Old Photograph Tarbat House Scotland

Old photograph of Tarbat House near Kildary, Easter Ross, Scotland. The mansion house was built in 1787 by the Edinburgh architect James McLeran for John Mackenzie, Lord MacLeod who was born at Castle Leod near Strathpeffer. He was the eldest son of George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie and Isabel Gordon. He was a Freemason, his father being the Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Scotland from 1737 to 1738. He married Margery Forbes, daughter of James Forbes, 16th Lord Forbes. Mackenzie was styled Lord MacLeod in 1731. Sailing to join the rebel army on board the sloop " Hound ", he fought with his father's clan at the Battle of Falkirk, leading the Cromartie's Regiment of about 500 clansmen in the Jacobite rising of 1745 during which he was taken prisoner, with his father and 218 others, on 15 April 1746 at Dunrobin Castle, by a party of the William Sutherland, 17th Earl of Sutherland's militia the day before the Battle of Culloden, in the last siege fought on the mainland of Great Britain. On 20 December 1746 he was not brought to trial before the Commissioners, though he pleaded guilty to high treason, but received full pardon on 26 January 1748 on condition " that within six months of his 21st birthday he would convey to the Crown all his rights in the Earldom " which was not restored until the reign of Queen Victoria. Leaving Scotland, Mackenzie initially lived in Berlin with Field Marshal Keith, who assisted him in obtaining a commission in the Swedish Army in 1750. Returning to Scotland John Mackenzie settled in Ross-shire where he entered politics holding the office of Member of Parliament between 1780 and 1784. Promoted to the rank of Major General in 1782, he regained his family estates in 1784. John Mackenzie died in Edinburgh on 2 April 1789 following a year of illness, without descendants and was buried at the Canongate Kirkyard, Edinburgh. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.