covenanter lines and fought their way clear, but John Macnab was captured.[3] He was taken to Edinburgh and sentenced to death but escaped on the eve of his execution.[3] He went on to lead three hundred of his clansmen at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.[3]
On 13 July 1680 the Chief of Clan Macnab and his followers fought at the Battle of Altimarlach in support of Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy and against George Sinclair of Keiss, in a dispute over who had the right to the lands and title of the Earl of Caithness. Campbell won a decisive victory in the battle, but Sinclair later turned to the law and was awarded the title and the lands as Earl of Caithness.[6][7]
18th century and Jacobite risings
Robert Macnab, the fourteenth chief of Clan Macnab married a sister of John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland. This connection to the Clan Campbell constrained him from supporting the Jacobites in the rising of 1715, although many of his clansmen did take part.[3] The fifteenth chief was a major in the Hanoverian government army and was captured at the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745. He was then held prisoner in Doune Castle.[3]
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Clan Chief
The current chief is the 24th, James William Archibald Macnab of Macnab who succeeded his father, James Charles Macnab of Macnab, in 2013.[8]
Ancestry and Noble Connections
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Clan MacNab traces its origins to the Cenél Loairn, a branch of the early Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata, placing the clan among Scotland’s oldest lineages. This ancestry is shared with families such as the MacDougalls and the early House of Alpin, the dynasty of the first Scottish kings.
In the early 16th century, Finlay MacNab of Bovain married Katherine Campbell, daughter of Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, linking the clan to the influential Campbells of Glenorchy, later Earls of Breadalbane. Through Katherine’s maternal line, the clan is connected to the House of Stewart and to Joan Beaufort, queen consort of James I of Scotland. Joan Beaufort was the granddaughter of John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III of England, thus providing a link to the House of Plantagenet and, through Philippa of Hainault, to the Capetian kings of France.
This lineage includes ties to: • Edward III of England and the House of Plantagenet • Joan Beaufort, Queen of Scots and the House of Lancaster • The Scottish royal House of Stewart • The Campbells of Glenorchy
Through these connections, Clan MacNab shares common ancestry with major medieval dynasties of England, Scotland, and France, including the Capetians, the Dukes of Normandy, and the Angevin kings of England, as well as the Counts of Anjou, from whom Fulk V of Anjou, King of Jerusalem, descended.
Later intermarriages within the European aristocracy connect these lines to numerous royal houses, including:
• House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (later House of Windsor)
• House of Plantagenet / Anjou
• House of Ottonian / Liudolfing
• Rurikids
• Counts of Flanders / House of Flanders
• House of Capua / Normans in Southern Italy
• Doukas
• Angelos
• House of Tripoli / Raymond of Toulouse
• House of Antioch / Princes of Antioch
• House of Edessa / Counts of Edessa
• House of Hainaut / Baldwin family
• House of Tancred / Norman nobles of Apulia and Sicily
Although Clan MacNab did not hold a peerage, genealogical evidence demonstrates its connection to multiple royal and noble families of Britain and continental Europe.
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Notable Family Members
Archibald Macnab (d. 1790) Colonel of the 41st Regiment of Foot
Brigadier John Francis MacNab of Barravorich C.B.E. D.S.O.(1906‒1980) Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, the King’s African Rifles.
John MacNab Held a commission in the Black Watch during the Jacobite UprisingsJacobitism
Archibald MacNab Served in the Loudon Highlanders
John MacNab Major in the British Army during the jacobite uprisings
Sir Allan Napier MacNab, 1st Baronet of Dundurn C.B. Joint Premier of the Province of Canada
Iain Macnab of Barachastlain (1890–1967) Influential Scottish wood-engraver and painter, founder of Grosvenor School; served in both World Wars
Cliff McNabb (1935-1994) Founder of the Nanaimo Clippers
Larry McNabb (1939-2010) Professional Ice Hockey player City councillor
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See also
References
External links
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