Overview
This painting shows a wealthy family by the name of Mackay gathered on the shores of their Scottish Highland home - Drumdruin in Sutherlandshire. They are surrounded by luggage, and are ready to immigrate across the world to New Zealand. The ship they have chartered to take them - the Slains Castle - sits on the water in the background. James Mackay Senior, the brother of the local laird, is the leader of this family group. He stands at the back. His wife, Anne is seated near him. Also in the painting are their six children - James Junior, Robert, Anne, Janet, Isabella, and Erica, and two of their nephews - Alexander Tertius Mackay and James Tertius Mackay.
The family pictured commissioned the English artist William Allsworth to make this painting in 1844 to commemorate their emigration... or so the usual story goes. In fact, it seems that this painting is not a faithful record of their departure, but rather the family’s attempt to build a mythical history for themselves.
There is no doubt that the family in the picture did arrive in Nelson, New Zealand, on the Slains Castle in 1844, calling themselves the Mackays. They were certainly very wealthy, and brought with them vast amounts of luggage.
However, take a closer look at the painting. Some of the tartans worn by the family may be linked to the Mackay tartan, but most are completely unrecognisable. Of course this may be artistic licence - but there is more. Documents have recently come to light that suggest that James Mackay Snr. was probably not the brother of a laird, or even a Mackay from the Scottish Highlands at all. Evidence suggests his real surname was Mackie, and he came from an Aberdeen merchant family. He spent most of his life in London, and all his children were born there.
As for the Slains Castle - there is no record of it having ever sailed from Scotland. In 1844, when the ‘Mackays’ left, it sailed from Plymouth in England. And what of the family’s claim that they had exclusively chartered the ship? The passenger list shows that there were a number of other passengers on board too, so it is unlikely that it had been hired exclusively for their use.
To make the painting, the artist, William Allsworth probably made individual portrait sketches of each family member in London, then united them all against a suitable Highland landscape.
We will probably never know the full reason for the family’s desire to weave this story around themselves. Perhaps, realising they would have a clean slate in the new country, they simply could not resist giving themselves a noble lineage. And they probably exaggerated and embellished their Scottish ties because at the time of their emigration, the Scottish Highlands were considered by the British to be very romantic and fashionable.
Their mysterious origins aside, the Mackay family went on to become highly successful in New Zealand. They built a home for themselves at Nelson Haven (as the Port of Nelson was then known) and named it ‘Drumduan’ after their supposed family estate in Scotland.
James Mackay Senior became involved in politics and represented Nelson city in the first parliament (1855). James Mackay Junior was resident magistrate in the goldmining town of Collingwood in 1862. In later years he was gold warden of many New Zealand goldfields. Alexander Tertius Mackay spoke Māori fluently and in 1864 moved to Wellington and took up the post of commissioner of Native Reserves for New Zealand. In 1884, he became a judge of the Native Land Court.
While this painting is fascinating for the story it tells, it is also a valuable visual record of the type and amount of luggage that wealthy immigrants brought here.
In the painting you can see sheep and cattle, a hive of bees, farm implements, and several cases containing fruit trees and plants. The Mackay family even brought a prefabricated home which took a week to load, and servants, including a shepherd and a blacksmith.
Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database (1998).