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Birth:          ABT 1180 
Death:          Jan 1251 

Notes
familysearch.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearchar,_Earl_of_Ross
Fearchar of Ross or Ferchar mac in tSagairt (Fearchar mac an t-sagairt, often 
anglicized as Farquhar MacTaggart), was the first of the Scottish Ó Beólláin 
(O’Beolan, Beolan) family who received by Royal Grant the lands and Title of Mormaer 
or Earl of Ross (1223–1251) we know of from the thirteenth century, whose career 
brought Ross into the fold of the Scottish kings for the first time, and who is 
remembered as the founder of the Earldom of Ross.
Origins[edit]

The traditional story is that goes back to the work of the great William F. Skene, and 
indeed, even before him, with William Reeves, whom Skene cited.[1] The historian 
Alexander Grant has recently challenged this theory, arguing that the evidence for this 
origin is far too thin to contradict the intuitive and well attested idea that he came 
from Easter Ross. Grant takes up the idea instead that mac an t-Sacairt (= Son of the 
Priest') probably refers to a background as keeper of the shrine to St Duthac, at Tain, 
Scotland.[2]

However, despite "Ross" being a word describing the land the Earls managed (hence 
the Earl of Ross), Sir Robert Gordon (Earldom of Sutherland, P.36) states the Earls of 
Ross were first of the surname Ó Beólláin, and then were Leslies…) and continues on 
page 46 they are called by the surname Ó Beólláin through 1333 when "Hugh Beolan, 
Earl of Ross" is recorded as one of the slain at the battle of Halidon Hill. The surname 
remains as the surname of the Earls of Ross from Uilleam Ó Beólláin I, Earl of Ross 
until the death of Uilleam Ó Beólláin III, Earl of Ross in 1372 when his daughter, 
Euphemia I, Countess of Ross married to Sir Walter Leslie. Ross became the surname 
of the Earls of Ross much later in the history of the Earldom (much like the name 
"Windsor" is also used as the 20th century surname for the Royal Family).

Career[edit]

Scholarly work on Fearchar has led to the conclusion that Fearchar was a native 
nobleman who benefitted by upholding the interests of the King of Scots.[3] Fearchar 
emerges from nothingness in 1215, as the local warlord who crushed a large-scale 
revolt against the Scottish king, Alexander II. The Chronicle of Melrose reported that :

"Machentagar attacked them and mightily overthrew the king's enemies; and he cut 
off their heads and presented them as gifts to the new king ... And because of this, 
the lord king appointed him a new knight."[4]

Fearchar's ability to defeat the proven might of the Meic Uilleim and MacHeths 
together suggests that Fearchar could command large military resources, and as 
McDonald points out, this can hardly be entirely explained by his background as a 
hereditary priest from Tain.[5] However, the Scottish kings themselves were hardly 
without authority in Ross, and their position could command social power even in this 
distant land, something proved by the MacWilliams, whose authority depended on their 
descent from a Scottish king. Fearchar's power then is not so mysterious.

Promotion to Mormaer[edit]

It is possible that Fearchar was made Mormaer when the grateful King Alexander II 
visited Inverness in 1221.[6] Macdonald, however, gives some reasons why this might 
be a little early; around 1226 is a more likely date, but he was almost certainly 
Mormaer by 1230, and definitely by 1232, the year in which Fearchar's initial (as the 
father of his son Uilleam) appears in a charter, with the style Comes de Ross (i.e. 
Mormaer of Ross). Fearchar's initial and comital style also appear in a charter granting 
some lands to Walter de Moravia, a charter dating somewhere between 1224 and 
1231.[7]

So did Fearchar appear from nowhere as a "novus homo"? The facts are that we do 
not know what happened to the Mormaerdom of Ross after the death, in 1168, of the 
last known Mormaer, Malcolm MacHeth. We might compare Ross with other 
Mormaerdoms, such as Lennox and Carrick, in which these apparently new 
Mormaerdoms were merely de iure royal grants to native lords who already possessed 
kinship leadership and de facto status as provincial rulers. In this view, conferring this 
style was simply an act of harnessing organic Gaelic power structures to the political, 
terminological and ideological framework of the regnum Scottorum.

Fearchar & Scotland[edit]

In 1235, it is reported that Fearchar was active in Galloway. The Revolt of Gille 
Ruadh in Galloway in 1234/5 required a large-scale levying by the Scottish king. King 
Alexander invaded Galloway, and Gille Ruadh ambushed the royal army, almost 
bringing it to destruction. However the Scottish King was saved by Fearchar, who 
appeared to the rescue with the Men of Ross.[8]

The defeat of the rebellious Galwegians by another peripheral Gaelic lord in the 
service of the Scottish King had been paralled in 1187, when Lochlann, Lord of 
Galloway defeated the rebellious Domnall mac Uilleim, claimant of the Scottish throne, 
at the Battle of Mam Garvia, somewhere near Dingwall. In fact, one historian has 
linked the two events as revenge.[9]

Fearchar was also recorded as being present at the negotiations which led to the 
Treaty of York, signed in 1237

Marriages & Family[edit]

One of Fearchar's daughters, called Euphemia, was married to Walter de Moravia, a 
magnate who ruled Duffus. Walter's family were of Flemish origin, and had been 
planted in Moray by the Scottish crown as agents of royal authority, but were steadily 
building an independent power-base. Christina, another of Fearchar's daughters, was 
married to Amlaibh, the King of Mann and the Isles. If we are to use the chronology of 
the Chronicles of Mann, this happened sometime before 1223, but after 1188. Such a 
move is not surprising, as the Manx king ruled over the isle of Skye.[10] This reminds 
us that Fearchar was not merely a slavish Scottish magnate with narrow local 
aspirations, but an ambitious Gaelic warlord with greater regional goals in the Norse-
Gaelic world of the Irish Sea, the world of Alan, Lord of Galloway and the Manx kings.

Church Patronage[edit]

Fearchar's wider connections are further illustrated by his religious patronage. In the 
1220s he granted the Premonstratensian Order (perhaps the most modern one about) 
of Whithorn in Galloway a new monastery at Mid Fearn in Ross, moving it a decade 
later to New Fearn.[11] They brought with them some relics of St Ninian too, which is 
why to this day Fearn Abbey is associated with that saint. Such a move was hardly 
surprising, since all aspiring magnates needed their own monastery.

Death[edit]

We do not know the precise year in which Fearchar died. The traditional date, 1251, 
is based on the date given in the spurious Ane Breve Cronicle of the Erllis of Ross. 
The latter gives his birthplace as Tain. Despite the unreliability of this source and 
date, he was certainly dead by the 1250s, when his son appears as Mormaer in his 
own right.[12]


Marriage To ----- ----- ()
    m.  

Notes


Children by ----- ----- 
ROSS William (ABT 1203 - May 1274)

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