Chapter 10.1 - The traditional 'Clan Gunn Chief' line: on the use of the term 'MacHamish'
10. MacHamish Gunns
The individual chapters can be downloaded as pdfs from latrobe.academia.edu/AlastairGunn
The first and last sections of this chapter are probably of most interest to the general reader. The middle two sections tend to copy each other – chapter 10.2 provides simplified genealogy of the MacHamishes for fourteen generations, chapter 10.3 has the lives of the first eleven generations.
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MacHamish is not a title held by one person; for discussion of the absurdity of Gunn MacHamish being a singular title see chapter 10.1. The word MacHamish merely indicates a person from the family of Gunns – in this case the Killernan Gunns - under discussion. Given MacHamish is a family indicator then thirty years or so for each new MacHamish generation is required. The typical descendant line from Coroner Gunn is ‘male centric’. Times have changed; I have tried to give information about female descendants where known. Further information to refine this MacHamish genealogy might be found in Sutherland Estate documents I may have missed at the National Library of Scotland.
The vast majority of the data in this chapter I am confident about but some is based on the balance of probability and I make this clear when it is used.
The idea that the MacHamish line has died out is totally wrong.
10.1 On the use of the word MacHamish, ‘son of James’
The anglicised word MacHamish simply means descended from James, the generally accepted eldest son of Coroner Gunn. There have been many different Gunns in the Scottish Highlands over time so the need to clarify which family of Gunns was meant was obviously of importance[1] especially in historic legal documents.
Mythic Gunn history, however, has made MacHamish a word which equates with ‘Chief[2] of the ‘Clan Gunn’. MacHamish does not equate with Chief. If MacHamish meant ‘Chief of the Clan Gunn’ then ‘Chief of the Clan Gunn’ is how the MacHamishes would have been known in documents as Chief of a Clan was far more important than being named after the anonymous James. In other words, there is no reason for the term MacHamish to exist if MacHamish had meant ‘Chief of the Clan Gunn’, as ‘Chief of the Clan Gunn’ would have meant the word MacHamish was irrelevant.
R. A. Dodgshon writes how ‘patronymics (such as Machamish) would serve to orientate a person within a local community and establish his rights of access to share in its resources … individuals traced their descent from the person who first established their family occupation of a holding. In some cases, it could produce awareness of a descent chain … In effect, they constituted loosely coupled descent groups that drew their primary meaning from the land which they occupied.’[3] In other words for Dodgshon a patronymic such as MacHamish was not a title but an indicator of the land of a family. In fact, Dodgshon’s observation explains why the anonymous James is remembered – he first held the land – which adds a central reason as to why the term MacHamish existed.
The word MacHamish applied to more than one individual at a time; consider how one branch of the descendants of Robert, the generally accepted second son of Coroner Gunn, are known as MacRobs. Another branch from Robert, the Braemore Gunns, is known by the name of their estate. The similarity between MacHamish and MacRob is obvious; the application of each word should be the same – it should apply to all descendants. MacHamish of Killernan[4] is nothing more than the equivalent of MacRob and Braemore blended together for all Killernan based (or originated from) descendants of the Coroner’s first son.[5] And there is another branch of the Gunns called MacHeorish[6] (MacSheorais); again, a term appplied to the whole of that branch. It also makes sense when one looks at comparative Scottish Highland surnames; place names / Estates are regularly attached to subsections of a family.[7]
There is also historic proof that more than one MacHamish was alive at one time and that the term was therefore not restricted to the most senior member of that family; see the life of William Mhor (8) for an example. This wider use of the term MacHamish also makes sense as the nuclear family had not been invented – extended generations of one family lived together. And the estate of Killernan was large[8] and so could look after many MacHamishes at the one time, although the exact detail of the estate in the 1500s is not known.
In summary, the word MacHamish was applied to a specific Gunn family line, and the term applied to all (or just male?) descendants; the idea that ‘MacHamish’ was a singular honour for one individual at one time is just wrong.
*****
[1] To rely on a general place to identify a Gunn family line (such as Gunn of Wick) was inadequate as many different families of Gunns could live in one named area. Gunn of Braemore – or Killearnan – was more specific as it applied to an Estate.
[2] As well, Coroner Gunn is known as Coroner, not Chief. Sir Robert Gordon’s history page 92 does say of a MacHamish that he was ‘cheeff of the Clan-Gun in Southerland’ and page 92 ‘Chieftaine of the Clangun’ and similar comments. These views are picked up in Mark Rugg Gunn’s Clan Gunn page 62, Thomas Smibert page 172 and elsewhere. The MacHamish point still stands namely that MacHamish would not exist as a term if this line was the Clan Gunn Chief line; and given there had never been Clan Gunn Chiefs before so why (and how) would William become one? All Gordon (and Smibert) was doing was using ‘Chief’ as shorthand for ‘the most important Gunn family in an area’ because for most Scottish families ‘important’ and ‘Clan Chief’ were the same thing. Gordon has reduced the unique Gunn history to a stereotype.
[3] Page 182 R. A. Dodgshon ‘The nature of Scottish Clans’ in ed. R. A. Houston and I. D. Whyte The Nature of Scottish Society 1500-1800.
[4] To have MacHamishes of Killernan also allows for Gunns who were not descendants of James to have lived and worked at Killernan.
[5] I note the estates held by the first and second son of the Coroner; one wonders how the Coroner was paid for his coronial duty at Caithness. Was all the property seized by him as part of his legal work fully accounted for at his death?
[6] See http://www.lyon-court.com/lordlyon/files/Gunn,%20Michael%20James%20-%20Interlocutor%20and%20Note.pdf for its use applied to a complete line, accessed 11 July 2017.
[7] The Mackays, for example, have at least Aberach Mackays, Scoury Mackays, Bighouse Mackays, Strathy Mackays, Melness Mackays and Sandwood Mackays.
[8] Wester Killernan and Easter Killernan ran to ten named tenants (four; six) in 1811/1812; it is possible that Killernan in the 1500s may have been both of these areas. That’s ten familes to run the land, more than enough for a few MacHamishes. Page 102, ed. R.J. Adam, Sutherland Estate Management 1802-1816 Volume 1.
The individual chapters can be downloaded as pdfs from latrobe.academia.edu/AlastairGunn
The first and last sections of this chapter are probably of most interest to the general reader. The middle two sections tend to copy each other – chapter 10.2 provides simplified genealogy of the MacHamishes for fourteen generations, chapter 10.3 has the lives of the first eleven generations.
*****
MacHamish is not a title held by one person; for discussion of the absurdity of Gunn MacHamish being a singular title see chapter 10.1. The word MacHamish merely indicates a person from the family of Gunns – in this case the Killernan Gunns - under discussion. Given MacHamish is a family indicator then thirty years or so for each new MacHamish generation is required. The typical descendant line from Coroner Gunn is ‘male centric’. Times have changed; I have tried to give information about female descendants where known. Further information to refine this MacHamish genealogy might be found in Sutherland Estate documents I may have missed at the National Library of Scotland.
The vast majority of the data in this chapter I am confident about but some is based on the balance of probability and I make this clear when it is used.
The idea that the MacHamish line has died out is totally wrong.
10.1 On the use of the word MacHamish, ‘son of James’
The anglicised word MacHamish simply means descended from James, the generally accepted eldest son of Coroner Gunn. There have been many different Gunns in the Scottish Highlands over time so the need to clarify which family of Gunns was meant was obviously of importance[1] especially in historic legal documents.
Mythic Gunn history, however, has made MacHamish a word which equates with ‘Chief[2] of the ‘Clan Gunn’. MacHamish does not equate with Chief. If MacHamish meant ‘Chief of the Clan Gunn’ then ‘Chief of the Clan Gunn’ is how the MacHamishes would have been known in documents as Chief of a Clan was far more important than being named after the anonymous James. In other words, there is no reason for the term MacHamish to exist if MacHamish had meant ‘Chief of the Clan Gunn’, as ‘Chief of the Clan Gunn’ would have meant the word MacHamish was irrelevant.
R. A. Dodgshon writes how ‘patronymics (such as Machamish) would serve to orientate a person within a local community and establish his rights of access to share in its resources … individuals traced their descent from the person who first established their family occupation of a holding. In some cases, it could produce awareness of a descent chain … In effect, they constituted loosely coupled descent groups that drew their primary meaning from the land which they occupied.’[3] In other words for Dodgshon a patronymic such as MacHamish was not a title but an indicator of the land of a family. In fact, Dodgshon’s observation explains why the anonymous James is remembered – he first held the land – which adds a central reason as to why the term MacHamish existed.
The word MacHamish applied to more than one individual at a time; consider how one branch of the descendants of Robert, the generally accepted second son of Coroner Gunn, are known as MacRobs. Another branch from Robert, the Braemore Gunns, is known by the name of their estate. The similarity between MacHamish and MacRob is obvious; the application of each word should be the same – it should apply to all descendants. MacHamish of Killernan[4] is nothing more than the equivalent of MacRob and Braemore blended together for all Killernan based (or originated from) descendants of the Coroner’s first son.[5] And there is another branch of the Gunns called MacHeorish[6] (MacSheorais); again, a term appplied to the whole of that branch. It also makes sense when one looks at comparative Scottish Highland surnames; place names / Estates are regularly attached to subsections of a family.[7]
There is also historic proof that more than one MacHamish was alive at one time and that the term was therefore not restricted to the most senior member of that family; see the life of William Mhor (8) for an example. This wider use of the term MacHamish also makes sense as the nuclear family had not been invented – extended generations of one family lived together. And the estate of Killernan was large[8] and so could look after many MacHamishes at the one time, although the exact detail of the estate in the 1500s is not known.
In summary, the word MacHamish was applied to a specific Gunn family line, and the term applied to all (or just male?) descendants; the idea that ‘MacHamish’ was a singular honour for one individual at one time is just wrong.
*****
[1] To rely on a general place to identify a Gunn family line (such as Gunn of Wick) was inadequate as many different families of Gunns could live in one named area. Gunn of Braemore – or Killearnan – was more specific as it applied to an Estate.
[2] As well, Coroner Gunn is known as Coroner, not Chief. Sir Robert Gordon’s history page 92 does say of a MacHamish that he was ‘cheeff of the Clan-Gun in Southerland’ and page 92 ‘Chieftaine of the Clangun’ and similar comments. These views are picked up in Mark Rugg Gunn’s Clan Gunn page 62, Thomas Smibert page 172 and elsewhere. The MacHamish point still stands namely that MacHamish would not exist as a term if this line was the Clan Gunn Chief line; and given there had never been Clan Gunn Chiefs before so why (and how) would William become one? All Gordon (and Smibert) was doing was using ‘Chief’ as shorthand for ‘the most important Gunn family in an area’ because for most Scottish families ‘important’ and ‘Clan Chief’ were the same thing. Gordon has reduced the unique Gunn history to a stereotype.
[3] Page 182 R. A. Dodgshon ‘The nature of Scottish Clans’ in ed. R. A. Houston and I. D. Whyte The Nature of Scottish Society 1500-1800.
[4] To have MacHamishes of Killernan also allows for Gunns who were not descendants of James to have lived and worked at Killernan.
[5] I note the estates held by the first and second son of the Coroner; one wonders how the Coroner was paid for his coronial duty at Caithness. Was all the property seized by him as part of his legal work fully accounted for at his death?
[6] See http://www.lyon-court.com/lordlyon/files/Gunn,%20Michael%20James%20-%20Interlocutor%20and%20Note.pdf for its use applied to a complete line, accessed 11 July 2017.
[7] The Mackays, for example, have at least Aberach Mackays, Scoury Mackays, Bighouse Mackays, Strathy Mackays, Melness Mackays and Sandwood Mackays.
[8] Wester Killernan and Easter Killernan ran to ten named tenants (four; six) in 1811/1812; it is possible that Killernan in the 1500s may have been both of these areas. That’s ten familes to run the land, more than enough for a few MacHamishes. Page 102, ed. R.J. Adam, Sutherland Estate Management 1802-1816 Volume 1.