Mac Quarrie History

Like the names More and Campbell, this derives from a Gaelic term of description. Guaire, meaning noble or proud, is the root of the clan called Macguire, Mac Guaire, Mac Quarrie and Mac Quarie. According to tradition, Guaire was the brother of Fingon, from whom the Mac Kinnon chiefs descend, and the Mac Quarrie chiefs had their seat in Ulva, which lies off the far larger island of Mull. The first who survives in historical records is lain of Ulva, who witnessed a charter of the Lord of the Isles in 1463 and died about ten years later. In the perfidious expedition of 1609, when James VI summoned Highland chiefs to attend the sermon of a bishop, had them kidnapped, and compelled them to sign the Statutes of lona, Mac Quarrie of Ulva was among the magnates of the Isles who submitted to this latest stroke of Stewart trickery. After the downfall of the Lordship of the Isles the Mac Quarries had attached themselves to the Mac Leans of Duart, then dominant in Mull. This alliance led to the disaster of 1651, when the Chief of Ulva perished with so many of his men, fighting for Charles II at Inverkeithing, whither they had accompanied the Mac Leans.

When Johnson and Boswell visited Ulva in 1773, Johnson found an Island of no great extent, rough and barren, inhabited by the Macquarrys; a clan not powerful nor numerous, but of antiquity, which most other families are content to reverence." They stayed with the Chief, Lachlan Mac Quarrie, five years before he sold his property. Boswell observed: "M’ Quarrie’s house was mean; but we were agreeably surprised with the appearance of the master, whom we found to be intelligent, polite, and much a man of the world." The visitors were equally impressed by the adjacent island of Staffa that he owned, later to become so famous for the strange rock formation of Fingal’s cave and the music which Mendelssohn wrote for it.

The descendants of the last laird of Ulva distinguished themselves in the army and in India; but the most famous of all was his cousin Lachian Mac Quarie (1762-1824). Born in Ulva, he rose to the rank of Major-General and then returned to buy himself an estate in Mull. After Captain Bligh had been dismissed from the post of Governor of New South Wales, with the assistance of John Mac Arthur, General Mac Quarie was appointed to succeed him. Although Mac Arthur soon became his arch-enemy, Mac Quarie was not prevented from performing immense services to Australia. He restored order, promoted education, road building and exploration, and introduced stern Sabbatarian rules. This ugly feature of Calvinism was perhaps excusable as an aid to promoting an orderly society that was largely composed of transported convicts. In his efforts to build a better world for them when they were emancipated, Governor Mac Quarie earned well the title that he shares with his rival Mac Arthur, as a Father of Australia.