McGhee family

In 1304, however, Michael Macgethe is listed as a juror at an 'Inquisition' in Dumfries which asserted the rights of 'Robert de Brus earl of Carrick' (later Robert the Bruce) against those of Edward I in Annandale.

The family acquired progressively more influence and importance, especially during the reign of the Stuarts – Sir John McGhie of Balmaghie was knighted by Charles II.

Having won favour with and then spurned the Stuarts at the right times, the family was prominent in Scottish and London society by the eighteenth century.

However, this was lost with the sale of its estates and a lack of male heirs; by the early 18th century the families of Balmaghie, Airie and Airds, and Castlehill were practically extinct.

The name was also commonly interchangeable with Mackie and Mackay in Wigtownshire and Kintyre, and a branch of the family controlled the Rhinns of Islay for several centuries.

Persons bearing this name are almost certainly inter-related, given the volume of migration across the Irish Sea, in both directions, particularly during the Galloglass and Plantation years.

A prominent exception is the current Bishop of Cloyne, a Traditionalist Catholic who was falsely accused of murdering Pope John Paul I. Odo MacIdh was Canon of Argyll in 1433.

The grand Hunters' Ball at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh was the highlight of the early nineteenth-century Scottish social season.

He fought with the Government against the Jacobite rising of 1745 as Captain of the Edinburgh Company of Volunteers, and was taken prisoner by the rebels after the disastrous Battle of Falkirk.

Other distinguished officers include Lt-Col John Macghie of the Scots brigade who was killed fighting for the Dutch in 179 and Captain James Maghie.

The arms of the branch of the family (who spelled the name McGhie or McGee) which was seated in England by the early 19th century is given by Thomas Robson in "The British Herald" as sable a fesse between three leopards' faces argent.

A man bearing the name McGie matriculated the following arms in the early 19th century: "sable a mullet arranged between three leopards' heads erased guardant or."