Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mackay, Donald
MACKAY, DONALD, of Far, first Lord Reay (1591–1649), eldest son of Houcheon or Hugh Mackay of Far (now Farr), Sutherlandshlre, by Lady Jean Gordon, eldest daughter of Alexander, eleventh earl of Sutherland, was born in March 1590-1. He represented the elder branch of the Clan Mackay, styled in Gaelic the Siol Mhorgan, or race of Mhorgan, and descended from Morgan, son of Martin, who fought under Bruce. The name Mackay is derived from Morgan's gjreat grandson, Donald Macaodh or Mackaoi (son of Hugh), killed by the Earl of Sutherland in the castle of Dingwall in 1395. Among the more famous of the chiefs of the clan was Y-Mackay (d. 1571), grandfather of Donald of Far, who during the reign of Mary Stuart caused much trouble to the Scottish government, and lived in almost continual feud with the Earl of Sutherland.
In June 1610 Donald Mackay of Far was appointed justice of peace for Inverness and Cromarty (Reg. P. C. Scotl. ix. 79), and on 12 Nov. 1612 justice of peace for Sutherland (ib. p. 488). In the same year he and John Goraon of Embo received a commission from the king for arresting in Thurso a notorious coiner, Arthur Smith, in the employment of the Earl of Caithness [see Sinclair, George, fifth Earl of Caithness]. While endeavouring to rescue Smith after his arrest, James Sinclair, a nephew of the Earl of Caithness, was slain, and the captors of Smith deemed it also necessary to put him to death to prevent his escape. The Earl of Caithness summoned the captors to answer for their conduct, but, to prevent criminal proceedings against himself, the prosecution was not persevered in, and in December 1613 Mackay and others obtained remission of all charges against them. On the 9th of the same month a commission of fire and sword was given to Mackay, along with George Gordon, first marquis of Huntlv [q. v.], and others, against Cameron of Lochiel (ib. x. 186). Mackay succeeded his father as head of the clan, 11 Sept. 1614. In April 1616 he accompanied his uncle, Sir Robert Gordon, to London, and was knighted at Theobalds by King James, but the creation is not recorded in any published list of knights. In 1618 he abandoned his alliance with his relatives of the house of Sutherland, and joined their rivals, the Sinclairs of Caithness, with whom he entered into a league against the Clan Gunn, but soon afterwards he became reconciled to the Sutherland family, and in 1622 was named one of a commission for prosecuting the Earl of Caithness with fire and sword.
On 30 March 1626 Mackay obtained a commission from Charles I to levy and transport three thousand men to aid Count Mansfeld in the war in Germany. They embarked from Cromarty in October, but he was prevented by sickness from accompanying them. Before setting out to join them in the following spring he was, on 18 March, created a baronet by Charles I. Finding, on his arrival in Germany, that Count Mansfeld had died, he transferred his services to the king of Denmark. Under his command the regiment bore itself so gallantly in numerous actions as to earn the title of 'the invincible regiment.' Ultimately the Danish troops were compelled to retire before the superior number of the imperialists, and when they were intercepted at the pass of Oldenburg the regiment of Mackay, with extraordinary courage and pertinacity, succeeded for a long time in holding the pass against superior numbers. In January 1628 Mackay returned to Scotland to secure recruits, and on his way thither through England he was, in recognition of his distinguished services in Denmark, raised to the peerage on 20 June by the title of Lord Reay, to him and his heirs male for ever, bearing the name and arms of Mackay. After his return to Denmark his regiment was ordered to the defence of Stralsund, where it gained additional fame by the repulse of an attack made upon its position by the enemy in full force. On the cessation of hostilities in 1629 Reay transferred the services of the regiment to Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. On 22 May a warrant was given by Charles I to pay him 4,000l., of which 3,000l. had been assigned him by the king of Denmark for the important aid rendered by his regiment in the German wars (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1628-9, p. 555).
The regiment of Reay was said to be the favourite one of Gustavus, who usually employed it in the most dangerous and critical enterprises. At the battle of Leipzig, 7 Sept. 1631, its steady and determined fire, followed by a hand-to-hand fight, finally turned the day against Tilly. It also carried the castle of Marienburg, thought to be impregnable, by storm, after two hours' desperate fighting. Before the battle of Lutzen, 16 Nov. 1633, at which Gustavus was killed, the Mackays were employed in the storming of New Brandenburg, where half the regiment was cut to pieces, and at the conclusion of the battle only about one tenth of it remained effective.
In the beginning of 1631 Reay had been authorised by Gustavus to arrange with James Hamilton, third marquis of Hamilton [q. v.], as to the conditions on which the marquis should levy a large force for his ser- vice (Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. pt. vi. pp. 70-1). He was shortly afterwards sent to England with letters to Charles I, thanking him for his aid to Hamilton, and requesting the loan of ships for the transport of the marquis's forces (ib.) After his arrival in England Reay, however, stated that Hamilton's real purpose in levying the forces was to usurp the throne of Charles in Scotland, and named as his informer David Ramsay, an officer in Hamilton's service. Ramsay denied the language attributed to him, and Reay challenged him to single combat. The matter was brought before a court of chivalry, which appointed the combat to take place in Tothill Fields, Westminster, on 12 April, Robert Bertie, first earl of Lindsey [q. v.], to act as high constable, and Thomas Howard, second earl of Arundel [q. v.], as earl marischal ('Proceedings in the Court of Chivalry on an Appeal of High Treason by Donald, Lord Reay, against Mr. David Ramsay, 7th Charles I, a.d. 1631,' in Rushworth's Historical Collections, ii. 112-28, and State Trials, iii. 486-519). The day of combat was prorogued by the king from 18 April to 17 May, and at a reassembly of the court on 12 May it was intimated to both parties that, as the king was of opinion that neither of them was without fault, though not guilty of treason, it was decreed by the court that they should be committed to the Tower until they gave sufficient caution to keep the peace (ib.)
Reay was reported, in 1638, to be a supporter of the ecclesiastical policy of the king (Gordon, Scots Affairs, i. 61). Nevertheless he was one of the commissioners sent by the kirk party in that year to obtain the subscription of the northern burghs and counties to the covenant (Spalding, Memorialls, i. 87). For a time nis attitude was very dubious. In April 1639 a bark containing arms and ammunition on its way to him at Strathnaver was captured by the Earl Marischal at Peterhead, on the plea that he was 'not ane good covenanter' (ib. p. 164). In May, however, he joined for a short time the covenanters of the north (ib. p. 194).
Reay does not appear to have taken further part in the northern contest, and on 17 July 1643 he embarked at Aberdeen for Denmark (ib. ii. 259), where he remained for twelve months in command of a regiment of which his son Angus was colonel. In 1644 he arrived from Denmark with ships and arms and a large sum of money, for the service of Charles I at Newcastle. Along with Ludovic Lindsay, sixteenth earl of Crawford [q. v.], he defended the town with great gallantry against the Scots, under Leslie (Patrick Gordon, Britane's Distemper, Spalding Club, pp. 50, 118}, and on its capture on 12 Oct. 1644 was taken prisoner and confined in the castle of Edinburgh. After the victory of Montrose at Kilsyth in August 1645 he and other royalist prisoners in the castle were set free. In 1646 he was appointed one of a commission to aid in the pursuit of Neil Macleod of Assynt [q. v.] 'The capitulation of Montrose on 3 Sept. of this year again rendered his position insecure, and in July 1648 he took ship for Denmark, where he died in February 1649. His body was brought thence to Scotland, and buried at Kirkiboll in the vault of the family. Reay married five times, and left issue by each wife. By his first wife, Barbara Mackenzie, eldest daughter of Kenneth, lord Kintail, and sister of the first and second earls of Seaforth, he had four sons and two daughters. By his second wife, Lady Mary-Lindsay, daughter of the Earl of Crawford, he had a son, Donald of Dysart. By his third wife, Rachel Winterfield or Harrison, he had two sons, Robert Mackay Forbes and Hugh Muir Forbes. Of this marriage he obtained a sentence of nullity, and he married as his fourth wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Thomson of Greenwich, by whom he had a daughter, Anne, married to Alexander, brother of Sir James Macdonald of Sleat. The judge delegates of London having declared the validity of the marriage to Rachel interfield, she appeared in Scotland in 1637, to press for an aliment of 2,000l. and 300l. a year during non-adherence. By his fifth wife, Mary, daughter of Francis Sinclair of Stircoke, he had three sons and two daughters.
John Mackay, second Lord Reay (fl. 1650), the son by the first lord's first wife, took part in a royalist insurrection in the north in 1649; being defeated by David Leslie was sent prisoner to the Tolbooth; afterwards joined the royalists under Glencairn in 1654, and was taken prisoner at Balveny. By his second wife, Barbara, daughter of Hugh Mackay of Scourie, he was father of Donald, whose son George, third baron Reay (d. 1748), was distinguished as a supporter of the Hanoverians in 1715, 1719, and 1745, and was a fellow of the Royal Society, London. The second lord's second son, Æneas, was brigadier-general and colonel-proprietor of the Mackay Dutch regiment in the service of the States-General, and marrying in 1692 Baroness Margaret, daughter of Lieutenant-colonel Baron Francis Piickler, became naturalised in Holland. His great-grandson, Baron Barthold John Christian, was father, by his wife Ann Magdalen, baroness de Renesse de Wilp, of Æneas, baron Mackay d'Ophemert, born 18 Jan. 1806, who succeeded to the barony of Reay as tenth lord in 1875, on the death of his cousin Eric, ninth baron, a descendant of George, the third lord Reay. The tenth lord was minister of state in the Netherlands, and vice-president of the privy council there. He died 6 March 1876. He married Mary Catherine Jacoba, daughter of Baron Fagel, privy councillor of the Netherlands, and was succeeded as eleventh lord Reay by his son Donald James, who resumed residence in England, and was governor of Bombay (1885-90).
[Robert Gordon's History of the Clan Mackay; Sir Robert Gordon's Earldom of Sutherland; Robert Munro's Expedition with the Worthy Scotch Regiment called Mackay 's, 1657; Stewart's Highlanders of Scotland ; Reg. P. C. Scotland ; Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. reign of Charles I; Robert Baillie's Letters and Journals (Bannatyne Club) ; Spalding's Memorialls, Gordon's Scots Aflairs, and Patrick Gordon's Britane's Distemper (all Spalding Club) ; Sir James Balfour's Annals ; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 392-3.]