"Murdoch son of Kenneth, son of John, son of Kenneth, son of Angus 'crom,' or the hump-backed, son of Kenneth, son of Gilleoin Og, son of Gilleoin Mor, or the Great, son of Murdoch, son of Duncan, son of Murdoch, son of Duncan, son of Murdoch, son of Kenneth, son of Cristin, or Christopher, son of Gilleoin of the Aird."

The genealogies of the three families as brought out by these manuscripts, are shown in the following table:--

GILLEOIN OF THE AIRD. | +------------------------------+------------------+ |CLAN ANRIAS. | MACKENZIES. | +------------------------------+------------------+ | Crinan | Cristin | | Kenneth | Kenneth | | Ewen | Murdoch | | Crinan | Duncan | | Kenneth | Murdoch | | Paul | Duncan | | Martin | Murdoch | | Gillanrias | Gilleoin Mor | +---------|--------------------| Gilleoin Og | | | Kenneth | +-------------------+------------------+ | Angus Crom | | EARLS OF ROSS | ROSSES | | Kenneth | +-------------------+------------------+ | John | | The Priest-"An | Paul | | Kenneth | | Sagart" | Murdoch | | Murdoch of the | | I. Ferquhard "Mac | Ewen | | Cave who died | | an t'Sagairt" | Tire | | in 1375 | | II. William | Paul Mac Tire | +------------------+ | III. William | who has a | | IV. Hugh | charter of the | | V. William who | lands of | | died in 1372 | Garloch from | | | the Earl of | | | Ross in 1366, | | | confirmed in | | | 1372. | +-------------------+------------------+

There would seem to be no doubt that "Tire" or Tyre, stands here and elsewhere for "An t'Oighre," or the Heir, and Paul "Mac Tire" for Pol " Mac-an-Oighre," or Son of the Heir. It will be observed that Colin does not appear once in these early genealogies, and it has been already pointed out that no trace of it is found anywhere as a family name until the middle of the sixteenth century, when it was introduced by the marriage of one of the Mackenzie chiefs to a daughter of the Earl of Atholl, whose mother was Lady Mary Campbell, and who, calling her second son after her own uncle Colin, third Earl of Argyll, for the first time brought that name into the family genealogy of Kintail.

It will also be seen as we proceed, although the Earls of Ross were superiors of the lands of Kintail as part of the earldom, and that it was therefore impossible that Colin Fitzgerald or any other person than those earls could have had a gift of it from the Crown, that the Mackenzies occupied the lands and the castle, not as immediate vassals; of the King, but of their own near relatives, the O'Beolan Earls of Ross and their successors, for at least two hundred years before the Mackenzies received a grant of it for themselves direct from the Crown. This is proved beyond dispute by genuine historical documents. Until within a few years of the final forfeiture of the Lords of the Isles in 1476, the Mackenzies undoubtedly held their lands, first from the O'Beolan Earls and subsequently from the Island Lords as Earls of Ross; for the first direct Crown charter to any chief of Kintail of which we have authentic record, is one dated the 7th of January, 1463, in favour of Alexander "Ionraic," the sixth Baron.

To show the intimate relations which existed between the original Earls of Ross and the ancestor of the Mackenzies, a quotation may be given from a manuscript history of the clan written by Dr George Mackenzie, nephew of Kenneth Mor, third Earl of Seaforth, in the seventeenth century. Although be is a supporter of the Fitzgerald origin, he is forced to say that, "at the same time (1267) William, Earl of Ross, laying a claim of superiority over the Western Isles, thought this a fit opportunity to seize the Castle of Ellandonnan. He sent a messenger to his Kintail men to send their young chieftain to him as being his nearest kinsman by marriage with his aunt." He then goes on to say, that Kenneth, not Colin, was joined by the MacIvers, Macaulays, MacBeolans, and Clan Tarlichs, "the ancient inhabitants of Kintail," and refused to surrender, when "the Earl of Ross attacked them and was beaten." Had there been no previous kinship between the two families--and no one will now attempt with any show of reason to maintain that there was not--this marriage of William, the second Earl, to Kenneth's aunt would have made the youthful Kenneth, ancestor of the Mackenzies, first cousin, on the maternal side, to William O'Beolan, the third Earl of that line, whose wife and therefore Kintail's aunt, was Joan, sister of John, the Black Comyn, Lord of Badenoch. It has further been proved to a demonstration, and it is now admitted by all the best authorities, that the O'Beolan Earls of Ross were descended from Gilleoin na h `Airde; and so are the Mackenzies, who from the first formed an integral and most important part of the ancient powerful native Gaelic tribes of which the Earls of Ross were the chiefs.

It has been shown that Kenneth, from whom the Mackenzies take their name, was closely allied by marriage with William, second Earl of Ross, the latter having married Kenneth's maternal aunt. This fact by itself would be sufficient to establish the high position, which even at that early period, was occupied by Kenneth, who was already very closely connected with the O'Beolan Earls of Ross by blood and marriage.

Kenneth himself married Morna or Morba, daughter of Alexander Macdougall, styled, "De Ergedia," Lord of Lorn by a daughter of John, the first Red Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, who died in 1273. Kenneth's wife was thus a sister of John, the Black Comyn, who died about 1299, having married Marjory, daughter of John Baliol, by whom he had John, the second Red Comyn, one of the competitors for the Scottish Crown, killed by Robert the Bruce in the Church of Dumfries in 1306. Kenneth's issue by Morna or Morba of Lorn was John Mackenzie, II. of Kintail, who was thus, through his mother, third In descent from John, the first Red Comyn, who died in 1273, and sixth from the great Somerled of the Isles, Thane of Argyle, progenitor of the Macdougalls of Lorn and of all the Macdonalds, who died in 1164.