By Jared L. Olar
August 2020
Although my wife's Queary ancestry is uncertain, it is at least known that the Queary surname is of ethnic Scottish origin. The surname derives from the ancient Gaelic masculine given name GUAIRE, which means "noble" or "proud." Thus, the Queary family must trace back in the male-line to blood members or affiliated adherents of the Highland Clan MacQuarrie (Mhic Guaire), who were based on the islands of Ulva, Staffa, Gometra, and Mull in the Inner Hebrides. (The clan's last chief, Lachlan MacQuarrie of Ulva, died in 1818.) The MacQuarrie surname has a large number of spelling variants, including (to name just a few) MacGuarie, MacGorrie, MacQuarry, Quarry, Query, Quirey, Queary, Gorry, and Wherry. Among these families would be both lineal descendants of the clan and dependent families who affiliated with the clan and thus adopted the clan name. The earliest known pedigree of the chiefs of Clan MacQuarrie is that found in the National Library of Scotland's Gaelic Manuscript 1467 (which was written in Ireland in 1467 by the Scottish senachie Dubhghall Albanach), the clan pedigrees of which apparently were first collected circa 1400 as a list of the Highland kindreds over which MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, exercised or claimed to exercise lordship. Like other ancient Highland clans, Clan MacQuarrie preserved the knowledge of its genealogy not only through oral tradition but also through written records. Unfortunately, as Robert Douglas reported in his Baronage of Scotland, page 507, most of the ancient papers of the MacQuarries of that Ilk were burnt in 1688. There is, however, a manuscript history of the clan written in 1648-49 by Alan MacGuarie, Esq., on which Douglas relied for his genealogy of the MacQuarrie chiefs. The MS 1467 and the MacGuarie MS form the basis for the following acccount of Clan Guaire.
The genealogies of MS 1467 were published by the Scottish historian William F. Skene in an appendix of his Celtic Scotland -- A History of Ancient Alban, vol. III (1876), and also may be consulted at Pedigrees of the Scottish Clans.
The MacQuarries were one of 10 Highland clans who were kinsmen, sharing a tradition of common descent from a ninth-century A.D. Scottish chieftain or subking named Cormac mac Airbheartach, whom the old Gaelic seanachaidhs identified as a member of the Cinel Loairn, one of the four predominant kindreds of the Dalriadai, the people of Dalriada, an ancient Irish kingdom based in County Antrim in Ulster that extended its sway to Argyllshire and the southern Hebrides in Scotland in the 400s A.D., transferring its seat to Argyllshire in A.D. 503. The kindreds of the Dalriadai were descendants of their eponym Cairbre Riada, son of the Irish high-king Conaire II Caemh who traditionally reigned in the early third century A.D., Conaire's male-line ancestor being the first-century A.D. high-king Conaire I Mor, whose destruction in Da Derga's hostel was the subject of a popular ancient Irish royal saga. Conaire Mor was an Ernoch of the Degadian tribe, whose legendary pedigree traced back to a junior branch of the Milesian line of Ereamhon. (See also my paper, "The Legend of Cormac mac Airbheartach," published in Journal of Ancient and Medieval Studies XIX (2002), pages 27-36)
Gaelic MS 1467 traces the genealogies of the abovementioned 10 Highland clans -- Andres, MacKenzie, Matheson, Macnab, MacDuffie, MacGregor, MacQuarrie, MacKinnon, Macmillan, and MacLennan -- back to six sons of Cormac mac Airbheartach, whose father Airbheartach, according to MS 1467's Macmillan genealogy, "had twelve tribes inhabiting the Norwegian territory, viz., Greagraid of the Champions, commonly called Mull and Tiree and Cruibhinis, or Craobhinis." Craobhinis means Island of Bushes, an old name for Iona. The identity of those twelve tribes is uncertain, but it is possible that ten of those tribes are none other than the ten clans said to be descended from Airbheartach's son Cormac -- and among them was Clan MacQuarrie, whose eponymous ancestor GUAIRE is said to have been one of the six sons of Cormac mac Airbheartach. Cormac's ancestry as presented in MS 1467's various pedigrees is contradictory and defective, but most of the pedigrees agree that Cormac was a descendant of Fearchar II Fada, King of Dalriada, who died in A.D. 697, Fearchar himself being the chief of Cinel Loairn. The following table shows the five versions of Cormac's Cinel Loairn pedigree from MS 1467:
Andres Macnab MacGregor MacQuarrie MacKinnon
Fergusa
Fearadach Feradach Fearadach Finn Fearadag
Ferchar Abraruadh Fearchar Fada Fearchar Fada
Domnall Donn Finlaeic
Erc Mic Beathadh
Fearchar Og Fearchar Og Fearchar Og
Murechach Murcheartagh
Airbertagh Airbeartagh Airbertagh Arbertag Airbeartagh
Cormac Cormac Cormac Cormac Cormac
A close examination of MS 1467's MacQuarrie pedigree shows that the Scottish king Macbeth mac Finlay (who was killed in battle A.D. 1057) has been erroneously inserted as an ancestor of Cormac mac Airbheartach. Macbeth was in fact a member of the Cinel Loairn and a descendant of Fearchar Fada, but he could not have been Cormac's ancestor since Cormac must have lived about a century or two before Macbeth (based on a count of the generations in MS 1467's pedigrees of Clan Anders, Clan MacKenzie, Clan Matheson, and Clab Macnab). A comparison of the five versions of Cormac's pedigree suggests that Cormac's ancestry should tentatively be reconstructed as "Cormac mic Airbheartagh mic Murcheartagh mic Erc mic Domnall Donn mic Fearchar Og mic Fearchar Fada mic Feardach Finn mic Fergusa, etc." To be sure, the correct order of the names in the pedigree cannot certainly be determined -- another possible reconstruction would be "Cormac mic Airbheartagh mic Murcheartagh mic Fearchar Og mic Erc mic Domnall Donn mic Fearchar Fada mic Fearadach Finn mic Fergusa, etc." Even if the order of the names were certain, however, it is still obvious that this pedigree is only a summarised genealogy, probably being deficient two or more names. The only points on which these five pedigree versions agree is that Cormac mac Airbheartach was a member of the Cinel Loairn and probably a descendant of Fearchar II Fada, King of Dalriada -- and it is probably safe to accept those specific traditions as authentic and reliable.
Turning to MS 1467's account of Cormac's descendants, we find the genealogies of 10 Highland clans traced back to six sons of Cormac, the sons being named Ferchar, Annrias, Guaire, Fingainne, Gillacrist an Gillamaol ("the Tonsured Servant"), and Gillaagamnan. However, a comparison of the pedigrees that were traced from these six sons suggests that some of them probably were not literal sons of Cormac. In particular, the pedigree of Clan MacQuarrie would consist of only seven names extending from the 800s A.D. to the late 1300s -- far too few to cover a period of about four or five centuries. Thus, either Guaire, namefather of Clan Guaire, was not literally a son of Cormac, or else Ceallach (the next name in MS 1467's pedigree of Clan MacQuarrie) was not literally Guaire's son (more on that point further on).
By the 1500s the old genealogical traditions preserved in Gaelic MS 1476, and the very existence of the Cinel Loairn itself, were forgotten, supplanted by the legendary Scottish history presented by Hector Boethius in his Chronicle of Scotland, which erroneously assigned the early Scottish kings of the Cinel Loairn to the better remembered Cinel nGabhrain, descendants of Fergus Mor mac Erc, King of Dalriada, younger brother of the Cinel Loairn's ancestor Loarn Mor mac Erc. With the vanishing of the Cinel Loairn from Scottish historical memory, the kindred clans whose genealogies had been recorded in MS 1467 began to develop a new genealogical tradition that accounted for these clans' ancient traditions that they all had a common origin. This new tradition is the legend of the Siol Alpin -- a group of Highland clans who claimed to be descendants of the ninth-century A.D. Scottish king Alpin of Cinel nGabhrain, father of the famous Kenneth MacAlpin (Cinaeth mac Alpin), who was reputed to have permanently united the Picts and the Scots under his rule, and thus came to be regarded as the first King of Scotland. The purported members of the Siol Alpin included the MacGregors, MacKinnons, and MacQuarries -- three of the 10 clans whose origin was traced in MS 1467 back to sons of Cormac mac Airbheartach and the Cinel Loairn. (cf. Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin's Scottish Highlanders (1984), pages 244-248) It should be kept in mind, of course, that there is no historical evidence to support the existence of the so-called Siol Alpin. The value of the Siol Alpin traditions is that they helped to preserve these clans' old memories that they were all kin and all of royal descent: just not related in the ways alleged by the Siol Alpin legend, nor descended from the Cinel nGabhrain's kings.
The following table compares Gaelic MS 1467's MacQuarrie pedigree to the later Siol Alpin pedigree of the MacQuarrie chiefs as presented in Alan MacGuarie's manuscript history:
MS 1467 Alan MacGuarie, Esq., 1648-49
Airbheartach, of Cinel Loairn Alpin Ruodh, King of Scotland (790-834)
Cormac Gregory, son of Alpin.
GUAIRE Gorbredus or GORRIE, second son of Gregory.
Ceallach Donal Macgorrie, lineal descendant of Gorbredus.
Turcall Cormac More, son of Donal.
Ceallach in enig ("the Liberal") Alan, fought at Largs 1263, and his brother Gregair Garubh, ancestor of the Irish clan Maguire of Inniskilling, County Fermanagh.
Poil Eachin luodh (Hector), son of Alan, married Finvola, daughter of Gilleoin, founder of Clan MacGilleoin (MacLean).
Ceallach, Turcull, Guaire, and Cormac, brothers Gorrie (who married Mor/Marian Maguire) and his brother Cormac, ancestor of the MacCormacks of Scotland.
Eoin Breac, son of Gorrie, married Giles, daughter of MacTorquil of Fean-allan.
Though these two versions of the MacQuarrie pedigree differ greatly, they nonetheless have a number of significant points of agreement. First, they agree in tracing of the clan back to the eponymous Guaire or Gorrie. Second, where MS 1476 traces the MacQuarrie chiefs back to Cormac mac Airbheartach, the Siol Alpin tradition includes a Cormac Mor as 2nd chief of Clan MacQuarrie (who is said to have joined with King Alexander II in 1249 in the king's attempt to recapture the western Hebrides from the King of Norway). Most significant of all is that both versions of the pedigree mention brothers named Guaire and Cormac living at the same point in history (approximately the mid-1300s). This agreement cannot be merely coincidental, but is certainly an authentic tradition. Finally, the Norse name Thorkill appears twice in the MS 1476 version, while Eoin MacGorrie, 6th chief of Clan MacQuarrie, is said to have married a daughter of MacTorquil ("Son of Thorkill"), said to have been a kinsman of Clan MacLeod who are known to have been of Norse origin. The presence of the name "Turcall" or Torquil in MacQuarrie tradition indicates that the clan intermarried with the vikings who had invaded and settled in the Scottish Hebrides beginning probably as early as the latter 800s A.D., and according to Douglas the MacQuarries "had been subject to the Norwegian yoke" from the time of Malcolm III Ceanmhor, King of Scotland (1058-1093), up to the time of King Alexander II in the mid-1200s. Also noteworthy is the marriage of Eachin and Finvola -- this represents the historical alliance and kinship between the MacQuarries and the MacLeans, which likely originated from just such a dynastic intermarriage as indicated by this pedigree.
Of these two rival pedigrees of Clan MacQuarrie, since MS 1476 is an older tradition than the Siol Alpin pedigree, it is to be preferred as more accurate and more likely to preserve authentic clan traditions for the period prior to circa 1350. While it is quite possible that the legendary chiefs Donal Macgorrie, Cormac More, Alan, and Eachin did exist, those names do not represent the ancestral line of the brothers Guaire and Cormac, but may instead (if they are genuine) have been brothers of their generational counterparts in the MS 1467 pedigree. At any rate, it is unlikely to be a coincidence that both versions of the Clan MacQuarrie pedigree agree in naming exactly six generations inclusive from the clan eponym Guaire down to the brothers Guaire and Cormac in the mid-1300s. Perhaps, then, just as the Siol Alpin version presented Donald Macgorrie as a descendant rather than literal son of the clan father Guaire, so too was Ceallach a descendant rather than literal son of Guaire.
It should also be noted that, whether or not there was ever a Gregair Garubh, son of Cormac More, he certainly was not the namefather of the Irish clan Maguire of County Fermanagh. The Irish clan Maguire (Mhic Uidhir) had a completely separate origin and ancestry than the Scottish Clan MacQuarrie (Mhic Guaire). Whether or not the MacQuarries ever later intermarried with the Maguires, they were unrelated clans and did not descend from a pair of Scottish brothers.
5. GUAIRE MACGUAIRE, third son of Poil mac Ceallach in Enig, 5th chief of Clan MacQuarrie, said to have married MORE MAGUIRE ("Marian"), daughter of Maguire of Inniskilling in County Fermanagh, Ireland. More/Marian is traditionally claimed to have been a cousin of her husband Guaire, for the Maguires of County Fermanagh were allegedly descended from a brother of Guaire's traditional ancestor Alan. In fact, the tradition that she and Guaire were cousins may be correct -- but because she perhaps was a MacQuarrie, not a Maguire. Be that as it may, Guaire and More are said to have had two sons and a daughter:
6. EOIN BREAC MACGUAIRE
-- GILLESPIE MACGUAIRE ("Archibald")
-- ISABELLA MACGUAIRE, died young.
6. EOIN BREAC MACGUAIRE ("John the Freckled"), son of Guaire mac Poil, 6th chief of Clan MacQuarrie, said to have been "a man of uncommon strength of body," according to Douglas. Douglas interpreted Eoin's descriptive name Breac to mean "pitted with the smallpox," but it more usually means simply "freckled." Eoin is said to have married GILES MACTORQUIL ("Jill"), daughter of MacTorquil of Fean-allan (also known as MacTorquil of that Ilk). MacTorquil was traditionally a descendant of Torquil (Thorkill), grandson of the MacLeod ancestor Olaf, King of Man. Eoin and Giles had a son:
7. LACHLAN MOR MACGUAIRE
7. LACHLAN MOR MACGUAIRE, son of Eoin mac Guaire, 7th chief of Clan MacQuarrie, was known as Mor ("big," "great") due to his height. Lachlan married CHRISTIAN MACGREGOR, daughter of John MacGregor of Breachdfliabh, second son and successor of Malcolm Bachdichd MacGregor. Lachlan and Christian had a son:
8. EACHIN MACGUAIRE ("Hector")
8. EACHIN MACGUAIRE ("Hector"), son of Lachlan mac Eoin, 8th chief of Clan MacQuarrie, married MARGARET MACNEIL, daughter of MacNeil of Barra. Eachin and Margaret had several daughters ("all honourably married," according to Douglas) and a son:
9. JOHN MACGUARIE
9. JOHN MACGUARIE of that Ilk, son of Eachin mac Lachlan, 9th chief of Clan MacQuarrie, died 1473, said to have gone to Ulster to visit his kinsman Maguire of Inniskilling in County Fermanagh, where he married (NN) MAGUIRE, daughter of the brother of Maguire of Inniskilling. Granting that his wife really was a Maguire, it would nevertheless be the case that the Maguires of Inniskilling were not cousins of the MacQuarries of Ulva. After his marriage, the MacDonald Lord of the Isles granted John some lands on the isle of Mull that were known as Leth iochdrichd, "the lower division." John and his wife had four sons, named Colin, Dunslaff/Donald, Eoin/John, and Fingon. Douglas reports that Colin, "upon his father's resignation got a charter under the great seal, Colino Macguarie, terrarum de Auchinlosk et Drumotin, etc. dated 24th February 1477." However, Colin was not chief for long and died childless, so the second son Dunslaff or Donald became John's heir. As for the youngest son Fingon, at the time of his birth John's kinsman and ally MacFingon of that Ilk (i.e. MacKinnon of that Ilk) happened to be visiting John MacGuarie on Ulva, so John named his newborn son in honor of his kinsman, the chief of Clan MacKinnon. John is said to have died at a good old age, and was succeeded by his son Dunslaff. The sons of John were:
-- COLIN MACGUARIE, died sine prole.
10. DUNSLAFF MACGUARIE ("Donald"), succeeded his father.
-- EOIN MACGUARIE, died young.
-- FINGON MACGUARIE, named after MacKinnon of that Ilk.
10. DUNSLAFF MACGUARIE of that Ilk ("Donald"), son of John MacGuarie of that Ilk, 11th chief of Clan MacQuarrie, married (NN) MACDONALD, of Clan Donald, and had a son and heir, Hector, ancestor of the later MacQuarrie chiefs and cadet branches of the clan.
I have chosen to bring the legendary and documented history of Clan MacQuarrie down only to the time of the 11th chief because he flourished in the latter 1400s, which is the period of time when the family traditions of the descendants of Alexander Query of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, place their earliest known ancestor, a certain CHARLES W. MCQUERY, traditionally said to have been born on 7 Oct. 1471 in Scotland (making him roughly contemporary with Dunslaff, the 11th chief, and Hector, the 12th chief). If that family's traditional pedigree is accurate, their earliest known ancestor would have been a member of Clan MacQuarrie, and would have been known in his life by the Gaelic name "Carlusa mic Guaire." Charles or Carlusa, as a member of Clan Guaire, would have perhaps been a descendant of a junior branch of the clan, or else came from a Scottish family that had adopted the MacQuarrie surname after affiliating with the clan as dependents and supporters of the chief. It may at least be confidently affirmed that the Query/Queary surname that this Scots-Irish family of Pennsylvania bears shows that their ancestors came from the Inner Hebrides and must have lived long ago on the isles of Ulva, Staffa, Gometra, or Mull.
MacQuarrie Genealogy Resources:
Clan MacQuarrie Society Homepage Alexander and Mary Stewart Query and Their Descendants (1993), by Delores Brafford and William R. Brafford. Samuel Reaugh, Eleanor Queary, genealogical queries.