Clan Macpherson Association The Associated Families of Clan Macpherson

Archibald Gillespie MacClunie MacMurdo Cattanach Gillies MacCluny MacMurdoch Carson MacCluney MacCurrach MacMurdock Clark Gillis MacCurrie MacMurdich Clarke Gow MacCurry MacMuirich Clarkson Gowan MacGillies MacMurich Clerich Lees MacGoune MacVurich Clerk MacBurrich MacGoun MacVurrich Clooney MacCarson MacGow Murdaugh Clunie MacChlery MacGowne Murdo Cluny MacClair MacLear Murdoch Currie MacCleary MacLeary Murdock Curry MacCleish MacLees Murdoson Ellis MacClerich MacLerie Pearson Ellison MacClooney MacLeish Parson Fersen MacCloonie MacLise Smith

The names of the families that have long been associated with and supported the Clan Macpherson are shown below. If you find yours or that of one of your ancestors among them,  we invite you to join with us in continuing that support and enjoying the privileges and fellowship that  clanship provides.  The procedures for joining with us vary slightly for each of the national branches. Click on   the flag of your nation to find out what is needed for you to become a member. Please note that we use the term "Cousins" or "Associated Families" and not the word "Sept." The word sept was borrowed from the Irish culture in the nineteenth century to in a mistaken attempt to explain the different surnames that can be found in a clan.  The word sept is almost synonymous to the word clan. A Scot would speak of Cluny and his clan, while and Irishman would speak of O'Neill and his Sept. Perhaps the only ones in Scotland who can truly use the term Sept would be found in Clan Donald where there are sub-clans. "Macdonald of Glencoe" for example could be called a sept of Clan Donald.  Still all the other surnames   in Clan Donald are just that, families of the clan.  As the Macpherson's have no sub-clans there are no septs in the clan. only families with different surnames than that of the core family.   The Chief of Clan Macpherson, Sir William Macpherson of Cluny, approved the following names as surnames and families associated with the Clan.

Those names with links are to pages with something about the name. Take heed. many links go to the same pages as the root for many names is the same.  Other links will be added from time to time - Keep Watching.

A word about variations in spelling.

Before the time of the Webster's with their dictionary in America and Samuel Johnson in the United Kingdom, there was not a standardized or correct spelling. Individuals when writing. would use phonics (what they heard) to spell,  and as a result names  took on many variations. Letters exist from the 18th century where a name is written three different ways in the same letter by the same individual. 

The following written by Dr. Philip Smith, illustrates the way in which a name could and did change.  

"The name MacBurrich is a variation of the Gaelic name   MacMhurrich /mahk v'ur-Ik/ through the linguistic process of assimilation. The base name is Murrich("Murdoch"). Prefixing the word mac for "son of " requires that the initial consonant of Murrich be lenited or aspirated", a common   feature of the Celtic languages. Linguistically, this means changing  initial stop consonants --in the case /m/-- in to the fricative equivalent, /v/. The spelling convention in Gaelic is to show this  process by adding -h.    Thus Murrich, /mu'r-Ik/ "Murdoch", becomes MacMhurrich /mahk v'ur-Ik/ Son  of Murdoch." The additional step, caused by the voicing of the /u/, is the  assimilation of the voicing by /v/ converting it to /b/. The result is Mac Burrich, the equivalent of Mac Vurrich."

Some names have been reduced in some families to Mc or M' as a prefix and in America there are variations in spelling caused by any number of reasons.

All who have the name, are descended from one of the name or some variation of the above, are invited to call or write for information concerning the Clan Association and becoming a member.

Gow - Smith

MacGow, MacGowne, MacGoun, MacGoune, Gow, Gowen, Smith.

The name is an occupational name and when translated from the Scots Gaelic means an armorer or smith. The name therefore is found all over Scotland  While the connection of a name and it's association with a given clan in Scotland may be lost forever, here the connection is because of a single event in the clan's history, myth and culture.

The association of the name with with Clan Macpherson happens by reason of the story of Henry Wynd who was familiarly styled as "Gow Crom" meaning" crooked smith," a physical description, which was the norm in that day  and today is often referred to as a "Tea Name."   A tea name being the name by which many would know someone, not knowing their actual name in many cases. It was he who took part and recorded by by tradition took part in the now rather famous or infamous Battle of the North Inch of Perth. Story below and recorded by Wyntoun, Bower, Shaw and other early writers of  Scottish History.  

The traditional story in shorten form is as follows: The clan battle that took place at the North Inch of Perth in the Spey valley downstream from the Macpherson's homelands. The Battle being arranged according to Wyntoun by the Earl of Mor and Lindsay of Glennesk afterward the Earl of Crawfurd, to settle a dispute between the Macphersons and Davidsons of Clan Chattan. At that battle supposedly 30  men from each side were to fight to the death. The feud between the two clans had kept the highlands running red in blood, making the Hatfields and McCoys look like a Sunday School Picnic.

The entire Highlands were in an uproar and the King had asked the Earls of Lindsay and Crawfurd and others to end the feud. The Blood battle was the answer they thought, and the last fought in Scotland. Who ever had men left alive on the field at the end would be the winner and the feud would be over. When they came on the field the Macphersons were one man short and as the other side would not remove one of their men, the Chief of the Macphersons offered a shilling to anyone who would fight on their side. A blacksmith known as "Gow Crom" offered to take to the field and the battle was on. The smith killed his man and steeped to the sidelines to watch. The Chief asked it is said why he was standing there and when he replied that he had killed his man, the chief said the more killed the higher would be his pay or something to that effect. Gow went back into the battle and at the end of the fray, he and 10 other Macpherosn's were standing.

The Macphersons were so happy with what he had done that they brought him back home with them and set him up in a shop where he became the local blacksmith. The English translation of Gow is Smith and so the name became attached as an associated family of the clan, there are no Septs by the way in Clan Macpherson in fact there are none in any of the Clans except perhaps Clan Donald.

Smith as a name is the Anglicized form of Gow or Gowan meaning a armorer or smith. The Name in the Highlands has always been associated with Clan Macpherson and in the lowlands being associated with the Glasgow District. We in Clan Macpherson welcome all of the name as members of the Clan regardless of where they came from in Scotland.

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MacCluny - Cluny

MacClooney, MacCluney, MacCluny, MacCloonie,  MacClunie, Cluny, Clunie, Clooney

The name Cluny actually is found as early as the 13th century in Perthshire. MacCluny, McCluny, or M'Cluny simply mean the 'son of Cluny' and may have originated at any point up into the 18th century and perhaps later. Other forms of the name include Clunie, Clunie Cluney. The name is taken from one of the places named or called Cluanadh. It is derived from the Gaelic word "cluanag" meaning an 'Islet in a river, a piece of choice pasture or a meadow.' One such place was the estate from which Cluny of the '45 takes his name, which was know by that name in the late 16^th century and perhaps for years before that. In 1591 on bond agreement between Clan Farson and the Earl of Huntly, we find Andrew Makfersone in Cluny. The "in cluny" would indicate that he was still considered a tenant and did not as yet have heiratable rights to the land. It is not until 1609 and a bond of union among the Clan Chattan finds him in possession of the land, when he is found listed as Andrew Macpherson of Cluny.

The link as such to the Macpherson clan can only be because of the estates of the clan and not from any connection to Cluny of the '45. When that link was started is anybody's guess, but one would have think perhaps even earlier than the 1600's and most likely was used by people on the fringes of the Clan Territory to show there loyalty to the Laird at "Cluny."

Today you would be welcomed into the Clan Family simply because of the connection of the name and that is good enough. The odds of making a direct connection are perhaps a little better than astronomical in numbers. The 16^th Century is about as far as anyone can go in researching their ancestry in Scotland other than traditional genealogies such as royal lines which can not be proven and often made up. Same with the Genealogies of the Chiefs of the Clans in Scotland. In our Macpherson Clan, the Chiefs genealogy goes back to Gillichattan Mor the progenator of the clan. Those before the 17^th century and Andrew Makfersone are actually a best guess and some maybe's, or at best "Traditional Genealogy."

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Mhuirich - Murdoch

The cousins of Mhuirich, Vhuirich, MacMurdoch, MacMurdo, Murdoch,  Murdock, Murdoson.

The name is closely associated with the Clan Macpherson as in Scots Gaelic the name of the clan is "Clann Mhuirich," which  means the "Children of Murdoch."  Mhuirich was it is said the name of the Parson of Kingussie, who is listed in the traditional genealogy of the clan as the son of Gillespeck mor and the progenitor of the family.  His grandson was the first by tradition to have taken  the name MacPherson, or the Son of the Parson. The name Murdoch(k) is not to be found in the parishes of the Clan at Laggan or Kingussie. Like many other of the associated families and cousins whose names also are not to be found there, is found in the surrounding parishes down the Spey valley and over in the Lochaber and Loch Ness areas. While it can not be proven, many no doubt took the name as a means of showing their loyalty to the Chief of Clan Mhuirich.

The name Murdock(h) is derived from two different Gaelic origins and merged into a common name. The first meaning of the name is from Middle Gaelic and has the meaning of "Belonging to the sea, a mariner." The second origin of the name is from Early Irish and has the meaning of "sea warrior." While the father of Colin Murdoch of Kingussie used to claim the Murdock's of Clan Donald were just members of the family that went south on an outing and forgot to return, the truth is the other way around it would seem. Both sources are derived from an occupation dealing with the sea, and would lend support to the concept that the name and Clan Macpherson along with the Clan Chattan federation had their origins in the west of Scotland, perhaps in the Isles.

The name thru history has been used as a popular forename in Scotland.  Because of this it has been recorded with land holders in Yorkshire and Oxfordshire, where they may have been Gaels or Norsemen of Irish descent. A Murdac was dean of Appleby, Westmoreland in 1175, and Walter Murdac was known during the reign of William the Lion. Murdoch, Duke of Albany, who was executed in 1429 is listed in English records as Mordac, Mordake, Mordik, Mordoc, Mordok, and several other variations. There was a teacher John Murdoch who was a teacher of Burns. But it was William Murdoch(1754-1839), inventor of gas lighting who was proclaimed a diety by Nassr-ed-din, Shah of Persia, who believed him to be a re-incarnation of Merodach or Marduk, God of Light.

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