
Origin of the Name MacIntyre
The
MacIntyre family history was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. Traditionally this Scottish Gaelic clan is a sept of the MacDonalds of Sleat with Glen Roe is given as the original home of the Clan. They occupied lands there in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. These they later held from the Campbells of Glenorchy, until 1806. Duncan Macintyre of Glen Roe, first Chief, married Mary, daughter of Patrick Campbell of Barcaldine, by whom he had Donald, his successor. Donald had three children. James, the eldest, succeeded, and was succeeded in turn by his son Donald, a doctor, as fourth chief of Glen Roe. In Ireland McIntyre is a form of the Gaelic Mac an tSaoir sept, meaning 'son of the craftsman', that was located in Ulster Province. The town of Ballymcateer in County Armagh indicates their homeland and also that this Gaelic name was anglicized as McAteer.
The MacIntyre coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all MacIntyre descendants.