Æneas Mackay (abt. 1666 - 1697)

Born about 1666 in Reay, Sutherland, Scotland

Ancestors

Husband of Margaret (von Puckler) Mackay — married 1692 in Tiel, Gelderland, Nederland

Descendants

Died 1697 at about age 31 in Bath, Somerset, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Doug Straiton [send private message]

Biography

Æneas was born about 1666. He was the son of John Mackay and Barbara Mackay. He joined the Scots Brigade at the request of his uncle, Hugh Mackay. He was educated in Utrecht and then commissioned into the Scots Brigade.^[1] He appears on the register as taking oath to William of Orange on 28 Nov 1684.^[2] He replaced Captain Lachlan MacLean.^[3]

He served in the Regiment in Holland, returning home in 1688 accepting a commission in Colonel John Wauchope's Regiment of Scots Foot. Ferguson provides^[4] that there had been friction between King James II (VII Scotland) and the Prince of Orange as to the command of the Scots Brigade, and early in 1688 the King made up his mind to recall the whole of his troops serving in Holland. Of the Brigade only 60 officers returned to Scotland. In the Regiment of General Hugh Mackay; Captain John Gordon, Captain Æneas Mackay and Captain Henry Graham returned, all joining John Wauchope's Regiment of Scots Foot.

He was charged with "on suspicion of intriguing for the prince of Orange" and arrested.^[5] He spent 7 months in prison at Edinburgh but was released after the "Revolution".

He served under his uncle, General Hugh Mackay of Scourie, as a Major in the Scots Greys,^[6] during the campaign of 1689-90 in Scotland, afterwards in Ireland, and then returned to the Continent, where he rose to the rank of brigadier- general. Lieutenant Colonel in 1691 in General Hugh Mackay's Regiment, he was present at the Battle of Aghrim and wounded at the Battle of Steinkirk.^[7] He commanded, replacing General Hugh Mackay, killed at Steinkirk, a Regiment of the Scots Brigade between 1692 and 1697 when he was replaced by Robert Murray.^[8]

Æneas Mackay died, in 1697, in Bath, Somerset, of wounds he received at the Siege of Namur in 1695 leading a Regiment of the Scots Brigade.^[9]

He married, in 1692, Margaret, daughter of Lieut.-Col. Baron Francis von Puckler, and by her, who died 14 February 1761, aged ninety, had an only child; Colonel Donald Mackay, who fell at Tournay in 1745, married his cousin, Baroness Arnolda Margaret van den Steen with children. The Amsterdam family of Puckler was also the maiden name of Hugh Mackay mother-in-law.

This family line settled in the Netherlands after service with the United Netherlands, raising to Parliament of the Netherlands with one becoming Prime Minister. This line will eventually be raised as Lord Reay as the more senior lines fail in the male line until it, in turn failed in the male line with Sir Donald James Mackay, 11th Lord Reay.

Sources

1. ↑ #S-3 Mackay; page 389
2. ↑ #S-2 Ferguson; Vol 1, page 505
3. ↑ #S-2 Ferguson; Vol 1, page 516
4. ↑ #S-2 Ferguson; Vol 1, page 478 and note 2
5. ↑ #S-1 Balfour Paul; Vol 7, page 171
6. ↑ #S-2 Ferguson; Vol 1, page 516
7. ↑ #S-2 Ferguson; Vol 1, page 516
8. ↑ #S-2 Ferguson; Vol 1, page xxxiv
9. ↑ #S-2 Ferguson; Vol 1, page xxv and page 516, note 3

• Source S-1Sir James Balfour Paul, Editor. The Scots peerage, founded on Wood's edition of Sir Robert Douglas's peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom. Vol. VII. Edinburgh: D Douglas, 1904. archive.org

• Source S-2 Ferguson; James. Papers illustrating the history of the Scots brigade in the service of the United Netherlands, 1572-1782; Volume 1. Vol 1. Edinburgh: Constable, 1809. archive.org

• Source S-3Robert Mackay. History of the house and clan of Mackay ...... Vol. I. Edinburgh: A Jack, 1829. archive.org