" Sir George
Mackenzie, first Earl of Cromartie, who will be proved later on
to have been the inventor of the Fitzgerald theory, says in a MS.
history of the clan, that Colin "being left in Kintail, tradition
records that he married the daughter of Mac Mhathoin, heritor of
the half of Kintail. This Mhathoin," he continues, "is frequently
identified with Coinneach Gruamach Mac Mhathoin, Cailean's
predecessor as Governor of Ellandonnan Castle. The other half of
Kintail belonged to O'Beolan, one of whose chiefs, Ferchair, was
created Earl of Ross, and his lands were given to Cailean Fitzgerald."
It will be proved by incontestible public documents still in
existence, that these identical lands were, except that they once
for a time exchanged them with a relative for lands in Buchan,
uninterruptedly possessed by the Earls of Ross, the descendants
of this Ferchair, or Farquhar, for two centuries after the battle
of Largs.
While the Earl of Cromartie and other clan historians accept the
Fitzgerald origin by marriage with a daughter of Kenneth Matheson of
Lochalsh, the Mathesons maintain that the first Mackenzie, or Mac
Choinnich - the actual progenitor of the clan - was a son of their
chief, Coinneach Gruamach, and that the Mackenzies are thus only a
sept, or minor branch of the Mathesons.
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