Clan MacFie

History

The MacFies are the people of Colonsay, a small island in the Inner Hebrides, and its tidal neighbour Oronsay. The name comes in many forms, among them MacPhee, MacPhie, MacDuffie and Duffie. Electric Scotland gives the Gaelic form as MacDhubhsith and describes the clan as the earliest people on Colonsay. Where they came from before that is uncertain. The Clan Macfie Society of Australia counts them among the Siol Alpin, the kindreds said to descend from Kenneth MacAlpin. A submission by Eric Macfie on Electric Scotland argues that the DNA results do not bear out that descent, so the question stays open.

In the later Middle Ages the chiefs were loyal to the MacDonald Lords of the Isles. Electric Scotland records a Donald MacDuffie as a witness to a charter that John, Lord of the Isles, issued at Dingwall in 1463. The Australian society says the chiefs kept the records of the Lordship by hereditary right. The Electric Scotland submission argues that the evidence only places the role in the later 15th century, not earlier. Several of the priors of the Augustinian house on Oronsay were MacFies, the society adds.

The society also says the chiefs were buried at the priory. Electric Scotland cites Martin Martin, writing in 1703, who saw MacDuffie tombs on the south side of the church. The main stone was carved with a sailing ship and a two-handed sword, and carried the name of Malcolm MacDuffie of Colonsay. Nearby stood a stone cross called MacDuffie's Cross. When a head of the family was carried to burial, the body was rested there on the way.

The forfeiture of the Lordship in 1493 left the island clans exposed, and the MacFies turned to the MacDonalds of Islay. In 1609 Donald MacPhee of Colonsay was one of the twelve island chiefs and leading men who consented to the Statutes of Iona. Electric Scotland treats him as the chief. The Australian society, following an older history, suggests he was the Vicar of Oronsay acting for his brother Malcolm. Malcolm took the side of Sir James MacDonald of Islay in the rising of 1615. Once it collapsed, Electric Scotland says, Coll Ciotach MacDonald, known as Colkitto, surrendered him to the Earl of Argyll with eighteen other men.

Malcolm, the last chief, was killed in 1623. Electric Scotland says an entry in the Council records for that year charges Colkitto with his killing. The Australian society puts the murder at a standing stone on Colonsay, where several clansmen died with him. Colonsay went first to the MacDonalds and in time to the MacNeils. Stripped of their lands, the MacFies became a broken clan.

The family scattered. In Lochaber a branch found shelter with the Camerons and fought beside them at Culloden in 1746. Arms were granted in 1864 to two clansmen, Robert Macfie of Langhouse and Robert Andrew Macfie of Dreghorn. The revival was the work of a Canadian, Dr Earle Douglas MacPhee. The Australian society dates the clan's official return as an active clan to 27 May 1981, and he was made its first commander. COSCA reports that the clan has since taken the name Clan MacDubhsith, but no new commander has been appointed.