Clan MacTavish
Clan MacTavish, is an Ancient Highland Scottish clan with Irish origins. The MacTavish lands were in Argyll in the Western Highlands. Their current Chief is Steven Edward Dugald MacTavish of Dunardry, the 27th Hereditary Chief from an unbroken line, who is a member of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs.
History
Origins
Notwithstanding several and varied origin traditions, the MacTavishes may have come from Ireland to Scotland during the years of the Scoto-Irish settlement era. Very old Irish forms of MacTavish are given by Father Patrick Woulfe in his widely accepted work on Irish Surnames. Wolfe gives several old forms of the name, showing nominative, genitive, and accusative forms, eight in all, along with their modified and modern equivalents.Substantiating this is the 15th or 16th-century document writ known as the Cert Ui Neill, taken from much older Irish documents, and refers to past times rather than the contemporary. There is a reference to the MacTavish holding lands in Ros Buill now encompassing part of County Donegal. The translation of the Ceart is found in Studia Celtica. John O'Hart also gives two forms of the modern MacTavish, as well as an old form in ''Irish Pedigrees, The Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation''
Ancient Irish Pictish (Cruithni/Cruithne) origin
Another source for an Irish MacTavish origin is the Topographical Poems of O’Dubhagain, c. 1372, which illustrates what the origin of the MacTavishes appears to be. Under the subheading of "The Part of the Tir Chonaill", that is Conal Gulban's Land is this entry on page 43, "To MacGillatsamhais the stout Belong Ros-Guill and Ros-Iroguil". Ros-Guill and Ros-Irguill, agreeing with the "Ceart", were once ruled by what can be termed the Boar Kings, who are denoted in the Irish Annuls; with Nuada Uirc being noted as one of the lines of kings of Guill and Irgull. Given in the Fragmentary Annuls of Ireland 178 is "Nuada Uirc, ri Guill & Irguill". Uirc or Orc, the kings of Ross Guill and Irgull are held synonymous with a boar, and the Crest Badge of the MacTavishes is a boar's head. The location noted for both the Boar Kings and the ancient Irish race of MacTavish being the same.MacTavish family Name claimed by the Campbells
It is commonly held by the Campbells that Clan MacTavish descends from Tàmhas, son of Colin Mael Maith and a daughter of Suibhne Ruadh. Nothing certain is known of Taus Coir other than that he is listed in several traditional genealogies. The 17th century genealogy Ane Accompt of the Genealogie of the Campbells traces Colin Mael Maith back to the mythological King Arthur. Furthermore, this record references Colin Mael Maith as having one legitimate son and two illegitimate sons. The Accompt gives the legitimate son as "Gillespic" or "Archibald", ancestor of Clan Campbell; and the two illegitimate sons as Tàmhas Ceàrr and Iomhar, ancestors of the MacTavishes and Clan MacIver.According to Alastair Campbell of Airds, a more probable candidate for the ancestor of the clan, rather than the possibly mythological Tàmhas Ceàrr, is the historical Sir Thomas Cambel. Earlier in the 1970s, W. D. H. Sellar was also of the same opinion about Thomas. In 1292 Thomas' name is recorded on a list of landowners in the sheriffdom of Kintyre. In 1296 he signed the Ragman Roll as "Thomas Cambel among king's tenants in Perthshire". The next year he was released from imprisonment in the Tower of London. In 1308 he signed his name on a letter to the King of France. He was possibly dead by 1324, when his probable son, Duncan, was granted lands in Argyll for services rendered. In 1355, Duncan is listed under the name "Duncanus MacThamais", among "the Barons of Argyll", at an inquest in Inverleckan.
As mentioned in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, The Craignish Manuscript was drawn up by Alexander Campbell, in the employ of the Duke of Argyll, about 1706, and resulted from an examination of archives and charters, and the original genealogies drawn up by the MacEwens, heritable Seanchaís of the Campbell chiefs of Argyll about 1650–1660, and gives Tavish Corr's parentage as different from Thomas Cambell, cited by Campbell of Airds, preceding. The Manuscript History cites Cailien Maol Maith as the father of Tavis, about 1100. The Manuscript History's content, considering the examination of multiple sources used to produce it, is closer in historical time frame than any other descriptive work, and therefore might be more accurate. Tweed mentions that Tavis' father, Cailien Maol Maith, died at the siege of Dunstaffnage in 1110. A possible time frame for the birth of Tavis would then be somewhere around 1100–1111, based in part upon the texts of the old MacEwen shanachie.
Alastair Campbell of Airds says, "It seems probable that later compilers of the official genealogy, Ane Accompt, did not know of Sir Thomas "Cambel" and were anxious to insert the MacTavishes into the account somehow." This would appear as a very odd explanation since the MacEwens recorded the Campbell genealogies over many years. Seannachies would not have omitted someone as important as Thomas Cambel, who swore fealty to Edward I, King of England in the 1296 Ragman Roll. Alastair Campbell of Airds also says, "I doubt if it can be shown that the eponym of any Highland family is a fictitious character.", but Alastair Campbell of Airds places Tavis Corr in this predicament, and has referred to the clan as Tavish Campbells, insinuating the MacTavishes are Campbell descendants.
Historiographer William Skene noted: "The policy of the Argyll family led them to employ every means for the acquisition of property and the extension of the clan. One of the arts, which they used for the latter purpose, was to compel those clans which had become dependent upon them to adopt the name of Campbell, and this, when successful, was generally followed at an after period by the assertion that the clan was descended from the house of Argyll. In general, the clans thus adopted into the race of Campbell, are sufficiently marked out by their being promoted only to the honor of being an illegitimate branch, but the tradition of the country invariably distinguishes between the real Campbells and those who were compelled to adopt their name." Tavis Corr, and his descendants fit William Skene's description.
Tavis Corr could well be a real person in history. A local historian, the elderly Miss Nancy MacLeod, owner of Springbank house, told Sheriff-Substitute James Robertson, at Tobermory, the MacTavishes were descended from "Tavish mor MacMhieCalain".
Lord Lyon States Clan MacTavish is/was Distinct from Clan Campbell
The MacTavish Chiefs did not, and do not, consider themselves descendants of any of the Campbells, but rather claim an Irish Pictish origin. The Scottish Annual and Book of the Braemar Gathering of 1957 has recorded that Clan MacTavish is one of the original Scottish clans. 1957 is during the 200-year dormancy of the Chiefship of Clan MacTavish, and a full 40 years before Edward Stewart Dugald MacTavish was recognized by Lord Lyon, Sir Malcolm Innes of Edinburgh, as the Chief of Clan MacTavish. A clan is NOT a sept of another Clan. Clan MacTavish is distinct from Clan Campbell.MacTavish at Dunardry In 893 AD (300+ Years before the Campbells)
An interesting reference for the early beginnings of the MacTavish comes from the oldest learned society in Great Britain, the Philological Society of London. Its publication states, "...our author's father was married to a daughter of Campbell of Ashfield, and her mother was a daughter of MacTavifh or Thomfon of Dunardary. This is a very ancient and respectable family, who have inherited the estate of Dunardary for upwards of nine hundred years.", and this is echoed in The Scots Magazine of 1793. If the MacTavishes were present at Dunardry 900 years before the 1793 date of two separate publications, that year would be approximately 893 AD. A MacTavish presence at Dunardry over 300 years before Campbell's presence in 1220 produces a difficult situation for a Campbell descent, as presented by Campbell's history.Supporting an earlier time frame for the MacTavishes is the Reverend John Dewar, of Argyll, who noted that there were Dalriadic landowners in Argyll who were not Campbells. Rev. Dewar mentions specifically; The MacArthurs, The MacLachlans, The MacNeills, and The MacTavishes. It is difficult to reconcile the inconsistencies presented about the origins of the MacTavishes, or that the MacTavishes are descended from the Campbells, considering the Dunardry settlement date of approximately 893 A.D. The Inverary Castle Website, approved by the 13th Duke of Argyll has listed, "The Campbells arrived in Argyll as part of a royal expedition in c.1220." How or why these inconsistencies abound is mysterious, and not easily rectified.
Interestingly, the MacTavishes appeared to have similar political aims that aligned them with the Campbell chiefs. The 10th Duke of Argyll, Niall Diarmid Campbell mentions, "'Though the MacTavishes were never a large or powerful clan, they have nevertheless been deemed a brave and honorable race, and numbers of them still live in Argyll under their old patronymic. Though the clan as a whole never seem to have made the slightest sign of adopting the name Campbell, they followed always the breach or banner of the Lords of Lochow in war and all hostings.