Family Tree (Denison, Douglas, Harvey, Helmcken, Mackenzie, Maclean, Maclennan, McTavish, Norcross, Riley)

The second and only other son of Hector and Isabella was Andrew Maclean, brother to Roderick ‘Rorie of the Highlands’. He was born at Brae Findon in Ferintosh on 21 July 1840 and died 13 August 1911 at the age of 70. Andrew attended Grammar School in Aberdeen and went on to become a schoolmaster at Clava, near Inverness, and then a teacher at the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. He was a very devoted Christian and eventually gave up teaching to become a Free Church(1) missionary. His story, Memoir of Andrew Maclean: Scholar and Preacher, written by J. G. Galbraith, has been attached.

Andrew was a scholar of religion and had a remarkable command of the Gaelic language. Galbraith writes, “Andrew Maclean’s English was polished and fluent, and his Gaelic was remarkable for its grammatical accuracy. His vocabulary in that language was exceptionally extensive, whilst his preaching was at once poetic and exact.” Andrew also studied the Greek and Hebrew languages.

According to Galbraith, Andrew tragically lost his first wife and two children and eventually remarried:

From Brae Findon school Andrew Maclean went to the famous Grammar School of Aberdeen, where he came under the influence of Duncan Matheson, the well-known evangelist. On leaving Aberdeen, Maclean was appointed schoolmaster at Clava, and married. He was next sent as a teacher to the Isle of Lewis, where he lost his wife and two children. Subsequently he married again.

Andrew remarried at the age of 49, just one month shy of his 50th birthday. His second wife was named Mary Forbes Macdonald. According to their marriage record, Mary was 45 years of age and listed as a housekeeper and spinster from Rosskeen.(2) Her parents were Lewis Macdonald and Mary MacKenzie. Apparently, Andrew and Mary had one son together who moved to the United States, according to Galbraith. His name and story are unknown. Mary passed away in 1922 in Gairloch at the age of 79.

There has been some confusion in the family as to the ancestry of Andrew and his brother Roderick. However, we do know that their father and mother were Hector (Eachain Mor) Maclean and Isabella Mackenzie, but it has always been believed that their paternal grandfather was named Andrew, known as Andra nan Duan, or ‘Andrew of the Songs’ which is incorrect. This confusion, or error, I will clarify the reason for.

In Galbraith’s thoughtful memoir of Andrew Maclean, he writes:

Andrew’s grandfather and name sake, whose familiar name Andra Michael, is still remembered in his native parish, was an elder under Dr. Macdonald, the famous minister of Ferintosh (Parish Minister from 1813; F. C. Minister 1843-1849). He was also known as Andra nan Duan “Andrew of the Songs,” probably in reference to poetic gift. His son, Eachain Mor, father of the younger Andrew, was a poet and singer of no mean order.

I believe that this passage is the source of the confusion and that Galbraith is in error here. Andrew’s father was indeed Hector and this is not in dispute. Hector’s death certificate was signed by his eldest son Roderick, and his second son, Andrew, has Hector and Isabella listed as his parents on both his baptism and death records. Therefore, the records confirm that Roderick and Andrew are indeed brothers and that Hector and Isabella are their parents. But as for Hector, his baptism and death certificates confirm that his parents were Rory ‘Roderick’ McLean and Mary Christian Matheson, making it certain that Rory and Mary are his parents and the paternal grandparents of both Roderick and Andrew, and that there is no ‘Andrew’ or ‘Andra Michael’ on the paternal side as has been claimed by Galbraith. The most probable explanation for Galbraith’s error is that he confused ‘Andrew of the Songs’ as being Hector’s father, when in fact he was his wife Isabella’s father. This is likely the reason why the name ‘Andrew’ begins here to appear in the family tree: Hector and Isabella named their second son Andrew (after her father), and their first son, Roderick, named one of their children William Andrew Mackenzie (after his maternal grandfather). Further, Hector’s marriage to Isabella introduced Clan Mackenzie into the family tree.

One final correction, Andrew Maclean passed away in 1911, but Galbraith states that Andrew died 5 August but the official death record states that he died 13 August. Andrew was 70 years old at the time of his passing and was survived by his wife Mary Maclean, nee Macdonald, and a son who was in America. Galbraith writes, “Mr. Maclean’s only surviving son had long before emigrated to America, but his wife’s devoted care attended him to the last.”

Notes:

1. The Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900) is a Presbyterian denomination which was formed in 1843 by a large withdrawal from the established Church of Scotland in a schism known as the Disruption of 1843. The Free Church was formed by Evangelicals who broke from the Church of Scotland in 1843 in protest against what they regarded as the state’s encroachment on the spiritual independence of the Church.

2. Andrew and Mary were married in Inverness at 4 Gordon Place on 25 June 1890. He was a resident of Alness at the time probably working as a missionary under Rev. A. R. Munro, and Mary had been living in Rosskeen, according to their marriage record.