Features: Scottish Clan Early Genealogy - Clan MacBean

Motto: Touch Not A Catt Bot A Targe
Historic Seat: Kinchyle
District: Inverness-shire
Associated Surnames: Bain, Bean, Beattie, Binnie, MacBain, MacBeath, MacBeth, MacIlvain, MacVean
Associated Tartans:

Early MacBean Genealogy and History:
(Excerpt from "The Scottish Clans and Their Tartans", James Grant, 1906)

There seems to be little known of the history of this clan, although they must at one time have been numerous and united, having an acknowledged chief with an independent following.

There is an opinion, however, among several of this clan, that they are a branch of the Camerons, and a division of MacBeans fought with Lochiel as their kinsmen in 1745. But, although some few might have been his followers, unvarying traditional ranks the clan as one of the many tribes comprehended under the generic appellation of Clan Chattan¹, and it is certain that the MacBeans, with the above exception, in all general expeditions, and other transactions, ranked under the banner of the MacIntosh, as their superior.

The chief could bring somewhat more than a hundred men into the field, and in the rising with Prince Charles Stewart in 1745, he held the rank of Major in the MacIntosh battalion. His son was likewise engaged in that attempt, but escaped, and afterwards obtained a commission in Lord Drumlanrick's regiment, a better fate than awaited his gallant father.

At the battle of Culloden², when the Argyll militia broke down a wall which enabled Hawley's dragoons to attack the Highlanders in flank, Major Gillies MacBean, who stood six feet four inches in height, stationed himself at the gap, and as the assailants passed through he cut them down by the irresistible strokes of his broadsword. No fewer than thirteen, including Lord Robert Kerr, were thus slain when the enraged enemy closed around him in numbers, that they might bring down so formidable an opponent, on which MacBean, placing his back to the wall, bravely defended himself for some time against the fierce assault. At last the heroic Gillies fell, pierced with many bayonet wounds, his head dreadfully cut by a sword and his thigh bone broken.

The Bains or Baynes of Tullach, an old and respectable family in Ross-shire, like several other Highland septs, never prefixed Mac to their name. They are supposed to be a branch of the MacKays, and possessed considerable influence in the county.

MacVean is another mode of spelling MacBean.

(End excerpt)

Next page: Clan MacDonald

Footnotes:

¹ Clan Chattan: Clan Chattan is a unique Highland clan confederation whose past and present members include Clan Davidson, Farquharson, MacBean, MacGillivray, MacIntyre, Mackintosh, MacLean, MacPhail, MacPherson, MacQueen, MacThomas, and Shaw. Read more about Clan Chattan at Wikipedia.

² The Battle of Culloden (1746): The Battle of Culloden was fought on 16 April 1746, on Drummossie Moor, near Culloden, east of Inverness Scotland, between Scottish forces led by Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) and English forces led by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. It was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Read more about the Battle of Culloden at Wikipedia.