Clan MacPhail

For 1000 Pound Scots he was granted a wadset and long tack of Invernarnie, which faced the river Nairn and lay within the Barony of Strathnairn in the Parish of Daviot and Dunlichty.

[10] A number of Clan Chattan bonds however signed through the 17th and 18th centuries continued to have MacPhail signatures still indicating their stature in the Federation.

For example, around 1627, a Johne M'Phale of Inverness was recruited as an archer for Captain Alexander M'Naughtan in service of King Charles the 1st to support Protestants in France.

The heir to the MacPhail Chieftainship, was apparently deported to Virginia following his surrender after the Battle of Preston but died on board the ship.

[17] The muster roll of Charles' army lists 2 Macphails: An auction of household goods of the Late Sir William Fraser and others in 1898 at Dowell's Auction House in Edinburgh presented a basket hilted sword said to have belonged to a MacPhail who had fought at Culloden, had been kept by his daughter Bell who eventually had sold it to Fraser.

[20] Dr Charles Mackintosh of Drummond mentions in his Antiquarian Notes no 96 that when he lived in Gollanfield, in Petty, an old man of ninety known as John Oig told him he had known a Paul MacPhail of Ballenreich, who the day after the Battle of Culloden helped to dig a trench where many of the dead were interred and had known the man who had escaped with the Clan banner, which was the only one in the prince's army that did not fall in the enemy's hands.

[22] Records also exist of the atrocities committed after the battle of which some MacPhails were victim to: "A woman brought to bed, Sunday before the battle, was Elspet MacPhail, in Gask; her husband is Donald MacIntosh, had her child born on the Sunday, who was called Alexander, of which one of the Dragoons took by the leg or thigh, and threw it about his hand, not head.

[28] Since the 15th century, Clan MacPhail was found mainly in the lands of Inverernie about 8 km west of Loch Moy, near the ancestral home of the MackIntoshes.

In 1708, a Coll MacDonell wrote to Paul MacPhail, who was the Chamberlain to the Laird of MacKintosh, explaining why he couldn't pay his rent, that had been due in 1707 and 1708, asking for relief.

"[38] These MacPhails appear to have lived on Loch Eil at Fassfern and some were cited for cattle raiding with a Ewen Cameron on the Register of the Privy Council in 1547.

[43] Families of MacPhails were found throughout the West Highlands and Islands, including Glengarry, Glencoe, North Uist, Islay and Kintyre.

In a list of men in Sutherland capable of carrying arms during the Jacobite rising of 1745, a number of Polsons appear in the parishes of Loth and Kildonan.

[51] Late 18th century Clan MacLeod tradition has it that MacPhails in their lands are descendants of Páll, son of Bálki, or Paal Baalkeson, His name appears as Pol filius Boke in the medieval Chronicle of Mann and as Paal Baccas in the 19th century Bannatyne manuscript; a 13th-century Hebridean lord who was an ally of Olaf the Black, king of Mann and the Isles.

The Bannatyne manuscript states that Paal Baccas had a natural son, from whom descended a family that held the island of Berneray and other lands on Harris under the MacLeods.

Matheson proposed that the MacPhails, originally from the Sand district on North Uist, and those from Carloway on Lewis, derived their surname from Páll.

On Maol nam Both, are found two stone beehive houses named, the MacPhail bothies, which are said to be the remains of two monks' cells, part of a small early Celtic monastic settlement.

"The MacPhails made their power felt throughout the ages, and we find that they were used as wardens by the MacLeods of Lewis and placed along the west coast...to prevent the Macaulays of Uig from passing north to raid the Morrison territory".

[53][54] McFall, McFaul and McPhails records are found clustered in Ulster especially around Antrim and Derry.They appear to date from the British Plantation period.

Maelfabhail, son of Muircheartach, slain by the Norsemen" Today MacPhails can generally track their origins from these four main migrations in Scotland, mainly showing fealty to larger clans in those regions: Diaspora MacPhails can also be found in significant numbers in the following countries: The poet John Leyden, was an enthusiastic collector of old folklore.

The story states that this MacPhail was carried off by a mermaid, that they lived together in a grotto beneath the sea and had five children, but finally he tired of her and escaped to land.

[75] A cairn near Loch Spelve celebrates Dugald MacPhail (1819–1887), a bard who composed Ant-Muileach (The Isle of Mull) which became the island's anthem.

Pipe tune written by Peter MacFarquhar of Moss in remembrance of Lachlan MacPhail, an accomplished piper and writer of Gaelic poetry.

The Arms of the Clan MacPhail Chief.
Clan MacPhail various tartans [ 27 ]
Paul MacPhail, Chief of Clan MacPhail circa 1910 [ 29 ]
Locations of MacPhail pre industrial historical residential records
Dunlichity Church