Clan MacBean

History

The MacBeans are counted within Clan Chattan, the confederation of Highland families that gathered around the Mackintosh chiefs. Their earliest history is hazy. One old explanation links the name to a fair-complexioned forebear, another to the Gaelic word for a mountain, and some writers connect it with the MacBeaths of Moray. The Clan Chattan Association says the founders moved from Lochaber to Petty in the 14th century, while other accounts have them reaching Badenoch in 1291.

A well-known tradition, drawn from the Kinrara manuscript, says Bean's sons served the Mackintosh chief against the Red Comyn. They are said to have killed the Comyn's steward at Inverlochy and then sought Mackintosh protection. We would treat that as family tradition. Harlaw in 1411 was costly. Electric Scotland quotes a historian who says no Chattan kindred suffered more there. In 1609 Angus MacPhail signed the Clan Chattan Bond of Union on behalf of his kin.

Until the early 1600s the family appear to have been tenants rather than owners. Electric Scotland has Angus MacPhail taking a feu of Kinchyle from Campbell of Cawdor in 1610, though another account gives 1609. John MacBean was given sasine of it in 1651. Money troubles followed. Father and son were denounced as rebels for debt in 1697, and in 1708 Kinchyle was pledged to Mackintosh of Borlum. A later source says Lyon Court recognised the MacBeans as a Chattan branch in 1672.

Gillies MacBean is the name most often remembered. A major in the Mackintosh forces at Culloden in 1746, he is said to have defended a breach in the line with sword and targe until he fell wounded. Accounts disagree on how many he killed, giving thirteen or fourteen, so the tale has plainly grown. Other MacBeans fought under Lochiel that day.

After Culloden the estate was lost. Electric Scotland says Gillies's son Donald succeeded his uncle as laird, took a commission in Fraser's regiment in 1757 and went to North America. Donald's trustees judged the finances beyond saving and sold Kinchyle to Simon Fraser, a Gibraltar merchant. A second source puts the loss at 1760. Writers differ over who held the chiefship in these years, so we have not tried to settle the line.

In the 20th century the chiefship was revived. Electric Scotland says the chiefly arms went by Lyon Court decree in 1959 to Hughston M. MacBain, an American, after the Canadian line resigned in 1958. The chief's website and the Tartan Register give 8 March 1960 for the arms entered in the Public Register, so the two dates probably mark different steps. He recovered part of Kinchyle, now the MacBain Memorial Park. The chief's website says Richard McBain of McBain succeeded his father on 7 March 2022 as 23rd chief and was inaugurated by the Lord Lyon on 6 August that year.