Ann Maclean

From Pedigree E - Epitome of the "Great Pedigree of the Chaplin and Skinner families" prepared by Alan Maclean Skinner QC:

Daughter of John Maclean and his wife Florance of Inverscadle - descended from Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, but no further detail is given in Pedigree E.

She lived at 8 Stratton Street Picadilly and also at Hampton Court Palace in the rooms assigned to her by Queen Victoria [in recognition of her husband's services] (see 'Sketch of the Military Services of Lieutenant-General John Skinner and his Sons.') When her husband died she was at first refused an apartment at Hampton Court, but Allan Maclean Skinner wrote, on page 69 of his book, mentioned below: "My father desired that his widow should enjoy one of those charming retirements, on the ground that his services entitled her to such favor, as his application, made in contemplation of death, clearly shows. This cherished object of my mother's wishes, after the lapse of seventeen years, and sorrows which she would have shuddered to contemplate, as the price of such preferment, Providence accorded to her.

The Queen, in the interest of the public service, recognised, in the loss of her three elded sons, a claim, which She graciously acknowledged by a message of condolence, and an offer to place her name on the list for apartments in Hampton Court Palace. My mother expressed honestly her consolation at the appreciation of the services of her children, and her gratification at the complimentary offer, (for it was no more, in her 71st year) to place her on a list, when, shaken as she was by grief, she could not expect to survive those who stood before her. The force of this suggestion was most gracefully recognized; for a few weeks after, Lady Harriet de Blaquiere resigned her apartments, which were forthwith assigned to my mother."


From 'Sketch of the Military Services of Lieutenant-General Skinner and his sons,' a copy of which is held by the British Library, London
From the dedication at the beginning of the book:

Brockton Lodge, Stafford. December 12, 1863

My Dearest Mother,

I have been thinking by what gift, appropriate to our long and firm friendship and entire sympathy, I could mark the advent of this your Ninetieth Birthday, when your two surviving children, and many grandchildren hail you nonogenarian, and it appears to me, that I can do so, by no better means than by giving you some account of the public services of my father and brothers, whose loss you unceasingly dplore, of whose merits you are daily reminded in that quiet home, which, for their sake, and in generous recognition of therir services, the Queen has given to you (some twenty years ago), and on whose honor and affection you fondly look back, as the highest earthly blessings which a kind but chastening Providence has bestowed upon you.
I propose no history of public interest, but merely a family narrative of private and home memories, which may hereafter be read with pleasure by your descendants. Before I refer to my father's family, I must take notice of your own. Being on both sides of your house of unbroken Celtic descent, your Highland instincts of regard for the binding claims of family ties, give enduring interest to genealogical details, and your own career presents peculiar features of interest, as connecting, in a singular way, past times with the present. Born December 12th, 1773, at Ardgour House, Argyleshire, then called Cooil House, Ardgour, the second daughter of John Maclean, of Arrihoolan (eldest son of Donald Maclean of Kilmalouairg in Tyree, by his wife Isobelle, daughter of Neil Campbell, of Dunstaffnage Castle, ancestor of the present Baronet, your father residing there, as guardian of the person and estates of his hereditary chieftain, and near kinsman (the late Colonel Alexander Maclean, 13th of Ardgour, then an infant), under the expressive local title of Factor Mohr, or the great manager, you were according to the custom of the time and to the great sacrifice of maternal feelings, put out to nurse in the house of a well-to-do tenant clansman, for the political object of gaining domestic allies in the persons of his children, who assuming the title of foster brothers and sisters were always to be relied upon in those wild times and those wild districts, as friends in need, ever exhibiting acts of devoted friendship and service to the person and family of the higher-born nursling.
This practice, of which you are perhaps the last surviving instance, has died out in these more quiet times, with the reasons for it, but had flourished from the time of your great ancestor King Robert Bruce, your descent from whom I will show by a few lines:

I commence with Fergus 1st (Righ Alabinn), King of Scotland, whose descendant (being 12th in descent), Rath, AD 1123, had a son, Gillean-na-Tuoich, or Gillean of the Battle Axe. He fought at the battle of Largs under King Alexander 3rd, and died before 1300. In his honour his descendants have since borne, as crest, a Lochaber Axe erect between cypress and laurel, with a motto "Altera Merces," referring to those emblems, as indicating the alternative of death or victory, as the only termination of battle, recognized by the family which he founded in the person of Gillise, who assumed the name of Mac Gillean, written by some of his descendants Maclean, by others as it is pronounced, Maclaine. This Gillise fought under Bruce at Bannockburn. His great-grandson, Lachlan Maclean, surnamed Lubaneach, or "The Politic," (whose war-song as below [see the book, copy in the British Library], is to be found, translated from the Gaelic, in the Poems of Sir Walter Scott), married the Lady Elizabeth, daughter of John Lord of the Isles, by his wife the Princess Margaret, 4th daughter by his first wife Elizabeth (daughter of Sir Adam Mure of Rowallan, Ayr) of King Robert 2nd, grandson and representative of Robert Bruce, and first sovereign of the House of Stuart.
The hand of the Lady Elizabeth Mac Donald was won by violent wooing, characteristic of that age. John Lord of the Isles, being captive to Lachlan Maclean, his feudal subject, obtained his freedom by conceding to Maclean the position of Hereditary Judge of the Council in peace, and Lieutenant-General of the Army of the Isles in war, with the privilege of being on the right hand of all the clans in battle. This concession he ratified by the gift of his daughter Elizabeth to Lachlan in marriage.
Lachlan's son Eachuiun Ruadh na'n Cath, or Red Hector of the Battles, commanding a squadron on the coast of Ireland, worsted the English Fleet, and laid under contribution the City of Dublin and, after many successes, died in single combat with Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum, his adversary being slain also by him, at the decisive battle of Harlaw, 1411, in which battle he held command as Hereditary Lieutenant-General of the Army of the Isles. His body was carried from the field by the Clans Innes and Mac Mhilmoire on their shields, and buried by them at I Collumkill. To cancel enmity between the families of Drum and Maclean on account of this mutual slaughter, it was agreed that every successor of each family should exchange swords, which was done for many generations. His son Lachlan, surnamed Bronich, or "The Burly," had by his first wife, who was daughter to the Earl of Douglas, a son, Lachlan Oig, or the Younger, from whom is descended Maclean Lord of Dhuart and of Morvern, now represented by Colonel Sir Charles Fizroy Maclean, Bart, and which Lachlan Oig's eldest son Hector was slain at Flodden Field.
I will not detail from this point your descent to be found in the pedigree of Maclean, but content myself with this additional fact, that through your mother Florance (daughter of John Maclean of Inverscadell), married at Kiel, in Ardgour, July 17, 1766, you are also descended from Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel; her grandfather, Allan, 10th Maclean of Ardgour, having married Ann Cameron of Lochiel, in whose honour you were christened Ann. Not only did Sir Walter Scott delight to relate the achievements of Lochiel, but in Macaulay's history we find the following account of him. Vol 3, p319:

"The ruler of the Camerons, Sir Ewan Cameron of Lochiel, surnamed the Black, was in personal qalities unrivalled among the Celtic princes, He was a gracious master, a trusty ally, a terrible enemy. His countenance and bearing were singularly noble. Some persons who had been at Versailles, and among them the shrewd and observant Simon Lord Lovat, said that there was, in person and manner, a most striking resemblance between Lewis XIV and Lochiel, and whoever compares the portraits of the two will perceive that there really was some likeness, In stature the difference was great. Lewis, in spite of high-heeled shoes and a towering wig, hardly reached the middle size. Lochiel was tall and strongly built. In agility and skill at his weapons he had few equals among the inhabitants of the Hills. He had repeatedly been victorious in single combat. He was a hunter of great fame. He made vigorous war on the wolves, which, down to his time, preyed on the red deer of the Grampians; and by his hand perished the last of the ferocious breed which is known to have wandered at large in our Island. Nor was Lochiel less distinguished by intellectual than by bodily vigour. He might indeed have seemed ignorant to educated and travelled Englishmen, who had studied the classics under Busby at Westminster and under Aldrich at Oxford, who had learned something about the sciences among Fellows of the Royal Society, and something about the fine arts in the galleries of Florence and Rome. But though Lochiel had very little knowledge of books, he was eminently wise in council, eloquent in debate, ready in devising expedients, and skilful in managing the minds of men. His understanding preserved him from those follies into which pride and anger frequently hurried his brother chieftains. Many, therefore, who regarded his brother chieftains as mere barbarians, mentioned him with respect. Even at the Dutch Embassy in St James's Square, he was spoken of as a man of such capacity and courage that it would not be easy to find his equal. As a patron of literature he ranks with the magnificent Dorset. If Dorset out of his own purse allowed Dryden a pension equal to the Laureateship, Lochiel is said to have bestowed on a celebrated Bard, who had been plundered by marauders, and who implored alms in a pathetic Gaelic ode, three cows and the almost incredible sum of fifteen pounds sterling. In truth, the character of this great Chief was depicted two thousand five hundred years before his birth, and depicted - such is the power of genius - in colours which will be fresh as many years after his death. He was the Ulysses of the Highlands. He held a large territory, peopled by a race which reverenced no lord, no King but himself." See his Memoirs, printed at Edinburgh, 1842, for Abbotsford Club.

I mention these matters not so much to glory in your distinguished ancestors - Maclean, King Robert Bruce, The Lord of the Isles, Colin first Earl of Agyle, and Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, - the Douglas - as to enable those who follow me to reflect with more intelligent appreciation -
Upon the high qualities which characterize and dignify your old age - the greatness of your courage who (save in the loss of health on your own partl or of character on the part of those dear to you), have known every form of misfortune which loss of means and loss of friends can inflict, for of your own generation but one remains to congratulate you on your 90th birthday, your affectionate cousin and friend Captain Ronald MacDonald of Glencoe, grandson of the baby who by the fidelity of his nurse was - alone of his race - rescued from the burning house of his slaughtered family on the occasion known as the massacre of Glencoe, and yet with Christian power and unshaken hope you have in gentleness and tenderness, regretting those you have lost, accepted gratefully the substituted blessing of affection heartily offered by the children still left to you, your grandchildren and friends -
Upon the goodness of your heart which still sympathizes with genial zest in the wants and pleasures of others, ever ready to obtain employment or enjoyment for the young, as many can gratefully testify - ever ready to serve the unfortunate or friendless - ever ready to rejoice with the happy from a freshness of spirit which shows that it is possible for old age to obtain an active triumph over selfishness -
Upon the soundness of intellect which still makes your counsel to be anxiously sought, and your advice the ground for successful action to many -
Upon your memory, which not only recalls and vividly depicts the past state of Argyleshire as it was in your childhood, when your parents were contrained to send their own vessel four times a year for supplies to Glasgow, round what was then a lonely coast, though now incessantly supplied by passing steamboats, and of times when shelter might be required and as surely given, under such circumstances as those under which your father gave hospitality to Sir Allan Cameron of Erach, pursued by the emissaries of the law when with strong hand, in family feud, he had slain three men, cleaving them with his heavy sword, finding refuge in the house till the observation of the servants and the children - of whom you were one - made it discreet to remove the mysterious stranger to a recess in the hillside, screened by a fall of water, your parents stealthily taking him food and comforts, till flight to America preserved him to receive from William Pitt a pardon, and to make atonement, by raising (in England's troubles), at his own expense and by his hereditary influence, in August 1793, the 79th Highlanders, called the Cameronians, and other incidents peculiar to that period and district, with the more peaceful recollection of the Poet Burns's playful patting of your head, but also, upon your powers of observation and memory perhaps more remarkably preserved at your age, to detail with accuracy the events of the day as they arise, and also to bear in mind the wishes of young friends, or their anxieties, so as to fulfil or remove them if the opportunity should be given to you.
With a lively hope that the occasion for offering congratulation on your birthday may recur again and again, and in the spirit of the warmest affection.
I am, your affectionate son
ALLAN MACLEAN SKINNER

To my Venerable Mother
Mrs Ann Skinner
Hampton Court Palace.


And later, as an example of her diligence and energy, Allan Maclean Skinner wrote that his mother dictated to him a letter to HRH the day before she died, urging the promotion of her grandson Henry Ferrars Huntley - and on 28 October 1864 he was gazetted a Lieutenant in the 5th Fusiliers.

Allan had written his book 'Sketch of the Military Services of Lieutenant-General Skinner and his sons', quoted above, for his mother's 90th birthday but she died before he could get it printed, so he added on page 64 a dedication to his children, with an appreciation of his mother.

NB: Ann Maclean had a nephew, Alexander Campbell Maclean of Haremere Hall, who was very fond of her - but the name does not appear amongst her brothers' children - so which brother's son was he?

END