Alexander Wentworth (Macdonald) Macdonald of Macdonald and Sleat (1773 - 1824)

Ancestors

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Alexander (Macdonald) Macdonald of Macdonald and Sleat was a historically significant person of Scotland. Join: Scotland Project Discuss: Scotland

Biography

Alexander, like his father, attended Eton and the University of St. Andrews. He was, for the most part, on better terms with his tenantry than his father. In many ways he was an absentee landlord choosing to spend most of his time in England or abroad.

Lord Macdonald spent lots of money on improvements to his estate. A new mansion was built at Armdale, in Sleat about 1790. Whether it was Alexander or his father who was responsible for it's construction is not mentioned. In 1815 Armadale Castle was constructed by Lord Macdonald. It is now home to the Clan Donald Centre, which operates the Museum of the Isles.

Alexander was unmarried. He was a Member of Parliament of Great Britain for Saltash from 1796 – 1801. When the parliament was succeeded by Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1801 he kept his seat until 1802. Alexander died, in London on June 19, 1824, and was succeeded by his brother Godfrey Macdonald Bosville.

Regiment of the Isles, or MacDonald Fencibles 1799-1802

The Regiment of the Isles was raised by Sir Alexander, Lord Macdonald on his estates in the isles, having, on his own application, obtained permission from George III for that purpose. It was embodied at Inverness on 4 June 1799 by Major-general Leith Hay.

This was an excellent body of young men, their average age being twenty-two years, "a period of life the best calculated to enter upon military service; not too young to suffer from, or incapable of supporting the hardships and fatigues peculiar to the profession; nor too old to admit of the mental and personal habits of the soldier being moulded to the moral and military restraints which the profession renders necessary".

The regiment was moved to England, where it was employed to put down a strike amongst the seamen of Whitehaven, to raise their wages, by preventing the vessels from leaving the harbour. No force, however, was necessary, as the sailors had a salutary dread of the Highlanders; and the officers of the MacDonald Fencibles, persuaded the seamen to end their strike and returned to their ships. In 1802 the regiment was disbanded.

Sources

Macdonald, Rev. A. and Macdonald Rev. A. (1904). The Clan Donald: Volume 3. Inverness, Scotland. Northern Counties Publishing Company Ltd. pp. 101-102, 476.

Alexander Mackenzie (1881), [History of the Macdonalds and the Lords of the Isles: With Genealogies of the Principal Families of the Name], A. & W. Mackenzie - Publisher

Web Resources

Alexander Macdonald, 2nd Baron Macdonald, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Footnotes

Regiment of the Isles, or MacDonald Fencibles 1799-1802