The Book of Mackay by Rev. Angus Mackay (1906) — Searchable Clan History, Genealogy & Strathnaver Charters Digital PDF

Originally published in Edinburgh by Norman MacLeod in 1906 in a strictly limited edition of just 500 numbered copies (360 reserved for original subscribers), Rev. Angus Mackay’s monumental The Book of Mackay remains the definitive historical and genealogical authority on Clan Mackay (Clann Mhic Aoidh — the "Clan Morgan" of ancient Northern Scotland) and the historic province of Strathnaver (Duthaich Mhic Aoidh, the Reay Country).

Restored and enhanced by Fairbairn's Crests, this complete 562-page digital PDF edition pairs every page and illustration plate of the rare 1906 quarto volume with crisp, whitened pages (#FFFFFF), full-text OCR searchability, and a newly compiled 18-page Back-of-Book Surname and Parish Index.

Why Genealogists & Clan Historians Choose This Fairbairn's Crests Edition

• Pure White Restored Pages: Every text page from the 1906 scan has been professionally cleaned to a crisp white background for effortless on-screen reading and clean home printing, while preserving all 18 original halftone portrait, charter, banner, and artifact plates.
• Full-Text Searchable OCR Layer: Instantly search across 500+ pages of pedigrees, marriage contracts, military muster rolls, sasines, and rent rolls using Ctrl+F (Windows) or Cmd+F (Mac).
• Newly Compiled 18-Page Master Index: Includes a brand-new alphabetical Index of 305 Surnames & Associated Families and an Index of 85 Parishes, Estates, Valleys & Battles mapped directly to the original printed page numbers, plus a step-by-step search guide covering Scots and Gaelic orthographic variants (Mackay, McKay, Makky, Y-Mackay, MacEth, Morgan).
• Complete & Unabridged: Retains the entire chief narrative, all eleven cadet branch genealogies, the 65 transcribed royal charters and estate documents (1379–1829), and the original 1906 global directory of 360 Clan Mackay subscribers.

Complete Contents & Genealogical Scope

Part I: The Chiefly Line of Strathnaver & The Lords Reay (pp. 1–273)

Traces twenty documented generations of the Chiefs of Clan Mackay across seven centuries of Highland, British, and European history:

• Celtic Origins & Early Chiefs (1210–1411): From Iye MacEth (c. 1210), Kenneth MacEth, and Martin of Strathnaver through Magnus, Morgan, Donald, and Angus Du Mackay (1380–1433), commander of 4,000 Strathnaver men and husband of Elizabeth, sister of Donald, Lord of the Isles.
• Feudal Struggles & Earldom Rivalry (1433–1614): Covers Neil Bassach (imprisoned on the Bass Rock), John Roy, Iye Roy Mackay (1486–1517) at the Battle of Flodden, Donald of Strathnaver, Iye Du Mackay (1550–1572) during the Reformation parliament, and Huistean Du Mackay (1572–1614).
• Donald Mackay, 1st Lord Reay (1614–1649): Chronicles the raising of Mackay's Regiment ( over 3,000 Highlanders) for King Christian IV of Denmark and King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden during the Thirty Years' War (defense of Stralsund, Stettin, Lützen, and Nördlingen), and his creation as Baronet of Nova Scotia (1627) and 1st Lord Reay (1628).
• Later Lords Reay (1649–1906): Follows John, 2nd Lord Reay (Royalist campaigns at Balveny and Worcester); George, 3rd Lord Reay, F.R.S. (Hanoverian defender of the North during the 1715, 1719, and 1745 Jacobite Risings); Donald (4th), George (5th), Hugh (6th), and Eric, 7th Lord Reay (including the raising of the Reay Fencible Highlanders in 1794 and the 1829 sale of the Reay Country to the House of Sutherland); through Alexander (8th), Eric (9th), Aeneas (10th, Baron Mackay of Ophemert), and Donald James, 11th Lord Reay (Governor of Bombay and Lord Lieutenant of Roxburghshire).

Part II: Genealogies of the Eleven Principal Cadet Branches (pp. 274–364)

• The Aberach Mackays (Clan Abrach): Descendants of Ian Aberach (second son of Angus Du Mackay), hereditary guardians of the Bratach Bhan (White Banner) across Moudale, Achness, Rossal, Truderscaig, and Dalharrold.
• The Scoury Mackays: Descendants of Donald Mackay of Scoury (1550–1619), including Lieutenant-General Hugh Mackay of Scoury (1640–1692), Commander-in-Chief in Scotland under William III, victor of the Battle of Aughrim (1691), and builder of Fort William.
• The Bighouse Mackays: Descendants of William Mackay of Bighouse (1572–1612) across Strathalladale, Kirkton, Forsinard, Portskerra, and Melness.
• The Strathy Mackays: Descendants of Hon. John Mackay of Strathy (son of the 1st Lord Reay) across Strathy, Braegaul, Armadale, Kirtomy, and Skerray.
• The Melness Mackays: Descendants of Hon. Colonel Aeneas Mackay of Melness through Hope, Freswick, Torboll, and Skibo.
• The Sandwood Mackays: Descendants of Lt.-Col. Robert Mackay of Sandwood across Kinlochbervie, Durness, and Badenoch.
• The Dutch Mackays (Barons Mackay of Ophemert): Descendants of Brigadier-General Aeneas Mackay (1666–1697), proprietor of the Barony of Ophemert in Gelderland, Netherlands, who succeeded to the Scottish peerage of Reay in 1875.
• Southern & Western Branches: Full chapters detailing the Galloway Mackays (Balmaclellan and Carsphairn), the Argyle Mackays of Ugadale & Carskey (hereditary holders of the Brooch of Ugadale presented by King Robert the Bruce), the Mackays of Achmony (Glen Urquhart), and the Blackcastle Mackays (Midlothian).

Part III: Appendix of 65 Original Charters, Rent Rolls & Subscriber Directory (pp. 367–500)

• 65 Primary Historical Documents (1379–1805): Full transcriptions and translations of royal charters, papal dispensations, bonds of manrent and friendship (with Clan Gunn, Clan Munro, Clan Ross, the Earl of Caithness, and Lord Forbes), testament dative inventories, Privy Council commissions, and the complete 1678, 1789, and 1805 Reay Estate Rent Rolls naming every wadsetter, tacksman, and township valuation across Durness, Eddrachillis, Tongue, and Farr.
• 1906 Subscriber Roll (pp. 493–500): Names and addresses of 360 original subscribers across Scotland, England, Canada (Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, British Columbia), the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Netherlands.

Surnames & Families Indexed in This Volume

In addition to hundreds of branches of Mackay (McKay, MacKay, Makky, Macky, MacEth, MacHeth, Morgan, MacNeill, Neilson, Polson, Bain, Miller,ison), the newly compiled Back-of-Book Surname Index tracks marriages, alliances, charters, and land transactions involving:

Aberach, Adair, Agnew, Alexander, Allan, Anderson, Angus, Annand, Arnot, Baillie, Bain,aird, Balfour, Barclay, Bayne, Beaton, Bell,Bethune, Blair, Borthwick, Boswell, Boyd, Brodie, Brown, Bruce, Buchan, Buchanan, Burnet, Calder, Cameron, Campbell, Carmichael, Carnegie, Cathcart, Chalmers, Chisholm, Clark, Clunes, Cochrane, Cockburn, Colquhoun, Colville, Comyn, Corbett, Craig, Crawford, Crichton, Cromartie, Cumming, Cunningham, Dalrymple, Davidson, Dempster, Denoon, Dingwall, Douglas, Drummond, Dunbar, Duncan, Dundas, Dunlop, Elphinstone, Erskine, Falconer, Farquharson, Ferguson, Fleming, Forbes, Forrester, Forsyth, Foulis, Fraser, Fullarton, Galloway, Gibson, Gilchrist, Glencairn, Gordon, Graham, Grant, Gray, Grierson, Gunn, Guthrie, Haldane, Haliburton, Hamilton, Hannay, Hay, Henderson, Hepburn, Herries, Home, Hope, Houston, Hunter, Huntly, Inglis, Innes, Irvine, Johnstone, Keith, Kennedy, Ker, Kinnaird, Kirkpatrick, Knox, Lamberton, Lamont, Lauder, Laurie, Law, Learmonth, Leslie, Lindsay, Livingstone, Lockhart, Logan, Lovat, Lumsden, Lyall, Lyon, Macalister, Macaulay, Macdonald, Macdougall, Macfarlane, Macgill, Macgregor, Macintyre,oni, Maciver,ay,305+ indexed families including Mackenzie, Mackintosh, Maclachlan, Maclean, Macleod, Macmillan, Macnab, Macnaghten, Macneil, Macpherson, Macqueen, Macrae, Maitland, Malcolm, Mar, Marischal, Manson, Matheson, Maule, Maxwell, Melville, Menzies, Mercer, Middleton, Miller, Moncreiff, Monro, Montgomery, Montrose, Moray, Morgan, Morrison, Morton, Mowat, Muir, Munro, Murray, Nairn, Napier, Neilson,etsch, Nicolson, Nisbet, Ogilvy, Oliphant, Orkney, Oswald, Paterson, Keith, Polson, Pollock, Pringle, Purves, Rae, Ramsay, Randolph, Rattray, Reay, Reid, Richardson, Robertson, Rollo, Rose, Ross, Rothes, Ruthven, Sandilands, Scott, Scrymgeour,Seaforth, Seton, Sharp, Shaw, Sinclair, Skene, Smith, Somerville, Spalding, Spence, Stair, Stewart, Stirling, Strachan, Strathnaver, Stuart, Sutherland, Swinton, Tarbat, Taylor, Thomson, Threipland, Tullibardine, Turnbull, Urquhart, Vans, Wallace, Wardlaw, Watson, Wauchope, Wedderburn, Weir, Wemyss, Williamson, Wilson, Wishart, Wood, Wright, and Young.

Key Parishes, Estates, Castles & Battles Covered

Strathnaver, Tongue, Farr, Durness, Eddrachillis, Reay, Halkirk, Thurso, Wick, Latheron, Watten, Bower, Olrig, Dunnet, Canisbay, Dornoch, Golspie, Clyne, Kildonan, Loth, Rogart, Lairg, Assynt, Creich, Kincardine, Edderton, Tain, Rosskeen, Alness, Kiltearn, Dingwall, Urquhart, Glenmoriston, Balmaclellan, Carsphairn, Campbeltown, Killean, Southend, Castle Varrich, Borve Castle, Dirlot Castle, Balnakeil House, Tongue House, Bighouse, Scoury, Melness, Strathy, Sandwood, Eriboll, Hope, Strathmore, Gobernuisgach, Moudale, Achness, Rossal, Syre, Langdale, Skelpick, Rhifail, Bettyhill, Armadale, Kirtomy, Swordly, Borgie, Skerray, Kinlochbervie, Laxford, Handa Island, Cape Wrath, Strathalladale, Forsinard, Achmony, Ugadale, Carskey, Blackcastle, Ophemert (Netherlands), Tuiteam-Tarbhach, Harlaw, Druim-nan-Coup, Blair-Tannie, Sandside Chase, Aldyharb,Garve, Flodden, Solway Moss, Stettin, Stralsund, Lützen, Nördlingen, Balveny, Dunbar, Worcester, Killiecrankie, Cromdale, Boyne, Athlone, Aughrim, Steinkirk, Landen, Littleferry, and Culloden.

Product Specifications & Instant Digital Delivery

• Format: High-Resolution Searchable PDF Digital Download (compatible with all computers, tablets, e-readers, and smartphones).
• Page Count: 562 pages total (4 pages Branded Front Matter + 540 whitened original scan pages & plates + 18 pages Newly Compiled Surname & Parish Indexes).
• Original Imprint: Edinburgh: Norman MacLeod, 25 George IV. Bridge; Melbourne: George Robertson & Co. (1906).
• Delivery: Instant digital download link sent automatically upon checkout—no physical shipping wait times.