Family Tree (Bruce, Denison, Douglas, Harvey, Helmcken, Mackenzie, Maclean, Maclennan, McTavish, Stewart)

Hector (Eachain Mor, or ‘Big Hector’) Maclean was born in December 1792 and baptised 6 January 1793 at the Parish of Urquhart and Logie Wester.

Hector married Isabella Mackenzie on 13 June 1828, also at the Parish of Urquhart and Logie Wester. Their first child, Roderick, was born in 1829. And the second and only other known son was Andrew Maclean, born at Brae Findon in Ferintosh on 21 July 1840.

On the marriage record Hector is listed as a labourer from Culbokie.(1) But it appears he was much more than that word indicates. According to the following note by Alan Toft, Hector was a whisky distiller and also helped finance the famous Dalmore distillery:

William Revington wrote to me, from Vernon, British Columbia, on July 12 1993. He wrote, “I see you have Hector Maclean listed as a labourer. My father told me that Hector had a special license to distill whisky. The license was then renaged on by whom soever issued it. He then arranged to run the produce from the Black Isle to Edinburgh, and prospered. He gave his offspring a good education. This is a matter of interest and no doubt true because my father told me about it years ago.”

A further note by Alan Toft:

Dittie Lumsden had told me that Hector had financed the Dalmore Distillery in Evanton. Hector is merely listed as a labourer on his son’s birth certificate!

Hector was also seen as something of a poet and singer.

In August 1993 William Revington Maclean told me that Hector’s children were well, and expensively, educated – Aberdeen Grammar School and Edinburgh University.

The Dalmore distillery story is intriguing. Dalmore – now a world class distillery that bears the iconic image of the 12 pointed Royal stag and emblem of the Clan Mackenzie since 1263 – was founded in 1839 by Sir Alexander Matheson, but in 1866-67 Matheson awarded the lease to 24 year-old Andrew Mackenzie and his younger brother Charles. On taking over the distillery in November of that year, the brothers began a programme of investment in what had become a dilapidated distillery including repairing the stills and building a new filling store.(2) It is very conceivable that Hector – who was in the whisky business – was an investor in Dalmore. Hector's wife, Isabella, was a Mackenzie and was the aunt of Andrew and Charles, and sister to the boys' father, William. Isabella and William's parents are Andrew Mackenzie and Mary Forbes. This could be the reason why the name ‘Andrew’ beings here to appear in the family tree: Hector and Isabella named their second son Andrew, and their first son, Roderick, named one of their children William Andrew. Further, the marriage record of Hector and Isabella states that she too was from Brae Findon, which is the right location for the families.(4) But there is another baptism record for an Isabella Mackenzie who was baptised 28 January 1798 in Rosskeen, and the parents are named as John and Mary Mackenzie, which could explain why two grandchildren were given the names, John and Mary. And so, it is difficult to determine with any certainty which birth date belongs to Isabella Mackenzie. Was she born in 1803 and related to Dalmore’s Mackenzie family? Or was she born in 1798 and unrelated, and the daughter of John and Mary? Hopefully these questions will someday be answered. But whether related or not, there is no reason to doubt that Hector helped finance the Dalmore.

Hector passed away in Rosskeen at the age of 83 on 19 July 1875. I have been unable to confirm the date of Isabella’s passing.

Notes:

1. Culbokie (An Cùil Bhàicidh in Gaelic, meaning ‘the haunted nook’) is a small village in the Black Isle.
2. https://scotchwhisky.com/whiskypedia/3230/mackenzie-brothers/; also, https://spiritedmatters.com/2014/03/dalmore-distillery/
3. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mackenzie-4940
4. Brae Findon is a locality located about seven miles north-east of Inverness, next to Culbokie.