(from The Surnames Of Scotland)

HAGGART. A corruption of MacTAGGART, q.v. The name was not uncommon in Perthshire in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. John Haggart is recorded in Perth in 1595 (RPC., v,p.651), and --- Haggart was portioner of Dulgarthill near Dunkeld in 1598. John Haggart and William Haggart appear in Eister Keppet (Caputh) in 1618 (ibid.,xi, p.368), and William Hagart, called Long William, in Eister Capeth was slain in 1619 (ibid., xii, p.78).

MACTAGGART, MacTaggert. G. Mac-an-t-sagairt, `son of the priest.' The marriage of clerics in minor orders was permissable, but the marriage of priests had been declared illegal and invalid in the twelfth century. Ferchar Machentagar or Mackinsagart, son of the red priest of Applecross, was knighted by Alexander II in 1215 for his services in quelling an insurrection in Moray (Chron. Mail., s.a.). Though first earl of Ross of the line he was not the first earl of Ross. Donald McKyntagart of Dumfries had remission of his fine, 1459 (ER, vi, p.553), and William Maktygar "orator and beidman" of "the kingis hospitaile of the trinite college besyd" Edinburgh, is in record, 1504 (Laing, 248). Thomas McKyntaggart was tenant in Strathdee, 1527 (Grant, III, p.68), and John Makintalgart in Bocastell made complaint against certain individuals in 1581 (RPC., III, p. 350). Walter McTagart in Glenroy and two other McTagarts were charged with fire-raising and burning houses belonging to Steuert in Fintaillauch, 1583 (ibid., p. 577). Catharin M'Target or M'Targett in Dunbar was accused of witchcraft in 1688 (RPC. 3 ser. XIII, p. 245). McIntagart 1614, M'Intagerit 1541, McIntargart 1615, Mckintaggart 1623, Myketagart 1433, and McTaggard, McTaggate and McTaggit in Galloway 1684.

(From Edward McLysaght?)

Mac an tSagairt -VII-MacEntaggart, MacEntaggert, MacEntegart, MacIntaggart, MacInteggart, MacTaggart, MacTeggart, Taggart, Teggart, Tegart, Tiger, etc.; 'son of the priest' (Ir.'sagart',Lat.'sacerdos'); an Ulster surname.

NIALL
(of the Nine Hostages)

CAIBRE

O'BEOLAIN ABBOTTS
(Drumcliff)

GILLEON na h'AIRDE

ANRIAS

BEOLAN

"RED PRIEST of APPLECROSS"

FEARCHAR
Mac an t'sacairt
k. 1215

CLAN ROSS

(From G929.6 A193 cl8,the Clans, Septs and Regiments of the Scottish Highlands, by Adam Frank, 1970)

CLAN ROSS SEPTS
(1) Anderson, Andrew, Gillanders, MacAndrew
(2) MacTaggart, Taggart
(3) MacTear, MacTier, MacTire.
The Gaelic name of the Clan Ross is Siol Aindrea or Clann Aindrea, meaning the "race of Andrew." The three above groups of names derive their origin from one or other of the early progenitors of the Clan Ross. Alexander MacKenzie's History of the MacKenzies says:

It has been established that Gillanders and O'Beolan were the names of the ancient and original Earls of Ross, and that they continued to be represented in the male line by the old Rosses of Balnagowan down to the end of the eighteenth century....It will, it is believed, be now admitted with equal certainty that the Rosses and the MacKenzies are descended from the same progenitor, Beolan or Gilleon na h'Airde, the undoubted common ancestor of the old Earls of Ross, the Gillanders, and the Rosses.

CLAN ROSS

This clan is known to the Highlanders as Clann Aindreas ? Sons of Andrew. It is generally believed that the predecessor of the old Earls of Ross was the eldest son of Gilleoin na h?Airde, the ancestor of Anrias, who, again, was the progenitor of the O'Beolans or Gillanras, old Celtic Earls of Ross. The first of the O'Beolan Earls of Ross was Fearchar Mac?an?t?Sagairt (Son of the priest), hereditary Abbott of Applecross. For services rendered to Alexander II., Fearchar was knighted by the king in 1215, and by 1226 he was the Earl of Ross. Since a Malcolm, Earl of Ross, existed in 1160 and two lines seem involved, it would appear the earldom really passed in the female line to the Abbott of Applecross. The 5th Earl of Ross (William) died in 1372, leaving an only daughter, Euphemia, who carried the earldom into the Clan Leslie. As the Leslies did not take the name of Ross the chiefship passed to Hugh of Rariches, the earl's brother. Hugh founded the House of Ross of Balnagowan. At the beginning of the 18th century David Ross of Balnagowan was the last of his race in the direct line. He settled the estate of General Charles Ross, brother of Lord Ross of Hawkhead, a family which, however, was in nowise related to his own, but to whom in virtue of the settlement and in accordance with the strictly practical Laws of Scottish heraldry, the Lord Lyon confirmed the chief arms of Ross. Upon the death, in 1711, of David, the last Ross of Balnagowan, the representation in blood of the O'Beolan Rosses devolved on the Munro Rosses of Pitcalnie. In 1745 the fighting force of the clan was 500 men.
Sir Charles Ross of Balnagowan, 9th Baronet, by tailzie heir to the chiefships though not of "the blood", died without issue, 1942, but the Baronet never legally took up the arms on succeeding the Hawkhead line, and so let in Pitcalnie. Balnagowan Castle, in Ross?shire, was occupied by his widow, Dorothy, Lady Ross of Balnagowan.
An obituary notice in August 1884 records the death of "Mr George Ross of Pitcalnie, in Ross?shire, and Arnot, in Kincardine, aged eighty?one. Deceased was the last representative of the ancient Earls of Ross, and was chief of the Clan Ross." He was succeeded by a grand?nephew, whose heir of the line, Miss Ross of Pitcalnie, near Tain, in 1903 got matriculation of the undifferenced arms, and her sister, the next Chief of Clan Ross has nominated her distant kinsman, Sheriff Campbell Ross, Tanastair.

CLAN ROSS

(from G929.6 M744 hibr, DPL, The Highland Clans, by Sir Rupert Iain Kay, bart., 1967)

The Clan Ross take their surname from the county of Ross, of which their chief's forefathers were the earls from about 1226. Their first chief, Ferchar, styled Mac in t'sacairt (`the Son of the Priest'), already held by inheritance the vast district of Applecross in Wester Ross as heir of the O'Beolain hereditary abbots of Applecross. They probably came of the same stock as the O'Beolain hereditary abbotts of Drumcliff in Ireland, who descended from Cairbre, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Applecross abbey was founded in 673 by Saint Maelrubha, abbott of Bangor, who descended from Eoghan, another son of King Niall. As St. Maelrubha was himself connected on his mother's side with St. Comgall, founder and first abbott of `Bangor of the Irish Picts in the Ards of Ulster', the right to the abbeylands may at first have passed in the Pictish mode, and the O'Beollans perhaps have acquired the abbacy by a female descent in the transitional ninth century.

In 1215, Ferchar 'the Son of the Priest' brought his numerous warriors to assist the new king, Alexander II, against rival claimants to the throne who were powerful in the North of Scotland. The Chronicle of Melrose records his prowess on this occasion: `Maccintsacairt attacked them, and mightily overthrew the king's enemies; he cut off their heads, and presented them as new gifts to the new king; on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of July. And because of this, the lord king appointed him a new knight'. A decade or so later, the same king entrusted him with the whole Earldom of Ross: So called after the Ancient British word ros, meaning a moor??or possibly from the Gaelic word ros, a headland, after the huge promontory formed by Easter Ross.

The first five chiefs were Earls of Ross. But on the death of William, Earl of Ross and Lord of Skye, in 1372, the earldom passed to his daughter; while the chiefship devolved on his younger half?brother Hugh Ross, 1st of Balnagowan and 6th Chief of the Clan Ross, whose inheritance in Easter Ross was so great that by 1632 the Rosses could raise 1,000 men. After the death in 1711 of David Ross, 13th of Balnagowan, Sheriff of Ross, the chiefship of the clan passed to Malcolm Ross, 5th of Pitcalnie; but the great estate of Balnagowan had been burdened with debts and passed to strangers, whose descendents evicted many of the clansmen in the `progressive' days of the Clearances. The Rosses of Pitcalnie, however, continued to function as chiefs of the Clan in Ross, and the celebrated Simon, Lord Lovat (beheaded in 1747) wrote to the then Pitcalnie in 1740 as `My Dear Brother Chieff'. The late 34th chief was ninety?nine?old Miss Ross of Ross, who lived on the outskirts of the old royal burgh of Tain in Ross. Her appointed heir, David Ross of Ross, the new Chief, belonged to the Shandwick branch of the clan, and is male heir of Macc in t'sacairt who became Earl of Ross seven and a half centuries ago. In the old St.Duthus Church in Tain was kept the sacred shirt of St. Duthac, worn by the midieval Earls of Ross. The hereditary guardians of this sanctuary were the MacCullochs of Nigg: from their heiress descended the Gairs of Nigg, whose Arms were recorded in Lyon Register in 1672 and of whom the present Lt. Colonel Robert Gayre of Gayre and Nigg has been officially recognised as the representative. The sanctuary was unwillingly violated by the 3rd chief, William, Earl of Ross, in 1306, when he dragged out King Robert Bruce's queen and daughter and handed then over to be caged by the English. He had been released by Edward I of England after seven years as a prisoner?of?war in the Tower of London, and presumably had no wish hopelessly to renew the experience. But as soon as possible, he was reconciled in 1307 to king Robert (who gave his sister Lady Maud in marriage to the chief's son Hugh) and he led the men of the North for Bruce at Bannockburn. Hugh, 4th Earl of Ross, was killed wearing St. Duthac's shirt in battle against the English and King Edward Balliol at Halidon Hill in 1333. Balliol found the holy shirt on his body and restored it to the sanctuary at Tain. Balnagowan Castle was long the stronghold of the Chiefs of Ross. But after the death in 1711 of David Ross, 13th of Balnagowan and 18th Chief, a Lowland family who happened also to be called Ross (but from the Norman name de roos) managed by financial intrigue to get possession of the castle and the vast clan territory. In all the annals of Scotland there is, perhaps, no greater case of fraud and wrong than the unscrupulous but ultimately successful attempts of Lord Ross and General Charles Ross, strangers to the family, to possess themselves of the estates of Balnagowan'. The usurping line have come to an end, and the castle now belongs to English ladies. Betsy Ross, widow of John Ross who was killed in the American War of Independence and whose brother Colonel George Ross was one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence itself, made the first 'Stars and Stripes' flag for the United States' Congress. They were Rosses of Balblair, descended from a younger son of Hugh Ross of Balnagowan, 9th Chief of Clan Ross from about 1412.

CLAN ROSS

(The Clans and Tartans of Scotland, Robert Bain, 1938)

The Clan Ross take their name from the province of Ross and are designated in Gaelic as Clann Andrias. Their traditional progenitor Fearchar mac?an?t?sagairt (son of the priest), of Applecross, was a powerful supporter of Alexander II and, for his services, was created Earl of Ross in 1234. His grandson, William, led his clan at the Battle of Bannockburn, and Hugh, 5th Earl, was killed at the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333. Hugh's successor, William, died without male issue and succession passed through the female line, a circumstance which later led to the struggle for the Earldom between the Lord of the Isles and the Regent Albany. In 1424 the Earldom reverted to the Crown but James I restored it to Margaret, mother of Alexander, 3rd Lord of the Isles, and it remained with the Lords of the Isles until the Lordship was forfeited in 1476 when the earldom became vested in the Crown. On the death of William, Earl of Ross, the chiefship of the clan passed to his brother Hugh Ross of Rariches, who obtained a charter of the lands of Balnagowan in 1374, and for over three centuries the Rosses of Balnagowan remained the principal family of the clan. David Ross, the last of the direct line of Balnagowan, disposed of the estate to the Hon. Charles Ross, son of Lord Ross of Hawkhead, Renfrewshire. There was no connection between the two families. Balnagowan devolved upon George, 13th Lord Ross in 1745. On the death of William, 14th Lord Ross, unmarried, Balnagowan went to Sir James Lockhart, 2nd Bart. of Carstairs. Sir John, 5th Bart., assumed the name Ross, and on the sale of Carstairs in 1762, adopted the designation of Balnagowan.