From the thirteenth century to the current day – Bean ‘Mor’ mac Maolmoire (1st Chief) to Richard McBain of McBain (23rd Chief)
by Philip Beddows
Seanachaidh to the Chief and Clan Historian
Written for publication in ‘The Clan MacBean Register’, Spring 2023
Richard McBain of McBain, 23rd Hereditary Chief of the Clan MacBean, at his inauguration as Chief at the McBain Memorial Park above Dores and Loch Ness, Saturday 6th August 2022.
In the previous edition of The Clan MacBean Register, Phillip Beane shared a wonderful account of his and his wife Jennifer’s experience of the historic gathering of our Clan last August, which included the inauguration ceremony of our 23rd Hereditary Chief, Richard McBain of McBain, near Kinchyle, at the McBain Memorial Park above the village of Dores and Loch Ness, on Saturday 6th August 2022.
It was a great honour and privilege for me to have fulfilled my duty as Seanachaidh at Richard’s formal inauguration alongside the Lord Lyon, who very kindly oversaw the occasion as the representative of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. A traditional, and important part of my role during the ceremony was to proclaim publicly Richard’s ancestry in front of those members of Clan MacBean and their kinsmen of Clan Chattan who had gathered together to witness his inauguration, and thereby confirm his rightful succession to his father. This was done firstly in Gaelic and then in English, with additional details about some key individuals and explanations of moments when the chiefship passed between cousins rather than father to son.
I am pleased to record this for posterity in this Spring/Summer 2023 edition of The Clan MacBean Register and, by doing so, help overcome the genealogical errors and mix-ups over the pedigree of our chiefs that have occurred since publication in 1959 of a ‘Genealogy of the Chiefs of the Clan MacBean’, compiled by some of the Clan’s own genealogists in 1959 and later re-published in 1979 by The Clan MacBean Register in the booklet ‘An American Scottish Chief’, which told the story of how Hughston McBain of McBain became our 21st Chief. This same genealogy, with its entirely unintended mix-ups, was also published on the Clan’s website. All of this was picked up by others and used as the basis of published genealogies of our chiefs, even by the respected Burke’s Peerage; and the errors have proliferated widely and are found repeated across the internet. The origin of these genealogical mix-ups appears to have been confusion between the line of succession of the chiefs as opposed to the father-to-son line of descent to Hughston McBain of McBain.
The correct genealogy of our current Chief Richard McBain of McBain – as proclaimed in Gaelic at his inauguration ceremony:
Ruiseart, Mac Seumas, Mhic Uisdein, Mhic Uilleim-Frederick, Mhic Uilleim, Mhic Alasdair, Mhic Uilleim, Mhic Fearchar, Mhic Iain, Mhic Uilleim, Mhic Phàil, Mhic Iain, Mhic Aonghais, Mhic Phàil, Mhic Uilleim, Mhic Gilliosa, Mhic Phàil – bho gineal Maolmoire, Mhic Beathan Mór, Mhic Maolmoire bho Clann Chatain
This translates into English as:
Richard, the son of James, the son of Hughston, the son of William Frederick, the son of William, the son of Alexander, the son of William, the son of Farquhar, the son of John, the son of William, the son of Paul, the son of John, the son of Angus, the son of Paul, the son of William, the son of Gillies, the son of Paul – descended from (one of the sons of) Maolmoire, the son of Bean ‘Mor’, the son of Maolmoire from Clan Chattan.
Expanding on this, our Chief’s lineage put into more context with the line of succession of chiefs can be summarized as follows:-
Richard McBain of McBain (23rd Chief) son of James McBain of McBain (22nd Chief) with his 1st wife Mollie Jost, son of Hughston McBain of McBain (21st Chief) with his wife Margaret Keith. Hughston was the first of the chiefly family to be born in the United States, in 1902 at Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was Hughston who created the McBain Park and its Monument where we all gathered for Richard’s inauguration. Hughston was the son of William Frederick McBain with his wife Anne Kathleen Hughston, son of William McBain with his wife Catherine Mackintosh from ‘Moyhall’ (the settlement by Moy Hall itself, the home of the Mackintosh chiefs) who he married at Montreal in 1849, son of Alexander of La Guerre, Ontario with his wife Susan Davidson, son of William McBean (16th Chief) with his wife Christina Macdonald who lived in Pitourie in the parish of Alvie and emigrated with his family to Canada where they settled in Glengarry, Ontario, Canada.
This William was the son of Farquhar McBean who migrated from the parish of Dores to live with his family in the parish of Alvie in the district of Badenoch. Farquhar was the son of John MacBean, the youngest brother to our famous chief Major Gillies ‘Mor’ MacBean (14th Chief) who died at Culloden on 16th April 1746.
Gillies left a son and heir Captain Donald MacBean of Kinchyle (15th Chief), who had fought alongside his father at Culloden. He became a prisoner, then released and is said to have been given an officer’s commission in the British Army by the Duke of Cumberland himself, as a tribute to his father Gillies, whose heroic exploits had greatly impressed Cumberland. In 1747, Donald became an officer in Lord Drumlanrig’s Regiment and then in Fraser’s Highlanders with whom he served in Canada and was wounded outside Quebec at the Battle of Sainte-Foy on 28th April 1760. The family’s old home and estate of Kinchyle was sold the same year. Donald returned from North America and retired from the army as a Captain in the 10th Regiment of Foot. He lived at Faillie (the old home of his kinsmen the MacBeans of Faillie) and later at Tearie near Forres in the County of Moray. Donald is believed to have been born in or around 1728. The date of his death is not precisely known, but he is found cited in the marriage notice of his daughter Marjory published in The Scots Magazine on 1st September 1792 as ‘the late Capt. Donald Macbean, of the 10th foot’. He left two daughters – Marjory MacBean who married Captain Angus Cameron of Kinlochleven and Elizabeth Barbour MacBean who married Coll Macdonald Esq. of Dalness, a Writer to the Signet. They both had descendants, but the chiefship passed through the male line to Donald’s first cousin Farquhar’s son William McBean in Pitourie.
William in Pitourie’s grandfather John, brother of Gillies ‘Mor’, was the 5th and youngest son of William MacBean of Kinchyle (13th Chief) and his wife Jean Mackintosh daughter of Donald Mackintosh of Kyllachy, the head of that distinguished cadet branch of the Mackintoshes of Mackintosh. William MacBean of Kinchyle was present at Moy in September 1724 and signed the concluding agreement that finally settled for all time the dispute between the Chief of Mackintosh and Cluny Macpherson over who was Captain of Clan Chattan – it was Mackintosh.
William was a son of Paul MacBean of Kinchyle (12th Chief) and his wife Anne Urquhart daughter of Thomas Urquhart of Kinnudie, Minister of Ardersier who descended from the Urquharts of Cromarty. Paul’s younger brother was William MacBean ‘Merchant of Inverness’ who was granted arms by the Lord Lyon in 1672.
Paul was son of John MacBean of Kinchyle alias ‘John mac Angus vic Phail’ (11th Chief) and his wife Mary Macqueen daughter of Donald Macqueen of Corrybrough, Chief of the Macqueens of Strathdearn. John was the first of the chiefs to adopt the surname ‘MacBean’. It is interesting to find John McPhaill apparent of Kinkell at Inverlochy on 31st August 1619, back in the family’s more ancient homeland of Lochaber, witnessing a charter by Maclean of Ardgour to Charles Maclean of lands that included Inverscadell.
John was the son of Angus mac Phail (10th Chief) with his wife Isabel Baillie – Angus signed the 1609 Band of Union of Clan Chattan at Termit under the name Angus McPhaill in Kandkell (i.e., Kinchyle) ‘for his haill kin and name and race of Clan Bean’. It was to this Angus that Sir John Campbell of Cawdor granted a feu charter of Kinchyle at Auldearn on 18th May 1610. Angus’s daughter Catherine was ancestress of the Shaw Chiefs of Tordarroch through her marriage to Angus of Tordarroch, son of Bean son of Robert.
The MacBean Chief, Angus mac Phail, was the son of Paul mac William (9th Chief) who as Paul McWilliam McGilleise in Kinchellye appeared as a witness to sasine at Dunachton in February 1569. As his name tells us, this Paul was the son of William mac Gillies (8th Chief) who under the name of Willyeam McGillies McFaill signed Clan Chattan’s Band in 1543. William’s father was Gillies mac Phail (7th Chief) – the son of Paul (6th Chief), who was descended from one of the sons of Maolmoire anglicised as ‘Milmoir’ (or ‘Milmor’) mac Bean – these sons are recorded as: Paul, Gillies, Milmoir the younger and Farquhard. The Farr Manuscript tells us that it was Paul mac Milmoir who succeeded his father, so we record him as our 3rd Chief. The absence of knowledge for the identity of the father of Paul the father of Gillies mac Phail, is explained as arising from the result of the Battle of Harlaw in 1411, at which so much blood was shed that it was called ‘Red Harlaw’. Lachlan Mackintosh of Kinrara’s Manuscript history records that Malcolm Mackintosh – then Captain of Clan Chattan – fighting in the army of Donald Lord of the Isles, ‘lost in this battle many of his friends and people, especially of the Clan Bean’.
As I have said, Paul father of Gillies was descended from Maolmoire mac Bean ‘Mor’ (2nd Chief). Maolmoire’s father was given the epithet ‘Mor’, which translates as ‘Big’ or ‘Great’. This Bean ‘Mor’ mac Maolmoire (1st Chief) is the patriarch from whom the Clan MacBean was named, and therefore the founder of our Clan. His father was Maolmoire, who was of a lineage of the ancient Clan Chattan and lived with his family in Lochaber.
It is said that Bean came in the party of his relative Eva, the Heiress of Clan Chattan, when she married Angus Mackintosh in 1291. Bean became a faithful retainer of Angus Mackintosh against ‘the Red Comyn’ – John Comyn, the great rival of Robert the Bruce for the throne of Scotland. The Red Comyn was the most inveterate enemy of Angus. It is recorded in the Farr MS that because of his fidelity to Angus Mackintosh son of Ferquhar, Bean was so much hated by the Red Comyn that neither he nor his children could live in peace so long as the Red Comyn lived at Inverlochy. Bean’s son Milmoir and his sons famously killed the Red Comyn’s Steward of Inverlochy and shortly afterwards Milmoir’s two sons Milmoir and Ferquhar, killed two other servants of the Red Comyn whose names are remembered as ‘Paton’ and ‘Kesson’. Before the Red Comyn was killed by Robert the Bruce in 1306, our patriarch Bean left Lochaber and dwelt at Ruthven in Brae-Badenoch, and then Milmoir mac Bean and his sons later came north to William Mackintosh, son of Angus, at Connage in Petty, and for themselves, and their posteritie took protection of him & his successors as their Chief and Captain of Clan Chattan.
The MacBeans and all of Clan Chattan fought under Mackintosh alongside King Robert the Bruce, and it was the Bruce’s struggle for the throne and control of Scotland against the English kings that was the fulcrum that was the catalyst for the birth of the Clan MacBean as a distinct element within the Clan Chattan. The adventures of Bean and his Clan so long ago, intricately entwined with the story of the life and reign of Robert the Bruce – who was crowned at Scone on Palm Sunday 25th March 1306 – explains how the MacBeans emerged from their old homeland in Lochaber, through Badenoch and then further north to near Inverness, where our Chiefs settled at Kinchyle by Loch Ness, a short walk from the McBain Memorial Park where Richard McBain of McBain was inaugurated as our 23rd Chief on the Feast Day of the Transfiguration, Saturday 6th August 2022 in the 71st Year of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, direct descendant and successor to Robert the Bruce, King of Scots. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland the following month on 8th September – joining our own late Chief James McBain of McBain who died earlier in the same year, on 7th March. Thus, it was that Richard became our Chief in one of the most historically significant of years. Through his inauguration, overseen by the Lord Lyon as the Queen’s Representative – when he was presented with a specially commissioned ‘Cromach’ as a symbol of office as Chief, on which was carved his battle cry ‘Kinchyle’ – Richard was himself ‘transfigured’, and we too as his Clan, in a ceremony that will be remembered and recorded in the annals of the Clan, far into the future.
Left to right: the author, Seanachaidh; John Mackintosh of Mackintosh, President of Clan Chattan; Richard McBain of McBain, our 23rd Chief; The Rt Hon. the Lord Lyon King of Arms, Dr Joseph Morrow; Iain MacGillivray, Commander of the Clan MacGillivray. At the McBain Memorial Park, after Richard’s inauguration.
Postscript: a new chart laying out the correct and official Pedigree of the Chiefs of the Clan MacBean – from Bean ‘Mor’ mac Maolmoire to Richard McBain of McBain – will be published in the next edition of The Register, and before then on the Clan’s website.
Written for publication in ‘The Clan MacBean Register’, Spring 2023.
The Lineage of the MacBean Chiefs, by Philip Beddows (April 2023 – edit Jan 2024)
First published in The Register, Spring–Summer 2023; revised January 2024.