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Clan Farquharson are notable for their ability to break down barriers, with many members having achieved great things in challenging situations where all the odds seemed stacked against them. This drive and grit has helped countless Farquharsons to gain a wide variety of accolades, from military accomplishments to scientific advances, and artistic honours. Read on to discover more!
Meet the Famous Farquharsons
Anne Farquharson-Mackintosh
Anne Farquharson-Mackintosh shocked Scotland when she became the only female military leader during the infamous Jacobite Uprising of 1745.
Lady Anne was born at Invercauld House near Braemar in 1723 to John Farquharson of Invercauld. As was customary, her father sought to arrange a marriage for Anne that would bring protection and greater wealth to the family. In 1741, he achieved this goal, and Anne wed the chief of Clan Mackintosh, Angus Mackintosh. Angus was a Captain in the Black Watch, a government regiment formed of several local clans that aimed to guard and police the Highlands following the 1715 Jacobite Uprising. Anne’s father would surely have been very pleased to have found such a respectable match for his daughter, though we imagine he could not have foreseen what was to happen next!
Despite her husband’s position with the Black Watch, Anne’s loyalties lay with the Jacobites, and she was eager to act on her convictions.
When Prince Charles Edward Stuart pledged to fight at Glenfinnan, she gathered over 350 Farquharsons and Mackintoshes to join the Jacobite army. During the conflict, her husband fought against her, on the opposite and losing side, though he doesn’t seem to have lost any respect for her in the process. After he was captured after the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745, he was released to reunite with his wife, who greeted him by saying ‘your servant, Captain,’ to which he supposedly replied, ‘your servant, Colonel.’
The nickname ‘Colonel Anne’ has stuck ever since!
Sadly, though, Anne’s luck could not last forever. A large number of her men were defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and Anne was arrested by Government troops before being held at Inverness for 6 weeks. She was then released without charge and reunited with her husband, in an interesting parallel to previous events.
Against all the odds, the pair seemed to spend the rest of their time together living happily side by side, and even found elements of humour in their opposing views. One popular tale says that several years after Culloden, they both attended a social event in London where they met the Duke of Cumberland. The Duke is said to have asked Anne to dance with him to a song linked to the Hanoverian Government. Supposedly, she agreed on the condition that they then danced to a Jacobite song after!
Following her husband’s death in 1770, Anne moved to Leith, where she later died in 1787. She was buried in Old North Leith Burial Ground on Coburg Street and her grave is marked by a white Jacobite rose.
Marian Ridley
Our next famous Farquharson today is also a woman who fought against gender stereotypes and could not be stopped from pursuing her passions.
Marian Ridley was born on the 2 July 1846 in Hampshire, England. Her father, Reverend Nicholas James Ridley, educated her at home and she fostered a great interest in natural history from a very early age.
In adult life, she pursued this interest professionally, despite encountering many obstacles due to her sex. In 1881, she joined the Epping Forest and Essex Naturalists’ Field Club and published her book ‘A Pocket Guide to British Ferns,’ making significant steps to establishing her name within the field.
In 1883, she married Robert Francis Ogilvie Farquharson and moved to live with him on his estate in Aberdeenshire. After moving to Scotland, she continued to advance her career, joining the Alford Field Club and East of Scotland Union of Naturalists’ Societies. She also had two articles about ferns and mosses published in the Scottish Naturalist and gave a presentation about the topic at the meeting of the British Associations for the Advancement of Science in 1885.
In the same year, she was appointed as the first female Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society. However, as a woman, she was not allowed to attend any of its meetings or vote in the society’s elections.
The injustice of this struck Farquharson strongly, and she decided to begin a campaign for women to be recognised within the scientific world.
In 1900, she submitted a petition to the President and Council of the Linnean Society, a society dedicated to the science of natural history, requesting that ‘duly qualified women should be eligible for ordinary Fellowship and, if elected, there should be no restriction forbidding their attendance at meetings.’
The society initially rejected the petition on the grounds that they could only accept such requests from one of its fellows. Farquharson, determined not to be defeated so easily, recruited its former president, John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, to resubmit the petition on her behalf.
Forced to formally consider it this time, the society eventually rejected the proposal again on the basis that they doubted its royal charter could be applied to women. The following year, Farquharson amped up her efforts, submitting her case a third time through F DuCane Godman, another member of the society’s council. This time, it stuck, and by 1904 a supplementary charter that included the admission of women had been granted.
On 15 December 1904, a ballot for women’s membership finally took place, but Farquharson was not initially elected. She was eventually accepted in 1908, but sadly poor health meant that she was never formally admitted.
To this day, the Linnean Society recognise Farquharson’s work in diversifying their organization and aim to build on her egalitarian views to encourage more women to engage in the sciences.
Joseph Farquharson
For our final famous face of today, we are moving away from science and over to the arts!
Joseph Farquharson was born in 1846, the son of Francis Farquharson, Laird of Finzean. He was educated in Edinburgh but also spent much of his childhood at his father’s Highland estate. The young Joseph showed a startling natural talent for painting and was so consumed by it that his parents had to restrict him to painting only on Sundays, to prevent him from completely abandoning his schoolwork.
As an adult, Farquharson relished the freedom to dedicate all of his time to art. He trained at the Trustees’ Academy in Edinburgh throughout the 1860s, and presented his first exhibition at the Royal Academy, titled ‘Day’s Dying Glow’ in 1873.
He often completed his paintings on the family’s estate, and was clearly inspired by the Highlands landscapes, with his most famous works portraying farm animals, or rural people going about their everyday life against dramatic countryside backdrops. He was also admired for his depictions of the warmth and light of sunrises and sunsets. Farquharson was so dedicated to achieving realism that he created what he called a ‘painting hut,’ which was a small structure on wheels, equipped with a small stove to warm against the harsh Scottish climate, and a large window from which to observe the natural world.
His dedication and skill earned him much respect and admiration within the art world. In 1900, he was elected Associate of the Royal Academy, being promoted to Royal Academician in 1915, and finally Senior Royal Academician in 1922. He exhibited over 200 works at the Royal Academy in total, 73 at the Royal Society of Arts, and 181 at the Fine Art Society.
In 1918, he inherited the title of Laird, as well as his beloved Finzean Estate, and continues to be linked with wintery yet warm Highland scenes to this day.
We have been deeply impressed by the many and varied talents of Clan Farquharson this month; we hope you feel inspired to learn about a few of the achievements of your peers. If there is anyone else you think we should have mentioned, please do get in touch and let us know!
If you would like to learn more about this fascinating family, head over to our Clan Farquharson page, and make sure you keep an eye out for the rest of our content to come.
Image Sources:
Anne Farquharson Mackintosh, National Library of Scotland, License: CC BY 4.0
Marian Ridley-Farquharson, Courtesy of The Linnean Society of London
Self portrait by Joseph Farquharson - Art UK, Public Domain
