Robert Ferrier Burns Mackay

Robert Ferrier Burns Mackay
File:Mackay, Robert Ferrier Burns.jpg
Residence	Glencruitten, Oban, Argyle, NB; 165 Broadway, New York City [1921]
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow left 1933 last listed elected_AI 1921.11.15

Notes

House Notes

1921.10.25 proposed by L.J. Clarke, seconded by E.N. Fallaize

Notes From Elsewhere

Glencruitten Estate was acquired by the MacKay family shortly after WWI. Despite the great depression and stock market crash of the late 1920’s, the MacKay family retained ownership of the Estate at not inconsiderable personal cost.

Alexander Mackay was born in Scotland on January 8, 1856, the second son of George and Maggie Mackay. He married Edith Helen Burns of Nova Scotia in 1890. The Mackays had four children, one son and three daughters: Robert Ferrier Burns Mackay, Edith Margaret Mackay, Eva Mackay, and Dorothy Mackay. The family resided in Scotland.
Mr. Mackay was invested in, and served on the Board of Directors for several businesses in the United States, including the Matador Land and Cattle Company in Texas, the Dundee-Arizona Copper Company, the Belmont Copper Mining Company and the Queen Creek Copper Company, all located in Arizona, and the Mackay Irons Company with offices in New York City and Dundee, Scotland.
Because of his business affairs, Alexander Mackay traveled extensively in the United States. Around 1915, during his travels, he became acquainted with Mr. J. M. Critchlow, a resident of Lake Alfred, Florida. Mr. Critchlow had business interests in the citrus industry, and suggested to Mr. Mackay a piece of property in Lake Alfred that would be a suitable citrus investment.
In August of 1915, Alexander Mackay purchased approximately 128 acres of land for $21,000, which were lots 2 and 3 of Section 4, Township 28, Range 26, located in Lake Alfred. This land is situated on Lake Rochelle, and is a portion of what is now Mackay Gardens and Lakeside Preserve. He purchased this land from W M Moore of Wichita, Kansas. Mr. Mackay continued to purchase more land in the Lake Alfred area, including adjacent land to the original 128 acres.
The land that Mr. Mackay purchased in 1915 was already planted with young citrus trees, not yet producing fruit. Upon the recommendation of Mr. Critchlow, Mr. J. C. Cox was employed to maintain the grove until Mr. Mackay was able to secure his own person to handle the property.
Mr. Mackay hired John Morley, a botanist from York, England to oversee his property in Lake Alfred. He secured passage for Mr. Morley, his wife and two daughters on the Baltic to sail from Liverpool, England to New York City on March 1, 1916.1 Mr. Morley also had two sons who were both serving in World War I at the time, as was Mr. Mackay’s son R. F. B. Mackay. Mr. Critchlow arranged for the rental of a cottage for the Morley family upon their arrival in Lake Alfred.2 Mr. Morley’s salary was to be $125 per month.
John Morley and his family arrived in Lake Alfred by train from New York on March 18, 1916.3 Mr. Mackay had arranged for a bank account to be set up at the Snell National Bank in Winter Haven to handle the expenses of the property.4 There was no bank in Lake Alfred at the time. Mr. Mackay felt that it would be useful to Mr. Morley to have an automobile in order to avoid having to take the train whenever he needed to make the trip to Winter Haven and other cities. Mr. Morley did not know how to drive, so Mr. Mackay paid for driving lessons, and purchased a Studebaker for him in May of 1916.5

Alexander Mackay and his son Robert Ferrier Burns Mackay were assiduous art collectors who patronised and personally knew leading contemporary Scottish painters and etchers such Sir David Young Cameron (1865-1945) and James McBey (1883-1959).
Cameron was represented by what are now relatively low-value etchings (which at the time, during the great etching booms, would have cost the Mackays hundreds of pounds), but the sale did include three significant signed and dated McBey oil paintings.
Most hotly contested of these proved to be the 1924 canvas, Venice Gondolier. Measuring 153/4 x 2ft (40 x 60cm), this quintessential McBey subject sold to the trade at £7900 against an estimate of £3000-4000.
The similarly sized and estimated Venice, Mooring Posts, Salute, rated £6600, and the panoramic coastal scene, Easdale, a signed 20in x 2ft 3in (49 x 66cm) canvas provenanced to the St. James’s dealers Alex Reid & Lefevre, took a further £6700.
In 1927-28 Glencruitten House was remodelled by the noted Scottish architect Sir Robert Lorimer, whose painter brother, John Henry Lorimer (1856-1936), was represented in the sale by the large signed and dated 1880 genre canvas, Jeanie Gray, estimated at £10,000-15,000.