McCONQUHY GRANT, John ¹

   Other names for John were MACONACHIE GRANT, John in Gartinbeg,¹ MACONOCHIE (GRANT, John and MAKCONACHIE GRANT, John in Gartinbeg.¹

   User ID: Q93

  General Notes:

"Surrounded, as was Sir Duncan Grant (died 1485), and still more his grandson, with his larger possessions, by Highland clans or septs, each member of which was ready to follow the chief of his name, and avenge his quarrels with any neighbouring proprietor by harrying cattle and corn, it was natural that though not themselves of Celtic descent, the Grants should yet be gradually induced to adopt the Celtic customs, and encourage their tenants and vassals to look up to them as chieftains. To this the tenants and vassals, being in many cases Celts, would readily conform, and thus would arise the Clan Grant, which, from the extent of the family territory, soon grew powerful enough to cope with the older Highland clans in its neighbourhood.

In support of this theory, it may be shown that the minor members of the clan were at first not Grants, but natives bearing names of Celtic origin. That this was so in Urquhart is proved by a letter of composition issued by the High Treasurer of Scotland, dated 10th July 1510, shortly after the Laird of Freuchie received these lands in feu from the Crown, in which a number of the tenants in the lands of Urquhart are specially mentioned by name, and their patronymics are wholly Celtic. Further, on 13th February 1527, letters under the Great Seal were issued by King James the Fifth, remitting to John Grant of Freuchie and others their offence in not mustering with the Scots army which marched in 1523 against England, under the command of John, Duke of Albany. These letters are of a date contemporary with the tribal agreements in which the Clan Grant is named for the first time. The persons named in the letters are John Grant of Freuchie, James Grant, his son and apparent heir, William Grant, brother of John of Freuchie, John Grant, natural son of the Laird of Freuchie, Malcolm Grant, Patrick Grant in Ballindalloch, and John Grant, the younger son of the Laird. These are all the Grants properly so called, but besides these are a number of names more or less Celtic in form, one or two of which suggest that the name of Grant was being used as a patronymic." (page 98) [....]

"Thirty years later, on 9th July 1569, a Remission by King James the Sixth to the Clan Grant enumerates forty-seven names of persons, all named Grant, and all, with three exceptions, residing in Duthil, or near Freuchie, on the north bank of the Spey. This seems to prove either that the Grants, properly so called, had multiplied greatly between 1527 and 1569, or else that the Celtic tenants had, in some cases, adopted the name of their chief. This last statement is so far warranted by the terms of a document, dated 19th July 1537, in which the granter is designed ' John M'Conquhy, in Garthrynbeg,' his seal also bearing the legend, ' S. Joannis Makconoch . . .'; and in 1581, in a writ indorsed on the same document, his son describes himself as ' Duncane Grant in Gartinbeg, sone and air to vmquhill John Makconachie Grant in Gartinbeg.' Here the name of Grant seems to have been adopted as a surname in addition to the patronymic of M'Conquhy previously used, aand no doubt there were other cases of the same kind. There is in the muniments of the family no mention of a Clan Grant prior to the documents of 1527 and 1528 above referred to." (page 99)

"On 19th July 1537, under the designation of John M'Conquhy, he granted a letter of reversion to Allan Mackintosh of Rothiemurchus over a wadset of the land of Tullochcrue. On 19th May 1581, his son, designated Duncan M'Condacht Grant, discharged the amount due under that reversion, in which John is styled John Maconachie Grant, while in an assignation of this and other reversions, dated 1539, to a nephew, Allan Mackintosh calls him John Grant, and on 10th December 1546 he witnessed, as John M'Conquhy, a precept of sasine by James Grant of Freuchie. John M'Conquhy died before 9th January 1553, and was succeeded by his son." (page 526) from Chiefs of Grant

Note:

That John Grant 4th of Freuchie had a son named John, born outside of marriage, is clear. Whether he was the man also named as 'John M'Conquhy, in Garthrynbeg', or 'John Maconachie Grant' is not clear.

Rulers of Strathspey states:

"John Grant of Freuchie seems also to have had a natural son John, who is mentioned 'P.C. Register,' XII., 244, 245, as a natural brother of Patrick Grant of Rothiemurchus. He and one John McAllaster were fined, the first £40, the second £20, by the Privy Council, on 30th March, 1620, for shooting deer."

However if the natural son was mentioned in letters under the Great Seal dated 13th February 1527, as stated above in Chiefs of Grant, then the date noted in Rulers of Strathspey, namely 30th March, 1620, must be erroneous, a typo possibly for 1520. ^{1 2}

  Research Notes:

MCCONQUY AND ITS VARIANTS

McConaghy, McConachie, McConchie, McConaughy, McConkey, McConchy, McConnachie are derived Anglicized forms of the Gaelic Mac Dhonnchaidh. Dhonnchaidh is a personal name translated as Duncan in English.

John married.