 An interesting reference for the early beginnings of the MacTavish comes from the oldest learned society in Great Britain, the Philological Society of London.Its publication states, "...our author's father was married to a daughter of Campbell of Ashfield, and her mother was a daughter of MacTavifh, or Thomfon of Dunardary (type/spelling as shown).This is a very ancient and respectable family, who have inherited the estate of Dunardary for upwards of nine hundred years.