About us
22 Jan 2024:
Macintosh is the standardized anglicization for the Scottish Gaelic Mac an Tòisich, which is best
translated ‘Son of the Toiseach’. Although toiseach is commonly taken to mean thane, this is an
oversimplification, and as such it is better to leave the word untranslated. In medieval Scotland, a
toiseach was a position of authority below mormaer and typically functioned as a steward of
land. The 17th-century Kinrara MS is the first to identify this thane or toiseach with the earl of
Fife, thus claiming a patrillineal descent for the Macintoshes from this premier earldom.
However, the titles earl and thane are not equivalent, and it is not self-evident that the holder of
the former would also possess the latter. In reality, the MacDuff earls of Fife were never thanes,
and most historians from William F. Skene onward discount the traditional MacDuff descent for
the Macintoshes.
Similarly, the story of Eva, heiress of Clan Chattan, marrying Angus Macintosh in 1291 is almost
certainly fictitious, and the figure of Eva is a genealogical trope used by other clans to
substantiate their claim during changes of power.
So what of the true origins of the Macintoshes? Our earliest account of their ancestry comes from
the 1467 MS, aptly named after its estimated year of composition. Instead of descending from a
Clan Chattan heiress, the 1467 MS relays the Macintoshes’ patrillineal descent from Gille
Catáin, the progenitor of Clan Chattan and the patrillineal ancestor of the Macphersons of
Badenoch. In this way, the conflict between the Macintoshes and Macphersons for the chiefship
of Clan Chattan should be understood as a fight between two patrillineal branches for superiority
over the other, not a commentary on the rules of primogeniture. The shared patrillineal ancestry
of the Macintoshes and Macphersons is also tentatively supported by the available Y-DNA data,
although further testing is needed to confirm this link.
In addition to Clann Mhic an Tòisich, there are at least three other independent Macintosh
families, those of Glentilt, Monzievaird, and Kintyre. See Ronald Black’s article for more details
on these families.
The purpose of this project is to identify these four families and all other Macintosh kindreds to
harmonize the genetic data with available historical records.
Sources:
1. ’1467 MS: The Mackintoshes’ (2020) by Ronald Black
2. ‘Ghille Chattan Mor and Clann Mhic an Tòisich Lands in the Clann Dhomhnail Lordship of
Lochaber’ (2014) by Alasdair Ross
3. ‘The Chiefship of Clan Chattan’ (1896) by Alexander MacBain