Murdo MacKenzie (courtier)
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Murdo or Murdoch Mackenzie, also known as Murdo McRorie (died 1590) was a Scottish courtier and the builder of Fairburn Tower near Inverness.
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He was a son of Roderick (Rory) Mackenzie of Achilty,[1] and probably a nephew of John Mackenzie of Kintail.[2] His mother is said to have been a daughter of Duncan McWilliam Dow vic Leod.[3][4]
Murdo Mackenzie became a courtier, a groom or valet of the bedchamber for James V of Scotland from 1538.[5] It is said that Murdo was sent to join the royal household after his father, who had been a prisoner on the Bass, impressed the king in a wrestling match with an Italian fighter. Murdo was declared legitimate for legal purposes, inheritance and property ownership, in July 1539.[6]
Murdo Mackenzie is mentioned several times in the records of the Scottish Exchequer. He was a companion of the king in 1540 at Stirling Castle, Falkland Palace, and Dudhope Castle. On 30 April 1540 the king's pursemaster John Tennent gave MacKenzie 22 shillings to buy gunpowder in Dundee for the king's handguns.[7] Mackenzie, and three other grooms of the chamber, Alexander Kemp, Sandy Whitelaw, and Andrew Drummond, were given money for livery clothes in 1540, and their clothing allowance was increased.[8] In June 1542 Mackenzie was given a gift of a "composition" of the lands of Overwood worth £113.[9]
Clothes given to Murdo MacKenzie to wear on duty with the king included a doublet of "tanny" (orange brown) velvet.[10] It is said that Mackenzie was not at court when James V died at Falkland Palace in December 1542, and if he had been, he would have received a good legacy intended for him.[11]
